Psalm 8:1, 31:1-3a

My Shepherd met me in His green pastures and laid me down in Mark 15-16. The Mind of the Spirit spoke to the spirit of my mind in 16:15:

Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

As I read through chapter fifteen, I was intrigued by the fact that the ordeal of Jesus’ crucifixion proceeded in three phases of three hours each.

It began the night before, in the darkness before the dawn. At dawn, Peter completed the prophesied denials (Mark 14:72). Jesus was led to Pilate at roughly 6 AM (Mark 15:1). But, when it comes to the crucifixion, notice that the Spirit marks three phases of three hours each:

At the third hour of the day (9 AM), they crucified Him (Mark 15:25). When the “sixth hour (12 PM) was come, there was darkness over the whole land,” which lasted until the ninth hour (3 PM). He cried, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me,” and prayed Psalm 22. He gave up the Ghost shortely after, was removed from the cross, and hastily buried.

Along the still waters, however, when I came to Mark 16:15, I remembered my own call to ministry. I thought about the events of Saturday, and the ongoing efforts to secure our own national security and that of the Middle East, by delivering the Iranian people from Satanic Shia Shariah oppression. When the Iranian people said, by their actions, “Give me liberty, or give me death,” God heard the cry of their hearts. I prayed God would raise up faithful voices who would enter Iran and preach the gospel there. (Pray someone will teach the Iranians new to freedom that there is much more to “freedom” than stripping off their Burqas.

They must be cautioned not to run from Satan’s religion of oppression into Satan’s religion of license, to beware that their freed soul is not delivered to become slaves to the flesh. Throw off the constraints of legalistic religion represented in the Burqa, and wrap yourselves in the “love of Christ which constrains us” (2 Corinthians 5:14).

In the valley, He brought my attention to the rest of 2 Corinthians 5:14-15: “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”

Jesus spoke: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Don’t forget the Cross.

Jesus is the Truth, and it is the Truth that shall make men free (John 8:32). His Spirit secures Liberty, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17).

At the table, Jesus anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace. Goodness and mercy followed us into the harvest.

Praying for revival! 🙏