Video first posted: October 3, 2026
Below is a machine-generated transcript of the Song of songs 3 v6-11 (Part 92) BitChute video, with a few minor manual edits. At the bottom, after the transcript, is a machine-generated summary of the transcript.
| Hello. In this video, we're going to continue meditating on the spirit of Solomon and its negative influence in Paul. And by the way, that spirit of Solomon is the one that the Lord describes in great detail in Song of Songs, chapter 3, verses 6 through 11, which is the passage that we started off from in this video series. So that spirit that's described there is the one that | |
| is infecting Paul at this moment as we're reading here through chapter 20 of Acts. And the reason, as you may recall, why we ended up in Acts, starting from Song of Songs, is that after going through all the verses there, we felt prompted of the Lord to look for the word Solomon throughout Scripture. And we found the last appearance of the name Solomon in Acts chapter 7, I believe, | |
| when Stephen is giving his speech and is about to be murdered by the Jews. And as we were getting to that last appearance of Solomon, we began to see how the influence of that spirit that we had been seeing in Psalms chapter 3, verses 6 through 11, was beginning to seep into the early church. Just a short while after the Lord Jesus had died and resurrected and ascended, | |
| that spirit started creeping in because there was an opening in the hearts of the apostles for that spirit. And we saw how it began to creep in in Acts 4. I think it was when the apostles began to gather in the porch of Solomon and everybody would stay away from them. So there was that spirit of elitism and separation that began to happen. And that spirit is the spirit that kept the | |
| that the apostles bound in Jerusalem and unwilling to go and truly preach to the Gentiles. And that because the Gentiles were not as good as the Jews, because that spirit of elitism makes you think like that. In that case, it was being manifested in terms of Jews and Gentiles, but it manifests itself in many ways, including that spirit of ministerial, | |
| elitism where there are ministers and laymen some people who are not called by God to be spiritual and then some higher level people that are and they are the masters who are to rule over the more ignorant or unchosen masses of laymen so and then we saw in Acts chapter 6 how when there was disputes over how the food was being ministered to the | |
| between the Jews and the Greeks, or at least the Greekified Jews. They were all Jewish, but there's a distinction there between Jews and the Jews who were more exposed to Greek cultures, who came from a more Greekified background and were not, quote, as Jewish as the other Jews. And there was discrimination going on there in the apostles instead of | |
| of cutting it out and getting to the root of it. They just said, let's appoint Stephen and six others. They didn't choose. I forget exactly how the seven were chosen, but I think it was the Spirit of God that chose the seven deacons that are mentioned in Acts chapter six. And they began to administer the food and | |
| But the core issue that led to the dispute was never settled. And the apostles said, we're too good to be worrying about food stuff. We are going to dedicate ourselves to more spiritual stuff. So you can see that spirit of elitism begin to just manifest itself through them. And we saw that Paul was the only one who seemed to be immune to that spirit. And he was born... | |
| out of turn, you could say, God had to bring him in from the outside. And it was through Stephen, the one who last spoke out the name Solomon in the text of scripture. And when he did it, by the way, Stephen wasn't praising him. He was saying, Solomon built a house, but God does not dwell in houses made by men or something to that effect. So he put down Solomon. | |
| And that's the last statement that God has recorded in scripture about Solomon. Solomon thought he did some great thing and it was for naught. Because there was something wrong with Solomon and the spirit he represents. So out of Stephen's death came Paul. It's like God had to recruit someone from the outside. | |
| to do what the apostles in Jerusalem were unwilling to do because they were trapped by that spirit of Solomon. But then with the passing of time, that spirit got to Paul as well, not to the same level as the other apostles, as with the other apostles. But still, it was enough to create an infection in the early church that allowed the pastoral matriarchy that is promoted by that spirit to take hold much | |
| in a much stronger way if Paul had done things differently and not been subject not allowed himself to be infected by the spirit I believe yeah the pastoral matriarchy was going to come anyway but it would have taken longer and the roots of it would not have been as deep and entangling as they are now but okay so now | |
| Coming back here to Acts chapter 20, we had left off around verses 21 and 22, so we'll start with verse 22. So it says, Acts 20, verse 22, And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. So we saw that this reference to being bound in the Spirit... | |
| At the end of the previous video, we saw how that is not as straightforward as it seems when you read it on the surface. Because when you read, I go bound in the spirit, it sounds like, oh, this is something that the spirit of God is willing him to do. And therefore, it's the right thing to do. And there is a partial truth to that. | |
| But then we saw, and we'll do it again. I believe it's Acts 21:4. I think that's what I searched last time. Acts 21:4. Yeah, here. And we'll get to this verse later. But it says that some disciples said to Paul through the spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem. So notice the difference here. | |
| So on the one hand, you have Paul saying, I go bound, quote, in the spirit. We'll see what it's really not in the spirit, but we'll see that in a moment. So he's saying I'm being bound in the spirit. And then these disciples are saying to Paul that they're saying it through the spirit that he should not go. So. | |
| If we take these two verses and take them as truth, that that's exactly what was going on. You can say that the Spirit of God never told Paul to go. It was not the Spirit's idea, if that makes sense. That's why it says very explicitly here that the Spirit says you should not go up to Jerusalem. | |
| But then if he should not go, why is he being bound to go to Jerusalem? That's because, as we said before, something was in Paul. He just would not let it go. And because he just would not let it go, then God had no choice but to bind him up and saying, I'm going to have to send you to Jerusalem to deal or to kind of | |
| Do as much as can be done to get around this thing you're not letting go of. And what was he not letting go of? The Jews, ministering to the Jews first and honoring them and always trying to talk to them first everywhere he went. When God was saying, let them go, just go to the Gentiles. That's what he was not letting go of. | |
| that's when god said okay you leave me no choice I'll have to bind you and force you to go there because that's the the only way I have that you have left for me to to get uh to do as much through you as I possibly can while you're still alive um so but god did not want him to go uh | |
| I hope that's making sense. And we'll see confirmation of that later, that combination of God didn't want him to go, but because he was so enamored with the Jews in his heart, there was a part of him that wouldn't let go of the Jews. Then God was forced to bind him up and send him to the Jews that he was so enamored with. And that was the only way for him to complete what God had for him | |
| And I do feel that there was a lot left that he didn't do because he was so bound to the Jews. But God, because that's how merciful he is, he got as much mileage out of Paul as he could. And you could say, oh, well, that's God using Paul. Well, yeah, but the thing is, the more mileage there was on Paul's odometer, the greater the reward for him eternally. | |
| So it is for him, it is something that blesses Paul for all of eternity, for God to do as much as he can through him, despite his limitations. So it's not just God acting selfishly and saying, oh, I want to get something out of Paul as much as I can, because God is not a user. But the thing is, okay, so now going back to Acts 20... | |
| Acts 20:22, it says again that Paul said, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem. And you could say this does not make much of a difference, but for some reason, I feel in my heart that it kind of does a bit. So when I was looking at this phrase, I kept saying, does it really say bound in the spirit? | |
| So I just just didn't feel right. This in the spirit, because when you're in the spirit, you do things of the spirit, if that makes sense. If you're immersed in the spirit, when you're doing something in the spirit, you're doing it like surrendering the soul to the spirit of God. You know, when you do things in the soul, which is how we sin, then the spirit has no control. So I just kept saying, I just don't feel the word in is there. | |
| So I started looking in the Greek text and lo and behold, the word in is not there. But then that kind of confused me because in English, you know, we can't say I go bound the spirit. So the word in is not there, but something else has to be there because in English bound and spirit, I go bound spirit unto Jerusalem sounds like someone who's who didn't say it right. So | |
| That's when I started kind of looking at the text here. So I hope you can see it here. I'm highlighting the Greek letters from where they translated bound in the spirit. If you can read Greek letters, you will maybe sound out pneumati here. Pneumati. There's the pi, which is P. | |
| This looks like a V, but it's really an N. Just imagine it's an N with the first stroke on the left-hand side kind of erased. And then obviously this is an E, epsilon. And this is a U. It has a U, Y kind of mixture of sound. And this is the mu, which is like an M. I think it does look a little bit like an M. And then alpha, which is A. | |
| Tau, I think it's this word, a letter, and that's obviously a T. And then Iota, the last letter here, which is R-I. That's where we get I in the Latin alphabet. So nomati, and this is omega, which is an O. To, and then this curly little letter is delta, that's a D. | |
| As you can see, it looks like a D. If you take out a little curl at the top, it does look like a D. Epsilon, delta, epsilon, then mu, epsilon, nu, I think is the name of this letter. Omicron, this is an O. There are two letters for O in Greek for some reason, omicron and omega. And then sigma. Sigma can be written out in two different ways. It's one of the ways, like this is another way to write sigma, this little | |
| kind of thingy here that I'm pointing at with the mouse. I think there are two ways to write out sigma. I think it depends on whether it's at the end of the word or not. Like when sigma's at the end of the word, the Greeks, just to make life more complicated, decided to write it a different way. But so it says, And pneumati, I'm sure already kind of sounds familiar. | |
| pneumatic uh p-n-e-u-m-a uh and that's the word for spirit noma uh it means the wind so like you know uh pneumatic uh the word pneumatic p-n-e-u-m-a-t-i-c refers to something um related to air pneumonia you know the disease that has to do with problems with you breathing in air and so forth but the thing is that um | |
| This is the verb for, that means to be bound. Like the root word, a verb in Greek is, where is it bound? It's over here, deo. So that's the like the infinitive. This dedemenos that we're seeing here is like the conjugation. It has a, it's being conjugated and given a tense. | |
| but the infinitive of the verb is deo and deo means to bind. So that's fine. That was well translated. In to, this to is kind of a very vague word, but from what I've seen when it's used throughout scripture, it's almost like equivalent to the. Maybe it's not exactly like our the in English, | |
| It's not a definite article as far as I know. But the thing is that when you translate it, if you put the wherever you see T-O, it kind of fits, kind of matches up. So let's translate it as the. So it says bound the spirit. And again, the in is not there. And I said, Lord, what does this mean? What did you really say here? And because I don't know Greek, | |
| I had to kind of ask. So I just came to Bing and I had the tab open here. So we'll go to the tab and I just copy pasted that phrase from the verse from Acts 20:22. So I just put here, why does, you know, the Greek phrase, I'm sorry, | |
| Why does that phrase mean bound in the spirit when there is no in in it? So I got this response from Bing. It says, and I don't know, I didn't say Acts 20:22, but the guy or the AI kind of thing inside, kind of a sneaky little fellow realized I was referring to Acts 20:22 without me saying it. | |
| That felt a little bit odd. I don't know if creepy or odd, but it's just peculiar that it picked up on the fact that I was searching for something related to Acts 20:22. So it says in Acts 20:22, the Greek reads, Actually, I must have copied it incorrectly because I added an extra. Oh, I see what happened. | |
| I missed the space. The space didn't get copied over when I pasted it for some reason. Okay. So it says, it literally means bound with or according to the spirit. So as you can see, it's not bound in the spirit. It's bound with or according to the spirit. So it says here, there's no preposition like en, en, which is the equivalent of our in. | |
| There's no proposition like that in the original text. The phrase is adjective plus article plus noun. Adjective, the adjective would be bound. Article the, also it is kind of like a definite article, this T-O. And then noun, pneumati, the spirit. So it says bound the spirit. And then it says here, the dative case here is key. I have no idea what this is, but | |
| I've heard of it before. I've heard rumors of this case existing in the world somewhere. So I've heard that term before, dative. But I've never had, I don't have a clue what that case is. You know, like there's present tense, past tense, future tense. And in this case, it's dative. Dative case here is key. In Greek, the dative can express instrumentally. | |
| like saying with or by means of like, you know, something was done using something else as an instrument with or by means of and causal is because of committative meanings together with or manner in the manner of. So it says here in this context, the dative. So. | |
| So the dative case is embedded in these two words, to, pneumati, in the words to the spirit. It's like the dativeness is inside the word spirit. The word spirit is pneuma in Greek, but they put it as pneumati, making it dative. And that's where you get, so embedded in that pneumati, which is just spirit, | |
| Is the word or the preposition by. So so it really says Paul is bound by the spirit or bound through the spirit. But I take by to make more sense because it goes with this or bound because of the spirit. Bound by or because of these two options that you see here for the dative case, how to interpret it. | |
| So it says the English in the spirit is a translation choice that conveys the idea of the spirit being the source or cause of the binding. But see, there's a difference. In makes me think of location. You're embedded, like immersed in the spirit. And in the spirit, you do things. And that's how we're supposed to live our lives, immersed in the spirit. And living immersed in the spirit, out of that immersion, you do things. But this is not immersion. This is compulsion. It's like from the outside. | |
| The Spirit is binding Paul to do something. And it's because of the Spirit that he's being bound to do this. Okay, so I'm just going to read here some final things. I'm not sure how relevant they are. I think this is, well, let me just read this one. The dative | |
| The dative a case inside Pneumati shows the spirit as the source of that compulsion, not a location. Oh, wow, just what we were saying a moment ago. So it's not immersed in the spirit. Like someone who's obedient in the spirit and then out of that immersion doing things. It's like someone kind of almost standing outside the spirit and the spirit saying, okay, since you won't get in, I'm going to have to come out. | |
| And bind you and force you to do something. So, okay, I think that's as much as we should be saying here. Not sure if we need to read anything else here. So we'll leave it at that and come back here. So I pray that makes sense. What we're trying to show is kind of how sometimes in life God binds us to do things that he might not want us to do. | |
| but we put him in a situation that forced him to bind us to do things. And you feel bound to do it, and you think, oh, say, it's God who's forcing me, who's making me do it, and yes, it's God forcing you to do it, but it doesn't mean it was his perfect will. It's just that given the choices that you have allowed, that you have left God with, that is the best option available. And Paul was submitting himself to the Spirit. It's like, | |
| Like it's like Paul saying, I cannot submit to letting go of the Jews, but I can submit to being bound and taken to Jerusalem. And God said, OK, we'll do that. And there was a purpose in him being bound to Jerusalem. And we'll see a little bit of that. I pray later on when we reach another verse. I think it's in verse in chapter 21. | |
| If I recall, but okay, so let's keep reading here. Oh, and this might not, this might be a little small detail, but the word knowing was translated from Eido. So you can see if we go down here, knowing was translated from this word Eido. And as we've shared so many times, that's the verb that talks about mental knowledge. And | |
| So he didn't know with his mind what was going to happen to him. Okay. As he was being forced to go back to Jerusalem. Okay. So then verse 23 of Acts 20 says, Save that the Holy Ghost witness it in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. So everywhere he went, | |
| people rise up and prophesy to him through the Holy Spirit that bonds and afflictions were awaiting him when he got to Jerusalem. But the way, sadly, Paul, when he was hearing that, was instead of like waking up and saying, Lord, and kind of putting two and two together, it's like God wanted him to start a sequence of thought | |
| Like, okay, why am I going to be put in bonds and afflictions? I mean, why would that happen? If you arrive in a place and suddenly you're in bonds and afflictions, there's something in that place that is going to produce that. So what was it in Jerusalem that would do that? The Jews. The Jews who were opposed to God and the Messiah. Jesus being the Messiah. The true Messiah. So... | |
| Then he would have, if he had started that sequence of thought, then he would have said, okay, so are the Jews redeemable? And God would have said, not at this time. Not at this time, my son. Not at this time. You're wasting your time investing in them. They have already rejected me. I will work with them in the latter days. | |
| but not right now. So, and then Paul would have woken up and said, yeah, if I invest any more effort in them, you know, just like the song, it's a heartache, nothing but a heartache, nothing but a fool's game tearing us apart. And that's what would have happened to, I think that's Juice Newton who said that. I don't remember ... a song from the early 80s. | |
| But that's exactly what was awaiting Paul, because it was nothing but heartache. It was just a waste, a massive waste of time. But he just wouldn't go there. And then he took, I don't know, and I pray I'm not putting words into God, into Paul's soul, that Paul's soul was not uttering. | |
| But it's almost like he took pride in just the very thought that he was going to suffer when he got to Jerusalem. It's like, oh, yeah, more suffering for the glory of God. And there was something praiseworthy about that. But suffering, when God didn't call you to suffer, is nothing but a fool's errand. And that's what Paul had put himself in. That's the situation. | |
| Paul put himself in when he in his mind said I will continue preaching to the Jews everywhere I go Jews first and then I go to the Gentiles every city I go everywhere I go and so that's what what happened with him so he didn't when when when all these people why would the Holy Spirit keep telling him you're gonna suffer you're gonna suffer when you go to Jerusalem | |
| I hope it's making sense. Why was the Holy Spirit insisting on that if the Holy Spirit wanted him to go there? The Holy Spirit did not want him to go there. But because he left God no choice, the Spirit of God bound him and said, okay, is that what you want? You know, what you want is what you get. So I'll give it to you. And you're going to see what's going to happen. | |
| And as we all know, it was not a pretty sight. What happened later? A lot of people say, well, that's Paul suffering for God. No, that was Paul suffering because he was stubborn. And yes, he was suffering for God's sake because in that suffering, he worked out a path. God worked a path in his life so that he could complete his mission. | |
| to as much of an extent as he could as possible. So there was a blessing in that suffering. There was a good fruit out of that suffering, but it was just, it's like God saying, go around the mountain to get to the other side. And yeah, might've been a big mountain. The terrain around the mountain might not have been the most pleasant of all, but it's doable. | |
| With not too much suffering. But Paul. Was insisting on going through the mountain. And. | |
| And going through the mountain meant a lot of heartache because it meant drilling or kind of digging a tunnel through that mountain to get to the other side. And there's going to be a lot of suffering along the way to get to the other side. So, yeah, the ultimate blessing on the other side is, yes, a path... | |
| was forged for people to get from one side of the mountain to the other, but there was no need for that. There was no need for that. So something positive came out of it, but it was through more suffering that was necessary. And I pray that as we share all of this, we're not just looking at how Paul got trapped so that we can also detect | |
| that in our lives or the lives of other brothers and sisters when it happens to kind of understand why is this? Why is this going on? Why are we having these contradictory things like here? For example, as we said in verse 23, the Holy Ghost kept saying in every city you're going to suffer. You're going to suffer if you go to Jerusalem, like trying to wake him up. Waking Paul up to how stupid it was to minister to the Jews, because every time you minister to them, | |
| It was, as we said from the song, nothing but a heartache. Nothing but a heartache. Nothing but a foolish game. And okay, so now verse 24 says of Acts 20, but none of these things move me. Notice how he says, yeah, no, no, no. I ain't thinking twice about it. I don't care if I'm going to suffer. Why is the Holy Spirit saying it over and over again? | |
| See, why would God go out of his way to remind someone of how much he's going to suffer if that's what God wants him to do? Is God masochistic or sadistic in this case? Is God being sadistic? Like, oh, I just want him to think it over until he gives up on until he gives up. And then I can say, gotcha, gotcha. | |
| Why didn't you go? I hope you see what we're saying. It's like you agree to do something painful. Let's say God wants you to do something painful. And it's his will, perfect will. So you say, yes, Lord. Do you think God's going to come and remind you of how much you're going to suffer for having agreed to do it? That's like putting a temptation in front of the person to think it over and say, oh, maybe I shouldn't do it. God is not sadistic like that. | |
| The fact that everybody kept witnessing to him through the Holy Ghost. And even he says, it's not Satan saying, hey, don't, you know. It was not these people being moved by Satan to kind of convince him not to do God's will. Like reminding him of how much he was going to suffer. I hope that makes sense. It's like, imagine the father constantly telling Jesus how much he's going to suffer. | |
| and witnessing it to him every single day on the cross, you know, that he was, how much he was going to suffer. No, no. Jesus knew on the inside that he was going to suffer greatly. But I know in my being, and I say this with fear and trembling, I'm convinced that the father was not waking up Jesus every morning and giving him an image of the torment of the crucifixion. | |
| And all the beatings and the crown of thorns and reminding him, hey, you're going to suffer. You're going to suffer. You're on your way to suffering. Son, if you forgot, let me put it in front of you again. God is not like that. I know God is not like that. So, yeah, there could have been like if you're wondering, Lord, maybe I'm not supposed to suffer so much. And then God reminds you, yes, you have to. That's different. That is different. | |
| And God going out of his way to remind you every morning of how painful it will be for you to obey him. So I hope you see what we're saying here. But Paul in verse 24 says, but none of these things move me. I don't care. I don't care. I'm not going to put two and two together. Because in his world, rejecting the Jews was out of the question. | |
| Um, so he restricted his universe of choices, uh, and God had to work within that universe that Paul had decided for himself. So he said, but none of these things move me. And then, and then he says something that sounds very noble and he was, he had a lot of nobleness in him. And it is kind of ironic because, um, in a certain way it seemed to work against him, but, but God used it for his glory because. | |
| The suffering that he went through in Jerusalem did serve a purpose. It's just that the price was much higher than it needed to be. So he says, neither count I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And I pray to the Lord that this is not true. | |
| me distorting this verse. And if I am, I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus that any thoughts that may come from this, if this is false, be broken in your hearts and minds in the name of Jesus. But this is what I understand here. Like there's like a warning of something, like a dark cloud looming in this verse. So we'll look here in verse 24. Let's open the Greek. | |
| text here so uh so he says but none of these things and and in greek it actually says logos so it really says but none of these words uh move me um and neither uh count uh I my life my life here is so he really said I don't count my soul uh dear | |
| or of value or honor unto myself so that I might finish a teleyo and complete, you know, to reach the end. You know, it's like completing a race. Tele, this tele part, that's where we get the words like telescope, television. What else? Wow, I wish there are a whole bunch of words that start with tele, but they're not coming to my mind right now. | |
| But we usually use tele to refer to something at a distance. Oh, telephone. Phone, the second part comes from voice in Greek. Phonos, I think it is. So telephone is a voice sent out from afar, from a long distance. But that connection with long distance is related to something reaching its final destination, far off as it may be, if that makes sense. | |
| So that's why teleo means to finish or complete, like when you're running a race and you see the finish line out in the distance. Okay, so that I might finish my course with joy, and joy is kara, and I think that's where we get the word grace, karis, in Greek as well. And the ministry, this is what I was referring to a moment ago that, | |
| I'm convinced in my heart of, and I pray I'm not distorting what the Lord is saying here. But notice the word ministry here is diakonia. Diakonia. That's where we get the word deacon. In fact, in many Latinized languages, deacon kind of sounds a lot like diakonia. In fact, we can quickly do that here. If I, let's... | |
| Let me put English here and Italian. I would bet a nickel that see here. Deacon in English is Diacono in Italian. And if you do it in French, Diacre, yeah, the French chose to make it a little different. And then if we do it in Portuguese, for example, then you get Diacono again, the same thing. So | |
| in Italian and Portuguese and languages like that, it is almost identical to the Greek. So let's go back here. But the point is this word diakonia is, as we've shared before, a word related to service, to doing some sort of waiter, | |
| type service uh and and just to confirm if we click here uh we'll see that um uh let's see down here diakonia means it says here service ministry especially of those who execute the command commands of others you know like a waiter you know bring me my uh bring me | |
| my, uh, my dish, you know, or my hamburger or whatever. Um, and then, um, so it has this connotation of someone doing service. Um, here, for example, this is about as clear as you can get. Uh, it says here, the service of those who prepare and present food. Uh, and in fact, that's where it is used for the first time in scripture. As you can see here, um, uh, well, actually not the first time, but, um, | |
| Well, almost is number four. The fourth. Let's start with number one. The first time diakonia is used. And notice the negative connotation here. Luke 10, verse 40. It says here, but Martha was cumbered about much serving, much diakonia, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? And I serve, I guess, is | |
| In the Greek, the verb form of diakonia. Diakonia is like the noun. Bid her, therefore, that she help me. So it's and what was Martha doing? She was doing service, you know, preparing food and kind of setting up the table. Who knows what? You know, but it was work related to what a waiter or a butler or a maid would do. And. | |
| And as we all know, this was not Martha's brightest or greatest moment. It was a figure of someone who was involved in earthly work and forgets the things of the spirit, whereas her sister cared more about things of the spirit a little more, or a lot more, who knows. And then, I don't know, I would say a lot more, but eventually Martha learned as well. | |
| Acts 1:17 says, for he was numbered with us and had obtained part of this diakonia, this ministry. And this is, I think, Peter talking to the other disciples, the apostles and everybody in the upper room shortly before Pentecost. And they were deciding on who to replace Judas. So again, notice how diakonia is used in a negative sense. First, connected to Martha that was absorbed in earthly things. | |
| And then it's connected to Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus, because he traded him in. And as you may recall, trading is connected to the Canaanite spirit, which is pastor gone bad. Because he basically did, you know, he sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. He traded him in. He did trading with him. He was a trader and a trader. So kind of. | |
| He did both. So you could say that if you were connecting Luke 10:40 here to a ministry, it would be the teacher ministry. Martha doing work, work, work, work, which is connected to the Girgashite spirit, the teacher gone bad, as we've shared on the website. And Acts 1:17 here, when it's connecting diakonia to Judas, | |
| Judas, the traitor or traitor. It's connecting it. Diakonia to the Canaanite spirit and the Canaanite spirits, the pastor got bad. So you see the two female ministries in a bad sense being connected to Diakonia. And that's the word that Paul uses in Acts 20:24. I think it was where we were reading and that's important. And then if we go here, Acts 1:25 again, | |
| Diakonia is used here with Judas. We'll read it here. It says that he may take part of this diakonia, this ministry, an apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. So twice used in the same chapter of Acts 1 with Judas, in reference to Judas, the Canaanite traitor. Um, | |
| And once in Luke 10:40 with the Girgashite Martha. And that makes perfect sense because it's the two female ministries with the pastor given emphasis. You know, like the two horns that we talked about at some point in some video a long, long time ago that I don't remember where it was, but we talked about the two horns in Daniel 8. And the Lord said that, | |
| says that one of the horns was bigger than the other horn. So there was this goat, I think it was, it had two horns, but one horn was bigger than the other. And that's a figure of the pastoral matriarchy where the pastor takes preeminence over the teacher. So it's not pastor and teacher. They have a matriarchy over the church and the world in a wider sense. But it's not an equal partnership. It's not pastors and teachers. That's why when you ask, | |
| People ask, you know, who's whose church is that they go? Oh, that's the church pastored by pastor blah blah blah They never say oh, that's the church of teacher so-and-so if you may have noticed so so the thing is that it makes sense that twice God uses diakonia to refer to a pastor, pastor Judas, Canaanite pastor Judas, and wants to | |
| Girgashite teacher, Martha, because it's given that relevance, giving that relevance to the pastoral ministry inside the pastoral matriarchy. And then the next time diakonia is used, again, in a negative sense, so far, you know, we've read it three times, now it's the fourth time, Acts 6, verse 1 here, and we're going to see it again in a negative context. And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, | |
| there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration, the daily diakonia. So again, what we were just mentioning, and I didn't realize we were going to mention it here, the thing we mentioned a moment ago about how the spirit of Solomon began to make its presence felt in the early church where people started making distinctions between the Grecians | |
| which this word literally says the Greeks in the Greek text. But here it's obviously referring not to Greeks like from Macedonia or some place like that in Europe. It was referring to Jews that lived in places because of that whole region of the Middle East and the western part of Europe. | |
| was was greekified because of alexander the great and the great conquest that that god did through him god used alexander the great to set up that whole grecian or greek empire greek cultural empire even though it's roman it was a greek cultural empire and um and the thing is that a lot of Jews who lived in in a lot of territories outside of jerusalem or israel uh proper they were um | |
| they were very Greekified. And even in Jerusalem, there were Jews who I guess would be there, having come from abroad, from other places, who were very Greek. So even though they were Jewish, they were thought of as Greeks because they're not like real Jews. It's almost like what you see in black neighborhoods in America. Like, oh yeah, he's black, but he's not quite a brother because he doesn't, | |
| do the things that others do. He tries to be a little white, tries to talk like white people do and do things white people do and things like that. So yeah, he's a brother, but not quite as much of a brother because if he was a brother, he'd be into hip hop and rap and stuff like that. So that's kind of the distinction that we're making and they were discriminating that spirit of Solomon of elitism. | |
| was creeping in and again connected to the word diakonia. So then Acts 6:4, same thing in the same chapter here. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the diakonia of the word. What was just mentioned a moment ago when the apostles found out about this dispute that was going on, that the widows of the Greeks were being neglected in the serving of food, in the diakonia of food. | |
| the apostles said, oh, we're too good for that. You know, we're special people. We'll do prayer and minister and serve the word of God, the holy word of God, not food. That's for the plebeians. So then, ironically, that led to the election of the seven deacons that we were mentioning a moment ago. And one of them was Stephen. And then Stephen begins to rise up. And you see in the rest of the chapter, the apostles are gone because they're out praying. | |
| They're not doing their prayer and their diakonia of the word, but Stephen was doing God's will. And you see, Stephen, why does God give preeminence to the lowly Stephen? Because the apostles made it sound like the seven deacons that were selected would be doing menial chores that would | |
| were beneath them as apostles. Yet God exalts that the seven men in particular Stephen and and it was through Stephen that Paul was born spiritually. It was through that man that Paul was born while all these other apostles were out praying and ministering the word of God. Stephen was doing God's will. And and and and and doing what was necessary to give birth to Paul. | |
| So, okay, so notice negative, all these appearances that we're looking at here of diakonia, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative. And then we get to Acts 11:29, which we'll get to later, and we'll just mention it quickly without going into too much detail. But it says, then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwell in Judea, and you may recall relief is diakonia. | |
| And I didn't know that until now. And we had looked at this verse before, and it was in the context of the elders, because the elders were the ones who were going to administer the food that was being sent out. There was like some sort of drought or hunger thing going on in that part of the world and in Jerusalem and the brothers from churches in Syria and outside of Israel. | |
| They started kind of collecting food to send food and other necessities to send to the brothers in Jerusalem, the ones who were trapped in Judea by the spirit of Solomon, ironically, who wouldn't get out of there. And they sent diakonia. And then it was for the elders to administer the presbyteros, which I think we saw. And frankly, I don't remember where exactly we saw that. | |
| but it was in a recent audio or video recording that we talked about that. But let's keep going here. And in Acts 12:25, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their diakonia. And I think it's because they had been sent out to distribute food | |
| that's what barnabas and saul were doing the apostles both of them were apostles barnabas was an apostle god calls him an apostle in scripture so these apostles were minister serving food isn't that interesting the the original 11 apostles plus matthias apparently felt like they were too good to serve food and barnabas and saul went out and served food um | |
| being apostles themselves. And they didn't say, oh, we're like in Acts 6:4, we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the diakonia of the word, of the spiritual stuff. They didn't do that. But, okay. And then we get to Acts 20:24. So notice, mostly negative stuff. I think the only two that are borderline not negative are the last two, Acts 11:29, the one about sending relief. | |
| and that was eventually administered by the elders. I think it says in the next verse, in Acts 11:30, I think. And then here, Acts 12:25, where it says, when Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry, their diakonia, and took with them John, whose surname was Mark. And as you may recall, this John, Mark here, that is mentioned here at the end of Acts 12:25, that's the | |
| the man who ended up putting a wedge between Barnabas and Saul. And we'll come to him a little bit later. So it's not a coincidence that he shows up here. So you could say that, yeah, even though diakonia is not necessarily used in a negative sense, you can see the dark cloud surrounding it that God puts in this verse. Because this man became the one who separated Barnabas from his calling. It separated Barnabas from Saul, who eventually, as we all know, became Paul. Um, | |
| But not only did it separate Barnabas from Saul or Paul, it separated him from God's calling for him altogether. Okay. And that's the word that Paul uses here. And I know in my being that God did this on purpose to show that there was something wrong in Paul's heart. And it was the spirit of Solomon beginning to infect him. And | |
| Acts 11:29, even though it's not necessarily a negative thing here, the use of diakonia, but the fact that it's connected to the elders. And we saw in some recording, I don't know if it was the last video recording or the last audio, but recently we talked about how God uses the word presbyteros or elders in a very negative sense. Oh, yes, now I remember. It was when | |
| when Paul called for the elders of Ephesus to come over to Miletus to talk to him, that's when we started talking about the elders. And we saw how it was mostly negative. So this diakonia was given out to the elders to distribute. It doesn't say in scripture whether they did a good job or a bad job, but the important thing is that connection to a word that already comes loaded with a very negative connotation by the time we get to Acts 11:29, all the usages of | |
| is for the most part very, very negative. And then we get to Acts 11:29, where it's kind of a neutral, or Acts 11, I think it was verse 30, where elders or presbyteros is used to talk about them distributing this relief. But this word has been used negatively, and then it's connected to diakonia. It's not a coincidence. It's like God saying, | |
| I would dare say, if I read this list, this is the message I would see from the Lord. And I believe it's the Lord giving this message. God is saying, Paul is allowing the pastoral matriarchy to take hold. He may not be a part of it, but he is agreeing with it enough to let it come into the church. Even stronger than it should at this point. So he's allowing... | |
| the Girgashite spirit of the false teacher to come in or the bad teacher, the corrupted teacher. He's allowing the pastoral matriarchy of the Canaanite spirit to take hold. So Luke 10:40 is Girgashite teacher. Acts 1:17 and Acts 1:25, the ones that connect diakonia to Judas. It's God is saying he's allowing a double portion of this | |
| Pastoral ministry spirit to come in. This Canaanite pastor spirit to come in. The spirit that sells Jesus out to the enemy. To get something from the world. Which is what the pastors do all the time. They sell out the message of the spirit. Because they know it's not palatable to the soul. So they can get something from the world that they want. And what they want from the world is the people's approval. To enlarge their churches and their ministries. | |
| Um. So these first three verses. It's like this is what God is saying. Paul is letting in. Then in Acts 6:1. He's saying. And this is the spirit of elitism. He's allowing this pastoral matriarch. These Canaanite pastors. And Gervishite teachers. To become an elite class. Of people above. The regular people. That's what Acts 6:1 and 6:4 are saying here. Uh. | |
| Because they use diakonia in the context of the dispute about the serving of food between Greek widows and Hebrew widows. And then Acts 11, 20, [11:]29 and 30, next verse, is God's way of saying, and Paul is allowing the spirit of elders to come into the church system. The spirit of elders. Okay. | |
| And it's a very Girgashite spirit that promotes hierarchy. There are some elders and not so elders, and there's this kind of these levels of hierarchy. And that spirit of hierarchy began to creep in because Paul was allowing it. It was gonna creep in anyway. It's just that it came much faster than it should have. Then in Acts 12:25, | |
| then God says, and Paul's allowing the Canaanite spirit to come in to separate people from their calling. Because Barnabas had a Canaanite pastoral connection to his, I think Mark was his cousin or his nephew, I forget. But Barnabas had a familial connection to Mark, a soul connection, which is what the Canaanite spirit emphasizes, soul connections. | |
| So Barnabas was Canaanite-ly connected to Mark, and that separated him from his calling. So I hope you can see here, Luke 10:40, God is saying, Girgashite teachers are coming, Acts 1:17 and Acts [1:]25. | |
| Girgashite teachers like Martha are coming. Then Acts 1:17 and Acts 1:25. Canaanite pastors who are traitors like Judah are coming. And then Acts 6:1 and 6:4. That the ones that use the Akonea with the conflict about Grecians and Hebrews. God is saying a spirit of elitism. | |
| It's going to come into the church. And then Acts 11:29. It says. And they will establish. A Girgashite system. A hierarchy of elders. And then Acts 12:25. And they will bring a spirit. That emphasizes. Soul attachments. To fulfilling. Your calling. To fulfilling God's calling. For your life. | |
| And that's see the church is filled with that spirit. People go in and their callings die there because it all becomes Canaanite soulish attachment. A lot of people don't grow because God says get out of the church. Let's say I experienced that. Or God would call me to leave a place and I knew I had to do it. And if I had been emotionally attached to the place and the brothers and sisters that I knew there. | |
| I would have said, oh, no, no, I can't do it. This is a church of God anyway, so it's not like I'm becoming a heathen or abandoning the faith if I stay here. But yeah, if I'd done that and stayed there, my calling would be dead right now. And it happens with a lot of people, that Canaanite attachment. And in fact, that's kind of what happened with Paul. | |
| He had a Canaanite attachment to the Jews and to the Jewish people and to Israel and all that. And that's what was making every effort to separate him from his calling, from completing, from teleo, from fulfilling his calling. Okay, so now we see the negative connotation. And then the second thing, | |
| So we're back to Acts 20:24 and and we see that now. OK, Diakonia is not a good word to use. I mean, it's like if we had to give advice to Paul and say, you know, use to kind of make him look good, we would have said, please make stay away from the word Diakonia. It's like, you know, when advisors are advising politicians and and | |
| They kind of try to make sure that the politician will never say a word that will come back to bite him. And they go, you know, please, if you're going to talk about this, please do not use this word. Because our surveys, our polls say, our exit polls and everything say that that word is a no-no. It will turn people off. Well, here we did a survey asking God, what do you think of diakonia? | |
| And notice what he answered. This is God answering and saying, this is what I'm saying about this word. This is what I think about this word. And I want you to think this the moment you read it in Acts 20:24. And you go, wow. OK, so this showed what was in Paul's heart. He had something in his heart that was opening a door for something that was not supposed to come in. So, OK, so it says. The second part that that. | |
| It also makes me wonder if I am misguided, but I don't think I am. I had some doubts when I was going to say the thing about diakonia, but I'll be very frank. I have kind of just looked at this list very briefly, but I have always associated something negative to diakonia for some reason. I've always associated it because it's connected to service. | |
| and then to the pastoral ministry. Pastoral ministry is the ministry of service, the endowment of service. It comes from God's spirit of service, one of the seven spirits of God. So there's nothing wrong with service per se, but it's what has been done with it in the soul that has made it such a horrible thing. So I've always had this negative connotation around diakonia or deacon or things like that. That word in Greek, | |
| But I hadn't noticed all the details here as we've been talking them out. So now I, even though I always wonder, I'm not, I don't have any doubts anymore about what we just said about diakonia here in Acts 20:24. But so this second part, I do have a little bit of fear of saying, but I feel that in the context of diakonia, I would dare say that what we're about to mention is not | |
| that far out of line if it isn't exactly right. And it's this part when he says, which I have received of the Lord Jesus. So in the diakonia, which I have received, and I think the word in Greek is lambano, which it means like embracing. Whenever you see lambano, I always think of the dance of that name in the 90s, lambada. But lambano is a word that means just imagine yourself with open arms, | |
| Embracing something or someone. That's lambano. Receiving or embracing. Like welcoming something and embracing unto yourself. So that's what it says here. Which I have embraced or received of the Lord Jesus. To testify the gospel of. Notice the word here. The phrase. Grace of God. The gospel of the grace of God. | |
| Now, this doesn't have a negative connotation per se. If you are aware of what grace is, you know, that grace is not what Joseph Prince and Joel Osteen and all the others make it out to be, but that grace is access to God, and access to God is access to a God who is consuming fire. So, in other words, when you think of grace, you're not | |
| when you're thinking of it in the spirit you're not thinking of what joseph prince and joe osteen are thinking if that makes sense it is imagine someone saying you couldn't have access to that that burning forest like they there's a forest that's burning you know out in the distance and it's just you can see the fierce flames of of the forest as it's burning uh and the fire just doesn't seem to stop and you can even feel the heat from a distance | |
| And and then they say, you know, you couldn't have you couldn't walk into the fire before because there were these obstacles. God is so is so loving and kind, loving towards you. And he's cleared the way for you to walk into that into that burning hot fire. That's what we have been given. That's grace. God is saying, hey, the road is clear. Now you can walk into my consuming fire. | |
| I hope you see what we're saying Joel Osteen and Joseph Prince and I'm mentioning them just because they're an example they're the only names I know there might be a lot of more prominent people nowadays but my knowledge of earthly quote ministers is a little outdated and I don't care to update my list it's not worth it but the thing is I'm mentioning them just | |
| because they come to my mind, and they're just one of many, many. But the thing is, when Joseph Prince and Joel Osteen think of grace, they, instead of seeing this burning forest of intense fire that we just mentioned, they see like a Disney World castle with a rainbow over it and unicorns dancing over it, you know, day and night. | |
| and flowers and bunnies jumping around. That's what they see in the distance. And they say, see, God has given us access to this wonderful life and wonderful blessings. And that's what they see. So that's grace to them. And it's, so I hope you see what we're saying. So grace is not necessarily a negative thing. It depends on whether you're thinking of it in the spirit or in the soul. | |
| And they're two very different things. But the thing is, what bothered me when I read this is gospel of the grace of God, a gospel that emphasizes grace. And I said, wow, that's Joseph Prince. That's Joel Osteen. That's all the others. And that don't sound right. But that's because how the word | |
| gospel of grace or the phrase gospel of grace has been tainted by the pastoral matriarchy. But even so, it just bothered me. I said, Lord, is there something wrong here? And I'm just going to do a search that I don't know if I did it before. So I'm taking a risk, you could say, by doing this. But I'm going to go back to the verse, Acts 20:24 here. And I'm going to do a search. I don't think I did before. | |
| I'm going to look up the words gospel and grace, you know, with the original Greek words to see how often God puts them together and in what context. So let's see. I'm scrolling down here to see the words gospel and grace in the Greek. Gospel is Evangelion. You know, that's where we get evangelist or evangel. Gospel is kind of like the German form of good news. | |
| Because Evangelion, that's what it literally means. EU means good. And Angelion comes from angel, which means messenger. So it's a good message or good news. But so it's Evangelion. And grace is caris. So let's look up these two words. G2098. Oh, I had already looked it up at some point. Not sure what I found before. So here's the same thing. | |
| Same search terms. So let me just click on that and press go and see how many times gospel and grace appear together. This is how much God thinks of his gospel as a gospel of grace Acts 20:24 when Paul said it and we're kind of in that one is still on trial to see if it's a good thing or a bad thing but look at the only other for a gospel that's about grace and | |
| God only refers to it as a gospel of grace three times. Isn't that interesting? So Galatians 1:6 says, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ Jesus unto another gospel. So, oh, so I'm sorry. I misspoke. God does not refer to the gospel as the gospel of grace. He's talked. I hope you see there. Let's read it again. | |
| Galatians 1:6 I marvel that you are so soon removed from from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel so he's saying you went away from the grace of Christ to another gospel but he didn't but God this is Paul speaking but it's obviously inspired by the Holy Spirit so it's God speaking | |
| so god is not saying the gospel of grace he just says you went away from my grace to pursue another gospel a gospel that does not have the grace that calls you into that gives you access to the burning consuming fire that is god almighty um and and then uh the next uh verse here uh that we're looking at here in this search result is the last third and last verse is Philippians 1:7. even as it | |
| is meet for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart and as much as both in my bonds and in my defense or in the I'm sorry and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel you're all partakers of my grace so again the verse is talking about the gospel and talking about the grace of God but it's not calling the gospel the gospel of grace | |
| So, yeah, I feel a confirmation of this in my heart and mind just looking at this. And I do believe it's of the Lord. And I pray that you confirm with God if you are wondering. But it says here, gospel of the grace of God in Acts 20:24. That phrase is never used except by Paul here. And that's a warning. That's a telling sign. | |
| That is like a warning. From God. God is saying because of the door that Paul is opening in his heart by embracing or partially embracing the spirit of Solomon, he's opening the door to the Joseph princes and the Joel Osteens of the world to turn the gospel into a gospel of grace. When it's really about something else. | |
| And what is it really? It's not a gospel of grace. It has grace in it, but it's not the gospel of grace. That's not the phrase God uses. How do I know? Well, look at it. If it's really the gospel of grace, you'd see God referring to it over and over again as the gospel of grace. Well, what is it then if it's not the gospel of grace? Well, let's go back to Acts 20:24. And let's see the next verse. Verse 25 says, | |
| And now behold, I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more. And that's the word I was expecting to see as I was reading verse 24. Kingdom, not grace. And now he mentions it in verse 25. And now behold, I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more. So, and so now that brings up the question, um, | |
| is is it really does god think of the gospel as the gospel of the kingdom and so let's see here verse 25 the words in greek the word for kingdom is basileia that's where that's where we get basilica you know because the church has turned itself into a kingdom earthly kingdom that's why it's called basilica the romans roman catholics call it basilica um because it's a kingdom um | |
| an earthly kingdom. But the thing is, the word kingdom is Basileia, which is Greek strong number 932. So let's do a search of gospel and kingdom together in the Greek. So it was G2098 is gospel. And instead of grace, which was G5485, as you can see here, let's use Basileia, which is G932, it says here. So let's press go. And that | |
| And lo and behold, well, it's not that many more times, I must admit. But gospel of grace we saw only appears once as a term, gospel of grace. I know gospel of the kingdom doesn't appear that many times, but as you can see, it's significantly more, five times. And every time here, you can see gospel of the kingdom. So the word kingdom is applied to the gospel. In Matthew 9:35, | |
| gospel of the kingdom. So you can see that here in Matthew 24:14, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. So God is waiting for this gospel to be preached, not the gospel of grace, the gospel of the kingdom, and then the end will come. That's when humanity will finally reach the end that God is pursuing for it. | |
| The gospel of the grace will never get us there, which is ironic because grace is about access to something. And in this case, the something, and I feel bad about saying the word something, but because in this case, the something is God, Almighty God. So grace is access to God. | |
| But it's ironic that the gospel of grace removes us from having access to the goal that God has for humanity. I hope that's making sense. And let's go there very quickly. Matthew 24:14. When the word end here is telos. As you can see, | |
| That word teleos or telos is kind of this is a variation of teleos, which we saw earlier. So it's making its appearance again. And I know it's not a coincidence. So so the gospel of the kingdom is what's going to bring the fulfillment of humanity to reach its goal, its end, its telos, the final destination God has for it, not the gospel of grace. What is the difference between gospel of grace and gospel of kingdom? | |
| And we've talked about that. If I go here to the Shamayalam website, there's an article that talks about that, but I don't remember the name of it right now. Let me see if I can, by looking at the list, remember. It's kind of around here somewhere. Here we go, literally. | |
| that's the name of the article the gospel of the kingdom so uh very little uh room for uh doubt or hesitation there uh this is the the article uh it's December 3rd 2007 when it was posted uh that was a long long time ago almost 20 years ago from the time of this recording, and we talk about what that is the gospel of the kingdom uh and let's see if I can | |
| mention something here. Okay, here we go. There's a section called "What Gospel?" in this article posting that the Lord prompted us to write. It says, a detail that the eschatological parrots tend to overlook in Matthew 24:14 is the type of gospel that shall be preached in the latter days. According to the Lord, it shall be the gospel of the kingdom. There's a deep message behind this detail. The traditional church has always associated the word gospel with salvation from hell. To the church, the only | |
| gospel is the gospel of salvation with the word salvation having an incomplete meaning however the new testament never refers to the gospel as the gospel of salvation per se by contrast refers to the gospel is the gospel of the kingdom on four occasions and it relates the word gospel to the word kingdom in a fifth verse uh yeah these are the verses we were kind of seeing in the other tab so on the other hand the words gospel and salvation appear in the same verse on only two occasions in the new testament | |
| In Ephesians 1:13, the Spirit does say the gospel of your salvation, but notice the context within which this phrase is uttered. And, well, you may want to read more details there, but the thing is that there's a difference. And what is the gospel of the kingdom? It's the gospel of the expansion of God's kingship on earth. See, the church has turned it into, you know, it's like... | |
| What John Kennedy once said, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. And the pastoral matriarchy against our Christianity is ask God what he can do for you. And the gospel is about that, getting you out of hell, giving you a decent life on earth as you wait to kick the bucket and then go play the harp. | |
| For the rest of eternity. In some ambiguous. Nebulous place somewhere. And. The gospel of the kingdom is. No you have been called. To expand the kingship of earth. Of God on earth. In all aspects of humanity. So that God will be the reigning. Supreme. King. Over the face of the entire earth. | |
| And over over the over every aspect of the human experience, that's the gospel of the kingdom where you are here as a soldier to fight the battle and see the thing is when people say, oh, yeah, I'm going to spread the gospel. Then they think of handing out tracts and talking to people about receiving Jesus. And yes, there's nothing wrong with that. That's part of it. I've done that. But the point is not that's not that's not it. | |
| Even though there's a part of that in the whole thing, that's not it. You know, it's like saying going to watch a football game is about sitting down. Yeah, obviously, you know, if you go to the stadium, most of the time, you know, you're sitting down. It's part of watching the football game. | |
| But that's not it. If someone says watching the football game is about sitting down, you go, what? Yeah, you have to sit down to watch it. You can't be driving your car all over the city if you want to watch a football game at a stadium. You have to go to the stadium and sit down. Let's put it like that instead of sitting down, going to the stadium. So watching a football game is about going to the stadium. But you could be in the stadium, but you can be in the concession stands | |
| you know, drinking sodas and eating popcorn and talking to someone else while the game is going on on the field. Then you were not watching the football game. You were at the stadium, but you were not watching it. And that's what we've done. Expanding the kingdom of God, we've connected it to saying to people, receive the Lord Jesus as your savior. Yeah, that's part of it. But if you reduce it to that, then you've missed the whole point. That's not it. | |
| uh just like watching the football game is not just being at the stadium god has called us to take the earth unto him we are the ones who take it unto him the moment we understand that then the gospel of the kingdom is being preached the moment we behave like that then we're expanding the kingdom of god and the gospel of the kingdom when we act like that and teach others to act like that then the gospel of the kingdom is being preached | |
| And that's how the end will come. So what Paul did, if we go back here, let's just keep reading very quickly all the appearances of gospel and kingdom together in the Greek. As you can see here, gospel of the kingdom, gospel of the kingdom, gospel of the kingdom, and gospel of the kingdom. So Matthew 4:23, Matthew 9:35, Matthew 24:14, Mark 1:14. | |
| Also, it says, now after that, John was put in prison. Jesus came into Galilee preaching what? What did Jesus come into Galilee preaching? Was it the gospel of grace, the gospel of salvation, the gospel of happiness? No, it was the gospel of the kingdom. That's what Jesus preached, not the gospel of grace. And then Mark 1:15, this is the only time out of these five verses where gospel and kingdom are not like together directly. | |
| but it's kind of the same thing. It says, and saying, Mark 1:15, and saying, the time is fulfilled. Notice the time is fulfilled. See, when God wants to finish the job, the gospel of the kingdom starts getting preached. So the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. So yeah, it doesn't say gospel of the kingdom technically, but | |
| But the wording is so strong here that I can't help but tie gospel to kingdom here. And that the gospel is about the kingdom. That's basically what the Lord is saying here. The gospel is about the kingdom. And I believe this is John the Baptist talking, if I'm not mistaken, here in Mark 1:15. But the thing is that this is God speaking. The gospel is about the kingdom. That's what the gospel is about. | |
| the kingship of God, and we are the soldiers. Joel's army being sent into the battlefield to wage spiritual warfare to bring about the domination of the spirit over the soul. And that's what the gospel of the kingdom is about. But so now let's go back to Acts 20:25, which is where we were. So now, well, Acts 20:24, when Paul said the gospel of the grace of God, | |
| Red alert, you know, that's red alert. That's like something ain't right. Just like when he said ministry or diakonia in Greek. Something ain't right. And that's what Paul was descending into. That he started believing that he was preaching the gospel of grace. And it was not. Yes. And there was a lot of it. And it's just like the thing we said a moment ago. Going. | |
| to watch a football game live involves going to the stadium, but that's not the whole thing. If you're at the stadium, eating at the concession stands and just walking around, watching YouTube videos and stuff on your phone, then you're not watching the game. So this is not true. Not completely true. There's truth in it. | |
| If you're thinking about grace in the context of that consuming fire, that forest that God is sending you into, now I have cleared the way. Now you can walk into that fire. Then if you think of it that way, yes, then this statement is completely true. But just the word diakonia being here, shadowing the rest of the verse, it's almost like saying, this is not what Paul, Paul was not talking about that forest that we're mentioning. He's talking about | |
| He opened the door without meaning to a gospel of grace, the one that we see today, the one with Joseph Prince and Joel Osteen and all the others who see the gospel as what can God do for me as opposed to what can I do for God? What has God called me to do, which might be a better way of saying it. Okay, so these two signs are very negative. | |
| And it's like God exposing what the spirit of Solomon began to do in his heart, in Paul's heart. The word diakonia and the phrase gospel of the grace of God here in Acts 20:24. So now let's go to Acts 20:25. And now behold, I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, because he was preaching the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom. It's just that he suddenly called it the gospel of grace. | |
| And that's where, it's like a bad omen. Okay, so I know, and now I need to know what the word know is in the Greek. Know is Eido. So I know in my mind that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more. So that brings up a question, well, | |
| We know that this historically meant that they would never see him again. So, yeah, you can take it at face value, take it literally, and that's fine. But the thing is, there has to be more than that. Why did Paul phrase it like that? Because he was, even though, see, the thing is, he was saying things that were not exactly true, but it was the Spirit of God speaking through him | |
| More, like in verse 24, more than anything to expose what was in his heart. See, in verse 24, it was not, these were not words of God, but the spirit was saying, say it, say what's in your heart. And this came out, Acts 20:24. And now in verse 25, again, he's saying something that was in Paul's heart and that was also from God. And he prophetically declared, you shall see my face no more. | |
| why did he say it like that well oh that's the way people said it, I don't know, I don't know, how if that's what they would how they would say all the time in greek he could have said oh you shall see me no more uh and that would have been uh would have done the trick but what is interesting is that he said face and you say oh that's that you know what difference does it make well it makes a lot of difference and I know in my being | |
| That this is exactly what this means, what I'm about to say, because we share in a recent video audio work. And I know it's not a coincidence that God brought that verse into my heart when I was asking him, Lord, what do you want us to talk about? And God said, Isaiah 13. And and we did an audio work on that. So we went to. I think the verse was. | |
| I'm sorry, it was Isaiah 25, verse 7. So in that chapter of Isaiah 25, there was a verse that talked about faith. Well, actually, it was exactly in Isaiah 25. So let's just go there very quickly. And we already said this in an audio word. So we'll just try to be more to the point. Isaiah 25:7. And he will destroy, but in Hebrew it says, and he will swallow. Just like the same word swallow here in verse 8. | |
| In the next verse, it's the same word in Hebrew. So it really should say, and he will swallow in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations. So face. What is this face? And we shared in the audio word that it represents this false god. | |
| That came over the religious people of the world. The religious Christians. The church. The Christian church. And it's. When they look up. Like spiritually we shared in that audio word. You may want to listen to it. If you. Feel prompted to. I mentioned it here. We'll go to the Shema Elam website. And we'll go to audio words. It was a word. | |
| Posted around September 19th. 2026. It's called Isaiah 25:7. And you can listen to it. If you wish. And there we mentioned. In detail. How this verse. Talks about. Like how the church. Has this envelope over it. Like something covering it up. And this thing. Because it's such a strange phrasing. The face of the covering. | |
| So why doesn't he just why didn't God just say and he will swallow the covering cast over all people? Why the face of the covering and what God is saying is see when people look up in the church and we saw that the word people was in Hebrew, which points to the Christ to the church, the believers and the nations is it was going refers to the people outside the church. You know the people who are unbelievers. | |
| So those who are supposedly believers in the church system, they look up and they're covered by something. And when when and they see the covering over them and that covering as a face and they think they're seeing the face of God because it's this like like someone painted something on top of, you know, like the Sistine Chapel. You know, they had, you know, like someone painted a whole bunch of stuff on the roof. | |
| And they look up and they think they're beholding the face of God. And that's just that's a fake face. It's just a face that the pastors painted because that's how they they imagine God or want to imagine God. And they know that's the God people want to see. So they like Aaron molding the golden calf, they fashion the face. And that's what everybody sees at church when they raise up their eyes and they're worshiping and praising God. | |
| They look up and they are seeing that face. They're not seeing the real face. They're not seeing the face that is consuming fire of like that forest that we just mentioned. They're seeing this angelical face of, you know, just glowing with kindness like Santa Claus. And I'm not saying that God doesn't have sweetness and kindness. We've talked about that before. If you couldn't... | |
| I remember when we were recording those words that I could feel the sweetness of God. So it's not like we're denying that. But what we're saying is that's not that's not what God wants to. That's not his face the way the church has portrayed it. That's why in Revelation, when John sees the Lord Jesus in Revelation for the first time, he doesn't see a wonderful grandfatherly face of kindness. | |
| He sees someone whose face is on fire, who is fearsome. That's the real face of God. And that's not what the church paints. So when Paul said face in Isaiah, I'm sorry, in Acts 20:25, I think it was, God was prophetically saying through Paul, | |
| This false faith is going to come into the church. It's like the whole passage is about all the bad stuff that's coming to the church, into the church that is being accelerated by Paul's stubbornness in constantly embracing the Jews and partially submitting to the spirit of Solomon. So this is the faith that that's what's being pointed to. | |
| And you say, well, how can you know? Because the word faith is all over the place in Scripture. And how can you know that this faith is the one that's being referred to? Well, I can say it by testimony that I know it's not a coincidence that we were talking about this verse shortly before. And as we share in the audio work, it's not like I just said, oh, okay, let's see what we are going to talk about. You know what? | |
| You know, let's say Isaiah 25:7, because I have nothing else to talk about. Now, I asked the Lord, and this is the verse that dropped into my heart out of nowhere. And he said, this is what you need to talk about. And he said, talk about it now, because he knew that we were going to run into the face of Acts 20:25 and ask, what does that mean? | |
| And now that I didn't realize it until now, what a coincidence because we're talking about Acts 20:25, which is taking us to Isaiah 25, verse seven. That's too much. You're just making too much of all these coincidence. Well, I'll let you decide between you and the Lord. You will stand one day in front of him. And if you can say it to his face, oh, that was just a coincidence. Well, | |
| Please, please do it. Because I'm going to stand in front of him and say it was not a coincidence. And both of us are going to face consequences for what we said. And I do believe in my heart that this face of Acts 20-25 matches up. It's pointing to the face that God will eventually swallow up. And we describe what that means. You know, that false God face that the church sees all the time. | |
| that's what this faith is referring to. And I believe it. And I pray that the Lord will give you testimony about that. And the thing I said a moment ago is not to intimidate you into believing because that's not God's way. The thing is, I said that in such a harsh way because some people just reject things and they get very girgishite and very | |
| very arrogantly pastoral, and they just, no, that's not of God. That's not of God. And they reject it with arrogance. And those are the people that I was thinking of in my heart as I was saying this a moment ago. I believe I felt the wrath of God saying it, but I also felt the Lord holding me back a bit. As if to say, make sure to clarify that this is for the people who are | |
| who are very arrogantly dismissive of the message that's lying beneath the surface. Does that make sense? There are a lot of people in the Christian church who are very dismissive. They just want things literally. So when they read Acts 20, all they're reading is a history book. That's all they're reading. That's all they're reading. | |
| So they could not care less if it says face or doesn't say face or if it says grace or kingdom. It's the gospel. Who cares? To them, it's | |
| historical information and those are the people who are the most dismissive when you start talking about these things and you say oh that's that's all a lot of mumbo jumbo how do you know how do you know well and that's when I go okay you will stand before god and you will have to say to him I believe this and I believe that and I rejected this and I rejected that and if you are right god will give you praise and reward you but if you were wrong | |
| You will have to accept at that moment. You were defying God. And speaking against the spirit of God. And mocking and dismissing the spirit of God. And the judgment will be severe. For you and for me if I do it as well. Okay so verse 26. Wherefore I take you to record this day. Oh sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll come back here. There's another side to the face thing. It's like it wraps. | |
| Two things there. On the one hand, it's referring to the face of Isaiah 25:7. And on the other hand, it's referring to the face of God himself, the real face of God. As you may recall, when Moses rejected God's judgments over the people of Israel in Exodus 32, I think it was, when God said, let me judge them and I will make a new nation out of them. | |
| And he basically said, let me destroy them and I'll start anew. Because these people are useless, are spiritually useless. They cannot conquer. They don't understand the gospel of the kingdom. To them, it's the gospel of provision, the gospel of grace. God is there to feed them. God is there to take care of them. God is there to pastor them through the wilderness, going around in circles like sheep that have nowhere to go waiting to die. | |
| That's how they saw God. So God says, OK, that's that's what you think of me. That's how I'll treat you. And that's why he waited 38 years for every single one of them. And I'm going to say something that was going to sound un-Christian or improper or unholy. But I'm going to say it because I know it's of the Lord. Every damn one of them died off. God waited until every damn one of them died off. And why damn? Because damn means condemned. | |
| God condemned them to die and not enter the promised land. That's why I'm using that term. Not just because I'm using profanity. God waited until every damn one of them died off. Because that's what they wanted from him. That's the gospel that they saw. And only a few like Joshua and Caleb and others understood that it was not the gospel of grace. Or, you know, gimme, gimme, gimme. | |
| You know, like that old song from the 1970s. So it's the gospel of conquering unto God. Joshua and Caleb knew that they were here to conquer the land unto God. That's why they were the ones who went in and conquered the promised land and the others didn't go in. I hope you see what we're saying. That's the gospel of the kingdom. The one that says, I'm here to take the land. I'm here to conquer the earth unto God. The gospel of grace. | |
| especially as we have interpreted grace, is the gospel of God, where's my food? God, where's my manna? God, where's my water? We want water. We want water. We want food. And we're having a lot of problems here. God, where are you? Take care of us. Take care of us. That's the gospel of grace. And because Moses defended these people, then God, | |
| God, I'm angry with him. It's not said overtly. It's like God leaves it there for you to hear it. You know, it's like when you know someone and, you know, they've been very, you know, kind of amiable with you and they laugh with you when you're talking, you know, when you're exchanging words, you know, having a conversation. And then suddenly one day you meet them and they're very distant. | |
| And you say, hi, how are you doing? And they go, hello. And how have you been? And how's everything going? And the other person goes, yeah, it's okay. And they just give you, just stare you in the face, no smile, no nothing. You know, something ain't right. They don't have to tell you they're upset with you, but you know that something ain't right. Well, that's exactly what happens when you read Exodus 32 and 33. | |
| You see God's reaction to Moses' intercession to prevent the judgment. You go, hmm, something ain't right here. God is not happy. And then later, it might have been in chapter 34, but in those chapters, I believe, Exodus 32, 33, 34, later on, God says to Moses, I will put you in this cleft of a rock or something, and I will pass by, and you will see my back. | |
| but you shall not see my face. And what God is saying is, see, you exchanged my face for a face you wanted. You know, the face of Isaiah 25:7. And because of that, you're not going to see my real face. And all I'm going to give you is my back. And if someone, you know, if someone, you walk into a room and someone turns around and, you know, let's say they were facing the door. You walk in and immediately as you walk in, they turn around and, | |
| show you uh their back um you know you you give your back to them that you would know oh uh I don't think this person is happy with me being here and that's what god was saying you shall see my back because all you don't want my face you don't want to know me you want things from me and those are the people who always see god's back they don't see his face they can't see it they don't even know what he got what god looks like | |
| That's why when a remnant person comes with the anointing of the spirit and acts like a person was manifesting the nature of God, they don't recognize God in them. It's like, who are you? What are these strange things you're talking about? This is not of God because it doesn't look like God to them. They have never seen his face. They've replaced it with another face. So at best, they only see his back. And that's another thing here, like subtly saying, when you replace my face, | |
| With the face that I mentioned in Isaiah 25:7, you no longer will see my face. You chose not to see my face. You replaced me, my face, with something else. And imagine if you stand before God and the first thing that God does is turn around and show you his back. Do you think that's going to be, oh, you're going to feel, oh, wow, God turned around for me. | |
| but not to see me, but to see away from me. You wouldn't take that as a compliment. Oh, well, how wonderful. You would feel, you know, it's like if you're in front of someone that you love and that person turns his back on you, you go, wow, you know, that's how all these Christians are going to feel when they stand before him because they chose not to see his face. | |
| Because every time God gave them a peek of his face, when he would start turning around just a bit, they'd go, no, no, no, that ain't God. And they would just shut that off. Like, no, no, I don't want to see no more. Nope, that's it. That's not my God. That's not the God I go to church to worship every Sunday. So, and God will turn his back on them and they shall see his face no more. | |
| God is going to banish them from his presence for all of eternity. And they will not be able to behold his face forever. And they will be branded as such. They will have a branding on their forehead. It's mentioned in Jeremiah 23. You know, can't see God's face. Well, it says something else, but the message in that whatever was going to be on that forehead is basically this one cannot see God's face. Um, | |
| So there's a double message here in that sense. But it's all bad news. And I hope you see that, you know, when people read this, it's just Paul saying goodbye to some brothers in Ephesus and then he moves on and that's it. But if you go in the spirit and start reading this, it's a very sad story. You can see like the dark clouds in the horizon of what's coming into the church, the doors that have been opened and the bad things that are coming. | |
| And why? Because the spirit of Solomon was let in. And Paul unfortunately participated in that when he started embracing that spirit. So he only embraced it in part. It was enough to do great damage. Maybe he didn't see the full damage of it. But we'll see how it was going to come afterwards. He was just not going to see it with his own eyes. But it was going to come. | |
| And it came very quickly. If you start reading like the stories of the early Christians, like starting in the second century, early second century, you know, in the years 100 to 120, you know, that's sort of at the very start | |
| the second century you can immediately see how the the pastoral matriarchy spirit is in there it just boom they just talk so different from the early christians that you read here in in in scripture uh you can see that the damage was quick I think when John uh the apostle John died it's almost like shortly after he died and I think he died | |
| maybe around 98 or 99 AD, or maybe, I don't know if he made it into 100 AD, but shortly after he died, it's almost like something got turned off. He was the last of the people who had lived in some way or another aware of the maleness of God, and then something got switched off. There was still an awareness of God's maleness, but what we're saying here is that | |
| Um. Something dramatic happened. It was like a sharp decline. And it happened very quickly. And it wouldn't have been like that. If Paul and others had stood their ground. And rejected the spirit of Solomon. But he didn't do it. Um. Okay so Acts 20:26 says. Wherefore I take you to record this day. That I am pure from the blood of all. The word man is not in the original text. That's why it's italicized here. Um. | |
| And the phrase take you to record, just for the sake of time, take you to record is from the Greek word that literally means to testify or to witness. That's the word for where we get the word martyr in English. When you testify, you're risking your life. You know, that's what a prophetic person does, is willing to sacrifice himself or herself. | |
| to declare what God has said, to testify what God has said, even if it means death. No fear of death. But that's the word there. So I take you to record. I don't know why the monk decided to phrase it like this. He could have just said, I testify this day or I witness this day. But I don't know. It sounded more poetic, more elegant. Wherefore, I take you to record this day. But regardless, Acts 20:27, | |
| So Paul's saying, I'm clean of your blood, the blood of all men. And then Acts 20:27, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. So he's saying, I declare to all of you. And in his heart, he's thinking about Jews and Greeks. And that is true in the sense that he was willing to speak to the Gentiles | |
| In a way that all the other apostles. Didn't want to. So he didn't shun from it. Just like James. The apostle James. He shunned from it. The one who was. The king of the church in Jerusalem. James the half brother of Jesus. And like Peter. Peter was kind of reluctant. To preach to the Gentiles. He didn't shun. He did shun. | |
| to declare unto all the counsel of God. But Paul didn't. So to some extent, that is true. The problem is, see, the thing is, it's like God is revealing the arguments in his mind, in Paul's mind, that prevented him understanding that the spirit of Solomon had infected him. You know, it's like... | |
| Like someone who says, no, I've done God's will, I've done this, I've done that, I've done the other, but God is saying, no, I'm trying to tell you something, but you're hiding behind these things or your soul is somehow hiding behind these things to kind of not admit that you're doing this wrong. I hope that's making sense. That's why the word I, I, I, and obviously he's referring to himself, so he has to use the word I, but the point here is that | |
| that it's Paul's soul speaking. So, I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more. Wherefore, I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. So, as God said, this is how Paul explains it to himself. | |
| that's why they uses the word I so much um um okay but um because it's interesting he doesn't say god testifies on my behalf that I have I'm pure from the blood of all man um that's why he that's why it's important to change in Acts 20:26 the that phrase take you to record because it's saying wherefore I testify | |
| In other words, this is my testimony about myself. Because it's interesting, I would have said, I mean, it's easy for me to say right now because, you know, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. But if I had been in Paul's shoes and I was right and I was in the spirit, I feel like the thing that would have come out of my mouth would have been, wherefore God testifies this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. | |
| But he's saying, for I testify that I am pure from the blood of all men. In other words, according to my perspective, I am pure. I hope that's making sense. He didn't appeal to God and say, God testifies in my spirit that I am pure from the blood of all men. I am saying this about myself. This is my perception of myself. | |
| But he said it with boldness, like I testify, like at the risk of being punished, you know, for perjury. He's saying, I testify solemnly that I am pure from the blood of all men according to my perception, because I have not shunned to declare unto everybody the counsel of God. And I'm just curious what the word counsel is. I think it must be parakale or something. Oh, sorry. | |
| Bad translation, counsel, it's bole. And we saw in a previous word, I believe, previous recording at some point, they're all blurred to me in my head sometimes. I forget what was said when, but bole, we mentioned recently, has to do with the will. That's what it literally means, the will. As you can see here, will, it's translated as will once, but | |
| for example, here, volition. And I think that's the better word. And in fact, the word volition in English comes from vole. If you just change that beta, that Greek B to a V, vole, then it starts sounding more like voluntary or volition. Like when you do something voluntarily, you decide to do it. No one forced you. You will to do it. | |
| So, so the better translation for Moly is will not counsel counsel as another spiritual connotation. It's a bad translation, but, um, regardless, it's the will of God. I haven't renounced. I haven't shunned to declare unto you all the will of God. Um, and that was, uh, in great part true. It's just that he was going about it in the wrong way. You know, the wrong methodology preaching to the Jews first and then to the, to the Gentiles. | |
| What was left over when God said, give everything to the Gentiles. They get the main course. They get everything of you, not the Jews. And that's what Paul kept doing. He kept bringing all the juicy goods to the Jews because he said the Jews will understand this because they read the scriptures. They read the Torah. They read the Tanakh. They know what I'm talking about. So he gave he prepared all the good stuff for the Jews. | |
| and then the Jews would just throw all that food on the on the ground and and start going after him you know when you give the holy to the dogs and and and and the uh and the pure I believe I wow I should know this uh to the dog the pearls to the dogs and the pure to the or the holy to the dogs um it's a pearl to the swine and the whole holy things to the dogs then they will | |
| Just stomp on what you gave to them and then come after you. That's exactly what they kept doing to Paul. So there was truth in all of this. It's just the way he was doing is wrong. And then Acts 20:28. And this is where we're going to. We've run out of time. But this is when it starts becoming even more blatant. The connection to the pastoral matriarch in the spirit of Solomon. | |
| Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. To feed, and the word in Greek is to pastor. To pastor the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. So he starts referring to people as sheep and to the people over them as pastors. So he's embracing the pastoral matriarchy without realizing it. And it's something that an apostle would not do. | |
| especially if it's the last words to these people that he'll never see again. And we'll talk about all the bad stuff that's embedded here, what continues afterwards. The door that was open for all this spirit of Solomon, pastoral misharchy to come in. Thank you very much for watching and listening. May the Lord bless you. Amen. |
The meditation continues on the "spirit of Solomon" and its negative influence on the Apostle Paul. This spirit, described in detail in Song of Songs 3:6–11, began to seep into the early church shortly after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The influence manifested as an opening in the hearts of the apostles, leading to a spirit of elitism and separation. This was seen as early as Acts 4, when the apostles gathered in the porch of Solomon, and in Acts 6, through disputes between Jewish and Greek-identifying believers. Rather than addressing the root of discrimination, the apostles appointed deacons to handle food administration, effectively separating themselves as "too spiritual" to deal with earthly matters.
This spirit of elitism manifests in various ways, including ministerial elitism, where a hierarchy is established between "masters" and the "ignorant masses." Paul initially seemed immune to this spirit, brought in from the outside following the death of Stephen—the last person in Scripture to praise Solomon. However, over time, the spirit of Solomon began to infect Paul as well, contributing to the establishment of a "pastoral matriarchy" within the church.
In Acts 20:22, Paul states, "I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem." While this sounds like divine guidance, a comparison with Acts 21:4—where disciples warned Paul through the Spirit not to go—reveals a deeper complexity. It appears that God was not directing Paul to go to Jerusalem, but rather, because Paul would not let go of his attachment to the Jews, God was "binding" him to go. Paul’s reluctance to abandon his focus on the Jews, despite God’s call to reach the Gentiles, left God with no choice but to force the encounter.
A linguistic analysis of the Greek text reveals that the phrase "bound in the Spirit" is technically a mistranslation. The Greek does not use the preposition en (in); instead, it uses the dative case, meaning Paul was "bound by the Spirit" or "bound according to the Spirit." This indicates compulsion rather than immersion. Paul was not acting out of a surrendered, immersed state, but was being compelled from the outside to deal with the very thing he refused to let go of: his preoccupation with the Jewish people.
Paul’s use of the phrase "the gospel of the grace of God" in Acts 20:24 serves as a warning sign. While grace is essential—providing access to God, who is a consuming fire—the specific phrase "gospel of grace" is not a term used elsewhere in the New Testament by God. Instead, the scriptures consistently refer to the "Gospel of the Kingdom" (e.g., Matthew 24:14).
The "Gospel of the Kingdom" focuses on the expansion of God’s kingship on earth through the believer acting as a soldier. In contrast, the modern "gospel of grace" (as promoted by figures like Joseph Prince or Joel Osteen) often reduces the message to personal blessing, comfort, and salvation from hell, effectively turning the church into an earthly kingdom rather than a vehicle for God's reign. Paul's embrace of this terminology suggests he was inadvertently opening the door for this diluted message to enter the church.
Paul’s declaration that the believers "shall see my face no more" carries prophetic weight. It connects to Isaiah 25:7, which speaks of God "swallowing the face of the covering." This "face" represents the false, idealized image of God—the "angelic," gentle, and safe version of God that pastors paint for their congregations.
When people worship this "painted face" instead of the real, fearsome, and consuming fire of God, they are participating in a false faith. Paul’s words suggest a dark omen: by allowing the spirit of Solomon to take root, the church would begin to prioritize this comfortable, manufactured face of God over His true nature.
As Paul concludes his address, he begins to use language that embraces the pastoral matriarchy, referring to the flock and the "overseers" (pastors). This reinforces the hierarchical structure that the spirit of Solomon promotes. While Paul’s life and suffering produced great fruit, his attachment to certain traditions and his partial submission to this spirit accelerated the development of a religious hierarchy—a system of "elders" and "pastors" that emphasizes soul-level attachments and earthly status over the true mission of the Kingdom.