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"Blessed Is He Who Is Not Offended Because Of Me" By Malcolm B Heap, Midnight Ministries Copyright © Midnight Ministries Copyright of Midnight Ministries may be waived and this publication duplicated without asking permission, if full credit is given to the source (with the address) and if the contents are not altered. Likewise, publications of Midnight Ministries may be translated into any other language without asking permission, provided that the translation is as accurate as possible to the meaning of the original text, and full credit is given to the source (with the address). The distribution of God's truth should not be restricted by copyright. |
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olomon wrote: A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city (Prov 18:19).
Jesus offended many people when He walked the earth. Not deliberately, of course, but it happened. He brought new truth, so it was unavoidable.
Today the work of Elijah advances, preparing the way for His Second Coming. Truth is being restored, and again people get offended!
The religious establishment found fault with Jesus. They were offended by his theology. They said: "This Man blasphemes!" (Matt 9:3.)
They couldn’t understand why He did things differently, why He would eat with tax collectors (most despised and traitorous to Jews) and sinners (9:11).
Even the disciples of John were having a hard time accepting Him! (9:14.)
They could see the awesome power that flowed at His command (9:8), but it didn’t seem to make much difference. Signs are soon forgotten. What sticks in the throat are the things you don’t like.
...the things YOU don’t like. That’s the problem.
What you are used to, what you take for granted as truth, or the way things are always done, if those ‘sacred cows’ are challenged, that’s what’s upsetting. But there can be no blessing without challenging the strongholds of error. That’s why Jesus declared:
Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me (Matt 11:6).
What Is Wrong With Many Nice Christians
For some while I wondered about why it is that people get offended. I mean, nice people, really lovely Christians, who are devout, sincere, giving, dedicated to what they understand of God’s ways. They love Jesus, and they sincerely desire to do His will. But we come along, present new truth (new to them), and 90% of them get offended, and turn away from us.
Although I had written about this prophetically back in 1994 (Will You Step Back? in Awake! Awake! Vol 2 No 6, March 1994), I still found it difficult to grasp.
A dream to Helena on 14th March 2006 explains more about this anomaly:
I was on a journey in the future, meeting with several groups of people. I went to see a church. On the wall of this church there was a Thyme shrub. It was growing laterally, spreading sideways to another wall. It needed pruning, so I suggested that to them, but someone said that would require permission.
Comment: This illustrates how much people follow tradition and men, rather than God and His Word. Having to get permission showed their subservience to human hierarchy in their church, which is unbiblical (Matt 20:25-26; 23:8).[1]
What the dream emphasises in symbol is their need for pruning – having the old dead wood cut away and the old teachings lopped off.
The lateral growth of the people, represented by the nicely scented Thyme plant, is growth that is not so much towards God as towards men. Christians usually become nicer people for accepting Jesus into their lives, but what needs to be foremost in their lives is not how they seem to behave to others, but how their heart changes towards God.
This Thyme plant was not planted in the soil. It was planted in the wall of the church. Their faith and grounding was not so much in God, in Jesus, and in His Word, as in the human structure that had been built by men in the name of Jesus.
For those who are shallow believers, they won’t see how devastating is this transfer of loyalties! When rough times come, their church or their leaders will not be able to help them. Only God can do that. They need to be firmly planted in His Word, in Him, otherwise they will get offended in the hard times coming.
When Church Leaders Get Offended
Church leaders are used to having pre-eminence. Most take it for granted, because they have believed the lie that they are in Jesus’ place in the Church, there to feed the flock, and to lead the flock. What they don’t realise is that they are there to do the former but not the latter.
Jesus is meant to lead, not them. They are vying with His Spirit for prime position.
So, when a prophet comes along and presents new truth, the invisible cords of their control are threatened. Many get offended.
The classic scenario for us is this. We come into their ‘domain’, and pronounce (through writing usually) that some aspects of their theology need a second look. For example, the Bible doesn’t support holding Sunday services as a replacement for what God instituted long ago at Creation in Sabbath worship (Gen 2:2,3), and about which He reminded Israel at Sinai (Ex 20:8-11). When you present this truth to leaders who have been used to keeping Sunday for as long as they can remember, you are either met with a wall of silence or a wall of hostility.
They get offended that we would dare to challenge their ‘credentials’ as Bible teachers. But we are not challenging that. We are challenging their error.
All they have to do is prove the truth we present like the Bereans did, searching the scriptures to see whether these things be so (Acts 17:11), and then teach it to their congregations. We’re not asking for them to step aside and let us take over. We’re asking them to let the Holy Spirit take over.
But people get offended at that, just like they got offended at Jesus.
They resented His pre-eminence. Pride was at the root of their reaction. They didn’t see it until He came along and did what He did. The same is true today. He comes along, reveals something ‘new’, and the challenge exposes hidden strongholds within them. They don’t see it as the prophesied pruning:
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit (Jn 15:2).
So, don’t get offended. Just humble yourself before Him. Accept the new things He brings. Accept the vehicles He uses, as unpretentious as they are. Accept them as prophets who speak for Him. Then you will have the benefit of the prophet’s reward. You will enjoy a greater infilling of the Spirit as a result.
God revealed in these words why offence occurs so often at the appearing of a prophet:
The reason most people get upset at you and what you bring, is because they are not at the same level of spiritual development.
When The Spirit Comes
We were meeting together in our fellowship one Sabbath recently. As usual, two or three people prayed in tongues, and someone else gave an ‘interpretation’ (not a word-for-word ‘translation’, but the gist of what the tongues prayers were expressing in the spirit). God edifies His people through His gifts, and the gifts are for the communal good, not for selfish gain.
After the tongues there was a prophetic word, and God poured out more of His Spirit on those gathered. But I noticed that not all benefited to the same degree. Only the receptive had the benefit. And the prophetic statement above in italics reveals why that was.
For the Spirit to come, the heart has to be prepared. Israel had to prepare for three days before God appeared in fire on Mount Sinai (Ex 19:10-11). The preparation involved washing their clothes.
Believers today must be prepared to wash their clothes, too – their spiritual clothes! In fact, they have got to do even more! They must be prepared to throw out the old dirty coat of Sunday-keeping, and get back to the tenets of the faith once delivered, keeping the festivals which God gave Israel, including the Sabbath.
They must also be willing to give up subservience to ‘ecclesiastics’ (church leaders in positions of authority over them) and follow unequivocally the full lead of the Spirit.
They need to come out from churches that do not relinquish this illicit domination. They need to shun repression and welcome restoration.
Where the Spirit is not openly welcomed in meetings, they need to accept a further baptism and start to move in the gifts of the Spirit, ‘hear’ God’s ‘voice’ and reach out to others as the Spirit gives them that boldness.
Otherwise, the Spirit just will not come.
So, don’t have a paroxysm of rage against me. Blessed is he who is not offended by any of the above requirements. They are truths being restored in this last revival of this age. This is the last outpouring of the Spirit before the Great Tribulation descends upon the world. It is to prepare God’s people for the evils of the time before us. It will be upon us soon!
New Truth And Old Wineskins
Mila Thompson recently wrote:
In the past I often wondered what the true meaning of Matthew 9:16-17 was. Several times I had a feeling I was close to understanding, yet it was evading me. But last Friday, at the start of the Sabbath, as I pondered it again, the light came to me. I’m sure you know all this, but it was such a revelation to me that I would like to share it with you.
It suddenly became clear to me that Jesus was comparing the Old Covenant, which He had made with His people, with an old torn garment. That covenant was broken by Israel through their unfaithfulness to God. Hence the symbolism of being torn (something worn out and useless). [Doesn’t this also portray how people get offended at presentation of new truth, when they don’t have the Spirit as they should?! They are ‘torn’ emotionally.]
There is no sense in taking good new cloth [the new truth Jesus brought] and cutting it up to mend the old torn garment. It makes more sense to throw the old garment away and use the good new cloth to make a new garment (symbol of the New Covenant).
The patch here represents mending, putting right, the old covenant, and its customs, rituals and rules which were broken by the people. By themselves, such observances have no meaning or importance. Jesus said this to John’s disciples when they came to question Him about fasting (Matt 9:14).
The second comparison He used makes this meaning even clearer: the wine is a metaphor for the Spirit. A new spiritual covenant could not use the old physical form of worship, which became corrupted into empty ritualism (old wineskin). It required a new, spiritual form (new wineskin). "God is Spirit, and His worshippers must worship Him in Spirit and in truth" (Jn 4:24).
It is interesting that even after John’s personal testimony about Jesus being the One who would baptise with the fire and the Holy Spirit, while Jesus was going around teaching ‘with authority’, performing great miracles, some men still continued to follow John – a mere man. They were ‘faithful to him’. Yet John’s very purpose was to point them to Jesus!
They were also trying to be ‘righteous enough’ to earn their salvation through fasting and rituals. They were indignant and critical of Jesus’ disciples.
They did not come to learn from Jesus. They came with accusations, just like the Pharisees and teachers of the law! I see here a parallel of the Church today. Many believers follow men, although Jesus has been revealed to them in a new light, with all His might and power and love! (End of Mila’s account.)
Your old ‘wineskin’ (life) must go, be thrown away, so that you can accept the new ‘wineskin’ (life) of Jesus.
Many Christians would rather revere and follow men (‘ecclesiastics’) than revere and follow Jesus in all His purity and divine splendour. So when Jesus sends a prophet and does a new thing, they resent it, get offended and step back (Jn 6:66). Will you do that, too? (Jn 6:67.)
Further Reading: Wielding The Divine Axe (Axe) The Faith Once Delivered To The Saints (FOT) Truth About Easter (E) Why Keep Christmas? (X) Our Sabbath Rest (S) The Controversy Concerning Law and Grace (LG) The Festivals of God (FoG)
Heap It Up! Heap It Up!
0A word from God early on in our ministry.
I shouldn’t have to remind you that the main function of prophetic ministry is this:
Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression (Is 58:1).
Only, in our case, since we have not had a vocal platform, God designed the witness to be in writing. Someone aptly called us "the silent messenger"!
We have published the dreams God has given about church apostasy, about sins that are tolerated, about evils condoned. They contain God’s warnings to help the humble, and a witness against the obdurate.
Beginnings
Midnight Ministries had its beginnings in late 1991 and early 1992, when God’s Spirit was moving upon my mind, revealing things about what is wrong in the churches. I mean: what is seriously wrong!
He started with the issue of church governance. He showed me the synagogue of Satan (Rev 2:9; 3:9) in the church. He showed me false ministers to boot. Boy, you talk about having your eyes opened!! For us at that time, it was dynamite! We weren’t used to being thrust onto the front line. We just wanted to keep our noses clean.
Out of that enlightenment came the publication God’s Church – Whose Authority? It is part of the end-time restoration. I think it was also in 1992 that God spoke to Helena with another cherry. He led her to this text, and spoke emphatically through it to her:
And one shall say. "Heap it up! Heap it up! Prepare the way, take the stumblingblock out of the way of My people." (Is 57:14.)
God had already shown us the deceit and falsity of one particular church organisation. Now He was telling us to prepare the way for these people’s deliverance. They were unable to return to Him because of the stumblingblock in their path. First we had to heap up the evidence against the men who claimed to be Christ’s ‘apostles’ but who were agents of Satan (2 Cor 11:13). Then, we had to demonstrate exegetically (by accurate explanation of Bible teaching) where they were in error and misleading their hearers. This we have done in the various publications produced since 1992.
It’s easy to see now with hindsight (for the open-minded, that is – many stubbornly refuse to admit to the fact that what we have done has been by God’s hand), but it wasn’t apparent 14 years ago. To others, we looked like the renegades, the ones who had stumbled over the stones. But, true to prophecies that God spoke through others to us, He has vindicated us.
He heaped it up against the real infidels!
It took a number of years to achieve, but the wall of Jerusalem took years to rebuild, too. The evidence is now there to see in:
All these 12 publications have something to speak against the rebels, whose stumblingblock of false teaching still remains to block the path to God in His purity and holiness.
And, of course, there are many other shorter works, booklets, and articles, that have been written to expose error, to shout out about heresy, apostasy and obduracy which hold God’s people down.
It doesn’t matter which church you are ‘in’, or what religious background you come from, what God has laid out in the above publications will speak to you, too.
Dreams
Recently, we published our Dream Diary. It is a witness to the mockers who refuse to recognise our prophetic calling. Its 264 pages contain most of our dreams from 1997 to 2005.
It won’t change sceptics, of course, but we have fulfilled God’s command to HEAP IT UP!
Of the false ministers in Jeremiah’s time, God said:
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied (Jer 23:21). That is true today of most who call themselves prophets and ministers of God. They have gone but God did not send them.
But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings (Jer 23:22).
What we have ‘heaped up’ will turn people from the evil of their doings – IF they heed what is written.
The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully... (Jer 23:28).
We have done both. The evidence is all there, heaped up for people to see. They can either accept it or reject it. Most do the latter.
Heaping and building
In heaping up the piles of revelations which God has poured out, and listening to His Spirit in compiling (piling up?!) MM literature, this preparation of the Way is prophesied in another of Isaiah’s texts:
Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Take out the stones, lift up a banner for the peoples! (Is 62:10.)
God has things worded so ingeniously!
I was a builder for 17 years prior to being called to do this work. It is a work of preparation like John the Baptist’s before Jesus’ major Work. Kassahun Ayele was given a dream symbolising my function:
November 23, 2004. Malcolm, Prophet No 5. Someone gave me a paper. On that paper there were 12 prophets named. The name of Malcolm was written as No 5. The names of the others were completely new to me. Meaning: God uses a number of prophets. I am only one of several. Five symbolises preparation. My task, like John the Baptist's, is to prepare the Way. It differs from John’s in that mine has been to compile in writing, an accurate doctrinal exposition of what God has given us in the Bible. Also, significantly, 12 is the number of God’s government. It shows where He has placed His authority. [It’s not in organised churches.] Prophets come with God’s authority. They speak for God in the things for which He has appointed them.
The above text from Isaiah 62:10 is quoted from the New King James Version, expressed in modern, easy-to-understand English. Here is what the Hebrew means, according to a more literal rendition:
Pass! Pass through the gates! Surface the way for My people! Heap up! Heap up the highway! Throw out the stones! "Raise high the banner," say among the people (Is 62:10, Concordant Version.)
The Scottish ‘worship leader’ Ian White has a song with those very words on his CD Rise Up:
Rise up, rise up, there’s a Lord to be praised Rise up, rise up, there’s a banner to be raised So raise the banner...
What does God mean? What is the banner if not the banner of His truth? That is what God has given to MM to restore and to preserve.
Then in another dream given to Kassahun in Ethiopia, God used the imagery of the banner (or standard) mentioned in Isaiah 62:10:
May 4, 2005. Malcolm invited to Buckingham Palace by the Queen. In this dream I was in the UK. The exact place was in London in front of Buckingham Palace. I met Malcolm there. On the left [libertine people who need salvation] of the palace several people were standing, expecting the queen. At the right side [depicts obedient ones] there was a flagpole but there was no flag on it. Someone was holding the flag in his hand and looking for someone to hang the flag. But no one responded. [This is the standard of God's truth.] Then Malcolm asked me saying, "May I hang the flag on the pole?" [God has given MM the standard of His truths.] I said, "Yes! We can get some publicity. Do it!" He went to the guard and took the flag and began hanging it on the pole. The flag waved on the top of the pole. When he had finished it, a public phone a short distance from the flagpole, began to ring. A woman called over to Malcolm and gave him the phone. I could see him while he was speaking on the phone. He had a big smile. When he had finished he came to me and told me. It caused us to rejoice in front of those people. The dream ended there. Meaning: This is all to do with the publicity that God will create by bringing people back who have been dead for years. It will cause the gospel to be heard by all, through media coverage. 'Famous' people get to meet the Royals. And in this instance the Royal Family will receive salvation.
A well-known praise song reads: "We want to see Jesus lifted high; A banner that flies across this land..."
Do you see where God is leading? If not, read on in Isaiah:
Indeed the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world: "Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Surely your salvation is coming; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him’. " (Is 62:11.)
God has confirmed His Word with signs following as He promised in Mark 16:16-20 and Acts 2:17-18.
What ‘we’ have written in MM publications will go to the ends of the earth. They contain God’s words, God’s truths, God’s encouragement and enlightenment for all who will receive.
That is not merely my ‘plug’. It is what God has revealed, not just to us, but to others who have been in contact with us. In fact, there have been so many of these amazing revelations that we have compiled them – "heaped them up" together – in these publications:
They contain some of the God-given commendation, as Paul said:
For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends (2 Cor 10:18).
Please remember, it is not me who is anything. It is what I convey in the literature that is everything. It contains truth from God. And the Church needs to accept it to be in His will.
God-given Signs
Kassahun’s Dream Diary (up to the present) contains over 100 pages of dreams from God, several of which are signs confirming the word which we ‘speak’. How much more does God have to heap up before the stubborn and hard-hearted get the message?
Luke recorded Peter’s words about Jesus:
Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs... (Acts 2:22).
God confirmed Jesus’ ministry with undeniable signs of His backing. He backs up His chosen servants today with signs – not for their sake, but for the sake of the message they bring to convey to the people.
It’s the message that is all-important, not the person. Don’t look at the person, or you’ll miss the message. It’s not the packaging you want, but the package.
When God separated Mila Thompson to serve Him, He gave her a sign. He caused a solitary rose to flower in the middle of winter in sub-zero temperatures. The sign was one for her, which she would notice.
The beautiful rose symbolised her. Being solitary likewise portrayed her task – she is translating MM literature into Russian. It is a lonely job, but one that is very necessary to deliver many people in Russian speaking areas. She has been faithful to God’s call.
In contrast, God had me pick a white rose from our garden one day and give it to a lady who was with us at the time. "This represents how God wants you to be" I told her. These were not just my words. God was speaking through me to her, but she didn’t heed.
The rose had a bud on the side – which represented her spiritually undeveloped husband. As she took the rose from me, she treated it roughly and some of the petals fell off. It immediately lost its beauty. She didn’t care about it.
That portrayed precisely what happened later. She turned away from us, despising the truth, treating it roughly. In her stubborn and selfish pride, she insulted the Spirit of grace (Heb 10:29).
We all need to heed what God said through Paul in Hebrews:
...Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the Covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said: "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The Lord will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! (Heb 10:28-31.)
God Judges Reprobates
A number of those to whom God has spoken, giving revelations about MM and the truth being held here, stepped back from doing what God commanded them. They withdrew from us. They refused to love the truth and God above all else. They put themselves first. They sought something else rather than the will of God. He won’t put up with that!
Their candlestick, or lampstand, God then took away (Rev 2:4,5). The Spirit departed from them; they lost understanding (Matt 25:29); and they fell away.
Few Christians really comprehend God’s nature. They don’t fully appreciate the fury He has against wilful sin! They must:
Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off (Rom 11:22).
A prophet in Kenya, Alex Odhiambo, was given a dream warning about this. It was given on 7th December 2008; then again on the 8th, 10th and 11th December. Four times! The warning could not be more grave!
In this revelation he saw a room. In this room he saw a message written on a wall IN CAPITAL LETTERS! (Remember how God warned Belshazzar of utter destruction coming to Babylon?! That’s in Daniel 5.) The message was from Esther 4:14, which reads:
For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Est 4:14.)
The circumstances are different, but the principle is the same. God’s work through His people was about to be wiped out by Satan. If Esther had remained silent, and not exercised boldness and courage, God’s plan could have failed. He raised up Esther for that hour, so that God’s Work would not fail. But if she had not zealously guarded God’s purpose in her heart, He would have let her perish and raised up another to fulfil His purpose.
Likewise today, those whom God calls to continue His Work, if they do not do as God requires, they will also be discarded, and God will raise up others to fulfil His holy cause.
In Alex’s dream the wall on which the warning was written was pure white, spotlessly clean. It is an allusion to the literature, a piece of which you hold before you now. God treasures His truth! So must you.
The dream was repeated exactly at MIDNIGHT each night. Why? Surely you can see the reason. The imagery God gives is purposeful and definite.
The question for you is: will you preserve and promote His truths? Or will you prefer your own ways, to be discarded along with all the others whom God considered reprobate?
People will pass away. Heaven and earth will pass away. But MY WORD, says Jesus, WILL NOT PASS AWAY! & Malcolm B Heap ___________________ Bible quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise stated Further Reading: Dreams and Visions From God (DV) The Missing Dimension in Christian Living (Mis) Apostasy In God’s Church (Apo) More Than A Prophet (MTP) Sunday Versus Sabbath: The Final World Crisis (SS) Revelations From God About The Judgement Of Britain (Jud) Why Britain Will Fall Soon (B)
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