End Times Watchman Bible Study: Beware of the wrong tree

Here is the Bible study for watchmen today.

Luke 12 (NKJV)

(The watchman's study is in bracket)

Beware of Hypocrisy

12 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another,  

He (Jesus) began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 

(The Pharisees are religious Jews. They are famous for their physical observations of their religious traditions, rules and regulations, including ritualistic practices. How to know who are the Pharisees today? Know them by their fruit. 

The Lord Jesus has warned against blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and stated that a tree is recognized by its fruit. (Matt.12:31-33) when the Pharisees questioned and slandered the work of the Holy Spirit.).

² For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. ³ Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.

(Jesus further warned the disciples that although the religious leaders appeared godly and purported to be defender of their religion externally, making a lot of observations, analysis and criticism on Jesus' teaching and lifestyle, insinuating that He was in error, even to the point of accusing His supernatural power having come from Satan himself. But they themselves were in fact the real descendants of the devil. They lived in darkness and spoke from the dark realm. However, the light of God will expose them).

Jesus Teaches the Fear of God

⁴ “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. ⁵ But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!
(Jesus teaches that His followers should fear God and not fear men or the devil behind men. Only God can have the power to cast men into hell, which He has reserved for the devil.)
⁶ “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins?^[a] And not one of them is forgotten before God. ⁷ But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
(Jesus has assured His followers that they are valuable to God and God will take care of them, body, soul and spirit). 

Confess Christ Before Men

⁸ “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. ⁹ But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
¹⁰ “And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.
 (The Pharisees have challenged the divine authority of Jesus. They did not believe that He is the Son of God. They even condemned the works of the Holy Spirit! Only by willingness to listen to the Gospel, receiving the Holy Spirit's conviction of sins, repenting, believing in Jesus' blood bought redemption on the cross, being thus born again  by the Holy Spirit through incorruptible seed (the word of God 1 Peter1:23), will one be saved from eternal damnation. Believing in the full Gospel message means believing in the reality of God, Who is Spirit).
¹¹ “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. ¹² For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
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Summary for watchman: 

Beware of purported religious teaching from men. Read the word of God, the Bible yourself. Abide in Christ and let the word of God abide in you. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you. Obey. Practice. Watch the fruit. Are they fruit that the Lord wants? Fruit that remains? (John 15:7, 16)

Waiting upon the Lord requires constant practice. There is no work-smart kind of shortcut, no microwave kind of instant experience and encounter. Many men and women of faith spent the bulk of their life time waiting upon God. The watchman could see the significant difference on those whose lifestyle is waiting upon the Lord! A senior watchman/intercessor often required the class to spend time in quiet doing 'nothing' except waiting upon God. They were usually required to do so in the afternoon when he was feeling quite sleepy. But he noticed that the others were indeed seasoned 'waiters'. They had gone through many practices and were truly basking in the Presence of the Lord.
When he decided to seriously wait upon the Lord, he received the word 'Practice'. Here are some of the Bible verses (in Amplified Bible) for serious seekers of God._____________________

PRACTICE WHAT JESUS HAS COMMANDED

Matthew 5:19 Whoever then breaks or does away with or relaxes one of the least [important] of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least [important] in the kingdom of heaven, but he who practices them and teaches others to do so shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Luke 6:27 But I say to you who are listening now to Me: [ in order to heed, make it a practice to] love your enemies, treat well (do good to, act nobly toward) those who detest you and pursue you with hatred,
Luke 6:46 Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not [practice] what I tell you?
Luke 6:49 But he who merely hears and does not practice doing My words is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it collapsed and fell, and the breaking and ruin of that house was great.
Luke 11:28 But He said, Blessed (happy and to be envied) rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey and practice it!
John 3:21 But he who practices truth [who does what is right] comes out into the Light; so that his works may be plainly shown to be what they are--wrought with God [divinely prompted, done with God's help, in dependence upon Him].
John 5:27 And He has given Him authority and granted Him power to execute (exercise, practice) judgment because He is a Son of man [very man].
John 5:29 And they shall come out--those who have practiced doing good [will come out] to the resurrection of [new] life, and those who have done evil will be raised for judgment [raised to meet their sentence].

John 13:17 If you know these things, blessed and happy and to be envied are you if you practice them [if you act accordingly and really do them].

Revelation 22:9 But he said to me, Refrain! [You must not do that!] I am [only] a fellow servant along with yourself and with your brethren the prophets and with those who are mindful of and practice [the truths contained in] the messages of this book. Worship God!

PUT TRAINING INTO PRACTICE

Philippians 4:9 Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and model your way of living on it, and the God of peace (of untroubled, undisturbed well-being) will be with you.
1 Timothy 4:15 Practice and cultivate and meditate upon these duties; throw yourself wholly into them [as your ministry], so that your progress may be evident to everybody.
Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law.
Hebrews 6:12 In order that you may not grow disinterested and become [spiritual] sluggards, but imitators, behaving as do those who through faith (by their leaning of the entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness ) and by practice of patient endurance and waiting are [now] inheriting the promises.

1 Peter 4:7

But the end and culmination of all things has now come near; keep sound minded and self-restrained and alert therefore for [the practice of] prayer.

End Times Witnessing: Know your God in Spirit

The watchman was given a sudden assignment to share the word of God to a congregation. But he was involved in reading the Bible with a group of Christians who hunger for God’s words. His house was ‘crowded’ with people over that period and he could not sit down quietly before the Lord for a message. He was also fighting his own ‘war’ against some old symptoms, determined not to take any medicine.By the eve of the sermon he still had no message from the Lord and he knew he had nothing to preach the next morning. So he went to bed around 9pm.
At 12 midnight he was woken. He heard from the Lord the word: “God is Spirit.” He was asked to preach this truth. He got up and went to his ‘altar’, a table where the word of God had been read by many who joined them in regular Bible reading, ever since last year when he was alerted in his spirit to start this prophetic faith in action at the same time making disciples for the Lord Jesus.
It was not an easy topic to preach. How to prepare himself with only a few hours of sleep and a few hours left before dawn? He knew this was another occasion when Zechariah 4:6b must apply: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.” He obeyed and sat before the Lord, reading many verses from the book of John as led by the Spirit. By the time he knew he had to go back to bed it was 4am. He could not sleep again until 5am. So he had another 3 hours of sleep.
By the time he arrived, the leaders and some members of the congregation were praying in the Spirit. They prayed on with the flow of the Holy Spirit anointing. The regular worship leader and preacher were out of the country. However the worship that morning was Spirit led and many were ministered. The congregation moved with the flow of the Holy Spirit in unison as one body of Christ. When the words of God were preached, the anointed flow just continued and it was effortless. Indeed, the Lord God is Spirit! (John 4:23-24)
This reminded the watchman that last year when he was reading Psalm119 with the class he described the experience as “open eyes swimming in the river of God’s words seeing the wondrous things in His law” (Psa119:18). “The Lord writes His word on the living water so we submerge and soak in it and let osmosis take its supernatural course.”(So he wrote in a short message discourse with another intercessor).
Here are some of the verses the watchman shared with his congregation/class:
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God is Spirit : You need to know Him in Spirit and in Truth (You cannot use your physical eyes to see. You need spiritual eyes)

John 4:23-24 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 7:24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

1 Corinthians 2:13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.2 Corinthians 4:18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.  

1 Corinthians 2:13 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

John 3:3  Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
How to receive?
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: John 1:13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Romans 3:24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
1 Peter 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
How to practice knowing God in your spirit?
1. Through Worship in the Spirit
John 4:23-24 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
2. Through Partaking the Holy Communion
John 6:53-56 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
Matthew 26:26-28 Jesus Institutes the Lord’s Supper And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
3. The Word of God by the Spirit
John 14:21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. John 8:42-43 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.”

John 8:31-32 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:47 He who is of God hears God’s words; John 8:51 Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death. John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

 John 5:39 39You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. Luke 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
4. Prayer in the Spirit
Romans 8:26-27 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
5. Divine Nature By God's Grace
2 Peter 1:1-4 Greeting the Faithful 1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.