Since you are very wet, here is more of the late rain

 

Faith, in the lordship of Jesus Christ, is beyond denominational divisions. Besides, the manifestation of works of the Holy Spirit, among born-again faithful, do span beyond denominational divisions. If God is here and also there, though we both mutually disagree with each other on several issues, those mistakes are marginal in the sight of the lord compared to the love of the lord toward us, at least at this time. The final stamp of approval comes from the fruit of a spirit because all spirit is not the Holy Spirit. But how do we know the right fruit? The foundation we have determines the kind of fruit we admire the most. Fruit is not the number of faithful only but the increase in size and quality of faithful; the standard of quality and measure of perfection being Jesus Christ himself. If the differences that we have are not in the main foundation of the faith, if there is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in both of us and if there is no question on the fruit of the spirit, it is wise if we must disagree to disagree with love and care with any brother who belongs to different denomination.

 

Both of us or one of us could be wrong on those marginal issues. Yet, there is a time when those errors should be corrected, but it may not be an appropriate time now. There is a time when we will have to weed out the bad, we could damage the good. Yet there is also time to weed them because the Angels of the lord are sent by the lord to harvest the grain. Until then we should handle our differences with love and care. You may think your brother is deadly wrong in some lines, yet love him anyway and work together in areas that both of you mutually agree with each other.

 

Focus less on your piety denominational differences and more on the work of God. After all, love is more important than knowledge; so do not fool yourself with your human knowledge but do everything through love for building, than for destroying, the faith of your brother. If he is wrong, there is a high chance you can correct him with love than with hate. The knowledge of everyone is partial, as it is written, as we all only see thoroughly shattered glass and it is written our knowledge will be replaced by more perfect knowledge at the end. Do you have prophecy; your partial prophecy will be overruled when complete prophecy comes with the lord, as it is written.   

 

From this perspective, ignoring denominational differences as piety human errors is wise. I am sure no denomination knows the whole truth, because it is written the devil will plant its seed among the seed of the lord. Until the lord sends his Angels (messengers) to separate the good from the bad, the seed of God from the seed of the devil, and until the lord prepares the church to be without a wrinkle in sight of the heavenly father, at last, this problem will persist in different forms. Why? Because it is written!   

 

Since the knowledge of Paul, let alone ours, is partial, however, it does not mean everything goes as acceptable faith and theology. We don’t know the whole truth, does not mean we cannot judge the world and spirits, to separate the Angels of God from the angels of the devil. What is less important is hair splitting and division on minor theological differences. Let us be less certain in our totality of knowledge and perfection of our understanding, but let us also be firm and unwavering on pillars of our faith. We should not compromise on the foundation of our faith, yet we should be humble enough to accept we could be wrong on some marginal lines of our thinking and theology. After all none of us is Jesus.

 

So when we say no denominational differences, it should mean minor denominational differences, due to my ignorance or my brother’s ignorance, are secondary to our main work of the faith. Yet, this should not mean if you believe Jesus is lord and that the Holy Spirit raised him from the dead after he died for our sins, then after you can bow to trees, pictures, stones, angels, and saints; you can replace the bible by other books to deceive the public and you can teach heresy that can destroy the faith of lord’s little children; you can present gifts to idols and you can worship rivers and trees with unbelievers; you can make the house of the lord cave of thieves, sinners, and money worshipers; or worst you can believe Jesus did not die in the cross for us in your community of different religion. There is no unity between the temple of the lord and the temple of the devil in those lines. Now I will focus on my main message, as I think you are ready to understand me now. What I am going to tell you will test sore in your mouth and some of you will try to spit it out, yet when you digest it in your stomach and think about it, hopefully with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it will not pain you but I hope will enlighten you.

 

It is a known fact that we want to manifest our cultural identities with the world. Especially when you live outside of Ethiopia, Ethiopian culture and identity which is bestowed on the culture and history of the heretics of Northern civilization and Oromo culture do become very attractive. When you say you are Ethiopian, those customs, histories, and cultures do define you. When you say you are Oromo, the religious sins of your forefathers do define your separate identity, as the religious sins of the North define the identity of the Northern heretics. As many Ethiopians define the Orthodox culture as a main part of their identity, many Oromo do define their traditional religion as part of their identity. Yet, when you accept Jesus as lord, you have to leave everything heretical or outright idol worship from your older religion, culture, custom, and history. It is not easy to do, yet it is necessary as there is no unity between the temple of the lord and the temple of the devil.

 

I am ok with Orthodox and Oromo culture of music, dressing, and general custom, but not with bowing to pictures, and worship of Angel, idol, traditional “spirits” of forefathers, tree, grass, river, or any human being. The first part could be part of our identity but we should reject the second part as heresy. If an orthodox preaches their gospel, it is not our gospel. Anyone who bows to anything but God or who makes a picture, stone or statue to worship is not my fellow faithful, as we have no unity in faith. I do love them as good neighbors, coworkers, friends, and country people, but not as fellow faithful. There is no unity between light and darkness. Yet what we hate is not them but the darkness they worship, so we love them, honor them, and treat them with the most respect but we outright reject their heresy. When we think about the gospel that we have to preach to the whole world, we must be thinking the gospel of truth to be preached to the whole world not the heresy of our custom or religion of our forefathers. I know some of you may say the idol of Samaria and the temple of Jerusalem are worshipers of the same God, and I know some of you will say idols of woods, stones, pictures, trees, grasses, and lakes can represent God as Jesus can do, after all, you are proud Ethiopian and proud Oromo, yet I have one sentence for you: Jesus is watching you and he will judge you for that.  

 

If the orthodox faith is right or acceptable in the sight of the lord, or if our difference is a minor difference of hair-splitting theology, why are we fighting with everyone around us by preaching Jesus? Why do we let our friends, families, neighbors, coworkers, and everyone else despise us for our faith, why don’t we go to their monastery and bow to their pictures? If they are equally faithful and have equal standing with us, faith seems to be a wasteful endeavor of lost minds. It would be profitable to run with their heresy. If I reject their heresy as a lie, however, how could I accept them as one of the lord’s children, than lost sheep that I have to save to the lord? Why do you accept this simple lie? It is because you are a hypocrite enough to exchange the truth of God for your comfort and cultural pride. You are selling Jesus, just like Judah did, in exchange for your pride and comfort. Honestly, what is wrong with you? As there is no unity between the faith of Jerusalem and heretics of Samaria, there is no spiritual unity between the faithful and heretics. When you count people of God on earth, why do you even count the Samaria with Judah to say there are this many Christians? We are not the same, because we know who we worship but they don’t. Salvation does not come from their pictures and stones but from the temple of the Holy Spirit, who are born-again faithful led by the Holy Spirit.

 

There is the same problem with our Oromo brothers and sisters, who mix up with unfaithful of Oromia. There is no unity between river and tree worship and worship of the lord. There is no God who is equally worshiped by the Oromo traditional religion and by us. There is no unity between their worship and our faith. Our Jesus is not honored in river worship, our heavenly father is not loved in tree worship, and the Holy Spirit is not praised by grass worship. Our heavenly father is spirit and our heavenly father is worshiped in spirit and truth. I know this idol worship does define your Oromo culture and Oromo identity in Ethiopia, as Northern culture, identity, history, and norms define the cultural and national identity of many Ethiopians. Yet the question is do you obey Jesus or do you obey you? Do you do what makes you proud or what will make Jesus proud of you? What is for man to gain the whole world and to lose its soul? There is no heavenly father, the Holy Spirit, or our lord Jesus Christ, which is equally worshiped by traditional Oromo religion, Christian heretics, Muslims, and the born-again faithful. Jesus is beyond ethnic differences and national boundaries, as those are silly human ways. There is no Oromo, Amhara, Ethiopian, Kenyan, African, Asian, or any difference between us, as we all are Jesus’s own and one family in spirit born from the spirit of the lord. Let us hang our bodies on the cross with Jesus and let us die with Jesus, so we can be fully reborn again in spirit with Jesus. If your eyes deceive you, plug it out.

 

Now, going back to my theological point, even though there is tolerable time for differences to be tolerated, there is also time for those differences to disappear. Finally, as a sign, the gospel of truth will be preached to the whole world. And, neither heresy of the heretics nor our lies will be part of this final preaching of the gospel. The pure word of God will be preached by messengers of the lord. For that there will be final rain, increase in the spirit of the lord, and messengers of the lord will harvest the word of God to separate the good from bad. Then with powers and wonders, the pure honey and milk of the lord which is the pure word of God, will be preached to the whole world. Finally, the end comes, which could be in 1 million years after that or in one minute after that, as only the heavenly father knows the right time and only Jesus is worth enough to see to the mind of the heavenly father. Jesus is the only one worthy enough to open the book of prophecy or to read the mind of the heavenly father to see to the future.

 

What if the devil tries to do this? That is trying to distort the true faith and interpretation of the bible by pretending to be Jesus’s own. We know them by their fruit, as it is written. Do they make the faithful close to Jesus or the world? Do they plant sin in a church or Jesus in the world? Do they make the world relevant to the lord by cleaning its dirt dipper or do they adulterate the word of God to make it relevant to the sinful world? Do they make the face of every faithful in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ or do they plant the face of the devil in the face of every faithful to make Jesus relevant to the sinful generation? Do they clean the church to make her without wrinkles, or do they make Jesus suffer in the sin of his bride-to-be so he can accept an ugly prostitute for his wife because he is aged with wrinkles due to her never-ending sins? You know them by their fruit, as it is written. Don’t focus on the abyss; see to their fruit, as it is written.

 

The teaching of messengers of God has a known destination, which is to make sure the image of the lord is fully formed on the face of every faithful so the wife of the lord can be perfected and be prepared without any wrinkle in the sight of the heavenly father. Besides, if you are guided by the spirit of the lord, you cannot be lost because you don’t walk in darkness. Jesus himself will let you know which is which. As faithful is not saved by his wisdom but by choice of the heavenly father, often protection is provided not by your wisdom but by the wisdom of the lord. So, stick with the lord and hold his hand tight as a baby holds tight to the finger of his father on the road. If the devil deceives some of us, it is written it will deceive those who claim to have faith though they are happy about being rebels, devils. They delight in sin and in going away from the way of the lord, yet they proclaim they have faith in the lordship of the lord, so the devil will show who they are by deceiving them. Why is this true? Because it is written so!

 

People are watching carefully for the expected final attack of the devil and they are looking to the abyss to see the devil that is coming to the world. They are ready for boxing with the devil in spiritual welfare, yet what they end up getting is the abyss talking to them. They end up developing endless conspiracy theories about the end of the world and the government of the devil. If you want to fight the devil have a connection with Jesus through the Holy Spirit and see through the mind of the lord. You don't have to judge according to what you see and what you hear but what Jesus sees and hears. Because you are born again in spirit, as Jesus was after his baptism in the hand of John the Baptist. What is funny is some idiot in his mother's basement writing absurdity is your guide and some conspiracy theoretician in the West is your spiritual father. What a shame. But we have Jesus as the shepherd and the heavenly father as a spiritual father, because the heavenly father is the mightiest of all and nobody can take anything from him by force.  

 

Lord told you, you cannot change the color of your hair or your height. If you cannot do those simple things, why do you worry about things? To protect you is the duty of Jesus, Angels, Heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit; your role is to be the Ambassador of Jesus to the world. Focus on showing the image of the lord to the world, be salt and light of the world. Save those who are going to the slaughterhouse and break all chains from the necks of people, which include spiritual, social, economic, political, cultural, and legal chains. Be an image of the lord and a servant of the lord to the world. I know some of you want to dominate the world, but I just want to serve, because my measure of perfection is Jesus and he did not come to dominate but to serve. Being dominant is his nature as it is ours, but service is his way and excuse me if I want to imitate him than you.

 

Hold tight the hand of the lord and never and ever depend on your wit, after all, what is human whose breath is in his nose, depends on the lord. Don’t get to the world to dominate it, but to serve it; as Jesus did not come to be served but to serve and to collect the lost sheep of the heavenly father. The world may hate and crucify you for that, but I will grant you that you will see your generation and your glory after your death. Be like Jesus. That is how you defeat the devil, without fighting, because the lord is fighting your fight. Stand on the right side of Jesus, with unwavering obedience and Jesus will put your enemies under your feet.

 

Do you want to fight the devil and do you want to prepare yourself for the coming of the lord? Have faith in the lord, do the commandments of the lord, obey the will of the Holy Spirit, and never depend on your wit but the wit of God. Then it is the lord who fights for you, not you. Jesus is the soldier who sleeps in the trench 24/7 for your safety, so you can sleep like a baby in your home. Seek lord, don’t focus on the abyss that you don’t understand; because I can see the abyss is talking to you. As a result, in matters of faith, you are losing your brain. You are becoming a car without a driver and a ship without a Capitan. What you need is guidance from the Holy Spirit, so you can judge not according to what you see and hear, but according to what Jesus sees, hears, and understands. You will have a mind of the Lord which can understand everything but is understood by no one. You will be like the wind that nobody can understand from where you start and where you are going because you are born of spirit. Don’t focus on the abyss, focus on Jesus and imitate him, and the lord will guide you to victory in all your spiritual wars.