Dr. Jim Richards

So many people have asked me if this is the end of time. If you’re asking that question, you don’t really understand what the Bible means when it talks about “the end.” In Matthew 24, when Jesus talks about the many things happening and says, “This is not the end”; He is talking about reaching the end or completion of the goal (the reason all these things are happening), not the end of time. These things are happening to destroy people’s confidence in God. The good news is that Jesus isn’t coming back to bring about the end of time. Jesus is coming back to bring an end of the destruction that’s done by wickedness and lawlessness and to give us a thousand years of peace before we reach the end of time. Don’t let your heart be troubled. In the end, we win because, in the end, God has already won. I want to help deliver you from the fear that comes from the deception happening in the world. Watch this week’s CyberChurch message, “Is This the End?” to learn more.

When Jesus returns, it will not be to bring an end to the world but to prevent the antichrist and evildoers from destroying the world and mankind. Until He returns, there are ways we can manage ourselves so that we can be over-comers no matter what’s going on around us. Part of this is knowing how to read the signs and being aware of what’s going on in our country, our city, our state, and even in our own lives. Once you know how to read the signs, then you know the kinds of decisions you need to make. God wants you to make decisions that lead to life, peace, and joy. And I want to do everything I can to help you get there.If you want to discover more about how to read the signs and how to usher in the return of the Lord, watch this week’s CyberChurch message, “How to Read the Signs”, where I give you simple, practical, biblical wisdom that you can put into practice and put you ahead of the game. You can be an over-comer when everyone else is giving in to fear!

Anyone can look around and see what is happening in the world today. But God wants us to see what’s happening and properly understand “the times.” Unless we understand the times, i.e. "why" these things are happening, we can never properly understand what actions to take.Observing an event is like standing on a boat and looking at the surface of the water. Seeing the surface doesn't reveal what is going on beneath the surface. God's Word explains how you can get beneath the surface to see and understand the times. Then, and only then, can you know what to do!

The simplest and clearest representation of Jesus becoming our sin, freeing us from the wrath of God, and at the same time making us the righteousness of God, fully accepted as a sweet-smelling savor, is the Old Testament sacrifice using the two goats of salvation. Of all the Biblical models that will help you grasp what you have in Jesus, this will be the clearest!

Historically, we have been influenced by religious thinkers to believe that sacrifices were made to appease God, move God, or compel Him to do something. That is not at all what sacrifices to God are about. Sacrifices were designed to benefit and influence our hearts and draw us closer to God, not to earn something from Him. Under the New Covenant, our sacrifice has already been made in Jesus (the sacrifices laid out in the Old Testament were fulfilled in Him). There’s nothing we can do for or unto God that will add to what Jesus has already done on the cross. The only action left for us is to decide if we believe it in our hearts. When we believe it in our hearts it changes our connection to God. It transforms how we feel about God and ourselves and it empowers us to a whole new quality of life. We choose to engage our hearts with the sacrifice that God made through the Lord Jesus. The purpose of sacrifice has always been to draw our hearts to God, not draw God near to us. God has never left us. We separate

We can only have faith in God to the degree that we believe He is Who He says He is. When we trust and follow Him, we are confident He will bring us to the ultimate in life (Jn 10:10). This is where we activate the blood of Jesus in our hearts and lives. Faith in the blood is to deliberately remind ourselves and reflect on the price Jesus paid through His shed blood, which cleanses our conscience (Hb 9:14). We participate in that by faith. One reason we carry guilt and don't experience much of God’s love is because we don't approach God based on what Jesus did through His death, burial, and resurrection. We don’t reason, "It should have been my blood. It should have been me giving my life."

Through the new birth, all that God has is ours. We can’t get what has already been given through works (Eph 1:18, begging, or force (Matt 11:12). The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus obtained and secured it for us, thereby ensuring it is always active and available. Our only qualification is to be in Him (Col. 1:12), and our ability to share in that inheritance comes from being one with Him. You can only experience what is yours in Christ to the degree you believe it in your heart and walk it out in faith with God. Ask yourself: when I’m pursuing the promises of God, is my faith based on my works or on the fact that Jesus already obtained it for me? Find out how to look to Jesus who obtained it for you and how to trust in Him to live it.

The contractual agreement God made with Jesus is called the Covenant of Peace. By its very name, we can understand the foundation and boundaries by which God chooses to relate to us and what His intention is for us. Yet, nearly the entire world believes God is angry at them, so they try to appease Him through pious living, works-righteousness, and using faith as a tool to manipulate Him. The Good News, however, is that God is at peace with us! At any time we choose, we can experience the tranquil state of being that comes by knowing who God is and that our every need has already been met through the Lord Jesus Christ. Feeling peace with God is absolutely essential to trusting Him. What we’re able to trust God for can’t be separated from what we believe about Him, and most of what we believe is based on what we’ve heard. If you haven’t heard the Good News Gospel (Ro 10:15), you’ll continue struggling to trust Him, but once you’ve heard it and believed it, you’ll never doubt Him again!

Everything God has revealed about Himself can only be understood through Jesus’ life, teaching, death, burial, and resurrection. Learning to apply this revelation knowledge to our lives is preceded first by experiencing it in our hearts. God revealed His Son to the apostle Paul first, as he meditated on Old Testament Scriptures about the Messiah (Gal. 1:16-17). After Paul brought this to life in his own heart, he was set apart into his apostolic ministry. One reason the early apostles changed the whole world was that they followed this same process. They knew the Word of God, experienced that Word in their hearts, learned how to live it, and then they showed it to the world. You, too, can change the world just like they did when you first experience God in your heart as Jesus has revealed Him to be.

Since everything in life stems from what happens in our hearts, the beliefs we form about God ultimately determine the sum total of our life experience. God's covenant with Jesus is a covenant of the heart—upheld by His Name and His Word, establishing what we can expect from Him. Until we’re fully persuaded by who He is and what He’s said, we’ll struggle to make the covenant work. But the real struggle isn’t to make it work; it's to persuade our hearts to believe that the covenant is as good as God says it is because He’s as good as He says He is! To the degree we persuade our hearts in the promises of the Kingdom determines the degree of life that we experience (Mk 4:24). The more you establish your heart in who God really is, the more you’ll experience the promise of a life that’s “easy and light” (Mt 11:3).

Have you ever considered how you formed your beliefs about God? How did you come to believe what you do? While we may be truly passionate to serve Him, many believers don’t know who God really is. In ancient times, a name revealed the character and identity of a person. This is why God put such emphasis on all of His names. In His first introduction to Moses, He said, “I AM WHO I AM,” indicating that He never changes. Just like His Father, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Everything Jesus did and taught was in harmony with the Names of God. God also revealed Himself through His Covenant and His Word which are always connected to and congruent with His Names. What makes this so remarkable is that our actions can’t change who God is! Jesus had an unwavering trust in His Father because He understood that God never violates His Names, His Covenant, or His Word! As He was and is to Jesus is exactly how God wants to be to you!

God is a Covenant Keeping God… what does that mean for you? In business transactions, contracts are created so there are no misunderstandings: everyone knows their terms and benefits. In a simple contract you are never left to guess at what you are getting; and you never have to presume what is required of you. A covenant is a contract. God is a covenant keeping God. Why? He wants it to be clear what He is providing and how you can participate. With God you never have to be in dark; you’re never left guessing what His will is, in a given situation… unless you haven’t read or don’t trust the person who wrote the contract! There is much confusion in the body of Christ concerning God’s current contract with humanity. Much of what is taught about faith, prayer and even righteousness is based more on the Old Covenant than the New Covenant! Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises, Heb 8:6. To operate under any part

We either relate to God based on faith or religion (formulas and ceremonies). Faith is relational, trusting in God, and believing we are created in His likeness and image and have authority on Planet Earth. Formulas are like incantations used to bring about results in a magical manner. For example, tacking the name of Jesus at the end of prayer should force God to do what we asked Him to do. We create a world in harmony with our image. Decide with God in prayer that you will only accept God's testimony of Himself.

A Nobel prize winner once said that man thinks he is merely observing the world, but the truth is we are in an interplay with it, and it is becoming what we perceive or believe it to be. The fact that I am looking at the world around me the way I am (opinions in my mind and beliefs in my heart) is shaping the world in which I live. That lines up with the whole concept that we have authority and influence, and become co-creators with God in this world because we are made in His likeness and image. You have an opportunity to harmonize your life with God and say, "This is what my world is going to become."

We have become dependent on the five senses, but the only way we can perceive the unseen is with the eyes of the heart. We try to make everything the Bible teaches about God to fit into our carnal minds based on these five senses, and we lose touch with the eternal things of God and the miraculous. In God’s realm there is only “right now” for He has declared the end from the beginning as the only reality. Am I looking at the promises of God thru these natural senses that limit God to time and space and matter, or as the Creator who exists in this other realm who says it is already done?

God’s desire is for us to succeed, but first, our heart must be fully committed to God’s process. If we don’t change the beliefs of our hearts that cause us to cycle through the same mistakes, we will either destroy the successes we make or destroy ourselves so we can no longer have those successes. Jesus taught us how to establish new beliefs in our hearts in a godly way. Once you learn His process and invest in your heart, you will always be in rest as you journey toward your goals.

Making miracles is not so much about having more faith than anyone else as it is in having faith in what God says instead of religion. Instead of looking to how God created the world, we become very subjective and come up with Luciferian concepts of why our faith does or does not work that have nothing to do with God. Do I believe I am created in the likeness and the image of God? Do I believe I can speak to mountains and circumstances that need to move? If God’s will is going to happen on Planet Earth, it will happen because human beings believe and choose it and speak it into being. God is not in control of it – we are, and He can only do what He wants through people who trust Him.

Most people have not heard how faith actually operates, but this series will show you how to move in faith with confidence. Faith is where something comes alive and moves from “this is going to happen” to “this is already done.” My confidence is not in using my faith to get something – it is in Jesus who already used HIS faith to get it. Through the resurrection of Jesus, we move from the realm of possibility to probability where faith is no longer in hope but is absolute.

Do you trust God to meet the need in your life or do you feel He will let you down? Lack is a feeling of desperation that leads us to seek an alternative source or not trust God to meet the need in our lives. When we come to God from the perspective that He will let us down, we have moved from lack to limits. Then, even though He floods our heart with His goodness, we judge God as being unfaithful. The only two battles of faith you will ever fight in your whole life are: is God who He says He is and am I who God says I am?

Do you believe the miracle you need is simply possible, or highly probable? What moves something from simply being possible to probable is the fact that God proactively initiated the end from the beginning. Jesus’s part is finished. We believe that and receive that. The probability for health, or finances, or whatever you need already exists and you don’t need to get God to do it. It is a matter of removing the limits of doubt and unbelief from your heart and starting to conceive it in your heart.