The serpent lost it entirely
“Man was made in God’s image after His likeness. That is the subject of my sermon, dear Tenderness.” Upright said as he stepped upon the platform to lead the next fellowship.
“God is the supreme being and all things are possible to Him. He created all things by speaking His word. The word that God speaks is capable of bringing into being that which is not there.
“Satan is the exact opposite of God, and he has tried hard to erase God’s image from the mind of human beings, that is from their heart and from their mind, but he has ever failed to accomplish it to any meaningful level. And thus, I say without any apology that man remains with clear marks of being in God’s image, no matter his present estate, no matter how sinful he is. These are the facts that I will bring out in this sermon in a very simple way which anybody should see.
“Since our inner constitution, that is the constitution of our mind, soul and spirit, are hidden from our eyes, we shall not wear ourselves with that, but rather we shall look at our outward frame to illustrate these things. For whatever was done in man was also done on man. The inside is reflected on the outside.”
The Feet and the Legs
“The feet in man are flat unlike other creatures. Why? To offer uprightness and stability. No other animal is upright, but man. The feet together with the legs gives man an upright stature. This outside workmanship is a reflection of what a man should be within him. Remember I say, ‘What he should be within him,’ because presently he is not that way.
“You were made to be an upright creature. That is what your very feet and legs preach to you daily, whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, whether you accept it or not. You are ever walking the gospel tune: as you walk making your steps, you seem to silently say, ‘God made me to be upright…’
“You cannot deny it; it is written in your soul by your spirit, and you cannot shake it off. It ever urges you to be an upright being; to walk uprightly as God is upright! That is what you were made to be! It is written upon you in black and white, and you have no way to erase it. Do you see it beloved Jonathan?” Upright paused.
“To the dot! Ready to be redeemed back to that stature,” Jonathan cried.
“No matter how you disguise yourself, your feet and legs clearly manifest what you were made to be. If you don’t believe the Bible, then I urge you to believe what you are! How? Believe your feet and legs! There is no other creature on earth with such a stature, yet there is no other creature that can be as evil as a man because he rejects the truth about what God made him to be and goes for the lie of Satan. Too bad to be true, yet there it is! Dear Goodwill, is that hidden from you?”
“No, my lord, it is plain and clear as the blue sky. Man is the wickedest creature on earth, yet his frame informs him contrary to that. I see it. It had never been so clear! Praise the Lord!” Cried Goodwill.
“Yes, if you cannot believe the scriptures, then believe your feet!” Upright stepped up the fight. “I am not talking to you about religion, neither about religious beliefs, but I am pointing you to what you are supposed to be according to the constitution that God gave you to walk by. You are a creature capable of uprightness, and by that you are answerable to your maker. No way of slipping away. You were made to be upright in all your endeavours, and God does not excuse anything else about you!
“God is not requesting you to be upright, but He commands you to be so. He has made sure that your purported ignorance has no court of appeal by writing it upon you in black and white and in a language which all can read. ‘Be ye upright, for your maker is upright,’ says your legs. That is what your feet and legs say to you daily as you stand up to walk. By that commandment, the living God made the feet under your legs to be capable of uprightness; and so, did He write within your heart the same, and he has given you a conscience capable of interpreting that clause accurately. Any time you do anything against that statute, your conscience tells you about it. You have it in you to do the right thing and if you do anything against the plain facts you can never be blameless.
“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. Revelation 3:12
“Man stands upright as a pillar, and his feet are a writing of uprightness upon him; he has no way of denying it. Your feet and legs condemn you the moment you walk contrary to uprightness. So, stand tall and be measured! Dear Marvels, don’t marvel – I hope that comes home to you?”
“Yea, deep into my heart it sinks. So happy to be a pillar of uprightness in the house of my God. So be it unto me. My brother, Upright, pray for me. I stand in need of it!”
“Yea, let us come closer. Everybody, turn your eyes and look at your feet. What do you see upon your feet?”
“Toes!” cried the multitudes.
“You have well seen. That is our next stopover. She is moving down swiftly, so don’t slumber lest you are thrown off the board at the next sharp turn.”
Your Ten Toes
“Yes, back to elementary work: how many are your toes in total?”
Some shouted “Ten…!” Others, “Five…!”
“It is simple mathematics please. I asked the total number of toes on your feet not foot.”
“Ten!”
“Now, notice that your feet have ten toes – every man has ten toes on his feet – five on your left feet and five on your right feet…
“Yes! There you are, with ten commandments upon your feet to walk by! There is no way of denying it. The ten toes are a witness of the way of uprightness upon you: you are a pillar with God’s writings upon you, telling you to walk in His commandments. If you deny the word of God, then deny your feet! Cut them off and throw them away, for you don’t believe in them.
“When God gave the ten commandments to Moses, He wrote them upon how many stone tablets?”
Some shouted: “One!” Others: “Two!” Yet others, “Three!”
“Not on one, not on three, please! He wrote them on two! Why on two? They represent your two feet! And therefore, the toes on each foot represent five commandments adding up to ten. Praise the Lord!”
“A-a-amen!”
“How true is God to His word! ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’ Upon your very feet that gives you His uprightness, are the precepts written stating the ten commandments clearly. Look at it:
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psa 119:105
“So are the commandments of God upon thy inner feet; God did write all of them in your heart, to make you walk uprightly and in the right way. For an upright man walks in the way of righteousness. God gives him light for his feet, and that light is His word which He has written upon man’s feet, so that he has no excuse why he should not walk uprightly and in righteousness.
“For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Prov 6: 23
“How many commandments are there?”
“Ten!”
“And the commandment is a what?”
“A lamp of God!”
“Therefore, how many lamps are there?”
“Ten!”
“Good! Let us see.
“And the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the oracle, with the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold… 1Ki 7:49
“How many candlesticks to hold the lamps did Solomon place in the temple?”
The multitude cried: “Ten!”
“How many on the right-hand side?”
“Five…!”
“And how many on the left…?”
“Five!”
“There you are! The right foot with five toes and the left with five toes. Hallelujah! You can’t deny it. You are the temple of God with ten lampstands, five on your right foot and five on your left. Look!
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1Cor 3:16
“Each lamp is a commandment of God! and the toes of your feet tells it all! You see it? It is a light to your feet! God made man in His image, and God’s image is revealed in His word! So, man’s stature is in line with the written word of God. There you are! You can’t beat it! Repent and turn back to what God made you to be! Walk in the way of His commandments!” Cried Upright
“Until you are born again, you have no power to walk as per God’s commandments because Satan marred you up. Yes, no other shortcut into life. Repent! Do you see it? Ten commandments upon two stone tablets, ten toes upon two feet. Hallelujah?”
“A-a-amen!”
“The Gospel according to your toes! God and His word are one, and God made man in His image, therefore the stature of man must reflect God’s word plainly. Facts are unbeatable! You kick against them, you kick against the pricks; yea, you walk against the ten commandments, you kick your toes against the pricks! How painful! You better wake up to reality! You are marring your toes all the time you go against the simple facts! Let’s look at the five toes of your left foot.
“Do not kill; do not murder, curse, or abuse; put away malice, wrath, anger, hatred and grudges; do not incite against; do not avenge yourself; do not despise, scorn, scoff, or scold; do not backbite or gossip; do not practice witchcraft or sorcery… these are but just one precept in God’s book of His commandments. What is it? ‘Love your neighbour as yourself!’ Going against any of that is to bruise and mar one of your toes, the toe that stands for peace. It’s hard for you to kick against the pricks, please!
Do not commit adultery, do not lust, fornicate, adulterate, entice, beguile, seduce, tempt, ensnare or defile; do not act suggestively, dress immorally, pull dirty or filthy jokes; do not wear a garment which does not belong to your gender, or which promote lewdness, debauchery, or sensuality… these are but one precept in the book of life. What is it? ‘Be ye holy, for I am holy,’ says the Lord. To go against any of these is to mar one of your toes, the toe that stands for holiness. Repent and change your ways!
“Do not steal, do not rob, defraud, con someone, or loot; do not pull corrupt deals, falsify records, or falsify measuring instruments; do not misuse public funds or ask for a bribe… these are but one precept in the book of life. What is it? ‘What you don’t want to be done to you, don’t do it to any man.’ Going against it is to bruise one of your toes.
“Do not bear false witness about your neighbour or about God’s word; do not lie, deceive, cheat, or mislead; do not be a hypocrite or a pretender; do not bribe your way through; do not be a talebearer, a busybody, or a denier of the truth… all these make up just one precept – a commandment by which God made one of your toes! Which one? ‘Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates…’
“Do not covet, do not be greedy, do not be lascivious, do not practice concupiscence, do not hoard money or riches, do not be ambitious… are but one precept in the book of life. ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness first… for where your treasure is there shall your heart be.’ If you break any of these commandments, you mar one of your toes.
“Repent and amend your ways, to walk in God’s commandments. If you don’t repent now, you may discover when it is too late. Your bruised toes will flare up in unbearable pain demanding for restitution. Stop! Turn back to God’s word to walk in the way of life and peace.
“These precepts of uprightness are written in your conscience by the Spirit of God so that they may guide you in the ways of God. With that, man is left without any excuse. God made him to be an upright creature, capable of walking uprightly in all righteousness, but He left man to choose freely whether to uphold the same or not. For true obedience cannot be attained by the fear of punishment, but rather it is through willingness.
“There is no way of forcing somebody to love, honour and respect you. That can only be done by a free choice. No way of forcing somebody to truly worship God. He has to do it as his free choice. Just like there is no way of forcing somebody to be humble, meek, lowly, kind, merciful, patient, forgiving, etc., one has to choose freely to be like that. It is your choice to be what you want to be. Force cannot impart in you the virtues of life. Only faith can do it through love where one freely believes and trusts God to surrender to His Word.
“That is why the use of this workmanship written in you by God is based on your free choice. If you choose to walk according to your ten toes, the end is life, but if you choose to go contrary to your ten toes, the end is death. You can only truly worship God by freely choosing to do so.
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“Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: Prov 2:11-15 KJV
“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ… 1Pet 1:13
“As there are loins to your mind, so are there feet to your mind! And thus, ten toes to the feet of your mind. Therefore, stand tall upon the feet of your mind with ten toes engraved on it, and purpose to walk uprightly before God to enter into life eternal. For you have no excuse. You have it upon the feet of your mind, right there, written in golden letters of God’s Spirit. It is an undeniable truth! You can’t slight it and make it. You better be honest.
“Dear friend, I am not talking about believing some dogma advocated by some religion, no please! I am talking about you and your very physical workmanship. God’s epistle upon your feet! What God made you to be and gave you a responsibility to keep it.
“Behave exactly the way your feet and toes outwardly behave! Walk spiritually uprightly the same way you outwardly walk! Do exactly the way your outward feet and toes do! Don’t wiggle on your belly, please, like a serpent! For God holds you answerable to that!
“God does not condone any foolishness. He made you to be an upright being, and that is all, but the choice is yours; if you want to wiggle on your belly as a serpent, it is upon you!
“Yes, what does God’s word say? ‘Thou shalt walk uprightly, for I have made you in my image, after my likeness, to walk uprightly. But the choice is yours.’
“Yes, what of the right feet?” Shouted Innocent.
“The toes thereof represent the first five commandments! Let us look at the first commandment on your big toe:
“And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
“You have only one God who saves you and sets you free from the bondage of sin! Your pastor cannot! Your preacher is helpless! All clergymen can be mere idols by which you stand chained, twice a child of hell than before you came under them. God never entrusted His children to any man. He entrusted them to Jesus Christ who gives them the Holy Spirit to lead them. Ensure you believe unto receiving the Holy Spirit. Then ‘My sheep know my voice’ will be your lot. You won’t rely anymore on any man to lead your way. Remember, Jesus is your way, your life, your truth. He is your master and head. He leads you by the Holy Spirit.
“Everyone can be led by the Spirit of truth. There are gifts among us by which we are edified, and that is all they can do. You have only one head; the godhead revealed in Jesus Christ is the only one to lead you! and what does the first toe of your uprightness say within your heart? ‘The Lord your God is one Lord!’ No other lords upon you. I care not what they are, they are mere servants of God, not lords upon you! Little-Star, do you get me?”
“Sure, my brother, I do… the son of God is my only head. I believe it. Praise the Lord!”
“To walk uprightly you need the right head, and the first commandment joins you to the right head. Without the right head with the right mind, you can’t walk uprightly. Many religious people have miserably failed to walk uprightly because they are joined to a wrong head. Some Baal is their head. Some Mammon is their commander-in-chief. They walk after some serpent in sheep’s clothing. Some wolf is their leader. But may you be duly informed that there is only one true good shepherd and the same is Christ who is the Word of God. Keep that commandment clear, without any reproach and you will walk uprightly, come rain come shine.
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Rom 8:14-15
“Not as many as are led by some church leader with a bunch of books in his shelf, but as many as are led by the Spirit of God. That bishop is a mere servant of God like yourself, but God is your king! God is your leader! He is your head! You should have no other head between you and God if you will be upright.
“God speaks to you through Jesus Christ by the Spirit, directly, if so be it that you have diligently sought Him and found Him. He gives the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth. Never rely on a man! Never fear mere men, mere flesh and blood, yea, poor flesh already wasting away, but fear God and keep His commandment! The first commandment upon your big toe of your right foot… the very greatest commandment!
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: Deu 6:4-6
“Remember the senses for balance and uprightness are in your head, they are part of your inner ear. If anything goes wrong with that, there is no way your feet will keep you upright. Yea, you must be united with the right head, with the right ear, with the right sense of uprightness if you will walk uprightly.
The way of uprightness is the way of life, but crookedness is the way of death. Only God can make you upright. Only God can impart in you uprightness. Without God no man can walk uprightly. Therefore, you must be united with Him as your only head in order to stand and walk uprightly. Any other head upon you is spiritual adultery! Get it?”
“Amen my dear, we believe it and receive it with all our hearts,” shouted some sisters from the right-hand corner. “Fire on, we are right with you! How beautiful are the feet of righteousness upon us! Glory to God!”
“Look at your feet again. Behold the workmanship upon them. Look at how they are articulated as they go about to ensure your uprightness, balance, and swiftness, in all manner of movement. God gave them to you as an outward sign for what you are supposed to be within you. What kind of person did God made you to be? A honest, sincere, truthful person; full of respect to yourself and to all around you; a personality void of reproach. One who acknowledges the truth as it stands out – upholding simple facts. No guile in your mouth. No subtility in your words. Abhorring a lying, deceitful tongue. Loving righteousness, holiness, and truth. That is what God made you to be and He has a right to demand it from you.
“No playing ‘hide and seek’ games here. Just take off your shoes, bend your neck and look at your feet, how beautifully made they are! With every joint just in place, articulated rightly for the expected outcome. Look at their segments, their toenails, and their shape. Look at their symmetry and the toes’ length with respect to each other. Oh, dear me! Can you exchange the small toe’s position with the second toe? Oh, how disfigured the whole thing becomes. Oh yes, how beautiful is the gospel of salvation upon your feet!”
“Hahaha-a, wonderful!” Cried Cheerful… “Just wonderful! The gospel according to my feet! Surely this is a wonderful day. I had never imagined it, that God’s word is all over me. How wonderful! Praise the Lord! No wonder the Psalmist cried: I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knows right well.”
“Not just wonderfully, but also fearfully made! You have to fear, for you have a responsibility to keep; you should keep your feet by walking in the right way, the way that God made for you by His commandments. Amen! God gave you legs with feet to walk in His commandments! Failure to do that you must pay for it!
“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Eph 6:14-15 KJV
“My brother, my sister, I speak to you freely for you are a member of the human race, and these things are not hidden from you. They are plainly set forward upon your own feet. This day this scripture is clear in your eyes. What? The gospel according to your feet! No way of escaping it. The sun is shining, you cannot pull enough black curtains around it to make a night on earth! What did your God temper your feet with? The gospel of peace, great tidings of peace! That is the meaning of God’s commandments for you. It is for your peace. They are a gospel of peace to you.
“Yes, the devil snatched the right feet from your inner man, but Jesus was nailed on the cross through his feet to restore correct feet to you! What a ‘hallelujah’ should roll out of your heart as you hear this gospel according to the restoration of your true feet. The devil marred your feet in Eden by beguiling your first mother, but Jesus, your redeemer, was nailed on the cross, his feet bruised, to pay the penalty and meet the cost of straightening your feet inside and outside. By believing that gospel, all in you swings back into God’s image of uprightness upon your feet. Your feet to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace!
“And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. Revelation 1:15 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. Rev 2:18
“That red nail, painted like Jezebel’s, the Lord my God hates! A devil could have one but not a man in God’s image! Repent! Turn around! Seek uprightness before it is too late.
“Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. It is a sign of divine judgement which always has mercy mixed in it. Copper speaks of mercy because it is very flexible and reddish brown, that speaks of the blood of the sacrifice by which mercy is found. Zinc being bluish white in colour, speaks of righteousness and holiness. For blue means holiness, while white means righteousness. So, is God’s judgement based on holiness and righteousness. That is what the feet shod with brass mean, brings judgement mingled with mercy.
“If you reject these simple facts then you are deemed a dishonest man, one who is not upright. And the punishment for those who willingly mar God’s stature of uprightness is quite severe. Let us search it together:
“And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Gen 3:14
“The serpent lost both feet and legs way back in Eden because he rejected the uprightness of God’s Word and instead took after the knowledge of good and evil that brings subtlety, mischief, craftiness, slyness, doubts, wavering, reasoning against plain truth, imagining all kinds of falsehood and devising every kind of wicked thing. So, God had a right to withdraw the workmanship of His feet and legs from him, for he had rejected uprightness. That is how the serpent became a reptile, moving about on his belly.
“For it is clear by the scripture above that this fellow was once upright but became a crawling reptile by the effect of God’s curse. For uprightness is God’s blessings upon you. But if you become sly and reject the simple facts concerning the truth, then you would have forfeited all your rights to the feet and legs that God made for you; for indeed He made you in His image, your feet like His own, that is inside and outside. If you reject the inner potentials in you to be an upright man, then you would have rejected your feet and legs as well, and God has a right to withdraw them.
“That many people in this world still have the use of feet and legs at all is God’s mere mercy, or else they don’t deserve any of them according to their works. And when time is fulfilled, God will visit them and withdraw His likeness from them as He did to the serpent.
“So, whoever you are, be warned. God cannot be slighted forever. He will finally act, and when He acts, it will be quite severe. Repent!
“The serpent lost his feet and became a loathsome reptile because he rejected faith in God’s word. He rejected God’s uprightness. He went outright against God’s commandments, and so shall it be done to all who reject God’s commandments today.
“The serpent, being now a snake, has no feet and legs, neither has he hands or palms. And he equally lost his power of speech because he beguiled the woman by his voice. If you disbelieve the word of God, God has a right to withdraw His image from your inner man and from your outer man, for you can only possess them by faith in God who gives you all things freely.
“It is God’s Word that gives support to uprightness of stature to any creature, both within and without. And He subscribed this to Himself and made it sure placing upon it His seal, so that no other being can claim to offer it and boast in it. No other being has a way of making that perfect uprightness of stature.
“God is the only one who gives uprightness to all beings, and you receive it through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, for God’s perfect workmanship is revealed in His Son, by that you stand upright!
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Eph 2:8-10
“Friends, do you see that?”
“A-a-amen!”
“What then? Rest until morning then our morning breakfast will be about the male and the female in God’s image. You love it?” “A-a-amen!”
Echoes From Paradise 