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  GLEANINGS FROM THE WORD
  by Various
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A collection of spiritual reflections addressing the desperate condition of the
church in North America, while acknowledging God's powerful work on the mission
fields. The work calls believers back to the authority and power of Scripture.

  Chapters: 17

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    0. Gleanings From the Word
    1. Grieving the Holy Spirit
    2. Being Expendable
    3. The Glory of God
    4. The Servant of the Lord
    5. The Secret Place of the Most High
    6. The Secret Place of the Most High II
    7. A Tale of Two Cities
    8. The Feasts of Isreal: Their Prophetic Significance
    9. The Feasts of Isreal: Their Prophetic Significance II
   10. Blow the Trumpet in Zion!!
   11. The God of Now
   12. Why We Must Pray !!!
   13. Brokeness: The Way into the Holy
   14. The Weapons of Our Warfare
   15. Prayer and Intercession
   16. The Bond Servant

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  CHAPTER 0: GLEANINGS FROM THE WORD
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  CHAPTER 1: GRIEVING THE HOLY SPIRIT
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The Church in North America is in desperate condition before her God. We look
out to the mission fields where God seems to be moving in great power and we
wonder why it is not happening here. We get busy with programs and our schedules
are full. We build big churches with big parking lots. We plan to evangelize our
neighborhoods and cities. We bring in big names to preach and big names to sing
and we are sterile in our worship and our teaching. We look to our
denominational ties to help and they are no better off.

We try our best to stir up the people and ourselves. We wonder where the Lord is
and we pray for him to intervene. But the Heavens are like brass. Perhaps we
need to look somewhere else. It’s neither church programs nor big names. It’s
not moving in the flesh and mistaking it for the Spirit. We need nothing less
than the presence of the Lord to walk among his people again. We need the Holy
Spirit to drop his fire on us and bring us to a place of deep, deep repentance.
We do not need celebration we need wailing and crying out. We have deeply
grieved the Holy Spirit in our churches. We have sown seeds of
self-righteousness, discord and rancor. We have gossiped behind the backs or our
leaders and each other. We have harbored feelings of bitterness and even hate
against our brothers and sisters.

Rev. 3:14-22

14 "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and
true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:

15 'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were
cold or hot.

16 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out
of My mouth.

17 'Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of
nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and
blind and naked,

18. I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich,
and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your
nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may
see.

19 'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and
repent.

20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens
the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.

21 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I
also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'" We
think because we are wealthy in material goods God has no choice but to use us.
When we are lukewarm we have no wealth. He is our wealth. To be vomited out of
our Lord's mouth is a thing most frightening. He advises us to buy from Him, but
can we? Are we cognizant of our sad condition? Jesus is outside of the door
knocking and knocking and nobody is answering. We are inside our churches
playing at church and leaving the Holy One out! We have grieved the Lord!! Our
sins go up as a stench before our God! We need to be like David:

Psalms 51:1 (For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet
came to him,) (after he had gone in to Bathtub.) Be gracious to me, O God,
according to Thy lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Thy compassion
blot out my transgressions.2. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse
me from my sin.

3. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me.

4. Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, And done what is evil in Thy sight,
So that Thou art justified when Thou dost speak, And blameless when Thou dost
judge.

5. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

6. Behold, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part
Thou wilt make me know wisdom.

7. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow.

8. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which Thou hast broken
rejoice.

9. Hide Thy face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.

10. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11. Do not cast me away from Thy presence, And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from
me.

12. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, And sustain me with a willing
spirit.

13. Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways, And sinners will be converted to
Thee.

14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; Then my
tongue will joyfully sing of Thy righteousness.

15. O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Thy praise.

16. For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art
not pleased with burnt offering.

17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O
God, Thou wilt not despise.

When Nathan the prophet came to David and told him the story about the poor man
with the little ewe, David’s anger burned greatly against the man. His
self-righteousness came forth. Anger is many times a defense and a sham against
the real problem. So is business. So is fault finding. We can be very creative
in looking the other way from our own sin. But when Nathan with thunder in his
voice, with the very voice of God, told David "THOU ART THE MAN!" David was
shocked to his soul. Suddenly he saw with clarity. Suddenly he saw what God sees
when he shines his eternal light on our lives. He said "For I know my
transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only have I
sinned." He was standing naked before God, no pretenses, no kingliness, and no
self-righteous anger. Only the Holy One is His righteous anger. Oh that we would
fear the Holy Lord like that!

Now see what David says "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a
steadfast spirit within me." We too often ask quick forgiveness from our God and
go our way walking in the flesh and trying so hard not to sin again. We pummel
and castigate ourselves as if by our efforts we can do it all. I made some yeast
rolls for my family this Thanksgiving. Jesus talks about yeast being like sin
and so it is. I put the yeast in the flour mixture and let it sit in a warm
place and as if by magic it puffed up. Isn’t that just like sin to puff us all
up with self-importance and self-righteousness? The yeast moves to every part of
the dough and it causes all to be puffed up. We cannot contain a little sin in
one area of our lives and think we can go worship the Living and Holy God with
another. Sin has to be totally eradicated like Achen in the camp that took
things under the ban. Only a few small things really. But it caused defeat to
the whole camp. Well I took that dough and punched it down and tore it apart and
rolled it into balls and put them neatly in pans. Oh how we try to work our sin
over. We mightily punch and pull. We strike the sin and order it and tell it to
go away and neatly stack it up. We dust our hands and say "There!". All the
while the sin continues it insidious course. Before long we are puffed up again.
It may not be the same sin or at least not look the same. The rolls were
different than the lump of dough. Then I put them in the oven. After the fire
got to them the yeast had died and they never puffed up again. We need the fire
of God to change us. No human effort will work. Create in us a clean heart, O
God and renew a right spirit in us. Only God can take care of the awful sin that
plagues us.

One problem with the sin that befouls us is we have no concept how really awful
it is. We look kindly upon our sin like it is an old familiar friend sometime.
We need to be radical. We need radical surgery. Paul understood this when he
cried out in Romans 7: 24 " Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from
the body of this death?" He was making reference to a horrible practice in Roman
prisons. When a prisoner would kill another the murderer would be punished by
having the body of the dead prisoner chained to his. He would be thrown into a
far and deep dungeon while the putrification of that dead body did its final
work on his. That is as graphic a picture as I can think of to represent sin. It
is killing us!! No wonder we are called to flee sin. We cannot allow sin to have
its way with us.

One really scary thought is when David says ". Do not cast me away from Thy
presence, And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me.". God doesn’t have to
continue to bless us with any presence at all. He can pass us by for revival and
renewal. He can continue to bless others in our stead. Oh, that we would hunger
for that presence. Even that He would judge us.

Psalms 19: 9. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of
the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.

10, They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also
than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

Yes the judgements of God are true. It is because of His great love that he does
judge us and work with us, truly he is a God who is good and upright.

(Psa 25:8) Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He instructs sinners in the
way.

(Psa 25:9) He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.

God instructs sinners in the way. We must be humble and broken before him. We
cannot come before him with pride or self-righteousness. "The sacrifices is God
are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise."

When we have been humbled and broken before our God and He has chastised us as
sons, then we will rejoice in him and he will bless us with his presence.

Psalms 30: 5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime;
Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.

Yes this is what the Lord requires of his people. When He comes he will bring
mourning for a time but in His presence is joy evermore. When He has purified us
then He will use us. There is no limit to what He will do with us when we have
sold out to Him. We are to be nothing less than fires of his making. We are to
be so filled with His Spirit that we speak His burning words, that what we have
will always be prophetic in all its bearings that we will always speak with the
voice of God. There ought to be something in us that shines through with vital,
holy power so that other may know we have seen God. Our faces should shine like
Moses with the awesome presence of the Holy One. Wherever we go the people
around us should feel as if God has come into their midst. We are to manifest
his glory to the people. GET RIGHT AND GET BRIGHT.


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  CHAPTER 2: BEING EXPENDABLE
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(Mat 16:25 NASB) "For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever
loses his life for My sake shall find it.

The nominal Christian that fills a thousand pews in a thousand Churches knows
little about the deep walk that God commands his followers to walk. It is said
that the 90-day wonder Jehovah Witness can undo the nominal Christian at his
front door in about 15 minutes. Why? The Christian doesn’t truly know his God.
He doesn’t read his bible and his lax prayer life leads him to no real spiritual
power. As a result his life if full of sin and his Christianity is casual. He
may be saved but for the most part if he were on trial for being a Christian he
would be acquitted for lack of evidence. I try not to be harsh in this, for God
truly loves these people with a deep love that would utterly surprise them if
they would become aware of it. But the enemy of our souls laughs at these Church
attendees who come to church not even aware of the terrible weight of sin that
sears their souls. Their minds are full of lust, jealousy, pride, and judgement
even during the worship. I have talked with many that are just such churchgoers.
When you get away from sports, or the weather, or politics and to their life in
God you see the glaze in their eyes, there is no interest there. Oh how they
grieve their Lord!

But the eyes of the Lord are looking over the whole earth seeking those whose
hearts are turned to him in even the slightest way. I know I was one of those
several years ago when the Lord sought me out and set my soul on fire. The verse
out of Matthew 16 above speaks of those who wish to follow Him. To follow after
Christ! Something in that phrase makes my soul sing. What a privilege to be made
not only heirs but also joint heirs with Christ. It is no small thing to follow
after Him. The verse above talks of two things the modern day Christian is
little aware of and frankly doesn’t care much for. Death and denial.

The Cross is an instrument of death. Notice we are not requested to take up
Jesus’ cross but our own. Take up his cross. What could that mean?

(Rom 6:6 NASB) knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our
body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

(Eph 4:22 NASB) that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside
the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,

(Eph 4:23 NASB) and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

(Eph 4:24 NASB) and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been
created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

(Gal 2:20 NASB) "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.

So you see death is necessary for us. When the Spirit of God, the Comforter,
came in he set up shop to kill the works of the Devil in us. He came to destroy
all the works of the enemy in our bodies and lives. The cross is an instrument
of love in the hand of my Lord. With it he breaks us and breaks us and breaks us
until we can do nothing but yield to Him. What a wonderful thing this is to the
believer who really grabs hold of his God. IT IS ONLY THROUGH THIS BREAKING AND
YIELDING PROCESS CAN THE CHRISTIAN MOVE INTO THE REALMS WE ARE SUPPOSED TO
DWELL.

Now the deny himself part. This is incorporated into the work of the cross but I
want to take it out, so to speak, and examine it alone. We are a rich society,
we are not used to having to deny ourselves very much, it comes very hard. We
continually hunger for more. We seek approval of men and the institutes of the
world at the peril of our souls.

(Prov 27:20 NASB) Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, Nor are the eyes of man
ever satisfied.

Isaiah lived in a similar time in Judah. The people were rich and at ease. They
had forgotten their God and left him out of their lives. Many people don’t even
darken the doors of Church except at Easter and Christmas. Even many Churchgoers
are only marking time in the pews until they can get back to the game or
whatever attraction is more important than their God. Many Churches are trying
to accommodate these people. They have services that are short and they have
clips from R-rated movies to make points in their short sermons. They try to
make God a modern God who winks at sin and says, "boys will be boys". Hear the
word of the Lord.

(Isa 5:11 NASB) Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue
strong drink; Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!

(Isa 5:12 NASB) And their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by
tambourine and flute, and by wine; But they do not pay attention to the deeds of
the LORD, Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

(Isa 5:13 NASB) Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
And their honorable men are famished, And their multitude is parched with
thirst.

(Isa 5:14 NASB) Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth
without measure; And Jerusalem's splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry,
and the jubilant within her, descend into it.

We need to remember the most important one in the Kingdom of God is the one who
is the servant of all. The servant! We all want to be leaders and people of
power. There was a recent deacon election in a Church I know. Usually many more
are nominated than can be selected and then voted on. The current board prunes
down the list to the ones who have exemplified in his or her life what the
deacon is supposed to be. One man, when he found out his name had been culled
from the list, rose and threatened to sue the Church because he had been
removed. Is it any wonder why he was removed? Many seek ecclesiastical power in
the Church to be the leaders of all.

Oh Lord, our sins are great before you, in your Judgment remember mercy!

In WWII there is a fascinating story that is much unknown about the underground
resistance in occupied Europe. Many of these people were considered
"expendables" by the military command. Their jobs were extremely dangerous and
the chances of them being caught, tortured and killed were great. The people
knew this too. Why did these brave people go into almost certain death? They had
counted the cost and they knew the enemy would snuff out freedom for the whole
world if the allies failed. They knew they were important in that battle and the
information they relayed back could be the crucial information to win the war.

One such an instance happened early in the war. The Germans had a code machine
that was supposed to be unbreakable. It was called the enigma machine. Through
many unknown brave people’s blood a machine made its way into allied hands. One
the Germans didn’t even know was missing! Further more, for a period of time
information was relayed on codes the Germans were using to "prime" the enigma
the allies had. The Germans were so confident of this machine they gave them to
the Japanese and of course we knew their codes as well. This was absolutely
instrumental in winning the war.

(Eph 6:12 NASB) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

We are engaged in a war today too. The foe is even more implacable, more devious
and more powerful than that enemy in WWII. Have we counted the cost? Have we
looked to the Savior to seek His heart? We are to take up the cross and deny
ourselves. This is the only battle fought on knees. We are to be expendable in
God’s kingdom.

(Rev 12:10 NASB) And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation,
and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have
come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them
before our God day and night.

(Rev 12:11 NASB) "And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and
because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to
death.

We overcome the enemy by the Blood of the Lamb. The Blood cleanses us from the
works of the enemy or sin. Sin blocks the power of God in our lives and must be
eradicated.

Smith Wigglesworth said:

"Beloved, you will not be able to bind and loose if you have sin in you. There
is not a person within the hearing of my voice that is able to deal with the
sins of others if he is not free himself. "…he breathed on them, and saith unto
them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John 20:22). He knew the Holy Ghost would give
them a revelation of themselves, and also a conception of God. He must reveal to
you your depravity. Do you believe you will be able to bind unless you are free
yourself? But every man that has this living Christ within him has the power to
put to death all sin."

(1 John 3:8 NASB) the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has
sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He
might destroy the works of the devil.

We must let the cross have its way in our lives.

Now we see the Testimony of Jesus. What is that? Is it some witnessing program?
A new four spiritual laws? Is it fearfully going to someone and telling them
about your church and all its programs and inviting them to come. No it is
really none of the above, even though some aspects of the above can be part of
the testimony of Jesus.

The testimony of Jesus is having such a vibrant, holy fire and passionate
relationship with Jesus that it explodes out of you and gets all over people.
They find it attractive. When Mary went into the house and broke open the bottle
of expensive perfumed oil and poured it over Jesus she got some on herself. When
they left Jesus smelled good, so did Mary. She smelled just like Jesus. We need
to spend so much time in the throne room we smell like Jesus.

E. M. Bounds said:

Conduct is what we do; character is what we are. Conduct is the outward life.
Character is the life unseen, hidden within, yet evidenced by that which is
seen. Conduct is external, seen from without; character is internal – operating
within. In the economy of grace conduct is the offspring of character. Character
is the state of the heart, conduct is its outward expression. Character is the
root of the tree, conduct, the fruit it bears."

Our mouth speaks what our heart is full of. What comes out of your mouth? We
need to let the Holy One have His way in our lives to cleanse us and redeem us.

Now we look at the idea of not loving our lives even unto death. Oliver Cromwell
had an army he fashioned of men who were dedicated wholly to the Lord. He called
it the new model army and with it he was almost invincible. This army marched
into battle with praise on their lips. They were not afraid of dying and in that
was their strength.

Are we afraid of dying both spiritually and physically? Do we try to save
ourselves? Jesus didn't save himself but went willingly to the cross. There is
something there for us. I have seen missionaries who marched off at the call of
God to lose their families and their lives in His service and shout VICTORY at
the end. Is it in our soul to do that. If not we need to repent and seek our
first love again. We may face the flames of persecution again in this country
and to do that we must be totally sold out.


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  CHAPTER 3: THE GLORY OF GOD
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We talk about the Glory of God much in the church today but little understand
the full implications for our lives of that subject. The Glory of God is a
subject once understood will have absolutely transforming effects on our lives.
It is essential we grasp this concept for the Lord want to manifest his Glory
through the Church. If the Church doesn’t understand this concept we may well
miss great blessing from the Lord.

We see God doing something with His Glory in the following verses out of Exodus.

(Exo 24:16 NASB) And the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud
covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the
midst of the cloud.

(Exo 24:17 NASB) And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the
glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top.

God comes to give the law. His presence called the Glory of the Lord rests upon
the mountain six days, the same amount He took to create the heavens and the
earth. Then on the seventh He calls to Moses from the midst of the cloud of His
Glory. His Glory does something to Moses, which we will expore later, but the
people are affected too.

(Exo 29:43 NASB) "And I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be
consecrated by My glory.

(Exo 29:44 NASB) "And I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar; I
will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to minister as priests to Me.

(Exo 29:45 NASB) "And I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their
God.

The tent of the meeting, the altar and Aaron and his sons are consecrated, or
set aside for a holy purpose. This consecration is the same idea in the New
Testament of sanctification. The Greek word is hagios, which is also translated
holy. God’s Glory makes holy those things he choses be they the tent and alter
or Aaron and his sons. This is something we need to take note of.

Moses was a man just like us. He had a relationship with God that was unique in
the Bible. He spoke to God face to face as it were. Do you know God want to
speak to us? That He yearns to speak to his people?

(Exo 33:12 NASB) Then Moses said to the LORD, "See, Thou dost say to me, 'Bring
up this people!' But Thou Thyself hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with
me. Moreover, Thou hast said, 'I have known you by name, and you have also found
favor in My sight.'

(Exo 33:13 NASB) "Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found favor in Thy
sight, let me know Thy ways, that I may know Thee, so that I may find favor in
Thy sight. Consider too, that this nation is Thy people."

(Exo 33:14 NASB) And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give
you rest."

(Exo 33:15 NASB) Then he said to Him, "If Thy presence does not go with us, do
not lead us up from here.

(Exo 33:16 NASB) "For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Thy
sight, I and Thy people? Is it not by Thy going with us, so that we, I and Thy
people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of
the earth?"

(Exo 33:17 NASB) And the LORD said to Moses, "I will also do this thing of which
you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight, and I have known you by
name."

Moses wants the presence and the Glory of God to go with him and the people. He
would not move unless the cloud went before him. Oh, that we would be like that!
To hunger for the cloud of God’s Glory to be with us. But then God says an
astounding thing to Moses "I will also do this thing of which you have spoken;
for you have found favor in My sight, and I have known you by name.". To have
God know you by name when he had just revealed him self as this awesome God of
Fire and Cloud and Glory. Do you know He knows us all by name? He knows when a
sparrow falls and he knows the hairs on our heads. He is the same God. This
shoud send chills down our backs.

Then Moses gets audacious.

(Exo 33:18 NASB) Then Moses said, "I pray Thee, show me Thy glory!"

(Exo 33:19 NASB) And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before
you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show
compassion."

(Exo 33:20 NASB) But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and
live!"

(Exo 33:21 NASB) Then the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by Me, and you
shall stand there on the rock;

(Exo 33:22 NASB) and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I
will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have
passed by.

(Exo 33:23 NASB) "Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but
My face shall not be seen."

Show me Thy Glory! Moses what are you talking about? Didn’t you see the pillar
of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day? Didn’t you see the cloud of
Glory resting on the mountain top for 7 days? Moses wasn’t talking about those
manifestations though and God knew exactly what Moses yearned for. Moses yearned
for an ever-deeper relationship with this God of the burning bush, this God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, this God of Glory. Oh people of God, do we yearn like
this to seek this Holy one out, to seek his Glory?

(Exo 34:5 NASB) And the LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as
he called upon the name of the LORD.

(Exo 34:6 NASB) Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The
LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in
lovingkindness and truth;

(Exo 34:7 NASB) who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity,
transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished,
visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the
third and fourth generations."

(Exo 34:8 NASB) And Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.

(Exo 34:9 NASB) And he said, "If now I have found favor in Thy sight, O Lord, I
pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so
obstinate; and do Thou pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Thine own
possession."

(Exo 34:10 NASB) Then God said, "Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before
all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the
earth, nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will
see the working of the LORD, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to
perform with you.

Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. The King of the
universe was arrayed before him, speaking astounding words of a God of such
Holiness and Glory. Certainly it was a fearful thing. We need to fear our God!
He is indeed awesome and glorious all without and within. Has He placed you in
the cleft of the Rock of Jesus and covered you there with His hand? Has he
spoken to you his fearful, wonderful name? Look now what follows.

(Exo 34:29 NASB) And it came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai
(and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand as he was coming down
from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone
because of his speaking with Him.

(Exo 34:30 NASB) So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the
skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

I don’t know the physics of the Glory nor how the skin can glow but I understand
what it means. God was showing the people the Glory of his presence stamped on
Moses face. They were afraid to come near him. This was God showing his approval
of His servant. I have read of Maria Woodward Etter, the great female healing
evangelist of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, actually being surrounded by a
cloud of glory for short periods of time as she preached. Smith Wigglesworth
went to New Zealand in 1921 to have meetings. He called the leading preachers
and men of God of the town he was in to a prayer meeting. Twelve men showed up.
They all prayed their prayers and then Smith started. Soon the twelve had to
leave because the cloud of Glory came into the room. The next night a thirteenth
man came who had heard about the meeting the night before. He intended to stick
it out. The prayers started and then Smith prayed. The cloud of Glory descended
and twelve left. Finally the thirteenth man left too, he could not last as Smith
stayed and basked in the presence and Glory of God.

People of God, did you know that God does not change? He wants to bless us at
this day and time but we seem to be too distracted from all around us. The
little robbers of Glory, little distractions of gossip, lust, pride, rebellion.

Now look at two more instances where the Glory of God is present. Both are about
the temple. The first instance in the Tabernacle in the wilderness and the
second in Solomon’s temple.

(Exo 40:33 NASB) And he erected the court all around the tabernacle and the
altar, and hung up the veil for the gateway of the court. Thus Moses finished
the work.

Exo 40:34 NASB) Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the
LORD filled the tabernacle.

(Exo 40:35 NASB) And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the
cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

(Exo 40:36 NASB) And throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken
up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out;

(Exo 40:37 NASB) but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out
until the day when it was taken up.

(Exo 40:38 NASB) For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the LORD was on
the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all
the house of Israel.

(1 Ki 8:10 NASB) And it came about when the priests came from the holy place,
that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,

(1 Ki 8:11 NASB) so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the
cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.

(1 Ki 8:12 NASB) Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that He would dwell in
the thick cloud.

Now in both of these instanced the Glory of God drove people away from it. The
holiness of God in full measure few of us could stand. We have to be covered by
His hand. We are too full of sin and it tendrils run deep. But is that the way
it is supposed to be? Are we heirs of a lesser promise? Does the Old Testament
contain all the power and we today have received a fading glory where God has
distanced Himself and no longer shows Himself Glorious?

(1 Cor 6:19 NASB) Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

(1 Cor 6:20 NASB) For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God
in your body.

This is most amazing. Our bodies are temples. The Israelites had to go to the
temple to pray, sacrifice and worship. We have God within, the temple is within
our bosom. Oh how awesome that is. The Glory that was in the temple is in us!
Can you fathom that with all it implies. The God of the mountain is now
Immanuel. The Holy Spirit of God indwells our spirit and empowers us with all
God has for us. What are we missing? Somehow this seems out of sync with what we
experience.

Maybe we are not experiencing what we should.

(2 Cor 3:1 NASB) Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as
some, letters of commendation to you or from you?

(2 Cor 3:2 NASB) You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by
all men;

(2 Cor 3:3 NASB) being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by
us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets
of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.

(2 Cor 3:4 NASB) And such confidence we have through Christ toward God.

(2 Cor 3:5 NASB) Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as
coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

(2 Cor 3:6 NASB) who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of
the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

(2 Cor 3:7 NASB) But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones,
came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face
of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,

(2 Cor 3:8 NASB) how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with
glory?

(2 Cor 3:9 NASB) For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does
the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

(2 Cor 3:10 NASB) For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory on
account of the glory that surpasses it.

(2 Cor 3:11 NASB) For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that
which remains is in glory.

(2 Cor 3:12 NASB) Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness in our
speech,

(2 Cor 3:13 NASB) and are not as Moses, who used to put a veil over his face
that the sons of Israel might not look intently at the end of what was fading
away.

(2 Cor 3:14 NASB) But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the
reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is
removed in Christ.

(2 Cor 3:15 NASB) But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their
heart;

(2 Cor 3:16 NASB) but whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

(2 Cor 3:17 NASB) Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty.

(2 Cor 3:18 NASB) But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the
glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to
glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

What is Paul talking about? Look at verse 7 where he talks about the old
covenant being represented by the tablets of stone and the fading glory on Moses
face. Then he says, "how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more
with glory?". Paul says that the glory now is greater than the former glory and
that the former glory actually became no glory because of the surpassing glory
of now! Oh Church! Do you realize what that means? The veil in the temple has
been removed and we don’t need a veil on our face! Verse 18 says we with
unveiled face are beholding the Glory of the Lord and are being transformed INTO
THE SAME IMAGE FROM GLORY TO GLORY!!! It is unlimited what God is willing to do
in us. We only need to reach out in faith and stand on the promises of God. We
only need to dare to believe!


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 4: THE SERVANT OF THE LORD
========================================================================

Moses was called a servant of the Lord. David was his servant too. Jesus spoke
much about the topsy-turvy kingdom He ruled. That kingdom the world disdains and
rejects. The kingdom where the servant is the most important and the lordly one
the least. Oh! Jesus was and still is despised and rejected and so is his
kingdom. But something burns in my soul about the servant. What is he? How does
he act? What does he do? I have seen too many of these servants to turn away
from the comforts of this world. There is something about their countenance,
their bearing, and their presence to discount. I suspect they are those who KNOW
their God. In this age of casual Christianity, where we attend a church instead
of being the church, we have few that really know their God. I’m not talking
about being saved or even filled with His spirit. I’ve seen enough lukewarm
tongues speaking to last me my lifetime. No, there are dimensions of knowing God
that are beyond the norm of today. I look at the Book of Acts and see the fire
and passion of Peter, Steven, Phillip, and Paul, I look at the heroes of the
more recent past -David Brainerd, Robert Murry McCheyne, John Wesley, George
Whitefield, John G. Lake, Smith Wigglesworth, Maria Woodward Etter, etc.. These
were not candles guttering in the wind, these were not smoldering wicks. These
servants were nothing less than bright torches, flaming hot souls that had
connected with the fire from on high. These are examples of how it should be. We
are not living the normal Christian life today, rather we are sub-normal. Oh
that we would connect with that high voltage circuit, that flame of passion and
become true servants of the living and holy God.

What is the servant of the Lord?

The Servant is pure before God. (Psa 24:3 NASB) Who may ascend into the hill of
the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place?

(Psa 24:4 NASB) He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up
his soul to falsehood, And has not sworn deceitfully.

Psa 24:5 NASB) He shall receive a blessing from the LORD And righteousness from
the God of his salvation.

What do we pour into our souls? What do we handle with our hands? I see many
Christians today who will pay seven dollars or more to watch the latest violence
and smut for 90 minutes yet they cannot worship the Holy One for over 30
minutes. Have we sullied our selves and in the process forgotten what utter joy
purity brings? Is our entertainment getting the most important billing in our
lives? I was in a house recently where we had a Christian meeting and the youth
were in the family room watching some horror movie. When I went to the room to
see if my children were in there (thank the Lord they were not) I met an adult
in the room who confided in me how awful the show was and continued to watch! We
are not trapped against our will with our eyes pinned open! TURN IT OFF! The
recent movie Titanic was a disaster for the young impressionable girls of our
Churches. It romanticized adultery and rebellion. Millions of young women saw
this travesty several times. What are parents thinking! They probably saw it
them selves and were seduced as well. I know believers who hunger for more of
God but spend more hours reading the latest romance, murder mystery or political
thriller with more gusto than the Word of God. Does that mean we shouldn't read
those things? No, but when they take time away from the Word and prayer then
something is rotten. We have to spend time with our Lord to receive from him. He
waits, yearning to spend time with us to cleanse us from the sins of the flesh
and the world. Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His
holy place? This is not in heaven or some place other worldly, this is for the
servant now.

The Servant is Humble before God.

(Psa 10:17 NASB) O LORD, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble; Thou wilt
strengthen their heart, Thou wilt incline Thine ear

(Psa 25:8 NASB) Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He instructs sinners in
the way.

(Psa 25:9 NASB) He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His
way.

(Psa 25:10 NASB) All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth To those
who keep His covenant and His testimonies.

(Prov 29:23 NASB) A man's pride will bring him low, But a humble spirit will
obtain honor.

(Isa 66:2 NASB) "For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came
into being," declares the LORD. "But to this one I will look, To him who is
humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

Humility is an absolute requirement for the fire of God to fall. Frank Bartleman
in chronicling the Azuza street revival tells how the Spirit and actually fallen
in another church in Los Angeles but how pride and human control drove Him out.
The Spirit finally found His home in a humble little set of believers on Bonnie
Brae Street. They were a group of black believers led by William Seymour who had
been kicked out of another church. The Fire of God fell on this most unlikely
(as the world may say) group of believers. Soon the world was filled with the
fire that started there. Oh! How God loves the humble! We seem to think God is
pleased with our great efforts we do on his behalf. God is interested in the
humble heart for that is his chosen field. It is the humble and contrite heart
in which he will set his Spirit to accomplish his will. God cannot manifest His
glory through the proud heart for the proud heart will attempt to steal his
glory, for God will not share his glory with anyone. Jesus was lowly and humble.
Can we be any less? Oh God! Break every proud heart and humble your people so
that we might show forth your glory to the nations!!

The Servant is a person of the WORD. (Jer 23:29 NASB) "Is not My word like
fire?" declares the LORD, "and like a hammer which shatters a rock?

Oh! Consume us o Holy Fire, shatter our pride like a hammer shatters rock! Write
your living Word on the tablets of our hearts. Teach us your ways and show us
your paths. To do God's will is a sweet duty for the servant of the Lord. To
know God's will, the servant must spend time in the Word. Isaiah 66:2 above says
that the Almighty looks toward those who tremble at His Word, those who realize
the true meaning, who do not take the Word lightly. We in North America are
surfeited with Bibles, books about the Bible, Bible commentaries, Bible
translations and supposed Bible scholars. Many have several Bibles in their
homes. Our pastor recently came from a conference in the Philippines. Many of
the Philippine pastors are extremely poor, yet serving with all diligence in
very dangerous places. (Oh! How beautiful are the feet of them that bear Good
News!) The conference leaders had tried to get a container load of Bibles to
these wonderful men but only one suitcase was able to get through. They drew
names of those who would get the Bibles. When a name was called the man would
run to the front to claim his prize. Oh my heart stirred when I heard that and I
said "Oh that we should love God's word so!"

(Isa 8:20 NASB) To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according
to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

"No light in them" could be the epitaph etched in the gravestone of this era.
There are many out there speaking - empty, talking heads all, but few speak with
the unction only deep study of the Word will produce. Recently I watched a
preacher on television. He was a big, handsome man with an impressive voice and
bearing. He was preaching in a big Black Church and was attempting to emulate
that gender of preaching. He went on for a while until I realized he wasn't
really saying anything! He was shouting and sweating and saying something about
the devil and really saying very little. I was astounded. Maybe he was having a
bad day. But the fire that was there was only a little heat generated by the
flesh. Even the black brothers were getting perplexed looks on their faces at
his sad rambling. We need true fire and passion that is only created in the
crucible of God's Word. For when we speak forth the true and living work our
words become fire and the peoples hearts dry chaff. Oh God of fire, ignite our
hearts to speak forth your Holy words!

(Heb 4:12 NASB) For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any
two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both
joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

(Heb 4:13 NASB) And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things
are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

One important function the word performs is to slice and dice us to the core, to
show us just how vile our sins are and to expose them to us. We seldom see
ourselves as the rotten sinners we really are. I often say that as the terrible
light of heaven is shown on our lives the cockroaches scatter. When we see this
it is time to go to the cross! The Word shows us the cross in all its glory and
we can avail ourselves of its power because the Word says so! Let the Word
penetrate you and show you what needs to come out to be swept away by the Blood
of the Lamb. God's Word will do so.

We must remember too that nothing, absolutely nothing is hidden from our Lord.
Our deepest secrets that no one else knows are known to Him. We so often play
games with our loving Lord and grieve His heart. The true servant knows his
state and lets the blood flood it away every day.

(Col. 3:16 NASB) Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom
teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

God's promises are all yes and amen, but how can we know to receive them unless
we know them. God's faithfulness, mercy, glory, truth, judgments etc. are all
contained in His Word. God's character and nature are revealed in the Word.
God's past acts are recorded in the Word. God's future acts are prophesied in
His Word. The Word is truth for our souls and solace for our spirits. We must
dwell in the Word to let it dwell richly within us.

The Servant is radically obedient. (1 Pet 1:14 NASB) As obedient children, do
not be conformed to the former lusts, which were yours in your ignorance,

(1 Pet 1:15 NASB) but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also
in all your behavior;

(1 Pet 1:16 NASB) because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."

Be radically obedient in our dealings in the world. Change it, do not be
conformed by it. It is not the Christian in the world that is the problem but
the world in the Christian. I have seen many Christians who look so much like
the world that you cannot tell the difference. We are a peculiar people, a holy
nation, a royal priesthood, ambassadors for Christ and living stones. WE ARE TO
BE DIFFERENT!

(1 Cor 4:10 NASB) We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in Christ;
we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without
honor.

(1 Cor 4:11 NASB) To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are
poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless;

(1 Cor 4:12 NASB) and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled,
we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure;

(1 Cor 4:13 NASB) when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as
the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.

To be God's fool is to be obedient no matter what the request. I told my Lord
one time I was willing to be His fool. Oh Man! I didn't know what I was praying.
God took me up on that prayer and has put me through his boot camp of fools. I
was in the Las Vegas airport recently reading a book about John G. Lake. I was
using my granny type reading glasses. You know the type. I hated them and prayed
that they would be taken away, but God, it seemed decided to let them stay for a
while. I read a portion where an angel came to John and part of his message was
that we were to pray, pray and always pray. The Holy Spirit stirred my heart and
I said to God, "Oh! Teach me to pray like that!" He said back "Well why don't
you just pray right here on your knees?" Now I was at gate A1, the airport was
packed and I didn't really want to do that. I said "Right here in front of all
these people?" God can absolutely cut right through our arguments like a hot
knife through butter. He said "Do you care more about what these people think
about you than what I think about you?" Oh! What could I do? I got down right
there on my knees and prayed. I was sweating bullets. The people who were
setting right next to me got up and left. They probably thought I was just
giving thanks before I got up and axed them. I stayed put until He gave me
release. It was probably only 5 minutes or so, though it seemed like much
longer. When I got back up I took up the book to read and realized that God had
healed by vision so I no longer needed the reading glasses. I haven't needed
them to this day. Bless His glorious name!

(1 Pet 1:2 NASB) chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the
sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may be obedient to Jesus Christ and be
sprinkled with His blood:

Rebellion stalks the land. Our 1960's culture said "Don't trust anyone over
30!". We thought Church was boring so we say we'll let our kids grow up and let
them decide for themselves later. We were being selfish and lazy with the
heritage we were handing down. Those kids are now young adults angry for not
having any training and rebellion is rampant in the youth culture today. We have
sown to the wind and we now reap the whirlwind. To obey Jesus is to love the
Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength and to love our
neighbor as our self. We will only win out over the rebellion with the love of
Christ and His blood. We must be radical in our obedience to his commands. We
have enlisted in an army and we have no choice in the battle. We fight for our
lives against the enemy and he gives no quarter. To not obey is to fall.

I will tell you another thing the Spirit has been ringing in my heart. He is
preparing a vast army of sold out people for this day and time. He is setting up
the intercessors, teachers, evangelists, preachers, prophets and warriors who He
can use to usher in the greatest revival

the world has ever seen. Do you want to be part of this army?

A.G. Gardiner said:

When a prophet is accepted and deified, his message is lost. The prophet is only

useful so long as he is stoned as a public nuisance, calling us to repentance,

disturbing our comfortable routines, breaking our respectable idols, shattering

our sacred conventions.

The Servant is Spirit dependent not flesh dependent. (John 15:4 NASB) "Abide in
Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in
the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

(John 15:5 NASB) "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and
I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

(John 15:6 NASB) "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch,
and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are
burned.

(John 15:7 NASB) "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever
you wish, and it shall be done for you.

May we be grafted so deeply into the vine that the life in that vine may fill us
up so full of itself that there is no room for anything else. No sin and no
sickness may blot our lives because the very life of Christ throbs in our veins.
This is a great secret of power in the Christian walk. "APART FROM ME YOU CAN DO
NOTHING." We so often forget this and try to accomplish something in our own
zeal and strength. Our society applauds the self made man who pulled himself by
his own strength and cunning, but Jesus says that is all self righteous filthy
rags. We attempt to steal God's glory when we do that and our work, no matter
how good the motive or even result, profits us nothing. We must abide, live,
dwell in the vine. We have no other choice. We need to plug in daily, hourly to
that source. Being filled with the Spirit is not a one-time event, but a daily
sacrifice. We need to fall on God's mercies that are renewed every morning.

(Zec 4:6 NASB) Then he answered and said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to
Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD
of hosts.

(John 6:63 NASB) "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing;
the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

The might of man will fail. Large egos fill the land and proclaim how great they
are. Professional sports, the corporate world and even the Church are full of
the man of the mighty ego. Let us seek the lowest place of the servant, let God
crush your pride, ego and rebellion. The prideful man sets himself up as his own
God. He worships at the alter of pride and considers his thoughts as higher than
the Most High. What foolishness! God will abase every proud man and exalt the
lowly. The work of the flesh is based in rebellion and pride. Oh Lord, tear down
our pride and make us wholly thine!

The Servant identifies with Jesus in his life and death. (Phil 3:9 NASB) and may
be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but
that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on
the basis of faith,

(Phil 3:10 NASB) that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

"…the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death." These are not
popular words in Christendom today. We want to be blessed. We want it easy,
instant, not too hard. We don't want our faith tested by fire. Be want to name
it and claim it. We want to soar with the eagles and not be weary forgetting
that that high road is HARD. Jesus said that if the world hated Him it would
hate us too. He said that we would have tribulation, trouble, distress,
persecution and grief in this world, but that He had overcome the world. Being
conformed to His death is to crucify the flesh and its desires daily, to hammer
a part of you screaming to the cross. I have had times of this being done even
in public where my God showed me how wretched I was and I had to let Him rip a
part of my pride and arrogance and nail it to the cross. Oh! How that hurt! How
defeated I felt. I was numb with defeat and wounded at the hand of my God. But
what glory he poured into me at that my point of greatest obedience and defeat
of self. He never takes but what He restores many fold. He poured His liquid
love and ecstasy through me for two hours that day until I couldn't take anymore
of His glory.

Amy Carmichael life long missionary to India wrote:

Hast thou no scar?

No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?

I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,

I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,

Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?

Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,

Leaned me against the tree to die, and rent

By ravening beasts that

Compassed Me, I swooned;

Hast thou no wound?

No wound, no scar?

Yet, as the Master shall the Servant be,

And, pierced are the feet that follow me;

But thine are whole; can he have followed far

Who has no wound nor scar?

(Luke 9:23 NASB) And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after
Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

(2 Cor 4:10 NASB) always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the
life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

(2 Cor 4:11 NASB) For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death
for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal
flesh.

(Rom 6:5 NASB) For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His
death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,

(Rom 6:6 NASB) knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our
body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

(Rom 6:7 NASB) for he who has died is freed from sin.

Take up our cross and follow him? The cross is an instrument of death and pain.
With it we crucify the flesh and all its desires. We have to take up the cross
daily; it is not an option for only the very spiritual. It is absolutely
imperative we use it, lest we fail in the walk. Our body must carry about His
death so that our sinful nature is swallowed up in His death. This is the only
way that He may manifest his compassion, love and power through us. What glory!
Jesus is to manifest his very nature through the believer who has done away with
the body of sin. The truth is WE HAVE POWER OVER SIN, IT DOES NOT HAVE POWER
OVER US! I cannot emphasize that enough. The cyclical patter of sin –
forgiveness – sin – forgiveness – sin has to be broken in our lives! Look to the
cross!

When we line our lives up with the Living God, the things that break his heart
will also break ours. Prayer becomes a living communication with a Living God
and not some mechanical discussion with ourselves. It becomes a joy and not a
duty.

J.H. Jowett said"

The ministers of Calvary must supplicate in bloody sweat, and their intercession
must often touch to the point of agony. If we pray in cold blood we are no
longer ministers of the Cross. True intercession is a sacrifice, a bleeding
sacrifice, a perpetuation of Calvary, a "filling up" of the sufferings of
Christ. My brethren, this is the ministry which the Master owns, the agonized
yearnings which perfect the sufferings of His own intercession. Are we in the
succession? Do our prayers bleed? Have we felt the painful fellowship of the
pierced hand? I am so often ashamed of my prayers. The so frequently cost me
nothing: they shed no blood. I am amazed at the grace and condescension of my
Lord that the confers any fruitfulness upon my superficial pains.

As soon as we cease to bleed, we cease to bless.

The Servant of God is a flame of fire. (Psa 104:4 NASB) He makes the winds His
messengers, Flaming fire His ministers.

Jim Elliot of "Through Gates of Splendor" renown wrote"

God makes his ministers a flame of fire. Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the
dread asbestos of "other things". Saturate me with the oil of Thy Spirit that I
may be a flame. Make me thy fuel, Flame of God.

(Mat 5:14 NASB) "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be
hidden.

(Mat 5:15 NASB) "Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but
on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house.

(Mat 5:16 NASB) "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see
your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

(Isa 60:2 NASB) "For behold, darkness will cover the earth, And deep darkness
the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you, And His glory will appear upon
you.

(Isa 60:3 NASB) "And nations will come to your light, And kings to the
brightness of your rising.

What is it that causes God to chose one and not another to pour his passion and
fire upon? What is it in the spirit and soul that one moment seems to be at
life’s chores and the next is blazing with holy flame? I have often wondered at
why God chose me to settle his Spirit upon with such power. (And I realize that
I am really a new comer to such power and really lack much. But God has promised
me that He will imbue me with "Great Power" in the not too distant future, and
for that I stretch myself. ) Being ignitable means a long season growing slowly
and quietly like the grass. Green and lush with life and the quiet flow of the
Spirit. Then the grass is cut, the sin is crucified and cut off. The grass dies
to self and for a time the pain and agony of that death is almost too much and
the grass withers and dries out. Now God has the grass right where He wants it.
On the altar of sacrifice he lays the bundle and the fire from heaven flashes
and the grass is suddenly ablaze. All the energy of the previous year is
consumed in one glorious blast of flame. But the Lord is not through and will
not allow the flame to subside to quiet embers. He pours out his Spirit like oil
on the flame and makes it blaze higher. OH God, set our hearts on fire with your
holy presence, ignite our souls to burn with your glory so all the world may see
your flaming servants and give you the glory!

Smith Wigglesworth speaking of us all exclaimed:

Oh if God had His way, we would be like torches, purifying the very atmosphere
wherever we go, moving back the forces of wickedness.

Are we on fire or do we spread darkness? Do we pollute or purify? Do we give off
light or levity? What is our temperature? Are we cold with dead orthodoxy like
the Church at Ephesus or are we lukewarm at Laodicea? We have to be hot to push
back the darkness. Only a Church aflame will attract the sinner with something
that will turn him away from his sin. Only a Church on fire will win the battle!

(Deu 4:24 NASB) "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

(Rev 1:12 NASB) And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And
having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;

(Rev 1:13 NASB) and in the middle of the lampstands one like a son of man,
clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His breast with a
golden girdle.

(Rev 1:14 NASB) And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow;
and His eyes were like a flame of fire;

(Rev 1:15 NASB) and His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused
to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.

(Rev 1:16 NASB) And in His right hand He held seven stars; and out of His mouth
came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its
strength.

The more we are like our Master the more we will blaze.

Do you want to be a servant of the Lord? Do you want to be pure, humble a person
of the Word, obedient at all costs, Spirit dependent, identify with Christ’s
suffering, and ablaze with His glory? The door is mercy is still open. Enter in
and let Jesus pour his life into you.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 5: THE SECRET PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH
========================================================================

(Psa 91:1 KJV) He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty.

(Psa 91:2 KJV) I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God;
in him will I trust.

I have been intrigued with the concept of the secret place of the Most High for
quite a while. I think this is a hint of where God wants every believer to be.
If we can understand what this means we will be a long way toward the fire and
purity of revival.

The first thing of significance is that the place is secret. It is not known to
everybody and is not a place for everybody to be. Secret means it may be hard to
find, it may be in a place difficult to get too. Though I don’t think secret is
in the sense of gnosis or the Gnostic heresy. There are no adepts in God’s
Kingdom, no secret knowledge only the privileged may know and who lord it over
the lowly. No this secret place may be hard to find but it is for everybody who
may desire to locate it. This secret place is somewhere close to the Most High,
the Almighty. That is a dangerous place to be. When God met Moses on the
mountain he told him that he could not look on his face as it would mean death.
He put Moses in the cleft of the rock and placed His hand over him as He walked
by. Even this fleeting glimpse of the Ancient of Days caused Moses to glow with
the glory of God. To be in the secret place is be pure in heart and clean of
hands as Psalms 24 ascertains. No sin can be there. We are to also glow with
God’s Glory!

The second thing of significance is that we are to dwell there! Moses only had a
brief time on the mountain really close to God. To dwell means to live in that
place. What Glory!! To live next to the Almighty, right in His presence. Our
permanent abode is to be in this secret place. Why should we even want to live
there?

(Psa 27:5 NASB) For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle;
in the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock.

In the day of trouble He will conceal me in His secret place. That day could be
almost any day. We live in a veil of tears most of the time and trouble is all
around. This is a place of supernatural strength for He lifts us up on a rock.
Behold I lay in Zion a stone, a tried stone a precious corner stone. Our Rock
and our Redeemer has become our salvation and our strength. Oh to live with the
Almighty is to plug into the high voltage circuit of the spirit. It is where God
can most effectively work with us.

(Psa 31:19 NASB) How great is Thy goodness, Which Thou hast stored up for those
who fear Thee, Which Thou hast wrought for those who take refuge in Thee, Before
the sons of men!

(Psa 31:20 NASB) Thou dost hide them in the secret place of Thy presence from
the conspiracies of man; Thou dost keep them secretly in a shelter from the
strife of tongues.

(Isa 45:2 NASB) "I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will
shatter the doors of bronze, and cut through their iron bars.

(Isa 45:3 NASB) "And I will give you the treasures of darkness, And hidden
wealth of secret places, In order that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the
God of Israel, who calls you by your name.

Look at this! God has stored up GOODNESS in the secret place. He will break all
obstacles in our way and GIVE to us the treasures of darkness and the wealth of
the secret places. That implies that all the resources that God has for us is
there. We can access all the riches in Christ, we can access all God has for us
there. Wow! I want to be in that place!!

I was talking with a man who was raised a Catholic but had no relation with His
Lord. During our conversation he mentioned his wife as being antagonistic toward
things of religion. I had shared Christ with him and so he knew at least
something of the possibilities in Christ, and I told him he could pray for his
wife once he got his life right with the Lord. He said "You don’t know my wife –
she’s Sicilian!" I said "Is she bigger than God?" Oh how we limit God! That man
is sitting in a thousand pews in a thousand Churches. He has the form of
Godliness but denies its power. We cannot dream big enough for what God will
do!!

The Song of Solomon is a beautiful type of the mutual love of the groom and
bride or the Lord and His Church. I have read it several times in this light and
have been blessed every time. I especially love the second chapter where the
Lord speaks to his Bride in endearing terms and finally says.

(Song 2:10 NASB) "My beloved responded and said to me, 'Arise, my darling, my
beautiful one, And come along.

(Song 2:11 NASB) 'For behold, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone.

(Song 2:12 NASB) 'The flowers have already appeared in the land; The time has
arrived for pruning the vines, And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in
our land.

(Song 2:13 NASB) 'The fig tree has ripened its figs, And the vines in blossom
have given forth their fragrance. Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, And come
along!'"

(Song 2:14 NASB) "O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the secret place of
the steep pathway, Let me see your form, Let me hear your voice; For your voice
is sweet, And your form is lovely."

Oh how sweet our Lord speaks to us His bride. This speaks of time of refreshing
like the spring after the winter when all is fresh and new. He desires to meet
us in the secret place in the steep pathway. He desires to hear our voice and
see our form. Oh my heart stirs at His desire and I want to be there too. To
hear His wonderful voice and to see His form that is altogether lovely. What
believer would not be stirred by such a request from their Lord? To not be moved
is to be in deadness of spirit. To be sure sins make us dead to the Lord’s
request but so does business. Martha had that problem when Jesus came to their
house in Bethany, but Mary knew what was really happening. Jesus had arrived and
she was at His feet enjoying His presence. The Church at Ephesus was commended
for things that most churches would love to see. They worked diligently and
patiently. They faced down false doctrine. They persevered. They were a working
Church! But the Living Lord said they had left their first love! They were dead
orthodoxy and doctrine. They had doctrine down to a science and their faith was
intellectual, but they had no fire in their midst. They had no heat, they were
cold. That path is easy to travel and most denominations that started out in the
crucible of pure Holy Fire eventually left it for orthodox coldness. Look at
Methodism today, look at the Salvation Army today, look at the many
denominations that were flaming during the first and second Great Awakening and
see where they are today. The Pentecostal and Charismatic Church is going down
the same path in many cases. We who make the Fire of God a doctrine are losing
the Fire and keeping the doctrine!

Asaph was in trouble. He was mired in dead orthodoxy in Psalms 73. Dead
orthodoxy has no answer for sin. The sinner sees nothing he desired in its
coldness and deadness. There is no living Lord, He is either still in the tomb
or has escaped and is gone. Asaph didn’t understand why the sinful men didn’t
just curl up and die. After all, they were in direct violation of the doctrine.
Had he kept his skirts clean and suffered for naught? Why he had suffered
poverty and these guys were rich! He suffered privation and they had surplus!
Right now that sin looked pretty good! Sin had better answers than dead
orthodoxy until something happened.

(Psa 73:16 NASB) When I pondered to understand this, It was troublesome in my
sight

(Psa 73:17 NASB) Until I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their
end.

Asaph went into the sanctuary of God. That is the secret place. His perceptions
and priorities were rearranged. Getting close to God has a habit of doing that.
It is like waking up from a dream that seemed so real. Asaph then could say:

(Psa 73:25 NASB) Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I desire
nothing on earth.

(Psa 73:26 NASB) My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my
heart and my portion forever.

He understood that God had been with him all this time but he just had not
perceived it. He was revitalized he was set on fire. Fervor had replaced
faintheartedness. Perception had replaced poverty. Desire had replaced deadness.
Oh how our God wants to change us to move through us! We need to get into that
secret place, that sanctuary and let Him have His way! We need to yearn and
hunger and thirst for the Living God. He only wants people who look for Him. If
we search for Him he promises He will be found. Cry out like David:

(Psa 63:1 NASB) (A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.) O
God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; My soul thirsts for Thee, my
flesh yearns for Thee, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

(Psa 63:2 NASB) Thus I have beheld Thee in the sanctuary, To see Thy power and
Thy glory.

Where do we go? What do we do? Jesus said that is was expedient that He go so
that the comforter would come. The promised Holy Spirit. How maligned the Holy
Spirit is in our midst. Many know about Him but he is like a vague doctrine to
them. He is the silent and invisible part of the Trinity. But Pentecost was
something else. This was blaze of Holy Fire, a passion and fervor that led to
3000 being added to the Church. This was no invisible Spirit. There were visible
flames, a people speaking strange tongues, power from on High that healed and
saved. The people put the sick out so that even the shadows of the apostles
might fall on them and they be healed. Jesus said:

(John 14:12 NASB) "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works
that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I
go to the Father.

(John 14:13 NASB) "And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son.

There are those in dead orthodoxy who say that the time of miracles is past. The
promise of Jesus is taken to mean that the technology of radio and television
are what Jesus meant. That one man through this technology can reach far more
than Jesus could. What this argument presents is only the arguer’s own paucity
of power. I am not arguing that radio and television are not used of God, but
Jesus wasn’t talking about them when He said we would do greater works. The
Spirit as per Joel 2 that Peter preached at Pentecost said that God would pour
is Spirit out on ALL flesh. The works of wonder and power would be part of this
great outpouring. Acts is still the blueprint for what the Church is supposed to
be. Signs and wonders should still be a part of our work. I was talking to a
young Mormon on the plane. I told him about the wonder of God and what great
work he was doing in my life. He reacted almost visibly by going into some
automatic mode and spoke almost sing song "Wouldn’t you like to be in a church
where the twelve apostles are reinstated and the true prophetic office still
resides?" I told him: "Get off the automatic response. When has God come to you
with fire and power and moved upon you and changed you from glory to glory? When
have YOU prophesied? What is God doing in you life this moment?" He looked at me
and realized he had no answer. Cold orthodoxy cannot answer sin but sin cannot
answer FIRE!!

Paul knew the secret when he said:

(1 Cor 6:19 NASB) Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

We have heard this time and time again so that we have almost been inured to it.
But this is the most awesome thing. The Holy Spirit who moved on the waters at
creation, the Holy Spirit who was in pillar of fire and cloud, the Holy Spirit
who dwelt between the Cherubim in the Holy Place is the same Holy Spirit who
indwell us!! Oh what wonder, what glory!! Jesus said that He would be with us
until the end of the age. How? By the indwelling Holy Spirit. He is within us.
In Colossians 1:27 it is Christ IN you the hope of glory. He is the secret
place. He is the sanctuary.

(Eph 3:8 NASB) To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to
preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,

So you see all the riches promised in the Old Testament are in Christ and He is
in us. And we have died and our life is hidden (in the secret place) in Christ.
The secret place is not somewhere out there but in our heart.

Jesus had overshadowed my life numerous times. One of those times He said to me
that the prime reason the Holy Spirit came was not just to quicken and save us
but that He could have intimate relations with us. That astounded me. He is the
source of fire and zeal in my life and he dwell within. Oh that we would cling
to that. Seek Him in the secret place, seek His fire and presence. Seek Him for
His love and presence alone. Seek Him in humbleness and brokeness. You will not
be disappointed. Let revival start with you.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 6: THE SECRET PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH II
========================================================================

The Lord has a place for every believer in which there is refuge, comfort,
peace, joy and treasures beyond telling. It is a place above anything most
Christians have ever seen in their lives. It is a place of power and heavenly
faith to overcome any obstacle, problem, sin or sickness. I discussed this at
length in the Secret Place of the Most High, but the Lord has given me more
insight into the majestic place and the path we must follow to get there.

John 15:5-8

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears
much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in Me,
he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them
into the fire, and they are burned. 7If you abide in Me, and My words abide in
you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8By this My
Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

We all know this verse and can mostly quote it, but there is much to understand
here for the seeker. We see in Romans 11 where we are wild branches grafted into
the tree or vine. When you graft a branch into the rootstock of another tree the
branch usually will not change into the tree. You can graft a wild apple branch
onto a good tree and the branch will only produce sour wild apples. In the
spiritual kingdom that is not to be so even if it happens all the time. Our
churches are full of wild branches grafted in that bear little fruit or wild
sour fruit. Jesus would say to us that in His kingdom the branch actually takes
on the very essence of the vine. The life that is in the vine must become the
very life of the branch. Jesus saying that His words must abide in us implies
this. The Word of God must live in us daily, hourly. We must know Him who
indwells us, deeply and intimately. His desires become our desires and thus when
we pray there is no mystery of answer, we know exactly what he wants because the
are living so deeply in him.

John 14:10-14

10Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words
that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who
dwells in Me does the works. 11Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father
in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

12"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he
will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My
Father. 13And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may
be glorified in the Son. 14If you £ask anything in My name, I will do it.

Jesus is the branch of God.

Isaiah 4:2 In that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious;

And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing

For those of Israel who have escaped.

Isaiah 11:1-2 1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,

And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

2 The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him,

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The Spirit of counsel and might,

The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

The Father dwells in Jesus, Jesus and the Holy Spirit dwell in us. That means
the whole God Head dwells in us!!! The unimaginable wealth that is ours! My
heart absolutely sings at that thought. We need to wake up in these last days
and apprehend all God has for us lest we perish. Look at the verses in John 14
above. See the flow of authority from the Father to Jesus. Jesus did all he did
by the authority and will of the Father. He then says that we who believe him
will do even greater works than Jesus because of this flow of power and
authority. To ask in Jesus name means to invoke his authority. A policeman in
uniform can stop a line of cars and trucks weighing tons and with thousands of
horsepower by virtue of the authority of the state his uniform and badge
represent. If he tries to stop this traffic without his uniform he might get run
over. Many Christians are run over by the enemy because they are out of uniform.

You know the uniform.

Ephesians 6

10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,
against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take
up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day,
and having done all, to stand.

14Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the
breastplate of righteousness, 15and having shod your feet with the preparation
of the gospel of peace; 16above all, taking the shield of faith with which you
will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17And take the
helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
18praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful
to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—

The helmet is to guard the mind, the breastplate is to guard the heart, the
loins or waist is to guard the reproductive organs or disciple making ability,
the feet shod with the gospel of peace is our will to witness, the shield is a
defense against the darts (implanted thoughts, events in our lives). Finally the
magnificent sword or Word of God. All the other implements are defensive in
nature but the sword is offensive, it strikes where error or sin abound and
severs between the thoughts and intents of the heart, dividing down to the
deepest level to precisely cut out the tendrils of sin in our lives. How good is
our God to love us so that he would perform His work so precisely and purely.

But just the equipment is not enough. When we send soldiers to battle we train
them and inure them to hardships, pain and even death. Battle is a terrible
thing. Many are wounded and many die. Many Christians today do not realize we
are in a life and death struggle against the enemy of our soul. Many perish
because Christians are not cognizant of this fact and are held in thralldom by
the enemy. I am somewhat hesitant to write this but perhaps now is the time.
Prophets and visionaries are often misunderstood. I do not claim either gift or
ministry but I have prophesied and had visions. Recently I was sitting in my
living room and it seemed the end of my house had disappeared. In its place was
a vast plain with many people on it. Ahead was the edge of a precipice toward
which the people were moving. The edge of this precipice was flaming with red
and orange flames and a horrible glow showed from somewhere below the lip. The
people were walking or running towards the lip and I saw many that suddenly lost
their balance and with a weak cry fell over the edge. My heart was pierced
through with a deep grief and I cried out to the people but they didn't seem to
hear. I broke down weeping. The Lord solemnly spoke and said "What you see
happening is because my Church is asleep!". I was included in the asleep
category.

The path to the secret place of the Most High is not a garden path or a walk
through a shaded wood. It is a path of hardships and suffering. I know this is
not a popular word to give to the Church today but it is necessary. Souls are
being lost this very instance and we must be about our Father's business.

II Tim. 2:3

3You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4No one
engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may
please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

II Cor. 4:18

18while 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.

We have to be like soldiers who are willing to give of their all to win the
battle. We must have a vision that clearly sees the battle standard that is in
the heavenlies. We must not fight as beating the air but with purpose listening
to and obeying our commanders in the Lord.

I Cor 15:32

I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die
daily.

We must take up our cross and die daily to self. There is no other way. The work
of the cross it to kill. And we have much that needs killing.

Phil. 3:10

10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of
His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

To know the power of His resurrection we must know the fellowship of His
sufferings and be conformed to his death. There is no resurrection where there
is no death. The way of the cross is pain, suffering and death. But the way of
resurrection is an explosion of joy. The way of resurrection is also the way to
the secret place of the Most High.

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

We now get to the core of the question. The way of suffering and death leads to
glory and resurrection even in this life we now live. It is not only for the
future but for right now in the midst of our lives. The resurrection power must
permeate our very lives. We must flow with the rivers of life to water the dry
ground.

Col. 3:2

2Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For you died, and
your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Our carnal life has ended and our resurrection life has begun. We are hidden
with Christ in God in the secret place. The enemy cannot come there. He may
storm and rail against us and we may suffer in the flesh but we are hidden in
the secret place far above anything the enemy can throw at us. Praise God! In
the secret place we see with Jesus eyes and don't look with the eyes of the
flesh. We judge rightly and don't condemn. We see what needs to be done and we
do it. In the secret place our hearts beat with the pulse of the holy one
Himself. Whatever breaks His heart breaks ours, whatever brings joy to his heart
brings joy to our as well. We are sensitive to sin like never before. That is a
gift beyond counting. When I used to sin I would ignore any guilty feelings and
rationalize my actions. But now I don't let my intimate fellowship with my Lord
be sullied even an instant.

Are you ready my beloved to come to this secret place God has for you? Come and
taste and see the Lord is good. There is nothing about him that is not beautiful
and kind. He is altogether lovely, he is gentle and mild. Oh beloved seek him
today.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 7: A TALE OF TWO CITIES
========================================================================

In Mark Chapter 5 we see a visit of Jesus to a Gentile area southeast of the Sea
of Galilee called the country of the Gerasenes or the Decapolis. This is an
interesting tale in two parts with another part in-between.

Let’s take a look at this story.

(Mark 5:1 NASB) And they came to the other side of the sea, into the country of
the Gerasenes.

(Mark 5:2 NASB) And when He had come out of the boat, immediately a man from the
tombs with an unclean spirit met Him,

(Mark 5:3 NASB) and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to
bind him anymore, even with a chain;

(Mark 5:4 NASB) because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and
the chains had been torn apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces, and no
one was strong enough to subdue him.

(Mark 5:5 NASB) And constantly night and day, among the tombs and in the
mountains, he was crying out and gashing himself with stones.

(Mark 5:6 NASB) And seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down
before Him;

(Mark 5:7 NASB) and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What do I have to do
with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment
me!"

(Mark 5:8 NASB) For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean
spirit!"

(Mark 5:9 NASB) And He was asking him, "What is your name?" And he said to Him,
"My name is Legion; for we are many."

Here we see Jesus on a divine appointment to this area. Who was he to meet? A
king or a prince of the people? Perhaps a leader or a religious priest of their
religion was to meet him? No just a man in trouble. How our God looks at things
is far different than how we look. Here was a man tormented by demons, an
outcast of society, greatly feared by the people, in utter misery. Jesus didn’t
run away from him, he didn’t laugh and point. His great compassion flowed from
Him again and healed and restored.

I recently was in another city in a restaurant by the hotel where I was staying
eating dinner rather late. A man came in and sat at the counter acting very
strange. He had Tourette’s syndrome as well as many other problems. He was
scaring the other patrons and the waitresses. Others were repulsed at him, but
the compassion of Jesus filled my heart for this poor tormented man. I ended up
giving him a ride home late that night to a town about 30 miles away. On the
ride I told him of the love of Jesus and how the Holy One could release him from
his torment. He was not ready to receive that but he wondered about me and how I
would reach out to him and not fear him. I know that I was the first to plant
seed in his heart. Perhaps another will cultivate and another harvest. One day I
will sing the song of the redeemed with him in heaven. His name is Chuck and I
am praying for him, as I know there is no one else in this world who is doing
so.

It is interesting how the demoniac, full of demons, saw Jesus from a distance
and ran to Him and bowed down. I’m sure there was something in the man who saw
Jesus and knew from the demon knowledge in him that here was one who could
release him from this living hell. He ran to Jesus for help and healing. The
demons also recognized Jesus. They called him "Jesus, Son of the Most High God"
and they acknowledged His supreme authority and power by bowing down to Him.

(Phil 2:9 NASB) Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the
name which is above every name,

(Phil 2:10 NASB) that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, of those who
are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,

(Phil 2:11 NASB) and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Yes these knew their Lord even the demons. Does your knee bow and do you confess
his Lordship in your life?

Now let us continue this intriguing story.

(Mark 5:8 NASB) For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean
spirit!"

(Mark 5:9 NASB) And He was asking him, "What is your name?" And he said to Him,
"My name is Legion; for we are many."

(Mark 5:10 NASB) And he began to entreat Him earnestly not to send them out of
the country.

(Mark 5:11 NASB) Now there was a big herd of swine feeding there on the
mountain.

(Mark 5:12 NASB) And the demons entreated Him, saying, "Send us into the swine
so that we may enter them."

(Mark 5:13 NASB) And He gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean
spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea,
about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

Jesus knew this was a demonized person and was telling the spirit to leave. Do
we have Jesus’ eyes and heart? Do we see the world as He sees it? Do the things
that break His heart break ours? I know as He breaks and breaks me and I yield
more and more to His Spirit the more my eyes look at the world and weep and the
more my heart aches for the poor and downtrodden to come to Him, their Healer,
Redeemer and Saviour.

Jesus asked the demon’s name and he, or more accurately they, answered "we are
legion". A Roman legion is about 6,000 men. But whatever the number, this man
was loaded with every horrible, vicious and perverted demon he could hold. It is
interesting how the demons seem to gain some kind of pleasure from the
tormenting of a human they live in. They operate by deception and lying to gain
entrance and many times present themselves as good and beneficial. Once they get
a grip the on the soul the torment grows. Like the hostage syndrome where the
hostage starts to identify with their captors and even take on their persona,
the person starts to accept the torment as normal and even needed.

Tal Brook in his book Riders of the Cosmic Circuit tells about his initiation
into Sai Baba’s Hindu mystic group in India. He relates how each step in the
initiation became more and more horrific. Sai Baba told him that was necessary
to get him used to both sides of God, the good and the evil. This is the complex
dualism inherent in Hinduism. Tal writes about his final initiation step that
was to usher him into the exalted levels of the mystic society. He was brought
(in the spirit) into a terrifying temple of images so horrible he could not look
directly at them. He also knew they were alive and watching him. He had to go
though the temple to a door behind which was something so horrible and
terrifying he felt he could not enter. Just as he was to open the door a voice
from the heavens stopped him and he ran out of the temple and back to sanity.
His road to Christianity started at that voice of the Holy Spirit that saved him
from a most horrible fate. The demons had convinced Tal that the torment and
mental and even physical torture he faced was necessary for his continued
growth. These demons gave real power too. The demoniac was extraordinarily
strong.

So Jesus sent the demons into the swine. The swine didn’t like it either and all
ran over the cliff to their deaths. Even the animals don’t like the unholy
presence of a demon. Many people tolerate them because they are deceived.

Let us continue the story. It gets better.

(Mark 5:14 NASB) And their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and out
in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened.

(Mark 5:15 NASB) And they came to Jesus and observed the man who had been
demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who
had had the "legion"; and they became frightened.

(Mark 5:16 NASB) And those who had seen it described to them how it had happened
to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine.

(Mark 5:17 NASB) And they began to entreat Him to depart from their region.

Now this is very interesting. The pigs all ran into the sea and died and the
herdsmen, bereft of their income ran to tell the city fathers. The city fathers
came and saw the man whom they had feared clothed and in his right mind. You
would think they would have rejoiced because a great danger to their community
had been removed. Or maybe they would be glad to see a man who was an outcast
now all clean and ready to be a productive part of their society. But no, they
became frightened and asked Jesus to depart from their region. Such are many
people today. Jesus comes near and they become frightened. Many people in
churches today talk much about revival and lament its non-arrival. Some even
pray for revival and when a good service or two come they become satisfied. We
are a proud and satisfied church. Revival will break that. Revival is a hammer
and a fire to break and burn. Revival will upset our status quo like it did the
Gerasenes. They didn’t like the status quo to change. It might have been bad but
the unexpected, the new, might be worse. This Jesus, who had demonstrated more
power than they could all muster, was someone to fear more than the demoniac and
so they begged Him to leave. And leave He did, but he left something behind.

(Mark 5:18 NASB) And as He was getting into the boat, the man who had been
demon-possessed was entreating Him that he might accompany Him.

(Mark 5:19 NASB) And He did not let him, but He said to him, "Go home to your
people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how
He had mercy on you."

(Mark 5:20 NASB) And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great
things Jesus had done for him; and everyone marveled.

Of course the man wanted to stay with Jesus. He had never met someone like that.
How his heart must have fallen when Jesus told him he had to stay. But look at
what Jesus told him to do. Go home to your people and tell them what great
things the Lord had done for you, and how he had mercy on you. Oh, the mercy of
our Lord! How great it is, how wonderful. That same mercy should flow from our
hearts in even a greater measure today. I believe Jesus gave the man power to go
forth for he went out and told all Jesus had done for him and the people
marveled. He was a stealth bomb, sent under the radar of their fear to disarm
them with mercy.

On the surface it appeared a defeat. The enemy had lost a person, but fear drove
the Holy One away.

Now we look at another city.

(Mark 6:1 NASB) And He went out from there, and He came into His home town; and
His disciples followed Him.

(Mark 6:2 NASB) And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the
synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, "Where did this man
get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as
these performed by His hands?

(Mark 6:3 NASB) "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of
James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?" And
they took offense at Him.

(Mark 6:4 NASB) And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except
in his home town and among his own relatives and in his own household."

(Mark 6:5 NASB) And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands
upon a few sick people and healed them.

(Mark 6:6 NASB) And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the
villages teaching.

Jesus on his way home had crossed over to the Galilee side and performed two
great miracles. He healed the woman with the 12-year hemorrhage and raised
Jairus’s daughter. But then he came home. On the Sabbath he taught in his home
Church so to speak. They were duly astonished at his teaching for it was from
God, but they couldn’t bring themselves to believe. They thought they knew Him.
Why he’s the carpenter, you know, Mary’s son. Even his brothers and sisters live
here. Who does he think he is!?

But they didn’t know him. They didn’t recognize the day of their visitation.
This most remarkable statement is made. He could do no miracle there because of
their unbelief. Oh beloved we have too many Churches like Nazareth, they profess
the name but don’t believe He can or will do very much. We live like Christian
atheists going to Church but denying the power of God. Jesus, who searches the
soul and knows the heart of man, even wondered at their unbelief.

So here is strike two. This doesn’t look too good, the enemy is working overtime
and appears to be ahead in the count. But do you remember the stealth bomb?

(Mark 6:53 NASB) And when they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret,
and moored to the shore.

(Mark 6:54 NASB) And when they had come out of the boat, immediately the people
recognized Him,

(Mark 6:55 NASB) and ran about that whole country and began to carry about on
their pallets those who were sick, to the place they heard He was.

(Mark 6:56 NASB) And wherever He entered villages, or cities, or countryside,
they were laying the sick in the market places, and entreating Him that they
might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were being
cured.

Now Gennesaret is in the same area as Gadera and was one of the Decapolis or ten
cities. The man Jesus had sent forth to tell all the Lord had done for him had
been around. The stealth bomb had exploded and instead of hot shrapnel, mercy
and grace spread faith through the people. When Jesus arrived the people were
like grass before a fire. They knew the day of their visitation and they had
prepared for it. Out came the sick, out came the demonized, and out came the
lame, the blind. Any and all who came were healed, even those who just touched
the hem of his garment. The people ran to gather the sick. Oh, how merciful is
our God. These people had faith; this is where miracles could happen. The faith
of the people met the power of God and an explosion of healings occurred. That
is what it takes. Someone to tell of the mercies of God and how they had been
touched, that stirs up faith in another and another and soon God blesses with
miracles. Beloved, which town are you living in? Is the vital power of God
coursing through you so that he can have his way? Are you going from glory to
glory and being conformed into His wonderful image? Oh bless our God, for His
mercies are new every morning. This story makes my heart sing! I love to see a
people run with faith. What happened there can and will happen again today. Are
you ready for it? Are you living in the city of faith or the city of unbelief?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 8: THE FEASTS OF ISREAL: THEIR PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE
========================================================================

Why Study the Feasts?

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfill. (Mat 5:17 KJV)

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that
we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (Rom 15:4
KJV)

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be
justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a
schoolmaster. (Gal 3: 24-25 KJV)

We know that the former things were given to us to teach us. The Bible is the
whole Word of God.

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an
holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: Which are a shadow of
things to come; but the body is of Christ. (Col 2: 16-17 KJV)

The feasts are prophetic in their nature of both Christ's first coming and his
Second Coming, as we shall see.

REMEMBER! The New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament and the Old
Testament is revealed in the New Testament.

The Feast days are in Num. 23; Num 28 - 29; Deut. 16 and Lev. 23.

These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall
proclaim in their seasons. (Lev 23:4 KJV)

God set the feast times for a prophetic purpose.

"Feast is "Mow'ed" or an appointed time.

"Holy Convocation" is "Migraw" or a "rehearsal"

The Jews were called together at the appointed times by God to "rehearse" their
ultimate salvation which was to be the only begotten Son of God. Note also that
the months were 360 day months that only changed in 701BC.

THE ORDER OF THE FEASTS

The Spring Feasts.

Nisan

Passover 14th Nisan

Feast of Unleavened Bread 15th Nisan

Feast of Firstfruits On the morrow after the sabbath

+49 days: Feast of Weeks (Shavout) Sivan

The Fall Feasts

Tishri

Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) 1 Tishri

Day of Atonement (Yom Kipper) 9 -10 Tishri

Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth) 15th Tishri

The two calendars:

And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first
month of the year to you. (Exo 12:1-2 KJV)

Months Civil (old) Religious (New)

Tishri (Ethanim) 1 7

Cheshvan (Bul) 2 8

Chisleu 3 9

Tevet 4 10

Sh'vat 5 11

Adar 6 12

Nisan (Aviv) 7 1

IIyar (Zif) 8 2

Sivan 9 3

Tammuz 10 4

Av 11 5

Elul 12 6

All the months were 30 days prior to 701 BC giving a 360 day sidereal year.

India Veda texts assume 360 day years

Persia 360 day years. 7th Century BC 5 days added

Chaldea 360 day year, (360 degree circle: 60 min/hr, 60 sec./min.)

Assyria 360 day year, Decade = 3600 days

Egypt 12 30 day months, 5 days added after 7th Cent. BC

360 gods in the theology of the Greek Orpheus

360 Idols in the palace of Dairi in Japan

360 statues surrounding the Hobal in Ancient Arabia

360 icons in the gnostic gneii

360 degrees in a circle

All early calendars were on a 360 day basis.

2nd king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, reorganizes the 360 day calendar in 364BC
adding 5 days.

Hezekiah adds 1 month every 6 years.

All ancient calendars changed after 701 BC, ie the Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks,
Phoenicians, Chinese, Mayan, Hindus, Carthaginians, Etruscans, Tuetons, etc.
etc.

The Calendar as we know it is a very recent phenomena, most early calendars
began in March and some began in October. It wasn't until the 1500's that
January was installed as the first month.

Why the change? Only a change in the orbit of the earth would account for a
massive change in the calendars of the ancients.

Immanual Veilikovsky thought Venus was a comet captured by the sun and swept
Mars off orbit to glance past earth. There is much speculation about a planet
the once orbited between Mars and is now rubble (the asteroid belt). Some the
asteroids that have struck the earth as iron nickel meteorites have a
crystalline structure the evidenced being in the molten core of a planet under
pressure and the pressure be suddenly released.

What catastrophe could have caused a planet to tear apart?

Mars exhibits evidences of vast floods on its' surface and immense volcanism.
The moon of the earth shows a battered face to us that happened relatively
recently. The moons of Mars are almost nothing more than uneven fragments
blackened and charred from some ancient catastrophe.

The Martian Moons.

Phobos, 8 miles in diameter, 3% albedo (darkest object in Solar System) rises in
the west. Rotates 7h39m.

Demos, 12 miles? diameter, Rotates 30h18m, almost synchronous, rises in east.

Discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall

Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745 ) published Gulliver's Travels in 1726 and details
the size, Albedo, revolutions and orbits of two moons of Mars, 151 years before
their discovery.

Many cultures feared and worshipped Mars, as God of War, Baal etc.. Why? Mars
today is a very faint speck in the sky and certainly has no commanding presence.

Patton et. al

Computer program showing Mars could have passed close to earth at least 7 times
and up to 13 times before orbit stabilized on a 54 year or multiple of schedule.

Summary of Catastrophes

Calc. Dist.

Oct. 2146 Peleg

Oct. 1930 Tower of Babel

Mark. 1877 Sodom and Gomorrah

Mark. 1663 Job 120,000 miles

Mark. 1447 Exodus plagues 60,000 miles

Oct. 1404 Long Day of Joshua 70,000 miles

Oct. 1188 Deborah 150,000 miles

Oct. 1080 Samuel 150,000 miles

Mark. 1025 David 200,000 miles

Oct. 972 David 120,000 miles

Oct. 864 Elijah 150,000 miles

Oct. 756 Joel - Amos 120,000 miles

Mark. 701 Isaiah 70,000 miles

References:

And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was
the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan. (Gen. 10:25 KJV)

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound
the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad
upon the face of all the earth. (Gen. 11:9 KJV)

Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the
LORD out of heaven; (Gen. 19:24 KJV)

For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy
servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me
in all the earth. (Exo 9:14 KJV)

And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down
to Bethhoron, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto
Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom
the children of Israel slew with the sword.

Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites
before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand
thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. (Josh 10:11-12
KJV)

They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. (Judg
5:20 KJV) Deborah's song.

Passover 14th Nisan

Commemorates the deliverance from Egypt.

(Exo 12:1-14 KJV)

And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first
month of the year to you.

3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this
month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for an house:

4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next
unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according
to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it
out from the sheep, or from the goats:

6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on
the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened
bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head
with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which
remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.

11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet,
and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD'S
Passover.

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of
Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.

13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and
when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you
to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast
to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an
ordinance for ever.

The reference to Passover is also found in:

(Lev 23:5 -6 KJV)

In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's Passover.

6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread
unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.

God predicted the deliverance from Egypt 430 years earlier to the day in Genesis
15:13-16

In Exodus 4:21-23 Israel is called "my firstborn"

What do the Exodus verses tell us about Jesus "The Lamb of God"?

1. On the 10th of the month each household is to choose a lamb from the flock
that is without blemish and observe it until the 14th.

Jesus triumphal entry was on the 10th of the month. John 12:1 - 12. Many
confrontations with the Pharisees and the Sadducees occur, with the 2nd
cleansing of the temple and the Olivet discourse etc. He was "observed".

This entry also ended another prophetic calendar in Daniel 9:25 - 26 or the 69
weeks of years from the decree to rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem.

There were four decrees:

1. Cyrus, 537 B.C., Ezra 11:2-4 Rebuild the Temple

2. Darius, Ezra 6:1-5, 8, 12 Rebuild the Temple

3. Artaxerxes, 458 B.C., Ezra 7:11-26 Rebuild the Temple

4. Artaxerxes, March 14th, 445 B.C. Neh.. 2:5-8, 17, 18 Rebuild the Temple and
the city (walls) etc.

69 weeks of years of 360 day years is 173,880 days. This calculates exactly to
the 10th of Nisan 32 A.D. This was equal to the 6th of April 32 A.D.

445 B.C. - 32 A.D. (476 x 365) 173,740

March 14th - April 6th 24

Leap years 116

173,880

2. The lamb was to be without blemish. or without sin.

Jesus was introduced at the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" in
John 1:29, 36

Pilate: "I find no fault in him." John 19:4

Without blemish: 1 Peter 1: 18 - 21

3. The lambs were to be killed by the head of the household (transferred later
to the priests in the Temple Deut. 16:1-6) "between the evenings" of the 14th,
or at twilight. Passover occurred that night. This was Friday the 13th on the
Egyptian calendar. Jesus was killed on the 14th of Nisan, 32 A.D. at the ninth
hour or 9:00 A.M. By 32 A.D. there were so many lambs to be inspected the 10th -
the 13th was the time of inspection and the 14th from 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. was
the time to kill them.

4. Not a bone was to be broken.

Ex. 12:46, Num. 9:12 and Psalms 34:20, John 19: 31-36.

5. The entire lamb was to be consumed or burnt, with nothing left the next day.

Ex 12:1-13, Lev. 23:4-5

Jesus was our complete sacrifice, nothing more can be added.

6. The people were to eat the lamb in readiness for leaving as they were going
on the morrow when the Egyptians woke up with the awful death all around them.
They are to eat the lamb with "bitter herbs" Hyssop- which is also used to
spread the blood in point 7 below. Bitter herbs represented the suffering the
messiah would go through to redeem mankind.

7. The people were to place the blood of the lamb on the overhead lintel and the
doorposts on each side with hyssop. Lev. 12:22. Forms a cross.

Blood provides life, Lev. 17:11

Shedding of blood provides remission from sin: Matt. 26:27-28, Heb. 9:22.

Jesus blood on the doorposts of our hearts.

1 John 1:7, Eph. 2:13, John 5:24

The blood would be a sign for the people not the Lord.

8 Uncircumcised could not participate (uncircumcised of heart.)

Deut. 10:16, Jer. 4:4, Gal, 3:26, 6:15, Phil. 3:3, Rom. 2:28-29, 2 Cor.5:17.

Matzah, unleavened bread

Pierced and striped?

3 pieces,

middle one broken in half, one piece wrapped in a cloth and hidden.

4 cups of wine offered

1.Bring out

2. Delivering

3. Redemption / Blessing

4. Taking out.

Mishna, Rabbinic commentary (in some circles judged to have greater authority
than the Torah.

Wine mixed with warm water (why?) John 19:34.

Passover lamb called "his body"

The Festival of Unleavened Bread. 15th of Nisan

1 of 3 compulsory

Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the
place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast
of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the
LORD empty: (Deu 16:16 KJV)

Lev 23:6-8 KJV

And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto
the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.

7. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile
work therein.

8. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the
seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

Called the Hag haMatza.

Leavening

The people were to eat unleavened bread primarily because of haste due to their
departure the day after Passover. Leavening takes time.

Leavening was discovered in Egypt and first used there first. Egypt is a type of
the world

Leavening is a type of sin.

It corrupts by "puffing up" or Pride.

OT type Ex. 12:15; 13:7, Lev. 2:11;6:17;10:12

NT type Matt. 16:6; Luke 13:21; I Cor. 5:6-8; Gal 5:7-9

Pride was also evident in the original fall of Satan in Ezekiel and Isaiah

Ezek 28:12-19 KJV

12. Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him,
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in
beauty.

13. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy
covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the
jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship
of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast
created.

14. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou
wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of
the stones of fire.

15. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till
iniquity was found in thee.

16. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with
violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the
mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of
the stones of fire. (Ezek 28:16 KJV)

17. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy
wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay
thee before kings, that they may behold thee.

18. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by
the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst
of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in
the sight of all them that behold thee.

19. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou
shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

We see even more evidence that pride and rebellion go hand in hand in Isaiah 14.

Isa 14:12-15 KJV

12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou
cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

13. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt
my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the
congregation, in the sides of the north:

14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

15. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Jesus made sin for us. II Cor. 5:21, 1 John 3:5

Jesus "the bread of life" John 6:32-35; 47-51

Other bread models

Manna from Heaven

And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna:
for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which
the LORD hath given you to eat. (Exo 16:15 KJV)

And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land
inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of
Canaan. (Exo 16:35 KJV)

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which
thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know
that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of the LORD doth man live. (Deu 8:3 KJV)

John 6:31-35 KJV

31. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them
bread from heaven to eat.

32. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you
not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

33. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life
unto the world.

34. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

35. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall
never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Melchizedek:

Gen. 14:18-20 KJV

18. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the
priest of the most high God.

19. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God,
possessor of heaven and earth:

20. And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into
thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. (Gen. 14:20 KJV)

Melchizedek gave the bread and wine to Abram, Melchizedek means "The King of
Righteousness"

Look at Bread and Wine at Last Supper

.Mat 26:26-28 KJV

26. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and
gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

27. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye
all of it;

28. For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins.

Compare with story in Gen. 40 of Baker (broken) and Wine Steward (redeemed)

Frees from old life, bondage and call to separation.

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts; (Eph 4:22 KJV)

The corrupt in the above verse reminds us of the corruption of leavening as a
type of sin.

The Feast of the Firstfruits

Lev. 23:9-15

9 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into
the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye
shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:

11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the
morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.

12 And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish
of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.

13 And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled
with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savor: and the
drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin.

14 And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the
selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a
statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day
that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be
complete:

Israel was in the wilderness 3 days prior to being delivered from death through
the red sea into life!

Ex. 13, 14

Jesus Fulfillment

1 Cor 15:20-23 KJV

20. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them
that slept.

21. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

22. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

23. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that
are Christ's at his coming.

Matt. 27:52-53???

52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy
city, and appeared unto many.

For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy,
so are the branches. (Rom 11:16 KJV)

Was Job among the saints that came out of their graves at the resurrection?

Job 19:25-26

25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth:

26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see
God:

Application:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20 KJV)

Romans 6:11-14

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in
the lusts thereof.

13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but
yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your
members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but
under grace.

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of
firstfruits of his creatures. (James 1:18 KJV)

When was Noah's new beginning?

And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month,
upon the mountains of Ararat. (Gen. 8:4 KJV)

Remember though that the 7th month in the old calendar is the 1st month in the
new. So the ark came to rest on Ararat on the 17th of Nisan or on the same day
as Christ was resurrected and the same day as Israel "passed" from death to life
though the waters of the Red Sea.

How long was Jesus in the grave? Some argue that any part of a day counts as a
whole day and Jesus was crucified on Friday and resurrected on Sunday. Others
see the mention of the High Sabbath in Matt 27:62 as a "Shabbaton" in the middle
of the week and Jesus was crucified on Wed. the 14th of Nisan and resurrected on
Sunday the 17th of Nisan or the Festival of Firstfruits.

ie

Possible Final Week.

Friday 9th, In Bethany 6 day before Passover. John 12:1

Saturday 10th, Triumphal Entry, Matt. 21:5, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:28

Sunday 11th, Fig Tree Cursed, Matt. 21:18, Mark 11:12

Monday 12th, Conspirators Counsel, Matt 26:2, Mark 11:20, Luke 22:1

Tuesday, 13th, Last Supper, Matt. 26:17, Mark 14:7, Luke 22:7

Wednesday, 14th, Crucifixion, John 19:14, 31,42; Mark 15:42, Luke 23:17,54

Bones were to be broken to assure death prior to the sabbath which started at
6:00 pm the 14th of Nisan. The Passover lamb was killed in the "evening" or from
3:00pm to 6:00pm. Jesus died at 3:00 or the 9th hour of Lk 23:17-54.

Thursday 15th, Beginning of Feast of Unleavened Bread, lasts 7 days with 1st and
last being Sabbaths. High Sabbath, Passover.

Friday 16th, Women prepare spices

Saturday 17th, sabbath, rested. Luke 23:56, "after Sabbaths Matt. 28:1 > 6:00 PM

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,
came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. (Mat 28:1 KJV)

Sunday 18th, He is risen!!!!


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 9: THE FEASTS OF ISREAL: THEIR PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE II
========================================================================

The Feast of Weeks

Hag Ha Shavout on 6th of Sivan

Also one of the three compulsory feasts.

Tradition says David died on 6th Sivan

Lev. 23:15-22

15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day
that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be
complete:

16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days;
and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.

17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals:
they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the
firstfruits unto the LORD.

18 And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first
year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering
unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an
offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.

19 Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two
lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.

20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave
offering before the LORD with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for
the priest.

21 And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation
unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in
all your dwellings throughout your generations.

22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance
of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any
gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the
stranger: I am the LORD your God.

Israel was given the law on the feast of weeks in Exodus 19. Passover was the
14th of Nisan + 3 days into the wilderness = 17th Nisan, then 3rd day of third
of third month: 46 days. Moses to prepare for the third day: 49 days or 6th of
Sivan.

The church was born on the 6th of Sivan also. cf Acts 2., John 14:25-26, Acts
1:8; 2:1-47

Note the strange occurance of the leaven in the bread. This should make us stand
up and take notice. Leaven has heretofore been used as a type of sin, why are
the loaves make with leaven?

Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven,
which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was
leavened. (Mat 13:33 KJV)

How does this verse stack up with all the other references with leavening being
a type of evil? Also what about the 2 loaves that are not offered on the alter?
Are these a type of the church in its first birth and second birth (rapture)

Note that Israel was also born on the 6th of Sivan and Pentecost is also called
the "feast of Revelation. Compare Ex 19 with Acts 2

In the Pentecost feast note the 2 loaves, made with leaven. Is this the church?
and the 2 lambs offered a type of both the church and Israel?

i.e. Jews and the Church, Law Vs Grace?

What really happened at Pentecost?

1. The Holy Spirit came down to inhabit the believers, and to resurrect their
dead spirits.

Acts 2:4

2. They became a holy nation, of priests, and Kings

Rev. 1:6, 1Pet. 2:9

3. They were given a new language. Acts 2:4

4. They were given provision to be witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Matt. 28:20

5. They were given living water. John 7:38

6. They were given the comforter who would "bring all things to remembrance.
John 14:26

7. Were given the "Seal" of our Salvation. Eph 1:13

What else is there about the 6th of Sivan?

The Enoch Tradition

Born 6th of Sivan

Raptured 6th of Sivan

Israel and the Church are distinct

Daniel 9:24-27

9:24 Scope

9:25 69 weeks

9:26 Interval or GAP

9:27 70th week.

The church is hidden in the OT. Eph. 3:3-7

Compare Luke 4:18-19 and Isa 61:1-2 and see the same gap.

Israel has been temporarily set aside: Luke 19:42 Vs Rom 11:25.

Would a rapture on the 6th of Sivan restart the clock for Israel?

Note the phrase "Trumpet of God" occurs only 2 times in the Bible

1. in Exodus 19:13, 16 at the giving of the Torah and

2. In the description of the rapture in I Thess. 4:16

3. The "Trumpet of God" in Ex. is a Yowbel or Ram's Horn.

The Fall Feasts

Tishri 1

The Feast of Trumpets - Rosh HaShannah "Head of the Year" or the Jewish New
Year. (on the old civil calendar)

Lev. 23:23-26

23 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first
day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an
holy convocation.

25 Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by
fire unto the LORD.

26 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Originally to be one day but changed to two around 500 B.C.

The trumpets were not the silver Temple trumpets, but the Teki'at shofar or the
rams horn. Isa. 58:1; 27:13, Joel etc. etc. used for alarm and victory.

The Akedah involving Abraham and Isaac on the mount. The ram, caught by its
HORNS in the thicket.

Left horn called the "first trump"

Right horn called the "last trump"

3 series of 10 shofar blasts each.

A final blowing of 10 blasts called the Teki'ah Gedolah "the great blowing" Not
short blasts of alarm but long blasts of Victory!

The last trump? compare 1 Cor. 15:51-52

The silver temple trumpets are Chatsotserah. The rams horns are Showphar or
Yowbel. Yowbel literally means "ram" and ram's horns is yowbel yowbel in the
Hebrew.

Yomin Noriam "Days of Affliction" between Tishri 2 and 10 or the 3rd through the
9th of Tishri or 7 days. 7 years of the 70th week?

The threshing floor idiom? Luke 3:16-17

The parallel in Ruth 3:8,9

The Day of Atonement:

Leviticus 16:1-19

16:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron,
when they offered before the LORD, and died;

2 And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not
at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is
upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy
seat.

3 Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin
offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.

4 He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon
his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre
shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh
in water, and so put them on.

5 And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of
the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.

6 And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself,
and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.

7 And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door
of the tabernacle of the congregation.

8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the
other lot for the scapegoat.

9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD'S lot fell, and offer him
for a sin offering.

10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented
alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a
scapegoat into the wilderness.

11 And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself,
and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the
bullock of the sin offering which is for himself:

12 And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar
before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it
within the veil:

13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of
the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die
not:

14 And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his
finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle
of the blood with his finger seven times.

15 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and
bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood
of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat:

16 And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness
of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their
sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth
among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

17 And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth
in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an
atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of
Israel.

18 And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an
atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood
of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.

19 And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and
cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.

The event mentioned in the first verse occurred in Lev. 10: 1-3

10:1 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and
put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the
LORD, which he commanded them not.

2 And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before
the LORD.

3 Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be
sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be
glorified. And Aaron held his peace.

The Day of Atonement is also on Lev. 23: 26-32

26 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of
atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your
souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

28 And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to
make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.

29 For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he
shall be cut off from among his people.

30 And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul
will I destroy from among his people.

31 Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your
generations in all your dwellings.

32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in
the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your
sabbath.

There is also another mention in Hebrews 9:1-28

9:1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a
worldly sanctuary.

2 For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and
the table, and the showbread; which is called the sanctuary.

3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;

4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about
with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that
budded, and the tables of the covenant;

5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot
now speak particularly.

6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the
first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.

7 But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:

8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not
yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:

9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as
pertaining to the conscience;

10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal
ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this
building;

12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling
the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:

14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God?

15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of
death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first
testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal
inheritance.

16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the
testator.

17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no
strength at all while the testator liveth.

18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.

19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the
law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and
hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,

20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.

21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of
the ministry.

22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding
of blood is no remission.

23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should
be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better
sacrifices than these.

24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the
figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of
God for us:

25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into
the holy place every year with blood of others;

26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but
now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself.

27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look
for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

As we can see this is the most solemn of all the feasts. In fact any one not
partaking was to be removed from the assembly.

The two goats: Azazel, scapegoat

20 And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the
tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:

21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and
confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their
transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and
shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:

22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not
inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

SCAPEGOAT Animal that carried away the sins of the people into the wilderness on
the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:8,10,26). On the Day of Atonement, when the high
priest went once a year into the holy of holies to offer sacrifices for the sins
of his family and for all the people, two goats were brought before him. By lot,
one was chosen to be "for the Lord." This goat was slain as a sin offering, and
its blood was sprinkled on the cultic objects to help cleanse the altar, the
sanctuary, and the tent of meeting from defilements of the past year.

The second goat was said to be "for Azazel." The word Azazel is usually
interpreted to mean

"the goat of removal," or scapegoat. However, the term may also refer to a rocky
place in the desert or to a demon of the desert. By laying his hands on the
goat's head, the priest transferred the sins of the people to it and then had
the goat led away into the desert, picturing the removal of the sins.

In the Book of Enoch, Azazel is identified as the leader of the fallen angels
who lies bound beneath rocks in the desert awaiting judgment. The goat is led to
that area and thrown to its death from a cliff. See Intertestamental History;
Pseudepigrapha.

Although the scapegoat is not mentioned by name in the New Testament, Hebrews
10:3-17 contrasts sanctification through the sacrifice of Christ with the blood
of bulls and goats which can never take away sins. See Sanctification.

Is Jesus our scapegoat?

Isaiah 53:6

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;
and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

2 Cor. 5:21

21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him.

Jesus was brought outside the city into the wilderness.

Matt. 27:33

21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him.

It is also very likely that this was the same mountain that Abraham took Isaac
during the Akedah and found the ram caught in the thickets by his horns.

Another sacrifice that was part of the temple ceremonies is mentioned in
relation the Day of Atonement, but not directly associated with it, in that this
sacrifice was necessary for all the temple acts.

The Red Heifer.

19:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

2 This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak
unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot,
wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:

3 And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth
without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face:

4 And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle
of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times:

5 And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her
blood, with her dung, shall he burn:

6 And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it
into the midst of the burning of the heifer.

7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water,
and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until
the even.

8 And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh
in water, and shall be unclean until the even.

9 And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them
up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation
of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for
sin.

Now this is the only sacrifice set forth from the book of numbers. It has some
interesting peculiarities.

the ordinance (KJV): Nu 31:21 Heb 9:10

a red heifer (KJV): The following curious particulars have been remarked in this
ordinance:

1. A heifer was appointed for sacrifice, in opposition to the Egyptian
superstition, which held these sacred, and worshipped their goddess Isis under
this form; and this appears the more likely, because males only were chosen for
sacrifice. So Herodotus says, they sacrifice males, both old and young; but it
is not lawful for them to offer females.

2. It was to be a red heifer, because the Egyptians sacrificed red bulls to the
evil demon Typhon. 3. It was to be without spot, having no mixture of any other
color. Plutarch says, the Egyptians

"sacrifice red bulls, and select them with such scrupulous attention, that if
the animal has a single black or white hair, they reckon it [athuton,] unfit to
be sacrificed."

4. Without blemish. (See note on Lev 22:21.)

5. On which never came yoke: because an animal which had been used for a common
purpose was deemed improper for sacrifice. Nu 19:6 Lev 14:6 Isa 1:18 Rev 1:5

no blemish (KJV): Ex 12:5 Lev 22:20-25 Mal 1:13,14 Lu 1:35 Heb 7:26 1Pe 1:19 1Pe
2:22

upon which (KJV): De 21:3 1Sa 6:7 La 1:14 John 10:17,18 Php 2:6-8

Compare with John 2:1 ff with Jesus at the wedding in Cana. The six jars he had
filled with water were jars for the purifying waters of the red heifer.

The veil in the Temple which guarded the way into the holiest of holies was 4"
thick according to Josephus.

Rent: Matt: 27:50-51, Heb. 10:10, 14, 17-22, Isa. 52:14-15

The Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (Succoth)

Lev. 23:33-34

33 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

34 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh
month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.

35 On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work
therein.

36 Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the
eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering
made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile
work therein.

37 These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy
convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering,
and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day:

38 Beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your
vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the LORD.

39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the
fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first
day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.

40 And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches
of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye
shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.

41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall
be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh
month.

42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell
in booths:

43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in
booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

44 And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.

Also one of the compulsory Feasts. A feast to celebrate the late harvest of
Wheat and Grapes. Bringing in the fruit.

Deut. 16:13-15

13 Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast
gathered in thy corn and thy wine:

14 And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and
thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the
fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates.

15 Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place
which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all
thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely
rejoice.

The Booths represented the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites and the
wilderness wanderings of the tabernacle before it was put into a permanent
Temple. Solomon dedicated the first Temple on the feast of Booths.

Look at Hosea 5:15 - 6:3

14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of
Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue
him.

15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and
seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal
us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we
shall live in his sight.

3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is
prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter
and former rain unto the earth.

After 7 days the Israelites left their temporary dwellings for their permanent
ones.

compare to Zech. 14:

14:1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the
midst of thee.

2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall
be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city
shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut
off from the city.

3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he
fought in the day of battle.

4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before
Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof
toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and
half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the
south.

5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the
mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before
the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall
come, and all the saints with thee.

6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor
dark:

7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night:
but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.

8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem;
half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in
summer and in winter shall it be.

9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one
LORD, and his name one.

10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of
Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from
Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from
the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses.

11 And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but
Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.

12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people
that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they
stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and
their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD
shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his
neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.

14 And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen
round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great
abundance.

15 And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of
the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.

16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations
which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the
King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth
unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be
no rain.

18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there
shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up
to keep the feast of tabernacles.

19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that
come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

The verse 3 states that the Lord will fight for Israel as He fought in the day
of battle. What battle?

Joshua 5:13-6:5

13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes
and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn
in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or
for our adversaries?

14 And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And
Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What
saith my lord unto his servant?

15 And the captain of the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off
thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.

6:1 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none
went out, and none came in.

2 And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and
the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor.

3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city
once. Thus shalt thou do six days.

4 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and
the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall
blow with the trumpets.

5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's
horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with
a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people
shall ascend up every man straight before him.

This was a theophany of Jesus, or Joshua or Yeshua (Savior) He fought the battle
at Jericho.

If you will notice everything about the battle is against Levitical law.

1. The Ark was not to go into battle.

2. The Levites were not to go into battle.

4. The people were to rest and be quiet on the Sabbath.

Joshua and Revelation comparisons.

1. Joshua fought against 7 kings who aligned themselves with a King who called
himself Adonizedek or King of Righteousness.

2. The kings were defeated at Beth Horan (the long day of Joshua) and went to
hide in caves.

3. Two spies went into the land.

4. on six days trumpets are blown and the people are silent. The seventh day
(seventh trumpet) contains the judgement of Jericho.

Verse 8 talks about living waters coming out of the Mountain of the Lord. Jesus
had something to say about that.

John 7:

37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water.

Jesus is making reference to two instances of Prophetic waters.

1. Exodus 17:6

2. Zechariah 14:8

The procession

Lulav

Willow: No fragrance, no fruit

Myrtle: Fragrance, no fruit

Palm: No fragrance, fruit

Ethrog

Citrus: Fragrance, fruit.

Compare with Matt. 13:2-9, 18-23,

Men as trees. Psalm 1, Dan 4

Sacrifices: 7 days. 13 bulls the first, 12 the 2nd and so on. equal 70 in total.

equals the number of nations in Genesis 10.

Matt. 17:4

Transfiguration during the Feast of Booths? Peter wanted to build 3 "succoths"


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 10: BLOW THE TRUMPET IN ZION!!
========================================================================

Oh Beloved! Awesome days lie ahead! A mighty sword comes against the land. God
is shaking the nations! Great shall be the harvest when God's people arise!

(Joel 2:15 NASB) Blow a trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn
assembly,

(Joel 2:16 NASB) Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, Assemble the
elders, Gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out
of his room And the bride out of her bridal chamber.

(Joel 2:17 NASB) Let the priests, the LORD'S ministers, Weep between the porch
and the altar, And let them say, "Spare Thy people, O LORD, And do not make
Thine inheritance a reproach, A byword among the nations. Why should they among
the peoples say, 'Where is their God?'"

(Joel 2:18 NASB) Then the LORD will be zealous for His land, And will have pity
on His people.

(Joel 2:19 NASB) And the LORD will answer and say to His people, "Behold, I am
going to send you grain, new wine, and oil, And you will be satisfied in full
with them; And I will never again make you a reproach among the nations.

Yes sound the alarm in God's Holy Mountain!! Proclaim it, call the assembly! Let
the ministers and the people weep between the porch and the altar! We are a
reproach to the nations, our shame goes up to God and He weeps!! Let the people
seek their God and fall on their face and weep and seek the Holy One! Let the
watchmen on the wall blow the shofar of alarm. God will answer us but not before
we humble ourselves. Our God despises the proud and the haughty. He works with
the lowly and contrite of heart. Put on the sackcloth, tear our clothes!

(Ezek 33:7 NASB) "Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman
for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth, and give them
warning from Me.

(Ezek 33:8 NASB) "When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you shall surely
die,' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man
shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand.

(Ezek 33:9 NASB) "But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his
way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity; but you
have delivered your life.

(Ezek 33:10 NASB) "Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, 'Thus
you have spoken, saying, "Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us,
and we are rotting away in them; how then can we survive?"'

Watchmen! Are you on the wall? Watchmen! Are you on the wall? If you blow an
indistinct sound how shall the wicked hear? Watchmen the blood shall be on your
hands! OH! The Lord grieves for his people! Sin is a charnel house in the
Church. There are watchmen who are up to their necks in the putrid gore of sin
and it is killing them. "REPENT!!" Cries the Lord of Hosts!

Oh Lord God! Break the chains of our sin! Help your people to come into your
presence and cleanse our hearts. Help us to realize our absolutely desperate
condition. And remember your word and your promise to us.

(2 Chr 7:13 NASB) "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I
command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,

(2 Chr 7:14 NASB) and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and
pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Yes, our God is awesome and will remember his covenant with us. If we humble our
selves and pray he will do wonderful works through us.

Remember it is not our big churches that God wants! It is our hearts!! We need
to pour out our hearts to him in supplication and travailing prayer, to cry out
for righteousness to flow down from heaven. Oh, that God would rend the heavens
and come visit his people again! If he doesn't we may well be sitting in our
half-empty churches someday with "Ichabod" written above the door.

But when God arises He Himself will go before us with a burning fire, with a
tempest and signs of wonder and power. He will manifest His GLORY through His
people and great will be the incoming of all those who are held in bondage to
sin and the evil one. Great is the Lord!

Blow the Trumpet Watchman! Blow the Trumpet!


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 11: THE GOD OF NOW
========================================================================

(1 Pet 1:13 NASB) Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit,
fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of
Jesus Christ.

Many people in church are living in the past. They look to the cross and only
see a suffering Saviour. They keep him on the cross because they can manage him
there. He forgives them their sins when they need Him to and he doesn’t get in
the way of their lives. The verse above is a comfortable verse to many because,
in their minds, it sets the grace in which we hope in some future "revelation"
of Jesus. But I don’t think the revelation is future. God will not be nailed up
to some cross and forgotten by His people. He is the God of now.

(Rev 1:12 NASB) And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And
having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;

(Rev 1:13 NASB) and in the middle of the lampstands one like a son of man,
clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His breast with a
golden girdle.

(Rev 1:14 NASB) And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow;
and His eyes were like a flame of fire;

(Rev 1:15 NASB) and His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused
to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.

(Rev 1:16 NASB) And in His right hand He held seven stars; and out of His mouth
came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its
strength.

(Rev 1:17 NASB) And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man. And He
laid His right hand upon me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the
last,

(Rev 1:18 NASB) and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive
forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

This Jesus is not on the cross. Here He is in His strength, the camp of the
enemy shattered at His feet. Can you hear the triumph in His voice! I am the
first and the last, and the living One, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive
forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. This was not a whisper
but a shout that thundered in victory across the heavens! This is Christ worthy
to worship. I do not degrade His wondrous work on the cross nor the need of the
work of the cross in our lives, but I believe the Church knows little of His
REDEMPTION and all that it contains.

Look at these verses:

(Rev 5:11 NASB) And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the
throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was
myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands,

(Rev 5:12 NASB) saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to
receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing."

(Rev 5:13 NASB) And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and
under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him
who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and
dominion forever and ever."

(Rev 5:14 NASB) And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the
elders fell down and worshiped.

Oh Beloved of God, Church of Christ ARISE!! Join the everlasting song and
worship the risen Lamb! We have no power because we do not believe the Word. It
is not that we think the Bible is untrue but we think it is untrue for us. We
think it is untrue for us in specific areas. Salvation is not one of these. We
have that down and many are saved and just that and no more. There is no power
in their lives to resist the enemy, to crucify the flesh or to walk in "the
powers of the age to come". They are clueless to the true meaning of redemption.

A pastor was part of a group of pastors that went to Somalia to succor those
devastated people. He sat in a room with 12 Somali pastors, each of who in the
past year had laid hands on someone and raised them from the dead! He felt as he
was the one needing to be taught. These pastors had nothing but God and He was
sufficient. All our dollars, books and technology of the church cannot raise one
person from the dead. We are in far more desperate condition than those Somali
pastors. We need to learn to plug into the power of the God of Now.

Where we fail is in such verses as:

(Mark 16:17 NASB) "And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My
name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;

(Mark 16:18 NASB) they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly
poison, it shall not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will
recover."

Or:

(John 14:12 NASB) "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works
that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I
go to the Father.

(John 14:13 NASB) "And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son.

(John 14:14 NASB) "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

We read it but it does not register in our soul or spirit. We relegate it to a
distant past or distant future or distant land and never let it settle in us. We
are too comfortable in our situation to let something like this upset our
theology. Even the Pentecostal churches are not truly walking in this. We speak
in tongues and we prophesy and we pray for the sick with little result. We are
full of unbelief, doubts assail our minds and we see no power, no wonders, no
miracles.

I have been caught up in travailing prayer often and every time I weep and cry
with deep grief. I believe that is the grief of the Holy One has for His Church.

What is it that grieves Him so? Why do we so lack the power and fire of His
spirit? Let us examine a little what His purpose on earth was. We know one
purpose was to be the perfect Lamb of God to die for us. We know that well and I
will not look there. The answer lies in other areas.

(Mat 3:13 NASB) Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to
be baptized by him.

(Mat 3:14 NASB) But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be
baptized by You, and do You come to me?"

(Mat 3:15 NASB) But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in
this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted
Him.

Jesus came to bring God’s righteousness down to earth. In a world of sin and
rebellion Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness. The religious leaders of the
day who thought they were righteous were the least. The sinners, tax collectors,
prostitutes, the lame, the blind, the deaf and the lepers who knew their
unrighteousness got what they needed from God in abundance through Jesus!

(John 6:38 NASB) "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but
the will of Him who sent Me.

Jesus also came to do the will of the Father. He came to establish His will on
earth as it is in heaven. Now that is why sickness and sin fled away from Jesus
because there is no sickness or sin in heaven. The Kingdom of God is a country
where sin and sickness cannot rule because God’s righteousness and God’s will
are established there. They are established in Jesus for all time. We saw
earlier that He has the keys of death and hell at his belt to prove this fact.
For all eternity he has power, authority and dominion over sickness, sin and
lack in His kingdom. The enemy has no place there and cannot come in. Jesus
showed this fact when right after his baptism he was lead by the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted. Why was he tempted? To show his mastery over sin in
every aspect of his being. He was a tripart being just like us. Body, Soul and
Spirit. The first temptation was to tempt the body. He fasted 40 days and was
very hungry. He could make stones into bread with a snap of his fingers for the
very flow of God’s power was in him, but He knew that he must totally depend on
God and not the suggestion of the evil one. The next temptation was a soulish or
pride issue. To throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and have the
angels catch him would certainly establish Him as someone special. Once again he
new he must let God exalt Him and not Him Himself. The third temptation was a
spiritual temptation. Satan had the title deed of the earth in his possession.
Adam gave that to him. He offered Jesus a shortcut to earthly dominion by
worshiping the wrong one. Jesus would not have to suffer all the cruelty and
humiliation of the cross. All he had to do was to simply bow down and worship
Satan one time. But Jesus knew what the will of the Father was and what he
needed to do to fulfill all righteousness.

After the temptation Jesus went out in power and authority. He cast demons out
at a word and healed the lame, the blind, the deaf and the sick. He walked on
water and commanded the storm, he feed thousands with a few loaves of bread and
a few fish. He did all this because the flow of authority and power was all
through him and in him. Look at this story:

(Mark 5:25 NASB) And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years,

(Mark 5:26 NASB) and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had
spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse,

(Mark 5:27 NASB) after hearing about Jesus, came up in the crowd behind Him, and
touched His cloak.

(Mark 5:28 NASB) For she thought, "If I just touch His garments, I shall get
well."

(Mark 5:29 NASB) And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she
felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

(Mark 5:30 NASB) And immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power
proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who
touched My garments?"

(Mark 5:31 NASB) And His disciples said to Him, "You see the multitude pressing
in on You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'"

(Mark 5:32 NASB) And He looked around to see the woman who had done this.

(Mark 5:33 NASB) But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened
to her, came and fell down before Him, and told Him the whole truth.

(Mark 5:34 NASB) And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go
in peace, and be healed of your affliction."

You see when the woman touched Him with faith he knew that the power came out of
Him and healed her. That power is the dunamis power of the Holy Spirit, it is
the miracle working, wonder producing power of God Almighty. That power was even
permeating the garment He wore for she touched just the hem of His garment and
the power came out of Him.

Many will say at this point well that was just Jesus and He was special. That
doesn’t work in my life. Well brother that statement is half right – it is just
Jesus!

Let me sum up what I’ve said because I want to go on to some very important
points. Jesus incarnated on earth to: 1. Fulfill all righteousness and 2. Do the
will of the Father. He operated in wonder working power and promised us we would
do the same.

Now let us see how he plans to accomplish this astounding thing in his Church.

(John 14:16 NASB) "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another
Helper, that He may be with you forever;

(John 14:17 NASB) that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides
with you, and will be in you.

(John 14:18 NASB) "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

(John 14:19 NASB) "After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but
you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also.

(John 14:20 NASB) "In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in
Me, and I in you.

Wow! This is wonderful. Jesus planned to continue his ministry after he was
crucified and resurrected by moving into his Church. Not only would He move in,
the Holy Spirit and God the Father would too. He would save his Church in
Spirit, Soul and Body and fill us up with his presence. Look at the statement "I
am in My Father and you in Me, and I in you." Can you see the intimacy He
desires with us and His Father and the Holy Spirit. It is Him in us and us in
Him.

Now look at this!

Ephesians 5:29 (NKJV)

29For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as
the Lord does the church.

Ephesians 5:30 (NKJV)

30For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.

Ephesians 5:31 (NKJV)

31"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his
wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

You see we are the Body of Jesus on earth. We are to do the same things as He
did on earth. We are to fulfill all righteousness and to bring God's will down
to earth as it is in heaven. How is heaven different than what most Christians
are experiencing in their Churches and lives? Is heaven full of sickness, sin
and death? Oh, that the Church would arise to her full place in Christ and show
the world what the real Church could do!

2 Peter 1:2 (NKJV)

2Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our
Lord,

2 Peter 1:3 (NKJV)

3as 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,

2 Peter 1:4 (NKJV)

4by 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.

Incredible!! He already has given to ALL things that pertain to life and
godliness. The exceedingly great and precious promises all through the word, the
promises of God that are always yes and amen, have made us partakers of the
DIVINE NATURE! God IN us, us IN God, we already have all the things we need and
we partake of the Divine Nature!!! NOW! HERE! Not in some future heaven, not in
some foreign land but here and now. When this sinks into our spirits and souls
God can transform us into the wonder working Church He intended us to be.

John G. Lake was a man that understood this principal well and walked in
incredible power of the Holy Spirit. He relates a story about an Englishman,
William T. Dugan, who came to one of his meetings in South Africa. He was a big
man with a shock of bright red hair. As John's associate, Brother Fogwell, was
explaining the mighty power of the risen Christ, the man rose up and said, "Old
man, if the things you are talking about are all right, I am your candidate." He
went on to relate, "I used to be a Christian. I came from Port St. Mary's Isle
of Man, and I was a Christian boy. I came to Africa and lived the usual African
life, and the result is that for three years I have been unable to do anything,
and my physicians say I am incurable. If you mean what you are talking about,
tell me what to do?"

He came down to the front for prayer and John G. Lake says, "We stepped off the
platform, put our hands on William T. Dugan, and instantly, as a flash of
lightning blasting a tree or rock, the power of God went through the man's
being, and the Lord Jesus Christ made him well."

Three days later he came to Lake and asked you how to receive a cleansed heart.
Lake showed him how to receive the mighty cleansing, sanctifying power of the
Living God. Dugan prayed, "Lord God, I receive into my life the sanctifying
power of God to dissolve every condition in my nature that is adverse to the
Living God." Praise the Lord, William T. Dugan received that deep cleansing only
the Righteous Father can do, the same way he received his healing.

Eventually Dugan went out in a healing ministry of his own. Lake heard reports
about his ministry where hundreds were being healed. Lake decided to go down and
minister himself in an area 200 miles away. Dugan, hearing he was to be in the
area, met him there.

The next day they went to a house where there was a wife who had diabetes. They
prayed for the wife and several others in the house that needed healing prayer.
Presently the man of the house stepped into the kitchen and said, "Would you
pray for a woman like this?" The poor woman had severely deformed club feet.
Dugan said "Yes, Pray for anybody." He took the woman's right foot into his
hands and prayed, "In the Name of Jesus Christ become natural." Instantly the
foot moved and was made whole. He picked up the other foot and prayed again, "In
the Name of Jesus Christ become natural." And again instantly the foot was made
whole.

What was special about William T. Dugan? A hungry heart! A heart yearning for
the Living God. That is all.

Are you hungry to see God's miracles again? Are you yearning to see the Church
be the healing, compassionate Church is supposed to be? Pray that God would give
you a HUNGRY heart for Him. He answers every prayer like that! If you have sin
in your life you cannot defeat, step up to the throne and let the Lord dissolve
it out of you. If he can do it for William T. Dugan, he will do it for you!!!!

Seek Him out every day, pray without ceasing.

Beloved, let us stop grieving our Lord so and step out into the provisions He
has given us.

Oh, Lord our God, raise up your powerful Church again. Rend the heavens and
bring your power and glory back into your people again. We are desperate for
your presence and your glory. Hear our cry and revive us again. AMEN


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 12: WHY WE MUST PRAY !!!
========================================================================

(Num 14:19 NASB) "Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the

greatness of Thy lovingkindness, just as Thou also hast forgiven this people,
from Egypt even until now."

(Num 14:20 NASB) So the LORD said, "I have pardoned them according to your word;

(Num 14:21 NASB) but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the
glory of the LORD.

Prayerlessness pervades the modern Christian scene. The prayer closet is filled
with cobwebs and dust. The Christian is busy with Church events, meetings and
social agendas. The Church is trying to reach the lost with "seeker friendly"
events and services. Mega Churches are offering health clubs, 24-hour childcare,
restaurants, etc. to induce the lost to at least darken their doors. The service
is "enriched" with multimedia snips from popular TV and current movies. There
are Christian "marketing" companies who will tell you how to "grow" your church
by offering better services than a neighbor church. These marketers will tell a
particularly charismatic pastor to sell himself with billboards with his image
placed around a city. Churches grow not so much with the lost but with the
movement of growingly disenchanted and restive church members.

I know a man in another city who goes to a mainline evangelical Church that is
now two years old. They have grown in members very fast and now need three
services. Their worship is lively, their programs are active and their youth
group is growing. They present a very good image to the world. My friend,
sensitive to the Holy Spirit, has viewed this image and has asked the hard
question: "Does my Church even deserve to exist?". When he asks this of members
of his Church he gets blank stares and questioning looks. He looked at me with
eyes softened with compassion and said, "Almost all our growth in the last two
years has been people from other Churches coming to ours. We reach so little of
the lost.". There are thousands of Churches out there like that.

Do we have intercessors like Moses? Look at the verse above. This is an
astounding word. Look at what God says. I have pardoned them according to YOUR
word. It is God who is compassionate and merciful.

(Lam 3:22 KJV) It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his
compassions fail not.

Yet God honors Moses WORD!!! God loves compassion and mercy in his people. A
compassionate and merciful Church is what he desires. The man who is full of
compassion and mercy has the Father’s ear before he even speaks. His heart is
molten with love from the Father’s heart.

E. M. Bounds, for the last 17 years of his life, spent from 4:00 AM to 7:00 AM
in prayer every morning without fail. He published eight books on prayer that
are still the most profound and challenging books on the subject of prayer even
though they are almost 100 years old. What kept him in his prayer closet all
those years?

In 1727 The Moravians under Count Zinzendorf experienced an outpouring of the
fire of the Holy Spirit in a revival. The Moravian brethren started a 24-hour
prayer meeting after God came and set their souls flaming with compassion for
the lost. That prayer meeting lasted over 100 years. Thousands of Moravian
brethren went out to the farthest reaches of the globe, suffered unspeakable
hardships, toil and death to bring Christ to the lost. What fueled this
remarkable outpouring of zeal and compassion?

Count Zinzendorf so eloquently stated: "Our method of proclaiming salvation is
this: to point out to every heart the loving Lamb, who died for us, and although
He was the Son of God, offered Himself for our sins … by the preaching of his
blood, and of His love unto death, even the death of the cross, never, either in
discourse or in argument, to digress even for a quarter of an hour from the
loving Lamb: to name no virtue except in Him, and from Him and on His account,
-to preach no commandment except faith in Him; no other justification but that
He atoned for us; no other sanctification but the privilege to sin no more; no
other happiness but to be near him, to think of Him and do His pleasure; no
other self denial but to be deprived of Him and His blessings; no other calamity
but to displease Him; no other life but in Him."

In 1732 the first two Moravian missionaries left the Copenhagen harbor bound for
the Dutch West Indies. John Leonard Dober, a potter and David Nitschman, a
carpenter, were both willing to be sold into slavery to reach the slaves of the
West Indies. The cry of the Moravian brethren was: "May the Lamb that was slain
receive the reward of His suffering.

Christians today look at these examples (and there are thousands more) with
incredulity and wonder. Most prayer today is out of duty and is dry and
tasteless a mere talking with the air. Did E. M. Bounds and the nameless
Moravian brethren who spent hours on their knees do it out of duty alone? No!
They had touched the center, they had connected with a love and compassion so
deep they could not plumb the depths. They found a place of rest, refuge and
joy. They did not go back in duty but in a joyous love of whom they met in the
prayer closet. Their passion for the lost came from a passion for Jesus that
sprang from the prayer closet.

I took a spiritual assessment test several years ago. One spiritual component
this test was to let us know we possessed was mercy. If asked, I would have said
I had an adequate amount of mercy active in my life. Others around me might have
had a different opinion. I took the test and was shocked to the core of my being
when the test revealed that I was merciless. Absolutely zero, nada, zilch.

At that time I was just beginning a sort of intellectual revival in my life. I
had discovered the material that is in the section of my page entitled "For the
Technically inclined". This was invigorating to me as it answered some
long-standing questions in my life about the nature of God. However I was
arrogant and merciless with many and I trod with rough feet through many lives.

But Bless my Lord, God saw something in me to salvage and work with. I had some
very profound experiences with the Lord where He has filled me up with
compassion as I prayed. I have wept before the lord for the lost and the sick. I
have seen people healed as a result of God’s compassion as it ran through me
like a tornado. My prayer life took off as I began to understand just whom I was
dealing with. Jesus’ love melted my heart and the prayer closet became a place
of beauty. But God is not through with me and I learn daily about prayer.

Now look at this interesting story in Matthew.

(Mat 9:35 NASB) And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages,
teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and
healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

(Mat 9:36 NASB) And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because
they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.

(Mat 9:37 NASB) Then He said^ to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but
the workers are few.

(Mat 9:38 NASB) "Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers
into His harvest."

(Mat 10:1 NASB) And having summoned His twelve disciples, He gave them authority
over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and
every kind of sickness.

Jesus operated in compassion and mercy every time he saw the people. When he
healed and cast out demons he operated in compassion. Now we see Jesus looking
upon the lost sheep with compassion and them telling the disciples to pray to
the Lord of the harvest to send workers. He did not directly send workers but
asked us to pray for Lord to send workers. We pray and the Lord sends. The Lord
will not send unless we pray. Beloved the harvest is ripe today and the Lord has
his chosen workers in the wings waiting for the prayers of the saints. Yet the
saints are not praying because they have not met the lover of their souls in the
prayer closet.

Thousands are entering hell today because of our prayerlessness. God holds us
accountable for our lack of prayer. It is time for the intercessors to rise, for
those who will stand between God and sinful man and plead for God to send the
merciful and compassionate workers of the harvest. Let God into your lives and
make your heart hot and passionate with His love and compassion. Let your heart
beat with the same beat of the Father’s heart, let your eyes see with His eyes
that see not like man.

(Jer 29:12 NASB) 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will
listen to you.

(Jer 29:13 NASB) 'And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with
all your heart.

Beloved we need to cry out in the Churches "LET THE PEOPLE OF GOD ARISE!". We
need to start to PRAY.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 13: BROKENESS: THE WAY INTO THE HOLY
========================================================================

(Psa 51:17 NASB) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a
contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.

The broken spirit is not well known in much of the church today. There is much
of self and much of flesh in our "working" for God. Pride, self – righteousness,
an ecclesiastical spirit, back stabbing, fleshly arguments over minor
differences that promote disunity are all so very evident in the Body of Christ
today. Even most of our worship today is full of flesh and show. Forty minutes
of singing and then comes the cut off to the preaching, we must not keep the
sheep late because the game comes on at 1:00.

God does not want just the left over stuff from our lives. We cannot just give
to him what is convenient to us. He is not just a troubleshooter to help in
occasional times when we need Him. He wants all of us. We must come to him as
Lord and Master to let him have his way in us in the final and ultimate sense.

We often times think two ways about what God thinks of us and both of them reek
of the flesh.

We bemoan the fact that we are worthless. Perhaps bad things have happened to us
and we have a low self-esteem because of that. I know the hurt in people’s lives
from abuse and I do not say what I say lightly. But low self-esteem problems
stems from too much dwelling on self and not enough dwelling on Christ. Our
esteem comes from Him. We think that when God saved us he really got a pretty
good deal. We have talents and abilities He can use in His work and we think we
can do a pretty good job. This is just the opposite side of the coin from the
low esteem problem and stems from the same sin of too much dwelling on self.
Most Christians don’t understand brokeness. The person in example one we assume
needs no brokeness because they are already broken, or at least they are
hurting. Our first inclination is to try and lift their attitudes up to make
them think good thoughts about themselves. But that is not what they need. They
need God to come in and do spiritual surgery on the flesh in their lives and set
their minds on the things above.

The person in example two we can easily see needs brokeness but we also
misunderstand what that mean in such a life. Our first inclination is to beat
this one verbally down and tell him that pride is awful in his life and he
should just get on his knees and get his attitude corrected. There is truth in
this but this one needs the fundamental same surgery that the first needs. He
needs to come to the Holy One and have his esteem fulfilled in Christ.

The fact is we are all deeply flawed with sin and the flesh. We are so deeply
flawed that we cannot even see it in all our labor. We cannot look to the
dividing of the soul and spirit. All of our efforts at taming the flesh cannot
and will not work, for the flesh cannot tame the flesh. How many Christians are
wrecks on the shoals of life because they started out fine, but were flesh
dependent and could not run the race with endurance.

Perhaps it would be helpful to look at the life of Peter in the scripture to see
how the Lord worked in him to see how brokeness is the work of the Holy Spirit
to bring us into line with what God wants.

(Mat 4:18 NASB) And walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon
who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for
they were fishermen.

(Mat 4:19 NASB) And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of
men."

(Mat 4:20 NASB) And they immediately left the nets, and followed Him.

Here we have Peter, exuberant and impetuous, willing to jump up and try a new
thing. Leaving his livelihood in an instant and jump into this fishing for men.
No cost counting here, He ran ahead to seize the day. A good start you would
say. But Peter is totally flesh dependent. His exuberance gets him into trouble
occasionally but is a good quality given it is controlled by the Spirit.

(Mat 14:28 NASB) And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command
me to come to You on the water."

(Mat 14:29 NASB) And He said, "Come!" And Peter got out of the boat, and walked
on the water and came toward Jesus.

(Mat 14:30 NASB) But seeing the wind, he became afraid, and beginning to sink,
he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!"

(Mat 14:31 NASB) And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of
him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

I really like this story. Peter sees Jesus walking on the water. Instantly he
wants to do that too. That is not bad. Peter wanted the right things but he
didn’t know what it took to get them. He got out of the boat and actually
started walking on the water. I remind you that the other disciples stayed in
the boat. I like it that Peter alone got out of the boat. It is a tribute to his
desire to do what Jesus did and that is the ultimate desire that turned him into
the dynamo he eventually became.

The flesh then took over and he said, "I can’t be doing this! I am a fisherman
and I know people don’t walk on the water, especially water that is rough like
this. As a matter of fact I could actually drown here!" He began to sink. He
cried out to Jesus and of course Jesus brought him up to the boat. He again did
the right thing, he cried out to the Lord who alone can solve our flesh
dependence.

Look at what the Lord said to him. "Why did you doubt, oh you of little faith"
We tend to smirk and laugh at Peter here, but I ask you, have you walked on
water recently? Peter’s desire to be like Jesus was sublime and his desire was
so strong for a moment he actually got out of the boat and walked on the water.

I pray daily for such a strong desire to be like my Jesus. May the whole Church
pray for such a desire. If Peter was of little faith, what I pray are we!? Who
in the Church desires to do great exploits? Who desires to be strong in the
Kingdom?

Who will stand up and say Iike Isaiah "Here am I, send me!".

A strong desire is commendable but Peter still was mostly flesh dependent. He
had only a little faith.

(Mat 16:16 NASB) And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God."

(Mat 16:17 NASB) And Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon
Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who
is in heaven.

(Mat 16:18 NASB) "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I
will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.

(Mat 16:19 NASB) "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and
whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you
shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

(Mat 16:20 NASB) Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that
He was the Christ.

(Mat 16:21 NASB) From that time Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that He
must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests
and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.

(Mat 16:22 NASB) And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "God
forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You."

(Mat 16:23 NASB) But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are
a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests,
but man's."

Here we have Peter at his best and his worst in the time before the death of
Jesus. Jesus asked the disciples who they thought He was and Peter delivered a
message straight from the Father’s heart. Jesus even said that what Peter said
was not from the flesh but was straight from the Father Himself. That is
awesome. Why did not any of the other disciples say such a thing? Peter in his
love for Jesus was the one with the open channel where the Father could send his
message. Peter did love Jesus, it was not always pure but he still loved him and
that was the very best he could do. Do you love Jesus like that? Do you love him
with a passion where you will step out and share him at cost to yourself?

A few verses later we see where Peter tries to rebuke the Lord for saying He was
to die. Peter’s fleshly love did not understand and did not want its object to
even come close what Jesus was talking about. Because Peter’s love was mingled
with flesh and spirit he could spout out both deep spiritual and ugly Satanic
words. Have you ever done that? Is our love for Jesus a mingled love?

(Mat 17:1 NASB) And six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John
his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves.

(Mat 17:2 NASB) And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the
sun, and His garments became as white as light.

(Mat 17:3 NASB) And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.

(Mat 17:4 NASB) And Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us
to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and
one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

Poor Peter. Jesus takes him along with James and John and they have a mountain
top experience. Peter sees something he cannot explain nor even understand very
well, so he falls back on his verbal skills of the flesh and starts babbling in
the Holy Place. I certainly understand this propensity. I understand why God
says "Be still and know that I am God". The flesh has no clue about the deeply
spiritual. The meeting of the flesh and the spirit is like the meeting of the
east and the west, it cannot be done. The flesh will jump up and try to attract
attention to itself by spouting, what it thinks is perfect sense, but in the
real spiritual world is perfect nonsense. Much of what is passed of in our
churches is just such nonsense. The world is waiting for the day when the Church
will rise up and deliver on the promise it gives of true Spiritual worship and
messages. Messages straight from the Father’s heart and not from some fleshly,
prideful heart. The world can get the latter on its own.

(Mat 17:24 NASB) And when they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the
two-drachma tax came to Peter, and said, "Does your teacher not pay the
two-drachma tax?"

(Mat 17:25 NASB) He said, "Yes." And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to
him first, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the
earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?"

(Mat 17:26 NASB) And upon his saying, "From strangers," Jesus said to him,
"Consequently the sons are exempt.

(Mat 17:27 NASB) "But, lest we give them offense, go to the sea, and throw in a
hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you
will find a stater. Take that and give it to them for you and Me."

Peter is tired of the incessant challenge from the scribes, Pharisees and other
"religious" people who constantly tried to trip up the Lord. When one came to
him and (probably) sarcastically asked it they paid a particular temple tax.
Peter thought he would just nip this in the bud and offer up a little white lie.
Just a little one too, why he was sure Jesus would approve anyway. But Jesus
doesn’t like falsehoods and when Peter came in Jesus already knew what was in
his heart. Oh, we cannot put anything over on the Holy One, no matter how hard
we try or how deep we bury it. Isn’t it good that Jesus treated Peter so gently.
He is truly the lover of our souls to work with us to teach us in the midst or
our sin and rebellion. Jesus so gently corrects Peter and even offers a way a
fisherman can understand, for his lie to be truth. How good and kind is our
Saviour, so gentle and compassionate.

(Mat 18:21 NASB) Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my
brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"

(Mat 18:22 NASB) Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but
up to seventy times seven.

Peter thought he was on the right track with this. This was Talmudic thought and
rather a lofty one for a fisherman. He was sure he could follow this policy and
forgive seven times, surely this was what was required to gain what he so
desperately wanted. But Jesus pointed out that what the flesh could do was not
enough and could never be enough. The flesh is totally inadequate to get to the
spiritual plane; it simply does not know the way.

Incidentally the phrase "seventy times seven" could be mathematically translated
to 70 squared seven times or 34,300 times not the 490 times so often stated.
That does move it out to the improbable doesn’t it?

(Mat 19:27 NASB) Then Peter answered and said to Him, "Behold, we have left
everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?"

(Mat 19:28 NASB) And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have
followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious
throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel.

(Mat 19:29 NASB) "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or
father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, shall receive many
times as much, and shall inherit eternal life.

Now this was a legitimate question. Peter was beginning to understand the cost
of his choices and wanted to know if it was worth it. Jesus treated his question
legitimately and gave an answer that showed what worth the life of the spirit is
over the life of the flesh. We stumble around in the world dazzled by its
baubles and toys, not realizing the spiritual world right in our laps and all
its richness and glory. That spiritual world is supposed to be our abode when we
walk this earth. Peter’s eyes were beginning to open, but he still needed
something.

(Mat 26:31 NASB) Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of Me
this night, for it is written, 'I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP
OF THE FLOCK SHALL BE SCATTERED.'

(Mat 26:32 NASB) "But after I have been raised, I will go before you to
Galilee."

(Mat 26:33 NASB) But Peter answered and said to Him, "Even though all may fall
away because of You, I will never fall away."

(Mat 26:34 NASB) Jesus said to him, "Truly I say to you that this very night,
before a cock crows, you shall deny Me three times."

(Mat 26:35 NASB) Peter said to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not
deny You." All the disciples said the same thing too.

Now the story starts to quicken. Jesus reveals to the disciples that they will
fall away. It is even necessary for them to do so. Each has an appointment with
his own failed flesh to kill it and shatter it. But Peter is seems must have to
be broken more for he really believed what he said. He really believed he alone
would be with Jesus at the last and would even die with him. He did love his
friend Jesus much but he didn’t have any idea of the true cost of discipleship.
Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him so the impact of what would happen would
have the desired effect. Jesus even at this late time knew just what Peter
needed and started the process to lead to the result Jesus wanted.

Is the hand of the Lord heavy on you? Rejoice in that, because Jesus loves you
enough to see you through to the glorious end.

(Mat 26:36 NASB) Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and
said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."

(Mat 26:37 NASB) And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and
began to be grieved and distressed.

(Mat 26:38 NASB) Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point
of death; remain here and keep watch with Me."

(Mat 26:39 NASB) And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and
prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet
not as I will, but as Thou wilt."

(Mat 26:40 NASB) And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said
to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?

(Mat 26:41 NASB) "Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into
temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

(Mat 26:42 NASB) He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My
Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Thy will be done."

(Mat 26:43 NASB) And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were
heavy.

(Mat 26:44 NASB) And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time,
saying the same thing once more.

(Mat 26:45 NASB) Then He came to the disciples, and said to them, "Are you still
sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is
being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

(Mat 26:46 NASB) "Arise, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at
hand!"

The story picks up even more now. Jesus alone with three sleeping disciples
prays in agony in the garden. Bending his will to the Father’s will, looking
beyond the horrors of the cross in love to the countless souls He would bring
into Him. What a mingling of love and glory with hideous darkness. The disciples
who were going to die with Jesus could not even keep awake with Him and pray.
There was no strength in the flesh to do anything. Now the time was coming when
sleep would flee those once sleep heavy eyes. The time of their own personal
agony of flesh rending was soon to arrive. So we continue to follow Peter.

(Mat 26:58 NASB) But Peter also was following Him at a distance as far as the
courtyard of the high priest, and entered in, and sat down with the officers to
see the outcome.

Fear had taken over. Bravado was gone. Peter skulked along in the distance full
of fear and uncertainty. This is the final flesh response, when the chips are
down and it is time for the man of God to rise, the flesh fails and fails
miserably. Truly the flesh is weak. We so often don’t realize how flesh
dependent we are until we come into the crucible. The crucible is where the heat
is turned up and the dross and impurities are burned away with the Holy Fire of
our refiner God. The crucible is where the flesh is ended for it cannot stand
the heat and must die. We are going to see Peter’s crucible and see how it
affects him.

(Mat 26:69 NASB) Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a certain
servant-girl came to him and said, "You too were with Jesus the Galilean."

(Mat 26:70 NASB) But he denied it before them all, saying, "I do not know what
you are talking about."

(Mat 26:71 NASB) And when he had gone out to the gateway, another servant-girl
saw him and said to those who were there, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth."

(Mat 26:72 NASB) And again he denied it with an oath, "I do not know the man."

(Mat 26:73 NASB) And a little later the bystanders came up and said to Peter,
"Surely you too are one of them; for the way you talk gives you away."

(Mat 26:74 NASB) Then he began to curse and swear, "I do not know the man!" And
immediately a cock crowed.

(Mat 26:75 NASB) And Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, "Before a
cock crows, you will deny Me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.

Jesus is in a mockery of a trial in front of men mad with revenge and full of
hatred. It is a time of deep darkness as all time starts to recurve back on
itself and all the horrible sins of the world past, present and future, flock to
Jerusalem that day like a vast cloud of filthy birds, reeking of vile and horrid
things. The sacrifice is being made ready; the lamb is selected – pure and holy.
Demons twitter and twitch in anticipation of heaping every impure and unholy
thing on this innocent one.

Peter is desperate; he cannot stay away yet he wants to run as fast and as far
away as he can. He is in the crucible and the heat is turned on. A servant girl
looks at him and exclaims "This one, he was with Him." Fear leaps in his heart
and he denies even knowing Jesus. This Jesus who he was so confident he loved
and would die for, now he doesn’t know. The crucible is heating up. Peter moves
out of the light of the warming fire and slinks into the darkness of the gate.
Another servant girl cries out "Yes, this one was with Jesus of Nazareth!" A
stab in the heart of panic, Peter adds an oath to his denial. The crucible is
approaching red heat. Peter moves away his heart pounding and just then another
bystander accuses him "your speech gives you away, you are a Galilean and you
were with Him." Sheer terror fills Peter’s heart as he curses and swears and
denies ever knowing THE man. From, I will die with you Jesus to I don’t even
know THE man. The crucible is white hot the gold is boiling and the refiner is
moving the dross aside looking for purity.

Immediately a cock crows and the arrow of the Almighty with a stinging,
lightening burst pierces Peter’s heart. The flesh falls back mortally wounded
sagging and dying in the heat. Peter’s heart breaks with remorse and he goes out
and weeps bitterly. Have you ever been so broken before God you felt as if you
would never recover? I have and I can tell you it hurts mightily when God makes
you take your flesh and nail it to the cross. I have never felt anything like it
in mental pain and agony. But what God tears he also blesses. And the depth of
death in you will bring the same depth of glory.

The perfect gold smith looks at the crucible and the boiling gold and removes
ladle after ladle of dross rising to the top. The pain is tremendous but the
goldsmith keeps the heat on for he is looking for something. As the gold
purifies, and the dross no longer comes to disturb the surface, the face of the
gold becomes reflective and the master gold smith can see his reflection in the
gold. Does his face reflect in your life? When others look at you do they see
the reflection of Jesus? Let’s look more at the Lord’s dealing with Peter.

(Mark 16:6 NASB) And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you are looking for
Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here;
behold, here is the place where they laid Him.

(Mark 16:7 NASB) "But go, tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is going before you
into Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He said to you.'"

Jesus had a special message for just Peter. The angel mentioned Peter
specifically. How like our Lord to leave a small love note to His beloved Peter.
Poor wounded, despairing Peter. Weeping will be for a night but JOY comes in the
morning!!!

(Luke 24:12 NASB) But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in,
he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at that
which had happened.

Now the despair and pain are starting to dissipate. Something new is replacing
the dead and decaying flesh that was there. A new and shining countenance is
starting to appear in the black cracks of dead self. Hope - bright shining hope
starts to well up in his heart. Something wonderful is happening. Could it
really be that Jesus is alive? What would Jesus say to Him who had denied him?
Would Jesus still love him? A thousand thoughts crashed at once through Peter’s
mind. A wonderful sense of possibilities swept over him. A new Peter was arising
that even Peter did not fully know at this time. Praise the Lord for His mighty
works in His people.

(John 21:2 NASB) There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and
Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His
disciples.

(John 21:3 NASB) Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to
him, "We will also come with you." They went out, and got into the boat; and
that night they caught nothing.

Around three and a half years before this was the same scene played out. The
fishermen went out all night and caught nothing. Peter and the other disciples
are not fishing in despair; they are fishing to pass the time, for something to
do. Wonderful things have been happening. The reports are that the Lord is alive
and some have even touched Him. They don’t know what this all portends but they
are full of nervous energy, there is a lightness to the air and a sweet perfume.

(John 21:4 NASB) But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach;
yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

(John 21:5 NASB) Jesus therefore said to them, "Children, you do not have any
fish, do you?" They answered Him, "No."

(John 21:6 NASB) And He said to them, "Cast the net on the right-hand side of
the boat, and you will find a catch." They cast therefore, and then they were
not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.

(John 21:7 NASB) That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is
the Lord." And so when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer
garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw himself into the sea.

Remember when the Master called to the tired fishermen those years ago and asked
them to cast the net on the other side. What a familiar setting. Then John
recognized Jesus and he turned to Peter with the beloved name on his lips.
Peter, still impetuous, jumps into the water, no time to row. He had to see
Jesus, to talk with Him to see what He thought of the one who denied him.

(John 21:8 NASB) But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were
not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away, dragging the net full
of fish.

(John 21:9 NASB) And so when they got out upon the land, they saw a charcoal
fire already laid, and fish placed on it, and bread.

(John 21:10 NASB) Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish which you have now
caught."

(John 21:11 NASB) Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of large
fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was
not torn.

(John 21:12 NASB) Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the
disciples ventured to question Him, "Who are You?" knowing that it was the Lord.

The disciples are like a bunch of Junior High boys at a dance. They are afraid
to ask the Lord anything. Shyness overcomes them. This is the one they lived
with for three and a half years but they saw Him die and he is now alive. He is
the same yet He is different. What do you say to a resurrected Lord? Oh, the
wonder, the beauty, the exquisite glory of Jesus. He is the Lord of the Universe
yet he is cooking fish on an open fire with His friends. He is the Lord of Glory
and He is standing on the shore of the lake inviting His friends to breakfast.
No wonder they were speechless. No babbling in the Holy Place here. The flesh
was dead and the lips were shut in awe.

(John 21:15 NASB) So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon
Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love (agape) Me more than these?" He said to
Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love (phileo) You." He said to him, "Tend My
lambs."

(John 21:16 NASB) He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of John, do
you love (agape) Me?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love (phileo)
You." He said to him, "Shepherd My sheep."

(John 21:17 NASB) He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you
love (phileo) Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do
you love (phileo) Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know
that I love (phileo) You." Jesus said to him, "Tend My sheep.

(John 21:18 NASB) "Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used
to gird yourself, and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will
stretch out your hands, and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you
do not wish to go."

Now Jesus has His time with Peter. Three times he asks Peter do you love me?
Three times for the three denials. It is very interesting the forms of love that
are used. I put the Greek words in parenthesis after each word love. Notice that
Jesus asks Peter is he agapes Him the first two times. Agape is the
unconditional love. Peter replies that he phileos Jesus. Phileo is a brotherly
love. A good love but not considered the equal of agape. Finally Jesus changes
his form of love to phileo. Peter was still not quite ready to jump into the
fullness of what God had for him. The spirit was moving and Jesus had forgiven
him but the new dimension had not fully become operable. Jesus knew Peter would
require time and this was a healing time for Peter. He had been wounded deeply
and much had changed. Peter was still reeling from all that had happened in the
last three days. How gently Jesus leads Peter in the three loves. He loved this
impetuous man, this proud fleshly man who loved Him and wanted to be like Him.
He loves all His people with an everlasting love. Truly underneath are the
everlasting arms. The arms of a fleshly lover grow tired and wither but the
everlasting arms are strong eternally. Remember, when the unsaved sin they sin
against God's holiness, but when the saved sin they sin against God's love. Let
our hearts be tender and not sin against the wonderful love of Jesus.

Acts 1 NKJV

13And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were
staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and
Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of
James.

14These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

The job was almost complete. The master refiner saw what He was looking for and
was ready to pull the molten gold out of the crucible and mint it into coinage.
The gold reflected back His countenance. The coining process would start with
the addition of the new element of the spirit. Once the flesh had died and the
spirit of man became the prime control there had to be an infusion of the
dynamic of the Spirit of God. This is the new thing in Christianity and I cannot
emphasize it enough. We have the very GodHead in our breasts! All we ever wanted
or needed is IN us! This is not New Age gobbledygook; we are not gods, the God
of the Universe is in us. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. God is wholly other
than us and we are not He.

Peter is soon to see just what was promised and how it could affect this new
creature that was rapidly forming. The shining person was becoming more evident
as the blackened and charred flesh fell away.

They knew something was coming so they stayed in the upper room and continued
"in one accord in prayer and supplication". Those prayers pressing through the
enemy's camp were a sweet perfume to God. Anytime we pray and push through the
thick gloom of the enemy's presence we bring honor to our God. It will be in the
song of the redeemed that we alone will sing how we had to persevere and push
the prayers through and how they were a savor to our Lord. The angels, seraphim
and cherubim will not understand this, only those blood bought and redeemed will
know and be able to sing it.

Acts 2 NKJV

14But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto
them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto
you, and hearken to my words:

The power from on high has fallen in cloven tongues of fire and a new tongue.
The promised Holy Spirit has come and the power of God has filled the upper room
with the Shekinah glory. God has come down and filled frail flesh with His
Spirit. A new thing has come about. A new order exists. A new man comes to the
world scene. A man controlled by the Living God, operating in the Spirit.

Now the final product is ready for the world to see. Peter stands up with the
boldness of a lion to preach the world's first Christian sermon and 3000 are
saved! What a glorious move of the Spirit! Peter who denied Jesus three times
and who went through the crucible of God's refining power was now unleashed with
supernatural power upon the world. This is what the Church today needs, a host
of Peters operating in the power of the Spirit to be unleashed upon the world.
But those Peters must be broken by the mighty hand of God and wholly submitted
to the Holy Spirit for the Lord to pour His Spirit into the Church again; for
flesh cannot stand in such glorious power.

Acts 3 NJKV

1Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer,
being the ninth hour. 2And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was
carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called
Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; 3Who seeing Peter
and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 4And Peter, fastening his
eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 5And he gave heed unto them,
expecting to receive something of them. 6Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I
none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth
rise up and walk. 7And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and
immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8And he leaping up
stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping,
and praising God. 9And all the people saw him walking and praising God: 10And
they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple:
and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto
him. 11And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people
ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.

12And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why
marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power
or holiness we had made this man to walk? 13The God of Abraham, and of Isaac,
and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye
delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined
to let him go. 14But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer
to be granted unto you; 15And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised
from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. 16And his name through faith in his
name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by
him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

Wow, this is really cool! Here comes Peter, James and John back to the temple
where the center of the deadly opposition was. The very opposition they had run
from only 50 or so days ago. With eyes of faith that saw the way God sees Peter
looks at the lame man. The flesh would have seen just a lame man who needed
money but the eyes of faith saw a lame man who needed to WALK! What the eyes of
faith saw the heart of faith did. The healing compassion of Jesus filled Peter's
heart and that compassion and healing virtue flowed from Peter's hand as he
reached out to the hand of the lame man. Peter drew the man up and he walked,
leaped and praised God. This caused an eruption and many willing hearts listened
to the second sermon by Peter and may more were added to the Church.

Acts 4 NKJV

8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the
people, and elders of Israel, 9If we this day be examined of the good deed done
to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; 10Be it known unto you all,
and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man
stand here before you whole. 11This is the stone which was set at nought of you
builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12Neither is there salvation
in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby
we must be saved. 13Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and
perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they
took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. 14And beholding the man
which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

Here are the same people who crucified Jesus a few days ago. Peter's knees would
have been knocking together a few days ago to be here too. What a difference a
few days makes. Peter imbued with power from on high delivers a sermon to the
leaders themselves. Talk about marching into the enemy's camp! Praise the Lord!
The leaders recognized that they were lowly fishermen but marveled at their
boldness and power. Then they saw the crucial difference, these men had been
with Jesus. But there was more they didn't know, Jesus was in these men's
hearts!!! That was where the power to make the lame man walk came from. They
thought they and got rid of Jesus but He came back in thousands of hearts
multiplied over and over. Praise the Lord! Is the mighty working of the Spirit
of God throbbing in your heart today? Can you say to the lame man "Stand up and
walk!"? Do you have the boldness to march right into the enemy's camp and
proclaim freedom to the captives? Oh beloved, the Church has to rise in
Pentecostal power once again. We talk about it but we need to do it!

Acts 4 NKJV

19But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the
sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. 20For we cannot
but speak the things which we have seen and heard. 21So when they had further
threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them,
because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done. 22For
the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was showed.

23And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the
chief priests and elders had said unto them. 24And when they heard that, they
lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God,
which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: 25Who
by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the
people imagine vain things? 26The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers
were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 27For of a
truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered
together, 28For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to
be done. 29And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy
servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, 30By stretching forth
thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy
holy child Jesus. 31And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they
were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they
spake the word of God with boldness.

The council was helpless against this Holy Spirit boldness and power so they
resorted to threats. Little did they know their time was rapidly ending. It is
so interesting to note that the religious leaders followed all the statutes of
the law to a fault in the temple. They observed all the festivals and sacrifices
the law called for they had the mighty Herodian temple which was a marvel of
construction for its time. But they had a dark secret lurking within their
temple. Behind the massive veil into the Holy of Holies there was nothing. No
Ark of the Covenant, no Mercy Seat, no Bread of the Presence, no living Shekinah
presence, nothing but a dusty room. The fleshly worship had driven the presence
of God from the room years ago and the artifacts had been lost. The heart and
soul of the Jewish faith had gone with that Spirit but still the religious
leaders carried on. They had no mercy seat on which to pour out the blood on
Passover. Little did they know the Living God was just outside their temple
teaching and healing and forgiving sins. They missed it!! They missed the Holy
One in their midst. He came in a way that they didn’t expect.

We need to pay attention to their plight lest it become our own. We must not be
keepers of the tradition of men and loose the Holy move of God in our midst.

The disciples were not impressed by the threats of the council but came back to
their upper room and prayed all the harder for Holy boldness to proclaim the
incomparable message of Jesus. The room was shaken with power when they prayed
and God answered their prayers for more boldness. The church stayed in this
revival mode for over 400 years from this time. It has been said by some that
revival is only a temporary thing that last a few years, but that is wrong!
Revival will stay as long as people are broken before Him and wholly submitted
to His will.

Do you pray to be broken? It is a very dangerous prayer for God will answer such
a prayer and you may not always like the process. I pray to be broken almost
every day. The crucible can get very hot. But I tell you with all the unction in
my heart that you cannot afford to NOT pray that prayer, for God is looking for
Peters today to take His word to the lost and the brokenhearted. He wants chain
breakers who are bold as lions and can walk in the power of His Spirit. Right
now the Church has chains and shackles on God and we will not allow Him in: but
there is a rising urgency and militancy in ones in the Church today and there is
a time coming when God will walk among His people again. God will only truly use
those who are broken before Him with all their lives open to his mighty hand.
Are you ready for that? He will consume the flesh! Are you ready for that? He
will break every heart! Are you ready for that? He will ruin every service in
our Churches! Are you ready for that?

If you are not ready for what is coming - PRAY TO BE BROKEN!


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  CHAPTER 14: THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE
========================================================================

(2 Cor 10:3 NASB) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to
the flesh,

(2 Cor 10:4 NASB) for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but
divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

The Sin to Bondage Cycle

Today sin permeates the Church. Thousands are chained and shackled by the enemy.
Spiritual life is snuffed out, witness is derailed, prayer is choked out, and
Bible reading is nullified by rampant sin. There is no Spiritual power in the
Church at large today because there is little private purity. Holiness is a
foreign concept and many simply do not understand what the Bible teaches about
the believer’s power over sin.

(Rom 7:18 NASB) For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh;
for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

(Rom 7:19 NASB) For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very
evil that I do not wish.

This is a good statement to represent the life of many believers today. They are
in a cyclic dance with sin and they cannot get out. They are trapped in the
cycle of sin leading to bondage.

Where does sin start in our lives?

(Mat 5:21 NASB) "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT
COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.'

(Mat 5:22 NASB) "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother
shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca,'
shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, 'You fool,'
shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

(Mat 5:27 NASB) "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT
ADULTERY';

(Mat 5:28 NASB) but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for
her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Fleshly man wants the easy way out. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were empty
religionists. They looked good on the outside but were rotten on the inside.
Jesus pointed out to them that the sin, they so studiously avoided by their
rituals, was already deeply imbedded in them. Sin starts in the thought life.
The battlefield of the spirit world is in the mind of man. Every vile sin in the
life of a Christian started somewhere in a thought in the mind. The sin can roll
around in the mind for years gaining strength until suddenly it erupts in a
vomit of action. Others see it and say "Why I wonder where that came from?" like
it was a sudden thing. Why brother so and so was such a saintly man! We see
televangelists self destruct in an orgy of sin and wonder how it came to be. The
sin starts on the simple level of a thought.

The thought is entertained and mulled over, the person finding pleasure in the
thought. The thought goes from temptation to sin when the person does this. The
process continues until there is a stronghold in the person’s mind where the
enemy rules. If you can see the mind as a big house with many rooms and each
room being a facet of that mind, then the enemy is occupying a room. The thought
begins to dominate because the person likes how thinking about it makes them
feel. It gives them pleasure and they keep coming back. This is a stronghold of
Satan in the mind. This stage may last for weeks, months or years.

The next step is for the thought to materialize into action. A lustful thought
may lead to reading pornography and self-gratification or adultery. An angry
thought may lead to verbal attack and even physical attack. A thought of
gluttony leads to binge eating and ill health. A morbid thought leads to
depression and to the entertainment of self with death thoughts and ultimately
suicide. There is a release of pleasure at the physical action that further
strengthens the enemy’s hold.

The physical action coupled with the continuing thought pattern leads to the
next stage of bondage to sin. The enemy has trapped the person in a downward
spiral of sin – action – perverse pleasure / pain. The person cannot escape by
sheer will for they are in chains. Some have cycles of great pain and pleasure
that, perversely, actually compliment each other. Others jump into the cycle
with frenzy not even caring anymore about what is happening to them. Many are
deceived thinking it is natural and normal to live in such a low state. Thus sin
becomes not just what you do, but becomes what you are.

All this started in a simple thought. Part of this problem is the Church’s low
opinion of sin. Sin is not so bad today. The Church is more comfortable with sin
now and the world subtly leads us away. But that is not how God views sin. He
has not changed His opinion in the sway of negative press. He is not wavering
about whether He will accept some things we so want Him to. The asherim in the
sacred groves in the high places of our lives He want to tear down and grind to
dust, but we like to go there on occasion and forbade His entrance. We are in
bondage to sin and don’t even know it is killing us.

(Rom 7:24 NASB) Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of
this death?

In this great cry of the Spirit Paul shows the depth of the destruction sin will
ultimately bring out in peoples lives. The "Body of Death" was a practice in the
great maritime prison in Rome. If a prisoner killed another prisoner while
there, the punishment was to have the dead body of the one killed chained to his
own until the putrefaction of the dead body killed him. The first few days would
not be too bad but it would gradually get worse and worse. It is interesting to
note that the sense of smell is phasic. If you are in a very strong smelling
situation for a period of time your sense of smell will turn off to that very
strong smell. This is much like our moral conscience being placed in an area of
intense sin. It simply will turn off many times leaving us bereft of moral
guidance. It is seared by moral decay and cannot act in the Godly capacity it is
supposed to. We cannot "smell" what sin is doing to us. This is how God views
sin. It is like a putrid body sending all its poisons into our body and we don’t
even know it because our smell is turned off. We are not aware sin is slowly
killing us. The stench of sin is all about us and we tell those who are trying
to help us, "I’m just fine." Oh how we grieve our Lord! How He wants to come and
clean us up, remove the sin and doctor our wounds.

The Vectors of Sin

A vector in biology is how a disease is passed. The vector of the flu virus is
from lungs to lungs but it came from some animal that was the host. Sin has a
vector too. In fact there are three of them.

THE WORLD

(Gal 4:3 NASB) So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under
the elemental things of the world.

(Col 2:8 NASB) See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and
empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary
principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

(James 4:4 NASB) You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the
world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the
world makes himself an enemy of God.

(2 Pet 1:4 NASB) For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent
promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

(1 John 2:15 NASB) Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone
loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

(1 John 2:16 NASB) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is
from the world.

Here we see some verses that tell us the nature of the world. Much of the world
is wonderful. I look upon the beauty of the Ocean or Mountain scene and can see
the handiwork of my God. But that world is not what the Bible is warning us
about. It is about the system and thought patterns of the world. The elemental
things are how you think, how you view your place in society. TV, movies,
magazines, books tell us how we should think. I know many Christians who devour
R rated movies and think nothing of it, many who read suggestive romances or
crime novels and believe they are alright. Many pay attention to TV for more
hours than they read the Word or pray by many times over. The heart of the Lord
aches to talk with His people but they are too busy indulging in the quagmire of
the world.

The world offers riches and toys for those who are willing to pay the price. I
recently saw in the local paper a report about three men who are preaching a
message of "optimism". We are coming off 40 years of unbridled growth and the
future is bright with promise as technology and money will solve all our ills.
There is a new rich class rising in the country that is rich by virtue of
investments in technology. Microsoft has been one of the greatest millionaire
makers in history. All this makes me weep!!! We are rich in money and technology
but paupers in the Spirit of God. We are adulterers to the world and have
succumbed to its vain philosophies. I see children with boastful shirts that
claim some 4’ kid can play above the rim, or with other trash talk or taunts to
some vanquished opponent on the court or field. This is garbage! I will only
boast in my Jesus! Let the riches of the world rot with it for they are hay and
stubble.

How do we deal with the world system? It pervades the airwaves and is in every
newspaper and magazine. It is on a hundred million T-shirts and thousands of
commercials. It is subtle and devastating to the Church.

(Col 3:1 NASB) If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the
things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

(Col 3:2 NASB) Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on
earth.

(2 Cor 10:5 NASB) We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up
against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the
obedience of Christ,

(2 Cor 10:6 NASB) and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your
obedience is complete.

We are to ignore the world. We are called to place our mind elsewhere than the
world. There is a very real world around us we cannot see with our fleshly eyes.
There is a very real banquet in reading the World and praying. To go outside
that is equal to leaving a sumptuous banquet and finding dinner in a Dumpster.

We must raise our level of thinking, we must set our minds on the things above,
we must take every thought captive. This takes on effort on our part. Turn the
TV off, put the book or magazine down, pick up the Word and start the dialog
with the Living God! He says he will hear and bless His people again. Oh how we
need His living presence in our Churches again!

THE FLESH

(Mat 26:41 KJV) Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit
indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

(John 6:63 NASB) "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing;
the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

(Rom 7:5 NASB) For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were
aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for
death.

(Rom 8:5 NASB) For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the
things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of
the Spirit.

(Rom 8:6 NASB) For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the
Spirit is life and peace,

(Rom 8:7 NASB) because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it
does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;

(Rom 8:8 NASB) and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You see the flesh is no good. When we were unsaved the flesh and the soul got
along famously. Whatever the flesh wanted the soul OK’d. When temptation came
the flesh said, "I want that and I want that now" The soul said "you bet!" And
sin came in and started spreading death. Flesh can imitate many things. Flesh
can imitate the spiritual man. Flesh can say all the right words and even do
many of the same things, but it will always fall back to sinful ways just like
dog returns to its vomit. The flesh is full of sinful passions and cannot even
begin to please God for it is really hostile to God. It sneaks around with pious
words but looks at another person with lust, or pride or anger and rationalizes
its sin. The flesh is heavy in the Church. Many men are trapped in pornography
because they are fleshly. The Internet has made it possible for men to indulge
in this sin privately. They would be afraid of going to a pornographic bookstore
for fear of someone seeing them. This is typical flesh hypocrisy. Women have the
same problem but it is more socially acceptable. They read the romance novels
and indulge in romantic sexual fantasies. The shelves of the paperback bookstore
are full of romantic novels with some half-dressed female in the arms of some
swashbuckling, square jawed male. This is just as dangerous and fleshly as the
men. We need to confess our sins and come clean!

How do we deal with the flesh?

(Rom 6:5 NASB) For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His
death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,

(Rom 6:6 NASB) knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our
body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

(Rom 6:7 NASB) for he who has died is freed from sin.

(Gal 2:20 NASB) "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.

(Gal 5:24 NASB) Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh
with its passions and desires.

(Gal 6:14 NASB) But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I
to the world.

(1 Cor 15:31 NASB) I protest, brethren, by the boasting in you, which I have in
Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

We kill the flesh!! Beloved, we cannot tame the flesh, for the flesh cannot
discipline the flesh, for that is like the fox guarding the chicken house. We
must let the Lord crucify it daily, we must let Him pound nails into its hands
and feet and pierce its side. We have to let Him nail it screaming to the cross,
that most blessed instrument. We have to do it all the time, every time it
raises up we must jet Jesus kill it again. We pray to our Lord to help us and
break us of the flesh. He will, oh how He will! We must become dead to this
world and its sin. Have you ever tried to tempt a dead man. You can try and
tempt him with all sorts of things but you will get no response. We need to be
like that to the world. Claim these promises in God’s Word! When it says that we
are crucified with Christ and Christ lives in us, claim that as true and let it
work itself out in you. You don’t know the utter riches and glory that resided
in your spirit! There is a Holy Glory in your breast that can take care of every
thing that ever happens to you and can move any obstacle, heal any disease, set
any prisoner free, love the most unlovable, raise the dead, conquer any enemy by
the power of God!!!!

But I’m jumping ahead a bit. Our God is awesome indeed. Now let us look at the
third vector for sin.

THE DEVIL

(Acts 10:38 NASB) "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the
Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good, and healing all
who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him.

(2 Tim 2:26 NASB) and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of
the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

(1 John 3:8 NASB) the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has
sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He
might destroy the works of the devil.

(Rev 12:9 NASB) And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is
called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to
the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

(John 8:44 NASB) "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the
desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand
in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he
speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.

(Mat 13:19 NASB) "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not
understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his
heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.

(1 John 5:19 NASB) We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the
power of the evil one.

I could find may more verses telling about the devil but it is very clear he is
bad! He is a liar, murder, oppressor, sinner, and a snatcher of truth and
deceiver. He wants to destroy the Church by subtly deceiving the believer into
the snare and oppression of sin. He is implacable and full of hate. He has no
redeeming qualities. He is prideful and spiteful. He does not fight fair nor
does he take quarter. He doesn’t sleep and all his thoughts are evil. He enjoys
corrupting innocence and will the take the sweetest spirit and corrupt it with
mad glee. He is insane with black evil. I cannot begin to tell you of the depths
of darkness that is in his soul but it is a blackness that is eternal. He has
imploded on himself in a fury of foulness and cannot see anything else. He
deserves our deepest and most abiding wrath for he has led millions to a fiery
hell and will lead more unless the Church arises and takes its rightful place.
He is not omnipotent, nor omniscient. He cannot be all places at all times. He
has a vast network of demons who answer to him and they have been around
thousands of years. He is the world ruler of this age.

And he is defeated!!

(1 John 3:8 NASB) the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has
sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He
might destroy the works of the devil.

(Col 2:13 NASB) And when you were dead in your transgressions and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having
forgiven us all our transgressions,

(Col 2:14 NASB) having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of
decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the
way, having nailed it to the cross.

(Col 2:15 NASB) When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a
public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

Jesus won the victory already!!! We don’t have to do it. He is the VICTOR!!!
Praise the Lord for His mighty works! He destroyed the works of the devil and he
disarmed the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies who are our enemies. He
put them to public shame in His great victory. They no longer have authority to
rule over us. They are defeated and shattered. What they do now is deceive and
lie. They put on a great show of power in weak minds that are not full of the
Spirit and thus hold many in thralldom.

How do we deal with the Devil?

(Luke 4:1 NASB) And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and
was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness

(Luke 4:2 NASB) for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing
during those days; and when they had ended, He became hungry.

(Luke 4:3 NASB) And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell this
stone to become bread."

(Luke 4:4 NASB) And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON
BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD "

(Luke 4:5 NASB) And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time.

(Luke 4:6 NASB) And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and
its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

(Luke 4:7 NASB) "Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours."

(Luke 4:8 NASB) And Jesus answered and said to him, "It is written, 'YOU SHALL
WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'"

(Luke 4:9 NASB) And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of
the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down
from here;

(Luke 4:10 NASB) for it is written, 'HE WILL GIVE HIS ANGELS CHARGE CONCERNING
YOU TO GUARD YOU,'

(Luke 4:11 NASB) and, 'ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, LEST YOU STRIKE
YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'"

(Luke 4:12 NASB) And Jesus answered and said to him, "It is said, 'YOU SHALL NOT
PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"

(Luke 4:13 NASB) And when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed
from Him until an opportune time.

(Luke 4:14 NASB) And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit; and
news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.

Now we really need to look at this story. Jesus came from his Baptism at the
Jordan River "full of the Holy Spirit" and was led into the wilderness to fast
40 days. Fasting weakens the flesh. The flesh is what the enemy uses. The Devil
came to Jesus three times to tempt Him. The first was in the flesh. The devil
wanted Jesus to make bread to satisfy the fleshly hunger. The second was in the
soul. The devil wanted Jesus to short circuit His earthly work and satisfy His
pride by receiving all the world easily. The third was in the spirit. The devil
wanted Jesus to prove to the entire world that He was the Messiah by a great
demonstration of His power. But Jesus resisted every thrust by saying "It is
written" "It is written" conveys the power and glory of God that is wrapped and
hidden in humility. It is something the world the flesh and the devil do not
understand.

Now look at Jesus after the confrontation with the devil. He went out in "the
power of the Spirit". He went out endued with power from on high and the world
took notice. The enemy was put on alert. Here was one who was coming to destroy
all their works. They fought hard and even thought they had won the victory but
this amazing God we serve, hidden in the humble servant, utterly defeated and
destroyed them. Because he won we win too.

(Luke 10:19 NASB) "Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and
scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you.

(1 Pet 5:8 NASB) Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil,
prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

(1 Pet 5:9 NASB) But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same
experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the
world.

(Eph 4:27 NASB) and do not give the devil an opportunity.

(Eph 6:11 NASB) Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm
against the schemes of the devil.

(Eph 6:12 NASB) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

(Eph 6:13 NASB) Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able
to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

(Eph 6:14 NASB) Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and
HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,

(Eph 6:15 NASB) and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF
PEACE;

(Eph 6:16 NASB) in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you
will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.

(Eph 6:17 NASB) And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God.

(Eph 6:18 NASB) With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit,
and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for
all the saints,

Resist him, rebuke him, be alert, be vigilant, be firm in faith, put on the
armor, pray. All these things do and absolutely bore into our Lord and seek him
out every day. Walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Pray for yourself to
gain new hunger for Him. Read the Word, and when you read - pray the Word into
your heart. Walk in the authority that is yours! That is how we beat the
enemy!!!

HOLINESS

(Rom 12:1 NASB) I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is
your spiritual service of worship.

(Rom 12:2 NASB) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is
good and acceptable and perfect.

(Eph 1:3 NASB) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

(Eph 1:4 NASB) just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love

(Col 1:21 NASB) And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind,
engaged in evil deeds,

(Col 1:22 NASB) yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death,
in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach--

(1 John 3:4 NASB) Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin
is lawlessness.

(1 John 3:5 NASB) And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and
in Him there is no sin.

(1 John 3:6 NASB) No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or
knows Him.

Now Jesus has done His mighty work to bring us out of the kingdom of this world
to the wonderful Kingdom of Heaven. We still battle the world, the flesh and the
devil but we should not "practice" sin. We should not keep going back again and
again to the pits of darkness to practice those things. Do we sin still? Yes, we
are not perfected yet but we must grow in grace and learn how to be holy. I know
in my own life that I am learning to look at people and things through Jesus
eyes. I have an associate I work with that is a striking woman. I have shared
deeply with her and poured out glory into her soul because she is a seeker after
God. I was in another office recently when they asked about the good-looking
blond that I work with. I didn’t know what they were talking about for a minute
because I don’t view her in that way. I look at her like Jesus does. I sin when
I fail to look at someone through Jesus eyes. It is not a gross lusting problem
but a learning to see with eyes of compassion, love and mercy. If anything, my
sins are refined so to speak. They deal with finer things of the Spirit. God is
refining me down more and more. They are just as grievous as my more gross sins
were to my Lord and He rebukes me and chastens me as a son to learn His ways.

THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT

If Jesus came out of His confrontation with the devil in the "power of the
Spirit" we can too. We need to realize the power that resides in us. Truly he
has blessed us with every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

(John 14:16 NASB) "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another
Helper, that He may be with you forever;

(John 14:17 NASB) that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides
with you, and will be in you.

(John 16:13 NASB) "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you
into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He
hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

(John 16:14 NASB) "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall
disclose it to you.

(Luke 24:49 NASB) "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon
you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on
high."

(Acts 1:8 NASB) but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

(Acts 2:1 NASB) And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together
in one place.

(Acts 2:2 NASB) And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent,
rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

(Acts 2:3 NASB) And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing
themselves, and they rested on each one of them.

(Acts 2:4 NASB) And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Pentecost was the coming of the helper, the comforter, the Spirit of power, the
promise of Jesus always being with us even the end of the age. The prime reasons
for the Holy Spirit inhabiting His people is to give them power to be witnesses
of His saving grace, power to live holy and pure lives, power to cast demons
out, power to heal every disease, power to raise the dead and power to pray and
call heaven down because heaven is in our hearts. We desperately need this power
from on high in our churches today.

John G. Lake said:

"Christianity is a divine content. Christianity is heavenly dynamite.
Christianity is the ultimate of all consciousness of God. Christianity is wholly
supernatural. Christianity comes down from heaven from the innermost heart of
the glorified Christ. Christianity is in the innermost and uttermost of man
declaring: ‘I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for
evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.’ (Rev. 1:18).
Christianity is the spotless descent of God into man, and the sinless ascent of
man into God. The Holy Spirit is the agent by Whom it is accomplished."

Is this true for you? Do you walk in power in this world? When you pray do the
earth and sky obey? Does the devil know who you are? Does sickness flee at your
word? We have authority to do all this in Jesus.

It will not happen until believers receive it themselves. Have you waited "to be
clothed with power from on high"? Has the power of God thrilled your heart and
filled you with glory? If not why not? If not now – when? If not you – who?
There is incredible power for anyone who really believes the word and will act
on it. May you find it my beloved.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 15: PRAYER AND INTERCESSION
========================================================================

(2 Chr 7:13 NASB) "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I
command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,

(2 Chr 7:14 NASB) and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and
pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

(2 Chr 7:15 NASB) "Now My eyes shall be open and My ears attentive to the prayer
offered in this place.

We live in a land full of sin. Our Churches are without power and big egos rule
the pulpits in many. We are tolerating sin in our midst paralyzed by fear of
being called bigoted or intolerant. God is hovering over the land seeking prayer
warriors and intercessors to cry out to him.

(Ezek 22:30 NASB) "And I searched for a man among them who should build up the
wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it;
but I found no one.

Ezekiel also lived in a day of great apostasy and sin. From the leaders to the
common people sin ran rapacious in the land. God looked for a godly man to build
up the broken down wall and stand in the gap and cry out to heaven for the land
but He found no one. That is the most amazing thing. Elijah thought he was the
only one in his day but God said that he had seven thousand who has not bowed
the knee to Baal. But here was a time when there was no godly man to cry out.
God’s Spirit was void in the land and only Ezekiel was there. My soul cries when
I read this. Oh let me stand in the gap for my land my God. Let my soul lift up
and cry out for the sins of the land.

There is a need for praying people today but little understanding of prayer and
what it means.

Prayer

What it isn’t.

Prayer is not us informing God of anything. He knows all including our thoughts
even before we form them. He is not surprised about anything nor is He shocked
about anything.

Prayer is not a shamanistic ritual to get God to do something – though sometimes
for His own sovereign purposes he acts as if that is so.

Prayer is not bargaining with God. We have no bargaining chips to offer, we have
nothing of value to God. Our obedience is demanded and anything less than
complete obedience is sin.

Prayer is not meaningless repetitions of verbiage that becomes automatic. It is
not a prayer wheel in a stream or in the wind. God is not impressed by our many
words or our intellect. One word from His massive intellect could vaporize the
universe.

Prayer is not a pompous Thee and Thou prayer prayed to impress those around.
Though God does not mind a sincere Thee and Thou from a humble heart. How many
prayers have I heard that were nothing more than a sermon to those around. Those
kinds of prayers just hit the ceiling and fall to the ground.

What it is.

Prayer is a cry of the heart. It is a reach from the lowest spot to the highest
heaven, from the depths of despair to the most sublime height. It is a child
calling to their father. It is a lover calling to their love. It is sweet
incense, a sweet communion. It is a love feast, a banquet of joy. It is a glory
in a quiet place, a crescendo in a loud place. It is a standing firm in faith, a
strengthening of the weak. It is cry of despair turned to heavenly hope. It is a
repentance and blessed forgiveness. It is a weeping for a night with blessed joy
that rises with the sun. E. M. Bounds said: "Our prayer if full of wonders
because our God is full of wonders." It has been said that prayer moves the hand
that moves the universe. Prayer is the prime mover of God for He answers to
nothing else but faith and that is prayer. Prayer does not change God but it
changes us. Prayer teaches us, comforts us, empowers us, humbles us, corrects
us, fills us with faith, fills us with compassion, fills us with love and fills
us with Jesus.

Prayer is a refuge and a shelter, a rock and a fortress for our souls.

(Psa 61:1 NASB) (For the choir director; on a stringed instrument. A Psalm of
David.) Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer.

(Psa 61:2 NASB) From the end of the earth I call to Thee, when my heart is
faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

(Psa 61:3 NASB) For Thou hast been a refuge for me, A tower of strength against
the enemy.

(Psa 61:4 NASB) Let me dwell in Thy tent forever; Let me take refuge in the
shelter of Thy wings. Selah.

Prayer is importunate, asking, seeking, and knocking. Prayer demands an answer.
Prayer assaults heaven’s gates and storms the throne room of God. Prayer will
not accept no answer but seeks and seeks until an answer is provided. Prayer is
persistent and perseveres.

(Luke 11:5 NASB) And He said to them, "Suppose one of you shall have a friend,
and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves;

(Luke 11:6 NASB) for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have
nothing to set before him';

(Luke 11:7 NASB) and from inside he shall answer and say, 'Do not bother me; the
door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and
give you anything.'

(Luke 11:8 NASB) "I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him
anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up
and give him as much as he needs.

(Luke 11:9 NASB) "And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and
you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.

(Luke 11:10 NASB) "For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and
to him who knocks, it shall be opened.

Prayer is the prime work of the Church. From it springs forth preaching and
worship. The Church is a house of prayer not preaching or worship. The world
will be won on our knees or not at all. Personal private prayer and corporate
prayer should be the order of every Church who wants power in the world. Prayer
alone will bring heaven close to our hearts and thus close to our Church.

(Isa 56:7 NASB) Even those I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them
joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be
acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all
the peoples."

Prayer opens heaven’s treasuries and allows God to move upon the earth. He has
limited Himself much to our prayers and demands that we call out to Him. He
gives us great promises in prayer, promises of such magnitude that is seems
audacious to even believe them. But it is the God of the Heaven’s who speaks and
who can admonish Him? Dare we believe the Holy One?

(Mat 21:21 NASB) And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if
you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig
tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,'
it shall happen.

(Mat 21:22 NASB) "And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall
receive."

Prayer seizes God’s promises and makes them the prayer’s own. Prayer brings into
being that which is not and brings that which is to naught. The prayer closet is
a place of holiness and sacredness. The time of prayer where the soul is brought
near is the most wonderful and holy of all. God’s honors prayer with such
incredible promises that it would almost seem He is afraid we might forget to
ask because we think He is not mindful of our prayers. But behold how He loves
the one who prays.

(Jer 33:3 NASB) 'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great
and mighty things, which you do not know.'

(Isa 45:11 KJV) Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask
me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands
command ye me.

(Mat 7:11 NASB) "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to
those who ask Him!

Are you in ministry or do you want to be? Is your heart molten for the lost? Is
your soul burning with a passion for Jesus – to know Him deeper, to let His life
flow through you? Do you weep for souls lost and alone; do you care that tens of
thousands go to a fiery hell every day? If not, you need to PRAY for these
things into your life!

Prayer is absolutely necessary for ministry. Any ministry. Jesus prayed many
times. Look at this story. Jesus is just starting His public ministry.

(Luke 6:6 NASB) And it came about on another Sabbath, that He entered the
synagogue and was teaching; and there was a man there whose right hand was
withered.

(Luke 6:7 NASB) And the scribes and the Pharisees were watching Him closely, to
see if He healed on the Sabbath, in order that they might find reason to accuse
Him.

(Luke 6:8 NASB) But He knew what they were thinking, and He said to the man with
the withered hand, "Rise and come forward!" And he rose and came forward.

(Luke 6:9 NASB) And Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath
to do good, or to do harm, to save a life, or to destroy it?"

(Luke 6:10 NASB) And after looking around at them all, He said to him, "Stretch
out your hand!" And he did so; and his hand was restored.

(Luke 6:11 NASB) But they themselves were filled with rage, and discussed
together what they might do to Jesus.

(Luke 6:12 NASB) And it was at this time that He went off to the mountain to
pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.

(Luke 6:13 NASB) And when day came, He called His disciples to Him; and chose
twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles:

(Luke 6:14 NASB) Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; and
James and John; and Philip and Bartholomew;

(Luke 6:15 NASB) and Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon
who was called the Zealot;

(Luke 6:16 NASB) Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a
traitor.

John G. Lake said:

"Prayer in His name gets answers. The Moravians prayed. The greatest revival
till that time hit the world. Finney prayed. America rocked with the power.
Hudson Taylor prayed. China’s Inland Mission was born. Evan Roberts prayed for
seven years. The Welsh Revival resulted.

An old Negro, Seymore of Azusa, prayed for five hours a day for three and a half
years. He prayed for seven hours a day for one and a half more years. Heaven’s
fire fell over the world, and the most extensive revival of real religion in the
century resulted."

In 1727 at the outbreak of the Moravian Revival a 24 hour prayer meeting was
started called the "Hourly Intercession". People prayed around the clock in
relays for missionary work and that the harvest workers might be found.

How long would such a prayer meeting last in our modern churches? A few days or
a few weeks or possibly a few months? This one lasted over 100 years!!!

We are pikers in prayer. We are babes, we are weak. We wilt when we have to pray
for fifteen minutes. Jesus, the Son of God, needed to pray all night because He
saw the opposition starting and He needed to select the twelve. We need to pray
for strength and unction. We need to pray to victory.

Our Churches are powerless because they are prayerless.

The prayer closet is a place of brokeness and humility, of utter dependence on
the living God. I have been in Churches that preach prophetic worship and prayer
combinations, or how to reach the lost, or worship dance and singing, or many
other things. Some think they are on the latest cutting edge that God is doing
in the world. I have news for them unless they are broken deeply and letting God
rip all their pride and willfulness from them they are all alike. The cutting
edge is in the servants quarters.

(Mat 11:28 KJV) Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest.

(Mat 11:29 KJV) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly
in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

(Mat 11:30 KJV) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

This is an amazing statement. This is Jesus the Lord of the Universe speaking.
He is the King of Kings and Lord and Lords, the Prince of Peace – yet He is
lowly and meek! I am astounded and undone by this. Am I meek and lowly in heart?
If not, then to the prayer closet! I must meet Him there and have Him correct my
heart. He must break me until I am like Him.

I have met many who would be great in God’s Kingdom. I am told about a young
preacher, just out of bible school, who was invited to preach in his home
pulpit. He prepared his sermon, a model of homiletic purity and proudly marched
up to deliver. He was confident and absolutely sure of himself. His delivery
although suffered and his sermon fell into shambles. He left the podium head
down, feet shuffling, a beaten man. As he left the sanctuary a deacon leaned
over to tell him. "If you had gone to the podium like you left it you would have
left it like you went to it." Who wants to be great in God’s kingdom?

(Mark 10:42 NASB) And calling them to Himself, Jesus said^ to them, "You know
that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and
their great men exercise authority over them.

(Mark 10:43 NASB) "But it is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become
great among you shall be your servant;

(Mark 10:44 NASB) and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of
all.

(Mark 10:45 NASB) "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Where is the servant taught first? In the prayer closet! In the prayer closet we
are broken and humbled. We are made to be like Christ the prime servant.

Now let us talk about another type of prayer. We have talked mostly about prayer
for ourselves in the prayer closet. I want to broach another type of prayer
called intercession. Intercession very simply means to pray to God about someone
else. It pulls us out of ourselves to pray for someone else. Very often we pray
for those we know and love. That is easy prayer. It is very good to pray for
those we love and cherish. Family, friends, dear beloved brothers and sisters at
church are some we pray for. We pray for those we don’t know but love anyway –
missionaries, persecuted Christians in foreign lands and other brothers and
sisters we don’t know who are suffering various trials. This is all very good to
lift up those we love to the Lord for He commands us to do so.

Sometimes we need to intercede for those who are unlovely.

(Mat 5:43 NASB) "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR,
and hate your enemy.'

(Mat 5:44 NASB) "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who
persecute you

How long can you remain mad at someone when you are praying God’s riches and
blessings on them? How long can you lust after someone when you are praying him
or her to be blessed richly by God? Intercession is again a tool to change us.
It will also change that other person. God’s arm is not short and the prayer of
the righteous man avails much.

Another aspect of intercession is the person who has problems in his life he
doesn’t see. You know what I mean the bother or sister who has a bad problem
they seem unaware of. God sometimes shows us those problems in others. Is it to
confront them and correct that problem? I have tried that a few times to find
out that I didn’t love them enough to correct their problem. I finally figured
it out that God just wanted me to pray for them! Now the people will come up to
me sometime after I have been praying for them (unknown to them of course) and
say "You will never guess what God has been doing in my life!". It will be the
very thing I was praying about. Praise Jesus. I hope people are praying like
that for me too! As Jesus breaks and breaks me I hope people are praying for me,
for I need much.

Now I want to talk about another form of intercession that I call deep
intercession for the church. I have started to walk in this form of prayer and I
believe God is searching hearts across the world for this kind of prayer. This
is not for every believer for it is a deeper form of prayer than any I have
experienced. My main model is Moses.

Look at this story. This is the first time Moses stands between the fierce anger
of God and the people just after he spends forty days and nights on the moutain.

(Exo 32:9 NASB) And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and
behold, they are an obstinate people.

(Exo 32:10 NASB) "Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them,
and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation."

(Exo 32:11 NASB) Then Moses entreated the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why
doth Thine anger burn against Thy people whom Thou hast brought out from the
land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

(Exo 32:12 NASB) "Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'With evil intent He
brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face
of the earth'? Turn from Thy burning anger and change Thy mind about doing harm
to Thy people.(Exo 32:13 NASB) "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy
servants to whom Thou didst swear by Thyself, and didst say to them, 'I will
multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of
which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it
forever.'"

(Exo 32:14 NASB) So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He
would do to His people.

Look at this. God said he would destroy the Israelites and make of Moses a great
nation. I tell you that if there was even a shred of pride in Moses he would
have probably take God up on His offer. But I think the Lord was testing Moses
and his love and compassion for the people. What did Moses do? He pointed out
God’s great past works and said that they would be all for naught, he reminded
God of His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Isreal (Jacob). So the Lord changed
His mind. The work changed could also mean appeased. Moses appeased God in his
stand between God and the people because God saw his love and compassion for
them.

(Exo 32:31 NASB) Then Moses returned to the LORD, and said, "Alas, this people
has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves.

(Exo 32:32 NASB) "But now, if Thou wilt, forgive their sin-- and if not, please
blot me out from Thy book which Thou hast written!"

(Exo 32:33 NASB) And the LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against Me, I
will blot him out of My book.

Moses now goes a step further and actually identifies with the people and even
their sins because he asks God to blot him out of the book if He will not
forgive the people. This is very important for the intercessor to know because
the one who intercedes for the church is part of the church and cannot stand
aloof from it. God will not allow that.

Now we see another episode where the people rebel against God again when they
refuse to go into the land.

(Num 14:11 NASB) And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn
Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have
performed in their midst?

(Num 14:12 NASB) "I will smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I
will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they."

(Num 14:13 NASB) But Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear of
it, for by Thy strength Thou didst bring up this people from their midst,

(Num 14:14 NASB) and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They
have heard that Thou, O LORD, art in the midst of this people, for Thou, O LORD,
art seen eye to eye, while Thy cloud stands over them; and Thou dost go before
them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

(Num 14:15 NASB) "Now if Thou dost slay this people as one man, then the nations
who have heard of Thy fame will say,

(Num 14:16 NASB) 'Because the LORD could not bring this people into the land
which He promised them by oath, therefore He slaughtered them in the
wilderness.'

(Num 14:17 NASB) "But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as
Thou hast declared,

(Num 14:18 NASB) 'The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness,
forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth
generations.'

(Num 14:19 NASB) "Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the
greatness of Thy lovingkindness, just as Thou also hast forgiven this people,
from Egypt even until now."

(Num 14:20 NASB) So the LORD said, "I have pardoned them according to your word;

Here again God says to Moses that He would make of him a great nation. Moses
again cries out to God to forgive and he reminds God of His forgiving and
merciful character. He prays to God to pardon the sins of the people and then
God says the thing that makes the deep intercessory prayer a wonder. He says "I
have pardoned them according to your (Moses) word." That statement absolutely
thrilled my soul when I read it because God had been dealing with me on
intercession for the church. He wanted me to stand in the gap for the church,
not just my home church or even the church in my town but the church in general.

I had become aware through the Spirit’s moving in my life that the church is in
very deep trouble. We are not moving strong in God’s will and we are incredibly
weak. In fact we are Laodiacean in character. I misunderstood God’s heart on
this matter and I did not want to be one to stand before God for the church. I
felt He was angry and wanted to judge the church for her lack and I certainly
didn’t want to stand between Him and the church if that was the truth. He kept
at me for about two weeks constantly prodding me and pushing me. I was very
troubled and fought Him until finally He got me down in my living room one night
and weeping I told Him I would do it. I was scared. But as I acquiesced and
started to pray the most remarkable thing happened. I started repenting for the
sins of the church, many sins I personally didn’t partake in but I felt as if
the filth was mine too. I was weeping in deep grief over the desperate condition
I was confessing and my heart was broken. When I finished after about 15 minutes
the Lord suddenly came into the room and with a great compassion and love swept
through my soul and spirit. It was wonderful to feel that love and mercy as it
swept away all the feelings of sin and dirtiness. It was then that I understood
the Lord’s heart in this matter. He absolutely loved His people. He loved them
not because of who they were or what they did but because of who He is. His
essential nature is love and he wanted to express it to a church who is too busy
to know it. He will do this through intercessors who are willing to stand in the
breach and are willing to be conduits for His love, mercy and compassion. I
don’t know all how this works nor do I pretend to be all knowing on this
subject. I know that God is working in me to perfect me to a man of sound
stature and I have a long way to go.

I hope you dear reader will seek His face with all your heart. I pray that you
will love Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. Remember to pray
always for it is your lifeblood in the spirit.


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  CHAPTER 16: THE BOND SERVANT
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(Acts 16:16 NASB) And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer,
a certain slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her
masters much profit by fortunetelling.

(Acts 16:17 NASB) Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying,
"These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you
the way of salvation."

One of the most misunderstood relationships in the Kingdom is relation of the
bondservant to the master. We do not like the concept of a servant or slave. It
goes against our independent, selfish lifestyles. Many in the Kingdom want to
not be servants or slaves but to be rulers. Many big egos rule the Church and
have little desire to be servants to all. Jesus made it clear that that is the
wrong attitude and that for Him to effectively work we must understand and live
in this bondservant relationship.

(Mark 10:42 NASB) And calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, "You know
that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and
their great men exercise authority over them.

(Mark 10:43 NASB) "But it is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become
great among you shall be your servant;

(Mark 10:44 NASB) and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of
all.

(Mark 10:45 NASB) "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

We do not so willingly throw ourselves into this concept. How we grieve our Lord
when we cannot willingly go with Him. Our hearts are hardened by our idols. Our
hearts do not sing the songs of Zion but they sing money, power, sex, authority,
and religion.

I want to go back and look at the bond-servant relation in ancient times and see
what kind of relationship it was to see how I should accept it now.

(Deu 15:16 NASB) "And it shall come about if he says to you, 'I will not go out
from you,' because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with
you;

(Deu 15:17 NASB) then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into
the door, and he shall be your servant forever. And also you shall do likewise
to your maidservant.

When God brought the Jews out of Egypt He reminded them that they had been
redeemed from slavery and that they were to not mistreat the slaves among them.
He also made provision for the slaves to be released every seven years. No one
would be a slave all his life against his will. But there was a special
provision made for the love relationship between the servant and the master.
When the servant developed a love relationship between himself or herself and
the master then the provision was made for the temporary servant to become a
permanent servant. An awl was used to pierce the ear and into the door as a
symbol the servant would not leave that house forever. Our Lord is a Lord of
people and He sees into the heart and cares about our feelings and emotions. He
cares that a servant serves of a willing and loving heart if he is to serve
forever. Praise His Holy Name!!!

Is our attitude like our Savior’s?

(Mat 11:28 KJV) Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest.

(Mat 11:29 KJV) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly
in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

(Mat 11:30 KJV) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Oh beloved, this is the Master speaking. He is the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords, the everlasting Father, the Mighty God, and the King of the Universe.
This verse absolutely plows into my heart. Jesus, you are lowly and meek. How
can I be anything less than that? My Lord you are the sweetest thing in my life,
how gently and sweetly you deal with my soul. What a Savior! A yoke was usually
considered a cruel thing but Jesus yoke is easy or kind. A yoke many times was
for two oxen. Actually the yoke had a big side and a smaller side. The large
strong ox would be on the big side and the smaller weaker ox that needed to
learn the ways would be in the smaller side. The larger ox would carry the
larger proportion of the load. I know Jesus is on the other side of my yoke
pulling with me and He is carrying the most of the load. When Jesus said He
would never leave us or forsake us he was saying – in the midst of the really
hard times, in the midst of battle when the foe seems to be all around I WILL
NOT ABANDON YOU! Praise Jesus!! We are yoked together as beasts of burden or as
fellow servants.

Look at this:

(Phil 2:5 NASB) Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

(Phil 2:6 NASB) who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard
equality with God a thing to be grasped,

(Phil 2:7 NASB) but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and
being made in the likeness of men.

(Phil 2:8 NASB) And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

You see how humble and lowly He is. He did this for us, he went to the cross for
us. Three nails, a cross and the sin of the world. He was broken and poured out
for us and he asks us to do the same. He said we are to take up our cross and
follow Him. Be broken and spilled out for a dying world. Oh sweet Jesus how can
we do any other thing but to obey and follow you our fellow bondservant.

This is how we will overcome the world. This is the hope of a dying world. The
Church has to learn the way of the bondservant to reach the place they need to
be to answer the cry of the lost. How my heart aches to be a bondservant of my
Lord I love so much.

A.W Tozer said:

"The natural man is a sinner because and only because he may challenges God’s
selfhood in relation to his own. In all else he may willingly accept the
sovereignty of God; in his own life he rejects it. For him, God’s dominion ends
where his begins. For him, self becomes Self, and in this he unconsciously
imitates Lucifer, that fallen son of the morning who said in his heart, "I will
ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God … I will be
like the Most High."

Yet so subtle is self that scarcely anyone is conscious of its presence. Because
man is born a rebel, he is unaware that he is one. His constant assertion of
self, as far as he thinks of it at all, appears to him a perfectly normal thing.
He is willing to share himself, sometimes even to sacrifice himself for a
desired end, but never to dethrone himself. Ho matter how far down the scale of
social acceptance he may slide, he is still in his own eyes a king on a throne,
and no one, not even God, can take that throne from him."

This is also true in the church. Many worship at the altar of self and know it
not. The bondservant is done with self and will worship at that altar no more.
For him is the high calling of the obedient, broken and poured out servant. The
world can have no hold on him any longer. When we serve a God who is almighty in
every ultimate sense and we really understand that, the world has no attraction.
Our gaze is ever on that one so holy and so lovely. Faith knows not where it
goes but it loves the one it follows.

Recently I was searching out my Lord in prayer. My heart was yearning to seek
this lowly position of bondservant. My prayer was that I would be diminished and
reduced to the level of the servant and learn the servant ways.

I have been married over 25 years at this writing. I have a job that entails
extensive travel over eight western states. One of my problems was when I came
home on a weekend and my wife would call out from some other part of the house
to help her with the laundry or dishes or some other household chore I would
rebel and many times refuse to help. It was my own selfishness and stubborn
nature coming out. In fact many times I would retort to my wife some smart (I
thought so clever) answer that would often lead to a fight. I am not proud of
this and I only insert this to show you the wonders of our God.

Several months ago I was praying in my office upstairs in our house. I
specifically was praying to be a servant of God. God came to me and asked, "Do
want to be my servant?" I answered "Why yes I do!" Then he cut to the chase and
said "How can you be my servant when I call you across the heavens and you
cannot be your wife’s servant when she calls you across the house!"

Ouch! I suddenly felt about an inch tall. But bless my Lord, this was a learning
time and I wanted to be obedient. The next month I simply obeyed my wife’s
wishes with no comment. I almost bit my tongue in two a few times. After a while
I began to rather enjoy the companionship and camaraderie with my wife and was
learning to enjoy the sharing of work. I was improving almost imperceptibly but
changing none the less. Then as time progressed the most remarkable change began
to happen in my heart. My love for my wife began to absolutely grow far beyond
what it had been. Mind you I was not a piker in that but the Lord was showing me
the love in the bondservant relationship. I started doing the jobs because I
loved the one I served. My heart melts when I look at her now and many times I
weep with my love for her. One day my wife looked at me in wonder and asked,
"What happened to you?" She had seen the change and was delighted.

(Eph 5:25 NASB) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church
and gave Himself up for her;

I am beginning to understand the real meaning of that verse. It is easy being a
bondservant to one you love but the love doesn’t have to start in the beginning.
Obedience is probably more important.

What a God we serve! What a Lord we have! Are you a bondservant of the Lord? Do
you love Him above all else? Have you learned to be a bondservant to others? Has
He planted His love in you? Beloved today is a good day to start.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/gleanings-from-the-word/
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