Notice the following. It is very significant to us today.
Notice the following. It is very significant to us today.
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. (Revelation 14:1)
Can you see the significance of the verse above? The Lamb has been sitting at the right hand of the Father, waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool. Now He is standing on Mount Zion, which is the Church of the Firstborn, the Christian Church.
With the Lamb are standing 144,000 of the firstfruits of the Royal Priesthood. The Father's name has been written in their foreheads, because they are dedicated with iron determination to always, in every circumstance, do the will of the Father as it is expressed through the Lamb.
The verses that follow in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation reveal the extraordinary consecration of these saints. I have come to the opinion that they may be the only believers who will be resurrected and caught up to meet the Lamb in the air.
How can I say that? Well, think to yourself. Why are they being resurrected and caught up, along with the saints who have come with the Lord, to meet the Lamb in the air? It is because they are going to descend with Him and establish the Kingdom of God, the doing of God's will, on the earth.
Three great challenges are ahead of these saints:
First, they will have to demolish the armies of Antichrist, and the angels and demons who are part of these armies.
Second, they will have to go through the earth, as outlined in the Book of Joel, and cleanse the earth of the effects of the reign of Antichrist.
Third, they will have to govern the nations, who by this time will be filled with their own self-love and self-will. Some of the people of these nations, whom the saints have lovingly guided in the ways of the Lord, although ruled with the iron scepter formed in the personalities of the saints, will turn and follow Satan as soon as he is released from the Bottomless Pit.
Am I clear on these three challenges?
Now if you think about today's church-attenders in America that you know, and picture them participating in these three Kingdom efforts, you will see why I am saying it may be true that Revelation, Chapter Fourteen, is describing those who will be qualified and competent to be resurrected and caught up when the Lord appears and the trumpet of war is blown. The majority of Evangelicals may be too immature for such spiritual battles.
Even the Apostle Paul was striving toward attaining to this resurrection!
Now, back to the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement.
Do you remember the original Divine fiat? It is that man be made in the image of God. This creative Word was spoken on the sixth day. The Day of Atonement is the sixth convocation!
All that has gone before us in Church history is preparatory for what we are to press into today. It is time now for us to be made in God's image. We are made in God's image as we gain victory over the sins of our flesh and spirit, and our self-will.
It is time to rebuild David's Tabernacle, so to speak. That means the Ark of the Testimony will be restored to its place. Then the Day of Atonement can be celebrated, as we are conformed to the moral image of the Lord Jesus and die to our self-will. It is a time to be reconciled to God!
Those who have the spirit of the Pharisee will not be able to move ahead in the plan of redemption, into the rest of God. Why not? Because they sneer at God's gift of speaking in tongues, referring to it as "baby talk."
They cannot enter the rest of God because tongues are the way into the rest. By speaking in tongues we cease from our own works and enter the image and destiny God has foreordained for us from the beginning of the world.
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. (Isaiah 28:11,12)
Also, they stand in danger of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. If they continue to disparage the working of the Spirit of God, and do not repent, they may proceed to the point that they cannot be forgiven in the present world or in the new world of righteousness that is coming.
A brother told me yesterday that God said to him that what was done in the beginning shall occur again in our day. God said, "the Word shall be made flesh."
I am in agreement with this. I know we are entering the Year of Jubilee, and all that truly is of God shall be restored. We shall return to our original inheritance; and our inheritance is to be made in God's image and become the eternal resting place of God. Also, to have fellowship with God.
The new covenant is that of God writing His eternal moral laws in our mind and heart. If we obey our part of the covenant by seeking the will of Christ every day and every night, why shouldn't we then become the Word made flesh, and resemble our older Brother? Why shouldn't God make us faithful and true as Christ is Faithful and True?
Every time we obey Christ, that specific act of obedience is written in our mind and heart. This is the new covenant.
I believe God will make us His Word, and faithful and true, if we ask Him and obey what He tells us to do! I desire greatly to be faithful and true. Do you? Let us petition the Lord for this kind of character.
Those who have the spirit of the Pharisee boast of their allegiance to the Bible. "When the Bible speaks, we speak. When the Bible does not speak, we do not speak," they proclaim. Something to that effect.
This is ridiculous! The Bible itself states that those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God, not those who are led by the Bible. The Bible speaks in general terms, doesn't it? But it does not tell us exactly what to do each day, except pray.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Romans 8:14)
It is the Spirit of God, rather than the Bible, who guides us in our daily decisions, which are numerous.
How are we to be led by the Spirit? By constantly looking to the Lord Jesus as we perform our daily tasks. There is no task we perform which the Lord cannot do better than we can. He wants us to ask Him about each detail.
Did you hear what I just said? The Lord Jesus wants us to ask Him about each detail of what we are doing, speaking, planning, and thinking!
"Oh, Jesus doesn't want me to ask Him to help me put out food for the cat."
Oh no? He certainly does. And if you ask Him to help you, you won't spill the cat food all over the rug.
Learn to ask Jesus about each little act; also the major tasks. Any aspect of your life that you do not submit to our Lord is loss for Him, loss for you, and loss for the world. Believe me in this!
The sons of God are those who are led by the Spirit of God. The believers with the spirit of the Pharisee, will laugh us to scorn. Let them. As for us, we want to get as close to Jesus as we can. Don't we?
Believers with the spirit of the Pharisee despise the Charismatics. I understand well that the Charismatics do silly things. Sometimes they cannot tell the difference between the Spirit of God and their own emotions and fantasies.
But I will tell you this: The Charismatics get off on these wild goose chases because they are dying of hunger. They are malnourished because of the "grace, grace, grace, rapture, rapture, rapture" they are being fed in the majority of Evangelical churches. Therefore they abandon themselves to anything that seems to have a bit of life.
Then they told Saul, saying, Behold, the people sin against the Lord, in that they eat with the blood. And he said, Ye have transgressed: roll a great stone unto me this day. (I Samuel 14:33)
Why were the Israelites sinning against the Lord? Because Saul, in his self-will, had starved them. So it is today in so many churches. The answer is not to mock the silly things the Charismatics may do. It is to feed them the good Word of the Lord, not the unscriptural lawless-grace and any-moment rapture! Then they will be better able to follow the Spirit without fruitless emotionalism.
Learning to be led by the Spirit of God requires a lifetime of patient seeking and obeying. When we see we have gotten off the track, we go back to the last place God met us, learn from our mistakes, and try again. God loves the believer who will get back on his feet and try again!
If we never stumbled and made a fool of ourselves, we would have no need of a redeemer, would we?
The seventh feast of Israel is that of Tabernacles. This tells us that God's goal is that each of us become a room in Christ, who is God's eternal dwelling place. All the teaching and gifts of the Spirit to which we are exposed bring us to this end—the stature of the fullness of Christ.
The Apostle Peter expresses it this way:
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. (II Peter 1:19)
We are to take heed to the Scriptures until we can be governed by Christ, who is being formed in us. This does not mean we throw away the Bible. The Bible contains the eternal Word and is to be meditated in daily.
The rising of the Day Star, Christ, in our heart, is expressed in another place:
My children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you. (Galatians 4:19—Holman)
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)
The goal of our salvation is to become the eternal dwelling place of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit Himself who, under the direction of the Father, brings us to this supreme resting place.
Now we can see why the spirit of the Pharisee is so destructive. At what point will the Pharisee look up from the Scriptures and behold the living Word? Will he or she ever be able to do this?
It has been my experience that those who have the spirit of the Pharisee hold resolutely to their position that God does not speak to us or work miracles in our time. This ceased with the death of the first Apostles, they claim. They become angry if anyone professes to have heard from the Lord Jesus or has experienced a miracle.
I cannot tell you the actual name of this spirit, or where it comes from. Perhaps it is Satan's last effort, after the individual has received Christ, to prevent him or her from growing to the place where Satan's kingdom is threatened.
Those Christians with the spirit of the Pharisee may be good, honest, hard-working people. But their spiritual growth is stunted. They miss the greatest joy of the Christian discipleship, which is to walk and talk in intense fellowship with our Lord Jesus.
Now you can see why I am writing this essay. If God does not speak to people in our day, how will we know how to proceed in this great program of redemption, as we move from being a living soul to being a life-giving spirit? We have to be in continual interaction with the living Lord Jesus!
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. (I John 1:3)