OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST

 

OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST

“…Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Heb. 6:20

It is regrettable that many churches and preachers have virtually put aside the Old Testament. In doing so they have cut themselves off from revelation that is needed if the Church is to fulfil its mission in the Earth. Jesus said “You search the scriptures for in them you think you will find eternal life, and these are they which speak of Me.”  (John 5:37)  The scriptures He was talking about were the Old Testament scriptures as obviously the New Testament hadn’t been written then.  The Old Testament Scriptures were all about Jesus and we will not come into the depths of the Cross without studying them. They were a platform set up to enact the Redemption of Man and on centre stage was Jesus, Son of God. It stands to reason then, that we need to study them closely in order to grasp fully, what the Cross accomplished.

The text from Hebrews says that Jesus is our Great High Priest. How can we know what that means for us unless we study the High Priestly ministry in the Old Testament and how it applies to Jesus? The Tabernacle of Moses where the Priests ministered is a Type of Christ, “the Word made flesh who dwelt  [literally ‘tabernacled’] among us.”(John1:14) The Amplified Bible renders it ‘fixed His tent of flesh among us.” God told Moses to build a Tabernacle ‘That I may dwell among them.’  Jesus came that God may live among us – He is Emmanuel, God with us. The tabernacle and everything about it spoke of Christ. Volumes could be written about it; but for now we are just going to look at one aspect – the garments of the High Priest. God told Moses that these garments were for ‘beauty and for glory.’

Jesus Himself didn’t wear the literal garments of a High Priest, but those garments were symbolic of Jesus’ ministry. They are given so we can understand the priestly work of our Saviour. Every detail is important. The breast plate bore 12 stones, one for each tribe and on each shoulder there was an onyx stone bearing the name of 6 of the tribes. 12 is the number of completeness. Thus he represented all Israel. When he appeared before the Lord he WAS Israel.

Even so, Jesus as our Great High Priest represents all Mankind.  When He was ‘about 30 years old” Jesus began His ministry; 30 being the age when priests entered the ministry. After a sacrifice was made for him, the candidate for the priesthood was washed at the Laver by other priests, after which he was clothed with the white priestly robes.When Jesus presented Himself to John the Baptist of the priestly line, at the River Jordan to be baptised, He was fulfilling this requirement. The candidate was then clothed with the white priestly garment. When Jesus rose from the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended on Him as a dove. This is the priestly garment. Before His ascension into Heaven, Jesus told His disciples to ‘Tarry till ye be endued [clothed] with power from on high.” The Holy Spirit is our priestly garment without which we cannot enter the Holy Place in the Temple.  Being baptised with the Holy Spirit takes us into a new dimension in Christ, the Holy Place.

At the River Jordan, as He was immersed in the waters, Jesus was immersing Himself into all Mankind. As we identify with Him in Baptism, so He identified with us.

 God deals with all Mankind according to two men – Adam the 1^st Man and Jesus the 2^nd Man and the Last Adam. Sometimes people refer to Him as the 2^nd Adam but the Bible does not call Him that, it calls Jesus ‘the Last Adam’. There is a significant difference. In the last Adam, God wrapped it all up.

When Jesus stood before those who judged Him, He represented all mankind. In Him we were judged crucified and buried. For six hours one Friday in Jerusalem, the last Adam hung on a Cross bearing the shame of the sin of all Mankind, till at last He cried, “It is finished,” and gave up His spirit. Christ’s body bearing our sin was buried. No more Adam!

What does that mean for us? All the sins we have committed, all the imperfections in our lives that we have, all of the 'dumb' things we do, is already judged and buried. When the accuser tries to keep us down by constantly reminding us of our failures, we can silence him. Adam is finished! We are a new creation in Christ and His Spirit is in us.

When Adam sinned we all fell with him; and the life giving Spirit of God departed. All who are born of Adam bear his image and share his fate; even so all those who by faith in Christ are born again, bear His image and share His destiny.

“The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As  the image of the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust, and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly and as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” 1 Corinthians 15: 47-49

Having dealt with sin and buried the 1^st Man, Jesus rose as the 2^nd Man and thus began the New Creation. The Old Creation began with the creation of the heavens and the Earth and ended with the creation of Man; the New Creation began with the New Man and ends with the new heavens and new Earth.  All who put their trust in Jesus share in His new life. God again breaths into us the Holy Spirit – the breath of life, and we are one with Him forever. Who He is, we are.

“Love has been perfected in us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world. “ 1 John 4:17

THE JORDAN PASSOVER

In my interaction with people of prayer and listening to what prophetic people are saying, a strong Word from the Lord has been coming through. This Passover is a very significant one. The word is that the virus is going to be defeated and God’s people are going to rise up in Victory.  This really resonates with me and brings confirmation to the things the Spirit has shown me and that I have written about in my books.

The Passover we have come to is the fulfilment of the Passover celebrated at the River Jordan. At this Passover, all that was accomplished for God’s people in the first Passover comes into manifestation and they come into the fullness of their deliverance. They had wandered in the wilderness for many years because of unbelief. The wilderness is all about identity. God said ‘Israel is my Son, my firstborn’ Exodus 4:22; but their faith confession was ‘We’re only grasshoppers’. Numbers 14.Now after many years in the wilderness, they had come into the understanding that they were who God said they were and were going in to possess their Promised Land.

The Promised Land for the spiritual Seed of Abraham which is the Church, [Galatians 3:16,29] is the Earth. [Romans 4:13] It is not Heaven as we have been led to believe; it is the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven. This is what we lost at the Fall; this is what the Cross has purchased. Jesus destroyed Satan’s authority at the Cross and gave it back to redeemed Man to exercise in His Name. There are ‘giants of evil and their strongholds in our inheritance and we are now coming into battle against the enemy for possession of the Earth.

In the Type of the Journey to the Promised Land, we have come to the River Jordan. [Read Joshua chapters 3-6] God’s people were told to watch the Ark ‘so that you will know which way to go for you have not passed this way before’. Joshua 3:4. The Church is going to go beyond where we’ve ever been in history. This is what God has been working towards since the Fall. The Ark is a type of Jesus; it was to precede them by about 2,000 cubits. Two thousand years after Jesus came out of the wilderness and began to bring down the enemy’s strongholds, the Church will follow. 

Moses [the Law] is dead and Joshua [a type of Jesus] now leads them. This is where we come out of depending on our own works and focus on what Christ has done alone. Twelve stones [one for each tribe] were placed in the Jordan and twelve stones from the Jordan were placed on the other side; signifying the death of the old and the beginning of the new. At Gilgal they renewed the covenant with the rite of circumcision and God told them ‘This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.” Joshua 5:9 Circumcision signifies the putting away of the flesh or old nature. Egypt is a type of the place of bondage. We were in bondage to sin and death under the rule of the tyrant Satan. God ‘has delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son; in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins;” Colossians 1:13,14 Nothing of the enemy’s hold over us remains and we are truly a new creation in Christ.

On the other side, a host of angels were waiting to join them in the battle.  The Church is coming into Victory “Christ in you is the hope of glory” Colossians 1;27. This is the time of the ‘manifestation of the Sons of God’ as in Romans 8;19 which will bring in ‘the restoration of all things’. Acts 3;21. Jesus is going to rise up in power in His Church. There are glorious days ahead. 

END TIME ERROR

DANIEL’S SEVENTY WEEKS AND THE THIRD TEMPLE. In my last post, I stated that there are two errors that are shaping much of the end time teaching in our churches. Let’s remember that Satan is the ‘father of lies’ and is a deceiver. Ever since the resurrection he has known that his days of control over the earth are coming to an end. The best he can do is to prolong them. This he does by veiling the eyes of God’s people to the truth. One of those errors is what is known as ‘Daniel’s seventieth week’ i.e. that there is a period of seven years that God has reserved for dealings with the Jews. Christians will be taken out of the Earth during or before that time. Thus instead of being God’s agents of restoration in the Earth, many Christians are looking to escape from it.

In the time of Daniel, God’s people were in exile in Babylon because of their repeated rebellion against Him. The angel Gabriel came to Daniel with a message that gave Israel another chance. They would return to their Land and rebuild their temple in preparation for Messiah the Prince. The prophecy would commence with a command to restore Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, known later as the second temple or Ezra’s temple.

In this prophecy God tells Daniel:-

           

“Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.” Daniel 9:24

The ‘weeks’ in the prophecy are weeks of years, so a week is seven years. According to this wrong teaching, only 69 weeks have been fulfilled and there is another week or seven years to go. They teach that between the 69^th and 70^th week, God has inserted the Church Age. When the Church is ‘raptured’ out, then comes the 70th ‘week’ of God’s dealings with Israel during the great tribulation. They believe that all the promises contained in vs. 24 have not yet been fulfilled.

Coupled with this idea of a 70^th ‘week’ yet to come is, what I believe is a MIS-interpretation of Daniel 9:27

 ”Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;

but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.”

This interpretation goes like this: - ‘He’ in the sentence refers to the Antichrist. He makes a peace pact with Israel. After three and a half years, ‘in the middle of the week,’ he breaks the covenant and stops the sacrifices at the temple. From this they reason that a third Temple will have been built. This supposedly happens during the last ‘week’ or seven years of the prophecy given to Daniel, and will be a time of God’s special dealings with Israel – a time of great tribulation. Meanwhile Christians will be ‘raptured’ out to escape the tribulation and there is much speculation about whether this will be ‘pre-trib,’  ‘mid-trib,’ or ‘post-trib.’ This is the popular end time teaching in many evangelical and Pentecostal churches. It is a firmly held and rarely questioned belief, passed on from one generation to the next.

  The truth is that the seventy weeks were seventy consecutive weeks as you would normally expect. If God was intending to insert a long period of at least 2,000 years between the 69^th and 70^th week, one would expect some indication of it in the Scriptures. There is none. The ‘He’ in vs. 27 refers to Christ not the Antichrist. The seventieth ‘week’ was the week which included Jesus’s ministry. After 3 and a half years of ministry, In the ‘middle of the week,’ Jesus brought an end to the need for animal sacrifices, by making the one perfect sacrifice for all time. By His ministry and sacrificial death on the Cross He confirmed or strengthened the Abrahamic covenant, “The covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ,” (Galatians 3:17) and in so doing, He fulfilled all the promises contained in vs 24. God has only one answer for this world’s condition, and that is the Cross of Christ. Anything that He is going to do was accomplished there. It is a finished work. We just haven’t understood the full extent of all that the Cross and resurrection has achieved. In these last days of the Church Age, God will bring revelation on the finished work of Christ which will cause the Church to rise up in Kingdom authority.

Jesus moved with a sense of purpose. He understood the plan of Redemption and worked within the will of the Father. He often said, “it is not time yet” or “My time is not yet come,” (e.g. John 7:6), because He was working to the plan. He said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”(Matthew 15:24). When He sent the disciples out He told them to go only to Israel. (Matthew 10:5:6) That is because the work of redemption had to be first demonstrated in Israel, the pattern and priestly and prophetic nation. During that seventieth ‘week,’ Jesus taught the principles of the Kingdom; He was crucified and resurrected; the Holy Spirit was poured out and the infant Church established. Then and only then, the word came to take the gospel to the Gentiles. (Acts 10) and Paul, who was to be the apostle to the Gentiles, was called and commissioned. The seventy weeks had been completed. There is no ‘seventieth week’ to be yet fulfilled.

When we see that, we can see that this teaching which occupies so much of our thinking about the end time is wrong. We can stop looking for an Antichrist to make and then break a pact with the Jews and stop watching for the third temple; it is not part of God’s plan. The third temple as far as God is concerned is the Living Temple which Christ is building as in Ephesians 2:21:22. The Jews may or may not build another temple but it is not a marker for a seven year count down to the 2^nd Coming, preceded by the ‘Rapture’ pre, or mid ‘trib.’ Jesus is not planning to snatch His people out of the world but to cause them to rise up in Victory over the forces of darkness which keep the world in bondage. 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 [the ‘rapture’ scripture] is about the manner of the 2^nd Coming, when the Church will be caught up to meet the Lord and escort Him back to the throne.

On the night He was betrayed Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane for His disciples-

“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” John 17:15

God told Daniel that some end time truth is sealed until the time of the end; (Daniel 12:9) but about 200 years ago, there were those who went ahead of the Spirit and put together an end time scenario which doesn’t leave a lot of room for the Holy Spirit to bring revelation on the real plan of God for the Church. Getting raptured out any moment may sound exciting but what God really has for the Church is even more exciting.

Very soon a ‘Joshua’ generation will arise in the Earth that will bring down the ‘gates of Hell.’ [Mat 16:17,18] This is what God has been working towards since the promise in the Garden that the Seed of the Woman will crush the Serpent’s head. (Genesis 3:15).Christ and the Church is that Seed. This Seed is also the Seed of Abraham which will possess the gate of his enemies and be a blessing to the whole earth. (Genesis 22:17, 18)(Galatians 3:16, 29) If you belong to Jesus then you are part of this Overcoming Seed. Jesus has done all the work and is now seated at the Father’s right hand ‘waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.’ Hebrews 10:13. That’s our job!

A generation of the Seed of Abraham and the Seed of the Woman will rise up to our full potential in Christ. This is ‘Elijah’ that Jesus said would come and ‘restore all things’ before His 2^nd Coming. [Matthew 17:11]. In Acts 3:21 it says that the heavens must retain Jesus “until the times of the ‘restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” This will happen any time from now to 2027. How I know that is for another time

The days ahead are days of the restoration of all things which God has been working towards for millennia. These are exciting times.  “Christ in you is the hope of glory.”

THE BATTLE FOR THE INHERITANCE

The case of Israel Faleau has brought the rise of hostility against Christianity sharply into focus. This is not the Australia we knew even 20 years ago. The slippery slope we were assured wouldn't happen at the SSM vote, is getting more and more slippery . What is behind it all? We are in a battle for the Earth!

This battle is the ongoing battle for the inheritance which is depicted in the struggle between Isaac and Ishmael, sons of Abraham and continued with Jacob and Esau and on to this day. Abraham has physical heirs through Isaac i.e. the nation of Israel and spiritual heirs through Jesus i.e. the Church [Galatians 3:29]. The physical heirs were given the Land of Canaan and the inheritance of the spiritual heirs is the Earth.[Romans 4:13] It is an inheritance that has to be possessed. The journey to and possession of the Promised Land by Israel is a picture or type of the spiritual journey of the Church into truth and the possession of the Earth for the Kingdom of God. This is what we lost at the Fall.

During the temptation of Jesus, Satan boasted that all the kingdoms of the world were his. Luke 4:5-8. In 1 John 5:19, it says "The whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. “that is why it’s such a mess and getting worse. Ever since the Resurrection, Satan knew that it was only a matter of time till his rule was challenged and he is making a desperate push to strengthen his grip on the Earth. His two main instruments are Islam and Marxism. Israel and the Church [all true believers in Christ] are the two Covenant peoples of God. Satan hates them!

Israel had to bring down the strongholds of the enemy, possess the Land and establish the rule of the Kingdom; The Church is to make disciples of all the nations which also involves bringing down the enemy strongholds and bringing people into the Kingdom. Jesus said ‘I will build My Church and the gates of Hell will not stand against it.” Matthew 16:18,19. The Church is the Army of God. What we need to be doing at this time is preparing for war i.e. spiritual warfare over the nations. Where that is happening, people are getting saved. Moslems are coming into the Kingdom by the thousands. However much of the Army is preparing for the Rapture Retreat. This is because of error which came into the Church about two hundred years ago. Two errors shape much of our end time thinking; i.e. The “Rapture” of the Church and Daniel’s 70th week.

I will address these two errors in the next two posts.

PS Yes I do know that when Jesus comes again we will be caught up to meet Him in the air; but what happens next?

TIME FOR ACTION

  TIME FOR ACTION
Most Christians would be aware that things have changed and changed very quickly and not for the best. What to do about it? While some are endeavouring to stand against the tide of anti-God activity, others see the downward trend as a sign that Jesus is coming to ‘rapture’ them shortly and take them out of the mess. People are looking for answers. They need to understand just what is going on. We need a Biblical worldview.  How does God see things?

First of all we need to understand who we are. How many know that Christians are the Seed of Abraham? What difference  does that make?
Let the Bible speak:-
“Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed” who is Christ.”  Galatians 3:16
“And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29

There is One Seed and that Seed is Christ AND the Church.- Jesus and His Church are the Seed of Abraham, and we inherit all the promises made to Abraham.  Abraham had physical seed through Isaac and spiritual seed through Christ. To the physical seed God gave the Land of Canaan, which they had to possess; To the spiritual Seed, God gave the Earth.
“For the promise that he would be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” Romans 4:13

That’s us! We are heir of the world. We also have to possess our inheritance. The journey of Israel from slaves in the kingdom of darkness to conquerors possessing the Promised Land is a template for how the Church will possess their inheritance. Israel had to possess the Land, bring down the strongholds of the enemy and establish the rule of God, i.e. the Kingdom. Our inheritance is occupied by satanic forces with their entrenched strongholds.
“We know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”    1 John 5:19

During the temptation of Christ, Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and boasted that they were his. This is still the case. That’s why we have a messed up world. Jesus removed his authority over the world by bearing all the sins of the world. Authority over the earth now belongs to the Seed of Abraham but Satan still operates illegally. Jesus has done all the work but we have to enforce His victory in the Earth till the satanic strongholds crumble.
This is a spiritual war against spiritual enemies:-

“For 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.” Ephesians 6:12
A generation of the physical seed of Abraham rose up under Joshua and claimed the Land of Canaan. Eventually the Kingdom was established under Solomon, son of David and the glory of God filled the temple.

This current generation is the Joshua generation. This is the generation destined to rise up and liberate the earth from the clutches of the wicked one. Since the resurrection he has been waiting in fear and trembling, knowing that his days are numbered. All he could do was exercise his only remaining powers, to deceive and accuse, to keep the Seed of Abraham from rising up and claiming the Earth for the Kingdom. He does this by blinding our spiritual eyes to spiritual realities. He is also quite happy to let us believe in wrong teaching about the end times; anything but the truth. Wrong teaching has bred an apathetic Church, just waiting to be raptured out any moment now; when what we are supposed to be doing is getting on the offensive against the enemy.

Jesus said that He would build His Church and the gates of Hell would not stand against it.
Time to wake up Church! It’s not just about taking us to Heaven when we die; it is about bringing back the King and the Kingdom to rule over our Earth. The Earth is our inheritance; the Kingdom of God ‘on Earth as it is in Heaven’ is our Promised Land. But we have to claim it. The Hosts of Heaven are waiting to do battle with us. The Victory is ours! Amen

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PROPHETIC FEASTS

Jesus’ brothers were preparing to go up to Jerusalem to the Feast of Tabernacles. They challenged Jesus to go up and “Show Yourself to the world.” Jesus replied:-

“My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. You go up to this feast, I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.” John 7: 6-8

After His brothers had left, Jesus went up to the feast secretly and about the middle of the feast He went into the temple and taught. The Pharisee’s wanted to arrest Him but could not “for His time had not yet come.” On the last day, that great day of the feast, as water was poured out from a golden pitcher onto the altar to the rejoicing of the crowds, Jesus revealed Himself openly as the One who provides the living water of the Spirit.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus moved with a sense of purpose. He was obviously conscious that He was fulfilling prophecy as encrypted into the feasts of Israel. That’s why He rode into Jerusalem on the exact day of the choosing of the Passover Lamb and was acclaimed by the crowds. When told by the Pharisees to silence them He replied that if the people were silent the stones would cry out. This was the time for the Lamb of God to be chosen and to give His life for the world and nothing would stop it.

Jesus died at the time of the sacrifice of the Passover lamb up at the temple; His body went into the tomb as the Feast of Unleavened Bread began; and He rose on the Feast of Firstfruits to be ‘the firstfruits of them that slept.’ The Holy Spirit was poured out exactly on the Day of Pentecost – the anniversary of the giving of the Law and the plans for the tabernacle. This Feast was about equipping the people of God to fulfil their commission.

The one Feast that has never been fulfilled in the Church is the Feast of Tabernacles. This is the Feast of fullness, the final harvest when God will bring into manifestation all that the Cross has purchased. All the seeds that have been sown will come to harvest. The Church will rise to its full potential in Christ and there will be a mighty harvest of souls. ‘Elijah’ will come and restore all things [Matthew 17:11] i.e. the Spirit which anointed Elijah will come upon the Church to prepare the way of the Lord as He came upon John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus’ 1^st coming. It will be a glorious time and it’s about to begin in a few short years.

Jesus moved in sync with the Feasts of Israel. Those Feasts were set into the history of Israel as a road map for the Church. Therefore if we look at what Jesus did at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, we will have some clues about what Jesus will be doing during the season of the fulfilment of this Feast. Jesus made the point that He could not go up to the Feast any time as others could. He wasn’t just another worshipper; He was the central figure of what the Feast was all about. Jesus went up secretly. What is that saying? Jesus will be coming to the Feast but it will not be the time for Him to be openly revealed. Of course Jesus is always with His Church but at the End time fulfilment of the Feast, there will be a greatly increased sense of the Presence of the Lord.

About the middle of the Feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. The temple stands for the people of God. They are the Living temple that Jesus is building even now. At this time the Church will come greatly alive with the Word of God; we will be of one mind with Jesus the Head. This is the glorious Church spoken of in Ephesians 5:25,26

“that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”

The Church will move with power and authority and be filled with the love and the Presence of God.  There will be great healings and creative miracles, like limbs being restored, and the world will flow into it.

On the last great day of the Feast Jesus revealed Himself openly and proclaimed Himself as the fount of Living Water and gave the invitation,

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”  John 7:37, 38

Foreshadowing the invitation at the end of the Age as in Revelation,

“And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the waters of life freely.” Revelation 22:17

Jesus will come physically and openly at the end of the season of the fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles in the Church. It will undoubtedly be “On the last day, that great day of the Feast.” John 7:17.

Jesus, the king once despised and rejected, will be welcomed with great rejoicing and celebration and will reign on the Earth. AMEN

A NEW ERA

2019. What's up ahead? there are many things happening across our world that could cause anxiety and fear; yet the Word for the Church in these days is to not be intimidated by these things but to keep our eyes on Jesus 'that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have not passed this way before.' Joshua 3;4
We are in a new era. The Church will go beyond where it has ever been. God is moving on into the greatest awakening there has ever been. There will be some shaking going on as God prepares His people for what is ahead. Jesus is cleansing His Temple. 2019 will be a year of preparation for great things ahead.
The Feast of Tabernacles, which has never been fulfilled in the Church, is going to be fulfilled. It is the Feast of fulness and the final harvest, when God brings it all together. The Church will rise to it's full potential in Christ. This is what God has been working toward for ages and for generations.
Those who have written the Church off as not relevant any more; that we are in a 'post Christian era,' are about to get a surprise.
Jesus said " I will build My Church and the gates of Hell will not stand against it."
Of these days God told Daniel, "Go your way, Daniel; for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand."
Be wise; keep your eyes on God's agenda. The victory that Christ purchased at the Cross is soon to be evidenced in the earth.

A THIRD TEMPLE?

Many eyes are looking towards Israel for what they believe is a sure sign of the soon return of the Lord, - the building of a third Temple. This is because of a particular interpretation of a verse in Daniel 9

Vs 27 ”Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;

but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.”

 

This interpretation goes like this:- The Antichrist makes a peace pact with the Jews. After three and a half years he breaks the covenant and stops the sacrifices at the temple. From this they assume that a third Temple has been built. This all happens during the last seven years of the Age, which is a time of God’s special dealings with Israel. Meanwhile Christians will be ‘raptured’ out. The seven years are the final ‘week’ of a prophecy in Daniel 9:24 in which God told Daniel:-

               

“Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.”

 

The weeks are weeks of years, so a week is seven years. According to this interpretation only 69 weeks have been fulfilled and there is another week to go. They teach that between the 69^th and 70^th week, God has inserted the Church Age. When the Church is ‘raptured’ out there is a time of great tribulation coming on the world. The promises contained in vs 24 have not yet been fulfilled.

 

This is the popular end time teaching in many evangelical and Pentecostal churches. It has made its way into the notes of the Schofields, Dakes and other Bibles and thus assumes the authority of holy writ. God told Daniel that some end time truth is sealed until the time of the end; (Daniel 12:9) but about 200 years ago, there were those who went ahead of the Spirit and put together an end time scenario which doesn’t leave a lot of room for the Holy Spirit to bring revelation on the real plan of God for the Church. Getting raptured out any moment may sound exciting but what God has for the Church is even more exciting.

 

The truth is that the seventy weeks were seventy consecutive weeks; the last ‘week’ was the week of Jesus’s ministry. In the middle of the week, after 3 and a half years of ministry Jesus brought an end to the sacrifices as far as God was concerned, by making the one perfect sacrifice for all time. By His death on the Cross He confirmed or strengthened the Abrahamic covenant and He fulfilled all the promises contained in vs 24. God has only one answer for this world’s condition, and that is the Cross of Christ. Anything that He is going to do was accomplished there. We just haven’t yet understood the full extent of all Jesus achieved there. Jesus work is a finished work. He is now seated at the right hand of God “waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.” (Hebrews 10:12-14)

 

Jesus moved with a sense of purpose. He knew the plan of Redemption and worked within the will of the Father. He often said ‘it is not time yet’ because He was working to the plan. He said “I am sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”(Matthew 15:24)) That is because the work of redemption had to be first demonstrated in Israel, the pattern nation and priestly nation. The whole sacrificial system and the commemorative Feasts and all God’s redemptive acts for Israel were set up as a platform for the work of Redemption. The time came when God told Peter to take the gospel to the Gentiles. (Acts 10 and 11) The seventy “weeks” were completed.

 

There is no specific seven year period of tribulation, though persecution and tribulation may come. The Jews may or may not build another temple, though one would expect that they would want to. The third temple as far as God is concerned is the Living Temple that Jesus is building, (Ephesians 2:19-22). There was, at one time in the days of Solomon, three places of worship which are a type of the present time: –

*The tabernacle of Moses at Gibeon which represents the Jewish people. It had lost the Ark, the Presence of God, but the sacrifices were still made there and Solomon went there when seeking God at the beginning of his reign. (2 Chronicles 1)

* The tabernacle of David, a tent in Jerusalem which now housed the Ark. It was open and the Ark was in full view of the people. David organized continual worship to be held there. There was none of the rituals connected to Moses tabernacle and the sacrifices were sacrifices of praise. This tabernacle represents the Gentile Church. (Acts 15)

*The great golden temple under construction being built at the command of Solomon, son of David. This represents the Living temple being built by Jesus Son of David.

 

When Solomon’s temple was finished, the Ark was brought up and placed in the Holy of Holies. Also the old tabernacle of Moses was brought from Gibeon and placed in the temple, probably in one of the store rooms. (2 Chronicles 5:5) Then the Temple was filled with the glory of God.

 

Jesus is still building the Living Temple. When it is finished, the gentile church and the Jewish people are going to come together as ‘one new man’ (Ephesians 2:15) and the glory of God will fill it. Jesus said “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) The Living Temple is going to be filled with God’s glory and the nations will flock to it.

 

“’I will shake all nations and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 2:7-9

 

We are experiencing some of this shaking now. Don’t be perturbed; God is shaking the nations to reveal the things that cannot be shaken.

 

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:28, 29

 

THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD

Recently in the news was the report of a man attacking someone with an axe. He said that a demon   told him to start the rise of hell on Earth. Undoubtedly he was regarded as being mentally ill but I believe that his experience was real.  What we are witnessing is the rise of the satanic realm in the Earth. Most people will shrug that off as ridiculous, but Spirit filled Christians know the reality of the spiritual realm and understand the nature of the conflict we are in right now.

During the temptation of Christ, Satan showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and boasted that all of this was his. He would give it all to Jesus if He would bow down worship him. Jesus didn’t dispute Satan’s claim. Authority over the world was delivered to the devil when Man submitted to him in Eden. Now ‘the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.’ 1 John 5:19. Jesus went to the Cross to bring Satan’s boast to nothing. The Cross is about more than taking you to heaven when you die; it’s about reclaiming the Earth for the Kingdom.

Satan had legal claim to the Earth because of Man’s rebellion but the Cross of Christ has changed all that. God now has a new breed of Man in the Earth - cleansed, restored, eternally alive in Christ and given authority in Jesus Name. Since the Resurrection, Satin has been working frantically to maintain his hold on the Earth. The Bible speaks of him as having great wrath, knowing that he has but a little time. We are witnessing the rise of hell in the Earth. The values and principles which undergirded our nations are being cast aside, faith in God is derided and more and more we see the persecution of Christians.

Yes hell is rising in the Earth, but the good news is that Heaven is coming down. The Holy Spirit of God is going to rise up in the people of God and bring them ‘unto the measure of the stature of Christ.’ [Ephesians 4:13] Romans 8 speaks of the ‘manifestation of the sons of God,’ a time that all creation is waiting for, because at that time it will be delivered from corruption also.  When Man fell, creation fell; when sin grew in the Earth, there was a further cataclysmic change at the time of the great flood. Whenever there is reviving and renewal there has been a measure of restoration seen in the surrounding area as seen in the Transformation series – the crops yield abundantly, pollution recedes, the fish come back in the streams. The spiritual state of Man is reflected in the physical state of the Earth. With the moral breakdown of our society, we see the escalation of the devastation of the Earth – more earthquakes, more drought, more fires and destructive hurricanes.

The ‘manifestation of the sons of God’ speaks of a time when God’s people rise to live out of their position in Christ.  In Him we are righteous and holy; ‘seated in heavenly places in Him.’[Ephesians 2;6] i.e. having spiritual authority in the Earth. ‘As He is, so are we in this world.’ [1 John 5; 17]. What kept Israel in the wilderness for so long? They didn’t know who they were. God called them ‘My Son’ [Exodus 4:22] but they saw themselves as only grasshoppers. When they finally believed they were who God said they were, they rose up in victory and the walls began to fall. What God has done in Israel is there for the instruction of those ‘upon whom the ends of the ages have come.’ [1 Corinthians 10:11]

The time has come when the sons of God will rise up and really BE the sons of God. Then we will see the Victory of the Cross expressed in the Earth and the Kingdom of God begin to be established in preparation for the Coming of the King. The Battle of the Ages is upon us! Amen! Come Lord Jesus.

TRUTH HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

 I am so tired of the prophets of doom and gloom. I’m just as tired of the run-away ‘rapturists.’ It short changes the Cross. Jesus died a terrible death to give us Victory. He said that His Church would demolish the gates of Hell. Where did He say that? Matthew 16:18,19. This is just one of the many Scriptures that we pass over with ‘O, that just means so and so…..’ when it means far more than that, when we take a closer look.

 The ongoing truth which the Spirit brings is hidden in plain sight, in the Word, but our spiritual eyes are often closed to it. Mostly because we have our end time truth all sorted out and we don’t want to know any different. If we took time to meditate on the Word and asked the Holy Spirit to show us what it means, we may be surprised with what He reveals.

Other Scriptures we tend to pass over are Ephesians 4:11-13 which tells us that Jesus has set some ministries in the Church to bring it “to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Also Ephesians 5:27 that tells us that Christ’s Church is going to be “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Surely not! That must mean after Jesus comes back.

The truth is encapsulated in the Types of Israel – the pattern nation. They show that the people of God, having been set free through the blood of the Passover lamb, eventually becoming a glorious, victorious Army which possesses its inheritance [The Promised Land] and establishes the Kingdom. Until they understood who they were and what they were redeemed to do, they wandered in the wilderness. That’s where the Church is now!

The inheritance of the spiritual descendants of Abraham is the Earth. [Romans 4:13] We are redeemed to reclaim it for God. Then the Kingdom will come on Earth as it is in Heaven. That is our Promised Land. This involves spiritual warfare in Jesus’ Name; but the victory is assured. Jesus has done everything necessary in order for the Church to rise up and enforce the victory He has won.  One generation will; and that generation is already born into the Earth. How do I know that? By studying the Types. It’s all there if we care to look and study it through.

I have endeavoured to put all this into my books “The Other Bible Code – Unlocking the Glorious Destiny of the Church of Jesus Christ.” And “End Time Insights – The Cloud moves On.” They are available at Amazon, Booktopia, Koorong and most Book Stores. The following link will take you to my author page at Amazon and you can navigate from there. Let’s open our eyes to see the wonderful things God is going to do in the Earth. – and SOON

Visit Amazon's Val Pym Page       [ctrl plus click]

"YOU HAVE NOT PASSED THIS WAY BEFORE"

                                                                           

New territory up ahead.

After many years of wilderness wanderings, the nation of Israel was on the move into new territory. Their instructions were to watch the Ark carried by priests as it approached the Jordan River; “Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.” Joshua 3:3,4. This is a word from the Lord, intended, not just for Israel centuries ago, but also, and more especially, for the people of God today. Just why, I hope to make clear in these few pages.

The basis of my books is Typology, i.e. understanding the purposes of God by studying the redemptive types [maps, patterns] of the Old Testament. Israel is the pattern nation. Every redemptive act, event or object in the Old Testament finds its spiritual counterpart in the New Testament and in the ongoing journey of the Church. Jesus said that the Spirit would lead and guide us into all truth. Revelation by the Spirit is ongoing. By the Word and the Spirit God unlocks the truths which will bring us into maturity. “The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from His Word.”  AHB 335

The principle of Typology is: ‘First the natural, then the spiritual.’ Before the coming of the Spirit, people couldn’t understand spiritual truth. Such truth can only be ‘spiritually discerned’ [1 Corinthians 2:14].  God gave them physical things which represented the spiritual truths which would then be revealed in the New Testament after the coming of the Spirit. The spiritual descendants of Abraham are the nation of Israel; the spiritual descendants are all true believers, i.e. the Church. [Galatians 3:16,29]The redemptive events in Israel are paralleled in the Church. They are physical in Israel and spiritual in the Church. God’s purposes are: Demonstrated in Israel; Activated by the Cross; Manifested through the Church. 

 Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” The Scriptures He was referring to were the Old Testament Scriptures.  Since the Cross is God’s only answer, everything God did in Israel pointed to it and everything since the Cross issues out of it. Most Christians know that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Passover Lamb; however not many follow the Type through to its conclusion; therefore we have not yet come into the ultimate outcome of the sacrifice of the Lamb. We have understood the truths of Passover; but not yet entered into the truths of the Feast of Tabernacles. Likewise with the Type of the Tabernacle we have been to the Altar in the Outer Court but have yet to enter into the Glory in the Holy of Holies beyond the Vail.

 At a Lay Preacher’s Retreat, I commented on the many Old Testament Scriptures which don’t make it into the Lectionary. Someone asked me “Well would you want to preach on the furniture of the Tabernacle?” She was obviously unaware that the Tabernacle with its furniture is a pattern of spiritual truth of great significance. When God gave the pattern of the Tabernacle to Moses He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” [Hebrews 8:5] It was “the copy and shadow of the heavenly [or spiritual] things.”

The Tabernacle with its furniture is a map showing the spiritual progression of the people of God into the completion of God’s purpose. If we study it alongside the Journey to the Promised Land and the Feasts of Israel we will understand the way God is taking us and the spiritual truths whereby we arrive at our destination. God chartered this map by the Cloud of the Spirit as He led His people into the Promised Land. Jesus did all things ‘according to the pattern,’ and in bringing the Church into its destiny in the Earth, God is doing all things ‘according to this same pattern. ’

Jesus often said “My time is not yet” E.g. John 7:6.  Because He was working according to the pattern of Redemption laid down in the Old Testament Scriptures.  We will not come into the fullness of truth unless we study the whole Bible. This is the pattern or the map of the journey the Church is on:-

ESCAPE FROM BONDAGE -PASSOVER: Egypt with its tyrant ruler is a Type of the Kingdom of Darkness ruled by Satan where Man is in bondage to sin and death. We escape through faith in the shed blood of the Passover Lamb. The truths of Passover are; Justification by faith,[Passover] Sanctification [Feast of Unleavened Bread], and Baptism into Christ [Feast of Firstfruits]. God had his infant Son brought out of Egypt to fulfil the Type. [Check out Hosea 11:1]

COMMISSIONED: Israel, Jesus, and the Church have all been commissioned. The Church has an assignment to complete in the Earth before the Coming of the Lord. Our deliverance was accomplished at Passover ; the rest of the Journey is about coming into the fullness of our deliverance [the ‘manifestation of the sons of God’] and completing our assignment.

 EMPOWERED TO FULFILL THE COMMISSION – PENTECOST: Pentecost is about equipping the people of God to fulfil their commission.

Israel’s Commission. God called Israel to possess their inheritance, [Canaan] and be a ‘kingdom of priests, a holy nation.’ They were to dispossess the inhabitants of the Land and establish the rule of the Kingdom. They were equipped for their assignment at Mt Sinai with the Law and the Tabernacle.                                                  

 Jesus’ Commission was to ‘destroy the works of the devil.’ [I John 3:8] By the Cross, He stripped the devil of his authority and gave it to His Church. He stated ‘I will build My Church and the gates of hell will not stand against It.’ Which brings us to our commission.

The Commission of the Church.  Our commission is to make all the nations Jesus’ disciples. In essence it is the same as Israel’s commission – dispossess the enemy and establish the

 . Kingdom. The Earth is our inheritance. [Romans 4:13]At this present time ‘the whole world lies under the sway of the evil one.’ [1 John 5:19] Looking at our world it can be clearly seen that this is so.  It is gross error to pass off all the terrible things that happen in our world as the will of God.  That's why the priority prayer is that God’s name be honoured; His will be done; His Kingdom come ‘on Earth as it is in Heaven.’ Our Promised Land is the Kingdom of God on Earth. The Holy Spirit is given to us to bring down the ‘gates of hell,’ free the nations to receive the gospel, and thus establish the rule of the Kingdom, before the return of the King. The Types show us how this is to be accomplished. For Israel it was a physical journey; for the Church it is a spiritual journey.

WILDERNESS WANDERINGS.  Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because they had an identity problem. God said “Israel is My son, My firstborn.” [Exodus 4:22] Israel’s faith confession when they saw the giants in the Land was, “We are as grasshoppers.” [Numbers 13:33].  They didn’t know who they really were or believe that they could do what God had commissioned them to do. They still operated in the slave mentality they acquired in Egypt.  It was right here that God made the vow that one day His glory would fill the earth. [Numbers 14:21]Taken in context; this is dependent on the people of God possessing their inheritance.

 Jesus was also tested in the wilderness and the temptation He faced was also an attack on His identity. He came from His powerful encounter at the River Jordan with the Father’s affirmation, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” to face the insinuations of the Tempter “IF You are the Son of God…..” He came out of the wilderness after 40 days, ‘in the power of the Spirit,’ ready to begin the attack on the strongholds of the enemy.

This is where the Church is at right now. Like Israel, we don’t know who we really are or what it is we are to do. Some are preparing to get away from it all in a space flight called the ‘Rapture.’ Some are opting to go with the flow and be ‘progressive.’ For others it’s just business as usual.  What we need to do is to get back to the Word of God and wait on the Spirit for revelation. There is a cache of revelation that is reserved for the end time, as Daniel was told. [Daniel 12:4-13]At a time when ‘many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase’ God will bring the revelation that is needed. He sees the way ahead and will show us if we earnestly ‘ask, seek and knock.’

We have come to a way which we ‘have not passed before’. The Early Church set out on this Journey and became a powerful Church of whom it was said ‘they turned the world upside down;’ but like the first generation of Israel from Egypt, they didn’t complete the Commission. Error entered the Church and it went through the ‘Dark Ages,’ sometimes called ‘the devil’s millennium.’ For many years the Church wandered in the wilderness of spiritual blindness. God again began the process of restoration with the foundational

 4. truth of Justification by Faith and brought us to this place where we now stand. The final generation of the Church Age will come into the ‘all truth’ that Jesus promised and complete the Commission.

COMPLETING THE COMMISSION – THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES  The final Feast is the Feast of fullness and completion. It is the Feast of the final harvest.  Israel came out of the wilderness under the leadership of Joshua. They crossed Jordan and began the attack on the strongholds of the enemy by bringing down the walls of Jericho. Eventually they conquered the Land and Solomon, son of David, came to the throne. For a short time the nation became a faint earthly Type of the Kingdom of God. The Land was at the height of prosperity, the rule of the Kingdom was established and its king [a Type of Jesus, the greater Son of David] was famed throughout the world for his wisdom and understanding.  On the Feast of Tabernacles, Solomon dedicated the great golden Temple which was filled with the Glory of God, a picture of the ‘Glorious Church without spot or wrinkle.’ [Ephesians 5:27].  This glorious Church will draw the nations in. As Isaiah said,(Isaiah 61:1-3) -

‘Arise, shine, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people;

But the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

And Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising…..”

The truth which is encoded in the Day of Atonement will be revealed. It is a deeper understanding of all that the Cross accomplished; the truth of the finished work of Christ.    Jesus is now seated at God’s right hand waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. [Hebrews10:12-14]. That’s our job! And it will involve spiritual warfare. The truths of the completed work of the Cross will cause the Church to rise up in power and glory and bring the nations in. A short paragraph like this cannot do justice to this. I have written about it in my books and it needs the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

In the Scripture at the beginning of this paper, Israel was coming out of the wilderness. They were told to ‘Watch the Ark’ so that they would "Watch the Ark" now which way to go, because they were about to traverse new territory. The Ark is the highest Type of Christ in the Tabernacle. It was to precede Israel by ‘about 2,000 cubits.’ Every detail that God gives is important when interpreting the Types. Nothing is whimsical. This mostly overlooked detail shows that about 2,000 years after Jesus came out of the wilderness ‘in the power of the Spirit’ to begin bringing down the strongholds of the enemy; the rest of the Army of the Church will follow. That is soon! Much more could be said and is said in my books. The truths that God is unlocking are the truths we need in these difficult days.

The times are difficult but they are also very exciting. It is my firm belief that in spite of all the trouble and persecution we encounter; this generation will see the rise of the Church in power and glory.  “CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY! “ [Colossians 1:27]