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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 113
THE SOUNDING OF THE
TRUMPETS
(continued)
And
there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions
of the earth have power (Rev. 9:3).
Indeed, John did see locusts coming out of the smoke, however, they are being used as a picture, yes, a very fitting picture! And now it is important that we understand this picture properly. John sees the locusts come forth out of the smoke that escaped from the abyss. They did not themselves actually come out of the abyss; they originate with, or are produced by, the smoke! Nothing is said to come out of the abyss but the smoke which darkens the sun and the air; and out of the smoke the locusts come. It may be natural to think that, after all, they cannot be bred of the smoke, and that they must come with the smoke out of the pit; but naturalistic interpretations may easily deceive us, where the spiritual sense is the whole matter, and for the spiritual meaning there is deep significance. The smoke is not, as in other places, the smoke of tormenting fire, but fumes of malign spiritual influences which obscure the enlightenment of the Spirit and our own spiritual understanding. Out of this spiritual darkness, caused by the deceitfulness of the human heart, we can easily understand the locusts to be bred!
The locusts
therefore are intimately associated with the smoke. Smoke
is more of an ethereal, airy, vaporous, gaseous substance, whereas the locusts have a
tangible form. The locusts represent the outward form
of the spiritual concept. Arising from the abyss of the
deceitfulness of the heart is the smoke of ego, thoughts, imaginations, desires,
ambitions, perceptions, attitudes, interpretations, ideas, concepts, opinions,
propositions, and divinations. None of these things are tangible,
visible, physical things! Yet out of these come other things! The
visible, tangible, physical things (locusts) which come out of the smoke represent the
men, ministries, movements, organizations, governments, and activities that are spawned by
the thoughts, perceptions, ideas, interpretations, and opinions that come from the heart! All
the unfettered instincts of the soul have their root and source in the depths of the
abyss. And all the outward embodiments and
manifestations of these inward soulical instincts have their root and source in the smoke!
The locusts, then, are the energy-charged authority,
words, and actions of men and systems which carry a very real power capable of wrecking
much havoc in the lives of Gods people. That these locusts become the
personification of the deceitful intents of the heart is confirmed by the words of the
prophet where, in reference to the might and power of Nineveh, he states that Thy crowned
ones are as the locusts (Nahum 3:17). That
which is crowned, of course, is a KING a ruling one that which sits on the
throne and has authority and power over men! A friend has pointed out that this is,
also, the thought which is carried by the Greek word daimontranslated devil in the
scriptures but from which we derive our English word demon. This
word daimon means,
literally, a DEIFIED SPIRIT! It is, then, a GOD that rules over man
a god-like spirit made so because it sits as a king or a crowned one in
a mans life. This is naught but the religious spirit that rules over the Lords people through
the instrumentality of the movements, organizations, and church systems of man! Oh! What
authority and power they exercise over men's lives! The
priests and ministers of religion, and the systems they represent, are as God to the masses of Christians who blindly accept
their words as the very words of God! Can you not see the mystery?
Out
from the smoke of the deceitfulness of the heart comes every form of man-made church
system, personality cult, kingdom building, organization, creeds and laws, manipulation
and control. That which comes out of the smoke of the
serpents deceit only bites, stings, and torments! And
unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power
and their torment
was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man (Rev. 9:3-5). The
diabolical heresies of mans religion appeal to mans intelligence and are
subtle; but when they have clouded the sun of truth and life they are seen to be cruel and
relentless, enslaving and exploiting, resulting in anguish and torment. The
smoke includes the laws, rules, creeds and commandments of religion and the traditions of
men. The
locusts represent the actions and practices that the controlling, dominating, and
legalistic spirit inflicts upon our lives. These are not pure, satisfying,
comforting, assuring, edifying, revealing the heart of God and the mind of Christ; rather,
they sting us with guilt, fear, condemnation, exploitation and bondage. They
bite and eat away at us even as we endeavor to serve the Lord!
These
come out of the darkened mind and ignorance of man, out of the false ideas about God and
His word, locusts upon
the earth! The earth
signifies the carnal religious realm, and that which is soulical. Upon
the earth carries the meaning of to light on top of as a bug that flies
and lands on top of a stalk of corn or wheat. Spiritually, the locust indicates that
which forms out of the imagination of carnal minds and lights or lands upon those who are
growing in the field or vineyard of the Lord. These are the Lords people who are
meant to grow up unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. When
a farmer sees locusts he knows he has a problem. Locusts devour and destroy! They
ravage the harvest! These locusts are given the same
authority as the scorpions of earth. One thing the called and chosen elect of
the Lord have learned in this great kingdom day is that God has given us power to tread on serpents and scorpions! Arent
you glad!
Because of the desolations poured out
upon Gods people the Lord gave a word of assurance with promises of deliverance
through the prophet Joel. He prophesied, Fear not, O land;
be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things. Be
not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the
tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be
glad then, ye children of Zion, and
rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He
will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and
the latter rain in
the first month. And the floors shall be full ofwheat, and
the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. And
I will restore to
you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the
palmerworm, my great army which I
sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be
satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, and none else: and my
people shall never be ashamed (Joel
2:21-26).
The plague that had come upon Israel was
without parallel in their history. It consisted of successive devastations
by locusts, of which naturalists say there were as many as ninety varieties in the Middle
East. In
the passage above four different words are used. They are arbeh,
gazam, yeleq, and hasil, translated
respectively as locust, palmerworm, cankerworm, and caterpillar. The
reality is that these are not four different insects, they are four stages of the same
insect! The Amplified Bible reads, And I
will restore or replace for you the years that the locust hath eaten the hopping locust, the stripping locust, and
the crawling
locust
All these words are different names of
the locust, referring to different stages of its development. And
the same swarm of locusts, according to the advancing stages of its growth, had done its
desolating work in every stage! Four is the number of universality
the ruinous activity of the locusts was full and complete. Nothing
had escaped! The whole land had been laid waste.
While this prophecy appears very literal
to Israel of old, yet we know that in the New Testament the promised former
rain andlatter rain are
revealed to be the outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon Gods spiritual elect. Thus,
the prophecy pertains to SPIRITUAL REALITIES! The land is not the old land
of Palestine over in the Middle East! The covenant of the old land of Canaan
is our example to
prepare us to enter the new and greater land of the kingdom of God on earth. The
substance of that land is Christ! These words of Paul Mueller are so very
significant for us all at this present time. The Psalmist said, The
righteous shallinherit the land, and
dwell therein forever (Ps. 37:29). Not only shall the saints inherit the
earth, but they shall inherit the land. This land is a special place reserved
for the elect. It is the place that corresponds
in type to Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, the place of Davids throne. It
is the glorious realm of spiritual Zion, the land that corresponds to the
Holiest of all in the tabernacle or house of the Lord. That place, or land, is a land of the
incorruptible and immortal glory of the presence of the Lord. From
that land the saints shall rule and reign with
Christ in incorruptible bodies, with incorruptible minds, the mind of Christ.
O that the wonderful spirit of
revelation would enlighten us to the grandeur of these promises of God! The
wisdom and understanding of the Spirit is being given to us. We
are growing up to know the hope of our calling, and to see the glories that are reserved
for us in the realm of the Spirit. Only as we are enlightened by the spirit
of revelation can we possibly comprehend the marvelous truth of our inheritance in Christ. When
we fully understand that Christ is our inheritance, the things of earth will indeed grow
dim. The
world and all things of it will lose its attraction, and we will run with patience the
race that is set before us. Our glorious, risen Christ has already
set down the footprints, the steps, into the glory that is reserved for us. He
has pre-destined our walk unto His fullness. He has set aside an inheritance for us
that makes the things of this world look like the paltry dust and ashes that they are. Compared
to the splendor of the incorruptible and immortal Christ of glory, all else is corruption. He
has reserved Himself for us! He
has set aside the Holiest of all, the place of His greater presence, for the holy remnant
who are now growing up into Him. What an inheritance! The
steps to that glory are there. Walk in the Spirit and the way will be
made clear end quote.
Many saints have no desire to attain
experientially to the fullness of Christ Himself. They
have no vision of sonship! They
are more interested in a mansion over the hilltop, or a cabin in the corner of glory-land,
or some such foolishness. They want to live next door to Jesus,
but they have no yearning to be like Him, to overcome as He overcame, to be filled with
the glory of the Father as Jesus was, and to reign with Him on His throne. Their
vision has nothing to do with restoring all creation into the glory of God, they will be
satisfied with a harp and a robe! But the land of our inheritance is
peace, joy, righteousness, incorruptible life, divine wisdom, infinite knowledge,
omnipotent power, universal dominion, and eternal glory! All
this is ours as sons of God, but only as we grow up into Christ and put on Christ do
we become mature and arrive in the position to assume this responsibility of possessing
our possessions. We are talking
about the full stature of
Christ within ourselves, not gold bath tubs in heaven. By
a mature understanding and a divine faith we see the way to enter the land and take
possession of all the riches and glory of full sonship to God!
The army in Joel chapter two is an army
of locusts that devastates the land of God. It represents the adversaries to true
spirit life that come into the vineyard or garden of the Lord and lay it waste. They
strip the leaves from the vines and cause the fruit to rot. There is a progression in the growth
and destructiveness of the locusts that are in the vineyard of God. The
most destructive of all is the full-grown consuming locust, more destructive than licking
or gnawing. These locusts have gone from crawling to
hopping to swarming to consuming! As we look at all the different levels
of experience, doctrine, ministry, church life, and control in the church world it is
obvious that not every realm is equally destructive to spiritual life! A
few nurture that life to a high degree. Yet all the carnal, man-made systems,
creeds, organizations, programs, and promotions express locust mentalities and locust ministrations that rob Gods people of their true
destiny, vision, purpose, understanding, faith, wisdom, and power. These
movements of man, like the locusts, usually begin small and unpretentious, but soon gather
strength and become hopping locusts, and before you know it they are airborne and are
everywhere in their full-blown destructiveness. The church today is literally filled and
totally covered with these devouring locusts!
Ah, how often the voice of the locust
speaks the very same things within us! The
locust voice says, Dont talk about beingperfect
no one can be perfect in this world! Dont talk about the nature
of God that is too high for
you! Dont
talk aboutconquering death everybody dies, and all who have
preached that have likewise died! You will go by way of the grave at last! Dont talk about becoming exactly
like Christ nobody can measure
up to Him, and you are taking too much upon you, taking away from His glory! Dont
talk about being manifest sons of God it is enough to join a good church,
support the preacher, give to missions, be a faithful Christian, and make heaven your
home! Besides,
you are weak, you are now old and feeble; you cant preach or teach the Word; you are
beset by physical ailments and disease, silly of you to think of overcoming sin and death;
you have already failed so many times to please your heavenly Father; God never answers
your prayers anyhow; you have no church or fellowship, no one to encourage and strengthen
you, no covering over you; you have too many problems and hang-ups, and you aspire to
deliver creation from the bondage of corruption! You
are young and inexperienced, others have walked in this truth for years; your own home is
out of order, you are bedeviled by an opposing spouse and rebellious children; and youre
wanting to be a manifest son of God! It
is far beyond your ability, you can never make it! Dont
talk about putting on the mind of Christ
youll never get rid of your old carnal mind until you die! Dont
talk about ruling and reigning with Christ it might go to your
head! Who
do you think you are, anyway! Dont talk about being kings
and priests after the Order of
Melchizedek thats just for Jesus! It is absolutely impossible for you to
attain and possess such high and holy things! Its just an ego trip! Oh,
yes! The
locusts have so devastated the fields and vineyards of the Lord until there is little
mature fruit of Christ anywhere!
All through the body of Christ today I
see the destroying army of negative attitudes, static creeds, false images of God,
exploitation of the people, childish interpretation of scripture, human control and
manipulation, unbelief, spiritual stagnation, stunted growth, Babylonian bondage,
entertaining the saints rather than perfecting the saints, carnal programs and promotions,
which one and all rob the Lords people of the glorious and eternal reality of the
fullness of Christ, bringing them to powerlessness and reproach in the midst of the earth. Can any doubt that the church is full of
locusts! As Lynn Hiles once said, every time I
see these man-made programs, carnal concepts, and fleshly methods pawned off as ministry
I want to get in that vineyard and kill some
bugs! I tell you today, God is cleansing our
land of these locusts! The word of the Lord is coming to Gods
called and chosen elect in this day as it came in that long ago to the spirit of the
prophet Joel, proclaiming, I
will RESTORE unto you the years that the LOCUST hath eaten! To
all who walk in the spirit of truth in this hour, under the mighty hand of God, the Lord
is RESTORING WITHIN US all that the locusts have devoured! Praise
His wonderful name!
HURT NOT THE TREES
And it was commanded them that
they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green
thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in
their foreheads (Rev. 9:4).
Power, that is, authority,
or the ability to act effectively, was given to the locusts, as the scorpions
of the earth have power. They
could carry out their mission only with Gods approval! We
must understand that in spite of all the carnality of religion, God is still moving in
peoples lives and ministries in those realms! So
the Lord established their perimeters. The locusts have a limitation on what
they can do, a limitation set by God. Hurt not the grass, the green
things, nor any tree. In other words, you are given a sphere
of influence among the people, but dont hurt the living things, the little life they
have in manifestation, the good things they do in a sincere effort to serve God. The
grass speaks of those who are young in the Lord, but live close to the earth, out of the
carnal mind. They have not ascended within themselves
into the heavens of Gods Spirit. Grass is also a covering, an aesthetic,
which covers the earth, conceals what lies beneath, veiling the true nature of the flesh. They
grow very close to the earth, yet do express some life on that level of immaturity in
Christ. The green thing is something
a little higher, something that would give life like a green vegetable or herb, but still
has its roots in the earth, in a carnal realm. These are the works of those who have an
anointing of life and the bread of truth from God, they are truly life-givers, but in
spite of their anointing and ministry of life they are still bound in the carnal systems
of man and think with a Babylonish mind. The world is full of these! Christian
television is full of these! Trees are strong things that grow out of
an earthly realm, yet have life and express life. These
grow higher yet, but still their roots go deep into the earth-realm rather than into the
waters of the river of God, where grows the tree of life!
The locusts are commanded not to hurt
these three levels of experience, life, and works. Only
those men
It
is not the realms of experience, life, and works that God is out to destroy, nor is it
even the truth of God as expressed on these various levels that God is after, but the men themselves. God
is dealing with something beyond the measure of life men possess and the level on which
they express that life His concern is with the mind
their understanding, perception, and way of thinking! How
can we know it is their mind God is dealing with? Simply
because the locusts hurt only those men who have not
the seal of God in their FOREHEADS! They can touch only those who have not
the Seal of God. Therefore, for those who have the seal
of God the locusts cannot bring pain in the region of their thought
their
forehead. It is only the seal of God in our
thinking that can stop them! They
cannot go against the mind of Christ. And
when we come to the grass, the green things, and the trees, it is not their immaturity,
not their imperfect works that are affected it is the fountainhead, the mainspring
of their condition a mind unconquered and unreplaced by the mind of Christ! These
have not been lifted up into the mind of Christ, nor do they know by the Spirit their true
identity as sons of God. And lest we should think that these are
just those carnal Christians out there in the religious systems of the world, let me tell
you something. The locusts will sting any area in Gods
elect where we are not walking in the mind of Christ! Any
man who lacks anything of the mind of Christ is subject to the sting of the locust! In
the words of the old song, Its not my brother, nor my sister, but its
ME, Oh Lord!
TORMENTED FIVE MONTHS
Have you yet seen by revelation of the
Spirit of God that you will have torment in your soul in your mind, in your
emotions until the seal of the living God is placed in your forehead, until you
begin to think out of the mind of Christ and live out of the spirit-man which you truly
are. The
locusts out of the smoke of the pit will torment you until you
identify with Christ who is your life and
your only reality. If
by the grace of God this holy vision can burst upon you, you will stand upon the heights
of the mount of God in triumph and victory! Nothing can destroy your true identity
or the eternal life you have in Christ! Some who read these lines have passed
through some very hard places, trials, temptations, and testings which pressed you beyond
measure, and you despaired of life itself. Be of good cheer, for the locusts are
under commandment from God they cannot kill you!
We have all experienced those seasons of
weakness, failure, discouragement, doubts, oppression, and hopelessness. But
in it all the gift of God in our vessel was left untouched, unscathed, and unharmed! The
deposit of God was left alone. The life of God in you, the real you, is
born of an incorruptible seed. It
is both incorruptible and indestructible! That which is born of the flesh is
flesh,and always acts like flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is
spirit, and always acts like spirit. That
is the mystery! Your heavenly Father has so constructed
your spiritual life that it is always protected in your earthen vessel and even the
locusts in the likeness of horses prepared for battle, with crowns on their heads, their
faces as the faces of men, their teeth like the teeth of lions, their wings as the sound
of chariots of many horses running to battle, and with tails with stings like unto
scorpions even these cannot touch the new creation of God which you truly are! Even
God will not and cannot destroy that which is of Him within you, nor will He, nor can He
torment it! You are His beloved son, precious in His
eyes. He
has set His eternal, unconditional love upon you! Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of
God! When we fail to identify with who we
really are we can be tormented, and
we all have been there! It seems to me that there is no greater
torment than the spirit of
condemnation! Yet, thank God, even that torment has a
time limit!
In the Greek, the words used here for
torment and tormented are basanizo and basanismo which are both derived from the word basanos. Basanos is what is commonly known in English as the
touchstone. Its proper usage in olden times was to
try the genuineness of gold. The pure gold rubbed on the stone would
leave a peculiar mark, different to that of other metals or alloys. Therefore it acquired a symbolic
significance: a test or criterion for determining the quality or
the genuineness of a thing; to test for purity or truth. Therefore,
you see, when we are tormented by the locusts, we are having our genuineness
and quality tested for if we are being tormented by the locusts it should clearly
reveal to us that we are NOT WALKING IN THE TRUTH, NOR IN THE MIND OF CHRIST, NOR IN OUR
TRUE IDENTITY AS SONS OF OUR HEAVENLY FATHER! That is the test, and the truth of what
mind, word, and identity we are walking in is made manifest by the sting of
the locusts! They cannot sting one who has the seal
of God in his forehead!
Their province is to torment those who
have not the seal of God in their foreheads, or who are not consciously abiding in the
mind of Christ and the truth as it is in Jesus. Is it not true that the false doctrines
of the church systems of man are a torment to those over whom they have obtained the
mastery? The sting of the locusts often involves
the emotions of fear, dread, and terror. Terror is the emotion people feel when
facing the unknown or when threatened. It is the emotion we come face to face
with when we hear the doctor announce, You have cancer, or the stock market
falls a couple thousand points just when we are ready to retire. There
is alsospiritual terror inflicted by what one brother calls terrorist
preachers. When I was a boy, the churches in
which I was raised painted such a picture of God as One who is so exacting, demanding,
judgmental, and vindictive, that if you went to bed at night with one little unconfessed
sin in your life, not under the blood of Jesus, and should the rapture take
place during the night, you would be left behind! The
preachers filled a lot of altars with weeping, wailing, hysterical people with that kind
of terrorism!
I tell you that in those days I could
not truly love God for being afraid of Him! The
coming of the Lord sent no thrill of glory through my soul; the very thought of His coming
struck terror in my heart! God was so high and holy, so awesome and
exacting, so stern and demanding that I was sure I could never be quite ready to stand
before His fearsome presence. That sting of the scorpion-tailed locust
revealed that I was not SEALED WITH THE SEAL OF GOD IN MY FOREHEAD! I
did not yet know what it meant to WALK IN THE MIND OF CHRIST! How
my ransomed soul exults with joy unspeakable and full of glory that God has driven that
false religious locust-spirit out of my land so that I may now KNOW HIM AS HE REALLY IS! Thank
God, the allotted five months of torment came to an end and I no longer feel the
sting of the scorpion tail! Do you think we should be afraid of
someone as gracious and merciful as our heavenly Father? Should
we cringe before Him like a dog that expects a kick? What
has God done to us that we should be afraid of Him? God so
loved the world that He gave His Son
for us! And, behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons
of God! Same love, for God is Love!
It is a fact that most fear has its root
in the unknown. People
fear what they cannot see, or what they do not understand, or what they imagine to be. Its
no wonder, then, that since religion deals with an unseen world with spirit beings,
the hereafter, eternity, future punishments and rewards, heaven and hell that
peoples fears play a very important role in most of the worldsreligions. You
must admit that fears of pain, suffering, or death; fears of coming judgment, tribulation,
or wrath; fears of spiritual punishment and unknown, unnamed torments in hell; all of
these fears virtually dominate most
of the religions on earth those men who have not the seal of God in their
foreheads!
Those who are Gods called and
chosen elect in this great day of the Lord are now being delivered from all fear and
terror, for they understand by the deep inner revelation of the spirit, and the teaching
of the mind of Christ, that all things are in our Fathers hands and all that happens
in our lives is part of His wise purpose for our growth and development in Him. He is in control, no
matter how dark or hopeless things seem, and
He will bring us forth triumphantly as we commit our way to the Lord and trust also in
Him. Now
together we can raise our voices in blessed chorus with the Psalmist and joyfully sing,
I will bless the Lord at all times: His
praise shall continually be in my mouth. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears! (Ps. 34:1,4). The
writer to the Hebrews adds, He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So
we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not
fear what man shall do unto me (Heb.
13:5-6).
Even in the valley of the shadow
of death He has promised to be with us, and even there we shall fear no evil
(Ps. 23:4). Those in whom the
spirit of sonship is revealed fear no evil! We do not fear the wrath of men! We
do not fear sickness or tragedy! We
do not fear death! We do not fear judgment! We
do not fear hell! We do not fear the antichrist! We
do not fear world government! We
do not fear great tribulation! We do not fear the beast! We
have no fear of the end times! We have no fear of economic collapse! We
have no fear of terrorists! We have no fear of conspiracies! We
have no fear of earthquakes! We have no fear of tsunamis! We
have sought the Lord, He has heard us, and has DELIVERED
US FROM A-L-L OUR FEARS by the
revelation of His mighty power working in us! He has delivered us from all the stings
of all the scorpion-tailed locusts! By this you can know that you are sealed
with the seal of God, that you are a son indeed!
No one has written more eloquently of
the sting of the locusts than Bob Torango when he penned the following exhortation. Why, you may ask, doesnt
the world follow after the message of the church? The
answer is that the message is one of a God who is a dictator instead of a God that is a
Father. The message of the church is tainted
with words of judgment promising harsh punishment for sins, delivered without a voice of
love. This
nullifies the true reason for Gods judgment, which is to bring to us correction and
joy unspeakable and full of glory. It is the same scenario that is played
out every day in an abusive home where the parents lash out at their children in a fit of
rage, striking them with physical blows meant to bring them into submission, but
accomplishing the direct opposite. There
can be no substitute for love! A hug will accomplish more correction
than a blow to a childs body.
I
am not suggesting that a child should never be reprimanded, for I realize that any child
will continue to mis-behave if given a free rein, but I do believe that the parent is
responsible for punishment that exceeds the transgression. This
happens more times than we want to think about. The parent has a bad day at work, the
car breaks down, the air conditioner goes out, and the frustration over these matters is
unleashed upon the children which, by the way, cant do anything right in the eyes of
the enraged judge of the house. The result is a beating that is more
therapeutic for the parent in venting their frustrations than it is for correction of the
childs behavior. Judgment of
any kind should never be administered in a spirit of rage or loss of sensibility. The
result is much worse than if there were no punishment at all.
The
church, enraged over the continued rejection of their version of the gospel story, becomes
more and more abusive toward anyone that does not see things their way. Instead
of being the magnet of Gods love to creation, the church has become a judge of Gods
wrath that cannot be approached by anyone except those who have lost all hope of love in
their life and commit to the stranglehold of religion just to belong to a group that will
give them a sense of security. This, dear ones, is the standard profile
of a child that is abused! Some of us that have never been found in
an abusive relationship have doubts whether or not the relationship is truly abusive. Why dont the abused children tell
someone about their beatings if they are truly abused? Why
dont they run away from home? The saddest truth of all in an abusive
situation is that the abused individual, especially a child, is convinced that they
deserve this treatment! Added to
this is the reinforcement that is given to this submissive behavior by our societal mores
that continuously drill into our children that their parents are the judges of their life
and have the moral and legal authority to administer punishments whenever they see fit. The
child is reinforced to never question the judgment of the parents by teachers, which are
surrogate judges at school, and by their playmates who are in ordinary relationships with
their parents. The abused child is cut off, quite
literally, from any hope of escape or explaining the situation to others. The
result is a child that grows up to be either withdrawn or extremely low in confidence and
self-esteem, or else one that acts out upon society the same acts of senseless violence
that were acted out upon them.
The world mirrors this same
stereotypical relationship with the church! They are either scared to death of the
church or they are violently opposed to it. What a tragedy to see the church in this
shape! Whereas the church has been ordained to
be the mother of the worlds lost children, opening her arms with grace and love to
all that are in need, she has instead been portrayed as an abusive judge in the earth,
spitting out statements of eternal damnation and unthinkable horrors on all that do not
follow her commands. No
wonder the Lord is preparing another church! The
church that is known as mainstream is a fake, dear ones! She
is a wicked stepmother that has no bond of love with the world at all. This
wicked church loves the world in word only, and that only because the Bible says she must! The
lost children of the world are only her lawful responsibility and, by God, if they dont
shape up she is threatening to throw them all into eternal hell fire. Raise
up your Jerusalem, O Lord! Raise up the true Mother of us all,
bring her to us and let her lay her cool, soft hand upon the wounds that have been given
by the abusive, counterfeit church of religious dictators. Let
her sweet kisses fall upon our head and let them take away the fear and anguish that has
been inflicted upon the worlds lost children. Oh, dear friends, cant you just
envision the power, the dunamis and exousia, that will be unleashed when the true,
nurturing nature of the New Jerusalem, the beautiful Bride of Christ, the loving,
compassionate, Mother of us all wraps her arms around us and holds us until the crying
stops, and cleans the dirt from us as she takes the filthy rags off of us that religion
put upon us, and she covers us in clean, silky linen made up of the righteousness of our
Father.
Even now, as we speak out against
the tyranny of an out of control religious mother of Babylon, we see the damage that has
been done and the scars that remain in the hearts of the people of God. Some
still flinch and pull away when the hand of Christ is stretched out to them. For
some, the message of a loving God who asks nothing of us but to believe in His love and
come to live with Him in peace and grace, is too good to be true. For
them, the abused offspring of a wicked guardian, beaten without reason, locked up in
cult-like communities of religious bondage, forbidden to question the teachings and rules
of their overseers, psychologically brainwashed into testifying to the goodness or their
tormentors in order to stay in good graces and not be publicly humiliated, for them the
message of unconditional love is foreign and suspicious. In
their world of abuse, everyone has an angle, an ulterior motive, a con. Nothing is truly free in their
relationship with the wicked mother! Yes, they have programs for the adults,
a big gymnasium for the children, a beautiful building to gather in, but only if they
continue to give their money to the wicked mother. In
fact, they have come to the awful truth that mother only loves them if they support her
with their money. Take the money away and mother becomes a
tyrant accusing them of neglect and warning them of the consequences that come to them
that dare to leave off from supporting the prison house. The
wicked mother especially enjoys telling her forced child laborers about the tales of what
will happen if they think they could ever leave her domain. She
goes into great sickening detail in describing the terror that awaits them outside the
walls of her prison.
Instead of the true gospel story
of our heavenly Father and His grace and love, and His eternal commitment to our
redemption, we are told of Gods eternal wrath against us for something we dont
even remember doing against Him. The fake church, the abusive mother,
tells her young children that they are hopelessly evil and that all of their lives they
will have to serve her in order to earn their way to heaven. The
abused are told that God cant even look on them, that He never heard their prayers
before they came to live with the wicked mother, that God turned away from them in their
sorrow. These are the bed time stories that the
mainstream church puts her children to rest by. Whereas, the opposite is true! God
always hears groaning creation and not one word intended for His ears goes by the wayside. Indeed,
God has moved for us even when we were sinners and countless times saved us from
destruction, with or without our asking Him. He has moved heaven and earth to keep us
in this world and is constantly working on our behalf
end quote.
The underlying foundation and core of
religious Babylons theology is designed to activate fear fear of hell, fear
of an angry God, fear of Gods wrath, fear of the great and terrible tribulation God
will pour
out upon mankind, fear of judgment, fear of Gods curse if they rob Him by not paying
their tithe, fear of blessings withheld if somehow they fail to please God sufficiently,
fear of separation from God if they dont obey the church, or observe the proper
rituals, ceremonies, and ordinances, fear of any little sin that may keep God from hearing
their prayers, fear that God will abandon them if they are not faithful to the church
system, fear of pain and loss. You name it, fear works in every realm
that touches our daily life! Who can deny that these are the very
underpinnings of the popular churches theology? But,
thank God, Perfect love casteth out all fear (I Jn. 4:18). What
a word that is! When the pure and perfect and
all-encompassing love of God is
revealed in our hearts every fear mentioned above will take wings and fly away! All
fear of God is incompatible with Infinite Love! The
more He is REVEALED TO US IN TRUTH, the more we understand that all of His actions are
motivated by love, and in our best interests. His corrections are done in love, to
instruct us in righteousness. Thus, while the testings, overcoming
processes, might be hard on the flesh, yet we need not fear them, but commit ourselves
into the loving hands of our Father, and trust Him for the ultimate victory. Oh,
yes! When
this mind is in us that was in Christ Jesus, there is no more sting of the
scorpion-tailed locust of religion!
Let us further pursue this thought of
the fear of the Lord. The Bible speaks often of the fear
of the Lord and we are admonished
throughout the scriptures to fear God. One
of the seven spirits of God enumerated in Isaiah 11:1-2 is the Spirit
of the Fear of the Lord. This is one of the seven spirits that
rested upon Jesus, the firstborn Son of God! And it is one of the seven spirits of
God that rests upon the elect of the Lord throughout the book of Revelation! This
spirit is sent forth into our hearts from the very heart of HIM, the LAMB in the midst of
the throne! As with all the seven spirits of God,
the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall be a most remarkable thing in the ministry of the
manifest sons of God as they arise to bring the kingdom of God to pass in all the earth in
that glorious age of the ages!
The very first principle we must
understand in this connection is that the fear of the Lord has absolutely and positively
nothing to do with being afraid. Jesus does not have the spirit of
FRIGHT! Jesus was not, and is not, TERRIFIED of
His Father, neither does He impart to men the spirit of terror. No
sinner was ever apprehensive, fearful, or terrified in the presence of Jesus! God
hath not given unto us the spirit of fear (dread,
fright, terror, horror, panic, alarm, apprehension, disquietude); but of power, and of love, and
of a sound mind (II
Tim. 1:7). In the scriptures our English word
fear is translated from the Hebrew word yirah and
the Greek word phobos. These words have two principle
meanings: first, that apprehension of evil or danger which normally cause one to flee or
fight an expectation of harm or pain which evokes a feeling of alarm or dread; and
second, that awe and reverence which a man of sense feels in the presence of that which is
high and eminent, such as a king or authority. A child feels the first of these kinds
of fear in the presence of a mad dog or a cruel and abusive parent; and the second before
a parent who is good and loving, but who must also be just, or before a teacher or trainer
of renown who puts him through rigorous exercises which in the end produce wonderful and
incredible results.
In the New Testament the Greek word phobos is used in both the above senses. On
one occasion we read that the disciples of Jesus cried out for fear being
frightened and terrified because they thought they saw a ghost! (Matt.
14:26). But later we read, Then had the
churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the
fear of the Lord, and in the comfort
of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied
(Acts 9:31). Here, the second meaning of fear is
clearly indicated, the awesomereverence of God!
I once read a story that so clearly
illustrates the nature of the fear of the Lord that has been birthed in all who truly know
Him and walk with Him. The brother that related this story
said, Several years ago I married a young couple who were, and still are, very much
in love with one another. They had met when they were thirteen and
fourteen , had never looked at anyone else, and wouldnt today after all these years. They
went away on their honeymoon and after a few weeks came home again. I
saw them in the meeting the next Sunday and greeted them with a little pleasantry. I
asked the groom if his bride had burned the roast for their first dinner. They laughed, and she said, Oh, I
was afraid that I was going to. I had read so much about the bride being
unable to cook that I decided that John was going to have the very best meal a bride could
prepare for her husband. So I began about three oclock. I
got everything out and started to work. When I finally put things on to cook, I
wanted everything to turn out well, and I was afraid they wouldnt, and, of course,
he had to be a little late, and I was afraid things would be spoiled. I
interrupted her and said, You have saidthree
times that you were afraid. Did
you think that John was going to beat you? She
pouted and said, Of course not. She looked at him with all the love of
her heart in her eyes. But, I persisted, You
said that you were afraid! She broke in, You know what I
mean. And of course I knew what she meant! Her
fear was not fright; her fear was A GREAT AND INTENSE DESIRE TO SERVE AND TO PLEASE the
one to whom she had given herself entirely, the one whom she respected and esteemed above
all others.
Perhaps this simple story will help us
understand what is meant by the fear of the Lord. The
fear of the Lord is a godly thing, a wonderful thing, a lovely thing! How
many precious believers, influenced by the false doctrines of the church systems, have
absolutely no conception of the difference between the pure and holy fear of the Lord and fright of the Lord! God is love, and He loved us before the
foundation of the world and chose us and picked us out in Christ! He
predestinated us and sent Jesus to redeem us! While we were yet sinners in the flesh
God commended His love toward us! God said, O that there were such
an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep my commandments always, that it might
be well with them, and with their children for ever! (Deut. 5:29). Here the Lord plainly says that He
wants His people to have fear of Him. But
He wants the same kind of
fear that an obedient son would have toward a loving father! The
kind of fear our heavenly Father desires to be a continual emotion within every member of
His elect is like an awesome
awareness; like a full, consuming
knowledge of His great power, His great ability, His
great holiness, His great wisdom, His
loving foreordination, His wonderful plan and purpose in
our lives, and in the whole creation! The fear of the Lord is reverence for
the Lord. It is profound respect, mingled with
awe, affection, and veneration. It is reverential trust, hope, and
expectation!
Another dimension of truth concerning
the sting of the locusts has to do with the pain inflicted on the Lords people
through thehuman conscience. Many
people have been led to believe that the human conscience is one of the safest of guides. Some
even contend that the masses of people who never truly heard of Jesus deserve to go to
everlasting damnation because God spoke to them and revealed sin to them in
their conscience, therefore they are
without excuse. That is a horrible lie! Even
if they did know right from wrong through their conscience, that did not reveal Jesus to
them, and Jesus is the Saviour, not doing good things because our conscience would bother
us if we did evil. That would be salvation by works!
The problem with the human conscience is
that, first, it is a product of the fall the knowledge of good and evil! Second,
it is a conscience with power to condemn you for wrong-doing, but with no power to compel
you to do right. Third, it is totally undependable so far
as the life of sonship and the kingdom of God is concerned, being conditioned by the external influences of this
world. To understand the truth of which I
now speak you have only to observe the life of a child. In
their first bloom of innocence children readily develop a sense of what is right. But
as they grow older, deprived of original simplicity, imbibing of the voices, concepts, and
influences of the world around them parents, friends, teachers, television. books,
movies, news, etc. they become affected by the values they learn from these sources
and their conscience becomes CONDITIONED TO JUDGE RIGHT AND WRONG BY THE STANDARD OF WHAT
THEY ARE TAUGHT. Your conscience is like a computer into
which data has been fed from childhood on. Your computer gives out the
information that has been fed into it!
The conscience takes the shape of the
things it is fed. The conscience of a Hindu has been
conditioned to believe that a cow is an especially sacred animal, to be revered. His
conscience would smite him were he to kill and eat a cow! What
mental anguish he would suffer if he were required to dine with you at the local Outback
Steakhouse! But if one is raised in a Catholic home
he knows quite well that a cow is not sacred, and his conscience is not pained by eating
beef, yet, if he bends his knee before the idol-image of a saint, his conscience will
approve that, because that is how his conscience has been conditioned! Should
a good Baptist be required to kneel before the image of a saint and pray to the saint, his
conscience conditioned by Baptist values, would torment
him and not let him sleep!
This brings us to a most marvelous verse
of scripture. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true
heart full of assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience(Heb. 10:22). When
quickened by the spirit of revelation this passage staggers the imagination with its
wonders. Such things are too wonderful for me! In
our carnal state while yet our eyes are dim through the ravages of sin and death and the
weak and insipid rule of the conscience, we can but see through a glass darkly. But
now comes the word: Having our hearts sprinkled (purified) from an evil
conscience having the
evil conscience or the defiled conscience REMOVED FROM OUR HEARTS
by the cleansing blood of the Christ!
I have shared the following experience
before, but would share it again in this connection. I
was raised in a Pentecostal home. So,
upon arriving at young manhood I had acquired a PENTECOSTAL CONSCIENCE! It
was shaped by the doctrines, practices, and traditions of the Pentecostal movement in the
area of south Alabama where I lived as a boy. In those churches there were many rules
and traditions, some of which have changed through the years. For
example, the women were not allowed to wear facial makeup of any kind, and lipstick,
especially, was the sin of Jezebel! Short or curled hair was sinful. Women
could not wear slacks and their dresses must be long, with long sleeves and high necks. Bright,
splashy colors were a sign of worldliness. And then no jewelry of any kind was
permitted not even a wedding band!
I remember when, as a boy preacher, I
wanted a tie pin to hold my tie in place. I thought about the tie pin for a long
time before getting up enough courage to buy one. I
purchased a rather plain, gold colored one. I shall never forget the day I put it
on, stood before the mirror, looked at myself, and said proudly, Preston, youve
really done it! Then at once my Pentecostal conscience
smote me and I took the thing off. I had to go back to the safety pin! You
see, my conscience had been formed in the Pentecostal tradition and I thought that was Gods
standard of righteousness! Shortly thereafter a fresh and marvelous
move of the Holy Spirit swept over my life, quickening, bringing glory and the liberating
spirit of revelation from God; there came a new and wonderfulunveiling of Christ to my heart, and for the first time in my life
I clearly saw the bondage of tradition, the commandments of men taught as the doctrine of
Christ, for the pitiful thing it is. The blessed Spirit of God turned the
searchlight within and I saw that just as the sinner needs his heart cleansed from
adultery, lying, drunkenness, cursing, and all the ungodly works of the flesh, so did my
heart need to be cleansed from the traditions of religion PURGED FROM AN EVIL,
DEFILED, CONDITIONED, WARPED, DISTORTED, PERVERTED, RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUS! How
desperately the Lords people need this purging; for many the conscience still labors
under the hangover of multiplied man-made standards, duty-bound rituals and ceremonies,
and dead letter-of-the-word ordinances and observances.
Hear, oh man, oh woman of God, and give
earnest heed ye sons of God! For if
the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ
PURGE YOUR CONSCIENCE FROMDEAD WORKS to
serve the living God (Heb. 9:13-14). He who writes these lines testifies to
those who read them that no one can serve the living God
with dead works. Dead
works are the fruit of spiritual deadness, that have no spiritual life in them, no life of
the Spirit of the Living God! Some think dead means sinful
works. Yet here dead works are not
crimes and immoral conduct, but rather all the formal, empty, false religious observances
and self-invented acts of righteousness, and works of the law whereby men would seek to
please and serve God. These things are imposed upon the Lords
people by ministers who are unable to discern spirit from flesh or truth from error!
When
I was a young man many of my peers had a heart after God and truly wanted to serve God. Every
time we had a revival they would run to the altar weeping, repenting, seeking
after God. But the church told them they couldnt go
to the movies, couldnt wear a short-sleeved dress, couldnt go to ball games,
couldnt wear makeup or jewelry, and laid a hundred other laws and commandments on
them which they didnt have the will power to keep. Therefore,
within two weeks after the revival they backslid, went back into the world
not because they didnt desire to walk with God, but the price seemed too
high. In
their backslidden condition they lived in perpetual fear of hell and damnation, tormented
in mind and conscience, ashamed, mortified, and distressed beyond belief. Oh,
my brother, my sister, what stings of the scorpion-tailed locusts! The
preachers talk long and loud about these weird, vicious creatures that are going to crawl
up out of the pit of hell one day and torment all the poor souls who missed the rapture
and know not that THEY THEMSELVES, AMONG OTHERS, ARE THE VERY LOCUSTS JOHN BEHELD
COMING OUT OF THE SMOKE FROM THE ABYSS!
As the living God, He is all, and does all and fills all the ever-present and ever-working God. Cleansed from our contact with the death of religion WE KNOW THIS GOD and have fellowship with Him and serve Him. It has nothing to do with the touch not, taste not, handle not commandments of men, such things have nothing to do with life in the spirit. TO SERVE THE LIVING GOD! What a word! The glory of the New Creature is to reveal God, to be a vessel into which He can pour His fullness, a channel through which He can show forth His glory, an instrument for working out His purposes. This is what man was created for in the image of God. The image of God has nothing to do with whether you wear ear rings or sip a glass of wine. Those are carnal, foolish notions of self-righteous legalistic minds! The whole object of redemption is to bring us back to a life in the living reality of God. It is for this that the Holiest of all has been opened and we are bidden to boldly enter in. It is for this that our conscience is cleansed by the blood, purged from dead works. A life in the Holiest of all is a life in which everything is done under the sense of Gods glory and presence, by His indwelling in our spirit, by the outworking of His power, and to His glory; a life that has no object but to live by the life of God within and do His will. That is what the New Creation Man is being formed for today! Praise God, a people is being formed to walk as God in the earth, the change is on and we are being changed!
To be continued
J. PRESTON EBY
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