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KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of
God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 181
THE SEVEN ANGELS WITH THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES
(continued)
“And
the second angel poured out his bowl
upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and
every living soul died in the sea” (Rev. 16:3).
Here
we are given the picture of the second angel pouring out his bowl, not upon the
earth, but into the sea, the lowest realm of man’s life, the body realm where lies the root and source of all evil. Something strange and astonishing happens to
the sea! Before we consider that, let us
reiterate that throughout the scriptures the sea is a type, individually, of the inner storms and turbulent
nature of the Adamic man; and corporately, of the raging, restless, surging
masses of degenerate humanity, tossed to and fro by these inner storms and
turbulent motions of the natural mind and the flesh. The prophet Isaiah penned these inspired
words: “The wicked are like THE TROUBLED
SEA, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the
wicked” (Isa. 57:20-21). Jude also described so-called believers
who walked as natural men when he said, “These are RAGING WAVES OF THE SEA,
foaming out their own shame” (Jude 13).
John, in the Revelation, had a vision of a great whore sitting on many
waters. The angel revealed the meaning
of the “many waters,” saying, “The waters which thou sawest, where the whore
sitteth, ARE PEOPLES, AND MULTITUDES, AND TONGUES” (Rev. 17:15).
No
man can dispute the fact that it is this restless, turbulent, raging carnal
heart of man that inspires every imaginable evil and devilish perversion, religious,
economic, or political, and has filled the world with ever increasing
confusion, immorality, faithlessness, falsehood, fraud, hatred, violence,
greed, cruelty, wars and rumors of wars, bloodshed and oppression. Ah, the sea is the lowest realm on earth,
and this vast sea of fleshly-minded humanity represents mankind at his lowest
point — as bad off as man can be!
Here, however, God is not dealing with the outer
world of wicked mankind, but with His own people. The book of Revelation is sent to the church!
It reveals to His servants the
things He intends to do and unfold in their lives and experience! It begins in the first three chapters with a
carnal, imperfect church. Eventually
there emerges a firstfruit company of overcomers, a people out of the church, a
people qualified to be “caught up unto God and His throne” and to stand with
the Lamb “upon mount
Zion.” This is not the whole church, for these are a
“manchild” birthed out of the
church-woman and a company of 144,000 overcomers who have been “redeemed from among men.” Yet, in the closing chapters of the
Revelation, we behold the entire community of God’s redeemed people purged,
purified, and perfected — the bride
has “made herself ready” to whom it is granted to be “arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white” and she is joined in union at “the marriage of the Lamb.” All the various companies of God’s people are
revealed in the glorious CITY OF GOD,
THE NEW JERUSALEM! And that, my beloved, completes the journey from the CARNAL
CHURCH to the GLORIOUS CHURCH, NOT HAVING SPOT, OR WRINKLE, OR ANY SUCH THING, FOR IT IS HOLY AND WITHOUT BLEMISH! That is the whole message of the Revelation —
God’s dealings with His people to bring them to perfection and fullness in Himself!
This
is without doubt the “sea” within the Lord’s people, the flesh nature, with all
its agitating, surging emotions, powers, and propensities. One thing is certain — God has complete power
and full authority over even that lowest realm within every saint of God! The word of the Lord declares, “Thou rulest the RAGING OF THE SEA: when the waves
thereof arise, Thou stillest them” (Ps.
89:9). Many centuries ago the Spirit of
God inspired these beautiful words of promise, “The floods have lifted up, O
Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice, the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high IS MIGHTIER THAN THE NOISE
OF MANY WATERS, yea, than the MIGHTY WAVES OF THE SEA” (Ps. 93:3-4). Praise God!
He rules the inner raging of the
sea and He stills all its tempests! The unstable nature within, so quickly
moved by the storms created by the carnal mind, the torrents of passion, the
streams of vain imaginations, the waves of frustration and fear, the winds of
doubt and unbelief, the turbulent emotions of fleshly zeal, anxiety, and
temptation — all are quieted by the Lord, the Spirit, who arises within in
peace, joy, righteousness, confidence, understanding, faith and strength to rule the raging of the sea! And then follows the calm, the state
described by Paul
— “that we be no more tossed to and fro with every wind…but may grow up in all
things into Him who is the Head, even Christ” (Eph. 4:14-15). The Spirit of God within is great peace,
overflowing joy, unfailing love, unwavering righteousness, and omnipotent
power. It is only necessary then to gain
the conscious awareness of the
presence and life of God as the true essence
of our being, to know that this life is the law of our reality. As we come to know the spirit of our life in
Christ all inner and outer tempests
are stilled, the sea is calmed, and the dragon in the sea vanishes over the
horizon. Oh, yes!
Yet,
here under the second plague, something different is set before us. The “plague” falls into the sea of men’s
lives and the sea becomes as the blood of a dead man. What word is this! The whole sea is turned to blood, and that,
not pure, fresh, flowing, living blood, but blood like that of a dead person,
putrid, foul, repulsive, and vile in the extreme, spreading its deadly odor, as
it were, over the whole world. The
outpouring of the first bowl produced virulent ulcers on the followers of the
beast — outward eruptions of internal uncleanness — revealing to all the
corruption of the human heart even in those who name the name of the
Lord. It outwardly revealed even the
uncleanness of the religious systems of man.
Have you not seen it? Now, however, wonder of wonders! the dealing hand of God probes even deeper, He pours out the
judgment upon that inner corruption to begin to deal with the inward condition
which is the cause and source of the boils. Think of it!
The pouring out of the second bowl reveals more than the outward
manifestation of inward corruption — God so overwhelms His people with the
death within, so enveloping them with the stench of rotting, coagulated blood
so terrible that it can only be adequately described by the picture of the
whole ocean reeking with rotten blood.
As horrible and offensive as this seems, it is indeed wonderful!
At
last the Lord’s people see that lower nature for exactly what it is —
unmitigated DEATH! The whole realm of
“this present evil world” is but a dead man, a world of dead
men with no life at all in them.
There is no life in anything of the world system! This comes as a great and wonderful
revelation to anyone who bears the mark
of the beast and pays homage to his image, for all who esteem the bestial
system of this world with its politics, its military, its charities, its
science, its education, its economic institutions, and its religious systems,
views it all with pride and wonder. Such
people join its lodges, support its military machine, engage themselves in its
politics, congratulate themselves for being “committed” and “involved” in its various
institutions, and pride themselves in being “patriotic” citizens. This is where millions of believers walk
today in the church systems. How
tragically have the Lord’s people walked as natural men in a natural world as
they fill their lives with natural aspirations, neither knowing nor caring to
know that they could walk as sons of God in heavenly realms far
above the earth and the sea!
The
natural man belongs completely to this earthly order of things. He is endowed in his human consciousness
simply with a high quality of the natural animal type of life. He has flesh as the animals have flesh. He has blood as the animals have blood. He has a heart and circulatory system as the animals have
hearts and circulatory systems. He has a
digestive system as do the animals, feet for walking, hands for working, a
brain, nervous systems,
etc. The natural man lives and dies as
do the animals. Paul pointed out the contrast between the
natural man and the spiritual man in Romans chapters six through eight. In Romans 8:5 he exposed the yawning gulf
between those who live after the body realm (which is the flesh) and those who live after the spirit (the offspring of God). He taught that “they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh: but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit.”
It all depends on what we are AFTER! When I was a young man I met a beautiful
young lady by the name of Lorain
Walker. I quickly decided that I wanted her to be my
wife. For a year and a half I dated her,
pursued her, spent every moment I could with her, proposed to her — and I got
her! At that point in my life she was what I was AFTER! This is the idea Paul has in mind when he speaks of being
“after” the flesh or “after” the spirit.
He also refers to it as “minding” the things of the flesh, or “minding”
the things of the spirit. I think that
anyone can see that whatever a person is “minding” is what they are really
AFTER! When you see Christians all
caught up and expending their time, efforts, and energies in the programs of
carnal church systems, in worldly human institutions, in political parties, and
all the other natural pursuits of “this world,” you can know that they are
worshippers of the beast. We manifest
whether we are a natural man or a spiritual man by what we are after, what we
are actively pursuing in our lives.
The
man who is forever worrying about the physical
man will always have in mind ways and means of catering to him — how he can
provide a better old age pension, how he can get a better home, newer car,
fancier clothes, how he can provide more to see and hear and taste and feel and
smell. He expends all his energies to
try to make sure the physical man will never
be in need. He is always mindful of the
physical flesh and all that he does is for the physical flesh. He does nothing more than the animals do. He lives his life out on the same plane as
does the animal kingdom. He pursues the
corruptible things of earth, the things that make for bodily comfort and pleasure, and does not
mind the things of the spirit. A man or
woman who cares much about the
pleasures of the body, eating and drinking and sexual passion, holding in high esteem such corruptible things as
houses and lands, fine clothes, bodily adornments, bank accounts, and luxuries
of all kinds, will never, as long as their lives are wrapped up in the pursuing
of those things, attain to the glory of sonship to God.
It
is not that such things are wicked or abominable before God, for He has
promised to “add all these things” unto us as we seek first the kingdom
of God
and His righteousness. But I declare to
you that to the natural man who is pursuing all these things they are enemies of the spirit because
they never
give you leave to seek God without distraction.
Carnally minded men, whether they be people of the world or professing
Christians, are filled with the delusion
that those who hold in low esteem the corruptible things of earth, turning instead
to the eternal values of the spirit, are living lives that are not worth
living. But such persons do not know that just the opposite is
true, for “she who liveth in pleasure is
dead while she liveth” (I Tim. 5:6).
The
moment we grasp the meaning of the scripture, “They that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,” at
that moment we can understand what the carnal mind is. The carnal mind is the fleshly mind and the fleshly
mind minds
fleshly things. And the great
revelation out of the sea turned into the blood of a dead man is that NONE OF
THE FLESHLY THINGS OF EARTH HAVE ONE IOTA OF LIFE IN THEM! “To be
carnally (fleshly) minded is DEATH” (Rom. 8:6). Not only in his relation to the spiritual
man, but to the whole spiritual world, the natural man is
regarded as dead. He is as a stone compared to an
organism. The natural world is to the
spiritual world as the inorganic to the organic. “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Rev. 3:1). “To you hath He given life who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph.
2:1). It is not possible to know God or
experience God through any of the physical senses of the body, or through any
earthly thing, or any earthly institution, be it called a church, a sacrament,
or something else. This reveals the
folly of all “sacramental” religion! It
is just as impossible for a man to enter into Christ by having his
physical body dipped
in a tank of water, as it is to have Christ enter into him by
putting a wafer in his mouth and swallowing it. The natural is a sea full of death, and life
is found only in the spirit!
In the world today there is a small minority who
spend their lives minding the things of the spirit.
The welfare of the inner spiritual man is foremost in their
thoughts, for they seek to partake of THE MIND OF CHRIST. They esteem the realm of the flesh as less
than nothing, as common dung, seeking always to be one mind with the
Father. These, being after
the spirit, mind the things of the spirit. The spiritual man has partaken of a life that
transcends the physical — a new and distinct and supernatural endowment. He is no longer of this world. He is of the timeless state, Eternity. He is, even now, a son of God and it doth not
yet appear what he shall be. The
difference then between the spiritual man and the natural man is not a difference of
development, but of generation. It is a
distinction of the quality of life. The
life of the natural man is of so poor a quality that it is not even life at
all, for it is filled with the corruptible mind of the flesh and the power of
death. And it is only when you stand
upon the shore of
that sea that John saw,
the sea that has become as the blood of a dead man, and view the men and the
whole bestial system of the world that lives and thinks and functions at that
level — it is there and then that you will truly comprehend the horribleness of
that realm of death that the masses of God’s people never see or understand
until the second angel pours out his bowl, uncovering it to them, revealing it within them, causing them
to see it as it really is, to be repulsed by it, and cry out mightily to God
for a great deliverance!
We
are living in an hour when God is moving powerfully in the hearts of the people
He has called to live in the heavenlies of the spirit. While the rest of his people go on more or
less happy and unconcerned, content with their empty carnal lives and worldly
religious pursuits, sinking deeper and deeper into the world’s morass of
immorality, confusion, and corruption.
But I have good news for you my friend — there is coming a mighty
change! When the second angel pours out
his bowl into the “sea,” into the midst of the Lord’s people, they will awaken
and smell — not the coffee, not the roses — they will smell the
putrid stench arising from the sea which has become to them as the blood of a
dead man! This plague will fall suddenly
into their natural life and phenomenally disturb their comfort zone! It is a quickening, a revelation! Once they are quickened by the Spirit
of God there is a revelation of corruption — the knowledge of just what is in the
natural man, the carnal mind, the flesh nature, and the whole spirit and system
of the
world — the clear and perfect understanding of what these are, how they
work, their utter futility and worthlessness in light of the Truth and Reality
that the Spirit brings. Christians in
general will never
let go of the valueless things of the world until once they see them for what
they really are — an abhorrent cess-pool of the blood of DEAD MEN!
Oh,
what a wonder this is! Do you suppose
the millions of believers living out carnal lives in the political, economic,
and religious systems of man, will ever come out of Babylon apart from the divine intervention of
the Holy Ghost? Such a thing will not
be. But God has promised — God has revealed
— in John’s wonderful vision on Patmos — He will send His plagues, His
stripes, His woundings, His dealings, into
the strongholds of Babylon
and the slaves will not be comfortable with the things they were comfortable
with before! In the old order of things
believers have been at home with the
worldly atmospheres, carnal understandings, and fleshly activities; but now the
Lord will stir them, arouse them, awaken them, draw nigh and speak into them
His living word and all the peace, pleasure, joy, and security of the earthly,
natural, carnal life will flee away as dew before the rising sun. Once wooed by the Spirit, once
awakened to the beauty and glory
of life in the spirit, the earthly state
of being will be perceived as a base and vile abomination compared to
it. As the second plague falls, all
contentment with the vast sea
of natural life is taken away
so that the carnal mind is bereft of all satisfaction in the worldly pursuits
it formerly enjoyed and trusted in with unrestrained abandonment.
EVERY LIVING SOUL IN THE SEA DIES
“And
the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood
of a dead man: and every living soul died
in the sea” (Rev. 16:3).
It
is time to consider with prayer and meditation the great truth the Holy Spirit
conveys in these marvelous symbols.
Today when I read this phrase — “every living soul” —I heard something
in the spirit that I had not heard before I took up my pen to write. These are beautiful symbols of spiritual truth —
not literal events in the outer world.
There will never
be an ocean turned into a grave of death, nor will there ever be the horrible
scene of billions and trillions of shoals of dead, bloated, and stinking sea
creatures floating on the surface of bloody waters.
It
came to me so powerfully — the precise terminology of the Holy Spirit of
inspiration. He did not say, “every living creature,” nor did he say, “every sea
creature,” nor did he make mention of “all the fish” in the sea. Rather, the Holy Spirit specifies “every living soul.” This is so very expressive and full of meaning! “Living” is in the Greek text zao. This word is used of various living
things, but is most often used in reference to divine life. Jesus is called “the Son of the living
(zao) God.” Our blessed Lord informed the sinful woman of
Samaria of the “living
(zao) water” that He would
give to her. Jesus said that He Himself
is the “living (zao) bread” that has come down from heaven, and that if a man
eats of this bread
he shall live (zao) for
ever. “The just shall live (zao) by faith,” Paul wrote.
Throughout the book of Revelation the word is used several times of the
God who liveth for ever and ever; of Jesus who was dead, and now liveth;
the seal of the living God; living fountains of
waters; and of those who live and reign with Christ a
thousand years.
There
is clearly the quality of SPIRITUAL LIFE embedded in the word, yet in our text it is used in
conjunction with the word “soul” — psuche
— the soulical life of man. Can we
not see by this that the phrase signifies a spiritual work of God which is
joined with the soulical life of man — the deposit of divine life into the carnal
state of nominal Christians! And who
among us can deny that this is just what we see working in the lives of
believers and in all the carnal church systems of earth! Walk into any church service on a Sunday
morning. In spite of the liturgy, the
vestments, the crucifixes, the ritual and ceremony, and all the rest, who can
deny that the Lord is present. Can we deny that they have been truly
saved by grace, have a love for the Lord, have experienced something of His
goodness and power, and are possessed of a zeal to work for God, bless and help
people, and bring men to Him? Yet — in
spite of their experience, love, faith, and commitment, is it not also true
that the religious world is walking after fleshly wisdom which seems so
logical to the carnal mind as they seek to serve God and do His works? The whole program can be seen to be that of
the living soul — God’s life joined
with the soulical activities of men!
The
entire religious world is today walking in fleshly wisdom which seems so logical to the carnal
mind. Fleshly wisdom
always seems to “make more sense” than does the wisdom of God! The adversary causes carnal wisdom to prosper because it is the denial
of the life of the spirit, so that many times Christians and churches operate contrary
to the Spirit with the argument, “It works!”
Their method of evangelism is contrary to the ways of the Spirit, but
since it “gets results” they continue on in it.
The “program” of the church is contrary to true spirituality, and is
built generally around flesh-appeal activities of ceremonies, rituals,
concerts, social activities, contests, sports, puppet shows, movies, dramas, special
speakers, sensationalism, and other carnal tactics and techniques, but the
churches continue in it because it draws a crowd and causes the church to
prosper in numbers and in finances, while their spirits remain dwarfed and
hideously shriveled and stunted.
I
would draw your attention
to the wise admonition of the
apostle Paul. “Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3). “We
are the circumcision, who worship God in the
spirit…and have no confidence in the
flesh” (Phil. 3:3-4). The flesh is
the name by which the Holy Spirit designates the natural man, human reasoning, the carnal mind. Well
did William Law pen these words of keen insight: “In this antagonism of the
flesh to the spirit the flesh has two distinct strategies. On the one hand the flesh wars
against the spirit in its committing sin and transgressing God’s commands. This is the evil of the flesh. On the
other hand, its hostility to the spirit is no less manifested in its seeking to
serve God and to do His work! This is
the good of the flesh. These two together are the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. In yielding to the
flesh, the soul sought itself instead of the God into whom the spirit could
have raised it. Self-effort and self-development
prevailed over God’s life. And now, so
subtle and mighty is this spirit of self, that the flesh, not only in sinning
against God, but even when the soul learns to serve God, still asserts its
power, refuses to let the spirit alone lead, and in its effort
to be religious, wants to serve God independent
of the spirit and is still the great enemy that ever hinders and quenches the
spirit. It is because of this cunning
deceitfulness of the flesh that there often takes place what Paul
speaks of to the Galatians: ‘Having
begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?’ Unless
the soul is brought into absolute surrender to the spirit, the surrender to the
spirit being very entire, and the holy waiting on Him be kept up in great
dependence and humility, what has begun in the spirit, very early and very
speedily passes over into confidence in the flesh.”
It
is right there where the flesh seeks to serve God, that the “living soul” is
formed. The quickened spirit is alive in every child of God,
but when the soul, inspired by the
spirit, turns and usurps the work of the spirit, the hybrid is formed — a mixture of soul and spirit! Do we
not know how the Pharisees, with their self-righteousness and carnal religion,
fell into pride and selfishness, and became the servants of sin and the
children of the Devil? Satan has no more
crafty device for keeping men out of life than inciting them to a religion,
even a serving of God, in the flesh. He knows that the power of the flesh can never conquer sin nor
please God, that in the flesh and the serving of the flesh no one will ever
become a son of God, for those who become sons not only defeat the Devil
in the wilderness of temptation, but also deny their own souls — their own
minds, wills, emotions, desires, plans, talents, abilities, hopes, dreams, and
ambitions, to declare with the firstborn Son of God, “I do nothing of myself;
but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And He that sent me is with me; for I do
always those things that please Him. The
Son can do nothing of Himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things
so ever He doeth, these also doeth the Son.
The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father
that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works” (Jn. 8:28-29; 5:19; 14:10).
If there is one lesson a son of God needs to
learn it is this: If I am to deny self in my relationships with others, to conquer
selfishness, anger, and lack of love, I MUST FIRST LEARN TO DENY SELF IN MY
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD! There the soul, the seat of Self, must learn to bow to the spirit, where God
dwells. Listen, my brother, my sister,
to the voice of the blessed Spirit of God: It is confidence in the flesh that
motivates men to busily and craftily work
for God rather than seeking the Lord until He works! It is self doing
what the spirit alone can do; it is the soul taking the lead, in the hopes that
the spirit will second its efforts, instead of trusting the spirit to lead and
to do all, and then waiting on Him. Oh,
brethren! How we need to watch this! All that is not of Life, of the Spirit, is
merely the good of man — soulish. The
deep mystery is that God does in some
manner honor what the soul does, when it speaks His word or inspires men to
seek after the Lord. God honors both His
word and the faith evoked in men’s hearts!
And it is this working of God through man’s efforts in spite of their soulical energy which shows us what the living
soul truly is — the mixture of soul and spirit, the spirit working,
honoring the spiritual content of the soul’s self-effort! Think of a man with a zeal to preach, not
truly called of God, but out of soulish zeal he goes out proclaiming what he
perceives to be the gospel. He mixes
even his truth with error, preaching hell-fire and eternal damnation, warning
men to turn to Jesus for salvation. Men
do cry out to the Lord, and He honors their cry, and their faith, moving in
their hearts, and they find forgiveness, peace, and deliverance from sin. This is the living soul — the life of God working through the soulical zeal of
man! We all
know it happens! If it didn’t happen, there would be no
born-again people in any of the church systems of man! This is not the pathway of sonship to God,
but it is the way of Babylon!
How
much of our religious exercises have been soulish! I can tell you of a truth that most of the
“power” in the modern “revival meeting” is nothing at all but soul power. Have you not noticed yourself that in many
church services, revival meetings, and crusades a kind of atmosphere is first
created psychologically to make the people feel warm and excited? A chorus is repeated again and again to warm
up the audience. The people are
feverishly urged
to “get into the spirit” of the meeting.
Some stirring stories are told.
Special music is sung. The people
are instructed to stand up, sit down, say “Amen!” and “Praise the Lord!” When the atmosphere is thoroughly heated up,
the preacher will then stand up and preach.
If he does his job skillfully he can anticipate a large “altar
call.” These are methods and tactics,
but they are not the energy of the Holy Spirit!
Many preachers today think they have power (including some who call
themselves sons of God), but they are merely employing psychological soul power
to influence people and manipulate congregations. Many have become experts at manipulating
people and audiences. One dead
give-away: If the preacher has to have organ music playing softly in the
background while he makes an appeal — he is working in soul power!
The
Bible Schools
of Babylon’s
religions offer a course for ministerial students called homiletics. Homiletics is
the art of preparing, writing, and delivering sermons. The sad truth is that the vast majority of
religious activities is just that — an art. You can go to school and learn
how to do it! How to prepare
sermons. How to speak persuasively. How to use gestures. How to tell jokes. How to preach. How to counsel. How to stir people with sentimental stories
about death, repentance, hell, heaven, needs, miracles, etc. This all seems so desirable, so good!
But I say to you that you can learn these very same psychological
techniques, apply them in the business world, and go out and sell vacuum
cleaners! The fact is, all really
successful salesmen use these same proven
procedures of presentation, sentimentalism, and pressure to sell insurance,
security alarms, automobiles, real estate, and thousands of other items daily! They don’t need any Holy Spirit to do
that! All that is necessary is some good
human personality coupled with some good proven techniques and one can persuade
people to buy almost anything! These are
means and methods, but they are not the power nor work of the Holy Spirit. They are no more spiritual when used
religiously than they are when employed commercially. Yet God does meet men in their lives right where they are even when they turn to
Him as a result of such soulish methods!
That is the mystery of the “living soul.”
How
prone we are to consider a person possessing unusual talent, dynamic
personality, and great natural ability, reasoning with the carnal mind that
with such talent and qualities, why, if God could just get hold of him and USE
ALL THIS ABILITY in the service of the Lord, what mighty things he could
accomplish for the kingdom of God! Oh,
yes, we can always locate some good flesh for God to anoint! And in our haste to pour God’s Holy Anointing
Oil upon man’s flesh, we forget that “not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath
chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise;
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that
are mighty; and base things of the world, and things that are despised, hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
that NO FLESH SHOULD GLORY IN HIS PRESENCE” (I Cor. 1:26-28).
A
brother shared the following experience which is so familiar to many who read
these lines. “I remember visiting a
church which allowed the visiting ministries to take up their own
offerings. On this particular occasion a
servant of God and his wife were conducting the special meetings. There was no denying that the hand of God was
resting upon the brother. He was quiet,
deep, and had a heavily anointed prophetic ministry. However, his wife’s anointing was somewhat
different. Very different. She was loud-voiced and boisterous. The worship, praise, singing, prayers, and
prophecy seemed to be anointed, during her ministry. Then suddenly she announced, ‘Now we are
going to take up the offering.’
Apparently she noticed the look on the faces of the people. Perhaps they resented this intrusion into the
worship of the Lord. She then said, ‘You
say, Why are we doing this in the midst of the
anointing? Well, we can turn that on any
time we want to.’ Need I say more? This is a favorite trick. Get the people ‘high’ on the Lord, or all
worked up with the leader’s self-anointing, and then while the tide is high
make a plea for
money. God in the past has allowed man
to go on in his own way, and moved and blessed in spite of it. The days are coming, however, when He will no
longer tolerate those who try to manipulate His Spirit for their own
profit. Sooner for some, and later for
others, but they will be judged severely”
— end quote.
And
may I add — when God withholds His blessing from all the soulical religious
activities of man, when He no longer honors anything about it, when His
presence and His working and His moving flees
from the midst of all the administrations of religious Babylon — that is when EVERY
LIVING SOUL DIES IN THE SEA! None of
man’s craftiness will work any more — there will be no more “life” active in
anything that is soulical! That, above
all else, will be the judgment!
There
is no life in methods, techniques, or
formulas. How much better it would be if
the Lord’s servants would expend their energies, like Mary of old, at HIS feet,
learning to know Him and to know His ways. How much better it would be were the time
spent on our knees, low and humbled before God, that He might place within a deep distrust of the flesh. How I pray that God would truly reveal to
all those apprehended to sonship that the one great hindrance to the life of
sonship is the power of the flesh and the efforts of the self-life! Open our eyes, we pray Thee, to this snare of
the adversary! May we all discern how
secret and how subtle is the temptation to have confidence in the flesh, and
how easily we are led to try and perfect in the flesh what has been begun in
the spirit! May we learn to trust Thee,
our Father, to work in us by Thy Holy Spirit both to will and to do only those things which THOU ART
DOING!
In
this day, after receiving the Father’s call to sonship, after partaking of deep
and vital dealings of the Spirit of God, I have had to totally repudiate all soulish wisdom
of the carnal mind, all fleshly tactics of Babylon’s kingdom, to bend low beneath the
disciplines of the Father of sons, to travail mightily that God would bend me,
break me, bind my soul power, bridle my Self, and block all that would proceed from
my carnal mind. If I have learned
anything of the ways of the Father I have learned this one thing: He who would
be a son of God must be able to clearly distinguish what is done from his soul
power and what is done from the indwelling spirit; further, he must confess and
utterly forsake all that pertains to his own soul power, nailing it to the
cross of Christ, that ultimately his own faith, as well as that of his hearers,
may be found to stand solely in the power of God and not in the wisdom of the flesh. This is the only route, my dear brother, my
precious sister, into the glorious and eternal reality of sonship to God!
All the good works of the soulish realm can never,
in a billion years, deliver
creation from its bondage to the tyranny of corruption. Only the omnipotent working of THE LIFE OF
THE SON OF GOD can accomplish this! “It
is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.” Think
on that!
It
is a dangerous day to be involved in organized religion! I’m not trying to be rude, crude, or
vindictive in any way, but there are a lot of things going on right now in the
midst of God’s people that are highly esteemed and getting the attention of the
whole world, but it’s just the drunken harlot riding her scarlet-colored beast
through the wilderness of this world.
It’s almost a circus atmosphere in the Charismatic
and Pentecostal scene, drawing the crowds, catering to soulish excitement, with
all kinds of theatrics and showmanship, and men look at the lying signs and
wonders going on about them, and pay no attention to the deep and eternal work
of God to be wrought within. The subtleness and power of the individual soul is
the root and source of the wanton harlot riding her beastly
system — it is all the domain of the LIVING SOUL. The first man Adam was made a living soul. The last man Adam was made a quickening spirit. If a man is not walking in his
religious life in the power of the quickening spirit, then without
doubt he is walking in the energy of the living soul! That is the mystery.
Observe,
then, how our text
clearly states that “every living soul in
the sea (of humanity) died.”
What can it mean? The
“dying” of the living souls reveals the cessation of the spiritual work of
God through the instrumentality of the systems of religious Babylon!
While in former times God honored His word no matter what unclean vessel
it passed through, HE WILL NO LONGER DO SO!
Whereas God formerly permitted the flesh of man to be anointed, HE WILL
NO LONGER ALLOW IT! God will no longer bless,
honor, or in any measure anoint man’s fleshly efforts to
serve Him and build His kingdom! God
will no longer respond to the prayers for the moving of His Spirit within and
through the carnal methods and promotions of man. There will not in that day be any more “living
soul,” for God will withdraw
the zao
from the psuche — its end comes, and every
living soul in the
sea of humanity dies! In all the world there will not be any
manifestation of divine life within the precincts of Babylon’s works! The “plague” will be poured out into the sea
of humanity and all religion and all religious systems will be full of death,
emptiness, and corruption!
This
is not a judgment to kill people, or literal flesh. These are word-pictures of spiritual
realities! God is going to bring to
death the hybrid manifestation of His Spirit accommodating man’s folly and
foolishness. He will withdraw His
presence and forever write “ICHABAD” upon the systems of man — “the glory has
departed!” Every union bears fruit, and
the fruit of Babylon
will be destroyed. It is of utmost
importance that all of God’s elect see this great truth, for once we grasp it,
we understand the severity of the Father’s dealings with the spirit and works
of religion in the lives of His
people, and we will be neither surprised nor shocked when we see the anointing
and moving of His Spirit depart once and for all and completely from the courts
of Babylon! The power of Christ comes as
a plague to kill each and every “living soul” in the sea until God is not seen
moving from any realm anywhere except from the heights of mount Zion
and from the high places of the heavens of His Spirit! The move, manifestation, and power of God
will flow only from God’s firstfruits
company! As it was in Cana
of Galilee in that day when Jesus attended the wedding, when the wine made by the hand of man has run out and come to its end,
then Jesus Himself will arise and bring to the scene the REAL WINE OF HEAVEN!
I
now prophesy to you by the word of the Lord that this is precisely why, in
that day, “Many nations shall come, and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, and to the house of the God of
Jacob; and He will teach us His ways,
and we will walk in His paths: for
the law shall go forth out of Zion, and
the word of the Lord out of
Jerusalem. And He shall judge among
many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not
lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Mic.
4:2-3). The nations will come to the
mountain (kingdom) of the house (the elect) of the Lord that has been
established (elevated) in the tops of the mountains (kingdoms), exalted above
all other kingdoms and above all churches and movements of man; they will come,
I say, because there will be NO OTHER SOURCE of help or hope or life or light
anywhere! The “living souls” will all be
dead, there will be no more visitations of God, no more expressions of His
life, no more exhibitions of His authority, no more movings of His Spirit, no
more manifestations of His power, no more revivals, no more answers to prayer —
no life in evidence anywhere in the lowlands of the religious world of
man. What an awesome thought! No recourse, no blessing, no remedy from any
source — the glory has departed.
“Come up hither” is the message now
being heard from Zion’s
holy hill! This message of truth and
life is a proclamation of a new and greater manifestation of the rule and
government of God in the earth. “Of the increase
of His government and peace there
shall be no end,” the inspired prophet assures us. That increase of the kingdom is from purpose
to purpose, from dealing to dealing, from one stage of growth, development, and
manifestation to another, and from one age to another. I declare to you today that we are now
standing at the end of an age, and the Lord is introducing A GREATER
MANIFESTATION OF HIS KINGDOM by separating His elect unto Himself. The old “church order” is fastly drawing to a
close, and the day for the manifestation of the sons of God is rapidly
approaching. The next step in the
unfolding of God’s kingdom plan for the world is even now dawning.
We
have progressed from the age when God has been meticulously forming His body of
sons by establishing His rule in their minds and hearts, to the age when that
body shall begin to fulfill the great and grand purpose for which God has prepared them. We have come to the time when the kingdom
shall accelerate into a further and greater
manifestation of the rule and dominion of the kingdom over all nations and over
all mankind, answering the cry of the groaning creation to be delivered from the bondage of
corruption. The Lord is inaugurating a
new age, and is setting forth a new order with a new understanding, new
wisdom, new methods, new power, and new
requirements for this new day of greater light and glory. As wonderful as the workings of the Spirit
were in the past, they are not good enough for this new order of manifest
sonship! Even though we have made some
progress, with outpourings of His Spirit and glorious manifestations of the
gifts, we must have something more from God to be able to rule the
nations and deliver
creation from the bondage of corruption!
Two
thousand years ago the firstborn Son of God declared, “For all the prophets and
the law prophesied until John” (Mat.
11:13). God spoke to an age through the
law and the prophets who gave the word of God to Israel
until John the Baptist came on the scene preaching repentance and the kingdom of God. This means that the prophets and the law
revealed God’s will for that age and were in effect until John showed up in the
wilderness and began his ministry. The
Lord ended the previous age by removing His blessing, presence, and
authority from the previous order, and then spoke a new order into existence purely by His
word. And by a similar unrecognized word
of authority, Father shall conclude this
age of the formation of His body
of sons and inaugurate the new age of the manifestation
of the sons of God on earth. When
the Lord changed the order two thousand years ago, did He send a mighty
cataclysmic upheaval and judgment to at once eliminate all the Old Covenant
priesthood, laws, rituals, sacrifices, feast days, synagogues, and religious
forms? Did He move to completely wipe
them out and abolish it all from the face of the earth? No — not at all! Remnants of the old Jewish order remain in
the earth to this day as an abiding and unimpeachable testimony to the blindness
of unanointed, uninspired, unspiritual religion! God removed every vestige and particle of His
presence, unction, power, and glory from that passing order and there is no
spiritual or religious death more stark, barren, grim,
empty, and desolate in any religious system of earth today than in Judaism!
When
Father changes the
order in this day, replacing the old church order with His manifest sons, kings
and priests after the Order of Melchizedek, will He then eliminate and
obliterate off the face of the earth the Catholic order, the Baptist order, the
Methodist order, the Lutheran order, the Episcopalian order, the Presbyterian
order, the Mennonite order, the Pentecostal order, the Charismatic
order, the Word of Faith order, and all the other church orders of man? Not by any means! They will perish in due time, but first He
will simply remove what is left of His blessing, presence, and anointing from that
order! It will be just as the
heavenly messenger announced to John: “Rejoice over her (Babylon), ye heaven, and ye holy apostles and
prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it
into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down…and
the voice of harpers and musicians (spiritual praise and worship), and of
pipers (prophets), and trumpeters (announcers of new things in God), SHALL BE
HEARD NO MORE AT ALL IN THEE; and no craftsman (spiritual ministry), of
whatever craft he be, SHALL BE FOUND ANY MORE IN THEE; and the sound of a millstone (grinding flour
for bread — the word of God) SHALL BE HEARD NO MORE AT ALL IN THEE; and the
light of a candle (the little light left in Babylon) SHALL SHINE NO MORE AT ALL
IN THEE; and the voice of the Bridegroom (Christ the Head) and of the Bride
(the true church) SHALL BE HEARD NO MORE AT ALL IN THEE…” (Rev. 18:20-23).
For
a season they will continue on with their fellowships, activities, programs,
ceremonies, rituals, crusades, and religious works. For a season, until the time appointed of the
Father, all will continue to function without Father’s authority or the
precious anointing and working of His Spirit.
Thank God! There is a remnant, a
chosen company, a firstfruit, a people with a purpose, called to be the sons
of God, who have now been awakened to this new day and enter into its
purposes by the Spirit of God. These
have already received the call to come out of the Babylon
system, because a new and greater manifestation of the kingdom of God
is at hand. This call has come from the
SPIRIT HIMSELF, confirmed by many thousands of saints in all parts of the
earth, in practically every nation under heaven. It is not a matter of the interpretation of
scripture, to prove from holy writ that this is the time for God’s sons to
be manifested and for the kingdom
of God
to come in great power and glory. It is
a matter of HEARING FROM GOD! Those who
reject this vision reject the voice of the Lord from the heavens.
Now
God has called us to “come out of her,” to depart from all our religious
backgrounds, to repent of our doctrines, creeds, and beliefs; to repent of our
denominationalism and our non-denominational denominationalism; to repent of our carnal
religious methods, our dead works, and all the baggage we have brought with us
into this kingdom walk, from the systems of man. Only as we repent, and follow the Lamb up Zion’s mount, becoming invested with a new mind, a new vision, and a new
reality, can we enter into this new and higher and more glorious dimension of
the kingdom of God
revealed through sons.
This
should aid us greatly in understanding the fact that the next three chapters of
the Revelation set forth in detail the fall
of Babylon. The whole system of Babylon will collapse and go up in flames! The work
of the seven last plagues is designed to prepare God’s people for that
collapse. Do you think for one moment,
dear one, that if God does not completely remove His blessing from Babylon, the people of God
will ever leave her? No way! But every blessing and moving of God in her will die. In that blessed day God will have His
man, His corporate man, His new creation man, His man in the image of God, His
many-membered son, His man in the measure of the statue of the FULLNESS OF
CHRIST, full of faith and the Holy Ghost, full of incorruptible life, full of
heavenly light, full of infinite love, and full of divine, omnipotent power —
and upon HIM shall the glory be seen!
“Arise,
shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon
thee. For, behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon
thee, and His glory shall be SEEN UPON THEE.
And the nations shall come to thy light, and kings to
the brightness of thy rising” (Isa. 60:1-3).
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Updated
by Sharon Eby 02/27/2015 04:06:08 PM