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"Teaching
the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM
THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part
47
THE
CHURCH IN THYATIRA
(continued)
Thyatira is the fourth church, and in her we see the rise of the woman
Jezebel. No such lady of that name
is known except the wicked wife of Ahab, Israel’s worst king.
In the church at Thyatira we find that the spirit
of Jezebel was alive and at work in the midst of the Lord’s people!
Some of the believers in the church at Thyatira were in the JEZEBEL
CONDITION!
The reign of the house of Ahab is typical of the reign of the flesh
through carnal men all through the history of Israel and the church.
Jezebel is typical of that internal feminine quality of the soul
which works in union with the flesh
and men who walk after the flesh.
Jezebel represents the aggressive, seductive, lustful desire that
influences people in a religious sense apart from the mind of the spirit.
This soulical Jezebel is the instigator of all religious and spiritual
perversions! She is the source of
all error and carnal religious activities!
The Lord Jesus said of Jezebel in the church at Thyatira, “Which calleth
herself a prophetess, to
teach and seduce my servants.” Jezebel
is the carnal and soulish “spirit” or attitude that prophesies and teaches
in the church systems of man and seduces many to “commit fornication” with
the world and with other false prophets in the church systems!
Paul Mueller once commented about Jezebel, saying, “The worst thing
about this prophetic witch of evil is that she is married or joined to those who
think they are appointed to rule and reign with Christ, as Jezebel was married
to wicked Ahab.”
Jezebel calls herself a prophetess (one with the word of the Lord),
Jezebel teaches, and Jezebel seduces God’s bondslaves to commit fornication
and eat things offered unto idols. She
seduces the bondslaves!
Her attack is against the seed of
Christ within, her assault is upon the sons
of God! Remember, my beloved,
the real things the overcomer must overcome are not the theater, the dance hall,
and the bar — it’s these perverted,
corrupted, fleshly, carnal, soulical, and pseudo-spiritual conditions found in
the seven churches! To him that
overcomes all these are the promises
made!
“Behold, I will cast her into a
bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great
tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
And I will kill her children with
death; and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the
reins and hearts…” (Rev. 2:22-23).
The kind of God we have revealed in the holy scriptures is a God of both
mercy and judgment — the two sides of love.
He is not a nebulous nonentity of sentimentalism.
He is a God of character! We
thank God today that He is a God of compassion, love, and mercy — and there
would not be one of us alive today to breathe His fresh air if it were not for
His amazing love toward us. But
there is a purpose in judgment, and
it is always a purpose of love. There
is a deep, clear purpose in everything God does.
And His love for us, deep and tender, is the fire burning under that
purpose. The character of God must
be kept ever in mind. The leading
trait of His character is expressed, not by the word “purity,” nor
“righteousness,” nor “justice;” but by the word “love.”
Though if we knew the real meaning of love we would find it includes
these others, and more. The purpose
in judgment is two-fold. It is a
purpose toward sin, to get rid of it.
And God’s attitude here is uncompromising!
No exceptions are ever noted. And
there is a purpose toward men.
Now regarding the purpose toward men, it is disciplinary.
The whole thought is to change the man!
It is love working, love for the man.
It is the same purpose as the
surgeon’s.
He thrusts his keen-edged blade, not to hurt or destroy life, but to save
it! He is driving hard against the
disease. The knife that cuts and
hurts is held steady by the kindly purpose in his heart.
We must learn this fact early: our Father loves us just as much when He
is subjecting us to surgery, as when He sends His blessings and gifts and brings
us into the sunshine of His glory. Precious
friend of mine, He loves us most when He is dealing severely with us, “for
whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth”
(Heb. 12:6). “I am the true vine,
and my Father is the vinedresser. Every
branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that
beareth fruit, He purgeth (prunes) it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (Jn.
15:1-2). Ah, the Father reaches
into your life and mine and prunes away that which is not fruitbearing — and
it hurts! But, as some Puritan
divine said years ago, “The husbandman is never so close to the branch as when
he is trimming it.” The Father is
never more close to you, my beloved, than when He is reaching in and taking out
of your heart and life those things that hinder the development of HIS LIFE and
the manifestation of HIS NATURE.
The Lord said of Jezebel, “I gave her space to repent of her
fornication; and she repented not” (Rev. 2:21).
Thank God! He gives us a
space to repent! He sees into the
depths of our being. He reveals
what He sees to us. Like a parent
correcting a child, He gives space to repent.
He doesn’t just slap us around! If
we will not heed His warnings, then come His feet of brass that burn as a
furnace! Can we not see?
Do we yet understand? He
casts her into a bed of trouble rather than pleasure, He throws all who
fornicate with her into great tribulation, He kills her children.
This is the judgment which comes. This
is the judgment which will redeem Zion! This
is the judgment which washes away the filth of the daughters of Zion and the
blood of Jerusalem! This is a
revelation of the Lord which starts at the house of God (I Pet. 4:17) and then
flows out from that house to all creation!
The sons are the firstfruits — every other man must at God’s
appointed time pass through the same dealings, the same revelation and purpose
of the Father. When the process is
completed God will be ALL IN ALL, everything to everybody, the indwelling and
controlling factor of every life (I Cor. 15:28, Amplified).
You may remember the story of the man who was trying to get his mule into
the barn. The man was tugging on
the rope and pulling with all his might. He
got behind the mule and pushed; he put his shoulder to its back but he could not
budge the mule who just stood there, stiff-legged, and would not move.
He could not get it into the barn! A
fellow walked up and watched for quite a while.
Finally, he said, “Mister, I’ll get your mule into the barn for you
if you like.” The man stopped in
astonishment and said, “Can you?” He
said, “Of course, it is easy.” The
stranger walked over and picked up a two-by-four, came over to the mule, quietly
lifted the two-by-four, and whacked him on top of the head, right between the
eyes. The mule went a little
cross-eyed! Then he hit him behind
the ears. Before the mule could
quite straighten up again, he struck him underneath the chin.
With that he took hold of the rope and with two fingers led the mule into
the barn! The owner stood there
astonished. The fellow came out
again and said, “You see, mister, actually this mule is a very cooperative
critter. You just got to get his
attention!”
Sometimes God has to GET OUR ATTENTION.
And to do that He chooses to use events which are instruments of His
judgment. God told Moses that the
reason for His judgment upon the Egyptians was to make them know that He is God.
Everything God does shows us something about who He is, but in this
instance of judgment God particularly expressed that His intent was to show
Himself to the Egyptians. And He
was successful in this, for in chapter eight of
Exodus Moses records the Egyptians telling Pharaoh, “This is the finger
of God.”
Taken to the isle of Patmos, John was made to see a “great multitude”
of saints which no man could number, from every nation, kindred, people, and
tongue, standing before the throne of God and before the Lamb.
Each was clothed in a white robe and held a palm branch in his hand.
The white robe speaks of purity; the palm branch denotes victory.
Being made pure by the inwrought righteousness of Christ also brings
victory over self! Asked by one of
the elders, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, with palms in their hands,
and whence have they come?” John
answered, “Sir, you know.” And
the elder said to him, “These are they which have come out of GREAT
TRIBULATION; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb.” Each of these
white-robed saints had to experience great
tribulation!
Can we not see by this that these are the very people, nominal
Christians, who had been followers of Jezebel, the false prophetess, the soulish
religious works and worship which were not born of the Spirit of God. And the
false soulical ministry of the church systems, which led them to commit
spiritual fornication and to eat spiritual food that was defiled by idols — by
false images and conceptions of God. Were
we not all there at one time? Some
of us repented when the Lord corrected us, and we have continued to repent as
the Lord has revealed the deception within our hearts.
Others of us have been dealt with by the judgments of the Lord in our
lives, and then we repented! To
Jezebel and her followers the Lord said, “Behold I will cast her into a bed
(of trouble), and them that commit adultery with her into great
tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.”
It is significant to note that the term “great tribulation” appears
only twice in the book of Revelation, and in neither case does it apply to the nations
or to the world!
Both times it has to do with the Lord’s own people!
The idea that the book of Revelation is about the “great tribulation”
that has come, or is yet to come, upon the nations of earth is a myth,
a fable, folklore, and a fairy
tale! That is not what the Book
says! The Lord Jesus said that He
would cast the spiritual fornicators of the church age into great
tribulation unless they repented.
What do you suppose would be the purpose of the great tribulation?
Why, bless your heart, it would be to influence and motivate them to repent!
It would be God’s two-by-four hitting them over the head to get
their attention!
Then John sees a great multitude that has come
out of great tribulation. A
wonderful transformation has taken place in them through the process of the
great tribulation. They have now
“washed their robes” and have “made them white in the blood of the
Lamb.” They were already the
Lord’s people! This is not
sinners coming to wash their robes from the filth of sin and the world they
walked in before they were saved. No!
These are the very people the Lord had said He would cast into great
tribulation except they repented! These
were believers in the church of Thyatira!
Through this great tribulation they have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood (life) of the Lamb. They
have washed their robes from the defilement of their own untransformed
souls, and from the soulish
defilement of religion and religious
doctrines, activities, and systems!
As a result of the Father’s chastisement by this great tribulation,
God’s purpose is accomplished in their lives.
Cleansed and purified by the Lamb, they are transformed and brought very
near to His throne of love, grace, and power!
Let us understand clearly just who these white-robed saints of God are!
They are the redeemed of God who have washed their robes from the
defilement of the false doctrines, empty rituals, lifeless ceremonies, fleshly
methods, soulish worship, and carnal programs of the church systems of man.
White robes in the book of Revelation denote “the righteous acts of the
saints” (Rev. 19:8). It is the
righteousness of Christ with which they are clothed, resulting in righteous,
truly spiritual acts manifested out
of their lives upon this earth. All
of them have endured the strippings, purgings, prunings, threshings, refinings,
and purifying dealings of God and have been thoroughly chastened and corrected
by the Father!
This great multitude is seen coming out of the great tribulation clothed
in the white robes of Christ’s righteousness and waving palm branches of
victory and praise to God! This
great tribulation is not a seven-year tribulation here at the end of the church
age. Not at all!
It is the symbol of the Lord’s chastisements upon His people throughout
the age, upon all whom He has set His hand to purge and purify unto Himself.
Many of these saints were in the great movements and revivals throughout
the age when the Lord moved mightily by His Spirit to bring a people out of the
existing errors and carnal systems of man, into a closer and purer walk with Him
in the Spirit. The Lord led them
through the processings of His Spirit, which made them pure and righteous in
God’s sight while they walked this earth in the midst of worldly sin and
religious corruption.
These are the ones “coming out” of “the great tribulation” having
their robes washed in the blood of the Lamb!
How many are there? “A great
multitude that no man could number.”
It is the “great” tribulation because of the “great” multitude!
No man can experience more than his own tribulation.
This “great tribulation” has lasted throughout the two thousand years
since Christ came and began to form His body in the earth.
All through the age He has called out people after people, company after
company, from the apostate church systems of their day, and now, praise His
name, there is a great multitude that no
man can number!
It should be obvious to every spiritual mind that the great multitude
that no man can number is not the same company as the 144,000 sealed ones that can
be numbered. Not that 144,000
is a literal number, but it is the number of divine
government ascribed to a select called and chosen company who reign with
Christ upon His throne. Both
companies are described in the same chapter of the Revelation, chapter seven.
But there is a difference! As
the spirit of revelation and understanding floods our minds, we are left without
question as to the meaning of all this. The
difference can be seen in the position
of the two companies. God’s kings
and priests are always referred to in relation to the throne.
Jesus said that to the overcomer it is granted to sit with Him in
His throne, even as He overcame and is set down with His Father in His
throne (Rev. 3:21; 21:7). Then in
chapter twelve the manchild is caught
up to God and to His throne and
rules the nations with a rod of iron (Rev. 12:5).
Later, in chapter fourteen, the 144,000 stand with the Lamb (who is in
the midst of the throne) upon mount
Zion, again the figure of the throne, for king David ruled Israel from his
throne on mount Zion (Rev. 14:1).
The “great multitude,” however, is not “on” the throne — it is
“before” the throne of God and the Lamb!
Neither do they “rule” or “reign” over anything, but they
“serve” God day and night in His temple, and He that sitteth on
the throne shall dwell among them. They
are a blessed company indeed! They
are very near the throne, and dwell in the light of the throne, and in the
presence of Him who sits upon the throne, and receive great and eternal and
unspeakable blessings from the throne! They
are the vast multitudes of the redeemed out of the age who have walked with God
in a pure walk in the Spirit in the measure of light they had.
And while they are a redeemed and sanctified and spiritual people, they
are not the sons of God who reign
with Christ upon His throne. They
have not taken the spiritual steps that cause them to fully grow, mature, and
progress all the way into God to become kings and priests.
They have not attained unto the measure of the stature of the fullness
Christ. Yet, they are the Lord’s
own people, precious in His eyes! He
who sits on the throne of the Lord — Christ and His many brethren — dwells
among them; they live in the wonderful, rewarding, sustaining presence of the
King of kings and the Lord of lords!
“Therefore they are before
the throne of God, and serve Him day
and night in His temple: and He that sitteth
on the throne shall dwell among them. They
shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more; neither shall the sun
(the illumination of the outer court) light on them, nor any heat (processing).
For the Lamb which is in the midst
of the throne shall feed them,
and shall lead them unto living fountains of water (life in the Spirit): and God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Rev. 7:15-17).
No saint of God can escape
the great tribulation! You will not
be raptured out before it comes, for it is already here!
It is not some horrible judgment of vindictive wrath and unrestrained
vengeance poured out upon the nations, my friend; it is God’s own process of
discipline and purification for ALL WHOM HE IS REDEEMING AND TRANSFORMING INTO
HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS!
By
the work of this great tribulation and judgment Jezebel is destroyed!
It is not the people involved who are destroyed, but the carnal soul in
all its assertiveness and fleshly lewdness — the spirit
of Jezebel within! How can we
know this is a truly inward work,
rather than the Lord dealing with people and movements in the outer world?
We know this first by revelation of the Holy Spirit, but the truth we
know is confirmed in these words: “And all the churches shall know that I am
He which searches the reins and hearts”
(Rev. 2:23). This refers to the
inward life of our being — reins and hearts.
That’s where the work is, and when it is finished all the churches will
know that God has searched, judged, and cleansed His people in the inward parts!
“Reins” is an old English word derived from the Latin renes,
meaning “kidneys.” “Renal
failure” is the medical term today for kidney failure.
Renal, of course, is the adjective form of the old English “reins” or
the Latin renes.
The kidneys are the organ which separates many of the toxins out of the
blood to prevent the body from becoming poisoned.
People who suffer kidney failure have to go on dialysis, a mechanical
method of removing the toxins from the blood, which substitutes for the kidneys.
The kidneys, in a spiritual sense, speak of that faculty which is able in
our spiritual life to separate between flesh and spirit, between soul and
spirit, between truth and error, between the precious and the vile.
The kidneys are truly our faculty of DISCERNMENT!
To lack spiritual discernment is to suffer spiritual
kidney failure! Because the
vile things of the soul, the flesh, and the spirit of error are not filtered out
of our lives, our spiritual life becomes poisoned
or polluted.
The Lord, the Spirit, is the one who searches the reins and the hearts
— He examines our discernment and the source of our life, to determine our
true spiritual condition!
Our reins or spiritual kidneys give us the ability to discern and
separate the good from the evil and the soulish from the spiritual.
Jezebel and her followers were all suffering spiritual renal failure!
They had no discernment by the spirit, so they were carried away by every
wind of doctrine, soulish emotion, and carnal reasoning.
Of all the virtues needed by God’s called and chosen elect in this
significant hour, methinks that discernment is among the serious.
There are many people in this hour who talk about being overcomers,
manifest sons of God, kings and priests after the order of Melchizedek,
deliverers of creation. and many other wonderful things, yet they themselves are
unable to discern truth from error, the soulical from the spiritual, fleshly
manifestations from divine operations of the Spirit of God, or kingdom-building
preachers from a true son of God.
I am often appalled at the vast number of saints I find across the land
who treasure the beautiful hope of sonship to God, while at the same time
ignorantly devouring books published by occult publishing houses, authored by
deceivers who deny the Lord who bought us, laced with pagan heresies of eastern
philosophies, and many other weird beliefs out of the kingdom of darkness.
There are many like that today who cannot discern
truth from error! I care not how
profuse your knowledge of the doctrines of sonship, reconciliation, and the
kingdom of God; if you are lacking in keen spiritual discernment you are still
disqualified from the high calling of manifest sonship.
You suffer from renal failure and stand in need of a mighty healing!
God provides no spiritual dialysis!
There is placed within every true son of God that inward sensitivity to
spiritual realities. We are made
conscious, by this spiritual sensitivity, to the spiritual atmosphere about us
in our own walk with God, in those we meet, and any gatherings we may attend.
Perhaps the most important function of our reins has to do with our
personal contact with God in the spirit! In
this we are made aware of the presence and life of God and convictions are given
to us concerning His word, His will, and His ways.
So little are we taught about this and so little do we understand, that
often we disregard that “still small voice” within.
It is soon quenched and the spirit is grieved, and this inner sensitivity
is lost. If it is lost, we need to
repent and earnestly seek the Lord that there may be a restoration of that which
was lost!
By this inner function of the reins we are told of the spiritual quality
of a ministry, of prophecy, preaching, teaching, testimony, prayer, and worship.
By this same operation of the reins within one is made aware of the
motives in ministry. Among the
things that are sensed are love, truth, humility, righteousness, gentleness,
sincerity, genuineness, and dependence on God.
On the negative side we may sense pride, error, self-esteem,
deceitfulness, impurity, envy, strife, carnality, or a kingdom-building spirit.
This inner spiritual sense is DISCERNMENT!
It is a “knowing” not derived from the physical senses, information,
observation, soulical intuition, or suspicion.
Some have called it “inner witness,” others have called it “inner
light,” but it is a quickened ability in the powers of the new creation man
which flows out of the mind of Christ enabling one to perceive the spiritual
states and motives of men, teachings, manifestations, and spirits, though to the
natural man this knowledge may be hidden.
I have found that even among good men there is a tendency to mistake
one’s natural perception and soulical intuition and cognition for that of the
spirit. What most people know as
intuition, including psychic powers, are of the soul, not the spirit.
How necessary it is to walk close to the Lord Jesus and take care that we
do not confuse that which is soulish with the spiritual!
By a careful guarding against critical, suspicious, and uncharitable
attitudes, and a concern for God’s glory alone, we will be kept from error in
this realm. Many people have a keen
sense of natural perceptiveness and soulical intuition by which they detect
conditions, but this is not discerning by the Holy Spirit!
As a result they may think that which is natural is of God and be
mistaken or deceived. Natural
discernment fails when it comes to the great mysteries of the spiritual realm
and activity. The natural or
soulish man receiveth not the things of the spirit, for they are spiritually
discerned!
More than forty years ago a preacher and his lovely wife appeared in a
Convention we held in Florida. This
man possessed a dynamic personality, oozing with charisma, was wonderfully
articulate, and had a fantastic testimony.
At the invitation of the brethren I was associated with at the time, he
spoke to the Convention in one of the evening sessions.
The audience sat spellbound and the whole atmosphere was charged with
excitement as he related how God had poured out upon him a powerful and
supernatural visitation of the Spirit while pastor of a Baptist church in the
state of Michigan. Some strange and
awesome things transpired in his ministry at that time and in that church.
But many rejected the wonderful things that were happening, and even his
own family did not understand the unusual manifestations of the Spirit in his
life.
Misunderstanding, then opposition, and finally hostility arose, and the
battle raged until finally his persecutors were successful in having him
committed to the State Mental Hospital. On
and on the story went, climaxing with his sensational escape from the asylum on
a bicycle, and the dramatic dealings of God which propelled him into a vibrant
kingdom ministry. The people were
deeply moved and the ministers were ecstatic!
But deep within my spirit, as I listened attentively that crisp January
night, a bright red flag was hoisted by the Holy Spirit.
I knew distinctively by that inner voice that something was wrong —
seriously wrong. While he was yet
speaking, amidst great rejoicing and praising God, I turned to Lorain and said,
“I don’t believe a word that man has said!”
The brethren, however, received
him with open arms and opened numerous doors for him across the land.
They flew him and his companion to the mission station in Haiti.
While there his wife received an astounding vision of the judgment soon
to be visited upon America. Another
group of brethren took him up and opened many doors for him in various states.
He soared to higher and higher heights as the days swiftly passed.
Then suddenly — six months later — the lid blew off!
A precious prophet of God also discerned that something was amiss.
He traveled to the town in Michigan where this man said that he had been
the pastor of a Baptist church and began to do an investigation.
What he found out was startling. He
discovered that this preacher had, indeed, been pastor of a Baptist church
there, but he was dismissed, not for any outpouring or unusual manifestations of
the Spirit, but for gross immorality. Furthermore,
it was true that he had spent time in a mental institution, but again not
because of any spiritual experiences! He
had a wife and several children back in that town whom he had abandoned, and the
woman now traveling with him was not his wife at all — she was his mistress!
The brethren confronted him with the truth and he promptly confessed that
his whole testimony was a fabrication, a lie, and his ministry a fraud.
When asked why he did it, he replied, “God has raised me up in this
hour to see how many of His people can
be deceived!” And when the
news reached me, the Spirit witnessed within me, “Amen!”
Yet — how sobering this is! What
an indictment! How terribly
awesome! For out of the thousands
of saints and ministries exposed to this fraud, only one prophet and myself (as
far as I know) discerned him!
God is setting judgment in the midst of His elect today!
We are not playing games. God
is not playing games. Sonship and
the revelation of the holy mysteries of God are not playthings for the
entertainment of the immature. There
are qualifications for every attainment in God, and the council is set.
The Holy Ghost is closely examining candidates for the sonship ministry.
The Lord Himself, the One with eyes as a flame of fire, and feet as
burnished brass, walks in the midst of His called and chosen people searching
the reins and the hearts! The
qualifying time is now.
Matters not how many great visions and deep revelations you have
received, or how many wonderful acts of God you can perform.
It is impossible for a person void of discernment
to be a manifest son and rule and reign with Christ!
There are no manifest sons with spiritual renal failure — you can count
on it!
Sadly I confess that the land is filled today with those excitable souls
who love the excitement of gifts, prophecies, visions, meetings, conventions,
personalities, and new and deeper revelations without number, but have not an
ounce of spiritual discernment. These
gullible souls swallow every ridiculous absurdity peddled in the name of
“deeper revelation.” Tell such
starry-eyed super spirituals that not everything they see, read, or hear in the
name of the kingdom message is the truth, or of God, and they gaze upon your
ignorance with the sympathetic understanding generally reserved for a lunatic.
I shall never forget a “Kingdom Convention” I attended once.
It was sad — a monstrous mixture of flesh and spirit, truth and error,
of the precious and the vile. Assembled
was a great host of people from all parts of the United States and other
countries. Some of these people
were very spiritual, others exceedingly fleshly.
There were true prophets of God there with a word from the Lord, and
others who were merely pretenders, prophesying vanities off the tops of their
heads. There were profound truths
of God ministered, while others consumed the valuable time rambling about in a
multitude of meaningless
absurdities. The pastor’s wife
rose to receive the offering. Among
other things, she declared that God had revealed to her that there were twelve
persons present who were to give $10.00 each, and seven who were to give $20.00
each. These she instructed to bring
their offering to the front where she would lay hands upon them and confer
“the deacon’s blessing” on the twelve and “the apostle’s blessing”
on the seven! For an hour it
dragged on, pleading, coaxing, persuading, appealing, to get the amount she
wanted.
Deeply grieved in my spirit I was prepared to rise, walk to the pulpit,
and read the scripture, “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought
that the gift of God may be purchased with money” (Acts 8:20), after which I
purposed to walk out of the Convention. At
that instant the Holy Spirit thundered in my spirit, “No, you
don’t!” I sat still.
Back in the audience a prophetess arose, weeping, and began to prophesy
the word of the Lord, saying, “Yea, my people, it is time that you learn the
difference between that which is of God, and that which is of man.
It is time that you know the difference between that which is of the
flesh, and that which is of the spirit. It
is time that you discern the difference between that which is truth, and that
which is error.”
As the Spirit travailed through this dear sister, it came to me so
powerfully; my eyes were opened to behold by the spirit the wonder and magnitude
of what the mighty God was doing in that place that day.
HE had assembled His people together from far and near.
HE had drawn both the babes and the mature, the tares and the wheat, the
men of God and the pretenders, the fleshly and the spiritual, the true and the
false. HE had set them side by
side, the sons and the bastards, drawing forth a manifestation from each.
And by this judgment was set in
the midst! How terrible!
The Lord would then and there test, try, and prove His people, that it
might be manifest who among them could
discern between light and darkness, flesh and spirit, and truth and error.
Every man was justified or disqualified through the judgment of the Lord!
Those justified would press forward into deeper depths and higher heights
of glory. Those disqualified went
their pitiful ways to sink ever deeper into the bottomless pit of flesh,
fruitlessness, delusion, and darkness.
Precious saint of God, have you been asking the Lord to give you
discernment? The first step that
you must take is to be able to discern yourself!
God cannot trust you to discern others or the great powers of the
spiritual world, until you can discern between your own soul and spirit.
That which prepares you for all discernment, is to draw so near to God
that you will see yourself in His light, and then everybody and everything from
His viewpoint. You must dwell in
His presence and smell His odors until you will instantly detect any strange
odor that comes near your life. The
story is told of a Chinese boy who wanted to learn about jade.
He went to study with a talented old teacher.
This gentleman put a piece of the stone into the youth’s hand and told
him to hold it tight. Then he began
to talk of philosophy, men, women, the sun and almost everything under it.
After an hour he took back the stone and sent the boy home.
The procedure was repeated for weeks.
The boy became frustrated — when would he be told about jade?
But he was too polite to interrupt his venerable teacher.
Then one day when the old man put a stone into his hands, the boy cried
out instantly, “That’s not jade!”
Ah, the Lord brings every son into such submission and intimacy with Him,
that we discern the least uprising within ourself, or any temptation thereto
when it is afar off. God is
teaching us to become so quiet as to our own self-effort and fleshly activities,
that our life is like still waters; and any strange sound will alarm and arouse
us to prayer and watching. He has
drawn us apart from the false odors of the flesh, the strange scents of
religious Babylon, and the stench
of the spirit of the world, for none can learn discernment in the harlot’s
house.
I well remember sitting on the platform of a large meeting many years
ago. We were cooperating with this
meeting in hope that through fellowship with these people we might be able to
reach some of them with the word of reconciliation, sonship, and the kingdom.
A well known minister from a large Charismatic church on the west coast
was the guest speaker. After giving
his testimony, he called those with needs to the platform for prayer.
With great flourish he entered into his “word of knowledge” ministry
by which he told various ones what their problems were.
I had sensed, all through the ministry that night, something strange.
Like a lightning bolt from the sky, the Spirit spoke from within myself,
“This is not of me — this man is operating in a psychic
gift, not by the mind of the Spirit of God!”
“This isn’t jade!”
Then followed this piercing inquiry, “What are YOU doing here?”
At that moment I would have welcomed a trap door to open beneath me,
permitting me to just quickly and silently disappear!
At that rebuke from the Lord I learned a valuable lesson — we do not
make people pure by mingling with their mixture!
“And I will kill her children
with death…” (Rev. 2:23).
The Lord searches the reins and the hearts, deep within the inner life.
Yet, there is also an outward dealing for the Lord says, “I will kill
her children with death.” The
“children” of Jezebel, the offspring of the religious nature of the soul,
are all those carnal religious thoughts, attitudes, ideas, concepts, doctrines,
works, methods, activities, manifestations, movements, systems, and kingdoms
which are born of the flesh. This
is not a battle to kill people, or literal flesh!
People go around saying that God is going to kill babies.
Hogwash! These are symbols,
types, and shadows of spiritual realities.
God is going to kill the soulish
children that are the offspring of the carnal mind of the soul.
Every union bears fruit, and the fruit is the children.
It is of utmost importance that all of God’s elect see this great
truth, because once we grasp it, we understand the severity of the Father’s
dealings with the spirit and works of religion
in our lives which are, one and all, the children of Jezebel.
The power of the Christ comes with eyes blazing with fire, and feet
burning as in an oven, to slay all the religious children in our lives!
Oh, yes, He will kill each and every one of them, and He will reduce us
to God. This is a spiritual battle
that shall end the prophesying of the Jezebel-soul within ourselves, and will
bring down the rule and dominion of the self-life.
Just as Jezebel of old came to her ignoble end by being trampled to death
by the horses of Jehu, so shall all the ways of carnality and soulishness be
destroyed from the lives of all God’s called and chosen elect.
So also the Four Horses of the
Apocalypse (Rev. 6:1-8) shall trample under foot all the wiles of the
Jezebel spirit within every son of God! As
soon as these four horses have finished their work in us, we read, “And when
he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls
that were slain because of the word of God” (Rev. 6:9).
These are souls that have been
brought to death, all their carnal, soulish manifestations ceased.
The spirit is now Lord! In
this connection Paul Mueller wrote some time ago, “Our feminine souls are
being crucified to be renewed and resurrected, then to be married to our
masculine spirits, in preparation for our transformation.”
Aren’t you glad!
I have a word from the Lord for Jezebel.
“All your children shall be killed!” saith the Lord.
They cannot live because there is no life in them.
Anytime there is in our life, or in the church, the Jezebel spirit, and
we do not allow the spirit to move and touch us, but we follow after other
lovers that we esteem higher than the Lord Himself, everything we produce out of
that attitude and union — dies.
It comes to naught. “So
whether you repent, or whether you don’t, Jezebel, I’m going to kill every
one of your children! They cannot
live! They will not live!”
If you want to know how the Lord is going to kill your children, I’m
going to tell you how He’s going to kill your children.
“O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be,
that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the
stones” (Ps. 137:8-9).
Everything that Babylon produces; everything that the soul, apart from
the spirit, generates; all that the church systems by self-effort, carnal
wisdom, and fleshly zeal bring forth; for all of this God has a man, a corporate
man, a new creation man, a man in the image of God, a man in the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, full
of faith and the Holy Ghost who shall smash the images of Baal and dash the
children of Jezebel, and establish the order of the kingdom of the Lord in the
midst of God’s people in the earth. This
heavenly man refuses to accept anything less than the life and power and wisdom
and glory of the Son of God. “And
all the churches shall know
that I am He that searches the reins and the hearts.”
That is the scope of the ministry of GOD’S MAN in this wonderful day of
the Lord! Aren’t you glad!
Jehu, by the word and anointing of God, took care of Jezebel without even
touching her. It happened by the
word of his mouth, by the spirit and authority of a spoken word.
With the words of his mouth he looked up on the wall, and there were some
brethren standing around, and he said, “Here’s what I want you to do.
GRAB HER AND THROW HER DOWN!” A
word of authority is coming in the mouth of God’s sons today, and they are
commanding concerning Jezebel, “Throw her off the city wall!”
This has already happened within all who are entering into this new
kingdom Day, for Jezebel has already been cast off the wall of our personal
city. But I tell you something
else. The most dangerous place you
can be in this new Day of the Lord is in the church system.
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my
people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye
receive not of her plagues. For
her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death,
and mourning, and famine;
and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord who judgeth
her” (Rev. 18:4-8).
It’s 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
Jezebel raised up upon the city wall. 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, as men look at the lying signs and wonders going on about them, but
pay no attention to the deep and eternal work
of God to be wrought within.
It’s time for Jezebel to be thrown off the wall!
I’d like to grab her right now!
But God has a time and a way, and it’s not by might, nor by power, but
by the Spirit of the Lord!
Once Jezebel was thrown from the wall and trampled by the horses, the
dogs came and ate her flesh and licked up her blood.
The dogs love Jezebel. She’s
dog food! There are a lot of dog
ministries around, trying to lick her blood and eat her flesh — to receive an
impartation of the death that is in her. That’s
alright, let them eat her, let them devour her — she’s still dead in your
life! God has thrown her down
from her high place in the lives of all God’s elect.
Jezebel can no longer have any influence over those called unto sonship.
She can no longer control, she can no longer manipulate, she can no
longer deceive, she can no longer seduce the called out of the Lord!
To be continued… J.
PRESTON EBY
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