Mythology Buster

                      NEW CREATION- I SAW NO TEMPLE

                            THE RAISED SPIRITUAL HOUSE

Jesus, in departing a large and grandiose edifice was addressed by one of his own disciples, “Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!

The reply, “Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

Again, Jesus said, “…If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation”. (…And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him).

The prophet Hosea describes the works of them who forget their maker:

“Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof”.

This same Jesus, again in proximity to these works of them who forget who and what they knew, said a defining phrase, “…Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. Some who heard it, later bare false witness against him, “ We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands”. This confusion in a people steeped in tradition, and fixated with temples and buildings, the works of them that forget their maker…this confusion is perhaps understandable. But among a people who in their beginning, make a confession of Christ, to fall back to such week and beggarly misconception, is a sore and grievous error. The House which Christ is, was sown a natural house, and was raised a Spiritual house.

[1Co 15:35-47]]

But some [man] will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other [grain]: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh [is] not the same flesh: but [there is] one [kind of] flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, [and] another of birds. [There are] also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial [is] one, and the [glory] of the terrestrial [is] another. [There is] one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for [one] star differeth from [another] star in glory. So also [is] the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit. Howbeit that [was] not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man [is] of the earth, earthy: the second man [is] the Lord from heaven.

The resurrection, ( “I am the resurrection”, said Christ) …the resurrection contains not a hint or trace of any substance or material of the old creation. Jesus Christ, heir of eternal life, raised and glorified, is the new man, He and them raised with Him. These things are held to in faith. For in that in Him, in resurrection, all things are made new, and so, the apostle wrote, that faith is substance. It is the very substance in you, of the things into which Christ is raised.

(Heb. 11)

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”

By faith, are we heirs of the body of His resurrection. For the resurrection is not about stuff and junk, it is about a body, a habitation eternal in the heavens. A flower, for all it’s facsimile to it’s plant and flower, and seed of origin, has no future without pollen. So a man or a woman, for all his or her facsimile to the creator, has no future without faith in the same. It is not enough to know about Him. It is imperative that His resurrection be in you by faith. Concerning the resurrection, many ask, “Where will I go? what will I see?”. A prophet wrote, “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor yet has it has it entered into the hearts of men, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him”. The Apostle Paul tells you that by faith, the substance of these things now can enter your heart. For to the words of the prophet, by reason of the fact that the Spirit is given, Paul adds these words, “ …But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God”.

So then, the great question is not so much, where will I go? What will I see?…the great question is, …what will I be? In whose likeness will I be raised? The question is answered in large part with another question…”Who is my teacher? Who am I hearing?”

I can not know the things of God, except the Spirit of God reveal them.

Revelation 21 speaks of the manner of the Lord’s coming and appearing. For all He is in resurrection, will be revealed, and every eye will see it. In reading the chapter, it is most notable that everything Jesus said of the complete tearing down of the old, and raising of the new, all are fulfilled in Him, in resurrection. For in the New Creation man, The second man Adam, who is the Lord from heaven, in Him, and in all raised, glorified and revealed in Him, having obtained His promises by faith, in such, there is no hint of the substance of the old creation. As it is written, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away; behold all things are become new”.

If you read Revelation 21 and look for a temple, you will not find one, except it be the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. He who is raised, and in whom dwells all the fullness of God bodily, and they who have obtained His promises by faith, these are the temple. There is no other. There will be no other. If I read Revelation 21, and imagine stick and stone, real estate, and objects descending from the cosmos, there is not one of these imaginary stones piled on top of another, that will not come down. Everything one may read in Revelation 21 is tabernacling in the earth now. Know ye not that ye are the temple….?

NO NEEDLE IN THE HAY STACK

Logic so simple, a child can understand it until a well meaning, ill informed adult explains it. A hay stack with no needle in it. Nothing to find, look though you may. Ritualistic, calendar based religion, wash-rinse-repeat. As it says, if any have not the Spirit of Christ, he has no part of Christ.

The underpinning of religion and religious authority is deception. It may be well intentioned, it may be for pretense…for show. But the leaders have no more idea where they are going than the following. They often  do present the image of mystique, albeit an empty image. The blind leading the blind, all proceeding along in the ditch.

THE TOWER , THE CALF , THE VINE

Although Jesus said in certain company, “Where I go , you know, and the way, you know”, in other company, He said, “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come …Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come … And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins….”.

In His complaints to Noah, concerning regret at having made man at all, the Lord voice how that man had forsaken His way in the earth, and that the thoughts of a man’s heart was only evil continuously. That being said, it is profitable to read the few chapters leading up to Noah and the ark, and discern the Lord’s way. It can be discovered in recognizing that there were two men named Enoch. The first Enoch was the son of the murderous Cain, who being driven from the presence of God, multiplied and built. His first son, he called Enoch, and he built a city, naming the city for his first born. He called the city Enoch. All of Cain’s offspring were movers and shakers. They shaped the course of humanity with all they built and presided over, with the key to the equation being “presided over”. As David would later write, the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take council together against the Lord , and His anointed, with the main object of resistance being the Anointing. Stephen, in the book of acts, being filled with the Holy Spirit, was stoned for telling religious authority that they do always resist the Holy Ghost.
The other Enoch was a man. Only a man. No city. This Enoch was the seventh from Adam, and was of the line of Seth, the figurative man of resurrection, whom God gave to the woman to replace the seed of promise, murdered while yet in Abel. This man was not drawn away into a city that bore his name. This man walked with God, he was and he was not…he was in the world but not of it…and God took him. This man speaks in the book of Jude, revealing the usurpers, proclaiming the heavenly.
The name Enoch means to train, to dedicate, to inaugurate. So in the earth was a city with that name, that sprang from a man who falsely held that name. And there was a man who was apprehended of God, walked with God, thereby fulfilling the name. The city was destroyed with a flood. The individual was taken, that he should not see the death of the flood. (This creates a conundrum for ideology that only recognizes the ark of Noah as an escape from that age). This is good to dwell upon if one looks only to the Lord’s “coming”, and not His in dwelling. It teaches that we need not wait with the age we live in, we can enter now. So which Enoch signified the Lord’s way in the earth? The city or the individual? A clue is to ask, which did God destroy?
Upon repopulating the earth, as Noah’s descendants spread abroad, some of them came eventually to a place called Shinar…”Land of two rivers”. There, they observed, that they needed to assume some identity, build a city and a tower, and portray the heavens on it’s top. A tower of seeking, but with never any finding. A hay stack with no needle. Once again, the Lord’s way in the earth was abandoned, and the corporate experience replaced the individual. The Lord’s method of dealing with it, locked man kind into this futility. Although all the earth spoke the same language, they were nevertheless smitten with confusion. No two could agree on how to finish it, and yet no one could simply walk away from it. Fallen man has the deepest of affinities for a city, a place where one can presumably, by citizenship therein, satisfy God’s requirement to walk with Him. The Lord observed that man, left to himself, would finish his tower, it would produce nothing, and man would imagine some other project, which too, would conclude with nothing, followed by the next imagination, and etc. So the Lord limited man to his one ill conceived mental road to the heavens, by confusion. Man simply can not agree how to build it. Babylon means, “Confusion by mixture”. Babel is a hay stack with no needle in it. Nothing to find. The book of Revelation tells you that this futility continues to this day. There is good reason the Lord says of Babylon, “Come out of her My people”.

Upon being called up into Mount Horeb, Moses departed the camp of Israel. No sooner was he gone, then the people declared they knew not what had become of him. People tend to want something the eye can see, the hands can handle. They want something and someone familiar to the natural man. Jesus so came once, but is ascended up now, and we can not know Him this way again:

[1Jo 1:1 KJV] “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen [it], and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship [is] with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.”

[2Co 5:16 KJV] “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we [him] no more.”

The children of Israel wanted something they could see. It is no different with Christianity today. Jesus has ascended, and has bidden us to follow Him. But many prefer a city and leaders that can satisfy the carnal senses. Upon Moses’ disappearance, the people set upon Aaron, the next authority figure after Moses, and they said to Aaron, “Make us our Gods that lead us up out of Egypt”. Aaron took up a collection, melted the gold, cast a golden calf, and finished it by hand, with an engraver’s tool. He presented it to the people, many of whom defiled themselves corporately, before the image. When Moses did return, he was disgusted, and demanded an explanation from Aaron. Aaron lied. He told Moses he cast gold into the fire and “this calf came out”. Why the Lie? Simple. Aaron’s story to Moses had to jibe with his story to the people. No one would worship an image that Aaron said he fabricated. It had to have some ethereal mystique. Hence the nonsense about the calf springing out of the fire. Most religious leadership and scholars, when presented a difficult question, will tell you there are some things not given to us to understand, that the “Lord moves in mysterious ways”. This is nothing but Aaron hiding behind his fabricated story. The scriptures plainly tell us we are to understand. And Babylon the great is named “MYSTERY”. There is nothing hidden from you , if you know where to look for it. All the treasure of knowledge and wisdom are in Christ. Remember His admonitions about seeking and finding, vs. seeking and not finding. The difference is where one is looking. And looking in the wrong place in compounded by them who try to hide their lack… “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain…I am the great and powerful Oz”.

Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches”. In his parables of the vineyard, Jesus spoke of wicked servants who wanted the mastery of the vineyard. They are happy to oversee the laborers, but they want ownership of the vineyard, and all the profits too. These killed, not only the servants of the owner, but even the son and heir, thinking they could then take possession. But the vine, for one thing, did not remain dead. He is risen, and is seated at the right hand of the owner and Master, and every branch that is His, is risen with Him. Ironically, the vineyard that men murder and plot for mastery of to this day, has no eternal vine in it. He is risen, as he told them. They too, fight and plot for a needle that is not in the hay stack. So what do they fight over? What says the word of God?

[Isa 17:10 KJV] “Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.”

[Jer 2:12 KJV] “Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, [and] hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Is Israel a servant? is he a home born slave? why is he spoiled? The young lions roared upon him, [and] yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant. Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way? And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy back slidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that [it is] an evil [thing] and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear [is] not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.”

FOUR FOOTED BEASTS AND CREEPING THINGS

The book of Genesis, chapter one, contains in it’s earliest proclamations, the phrase, “…and the earth was without form and void”. Researching the phrase reveals that it states that the earth BECAME without form and void…not that it was created that way. Something happened to cause this calamity. Something of unknown scope and duration. In every case where science and religion come to loggerheads over scripture, both sides would do well to comprehend that the scriptures are not a history book. They testify of Christ. Every seeming contradiction, is an opportunity to learn of the author, what His thinking is. Profane and vain babblings over words, if you do not have the author of the book in the room, is a pot shot…a shot in the dark. It is written that no prophesy of scripture, meaning the message of the volume of the book, is for any private interpretation. What this declares is that the Lord lives, and is the only authorized interpretor of scripture. You will read of Christ, that He opens the understanding to understand scripture. You will not find anyplace where private interpretation, interpretation other than His, is authorized. If you are in a college class with a textbook, and the author of the book is also the professor, what would take place if the students spent all their time disputing and debating what the intent of the author was, and the author sits in their midst, available to them, yet ignored? Of course, it is not reason to expect either science or religion to find faith in the present and very much living and accessible author of scripture. But that is not relevant. The question is, will I? Only if an author is dead, is is work opened to interpretation.  His word is that He will teach you. And that, first person singular…not circuitously via a chain and string of religious thinkers stretched over time.

There is a very simple 1-2-3 kind of observation in the scriptures that repeats itself. It is hereby submitted for consideration:

1a) Gen 7:23

And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

2a) Lev 5:2

Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty.

3a) Eze 8:10

So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.

1b) Act 10:9

On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of four footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and CREEPING THINGS, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice [spake] unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, [that] call not thou common. This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.

Jhn 13:10

Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.

2b) Jude 1:3

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men CREPT in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

3b) Rev 22:12

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I Jesus have sent mine angel (See Rev. 3 & 4) to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star.

The theme is of the sow washed, returning to wallow in mud, and the dog purged of toxins, returning to eat his vomit. But the theme is on the grandest of scales.

The Lord, in the book of Jude, and other places, congeals the meaning and signification of “four footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and CREEPING THINGS, and fowls of the air”, revealing this to be false and unauthorized interpretation of His word, via them in whom the Teacher, the Spirit of Truth, does not operate. The once cleansed, reinfected, and finally succumbing picture is plain to see.

In the world, they say history repeats itself. James wrote of the defiling nature of the tongue, an infectious organ, taking corrupt communication arising from a corrupt heart, and infecting everything around it. James used the expression, “course of nature”:

James 3:6 :
“And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell”.

Course of nature is “WHEEL OF GENESIS”, meaning a first principle or rudiment from which everything if it’s kind follows. Everything brings forth after it’s kind….”wheel of genesis”. A patient not cleansed of all disease in his/her body, risks it’s return.

Paul spoke to Timothy of two men, Hymenaeus and Philetus, saying they have erred from the truth, and are steeped in profane and vain babblings. Profane , in the language of the tabernacle, means “without”, or common, of or pertaining to the outer courts. And from the perspective of the Holiest, it pertains to even to the holy place. In the book of Jude, you will find the unmeasured outer courts revealed to John. And Jesus, speaking in Rev. 22, reiterates the condition of the holy place, where the lamp stand is, seen in Rev. 2 and 3. Paul says these men’s word eats as a canker. The word canker is “gangrene”….worth looking up.

The work of the flood once cleansed the earth, but you may read how offenses returned, until the house of Israel was eventually rife with “every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel”. The condition seems to bear out what has happened in the world of “christiandom”.

The admonition is this:

I am hearing a recurring message, daily in my heart, it is to keep the heart with diligence. Keep the outside , outside. “Christianity” is succumbing quickly, to the thing Paul warned of…”Another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel”.

Profane can mean to make common. The things of Christ are not common. In the world but not of it. For that to be true, there must be a bound, a border, a line not crossed over. Vain babbling is the unauthorized declaration, that the things of Christ and of God, are for the world. Every media relayed story, and all communication from the “prince of the power of the air” today, fits the category. As it was in the days of Lot. Lot was told that Sodom could not be dealt with until Lot was out of the place. Remember Lot’s wife, who turned back in her heart, because she had children there…children who did not listen.

All organizational religious communication I see, is profane and vain babbling. All the two bit TV preaching I see is profane and vain babbling, with few exceptions. The common salvation is touched upon, followed by empty promises to flesh.

There is no authorized interpreter of scripture, save the Spirit of Christ in the individual. We live in a very difficult time. In his days, Elijah felt so isolated and threatened, that he confessed to being the only prophet of the Lord’s left alive. The Lord corrected Elijah, saying, “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him”. Seven thousand Elijah(s) (for all I know) , perhaps none known to each other, but all certainly known of God. Paul says “The Lord knows them that are His”:

Rom 11:1
“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace”.

Beware of beasts, creeping things, and the foul of the air. They will strip meat from bone, tear and devour, and their word will be a gangrene, living tissue corrupted, killed and devoured by dead.

Paul, en route to Damascus, had his eyes seared by a revelation of Christ. He was restored, healed body and mind, and driven far from Jerusalem…far from his historic religion, and from even Peter James and John. His thinking regarding scripture, was completely retooled. His understanding to understand scripture, was opened, just as the two men on the way to Emmaus. The collective thinking of Gamaliel, the priesthood and scholars of his time, was completely replaced. Only years later, upon meeting Peter, James and John for the first time, and “comparing notes”, did Paul confess that nothing was added to his understanding, by these three men. What Paul received by revelation, he received directly, expressly, person to person, from the resurrected, glorified son of man. This is not said to diminish these three wonderful men. It is said to destroy the false doctrine of apostolic succession, and magnify the truth. Jesus Christ is your Teacher, as He was their’s, and everyone else’s He comes to by His Spirit. The Spirit of Christ in you, destroys and replaces the aforementioned vainly repeated, fallacy replicating “wheel of genesis”, of the passing age. Hes is available for the asking.

KEEP YOUR GARMENTS. KEEP YOUR HEART DILIGENTLY.

• Robber Bees

  It has been very instructive seeing honey bee hives revealed as a functioning mind, particularly one translated from darkness into the kingdom of the dear Son. As in all things, the use of tense; past, present or future, in scripture, is a thing often completely overlooked, such that things one does not see, tend to be relegated to the future by the carnal mind. The account of the man called Legion, in the tombs, in the land of the Gadarenes, is a picture of a mind planted in a land of darkness, where all things pertaining to the kingdom of God are taught and perceived to be always in the future, always on the other side of the grave. In fact, Gadarene means “reward after”. The grave was as close as the man new to get to the “reward” , if one believes you “die and go to heaven”, rather than believing Christ, who says the exact opposite, you must be born again to enter, otherwise upon leaving the flesh, you are found naked, like the man in the tombs. The end of the man’s healing was that he sat clothed (with eternal habitation) and in his right mind, with Jesus, here and now. And for that matter, the Lord’s work is eternal, not past, present and future, but eternal. Jesus, admonishing one of the assemblies, said they were naked. They had no eternal house, no body of resurrection, just a mental house of cards. Paul drew from the scriptures, revealing that the Spiritual meat, drink and Rock that went before Jacob’s children leaving Egypt, was Christ. We read that they sucked oil (fat, milk) and honey from the flinty rock (Deut 32)(Psa 81). The scriptures are teaching that Christ is the land of promise, the land flowing with milk and honey, and that He goes with us and before us. The natural children forsook this , choosing to seek a piece of real estate they perceived to flow with milk and honey. Honey has come to be associated with sweetness in the mouth, and perhaps a little bitterness in the belly, in other words, revelation is far to be desired over something that is second hand, having passed through someone else’s digestive system. Peter said it is profitable to take heed to them who walk, but the superior ideal, is that the Day Star arise in your own heart. The spirit of prophesy is the testimony of Jesus. Meat is for a developed digestive system, milk is for babes.

  Having said this, over the past few days, I have been helping my bees fend off robber bees. When nectar and pollen taper off for a spell, some bees will attempt to break into a hive with plenty of stores, steal the honey, and transport it to their own hive. The robbed hive often dies. All one can do, is reduce the bottom entrance to a small opening, so your bees only need defend a small area, and you block off all upper entrances with screen, to alow ventilation, but nothing can get in that way. Hives must “breathe”, CO2 out, Oxygen in, or all dies. A “strong” colony often needs no help, as it will “put a hurtin'” on attempting robbers. Being “Strong in faith” , one knows what belongs in one’s mind, and what does not, and also one does not suffer the thief to break in and steal:

  “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my [sheep], and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, [and] one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”

  The picture is robber bees trying to get into a hive by any available means, and take it’s riches to the store house of the thief.

  
  Pro 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the ISSUES of life.

  “ISSUES”: (STRONG”S H8444)

  *outgoing, border, a going out, extremity, end, source, escape

  *outgoing, extremity (of border)

  *source (of life)

  *escape (from death)

  Our escape, our path , our expanding pastures, spring from within. There are none to find “without”.

  Rev 22:15 “For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”

CHRIST IS THE HEIR OF ALL THINGS
CHRIST IMPLIES ANOINTING

[Gal 3:16 KJV] 16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

[Gen 15:18-21 KJV] 18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: 19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, 20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, 21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

[Psa 2:7-12 KJV] 7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8 Ask of me, and I shall give [thee] the heathen [for] thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth [for] thy possession. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. 10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish [from] the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed [are] all they that put their trust in him.

[Rev 5:9 KJV] 9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Abraham sojourned in a land of a foreign king, Abimelech. While a stranger in a strange land, a land that today the three primary sects of religious thinking, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are fighting and killing over, Abraham heard the Lord’s voice and believed Him. For this, God both accounted this for righteousness, and promised a seed and heir, through faith. The promised seed was and is one individual to come out of Abraham’s loins, and that individual was and is Christ. In the poetic language of the scriptures, hearing the voice of God is as drinking from the waters that are present, though always beneath the surface, in a desert, and faith is the “digging” that looses the waters.

Abimelech was king at Gerar, and his kingdom were the Philistines, descendants of the Caphtorim. Abraham, dwelling with permission, in the southern lands of Abimelech, dug a well. For a time, there was strife with the servants of Abimelech over that well. Eventually Abimelech met with Abraham at the location of the well, where they swore a binding oath to one another, that neither they , their children, or children’s children, would cross over the oath to harm one another or to harm the land. As they spoke, Abraham set seven ewe lambs of his own flock aside by themselves, knowing what would follow. Sure enough, Abimelech, intrigued, asked, “what do you mean by these seven separated ewe lambs?” , to which Abraham replied, “You will take these seven ewe lambs from me, and incorporate them into your flock. Everything that they produce for you, from now on, is a witness between you and me, that I dug this well”. To this , Abimelech agreed. The well was named “Beersheba”, which means “Well of the seven fold oath”. It was also the waters of Beersheba, that Hagar’s eyes were opened to, as she was driven from Abraham’s household, and Hagar and her son Ishmael were preserved by those waters.

I can use no more plainness of speech, than to say this: It was agreed that Christ, the living well and waters, would come out of the loins of Abraham, because Abraham “dug the well”, Abraham believed God. It was also declared that all the peoples of the land would have access to the same well of waters IN THE ONE WHO CAME OUT OF ABRAHAM, and , like Abraham, faith would be the requirement , not flesh or blood lines. To this, all the scriptures agree.

The blood letting in the earth today, over religious differences, is in violation of the binding oath made by the same man all these sects claim as their “Father”, being Abraham. If they do not honor Abraham and Abimelech’s oath, they are violators and oath breakers.

There will never be peace or inheritance in the earth, between any peoples, except in Christ. And I do not refer to the “Christian” religion, such as it has become, which is that thing the apostle Paul warned about tearfully for three years, every where he spoke, referring to it as “Another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel, which is not another…”. I refer to the Promise of the Father, the Spirit of Truth, Who abides fully in Christ , and is those Living Waters to which all, by faith, have access for the asking. Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is plainly written, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he has no part of Christ. The very word “Christ” has no meaning , without the Anointing.

Current events are more than current events. Let the wise take warning and flee the houses of blood, the houses of oath breakers and blood letters, which houses will never know peace, the three houses which today, divide the city that men call “holy”, into three parts, their declaration of peace and safety will be short lived.

The Israel Of God …”I and the children”

Speaking before of the promise of the Father, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Lord promised a “pure language” would be established in a people. This stands in stark contradiction to the present state of things, in which all the nations of men, the political, the ethnic, the social and the religious nations are speaking the confused language of Babylon. And “for the record”, religious nations includes the sects of “Christianity”, as they exist in the world, bumping along in the ditch, grasping the coat tails of self proclaimed leaders and prophets. The very name “Babylon” means ‘confusion by mixture’. If one would read Revelation 2 and 3, one would see that the Spirit is addressing the assemblies, but He does not have “the floor” alone. There are clearly described, many contrary and confusion-gendering voices, all coming, not from “among the ranks”, but from persons and entities which give the impression of speaking from “on high”, speaking as though they were intermediaries and conduits of expression, between the Lord, and His people. If I may say directly and in few words, that is Antichrist. Anything which denies that Christ is come in His people, and has turned to His people, each and every one, a pure language, is a thief and a robber. Anything that denies Christ is in you, and claims that position, is a thief and a liar. What are the earmarks of the speech of Babylon? the God-ordained confusion, which when salted among the sects and subdivisions of man and his self imagined works and devices of redemption, which can bring no redemption? Among these characteristics, which can be read in the account Moses gave in the book of Genesis, are the inability for those exercised in such vain undertakings, to realize the vanity of their undertakings, to see that their is no solution to complete their works, and they are unable to cease to look for one.

As an example of a pure language, which, for the Word of God that it is, separates the living from the dead, the substance from the symbol, the wheat from the chaff, let’s consider two things, only two, of the volumes of things needing clarification. Consider “Jerusalem” and “Israel”. What do these few letters, arranged into words, call to your mind when you read them?

When David, many generations ago, captured a city of a people called Jebusites, and took a tower in it called Milo, it says that he took residence their, and that men began from that time and forward, to refer to it as the “City of David”. A simple internet search of “City of David”, will reveal the confused speech of identity theft, of usurping a name and applying it to something it does not belong to… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_David . But when the son of David, according to the flesh, came and took upon Himself, flesh and blood, what did the angel of God, speaking the pure language of heaven, say to the shepherds abiding in the fields? He said , “Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord”. If you know the physical city in which Christ was born, you now have a decision to make. Is the City of David the former city of Jebus, the city of David, as proclaimed by man? or is Bethlehem Ephratah the city of David, as declaired by one speaking the pure language of heaven? The scriptures speak of two “Jerusalems”. One above, and from above…one beneath, and from beneath. Which is the heavenly? the Spiritual? or the misnamed piece of real estate? Paul wrote that Jerusalem beneath is a city of bondage, and pertains to Hagar, Ishmael, and is the Mount Sinai of bondage and servitude. Again, in the book of Revelation, the Jerusalem beneath is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, and is identified as the place where the one born in the city of David, was later crucified.

The name, “Israel”, means “Prince with God”. A prince is heir. Heir of the throne and kingdom. When the name “Israel” was conferred upon Jacob symbolically, it was said that his name would no more be called Jacob (which means deceiver) , but his name would be called “Israel”. Yet from that point and on in the scriptures, the name “Jacob” and the name “Israel” were alternately used in describing the events of Jacob and his sojourn. Who was it in Jacob, that the name “Israel” applied to? Who would be Prince and Heir with God? The prophet Hosea spoke by the Holy Spirit, and proclaimed, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt”. But what says the account of the Gospel of Matthew?

[Mat 2:12 KJV]
“And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.”

If the words of the prophet Hosea were not fulfilled until Christ, to whom then does the name Israel, “Prince with God” , belong? who is the “Israel of God” upon whom Paul confirms blessings?

[Gal 6:15 KJV]
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace [be] on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with your spirit. Amen.”

Jesus is the Israel of God, and all begotten to God in Him. All other considerations are not true. The name does not apply to anyone to come out of Abraham’s flesh, save the one seed of promise, Christ, who is heir of all. To Christ, in His resurrection, are born the true ans Spiritual nation and Israel of God, A nation not born of flesh, nor of the will of man, nor of blood, but of God.

In our present time, many professing Christ, are living in a fog. They have progressed no further in their comprehension, than the place the two disciples leaving for Emmaus were in, until Christ came to them. All eyes are seemingly upon a place spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, waiting for a nation using the name “Israel”, awaiting a man to come sit on a chair and “redeem” Israel , and make unredeemed flesh behave. Their minds were upon a piece of dirt, when the very Nation and Israel of God stood before them, spoke with them, and they did not recognize Him….not until he proclaimed their former understanding to be foolishness, and becan to open the scripture to them, as He does to this day, by His Spirit in you (if you will hear). The Israel of God was called out of Sodom and Egypt, a place which the disciples errantly called Jerusalem. Jesus in no stranger in Jerusalem, He IS the Jerusalem of God.

[Luk 24:13 KJV]
“…And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem [about] threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed [together] and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications [are] these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found [it] even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”

When we read of Aaron’s rod that budded, we must consider that it not only budded, but it produced a crop of almonds, a generation with it, in it’s resurrection. This was pointing to the true resurrection, and the saying of Jesus, how that except a corn of wheat fall to the earth and die, it abides alone, can be comprehended in the raising of that almond branch, those many years before.

The prophet Isaiah, speaking before of the resurrection, said, “Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion”. The apostle Mark spoke how that signs would FOLLOW them that believe (not proceed them). Consider carefully, that all the expectation of the creation, groans and travails together, as in labor pangs, awaiting, not a man to “come” sit on a chair in a corrupt city, making corrupt flesh behave itself. This false notion will have it’s manifestation. But it will be short lived. The true revealing of Christ, that is awaited, is bound up in the manifestation of the Sons of God. (Sons is generic…no gender applies). There is one Israel of God. It is the Resurrection from among the dead. It is not a lifeless copy.

Read Revelation 2 and three, and ask the question, which is the Body of Christ, which are them fashioned like Him in resurrection? the assemblies, abiding still in the valley of decision? or the one plainly described as one like unto the Son of man? whose throne is found after the words “come up here”? There is a described seat and throne in the assemblies, and a throne described as above, and not in the assemblies. The body of Christ stands in the midst, but has not part with the seat in the midst of the assemblies.

Judge what I say.

 A LAND THAT FLOWS WITH MILK AND HONEY

(ISAIAH 26)

In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.

Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength: For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust. The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just. Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Let favor be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.

They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

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A recent interest in honey bees and beekeeping has become a source of learning, not merely about bees, and what they do, but it has helped open a volume of understanding contained in the scriptures, wherein bees, honey, & etc., actually depict the mind stayed upon the Lord. This may seem strange, or far fetched, but the scriptures, after all, are “they which testify of Me”, (said Jesus).
Many a believer may well go through life, never “seeing”, never knowing, the “land flowing with milk and honey” , accessible, and available to us here and now, because the Helper, the Spirit of Truth is come to lead us unto ALL truth (as said Jesus), “Taking the things which are mine, and showing them unto you”. Every word of that which is called the Lord’s prayer, point for point, is answered in Colossians 1. That being the case, things which have been hid from the foundation of the world, things angels have desired to look into, are now revealed by the Spirit. But such “things” do not lay about openly. Rather, they are sought out in a relationship with Christ. The “common salvation” of the book of Jude, which is in the unmeasured outer courts, as described to John in the Revelation, does not approach unto the right to eat of the hidden manna, which Jesus awards the one who over comes. Pearls are not found on a walk on the beach. Gold, silver and precious gems are not found laying about the ground. Dust has been made the serpent’s meat. It is not the destiny of them called in Christ, to eat dust, the stuff of which Adam was elevated from, and fell back to. Jesus rebuked the Enemy, (Mat 16:23 ) “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men”.

(from Colossians 1)
“…For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hathdelivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist…”

Jesus, in the time leading up to His crucifixion, expounded that He was “going away”. That He had proceeded and come from the Father, and that He returned to the Father. And further, he expounded to His disciples that where He goes, and the way He goes there, they know. To this, one disciple, Thomas, replied, “we do not know where you go, and how can we know the way?”. Jesus also expounded that He would come again, not leaving His own, nor forsaking them. In saying “I will never leave you or forsake you, I will come unto you”. On the full day of Pentecost, the Lord came, as He promised. The prophet Joel cried: “ Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts”. Remember the admonition of Paul, to a people preoccupied with buildings, rituals and clergy craft, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”. This Teacher, this Messenger of the covenant, defines the temple of the living God, by dwelling in it. It remains a mystery to me, how many can have and be something, not know it, and so, look for it to be built on a piece of dirt in the former land of Canaan. Indeed, the poison of religion, to me, is found in that it presents itself , side by side, with the true, showing itself as something it is not, and locking the undecided, in a mental valley of decision. Paul called this, “Another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel, which are not another”. The Armageddon of the book of Revelation, is not going to happen “some day”, it has been waging for quite some time. And it is waging entirely in the roughly three pounds of gray matter between the ears.

There are different forms of knowledge…different ways of writing instructions. Many a bird, many a fish, etc., “know”, without every being told, where their place of origin is. Many a bird will hatch out, fly to distant lands, and return to the very spot of their conception. Some Salmon, spawned in one of innumerable branches of a head waters, will spend it’s life in the sea, and return eventually, to the exact spot of it conception, where it mates. In the book of the seed bed, the book of Genesis, the principle is set forth, that everything brings forth after it’s kind. The Lord’s people are not a special or set apart segment of humanity…a particular genetic line of Adam. The Lord’s people are indeed gathered out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. They are as many as are begotten to God, IN CHRIST JESUS. I can tell you, that he that is so begotten, has certain knowledge written into him/her at conception, much as the map and blueprint of your natural mother and father, are written into every single cell in your body, beginning at conception, beginning in the zygote. This new and living way, can be spoken about and taught from without, but it must be experienced from within. It is shown us in Isaiah 64, and later quoted by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Paul adds to this, “...But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God….”. To many who site the “Lord’s prayer” as an as yet unfulfilled plea, the Lord is afar off, seemingly removed in time and space, relegated always in the carnal mind to someone and something always over the horizon, always the proverbial carrot on a stick. But them in whom the Father and the Son have come, and have made their abode, making such an individual of faith, a partaker at the heavenly table, such “…the Father, hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath (present tense) delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins…”

One of the reasons, one of the complaints of the Lord, regarding man, and leading to the scouring destruction of the flood, is that the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil continually before Him, and they have forsaken His way in the earth. The Lord, recognizing that man’s thoughts are vain from his youth, pledged not to overthrow the earth with a flood again, having pledged that He would no longer strive with the souls of men. But in the Son of God, was found the mind stayed upon the Lord, never a vain, purposeless of repulsive thought crossed or entered it. And into this “mind” are we offered translation and abiding. The mind stayed upon the Lord, is beautifully depicted in nature, as a hive translated out of a land of darkness, into one flowing with milk and honey. The things once hidden from heart and mind, now revealed by the Spirit within. The Messenger now taking the things which are the Father’s and Christ’s, and revealing them to you, all unseen by the world.

In beekeeping, many of the first things learned, things as simple as the vernacular used, is eye opening. For example, the term “honey flow” correctly identifies the fact that honey flows, not from bees, but from the land, as indeed the Lord’s words reflect..promising a land flowing with milk and honey. The “flow” is the production of nectar and pollen, from various trees, flowers, etc., at various times through the growing season. Bees collect, process and store the nectar, and it becomes honey…a wonderful food that has many beneficial qualities, and is the only food in nature that does not spoil if stored properly. It keeps indefinitely. It is not unlike the manna in the golden pot, placed in the ark of testimonies, manna which does not stink or breed worms, as might the manna collected out of order, when collected under “law”.

Pollen is collected, each bee adds a secretion, like saliva to it, and it is packed into cells. It undergoes a complicated process that includes many of the things that happen when yeast is added to a flour mixture to make bread. In fact, the final product is called “bee bread”. It is finally composed, roughly, of 55% carbohydrates, 35% proteins, 3% minerals and vitamins, 2% fatty acids, and 5% of various other ingredients. Interestingly again, the wording of scripture is telling. For the “milk” in a “land flowing with milk and honey, is actually the word for “fat”, derived from a word that means “the abundance and choicest part of the land”.

A land of darkness provides flora no source to produce any flow from it. A hive (mind) abiding in a land of darkness, has nothing to gather from the land, for nothing is produced by the land, and the mind abiding in the “darkness that covers the earth, and gross darkness the people” similarly sees and hears nothing from the land. But read Colossians 1 again. Read of being made a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light, having been translated out of darkness, into the kingdom of His dear Son. The resurrected, glorified son of man, the Day Star risen in your heart, is the very land of promise, and not any piece of dirt or real estate, no matter it’s location. Jesus is substance of the allegorical the land of promise. A photograph of a life preserver, and books and teachings based on various opinions about it, will do nothing for a drowning soul. Clinging to the Jerusalem beneath, and to the experiences of them who interacted in the allegory and shadow of things that it was and is, have the same hope of salvation. One needs to come into the substance of things. Not the symbols. Jesus is the Substance. I was recently asked a question by a rather religious brother. Being asked, I answered at length. The man was very troubled, and said he has problems with my theology. I told him I do not have a theology. I am a disciple, and have a Teacher, who I believe. Men’s opinions don’t interest me.

The book of Deuteronomy, ch.32, contains a prayer and admonition of Moses, to the people, about to be given admission into a “promised land”…a land “flowing with milk and honey”. During the journey of the exodus, we have read of the manna that was provided…manna that “was like coriander seed, white, and the taste thereof was like like wafers made with honey”. Upon setting foot into this allegorical land of promise, a measure of manna was placed in a golden pot, covered with a lid, and hid within the ark of the covenant. All of this was symbolic of the bread of heaven, Christ in you. And to this very allegory does Jesus refer in the book of Revelation, promising the over comer, the right to eat of the hidden manna. His word abiding in you, and opened to you, is no allegory. It is the very substance of what everything about bread was pointing to. Jesus said that what was provided in the wilderness was not the real bread of heaven, but that “I am the true bread of heaven”. Spiritual bread, the true bread, is imperishable and not even remotely related to anything that can be placed in your physical mouth. The effigy enters the mouth and passes out the other end. The true bread of heaven enters in at the ear, the inner ear, and eventually makes it’s way out of the mouth, without degradation. In this, is the miracle of the loaves and fishes comprehended. Within the bee hive, a marvelous substance is found. It parallels, and bespeaks the bread of heaven. It can be compared to the hidden manna in the holiest place, and is superior to the man made bread of the holy place, bread gather under the category and heading of work and labor. Bread if mishandled or handled out of order, stinks and breads worms. The words which Christ Himself speaks, and all He reveals within you, are incorruptible. Though heaven and earth will pass, not one word revealed to you, at the Father’s table, will ever pass or perish. It abides eternal. You are what you eat, as they say. Bee bread, real bee bread, is a picture of this. It is not to be confused with pollen, taken by comb extractors from foraging bees as they return to the hive, and marketed as “bee bread”. It is nothing more than pollen, and has few, if any, of the touted benefits of bee bread. If it was never brought into the hive, chewed and processed with a little spittle and honey, never went through fermentation, never stored and capped in a cell, hidden and lidded in a little golden pot…it isn’t bee bread.

So what is the land of promise? Where is this land that flows with milk and honey? Was it a geographic destination? Moses admonished the people not to forget the Rock from which they sucked honey and oil. He said this BEFORE they set foot in Canaan. Years before, Jacob had poured oil on a rock and called it the house of God. Paul the apostle writes: “ Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ”. The “land” that provided then, as now, was Christ.

Moses, in Deuteronomy 32, plainly tells the people that the Spiritual Rock that exited Egypt with them, went before them, and provided honey and oil for them, is their promised land. He warns them not to forget and lose their true promise, when they become situated in a piece of real estate.

A honey bee hive is a unique system. Once functioning properly, the bees have built a large amount of storage cells called comb. Pollen and honey, the flow of the land, are processed and stored in it. There is generally one entrance, a narrow way, in and out of the hive. This makes the hive more easily defended against a host of things which would like to rob the bees of their wax, their honey, or their very life’s blood. Ants, mice, other bees, to name a few, come to rob. Skunks will scratch the outside of the hive to entice bees out, and will eat them. Moths will lay their eggs on the outside of the hive, which when hatched into worms, they will seek any crack or crevice to gain entrance and tunnel through honey and comb, ruining them. Religious dogma, collected and packed into my hive, will surely stink and breed worms. As Jesus said, “Labor not for the meat that perishes”. A strong colony with a well defended entrance, will do a very good job keeping invaders out, and honey in. I chose a strain called “Minnesota Hygienic” because they are very fastidious. They clean the cells relentlessly. Any marauder, they chase out. Anything they kill, does not rot in the hive. They drag it out. Even a dead bee, they remove from the living, casting it from the hive. A hive, as with a mind, functions optimally, when kept clean. Any number of things, left unattended, left not addressed, can fester overcome and destroy a hive. The knowledge and understanding we have of the Lord are priceless. Above silver, gold, or the price of rubies, as say the scriptures. And where our minds, each of us individually are concerned, we are not a commune. To have the mind of Christ is to have a mind framed after His, functioning like His, and privy to His. It in no way means He thinks for, or through us. Two can not walk together, except they be agreed, and, except there be two. “Come let us reason together”, requires two minds. And in the Lord, unlike in religion, the end result is two strong minds, not one overcome, subjugated and displaced by the other. In fact, where it says “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee”, the word “mind”, is יֵצֶר(yetser), and means “form, framing, purpose, intellectual framework”. It denotes more than whimsical thinking. It speaks of the very thing your constitution is being patterned after.

There is a saying used repeatedly in the scriptures, which describes the mind, translated out of darkness, into the realm and place of the resurrected, glorified Son of man. That saying is “Everyone under his own vine and his own fig tree”. In Numbers 9, the Olive tree, the Fig tree and the grape vine, are made allegories of the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son. Jacob, in a place called Luz, meaning “Almond”, with his head on a stone, saw a ladder reaching to heaven. Above all was the Lord. The messengers of Heaven ascended and descended upon the stone and stones. Jacob arose, anointed the stones, calling the place, “The house of God, the gate of heaven”. He thereafter called the place “Luz-which-is-Bethel”…Almond (resurrection) which is the house of God. Under the fig tree, the revelation of Christ, which comes only from the Father, was given to Nathanael. Jesus told him he too, would see the messengers ascending and descending upon the Son of man. Judas, (not Escariot the betrayer), asked Jesus how He, Jesus, would reveal Himself to His own, and not to the world. Jesus said “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him”. As the Holy Spirit, The Teacher, takes the things of Christ, and of the Father (which things are one), and shews them to us, so bees “ascend and descend” from the hive, collecting and bringing in, the flow and abundance of the land. This He does not do in a mind not translated into the kingdom of the dear Son. And the mind of Christ is not a commune. The thing which every believer has in common, is the same Father, Teacher and Lord, while each retains his/ her own mind and identity. “Come let US reason together”, “come and place your hive in Mine”.

So, there are numerous analogies and comparisons to be gathered in studying honey, the hive, and reading all one can find to read of them in scripture. Have you ever read some report of someone attacked by a swarm of bees? This is a misuse of wording. A swarm of honey bees is a very specific thing. They are most docile and harmless when swarming. They swarm when leaving their former hive, to seek out another location. They do this to relieve overcrowding, escape a failing hive, escape predation, or for other reasons. Samson once killed a lion and later ate honey and comb from a swarm of bees that took up residence in the carcass. These bees had left their former location, for some reason (likely over crowding) , and found the slain lion’s body a suitable abode, in similar fashion, Abraham and Lot separated because the land could not sustain them when together. Jacob and eleven sons “swarmed” to Joseph (not knowing it was Joseph at first), when the figurative land of promise could not sustain them , by reason of famine. Joseph controlled all food…much to learn in that study. David, fled Saul, and came to the “cave Adullam”. All David’s household, and all who were debtors, misfits, outcasts, etc., somehow found, and came to David in this hideaway. All who “threw in” with David knew what would happen if Saul discovered them. The cave, a figure of death. Resorting, “swarming” to David there, was done in faith. David eventually enthroned, brought all who believed in him with him, is resurrection. “Adullam” means “justice (or justification) of the people”. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I have rejected the world, it’s religions, social orders and politics, and have “swarmed” to a place where I find peace. The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God. His Adullam is my Adullam. If He lives, and because He lives, I live also. That is His word, and I believe Him. And curiously, the word “swarm” appears twice in scriptures. There is always an imitation. The swarm of bees in the carcass of Samson’s slain lion, and the swarm of flies that plagued Egypt, the analogy of forced religious bondage. The word “swarm” in the former case, means “gathering, congregation”. The word “swarm” in the latter case means “mixture and incessant or involved motion”. It is applied to blood sucking gad flies. The Lord’s gatherings are quite different in nature from Egypt’s (if you take my meaning).

A mind overcome, is like a hive overcome. Domestic hives are worked by a beekeeper. He manipulates them using a knowledge of what makes them tick. A domestic bee keeper has one modus operandi…to rob the bees of honey, to subjugate them to his purposes via the one thing that regulates them all. The queen. Control her, and you control the hive. Italian bees are the most docile, least defensive of all. If you want to breed “meanness” out of a hive; destroy the existing queen, and replace her with an Italian queen. The offspring will become subdued and easily controlled. When going into the hive, a skilled beekeeper often uses no protective clothing at all. He or she uses smoke. Smoke masks smells, and bees are completely smell oriented. Smoke will hide any alarm pheromone. A bee keeper, operating in a cloud and fog of smoke, goes all but unnoticed by the bees. They know something is “not right”, not “normal”, but they can’t quite put their antennae on it. Revelation 9 is the same teaching about religion, priest and clergy craft, that beekeeping and the use of the smoker are. If that offends, I do not intend to offend, but I do not apologize. I know to hate the deeds and doctrine of the Nicolaitans, without hating them. John 3, and Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus, which name is essentially identical to the word “Nicolaitan”, is a perfect case study of separating the man from his deeds and doctrine, loving the man, but hating the deeds and doctrine. The world at present is being worked in a cloud and smoke described in Rev. 9. A certain edifice, located in Rome, when viewed from on high, bears a striking resemblance to a key hole. The bottomless pit has a key hole. The character traits of the ministers of the bottomless pit are not seen with the natural eye. The descriptives are spiritual. The presentation, the frontal view, is false. A crown “like” a crown of gold. Hair like a woman’s is a guise of humility and servitude. A breastplate as of iron, is not a breastplate of righteousness, faith and love. All this frontal deception is to hide the “business” end…the scorpion tail and sting, hovering behind and above. This sting has power to torment “five months”. The administration of the law, is the frustration of grace. The apostle Paul, faced with the mixture of Moses and faith, stopped it dead in it’s tracks. Sadly, today, the thing Paul warned of, calling it “Another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel”, is now vast and overspreads the earth, and the earthy. And it warns against them who are free and walking in faith and truth.

The use of honey, bees, and their characteristics, are a rich teaching in the scripture. And when bees forage and find something, they return and do not lead others to it. But rather, with a mysterious dance, they reveal that they have found something, and they point the others to it. It is then up to each bee to look, or not to look.

“This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner”.   (ACTS 4:11)

In the world, there is a saying…”That was then, this is now”. Jesus was once known after the flesh. But henceforth we can know Him no more after the flesh. That was then, this is now. Of Jesus, before He tasted of death for every human, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt (past tense)in Him bodily. The Word made flesh. He, and He alone was the House of the Father, the Vessel of the Spirit of God. So true was this, that He said to a disciple, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father”. But, as He truly said, “except a grain of wheat fall to the earth and die, it abides alone”. Now, in resurrection, and by His resurrection, is the Father’s House, a house of many houses. The one Son having accomplished to lead many sons unto glory. The message and pattern…the very image of the invisible God, no longer abides alone, but is raised a spiritual house of many houses, such that it is now written of Him (and the children the Father has given Him), “In Him dwells (present tense) all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him”. That was then, this is now. Now are you added to Him in His resurrection.

The miracles of the loaves and fishes also have a line of demarcation…a “before and after” aspect. There was a necessity of feeding a multitude. But there was a limited supply on hand. A little bread and fish is what was needed, but if divided up evenly among so many thousands of people, how far could it go to satisfy each individual? Five loaves divided among five thousand, amounts to 0.001 loaf per person. How far could a person travel on one-thousandth  of a loaf of bread? The miracle of the loaves and fishes is not comprehended until the aspect of the baskets full of loaves and fishes are taken up from the multitude. Division was not the total answer, but “divide and multiply”. The fed become feeders. The taught become teachers. This is not the old way that asks, “What are these few loaves among so many people”. This is a new and living way, wherein Jesus says to the disciple encountering a hungry people, “Give them to eat”. A weekly arrival of devotees to a geographic location, being fed empty husks, are being sold a bill of goods. Christ is risen. Everything He spoke of, saying, “Except a grain of wheat fall to the earth and die…”, has been avoided. He no longer abides alone. The wheat is risen and bears much fruit. A mature fruiting body of many grains, each empowered as the original. That is to say, the same Spirit that raised the solitary grain, now dwells in the fruiting body. Now, the following saying is true…”When a grain of wheat has fallen to the earth and died, it no longer abides alone, nor can you know it any more after the grain, you must know it in the fruit”. The question commonly asked in every carnal situation, “What would Jesus do?”, is no longer as relevant as the question, “What am I going to do?”. I do not feed with empty husk. Jesus no longer resides there. That was then, this is now. It is Christ in you (present tense), the hope of glory.

In the above referenced saying, “If that same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, dwell in you….”, the common denominator, the thing which defines and determines the estate of each grain of wheat in the fruiting body of resurrection, is the Spirit. For there is One Spirit, one body, one God and Father, …ONE. This House of Resurrection is like nothing heretofore imagined. The ONE house of MANY houses:

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also….
…And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”

In a time where the world of believers, some of them, are fixated with the Lord’s “coming again”, there is a sad tendency to be either ignorant of, or unconcerned with the fact that, in resurrection, He has come, is come, and is coming, all in the Promise of the Father…the Spirit of Truth. This “coming” in each individual, by the Spirit, can not be ignored. The truth is, Jesus is as “good as His word”. He has never left, or forsaken us.

To comprehend the sayings concerning Elias (Elijah) returning , in the “Spirit and Power of Elijah”, one must comprehend that the Spirit of Elijah, was and is, the Spirit of the Lord. In Ephesians, particularly chapter four, Paul writes of the Lord’s coming. But in a manner “ye think not”. Paul expounds that (in them in Christ) there is one God and Father above all, through you all, and in you all. All means all. And Paul writes that to every one is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. The portion may be a measure, but the gift is not merely FROM Christ, but IS Christ. You would not be reading this now, if you had not been endowed at conception, with a measure of your natural mother and father. Nor would you be reading this now, if that measure were not empowered to produce a complete individual. Before Christ “fell to the earth and died”, in Him was the Apostle and High priest of our profession. In Him was that prophet who was to come into the world. In Him was the Great Evangelist…sent to the ends of the earth to proclaim and declare the kingdom of His Father. In Him was the Chief Shepherd and bishop of our souls. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Teacher, the Spirit of Truth, whom the Father gave Him, not in measure, but entirely. The same Teacher who now lives in you (remember the loaves and fishes). Ephesians four is not a career path for the “clergy” (which do not exist in Christ), It is Christ in you, the hope of glory, according to what you do with the measure of your gift. It may be a measure, but it can produce fullness.

Elijah went up to Horeb, the mountain of God. There, wrapping his mantle (his calling) about himself (cutting off the external tumult, non of which was God “in”), he heard the small still voice from within. He was told to cast his mantle over Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who would be prophet in Elijah’s “room”. (These things may be found in 1 Kings 19). Elijah eventually would ask Elisha (when God would take Elijah up), “Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee”. Elisha said, “I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me”. Said Elijah, “Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so“…. :

“…And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces ( I am crucified with Christ….). He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him (…nevertheless I live) , and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan; And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over….”

Elisha saw Elijah in resurrection (in a figure), and became a partaker of it. Elijah was not dead, he did not divest himself of spirit or office, but rather, extended both to Elisha. Jesus is not dead, he is still the firstborn among many brethren. He still is preeminent in all things. The fullness of the Godhead still dwells in Him bodily, AND you are complete in Him. He is not subdivided among us…we are added to His fullness. Elisha went on, in the Spirit and Office of Elijah (which Spirit and Office was and is the Spirit of God) …he went on to finish all that Elijah began to do and teach, as Elijah received instruction on Horeb.

Now, let us look at the book of Acts, wherein Luke, writing to Theophilus , describes how that in His people, in the Spirit and power of His resurrection, would Christ finish all He began to do and teach, as Luke had described to Theophilus, in his Gospel. Theophilus has a wonderful meaning as a name. It means “Friend of God”. Jesus said “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you“. Jesus, per His word, would come in the Power of the Spirit, and, as He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father”. Jesus had told the disciples to tarry at Jerusalem, until they be endued with power from on high. (before this, to leave Jerusalem, powerless,  would be of no purpose, but after this, to abide at Jerusalem, endued with power, would also serve no purpose). In the Resurrection, the shadow gives way to the substance.

When the day of the fulfillment of Pentecost came, the disciples were gathered together in one place and of one accord. This place was not, and could not possibly have been any upper chamber or roof top of any house. The place where the disciples gathered was in the confines of Herod’s retaining wall, which he had built around Solomon’s temple. The promise of God to David, concerning House and Temple of God, were about to be fulfilled. There came a sound of a mighty rushing wind, heard throughout the place where they were sitting. The appearance of flame was upon the heads of the disciples (as though a lamp stand had been lit). These individuals began to speak the wonderful works of God. Word spread throughout this place of gathering, capable of containing upwards of 200,000 people, of something taking place, and many came to see. They were amazed and astounded, because every man who listened on, whether Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,Cretes and Arabians; no mater their language and place of origin, all heard IN THEIR OWN TONGUE, these unlearned Galileans speaking the wonderful works of God. And they wondered what it meant. What it meant is this:

“THE LORD WHOM YE SEEK SHALL SUDDENLY COME TO HIS TEMPLE”

Now, the temple of God, is the resurrected, glorified Son of man, and all that the Father has given Him, children of His resurrection. It is not any house built with hands. In truth, it never was. When Jesus, still in flesh, still the son of David according to flesh, stood next to the hybrid environment of Solomon and Herod’s building, and said, “Destroy this temple and I will build it in three days”, I leave it to the reader to decide what He meant.

In Acts 3 and 4, you read of a man impotent for 40 years, raised and healed, and the same dual-high priest contingent, with the same rulers and elders of Israel, subject to the same Roman Empire, judging, once again, the same one who had healed him. For being asked by what power, or what name, this had been done, Peter told them, “This is the rock rejected by you builders”. Peter was pulling no punches. He told them, “This is the same Jesus, whom you murdered, continuing all that he began to do and teach, before you murdered Him” (I paraphrase). Those events are prophetic of the very times we live in. Annas and Caiaphas, the dual “high priests” were in direct opposition to the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. Annas means “humble”. Caiaphas means “beautiful stone”. The humble acting, outwardly garnished false foundation, opposing and resisting the stone which they reject…the stone who has no form or comeliness that when we see Him, we should desire Him, the stone of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream that brought down all his image, The foundation that is already laid, and another can not be laid. Christ in you, the hope of glory. These men, and this system, fearing the loss of their place and system, decided then, as they decide now…these people must not be permitted to to speak or teach in this name (Jesus).

That was then, this is now. The events foreshadowed then, are upon the doorstep.

Nations have risen up against nations. Now kingdom against kingdom. Only one will prove to be true. Jesus is not an alternative religious style. He is not a choice in a mixed bag of social-religious-political homogeny. He is the Way, The Truth, and The Life.

The Lord is in His Temple now.

LOT, THE GADARENES, AND THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD

In Amos, the question is asked: “Can two walk together except they be agreed ?”. This question is to a body of people whom the Lord had gone among, leading them from the bondage of Egypt, but this people desire to go their own way, and yet expect that the one who delivered them should still go among them, as though the savior is indebted to the saved. We live in times spoken of by Jesus, times which are “as it was in the days of Lot”. Those times tell us of Abram, called out of the land of his nativity, his country, and his father’s house. Called to go to an as yet unspecified destination. Called to go to a land that (said the Lord), “I will show you”, a land that will not be found to the mind that thinks and seeks for geography.

Abram left with all he had, and there left with him, his brother’s son, Lot. Both left together with all they had. They journeyed and walked together. The course of their journey and the events that took place, teach many things. But the subject of this writing, is the walk they had. At first it was together. Both journeyed in faith to an as yet unseen, and unspecified destination. Afterward, it was not together. In the course of time, their substance was multiplied. They had great flocks and herds, as well as silver, gold, and many servants. The individual who is apprehended of Christ can be compared to this. (Consider the increase in knowledge and understanding over the course of time, in the person with whom the Lord has made His abode, and “sups”). At some point in time, the size of both men’s estates grew such that the land could not bear them both in one place. And so, strife and contention arose between their herd men (much as groups of believers might gravitate toward certain “interpretation” or doctrinal disagreements, and no longer associate with one another. Both profess Christ, yet will not “walk together” because they do not agree on everything).

It was Abram who approached Lot, and pointed out that they were brethren, and it was not right that they should have this strife between them. Abram’s solution was indicative of his state of mind and his “walk”. Lot’s choice was indicative of his state of mind and “walk”. Already at work in Abram, was a developing awareness that no place, no geographic location, no well dug, no altar raised, ever lasted. No matter where he pitched his tent, he was destined to move on. This “place I will show you” seemed very elusive indeed. Eventually we read of Abram, how that he would come to regard himself a stranger in a strange land. He would hear the Lord say to him, “I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward”. He would eventually begin to set his affections on a city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God. A city wherein dwelt righteousness. He would eventually comprehend that all of the promises to Abram and the people to come out of him, would be to one individual, and that the promises would be fulfilled in resurrection. That one individual, Jesus, would eventually say, “Abraham saw my day, and rejoiced”. In the course of time, Paul the apostle would write to the Hebrews, of all who had gone before in faith: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”. To such an individual , persuaded of a better, heavenly estate, geography and real estate become inconsequential. So, Abram told Lot to look about, pick any place that suited him. And Abram would go in the opposite direction. At this point, the difference in Abram’s and Lot’s inner walk began to be revealed. Lot chose a geographic location based upon it’s abundance and lush provision. A place he could call home. A city whose builders and makers were men. A city whose foundational underpinnings were wickedness. These human conditions were incompatible with Lot’s sensibilities, so he set about to change the behavior of the people in his adopted land.

Now, there is nothing to say that Lot was required to lay down the walk of faith, and choose the walk of sight. What Abram and Lot needed was space, elbow room; in other words, a “walk” that was no longer conjoined. Consider that Jesus , about to be glorified, had said, “In My Father’s house are many abiding places, and I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again and receive you to Myself”. This He said signifying that by the Spirit, the Promise of the Father, would become a house of many houses. And this is entered into now, not later, on the other side of the grave. In the Spirit, we each walk with God. The body of His resurrection is many membered, yet each member, a member in particular. Not a single, cavernous, all indwelling space, but each with his/ her own space wherein the Lord makes abode and sups with you as a body of individuals, and not a commune. In fact, attempting to make a communal experience out of our walk with Christ, will produce the sort of things that led to the frictions between the households of Abram and Lot. We are a body of unique individuals, not clones, not proselytes. When we, each of us, walk in the light, as He is in the light, THEN we have fellowship one with another, according to the saying of the apostle John, that verily, truthfully, our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son. The one common denominator, the one thing which binds us as one people, is the Spirit of Christ. To Nicodemus, a “ruler of the people”, Jesus said, “The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear the sound of it, but you can not tell where it comes from , and you can not tell where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit”. I have looked at and examined many a cluster of grapes growing on the vine. I have never yet found one grape attached to the vine through another grape. Each grape drinks into the vine through it’s own supply. The form of “fellowship” that is often taught in religious circles, is the head of the dog, bighting his own tail, running around in a circle. It is the blind bumping along in the ditch, with a pyramid like network, clinging to the coat tails. To them that are young, we speak a word of wisdom. To them that are of age we speak wisdom. There is nothing wrong with “marking” , observing them that walk. But the mark of the prize, the objective of the pursuit of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, is the individual complete in Christ.

[Heb 12:22-24 KJV]

“ But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than [that of] Abel”.

In light of the above verses, it is useful to study the very word, “Jerusalem”. It is a plurality, and has in it’s meaning, the idea of two dwelling together in peace. Jerusalem above is a Jerusalem of many Jerusalem(s). There is room and estate for each:

[Gal 4:22-31 KJV]

“ For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman. But he [who was] of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman [was] by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which genders to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, [thou] barren that bears not; break forth and cry, thou that travails not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him [that was born] after the Spirit, even so [it is] now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free”.

When Elijah complained to God that Jezebel had slain all the prophets of the Lord, and that he only was left, and Jezebel sought his life to kill him, was was the answer of God? “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him”. Seven thousand , a meaningful number, all known of God, all walking with God, yet not known to Elijah, and likely not known to each other. Think on that when you sometimes feel like the only “act” in town. And consider that the spirit of Elijah, was and is, the Spirit of the Lord. The same spirit by whom the Lord walked with “seven thousand” , each known of the Lord, yet unknown to Elijah.

The concept of people or places being separated by barriers is often used in scripture to teach. Rivers, bodies of water, waste places and wilderness, mountains…all have meaning. A people crossing the Red Sea, for example. The Lord is able to part waters and cause some to walk across uninhibited by the water, while others are denied the passage and drown if they persist in the effort. Flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God. Yet in faith, some “cross over”, not deterred by it. Others, walking by sight, are prevented by it. In one such example, Jesus is walking and teaching in a place where he is welcomed. In another place, separated from Jesus by the sea of Galilee, was a place called the country of the Gadarenes. Jesus spoke all day , teaching always in parables, expounding later to his disciples in private, inasmuch as the Lord is not a proponent of “group think”…the “Legion” think where many are self tortured with imposed thinking that is foreign to them. Such are bound with controls…mental chains and fetters of doctrinal dogma, with the very name “Gadarene” looming large. It means “reward at the end”. Believe what you are taught, don’t bother trying to make sense of it, someday, if you behave yourself, you will “die and go to heaven”, where then, and only then, will it all fall into place. Is this what one may expect from a Father and Son, dwelling in you now by faith? To one taught that everything is on the other side of the grave, dwelling in the tombs would be the closest place one could imagine to his/her inheritance in the Lord. It is an insidious lie, and I know some in that very state. Read the account of Mark 5, and see the compassion of Jesus, crossing over to one in such a state, dwelling among a system where Jesus may be spoken of from afar, but His person and presence feared and not wanted. They don’t want to know Him now. They want Him to fit into their dogmatic understanding. This man, naked, self tortured, is found clothed, and in his right mind (his own mind) sitting at the Teacher’s feet, he and the Lord reasoning TOGETHER (the very definition of being one’s right mind). This man at least knew something was not right. A sadder condition, wherein the miserable wretched, poor, blind and naked rejoice in that state, can be read in Revelation 3 where Jesus testifies to the Laodiceans, also standing without the assembly and knocking:

[Rev 3:14-22 KJV]
“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou were cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”.

The Omnipotence of God means that God, not doctrine, determine His estate. Where He is, where He is not, what He does, what He does not. All of the endless volumes of books , all of the sermons and doctrines amassed that presume to define and explain God, where He is, His comings and goings, etc., can be replaced with this:

Psalm 115:3 “But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased”.

There are no magic formulas, no verses of scriptures to use as incantations. The Lord has not been outmaneuvered in His own book by sages and learned men. No one, no thing, has the Almighty over a barrel. If He operates in any arena under any limitations, they are self imposed.

Hebrews 4:7 “Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts”.

Regarding His chosen rest and habitation, it is not found in the imaginings of men, no matter how well intended. It is found in one individual who came out of David according to the flesh, but was declared to be the Son of God , according to the Spirit, by the resurrection. The Lord’s habitation are a people of resurrection. A people who may say this:

Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”.

In Noah, the Dove found no rest unto the souls of her feet and returned to him. After a time, she returned not to Noah, and so, he knew the waters were receded from the new land. This pointed to something. From the time of Genesis, when the Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the deep, the place of God’s rest was not found until this:

Luke 3:22 KJV

“And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased”.

Jesus, the resurrection, the Son of the Highest, and a people begotten to God , in Christ’s resurrection, are the habitation of God by the Spirit, which is all the declaration of Psalm 132:

PSALM 132

“A Song of degrees. LORD, remember David, [and] all his afflictions: How he swore unto the LORD,[and] vowed unto the mighty [God] of Jacob; Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, [or] slumber to mine eyelids, Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty [God] of Jacob. Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood. We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool. Arise, O LORD, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy. For thy servant David’s sake turn not away the face of thine anointed. The LORD hath sworn [in] truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore. For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired [it] for his habitation. This [is] my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.

I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish”.

Omnipotence is Omnipotence. Omnipotence is where Omnipotence wants to be. The influences of vain philosophies and traditions, creeping into the thinking of the church world, teaches that God is omnipresent…that He is everywhere and in every thing. But this doctrine does not compel He who is omnipotent. He sets the bounds of the sea, and says to it’s raging waves, “you will come this far and no farther”. He drove Cain the murderer from His presence, into the land of wandering. He walked with Enoch and took him. He spoke to Abraham concerning Lot’s chosen abode, saying, “I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know“. He chose out David and walked with David in Spirit, and David prayed, “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me”. (Psalm 51)

Psa 23:4 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”.

Psa 139:8 “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there”.

If I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, if I ascend up into heaven, if I make my bed in hell, I find Him in every place if the Father and the Son have made their abode with me.

He is not “everywhere” because sages and scholars, yogis, rabbis, priests , preachers and imams say He is. The Lord is where the Lord chooses to be or not to be. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. Before He was crucified , it is written of Him that in Him dwelt (past tense) all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now in His resurrection, it is written of Him again, “In Him dwells (present tense) all the fullness of the Godhead bodily AND you are complete in Him”. We are added to Him in resurrection. In the days of Noah, all that entered the ark were saved. All that did not, perished. In the days of Lot, all who went out of Sodom were saved. All that did not, perished. These present days of the coming Son of man are like those days. To abide in Him is also to leave the world and the things in it. The doctrine called “ultimate reconciliation” is false. All things IN CHRIST are and will be reconciled to God. To teach otherwise, is to love and perpetrate a lie. No one, absolutely no one, comes to the Father, but by Him.

Can two walk together except they be agreed? If I, In Lot-like fashion, leave off the pursuit of the heavenly, make my abode in this age, setting about to modify it to suit my sensibilities, if I being then risen with Christ, set my affections on things below, will I be any less vexed in soul, day after day, seeing and hearing, judging and meddling with the world and it’s filthy conversation? No. If I choose to “walk” in a place where the Lord will not “walk” because He chooses not to, is He beholden to “walk” there with me? No.

In the days of Lot, everything that survived the flood of the days of Noah, came out of the ark with Noah. In these present days of the coming of the Son of man, everything that survived the burning of Sodom, was in Abraham’s bosom by faith. Everything here, that shall be party to the ages to come, is in Christ.

[Col 3:1 KJV]

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

“Hid” is “kryptos”….”Encrypted”. If you then be risen with Christ, you are encrypted, written together with Christ, no more to be known after the flesh, yet to be revealed together with Christ at His unveiling. Invisible, encrypted to the world, yet know and seen of God in Christ. All the expectation of the creation itself awaits the manifestation, the Revelation, the “Apokalypsis”, the UNVEILING, of the Sons of God. The orchard is in the Almonds. It will not come from afar off. It will come from the Almonds. Aaron’s rod was not raised alone. Research it.

Jesus was often asked concerning the “last days”, His “coming”. Jesus said that these things, the Father has in His own Power. And Jesus immediately said “you shall receive Power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you”.

The fullness of what is in you, in Christ Jesus, will the Father reveal at the moment of His choosing. But understand, if so be it is in you, it will come and be revealed from within you, not from without.

[Luk 17:20 KJV] “ And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Where the Lord is or is not, what He chooses to see or see not, where He chooses to walk or walk not, are all academic, if He is not abiding in me.

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A FEW VERSES

[Gen 4:16 KJV] And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod (wandering/exile), on the east of Eden.

[Gen 5:24 KJV] And Enoch walked with God: and he [was] not; for God took him.

[Exo 25:2 KJV] Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.

…[Exo 25:8 KJV] And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

[Psa 68:18 KJV] Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, [for] the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell [among them].

[Eph 2:22 KJV] In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

[1Co 3:16 KJV] Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

[Jhn 14:23 KJV] Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

[Rev 22:15 KJV] For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

[Col 3:1 KJV]

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

[Luk 17:20 KJV] And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

A STAFF AND A TENT

The Lord, speaking to Abram, spoke by way of promise, that to Abram’s seed would He, The Lord, give a land of inheritance. That seed would become a multitude, and that multitude would be heirs of a land of promise. That seed, to whom every promise pertained, was firstly, one individual who would be Lord and heir of all, and afterward, the multitude to come from that one, would be, together with Him, co heirs, joint heirs together with Him, in all the fullness of God.

To the nation, the natural offspring of Abram’s body, was extended a covenant, an offered contractual arrangement, if you will, that had terms. Those terms stated that this people would be a unique and special people, a nation separated to God, and cherished above all nations of men. Just as a house, being bought with a mortgage, is not yours until the terms of the mortgage, to the last payment, are satisfied, the house is not yours. Such was the case with the natural issue of Abram’s body, and the special status was never attained because the terms were never met. This is a little spoken of point in religious circles today, but is, nevertheless, a fact.

The individual and one and only heir of every promise, that one who came out of Abraham, was Christ. He, and only He fulfilled every term of the covenant with Abram. He and only He secured to Himself, the title of Firstborn among many brethren, the status of Lord, and secured to Himself, of the Father, the preeminence in all things. That nation, that peculiar people of special status, are a people unlike any other. They are not the fruit of Abram’s body of flesh, but of promise. They are begotten to God, in Christ in His resurrection, and are heirs of His body of resurrection. To be an heir together with Christ, in all the fullness of God, pertains to the individuals of that nation, called by the apostles “an Holy nation”. Jesus alluded to this people and nation as heirs of every promise to Abram, when He spoke this parable:

“Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them”.

This nation and people are not reckoned among the nations of men. And a purpose of this writing is to convey the sober message, that this nation of heirs is not any religious sect in the world and of the world, to which category belong the various sects and franchises of organized “Christianity” today. The “Christian” religion in and of this world, warned about before hand by the apostle Paul, with tears, calling it “Another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel”, is but one of the nations destined to be hammered in pieces as with a rod of iron. In fact, the rod is falling now. The nation to whom the kingdom of God shall be given, being taken from the kingdoms of religious men and leaders, is a nation born in a day, as said the prophets. But no twenty four hour day. Rather, the Day of the Lord, which day the apostle Peter declared to be at hand…upon us…since the day Jesus rose up out of the tomb. A spiritual nation, not reckoned among the nations of men, a people created in resurrection. No people, religion or nation, not begotten to God in the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, have any part or matter in this. I call to attention, the many places in which Jesus warned of the rejection of many who will lay claim to the great many things they have done in His name, who being sent away as workers of iniquity, are sent with the statement, “I never knew you”. The person and presence of Christ in you, by faith, or trusting one’s disposition to a membership in some group and it’s leadership, large group or small, are a matter of choice. The leadership of men, or of the Spirit. To only one of the two, does Jesus refer to as the defining attribute of sons of God.

A people spent and exhausted, laboring under their Pharaohs, in a futile, Lot-like effort to reform the behavior of Sodom and Gomorrah, a place and age destined for fire, or a people of faith, citizens of an age and kingdom to be revealed, and the children of faith, revealed together with Christ, at his ultimate unveiling. Children of carnal meddling, or children of the true Exodus. It is a matter of choice. The Lord is not arbitrary and inequitable. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Of all who the Lord calls, many are called, few chosen, not because the Lord is arbitrary. Few are chosen, because few answer the call. John, in his gospel, declares a generation of faith, not of flesh:

“That was the true Light, which lights every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”.

There is, in the midst of every race and nation, tongue and people, in every generation from the resurrection until the summation, a people of faith, who have not received the hearing of faith from men, but have heard and believed within themselves, the witness of the true Light, who shined in them as a light in a dark place. As pollen to a flower, Christ in you, the hope of glory, the power to become the sons of God. No individual need wonder if he or she can be be a part of this. The answer is yes. It is a matter of choice, and the choice is with every individual.

To them who have believed, and are the Lord’s people, but are under the heavy hand of the Pharaohs and their descending network of taskmasters, who laden them with grievous tasks and burdens, ever learning, never coming to any knowledge of the truth, ever building, never seeing the fruit of their labors…who labor and are heavy laden…go to Christ and relieve you of these impossible burdens. His yoke is easy, His burden light. It is a choice of easy and light, over heavy travail and labor. His building, His workmanship, is YOU. The building up of His House is spiritual, not carnal. Go to Him, as Paul said, “Outside the camp”, and find rest. The most High dwells not in a house built with men’s hands. He dwells in the Man and people of Resurrection.
To the task masters and religious “leaders” who laden the Lord’s people with building your vainly imagined entities, there is this word…Recognize the ever increasing plagues in the houses of your building, and let the Lord’s people go. Or better yet…defrock yourself of imaginary title and importance, and go with them. “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain, who build it…”

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THE EXODUS- OUT OF EGYPT I HAVE CALLED MY SON

Two things need to be established before writing further. The Exodus, the real and true Exodus, is the Resurrection. And the Israel of God, the real and true Israel of God , is the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, and them begotten to God…raised up together with Him…in His resurrection. In this case, there is a quoting of chapter and verse. Because both the above mentioned truths are proclaimed, indisputably, in a few verses of scripture.

Matthew 2:13-18
“And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not”.

Hosea 11:1
“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt”.

Revelation 11:18

“And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified”.

The Israel of God , and the exodus from Egypt, were not fulfilled, Until Christ. I say again, the Israel of God , and the exodus from Egypt were not fulfilled until the events testified in chapter two of Matthew’s gospel. Everything that happened before this, was a shadow of this. It pointed to this. The place of Christ’s crucifixion, spiritually (and therefore truly and factually) is SODOM AND EGYPT. Herod filled the part of Pharaoh, causing the bereavement of Rachel of her children. The Egypt out of which God’s Son and Heir ( Israel means prince. Prince is heir), was the spiritual houses of bondage. The spiritual places, where men, as overseers and taskmasters, lay heavy burdens on their brethren, commanding them to lift and bear them, while these men themselves will not lift a finger to bear. Jesus bore the shame of the cross, to liberate and set free, mind body and soul, all who will follow Him. If the exodus of the book of exodus, was fulfilled in Moses, and the land of promise in Canaan, was THE land of promise, (Into which Moses was never permitted to set foot), then Moses would not have appeared together with Elijah, together with Jesus, transfigured upon a mount for Peter, James and John to see. These three men knew, especially once the Spirit was given, what was signified to them in the events they witnessed on the mount. And these events did not occur in the place spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, and errantly called the “City of David”. They occurred in the Glory of the Father. For 28 generations, from David to Christ, men errantly called Jerusalem, the “City of David”. But when Christ was born, the angel of God spoke truly, “Unto you this day is born, in the City of David, a savior which is Christ the Lord”. Moses was barred from the figurative “land of promise”, but not the true. He was barred from the shadow, not the substance. Today, the sects of “Christianity”, are reduced to the same expectation of the Hebrew nation of flesh. Together now they stare with fixed gaze, at the wrong city, awaiting a man of flesh, to “come”, sit on a piece of furniture in a restored temple and palace of stick and stone, and force all flesh into behavior. Both will not have known the time of their visitation. Both will be deceived together by a man of flesh who will fill all their desires.

Jerusalem beneath, the multiple religious entities striving over her, and their world wide network of political, social, and religious intrigues, are the great Sodom and Egypt of Revelation, which will brook no voice of the Lord, or of them that are His, in their streets, and will go to any lengths to silence them.

Just as Jesus began His ministry, being conceived, born, made of a woman, made under the law, and finished His course in resurrection, so too , did the shadow of things to come.

In leading the children of Jacob out of the land of Egypt, The state of the nation was depicted, described pre-exodus using but three of the names of the tribes. The Lord often uses names and their meanings to convey truths. Of course the exodus involved the whole house of Jacob, but the purposeful use of but three names, paints a picture for us. The names used descriptively of Jacob, in bondage to Egypt, about to be lead out, were the first three born to him. Reuben, Simeon and Levi ( Exodus 6:14-26). Moses and Aaron were also of Levi.

Reuben: “Behold, a son”:
(Gen 29) “And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the LORD hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me”.

Simeon: “Heard, to hear”:

(Gen 29) “And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon”.

Levi: “”Joined to”:
(Gen 29) “And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi”.

The entire descriptive is of a son born to an afflicted and hated people, a son by whom the people have hope, that they will be enjoined to their father.

PROCLAMATION:

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” ( Isaiah)

FULFILLMENT:

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”. (Luke’s gospel)

Among the sons of Levi, two men, brothers, will go before the people to lead them out. In the hands of these two men, Moses and Aaron, two rods…staffs…walking sticks, which will figure prominently in the events of the exodus. In the hand of Aaron, a staff of an almond tree, cut off from a tree in Egypt which was of a seed sent by Jacob , into Egypt as a gift to Pharaoh, some hundreds of years before Moses. This seed was a gift, accompanying money sent to buy grain from Pharaoh, because of the great famine in the land. Little did Jacob know, that his gift did not go to Pharaoh, but to his own son Joseph, whom Jacob presumed dead , torn in pieces by some beast, but in fact alive, now Lord of all Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. And the only reason there was grain in Egypt, was because of Joseph, who’s brethren hated him, cast him into a pit to die, and he was raised up, and sold into slavery in Egypt. Nor did Jacob know that a branch of an almond tree, would one day be used, before and after it’s resurrection, to lead the children out of Egypt.

The very choice of Jacob to send “a few almonds” into Egypt as a part of a gift to Pharaoh of the best fruits of the land ,was almost an afterthought. The almond had a special significance in Jacob’s experience. It was at a place called Luz, that Jacob, fleeing from his brother Esau, had his dream of a vision, a ladder reaching unto heaven, the messengers of heaven ascending and descending upon the ladder, and the entire experience centered upon the stones he had for his pillows as he lay in that place. Arising, Jacob poured oil upon the stone, and proclaimed the place of this anointed rock and stones to be none other than the House of God ( Bethel). The place, LUZ, means “almond”, a figure of resurrection, as we shall see. Jacob afterward referred to the place as “Luz which is Bethel” …”Almond which is the house of God”.

When the Lord would lead the children of Jacob out of Egypt, he would send to them, Moses, returning from his sojourn in the land of Midian, and Aaron, returning from the desert into which he had been sent to meet his approaching brother. The Lord, because of Moses’ resistance to being spokesman to Pharaoh, due to Moses’ being not eloquent, and slow of speech, made Aaron to be spokesman in the place of Moses, who would be to Aaron, in God’s stead. Aaron’s rod was used miraculously, performing signs and wonders, more times that was Moses’ rod, until the people eventually crossed the red sea on dry ground. This rod would become a serpent. And when the magicians, wise men and sorcerers of Pharaoh would also make serpents of their staffs with their enchantments, Aaron’s staff, now a serpent, swallowed them up. Again, this same rod was stretched over the waters of Egypt, and they became blood. The fish that were in the waters died and stank, and the water could not be drunk. Again, Aaron’s staff was held up over the waters, and there came up frogs, to fill every house, every bed and bedchamber. When the Lord caused the frogs to die, they were gathered into such heaps, the land of Egypt stank. Again Pharaoh would not let the people go. Again Aaron’s rod was stretched over the very dust of the land, and it became lice, in man and beast. There followed still more miracles. Swarms of flies, the death of all Egyptian cattle, plague of boils and sores upon man and beast, plagues of heart, pestilence, rain of fire and hailstones, that ruined every crop save the wheat and the rye, and broke every tree throughout the land of Egypt. Only in Goshen, where the children of Jacob dwelt, was untouched. For all this, Pharaoh would not let the people go. Afterward, locusts that filled every house and field, and left nothing in their wake. Then a thick darkness covering Egypt for three days, so thick , a man could not see to walk out of his house. Again, Pharaoh would not let the people go. Not until the Lord would send and strike dead, the firstborn of Egypt, from the firstborn of every beast, to the firstborn son of Pharaoh, would Pharaoh break, and the children of Jacob be thrust from the now ruined Egypt, with spoil and treasure, having been spared the blackness of the death of their firstborn, by the blood of a lamb on the lintel and post of their door.

Having left Egypt, and having crossed the Red Sea on foot, the Lord would speak to Moses concerning the building of a tabernacle. A sanctuary (set apart place) “where I might dwell among them” , said the Lord. Moses was told to be very careful to build everything according to the pattern shown him in the heavens. Everything Moses would build was, therefore, a shadow and figure of things to come, and not the things themselves.

The raw materials for the tabernacle were not coerced from the people, nor obtained by “shaking them down” with guilt and psychology. The Lord said to Moses, to collect what each individual would willingly give. He did not accuse them of “robbing God” if they chose not to participate. He did not take a “percentage” of their labor, because they had been a nation of slaves. And what they had, they obtained from the Egyptians, spoiling them when they went out of the place. The fruits of their labors, slave labor, did not figure in the building of the tabernacle. Nor did the Lord bring them out of Egypt, through a land of fruit and plenty. There was nothing in the wilderness to constitute a profession that might be taxed. EVERYTHING that went into the building of that tabernacle, was given to them when they went out of Egypt. It was not the wages of slavery, it was not their present subsistence, which too, was miraculously being provided. What they gave, was of the gift they were given upon departing bondage. The Resurrection is the true Exodus:

PROCLAMATION

Psa 68:18

“Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.”

FULFILLMENT

Eph 4:4

“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”

Moses was instructed to build an ark of wood, overlaid with gold. Into that ark would go the testimony God said, “I will give you”. This ark was placed in the holy of holies, the “set apart from the set apart”. Upon this ark of the Lord’s testimonies, a mercy seat where the Lord said , “I will meet with you and commune with you”. In the holy place was, in the South side, a man made lamp stand, a beaten work made of a single lump of gold. It was purposely made to look like a fruiting Almond branch, the lamps themselves made to look like almonds. The fuel for the light giving almonds, was the oil of the Olive tree. On the North side of the holy place was a table for bread. Each day, twelve loaves were prepared by men, and placed upon the table. Also in the holy place, before the seamless veil, an altar of incense.

“…For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the show bread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

The way into the holiest is not made manifest while men serve the shadow and image of things, and not the one of whom the shadow and likenesses bear witness, who now, is come. Now, concerning bread of heaven, not even the manna in the golden pot was the bread of heaven, as Jesus told us. He is the bread of heaven:

“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which comes down from heaven, and gives life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst”

Concerning the resurrection, not even the raised rod of Aaron is the resurrection, but Jesus is the resurrection, as He told us. He is the true Resurrection, and the true Exodus. The true Way into the true House and Tabernacle, the sanctuary not built with hands, the Father’s House, Is the Resurrected Lord. These things we are made heirs…joint heirs together with Him, in all the fullness of God, BY FAITH.

As a final thought , just as in Christ, before that He was raised up, did dwell all the fullness of God, all the Spirit of God given Him, not by measure, but fully, and as Aaron’s rod was most assuredly a figure of Christ, both before and after resurrection, if you consider this, you will begin to understand that the river and waters of Egypt, the waters upon which were brought so many plagues, are not in any way associated with the figurative rod in Aaron’s hand. The book of Revelation will also bear these things out, where plagues of waters, deadly to so many, are the waters of spiritual Sodom and Egypt, out of which the Lord does call His people.

Christ in you, the testimonies which the Lord gives.

THE RESURRECTION IN YOUR TENT