Mythology Buster

 The prophet Hosea, spoke as he was moved of the Spirit of  Christ, to speak before, of Christ. He said “when Israel was a child, I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt”. This gives two paths to consider. In one path, the children of Jacob are led out of Egypt by the hand of Moses. Written into that shadow of things to come, you find that the children, leaving Egypt, carried with them, the sarcophagus of Joseph, who had taken an oath of his brethren that when he died, the Lord would surely visit them, and lead them out of Egypt. In the oath, the children swore to “carry his bones ” up with them. In the Hebrew language, the word “bones” in this verse, is “being”. Hence, “You will carry my being up with you”.

  Joseph was born into the household of the offspring of Abraham, according to the line of Isaac and Jacob, who was called Israel. This household walked in a patriarchal vision, father to son, regarding the promise of a land of inheritance. For God had said to Abraham, after he was separated from Lot, that to Abraham’s seed after him, would the Lord give a place and an inheritance, after that the children would be servants in Egypt, for a season, and then would be delivered to the place and land of promise. The father-to-son headship as heir of the promise, and the birthright to it, was very important. When Joseph was a very young man, he began to receive dreams and vision from the Lord. These dreams and vision seemed to be a departure from the patriarchal vision. In the dreams, Joseph and his brethren were in the field binding sheaves. Joseph’s sheaf stood upright, and his brother’s sheaves stood around and “made obeisance”, or bowed in homage, to Joseph’s sheaf. A sheaf represents bread and life. The bread by which we live, is every word that the Lord speaks. The dreams signified that Joseph’s word was superior to their word, and his vision, to their vision. And so we read that Joseph’s brethren hated him because of his dreams and because of his words, and were unable to speak peaceably to him. Again in a dream, Joseph saw the sun and the moon, and the eleven stars bow in homage to his star. Now, Jacob and Rachel were upset. And Jacob rebuked him: “What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth”? Though troubled by the dream, Jacob did not dismiss it out of hand. His brethren envied him, but Jacob observed the saying.

  Joseph was eventually cast into a pit by his brethren, and left to die. One of his brothers, Judah, counselled with his brethren, and they raised Joseph out of the pit and sold him to Ishmaelites, and Joseph eventually become a slave in Egypt. We read in the Psalms that until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. For thirteen years, from the time that Joseph dreamed and spoke of it, until Joseph was delivered from Pharaoh’s prison, and became the bread giver and ruler in Egypt (Psalm 105), for these thirteen years, nothing in Joseph’s natural life reflected any hope that his dream and vision was true. But the dreams were true, and the vision sure. Joseph, twice delivered from the pit, the first of his brethren’s doing, the second in Egypt, Joseph shows in a shadow, that in resurrection would all be fulfilled. The answer to the riddle of Joseph’s dreams is revealed to be a change of the Paternal, a change of Father. Joseph, in a figure, is reborn. In the pit, Joseph’s star is extinguished, and is replaced with the star of resurrection, the bright and morning star. God had told Abraham, “Fear not, I AM your shield and your very great reward”. The promise is not land and field, stuff and junk, but God Almighty Himself becomes the reward sought after, later to be fulfilled as the Promise of The Father, via the Spirit of Christ. All this God showed before, in a figure, in the life of Joseph, who prospered and forgot all his father’s house. Jacob later acknowledges these matters, blessing Joseph, and speaking as Jacob, blesses the sons of Israel:

[Gen 49:22 KJV]    “Joseph [is] a fruitful bough, [even] a fruitful bough by a well; [whose] branches run over the wall: The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot [at him], and hated him: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty [God] of Jacob; (from thence [is] the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) [Even] by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren”.

  Jacob recognizes and acknowledges the validity of Joseph’s dreams. Read it carefully. Jacob acknowledges that Joseph’s father is the God of ( Jacob), and his fathers.
Upon the head of this fruitful vine, separated from his brethren, shall rest all the blessings of God, and the promises to Jacob and his progenitors. This vine, cut off , raised eternal, planted in the untouchable heavenly, this vine of resurrection, embodies all the fruitful increase of God in an heir and a people. All the words, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live”, are prophetically forshown, in a figure, in Joseph, whom the Pharaoh who knew him, named  Zaphnathpaaneah, or “Treasury Of The Golden Rest”.  The prophetic descriptive, “Fruitful bough, planted by a well; whose branches run over a wall”, examined closely, is very telling. “Bough” is the Hebrew word “Son”. “Branches” is the Hebrew word “Daughters”. To Christ, has the Spirit been given fully. The well is in Him. Hence, ” I am the vine, ye are the branches. Abide in Me. Except ye abide in Me, ye can do nothing”. All the increase of the household of God, is in Christ.

  So what is the second path to consider, as mentioned in the opening paragraph of this note? The second path is to recognize that all these things shadowed one to come, as the Apostle Paul showed us, that all the promises to Abraham were not to his seed as of many, but as of one.

  In Hosea, we read that number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, innumerable. And that in the place where it had been said , you are not my people,
there would they be called the sons of the living God. Again in Hosea we read, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt”.

  In Matthew’s gospel, we have the answer of which of the two paths to choose:

“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”.

   Jesus Christ, the resurrected, glorified Son of man, is undeniably, the heir of all the promises, and the Israel and Son of God. It is in THIS Israel and Son, that they who were not his people, are now called the sons of the living God. Jesus is the Israel of God. And in His resurrection, is His Father become our Father, His God become our God. Moses had said the Lord would raise up, from among them, one whom the people must hear. All in whom this standing and superior Word and Sheaf stands, are THE PEOPLE, as Moses told, for Christ is that one.

Hosea 1:10

    “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God”.

Hsa 11:1 KJV

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

Jhn 20:17 KJV
 
    “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”.

Isa 8:18 KJV

    “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”.

Another gospel

There is an age old problem that has been at work for a very long time. Stephen identified it when he addressed the religious leaders of his day:

“Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things? Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it”.

Jeremiah speaks of this calamitous problem:

“Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. 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”.

Jesus said of the Father, “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come [again] unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I”. The Holy Spirit , whom Jesus said the Father would send in His name is also called the Promise of the Father.

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew unto you”.

So, how is the Holy Spirit the promise of the Father?

“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more”.

The Teacher, the Spirit of Truth, He is the Promise of the Father.

Jesus said that the Name of the Father is Holy. He called Him “Holy Father”. He said that He proceeded and came forth from the Father, and that He returns again to the Father. He promised not to leave us, saying He will come again to us. The Holy Spirit is the fulfilling of that promise in us all. And He , the Spirit, takes the things of God and shows them to us.

Paul warned of “another” gospel. Paul said let them be accursed that preach it. Daniel spoke of it as the abomination that makes desolate. Jesus Said it would stand in the Holy place, where it ought not. “Father” in heaven, hallowed….Holy ….is YOUR name. When Jesus promised to send another in His place, He was referring to the Spirit, the Promise of the Father. He was not talking about a “vicar” , a man to be called “Father”. For a man to be referred to as “Holy Father” is for him to stand in a place where he aught not. The Holy Spirit is not Christ sent to live vicariously among us. It is Christ sent to live forever within us. The word “desolate” Jesus used means to lay something waste…to strip it of it’s treasures. The word “desolate” Daniel used means to stun…to stupefy. It means your mind is scrambled. The word “Babylon” means confusion by mixing. Certain things do not belong in your thinking. Consider the question the Lord asked in Amos, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

Jesus said the Spirit is the Teacher. He will take the things of the Father and show them to you. He also said call no man on earth “father”. Christ in you is the hope of glory. It is your treasure in an earthen vessel. Let nothing, no other “gospel” strip you of your treasure. In Christ, the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and you are complete in Him. There is no room in that formula for any Father but one.

When one of our presidents, Ronald Reagan, received one such man, Reagan called him “holy father” and with my own ears, I heard Reagan say, “Our nation is ready to hear you now”. He was speaking on behalf of a nation, effectively announcing that one nation under God, now would embrace the broken cistern, and the elected collective would no longer exist to safeguard the right of individual choice , but would now defer to the message of flesh and blood, masquerading as the “Holy Father” . Every president since has cemented the nation’s journey down this calamitous path. Jesus said that the nations who commit fornication with the harlot system would be thrown into “great trouble”. This nation is experiencing great trouble.
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From Galatians:

Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)

And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:

Grace to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
 

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

As we said before, so say I now again, If any preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

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The doctrine of apostolic succession is but another myth. Christ in you is, in a word, the gospel. Christ administering himself in the world through a “vicar” who sits atop a hierarchical scheme, is what Paul called “Another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel”. Consider carefully, the conversion of Saul, on the road to Damascus. Saul, a student of a prominent Jewish teacher, was traveling from Jerusalem to Damascus with letters from the high priests and elders, to bring back for punishment, any who confessed Christ. In the way, Christ revealed Himself to Saul, and called Saul to preach the gospel. Saul , as he often wrote after, received grace and apostleship from the resurrected, glorified Son of man. None who were apostles before him, put their hands on him and pronounced him to be anything. Nor did Saul go up to Jerusalem to confer with flesh and blood ( referring to Peter, James and John), but Saul was directed to spend three years in Arabia, where, under the tutelage of the Spirit of Christ, his eyes were opened to understand the scriptures. In relaying the account ( Galatians 1), Paul feels it important to say, “Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not”. And it is important. For even then, it was necessary to emphasize that anything and everything any individual has in Christ, he or she has received directly from Christ:

“But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ”.

Paul, in his account in Galatians 2 and 3 , is careful to draw a line in the sand. He will have no part of anything or anybody who teaches and supports the notion, that he, Paul, received anything regarding Christ, from anyone but Christ. He had already been burned once by the dunghill that Jerusalem beneath, and everything it touches, had come to be. Neither Paul, nor any other in Christ, is part of something that took root in Jerusalem over two thousand years ago, and has spread itself since, as Lichen slowly spreads itself over a rock, contending with other forms of Lichen for the finite space on the rock. Either we receive everything directly, person to person, from the resurrected, glorified firstborn, or we are under mediators, governors and tutors, and differ nothing from slaves, not receiving the adoption of sons (Gal 4). If we consider carefully, the meaning of the Kinsman Redeemer, under Moses, we see that if any fell hopelessly into debt, or lost property and inheritance, the right of redemption fell to the nearest living relative. The nearest living relative was empowered to pay all debts, and restore the estate of his kinsman. If The resurrected Son of God were not my nearest living relative, he would not have any right to redeem me:

(Gal 4) “Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ”.

So , how did the myth arise, that Peter is the foundation, the rock upon which Christ builds? As in most winds and doctrines of men, it comes from the carnal mind that bends scripture to fit carnal misinterpretations of things.

Jesus once asked His disciples who men said He, the Son of man, was. They said that some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Then Jesus asked, but whom do you say I am? Peter said , “You are the Christ, the son of the living God”. Jesus, in saying to Peter, “Upon this rock I will build My Church”, was not talking about Peter. He was talking about the revelation, from the Father, in the individual, that Jesus is the Christ, the rock and foundation in the individual, upon which all is built. The account of this in Mark 8 shows that upon Peter saying “you are the Christ”, Jesus tells the disciples to tell no man of Him. There is a reason for this. No man comes to Christ except the Father reveal Christ to him.

So , by the work of the cross, has Christ removed the handwriting of ordinances, which were against us, and has come again, by His own Spirit, He and the Father making their abode with us, as He told us. In so doing (as we read in Col 2), He has spoiled principality and powers, made a show of them openly (revealed them for what they are; resisters of the Holy Ghost, and murderers of the just one), and triumphed over them in it.

If Christ, all the object and fulfillment of the law and prophets dwells in you by faith, mediators are nothing to you, because all that they mediate is removed from you. This place, held in faith, is the place Jesus is speaking of, to many in the assemblies of Revelation 1 and 2, admonishing them to remember from whence they are fallen.

Paul said to those who desire to sit in Moses’ seat (1Cor 4):

“But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord”.

We are justified from all things, if so be the Judge of all things dwells in us.

Anything less than Christ in you, the hope of glory, is another gospel. Christ did not come to you via a circuitous rout, that winds it’s way from Jerusalem beneath, through the course of 2000+ years of human history, to you. Remember that He first said “I go to my Father and your Father, to My God and your God”. And now He comes to you, first person direct, from the heavens, both He and the Father, to make their abode with you, as He told us.

There is presently, as the scriptures bear witness, a Jerusalem beneath, in bondage with her children, and a Jerusalem above. There is a saying in the closing chapter of the Bible, and it is not a saying pertaining to the ages to come, but pertaining to the times we live in:

“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”.

“Follow the drinking gourd” is an old Negro spiritual, sung by slaves following the big dipper North to freedom. The bidding of a disciple of Christ to follow Him, does not end at the foot of the cross. We read in the book of Revelation that there appeared in Heaven, a Lamb. We further read of a people with Him who are called, chosen and faithful. Jesus said many are called, few are chosen. The Lord is not arbitrary, nor showing favoritism. The apostle Peter wrote of the transition from calling to election, “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:  For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”.

The election, the chosen from among the called , are not arbitrarily chosen, but rather, are the numbers of them who have answered the call. The place prepared for you, of which Jesus spoke before going to prepare it, is open to you now.

Chorus:
Follow the drinking gourd
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a waitin’
For to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinking gourd

When the sun comes up
And the first Quail calls
Follow the drinking gourd
For the old man is a waitin’
For to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinking gourd

Chorus

The riverbank will make a mighty good road
The dead trees show you the way
Left foot, peg foot travelin’ on
Following the drinking gourd

Chorus

The river ends between two hills
Follow the drinking gourd
There’s another river on the other side
Follow the drinking gourd

Chorus

From Luke 22:

Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. And they went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

John 14, CHRIST IS THE MAN WITH THE PITCHER:

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if not, 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 whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I [am] in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. 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. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do [it]. If ye love me, keep my commandments. 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. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 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. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being [yet] present with you. But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come [again] unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.”

On the night Jesus kept the ritual of unleavened bread with the disciples, the night on which he suffered, it was the last legitimate ritualistic observance of what is now fulfilled. Not passed and over with…but fulfilled eternally. Then, they observed a forward looking ritual. Now we sup with the Father and the Son eternally, new in the kingdom of God, in the place prepared, in the world but not of it, as the Destroyer passes over. The song quoted above is an old Negro spiritual, sung by slaves fleeing the old South for freedom, during the time of the American Civil War.

The “drinking gourd” in the song was the constellation of the Big Dipper. Following the constellation North, lead to freedom. The ritual of the Passover was established as a memorial to the children of Israel, when the Lord “passed over” ( literally “skipped over”) their houses, and did not suffer the messenger of death to enter their houses. The lamb’s blood on the lintel and posts of the door, bespoke what was taking place in the chamber. The family would eat the passover, from evening until morning, leaving nothing of it unconsumed. Not a bone of it was to be broken. The non consumables were to be burned with fire.

The Lord, OUR PASSOVER, is not a ritual. We sup with Father and Son, in the communion of the Spirit, new in the kingdom, not in a ritualistic reenactment, but in the Secret Place of the Most High, where the Spirit takes the things of the body of this resurrection, and makes them known unto us:

                                        (from Luke 24)
“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.”

Our upper room, the “place prepared” is not far off removed in time and space. The kingdom of God is within. FOLLOW THE MAN WITH THE PITCHER OF WATER. He is the one to whom the Father gave the Spirit, not in any measure, but FULLY. In the very first chapter of Genesis, the Lord establishes a day ( a “YOM” ) as an evening and a morning, in that order. And a “yom” ( day) can not be definitively defined as a twenty four hour period. It is a space in which something is accomplished. The apostle Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians, that the day of Christ is at hand. First the evening, then the morning. Jesus said He will come as a thief in the night.

In the book of Job, Job refers to the Lord as he “Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south”.  Later the Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind, admonishing Job as having darkened council by words without wisdom. The Lord adds wisdom:

“The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?”

Arcturus is the constellation, Ursa major, the “Great Bear” , the drinking gourd. The Pleiades is the “Seven Sisters” in the constellation of orion, the assemblies in the right hand in Revelation 2 and 3, where the Lord speaks by the Spirit to loose the bands of Orion, with his seat in their midst, and break the sweet influences at work in the midst, the influences of the many voices that no not belong with the message of Christ in you, for the candlesticks (lamp stands) are depicted as the South camp of the tabernacle, the camp of Gad, which name means “assembly”.  Orion means “fool, stupid fellow, dullard, simpleton, arrogant one”. The upper room is the place John is bidden to in Revelation 4, with the words “COME UP HERE”. John is brought to the place, the upper room, where there is no contrary voice, and the Lord is all, through all and in all, where no contrary voice is countenanced. Where crowns of the twelve patriarchs and the twelve Dukes of Edom, bow the knee and their lips voice, the place where Joseph’s dreams are fulfilled, to the glory of God and the Father, that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. Either follow the same Spirit which raised Christ from the dead, and be seated with Him on the throne, or forever pay lip service. The Exodus of faith,  is one from symbol to substance.

1Cr 5:7   
“Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Sincerity and Truth can not be had in a ritual. Following the man with the drinking gourd , to the prepared place, has nothing to do with “dying and going to heaven”. There will be nothing by way of treasure waiting for me, that I do not lay up now.

Among the reeds, in a floating cradle of bull rushes, was Moses hidden when he was an infant. He was hidden because of the decree of Pharaoh, all the males born in Israel were to be put to death, a decree that would live to haunt him. When the young child was born, his mother hid him among the reeds in the ark of bull rushes, where he was found by a servant of Pharaoh’s daughter. This daughter took him into her house, called his name “MOSES”, which means drawn (drawn from the water) and she raised him, calling him son. This same Moses would, in the course of time, choose the reproach of God’s people over a life of privilege in Pharaoh’s house, eventually leading his people from Egypt and the house of bondage. By this man drawn from the reeds fed by the waters, would the handwritings of ordinances, statutes and commandments come, because the people later would not hear the Lord’s voice, preferring a mediator. But this same Moses, by whom the law came, spoke and charged the people (Jhn 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ) :

  “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not”.    (Deu 18:15)

This Jesus, by whom grace and truth came, has God, by the power of resurrection, made both Lord and Christ, but not according to the former order of things. For this is according to the words spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, that , “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more”.  This would not be by papyrus and ink, but a writing of a superior sort in a living medium.

The identity of “Christ”, is in regard to the fact that he is the one in whom resides the fullness of the Spirit of God. The fact that there would be, and is a people called the body of Christ, implies that the identity of “Christ”, would not be a solitary one, but a shared, because the spiritual household of Christ would be, and is,  a house of many houses, a many membered body. Many unique and complete individuals. Jesus had said that if a seed does not fall to the earth and die, it remains alone, a solitary seed. But if it falls to the earth and dies, it brings forth much fruit. In each seed bearing fruit is faithfully written, the power to become, that power being conveyed by the first born. It is written, “As the body is one , and has many members, so also is Christ”.

From Psalm 22:

All [they that be] fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done [this].
 
Clearly , this Psalm prophetically proclaims a people that would be begotten to God in Christ, according to the words by the mouth of Isaiah, “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”.

By death burial , and resurrection, do we arrive at the seed accounted to the Lord for a generation, for Christ was not raised alone. The book of the gospel according to Matthew testifies of a living book, the living book of Psalm 139, in which the many members are written. Careful attention to detail will reveal something which is no scriptural contradiction or error. Matthew proclaims the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. It declares that from Abraham to David are fourteen generations. From David to the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon to Christ are fourteen generations. It lists, name by name, the line, from Abraham, to the man Jesus Christ. But if you count , name by name, from the captivity to the man Jesus Christ is thirteen. Yet it plainly proclaims that from the captivity till Christ are fourteen generations. This is not a mistake. Everyone begotten to God in faith, in Christ, in His resurrection, to this present day, is the fourteenth generation, proclaimed before to serve Him, as declared all the law and the prophets.

Jesus chose Cana in Galilee of the nations (gentiles), as the place to first show forth His glory. Cana means “place of reeds”. It is called Galilee of the gentiles, because Galilee is a circuit of about twenty largely undesirable cities that were given to Hiram, a gentile, by Solomon, as reward for Hiram’s part in the building of Solomon’s temple. It is here that a miracle of prophetic proportions occurs, not to simply demonstrate a power over the elements, but to proclaim that from Him, would be drawn forth a people, who would be called His own. At a wedding, the wine first served, plays out. But the feast is as yet, unfulfilled. In six clay jars, not one, but six, the Lord commands water to be put in. When he then commands the servants to draw and serve, from each jar is delivered new wine, the very finest, and superior to that which had gone before. In each jar, as in each grape on the vine, water had become wine. A people drawn from the reeds, the heirs and source of grace and truth, distilled in the inner man of each, by the master vintner, whose workmanship proclaims His glory.

The first served wine , the inferior wine, will play out. But the Lord has a people, a generation not reckoned among the generations, a salvation ready to be revealed. And in the fullness of time, all of this generation will be revealed together, and every eye will see it.

Remember Your First Love.

Interpret or Understand?

No where can I find it written that Jesus encourages us to interpret the scriptures. The scriptures are about Him. They were written by men of old as they were moved by the Spirit to write. It says the will of man did not enter in to the writing:

2Pe 1:18 KJV – And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Jesus addressed a group of religious leaders who were castigating Him for healing on a particular day of the week. He says to such: “Search the scriptures. For in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me, and ye will not come to me, that ye might have life “. The scriptures are written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and they are about Jesus from cover to cover. Both the author of the scriptures and the subject of the scriptures are alive. In saying no prophesy of the scripture is given for any private interpretation, it telling you that only the author may convey to you His thinking that went into writing  the scriptures. The thinking of the Holy Ghost in authoring the scriptures was not scattered and out of focus. And it was not written as a guide book to lead man to eternal life except in one point. It bears witness of the Son of God, in whom is eternal life. Many packages of purchased items arrive with a manual. The manual, without the item, is of limited practical use.  Jesus is the one who opens the understanding to understand, not interpret, but understand the scriptures. It is Christ in you that gives something for the scriptures to bear witness of in you. Without Christ, the subject of the scriptures, there is little present for the Holy Ghost to bear witness of.

In the case cited above, Jesus was with His disciples in a grain field and it happened to be the Jew’s Sabbath day. The account may be read in Luke 6. Many teachings are presented, embedded in the account, things that apply to the times we live in, just as they did in those days. Under the ever present and watchful eye of a religious/political many headed conglomerate ( sound familiar?), Jesus walked and talked with a small gathering of disciples. It was the Jew’s Sabbath day, and the disciples were hungry, so they plucked grain, rubbed it in their hands to winnow, or separate the wheat from the chaff, they would blow away they chaff and eat the grain. Because it was the Sabbath day, because winnowing was considered “work”, and because the ever present religious snoops saw it, they immediately began to accuse the disciples of doing that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day. Jesus beautifully rebuked the snoops, and vindicated His disciples in two sentences: “And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him; How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath”. Then, as now, disciples who are with Christ, are free to rightly divide scripture in His presence, religious dogma and dogmatics notwithstanding. Jesus teaches the truth. The truth, embraced, makes free. If the truth does not fit into religious dogma…well…what is the chaff to the wheat? If I walk in the Spirit, and read the book authored by the Spirit, I am free to know His thinking that went into the composition of what He inspired to be written. Every religious institution, as a house of cards, will come down, without exception. But Christ and His words will never come down, nor will the individual living by the faith of Him.

In every case where Jesus cited scripture, it behooves to read the scripture He cited. The reference to David is no exception. David was anointed king, fleeing from the acting king. Acting because , though the Lord had taken the kingdom from Saul, and given it to David, Saul would not willingly relinquish the position. (This situation parallels the times we are in today, as it does the times of Christ and the disciples in the field. The King and kingdom of God is in you, not in the religious system of hierarchy and edifice). We, as David, overcome and rise to our destiny, by patience and faith.

In 2 Samuel 21, David comes to Ahimelech, the priest at Nob. Ahimelech is afraid at the meeting of David, and asks why David is alone. David tells Ahimelech that he is about the king’s business, and the king’s servants are in the places to which they have been appointed. David tells the priest to give him bread. The priest tells David that there is no bread present, except the show bread, sanctified that very day, and not lawful for David to eat, because only the priests may eat it. David tells the priest it will do, because, though sanctified (holy/set apart) to the priest, it is after a manner, or from one point of perspective, common. The point of perspective from which the man made bread is common, is the hidden, God given manna in the holiest place, in the ark of testimonies. This hidden manna, forgotten of the priest, known to David, trumps the show bread for David and all that were with him. Substance always dissolves symbol. Christ in you, the true bread of heaven, makes all the sum of man made doctrine and understanding about the things of God (or lack thereof), dissolve in the presence of the Living Word of God. That is the lesson of Luke 6. A key of David, is the gift of seeing through symbols, to arrive at substance. Bread, wheat, and sheaves, all are synonymous in the scriptures, and are a figure of the word that is in you. Christ in you, is the hidden manna Jesus offers the overcomer, when speaking to the assemblies of Revelation 2 & 3. Overcoming becomes a matter of the individual rising above the many voices and entities ensconced in and about the assemblies, the churches, and learning to tune them out, in favor of the Spirit who speaks to the assemblies, appealing to each individual, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says”. The eleven sheaves of Joseph’s brethren, bowing to his sheaf, is a picture of the word of the communal, patriarchal vision of his household bowing and giving place to the word of the coming Father and household of his dreams and visions. But that is another topic.

So then we read the scriptures and we trust the author, the Holy Spirit, to open them to us. And this is not laborious, but liberating. For we are not to lean to our own understanding, but to trust Him with our whole heart, knowing that as He is in us, the Teacher will open to us the thinking of God concerning Christ in the scriptures. The scriptures then become something that witness to what is unfolding in you, rather than an otherwise confusing and overwhelming set of instructions, which they are not. The Author is alive, the subject of the book is raised. No one has permission to interpret the book. No private, that is , no third party interpretation is authorized. The Teacher, who is the author, has retained the exclusive right to opening the subject of the book to you and revealing His thinking. And in doing this, He raises you into His thinking. In the volume of the book it is written of Him, He comes to do the Father’s will.

2Pe 1:20 KJV – Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
Luk 2:47 KJV – And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
Luk 24:45 KJV – Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures…
Jhn 20:22 KJV – And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Luk 24:31 KJV – And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

Some time back,  a dear and valued brother shared a very few words on the phone with me. What he shared had to do with water, pools, conduits, gutters. During the conversation he mentioned the river that watered the garden of God and went out from the garden, and in the conversation he beautifully tied and traced certain waters back to that river in the garden. When it goes out, it is divided into four heads. These are the Pison, the Gihon, the Hiddekel (Tigris) and the Euphrates. Even as I was being spoken to on the phone, certain things began to break into my mind, not unlike water that looses it’s containment, as though as always being there, it finds long awaited outlet.

 The words that started the flow, were the meanings of the names of those four heads, the four defined properties of the river that flows from the garden of God, wherein abides the tree of life, the fruit and benefits of which are the promise of Jesus Christ to every over comer. It should be noted that the location of the garden of God was described , not with a geographic location, but with a direction . That is, the garden was planted Eastward in Eden. The rise of the sun and it’s illuminating properties give meaning to that descriptive location. The apostle describes awaiting the day to dawn, and the Day Star to arise in your hearts. The river that waters the garden goes out, but is not seen to go in, giving the understanding that it has it’s origins , where we are concerned, in that garden of illumination.The meanings of the four rivers, in the order named , make a sentence. Pison is increase. Gihon means bursting forth. Hiddekel is rapid. Euphrates is fruitfulness , as in “be fruitful and multiply”.

                                    “Increase bursting forth rapid fruitfulness“.

 
Jacob, upon his death bed, blessed Joseph thus:

“Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren”.

These meanings are taken from Strong’s Concordance:

Joseph:   1) to add, increase, do again
Fruitful:  1) to bear fruit, be fruitful, branch off
Bough:   1) son, grandson, child, member of a group a) son, male child
Branches:  1) daughter a) daughter, girl, adopted daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, granddaughters, female child, cousin

So, the entire prophetic descriptive phrase about Joseph describes a fruitful son who’s daughters break forth over the wall.

All the fruitfulness, the increase, in God are bound up in Jesus:
Jhn 15:1      “I am the true vine, and my Father is the  husbandman”.
Jhn 15:5      “I am the vine, ye are the  branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same   bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing”.

 
When you come to understand that the fruitful bough and the well are one, you see that to drink of that well, you must abide in that bough. There is no other access. The Father gave to Him the Spirit, NOT BY MEASURE. You also gain insights in the exchange between Jesus and the woman of Samaria at a hole in the ground, that she understood by tradition, to be the well of Jacob. But Jesus corrected her when He revealed Himself to be Jacob’s well. And he promised, through Himself, living waters that will make thirst a thing of the past. She left her former vessels at the hole in the ground, a hole to which she theretofore, came periodically to draw. Jesus did not relegate her to ritualistic coming to , and drawing from, a traditional hole in the ground.

 
We have a number of things to reflect upon when considering the end of a thing, the fulfillment of a thing, the summation of a thing. There is only one way of viewing the current popular doctrine of “ultimate reconciliation”. Only from one perspective does the truth, which the doctrine attempts to mask, come forth, that all things which are in Christ will be reconciled. For if any have not the Son, the wrath of God abides on him. Abides means does not wax and wane, does not come and go. It abides. You are accepted, IN THE BELOVED. (Ephesians 1:6)

 
Concerning the children of Israel after the flesh, their time was summed up in this saying:

 Isa 1:9      “Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah”.

 Concerning the present age, this saying rings out:

Hebrews 12: 25,26     “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.”

Jesus, upon being asked concerning the end of our age gave two pictures:

 Mat 24:37  “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be”.

 
Luk 17:28   “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot’s wife”.

 So we see clearly, that all the Lord’s dealings with man and with dispensed ages, have an end. In the case of Noah, God’s covenant was with Noah and everything that came out of the ark with him, the number defined by everything that had entered the ark until God closed them in:

 Gen 6:17    “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female”.

 In the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we come again to the river of God. We come to the general assembly of the First Born, We come again to the Tree of Life, a pure river of life flowing from it, we come to the fulfillment of matters, a nation of Kings and Priests, Kings of the garden, Kings of the East. But , if , in the sum of the age, there is to be a manifestation of the Sons of God in the manners Jesus foretold, and in the manner Enoch the seventh, on the threshold of the things coming describes, saying, “The LORD cometh with ten thousands of His saints”, Then the river will take on a different description and function.

 Rev 16:12   “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.”

 “Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all  workers of iniquity. “

When a door is closed, it’s closed. A thing is finished when the Lord is finished with it. To the assemblies , there is a warning. The removing of a lamp stand from his place, as the Lord speaks in Revelation 1 & 2, does not extinguish the flame. It extinguishes the Lamp Stand. The Lord’s word and Light abide eternal. In the sum of the present age, one sure sign and earmark of it, is the putting of churches from the message of Him that speaks from heaven. It is going on now. It is of note, that the great “falling away” of 2 Thes. 2:3 is the word “apostacy” which has it’s root in the word “apostasion”. An “apostasion”, being translated, is a “bill of divorcement”. It is a SENDING away, as in “depart from me”. The overcomer, overcomes as an individual. Here we have no continuing city.

 
Abide in the Vine. Drink of His River. Be Fruitful and Increase. Herod is speaking. The River will never change, but in the sum of the age, there will be two manner of people. Those who are among the nations of them that are saved, drinking the healing waters, and those who are part of The Source.

The book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, if one looks for it, is written in such a way, that it expounds and opens many of the things designed into the construction of the Tabernacle Of Moses, things meant to shadow the heavenly pattern which Moses was shown, and according to the pattern of which, Moses was to build the tabernacle. The tabernacle proper consisted of two environments, the first called the “holy” (which means “set apart”, or “sanctified”), and the second innermost environment, called the “holy of holies”, or “set apart from the set apart”. It was in this “set apart from the set apart” place, behind a one piece seamless veil, that the Ark Of The Covenant was kept. In this ark, the first item to be built, would be placed the testimonies which God told Moses, “I will give you”. When Jesus once stood overlooking the city of Jerusalem which spiritually was below Him as He spoke, He said:

“Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!  Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”.

The saying concerning the vacating of their house, is in reference both to the house of Jacob, according to the flesh, and the temple which they had built. The coming of the Lord, according to the expectation of the prophet Malachi, was completely fulfilled when the day of Pentecost was fully come. In other words, that which was signified by the yearly ritual, took place, fulfilled once for all, not in a stone edifice, but in a people. This was signified, not with the lighting of a man made lamp stand in a man made temple, but with the lighting of a different sort of lamp, not made with hands:

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance”.

The lighting of lamp stands in the opening chapters of the book of Revelation is a picture of what took place in the full day of Pentecost, which is not a 24 hour day, as was the ritualistic shadow, but is an everlasting day. The day of Christ is at hand, as we have read in second Thessalonians.

So, why the title, “What’s In A Name”? The title is in reference to the Book of Jude, which is strategically positioned  to the book of Revelation, as the outer court, or “tent of the congregation” was to the tabernacle proper. In this place, the Revelation of Jesus Christ is seen as the world sees it, an event coming, an event in the future. Also in this place, an individual is quoted as testifying the manner in which the Lord will come and be revealed. He is identified as “Enoch the seventh from Adam”, and he speaks of the temple and people in whom , and by whom this unveiling will come:

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,  To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him”.

Understand it or not, believe it or not, the sincere and correct desire and expectation of the very creation itself, awaits not a solitary “coming” of a man fashioned as Adam, floating down from the sky, sitting on a chair in the Jerusalem which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where the Lord was crucified (though great deception will be manufactured according to this mythological expectation). It awaits the manifestation of the Sons of God, all of whom shall “come” with, and be revealed together in glory with , the Firstborn of them. Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family, in heaven and in earth is named. To those who are in flesh, standing upon the earth, does the saying pertain, “Beloved, NOW (present tense) are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear (here) what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is”.  I give you to understand, that the word “now”, used in the above sited verse, has only one meaning. It is from the Greek  “νῦν” (nü’n), and means  “at this time, the present, now”. Those of the whole family, alive and remaining on the earth will be changed standing on their feet.

Enoch is referred to as “the seventh from Adam” , in order to identify which Enoch Jude speaks of, because there were two men named Enoch. One, the first Enoch, was the son of Cain the murderer, and was conceived and born in the land of Nod (wandering), outside the presence of God, from which presence Cain had been driven. A city was built and named after this son of Cain, and so, the city was called Enoch.

To Seth, a figure of the man of resurrection, given to the woman to replace the man in whom the seed of promise was called, as no murderer has any inheritance in God, to Seth was eventually born a son called Enoch. This Enoch, the individual, walked with God, and God took him. The city, Enoch, was destroyed in the flood of waters.

“Enoch” means “place of inauguration”. Enoch the seventh was not deceived by the man , or the city built to that man, that shared his name. And so, as an individual he walked, and as an individual he was translated, that he should not see death. These two ways, a city , or an individual , came to loggerheads when the Lord made his complaint to Noah, how that man had forsaken the Lord’s way in the earth. Either we are “inaugurated” into the kingdom of God by membership in a city built outside the presence of God, or we are inaugurated as individuals, walking with God. To help make the right choice, consider that the city was destroyed, the true way , demonstrated in Enoch the seventh, was preserved. And only Enoch the seventh has voice and testimony in the revelation of this way, which is in Christ, the false city of murderers and usurpers has no voice or part in it. Remember, Jerusalem beneath, in bondage with her children, where our Lord was crucified, is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. The true, and heavenly Jerusalem, which Enoch sought, which Abraham sought, which the Lord’s people seek, is not dirt, stick and stone:

Hebrews 12

“But ye are come unto mount Sion, 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 speaketh better things than that of Abel.”
 

During the times of Christ’s walk in the flesh, in which he began the gospel, the good news, he assembles to himself, chosen disciples. When the time arrived for him to be delivered into the hands of men, to do with him what they would, there were a good many individuals who were convinced that he was Messiah, but their expectations of what Christ, as Messiah, was to do, conflicted with what actually happened. What actually happened?what were the expectations of his disciples?where did they get it from?

Christ was, as foretold the scriptures, offered up for the sins of the world, received up into glory, instilled in power at the right hand of the Majesty On High, and came again expediently, as he had said he would, the Promise of The Father, the Spirit of Truth filling the temple, not of stick and stone, but the Spiritual House of Many Houses, to which house have been added daily, from the resurrection to this present moment, as many as receive him. Having gone before us, he empowers each individual to follow his course, from conception, to gestation, to birth, until each stands and appears before God, having substance and being in Him. So true is this present reality, that this is not a salvation coming at some time in the future, but present and ready to be revealed now. The Kingdom of God is not far off, somewhere “over the rainbow”, it is in you (if so be it is in you).

The expectation of the first disciples were not surprisingly so different than the collective expectations of Jewry and organized Christianity of today. It was taught, and is taught, that  a man of flesh, descended from David, would be a king, sit on a material throne, in a material house ( of this present building), reunite the dispersed tribes, restore the nation, drive out occupiers, and, to put it in common language, make flesh behave itself. Today, the shared expectation is that a temple will again be built in Jerusalem, Christ will “return” ( or Messiah will “come”), and Christ will put all things to rights, evermore reigning from this expected vision.

The first disciples were Jews, and they obtained much of their preconceived expectation of Messiah, not from God, but from men. From the high priests, scribes and scholars, the people had been given an expectation, from generation to generation, that simply did not bear much resemblance at all, to the actual accomplishments of Messiah, accomplishments both Moses and Elijah were witnessed to discuss with Christ on the mount called “transfiguration”, when as yet He had not suffered and entered into glory. In his resurrection, Christ became the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. In doing so, he dissolved the former things. As they were in the act of deciding how to murder the just and righteous one, the last high priest of the Jew’s religion, Caiaphas, was moved of the Holy Ghost, to witness to himself, his piers, and his nation. In that witness is revealed, the sum and total of their collective doctrine and body of understanding of scripture, from the time of Abraham, until the then present moment:

“And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all,  Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.  And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation;  And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.”

If the collective knowledge of the Jew’s religion, as taught by it’s collective of leaders, was zero, ( as, I will propose, is the preponderance of the collective knowledge of today’s leadership of organized Christianity), where is truth and knowledge to be had? It is obtainable from the same who was qualified to pronounce the ignorance of the Sanhedrin. The Spirit of Christ, who had delivered to them the oracles which they did not understand.

The road to Emmaus expounds to us, all of which I speak. Two disciples leave Jerusalem for Emmaus, downcast because all their expectations of Messiah had seemingly been dashed when Christ was murdered. These expectations had not come from Christ, nor from rightly dividing the word of truth. Jesus, speaking to them, calls them fools and slow of heart, slow to believe what the scriptures testify of Christ, fools because of where they had obtained their ill conceived expectations. Truly had the Spirit spoken by the prophet, “They that lead you, cause you to err”.  There, on the road to Emmaus, for those two believers, true teaching began. Teaching that they later described as a burning in their hearts, as the Lord spoke with them in the way.

“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.”

Today, as then, dashed expectations are replaced with truth, not on the road that leads to Jerusalem beneath, but the road that leads away from it.