Ezekiel chapter 44 gives us a definition of two kinds of ministry that I believe are examples that will be seen in this Day of the Lord. One is the Melchizedek order of priesthood ministry who are allowed to minister unto the Lord in their linen garments and then the priesthood who is only allowed to minister in the outer court for they did not qualify for the highcalling of God because they chose the ways of flesh.
Now in Ezekiel these faithful priests were the sons of Zadok - Melchi-zadok priests.
Quote:
"Here is a good example, by the way, of how the Hebrew word olam means a time whose length is “concealed,” or an indefinite period of time, rather than “forever.” God had given his ancestor Phinehas “ an everlasting priesthood ” (Num. 25:13). If that word had literally meant “everlasting” in the modern sense, then God would have broken His word by removing it from the family of Phinehas and giving it to Zadok in 1 Kings 2:27, 35. (Abiathar was the last high priest of the lineage of Phinehas.)
The transfer of calling from the dynasty of Phinehas to the dynasty of Zadok in the reign of Solomon was a type and shadow of the greater transfer from the Levitical priesthood to that of Melchizedek (Melchi-Zadok). That priesthood was actually older than Levi, for it represented all true believers from the beginning. Shem was the Melchizedek priest in Abraham's day (Gen. 14:18), and David himself was called to the same priesthood (Psalm 110:4). Finally, Jesus was called according to that Order as High Priest (Heb. 5:5, 6)."
"But the priest of the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to me and they shall attend Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood.
They shall enter into My sanctuary, and they shall come near to My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep my charge.
When they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed in linen garments; no wool shall be on them while they minister at the gates of the inner court and within the temple." Eze. 44
One of the things that I glean from this is that this higher order of ministry is always to the Christ, not just the God that is seen as out there somewhere, but this is a ministry unto the Christ in all men.....not fighting the darkness that may manifest in them, but helping to turn on the light.
I remember so vividly sitting in the movie theater watching "Dead Man Walking" when Susan Sarandon, who was playing the part of the nun who ministerd to men on death row, said to Sean Penn, who was playing the the young man on death row who had participated in the rape and murder of two young people, "You are a son of God". She was redirecting his focus to his true identity and he said "No one ever called me that before." I began to see the bigger picture in this movie as the condition of all men who have lost their true identity in this world and are living on death row, so to speak, whether their lives were misspent in evil as this young man or even in good works as with others.
Before he was strapped to the execution table she told him to keep his eyes on her and the love that would be there.....well I just about lost it in that movie...I could have sobbed out loud....and I was not the only one...there were all kinds of people around me sniffling quietly. Now maybe most of them were caught up in the story line for it was compelling, but for me it represented what the Melchizedek ministry is all about. It a ministry unto the Lord....unto the Lord living in all creation.
Now did this nun's ministry to this young man excuse his ungodly actions...no, in fact, it helped him to realize how profane they were and to repent. Love does convict us first, for to stand in the presence of overwhelming Love creates a stark contrast of just where we have been living and where we want to really be. And thank God for those clean linen garments of righteousness that are provided so lovingly to us.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
What is Hell?
I always found M.Thomas-Benedict's near death experience description of hell to accurately sum up what hell is:
"During my near-death experience I had a descent into what you might call Hell, and it was very surprising. I did not see Satan or evil. My descent into Hell was a descent into each person’s customized human misery, ignorance, and darkness of not knowing. It seemed like a miserable eternity. But each of the millions of souls around me had a little star of light always available. But no one seemed to pay attention to it. They were so consumed with their own grief, trauma and misery. But, after what seemed an eternity, I started calling out to that Light, like a child calling to a parent for help.
Then the Light opened up and formed a tunnel that came right to me and insulated me from all that fear and pain, That is what Hell really is. So what we are doing is learning to hold hands, to come together. The doors of Hell are open now. We are going to link up, hold hands, and walk out of Hell together."
Darkness is not really the presense of anything - it is an absense. It is an absense of light. When you are made aware of darkness it is most often accompanied by a feeling of coldness.....sorta funny because hell is always pictured as a hot place. Anywhere that the Son is not shining is a mighty cold place. But as SilentR always says, "Heaven is hotter than hell"...Hallelujah! Holy Ghost Fire!
So we all know that natural darkness's only remedy is the turning on of a light. We can stand and rebuke the darkness and try to cast it out of the room, but that will not change a thing till we reach over and turn the switch on which releases electrial power to flow into the light bulb producing light.
Where did the darkness go when we turn on the light? Nowhere. Because it has no source. Light is the only thing that has a source.
Our daylight has a source, the sun. But our darkness, has no source...in other words, there is not some moon of darkness shining down darkness upon our earth during our nighttime providing a source for this darkness. Our earth has merely turned away from the sun in its daily orbit creating an absence of light.
So neither does spiritual darkness....which is a turning away from the light, either consciously or unconsciously. Now I am not saying that darkness is not a condition that doesn't need remedied...it does. "Let God arise and his enemies be scattered." The rising sun never needs to fight the darkness does it? Its mere presence does the job. Darkness finds no hiding place in the presence of the light.
"During my near-death experience I had a descent into what you might call Hell, and it was very surprising. I did not see Satan or evil. My descent into Hell was a descent into each person’s customized human misery, ignorance, and darkness of not knowing. It seemed like a miserable eternity. But each of the millions of souls around me had a little star of light always available. But no one seemed to pay attention to it. They were so consumed with their own grief, trauma and misery. But, after what seemed an eternity, I started calling out to that Light, like a child calling to a parent for help.
Then the Light opened up and formed a tunnel that came right to me and insulated me from all that fear and pain, That is what Hell really is. So what we are doing is learning to hold hands, to come together. The doors of Hell are open now. We are going to link up, hold hands, and walk out of Hell together."
Darkness is not really the presense of anything - it is an absense. It is an absense of light. When you are made aware of darkness it is most often accompanied by a feeling of coldness.....sorta funny because hell is always pictured as a hot place. Anywhere that the Son is not shining is a mighty cold place. But as SilentR always says, "Heaven is hotter than hell"...Hallelujah! Holy Ghost Fire!
So we all know that natural darkness's only remedy is the turning on of a light. We can stand and rebuke the darkness and try to cast it out of the room, but that will not change a thing till we reach over and turn the switch on which releases electrial power to flow into the light bulb producing light.
Where did the darkness go when we turn on the light? Nowhere. Because it has no source. Light is the only thing that has a source.
Our daylight has a source, the sun. But our darkness, has no source...in other words, there is not some moon of darkness shining down darkness upon our earth during our nighttime providing a source for this darkness. Our earth has merely turned away from the sun in its daily orbit creating an absence of light.
So neither does spiritual darkness....which is a turning away from the light, either consciously or unconsciously. Now I am not saying that darkness is not a condition that doesn't need remedied...it does. "Let God arise and his enemies be scattered." The rising sun never needs to fight the darkness does it? Its mere presence does the job. Darkness finds no hiding place in the presence of the light.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Are You Willing?
I was told by a friend of mine of a brother that was attending a funeral and was standing at the casket of this one who had passed on and he was quietly praying and said, "Lord, can we raise this one up from the dead as you did? And the Spirit answered him, "Yes you can,are you willing to go where he is?" In other words, "Are you willing to go into death?"
That statement became a "selah moment" for me and has remained with me. Jesus was willing to come into this death realm, put on flesh and blood and be made like us in every way in order to lead captivity captive.
His obedience led him all the way to the cross. He destroyed death through death....talk about fighting fire with fire.....it was the fulfillment of the Law. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Its not an eye for an elbow, or a tooth for an ear....it is a corresponding or equal ransom that was paid. In other words, if you rob your neighbor of his oxen, you pay him back in oxen not donkeys.
"Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death as the result of sin, SO DEATH SPREAD TO ALL MEN, [no one being able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned.
Yet death held sway from Adam to Moses [before the law], even over those who did not themselves transgress [a positive command] as Adam did." Rom 5
Praise God, Jesus was willing to go where the son don't shine and bring a people out. And if we want to put on the fullness of God and raise the dead...not just those who have laid their bodies down in death, but those dead in their consciousness, we will face the same question asked this brother standing at the man's casket; "Are you willing to go into death?"... Perhaps that will answer the question of why you have had to walk through some of the things that you have faced in this life and why you were positioned for a time among the religiously dead...or walked in the world among those dead in their trespasses and sins prior to being awakened. Or have experienced a dying out to your old man because of the life of the new man excelling within.
Out of death is born Life.
Samson offered a riddle to the Philistines:
"Samson said to them, I will now put forth a riddle to you; if you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen undergarments and thirty changes of rainment. (30 is the number of maturity - you weren't made a High Priest until the age of 30, Joseph was 30 when he came to the throne, Jesus was 30 when he commenced his ministry. So this riddle is a parable about coming into maturity)
And they said to him, Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it.
And he said to them, Out of the eater came forth food, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days solve the riddle."
Samson had the Spirit of the Lord come upon him before this telling of the riddle and he killed a lion with his bare hands that had come at him. He returned to this spot after a while and looked to see the body of this lion and a swarm of bees had made this lion's carcass its home. Samson scraped some of this honey out into his hands and went along eating and then gave some of it to his parents but did not tell them he had taken it from the body of a dead lion.
Samson confronted death which in this story is a fierce lion. He overcame it so where death once reigned, the sweetness of life now lives.
"If anyman thinks he knows anything when he knows nothing (by experience) he deceiveth himself."
*****************************
"Buy the truth and sell it not." This is not a cheap gospel, it will cost you. It will cost you everything that you are for everything that He is. Just getting a new revelation and running with it is not where its at.
We all love the new revelations and understandings that have been opened to us, but if you look back on your life, it is not when you are caught up in the heavens necessarily where you learned to walk in the spirit but it is when you have been in the low places and have had to hold on to the vision that was given you....like Joseph, "the word of the Lord tried him". That vision that you have, that word from the Lord that was given to you, that vision of seeing the glory of the Lord cover this earth as the waters cover the sea....that word will try you and burn in you as a fire. For every where you look in this world, wars and fighting and lack still abound, but "God is not a man that he could lie, neither the Son of Man that he should repent. Has he not spoken and shall he not do it."
"Therefore I counsel you to purchase from Me gold refined and tested by fire that you may be truly wealthy.."
"He who overcomes I will grant to eat of the fruit of the tree of life.."
"He who overcomes shall in no way be injured by the second death."
"He who overcomes I will give to eat of the manna that is hidden, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name..which no one knows or understands except the he who receives it."
"He who overcomes and who obeys My commands to the very end - doing the works that please Me- I will give him authority and power over the nations...and his power will be like that which I Myself have received from My Father. And I will give him the Morning Star."
"He who overcomes shall be clad in white garments."
"He who overcomes I shall make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God.."
"He who overcomes I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne.."
What that overcoming entails for each one of us, only we know. All of our assignments have been different.....some of our greatest weaknesses will prove to be the area of our greatest strengths for we will have learned that the arm of flesh could not produce this life, but only that which is born of our true being.
Praise God for his people mighty and strong in the power of His might, the likes of which has never been before and shall not be again. A fire devours before them and and a flame burns behind them. They run like mighty men like a mighty people set in battle array. The Lord utters his voice before them as they execute his word. For this day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can endure it?
That statement became a "selah moment" for me and has remained with me. Jesus was willing to come into this death realm, put on flesh and blood and be made like us in every way in order to lead captivity captive.
His obedience led him all the way to the cross. He destroyed death through death....talk about fighting fire with fire.....it was the fulfillment of the Law. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Its not an eye for an elbow, or a tooth for an ear....it is a corresponding or equal ransom that was paid. In other words, if you rob your neighbor of his oxen, you pay him back in oxen not donkeys.
"Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death as the result of sin, SO DEATH SPREAD TO ALL MEN, [no one being able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned.
Yet death held sway from Adam to Moses [before the law], even over those who did not themselves transgress [a positive command] as Adam did." Rom 5
Praise God, Jesus was willing to go where the son don't shine and bring a people out. And if we want to put on the fullness of God and raise the dead...not just those who have laid their bodies down in death, but those dead in their consciousness, we will face the same question asked this brother standing at the man's casket; "Are you willing to go into death?"... Perhaps that will answer the question of why you have had to walk through some of the things that you have faced in this life and why you were positioned for a time among the religiously dead...or walked in the world among those dead in their trespasses and sins prior to being awakened. Or have experienced a dying out to your old man because of the life of the new man excelling within.
Out of death is born Life.
Samson offered a riddle to the Philistines:
"Samson said to them, I will now put forth a riddle to you; if you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen undergarments and thirty changes of rainment. (30 is the number of maturity - you weren't made a High Priest until the age of 30, Joseph was 30 when he came to the throne, Jesus was 30 when he commenced his ministry. So this riddle is a parable about coming into maturity)
And they said to him, Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it.
And he said to them, Out of the eater came forth food, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days solve the riddle."
Samson had the Spirit of the Lord come upon him before this telling of the riddle and he killed a lion with his bare hands that had come at him. He returned to this spot after a while and looked to see the body of this lion and a swarm of bees had made this lion's carcass its home. Samson scraped some of this honey out into his hands and went along eating and then gave some of it to his parents but did not tell them he had taken it from the body of a dead lion.
Samson confronted death which in this story is a fierce lion. He overcame it so where death once reigned, the sweetness of life now lives.
"If anyman thinks he knows anything when he knows nothing (by experience) he deceiveth himself."
*****************************
"Buy the truth and sell it not." This is not a cheap gospel, it will cost you. It will cost you everything that you are for everything that He is. Just getting a new revelation and running with it is not where its at.
We all love the new revelations and understandings that have been opened to us, but if you look back on your life, it is not when you are caught up in the heavens necessarily where you learned to walk in the spirit but it is when you have been in the low places and have had to hold on to the vision that was given you....like Joseph, "the word of the Lord tried him". That vision that you have, that word from the Lord that was given to you, that vision of seeing the glory of the Lord cover this earth as the waters cover the sea....that word will try you and burn in you as a fire. For every where you look in this world, wars and fighting and lack still abound, but "God is not a man that he could lie, neither the Son of Man that he should repent. Has he not spoken and shall he not do it."
"Therefore I counsel you to purchase from Me gold refined and tested by fire that you may be truly wealthy.."
"He who overcomes I will grant to eat of the fruit of the tree of life.."
"He who overcomes shall in no way be injured by the second death."
"He who overcomes I will give to eat of the manna that is hidden, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name..which no one knows or understands except the he who receives it."
"He who overcomes and who obeys My commands to the very end - doing the works that please Me- I will give him authority and power over the nations...and his power will be like that which I Myself have received from My Father. And I will give him the Morning Star."
"He who overcomes shall be clad in white garments."
"He who overcomes I shall make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God.."
"He who overcomes I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne.."
What that overcoming entails for each one of us, only we know. All of our assignments have been different.....some of our greatest weaknesses will prove to be the area of our greatest strengths for we will have learned that the arm of flesh could not produce this life, but only that which is born of our true being.
Praise God for his people mighty and strong in the power of His might, the likes of which has never been before and shall not be again. A fire devours before them and and a flame burns behind them. They run like mighty men like a mighty people set in battle array. The Lord utters his voice before them as they execute his word. For this day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can endure it?
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