Audio Download – Part 2

The Spiritual Meaning of Circumcision From Abraham’s Covenant to Christ’s Fulfillment

[Studies Aired October 28 and November 4, 2025]

Introduction

When we come upon the subject of circumcision in Scripture, we often limit our understanding to a physical ritual performed upon Abraham’s descendants. Yet this sign, established in Genesis 17, carries spiritual significance that reaches far beyond the physical act itself. The Lord designed circumcision as a sign pointing to spiritual realities—realities that would find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ and the transformation He accomplishes in those who believe.

(Colossians 2:10-11) “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ”. These words from Paul reveal that circumcision was never merely about physical flesh, but about a spiritual transformation that only Christ can accomplish. The physical sign given to Abraham foreshadowed a spiritual reality that would be made available to all nations through the faith of Jesus Christ.

Throughout Scripture, we discover that circumcision represents the cutting away of the flesh, the removal of that which is opposed to God, and the consecration of life to the Lord. From its institution with Abraham, through its exposition by Moses, to its fulfillment in Christ, this sign traces a redemptive arc that illuminates God’s eternal purpose. The physical act performed on the eighth day of a male child’s life pointed prophetically to the resurrection day—the day when Christ would rise and make possible a circumcision not made with hands.

As we explore this subject, we will trace circumcision from its covenantal origins through its spiritual meanings revealed in both Testaments, ultimately discovering how this ancient sign finds its complete fulfillment in the work of Christ. We will examine the Hebrew and Greek terminology, consider the typological significance of the eighth day, and understand how the New Testament reveals circumcision’s true spiritual purpose. Through this journey, we will see how God’s wisdom spans the ages, using physical signs to point us toward eternal spiritual realities centered in His Son.

The Establishment of Circumcision: Abraham’s Covenant

The Covenantal Context

The first mention of circumcision was to Abram (later Abraham) in an encounter with the Lord recorded in Genesis 17. This chapter marks a pivotal moment in God’s unfolding plan, for He was establishing an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his descendants. (Genesis 17:7) “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee”. Within this covenant framework, the Lord commanded circumcision as a sign.

(Genesis 17:10-11) “This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you”. The Hebrew word for “token” here is ‘owth (H226), meaning a sign, mark, or ensign—something visible that represents an invisible reality. Throughout Scripture, God establishes signs to testify to His covenant promises: the rainbow for Noah, circumcision for Abraham, and the Sabbath for Israel. Each sign points beyond itself to spiritual truths.

The timing of this command is significant. Abraham was ninety-nine years old, and Ishmael was thirteen. The number ten throughout Scripture represents completeness and testing—the ten commandments given at Sinai, the ten plagues upon Egypt, the ten days of testing in Daniel and Revelation. One hundred (10×10) thus signifies the fullness of the flesh’s capability. God was about to promise the birth of Isaac, the son of promise, through whom the covenant would continue. The covenant sign would mark the distinction between those who belonged to God’s covenant people and those who did not. Yet even from the beginning, this physical mark was meant to correspond to an inward reality. (Romans 1:20) “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made”.

Abraham at ninety-nine years—one short of complete human capability—testifies that human completion falls short; the flesh, however mature, cannot accomplish spiritual purposes without heavenly enablement. “And being not weak in faith, he (Abraham) considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb” (Romans 4:19). Isaac’s birth would require supernatural intervention, just as spiritual circumcision requires godly power beyond human capability.

Ishmael’s age of thirteen marked him as born of fleshly reasoning. Scripture records rebellion in the thirteenth year (Genesis 14:4), and Ishmael himself—born of Hagar rather than through faithful waiting—represents the flesh’s attempt to fulfill God’s promise through carnal means. That both Abraham and Ishmael received circumcision on the same day (Genesis 17:26) proclaimed a vital truth: the flesh in all its manifestations—whether aged maturity or youthful strength—must be cut away for those who would walk in covenant with the Almighty.

The Eighth Day Ordinance

God’s instructions included specific timing: “And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed” (Genesis 17:12). The eighth day carries rich typological significance throughout Scripture. In the biblical week, the seventh day represents completion and rest, as God rested on the seventh day of creation. The eighth day, then, represents a new beginning—a day beyond the complete week, pointing to resurrection and new creation.

We see this pattern confirmed in Christ rising on the first day of the week, the day of new beginnings, which represents the eighth day—the day beyond sabbath rest pointing to resurrection life. “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre” (Matthew 28:1). The eighth day thus becomes associated with resurrection life and the new creation that Christ inaugurated.

The Feast of Tabernacles also highlights the eighth day. After seven days of dwelling in booths, commemorating Israel’s wilderness journey, “on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you” (Leviticus 23:36). This eighth day was separate from the seven, pointing to something beyond Israel’s earthly pilgrimage—the eternal rest and new creation that Christ brings. Therefore, performing circumcision on the eighth day testified prophetically that this covenant sign pointed toward resurrection, new beginnings, and spiritual transformation.

The Spiritual Intent from the Beginning

Even in the Old Testament, God revealed that circumcision was never intended to be merely physical. Moses himself proclaimed: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked” (Deuteronomy 10:16). The Hebrew word for “foreskin” is ‘orlah (H6190), referring literally to the prepuce of flesh, but here applied metaphorically to the heart. This demonstrates that even in Moses’ time—before Israel entered the land—the Lord was teaching that the physical sign must correspond to a spiritual reality—a heart devoted to Him, with all obstacles to obedience removed.

Moses further declared: “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live” (Deuteronomy 30:6). Here we see a prophetic promise: God Himself would perform a circumcision of the heart. This could not be accomplished by human effort or physical ritual. It required His intervention, which would ultimately come through Christ’s redemptive work on the cross.

The prophets continued this theme. Jeremiah warned: “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings” (Jeremiah 4:4). He also rebuked those who trusted in physical circumcision while their hearts remained unchanged: “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart” (Jeremiah 9:25-26).

These passages reveal that even under the old covenant, God’s purpose for circumcision transcended the physical. The cutting away of flesh symbolized the removal of all that separates us from God—the sinful nature, the stubborn will, the hardened heart. This spiritual circumcision could only be accomplished by God Himself, pointing forward to the work Christ would accomplish in putting away sin. Paul reveals the universal scope of this transformation: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). The circumcision of the heart promised through Moses will ultimately be performed for all mankind, culminating when Christ has put all enemies under His feet and “God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

Circumcision and the Flesh: Spiritual Symbolism

The Flesh as Opposition to God

Throughout Scripture, “the flesh” represents more than the physical body; it signifies humanity’s natural condition opposed to God’s Spirit. Paul wrote extensively about this conflict: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:17). The Greek word for “flesh” here is sarx (G4561), which can mean physical flesh but often denotes the sinful nature or the unregenerate human condition.

The act of cutting away the foreskin thus becomes a powerful symbol of removing the flesh—that aspect of our created nature that resists God and requires transformation. Just as the physical foreskin is unnecessary and must be removed according to the covenant, so our natural earthly nature must be cut away for us to walk in newness of life. This is not a gradual improvement of the flesh but a radical removal, a putting to death of the old Adamic nature.

Paul declares: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:5-7). The flesh, in its created earthly state, cannot please God and must be dealt with decisively. Circumcision, as a sign, testified to this truth centuries before Paul penned these words.

The Seed and the Promise

Circumcision was performed on the organ of generation, the means by which seed is passed from one generation to the next. This is deeply significant, for God’s covenant with Abraham centered on his seed. “And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered” (Genesis 13:16). Yet the promise extended beyond natural descendants to a singular Seed.

Paul reveals this mystery: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16). The covenant promises ultimately pointed to Christ, the promised Seed through whom all nations would be blessed. Circumcision performed on the generative organ testified that God’s covenant purposes would be fulfilled through a specific seed line culminating in Christ, and that this fulfillment required dealing with the natural earthly condition passed down through physical generation.

In John’s gospel, we read Jesus’ words: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5-6). Natural birth, the transmission of physical seed, produces only flesh—the earthy, mortal nature inherited from Adam. Spiritual birth, accomplished by the Spirit, produces spirit—the heavenly, immortal nature from Christ. “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:49). Circumcision, placed on the organ of natural generation, symbolized that the flesh profits nothing and that God’s promises would be fulfilled not through natural descent but through spiritual regeneration in Christ.

The Reproach of Egypt

An intriguing passage in Joshua connects circumcision with removing reproach. After Israel crossed the Jordan and entered the Promised Land, God commanded Joshua to circumcise the generation born in the wilderness: “And the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time” (Joshua 5:2). After this was accomplished, the Lord declared: “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you” (Joshua 5:9).

The phrase “the second time” carries profound typological weight, pointing to two distinct spiritual realities that must be addressed in God’s redemptive work. The first circumcision, performed on Abraham and continued through Isaac and Jacob’s descendants, represented the initial cutting away—the physical sign of covenant relationship established by divine promise. Yet this first circumcision proved insufficient, for a generation arose in the wilderness who bore no mark of the covenant despite being Abraham’s seed. The second circumcision at Gilgal testified that even covenant people require a renewed cutting away, a fresh application of what the sign represents. This pattern foreshadows the two births spoken of in John 3:6: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Natural birth into Abraham’s line (the first reality) cannot substitute for spiritual birth into Christ (the second reality).

Paul captures this progression from natural to spiritual, from earthy to heavenly, in his discourse on resurrection: (1 Corinthians 15:42-49) “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

Egypt, throughout Scripture, represents the world system and bondage to sin. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt, and even after their physical deliverance, they carried the mark of that bondage. Circumcision, performed as they entered the land of promise, signified the complete removal of Egypt’s reproach—the final cutting away of their identification with that former bondage.

This event foreshadows our experience in Christ. We are delivered from the “power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). Yet the complete removal of the old life’s reproach—the full putting off of the body of sin—is accomplished through spiritual circumcision in Christ. Just as Israel could not inherit the Promised Land while bearing the reproach of Egypt, we cannot fully experience our inheritance in Christ while still identified with our old, uncircumcised nature.

Christ: The Fulfillment of Circumcision

Born Under the Law

The Gospel of Luke records that Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day: “And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (Luke 2:21). Though Christ took true human flesh yet never yielded to the carnal mind’s demands and remained without sin because—”God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him” (John 3:34)—He was submitted to circumcision to fulfill the law and to identify completely with those He came to save. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16). By being circumcised, Christ entered fully into the covenant requirements binding upon Abraham’s descendants. He experienced every limitation of human existence while remaining without sin, thus qualifying Him to perform the true circumcision—the cutting away of the carnal mind—that the physical sign could never accomplish.

Paul explains: “But when the fulness 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” (Galatians 4:4-5). Christ was born under the law, subject to its requirements, including circumcision. He fulfilled every demand of the covenant, representing the perfect circumcised Israelite, so that He might redeem us from the curse of the law and grant us the spiritual reality that circumcision foreshadowed.

The eighth day of Christ’s circumcision points prophetically to His resurrection on the eighth day—the first day of the new week. Just as He bore the sign of the covenant in His flesh, He would bear in His body the marks of crucifixion, and through death and resurrection, He would accomplish the spiritual circumcision that the physical sign had always anticipated.

The Circumcision Made Without Hands

The apostle Paul provides the clearest revelation of circumcision’s fulfillment in Christ: “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:11-12).

The Greek word translated “made without hands” is acheiropoietos (G886), meaning not made by human hands—divine in origin. This spiritual circumcision is fundamentally different from the physical act performed by human hands. It is a work of God accomplished through Christ’s death and resurrection. When Christ died, He took our old nature—”the body of the sins of the flesh”—to the cross with Him. The Greek phrase apekdusis soma (putting off the body) suggests a complete stripping away, like removing a garment.

This circumcision of Christ refers both to Christ’s own death (His ultimate cutting off in crucifixion) and to the spiritual operation He performs in us. When we are united with Christ by his faith, we participate in His death and resurrection. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6). The old man is being cut away, put to death, buried with Christ. Then, being raised with Him, we walk in newness of life—the eighth-day reality of resurrection.

The Cross as Ultimate Circumcision

The cross represents the ultimate circumcision—the complete cutting away of sin’s power and the flesh’s dominion. Paul declares: “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).

Notice the progression: we were dead in the “uncircumcision of [our] flesh”—our natural earthly state under sin’s dominion. But Christ made us alive together with Him. This quickening, this making alive, coincides with spiritual circumcision. The handwriting of ordinances (including the requirement for physical circumcision as a covenant sign) was nailed to the cross. Christ fulfilled what the ordinances foreshadowed, and in Him, we receive the reality.

The tearing of Christ’s flesh on the cross accomplished what no physical circumcision could: the complete removal of sin and its condemnation. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). Through Christ’s torn flesh, our flesh is dealt with conclusively. The veil of the temple—representing Christ’s flesh (Hebrews 10:20)—was torn from top to bottom, signifying that access to God now comes through Christ’s sacrificial death, not through human effort or fleshly ordinances.

The New Covenant Reality: Circumcision of the Heart

Jew and Gentile Made One

One of the most significant implications of spiritual circumcision in Christ is the breaking down of the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. Physical circumcision had marked the distinction between God’s covenant people (Israel) and the nations (Gentiles), but in Christ, this distinction is abolished.

Paul writes: “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace” (Ephesians 2:14-15). The ordinance of circumcision, which separated Jew from Gentile, is fulfilled and superseded in Christ. Now, both Jew and Gentile are made one in Him through spiritual circumcision—the circumcision of the heart.

“For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Romans 2:28-29). True membership in God’s covenant people is determined not by physical descent or outward ritual but by the inward work of the Spirit. The Greek word for “heart” is kardia (G2588), representing the center of one’s being—the seat of will, emotion, and intellect. Circumcision of the heart means the complete consecration of our innermost being to God.

This truth is revolutionary: Through the faith of Christ, both Gentiles and Jews receive the spiritual reality that circumcision represented, while physical circumcision without faith profits nothing. “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6). The sign has given way to the substance; the shadow has been eclipsed by the reality. God’s purpose extends to all humanity—Jew and Gentile alike—“for He has concluded them all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all” (Romans 11:32). The spiritual circumcision accomplished in Christ will ultimately be applied to every person, fulfilling God’s promise that in Abraham’s Seed all nations would be blessed.

The True Israel of God

This leads to understanding the “Israel of God.” Paul writes: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:15-16). The true Israel consists of those who are new creatures in Christ, who have experienced spiritual circumcision, regardless of their ethnic heritage.

Abraham is called the father of all who believe: “And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised” (Romans 4:12). Abraham believed God before he was circumcised, and his faith was counted for righteousness. Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness he already possessed by faith. Similarly, we who believe are Abraham’s true children through faith, possessing the spiritual circumcision that the physical sign foreshadowed.

“And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). The promise to Abraham finds its fulfillment in Christ and extends to all who are united with Him through faith. Spiritual circumcision marks us as covenant children, heirs of the promise, members of the true Israel of God. God’s covenant promise to Abraham was that in his Seed all nations would be blessed (Genesis 22:18). Through Christ, both Jew and Gentile receive the spiritual reality that physical circumcision foreshadowed, becoming one new man in Him.

Walking in the Spirit

Spiritual circumcision has practical implications for daily living. Having been freed from the dominion of the flesh through Christ’s circumcision, we are called to walk in the Spirit. “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). The circumcision of Christ has severed the flesh’s power, enabling us to live according to the Spirit rather than the flesh.

Paul contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:19-23. The works of the flesh—adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and the like—represent the old, uncircumcised nature. The fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance—manifests the new nature created in Christ. “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24). The crucifixion of the flesh is accomplished through spiritual circumcision in Christ.

This is not self-improvement or moral reformation. It is the result of a radical transformation: the old Adamic nature cut away, the new nature implanted. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed(ing) away; behold, all things are become(ing) new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are called to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11), living out the reality of the circumcision we have received in Him.

Typological Patterns: Old Testament Foreshadowing New Testament Fulfillment

Passover and the Eighth Day

The Passover celebration provides another layer of typological significance. The Passover lamb was selected on the tenth day of the first month and sacrificed on the fourteenth day. “In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house” (Exodus 12:3). Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Interestingly, the sons of Israel who entered the Promised Land were circumcised at Gilgal, and then they kept the Passover: “And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho” (Joshua 5:10). Circumcision preceded Passover observance, just as spiritual circumcision precedes our participation in Christ’s redemptive work. We must have the flesh cut away—the old nature dealt with—to truly partake of the Lamb.

Moreover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which began on the fifteenth day (the day after Passover), lasted seven days, with the seventh day being a holy convocation. The day after the seventh day—the eighth day—would mark a new beginning. Christ rose on the first day of the week, the eighth day from the previous first day, fulfilling the pattern embedded in the feasts. His resurrection accomplished the spiritual circumcision, bringing us into eighth-day newness of life.

The Tabernacle and the Veil

The Tabernacle’s design also points to circumcision’s spiritual meaning. The Holy of Holies, where God’s presence dwelt, was separated from the Holy Place by a veil. This veil represented the barrier between God and humanity caused by sin and the flesh. “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Matthew 27:51). When Christ died, the veil was torn, signifying that the barrier was removed.

Hebrews explains: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Hebrews 10:19-20). The veil represented Christ’s flesh. The tearing of His flesh—His death—opened the way into God’s presence. This is the ultimate circumcision: the flesh torn away so that we might enter the holiest place, not by our works or rituals, but by His blood.

Just as circumcision removed a covering of flesh, Christ’s death removed the veil of flesh that separated us from God. We now have direct access to the Father through the Son, not because we have performed rituals but because Christ has accomplished the spiritual reality those rituals foreshadowed.

Joshua and the Conquest

Joshua’s name in Hebrew (Yehoshua, H3091) is the same as Jesus in Greek (Iesous, G2424)—both mean “Yahweh is salvation.” Joshua led Israel into the Promised Land, and one of his first acts was to circumcise the new generation. This act symbolically removed the reproach of Egypt and prepared Israel to conquer the land.

Jesus, our true Joshua, leads us into the promised rest of God (Hebrews 4:8-11). Through spiritual circumcision—the putting off of the body of sin—He prepares us to possess our inheritance in Him. The battles Israel fought in Canaan represent the spiritual warfare we engage in, not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:12). Having been circumcised in Christ, we are equipped to stand and to overcome, not in our own strength but in His.

The conquest of Jericho followed immediately after the circumcision at Gilgal. The walls fell not by Israel’s might but by faith and obedience to God’s command. Similarly, the strongholds in our lives fall not through fleshly effort but through the power of God working in us because the flesh has been dealt with through Christ’s circumcision.

The Warning Against False Circumcision

The Judaizers and Legalism

In the early church, a significant controversy arose concerning circumcision. Certain Jewish believers, known as Judaizers, taught that Gentile converts must be circumcised according to the law of Moses to be saved. “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). This teaching threatened to undermine the gospel of grace. Here are the actions of the meeting.

“When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:2-10).

The Jerusalem Council addressed this issue decisively. Peter declared: “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they” (Acts 15:11). The apostles and elders concluded that Gentile believers should not be burdened with the requirement of circumcision or other ceremonial laws. Salvation is by grace through faith, not by works of the law.

Paul was particularly vehement in opposing this false teaching. In his letter to the Galatians, he wrote: “Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing” (Galatians 5:2). To seek justification through physical circumcision is to fall from grace, to reject Christ’s finished work. It is to trust in the flesh rather than in the Spirit’s operation through faith.

The Greek word for “profit” here is opheleo (G5623), meaning to be useful or beneficial. If we seek to establish our own righteousness through fleshly ordinances, Christ’s righteousness becomes of no use to us. Isaiah declared of such efforts: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). We cannot mix grace and law, faith and work, spiritual circumcision and physical ritual. “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

Boasting in the Flesh

The temptation to trust in physical circumcision was, at its root, a temptation to boast in the flesh. Paul warned: “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3). True circumcision—spiritual circumcision—results in worshiping God in spirit, rejoicing in Christ alone, and placing no confidence in fleshly credentials.

Paul himself had every reason to boast in the flesh if such boasting had value. “Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:5-6). Yet he counted all these things as loss for the excellency of knowing Christ. “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8).

The Greek word translated “dung” is skubalon (G4657), meaning refuse or excrement—something utterly worthless. This is Paul’s assessment of fleshly righteousness, including physical circumcision performed as a means of justification. All such things are refuse compared to knowing Christ and being found in Him, having the righteousness that comes through the faith of Christ.

The Concision

Paul uses a striking term to describe those who insisted on physical circumcision for justification: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision” (Philippians 3:2). The Greek word for “concision” is katatome (G2699), meaning a cutting off or mutilation. Paul contrasts this with true circumcision (peritome, G4061). Those who trust in physical circumcision and reject Christ’s spiritual circumcision are merely mutilating the flesh; they are not experiencing the true circumcision of the heart.

This is a sobering warning. Any religious practice, however biblical its origin, becomes dangerous when we trust in it rather than in Christ. The ordinance that God gave as a sign pointing to spiritual realities becomes an idol when we make it an end in itself. True circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, and results in worship that glorifies Christ alone.

Conclusion: The Consummation in Glory

As we have traced the spiritual meaning of circumcision from Abraham to Christ and through the New Testament church, we see a consistent pattern: God’s purpose has always been the transformation of the heart, the putting away of the flesh, and the consecration of His people to Himself. The physical sign given to Abraham was a shadow, a type, pointing forward to the substance found in Christ.

The eighth day, on which circumcision was performed, pointed prophetically to the resurrection day when Christ would rise, making spiritual circumcision available to all humanity which produces life—“for as in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Through His death and resurrection, Christ accomplished the circumcision made without hands, cutting away the body of sin and making us alive together with Him. This is the gospel reality: in Christ, we are freed from the dominion of the flesh, delivered from the reproach of our former bondage, and made new creatures.

The apostle Paul’s words encapsulate this truth beautifully: “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4). Our old nature is being cut away; we are dying to sin and living to God in earnest. Our life is hidden with Christ, and when He appears, we will be fully conformed to His image, bearing His glory.

The future consummation will reveal the complete fulfillment of what circumcision foreshadowed. John writes: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 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” (1 John 3:2). The transformation begun through spiritual circumcision will be completed in glorification. Every vestige of the flesh will be removed; we will be fully conformed to the image of God’s Son, bearing the heavenly nature as we have borne the earthy (1 Corinthians 15:49).

In the New Jerusalem, described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22, there will be no temple, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. There will be no need for physical ordinances or signs, for we will dwell in the immediate presence of God. “And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4). The mark on our foreheads will not be physical but the name of God Himself—we will bear His character, His nature, His glory.

The spiritual reality that circumcision anticipated—the removal of all that separates us from God and the complete consecration of our being to Him—will be fully realized. We will be a people wholly devoted to the Lord, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; holy and blameless before Him in love (Ephesians 5:27).

This glorious consummation encompasses all humanity. God’s covenant promise to Abraham—that in his Seed all nations would be blessed—finds its ultimate fulfillment when every person experiences the spiritual circumcision foreshadowed by the physical sign. The day approaches when “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11)—not under compulsion but through transformed hearts, hearts circumcised by the power of God. Then shall be fulfilled the ultimate promise: “And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

Let us, therefore, walk in the reality of the circumcision we have received in Christ. Let us put no confidence in the flesh but rejoice in Christ Jesus, worshiping God in the Spirit. Let us reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, living as new creatures who have been raised with Christ. We experience now the firstfruits of what God will accomplish in all creation. Let us look forward with eager anticipation to that day when Christ appears and all are fully transformed into His likeness, experiencing the complete consummation of all that God promised to Abraham and fulfilled in His Son.

This is the God who works all things according to the counsel of His will—the God who has purposed to reconcile all things to Himself through the blood of Christ’s cross. To our God belong all praise and glory: “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen” (Jude 24-25).

Rev 21:9-12 Who Shows Us The Bride

 [Study Aired July 18, 2025]

Rev 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
Rev 21:10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
Rev 21:11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
Rev 21:12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

Introduction

In today’s study we will discover what this thing called “the new Jerusalem” is, and we will ask and answer why we are being told that the angel showing John the bride, the Lamb’s wife, is “one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues.” The spirit could have just said, ‘An angel showed me the bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ Instead the holy spirit wants us to know who that angel is. We are told that the angel who shows John ‘the bride” is “one of the seven angels which had the seven vials.” Today we will see why we need to know that little detail.
We will also see what is meant by the phrase “in the spirit”, and we will notice that this exact same phrase “he carried me away in the spirit” is used earlier in this prophecy in connection with the revelation of another woman, who is in sharp contrast with this woman who is called “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Both are revealed to us “in the spirit” by “one of the seven angels which had the seven vials” (Rev 17:1).

We will also ask what it means to “have the glory of God”, and we will see why the Lamb’s bride is “like a stone most precious… clear as crystal.”

Finally we will see why this city, which is called “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” has a great high wall, twelve gates with twelves angels, and why those gates are named after the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. We will begin with our first verse, verse 9.

Rev 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

So why are we given the information that it was ”one of the angels which had the seven vials of the seven last plagues?” When we remember that this is the same angel who showed John the judgment of the great harlot, and he then told John that he, this angel himself, signifies John and John’s fellow servants “and of his brothers”, then we know that we are given this tidbit of information so we can understand that the person who shows us the judgment of the great harlot within us will always be a fellow servant of our brothers who keeps the sayings of this book.

Notice the other contrasting use of this phrase, “He carried me away in the spirit…” ‘In the spirit’ signifies “speech…with … demonstration of the spirit and of power.”

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are [demonstration of the] spirit, and they are life.

1Co 2:1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
1Co 2:3  And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God [demonstration of the spirit].

This angel who showed John both women was speaking “in the demonstration of the spirit and of  [the] power [of God]”, and he was doing so because his words were the ‘signified’ (Rev 1:1) Words of God. Words that “are spirit” are used to signify a meaning which a natural man simply is not equipped to understand. Nevertheless, they are defined by “that which is written” and cannot be made to mean just anything any false prophet wishes to make them to mean.

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

This angel is not speaking with enticing words of man’s wisdom.

This whole prophecy is written “in the demonstrataion of the spirit and of power.” The great whore of Revelation 17 deceives the whole world with her “pharmacai.”

Rev 18:21  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
Rev 18:22  And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries [‘pharmakeia’, G5331] were all nations deceived.
Rev 18:24  And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

So let’s examine how “the demonstration of the spirit” works. Let’s place Revelation 17:1-4 beside Revelation 21:9-12 and notice how the spirit demonstrates the differences  between these two ‘women’:

Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

Now let’s compare these four verses with the four verses we are examining today:

Rev 21:9  And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
Rev 21:10  And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
Rev 21:11  Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
Rev 21:12  And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

Both of these women are revealed to us by our fellow servant who keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book. That is who this angel which has one of the seven vials full of the seven plagues, tells us he signifies:

Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

If you are so grateful for what Christ has done for you that you share that gratitude with others then you have “the spirit of prophecy”.

Rev 22:6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel [That would be you and me] to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Rev 22:8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

Twice now John has attempted to worship “the angel who showed [him] these things”, and twice the angel which showed him these things forbade him from doing so. This what Paul was speaking of when He said:

Col 2:18  Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
Col 2:19  And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

We are told twice that it is “one of the seven angels which had the seven plagues” who is showing us both the judgment of the great harlot within us and the bride, the lamb’s wife, within us. All men are held captive to the lure of the great whore before they “come out of her” and become “disciples indeed” by abiding in Christ’s Words.

In other words, the whole experience of mankind is shown to us by our fellow servants, “by the church” (Eph 3:10), who are our own brothers “who have the testimony of Jesus Christ and who keep the sayings of this book” (Rev 22:9).

Let’s make this as clear as we can. What we are being told in these verses is that the revelation of Jesus Christ within us is accomplished only “by the church”, by the various members of His own body, the members of His church are the instruments who the holy spirit uses for  this purpose. Those who are disciples indeed and who abide in the Words of Christ do so only because the spirit has dragged them to do so:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: helkuo, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Saul of Tarsus, the Christian hunter and slayer, is the perfect example of this Truth. On his way to Damascus to collect some more Christians for punishment and possible death, he was “dragged” by the holy spirit to Christ:

Act 22:7  And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

Saul was later renamed ‘Paul’ after his confrontation with Elymas the sorcerer on the Island of Cyprus (Act 13:8-9). He knew he had done nothing to deserve being used as an apostle. This is his own assessment of who he was in the church of God:

Eph 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;”

Paul typifies everyone of us. All he had ever done was kill Christians, and yet the Lord chose him as a part of His body to show the mysteries of the kingdom of God to his fellow servants. Paul was supported by the church at Antioch and by the Philippians and by others within the body of Christ:

1Co 3:5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

The “Lord gives to every man [in whatever capacity] to make all men… by the church… see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God.” This is why we are told twice that it was “one of the angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues.” These angels signify “the church, which is His body”:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

It is “by the church” that all these “mysteries… of the kingdom of heaven… which from the beginning of the world have been hid in God”, and in His word, are now being “made know to all men.”

That is who you are if you are given eyes to see it. It is you and your “fellow servants who keep the sayings of this book” who have those seven vials full of the wrath of God, which you are given to pour out upon the doctrines of Babylon within yourself first, and upon all to whom you show these things. What this means is the angels with the seven vials of the wrath of God are you and me “speaking often one to another… making known to all men…” that this entire revelation of Jesus Christ is the revelation of Jesus Christ, because this revelation, and all that is revealed within it “is the patience and faith of the saints”, the church, ourselves and our fellowservants who keep the sayings of this book. Here “is the patience and faith of the saints.” Here are you and me:

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: [the seven last plagues]
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here [Verses 9-11] is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

We live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4, Luk 4:4). Therefore, we all must bear a cloak of iniquitous, self-righteous flesh before we will be judged and brought to repentance and then given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Mat 13:10-15). ‘The sea’ is the word which the holy spirit uses to signify all the winds of false doctrine into which we are all born:

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Rev 13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Rev 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 13:9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
Rev 13:10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

“This is the patience and faith of the saints.” The saints are granted to know that the beast overcomes them while they are in Babylon. This is every one of us. This is the experience of all men. There are no exceptions.

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

You and I are “one of the angels with the seven last plagues.” You and I are all those who see and who know that all men will live by every word that is written here in this prophecy.

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

What that verse tells us is that all men will be judged according to their works which the Lord causes them to do (Isa 63:17).

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Gal 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day [of judgment] shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

“Every man” includes you and me. We are blessed to be judged in this age. We are blessed to be the first to die daily with Christ. We are blessed to be the first to have our works made manifest in this present time while judgment is on the house of God first. Living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God means that because we are the first to be ‘crucified with Christ’ and judged in this age, therefore the ‘second’ death has no power over us because we were the first to die to our old man and to live to Christ.

We will pause our study at this point and in our next study we will begin with a few verses which inform us that we are being baptized into the death of Christ.

Audio Download

The Book of Zephaniah – Zep 2:1-15

[Aired April 12, 2025]

Zephaniah’s name means ‘Jehovah has treasured and stored’, and when the ‘natural man’ reads the first verse of Chapter Two, he is already disillusioned since he is not given the understanding that God’s spirit discerns spirit that same spirit in his Elect — Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired.

1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 
1Co 2:15  But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 
1Co 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Of course, all of Orthodox Christianity, represented as greater Israel, perceives Christ in a limited way—ranging from slight understanding to total blindness. Consequently, the “we” above in 1 Corinthians 2:15 is naturally seen as meaning themselves, not knowing they represent the elder woman, a church, serving the younger woman, the New Covenant Elect of God. So, in the opening verse of Zephaniah, they see a “nation not desired”, meaning some other Christian orthodoxy not preaching what they preach, particularly a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or other religious ideology.

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in [That event is the Resurrection to Judgment, the Lake of Fire for Zionist Christianity and all other religious ideologies – the world!].
Rom 11:26  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 
Rom 11:27  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. 

Thus, like the other Minor Prophets, Zephaniah persists with grim preaching that challenges the Babylonian cheerful message of peace and prosperity, emphasising their straightforward act of simply believing in Jesus, who has taken away their sins, where judgment is a dirty word belonging to some marauding Christian cult.

Significations:

Judgment on Judah’s Enemies

Zep 2:1  Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; 

While speaking of a horrendous earthquake of the likes never experienced by mankind demolishing “that Great City” we perceive as Babylon, its most profound shaking is spiritually seen as the “we“ in 1 Corinthians 2:16 — we are initially that Great City “not desired”, a spiritually veritable whore — (Orthodox Christianity likely offended by the insult). That is a shocking statement to the spiritually discerning Elect, who formerly stood proud of his accomplishments, which he “gathered together” in Orthodox Christianity, doing endless, genuinely good physical works. With dead eyes, aware of the outward meaning of Matthew 7:21-23 — “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven”, his spiritual understanding crippled, semi-consciously pricked that there is more to its meaning, yet never coming to the understanding of the truth (2 Tim 3:1-7).

Not being desired by your loved one is agonising, especially if love once flourished. That was the emotion Old Israel should have felt, but since she was a whore, her impudence ruled self-righteously. Even exile in Babylon, with its unexpected riches, amplified her brazen disrespect for her Husband’s chastising love. As we are well acquainted, she represents us for a spiritual earthquake of glorious magnitude — and the reason for this belaboured introduction dissecting the joints and marrow of being “not desired”.

The most dynamic Biblical account of someone “not desired” is Christ, a husband rejected by his Gomer-like first wife, Old Israel, and worse in their time and order, even the Elect of God. Since one event happens to all men, humanity since Adam, she, too, has likewise scorned and thus hated him.

Isa 53:2  For he [Jesus Christ] shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 
Isa 53:3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

The Bible is based on mankind becoming God through the evil experience of battling the flesh, in contrast to the peace of living in and by Christ’s spirit. Two women represent mankind, who signify churches beginning with Old Israel in the wilderness and the New Covenant church after the cross. By Christ’s design, the first, His wife, became a Gomer-like whore (Hos 1:2-4). Their marriage dissolved in His death on the cross. The second was initiated by Christ dragging His hand-picked disciples (and others) to represent His New Covenant Bride, a literal remnant He calls His “Elect.”

The most graphic example of those two women representing the two Covenants is modelled by the young and beautiful women, Aholah and Aholibah, in Ezekiel 23. To present their whoredoms, we shall read part of that chapter, and I highly recommend that you read the entire account.

Eze 23:1  The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 
Eze 23:2  Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: [Meaning mother Israel]
Eze 23:3  And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. 
Eze 23:4  And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister [the obvious younger]: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah [Representing greater Israel, the world], and Jerusalem Aholibah [Judah, the Priests of God out of whom come a remnant spiritual Elect]. 
Eze 23:5  And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, 
Eze 23:6  Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. 
Eze 23:7  Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself. 
Eze 23:8  Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her. 
Eze 23:9  Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. 
Eze 23:10  These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.
Eze 23:11  And when her sister Aholibah [… the incipient Priests, the spiritual Elect of God today] saw this, she [the younger] was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, [the Elder, Israel, the world since she should have known better!] and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. 

Zephaniah’s point covertly points to where the Bride of Christ is extracted: from Israel, and specifically Old Jerusalem as Judah, the treacherous priests of God! That is a mighty earthquake that shakes a very few Elect to their core for the realisation, generating heart-thumping excitement for its spiritual understanding when we understand that we are the nation not desired! The extension of the grim reality is that one event happens to all humanity, first starting with our undesirable filthy clothing, while greater Israel, being in their ignorance, remains blind and undesirable until the Resurrection to Judgement — for a harrowing moment, a symbolic seventeen years (Gen 47:28) is their turn to mistakenly perceive themselves as the ones who are “not desired”. Out of their own mouths, being judged, deluded into believing that they, with Satan stoking the coals of fire, will burn in hell forever.  

We initially are a captive, beautiful woman desired by her Lord, enslaved in Egypt, first to become the Lord’s enemy who is designed to become undesirable for the much later Elect of God to see that they, spiritually, are her!

Deu 21:10  When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, 
Deu 21:11  And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; 
Deu 21:12  Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; 
Deu 21:13  And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her Husband, and she shall be thy wife. 

The greatly favoured Lord’s first wife, Old Israel, was beautiful, but her feet didn’t remain in her Husband’s house; ‘a girl just wanting to have fun’ she became bored and thus undesirable to her husband as Hosea’s wife, Gomer, was to him and signifies us before being dragged out of Babylon. She typifies all women becoming wives whose inherent nature is having a heart of snares and nets and hands like bands (Ecc 7:26) when the promise of the good life with children is evident. Once satiated, his stability becomes unexciting and is exaggerated by her inevitable hormonal changes, causing her to look back melancholically for her first love—yet not necessarily desiring her Husband’s ‘light bread’ (Num 21:5).

Pro 31:30  Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

Num 21:5  And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth [does not desire] this light bread. 

Only Christ, our Husband, can reverse our loathing of His word and transform it into a desire for Him in the dead of night; our blindness cries out that we cannot see.

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee earnestly: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. 

Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye would have no sin: but now ye say, We see: your sin remaineth. 

What makes the Elect so ravishing to Christ is their response of genuine “desire” to receive judgment, the overriding theme of all the Minor Prophets. It all is part of the “decree of the watchers”—the Elect of God, given to see, “watch” for her enemy coming within and being instant in prayer, calls upon her husband to rescue her by his spirit and strength and burn off her spiritual chaff.

Dan 4:16  Let his [Nebuchadnezzar’s, representing our…] heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven [Fulness of…] times pass over him. 
Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it [We] the basest of men. 
Dan 4:18  This dream I king Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now thou, O Belteshazzar [The Elect of God], declare the interpretation thereof, forasmuch as all the wise men of my kingdom [Babylon—Orthodox Christianity; the World] are not able to make known unto me the interpretation: but thou art able; for the spirit of the holy gods is in thee.

Zep 2:2  Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD’S anger come upon you.
Zep 2:3  Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger. 

Additionally, what more is this “decree”, meaning statute, ordinance or something prescribed, in Zephaniah 2:2 speaking of? Any earthly authority’s decree grabs our attention; however, like the wayward whore we were, the decrees of our Husband, Christ, were often received similarly to how all earthbound wives regard with contempt the notion that any man, particularly a husband, should command authority over them. An outstanding ‘decree’ is found in Psalm 2:7:

Psa 2:1  Why do the heathen [We, in our time and order] rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 
Psa 2:2  The kings of the earth [Us!] set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
Psa 2:3  Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 
Psa 2:4  He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision [… is something “not desired”]. 
Psa 2:5  Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. 
Psa 2:6  Yet have I set my king [Christ, our Husband] upon my holy hill of Zion. 
Psa 2:7  I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 
Psa 2:8  [The very Elect…] Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen [The world of humanity] for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth [humanity] for thy possession. 
Psa 2:9  Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Jer 25:27  Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you [Beginning at the Altar, the Temple, the Elect of God]. 
Jer 25:28  And it shall be, if they [The Elect and humanity] refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.) 

Psa 2:10  Be wise now therefore, O ye kings [The Elect]: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 
Psa 2:11  Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Consequently, we, the basest of men, have a decree [To be a watchman] to judge ourselves so that our blood and the blood of the Earth’s inhabitants are not laid upon us. 

Eze 33:6  But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. 

Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men [Hopefully, you and I]

Nebuchadnezzar’s (Daniel 4) supreme rulership and God-given demise represent our beastly nature, the earthquake realisation that we are the man of purdition sitting on God’s throne, effectively stating that we are god — being dashed to pieces like a potter’s vessel, like chaff before the summer breeze for the stunning realisation, now instructed to judge ourselves by Christ’s decrees and serve him in fear, and rejoycing with trembling.

Zep 2:4  For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up. 
Zep 2:5  Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the LORD is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. 

All those aforementioned ethnicities are heathen nations dwelling spiritually within whom Israel deemed unnecessary to utterly remove from their physical land and paid severe hardships in consequence. Today, 2025, the crypto Judeans, emblematic of Orthodox Christianity, enslaved to the Old Covenant, are attempting to fix what the God of the Old Covenant ‘decreed’ to rid their land of all unrighteousness, mercilessly slashing and burning every ‘Gazian’ son of Haggar the bondwoman, utterly unaware that they are in bed with her — an earthquake of unimaginable proportions soon to be realised in the Resurrection to Judgment. 

1Sa 15:1  Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD. 
1Sa 15:2  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. 
1Sa 15:3  Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. 

Without spiritual discernment, the duality of meaning is too convoluted to understand that in the next verse of Zephaniah, they all become food for the Elect of God, “the remnant”, as an inheritance.

Zep 2:6  And the sea coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. 
Zep 2:7  And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah;[spiritual Judah] they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening: for the LORD their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity [In the Resurrection to Judgment]. 
Zep 2:8  I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people [The Elect], and magnified themselves against their border. 

The “reproach of Moab” is what the Lord’s Elect experience today through taunts, insults, and mockery from emblematic Christian Moabites, most painfully felt by their wives, husbands, and children’s defamation who have not yet been dragged to Christ.

Mat 10:16  Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. 
Mat 10:17  But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; 
Mat 10:18  And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. 
Mat 10:19  But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 
Mat 10:20  For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. 
Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. 
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. 

Zep 2:9  Therefore as I live, saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people [The Elect] shall spoil them, and the remnant [The Elect] of my people shall possess them. 
Zep 2:10  This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the LORD of hosts. 

The tables have turned for us. The former “not desired” of the Lord has been scourged, and the beasts have been driven out before us from our Temple. It is all humanity since Adam’s turn because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the Elect of God. We see these things through the holy spirit, who gives all understanding.

Joh 16:4  But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you [… a glorious paradox now known!]. 

Zep 2:11  The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen. 
Zep 2:12  Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword. 

The mention, almost as a side note, that the Ethiopians, too, will not escape, denotes a people who by all accounts, never attacked Israel, so, in theirs and our thinking, why should Christ’s sword slay relatively innocent people? A violently contentious parallel can be juxtaposed with Anthony Fauci and all the pundits of safe and effective vaccines most likely never in this life, including the One-Thousand Year reign with the rod of iron, and to the world’s bitter chagrin, never being judged. A phenomenal earthquake result coming upon billions of people is that Fauci is no different to them and us, having killed Christ. So, in the short term, it seems grossly unfair that a perceived innocent and gentle people (the rich man – Luk 18:9-14)) should be lumped in with the likes of Fauci. The reason for the Lord’s actions is that all flesh incurs the wrath of God simply by being “evil flesh”, regardless of how innocent a Christian he thinks he is.

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 

2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
Gal 5:20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 
Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 

Zep 2:13  And he will stretch out his hand against the North, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. 

A striking parallel can be drawn between Zephaniah 2:13 and the King of the South pushing at the King of the North in Daniel 11. In these apparent ‘end times’, and as we once did, the Babylonian Christians are feverishly straining their eyes to see who the Great Whore and Beast are, not knowing that judgment comes upon us who are pushing at Christ, the spiritual King of the North who swiftly responds out of the North with the sword of His word. Paradoxically, the act of our Lord striking us with His word, ‘passes over’ His Elect by the nature of sanctification—being set apart; dedicated to Christ.

Joh 17:16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 
Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 

Dan 11:40  And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. 
Dan 11:41  He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. 
Dan 11:42  He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

When our Lord has struck those we perceive as innocent—being women, children, and the flocks that support our livelihoods, representing our self-righteous little sins that seem un-noteworthy—our Old Jerusalem within becomes a desolation in which the genuinely innocent word of God can dwell within the ‘lintels and windows’ of a receptive mind to his spirit. Being sanctified, the formerly unclean food represented by cormorants and bitterns, and taking up poisonous serpents has no effect on us since those symbols in the New Covenant point to unclean doctrines, which the entire Old Covenant primarily exhibits. Hence, in the next verse of Zephaniah, we live in that peace that the Old Covenant could never deliver, with its suffering progressively being pushed out to the thresholds of our hearts — and eventually entirely. The shittim wood from which the Ark, containing the Old Covenant was constructed is overlaid with corruptible gold, just like the altar made of cedar from that once glorious Covenant, is now made naked, its “cedar work uncovered” in Christ.

Jas 5:2  Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 
Jas 5:3  Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Zep 2:14  And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work. 

Consequently, the Elect of God ecstatically rejoices upon seeing from where they have come, having lived carelessly in Babylonian doctrines with the startling realisation that she was The Great Whore, that Great City, the “I am”, proudly in direct opposition to God, the original “I am” (Exo 3:14), she, with bare thighs sitting on God’s throne in his stead — a most humiliating sight indeed! (Isa 47:1-3)

Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. 

Zep 2:15  This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand. 

Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. 
Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. 

In the not-too-distant future, Lord willing, even now, hopefully, we, the two men dressed in sackcloth, will witness the world in opposition to Judeao Christianity, The Great Whore (representing us!), send each other gifts and endlessly lampoon her—hiss and wagging their fingers in gleeful derision, precisely and unwittingly as our non-believing families and Babylonian friends do to us this very day, all the way to our hopeful, First Resurrection (Rev 11:1-14).

From the Natural to the Spiritual

[Study Aired Sept 24, 2024]

Our journey of faith is marked by a continuous call to deeper understanding of God’s Word. As the writer of Proverbs beseeches:

“My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.“ (Proverbs 2:1-5)

This passage emphasizes the active pursuit of wisdom and understanding, likening it to searching for hidden treasures. It suggests that gaining deeper spiritual insight requires effort, dedication, and a heart inclined toward God.

In our study, we will explore the progression from natural to spiritual understanding of Scripture. But what do we mean by “natural” and “spiritual” understanding?

Natural understanding, in the context of this Bible study, refers to a surface-level, literal interpretation of the text. It’s the initial comprehension we have when we read the words on the page, often influenced by our carnal reasoning and cultural context. While valuable as a starting point, natural understanding alone will limit our apprehension of the deeper spiritual truths embedded in God’s Word.

Spiritual understanding, on the other hand, goes beyond the literal text to grasp the deeper, often symbolic or typological meanings in Scripture. It’s the ability to see how various parts of the Bible connect and point to Christ, and how they apply to our spiritual lives in profound ways. For instance, seeing how the Passover lamb in Exodus prefigures Christ’s sacrifice, or how the Tabernacle symbolizes God’s dwelling with His people, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. This level of understanding is not achieved through man’s wisdom, but is a gift of God.

Scripture speaks of many gifts from God, all of which contribute to our spiritual understanding:

John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

Ecclesiastes 3:13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 5:19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.

Acts 8:20 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

1Corinthians 7:7 For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

2Timothy 1:6-7 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

These passages reveal that spiritual understanding, like salvation, eternal life, and a sound mind, is a gift from God. Just as God gives the ability to enjoy the fruits of our labor, He also grants us the capacity to delve deeper into His Word. This gift of spiritual understanding cannot be bought or earned, but is freely given by God to those who earnestly seek Him.

Psalms 24:1-6 A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

In this study, we’ll explore how to move from natural to spiritual understanding, the tools we can use to deepen our discernment of Scripture, and the transformative power of engaging with God’s Word at a spiritual level. Our goal is not just to accumulate knowledge, but to grow in our relationship with God and our ability to discern His truth in every part of our lives. In doing so, we’ll be answering the call of Proverbs to seek wisdom and understanding as hidden treasures, ultimately leading us to a deeper knowledge of God Himself.

Before we explore deeper aspects of our current study, let’s review the key insights from our previous studies. These studies form a foundation upon which we can build our understanding of progressing from natural to spiritual comprehension of God’s Word.

In the study “Hebrews 4:12 Dividing Asunder of Soul and Spirit”, we examined the profound truth presented in Hebrews 4:12:

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Key points from this study illuminated the intricate relationship between soul and spirit. We learned that the soul encompasses the whole living person, including emotions, will, and mind, while the spirit is the God-given essence that connects us to Him. Furthermore, we discovered that the Word of God, which is Jesus Christ, serves as a discerner between soul and spirit. This divine discernment empowers Scripture to distinguish between soulish (natural) and spiritual motivations and thoughts. Our study emphasized that understanding this division is crucial for spiritual growth, transformation, and maturity. By recognizing the distinction between soul and spirit, we can develop greater spiritual discernment, allowing us to align more closely with God’s will and purpose for our lives.

Our study on “The Weapons of Spiritual Warfare” examined Ephesians 6:10-20, revealing the spiritual armor God provides for believers. We reviewed each component of God’s protective armor: the Belt of Truth, Breastplate of Righteousness, Shoes of the Gospel of Peace, Shield of Faith, Helmet of Salvation, and Sword of the Spirit. Our investigation showed how each piece serves a unique and vital function in our spiritual battles. We discovered that these spiritual weapons are far more than mere defensive tools; they are empowering instruments that enable us to stand firm in our faith. By understanding and applying these weapons in our daily lives, we can effectively navigate the spiritual challenges we face, growing stronger in our walk with God and more resilient against the enemy’s tactics.

Ephesians 6:10-20 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

“Make a Way to Escape” was a study centered on 1 Corinthians 10:13, learning about God’s faithfulness in times of temptation:

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.“

Key points included understanding the nature of temptation, God’s faithfulness in providing escape, and strategies for overcoming temptation. We researched how God provides ways of escape, such as the holy spirit’s guidance, the counsel of godly advisors, and divinely orchestrated circumstances. Most importantly, we recognized God’s Word itself as a powerful means of escape, equipping us to resist temptation as Jesus demonstrated in the wilderness.

This study complements our exploration of the above-mentioned studies by showing how God’s Word not only discerns between soul and spirit, and protects us from the adversary, but also provides a way of escape from temptation.

As we progress from natural to spiritual understanding, recognizing God’s provision in times of temptation becomes crucial. It demonstrates how spiritual discernment, rooted in God’s Word, empowers us to overcome challenges and grow in our faith, moving beyond carnally minded comprehension to a deeper, life-transforming assimilation of Scripture.

Romans 8:6-10 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

As we begin to discuss the progression from natural to spiritual understanding, it’s crucial to first examine the limitations of the carnal mind’s approach to Scripture.

The Apostle Paul addresses this issue directly in 1 Corinthians 2:14:

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.“

This verse reveals a fundamental truth: the natural mind, unaided by the spirit of God, cannot comprehend spiritual truths. Mankind’s wisdom, while valuable in affairs of this world, is insufficient when it comes to discerning the deeper meanings of God’s Word.

Men have many common misconceptions in reading the Bible. When approaching Scripture with only our natural understanding, we often fall into several common misconceptions. We will treat the Bible merely as a historical document or moral guidebook. We will interpret passages in isolation, without considering the sum of Scripture. We will apply cultural biases and personal experiences as the primary lens for interpretation. Finally we will seek only practical applications without realizing the underlying spiritual principles. We must remember the following.

Psalm 119:160 (ASV) The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth forever.

While the literal meaning of Scripture is important, relying solely on literal interpretation will lead to misunderstandings. Jesus spoke in parables and used figurative language, as did many of the prophets. A purely literal approach will cause us to miss the deeper spiritual truths conveyed through these figurative expressions.

Consider Jesus’ words in John 6:53-54:

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

A literal-only interpretation of this passage would lead to grave misunderstandings. Jesus was speaking spiritually, using physical metaphors to convey profound spiritual truths. Jesus tells us why he spoke in parables.

Matthew 13:13-14 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 

Matthew 13:34-35 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. 

As we progress in our study, we’ll search out how God moves us beyond these limitations of the natural mind and cultivates a spiritual understanding of Scripture that aligns with His intended message that transforms our lives.

As we’ve seen, the natural mind is limited in its ability to understand spiritual truths. However, God doesn’t leave us in this state. He provides the means, a way of escape, for us to transition from natural to spiritual understanding.

To understand how God moves us beyond the limitations of our natural mind, we must first recognize the crucial role of the holy spirit in this process. Jesus Himself emphasized the importance of the spirit in guiding believers to spiritual understanding. Let’s examine what Jesus taught about the holy spirit’s role in illuminating God’s truth:

Jesus emphasized the crucial role of the holy spirit in John’s writings.

John 14:23-26 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.

John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

John 16:13-15 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, (the comforter) 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 [the spirit of truth] shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

1 John 2:1-2 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate (comforter) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

The comforter, the spirit of truth, is the means by which Christ Himself guides us into all truth. It is through this spirit sent by the Father that Christ dwells in us and teaches us.

Paul speaks of this transformative presence in Colossians 1:27:

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

This indwelling of Christ through the spirit is the key to our spiritual understanding. Christ Himself is teaching us by living in us and renewing our minds.

Paul speaks of transformation in Romans 12:2:

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

This renewal is not a one-time event but an ongoing process. As our minds are renewed, we become increasingly capable of discerning God’s will and understanding His Word spiritually.

Spiritual discernment develops over time. The author of Hebrews points out that spiritual discernment is something that develops with practice:

Hebrews 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

This verse suggests that spiritual understanding is not instantaneous but grows as we consistently engage with God’s Word and apply it in our lives.

As we continue our study, we’ll discuss practical ways to cooperate with this indwelling spirit of Christ, moving from natural to spiritual understanding of Scripture. We’ll see how Christ, through His Spirit, fulfills His promise: “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18).

As we progress in our spiritual understanding of Scripture, certain characteristics emerge that distinguish this deeper insight from natural comprehension. Recognizing these features helps us discern whether we’re truly perceiving God’s Word spiritually or still relying on our natural understanding.

Seeing beyond the literal to the spiritual 2 Corinthians 3:6 tells us:

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

This verse tells us that spiritual understanding goes beyond the mere literal interpretation of Scripture. It involves internalizing the life-giving principles and truths that underlie the written words.

For example, consider the command to “circumcise your heart” in Deuteronomy 10:16. A literal interpretation might lead to confusion, but a spiritual understanding reveals this as a call to inner transformation and dedication to God, which gives life to our faith.

Recognizing types and shadows Colossians 2:16-17 states:

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

Spiritual understanding allows us to see how elements in the Old Testament foreshadow spiritual realities revealed in Christ. This typological interpretation helps us see the unity and continuity of God’s plan throughout Scripture.

For instance, the Passover lamb in Exodus prefigures Christ’s sacrifice. The lamb’s blood protected the Israelites from physical death, just as Christ’s blood saves us from spiritual death.

Spiritual understanding enables us to see how different parts of Scripture connect and form a cohesive whole, centered on Christ. This unified perspective helps us avoid misinterpretations based on isolated verses. Luke 24:27 illustrates this:

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Jesus Himself showed how all of Scripture points to Him, demonstrating the unity of God’s Word. This Christ-centered approach to Scripture helps us interpret individual passages in light of the whole biblical narrative.

As we develop these characteristics of spiritual understanding, we’ll find ourselves better equipped to absorb the deeper meanings of God’s Word and apply them to our lives. This spiritual insight leads to transformation, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 3:18:

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

This verse reminds us that as we grow in spiritual understanding, we are gradually transformed into the image of Christ, which is the ultimate goal of our study of Scripture.

As we seek to grow in our spiritual understanding of Scripture, several key tools and practices can aid us. These help us move beyond surface-level reading into deeper spiritual insights.

1 Corinthians 2:13 instructs us to compare spiritual with spiritual.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

This principle encourages interpreting Scripture with Scripture, using understood spiritual truths to clarify unclear passages. Peter confirms this in 2 Peter 1:20, stating that no prophecy is of private interpretation.

2Pe 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private (of its own) interpretation.

2 Timothy 2:15 exhorts us to study and rightly divide the word of truth.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

This involves considering each passage’s context – its immediate textual surroundings, the book’s overall message, and the broader biblical context. As Psalm 119:160 states:

The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth forever.

However, context isn’t the only consideration. The apostles, guided by the holy spirit, often applied verses beyond their original context. For instance, in Acts 1:20, Peter combines Psalm 69:25 and Psalm 109:8 to address Judas Iscariot’s situation. This demonstrates a deeper, spiritual interpretation of texts.

Acts 1:20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.

This practice aligns with progressive revelation, described in Hebrews 1:1-2. God revealed His truth gradually throughout Scripture, with the fullest revelation in Christ. Isaiah 28:9-13 further illustrates this progressive nature of understanding, describing it as ‘precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little.

Hebrews 1:1-2 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Isaiah 28:9-13 further illustrates this progressive nature of understanding, describing it as ‘precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little.

Isaiah 28:9-13 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

By employing these tools and recognizing these principles, we can better absorb and apply the deeper meanings of God’s Word, leading to the transformation Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 3:18

As we employ these tools in our study of Scripture, we open ourselves to deeper spiritual insights, inviting Christ through His spirit to guide us into all truth, as He promised in John 16:13 and John 14:16-18.

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come.

John 14:16-18 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you.

While these tools provide a foundation for growing in spiritual understanding, our journey is not without challenges. As we progress in our study of God’s Word, we will inevitably encounter obstacles that can hinder our spiritual growth. Recognizing and addressing these barriers is crucial for our continued development in spiritual discernment. Let’s examine some common obstacles we may face and how we can overcome them with God’s help.

Pride and preconceived notions are obstacles we will encounter. Proverbs 3:5-7 warns us:

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

Our own pride and preconceived ideas will stand in the way of spiritual understanding. We must be willing to set aside our own notions and humbly seek God’s wisdom. For example, a preconceived notion about God’s nature might lead us to misinterpret His actions in Scripture. By humbly setting aside our assumptions and seeking God’s revelation, we open ourselves to new insights.

Our lack of spiritual maturity will be another obstacle. 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 states:

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

Spiritual immaturity will limit our ability to understand deeper truths. Growth in spiritual understanding is a process that requires patience and persistence. Romans 8:5-6 further illustrates the contrast between carnal and spiritual mindsets:

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Another obstacle is neglecting prayer and meditation as Joshua 1:8 instructs and will cause us to stumble. We must meditate continuously:

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Failing to prayerfully and sacrificially meditate on God’s Word will hinder our spiritual understanding. Regular, thoughtful engagement with Scripture is essential for growth. Sacrificial meditation involves setting aside dedicated time daily, like Daniel who prayed three times a day (Daniel 6:10), or pouring out our hearts to God in prayer and reflection, as David did in many psalms.

These obstacles often interrelate. Pride might lead us to neglect prayer, thinking we can understand on our own. Spiritual immaturity might reinforce our preconceived notions, making us resistant to new insights. Recognizing these connections can help us address these obstacles more effectively.

1 Peter 2:1-5 reminds us of the larger context of our spiritual growth:

Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation; if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious: unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

This passage emphasizes that our individual growth is part of a larger purpose – being built into a spiritual house. The body of Christ, the church, plays a crucial role in helping us overcome these obstacles. We can learn from one another, give an account to each other, and grow together in understanding.

Finally, we must remember that while we strive to overcome these obstacles, ultimately it is God who gives the increase. As Paul states in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7:

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

Recognizing these obstacles will help us to overcome them. As we continue our study, we’ll look at strategies for addressing these challenges and fostering deeper spiritual understanding, always relying on God’s grace to guide and empower us in this process as Titus 2:11-15 states:

Titus 2:11-15 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching (chastening) us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

As we grow in our spiritual understanding of Scripture, we begin to see tangible results in our lives. These are fruits of the spirit that demonstrate the transformative power of God’s Word when rightly understood and applied. Gal 5:23-26 gives us the outcomes of the fruit of the spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law. And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof. If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.

These fruits are the direct result of spiritual understanding. As we apprehend God’s Word more deeply, we’re able to manifest these qualities more consistently in our lives:

Love: We demonstrate a selfless, Christ-like love towards others, even those who are difficult to love.

Joy: We maintain an inner joy despite challenging circumstances, rooted in our understanding of God’s promises.

Peace: We experience a deep sense of peace, not swayed by worldly turmoil, as we trust in God’s sovereignty.

Longsuffering: We exhibit patience in trials, understanding their purpose in our spiritual growth.

Kindness and Goodness: We actively seek to bless others, reflecting God’s character in our actions.

Faithfulness: We remain steadfast in our commitments, both to God and others.

Meekness: We display humility, recognizing our dependence on God’s grace.

Self-control: We exercise discipline in our thoughts and actions, guided by biblical principles.

The change of character is necessary to produce the fruit of the spirit. Ephesians 4:23-24 describes this process:

And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

As we gain deeper spiritual insights from Scripture, our character is gradually reformed to reflect Christ’s image. This might manifest in:

– Responding with forgiveness instead of anger when wronged

– Choosing to serve others sacrificially, even when inconvenient

– Maintaining integrity in all we do, even if it costs us

The fruit of the spirit will increase our effectiveness in ministry as 2 Timothy 3:16-17 states:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Spiritual understanding equips us for effective service in God’s kingdom, enabling us to:

– Teach God’s Word with clarity and conviction

– Offer wise counsel to those facing life’s challenges

– Discern and meet the spiritual needs of others

The fruit of spiritual understanding gives us abundant life and a deeper intimacy with God, helping us to know God and Christ as John 17:3 reveals:

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

This deeper knowledge leads to:

– A rich prayer life, characterized by open communication with God

– A sense of God’s presence in our daily activities

– An ability to see God’s hand at work in all circumstances

These fruits of spiritual understanding not only benefit us individually but also contribute to the edification of the entire body of Christ. As we mature, we become better equipped to build up fellow believers, foster unity in the church, and effectively share the gospel with unbelievers.

As we develop our understanding of God’s Word, we come to know Him more deeply, which is the essence of eternal life. This deeper knowledge leads to a fuller, more abundant life as promised by Christ in John 10:10:

I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Ephesians 4:15-16 illustrates how the fruits of spiritual understanding not only benefit us individually but also contribute to the edification of the entire body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:15-16 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

As we progress from natural to spiritual understanding, we not only advance individually but also contribute to the growth and maturity of the entire church. This mutual edification is a powerful testament to the power of God’s Word when spiritually discerned and applied.

As we seek to flourish in our spiritual understanding of Scripture, several practical steps can help us overcome obstacles and sharpen our ability to discern spiritual truths.

Developing a consistent study habit as Psalm 1:2 describes the blessed man:

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Regular, systematic study of God’s Word is crucial for spiritual growth. This involves setting aside dedicated time for Bible reading and reflection. Meditation allows us to ponder God’s Word deeply, enabling the holy spirit to reveal connections and insights we might miss in casual reading.

Practicing spiritual disciplines such as 1 Timothy 4:7-8 advises:

But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

Spiritual disciplines such as prayer, fellowship, and meditation attune our hearts and minds to spiritual truths. Prayer aligns our will with God’s, fellowship provides diverse perspectives, and meditation deepens our absorption of Scripture’s spiritual meanings.

Seeking wisdom and insight through prayer as said in James 1:5:

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

We should consistently pray for spiritual insight and understanding as we study God’s Word. Cultivate a listening attitude, being attentive to how God might respond through Scripture, circumstances, or the counseling of elders.

Engaging with the body of Christ will keep us sharp as Proverbs 27:17 states:

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Discussing Scripture with other of like mind, participating in Bible studies, and listening to sound teaching will contribute to our spiritual understanding. These interactions challenge our assumptions, provide new perspectives, and help us see blind spots in our understanding.

Heb 10:23-25 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Applying what we learn is crucial, as James 1:22 reminds us:

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Putting our understanding into practice solidifies our learning and opens us to deeper insights as we experience the truth of God’s Word in our daily lives.

As we implement these practical steps, we position ourselves to receive the spiritual insights God desires to give us. Remember, while we are called to diligence in these practices, ultimately it is God who grants understanding.

By consistently engaging in these practices, we create an environment conducive to spiritual growth, gradually progressing from a natural, surface-level understanding to a deeper, more spiritually discerning comprehension of God’s Word. This journey of growth not only enriches our own spiritual lives but also equips us to better serve and edify the body of Christ.

As we conclude our study on progressing from natural to spiritual understanding of Scripture, let’s reflect on the key principles we’ve explored:

– We recognized the limitations of natural understanding and the necessity of spiritual discernment.

– We examined the characteristics of spiritual understanding, including seeing beyond the literal, recognizing types and shadows, and grasping the unity of Scripture.

– We identified obstacles to spiritual understanding, such as pride, spiritual immaturity, and neglect of prayer and meditation.

– We explored the fruits of spiritual understanding, witnessing how it transforms our character, increases our effectiveness in ministry, and deepens our intimacy with God.

– We discussed practical steps for growth, emphasizing consistent study, spiritual disciplines, prayer, and engagement with the body of Christ.

Throughout this journey, we’ve seen that spiritual understanding is not an immediate destination, but an ongoing process. As Peter prompts in 2 Peter 3:18:

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.

This growth in knowledge and understanding is a lifelong pursuit, one that continually renews us and draws us closer to God. As we apply these principles and practices, let’s remember that our ultimate goal is not merely to accumulate knowledge, but to know the Father and Christ more deeply and to be conformed to His image.

Let’s remember the following:

– Do prayerful studies of God’s Word, seeking the truth.

– Perform regular self-examination to identify and overcome obstacles to spiritual growth.

– Actively participate in fellowship, contributing to and benefiting from mutual edification.

– Put our spiritual understanding into practice, having God’s Word to shape our actions and attitudes.

2 Corinthians 13:5-9 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.

As we continue on this journey, keep Paul’s words in Philippians 3:13-14 as our motivation:

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

May we press on, continually seeking deeper spiritual understanding. Let us not be content with surface-level knowledge, but hunger for the profound truths God desires to reveal to us through His Word.

As you continue in your study of Scripture, may you experience the regenerative power of spiritual understanding. May it lead you to a richer, more abundant life in Christ, equip you for effective service in His kingdom, and draw you into an ever-deepening relationship with our Lord.

Let’s go forth, not merely as readers, but as doers of the Word, having our spiritual understanding bear fruit in every aspect of our lives, to the glory of God and the edification of His church.

Finally, I will leave you Paul’s thanksgiving and prayer for those who love God.

Colossians 1:3-29 We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

May God change each of us in this age from the natural to the spiritual.

A Mystery Hidden from the Ages and Generations: How Not to Be Bitter Against One’s Wife and How Not to Make a Husband Bitter – Part 3

[Study Aired July 29, 2023]

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. 
  Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them” – Col 3:18,19 

The torturous search for the mystery of an outstandingly loving marriage is found in the almost ridiculous simplicity the Shulamite elegantly announces in the Song of Solomon.

Son 1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

It is really that simple, for the most part (mental or physical abuse notwithstanding), to physically restore ailing marriages! With such a spirited wife, why would any husband be bitter against her? 

Our Lord designed the end from the beginning by giving his Bride an experience of evil flesh to look back upon her forebear’s experiences to know that it is impossible without his spirit for a wife, representing the Church to not be bitter against Him and all husbands in the flesh to be bitter against their wives.

Outstanding connectivity in marriage should result from a Shulamite detailed devotion to one’s spouses’ mind and body that corresponds to the mind-blowing spiritual consummation! That adoration should significantly inspire an unbelieving spouse’s arousal to know the Christ, yet, without his kisses interpreted by him, she will remain inert.

1Pe 3:1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; 

1Pe 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Should husbands and wives refuse or lethargically, like Leah, the Laodiceans and the woman of Mt Agar, to give each other deeply passionate love, they both have to fight not to be bitter against the other. The greater weight of potential bitterness rests on the husband since he is rejected sexually, as was Christ spiritually by Israel.

Possibly no greater act for a righteous wife to win her unbelieving husband is for her to spontaneously build up ingenious anticipatory arousals in him; that is the Shulamite’s creative methodology for her already eager Lord. It is much harder, as the Lord of the Old Covenant knew, for him to similarly arouse his fickle wife since she is already cursed with an unreliable desire to be aroused by his word. His New Covenant Bride unashamedly arouses him to his immense delight depicted by Solomon.

Pro 5:19 Like the loving deer and pleasant doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times, and be ravished always with her love.

For the retiring and demure womenfolk’s timidity, please note that the biblically seemingly over-focus on a wife’s breasts, and as previously stated, are the first significant origin of her heart’s arousal after other more delicate and elegant titillations that stimulate anticipation. The emphasis on breasts is a means of understating her other, more private blazings and for this study’s cause, particularly spiritually.

Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 
Rev 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 
Rev 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 

To the spiritually astute Saint, the foundation of this study is about us all having been unwitting dull-eyed harlots, unconsciously in the wilderness and Babylon asking our Lord, ‘Are you nearly finished?’

Hosea married a known ‘run-around-Sue’ (the title of a crappy song by Dion in 1961) type of girl typifying Christ marrying Israel; a pretty but flighty girl who believed she was too good for Him, elevating herself and noting her neighbours overtly lewd arousals was tremendously more satisfying. Christ, like Hosea, knew they were marrying harlots. Israel soon became a ‘run-around-Sue’ girl like Aholah and Aholibah (Ezekiel 23).

Aholah, Aholibah, Gomer, Israel, and we combine all our harlotry characteristics, making us one harlot. Clearly, any husband would be bitter against such a wife.

Having designed men guaranteed to be bitter about our wife’s intrinsic apathetic awakenings, our Lord seems to rub salt into their wounds by saying,

Col 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter against them.

Of course, by understanding Eve’s curse, wives naturally tend to feel exceptionally relieved that they have an escape route to justify their Leah-like eyes; that attitude is the continued embodiment of harlotry. Husbands respond with the immutable word of God in hand to soundly crush their wives by rubbing their faces in her curse ~ which is bound to arouse marital intimacies! And so, around and around goes the deadly loop. No matter how much washing of her by the word of God he splashes, she digs in her toes to his humiliating actions and now gross arousals; both behave like ‘snotty’ Queen Vashti and refuse to try the Shulamite’s methods of arousing the intrinsically sluggish sexual and spiritual nature of the woman. 

A lukewarm wife deeming her condition inherently insoluble with covert bias against her husband leads to both spouses’ inevitable resentment and a husband’s potential bitterness. That condition is the same as Babylonian Christianity thinking; ‘Nobody can completely understand the Bible; we all are saved, and we have a husband, so what’s the problem? He’ll (physical husband will) get over it.’  Even though Christ wasn’t looking forward to the cross, He effectively couldn’t wait to return to the Father’s glory. Likewise, it’s a bitter-sweet thing that an unrighteous fleshy husband frequently ponders his marriage “more bitter than death” (Ecc 7:26). Such an indifferently thinking church will land her in the Lake of Fire.

I have a musty-smelling insightful book written in 1958 named “The Power of Sexual Surrender” by Marie N. Robinson, MD. It resonates deeply with what the contemporary Australian Sexologist Bertina Arndt has discovered regarding only psychologically sound and unabused women’s growing avoidance of sexual intimacies after the honeymoon and childbearing urges of marriage. And wouldn’t you know it, subsequently, their husband’s enduring melancholic bitterness against them.

Col 3:18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. 
Col 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

Arndt discovered from scores of private interviews that intimacy-avoidant people, a bit too broadly and unfairly termed “frigid” in Robinson’s late 1950s book, surprisingly regained or, for the first time, found their desire by persistently ‘just doing it’. The wives discovered that their desire was amplified first by arousal.

Of paramount importance, they unintentionally discovered the first key was to build Shulamite-like anticipation cunningly over hours, even days, before elegantly committing the incurable coup de grâce. Unless the husband is an uncouth beast, that formula IS the key to knowing His kisses are better than wine!

One study found that 65% of women’s greatest fantasy was being dominated, submissive and controlled. I’d be scripturally confident that if the remaining 35% looked honestly into their hearts, they all unwittingly desire to be submissive to an honest, morally sound guy who stealthily becomes good-looking, just as a spirited wife to him becomes more beautiful.

Of course, by design, Jesus was far from being the classically good-looking guy; only a Shulamite could see within him the hidden treasure of unfathomable price. If anyone should be bitter against his wife, Christ and Hosea are prime contenders embodying most husbands.

Isa 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 
Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: [His wife hated him] and we hid as it were our faces from him [His wife evaded and despised his arousals for her]; he was despised, and we [the church] esteemed him not. 
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted [… and was not bitter against her!].
Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are [being] healed [sexually and spiritually].

1Co 7:2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. 
1Co 7:3 Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. 
1Co 7:4 The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
1Co 7:5 Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

The quality of marital bedroom intimacies reflects the day-to-day merit of a husband and wife’s physical and spiritual relationship. We can easily prophesy the outcome if it is as lacklustre as Israel’s was with her Lord.

By the Lord’s design, the harsh reality is; a disgruntled wife (church) who despises bedroom intimacies even loathes her righteous husband’s spiritual ‘light bread’ (Num 21:5) yet abides by the letter of “Defraud not one another” [1Co 7:1-16 (YLT)], he is deserted, and she is a wooden marionette, to him, little more than a masturbation mannequin and the interaction effect is admissible rape (i.e. any form of unwanted sexual or spiritual intimacy). Withholding enthusiastic engagement is defrauded and no different from what old Israel forced on Christ. The antithesis is an unrighteous husband who, brutish in his spiritual understanding for its physical equivalence by not engaging in Shulamite (God-given) designed anticipatory arousals, is a rapist.

It naturally grates on the Lord’s people’s sensitivities to understand that those pitiless self-assigned responses our Lord experiences were required to highlight His humiliations when married to old Israel, and they didn’t stop there. Furthermore, he was married to a whore. After that appalling understanding, we automatically want to protect our Lord and husband from those distressing confrontations with our shock and outrage, like Peter protecting him from the Jewish high priest’s vigilantes and Christ foretelling His death (Joh 18)… ‘This will never happen to you, Lord!’ ~ and by design and foreshadowed by Hosea, it did.

The vast difference in not directly committing whoredom and rape is that our Lord designed His wife in the default of “evil flesh” to fulfill her part of desolating their marriage, whereas he went above and beyond righteously fulfilling His marital dues. The Lord sanctioned Satan to put her in that position, and the Lord took responsibility for the entire affair.

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Mat 16:21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. 
Mat 16:22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. 
Mat 16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Mat 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Mat 23:39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Our Lord has given his Bride a downpayment of His inflaming spirit, the fullness of which is given upon the First Resurrection and His consummative marriage.

Luk 22:16 For I say to you, I will not any more eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. 
Luk 22:17 And He took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. 
Luk 22:18 For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. 
Luk 22:19 And He took bread and gave thanks, and He broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is My body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of Me.

Christ came in the form of sinful flesh without committing sin. Engaging His wife in the deliberately vain hope of igniting a Shulamite-like spark was disheartening and unsatisfying, yet it wasn’t a sin but one of many unclean acts of sinful flesh that diminished the marriage to the eventual point, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he (she) that cometh in the name of the Lord.” 

The Lord of the Old Covenant could file a divorce bill for her ‘uncleanness’, but not so a man in the spirit of the New Covenant if she is happy to dwell with her husband. He remained doubly ungratified by his wife’s spiritless absence, reminiscent of Hosea’s wife whose validating arousals were elsewhere (Hosea).

Deu 24:1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

This paper is hoped to stir up the gift of the holy spirit as typified by its inflaming sexually.

2Ti 1:6 Therefore I remind you to inflame [1. to kindle up, inflame one’s mind, strength, zeal. 1. into the midst, in the midst, amidst, among, between] anew the gift of God, which is in you by the putting on of my hands. 
2Ti 1:7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 
2Ti 1:8 Therefore you should not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord [or your love for your husband or wife], nor of me His prisoner. But be partaker of the afflictions [for this paper’s cause, “bitterness”] of the gospel according to the power of God, 

2Ti 1:9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the eternal times [in downpayment before the full complement at the resurrection].

What is God’s gift, what does it mean to “inflame anew the gift of God”, and what does it mean to have a “spirit of fear?”

John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, so that he [God] may be with you forever,
John 14:17 the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him nor know him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and shall be in you.

1Co 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwells in you? 

John 4:24 God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.

1Co 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

1Th 5:19 Do not quench [1. to extinguish, quench a. of fire or things on fire {opposite to inflame] the Spirit. 

God is spirit, the holy spirit who dwells in us and increases His truth of growing grace and knowledge, exhibiting His good works as our works until we are fully changed into Him at the First Resurrection.

To the Elect of God, it is foundationally recognised that the ‘natural comes before the spiritual’. So, to understand how to inflame our Lord’s spirit, we must be the opposite of being dull and slothful for the ‘kisses of his word that are better than wine’ (Son 1:2). The Lord is the spiritual reality of a fleshy man. All fleshy husbands are immediately and delightedly aroused by their wife’s bright and purposely inflaming intimacies. She is skilled at stirring up and inflaming him physically to engage her Shulamite love-making, knowing his unstoppable response will cast out of her land, little by little, all resistance and submit to his delight in her mind and body. Her slower responses, she knows, will exhilarate anticipation exponentially as they, like Solomon, are depicted with his bride. In the ‘natural’, they are inflaming their sensual intimacies. 

So, as the Lord’s bride, we inflame him, the holy spirit, by being a pretty bright-eyed and enthusiastic young woman purposely pursuing His word and living by it that is designed to rapidly inflame His spirit! As should spousal bedroom intimacies, His dynamic spirit becomes an unstoppable fiery eye-to-eye interactive passion that will not return to Him void ~ and hopefully forever.

Dan 10:6 His body also was like the beryl, and his face looked like lightning. And his eyes were like lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet in colour were like polished bronze, and the voice of his words like the sound of a multitude. 

Psa 104:4 He makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flaming fire.

Isa 55:10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from the heavens, and does not return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring out and bud, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 

Son 7:12 Let us rise up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flowers, whether the tender grape appears, and the pomegranates bud forth; there I will give You my loves. 
Son 7:13 The love-apples give a scent, and over our doors are all pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for You, O my Beloved.)

Isa 55:11 so shall My Word be, which goes out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall certainly do what I sent it to do.
Isa 55:12 For you shall go out with joy, [following bedroom dynamic submissiveness that spiritually is us with our Lord] and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break out before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 
Isa 55:13 Instead of the thorn, the fir tree shall come up; and instead of the brier, the myrtle tree shall come up; and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off.

Why would any husband or wife wish to sensually quench that spirit!? The Bride of Christ is singularly focused on inflaming her Lord as he is for her, and their fire will be everlasting and not cut off.

Isa 26:8 Yea, in the way of Your judgments, O Jehovah, we awaited You; for Your name and for Your memory is the desire of our soul.
Isa 26:9 With my soul I desired You in the night; yea, with my spirit within me I will seek You early; for when Your judgments are in the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. 

The Bride’s treasure is being single-eyed to expressly inflame her Lord’s spiritual ardour. She knows, as any wife elegantly skilled in husband arousals, that her bright smile and Shulamite-like anticipatory planning will cause him to overpower her for her (ecstatically submissive) and his immeasurable delight.

Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 
Mat 6:22 The light of the body is the eye. Therefore if your eye is sound, your whole body shall be full of light. 
Mat 6:23 But if your eye is evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

In the negative, if a wife (as did Israel in the wilderness) continues to submit to Eve’s curse and not dynamically respond and or plan her husband’s unquenchable desires for her, her eye is evil, and indeed, her whole body will be full of darkness and bitter moaning as was given Leah.

2Co 12:8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 
2Co 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 
2Co 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 

Eze 16:45 You are your mother’s daughter, who despises her husband and her sons. And you are the sister of your sisters, who despise their husbands and their sons. Your mother was a Hittite [H 2865 – 1. to be shattered, be dismayed, be broken, be abolished, be afraid], and your father an Amorite [H 550 – to say, speak, utter; to say, to answer, to say in one’s heart, to think, to command, to promise, to intend]. 

For the Elect’s sake, it is a harsh and bitter curse! From that scripture, we see that Israel, married to our Lord, was a fickle woman who depicts all women (the church) since mother Eve! She broke submission and her vow to God’s ordinances by shattering His commandments. She despised the kisses of His vow and, by design, left Him dismayed and crushed. She was likewise dismayed by her Lord’s chastising responses. The emotion in her eyes was equally a dispassionate, desolate wilderness, demonstrating a non-connected mannequin tediously suffering her husband’s (a righteous husband) impassioned love ~ a harlot, collaborating self-pleasuring. Under the Old Covenant, the Lord got immensely humiliated and hurt ~ even “jealous” since he showed her all the treasures of his house… bar his spirit.

Note that this woman’s daughter and sisters are alike in their hatred for righteous leadership and a husband’s eagerness to wash his wife by the word. To varying responsive degrees, every aspect of a woman’s body is a sensory organ. Washing her with the Lord’s word to him is sensually highly arousing and carried forward spiritually in our Lord! He is delighted by her animated sensual (spiritual) responses, just as we enjoy another’s bright interactions.

The Lord’s true word is intentionally seductive for the Bride alone! When engaged in Shulamite-like interactions, the encounter is unwitting spiritual foreplay for which the Body of Christ is delightfully incontinent.

1Co 7:5 Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. 

Prolonged, vivacious and deeply meaningful spiritual interactions with any member of the Lord’s Body induce profound connection and spiritually inflamed arousals that curiously correspond totally unconsciously, a little biologically with our pudenda. Without spelling it out, only folk with acute anatomical awareness and naturally elevated emotional responses, with socially fragile amusement, would notice that very private oddity. It is a natural biological response to all deeply passionate Christs. Its spiritual correlations prepare our minds for His word’s easy and excitable engagement. Non-believers are not the least bit aroused to receive His truth, and for Christ to proceed enthusiastically to force conviction is outright rape. It is a beautiful and fascinating aspect of “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual” (1Co 15:46).

The Lord designed those sensual responses to correspond to spiritual stimulus when one finds spiritual gold that deeply secures ‘joint’ adhesion and growth (Eph 4:16). Outwardly, for example, it happens every time, particularly between young single men and women delighting in any deeply connecting conversation, notably if both parties contain some beguiling quality. Warmly engaging conversation and being one mind,  particularly between a man and woman, rapidly advances ravishing likeability between the two, as it does between Christ and His Bride, who ravish each other. It is a God-given phenomenon for ‘the’ Christ’s deeply and jealously guarded fusion of spirit and body.

Amo 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? 

Gen 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 

Of course, Christ is always beguiling to His Bride, which is why the Shulamite yearned for His kisses. 

Christ outrageously arouses His Bride, and she, Him. To embarrassingly deny our biological responses that reflect the spiritual is akin to denying our Lord’s passion for us. 

Mat 10:33 But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in Heaven. 

His deeply ravishing connections with us engage Him as our God, just as deliberately seductive arousals outside marriage connect a man with an Ashteroth-like god; yet, within marriage, a wife’s outrageously designed preparations for her husband’s arousals IS the key to her delightfully slower responses for her immeasurable joy!

Exo 20:3 You shall have no other gods before Me.
Exo 20:4 You shall not make to yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 
Exo 20:5 You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I Jehovah your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me, 
Exo 20:6 and showing mercy to thousands of those that love Me and keep My commandments [As does the Bride of Christ].

A god above God is anything you hold in greater esteem than the God; its often innocuous perishing corruptness, you believe, will give you a more pleasurable life and eminence than He can. If we love a husband, wife, sex or anything more than God, that thing can become a god.

The Lord was true to His word. Under the Old Covenant, he eventually ditched his dull-eyed wife; as such, she never became an Astheroth, a god to him. Rather, he gave His love to a wife who was given to dynamically plan daily her spiritual arousals for their never-ending mutual love. Under the New Covenant, the converted spouse practices peace and is always in a state of forgiveness for his or her unconverted spouse’s condescension towards bedroom intimacies. Nonetheless, he (or she) lawfully infrequently engages his insipid spouse-mannequin for his ironic ‘frequent incontinence’. He doesn’t engage in fornicating thoughts of another woman, and his dispirited intimacies are temporarily alleviated (effectively an act of self-pleasuring); the humbling trial drives him too long for Christ.

Our Lord’s experiences with Israel were precisely the same for him to long for the Father. He is also rapturously ‘incontinent’ for the truth that he inherently is, as is the Father (Joh 14:6). Our Lord made for himself a wife who would seek Him with her entire heart. Christ’s incontinence is royally established in His Bride’s unity of incontinent truth; it is what makes them blissfully “one”.

Num 21:5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.

Today, God’s people must be careful not to be lifeless, loathe our Lord’s burning interactions with us where his flocks rest at noon, and humiliate him for his ardour.

Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired [H183 – covet, wait longingly, wish, sigh] thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Mal 1:2 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, 
Mal 1:3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. 

Deu 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. 

Under Eve’s curse, and starkly typified by Vashti’s swift dismissal, it is too often irksome for a wife (Israel) considering her husband’s desire for the entirety of her body, mind and heart, symbolised by a focus on her breasts; universally she disdains it as groping; a term guaranteed to humiliate a husband into forced abstinence and possible cheating, especially for the incontinent unbeliever. 

The fundamentally vital key the Shulamite knew, as sequentially portrayed in the Song of Solomon, is her bright, sensual and cunning development of anticipation, designed tantalisingly hours, even days (maybe weeks) away from her ‘main menu’, for the intensity of mutual escalation of tensions. She thus “builds her house”.

[Study Aired September 6, 2020]

Isa 65:7  Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
Isa 65:8  Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
Isa 65:9  And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
Isa 65:10  And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
Isa 65:11  But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.
Isa 65:12  Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.

The Lord has deemed it essential to our salvation that we know “the pit from whence [we] are digged”.

Isa 51:1  Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

Much of this chapter will be reminding us of the marred condition into which our old man was placed by the hand of the Potter.

Isa 65:7  Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

This verse reaffirms what was said of our rebellious old man in the previous verses:

Isa 65:2  I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
Isa 65:3  A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;
Isa 65:4  Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
Isa 65:5  Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.
Isa 65:6  Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,

The message of our verses for today is essentially the same as the message of chapter 51, a few words of which I will repeat here before going to verse 7:

“Isa 51:1  Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 

“From what rock are those who “follow after righteousness… hewn”? From what pit are we all digged? It is the same for all men, Abraham included:

Isa 51:2  Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. 

What do we see when we ‘look to Abraham and Sarah’ when the Lord called them? We should see a barren, unfruitful couple of idol worshipers who had nothing to offer the Lord. Should not the Lord at least have chosen a couple who were not infertile if He intended to make of them a nation and a multitude of nations and to bless the world through them? That is certainly the way any natural man would go about producing a nation and a company of nations. Neither Abraham, nor any herdsman, would ever have picked a couple of cattle which had produced no offspring for over a decade, much less 98 years, to build up his herds. Nevertheless, the Lord chose an infertile couple, past the age of childbearing, to build a nation and a company of nations through which He would bless all other nations:

Gen 18:18  Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?” (End Quote)

What both chapter 51 and these verses of this 65^th chapter are telling us that God has chosen and still chooses, only the most despised, weak, and foolish of this world, and He does so deliberately for this express purpose:

1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

The first six verses of this 65^th chapter tell us that we are first a rebellious people who provoke our Lord to anger continually to His face” (Isa 65:2-3).

Moses made it clear that our election is not because of us or because we are righteous, rather it is despite us and in spite of our unrighteous, rebelliousness:

Deu 9:6  Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.

Deu 9:13  Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

Through the story of King Hezekiah the Lord is even now encouraging us to repent of our “stiffnecked”, rebellious ways and to yield ourselves to Him and to His ways:

2Ch 30:8  Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.

The Lord has ordained that it is only through His chastening and scourging justice that we are brought to repentance and to yield ourselves to Him as we read in the last verse of our last study:

Isa 65:6  Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,

However, the Lord does not cause us to reap what we sow just for the purpose of getting even with us for “provoking Him to anger continually to His face”. Rather, His judgments are always out of His love for us:

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

In the New Testament, this Biblical principle of reaping what we sow, and chastening us with our own works, is expressed in these words:

Mat 18:23  Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
Mat 18:24  And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents [An unpayable debt].
Mat 18:25  But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
Mat 18:26  The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Mat 18:27  Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
Mat 18:28  But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.
Mat 18:29  And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Mat 18:30  And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
Mat 18:31  So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.
Mat 18:32  Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Mat 18:33  Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Mat 18:34  And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Mat 18:35  So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

Two other scriptures are a condensed statement of what we are being told in this parable of this ungrateful, unmerciful servant.

Gal 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Jas 2:13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

Therefore, the Lord repeats His warning of reaping what we sow in the very next verse:

Isa 65:7  Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

Speaking specifically of this present time and His work with His elect who He has preordained to be the conduit of His mercy to all men, we are told:

Isa 65:8  Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.

This “blessing… in… the cluster” is “found” only by crushing the grapes.  In the time of our own judgment, and in the judgment of the rest of the world, the Lord will destroy all but a few of His ‘grapes’ and through the crushing of those few that are left He will in His time bless all the others. “Destroy it not… destroy… not… them all… for a blessing is in it”. This ‘blessing’ is the Lord’s blessing upon Abraham and his seed in type and in shadow. This ‘blessing in the cluster’ is in anti-type, and in the fulfillment of this type the “blessed and holy… few… who have part in the first resurrection”, which is “the redemption of the purchased possession”.

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Gen 12:2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen 12:3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Isaiah has prophesied of this very thing twice before:

Isa 17:4  And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.
Isa 17:5  And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
Isa 17:6  Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.

Before we go to the next place where Isaiah prophesies of the remnant grapes, let’s first consider the meaning of this phrase “in that day”. This phrase in the Old Testament almost always speaks of the day of our judgment:

Deu 31:17  Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?
Deu 31:18  And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.

Isa 10:20  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them [our unmerciful old man]; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

These “gleaning grapes” are “the remnant… [the] few chosen”. These “gleaning grape” are the elect remnant upon whom “judgment must… first begin”:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

When Christ’s glory is revealed to us, then we should by all means “be glad… with exceeding joy”.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

“The ungodly and sinners… will appear [at the] great white throne… judgment” where they will be judged by those who are being judged in “this present time”, and for whom they unwittingly are “earnestly… waiting”:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

It is our fiery trials which are our judgment which is now upon “the house of God”. Those trials and fiery judgments must “first begin at us”. Being judged now is the greatest blessing the Lord can bestow upon us, because it is through Christ’s mercy that we are being judged in “this present time” (Rom 8:18). We are not being judged and saved at “this present time” through the Lord’s mercy upon us simply for our own salvation and nothing more. Rather our “first-fruit” salvation is for the purpose of making us “saviors” and the conduits of our Lord’s mercy upon all the rest of mankind who has ever lived:

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels [in the next life]? how much more things that pertain to this life?

We judge this world, and we rule it with a rod of iron for “a thousand years”. That is not the end of  our judging. We are also the judges of the “great white throne… judgment” after the rebellion which takes place “when the thousand years are expired”. It is here that we will also judge “the devil and his angels”:

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Who is doing this judging of the dead at this “great white throne”? The first thing to note is that the throne is a “white throne”, and the next thing we need to remember is that:

1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world [To the later chastening judgment at this great white throne].

As for who is doing the judging of the dead at the great white throne judgment, this is what we are told, and I repeat:

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? [“The kingdoms of this world” (Rev 11:15)] and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? [At the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death/ prepared for the devil and his angels] how much more things that pertain to this life?

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again [to be judged with the devil and his angels] until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Judgment is not taken away from these judges when the thousand years of reigning with Christ on this earth is expired. That thousand-year reign was just a period of preparation for a much greater time and a much greater judgment and harvest than the first-fruit wheat harvest, which is being judged now at “this present time”. All who are not given a part in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection” are unknowingly “waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God” who will be their merciful judges when “the dead are judged out of those things which are written in the books according to their works”:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Verse 19 should remove any doubt about who the judges are of the great white throne judgment.

Why is Paul contrasting “the creature” with “the manifested sons of God”?

Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

“The creature” means all in Adam. It is not referring to cats and dogs. It is only those who are “in Adam” who are “wait[ing] for the manifestation of the sons of God”, and it is “we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the spirit” who are “groaning within ourselves waiting for the adoption… the redemption of our body”.

What we were just told here in Romans 8 is that it is “through [our] mercy” that “all the families of the earth… shall … be blessed”. Yes, that is exactly what Paul tells us just a few chapters later in this same epistle to the Romans:

Rom 11:30  For as ye [Gentiles] in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Knowing that physical Israel will be brought to God via spiritual Israel (Gal 6:15-16) gives these four verses of Isaiah 24 both an inward and an outward application:

Isa 24:10  The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
Isa 24:11  There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
Isa 24:12  In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
Isa 24:13  When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

Gal 6:15  Certainly, it doesn’t matter whether a person is circumcised or not. Rather, what matters is being a new creation.
Gal 6:16  Peace and mercy will come to rest on all those who conform to this principle. They are the Israel of God.

The name ‘Babylon’ means ‘confusion’. “The city of confusion” here in Isa 24:10 is the same “great harlot” city of:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! [Physical Jerusalem, verse 1] it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

And:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

That the first Israel is rejected of God and is replaced by the later spiritual Israel is made even clearer by the first recorded sermon given by our Lord, and by the message within the words of the parable of the workers in His vineyard.

Telling the Jews they would be replaced by a spiritual ‘Israel’ almost cost Christ His life:

Luk 4:16  And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Luk 4:17  And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luk 4:20  And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
Luk 4:21  And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luk 4:22  And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
Luk 4:23  And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
Luk 4:24  And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
Luk 4:25  But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
Luk 4:26  But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
Luk 4:27  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
Luk 4:28  And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
Luk 4:29  And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Luk 4:30  But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

The parable of the workers in the vineyard conveys this same message inasmuch as the first will be last, and the last will be first:

Mat 20:1  For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.
Mat 20:2  And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
Mat 20:3  And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
Mat 20:4  And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.
Mat 20:5  Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
Mat 20:6  And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
Mat 20:7  They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.
Mat 20:8  So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
Mat 20:9  And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.
Mat 20:10  But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
Mat 20:11  And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
Mat 20:12  Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
Mat 20:13  But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
Mat 20:14  Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
Mat 20:15  Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
Mat 20:16  So the last [spiritual Israel] shall be first, and the first [physical Israel] last: for many be called, but few chosen.

It is through Christ living His life within His “few chosen… elect” that the “blessing” mentioned in Isaiah 65:8 and the inheritance of our next verse will be fulfilled:

Isa 65:9  And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

The “Seed of Jacob [and the] inheritor of [the Lord’s] mountains” is Christ, and “His inheritance [which is] in [His] elect… in the saints”:

Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Christ within His Christ are His elect who are the “inheritors of [His] mountains” and those ‘mountains’ are typified by “Sharon… and the valley of Achor”:

Isa 65:10  And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.

It is only the Lord’s elect of “this present time whose “flocks” will increase and pasture in peace in “the valley of Achor. Flocks in peaceful pastures typify the peace and prosperity which the Lord’s elect firstfruits will know during the thousand years, and beyond to “the consummation of the ages”. It is the Lord’s elect who will be the first to experience the joys, the glory, and the power of “the consummation of the ages”:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

1Co 10:11 Now all this befalls them typically. Yet it was written for our admonition, to whom the consummations of the eons have attained. (CLV)

The “folds of flocks” in Sharon, and “the herds… lying down in Achor” typify “The glory that shall be revealed in us”. This peace and glory is contrasted with the fate of our old man in “this present time” as well as the rebellious carnal minds of all men of all time who “through [our] mercy… shall receive mercy” in the great white throne judgment (Rom 11:30-31 and Rev 20:11). That contrast is the subject of our last two verses of today’s study:

Isa 65:11  But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.
Isa 65:12  Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.

“That troop [and] that number” is those who “no man could number of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” (Rev 7:9). “That troop [and] that number” also includes our own old man and the old man of all men of all time, who have always resisted Christ, including all men of “this present time” and those who will be living in the “short season” of rebellion which immediately follows the thousand year reign “of our Lord and His Christ”.

This is the marred condition of all men right from “the Potter’s hand”:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Act 7:51  Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

“Numbered to the sword” is just another way of saying that our old man was “made to be taken and destroyed”:

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

Outwardly and dispensationally, “that troop [and] that number” symbolizes all the troops of all the armies of all nations which will “compass the camp of the saints about” in the last stand of the carnal mind of mankind against the irresistible power of “our Lord and His Christ”:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Rev 21:4  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

That is our study for today, and these are the verses for our next study in which we will learn that we are to be given a new name, a new heavens and a new earth, all of which are completely unfamiliar to the “cursed” ‘name’ of our old man:

Isa 65:13  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:
Isa 65:14  Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.
Isa 65:15  And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:
Isa 65:16  That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.
Isa 65:17  For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
Isa 65:18  But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

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The Keys to The Kingdom of Heaven – Part 8

The Keys to The Kingdom of Heaven – Zip file with all parts included

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The Keys to The Kingdom of Heaven – Part 8

“The Words I Speak Unto You, They Are Spirit”

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Introduction

It is only with spiritual discernment that “the things…we speak” are discerned, and as we have just read, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” How do we go about using spiritual discernment in such a way that we learn from the spirit which teaches us by “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”?

One thing which should be clear immediately is that spiritual discernment is not to be found in a dictionary because we just read: “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” What that tells us is that when we are taught by the holy spirit, it will not be “in words which man’s wisdom teaches.” Whenever we are granted to learn from the holy spirit, it will be only by “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, and we know that when we do that, it will result in an understanding of the Word of God which will immediately appear as utter foolishness to our natural mind because: “…the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.”

In spite of being told in no uncertain terms that “the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, it is still the number one rule of Biblical exegesis in most seminaries in this nation, and around the world, that “If the scriptures can be understood in their natural sense, then that is the way to take it.”

This principle is so commonly accepted that a very widely received Biblical fiction series entitled “Left Behind” which came out a number of years ago, depicted the two witnesses as two literal men who breathed literal fire out of their literal mouths and destroyed their enemies with that fire coming out of their mouths. After all, that is what the letter of the scriptures plainly declares:

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

It simply must be asked, “If indeed ‘the words that I speak unto you are spirit’, then is that any way to handle the ‘spirit’ of the Words of Christ? If indeed ‘the holy spirit teaches [by] comparing spiritual things with spiritual’ is that any way to handle the spiritual Words of God?” It would be comical if it were not so truly sad that “the natural man receives not the things of the spirit, for they are foolishness unto him.”

That this key to the kingdom of heaven is a principle being taught to us “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” is made clear by what we are told in verse 4:

Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

Why would verse four be accepted as trees which are being used as a figure of those two witnesses to the Truth of the words of God, while the fire in the mouth of those witnesses is taken literally? Anyone who is granted by the holy spirit to compare spiritual things with spiritual will discern immediately that such a literal “letter” interpretation is not how those words which “are spirit” are intended by the holy spirit to be understood. Rather, since “the words that I speak unto you are spirit”, the words ‘my two witnesses’, the words ‘two olive trees’, the words ‘two candlesticks’, as well as the words ‘fire proceeds out of their mouths’, are all intended by the holy spirit to be understood as “spiritual things”, which are intended to be compared with other spiritual words of scripture.

Here are those other spiritual words:

Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

The “two witnesses” of Revelation 11 are those in every generation who witness to “the word of the Lord”.

The fact is that the adversary could not have come up with a better way of keeping the Truth of the prophesies of scripture hidden from mankind than to teach, “If it can be taken or understood literally, then that is how it should be understood.” That doctrine is in direct opposition to:

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Comparing spiritual things with spiritual are “not words which man’s wisdom teaches”, so in this study we will be faithful to what the scriptures teach us and show the spiritual principles involved in “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”.

“Comparing spiritual things with spiritual”

How do we go about comparing spiritual things with spiritual? The truth is that spiritual discernment is not a university level class that can be taken and studied from a text book, then bestowed as a degree in spiritual discernment conferred upon men by other men. The discerning of spirits and knowing and understanding the doctrine of Christ comes only to those who are given to love God with all their hearts and who are by God’s sovereignty granted to see the doctrine of Christ with their eyes, hear it with their ears and be obedient to His doctrine from their hearts:

Joh 7:17  If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

2Jn 1:9  Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

Those are the qualifications of being capable of “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” to the point of knowing God and His Son. Only after that gift is bestowed upon us will we be given to remember and apply Christ’s own words in Matthew 13 where He Himself tells us that His parables are intended to keep the multitudes who come to him from understanding His message, while at the same time revealing His doctrine to those to whom He has given “ears to hear”.

Mat 13:9  Who hath [been given, verse 11] ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

There it is! That is the ‘ceremony’ by which we are granted to discern spirits. That is the ‘ceremony’ by which we are given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Of course it is not a ceremony at all, but rather it is a calling which we cannot resist because it was predestined before the foundation of the world whether “it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” or whether “from [you] shall be taken away even that [you] have”.

So the ability to “try the spirits to see whether they are of God” is actually a gift of the spirit, and not a matter of our own free will, as the world falsely teaches us:

1Co 12:7  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

1Co 12:10  To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

It is true that not everyone is given the gift of discerning of spirits, but it is, in time, given to all who are in Christ to know His voice when a brother or a sister who has been given to discern the false doctrines coming from the “many false prophets [who] are gone out into the world” and who come into the body of Christ attempting to spread their insidious false doctrines.

How then is spiritual knowledge imparted?

While spiritual discernment is not a degree conferred upon us from institutions of men, yet God has ordained that the things of the spirit would be gleaned and understood only though “that which is written” by other men and “by the church”.

This is how the holy spirit opens up our understanding of “the things of the spirit”:

Act 8:27  And he [Philip] arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
Act 8:28  Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.
Act 8:29  Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
Act 8:30  And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
Act 8:31  And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
Act 8:32  The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
Act 8:33  In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
Act 8:34  And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?
Act 8:35  Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

The scripture the Ethiopian eunuch was reading was:

Isa 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

The name ‘Jesus’ is nowhere to be found in that verse of scripture, but “comparing spiritual things to spiritual” the holy spirit declares to us that this particular verse is speaking of the crucifixion of Jesus for the sins of all who are in Adam (1Co 15:22). The holy spirit used Philip to guide this man to Christ by teaching him the spiritual meaning of the words he was reading. This is how “the holy spirit teaches [us] by the church… comparing spiritual things to spiritual”. The application of the principle of “comparing spiritual things to spiritual” is actually learned when the holy spirit first prepares our hearts, and then “by the church [sends] some man … [who] guides [us]”. This Truth is reiterated in these verses:

Eph 3:9  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

There it is again. “The fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world, has been hid in God [is] made known by the church…” When we put Acts 8:31 (“How can I [understand] except some [Godly] man guide me”), together with Ephesians 1:10 (“To make all men… by the church… see what is the fellowship of the mystery…”), we can begin to understand how the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things in scripture with other spiritual things in scripture. The holy spirit had prepared the heart of the Ethiopian eunuch, and then the holy spirit sent Philip as a witness to those verses which the eunuch had been shown by the holy spirit.

No court of trial is held without having the books containing the relevant laws available to those who are involved in that trial. In the same way, those who the holy spirit uses to “guide [us]” must be men of God who have “studied [the scriptures] to show [them]selves approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed… never thinking above that which has been written.”

1Co 4:6  Now these things, brothers, I applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us ye might learn not to think above that which is written, so that ye may not be puffed up, one over the one against the other.

2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

It is made clear by the spirit which uses men like Christ, like Philip and like the apostle Paul to show other men “the things of the spirit [which] are foolishness unto… the natural man”.

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit [the Word of God (Joh 6:63)] and of power:
1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
1Co 2:6  Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:8  Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard [Mat 13:9-15], neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit [Mat 13:11]: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
1Co 2:11  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Here we have the entire Godly Biblical system of how “the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” operates. Paul is demonstrating this work of God for us using “my speech and my preaching” as as example of how the holy spirit through Himself and through you and me is “speak[ing] wisdom among them that are [being] perfected”. In one verse of scripture we are told that the “things… which… we speak [are those things by which] the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

That is why it is critical that we all “try the spirits to see whether they are of God” (Joh 4:1) and that we are all able to discern whether the things being spoken to us by any man are ever “above that which has been written” (1Co 4:6).

It is only “those things which have been written [which] are spirit”, and what gives them their spiritual meaning is that they agree with other scriptures “which have been written”. Anything else ‘has no light in it’.

Isa 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

“This word” refers to the law of Moses, which the New Testament reveals to be merely “a shadow of good things to come”, those good things being the spiritual words of our Lord as He Himself made clear to us:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

The law can never make the comers thereunto perfect, but what does perfect us is our daily dying as we experience “the washing of water by the Word [which is] spirit”:

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

The letter versus the spirit

While the natural man teaches us that the words of scripture mean what they say, the scriptures themselves, and Christ in particular, teach us that the words of Christ, which He tells us “are spirit” (Joh 6:63), are actually meant to hide the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven from the multitudes who come to Christ, the “many called”, and at the same time reveal those mysteries to the “few chosen” who are then “given…eyes that see and ears that hear…the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.”

2Co 3:5  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2Co 3:7  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2Co 3:8  How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
2Co 3:9  For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
2Co 3:10  For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
2Co 3:11  For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

“Able ministers of the New Testament” while very careful not to think above what is written, are never guilty of taking what is written to mean the letters that are written. If the scriptures were taken in that manner, he would be a Jew which is one outwardly, and circumcision would be that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

However, when the spiritual man speaks of being a Jew, or when he speaks of being circumcised, he does so comparing spiritual types with spiritual realities which are spiritual and invisible to the eyes of the natural man, so that when the holy spirit teaches us in that manner we, too, must conclude:

Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

“Not in the letter” tells us that the mantra of the seminaries of Babylon, “If it can be taken literally, that is the way to take it” is “the ministration of death, [and] the ministration of condemnation.”

These are the things which are “not given unto…the multitudes” of natural men who come to Christ to see or hear. These are the words which Christ tells us “are spirit” and which Christ and the apostle Paul tell us simply “cannot [be] received [by] the natural man”:

Joh 8:43. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

How could a person who “cannot hear [Christ’s] word” be expected to “receive… the things of the spirit of God”? He cannot know them, because Christ’s words are not discerned with a dictionary. Rather “they are spiritually discerned” and are foolishness to the natural man.

“We have this treasure in earthen vessels”

2Co 4:3  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
2Co 4:5  For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

What we have in earthen vessels are “the words [which Christ] speaks unto [us which words] are spirit.” It is through His Word that He dwells within us. If we do not have His word within us, we do not have Him within us. If the word within us teaches that Christ is part of a trinity God-head who will torment His own creatures for all eternity, Christ is not in us. If the words in us teach us that we are a spirit having a physical experience, instead of an earthen vessel having a spiritual experience, Christ is not in us. If the words in us teach us that Christ did not break the sabbath, did not do that which is not lawful, according to the law of Moses, and that He did not profane the sabbath, then His word is not in us, and He is not in us.

On the other hand, if we know “there is one God, [and that one God is] the Father of whom are all things”, and if we know that besides that one God the Father there is also “one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things”, and if we know that we are beasts, and we have no preeminence above a beast, and that without a resurrection they which have fallen asleep in Christ are perished, and if we know that Christ did break and profane the sabbath and was still guiltless [Mat 12:1-8, Joh 5:16-18] because of His words, as opposed to the law of Moses, then “the light of the glorious gospel of Christ” is beginning to “shine unto [us]”, and is not hidden from us.

1Co 8:6  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath [Hebrew: ruach – spirit]; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

1Co 15:16  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1Co 15:17  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

“Invisible things… are understood by the things that are made”

It is through the understanding of “the things of the spirit” that “the holy spirit teaches [us by] comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, and because “we have this treasure in earthen vessels” God has determined that the invisible things of the spirit are to be understood by the things that are made…”

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

The man who has “the mind of the spirit” sees the mind of the spirit in everything that is made, because He knows that God created all things by Christ, and therefore everything made reveals His mind in some way.

Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

Only the mind of the spirit can grasp how life comes only through death by observing that a seed must fall into the ground and die before it can bring forth much more life.

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

It is one of the keys to the kingdom of heaven and to life itself to understand that only the man who has the mind of the spirit can see Christ and through Christ see His Father:

Joh 6:46  Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

Joh 14:7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Joh 14:8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9  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 then, Shew us the Father?

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

“The kingdom of God is within you” (Luk 17:20-21). The keys to the kingdom of heaven are given to you and me to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven and know God and His Son and for the purpose of giving us life eternal, which is in knowing God and His Son whom He has sent to save the whole world (Luk 17:20-21, Mat 16:18, Joh 3:17, Joh 17:3).

[Part nine can be found here.]

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/do-the-scriptures-mention-the-jews-of-world-war-ii/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=do-the-scriptures-mention-the-jews-of-world-war-ii Fri, 02 May 2014 03:31:45 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=7661 Do The Scriptures Mention The Jews of World War II?

Hi Mike,

I appreciate your insights and teaching. Thank you.

I have a question I’ve been pondering and wonder if you’ve ever thought about it…. with your spiritual insight, can you say if the scriptures give a prophesy about he fate of the Jews in WWII?

I have always tried to understand from God’s plan the meaning of the many Jewish deaths.

My regards,

J____

Hi J____,

Thank you for your question concerning the sad deaths of all of the Jews of WW2. What happened in Europe during that time is a testament to the truth of these words:

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

Adam was created on the sixth day along with all the other “beasts of the field”. Six has been the number of Adam and all of his children since creation:

Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has a mind calculate the number of the wild beast, for it is the number of mankind, and its number is six hundred sixty-six.

666 is the number of mankind. Six is “the number of mankind”, and any multiple of any number in scripture is but an emphasized, more mature meaning of the earlier number.

“666… is mankind at his most beastly self, and we will all live by and keep the things written in this book:

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

You ask if the scriptures have anything to say about the deaths of the Jews who died in World War II, and the answer is no, other than what I have shown you here.

The fact is that Stalin purportedly killed 20 million Russians, and Mao Tse-tung was instrumental in tens of millions of Chinese deaths, all testifying to the beast that is within us all.

What the scriptures teach are as popular today as in the day they were spoken by Christ and written by His apostles, getting them, one and all, persecuted and in most cases killed.

Here is what the scriptures teach concerning who is and who is not a Jew:

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

In spite of that plain and clear statement concerning who God considers to be “a Jew”, the churches of this world teach the exact opposite, telling us that “outward Jews” are still God’s chosen people, and that God now has what they call the doctrine of ‘two administrations’. One administration is physical, and the other is spiritual, and once again the scriptures teach the exact opposite:

Eph 2:14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

God is not in the process of making twain of twain. He is in the process of “reconciling both unto God in one body, by the cross, which “he that is a Jew… outwardly” generally rejects. As far as God is concerned “if ye be in Christ [only] then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise”, because He is “making of twain one new man”.

I pray you are given eyes to see these very plain statements, and I hope you will continue to read and be edified by the website.

I will suggest that you read The Law of Moses Versus The Law of The Spirit for a much more in depth understanding of who and what constitutes a Jew and who and what constitutes Israel under the New Covenant.

The Law of Moses Versus The Law of The Spirit

There have been many wars fought since Christ was in the flesh on this earth, but Christ said that even the “abomination of desolation” is an inward event that would be lived out in the lives of every generation beginning with the one in which His physical generation lived:

Mat 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand)
Mat 24:16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

After telling us that the end would come after the gospel was preached “unto all nations”, and after warning us to flee to the mountains when we see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, Christ then says this:

Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

This website is named iswasandwillbe.com because of verse 35 of Matthew 24 and because that Truth is repeated 12 times in the book of Revelation in different forms. Without understanding that particular character of the Word of God, “My words will never pass away”, and their enduring inward application in every generation of mankind, Christ’s words “This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled” is considered a lie to that generation, and the “abomination of desolation” had no application to that generation.

On the other hand, when we understand that “the ends of the world are come upon [us]” as those in whom Christ dwells and the day of judgment is “now… on the house of God, the is, was and will be character of the Word of God becomes clear, and the prophecies of scripture become far more inward and personal first and foremost.

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

“The time is come” is the same thing Christ and John said:

Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

“Keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand” is how this book of Revelation begins and ends:

Rev 22:6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

You will benefit greatly from reading the Revelation commentary which is also posted on iswasandwillbe.com. It starts at this link: http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/rev-1_1_2/

I hope I have answered your question concerning the Jews who died in World War II. That was a terrible time, and anti-semitism is an ungodly spirit which will be destroyed in God’s own time, but contrary to all we have been taught as western Christians generally speaking, physical Israel is not “the Israel of God” of Gal 6:15-16, and the fact is that physical Israel will not even be redeemed to God until “Sodom and Samaria” are redeemed:

Eze 16:55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

There are very few who even believe that Sodom and Samaria will be redeemed and returned to their former estate, much less believing that Jerusalem and Israel will be redeemed at that same time. Nevertheless that is exactly what our Lord Himself prophesied in these words:

Joh 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Joh 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. [of Romans 2:28-29 and Eph 2:11-22]
Joh 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

God is totally and completely unimpressed with physical genealogy, and seeks only a humble and teachable spirit. “The Father seeks such to worship Him”.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/foundational-themes-in-genesis-part-33/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=foundational-themes-in-genesis-part-33 Thu, 23 Jan 2014 17:03:09 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=5830 Foundational Theme in Genesis – Study 33

The natural is our first experience, and through this natural we learn so much about God’s spiritual works in the generation of the first Adam (1Co 15:46, Rom 1:20). However, everything in the physical is just a shadow of the spiritual, meaning God is using the physical as a contrast and opposition to the spirit of God (Col 2:16-17, Heb 8:5, Heb 10:1, Mat 4:16):

Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

The first two sons of Adam and Eve typified these opposing spirits – the evil versus the good – the first versus the last – yet both are essential parts in the revelation of Jesus and His works in us (1Co 15:45, Rev 1:17-19). Cain, as a type of the seed of the serpent, was the firstborn of Adam and Eve, and he was a murderer of his own brother, Abel, who was a type of the seed of the woman:

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Everyone born in the line of Cain should therefore be seen as representing the seed of the serpent and the evil God created and is using within His broader scheme of things. All of the evil out there is a direct correlation with what is within our own natural hearts. For those who can receive this truth, the scriptures become a journey of discovery as we will find that we truly live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4). To see ourselves as “guilty of all” also helps us not to get offended by the truth in ‘the sum’ of God’s Word (Jas 2:10, 1Jn 2:16, 1Ti 1:15, 1Co 3:21, Psa 119:160 ASV):

Psa 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

When Cain slept with his wife (his own sister because the laws of Moses prohibiting incest were not in effect at that stage), they conceived a son (Gen 3:20, Gen 5:4, Lev 18:6-18):

Gen 4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

Although the theme of a garden (pastoral or rural in that sense) is the initial environment of man, the theme of a city is also foundational and helpful to our understanding of God’s spiritual work. A city indicates a process of building and to understand what God is building in His spiritual and ‘holy city’, Jesus Christ, we need to learn about our first carnal city – the first Adam and his generation – this ‘city’ of flesh in which Jesus also came to dwell for a period of time (Mat 2:23, Heb 2:14, Joh 1:14, Mat 4:5, Mat 23:34). Many cities are mentioned in scripture which generally fall into the types of either the city of man or the city of God (Mic 6:9-10, Eze 7:23, Rev 21:10-23, Mat 5:14, Eze 48:35, Isa 60:14). Cain built his city from the very ground God cursed, which gives us a clear indication of what the cities or hearts of mankind are all about (Gen 3:17, Gen 4:11).

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Those ruling in the evil cities of the world (inwardly and outwardly) cannot frustrate or derail God’s one will and plan (Eph 1:11). God told Cain he would be a fugitive and vagabond in the earth, which Cain seemingly wanted to reverse in his natural rebellion by building something that can settle him down and give his family a type of foundation and protection (Gen 4:12). Even in this earthly city, man remains a spiritually blinded wanderer (Isa 53:6):

Lam 4:14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

This is also showing us that long before God’s elect can settle, the man of flesh has already established his (sandy) foundations and built cities and industries as natural man wants to control everything and lord over others (Mat 20:25). All the natural and worldly competition and running for the front seats is just what flesh is all about. That is also why our fleshly solutions are always first when we are facing a problem. The flesh always wants to be first on the scene which indicates why the firstborn or the flesh will always feel threatened, depressed and defeated when the spirit man appears (1Pe 2:17, Rom 13:7, Luk 11:43, Luk 14:7-14, Jos 2:9-11).

Mat 19:30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

Luk 14:11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

All human-built cities, with all the physical glamour and splendor to which humanity is naturally attracted, point to the one evil city which the Scriptures spiritually call ‘the great city’, Babylon (Gen 10:8-10, Isa 13:19, Jer 51:7).

Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Rev 18:16 And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

Because God has placed within mankind the desire to live in His City one day, mankind always has the counterfeits first. Cities reveal natural man’s pride and lust for instant gratification and impatience. Like the prodigal son, we naturally want our inheritance (the spirit man) now. We do not like the way and time God is taking to bring us to our desired haven. So we foolishly want to ‘help’ God, and in doing so bring more frustration, complaining and eventual destruction (Luk 15:11-24, 1Sa 13:8-14;). Only in Godly patience through much tribulation are we made worthy to inherit the desired City of God (Luk 21:19, Act 14:22, Eph 1:18, Rom 5:2-4, Hab 2:3, 1Pe 1:4).

2Th 1:4 So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
2Th 1:5 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer.

Our natural city is also marked with high towers because it shows man’s pride, self-righteousness and self-exaltation which blind us to God’s wonderful works in us (Psa 107). All these mighty human efforts to make our mark reveals our natural short-sightedness as all our efforts will all be brought down at the appointed time (Isa 30:25, Mat 11:20-21).

Mat 11:23 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

Even the city that looks spiritual to most because it proclaims the name of Jesus and does many wonders and miracles in His name on the outside, is nothing but the same spiritual harlot harboring spiritual murderers who mix and twist God’s true doctrine to gain their huge following (Gal 4:25, Rev 11:8, Mat 7:21-23).

Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isa 1:22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Isa 1:23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

The first man Adam’s generation through the genealogy of Cain is the one which reveals to us all these kinds of physical pride, lusts and recognition for which the flesh naturally yearns. Even in the meaning of the names of Cain’s offspring the evil or negative is applicable. In these names we also can see more of the dynamics of the city life or the heart of man:

Gen 4:18 And unto Enoch was born Irad [fugitive, wild ass, dragon]: and Irad begat Mehujael [smitten of God – complaining]: and Mehujael begat Methusael [strength (of man)]: and Methusael begat Lamech [powerful; the strikerdown; the wild man].
Gen 4:19 And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

Lamech was the first man mentioned in scripture to have multiple wives and this fact points to our unfulfilled lusts of the flesh and the eyes which can never be satisfied with seeing – our natural adulterous spirit for the doctrines of the world (Mat 5:28).

Ecc 1:8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

The pride in our natural man’s heart even convinces itself and others with the same mind-set that it can take vengeance out of the hand of God. We think that God is too lenient with the evil in others, and we want to bring a complete end to that evil now:

Gen 4:23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
Gen 4:24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Just like Jonah, we do not like God’s mercy on those evil people out there when we cannot see the biggest evil is in our own hearts. This is when we want our enemies and those bad sinners out there to be killed and suffer in a unscriptural eternal hellfire. We naturally cannot accept that God can and will indeed save all mankind, yes even our enemies (1Jn 2:2, 1Ti 2:3-6, 1Ti 4:9-11).

Jon 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
Jon 4:2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

Jonah had more pity on the gourd than on the people. He was more obsessed with his own salvation than with that of others. How sad is the state of our human heart. In our spiritual blind state (the night) we naturally love and worship the creature (our old man) rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25).

Jon 4:10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
Jon 4:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

The cities or hearts of man are the heavens where God works His will, also the negative applications in the lineage of Cain:

Gen 4:20 And Adah [one of the wives of Lamech] bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.

Although Abel was the first to be “a keeper of sheep”, Jabal was the first to keep cattle, and he dwelled in tents (also manufactured tents). His name means ‘stream’, and all of this says that he was wandering all the time to find greener pastures for his beasts. His brother Jubal was the first musician on earth. He was the first to make and play stringed and wind instruments to soothe the evil in the flesh:

Gen 4:21 And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.

1Sa 16:23 And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

This links also to the words of Lamech which he spoke to his two wives. His words were set in poetic form showing natural man’s artistic attempts to hide or soften the pain and evil inside and outside. Zillah, the other wife of Lamech, bore Tubalcain who was an instructor and artificer in brass and iron. This points to the base metals or the natural strength, the beauty and seductiveness of flesh which the generation of Cain also spiritually represents:

Gen 4:22 And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah [her name means fleshly beauty and pleasantness].

Like King Solomon in his apostatized state, we naturally build cities (‘strongholds’ and ‘imaginations’); all that our carnal heart desires (2Co 10:4-5).

1Ki 9:17 And Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether,
1Ki 9:18 And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,
1Ki 9:19 And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

This accumulation only emphasizes our natural frustrations and hopelessness. Through this necessary learning phase we will discover incrementally that the city of the first Adam is built on sand, and it will be destroyed eventually. This destruction forces us to concentrate more on that city which is eternal in the heavens (Ecc 2:4-10, Mat 7:25-26, 2Co 5:1). All these natural ‘cities’ in our natural heart cannot fulfill the deepest desire of man for the true city of God – Jesus Christ. Everything the earthly “great city” of Babylon and her daughters can produce is just to make the longing for God’s spiritual city deeper. Abraham, a type of the elect, always searched for the city of God (Heb 11:10). In the New Testament the churches that were established first were city-based bringing to us the positive application of how God’s elect is always made aware of that city of God and how its compactness helps us to see how His people are “fitly framed together” in unity – the one mind of Christ (Eph 2:19-22).

Rev 21:10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.

Heb 13:14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

God is a God of mercy, even on all the inhabitants of the city of the first Adam where the greatest evil is taking place (our own hearts). God ordered the establishment of “cities of refuge” under the old covenant where those who know they are guilty of murder can get a hearing and their ordained merciful judgment (Jos 20:1-9, Num 35:14). Jesus’ compassion for those in the city of Jerusalem (“which now is”) shows that salvation is also for them whose eyes are still blinded to that truth for the time being (Gal 4:25):

Luk 19:41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Luk 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

When we see the city of God, we do not look either to the right or to the left or backwards and fixate on earthly things, as did the wife of Lot (Gen 19:26, Pro 4:27, Pro 21:16, 1Ti 1:6, 2Pe 2:15). The spiritual city of God, Jesus Christ and His Christ, have the opposite ‘measure’ to the seductive doctrines of the city of the first man Adam. The line between the two becomes more apparent as we die daily to all the “rudiments” of our first carnal city (Col 2:20-22, 2Co 6:17, 1Co 15:31). Jesus Christ and His doctrine are the only true “measure” or “the shekel of the sanctuary” by which all will be conformed to (Rom 8:29). The Jerusalem coming down from God has safety in its true doctrine which is indeed a “great high wall” (Psa 48:1-2, Isa 55:8-9, Heb 1:3, Rev 3:12, Gal 4:26, 2Jn 1:9 ). Those in that city of God see themselves, even now, as ambassadors of that spiritual city and they do not resist or interfere in the affairs and ‘measure’ of this foreign earthly city. They obey and submit to all ordinances of God, even the earthy, by the indwelling fruit of the spirit of Christ (Dan 4:34-35, Rom 13:1-10, 1Pe 2:13-17, Gal 5:22-23).

2Co 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

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[Questions and comments for the writer can be directed to:  glgroenewald@gmail.com]

[Detailed studies and emails written relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the www.iswasandwillbe.com website, including:]

What is the Beloved City?
If Heaven is in Us, What Comes Down from Heaven?
How do We Come out of Babylon?

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/what-loss-do-spirit-beings-in-the-lake-of-fire-suffer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-loss-do-spirit-beings-in-the-lake-of-fire-suffer Thu, 06 Sep 2012 18:39:00 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=5403 What Loss do Spirit Beings in the Lake of Fire Suffer?

If those in the lake of fire don’t have bodies, then what loss do they have to suffer? And if death and the grave are destroyed there, then would it not make sense for each person who dies in the lake of fire to be “losing their body for the last time” so to speak? At the moment that the last participant in the lake of fire dies, is not death and hell now destroyed? For all have been now judged, all enemies, including the bodies of flesh and death, and God is then all in all? What will be the need to appear in physical bodies if everyone enduring the lake of fire are spirits?

Is the lake of fire not the next step after the 1000 year reign? If so, the judgment would be here on earth would it not? And those who were resurrected in the first resurrection would simply be as Christ, able to come and go, appear and disappear, inclining the hearts and minds of the inhabitants of earth to forsake evil and follow truth in the greatest show of mercy during that age we call the lake of fire?

I understand there is no burning of physical bodies, but my point is, when we suffer loss in these fleshly bodies, we suffer spiritually. We are to overcome the pulls of the flesh whether it be sin, sickness, addiction, false doctrine, etc., etc. The point is, without flesh, what is there to overcome if those in the Lake of Fire are now “immortal”? I need to study more, but I do not think these lake-of-fire goers are immortal, else how could God destroy “body and soul” in the Lake of Fire, where there is no “body and soul” in the Lake of fire to begin with? Will those who undergo the lake of fire have the same “pulls of the flesh” if they are resurrected as spirit bodies?

Thanks in advance for your comments,

J____

Here is the verse that tells us that those bodies in the lake of fire are spiritual bodies:

1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Just like Satan, however, it is a spiritual body with “terrestrial glory” and with a carnal mind which is “enmity against God”.

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

It is true that if we are in the flesh we cannot please God.

Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Rom 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Just as we can be “in the spirit if the spirit of Christ is in us”, it is equally true that we can be carnally minded and in rebellion against God if the spirit of our father the devil is in us, even as in spirits in the lake of fire.

While it is true that spiritual bodies can and do appear as “flesh and bone” that is only true when there is a need for such. That need will exist during the thousand years, but there will be no need for physical bodies to appear to spiritual bodies in the lake of fire.

I do not believe you will find anywhere that I have ever written that we will have physical bodies in the lake of fire following the thousand year period of ruling with Christ.

I hope this is all of some help in understanding the invisible things of God by the things that are made.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

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