People are always going to "cover " this argumentative process with intellectual debate.
Elijah, just turned to Elisha at this point, and just said "Well GO home then. Forget I ever met you. Forget the touch of my cloak on you, and the anointed breeze of another Heavenly Country. I come in the Name of the Lord. You.....You are not here to argue...or suggest things Elisha....What is it I have done to you? Now ...just go home."
With teaching on the Tabernacle in the Church, we are not here to argue. To suggest. This is the DNA of heaven. The Jewish Old Testament version was just the cardboard cut-out.....the poor suggestion of the heavenly...that we now as believers come to drink more and more of greedily....as we understand Spirit is not waffle....it is the underlying FORCE behind all existence everywhere...it's just us...in our fallen blinded existence...couldn't see or appreciate a thing.
This series is not for those who want to dip their brains into some quaint esoteric knowledge concerning Christ and the "Old Jewish" ways. This series is for those who are passionnate about knowing, following,being transformed by the Living Christ. Don't argue with me. Argue with Jesus.
The first outercourts stages of Knowing Him He has laid down in First the Brazen Altar, which He fulfilled perfectly but "Outside the camp" on Golgotha. Then came the picture of the Laver.
The Laver means not only our baptism into His death, and now our conformity to HIS IMAGE now resident inside us. But it speaks on several levels as it works itself out in practice with us, just as all manner of fulfilments occurred simultaneously when the Israelites passed through the Red Sea.
The Laver means washings or total immersion baptism into the full purposes of the LORDSHIP of Christ over our heart , mind and soul, and strength in the First Commandment. But instead of us "trying to do all this"...it is the recognition that Christ HAS DONE THIS FOR US.
When the Israelites left Egypt, they left their enemies.
They became conformed CORPORATELY to the purpose of God as a community.
They were baptised in water, and into a Life following the Pillar of Cloud by day and Pillar of Fire by night:in other words a life following the Spirit.
At Elim, immediately on the other side they left ALL THEIR sicknesses behind them, though ofcourse this was tested.
So believing in our heart, confessing with our mouth that Jesus died and was raised from the dead, then sealing this act through obedience of faith in waterbaptism....preferably the Biblical...total immersion....is a Spirit appeal that we are serious about becoming a part of the Corporate people of God on Earth, moving heaven to Earth!
It's not up for argument.
Our response is a passionnate response, birthed by His own LOVE Spirit within us. So we dont argue much on an intellectual level....rather we wait until people instead get caught up in the passion.
My Northern Irish friend , though a member of God's living church for decades, has just got water baptised. He was only ever baptised as an unknowing child. So last Sunday when yet another crowd were baptised in the Solent off Hayling Island, he was baptised alongside a remaining daughter. Below is the video of the baptisms from 2 years ago. One of the guys (pictured here) made the final break with drugs that very day, having been an off and on Christian for years...so to speak...then immediately sealed his decision by going into the Christian Rehab up at Birmingham UK.
A Change In Priesthood
Some 30 years ago in Emsworth Church we were all seeking the Lord together and a lady called Ruth Selhi saw a vision of loads of young people.....actually us at the time....IN JEANS. The voice of the Holy Spirit came:
"This is the New Priesthood. The Priesthood in jeans".
When Jesus established the new priesthood it was based upon LIFE, His life.
The Bible in Hebrews calls it "based upon an indestructible Life"
This is a new order of priesthood.
Sometimes the normally clad ex fishermen, doctors and taxcollectors....the disciples...went to church(synagogue). It depended what the Holy Spirit was saying. Sometimes they were busy preaching to multitudes. Sometimes they were busy on the Sabbath relocating from one area to another, and ...DREAD to say, picking bits of corn to munch in cornfields.
This was a totally new priesthood.
Now among the Jesus People in the 70s God was again building a fresh, new corporate thing. They already knew about living in community. But now this lifestyle had a Holy Spirit invasion.
No more 60s freelove....but learning what it meant to be the people of God in the Holy Spirit.
It meant passion.
Then what began as something dangerously "free" was wooed by something, that actually began in the Spirit as the revelation of "discipleship" and the ministry gifts(apostles prophets etc) of the Body of Christ....
But "Saulish" behaviours in the Body of Christ wrapped its cords, fleshly cords, around this "free generation " in the Spirit. Some as early as the 80s, saw through this deception, and fled to learn more about the Third Level, the Third stage of growth...
but the bulk of the others never survived,
and instead of growing mature in their freedom in Christ, sold their liberty for various "securities" and have lived out the rest of their charismatic days in little more than CAGES....to presumably die there.
Passion
So before we go any further in this teaching series, it is all totally irrelevant unless we are caught up in the Passion Christ has for us, and the response He Himself is awakening in us. Ephesians was a great church, but in Revelation was this whacking great warning spelt out....that ,unfortunately, history has shown was unheeded.
THEY LOST THEIR FIRSTLOVE.
this means the LOVE they had at first
but also that Jesus IS OUR FIRSTLOVE before all and every other thing.
Just as our bodies form in stages, and without a proper completion ofsay the initial stage, the body remains stunted and cannot continue into the further stages....so also our Christian lives....so also extending further into these other areas of the Tabernacle ARE VIRTUALLY useless, and UNRECOGNISABLE TO us, if we haven't begun with the basic building blocks.
One main building block is that God LOVES you.
If we've only got this as a rather deep idea, and not as revelation anchoring the very core of our being, ofcourse we are going to view anything God wants to show us or develop us with , with extreme caution. Every new thing in the Spirit, we are going to hold our hands and fists in the air and express what is basically tucked in our guts...."God, I dont believe in new things. I believe in security. I believe in this half-in half-out existence that is my Christian life. I am going to argue with You over every further revelation, and every idea that You have for My life."
In the video below is a dangerous attempt at trying to clarify what sex and romance really is. At first view it will seem like a dangerous mix of worldliness and the Bible. But let's face this full on! The devil presents sex, lust, desire , romance like he invented it. Look straight at it. It is nothing more than a picture. This attraction that Proverbs refers to as a man and a maid. This utter frustration that Adam was made to feel increasingly as he saw every animal had its female counterpart. Where was his? This as Frank Viola , Gene Edwards and others have pointed out is God trying to get over His passion His desire for us.
The wedding at Cana , Jesus first miracle of turning water into wine, was like a betrothal. It was God saying through Jesus ....I am going to have a Bride.
And finally in Revelation this marriage is consummated through the UNION between us and our Bridegroom.
One BIG ROMANCE story. THE BIGGEST. Made even more exciting by all the pitfalls,challenges and impossibilities, all worked together as nothing more than the underside weave of the most wonderful tableau of all time.
10 days ago I heard this on Radio 1 played for the first time, and I was rivetted by the sounds. Here is my attempt to convey what this song communicated. "Go" by Delilah. My video version.
Hmmmmph!!!
Because this is a chart single all over the world YouTube are being very strict here, not even letting me use a remix version of my own making.
2015 -
I have now placed the Delilah video so you can play the music
while actually watching my home made graphic version which has had the audio version distorted...so mute my video and watch the graphics while the original plays and you will see by the choice of graphics and lyrics and Bible verses for the moods what I was trying to say, and better than I can say in just words.
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