His Precious Blood (Part 2)

 

 

Excerpted from In the Cleft of the Rock: Insights into the Blood of Jesus, Resurrection Power, and Saving the Soul by Michael J. Webb



 

We know that first comes the natural, then the spiritual.

God gave Adam and Eve “coats of skin” (Genesis 3:21), dealing with the natural issue first. Man’s body was now “corruptible,” subject to death. Then God banished them from the Garden (Genesis 3:22-24), thus dealing with the spiritual issue. Because Adam and Eve no longer abided in the Presence of God, the Spirit of Eternal Life that covered them—God’s Glory–was now replaced with the spirit of death.

In Hebrew, the word for “light” and “skin” is the same.

It is the Hebrew word, “or.”

The only difference between the two is the use of a consonant for pronunciation. The letter aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, is used for light, while the letter ayin is used for skin. An apparent word play in the text of Genesis 3:21 suggests the idea that man was originally created with “garments of light,” and when he sinned he received “garments of skin.” Several sources, including a number of midrashim, which are early Jewish commentaries on Biblical text, Philo, the Zohar, and at least one well-known Jewish scholar all identify the “coats of skin” in this passage as the physical, or earthly body of man.

Man was created in the image and likeness of God. God’s blood flowed in his “veins.” He lived in the Garden of Eden and ate freely from the Tree of Life. God’s Glory was his “covering.” Man disobeyed and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God’s blood became contaminated with sin. Death not only flowed in the blood, but had legal authority over the spirit of man. The Glory departed.

There are at least two interesting scriptures in the Book of Job that shed light on this perspective of the Fall.

First, when the devil appears before God—along with the sons of God, the angels—God asks him if he has given any thought about His faithful servant, Job. God then makes the point that Job was perfect and upright, that he feared God, and that he ran from evil. He also points out that Job maintained his integrity even though the devil had unjustly come against him, attempting to make him curse God and die. In essence, God tells the devil that Job was a righteous man. The devil immediately replies, “Skin for skin, yes all that a man has will he give for his life.” (Job 2:1-6) The Hebrew word translated “life” is actually the word “soul.”

The text seems to indicate that the devil was mocking God with his statement. His desire had always been to be like The Most High God. (Isaiah 14:12-15). That is why he rebelled and was cast out of Heaven. Perhaps what the devil was saying to the Almighty was, “You may have created man in your image and likeness, but I caused him to fall. Look at your magnificent being of incorruptible light now. He is nothing more than corruptible flesh and blood. I was the one who convinced him to disobey You by prevailing upon his pride. Therefore, I am the one who really is the most powerful.”

Later, Job is talking with his friend Bildad, the Shuhite, about the calamity that has befallen him. In despair, Job expresses his loss of hope. Bildad responds with a discourse about what happens to wicked men, specifically those who do not know God. He says that destruction awaits by their side anxiously, ready to pounce on those who disobey Him. He then adds that destruction “shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.” (Job 18:12-13)

Numerous Hebrew words are translated “strength.” In this particular scripture, however, the word translated “strength” literally means “separation.” This is the only passage in all of Scripture in which this word is so used. It doesn’t appear anywhere else. Additionally, the phrase “firstborn of death” literally means “the one who has the birthright of death.” The literal wording in Hebrew is the following: “Calamity and destruction eats, or consumes, the separation or covering of his skin. The one who has the birthright of death shall eat, or consume, the separation or covering.”

Because of man’s disobedience, God’s Glory, His Eternal Life, was replaced by the spirit of death. The imagery of this passage is that death consumes the covering of man. In the allegorical sense, the Glory is taken away. In the literal sense, the flesh of man fades away as the grass. (1Corinthians 15:39-44)

Sin separated man from God, and His Glory.

 

 

The skin is a reminder of that separation from the covering, or Glory of God. The high priest of death, the firstborn of death, the one who holds the birthright of death, is the devil. In Hebrew tradition, the firstborn male of the family is the priest of the family. He is entitled to receive the full inheritance of his father. Allegorically, Satan is the firstborn of death, just as Jesus is the firstborn of the new creation. Therefore, the devil’s birthright was the power of death, just as the birthright of Christ is the power of Eternal Life.

The devil was reminding God of this fact by his statement.

There also seems to be confirmation of this idea in the burnt offering Israel was to give to God. The Hebrew word translated “burnt offering” literally means “ascending as smoke.” This offering was called the burnt offering, because it was to be consumed completely, and the smoke would then rise to Heaven as a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord. (Leviticus 6:8-13) The burnt offering, unlike the sin and trespass offerings, symbolized the entire surrender to God of the individual, or the congregation. It also symbolized renewal and sanctification, a consecration to living the kind of life that would be pleasing God. The burnt offering had nothing to do with atonement or forgiveness for sin, as did the sin and trespass offerings. Rather, it was an acknowledgment of God’s grace in the individual’s life. Even the strangers who dwelled among the Israelites were permitted to offer burnt offerings to God so long as they had not committed any notorious offense.

According to the command of God, anyone who desired to bring a burnt offering to the Lord was to select an unblemished male from among the herd of cattle. The bullock was then sacrificed, and the priests sprinkled the blood upon the altar at the door of the Tabernacle. Then the bullock was to be flayed. Everything but the skin was to be consumed by the fire. (Leviticus 1:1-6) Because the skin is a reminder of man’s separation from God it was not to be offered in this “grace offering.”

Interestingly, when the sin or trespass offering was made the bullock was not flayed. Everything, including the skin, was consumed by the fire. However, only the priests were entitled to eat the skin. (Leviticus 6:24-7:8) In these offerings, the atonement offerings, the skin is consumed along with the rest of the animal because it is the reminder of the sin of man.

The key to understanding all of this is the blood.

We know that Mary, the mother of Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit. This is commonly called the Virgin Birth. A better term is Immaculate Conception, because God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, was the Father of Jesus. We know that a developing baby’s blood never mixes with the mother’s because of the placental function. Although the mother provides all the nutrients necessary to sustain life, the blood is manufactured by the fetus itself.

Thus, a baby can, and often does, have a different blood type than its mother.

This means that Jesus, when He was conceived by His Heavenly Father, carried His Father’s blood. The same blood Adam carried before the Fall. This is one reason Jesus is called the last Adam. “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” (1Corinthians 15:45) The first Adam and the last Adam had the same Father, and thus the same blood type.

God’s blood.

His Precious Blood (Part 1)

Excerpted from In the Cleft of the Rock: Insights into the Blood of Jesus, Resurrection Power, and Saving the Soul by Michael J. Webb

One of the most misunderstood and least taught about doctrines of the Bible is the blood of Jesus. It is also one of the most important fundamental truths of the Bible the devil hates without measure. Because of the power in the shed blood of Jesus, the enemy will stop at nothing to obscure, diminish, and ridicule its significance. Without the essential doctrine of the importance of the shed blood of Jesus, there can be no doctrine of the resurrection, and without resurrection there would be no Christianity.

In order to grasp the full significance of the blood of Jesus, we must start at the Creation, because it is in the Creation that God established all the fundamental precepts of the work of His hands.

God created man on the sixth day of Creation, along with all the animals in both the land and sea. Genesis 1:26 tells us that man was created in the image and likeness of God, and Genesis 2:7 says: And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. In order for us to fully grasp what is being said in this particular passage of Scripture it will be helpful to use an expanded, more literal, translation of the Hebrew. And Adonai Elohim fashioned Adam, as a potter working with clay, out of the minute particles of the Creation, and intensely blew into his nostrils the living breath of lives; and Adam became a living soul.

We know from Scripture that Jesus created and formed the universe, and that it was He who did the literal work of creation. (Colossians 1:15-18; Ephesians 3:9; John 1:3) Thus, it was He, Adonai Elohim, the Lord God, who formed Adam.

According to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, the etymology of the Hebrew word ‘adam cannot be explained with certainty. Typically, scholars relate the word to the supposed original ruddiness of man’s complexion. The word comes from the same root as the word for blood, which in the Hebrew is “dam.” There are at least four other Hebrew words used for man, with varying shades of meaning, but ‘adam is the only one used in the context of God creating man in His likeness and image.

Adam is not primarily a proper name, although it can be used as such. Perhaps the word Adam, in the context of the Creation, is in reality a combination of two ideas. God is often referred to in Hebrew in terms of the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the aleph and bet. In the Greek, He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. If we combine the idea of God represented by the aleph with the Hebrew word for blood, “dam,” a more literal translation of Adam might well be “God’s blood.”

There are three Hebrew verbs used in the creation story–created, made, and formed. While they have overlapping similarities, there are distinct differences. The verb “formed” does not occur, relative to the creation of man, until Genesis 2:7 and it is the participial tense. This participial verb tense is clearly expressed in Isaiah 64:8, “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and we are all the work of your hand.”

The Hebrew word translated “dust” has varying shades of meaning as well. It can, and does mean dust, particularly in the sense of minute particles. And the Hebrew word for “ground” or “earth” is most often associated with the red arable soil. But it can also mean “the substance of Creation.”

Putting all the imagery together, we have the Master Potter forming, or fashioning, a living being out of the very minute particles of the Creation, and then imparting life with an intense blowing in of His breath.

In Hebrew, the word translated “life” is actually plural, meaning “lives.” The Hebrew suggests that what God was literally doing was imparting His Precious Blood into Adam while at the same time animating him with a spirit and a soul.

Thus, the breath of “lives.”

In Leviticus 17:11 we are told that “the life of the flesh is in the blood.” Certainly, when God formed Adam, He gave him blood. At the very least it seems highly probable that the name associated with mankind would represent the very life-force which animated him.

God’s blood.

 

 

Let’s look at this concept of a “spiritual body” versus a “natural body” for a moment.

Scripture tells us that God made man in His image and likeness. We know that God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all. (1 John1:5) Light was the very first thing God created. (Genesis.1:3) Jesus is the True Light. (Revelation 21:23) The Glory of God is called the Light “which no man can approach, which no man can see.” (1Timothy 6:16) Finally, in the twinkling of an eye we will all be raised incorruptible and be changed in an instant. We will receive a glorified body. (1Corinthians 15:51-54) The same kind of body that Jesus had after His resurrection. This is what the Apostle Paul was talking about when he said there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. (1Corinthians 15:44) In all likelihood, we will look much like Adam and Eve looked before the Fall. The Glory of God will be our covering, and thus there will be no need for clothing. (Colossians 3:4)

The spirit realm, then, is the realm of Light.

It seems highly likely that when God created Adam (God’s blood) He created him as a being of light in some sense. We know that Adam had an incorruptible body until the Fall. It was not until Adam and Eve ate of the tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil that mankind became corruptible flesh in the sense that he is today.

When Adam (God’s blood) ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God’s blood (Adam) became contaminated with sin.

God had previously warned Adam, saying “But of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and Evil you shall not eat of it: for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:7) Yet, Adam and Eve did not instantly drop dead when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A more literal translation of the Hebrew would be, “in the day you eat of it, in dying you will die.”

God was warning Adam and Eve that just as He had given them the breath of “lives,” His blood and His spirit, they would die twice if they ate of the one tree in the garden He had commanded them not to partake of.

First, and immediately, they would die spiritually, because they would no longer have access to His Eternal Life, the Tree of Life. They would lose the covering of His Glory. Eventually, they would die physically, because sin was at work in their bodies, which were no longer immortal bodies cocooned by the Light of His Glory, but mere mortal bodies of flesh and bone.

Next week, we’ll dig deeper and look further at one of the great mysteries of the Bible.

Prisons of the Mind – Can Deafness Set The Captive Free

Recently a deaf person emailed me a letter that profoundly touched me. I don’t have permission to print it—hopefully at some point I will—but I wanted to share my response to her. 

I have a large contingent of deaf and hearing-impaired people who follow my blog. Her struggles are universal also, not just confined to those who are hearing disabled. 

I pray that my thoughts are Godly and thought-provoking. Salvation is a momentary decision but can take a lifetime of surrendering. Wherever you are in that decision, after reading this blog post, please share. This may be your moment….don’t waste it.

Can Deafness Set the Captive Free

Prisons of the Mind – Can Deafness Set The Captive Free

By Lorilyn Roberts

Satan’s biggest deception is to masquerade as an angel of light. He wants to trick us into believing, if it were possible, that Jesus Christ is not the answer. The paradox is that God made us both strong and weak. We are strong in the sense that we fight for life at all costs, longing for what He gave us in the beginning – eternal life. We are weak in the sense that true happiness can’t be found except in our relationship with Him. If Satan can convince us we can be as God, our pride will make us reluctant to admit we need anyone or anything else. Humility lies at the beginning of the road to salvation.

There are many kinds of prisons and you’ve found one of them – the bottle. Prisons null our pain, but they also take away our freedom—most importantly, the freedom to choose. God also never takes away our freedom to fail but will never not give us what we need to succeed. The devil will give you what you think you want—God will give you Himself. Some prisoners will go to their grave having sold their soul to the devil—for this world and the next. For what? A lie. 

Ultimate freedom in Christ will never take away your freedom of choice. If you have made idols of your wants or lowered your expectations of what will make you happy, you will be imprisoned in your mind to false gods that will do nothing to save your soul. Sin feels good at the time, but a moment of bliss can bring a lifetime of regret. Ultimately, sin will destroy your ability to hear God’s voice. Don’t forget, eternity is forever. We will all spend eternity in heaven or in hell. The choice is ours.

You are strong in the sense you have found freedom by conquering your dependency on alcohol. God has blessed you with a spouse to love and cherish. As you have discovered, however, it’s not enough to be free FROM something. We need to find our freedom IN something.

There is not enough of anything in this world to bring us complete happiness. There is not enough power ball money, adoration of fans, cushy jobs, plastic surgery, or computer gadgets to fill our hearts. We aren’t made to have a relationship with idols. We are made for a relationship with Jesus Christ. Without Him, all other pursuits may bring partial or temporary happiness, but they are fleeting at best.

That brings me to the root of your quest for answers. Who is God? You were born deaf, and your whole life has been devoted to overcoming this limitation in order to survive in a world where nearly everyone else hears. You feel flawed, shortchanged, and your perceptions have influenced many of the choices you have made, both good and bad.

Has it ever occurred to you that God made you that way for a purpose? You might ask me, “Why would God do that?”

People ask that question in reference to their own “flaws” or “disappointments” or “lot in life” hundreds of time each day. I have asked myself that same question – I even ask it of others. Why did God take away my friend’s eyesight  (Author Janet P. Eckles, http://www.janetperezeckles.com/three-keys-to-claim-gods-miracles/)? Why did my beautiful adopted daughter from Nepal suffer for years with seizures? Why did God allow her to drink contaminated water from Nepal that gave her a brain infection? Why are there 150 million orphans around the world with little hope of being adopted?

My goal is not to make you feel guilty or to compare your disability with others. You have already done that plenty of times. We all have. That is part of Satan’s ploy, to guilt us into feeling like we are no good, or trick us into comparing ourselves with others with a legalistic yardstick—God does not measure our value in such a demonic, meaningless way.

We need to remember how much our sin grieves God. It took the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, to make it possible for us to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Can we know the evilness of sin and appreciate the price God paid in our fallen, depraved state? We can’t see it—except through suffering. We see sin when we see a young child die of cancer. We see sin on the battlefield during war, in a car accident that devastates a family, in a drug overdose that kills a young person, and in the sex trafficking trade in Nepal and India. We shake our fist at those things and proclaim the wickedness of man, aghast that any decent human being could rip out a young girl’s genitals and sell her as a slave. We cringe and become angry—angry at what we know is wrong and inhumane.

Our infirmities remind us of our need for Jesus Christ. We are driven to repent when we realize how weak we are in spirit to do even one good thing. Our blindness and deafness and diseases awaken us from an indifferent slumber and instill in us a longing for the day God will wipe away every tear. We don’t suffer in vain—we suffer for God’s glory. If we give our weaknesses to Him, something supernatural happens within us that is more powerful than anything man can invent or achieve. The Holy Spirit makes us bold, enables us to let go of past hurts and forgive. We are compelled to take our eyes off of ourselves and focus our hearts and minds on the one who created us. We remember once again we aren’t made for this world. We are made for eternity.

Your ability to rise above your deafness can only take you so far—it can’t overcome that emptiness within you that only the Holy Spirit can fill. In fact, Jesus Christ is so much bigger than your deafness, that if you truly allowed Him into your heart, your heart couldn’t contain Him. You would burst with joy—not that you are deaf, but that He’d given you so much joy. You would thank your deafness for allowing you the privilege of bringing others into the kingdom.

God has given each person many gifts. He has given you a gift of writing. If you want God to use you to help others, you need to claim one gift which you have not yet unwrapped. You need to claim His gift of salvation.

You have figured out how to live in this world marginally happy, but you know there is something missing. You are using the freedom God gave you to reject Him—His love for you and His salvation for you—forever. Forever is a very long time. If you die as a believer, you will be given a new body with perfect hearing. The greatest gift you will receive in heaven will be your appreciation for what you never had here. I believe my greatest gift will be the unconditional love of Jesus—the assurance that He will never leave me—I fear being abandoned.

What we don’t have here for God’s glory will be magnified in heaven, poured out, given with such generosity it will be as the stars that shine down on us or the sands that cover the seashore. If God lavished us with those perfect gifts here, would we really appreciate them? How many people have died lonely and broken—seemingly who had everything? How many truly happy people live in Hollywood? It is out of our need that God fills us, for then we know without Him, we are needy. The nothingness is what draws us to Him and enables us to be used by Him. We become His witness, His voice, His legs, His eyes, His voice, and His servants. We become part of the Great Commission.

Ask yourself: How can I use my deafness to draw people into a relationship with Jesus Christ? Use the one thing you don’t have to glorify Him—and you will find that your greatest suffering and need will become your greatest asset and joy.

Remember also, God loves you. He loves you more than you can imagine. Someday you will stand before heaven’s gates—will they open and allow you to enter? Don’t let anyone take away your desire to know the truth. As the Bible says, the truth will set you free. The search for answers will lead you down paths that only God can answer, that won’t be found in bottles of wine or quick fixes that lead to death.

I want to share a short excerpt from my book, Seventh Dimension – The Door, about a young girl who spent her whole life bullied and rejected by others. She was imprisoned by her worthless and destructive self-image. Read what the King did and ask yourself, is this not me?

Then the king turned towards me. I now knew the king completely—as my heavenly father, the father who loved me, the father who would never leave me or forsake me.

 “Your sins are forgiven.” He held out his hands and the fresh scars on his wrists overwhelmed me. Tears flowed freely. He said, “I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

A birdcage gently floated down from the sky and landed in his outstretched hands. He took the cage and hung it on an olive tree. 

A small bird sat inside the cage. The king opened the door to the cage and the small creature walked from its perch and alighted on his finger. He lifted the bird out of the cage, kissed it, and whispered, “You are a daughter of the king.” I realized at that moment, he was saying those words to me. I felt his tender kiss on my forehead.

I gazed into the sky as the bird flew into the heavens. Before I could say anything, the king was gone.

In Luke 4:18, Jesus said, "The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for He has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free.”

You’ve been a prisoner long enough. Jesus, the King wants to set you free. He has opened the door to your heart, just as He opened the door to the bird cage for Shale and set her free. Don’t delay. Invite Jesus into your heart, ask Him to forgive you of all your sins, receive the Holy Spirit, and begin the first day of the rest of your life. You have a story to tell that only you can share. Someone needs to hear it, not the least of which is me. I want to know what Jesus has done in your life. Please share it in the comments below.

I will give away a free copy of my book Seventh Dimension – the Door, to anyone whose story is compelling, just for sharing.

This Is Not Your Mother's Church . . . (Part 2)

        

As a result of my dramatic encounter with Holy Spirit, shortly after I committed my life to Jesus, I purchased a Bible and began to study it in earnest. The first thing I did was read it through from Genesis to Revelation. Whew, talk about chewing on an oversized piece of steak! I bit off the spiritual “King of the “T-bones, the Porterhouse. Once I’d chewed my way through that, I went back and began to focus on the things Holy Spirit was calling my attention to.

I’ve continued that in-depth study for over three decades.

One of the foundations for my passion with God’s Word is my personal belief that I am living in the generation that will see the return of Jesus Christ. Prior to my extraordinary visitation with Holy Spirit, I had very little understanding of just exactly what the Second Coming was all about. I was vaguely familiar with it and knew only that it was an event that religious people were always talking about and using as a means to “get people saved.” But I really had no idea what it was all about.

So I started digging.

In the process, Holy Spirit began to open up Scripture to me like peeling back an onion. The more I studied, the deeper I wanted to go. Scripture tells us that the Word of God is like “honey on our lips.” For me, it was more like taffy in my mouth. The more I chewed on it, the bigger and stickier it got.

After a couple of months of studying under the guiding hand of Holy Spirit, He told me it was time to go back to church. I wasn’t looking forward to it, because of my previous experiences. Nevertheless, I was obedient and went to the church the Lord directed me to.

I realized fairly quickly that this church “was not my mother’s kind of church.” Nor was it like any other church I had ever been in. I actually enjoyed going. I was there all the time, whenever the doors were open. I grew in my faith and fellowshipped with like-minded people several times a week. But I was also spending a great deal of time studying the Word on my own.

I moved several times and always looked for a new church. God was faithful to direct my steps, and I continued to grow in m faith.

Over time, however, I began to realize that in spite of the fact that there we no obvious similarities between the churches I was now part of and my mother’s church, or the other churches I’d visited when I was younger, some of the very same behavior manifested time and again.

Perhaps the best way I can describe it is like the story of the three blind men asked to describe an elephant. One grasps the trunk, one a leg, and the other the tail. When asked, each describes what they have “experienced” by touch and each is adamant that they have accurately described what an elephant looks like. Sadly, this is the way most Believers talk in terms of describing The Church. They focus on whatever “their” particular denomination or church thinks is the most important thing: evangelism, prophecy, feeding the poor, outreach to the community, praise and worship, healing, teaching, preaching, apostolic oversight, and so on. Various groups of Believers embrace titles for their faithful leaders such as Apostle, Prophet, Teacher, Evangelist, Healer, Bishop, etc. in order to let others know what they major in. Like attracts like and individuals are drawn to whatever captures their interest. They also have a tendency to leave and go elsewhere when they lose interest or disagree with the current focus of their leaders.

Of course, these various aspects of Body life are all important ministry functions of “the Church.” We are a many-membered Body, and it is essential that all of these ministry functions, and others, are present in order for the Body to be healthy. Unfortunately, it is extremely rare to find all of these “body parts” working together in unison and harmony under one ministry covering.

Why is that?

To put it bluntly, the religious spirit knows no bounds. It is equally satisfied telling individuals that if you aren’t baptized you aren’t saved, or that God stopped speaking to His people prophetically when the Apostle John died on the isle of Patmos in 93 A.D., or that tongues is of the devil, or that we can only know and interact with God by His Word, or that we need fresh revelation by Holy Spirit which is then elevated in importance over God’s written Word, etc. One can easily find a multitude of religious and divisive behaviors in every Christian denomination and belief system.
 

         

 

This is called sectarianism--bigotry, discrimination, or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group. Sadly, the Christian Church is rife with this. We squabble over just about everything. That must change, because Scripture tells us that Jesus always intended that He might present the Church to Himself as a “glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but it should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph.5:27-28) 

 Am I saying that foundational doctrines such as baptism, the Deity of Christ, the Trinity, sanctification, etc. are unimportant? Of course not. However, my point is that we, as individuals and corporately, need to wake up and realize that God’s primary interest is for us to be intimate with Him. Intimacy is essential to a healthy relationship. Intimacy also is the enemy of religion.

Who is the Church, anyway? Simply put, the Church literally means “the called out ones.” The word “church” in our New Testament is translated from the Greek word eccelsia. In Hebrew, it actually means "calling people together for a specific purpose.” We are “called out” to be in this world but no of it. We are “called out” to be salt and light to a dying, sinful world. We are “called out” to live a sanctified life on a daily basis. We are “called out” not to become a member of a particular denomination, but to The Kingdom. His Kingdom. A Kingdom where there is no lack, but abundance. A Kingdom where healing is accepted and expected. A Kingdom where God’s prophetic Word is embraced and obeyed. A Kingdom where we put more emphasis on the importance of a daily relationship with Holy Spirit than our religious doctrines. A Kingdom where we endeavor to only do that which we see our Father doing. A Kingdom where we are willing to do what is necessary to bring our soul into submission to the Spirit so that we might grow into full maturity. A Kingdom where Jesus, and not a particular doctrine or set of doctrines, is what we worship.

A final point on my belief that we are the generation who will witness and experience the prophetic return of Christ and all that entails. If that belief--which originated over thirty years ago during the time of my “visitation ” is correct and not simply the result of going without food for several days, or, perhaps, some lingering effects of the sinful life I was still living a few months prior--then it is imperative that we prepare for what is racing toward us at the speed of a freight train on a downhill run. If that belief is error, then at the very least I have endeavored to live my life each day as if the return of our Lord and Savior is sooner than most would like to admit.

In closing, I’d like to say this. I chose the title for this blog because it is something the Lord said to me when I first went back to church. He whispered in my ear, “This is not your mother’s church. There isn’t a solitary preacher at the head of my Body who has the final word on My Word. Nor is My church multi-headed, like a chimera. I am The Head. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Seek Me with all your heart, and you will find Me--just like I found you on that overpass."

 

This Is Not Your Mother's Church . . . (Part 1)

   

A little over thirty years ago I reached a crisis point.

My life was unraveling in just about every area, and I was about to make an irrevocable decision. I was driving my car at over one hundred miles an hour on an overpass on the Boulder/Denver Turnpike on a sunny, but cold, March morning. There were a slew of demonic voices whispering in my head, relentlessly telling me how worthless a human being I was and how easy it would be to drive off the road and end my pain and suffering. The ground yawned one hundred feet below, waiting to receive me with open arms, an un-dug grave.

Then, something extraordinary happened.

In an instant, The One True Living God invaded my torment, banished the voices in the blink of an eye, and told me how much He loved me. He then proceeded to distract me from my temporary insanity by showing me all the good in my life instead of condemning me for all the bad.

Three was plenty of bad and, in my mind, not much good at all.

But He showed me how wrong I was to believe the lies the enemy of my soul had been so adept at spinning for a very long time. I’ve had multiple first-hand experiences since that incredible, life-changing moment battling the Father of Lies, both for myself and others. Fortunately, I’ve also had even more encounters with The Prince of Peace, The Ancient of Days, The Holy One of Israel.

When people ask me about those dark days, I often tell them that I was looking for God in all the wrong places (yes, I borrowed that from the Country Western song and replaced one word, although love and God are easily interchangeable). I also tell them that I was dragged into the Kingdom kicking and screaming, and that God definitely got the worst end of the deal. I, like Paul, was chief among sinners. I sinned with gusto. I was not much of a prize when the Lord pulled me back from the precipice, both feet hanging dangerously over the brink of the Abyss. 

I’m so very glad He did.

Shortly after He found me and plucked me from an eternity of torment separated from Him, I had a series of encounters with Holy Spirit that set the course of my life in Him. Before I share a bit about that, and the point of today’s blog, some background is important.

I grew up in a “typical” middle-class home. My dad worked two jobs. My mother stayed at home until I was twelve and old enough to take care of my brother while she went back to school to earn both her college degree in Teaching and a Master’s in Library Science. Dad’s parents were Methodist, but he had no place for any kind of religion in his life. He viewed Preachers right up there with used car salesmen. Mom grew up a staunchly faithful Baptist and won awards for perfect attendance in Sunday school--until she turned fourteen. She’d been having dramatic encounters with Holy Spirit and shared them with her pastor. He told her to stop having those encounters, because “they were of the devil.” You see, mom’s experiences with Holy Spirit did not fit the pastor’s religious theology; therefore they could not possibly be of God. As a result, mom left the organized church and wandered in the wilderness for the next five decades. She was on a quest to find out the truth about God, and her sincere desire to grow closer to Him led her into the welcoming arms of the New Age Movement. Mom never did anything half-way. She became one of its staunchest disciples. I’m the oldest, and we have always been close, so she passed along everything she learned to me. She was a wonderful teacher, and I was her best student. I drank it all up like a man who hasn’t had water in days, because I was on a quest myself.

A quest that had been ordained before the foundations of the world.

 

 

      
I grew up hearing all about God, very little about Jesus, and nothing about Holy Spirit. My mother gave God credit for everything good that happened in our lives and taught me to trust Him even when things fell apart. She taught me the importance of tithing, how to turn the other check, how important it is to forgive those who hurt me, the blessings that come when I lay down my own soulish desires and put the needs of others first, and the biblical mandate of generosity toward the poor. She taught by example, living what she’d learned.

But there was something missing.

A pearl of great price that took me eighteen years to find.

Jesus and Holy Spirit.

You might think that knowing all about God is enough. I can tell you from first-hand experience, it isn’t. You might think that knowing all about God and Jesus is enough. It isn’t. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are a package deal. We need an intimate relationship with all three if we’re going to be victorious and overcome the world as Jesus did, both for ourselves and for others. Think of the package this way: Father is the magnificent engine of a beautiful and highly-sought-after vintage car. Son is the one-of-a-kind key to the ignition. It cannot, and has never been, replicated. Holy Spirit is the high-octane fuel that can only be used in this unique automobile. Working in unison, they are a functioning and all-powerful automobile. An extraordinary vehicle that turns heads whenever and wherever it shows up. However, if even one of the Trinity is missing, the car is going nowhere and will be good for little more than looking at and admiring.

Back to my story about the dramatic encounters with Holy Spirit shortly after I made a decision to surrender everything to Him.

Over a three week period I had a series of “visitations.” In Christian lingo this simply means Holy Spirit revealed Himself to me in a dramatic and undeniable fashion. The very first thing God spoke to me through Holy Spirit was that I would live to see His Son coming in Glory and that I would be living in Jerusalem. I really didn’t know what this meant, but I knew it was important and that I had to study and find out exactly what this shocking heavenly pronouncement meant for me.

I was thirty years old, and I’d never read or studied the Bible. We had them at home, but they were just books we carried with us to church and kept on our laps while the preacher told us what God really meant to say in His Word. We were sheep and the preachers were the keepers of knowledge. It was understood by all that they had the answers. If our questions didn’t fit with their answers, there was something wrong with us.

Consequently, I didn’t last very long in any church.

 

I was searching for truth, however, and I was diligent in spite of my misgivings. I went to the Methodist church of my grandparents, gave my mom’s Baptist church a whirl, went to Mass with a Catholic girl I dated briefly, and visited a Synagogue with another girl I dated. I found a great deal of religious hypocrisy in all of them mixed with bits and pieces of truth. In my youthful arrogance, I decided none of them knew what the heck they were talking about. So, for over fifteen years I wandered in the wilderness as well, following in mom’s erstwhile footsteps. 

Please don’t think I’m bashing any particular denomination. 

I’m not. 

 

There’s plenty of hypocrisy and religious bondage in all of the denominations, so they are all in good company. Let me also be clear, I am not bashing individuals, denominations, or even the Church as a whole. In fact, I’m not being critical at all, in spite of what you might think. I’m merely making a point about the distinction between religious views and behavior, and relationship. God has as much distaste for religion as I do. In fact, I leaned from Him that He hates religion. He could care less what denomination we idolize and bind ourselves to. His only interest is in having an intimate relationship with His creation. If you don’t believe that, you might want to spend some quality time in your Bible, starting with the stories about the Sadducees and Pharisees.

Next week, I’ll pick up my story, and we’ll delve a bit deeper into the meaning of “This is not your mother’s church . . .”

How Hard Is It To Find Eternal Life?

Nothing is standing in your way, but you.

Moses stopped mid step. Voices drifted around the tent he’d been about to pass. Apprehension crawled up his arms like spiders. He peeked around the edge of the tent and saw Deuel and Gameliel.

“Can you believe it?,” demanded Deuel. “Why won’t God and Moses give us anything but this flaky manna to eat? It gets stuck in my dry throat and coats my swollen tongue. Is it too much to ask for some decent food and water?”

Gameliel nodded his agreement. He wrinkled his forehead. “I’m sick and tired of it too.” Sweat trickled down his brow. “You would think that with this many men, God would give us a competent leader.

If only this was the one time he’d heard that complaint this week, but rumbling discontent rolled through the camp. He clenched his hands into fists. Frustration forced his heart to speed up. Would these people ever stop complaining? He was trying, really trying to lead them as he trusted God to show him the way. They just couldn’t seem to be happy for very long. How would God respond to this new onslaught of whining? He might have to convince God not to wipe them off the face of the earth . . . again.

Rustling in the bushes beside him drew his attention. A shiny black snake flashed past the toe of his sandal. Moses jerked his foot back. His heart raced. That was a mole viper. Its fangs contained the liquid of death. And that particular snake was not small. Moses wiped his sweaty palms on his tunic and swallowed hard.

A scream punctured the air. Moses ran around the tent. Deuel lay writhing in the dirt. “It bit me!” His voice crackled with terror. He gripped his chest. His nails scratched and caught at his tunic. The old cloth tore beneath his grip. “Burns . . .” he gasped, “It burns.” He drew in ragged breaths.

Gameliel just stared at the man before him. His mouth was open in shock and his hands shook. Moses squatted beside Deuel.

“It flashed past me and bit Deuel in the thigh, then disappeared into the bushes over there.” Gaeliel’s shaking finger pointed to his right. He looked at Moses. His dark eyes were large with fear. “W-what should we do?”

Moses ran his hand over his hair and exhaled. Another scream filled the air, then another, and another. “I don’t know,” Moses turned in a circle and watched as the camp erupted into a flurry of activity. Men and women ran to him. Many nearly stomped on the prone Deuel before they stopped.

The people cried to Moses, ‘Please,” they pleaded, “We have complained against you and God.” Many threw themselves at Moses’s feet, their faces pressed into the dirt. “Pray for us,” they begged. “Pray that God will remove the snakes.”

Moses looked above their heads and saw the quick movement of black snakes writhing among the tents. Many coiled and struck as he watched. He looked back to the people, nodded, and ran toward the tabernacle. The hot sun burned his back as he ran. It seemed much hotter than a few moments ago.

Moses prayed fervently. These people could get on his nerves so easily, but he didn’t want any harm to come to them. And then God spoke. If the people were to be saved, Moses had a task before him. The screams seeped through the thick fabric of the tabernacle and Moses jumped to his feet. He ran to the closets metal worker’s tent, grabbed tools, and demanded, “Gather enough bronze to make a snake about so big.” He held his hand out to show the width and then the height. The smith stuttered and then ran to obey.

Hours later, Moses lifted a staff up. Gleaming on the top of it sat a coiled bronze snake. Moses walked slower than he wished, but he was exhausted. He carried the pole to the center of the camp and thrust it forcefully into the ground. It sank in easier than he thought it would. When he let go of the pole, the snake quivered atop it, then stood still like a standard of war.

The people around him gaped at the bronze snake, then turned questioning eyes to him.

Moses pointed to the snake, “If someone is bitten, he may come here and look at the snake, and God will heal him. He will live. Spread the word through camp.”

Moses wobbled on tired legs. Joshua rushed to him and draped Moses arm over his shoulder. “Come,” he spoke softly, “you must rest.”

Moses frowned. “Who will make sure they look upon the snake.”

Joshua quirked one side of his mouth in a half grin, “I think that’s rather the point, each person must decide if he is willing to look upon the statue and live.” He craned his neck to look Moses in the eye, “Do you think God wants us to be forced into salvation, or does He want us to choose it?”

Moses grunted and nodded in assent. The deaths of those who would not look upon the standard weighed heavily on his heart. He had led these people for a long time and knew that some would rather die than submit to God’s simple plan.

Sure enough, as he walked through the camp he heard angry shouts. Family members physically dragged loved ones, who weakly fought them, toward the center of camp.

One man stood in front of his tent, jumped and grabbed the back of his leg. A shinny mole viper rushed beneath his upraised leg and toward another tent. The man gritted his teeth and looked at Moses. Anger and resentment made his eyes harsh and ugly. He shook his fist at Moses, “This is your fault, I will not look at a stupid bronze snake!” He turned on his good leg and entered his tent.

What about you? Have you looked upon Jesus and found salvation?

John 3:14-15 “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.” NASB

Don’t let the poison of sin take you into eternal death and torment. All you must do is look to Jesus. He is the only way to find eternal life. He paid the ultimate price, by dying for your infractions. Better yet, He even beat death when He rose, alive three days later. Is it really too much to ask that you acknowledge your rebellion against God and then thank Jesus for serving your sentence?

 If you have taken the first look at your savior and gained eternal life, have you chosen to surrender everything to Him? Your plans, health, spouse, children, control. Isn’t it strange that we have to surrender something that we never really had? Control is something that we don’t have now and never have had, yet we cling to the illusion with teeth bared and fists clenched. I confess that I get a little annoyed that I have to surrender these things day by day and moment by moment, repeatedly, but is our Lord asking too much? I don’t think so. Will you join with me today in surrendering our deepest hurts, fears, joys, worries, what if’s and the illusion of control?

I think today is going to be FANTASTIC.

This was a dramatization of Numbers 21:4-9

If you enjoy learning through fiction, you will be blessed through my book The Presence of Shadows. It’s a young adult fantasy, however many adults have found it enjoyable. Why not strengthen the pre-teens and teens in your life with a greater understanding of Old Testament history? Watch as they fall in love with God through His word.
I invite you to dive into the world of Ta-Val and take a journey with Brehane as he decides who to trust. Do you like the dramatization above? In The Presence of Shadows I dramatize the lives and event of the Kings and prophets of Israel. It is the first book in the Chronicles of Kings and Dragons series.

Find out more about The Presence of Shadows Here KaraHowell.com
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