April 19, 2013

G' Morning!

 

David Herzog is about as unconventional as they come among those of the prophetic community.  As I begin writing this Coffee Break, I've just finished streaming his time of sharing, teaching and prophesying at Paul Keith Davis' S.O.S. gathering for this week.  Although he shared a whole lot tonight, one thing in particular really stands out. 

 

I'd venture to say that there's not a one of us who hasn't prayed for healing or deliverance or resurrection for someone.  Ever wonder why we don't see more results?  OK, think about it like this.  Your Aunt Sally has cancer and you're praying for her to be healed.  Everything in you says that you're praying according to the will of God.  You know the Word of God!  You know -- at least you quote the Scripture from I Peter 2:24 from time to time -- that "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." 

 

It's an accomplished fact!  Right?  Jesus already paid for all the healing we could possibly need for every disease under the sun.  There's nothing He didn't already provide for by His death and resurrection!  The operative phrase here is, "ye WERE healed"....... PAST TENSE!

 

So how come Aunt Sally isn't getting better?  Why aren't you seeing the answer to your fervent prayer?  Here's the problem.  Our mind -- our subconscious thoughts -- are interfering.  Subconsciously, we're planning Aunt Sally's funeral.  Here's how David Herzog put it: "We need a miracle of          mind-renewal!  We need an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the restoration of our minds and thoughts!"

 

OK?  I could spend this whole Coffee Break on that theme, but maybe we'll come back to that at a later time.  Onward with our discussion on the transformation of our onoma!  Pour yourself a cup of some of that good really dark roasted French Roast coffee and pull up a chair.

 

3.  The “Teaching of Baptisms” releases within our onoma two things essential to our transformation.

 

The first is baptism in water, which signifies our agreement with, and testimony to, the efficacy of Jesus’ shed blood on the Cross.  Jesus’ death on the Cross was an event with legal implications.  His blood represented “life for life.”  He allowed Himself to be murdered by Satan so that the sentence of death hanging over the human race could be nullified.

 

Nearly 20 years ago, I wrote an Open Letter to the Ekklesia titled, It is Finished.  Parts of that article have been quoted from time to time in various Coffee Breaks in which we have talked about the necessity of canceling Satan’s legal hold over the human race.  A Plan was set in motion before time began which would provide the means for us as created beings to overcome and defeat his authority in our lives.  Jesus fulfilled the first and most essential part of that plan by being murdered on the Cross, by taking with Himself on the cross all of our bondages to Satan, all of our failings, all of our sicknesses and diseases – and Satan himself – to the death!

 

Then He nullified death by rising from the dead on the third day.  By so doing, He set the stage for all who would agree with His position as the Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Bridegroom who eagerly awaited His Bride, all who would agree with His death and resurrection, all who would agree with His  ascendancy and superiority over Satan, and empowered them to die and rise again from the dead even as He had done.

 

The simple act of agreement with Jesus’ power over death was demonstrated in water baptism.  The “agreer” died as he or she was immersed – buried, if you will – under the   water.  The “agreer” then rose from the dead as he or she came up out of the water.  The act of agreement with Jesus Christ legally freed the agreeing individual from any penalties for sin which would have been incurred as slaves to Satan.  The act of water baptism testified before the Universal Court, and before Satan and all his cadre of evil spirits, that their legal hold was broken.  This, however, was only the first phase of the “teaching of baptisms.”

 

The second phase was being baptized in the Holy Spirit.  Baptism in the Holy Spirit was the means by which those who agreed with all that Jesus Christ had done, was     doing, and had purposed for them, enacted legally their acquiescence to being betrothed to Jesus Christ.

 

It signified their willingness to be taken into “the King’s house,” even as Esther had done, to begin the “time of preparation and thlipsis” in order to be          readied as a co-equal counterpart for the King of Kings.  Baptism in the Holy Spirit also set the stage for the “betrothed” to begin receiving her dowry: the gifts which were the promise of things to come – a foretaste of the changed onoma, the promise of being “like Him.”  That dowry – those gifts – were to be manifested as that which we have come to refer to as “the gifts of the Spirit.”

 

Let me pause for just a moment.  Are you seeing the picture of “foundations?”  Are you beginning to understand how all of these things are only the “baby basics” – how they must precede true intimate relationship with Jesus Christ?  Salvation does not create      relationship with Jesus Christ – it only sets part of the foundation for that relationship.  Faith in God does not create relationship, but it is essential to our existence if a relationship is to develop.  Baptisms do not create relationship – they set the stage for our preparation by the Holy Spirit for that relationship.

 

4.  “The Laying on of Hands” brings us to another foundation fundamental: the     impartation (or actual transmission) of the power of Jesus’ onoma.  One of the basics of a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ necessitates the transference of that which we generally refer to as “the baptism in the Holy Spirit,” as well as His healing virtue, and the dynamic of true revelation which comes through and by the Spirit.  The    transference of that dunamis (power, “dynamite”) is consummated through the physical touch which comes when a person already imbued lays hands upon another who is asking for “the baptism of the Holy Spirit,” healing, etc.

 

Generally implied – although there are exceptions to this – is the fact that the one  laying hands upon another has already entered into a place of relationship with Jesus Christ, and has matured in that relationship.  The onoma of Jesus Christ must have already been at least partially developed for that transference to occur.  While the laying on of hands should imply a degree of fellowship and intimacy between the individual (who performs the act) and Jesus Christ, it is not necessarily an indicator of that.

 

By way of illustration, when our son, Chris, was six years old, he was laying hands on other children who were suffering from various afflictions including legs or arms which were too short or crippled.  In each and every case (without exception) a miracle of healing and/or restoration occurred.  He was not even yet baptized in the Holy Spirit when it happened.  The Lord simply took the opportunity of that simple expression of faith as a means to demonstrate His grace and love for those children whom Chris touched.

 

He did not receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit until six years later when he asked me to lay hands on him for that purpose.  When Mike Scudder and I laid hands on Chris, he instantly received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and began to prophesy.  Not long thereafter, Chris likewise laid hands on one of his friends, Chris Schlotfeldt, who also    received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

 

The laying on of hands, therefore, is a simple fundamental of Jesus’ onoma.  It is part and parcel of His nature and makeup; and those who respond to His expressed desire to manifest His grace, or love, or power towards some individual become nothing more than a vehicle or a pipeline for His onoma.  By the laying on of hands, the Holy Spirit chooses to move through one individual into another; and then into another, and then into another, etc., etc., ad infinitum, until the heart’s desire of the Bridegroom be accomplished and fulfilled.

 

5.  “The Resurrection of the Dead” encompasses both the spiritual and the natural realm.  This is one of the most basic of truths at the foundation of all relationship with Jesus Christ.  First and foremost, it has spiritual significance and importance.  It is this dimension which is of greatest concern to the Lord – and probably the one to which we have accorded the least attention.  From the moment Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they (and all their descendants) became infected with what I have come to refer to as the “knowledge virus.”  Beyond the consequences imposed upon their natural, physical beings, (i.e., death) their spiritual genetic makeup also became infected.  Every human being born into this world since has had an appointment with death.

 

That it has been, first and foremost, a death of the spirit is demonstrated among those who make “knowledge” to become the priority of their existence.  That knowledge inflates the ego and the self-will, leading individuals to walk according to that which they have learned intellectually, setting aside the responses of the spirit to the Lord (because they are not logical to the trained mind).  The more they rely on their own      intellect and mental skills, the more this “knowledge virus” becomes ensconced as the HIV of the spirit.

 

An aging scientist friend of ours lamented one day in a luncheon conversation with us that he would give all that he has to know the Lord personally and enjoy the revelation he has seen us walk in on a daily basis, but that he just can’t seem to set aside the reasonings of his mind.  I said to him, “My friend, your problem is that you are so brilliant, you are stupid.”  (A former colleague of Einstein’s, he has an IQ exceeding 200.)

 

Dr. Joe intellectually assents to the knowledge of God and the claims of Jesus Christ, has even prayed “the sinners’ prayer,” but is completely lacking in a personal relationship, and readily admitted that he cannot cope with spiritual things because “they don’t make any sense.”  He has become a victim of the “knowledge virus.” Without deliverance from that virus none of us can walk in the Spirit.  Stated another way, Joe's “knowledge” and brilliant mind are separating him from a living relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

John the Baptist prophesied of Jesus on the day of his baptism in the Jordan river, “And now the axe is laid to the root of the tree.” (Matthew 3:10)  What tree?  The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  With Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, therefore, He      reversed the course of the “knowledge virus” for all those who would become one with Him, making it possible once again to have the same intimate love-relationship that Adam and Eve experienced during all those years they walked and talked with Him in the Garden.

 

For Adam and Eve, death first occurred for them in the realm of the spirit when they ate of the fruit of that tree.  The immediate consequence was their forcible eviction from the Garden and separation from intimacy with the Lord.  Jesus’ first priority, therefore, was to “lay the axe to the root of the tree,” severing the possibility of a recurrence of that death; and then raise from the dead all those who would choose to enter into life in the spirit with Him.

 

During the three and a half years of His public ministry, He demonstrated His power over all death by raising the dead.  He sent forth His disciples with the command, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons; freely you have received: freely give.” (see Matthew 10:8)

 

None of them had been raised from the dead in the natural realm, but all had been raised up in the spirit.  Thus, they were able to give what they had received.  And they went forth doing just that: healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, casting out demons, etc.  This should be the hallmark of all those who live in a place of genuine relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

Both Della and I have experienced raising the dead on at least two different occasions each.  On one occasion, I was the one who was raised from the dead.  My father was raised from the dead as a six-year-old and given to the Lord as a direct part of that incident.  Most of you are aware of Della’s part in raising Marcia from the dead after she was killed in an accident a little over three years ago.  This is, and should be, the norm for all of us – not the exception.

 

Resurrection from the dead was first established by our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, on our behalf.  It was not a mark of our relationship with Him.  He did it so that we could have an intimate relationship together without the curse of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil hanging over our heads.  He did it so that our onoma could be changed to compliment His onoma.

 

He likewise gives it to those who will enter into that place of love and intimacy – not so they can prove that they have a relationship with Him, but that His heart’s desire will be met for a completed Bride.

 

Next week I'll try to wrap up this series as we conclude with The Doctrine of Eternal Judgment, and do a final overview of God's purposes and destiny for us as His people.

 

Blessings on you!