October 2005

Saturday, October 1, 2005

THE GREAT SEARCHING OF THE LORD

About a decade ago, for three nights in a row, I had a personal
visitation from the Lord in the middle of the night as I was
awakened by His awesome presence. I have not written this to
give an appearance of being a greatly spiritual person. Perhaps the
very opposite is the case, for the Scripture says in the book of Job
that God must visit man in the night because of man’s pride.
Regardless of the spiritual condition, the Lord came into my room
in the middle of the night and I was instantaneously awakened and
completely alert. I could not physically see the Lord, but I knew
He was near. During this visitation I knew the Lord was searching
a lamp stand. I knew He had come out of the Holiest place of all to
the Holy place of His eternal tabernacle. It is important to
comprehend what I have just written. To understand this statement
coming out of the Holiest place to the Holy place is essential for
all Christians to understand. To help understand what is just
written, we must look into the book of Hebrews which addresses
the relationship of the Christian to the Holiest place of all.
The book of Hebrews teaches about the difference between the
eternal tabernacle and the models that were made by the Hebrews
beginning with God’s visitation with Moses. The book of Hebrews
tells us that we are to go into the Holiest place of all by the Blood
of Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 10:19). Before Jesus Christ came,
believers in Jehovah could only come to the Holy place in the
tabernacle. The furniture of the Holy Place was a golden lamp
stand and a table of shewbread, or presence bread. First let us
consider the golden candlestick. The golden candlestick would
hold oil and would be lit perpetually and men could serve there. In
the book of Revelation Jesus called this golden candlestick the
church. Now let us consider the table of shewbread. The table of
presence bread was a table overlaid with gold with two rows of six
loaves of bread. Six is the number of man and two is the number
of covenant. This is a table of covenant. Jesus is the bread of
heaven, the heavenly manna that came down from heaven. Manna
is a shadow of the incarnation or God become flesh. Because Jesus
was the incarnation, His body and blood was shed to create a
covenant between God and man. This table represents that
covenant. This table represents a marriage covenant. Men could
serve at these two pieces of furniture, but men had difficulty in
entering the Holiest place of all. We learn this in the book of
Hebrews when we learn that only a high priest could go into the
Holiest place of all once a year. In that Holiest place of all it was
pitch dark and only when God’s presence would come would there
be the light of life that would spare the high priest who had come
into the Holiest of all. Man could only come briefly and not abide.
This is one of the great lessons, for here we learn that man cannot
dwell in the Holiest of Holies in communion but only in the Holy
place by service. This is why Jesus Christ is so significant as our
high priest. This is why we must profoundly look upon and be
changed by the eternal Word that tells us to go beyond the veil of
His flesh through the blood of our high priest Jesus Christ into the
Holy of Holies.
THE DISTURBING TREND AWAY FROM THE HOLY OF
HOLIES
When Jesus was crucified, the veil that separated the Holy place
from the Holiest of all was torn in two. It was torn in two when
Jesus cried, “It is finished”. Man now had access into the Holiest
place of all. After Jesus was resurrected, and while He ascended
He admonished His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. Shortly
thereafter came the Day of Pentecost, when out of the Holy of
Holies in the Heavenly tabernacle came the Holy Spirit that
birthed the church on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit had
never been given to men in the Old Testament in a corporate or
everlasting fashion. Now because of Jesus’ blood cleansing from
sin, the veil was torn in two. The Holy Spirit could now bring the
corporate church past the veil into the Holiest place of all. The
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Holiness. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of prophesy. Out of the Holiest place of all came an outpouring
that joined the church to His Holiness. Out of the Holiest place
of all came an outpouring that joined the church to His prophetic
thought. From the time of the early church it has always been
satan’s plan to replace the Spirit of Holiness with another spirit.
That is why Jesus, in the first three chapters in the book of
Revelation searched the candlestick, (the church), finding much
service but little union with Him. The Holy Spirit had been
replaced by the spirit of Jezebel, the spirit of the Nicolations, and
the spirit of Baalam, which could never hold the reflections of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Man is created in the image of God. Jesus’
image or reflection is the only thing that satisfies a Holy God. That
is why He must be fully formed in believers. The seven churches
of the Revelation experienced failure because they failed to go
beyond service and failed to go into the Holiest of Holies. The
Lord Jesus could no longer find His reflection in the church
because the church was no longer going through the blood of
Jesus into the Holy of Holies. In the first chapter of Revelation He
has come out of the Holy of Holies, the place of union. He has
come out of the Holy of Holies to search the golden candlestick,
the church which had come to abide only in the area of service.
The church’s greatest danger is to know service but not be in
communion and union with Him. How horrifying would it be to
have served the Lord and have Him say, “depart from me I never
knew you”! Some of the greatest revivals in the history of the
church have come in these last days, tracing back to places like
Azusa Street and the great Welch Revival. Out of these revivals
every nation on earth has been touched by the Holy Spirit. Sadly
today the church has lost the message of repentance and the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the power of God. Today praise
and worship in the outer courts has replaced union with Jesus
Christ. Moving people and their souls by excellent music has
replaced the special union of the Holiest place of all that Jesus
requires. Fasting, prayer, and hours in the Scriptures is now the
exception and not the norm. Today the washing of the Word
whereby we approach the Holiest of Holies has been replaced with
corrupted texts of scriptures from the pens of sodomites and
apostates. I just got off of the phone with someone who was telling
me about a church who is using the NIV Bible. When the
person who I had the telephone conversation with pointed out that
some 64,000 words found in received texts had been taken out of
the texts the NIV is translated from to a Bible teacher from this
church, this was of little concern. The answer that came forth
from the Bible teacher was that people don’t read the Bible in their
church, and they want to be sure that they please all of the people.
This blind statement is a true representation of what takes place
when the church is no longer abiding His blood; that blood that
takes us to the Holiest place of all. Today in the place of service,
other spirits have come and filled the candlestick that should be
filled with the pure oil of the Tree of Life from the Holiest place
of all.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE SEARCHING EYES OF
JESUS
From the time when the Lord visited me on those three nights, I
have been overwhelming impressed that the church must be the
place where Jesus finds His reflection in service because the
church has communed with Him beyond the veil of His flesh in
the Holiest place of all. Soon scads of Christians will become
empty with praise and worship and messages born of the purpose
of pleasing man for man’s purpose. It is time for the church to deal
with the searching eyes of Jesus. It is time to come from the outer
courts where churches use the “things of God” to draw men to the
place of repentance for not having been in the Holiest Place of all.
WHAT THE EYES OF GOD LONG FOR
II Chronicles 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro
throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of
them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done
foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” In
examining this Scripture we must remember that the eyes of the
Lord are in the wheelsof His throne. We must remember that He is
searching across the nations of the earth toward a man or a people
who desire to have a heart perfect toward Him. Unless the heart of
man is concerned with the searching eyes of the Lord, there cannot
be peace. The reason that there is much Spiritual warfare and
unrest is because the church does not have a heart for the Holiest
place of all. Truly they that are begotten of God the wicked one
touches not. He may touch circumstances and men that surround
the church both from within and without, but he cannot touch that
which is begotten to God.
THE PROBLEM OF THE SEARCH
Jeremiah 17:9 &10: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked: who can know it?” “I the Lord search the
heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his
ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” In this Scripture is
found the vast problem that we must face. In searching the heart,
the fruit of our doings is revealed. In the trial of our heart deceitful
things are brought up for crucifixion. Recently while walking in
the woods I began a careful search of the forest floor. Everywhere
I looked there was the movement of seeds and fruit. Of peculiar
interest was the bitternut hickory. Around the bitternut hickory
seeds I found there was an outer shell. The outer shell was
manifesting disintegration. Some of the seeds were encased with a
cracking shell. Some of the shells had partially fallen off, and
some of the seeds were no longer encased and vulnerable to
consumption. However the testimony of the hickory’s that filled
the woods was that of some of those seeds would bring forth a
root. There could only be the manifestation of life where the
outward had disintegrated, and the inward had manifested a root.
The desperately deceitful heart that abides in us must be brought
into the conformity of the root that raises up an image of the tree
from whence it has come. Our desperately wicked hearts must be
crucified and conformed into His death that His life might
manifest. The veil of His flesh that was torn has given us access
into His resurrection and ascension into the eternal tabernacle
whereby His eternal blood gives us liberty into the Holy of Holies
of His everlasting tabernacle.
THE LORD SEARCHES IN APOSTACY
Ezekiel 34:11 & 12: “For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even
I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out”. “As a shepherd
seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are
scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out
of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark
day.” The Lord is searching for a people that He can be strong on
behalf of. The Lord is searching for those who have a heart to be
with Him. Likewise, the Lord is searching out His church for the
last days. I know that the Lord searched me out because He did
not want me to be a pastor building a Christian Tower of Babel. I
know He troubled me about His search of the candlestick that in
eternity is called the church. I know He is looking for a church
without spot or wrinkle because it has been to the Holiest place of
all with the Bridegroom. Perhaps you are reading this newsletter
as the result of the Lord’s searching eyes. Truly our God in the
midst of the great falling away is searching out a church. Truly our
God is searching a church that will be strong in His might and
power in the hour of the last great apostasy.
THE LORD SEARCHES BY MAN’S SPIRIT
Proverbs 20:27: “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord,
searching all the inward parts of the belly.” The spirit of man is a
most remarkable organ. It is the only place in all of creation that
God chooses to dwell. When a man’s spirit is in the Holy of
Holies, the Lord will commune with him as He did with Isaiah,
between the Cherubims. When you dwell between the Cherubims
there is a constant cry of Holy, Holy, Holy. This cry has gone
one for centuries, even when one of the Cherubims abandoned
God in rebellion. That is where pride is birthed. Pride is birthed
when the church leaves the Holiest of Holies. Man’s spirit is a
lamp. It is built to hold oil. It is built to hold the Holy Spirit which
is the Spirit of Holiness. As God searches your soul through your
spirit you will find appetites that are contrary to the Holiness of
God. Men have clothed these appetites with unconditional eternal
security and doctrines born of their pride. That is not God’s
purpose. God’s purpose is that by man’s spirit communing with
Him in the Holy of Holies, the appetites of the adamic nature are
seen and made to be subject and captive to every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God. The appetites of Adam, which is
the pride of the fallen Cherubim, are for crucifixion. God forbid
the statement that came forth from the pastor of America’s largest
church in which he proclaimed that the cross was an obstruction
for the people to come into the church. Truly the only way to
come into the church is by the veil of His flesh torn for you and
through His resurrection and ascension that brings us into the
Holiest of Holies of the everlasting tabernacle, the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb. Revelations 21:22
THE ANSWER TO GOD’S SEEKING
Psalms 139:1-6: “O Lord thou hast searched me, and known me.
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou
understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and
my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is
not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it
altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine
hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is
high, I cannot attain unto it.” Perhaps God is placing His hand
upon your life in His deep searching. He knows what has
happened in the past and what lies ahead. He knows everything
about you and has all wisdom concerning your life. Count the
searching of God as being of the greatest of value and allow His
searching eyes to apprehend you from a place of service to a place
of communing with Him and birthing revelation. Let His
apprehending bring you into the Holiest place of all where He can
commune with you from between the Cherubims. There the
Cherubims give an invitation to come and cast your crown at His
feet. Come and worship Him and see His attributes that belong to
 nothing in creation. For they are His and His alone and they are
holy. Respond to His seeking by going beyond the veil of His
flesh that was torn for you and coming into the Holy of Holies
where eternal life manifests.
Exodus 25:22: “And there I will meet with thee, and I will
commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the
two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all
things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of
Israel.”
Hebrews 10:19-22: “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, and having an high priest over the house of God; Let us
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed
with pure water.”

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