THE SONS OF ISSACHAR

“The sons of Issachar,

men who understood the times,

with knowledge of what Israel should do…

and all their kinsmen were at their command.”

I Chronicles 12:32

From this brief passage we find a few precious keys for leadership in our own time. These sons of Issachar had cultivated a life posture that enabled them to live life with a heightened sense of seeing and discernment. They could perceive and grasp the significance of the movements of God in their world and therefore they could provide essential and crucial leadership. Because they, like David, understood the specific purpose of God for their own generation they became empowered to accomplish it.

We like these saints of old have a specific purpose of God for our generation and to accomplish that purpose, leadership of the same type as was manifested by the son sons Issachar is required.

This type of leadership, which is important in times of peace, becomes far more critical in seasons of significant transition or persecution and becomes absolutely essential in times of judgment.

They understood their times,

had knowledge of what to do,

therefore people followed.

The obvious contrast to this would be leaders or people who don’t understand the uniqueness of their times, they will not know what to do, and therefore will not be able to provide true leadership.

This tribe of Issachar is very much like the sons of Zadok (a division of priests addressed in Ezekiel 44) who had the capacity to not only inform and lead the people but also could CAUSE the people to distinguish the holy from the common (verse 33). This might be more clearly stated for our day by saying the sons of Zadok could see, perceive, discern, and interpret what was happening and what God was doing in the midst of life’s events. This was in contrast to the other priests who not only did not perceive the activity of God in the earth but were relegated to doing their own routine ministerial functions. They could not distinguish the things God had originated from their own endeavors, which were originated and sustained through the agency of their own efforts. If it is born in the heart of man, no matter how well intended, it can only touch the heart of man. If it is born from the heart of God it has the transcending power to lift the heart of man to the design of God. That’s why Paul strove not to be eloquent or polished. In fact he put his best foot behind him so that all would see only God. He wanted a demonstration of the power of God, not an oratorical presentation.

What was it about the lives of the sons of Zadok that CAUSED OR FORCED the contrast to be seen? If you read the entire chapter of 44 you will see a most amazing thing as God contrasted these leaders who stood before the Lord and those that stood before the people. The sons of Zadok lived before the presence of God in such a way that they could see what God was doing and lead the people in the right direction. God contrasted them to the common leaders of their day who stood before and whose primary focus was ministering to the people. The chapter ends by saying the leaders who only operated in the “common” or natural realm came under a judgment in which their life was from then on forced to stay in ministry but only to minister to the people while being barred from coming into the presence of the Lord.

So what does this have to do with end time leadership? EVERYTHING. Part of the church will be like the sons of Issachar and have Godly leaders and people who stand in the presence of the Lord. They have now and will have then discernment and the capacity to understand the times and know what to do in changing situations.

Another part of the overall broader American church will have a leadership much like the common priests who will have to attend to the common or the natural level with very little or no revelatory leading or directives. It will be like the blind leading the blind. Their lives and their churches will have developed a lifestyle and a structure of life based on the natural or what man can do.

They won’t understand their time. They will simply see an increase in unrelated environmental disasters, increasing terrorist activity, a far distant problem between Iran and Israel, a weakening dollar, global solutions to what once were sovereign issues. They will simply live the American life style just like the people in Noah’s day. And just as Jesus said of Noah’s time, they will make no adjustments to their entangled, busy, busy lifestyles right up until the rain started to fall.

Then they will scramble to “find oil”. They will need “another” brief time out to go get more oil. All to no avail. As believers we are basically in one of two camps. Our life either has the hallmarks of a son of Issachar and we are seeking to understand these times and live a holy, sanctified and well-placed life for God, or our life looks just like those who have no such awareness. Who go to church and definitely know God, but in understanding the season we are in are not much different than the world where life just goes on.

It is a time to “Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of the earth” (Luke 21:34-36).

WE ARE GOING TO ENTER A TIME

WHEN ONLY THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND THE TIMES

WILL KNOW WHAT TO DO.

We can do all kinds of things in times of peace that will be impossible in times of great stress. In peaceful days when man is prone to be dull prophetically, leadership is much easier. In times of difficulty following leaders who have no insight is very difficult. Then manmade church programs won’t suffice. In those types of times many people may be forced to seek out prophetic leadership.

The unique position of the church in the last days is of utmost importance.

Saints living at this time must of all generations

be able to discern and speak

with kingdom-splitting clarity.

God intends for the last generation to be so close to Him, so refined, so separated from the world that they would literally be able to DISTRIBUTE UNDERSTANDING. This particular verse isn’t referring to a few prophets or apostles but to the nature of the mature saint in those days.

“But the people who know their God

will display strength and take action.

And those who have insight among the people

will give understanding to the many”

Daniel 11:32-33

Jesus said of these days of upheaval, “It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony” (Luke 21:13). These will be the days of unparalleled opportunity for sharing the gospel with a lost and confused world. Most of us have encountered a friend or family member who has been in an auto accident or been informed of some unanticipated life-threatening illness. Suddenly their whole world collapses and they have an earnest interest in God and eternal things. While all is going well man is prone to just keep up with whatever he wraps his life around. In those days of massive hostility toward God, millions will sober up and turn to Him as they see everything start to fall apart.

In God’s blueprint for the last days the saints will show tremendous strength and courage and will be positioned to dispense truth and life to those who will receive it. Even in the midst of laying down their lives for the gospel they won’t be a timid, cowering bunch. They will be so full of zeal and boldness that the Word says they will do exploits, heroic feats of action for God.

There will be such a level of personal strength and insight that the Bible says some unbelievers will even pretend to be Christians for a short while. “Many will join with them in hypocrisy”(Daniel 11:34), because they will have wisdom about such things as local disasters, famines, environmental disaster, and the severe incurable plagues. They will understand their times and will have knowledge of what to do.

These saints will take action; they will be proactive. Amidst all of the confusion they will be so full of discernment concerning their situation that they will literally be able to give understanding away to a lost and confused world.

Individual cities, communities, neighborhoods, churches, and families, will need a people who walk with God and understand His ways, people who can in the midst of their own confusing and bewildering circumstances be able to bring clarity as well as conviction to bear upon the hearts of the unbeliever.

The consummate tragedy of church history would be if the final generation would arrive upon the precipitous and cataclysmic events preceding His return without understanding, still entrenched in the world, leavened and lukewarm close enough to God to know better but too far away from God that they cannot see what is coming. A people rich in their own eyes, living casually in their prosperity, a people strong of soul but dull of spirit. You are now being prepared to be His voice to many who will have new reason to listen. Don’t be caught running to and fro trying to find understanding as Saul did at the end of his life…

Find understanding now;

live an understanding life now!

It is a time to “Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of the earth” (Luke 21:34-36).

Break up your fallow ground...” For it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you” (Hosea 10:12). (examine our works to assess what might not endure the fire; check our lamps to see how much oil we have; scrutinize our hearts to see what affections might betray us when the chips are down)

“... It is time to “Arm [ourselves] with the same purpose [as Christ who suffered in the flesh]… so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men… but for the will of God.” (Peter 4:1.2). “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought [we] to be in a holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, … therefore, Beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation…” (I Peter 3:11,12,14,15).

BEING A FRIEND OF GOD IN TMES OF JUDGEMENT

* “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrections and the fellowship of His sufferings…” - Philippians 3: 10

It is natural for us to desire to be filled with the power of the resurrection but what does it mean to share in His sufferings? Does it merely refer to the trials we endure in this life or could it point to such a level of intimacy with God that we are called into a fellowship with Him that is so close that He feels free to share with us His sufferings yet to come?

Some times in our quest to know the Father more intimately we see His largeness on a scale that breaks the boundaries of our comfortable perspective on who He is. During these times we are called to a place of identification with Him where we see more from His perspective than we do our own or more from heaven’s perspective than from earth’s. 

Occasionally when we see Him as a sovereign God we can begin to see and touch His great joy of offering salvation to the world but also the pain of the eventual inevitability of His judgments. Most of us, when we truly live a lifestyle that is after His presence at any cost, will find ourselves thrown off balance as we start to enter this place. When we have become accustomed to just pushing for spiritual bliss in His presence and the fullness of serving man, this new picture seems too intense, even too negative. Out natural response is to pull back, thinking this cannot be God when in reality it is, it’s just a fuller understanding of who He really is.

Abraham, the friend of God, was honored with a calling that opened a way for countless generations of history. But included in this journey was spiritual reality that yielded pain as well as victory. When Abraham was walking with the three strangers, one said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Gen. 18:17), referring to the massive destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. There is something about true intimacy with God that allows Him to entrust us with the revelation of His whole heart and His burden. This can only be given to the one who TRULY wants to know God.

Imagine the scene. The Lord and Abraham are walking with the two angels who are about to bring about a destruction that will deeply unsettle Abraham. Is the Lord PONDERING… “Just how close is Abraham to me? Is he one who can accept Me in all that I am? Does he need to be kept comfortable, safe, and blessed? Can I show him, and will he understand, that there is a part of Me that cannot abide sin? What will he do when he sees the real price that people must pay for their sin? However, if he is really going to follow Me and raise his generations after Me then HE MUST KNOW ME IN MY ENTIRETY”. God decides to tell Abraham that the two cities will be burned with fire and that every man, woman, and child will die. Abraham’s response was the same as ours would be: “OH NO, GOD, IT CANNOT BE!” I BELIEVE THIS IS A RIGHT RESPONSE. We need to do what Abraham did and seek God for an extension of mercy. Sometimes, however, there is no room left for mercy. 

At those times,

we need great courage to be a friend of God

amidst His anguish when He needs to punish sin and bring judgment.

What will we do when the Lord brings us close to Him – so close that He lets us in on His world and all that the future will bring? We must do as Abraham did. In the days to come, when we will see great suffering, we first will need to a be friend of God, interceding for mercy, but willing to share in the fellowship of His sufferings, then we will need to demonstrate our loyalty to that friendship in standing with Him as the judgments are released. 

I have been impacted with the vision of Moses on Sinai, with the earth quaking, thunder crashing, and lightning flashing, climbing steadily upward toward the consuming fire at the mountain’s peak. Here was one who had seen the Lord in His loving kindness and compassion as well as His anger, and still loved Him with all his heart. And so without hesitating or looking back, he climbed higher and higher, toward the Consuming Presence (Exodus 19:16-20). This same Moses, after devoting his final 40 years to bringing the people to the Promised Land, was shown the potential curses that would come upon them and to the land if they turned away from following the Lord. (Deut. 28:15–68, 29:22–30:1, 31:15–22). He was also told that he could not enter the land toward which he had labored all those years. Did he turn back? NO. Intimacy – deep, mature, prophet-type intimacy with God requires sharing His heart, not only in its blessing and power but also in its suffering. 

We would all like to receive the accreditation that Samuel received in his later life that NOT ONE OF HIS WORDS FELL TO THE GROUND. But are we willing to pay the cost of such a blessing? Samuel, at a young age, was given his first revelation when he slept in the tabernacle (1 Sam. 3:10-14). In this very first encounter with God, he as a very young boy heard the audible voice of God speak to him about judgment. He was told of the judgment of the man who had raised him from his childhood and of judgment on his household. He was entrusted with hard truth about his entire religious world, at such a tender age – imagine that!!! Intimacy with God required that Samuel, even as a young boy, walk in a reality that was painful. For Samuel the “higher” place was a costly place. 

Consider Isaiah who so loved the Messiah and His people. He may be the prophet most endeared to us today because of his tender, poetic love for Israel and the Messiah. Who has not been enveloped with God by the Spirit moving through his words? Yet at times Isaiah walked in such anguish of soul that his heart-wrenching plea was, “Turn your eyes away from me: let me weep bitterly. Do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people. For the Lord has a day of panic, subjugation, and confusion in the valley of vision…” (Isa. 22:4).

Jeremiah said, “My sorrow is beyond healing, my heart is faint within me! Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land… Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night…” (Jer. 8:18-9:1).

Even Mary, the “favored of the Lord”, 

was told, with her infant son of promise

 lying tenderly and innocently in her arms, 

"a sword will pierce even your own soul – “ (Luke 2:35).

Daniel, a man so greatly esteemed 

was given such revelation of darkness well as victory

 that he was sick for days. 

But this did not deter him

 from his hungry pursuit of the face of the Lord.

All these, having drawn so near to the heart of the Lord, were shown more of the picture, both highly exhilarating and deeply devastating. We in the church so love the presence of God. Yet, how many really enter His counsel. Too often, we want blessings, we want encounters, but beyond that, do we tend to draw back? We must realize that the higher we go, the more we will encounter of His world with all of its vast dimensions.

Loving God in the end will require courage – before God and in higher places of warfare, as well as courage before men. Above all else, let us be true to Him. Let us be true lovers, lovers of truth, loyal and true to God in all that is to come.

*JESUS AND GUNS

In Romans 13: 1-5 God grants governments the authority to establish order and "punish evil doers".  Good governments punish evil doers and bad governments punish whomever they choose. Occasionally one or more good governments will rise up to punish an evil government  such as in WWII.  Many millions of noble men and women have taken up arms and sacrificed their lives in defense of liberty, freedom, and justice. On these core values  America become a nation and it took guns to do it. 

I am writing this article with an attitude of honor for all the veterans who have sacrificed so greatly for our freedom. I also realize that for many guns and the gusto to fight are as American as apple pie and baseball used to be.  So I am aware the subject is complicated and controversial and many good godly people see things very differently from the perspective I'm about to share. 

Even in view of all the above, this is an appeal to consider the words of Jesus.

 “All those who take up the sword

 shall perish by the sword”. 

The relevancy of these words of Jesus and their current application 

for today could hardly be more poignant.

You and I live as believers in an America 

that is becoming alarmed and is increasingly arming itself

 in light of a threatening and uncertain future.

As a believer are you contemplating taking up the sword?

Are your convictions grounded in scripture 

or in evolving situational ethics ?

When one takes the time to meditate on what Jesus was actually saying and more importantly demonstrating in this garden scene of His betrayal, then these words become radically insightful.

Before my conversion I was fully immersed in the sixties culture. I was committed to non-violence, obviously resisted the draft and the Vietnam War, and thus experienced the customary riots and tear gas that accompanied such convictions and activities. As I became a believer those convictions deepened as I saw in Jesus the invitation to enter into a kingdom where it was even possible to love one's enemies.

Over the years I have maintained the underlying conviction that I would not kill someone, that is, I would not cross the line and take a life irrespective of the situation. However just in the past few years other influences have grown.  Because violence has so increased and become so familiar in our culture, it has also taken a toll on my convictions and I have been wavering.  As Jesus predicted, because wickedness would increase people’s love would grow cold. So I have been wrestling with a loss of love, a loss of the high ground and a growing sense of frustration and anger over where I see our country headed and the evils looming on our horizon.

Nine years ago we built a nice home in the woods so my wife and I along with our chickens share the same space with coyotes, some cagey raccoons, skunks, a mazillion squirrels and a few armadillos. In order to maintain some balance I obviously have a few guns, but it was as I was contemplating buying a handgun that I had a very specific encounter with the Lord. At the right time, as He so often does, He clearly stepped in and through a spirit of guidance and revelation opened up my understanding on this issue by inviting me into a passage of scripture. Matthew 26:52 “…all those who take up the sword will perish by the sword”. 

In essence the encounter left me with an unmistakable realization

  that Jesus was trying to communicate

 if you cross the line and take up the sword in order to kill

you would come under the same spirit 

as the evil one you are encountering.

If you take up the sword you will come under the sword. If you take up the sword it will gain legal rights over you. If you take up the sword you will come under the spirit that drives the sword, a spirit of violence, anger, wrath, murder, retaliation or revenge. 

And if you take up the sword BY IT you will PERISH.

IF YOU TAKE UP THE SWORD OR WEAPON

 IT EVENTUALLY WILL TAKE YOU UP.    

It is in the process of taking up the weapon that the perishing begins to set in. It’s the inner thought life of anger, self-defense and retaliation that reduces us to the level of our enemies.

To perish means to rot, to deteriorate, to lose ground. God's intention for the heart of His followers was a heart of love towards ones enemies demonstrated in turning the other cheek, not returning evil for evil, and leaving revenge in the hands of God. All that begins to lose ground, to waste away, and ultimately to perish inwardly before the outward physical perishing when one seeks to take a life.

Consider the overall scene in the garden, where Jesus is demonstrating and living out the fulfillment of all that He has taught. Consider the harmony and singularity of the following passages in light of what He was about to do.

Matthew 5:39-45:  "...do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. And whoever shall force you to go one mile, go with him two… You have heard it said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy'. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven…"

I concede these verses seem almost unattainable. But heaven and being like God is our goal, not the earth. They point to a very high place, one that is beyond the reach of man. It is God’s sphere, and only God in us can live on this plateau. But still Jesus talked as if He expected us to walk on this level. All of these passages pointed to a totally radical and different worldview. The primary aim of these passages was to direct us to live like our heavenly Father and that is above the world, above revenge, above anger, above retaliation. To be so heavenly minded that if someone wants to take your coat offer him your shirt as well.  Jesus was directing us to have our spirit, our life, and our values above. 

So once we have seen the truth or “The Way” presented for us in these preliminary scriptures we then can be attuned to what is really going on in this truly amazing passage.  In the garden, we see in Jesus the manifestation of all He taught the apostles as He invites them as well as us up to this standard.

Here we have Jesus who has taught us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek, and He is about to go to the garden and turn the other cheek and not resist his enemies even to the point of death. Into that context He invites Peter and a few other disciples. And then of all things He seems to contradict everything He has ever said on this subject and tells Peter to bring a sword to the event.

Now wait a minute! what on earth is going on? The mindset of the Jews up to this point was that the Messiah was going to physically usher in another kingdom. But now He is talking about His dying and worse yet, one of them is just about to betray Him. In the garden they were internally perplexed; confusion, fear, and chaos filled the air as a mob carrying swords and weapons was descending upon them. Out steps Judas and betrays Jesus and the convulsing, crushing, internal realization that Jesus their Messiah, the fulfillment of all of their dreams and aspirations for themselves as well as for the nation of Israel was about to be arrested and crucified.

It was in this exact context a completely different story line was unfolding. In the very essence of Jesus' suffering He was also being the ultimate shepherd for Peter.  And how did He do that?Please stop and ponder-

It was into that intense beyond description situation

 that Jesus had told Peter

to bring a weapon.

Peter of all people, the impetuous, independent, headstrong walking-on-water Peter who had just said even if everybody else deserts you I will, not, I cannot, I will die for you. He told that Peter, not timid Thomas, to bring a weapon to the event.

There you have it. I would say if there was ever a time to use a weapon this would have been it. Enemies coming to arrest and possible kill your best friend and Messiah, righteous indignation, the crushing of all hopes of earthly victory, chaos, anger and hatred filling the air and Peter has a weapon in his hand, not only a weapon but also the one Jesus TOLD Peter to bring. So Peter sees what’s about to happen and having been told to bring the sword he swung it. No small swing, but one that was mere inches from stabbing the guard in the face or slitting his throat. I believe Peter meant to kill, his inner (and lower) nature was animated, pulsating, and in control.

I think that was exactly the point Jesus was trying to make

 and to exactly the man who needed to hear it.

Jesus understood Peter’s nature, so why did He set him up?  Because this was Peter. This is the one who on the day of Pentecost would usher in the kingdom. This was Peter who would stand up against the same Sanhedrin that was about to crucify Jesus. This was Peter who would need to lead the church through the martyrdom of Stephen and face his own imminent death in Acts eight. This was Peter who would need to lead by setting the precedent for the entire church, who would face a hostile, persecuting, Jewish people as well as the Roman world, and this was the Peter who would one day be crucified upside down. Peter needed to know at the most foundational core of his inner being one clarion call, a fact as foundational as bedrock and a principal so high that it could inspire men to live above any and all circumstance, one that could guide the church through centuries of potential enemies and persecutions. And that was this:

The taking up the sword or weapons

to advance or protect the kingdom of God

would make God's kingdom no better than the kingdoms of this world.

It would have ruined Peter and the church he would one day lead.

“ All those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword”

So we find Peter’s life never wavered from the lesson he learned that day.  The message to Peter was if you come under a spirit of anger, retaliation, and revenge and take up arms you will be not only no better than your persecutors but 

your persecutors will gain the mastery over you

because then you will be fighting on their turf, not Mine!

Jesus lived what He taught and rose above the situation and in love restored the ear of the man Peter had tried to kill.  And Peter got the message, loud and clear and forever. Jesus' kingdom is not of this world; that’s why He told Pilate “My kingdom is not of this world.  If it were, then My servants would fight”.

This value was so entrenched in the church that over the centuries we have hundreds if not thousands of testimonies of martyrs who faced their executioners with such a radical joy and expectation of being with Jesus that occasionally their very executioners would lay their implements of death aside and convert to Christ on the spot, to join those who were not of this world.

This encounter, this opening up of my mind to see the heart of Jesus reflected in this passage so helped me at the core of my being. I am deeply thankful that the spirit of God guides us into all truth at the time we need it. 

I so realized that if I or we in America are going to face persecution

 then I don’t want to be caught with a gun in hand

and  a spirit of fear, anger, or retaliation polluting my soul.

No, I yearn to be so filled with the love of God and the Holy Spirit that I may like Stephen behold heaven opened and see Jesus arising to welcome me into His arms. I feel that it would be such an honor to be able to stand so completely assured in my inner man about all that I have built my life and to look a persecutor in the eyes and love him. That is I believe the transcendence Jesus is after.

As said earlier I know this is a very difficult and complex topic, one that may eventually test all of us to the core, regardless of where we stand now. What I am sharing is a revelatory encounter my Father gave me because He knew I needed some encouragement to live up to the Biblical convictions I have always held dear to my heart but was in danger of compromising.

What I do believe is that we are all being swept up into a violent age, and an age of rising armament. In the first century there was a radical difference between how the believer responded to persecution and the path for which many today are preparing.  It seems to me that the drift for many is headed toward a place where there will be very little difference between the responses of the believer and the non-believer to aggression. In the church in America there is a subtle and not so subtle taking up the sword.

My intention is to lift up the Word and bring clarity to a subject that is developing a momentum that will have most of us swept up into situational ethics. Whatever your position, think it through beforehand.

We each need to be thoroughly centered in His leading 

and that leading needs to be unequivocally

 grounded on the word of God.

*THE LOVE BETWEEN THE FATHER AND THE SON

In the relationship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit we see the greatest love of all eternity past and future. Each year as the Jewish Passover Seder is celebrated, we see one of the most profound and poignant images of this love enacted. Each year, not only Messianic Jews but also all Jews practice the following tradition:  before the Seder begins, three separate pieces of matzo, or unleavened bread, are placed in three individual layers of a special napkin.  During the Seder, the middle piece of matzo is removed by the father of the household and broken in half.  One half of this middle piece is returned to the napkin, and the other half is wrapped in a separate napkin and hidden, to be brought back at the end of the meal.  What an incredible insight this gives us into the relationship between the Father and the Son!

Let us consider for a moment the endless love that has always existed between the Father and the Son.  We can more easily understand the concept of eternity if we look to the future, but there was also an eternity before time.  Imagine for a moment the depth of a relationship between Father and Son that existed from eternity PAST.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.”  (John 1:1,2).  “The Lord possessed Me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old…then I was beside Him as a master workman, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him…” (Proverbs 8:22,30).  In the form of God, Jesus could merely with a word create an ocean, and bring galaxies into being.  Together with His Father, He could just imagine, speak, and create.  For eternity past, Father and Son so loved each other’s fellowship, of which all earthly loves are but an ever so faint shadow.  For an eternity before the creation, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit lived together in such a fullness of love, a fullness of glory, incredible intimacy and joy.  We read in Philippians 2:6,  “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.” He existed in the very form of God!

But as so graphically demonstrated in the Seder, the middle piece of God—the Son—was pulled out of this unity, to be separated, to be broken, and to be hidden away from this fellowship. When this Son, who spoke universes into being, was about to enter the world, scripture says, “Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me”  (Hebrews 10:5).  When God the Father approached the issue of canceling sin, He knew sacrifices were insufficient. So He prepared a body for Jesus.  Contemplate the scene in the manger.  Here in the form of an infant lies the co-creator of the universe.  Can you picture the angels who have worked with millennia of history, who have watched over prophets and kings, who have waited for God to draw back the veil from His majestic plan?  Imagine them staring wide-eyed at this little child with no home, no honor and no glory. Imagine Michael and Gabriel, or the angels who had slain the 185,000 Assyrians (Isaiah 37:36), peering from the heavens at the King of Kings and Lord of Lords lying as a fragile infant.

And like the angels, the prophet Isaiah long before had wondered, “Who has believed our message?  And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”  (Isaiah 53:1). He continued, “ He grew up before [the Father] like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground.”  Jesus, in a parched, dry, hostile and alien environment, grew up BEFORE THE FATHER; always mindful of the Father, never speaking a word or doing an action unless He saw the Father doing it.  This tender young shoot was entirely focused on the Father with whom He had shared all eternity, be it in temptation, in struggle, in honor, whether being rejected or being hailed as king. 

As a young boy at the age of twelve, when Jesus was found in the temple He said, “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house? (Luke 2:49).  Is it any wonder that we find Him so often up early, even before dawn, climbing a mountain to meet with His Father, or up at night with Him in communion?  In His immediate consciousness as He awakened there was a deep soul-thirst for His Father.

In John 17, we see Him consumed with His relationship with His Father.  Jesus prays with lifted eyes, “Father, the hour has come to glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given to Him He may give eternal life.  And this is eternal life that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.  I have glorified Thee on earth having accomplished the work which Thou hast given me to do, and now glorify Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I ever had with Thee before the world was.”  We see Jesus, having fully taken on the mantle of earthly sonship, now saying in essence, Father, I want to come back to that glory.  I long to come back to that eternal place, that fellowship we had.  Now glorify Me, that I can glorify You and return to the glory that was there.

Now consider another Jewish tradition that the precious Son enacted just before His trial. During Passover, it was the custom to carefully select a young unblemished lamb and set it apart.  For four days this lamb would be with the family.  Imagine in your house what an affection your children would develop for this lamb.  This was not an incident experienced in the barn by the father.  The father was responsible that the children see the tender price that must be paid for sin.  To know that this lamb was set apart for slaughter would not have been in keeping with our ideas of positive family memories.  Instead it provided a context for a deeply imprinted realization of the horrendous price of sin.  As a boy and all through Jesus’ growing years, each Passover His father Joseph had chosen a lamb and brought it to the family, and for four days Jesus would have been with this lamb.  How old do you think Jesus was when He realized that He was one day to be the lamb?  Yet for years after this realization, He continued to keep the Passover.  What a Son!  What a Father!

Now we see Jesus, with this full realization, riding into Jerusalem.  On the very night that the families were taking the lambs into the house to be examined, the Lamb entered “the house” to be examined before He was slain, before the Sanhedrin, Pilate, and rejection by His own people.

“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’  And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed.  Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”  And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:36-39. The weight of what was about to take place was upon Him; there was no place to turn aside.  Again, it was the Son before the Father, appealing with all of His being for a way out, with a heart completely willing to obey, but in such agony His perspiration is mingled with blood.

On the cross, He was offered something to dull the pain.  But here again, He so stood before the Father, looking for the Father’s face and for the Father’s love and vindication.  But instead He now entered the darkest void of all.  In the darkness of that hour, the Father in some way took OUR sin and placed it upon His perfect, obedient son, and in so doing had to turn His back upon the Son. And here we face the greatest pain of all history. Because of God’s total enmity with and hostility toward the sin placed upon His son, their union and friendship was broken; it was severed; they where separated.  To such an extent that in an agony far beyond the garden Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”  It was a cry that a million books could not describe.  This love had been abandoned.  When our sin was placed upon Jesus’ back He faced the full and due penalty of what you and I would have faced in that place, and He was separated from His Father.  Now see why He cried out.  As He looked for the eyes of the Father who had  turned away, He now saw our whole eternity in hell placed on Him alone.

There was an incomprehensible wrenching of this incredible love from all eternity past: 

it was this love, this trust and relationship that was on the altar.

 The price of sin was to be paid between them.

They alone, together, made atonement for our sin.

We have a picture of colossal magnitude painted for us in Genesis.  When Abraham offered up his son Isaac, he was able by faith to tell Isaac “the Lord will provide for Himself the lamb”.  (Genesis 22:8).  In that scene, the father Abraham raised the knife over the son, but we need to realize the knife of Abraham would never and could never fall.  It was merely a sign.  

Whereas Abraham had a way out, the Father God did not.

While Abraham saw a ram caught in the thicket, there was no such ram for the Father that day, except the deeply beloved Son before Him.  The Lamb, caught in the thicket of our sins, now lay bound. The Father looked to you and to me and to the multitudes that would accept and reject Him, and He could not turn aside.

As the Father raised His hand, “from the sixth hour darkness fell upon the land until the ninth hour” (Matthew 27:45).  As the darkness spread over the earth, it was as though nature itself had to shield its eyes from the sight unfolding before it.  Can you imagine those angels now?  Those angels who years before had stood gazing in intent wonder at the defenseless infant; now where could they run, where could they hide from such a scene?  The earth itself jerked back and staggered in such horror that the rocks split apart at such a sight.  Is it any wonder that nature itself went into convulsions and that saints of old literally rose up out of their graves and walked around Jerusalem! 

As the knife came down the price was paid and the curtain of separation in the temple was rent in two.  We read in Hebrews 12:1 that it was “for the joy set before Him He endured the cross”.  What was that joy for which He surrendered His relationship with His father, His glory, His dignity, all His natural rights and His very life?  It was the joy of seeing that the love that existed with the Father from eternity past would now reach into all eternity future, extended to include every individual who would respond to it. The joy set before Him was the knowledge that “He will see His offspring” (Isaiah 53:10), and that the pleasure of the Lord, which was His longing to be reconciled to all mankind, would prosper as a result of His sacrifice. 

After these things I looked and behold, a great multitude,

which no one could count, from every nation

and all tribes and peoples and tongues,

before the throne and before the Lamb,

clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands;

and they cry out with a loud voice, saying,

Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

* PROPHETIC DISILLUSIONMENT

Jeremiah 12:27-28 Son of man, behold the house of Israel is saying, the vision that he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies of times far off. Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God, None of my words will be delayed any longer. Whatever word I speak will be performed, declares the Lord God.

This verse describes an antagonistic frame of mind and a callousness of heart toward prophetic warnings. The main reason was not necessarily the content of the warning but the many decades long familiarity. They had just heard it so many times without any actualization.

Can you relate to that attitude? I can. I was saved in 1971 during the Jesus movement. About that time the book "The Late Great Planet Earth" was released. It may have been the most impacting book on that generation for the next ten years. It instilled and imprinted the whole movement with a last day’s doomsday mentality. I remember talking to Peggy before we were married about not having children because the world was going to get so evil very soon.

So for me dealing with the “end times” leaves me feeling somewhat schitzo, on one hand because I have an end time orientation and calling as well as the personality to go with it. With few exceptions and until more recently timing has always hurt the prophetically minded individual. On the other hand to speak into culture and live above it is part and parcel of my calling. I know I have been born for those days. At the same time I am pursuing deliverance from an inner orientation that has led me to over read data and situations and see more than God was actually saying.

So chances are if you’re reading this you’re either tired of the many years of warning or you’re also a proponent. In any case whether you’re one of the people struggling with the reactions of verse or one who absorbed in understanding these days, we all need to realize the enemy will do all he can to dilute, water down and actually make the entire issue of the warnings of God ineffective through one very basic tool: familiarity.

So I would encourage you to find a fresh vitalizing in all you do. In your passion for God, in your service to man, and may your eyes be clear to see the things He is showing you. And remember very very few know the days and the hours but we all are to understand the times and seasons in which we live.

* FOURTH QUARTER 2008 OR 2009?

As I alluded in my last entry I have spent most of my life with a direct focus on understanding the times. Maybe my favorite portion of scripture in this area is Daniel 5:12 “this was because an extra ordinary spirit, knowledge, and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas, and the solving of difficult problems were found in Daniel." It goes on to say in Daniel 11: 32, 33 the people who know their God will display strength and take action. And those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many; I believe God intends His people living in the last days to be the most informed and insightful of all church history.

I walked in an end time mindset from 1971 until 1999. While that mindset kept one sharp, alert, and steering culture against complacency and materialism it never seemed to really deliver the goods. It seemed like the entire prophetic culture in those years was immature and inaccurate in its predictions and timing. Now that I’m older I see, of coarse that was the case. There has been basically a three to four decade maturation process.

Having lived out on the limb of “the next thing” I was disappointed in my own track record as well. By the time Y2K rolled around I was burned out on the “end time” theme. So my prayer was “Lord, if Y2K is not a watershed event then I’m going to shelve the end time mentality and seek personal deliverance from a predisposition of soul that seems to have a power and mind of its own”.

My preparation for Y2K was moderate but obviously unneeded. So nothing happened and I dropped it all and spent seven wonderful years focusing on my relationship with the Father. Those were seven great years, during which both ministry and business went well. Then in November of 2007 out of the blue I felt like the Lord spoke to me and said. “Dave, seven years ago when you turned aside from an end time orientation it was good and necessary for your development and I appreciate the years just given to knowing me as Father but you might consider putting the end time hat back on”.

I feel He then gave me a vision, a word and some understanding about the next few years in America. (2009-2011). While there was far more content than I will share here the most basic understanding was that America was going to lose her sovereignty and no longer be the number one nation. The things I saw and the experience was so traumatic it left me sick for weeks.

Aside from receiving the disturbing material it was the very receiving of the encounter that now caused me a great conundrum. Now I was not only challenged but didn’t know how to proceed. I still had very little faith in my ability to interpret accurately what I did get. My tendency is to see the extreme. So most of 2008 was given to study, prayer and refreshing what the prophetic community had been seeing for the past eight years, etc.

A small portion of the communication in November of 2007 ran something like this. America was about to undergo a few very major downward adjustments and at the end of a few years America would have lost her status. I felt He then went on to say that the then current sub prime crisis was the first step. He very clearly (to me) then said there would be an event in the fall of 2008 basically, October that would rock the American economic system to the core. Actually this was sensitive of Him because it gave me ten months to regroup.

Well in the fall of 2008 especially October, the entire world economy began its worst crash since the depression. Massive economic failure rocked the world. When that happened as I had assumed it might I knew I had to be much more faithful in response to what I had seen, specifically as it relates to the remainder of 2009.

So here is my current dilemma. While I felt the Lord clearly said that an economic event would happen in October of 2008, it was followed by an understanding (not a clear word) that there would be another event most likely in the fall, or the fourth quarter of 2009.

For the above reasons in this season of my life I’m not intending to cite prophetic warnings on specifics. There are several voices that are doing a good job of that. I need to regain my footing and learn where God is. For now my desire is to paint broader targets of warning and preparedness. I don’t want to put out words that leave you with more data to look at. I want to begin to lay out ways of thinking, biblical paradigms and texts, as well as discerning current social data that will give you pragmatic tools as you discern how to conduct your life in these crucial days. These are the days to be redeeming the time, not snared into a false sense of security through busyness. There is enough stuff in the works in America that for the first time we could see a change more radical than we have dreamed.

So am I convinced there will be an event in the fourth quarter of 2009? Not necessarily. Why? I still need time to discern if what I heard and saw was from the Lord or was it the projections of my personality. On the other hand the word of warning for 2008 was so pensively accurate I cannot help but live my life accordingly.

A few broader thoughts: If we do have an event in the next few months it may not be initiated through another financial meltdown. There could be something else that triggers it. The obvious players could be a natural disaster, a terrorist attack but my guess is it might revolve around the issue of health. Just as the financial crisis has opened the door for replacing national economies with a broader world economic system, even so the current year of the Swine Flue has made us aware of the radical and far reaching solutions that governments may need to impose should we have a pandemic.

Through this blog I will be finding my way and maybe warning you in such a way that you might better relate. If we have another nation-altering event this fall then I will proceed with much more confidence on the rest of the material.

* THE GREAT UNPLUG OF 2009

For a very significant number of believers 2009 is proving to be one of the hardest and most unsettling years yet. If this is a difficult season for you then I am writing to you. Hopefully to offer revelation and understanding in order to see through the process, to find comfort in knowing you’re not alone but right in line with the much larger cultural transformation the Lord is taking the church through. And most of all to offer you a fresh invigorating dose of hope, even in the midst of your very trying circumstances. The church corporately is in the midst of a great struggle that is designed to usher us all into a whole new Era of Faith, a type of faith that transcends all of our circumstances.

I would say both as a participant and as an observer of the church on a corporate level that in the thirty-eight years I have been a believer that 2009 is turning out to be the most unusual and challenging year of all. For many in the church 2009 has many of the classical signs of a mid life crisis. I might title it the year of The Great Unplug. The picture I have is of a big balloon that has been filling up for the past decades and in 2009 the Lord began the process of letting the air out. For a smaller number of people this process started in 2008.

It seems almost everywhere I turn people are struggling with issues they either have long past dealt with or never anticipated facing. In the next two paragraphs I will try to review the basic categories I am observing believers struggling with. You may be encountering your own version of the season but you will get the gist.

IDENTITY AND DESTINY

For a pretty significant number of people who have found a lot of value in their jobs, careers, vocations or simply strong internal life purposes they are finding themselves in this season wrestling with the increasing feeling of how temporal it all is. So personal fulfillment, even identity and destiny issues are being shaken. Life has taken on a season of elusiveness. Even successful ministers are finding an unsettling hollowness in their callings, wondering if there isn’t something else for them. For others after so many years the whole idea of church seems to be almost irrelevant.

FINANCES

Through the past decades the Lord has shepherded all of us through economic challenges with the intention of establishing our faith. Yet in this season where we seem to be corporately going to the next level there is an unprecedented number of people who are hemmed in by unyielding and diverse economic challenges. Even while making major financial adjustments one simply cannot engineer their way out of the situation (for now). The far bigger problem seems to be that the Lord is not engaged in delivering most people out of their financial stress or economic dilemmas.

PHYSICAL HEALTH

Though all of these categories are very hard to go through I feel the ones who are wrestling with the category of health deserve our most ardent prayers of all. They are wrestling with very serious and occasionally life threatening health issues. For them the heart trauma seems to be in their reaching out to a God who loves and communicates to them in this season yet often does not heal them.

SPIRITUAL HEALTH

I would say overall the body of Christ has been through decades of maturity. Yet in this season the Lord seems to be probing much deeper in preparation for the days ahead. This deeper corporate probing is unveiling some old issues, fears and doubts that we had dealt with and overcome long ago. Now in some cases doubt seems to speak louder than faith and of all things the goodness of God is being re-challenged. Pockets of darkness we thought were tamed are resurfacing, consequences of compromise and sin are severely dealt with and in some instances there is a battle over mental stability. Obviously not everyone is having these types of experiences but as a church culture I feel this is pretty close to the mark.

Another way to say something very similar was referenced by Chuck Pierce in the spring of 2009. He said that starting in April of 2009 and lasting for five months (August-September) the enemy would be given authority to wear down the saints. Most but not all of the more mature saints I know have been having a very difficult time, something like a prolonged wearing down. A season stronger than our ability to control. One where you can’t snap out of it, a kind of a relentless nowhere-to-hide type of changing season.

SO WHY IS ALL THIS HAPPENING?

For the past forty to sixty years the western church has had the incredible blessing of living and growing where our outer world was not in conflict with our inner spirituality. In reality most of the time our outer world was actually mutually supportive of our interior one. This allowed our inner man to flourish unimpeded. In the very near future I feel that era is about to enter an alarming transition. We are getting closer and closer to an era when our outer world will come into conflict and opposition to our interior world. That’s why for so many their circumstances or their identity and meaning in their external world is being shaken and reduced. That’s why church life, jobs, future, health, and finances are all coming up short. We are moving from externally supportive circumstances toward internal renewal and fortification that rises above the external. Up till now, in most of the trials I touched upon, our victory has been based on God changing our circumstances from bad to good. Corporately we must be delivered from that paradigm.

So Dave, are you saying that up till now we have had an era of ease and prosperity and now we are entering an era of adversity and trial? While I believe that, I’m trying to make a different point. What I am trying to say is that corporately we must come to a place where we have a full victory and God is good even when our circumstances (our outer world) are not. As a culture how do we adjust to a good God even though bad things are happening? What are we going to do with a God who doesn’t come through but brings us through? In the future victory may not come by being delivered from our circumstances, rather by finding a transcendent intimate relationship with a loving Father who can be all we need regardless of our circumstances.

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man [external world] is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” II Corinthians 3:16-18

We have looked on the things that were both seen and unseen. This has not been bad. In fact the fruit of Christianity is to change culture in the natural or the “seen” as well as the unseen. The difference in the era we are entering is we are about to shift back to a more biblical foundation by finding true eternal value in the unseen interior world as the seen exterior world becomes more adverse.

So even in the midst of your struggles in 2009 I would encourage you without giving any ground to the enemy to lean into the process and lean into Him. The other end of the process will yield resurrection life. We will all find an understanding and compassionate Father who is preparing us to be a people who will do exploits and be overwhelming conquerors no matter what our circumstances are or what we may face.

"And remember who or what will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, For your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39