Wonders of Heaven

1. POWER OF LIFE

2008-01-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

By Pastor Peter Tan

Lets look at the book of Hebrews chapter 6:5 And have tasted the goodness of the word of God and powers of the age to come. We speak about the powers of the age to come and the wonders of the things of heaven that some times in this life we glimpse at different degrees. We are on our way to heaven and it will be good to know some of the things that are in heaven. Like the Psalms say even on this earth we partake of some of heaven’s glory and benefits.
This morning we want to look at the power of life. One of the things of heaven is there is no such thing as death, decay. The things that we so commonly know on this earth will one day fade away. If you were to take a walk in the botanical garden and see all the beauty of the scenery around, yet if you observe closely you can find some flowers that have withered away. Some leaves have passed their point of usefulness to the plant and is now dropping off. You would come across death somewhere along. And we are so used to the fact that when we pick flowers from the garden and put them in a vase in your home, you will only have it last for a short time.
Marietta Davis in one of the truths of heaven in the book “Scenes Beyond the Grave,” speaks about how the children in paradise pick the flowers. And they didn’t have to put it in a vase because there is life there. There is no death. Then they brought it to one of the mansions and they just kept the flowers on the ground. And the flowers got embedded in part of the ground in the house and they remain permanently there forever and they never die. Nothing in heaven dies. There are no old people there in heaven. Nothing there shows any sign of aging. You ask, “Are there children there? Yes there are. The little infants that go to heaven they do grow and they reached what I call perfection and that’s it. They remain in perfection. If you were to see your loved ones who had gone there before, if they had died in their old wrinkled bodies, when you go there they are in their prime of their life. No sad faces in heaven. There is no death. There is no sorrow. Heaven is full of life.
We know that once upon a time God created the earth like heaven. There was no death on this earth. We need to think about heaven in heavenly terms. Don’t think about heaven in earthly terms. In Gen. 1 when God first made the heaven and the earth. Verse 3 then God said let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. God call the light day and the darkness night. So the evening and morning were the first day. Now day No. 1 there was still no sun created. Day and night doesn’t have the same reference that we have today. Day and night in a sense of a division, darkness and light. Remember there was darkness all over the earth. The darkness came because Satan fell. Satan fell long before man was created. Then God said let there be light. The darkness was driven off. You ask, “Why is there still darkness? It is because Satan is still around.
Verse 6 God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters. God made the firmament and divided the waters, which were under the firmament from the waters, which were above the firmament, and it was so. When God first created the earth there was a canopy of waters above the earth and a canopy of waters surrounding the planet earth. In fact scientists have analyzed that there is more water than land. The land is there not because we have one third land and two third water. The land is there because the land is all clumped together and pushed up like little mountains and plateaus above the waters. If all the land were a complete circle the water will surround the earth. So there was just water and no land yet and above it there was a canopy of water. The clouds above the earth water were vapor. And above we do not know what it was like. Probably it was a canopy of glass-like kind of water. Before the flood conditions were like that. The earth was like in an air-conditioned state. If you look up it was like a big shield of glass of clouds or whatever form it was in. It was only in Noah’s time the canopy of water was broken down. So today we talk about the ozone layer and the ozone hole. Long ago in Noah’s time there was a breaking up of that hydrogen dioxide which was water above the earth. In Noah’s time the water that was above there was broken and it came down. For the first time the sunray and radiation came and penetrated the earth. The earth that we know before Noah and after Noah is a different world. Today a rainbow is quite a common occurrence. There was no such thing as a rainbow before Noah. So you can imagine it’s a different type of weather condition.
Then there was evening and morning in verse 8 and that was the second day. Verse 9 Then God said let the waters under the earth be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear. Scientists today have realized that there is a theory of the drifting of the continents. Today they realized that all the continents of the world were one piece of landmass. The bible already shows forth that there was one piece of land. If you look at the map of the world you piece together the continents of the world. Today they have discovered the continents are still drifting but in a very small sense. So there was a dry land just one piece of dry land appeared. And God called the dry land earth and the gathering together the waters He called sea. And God saw that it was good.
Now is the 3rd day. Verse 11 And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And it was so. On the 3rd day God made the trees, the plants and the vegetation. Verse 14 “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” Then verse 16 God made 2 great lights. Now the sun and the moon were brought forth on day number 4. Scientifically you have a problem because plants and trees survive by the sunlight. And the sun only came on the fourth day. How did the plants survive? They survive because of God’s life. The plants in heaven function from the life of God. Which is why there is no decay and everything that God made function by God’s life.
Even in the book of Genesis one when God created the heaven and the earth later in the other days you see He create all the animals. Every one of those animals was not created to eat. Eating was a mere pleasure and enjoyment. In heaven if you don’t eat for 1000 years you still be fine. In heaven you don’t need food to survive. Do you realize that when God first created the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve, they didn’t have to eat to survive? Life came directly from God. And when God created Adam and Even they could have lived for 1000 years and they look exactly like the day they were created. Today people are looking for the fountain of youth, the Shangri-la where they can exist without death. All these were once man’s original state of being.
What happened was this. In chapter 2:15-17 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day they you eat of it you shall die.” Adam partook of sin together with Eve. The very day they eat some thing happened. That life was cut off. Suddenly they could not see the glory any more. Which is why they discovered they were naked. Before that they were filled with the life of God, which comes out through them and becomes like a glory upon their life. The garment of glory instantly disappeared. What happens if you got trapped on an island with whatever is there? Although you are civilized, educated, what would you do? You will make use of what is there. All you have on the island are 3 coconut trees and 1 bitter gourd plant. Now you never love vegetables. What would you do? You fast, you hate coconuts and you hate bitter gourds. On the second day you began to have second thought. By the third day I will assume you will be going after the coconut first leave the bitter gourds to the last. After some time the coconuts were not producing as fast as it was being consumed. The supply could not meet the demand. Then you have only one other food left - the bitter gourd. You will make use of what is there to survive. And when all have been consumed you begin to look around and you found oysters around the rocks things that you hate, although for some of you when I speak of oysters your saliva drops. Its funny when you mention food one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Then you began to look at the sea around you. You began to make use of what is there to survive.
Now what happened when Adam and Eve fell? They were cut off from the supply of God’s life. So now the plants get to survive. You know what they have is only the germ of life. And if the plants don’t think of a way to survive, supply thinks. Only the past 10 to 20 years they discovered that the plants do fear. But they have the germ of life. And to preserve that germ of life the plants look around. It is the same with the animals. They didn’t know a thing. I presume there was a lion walking half way while Adam and Eve were about to eat the fruit. Imagine if Adam and Eve felt naked what did the lion felt like. I wonder what the lion felt while walking half way and suddenly the glory departed. The whole animal and plant kingdom felt some thing. Suddenly for the first time the lion felt the pang of hunger because the life was no more feeding that body.
Do you know that the pangs of hunger come as a result of the spirit of death? In heaven you don’t have physical hunger any more. Then for the lion it was also like the plant. Everyday he got to look for food to preserve life. For Adam and Eve they are subjected to this carnal world where each day is the preservation of the life that is there. From the time you are conceived as a one cell living creature biologically you need nutrition. God only gives the germ of life. What happened to this world? This is the spirit of death at work. In heaven there is no death on earth now death exists. Do you know that death comes in many ways and many forms? Hunger is a part of the death process.
If Jesus did not come we are still in that stage. And here is where the New Testament truth comes in. There is a form of life that is available for those who are His. He calls that eternal life, the life of God. The life of God can flow once again into us. The eternity can begin in our spirits. So we have in us that spirit life that God gives. In II Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. There is inside each one of us eternal life. Jesus says for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son whosoever believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. And this life that He gives doesn’t begin in heaven. It begins now the day we accept Him. We have passed from death to life.
Turn to Jn. 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Now eternal life begins in our spirits. Life is imparted into us. What happens now? There is a battle between heavenly nature and the old earthly nature. That begins a battle between your flesh and your spirit. If we learn to yield to eternal life now let it flow out from us we will have more and more of the heavenly life right now on this earth. People here and there who had known God and the heavenly life penetrated them to a certain extend. People who have had their ages reversed like Sarah. Look at Heb. 11:11 By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. That’s Sarah receiving God’s life. We know she was old. She was past the age to bear children. But when she allows faith to work in her life, that life that came through the spoken word. Although they were not born again they don’t have eternal life dwelling in them. But yet the eternal life had an effect through the words spoken into their lives. And when they believe that word eternal life had an instant effect on them. And Sarah received strength she received life. And her body and her womb got started again not an old one but new one. Things began to happen as they walk the walk of faith. I don’t think that was instantly. I believe that as we exercise faith and believe in God’s spoken word some thing was happening in Sarah’s womb.
And Abraham he was old but he also received strength. And when God appeared to Abraham and said Abraham you will have a son next year he was 99 years old. Sarah was 10 years younger. Abraham went to Gerar. King Abimelech looks at Sarah and whistled. Can you imagine anybody doing that to a ninety-year-old woman? Think about what Sarah must have looked like. When Sarah was ninety years old she probably looked like a teenager. It is because of the power of life that was given to them. And every thing in heaven contains that special life.
We read about Elijah when he was discouraged the angel cook him some special food. And when he partook of it, it lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. He was a biological man like us. His body still would normally need food. Let me tell you when you get into that life, the old life that we are so used to all the laws of sin and death just stop. Moses was up on the mount of transfiguration for 40 days and 40 nights. We were told that we couldn’t last 3 days without water. Moses lasted 40 days and 40 nights twice in fact three times including the one where he interceded for them. How could he do it? He has stepped out from the old wall into the other dimension of the original state of man. For a moment of time in the presence of God his body draws life from the presence of God. And he came as strong as he went up. Moses walked and walked down saw all the sins and immediately there is no mention that he ever ate food. When he saw them sinning he went on his knees and went before God for another 40 days and 40 nights that makes 80. And then he went up again after he made the 2 tablets another 40 that make 120 days if he didn’t eat between those times. That’s impossible in the natural. It’s because he moved over to the other realm the life of God. There have been man and woman who have tapped on that from time to time. And it’s not some thing automatic. You need to realize that the life is there and be able to tap on that.
Lets look at some laws on tapping that life and drawing on that life. Turn to the book of Genesis and notice that there are 3 trees. One is called the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I have always looked at it carefully and I wondered why is it that when they partake of knowledge of good and evil that they die. If they had partaken the tree of life they would have lived eternally. Was it that God did not want them to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil at all? Or was He just testing them. Think very carefully if God created heaven every thing would have been tested in heaven including the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Why is God so against that tree? Is it that He doesn’t want us to partake at all? There is no definite theological answer for that. But its my personal opinion there is not so much because God is against but its because there is a time to partake it. There is a readiness before you partake of the things of God. And here is a big key in principle, where the knowledge we partake exceeds life within us it can kill us. Let me give a natural example. Do you teach children 4 year old 5 year old how to put together electrical circuits? Or do you wait until they know safety and other common safety rules before you teach them? You will wait until they are of age then you teach them. Knowledge becomes dangerous when it exceeds one’s ability in life to handle it. That’s the natural truth. Now bringing it forth to the spiritual side. Have you noticed why God reveals things a bit at a time? Its life is in us can grow even if we are perfect. There are different measures of this life of God we grow into. Personally I believe that Adam and Eve needed to mature in the life of God before they are ready for that.
Let me give another example. If young people do not understand principles and socially and you give them the liberty to make their own decision. You think that’s not dangerous? Of course it is. Would you give your 15 year old the liberty of a 25 year old? You would not. That extra right and responsibility can kill them. They cannot handle that freedom. So you train and you bring them up a step at a time.
Another natural example would you give a 7 year old a thousand dollars to handle. You won’t. You would rather give them that when your children had grown 25 then you know they can handle that amount.
Now here is a spiritual principle here. Where the knowledge exceeds the life it becomes destructive. Life must grow first before that knowledge. In I Cor. 8 here he is speaking in regard to the idols and the partaking to the idol food not at the ceremony but just somewhere in the markets or where. This is not permission to eat idol food. This is a decision of one’s wrestling when you live in a city where literally every food stalls are worshipping idols. So how do you handle such thing? When you visit a friend you don’t know whether those food have been offered or not. Because Paul in the same book clarifies in chapter 10 in verse 20 and 21 that he don’t have fellowship with people who worship idols with that idol food. But then he also says this is his principle behind that when you are out in the market in verse 25 and you buy meat and you are not sure what has happened to this meat. He says take it asking no question. But when some one tells you this is idol food for the sake of that person who tells you, you don’t take it. In that context remember chapter 8 is not permission to eat foods offered to idols.
I Cor 8:1 Now concerning food offered to idols we know that all us possess knowledge. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Now love and life are proportional. When you increase in life you increase in love. The amount of life you actually have eternal life in you is proportion to the love you have for people. If your love is not enough it’s because your life is not enough. For eternal life is love.
In Rom. 5 it says in verse one Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace (which refer to this life of God) in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. Verse 5 And hope does disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. That’s the love of God. Love and life are proportional. When we lack love for people it’s because the eternal life in your life do not have enough strength.
Now in I Corinthians is a clear-cut case and he calls the person who couldn’t handle it. He says that person in verse 7 is weak. However not all possess this knowledge. Not everyone has that knowledge that idol food partaken accidentally will not harm him or her and will not bring him or her into demon possession or bondage. You don’t catch a demon just because you eat in a place where the people offer idol food and you don’t know anything about it. Nobody can charm you because they pray over the food and give it to you to eat so that you will listen to them. You have power over all those things when you have knowledge.
But it goes on to say in verse 7 But some, through being hitherto accustomed to idols, eat food as really offered to an idol and their conscience being weak. Now he recognizes that there are the weak ones and the strong ones. The weak ones have no knowledge. Their only knowledge and consciousness are idols. The strong ones have knowledge and their conscience is fine. Now Paul says that the correct stand is the strong one. But he says because a person is weak he could not handle that knowledge. Which part of him is weak? The conscience. What is the conscience? The conscience is part of the spirit mind. The conscience that has the life of God is weak. His eternal life is weak. Therefore he cannot handle that knowledge.
Now he leaves us in limbo. Do we leave things as it is in I Cor. 8? How does a person who is weak become strong? Strengthen that conscience. Let life comes in. Then one day there is a cleansing and an imparting process. The physical blood in our bodies cleanses and impart. Removes oxides waste, carbon dioxide and give oxygen. And when the life of God comes it removes and it imparts. And through time that life grows then that person can handle that knowledge. See when the knowledge goes beyond the life it becomes dangerous. Which is why Jesus said do not cast pearls before swine. For then they will turn and destroy you and not only that they will also actually destroy themselves. Understand how to handle some of the things of God. Which is why people who walk close to God seldom talk about the things that God showed them because not everybody can handle it. If God does not see fit to reveal then its because that person is not ready for that revelation to handle it.
Now what can be done about it? In the bible Hebrews 9 and 10 there is process of growth between chapter 9 and 10. In chapter 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Do you notice what He purifies you from? From the spirit of death that works in your life. There is a battle between the spirit of life and the spirit of death. Understand this truth that when the spirit of life is on you no sickness can touch you. And we are talking about the heavenly life that born in our lives. If dead works are present it produce death. But the life removes it.
And he continues in chapter 10 verse 22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Sprinkled from an evil conscience. That’s subject to the law of sin and death. We are constantly on this earth subject to either life or death. Colossians one says we have passed form death into life.
There are 2 main keys on tapping this law. One is Prov. 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Through our words we subject ourselves either to life or to death. Death and life flows through the words, words we hear and words we speak. How did Abraham and Sarah receive that life? They spoke. His name was changed from Abram to Abraham. Her name was changed from Sarai to Sarah. And Romans 4 says that they were like God calling things, which be not as though they were. And the life flowed into them and transformed them.
No. 2 death or life flows through our thoughts. In Romans chapter 8:5-6 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death. Now you know why a lot of Christians are ending up sick? Sorrow is a part of death, which is why when you enter into heaven there is no more sorrow. Now here are those words that you must listen carefully. Death doesn’t come when you die physically. When Adam and Eve received death into them they lived on for 900 over years. But God says that in the day you eat it you shall die. In the day they ate of it death started operating. They started aging and the process of death was set in motion. Many times Christians think that the spirit of death only works when a person is about to go home. You live in the world that is a wrestling between light and life and the death and sin. You don’t die just when you die physically. The moment you set your mind and thought on the things of this life and on the carnal things you have already died on your inside. It’s only a matter of time before your physical body follows. Every sickness, every disease, and every destruction that the enemy uses to steal, kill and destroy is done through the power of death. This is why we got to watch our words and our thought life carefully. Paul even calls that in II Cor. 10 the bondage, the stronghold that will strangle you. The moment a person has a sickness death is operating. You need to be able to learn to tap on life. We have to choose between death and life a.
Some Christians unknowingly are allowing death to gain the upper hand in their lives. Paul says to be carnally minded is death. Right away you are allowing death to begin operating when you allow hurts, wounds, sorrows, bitterness and all negative things in your mind. Which is the reason why biologically and in the natural when a person is not mentally positive he is more liable to get sick. Because death is already operating its easier. Light attracts light in the spirit world. Do you know that magnet have no attraction force on you if you don’t have iron feeling on your inside? If you have nothing in your life like Jesus says Satan has nothing in me, there is no magnetic pull between the two. But the moment you have those germs of the enemy operating in your life in your thought and in your word, death is operating in you. That includes idol worship. Be careful what you say. Be careful what you think. Those are the 2 lines that divide between death and life operating in your life.
Turn to Rom.8 now verse one of chapter eight is obviously has to do with your conscience. Verse 10-11 But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to you mortal bodies also through His Spirit who dwells in you. He gives life not just to your spirit but also to our mortal bodies. Now that life can grow so strong in you on your inside. It can overcome all the things in your mind and in your body and it can even come out from you life to touch and remove death from other people’s life.
Turn to II Cor. 4 to show the battle that is taking place every time a person ministers. See the words you speak either contain death or life. The thoughts you think either contain death or life. These 2 great battles are going on with the spirit of life against the spirit of death. In verse 6-7 For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have treasures in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in way, but not crushed; we are perplexed but not driven to despair. Look at that - there is a battle between life and death. They are pressed on every side but they are not crushed because there is a power of life in them. It’s just like Beethoven’s nice symphony called the Ode of Joy. In this symphony you hear the different sounds, and all the instruments try to drown it until in the end every instruments carries that joyful tune. It’s the story of joy. Every thing tries to crush it but it wants to live. In the end it conquers.
The life of God is powerful. Paul says in II Cor 4: 8-9 We are pressed on every side yet not crushed; we are perplexed, (that is in the mind) but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed. I mean this is the material that is made from eternal life.
Verse 10. Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. (You see the old nature must be struck a deathblow. Look at your old man as having died in Christ) that the life of Jesus also may be manifested (not in our spirit alone, not in our soul but) in our body. Paul looks forward to immortality.
Verse 11-12 But we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake (preaching the gospel is the ministry of life versus death; as we bring life to the people, the devil is seeking to steal and destroy) that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. Now that looks like a puzzle. He is talking about this eternal life that is so powerful it could just absorb death and cancel it and go on working. So as Paul preached to the group of people who were experiencing death, there is the power of life working in him.
He comes to them and the death that is working on them he brings it onto himself and he is not afraid of death. Verse 12, So then death is working in us, but life in you. He completely absorbs it and then let his life transmit it out. He took death and give out life. And he continues to live. He didn’t take life and then he was finished. But he lives forever more. He rises again because death cannot conquer eternal life.
The same Paul says that works but the life comes out even more. Because he says, verse 13, And since we have the same spirit of faith according to what is written, “I believe and therefore I spoke.” Remember what you say is important. What you say releases life. Verse 14, Knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.”
Look at verse 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing (and subject to all these things he says) yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. Is your inward man renewed day by day or is it crushing you? Verse 17-18 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. The word eternal means age lasting.
Most of us read verse 16 and stop there. Paul was looking for the resurrection life. In chapter 5 he continues. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven.
I want you to see how it sounds in the Greek, reading from Chapter 4 verse 16 to 18 and then from chapter 5 verse 1 to 4. Wherefore we are not losing courage. But and if as is the case our outward self is progressively decaying, yet our inward self is being charged into a new kind of life, fit for the new spiritual existence into which we have been ushered in salvation. And constantly being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus day by day. For our momentary light affliction is working out for us more and more surpassingly and eternal heavy world of glory. While we are not contemplating the things which are seen but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary but the things that are not seen are eternal. Chapter 5 verse 1 to 4 For we know that in our house of this present tent life on earth is taken by a building from God we have a house not made with hands eternal in heaven. For in this tent we are groaning, longing to be clothed in addition with a house which from heaven. Seeing that also having been clothed we shall not be found naked and disembodied spirit for indeed we being in this tent are groaning being weighted down because we do not desire to be unclothed but clothed with a heavenly body in order that death which is mortal may be swallowed up by this life.
That is why Romans 8 went on to say that all creations wait for the manifestation of the sons of glory. This life which is coming out through our soul. And our physical body will bring you the heavenly presence, health and prosperity. For Jesus says that I come that you may have life and more abundantly. When you have this life on your inside nothing can stop you.

Source : www.eaglevision.com.my
Email : spiritword@bigpond.com

2. THE MELODIES OF HEAVEN

2008-01-20T18:25:00.000-08:00

By Pastor Peter Tan

Turn to Col. 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We need to set our hearts and our minds on things in heaven. That is the reason why we are teaching on this series Wonders of Heaven. Our key verse we have taken is from the book of Hebrews chapter 6:5 And have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. God wants us to draw from our inside the things from our spirit to taste of the good word. And the author of Hebrews says of the powers of the age to come.

We have talked about the gifts of the Spirit and how the gifts of the Spirit some times manifest in our lives. And all the manifestation of the Spirit has to do with the things that are in heaven. So lets just close our eyes and set our hearts and affection on the things of heaven. Think of some of the things that are in heaven and let the longing come upon our hearts and our lives as we draw towards the things of heaven. The reason we have you to sing some songs even though we are going to minister the word is because there is some thing about music and singing that we are going to talk about.

We have talked about the Power of Life. And in heaven there is what we call the power of music or melody. That is another realm that is in heaven. In heaven music flows on continuously. It is non-stop. All the time the music just keeps flowing. And there is not a moment or time when music ceases. Except in the time of revelation where it talked about God was about to show His wrath, and as He was grieving there was silence in heaven for a moment of time. And the music that is in heaven is very powerful. It is some thing that we only have a foretaste of on this earth. In fact being filled with the Spirit is being linked up to the kind of music that we can receive from God.

Turn to Eph. 5:18-19 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Some times when the Spirit of God move we feel like some thing in our hearts wants to reach out onto Him. Most of the time we grab a song or a melody that we know and we sing it and it comes out from our life. But as our walk in God increases the heavenly presence is so much in us that the earthly melody cannot contain what we want to express. And we need to reach into some thing deeper than that. And that is why God gives us a new tongue to worship Him. Like this morning you could sense it in your spirit you feel like there is some thing in you that just want to reach out to God. And unless we could let that melody flowing out there is some thing that is just not contacted or some thing that is just not there. Just close your eyes and lift up your hands for a moment. And just let the melody on your inside worship God. And you sense the atmosphere different. Doesn’t some thing on your inside feel good like some thing lifting you up? Like some thing is lifting you up into the heavenly presence.

That’s what we want to talk about this morning that the words that God gives us and the tune that God gives us in Eph. 5:19. Making melodies in your heart has a sort of quality you can call it power that seems to take some thing from inside us and bring us into the heavenly place. We know that He gave us melody in chapter 5:19 of Ephesians. The question we want to deal with is why He gives us the melody.

In the Hebrew language there are many words for the word rejoice which is also translated as gladness some times. In English we have rejoice, cheer, joy, and in the Hebrew they have different words to express that joy in our hearts. There are different degrees of what I call the heavenly music that can fill our lives. How many of you felt that atmosphere different just after you worship in tongues. Why should it be different? That’s what we are going to touch on this morning. To gain some understanding of why is it different and what is the process that was taking place. We know it is different but we want to know why it is different.

In the book of Proverbs chapter 17:22 A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones. There is some thing about the joy that God gives that has a supernatural quality of being able to transform our life and bring healing to us. The word merry in the Hebrew is the word sameah. And sameah has a bigger meaning than the word merry. When we think about the word merry it just reminds us of merry making. We wish you a merry Christmas. But today we changed the tune to we wish you a blessed Christmas because we want more the blessing than just the merriness. Because merry making reminds us a little bit too much about wining and drinking and that kind of fun that they have in the world. It is not that Christians do not have fun, we have fun but our fun is a different type with no hangovers. The merry is the word sameah, which has a very wide element of joy. Now in Hebrew there is a joy that refers to the joy that is in our spirits, in our hearts. There is a joy that is in our soul. And there is a joy that is in our physical body.

And music is actually just harmonizing vibrations. You could even take a musical instrument and you just simply strike any key but it won’t just harmonize. It has to be in a certain tune. When the keys are struck in a certain pattern that is harmonized one to another it carries a different impact on our lives. The bible does say that all that has breath worship and praise God. God has put music in life. Where there is life there is music. Everything in this life flows according to some rhythm. Electricity flows in a rhythm. Even your tap water doesn’t just come in one flow. If you observe very carefully it comes in rhythm. And depending on the speed of the rhythm you cannot see it. There is a rhythm to life and that rhythm we call music. The music that God had set in the heart, in the spirit, the music in our soul and the music in our physical body. Even all the atoms and molecules synchronized with one and another.

Do you know that when your body is sick your body is not in rhythm? Most of you know about X-ray. And today they also know about the sonar scan where they use sound waves to scan for example the position of a baby. But they also have another way of scanning call the magneto scan where the cells that are sick show up in a spot because its not in the pattern. Sick cells, diseased body parts show up in a magnetic scan because they cannot move in rhythm. If there was a cancerous cell on a magneto scan they can see a dark spot where the magnetic lines could not flow through. It has lost its ability to flow in the rhythm. It’s based on a simple principle of magnetic rhythm in our body.

The bible says a merry heart doth good like a medicine. Its because the rhythm that is in heaven where health is there where life is there flows upon our spirit, upon our soul and upon our body. And our body began to beat with the rhythm in heaven. And healing is there. There is a process of health and healing that is there. The only reason why your body is in sickness is your body lost that rhythm. I am not talking about tongue rhythm but there is a heavenly rhythm that it has lost. The cells are not able to move in the rhythm of life.

Adam and Eve were created with the heavenly nature, and the Garden of Eden was like a heaven. Every thing was in harmony. But the moment Adam and Eve fell into sin this was the curse that came in. Genesis 3 verse 17-19 Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and dust you shall return. To the woman He says in verse 16 I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing. Sorrow only came in after the fall. Remember the testimony by Sister Sally. She said in heaven she could not see a single sad face because in heaven there is the heavenly music that is joy. It is on earth and since the fall of man that sorrow came. From the time that Adam fell into sin all the trees and all the herbs began to produce things that were not really designed to produce. From that day onwards suddenly there were thorns. The rhythm in the plant was disrupted. And the energy that went to produce beautiful flowers and eternal leaves went to produce thorns. Obviously the rhythm of life is disrupted. It is just like a beautiful plant and you began to take away nutrition from it. That beautiful plant can become crumpled and wrinkled. Just like many of you who have eaten well, you look well. You see people who are undernourished especially in Africa. You see those young children who don’t have enough food their facial features look like old man because they didn’t have enough nutrition. Now amplify that a million times because when Adam fell into sin it was more than that. It was passing out of spiritual life into darkness. And all the energy of that rhythm of life began to produce noise. The noise of the rhythm of life ended up with thorns.

And so from that day onwards in Romans chapter 8:20-22 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now. All of creation from the day of the fall lost its music. When we lost the rhythm of life sickness came, sorrow came, imperfection came. You could in a sense say in this manner that when Adam and Eve fell we lost our music. When Adam and Eve fell mankind lost the heavenly music. And man for thousands of years has tried to lift themselves out of that mighty cave with their own form of music. And music has played a role in all of man’s highest moments. Any wedding in any culture in any religion is not complete without music. Then the greatest suffering of mankind when man face death in a funeral. When man wrestle with things that are so difficult to accept they need music. Have you gone to a funeral service where there is no music?

From that day when man fell man struggled to get back that music. Some times he succeeded in a small degree and it lift him up. Sometimes he failed. From time to time mankind has managed to taste some of the heavenly music. People like Beethoven his music has certain majesty involved. And when you hear it, it lifts you up. And some other kind of music that has lifted mankind out of their suffering, out of their sorrow, helped mankind taste the fullness of joy. And all of the highest music of man cannot reach what it takes to reach the musical state before Adam fell into sin. From that day onwards men sought for that music. Which is why in Proverbs 17 it says a merry heart do good like a medicine. When at least a little bit of that rhythm is still there you get divine health.

Just to give you an idea of how powerful the original music that we have lost if you really have that heavenly music you don’t just have health you have immortality. If a merry heart does good like a medicine heavenly music brings you immortality. Adam and Eve were once immortal. They could have lived for 10000 years and still have not a single wrinkle. Imagine living 10000 years without sorrows. All of us have lived many years but we could never say that all those years were without sorrows. There have been sorrows there have been joy and all overall if your joy is more than your sorrow you are still going strong. If your sorrow is more than your joy you feel very depressing. Thank God Jesus is your joy. Can you imagine living 10000 years and not knowing sorrow? See that heavenly music that we only have a glimpse of not only have the power of life it has a power of immortality. And that is that kind of music we are talking about the sameah that comes from the Spirit and will affect your soul and your body.

Turn to Acts 2:25-26 For David says concerning him, “I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; there my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will dwell in hope. Now you know why this is a reference to Jesus Christ? The music in Jesus’ life and the joy that was in His heart never dies. Hebrews 12 verse 2 tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ when He saw the cross had joy, looking onto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross..” Now this is the same Lord Jesus who for the joy that was set before Him, the joy that was in Him, the music that was in Him his flesh did not see corruption. No germ, no virus could touch that body. Yes He did die for our sins and for our sicknesses. He Himself bore our sickness and diseases and that was a legal transaction.

So then what happened at Gethsemane when He cried? What about Hebrews 5 when Jesus cried and wept? Have you ever experienced where you laugh and laugh until you cried? If you really let go you laugh until you cry. You laugh until the tears come out from your eyes. It is possible to weep because you are happy. Now Jesus Christ had 2 things going on at Gethsemane. In His heart there was joy that He will be raised up again. See Jesus looked to the cross expectantly. Although He told the Father that, “If you desire let this cup pass from Me” but then He goes on and said, “Nevertheless not my will but yours be done.” Some of you got the wrong picture in Gethsemane that Jesus was saying to the Father, “I don’t like this take it away from me.” Jesus never lost His joy.

You ask, “How do you know?” Don’t you remember the night before He was betrayed what was He talking about?

Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take away from you (John 16:22)

Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full (John 16: 24)

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16: 33)
This is the Lord Jesus speaking on the night when He was betrayed. He was there comforting His disciples and imparting joy into their lives although there was sorrow because of physical separation and the sin of the world. Yet on His spirit of joy for doing God’s will is there. That’s why on the cross 2 things happened. He took our sorrows but His joy was more powerful than our sorrow that’s why He won. The life that was in Him yielded to God and that resurrection life flowed out of Him.

But this reference in Acts 2 Peter was explaining about the tongues they had received. They were speaking in tongues and all the people say they were drunkard. And Peter was explaining that this is the outpouring of the Spirit as prophesied by Joel. And this is what David says in verse 26 Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad. Now the word glad is a special Greek word and not the normal word for joy. It is the word, which means leaping with joy. And my tongue was leaping with joy. It is the word translated jumping with joy. He was giving a picture of the Lord filling their lives. The filling of the Spirit is the filling of joy. He anoint us with the oil of gladness, and that ties back to Eph. 5:18-19 it says, “Be filled with the Spirit speaking to yourself in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart.” When you are baptized in the Holy Spirit God gives you a melodious inspiration on your inside. And it was so full you can’t contain it you say praise God, thank you Lord. See that joy that filled your inside is your tongue leaping.

Cross reference to where he took that passage from in the book of Psalms 16:9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; Now the word glad in Hebrew here is the same word found in Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart do good like a medicine. A sameah heart do good like a medicine. My heart is sameah my heart is so happy. And he says my soul (in reference to the tongue) rejoices. The word rejoices here is the word gul or gil, which means to spring about. No wonder when they translated it into the New Testament in Greek they have to choose a special word. Remember that verse in Isaiah 28:11 For with stammering lips and another tongue. And Paul later in Corinthians refers that to speaking in tongues.

I point to all these words to show forth that when God filled us with the Holy Spirit in the process He gave us some thing that He longed to give to mankind the heavenly melody in our life. Which is why some times you go deep into tongues and you pray in tongues and Paul says I will sing with my spirit and I will sing with my understanding. And as he sings with the spirit he touched on the heavenly melody where there is some scene of immortality.

Now there are many Hebrew words for the word rejoice. There are some that are not applicable so much in the spirit but more in the natural realm. There is a word kadar which is found in Exodus 18:4 and its like Jethro rejoicing over the goodness that was in Moses life. All these are natural joy. Why do the Hebrews have so many words for joy? They discovered all the different types of joy. There is a joy you can have because something good is happening. That is kadar happiness. Then there is a natural joy masos and this is a joy of happy events like for example a wedding. It’s a joy that comes because of a happy event. There is another joy tsahal for example Ex. 8:13 and that is the joy that comes when they have just been delivered. Like the Berlin wall came down you should see those East German faces. There is a joy that comes from deliverance. So these are the different examples of natural joy that the Hebrew has a word for it. But there are different degrees of joy that Hebrews talk about. There is a joy you have learnt just now the word gil or gul and that joy is a joy that affects the physical body. It talks about your physical body reacting to that joy. See some people who were born again, tongue talking, demon chasing but their face don’t tell you they are Christians. They were supposed to have the peace and joy of our Lord Jesus but it didn’t look on their faces. They have sameah joy in their spirit but it never affected into gil or gul joy. A joy that makes you want to celebrate. So gil or gul is a joy that affects your body, and causing you to be leaping and dancing. Some time we forgot that the spiritual natural rhythm the most spontaneous with the Lord would be the most beautiful. That’s what joy is about. See joy can never be conformed to rules. You can be trained to smile but if it doesn’t come from your heart there is some thing missing. So its important for us to understand that there is a sameah joy and a gil or gul joy. From your inside it affects your outside. And that’s when healing began to result.

In Isa. 35:1 and 2 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice (gil or gul) and blossom like the rose, it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. Now how could a desert blossom, your body could be sick and be like a desert and it needs to blossom in the health and the life of God. You must have gil or gul. And that’s the joy from sameah that comes into your body when your tongue moves, your legs moves and you rejoice in the Lord. Even if an untrained person is dancing as the Lord touches him or her there is a beauty to it. Of course when you are trained you can get rid of some discordant movements but don’t let that remove that natural rhythm. Do you know what makes a person go from average to genius? They go beyond the boundaries. There are a lot of people who go to art school but not all of them become great artists. Because most people confine themselves to the rules and never look beyond the rules to touch on realms that others dream about. When Beethoven who came after Mozart started his style it was astounding to the people of his time. See genius comes by going beyond the average. Remember what makes people average. They never go beyond their training. They just limit themselves. This is the law. This is the way but they never touch on the beauty of their training. You can learn to play tennis under a great tennis coach but there must be some thing on your inside that takes those rules and make you a master of some special area.
When golf as a sport was just starting, the golfers were still mastering the rules. In the past, the top golfers were the ones who really could really play the rules well. But then after many years of golf many can play the rules very well. What was considered great 30 years ago becomes average today. Normally when you use a golf club they tell you that the angle must be only at a certain length. So all the masters were teaching that because that was the rule. Then this American came along. He broke every rule. He put it at a stronger angle. His shots were more powerful. And every master was asking how did he do it. They analyzed his shots and found he increased the angle to what the masters were saying you should never do. And his shots were so powerful that it goes beyond others.

So what are we talking about? You got to flow with the rhythm. When there is a rule you got to understand why the rules are there. And perhaps there is another way to flow around those rules. Man cannot fly. Man has to discover ways to break the law of gravity. You know what the rules say. Anything that is heavier than air cannot fly. But there are other rules so that a Boeing 747 that weigh about 85 tons still can fly. The aeronautical engineers have figured out a way to get around those things without breaking the natural laws. So its important for us to let the flow or rhythm comes forth. Remember every thing that you earn in life is there and is still in the state of evolution. All the engineering schools are still in a state of evolution. Even the laws continue to change. Every thing is in a state of evolution, because things that are seen are subject to a state of change.

How do you control those changes? You don’t break the laws of music to create great music. You flow with those laws and you bring it to a higher pattern. You take those things and there is a rhythm because there is a rhythm that is deep in your spirit. Like the first man who built a suspension bridge, all the engineers looked at him and said it cannot be done. But he dreamt and dreamt and said that it can be done. And he conquered that engineering problems and he built a suspension bridge. Today it is nothing to build a suspension bridge. You could be trained in school to do it. But the first man who did it had no school to attend.

There is rhythm in our spirit that we need to flow with the music of our soul so that we are not limited by boundaries. So there is a gil or gul that is there. Notice in Isa. 35:1 the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. That means that if the desert doesn’t rejoice it shall not blossom. If the desert doesn’t have gil it will not blossom. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice. Look at verse 3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Verse 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. It all starts with the joy. Every promise of the Holy Spirit is the promise of the heavenly rhythm coming into our lives.
In the book of Joel there is a prophecy on the outpouring of the Spirit. Now Joel chapter 2 starts with fasting and seeking the Lord. And as you seek the Lord there is weeping and mourning. But that is not supposed to be your main condition. That leads to some thing. There is a fast in verse 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion. Then look at verse 21 now the Lord began to move in their lives. As the Lord moves in their lives what came first. The outpouring came first or the music came first. Let me tell you the music came first. If you want to see visions of heaven, if you want the heavenly experience, let the heavenly music touch you first in your heart. And let it flow out from you, from your spirit to your soul, to your body. Verse 21 Fear not, O land; be glad (the word glad is the word “gil” let that joy touch your body) and (sameah) rejoice. The same word found in Proverbs 17:22 be merry. Verse 23 Be glad (gil) O sons of Zion and (sameah) rejoice in the Lord, your God; for He has given the early rain for your vindication. See there is a heavenly music that God gives to us in the New Testament. It is linked to the outpouring of the Spirit.
Every move of God in church history has been accompanied with music. James 5:13 Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Why does he ask those who suffering to pray? And those who have joy let the joy fill their life even more. There is a clue given to you in Isaiah 56:7 These I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them (sameah) joyful in My house of prayer. Not you know why those who are sad or sorrowful let them pray. Because when you enter the house of prayer He gives you sameah. It makes your heart merry again. He tells you what happen in His house of prayer. Those who enter His house He gives you sameah which is Proverbs 17:22 a merry heart when you pray through because He wants to keep us in His covenant of blessing in our lives.

There is a word the joy in the soul too. Let turn to Ps. 35:9 Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in His deliverance. That word joy is the word sic and that joy is the joy of the soul. So there are many Hebrew words for the word joy. There is a word gil or gul, which refers to the joy that affects the body. There is a word sic that affects the soul. There is a word sameah that is a joy that is in our spirit. So when we talk about rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice, there are different degrees of that joy. We must first of all have sameah. Then we need to have our soul rejoicing sic. Then we need to have gil or gul, which is an outward expression of that joy.
And look at what Ps. 35:10 says All my bones shall say. You know your bones can talk. No wonder He says a merry heart do good like a medicine. For when sameah becomes sic and gil in your life, your body began to beat in the rhythm of God. Divine health comes in. There are several Hebrew words with a slight different meaning. The word alas speaks about times when nothing around you seems joyful. You are the only one seem joyful like in Habakkuk. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord though the fig tree does not blossom and the vine doesn’t bear fruit yet I will alas before the Lord, which means I will rejoice by faith. The word alas is the word of triumph. I will let joy triumph over my situation. Then there is a word renun, which means to sing out loud to the Lord. All these are related to the joy of sameah, sic and glu.

As we sing and look at heavenly music, we realize that heavenly music begins as a melody in your heart. And every time before God does some thing you look at the book of Revelation there is always a new song that goes up to God. Today human beings are in sin and they in discord. A lot of the human music is discord. They don’t produce health and healing. A lot of the rock music stirs up physical passion. They are in disharmony against God. A lot of the sentimental music gives you a melancholy spirit. It makes you very sad and moody. And so we need to hear the heavenly music that is so different from this earth. You can use any instrument that is there in the natural world but you must play it in the heavenly rhythm. That will produce immortal life. May God give us spiritual ears tune to them. It’s the power of music, if you allow this heavenly music to affect you. It starts with your tongue and melody in your heart. You will touch the realm of the heavenly nature.

Source : www.eaglevision.com.my
Email : spiritword@bigpond.com

3. THE POWER OF ANGELS

2008-01-20T18:22:00.000-08:00

By Pastor Peter Tan

Heb. 6:5 And have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. What are these powers of the age to come? Some of them are manifested as the gifts of the Spirit. These are things that are common in heaven but they are uncommon here. On this earth ever since man fell into sin we have lived more or less in the natural world although we are a spirit being. But when we are born again we experience something of the supernatural world. So there are powers of the age to come that we can experience even while on this earth.

Lets look at Col. 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Having been risen with Christ as Eph. 2 declares we will be raised up and seated in the heavenly places with Him. How do we maintain our position? Now here is the key that tells us how to maintain our position in Christ. Col. 3 verse 2 Set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth. If we do not know what things are above, how can we set our mind on them? You can’t have a blank mind thinking a blank thing. To set your mind on some things you have to have some ideas of what these things are. Which is why we are talking about the things of heaven in this teaching series so that we know what God wants for us to experience in part on this earth.

This morning we want to talk about the power of angels. In heaven one of the things you see is the multitude of angels that are there. God has assigned angels different special tasks. And part of the heavenly realm is borne by these angels. 4 special creatures even surround God’s throne. There are many types of angels. Ministering angels, warring angels, messenger angels, transportation angels and there are so many types of angels that we may only have a glimpse of them in the Word of God. Yet these angels function in the plan of God on this earth. God designed the plan that He has in our life on earth with angels in mind. The moment a child is born an angel is assigned. And as we move into different gifting and ministry in our life more angels are assigned. And as you fellowship with God angels encamp about you. God designed your life to work with angels. Unless we know how to co-operate with the angels we will not be able to partake of that heavenly work of the angels while on this planet earth.

Lets read some scriptures about these angelic beings. Exod. 25:18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.

If I were the craftsman I would look at Moses with a blank look and say, “Tell me what a cherubim looks like?” If you haven’t seen a cherub how do you make a cherub? Moses must have seen what the cherubim looked like. Even if Aholiab and Bezalel may not have seen it Moses would have tried to describe it to them what a cherub looks like for them to make the cherubim. Isn’t it interesting that there is only one piece of furniture in the Holy of holies in tabernacle of Moses? Unlike the Holy of holies in heaven have 2 pieces of furniture, where the altar of incense is brought into the holy of holies in the heavenly place. But on the Moses pattern they had to put it outside for they have to do some thing with it everyday, which they can’t if it was in the Holy of holies. So in the tabernacle of Moses in the Holy of holies there is only one piece of furniture. And its so holy that the high priest only sees it once a year where he comes in to bring the blood sacrifice for the whole nation on the Day of Atonement. This is on the 10th day of the 7th month just 10 days after the feast of trumpets.

And in that very place where we see the Shekinah glory dwells where nobody else can be, there is this big angel with 3 pairs of wings called the cherubim. I have done some cross-reference research on cherubim and seraphim. They have been used interchangeably in some places when you compare the account in Moses’ account and Ezekiel’s account and Isaiah’s account the same creature have been used interchangeably although some scholars think the cherubim and seraphim are 2 different types of angels. Whatever they are from descriptions in the bible they tell us that they have 3 pairs of wings, one that covers the face, one that fly and one seems to be showing the glory of God. They are different from the other angels. And they dwell in the most holy place. So angels do carry a degree of presence of God. And there is a tremendous power that they carry. It is so powerful that when these angels are allowed to be manifested on the earth without protection they can destroy. Whenever God wants to carry a work of judgment angels are involved. When He carries a work of redemption, mercy angels are involved. Remember the 2 angels that came down with God on the way to Sodom and Gomorrah. They have tremendous power when the people try to come against Lot they pulled Lot into the house and the glory blinded all the men.

Some times we think people like Jacob is the only man who could wrestle with an angel and win that wrestling match. It was because the angel chose a handicap in order not to destroy Jacob. You know what a handicap is? When I play chess and if you can’t play at the same level I will give you a free Bishop and then we play. So that’s a handicap. The angel did not use his full power with Jacob. Its just like some times we wrestle with children we don’t use the full strength. If you use the full strength of course they can never win you. How did we know? When Jacob was winning at the handicap level he just put out his finger and touch Jacob’s legs and his sinew and bone was affected. And for the rest of his life he had to limp. Just to tell you the angel didn’t wrestled at the same level. Why did the angel in the first place come down and play children’s sumo wrestling with Jacob? Jacob had been a wrestler all his life. He first started wrestling when he was in his mother’s womb. And God wanted to show him that the wrestling must come to an end on day. And that was the last wrestling he ever did in his life. From that day onward the bible tells us that the children of Israel never ate the sinew of the lamb. So we must remember that angels can come down to our level for a certain purpose alone.

Remember the time when God declared judgment on Jerusalem because of David’s fault. And just one angel swinging a sword caused thousands to die everywhere the angel stepped on. Although Hebrews tells us that God has made us in Christ with a position higher than the angels, it is only because we are in Christ Jesus. It is because of who Christ is. Man was made lower than the angels and it was only when Christ came that in Christ we are exalted to the right hand of God and became higher than the angels. However in our function on this earth even Jesus Himself at Gethsemane as He travailed needed an angel to strengthen Him. Remember how He cried in agony and the sweats dropped down as blood. An angel appeared and strengthened Him. So we still need their aid and their help.

In fact in the book of Exodus there is a lot of mention of angelic beings. Exod. 10-19 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready by the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, “Take heed that you do not go up into the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death; no hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.” When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” So Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. And he said to the people. “Be ready by the third day; do not go near a woman.” On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightning, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder.

Remember in II Chronicles 5: 13 when the trumpeters and singers make one sound in praising and thanking the Lord, suddenly the glory of God manifested and filled the house of the Lord. That was what the Lord was leading Moses to do.

An angel of God woke me up on Friday night and told me about meeting and the revival that is coming and I like his last words “I will visit you again.” So the revival is coming forth and he told me several things. The angels said some of you are not ready for revivals and he listed 5 different areas.

No. 1 some people of God are listening to a lot of worldly music that belong to the devil, and it will prevent you from gaining God’s presence when revival comes.

No. 2 some families’ relationships are not correct. Husbands and wives are not speaking to one another.

No. 3 not faithful in finances. They have not been obeying God in the things that God tells them to do and what to do with their finances.

No. 4 there some people who are getting into videos and literature that are of this world. They are not sanctifying themselves.

No. 5 they are people who have sins of the mouth, backbiting, gossiping, and lies.

When the revival comes if you don’t deal with those things is a dangerous thing. Some will die; some will have judgment fall on their life. And things will happen that they don’t why it happens. Because when revival comes and you don’t get rid of those things it’s a dangerous thing. Isn’t that interesting that in chapter 19 as God was about to bring His presence. God told the people sanctify themselves for 3 days. And on the third day, He said, “I will come.” Please don’t take these words lightly sanctify yourselves for the revival. If you don’t take heed to these words its not our responsibility if the judgment of God comes. Because it’s a dangerous thing when God moves. Now there is a move of God coming. The prayer room is packed like sardines. As the move of God in prayer revival comes forth, it may spread to many other days and nights. Just flow along with what God is doing.

So here God brings His presence and then He spoke to His people and He adds this statement in chapter 23 of Exodus verse 20. Behold I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared.

Although the presence of God was there in Moses’ ministry, basically an angelic ministry assisted Moses. Moses symbolizes an entire Old Testament. Angels brought his ministry forth. The book of Galatians tells us that the law was through angels through one mediator Moses. Jesus is a mediator of the new covenant. Let me turn to Galatians and read that to you so that we could establish that although sometimes angels speak in the first person as if God were speaking Himself, it is an angel of God who did the speaking. I know that some people try to put it as an appearance of Christ before His manifestation in the New Testament. But if you look carefully you also have the option of taking it as a mere powerful angel. Remember Exodus 3 where Moses saw the burning bush, the bible says it was the angel of the Lord that was in the burning bush. Although God was taking in the first person “I am the Lord, you are standing on holy ground,” yet it was an angel. Gal. 3:19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

That’s referring to Moses. He is talking about the law coming. So despite the great manifestations of God’s presence it was all the manifestation brought forth together by angels. Lets look back at Exod. 23 and what God said about this angel. Verse 21 Give heed to him and hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for My name is in him. That doesn’t sound like Christ. It is not Christ. It is an angel. Remember what Jesus says if you say some thing wrong about the Son and the Father there is forgiveness but if you say something against the Holy Spirit there is no more forgiveness. He says do not provoke him he will not pardon your transgression for My name is in him. See God sent one special angel to reveal the name of God to Moses. That’s the angel that appeared to him in the burning bush.

And if we read from man’s history we will see how wonderful it was. If we read from man’s perspective about the history about God’s people we will hear the history about the man of God Moses born as a child raised up in Pharaoh’s court went into the wilderness for 40 years. Called by God; did the signs and wonders with the rod of God and let the people out of Egypt; cross the Red Sea; and you would have the history of the man of God.

Let’s view it from the spiritual dimension. From God’s perspective on heavenly record it is not only the history of man but the history of how God worked through the angel. In God’s record there is record of God sending the angel to Moses. Remember the difference between Moses going out into the desert when he was 40 years and when God called him when he was 80 years old. When he was 40 years he was headstrong and he was proud and God had to humble him. Not only was there a difference in Moses’ character and life, but do you know what the other difference was? When he was 40 years he tried to deliver the Israelites without the angel of God. Not only was his character needed to change, but his ministry also needed the assistance of an angel to arrive. Of course we know that when he was 80 years his character was different. But the other truth is that when he was 40 years there was no angel with him. It was not time yet for the angel to be sent to manifest to him when he was 40 years old. When he was 80 years the angel came at the burning bush. The burning bush was there and the angel was standing in the middle of that bush.

Exod. 3:2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. This was the angel whom God sent to Moses to reveal the name I Am that I Am. “My Name is in him,” God said. God sends angels with messages. And as the angel stood in the middle of the bush and called to Moses, it was frightening to Moses. Don’t you think it’s frightening when you drive down the highway and the bush or tree called out your name? The reason why I am teaching this is because when the angel comes you need to be ready. I will show you afterwards why if you are caught off guard you may miss it. When you look at history from God’s perspective, God sent a special angel to Moses. Now Moses had an assignment and a mission. He had the rod in his hand and the power of God and anointing of God. As he walked back into Egypt don’t see Moses just walking back. See the angel walk back with him. And when Moses stood before Pharaoh there was an angel with him. No wonder the devils were scared. If you took away the angel Moses’ history would be like the same as when he was 40 years old. The difference was because the angel was now with him and Moses learned to co-operate with that angel. When the angel came out God was going to let him see how this angel work with him even more.

In Exodus chapter 23:21-25 Give heed to him and hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my Name is in him. But if you hearken attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. When my angel goes before you and brings you in to the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusities, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. You will serve the Lord your God, and I will bless your bread and your water and I will take sickness away from the midst of you. Look at all these blessings when you flow with that angel, the power of angels. When God speaks in this manner we think that when an angel comes you would automatically know. You need some teaching on that.

Let me share some account from Kenneth E. Hagin’s book, I Believe in Visions, chapter 6. Isn’t it wonderful to know that books really transmit God’s revelation? How many of you here have read books that changed your life? Books are an important part. It supplements what you are receiving in church. Good books will change your life. Bad books can destroy your life. And here he shares an account of an angel coming to visit him. It says here:

My fifth vision occurred in 1958 in Port Neches, Texas, while I was holding a revival meeting. One night as we were praying around the altar, a great spirit of prayer and intercession seemed to come upon the whole church. We prayed together for quite some time, and then I got up and sat in a chair on the platform.

One of the things that will happen in our revival meetings is that as we go into great prayer there will be a great manifestation of the Spirit. The angel told me that he will come and visit again. You see I have been obedient to bringing you the Word of God. Not only the teaching but the voice of what God is speaking today. This is the year of visitation and you have to be ready for His visitation. Which is the reason for this prayer meeting and we are encouraging everybody to come so that you don’t miss out on God’s visitation.

I was sitting there with my eyes open, singing in other tongues, when the Lord Jesus suddenly appeared on the platform - and about 3 feet behind Him stood an angel!

So in a prayer meeting Jesus appeared to him as he was sitting down praying and worshiping in tongues with his eyes open.

Jesus said to me, “I sent my angel to speak to you nearly one year ago out in California.” And in this passage he talked about the incident one year ago. Kenneth E. Hagin said, “I remembered the occasion and I remembered that I had not responded to him.”

How come he didn’t respond? How many of you may have realized that angels may have woken you up in the middle of the night. Although you slept late but you got up fresh like the morning dew. And you got up wondering why you woke up. The first thing you did is to look at the clock. Not time to wake up yet and go back to sleep. Maybe an angel has woken you up. You’ve just missed it, O sleepy head.

And he says, “I remembered the occasion, and I remembered that I had not responded to him.

That afternoon I had been lying across the bed in my home trailer meditating and reading my bible, getting ready for the evening service. Suddenly I had a feeling that some one had come into the trailer. I looked, but couldn’t see anybody. But I was positive that some one had come in through the door. It even seemed that I had heard the door open and close. I sensed that someone came and stood beside the bed. I reached my hand to feel whatever might be there and said, “I know you are there. Who are you?”

There was no response. Although I never saw anyone, I sensed that someone stood there for a few moments, turned around, retraced his steps around the foot of the bed, and went up through the trailer and out the door.

Then I seemed to be led by the Spirit to open my bible and read about the ministry of angels. I felt that an angel had come to me, but I had not opened my heart to that visitation.

Now here is Jesus standing in front of him saying one year ago his angel came to him while he was out in California and he had not responded. The Lord continued and talked to him and said, “I sent my angel to warn you again when you were out in California, because I saw that you hadn’t listened to the leading of my Spirit and didn’t respond to the warning.”

So God speaks to you first through the Holy Spirit. Now you understand why the angels don’t have to appear all the time. When you are obedient to God in being led by your inward witness and the Holy Spirit, the angels need not come again because you were obedient. So if you don’t see any angels doesn’t mean that you are in disobedience. If you are walking in the Spirit obeying your inward witness 100% all the time you may not have a single angelic encounter in your life, because you were obedient not because you were disobedient.

If you had yielded to the Holy Spirit (we can’t see angels with the natural eye unless God so wills for they are spirits) you would have been able to see into the realm of the spirit. By the discerning of spirits you would have seen the angel, and he would have delivered his message to you. If you had received it, you would have been spared all this financial troubles.

The main point that I want to bring forth in this passage here is this: if you had yielded to this angel and if you had responded to the Holy Spirit, then you would have seen into the realm of the spirits by the discerning of spirits.

Two things, if you have yielded to the work of this angel, if you had responded to the Holy Spirit. How come he didn’t respond? He was meditating on the bible. He was praying for the evening meeting. Remember what he said when the angel came, he questioned the angel, “I know you are there. Who are you?” Without faith it is impossible to please God. If you feel the presence of an angel and you don’t know it is an angel and you think it is the devil, then definitely you are not spiritually ready. If you can’t tell the difference between the presence of a demon and a presence of an angel, you are not ready. You have not developed in your sensing. How should he have yielded? He would say O God I know it is you. See God waits for an affirmation. Some of us just think that if angels came with messages that we will just get it. We have to be in the right disposition to receive them.

Agung Bangau, a tribal Christian in East Malaysia who headed a mighty revival there in the 1980s, shared how he first had an angelic encounter. He heard a voice. He couldn’t see who was speaking to him. A voice started telling him what to do. Then he says, “If you are of God you will not be afraid of showing yourself.” And the angel appeared to him. He says he looked like one of the tribal people. I wonder how many angels have visited you that you have not responded to. And you cannot respond without the help of the Holy Spirit. But it is possible to have God’s visitation to your life and you are not aware of it. You missed it altogether. Without faith it is impossible to please God.

I have some thing else for the second service. I just give you a little bit of it. Just a short little account here. Here is this person who is about to get into heaven. This sister shared, “He spoke to me in the spirit as I was being translated to heaven. He said, “Enter into my gates with thanksgiving and into my courts with praise.” In that very second I saw the pearly gates with many colors. These gates were huge column decorated with sculptures across the top, which arch together in a semi-circle over the door to form an opening. Below and in between those gates was one golden door, which fit into those gates. It was filled with beautiful sculptures. I could notice this because I was a sculptress at one time. Around the outside edge of the door where it fit into the arch column and down to the center of it a brilliant golden, orange and yellow lights were shining through it. When I first came to these gates through a mist, it makes the gates look like they were oyster shells pearls. After observing all these details the doors began to open inward. The immensity of the doors was evident because of the smallest of the figures I saw standing inside the door. When these doors opened the Shekinah glory of God shown in such brilliance. It was like looking at the sun without burning your eyes out. When I began to pass through those gates I cried out, “O Lord I am afraid.” Immediately I was conscious of kneeling on the cold terrazzo floor in the room of the hostel. Why I was afraid I couldn’t understand. Maybe it was the awesomeness of that occasion. The next minute I really blew it because I was fearful.

She was about to see heaven. Just as she was about to enter fear came and she was brought down right to earth. Fear cannot exist with God. In the second series I talk about perfecting love. Why perfect love cast out fear. And why we should have relationship with one another. Why people who find it hard to love other people will find it hard also to enter heaven. I mean we enter heaven by salvation in Jesus Christ. But I am talking about visions of heaven. If you don’t have perfect love you would still have fear in your life. So we see that where fear is faith cannot come. We need faith to respond to God. Faith to let the angels work in our lives. Remember in every thing you do you have a choice. When you speak in tongues, you could doubt your tongues. You have the free will to doubt your own tongues. The moment you do, if your tongue came from the Spirit, the Spirit becomes grieved and you find no more release. You could have a dream or a revelation that comes from God and then doubt whether it was God. And it will block the blessings of God. Remember no matter how many revelations you have, no matter how supernatural they are, you still need to learn to walk by faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Now this is the part where we want to read and bring forth principles and close here on the work of the angels. And here is before the Israelites fell. Some times we think that all the Israelites are waiting there and they waited very long. And that is the only reason why they went and made the golden calf. That is true but do you know how much manifestations were there while they fell. The mountain and the smoke of glory were there all the time. They never ever disappeared throughout the 40 days and 40 nights. Now I can understand why Moses could go without food and water for 40 days and 40 nights. There was such glory.

Look at Exod. 24:9-18 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tables of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses rose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, “Tarry here for us, until we come to you again; and behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a curse let him go to them.” Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. And Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

The cloud was visible for 40 days and 40 nights and yet the Israelites make a golden calf. I mean it’s just like suddenly a fire appeared over the platform and everyone was worshiping God. And that supernatural fire lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Then people started taking it lightly. No wonder God killed them. With such manifestation, they were still not in fear of God. They were still not caught up by the fear of God. They made a golden calf and they started eating and drinking in the presence of God. They deserve to die. There were some things happening. We are living in times of revival. We do not have many years to Jesus’ coming. And God is preparing the last days revival. We want to be a part of it. Lets flow with what God is saying.

Then when God was angry with them, He started talking to Moses in chapter 32 about judgment coming on to the people. Then Moses came down in chapter 32 and in one day 3000 people died. Chapter 33:1-3 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart, go up hence, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, “To your descendants I will give it.” And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you in the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

Now God said, “My angel will go with you but I myself will not go.” That is very strange. He already talked about sending His angels earlier we saw in chapter 23 and here is where we do a little separation. There is a difference the presence of God and the angel of God although the angel of God and the presence of God seems to be together. Now God said, “Let My Angel go.” So there is a degree of His manifested presence. So Moses took his tent and moved his tent out from everybody and God appeared in his tent as a symbol of God rejecting the people; He only talk with Moses. Then Moses asked for God’s mercy. Then when God showed His glory to His people.

Moses was very smart as an intercessor. Chapter 34:9 And he said, “If now, I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Thy inheritance.”

Moses said to God, God come and dwell inside us. Then the Lord replied in verse 10 And He said, “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been wrought in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord; for it is a terrible thing that I will do with you.

I believe that God answered Moses prayer. He came down into their midst. Now the people were in sin and they were not perfect; they were stiff-necked. And here Moses asked for God’s presence and God answered. What was His answer? I will make a covenant with you. And from that time onwards God has shown the people who honors His covenant His presence will work with them.

The first thing we do is to separate the work of the angels and the presence of God. They are both inter-related but not quite the same. The 2 cherubim standing on the 2 sides of the mercy seat were not the Mercy Seat. They were part of the furniture. There is another place called the Mercy Seat. And the cherubim faced the Mercy Seat because the cherubim’s work is to direct you there all the time. And you remember king David when he numbered the people and destruction started falling, when God show mercy and compassion and stop the plague, David made a sacrifice to the Lord and on the spot where God showed mercy and the plague stopped David marked it as the place to build the temple, the covenant of God. So here we have a relationship between the work of angels and the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat is where God’s presence is. The angels seek to conform to that covenant. He is called some times the angel of the covenant.

Now as we work with God and we look at the power of angels, we see a tremendous work here. That all the works of the angels that they come to bring forth at each place and each time of their manifestation it has been to turn their faces towards the covenant. They turn God’s people towards the covenant. And the cherubim are in the last piece of the furniture. You know what were the earlier pieces of furniture? The other 5 pieces of the furniture are firstly, the brazen altar, representing the blood. If you don’t come through the blood the angels cannot work in your life. Secondly is the laver, which represents the washing with the Word of God. Thirdly is the candlestick, representing the Holy Spirit. Fourthly is the table of showbread, representing the Name of Jesus. And lastly is the altar of incense, representing the power of praise and worship. Do you notice the progression before the Holy of holies?

For the angels to work in our life we must give place for all these things to be in our life. All these other principles relate to the covenant for the angels to work. And all these ceremonies outside you could summarize it in the principles of faith. In Christ faith fulfill every thing. Faith in the Blood, faith in the Word, faith in the gifts of the Spirit, faith in the Name of Jesus, faith in the power of prayer and worship. Without faith it is impossible to please God. You must have faith in all those things that God does in your life. You must have faith in the gifts that God have given you in your life. You must have faith that when you have sinned and you confess God cleanses them. You must have faith when God operates in your life through dreams, visions or gifts of the Spirit. You must have faith when God speaks to you in a prophecy that is from Him. Remember the author of Hebrews explained very clearly that the only thing that blocked the Jews from going into that rest is that they did not hear the Word mixed with faith.

Kenneth Hagin did not respond and the main thing is he did not have faith. He said I know you are there. Who are you? Faith doesn’t ask, “Who are you?” That is the summary of why he didn’t respond. What does it mean by yielding. Yielding means to believe without seeing. Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen. Faith must come before seeing. If you have faith it lead you into the realm of seeing. You must have faith in the voice of the angel speaking to you even if you don’t see them. In the things that the angels instruct you in your life even though you don’t see them. In the directions they give to you in your life even though you don’t see them. And you must recognize what it is so that they could work in your life. But don’t stop there. They are to lead you into the presence of God. If angels have started working in your life don’t stop there. Angels carry the presence of God but they are different from the presence of God.

Moses was good enough to say, “Lord, even though you promised your angels to go with us and we will still have success, but we want you to be in the midst of us.” From that day onwards Moses’ face shone because he desired God’s presence. It didn’t shine once according to the book of Exod. 34:35 The people of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone; and Moses would put the veil upon his face again. Did you see the word again? So that tells me that when he came down from the mount the second time his face was shining. And then after some time maybe the shining part slowly disappeared. But every time he went up and speak in God’s presence in the tent his face was shining again. The angels have come to help us bring the glory of God so that people can look at you and say the glory of God is on your life.

Paul said in II Cor. 3: 7-8 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

We have a greater glory than Moses and we need to move into this greater glory. But this is the strange thing. You cannot move in without the help of the angels. That is why the 2 cherubim were there hovering over the Mercy Seat. You need to co-operate with the angels to usher in the greatest and awesome revival coming on the face of the earth. God is releasing His greatest glory in the church yet ever seen in the world. And we need the help of the angels to bring us to that place and point. So that with the help of the angels and the Holy Spirit we can enter into the glory that we have never entered before.

Source : www.eaglevision.com.my
Email : spiritword@bigpond.com

4. HEAVENLY REWARDS

2008-01-20T18:20:00.000-08:00

By Pastor Peter Tan

Lets look at the account when the New Jerusalem was reviewed to the apostle John the city of God from the book of Revelation chapter 21. Verse 9 onwards Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full o the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And in the Spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having he glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed; on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And on the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its breadth; and he measured the city with his rod, twelve thousand stadia; its length and breadth and height are equal. He also measured its wall, a hundred and forty-four cubits by a man’s measure, that is, an angel’s. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every jewel; the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eight beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysopsrase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.
Remember the sister how she was taken up to heaven earthly time was about one minute but heavenly time was about one hour. And the Lord showed her all the things in heaven. And she saw the streets were made from gold and some of the walls were made from gold. And the gold in heaven was different as it is transparent. In case you didn’t know, that sister works as a computer graphic artist and she will know colors. And she says she see colors that you cannot comprehend on this earth.
We have talked about the wonders of heaven to build into our hearts expectancy for heaven. We talked about all the different wonders and how some of those wonders are working in our life. From Hebrews chapter 6 we talked about the powers of the age to come. And how some of those powers are working in our life at this very moment having been born again into the grace of God in the New Testament times.
This morning we want to talk about our heaven rewards, our heavenly mansions, which go together with the city of God. We all do know that in Jn. 14 Jesus told His disciples, “Be of good cheer for in my Father’s house are many mansions.” We all have mansions in heaven given to us free in God because of His love for us. We need to know that our life on earth will affect our condition in heaven and that kind of reward we receive. We know it vaguely and generally that according to our faithfulness here on earth God will reward us in heaven. But we need to know how intricately it does affect that kind of reward that we receive and the place and the glory where we stay in.
I like to read a little passage from a book by H. A. Baker, Beyond the Veil. He wrote the book based on the children’s experiences of Adulam’s Cave, an orphanage in China. And the children had a revival and God started taking some of the children to heaven and showing them the things and the glory in heaven. He also came out with one book on angels and one book on heaven and the angels. When he was seeing these things taking place among the children he did a research in all the Christian writings to see what other Christians speak about heaven and the angels. And so here are some of those he had researched and quoted from.
One of those who went to heaven is General William Booth. General William Booth was the one who started the Salvation Army. In case you didn’t know how he started, he lived his life as most of us lived just for this earth. He was fairly successful and he had all that he needed, food, shelter, clothing plus much more. One day he sort of had a death experience. And he went to heaven and he saw all the glories in heaven and Jesus says He give him one more chance because he did not lived his life for heaven. He lived his life for this earth and didn’t really have much reward up there and God said, “I give you one more chance.” When he came back to his earth he started the Salvation Army. It was not quite like what we have today. Today they function only in welfare work. Long ago they would parade in streets and they would evangelize on street corners. The widow whom General Booth saw in heaven had strength of character and beauty beyond human conception. She had left a humble sphere of inconspicuous hard devoted, self-sacrifices service to our Lord to be promoted to high rank of glory in heaven, while others who on earth seemed mighty to men were assigned to lower planes of glory and usefulness in heaven.
You could be high and mighty on this earth but in heaven you could be low in the rank of glory. It doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want you to get into His rank of higher glory. When we die we will enter into the spiritual plane that corresponds with the spiritual state in which we die. And if you did not develop your character in Christ you would have to go to a lower plane and there you continue developing. Those who touched on the higher realm of glory go straight into the higher realm of glory. It is not fame or wealth on this earth that determines your place of glory in heaven. We should not go after the pride of life or the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the things of this world. The book of James tells us that if the desire for the things of this earth is still in us then friendship with the world is enmity with God. We need to live our life for eternity.
There is another person here by the name of Tellmash. When he went to heaven in reply to inquiry as to what impress him most in heaven, he said he was most impressed with the reversal conditions. I knew of course that there would be differences of attire and residence in heaven. For Paul had declared long ago that souls would then differ as one star differ from another as Mars from Mercury, as Saturn from Jupiter, but at every step in heaven I was amazed to see that some who were expected to be low down were high up. I found the highest thrones, the brightest coronets, the richest mansions, were occupied by those who had reprobate fathers or bad mothers, but they had laid hold of God’s arm, they had cried for a special mercy, they had conquered 7 devils within and 70 devils without and were washed in the Blood of the Lamb. By so much as their conflict was terrific and awful, their victory was consummate. And they have taken places immeasurably higher than those of good parentage who could hardly help being good. These others have 10 generations of piety to help them. The steps that many have mounted to the highest places in heaven were made out of the cradles of corrupt parentage. I pointed to one of those grandly residence and asked, “Who live there?” And the angel replied the widow who gave 2 mites. I wonder what about the people who gave thousands of dollars but whose percentage is small. That woman gave 100%. And she had this huge mansion. Then he made this statement about some of those professors of religion who were famous on earth. I asked about them but no one in heaven could tell me anything about them.
The reason for this teaching is so that none of us is taken by surprise in heaven. We want to be prepared for heaven. We want to live for heaven. Then he says many who have 10 talents were living in the back streets of heaven. All social life in heaven is graded according to earthly struggle and usefulness as proportion to the use of talents given. Some of the most unknown on earth were most famous in heaven. Many who have been the greatest failures on earth were the greatest success in heaven. Hence advancement in life and Spirit of Jesus here on earth determines our state of glory in heaven. Here it tells us what a surprise in heaven. Although everyone has a mansion in heaven yet there are so many conditions of our mansion in the things that are inside heaven. There are several facts that we want to bring forth.
We know that the teaching of the New Jerusalem, which is the city of God also has to do with our mansion. In other words the principles are the same. Lets turn to Rev. 21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Lets look at the names of the 12 apostles of the lamb. I wonder whether one of the twelve apostles was Matthias who replaced Judas Iscariot. We know that Judas Iscariot was chosen as one of the twelve. From Luke 6 that after Jesus had an overnight prayer He came down and among His many disciples He chose 12 to be His apostles. Among them was Judas Iscariot. And Judas Iscariot had a part in the kingdom of God. The bible tells us in the book of Acts chapter 1 verse 20 For it is written in the Book of Psalms, “Let his habitation become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it.” and “His office let another take.” So there was an office given to Judas Iscariot. And the first teaching that we have here is that the calls and the offices that we have go towards building some of the things in heaven. Although there are 12 apostles of the lamb, each one of us when we have a call of God there are certain things about our life that are special to God in heaven. I believe that the foundation of the call of the 12 apostles of the Lamb became the foundations for the 12 gates in the New Jerusalem the city of God. A foundation is something in which other things are built upon.
Sometime ago, some high-rise apartments in town collapsed because the underground water had affected some layer of the underlying soil, thereby causing the foundation to be tilted. So the foundation is important because everything that is built rest on the foundation. When the foundation is upon the names of the 12 apostles, it tells us that these 12 apostles were the foundation of the heavenly buildings and many other things that we know not or fully comprehend. The 12 apostles have a call of course to the preparation of the Bride of Christ. Here we realize each one of us has a certain ministry or office that God has called us to fulfill. When Jesus called the 12 apostles it is recorded that He gave names to some of them. He changed some of their names. Simon He changed to Peter. He called them by their special names that He gave to them. We do know that He named them apostles.
Is it possible to lose our heavenly reward? Yes it is. It is possible that when we are not faithful to that which God called us, and in that way we lose the foundation of some thing that our life is building in heaven. Some of us think that our life here on earth has no connection with heaven. I mean God has mass-produced mansions and all our mansions look the same. Do you know why each mansion looks different in heaven? The mansions in heaven depend upon the material you send there from here. Didn’t Jesus say, “Do not gather treasures on this earth where the rust will destroy and the moth corrupt? But He says to lay your treasures in heaven. We do this by sacrificial giving of our life to serve and love others. Then you get the treasures in heaven. It is important for us to take note that faithfulness to what God has called you determines your heavenly mansion. Therefore if you live and die without fulfilling your ministry your heavenly mansion is in a way not the way it should be. I can only speculate because it is silent here in the Word of God. Perhaps in heaven you would be doing certain work in order to earn some heavenly money or merits to continue building your mansion. But we can say with definite scriptural authority that although Jesus has mansions for us in heaven, the materials and the foundations of those mansions depend No. 1 on your faithfulness to the destiny in your life the call that God has for you. For the 12 apostles of the Lamb their faithfulness built some thing bigger besides their own mansions, and so their ministries became enshrined as names. Names not so much as the names are written there just for show. It tells you that the materials from their ministries built the heavenly city.
Now here is a very sober thought. God has called each one of us to a destiny and to certain ministry to fulfill. And He has given us mantles in our life to fulfill whatever office He sends us. When you are unfaithful to that office or you don’t take upon yourself that mantle somebody else will take it. I can certainly say that the twelfth name of the 12 apostles in heaven is not Judas Iscariot. But it was his at one time. Somebody else took that reward. Kathryn Khulman has said that she was God’s third choice. In other words, the earlier two persons who were chosen to carry that anointing that Kathryn Khulman carried, did not fulfill their calling. Subsequently it fell on Kathryn Khulman, and the rest they say, is history.
It is a very sober thought to think that when we don’t fulfill the call and destiny of our life that which is ours disappears and becomes somebody’s. You say its God perfect will for me; it’s predestination. Predestination is still governed by free will. It was God’s plan that all the Israelites who came out from Egypt enter into the Promised Land. But they refused to go in and the next generation went in. Your ministry that God has called you to is one that comes from the very throne of God. And your ministry doesn’t just determine your recognition or your function in the body of Christ on this earth. We always think that if I am called to be an evangelist, apostle, pastor, prophet or teacher, my main reward is that we could win souls on this earth and we could do our part in the body of Christ and train others in the body of Christ and bring them to perfection of Christ as in Ephesians 4:11 onwards. But this morning we want you to know that your faithfulness to that also determines the foundations of part of the heavenly city in some form or your mansion which will be a part of the whole heavenly city. It is not just wining souls on earth which one of the most important job on earth we have to win souls. Remember this your heavenly mansion is based on your ministry. By ministry it doesn’t mean we all are called to full time but whatever destiny that God has in your life, whatever little thing that God has in your life.
In Ephesians 4 all the fivefold prepare the church for their ministry. If for example your call to is your gift of prophecy. And your only function may be to travel all over the world to preach the gospel like some evangelist. Your only function is within the body of Christ to intercede, to pray and to bring forth the word of prophecy and you didn’t do it faithfully. When you go to heaven your heavenly mansion is not really what it should be. Now no one will steal that mansion from you in a sense. But somebody may take that reward from you that belong to the heavenly city. Just like Judas Iscariot’s name was taken off and another name was placed there. Some believe it was Matthias and some believe it was Paul. We don’t want to speculate. But according to Acts it was Matthias who was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot. There are some foundations of those things that are being built in heaven that depend on your life. When we think about your life and your ministry we only think about that on this earth the number of souls God wants us to bring, the fulfillment of our ministry here on earth. But we forgot to think of the fact that your life is building a material somewhere up there. And that if you fail to do so God will raise someone else to build that material and they will lay the foundation for heaven. We are laying foundations for different parts of heaven. The 12 apostles laid the main thing with the 12 patriarchs. But there are so many other parts of heaven that is being built that depends on your faithfulness and my faithfulness to God’s call in our life our talents, our gifting, that came as a gift from God.
The next time you think of not being fully obedient to your destiny remember a part of heaven that you are supposed to be building. We always think of the building here but we forgot that we are building a part of heaven by our faithfulness. And it’s affecting that part of heaven. And God will give you a time frame. When that time frame is over and you didn’t carry out what you were supposed to do, somebody else ends up building your part. Because God will make sure His heavenly city is completed. That is No. 1 our ministry and call have an effect on the heavenly city; have an effect on our heavenly mansion and what other things that are in heaven we know not of. This is why we need to go in fasting and prayer. The sacrifices you made, the love that you have shown, the choices that you have made, and the self-denial that you have walked in, all these go to build the heavenly parts of heaven. Heaven’s glory cannot be bought with money. But they are building on your works in your life.
The other thing that we want to look at in Revelation chapter 21:19-20 the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds precious stones. I believe that our heavenly mansion is made from those precious stones too. There are many sets of precious stones that go to building our heavenly mansion. Now those precious stones depend on our life on earth too. That is the 2nd area.
Turn to the book of I Corinthians chapter 3. Paul talks about laying a foundation. And we always took it that the foundation as a foundation of the church here on earth. No doubt the church is built on a foundation of the early church. But remember what God is building is not just for this earth; it’s for heaven. In verse 9 onwards For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the commission of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For on other foundation can any one lay that that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work, which any man has built on the foundation, survives he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
That tells us we are saved by grace. You are saved based on your faith in Jesus Christ but there is no reward. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? Any one who defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.
No. 2 the precious stones represents the foundation of Jesus Christ. The precious stones represent the development of your character. The names in heaven and some of the things in heaven are your ministry. Some people have a ministry but they don’t develop their character. Some people have character but they don’t develop their ministry. They are both different things although both are connected. Effective ministry depends on character. No. 2 the precious stones that are going to adorn your mansion is your character. I mean on this earth if your character is not like Jesus probably hundreds of people know your life. Do they see Jesus in you or when they look at you do they remember you as a bad tempered person. Or do they remember you as a greedy person. Or do they remember you as something else. Do you know that affects your heavenly mansion? It pays to be like Jesus. I didn’t say it is easy to be like Jesus. But it pays to walk like Jesus and have the character of Jesus. In the natural precious stones are formed in a hard process of pressure, heat, and of course chemical components. Precious stones are usually found deep in the earth. Precious stones are formed only under right conditions. Likewise, character comes by tribulation, by going under pressure. When we go under pressure and the character of Christ is not formed in our life you lost some precious stones. The next time you are under pressure, the next time you are under a trial, the next time the heat is turned on you remember it will produce some more jewels for your heavenly mansion. And when you allow that pressure to bring out Christ in your life, the tribulation builds character, builds the things of Jesus in your life until you become like Jesus. Those are the precious stones that go towards making your heavenly mansion. The question we ask of you this day is your mansion adorned with precious stones?
Here is a little account that talks about heavenly mansion and the planes of glories that are there. I like this statement. It says: All social life in heaven is graded according to earthly struggle and usefulness as proportion to use of talents given. Visitors from the heavenly land returning tell us that the state of spiritual development in which we live here is the state in which we arrive there. Although Jesus is in all heaven and His life and presence is enjoyed by every saint and angel not all have equal capacity to partake this glory life. Because of this limited capacity it is impossible for saints just from earth at once to enter into the fullness of all the exceeding glories of heaven. And this is an awesome. It says: It appears that very few walk so close to Christ in selfless worldliness, full hearted devotion to God and in such a constant communion with Him in the Holy Spirit that when they die they are directly led to mansions highest up in the holy city.
See there are mansions at different planes. If we know these things on earth why don’t we do some thing about it? If we are ignorant of those things then that in a certain way doesn’t excuse us. That partly explains why we are not so zealous for the things in heaven. But now that we know we should do some thing about that. This high exaltation immediately upon entering the world of glory belongs to only to earth’s rarest saints. And he mentioned some names here. Perhaps only such as directly enter such realms are the apostle John who was near to Jesus’ heart, Mary who sat at Jesus’ feet, St. Francis of Assisi and others who daily walked and talked with Jesus. And he talks about how the saints grow from glory to glory.
Here is a little passage about from glory to glory. The order from glory to glory is revealed is apparently something as follows: Person like the thief from the cross and deathbed repentance saints. In other words people who don’t live their life for God and just before they die they say, “Jesus Christ forgive me, I am a sinner, come into my heart,” they straightaway go to heaven. Or many backslidden Christians who don’t live their life for God and just when they are dying they repented. And those who had little experience in the Christian life in being like Jesus, being like Jesus in character, in attitude, in words, in deeds, just being like Jesus and those who never suffered for Christ.
Lets look at it heaven is measured from a different perspective from earth. But when we learn that tribulations work character and character equals the precious stones, we learn to value the pressure, the hard times. We learn to stay steady to holding on to Christ come what may. We learn to walk in Christian love although some times it is difficult. We learn to be Christ like and the heavenly reward is there.
Those who had never suffered for Christ or those who have little experience in the Christian life or little development in their spiritual life are at death ushered into the most remote parts for instructions in one of the lower planes of heaven. Great numbers of mansions and temples of instructions are arranged in ascending grades. Since all heaven is a spiritual realm everything in it is spiritual and has spiritual values. So that’s from glory to glory. In short we see that all is from glory to glory, from the lowest plane and mansion until the weakest saint for some time through the ages stand in the highest sphere on higher planes and higher heaven would have obtained from glory to glory.
Now the phrase from glory to glory is from II Corinthians chapter 3 and 4 and it tells us that we are transformed from glory to glory. II Cor. 3:18 and chapter 4 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. Basically he is talking about you being like Jesus. This is something different from ministry that we covered. When Paul talks about from glory to glory, he talks about the glory to glory on our inside, in our character and in our spiritual development. We grow from one glory to another state of glory so that right now all our physical eyes are to be suspended and our spiritual eyes are to be opened and we look at one another. We see each one having different states of glory. Some will be shinier than others because of their development of their Christ’s likeness in their life. But that is the level of glory in us but in heaven there are many planes of glory. And in each plane there are mansions and schools of instructions. There is a higher plane where there are more mansions with a different degree of everything. And so there are so many planes in heaven. There is a lower plane of glory until it reaches to the highest parts of glory.
And here is where the key is. You cannot enter to the plane of glory that is different from the glory on your inside. Lets take from example, this could be plane No. 1, plane No. 2, plane No. 3, plane No. 4, plane No. 5 and the higher the number the greater the glory. If the glory development in your life is at plane No. 2, suppose that if you were to suddenly go home right now, you can only go to plane No. 2. You may be allowed to visit the higher realm but that has to be like Sundar Singh says in his book the “Spiritual World” a clothing is given to you so that you can just go and visit for some time and come back to rest in your plane of glory.
On this earth where you live depends on the amount of finances you have. Whether you live in an expensive bungalow house or an expensive condominium or an average terrace house depends on your finances. Your address on this earth physically depends on the level of your ability to pay for it. And it also depends on your choices. Some people are renewed and they don’t mind living in any kind of condition. But in the general natural sense where your address is depends on your financial ability. Now what is your address in heaven? Your address in heaven could be No. 12 Elijah Street, or whatever form of address heaven takes. Do you know that your address in heaven is determined by the glory of Christ’s likeness in your life? We always take those things to be accidental. I mean, in our hearts, we may pray, “O God every thing is Your choice. You choose where I live; as long as I get to heaven, I am happy.”
God is more organized than that. He lets each one who gets into heaven to move into the plane of his or her development. Just like on this earth in a small little way if your spiritual development is not so great, you may not stand people praying in tongues all the time. Some people cannot stand people talking about Jesus all the time. If you were not used to that level you would be suffering in heaven if God puts you on a highest plane. You will be miserable in heaven. They will be talking about the glory of God and their shining glory will be so bright and yours so dim. God in His mercy takes you and puts you among those at your level.
Now He is not going to keep you there permanently of course. But God will place you in schools of instructions where you learn lessons that you should have learned down here on earth. And from time to time you could be promoted from glory to glory in heaven. But the fact is that the best place to learn is down here. Here is where sacrifices can be made. Some times when you bring your tithes to God or when you sacrifice a gift to God, it costs you some thing. You feel the pain and the greater the pain the greater the suffering. Some times when you wrestle against temptation and you stand steadfast in holiness there is a reward up there in heaven. There is no devil in heaven to fight. There is no temptation to draw us away from God only on this earth. This is why the greatest rewards are made possible while on this earth. In heaven there are no unbelievers to draw you away from God. But on earth when you choose to be holy, you choose to spend time in a prayer meeting rather than on other things, you make choices for God, you got to say no to some things and say yes to other things - that’s where the reward is.
Thus, the first thing to note is that your ministry affects development in heaven. And if you don’t do the part God has chosen for you, He still got to build the New Jerusalem and He will put that mantle on somebody else. So be faithful to the ministry God has called you to.
The second thing to note is that your Christ likeness determines the jewels in your life and the precious stones that will go to build your heavenly mansion and your address in heaven.
The third area that we haven’t looked at is found in the book of Revelations chapter 21. We will look at the names of the 12 apostles and the jewels of God. In verse 12 I says, It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed; Now the names of the12 apostles were written on the foundations. But here are the gates. On the 12 gates were the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. The 12 tribes are different from the 12 apostles. Now the 12 apostles were chosen for a ministry. But the 12 tribes couldn’t help being there. They are right there and it’s something that is fixed for them. And here it is not placed on the foundation but placed on the gates. Gates are places of entrance and exit. You go in and out through the gates. Exits and entrances talk about fellowship in God.
So we talked about ministry, we talked about Christ like development and now we have fellowship. It is important for us to be in the right fellowship. I am not talking about a legal organization. Although legal organizations are an expression of that fellowship, this has nothing to do with salvation. Remember you can be in any place, any church, any where on this earth and if you believe in Jesus you are saved. But every fellowship has a different grace and different appointment of God. And based on the fellowship, which the Spirit of God draws us to, being a member of a church is not just determined by our choices. No one comes to God except by the drawing of His Spirit. And pastors of any church should not strive in drawing members from other churches to their own church. We put it this way if God doesn’t a person to be part of your church, there is no way you can draw him or her anyway. And at the same time if God wants a person to be a part of the church that you have there is no way a person can run because God will keep drawing him or her back. When God appoints leaders He also appoints people to be under the shepherd of His choice, so that they become responsible to a particular fellowship.
Turn to Jn. 17:6 I have manifested Thy Name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have kept Thy Word. Do you know that God gives people to people? God gave men to David. God gives men to men whom He appoints to lead. Turn to Acts chapter 5 verse 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord multitudes both of men and women. Then in chapter 6 they multiplied again. Verse 7 And the word of God increases; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. Then you look at Paul talking to the elders at Ephesians in chapter 20:28 Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians, to feed the church of the Lord which He obtained with His own blood.
Now all the sheep belong to Jesus. No one has the right to say this is my sheep. It is your sheep in a sense but yet God gives what I call men to people. And He gives responsibilities to those He appoints over a certain fellowship. And being in a tribe is like being in a fellowship. Sometimes being in the right fellowship determines the future of your life. For example the apostle Paul as long as he continued in Jerusalem his ministry could never take off. His ministry only took off when he went with Barnabas to Antioch. Antioch became the center of his base. Notice all the people who gave him troubles because of his special call. He was called to the Gentiles. Only the church in Antioch is more opened to ministry to the Gentiles than the church in Jerusalem. If Paul tried to base his ministry to the Gentiles in Jerusalem, he would have so much trouble defending himself, so much so he could hardly minister to the Gentiles. But if he bases his ministry in Antioch he could be free to just keep going out because the Christians in Antioch supported him. A great portion of all the troubles he had in going to the Gentiles came from Jerusalem. Even the apostle Peter himself nearly got himself into trouble for going to Cornelius. The moment he came back from a revival meeting in Acts 11 he was called to questioning. That is why God can never use that church to preach to the Gentiles. And Paul had to be pulled out by God into the church in Antioch for his ministry to the Gentiles to take off from there. And when Paul was in Antioch, who came to cause trouble in Antioch? They were Judases from Jerusalem claiming to have authority from the church in Jerusalem.
So here in the third point: sometimes being in the right fellowship with the right people is conducive to the total reward to the whole system. We all have individual rewards for our life. We all have rewards for the ministry that we bring to God. Do you know that there are corporate rewards? For example if your company is doing well in certain things, there is an honor given to you as an individual. You could be the best employee. And so there is an honor given to you from that company for your work performance. Then there is an honor given to you for your team spirit and work character and the extra help that you give to others. That is your character. Then there is an honor that is given to you for your whole team. So your team is rewarded.
The Holy Spirit builds churches into team groups. There is an angel set over every church that has come upon this planet earth. Some times there is a reward that God gives to the entire fellowship. Not to just one individual, not just because of reward of character or ministry but there are rewards that God gives to the entire group. This is call being in the right fellowship that brings a certain amount of blessings.
Look at I Cor. 5: 4-5 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now what they did is what Matt. 18 commanded. They treat that person as a heathen after the third admonition. First admonition, in a one to one confrontation; second admonition, bringing two to three other witnesses, and finally if the person still do not change, he is brought before the entire church. Then it says in Matt. 18 that person is to be treated as a heathen. In I Cor. 5:5 You are to deliver this man to Satan. Now its not some thing that you could just simply do. A lot of people try to excommunicate church members out of their own emotional anger that is not from God. But here we are just pointing to a fact that what actually took place was that person was removed from the fellowship. The moment the fellowship was removed Satan came in to claim that person. There is a measure of protection and reward that we get by being in the right fellowship. We cannot take that lightly. Likewise, being in the wrong fellowship can cause destruction. Perhaps there are a whole group of people who are drunkards, who are sinners and they are your good friends. Psalms chapter one tells you do not sit in the seat of the scornful. Don’t sit with them. But because your natural ties is stronger than your spiritual growth you went along with them thinking that you could protect them. You can only protect them if you are living in God’s perfect will then your umbrella can cover them. If you are not living in God’s perfect will you don’t get protected and you get destroyed.
Let me give a few examples of that. When Joshua sent the spies into the Promised Land there was only one place that the spies could be saved, and that was by hiding in Rahab’s house. And the Israelite spies later promised that Rahab and her household would be saved from the onslaught of Israel if they remain in the house. If they are outside the house they are not our responsibility. But whosoever that is in the house is protected. That’s a form of what I call a corporate covering or fellowship covering that God gives. It can be dangerous for it also works in reverse when there is destruction in that fellowship. But it’s a tremendous blessing when it works on the positive side. That’s being in the right fellowship in God. So here we see the rewards that God gives in heaven for being in a team together with those whom God appoints. When God rewards corporately, He sends people to you with the right team and you bring out the whole blessing as a team together. There is an individual reward for being having your character transformed. There is an individual reward for your particular ministry that you are faithful to. Then there is a corporate reward that God brings for being part of the team He assigns you to be with. The right fellowship is important.
So these 3 things that determines heavenly rewards must be viewed with great importance. From the book of Revelations you remember when destruction is about to come on Babylon in the tribulation week, God calls His people, “Come out of her my people.” There is a time when judgment falls and God says get out before the destruction falls. Remember Lot and his family. Lot his wife and his 2 daughters were saved. When Lot tried to talk to his two daughters’ husbands they looked to him as a mad man. They should have been saved but because they didn’t choose to come out with them, when the destruction fell, it fell on them too. Same with the Passover when they put the blood on the lintel of the house if any Israelites were out on the street and they were first born they would die. It doesn’t matter whether they were Israelites or not. You must enter a house with the blood.
Being in the right fellowship does have its blessings. It doesn’t mean that an organization alone is sufficient. People have taken that in a wrong sense that if you are not inside their organization you don’t have the blessings of God. Not to say that. We can have rewards in 3 realms remember. They could be ministries who refused to base it in a church. They are always going around. They don’t realize that the local church is where the base is. They will have their reward for their ministry. They will have their reward if they become Christ like. But there is a third reward they may miss out. If they had remained in a fellowship, their third reward could have been even bigger in their blessings on earth and in heaven.
Lets not miss out on these rewards where the gates are. What do the gates symbolize? Entrance and the power of multitudes where we say one can chase a thousand and two chase ten thousands. So what is this telling you? You can reach more people on this earth by joining a fellowship. If 5 ministers work individually by themselves and never have contact with one another, and each man to himself, they each could reach only so much. But I tell you if all five of them would come under a fellowship and they work together corporately, they can reach probably 50 times as much or more. Therefore it magnifies the ministry and magnifies the reward. We need to teach and train people this team spirit because people tend to be very individualistic. We need to understand that team spirit and working together can bring tremendous rewards from God. That is why it’s the gates. It can reach out to more people.

Source : www.eaglevision.com.my
Email : spiritword@bigpond.com

5. UNIQUENESS OF GOD’S WILL

2008-01-20T18:15:00.000-08:00

By Pastor Peter Tan

Turn to I Cor. 15: 39-44 For not all flesh is alike, but there is one kind for men, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.

Mind the words in verse 41 which says that there is one glory of the sun another of the moon, another glory of the stars. Then he says one star differs from another in its various stages of glory. We know that from the natural viewpoint of science that stars have inherent temperatures. There are blue stars, red stars and all the different types of stars in their various states of heat and the light that they bring forth. And that is compared to the glory of God upon our physical body and upon our lives.

Sadhu Sundar Singh has been into the spiritual realm many times. He says that the flowers, the trees, the rocks and all the creation of God that is in the heavens have a certain form of glory. And he says that from each of these creation there is some thing that emanate from them to the beholder that causes the one who looks at these things to want to praise God, to want to bless and worship God. And that’s the glory of God that is upon the creation in heavens. There is also a glory of God on this planet earth too. But the terrestrial glory is lesser than the celestial glory that is the heavenly glory.

This morning we want to consider a point that we will entitle as the uniqueness of each person and individual lives that God has created. God has created every single individual special in His sight. And each of us is to radiate and to bring forth a particular aspect of God himself. Even among stars as Paul says there are different differing glories. And even among redeemed men there are different created glories that each one of them is destined to bring forth.

So to start off the subject let me quote from some books of account of people who have been to heaven who point to the fact that the each human being have different faculty that God has created. They are different and special and unique to them. In other words all of us have gift, talents and personalities that God has especially given to us. Satan can never create. He can only steal from that which God has and use it for himself. But Satan can never create; he can only pervert. All the gifting that men has, men have received it from God. Of course men has some times used the same gifts that God has given to make some thing evil out of it. But originally it was not meant that way. So things that are positive can be twisted by the enemy or devil and turned into a negative thing.

Here is an account of a person by the name of Marietta Davis. When she visited heaven she was taken to children paradise for a visit. And in children’s paradise there are children who have gone to be with the Lord and some times small little infants who have gone to be with the Lord. I am sure you know that there are millions fetus have been aborted and these are human beings. And each on them are carried into heaven where they are schooled and trained and brought up in heaven. So here is a particular place in paradise where she was taken by the angel to visit. And she describes this place here.

As we advanced I perceived before me a vast and complicated structure, whose outer walls and towers appeared in a form of marbles that was in appearance delicate as snow. This served as a foundation of a vast canopy like a dome, though it was far too extended to be expressed in earthly architectural terms.

What she saw was a dome that was too huge to architecturally be classified as an earthly dome. It was beyond earthly architecture.

We drew near this building and I perceived that the dome was suspended over the vast circular plain. This says my guide is a place where all infants from your globe I gathered for the instructions. There infants are first conducted and then nourished beneath the smile of the guardian angel. Each nursery though somewhat varying is a miniature of this vast temple of instructive manifestation. And each one is a home for the infant spirit to enter there until they attain to higher degrees and enter the paradise of more advance useful existence.

For degrees of instructions adapted to a more intellectual conditions. Then the angel says whenever an infant dies on earth, the angel guardian who bears up the spirit to the land of peace, perceive its interior type of mind. And according to its type it is classed with others of like order of intelligence. And as the skillful gardener on earth in one flora division trains the various species of the lily in another department roses, so here angelic wisdom classify the infant spirit. And according to their variety of artistic, scientific, social tendency assign each a home. That’s adapted to its unfolding of its interior germs of life into intellectual artistic or industrial harmony.

No. 1 we realize that there are many different types of mind as well as personality. We all know that by the various professions that are there in the natural world, some of us in this life may not be fully where God wants us to be, maybe because in this life you have to do some thing to earn a living. Imagine an environment where you don’t have to work for your food, clothing or shelter. If you don’t have to do all those things and everything is provided, probably some of us would be doing some thing else. And in heaven it’s like that with food, clothing shelter taken care of. And all we have to do is to let the gift of God in our life develop to be who God wants us to be.

But the point we want to make note of here is that there are different types of human personality or mind that God has created. And in heaven they classify them into all those various groupings. On earth we just push them to a primary education and only in the secondary is some simple classification into arts or science and as they go along there are more and more divisions. But from infancy the angel could see what the gifting is in this child and straight away begin to train them accordingly. Some of these classifications you can find in the series on the mind of Christ where we talked about the 5 rivers of wisdom. In each flow of the river it produces different things. Some people are athletic, some are others are more technical and scientific; others are musical. So these are all what I call the different rivers of wisdom that God has in each one of our lives.

The reason for this series is a sort of bring us to a point where we are more open or we have more knowledge of the things of heaven. So that when God began to manifest and reveals the heavenly things we can have some scriptures to compare to those things that He has revealed to us in His Word. Therefore having looked at all these things of God we realize that its because of what God wants us to be that He gives us different ability to function and to bring Him glory. Therefore the one with great intellectual ability cannot boast because that ability also came from God. The one with great skill and talent, music or in art cannot boast because that ability came from God as a result of God’s destiny in their life. God has a plan for each one of us to bring forth certain talent and gifts in our life. Chronologically it is God who chooses us first. And then He has a destiny in our life. Based on that destiny and His will He gives us the talents, the gifts and the ability. So it is not the other way. It is not because of His gift, His talents and His impartation to your life then that determine His will for you. It’s His will and because of His will He imparts these gifts and talents and then you function in them.

On earth today some times we do the reverse. Many people don’t know what God’s will is in their life. However knowing talents, gifts and abilities that God gives us have to do with His will, we start from there to discover His will. We work backwards. Though we work backwards remember that the will is not based on the gifts and the talents but rather the gifts and talents are based on the will of God.

To clarify that point I want to bring forth another quotation from the book “Angels on Assignment” by Roland Buck. Here is an instance of him being taken to heaven. When he went to heaven God took him to the throne room where God’s data is kept.

In answer to my question during this visit he says God truly gave me a glorious glimpse of the hidden secrets of the universe of matter, energy, nature and space, all bearing the same beautiful trademark. As He gave me this dazzling over layer of truth He added a new beauty and unity to the entire bible, which I previously did not have. Certain biblical truths, which I have seen darkly were now perfectly clear. And I could see how all the pieces fit together in what God was doing. How does a human ask question of God. It was so awesome being in His presence I could hardly think. Finally a thought came into my mind. To find out whether or not He actually made individual plans for each and every life.

He wanted to ask God that question.

Because for some reasons or other I felt this task will be too big even for God. Individual plans for individual life. In answer to my question God let me see the vastness of His heavenly archives. My head swam. Here was no way my finite mind could understand how God could keep track of this files. There must be billions of them. He said since you are overwhelmed by this and it staggers you let me pull out one that you may relate to. And He immediately pulled out my file. He would not let me see the contents of it. But He mentioned a few of the future items listed which I could use as a confirmation of this visit. Then He did a very surprising thing. He wrote 120 events, which He said will happen in my life in the future. The information just suddenly appeared I did not even need to read it. But right now I can tell you everything and that is the author at that time of his writing I could tell you every thing that was on that paper, because it was instantly impressed in my mind like the printing press prints on paper. The press doesn’t have to read what is imprinted. In the same way every notation was burned into my mind and its still there. Even though I have this knowledge God also let me know that He did not want me to reveal any of these things until such time as He would release me to share.

Right now as you are sitting here God knows exactly the day you go home to be with Him if you don’t live till Jesus comes. He knows everything of your life, every moment you are going to fail Him and every moment that you are going to succeed. That is why it is not so much God having to write our names in the book of life. But its more whether the names are blotted out of the book of life. It’s all written there. Its not the day you are born again God writes your name there. Before you are even created your name and your file was there. The only thing that needs to be done is the blotting out, not the putting in. But God did some thing else.

God pulled out another file for him. It says here, the Lord said let me show you someone else’s record. He pulled out the file of King Cyrus and reminded me of the last verse of Isa. 44 and the first 5 verses of chapter 45. He allowed me to see the record books and also His blueprint for many lives. One book was that of the apostle Paul. He revealed that he will be used to bring the gospel to kings, rulers and men of authority. For this reason God gave him a bigger brain capacity than normal. And because he was more brilliant He caused him to study under the greatest teacher of his days. Paul was finally being tutored by Gamaliel the most outstanding teacher of that time. God has chosen Paul to write the epistles His plan for the church and His body. So He prepared him for his task.

Notice here even brain capacities were gift from God. So in the end when we all stand in God’s presence nobody can boast. Not a single person can boast. Even those who reach to millions of souls as a part of God’s perfect will in their life got nothing to boast. All of us were only able to say Father God we have done every thing you commanded us to do. But in this world people honor the brilliant, people honor different achievements without realizing that all these were gifts of God. Not a single one of us can boast in any area whether natural ability, whether it be spiritual gifts or talents in our lives. Not a single one of us could boast. It is because of what God has designed for your life like apostle Paul. It’s because God planned for him to write the New Testament. God planned for him to bring forth those truths to the church. Therefore God gave him certain natural ability. For he needs to have comprehension of human vocabulary and languages. God gave him certain talents. God puts him in certain places so that he will be trained to do God’s will. As we all study the background of our lives possibly we realize that there are a lot of things has taken place in our lives has a part and parcel of what God is training us to be and to do.

One more record He gave me. It says, God gave me a peep into Abraham and Sarah record. I saw records of Abraham and Sarah’s hospitality to strangers. They have real feelings for those who are less fortunate than they.

There are some things that are important to God that He records that we may not realize. Those little times that you give a lift to somebody. Those times that you took food for somebody who need food. Those times that you encourage somebody who needs encouragement. All these things that go unrecorded God records. Those times when you may be transporting people to church. These things are in the records.

Here is Abraham and Sarah. Those little records of how Abraham loved to help strangers were not recorded in the bible. When he finds them he feeds them and helps them. The moment he saw the 3 strangers he ran to them to serve them. If that was his natural man and training you realize that he must have done it to many others. Any revelation that God brings forth cannot contradict the Word. What it does is that it will point to some thing that is already there but your never notice before. Any revelation that is against the Word has to be rejected. These things we bring forth to you to show that the most important thing in our life is not doing those things that we humanly deem to be important alone. But the most important in our life is to be, to do, what God wants us to be and do. If God chose you to travel to 100 nations then go. If God didn’t choose you to travel to 100 nations then don’t go. Just find your place in God and do it with all your heart to serve God in that area. It’s not important whether you are well known whether you are extremely wealthy or whether you have been round the world. It’s more important that you have done the right thing with the right heart in the right place in the right time.

Now the point that we want to bring forth here is the uniqueness of the plan that God has in our life. He plans for each one of us to bring forth different aspects of His gifts and glory. So that in the end some of us are eyes, some are hands, some are legs and in the end all of us bring forth the beauty of uniqueness of who and what God plans us to be. In the bible we find records of people who fail to meet up or match up with what God wants them to do. Although God plans, we still have a free will. That’s where we need to be very careful to flow with the unique plan that God has for our life. You can make a choice in your life but make sure that the choices are more and more into the perfect plan of God in your special life. Each one of you is special to God.
That’s the message that God wants you to have.

Lets look at Rom. 12:3-4 For by grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him. For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Its no point for God creating one to be the eye and be the leg and the leg wants to be the eye and the eye wants to be the leg. Imagine if your leg wants to be the eye. It would have a worm’s eye view so hard to see where you are going. If your eyes are at the end of your toes, try walking. The eyes are placed on your head to give you a better view of where you are going. So each one have our function in God.

Verse 5 So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, le us use them; if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

We need to read one more scripture in Matt. 6:9 Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Gives us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

In verse 10 it says Your kingdom come Your will be done. I want to focus on just one phrase Your will be done. We are speaking about God’s will in our individual life. The word done in the Greek is not the normal word for done. In English the word done speaks about some actions that are to take place. It emphasizes the part of doing. In the Greek the emphasis is not on the doing. In the Greek the word done is from the root word genomai; actually it’s translated as become or beget. The same Greek word which Matt. 1 says so and so beget so and so. It’s the word of birthing.

We understand why the translators find it hard to bring it forth because if you were to do it in English it says, Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be born. See it doesn’t convey to our trained mind the full meaning of what God is saying. It sounds so ridiculous in the English language. So they chose the word done thinking its smoother. But yet when they did it they miss out a whole revelation in the word become, or beget. Your will be born, your will become. Your will is birthed in our lives. So the will of God is not just a doing. The will of God is a being, something that is born on our inside. Your will is born, is become in our life.

The will of God is not pictured as a set of instructions given to you. Although when Paul taught about God’s promises to our life, he illustrated as the promises of God as His will. Just as someone who wrote his or her will to pass on the inheritance to the benefactors, the will, in our English concept, is some thing written and you read it like all the instructions there. But the will of God is not in that form. The will of God is not in section 1, section 2, subsection i etc. The will of God is a seed in our life. And because that will is a seed the secret of doing God’s will is first being where God wants you to be and letting that being flow out from your life. The will of God is more a seed and you just let that seed grow.

Understanding God’s will is allowing that seed to come forth in our life, to let it grow on our inside. The practical application will be like this; many of us struggle to do God’s will. We wonder what is God’s will the next year or this year and we struggle not knowing what God wants us to do. We always think of the will as a piece of paper. We never think of God’s will as a seed that you eat. And because of that it limits us. Many people struggle, what does God wants me to do? The doing is the emphasis and therefore there is a struggle and they lose the whole meaning. The will of God is not the doing; but is the becoming.

How do I make sure that I would be perfectly doing God’s will in 5 years time? How do I assure myself of that? The practical application is here that right now at this point of time in your life just do and be whatever God wants you to be and do. What does God wants you to do today that you know it’s right. There are a lot of people called to the ministry and they are so worried about being an evangelist, so worried about being an apostle, pastor, teacher, prophet, that they forgot what to do now. And all their planning is what they are going to do in 5 years’ time. They forgot that the most important thing is to do whatever they need to do right now. And if they would faithfully do whatever they know is what God wants them to do right now, even though it doesn’t seem to be related to their evangelist calling 5 years later, it will bring them to the place where God wants them to be. In other words they will become the will of God. The will is not so much doing one step at a time but becoming one step at a time. We have to faithfully know and discern what is the right thing that we should do right now. If it’s to pray, then pray. If it’s to worship, then worship. If it’s being in a certain fellowship be there. And as we are faithful in becoming whatever and wherever God wants us to be, the will of God will become in our life. Not the doing but the becoming.

Rom. 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God. Have you notice that? The will of God is related to the transformation of your life. It is not just related to a piece of paper. The will of God become in our life more than it is done in our life. As you become whatever God wants you to become the will is done. What you become you will be able to do. You can’t help doing what you are. So when you become the right thing you will be able to do the right thing.

To further bring that truth into greater depth and application. Lets look at just one life but you can apply it to many lives. Lets look at the will of God for David. Now David was just a shepherd boy. He himself does not know that one day he would be king; neither did his father nor his brothers. But since he was a mere shepherd boy in that time or place at the particular moment let him be a faithful shepherd boy. Instead of sitting there with all the sheep around taking care of the sheep he says, “I am going to be king one day. Let me plan what I am going to do when I am king.” When he is planning all these things lions may eat his sheep. If he neglected his flock while a shepherd-boy, he will surely neglect Israel, his real flock when he becomes the shepherd-king. But David didn’t worry about his future. Have you not heard what Jesus said do not worry about your future. You don’t have to lean on your own understanding or your planning but let the will of God become in you, be and do faithfully what God wants you to do.

So David if he is a shepherd boy he will do it to the best of his ability. David as a shepherd boy took care of the sheep very well. He will not let a single sheep be stolen by a bear or by a lion. And David learnt to use the sling. He didn’t learn to use the sling the moment he was born. He acquired it, he learnt it as part of his job as a shepherd boy. Besides that as a shepherd boy he learnt music and played a harp. Now the will of God wants him to be king and shepherd over all of Israel and God was training him. Although he can’t see God training him, God was training him. None of us can see God training us. God’s training is not just your bible school. God’s training is in your entire life. We cannot see God’s training us but God is. God was training him to be king. He was not training him to be king by sending him to the school for princes. He was there as a shepherd boy. There was many times when his life was in danger. When a lion got a sheep, he killed that lion and freed the lambs. I don’t think that it was an instant achievement. Maybe he started slowly and he learnt to overcome his fear. Slowly he overcome the fear in his life until one day he says before king Saul that the God who helped me fight the lion and the bear is the same God who help me fight against Goliath. His confidence was built because he was faithful. It was God’s will for him to slay Goliath. But his success with Goliath depends on his shepherd’s life. Plus David was a highly trained musician. But he did it all in the meadows with his sheep. When nobody could see him he was worshiping God with his musical instrument. And one day when there was a need and king Saul had a problem with depression. And he sent out couriers looking for a musician to play. And somebody said David the son of Jesse is a skillful musician. And David was brought before king Saul and from that day forward he was always with king Saul. Now look how near he was to being king. He is now geographically located within a king’s palace. Because he was faithful in whatever he was. See we don’t have to worry about the future. Just be faithful to do whatever God ask you to do and you will become whatever God wants you to be.

We realize that the will of God in each one of us is more in becoming. Being faithful to do whatever you are doing without worrying about where your future is. Too many people spend their time worrying about the future so much that they become ineffective today and they live and die without even entering God’s will. So don’t worry about the future. The will of God become as you are faithfully doing whatever God wants you to do. Maybe it’s just a home fellowship and you just faithfully do that. The doors and the opportunities that God gives comes as the Spirit brings it forth in His time like He does in king David’s time. And God will arrange it in such a way that you never dream of it. David did not go to the camp to slay Goliath. He went to the camp to deliver provisions for his brother. Just as God arranged for Paul to be brought under Gamaliel God will in His own way arrange for you to be in the right place at the right time if right now you are doing the right thing in the right time. This frees us from many of the worries that people have. When the preacher preach get into God’s will and we all get so worked up that we become ineffective to what God wants us to do. We just have to pray and determine in our heart what does God wants us to do now. Don’t worry about the future if you cannot be faithful in the present. And if you are faithful to the present you never have to worry about the future because you are faithful with the present. Some people are so bogged up in the past that they can’t move in their present or future. Some people are so bogged up in the future that they cannot do whatever they need to do in the present. If we are faithful to be, to do what ever God wants us to be and do today in our life, you will become whatever God wants you to become.

No. 1 the will of God is a seed. It’s a becoming process and not so much line upon line, precepts upon precepts. Revelation and understanding come that way but the will of God comes in a different way.

Lets look of Rom. 12. Now the process of becoming I just list down the points further pray in that area.

Rom. 12 although it applies to one of the gifts but its important in verse 6. No. 1 the process of becoming is No. 1 in proportion to our faith. You cannot please God in any area without faith. Which explains why people who get into the Word and get into the prayer tend to get into God’s will more. It is a common factor in whatever gifts or whatever calling, whatever talent you have whether it’s a call in music or a call to five fold ministry the faith must be there. And it’s the growth of faith that determines the gifting in our life. Rom. 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

No. 2 the becoming process is a mental process. It’s a mental process of having our minds renewed in God. If our mind is filled with junk we are hindered from becoming whatever God wants us to be. So No. 1 is faith in the becoming process. No. 2 it has to do with our mind. You can have the best talents the best gifts but you can never enter into God’s perfect will if your mind is not renewed. When God freed the Israelites from Egypt because Egypt was still in their minds they missed God’s will. So we must get Egypt out of our minds, Egypt out of our thoughts. King Saul was placed in a position of king but because his mind was not renewed he always operated in the wrong area and therefore he missed God’s will. And he did God’s will for some time but in the end he fell out of God’s will. So No.2 the renewal of the mind is important.

No. 3 II Cor. 3:17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. No. 3 is proportion to the transformation of glory in your life. No.1 through faith. No. 2 the renewal of the mind. No. 3 to the glory of God in your life. Each one of us carries a measure of God’s glory and presence. If that glory is increased in our life we are more enabled to become whatever God wants us to become. We all receive proportional measure of glory. Like Moses although he had known God one day he came to the stage when he says God show me your glory. And when God showed him His glory there was a difference in the relationship of God in his life. God relates to you at the point of glory. And it’s important for us to seek after the glory and the presence of God in our life. All of us know what God’s presence is. But we need to hunger even more for God’s presence. We need to desire for more of His glory. Which is why I love this revival prayer meeting because you can just be in the presence of God and you could just press deeper and deeper with greater hunger for more of the presence of God. And as the presence of God and the glory of God increase in your life it is just like putting fertilizer into the ground into the seed that is growing and it just blossoms. So there are 3 processes of becoming in our life into whatever gift and talent the God has for our life. Ultimately it’s Rom. 8 we are all transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Everything that we do whatever we are the whole story behind it is that God may receive that glory. That our lives may bring others to worship God. Our lives will bring others to love God more. Our lives are to bring others to thank God. That our lives will cause more worship to rise up to God. That is the whole purpose in our life.

Source : www.eaglevision.com.my
Email : spiritword@bigpond.com

6. IMMORTALITY OF THE BODY

2008-01-20T17:50:00.000-08:00

By Pastor Peter Tan

Heb. 6:5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. There are powers of the age to come in reference to the heavenly realm. We realize that here on this earth we do partake of some powers of the heavenly realm. The power of knowledge, the power of life and all these realms are there permanently in heaven. But thank God while here on earth we have the divine privilege of partaking of the heavenly realm. This morning we are going to touch on the last one that we will consider, and that is in reference to our physical body. We know that this physical body is functioning at the level, which it was not really designed to do. In the Garden of Eden it was designed never to die. And this physical body was not designed to just exist on mere physical food and oxygen. It was supposed to live on God’s life. We will not be able to see the fullness of the immortality that God has for this physical body until Jesus comes. However we do have a foretaste of what God has for the physical body here on this earth. And from time to time God does allow us to experience some of the “immortality of the physical body.” And we are going to touch on that realm on the immortality of the physical body that we have a foretaste of. Some people like Enoch walked straight into immortality without seeing death, while others partake of a glimpse of what that body can be like.

Lets look at I Cor. 15: 45 the whole chapter 15 is on the resurrection of the physical body. Verse 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” From there we see that Jesus didn’t just restore us back to Adam’s state. He restored us even greater than Adam’s state. Adam was not seated at the right hand of God. But the second Adam brought us into a position to sit at the right hand of God in Jesus Christ. Jesus brought us to share all the privileges and blessings of the Second Person of the Godhead Jesus Christ. There is a difference between the last Adam Jesus Christ and the first Adam. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. The first one was only a living being. But the second had abundant life, a life that is God like with the ability to create and to impart.

Verse 46-47 But it is not the spiritual which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. Notice his analogy here first Adam, then last Adam. First man second man. Why does he use these phrases? If we look at it in the natural we could look airplanes and we could say this is the first model of the plane. Then I could say this is the last model of the plane. What do I imply? This is the last of that type. Now if I say this is the first of its kind. This is the second type of plane. What does it imply? By using the word second it implies that this is totally different. Like the Boeing 737 is different from the Boeing 747. It’s a different type of plane altogether although they are developments from the early stages of the plane. So in the same way Jesus was the last Adam. The last of that kind, the last of that type of the fallen man or the nature that was there that Jesus became part of when He took upon Himself the form of sinful flesh. But Jesus is bringing forth a new kind of man. In II Cor. 5:17 it says it’s a new species. The word new creation in II Cor. 5:17 in the Greek it is a new species. It means a new type of man. Some thing more powerful than what Adam could have imagined. So it’s the second type or kind of man.

Verse 48 As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as a man of, so are those who are of heaven. Now doesn’t that imply that some of the heavenly attributes of the body through the Lord Jesus Christ can be tasted, can be experienced on this earth. What a blessed promise. We are more than what Adam was.

Verse 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. This is a different type of physical body. Let me give some examples, which you will be familiar with. Adam had a perfect physical body. If he had lived 1000 years he would have looked the same as the day that he was born. He wouldn’t have aged he wouldn’t have grown old so with Eve. But that physical body of Adam cannot go through walls. It was in a different dimension from the physical body that Jesus had when He was raised from the dead. There was a limitation to that physical body that he had. He had all the attributes of eternal life but he did not have the attributes of the heavenly life that was extra special.

When Jesus was raised from the dead there was a new type of man or species that He came to bring forth. And Jesus’ physical body was flesh and bone. He told His disciples when He appeared to them in His resurrection and He says I am not just a spirit. I am also a physical body. He says for a spirit does not have flesh and bones. And they felt and touched that physical body of Jesus that was resurrected. And that physical body could eat. And we know He ate fish. When the doors were locked and Jesus suddenly appeared with the physical body, He says peace be to you. Then He sat down and He ate with them a meal of fish. And after that He went right through the wall. We could understand how the physical body in a way we could visualize it goes through the wall. But He ate physical fish. We understand His physical body going through the wall but can you imagine fish going through the wall also. He was not eating heavenly food. He was eating physical food that has weight. But when that physical food enters that special body of His, it took on that special quality of going through walls.

There is no record that Adam and Eve were able to float around. Adam and Eve walked on this earth. But the body that we have from the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes again is a body that could float around. That physical body that we will have in heaven, we won’t need wings to fly. We would be able for example to think about going up to the mountain and you got a choice of walking up or floating up. I bring that point to show forth that the second type of man and the second kind of body that God gives is different. It is far superior to Adam’s body. It’s a new species and we are able to partake of that.

I only share 3 points and conclude with the principles behind those 3 points. Three observations of people breaking those laws on the natural body when their physical body to a certain extend began to take on immortality. Every healing is a type of miraculous working on the physical body. I am sure you remember Dr. Sally’s testimony of her visitation to heaven. She also went to the same room that Robert Liardon went to where the bodily parts are kept. In heaven there are bodily parts waiting to be sent to this earth. Just over the last week G.B. Paul was in the hospital for heart condition. His wife came for prayer. I asked for a handkerchief and we prayed over the handkerchief. As I prayed the presence of God came down. And the Lord told me that He would visit him. She took that handkerchief and brought it to the hospital. That night while he was laying in the hospital bed an angel came and looked at his body. And this is what they told me: the angel pulled the zip on his body. Then the angel took out some thing and put it in the rubbish bag. Then the angel took some bodily parts and put it in. Then he zipped him up again. There are a lot of bodily parts that are in heaven that are uncollected. We need faith for us to tap on them.

Revival has actually begun. I think I shared a few weeks back about the angel waking me up and told about bringing the prayer meeting from that place into the main auditorium. And the angel said I would visit again. This is the year of visitation. And that angel was sent to bring forth a visitation. And he will visit again. There are a lot of angelic activities going on in the spirit realm and creative miracles are going to flow. Things work differently in heaven. There are laws that are beyond this natural world. And from time to time God does allow our physical bodies to partake of immortality. And if we are to walk close with God this whole body may be transformed and caught with Him. We taste of the powers of the age to come.

There are 3 things I want to share of people who go into that realm beyond the limitations of the physical body. First I call it the energy and life force in the body. When a little baby is born the energy that is physically there in that body is tremendous. The cells multiply tremendously. Metabolism rate is very high. In the natural realm as a person grows the metabolism rate decreases. That is why infants put on weight easier unless of course the power of God continues on their life. There are even instances of little babies who have lost a finger and grew a new finger. For adults we know this is impossible, but it’s easier for babies than for adults. And that energy force that is there can continue to be replenished from the spirit realm because in the heavenly realm the energy force never decreases.

We have Rom. 4:18-20 talking about Abraham who contrary to hope. Rom. 4:18-20 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations; as he had been told, “So shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. We know what happened to Abraham’s body. Possibly he received new parts from heaven. We know what happened to Sarah’s body. She probably received new parts from heaven. And their youth were renewed like the eagle. Even though their bodies aged yet they gained strength. So much so that Sarah once again looks beautiful. Then one day Abraham took her to king Abimelech’s place. Abimelech took one look at her and whistled. Imagine any person doing it to a 90 year-old woman. Surely she must have looked very young. The energy force of God came into her and her physical body regained strength. The bodily parts were renewed. Instead of drying up, the bodily parts became strengthened like it was new.

In the book of Deuteronomy chapter 34 verse 7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim. I mean he had super eyes. He didn’t need to wear glasses. What the world is telling you by the age of 40 the lubrication in your eyes start drying up. And you need to lubricate it a little bit more. And you find it a bit harder to see. And according to your faith be it unto you. You believe it; you accept it and then it became. And you say now I am old. Maybe your grandma told you that; your grandpa told you that, and you began to expect that would happen to you when you are old. Kenneth E. Hagin speaks about a time he was reading an article in Reader’s Digest. And it was talking about how by certain age, certain cells stop to function, and you will begin to lose part of your memory etc. And he said after he read it sub-consciously he accepted it and he started losing his memory. Until something took a hold of him and he asked, “Who said that? Almighty God didn’t say that. Who says you must lose your memory when you are old? God didn’t say that. His word didn’t say that. But rather its man’s word based on natural observation.”

Deut. 34:7 Nor his natural force abated. Some times I grow concerned when I see men of God, as they grow in God they started using glasses and all that. I am not against glasses. I mean use them as you require them. But as a minister I rather live a high standard. The reason being is how can I as a minister tell a blind person to tap on healing when I can’t get healing for my own eyes. I mean shortsightedness compared to blindness, what is that? So here it says his eyes were not dim and his natural force did not abate. He was strong; he was still climbing mountains when he was old. These are all foretaste of immortality. And if we begin to move further and further into that realm the physical body can be so transformed that it may reach a point like Enoch’s body reached it and he completely stopped aging. It’s time immortal. For those who could walk in faith higher in God, there is a realm you walk where mortality is changed to immortality. Many people are waiting for that to take place at Jesus’ second coming. But now for those who desire God’s presence and walk deeper with God, that presence can transform you. It can transform your physical being into the fullness of what immortality is like.

Turn to Genesis and we look at Enoch’s life. Gen. 5:23-24 Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked wit God; and he was not, for God took him. Now it didn’t just say that God took him. If it just said that God took him it may imply that his body was growing in the normal process. It could mean that as he grew old because of God’s blessings on his life God took him like the way he took Elijah. But it says he walked with God and was not for God took him. The word was not implies a transition from mortality into immortality. As he walked with God the body that was became was not. The body that was subjected to the laws on this natural plane suddenly was no more subject to it. It was transformed. And people who walk close with God seem to have a certain degree of that. They are preserved from the law of corruption and decay. Do you know that Jesus Christ on this earth walked so close with God, even though He bore all the sicknesses and diseases for us on the cross, it was more in a legal form and not in the physical form. I mean Jesus couldn’t physically in one body take all the sicknesses and diseases of the world. He would have looked like a bloated, putrefying pumpkin. It could not be in the physical sense. Although you could see your sickness on Him by faith, but it was a legal transaction. For all sicknesses came because of a broken law. And Jesus took that legal implication in judgment for the broken law.

The bible tells us in the book of Acts 2:27 For thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let thy Holy One see corruption. The moment a physical body dies that physical body began to decay because there are germs and virus that began to attack that body. In fact while you are alive your body is being attacked all the time. Except that because of the energy and life force in your body, your body cells kill all the germs and viruses that constantly invade your body. The moment life goes out from your body the body cease to defend itself and it just decay. Some times you throw your rubbish in a rubbish bin and it was some meat or chicken or something. But you leave that piece of chicken to decay maggots begin to appear. You ask your self the question where do the maggots come from?

I want you to know that Jesus Christ body never decay. God did not allow His flesh to see corruption. For 3 days and 3 nights that physical body that was kept in a tomb was preserved not by any spices or natural ointments like the Egyptian mummies. But it was preserved by a life force that still remains on that physical body. How then did He take our sicknesses and diseases? It was by legal transactions. When Adam fell into sin all sicknesses and diseases have a right to enter the human race. So when Jesus took death He cancelled that right. And any one who believes in Him, that right of sickness and disease to enter into your body is cancelled. And based on that right believers can be healed by His stripes. Although Jesus’ body was wounded because of the stripes that were inflicted on His back but no diseases, germs, viruses could exist on that body because of the glory of God.

I don’t know what it was like with Moses’ body. Although we read in chapter 34 there must be a tremendous energy that was on his body. And yet when he died we are told in the book of Jude that Satan wanted that body and God wanted that body. So there was a war over a dead body. Moses’ spirit and soul was already with God. In the book of Jude verse 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” Satan and Michael the archangel were wrestling over Moses’ body. Why? Let me give the understanding here. That physical body has seen the back part of God’s glory, which no man has ever seen. Up to Moses’ time all men has only seen a glimpse of His glory. Not even a shadow of His glory but Moses has seen the back part of His glory. We know what happened to Moses on that day. The very skin cells of his face was so affected it became luminous and shone brightly like a light bulb. Surely there are some special effects that is taking place on that physical body.

What about the law of science? God created all the laws of science. Science cannot create new laws. They can only discover laws established by God. Just like scientists can tell you that all the compounds in the body, water has an interesting property. When water temperature drops it begins to contract. Then up to a certain point when it turns to ice it begin to expand. That is why ice can float on water because when it expands ice becomes lighter than water. Other compounds or elements become solidified and heavier when they are chilled. Scientist can only discover that God made it that way so that when winter comes the fish in the lakes and in the sea can still exist underneath. If God didn’t make it that way and winter comes the whole lake would have been frozen and every fish would have died. So God is above all those natural laws.
Some thing happened to Moses’ physical body. The bible specially mentioned the skin on his face. Exod. 34: 29 Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone. Something happened to the skin. Something happened I believe to the whole body too. See in God death doesn’t exist. In God life only exists and there is no death. And a part of that immortality came on his body.
In the book of Numbers there was a time in regard to the challenge of Aaron’s leadership in chapter 17 verse 2 Speak to the people of Israel, and get from them rods, one for each fathers’ house, from all their leaders according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods. Write each man’s name upon his rod and write Aaron’s name upon the rod of Levi. Verse 5 And the rod of the man whom I choose shall sprout. We know what a rod is. It is just a walking stick. A walking stick even in the natural if you had planted it into the ground it will not produce a tree. These are not fresh rod. These are the rods that they constantly used for tens of years. Imagine planting a walking stick in the ground and it grows. But not only that in one day it grew. That’s immortality. Plants blossom in God’s presence. What God was bringing forth was only a shadow of what was already there when He created the earth. If you look at Genesis 1 carefully the plants were created before the sun was created. And we know in the natural according to biology or botany the plants need sunlight to live in our realm today. But plants originally receive life from the glory of God. When that rod was placed in the presence of God the immortality of God brought back life into that physical rod. We have a foretaste of immortality of the life of God that was possible.

In verse 8 And on the morrow Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had spouted and put forth buds, and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds. How could that be? This is immortality. If God’s presence is there it will just ripen. That is why in heaven every fruit tree is constantly producing fruit. Every flowering plant is always flowering because of God’s presence. And that immortal life can flow into our physical body. That’s rule No. 1. Then immortality can come in your organs so that no matter how old you grow your physical heart will still be young. Your physical body can still be young. You can grow in age but your body do not need to age. And your eyes don’t need to grow dim. You don’t need to lose any one of your teeth. You could have perfection of body depending on how much you tap into No. 1 immortality of the body. We see what I call a glimpse, a taste of the power to come.

Secondly, when immortality and if it’s under the power of God comes on this physical body, gravitation laws won’t limit it. When Jesus walked on the water in Matt. 14 He was walking on a different law. The laws of gravity limit this physical body of ours. For a moment under the power of God Jesus’ body was freed from the gravitational pull and He walked on water in Matt. 14. He must have been in God’s presence so much that when God said to go across the lake, Jesus did not hesitate. Jesus must have known something about it because He told His disciples, “You go first, I’ll join you later.” But no one knew how He would join them. While the disciples were there rowing hard away because of the contrary wind Jesus just walk across the water. That’s a tremendous power that was on His body. Some will say Jesus did that because He was Son of God just to show us what He can do. Well Peter did it too. For a moment of time his body too was on that same power. When he says, “Lord if that’s You, call me come onto the water.” And Jesus says, “Come,” now its up to him. And he walked on water. He was a mortal man tasting a bit of immortality.

In heaven there is a lake and there are rivers. You could choose either to walk on the top of the river or you could go swimming in the river. You have to have a certain realm of God’s presence before that takes place. People who walk with God seem to transcend that gravitation law. Long ago there was a story about a flying monk. And this monk was in a Christian monastery. This monk was in a particular church. He was a very devout man. He spent many hours praying. And sometimes when he was in deep prayer his body starts to float. And it happened to Amie McPherson too. She was at a platform preaching. And as she was walking up and down, sometimes she walked right up to the edge of the platform. Every one thought she was going to fall down. And she would quickly walked back. But there was a time under eyewitnesses’ account that she walked right on the end near the platform and walked back. Everyone was amazed. For as moment of time she was under that anointing. These are all little glimpses of the physical body taking on the power of the immortal body.

Lets look at II Kings chapter two verse 16. And the said to him, “Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men; pray, let them go, and seek your master; it may be that the Spirit of the Lord has caught him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” It seems that this phenomena constantly occur to Elijah. He could be walking in some places and straightaway he is taken, translated in the physical body. Physically transported from one mountain to another. This is why when Elijah told to one of the generals of Ahab, “Tell Ahab I am here,” he said, “When I go you will disappear.” People who are familiar with Elijah know that he is no ordinary man. This is a man who walked so close with God that he is like an angel. You could see him and then don’t see him.

We know it happened in the New Testament in Acts chapter 8 to Philip the evangelist. That after he baptized the Ethiopian eunuch Philip was taken off. That’s a foretaste of what the body can do. This body is so limited so that when you travel from one country to another you got to get your visas right, you got to get on the plane etc. One of these days as we get so deep into God’s presence you’re just going to go there in an instance. What I want to bring you to and show you is that it’s possible to happen right now and we have glimpses of it. If you walk deep enough it can be a permanent effect and then you get into glory. It happened to David du Plessis. He shared that in his book “The Spirit Made Me Go” that they were late for some appointment and he was running with another pastor for a meeting. The pastor ran ahead of him. And he said that as he ran, suddenly he took 2 steps and he was there. This is real he shared it in the book “The Spirit Made Me Go”. That’s the immortality of our physical body how our body began to break the bonds of this physical life.

Elijah also had it happening in his life in the book of I Kings 19 we are told that after the confrontation and the fire that came down from heaven, Elijah told Ahab to go first because there is a sound of rain. The bible tells us that Elijah ran faster than a horse. If some of these athletes in the Olympics Games read this account in their bibles they would be adding Elijah’s secret into their training program. So what was Elijah’s secret? “I stand always in the presence of God.”

We saw Samson how he could lift the gates of the city. These are all feats that belong to the other realm. But we need to understand and we need to know. That’s why we are teaching this that a glimpse and a touch of that are possible here. If we are opened to it then it may happen. If we are closed to it, it may never happen.

The third attribute of that body immortality is that the body suddenly takes on a new character and it doesn’t need to eat and drink. We see a glimpse of that when Moses was with God without food and water for 40 days twice and a third time when he was interceding. We are told that we can’t live more than 3 days without water. That is why the rescuers gave up hope in the Highland Tower tragedy (where a block of condominiums collapsed after some soil erosion) after some time when they realize any survivors would have died of starvation. Those who have never fasted for a standard period in fasting don’t know what it is like to break free from the laws of this life. But it is possible as we live in God so close that the presence of God so fills you that you go without food. The bible tells us in the book of I Corinthians that food for the bodies and bodies for food and God will destroy both of them. In heaven our internal organs are all different. There is still food in heaven but the food is not for survival. It’s for pleasure and for impartation. You don’t have to eat in heaven to live. You live by God’s life. How lovely when a glimpse of that comes on this earth.

In the book of I Kings 18:46 we are told of a time when Elijah ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Now in I King 19:5-8 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you.” And he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. His physical body took on immorality. It existed on heavenly life for 40 days and 40 nights. Some people think fasting is difficult. It depends on the level of the presence of God. When you break into a certain realm of God’s presence, it seems like your whole body goes into a state of suspended animation. The physical functions all cease and the spiritual functions takes over.

It happened to Kenneth Hagin one time when God was dealing with his wife because he was constantly traveling. And his wife didn’t want him to travel but it was God’s will for him to travel. So in the end the Lord dealt with the wife and say look if you are not going to let him travel I am going to take him home. And in one of his sharing as he was praying his heart stopped beating. A pastor was there; he took the pastor’s hand and say, “Feel that my heart for it has stopped beating.” But he was still moving around and he still could talk. Because the physical body was in a suspended state of animation and the spirit man just came through. I mean a body that live without the heart beating. We are talking about a different realm. This physical body is just a shell. There is some thing more powerful than that. When the divine life and immortality start coming to this physical body something takes place beyond our natural.
Jesus lived 40 days and 40 nights without food and water. And He was under that special anointing. And you notice that only after that He was hungry. Before that He was not hungry because the physical body for a moment of time took on the immortality. Everything in the natural seems to have a suspended state of animation. This is one of the things that in Noah’s time when he took all the animals into the ark and there was more animals than we know today. Some are extinct and many others that we never knew of or heard of. How did he feed all those animals? He doesn’t have to because God’s presence was there. We know that God’s power surpasses our physical life. The physical body can be immortal.

Now the key behind it all in Heb. 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God. He was seeking the pleasure of God all the time. He was always in the realm in the presence of God. Heb. 11:6 continue to say that without faith it was impossible to please God. Rom. 4 talks about Abraham and Sarah and they tapped on that renewing power in the physical body through their faith.

So No. 1 by increasing in faith. I was asked a question a few days ago, how do you develop this great tenacity of faith? The answer is this. I have made it a point that either the Word of God works or I die. When you reach that kind of commitment either the Word is true (and you are relying your whole life on the Word) or you die. You rather die if it’s not true than to live. And you could live when it’s found to be true. When you begin to trust God with that kind of tenacity and you go into the ministry and you say, “If I die of starvation its because I died trusting You. And it’s Your duty to continue to supply. If I die I die, if I trust I trust.” When you begin to walk with God with that attitude you say, “Either this Word is true or you are serving a dead religion.” Either what we are talking about is reality or just some religion that anybody could have. And if its reality I would rather see the Word works in my life and I live. If this Word doesn’t work I rather not live. Thank God the Word is true for whosoever has an absolute trust in the word. Faith that’s No. 1.

No. 2 Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. Sin and death are all those things that operate on the mortal body. If the law of sin and death is broken then your body is no more subject to mortality. What makes some thing mortal? It is the law of sin and death. And if that same law is cancelled immortality comes. And it’s by the law of the Spirit of life. That’s the second key. Part of the operation is through prayer as you see in verses 21 and 26. It’s the same law operating and working in God’s presence.
No. 3 verse 11 If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit who dwells in you. Turn over to the earlier portion of the book of Rom. 6:4 We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

No. 1 faith, No. 2 the law of the Spirit of life. No. 3 the glory of the Father. And there are different degrees. Jesus was full of grace and glory. Which is why the glory of God is important. As you tap in that glory, immortality comes into your body. Moses had one glimpse and his body was transformed. The rod of Aaron was in the glory and it blossomed and bore fruit. The glory of God is what we seek after. That will cause immortality to come on this physical body.

Source : www.eaglevision.com.my
Email : spiritword@bigpond.com