Equipping the Kings Part II

Equipping the Kings II

Let It Sink In!

As was discussed in part one, God has Solomon remaining at the Gihon spring until all the oil has been poured out and has fully penetrated. Remember the Gihon is a picture of the river of living water that flows from abiding in Christ’s presence. In part I of this article I wrote:

‘As I watched, the oil ran down his head and over his face and ears and then dripped down onto his garment until he was saturated with oil. It went over his eyelids and into his eyes, removing logs and splinters, changing the way he saw things. It went into his ears, cleansing and anointing his hearing so that the voice of the stranger was clearly discernable from the voice of the Shepherd. It covered his lips and the whole character of the words he spoke was transformed.  It caused his face to change and shine with the glory of God.’

The oil poured out by Zadok touched and affected his hearing, sight, discernment and speech. This really depicts receiving the mind of Christ, who is made unto us wisdom from God. In many places in the Word, God complains that His people have eyes but they cannot see; and ears, yet they are unable to hear. He is constantly communicating with His people but the message doesn’t seem to be getting through. In Isaiah 6:10, He explains that when they truly see and hear, then understanding is released and repentance comes, producing healing. This is God’s prescribed route to wholeness. Firstly, the eyes and ears of our hearts have to begin to function properly. Understanding is a natural consequence of clear sight and hearing. Then our thinking is adjusted – to repent is to think differently. A product of right thinking is wholeness. Isaiah 32 describes an era when a king shall reign;

Isa 32:1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.

So we see that there is a company of people who rule and have dominion. They exhibit the character of Christ, being a shelter and a hiding place. They also have clear sight and sound hearing and their hearts are full of understanding. This is a description of the Church who has allowed the Zadok oil to penetrate and divide in every area of their spiritual senses. The soulish must be separated from that which is of the Spirit. Mixture in understanding must be dealt with. The earthly or fleshly must be separated from the heavenly in our seeing, hearing and thinking.

We see this depicted in the story in John chapter 9. Jesus comes across a man who was born blind. This is an appointment ordained by Heaven’s calendar. The disciples look at his condition and immediately try to apportion blame for his lack of sight. Jesus corrects them by declaring the true reason for this appointment. God intends to manifest the works of God in him. In many ways, this man represents the present-day Church. We have grown to manhood, yet we are unable to truly see. We look at our state and try to work out how on earth we can be born again yet spiritually blind. However, it is pointless to try to apportion blame for our condition. That is to look backwards and try to dissect what is past. Heaven declares over us that we have come to this appointment with Christ because God desires to manifest His works in us. We are to be the light of the world just as Christ is and so the light must penetrate our eyes first, that we may be bearers of it to the world.

Then Jesus mixes his spit with clay and puts it on the man’s eyes. By doing this, He is demonstrating the cause of the man’s blindness. When there is a mixture of the earthly and the heavenly in our spiritual vision, we are unable to see. When earthly or fleshly revelation is mixed to a paste with heavenly revelation, the result is spiritual blindness.

Then Jesus tells him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. John explains to us that ‘Siloam’ means ‘sent’. Why does John feel it necessary to suddenly explain the meaning of this name? I believe it holds the keys to understanding how we get our sight restored. Firstly, Jesus ‘sent’ the blind man to wash and he went. Obedience to the instruction of Christ even when we cannot see (or understand) where we are headed, will produce spiritual sight once we have carried out the instruction. We desire to be an apostolic generation. ‘Apostle’ means ‘sent one’. Simple obedience to the Word of God will cause it to become flesh in us. All the theoretical understanding in the world will not produce fruit. When we begin to act in ‘blind’ obedience to the eternal Word quickened to us by the Spirit, we have set ourselves upon the path of receiving understanding.

In Revelations 3, the Laodicean Church are told they are lukewarm and do not realize they are blind. In other words, they are full of mixture – hot water mixed with cold results in lukewarm water. They are instructed amongst other things to anoint their eyes with salve so that they may see. What is the salve we need to apply? I believe it is the salve of obedience:

Jam 1:22 But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror. For he studied himself and went his way, and immediately he forgot what he was like. But whoever looks into the perfect Law of liberty and continues in it, he is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one shall be blessed in his doing.

Here, James says that reading the Word is like looking in a mirror. When you look in a mirror you are supposed to see yourself.

So, when we look into the Word or read, for example, ‘do not forget the poor’, we are supposed to see ourselves in that phrase and as we study this and go on our way, we are to remember that we are those who do not forget the poor and our actions must testify to this truth. This is being a doer of the Word. It is actually simple obedience; conforming our behavior to the Truth. The mind of Christ is not something mystical that we need mining equipment to lay hold of. It is clearly displayed in the Word of God. Do what you see the Father doing and say what you hear Him saying. Jesus manifested what was in the mind of the Father because He and the Father are one. He has sent the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. Where is all truth located? – in the mind of Christ, or in thinking the way Christ thinks. Christ-in-action naturally follows for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

The second key is that the pool of Siloam was watered by the Gihon Spring. The only inexhaustible supply of fresh living water in Jerusalem supplied the means to washing mixture from the man’s eyes; leaving him with clear sight. The only waters (or teachings) that will cause us to see clearly are received at the feet of Jesus. The doctrines of man only cloud our vision and cause us to sit at the side of the road like this man, waiting for a visitation of God. In actual fact, Christ is already here and calling us to come to Him and drink.  If we will receive our instruction from Jesus and simply obey without question or theological discourse, we will find that all becomes abundantly clear. This man did not take the instruction of Jesus to the Pharisees to get their approval before obeying. This is just as well, for we find out in his later discussion with them, that they would have forbidden him to obey on the grounds of their understanding of the law concerning the Sabbath. They couldn’t see that the Sabbath is a picture of resting from your own fleshly labors in order to work the works of God. This is exactly the right day to receive one’s sight! Amazingly, this man is no longer confused or intimidated by their theological ramblings. He clearly understands and even explains to them that it is obvious who Jesus is because of the fruit displayed in his own life.

What is important here is that this understanding has come to him through simple obedience to a spoken word from Christ. He had not yet actually seen the face of Jesus since his healing but his own experience was proof enough of the divinity of his Instructor. When we carry out the instruction we receive from Jesus, our resulting experience will be proof enough to us that we have heard the voice of God. Only after this man had been thrown out of the synagogue, did Jesus come to him:

Joh 9:35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him. He asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man said, “Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him.” Jesus said, “You’re looking right at him. Don’t you recognize my voice?”   “Master, I believe,” the man said, and worshiped him.

The voice and the face of Jesus are connected in our understanding after we have been obedient. We are so eager to see Him face to face, yet His desire is obedience to His voice. Then face-to- face revelation is given. Of course, our sharing of our newly restored sight may result in us being turfed out of professional religious circles but the reward is the revelation of Christ.

The waters of Gihon brought clear vision. Waters represent words, teaching or instruction. The spit of Jesus came from His mouth. The clay came from the earth out of which man was formed. Earthly reasoning mixed with heavenly revelation – separation needed! In Genesis 1, God is bringing order and form to the earth. It involves division and separation:

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And 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. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters above from the waters below. And 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.

Once again in these days, God is working a work for the Church is without form and empty or void. There is also darkness or a lack or understanding ‘upon the face’ of His people. The movement of the Spirit of God is upon the face of the waters. He is brooding over all the words which have been released and lie covering the face of His Church. Then He sends forth light or revelation by His spoken command and decree – and it manifests. It delights God’s heart to see true light enter His Church once again. Then the first division God institutes is a boundary line between light and darkness. It is separation time. Judgment begins with the house of God. No longer will He tolerate mixture of light and darkness and a dim spiritual atmosphere within His house. He openly declares that which is of the Day and that which is of the Night. This is why it is so important to make a firm decision as to where we stand. No more fence-sitting is allowed. We are to live as sons of the Day and put on the armor of light once and for all.

The next thing He does is place a dividing boundary between the waters above and the waters below. Here we see a separation within the teachings or doctrines of the Church. It becomes apparent which are teachings from the throne and which have actually originated from below, in other words which are earthly or soulish. Before this, all the waters merged together. Then God sets a boundary or firmament, which He names Heaven. In these days, it is going to become abundantly clear which words or teachings have their source in the throne of God and which originate in the flesh. It will become clear because of the fruit that abounds in the wake of these words. Those who sow to the flesh, will from the flesh reap corruption but those who sow to the Spirit will reap life eternal. Until now, it has been difficult to see exactly what the fruit of ministries and teachings is because of the mixture present, but we are now entering a time when the division between light and darkness will be plainly evident. Therefore the Spirit of God is busy applying the oil of Zadok on our heads, teaching us what is clean and what is unclean, what is holy and what is profane. Once we see clearly, it is up to us to cast away that which has contaminated our thinking and begin to think differently and act differently, being led only by the Spirit and not by the persuasive words of men’s wisdom. Are we going to be found seated in heavenly places with Christ, receiving and dispensing waters from Heaven or will we operate in the wisdom that James speaks of:

Jam 3:14 But if you have bitter jealousy and strife in your hearts, do not glory and lie against the truth. This is not the wisdom coming down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife are, there is confusion and every foul deed.

There is another blind man healed in Mark 8:22. In this instance, Jesus led the man out of town and ministered to him privately. He did not heal him instantly but progressively. Firstly He put spit in His eyes – a picture of introducing a heavenly way of seeing or understanding. Spit contains enzymes which begin to digest food. It is in the mouth that food begins to be divided up into its constituent parts to provide nourishment. If we want to begin to see, we have to come apart with Jesus and receive instruction in Heaven’s way of looking at the Word. We have to be taught to rightly divide the Word of Truth, not according to soulish understanding. It is time to be instructed by the Spirit of God, not the doctrines of men.

I want to say this, Jesus wants to minister to each of us individually; not in the company of our friends or in the city, but in a place apart with Him. There is so much we have not been seeing clearly, without our realizing it. It is going to be a progressive gaining of clarity of understanding as we receive the ministry of the Spirit. Don’t be quick to rush back into the city and share what you are seeing. It is not accurate yet. You are seeing men like trees walking. Wait until Jesus ministers to you further and you will see everything clearly. It is a process and this is why He has you apart while He adjusts your vision.

In fact after Jesus healed this man, He instructed him not to return to the city or tell anyone in the city, but to return to his own house and share the news there. The revelation you receive which adjusts your spiritual vision is for you to take and impart in your own house. This is the first place that you need to rule and take dominion. Let your house be a city set on a hill, a lamp lighting up the whole room.

We are so quick to rush ahead the minute we have a glimmer of light and unfortunately we are not imparting with accuracy. Paul remained apart for three years while Christ was revealed in him, before he began to share his understanding with the other disciples (Galations 1:15-18). Let Christ do a complete work of restoration and division of the holy from the profane in your understanding before moving on. Receive a full revelation of Christ in you. Then you will be able to impart from a place of fullness within. Don’t be satisfied with imparting a mixture any longer. What God wants to come forth from your life is Christ and Christ alone.

When Jesus took three of his disciples up a mountain apart, he was transformed before their eyes. They saw Him just as John did in Revelations.

Mat 17:1 And after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain apart. And He was transfigured before them. And His face shone as the sun, and His clothing was white as the light.

What was happening here? They had previously seen Him from an earthly perspective. Now they were receiving a revelation of Jesus as Heaven sees Him. Church, this is what we need, to come up to a higher place in our understanding of Jesus. We still cling to too many human perspectives of who Jesus really is and we live according to our earthly understanding.

Peter, James and John also saw Elijah and Moses conversing with Jesus. They saw there was a connection between the old dispensation and the new. Peter was so excited at what he saw, he wanted to build three tabernacles or tents so they each could have a dwelling place on the mountain top. Beloved, this is somewhat like the approach of the Church. We want to experience Tabernacles on the mountain top but we want also have Moses and Elijah (depicting the Law and the Prophets) camping with us as part of the whole picture. Some of you say, “what’s wrong with that?” Well, let’s see how God dealt with this scenario:

Mat 17:5 While he yet spoke, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold a voice out of the cloud which said, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear Him. And when the disciples heard, they fell on their face and were greatly terrified. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise and do not be terrified. And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus alone.

Firstly, He sends a bright cloud to overshadow them, somewhat like the scenario in Genesis 1. A cloud of light envelops them and they hear a voice. Heaven has sent revelation and instruction to correct their faulty understanding. All attention is focused, not on Elijah or Moses, but upon Jesus and the Father says, “Hear Him” or “listen to Him”. It is clear that it is Heaven’s desire that we focus on Jesus. All that the Old Testament contains culminated in Christ. Jesus Himself said that he came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets (Mat 5:17) and pointed out that:

Luk 16:16 The Law and the Prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone is pressing into it.

Beloved, we are called to press into the Kingdom, not into the Law or the Prophets. We are to be rooted and grounded in Christ, not in the Prophets. After this cloud of light had touched them, Jesus touched these three disciples and as they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus alone. God wants to bring us to the place where we lift up our eyes and see Jesus only, where our fellowship is with the Father and the Son ( 1 John 1:3), not with Moses and Elijah as well!

Jesus said that John the Baptist was the Elijah that was prophesied of in Malachi(Matt 11:14). He was the Elijah that restored the hearts of the fathers to the children and vice versa and the revelation he walked in was not surpassed by anyone born of flesh; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than him because they receive a heavenly revelation of Christ! John himself clarified this when his disciples came to him complaining that everyone was beginning to follow Jesus.

Joh 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; he who is from the earth is earthly and speaks from the earth. He who comes from Heaven is above all,   and what He has seen and heard, that He testifies

John explained that his perspective and revelation was earthly and Christ brings revelation from the right hand of the Father. It is time for prophetic people of God to recognize that there has to come a decrease in earthly, soulish revelation in this day. Christ must increasingly come to the fore in all we do and say. Paul, who is the model for us of a gentile apostle, determined to preach nothing else but Christ and Him crucified. We need to separate ourselves from all that goes on in the Church under the banner of Christianity that does not conform itself to this rule. There is so much that is spoken in the present prophetic movement that has its focus on other things. Christ is often not even mentioned. This should ring warning bells. If Christ and the cross are not central, then whatever the topic needs to decrease and bow out in favor of the spotlight being placed firmly and completely upon Christ and Him alone. John the Baptist eventually came to a place of being imprisoned and confused about the part Jesus played in God’s plan. He went from a position of total clarity concerning Christ to uncertainty. Then he was beheaded and the only ministry in the land was that of Christ.

It is time for the body of Christ to have the head of John the Baptist removed from its understanding and to become joined to THE head which is Christ. It is time to stop looking for that which is to come one day and change our thinking (repent) so that we can begin to truly be joined to the mind of Christ. We will never experientially walk in all that God has intended for the Church until we separate ourselves from that which is of the old dispensation. John must be beheaded and buried so that Christ alone can be seen in the earth. We cannot send a message from mount Zion that mixes Moses and Elijah in with the revelation of Christ. John asked, “Are You he who should come, or do we look for another?” We have to stop looking for another; another move of God, another wave of revival. Christ has come.

There is nothing greater. If we keep believing that something big is up ahead one day, then we are robbed of all our Today’s.

Paul spoke of growing up into Christ and the need to move from being susceptible to the doctrines of men:

Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ

Seeing clearly involves growing up. Instead of seeing in a mirror dimly, we see face to face. We look in the mirror and see Christ in us. To reach this place, childish ways of thinking and reasoning have to be left behind:

1Co 13:11 When I was an infant, I spoke as an infant, I thought as an infant, I reasoned as an infant. But when I became a man, I did away with the things of an infant.   For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

How does a child think? Firstly, his focus is completely on himself – me, me, me. Secondly he thinks about what he will be one day in the future when he is big. Church, we have to move away from being self-focused to being Christ-focused. Further, we have to begin to think differently and realize that we have access to the mind of Christ now. There is nothing more that God needs to do. It is finished. The change has to come about in our thinking. We do not have to wait for another. We have been seated in heavenly places with Christ (Eph 2:6). There is no other seat we need to ascend to in order to rule. However our thinking and understanding needs to come up higher to really lay hold of that which was purchased at Calvary. The mindset of John is always looking for what is yet to come. Let us rather live and experience Truth today as we begin to see from Christ’s perspective – not a bird’s eye view but a Christ-eye view.

His Spirit is within us, ready to lead us into all Truth and to impart to us the mind of Christ. There is no more waiting to be done. Lift up your eyes, see Jesus only. Bury John and let the waters of Gihon clear your understanding once and for all. Let us partake of the waters above the firmament.

Selah.

Christine Beadsworth