Baptism of Jesus

What’s so special about the Baptism of Jesus?
By Abraham Israel

To understand fully about the baptism of Jesus, first we need to understand from the scripture, ‘what is mean by baptism during Jesus’ time of life in this earth?’ In those days before two thousand years ago, the Jews baptized people who wanted to convert in to Judaism. These converts were called proselyte’s. In other words gentile converts. And they had a separate place for them in the Jewish synagogues (Acts 6:5). These were the type of people Jesus referred when He spoke to the scribes and Pharisees saying, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” (Matt 23:15). From the above verse we know that the Pharisees [i.e. the most powerful party both in religion and politics during Jesus’ time] and scribes [i.e. copyist of the law who prided themselves on their knowledge of law and tradition of the elders (Matt 2:4; Mark 1:22)] were the sole leaders who had the religious authority to proclaim and convert new converts in to Judaistic religion.

[Note: Proselyte was a name given by the Jews to such as were converted from heathenism to the Jewish faith (Matt 23:15). There were two classes: “Proselytes of the gate,” who adopted the Jewish monotheism and Messianic hopes, but were not circumcised, and “Proselytes of righteousness,” who were full Jews. To the former belonged Cornelius and Lydia and many of the earliest and best members of the apostolic churches.]

When John the Baptist began to proclaim that all including the Jews need to get baptized in water in order to have a part in the kingdom of God which will have the Messiah as their king, immediately the Pharisees began to question John the Baptist and his disciples about his theology of purification by baptism of repentance for the remission [i.e. forgiveness for all the bad things done in our life] of sins and rejected it (John 3:25; Luke 7:30; 3:3). Baptism was the process through which these Jewish religious leaders purified their gentile converts to be added as a proselyte Jew. Thus the proclamation of John the Baptist was directly opposite to their religious tradition and theology. This was the reason they rejected his message. These religious Jews considered themselves the true children of Abraham which they claimed even while speaking to Jesus and this was also the reason John the Baptist rebuked those same religious leaders when they hypocritically tried to get baptized for publicity sake (John 8:37-41; Matt 3:7-9) because the people over which they exercised religious authority considered John the Baptist as a prophet (Luke 20:4-6; Mark 11:30-32; Matt 21:25-26), and before Jesus started His ministry, for a while the people even reasoned in their hearts whether John was their Messiah which he denied and pointed to Jesus to be their real Messiah (Luke 3:15-16). These religious Jews who considered themselves as the true children of Abraham which they themselves claimed in the natural, rejected the baptism of John in their heart because of their religious pride. When these same people tried to get baptized hypocritically to maintain their status quo as the religious leaders of Israel as John was considered a prophet by the Jewish people (Luke 7:28-30), John the Baptist rebuked the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees saying, “…..,Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I [i.e. John the Baptist] indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He [i.e. Jesus the Messiah] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and , gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matt 3:7-12). To truly get baptized from John, one has to humble oneself to confess their sin to Him and thus accept their own inability to save themselves from the wrath of God and to enter in to the kingdom of the Messiah, no matter whether a person is a Jewish leader or a gentile. These Pharisees and Sadducees were not willing to humble themselves because of the religious pride in their heart.

This stern rebuke from John the Baptist infuriated the Pharisees and Sadducees. So they discussed among themselves about this matter and came to the conclusion that if John the Baptist was not the Messiah why is he baptizing people and adding people to be part of the kingdom of God. So they sent a group of priests and Levites who asked him, ‘Who are you?’ John confessed to them that he was not the Messiah. Immediately they questioned him the reason for his baptism (John 1:19-25). Exactly during this time Jesus was in the wilderness to be tempted by Satan (John 1:28; Mark 1:9,12; Matt 3:13; 4:1). So John told to them that he has already declared who the Messiah was, who will baptize them with the Holy Spirit, but they still do not know him and he confessed to them that he baptized people, ‘to reveal the Messiah to Israel and eventually has seen and testified that Jesus was the Son of God [i.e. the Messiah]’ (John 1:29-34). This was the ultimate purpose of John’s baptism (John 1:31). He said this to these group of people because these people who were sent from the Pharisees were not present forty days before when John testified about Jesus in the Jordan river (John 1:24-29). John himself said that his baptism was just a symbolism of what the Messiah will come and do in the realm of the Spirit [i.e. baptize people with the Spirit] (John 1:26; Luke 3:16).

The English word ‘baptized’ come from the Greek root word ‘baptizō’ pronounced [bäp-tē'-zō (Key)] which means ‘1) to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge (of vessels sunk) 2) to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one’s self, bathe 3) to overwhelm’.

Already understanding the context of the baptism that John gave, we are coming to the main question, ‘What’s so special about the baptism of Jesus?’ The Apostle Matthew wrote clearly about the event of the baptism of John to Jesus saying, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”” (Matt 3:13-17).

Here we see Jesus humbling Himself as a man and taking the Baptism of John. This Baptism of Jesus is unlike other baptisms. This was a divine exchange. As Apostle Paul described in Philippians 2:5-8, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death [i.e. baptism was that point of humbling Himself to death, and thus became God’s voluntary perfect identificational substitute for every sinful human], even [up to] the death of the cross.” This baptism was the point Jesus Christ took the sin of the world and carried it to completion at the cross where all our sins were wiped off and cleansed (John 1:29, 36; Col 2:14-15). As a relative of Jesus, John the Baptist must have known the perfect life of Jesus and also both their parent must have told them about the special signs that had taken place at their birth (Luke 1:26-56). John the Baptist was shocked to see Jesus coming to take baptism from him because as we have seen this baptism was for all sinners who accepted their unworthiness to enter in to the kingdom who were willing to change their lifestyle with an attitude of repentance. John the Baptist as an earthly man with the fallen nature confessed his unworthiness to give baptism to Jesus who had no sin, as Apostle Paul also later confirmed this fact by saying “For He [i.e. God the Father] made Him [i.e. Jesus the Son] who knew no sin to be sin for us [i.e. humanity], that we [i.e. humans] might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor 5:21). For this reason the Bible compares John the Baptist with Elijah who had nature like ours (Malachi 4:5-6; Matt 17:10-13; James 5:17). Jesus answered to John and confirmed the divine exchange that would take place during the time of baptism by saying “….Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness….” (Matt 3:15). In other words Jesus was saying to John the Baptist, ‘Allow me to take baptism this one time from you [i.e. as the ordained prophet of the Highest (Luke 1:76)] so that I might become as a sin for every human, that everyone can become the righteousness of God in Me.’ From this we come to understand that our identity with Christ in His baptism gives us the rights to identify ourselves with His perfect righteousness because this was the point of time the divine exchange was done.

So only the Bible says “[we were] … buried with Him in [His] baptism…” (Col 2:12). In other words the moment Jesus took that baptism He has already exchanged and have already taken your past, present and future sins upon Himself and has already given you His perfect sinless life to live victoriously in the sight of the Father God, so that from that point of time when ever Father God sees you, He only sees the perfect life of Jesus in you because of that divine exchange. This was confirmed by Jesus himself when He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he [i.e. John the Baptist]. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matt 11:11-12). From the days of John the Baptist those who humbled themselves by confessing their sins and believing in the divine exchange of the Messiah, whom they believed will come and take upon Himself all their sins and thus with Messiah’s righteousness they qualified and have violently believed against the lying pride of self righteousness from Satan [which God hates] and took the kingdom of God by the force even up to the time of the Cross. So even today all “…the doctrine of baptisms” (Heb 6:2) points to this ultimate divine exchange that had happened at the baptism of Jesus and the resultant gift [i.e. the Holy Spirit] that we receive as the seal of the righteousness of our faith in it (Rom 4:11; Gal 3:14). This is the reason Apostle Paul made this wonderful statement when writing to Ephesians’ Believers saying, “There is one body [the universal Church] and one Spirit [the Holy Spirit], just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord [Jesus Christ], one faith [faith in His name (Acts 3:16) {the name Jesus (Matt 1:21)}], one baptism [the baptism of Jesus (Matt 20:22-23)]; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Eph 4:4-6), which describes the essence of a believer’s individual faith. A believer is thus baptized as a sign of recognition of His faith in the divine exchange that had happened two thousand years ago in the river of Jordan which culminated at the cross where Jesus said “…It is finished.” (John 19:30). Jesus spoke about this baptism that he took at the river Jordan saying, “….Are you able to drink the cup [Cross ref: Mark 14:36- the cup was the suffering of the cross by the shedding of His blood which was symbolized by wine in a cup (Mark 14:23-24; 8:34; 10:39; Luke 22:19)] that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with [Cross ref : Mark 1:9-11 – His baptism was a divine exchange of suffering unto death, not for His own sins or faults but for others]?” (Mark 10:38). Also in Luke 12:49-50 Jesus said about this baptism by saying, “I came to send fire [i.e. Holy Spirit and His character to burn all things that is not of God (Matt 3:11; Acts 2:2-4)] on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled [i.e. increased activity and intensity of fire that purges]! But I have a baptism [i.e. here he was speaking about the baptism of John that he has already taken] to be baptized with [i.e. here the words ‘to be baptized with’ means ‘to be immersed or sunk with like a vessel’ {when one is fully sunk or submerged under water, he will die without air to breathe. Thus Jesus was indicating the death at the cross}], and how distressed I am till it [i.e. baptism of John that gets culminated at the cross] is accomplished!” Thus as Jesus Himself confessed, the baptism of divine exchange that Jesus received from John the Baptist in the Jordan river ended only when He carried away the sin of the world to the cross, where He finally died and got fully sunk in to death voluntarily as a substitute sin offering for all our sin (Matt 3:13-17; John 1:29, 36; Matt 27:50). Because He bore and carried all our sin and sickness, He was able to fulfill what the Prophet Isaiah said prophetically, “Surely He has borne our griefs [sicknesses] and carried our sorrows [pains]; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted…and He bore the sin of many” (Is 53:4, 12). This was confirmed by Apostle Matthew in the Gospel of Matthew 8:16-17, “When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “ He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”” Because Jesus carried our weaknesses [infirmities], sicknesses, pains, sorrows, griefs by bearing the sin of us all, now we can be free and victorious from all these evil things, by exercising faith in what has happened as a divine exchange and a gift of God for us. Our faith will get strengthened more and more as we reaffirm and get renewed in our mind by keeping our focus on the divine exchange that has taken place at the baptism of Jesus, where God the Father took all of our sin [i.e. past, present and future] and laid on Jesus the iniquity [i.e. the evil oppression that is legally allowed by God because of our very nature of sin from our birth (Psalm 51:5)] of us all and has given to us the pure righteousness of Jesus [i.e. because Jesus never sinned even once, Satan and his demons have no legal rights to touch Him] “..as a breastplate..” to wage war against the enemy successfully (Isaiah 53:6,12; Matt 3:15; John 1:29; Isaiah 59:17; Eph 6:14).

Here we can notice a parallel to what has been done in Old Testament. We must understand that Old Testament is New Testament concealed and New Testament is Old Testament revealed. In the Old Testament on the Day of Atonement as the Bible says, “He [i.e. the High Priest] shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.” (Leviticus 16:7-10). These two goats after it is separated [i.e. one as a sin offering and the other as a scape goat], will fulfill the requirement that God has set forth to fulfill according to His ceremonial law once a year. As the Bible says, “Then he [i.e. the High Priest] shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.” (Leviticus 16:15-17). The Bible points out prophetically in Isaiah 53:14 that Jesus’ soul will be made as a sin offering by God the Father. As the Bible says in Leviticus 17:11, ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’ Hence the blood of Jesus was finally offered as a sin offering to God on the cross where this atonement for the soul of everyone of us has been fulfilled (John 19:30, 34; Col 1:20). Thus it is clear from the Scripture that without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb 9:22).

Then for the other scape goat, “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.” (Leviticus 16:21-22). All the gifts and offerings in the Old Testament was substituted by one “…sacrifice for sins forever…” in the New Testament which is Christ Himself (Heb 10:12). Christ’s baptism also indicates that Christ came as a High Priest of the order of Melchizedek, because God Himself testified Him as His Only Son (Matt 3:17; Heb 9:11-12; 7:3,15-16). Thus “….In the likeness of Melchizedek [i.e. God the Father]…another priest [i.e. Jesus Christ]… has come…according to the power of an endless life.” (Heb 7:15-16) and Jesus as the High Priest “…offered up Himself” as an offering for sin (Heb 7:27). So as the Priest Himself was considered as the scape goat, the Father God as the Heavenly High Priest “…has laid on Him [i.e. Jesus] the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6), during the time of the baptism of Jesus. [Note: To know more about the mysterious kingly-priest Melchizedek, read the following article - Who is Melchizedek?] While John the Baptist immersed Jesus in to the water [i.e. which symbolically refers to death for soulish righteous-self (Rom 6:4; 1 Cor 15:29)], God placed the sin of many at this point of time upon Jesus to bear and instead exchanged the perfectness of Christ’s righteousness and began to impart it in to all those who believed Jesus (Heb 7:28; 2 Cor 5:21; Matt 11:11-12; Rom 4:5-6,11; Gal 3:8). So only as the scape goat was sent away bearing all the iniquities of the nation of Israel in to the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man in the Old Testament (Lev 16:21-22), Jesus was sent and driven by the Holy Spirit in to wilderness bearing all our iniquities and sins to be tempted by Satan in the Wilderness (Matt 4:1; Mark 1:12-13;Luke 4:1). If it is not for this divine exchange, Satan would have had no rights to tempt Jesus as He had done no sin at all (John 14:30). Hence it was a demonstration of the love of God that He has shown us to deliver us from all our evil conscience (Heb 9:13-14). So with confidence always say, “I am the righteousness of God [in Christ Jesus].” (2 Cor 5:21).

The writer of the Book of Hebrews describes about this event of the day of atonement (Lev 16:34; 23:26-32) by saying, “But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience— concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.” (Heb 9:7-10). The time of reformation was when Jesus took the baptism of John to be as a scape goat and was sacrificed as a sin offering for our sins on the cross by which the way in to the Holiest of All [i.e. the original heavenly tabernacle where God the Father resides (Heb 9:23-24; 12:22)] was made manifest forever because Christ as our High priest has already entered in to it with His own blood once for all having obtained eternal redemption [i.e. freedom to live free from the evil oppression of Satan and his demons](Heb 9:11-12; 10:12). With the boldness that comes as a result of being covered with the blood of Jesus through faith, we can boldly enter in to the Real Heavenly Tabernacle to converse with God the Father any time in the spiritual realm (Heb 10:19). This is why Jesus taught the disciples to address their prayers directly to the Father who resides in the Holy Of Holies in the Heavenly Tabernacle (Matt 6:9; John 16:23,26-28). God the Father loves you and sees you as He sees Jesus in His perfection, if only you will believe Jesus came from God as the sinless only begotten Son of God (John 16:27; 3:16;1 John 4:15). Up to that point of time no man had the audacity to call God as his Father which is considered as blasphemy in the Jewish religion because they considered it as equating one’s self to God (John 5:18). The natural physical body of Jesus is equated to the veil that covered the Holy of Holies (Heb 10:20). This is the reason the moment Jesus’ Body died the veil was rent, symbolizing that Jesus has entered in to the Heavenly Tabernacle of God representing all of us humans (Matt 27:50-51; Luke 23:44-46; John 19:28-30). Now that the veil which prevented a human person from conversing with God directly has been removed, hence the writer of the Book of Hebrews is exhorting us by saying “ let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled [by faith in the blood of Jesus (Heb 9:14) that frees you] from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water [water is represented by the word [rhema] of God (Eph 5:26; 6:17; John 15:3,7; 6:63; 13:10)]. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Heb 10:22-25). What a wonderful position we are placed and positioned, where we can connect to God any moment of time we like because of Jesus representing us as our High Priest in the Heavenly Temple where God the Father resides (Heb 10:21; 8;1). Praise the Lord!

The Hebrew word for the English word Atonement is Kaphar [pronounced kä·far' (Key)] which means ‘1) to cover, purge, make an atonement, make reconciliation, cover over with pitch a) (Qal) to coat or cover with pitch b) (Piel) 1) to cover over, pacify, propitiate 2) to cover over, atone for sin, make atonement for 3) to cover over, atone for sin and persons by legal rites c) (Pual) 1) to be covered over 2) to make atonement for d) (Hithpael) to be covered.’ The other English words which are mostly used in various translations are atonement 71, purge 7, reconciliation 4, reconcile 3, forgive 3, purge away 2, pacify 2, atonement…made 2, merciful 2, cleansed 1, disannulled 1, appease 1, put off 1, pardon 1, pitch 1. The main theme that runs through the Day of Atonement is the sin offering and scape goat. The sin offering was actually fulfilled on the Cross, this sin offering was mainly done for bringing together both the sinful man and the Holy God together. Through the sacrificial sinless blood of Jesus, God and man were brought forth together again to have peace and harmony. The blood of Jesus which was shed for the forgiveness of sin has totally cleansed the sinful nature of those who have believed in it, this iniquity which is the sin nature present in man had always separated God and man in the past, this had been removed through the sin offering of Jesus Christ according to God (Isaiah 59:1-2). The Apostle Paul describes this event as “….having made peace [i.e. atonement -> to make peace, reconcile, and establish harmony between God and Man] through the blood of His cross, by him [i.e. Jesus] to reconcile all things unto himself…” (Col 1:20). Here in the preceding verse we see God initiated this sacrifice to bring people who were lost in sin to Himself through Jesus by the blood of the cross. In other words Jesus made atonement through the blood of the cross by sacrificing himself as the one eternal sin offering (Heb 7:27). This blood of Christ will cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living, knowing this fact will give you the faith that God has once for all forgiven all your sins. Hence you will automatically draw near to God and will fellowship with Him without any condemnation (Heb 9:14; Eph 4:32; Rom 8:1).

The goats, bulls, heifers and all the gifts and sacrifices in the Old Testament symbolizes the one perfect offering of Jesus Crist in the New Testament (Heb 9:12-13; 10:1-4, 8-10, 12). The symbolic act of placing the sin of every one of us upon the scape goat’s head by the High Priest, through laying his hands on the head of the goat and confessing the sins of the people over it is represented by the baptism of Jesus where the hand of the Lord represented by the Spirit of God was placed upon Him (Ezekiel 1:3; 3:14; 37:1; Luke 1:66). Then God placed the sin of the world upon Him by confessing over Jesus from Heaven by saying ‘this is My Son who is the one perfect Specimen of sacrifice for eternity, with which I am well pleased’ (Matt 3:16-17; 4:1-2; Lev 16:21-22). The Hebrew word for the English word ‘scapegoat’ is ‘`aza’zel’ [pronounced az·ä·zāl' (Key) {masculine noun}] which means ‘1) entire removal, scapegoat a) refers to the goat used for sacrifice for the sins of the people b) meaning dubious’. Knowing this act of transferring of sins over the scape goat through the laying on of the priest hand over it and confessing our sins will free us from the condemnation of the enemies accusation, when we sin by the weakness of the flesh. This is the reason Apostle Peter spoke about this baptism in 1 Peter 3:21 saying, “There is also an antitype [i.e. original fulfillment of Old Testament scape goat] which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,….” In other words Apostle Peter was saying, ‘You can have a good conscience [i.e. a conscience which cannot be condemned by the enemy of our souls {i.e. Satan and his evil demons} because of the divine exchange that happened at the baptism of Jesus] toward God because of knowing and applying by renewing your mind through the doctrine of baptism in your daily life, hence thwarting the continuous accusation of the enemy. Baptism does not mean that you are removed from the evil soulish nature which inclines towards sin.’ (Eph 4:23; Heb 6:2). Nearly the same way Apostle Paul too described about this baptism by saying in Rom 6:3-4, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Here Apostle Paul is not talking about the water baptism that every believer takes but is talking about the doctrine of the baptism of Jesus that happened at the river Jordan as a lifestyle to be lived. You may ask me, how do you know that? Because in the context of this baptism Paul was telling later in the same chapter 6 in verses 17-19, “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.” In other words Paul was saying, ‘Because you have believed the doctrine of the baptism of Jesus [i.e. “…buried with Him through {His} baptism in to death…” (Rom 6:4)] and the cross of Jesus [i.e. ‘knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him…’ (Rom 6:6)] you have been set free from the legal penalties for walking in the soulish nature and its impulsive activities though the divine exchange that happened at the baptism of Jesus which got culminated at the cross. I am speaking to you like this because you still have the soulish sinful nature which inclines you to sin always, which will bring the accusation of Satan once you sin. So don’t give in to the soulish desire to sin but rather fight against it through the perfect righteousness that you received through believing the divine exchange that happened at the baptism of Jesus which will set you apart and position you from soulish wickedness for God’s purpose to be fulfilled through your life.’ As we know more about this divine exchange and its implication toward freedom from sin through our perfect righteousness we received from Jesus, the more we will be able to walk in the liberty of the Spirit (Luke 4:18; 2 Cor 3:17; Gal 5:1). As the Bible says, “[this] …righteousness [is] in the [presence & person of the] Holy Spirit.” (Rom 14:17) who resides in us as a gift from Jesus, who is building us together with Himself to be a dwelling place of God in the Spirit for eternity (2 Cor 1:22; Eph 2:22; 1 John 3:24). All believers will have the person of the Holy Spirit within them at least in ‘salvation-measure which is a fountain-measure (John 4:14)’ [if not in river measure which is the baptismal measure of the Spirit (John 7:37-39). If a person is not a born again believer, he will not have the Holy Spirit with in Him and he does not belong to Christ (John 3:3-8; Rom 8:9). It is the promise of God that the Spirit of God will never ever leave a believer nor forsake him for eternity because of what Jesus has achieved for the believer (Heb 13:5-6)]. This is what Paul described as the “….walk in the newness of life.” (Rom 6:4).

The bottom line is, Jesus has put away your sin [i.e. past, present and future] by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb 2:26) and has entered the Holy places in heaven to appear in the presence of God for you (Heb 9:24). He is representing you before God the Father. Because you are in Jesus [i.e. through His baptism and that you have died when He died at the cross], your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3) because of this divine-exchange, as a result God the Father sees you as he sees Jesus in His perfection. This is the reason the writer of the Book of Hebrews says, “….by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” (Heb 10:14). In other words the more you understand and believe the divine exchange of righteousness that you have received through the baptism of Jesus and are cleansed by the blood of the cross, the more you will experientially see the perfection of Christ manifest in your daily life. You are positioned in Christ perfectly, you only need to release that perfect position of Christ in your spirit to influence your soul by your obedience to God’s voice experientially. This is what is described in the scripture as “….being sanctified…”, in other words you are growing from one level of glory to another level of glory (2 Cor 3:18; Heb 10:14). The good news is because Christ was offered once two thousand years ago to bear the sins of many [including all your past, present and future sins], you do not have to bear the sinful lifestyle and its cursed consequences of separation from God’s presence in your daily lives. You do not have to make powerless choices because of sinful bondages which are the lie of the devil. Because of what Christ has achieved for you through His Baptism and the Cross, you are free to live the victorious life through the power of the Holy Ghost that lives in you (John 8:36; 1 John 4:4). So you do not have to live a sin-infested life style of sin by making wrong choices daily. Instead you can choose to live sin-free by making Holy Ghost empowered godly choices, which will make you live the kingdom life in abundance. When you sin, all you need to do is to confess [i.e. agree with] to God that you have sinned [Note: To know more about confession read this article, 'Is confession a fad or a fact?'] and then renew you mind with faith in the doctrine of Jesus’ Baptism and the Cross. Then you speak against the devils and demons that oppress you and they will flee from you because of your position in Christ. Be a warrior!!! You are a success story in Christ Jesus in the kingdom of God!!!

 

Wine and Wine Skins

Wine and Wine Skins
By Abraham Israel

From the Bible in Matthew 9:16,17, We know that the new man is not patching up the old man with a holy nature and wearing it, but it is a complete new creation, the man made in perfect holiness and righteousness. If a patch up work is done, the patch [new nature or anointing] will be pulled away [it cannot co-exist] and the tear is made worse [character deficiency is made worse].

The new wineskins in the olden times were used to hold wine and make it fermented. When a new wine is poured in to the new wineskin it will get enlarged because it will be flexible enough to get enlarged. The old wineskins will not be able to hold the new wine because its elasticity will be no more and it will break.

The new wine is the Anointing of the Holy Spirit and the new wineskin is the new man [new nature] which is only able to hold it based on the new covenant. We can say that the new covenant is its absolute elasticity which makes the new man unbreakable. The old man or fallen nature of man cannot hold the new wine [Anointing of the Holy Spirit] because it will break and the Anointing will be wasted.

This is the reason why the Old Testament saints were not able to receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit based on the Old Covenant. The Old Testament saints did not have the new wine skins to hold it. So only the Holy Spirit came upon them for a period of time and He left [in a continuous indwelling sense] when the purpose was finished.

When the Anointing of God is placed in the old wineskins [old nature], the old sinful nature will rise up in rebellion against God and it will be judged and the wineskin will perish because of God’s righteous Judgment and the precious Anointing will be wasted. The character flaws will be used by Satan surely and the wineskin will break and the Holy Spirit will leave like He left Saul, because of his arrogance.

Even when David was judged by God, he was saying to God, “Please cleanse and forgive my faults, please do not take the wine out of the wineskin forever, because I am born with this old wineskin which easily breaks.”(Psalm 51:10-12, 5(Paraphrased version)). He also clearly knew that God required the new wineskin and He desired him to have that, only that is pure, holy, righteous and with out defect (Psalm 51:6). This situation mostly will bring reproach to God and his holy ways.

What about Elijah? Was he directly taken to heaven?

The answer is No, because the Bible says he was the one who had like nature, like one of us when he was on earth [i.e. old nature or old wineskin] (James 5:17). When a saint or a righteous man dies it is precious in the sight of God (Psalm 116:15), So God always sends angels to take them safely to the abode of the dead [sheol] without letting evil angels to affect them, this was during the Old Testament times.

This was the case of Lazarus, who was carried by angels after he died. This incident happened during the O.T times (Luke 16:22, 31). This was also the case of Elijah but with a difference, he was taken in to heaven [sheol] and went up by a whirl wind in to heaven [i.e. the Spirit of the Lord took him alive suddenly by a chariot of fire driven by the horses of fire] (2Kings 2:11, 16).

The chariots of fire were none other than the armies of heaven that gave protection to these great prophets of the Old Testament times (2Kings 6:16-18). In Verse 18 it is written, “… Elisha prayed to the Lord….He struck them with blindness…”. This gives us a clear picture that the Executive Director of the trinity [i.e. the Spirit of God] makes the armies of heaven a flame of fire and operates according to the Managing Directors word (Hebrews 1:7). The Managing Director is Jesus Christ the prince of heaven whose word will be executed by the armies of angels in heaven (Hebrews 1:8). Here we should understand that there were “horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:17).

The Question is who drove the horses and the chariots of fire to give protection and security to the prophets?

It is the angels who were giving security, who were driving these horses and chariots of fire. That is why the word of God says, “For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” (Psalm 91:11, 12). God translated Elijah the prophet and took him in a chariot of fire, and separated the two of them [i.e. Elijah and his servant Elisha who were inseparably close]. Only one of the chariot in this group (2Kings 6:17), took Elijah. Jesus after He died went to sheol by the Spirit (1Peter 3:19). In the same way Elijah went up by a whirl wind [i.e. the Spirit of God (John 3:5, ] into heaven [shoel] (2Kings 2:11). This gives us a clear idea that the angel who drove that chariot took Elijah to sheol.

Even when Moses died, Satan disputed about the body of Moses with Michael the archangel because the outer man according to men is judged [given to Satan for death through judgment (1 Cor 5:5)], because of sin in the flesh (1 Pet 4:6; Jude 9). Every man dying in this world whether saints or unbelievers are judged in the natural for sin when he dies physically. But there is a difference after that, the saints are justified in their spirit but unbelievers are condemned.

Before the cross of Jesus Christ, Satan had absolute authority over everybody including the saints of God in the bodily level to kill anybody [i.e. he had the keys of Hades (unseen realm) and death] (Rev 1:18)]. So only God himself said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.” (Job 2:6), when Job was given into the hands of Satan to test Job. In other words God was saying to Satan, ‘I take my protection in his bodily level, but don’t touch his life, because he had power over that area also.’(Rev 1:17, 18).

It is God’s wonderful protection that gave absolute security to the saints of God in the Old Testament times. Because of this authority he even had access where Sons of God [i.e. angels] gathered on a particular day in heaven to present themselves [or to give account] to God. When Bible speaks about the Sons of God, it speaks about both angels and the saints [who will be like angels in heaven when they rise from the dead (Mark 12:25)] according to the book and the context. And God also considers the people and angels in heaven and earth as one family [the whole family] (Eph 3:15; Job1:6).

But when Jesus died on the cross, Satan was stripped of this authority over saints [fleshly authority- (i.e.) Authority to influence their mind, will and emotion by using their natural appetites or desires]. Not only he was stripped of his authority, but also his access to the assembly of the righteous saints and angels was cut off (John 12:31; Col 2:15; Rev 12:4, 5, 7-13). Satan was judged and was thrown out of heaven (Rev 12:7; Luke 10:18).

When the saints were taken to heaven, Satan had no access anymore and became furious against the saints living on earth after that time. He was not able to accuse them before God anymore because a new wineskin [i.e. a new nature] has been given to them forever.

David foreseeing all these things that God had planned, he wrote in the Spirit, “The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment [when God Judges in truth], nor sinners [people who practice evil including Satan and his angels (1John 3:8)] in the congregation of the righteous.” (Psalm 1:5). Satan was thrown out of the heaven [where God lives]. God asks Satan, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground (earth), you who weakened the nations! ” (Isaiah 14: 12).

Man is the apex of God’s creation, So Satan thought if he makes every man sin and do lawlessness, he can accuse these people whom God loves and because of it he thought he himself will not be judged for his sins that he had committed. So God was speaking to the devil prophetically and asks him the above question. Satan was fooled because he thought that all men have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), so God will not judge sin because He loves man with all His heart. But sin was judged on the Calvary tree and Satan realized only after every thing had happened that sin was judged in the flesh [(i.e.) all the men who ever sinned were judged in Jesus and through Him all will be judged] and that Satan is surely going to be judged in the future for all the bad things he had been doing.

Job’s nature needed to be refined; So God gave permission to Satan. Job himself knew that, so only in the midst of trials he said, “I shall come forth as gold [i.e. when the trial is over].” (Job 23:10). Satan was accusing Job to the Lord that if God takes the protection and his wealth, he will show his real face and his real character (Job 1:9-11).

In the Old Testament they had only the old wineskin that would break if the new wine would be poured in to it [i.e. the old nature]. But they lived by faith in God. So considered them righteous because they believed what God had told them, that one day their redeemer will come one day and save them and take them to heaven (Job 19:25; Psalm 49:15; 65:3 ). When the old nature compels us to act or be conformed by it, We should not allow it to rule us freely, instead we should shut our lips and not sin by speaking out what we feel on the inside. “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”(Job 2:10).

Like David we should pray by faith to God, “set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.”(Psalm 141:3; 39:1). This is where Cain erred in his way by not having faith in God, he allowed the old nature to manifest in him by obeying to its impulses and speaking deceit out of his mouth to his brother and killed him or murdered him (Genesis 4:7,8).

After Job’s character was refined, finally God gave him double the blessing of what he had lost during the trial. And He fully revealed Himself to Job (Job 42:5-6, 10, 12) and he was blessed in his latter days more than in the beginning of his walk with God. He had great faith in God in the end than in the beginning. He died old and full of days.

By faith you have continuous better connection to God than they had connection with God in the Old Testament. God’s nature is the new nature that when we connect, will start ruling us. We are greater than the greatest of the Old Testament saints and prophets because we have the anointing with in us continuously dwelling in us within the new nature [i.e. new wineskin] (Matt 11:11-12; 1 John 2:20, 27).

That doesn’t mean that God did not anoint them (i.e. Old Testament saints) with new wine. David himself says, “…..I have been anointed with fresh oil.”(Psalm 92:10). That shows us that they indeed have been anointed with new wine or oil. Both wine and oil represents the Holy Spirit. Here the Bible speaks about one new wine and two wineskins [i.e. one new and the other old].

But when God anointed them with new wine they were not able to hold it because they had only old wineskins [i.e. the old nature]. So every time the Spirit of God came upon them, they connected to God and did many mighty things and after a period of time they would go bust. Because when Satan started intimidating them after a mighty move of God through the old fallen nature, they became fearful and even became desperate to die rather than to live and get oppressed.

In the Old Testament the scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted [credited] to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God (James 2:23). In the Old Testament it [their faith] was accounted or credited in to their account, that they may receive the promise [the new nature] in the future, when Jesus will give it in reality after his death on the cross for them so that “…. Those who are called [people who believed and in whose account God has deposited his eternal reward] may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance [Jesus called it as the promise of the Father which is the indwelling Spirit of God(John 7:39; 20:22;Acts 1:4,5) -> Even as God said to Abraham, “.. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward or Eternal Inheritance (Gen 15:1).”] ” (Heb 9:15).

Eternal is something that never changes and inheritance is something that is given to sons and daughters by their father. The father deposits his genes in them to become his children. Father God through Jesus had deposited his very own nature in us to be His sons and daughters. So only in the Old Testament God never openly called anybody as sons and daughters. But in the New Testament He calls us daughters and sons because the moment we are born again [born from above], we have the deposit of God’s Genes in us.

[Genetics -> The study of how the nature and development of living things is affected by their genes.

Genes ----> The parts of their cells that pass on characteristics from their parents.]

Even during the Old Testament times when the Angel of His presence [saved-savior, Jesus Christ] put his Holy Spirit with in them (Isaiah 63:11), but because of the old wineskin [i.e. old nature] they were not able to continue holding the Spirit which God had put in them. Because of the nature of the wineskin “they rebelled and grieved the Holy Spirit; so He [Jesus Christ] turned Himself against them as an enemy, And He fought against them.” (Isaiah 63:10).

How do we know that Elijah and Moses were in sheol and were waiting for Jesus to redeem them and take them to heaven?

Even 8 days before Jesus got transfigured, Jesus prophetically told his disciples that some [i.e. Peter, John and James] will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God (Luke 9:27). On that appointed day, Peter without understanding what was happening he said to Jesus ‘allow us to make three tabernacles’, making Moses and Elijah equal with Jesus Himself. But Peter was speaking with the natural mind response to the supernatural move of God. That is when a cloud came (the Holy Spirit) and overshadowed them; when that happened they saw the kingdom presence over them and they became fearful as they entered the cloud.

And a voice came out of the cloud [in the kingdom the voice of God is heard through the Holy Spirit], saying “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him!” In the Kingdom, Jesus is the King. That’s why when the voice has ceased, Jesus was found alone (Luke 9:32-36). Jesus is the King whose love makes us to subject ourselves to Him. He is the central figure of the whole creation. The reality of experiencing the kingdom is in experiencing the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Kingdom of God is where Jesus is the King and all the saints who are with Him are as His citizens and fellow Kings. That is why He is called in the scripture as the “King of Kings”(Revelation 19:16).

When He went to pray on the mountain, as He prayed the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening [This shows that though He humbled Himself to be a man, He was still God and still a obedient servant of God. This also gives us a clue as God-man, He chose to stay obedient to the will of God, and He was not constrained to continue in the body as man Jesus.] (Matt 27:52-53).

The Bible speaks of Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory. [Glory always represents the spirit man that is why Paul says, “….We all …are being transformed in to the same image from glory to glory [i.e. the glory of being with the Spirit of God to one day when we will be raised in a new body of glory] (Luke 24:39; 1 Cor 15:35, 40-41)]” (2 Cor 3:18; Rom 8:11, 18). It also means they appeared in the spirit by the Spirit of God who is called the Spirit of Glory (1 Peter 3:19; 4:14).

And how do we know that they were not with their glorious bodies?

Because Jesus was still not raised, they were expectantly waiting for the ‘day of their redemption.’ (Matthew 27:52-53). So only they spoke with Jesus about His decease [Death-departure] which He was about to accomplish and were in expectation, so that every one of them will accompany Jesus to the place far above all the heavens where He will be seated at the right hand of the Father ( Eph 4:10; Mark 9:30-31). Abraham himself also was expecting these great events (John 8:56).

And they departed from that place after they finished speaking with Jesus to the place where they came from. And also the other confirmation that they did not come in their glorious resurrected body is that Elijah was accompanying Moses whose body was buried by Michael the archangel and he saw Canaan only in his spirit (Jude 9;Deut 34:1; 32:48-50, 52). Elijah’s body was not found by anyone because he was taken up alive and his body must have been handled by the angels themselves as per the direction of the Spirit, So only Elisha told the sons of the prophets not to search for Elijah’s body (2Kings 2:16-18). This was the way the body of Moses was handled by God.

Where do believers go in the New Testament after death?

In the New Testament we are not waiting to receive the promise of our inheritance [i.e. the new nature], because we are in Christ, we are a new creation (2Cor 5:17). The moment we are Born again we have become the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor 5:21), we have the new nature and a new spirit put with in us (Ezek 11:19).

This new man was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:24), and the new man becomes the temple of the living God where God comes and dwells and walks among us and He becomes our God and we become His children in this planet earth itself (2Cor 6:16).

God has already provided something better for us, because in this life itself we have already received the promise of the Spirit [i.e. indwelling Spirit of God who said, “…I will never leave you nor forsake you.”(Heb 13:5)] (Heb 11:39-40; Gal 3:14), for which the Old Testament saints waited in sheol to receive it.

And after receiving the promise as an inheritance from God the Father, only then they had been made perfect [i.e. made ready to go to heaven or qualified to enter heaven with perfect holiness and righteousness without which no man can see God (Heb 12:14)]. But now the moment we are born again [received the new nature of God], we are qualified or ready to enter heaven itself because we have Christ in us, who has perfected us forever who are being sanctified (John 17:23; 3:3, 16; Heb 10:14).

Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Then this Question may come to your mind, how can we be ever perfect like our Father in heaven is perfect? For this question, Jesus Himself has given the answer by saying, “If you want to be perfect [as your Father in heaven]…..follow me.”(Matt 19:21). Therefore the believers are perfect because they follow Jesus and are ready to enter heaven itself.

To fully understand where will the New Testament believer will go after he dies we must first know where Christ is and what is our position as a believer in Christ Jesus?

The answer is “Christ …..is seated….at His [the Fathers] right hand in the heavenly places.”(Eph 1:20) and God has “…made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”(Eph 2:6). In other words, Just as Jesus Christ has freedom and power over the three worlds (…those in heaven, earth and under the earth (Phil 2:10)), we have in His Name freedom, power and authority over the three worlds.

We have the same rights and position now in our spirit as Jesus Christ Himself. This Privilege we have because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross and also because we have believed and received the perfect nature of God Himself in us. So only a person like Apostle Paul was so sure that the minute he would depart this earthly body, he would be with Christ (Phil 1:23).

Stephen himself at the moment of his death saw Jesus standing to welcome him to heaven at the right hand of God and Stephen called on God and said, “Lord Jesus receive my spirit.” And he fell asleep [i.e. died] (Acts 7:55-56, 59). So the spirit of every believer will be in heaven until the rapture takes place and all the believers will be raised in their glorious incorruptible body (1 Cor 15:51-54; 1John 3:2;Luke 24:39-43 ).

Apostle John also describes clearly seeing the souls of those martyrs under the altar in heaven waiting to be resurrected at the second coming of Jesus Christ (Rev 6:9-11; 20:4). From these scriptures we can clearly understand that a believer will immediately go to the heavenly places [the heavens or places in heaven which are under the direct control of God] where Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Jesus himself had promised the believers, “In my Fathers house are many mansions….. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again [when? After His resurrection] and receive you to myself; (c.f. Acts 7:55-56, 59) that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:2-3). This is the absolute promise that Jesus has given to every believer in Luke 23:46; John 12:32, so that we will be with Christ in heaven the moment we die in this mortal body.

The Bible also speaks about old wine, what does it mean when Jesus is speaking about the people who have tasted the old wine will not immediately desire for the new? (Luke 5:37-39). The old wine is the giving of the Holy Spirit to the people under old dispensation or the old covenant. In the Old Testament they kept the law with the fear of God and kept themselves consecrated to God by prayer and fasting in order to keep the old wineskin from bursting (Luke 2:25-38; 5:33-35). This is done to keep the flesh from rebelling against the Spirit of God. Because they were used to this kind of seeking God, Jesus was saying to them that it will take time for them to get used to the new and the living way through Jesus Christ, through whom the new wine of the Holy Spirit will be given under the New Covenant. The old wine is tasty because it has been stored and have been fermented [i.e. strongly influencing their way of life] and have been used for more than a millennium, from the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These were set patterns to follow that have been passed for many previous generations, even from Moses who gave the law and the law has been invoked in them (the people of Israel).

During the days of the ministry of Jesus on earth, they [the disciples] did not need to fast because the bridegroom was present with them. Adam said in Genesis 2:23, “This [woman or bride] is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.” Such is the closeness between a bride and a bridegroom. So Jesus whenever He sent his disciples out on any mission, whatever anointing was on Him, He placed on them and gave them the authority to use that anointing. So they had no need to fast in order to receive the anointing and continue in it. Jesus was always with them for any emergency. So only when they came back from the mission and when it ended they were not able to continue in it. When Jesus went to the mount of transfiguration and took some time to return back they landed in a mess because these same disciples after the mission was over, they were not able to flow in the same level of anointing and exercise authority in faith (Luke 5:33-35; 9:1-6; 10:9-11; 9:37-42).

The reason Jesus warned the disciples when going from city to city “…greet no one along the road.”(Luke 10:4) is because they still had only the old wineskin, so that Satan might use people to get into argument and may try to burst [i.e. to paralyze them with fear or intimidate them] the wineskin and waste the anointing as in the case just before when the twelve disciples were sent out (Luke 9:1-6; 9:37-42), and got in to an argument with a man because they were not able to heal the child from demon possession.

When people allow fear to intimidate them, they will not be able to act in faith. So only Jesus was asking them, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you?”(Luke 9:41). In other words, Jesus was asking them the question, do you still not understand to walk in faith with a new way of approaching God through Jesus Christ Himself? In the succeeding verses when the people were marveling and amazed at the wondrous miracle, Jesus was giving the answer to the question and wanted it to sink in to their mind but they were not able to grasp and understand it. “… for the son of man is about to be betrayed in to the hands of men” (Luke 9:44). In other words Jesus was saying to His disciples,’I know the weakness of the old wineskin but I am going to give you a new wineskin or a new nature by being betrayed for you in to the hands of men to be killed. Then you will walk in the kind of faith that I am walking with humility.’ Jesus Himself gave the answer to the question He asked. He asked the question, How long shall I be with you and bear with you? The answer that He Himself gave is ‘until I am betrayed and give you a new nature and a new wine by dying on the cross and shedding blood for the forgiveness of all your sins.’

What does the Bible say about the old wineskin in the New Testament perspective? Is it there? How should we respond to its impulses?

In Rom 6:5, 6 says, “For if (we take a decision to renew our mind by Christ’s baptism into death doctrine) we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly [surely] we also shall be [freed from the dictates of the flesh] in the likeness of His resurrection.” If we don’t understand and believe the truth expressed in the above verse, we will never be able to understand how our old man was crucified with Him [i.e. Christ] even though we feel the impulse of it in the present. So only Paul points to the information given in verse 5 and says in verse 6 “Knowing this [what? Knowing the preceding words information], that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with [rendered inoperative – to render is to make someone or something useless etc…], that we should be no longer slaves of sin.” I believe the truth expressed in the above two verses are one of the most important truth in the whole of the new covenant; this understanding moves us into a new victorious dimensions of life.

In other words it is like God saying, ‘ I will not consider when you get pressured by your old impulses and give in to it, I will not consider it as an offence to be punished because I know the old wineskin will break and I have punished my Son Jesus for your errors.’ (Isaiah 53:4-6), but every time you get pressurized like that , believe that it has no rights to overpower you and take a decision to renew your mind by faith reaffirming that your old nature was buried and dead with Christ through His [Jesus’] baptism. Declare, ‘I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.’ (2Cor 5:21).This is why God himself says in Isaiah 54:9,10, “For this [New covenant’s elasticity of the new wineskin is not to punish a person when he walks in the impulse of his fleshly members which otherwise deserves a immediate judgment] is like the waters of Noah [all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth (Gen 6:12), because every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Gen 6:5)] to Me;…” where God promised Noah that He will establish covenant with him and that he should go in to the ark to escape this immediate judgment and later God Himself realized the depravity of man’s condition and told to Noah that although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth, I will never again destroy the whole earth as He has done and He established a covenant with Noah and gave him a sign of rainbow. This is the sign which when God sees He will remember the covenant and it is an everlasting covenant (Gen 6:18; 8:21; 9:9, 13, 15, 16, 17), so that He will never again Judge as He did in those days.

“For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you [for what if we ask? God is saying for even walking continually by the impulse of the fleshly members by the weakness of the flesh], nor rebuke you…..My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace [between God and man] be removed,” says the Lord, who has mercy on you (Isaiah 54:9, 10).

Even now the baptism of Jesus Christ is like the ark and entering is to believe that we were baptized in to Him in His baptism and because of believing like that, we are safe and can worship like Noah with a clear conscience (Colossians 2:12; 1Peter 3:21). This good conscience we have because of what Jesus have done for us on the cross by shedding His blood and as a result we should make every effort to please God by our faith in Christ. As we keep on faithfully doing this we shall be walking in the “…newness of life.” (Rom6:4), walking in the Spirit under the influence of the new wine (Gal 5:16; Acts 2:13). Even people will be able to recognize and those who will understand what is happening will be amazed (Acts 2:12), others who do not understand may mock at you.

God in His kindness and mercy have given you the awesome responsibility to make or render the old wineskin inoperative. Its impulses or rottenness have been cast out and thrown out according to God, it is up to you to step out by faith and please God by putting it to death in the natural by the Spirit of God. The old wineskin is buried according to God.

People who are influenced by the new wine by living through the new wineskin are those people who strive to please God by faith in Jesus Christ like Paul who says, “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”(Rom 7:19). For these people with this faith in Christ Jesus, now there is no condemnation who have the Spirit of God dwelling in them, these are the people who set their minds on the things of the Spirit (Rom 7:25 – 8:1-2, 5, 6, 9).

In the New Testament whenever God’s cloud of His rebuke and judgment arises, the sign that arises out of it is Jesus Christ who is like the rainbow in magnificent beauty and God remembers Him and the judgment by which He was judged for us (Genesis 9:16; Isaiah 7:14; Rev 4:3, 4), and the covenant that God had made with Jesus as with Noah. Then God retracts or withdraws from His righteous intention. But the chastisement of God will be on and off His disobedient children (Ps 89:30-33; Heb 12:7-11), whom the Lord loves He chastens (Heb12:5).

Now you yourself put the rottenness of the old wineskin and put on the new wineskin (new character) which is in the image of God by renewing the spirit of your mind [i.e. by what you have learned about Christ] (Col 3:9, 10; Eph 4:22-24, 20). Renewal of your mind is related with the confession of your lips. Confess the word of faith and believe in your heart to salvation or deliverance (Rom 10:10). This can be seen in the life of Jesus Himself (Matt 4:4,7,10; 1 Tim:12,13; Matt 27:11; Heb 3:1; 4:14; 10:23; Philemon 6).

Philemon 6 ->To confess the word of God is to admit or accept that something is true or that a situation exists even though it may not be seen in the natural realm.

Ex: Jesus admitted that He was the Son of God and that He was the king of the Jews, even though it looked as a mockery to do that in the natural realm before those enemies of God.

Those people who are under the direct control or influence of the wine of the Holy Spirit will have some of these manifestations in their life.

(1) As their wineskin will be full of wine which is the “Spirit of faith”, their full faith, confidence and expectation will be on the Lord. As a result of this, they will feel afflicted when nothing happens and their prayer will be in bitterness of soul and will pray and will weep in anguish. This type of prayer when other’s see it will make them think that you are drunk because you will be having direct heart to heart communication with the Lord that you will forget about yourself and your mouth may move with out your voice coming out or physically you may express your anguish from your spirit by moving your physical members with out being too concerned about who is watching you (1 Samuel 1:10-18; 2 Cor 4:13; Ps 116:10).

These type of prayers will impart much more faith in you than before you started it and it will even change the appearance of your face in to a glad and happy one because it will bring the answer from the throne of God in to calm assurance in your heart (1 Samuel 1:18; Proverbs 17:22; 15:13, 15; 12:25). These type of prayers cannot be prayed any time you want. These prayers can only come when the burden is too heavy because of a believing heart that deeply trusts in God and is broken or “…poor in spirit…”(Ps 62:5,8; Isaiah 66:2; Matt 5:3).

When you don’t have any possibility of the fulfillment of your heart desires through any natural means, then these Spirit inspired prayers will come out of you (Matt 26:36-46; Luke 22:43; Psalm 31:7).

(2) The other manifestation that can be experienced when you are full of new wine is the joy that you will experience in your heart (Psalm 4:7; 16:11; 21:6; 30:11; 104:15).

(3) When you are under the influence of the wine of the Holy Spirit, you will be full of the word of the Lord and you will be under pressure to speak out those words. You will find relief only when you speak out or answer someone’s false concepts with the right one to replace it. You will be compelled within yourself (Job 32:18-20; Acts 18:5). When a person is drunk, he will be completely overcome or controlled by the wine. He may even feel a excitement of it in his bones being shaken under it. It is because of the Lord and His holy words this happens (Jer 23:9). This is one of the other manifestation of the effect of the new wine.

Good news!

In the Jewish culture they would give the best wine during the beginning of the ceremony and later when the costly wine were over, they will supply the cheap one. But Jesus has changed the order of it and has reserved the best wine for the end times or during the end. This will come forth miraculously, but only by faith and prayer. Faith is the eagerness to obey the exact word of the Lord (John 2:2-11; Joel 2:23-24; Zech 10:1).

When we do His word implicitly in the natural realm [even though it may not make sense to your logical mind], He will turn the natural element into a supernatural occurrence or sign. This will be the order of the end time harvest (Matt 13:39). Angels will be the reapers or in other words supernatural workers to fulfill it.

The Importance of Speaking in Tongues

Tongues
By Abraham Israel

Can a person be filled with the Spirit or baptized with the Spirit with out speaking in tongues?

There is a lot of controversy that has happened and is happening because of this one controversial question. It has divided many a congregations and denominations. But the Bible is clear in this regard ,the word of God does not have discrepancy in this regard.

The answer for this question is yes. You may be surprised to hear this and may think where in the Bible it is written that we can be filled with the Spirit with out speaking in tongues. In the case of Paul in Acts 9:17, it can be clearly seen that when the disciple named Ananias came to Paul, to lay his hands on him, so that Paul can receive his sight and to be filled with the Spirit (or) in other words he can be baptized with the Spirit. Both filled with the Spirit and baptized with the Spirit are synonymously used in the scripture (Acts 1:5;2:4). Here when Paul was filled with the Spirit, the Bible does not explicitly say that he spoke in tongues immediately the moment he was filled with the Spirit.

And when the Bible does not say it explicitly, we cannot assume that he must have spoken in tongues. But it says that he received his sight at once and he arose and was baptized [in water] (Acts 9:18).Here only we see that a person receiving healing by the laying on of hands at the same moment was filled with the Spirit and after that got baptized in water.

He got healed completely and was filled with the Spirit. Yet in the next Verse 19, only after he received food he was strengthened. This also implies that even though God acts in a supernatural way, yet we need to do our necessary thing in the natural to sustain the supernatural thing that we have received. Yet later in his life because of the direct revelation of God and association with the apostles and disciples, he learned by faith to speak in tongues more than everybody (Acts 9:19;Galatians 1:11-12,18;2:1-2;1 Cor 14:18). And the truth is those who believe in the name of Jesus can speak in tongues at will because it is a gift of God that He gives to those who believe in His Name (Mark 16:17;1 Cor 12:10,28;14:2,14,15). It is a gift that is used for personal heart to heart communication with God by faith. Because of the great and marvelous benefits of speaking in tongues that Paul experienced in His life, he wished that all believers like him would receive the benefits of speaking in tongues (1 Cor 14:5).

In Acts 8th chapter, the scenario is that, Philip the evangelist had preached the gospel and the people believed the gospel of Jesus Christ seeing the signs and wonders. They were all baptized in the water by Philip ,yet the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen upon any of them in a overwhelming way as in the house of Cornelius which happened after this incident (Acts 8:16;10:44-46). So when the apostles laid their hands on the believers, they received the Holy Spirit.

And the Bible says that Simon the sorcerer saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money to buy this type of gift of giving of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands (Acts 8:17-18). The question is how this Simon was able to see the invisible impartation of the Holy spirit? The other place in the Bible where men recognized or saw the giving of the Holy Spirit was when the Holy Spirit fell on a group of people in the house of Cornelius without laying on of the hands of the apostles. By hearing them [(i.e.) the people in the house of Cornelius] speak with tongues and magnify God, the believing Jewish disciples who came with Peter understood that the people in that house of Cornelius have all received the Holy Spirit just as the Apostles and the disciples received in the day of Pentecost (Acts 10:44-47;2:4;1:5).

This also confirms that the 120 disciples in the upper room understood that if a person is seen speaking with tongues, it is a confirmation that he had received the Holy Spirit and is filled with Him. In that way Simon the sorcerer must have seen the people speak with tongues after receiving the Holy Spirit. The other usual manifestation that happened was people prophesied when they were filled with the Spirit (Acts 19:6).

And speaking in tongues is also one type of prophecy because Peter was referring to the book of Joel in his sermon on the day of Pentecost and showed from the Old Testament that the phenomenon that was happening was the fulfillment of the prophecy that said, “…God will pour out his Spirit on His men and maid servants and they will prophecy..” (Acts 2:4,16,18). Peter explained that speaking in tongues is in one way equal to prophesy, if people understand it (Acts2:11;1 Cor 14:5). For those people who did not understand it, it was tongues to them (Acts 2:13;1 Cor 14:2,10-11,16).

The same tongue manifestation on the day of Pentecost were to some people prophesy and to other people tongues or in other words meaningless language (Acts 2:11,13). In another way Simon the sorcerer might have also seen people fall under the power of God along with speaking in tongues. Why because Jesus said to His disciples to wait until the day of Pentecost, so that He promised them that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon them (Acts 1:4,5,8). In other words they will receive power when the Holy Spirit falls on them in His power as He fell upon the people in the house of Cornelius. This proves that when some one powerful with power, literally falls upon some one to impart power in to them, they will also fall under the power that is falling upon them (Acts 1:8;2:2-4,6;8:16;10:44-47;11:15-18).

Now here is our answer for our main question, ‘Can a person be filled with the Spirit and yet not speak with tongues?’.

Yes it is possible because in the Old Testament we see many prophets and saints were filled with the Holy Spirit and even immediately prophesied when they were filled with the Spirit of God (1Samuel 10:6,10;Numbers 11:25,29). And for some prophets like Micah the minor prophet, when they were filled with the Spirit, they experienced the fullness of power by the Spirit of God as also Jesus promised his disciples (Acts1:8; Micah3:8), So that they were empowered to declare or witness the message that God had for people.

Yet we cannot see anybody speaking in tongues in the whole of the Old Testament as a sign of being filled with the Spirit. This is because it is [the gift of speaking in new tongues] a phenomenon that God had promised to give as a sign of New Covenant grace (Isaiah 28:11,12;Mark 16:17;1Cor 14:21,22,39;Joel 2:28,29). So even in the New Testament times people can fully utilize the fullness of the grace that God gives or people can choose not to receive the grace and by their unbelief stick on to the Old Testament benefits only. Some may not receive because of spiritual ignorance. Here ignorance is not bliss (1Cor 14:23;Mark 16:17;1Cor 15:10).If anybody will humbly acknowledge their need for filling of the Spirit and will thirst for God to fill them, He will give the grace with the evidence of speaking with other tongues (James 4:5,6;Matt 5:6 [ Jer 23:6]).This grace as the Bible says is only for those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will (only) reign in life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 5:17).

The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is Old Testament revealed. A person can always choose to neglect something that is newly revealed that they do not understand as did many Jewish people including Peter did (Acts 10:13-16;15:7-10).

Some believers out of ignorance will not be able to speak in tongues and be filled with the Holy Spirit as did the Ephesian believers who had not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. In other words they were totally ignorant of the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2-6;8:14-18). For this reason they did not experience the gift that God had already given freely to many who were already experiencing Him in their times. But they were honest seekers, so God arranged a Divine appointment through apostle Paul and fulfilled their heart desire with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Even today I am challenging you that God is fulfilling the desires of all the honest seekers by giving the gift of the Holy Spirit for those who are seeking it with all their heart. They are the ones who will grow in leaps and bounds and experience the grace of this New Testament times. Take a step of faith and believe and ask God to fill you with the gift of the Spirit with the evidence of speaking with new tongues and by stopping to think by reasoning, begin to speak with new tongues!

A lot of people reason why is that great man of God so powerful even without speaking in tongues, Is he not filled with the Holy Spirit. To that my answer is, there is a measure of the Spirit of God that comes along with the call of God in ones Life (Romans 11:29; Acts 18:24-25;19:13;Luke 1:15-17). But not every one will receive equally the same measure of the Spirit, even those honestly desiring for it, because it is given to the person personally to fulfill a particular task in his life.

Moses desired in the Old Testament times,’ how good it will be if all of God’s people will be prophets filled with the Holy Spirit and prophecy!’. And God heard and considered such a heart cry and promised in the Old Testament times itself through the prophets that it will be fulfilled through His Son Jesus Christ (Numbers 11:29; Deut 18:18-19; Isaiah 28:11-12; Joel 2:28-29).

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And John the Baptist pointed towards Jesus and told everybody that He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit

(John 1:17,32-33). From the very beginning of the Gospel to the end and right through all of the Acts of the Apostles, this is not an add on theme but it is the main theme. And as we have seen one of the main reason for Jesus coming to this earth is to baptize people with the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39). The reason Jesus is able to give the Holy Spirit in Baptismal measure is because He has received the Spirit with out measure (John 3:34).

Look to Jesus, for He is the baptizer of all with the Holy Spirit and fire [Divided tongues as of fire, one (i.e. Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8)) sitting upon each of you (Matt 3:11)]. This fire as you start living in it daily will cause the fire to increase as Jesus will fan the flame and through this will thoroughly clean His threshing floor and you will be gathered as a pure wheat in to the barn (Matt 3:12). When you are gathered in to the barn (Store house), then you will be a great blessing to many in your life. The fire that burns in you will unquenchably burn the chaff of ungodliness in others ( Psalm 1:4,5;Matt 3:12).

So do not look on to any man but to Jesus to be filled with the Spirit! Hallelujah!

My Personal Testimony:

I used to see Benny Hinn’s, ‘This is your day’ program each day in the morning when I was in my home town. One day an aged man of God was invited for the show. He had a special anointing over his life, especially in the area of giving of the Holy Spirit with the laying of hands. When he prayed for people many received the ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’ with the evidence of speaking with new tongues.

He was speaking in details about this tongue speaking. He discussed in the talk show that our mind should not be used and should be kept blank while trying to speak in tongues. And this tongues comes from your spirit as the Spirit of God gives you the utterance.

He also told about a woman believer who tried to receive new tongues for years and she prayed and prayed and nothing happened. One fine day this man of God was invited to their church one day. And he told her the same thing that she should not use her mind but let prayer come from her spirit. Even if she will get just one word she should by faith open her mouth and should speak it and it will come. Finally she received it. This encouraged me very much.

That night as usual as I went to the open-terrace to pray. Then as I began to pray, I prayed ‘Lord I would like to pray in tongues’. Then after I finished praying like that, I felt some sort of utterance coming from my spirit up to my throat. So I opened my mouth and by faith I prayed out the utterance but kept my mind blank.

At first it was a sort of one word and repeated phrases in tongues came out. Then I grew bold and began to speak it loudly. Then tongues came flowing out of my spirit. Also I felt refreshed and edified in my mind every time I prayed in tongues, so it became a habit.

Now these days I realize, how privileged I am to speak in tongues as I willed. It is truly a supernatural heavenly language. I thank God that I speak in tongues more and more. Praise be to God!

Did Jesus speak in tongues?

It is inevitable that a person who is baptized in the Spirit not to speak in tongues. John the Baptist himself said, “I indeed baptize you with water ….But He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”(Matt 3:11).What fire he is speaking about, he is speaking about the “…divided tongues [or tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each], as of fire.” (Acts 2:3).

The disciples were very eager to know the secret of Jesus’ prayer and His power. Some of the disciples who were with John before joining Jesus were taught methods to pray to God by John the Baptist. So when they saw Jesus praying continuously, when ever He had time He spoke in tongues and they too wanted it. You may ask how do you know? In

Luke 11:1, Jesus was praying in a particular place, When He ceased [When something that is flowing suddenly stops, it is known as ceasing], the curious disciples did not understand a bit of the prayer that Jesus prayed, So they asked Him to teach them how to pray like Him (Luke 11:1). The same word ‘cease’ is used by Paul in the New Testament for stopping from continuously praying in tongues in 1 Cor 13:8 and 1 Thess 5:17.

The Greek word used here is ‘pauo’. For the word cease can be translated as leave or refrain. This word “he ceased” in Luke 11:1 is the same word that is used in 1 Cor 13:8 that says tongue will cease. And it is also the same word that is used to indicate prayer of thanksgiving in Eph 1:16. And again Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:15-17, “when you pray in tongues you give thanks well”, which strongly indicates that Jesus prayed in tongues.

The question is how can we pray with out ceasing?

For this Paul himself gave the answer by saying, “I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all.”(1 Cor14:18). Jesus taught the disciples the model prayer and it contains the answer for their question, “…Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, Give us this day our daily bread [i.e. revelation] (Matt 4:14; John 4:31-34), And forgive us our sins as we forgive everyone who is indebted to us, And do not lead us in to temptation, but deliver us from the Evil one.”

Paul himself wrote in the book of Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered [spoken in expressible words].”

The above words prove that groaning in itself is a type of tongues because only the Spirit of God can make such intercession through us. And the next verse in Romans 8:27 speaks about the Holy Spirit [interceding] praying according to the will of God. Jesus also at the end of this conversation about prayer, He ends the conversation by saying in Luke11:13, “…how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!.” For what? For praying persistently or unceasingly (Luke 11:8). Here He clearly instructs the disciples, If God’s will needs to be done on earth as it is in Heaven, then they need the Holy Ghost to pray through them.

The next question is, Did Jesus groan in the Spirit? Yes, “..He [Jesus] groaned in the Spirit and was troubled.”(John11:33).This shows that He spoke in tongues. Jesus “ Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplication, with vehement cries and tears [tongues] to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear (Prov 8:13;Ps 97:10).”(Heb 5:7).

Jesus Himself have clearly told the secret to praying such powerful prayer like Himself who prayed in tongues, by telling them [the disciples] to ask the Father for the good gifts of the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13). So only Jesus promises the same gift that He told His disciples to ask the Father God as “The Promise of the Father…and He calls it as baptized with the Holy Spirit….” (Acts 1:4,5). He even refers to this Promise as that which “you have heard from Me;” Jesus also promised that “And these signs will follow those who believe; In my Name they will speak with new tongues.”(Mark16:17).

These information’s He gave to the 11 disciples privately because they were seeking Jesus on how to pray and walk in the power in which Jesus Himself walked. How can Jesus tell them or make them understand [if they had not seen Jesus speak in tongues?], that they will also speak in tongues if they believe. When Peter started speaking in tongues, he was not at all surprised by this phenomenon, but he explained it clearly to others what was happening. If Peter was taken by surprise when he spoke in tongues, how could he have explained it to others, If he had not seen Jesus speak like that andif they did not seek for what Jesus had (Acts2:14-17).

Also when the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “For indeed the kingdom of God is within you.”(Luke 17:21). Paul said in Romans 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Comparing the above two verses it clearly shows that the kingdom of God is the extension of God’s rule from heaven in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This shows that when Jesus instructed the disciples about prayer, when He said them to ask the Father, “Thy kingdom come…”, In other words Jesus was telling them to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to come in to them so that they can start praying perfectly according to the will of God in tongues, as Jesus Himself was praying (Luke 11:2). In Luke 22:44, Jesus being in agony, He prayed more earnestly [i.e. more intently]. Being in agony is to feel weak. So only in the verse before this verse in v43, “an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.”. These types of prayers are Holy Ghost inspired prayers.

Jesus himself says in Matthew 5:19, “Whoever does and teaches ….he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”. According to this verse He himself challenges that those who teach others should themselves do what they teach others. If He himself did not pray in tongues, Why should He promise the 11 disciples, personally meeting them, He rebuked their unbelief and promised, “And these signs will follow those who believe; In my Name they [i.e. you] will speak in new tongues.”(Mark 16:17)

.If the disciples did not seek to pray in this supernatural prayer language, Why should Jesus meet them personally and promise them that they will also speak in tongues if they believe.

We must also understand this is a sign tongues [i.e. Gift of speaking in new tongues to men whose language we do not understand] (1Cor 14:22; Acts 2:11). My question is, if God wants other men to hear the marvelous works of God through His sons and daughters, how much more will he be desperate to hear His sons and daughters speak the wondrous mysteries of His plan to Him, So that He will answer them? (1 Cor 14:2 ; 2:11-12).

Various types of tongues and their uses

The term “tongues of men” refers to the supernatural empowerment of the Holy Spirit to speak or preach in any language on the face of the earth of which we have no previous knowledge (1Cor 13:1).
The term “tongues of angels” refers to the common language used in heaven (1 Cor 13:1)[even on planet earth God planned to have common language as it is in heaven, but because of rebellion God confused the first common language on earth (Genesis 11:7)].

The “…fellowship of the mystery..”(Eph 3:9) between God and man has been hid in God. It is now revealed to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places by the Church that speaks the language of heaven to these angels displaying the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 2:9-10;Colossians 2:15).This is that which Paul described in 1 Cor 13:1 as speaking in “Tongues of angels”.

The mystery which has been hid was, how Christ would become man and redeem us from our sin and how He would continue to dwell in us by His Spirit (1 Peter 1:10-12). And the fellowshipping of God with man is one of the greatest mystery of all time. When we speak in tongues we are speaking mysteries [the things that we don’t understand with our natural mind]. It does not mean it is necessarily a mystery to others, but it is a mystery only to us.

(1)When we speak in tongues we are speaking to God in His language that He understands (1 Cor 14:2). Ex: Ascii

(2)When we speak in tongues, we may be speaking in tongues of men (1Cor 13:1). When we speak in the tongues of men, they will understand what we speak to them.

(3)When we speak in tongues, we may be speaking in tongues of angels (1Cor 13:1). When we speak in tongues of Angels, we are speaking to them the mysteries or the wisdom of God that it might be displayed or made known by the church (Eph 3:9-10), to the powers and principalities in the heavenly places.

Mostly when we speak in tongues, we are praying to God. And no man understands (1 Cor 14:2). But the last two type is operated in us by God and belong to the spiritual gifts of “diversities of tongues” (1 Cor 12:28). Only God worketh these gifts all in all (1 Cor 12:6). [But each man as God wills is given the manifestation (operation in man by God .i.e. When He starts or initiates then you are working along with God to continue in it)of the Spirit (1 Cor 12:7,11)]. In 2Cor 12:4 Paul speaks about hearing things in heaven [paradise] which are not lawful to be uttered. He “heard unspeakable words”. From this we know that the residents of heaven speak in a language which is not used by any man. These are tongues of angels. The fallen angels were once the residents of heaven, so they must be understanding the language of heaven and I believe they still do speak and communicate among themselves with this language of heaven.

So because the last two types of tongues are spiritual gifts given to as many people as God wills, Paul asks the question, “….do all speak with tongues?”(1Cor 12:30).

But whoever longs to speak in tongues to God, will be able to speak with their own will which you normally receive along with the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit.”(Matt 3:11;Mark 16:17;Acts 19:6).

The War – Saints Against Satan

The War – Saints Against Satan
By Abraham Israel

When we speak about war, it means that there is a fight that the saints are fighting for the kingdom they live in. Each citizen should or always would represent his country and even would be ready to die for it (Rev 12:11). In that way, the moment we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, we are born again brand new and enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). The kingdom of God is coming under the direct authority, ruler ship of God and getting enrolled as a citizen of heaven where God is and working to extend it in this planet earth. Jesus taught the disciples to pray in a pattern like this, “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be [you set apart] your name, your kingdom [authority and rulership] come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”(Matthew 6:9, 10).From this verse we can see the direct connection between God’s name and authority. God’s name when it is set apart in a person’s life, then only that person can expect to come under the ruler ship of God. To set apart God’s name is to swear allegiance to follow Him and His kingdom, by submitting to his kingdom commandments without any precondition. That’s why David says to God, “Unite my heart to fear your name.” (Psalm 86:11). In other words David was asking God to keep his heart focused on God’s authority and rulership. When this happens then we are fit to ask for the kingdom rule to come in our life. The very word kingdom implies ‘king’s domain or dominion’. Once the king starts to rule in your personal life and you come under His authority and rulership with an undivided loyal heart, then you can ask the Lord to extend His kingdom through you on earth as it is in heaven where the perfect will of God is executed moment by moment by every saint and angels who are living in heaven (Psalm 103:19-22; Rev 4:8-10).These residents of heaven have great authority because they are under authority. They live to execute the will of God.

But from this context if we ask ourselves why God is asking us to pray or in other words ask his authority to come to execute His will on earth. Is it not done on earth, if yes who is having authority now? Why is it happening like that if God is sovereign?

The word of God says that,”He has made everything beautiful in its time…” (Eccl 3:11). In the beginning God created [or made] the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). Comparing the above two verses we can conclude that it must have been created beautifully in its time when God started to create it. But the very next verse does not paint a beautiful picture of planet earth, but a distorted, chaotic picture of confusion. As the Bible says in Gen 1:2, “The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep…”

Here the Question that comes to our mind is what has happened and how it has happened?
To get an answer we must see who has rebelled against God during that time. What were the angels who were God’s servants to execute His will were doing during that time (Psalm 103:20). These angels while God started to create with His strength, must have done His word in action.

The angels in the Bible is symbolically identified as a star because they vary in glory [i.e. size, shape, strength and purpose] from one another (1 Cor 15:41; Judges 5:20; Rev 12:4). God called Lucifer “O son of the morning!” (Isaiah 14:12). God’s unique way of bringing understanding to us humans is to speak comparing heavenly things with a metaphor of natural realities (Matt 13:10-13; 1 Cor 2:13). In that way it is only in the morning time we hear birds chirping and making beautiful melodies for the glory of God (Psalm 104:10, 12, 31). Satan used to be the leader of the heavenly choir and orchestra with extraordinary talent, beauty and full of glory. God designed certain beautiful music instruments for him to play it exactly on the day he was created. “….The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.” (Ezekiel 28:13).

And also in Isaiah 14:11 God says to Satan, “Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, And the sound of your stringed instruments; …”. God also said about Satan’s past in Ezek 28:13, “You were in Eden, the garden of God…”.

Here again the question comes what was he doing there and who gave him permission to be there?
As we have seen God appointed Satan to cover the earth and protect humans who were going to be created in the image of God (Ezek 28:14, 16). Here the word “covering” can be exactly translated as “guarding”. And the verse 14 is read like this, “You were the anointed cherub who covers [guards]; …”. And again God says, “O covering [guarding] cherub…”. Where was he supposed to guard? The 13th verse of the same chapter gives the answer “You were in the garden of Eden, the garden of God;”. After the fall of man, God brought cherubim of the Highest [Lucifer’s] Angelic order and authority from heaven to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen 3:24; Ezek 10; 1:3-5; Ps 80:1;99:1), because the one who was appointed as guardian cherub has become a rebel against God by then. That is why the Bible says that Satan has been a murderer and has never ceased to sin from the beginning. If we ask ourselves which beginning? The Bible gives the answer by saying “In the beginning God Created the Heavens [first for the ultimate purpose of creating]… the earth” (I John 3:8; Gen 1:1).

Man is the apex of God’s creation, up to that time Satan was the one who knew everything that God had planned and he was the chief leader of the whole of heaven up to that time of creation of man (Jude 9), But he knew that if man comes, man will still move closer to God than Satan himself and will have dominion over the earth and will worship God in the Spirit. That’s why he became jealous of God and man. Angels were created to serve both God and man, as a result are lesser than both in the original creation. As the Bible also says in Psalm 8:4-6, “…For you have made him [man] a little lower than [the angels] God [Elohim] [Here the word in the original Hebrew is Elohim which means creator God] …you have put all things [including the angels] under his feet.” Satan didn’t like the idea of God and he became proud and said in hid heart “…I will” 5 times which up to that point had only one will [i.e. God’s will] (Isaiah 14:13-14).

So only when God asked Satan, “Where do you come from?”. Satan said to the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”(Job 1:7). In other words Satan was telling to God ‘I was doing my duty of guarding the earth’. When God gives a gift to a person, He never suddenly retracts or changes His mind because of a mistake or rebellion of a person. God never changes His plan and purpose. Instead He bears with it to fulfill His purpose and then will judge each one according to his work (Malachi 3:6; Rom 11:29; John 12:31; Rev 20:10). Satan because of his pride was the first person to go on his own without God and have his own way, it became the biggest rebellion of all time because he convinced one third of all the angels and took with him in his rebellion promising a alternative kingdom, power and glory apart from God and His will. As God already had hierarchies and structure in heaven, Satan must have continued with it. In that way Satan became deceitful by promising lies to angels which he will not be able to fulfill apart from God and he became the ‘father of lies’(Rev 12:3,4; John 8:44; 1John 3:8; Eccl 1:15). God when He began to do His project of planet earth with a purpose of men to dwell in it and have dominion over all in the physical and spiritual realm, the going was good only, as all the angels were singing with joy. God was moving forward with His plan of laying the foundation of the earth and its cornerstone.

The angels were in context according to the book of Job was referred to as the sons of God (Job 38:6, 7; 1:6; 2:1; Isaiah 45:18). God structured the ordinance of the heavens and has set their dominion over the earth in protection. This is the reason God asked Job the question, Do you know what happens in the natural is influenced by the spiritual realities of what happens in the heavenlies (Job 38:33). God had set angels to guard his people or men on earth and to serve them according to his command. Angels are servants or ministering spirits for those who are under the rulership of God and His authority (Psalm 91:11, 12; Heb 1:14). In Heb 2:5 the Bible says, “For He has not put the world to come [but has put the present world under subjection because of man’s choice], of which we speak, in subjection to angels.” By one man’s disobedience sin entered in to the present world system. Sin is lawlessness. Satan is that source or instigator of all lawlessness. One bad choice of Adam made all mankind to be subjected to Satan’s impulsive reign over humankind (Rom 5:12, 19, 21; 1John 3:4,8) .Satan’s tail drew a third of the angels of heaven to his side. If a dog wags its tail, what does it mean? It means it is trying to influence us to be friendly and kind and loving towards it. In the same way Satan influenced or its influence and charm made the angels to rebel against the will of the creator God. It is still the same charm that he uses to influence mankind against God (Rev 12:4). When Satan thought these sinful thoughts of selfishness, he was thrown out of the mountain of God. And on earth itself he was turned to ashes. In other words he lost his glorious body and connection with God whose is the source of all wisdom. God completely cast Satan out of the mountain of God.
He was trading [i.e. using God’s resources such as angels, earth and all the wisdom of God] abundantly, and because of these he sinned by the five “…I will…” (Isaiah 14:13, 14). He defiled the sanctuaries or the heavenly abode of the angels which God prepared for them, by his iniquities and trading of God’s resources. So he was turned to ashes upon the earth which was the reason for the confusion that prevailed in Genesis 1:2 (Ezekiel 28:16, 18). When Satan was thrown out, he hated God’s program of humankind and wanted to desperately abort it. He is the reason or cause behind the destruction of God’s beautiful planet earth. As he had the power [which God had given] over the earth from the heavenlies, he caused malfunction to happen in defiance to God’s will with the help of all the fallen angels who began to follow him (Job 1:12, 13-19; 2:7).

The other important aspect of this is the wisdom which Satan had in the past before his fall. The only man who was considered 10 times wiser than the wise men [magicians and astrologers] who were in all his [i.e. King Nebuchadnezzar’s] realm is none other than Daniel (Daniel 1:19-20). And the only person to whom the secret things of all the kingdoms and the princes and the duration of it that are going to come in the future were revealed to one person Daniel in all of the Old Testament, he was shown even up to the end of the days (Daniel 2:19, 29-30, 31-45). Daniel was the only man to see the secrets even up to the end of the days (Duet 29:29). Here in Ezekiel 28:3, God says to Satan, “Behold, you are wiser than Daniel! There is no secret that can be hidden from you!”. God himself was saying that Satan had extraordinary wisdom about the secret things of how God was going to proceed with all the governance of the planet earth, even to minute detail. This was the reason behind his arrogant pride. “…You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” (Ezek 28:12).The problem of Satan is that he said “I am a god… and he set his heart as the heart of a god”, seeking worship from all men (Ezek 28:2; John 4:23). With his wisdom Satan gained riches for himself (Ezek 28:45; Matt 4:8-10). Through this riches gained illegally through his intense trade activities, he enticed men to worship him in order to get rich and gain wealth, this was one of the main strategies that Satan used even against the Son of God Jesus Christ Himself (John 13:2; 12:6; Matthew 26:14-16; 2 Peter 2:14-17). God was saying to Satan prophetically that the church of Jesus Christ will use the word of God to judge Satan and to throw him into the pit and his wisdom shall be defiled on the day he is judged on the cross of Calvary (Ezek 28:6-10). The church will use the sword against Satan’s wisdom as Jesus also did (Eph 6:17; James 3:14-15; Ezek 28:7).

The other important thing about Satan is, he knew that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). This is the reason God has magnified His word above all His name (Psalm 138:2). Time and space became central only when God began to create the earth. It is God who set the time span of night and day, months, seasons and years and its timetable along with the creation of the planet earth (Genesis 8:22). The whole world runs in the time calendar set by God and eternal life for man was planned by God before time began (Eccl 3:1-8; Titus 1:2).

The moment God started to execute His will of creating project planet earth, Satan because of the blindness that has crept in to his mind, because of pride he began to think that ‘once God has spoken about his plan, He cannot change and will not change and if He changes he will not continue to be an absolute Perfect being.’ If God breaks one of His word even once, His word will not be absolute and perfect and it cannot be trusted and expected to come to pass. God will cease to be God if that happens (Matt 24:35; Isaiah 48:3). All the angels in heaven had only one will [God’s will to be done (Psalm 102:19-22)]. Where ever there is a will, there is a voluntary choice that comes along with it. God even didn’t want the angels to work for Him like a machine or a robot. Satan because of his pride and arrogance wanted to have a separate kingdom and lusted worship from humankind just as God is worshipped. Satan set his heart like the heart of God, who only deserves worship because He created all things (Ezek 28:2; Rev 4:11). Satan also considered himself to be like God who sits upon the heaven’s throne and rules the universe and all the Hosts in them. Satan considered himself to be the God of this world because he was appointed by God as the chief of all the angels in the planet earth.

God never denied His authority and power in all of the scripture because it was by His will it was given to him before the rebellion happened. Instead he affirmed it (Matt 4:8,9; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2). If the world’s ruling power and authority had not been with Satan, it would have been a joke and an unreal drama for Jesus to speak to Satan as though he was the one who had all the authority and power. Even Satan promised to give his power and authority, if only Jesus will fall down and worship him. If it was not real, Jesus would have rebuked Satan and would have told him to stop lying to Him and leave the place immediately.

The seas or waters represent people and nations and political world system that rules. Seat of gods [i.e. fallen angels] does have authority as God had appointed and Satan was seated in the midst of the world system (Ezek 28:2; Rev 17:15; Gen 1:2). Satan cannot become as God, he knew it but he set himself as god in his heart because of pride. This is the attitude that made him proud, “I will ascend into heaven…..I will exalt my throne……I will also sit…..I will ascend…. I will be like the Most High.”(Isaiah 14:13, 14). Here we can see Satan already had a throne and his end desire was to be like the Most High God, so that he will be worshipped. He was enthroned next only to God, so only he said, ‘I will exalt my throne above the stars [angels] of God’. He wanted to exalt himself from a created angel category to the creator God category which automatically will make others below him to worship him. Satan wanted to sit on the mount of the congregation which is in the farthest sides of the north of the universe. He had to pass through the height of the clouds of glory and ascend before he can reach that place of God’s dwelling in the heaven (Isaiah 14:13; Job 37:22).

It is the highest heaven. From Satan’s given sanctuary in the heavens, he defiled it because of thinking like this. The mount of congregation is the place where Satan and all other angels stood before Him as an act of worship and will serve Him, while God only sits in that place. As we have seen in the preceding paragraph, Satan also desired to sit in that place showing the desire in his heart to be worshipped by others. Here angels assembled only at the appointed time given to them by God (Isaiah 14:13; Job 4:18; Psalm 103:20; Job 1:6; 2:1).

Satan was thrown out of the mountain of God but he gained access to it again when Adam gave his spiritual connection and authority to Satan. So only the Bible says he came along with the sons of God, among them (Job 1:6; 2:1), to present himself before the Lord. In other words Satan did not have the rights to come before the Lord. As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the only true sons of God (Rom 8:14). Satan’s heart was lifted up because of his beauty; he became very proud as a result of this he fell from the perfection of his ways that gave him direct connection to God and His wisdom.

Once he lost his perfection, he made his wisdom corrupted. Anything that is less than perfect is corrupted and will be in a constant state of deterioration. Satan chose to form his new kingdom and live in its splendor and rejected God’s precious wisdom (Ezekiel 28:15, 17). This wisdom is God’s continual guiding presence which makes a person do the right thing (Proverbs 8:1, . Only this wisdom is perfect. Satan came into the scene only before the ages began. But God planned and purposed this project earth even before Satan was created. For this reason as we have seen above, because of his pride Satan first expected God to drop the project planet earth, so that in that way God would become someone less than perfect because of his unfulfilled word.

But the good news is God began to brood over the void, formless, darkness covered chaotic earth as a hen over her eggs to bring the chicks out of it. Only when God’s Spirit starts moving, all the demons and devil will flee, because they are powerless before him (Genesis 1:2). When God started moving instead of all the obstacles and continued in creating the world, Satan began to wait for another opportunity to disrupt it. Because of Satan’s appointment by God over the earth, he was still holding his rights which God had given to him [up to this point it was still guarding rights as we have seen before and not ruling or dominion rights].

As it is said in the Bible,”… gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” (Rom 11:29). God did not revoke his word of appointment. God will never do that. God never breaks His word or promise or purpose. Because he knew about God’s plan even to the minute detail, Satan understood that Adam and Eve were beings with choices to make, he knew if only he could deceive them into unbelief about the integrity of God’s word, they would be under his authority because of his [Satan’s] appointment. To whom ever we submit [by believing their word], we become their slave. During this time he was already acting with his own will which is sin. He was acting with a kingdom of his own and was having other fallen angels as his subordinates. As we have already seen God even gave angels a will to choose, how much more he must have planned for humans who were placed to be higher than angels in their standing closeness to God. Only when a person is given a choice we can really say that out of his own will he is acting. In order to be in God’s image he needed to be created in that way.

This is where Satan gained a foothold in to the world system of governance which was not planned for Satan but for Adam to have dominion in this earth (Romans 5:12, 18, 19; Gen 1:26,27). He not only gained entry into it but because of his wisdom, he started manipulating humans to do what ever he desired by controlling their mind, will and emotions. Man began to do Satan’s bidding. Now because man had taken a wrong choice if Satan is judged immediately, mankind also needs to be judged immediately for doing Satan’s bidding or orders. Satan began to exercise his complete authority and deceit to destroy humankind forever. Satan thought if only he would make every human hopelessly sinful, God would immediately judge humankind, so that His plans for a perfect planet earth project would be derailed. Once that happens, Satan also would be free from judgment because God has failed His word.

When Adam chose to disobey God’s commandments, he brought God’s curse upon himself and his descendants. But God turned the curse into a blessing for Adam’s descendants. Only God is able to do that (Joshua 24:9, 10; Neh 13:2). God would not listen to Satan’s accusation against God’s people because instead of them being punished, God had an alternative plan for the redemption of humankind through Jesus Christ. Satan could not fathom that great mystery of the cross and the blood of Jesus Christ. As far as Satan understood, he knew that God will one day crush his head through the child born of a woman in this planet earth. So in his rage he started killing all the babies born even from the womb itself .When ever the activity of angels increased, Satan suspected if that would be the baby of that woman who will crush his head (Gen 3:14-15; Exodus 1:15-16; Matthew 2:16).

Even God did not fully reveal the meaning to the prophets even though it was spoken through them and by them (Acts 3:18; 1 Peter 1:10-12). Satan and his evil fallen angels even tried to understand these things of redemption even before it was accomplished by Jesus Christ. But they could never comprehend the greatness of it and the destruction it would bring to their evil designs (1John 3:8; 1 Tim 3:16). If only they would have understood the significance of the cross and the destruction it would bring to their evil kingdom, first of all they would not have caused Jesus to be crucified on the cross (Colossians 2:14,15; 1 Cor 2:7,8).

This hidden mystery which God pre-determined before the ages for our glory was totally hidden from Satan and his demons completely. Satan only had the wisdom of this present age up to the end and after his rebellion because he had corrupted his wisdom, he could no longer perceive or know about the age to come. And these rulers of this age are coming to nothing because already the judgment has been passed on and the result has been announced. The result of the war is, ‘Saints have won the war in Jesus Christ, but they are battling to repossess the lost territory’ (Gen 3:14-15; Rom 16:20). The battle in the heavenlies has been won and Satan has been thrown out of Heaven forever and he cannot accuse any saint of God before God’s throne (Zech 3:1-2; Job 1:9-11; 2:4-5; Rev 12:7-11). But still he is the prince of the power of air in this earth and the reason he is because of peoples blindness (2 Cor 4:4) and his deceit is increasing day by day in this earth in a rapid pace (Eph 2:2; Rev 12:12-13). It will increase until rapture takes place and then the judgmental wrath of God will be poured out on this planet earth before Jesus’ second Coming when He will rule the planet earth to show his glory (Rev 12:14-17; Habakkuk 2:14).

In Rev 12:11, before the church was raptured, the believers or the saints overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives to death (Matt 23:24; 16:24-27). But after the church had been raptured, in Rev 12:17 those who have been left behind keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev 14:9-12, 13). Here the saints of God just keep and have it and they don’t fight against or overcome because, Satan will be enraged about the rapture that had taken place and he will directly try to make war and the saints will be given in to his hands (Daniel 11:31-15,36; 7:25), for the saints to be refined and purified. This will continue only for specified and allotted days, after that Jesus and His army from heaven will appear and will wage war and will throw Satan in to the prison for a thousand year period.

The flood of filth and lawlessness are the weapons of destruction that Satan will be using against the saints in the present time. The is the element that is directly under the control of Jesus now (Matt 28:18), But it was not the same before the cross (Matt 4:8-9; Rev 12:15,16 ). These elements will be used by God to protect the woman which is the church symbolically represented as the bride of Christ (Psalm 24:1).

What should the saints do against Satan to battle the enemies and defeat them?
As Satan begins to increase his rage against the church in a rapid manner, the church should turn again to the basics of waging warfare as in the Apostolic days in the beginning (Eph 6:10-20; 2 Cor 10: 3-6).

When Peter was being trained to be the rock, Jesus warned him of all the Satan’s strategies that he had planned against Peter. Jesus was always tuned into the spirit world to know all demonic strategies by the Spirit of God (Luke 22:31-34). Jesus knew even the exact time, place and even the exact chronological order of it. Peter could have won the battle against Satan if only he was not so lethargic and over confident about his own abilities. If only he would have prayed to God about it he could have won the temptation that Satan brought (Luke 22:40, 46). Jesus did not tell or inform to Peter a fate that is going to happen, but he did something about it. He prayed for Peter so that his faith in Jesus Christ should not fail. Because of that warfare that he had waged Peter was protected from losing his faith and ended up to be the Apostolic Rock in which the foundation of the church was laid (Luke 22:32). Later Peter himself became the Apostolic General to prevail in warfare prayer to destabilize and turn upside down the whole camp of Satan (Acts 10:9; 6:4).

As the end time is approaching us, we should be more aware of what is happening in the spirit world and respond in warfare as the Apostles did in the 1st century church. The one and only way to win this battle that is spiritual is by connecting to the spirit world of God and his army of angels through the Spirit of God. Through prayer and prayer only this battle is waged to victory in the natural by tapping the spiritual power!

Who is Melchizedek?

Who is Melchizedek?
By Abraham Israel

The Bible in Gen 14:18, speaks about Melchizedek as the King of Salem and he was the priest of the God Most High. This is the first instance the Bible is speaking about Him. The Bible is so silent about this mysterious kingly priest in Gen 14:18. It does not speak about the origin of him, which the Bible is so clear in other cases where the genealogy is very detailed from the first instance to the last instance.

In the Bible the only character that is mysterious is God Himself because he cannot be defined in human terms (Isaiah 40:18; Rev 1:8). Abraham always was very generous to strangers and because of his wonderful character, unknowingly he met God and His angels in another instance (Gen 18:1-3; Heb 13:2).

First the Bible says in Gen 18:2, “Abraham lifted his eyes and looked and saw naturally three men [strangers] standing by him, once he saw them intently he recognized his Divine Master [Adonai] and he bowed himself to the ground.” This gives us a clear idea that whenever he met a new person, he had the perception in him to perceive the divineness in the one whom he was meeting.

When Abraham came after defeating and rescuing lot and brought back all the goods, the fact is that if Abraham already knew Melchizedek he would have gone to meet him or in search of him, but the Bible says Melchizedek was the one who approached Abraham and met him while he was returning from the slaughter of the kings (Heb 7:1).

Melchizedek did two things while he met Abraham,

(i) He brought out bread and wine (v 18).

(ii) He blessed him (v 19, 20).

Bread and wine is symbolic of the Body and the blood of Jesus Christ (Matt 26:26-29). Here is a parallel that Jesus Himself said, “I am the bread of life. Most assuredly, I say to you….My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” (John 6:48, 32). Here He clearly says, to have partnership with God in His nature and life, one must receive the bread that the Father gives to you. This gives us a little understanding of who Melchizedek is, who supplied bread to Abraham. And along with the bread He also gave Abraham wine about which Jesus said, “…My blood is drink indeed.”(John 6:55). After this because Abraham understood the symbolism of bread and wine of the covenant, then Melchizedek Blessed Abraham.

Only God can bless a man truly, as the Bible also says in Heb 7:7, “…the lesser [man] is blessed by the better [God].” The Bible also says in Psalm 8:5, that man is made little lower than God Himself. This is before the fall of Man. But after the fall of man, with in the covenant relationship with God, the same has been restored through Jesus Christ, the true bread and wine [the basis of the covenant relationship which has been initiated by the Father]. No angels can bless a covenant man because they are lesser than them in their status or position with God. As the Bible clearly says, “Are not the angels all ministering spirits [servants] sent out in the service [of God for the assistance] of those who are to inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14 (Amp)).

How can the fact that Melchizedek was God the Father can be substantiated from the scripture?

The writer of Hebrews said in Heb 5:11, “We have much to say about Melchizedek, but hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” From the above verse we can understand that we need spiritual understanding in order to understand about this mysterious person. We also need to be sensitive and sharp to hear the word and search to find out whether it is taken in the right context. In order to know more about Melchizedek we need to compare Him with Jesus Christ because Jesus came to become a priest in the order of Melchizedek (Heb 7:11).

Essence of Melchizedek [i.e. personality of Him]

• Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the son of God [Jesus Christ (i.e.) In materiality and in essence of His content and character, He was like Jesus Christ (Rev 1:8,11).] (Heb 7:3).
• He remains a priest continually [this is in relation to His priesthood] (Heb 7:3).

This gives us the idea that when the writer of the book of Hebrews was writing, Melchizedek was still a priest who continued as was when He met Abraham. Speaking in context to the above verse there can be no human with out genealogy; this clearly gives us the truth that he cannot be a human. There can be no angels without ‘beginning of days’, this also rules out the possibility that he can be an angel. Then it must be one person among the Holy trinity of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit who only have ‘the essence of Melchizedek’ as described above.

Jesus arose in the likeness of Melchizedek and has come as another priest [the same as another comforter who came in the place of Jesus (John 14:26; 15:26)] according to the power of an endless life (Heb 7:15, 16). Heb 7:3 speaks of Melchizedek the priest is “…made like the Son of God.” It also brings in the Father and the Son relationship of Jesus in to the background of Melchizedek the kingly priest. This gives us a clear picture, why Father God who inducted Jesus His only begotten Son in to this kingly priesthood and also testified from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”(Matt 3:17; John 3:16).

The son can only inherit this kingly priesthood ship. So only the writer of Hebrews says, He [God the Father] testifies, “you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Heb 7:17).

The name Melchizedek means “King of righteousness” and also “King of peace” (Heb 7:2). King is a man who is a ruler of a country because he is from a royal family. Basically the father who rules the kingdom is known as the king of the kingdom. Here Melchizedek is the Father God who is symbolically expressed as the “King of peace”. So only Jesus is called as the “prince of peace” in Isaiah 9:6. Prince is the son of the king.

“Here [on earth] mortal man receive tithes, but there [in heaven] he [Melchizedek (i.e.) God the Father] receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives (‘…remains a priest continually.’(Heb 7:3)).” (Heb 7:8; Rev 4:10; 5:7).

In the same way as Melchizedek, Jesus has a unchangeable priesthood because he lives forever (Heb 7:24; Rev 1:18). In this whole process, the Holy Spirit has played the role of an executive in fulfilling all the above things in the whole of the priesthood and its functions.

There is a perfect tabernacle in heaven in which Christ has become the High priest (Heb 9:11, 12). He fulfilled and is also fulfilling this function of the High priest through the Holy Spirit (Heb 9:14). Now Jesus Christ has become the High priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek in the heavenly tabernacle (Heb 6:20).

• As the earthly tabernacle had the stipulation that the High priest should be in the order of Aaron [ i.e. in the blood line of the sons of Aaron], so the heavenly tabernacle has the stipulation that the High priest should be of the order of Melchizedek [i.e. in the bloodline of God as the son of God] (Heb 7:11).
• Aaron was the first High priest of his order of Aaron in the line of the earthly High priest, God the Father was the first High priest of His order of Melchizedek in the line of the heavenly High priest (Heb 7:11).

Only the son can become the High priest in his father’s place (Leviticus 16:32, 33), and make an atonement for sin (Heb 9:11, 12). He who perceives and understands the kingly priesthoodship of Jesus Christ, will also understand the reality of the kingly priesthood ship of Melchizedek who is God the Father (John 14:9). We are also as adopted sons and daughters through Jesus Christ inherit this kingly priesthood ship of the order of Melchizedek by what Jesus had accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary (Rev 1:5,6).

• The Priesthood is given by God as a gift for service. And only those who are of their [i.e. Aaron’s] father’s tribe of Levi can be joined to minister to the Lord (Num 18:6, 7, 2).
• The Priesthood is necessary so that there may be no more wrath on the children of Israel (Num 18:5).

Jesus was given the High Priesthood as a gift, after His faithful service in glorifying God in the earth, doing only His will even to the point of death in obedience (Heb 5:5,6-10). He was saved from death and got resurrected as an assurance of His High Priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:5-6; Acts 13:33-39).

Once Abraham received bread and wine from Melchizedek, Abraham became the recipient of the blessing of His [God the Father’s] inheritance through His Son Jesus Christ. This was the very reason Melchizedek blessed Abraham after that, saying “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” (Gen 14:19-20).

The moment Abraham understood the magnitude of the Blessing of God, immediately he acknowledged and recognized that it was God who gave him the victory and all the things that he had possessed, and he paid to Melchizedek the first tithe acknowledging Him as God.

This can be conformed when God directly spoke to the Israelites and accused them of robbing God in tithes and offering (Malachi 3:8). In return God promised to pour out His blessing from heaven, if they in obedience to His command bring all the tithes in to His temple (Malachi 3:10). When Melchizedek met Abraham, He Himself was the temple (Rev 21:22).

In those days when Kings met the King of Kings (or) the King in whose jurisdiction they were subjected to, they brought one tenth part of all the increase that come in their kingdom. In turn they got the help and protection of the King of Kings, from all their enemies (Gen 14:21).

The moment Abraham recognized that he was dealing with this Kingly Priest Melchizedek who is the possessor of heaven and earth, he immediately gave the first one tenth of tithe of all to Him.

The Bible says, “to whom [Melchizedek] also Abraham gave a tenth part of all….” (Heb 7:2). “Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.” (Heb 7:4). God could come in any form. We must understand that nothing is impossible with God. And also the Bible says that a man wrestled with Jacob, yet at the end Jacob confessed because of the revelation he had received from God that he had seen the face of God and also God conformed it (Genesis 32:22-30; Hosea 12:3-6).

Heb 7:6 says, “but he [Melchizedek] whose genealogy is not derived from them [the sons of Levi] received tithes from Abraham and Blessed him who had the promises.”

If Melchizedek was not God Almighty why should the Bible say that even Levi paid tithes through Abraham (Heb 7:9). Even the Priests of the descendant of Levi had to pay tithe according to the Law of Moses and this Tithe of Tithes were directly offered to God as a heave offering (Num 18:25-26; Neh 10:38).This also points to Melchizedek as God Almighty Himself to whom the first tithe of Levi [tithe of tithes] was paid through Abraham. In other words the Bible is saying that the tithe that Abraham paid to Melchizedek was like Levi who was the man who produced the priestly line pay his tithe of tithes to God directly (Num 18:26).

At that time he was not even born but was in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met Abraham (Heb 7:10).

Heb 7:8 says, “Here [on earth] mortal men receive tithes, but there [where? In heaven] he [ who? Melchizedek] receives them of whom it is witnessed that he [who ? Melchizedek (Heb 7:3, “…remains a priest continually”)] lives”. From this it is very clear that Melchizedek was none other than Lord God Almighty [(i.e.) God the Father].

The Heavenly High Priest

The Heavenly High Priest of the New Testament
By Abraham Israel

In the Old Testament period, there was this earthly tabernacle which was established by Moses according to the pattern or blue print given to Him by God, which in fact was only a copy or shadow of the original tabernacle which the Lord had already erected in Heaven (Heb 8:2,5).

Every High Priest, who was appointed, was called by God by birth, in the line of Aaron. These were the only ones who were qualified to offer both gifts and sacrifices for the sins of men in things which are directly connected to God (Heb 8:3; 5:1). If the High Priest offers a sacrifice for sins, God accepted the sacrifice because He was the one who appointed the High Priest in His own righteous terms and conditions.

This work that the High Priest did was an work of Honor because He stood as a mediator between God and men to make the God-Connection possible for those who longed for it.
Because God is Holy and the High Priest who were chosen like Aaron himself were all sinful men with the weakness of the indwelling sin (Heb 5:4, 2; Psalm 51:5; Rom 7:20), first the High Priest will cleanse his own conscience by making blood sacrifices for his own sins and then only he will be able to feel the compassion of God as a Mediator for those people who ignorantly do sins and go astray, and with that compassionate heart towards his fellow beings he will offer to God the sacrifices for them which will be accepted only then by God (Ps 51:17; Matt 7:1-6).

With that compassionate heart towards his fellow-beings, he becomes qualified to be a mediator for man in things pertaining to God (Heb 5:1-3). Since the High Priest suffers because he himself is also subjected to weakness [torment (or) strong desire (or) urge to sin] which God hates and that which he [the High Priest] will also hate, he will be able to have compassion on his kindred people because of a kindred spirit.

The High Priest needs to get cleansed first, with out it he will die the movement he enters the holy of holies, and he will die because of judgment for sin. God cannot tolerate sin (Heb 9:6, 7). God hates sin because it destroys man. This was during the Old Testament times when the old tabernacle stood and they had relationship with God based on the Old Covenant [i.e. the Law of Moses], when the earthly temple was still existing in Israel.

In the New Testament, one of the central theme of the covenant is the High-priesthood of Jesus Christ. The tabernacle during the time of Moses was just a copy and shadow of the original tabernacle in heaven (8:3; 5:5). For the tabernacle in heaven, because it was beyond the time-space boundary, a High Priest who is beyond time-space and who will see no death was needed. Jesus was appointed as the High Priest of the eternal tabernacle in heaven because he was tempted in all things just like any other human being, but he did no sin as the perfect man who over came sin by raising up from the dead. Hence He sacrificed His own body as the one perfect sacrifice to God for the sins of all mankind and entered in to the heavenly tabernacle with his very own blood and started ministering on behalf of those who come to Him confessing their sins.

In the Old Testament the High Priest offered blood sacrifice for themselves and then for the sins of the people. But because Christ was tempted in every thing as us, but yet did no sin and was found perfect as the spotless lamb by God, He sacrificed himself for the sins of us all because “….with out shedding of blood there is no remission [forgiveness of sins].” (Heb 9:22).

He is the one ultimate sacrifice for all the sins of humankind forever (10:12). Now God no longer needs any more sacrifice because Jesus Christ rose up from the dead and has sat down at the right hand of God as the mediator of the new covenant (1 Tim 2:5). He became a perfect man to redeem us from the clutches of evil, now we can be free by accepting, by faith, what Christ has done for us on the cross.

In those days they used to go to the High Priest with a gift and then would confess all their wrong doings to Him that they did by ignorance and weakness of the flesh [not willfully done]. Then the High Priest would sacrifice the gift [i.e. lamb, goat, bull or dove] and then God would forgive their sins.

Now in the New Testament, by faith we need to appropriate Jesus Christ as that sacrificial lamb of God and because of it, we can draw near to God by His Spirit in to the heavenly tabernacle which is in heaven. And the only sacrifice that we can now sacrifice is to praise Jesus and give thanks to Him for what He has done for us on the cross (Heb 13:15).

Now forgiveness is through agreeing and acknowledging what Jesus had done for us and confessing to God about your faith in Jesus. With out repentance there can be no forgiveness of sins and with out confession there can be no cleansing of the conscience from your sins (Heb 3:1).

No matter what the religion of the people are, if a person is a theist he needs the ministry of the High Priesthood of Jesus for the forgiveness and cleansing of his sins, so that he can experience the goodness of the Lord. This is why Jesus said “I am the [only] way.”(John 14:6).

We need to keep on confessing our weakness to the High Priest [Jesus Christ] (4:14) and appropriate the strength of God through Him. His priesthood is of Melchizedek [i.e. the eternal High Priesthood].

The significance of Christ’s High Priestly ministry to the individual believer and to the church is,

To the Believer:

(i) He intercedes for us so that we will be able to keep our faith in Him till we die (Heb 7:25, 26). He will save us to the uttermost because He continues forever as High Priest, not prevented by death from continuing (Heb 7:23-25).

(ii) He empowers and indwells in us by His good Spirit (Rom 8:9-12).

(iii) He sympathizes as a High Priest for the believers who are ignorant and going astray, since He Himself went through all the difficulties when he came or visited this earth 2000 years ago (Heb 5:2). He is having such a compassionate heart that he is moved when we go through all the difficulties.

(iv) He will manifest his life and glory as every believer yields his life. Right now He is manifesting through many saints (2 Cor 5:7). As a result of it, we are transformed from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18).

(v) He is fellowshipping with the believers (1 John 1:3).

(vi) He is in communication with the Father on behalf of us. As the Bible says, “…Who [Jesus Christ] also makes intercession for us.” To intercede is to speak on behalf of someone. Jesus is speaking to the Father on behalf of us to bless our life continuously (1 John 2:1).

(vii) He is preparing a place [mansions] for the believers to dwell in heaven (John 14:1-3).

To the Church:

(i) He acts as the head and guardian for the whole body of Christ (Eph 1:19-23; Heb 13:20).

(ii) He acts as the chief corner stone for the whole building [i.e. the Body of Christ] (1 Cor 3:11-15; 1 Pet 2:4-8).

(iii) He is preparing the bride to be with out spot for the rapture of the church (Eph 5:27). A Glorious church is made for His visitation.

(iv) He is giving gifts to men [gifted men] to the body and empowering people.

(v) He is baptizing the members of the Body in a corporate manner (Matt 3:11). He is also baptizing everybody individually with the Holy Spirit and Fire.

Sons of God

Sons of God
By Abraham Israel

The old or the sinful nature was inherited from the first man [Adam] before we were born again. Salvation is a gift of God. While He ascended He gave gifts to men. He took captivity [Sheol] captive (Romans 6:18).

They [i.e. all the souls of Old Testament saints] were not able to enter heaven because they did not yet receive salvation or the nature of God which is the new man that is perfectly righteous made in the image of God. So only the Gospel was preached to those spirits in prison, including all those [i.e. disobedient saints] who died during Noah’s flood time (Eph 4:9-10; 4:24; 1 Peter 3:20; 4:6), that they might live according to God in the spirit [which is the new man that is born again] (1 Peter 4:6).

Without Holiness no man will see God (Heb 12:14). So only David also spoke about his soul being in Sheol [The abode of the dead] and his confidence in the Messiah that ‘He will not leave David’s soul in sheol.’(Psalm 16:10).

In the flesh how were they judged? According to Romans 6:23, they all died physically [This was the wages of sin], But the Gift of God [i.e. free gift of salvation] they received is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Even in Luke 16:22, the Bible speaks about Lazarus carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom where people were comforted and rich man was tormented in the flame and a gulf existed between them. This was Sheol.

Even to the criminal who was crucified when he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come in to your kingdom”. Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I say unto you, today you will be with me in paradise.” He was speaking about the abode of the dead as paradise because first He descended in to the lower parts of the earth (Eph 4:9) and then He ascended far above all heavens, that “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow,…of those under the earth.” (Philippians 2:10).

The Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, is His Kingdom that was coming upon those in heaven and those in earth and those under the earth that He might fill all things (Mark 14:62). Jesus preached the Gospel to the spirits in prison before His resurrection, So only when He rose from the grave, many of the Old Testament saints also rose from their graves and were seen by many in Jerusalem (Isaiah 26:19 ; Matt 27: 52-53; 28:2).
“by whom [the Spirit] also He ((Jesus) Christ ) went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, While the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight souls were saved through water.” (1 Peter 3:19-20).

Who were these people for whom God waited in the days of Noah who were formerly disobedient?
These were the Godly people whom God separated, to bring out the Messiah at the right time. They themselves were expecting God to send the redeemer [Messiah] who will restore their life from sin and will restore the fellowship with God as before the fall of man. So only Lamech named or gave the name Noah to him when he was born, Lamech himself expected rest from the curse of the ground. So he named him Noah which means rest (1 Peter 3:19, 20; Genesis 5:28-29).

After Lamech begot Noah, he lived 595 years and had many sons and daughters. Totally he lived 777 years and he died. This is a number of perfection which symbolically shows that he produced a line of people whom God considered perfect by separating them for himself. These people were God fearing line of people who lived during that period of time. This is the reason God had differentiated the line of Cain from the line of Adam’s God fearing line in chapter 4 and 5 of Genesis. Noah was 500 years old when he begot Shem, Ham and Japheth and they married and had God fearing wives and they lived along with the Noah and his wife.

Now how many of them were truly God fearing [i.e. Obedient to the voice of God by their life styles]? Eight.

How God considered them God fearing? The answer starts when God starts to separate and define these people at the end of 4th chapter of Genesis. “…Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.” (Gen 4:26). It all started with the new son Seth which means appointed in the literal Hebrew, who was born to Eve instead of Abel [Which means Breath or Nothing] when Adam knew his wife again. This was the place where God appointed a people of Faith. After this Seth begot a son named Enosh. As the Bible says from there on this Godly generation began to call on the name of the Lord.

The Bible says in Genesis 6:1, “…When men [Unbelievers or ungodly immoral people] began to multiply….”. In verse 2, “…the sons of God [God fearing obedient men] saw the daughters of men [Unbelievers], that they were beautiful; …”. In the Bible Adam is called as the son of God to denote his direct relationship with God and him being in the image and likeness of God (Luke 3:38; Genesis 1:26-27; 5:1-4). Naturally these sons of God must be the God fearing descendants of Adam.

The God fearing people did two great mistakes,

(i) They took wives for themselves from unbelievers. [Note: The plurality of the language (wives not wife)]

(ii) They chose all those women based on their own will apart from the will of God. [There was no covenant commitment and monogamy (Luke17:26-27)].

In Gen 6:3, in other words God said, ‘I will not compel them to obey, by My Spirit, to do things the right way, So that they will not be destroyed with unbelievers.’

The Bible says in Gen 6:4, “There were giants [Heb.Nephilim, fallen or mighty ones] in those days…”. When the believers and unbelievers got mixed up, their children were the mighty men [violent men] who were of old, men of renown. Here the word nephilim in Hebrew was the same word which was used for giant size strong men who lived in Canaan’s land (Num 13:32, 33). Does that mean that angels were having relationship with women to produce these men in Canaan’s land? No! Not at all. But in context in the next word, “Then the Lord saw….that the intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5).

God was not concerned about their size but God saw the intent of the thoughts of man. That means because of an unholy alliance between God-fearing obedient people and line of Cain or ungodly violent people, man has corrupted himself and everyone had got mixed up except one man where the filtered Godly genealogy stops and God said “it is time for judgment because the earth was filled with violence through them.” (Genesis 4: 9, 13). Besides this evidence, Jesus Himself has told in Matthew 22:30, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels [which includes fallen and the good angels (Job 1:6,12;1 Samuel 19:9;1 Kings 22:19-23;Luke 1:19)] of God in heaven.” In other words, Jesus has plainly said angels cannot procreate by having intercourse like humans. What more evidence we need, to say that the Sons of God were just human beings in Noah’s time and not angels.

Comparing the 4th and 3rd verse of Genesis 6, We can easily say that the genetics of man was so blessed even after he got cursed in Eden, he was so strong that he lived for hundred’s of years. God specially has given the lifespan of the genealogy of Noah to emphasize that they were strong and extraordinarily healthy. When they got mixed up, they produced men with such blessings that they were giants on earth and afterward these men who were mighty in strength, size and men of renown who had special skill and intelligence. By that time, the devil have started to use the blessings of God to fill the earth with violence. Because these Godly people did not obey the voice and promptings of the Spirit of God, He cannot let these disobedient people to be used by the devil, So God shortened their lifespan so that they will not fill the earth with violence.

In spite of God shortening their lifespan they began to multiply and fill the earth. But the problem is because of their disobedience their heart was filled with violence and through them in all the earth. In other words the earth was becoming a living hell. This state of the earth pushed God to judge the earth.

Prophecy

Prophecy

By Abraham Israel

Some people say that tongues and prophecy is not for now because they say that the Bible says that prophecies will fail and tongues will cease. We should see what the Bible has to say to them?

Those people who mostly reason like this are those who must have been taught not to believe those who speak in tongues and prophecy. Most of these people are prejudiced because they don’t read the Bible like children with an open eager mind to learn the word of God (Luke 10:21;Matt 11:25). So these people must open their Bible and see in 1Cor 13:8,that it not only speaks about prophecy and tongues, But also it continues to speak about knowledge. It also says that knowledge will vanish away. Does that mean that knowledge is not for now and is not needed, that is the reason I said that people are prejudiced when they look through their cluttered mindset.

If we take in context in verse 9 the Bible says that, “ We know in part and prophecy in part.”, that is why even though a mature prophet prophesies, he can only prophecy up to 99.99% exact word of the Lord as His mouth piece. There is always a chance of 0.01% error because it comes through a human vessel which is not 100% perfect but is being made perfect day by day. That is why in the next verse 10 the Bible says, “But when that which is perfect or complete is come [Here Paul is speaking about the perfection of heaven and God Himself who is love (1John 4:8)], then that [prophecies through which we lived by faith in this earth] which is in part will be done away [because we will be in heaven by then].” (1Cor 13:10).

This is why there is always a chance of prophecy failing to come to pass because as long as we live in this imperfect world, as a imperfect human vessel we cannot see and know God perfectly (Exodus 33:18-20). Because God is Love and is perfect, His Love is perfect, which is the being of God Himself who is in Heaven. Love cannot fail because God cannot fail. That is the reason when He is revealed we know that we shall be like Him in everything, He will only be fully revealed when we shall see Him as He is when we go to heaven or in the rapture (1John 3:2).

The same is true with tongues which will continue as long as we are in this earth, when we go to heaven it will cease (1Cor 13:8). The moment you enter heaven you don’t need tongues anymore because there will be a common language spoken in heaven. So it will cease because you don’t need tongues to speak to God, man or even angels. Because then I shall know as I also am known (1 Cor 13:12). This is also the reason why acquired knowledge will vanish away because the perfect knowledge of heaven will have come to you by then. So that there will be no need of your limited acquired knowledge of earth.

God and His love now we see dimly, but then in heaven we will see God and His love face to face. If Love is not a person, why does the Bible say we will see Him face to face. Overall if we have all the Gifts that God gives and have not God, it will never profit us anything because first of all we will never make it to heaven with out God. And even in this life we will only live a life of emptiness with out God. So only it is more important to abide in his love than to operate in all the gifts that God has given us to use it for His Glory (1Cor 13:13). Pursue love (2Tim 2:22). Walk in love (Eph 5:2).

To use the gift with out having intimacy with the giver is a sign of childishness, So put away this childishness (1Cor 13:11). A mature man will not only be thankful and develop friendship with the giver, but will value the giver more than the gift because he knows that He is the source. Love is the greatest of faith, hope and love because Love is the person of God Himself, not just one of His attributes.

What importance did prophecy as a gift was in the early church and in the life of Apostle Paul who wrote nearly one third of the whole of New Testament?
Some people who down-play the importance of prophecy should turn to the Bible and must learn from the Bible the importance of prophecy in the life of church and a person. These people who say that they don’t believe in prophetic utterance mostly must have never ever encountered God in the prophetic realm (or) even after seeing the works of God must have been bound by their tradition, which have made the word of God powerless in their life because of their unbelief (Mark 7:13).

Even Apostle Paul was living a zealous religious life downplaying all that the church stood for in his times (1Tim 1:13).But even in his unbelief he was seeking God honestly, that is the reason God met Paul’s heart cry (Acts 9:1-9;1Tim 1:13). His was a life that began with a prophetic encounter with God and a prophetic disciple named Ananias (Acts 9:6,17). Here when Paul met Jesus, Jesus did not reveal His plan for Paul’s life directly, but He directed Him to the city, So that he can kick-start his ministry life through the solid prophetic words which will be given to him. Such is the importance of prophetic word in the sight of Jesus that he not only sent Ananias to release the prophetic word, but at the other end as Saul was earnestly seeking God for further revelation, God showed in a vision about a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him and Paul getting healed.

Jesus revealed it to Paul so that he can believingly receive the prophetic word and encounter. Seeking God earnestly and receiving the word of prophecy with faith are the most essential way for prophecy to take root in one’s life. When we are honest seekers, this is the way God will conform the prophetic word even before you receive it (Acts 9:17). From the word of God expounded above we can clearly see that Paul’s very conversion and ministry life was started or built up based on the prophetic encounters and prophetic words. We should note that once he received the prophetic word with faith immediately the anointing to preach the word got stirred up in his being and he started preaching straightaway (Acts 9:17-18,20-22).This is what can happen to anybody, if only they will receive any genuine prophetic word with faith. It will immediately activate the gift which is hidden in them.

If prophecies are not very essential for establishing a strong church why does Paul say in 1Cor 14:3-5, “…he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men….he who prophesies edifies the church. I wish you all spoke with tongues for [personal edification], but even more that you prophesied [because the church will be edified]….” In our present times most of the churches are weak and powerless because of the lack of prophetic edification unlike the 1st century churches. Paul in the above verse went even to the point of wishing or desiring and dreaming of more prophetic people to edify the church, even though the Corinthian church were abounding and flowing in gifts more than all the other churches without understanding the purpose of each gifts.

If we ask the question why Apostle Paul was so desirous of the prophetic flow of the Spirit in the Church, it is because the prophetic teaching will bring the mind of Christ to be directly revealed to the church in the now realm, which is the faith realm (1 Cor 2:10-16; Rom 12:6). Prophecy causes the mind of Christ to be manifested collectively to the church. On the other hand, praying in tongues causes the mind of Christ to be manifested in you individually. For the Holy Spirit will begin to take the mysteries you’ve been praying before the throne of God and communicates them back to you by revelation. That’s why you edify yourself when you pray in tongues! (1Cor 14:2). Unless a person grows in self-edification continuously, he will not be able to edify the church collectively. That’s why a person who leads the church can take the church only as far as he himself has grown (1 Cor 14:18).

Paul literally spoke in tongues more than all the Corinthian church members personally, that is why he taught prophetically with great edification and authority collectively (1 Cor 14:18-19; 9:1-2; 4:17). Paul started as a preacher and as he went deeper and deeper in to the prophetic scriptural revelation, he became a cutting-edge prophetic teacher (Rom 16:25-26; Acts 13:1; Galatians 1:11-12).

When the prophets come to a church that is thirsting after the Prophetic Dimension, impartation happens instantly in to the church to make it a prophetic church (Acts 11:27-28; 13:1-2). The prophetic aspect in a church collectively or individually will manifest only if everybody will desire after it intently like Apostle Paul did with his whole heart (1 Cor 14:39).

Paul himself was not only a teacher but also a prophet, that is why he laid his hands over Timothy and gave him personal prophecy concerning the gifts that he had and about his future ministry and ordained him along with the other prophetic elders. He instructed Timothy to wage the good warfare by faith and good conscience, according to the prophecies made concerning him previously. He also instructed him to stir up the gift of God [i.e. The Holy Spirit] which was in him, given through the laying on of Paul’s hands (1Tim 1:18-19; 4:14-16; 2Tim 1:6).

If prophecy is not so important as some people say these days, why should Apostle Paul instruct his spiritual son whom he loved so much to wage a good warfare through the prophecies given to him, and in turn stir up the gift of God which was in him given through him and a team of prophetic elders, while he wrote to Timothy in his personal heart to heart apostolic letter (1 Tim 1:2, 18-19; 2 Tim 1:2, 6; 4:6-8).

From the above clear and accurate exposition we should understand that not only the destiny of individuals but also destiny of churches depends on the effective warfare that the man of God wages for his life and for his church (1 Cor 11:28; Eph 1:15-18). That is why we need the church to be more prophetic in order to be effective!

Guarantee of the New Covenant

Jesus the Guarantee of the New Covenant
By Abraham Israel

The Bible says “…Jesus has become the surety [guarantee] of a better covenant.” (Heb 7:22). The Greek word ‘diatheke’ is used for the English word ‘covenant’ in the New Testament.

This ‘diatheke’ means ‘one sided covenant’. While one person gives, the other has nothing to give. Here in the New Testament God reached out to man and God in Christ fulfilled all that is needed to fulfill the covenant. Christ gave to us all that He had, while we give to Him nothing but our debt. This has tremendous significance in the New Testament. Jesus Christ became the mediator between God and man and he fulfilled all the requirement of the law. He is the only sinless person who ever lived a perfect life with out sin in Him. As God He could not die, so He became the son of man to take upon Himself all the sin of the world, to go through all the punishment through death on the cross in the kingdom of darkness.

Finally because He paid it all for us, He had become the advocate for us right now. We can go to Him confidently and He will speak on behalf of us to the Father. We have a requirement to do in this covenant, that is to confess to Him our wrong doings with regret or sorrow [giving our debts], if we do not do this, we cannot receive His goodness or grace in our life.

Jesus is right now interceding to the Father God sitting at His right Hand, this is His profession now. He is not only interceding for the sinners [for sinner’s salvation] (1 Tim 2:1, 3-4; John 17:20), but the Bible says in Rom 8:31-33, “He is interceding” for “God’s elect”. Just after these verses or in the succeeding verses, the Bible speaks about enemy’s condemnation, trials, perils, tribulations, etc… The reason the word of God expresses it is because Satan will try to accuse and condemn them and will try to make them depressed all the time.

Jesus understands that the new believer will still be activated by the old impulses to sin, so when the time of temptation comes, the new believer may easily fall in to temptation by not being able to resist it. For this reason God in Christ became a man and went through all the temptations in his body, so that He could be sympathetic and compassionate towards his fellow brothers and sisters with a kindred spirit. When they are tempted, He helps them by interceding for them.

A new believer may think that he has backslidden because he is sinning and may not have understood that because of the weaknesses of the flesh that He is doing it. He may even consider himself not to be a true son. So come to Jesus with Boldness to receive His goodness. When Satan accuses you, say to him right in his face ‘I am who Jesus says I am, I live by His word and He is my master, you have no authority over me. From Him I receive strength to live this life and He has redeemed me by His Blood.’

So Jesus is our intercessor and Jesus is our advocate. Who can condemn us and take us away from His Love? It is He who justifies us. So only Jesus said to the believers like us, “And I give to you eternal life, and you shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch you out of My hand….no on is able to snatch you out of my Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.” (John 10:28-30).The new covenant is a better covenant because we have Jesus as our surety. Heb 7:22 clearly speaks about this. Jesus is the one who paid the price for us to be redeemed. Jesus is the guarantor of this covenant which He initiated with God through His very own Blood for us. It is a better covenant because we cannot fulfill anything in this new covenant, but only we have to give our huge debt and weakness to Him in order to receive His grace and goodness from Him. In the new covenant we don’t have to bother about the covenant getting broken by our disobedience.

Jesus is our everything! Praise the Lord! No one is able to condemn us in the new covenant and the devil is already defeated and the war has been won by Him. We by faith take whatever is of Him and we stand based on it as our own. Praise the Lord!

Let us see what the meaning of guarantee and guarantor is.

guarantee verb [T]
If something is guaranteed to happen or have a particular result, it is certain that it will happen or have that result, If you guarantee someone’s debt, you formally promise to accept the responsibility for that debt if the person fails to pay it.

guarantor noun [C]
1 FORMAL a person who makes certain that something happens or that something is protected, 2 LEGAL someone who formally accepts responsibility for you or for something that belongs to you: You must have a guarantor in order to get a visa to enter the country.

diatheke primarily signifies “a disposition of property by will or otherwise.” In its use in the Sept., it is the rendering of a Hebrew word meaning a “covenant” or agreement (from a verb signifying “to cut or divide,” in allusion to a sacrificial custom in connection with “covenant-making,” e.g., Gen_15:10, “divided” Jer_34:18,19). In contradistinction to the English word “covenant” (lit., “a coming together”), which signifies a mutual undertaking between two parties or more, each binding himself to fulfill obligations, it does not in itself contain the idea of joint obligation, it mostly signifies an obligation undertaken by a single person. For instance, in Gal_3:17 it is used as an alternative to a “promise” (Gal_3:16-18). God enjoined upon Abraham the rite of circumcision, but His promise to Abraham, here called a “covenant,” was not conditional upon the observance of circumcision, though a penalty attached to its nonobservance.

“The NT uses of the word may be analyzed as follows: (a) a promise or undertaking, human or Divine, Gal_3:15; (b) a promise or undertaking on the part of God, Luke_1:72; Acts_3:25; Rom_9:4; Rom_11:27; Gal_3:17; Eph_2:12; Heb_7:22; Heb_8:6,8,10; Heb_10:16; (c) an agreement, a mutual undertaking, between God and Israel, see Deut_29; Deut_30 (described as a ‘commandment,’ Heb_7:18, cp. Heb_7:22); Heb_8:9; Heb_9:20; (d) by metonymy, the token of the covenant, or promise, made to Abraham, Acts_7:8; (e) by metonymy, the record of the covenant, 2_Cor_3:14; Heb_9:4; cp. Rev_11:19; (f) the basis, established by the death of Christ, on which the salvation of men is secured, Matt_26:28; Mark_14:24; Luke_22:20; 1_Cor_11:25; 2_Cor_3:6; Heb_10:29; Heb_12:24; Heb_13:20.
“This covenant is called the ‘new,’ Heb_9:15, the ’second,’ Heb_8:7, the ‘better,’ Heb_7:22. In Heb_9:16,17, the translation is much disputed. There does not seem to be any sufficient reason for departing in these verses from the word used everywhere else. The English word ‘Testament’ is taken from the titles prefixed to the Latin Versions.” [ From Notes on Galations by Hogg and Vine, p.144.] See TESTAMENT.

Covenant – a contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. Berith is derived from a root which means “to cut,” and hence a covenant is a “cutting,” with reference to the cutting or dividing of animals into two parts, and the contracting parties passing between them, in making a covenant (Gen_15; Jer_34:18,19).

The corresponding word in the New Testament Greek is diatheke, which is, however, rendered “testament” generally in the Authorized Version. It ought to be rendered, just as the word berith of the Old Testament, “covenant.”

This word is used of a covenant or compact between man and man (Gen_21:32), or between tribes or nations (1_Sam_11:1; Josh_9:6,15). In entering into a convenant, Jehovah was solemnly called on to witness the transaction (Gen_31:50), and hence it was called a “covenant of the Lord” (1_Sam_20:8). The marriage compact is called “the covenant of God” (Prov_2:17), because the marriage was made in God’s name. Wicked men are spoken of as acting as if they had made a “covenant with death” not to destroy them, or with hell not to devour them (Isaiah_28:15,18).

The word is used with reference to God’s revelation of himself in the way of promise or of favour to men. Thus God’s promise to Noah after the Flood is called a covenant (Gen_9; Jer_33:20, “my covenant”). We have an account of God’s covernant with Abraham (Gen_17, comp. Lev_26:42), of the covenant of the priesthood (Num_25:12,13; Deut_33:9; Neh_13:29), and of the covenant of Sinai (Ex_34:27,28; Lev_26:15), which was afterwards renewed at different times in the history of Israel (Deut_29; Josh_1:24; 2_Chron_15; 2_Chron_23; 2_Chron_29; 2_Chron_34; Ezra_10; Neh_9). In conformity with human custom, God’s covenant is said to be confirmed with an oath (Deut_4:31; Psalm_89:3), and to be accompanied by a sign (Gen_9; Gen_17). Hence the covenant is called God’s “counsel,” “oath,” “promise” (Psalm_89:3,4; Psalm_105:8-11; Heb_6:13-20; Luke_1:68-75). God’s covenant consists wholly in the bestowal of blessing (Isaiah_59:21; Jer_31:33,34).

The term covenant is also used to designate the regular succession of day and night (Jer_33:20), the Sabbath (Ex_31:16), circumcision (Gen_17:9,10), and in general any ordinance of God (Jer_34:13,14).

A “covenant of salt” signifies an everlasting covenant, in the sealing or ratifying of which salt, as an emblem of perpetuity, is used (Num_18:19; Lev_2:13; 2_Chron_13:5).

COVENANT OF WORKS, the constitution under which Adam was placed at his creation. In this covenant,
The contracting parties were (a) God the moral Governor, and (b) Adam, a free moral agent, and representative of all his natural posterity (Rom_5:12-19).
The promise was “life” (Matt_19:16,17; Gal_3:12).
The condition was perfect obedience to the law, the test in this case being abstaining from eating the fruit of the “tree of knowledge,” etc.
The penalty was death (Gen_2:16,17).
This covenant is also called a covenant of nature, as made with man in his natural or unfallen state; a covenant of life, because “life” was the promise attached to obedience; and a legal covenant, because it demanded perfect obedience to the law.
The “tree of life” was the outward sign and seal of that life which was promised in the covenant, and hence it is usually called the seal of that covenant.

This covenant is abrogated under the gospel, inasmuch as Christ has fulfilled all its conditions in behalf of his people, and now offers salvation on the condition of faith. It is still in force, however, as it rests on the immutable justice of God, and is binding on all who have not fled to Christ and accepted his righteousness.

CONVENANT OF GRACE, the eternal plan of redemption entered into by the three persons of the Godhead, and carried out by them in its several parts. In it the Father represented the Godhead in its indivisible sovereignty, and the Son his people as their surety (John_17:4,6,9; Isaiah_42:6; Psalm_89:3).

The conditions of this covenant were, On the part of the Father (a) all needful preparation to the Son for the accomplishment of his work (Heb_10:5; Isaiah_42:1-7); (b) support in the work (Luke_22:43); and (c) a glorious reward in the exaltation of Christ when his work was done (Php_2:6-11), his investiture with universal dominion (John_5:22; Psalm_110:1), his having the administration of the covenant committed into his hands (Matt_28:18; John_1:12; John_17:2; Acts_2:33), and in the final salvation of all his people (Isaiah_35:10; Isaiah_53:10,11; Jer_31:33; Titus_1:2).

On the part of the Son the conditions were (a) his becoming incarnate (Gal_4:4,5); and (b) as the second Adam his representing all his people, assuming their place and undertaking all their obligations under the violated covenant of works; (c) obeying the law (Psalm_40:8; Isaiah_42:21; John_9:4,5), and (d) suffering its penalty (Isaiah_53; 2_Cor_5:21; Gal_3:13), in their stead.

Christ, the mediator of, fulfils all its conditions in behalf of his people, and dispenses to them all its blessings. In Heb_8:6; Heb_9:15; Heb_12:24, this title is given to Christ. (See DISPENSATION.)

Greater than the Greatest!

Greater Than the Greatest of the O.T Prophets

By Abraham Israel

Jesus came to this earth in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:4), that by Him every one who believes is justified from all things (Acts 13:39). The Spirit of God can dwell in you as His temple because of the Divine Exchange that has taken place on your behalf. He himself became a curse and sin for you that you might become the very righteousness of God in the inner man (Eph 4:24; 1 Cor 6:17, 20; 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16; Galatians 3:13-14; 2 Cor 5:21).

If you had not become the righteousness of God, the Holy Spirit could not reside in you. This is the reason Jesus said that “…Among those born of woman there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist…” (Matt 11:11). If we ask the question why Jesus said this? It is because in the O.T period there has not been anyone filled with the Holy Spirit, right from the womb of one’s mother except John the Baptist who was the last and the greatest prophet of the Old Testament (Luke 1:15; Matt 11:13). But the first person with whom God Himself was with and was conceived by the Holy Spirit of God who dwelt in Him and the first person for God to dwell in human flesh after the first Adam before the fall (Matt 1:18, 20; Luke 1:31-32, 35; 3:38) was Jesus who is for that reason is called the Last Adam and the second man (1 Cor 15:45-49). He grew up as a man child and became strong in the spirit man and because of that growth was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him (Luke 2:40). In other words as much as he hit the inner spirit man with the word of God, He grew tremendously in wisdom and began to realize His identity of who He was. Even when He was twelve years old Boy, He knew who He was and where He has come from and what was the mission that is ahead for Him to fulfill. He thirsted after the word of God and the temple of God. All who heard Him speak were astonished at His understanding and answers. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men implying that He grew up as a perfect man subject to His parents (Luke 2:42-52).

Many people who have no understanding of the Word of God say, because God the Father called Jesus as His Son, He is made and has a beginning. To that the Word of God clearly shows that God the Father even before Jesus came in to this world in eternity past told to Jesus how His future relationship with Him will be after His incarnation as a God-man. The Bible gives a explanation for that issue in Heb 1:5 where God the Father spoke to God the Son during eternity past discussing the issue by saying, “You are My Son, Today [the day of His incarnation before 2000 years] I have begotten you”? And again: “I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son”?. The Second part is spoken to the Holy Spirit of how their relationship should be patterned after in the earthly realm. God the Father did not say, ‘I am to Him a Father, and He is my Son.”. If He had said like that it would have shown that He was born in to the world like any other man on this planet earth. But the very fact that God spoke in present continuous tense by saying “I will be….and He shall be…..” shows that Jesus was God in the eternity past before He incarnated to become a man. The phrase Father and the Son is used as a title in anthropomorphic [having human form or qualities, Anthropo means like or concerning human being] earthly representation.

And also the other evidence in the same chapter 1 of Hebrews Verse 8, God the Father says to the Son, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever…”. If Jesus was not present in the eternity past, How can God the Father call Jesus Christ the Son, as God? This is a undeniable evidence that Jesus had been there in the eternity past, where in the round table discussion of the blue print for planet earth was being prepared by the God head. This was actually a revelation that came to David about the God the Son (Ps 45:6). David by divine revelation understood what had happened before the foundation of the world in the heaven during eternity past (1 Peter 1:20).
The God who became man and dwelt in the planet earth as a perfect man along with men was Jesus (Matt 1:23). The Bible says in Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given….” From this verse we can understand that the child was born as a baby in the manger but inside the baby was the very Son of God who was given from heaven by God to this mankind. In other words God prepared a body for the Son from heaven to dwell in this earth and He sent Jesus with a mission to redeem man (Heb 10:5; 1 Cor 15:47; John 3:13, 17). God did not tell Mary you shall bear or produce a Son, but He told to Mary ‘you shall bring forth [from which place? from heaven] a Son’. And that God the Son who had incarnated as a baby was told to be called as Jesus (Luke 1:31). God the Son not only has visited the planet earth in human form but He opened a channel to God through His flesh ascending in to the very presence of God who is in heaven to bring it [presence of God] in to the very flesh [physical body] of every human being who believes Him (Heb 10:20; 9:24; 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16-18).

The moment we believe in Jesus who himself is the embodiment of the word of God and who is God (John 1:1-5), the very seed or sperm of God gets implanted in your spirit man (James 1:21) and your inner spirit man is born newly in the very image of the righteousness of God from heaven (John 3:3, 5; Eph 4:24). This baby spirit that is born newly will be connected to God the Spirit (1 Cor 6:17). From this time onward you will be able to receive, understand and be nourished by the spiritual message as from a mother to a baby and you are born in to God’s family (1 Peter 2:2-3; Eph 3:14-15). But just like a baby desires and craves for pure milk, if you desire the word of God and be fed with it, day by day you will be strengthened to grow and become mature until you become His sons and daughters (Eph 3:16; Rom 8:14). When you have grown up and are in the stature of His sons, you will be able to take solid food and not only digest it, but you will be able to cook it yourself to supply it to others (Heb 5:12-14). In other words you will be able to digest in-depth spiritual messages from God and will be able to supply it to others as a mature son of God.

Such kind of in-depth spiritual messages cannot be given to babies, toddlers, children or even teenagers. It will cause indigestion to them (Heb 5:11; 1 Cor 3:1-4). At least teenagers will be able to understand at least half of it or more. These are the various levels of spiritual growth to Adulthood.

As a mother feeds and comforts a baby with milk to grow, the Holy Spirit will feed you and will comfort you (Isaiah 66:13; 51:12; John 14:17; 15:26; 16:7). Only the child will recognize his/her mothers love. Like a mother teaches a young child, the Holy Spirit will teach you (Heb 12:3-11; 1 John 2:20, 27; John 14:26). As a mother guides a child in to the truth, the Holy Spirit will guide you (John 16:13-15). Only a parent who knows about your past can tell you about your future, like that the Holy Spirit will tell you of things to come (John 16:13). These are all the privilege of the New Covenant. This is the reason why Jesus said, “… he who is the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he [John the Baptist]” (Matt 11:11). Surely we as the child, sons and daughters of God are greater than the greatest of all the Old Testament prophet who is John the Baptist because the Holy Spirit dwells in us forever (Heb 13:5-6).

Jesus assuredly said, “Among those born of women [any man born in the flesh- it stands even till today] there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he [you] who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he [John the Baptist].” (Matt 11:11). This is because the new spirit man that was born inside you, when you first repented and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:5-6; Acts 16:30-31; 2 Cor 5:17; Ezek 18:30-32; 36:25-27; Titus 3:5-7 ->[regeneration – to make something develop and grow strong again; renew – the process of bringing something new]), this new spirit man’s very conception is by the Holy Spirit.

Just like that which was conceived in Mary [i.e. Jesus] is of the Holy Spirit (Matt 1:20), in the same way, that new spirit man which was conceived when we were born again is of the Holy Spirit. So only the Bible says “…the spirits of just men [which have been] made perfect” (Heb 12:23) and the Bible also says “…the new man which was created [when? When we were born again] according to God [is], in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:24). This is the reason we are greater than John the Baptist and are called as the sons and daughters of God (2 Cor 6:18). John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, but we who are born in the kingdom as the children of God, our very conception is of the Holy Spirit (John 1:12) and we have the indwelling Spirit of God always with us.

Those who receive the king [Jesus] are given the right to be as heirs with Him in His kingdom (Rom 8:17, 29-30). When the spirit man comes out strong and becomes separate [or else normally the spirit man in under the bondage of the soulish desires weak and feeble to rise and stand out (Heb 4:12-13)] under the Holy Spirits guidance, then truly you will be mature sons and daughters (2 Cor 6:17; Rom 8:14). The influence of the soulish man cannot co-exist with the strong spirit man, instead it [the spirit man] will rule and reign over the soulish man under the power of the Holy Spirit (Gal 4:30-31; 5:16-18). Most of the Christians live in the Spirit (Rom 8:9), but the question is do we walk [under the influence and power which is] in the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). Be a mature son, not just a child of God !

Apostle Paul said that God called him, to reveal His Son in him [what is that? To reveal the same amount or capacity of the Anointing which Jesus carried], so that Paul could preach Jesus Christ as Jesus Himself preached about the Father (Galatians 1:16; John 20:21-23; 5:17-23, 30). Once Paul understood about his calling he never approached the Apostles to lay their hands on him and transfer the Anointing as many think like that nowadays. It cannot be done like that, because it is Jesus who decides to give His Anointing to each person and He is the only person who has the Spirit without measure (John 3:34). We should seek Jesus in order to receive more of it (Matt 3:11, 12). Paul was trained by God Himself year by year as he pursued the call, so he received greater measure of the Anointing day by day (Galatians 1:15-17, 19, 22-24).

Anointing is precious; so it cannot be poured out on somebody to be wasted. It cannot be poured in or applied to the flesh (Luke 5:37-38; Exodus 30:31-33). Jesus will pour out more and more as your capacity to hold it in increased capacity increases [i.e. your character gets matured]. As you are set apart in character more and more, you will experience God in the Spirit more and more (Heb 1:9; 12:14; 2 Cor 3:17). There is a price to pay to experience this Anointing, but as a child of God everybody is privileged to receive it more and more. This price is to gladly pass through the chastening hand of the Lord in our life and willing to be corrected and punish all disobedience when our obedience is fulfilled (Heb 12:7-11; 1:8, 9; 2 Cor 10:6).

We should be in an attitude of not despising the chastening or discipline of the Lord. At the same time we should not get discouraged when we are rebuked by Him. The Lord lovingly chastens and receives those He scourges [He hears the prayer of this son] (Heb 12:5-6). Jesus Himself is our example to see and grow in this sonship of God that has been given to us as a gift (Heb 12:2-4; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:44). Because we have been adopted as sons, as a result of it the Spirit of God who has resided in our spirit cries out “Abba, Father!” In other words the Spirit of God is the guarantee that we now are the sons, and as a result we become the person who has legal right to receive His property as God’s sons and daughters through Christ (Galatians 4:5-7; 2 Cor 5:5; Rom 8:14-17).

The more we go through suffering, the more we will be glorified with Christ with the same anointing now in this life itself (Rom 8:17; Phil 3:10-11; 2 Cor 5:4).

The apostles are those who are trained in this capacity and they will hold the Anointing of God overflowing in this measure (Eph 4:13), so that they will pray and work towards seeing mature sons with the same capacity of Anointing. They will not cease till they see them before their very eyes (Galatians 4:19; Eph 2:20; 3:5-7; I Cor 3:10-11; Luke 11:49).

In Galatians 4:19 Paul is not speaking about bringing people into salvation [i.e. to be born again], but he is speaking about forming Christ [i.e. developing in them the Anointed one’s Anointing capacity]. The same capacity is attainable because Jesus promised it (Luke 6:40; John 14:12). First be established in the foundation of the apostolic doctrines, and then build your capacity on it as high as possible, as large as possible and as long as possible (Acts 2:42-43; Rom 8:31-39). So when the storms of life come to hit you, you will not be moved, you will stay as strong as the Rock on which you have built yourself (Matt 7:24-29).

Some people say with out knowing the word of God, that Apostles are not present today to build people in that capacity. But they are mistaken. In Ephesians 4:11, the Bible says “…He [Jesus] Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, building up the body of Christ (Eph 5:23; Col 1:18), till we all come… to a perfect man, to the stature of the fullness of Christ;” (Eph 4:11-13).

My question to you is if teachers, pastors and evagelists are present in the body of Christ, where are prophets and the apostles that Jesus has given to the church [Note: not just the first century church]?

First of all the list which start with apostles and ends with teachers have been given to the body of Christ, which means given to the church of all ages irrespective of the timeframes or time limitations. The answer to the question asked above is either they feel shy to be identified as apostles and prophets or the church with erroneous or limited knowledge might have rejected them and may not have identified or recognized them. It is not a wrong or proud thing to confess who you really are (2 Tim1:1). The church have not yet attained to the fullness of the stature of Christ [mature man] even in our days. As a matter of fact the apostles and prophets will lay the foundation of Jesus Christ in every one till they see it happen before their very eyes (Eph 5:26-27).