By Pastor Peter Tan
Lets look at the book of Hebrews chapter 6:5 And have tasted the goodness of the word of God and powers of the age to come. We speak about the powers of the age to come and the wonders of the things of heaven that some times in this life we glimpse at different degrees. We are on our way to heaven and it will be good to know some of the things that are in heaven. Like the Psalms say even on this earth we partake of some of heaven’s glory and benefits.
This morning we want to look at the power of life. One of the things of heaven is there is no such thing as death, decay. The things that we so commonly know on this earth will one day fade away. If you were to take a walk in the botanical garden and see all the beauty of the scenery around, yet if you observe closely you can find some flowers that have withered away. Some leaves have passed their point of usefulness to the plant and is now dropping off. You would come across death somewhere along. And we are so used to the fact that when we pick flowers from the garden and put them in a vase in your home, you will only have it last for a short time.
Marietta Davis in one of the truths of heaven in the book “Scenes Beyond the Grave,” speaks about how the children in paradise pick the flowers. And they didn’t have to put it in a vase because there is life there. There is no death. Then they brought it to one of the mansions and they just kept the flowers on the ground. And the flowers got embedded in part of the ground in the house and they remain permanently there forever and they never die. Nothing in heaven dies. There are no old people there in heaven. Nothing there shows any sign of aging. You ask, “Are there children there? Yes there are. The little infants that go to heaven they do grow and they reached what I call perfection and that’s it. They remain in perfection. If you were to see your loved ones who had gone there before, if they had died in their old wrinkled bodies, when you go there they are in their prime of their life. No sad faces in heaven. There is no death. There is no sorrow. Heaven is full of life.
We know that once upon a time God created the earth like heaven. There was no death on this earth. We need to think about heaven in heavenly terms. Don’t think about heaven in earthly terms. In Gen. 1 when God first made the heaven and the earth. Verse 3 then God said let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness. God call the light day and the darkness night. So the evening and morning were the first day. Now day No. 1 there was still no sun created. Day and night doesn’t have the same reference that we have today. Day and night in a sense of a division, darkness and light. Remember there was darkness all over the earth. The darkness came because Satan fell. Satan fell long before man was created. Then God said let there be light. The darkness was driven off. You ask, “Why is there still darkness? It is because Satan is still around.
Verse 6 God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters. God made the firmament and divided the waters, which were under the firmament from the waters, which were above the firmament, and it was so. When God first created the earth there was a canopy of waters above the earth and a canopy of waters surrounding the planet earth. In fact scientists have analyzed that there is more water than land. The land is there not because we have one third land and two third water. The land is there because the land is all clumped together and pushed up like little mountains and plateaus above the waters. If all the land were a complete circle the water will surround the earth. So there was just water and no land yet and above it there was a canopy of water. The clouds above the earth water were vapor. And above we do not know what it was like. Probably it was a canopy of glass-like kind of water. Before the flood conditions were like that. The earth was like in an air-conditioned state. If you look up it was like a big shield of glass of clouds or whatever form it was in. It was only in Noah’s time the canopy of water was broken down. So today we talk about the ozone layer and the ozone hole. Long ago in Noah’s time there was a breaking up of that hydrogen dioxide which was water above the earth. In Noah’s time the water that was above there was broken and it came down. For the first time the sunray and radiation came and penetrated the earth. The earth that we know before Noah and after Noah is a different world. Today a rainbow is quite a common occurrence. There was no such thing as a rainbow before Noah. So you can imagine it’s a different type of weather condition.
Then there was evening and morning in verse 8 and that was the second day. Verse 9 Then God said let the waters under the earth be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear. Scientists today have realized that there is a theory of the drifting of the continents. Today they realized that all the continents of the world were one piece of landmass. The bible already shows forth that there was one piece of land. If you look at the map of the world you piece together the continents of the world. Today they have discovered the continents are still drifting but in a very small sense. So there was a dry land just one piece of dry land appeared. And God called the dry land earth and the gathering together the waters He called sea. And God saw that it was good.
Now is the 3rd day. Verse 11 And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And it was so. On the 3rd day God made the trees, the plants and the vegetation. Verse 14 “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” Then verse 16 God made 2 great lights. Now the sun and the moon were brought forth on day number 4. Scientifically you have a problem because plants and trees survive by the sunlight. And the sun only came on the fourth day. How did the plants survive? They survive because of God’s life. The plants in heaven function from the life of God. Which is why there is no decay and everything that God made function by God’s life.
Even in the book of Genesis one when God created the heaven and the earth later in the other days you see He create all the animals. Every one of those animals was not created to eat. Eating was a mere pleasure and enjoyment. In heaven if you don’t eat for 1000 years you still be fine. In heaven you don’t need food to survive. Do you realize that when God first created the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve, they didn’t have to eat to survive? Life came directly from God. And when God created Adam and Even they could have lived for 1000 years and they look exactly like the day they were created. Today people are looking for the fountain of youth, the Shangri-la where they can exist without death. All these were once man’s original state of being.
What happened was this. In chapter 2:15-17 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day they you eat of it you shall die.” Adam partook of sin together with Eve. The very day they eat some thing happened. That life was cut off. Suddenly they could not see the glory any more. Which is why they discovered they were naked. Before that they were filled with the life of God, which comes out through them and becomes like a glory upon their life. The garment of glory instantly disappeared. What happens if you got trapped on an island with whatever is there? Although you are civilized, educated, what would you do? You will make use of what is there. All you have on the island are 3 coconut trees and 1 bitter gourd plant. Now you never love vegetables. What would you do? You fast, you hate coconuts and you hate bitter gourds. On the second day you began to have second thought. By the third day I will assume you will be going after the coconut first leave the bitter gourds to the last. After some time the coconuts were not producing as fast as it was being consumed. The supply could not meet the demand. Then you have only one other food left - the bitter gourd. You will make use of what is there to survive. And when all have been consumed you begin to look around and you found oysters around the rocks things that you hate, although for some of you when I speak of oysters your saliva drops. Its funny when you mention food one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Then you began to look at the sea around you. You began to make use of what is there to survive.
Now what happened when Adam and Eve fell? They were cut off from the supply of God’s life. So now the plants get to survive. You know what they have is only the germ of life. And if the plants don’t think of a way to survive, supply thinks. Only the past 10 to 20 years they discovered that the plants do fear. But they have the germ of life. And to preserve that germ of life the plants look around. It is the same with the animals. They didn’t know a thing. I presume there was a lion walking half way while Adam and Eve were about to eat the fruit. Imagine if Adam and Eve felt naked what did the lion felt like. I wonder what the lion felt while walking half way and suddenly the glory departed. The whole animal and plant kingdom felt some thing. Suddenly for the first time the lion felt the pang of hunger because the life was no more feeding that body.
Do you know that the pangs of hunger come as a result of the spirit of death? In heaven you don’t have physical hunger any more. Then for the lion it was also like the plant. Everyday he got to look for food to preserve life. For Adam and Eve they are subjected to this carnal world where each day is the preservation of the life that is there. From the time you are conceived as a one cell living creature biologically you need nutrition. God only gives the germ of life. What happened to this world? This is the spirit of death at work. In heaven there is no death on earth now death exists. Do you know that death comes in many ways and many forms? Hunger is a part of the death process.
If Jesus did not come we are still in that stage. And here is where the New Testament truth comes in. There is a form of life that is available for those who are His. He calls that eternal life, the life of God. The life of God can flow once again into us. The eternity can begin in our spirits. So we have in us that spirit life that God gives. In II Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. There is inside each one of us eternal life. Jesus says for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son whosoever believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. And this life that He gives doesn’t begin in heaven. It begins now the day we accept Him. We have passed from death to life.
Turn to Jn. 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Now eternal life begins in our spirits. Life is imparted into us. What happens now? There is a battle between heavenly nature and the old earthly nature. That begins a battle between your flesh and your spirit. If we learn to yield to eternal life now let it flow out from us we will have more and more of the heavenly life right now on this earth. People here and there who had known God and the heavenly life penetrated them to a certain extend. People who have had their ages reversed like Sarah. Look at Heb. 11:11 By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. That’s Sarah receiving God’s life. We know she was old. She was past the age to bear children. But when she allows faith to work in her life, that life that came through the spoken word. Although they were not born again they don’t have eternal life dwelling in them. But yet the eternal life had an effect through the words spoken into their lives. And when they believe that word eternal life had an instant effect on them. And Sarah received strength she received life. And her body and her womb got started again not an old one but new one. Things began to happen as they walk the walk of faith. I don’t think that was instantly. I believe that as we exercise faith and believe in God’s spoken word some thing was happening in Sarah’s womb.
And Abraham he was old but he also received strength. And when God appeared to Abraham and said Abraham you will have a son next year he was 99 years old. Sarah was 10 years younger. Abraham went to Gerar. King Abimelech looks at Sarah and whistled. Can you imagine anybody doing that to a ninety-year-old woman? Think about what Sarah must have looked like. When Sarah was ninety years old she probably looked like a teenager. It is because of the power of life that was given to them. And every thing in heaven contains that special life.
We read about Elijah when he was discouraged the angel cook him some special food. And when he partook of it, it lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. He was a biological man like us. His body still would normally need food. Let me tell you when you get into that life, the old life that we are so used to all the laws of sin and death just stop. Moses was up on the mount of transfiguration for 40 days and 40 nights. We were told that we couldn’t last 3 days without water. Moses lasted 40 days and 40 nights twice in fact three times including the one where he interceded for them. How could he do it? He has stepped out from the old wall into the other dimension of the original state of man. For a moment of time in the presence of God his body draws life from the presence of God. And he came as strong as he went up. Moses walked and walked down saw all the sins and immediately there is no mention that he ever ate food. When he saw them sinning he went on his knees and went before God for another 40 days and 40 nights that makes 80. And then he went up again after he made the 2 tablets another 40 that make 120 days if he didn’t eat between those times. That’s impossible in the natural. It’s because he moved over to the other realm the life of God. There have been man and woman who have tapped on that from time to time. And it’s not some thing automatic. You need to realize that the life is there and be able to tap on that.
Lets look at some laws on tapping that life and drawing on that life. Turn to the book of Genesis and notice that there are 3 trees. One is called the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I have always looked at it carefully and I wondered why is it that when they partake of knowledge of good and evil that they die. If they had partaken the tree of life they would have lived eternally. Was it that God did not want them to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil at all? Or was He just testing them. Think very carefully if God created heaven every thing would have been tested in heaven including the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Why is God so against that tree? Is it that He doesn’t want us to partake at all? There is no definite theological answer for that. But its my personal opinion there is not so much because God is against but its because there is a time to partake it. There is a readiness before you partake of the things of God. And here is a big key in principle, where the knowledge we partake exceeds life within us it can kill us. Let me give a natural example. Do you teach children 4 year old 5 year old how to put together electrical circuits? Or do you wait until they know safety and other common safety rules before you teach them? You will wait until they are of age then you teach them. Knowledge becomes dangerous when it exceeds one’s ability in life to handle it. That’s the natural truth. Now bringing it forth to the spiritual side. Have you noticed why God reveals things a bit at a time? Its life is in us can grow even if we are perfect. There are different measures of this life of God we grow into. Personally I believe that Adam and Eve needed to mature in the life of God before they are ready for that.
Let me give another example. If young people do not understand principles and socially and you give them the liberty to make their own decision. You think that’s not dangerous? Of course it is. Would you give your 15 year old the liberty of a 25 year old? You would not. That extra right and responsibility can kill them. They cannot handle that freedom. So you train and you bring them up a step at a time.
Another natural example would you give a 7 year old a thousand dollars to handle. You won’t. You would rather give them that when your children had grown 25 then you know they can handle that amount.
Now here is a spiritual principle here. Where the knowledge exceeds the life it becomes destructive. Life must grow first before that knowledge. In I Cor. 8 here he is speaking in regard to the idols and the partaking to the idol food not at the ceremony but just somewhere in the markets or where. This is not permission to eat idol food. This is a decision of one’s wrestling when you live in a city where literally every food stalls are worshipping idols. So how do you handle such thing? When you visit a friend you don’t know whether those food have been offered or not. Because Paul in the same book clarifies in chapter 10 in verse 20 and 21 that he don’t have fellowship with people who worship idols with that idol food. But then he also says this is his principle behind that when you are out in the market in verse 25 and you buy meat and you are not sure what has happened to this meat. He says take it asking no question. But when some one tells you this is idol food for the sake of that person who tells you, you don’t take it. In that context remember chapter 8 is not permission to eat foods offered to idols.
I Cor 8:1 Now concerning food offered to idols we know that all us possess knowledge. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Now love and life are proportional. When you increase in life you increase in love. The amount of life you actually have eternal life in you is proportion to the love you have for people. If your love is not enough it’s because your life is not enough. For eternal life is love.
In Rom. 5 it says in verse one Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace (which refer to this life of God) in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. Verse 5 And hope does disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. That’s the love of God. Love and life are proportional. When we lack love for people it’s because the eternal life in your life do not have enough strength.
Now in I Corinthians is a clear-cut case and he calls the person who couldn’t handle it. He says that person in verse 7 is weak. However not all possess this knowledge. Not everyone has that knowledge that idol food partaken accidentally will not harm him or her and will not bring him or her into demon possession or bondage. You don’t catch a demon just because you eat in a place where the people offer idol food and you don’t know anything about it. Nobody can charm you because they pray over the food and give it to you to eat so that you will listen to them. You have power over all those things when you have knowledge.
But it goes on to say in verse 7 But some, through being hitherto accustomed to idols, eat food as really offered to an idol and their conscience being weak. Now he recognizes that there are the weak ones and the strong ones. The weak ones have no knowledge. Their only knowledge and consciousness are idols. The strong ones have knowledge and their conscience is fine. Now Paul says that the correct stand is the strong one. But he says because a person is weak he could not handle that knowledge. Which part of him is weak? The conscience. What is the conscience? The conscience is part of the spirit mind. The conscience that has the life of God is weak. His eternal life is weak. Therefore he cannot handle that knowledge.
Now he leaves us in limbo. Do we leave things as it is in I Cor. 8? How does a person who is weak become strong? Strengthen that conscience. Let life comes in. Then one day there is a cleansing and an imparting process. The physical blood in our bodies cleanses and impart. Removes oxides waste, carbon dioxide and give oxygen. And when the life of God comes it removes and it imparts. And through time that life grows then that person can handle that knowledge. See when the knowledge goes beyond the life it becomes dangerous. Which is why Jesus said do not cast pearls before swine. For then they will turn and destroy you and not only that they will also actually destroy themselves. Understand how to handle some of the things of God. Which is why people who walk close to God seldom talk about the things that God showed them because not everybody can handle it. If God does not see fit to reveal then its because that person is not ready for that revelation to handle it.
Now what can be done about it? In the bible Hebrews 9 and 10 there is process of growth between chapter 9 and 10. In chapter 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Do you notice what He purifies you from? From the spirit of death that works in your life. There is a battle between the spirit of life and the spirit of death. Understand this truth that when the spirit of life is on you no sickness can touch you. And we are talking about the heavenly life that born in our lives. If dead works are present it produce death. But the life removes it.
And he continues in chapter 10 verse 22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Sprinkled from an evil conscience. That’s subject to the law of sin and death. We are constantly on this earth subject to either life or death. Colossians one says we have passed form death into life.
There are 2 main keys on tapping this law. One is Prov. 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Through our words we subject ourselves either to life or to death. Death and life flows through the words, words we hear and words we speak. How did Abraham and Sarah receive that life? They spoke. His name was changed from Abram to Abraham. Her name was changed from Sarai to Sarah. And Romans 4 says that they were like God calling things, which be not as though they were. And the life flowed into them and transformed them.
No. 2 death or life flows through our thoughts. In Romans chapter 8:5-6 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death. Now you know why a lot of Christians are ending up sick? Sorrow is a part of death, which is why when you enter into heaven there is no more sorrow. Now here are those words that you must listen carefully. Death doesn’t come when you die physically. When Adam and Eve received death into them they lived on for 900 over years. But God says that in the day you eat it you shall die. In the day they ate of it death started operating. They started aging and the process of death was set in motion. Many times Christians think that the spirit of death only works when a person is about to go home. You live in the world that is a wrestling between light and life and the death and sin. You don’t die just when you die physically. The moment you set your mind and thought on the things of this life and on the carnal things you have already died on your inside. It’s only a matter of time before your physical body follows. Every sickness, every disease, and every destruction that the enemy uses to steal, kill and destroy is done through the power of death. This is why we got to watch our words and our thought life carefully. Paul even calls that in II Cor. 10 the bondage, the stronghold that will strangle you. The moment a person has a sickness death is operating. You need to be able to learn to tap on life. We have to choose between death and life a.
Some Christians unknowingly are allowing death to gain the upper hand in their lives. Paul says to be carnally minded is death. Right away you are allowing death to begin operating when you allow hurts, wounds, sorrows, bitterness and all negative things in your mind. Which is the reason why biologically and in the natural when a person is not mentally positive he is more liable to get sick. Because death is already operating its easier. Light attracts light in the spirit world. Do you know that magnet have no attraction force on you if you don’t have iron feeling on your inside? If you have nothing in your life like Jesus says Satan has nothing in me, there is no magnetic pull between the two. But the moment you have those germs of the enemy operating in your life in your thought and in your word, death is operating in you. That includes idol worship. Be careful what you say. Be careful what you think. Those are the 2 lines that divide between death and life operating in your life.
Turn to Rom.8 now verse one of chapter eight is obviously has to do with your conscience. Verse 10-11 But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to you mortal bodies also through His Spirit who dwells in you. He gives life not just to your spirit but also to our mortal bodies. Now that life can grow so strong in you on your inside. It can overcome all the things in your mind and in your body and it can even come out from you life to touch and remove death from other people’s life.
Turn to II Cor. 4 to show the battle that is taking place every time a person ministers. See the words you speak either contain death or life. The thoughts you think either contain death or life. These 2 great battles are going on with the spirit of life against the spirit of death. In verse 6-7 For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have treasures in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in way, but not crushed; we are perplexed but not driven to despair. Look at that - there is a battle between life and death. They are pressed on every side but they are not crushed because there is a power of life in them. It’s just like Beethoven’s nice symphony called the Ode of Joy. In this symphony you hear the different sounds, and all the instruments try to drown it until in the end every instruments carries that joyful tune. It’s the story of joy. Every thing tries to crush it but it wants to live. In the end it conquers.
The life of God is powerful. Paul says in II Cor 4: 8-9 We are pressed on every side yet not crushed; we are perplexed, (that is in the mind) but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed. I mean this is the material that is made from eternal life.
Verse 10. Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. (You see the old nature must be struck a deathblow. Look at your old man as having died in Christ) that the life of Jesus also may be manifested (not in our spirit alone, not in our soul but) in our body. Paul looks forward to immortality.
Verse 11-12 But we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake (preaching the gospel is the ministry of life versus death; as we bring life to the people, the devil is seeking to steal and destroy) that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. Now that looks like a puzzle. He is talking about this eternal life that is so powerful it could just absorb death and cancel it and go on working. So as Paul preached to the group of people who were experiencing death, there is the power of life working in him.
He comes to them and the death that is working on them he brings it onto himself and he is not afraid of death. Verse 12, So then death is working in us, but life in you. He completely absorbs it and then let his life transmit it out. He took death and give out life. And he continues to live. He didn’t take life and then he was finished. But he lives forever more. He rises again because death cannot conquer eternal life.
The same Paul says that works but the life comes out even more. Because he says, verse 13, And since we have the same spirit of faith according to what is written, “I believe and therefore I spoke.” Remember what you say is important. What you say releases life. Verse 14, Knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.”
Look at verse 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing (and subject to all these things he says) yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. Is your inward man renewed day by day or is it crushing you? Verse 17-18 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. The word eternal means age lasting.
Most of us read verse 16 and stop there. Paul was looking for the resurrection life. In chapter 5 he continues. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven.
I want you to see how it sounds in the Greek, reading from Chapter 4 verse 16 to 18 and then from chapter 5 verse 1 to 4. Wherefore we are not losing courage. But and if as is the case our outward self is progressively decaying, yet our inward self is being charged into a new kind of life, fit for the new spiritual existence into which we have been ushered in salvation. And constantly being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus day by day. For our momentary light affliction is working out for us more and more surpassingly and eternal heavy world of glory. While we are not contemplating the things which are seen but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary but the things that are not seen are eternal. Chapter 5 verse 1 to 4 For we know that in our house of this present tent life on earth is taken by a building from God we have a house not made with hands eternal in heaven. For in this tent we are groaning, longing to be clothed in addition with a house which from heaven. Seeing that also having been clothed we shall not be found naked and disembodied spirit for indeed we being in this tent are groaning being weighted down because we do not desire to be unclothed but clothed with a heavenly body in order that death which is mortal may be swallowed up by this life.
That is why Romans 8 went on to say that all creations wait for the manifestation of the sons of glory. This life which is coming out through our soul. And our physical body will bring you the heavenly presence, health and prosperity. For Jesus says that I come that you may have life and more abundantly. When you have this life on your inside nothing can stop you.
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Sunday, January 20, 2008
2. THE MELODIES OF HEAVEN
By Pastor Peter Tan
Turn to Col. 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We need to set our hearts and our minds on things in heaven. That is the reason why we are teaching on this series Wonders of Heaven. Our key verse we have taken is from the book of Hebrews chapter 6:5 And have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. God wants us to draw from our inside the things from our spirit to taste of the good word. And the author of Hebrews says of the powers of the age to come.
We have talked about the gifts of the Spirit and how the gifts of the Spirit some times manifest in our lives. And all the manifestation of the Spirit has to do with the things that are in heaven. So lets just close our eyes and set our hearts and affection on the things of heaven. Think of some of the things that are in heaven and let the longing come upon our hearts and our lives as we draw towards the things of heaven. The reason we have you to sing some songs even though we are going to minister the word is because there is some thing about music and singing that we are going to talk about.
We have talked about the Power of Life. And in heaven there is what we call the power of music or melody. That is another realm that is in heaven. In heaven music flows on continuously. It is non-stop. All the time the music just keeps flowing. And there is not a moment or time when music ceases. Except in the time of revelation where it talked about God was about to show His wrath, and as He was grieving there was silence in heaven for a moment of time. And the music that is in heaven is very powerful. It is some thing that we only have a foretaste of on this earth. In fact being filled with the Spirit is being linked up to the kind of music that we can receive from God.
Turn to Eph. 5:18-19 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Some times when the Spirit of God move we feel like some thing in our hearts wants to reach out onto Him. Most of the time we grab a song or a melody that we know and we sing it and it comes out from our life. But as our walk in God increases the heavenly presence is so much in us that the earthly melody cannot contain what we want to express. And we need to reach into some thing deeper than that. And that is why God gives us a new tongue to worship Him. Like this morning you could sense it in your spirit you feel like there is some thing in you that just want to reach out to God. And unless we could let that melody flowing out there is some thing that is just not contacted or some thing that is just not there. Just close your eyes and lift up your hands for a moment. And just let the melody on your inside worship God. And you sense the atmosphere different. Doesn’t some thing on your inside feel good like some thing lifting you up? Like some thing is lifting you up into the heavenly presence.
That’s what we want to talk about this morning that the words that God gives us and the tune that God gives us in Eph. 5:19. Making melodies in your heart has a sort of quality you can call it power that seems to take some thing from inside us and bring us into the heavenly place. We know that He gave us melody in chapter 5:19 of Ephesians. The question we want to deal with is why He gives us the melody.
In the Hebrew language there are many words for the word rejoice which is also translated as gladness some times. In English we have rejoice, cheer, joy, and in the Hebrew they have different words to express that joy in our hearts. There are different degrees of what I call the heavenly music that can fill our lives. How many of you felt that atmosphere different just after you worship in tongues. Why should it be different? That’s what we are going to touch on this morning. To gain some understanding of why is it different and what is the process that was taking place. We know it is different but we want to know why it is different.
In the book of Proverbs chapter 17:22 A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones. There is some thing about the joy that God gives that has a supernatural quality of being able to transform our life and bring healing to us. The word merry in the Hebrew is the word sameah. And sameah has a bigger meaning than the word merry. When we think about the word merry it just reminds us of merry making. We wish you a merry Christmas. But today we changed the tune to we wish you a blessed Christmas because we want more the blessing than just the merriness. Because merry making reminds us a little bit too much about wining and drinking and that kind of fun that they have in the world. It is not that Christians do not have fun, we have fun but our fun is a different type with no hangovers. The merry is the word sameah, which has a very wide element of joy. Now in Hebrew there is a joy that refers to the joy that is in our spirits, in our hearts. There is a joy that is in our soul. And there is a joy that is in our physical body.
And music is actually just harmonizing vibrations. You could even take a musical instrument and you just simply strike any key but it won’t just harmonize. It has to be in a certain tune. When the keys are struck in a certain pattern that is harmonized one to another it carries a different impact on our lives. The bible does say that all that has breath worship and praise God. God has put music in life. Where there is life there is music. Everything in this life flows according to some rhythm. Electricity flows in a rhythm. Even your tap water doesn’t just come in one flow. If you observe very carefully it comes in rhythm. And depending on the speed of the rhythm you cannot see it. There is a rhythm to life and that rhythm we call music. The music that God had set in the heart, in the spirit, the music in our soul and the music in our physical body. Even all the atoms and molecules synchronized with one and another.
Do you know that when your body is sick your body is not in rhythm? Most of you know about X-ray. And today they also know about the sonar scan where they use sound waves to scan for example the position of a baby. But they also have another way of scanning call the magneto scan where the cells that are sick show up in a spot because its not in the pattern. Sick cells, diseased body parts show up in a magnetic scan because they cannot move in rhythm. If there was a cancerous cell on a magneto scan they can see a dark spot where the magnetic lines could not flow through. It has lost its ability to flow in the rhythm. It’s based on a simple principle of magnetic rhythm in our body.
The bible says a merry heart doth good like a medicine. Its because the rhythm that is in heaven where health is there where life is there flows upon our spirit, upon our soul and upon our body. And our body began to beat with the rhythm in heaven. And healing is there. There is a process of health and healing that is there. The only reason why your body is in sickness is your body lost that rhythm. I am not talking about tongue rhythm but there is a heavenly rhythm that it has lost. The cells are not able to move in the rhythm of life.
Adam and Eve were created with the heavenly nature, and the Garden of Eden was like a heaven. Every thing was in harmony. But the moment Adam and Eve fell into sin this was the curse that came in. Genesis 3 verse 17-19 Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and dust you shall return. To the woman He says in verse 16 I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing. Sorrow only came in after the fall. Remember the testimony by Sister Sally. She said in heaven she could not see a single sad face because in heaven there is the heavenly music that is joy. It is on earth and since the fall of man that sorrow came. From the time that Adam fell into sin all the trees and all the herbs began to produce things that were not really designed to produce. From that day onwards suddenly there were thorns. The rhythm in the plant was disrupted. And the energy that went to produce beautiful flowers and eternal leaves went to produce thorns. Obviously the rhythm of life is disrupted. It is just like a beautiful plant and you began to take away nutrition from it. That beautiful plant can become crumpled and wrinkled. Just like many of you who have eaten well, you look well. You see people who are undernourished especially in Africa. You see those young children who don’t have enough food their facial features look like old man because they didn’t have enough nutrition. Now amplify that a million times because when Adam fell into sin it was more than that. It was passing out of spiritual life into darkness. And all the energy of that rhythm of life began to produce noise. The noise of the rhythm of life ended up with thorns.
And so from that day onwards in Romans chapter 8:20-22 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now. All of creation from the day of the fall lost its music. When we lost the rhythm of life sickness came, sorrow came, imperfection came. You could in a sense say in this manner that when Adam and Eve fell we lost our music. When Adam and Eve fell mankind lost the heavenly music. And man for thousands of years has tried to lift themselves out of that mighty cave with their own form of music. And music has played a role in all of man’s highest moments. Any wedding in any culture in any religion is not complete without music. Then the greatest suffering of mankind when man face death in a funeral. When man wrestle with things that are so difficult to accept they need music. Have you gone to a funeral service where there is no music?
From that day when man fell man struggled to get back that music. Some times he succeeded in a small degree and it lift him up. Sometimes he failed. From time to time mankind has managed to taste some of the heavenly music. People like Beethoven his music has certain majesty involved. And when you hear it, it lifts you up. And some other kind of music that has lifted mankind out of their suffering, out of their sorrow, helped mankind taste the fullness of joy. And all of the highest music of man cannot reach what it takes to reach the musical state before Adam fell into sin. From that day onwards men sought for that music. Which is why in Proverbs 17 it says a merry heart do good like a medicine. When at least a little bit of that rhythm is still there you get divine health.
Just to give you an idea of how powerful the original music that we have lost if you really have that heavenly music you don’t just have health you have immortality. If a merry heart does good like a medicine heavenly music brings you immortality. Adam and Eve were once immortal. They could have lived for 10000 years and still have not a single wrinkle. Imagine living 10000 years without sorrows. All of us have lived many years but we could never say that all those years were without sorrows. There have been sorrows there have been joy and all overall if your joy is more than your sorrow you are still going strong. If your sorrow is more than your joy you feel very depressing. Thank God Jesus is your joy. Can you imagine living 10000 years and not knowing sorrow? See that heavenly music that we only have a glimpse of not only have the power of life it has a power of immortality. And that is that kind of music we are talking about the sameah that comes from the Spirit and will affect your soul and your body.
Turn to Acts 2:25-26 For David says concerning him, “I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; there my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will dwell in hope. Now you know why this is a reference to Jesus Christ? The music in Jesus’ life and the joy that was in His heart never dies. Hebrews 12 verse 2 tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ when He saw the cross had joy, looking onto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross..” Now this is the same Lord Jesus who for the joy that was set before Him, the joy that was in Him, the music that was in Him his flesh did not see corruption. No germ, no virus could touch that body. Yes He did die for our sins and for our sicknesses. He Himself bore our sickness and diseases and that was a legal transaction.
So then what happened at Gethsemane when He cried? What about Hebrews 5 when Jesus cried and wept? Have you ever experienced where you laugh and laugh until you cried? If you really let go you laugh until you cry. You laugh until the tears come out from your eyes. It is possible to weep because you are happy. Now Jesus Christ had 2 things going on at Gethsemane. In His heart there was joy that He will be raised up again. See Jesus looked to the cross expectantly. Although He told the Father that, “If you desire let this cup pass from Me” but then He goes on and said, “Nevertheless not my will but yours be done.” Some of you got the wrong picture in Gethsemane that Jesus was saying to the Father, “I don’t like this take it away from me.” Jesus never lost His joy.
You ask, “How do you know?” Don’t you remember the night before He was betrayed what was He talking about?
Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take away from you (John 16:22)
Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full (John 16: 24)
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16: 33)
This is the Lord Jesus speaking on the night when He was betrayed. He was there comforting His disciples and imparting joy into their lives although there was sorrow because of physical separation and the sin of the world. Yet on His spirit of joy for doing God’s will is there. That’s why on the cross 2 things happened. He took our sorrows but His joy was more powerful than our sorrow that’s why He won. The life that was in Him yielded to God and that resurrection life flowed out of Him.
But this reference in Acts 2 Peter was explaining about the tongues they had received. They were speaking in tongues and all the people say they were drunkard. And Peter was explaining that this is the outpouring of the Spirit as prophesied by Joel. And this is what David says in verse 26 Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad. Now the word glad is a special Greek word and not the normal word for joy. It is the word, which means leaping with joy. And my tongue was leaping with joy. It is the word translated jumping with joy. He was giving a picture of the Lord filling their lives. The filling of the Spirit is the filling of joy. He anoint us with the oil of gladness, and that ties back to Eph. 5:18-19 it says, “Be filled with the Spirit speaking to yourself in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart.” When you are baptized in the Holy Spirit God gives you a melodious inspiration on your inside. And it was so full you can’t contain it you say praise God, thank you Lord. See that joy that filled your inside is your tongue leaping.
Cross reference to where he took that passage from in the book of Psalms 16:9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; Now the word glad in Hebrew here is the same word found in Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart do good like a medicine. A sameah heart do good like a medicine. My heart is sameah my heart is so happy. And he says my soul (in reference to the tongue) rejoices. The word rejoices here is the word gul or gil, which means to spring about. No wonder when they translated it into the New Testament in Greek they have to choose a special word. Remember that verse in Isaiah 28:11 For with stammering lips and another tongue. And Paul later in Corinthians refers that to speaking in tongues.
I point to all these words to show forth that when God filled us with the Holy Spirit in the process He gave us some thing that He longed to give to mankind the heavenly melody in our life. Which is why some times you go deep into tongues and you pray in tongues and Paul says I will sing with my spirit and I will sing with my understanding. And as he sings with the spirit he touched on the heavenly melody where there is some scene of immortality.
Now there are many Hebrew words for the word rejoice. There are some that are not applicable so much in the spirit but more in the natural realm. There is a word kadar which is found in Exodus 18:4 and its like Jethro rejoicing over the goodness that was in Moses life. All these are natural joy. Why do the Hebrews have so many words for joy? They discovered all the different types of joy. There is a joy you can have because something good is happening. That is kadar happiness. Then there is a natural joy masos and this is a joy of happy events like for example a wedding. It’s a joy that comes because of a happy event. There is another joy tsahal for example Ex. 8:13 and that is the joy that comes when they have just been delivered. Like the Berlin wall came down you should see those East German faces. There is a joy that comes from deliverance. So these are the different examples of natural joy that the Hebrew has a word for it. But there are different degrees of joy that Hebrews talk about. There is a joy you have learnt just now the word gil or gul and that joy is a joy that affects the physical body. It talks about your physical body reacting to that joy. See some people who were born again, tongue talking, demon chasing but their face don’t tell you they are Christians. They were supposed to have the peace and joy of our Lord Jesus but it didn’t look on their faces. They have sameah joy in their spirit but it never affected into gil or gul joy. A joy that makes you want to celebrate. So gil or gul is a joy that affects your body, and causing you to be leaping and dancing. Some time we forgot that the spiritual natural rhythm the most spontaneous with the Lord would be the most beautiful. That’s what joy is about. See joy can never be conformed to rules. You can be trained to smile but if it doesn’t come from your heart there is some thing missing. So its important for us to understand that there is a sameah joy and a gil or gul joy. From your inside it affects your outside. And that’s when healing began to result.
In Isa. 35:1 and 2 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice (gil or gul) and blossom like the rose, it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. Now how could a desert blossom, your body could be sick and be like a desert and it needs to blossom in the health and the life of God. You must have gil or gul. And that’s the joy from sameah that comes into your body when your tongue moves, your legs moves and you rejoice in the Lord. Even if an untrained person is dancing as the Lord touches him or her there is a beauty to it. Of course when you are trained you can get rid of some discordant movements but don’t let that remove that natural rhythm. Do you know what makes a person go from average to genius? They go beyond the boundaries. There are a lot of people who go to art school but not all of them become great artists. Because most people confine themselves to the rules and never look beyond the rules to touch on realms that others dream about. When Beethoven who came after Mozart started his style it was astounding to the people of his time. See genius comes by going beyond the average. Remember what makes people average. They never go beyond their training. They just limit themselves. This is the law. This is the way but they never touch on the beauty of their training. You can learn to play tennis under a great tennis coach but there must be some thing on your inside that takes those rules and make you a master of some special area.
When golf as a sport was just starting, the golfers were still mastering the rules. In the past, the top golfers were the ones who really could really play the rules well. But then after many years of golf many can play the rules very well. What was considered great 30 years ago becomes average today. Normally when you use a golf club they tell you that the angle must be only at a certain length. So all the masters were teaching that because that was the rule. Then this American came along. He broke every rule. He put it at a stronger angle. His shots were more powerful. And every master was asking how did he do it. They analyzed his shots and found he increased the angle to what the masters were saying you should never do. And his shots were so powerful that it goes beyond others.
So what are we talking about? You got to flow with the rhythm. When there is a rule you got to understand why the rules are there. And perhaps there is another way to flow around those rules. Man cannot fly. Man has to discover ways to break the law of gravity. You know what the rules say. Anything that is heavier than air cannot fly. But there are other rules so that a Boeing 747 that weigh about 85 tons still can fly. The aeronautical engineers have figured out a way to get around those things without breaking the natural laws. So its important for us to let the flow or rhythm comes forth. Remember every thing that you earn in life is there and is still in the state of evolution. All the engineering schools are still in a state of evolution. Even the laws continue to change. Every thing is in a state of evolution, because things that are seen are subject to a state of change.
How do you control those changes? You don’t break the laws of music to create great music. You flow with those laws and you bring it to a higher pattern. You take those things and there is a rhythm because there is a rhythm that is deep in your spirit. Like the first man who built a suspension bridge, all the engineers looked at him and said it cannot be done. But he dreamt and dreamt and said that it can be done. And he conquered that engineering problems and he built a suspension bridge. Today it is nothing to build a suspension bridge. You could be trained in school to do it. But the first man who did it had no school to attend.
There is rhythm in our spirit that we need to flow with the music of our soul so that we are not limited by boundaries. So there is a gil or gul that is there. Notice in Isa. 35:1 the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. That means that if the desert doesn’t rejoice it shall not blossom. If the desert doesn’t have gil it will not blossom. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice. Look at verse 3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Verse 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. It all starts with the joy. Every promise of the Holy Spirit is the promise of the heavenly rhythm coming into our lives.
In the book of Joel there is a prophecy on the outpouring of the Spirit. Now Joel chapter 2 starts with fasting and seeking the Lord. And as you seek the Lord there is weeping and mourning. But that is not supposed to be your main condition. That leads to some thing. There is a fast in verse 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion. Then look at verse 21 now the Lord began to move in their lives. As the Lord moves in their lives what came first. The outpouring came first or the music came first. Let me tell you the music came first. If you want to see visions of heaven, if you want the heavenly experience, let the heavenly music touch you first in your heart. And let it flow out from you, from your spirit to your soul, to your body. Verse 21 Fear not, O land; be glad (the word glad is the word “gil” let that joy touch your body) and (sameah) rejoice. The same word found in Proverbs 17:22 be merry. Verse 23 Be glad (gil) O sons of Zion and (sameah) rejoice in the Lord, your God; for He has given the early rain for your vindication. See there is a heavenly music that God gives to us in the New Testament. It is linked to the outpouring of the Spirit.
Every move of God in church history has been accompanied with music. James 5:13 Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Why does he ask those who suffering to pray? And those who have joy let the joy fill their life even more. There is a clue given to you in Isaiah 56:7 These I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them (sameah) joyful in My house of prayer. Not you know why those who are sad or sorrowful let them pray. Because when you enter the house of prayer He gives you sameah. It makes your heart merry again. He tells you what happen in His house of prayer. Those who enter His house He gives you sameah which is Proverbs 17:22 a merry heart when you pray through because He wants to keep us in His covenant of blessing in our lives.
There is a word the joy in the soul too. Let turn to Ps. 35:9 Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in His deliverance. That word joy is the word sic and that joy is the joy of the soul. So there are many Hebrew words for the word joy. There is a word gil or gul, which refers to the joy that affects the body. There is a word sic that affects the soul. There is a word sameah that is a joy that is in our spirit. So when we talk about rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice, there are different degrees of that joy. We must first of all have sameah. Then we need to have our soul rejoicing sic. Then we need to have gil or gul, which is an outward expression of that joy.
And look at what Ps. 35:10 says All my bones shall say. You know your bones can talk. No wonder He says a merry heart do good like a medicine. For when sameah becomes sic and gil in your life, your body began to beat in the rhythm of God. Divine health comes in. There are several Hebrew words with a slight different meaning. The word alas speaks about times when nothing around you seems joyful. You are the only one seem joyful like in Habakkuk. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord though the fig tree does not blossom and the vine doesn’t bear fruit yet I will alas before the Lord, which means I will rejoice by faith. The word alas is the word of triumph. I will let joy triumph over my situation. Then there is a word renun, which means to sing out loud to the Lord. All these are related to the joy of sameah, sic and glu.
As we sing and look at heavenly music, we realize that heavenly music begins as a melody in your heart. And every time before God does some thing you look at the book of Revelation there is always a new song that goes up to God. Today human beings are in sin and they in discord. A lot of the human music is discord. They don’t produce health and healing. A lot of the rock music stirs up physical passion. They are in disharmony against God. A lot of the sentimental music gives you a melancholy spirit. It makes you very sad and moody. And so we need to hear the heavenly music that is so different from this earth. You can use any instrument that is there in the natural world but you must play it in the heavenly rhythm. That will produce immortal life. May God give us spiritual ears tune to them. It’s the power of music, if you allow this heavenly music to affect you. It starts with your tongue and melody in your heart. You will touch the realm of the heavenly nature.
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Turn to Col. 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We need to set our hearts and our minds on things in heaven. That is the reason why we are teaching on this series Wonders of Heaven. Our key verse we have taken is from the book of Hebrews chapter 6:5 And have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. God wants us to draw from our inside the things from our spirit to taste of the good word. And the author of Hebrews says of the powers of the age to come.
We have talked about the gifts of the Spirit and how the gifts of the Spirit some times manifest in our lives. And all the manifestation of the Spirit has to do with the things that are in heaven. So lets just close our eyes and set our hearts and affection on the things of heaven. Think of some of the things that are in heaven and let the longing come upon our hearts and our lives as we draw towards the things of heaven. The reason we have you to sing some songs even though we are going to minister the word is because there is some thing about music and singing that we are going to talk about.
We have talked about the Power of Life. And in heaven there is what we call the power of music or melody. That is another realm that is in heaven. In heaven music flows on continuously. It is non-stop. All the time the music just keeps flowing. And there is not a moment or time when music ceases. Except in the time of revelation where it talked about God was about to show His wrath, and as He was grieving there was silence in heaven for a moment of time. And the music that is in heaven is very powerful. It is some thing that we only have a foretaste of on this earth. In fact being filled with the Spirit is being linked up to the kind of music that we can receive from God.
Turn to Eph. 5:18-19 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Some times when the Spirit of God move we feel like some thing in our hearts wants to reach out onto Him. Most of the time we grab a song or a melody that we know and we sing it and it comes out from our life. But as our walk in God increases the heavenly presence is so much in us that the earthly melody cannot contain what we want to express. And we need to reach into some thing deeper than that. And that is why God gives us a new tongue to worship Him. Like this morning you could sense it in your spirit you feel like there is some thing in you that just want to reach out to God. And unless we could let that melody flowing out there is some thing that is just not contacted or some thing that is just not there. Just close your eyes and lift up your hands for a moment. And just let the melody on your inside worship God. And you sense the atmosphere different. Doesn’t some thing on your inside feel good like some thing lifting you up? Like some thing is lifting you up into the heavenly presence.
That’s what we want to talk about this morning that the words that God gives us and the tune that God gives us in Eph. 5:19. Making melodies in your heart has a sort of quality you can call it power that seems to take some thing from inside us and bring us into the heavenly place. We know that He gave us melody in chapter 5:19 of Ephesians. The question we want to deal with is why He gives us the melody.
In the Hebrew language there are many words for the word rejoice which is also translated as gladness some times. In English we have rejoice, cheer, joy, and in the Hebrew they have different words to express that joy in our hearts. There are different degrees of what I call the heavenly music that can fill our lives. How many of you felt that atmosphere different just after you worship in tongues. Why should it be different? That’s what we are going to touch on this morning. To gain some understanding of why is it different and what is the process that was taking place. We know it is different but we want to know why it is different.
In the book of Proverbs chapter 17:22 A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones. There is some thing about the joy that God gives that has a supernatural quality of being able to transform our life and bring healing to us. The word merry in the Hebrew is the word sameah. And sameah has a bigger meaning than the word merry. When we think about the word merry it just reminds us of merry making. We wish you a merry Christmas. But today we changed the tune to we wish you a blessed Christmas because we want more the blessing than just the merriness. Because merry making reminds us a little bit too much about wining and drinking and that kind of fun that they have in the world. It is not that Christians do not have fun, we have fun but our fun is a different type with no hangovers. The merry is the word sameah, which has a very wide element of joy. Now in Hebrew there is a joy that refers to the joy that is in our spirits, in our hearts. There is a joy that is in our soul. And there is a joy that is in our physical body.
And music is actually just harmonizing vibrations. You could even take a musical instrument and you just simply strike any key but it won’t just harmonize. It has to be in a certain tune. When the keys are struck in a certain pattern that is harmonized one to another it carries a different impact on our lives. The bible does say that all that has breath worship and praise God. God has put music in life. Where there is life there is music. Everything in this life flows according to some rhythm. Electricity flows in a rhythm. Even your tap water doesn’t just come in one flow. If you observe very carefully it comes in rhythm. And depending on the speed of the rhythm you cannot see it. There is a rhythm to life and that rhythm we call music. The music that God had set in the heart, in the spirit, the music in our soul and the music in our physical body. Even all the atoms and molecules synchronized with one and another.
Do you know that when your body is sick your body is not in rhythm? Most of you know about X-ray. And today they also know about the sonar scan where they use sound waves to scan for example the position of a baby. But they also have another way of scanning call the magneto scan where the cells that are sick show up in a spot because its not in the pattern. Sick cells, diseased body parts show up in a magnetic scan because they cannot move in rhythm. If there was a cancerous cell on a magneto scan they can see a dark spot where the magnetic lines could not flow through. It has lost its ability to flow in the rhythm. It’s based on a simple principle of magnetic rhythm in our body.
The bible says a merry heart doth good like a medicine. Its because the rhythm that is in heaven where health is there where life is there flows upon our spirit, upon our soul and upon our body. And our body began to beat with the rhythm in heaven. And healing is there. There is a process of health and healing that is there. The only reason why your body is in sickness is your body lost that rhythm. I am not talking about tongue rhythm but there is a heavenly rhythm that it has lost. The cells are not able to move in the rhythm of life.
Adam and Eve were created with the heavenly nature, and the Garden of Eden was like a heaven. Every thing was in harmony. But the moment Adam and Eve fell into sin this was the curse that came in. Genesis 3 verse 17-19 Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and dust you shall return. To the woman He says in verse 16 I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing. Sorrow only came in after the fall. Remember the testimony by Sister Sally. She said in heaven she could not see a single sad face because in heaven there is the heavenly music that is joy. It is on earth and since the fall of man that sorrow came. From the time that Adam fell into sin all the trees and all the herbs began to produce things that were not really designed to produce. From that day onwards suddenly there were thorns. The rhythm in the plant was disrupted. And the energy that went to produce beautiful flowers and eternal leaves went to produce thorns. Obviously the rhythm of life is disrupted. It is just like a beautiful plant and you began to take away nutrition from it. That beautiful plant can become crumpled and wrinkled. Just like many of you who have eaten well, you look well. You see people who are undernourished especially in Africa. You see those young children who don’t have enough food their facial features look like old man because they didn’t have enough nutrition. Now amplify that a million times because when Adam fell into sin it was more than that. It was passing out of spiritual life into darkness. And all the energy of that rhythm of life began to produce noise. The noise of the rhythm of life ended up with thorns.
And so from that day onwards in Romans chapter 8:20-22 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now. All of creation from the day of the fall lost its music. When we lost the rhythm of life sickness came, sorrow came, imperfection came. You could in a sense say in this manner that when Adam and Eve fell we lost our music. When Adam and Eve fell mankind lost the heavenly music. And man for thousands of years has tried to lift themselves out of that mighty cave with their own form of music. And music has played a role in all of man’s highest moments. Any wedding in any culture in any religion is not complete without music. Then the greatest suffering of mankind when man face death in a funeral. When man wrestle with things that are so difficult to accept they need music. Have you gone to a funeral service where there is no music?
From that day when man fell man struggled to get back that music. Some times he succeeded in a small degree and it lift him up. Sometimes he failed. From time to time mankind has managed to taste some of the heavenly music. People like Beethoven his music has certain majesty involved. And when you hear it, it lifts you up. And some other kind of music that has lifted mankind out of their suffering, out of their sorrow, helped mankind taste the fullness of joy. And all of the highest music of man cannot reach what it takes to reach the musical state before Adam fell into sin. From that day onwards men sought for that music. Which is why in Proverbs 17 it says a merry heart do good like a medicine. When at least a little bit of that rhythm is still there you get divine health.
Just to give you an idea of how powerful the original music that we have lost if you really have that heavenly music you don’t just have health you have immortality. If a merry heart does good like a medicine heavenly music brings you immortality. Adam and Eve were once immortal. They could have lived for 10000 years and still have not a single wrinkle. Imagine living 10000 years without sorrows. All of us have lived many years but we could never say that all those years were without sorrows. There have been sorrows there have been joy and all overall if your joy is more than your sorrow you are still going strong. If your sorrow is more than your joy you feel very depressing. Thank God Jesus is your joy. Can you imagine living 10000 years and not knowing sorrow? See that heavenly music that we only have a glimpse of not only have the power of life it has a power of immortality. And that is that kind of music we are talking about the sameah that comes from the Spirit and will affect your soul and your body.
Turn to Acts 2:25-26 For David says concerning him, “I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; there my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will dwell in hope. Now you know why this is a reference to Jesus Christ? The music in Jesus’ life and the joy that was in His heart never dies. Hebrews 12 verse 2 tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ when He saw the cross had joy, looking onto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross..” Now this is the same Lord Jesus who for the joy that was set before Him, the joy that was in Him, the music that was in Him his flesh did not see corruption. No germ, no virus could touch that body. Yes He did die for our sins and for our sicknesses. He Himself bore our sickness and diseases and that was a legal transaction.
So then what happened at Gethsemane when He cried? What about Hebrews 5 when Jesus cried and wept? Have you ever experienced where you laugh and laugh until you cried? If you really let go you laugh until you cry. You laugh until the tears come out from your eyes. It is possible to weep because you are happy. Now Jesus Christ had 2 things going on at Gethsemane. In His heart there was joy that He will be raised up again. See Jesus looked to the cross expectantly. Although He told the Father that, “If you desire let this cup pass from Me” but then He goes on and said, “Nevertheless not my will but yours be done.” Some of you got the wrong picture in Gethsemane that Jesus was saying to the Father, “I don’t like this take it away from me.” Jesus never lost His joy.
You ask, “How do you know?” Don’t you remember the night before He was betrayed what was He talking about?
Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take away from you (John 16:22)
Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full (John 16: 24)
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16: 33)
This is the Lord Jesus speaking on the night when He was betrayed. He was there comforting His disciples and imparting joy into their lives although there was sorrow because of physical separation and the sin of the world. Yet on His spirit of joy for doing God’s will is there. That’s why on the cross 2 things happened. He took our sorrows but His joy was more powerful than our sorrow that’s why He won. The life that was in Him yielded to God and that resurrection life flowed out of Him.
But this reference in Acts 2 Peter was explaining about the tongues they had received. They were speaking in tongues and all the people say they were drunkard. And Peter was explaining that this is the outpouring of the Spirit as prophesied by Joel. And this is what David says in verse 26 Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad. Now the word glad is a special Greek word and not the normal word for joy. It is the word, which means leaping with joy. And my tongue was leaping with joy. It is the word translated jumping with joy. He was giving a picture of the Lord filling their lives. The filling of the Spirit is the filling of joy. He anoint us with the oil of gladness, and that ties back to Eph. 5:18-19 it says, “Be filled with the Spirit speaking to yourself in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart.” When you are baptized in the Holy Spirit God gives you a melodious inspiration on your inside. And it was so full you can’t contain it you say praise God, thank you Lord. See that joy that filled your inside is your tongue leaping.
Cross reference to where he took that passage from in the book of Psalms 16:9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; Now the word glad in Hebrew here is the same word found in Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart do good like a medicine. A sameah heart do good like a medicine. My heart is sameah my heart is so happy. And he says my soul (in reference to the tongue) rejoices. The word rejoices here is the word gul or gil, which means to spring about. No wonder when they translated it into the New Testament in Greek they have to choose a special word. Remember that verse in Isaiah 28:11 For with stammering lips and another tongue. And Paul later in Corinthians refers that to speaking in tongues.
I point to all these words to show forth that when God filled us with the Holy Spirit in the process He gave us some thing that He longed to give to mankind the heavenly melody in our life. Which is why some times you go deep into tongues and you pray in tongues and Paul says I will sing with my spirit and I will sing with my understanding. And as he sings with the spirit he touched on the heavenly melody where there is some scene of immortality.
Now there are many Hebrew words for the word rejoice. There are some that are not applicable so much in the spirit but more in the natural realm. There is a word kadar which is found in Exodus 18:4 and its like Jethro rejoicing over the goodness that was in Moses life. All these are natural joy. Why do the Hebrews have so many words for joy? They discovered all the different types of joy. There is a joy you can have because something good is happening. That is kadar happiness. Then there is a natural joy masos and this is a joy of happy events like for example a wedding. It’s a joy that comes because of a happy event. There is another joy tsahal for example Ex. 8:13 and that is the joy that comes when they have just been delivered. Like the Berlin wall came down you should see those East German faces. There is a joy that comes from deliverance. So these are the different examples of natural joy that the Hebrew has a word for it. But there are different degrees of joy that Hebrews talk about. There is a joy you have learnt just now the word gil or gul and that joy is a joy that affects the physical body. It talks about your physical body reacting to that joy. See some people who were born again, tongue talking, demon chasing but their face don’t tell you they are Christians. They were supposed to have the peace and joy of our Lord Jesus but it didn’t look on their faces. They have sameah joy in their spirit but it never affected into gil or gul joy. A joy that makes you want to celebrate. So gil or gul is a joy that affects your body, and causing you to be leaping and dancing. Some time we forgot that the spiritual natural rhythm the most spontaneous with the Lord would be the most beautiful. That’s what joy is about. See joy can never be conformed to rules. You can be trained to smile but if it doesn’t come from your heart there is some thing missing. So its important for us to understand that there is a sameah joy and a gil or gul joy. From your inside it affects your outside. And that’s when healing began to result.
In Isa. 35:1 and 2 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice (gil or gul) and blossom like the rose, it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. Now how could a desert blossom, your body could be sick and be like a desert and it needs to blossom in the health and the life of God. You must have gil or gul. And that’s the joy from sameah that comes into your body when your tongue moves, your legs moves and you rejoice in the Lord. Even if an untrained person is dancing as the Lord touches him or her there is a beauty to it. Of course when you are trained you can get rid of some discordant movements but don’t let that remove that natural rhythm. Do you know what makes a person go from average to genius? They go beyond the boundaries. There are a lot of people who go to art school but not all of them become great artists. Because most people confine themselves to the rules and never look beyond the rules to touch on realms that others dream about. When Beethoven who came after Mozart started his style it was astounding to the people of his time. See genius comes by going beyond the average. Remember what makes people average. They never go beyond their training. They just limit themselves. This is the law. This is the way but they never touch on the beauty of their training. You can learn to play tennis under a great tennis coach but there must be some thing on your inside that takes those rules and make you a master of some special area.
When golf as a sport was just starting, the golfers were still mastering the rules. In the past, the top golfers were the ones who really could really play the rules well. But then after many years of golf many can play the rules very well. What was considered great 30 years ago becomes average today. Normally when you use a golf club they tell you that the angle must be only at a certain length. So all the masters were teaching that because that was the rule. Then this American came along. He broke every rule. He put it at a stronger angle. His shots were more powerful. And every master was asking how did he do it. They analyzed his shots and found he increased the angle to what the masters were saying you should never do. And his shots were so powerful that it goes beyond others.
So what are we talking about? You got to flow with the rhythm. When there is a rule you got to understand why the rules are there. And perhaps there is another way to flow around those rules. Man cannot fly. Man has to discover ways to break the law of gravity. You know what the rules say. Anything that is heavier than air cannot fly. But there are other rules so that a Boeing 747 that weigh about 85 tons still can fly. The aeronautical engineers have figured out a way to get around those things without breaking the natural laws. So its important for us to let the flow or rhythm comes forth. Remember every thing that you earn in life is there and is still in the state of evolution. All the engineering schools are still in a state of evolution. Even the laws continue to change. Every thing is in a state of evolution, because things that are seen are subject to a state of change.
How do you control those changes? You don’t break the laws of music to create great music. You flow with those laws and you bring it to a higher pattern. You take those things and there is a rhythm because there is a rhythm that is deep in your spirit. Like the first man who built a suspension bridge, all the engineers looked at him and said it cannot be done. But he dreamt and dreamt and said that it can be done. And he conquered that engineering problems and he built a suspension bridge. Today it is nothing to build a suspension bridge. You could be trained in school to do it. But the first man who did it had no school to attend.
There is rhythm in our spirit that we need to flow with the music of our soul so that we are not limited by boundaries. So there is a gil or gul that is there. Notice in Isa. 35:1 the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. That means that if the desert doesn’t rejoice it shall not blossom. If the desert doesn’t have gil it will not blossom. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice. Look at verse 3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Verse 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. It all starts with the joy. Every promise of the Holy Spirit is the promise of the heavenly rhythm coming into our lives.
In the book of Joel there is a prophecy on the outpouring of the Spirit. Now Joel chapter 2 starts with fasting and seeking the Lord. And as you seek the Lord there is weeping and mourning. But that is not supposed to be your main condition. That leads to some thing. There is a fast in verse 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion. Then look at verse 21 now the Lord began to move in their lives. As the Lord moves in their lives what came first. The outpouring came first or the music came first. Let me tell you the music came first. If you want to see visions of heaven, if you want the heavenly experience, let the heavenly music touch you first in your heart. And let it flow out from you, from your spirit to your soul, to your body. Verse 21 Fear not, O land; be glad (the word glad is the word “gil” let that joy touch your body) and (sameah) rejoice. The same word found in Proverbs 17:22 be merry. Verse 23 Be glad (gil) O sons of Zion and (sameah) rejoice in the Lord, your God; for He has given the early rain for your vindication. See there is a heavenly music that God gives to us in the New Testament. It is linked to the outpouring of the Spirit.
Every move of God in church history has been accompanied with music. James 5:13 Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Why does he ask those who suffering to pray? And those who have joy let the joy fill their life even more. There is a clue given to you in Isaiah 56:7 These I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them (sameah) joyful in My house of prayer. Not you know why those who are sad or sorrowful let them pray. Because when you enter the house of prayer He gives you sameah. It makes your heart merry again. He tells you what happen in His house of prayer. Those who enter His house He gives you sameah which is Proverbs 17:22 a merry heart when you pray through because He wants to keep us in His covenant of blessing in our lives.
There is a word the joy in the soul too. Let turn to Ps. 35:9 Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in His deliverance. That word joy is the word sic and that joy is the joy of the soul. So there are many Hebrew words for the word joy. There is a word gil or gul, which refers to the joy that affects the body. There is a word sic that affects the soul. There is a word sameah that is a joy that is in our spirit. So when we talk about rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice, there are different degrees of that joy. We must first of all have sameah. Then we need to have our soul rejoicing sic. Then we need to have gil or gul, which is an outward expression of that joy.
And look at what Ps. 35:10 says All my bones shall say. You know your bones can talk. No wonder He says a merry heart do good like a medicine. For when sameah becomes sic and gil in your life, your body began to beat in the rhythm of God. Divine health comes in. There are several Hebrew words with a slight different meaning. The word alas speaks about times when nothing around you seems joyful. You are the only one seem joyful like in Habakkuk. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord though the fig tree does not blossom and the vine doesn’t bear fruit yet I will alas before the Lord, which means I will rejoice by faith. The word alas is the word of triumph. I will let joy triumph over my situation. Then there is a word renun, which means to sing out loud to the Lord. All these are related to the joy of sameah, sic and glu.
As we sing and look at heavenly music, we realize that heavenly music begins as a melody in your heart. And every time before God does some thing you look at the book of Revelation there is always a new song that goes up to God. Today human beings are in sin and they in discord. A lot of the human music is discord. They don’t produce health and healing. A lot of the rock music stirs up physical passion. They are in disharmony against God. A lot of the sentimental music gives you a melancholy spirit. It makes you very sad and moody. And so we need to hear the heavenly music that is so different from this earth. You can use any instrument that is there in the natural world but you must play it in the heavenly rhythm. That will produce immortal life. May God give us spiritual ears tune to them. It’s the power of music, if you allow this heavenly music to affect you. It starts with your tongue and melody in your heart. You will touch the realm of the heavenly nature.
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3. THE POWER OF ANGELS
By Pastor Peter Tan
Heb. 6:5 And have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. What are these powers of the age to come? Some of them are manifested as the gifts of the Spirit. These are things that are common in heaven but they are uncommon here. On this earth ever since man fell into sin we have lived more or less in the natural world although we are a spirit being. But when we are born again we experience something of the supernatural world. So there are powers of the age to come that we can experience even while on this earth.
Lets look at Col. 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Having been risen with Christ as Eph. 2 declares we will be raised up and seated in the heavenly places with Him. How do we maintain our position? Now here is the key that tells us how to maintain our position in Christ. Col. 3 verse 2 Set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth. If we do not know what things are above, how can we set our mind on them? You can’t have a blank mind thinking a blank thing. To set your mind on some things you have to have some ideas of what these things are. Which is why we are talking about the things of heaven in this teaching series so that we know what God wants for us to experience in part on this earth.
This morning we want to talk about the power of angels. In heaven one of the things you see is the multitude of angels that are there. God has assigned angels different special tasks. And part of the heavenly realm is borne by these angels. 4 special creatures even surround God’s throne. There are many types of angels. Ministering angels, warring angels, messenger angels, transportation angels and there are so many types of angels that we may only have a glimpse of them in the Word of God. Yet these angels function in the plan of God on this earth. God designed the plan that He has in our life on earth with angels in mind. The moment a child is born an angel is assigned. And as we move into different gifting and ministry in our life more angels are assigned. And as you fellowship with God angels encamp about you. God designed your life to work with angels. Unless we know how to co-operate with the angels we will not be able to partake of that heavenly work of the angels while on this planet earth.
Lets read some scriptures about these angelic beings. Exod. 25:18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.
If I were the craftsman I would look at Moses with a blank look and say, “Tell me what a cherubim looks like?” If you haven’t seen a cherub how do you make a cherub? Moses must have seen what the cherubim looked like. Even if Aholiab and Bezalel may not have seen it Moses would have tried to describe it to them what a cherub looks like for them to make the cherubim. Isn’t it interesting that there is only one piece of furniture in the Holy of holies in tabernacle of Moses? Unlike the Holy of holies in heaven have 2 pieces of furniture, where the altar of incense is brought into the holy of holies in the heavenly place. But on the Moses pattern they had to put it outside for they have to do some thing with it everyday, which they can’t if it was in the Holy of holies. So in the tabernacle of Moses in the Holy of holies there is only one piece of furniture. And its so holy that the high priest only sees it once a year where he comes in to bring the blood sacrifice for the whole nation on the Day of Atonement. This is on the 10th day of the 7th month just 10 days after the feast of trumpets.
And in that very place where we see the Shekinah glory dwells where nobody else can be, there is this big angel with 3 pairs of wings called the cherubim. I have done some cross-reference research on cherubim and seraphim. They have been used interchangeably in some places when you compare the account in Moses’ account and Ezekiel’s account and Isaiah’s account the same creature have been used interchangeably although some scholars think the cherubim and seraphim are 2 different types of angels. Whatever they are from descriptions in the bible they tell us that they have 3 pairs of wings, one that covers the face, one that fly and one seems to be showing the glory of God. They are different from the other angels. And they dwell in the most holy place. So angels do carry a degree of presence of God. And there is a tremendous power that they carry. It is so powerful that when these angels are allowed to be manifested on the earth without protection they can destroy. Whenever God wants to carry a work of judgment angels are involved. When He carries a work of redemption, mercy angels are involved. Remember the 2 angels that came down with God on the way to Sodom and Gomorrah. They have tremendous power when the people try to come against Lot they pulled Lot into the house and the glory blinded all the men.
Some times we think people like Jacob is the only man who could wrestle with an angel and win that wrestling match. It was because the angel chose a handicap in order not to destroy Jacob. You know what a handicap is? When I play chess and if you can’t play at the same level I will give you a free Bishop and then we play. So that’s a handicap. The angel did not use his full power with Jacob. Its just like some times we wrestle with children we don’t use the full strength. If you use the full strength of course they can never win you. How did we know? When Jacob was winning at the handicap level he just put out his finger and touch Jacob’s legs and his sinew and bone was affected. And for the rest of his life he had to limp. Just to tell you the angel didn’t wrestled at the same level. Why did the angel in the first place come down and play children’s sumo wrestling with Jacob? Jacob had been a wrestler all his life. He first started wrestling when he was in his mother’s womb. And God wanted to show him that the wrestling must come to an end on day. And that was the last wrestling he ever did in his life. From that day onward the bible tells us that the children of Israel never ate the sinew of the lamb. So we must remember that angels can come down to our level for a certain purpose alone.
Remember the time when God declared judgment on Jerusalem because of David’s fault. And just one angel swinging a sword caused thousands to die everywhere the angel stepped on. Although Hebrews tells us that God has made us in Christ with a position higher than the angels, it is only because we are in Christ Jesus. It is because of who Christ is. Man was made lower than the angels and it was only when Christ came that in Christ we are exalted to the right hand of God and became higher than the angels. However in our function on this earth even Jesus Himself at Gethsemane as He travailed needed an angel to strengthen Him. Remember how He cried in agony and the sweats dropped down as blood. An angel appeared and strengthened Him. So we still need their aid and their help.
In fact in the book of Exodus there is a lot of mention of angelic beings. Exod. 10-19 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready by the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, “Take heed that you do not go up into the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death; no hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.” When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” So Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. And he said to the people. “Be ready by the third day; do not go near a woman.” On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightning, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder.
Remember in II Chronicles 5: 13 when the trumpeters and singers make one sound in praising and thanking the Lord, suddenly the glory of God manifested and filled the house of the Lord. That was what the Lord was leading Moses to do.
An angel of God woke me up on Friday night and told me about meeting and the revival that is coming and I like his last words “I will visit you again.” So the revival is coming forth and he told me several things. The angels said some of you are not ready for revivals and he listed 5 different areas.
No. 1 some people of God are listening to a lot of worldly music that belong to the devil, and it will prevent you from gaining God’s presence when revival comes.
No. 2 some families’ relationships are not correct. Husbands and wives are not speaking to one another.
No. 3 not faithful in finances. They have not been obeying God in the things that God tells them to do and what to do with their finances.
No. 4 there some people who are getting into videos and literature that are of this world. They are not sanctifying themselves.
No. 5 they are people who have sins of the mouth, backbiting, gossiping, and lies.
When the revival comes if you don’t deal with those things is a dangerous thing. Some will die; some will have judgment fall on their life. And things will happen that they don’t why it happens. Because when revival comes and you don’t get rid of those things it’s a dangerous thing. Isn’t that interesting that in chapter 19 as God was about to bring His presence. God told the people sanctify themselves for 3 days. And on the third day, He said, “I will come.” Please don’t take these words lightly sanctify yourselves for the revival. If you don’t take heed to these words its not our responsibility if the judgment of God comes. Because it’s a dangerous thing when God moves. Now there is a move of God coming. The prayer room is packed like sardines. As the move of God in prayer revival comes forth, it may spread to many other days and nights. Just flow along with what God is doing.
So here God brings His presence and then He spoke to His people and He adds this statement in chapter 23 of Exodus verse 20. Behold I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared.
Although the presence of God was there in Moses’ ministry, basically an angelic ministry assisted Moses. Moses symbolizes an entire Old Testament. Angels brought his ministry forth. The book of Galatians tells us that the law was through angels through one mediator Moses. Jesus is a mediator of the new covenant. Let me turn to Galatians and read that to you so that we could establish that although sometimes angels speak in the first person as if God were speaking Himself, it is an angel of God who did the speaking. I know that some people try to put it as an appearance of Christ before His manifestation in the New Testament. But if you look carefully you also have the option of taking it as a mere powerful angel. Remember Exodus 3 where Moses saw the burning bush, the bible says it was the angel of the Lord that was in the burning bush. Although God was taking in the first person “I am the Lord, you are standing on holy ground,” yet it was an angel. Gal. 3:19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
That’s referring to Moses. He is talking about the law coming. So despite the great manifestations of God’s presence it was all the manifestation brought forth together by angels. Lets look back at Exod. 23 and what God said about this angel. Verse 21 Give heed to him and hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for My name is in him. That doesn’t sound like Christ. It is not Christ. It is an angel. Remember what Jesus says if you say some thing wrong about the Son and the Father there is forgiveness but if you say something against the Holy Spirit there is no more forgiveness. He says do not provoke him he will not pardon your transgression for My name is in him. See God sent one special angel to reveal the name of God to Moses. That’s the angel that appeared to him in the burning bush.
And if we read from man’s history we will see how wonderful it was. If we read from man’s perspective about the history about God’s people we will hear the history about the man of God Moses born as a child raised up in Pharaoh’s court went into the wilderness for 40 years. Called by God; did the signs and wonders with the rod of God and let the people out of Egypt; cross the Red Sea; and you would have the history of the man of God.
Let’s view it from the spiritual dimension. From God’s perspective on heavenly record it is not only the history of man but the history of how God worked through the angel. In God’s record there is record of God sending the angel to Moses. Remember the difference between Moses going out into the desert when he was 40 years and when God called him when he was 80 years old. When he was 40 years he was headstrong and he was proud and God had to humble him. Not only was there a difference in Moses’ character and life, but do you know what the other difference was? When he was 40 years he tried to deliver the Israelites without the angel of God. Not only was his character needed to change, but his ministry also needed the assistance of an angel to arrive. Of course we know that when he was 80 years his character was different. But the other truth is that when he was 40 years there was no angel with him. It was not time yet for the angel to be sent to manifest to him when he was 40 years old. When he was 80 years the angel came at the burning bush. The burning bush was there and the angel was standing in the middle of that bush.
Exod. 3:2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. This was the angel whom God sent to Moses to reveal the name I Am that I Am. “My Name is in him,” God said. God sends angels with messages. And as the angel stood in the middle of the bush and called to Moses, it was frightening to Moses. Don’t you think it’s frightening when you drive down the highway and the bush or tree called out your name? The reason why I am teaching this is because when the angel comes you need to be ready. I will show you afterwards why if you are caught off guard you may miss it. When you look at history from God’s perspective, God sent a special angel to Moses. Now Moses had an assignment and a mission. He had the rod in his hand and the power of God and anointing of God. As he walked back into Egypt don’t see Moses just walking back. See the angel walk back with him. And when Moses stood before Pharaoh there was an angel with him. No wonder the devils were scared. If you took away the angel Moses’ history would be like the same as when he was 40 years old. The difference was because the angel was now with him and Moses learned to co-operate with that angel. When the angel came out God was going to let him see how this angel work with him even more.
In Exodus chapter 23:21-25 Give heed to him and hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my Name is in him. But if you hearken attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. When my angel goes before you and brings you in to the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusities, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. You will serve the Lord your God, and I will bless your bread and your water and I will take sickness away from the midst of you. Look at all these blessings when you flow with that angel, the power of angels. When God speaks in this manner we think that when an angel comes you would automatically know. You need some teaching on that.
Let me share some account from Kenneth E. Hagin’s book, I Believe in Visions, chapter 6. Isn’t it wonderful to know that books really transmit God’s revelation? How many of you here have read books that changed your life? Books are an important part. It supplements what you are receiving in church. Good books will change your life. Bad books can destroy your life. And here he shares an account of an angel coming to visit him. It says here:
My fifth vision occurred in 1958 in Port Neches, Texas, while I was holding a revival meeting. One night as we were praying around the altar, a great spirit of prayer and intercession seemed to come upon the whole church. We prayed together for quite some time, and then I got up and sat in a chair on the platform.
One of the things that will happen in our revival meetings is that as we go into great prayer there will be a great manifestation of the Spirit. The angel told me that he will come and visit again. You see I have been obedient to bringing you the Word of God. Not only the teaching but the voice of what God is speaking today. This is the year of visitation and you have to be ready for His visitation. Which is the reason for this prayer meeting and we are encouraging everybody to come so that you don’t miss out on God’s visitation.
I was sitting there with my eyes open, singing in other tongues, when the Lord Jesus suddenly appeared on the platform - and about 3 feet behind Him stood an angel!
So in a prayer meeting Jesus appeared to him as he was sitting down praying and worshiping in tongues with his eyes open.
Jesus said to me, “I sent my angel to speak to you nearly one year ago out in California.” And in this passage he talked about the incident one year ago. Kenneth E. Hagin said, “I remembered the occasion and I remembered that I had not responded to him.”
How come he didn’t respond? How many of you may have realized that angels may have woken you up in the middle of the night. Although you slept late but you got up fresh like the morning dew. And you got up wondering why you woke up. The first thing you did is to look at the clock. Not time to wake up yet and go back to sleep. Maybe an angel has woken you up. You’ve just missed it, O sleepy head.
And he says, “I remembered the occasion, and I remembered that I had not responded to him.
That afternoon I had been lying across the bed in my home trailer meditating and reading my bible, getting ready for the evening service. Suddenly I had a feeling that some one had come into the trailer. I looked, but couldn’t see anybody. But I was positive that some one had come in through the door. It even seemed that I had heard the door open and close. I sensed that someone came and stood beside the bed. I reached my hand to feel whatever might be there and said, “I know you are there. Who are you?”
There was no response. Although I never saw anyone, I sensed that someone stood there for a few moments, turned around, retraced his steps around the foot of the bed, and went up through the trailer and out the door.
Then I seemed to be led by the Spirit to open my bible and read about the ministry of angels. I felt that an angel had come to me, but I had not opened my heart to that visitation.
Now here is Jesus standing in front of him saying one year ago his angel came to him while he was out in California and he had not responded. The Lord continued and talked to him and said, “I sent my angel to warn you again when you were out in California, because I saw that you hadn’t listened to the leading of my Spirit and didn’t respond to the warning.”
So God speaks to you first through the Holy Spirit. Now you understand why the angels don’t have to appear all the time. When you are obedient to God in being led by your inward witness and the Holy Spirit, the angels need not come again because you were obedient. So if you don’t see any angels doesn’t mean that you are in disobedience. If you are walking in the Spirit obeying your inward witness 100% all the time you may not have a single angelic encounter in your life, because you were obedient not because you were disobedient.
If you had yielded to the Holy Spirit (we can’t see angels with the natural eye unless God so wills for they are spirits) you would have been able to see into the realm of the spirit. By the discerning of spirits you would have seen the angel, and he would have delivered his message to you. If you had received it, you would have been spared all this financial troubles.
The main point that I want to bring forth in this passage here is this: if you had yielded to this angel and if you had responded to the Holy Spirit, then you would have seen into the realm of the spirits by the discerning of spirits.
Two things, if you have yielded to the work of this angel, if you had responded to the Holy Spirit. How come he didn’t respond? He was meditating on the bible. He was praying for the evening meeting. Remember what he said when the angel came, he questioned the angel, “I know you are there. Who are you?” Without faith it is impossible to please God. If you feel the presence of an angel and you don’t know it is an angel and you think it is the devil, then definitely you are not spiritually ready. If you can’t tell the difference between the presence of a demon and a presence of an angel, you are not ready. You have not developed in your sensing. How should he have yielded? He would say O God I know it is you. See God waits for an affirmation. Some of us just think that if angels came with messages that we will just get it. We have to be in the right disposition to receive them.
Agung Bangau, a tribal Christian in East Malaysia who headed a mighty revival there in the 1980s, shared how he first had an angelic encounter. He heard a voice. He couldn’t see who was speaking to him. A voice started telling him what to do. Then he says, “If you are of God you will not be afraid of showing yourself.” And the angel appeared to him. He says he looked like one of the tribal people. I wonder how many angels have visited you that you have not responded to. And you cannot respond without the help of the Holy Spirit. But it is possible to have God’s visitation to your life and you are not aware of it. You missed it altogether. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
I have some thing else for the second service. I just give you a little bit of it. Just a short little account here. Here is this person who is about to get into heaven. This sister shared, “He spoke to me in the spirit as I was being translated to heaven. He said, “Enter into my gates with thanksgiving and into my courts with praise.” In that very second I saw the pearly gates with many colors. These gates were huge column decorated with sculptures across the top, which arch together in a semi-circle over the door to form an opening. Below and in between those gates was one golden door, which fit into those gates. It was filled with beautiful sculptures. I could notice this because I was a sculptress at one time. Around the outside edge of the door where it fit into the arch column and down to the center of it a brilliant golden, orange and yellow lights were shining through it. When I first came to these gates through a mist, it makes the gates look like they were oyster shells pearls. After observing all these details the doors began to open inward. The immensity of the doors was evident because of the smallest of the figures I saw standing inside the door. When these doors opened the Shekinah glory of God shown in such brilliance. It was like looking at the sun without burning your eyes out. When I began to pass through those gates I cried out, “O Lord I am afraid.” Immediately I was conscious of kneeling on the cold terrazzo floor in the room of the hostel. Why I was afraid I couldn’t understand. Maybe it was the awesomeness of that occasion. The next minute I really blew it because I was fearful.
She was about to see heaven. Just as she was about to enter fear came and she was brought down right to earth. Fear cannot exist with God. In the second series I talk about perfecting love. Why perfect love cast out fear. And why we should have relationship with one another. Why people who find it hard to love other people will find it hard also to enter heaven. I mean we enter heaven by salvation in Jesus Christ. But I am talking about visions of heaven. If you don’t have perfect love you would still have fear in your life. So we see that where fear is faith cannot come. We need faith to respond to God. Faith to let the angels work in our lives. Remember in every thing you do you have a choice. When you speak in tongues, you could doubt your tongues. You have the free will to doubt your own tongues. The moment you do, if your tongue came from the Spirit, the Spirit becomes grieved and you find no more release. You could have a dream or a revelation that comes from God and then doubt whether it was God. And it will block the blessings of God. Remember no matter how many revelations you have, no matter how supernatural they are, you still need to learn to walk by faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
Now this is the part where we want to read and bring forth principles and close here on the work of the angels. And here is before the Israelites fell. Some times we think that all the Israelites are waiting there and they waited very long. And that is the only reason why they went and made the golden calf. That is true but do you know how much manifestations were there while they fell. The mountain and the smoke of glory were there all the time. They never ever disappeared throughout the 40 days and 40 nights. Now I can understand why Moses could go without food and water for 40 days and 40 nights. There was such glory.
Look at Exod. 24:9-18 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tables of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses rose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, “Tarry here for us, until we come to you again; and behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a curse let him go to them.” Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. And Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
The cloud was visible for 40 days and 40 nights and yet the Israelites make a golden calf. I mean it’s just like suddenly a fire appeared over the platform and everyone was worshiping God. And that supernatural fire lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Then people started taking it lightly. No wonder God killed them. With such manifestation, they were still not in fear of God. They were still not caught up by the fear of God. They made a golden calf and they started eating and drinking in the presence of God. They deserve to die. There were some things happening. We are living in times of revival. We do not have many years to Jesus’ coming. And God is preparing the last days revival. We want to be a part of it. Lets flow with what God is saying.
Then when God was angry with them, He started talking to Moses in chapter 32 about judgment coming on to the people. Then Moses came down in chapter 32 and in one day 3000 people died. Chapter 33:1-3 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart, go up hence, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, “To your descendants I will give it.” And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you in the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
Now God said, “My angel will go with you but I myself will not go.” That is very strange. He already talked about sending His angels earlier we saw in chapter 23 and here is where we do a little separation. There is a difference the presence of God and the angel of God although the angel of God and the presence of God seems to be together. Now God said, “Let My Angel go.” So there is a degree of His manifested presence. So Moses took his tent and moved his tent out from everybody and God appeared in his tent as a symbol of God rejecting the people; He only talk with Moses. Then Moses asked for God’s mercy. Then when God showed His glory to His people.
Moses was very smart as an intercessor. Chapter 34:9 And he said, “If now, I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Thy inheritance.”
Moses said to God, God come and dwell inside us. Then the Lord replied in verse 10 And He said, “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been wrought in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord; for it is a terrible thing that I will do with you.
I believe that God answered Moses prayer. He came down into their midst. Now the people were in sin and they were not perfect; they were stiff-necked. And here Moses asked for God’s presence and God answered. What was His answer? I will make a covenant with you. And from that time onwards God has shown the people who honors His covenant His presence will work with them.
The first thing we do is to separate the work of the angels and the presence of God. They are both inter-related but not quite the same. The 2 cherubim standing on the 2 sides of the mercy seat were not the Mercy Seat. They were part of the furniture. There is another place called the Mercy Seat. And the cherubim faced the Mercy Seat because the cherubim’s work is to direct you there all the time. And you remember king David when he numbered the people and destruction started falling, when God show mercy and compassion and stop the plague, David made a sacrifice to the Lord and on the spot where God showed mercy and the plague stopped David marked it as the place to build the temple, the covenant of God. So here we have a relationship between the work of angels and the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat is where God’s presence is. The angels seek to conform to that covenant. He is called some times the angel of the covenant.
Now as we work with God and we look at the power of angels, we see a tremendous work here. That all the works of the angels that they come to bring forth at each place and each time of their manifestation it has been to turn their faces towards the covenant. They turn God’s people towards the covenant. And the cherubim are in the last piece of the furniture. You know what were the earlier pieces of furniture? The other 5 pieces of the furniture are firstly, the brazen altar, representing the blood. If you don’t come through the blood the angels cannot work in your life. Secondly is the laver, which represents the washing with the Word of God. Thirdly is the candlestick, representing the Holy Spirit. Fourthly is the table of showbread, representing the Name of Jesus. And lastly is the altar of incense, representing the power of praise and worship. Do you notice the progression before the Holy of holies?
For the angels to work in our life we must give place for all these things to be in our life. All these other principles relate to the covenant for the angels to work. And all these ceremonies outside you could summarize it in the principles of faith. In Christ faith fulfill every thing. Faith in the Blood, faith in the Word, faith in the gifts of the Spirit, faith in the Name of Jesus, faith in the power of prayer and worship. Without faith it is impossible to please God. You must have faith in all those things that God does in your life. You must have faith in the gifts that God have given you in your life. You must have faith that when you have sinned and you confess God cleanses them. You must have faith when God operates in your life through dreams, visions or gifts of the Spirit. You must have faith when God speaks to you in a prophecy that is from Him. Remember the author of Hebrews explained very clearly that the only thing that blocked the Jews from going into that rest is that they did not hear the Word mixed with faith.
Kenneth Hagin did not respond and the main thing is he did not have faith. He said I know you are there. Who are you? Faith doesn’t ask, “Who are you?” That is the summary of why he didn’t respond. What does it mean by yielding. Yielding means to believe without seeing. Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen. Faith must come before seeing. If you have faith it lead you into the realm of seeing. You must have faith in the voice of the angel speaking to you even if you don’t see them. In the things that the angels instruct you in your life even though you don’t see them. In the directions they give to you in your life even though you don’t see them. And you must recognize what it is so that they could work in your life. But don’t stop there. They are to lead you into the presence of God. If angels have started working in your life don’t stop there. Angels carry the presence of God but they are different from the presence of God.
Moses was good enough to say, “Lord, even though you promised your angels to go with us and we will still have success, but we want you to be in the midst of us.” From that day onwards Moses’ face shone because he desired God’s presence. It didn’t shine once according to the book of Exod. 34:35 The people of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone; and Moses would put the veil upon his face again. Did you see the word again? So that tells me that when he came down from the mount the second time his face was shining. And then after some time maybe the shining part slowly disappeared. But every time he went up and speak in God’s presence in the tent his face was shining again. The angels have come to help us bring the glory of God so that people can look at you and say the glory of God is on your life.
Paul said in II Cor. 3: 7-8 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
We have a greater glory than Moses and we need to move into this greater glory. But this is the strange thing. You cannot move in without the help of the angels. That is why the 2 cherubim were there hovering over the Mercy Seat. You need to co-operate with the angels to usher in the greatest and awesome revival coming on the face of the earth. God is releasing His greatest glory in the church yet ever seen in the world. And we need the help of the angels to bring us to that place and point. So that with the help of the angels and the Holy Spirit we can enter into the glory that we have never entered before.
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Heb. 6:5 And have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. What are these powers of the age to come? Some of them are manifested as the gifts of the Spirit. These are things that are common in heaven but they are uncommon here. On this earth ever since man fell into sin we have lived more or less in the natural world although we are a spirit being. But when we are born again we experience something of the supernatural world. So there are powers of the age to come that we can experience even while on this earth.
Lets look at Col. 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Having been risen with Christ as Eph. 2 declares we will be raised up and seated in the heavenly places with Him. How do we maintain our position? Now here is the key that tells us how to maintain our position in Christ. Col. 3 verse 2 Set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth. If we do not know what things are above, how can we set our mind on them? You can’t have a blank mind thinking a blank thing. To set your mind on some things you have to have some ideas of what these things are. Which is why we are talking about the things of heaven in this teaching series so that we know what God wants for us to experience in part on this earth.
This morning we want to talk about the power of angels. In heaven one of the things you see is the multitude of angels that are there. God has assigned angels different special tasks. And part of the heavenly realm is borne by these angels. 4 special creatures even surround God’s throne. There are many types of angels. Ministering angels, warring angels, messenger angels, transportation angels and there are so many types of angels that we may only have a glimpse of them in the Word of God. Yet these angels function in the plan of God on this earth. God designed the plan that He has in our life on earth with angels in mind. The moment a child is born an angel is assigned. And as we move into different gifting and ministry in our life more angels are assigned. And as you fellowship with God angels encamp about you. God designed your life to work with angels. Unless we know how to co-operate with the angels we will not be able to partake of that heavenly work of the angels while on this planet earth.
Lets read some scriptures about these angelic beings. Exod. 25:18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.
If I were the craftsman I would look at Moses with a blank look and say, “Tell me what a cherubim looks like?” If you haven’t seen a cherub how do you make a cherub? Moses must have seen what the cherubim looked like. Even if Aholiab and Bezalel may not have seen it Moses would have tried to describe it to them what a cherub looks like for them to make the cherubim. Isn’t it interesting that there is only one piece of furniture in the Holy of holies in tabernacle of Moses? Unlike the Holy of holies in heaven have 2 pieces of furniture, where the altar of incense is brought into the holy of holies in the heavenly place. But on the Moses pattern they had to put it outside for they have to do some thing with it everyday, which they can’t if it was in the Holy of holies. So in the tabernacle of Moses in the Holy of holies there is only one piece of furniture. And its so holy that the high priest only sees it once a year where he comes in to bring the blood sacrifice for the whole nation on the Day of Atonement. This is on the 10th day of the 7th month just 10 days after the feast of trumpets.
And in that very place where we see the Shekinah glory dwells where nobody else can be, there is this big angel with 3 pairs of wings called the cherubim. I have done some cross-reference research on cherubim and seraphim. They have been used interchangeably in some places when you compare the account in Moses’ account and Ezekiel’s account and Isaiah’s account the same creature have been used interchangeably although some scholars think the cherubim and seraphim are 2 different types of angels. Whatever they are from descriptions in the bible they tell us that they have 3 pairs of wings, one that covers the face, one that fly and one seems to be showing the glory of God. They are different from the other angels. And they dwell in the most holy place. So angels do carry a degree of presence of God. And there is a tremendous power that they carry. It is so powerful that when these angels are allowed to be manifested on the earth without protection they can destroy. Whenever God wants to carry a work of judgment angels are involved. When He carries a work of redemption, mercy angels are involved. Remember the 2 angels that came down with God on the way to Sodom and Gomorrah. They have tremendous power when the people try to come against Lot they pulled Lot into the house and the glory blinded all the men.
Some times we think people like Jacob is the only man who could wrestle with an angel and win that wrestling match. It was because the angel chose a handicap in order not to destroy Jacob. You know what a handicap is? When I play chess and if you can’t play at the same level I will give you a free Bishop and then we play. So that’s a handicap. The angel did not use his full power with Jacob. Its just like some times we wrestle with children we don’t use the full strength. If you use the full strength of course they can never win you. How did we know? When Jacob was winning at the handicap level he just put out his finger and touch Jacob’s legs and his sinew and bone was affected. And for the rest of his life he had to limp. Just to tell you the angel didn’t wrestled at the same level. Why did the angel in the first place come down and play children’s sumo wrestling with Jacob? Jacob had been a wrestler all his life. He first started wrestling when he was in his mother’s womb. And God wanted to show him that the wrestling must come to an end on day. And that was the last wrestling he ever did in his life. From that day onward the bible tells us that the children of Israel never ate the sinew of the lamb. So we must remember that angels can come down to our level for a certain purpose alone.
Remember the time when God declared judgment on Jerusalem because of David’s fault. And just one angel swinging a sword caused thousands to die everywhere the angel stepped on. Although Hebrews tells us that God has made us in Christ with a position higher than the angels, it is only because we are in Christ Jesus. It is because of who Christ is. Man was made lower than the angels and it was only when Christ came that in Christ we are exalted to the right hand of God and became higher than the angels. However in our function on this earth even Jesus Himself at Gethsemane as He travailed needed an angel to strengthen Him. Remember how He cried in agony and the sweats dropped down as blood. An angel appeared and strengthened Him. So we still need their aid and their help.
In fact in the book of Exodus there is a lot of mention of angelic beings. Exod. 10-19 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready by the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, “Take heed that you do not go up into the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death; no hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.” When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” So Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. And he said to the people. “Be ready by the third day; do not go near a woman.” On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightning, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder.
Remember in II Chronicles 5: 13 when the trumpeters and singers make one sound in praising and thanking the Lord, suddenly the glory of God manifested and filled the house of the Lord. That was what the Lord was leading Moses to do.
An angel of God woke me up on Friday night and told me about meeting and the revival that is coming and I like his last words “I will visit you again.” So the revival is coming forth and he told me several things. The angels said some of you are not ready for revivals and he listed 5 different areas.
No. 1 some people of God are listening to a lot of worldly music that belong to the devil, and it will prevent you from gaining God’s presence when revival comes.
No. 2 some families’ relationships are not correct. Husbands and wives are not speaking to one another.
No. 3 not faithful in finances. They have not been obeying God in the things that God tells them to do and what to do with their finances.
No. 4 there some people who are getting into videos and literature that are of this world. They are not sanctifying themselves.
No. 5 they are people who have sins of the mouth, backbiting, gossiping, and lies.
When the revival comes if you don’t deal with those things is a dangerous thing. Some will die; some will have judgment fall on their life. And things will happen that they don’t why it happens. Because when revival comes and you don’t get rid of those things it’s a dangerous thing. Isn’t that interesting that in chapter 19 as God was about to bring His presence. God told the people sanctify themselves for 3 days. And on the third day, He said, “I will come.” Please don’t take these words lightly sanctify yourselves for the revival. If you don’t take heed to these words its not our responsibility if the judgment of God comes. Because it’s a dangerous thing when God moves. Now there is a move of God coming. The prayer room is packed like sardines. As the move of God in prayer revival comes forth, it may spread to many other days and nights. Just flow along with what God is doing.
So here God brings His presence and then He spoke to His people and He adds this statement in chapter 23 of Exodus verse 20. Behold I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared.
Although the presence of God was there in Moses’ ministry, basically an angelic ministry assisted Moses. Moses symbolizes an entire Old Testament. Angels brought his ministry forth. The book of Galatians tells us that the law was through angels through one mediator Moses. Jesus is a mediator of the new covenant. Let me turn to Galatians and read that to you so that we could establish that although sometimes angels speak in the first person as if God were speaking Himself, it is an angel of God who did the speaking. I know that some people try to put it as an appearance of Christ before His manifestation in the New Testament. But if you look carefully you also have the option of taking it as a mere powerful angel. Remember Exodus 3 where Moses saw the burning bush, the bible says it was the angel of the Lord that was in the burning bush. Although God was taking in the first person “I am the Lord, you are standing on holy ground,” yet it was an angel. Gal. 3:19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.
That’s referring to Moses. He is talking about the law coming. So despite the great manifestations of God’s presence it was all the manifestation brought forth together by angels. Lets look back at Exod. 23 and what God said about this angel. Verse 21 Give heed to him and hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for My name is in him. That doesn’t sound like Christ. It is not Christ. It is an angel. Remember what Jesus says if you say some thing wrong about the Son and the Father there is forgiveness but if you say something against the Holy Spirit there is no more forgiveness. He says do not provoke him he will not pardon your transgression for My name is in him. See God sent one special angel to reveal the name of God to Moses. That’s the angel that appeared to him in the burning bush.
And if we read from man’s history we will see how wonderful it was. If we read from man’s perspective about the history about God’s people we will hear the history about the man of God Moses born as a child raised up in Pharaoh’s court went into the wilderness for 40 years. Called by God; did the signs and wonders with the rod of God and let the people out of Egypt; cross the Red Sea; and you would have the history of the man of God.
Let’s view it from the spiritual dimension. From God’s perspective on heavenly record it is not only the history of man but the history of how God worked through the angel. In God’s record there is record of God sending the angel to Moses. Remember the difference between Moses going out into the desert when he was 40 years and when God called him when he was 80 years old. When he was 40 years he was headstrong and he was proud and God had to humble him. Not only was there a difference in Moses’ character and life, but do you know what the other difference was? When he was 40 years he tried to deliver the Israelites without the angel of God. Not only was his character needed to change, but his ministry also needed the assistance of an angel to arrive. Of course we know that when he was 80 years his character was different. But the other truth is that when he was 40 years there was no angel with him. It was not time yet for the angel to be sent to manifest to him when he was 40 years old. When he was 80 years the angel came at the burning bush. The burning bush was there and the angel was standing in the middle of that bush.
Exod. 3:2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. This was the angel whom God sent to Moses to reveal the name I Am that I Am. “My Name is in him,” God said. God sends angels with messages. And as the angel stood in the middle of the bush and called to Moses, it was frightening to Moses. Don’t you think it’s frightening when you drive down the highway and the bush or tree called out your name? The reason why I am teaching this is because when the angel comes you need to be ready. I will show you afterwards why if you are caught off guard you may miss it. When you look at history from God’s perspective, God sent a special angel to Moses. Now Moses had an assignment and a mission. He had the rod in his hand and the power of God and anointing of God. As he walked back into Egypt don’t see Moses just walking back. See the angel walk back with him. And when Moses stood before Pharaoh there was an angel with him. No wonder the devils were scared. If you took away the angel Moses’ history would be like the same as when he was 40 years old. The difference was because the angel was now with him and Moses learned to co-operate with that angel. When the angel came out God was going to let him see how this angel work with him even more.
In Exodus chapter 23:21-25 Give heed to him and hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my Name is in him. But if you hearken attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. When my angel goes before you and brings you in to the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusities, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. You will serve the Lord your God, and I will bless your bread and your water and I will take sickness away from the midst of you. Look at all these blessings when you flow with that angel, the power of angels. When God speaks in this manner we think that when an angel comes you would automatically know. You need some teaching on that.
Let me share some account from Kenneth E. Hagin’s book, I Believe in Visions, chapter 6. Isn’t it wonderful to know that books really transmit God’s revelation? How many of you here have read books that changed your life? Books are an important part. It supplements what you are receiving in church. Good books will change your life. Bad books can destroy your life. And here he shares an account of an angel coming to visit him. It says here:
My fifth vision occurred in 1958 in Port Neches, Texas, while I was holding a revival meeting. One night as we were praying around the altar, a great spirit of prayer and intercession seemed to come upon the whole church. We prayed together for quite some time, and then I got up and sat in a chair on the platform.
One of the things that will happen in our revival meetings is that as we go into great prayer there will be a great manifestation of the Spirit. The angel told me that he will come and visit again. You see I have been obedient to bringing you the Word of God. Not only the teaching but the voice of what God is speaking today. This is the year of visitation and you have to be ready for His visitation. Which is the reason for this prayer meeting and we are encouraging everybody to come so that you don’t miss out on God’s visitation.
I was sitting there with my eyes open, singing in other tongues, when the Lord Jesus suddenly appeared on the platform - and about 3 feet behind Him stood an angel!
So in a prayer meeting Jesus appeared to him as he was sitting down praying and worshiping in tongues with his eyes open.
Jesus said to me, “I sent my angel to speak to you nearly one year ago out in California.” And in this passage he talked about the incident one year ago. Kenneth E. Hagin said, “I remembered the occasion and I remembered that I had not responded to him.”
How come he didn’t respond? How many of you may have realized that angels may have woken you up in the middle of the night. Although you slept late but you got up fresh like the morning dew. And you got up wondering why you woke up. The first thing you did is to look at the clock. Not time to wake up yet and go back to sleep. Maybe an angel has woken you up. You’ve just missed it, O sleepy head.
And he says, “I remembered the occasion, and I remembered that I had not responded to him.
That afternoon I had been lying across the bed in my home trailer meditating and reading my bible, getting ready for the evening service. Suddenly I had a feeling that some one had come into the trailer. I looked, but couldn’t see anybody. But I was positive that some one had come in through the door. It even seemed that I had heard the door open and close. I sensed that someone came and stood beside the bed. I reached my hand to feel whatever might be there and said, “I know you are there. Who are you?”
There was no response. Although I never saw anyone, I sensed that someone stood there for a few moments, turned around, retraced his steps around the foot of the bed, and went up through the trailer and out the door.
Then I seemed to be led by the Spirit to open my bible and read about the ministry of angels. I felt that an angel had come to me, but I had not opened my heart to that visitation.
Now here is Jesus standing in front of him saying one year ago his angel came to him while he was out in California and he had not responded. The Lord continued and talked to him and said, “I sent my angel to warn you again when you were out in California, because I saw that you hadn’t listened to the leading of my Spirit and didn’t respond to the warning.”
So God speaks to you first through the Holy Spirit. Now you understand why the angels don’t have to appear all the time. When you are obedient to God in being led by your inward witness and the Holy Spirit, the angels need not come again because you were obedient. So if you don’t see any angels doesn’t mean that you are in disobedience. If you are walking in the Spirit obeying your inward witness 100% all the time you may not have a single angelic encounter in your life, because you were obedient not because you were disobedient.
If you had yielded to the Holy Spirit (we can’t see angels with the natural eye unless God so wills for they are spirits) you would have been able to see into the realm of the spirit. By the discerning of spirits you would have seen the angel, and he would have delivered his message to you. If you had received it, you would have been spared all this financial troubles.
The main point that I want to bring forth in this passage here is this: if you had yielded to this angel and if you had responded to the Holy Spirit, then you would have seen into the realm of the spirits by the discerning of spirits.
Two things, if you have yielded to the work of this angel, if you had responded to the Holy Spirit. How come he didn’t respond? He was meditating on the bible. He was praying for the evening meeting. Remember what he said when the angel came, he questioned the angel, “I know you are there. Who are you?” Without faith it is impossible to please God. If you feel the presence of an angel and you don’t know it is an angel and you think it is the devil, then definitely you are not spiritually ready. If you can’t tell the difference between the presence of a demon and a presence of an angel, you are not ready. You have not developed in your sensing. How should he have yielded? He would say O God I know it is you. See God waits for an affirmation. Some of us just think that if angels came with messages that we will just get it. We have to be in the right disposition to receive them.
Agung Bangau, a tribal Christian in East Malaysia who headed a mighty revival there in the 1980s, shared how he first had an angelic encounter. He heard a voice. He couldn’t see who was speaking to him. A voice started telling him what to do. Then he says, “If you are of God you will not be afraid of showing yourself.” And the angel appeared to him. He says he looked like one of the tribal people. I wonder how many angels have visited you that you have not responded to. And you cannot respond without the help of the Holy Spirit. But it is possible to have God’s visitation to your life and you are not aware of it. You missed it altogether. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
I have some thing else for the second service. I just give you a little bit of it. Just a short little account here. Here is this person who is about to get into heaven. This sister shared, “He spoke to me in the spirit as I was being translated to heaven. He said, “Enter into my gates with thanksgiving and into my courts with praise.” In that very second I saw the pearly gates with many colors. These gates were huge column decorated with sculptures across the top, which arch together in a semi-circle over the door to form an opening. Below and in between those gates was one golden door, which fit into those gates. It was filled with beautiful sculptures. I could notice this because I was a sculptress at one time. Around the outside edge of the door where it fit into the arch column and down to the center of it a brilliant golden, orange and yellow lights were shining through it. When I first came to these gates through a mist, it makes the gates look like they were oyster shells pearls. After observing all these details the doors began to open inward. The immensity of the doors was evident because of the smallest of the figures I saw standing inside the door. When these doors opened the Shekinah glory of God shown in such brilliance. It was like looking at the sun without burning your eyes out. When I began to pass through those gates I cried out, “O Lord I am afraid.” Immediately I was conscious of kneeling on the cold terrazzo floor in the room of the hostel. Why I was afraid I couldn’t understand. Maybe it was the awesomeness of that occasion. The next minute I really blew it because I was fearful.
She was about to see heaven. Just as she was about to enter fear came and she was brought down right to earth. Fear cannot exist with God. In the second series I talk about perfecting love. Why perfect love cast out fear. And why we should have relationship with one another. Why people who find it hard to love other people will find it hard also to enter heaven. I mean we enter heaven by salvation in Jesus Christ. But I am talking about visions of heaven. If you don’t have perfect love you would still have fear in your life. So we see that where fear is faith cannot come. We need faith to respond to God. Faith to let the angels work in our lives. Remember in every thing you do you have a choice. When you speak in tongues, you could doubt your tongues. You have the free will to doubt your own tongues. The moment you do, if your tongue came from the Spirit, the Spirit becomes grieved and you find no more release. You could have a dream or a revelation that comes from God and then doubt whether it was God. And it will block the blessings of God. Remember no matter how many revelations you have, no matter how supernatural they are, you still need to learn to walk by faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
Now this is the part where we want to read and bring forth principles and close here on the work of the angels. And here is before the Israelites fell. Some times we think that all the Israelites are waiting there and they waited very long. And that is the only reason why they went and made the golden calf. That is true but do you know how much manifestations were there while they fell. The mountain and the smoke of glory were there all the time. They never ever disappeared throughout the 40 days and 40 nights. Now I can understand why Moses could go without food and water for 40 days and 40 nights. There was such glory.
Look at Exod. 24:9-18 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tables of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses rose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, “Tarry here for us, until we come to you again; and behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a curse let him go to them.” Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. And Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
The cloud was visible for 40 days and 40 nights and yet the Israelites make a golden calf. I mean it’s just like suddenly a fire appeared over the platform and everyone was worshiping God. And that supernatural fire lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Then people started taking it lightly. No wonder God killed them. With such manifestation, they were still not in fear of God. They were still not caught up by the fear of God. They made a golden calf and they started eating and drinking in the presence of God. They deserve to die. There were some things happening. We are living in times of revival. We do not have many years to Jesus’ coming. And God is preparing the last days revival. We want to be a part of it. Lets flow with what God is saying.
Then when God was angry with them, He started talking to Moses in chapter 32 about judgment coming on to the people. Then Moses came down in chapter 32 and in one day 3000 people died. Chapter 33:1-3 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart, go up hence, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, “To your descendants I will give it.” And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you in the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
Now God said, “My angel will go with you but I myself will not go.” That is very strange. He already talked about sending His angels earlier we saw in chapter 23 and here is where we do a little separation. There is a difference the presence of God and the angel of God although the angel of God and the presence of God seems to be together. Now God said, “Let My Angel go.” So there is a degree of His manifested presence. So Moses took his tent and moved his tent out from everybody and God appeared in his tent as a symbol of God rejecting the people; He only talk with Moses. Then Moses asked for God’s mercy. Then when God showed His glory to His people.
Moses was very smart as an intercessor. Chapter 34:9 And he said, “If now, I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Thy inheritance.”
Moses said to God, God come and dwell inside us. Then the Lord replied in verse 10 And He said, “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been wrought in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord; for it is a terrible thing that I will do with you.
I believe that God answered Moses prayer. He came down into their midst. Now the people were in sin and they were not perfect; they were stiff-necked. And here Moses asked for God’s presence and God answered. What was His answer? I will make a covenant with you. And from that time onwards God has shown the people who honors His covenant His presence will work with them.
The first thing we do is to separate the work of the angels and the presence of God. They are both inter-related but not quite the same. The 2 cherubim standing on the 2 sides of the mercy seat were not the Mercy Seat. They were part of the furniture. There is another place called the Mercy Seat. And the cherubim faced the Mercy Seat because the cherubim’s work is to direct you there all the time. And you remember king David when he numbered the people and destruction started falling, when God show mercy and compassion and stop the plague, David made a sacrifice to the Lord and on the spot where God showed mercy and the plague stopped David marked it as the place to build the temple, the covenant of God. So here we have a relationship between the work of angels and the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat is where God’s presence is. The angels seek to conform to that covenant. He is called some times the angel of the covenant.
Now as we work with God and we look at the power of angels, we see a tremendous work here. That all the works of the angels that they come to bring forth at each place and each time of their manifestation it has been to turn their faces towards the covenant. They turn God’s people towards the covenant. And the cherubim are in the last piece of the furniture. You know what were the earlier pieces of furniture? The other 5 pieces of the furniture are firstly, the brazen altar, representing the blood. If you don’t come through the blood the angels cannot work in your life. Secondly is the laver, which represents the washing with the Word of God. Thirdly is the candlestick, representing the Holy Spirit. Fourthly is the table of showbread, representing the Name of Jesus. And lastly is the altar of incense, representing the power of praise and worship. Do you notice the progression before the Holy of holies?
For the angels to work in our life we must give place for all these things to be in our life. All these other principles relate to the covenant for the angels to work. And all these ceremonies outside you could summarize it in the principles of faith. In Christ faith fulfill every thing. Faith in the Blood, faith in the Word, faith in the gifts of the Spirit, faith in the Name of Jesus, faith in the power of prayer and worship. Without faith it is impossible to please God. You must have faith in all those things that God does in your life. You must have faith in the gifts that God have given you in your life. You must have faith that when you have sinned and you confess God cleanses them. You must have faith when God operates in your life through dreams, visions or gifts of the Spirit. You must have faith when God speaks to you in a prophecy that is from Him. Remember the author of Hebrews explained very clearly that the only thing that blocked the Jews from going into that rest is that they did not hear the Word mixed with faith.
Kenneth Hagin did not respond and the main thing is he did not have faith. He said I know you are there. Who are you? Faith doesn’t ask, “Who are you?” That is the summary of why he didn’t respond. What does it mean by yielding. Yielding means to believe without seeing. Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen. Faith must come before seeing. If you have faith it lead you into the realm of seeing. You must have faith in the voice of the angel speaking to you even if you don’t see them. In the things that the angels instruct you in your life even though you don’t see them. In the directions they give to you in your life even though you don’t see them. And you must recognize what it is so that they could work in your life. But don’t stop there. They are to lead you into the presence of God. If angels have started working in your life don’t stop there. Angels carry the presence of God but they are different from the presence of God.
Moses was good enough to say, “Lord, even though you promised your angels to go with us and we will still have success, but we want you to be in the midst of us.” From that day onwards Moses’ face shone because he desired God’s presence. It didn’t shine once according to the book of Exod. 34:35 The people of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone; and Moses would put the veil upon his face again. Did you see the word again? So that tells me that when he came down from the mount the second time his face was shining. And then after some time maybe the shining part slowly disappeared. But every time he went up and speak in God’s presence in the tent his face was shining again. The angels have come to help us bring the glory of God so that people can look at you and say the glory of God is on your life.
Paul said in II Cor. 3: 7-8 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
We have a greater glory than Moses and we need to move into this greater glory. But this is the strange thing. You cannot move in without the help of the angels. That is why the 2 cherubim were there hovering over the Mercy Seat. You need to co-operate with the angels to usher in the greatest and awesome revival coming on the face of the earth. God is releasing His greatest glory in the church yet ever seen in the world. And we need the help of the angels to bring us to that place and point. So that with the help of the angels and the Holy Spirit we can enter into the glory that we have never entered before.
Source : www.eaglevision.com.my
Email : spiritword@bigpond.com
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