By Chijioke Nwauche
(14th June, 2009)
[For a printable version click here.]
QUOTABLE QUOTES
There is a gospel from hell going round Christian circles. It is the ‘I’ gospel, the ‘I’, ‘I’ (me) mentality. We must deal with the ‘ME’ attitude. The bible says Matt 16 v 24“if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” The gospel we hear today is a gospel of prosperity, a gospel that promotes self, a gospel that has done away with the “death to self message”. We pray prayers that ‘return arrows to the sender’ (human beings like us) instead of binding the demon spirits that supervise mortal men. This gospel has corrupted many churches, we must beware.
THE FLESH
This message of the Flesh is very important. There are different levels or depths of the flesh; I believe God wants us to address every aspect of the flesh so we can deal with it in our lives effectively. The veil separates the holy place from the most holy place. (Flesh means veil Heb 10 v19). Jesus Christ broke through the veil which is His flesh, so we know that the veil speaks of the flesh. The most holy place has no door, so it makes it clear that the only way to go through, is to break through that veil; but in this veil, there are barriers, there are obstacles, it is not just easy to walk in. Jesus had to break through His own veil which is His own flesh, so if you want to go into this most holy place experience you most break through your own veil, i.e. is your own flesh and flesh is something that is with every man. This is the basic A, B, C, of Christianity, however many are glossing over it. The conclusion is that we must do away with our fleshly nature. The matter of the Flesh is a matter of life and death, it is either you go or the flesh goes, there is no middle ground. They that are in the flesh can never please God. (Rom 8 v 8). Flesh is flesh, whether seemly, good or holy. E.g. Is there any thing like righteous war”? Of course not, Flesh indeed will ever remain flesh, no matter how good or righteous it may appear to be. If you spare anger, it will destroy you one day and rob you of all your Christian testimony. Do not be sympathetic to the flesh; it will surely be your undoing. The purpose of the flesh is to take us captive, to bring us into captivity. The more you walk in the flesh the more you are taken captive and the more you need deliverance. There is something in our minds that tells us Flesh is good. Flesh whether it appears good or not, will lead you into captivity. Good flesh is bad, just as bad flesh is equally bad. The Devil is the Devil, no matter the guise he comes in, one thing you should know is that the Devil has already declared war on you. He is after your soul.
THE ORIGIN OF THE BEAST: NATURE
In Rev 13 v 1, we hear of two important words; the Beast and the Sea. The Beast according to the Bible, rises up from the Sea. This Sea is symbolic; it speaks of peoples, tongues, tribes; in order words it speaks of something that is general and applicable to every man in the world (Rev 17:15). The passage goes on to describe a beast coming out of the sea. Obviously this sea is not a natural sea, like the Atlantic Ocean but it is describing the human nature, i.e. the Beast coming out of the Sea can then be interpreted as a particular nature that is found in man. The creature described in Rev 13, had 7 heads, 10 crowns, and 10 horns. This is a very powerful spirit (7 is the number of completion, horn speaks of authority, kingdom or power; head speaks of dominion. Power and crown also speak of the same measure of authority, rulership, etc). This beast is a powerful one indeed and has dominion over all the earth. Now there is a characteristic you find among the spirits which the bible says will be released in this end time. They are what you will call multi-natured spirits i.e they have diverse manifestations e.g the passage talks about the leopard, (one manifestation), you have the lion (another manifestation) all of the same spirit. Daniel 7 also describes such a spirit. So this beast is working with the dragon. We are looking at two things. The Dragon (Satan, Devil) and the Beast (A manifestation of the nature of the soul). Revelation v 18 gives us a key. v 18“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” .We are being told here that we will need special discernment to understand the picture that is being painted. It says it is the number of a man. To understand this clearly we need to understand some thing about numbers, a number is a measure of quantity, it tells you the value or quantity of something. This passage is telling us that the number of the beast is 666. We already know 6 is the number of man (on the sixth day God created man). Gen 3, tells us that when man was created he was in fellowship with God. He was in a realm of glory until the devil came and introduced the seed of sin (rebellion) which corrupted man’s nature, it corrupted his mind, it set up a principle of rebellion; the law of sin and death. The nature of man changed from that point on. This sin nature has progressed through time. In Genesis we see that nature manifested as a mere serpent but in Revelation we see a dragon or Beast, (the fullness of the nature of rebellion in man in Genesis), remember the principle of sowing and reaping. The rebellion that entered the soul of man has multiplied and is now at work. Romans 7, tells us about the principle of sin and death (the old man). Apostle Paul explained this in the book of Romans when he tried to describe this nature; he said “even when I want to do good I find another Law working in my members forcing me and making me to do what I do not want to do”. The bible says in Romans 8 “the carnal man is enmity against God, it is not subject to God, neither can it be”. It would neither; nor does it desire to be subject to God; in order words it has only one destination, it is on its way to hell. Rev 19 tells us the Beast, the false Prophet and the Dragon were taken and cast in to the lake of fire. May this beast not take you and I with it.
The Beast will not and cannot be born again, the only thing that you can do to this beastly nature is to slay it, do away completely with it. In Rev. 13 the question was asked, who is able to make war with the beast? In order words the people have surrendered. What do you think is the implication of not making war with the beast? It will bring you under its rule, it will compel you to take its mark and it will slay, kill or destroy you. The pleasure of sin is but for a moment, the main aim of the devil is to destroy your soul. Some young people will say, how can I serve God at such a young age. Let me enjoy myself now, later I will serve Him. What foolishness! the Devil will suck you in. Why should you give the prime of your youth to the devil in the name of enjoyment and when you are wasted in old age you now start to seek God. The bible says “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them”. (Ecc 12 v1). We must not go a whoreing after other Gods in the days of our youth. You may find that, by the time you seek repentance you may not find it, this was the case with Esau (Heb 12:16 & 17). The devil has good reason to continue to encourage us not to deal with the flesh. The flesh is a very sensitive issue, many will prefer you deal with any other thing. Hebrews 12 tells us no man likes correction. When we are chastened, the chastening is not pleasurable but the father knows that that chastisement will bring forth the precious fruit of righteousness. We find four pillars in the veil which separates the holy place from the most holy place. The number four speaks of tribulation, so the interpretation is that through much tribulation we will enter in. The scriptures also state that flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God, that is to say for a man to inherit the kingdom of God he must first of all die. i.e. do away with his fleshly attributes (flesh and blood pertain to the earth). For Jesus to have resurrected he had to over come, in order words for me to get into this higher dimension, I must first of all die to self. In the Garden of Eden the bible states that cherubim’s were put to guard the way into the garden. This most holy place can also be likened to the Garden of Eden. This is why the bible enjoins us, “Resist the Devil and he will flee from you”. “The devil does not come but to steal, kill and destroy.
THE MARK OF THE BEAST
v16 When you put a mark on someone, what is your intention? If you buy a book, you write your name in it. Is this not so? How does the devil put a mark on you and me? When I walk in the flesh I submit to him and the devil puts his mark on me. What is this mark? The mark (a scratch or etching or sculpturing) is an impression of a nature, it’s like a stamp, you submit, he stamps; a little here a little there, until your whole nature is changed. It is a gradual process; you get defiled until you find yourself in complete bondage. As you go about your daily business a mark is being made on your soul, unconsciously sometimes. The soul is likened to fleshly tables, you can mark it easily. When the devil makes these impressions on you it is so that he can bring you to a position of servitude, a position of captivity. You serve the devil, so he can draw life from you because it is not possible for him to get life from any other source. He definitely cannot get it from God. Eve saw the fruit she was enticed, what she saw was good but it was an act of rebellion and that submission caused them to receive a mortal mark on their souls that caused man to fall. BRETHREN THERE IS A MARKING OF THE BEAST AND IT IS A MARKING WITH THE CARNAL NATURE OF MAN WHICH IS A NATURE THAT IS NOT SUBMISSIVE TO THE LAW OF GOD. REV 13 v 18 “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six”. The principle of the devil is that he will not come out plain. Flesh cannot be easily recognized. The bible is telling us that we need wisdom to discern the devil. What wisdom are we talking about here? It is the wisdom from God, not worldly wisdom. Ps 111 v 10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. The implication is that unless you have decided to depart from evil you will not be able to discern the flesh. You must make up your mind to fear the Lord and put evil away. When you have so decided; only then will your eyes open to discern or recognize the flesh, Pro 7 v 6 enjoins us to seek this wisdom so that our feet can be kept in the right part. The passage goes on to describe the simple minded man who lacked understanding. He lacked wisdom and discernment and was easily enticed by the woman in her subtlety. The devil continues to subtly pass on messages, gradually suggesting things. He does not tell you straight out, rebel against God! Rather he asks subtly has God said? The devil wants to seat in the temple (your heart, your soul) as God, showing himself as God, demanding worship as God. Join me brethren lets us make war with this beast and over come the devil. THANK GOD ALSO THAT THERE IS ANOTHER MARKING GOING ON AS WELL, THE BIBLE SAYS THE MAN WITH THE INK HORN (TYPE OF JESUS CHRIST) IS ALSO MARKING THOSE THAT ARE MOURNING AND CRYING FOR THE SINS OF JERUSALEM. (Ez 9 v 4)
THE NUMBER OF HIS NAME
We have dealt with the mark of the beast. We may now ask; what does the number of his name is mean. The number of his name is mentioned in (Rev 13 v 17) “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. The devils name nature, authority, character is an expression of a type of his manifestation. Numbers speak of measurement; it gives us an idea of dimensions and quantities. What this tells us is that this beast has different dimensions, characters or faces, e.g the Romans had gods for everything, just name it there was a God for it, a God of rain, pleasure, food etc. whatever your preference the devil has something for you. That is why it is futile to say in such and such a city (or place) I will be o.k. When you get there, Satan will be there, with his numbers (a type) waiting for you, so the solution is to stay where you are and over come. When you overcome in your Jerusalem, your Judea, then you can overcome elsewhere. The problem is not your circumstance or location, the problem is inside, the problem is in the soul. The mark is inward, the mark is what gives the man his character i.e the beast nature is expressed in a variety of ways.
THE WORSHIP OF THE BEAST
The word worship here means to wonder, by implication it means to admire, to submit. Rev 13 v 3b. “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast”. This passage is explaining to us that the influence of this beast is all over the world. It is a nature that is ruling over men. v 4 states clearly this worship is given indirectly to the dragon (Devil) through the beastly nature in the soul. So by implication when we submit to the flesh we are indirectly giving worship to the beast and by inference the Devil. According to Rev 4 those who are in the flesh are actually in the place of worship. So when you are walking in the flesh you are actually worshiping the devil, (you are submitting to that principle of sin.) Paul talks about it in the book of Romans 7 v 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?. In order words he was worshipping something he didn’t want to, but he found another law working in his members, that when he would do good, evil was present with him. He finds himself in a place of captivity; a captivity of the flesh. Every man born into the world is born a captive of the nature of sin. This nature of sin is an instrument through which the devil gets life. Worship means to give life. When you submit to something you give life to that thing. Romans 6 v 13, 16 says do not yield your body, your members (the different natures that are within your soul) as instruments of unrighteousness. The soul has four aspects: the mind, the will, the emotions and the desires. It is saying that there is a rebellious nature that has taken control of these 4 natures and is pushing them to walk in a manner that is in rebellion to God. The natural man will walk away from GOD, he is on his way to hell, to sickness, to disease etc. The scriptures tells us that it is only Christ that can take us back to redeem these natures and bring them back to God. The basic carnal nature of man submits directly to this principle of sin and indirectly to the Devil. v 4 “And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him”. So here we see a different kind of beast, one who exercised the power of the first beast before him and causeth the earth and them who dwelt therein to worship the first beast, there by causing men to indirectly worship the dragon.
THE LOVE OF THE WORLD
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.. If you want to love the world you are in enmity against God. There is no place for a nominal Christian in this matter; you are either for Him or against Him. This love for the world and the things we desire to have in the world is usually decided in the mind, and when that decision is taken you are automatically declaring war with God. The flesh has declared war against your soul. If you come to the level of the flesh, the devil will have dominion over you. Right now the church has come so low that much of God has been lost, the Church has lost its witness, it doesn’t have any power and the reason is because the church (you and me) is working in the dominion of the devil. The devil is the prince of this world. So what does God expect from us. Does He expect us to leave the world? No, rather while you are in this world you must realize that you are not of this world. E.g. you are in school, but you do not allow the school to consume or over whelm you. You need the education but you must be careful that it does not distract you from your main goal (which is to make heaven). The problem is not that you have no food but what is your attitude or response to the fact that you do not have food. Will you go and steal because you are hungry or will you use the opportunity to fast?
Would your response to trials that you face be to give up and succumb to satisfy the flesh or will you be like Daniel and his friends who said O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. v 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. v 18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. (Daniel 3: 16 – 18)
You need something, you ask God for it, yet you find you have not received it, what is your attitude? If you let the need over take you and it leads you to respond in the flesh; contrary to Gods instruction just to satisfy the need; it means you are out. We learn a good lesson from the way the men were selected into Gideon’s army, they were all thirsty, a certain group were so over whelmed by the need for water that they dropped their weapons, and bent down to drink. The other group in spite of their thirsty, were watchful, they did not throw all caution to the wind but drank as a people who were battle ready. The 300 had the right attitude. And that was the group God asked Gideon to take into battle with him, the other 22,000 were asked to return. The problem was not the water, but the attitude to the water. The church must get it self ready to fight with the devil. In our minds we have not settled that we will not submit to the flesh. There are aspects of the flesh that still appeals to us, especially the good aspects (all things are lawful but not all are expedient). We tend to want this and that in respect of what God wants for us. 2 timothy 2 v 4 “no man that warreth entangled himself with the affairs of this world”. The Christian is whom the beast is making war with, not the people who the devil already have taken captive, remember the world is already in worship of the beast. E.g in your career there are principles you may be asked to follow to excel and those Principles you may be asked to follow are not moving you to righteousness, or towards God. The world is not at war with the devil. It is only one group of people that are at war with the devil and those are the Christians. We are the target of the devil. The big question is, ARE WE AT WAR WITH THE DEVIL, HAVE WE MADE UP OUR MINDS TO FIGHT. Are we ready not to entangle ourselves in the affairs of the world?
HOW TO DEAL WITH THE WORLD
You have decided to fast as a Christian and you are due to break the fast in 3 days time and by the second day you are invited to a luncheon, will you break the fast and tell God, sorry next week, I will start again; or will you decide to forfeit that particular luncheon in other to continue to seek God’s face as you had purposed from the beginning. This is the war brethren, we have to fight. A Saint means someone that is separated, holy and that is what we are brethren, saints of the most high GOD. We ought not to entangle ourselves with the affairs of this life. So what do we do since we know we must go to school? We must work; we must interact with the people of the world who we could say are potential toxic waste carriers (unbelievers whose minds are still under submission to their fleshly nature). They are capable of defiling us. How? By drawing us into temptation. Jesus prayed 1Th 5:23 “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since it is not possible to avoid this interaction what do we do? RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU. Greater is HE that is in you than he that is in the world (1Jo 4:4.). As a believer you are at war, the devil (flesh) has declared war on us. WE NEED TO ARISE IN OUR MINDS BRETHREN. One of the areas where the Devil has over come us is in our minds; we have lost the battle in our minds. At night the devil comes to attack our minds and gets us to participate in the unclean things. We look around the streets; there is an on-slaught by the devil of different images on our minds. The bible says we must abstain from Fleshly lust that war against the soul. The scriptures says we are at war with the world. If you are not at war with the world, know this the world is at war with you. This war is a subtitle war. This war is a war of deception, the devil will not come against you and say I am Mr. Devil I want to fight against you. He will not come openly and stand before you and say I am at war with you. Oh no! He will come with enticements, and gifts, he will pump your pride etc. All with the intention of turning your attention away from God. v 11 “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon’. He is looking like a lamb but inside he is the dragon.
THE WAY OF ESCAPE
Remember in the days of old the Israelites, were asked to do no servile work. They were expected to afflict their souls (Lev 23 v 27, 28) during the time of atonement, which speaks of the experience of the cross. The cross is given to us that the old man might be crucified in its experience. It is no different in our day, IF WE AFFLICT THE FLESH WE WILL NOT DO SERVILE WORK. YOU WILL NO LONGER SUBMIT TO THE FLESH. The church must come to the place of atonement. A place where it agrees that the sacrifices of God are a meek and a contrite heart THAT GOD WILL NOT DESPISE.
Let us ask the Lord to anoint us with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, so we can count the number of the beast FOR HIS NUMBER IS THE NUMBER OF MAN, and this number is six hundred, three score and six. So our desire should be to break through the veil (flesh). So we come into the realm where flesh (sin) will no longer have dominion over us. MAKE WAR BRETHREN WITH THE FLESH; RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU. For as soon as Zion travailed she brought forth. A good way to enter this war is by fasting. Fasting helps us to begin to train our members to resist temptation even before it comes. Here is an example of how to works; before you even see the food, though it may be appetizing you decide not to eat. You have began to discipline your mind; you go to the market, you see a dress and you say this dress I will not buy you. YOU DISCIPLINE YOURSELF NOT TO BE MOVED BY THE EXTERNAL, TILL YOU GET TO THE POINT WHEN ONLY THE WILL OR PROMPTING FROM THE LORD MOVES YOU. Is it not written: man shall not live by bread (every issuing out from the openings of Jehovah) alone; but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God? If we break through the veil (flesh) we will escape the dominion of the devil and we will be qualified to enter into the priesthood that God desires for us; just like Jesus Christ did. If you do not break through the flesh you can not partake of the priesthood of them that have broken through their flesh. Our problem is flesh, we find that we are not satisfied with God alone, it’s like some of us need other things to make us happy. May we return to our first love; so much so that when we think of Jesus (and set our desires and emotions on the things above) we will receive enough strength and motivation to resist temptation? May our strongest desire be to do the will of God and to finish it? May the mark we receive be the mark of our God? BE ENCOURAGED, THERE IS A PLACE OF VICTORY RESERVED FOR THE CHURCH, THERE IS STRENGTH AVALIABLE TO US HELP US SUBMIT TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD SO WE CAN RECEIVE GRACE (ABILITY) TO BREAK THROUGH THE FLESH AND TO DROP THESE SINS AND THE WEIGHT OR CARES THAT DOTH SO EASILY BESET US, THROUGH THE STRENGTHENING (ANOINTING) OF THE MINISTRY OF GODS WORD, which converts the soul. We must give time to the engrafted word which is able to save our soul. If we can work for hours on end for physical food, how much more should we labour for spiritual food. WE MUST NOT GIVE PLACE TO THE DEVIL. We need to come to the place were we are completely sustained by the glory of God, the word of God, and by walking with God. We must embrace a new life style, we need a new nature putting and engraving his law in our inward parts. Any man walking in this dimension will be lead to acquire the mark or the nature of Christ, he who does not walk in this dimension will eventually get the mark of the beast; it is one or the other. Amen.
PAYS TO REMEMBER…
When a man becomes born again he is quickened by the Spirit of God and begins to operate in the realm of the Spirit (often described as heavens). When we say operate, we mean your emotions, desires, will, mind and spirit are sensitive to the spiritual realm. When you look at the Tabernacle you can see it as an example of the realm of the Spirit which believers operate in. The lowest realm of heaven can be likened to the outer court and that you can liken to the Passover i.e. is point were you become born again. And the second level is the holy place, it is also another realm of heaven but a higher dimension of it, there is also the highest realm which is the most holy place experience. The tabernacle also has the veils or coverings that separate one section from the other; one has to break through the veils to get into the next realm. A man who is not born again can be said to be outside the tabernacle, the bible says he is outside the common wealth of Israel, so that is classically a man that is in the flesh i.e. the things he does, his activities and functions are at the level of the flesh. He is not God’s property. He belongs to the devil even though God created him. The Bible says there is no other name given among men where by we can be saved except through the name of Jesus. Any man whether he be rich or poor, male or female even if he or she is very kind or good; the fact remains that if that person or persons do not come to Jesus, whom the bible refers to as the true light that lightened every soul that cometh into the world, that person’s soul will go lower and lower until it goes completely into darkness; but a man that is born again can be described as one who has broken through the veil into the lowest realm of heaven, described as the outer court and then he progresses in God and breaks through the second veil, into the second realm where he comes to the experience of the holy place, even at that point he can go back(this is termed backsliding in Christian circles).
THE TABERNACLE: AN EXAMPLE OF OUR BORN AGAIN EXPERIENCE