HomeARC ML 0096
"BIBLE STUDY"--MO September, 1971 NO.96
(Isaiah 2 & 4)
9/1/71 Josh was praying about the new groups who are joining the Children of God, and the Lord gave us these prophecies and Scriptures:
1. MO: SAID I NOT UNTO THEE THAT MANY SHALL GO UP TO THE MOUNT OF THE LORD AND INQUIRE OF THEE. And in that day a man shall be scarce as the gold of Ophir, and seven women shall lay hold upon one man and say unto him, we will eat of our own bread and wear our own raiment, only let us be called by thy name!
2. And then there was something about "flow into it". There's a Scripture something like that...."And many nations shall flow into it."? (We check with the concordance and find that the Scripture is Isaiah 2:2): "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it."
3. WHEN THE LORD GIVES A SCRIPTURE, IT IS LIKE A KEY THAT OPENS A DOOR--so we go on to verse three: "And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
4. I ALWAYS THOUGHT THESE SCRIPTURES WERE ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM--BUT WE HAVE THE MILLENIUM RIGHT HERE AND NOW, these are the Last Days, and we are the House of the Lord! We are already the Kingdom of God! The mountain always has to do with government or power or kingdoms. The Kingdom or power of the Lord's House...shall be established in the top of the mountain. This is the top one that rules over the other mountains.
5. "AND ALL NATIONS SHALL FLOW UNTO IT." The Lord likened the "House of Judah" to a nation that was joining us. (See Ezekiel 37:22).
6. "OUT OF ZION (WE ARE ZION) SHALL GO FORTH THE LAW"--the law--(the way it ought to be--the true word of God).
7. VERSE 4; "AND HE SHALL JUDGE AMONG THE NATIONS, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."--These spiritual nations are ceasing their warring and battling and laying down their weapons and getting together. This will also be fulfilled literally in the Millenium, as well.
8. WE ARE A SORT OF SPIRITUAL FORESHADOWING OF THE LITERAL JUDGEMENTS TO COME. The Lord evidently gave this prophecy to show that it was being spiritually fulfilled in us. The spiritual Kingdom of God is already on earth in the hearts of men. In the days to come it will become visible and literal in both power and glory. We are a foretaste--once again we are a Sample of things to come!
9. THERE IS ALWAYS A SPIRITUAL AND A LITERAL. The Scripture speaks of some being salted with fire. If you're already burned out by the Holy Spirit, you can't be literally burned out by the judgements of the Lord! In fighting prairie fires, they used to use a method called "backfiring"--they would set a controlled fire to the areas they had to save, so that when the major fire reached that area, it was already burned out. Judgement begins at the House of the Lord! We're the House of the Lord, and we're already judged by the Lord because we've accepted Him and received Him as payment. Therefore we don't have to undergo the literal horrible judgements that the world is going to suffer.
10. VERSE 5--THAT'S WHAT WE'RE DOING!
11. THE WHOLE PASSAGE IS ABOUT THE COMING JUDGEMENTS OF THE LORD. Verse 6 is the condition the Church is in, and God is sick of them. Verse 7 and 8 is a picture of America and the Church today--Verse 9 also. Now in Verse 10, He's going to start uttering His judgements against it.
12. VERSE 11--WHAT ARE WE DOING SPIRITUALLY IN OUR GROUP?--destroying idols and exalting the Lord alone!--We're sick of the damnable churchianity and idolatry! The Lord said we were idol smashers. And isn't Verse 12 part of our ministry? Verse 13 is symbolic of the lifted up leaders, the high mountains in Verse 14--denominations, the hills--all the Christian groups--the tower in Verse 15--all the big church buildings.
13. IN VERSE 15, THE FENCED WALLS SOUND LIKE THE FENCED-IN DENOMINATIONS that nobody can get in or out of. And if there was any day that was famous for ships, especially airships, it's today--and particularly pictures: motion pictures, television pictures, magazine pictures, newspaper pictures. This is a day of ships and pictures-- Verse 16.
14. VERSE 17--AGAIN, OUR MINISTRY IS TO EXPOSE THE SYSTEM AND EXALT THE LORD! It's a Revolution! For Jesus! And in Verse 18, we really chop down their idols--it's our business!
15. VERSE 19--IN A WAY, THAT'S WHAT WE'RE DOING--WE'RE HIDING IN THE WILDERNESS and in whatever hole or cave we can find, while the Lord uses us to shake 'em up. Either that, or we're driving them into their holes with our barrage of truth! As the Lord said once when Hosea and his team were challenging the Philistine System at seven State Fairs in Wisconsin with their witnessing, and the church people came out to criticise--the Lord said, "Behold how Jonathan and his armour-bearers have challenged the Philistines--but the Hebrews have come out of their holes (Grandmother said they looked like little tiny slimy gremlins--ugly little dwarfs) (Tongues--"Behold how long hath the House of David warred against the House of Saul)"--and the Hebrews have said, "Who art thou and what is thy doctrine, and whence camest thou?--like bugs crawling out of the woodwork! When they see us coming they're going to crawl back in, in a hurry! The Lord is shaking up the world through us now spiritually, and someday He's going to also do it literally.
16. VERSE 20, 21--ALREADY THEY'RE DOING THIS AS THEY JOIN US IN OUR CAVES OF ADULLAM. When they come, they bring their idols and gold and silver with them, and cast them away to us! They no longer worship them!--And the System certainly looks on us and underground moles that are undermining their System--and they're always saying we're batty!--And we're living like moles and bats--in caves and holes. Note Hebrews 11:37,38. They're casting away their idols to the burrowing moles and the batty bats! I certainly never would have chosen this interpretation if the Lord hadn't applied these verses to us! I never would have thought of it like this! It certainly wasn't the way the Bible teachers taught it to me! But when the Lord gives you something in the Spirit, and definitely applies a certain verse or Scriptures to you, it's like a key that unlocks the door to the whole passage. How about that?--door to the passage, if you know what I mean--the corridor that leads to other doors of other Scriptures, which He opens to your view through the eyes of the Spirit!
17. VERSE 22--WE'RE TO TRUST GOD, AND NOT MAN! All the years I was trusting man and his church system, they were leading me astray and telling me lies and I didn't find the truth until I began to heed His Spirit--the Voice of His Spirit His Word--So I can no longer believe what man tells me, unless God confirms it!
18. CHAPTER 4--VERSE 1: THIS FIRST VERSE WAS THE OTHER VERSE WHICH THE LORD GAVE US IN THE SPIRIT, APPLYING IT SPECIFICALLY TO US AND THE PRESENT SITUATION, and we recall that He also gave us this same verse regarding the first large group who desired to join us. In this verse, as the Lord applied it to us, the women symbolise other groups or churches of the true children of God, who desire to join with us. They're not asking a great deal of us, and their motive is not material gain from the union--but rather, their greatest desire is to remove the reproach of their widowhood.--The embarrassment of being scattered, alone, and leaderless, instead of a part of the Family--they have no husband, they have no leader--they are as sheep without a shepherd.
19. VERSE 2--THE FRUIT OF THE EARTH--THE LIBERATED SOULS--THE ESCAPED CAPTIVES OF ISRAEL--GOD'S CHILDREN--are promised a leader in this verse, comparable to Ezekiel 34:23. Or if you want to consider it collectively, the New Nation of the Children of God are promised leadership over all others. In other words, these women in Verse 1 symbolise the groups who are joining our leadership promised in Verse 2. The Lord also, in the prophecy given us, added a strange expression, which is not found in this passage at all, but is found in Isaiah 13:12--and in the way in which He applied it to us, indicates that there will be a shortage of spiritual leadership of true men of God--God's chosen and anointed--so that many shall lay hold upon one, there will be such a famine for the Word, as there is today!
20. VERSE 3,4--GOD IS PURIFYING THE CHURCH AND THOSE THAT ARE LEFT SHALL BE HOLY. It's spiritual! My God, why couldn't we see that before?--The spirit of judgement and the spirit of burning! The Lord is purging the Church through us! When we go into a church, we purge and wash away all the filth--split the whole thing--and some walk out-- the chaff are blown away! He burns out the dross! All that will be left is the "living' in Jerusalem--the rest of them are dead! (Verse 3).
21. THERE IS A PURGING IN THE LAST DAY. Here's this Holy Church which is purified and purged and the filth is washed away--that God-damned self- righteousness, hypocrisy is what is filth in God's eyes! When we walk into one of those Houses, we go with the spirit of Judgement--determining between what is right and what is wrong! The spirit of burning is the power of the Spirit, which burns out the dross!
22. VERSE 5,6--"EVERY DWELLING PLACE OF MOUNT ZION"--THE LORD IS GIVING US A LOT OF PLACES AND MANY PEOPLE. The cloud and smoke and fire and glory are symbolic of His defending Presence, and He Himself is our Tabernacle--our Shelter--not those God-damned church buildings--and they are Goddamned, and will be destroyed like the Temple was, and for the same reason--to get the Church's eyes off her buildings and back on the Lord! Amen?
23. ISN'T IT WONDERFUL HOW THE LORD WEAVES HIS WORD TOGETHER LIKE A TAPESTRY and fills in the whole picture?
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family}
