Part 2 of 6 Parts
The Following Message Has Been Transcribed For
Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation By
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I would like to explain to you or give you a better understanding of why there is such a warfare whenever a preacher tries to preach about the death of Satan. You may recall that I mentioned this morning, excuse me, that spiritual warfare is done with speech; spiritual warfare is waged with speech. It took me a long time to understand this. I have to tell you, when I first came into the church, I could not understand what prophecy meant. Prophecy is the word of the Lord spoken by the Lord. When the Christ in a man speaks, it is creative speech. If it is actually Christ in the man saying thou shalt receive your dead back unto life again because your husband just died, it is just a matter of time until that man raises from the dead. Why? Because all authority and power is in Christ. Christ speaks, and it happens.
There is no labor in the internal realm of the spirit. Christ says let there be a house; a house appears, if he chooses to do it that way. We do not see this happening in this hour. I am giving you the principle. Spiritual authority creates with the spoken word. If you need a better understanding of it, take out a couple of “Star Trek” episodes. They fantasize, and they fictionalize it in "Star Trek," but it is a spiritual principle. Spiritual authority creates with the spoken word; there is no labor. Brethren, the fact that we have to chop trees down out of the forest and make lumber out of it to build buildings is a very low spiritual realm. The fact that we have to grow food and cook it and make clothing, the fact that we labor is a part of the curse that man fell into when God put him out of the Garden of Eden. Is everybody OK?
So, listen, Satan is operating in a spiritual realm; he is a spiritual enemy, Satan and the carnal mind. The Lord Jesus Christ is defeating Satan with his spoken word. Why? Because his spoken word is creative. When the Lord Jesus Christ says let the carnal mind die, that carnal mind is going to die. Can you hear it? Now fallen man can read this Bible. Fallen man can pick up my notes and pick up my Alternate Translations and preach them, and Satan does not really care because it is not the letters or the verbalized word that is going to hurt him; it is the spirit who speaks the words that is going to hurt Satan. So if you get a preacher who has the imputed anointing -- and preachers who have the imputed anointing are natural men who preach under the blessing of the Holy Ghost, OK, but they are not -- it is not Christ in them preaching; it is their carnal mind preaching, and God is blessing it. Satan does not really care what they preach. Why? Because there is no creative authority in the word of a fallen man, even when he is blessed or anointed of the Holy Ghost. Can you hear it?
But I have Christ in me. I have a Christ in me that is on his way to maturity. I have a Christ in me that when the Lord Jesus Christ joins with him to preach or pronounce or proclaim the death of Satan and the carnal mind, it is beginning to happen. Can you hear this? So Satan will stop at nothing to stop me from preaching because I am damaging him. Can you hear this? I am doing him great damage. I have been doing him great damage for a long time. As I get stronger, I am doing him greater and greater damage. I am doing him damage in my mind, and I am damaging him in your mind. I am a strong enemy of Satan’s, so he is doing everything he can to stop me. He could not stop me with pleasure. He could not stop me with pain. He tried to kill me, could not get away with that. So what he is doing now, not that he has not done it before, is try to layer himself over my carnal mind. That could not stop me either, so he raises up other people, as many people as he can, to oppose my preaching or pronouncing or proclaiming his death.
People think they are against me for all sorts of reasons. People do not like this kind of preaching for all sorts of reasons, but those of us who are spiritual know that, no matter what the reason that is manifesting in your mind is, the bottom line is that your god, Satan, has raised you up to oppose the Christ in me. Now, listen, if you are against my preaching or -- I do not know, whoever is out there -- is against it. If you are against my preaching any message, in any way, if you or anyone out there is against what I am preaching, I am telling you your god, Satan, is expressing himself through you.
Now if you do not like that I said that, then change it. Recognize when your god, Satan, is using you to oppose me, and call upon the name of your God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and ask him to help you to submit to Jesus Christ, therefore disannulling the fact that your god is Satan. Does anyone not know what I am talking about? Do not agree with his mind. Any thought in anybody’s mind anywhere that is trying to control what I preach is serving Satan, and there is no ifs, ands, but, ah, ooh, ah, ee, oh. Look, if the message is too long for you, if you do not understand it, if it distresses you, if you just do not like it, whatever your reason is, you tell Jesus. If you oppose me with your thoughts, you are serving Satan, so if you recognize any such thoughts in your mind and you do not want to serve Satan, the thing to do is to confess these thoughts to Jesus. I really cannot stand it when she preaches that way. And the Lord will help you. What is he going to do for you? I do not know, but he will help you.
When God first raised up this ministry, I was having all kinds of problems preaching, and I found out that one person in the fellowship was very distressed that I -- my messages were an hour long. He could not take it, and he was dead bent on shortening my messages, until God exposed the whole thing. I said, brother, if you want to leave, leave. Why are you setting your mind against me? You cannot do that to me because it is Christ in me. You cannot control my mind. That means you are trying to control Christ; you cannot do that. So if you have a problem or if anyone hearing this message has a problem along these lines, you just tell the Lord about your problem, and he will help you, but do not try to control what I preach because you cannot do it. You are just going to damage yourself, OK. So let us kill Satan here with the spoken word; let us get him.
I started this message once before. It will be Zephaniah, Chapter 2, Part 1. I only -- June, before you sit down --
[CROSSTALK]
Yeah, or you can open the door in there too, however you want to do it. It is hot in here. I only got, I think, through verse 1 the first time I tried to preach this, so we are going to start from the beginning. And that was a month ago, so we are going to start from the beginning again, Lord willing. [AUDIO CUTS OUT] “Gather yourselves” --
Verse 1, “Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired.”
“Gather,” Strong's 7197, can be translated “to seek for,” “to gather oneself” or “to collect one’s thoughts together.” This Hebrew word appears twice. “Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together.” As I tell you all the time, the Lord Jesus Christ does not stutter. If a word is repeated twice, it means it should be translated twice. It usually means -- or it usually has a different translation for the -- each of the two times that it is repeated. So I suggest to you that the Scripture is saying gather together or seek for or find your true self, which is spirit, and when you find your spirit, gather together the mind of Christ.
You may recall that the expression, to gather, is used to describe incarnation. What does that mean? If you could look at it this way -- well, let me give you a natural example first. If you are going to bake a cake, a cake is one solid object. If you are going to bake a cake, you gather together the ingredients. You get your butter and your sugar and your flour and your vanilla. You gather your ingredients, and you mix them all together, and you bake, and the result is one object, a cake. If you can use that as an example and try to be spiritual, let me put it to you this way. When the Lord makes a human being, he gathers together a heart, two lungs, a liver, bones, flesh, blood, sinew, and he puts together a physical body. When the Lord forms a mind, he gathers together spirit and soul, OK. Can you hear it? So the phrase, gather together, spiritually speaking, is talking about incarnation.
“Gather yourselves together.” We are translating the first gather “seek for.” Seek for your true self, which is spirit, and when you find her, gather together, I suggest to you, the mind of Christ. Gather together your true self, spirit, with the Lord Jesus Christ so that the mind of Christ may be formed in you. In this instance, we are saying the second “gather together” is speaking about the renewing of the mind. First, you find your human spirit. Then you liberate her from Satan and the carnal mind, and then you renew your true self, which you just found, your human spirit, in the image of Christ, when your human spirit joins with the Lord Jesus Christ, thus f- -- what is gathered together? The Lord Jesus Christ is the male; the human spirit is the female; come together, and the product is the mind of Christ or C- -- the beginnings of Christ.
I have a witness for you in the New Testament, Ephesians 4:23, “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”
“Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired.”
The Hebrew word translated “nation” means “Gentile nation.” Please note that the Lord, in this Scripture, is speaking to Judah, and he is calling Judah a Gentile nation. Now there is a different Hebrew word that is usually used when the Lord is speaking to Israel. So we see by the [AUDIO CUTS OUT] [INAUDIBLE] [?calling Judah?] [AUDIO CUTS OUT] [INAUDIBLE] that the Lord says to Israel, ye are gods, but you shall die as men.
Well, how could they -- what in the world is the Lord talking about? What the Lord is saying is that, if you have the word of God, he considers you a god. Brethren, walk like a duck; talk like a duck; act like a duck; you must be a duck. Walk like a god; talk like a god; act like a god; you must be a god. Well, you have the word of God. It is supposed to change you from glory to glory. You are supposed to start walking like God, talking like God, acting like God, and if you do that, eventually, ye shall be god. And Enoch walked with God, and Enoch was not. That which was the carnal Enoch ceased to exist. He spent so much time with God; he thought so much like God; he talked so much like God; he did so many things that were godly that his natural personality disappeared, and he was god. What does that mean? Christ totally possessed his vessel.
So we see the Lord calling Judah a Gentile nation. He gave them this book. They had the word, but they did not walk like God; they did not talk like God; they did not act like God; they did not do like God. Therefore, the Lord said you shall die as men. If you do not use it, you lose it. Jesus said in his parable of the talents, he said to the man who did not do anything with the talent that was given to him -- he did not do anything to increase it. Jesus said take that talent from that -- does anybody know the Scripture? From that what kind of man? Wicked man. You see, if you are ignorant, if you do not know anything about the word of God, the Lord -- he will call you ignorant, but he s- -- probably will not call you wicked. But to have the word of God, to have it in your hands and not use it, God calls you wicked. I did not call you wicked; God calls you wicked.
What does that mean? Jesus said in another place the light revealed himself to you, and you rejected the light and chose darkness. Why? Because your deeds were evil. You did not want your sins exposed, so you rejected the word of God because the word of God is a mirror, and it is a bright light, and it shows you up for what you are, a fallen man, desperately wicked. Who could know it?
“O nation not desired,” that is Strong's 3700, and it means “to be shamed.” “Not desired” means “to be shamed.” This word “shamed” in the prophets, I have seen it many times in the prophets, and what it means is to be covered by a spirit other than Jehovah. It is a shame to be covered by a spirit other than Jehovah. The Scripture calls it spiritual adultery, if that will help you to understand. If the spirit that is living its ex- -- its life through you is any spirit other than Jehovah, the Scripture says you are ashamed or the shame of that spirit covers you. That is God’s terminology.
And it is likened, in the natural -- if you need a natural example, I will give you a natural example. It is likened to wearing lewd clothing because the spirit that you -- that lives through you covers you. He gives you cover, and if he is the spirit of Jehovah, you are respectable and properly covered, but if the spirit that covers you is the other spirit, the other guy, which is the lie, which is Satan, you are ashamed because of your lewd clothing. Everybody OK?
Alternate Translation, Zephaniah 2:1, “Recognize your true identity is spirit, you shamed, Gentile nation.”
[?You know?], but gather yourselves together is to look for and find your true identity. Recognize that your true identity is not this flesh, nor is it your personality, nor is it your passions and emotions. Recognize that your true identity is spirit, you shamed, Gentile nation. The Lord is telling Judah that he -- they have the word of God, but that is not his spirit on them. Brethren, we are going through the same thing with the church today. All you guys out there, you have the Holy Ghost. Someone in this fellowship had a dream last night that you are obese with sin, and when the Lord takes the Holy Ghost away from you, you shall be ashamed in fear that you will not get into heaven because that Holy Ghost was external, and the spirit that is living its existence through you is really Satan.
So in the day that the Holy Ghost is removed from the church and it is revealed to everyone who has eyes to see that the spirit who is living his existence through, walking through you, talking through you, breathing through you, acting through you, living through you, doing through you, thinking his evil through you is not Christ, but Satan, and you will not be able to keep it a secret any longer. We have people all through that church that are experts at keeping it a secret. Everybody thinks it Christ living through them. You read about it in the papers every once in a while. How could that possibly have happened? They are phonies. If it is truly Christ living through you, even when you slip, you land on your feet, and you do not stay down for long.
Alternate Translation, Zephaniah 2:1, “Recognize that your identity is spirit, you shamed, Gentile nation, Judah, you shamed, Gentile nation, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”
Now let me remind you that the prophets -- the message of the prophets, excuse me, far exceeds Judah or natural Israel. The message of the prophets is for God’s people, wherever they are appearing. Actually, the message of the prophets is more for the church than for Israel because we see the fulfillment of these prophecies coming upon the church. The prophecies of the Hebrew prophets were never fulfilled upon Israel. They -- there may have been some partial fulfillment, but, by and large, these prophecies are for the ends of the ages, which is falling upon the church in this hour, therefore, the Israel of God, the spiritual Israel, as opposed to the natural Israel.
Amplified translation, Zephaniah 2:1, “Face the truth, you heathen nation, that your true identity, the spirit of man, is married to Satan and that your soul is married to his daughter, the carnal mind. And when you recognize that, repent, and reform your mind in the image of Jehovah.”
I call your attention to the command to reform your mind, and I point out to you that the Lord Jesus Christ is not the one who is reforming your mind. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is giving you the tools to do it. You must pick up the tool, which is Christ growing in your soul, Christ Jesus, and you must wage war against your carnal mind; that is how you reform your mind. We are to reform our own mind in the image of Christ with the help of our big brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. We do the best we can, and he backs us up, but we are doing it. If we are being overtaken, he knocks the other guy down. He sets the odds straight, but we are the ones who must fight the fight and win the war. We are not infants; we are becoming spiritual men, and he will not treat us like babies. You have to do it yourself.
And I want to tell you he is a tough older brother because he does not come to your rescue until he is convinced there is not a chance that you are going to get up. What does that mean? It means he lets you take spills. He lets you get hurt; he lets you make mistakes. He is watching every second. He is not going to let you die, but he is not babying you, and he is not enabling you. He is letting it go as far as it could possibly go, and he only intervenes when things -- when it looks like you are really not going to make it. We are learning to walk. You have to walk, brethren. Walk the walk.
Continuing with Zephaniah 2:2, “Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you.”
Well, that does not make much sense to me, so let us try and find out what the Lord is saying here. The Hebrew word translated “before” is Strong's 2962. The Hebrew letter “base” appears before this Hebrew word, which is translated “before,” making it a prefix. You may -- a prefix. You may recall the teaching on the prefix; it is a letter, one or two letters -- a prefix is one or two letters which appear before a word that alter the meaning of the word. For example, you have the word “form;” it means “to form something.” If you add the prefix R-E, the word becomes “reform,” and it means “to form again” or “to modify.”
Well, we have the Hebrew letter be- -- “base” before the Hebrew word translated “before,” and it alters the meaning of the word “before,” so let us find out what that prefix means. The interlinear text does not translate this prefix in the phrase, “Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff,” but it does translate this prefix “yet” in the pr- -- in the phrases, “Before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you.” So we see the prefix is present in the first phrase of verse 2, but not translated.
Webster says the word “yet” can also be translated “even,” “still,” “nevertheless” or “because.” We shall translate the prefix “base,” “nevertheless,” in the first phrase, even though the King James does not -- the King James translation does not translate this prefix in the first phrase. We shall translate it “nevertheless” and use it in the first phrase th- -- where the word “before” appears. And we shall translate this prefix “because” in the second and third phrases where it appears in the Hebrew before the word translated “before.”
The Hebrew word translated “before” can also be -- now we are talking about the prefix anymore; we are talking about the Hebrew word translated “before” -- can also be translated “beginning” and “the part which cuts off.” The first time the Hebrew word translated “before” be -- appears in verse 2, we shall translate it “beginning.” The second time the Hebrew word translated “before” appears in the second phrase of verse 2, we shall translate it “that which cuts off,” and the third time the prefix appears with the Hebrew word translated “before,” which is the third phrase of verse 2, we shall translate it “beginning.”
Now if you are not following me, do not worry about it; you can always go over the message. Remember, Christ is the beginning. Amen. John 1:1 says that the word was in the beginning, or the word was the beginning, and John 1:1 says, clearly, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” [INAUDIBLE] John 1:1. And Revelation 19:12 tells us that Christ Jesus is the Word. “His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.”
“Before the decree bring forth;” the word “decree,” Strong's #2706, means “an appointed portion,” “a law,” “a time” or “a time appointed of God.” The phrase, “Before the decree,” I suggest to you, is speaking about the appointed time of Christ, also called the age of Christ or the kingdom age or the kingdom of God. “Bring forth,” Strong's 3205, can be translated “to conceive,” “to birth” or “to beget.” Let me remind you, women con- -- [AUDIO CUTS OUT] and beget. The form of this word translated “bring forth” is in the feminine present participle, that is, “conceiving.” If it were in the masculine present participle, it would be “begetting,” but the word is feminine. It is present tense, and it means conceiving.
Please note that the Scripture merely says the Lord Jesus Christ, the law of Christ, is conceiving. Jesus is the law, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is in the earth today in the form of the Holy Spirit. He has the glorified Christ, and he is the law of life that we read about or that Paul tells us about in the Book of Romans. So we see in Zephaniah 2:2, the prophet is telling us that the law of Christ is conceiving. “Before the decree bring forth” is saying -- the word “before,” the Lord Jesus Christ; the word “decree,” the law of Christ; and the word “bring forth,” conception.
We have to go back to verse 1 to find out that the Lord is speaking to Judah. Verse 2 is saying that because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice of his soul life on Calvary, Judah or humanity, because of the New Covenant, is presently conceiving Christ Jesus. Can you hear this? If the form of the verb were in the masculine, we would ha- -- it would say that the Lord Jesus Christ was begetting, but since the word is in the feminine form, we therefore know that the subject must be feminine. That which the verb is talking about must be feminine, so we go back to verse 1. We see that the Lord is speaking to Judah, and we then can understand that the prophet is saying that Judah, who is female in relationship to the Lord, is conceiving. Judah is conceiving. And what is she conceiving? If the law which is in Christ is present, she must be conceiving Christ Jesus.
Please note that Zephaniah prophesied natural Judah’s deliverance thousands of years before it came to pass -- before it was to come to pass. It has not come to pass yet because it could not have possibly have come to pass -- what? Judah’s deliverance could not possibly have come to pass before Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. Glory to God. Also please note that many Bible scholars say that the long-range prophecies of the Hebrew prophets are not for Israel but for the church. I suggest to you that these prophecies are for both Israel and the church. The Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed his soul life on Calvary so that all of humanity, including Israel and the church, could conceive Christ Jesus in their hearts.
The many rebukes of the Lord to Israel are not, therefore, for failing to conceive Christ because the Lord knew it was not possible for Israel to conceives -- to conceive Christ at the time a- -- that he was rebuking him. The Lord rebuked the men of Israel because of the pride which convinced them that salvation was in their religious works, when the Scriptures, which they studied daily, clearly told them otherwise. It was the deceit of their own pride, which led to idolatry, spiritual [?adulterly?] s- -- excuse me, spiritual adultery with their idols of their own making, which were in their hearts, and ultimate divorce from Jehovah.
Let me say that another way. The Lord was not rebuking Israel because he failed to produce the Christ child, which would have saved his life. The Lord Jehovah knew it was impossible for Israel to produce the Christ child growing out of their own soul until the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ’s soul life was accomplished. So why would he rebuke them? Jehovah was rebuking Israel because the Scriptures, which they studied day and night, clearly told them that the salvation of their souls was for a future date, at such time as the seed was prepared, which would enable their souls to produce eternal life.
J- -- Israel, who studied these Scriptures day and night, should have had this understanding, the Lord was saying. You had the word of God. You had my Spirit giving you revelation in the word. You should know that there was no salvation in your works, but you did not know that. Why did you not know that, Israel? Because of the pride of your own mind which wanted to say that you had power within your own hands to save your own soul. Therefore, the Lord clearly rebuked them and said your works, your salvation, your righteousness, it is as filthy rags unto me, saith the Lord, and your pride is a stench in my nose. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
Verse 2 of Zephaniah 2 is one of those instances where the translator could not possibly understand what the Lord is saying without first having the revelation in his heart. In the case of this verse, even I had the revela- -- I, who have the revelation in my heart -- it took me hours of prayer and meditation to translate verse 2. It gave me a very hard time. And as I mentioned earlier, we are putting -- we are translating the prefix before the Hebrew word translated “before,” “nevertheless,” in order to connect verse 1 to verse 2, so let us go on with verse 2.
“Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord.”
Well, let us stop here. “Before the day pass as the chaff.” “Shall pass,” Strong's 5674, “to pass over or through,” “to pour forth,” “to offer as a sacrifice.” Now this sounds, to me, like the second stage of the resurrection. You may recall that the second sta- -- well, let us review. The first stage of the resurrection is what?
Full stature.
Full stature. The second stage -- and we all know that that is a condition whereby your carnal mind is not functioning, and your mind of Christ has become attached to your soul. The carnal mind is beheaded or cut off of your soul. She is the sitting queen, and the mind of Christ becomes the sitting king. He becomes attached to your soul, and therefore your state of being becomes righteousness. The second stage of the resurrection -- does anybody recall at least the name of that?
The circumcision.
The circumcision without hands, the spiritual circumcision, the circumcision of your heart, OK. Now we know that before man stands up in full stature, that mind of Christ is being formed underneath or within or inside of the carnal mind. The carnal mind is acting as a womb and, more specifically, an amniotic sac in which the car- -- in which the Christ mind is being formed, and we enter into the first stage of resurrection while we are still underneath the carnal mind. The se- -- in other words, if you can see it, it is Christ -- think of the pit in a peach. The Christ mind is the peach pit, and the carnal mind is surrounding the Christ, and even though the Christ mind is still underneath the carnal mind, that carnal mind is inoperable. If you can hear it, hear it. Christ is controlling and completely immobilizing the operation of the carnal mind even though the carnal mind is lying on top of him.
So the second stage of the resurrection is that Christ vibrates through, pierces through that carnal mind that is lying on top of him. He flows through, we are told, and appears as big drops of clotted blood on the surface of the carnal mind. He flows through as a liquid would flow through. So when I hear the word “shall pass” translated to mean “to pass over or through,” “to pour forth,” that is what I think of, the second stage of the resurrection. And another potential translation is “to offer as a sacrifice,” so that says to me, right out, that is Christ offering up the carnal mind as a sacrifice. He is piercing through. He is completely overtaking it and offering it up to Jehovah as a sacrifice, and that is how I see it as the second stage of the resurrection.
The phrase that we are dealing with is “before the day pass as the chaff.” The word “day” is Strong's 3117. It can be translated “time period” or “age.” The word “chaff” is Strong's 4671, and we know from studies in the New Testament that the chaff ty- -- symbolizes Satan and the carnal mind. It is that part of the grain that is growing -- the spiritual grain that is growing in our persons. It is that part that is cast aside when you mill wheat. I think that is the right word. When you mill wheat, you separate the edible part of the wheat from the inedible part of the wheat. The chaff is the inedible part of the wheat, and we know it to be Satan and the carnal mind. When Christ no longer needs the spiritual womb that he is growing in to survive, that carnal mind is going to become a waste product, just as the amniotic sac that a human baby is growing in becomes a waste product after that child is born. Before the child is born, the amniotic sac is a life jacket or is a life-sustaining instrument to the fetus. Once the child is born, the amniotic sac is -- in human beings, is discarded. It is -- becomes garbage. Hallelujah.
And in fact we have had other Scriptures which make it very clear that natural man is garbage. The only thing that has any value in this creation at all is who? Christ. He is the only one that has any value, and when he is dwelling in us, we become valuable, but without him we are garbage. We are made out of garbage; we are made out of the waste product of the Son separating from the Father. If you want to be gross, brethren, these are the -- this is the message. Our natural example is human childbirth. We are made out of the afterbirth. Can you hear it? If you have any pride, that should knock you down a peg or two. It is the truth, yeah? We are only valuable when he is living his life through you.
We are dealing with the phrase, “before the day pass as chaff.” The English word “as” is the translation of a prefix. It is a single letter preceding the Hebrew word which means “chaff.” The letter is the Hebrew letter kaf, and it means “wing.” This prefix means “wing.” Remember that in other Scriptures the word “wing” signifies spiritual power flying in the heavenlies. So we are going to translate this prefix kaf, which is translated “as” -- we are going to translate that prefix plus the word which means “chaff” to say “the spiritual power of the chaff,” “chaff” meaning Satan and the carnal mind. “As the chaff” we are [?transly?] -- translating it “the spiritual power of Satan and his carnal mind.”
So what do we have? “The day pass as chaff,” the day of Satan’s spiritual power. This world system exists on two levels. In the mind it is called death, and the expression of the mind or the image of death is this physical environment which we live in, which is called Hell. “Shall pass” -- “the day pass as the chaff,” the age of the passing through the carnal mind of the spiritual power of Satan. Brethren, we are talking about the age in which Christ will be formed and pass through and overtake the spiritual power of Satan. Hallelujah.
And his -- he shall be as carcasses spread as dung across the face of the earth, saith the Lord, and even his memory shall not exist anymore, saith the Lord, for I shall punish the enemy of my people, saith God. And I shall bring him down from the heavenlies, saith the Lord, and he shall dwell in the dust, and I shall break the rod and the staff of his authority, saith God. And he shall rise no more for Christ risen from the death dieth no more, saith the Lord, but the bullock shall serve my glorified Christ, saith God. And he shall be subjected to the eternal punishment of the life of my Christ, which will control his wickedness and keep him in line and keep him as a servant to my spiritual creation, saith the Lord. And he shall never rise again, saith God, and there shall be peace in my holy mountain. Hallelujah.
Alternate Translation, the first third of Zephaniah 2:2, “Nevertheless, humanity is conceiving Christ Jesus, the one who shall offer Satan’s carnal mind up as a sacrifice to Jehovah because the Lord Je- -- because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.”
“Nevertheless, humanity is conceiving Christ Jesus, the one who shall offer Satan’s carnal mind up as a sacrifice to Jehovah because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.”
Now do you hear this? Verse 1 says, brethren, confess that you are married to Satan and the carnal mind. When you do that, I am going to beget the kingdom age in you, and when that kingdom age is born in you, he is going to offer up your carnal mind and Satan as a sacrifice to Jehovah, and then you will not be married to Satan and the carnal mind anymore. Do you hear this lack of condemnation from our God? He tells you the truth and then he tells you how he is going to help you. If you are condemned, brethren, you are condemned by the pride of your own mind. Our God does not condemn you, but he will tell you the truth, and when you confess it, he shall deliver you, and he is delivering us from our ungodly, tortuous marriage to Satan and the carnal mind by begetting his Christ in us. And when his Christ is begotten in us, he shall offer up the carnal mind and Satan as a sacrifice to Jehovah, and I declare to you that is what the Lord Jesus Christ did in the event that we know as the temptation.
Glory -- the sacrifice is in three stages. First, he puts him underfoot, renders him inoperable. The second step is that he pierces him through one time, but the guy is still alive, and he is less operable, but he is still alive. I know he can still speak during the first stage. I know -- who? Satan can still speak during the first stage of the resurrection. When he is paralyzed, he still speaks; you still hear his voice. I do not know whether he speaks after the second stage of the resurrection. I do not know, but I know that he has to be pierced twice before he dies. First time, Christ pierces him going out; he is still alive. And then Christ pierces him going back in, the third stage of the resurrection, also called the crucifixion of Christ, and then he is dead, dead-dead. You do not even hear his voice anymore, and that is the end of the war, and the war is not over until he is pierced the second time.
Alternate Translation, first third of Zephaniah 2:2, “Nevertheless, humanity is conceiving Christ Jesus, the one who shall offer Satan’s carnal mind up as a sacrifice to Jehovah because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice,” or we can say, “Christ Jesus, the one who shall be able to offer Satan’s carnal mind up as a sacrifice to Jehovah because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.”
The bottom line, brethren, is that Christ Jesus would not be growing in your soul if it were not for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. Please note that the word -- the English word “nevertheless” connects the l- -- the idea presented in verse 1 to the solution of the problem, which is presented in verse 2. I will read verses 1 and 2 together -- or verse 1 and the first phrase of verse 2.
“Face the truth, you heathen nation, that your true identity, the spirit of man, is married to Satan and that your soul is married to his daughter, the carnal mind. Nevertheless, humanity is conceiving Christ Jesus, the one who shall offer Satan’s carnal mind up as a sacrifice to Jehovah because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice,” or, “Because the Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed his soul life, Christ Jesus can now be growing in your soul, Christ Jesus, the one who shall offer Satan’s carnal mind up as a sacrifice to Jehovah.”
The second third of Zephaniah 2:2, “Before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you.”
“Before,” Strong's 2962; please remember, as I told you earlier, we shall be translating this word in the second phrase of verse 2 as “the part cut off.” The fierce anger of the Lord is the part of God which cuts off. Satan -- which cuts off Satan and circumcises his carnal mind. The phrase “cutting off” is specifically referring to the circumcision of the carnal mind, which is lying over the Christ. Now what this is saying is what we have been preaching here. Many believers have conceived the kingdom of God. The beginning stages of the conceived kingdom of God -- which is conceived where? In the human spirit -- is called the engrafted word. Another way we express it is the immature imparted anointing. Many believers have conceived Christ but are not living out of him because their carnal mind is lying over him. Why? Because Christ is growing inside the carnal mind. The carnal mind is operating as an amniotic sac in the womb of the soul man in which Christ is growing. Therefore, w- -- the sons -- God’s sons must be circumcised so that Christ can come to the surface and be their new life.
Remember that the prefix “base” appears before the Hebrew word translated “before” and that we are translating it “because” for the second phrase of verse 2. “Fierce,” Strong's 2740, can be translated “fury;” it is speaking about great anger. “Anger” means “anger,” and “the Lord” is “Jehovah.” The expression, “the heat of the Lord’s anger,” can also be translated “wrath.”
You may remember that our studies in the Book of the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ disclosed that the wrath of God is speaking about the Lord’s murderous rage against Satan and the carnal mind, which is arising out of his desire to consummate his marriage to humanity, which is his wife. Our studies in the Book of Revelation also reveal that one of the expressions of the wrath of God is the lake of fire. I suggest to you then that the Lord’s fierce anger is the lake of fire, which is the mature imparted anointing. Another name for the lake of fire is the mature imparted anointing, the mature life of Christ which has the spiritual authority to swallow up Satan, the beast, the false prophet, Hell and death.
“Before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you.” The word translated “come” can also be translated “to come to pass” or “to be fulfilled,” as in a prophecy being fulfilled. It can also be translated “to enter into judgment.” We are translating this Hebrew word translated “come” as “to be fulfilled” in the phrase “before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you” or “before the fierce of the Lord be fulfilled in your life.” And we are translating this Hebrew word translated “to come” as “to come under judgment” in the phrase “before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you” or “before the day of the Lord’s anger result in judgment in your life.”
Further, both the interlinear text and the Hebrew indicate that the Hebrew word translated “come” in both phrases, both the second and third phrases of Zephaniah 2, is negative, negative present tense. Now this negative is not translated in the King James translation. What we are saying is before f- -- this is for the second phrase of verse 2 now. “Before” means “the part which cuts off.” The words “fierce anger” is speaking about the lake of fire, also known as the mature imparted anointing. And the words “come upon you” are being translated “to be fulfilled in you” or “to be formed in you.”
Alternate Translation, the second third of Zephaniah 2:2, “Because the mature imparted anointing of Christ is not being formed in you.”
Brethren, the seed of Christ has engrafted unto you or may or may not have engrafted unto you, but for those to whom the seed of Christ has engrafted, you are still not living out of Christ because it is not maturing in you because your carnal mind has it over on you. Your carnal mind is stronger than the immature imparted anointing, or in some cases, as we will find out in the next phrase, the seed of Christ has not even engrafted unto you. Therefore, the mature anointing, which is strong enough to defeat Satan and the carnal mind, has no chance of coming forth in you because the seed has not even cleaved unto you. Glory to God.
Continuing with the third third of Zephaniah 2:2, “Before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you.”
“Day” is a time period or an age. The Lord is Jehovah. “Anger” is “anger.” “Day” or “age” refers to a time period, and I suggest to you that the day of Jehovah’s anger is Christ. The day of Jehovah’s anger, it sounds so terrible. Brethren, Jehovah is angry at his spiritual enemy, Satan and the carnal mind. He loves you. He loves you so much that he is enraged at what Satan and the carnal mind has done to you. Jehovah is in a murderous rage, which is righteous, towards Satan and the carnal mind because what has Satan done? Satan has stolen the Lord’s wife; that is us. And we are trapped in Satan’s house, and we cannot get out, so the Lord is very wroth, and he is fully determined to kill our captor. Our problem is we are codependent with our captor, and we are so one with our captor, we cannot tell where he ends off and we begin, but the Lord can tell where he ends of and we begin; that is why he is separating soul from spirit and joints from marrow. We must be separated from our codependent, adulterous buddy because our true husband wants us back, and he is real mad. As a matter of fact, he is mad as a hornet. Glory to God.
Remember, Zephaniah 1:15 says “This is the day -- this day is the day the Lord will express his anger against Satan and his passionate love for mankind. It is a day of great distress for Satan and of sudden ruin for the carnal mind, who is the dark prison which covers over the spirit of man with the misery of the kingdom of darkness.”
Our problem, brethren, is that we are so joined to Satan that, when the Lord goes to kill him, it feels like he is killing us, but it is just an illusion. You shall surely not die, but you shall be separated from the beast, and forever you shall be with the Lord. “Before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you.” Again, the word “before” means “beginning,” and the beginning is Christ. We established that earlier. I suggest to you that the beginning of the day of Christ or where he begins is the rising of the sun. Another way to say the rising of the sun is the morning. The expression “before the day” then can be translated “the beginning of the day” or “the morning of that day” or “the first or the immature stage of the imparted anointing” or “Christ who is not yet in full stature” or, as James expresses it, “the engrafted word.”
James 1:21, “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” Glory to God.
Remember, also, that the prefix “base” appears before the Hebrew word translated “before” and that we are translating it “because” in the third phrase of verse 2. The Hebrew word translated “come,” Strong's 935, as we said earlier, we are translating “to enter into judgment.” Remember, both the interlinear text and the Hebrew indicate that the word translated “come” is negative, although the King James translators did not translate it that way.
Alternate Translation, the third third of Zephaniah 2:2, “Because the immature imparted anointing is not judging you.”
Alternate Translation, Zephaniah 2:2, “Nevertheless, humanity is conceiving Christ Jesus, the one who shall offer Satan’s carnal mind up as a sacrifice to Jehovah because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, because the mature imparted anointing of Christ is not being formed in you, because the immature imparted is not judging you.”
Well, you really have to think to make that make sense to you, so we put it in a little better English.
Amplified translation, Zephaniah 2:2, “Nevertheless, because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, humanity is conceiving Christ Jesus, the one who shall offer Satan’s carnal mind up as a sacrifice to Jehovah. But the prophecy that the lake of fire shall be formed in you” -- there, that is the mature imparted anointing -- “which has the strength to kill Satan and his carnal mind” -- “But the prophecy that the lake of fire shall be formed in you or the prophecy that the spiritual strength which is in Christ to destroy Satan and his carnal mind shall be formed in you, that prophecy has not been fulfilled in you because the engrafted word, which you do have, is not judging your sins.”
Brethren, the purpose of the engrafted word is to function as the judgment seat of Christ. It is to judge your own sins and begins to do so from the moment he engrafts unto you, and as your sins are judged, the lake of fire is formed in you. And first Satan and the beast are swallowed up in you; that is full stature. And then you help others or simultaneously with -- if the judgment seat of Christ in you -- if the engrafted word in you is truly judging your soul, your ministry to the church will begin while you are yet imperfect, and you shall be a member of the two witness company, judging other people’s souls in areas in which you have already overcome.
But the Scripture says here, speaking to the majority of Christians -- and I suggest to you that this verse is towards the Christians because the Hebrews never had the engrafted word, so this part of the prophecy is not -- is -- well, it i- -- it was not to -- this -- excuse me, this part of the prophecy is not towards the Israel of old, but is towards the whole church, the whole of humanity and the whole of Israel in this day and age that the engrafted word is available.
Listen, you have not -- you are married to Satan and the carnal mind, but do not worry about it because the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice -- because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, you are now eligible to conceive Christ Jesus, the one who is strong enough to offer Satan and his carnal mind up as a sacrifice to Jehovah. But the prophecy that the mature imparted anointing, that the fully-mature Christ Jesus, that the lake of fire shall be formed in you has not been fulfilled in you because the immature imparted anointing, the engrafted word, is not performing its function of judging your soul.
Brethren, you cannot get the mature imparted anointing until the immature imparted anointing fulfils its mission in you, which is to judge your sins and cast them into the sea. You cannot go on to Biology 4 until you get a passing grade in Biology 1, 2 and 3. Neither shall you be glorified until you are circumcised, and neither shall you be circumcised until you stand up in full stature, and neither shall you stand up in full stature until your sins are judged and ripped out of the earth of your very own soul. Hallelujah.
God is saying, look, you are married to Satan and the carnal mind. I have given you the mind of Christ. I have given you the kingdom of God, but you are not using it, OK. I am giving you the pote- -- I am sorry. I have given you the potential for the kingdom of God. I have given you the Holy Ghost, but it is not operating in you because the Holy Ghost has not even engrafted to you. The Holy Ghost has not even engrafted to you. How can you expect to have a mature mind of Christ which is going to divorce you from Satan and the carnal mind?
Continuing with Zephaniah 2:3, “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.”
“Seek ye the Lord,” the would translated “Lord” is “Jehovah.” Look for Jehovah, all ye meek of the earth. The word “meek,” Strong's 6035, means “miserable” or “afflicted.” The earth typifies the earthen part of the creation, which is the soul. Seek -- look for Jehovah, all you miserable and afflicted who are dwelling in your souls. We have been talking about that a lot today.
A lot of Christians come under condemnation because they are not filled with joy, but my Bible says that when you are dwelling in your soul, you are more likely to be miserable and afflicted than you are to be joyous. So how come all you Pharisees are going around telling everybody or rebuking everybody who is not joyous? Dance and sing and jump and raise your hands and give Jesus a clap offering, and as soon as you walk out the door, go back to your true self, miserable and afflicted. I would rather you came in here miserable and afflicted and got lit up by the Christ and left here with a true spiritual joy in your heart. There is someone who comes here who says they walk out of here, and sometimes they are lit up for the whole week.
Look for Jehovah, all you miserable and afflicted who are living in your souls. And why are we living in our souls? Because our spirit is dead, and as our spirit begins to be raised from the dead, we now have the option of fighting the warfare which will enable us to begin to live out of our spirit.
“Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment.” The word “wrought” means -- the interlinear says it means “done;” it is Strong's 6466, and it means “to make” or “to fabricate;” it means “to fashion.” It is used in the expression “to make an idol,” and I suggest to you that this word is speaking about the formation of the mind in the man. We make or we give birth to the mind -- to our own mind, depending on who our spirit is joined to.
So the Lord is saying, all you who are miserable and afflicted because you are living out of your souls, the answer to your problem is to get your mind renewed, to get out of your soul, to get out of your emotions, to get out of your selfishness. Get into Christ because that is where the joy is, and no matter how many things you do that make you feel good in your soul, you have to do them over and over and over and over and over. Get into Christ; get the meat that never perisheth; get the satisfaction that abides for the life of the ages. That is what he is saying.
Speaking about those of you which have wrought his judgment. “Judgment” is translated “justice” in the interlinear; it is Strong's 4941, and it means “that which is just or lawful.” Wrought judgment, fabricate or make or form the mind which is lawful. There is a criminal mind, brethren, and it is name is carnal. It is the mind which is born of the flesh. It is called death. God calls it a spiritual criminal. So he is saying, if you are miserable and afflicted because you are living out of your soul, the answer to your problem is to form the Christ mind in you.
And we mentioned it earlier: We must form the Christ mind in us, and first we have to get the weapon which enables us to do it, which begins with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we have to wage the warfare against the carnal mind to have that Christ mind fully stand up in us or fully mature in us. I have been preaching this here for years. I do not care what your problem is; I have the same prescription for all of you: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things shall be added unto you,” but, I will tell you, the church is a stiff-necked people. People have a lot of trouble with that. They do not want to believe it, but it is true; it works; it is real.
And the word “seek,” “seek ye the Lord,” means “to search out,” “to examine” or “to enquire.” “Seek ye the Lord, all ye miserable of the earth, which have formed the mind of Christ; seek righteousness.” The Hebrew word translated “righteousness,” Strong's 6664, means “liberation,” “welfare,” “a just cause” or “true motives.” All you who are miserable because you are living out of your soul, seek true motives; seek honorable motives; seek the will of God.
The only honorable motive is that which is out of Christ. What the prophet is saying or what the Lord is saying through the prophet is lay your own will down because your desires are going to kill you. Your lust for whatever you are lusting for is going to destroy you, but seek the honorable motive; seek what Christ is seeking. Line yourself up with him; align yourself with him. Desire what he desires; love what he loves; hate what he hates, and your life shall become productive. There is a transition period. I will not lie to you. There is a transition period; there is a wilderness period where it is painful, but you come up on the other side. If you stay in your lusts, you will never come up on the other side.
John 7:24 says, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”
We have been preaching this here for a long time. God does not want us to judge by what we see with our eyes or by what we hear with our ears. He want -- well, what does the word “judge” mean? Evaluate the situation. What is going on in your life? What is going on in this room at this moment? What is going on in your relationship? What is going on in your job? Do not look with your natural eyes; do not hear with your natural ears, but look to the spiritual motive of what is causing the person to say what they are saying and do what they are doing, and respond to that motive. And if their motive is righteous, go along with it. If their motive is unrighteous, react accordingly in Christ.
What does that mean? Well, there is all different kinds of unrighteous motives. If the motive is evil, you execute -- you rebuke them and execute judgment upon them, and you put down the evil. But because this creation is fallen, many unrighteous motives are merely weakness, so whenever it is possible, we are to have pity on the people and help them to overcome their own weaknesses. The only reason your nose is all out of joint because of what that person did to you or because of what that person said to you is because you are so weak yourself that you are afraid that they can hurt you. The only reason you are not having pity on them is because you are defending yourself, and you are defending yourself because you believe they have the power to hurt you. You have to become stronger than they are, and your strength is in righteousness.
What does that mean? That your motive is not self-defense, that you really do not care whether they hurt you or not, but that your motive for rebuking them or responding to them in the way you are doing is that you see that their motive is criminal and that you know that God is going -- that they are going to be wiped out if they are not corrected. Let your motive be for the other person’s benefit and not for yours, and when you do that, Christ will defend you. You see, this is the part that people have such a problem with. When you lay down your own self-defense, you are not defenseless. When you lay down your own self-defense, you are strong than you could ever be when you are defending yourself because Christ is always on the side of the victim.
So if you are a woman and you made a stand, you have taken a stand to submit to your husband, that does not make you a hopeless victim; it makes you, actually, stronger than your husband, but stronger in righteousness. Because if he mistreats you, he is no longer dealing with you; he has the Lord Jesus Christ to deal with, and that is no joke if you are mistreating your wife. The Scripture clearly states that one of the pot- -- possible reasons for not having your prayers answered is that you are mistreating your wife. It is a [?various?] -- very serious error to abuse your wife. God will not bless that. He is going to meet you in the way and give you a piece of his mind and shake your tree and straighten you out. You have to understand the other side to this.
When Paul says suffer the loss, he is not saying let yourself be abused. Please, Father, I pray that you give these people this revelation, that when you stand still, Christ fights for you. The problem is that Christ expects you to take more or suffer more of a loss than you would choose for yourself, so it is, sort of, hard to hang onto the horns of the altar when you are being hurt. But if you could just get this revelation that it is worth being hurt a little bit -- now I am not talking about being physically damaged. It is worth suffering the loss to let Christ fight for you because Christ never loses, and when you are aligned with him, you cannot lose.
I pulled out our Alternate Translation of Isaiah 11:3-5, which is speaking about the ministry of the Son and this ministry of judging righteous judgment. I would like to go over it with you a little bit.
This is Isaiah 11:3-5, Alternate Translation, speaking about Christ now, and that is you. This is the man who lives out of the mind of Christ. “And he shall live his very life in a spiritual and mental state of reverence for his God when the seven spirits of the Lord shall abide within him. And he shall not determine who is guilty or who is innocent in the soul realm” -- that is this world -- “by what he sees with his natural eyes, nor shall he hear evidence and pronounce sentence upon sin as a result of what he hears with his natural ears.”
Can you hear it? If you intend or desire to be a son of God, this is for you; it is what you are not going to do. If you are doing it, you need to repent right now, wherever you are. Doing what? Evaluating a situation by what you see with your natural eyes and hear with your natural ears, and after you evaluate it, to pronounce -- let me give you the exact words, “to determine who is guilty or innocent, nor pronounce sentence upon sin.” You will not do that on the basis of what you hear with these natural ears or see with these natural eyes. If you want to be a son, you have to come to this place.
“But he shall determine who is guilty and who is innocent in the soul realm by that which -- by that within him which is righteous.” And what within us is righteous? Christ. That means you have to us your Christ mind. “Even the seven spirits of God and the son of God, he shall hear evidence.” He shall evaluate the situation, “and pronounce judgment without emotion.” If you have risen up in emotion to condemn somebody or if you have risen up in emotion to defend somebody or to condemn somebody, it is not likely that it is Christ.
“And he shall pronounce judgment without emotion for those whose soul realm is underfoot.” So in order for you to be able to pronounce this righteous judgment, your own carnal mind must be underneath Christ, so if you do not have authority over your own carnal mind and you think that God is sending you out to judgment righteous judgment, you are deceived because so long as your carnal mind is active, you cannot; you are incapable of judging righteous judgment. One of the signs that you are in Christ is that your emotions are not operating. That is a real easy sign to see. If your emotions are operating, it is not the mind of Christ.
Now there is an anger which is a righteous anger in Christ, but it is not an emotional anger. I know it because I have experienced it, and I have also experienced the emotional anger of the soul, and there is a radical difference. It is an anger without emotion. If you cannot understand that, I ask that the Lord help you to understand it. I do not know any other way to explain it to you, but it is an anger that comes from the mind. It is an anger that is against sin; it is an anger that is against something that is done wrong; it is anger against anything that is doing evil towards God’s righteousness; it is an anger -- that is all I have -- that comes out of the mind which recognizes that there is an act here that is deliberately and -- that is deliberately defying the righteousness of God. It is not an anger that is angry because this person has dared to hurt you or because this person has wounded you or that this person is wounding someone else’s feelings. It is an anger that arises because this person has broken God’s law, and at some point, Lord willing, you will all be able to tell the difference; there is a radical difference.
I know when I am angry. When I am angry out of my emotions, I am in a weak condition, and I know that I could be defeated by my opponent,t easily. But when I am angry in the righteousness of God, I am a formidable opponent, and I would like to believe I am untoppleable, unless you are strong enough to knock my Christ mind down, and that is not just me; that is everybody that is in Christ. And there is only one way you are going to knock my Christ mind down, you see. You cannot defeat Christ in me; he is invincible. What you have to do -- if you want to get me, you see, what you have to do is join up with my carnal mind and strengthen my carnal mind to come out from under Christ in me; that is the only way you can get me, you see. You will never defeat me so long as my Christ mind is up. You have to get the monster, the beast, that is underneath my feet out; that is the only way you can get me or anybody in Christ. You cannot kill Christ.
So the true son is going to pronounce judgment without emotion for those whose carnal mind is underfoot, and he shall pour out judgment upon that carnal mind, both by the spoken word. He is going to pour out the judgment upon the carnal mind of the offender or of the spiritual criminal with the spoken word, and he shall slay Satan by the spirit that dwells in his own mind.
Judge- -- and we talked about this at the beginning of the message: Judgment is pronounce by the spoken word. Now when you are pronouncing judgment in Christ and it is pronounced in the spoken word, you have to be willing to accept the fact that that judgment might not manifest in this world system for a year, two years, three years, four years, five years, and you have to let it go because the minute you start trying to bring that judgment to pass, you are guilty of witchcraft.
Brethren, it is a very hard job to be a son of God. Not only is it a tremendous responsibility, it is extremely difficult, and the training for it is not easy nor to be taken lightly, and the whole bulk of the training is you. You have got to get a hold of your own carnal mind; you have got to get a hold of your own emotions; you have got to deal with your own sin and your own unrighteousness or you shall not be qualified to judge your brother.
“And the righteousness of God shall protect this son of God from responding to the emotions of the soul realm which compel us to sin, and the faithfulness of God shall keep the reproductive parts of our soul” -- that is the carnal mind -- “from fornicating” -- well, or, I guess, it means our human spirit from fornicating with the carnal mind. If you would like to follow that up, that Alternate Translation was worked up on message 35, Part 2.
So we are dealing with the phrase, “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth.” “Meek,” Strong's 6038, means “modesty” or “the clemency [?with?] -- of God.” Clemency means mercy of God. Webster’s says that the word “clemency” means “forgiveness,” “mercy” or “leniency.” The next phrase is, “It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” “It may be” can be translated “perhaps.” “Ye shall be hid,” Strong's 5641, “concealed,” “veiled,” “guarded” or “defended.”
“In the day of the Lord’s anger;” in the day, brethren, that the Lord kills your carnal mind, let us hope that your true self, your spirit, shall be hid in Christ because, if your spirit is not hid in Christ in the day that the Lord kills your carnal mind, you shall cease to exist. If your carnal mind dies and your human spirit is not joined to Christ, your whole personality, your body, your whole person as you now know yourself will die; you cannot live without a mind. That is why, for a season, it is necessary to be double-minded.
As far as I know, the whole church world abhors the thought of being double-minded; it is an insult; it is something to be avoided. It is not something to be avoided, brethren; that is a misperception. You must [?needs be?] double-minded for a season so that, in the hour that th- -- of the day of the Lord’s anger, when he kills your carnal mind, you have another mind standing in the eaves ready to sit down on your soul and sustain the life of your flesh. Church has it backwards. And [UNINTELLIGIBLE] -- just as an aside, I would like to remind you that in our study in 1 Kings 19, where Elijah’s carnal mind was covered or veiled by Christ, we found that principle on our series on Elijah.
“It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” “In the” can be translated “on account of.” “The day of Jehovah’s anger,” “the kingdom of God.” The day of Jehovah’s anger is the kingdom of God. “The day” is Christ, “of Jehovah’s anger.” We worked that up in a previous verse. The day of Jehovah’s anger is the kingdom of God.
Alternate Translation, Zephaniah 2:3, “Seek Jehovah, all you who are afflicted in your soul who have formed the mind of Christ. Seek just causes and forgiveness and mercy so that perhaps Christ Jesus shall protect you in the day of Jehovah’s anger.”
“Seek just causes and forgiveness and mercy if you desire any hope at all of being hidden in Christ in the day that the Lord kills the carnal mind.”
Do not seek your own cause. In your case, do you know what a just cause would be? What is best for your entire family; that would be an example of a just cause. And what is best for anyone’s entire family is that the wife submit to the husband, that the children submit to the wife and that Jehovah fight for everyone who is not being treated properly by the authority above them. Can you at least hear what I am saying? OK.
Amplified translation, Zephaniah 2:3, “Look to God to meet your needs, all of you who have formed the mind of Christ but are still miserable and afflicted in your emotions, and he will give you the ministry of reconciliation which is in Christ Jesus. And you shall search out man’s true motives and extend the mercy of Jehovah’s judgments to the spiritual criminal in the day that Jehovah delivers his people from their bondage to the carnal mind.”
Stop looking for deliverance from your misery in carnal pursuits. Paul clearly said, if you are married, stay married; if you are not married, stay single. Marriage is not going to make you happy if you are miserable. If you are miserably married, divorce is not going to make you happy. If you are unhappy when you are living out of your soul life, it is because you need to be spiritually elevated. Stay where you are. Do not rock the boat. Do not break up your marriage. Do not shake up your life, but expand your horizons. Ascend into a spiritual experience in Christ, which will bring life to every area of torment in your soul. That is what he is saying, and it is the truth.
Just open your eyes and look around. We have a whole society of people scampering around, desperately trying to be happy, spending all kinds of money on trips and clothes and material things, people trying all kinds of sexual experiences, adultery, fornications, threesomes, quadruples, whatever they are doing up on a trapeze. They are trying all kinds of things, and it is not making them happy. The Lord is saying your unhappiness is rooting from an inadequate spiritual life in Christ Jesus, so save yourself all the trouble. Do not put your family through this, but humble yourself before the Lord, and let Christ be formed in you so that you can receive the ministry of reconciliation and have this honor of going about searching out man’s true motives and extending the mercy of Jehovah’s judgments to the spiritual criminal in the day that Jehovah delivers his people from their bondage to the carnal mind.
Brethren, that is what we are doing here, and the spiritual criminal can be your neighborhood grandmother, the little old lady down the street who never cursed in her life. Everyone except Jesus Christ is a spiritual criminal, and it does not do anyone any good to say this guy did worse things than me. That is just ch- -- proving that you have pride. We are all spiritual criminals; we are all dead; we are all locked down here in Hell, so let us get out of here; let us do what we need to do to get out of here.
And everyone of you who is in a family where you are the only one -- either you are the only one that is serving God or you are the only one that is serving God on this level, you are the high priest to your family, but you are still expected to function in your natural role. But through intercession, through communion with the Lord, you can raise your whole family up out of Hell, but you must do it by the Lord’s rules.
2 Corinthians 5:18 says, “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Christ Jesus” -- or, “by Jesus Christ,” excuse me, “and hath given unto us the ministry or reconciliation.”
I just put that in, in case someone listening to this message did n- -- was not aware that there is a ministry of reconciliation.
Continuing with Zephaniah 2:4, “For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.”
Well, what in the world does that mean? Let us try and find out. “Gaza,” Strong's 5804, it means “strong” or “fortified;” it is one of the five cities of the Philistines. The -- and I suggest to you that it typifies the carnal mind. The Philistines are the enemies of Israel, and the number five means ministry. I suggest to you that Gaza typifies a part of the carnal mind.
And “Gaza shall be forsaken.” “Forsaken,” the interlinear me- -- says it means “abandoned,” Strong's 5800; this word can also be translated “to cease from wrath” or “to be deserted.” The carnal mind shall cease from her wrath when the human spirit leaves or abandons her because she cannot exist without the human spirit. When the human spirit leaves the carnal mind, she shall break up and dissolve, or, actually, when the Lord Jesus Christ breaks up and dissolves the carnal mind, the human spirit will escape, breaking her up permanently.
So we are saying the phrase “Gaza shall be forsaken” is a parable; it is a symbolic way of saying that the carnal mind shall cease from her wrath. Do you know that the carnal mind has wrath towards you? The carnal mind hates you. He hates you. She hates you; she is female. And she will cease from her wrath in the hour that the human spirit flees from her, but we know that the human spirit cannot flee from her until the L- -- until Christ Jesus breaks up the carnal mind.
I have not mentioned amplification recently. Amplification is when I add words that are not in the Scripture, but I add them because we have learned in other studies that, if you hear one thing in a Scripture, something else is presupposed. Let me give you an example. If I were to say to you Jesus rose from the dead, if I found a Scripture that said Jesus rose from the dead, we know whether it -- the words are there or not that Jesus was crucified. In order for him to have been ra- -- risen from the dead, he had to be crucified, OK. So when we read here in the Book of Zephaniah, Chapter 2, that the human spirit escapes from the carnal mind, from other studies, we know that the human spirit is in bondage to the carnal mind, and she shall not escape until Christ Jesus wages war against the carnal mind and utterly breaks him down. Is everybody following me? OK.
“And Ashkelon a desolation;” “Ashkelon,” Strong's 831, means “migration.” It is a maritime city of the Philistines, another city which is one of the five cities of the -- Israel’s great enemy, the Philistines. “Desolation,” Strong's 8077, means “astonishment,” “a waste desert.” Now a maritime city means that it is a city on the water, so I am suggesting to you that Ashkelon is speaking about the watery part of the carnal mind. Now, remember, the creation is part water, and then there is the dry land. The carnal mind is the dry land, and the water or the spirit which is in the carnal mind is Satan. The spirit which is in the carnal mind is Satan. The mind is typified by water. I am sorry. The mind is typified -- is the earth, and the spirit in it is the water; the unconscious mind or the spirit which is in the mind is typified by water. So I see here, as we look at this parable, there is Gaza speaking about the carnal mind and Ashkelon speaking about the water of the carnal mind or Satan.
So we see Satan shall be made desolate or made a waste desert. Now if we are speaking about a maritime city, a city on the water, that city is being made a waste desert; that means the water is being dried up. And I remind you of our other studies which indicate that Satan’s water is being dried up. How is that happening? Does anybody remember? What is happening to Satan?
[?Boiled?].
He is being boiled, amen. He is being boiled. There will be no water left. He is being dried up at -- by being converted into vapor, and then that vapor is going to be absorbed by the Spirit of Christ. So if you can follow this fine; if you cannot, just try to hang in with me. It is very deep symbology. You really have to pray about it.
“Gaza shall be forsaken;” the carnal mind shall be abandoned by the human spirit, “and Ashkelon shall be a desolation or dried up,” and the spirit which is in that carnal mind, Satan, shall be dried up.
Two witnesses in the Book of Isaiah which declare that the Lord has promised to dry up the sea are Isaiah 51:10 and 52:2.
Isaiah 51:10, “Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?”
Isaiah is saying are n- -- I do not know why the King James translators translated it -- his name “it,” but the Scripture is saying, is Jehovah not the one who has dried up the sea? Now in the natural -- or some might he is speaking about the Red Sea, but I declare to you, brethren, that the Lord did not dry up the Red Sea; he merely pushed it to the side. He divided it and spread each side out to the side, although the Scripture does say that he dried up the seabed because we know the Hebrews went across dry-shod, but I suggest to you there is a spiritual application to this and that the Lord is promising to dry up the sea of Satan’s unconscious mind in fallen man.
Isaiah 52:2 [sic], picking up in the middle of the verse, “Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.”
And, of course, we know the Lord dried up not the sea, but the seabed both of the Red Sea and of the river Jordan, but I declare to you there is a future fulfillment of this prophecy, that the salt sea which symbolized Satan’s spirit and also is the unconscious mind of fallen man shall indeed be dried up when the Lord Jesus Christ rebukes him. In the hour that the Lord Jesus Christ has reproduced his nature in the hearts of men in the form of Christ Jesus, that man in which Christ Jesus is formed to full maturity shall rebuke the sea of that fallen man, and Satan shall be cast into the lake of fire.
Brethren, it is that lake of fire that is putting a flame under the salt sea t- -- which symbolizes Satan’s nature and boiling it until it is dried up through evaporation, which process of evaporation shall free up the human spirit of man, which is symbolized by the salt in the sea. And did not [sic] Jesus say that ye are the salt of the earth? Salt typifying spirit, brethren. Praise the Lord.
I refer you, as another witness to this, to Revelation 16:12, “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.”
In our series number 18, we established that Euphrates r- -- the river Euphrates typifies the human spirit. This verse speaks about Euphrates being dried up. I remind you that Eve, the human spirit, is dissolved in the sea of the unconscious mind, which is Satan. That is how she is con- -- the human spirit is in complete bondage to Satan; she is completely one with him. And one of the scriptural symbols which describes this is that Eve is salt, and she is completely dissolved in the sea of Satan’s unconscious mind. So we see in Revelation 16:12 another occasion where the Lord does not even acknowledge Satan, does not even name him. He says Euphrates is going to be dried up, says Eve is going to be dried up, but we know -- and here is amplification again: We know that Eve is divo- -- is dissolved in Satan.
So what the Lord is really saying in a parabolic way, in a mysterious way, is that Satan is going to be dried up, OK. And why is Satan going to be dried up? To make way for the kings of the east. What does this mean? The east is the place that describes the eternal realm of God. The sun rises in the east, OK. That is the scriptural direction that signifies the eternal realm of God. So the kings of the eternal realm of God, the sons of God, brethren. Listen, the unconscious mind of Satan shall be dried up so the human spirit can be freed to marry Christ so that the sons of God can appear. Can you hear it? It is like doing a jigsaw puzzle, but if you have ears to hear it, it really makes sense. Glory to God.
Alternate Translation, the first half of Zephaniah 2:4, “Shall abandon the carnal mind, and Satan’s salt sea shall dry up.”
Please note that at this point we do not know who is causing Satan’s salt sea to dry up, nor do we know who is abandoning the carnal mind. It is not clear in the Hebrew. You will see that it is in a verse further on in this verse ph- -- it is in a phrase further on in this verse 4. So someone is going to abandon the carnal mind. We already know it is the human spirit, and we already know that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to boil Satan’s sea and then absorb the vapor into his spirit.
Amplified translation, Zephaniah, first half of Zephaniah 2:4, “Satan, fallen Adam’s unconscious mind, shall dry up,” and we do not know who it is yet, “shall separate from the carnal mind.” Well, it does not say it in the Hebrew, but we know it is the human spirit.
“Satan, fallen Adam’s unconscious, shall dry up or shall be dried up when the Lord Jesus Christ boils her, and the human spirit shall separate from the carnal mind.”
Continuing with the second half of Zephaniah 2:4, “They shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.”
“Drive out,” Strong's 1644, can be translated “to divorce a wife,” “to be carried by the violence of water.” The soul God -- let me remind you that the soul which God formed, his wife, is the one who was violently carried off by water. Now, remember, water typifies the spiritual power that exists in the soul realm.
And I have a witness for you here, but I see I did not put down -- I believe it is Revelation 12:15. “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.”
Can you hear this? “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.”
And now we find out in Zephaniah 2:4 we have a word translated “drive out,” which means “to be carried off by the violence of water.” [INAUDIBLE] So we see that the Lord’s many-membered wife, who was carried off by the violence of water at the time of the fall -- she was carried off by the violence of Satan’s water, of Satan’s spirit, and ent- -- and forced to enter a marital union with him and his wicked offspring, the carnal mind. We see that that many-membered wife, in Revelation 12:15, is once again chased by a flood which came out of the mouth of the serpent.
But we see the prophecy in Zephaniah 2 saying that she who was carried off by the flood of water at the time of the fall and she who will be afflicted once again by the flood of the water of the Sata- -- of Satan’s or the serpent’s spiritual power at the time that the sons of God stand up, which is what is happening in Revelation 12, that she, God’s wife, shall be strengthened by Christ Jesus and shall turn against the serpent and, with the spiritual power of Christ Jesus which is being formed and growing out of her own spirit, shall drive away the serpent. So the flood of water that originally afflicted God’s wife at the beginning of time and that flood of waters that will be coming against her and is coming against her now, towards those who are standing up in spiritual power, shall be overtaken by another flood of waters, by the flood of the waters of the life of Christ. So we see God’s many-membered wife arising in the power of Christ and chasing the carnal mind that she is in bondage to with the power of Christ Jesus.
And I am going to show you right now that Ashdod typifies the carnal mind. “Ashdod,” Strong's 795, “a fortified place,” “a castle,” “one of the five cities of the Philistines.” Brethren, a castle typifies the soul whose mind has projected a wall around her. If you have read our book, “Mind, Hell & Death,” you may recall that the mind is in the innermost part of the soul, and he penetrates that soul and forms a wall, a protective wall, around her, and that is signified in the Scripture as a castle. We are talking about a mind which is fully possessing and defencing the soul that he is sitting on as a throne; that is what we are saying.
So we see that they shall drive out -- the human spirits of men are driving out or carrying off by the violence of water -- this is the reversal. This is the human spirit going after the serpent. We see in Revelation 12 that the serpent went after the woman with the violence of water; it came out of his mouth, typifying spiritual power. And here we see the one that was taken captive doing the same thing, driving out the one that has captured them with the spiritual power which the viol- -- with the violence of water coming from the mouth, spiritual power. And there is only one way the human spirit shall acquire spiritual power, and that is through her union with Christ or through her -- or giving birth to Christ as a result of her union with the human spirit, and then she marries Christ.
And they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day.” “The noon day,” Strong's 6672, means “midday;” it also means “double light” or “most splendid light.” And I suggest to you that this Hebrew word translated “noon day,” which also means “double light,” is speaking about the double portion; it is the Spirit of Christ along with Christ. This word is speaking about the double portion -- oh, I just told you that, OK.
And I also quoted to you Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation, verse 16, “And the earth helped the woman.” That is the soul, “helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And I suggest to you that earth that helped the woman is the soul which is joined to Christ. The sons of God helped the woman by opening her mouth and swallowed up the spiritual power that the dragon poured out of his mouth. The earth or the soul under the authority of Christ shall help the woman. The mouth of the earth is the Lord’s spokesman, the two witness company and the sons of God who shall swallow up the spiritual power of Satan, which is in the carnal mind. This is the crucifixion of Christ. Remember, the carnal mind is being joined to Christ, and of the twain -- Jesus Christ made one new man, and of the twain, we shall make one new man, the creation of God.
Another way to express this event is that Satan’s salt sea shall become crystallized or become the crystal sea, or we can say Satan’s unconscious mind shall be swallowed up by the Spirit of Christ, and the salt, which typifies Eve, which is the dead Christ, shall no longer be dissolved in the water of Satan’s existence, but the water of Satan’s existence shall be formed by the crystalline structure of the resurrected mind of Christ. And we hear about the crystal sea in the Book of Revelation. Right now, we have an unconscious mind which is unstable. The sea c- -- is not -- it just rolls and flows, and it has no form. But when our unconscious mind is Christ, our unconscious mind shall be stable; it shall be in a permanent form that shall be regulated and structured by the glorious son of God; he is stable.
I have two witnesses for you here. Revelation 4:6, “And before the throne was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.”
Verse -- Revelation 21:11 says, “Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.”
Please note that the dead Christ is typified -- which is Eve, is typified by salt crystals which have been overcome, or we can say dissolved by the water of Satan’s existence. They are in an unstable, unformed condition which is controlled by Satan’s raging, tossing and tumultuous nature. The resurrected Christ, however, is typified by one Christ, which is consistently and permanently overpowering the water of Satan’s existence, forcing her into a stable image of his one salt crystal. This one salt crystal typifies the unconscious mind of glorified man. Now let me remind you that a crystal has many facets to it. There will be one crystal but many planes, surfaces, and each one of us will be a plane surface as a part of this one giant crystal. So we see that we are all going to be one, but, nevertheless, there will be some measure of individuality, in that we will have our own plane in this crystal. Does everybody understand that? You know what I am talking about? OK.
And that is a great mystery; I do not even understand it myself: We will be one, but there will still be an aspect of individuality. We are not going to be lost forever. A lot of people who hear this message get a fear that we will be swallowed up and have no individuality and no existence. We will have individuality. I -- that is the only witness I have for you, but I believe that whatever God gives us must be greater than this existence, and therefore I believe we will have an even greater opportunity to express our individuality than we have now. I just do not have any more information on it for you.
“Ekron,” let me see. “Ekron shall be rooted up.” “Ekron,” Strong's 6138; it means “eradication.” It is also one of the five cities of the Philistines, Israel’s enemy. “Rooted up,” Strong's 6131, means “to be barren, “to hamstring a horse;” that means to tie up all his feet. It also means “to be overthrown,” and please remember that the definition of “he who endureth till the end shall be saved,” that Greek word translated “endureth” means “to be overthrown,” and we are translating that expression “he whose carnal mind is overthrown shall be saved.” So we see here a word that means overthrown.
Ekron, eradication, that which eradicates, shall be overthrown. I suggest to you that this word Ekron signifies Satan. He is the one who eradicated the immature Christ by birthing his carnal mind in the creation, but we see that he is to be overthrown, hamstrung and made barren. Hallelujah. Remember, we stated earlier that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who dried up Satan’s existence. The phrase “Ekron shall be rooted up” indicates that Christ Jesus shall overthrow the carnal mind. It is the carnal mind who is being hamstrung.
Now this is a very difficult verse, so I am just going to try and help you out with these translations. Noon -- well, let me read the whole thing for you. “They shall drive out Ashdod at noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.” “Noon day” is speaking about Christ Jesus. “Shall root up” is translated “to overthrow and make barren.” “Ekron” is the one who eradicated the immature Christ, and “drove out” is translated “violently carried away.” “Ashdod” is the fortified city, the soul under the dominion of Christ, God’s wife.
Alternate Translation, the second half of Zephaniah 2:4, “And Christ Jesus shall make the Christ killer” -- the carnal mind is the Christ killer. “And Christ Jesus shall make the Christ killer, who violently carried the woman away, harmless and barren, and she shall overcome Satan’s spiritual power and divorce him.”
Alternate Translation, Zephaniah 2:4, “The human spirit shall separate from the carnal mind, and Satan, fallen Adam’s unconscious mind, shall dry up and cease to exist. And Christ Jesus shall make the Christ killer, who violently carried the woman away, harmless and barren, and she shall overcome Satan’s spiritual power and divorce him.”
Amplified translation, Zephaniah 2:4, “And the Lord Jesus Christ shall dry up Satan, fallen Adam’s unconscious mind, and Christ Jesus shall cut off the Christ killer who violently carried the woman away and make him barren, and the human spirit shall separate” -- I am sorry, “and the human spirit shall overcome Satan’s power and separate from the carnal mind, and Adam shall divorce Satan.”
“And the Lord Jesus Christ shall dry up Satan, fallen Adam’s unconscious mind, and Christ Jesus shall cut off the Christ killer who violently carried the woman away, and the human spirit shall overcome Satan’s power and separate from the carnal mind, and Adam shall divorce Satan.”
There is a second witness to this event in Matthew 27:52-53. We worked up the Alternate Translation on Part 1 of message 170, “Jesus in the Jordan.”
Alternate Translation, Matthew 27:52-53, “And the holy one who went to sleep at the beginning of time arose from the dead in the many members of the body of Christ, and their human spirits entered into Christ, and their souls awoke from the sleep of death, and Christ appeared in the sons of God. And the many members of fallen Adam saw them and remembered that they too were Christ and willingly abandoned their adulterous union with Satan and the carnal mind.”
Recap, Zephaniah 2:1-4, “Face the truth, you heathen nation, that your true identity, the spirit of man, is married to Satan and that your soul is married to his daughter, the carnal mind, and reform your mind in the image of Jehovah. Nevertheless, because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, humanity is conceiving Christ Jesus, the one who shall offer Satan’s carnal mind up as a sacrifice to Jehovah. But the prophecy that the lake of fire shall be formed in you has not been fulfilled because the engrafted word is not judging your sins.”
“Therefore, look to God to meet your needs, all of you who have formed the mind of Christ but are still miserable and afflicted in your emotions, and he will give you the ministry of reconciliation, which is in Christ Jesus, and you shall search out man’s true motives and extend the mercy of Jehovah’s judgments to the spiritual criminal in the day that Jehovah delivers his people from their bondage to the carnal mind.”
“And the Lord Jesus Christ shall dry up Satan, fallen Adam’s unconscious mind, and Christ Jesus shall cut off the Christ killer who violently carried away the woman, and make him barren. And your human spirit shall overcome Satan’s spiritual power and separate from the carnal mind, and Adam shall divorce Satan.”
12/14/15 Transcribed by VerbalFusion
