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And I believe we got through verse 4, which was not very much, so I am going to just briefly review those first four verses, and we will pick up with verse 5. And I am probably going to incorporate the two messages into one message, as if it were one message, so if you are looking for this message, do not expect it to be in two parts. It will be just one message. I did make a minor change in the Alternate Translation of verse 4. Let me give that to you.
Well, let me review this, that we found out that, in the prophets, we can find a situation whereby one verse, in a whole chapter in a whole book of prophecy, is in parable form. One of the sisters at the meeting last week said she never knew that, and this is a great mystery, but the prophets can speak in one verse. They can say something that you have no problem understanding. For example, verse 1 of Amos 3 says, "Hear the word that the like has spoken against you, O children of Israel." Now that is not a parable. We know exactly what the Lord is talking about. We know who He is talking to and what He is saying. But by the time we get down to verses 4 and 5, we read something that makes no sense whatsoever to spirit- -- with regard to spiritual matters.
"Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?" Brethren, that is a riddle. In the Book of Judges, Samson calls something like that a riddle or a parable. You cannot take it -- well, you can take it at face value, but it has no spiritual sense to it whatsoever, so we must unravel the riddle of verses 4 and 5. And I believe verse 12 is a parable, and verse 15 is a parable, and all of the other verses, some of them are straight out. You can understand what the prophet is saying. Some of them are really half and half, which means they can be taken on both levels.
Verse 10, for example, says, "For they know not to do right, saith the Lord." Now we know what that means. People do not have a conscience. They do not how to do right. "Who store up violence and robber in their palaces." Well, we can read that, and we can say, well, there are a certain category of people that are violent and who are robbers, and they just -- they do not have it within them to do right. But when you read the phrase, "They store up violence and robber in their palaces," well, that, I suggest to you, has a deeper hidden meaning. So we have a whole spectrum, from verses that can be taken strictly in the letter, those that are a mixture, and then at the other end of the scale, we have verses that are obviously a parable because we have no idea what their spiritual meaning is without pulling the verses apart, looking up every word in the Hebrew and applying lessons that the Lord has taught us over the years as to the hidden meaning of certain symbols in the Scripture.
So our Alternate Translation for verse 4, which I ma- -- I think I made one or two minor changes on it, reads as follows -- excuse me just a second. I thought I had it here, but I did not. OK, Alternate Translation, Amos 3:4, "Will Satan make a fierce sound when Christ spontaneously and freely flows from the dead human spirit of the men who have been separated from God? And how shall the noise of the carnal mind be cast out of humanity unless he is first taken captive?"
"Will Satan make a fierce sound?" Satan is the lion. The roar is the fierce sound, "when Christ spontaneously, freely flows." That, believe it or not, is a legitimate translation of the word forest. "When He flows from the dead human spirit," and, "When He hath no prey." It was a difficult translation. Let me see if I can find that for you so I can put it on this message. Lion -- well, I do not know. I did not intend to do this, and I did it. If you want to know how I got that, you will have to go back to the beginning of this message because, off hand, I cannot tell you how I got it. "Will Satan make a fierce sound when Christ spontaneously and freely flows from the dead human spirit of the men who have been separated from God?" I guess that must be what the prey means, those who have been captured, yeah. OK, if you want that in more detail, you will have to go back to the beginning of the message.
"And how shall the noise of the carnal mind be cast out of humanity unless he is taken captive?" Now many years ago, the Lord had given me a dream when I had absolutely no idea what it meant at all. I did not even have any idea that I was called to be a teacher in those days. I was a very young disciple, and I had a dream that I was teaching a whole group of people. It was probably a larger group than we have ever had here, and I was in a house, and nobody could understand what I was saying, and that is pretty much going on now. Very few people understand what I am saying. Not only when I teach, but when I talk to them, many people misunderstand me. Why is that? Because the carnal mind cannot understand the things of the spirit. It cannot comprehend it.
So in this dream I was teaching. I had a whole roomful of people, and nobody could -- w- -- nobody could understand me. They were all looking at me with blank faces, and suddenly I realized that the reason they could not understand me was that there was a loud buzzing noise in the classroom, and it was a classroom. And I started looking for the noise, and I went from student to student all the way down the row, and there at the very end of the row was this -- I do not remember whether it was a man or not, but it was a person, and he was yelling on the top of his lungs and doing everything -- and he was yelling nonsense. He was just making noise, anything to distract the teaching from coming forth, and I walked down the room. I walked across the room towards him, and I laid hold of him with great strength, and I opened the door, and I threw him out and slammed the door shut, and everybody started to learn. I had that dream when I was a very, very young disciple, had no idea what it meant.
And I believe, brethren, that the sons of God will be doing that for the whole church and for the whole human race. They cannot hear this message in this hour. Their carnal mind makes a lot of noise. What does that mean? He gives forth his own thoughts. He gives forth his own understanding. He gives forth his own voice, and he is preventing the church and the world from hearing and understanding the true gospel of God, which is truly the gospel of their salvation.
So we see a parable, a question, in Amos 3:4. "Will Satan make a fierce sound, and will the noise of the carnal mind be cast out?" How shall this happen? Satan is going to make the fierce sound when this message comes forth. Well, how shall the carnal mind be cast out unless we first take him captive? And who is taking the carnal mind captive? It must be Christ in your own mind. Christ in my mind can take him captive temp- -- it -- Christ in my mind can take your carnal mind captive temporarily. Christ in my mind can wound your carnal mind long enough and deeply enough for the seed of Christ to be implanted in your heart, but it must be Christ Jesus in your own heart that takes the carnal mind captive, chains him up and puts him down in the bottomless pit with Satan. See, I can attack him, and I can plant the seed, but you have got to get him in your own bottomless pit.
So I just find that the prophets, by and large, are preaching the gospel of God. The Hebrew prophets -- the message of the Hebrew prophets is not the message of the cross. I mean, there may be a few verses here and there in Isaiah 53 about the cross, but, by and large, all of the prophets are preaching the gospel of God, Christ in you, the hope of glory, and here it is in parable form in verse 4 of Amos 3.
Continuing with verse 5, another parable, "Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? Shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?"
Well, what in the world does that mean? The Hebrew word translated bird is Strong's 6833, and it means small bird, usually a sparrow, and it is from a root 6852, which means to go in a circle or to turn oneself about. Now the word circle, you may recall, indicates the circle of the earth, which is this realm of time and space. The circle is the geometric expression of this realm of time and space, and I am suggesting to you that the small bird typifies fallen man.
"Can a bird fall into a snare?" The word fall, Strong's 5307, it merely means to descend or to surrender. Can fallen man surrender to the snare which is upon the earth? What is the snare that is upon the earth, anybody? The carnal mind is the snare that is upon the earth, but we find that is -- that was a good answer, but we find, more specifically, that this Hebrew word translated snare, Strong's 6341, specifically means [?lightning?] shaped like a noose or a serpent, so we are going to say that this word snare means Satan. Of course, Satan and the carnal mind are one. It is just a question of where they are located. Satan is in the unconscious mind, and the carnal mind is the conscious mind of the individual.
Can a bird, can a fallen man descend into the trap, which is Satan's spiritual power that is in the earth "where there is no gin for him?" The Hebrew word translated gin -- I guess that is an Old English word, gin. The Hebrew word translated gin is 4170, and this also means a snare, a noose by which wild beasts are caught, and it is a cause of injury, just like a trap -- if a rabbit gets its paw caught in a trap, this Hebrew word translated gin, it means a trap for an animal that causes injury. It is used once of an iron ring which is put through the nostrils of a beast.
So I have a question for you. There is no gin for whom? Let me read this to you again. "Can a bird fall in snare upon the earth, where there is no gin for him?" No gin for whom? I suggest to you that there is no gin or trap for the wild beast which is the carnal mind, and we have just found that the carnal mind is the subj- -- one of the subjects of verse 4. So verse 5 is still talking about the same subject as verse 3 is speaking about.
And that wild beast which is caught in a gin is Leviathan, I suggest to you, who we find in Job 40:24. "He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares." So we have another witness that we are speaking about Leviathan, and Leviathan is an Old Testament manifestation of the carnal mind of man.
Alternate Translation, the first half of Amos 3:5, "Shall fallen man surrender to the serpent in the earth because there is nothing to restrain him?"
You know, we do not see this style too much in the New Testament, but questions are very common in the Old Testament, and the rabbis would spend hours and days and weeks and months trying to answer these riddles. So God, through the prophet Amos, is saying to whoever has ears to hear, "Shall fallen man surrender to the serpent in the earth because he does not have the spiritual strength to restrain him?" What is going to happen to fallen man? Are we going to surrender because we are not strong enough to hold him off?
And then another question, the second half of Amos 3:5, "Shall one take up a snare" -- it does not say who. "Shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?" The Hebrew word translated take up is called -- is translated spring up in the interlinear, is Strong's 5927. It does mean to go up, but t- -- another meaning for this word is to be driven away or to be elevated. Now we know that the dragon in the earth, the serpent in the earth, shall eventually be elevated to what? Does anybody remember what the serpent is going to be elevated to? To seraphim, redeemed serpent that surround the throne of God.
So, "Shall one take up a snare from the earth?" And another translation for that Hebrew word translated take up is to be driven away, and I want to suggest to you that the second part of this parable, which is a question, is saying, "Shall anyone -- is there anyone strong enough to drive this serpent out of the earth, or is there anyone strong enough to elevate this serpent up to a place where he serves God?" "Shall one take up a snare?" And this Hebrew word snare is the [?lightning?] shaped like a noose or a serpent, so we are speaking about the serpent again.
"From the earth," "Shall anyone take up a snare from the earth?" The Hebrew word translated earth is a word which means tilled ground. There is one Hebrew word that means uncultivated earth and another Hebrew word which means cultivated earth. This is the Hebrew word which means cultivated earth, and I suggest to you that cultivated earth -- first of all, it has been mixed with fertilizer. It has been mixed with som- -- with death because the fertilizer is death, dead fish, dead plants, used eggshells, coffee grounds.
I will never get over it, I think, as long as I live. I am just so glad that I am laughing -- I can laugh at it, but I was born and raised in the city, and when I moved out to Long Island, I wanted to have a garden, and I read all kinds of books on gardening, and I was told that egg shells and coffee grinds were excellent fertilizer, so one day I took my garbage and threw it out over my garden. I did not know you were supposed to turn the soil and work it into the soil, so my neighbor came running in one day and said, "Ms. Vitale, Ms. Vitale, you have garbage all over your garden," and it was really embarrassing, but I can laugh at it. It was really funny. You have to dig a hole and bury it, right.
So what -- so tilled ground is, first of all, ground that has been mixed with something that is a waste product, to fertilize it, and I suggest to you that in these -- this Scripture, it is implied that the tilled or the fertilized ground has brought forth some form of existence which is the carnal mind. So this use of the word cultivated ground indicates to me, in parable form, that this earth or this soul is the soul which has begotten the carnal mind. So the use of this word, cultivated ground, indicates to me, in parable form, that this earth or this soul is the soul which has begotten the carnal mind.
"Shall -- is there anyone strong enough to take up this serpent from the earth?" "To take -- and have taken nothing at all." That makes no sense at all, "and have taken nothing at all." The interlinear says the word is taken, Strong's 3920. It means to take captive, to intercept or to take hold of one another. Now the Hebrew word translated "and have taken nothing at all" is Strong's 3920, and it appears twice in the interlinear. It made no sense at all. That is how the King James translators translated it the way that they did because they could not make any sense out of it. But I want to suggest to you that it should be translated "to take captive the one who has taken captive."
Now that is a mystery, and it -- but it is a second witness -- or I should say Romans 8:20 is a second witness to Amos 3:5, and Romans 8:20 -- we have an Alternate Translation which says, "Because the creation was not subjected to Satan because the Father or the man desired it, but in the hope of the other guy, or Christ, subjecting the one who subjected us." "But in the hope that the other guy subj- -- will subject the one who subjected us." And I suggest to you that this is a mysterious, hidden expression of the same concept, that the hope of this fallen creation is that Christ will appear in some human being somewhere and bring the carnal mind into subjection to His manhood, to His spiritual manhood.
Alternate Translation, the second half of Amos 3:5, "Or shall someone be able to drive the serpent away from the earth and take captive the one who captured the living soul?" Or, to make it more clear, "Or shall someone be -- is there anyone who is going to be strong enough to overcome Satan and take captive the carnal mind who captured the living soul?"
Alternate Translation, the whole of Amos 3:5, "Shall fallen man surrender to the serpent in the earth because he does not have the spiritual strength to restrain him, or is there going to be someone strong enough to overcome Satan and take captive the carnal mind who captured the living soul?"
So, you see, this surrender that we have made to the carnal mind, God does not even acknowledge it. He is asking the question, "Is it right for the -- for humanity to surrender for Satan? Is there not anyone that is going to come forth strong enough to overtake Satan and his carnal mind?" And the Lord asked this question, completely ignoring that the whole human race has been in bondage for God only knows how many years. To the Lord, it is just a wink of His eye. It is temporary. He does not even acknowledge it because He knows full well that His son is coming forth to subject the one who has subjected us. Hallelujah.
I have some witnesses for you with regard to that, New Testament witnesses. Ephesians 4:8, "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive." He led the carnal mind captive, "and gave gifts unto men."
Revelation 13:10, "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity." The carnal mind who leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity under Christ. "He that killed with the sword," the carnal mind must be killed. Glory to God.
Verse 6, "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?"
Well, that is pretty clear, so I am not going to go into too much detail with this, but I will tell you that the Hebrew word translated afraid, Strong's 2729, does have an alternative translation. It can be translated to come trembling or to hasten with anxiety. And I do not know about you, but the phrase, "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?" does not really make too much sense to me. I know that trumpets mean the Word of God, but still the Scripture does not make too much sense to me. It sits much better with me to say, "If a trumpet" -- and this Hebrew word means the ram's horn, so it is a trumpet that is blown by the priest. "If the priest blow a trumpet in the city, will the people not hurry to the meeting?" Because the ram's horn is announcing a gathering. It is announcing something. Either you are gather together, or the tribes are moving. It means something when the trumpet is blown, so if someo- -- if the priest blow a ram's horn with authority, will the not people hurry to either come to the meeting or get ready to move or do whatever they know the trumpet blasts mean? Amen. Now that makes sense to me.
"Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it?" This Hebrew word translated evil means evil in appearance or deformed, and you may recall, when we did our study in Daniel 7, we found out that this living soul, in God's eyes, is deformed. We are retarded, spiritually retarded, and deformed, and because we are in such condition, when we see Christ manifesting, we know He is radically different than we are, and we perceive Him to be deformed. And the carnal mind will think evil of any human being manifesting Christ. They will think He is perverse and deformed. But for this -- purposes of this verse, verse 6, the word evil means deformed, evil in appearance, deformed.
"Shall the living soul be deformed, and the Lord has not done it?" Now I want to suggest to you that what the Scripture is saying here -- well, you could take it that the living -- that God did this to us, that He caused us to be deformed, but I do not really believe that in view of all the other teaching that is come forth here. It is my understanding that we are deformed because our original ancestor, Adam, sinned and got involved with the flesh, incested himself -- fell prey to incest and that a perverse mind was born in the creation, and we are thus deformed. But God did not do that to us; man's sin did that to us. So I would have to say that what this -- the mystery of this parable is, is that God is saying, "I am going to deform man, and I am going to make him look like he was supposed to look at the beginning of time."
Do you know the scriptural principle where God says, "I will kill -- I will hurt you with death," or, "I will kill you with death"? The carnal mind, which is a wound in itself -- we found Scriptures that call the carnal mind a wound. She herself must be wounded. Death must be killed. It is a mystery of the Scripture. If a child was severely hurt, a person -- you have -- we have a severely hurt person, to get them well, they have to be hurt. Their wound has to be hurt. Their scab has to be ripped off. They have to be wounded and rebuilt in Christ, and that is what that Scripture is saying, in a mysterious way. God is going to deform this deformed soul, and we are going to look like Christ, but to the carnal mind we will be deformed. You following me?
[?Mm-hmm?].
So if a trumpet is blown in the city, if that message of the gospel of God comes across, will the people not hurry to the meeting? Well, I do not know about that. They do not seem to be hurrying to the meeting as far as I can see. So the Lord is saying, "Well, if they are not hurrying to the meeting, something must be wrong with their mind. They are deformed." Therefore, the second half of the verse says, "Shall the living soul be deformed, and the Lord has not done it?" That is the hidden meaning. If God blows a trumpet and says, "This is the message of your deliverance from Hell," do you not think the people should come running? But they are not coming running. Why? Because they are deformed in their mind. There is something wrong with their mind. Therefore, the Lord is going to deform their deformed mind, and Christ will appear in them. Thank you, Jesus.
Verse 7, "Surely the Lord will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets."
Well, that is pretty clear. God always announces what He is going to do, and His reason for announcing it is that, when it happens, He wants you to know that He prophesied it before it happened, and therefore He is responsible for it.
I went through a period of time where I was getting prophetic dreams every morning, to the extent that I made up a dream file. It has not been happening lately. And as I look back over my dream file, I have all kinds of interpretations that I spent hours trying to work up. And I now must come to a conclusion that it was all a labor in vain because almost every one of those dreams, up to a year and a half ago, are now coming to pass, and there is no way I could have possibly predicted what they meant until they happened. And I looked back on all my chicken scratches about what I thought the dream meant, and it did not mean any of that. It was a predict- -- they were all predictive dreams, and they actually meant something that actually, physically happened in my life that I could never comprehend.
And I said to the Lord, "Why are You doing this to me," and He told me, "So that when it happens, you can look back on your dream file. You can know that I prophesied it, that I predicted it, that it was Me, and it -- when you look at the dream, maybe you could get more understanding into what is happening to you and what you are going through." That is what He told me, so now, if I start -- ever start getting dreams again, which I probably will because everything God does is in cycles, I am just going to write them up, and I am not even going to try to interpret them because the -- I am telling you there is no way I could have ever guessed what they meant.
And I also would like to point out to you that the Lord calls the prophets His servants, and I remind you the Moses was a servant in the house of the Lord, but Christ is the Son. And in these last days [?all?] -- under the Old Covenant, God spoke to His people by the prophets, but in these last days, God is speaking --
Through sons.
-- through the sons. God speaks through the son, so you may be functioning in what appears to be the office of prophet, but if you are a son, you have the whole fivefold ministry within you.
Verse 8 -- that door is locked? Would someone open the door, please? OK, verse 8 --
[INAUDIBLE]
"The lion hath roared, who will not fear?" Would you put that on hold, please? [AUDIO CUTS OUT]
Verse 8, "The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy?"
Well, that is, sort of, one of the verses that is half and half. Most of us that have been studying prophecy know that the lion -- a lion represents what? Spiritual power. We have to find out which spiritual power. Is it Satan, or is it the Lord? "The lion hath roared." Some spiritual power has opened up its mouth. "Who will not be afraid?" Because men are and should be afraid of spiritual power, whether it because Christ or Satan. Spiritual power is greater than the greatest power of a human being. So when a lion roars, we should be afraid.
And our natural example takes place in the jungle. If you are out walking in the jungle and you hear the roar of a lion, you are supposed to be afraid, and if you are not afraid, you could lose your life. Fear -- there is such a thing as a godly fear or as a healthy fear because it is a warning. If an alarm sounds in your mind, it is a warning. If you look down at your arm and you see that it is bleeding, you are supposed to know that you have to go get help. So if you hear the roar of a lion, you are supposed to know that, at the very least, you have to be on your guard because there is a spiritual authority attempting to communicate with you.
So, "The lion hath roared, who will not be afraid?" And now we find out that the lion is the lion of Judah, Jesus Christ Himself, because the next phrase says, "The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" And what that means is the lion of Judah has roared. The Lord God has spoken. Who can help themselves but repeat the word of the Lord? Speaking -- now this verse comes right after the verse that speaks about the servants the prophets, so what verse 8 is saying, well, is -- well, when the prophet hears the lion of Judah roar, can he not prophesy? Can he not speak the words out? You see, the prophet hears the word in the spirit. It is a lion that roared, a spiritual communication, and the prophet hears it in the realm of the spirit. And when a prophet hears the word of the Lord in the realm of the spirit, can he do anything but speak it out in a human language that men can hear and understand? He cannot help himself. He is got to speak it out. It is the word of the Lord.
Verse 9, and this is what the word of the Lord is saying, "Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof."
Well, I do not know about you, but I have no idea what that is talking about. "Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt." Publish what? Publish the word of the Lord that the prophet hears in the realm of the spirit. There are at least two Hebrew words that are translated palace. I do not have this number for you, but it is the Hebrew word which means not only the palace, but the innermost part of the palace. It could be called a citadel, the most defensed part of the palace, the place that you run for safety. So the Lord is saying prophesy this word. Well, who are the palaces? A palace is a place where a king lives, and do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? So I suggest to you that everybody who has the king living in them is a palace, a house for the king, OK. And the prophets are being told, "Publish or declare this word in the innermost part of the palaces," and what is the innermost part of a man?
[?His spirit?].
Spirit, his spirit, in his human spirit. Publish this word in the spirit. It is not for carnal men. It is not for the carnal minds, but it is being announced in the spirit, under the anointing of God's Spirit, to men's spirits. "Publish it to the spirits of men at Ashdod," and Ashdod is a major Philistine city. The Philistines were one of the, if not the most, greatest enemies of the Hebrews, and God is saying, "Publish this news to the human spirit of the Philistines," of the heathens, the enemies of God's people, "and in the palaces in the land of Egypt." And Egypt we know to be the flesh, so God is saying, "Publish it everywhere. To those men who are spiritual, publish it to their spirits. And to those men who are carnal, publish it to their flesh. Pronounce it; declare it; let the whole world know that God intends to take back His creation."
Now to get a little deeper with this, I would like to point out to you that both Philistia -- if you have a map -- you cannot really see it over here. Both Philistia and Egypt are east and south of Israel, but Egypt is more south than Philistia, so let me -- I know we studied this. Let me review it for you. So Philistia is typified by the northeast and Egypt by the southeast. Now we studied this in Daniel 8. Let me review it. The east -- does anybody remember what the east signifies?
[?A new day?] [INAUDIBLE]
Yeah, a new day, God's realm. It is the eternal realm of God. The east is the eternal realm of God. And the north, does anybody remember?
[?Satan?].
Satan, where Satan abides. And the south, this is a hard one, does anybody remember? The south, OK. The south typifies the realm of appearance that is under the anointing or under the influence of Christ. OK, so we are talking about a conscious mind that is in Christ. That is what we are talking about here. So when the Scripture says announce it in the palaces of Ashdod, which is Philistia, and that is the northeast, those are the people that have some measure of Christ, but they are still Satan, the imputed anointing, people who are carnal but they have that spirit flowing over them. And publish it in Egypt, which is in the flesh, but it is a flesh that is influenced by Christ. So publish it to those that have the imputed anointing, and publish it to those that have the imparted anointing. Declare the word of the Lord to Christian, to Jew and to heathen alike. The hour of your redemption is at hand. Or what could say the hour of the destruction of your carnal mind is at hand, or we can say the hour of your deliverance out of Hell is at hand.
[CROSSTALK]
Or we can say the hour of the resurrection of the dead ones out from this realm of Hell is at hand.
[CROSSTALK]
Attention, attention.
Jesus.
Attention, everybody --
[CROSSTALK]
-- glory to God.
Glory to God.
Publish it everywhere. And now this is what you must do. You see, first God announces it. I am going to get you all out of Hell, man. And now there is something for you to do, and this is what you have to do. You have to, "Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria." Well, Samaria -- anybody know who Samaria is or what Samaria is or where Samaria is?
[INAUDIBLE]
No, the -- in the natural.
It is the north part of -- north of Jerusalem.
OK, and what did you say?
[INAUDIBLE] the Jews were forbidden to [?talk to them?].
OK, Samaria is the capital of Israel, and those inhabitants of Judah were forbidden to communicate with them. Samaria fell into deep idolatry and sin, and they were indeed ostracized by the Jews. So this is what you have to do. You have to assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria. What -- does that mean you have to get on a plane and go to Israel? Let us go do a pilgrimage to Israel. No, it does not mean that you have to go make a pilgrimage to Israel. It does not mean that.
So now the spiritual application of the word Samaria is what? Let me review for you. Samaria is the location, the physical location, of people who used to be practicing Jews and had fallen into deep sin, and the greatest of those sins were -- was idolatry. So the Lord says, "All you people that used to be practicing, just all you Christians" -- does anybody here not know someone who was so filled with the Spirit they could barely live a human life and now they are as carnal, as carnal, as carnal, as carnal could be? Is there anyone who does not know someone like that? All you backsliders, gather yourselves together on the mountains, the high place of your mind, which is your spirit. All you backsliders, get your act together, and climb back up for one last time. I have got something to say to you. Get in the spirit. Jesus, I feel an anointing.
Yes. [CROSSTALK]
Hallelujah. "Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold," and look, "at the great tumults in the midst thereof." Brethren, take a look at yourself. Take a look at yourself, all you blacks- -- backslidden idol-worshippers. And who is the ultimate idol that we all worship when we worship idols?
[INAUDIBLE]
Self, the carnal mind. All you lovers of self, all you selfish, narcissists, get a good look at yourself; you are filthy. Well, I did not say it. God said it. Get a good look. Take a clothespin for your nose; you stink.
The Hebrew word translerd- -- -lated tumult is 4103, and it is -- one of its translations is that it is used of the irregular and voluptuous life of a rich man, and that is in Proverbs 15:16. This word translated tumult in Amos 3:9 is translated in Proverbs 15:16 to describe the irregular or ungodly and voluptuous, indicating idolatrous life of a rich man. Get a load of yourself, all you backslidden idol-worshippers that are rich in your own fat. Look at the price you have paid for your wealth; you have paid with your own soul. You are a stench in God's nose. Take a good look.
And also look at the "oppressed in the midst thereof." Now that is a poor translation. This Hebrew word translated oppressed is Strong's 6217, and it is not talking about oppressed people. It is speaking about oppressions or, more accurately, I believe, injuries. So look at your irregular and voluptuous life and your injuries. Now what does this mean? I suggest to you, brethren, the Lord is saying, "All you backslidden, fat idolaters, get a look at your irregular and voluptuous life that has injured the Christ in you." You cannot live in both worlds, brethren. Well, you can to the degree that God lets you, but so far as your commitment is concerned, you can only live in one world, and when you commit yourself to God, then He gives you as much of the other world as He decides to give you. But in your commitment, you must be either for Christ or against Him. Because if you are not for Him, you are what? [AUDIO CUTS OUT]
Jesus. You must -- your commitment is in your heart [?and?in?] your attitude. Of course, we all know that in this hour, everyone's lifestyle is partially Christ and partially carnal because of where we are. God is speaking about your commitment to Him; it must be one way or the other. You cannot be in both worlds. You cannot serve God and mammon because if you try and serve God and mammon, you serve mammon. Glory to God.
Verse 10, "For they know not to do right." Who knows not to do right? All the backslidden idolaters that are in Samaria. "They do not know how to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces."
All the backslidden Christians that have injured the Christ in them to satisfy the lusts of the flesh, they are without righteousness. And who is righteousness? Christ. They do not have Christ being formed in them. They are carnal Christians. They may have the Holy Ghost, but they do not know how to do right. There is no right- -- they have no righteousness. They do not know righteousness. At the very most, they have the imputed anointing. Because they do not have Christ being formed in them -- why? Because they have gone after the riches of this world instead of Christ, and where -- and that which you love, that is where your heart is, OK. Because of that, they store up violence and robbery or loot in their palaces. And I hope we have already established that a palace is a human being in whom royalty dwells, OK. So the one without Christ being formed in them who is backslidden, who is an idolater, he has violence. Well, we know -- who is the violent one? Well --
[?The carnal mind?].
-- the carnal mind, yeah. The carnal mind is the violent man, and the violent man is a robber. Satan is a robber. Satan is the robber; Satan is a thief. So we see, if Christ is not being formed in you and you are living a reprobate which injures Christ, the Scripture says we have just proven you to have Satan, who is the robber and the thief, and the carnal mind, who is the violent man. Your house, brethren, your mind, your vessel does not -- [?it?] -- excuse me, is not inhabited by Christ but is inhabited by the carnal mind and his god, Satan. Jesus.
Well, so, "Publish this word to the whole church that has the Holy Ghost but has chosen their carnality over an imputed Christ and has injured the very Son of God." Take a good look at yourself. You are filled with carnality, violence and robbery.
Verse 11, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God to you" -- to who? All the backslidden Christians with the imputed anointing that have chosen the lush and plush luxuries of this world over pursuing Christ. It is all around you, brethren. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God; An adversary shall be around about the land," or round about your land. Your land typifies your soul, "and He shall bring down your strength from there, and thy palaces shall be spoiled or looted."
The Lord is saying, "All you idolatrous people with the imputed anointing that have thought that this gift of mine to you means personal gain for you, watch out because I am going to send an adversary." And who is the adversary?
[?Satan?].
"I am sending Satan right to you. He is going to bring down your strength." Brethren, you are about to lose the Holy Ghost. "I am going to take it down from you, and your palaces, or your souls and your bodies, shall be looted." Brethren, the Lord is saying to those who abide in Samaria, "I am going to remove the Holy Ghost from you, and whatever blessings and protection He did put in your life, you will have no more, and you shall be robbed." What shall be robbed? Your spiritual riches shall be robbed.
And does anybody remember what our spiritual riches are, anybody? Our spiritual riches are our human spirit, that which Satan wants so that he can join with her so that he can continue to beget the carnal mind in you. Your spiritual riches is that potential in you to be spiritual. When the Father God is controlling your spiritual riches, you are Christ, but when Satan controls or robs your spiritual riches, because he has no right to them, you are carnal; you are a harlot; you are filled with the abominations of the Mystery Babylon. Now whatever elevation -- whatever spiritual elevation you had received from the imputed anointing, it shall be taken down from you, and your spiritual riches shall be turned back over to Satan, and he shall use you for whatever purpose he desires to use you, brethren, and you shall have no strength against him, but you shall be bound to him with chains of darkness. You shall be his servant, his slave and his harlot, and you shall be a living manifestation of the harlot riding the beast in Revelation 17, I believe, the scarlet-colored beast.
Brethren, this is upon the church. This is -- it is at the doors. They are going to lose what they have, those who were given a talent and did nothing with it but gratify themselves. I want to tell you I heard a whole message on T.V. this morning. I had to shut it off, a preacher, the National Ministry, maybe international, I do not know, highly respected, telling people God has to give you whatever you ask for and proving it out of the Scripture. He says, "When your heart pants after God, you get anything you want." Brethren, when your heart truly pants after God, you do not want anything that God does not want for you, and then you get everything you want. I want to tell you I sat under this teaching. I was shocked when I found out how God first required me to live when He called me into the ministry. My standard of living did not go up; it went down, and I am still not back to where I was, and I may never be, when I worked for a living in the world. I may never be up to that standard again. That is OK, but there is a false doctrine in the church, very serious false doctrine in the church.
Verse 12, "Thus saith the Lord; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch."
Now I suggest to you we have another parable here in verse 12 because that makes no sense whatsoever at all, taking two legs and a piece of an ear out of the mouth of the lion. When I first looked at it, I thought that it meant the body of Christ coming out of the church, but as I studied it in the Hebrew, it does not mean that. But it is a very interesting parable, so let us take a few minutes to go into that.
"Thus saith the Lord; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion." Now the lion, once again, is a spiritual power, so we have to find out which spiritual power it is. The Hebrew word translated taken can be translated snatched out of danger, and I suggest to you that the spiritual power is Christ snatching out of danger, snatching something out of danger. The Hebrew word translated mouth is Strong's 6310, and this word can also be translated part or portion. I am telling you this Hebrew language is amazing. It is -- we are much more likely to find translations that are totally diverse in the Hebrew than in the Greek. This Hebrew word translated mouth, "the moth of the lion," 6310, can also be translated part or portion. So what am I saying? The mouth of the lion, that part of the lion. A lion has lungs; a lion has a heart; a lion has legs. "Thus saith the Lord; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs."
Now according to Nebuchadne- -- well, the word -- the Hebrew word translated legs means legs, OK, but I suggest to you there is a spiritual application to the word legs. You may recall, and I think it was the 78 series, we did a circle showing Nebuchadnezzar's statue, how the head of gold was the spirit and how the spiritual man walks on the earth. And we find out, in that study, that the legs were made of iron and indicated the carnal mind. So the expression two legs, I want to suggest to you, is a mysterious way -- it is a parable, a mysterious way of indicating the two principal parts of the carnal mind. And what are the two principal parts of the carnal mind? What is the carnal mind made of?
[INAUDIBLE]
Satan --
[?Satan and Eve?].
-- and Eve and -- the carnal mind goes by the name carnal mind, but it has a male spirit, which is Satan, a female spirit, which is Eve, and the offspring, which is the carnal mind. So I want to suggest to you that the carnal -- the two legs of the lion is Satan, the spirit, and the carnal mind, the mind, OK. Eve, you may recall, is dissolved in the ocean. She is dissolved in the water. Remember, Satan is typified by the ocean, the unconscious mind of man, and Eve is dissolved in the ocean. That is how we get the salt sea, and the ocean is going to be boiled. The water is going to evaporate. Eve, the c- -- will be condensed into crystals once again, and then she will be dissolved in the crystal sea when she is joined to Christ. You may -- that teaching is on the 78 series if anyone wants to review it.
So Eve is really not mentioned because she goes by her husband's name, and right now she is married to Satan, and their offspring is the carnal mind. And according to Bible symbology, women have no significance. Only her husband and her son have significance, her husband, Satan, and her son, the carnal mind. So the two legs of Satan is the unconscious mind, Satan, and the conscious mind, which is the carnal mind. Is everybody OK? Everybody following me?
"Thus saith the Lord; As the shepherd," and who is the shepherd?
[?Christ?].
Christ is the shepherd. "As Christ taketh out of that part of the lion," OK. [UNINTELLIGIBLE] "As He taken out of that part of the lion, or a piece of an ear." Well, it does not make any sense so far, but hang in there with me. That word translated "or" is Strong's 176, or, a conjunction. The King James translators translated it as a conjunction, "or." Look it up in Gesenius. It can be translated free will or choice. It is a very important word, free will or choice. And what part of us is our free will or our ability to choose, anybody? Our spirit. Eve, our spirit, is our free will. So a lot of preachers preach a lot about free will, but they forget to tell you that our free will is married to Satan, so therefore we do not have much free will, depending on how bound we are to our husband. OK, so hang in there with me. This is very exciting.
"So as Christ taketh out of Sata- -- out of that part of Satan, which is the carnal mind, the free will -- as the shepherd removes the free will from the carnal mind and Satan, as he boils that water and gets Eve free and plucks her out of her unholy union to Satan and the carnal mind." That is what this is saying. Do you at least understand what I am saying? Glory to God.
"And a piece of an ear -- or a piece of an ear." Well, the word piece -- the Hebrew word translated piece also means a piece or a part, and the word ear is ear, but there is a spiritual symbol of -- for the word ear, and Revelation 2:29 says, "He that hath an ear, let him ear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." So an ear typifies understanding, so as Christ pulls out of the carnal mind and Satan -- the two-pronged lion, OK, the carnal mind and Satan. As Christ pulls the human spirit out, that part which is free will and that part which is able to understand as Christ frees her from the carnal mind and Satan. As He pulls them out of danger. Remember, the word taken means to be snatched out of danger. As Christ the shepherd snatches the human spirit, our free will and our ability to understand, out of the danger of the two-pronged expression of the lion. In the same manner --
Well, let me give you -- I have some more witnesses for you here, that we understand with our spirit. Job 20:3, "I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer." There is a spirit of understanding. Job 32:8, "But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." The Almighty stimulates our spirit, and understanding is in that spirit. Proverbs 17:27, "He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit." Brethren, understanding is in the spirit.
So we have an Alternate Translation for the first half of Amos 3:12, "As the shepherd snatches the part of Satan's two legs, which has choice or free will and understanding, out of danger." Or we could say, "As Christ snatches the part of the carnal mind which has free will and understanding out of danger, in the same manner so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch."
Spiritually speaking, as Christ in you snatches your human spirit and your ability to understand out of the clutches of the carnal mind, in the same manner shall God save or snatch to safety the human beings which are the sons of Israel. So not only is your human spirit being snatched out of danger, but your whole physical person is being snatched out of danger.
"So shall the children of Israel," this Hebrew word translated children really means sons, "So shall the sons of Israel." Now, brethren, this is very important. To be snatched out of danger, you have to be a son. I do not read anything about the women and children being snatched out of danger. I am sorry. I do not -- I -- if you can -- if it is in there, show it to me. Now why would it be that only the sons are being snatched out of danger? Brethren, the Holy Ghost is fun, and He gives you gifts, and you dance, and you sing, but He cannot save your life. The one that snatches you out of the danger of the lion is Christ in you, the hope of glory, and if you have Him, you are a son, and if you do not have Him, you are not a son. So only the sons are being snatched out of danger. If you are happy dancing around the church, God bless you, but that is not enough for me.
"So shall the sons of Israel be taken out or snatched to safety that dwell in Samaria." This Hebrew word translated dwell is Strong's 3427, and one of the translations is "to cause a woman to dwell with someone," and God is speaking about the human beings who are in adultery, who are in an adulterous relationship with Satan. "So shall the sons of Israel be snatched to safety, the ones -- even those -- the ones that are in an adulterous relationship with Satan." How do I know that? Because they are in Samaria. They are in idolatry, "in the corner of a bed," and the Hebrew word translated corner is Strong's 6285. It means extremity, the far corner.
And a bed -- I have a witness or you about the word bed. Luke 17:34 says, "I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left." Brethren, a bed signifies a human being. The understanding of that Scripture is that there shall be two men in one human being. One is Christ, and one is fallen Adam, and one shall be taken, and one shall be left. So the corner of a bed is talking about a human being, OK, the extremity of a human being. And what is the extremity of a human being? Remember, our most inward part is spirit, and our most outward or extreme part is this flesh, the men who are living in their flesh.
Do you know there are human beings in this world that live 100 percent of the time in their flesh? That is not a good existence, brethren. It is their torment. So the spiritual connotation of the word bed is that is the place where the dead human spirit is lying in a state of death. Verse 9 speaks about the citadel or the innermost place of the palace, and verse 12 speaks about a corner of the bed or the farthermost place, I suggest to you, of the palace. Even though it does not say the palace, it is a parable.
Once again, the word palace suggests the place where the king lives, and our king, the Lord Jesus Christ, lives in humanity. The innermost part of the palace, then, is the human spirit, and the farthermost part of the palace, also called by Jesus outer darkness, is the physical body. Samaria is the capital of backslidden, idolatrous Israel, and Damascus -- does anybody know what Damascus is? Damascus is the capital of Syria, Israel's archenemy. So God has people in Samaria, backslidden Christians with the imputed anointing in Samaria, but here He says He is also going to save some people in Damascus, who are in Damascus in Syria. They are heathens in a couch. The Hebrew word translated couch is 6210, and it is speaking about a bed with a hanging curtain. The implication of this word is bedfellow or consort, and a consort is a nice way of describing a woman who is living with a man that she is not married to, in an ongoing relationship.
And also, one of the possible roots from which this word is derived means to produce herbs and provender. And I remind you that herbs and provender are a product of the ground, so this consort -- OK, this word is speaking about the fruits of the flesh. They are speaking about the consort of the carnal mind. She is the harlot of Revelation.
Alternate Translation, the second half of Amos 3:12, "So sh- -- in the same manner that Christ is going to save the human spirit, so shall the children of Israel, the whole man, who are committing adultery in Samaria, be snatched to safety from their own carnality, which is idolatry, and those who are committing adultery outside of Israel are going to be snatched to safety from their common law marriage to Satan."
I have a witness for you, John 10:16, "And other sheep I have" -- Jesus speaking, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." So God has people in Israel, backslidden Christians, and God has people in Samaria -- in Syria, in Dama- -- in the capital of Syria, which are just plain heathens that He is going to save also.
Alternate Translation, the whole of Amos 3:12, "As Christ snatches the human spirit out of danger, so shall the children of Israel, who are committing adultery in Samaria, be snatched to safety from their own carnality, which is idolatry, and those who are committing adultery outside of Israel shall be snatched to safety from their common law marriage to Satan." Hallelujah.
Verse 13, "Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord God of Hosts."
Now let me remind you, in verse 9, the prophets are instructed of the Lord to prophesy to Samaria. OK, let me get back there for just a second. What did I say here? I said verse 9 -- in verse 9, the prophets are being instructed to prophesy to those with the imputed anointing and those with the imparted anointing, but He is speaking to those people in Samaria, backslidden Christians. And now -- the ones who have wounded the Christ in them. And now, in verse 13, He is telling His prophets to testify to the house of Jacob. "Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord God, the God of hosts."
Now if -- Jacob is the carnal man. When God is speaking to the spiritual man, He speaks to Israel, and when He speaks to Jacob, He addresses the carnal descendants or the human descendants of Jacob, and this is the word to Jacob.
"In that day when I shall" -- this is verse 14. "That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground."
Well, to be honest with you, I really -- I did not pick that up when I was studying it, and I really do not understand why it is to Jacob because this is a -- oh, I understand. OK, I see it. Verse 9, the Lord is speaking to the people who had the ability to be spiritual, those with the imputed anointing and those with the imparted anointing, those who had the Spirit of God. But now, in verse 13, He is speaking to the carnal descendants of Jacob who do not have the Spirit of God. So to the people that have the Spirit of God, He says He is rescuing their human spirit and their persons, and to the people who are carnal, He has the whole end-time promise.
Listen to this, "In that day that I shall visit the transgressions or judge the sins of Israel," which we have just been talking about, "in the same day, I will also visit the altars of Bethel." Now this is very interesting because as God is giving this to me, the carnal descendants of Jacob seem to be Judah. Now let me go back because God is just giving this to me. I do not want to confuse you.
Going back with verse 9, He is speaking about Israel, the spiritual man that has the imputed and the imparted anointing. Now we know there was no imparted anointing in Old Covenant Israel, so I suggest to you God is speaking to the church in verses 9 through 12. God is speaking to the church, and then in verse 13, when He says that He is going to testify to the house of Jacob, I suggest to you He is speaking to natural Israel.
And in verse 14, He says, "In the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel, the church upon him, the spiritual man, I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground." Bethel is a place in the south country of Judah. So, "In the day that God judges the transgressions of the church," those with the imputed anointing and those with the imparted anointing, "in the same day, God will judge natural Israel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground."
And I suggest to you that -- well, first of all, the altar -- an altar is Strong's 4196, and it means a holy place. "I shall visit the altars of Bethel." He is going to visit the holy men in natural Israel, and I want to tell you, brethren, I have been telling you this for a couple of years. Since I have been meeting with Rabbi Lou, that there are holy men in Israel that spend their whole life in the Old Testament Scriptures. And I believe -- it is my opinion; you are perfectly free to disagree with me if you like -- that there are some men in that category that have given their whole life to the Lord of the Old Testament as they know Him, and I believe they have contacted the Spirit of Christ, even our Lord Jesus Christ, and they just do not understand what is happened to them. And I suggest to you that they are the holy ones who are in Judah.
"He shall visit the altars," or the holy places or the holy men, "of Judah: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off." Now the word horn throughout the Scripture, that is an easy one. It means spiritual power, so their spiritual power shall be cut off. And the Hebrew word translated cut off is Strong's 438. It means to cut down a tree.
"And in the day that I" -- Alternate Translation Amos 3:14, "And in the day that I bring judgment upon Israel because of their sins," that is the church, "I shall also judge the men of Judah: and their spiritual strength shall be cut off, and they shall become natural men." "And the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground." "And their spiritual strength shall be cut off, and they shall become natural men." It shall fall to the ground.
I want to suggest to you, brethren, that there is a hidden meaning in this. See, a carnal person would say God is going to destroy the Jews. I do not believe it. I believe this lines up with the teaching that we found in Daniel chapter 12 and chapter 9, that the Lord is cutting off the natural spiritual strength of the natural man. He calls it witchcraft power, the spiritual strength of the natural man in Judah is about to be -- it -- cut off, and they will fall to the ground and become natural men so that God can give them His life and raise them from the dead.
"And in that day -- in the day that I bring judgment upon Israel because of their sins," that is the church, "I shall also judge the men of Judah: and their spiritual strength shall be cut off, and they shall -- and their ungodly spiritual strength, their witchcraft strength, shall be cut off, and they shall become natural men, and Christ shall appear in them and raise them from the dead too."
Verse 15, the last verse, "And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord."
This Hebrew word smite in 1 Samuel 24:6 is used of the heart. "And the heart of David smote him," and I want to suggest to you that these two houses, the winter house and the summer house, is speaking about the carnal mind and Christ, and I will show you how I get it. First of all, let me remind you that it is a scriptural principle that the Lord chooses the younger or prefers the younger over the elder. Anybody have a problem with that? God chose Ephraim over Manasseh. He chose Isaac over Ishmael. And I suggest to you that the -- and He chose Jacob over Esau. And I suggest to you that this Scripture, that the Lord will "smite the winter house with the summer house," is saying that the Lord shall destroy the summer or the first house by the means of the autumn or the second house, and that is the mind of Christ. The second house born shall destroy the first house, which is the carnal mind.
Let me tell you how I got that. The word winter -- the Hebrew word translated winter is Strong's 2779, and it means autumn, and it is used to describe a mature age. The Hebrew word translated summer, Strong's 7019, means harvest or summer fruit, so the autumn brings fruit later than the summer fruit. And I am suggesting to you that God is choosing the later fruit. He is choosing the second over the first. Christ, which is coming in second, will smite and destroy the fruit of the summer, which is the carnal mind.
"And the houses of ivory shall perish." Now I have been teaching you here for a long time that ivory typifies the carnal mind. If you look up the word ivory in the Hebrew, it really, basically, means teeth, and if you study our teeth, you will see that the roots of the teeth go -- are hidden. They are down under the gum, so there is a hidden part which typifies Satan, and the part that shows, the part that crushes and destroys food, is the carnal mind, and they are white. They have no color. I remind you that Adam has the color red, and white in this instance does not mean holiness or righteousness, but it means an absence of life. And ivory, as I said I have been teaching here for years, typifies the carnal mind.
"So the houses of ivory" -- and also this word ivory, it is Strong's 8127, can be translated a sharp rock that resembles a tooth. Now remember one of Jesus' titles is the rock, the jagged rock, so here, once again, we see the carnal mind trying to counterfeit Jesus in one of his titles.
"So the houses of ivory shall perish." The Hebrew word translated perish is Strong's number 6, and it means vanish. So that -- wha- -- let me go back. The houses of ivory are the houses or the people or the souls in which the carnal mind is manifesting. They shall vanish, and Webster says that the word vanish means to pass completely from existence. The word vanish also comes from a root which means empty. They shall be empty. The souls in which the carnal minds -- the souls which are occupied by the carnal minds shall become completely empty and vanish from existence. They shall cease to exist.
Now remember, when the creation died, it did not cease to exist. It entered into an existence known as death. When the living soul died, it did not cease to exist, but it went from an existence called life into a radically different existence called death. But now we are told that the houses of ivory shall perish. When Christ destroys the carnal mind, the souls which are occupied by the carnal mind shall now cease to exist. What does that mean? The people on the face of the earth, who are in existence because they have a carnal mind keeping their bodies alive, shall cease to exist. They are going to pass away, and they will no longer have an existence. Brethren, all you people out there that believe in eternal punishment, here is another Scripture for you. "The houses which are occupied by the carnal mind shall vanish and cease to exist."
"And the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord." The Hebrew word translated great means elder, and I want to suggest to you that now that Christ has smitten and destroyed the carnal mind, Christ has become the elder, and Christ is in fact elder because He is chosen over the carnal mind. So the great house or the great houses are the souls which are inhabited by the mind of Christ.
So, "The souls inhabited by the carnal mind shall cease to exist, but the souls inhabited by the mind of Christ, they shall have an end." Well, what does that mean? That is Strong's 5486, and it means "to make an end of." Webster's says -- one of translations of the word end, for Web- -- from Webster is the ultimate state. Those souls which are occupied by the mind of Christ shall ascend unto or change or convert unto their ultimate state, that which God has always intended them to be. And what condition is that? What condition has God always intended this living soul to be in? I suggest to you that that condition is life, that this living soul will be converted from an existence known as death to an existence -- to its ultimate end, that this soul should be living and alive.
Let me say it again. "The souls which are occupied by the carnal mind shall be emptied. The soul is going to lose its mind, and a soul cannot live without a mind. Therefore, the soul shall cease to exist. Those souls shall cease to exist, but those souls which are occupied by the mind of Christ shall attain unto their ultimate end. They shall live for the life of the ages."
So, once again, the expression "houses of ivory" is speaking about the souls of the men with the imputed anointing whose mind is still carnal, and the expression, the great houses, is speaking about the souls of the men with the imparted anointing whose mind is Christ.
Alternate Translation, Amos 3:15, "And I will destroy the carnal mind with the mind of Christ; and the souls housing the carnal mind shall become empty and cease to exist, but the souls housing Christ shall come to their ultimate state, saith the Lord."
And my witness for that is Romans 8:11, "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." And if you remember the teaching, that word body does not have to be referring to the physical body, and in fact it is referring to the body which is the soul. The soul is the body of the spirit, so your mortal soul shall be quickened or given life.
Amplified translation, Amos 3:15, "And I will destroy the carnal mind with the mind of Christ; and the souls housing the carnal mind shall become empty and cease to exist, and the souls housing Christ shall be made alive, saith the Lord." Hallelujah.
I would like to just read the Alternate Translations of the verses that we did.
Amos 3:4, "Will Satan make a fierce sound when Christ spontaneously and freely flows from the dead human spirit of the men who have been separated from God? And how shall the noise of the carnal mind be cast out of humanity unless he is taken captive?"
Verse 5, "Shall fallen man surrender to the serpent in the earth because he does not have the spiritual strength to restrain him, or shall someone be strong enough to overcome Satan and take captive the carnal mind who captured the living soul?"
And the God proceeds to answer that question. Verse 12, "As Christ snatches the human spirit out of danger; so shall the children Israel who are committing adultery in Samaria be snatched to safety from the carnality, which is idolatry, and those who are committing adultery outside of Israel from their common law marriage to Satan."
Verse 14, "And in the day that I bring judgment upon Israel because of their sins, I shall also judge the men of Judah: and their spiritual strength" -- or I should say, "their ungodly spiritual strength shall be cut off, and they shall become natural men."
"And I will des-" -- verse 15, "And I will destroy the carnal mind with the mind of Christ; and the souls hosing the carnal mind shall become empty and cease to exist, but the souls housing Christ shall come to their ultimate state, saith the Lord." Jesus.
Any questions or comments on this message? Celie, are we on the second message, or is the first -- still the first message? Is it the second message or the first message?
[INAUDIBLE]
It is the first message? How much room do we have left on that message?
[INAUDIBLE]
Wo- -- OK, would you put it on pause, please? [AUDIO CUTS OUT]
[INAUDIBLE] -- did you understand that the prophet gave a riddle to whoever is listening to it? Is this living soul -- are we going to stay down here forever, or is there going to be strong enough to get us out? And then He goes on to speak about the judgment of Israel and the judgment of Judah and that Christ is going to come forth and snatch our human spirits to safety and that the natural men -- the whole man is going to be saved and that Christ is going to kill the carnal mind. He answers the question if you can understand what He is talking abou- --
03/24/15 Transcribed by VerbalFusion
03/30/15 1st Edit CAS/MJS
