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And now the message entitled, “Isaiah, Chapter 22, Part 1.”
This is a hard saying, you see, but God will kill people [?in?] -- members of a family because he knows -- or he will permit people to die. Let me qualify that. God does not go around killing people. He does not have to. We are already all dead, OK. So all he has to do is -- well, poetically, we can say take his hand off of us, but, technically, what he does is forget about us because the minute we are out of his mind, we cease to exist, you see. The fact that we exist in his mind gives us existence. If he checks us out of his mind, we cease to exist. So all he has to do is forget us, and we die because we are already dead, you see. And this is a hard saying, but God will permit people to die so that another person will experience a pain that will point them in the direction of the kingdom. If you can receive it, receive it.
And that principle is in Romans 9. We had an excellent Bible study this Tuesday. The Lord is doing the most incredible things in this Bible study on Tuesday. It was excellent. We did Romans 9, if you would like to get the message after -- it is not run off yet, you know. And that principle appears in Romans 9, and we are -- man is rebuked. Paul says, who are you to criticize the Lord? He will have mercy on who he has mercy, and the one whose heart he hardens, he hardens. And who are you to say that God is unrighteous because the truth of the matter is that God will raise up some vessels of honor and some vessels of dishonor, and he can do it because he is righteous, you see. When you do not understand the deep, spiritual truth of the word, you have to go by faith, saying that, boy, God is righteous. He must -- this sounds terrible, but he is righteous, OK. But he is righteous.
But when you get where we are, then you know the spiritual truth behind it, that these bodies that we live in and the personality that we have in this hour is temporary. The only thing -- only part of us which is permanent which will endure forever is the spirit, and the personality that we have and the body that we live in are temporary houses of clay for our spirit, therefore God can righteously permit any number of vessels to pass out of this world system, knowing that it is just a piece of clay that is going to be reformed at some time in the future. And he knows that the spirit is preserved until the day of judgment, at which point we shall be restored unto righteousness and appear on this earth in Christ.
So therefore God has no guilt whatsoever, you know. Of course, he would have no guilt even if we did not understand this, but here is an insight into the spiritual reality of why there is no guilt. You cannot kill what is already dead. The soul is dead; the body is dead. He just took these temporary formations away. The spirit is preserved, but because this man is subjected to this world system, because he is dead -- living people are not subject to this world system, but because he is subject to it, he is experiencing the emotional pain associated with this loss, and I fully expect it will direct him towards the Lord. Can you hear that? Is that incredible? The only unfortunate part of the whole thing is the pain, and, of course, the pain is being used for his good. So God is righteous, and we are fallen and ignorant and immature and childish if we think anything otherwise.
I am telling you all, when I hear that somebody dies, my only compassion is towards remaining -- mostly dependents. If I heard that a 4-year-old lost his father, I really feel bad for that 4-year-old. If I feel that a woman lost her husband and she ha- -- and her children are not raised and now she is a widow raising the family, I really feel bad for that woman and for those children. I really pray that God have mercy on them and help them, but the fact that someone passed out of this world does not mean a thing to me, really. It means absolutely nothing to me at all, you see. And I was going to say something else, and I did not want to get off of my point. It had something to do with being subjected to this world. So the only reason we feel the pain is because we are subjected to this world, and the only reason we are subjected to this world is because we are dead. No living person is subjected to this world, so the only one who is feeling the pain is the de- -- someone who is dead. If you can hear it, it is the truth.
You want to go around feeling bad about all these things? You feel bad about these things. I was talking to someone just the other day. We have a lot of authority to choose what we feel. I think people in the world exercise this principle. Those of us in Christ, we have authority to say, I will be happy today. I refuse this sadness. Well, you might have a war on your hands. I do not mean to make it sound all that easy, but we have the authority to choose our life. We have the authority to choose our day. We have the authority to choose what happens to us, and then once we choose, if that choice disagrees with Satan’s choice for us, we have got a war on our hands, but the fact that we have a war on our hands does not mean that we do not have the authority to choose. And I choose not to be sad over death because everybody is already dead anyway.
[INAUDIBLE]
It is the truth. And this whole world is just a temporary stage, so you have a choice. You can be subjected to this world to the degree that you agree to it. If you do not want to be subjected to it, do not be subjected to it, but, of course, you are going to have your whole family all over you telling you how terrible you are, but you still do not have to be subjected to it if you do not want to be. You can walk around moaning and groaning about a child that you never knew. You are free to do it if you want to. I would not do it. It is unfortunate. I am not happy that it happened. She is healthy, right? She can have another child, right? As far as I am concerned, it is not even worth talking about. If you think I have a hard heart, I am sorry.
[INAUDIBLE]
I will take it a step further, especially in this situation here where you never knew the child. So she carried the child for nine months. That is -- you know, I am not saying it is nothing, you know. I get arrows in my heart all the time. Am I saying it is nothing? I know by tomorrow it is going to be gone, you know, but I have an arrow in my heart, you know. So you just hold on until it goes away. I was going to say something. What was I going to say? Something about the child. What was I going to say, Lord? Oh, yeah. I was going to say -- and forgive me. I am not -- my intention is not to hurt you. This is a right spirit on me, OK. And I am not -- neither am I criticizing carnal people who do not have this revelation.
My job is to raise you up, you see. It is to raise you up above the image of this world. You see, the image of this world is in your mind. When you stop believing the lies of this world in your mind, they stop being real to you out here, OK. And this event of suffering, OK, over a child that nobody knew, OK -- there were nine months. The baby was in utero. You never saw its face, OK, nine months to a woman who is healthy, who has got a husband who is committed to her, that is perfectly able to have another child as soon as God is ready to give it to her, to be moaning and groaning over this and carrying on over this is pure narcissism, and it is being in love with oneself. If you can hear it, I am not being cruel. It is not my intention to be cruel, if you can hear this. I hope you believe me. It is pure narcissism, in love with oneself because this is a product of one’s own body, you see, OK. And this is a -- oh, my goodness, God. Do you really -- Lord really wants me to say this to you, June. What was I saying?
[?Narcissism?].
Yes, pure narcissism, yeah, OK. It is being in love with one’s own flesh. Spiritually speaking, it is likened to looking at yourself in the mirror and falling in love with what you see, which is the whole story of Narcissus, OK. Narcissus, the Greek god who could not love anybody. He was so vain, he could not love anybody, and then one day he came to a lake and looked in and saw his image in the water. He thought he was so beautiful, he tried to possess himself, and he fell into the water, and he drowned. And that is a spiritual truth behind this whole world system, if you can hear it. We are caught in a spiritual mirror, and this e- -- this creation, it is on a high, spiritual level compared to where our brain is. We are like canary brains, OK.
So I look around this room, and everybody looks different, but, spiritually speaking, we are a multiple image of a spiritual being who is looking at himself in the water of this soul, and we are all him or her. Can you hear this? We are all the carnal mind, and we are in a fun house where you see multiple images of yourself. That is what we are. We are all in love with ourself, and the carnal mind in here is in love with us here and with everybody else. We are in love with our own flesh. Now it has a place. It has a place in this world. You have to take care of your children. They -- there is a commitment down here. In a measure, it is of God because we are fallen, OK, but right here it goes over the line. Flesh is loving flesh is loving flesh. Now people are loving their animals. They are spending thousands of dollars on their dog’s doctor. I mean, it is really just getting very sick. It is the love of the carnal mind for flesh, and this flesh, which is animal flesh, is the image that Narcissus is looking at in the water.
If you can hear it, you have an opportunity to start overcoming death because death -- the condition of death is to believe the lie, if you can hear it. Now you cannot stop believing the lie with your carnal mind because the carnal mind is the lie. So if you stop believing this lie intellectually, you are just deceived, and you are still dead. But if you have been blessed enough to have been visited by the Son of God and if his child is abiding in your mind so that now you have two minds, you can choose which mind you shall live out of. You can choose to serve your new husband and reject your existing one. And if you choose the Son of God, there is now available to you an ability to reject the lie, and he who believeth into the Son of God shall receive everlasting life because everlasting life is beyond the lie of this world.
So I encourage you to start ascending out of this world, and you do that by asking the Lord to help you to see things as he sees them because, in his mind -- whose mind? In the mind of the Son of God is the Spirit of truth, and in him there is no lie, and in Christ there is no subjection to the spiritual authority of this lie. So on some level you have got to start rejecting this lie, and you have got to get your eyes off of it. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life is binding you or are binding to the image, which is this world system. Get your eyes off of it. Choose to lust for Christ. Choose who you will lust for because when you lust for the things of this world, you perpetuate your own death. Lust for the things of God, and you shall enter into life. You see, it is OK to lust. It is OK to lust. I was severely criticized for saying that over in Nigeria. How could you tell those people it is OK to lust? It is OK to lust. It is a question of what you are lusting for. My Bible says, pant after me, and you shall be found of me. [?Kno-?] -- by Bible says, knock, and do not stop knocking until the door is opened unto you.
So my only compassion, brethren, is for people who are genuinely in pain, and, even then, my compassion has a very short fuse on it. You have my compassion. You also have my help, and I do not enable anybody. Express your pain. Get your counsel, and stand up on your feet and start walking, or you will die in this lie. And the whole point of this message is that you have a choice. Let the dead bury their dead. Let the unhappy be unhappy. Let the fornicators fornicate. Let the warmongers make war. But my Bible says, he who warreth into the kingdom does not get entangled in the garbage of the problems of this world. So start denying your own pride because your pride is a lie. Christ is the only reality. He is the only thing worth fighting for. He is the only thing of value. He is the only thing that endures. He is the only one in whom there is deliverance. He is the only one in whom there is true power. He is the only one in whom there is true peace. He is the only one in whom there is true contentment. He is the only one in whom there is perfect satisfaction, and any effort that you make for anything other than him is vanity.
And despite what I say unto you, you have a choice; choose death or choose life. I will never fight with you over it. I am having enough trouble just standing up. I do not have any energy trying to force anything on anybody. I am just trying to get through the day myself. You will never find me telling you I am God. I cannot fill the bill. You see all these people out there, pastors or otherwise, that are telling you they are God, they cannot fill the bill either, but they are telling you that they can, and you are believing their lie. [AUDIO CUTS OUT]
[?I am?] fascinated with these prophets. It appears that just about every verse of the prophets that we do seems to be [?of?] this message of the gospel of the kingdom. And what is the message of the gospel of the kingdom or the message of perfection is that this carnal mind must die, but it never ceases to amaze me that the Lord is so creative that, even though it is the same message in every prophet or in every chapter of every prophet, he is just preaching it from just a slightly different angle, from a slightly different perspective, from a slightly different point of view. And I do not know whether anyone else has noticed it or not, but we have done a couple of chapters in Zephaniah, and we have done some Isaiah. We have done Obadiah and Nahum and d- -- and Habakkuk, and d- -- we did a little Zechariah in Nigeria, and it is the same message, but it is, like, each chapter that we do, it is just another piece of the whole, just from a -- just for a different little aspect. So that is really blessing me.
And the Lord directed me to Isaiah 22, actually, a few days ago, and the first thing that caught my eye was Verse 14. We have already worked up Alternate Translations of -- for verses 15 through 25, and we did that a long time ago. Actually, it is the story of Christ, so we will not be doing that again. As my usual form, I like to point out the positive verse when we do the prophets because the King James translation of the prophets is so bloody and gutsy that the tendency is for the carnal mind to lay hold of them and perceive or portray Jehovah as a bloodlusting God, which is not true. You all know my stand here that God has an enemy, and his enemy is not man, but the carnal mind which is in man. Men who are completely given over to their carnal minds are temporarily God’s enemy until he changes their mind, and when their mind become Christ -- becomes Christ, they are not his enemy anymore.
So the only thing that is being wiped out completely is the carnal mind. The carnal mind is being obliterated and destroyed. Man is not being destroyed; the earth is not being destroyed; the sun, moon and the stars are not being destroyed. The carnal mind is being dismantled and reformed in the image of the Christ mind. So when we read the Old Testament, all of this blood and guts and vengeance and every other thing that we read about is God’s vengeance upon Satan and her carnal mind. God loves us, and he is not burning us in Hell forever; he is just burning us in Hell temporarily until all of the dross gets off of us and until we get soft enough to be remolded into the image of his Son because our mind, you see, is spirit, and spirit is likened unto metal, therefore our mind is what the Scripture describes as the molten image. We are commanded, thou shalt make no molten image, no metal -- no melted, metal -- no cast image. That is what it -- cast, metal image. So, you see, to remold our mind, the mind that we have must be smelted, you see, burnt, put through the fire.
So all this blood and guts of the Lord, it is directed towards our carnal mind. Let me point out to you the positive verse. It is usually a whole chapter of blood and guts and one positive verse.
If you can hear it, Verse 14, “And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you until you die, saith the Lord God of hosts.”
Brethren, this iniquity shall not be purged from you until your carnal mind dies and you are reformed in the image of Christ because your iniquity is in your mind. It is not Satan out on Mars with a red tail and horns. It is not a devil sitting on your shoulder. The devil did not make you do it. It is the devil inside of your head, brethren, and not only is he inside of your head, but he is your daddy. He has authority over you. You are his offspring, his daughter.
So this iniquity shall not be purged from you until your carnal mind dies. And any one of you who has bought the lie of -- in the church today, if you think you are entering into heaven with your carnal mind, you shall surely find out, when you wake up one morning and your brain is being smelted, that you have received a lie because your carnal mind is being cast into the lake of fire so that your human spirit can be freed up so that she might join with Christ and be formed in his godly image, that you might truly be in the likeness and the image of God, which is the completion of the work of creation, which has never been completed except in Jesus of Nazareth. OK.
Now also, let me remind you, the prophets wrote to Israel, to Judah, sometimes to Israel, but the message is really for the church. The message was partially for Judah and Israel, but the long-range, ultimate message of the prophets is for the church. It is the end-time message. How can I say that? Israel never came into the image of God. In order for us to come into the image of God, we need a savior, and that savior is given unto us in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ, which was not available to Israel at the time that the prophets wrote. Therefore, I say unto you, although there may have been a partial fulfillment of the prophecy, the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecies of the Hebrew prophets w- -- shall be accomplished in the church.
In that last day, when the Lord establishes his new or his second covenant with his people, the first covenant being the grace of the Holy Spirit, first unto Israel and secondarily unto the church, you are under the Old Covenant church, and his New Covenant or his second covenant, which is with the Israel of God and is only made valid for you through the sign of circumcision, not of your flesh, but of your heart. And the circumcision of your heart speaks of the destruction of your carnal mind, so if you are still in your carnal mind, brethren, no matter how much the Lord has blessed you, you are in the Old Covenant. I do not care how mad you get at me, that is the teaching of the Scripture, and we found it in detail, this -- we found this principle in detail in Zechariah, Chapter 11, which messages will be available -- if Celia and June are coming Monday, they should be available after that.
[INAUDIBLE]
You are coming?
[INAUDIBLE]
You can. Can you come Monday?
[INAUDIBLE]
Oh, OK. So June will be here. She will be running them off, Lord willing, on Sund- -- on Monday.
Isaiah, Chapter 22. We are going to take the first three verses today.
“The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle. All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far.”
I find it so fascinating that the prophets could be such a blessing when they make no sense at all. I mean, it w- -- I mean, that makes absolutely no sense at all, yet I read these words for years, and they blessed me. Why? Because the Spirit of God is in them, so he gives you a blessing on some level, but the truth of the matter is I have not the vaguest idea what that said. Well, maybe I am ignorant. Is that -- would anyone here like to interpret this for me? And then I have somebody telling me, if you change one word of this book, you are cursed, OK.
Verse 1, “The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?”
The Hebrew word translated “burden” is Strong's 4853, and it is -- at least, in this instance, it is speaking about a grievous or threatening oracle or prophecy of the Lord. The word, “valley,” is Strong's 1516. It is speaking about “a flat or low region,” and I suggest to you that the flat or low region is the soul. The high region is the mountain. Remember, this soul that we live in, it is a series of e- -- of highs and low and experiences. You are either on the mountaintop or you are down in the valley. When you are down in your carnal mind or in your s- -- in your emotions or in your soul, you are down in the low place, and when you are up in Christ, you are in the high place. Remember, we are supposed to worship God from the high place. We are supposed to worship him out of our spirit.
And those of you that have been studying here for a while know that I teach that the Spirit of Christ, when he flows into us, he fills up all those valleys, and he comes to the top of the mountains, thus evening us out. And one of the translations of the word that is also translated “salvation” is “evenness,” a deliverance from this high and low, high and low. We see these highs and lows in a pathological sense in fallen man. People who are depressed, sometimes they are called manic depressive. They are happy; they are sad. They are happy. They are unusually happy. Their happiness is to the point of hysteria, and then they fall down to the depths of despair. This is a manifestation of Hell, brethren, but even those who are healthy down here in Hell have highs and lows. We have good days and we have bad days; they are just not quite as extreme. And then, on another level, we have spiritual experiences and soulish experiences, so no matter how positive our soulish experiences are, the spirits that we have -- the experiences that we have in the spirit must be much higher than our very best experiences in the soul.
So we see that one of the characteristics of Hell is this rollercoaster existence, happy, sad, happy, sad, happy, sad; content, discontent, content, discontent, content, discontent; glad, sorrowful, glad, sorrowful, glad, sorrowful; working, playing, working, playing, working, playing. It is a condition of Hell, but God has better things for us, brethren. He desires that we should be even, consistent, and consistency, brethren, is in Christ, you see. The soul is always up and down, but when Christ is lying on top of your soul, he fills in the low places and abides across the top of the mountain peaks, and he makes you even. You are no longer bound to respond to external stimuli because it is the external stimuli that make you high or low, happy or sad, mad or glad. But when Christ is lying on top of your carnal mind or on top your soul, filling in all the low places, you will cease from responding to external stimuli with your soul, you see.
Now, listen, let me put it to you another way. You have a soul, and that soul is in two parts; it is earth and it is spirit, or it is mind, and it is emotions. Even in the fallen men, you have your carnal mind, and then you have the rest of the soul. There is a difference between the soul and the mind, so you will have one reaction out of your carnal mind and another reaction out of your emotions, and our carnal mind is not strong enough, brethren, to control [?in?] -- extreme emotions coming out of the soul. The carnal mind is female, acting in a male role. She is acting as a controller, but she does not have what it takes to do the job of controlling the raging passions of the soul, so therefore we are up and down; we are up and down. But when Christ is prevailing in your life, filling in the low places, supplementing or stabilizing us in the area of our emotions and controlling the weakness in the carnal mind, we will no longer be responsive to external stimuli, but the Christ within us will be stable, no matter what is going on outside of us.
And, brethren, let me tell you something, that a change in you must produce a change in your external stimuli, if you can hear this. Lord, please help me to do the -- I am getting slain right here. Let me try and convey this to you. Listen, brethren, you have two aspects. You have th- -- you, and you have your external stimuli. One or the other must be controlling. Either your mind is controlling your circumstances or the external stimuli are controlling your circumstances. It must be one or the other, so if you have some powerfully negative circumstances coming towards you and they are stronger than even the Christ Jesus in you who is being raised up from seed right now, you might experience some distress. But when Christ Jesus in you is strong enough, he reaches out, and he controls that stimuli, and it is not sin for God to control.
So, you see, if we see negative stimuli coming at us, if witchcraft is coming at us, if an ungodly mind is coming out us -- at us to seduce us or to attack us, when it is Christ in us who is mature enough to rise up and control that external influence, we now have the power to help that ungodly mind who is trying to influ- -- us -- influence us in an ungodly way. You see, if your carnal mind rises up to control that external influence, it is sin; it is the sin of witchcraft. But if Christ is functioning in you and he is layering over your un- -- your emotions and your carnal mind so that there is no ungodly response in you, then Christ arises, judges righteous judgment and corrects any negative, external stimuli coming against you without sin being imputed unto you.
And the result of this is that not only are you free from damage but that the person in whom the criminal mind is functioning is helped. A rebuke might come forth; a teaching might come forth; a healing might come forth. So, you see, when the carnal mind controls, destruction reigns. When Christ controls, healing and life reigns. So, first, as Christ Jesus is ascending, we learn to rule our own cosmos: our own mind, our own emotions. Then as he increases, we learn how to control external stimuli without sinning. And the next step is to be so developed in Christ that we are controlling external stimuli for the glory of God, to help the negative minds which are bombarding Christ without even knowing what they are doing. If you can hear it, hear it. It is quite a ministry.
So, “The burden of the valley of vision.” The valley is the low place, and the Hebrew word translated “vision” means “revelation.” Gesenius says that the “valley of vision,” that expression, is Jerusalem. I do not know about you, but I never knew that. Gesenius says that the valley of vision is Jerusalem. He says it is the se- -- the reason he draws this conclusion is that he says it is the seat and the special home of the divine revelations in accordance with Isaiah 2:3, which says, the second half of the verse, “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” The word of the Lord, revelation, goes forth from Jerusalem.
So I received Gesenius’ revelation. I would say Jerusalem is the soul, and Zion typifies the spirit in the soul, and the soul is God’s wife. Let me remind you, she is either fallen or righteous. We have Jerusalem, which is, O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, a wicked city, the wicked city of Jerusalem, and then we have the holy city, the New Jerusalem or the Jerusalem which is renewed in the image of God. So this is a great mystery, brethren, but we see that God only made one soul, and when the mind in that soul is Christ, the soul is holy and righteous and alive. But when the mind in that soul is carnal, she is pro- -- the soul, which is God’s wife, is profane and evil and dead. One soul, either holy or profane, either alive or dead, either righteous or unrighteous, either married to Christ or married to herself in a form of spiritual incest which has produced the carnal mind, narcissism. Jesus.
“The burden of the valley of vision.” This is the s- -- very serious, threatening, grievous or threatening word of the Lord to Jerusalem, his own soul, his own wife. He is threatening his own wife, and he is saying unto her, “What aileth thee now,” you pain in the tail? What is your problem now, “that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?” What is Israel known for, brethren, that the Lord might be talking to her like that, saying, what is your problem now? What is Israel known for?
Rumbling and mumbling.
Rumbling and mumbling. And what s- -- what el- --
[INAUDIBLE]
Well, you are getting closer, serious.
[INAUDIBLE]
What?
[?Rebellion?].
Rebellion.
[CROSSTALK]
Pride, idolatry and harlotry. She is God’s faithless wife, a whoring after all other gods. The Scripture says, everyone who comes her way, she is the girl who cannot say no. Jesus. She is a harlot. She is making it with all those lesser gods that are coming her way.
“What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?”
“Aileth,” -- the Hebrew word translated “aileth” [?in?] -- it is really not there. It is a Hebrew word that says “what.” It is Strong's 4100; it really just means “what is it to you?” it is just an interrogative pronoun. What? Pronoun, what. What is your problem? What is it now? You have messed up again. What is your problem? That is what the Lord is saying.
And the word, “now,” “what aileth thee now?” Strong's 645; it means “together,” “altogether.” It is speaking about something that is in more than one piece that is together. Ha- -- it can mean -- it can be translated “tandem.” Have you ever heard of a tandem bicycle, a two-seater bicycle? If a woman has twins, she gets tandem baby carriages with one handlebar and two carriages, and she pushes them together. So what the Lord is saying is it is not just one or two of you, neither is it 10 out of 11 of you, but it is all of Israel. Every single one of you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
He is talking to the Pharisees that look good; he is talking to the Pharisees that smell good; he is talking to the Sadducees that sound good, and he is speaking to the derelict in the street that smells bad, looks bad, sm- -- and sounds bad. He says, all of you have fallen short of the glory of God, and the ones of you that look good and sound good and smell good are going to have more trouble repenting than the ones who stink because the ones who stink know that they stink. But those of you who look good and sound good and smell good, you believe your own lie because you stink too.
All of you, what is your problem now, that you art wholly gone up to the housetops? Wholly, all of you together have gone up. Strong’s 5927, “gone up” -- translated “gone up” can also be translated “to be driven away,” “to be caused to be driven away.” Another translation or potential translation is “to be offered up,” “gone up,” “to be offered up as in a sacrifice.” And I suggest to you that Israel was offered up as a sacrifice. To whom? If Israel was sacrificed, who would she have been sacrificed to, which God?
Satan.
Satan, yes. For Israel to have been sacrificed, the carnal mind would have had to have offered up the Christ mind in Israel to Satan. And we see the Lord saying in this message that he has a many-membered people and that every one of them fell prey to the carnal mind. “Housetops,” Strong's 1406, means “surface,” “flat roof of a house.” It can also be translated “the surface of the altar.” It means “to be spread out.” And I suggest to you that the meaning of “housetops” in this context of Isaiah 22:1 means “to become carnal.” You have gone out to the surface.
When -- if you look in Genesis, Chapter 3, I believe, where God pronounces the curse, that aspect of the curse which is upon the serpent is that he shall go upon his belly. That Hebrew word translated “belly,” it means “outer realms.” So to go up to the housetops means to travel in the outer realms. The Lord is saying to his wife, you were spiritual, and you have become carnal. Paul said, do not start in the spirit and end in the flesh. Stay in the spirit, but Israel, you see, she went up to the housetops. She went f- -- out from within the house to the outside of the house.
And in case you do not know it, it happens in the church continuously. The most spiritual people, you come back a year later, and you see them doing these carnal works of the flesh. How does it happen? They are seduced by their carnal minds, brethren. They are seduced into the works of the flesh because the works of the flesh kill the works of the spirit because the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and the two are contrary, one to the other. And the reason the carnal mind is so much stronger than the Christ mind -- anybody know how come? The carnal mind is sitting on the throne of your soul. She is in possession of the house. She was born with you; she was born in you; she was born attached to you; she was born joined to you; she has possessed you from the moment of conception. You have inherited this condition; it is called death.
Yes, Christ is in you, Lord willing. He is the invading force; he is the circumcising knife, Christ who has come to behead the souls who are possessed of the carnal mind. And I saw the souls of them who are beheaded for the witness of Christ so that Christ could sit down and be the king of your life. He first has to cut away the possessing mind. So for Israel to be offered up as a sacrifice, the carnal mind would have had to have offered up her Christ mind to Satan.
Alternate Translation, Isaiah 22:1, “Thus says Jehovah to his fallen wife, how did the carnal mind manage to sacrifice you up to Satan?”
The Lord says to Israel, how did this mess happen to you? Now I want to suggest to you that the reason the Lord is asking this question is because Israel did not even know that it had happened to her. I want to suggest to you that the seduction was so subtle that Israel did not even know it, so the Lord asked her a leading question. And if read to the message that we did on Judas, you will hear y- -- me talking about the fact that Jesus asked his disciples a leading question, or he made a leading statement that was opening himself to a question. I suggest to you Israel did not even know she had slipped and that most people cannot tell when the anointing leaves the church. The seduction, the p- -- the slipping backwards is so subtle and little by little, they do not even realize it is happening to them until it is too late or until it is very far gone. So the Lord came along to Israel, and he said, how did this happen to you? He got her attention.
“Thus says Jehovah to his fallen wife, how did the carnal mind manage to sacrifice you up to Satan?”
Verse 2, “Thou art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.”
Well, if they are not slain with the sword nor dead in battle, what does that mean? It means they are spiritually dead. That is what it means.
“Thou art full of stirs.” “Full” means “to be filled up with.” “Stirs” is Strong's 8663; it merely means “the noise of a multitude.” You are filled with noise. What kind -- well, first of all, noise, we talked about that on the earlier messages. Noise is that which -- it is describing the sound of carnally-minded people. As far as God is concerned, we speak such nonsense that to him it is just noise. We speak spiritual noise.
“A tumultuous city;” the word, “tumultuous” is Strong's 1993, and this specifically means “the noise of bees or animals.” It is also used to describe the disquiet or disorientation of mind which is the result of sin. So we see that the soul is filled with noise, translated “stirs,” and then we see the word, “stirs,” modified, telling us what kind of noise it is. It is not a spiritual noise; it is the noise of a bee or an animal, and it is used of mental disquiet. It is used to describe mental disquiet or confusion, which is the result of sin.
“A tumultuous city, a joyous city,” those -- we see the English word, “city,” twice, but it is two different Hebrew words. The first time it appears, “tumultuous city,” is Strong's 5892, meaning “native city” or “watchtower.” Now, remember, we are told in an earlier place in Isaiah that the Lord built a city, and he put a tower and a winepress in the city. I suggest to you the city is the soul, and the tower is the mind that is in that soul, and the winepress is the spirit that is in the mind.
So we see, in Verse 2, that there is a mind, a tower, which is making the noise of bees or animals. There is a mind which has sin in it; it is tumultuous, and it is filling up the city. So I suggest to you that the Scripture is speaking about the carnal mind. The carnal mind is filled with sin. It is making the noise of an animal because the carnal mind is in fact the beast, and the soul is filled up with her because, in fact, our soul is filled with our mind. Whichever mind is prevailing in us, that mind fills our soul. The soul is the valley. The soul is the empty place, and she is filled with the mind. The mind rests in the soul. So the Lord is saying to his wife, you are filled with the noise of bees and animals. The carnal mind is found in you. That is what he is saying.
Alternate Translation, the first quarter of Isaiah 22:2, “Your mind is filled with the animalistic, noisy restlessness which results from sin.”
Brethren, if you have any kind of problem with your mind, it is the result of sin. We had a very lovable young man attend just about every meeting. He just missed one or two in Nigeria, and he talked about having flies in his mind, and he has been serving God for several years. He said, when he comes to the meetings, that God -- or the -- our meetings, he says the anointing that is present at these meetings quiets the flies in his mind, and he wanted to know how I did it. He wanted to know if I meditated. He wanted to know what formula I used to bring forth this anointing, and I do not believe he understood it when I told him there is no formula. There is just trials and tribulation and pain and the pangs of childbirth, and this anointing that calms the flies in his head, he has a name. He is a person; he is a man. His name is Christ, and there is nothing that you can do with your carnal mind to still the flies in your mind. You have got to have a new man born in you because the flies are with your old man. You need a new husband to put away the flies from your mind.
“Your mind is filled with the animalistic, noisy restlessness which results from sin.”
Continuing with the second quarter of Isaiah 22:2, “a tumultuous city, a joyous city: the slain men are not” -- I see I repeated myself here. I do not have a pen here. Can I borrow your pen for a minute? Thanks. OK, thank you.
“A joyous city: thy slain men are not,” or do not exist any longer. The Hebrew word translated “joyous” means a ha- -- does have a negative definition, meaning “exulting” or “insolent.” And I did not write down the reference, but if you would like to see a place where this Hebrew word translated “joyous” is translated negatively, you can look this word up in Gesenius’ lexicon, 5947. I think it is in Isaiah where it is translated negatively. Webster says that this word, “exult” or “insolent,” can also be translated “triumphant.” And I suggest to you -- let me get ahead of myself so I can prove this to you, that Isaiah is saying here that Satan has triumphantly penetrated the Christ mind of God’s people. Satan has triumphed over Christ in Israel.
All you Pharisees that are going to stop reading the message, it is time for you to grow up. Israel failed. She fell into idolatry and spiritual adultery, and the Lord Jehovah divorced her. That means the Christ mind, which was the result of the covenant which Jehovah made with Israel, was dissolved. Jehovah made a covenant with Israel. He joined with her mind. I am sorry. He joined with her spirit, with the spirit of the men of Israel, and the mind of Christ, the Son of God, was formed in Israel. And when God breaks his covenant with you, brethren, he takes his Son back, and he breaks up the altar, which is the union of his Spirit to your human spirit, and you become a carnal man again. That is what happens to you.
This -- the second time the word, “city,” appears, it is a different word; it is Strong's 7151, and this merely means “city” or “town.” Remember, the first time it appears, it meant “tower” or “a mind.” This time it just means “city” or “town.” Gesenius says it is used almost exclusively in poetry, “a joyous city: thy slain men are not.” The word, “men are,” is not in the Hebrew. The King James translators could not make any sense out of this verse, so they added the word, “men,” but we know that that which was slain was not men, but a mind, the Christ mind.
The word -- Hebrew word translated “not” is Strong's 3808, and I spoke about that, well, recently in Nigeria. We did a whole study on the usage of the word, “not,” in the 78 series. We found it to be a secret way of God speaking about Satan. It is a negative. It means “nothing.” It means “emptiness,” “totally without significance.” We did a word study on it and found out that God uses it as a secret symbol to describe Satan, whom he openly considers nothing. He laughs at her, and he considers her wind. So we shall -- and I -- if you are looking for proof, I do have several Scriptures on it. I am not going to read you the study every time, so we are going to translate this negative, Strong's 3808, as “Satan.”
And this is the Alternate Translation, “Because your soul is triumphantly pierced through by Satan.”
I guess, I did not tell you the w- -- Hebrew word translated “slain” is 2491; it means “to be pierced through.” It means “to be mortally wounded” because, when you are pierced through, you are mortally wounded. In some instances, it can mean “profaned” or to be -- “to fall sexually.”
Now [AUDIO CUTS OUT] she was pierced through by another man, by Satan, actually, by a woman, and Satan was triumphant in that he succeeded in piercing her through. Joyous, triumphant city, speaking about the soul, slain, pierced through, not, the one who pierced her through, Satan.
“Your mind is filled with the animalistic, noisy restlessness which results from sin because your soul is triumphantly pierced through by Satan, and he has brought forth his carnal mind in you.”
“And slain with the sword.” We see the word, “slain,” appearing twice also. “Thy slain men are not slain with the sword.” The slain -- OK. The second time it is the same word. Frequently, in the prophets, you will see the same word appearing twice. You have to ask yourself why. It is once for Satan and once for the carnal mind, or it is once for Jehovah and once for Christ. It is once for the spirit, and it is once for the soul. It is very common to see the same word repeated twice on that basis. “Slain with the sword,” pierced through with the sword. “Sword,” 2719, “circumcising knife.” The weapon of the god is the mind. The circumcising knife of Jehovah is Christ, and the circumcising knife of Satan is the carnal mind. Jesus.
Alternate Translation, the third quarter of Isaiah 22:2, “And mortally wounded by the carnal mind. You have been -- because your soul is triumphantly pierced through by Satan, and you have been mortally wounded by the carnal mind.”
The significance being Satan has penetrated you and begotten her carnal mind in you, which carnal mind has mortally wounded you in that she has killed Christ in you. She has killed your life and Christ, which is our life. There is only one way that you could be mortally wounded, brethren, and that is to lose your life, and your life is not in this flesh, neither is your life in this soul or in this personality, but your life is in your spirit. And when the carnal mind succeeds in killing your Christ mind, you die. That does not mean the Lord cannot raise you from the dead, but your only death can be when the Christ in you is killed.
I hear somebody saying, what about the death of death? Well, yes, that is another principle. The death of death produces life; that is true. But the only way that you can kill true life is to kill the carnal mind -- is to kill the Christ mind. That is the only place where true life is, and Christ, who is not in his fullness, can be killed. Jehovah cannot be killed. The glorified Spirit of Jesus Christ cannot be killed, but Christ Jesus, who is being formed in you, who is not all grown up, who is still under tutors and governors, he can be killed.
Fourth quarter of Isaiah 22:2, “nor dead in battle.” The word, “dead,” is Strong's 4191. There are several Hebrew words that mean “death.” This one is “mooth.” I believe it is pronounced mooth. It means “to kill outright.” It is the equivalent of the Greek “nekros.” It means dead carcass dead, “to kill outright.” “Nor dead in battle.” “Battle” is Strong's 4421; it means “war,” “to wage war.” It can also be translated “the victory or fortune of war.”
Alternate Translation, the fourth quarter of Isaiah 22:2, “You are completely destroyed as a result of the war.”
See, this just really blesses me, brethren, because I preach a lot of things that come out of the spirit that I really do not have strong Scripture for, and then God puts me in a study, and I find the Scripture, and it just really blesses me. I have been preaching for a long time, you are in a war, but I never saw it as clearly as I am seeing it in Isaiah 22:2 where, if you can receive it, the message is clear that Israel is backslidden because Satan has birthed her carnal mind right in the midst of Christ, the place where Christ is.
And where is Christ [?is?]? In the soulish nation, Israel, the mind of Christ or the ark of God is resident. Satan penetrated the Christ mind, made contact with the harlotrous spirit of man, brought forth her carnal mind right in the midst of the place where the Christ mind is, and the carnal mind went to war with the Christ mind and killed him. Why? Because the Christ mind, which was formed in natural Israel, was not a glorified manifestation of Christ. It was an immature manifestation of Christ. It was not woven together with the soul. It was incomplete. It was immature because it was incomplete. The mind of Christ was not completed in the manner that it was completed in Jesus of Nazareth. Christ raised from the dead dieth no more. In the man Jesus of Nazareth, where Christ was fully raised from the dead, he will never die again, but Christ coming forth in a man in this hour, before he is fully completed, can die. It is a great mystery. If you can get past your pharisitical mind, it is the truth. What do you think backsliding is? It is the death of Christ in that individual.
Come on, you have to come up out of this baby stuff, and I am going to tell you something about yourself. The reason you do not want to believe that Christ can die is because it makes you nervous. You would much rather believe once saved, always saved. Well, brethren, that is true. The problem is you are not saved. Once saved, always saved, but you are not saved. You are reconciled unto God. You have to be fully saved for it to be irreversible. He who endureth to the end shall be saved. He whose soul is overthrown shall be saved. He whose carnal mind is dismantled by Christ shall be saved. You are not saved. You are reconciled unto God, and if you are really blessed, you are justified, which would mean that his life is growing in you, but the only one who is saved is Jesus of Nazareth, brethren.
Alternate Translation, Isaiah 22:2, “Your mind is filled with the animalistic, noisy restlessness which results from sin because your soul is triumphantly pierced through by Satan and mortally wounded by the carnal mind. You are completely destroyed as a result of the war.”
“Your mi-” -- this is an amplified translation. “Your mind is filled with the animalistic, noisy restlessness of the carnal mind because Satan has triumphantly pierced through your soul. You have been mortally wounded in the war between Christ and the carnal mind, and you are dead.”
You are dead, church. You are dead. Every time the carnal mind makes a decision through your mind, Christ has been killed in you and sacrificed unto Satan. Now do not get condemned. There is no condemnation, but you need to know the truth because the truth will set you free. We are required to give spiritual sacrifices, and that sacrifice is of our carnal mind. Christ is to be offering up our carnal mind to Jehovah, second to second, and every time the carnal mind gets [?her there?] and offers Christ up to Satan, he dies, and the Father raises him from the dead until he gets strong enough. Who? Until Christ in you becomes strong enough to offer Satan permanently up to Jehovah, and that day is coming, brethren, as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
Verse 3, “All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far.”
“All thy rulers are fled.” “All” means “the totality,” “the total number.” “Rulers,” Strong's 7101, means “judge,” “military leader” or “prince,” and I suggest to you it is speaking about the Christ mind. The Scripture is speaking about the Christ mind. The whole of the Christ mind has fled. “Fled,” Strong's 5074, “to put to flight,” “to be made a fugitive,” “to be made a wanderer.” Christ is completely put to flight. He has lost the place where he has rested his head. Oh, it is real- -- those Pharisees, their feathers are really ruffled over this one. It is true, brethren. How do you think someone backslides? Christ is tread down under. Come on, grow up.
“Together they are bound by the archers.” I know it sounds in the King James like, “All thy rulers are fled together.” That is not the way it appears in the Hebrew. It is, “All thy rulers are fled; together they are bound by the archers.” “Together,” Strong's 3162, “all at once,” “mutually.” “Bound,” Strong's 631; they are taken captive, “to be held in prison” or “to be taken as a prisoner of war and made captive.” The Hebrew word translated “archers” means “to break one’s strength or power.” To be made a prisoner of war, brethren, you have to have your strength and your power broken.
Alternate Translation, the second quarter of Isaiah 22:3, “Your collective strength is broken, and you are all taken as prisoners of war.”
Do you not hear me preaching this? Have you heard me preaching this? You are a prisoner. I said, if you are not fighting, you are a prisoner of war. It is in there. It is in the book.
All of you together are bound -- I am sorry, continuing with the third quarter of Isaiah 22:3, “All that are found in thee are bound together.” Can I borrow your pen again for a second? Thanks. “All that are found in thee are bound together.” “Found” means “to be found.” “Bound” is Strong's 631; it means “to make fast,” “to bind to anything.” It also used is to describe the binding of animals to a vehicle, and I suggest to you that the Lord is saying, all of you that have left Christ -- that your spirit has been bound to the carnal mind because for us to have existence, brethren, the spirit in man is either bound to Christ or bound to the carnal mind. We cannot exist without a mind. So when we walk away from Christ, we walk into the carnal mind, or we cease to exist. It has to be one or the other. All of you together are bound to the carnal mind.
Continuing with the fourth quarter of Isaiah 22:3, “which have fled from far.” This word, “fled,” it means -- it is Strong's 1272. It is a different word than the word, “fled,” in verse -- “all thy rulers are fled together;” that is one Hebrew word. “They are bound by the archers: all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from afar.” That is a different Hebrew word. The second “fled” is a different Hebrew word. The first one is 5074; it means “to put to flight,” “to make a wanderer or a fugitive.” And the second one -- the second time the word, “fled,” is used, it is Strong's 1272; it means “to pass through,” “to breach across” or “to turn to the left side.” And I suggest to you the meaning is that Christ has been pierced, passed through, turned to the left side, and the left side means judgment. He has been judged by y- -- by the carnal mind, which tore him up.
The Gree- -- the Hebrew word translated “afar” is Strong's 7350, and it can be translated “precious.” It is translated that way in Proverbs 31:10, which says, “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.” The English word, “far,” is the same word translated “far” in the ch- -- Isaiah 22:3, and it is obvious there in Proverbs 31:10 that the word means “precious.” “For her price is far,” or precious, “above rubies.”
Alternate Translation, the fourth quarter of Isaiah 22:3, “You have turned away from Christ.”
Alternate Translation, the whole of Isaiah 22:3, “Christ is completely put to flight. Your collective strength is broken. You are all taken as prisoners of war, and all of you together are bound to the carnal mind. You have turned away from Christ -- or because you have turned away from Christ.
Amplified translation, I put it in better English, Verse 3, “All of you are taken as prisoners of war and bound together to the carnal mind. Your collective strength is completely broken because you have turned away from Christ and put him to flight.”
Matthew 8:20 says, “And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”
Brethren, the Scripture in the Book of Romans says, “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more.” That means it is possible to kill Christ. If he is raised from the dead and he dieth no more, that means he was killed. Christ raised from the dead dieth no more. What people do not understand is, number one, that the Scripture was speaking about the Christ mind, which was in the man, Jesus, and that that same Christ mind is being raised from the dead in each of God’s people and that that Christ mind has to be fully raised from the dead for the Lord to -- for the reality of the Scripture, which says, “Christ raised from the dead dieth no more.” He has to be raised from the dead in you. Brethren, if that same spirit which raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, it shall quicken your mortal body and raised Christ from the dead in you also. And once he is fully raised from the dead in you, he will not die anymore in you either.
Recap, Isaiah 22:1-3, “Thus says Jehovah to his fallen wife, how did the carnal mind manage to sacrifice you up to Satan? I know you do not even know that it happened, so let me tell you how it happened. Your mind is filled with the animalistic, noisy restlessness of the carnal mind because Satan has triumphantly pierced through your soul. You have been mortally wounded in the war between Christ and the carnal mind, and you are dead. All of you are taken as prisoners of war and bound together to the carnal mind. Your collective strength is completely broken because you have turned away from Christ and put him to flight.”
Now I am going to let this go for the next meeting, but this p- -- b- -- mostly because I am so half slain that I am barely -- I am drunk in the spirit. That is what I am. But when the -- when we meet next or as the Lord lets me continue with this study, I would like to expound on Verse 2, which says, “Satan has triumphantly pierced through your soul,” and refer you to the book, “Mind, Hell and Death,” Page 5, where this principle is expressed.
Let me just -- here it is, at the --- it is the second half of the third fully paragraph, which says, “Viewing the relationship between mind -- between spirit, mind and soul, then, as a series of concentric circles with spirit at the center, mind next and then soul, we see that an image is formed when spirit, which abides in the innermost circle, penetrates mind and pierces through the soul.” So we read about piercing through the soul on Page 5 of the book, “Mind, Hell and Death,” and the next time that we get into Isaiah 22, I hope to put it on the board for you and make it a little clearer. If the Lord lets everybody stay awake, I guess, we will just do it at the beginning of the session before everybody gets slain. I really have to ask you, Father, how you expect us to go on with these studies with everybody, including the teacher, being slain in the Spirit? Maybe the Lord will answer me. What an anointing, my goodness gracious. Any questions, anybody? [AUDIO CUTS OUT]
[INAUDIBLE]
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” I just said to the Lord, I [?said?], I do not get a witness in spirit that that is true, and he said, it is not. He says [?it is?] precious. [?It is a?] death of the carnal mind.
Amen.
And now [CROSSTALK]
I just showed it to you in Isaiah 22. Did you [CROSSTALK]
No, I did not pick that up.
The first thing that I preached was that I showed you the positive aspect of Chapter 22, which is in Verse 14. “And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you until ye die.” That is your witness, yeah.
[?How did I not?] pick up on that?
Yeah.
Huh.
Until your carnal mind dies. Brethren, now hear this all you Pharisees, you shall not be without sin until your carnal mind dies. Do not tell me you have no sin. You shall not be sinless until your carnal mind dies, and you will know that your carnal mind is dead when you stop aging and when you stop getting sick and when you stop getting all kinds of human reactions, which are ungodly.
From Ecclesiastes, it says -- Chapter 7, it says, “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.”
The day of death, the day of one’s birth. That is nice. So, you see --
What Scripture was that?
[CROSSTALK]
So, you see --
Ecclesiastes.
-- brethren, you are not born again until you die. Where is that, Ecclesiastes?
7, “And the day of death than the day of one’s birth.”
What is the Scripture again, Ecclesiastes, chapter?
7.
7, verse?
Verse 1.
Verse 1. You are not born again until you die, OK. It is not two births that exist together. When the death -- when the birth of the flesh dies, you are born into the spirit.
Transcribed by Verbal Fusion 08/22/16
08/26/16 1st Edit rh
