Articles
Part 4 of 11 Parts
The Following Message Has Been Transcribed For
Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation
By The LEM Transcribing & Editing Team.
Zephaniah, Chapter 3, Verses 9-20 are his promise to the fallen living soul of his mercy unto them. And I hope to show you today, at the end of these two verses, I have amplified and interspersed Verses 1 through 8, and I hope to show you how Zephaniah chapter 3 is first of all Jehovah identifying the problem, clearly stating why the living soul is in the mess that she is in and the soul-- well, she is not living anymore. She died. Clearly stating why the soul which God made to be his wife is in the mess that she is in and what his solution to her problem is. And his solution to her problem is that he sent the Lord Jesus Christ and he is still sending the Lord Jesus Christ to us and the assignment of the Lord Jesus Christ to form Christ Jesus in the individual. That is Jehovah’s answer to our horrendous spiritual condition of spiritual insanity. He is going to give us Christ Jesus. He is going to give us everything that we need to be sane, because when we are sane we will choose him over Satan. We only choose Satan in our insanity.
So I am very excited. I found this event of Jehovah actually speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ, having a conference with him, telling him, “This is the problem, and I am sending you on assignment and this is what I want you to do.” But I am going to show this to you. And we found the same thing in Daniel 8 when we did an Alternate Translation on the interpretation of that prophecy in Daniel 8. We found the Lord speaking -- Jehovah speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ, sending him on assignment, and then the Lord Jesus Christ coming into the minds of humanity and dealing with the individual members thereof.
We also found this principle in the Book of Revelation 14, and perha- -- I think there is another chapter also, I did not have time to locate it for you, where we are told that the Lord Jesus Christ faithfully repeats the message that Jehovah has to humanity. Jehovah speaks to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to the individual human being. But since the carnal mind of man is incapable of understanding spiritual things, before the Lord Jesus Christ can speak to us -- he can speak to us but, before we can understand, the Lord Jesus Christ has to form the mind of Christ in us. And when the mind of Christ is being formed in the individual, his name is Christ Jesus.
So we see that the Lord does not speak to our carnal mind. Why? Because our carnal mind is incapable of understanding, not only incapable of understanding but much worse than that. It would not be so bad if our carnal mind could not understand. But much worse than that, our carnal mind thinks that she understands and perverts what she hears.
Can I get a little more volume on this? Is that possible? Thank you. Thank you. A little more? Is it -- can it go up higher? Jesus. OK. So we find that the carnal mind perverts what she hears. Oh, that is much better. What did you do, play with the equalizer? Thank you. OK. So we find that the carnal mind perverts what she hears, which is much more dangerous than someone admitting, “I cannot hear you, do not know what you are talking about. It makes no sense to me, just a whole bunch of noise.” Glory to God.
So that is the ministry. Brethren, if you have -- are having a conversation with somebody, and they are misunderstanding what you are saying, one of -- at least one of you, at least one of you is in your carnal mind. Maybe two of you, maybe yes, maybe no, but at least one of you is in your carnal mind because the carnal mind cannot understand the things of the Spirit. It is impossible. She always gets them backwards. The carnal mind is like looking into a mirror. She sees everything backwards. Therefore if you are trying -- if two people are trying to have a conversation, and one person is in Christ and seeing things at the moment accurately, they are talking to someone who is in their carnal mind who is seeing the reverse reflection, it is impossible to communicate. Impossible.
So that means either the person in the Christ mind must come down into their carnal mind, which is never acceptable to God, or the person in their carnal mind must come up to the Christ mind, which is wonderful if it could be done, but perhaps the Christ mind is not mature enough to form a temporary manifestation of Christ Jesus in the other person, and in that event there is only one other recourse to the person who is in the Christ mind if they are truly in a position of authority in Christ, and that is to bring a sharp rebuke which will put an end to the controversy which has no sign or hope of any godly resolution. What happens then? The person under the authority comes under the law.
Let me say that again. If there is a conversation going on between two people, and the person in Christ is trying to communicate with the disciple, and Christ Jesus is not functioning in the disciple and there is lack of communication and confusion and disturbance, the proper, appropriate action for the minister in Christ is to bring that disciple under the law. What does that mean? You cannot understand. That is OK, but this is what you are going to do. This is the way it is going to be. Without understanding, this conversation will end. Without understanding, you cannot go. Without understanding, you cannot have it. Why? Because at this moment, you are incapable of understanding. You come under the law, just like with a small child. When you grow up, you will understand. When the mind of Christ forms in you, you will understand. Until that time, for Christ to come down into the carnal mind to meet you is an abomination unto the Lord, and that minister will come under the correction of the Lord.
That is the way it works. Is it not that way in the army? “You do it.” “Why, Sarge?” “Because I told you so.” “I do not think you are right, Sarge.” “Do it or go to Leavenworth. If you understand it and you are in agreement with me, that is good because then your heart is with me,” says the sergeant. Your men love you and they will fight for you, but if they cannot understand you, they have to do it anyway or go to Leavenworth. Why? Because everybody in the army cannot be doing whatever they feel like doing. You will not have an army.
So you want to gripe and kick and scratch and scream and complain and blaspheme your officers, you do it in Leavenworth. Your choice, you see? The sergeant or the lieutenant or the captain, he has authority to say to you, “Do it or go to Leavenworth.” He has no authority to tell you, “I am going to stop you from complaining and kicking and scratching.” He cannot -- you see, well, he might be able to stop you from kicking and scratching. He could tie you up, he could put you in solitary, but he cannot control your mind unless you are in a police state where they are torturing you and using mind control on you. And, as far as I know in the United States Army, they do not try to change your mind. If you want to hate your officer, hate him, but your behavior will be controlled. You will do as you are told or your behavior will be controlled, either by you or by the MPs. Your choice.
That is the way it works, brethren. Sounds reasonable to me. If you do not have such a plan, what you have is utter chaos, and no society and no army can exist in chaos. You self-destruct in chaos. Brethren, if you take an individual person, if you take an individual person and his conscience is not ruling his whole person, then the person goes into chaos. And what happens when you go into chaos? Your whole life blows apart. You cannot live in chaos. The ideal is to have understanding and to do what is right out of a love of righteousness or out of a love of the authorities over you, but you cannot always have the ideal. So if you cannot have the ideal, you have got to be under the law. Your own person has got to be under the law, your family has got to be under the law, your church fellowship has got to be under the law, your country, your nation has to be under the law. If men are not doing what is right by nature on any level, you must be under the law or you go into chaos and you will self-destruct.
So we see the Scripture teaching us that all power and authority which exists in this fallen world is of God. The police are of God. The army is of God. The family is of God. The head of the family, the structure, the authority structure of the family is of God. The authority structure of the church is of God. The authority structure in the school, it is of God. Why? Because men cannot govern themselves, and we would have chaos on every level.
Jesus, where did this come from? Can we have that on pause for a minute please? OK.
Zephaniah 3, Alternate Translation, recap, Verses 5 and 6: “Jehovah incarnates the mind of Christ from age to age, but shall never form the carnal mind in the midst of the creation. The wicked one shall be ashamed when the carnal mind is weeded out and Satan is returned to the correct moral order. ‘I made a covenant with the nations’” -- this is Jehovah speaking -- “‘I made a covenant with the nations that I would destroy the carnal mind’s consciousness and dry up Satan’s power to pierce through Christ and form her carnal mind, because the carnal mind lies in wait to murder Christ so that Satan can live with my wife.’”
The wife of God is the soul, and we see in a practical application that every time the carnal mind murders Christ, it is an act of spiritual adultery, or an act of spiritual adultery results between Satan and the human spirit of that person. What does that mean? It means that, every time a thought is generated in the mind of a man, it is the product of an agreement between a male spirit and the spirit of man, which is female. If the male spirit which is bringing our human spirit into agreement is the Lord Jesus Christ, that thought is a righteous thought and it produces Christ Jesus in our mind, who is our righteousness for that thought, for that moment. If the male spirit which has brought our human spirit into agreement to think this thought is Satan, it is an act of spiritual adultery in our mind which has, for the purposes of that thought, produced the carnal mind in us which is, we are told, inequity. Sin.
So we see that, frequently, these unions which produce thoughts are unconscious and automatic. But there are some thoughts, brethren, that are contrived. On occasion, men have been known to actively say things, to actively agree with thoughts in their mind that they know are not true for a specific purpose of deceiving the other person. Why? To cover up their true motives. For some reason, they do not want their true motive known. For some reason, they do not want the information given out. For some reason, they do not want a communic- -- a godly communication between them and the other person to exist. In the event that this is done at the expense of a righteous motive on the part of the other person, if the other person is reaching out to you to communicate, to resolve a problem, to have a godly communication, and your response is in agreement to Satan’s suggestion in your mind to be dishonest, you who have agreed with Satan willingly to defeat the honest outreach of the other person, you in that moment have killed Christ.
Now, brethren, we need to know this because it is sin. And we are not going to enter into the Kingdom until we begin to cast down sin in our minds. And we cannot cast down sin in our minds if we do not recognize it. And we may, but we may not all. We can recognize it without understanding these fine points, but you are not likely to recognize it with the accuracy that you need to outright kill it unless you have some understanding of what I am talking about. Every time an unrighteous thought comes up out of your unconscious mind, which is Satan, in Christ we have the power to scan it before we receive it. In Christ, after a period of training -- you probably cannot do it right away, but that is what you are training for here, to have an ability in Christ developed in you to scan every thought arising out of your unconscious mind and make an active choice as to whether or not you will accept it as your thought or whether, by the power of Christ, you will cast it down because you have made a judgment that it is sin and you have chosen righteousness.
Now, on the contrary, brethren, it is possible for you to recognize a thought which is arising out of your satanic unconscious mind and actively choose the sin and reject the righteousness. But I am going to tell you what I have been telling you here since I have been preaching. If you want to sin, you sin. It is your life; it is your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to do it, you do it, but I do not recommend to anybody that you should be in a condition where you are victimized. Let it be your choice. Let your yea be yea and your nay be nay. Do not sin because Satan has raped you. Get on your armor, get on Christ, sharpen up, start to examine every thought arising out of your unconscious mind and choose who you will serve. Why would you want to be a victim? The only reason you might want to be a victim, I suggest to you, is that you love your sin. And I say this without condemnation. John said it. It is in the book. It is in the Gospel of John. You love your sin and you want to continue to do it, but you do not want to admit that you love it and that you choose it, so you therefore deny that you have a choice.
Now, Jesus said, “Either you are for me or you are against me.” If you refuse to admit that you have a choice and begin in the training that will actually allow you to choose, you have chosen the sin. As far as Jesus is concerned, if you will not even try, if you will not tell him, “Lord, this sounds too hard for me to do, but if you want to teach me how to do it, if you want to do it through me, I am willing because I want to be righteous.” If you cannot even pray that prayer, then you have chosen the sin. And that is the truth. Jesus said, “If you are not for me, you are against me.”
Why would you choose the sin? We are told in the Gospel of John, “Because your deeds are evil.” And that is OK too. Just confess it and repent, you see? What you are is not going to keep you out of the Kingdom. We all stink. It is your refusal to work with the Lord to change. It is your love of what you are that will keep you out of the Kingdom. You must hate what you are. You must hate what you are, that which is sin in you, to the degree that you are willing to fight to change, and you will find the power within you to change. Hallelujah.
I would like to make a couple of comments on Part 3. This is Part 4. I think I have two comments on Part 3. Now for people listening to the message whose mind is really sharpened up, you might have heard two things that may have sounded like an inconsistency to you, so let me give you this information please.
When we were studying the second third of Zephaniah 3:6, I said, quoting from the book “Mind, Hell and Death,” I said that Satan penetrates mind and pierces through soul, forming a -- in order to form a physical body and the world beyond the mind and soul, which is this world that we live in. Then shortly thereafter, I said that Satan pierces through Christ. Now to somebody this might have sounded like an inconsistency. In one place I said Satan pierces through soul, and in the other place I said he pierces through Christ. My answer to you, if you pick that up in me, is that, as demonstrated in our study of Zachariah 11, it is demonstrated very clearly on those messages that the Lord calls our human spirit Christ. As far as he is concerned -- who? As far as Jehovah is concerned, it is just a matter of time until our human spirit is raised from the dead, and when she is raised from the dead, she will be Christ.
So when the Lord says that he pierces through Christ, the Scripture is saying that Satan is piercing through the human spirit, which is that reproductive organ of the soul which has the potential to be raised into Christ. And when Satan pierces through her, for that moment, he knocks out that potential. It means he is possessing her himself and producing the carnal mind. So if you do not understand that, do not worry about it. I just like to get this information on the message because we have some people listening to these messages who would challenge me on it, and it is much easier for me to answer it now than to be writing letters to people. But if you have not noticed the problem or if you did not understand what I just said, do not worry about it.
The second issue is I made a comment on two Hebrew words, one translated towers -- in the same verse, 6 or 7. One Hebrew word translated towers, and the other translated cities, and I told you that they both meant the carnal mind. At that point on the message, I recognized myself that there was an inconsistency, but I did not have the answer. Upon further examination, I realize that this is one of those instances where one word, the Hebrew word translated towers, they both are speaking about the carnal mind but they are speaking about different aspects of the carnal mind. And the word towers is indicating the fact that the carnal mind has spiritual authority, and the word cities is indicating the fact that the carnal mind has a nature which is fortified and militaristic.
And we see that literary principle throughout the Scripture. God will use more than one word to describe something, and we will find out that he is using different words because he is describing different aspects of the same thing. For example, there is a judgment which is falling upon humanity. God calls that judgment, which is destroying or breaking down our carnal mind, the lake of fire, because the lake of -- Christ is the lake of fire. OK? Then he -- that is the purifying aspect of the judgment is the lake of fire. The same judgment, in another place, the Lord calls the wine press. Why the same name? Why different names for the same judgment? Because in the Scriptures where God calls that judgment the wine press, he is trying to convey to us the idea that, in order to get this great deliverance, our carnal mind must be crushed in order for the spirit or the grape juice to come out.
So once again I will repeat it. The Lord uses different symbols to describe the same event frequently because, in that particular sentence, he is emphasizing one aspect of the event, a different aspect of the event than he is emphasizing when he uses a different word. Another example would be any human being who has many aspects to their life. You might say John Brown the fireman. John Brown is a fireman, but John Brown is also a husband. He is also a father. He is also a grocery clerk. So knowing all this about John Brown, if you are reading a story on him, you might find the author saying, “Well, the grocery clerk was in a good mood today, but he went home and the girl’s father was in a bad mood.” And both the grocery clerk and the father are John Brown, but the different words are describing different aspects of his personality. This is where the Lord is coming from.
Continuing with Zephaniah 3:7. This is Jehovah speaking. “I said, surely you will fear me.” This is the King James translation. “I said, surely you will fear me. Thou wilt receive instruction so their dwelling should not be cut off. Howsoever I punish them but they rose early and corrupted all their doings.”
Jehovah said, “Surely they will fear me.” The Hebrew word translated fear is Strong’s 3372. I will comment on this word a little more completely further down, but I will tell you now that it can also be translated “to tremble or to vibrate,” and we have found other scriptures, other prophetic scriptures, where the Lord has used this word to indicate the human spirit separating from the carnal mind. When the human spirit reaches out to join with Christ Jesus, Spirit vibrates. Spirit is like a light wave or a radio wave, and the way it moves is that it vibrates.
So I will show you, because we have several witnesses in this study today which tie in with Alternate Translations which we did years ago. It really blesses me when God does this, because to me it is another witness. When this ties into an Alternate Translation that I did three years ago, and the Lord shows it to me, “Here it is in another prophet,” it just really excites me. I had a bad day yesterday, but I had a really good night once I got into this study.
So I will tell you upfront that the King James translators are saying that the living soul is go- -- the dead soul is going to fear him, but I tell you, I say that this word is indicating the Lord saying that our human spirit will rise up and come out and meet him. Because, brethren, in order for us to appropriate this great salvation that God is promising to us, we must move. We must move. The Lord is making Christ Jesus available to us and he is giving us power, and he is wounding and bombing the one that is holding us captive. But our true essence, our true self which is spirit, it is the spirit in man, when the bombs fall on our captor, we have got to rise up and run. You see?
Did you ever watch a cops and robbers show or a war show where the guy says, “I will cover you”? And he starts shooting a machine gun or throwing grenades over there, so when the guy is looking to defend himself, or if he punches the guy and the guy is looking to nurse his hand, you get up and you run. That is what is happening here. Christ Jesus is wounding our captor, confusing him, dividing him, using diversion. But if you do not get up and run, what good is it doing? You have got to get up and run, and you are not going to get up and run unless you want to leave. So you see, if you really love your sin, you are not likely to run.
Maybe you are not running because you do not understand that that is what you are supposed to do. You see, I do not know, but Jesus knows. And in any event, I am here telling you that that is what you are supposed to do, and I am here trying to show you how because it is all a running that takes place in your mind. It is not a physical running. But, you see, the Lord knows whether or not you would really run if you could. The Lord knows whether or not you would really run if you knew how. The Lord knows whether or not you would really run if you had the power to do it.
That is why a lot of people look really good. They look like they are the most super Christians you could ever hope to meet, and they are not entering in because God knows it is all a front and that, when he bombs their carnal mind, they are not running. And they are not running because they love their sin. Jesus knows. I do not know unless he tells me. And then we see people whose lives are a mess, an absolute mess, and someone with the religious spirit says, “What are you even talking to that person for?” Because God told me that, in their heart of hearts, if he would bomb their carnal mind, they would run. And he sent me to talk to them. And I am sorry if their dirty garments offend you, but I go to whoever the Lord sends me no matter how dirty they are. And you are not all so clean yourself anyway, so who are you to be talking?
So this is what it is all about, brethren. This is the tribulation. The Lord is wounding your carnal mind, and you in your will, in your will, you have to get up and run. And you have to run towards Christ. What does that mean? You have to try to think and do what is right. You cannot do that until you get a revelation of what is right. That is my job. I am teaching you what is right. And then you choose, you see? Now you have another thought. All your life, you thought that the way you think in this particular situation is right, and you just met somebody else, me, who said, “No, that is wrong. Listen, listen. This is why I think it is wrong. This is why I think it is wrong. I am telling you, man, you are not thinking right.” Now you choose, you see?
And even more than choosing, you have the option to pray your own prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ, and say, “Father, if that was you talking through her, if she is really right and I have really been wrong all these years, help me to understand it so that I could be working with you to run.” And once you pray that prayer, the Lord Jesus Christ is so faithful that you can go to sleep that night without a question of a doubt in your mind that however long it takes -- it could take a minute, a day, a week, it could take a year -- but that the Lord Jesus Christ will bring a righteous understanding into your mind and you will know, at some time in the future, the righteous answer or the righteous choice in that conflict. You see? You do not have to know of your own strength. You just have to humble yourself and pray the prayer that maybe, maybe, you do not really believe it but maybe you have been wrong for 10, 20, 30 years, and that if you were, you are willing -- if you were -- and if the Lord witnesses it to you, you are willing to make the change.
And he knows what is in your heart. You see, you might fool me. People fool me all the time. I have a lot of wisdom, but people fool me all the time. I am wrong about people a lot. But you cannot fool the Lord, you see? And he is working with you in direct proportion to your true desire to become holy. It has nothing to do with what your life looks like in this hour. It has nothing to do with how clean or how dirty you are at this moment. It has to do with the motive and the intents of your heart, which is your mind. And if you really, really, really want him, he really, really, really wants you, and there is not anything he would not do to get you free so that you could serve him. But if you are playing games with him, he knows it. And he is dealing with you however he is dealing with you. He may take you anywhere. I do not know. I am not too good at making those decisions. I am not too good at understanding who the Lord -- how the Lord makes a decision to force this one or not force that one. He does force you sometimes. Praise God.
So we see that the King James translators have translated this phrase, “Surely thou wilt fear me,” to indicate that man must be afraid of God, because if he is not afraid of him God is going to bomb them into hell forever. And then people who are not quite that severe are saying, well, fear means respect. He is saying, “Surely they will respect me.” That is not quite as severe. OK, that is OK. Surely they will respect me. But I have another thought for you, and you are free to reject it if you want, but if you do not pray about it you are a fool. And I am telling you that I am choosing another legitimate translation from the Hebrew dictionary, and that that translation is “to vibrate or tremble.” And I am saying to you that the spiritual intention of this Scripture is that the Lord is saying that, “Surely, when I tell them the truth -- who? My people, the people of this soul. When I tell them of my love for them, when I tell them about my plan to set them free, when I tell them about my mercy, when I show them that I am on their side and I am waging war against their captors to get them out, surely they will get up and run.” That is what he is saying.
“Thou wilt receive instruction.” The Hebrew word translated receive means “to take possession of.” Now I do not know about you, but to me there is a big difference between receive and to take possession of. To receive something is -- means that you are receiving it passively. Someone is giving it to you. There is no indication that you want it or you do not want it or that you have power to say yes or say no. It means it is being given to you. But to take possession of something indicates a choice, a choice. “Surely, they will take possession of this opportunity to receive a correction which will save their life. Surely they will choose the judgment.” That is what Jehovah is saying. He is in his right mind, but he is talking to an insane soul that is rejecting judgment, that is rejecting correction, that is rejection discipline, that will not even run. Why? Because they love their sins. They will not tell you that they love it. They will not admit that they love it. They think that they hate it, but they choose it over and over and over again. So we say that they love it but that it is a perverted love. It is the perverted love of an insane man. Hallelujah.
You see it everywhere. Destructive relationships, keep picking the same kind of woman. Destructive relationships, you keep picking the same kind of man. I saw one woman on TV, she was married four times. Every man cheated on her and she gave up on men. Well, how could that happen to you? How could you pick four husbands that are going to leave you for another woman? Come on, give me a break. Something is wrong. There has to be some unconscious mechanism working, some antenna that goes up that says, “Adultery, adultery. Go get him. He will do you again.” It is true. The church calls it a familiar spirit. You recognize, on an unconscious level, a spirit in that person which is going to link up with your sickness, that is going to let you replay this sickness in your life until the day you die. It is a curse, and you will play it out over and over and over again until it is broken.
The world knows about this, and there is power in the world to break it. You have to spend 10, 20 years on a psychiatrist’s couch, depending on how severe the problem is, to break a pattern like that. You do not do that in a year of psychiatric treatment. The benefit of having it broken in Christ is that, when the curse is broken in Christ, the benefits of it are passed on to the other members of your family and all of your descendants. But it is possible to break an ungodly pattern with the help of a worldly psychiatrist, and that help will be just for you, just in this lifetime.
It is possible to overcome alcoholism. It is possible to overcome drug addiction. It is possible to overcome a life of crime without Christ, with the help of a psychiatrist or all these self-help groups out there. It is possible to break the pattern. Why? Because the goodness of God is present in this world even for the reprobate. Even for those who have no relationship with Christ whatsoever, his life is still in us in the form of the human spirit, and he is still with us. If he was not with us, we would not even exist. His mercy is upon the evil as well as the good. Is there not a Scripture that says that? I am sure there is a Scripture that says that. I think it is in the Psalms, either in the Psalms or the Proverbs. His mercy is poured out upon the evil as well as the good, and all of the “good” Pharisees are yelling, “That is not fair!” I tell you the truth, brethren. Yeah. The good as well -- the evil as well as the good. That is the Scripture. Is that what you were saying? Yeah. “The just as well as the unjust,” if I am not mistaken.
God loves this whole soul. Because he is beating you up because you are bad does not mean he does not love you. So we see the Lord Jehovah saying, “Surely they will receive the correction.” Well, only someone who has a revelation that they need correction will receive correction. Now if you are completely innocent and you have never done anything wrong, and all of the problems in your life are somebody else, why in the world would you need correction? You are spiritually insane. All of these things cannot be happening to you without you being at fault somewhere. You are not innocent. How do I know that? God is righteous. You could not possibly be in this condition if you were completely innocent. Somebody has to be guilty for you to be in all this trouble and all this pain. Well, it is the guy down the street. It is your mother, it is your father, it is your stepfather. It is the guy that turned you in when you only were looking the wrong way out of your eye, your wrong eye or [AUDIO CUTS OUT]
But you see, whether you are conscious of it or not, at the root of it, at the bottom of your heart, you are saying, if this is your attitude, “God let it happen to me.” That is what Jobs said. “How could God let this happen to me? I do not deserve this.” So the root of it is, if you are really innocent, and God is really in control, and all of these people have really abused you, God has not defended you, and that means God is the guilty one. And you have just alienated yourself from the only one in the universe who can save you, because of your pride and your rebellion and your refusal to see your own need for correction.
So we see Jehovah saying in Zephaniah 3:7, “Surely they will receive discipline,” because Jehovah is in his right mind. But this fallen dead soul is saying, “Discipline? Not me. I would rather say God is dead than receive the responsibility for my own life.” And the reason, we see in Verse 7, that the Lord wants to give them instruction or discipline -- the word means discipline or correction -- is so that their dwellings should not be cut off. We are spirit, brethren. What is our dwelling? Our dwelling is the soul that we live in, and the soul lives in a body, you see? And the Scripture is very clear that the soul that sins, it shall die. And when your soul dies, your body dies. So the fact that all of your relatives before you have died is the insurmountable truth that there is sin on your family line, because the soul that sins dies. But this insane soul -- and I am not against anybody. I am telling you, this is the condition of fallen man. It is the condition of the endemic mind. I am not picking on anyone here. They are shaking their fists at God saying, “You did this to us! How could you let a one-month-old baby die? I am not going to church and serving you. I will get you, God.” In another 10 or 20 years, you are buried and pushing up daisies, you fool. They are insane. We are insane. You think you could get God? God does not need you.
Now I moved this phrase, “so their dwelling should not be cut off.” I moved it. For the Alternate Translation, I moved it to read after the phrase, “Thou wilt receive instruction.” That is necessary for our Alternate Translation, and I just want to give you one more phrase before we do our Alternate Translation here.
“Howsoever I punished them.” Well, it sounds like he is really punishing us, torturing us, burning us with fire and all that. The word punish, it is Strong’s 6485. Another choice of translation for that word is “to commit to the charge or care of anyone.” Now if you have been studying with us for a while, you might recall that we did a whole study on that concept, which is revealed in one of the Epistles of Peter, that this whole soul has been given over to the care of Satan. When we sinned, God had two choices: to wipe us out completely to the point that we would cease to exist or to give us over to the care of another mind, because what happened? We killed our own Christ mind. We killed our righteous mind. Now there can be no existence without a mind. So God could have let us cease to exist or turn us over to the one who killed our righteous mind, who was Satan, and to his mind, which is the carnal mind.
So the Scripture says, “We have been sold under sin. We, the living soul which died, which is now the fallen dead soul, has been turned over to the care of Satan. He is the prince of the power of the air, he is the god of this world, and we are subjected to him until” -- somebody? “Until the judgment, which shall restore us unto righteousness.” We are told that in one of the Epistles of Peter. We are biding; we are treading water in this underground hell, in this pit which is filled with water. We are down here in Atlantis under the sea, waiting for the judgment which will restore us unto righteousness.
But we have so adapted to our life down here that most of us do not even want to leave. The Lord is going to have to take us out against our will. Why? Because we have no vision whatsoever of how bad off we are. Why? Because we have no vision whatsoever about what life is in heaven. We just have fantasy. So what the Lord is doing much of the time is letting things get so bad for us down here that we will take anything. Anything is better than what we have down here. Those are the people who are getting out. Those are the people who are willing to run. Those are the people who are willing to fight when the judg- -- the people upon whom the judgments of god are so severe, because of accumulated generational sin, that anything would be better than this existence here. These are people who are truly experiencing hell in their minds and in their emotions. People whose lives are tolerable, they do not want to leave. It is not so bad down here in hell. Not so bad. Satan takes care of you, gives you candy, things that make you feel good and happy. It is not so bad. Got your goodies. It is the truth.
I have a second witness to the use of this Hebrew word translated punished. Zachariah 10:3 says, “My anger was kindled against the shepherds and I punished the goats, for the Lord of Hosts has visited his flock, the house of Judah, and has made them as his goodly horse in battle.” Now it is interesting that the words goats is used. Now we are dealing with the Hebrew word translated punished, and in Zachariah 10:3 that word is used in association with the punishment of goats. For those of you who do not know, goats typify the carnal mind in the Scripture, a lamb or a ram, actually a ram. But sometimes a lamb typifies Christ, the Christ mind, and a goat typifies the carnal mind. And sometimes we have a word that means he-goats, a male goat. What does that mean? A carnal mind with spiritual power.
Brethren, women and children are not supposed to be in the army. They are not supposed to be. Everything is backwards in this country today. The warriors, the men are the warriors, spiritually speaking, spiritually speaking and physically speaking. I do not know. I guess, with all these high-tech weapons, women can be in the army these days, but if you have hand-to-hand combat it is really hard for women to be in the army. I do not understand it myself, but I guess if you want to be in the army or in the police force, if you can do the job, they should hire you if you can do the job. The fact that I do not understand it does not really mean very much.
But, traditionally speaking, the males are the warriors. So when we read about a he-goat, we are talking about carnal minds that have war-making power. Every carnal mind does not have war-making power. Everyone’s mind is not equally powerful. This world is a spiritual jungle. This fallen world that this fallen soul dwells in is a spiritual jungle, and some human beings have minds which are predators, lions, tigers, wolves, and other people have minds which are victims, lambs, gazelles, zebras, does, deer, the animals that the predators chase and kill for food. This whole world is one big power play at the price of the people who are victims.
The whole world knows it. What they do not know is how to fix it. You do not have to be in Christ to know this. How could people that own factories be millionaires if they do not have people working at a very low wage? Brethren, how could the doctors be making money if you were not sick? Do you realize the extent of the medical institution in this country? Do you know how many people’s livelihood depend on your continuing illness? Do you know how many people would be out of work if the Sons of God dared to manifest and heal the nations? Do you know how many social workers and clerks would be out of a job if you did not need welfare anymore? Do you know how many prison personnel would be out of work if God converted all the criminals? This is hell, brethren.
Now, listen, if you are a man, and again I -- for those of you who do not know me, I use that term generically, male or female, man or woman. If you are a man who is deliberately oppressing people so that you could get wealthy, that is a very serious sin. But there are thousands and millions in this world who are not doing that. They are merely surviving in this world. They become of adult age, they need a profession. The world is in the condition that it is in. Well, let us become a hospital personnel. Why not? Let us become a corrections officer. Why not? All the criminals are out there. I did not make them criminals. I am not oppressing them. I am not making the people sick. Let me go take care of them. Why not? God knows your heart. But I want to tell you that this is not God’s world, and that this world does not glorify God. And if you want to believe that you are leading a glorious life because you are in a profession where you take blood from people or where you are a doctor and you help heal them, well, maybe in your fallen mind that is true, but let me tell you, God has better things for you than that. This is not the way it is supposed to be, brethren. Well, what are we supposed to be doing all day? I do not know. Eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard what God has in store for us when everybody is in Christ. But you see, when this whole world system is manifesting Christ, we will not need a victim class for the rest of the people to have work.
And speaking about this word goat, Strong’s 6260, it means a he-goat and it is specifically associated with the word -- with the punishment of God. And this Hebrew word translated punishment, we are translating “to commit to the charge or care of anyone.” I gave the goats over unto the care of Satan. The human beings, the minds of fallen men, are under the authority of Satan. Brethren, do you want to know why your life is so hard since you came to the Lord? I have one person who does not come to the meetings, calls me all the time, says, “From the day I came to the Lord, my life has been hell.” Now that is not the way it is supposed to be. Who told you that lie? Someone lied to you. From the moment you truly come to Christ, you are in rebellion against the prince of this world. He does not like that and he punishes your rebellion on a daily basis. What about all those Christians that are being blessed? They are not in rebellion against Satan. They serve him all the time, and one or two hours a week they are in church saying, “Praise God, praise God, praise God,” and then they leave and they do everything he tells them, and they get along just fine.
The Scripture uses the Hebrew word translated he-goat, Strong’s 6260, to signify spiritual goats only twice. Every other time this word is used, it is speaking about natural goats, usually with regard to Levitical sacrifices. So we see Zephaniah 3:7 and Zachariah 10:3 are only two times that I could find where the Scripture is speaking about a spiritual goat. And I am going off on a tangent here a little bit because I feel God wants me to and he just really blessed me. The Lord, by -- it was a spiritual word of the Lord to me that sent me in this direction. And Isaiah 14, he sent me to Isaiah 14:9. Isaiah 14:9. How did I get in there? Oh yeah, OK. I guess actually it is -- I guess I made a mistake. I guess there is -- there are three -- oh, OK. I am sorry.
In Zephaniah 3:7, the word goat is not used. We are dealing with the word punished. So I found that same word translated punished used in Zachariah 10:3, and the second Scripture, which is the only -- one of the -- which are the only two Scriptures that use this word as a spiritual goat. It is not Zephaniah 3:7. I am sorry. It is Isaiah 14:9, and I would like to take a minute to show you Isaiah 14:9 because it seems to fit in with what we are doing in Zephaniah 3:7.
Now if you read Isaiah 14:9 in the King James translation, and I will read it for you in a minute, it sounds like it is speaking about righteous Adam’s fall. And this is what it says: “Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming. It stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth.” The Hebrew word translated “chief ones,” it is the same Hebrew word translated he-goats, Strong’s 6485. It, hell, hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations, but the Lord revealed to us several years ago that that is a very poor translation and that Isaiah 14:9 is actually a prophecy of the Sons of God.
And what happened to me last night, I had a very spirit- -- a very supernatural study last night. I had -- we did this study five or six years ago. I had completely forgotten that this was actually a prophecy of the Sons of God, and as the Lord directed me to Isaiah 14:9, the Spirit of God told me, “It is not as it appears in the King James. It is a prophecy of the manifestation of the Sons of God, and I want you to know that that is what is happening right now, that all this warfare that has been going on, all this trouble that you have been having, the Sons of God are actually beginning to stand up. And as it says in Isaiah 14:9, all of the chief ones, all of the he-goats of the heathen members of this living soul, are raising themselves up to oppose the ascending Sons.” That is what God told me by the Spirit. And I said to him, Lord, if you want me to preach this tomorrow -- I knew it was a word of knowledge. I knew I had been spoken to. I am going to sit here and do an Alternate Translation on this verse because it does not sound like it at all. And after praying about 10 minutes, the Lord said, “Sheila, you have that in your Alternate Translation.” So I looked up my Alternate Translation Bible and, sure enough, six years ago the Lord gave us that revelation. And this is what came forth in that ministry six years ago.
Isaiah 14:9, Alternate Translation: “The place where those separated from God exist” -- right here, hell -- “is liberated from Satan’s tyranny. The Sons of God vibrate forth and come face to face with you, Satan, as they enter into the spiritual realm of this world system and become equal with it.” Remember what I said earlier? Our spiritual power is reaching a level and will exceed the power of the workers of witchcraft. “The Sons of God have been exercised sufficiently so that now they are appearing in a position of spiritual maturity and power whereby they are strong enough to overcome and rule the flesh surrounding them. They shall vibrate forth from their carnal minds. Their human spirit shall vibrate forth from their carnal minds, stand up and rule from within and without their flesh.” Hallelujah.
Not only is that a glorious word, but the Lord clearly told me it is happening now. And another thing that excited me, if you picked it up or not, is the use of the word vibrate to describe the exit of the human spirit from the bondage of the carnal mind, so that she might -- or the exodus, thank you Lord for correcting me, of the human spirit from her union with the carnal mind, so that she might join with and enter into the house of her new husband Christ Jesus. So we see in Isaiah 14:9 both the use of the word vibrate as well as the whole principle of the exodus of the vibrating out of the human spirit and the entering into Christ. It is just an excellent -- second one is -- I hope it blesses -- it is blessing you like it blessed me. I got really excited last night.
So let me just read you my note so I know that I have gotten everything out here. Please note that the Hebrew word translated vibrate in Zephaniah 3:7 is the same Hebrew word translated “meet thee” in the King James translation of Isaiah 14:9. I suggest to you that Zephaniah 3:7 and Isaiah 14:9 are both witnessing to the ascension of the Sons of God. I also believe that the Lord’s bringing forth Zephaniah 3 at this time is a personal word of knowledge to me that, excuse me, this event is taking place right now. I do not know how long it will take for this event to be completed.
One more comment on he-goats. So who are the he-goats of the flock of humanity? Now the Lord speaks about the nations. If you look up that word in the Hebrew, he is talking about flocks and herds. If you have pride, brethren, this is humiliating, but it is just the truth. Humanity, just like the other herds of animals that have lived on the surface of this planet, is in God’s eyes a flock, just as the herds of elephants and the herds of deer roamed in Africa one day. I do not think they roam very much anymore. It depends where you are. Humanity is seen by God as a herd or as the herds of humanity, and the he-goats are the members of the herd who have spiritual power. Everyone’s mind is not the same. There are people who have power in this world.
Did you ever hear somebody say, “No matter what that guy touches, it turns to gold”? He lost every dollar he had, and five years later he is a millionaire again. Some people just have power, and I am not saying it is ungodly power. You could have the blessings of God on you to get wealth. There are some people you just cannot put down. Everything they touch turns to gold, their business projects, their personal relationships. Everything they touch is blessed. And some people exert every ounce of spiritual energy that they have or that they could lay hold of, and no matter how hard they try everything they touch is cursed. And there is no way that they could overcome the obstacles that are destroying them in this world outside of some spiritual interference, either the interference of the Lord Jesus Christ or the interference of some worker of witchcraft. If you do not believe it, you are naive and maybe afraid because these things are true. These bondages, I do not care what word you call them. You do not like the word curse, do not call them a curse. Call it what it -- call it ishkabibble, I do not care. It is real. Bondages and chains which are spiritual on people’s lives are real. And everybody that knows anything about spiritual power knows it. If you think that you are so educated and sophisticated that this only works if you believe it, or you are going to keep on believing it as long as you have power over your own life, and when the day comes that you lose power over your own life, you are going to start to believe in spiritual chains and bondages.
So the he-goats are spiritual males who are ready, willing and able to fight. You do not usually fight unless you think you have a real good chance of winning. Only fools go to fight when they know they have nothing to fight with. So I suggest to you that the he-goats are the spiritual males of the fallen creation who are defending Satan’s possessions. Why do I say that? Because this humanity is a flock, and we all belong to Satan. So the he-goats are the ones who are defending this fallen flock. Defending it from what? Defending it from Christ. Why? Christ is coming, and he wants to take these herds of humanity away from the present owner. What does Christ want with us? He wants to manifest through us. He wants the use of our minds and he wants the use of our bodies. But Satan right now has the use of our minds and has the use of our bodies. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. The carnal mind is attached to the soul. Christ Jesus has not yet attached to our soul. That is why we have to be beheaded from our carnal minds, so that Christ Jesus can sit down and be attached to us, which event is called full stature, at which time we shall cease from sin when Christ becomes married to our soul. Christ is marrying the church. You have to get divorced before you can get married again, and your first husband is not in agreement. This is a contested divorce.
You know, when I first came into the church, I heard some talk about witches. And my attitude was -- maybe I was afraid. It is possible I was afraid. I am not really sure because that was 15 years or so ago. But I remember my attitude, saying, “Oh, what would witches want with us? They are just out there doing their witchcraft. We are just here dancing and singing and jumping and speaking in tongues and reading the Bible, and I just cannot understand why witches would even want to bother with us.” That was how I felt. And I now have the revelation that they want very much to bother with us, because Christ is in this world system fully intending to take over every human vessel on the face of the earth ultimately. And if Christ is ruling in every human vessel on the face of the earth ultimately, there will be no men for the he-goats to manifest through. Who are the he-goats? The carnal minds with spiritual power. So the war is between the two minds. The war is between the carnal mind and the Christ mind, and the prize is us. So we see that the workers of witchcraft and the witches who are actually casting spells and seeking to bring down Christians and bring their ministries, they probably have a much better understanding of what is going on here than the Christians. Because they know if the -- once the Sons of God stand up in full stature, we are going to go out and take the whole creation for the Lord Jesus Christ, and them who choose to exercise ungodly spiritual power will eventually be out of human beings to control.
So therefore actual workers and practitioners of witchcraft have a very real interest in Christians who are ascending. They have a very real interest in stopping us. We fully intend to take their bodies and their souls away from them. We fully intend to stop them from what they love to do. And here we see a great mystery, brethren. We find a church which is naive and immature to say the least, including me much of the time on these matters, who are engaged in a war with an enemy that knows what is going on better than us. Usually Christians are running. What Christian do you know that is headed right for a witch’s coven? You see, we perceive ourselves as the victims of the witches. This is really almost humorous. Every Christian that I know, except maybe those of us that are coming into this revelation now, would do anything to avoid a fight with a witch’s coven. Someone just said to me yesterday, “This is not stopping.” I said, yeah, boy, they just will not leave us alone. It looks like we are the victims and they are coming after us, but the truth of the matter is that we are going after them. But we do not even know it, we are so immature and naive, that Christ is arising in us and he is fully intent on destroying those carnal minds. We are threatening their very life and they are coming after us because we are a death threat to them and we do not even know who or what we are. Is that the biggest joke you ever heard? I think that is funny. I really do. I think that is humorous. Jesus. OK.
“Surely, I said, thou wilt fear me. Thou wilt vibrate forth. Thou wilt receive instruction.” You will want the discipline because it is going to save your life, even though I gave you tribulation which is going to -- and the reason I am giving you tribulation is so that your soul and your body should not die. Surely you are going to want this instruction and this tribulation so that you can flee from your captor, Satan and the carnal mind, and so that you will not die. Anyone in their right mind would be begging for the tribulation, for the judgments of God.
It is like someone who finds out that they have operable cancer. It is like someone in the news today that is told they are going to die if they do not get a live transplant. Brethren, that is painful getting a liver transplant. They cut your body open, they cut through your flesh, they cut through your muscles, they fool around with your organs, they cut you up and they put somebody else’s organ in you and they sew you back together and it hurts. And you could be sick for a few months, and you could be in pain. And there are people on TV begging for donors because they have a revelation that at the end of all of the pain is life. The only problem with the many members of humanity is we do not have a vision, and all we see is the pain that is being inflicted on us. Without a vision, my people perish. Without a vision, we blame God as some cruel monster who is torturing us for punishment’s sake. But the Lord is saying so that you will live and you will not die, surely you want this discipline. Surely you want this correction so that I could cut you free and you could run. But the answer is no, surely they do not want it because they are without understanding and they do not understand the scriptures and they are in error and they are spiritually insane and their mind is in darkness and they hate God because their deeds are evil.
This Hebrew word translated dwelling, it is used to describe the Lord’s temple in Psalms 26:8. It is used of heaven, or to describe heaven, in Psalms 68:5 and Deuteronomy 26:15. And Paul clearly told us what? “Know ye not, we are the temple of the Holy Ghost.” We are the Lord’s temple, and we are told clearly in Thessalonians that some profane guy is sitting in the Lord’s temple and he is acting like he is God and he is telling everybody that he is God and he is making himself God, but he is the god of this world. He is not the God of the Lord’s temple. Why? Because all power in heaven and in earth has been given unto the Lord Jesus Christ. You have got to vacate, man. Do it willingly or we are going to bomb you out. You have got to go or get evicted.
So we are still in Verse 7 dealing with the phrase, “so that their dwelling should not be cut off.” The Hebrew word translated “cut off,” Strong’s 3772, is referring -- is a word that is used for example to describe the cutting off of a branch of a tree. In Romans 11:21 says, “For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.” So we see the Scripture symbolizes believers as branches. So what am I suggesting to you? That this phrase, “so that their dwelling should not be cut off,” is referring to our spiritual life.
Alternate Translation, first half of Zephaniah 3:7: “I said, surely your human spirits will vibrate forth out of your carnal minds when I discipline the one I have set over you so that your souls should not be cut off from the earth of humanity.” This is Jehovah speaking. “I said, surely” -- he said to the human race -- “I said, surely your human spirits will vibrate forth out of your carnal minds when I discipline Satan.” Who said? “When I wound your flesh, when I wound your emotions, surely you will get up and run, when I discipline the one I have set over you so that your souls should not be cut off from the earth of humanity.” Remember, our soul, which includes our carnal minds and our physical bodies, are in the image of Satan. The Lord’s punishment therefore is to our mind, to our emotions and to our physical bodies. The Lord’s punishment is not for punishment’s sake. The Lord’s punishment is the mercy of God which is wounding our captor so that our true essence, the human spirit, can flee from her enforced bondage.
We are told in another place, “The bellows are burning, the fire is hot, everything is melted, but the wicked are not plucked out.” For those of you, brethren, who are in the fire but not receiving deliverance, we are told in that same Scripture -- I am just paraphrasing. Unto the Lord, or as far as the Lord is concerned, you are as -- does anybody know? Reprobate silver, silver typifying salvation. Your salvation is worthless. Who is your salvation? Who is our salvation? Christ, the work of Christ that is appearing in your mind. What is that? The mind of Christ, what is that? The Kingdom of God is in your mind and he is not doing you one little bit of good. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is going to stand by and watch your carnal mind rise up and slay him, and he is going to manifest through another man. Let me say that again. The bellows are burning, the fire is hot, and the wicked is not plucked out. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is going to stand by and watch your carnal mind rise up and kill Christ Jesus in you. He is going to stand by and let it happen and go appear in somebody else. Why? Because there is only one way that the wicked cannot be plucked out under these circumstances, and that is -- anybody? Your failure to confess your sins and repent. Correct.
Amplified Translation, first half of Zephaniah 3:7. Jehovah speaking, “I said, surely when I bring judgment upon their minds, emotions and physical bodies, their spirits will separate from their souls so that they can stop dying. I said, surely when I bring judgment upon their minds, emotions and physical bodies, their spirits will get up and run. They will separate from their souls so that they can stop dying. Do you not want to stop dying? Brethren, their soul is so mentally ill, they do not even care if they die. They just will not confess their sins, even unto the pain of death. Did you ever hear the expression, “You are so stubborn, you would bite off your nose to spite your face”? Jesus.
Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” You see, our soul must separate from our spirit. That is what that witness is there for. “I said, surely I will bring judgment upon their minds, emotions and physical bodies, so that their human spirit can separate from their soul, or so that their human spirit can flee away from the carnal mind which is a part of their soul so that they may stop dying.”
Remember the separation of the soul f- -- of the spirit from the soul is speaking about the separation of the human spirit from the mind of Christ, which is a part of -- I am sorry, from the carnal mind, which is a part of the soul, and the separation of the joints from the marrow is speaking about the actual separation of Eve from Satan. Let me say that again. There are two separations. The carnal mi- -- I guess I said that wrong. The carnal mind is joined to the soul. The separation of the spirit from the soul is the -- well, Eve comes out, but she is still joined to Satan. The spirit separates from the soul, which includes the carnal mind, and then the second stage of that separation, the joints from the marrow, is Eve separating from Satan. Did I make that clear? I hope so.
Continuing with the second half of Zephaniah 3:7: “But they rose early and corrupted all their doings.” But they rose early and corrupted all their doings. To rise early, Strong’s 7925, “to do earnestly or urgently.” Corrupted, Strong’s 7843, “to act wickedly, to be corrupted in a moral sense.” The Hebrew word translated doing, Strong’s 5949, is referring to the deeds of men. So they rose up early. They earnestly or urgently corrupted themselves or continued to live through their carnal minds.
Alternate Translation, second half of Zephaniah 3:7: “But they earnestly acted out the wicked deeds of fallen Adam.” But they rose up early and corrupted themselves. They continued to do the deeds of fallen Adam. You see Jehovah saying, “I offered to show them discipline. I offered to show them the right way. I offered to wound their carnal mind. I offered to do everything that I could to provide the power for them to escape. Surely, surely they would not reject so great a salvation. But what did they do? Despite all of this provision to help them, they would not cooperate with me. They continue to act like a fallen man. Ye are gods, but ye shall die like men.”
“Ye are gods,” the Lord said to Israel, “because you have received the word of God, but you never did with it what would have resulted in your actually becoming gods. You see, I say to you, you are gods on faith. The Lord said, on faith, so you are justified, but now it has to really happen to you. And we have a church world running around and dancing and singing and saying, “We are saved! Hallelujah! We are saved! Hallelujah!” And they are as dead as everybody else. All you have got is the promise. Israel had the promise, and they died like men. And the church has the promise, and millions will die like men because the promise is power and they never picked up the power and used it to make the promise a reality in their life.
Alternate Translation, Zephaniah 3:7: “I said, surely,” Jehovah speaking, “I said, surely when I bring judgment upon your mind, emotions and physical body, your spirit will separate from your soul. They earnestly acted out or continued to act out the wicked deeds of fallen Adam. They not only continue to act like fallen men, they put all of their effort into it.
Amplified Translation, Zephaniah 3:7: “I said, surely when I bring judgment upon your mind, emotions and physical body, you will confess your sins and repent so that your spirit can separate from your soul and join with Christ, the only one who can preserve your soul alive. That your spirit can separate from your soul and join with Christ, the only one who can preserve your soul alive. But they earnestly continued to act out the wicked deeds of fallen Adam.”
Witnesses to this evaluation of the fallen condition of man, Romans 8:11: “But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” OK, now the reason I gave you this witness is with regard to the phrase that is in our Amplified Translation of Zephaniah 3:7, which says the Lord is bringing judgments so that our human spirit will separate from our soul and join with Christ, Christ being the only one who can preserve your soul alive. And how is Christ formed in us? If that spirit which raised up Jesus, the man -- please note the play of words here. If that spirit which raised up the man Jesus from the dead is in you, and that is the Spirit of Christ, the one that raised up Christ from the dead.
OK, now Christ is different from Jesus. Jesus is the human being, the man Jesus. Christ is the human spirit of that whole nation, but right now I am talking about your heart. Right now I am talking about your liver. And one doctor assisted in your birth. He is called an obstetrician. But another doctor assisted in your heart surgery, and he is just a totally different doctor. You see, an obstetrician was there and helped you to be born, and when you were born it was discovered that you had a hole in your heart. So he called a heart surgeon who did surgery on the baby’s heart. One doctor delivered the baby; the other doctor repaired the heart. So if that spirit which raised Jesus, the whole man, from the dead -- that is the Spirit of Christ -- dwells in you, OK, then the one who raised Christ from the dead -- that is the Holy Ghost, OK -- the Holy Ghost got inside of you and connected with your human spirit and raised that dead human spirit up into Christ. And when your human spirit clave unto the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Ghost clave unto your human spirit, and there was a product of that union, the product being the resurrected Christ, Christ rose up and there was a [?ceased?], the Spirit of Christ. And it was that spirit which was in the resurrected Christ, which raised the whole man Jesus from the dead. You see, the Holy Ghost cannot raise you from the dead, man. If you want to rise from the dead, you have to get the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is in Christ, and Christ is the product of the union of the Holy Ghost and your human spirit. Let us get it straight. If the Holy Ghost could raise you from the dead, why are you still dead? Huh, huh, huh? How come we are all still dead?
So we see that Christ is the only one who can preserve your soul alive. Now if that Spirit which raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies. Now, brethren, if you have a mortal body, you must have an immortal body. So what are we talking about? I suggest to you that we are not speaking about the physical body here but we are speaking about the celestial bodies which Paul speaks about, that which is your immortal body is your human spirit. Your human spirit, she cannot be destroyed. She died in that she separated from God, but she will be raised from the dead and live forever. And your immortal body, that which is capable of total annihilation, is your soul which is made out of clay or, as the Scripture sometimes expresses it, cut out of a tree which can burn to a cinder. The soul that sins, it will surely die. The spirit that sins is put in the fire for purification. You see, the spirit that sins is put in the fire until the impurities are smelted out of her, but she carries on. She is never completely destroyed. The soul is capable of being completely destroyed.
So the whole point of the judgment of God, we find out, and the discipline of God, is to separate our spirit from our soul so that we can stop dying, because it is not until our spirit separates from our soul that our spirit can then join with Christ Jesus, and he is the only one who can keep our soul alive, and that includes the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost cannot keep your soul alive. What do you mean he cannot keep my soul alive? How come that believer just died last week? You mean you have never been to the funeral of a Holy Ghost-filled person? Ah, so you have rationalized it by saying, well, they are living beyond the veil. You have bought a lie. There is no such teaching in the Scripture.
If your spirit is alive, it is going to make your soul alive. And if your soul is alive, it will preserve your body. Life is in the flesh. Judgment is in the flesh, so that you should learn to live in the flesh by the spirit, not by the flesh. Live in the flesh, your mind, which is spirit, not live in the flesh by a mind which is flesh. Because, brethren, you see, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. And if you live in the flesh by the mind which is born from the flesh, you are going to act like the flesh, and the truth is that the flesh is the beast. That means, if you have a mind which is born of the flesh and you live out of that mind, you are going to live a bestial existence like an animal, except you will wear clothes and use deodorant, because there is a spirit in you, but your existence will be very similar to that of the animals of the jungle. You are going to need to eat food. You are going to go to the bathroom. You are going to need sleep. You are going to have disease, bugs from time to time. You are going to do everything that the animals do. But you see, that which is born of the spirit is spirit, and if the mind which is born in you is spirit, you shall be and act like and live like a spirit. A spirit does not slumber or sleep, brethren. A spirit is not subjected to raging passions and emotions that destroy it. A spirit is rational, in godly control.
So we see that Christ Jesus is the only one who can preserve your soul alive. Your carnal mind cannot do it. That is why you are dying even though you have the Holy Ghost. Your carnal mind is your foundation. What does that mean? It means that your existence is leaning upon or depending upon or built upon your carnal mind. That means, if you get hit by a truck, if you walk out of here and get hit by a truck and your heart starts beating, outside -- and your heart stops beating, outside of a sovereign miracle from the Lord, you shall cease to exist. How come the Holy Ghost is not keeping you alive? He does not have the power. He is likened unto a sperm. He cannot keep you alive, brethren. All he can do is fertilize you. Only the baby, born of the fertilization, can keep you alive. Sperm cannot keep you alive. I am sorry if you do not like that. It is true anyhow. So Christ is the only one that can keep you alive, brethren.
Romans 8:19: “And this is the” -- I guess that is not Romans. Must be -- it sounds like John to me. I do not even know. Let me say it over here.
John 3:19-20: “And this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.” Verse 20: “For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved,” or exposed. And I gave you those verses to witness to the last phrase of our Amplified Translation of Zephaniah 3:7: “But they earnestly continued to act out the wicked deeds of fallen Adam.”
So we see that, despite everything that Jehovah did for them -- he judged their mind, he judged their emotions, he judged their physical body, he bought trials and tribulations and pain into their life for the specific purpose of weakening every aspect of the beast in their life. Why? So that they could find Christ formed in them and confess their sins and repent. But despite all that, they earnestly continue to act out the wicked deeds of fallen Adam. And as we have been finding clearly stated in Chapter 3 of the Book of Zephaniah, there is only one reason why a believer would continue to act out the wicked deeds of fallen man even though the mind of Christ has formed in them, and the mind of Christ is the Kingdom of God. You can have a very mature Kingdom of God in you and still live out of your carnal mind or still be in danger of your carnal mind rising up and knocking out that Kingdom of God in you if you do not confess your sins and repent.
This is the message of the hour, as far as I am concerned, and I thank God for the revelation. There is a negative fulfillment of the gospel coming. There is a satanic trumpet about to sound. There is a call coming forth from Satan to the carnal minds of men to rise up in every vessel where Christ is appearing, to rise up as one man and kill the invading force, and there will be a strengthening going forth in the spirit out of the satanic realm. And if you are not actively engaged in recognizing sin in your own mind, confessing it and repenting, if you are not in the process of paralyzing the beast in your mind, she is going to rise up with enough power to kill the Christ in you. How do I know that? She did it once before, and we all died. In Adam, we all died. When the Christ mind in Adam died, we all died.
So let us get her now when she is still weak and when we are strong enough to do it, because if we do not start doing this now, there is a good chance you will not make it. It is not enough to have the Kingdom of God. It is not enough to have power. It is not enough to have a spirit of righteousness. It is not enough to have everything of God with great intensity. If you do not use what you have to confess sin and repent, thereby paralyzing your carnal mind, your enemy, when you are sleeping or when your back is turned, is going to get up, rise up and kill you dead.
Now for all of you who are misunderstanding me, she will never succeed in doing this across the board in the creation. Christ is rising from the dead in a remnant of people. The question is, is he rising from the dead in you? He is rising from the dead and he is killing the carnal mind. He is paralyzing her. First he is throwing her on her back, knocking her down, pinning her shoulders to the mat, paralyzing her and killing her. That is the procedure, and it is going to happen in a com- -- it already happened in the man Jesus of Nazareth. It is going to happen in a company of men very shortly, and eventually it is going to happen to every human being on the face of the earth. But it is not necessarily happening to every human being who has an existence on the earth in this hour. And the people who it does not happen to in this hour will live out their lives and die like men. You see, ye are gods. If you have the Kingdom of God, if you have the mind of Christ, you are a god and you have the potential within you to live forever. But if you fail to confess your sins and repent, if you fail to attack and utterly determine to destroy everything within you which is not of God, that which is within you with -- which you are not exposing, we just read, because you really love it, is going to rise up and kill the Christ in you.
So that is the bottom line, brethren. Now you do not -- do not be discouraged by thinking you are not strong enough. We are talking about resolve here. The Lord Jesus Christ, who has already overcome the world, he is strong enough. He is looking for a people that want what he wants. He is looking for a people who are in agreement with him in their mind and in their heart. I do not care if your carnal mind is screaming her head off how much she loves her sin. If you can honestly say to the Lord, “Lord, I admit that my soul is a harlot and she loves this sin and I cannot stop her from loving it. But me, Lord, that which in me -- within me which is spirit, I want you and I choose you over any pleasure this world could give me,” he is going to get you through. And that is the confession and the repentance.
Do not worry about what you are feeling. Do not worry about what you do not have control over. Just make a statement to the Lord that your soul is just doing her thing and she is feeling whatever she is feeling and she is thinking whatever she is thinking and you have no power to shut her up, but if you had the power to do it, you would not do it. That is what -- that is called confession of sin. And then you say, “I am really sorry for thinking these thoughts, Lord.” That is the repentance. That is all that is required of you, you see? We do not have dominion over our soul in this hour, and some of us in some areas do not even have dominion over our behavior. God knows whether or not we have dominion over it.
I am going to say it again. This is such an important point. Do not get hung up on the sin. He knows you cannot stop sinning. That is why you need a savior. He knows what I am doing. He knows most of the time you cannot -- almost all of the -- he know- -- you say, “Lord, if I” -- [AUDIO CUTS OUT] -- “if I really had the power, I would choose to not do it.” That is what he wants to hear. That is confession of sin, and that I am sorry for these thoughts that I am thinking. I have no power over it. My mind is doing whatever she wants to do. She is just a harlot. She agrees with Satan in thought, day and night, and I cannot stop her. She is an unfaithful wife. But if I had the power to stop her, I would. That is all he wants, your will, your will, and he is going to come in and do it for you. And if that is your attitude, if you are truly confessing your sins and repenting, there is now no more condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus and called according to his purposes.
This is a very important issue. I have had so many people, here, in Nigeria, everywhere, they are so upset at the sin in their mind and the sin in their emotions. They are in great distress. Brethren, the Lord knows you cannot control your mind. That is what this salvation is all about, but you do have to admit that the sin is there if you want his help. And you do have to admit that it is sin, and you do have to hate it. And he will get you out if you just hang on. If you could just hang on until he gets to you, he will get you out. But you better be careful that you are not condemning other people’s sins while you are waiting for him to get you out.
So any questions on this message this morning?
Praise the Lord. The following is the exhortation which preceding the message this morning, and the balance of the Message will be music ministry from this morning.
There is healing and there is -- it is OK. There is healing and there is peace and there is joy in his Spirit. If you are tormented when you sit in a meeting like this, it is because your carnal mind is so strong. It is because your carnal mind is so much you, you are still so much living in your carnal mind, that when your carnal mind comes into a meeting like this, she has a warfare confrontation with this spirit which is giving peace and joy and glory to those who have had some victory over their carnal mind. So if you fall into that category -- I have had people run out of here screaming, telling me they just cannot even bear to be here. If you are falling in that category, if you are tormented sitting under this glory, I just highly recommend that you tell the Lord that that is -- you see, that is sin in you. Brethren, we must learn to recognize sin in ourselves, because there is no way that we will be able to confess and repent if we do not -- if we cannot identify sin.
So if you cannot sit under a Spirit like this, it is because at the moment your mind is filled with sin. So all you have to do is say, “Lord, I am in torment when I am supposed to be in peace. That must mean not that you are sticking me with a pitchfork, but it must mean that there is sin in my mind. Please help me.” You see? That is the whole key to it. So long as we blame God, there is no help for us, because we are condemning the one person in the universe that has the power to help us. It is a condition of insanity of the mind. It is irrational. It makes no sense at all, yet we are told in the Scripture that man -- somebody asked me earlier, who? The church or the -- who? Man. Natural man, whether he has a dove pin or not, whether he speaks in tongues or not, whether he carries a Bible or not, whether he preaches or not, whether he casts out demons or not, natural man is shaking his fist against God every time there is a conflict between what he is thinking or doing and what God wants him to think or do.
So if we could just ask God to help us in the moments of conflict to not condemn God but confess that we are the ones who are causing the problem -- you see, God does not go looking to pick a fight with us. If you are in a conflict, it is because you are picking the fight with God. You see, God is. He never changes. He just is. So if something comes into his presence that is opposing him, there is war, because God is. He does not budge, he does not move, he does not change. He is rooted and grounded and exists eternally in righteousness. He is always right. He is always holy. He is always good. He is always just. So if you are having a problem, it means that something in you is not in sync with the Spirit of God.
But because of the insanity of the carnal mind, every man, the whole many-membered fallen Adam, his mind will say, “There is something wrong with this spirit. There is something wrong with this message. There is something wrong with this minister because I do not have peace.” Now there could be something wrong with the minister or with the message or with the spirit. So if you are operating in any kind of sanity at all, what you do is say, “Lord, may the Spirit of truth prevail in me. If this is not you here, get me out. But if it is you, defeat my own enemy which is within me.” So you have to at least confess the possibility that the wrong spirit might be in you and honestly give it to God. Some people will hear this message and they will come in and they will say the words, but their mind will be made up that they are in the right spirit and it is the wrong spirit here, so they give the lip service and they leave. Well, you are the only one who you deceived.
Brethren, there is safety in the counsel of God, especially when it comes to spiritual things. If we honestly can say to God, “Lord, I cannot discern spirit so I am believing you, if it is not your Spirit here, to save me. But if it is your Spirit and I am distressed in my emotions because sin in me is up against your Spirit, overthrow sin in me that I might have peace.” And then leave it up to God as to what he does with you. There is safety in such an attitude. Praise God.
There is one other thing the Lord wanted me to tell you this morning and it is slipping out of my mind. What was it? Jesus. Sorry, I will have to -- it got past me. Would you put that on pause for just a minute? If I do not get it ba- --
I do not know whether this is it or not, but I just will take one more minute to emphasize that, in this hour, there is very -- as far as sin is concerned, there is really no difference between the church -- oh, yes. I know what he wanted me to tell you. He wanted me to tell you, give you a report on the witch’s coven in Setauket. Let me just finish my thought please. If I forget, somebody remind me it is about the witch’s coven in Setauket.
That, for all intents and purposes in this hour, from a perspective of sin, there is no difference between the church and the world or the church and the heathen. We are all dead in our sins. The people who form the church, the people who have a relationship with Jesus Christ who have been reconciled unto him, even those who have been justified because Christ is being formed in them, we are all dead in our sins. But those who are justified, in whom those who are justified -- having a problem with my English this morning.
Those who are justified differ from the heathen in this one respect: the procedure which will result in their being raised from the dead, in their being delivered from their sins, in their escaping from hell. The procedure has begun, but they are still just as filled with sin as anybody else. There may be a difference in the degree to which one man acts out that sin as compared to another man who is actively acting out that sin, and because of that and in response to that, one man will res- -- will reap more stripes. The man who is acting out will reap pain in his life more than the man who is not acting it out. But the bottom line is that after a season we all die, and that is the proof that the church is in just as much sin as the heathen.
And where those of us who are in the process of being reconciled unto the Lord, we have been approached and have entered into the Old Covenant. The church is under the Old Covenant, and the Old Covenant says -- in the Old Covenant, Jehovah says, “I will offer you the power which is in my Spirit while you still have sin.” Why? Because if I wait until you clean yourself up to offer you a relationship with me, you will never, ever have a relationship with me, because no man on the face of the earth has the power to cleanse himself from sin. So therefore, as an act of my love for you, I give you my Spirit. And I do not give it to you so that you can get a Cadillac or get a husband or get a new job, although I might give you those things as a byproduct. I give you my Spirit so that my Son can be formed in you, so that you can receive the preparation for the New Covenant.
And the New Covenant says, in that day, I shall remove your sins from you. And the sign that you are without sin is that you shall stop dying and you shall be without torment in your mind and without torment in your emotions and without torment in your body. That is the New Covenant. If you have any of -- are experiencing any of those things, pain and/or torment in your mind, in your emotions, in your body and ultimate death, brethren, you have not entered into the New Covenant or the new contract with Jehovah, with the Lord Jesus Christ. You have been sold the Brooklyn Bridge, and they have even given you a deed that says you own the Brooklyn Bridge, and that deed says you will get it when your body dies and you go over to the other side. It is a lie.
So we see that there is in existence a many-membered living soul, a group of people who are connected to one other that is called humanity. And we are all dead. OK, it is the will of the Lord to give us all life. Some of us are further along in the process of receiving life than others, but none is better than the other, just more mature. And the more mature we are, the more responsibility we have, because the more mature we are, the more we are required to help our younger brothers and sisters. So that is our condition, brethren.
Let me give you just a brief report on this witch’s coven that is operating out of Setauket. I hope those of you that come here know that there are several covens in the area. There are at least three businesses right down in Port Jefferson which cater to local covens. One of them actually sells capes. You can buy a cape there that the satanic high priest ministers in. You could purchase books on how to cast spells and how to practice witchcraft.
One of those covens is resident in Setauket, and we have been engaged in an act of warfare with them for clo- -- just about a year now. God revealed us to each other, I guess, just about a year ago. And on at least two occasions that I can recall, if not three, the Lord offered the witches in there -- they are practicing black witches. What does that mean? They cast spells. They gather together, they have meetings. And they cast spells to what end? To try to control people for their own purposes. That is why people practice witchcraft. They want power over other people, which people do not agree to give them that power over their lives. That is what witchcraft is about. They want power to gain wealth. They want to control potential employers. They want to control potential people who would potentially give them business. They want power, they want money, and they want members of the opposite sex. So witchcraft is used to obtain the good things of this world by illegal spiritual power without the consent of the other people involved. And God says it is a sin that is punishable by death. It is very serious.
OK, if you have a spirit of witchcraft in your mind, you know God is winking at you and trying to convict you of your sins. But, brethren, there are people in this world, in this country and right here in our local area, who are actually casting spells and performing rituals whereby they worship Satan and his demons in order to obtain power, to obtain money, wealth and love if you want to call it that, sex. Why can it not be love? Because you cannot force someone to love you. So, you see, any woman or any man that you get even to marry you by a lust potion or some form of witchcraft cannot be love, because when you really love somebody, you set them free. You want them to want you. So it is most likely lust.
Well anyway, over this last year on at least two if not three occasions, the word of the Lord went forth offering these witches amnesty. What does that mean? The Lord told them that he is about to bring down their coven, and he was offering them an opportunity to repent and come into his Kingdom without loss of spiritual power. You see, once you have experienced spiritual power, it is not pleasant to lose it. Let me give you a natural example. If you have been a physically powerful person in this world and, God forbid, you have an accident and your legs do not work anymore, you have to deal much more with the fact that your legs do not work. You have to deal with the emotional problem of finding out your legs do not work anymore and now you need to depend on other people to do things for you, and every other emotional problem associated with the loss of muscle power in your legs. It is emotionally stressful to lose power in any aspect of your life.
So the Lord did tell these witches, he said, “I will give you amnesty. Repent and come over to my Kingdom now and I will let you retain your power. You can use it for the Kingdom of God.” And not one of them came over. Why? Because they probably did not believe it. Up until now over the last 2000 years, I do not know that there has been any Christian -- there may have been. I do not know every Christian. But if there have been any Christians at all that have had power that can be likened unto the kind of witchcraft that is exercised all over the world by people who are really -- I am not talking about amateurs that are dabbling. I am talking about people who are really into -- I am told it is called the brotherhood, that there is an actual brotherhood of witchcraft. That there just have not been any Christians who are the match of these witches, outside of the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul. I am not talking about the apostles.
So there is a spirit of pride operating there. We have had a witch in these meetings. I will not tell you who it was, but I know that we have had a witch in these meetings more than once. And one morning, I did not know that that person was going to be here. All I knew was that the Lord changed my message the night before, and the message I wound up preaching was right to the workers of witchcraft. And it is on -- it is one of the messages on -- I think it is on Michael. If you are interested, I could tell you which one it was. I remember the Sunday that we preached it, and the message was right to that person: “Repent and serve me or you are going to lose power. I am going to strip you of your power. Use your power for my Kingdom or you are going to wind up with nothing.”
And in that same meeting, which was all about witchcraft, I made the same statement, and I said the witches are laughing at us because they do not believe that Christians will ever have power likened unto theirs. And this -- I looked over at this person and they were smiling. It was not a mocking smile. It was a smile that said I was saying the truth. They do not take us seriously and they do not believe that we will ever be an actual threat to them, because they do not understand that Christ Jesus is ascending and is in this very moment arising to a level of power that is certainly, at the very least, equal, because the warfare has been unbelievable. And if it has not happened already, it is just a matter of time that we will have more power than they do.
But at the time that this amnesty went forth, this offer for amnesty went forth, nobody took it. And I believe nobody took it because nobody believed it. And if it helps you any, because this sounds so way out to people raised in America, if it helps you any, when I was over in Africa, several people said to me, “Show me your power and I will serve you.” You see, people who have lived a life experiencing and exercising spiritual power, many of them are not very faithful. They do not love the gods that they serve. They serve the god who gives them the most power, or they serve the god who exercises the most power over them because, even if it does not start out that way, once you enter into witchcraft you think the demons are serving you, but it is just a matter of time until you find out that you are their servant and you do not have the option to get free, just as with drugs, just as with alcohol, just as with every compulsive behavior. “I could stop anytime I want.” Oh, really? And you think it until you try to walk away from it and you find out that you do not have this demon in a -- you do not have this genie in a lamp, but this genie has a leash on you. And they are going to let you think that you have got them in a lamp as long as it is convenient for them, but you try to leave, you will find out. You try to get away.
So we had some time yesterday that was -- some more, yes. Just incredible. And a judgment went forth that was actually prophesied the night before from someone in New Jersey. I did not even know what it meant when I heard it the night before. And God stripped them of their power. He gave them almost a whole year to come in. Not one of them came, and God stripped them of their power. Now how long it is going to take for their power to dry up from the moment that I prophesied it, which was yesterday, I do not know. It could be a reality today. It could take a year. It could take five years for their power to completely dry up. Their spiritual authority to do what? To cast spells that will obtain for them or that will control people’s minds, and what does that mean? It will control the decisions that people make, the emotions that people have, to the extent that the person making the curse or making the -- or casting the spell can reap or obtain benefits of money, power or sex, or all three. Why not? Let us have all three. You are under the judgment of death anyway. Let us have all three. Is that not what a convicted murderer says? I have already killed three. If the death penalty is around, I am a goner. What is three more?
So how long it is going to take for their spiritual power to dry up, I do not know. I never walked this way before. I never volunteered for this duty or for this detail, doubt that I would have if I had the choice, but I am here. Yesterday was something else. Praise God.
So the Lord just wanted me to share that with you, that the coven in Setauket is under heavy judgment because they have rejected the mercy of God unto them. Hallelujah.
07/06/17 Transcribed by VerbalFusion
08/02/17 1st Edit rh