Part 16 of 19 Parts

 

The Following Message Has Been Transcribed And Edited For

Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation By

The LEM Transcribing & Editing Team.

 

We have just come out of a study that has taken us through 15 parts prior to this part of the Hebrew word translated serpent. That is Strong’s #5175. And apparently, there were quite a few Scripture verses using that Strong’s word translated serpent. Every time Strong’s #5175 appears in the Scripture, it is translated serpent without exception. I do not believe that we studied every verse in which that word appeared. I may have skipped over one or two that I thought were not particularly significant.

 

But to the best of my knowledge, there was only one verse (and I meant to look up the verse for you, and I did not have time). It was on a recent message where we found this Hebrew word serpent modified by the word earth, indicating that the Scripture was speaking about the serpent of the earth, at which point I made the point that there is a serpent of the earth and there is a serpent of the sea.

 

The serpent of the sea, most times (I cannot tell you all the time because I have not really completed the study yet). But from what I could see, most of the time, if not all of the time, that the Scripture is speaking about the sea serpent, it uses a different Hebrew word. That is Strong’s #8577. Strong’s #8577 is translated serpent three times; it is translated whales three times; it is translated sea monster once and dragon 21 times. So the primary translation of Strong’s #8577 is dragon or serpent of the sea, as is obvious in sea monster and whales. It is just the three times that this word is translated serpent alone is the only time that the Scripture does not indicate that this word is specifically referring to the sea monster.

 

Now what we are going to do, this study is going to just go on and on. We can have 20 or 30 parts to this study. What I would like to do, as we move on to Strong’s #8577, is to take a look at the three Scriptures in which this word is translated serpent. Those three Scriptures are in Exodus 7:9, 10 and 12. All three references are a part of the same piece of information that the Lord is imparting to us, and they are all referring to the Lord's instruction to Moses and Aaron as they go to Pharaoh. I will read those three verses so that we could have it on the message.

 

Exodus 7:9: When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, 'Show a miracle for you,' then thou shalt say unto Aaron, 'Take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh,' and it shall become a serpent.

 

Verse 10: And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

 

Verse 12: For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.

 

I have wondered about these verses many times. There are a lot of Bible students who would tell you that they know that the rods typify a form of spiritual power. But that is the deepest understanding that I ever had of these three Scriptures.

 

However, as I looked at them in view of our study today, the Lord showed me some interesting things. He led me into a study of the word rod. Sometimes you hear things in your mind, but the Lord just does not focus on them because it is not time. We can only focus on one or two or 10 things at a time; we cannot focus on every issue in the Scripture at a time.

 

I am sure you have heard the expression, in the Scripture, his rod and his staff. I never had time to do a study to find out what the difference is between his rod and his staff. What my research revealed is very interesting: that both the Hebrew word translated rod and the Hebrew word translated staff are used interchangeably by the King James translators, if you look the words up in the lexicon.

 

So we see that the King James translators use the two Hebrew words translated rod and staff interchangeably. However, we have a problem with the argument that the two words are interchangeable when we find both words appearing in one Scripture verse, which incident occurs in Isaiah 9:4.

 

Isaiah 9:4: For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. Thou hast broken the staff of his shoulder and the rod of his oppressor. Praise the Lord.

 

So this morning, we are going to do a little study, a little comparative study, on the Hebrew words translated rod and staff. And I hope you find it as interesting as I did. And then we will do a review of the incarnation of the Serpent and Jehovah, and we will see where the Lord takes us to. Thank you, Jesus. But for the time being, we are still concentrating on Exodus 7:9, 10 and 12. That is our jumping-off point.

 

The Hebrew word translated rod in those verses is Strong’s #4294. Some of the translations for that word are a company led by a chief with his staff, speaking about a wood stick. It also can be translated a branch, in the sense of a branch extending out from the tree. It also can be used to describe a tribe which is the extension of one man, such as the 12 tribes being the extension of Jacob.

 

It also can be translated to be a rod, a wood stick, for the purpose of chastising, correction, also for the purpose of ruling, as a scepter, also a walking staff and, by extension of that, a support of life. A walking staff is something that you lean on; it is a cane when you walk. And therefore, this Hebrew word can also be translated as a support of life.

 

And in that sense, we find it translated as bread. In one of the Psalms, the Scripture says, And he broke the staff of bread. If you think of that spiritually, the staff of bread is Jesus Christ and the Sons of God, which are an extension of their forefather, Abraham, which is an extension or an expression of the Spirit of Jehovah.

 

So what do we find? We find that this Hebrew word translated rod is used to show or to express an extension of spirit. I am suggesting to you that the spiritual significance of this word is incarnation. When a spirit extends himself, he extends himself first into a soul and then into a body. The soul and the body are extensions or representatives or images of the spirit which has built them, or of the spirit which has incarnated them. Praise God.

 

So we see that the word rod is speaking about an extension that can chastise, an extension that can rule, walk, support spiritual life, and also which is capable of being bread. Therefore, we see that the word rod can easily be translated man or tribe. And in fact, I personally was surprised to find out that this same Hebrew word is translated tribe in excess of 100 times. I stopped counting when I hit 100. This is the same Hebrew word that is used when the Scripture speaks about the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Manasseh. That Hebrew word translated tribe is the same word translated rod. I was surprised to see that.

 

So we see, once again, the Scripture using the same word either carnally or spiritually. The carnal translation or the carnal interpretation of this Hebrew word is an actual wood staff which someone can lean on as a cane. But the spiritual significance is a spiritual wood staff. And what is the spiritual wood that is appearing in this earth today? It is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That is the spiritual wood that is appearing today. That Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil represents the mind of the Serpent.

 

We also have in the earth today, although not nearly as widespread in this hour, the Tree of Life, which is the mind that Jehovah has incarnated through His servant and through the express image of Him, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

So we see that, when the Scripture is speaking about natural wood, it is talking about a wood staff cut out of a tree that one would find in this physical, visible world. But when the Scripture has a spiritual significance, it is speaking about the spiritual tree. And the staff or the rod which is cut out of the spiritual tree is the soul and physical body of humanity.

 

And as always, when we speak of spiritual things, we see that it can come in two manifestations, one negative and one positive. The positive manifestation of anything we talk about is an incarnation or a representation of the Spirit of Jehovah through His representative, through His ambassador to humanity, His Son, the one who was in His express image, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we speak about any spiritual thing on the negative side, we are speaking about the Serpent and her incarnation into this present world system, which is this visible, physical world called hell. Thank you, Jesus.

 

And of course, on the occasion that this word is translated bread of life, it is speaking about the Sons of God. Jesus is the bread. He said, I am the bread who came down from heaven. And Jesus' offspring, which we are, we too are the bread which came down from heaven. Because, when the bread which came down from heaven is dwelling in you, and when that bread swallows up everything that you are, you too become the bread that came down from heaven.

 

So just by way of review, I am suggesting to you that the symbology of the Hebrew word translated rod is man. The one who is able to provide all of these services; what services? Chastisement, rulership, the ability to walk to support his life and to be bread. Man, the one who is able to provide all of these services to a spirit.

 

As far as a spirit is concerned, he needs what we would call a spacesuit to get around in this world system. Just as a human man needs a spacesuit when he goes to the moon, or when he leaves this planet and enters into an area with a different atmosphere, a spirit, when he transfers from the spiritual world into this visible, physical world, he needs a spacesuit. And the spacesuit that he needs is twofold; it is a soul and a body. And when he puts that spacesuit on, he appears as a man in this world system.

 

And there is a corridor; there is a door by which spiritual life enters into this visible, physical world. And that corridor is humanity. It is humanity. For a spirit to appear in this world, he has to be born of a woman, if he wants to appear.

 

We hear a lot about spirits without form or shape. We hear about them harassing people. Well, we hear about the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit, brethren, is appearing in men today. He does all his gifts; he does all his exploits, his healing and his deliverance. He does it through a man. Spiritual life enters into this world system through the corridor known as humanity. That is the form that he takes. Thank you, Jesus.

 

Let us just go on with the verses from Exodus 7.

 

Verse 12: For they cast down every man his rod, and the rods became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rod.

 

I have always read that, and I; well, maybe. I am not saying that it did not happen in the natural, that Aaron threw down his rod and it actually turned into a serpent, and so did the magicians' from Pharaoh's court. Maybe it really happened that way. I do not know. But I do know this: that there is a spiritual significance to what happened that is not obvious. That is what we are going to talk about today.

 

So to go on with this study, I would like to comment on the Hebrew word translated cast down, Strong’s #7993. It means to be cast forth, to be cast out or to be cast down. I would like to suggest to you that it is speaking about incarnation. So we see that the Hebrew word translated rod is speaking about the extension of spiritual life. And the Hebrew word translated cast down, in the phrase cast down their rods, is speaking about incarnation, rod speaking about extension, and the word cast down speaking about incarnation. So the spiritual life was extended. And what happened? There was an incarnation.

 

I am suggesting to you that, when Aaron cast his rod before Pharaoh in verse 9, he was showing his spiritual power. Or we might say he was showing that he, Aaron, was the extension of a spirit who was revealing his power through that man Aaron. In verse 11, Pharaoh's servants did the same thing. And what they showed was that they too were extensions of a spirit who was strong enough to express spiritual power through them.

 

The statement that is being made through that person is that the spirit which incarnates in them is powerful enough to exercise or to do spiritual exploits through that person who they incarnate in. In other words, we might say the spirit is revealing himself. For those men who look at a human being and say, Well, who are you? what are you? you are just a man, and you have no power, the spirit who is hiding inside of that man will reveal his presence through spiritual exploits, an exercise of power that is beyond the human being's natural ability to perform.

 

If you think of a turtle as an example, we see a shell. There is a lifeform inside of that shell. And unless you see the turtle show its head and its feet, you do not know that there is life inside of that shell. But when you see that shell inching along the ground, when you see that shell walking, you know that there is a lifeform inside of that shell.

 

Well, in the same manner, when we see a man walking, we do not perceive that as a sign of spiritual power, although it is. As far as I am concerned, it is because just about every man walks except someone who is damaged. We take it for granted. Therefore, a spirit, in dwelling a man, would have to do some kind of an exploit that was beyond a natural man's ability, and walking is within a natural man's ability.

 

So we see spirits who are trying to reveal themselves to men. We see them coming forth with or speaking information that that man could not possibly have of his own accord. We see them healing the sick in a manner that that man had no ability to do. We see them casting out demons, which is a form of healing, that the man in and of himself had no power to do. In some extreme cases, with witchcraft power, we see men causing objects to levitate, lifting objects off the ground with their mind. And we call these superhuman or supernatural experiences, experiences beyond what that man could naturally accomplish by himself. Thank you, Jesus.

 

Verse 12, however, reveals that a different source of spiritual power was operating in Aaron. How do we know that? What are the things that I teach here? I teach a lot about authority. And one of the things that I teach is that, ideally, people in authority should be able to have a relationship with other people.

 

Let us take a father and a mother as an example. Their relationship with their children should be on a friendship basis, on a human being to human being basis. Both should respect one another. Both should honor one another. And except for the size of the bodies, it really would not be possible to tell who was the mother and who was the child until an authority issue arose, until there was a separation.

 

Let me give you a better example. If you have a mother and a child, and they are walking down the street, they are walking together. They are both using their body in the same way. They are talking to one another. They are laughing together. If it was not for the size of the bodies, you would not be able to tell which one was the mother and which one was the child. However, when you approached a doorway that needed to be opened, one would expect the child, if he was old enough, if he was a teenager, for example, to open the door for the mother.

 

So if you come from another planet, and you do not know that the mother is larger or more mature-looking than the child, and you really cannot tell by the physical appearance who was the adult and who was the child, as they walk down the street and talk to one another, you should be able to tell who is the adult and who is the child when the child steps forward and honors the mother by opening the door for her. So we see two people walking together until an authority issue arises.

 

In the same manner, if you could see it, both Aaron and the magicians and the sorcerers in Pharaoh's court demonstrated spiritual power. They all did the same thing. But when it came time for Jehovah to show the authority issue, when Jehovah decided to reveal to all those watching which was the more mature spiritual power, at that moment, there was a separation. Up until that point, the spiritual power was undifferentiated. But at the point of the establishment of authority, Jehovah's spiritual power overtook the spiritual power of the magicians and the soothsayers that had been appointed by Pharaoh.

 

Brethren, we have this situation in the Church. Young Christians are being warned continuously. Everything that is spiritual is not of God. Everything that is spiritual is not of God. Many young Christians walk into disaster, thinking that everything that is spiritual is of God. Why? Because, to the spiritually childish mind, everything that is spiritual is the same. It is undifferentiated to them. They are not mature enough to discern between the good and the evil. They cannot tell which spiritual power is of God and which spiritual power is of the Serpent.

 

Therefore, these people, they may be physically mature, but these spiritually mature people are warned in the Scripture. And if they have responsible elders in the church that they go to, they are warned to stay away from spiritual things or stay away from having spiritual experiences unless those experiences are supervised by a spiritual elder who will be able to intercede for them and divide the light from the darkness on their behalf, until such time as they learn how to do the same thing.

 

In the same manner, Paul tells us that spiritual women should not prophesy because of the angels. They should not prophesy, unless their head is covered, because of the angels. Brethren, if you cannot tell the difference between the Spirit of Christ and the spirit which is incarnated by the Serpent, you should not be prophesying unless there is an elder present to try that spirit and correct the problem and correct the damage if it turns out that the Dragon is prophesying through you. You should not be doing that on your own because you cannot tell the difference between the darkness and the light.

 

So once again we find ourselves speaking about undifferentiated spiritual power. I think we even have a message by a similar name, Undifferentiated Spiritual Maturity. Differentiation is a big issue in the Church today.

 

As with human children, they are spiritually undifferentiated. They are emotionally, even on the soul realm, undifferentiated for many years. You have to look at a child's genitals to see what sex they are. Babies all look the same. They are even physically undifferentiated except for their primary sexual organs.

 

As the children mature, you frequently can tell by their appearance whether they are a boy or a girl. Of course, this situation is very much assisted by the parents' choice of dress for the child and the parents' choice of haircut for the child. I have seen situations where parents have let their little boys' hair grow into long ringlets for up to three, four years old, and a stranger walking by thinks that the little boy is a little girl.

 

Children are physically undifferentiated except for their primary sexual organs, and they are sexually undifferentiated until puberty. Their sexual organs are not functioning. They are undifferentiated.

 

So we see this principle carried over now into spiritual power. The Lord said, Do not rip up the tares, but let them grow with the wheat. Because, if you rip the tares up, you will destroy the wheat with it.

 

Undifferentiated spiritual power, what are we talking about? The power of the Serpent mixed with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, looking exactly the same, doing exactly the same, feeling exactly the same, until the authority issue arises. And what is the authority issue? The fruit of that spiritual power. Frequently, you cannot tell what you have got until you see the fruit that it produces.

 

The Scripture said, If it were possible, the very elect would be deceived. And we have a whole Church full of people that say, If it were possible, but it is not possible. It is possible. It is possible. There are whole fellowships that are being run by an ungodly spirit that they think is the Lord Jesus Christ, whole fellowships deceived. Some spirit has gotten in there. He is flowing through the pastor, and he is flowing through the elders. And he is doing healing, and he is prophesying, and he is speaking in tongues and doing all kinds of signs and wonders. But the people are all sick and dying, and sin is ripping through the congregation. Jesus.

 

Verse 12 reveals that a different source of spiritual power was operating in Aaron than was operating in Pharaoh's servants, even though (and here is the clue) all of the men had a serpentine nature. What is the significance of these rods turning to serpents?

 

The rod, we just said, typifies man. I suggest to you, the fact that their casting down of the rod (the word casting down means incarnation), and again, I am telling you, this may have happened in the natural. I honestly do not know. But spiritually speaking, the phrase Aaron cast down his rod or the sorcerers cast down their rod, what it is speaking about is the spirit, is that the spiritual power within the man was revealed. The spiritual power within the man incarnated. The spiritual power within the man showed itself.

 

So we see that Aaron, plus all the sorcerers and the magicians, revealed that they had spiritual power. Acknowledged, they would say in a court of law, conceded. Aaron had spiritual power. The magicians had spiritual power. The sorcerers had spiritual power. Pharaoh's henchmen had spiritual power as well as Aaron. Everybody had spiritual power, conceded. Which spiritual power is legal, and which spiritual power is not legal? Which spiritual power is superior? Because the spiritual power which is legal is spiritual power which arises out of righteousness. And wherever there is a contest, the spiritual power which arises out of righteousness will always swallow up the spiritual power that arises out of sin. And there is a spiritual power in sin.

 

We see another example of this with Elijah when he challenged the prophets of Baal. He said, Dig trenches, and fill the trenches with water, and I will call down fire from heaven. I will call upon my God, he said, and we will see if He answers with a fire that licks up your water.

 

Well, what is the significance of that? In this natural world, in this visible, physical world, water quenches the fire. Elijah was saying to the prophets of Baal, Who is stronger? Who has the power to break the laws of this visible, physical world? Does my God have the power to overcome the physical laws of this world? And in fact, he did. Jehovah sent down fire, the fire of His presence, which broke the physical law of this world which says water puts out the fire. Jehovah was a higher spiritual law, and his fire licked up the water.

 

We see the same thing in Pharaoh's court. We see a group of human men. They all look the same. Physically, they are all physical human men. Spiritually, they all appear to be the same. They all have spiritual power. Everybody is playing the same game. The question is: Which man had power that arose out of righteousness? Which man had the spiritual power which was to be feared because of his strength? Therefore, the Scripture says, the serpent that had come forth from Aaron's rod swallowed up the other serpents.

 

Maybe it happened, brethren, but maybe it did not. I suggest to you that, at the very least, there was some manifestation of spiritual power that, by the sorcerers and the magicians, that was overcome by Aaron's spiritual power, in the same manner that Elijah called on the name of Jehovah and fire came down from heaven and lapped up the water.

 

Maybe it took the form of rods turning to serpents. I do not know. I would like to know the answer to that. Perhaps the Lord will tell me. If He tells me, I will be glad to pass it on. I would really like to know the answer to that myself. Let us go on.

 

This spiritual truth now brings us back to our study of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Remember that the fig tree can produce both edible and poisonous figs, depending upon whether or not that fig tree is influenced by the Spirit of Christ. I did give you a chart on this, and I never made a formal exhibit out of it. I pray that the Lord gives me the time to do it.

 

We did speak about it, on other messages of this very series, that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil produces fruit which is both good and evil. The good fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is fruit which is evil at its root but is influenced for the good by the Spirit of Christ.

 

Our example of that was human children. If they are not raised up by God-fearing parents, children left to their own devices will be evil. We see it happening in this country today, with more and more women not raising their own children. Or let me put it this way. It is acceptable to God if a grandmother or an aunt or some loving authority figure raises a child. I am talking about children being left on their own. We call them latchkey children. They come home from school; there is nobody in the house. They are shuttled around from babysitter to babysitter, people who do not love them but who are being paid to wash them and feed them.

 

With no spiritual or emotional nourishment for them, these children are growing up to be criminals. They do evil. An overabundance of evil seems to be their nature. Because everybody is good and evil, hopefully we do enough good that we stay out of jail and have decent family lives for the time that we spend on the earth. But we see these children turning into criminals, where their lives are ruined. They are becoming drug addicts or hopeless alcoholics or criminals that wind them up in jail for the rest of their life. This is a tragedy for any human being to have a whole life wasted like this. It is because they were not taught to do good. Left to their own devices, they default to evil.

 

Therefore, the people in this world that we see doing good, to the best of my knowledge (I do not know every human being on the earth, so I cannot tell you for sure), every man that has ever done good, who has been a positive influence on society, has had an upbringing which taught him to do good. And that upbringing came with power. It came with power. You can take children that are rejected and abused and teach them to do good, and they will not do it. They will do evil. The instruction must come with the love of God, as is expressed through a caretaker. Jesus.

 

So we see a group of men standing in Pharaoh's court, all men with serpentine natures. They were all fallen men. But through one of these men, the power of almighty God is flowing, making this exercise of spiritual power legal, therefore making His exercise of spiritual power righteous, which situation or which fact was demonstrated by the fact that Aaron's spiritual power was the strongest spiritual power present in Pharaoh's court. God's spiritual power will never be defeated. It will never be defeated.

 

If you are a human being in whom Christ Jesus is conceived and is in the process of growing up in you, you may have defeats. Christ Jesus is not defeated. The defeat comes because of the weakness of your flesh. Until such time as Christ Jesus matures in you unto the fulness of the stature of the Lord Jesus Christ, at which point Christ Jesus will completely cover over the weakness of your flesh: this is the love of God covering the multitude of sins. When Christ Jesus covers your sin nature over, so completely that there is nothing for Satan to latch onto, then you will be without weakness. But so long as Christ Jesus coexists with the spiritual weakness of your fallen nature, there is always a potential for you to go down, to have a mishap, to fall, because Christ Jesus has not yet completely overshadowed your sin nature. But the failure is not in Christ Jesus; it is in your humanity.

 

As Christ Jesus matures in you, this situation will happen less and less. However, if Christ Jesus is being formed in you, and you keep stumbling because of your humanity, He will keep picking you up. The Scripture says, A righteous man may fall seven times, but he will never be destroyed. A righteous man is a man who has righteousness in him.

 

If your faith is in the Christ Jesus which is being formed in you, if your faith is in Him alone, you could be destroyed because that is a manifestation of pride. That is another way of saying, Well, I am in the process of becoming God, and I am undefeatable. That is an attitude of pride which could lead to your destruction. Our faith has to be in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has already overcome the world.

 

And we have a whole Church world out there saying, Who needs the Lord Jesus? We have got Christ Jesus growing in us, and that is all that we need. And you are in great danger. You are in great danger of losing your salvation because, so long as Satan has any power whatsoever in you, Christ Jesus in you is in danger of being overturned. You have to cry out to the Lord Jesus, who is stronger than Satan. He has already overcome the world.

 

And when the Lord Jesus comes and joins himself to Christ Jesus in you, you are undefeatable. But you have got to have the double portion. It is the double portion that is undefeatable, the Lord Jesus Christ plus Christ Jesus being formed in you is stronger than Satan. You will still struggle, and you will still war, and you will still be hurt, but you will never be destroyed. But if you think you do not need the Lord Jesus, if you think that the nature of the Lord Jesus which is being formed in you is all that you need, there is a really good chance you are not going to make it through.

 

And I will not spend any more time on that. I have messages and messages and message on that. If it sounds like blasphemy to you, it is not. Go back in these messages and study it. It is not. You need the one who has already overcome the world in addition to his Son, which is being formed in you. You need both. You need the double portion. Satan is very strong. Do not believe he is a toothless wonder. He is very strong.

 

All of the men in Pharaoh's court, including Aaron, had a serpentine nature; that is, they were all incarnated by the Serpent and in the Serpent's image. They were all fallen men. They all had the mark of the beast. They were all extensions of the Serpent. But Aaron's serpentine nature was modified or influenced by the Spirit of Christ.

 

The English word rod also signifies the tongue. And the tongue signifies the mind, which is speaking with that tongue. If you do a word study on the word rod, you will see that it is used frequently to describe the tongue. Did you ever hear of someone giving a tongue-lashing, a chastisement of the tongue? It is another word to express the tongue.

 

There is a second Hebrew word translated rod, and sometimes translated staff. It is Strong’s #7626. I already told you this. This is just my note. I already told you that the Strong’s translators seem to use them interchangeably. However, after studying the translations for each of these words, I have found a subtle difference between the two of them.

 

And I have come to the conclusion that Strong’s #4294, which is the word that is used in the Exodus passages we just read, suggests a stretching out or an incarnation. It signifies an extension of spiritual life for both the first and second generations of Christ. But that Strong’s #7626 specifically refers to the Lord Jesus in that it suggests support. Remember that, in Genesis 2:18, Jehovah promises to provide a support for Adam. The word used in the King James is help, a help, a support.

 

When the Lord made Adam, he said he was good; he was not perfect. He was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, with good predominating. The result of the Fall was that the creation remained the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but there was a reversal, and now we find evil predominating. But mankind is still the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. What caused the situation of good predominating in the creation at the beginning was that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was joined to the Tree of Life. So we had the Tree of Life, plus the good of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, overshadowing the evil.

 

Brethren, this is what I just talked to you about. You must have the good of the Tree of Life, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, or I should really say the righteousness of the Tree of Life, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, plus the good of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which is your soul, and the good shall be prevailing over the evil potential of your nature. If all you have is Christ Jesus in you, it is 50/50. Well, it is not even 50/50. In the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the evil is stronger than the good. You must have the righteousness of the Tree of Life joined to your good, or you will become a vessel in which the evil is predominating. Glory to God.

 

But Strong’s #4294 is speaking about the stretching out of spiritual life for both the first and second generations of Christ. The first generation of Christ is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the second generation of Christ is the Sons of God, which are being raised up right now.

 

On the other hand, Strong’s #7626 specifically refers to the Lord Jesus, not the Sons of God now but only the first generation of Christ, in that it suggests that support. That was my point. God promised Adam a help. Why did Adam need help? Because he was good and evil, and the evil was stronger than the good. So the help that Adam needed was the Tree of Life to join to the good of his tree, so that the evil would always be underneath and controlled by the good. That was the help.

 

If you would like to believe that, at the beginning of time, there were men and women like the men and women on the face of the earth today, and that the help that God made for Adam was a nice little wife, if you want to believe that Santa Claus story, that is between you and God. But I am here today to tell you that it is a fantasy, and that is not true, and that there were no men and women as they appear today. These bodies that we are in are fallen bodies. Our present condition is a result of the curse. We are fallen, brethren.

 

And the very best life that you could hope for in this visible, physical world is still hell in comparison to the glory of living in the visible, spiritual world with Christ Jesus. You just do not know any better because you, well, you cannot remember. We did experience it spiritually in our ancestor, Adam. But we have no memory of walking in the high realms of the spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ. So God promised Adam a support, and that support was the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Further support for my conclusions is that one of the translations for Strong’s #7626, that is the word that I say is only for the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is not the word that appeared in the Exodus passages; this is the second word. And one of the translations for that word is scion. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language tells us that scion is a descendant or an heir. It also can describe a detached shoot or twig containing buds from a woody plant, used in grafting.

 

And Jesus Christ is the one who is being grafted into all of humanity in this hour. Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God. That means He is the only one who is born from seed. He is the only human being who actually received the seed of the Father. He has given up his soulish life as one human being, Jesus of Nazareth. He has been glorified. He is now a spiritual man in a form which can be chopped up into billions and trillions of pieces. And a piece of him is being grafted into each of us. We are being brought forth by grafts from the original plant.

 

There was a group of believers going around teaching for a while (I do not know if they are still teaching it) that we are all begotten sons. No, we are not all begotten sons. There is only One Begotten Son. We are all cuttings of His life.

 

And I want to tell you I am finding it so difficult, finding Christ Jesus growing up in me; I just wonder what it was like for Jesus of Nazareth. Maybe someday the Lord will tell me how difficult it must have been for Him, and how painful, having the life of God being born in Him, being the only one brought forth from seed. I cannot even imagine it.

 

The Hebrew words translated rod and staff are translated tribe more than 100 times in the Old Testament. So we can say then that the 12 tribes of Israel are the physical manifestation of Jehovah's incarnation, and specifically the extension of Jehovah which produced Messiah, the Lord Jesus, the Only Begotten Son who is the scion which is being grafted into the rest of humanity. Sometimes the two words are used in the same sentence, which further suggests that, although the King James translators could not perceive it, the Lord had a specific meaning for each of the two words.

 

And we are going to look at a few Scriptures to clarify that differentiation or the significance of the two words. We will start with Isaiah 9:4.

 

Isaiah 9:4: For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

 

The Hebrew word translated shoulder can also be translated back. You have broken the incarnation of his back. That is to say, well, his back is that which is behind his unconscious mind, which is spirit. The consciousness is the mind, and there is a spirit that dwells in every mind. It is the spirit that weaves the mind.

 

You have broken the incarnation of his spirit, that is, the incarnation of the Dragon. It is the Dragon who has incarnated. And the first man that the Dragon incarnated in is Cain. And the Scripture says and the rod, those begotten of the oppressor. The oppressor is the Dragon, that is, the two generations of the Dragon.

 

And I know that this is an issue. Some of you are still confused about this. We will just keep on going over it until we get it straight. What I suggest you do, if you are feeling confused at all, is that you compare it to the positive side. Most of you pretty much have it down pat that Jesus Christ was the first incarnation of Jehovah, and that the Sons of God, those of us in whom Christ Jesus are being formed today, are the second generation of the incarnation of Jehovah. Most of you have that down pat.

 

In the same manner, we have a negative incarnation which is also in two generations. For whatever reason, the Lord has not explained it to me yet, the names of those generations do not sound similar. Let me clarify this. With regard to Jehovah, the series of incarnations go like this: breath, which is the Son of Jehovah, the sperm of Jehovah, He formed the Christ mind. The Christ mind appeared in Jesus of Nazareth, who was Christ. The name of his mind was Christ Jesus. So we see the term Christ going through all these generations. However, when it comes to the negative incarnation, every name is different. There is no consistency, and I do not know why. The Lord has not told me yet.

 

But if you look at your charts, you see that we began with the earth, which is the Serpent. She formed her immature mind, called the Dragon. The man in whom that mind first appeared was the man Cain. And the name of the mature mind of the Serpent is Leviathan. And the second generation of men in whom Leviathan is appearing are called the Devil. And the ultimate end of the Devil is that he is going to be redeemed and brought into the position that he was intended to be.

 

Who is the Devil? I hear a question in the spirit. Brethren, there is a difference between Satan and the devil. Satan is the incarnation of the Serpent. The Serpent is not being redeemed. The Serpent's very nature is evil. She can be nothing but evil. She must be under the authority of Christ Jesus for her evil to be directed for a productive purpose. Just as man has learned to capture the power of a dangerous, murderous waterfall and direct it into electricity, just as man has learned how to capture elephants and other wild animals and make them work for him, the Serpent must be captured by the Son of God and restrained and forced to work for the kingdom of God.

 

The Devil is the name of the negative incarnation of the soul that Jehovah made. And the god which has incarnated the Devil is the Serpent. The Serpent, through the Dragon and Leviathan, the mind that she has woven, has incarnated a negative expression of the soul which Jehovah formed. We are called the Devil.

 

Men who are in the image of the Serpent, we shall be redeemed. Man shall be redeemed. We have a series on this called The Unforgiveable Sin. Man shall be forgiven. Man shall be redeemed. Man, who is now formed in the image of the Serpent, whose name is the Devil, we are going to get his image erased from us.

 

And when the image of the Lord Jesus Christ is impressed in us, we will no longer be Devils, but we will be angels. We will be cherubim. And we who were alive when Christ was our mind, and who died when Christ died and the Serpent incarnated her mind, the Dragon, in the soul, we shall once again be raised from the dead.

 

Only those who are in heaven, who came down from heaven, can go back up into heaven. The Serpent was never in heaven. She never came down from heaven, and she will never go back up into heaven. But the soul was in heaven. We were in heaven when we were with our husband. And we died, and our husband, Christ Jesus, is going to bring us back up into heaven again.

 

So, anyone who is listening to this message who got upset when I said the Devil is going to be redeemed, that is the issue. The Devil is different than Satan. Brethren, the Lord is not frivolous. If Satan and the Devil represented the same thing, the Lord would not have two different names. The Devil is fallen humanity. Satan is the god who has incarnated fallen humanity. Humanity is being redeemed and made clean. The spirit which incarnated us in this fallen, hellish condition is not being redeemed. She is being brought under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and harnessed and being made to work for the kingdom of God. Jesus.

 

So let me give you this paragraph of notes again. We are dealing with Isaiah 9:4: For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

 

The Hebrew word translated shoulder can also be translated back. You have broken the incarnation of his back or, that is to say, his unconscious mind. You have broken the incarnation of his unconscious mind, which is spirit. You have broken the incarnation of his spirit. You have broken the incarnation of the Dragon.

 

And the first time that the Dragon incarnated, he incarnated in the man called Cain. The first time that the mind of Christ incarnated, he incarnated in the man called Jesus of Nazareth. Let me say it again. The first time that the mind of Christ, called Christ Jesus; wow, all these technicalities here. Let me leave it with this. The first time that the mind of Christ incarnated, He incarnated in the man Jesus of Nazareth. The first time that the mind of the Serpent incarnated, he incarnated in the man called Cain.

 

In this hour, we have the Lord Jesus Christ in whom the mind of Christ incarnated, that He was crucified; He was raised from the dead. He is in a glorified condition whereby He is spirit. So too the physical man Cain has passed out of this world. But the mind that was in him, the completed mind of the Serpent, which is called Leviathan, still exists today. And he exists in the minds of fallen humanity. That is why we are the Devil, because our mind is the mind which was incarnated by the Dragon. And, well, these technicalities get me.

 

Our mind is the mind that was incarnated by the Serpent. That mind came forth in two stages. The immature mind of the Serpent is called the Dragon, and the mature mind of the Serpent is called Leviathan. Everybody in the earth today has the mind which was incarnated by the serpent, and that is what makes us the Devil.

 

But, glory to God, the Lord Jesus Christ is in the earth, and it is His job to give us the mind of Christ. And when that mind of Christ arises and destroys the mind of the Serpent, and the only mind in us is the mind of Christ, we shall no longer be Devils, but we shall be angels, specifically cherubim. There are different kinds of angels. There are good angels, and there re evil angels. But the good angels are called cherubim.

 

You have broken the incarnation of his spirit, that is, the incarnation of the Serpent which is called Cain. And the rod of his oppressor; the rod is those begotten of the oppressor.

 

This verse, Isaiah 9:4, it is speaking about the two generations. It is speaking about the two generations of the Serpent. Cain is the first generation, and Cain's offspring, this modern fallen humanity called the Devil, is the second generation. The first generation of Christ is in the man Lord Jesus. And the second generation of Christ; listen, brethren, here is the mystery.

 

If this present generation of humanity is the Devil, who is the second generation of Christ? Here is the secret. Listen to me. It is the same humanity. There is only one soul. And when the mind in that soul is the mind which is formed by the Lord Jesus, we are no longer Devils, but we are cherubim, and we are alive, and we are righteous. But when the mind that is occupying this soul known as humanity is the Serpent's mind, called Leviathan, we are Devils, and we are dead, and we are evil.

 

And I do not care what kind of good works you do; I know that you are evil. How come? Because you die. A righteous man does not die, brethren, and that includes me.

 

So we are all evil, but some of us are evil men who are under the influence of the Spirit of Christ. And that means that, when the Spirit of Christ comes into our life and influences us to do good or to do righteousness, despite the fact that we have the nature of the Serpent engraved upon us, it means that we are being influenced to go against our very nature.

 

Can a fig tree grow olive berries, brethren? Yes, it can. When the Lord Jesus Christ applies his miracle-working power to this fig tree, which is good and evil, the olive berry, which is the man Christ Jesus, the only mediator between God and man, will appear in the very same fallen flesh that previously was 100 percent Devil. Our nature is changing from the inside out. Our nature is changing, and this change is beginning with a change of mind.

 

When I first came to the church, I was taught that a change of mind was something like this: Well, I like chocolate ice cream, but now I like vanilla ice cream. I thought that was what changing my mind meant. But that is not changing your mind, brethren. That is changing your opinion. That is a change of opinion. I used to steal, and now I do not want to steal anymore. I thought it was all right to murder, and now I do not murder anymore. That is a change of opinion.

 

And that could change your life because you reap what you sow. So if you murder someone, you could wind up in jail for the rest of your life, or if you steal, you could wind up in jail for the rest of your life. So that is a good thing to do, to change your opinion, to do goodness or to do righteousness, to change your behavior. To change your opinion, which will result in changing your behavior, to change your attitude. That is all a good work, brethren, and you should do it.

 

But there is no way that you will receive eternal life by changing your opinion. To receive eternal life, you must change your mind. Let me make it simple for you: You must change your arm. We have to take you into a medical hospital and surgically remove your arm and give you a new arm. You need a heart transplant. The mind that is a part of your very being, just as your arm is, must be surgically removed and replaced by a righteous mind.

 

You do not have the power to do it. I do not have the power to do it. No physical man has the power to do it because this mind is not physical; it is spiritual. Man can only operate on your body. Some men with spiritual power might be able to operate on your soul, but only the Lord Jesus Christ can give you the mind of Christ. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can give you a new nature. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can convert you from being a Devil into being a cherubim, a perfected man, incapable of ever falling again. You must have your mind changed. Your old mind, the mind which is born of the flesh, the carnal mind, his name is Leviathan, must be surgically removed.

 

And the procedure that will remove him has a specific format. Brethren, when you go in for a physical heart transplant, there is a specific procedure that is written in textbooks for medical doctors. This is what they do first. They open your cavity. Then they have all the nurses and doctors and a whole team standing by. Everybody knows what is step number one, step number two, step number three. Everyone knows what their part is. Brethren, there is a procedure that will surgically remove your mind from you, the mind, which is born of the flesh, which is killing you.

 

The first thing you must do is confess your sins. The second thing you must do is repent, truly repent. You cannot repent unless you believe you have done something evil. There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, but you must see the evil in your own heart if you have any hope of getting a new heart. Just as the physical organ known as your heart must be exposed before the surgeon can remove it and give you a new heart, your sin must be exposed. And it must be exposed to you first. Then you must admit that you are guilty, and you must truly desire righteousness.

 

And then you have to pray the doctrine. You have to find out. You have to get the textbook, brethren, of how God is going to do this, how he is going to surgically remove Leviathan from your soul and form the mind of Christ in its place, because you cannot exist without a mind. So this is a very delicate surgical operation, brethren. It is the removal of your spiritual heart and the replacement of another man's heart. Every step must be followed exactly. You have got to learn this doctrine. And then, when you learn it, you have got to start praying for the Lord Jesus to do it to you.

 

It is just like going to medical school. You read the textbook; you go to class; you find out how you are going to perform this heart surgery. Well, then you get out there, and you try and do it. Your knees will be knocking, and your hands will be shaking. The textbook is one thing; the actual experience is a whole new ball game.

 

You have got to pray the doctrine. You have got to understand the procedure and be willing. You have the count that cost, brethren. Count the cost. It is not going to be without pain. Count the cost, and then start asking the Lord Jesus to perform the surgery. And then go through the surgery. After you have done everything you can to stand, stand.

 

Unfortunately, by and large, the whole Church world, with very few exceptions, are preaching that this is going to be an easy process. Either they are preaching that we are going to be raptured and miraculously changed on the other side of the veil or on Mars or something, and a lot of them are preaching we already have this change; we just do not know it. And others are preaching that we will just inherit it without any great difficulty.

 

And I am telling you, brethren, that none of that is true. The way is very narrow. It is the way of righteousness and sinlessness, and there is no way you are getting in except by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You do not have any righteousness, brethren, and neither do I. It is just when He covers our sins that we are going to get through. And His covering our sins is a painful process.

 

In this hour, He is only doing it for the people who are asking for it. I believe the day is coming He will be taking people against their will because, as far as the Lord is concerned, the whole world is spiritually insane, and anybody who would refuse to leave hell is nuts. And He is going to take them out anyway when it is their turn. But right now, He is raising up an army of the Sons of God who are going to get the rest of humanity out of hell and restored back into heaven.

 

In this hour, He is just taking the people who want to come. Our natural example is Gideon's army. Send everyone home that is afraid. Send everyone home that is not willing to make the sacrifice. Send them home. Get them out of the camp. It is too dangerous. It is too hard. We do not need people here that do not want to be here. You are just hurting the others.

 

Alternate Translation of Isaiah 9:4: You have broken the spirit of Cain, the cutting of the tyrant.

The cutting meaning the part that is grafted in, not the cutting away, but that cutting of the plant. Jesus is the cutting of Jehovah. This is the cutting of the tyrant, which is the Serpent.

 

Or we could say you have broken the first incarnation of the Serpent, Cain. His name is Cain, the first incarnation of the Serpent, who is now the unconscious mind of the second generation of the Serpent, of the second generation. You have broken the first incarnation of the Serpent, Cain, who is now the unconscious mind of the Serpent's second generation. That means the Lord has broken the power of the unconscious mind of fallen man.

 

COMMENT: What is on the left side of the column?

 

On the chart, on the extreme left column, it is the ultimate end of Jehovah's incarnation. It is the cherubim. And the cherubim is a mysterious name for the creation. What that word means; if you look it up in the lexicon, it means imaginary creature.

 

One day, Jehovah had an imagination. He had an idea that He would like to appear visibly, and He was going to create a creature that would be an extension of Him or express a visible expression of His life. And He called it the cherubim.

 

But everything that Jehovah does is a process. And as we know, it started out with Adam at the beginning of time. The only person who is in the form of a cherubim in this hour is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the secret name of the creation. It is, you might say, a generic name of the creation. Cherubim: imaginary creature.

 

And Jesus said, I am the first of the creation of God. He might, in the same manner, have said, I am the first one to come into the form of a cherub. Cherubim is plural.

 

Cherubim: If you look in column two, it says a cherubim is the completed spiritual man. This is a man who is both mind and soul. Cherubim is the name of the whole creature, who is mind and soul. Seraphim, on the other hand, is the final condition of the soul without the mind. So we see that cherubim contains seraphim within it.

 

Let me say it again and make it clearer. I always wanted to know the difference between cherubim and seraphim. The Lord just taught me this, this morning. Seraphim is the ultimate end of the soul. It is the soul which is inhabited by the mind of Christ Jesus, which has been elevated to a high place where it surrounds the throne of God. Seraphim is the glorified soul. Cherubim is the name of the glorified soul plus the mind of Christ Jesus. Cherubim: the name of the whole mind and soul. Seraphim: just the name of the glorified soul.

 

And remember, please, that the soul is made out of the earth. And the personal name of the earth is called the Serpent. Seraphim are flying, glorious serpents. So we see that the seraphim is the Serpent, which is now in a high position because she is in submission to Christ Jesus.

 

You may recall that when the Lord refused Cain's sacrifice, the Lord said to him, If you do well, you will receive my blessings also. I cannot exactly quote the Scripture. Well, the blessing that was lined up for the earth, Cain typifying the earth, the Serpent, is to be a seraphim.

 

To have a glorious position close to God, which can only be when that Serpent is in submission to Christ Jesus and performing the function that the Creator planned for her, she will then partake of all the glory. She will still be the earth and not spirit, but she will partake or experience all of the glory of the high places of spiritual life because she will be joined to that glorious spiritual life.

 

But the cherubim is the whole creation. And the seraphim, of course, are serpents. If you look up the word in the lexicon, you see that seraphim are flying, glorious serpents, specifically the soul, the earth. Cherubim, earth and mind. Did I answer your question?

 

COMMENT: Inaudible.

 

PASTOR VITALE: Is that not nice? I did not know that myself until today. God is so good.

 

COMMENT: When is Adam earth?

 

PASTOR VITALE: When is Adam earth?

 

COMMENT: Is that when he was, right from the beginning? Like, the breath was --

 

PASTOR VITALE: Adam was the earth, yes, and the breath was added to him.

 

Transcribed by VerbalFusion 10/19/20

1st Edit, rh, 11/17/20