Kingdom Manna (4)

Table of Contents (Scroll down to view all)

1. Hold the Line

2. Our Covenant Keeping God

3. A Type of Cyrus

4. Fulfilled Prophecy: The Rebirth of Israel in 1948

5. The End of the World

6. Addicted to Milk

7. The Sin of the World

8. The 42nd Generation

Hold the Line

By Lanny Swaim

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Ephesians 6:10-13

More than once in my life I have been faced with the possibility of losing everything, even my life. I used to think the way to stand against the wiles of the devil was to exercise more faith, confess more of the written Word of God, and rebuke Satan, a lot.

The English word wiles is translated from the Greek word, methodia, and means craftiness or deceit. Another translation of wiles of the devil is wiles of error.

So it appears that the devil in Ephesians 6:11 (above) is not the entity Satan, but is instead error on our part, which has deceived us. The principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places is not a network of evil spirits ruling over geographic locations, but is instead the error in our own minds; our minds being the high places where spiritual wickedness may rule.

One definition of wicked is twisted. So spiritual wickedness is actually twisted spiritual knowledge, or wrong thinking on our part concerning spiritual matters.

It is interesting that The Book of Enoch, which the first century church and Jesus himself considered to be on equal footing with scripture, speaks of satans (plural); the indication being that Satan is more of a concept than a person.

That isn’t to say that he isn’t an actual person, but at the very least he is both; manifesting in our lives as wiles of error in high places (our minds).

Either Satan is defeated or he is not. Either our steps are ordered by God or they are not. It can’t be both. Our greatest enemy is not Satan. Our greatest enemy sits on our shoulders. And if we can stop viewing adverse circumstances as attacks of the devil and instead see them as God preparing and positioning us for our destiny, we will be way ahead of the game, so to speak.

Go back and read the story of Joseph in Genesis. Joseph was a young Hebrew boy of seventeen when his brothers sold him into slavery. Through a series of adverse circumstances over a period of thirteen years he went from that young boy to being the second in command to the most powerful king on earth at that time, putting him in a position to save Egypt and the surrounding area from famine, including his father and the brothers who sold him into slavery.

At the time of this writing I’m seventy-four years old. I feel as though my entire life has been in preparation for a destiny that hasn’t yet materialized. It hasn’t all been adverse circumstances, but much of it has.

Recently I was thinking about this, and how everything I have experienced has brought me to where I am, but that I seem unable to advance into where I know I am going. And I’m not alone in this scenario. I am in frequent communication with others who are dealing with the same.

As I was pondering all this, I heard the Lord say, “Hold the line.”

Hold the line is not a phrase I often use, so I looked it up to see exactly what it means. It can mean several things, but the origin of it is a military term.

When an army is unable to advance toward their enemy but unwilling to retreat, they simply hold the line in hopes that they will eventually be able to advance.

I have learned the hard way that we can get ahead of God. Sometimes He gives us a glimpse of or maybe even shows us the blueprint of where we are going. If we are impatient, we can try to make it happen before its time, when we should wait, holding the line, until He causes it to happen.

Abraham is a good example of this. God promised him a son in his old age with his wife, Sarah being passed the age of child bearing. So Abraham decided to help God out a little by having a son by Sarah’s handmaid. That son, Ishmael, was not the son God promised Abraham. Later Sarah miraculously gave birth to Isaac, the promised son.

Ishmael became the father of the Arabs. Isaac became a father of the Hebrew people. And the two have been fighting ever since. We are still feeling the outcome of Abraham’s mistake in the world today.

Many in the remnant I often speak of and write about are presently in the position of holding the line until the proper time when God will open a way for us to advance on into our destinies. We must use this time to become better prepared and positioned for that advancement, as God moves players on the world stage like a giant chess game, getting everything in just the right position so we can step up to the plate, so to speak.

What is about to take place will be a sovereign act of God, but we do have a part to play in it. He hasn’t brought us this far for nothing, and the individual parts we each have to play are all necessary to make up the whole.

We hold the line by surrendering everything to God, resting in Him and trusting Him completely. By doing so, we remain in a position to advance.

I get more than a little annoyed at prophetic voices who are continuously predicting a breakthrough, which actually breeds impatience. We need to stay surrendered to God and His plan, not looking for a way out of our circumstances, but instead holding the line until the time for advancement comes.

So, saints of the remnant, hold the line, because surely we were born for such a time as this.

Our Covenant Keeping God

By Lanny Swaim

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

Numbers 23:19

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Genesis 12:1-3

If you read on in the twelfth chapter of Genesis you see that God brought Abram to Canaan and promised that land to Abram’s seed.

Then, in the seventeenth chapter we find God speaking to Abram again, making a covenant with him, promising not only the land of Canaan to him but saying he will be the father of many nations, changing his name from Abram, meaning exalted father, to Abraham, meaning father of a multitude.

In Genesis 17:7 God informs Abraham that He will establish His covenant not only with him, but with his seed in their generations, for an everlasting covenant. In verse eight God specifically mentions the land of Canaan, saying it will belong to Abraham and his seed for an everlasting possession.

Everlasting means forever, eternal.

There is a lot of theology that contradicts God’s promise to Abraham, and history records that politically Abraham’s descendants have not always been in control of the land, but at least a remnant of the Hebrew people have always lived on that land, and since 1948 they have politically been in control of at least a portion of it.

Interestingly, back in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, when God had Abram to actually cut some animals in half and lay them together, creating a path of blood that God, represented by a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, then walked through, literally cutting a blood covenant with Abram, represented by the blood of those animals, He said He had given Abram’s seed all the land from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River, which is in modern day Iraq.

The Hebrew people have never occupied all that land, but because God is a covenant keeping God, they will at some point.

To say that God’s covenant with Abraham is no longer in effect, is to say that God is a liar, and Numbers 23:19 (above) makes it clear that God is not a liar. He is a covenant keeping God.

A study of recent history leaves no doubt that God has been involved in the establishment of Israel as a nation once again, and continues to be very much involved in keeping Israel’s sovereignty intact, despite overwhelming odds against them.

Recent current events once again confirm this, and negate the false eschatology that many Christians have concerning that area of the world.

During the Obama Administration I was awake one night, unable to sleep, when I heard the Lord say, “The United States and Israel will once again be allies and will become the world’s two great superpowers.”

We are seeing that come to pass with President Donald J. Trump moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and declaring Jerusalem to be the eternal capital of Israel. Then, recently brokering a peace agreement that has resulted in the release of all living Israeli hostages taken in the October 7th attack two years ago.

The end result of the peace agreement and whether or not it holds is yet to be seen, but what an incredible accomplishment involving several Islamic nations, Israel and Hamas.

God is in no way finished with Israel or the Jewish people, as the apostle Paul stated in his letter to the church at Rome.

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your won conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Romans 11:25-29

Yes, we are all one in Christ, Jew and Gentile (see Galatians 3:28-29). But God’s covenant with Abraham is still in effect, and no part of it will be left undone.

Israel, like the United States, has anti-Christ, globalist agents in its government and among its people. But thanks to the alliance between the Trump Administration and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Administration, these individuals and groups are being exposed and will be brought down.

Thanks to the Abraham Accords and other efforts on the part of the Trump Administration, lasting peace appears to be possible in The Middle East for the first time in history. For centuries prayer has gone up for the peace of Jerusalem (see Psalm 122:6), and we (our generation) are actually seeing the possibility of that prayer being answered. And not only in The Middle East. President Trump has an amazing vision for world peace, and he is working toward that end.

Why not? It was prophesied by Enoch, and it will come to pass. Perhaps in our generation. Or perhaps our generation is laying the foundation for a future generation to see world peace come to pass. Either way, it will come to pass, and we are definitely in the beginning stages of it right now, glory to God!

Our future is bright. Do not believe the prophets of doom.

The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Psalm 24:1

Surely we were born for such a time as this!

A Type of Cyrus

By Lanny Swaim

[The LORD] that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. THUS saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.

Isaiah 44:28 – 45:1-5

In 586 BC Babylon conquered Judea, destroying Jerusalem and Solomon’s temple and carrying many of the Jews to Babylon as captives, where they lived for seventy years. The Babylonians also took spoils, including utensils from the temple.

According to scripture this was judgement by God for the Jews rebellion against Him.

In 539 BC, King Belsahzzar of Babylon, the son of King Nebuchadnezzar who had conquered Judea, held a great feast and used some of the utensils his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem.

During the feast, a hand appeared and wrote with a finger on the wall of the palace, ME-NE, ME-NE, TE-KEL, U-PHAR-SIN.

This greatly troubled Belsahzzar, as you can imagine, and when none of his wise men could interpret this saying he called for Daniel, one of the Hebrew slaves, to interpret it, with the interpretation being, “God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. You are weighed in the balances and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians (see Daniel 5:25-28).”

That very night King Cyrus of Persia, having diverted the Euphrates River that flowed through the walled city of Babylon, entered the city through the now dry riverbed, and without a fight conquered Babylon, killing King Belsahzzar.

Even though God had allowed Babylon to conquer Judea because of their rebellion, He remembered his covenant with Abraham and his seed, that He would bless those who blessed the Hebrews, and curse those who cursed them.

When Babylon came against Judea, they sealed their fate. And now God had used Cyrus, a man prophesied by Isaiah around two-hundred years before he was born, to conquer Babylon. Not only did Isaiah prophesy about Cyrus, he called him by name. This is the only prophecy in the Bible where that happened.

Josephus, the great and well known Jewish historian, informs us that Cyrus had read Isaiah, and even though he was not a godly man, he honored the God of the Jews. So after his conquest of Babylon, he allowed a remnant of the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple, retuning the utensils taken by Nebuchadnezzar. He wrote a letter ensuring safe passage through other areas on their way to Judea, and ordered nations near Jerusalem to give gold and silver to the Jews to aid in the rebuilding of the temple.

Cyrus, an ungodly man, named by Isaiah around two-hundred years before he was born, nevertheless anointed by God to enable Jews to return to Judea and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, was used by God to change history.

During the 2016 Republican Primary here in my home state of North Carolina, our choices were, for the most part, down to Cruz or Trump. I believed Cruz to be a Godly man and was not so sure about Trump, but I liked a lot of what both of them were saying. I didn't know who to vote for, so I asked the Lord. Instead of giving me a direct answer, He reminded me of King Cyrus of Persia, an ungodly man who God anointed to do great things for the Jewish people. Immediately I knew that Trump is a type of Cyrus, and that I should vote for him.

At the time I wasn’t thinking of what Donald Trump might do for Israel and the Jewish people. I was only thinking of the things he was promising to do for the United States.

It wasn’t long before I began to hear others prophesying that Trump is a type of Cyrus, which confirmed what I had heard from the Lord.

Interestingly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have known each other and been friends for many years. During Trump’s first term as President, he moved the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and declared Jerusalem to be the eternal capital of Israel.

Also during his first term he assembled fifty Arab and Muslim leaders in the same room and brokered The Abraham Accords, normalizing diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab and Muslim states, plus improving relations between Arab and Muslim states.

Recently, during his second term, he has brokered a peace deal between Palestinians, Hamas and Israel, getting the remaining live Israeli hostages returned to Israel who were taken captive by Hamas during the October 7th, 2003 invasion of Israel by Hamas. The remainder of the peace deal, which is about the disarming of Hamas and a lasting peace in The Middle East, is yet to be seen but is a very real possibility. By the time you read this some of it may have already been carried out, including the release of the bodies of the remaining deceased hostages.

For centuries many have prayed for the peace of Jerusalem (see Psalm 122:6), and now it appears that prayer is being answered.

I don’t know that anyone other than Donald Trump could have, with the help of an incredible team, orchestrated the events unfolding in The Middle East. He certainly is a type of Cyrus, and even the Israeli people recognize him as such.

I don’t write this to glorify President Trump, but instead to glorify our God who chose him to be a Cyrus in our generation.

Sources I trust have stated that he was also chosen by a group of military leaders who understood where our nation was headed, and saw in Trump someone who could steer us back to the right path, without a military coup, which they were considering.

He and his family have stood firm against insurmountable odds that have tried to destroy him, even kill him. We must pray that God protects him, his family, his cabinet, and all who are standing with him and supporting him.

Surely he was born for such a time as this, and yes, surely we were born for such a time as this.

Fulfilled Prophecy: The Rebirth of Israel in 1948

By Lanny Swaim

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

Jeremiah 16:14-15

And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

Ezekiel 34:13

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Isaiah 11:11-12

During WWI, the British Government, led by Prime Minister David Lloyd George, became concerned about the war effort following Russia’s withdrawal and the entry of the United States into the war. They decided to support Zionism in order to win over Jews in the United States and in Russia to the Allied cause, and to secure postwar British control over Palestine and the Suez Canal, an important route to India.

Chaim Weizmann, a Jew who the British were indebted to for developing a chemical process for explosives, which helped Brittan win the war, and Lord Rothschild of the Rothschild family who were globalist Jews, had been lobbying British officials for a homeland in Palestine.

On November 2, 1917, a 67 word letter written by Arthur Balfour (a former British Prime Minister) to Lord Rothschild was published, which became known as the Balfour Declaration. It was a major accomplishment for Zionism, gaining official recognition from a major world power to their cause.

After the holocaust of WWII, on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and modern Israel was born.

There are those who want to discredit Israel’s biblical right to exist because the globalist Rothschild family was involved in the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. But throughout the Bible are stories of ungodly individuals and nations being used by God for His purposes.

There are also those who say that many who call themselves Jews are not actually Jews, and this perhaps is true. We know that some, like President Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, who married Jered Kushner, a Jew, have converted to Judaism. But to say that because all who call or consider themselves Jews, who were not born Jews, is reason to dismiss Israel’s right to exist as a nation, is ludicrous.

Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

Isaiah 43:5-7

Being Jewish is not only about bloodline, it is about identifying as a Jew.

The Jewish nation of Israel is divided politically and religiously, but that in no way negates God’s covenant with Abraham and his seed.

Our God of grace and mercy not only sees us as we are, He sees us for our potential, as who we are becoming. Because of the finished work of Jesus at the time of the crucifixion, we are now in covenant with God, and our righteousness has everything to do with what He has done rather than with what we are capable of or can do.

So it is with the nation of Israel.

Romans 11:25-29

During the Obama Administration I was awake in the early morning hours one night and heard the Lord say, “The United States and Israel will once again be allies and become the world’s two great superpowers.

We see this happening at the present time during the Trump Administration.

God honoring His covenant with Abraham and his seed in no way negates the reality that Jew and Gentile are now one in Christ. To think that is to not understand God’s plan of redemption for mankind and planet Earth.

The Book of Enoch, which the first century church and Jesus Himself considered to be on equal footing with scripture, prophesied three major events, at that time in the future. Two of those events have come to pass; Noah’s flood and the coming of Jesus as the Son of Man. We are now entering into the fulfillment of the third event; the eradication of evil from the earth.

When you begin to see the Bible through that lens, it reads much differently than most have interpreted it for a long, long time.

We are on the horizon of the fulfillment of Habakkuk 2:14:

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

The re-establishment of Israel as a nation in 1948 and the founding of the United States of America in the eighteenth century is a major part of that plan.

And Donald Trump being President of the United States at the same time Benjamin Netanyahu is Prime Minister of Israel is no coincidence. They were both born for this specific time in history, and both driven to be who they are and where they are.

Surely you and I too were born for such a time as this.

The End of the World

By Lanny Swaim

Why does the sun go on shining?
Why does the sea rush to shore?
Don't they know it's the end of the world?
'Cause you don't love me any more…

Above is the first verse of the song, The End of the World, a big hit for Skeeter Davis in 1962. It is a good example of a metaphor.

The lyrics of this song weren’t actually saying the world was ending, but that her world had come crashing down around her because her heart had been broken; another metaphor.

When someone says they have a broken heart, they aren’t actually saying their heart is broken, but that it feels like it has been broken.

Metaphors are poetic pictures of actual happenings, often used in speaking or writing to emphasize what is being said. This was a common practice when the various books of the Bible were written. So while the Bible is true, it is not always to be taken literally.

Much that Christians believe concerning so called end-times (a term not found in the Bible) is the result of taking metaphors literally instead of figuratively.

2 Peter 3:8-16 is a good example of this:

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

2 Peter 3:8 (above) speaks of one day as being like a thousand years and a thousand years being as one day. This is actually a simile, not saying one day is a thousand years, which would make it a metaphor, but instead saying one day is as a thousand years. However, verses 9 – 16 are speaking metaphorically.

The word elements is used in verses 10 and 12. This is often interpreted to mean physical elements, but when Peter wrote this, no one had knowledge of physical elements. Element is not a word he would have used to mean the physical world.

The Greek word here is stoicheion, which means basic concepts or rules of a discipline, like the elementary principles of knowledge or the doctrines of Christian teaching.

In The Old Testament a believer’s relationship with God was based on his/her ability to keep God’s commandments, which proved over and over to be an impossibility.

All this changed with the finished work of Jesus at the time of the crucifixion. He accomplished for us what we could not accomplish, enabling us to become like Him because He is now in us and we are in Him, one with Him.

As he is, so are we in this world.

1 John 4:17

It’s that old mindset of doing rather than being that has been burned up with fervent heat.

I dare say that for the past 2000 years most Christians have thought their relationship with God depended on doing rather than being. But our merciful God has been longsuffering with the Church, knowing that in this day (millennium), which is The Day of the Lord spoken in verse 10 and The Day of God spoken of in verse 12, a remnant would began to experience His salvation (realizing who we are in Him, having nothing to do with an afterlife but instead having to do with who we are in this world).

The perishing and repentance spoken of in verse 9 has nothing to do with an afterlife either, as perhaps most interpret them to mean, but instead is about perishing in this life because we have not walked in the knowledge of who we are in Christ. But, glory to God, His longsuffering is now revealing the truth of who we are in Christ to a remnant, who are becoming the firstfruits of many more to come.

Halleluiah!

Still, at the present time, most are wrestling with the issue of doing vs being, to their own destruction, again, having nothing to do with an afterlife but instead keeping them from success in their spiritual and physical life on Earth (see verse 16).

But thank God there is a remnant being diligent in order to be found of Him to be in peace, without spot and blameless (see verse 14). But again, we must realize, this is not about anything we can do, but is instead about what He has done and is now revealing to His chosen remnant of firstfruits, pilgrims and trailblazers paving the way for many more to follow.

Surely, absolutely and without a doubt, we were born for such a time as this!

World without end, amen (see Ephesians 3:21).

Addicted to Milk

By Lanny Swaim

Being made perfect, he [Jesus] became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time when ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Hebrews 5:9-14 (emphasis added)

THEREFORE leaving the principals of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit.

Hebrews 6:1-3

I could break down the above scripture references line by line, even word by word, and while I encourage you to do so, that’s not my intention with this teaching.

The Book of Hebrews was written to Hebrew Christians, who were very familiar with the law and the prophets, but perhaps not so familiar with the change that took place with the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, plus the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell believers on that first Pentecost after Jesus ascended.

The above scripture references point out two changes that took place at that time in history: a changing of the priesthood and a changing of covenants.

The Levitical Priesthood was all about the law. In addition to The Ten Commandments God gave Moses on Mount Sinai, there was around six hundred other laws the Hebrew people were to keep. The Old Testament portion of the Bible is an account at how, over and over, they failed to keep those laws.

Jesus, who is our high priest, is not of the Levitical Priesthood (the Tribe of Levi). Being born into the Tribe of Judah, He is of another priesthood: the Melchisedec Priesthood (see Hebrews 7:15-17). This is a priesthood not having to do with the law, but instead having to do with mercy and grace.

The Levitical Priesthood had to do with The Old Covenant, or Old Testament, and the Melchisedec Priesthood has to do with The New Covenant, or New Testament.

In order to become righteous under The Old Covenant, a person had to obey the law, an impossibility. But under The New Covenant we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, who knew no sin but became sin for us (see 2 Corinthians 5:21).

By becoming sin for us, Jesus actually did away with sin (see John 1:29). He literally took away the sin of the world: not just the sin of individuals, but the sin of the world.

The Greek word that translates as world in John 1:29 is kosmos, and can mean the physical world or the universe. It can also mean the people of the world, or the world’s systems. I believe kosmos in this verse of scripture encompasses all those definitions.

The Hebrew people had lived their lives under The Old Covenant, which perhaps makes it easy to understand why they had difficulty accepting The New Covenant. But not so with Gentile Christians.

Those of us who were not born into Judaism, but who have become Christians, were never under the law. The law was given to the Hebrew people, who the Jews were a remnant of at the time Jesus walked the earth as the Son of Man. We should have no problem accepting The New Covenant, a covenant of mercy and grace, since we were never under The Old Covenant, a covenant of law.

But what I see happening in the Church today, going back at least as far as the fourth century AD, is a Church trying to become righteous by keeping the law they were never under. It is preached every Sunday in denominational and independent churches and over and over, people go to the alter and repent for their shortcomings, trying to get righteous enough to be accepted by God.

This mindset keeps Christians immature, babes in Christ, never being the overcomers we should be. It keeps believers doing, instead of being.

What you do does not determine who you are, who you are determines what you do. If we have accepted the finished work of Jesus at the time of the crucifixion, we are one in Him (see 2 Corinthians 5:17), and therefore the same as Him (see 1 John 4:17). And if we are the same as Him, we are sinless, period.

We may not appear to be sinless, but we will never become sinless by trying to become sinless. We become sinless by realizing we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

There are a few coming to the realization that we are no longer under The Old Covenant, and that number is growing. But as I cross paths with other Christians, and sometimes visit their church meetings, it seems to me that most are stuck in a mindset that is keeping them immature babes. And much of the preaching from pulpits every Sunday just reinforces that. I frequently intercede for those in The Body of Christ who are stuck in a false gospel that is not the true Gospel at all.

Recently I heard the Lord say, “They are addicted to milk.”

Addictions can be hard and even impossible to break in the natural, but saints of God, we don’t live in the natural. And with our God, all things are possible (see Matthew 19:26).

For those of us who are beginning to see who we are in Christ Jesus, who our High Priest is, and what covenant we are a part of; we are a remnant of trailblazers paving the way for many more to follow, until we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (see Ephesians 4:13).

Surely we were born for such a time as this!

The Sin of the World

By Lanny Swaim

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

John 1:29 (emphasis added)

In order to become righteous under The Old Covenant, a person had to obey the law, an impossibility, as we studied in a recent Kingdom Manna teaching. But under The New Covenant, we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, who knew no sin but became sin for us (see 2 Corinthians 5:21).

By becoming sin for us, Jesus actually did away with sin (see John 1:29, above). He literally took away the sin of the world: not just the sin of individuals, but the sin of the world.

The most literal definition of sin is missing the mark. Think of an archer or marksman shooting at a target. To miss the bullseye is to miss the mark.

If Jesus actually took away the sin of the world, which John 1:29 says He did, then sin no longer exists or has any power in the world. So, it is impossible for the world or the people in the world to miss the mark.

Now, before you decide I am completely crazy, I realize that sin appears to be very alive and well on planet Earth, with much power over the political and religious systems of the world, plus most individuals.

If Jesus actually took away the sin of the world, how can this be?

Many statements in the Bible are made from the eternal perspective. Revelation 13:8 says Jesus was crucified from the foundation of the world, however, that eternal truth/reality had to play out on the timeline of history, taking place a little over two thousand years ago.

1 John 4:17 states that as Jesus is, so are we in the world. In other words, we are just like Him. Not at some future time, not when we get to Heaven, but right now. However, this doesn’t appear to be our present condition. While it is an eternal truth/reality, it is playing out in our lives as our becoming like Him. So, actually, we are becoming who we already are.

I could go on. There are other scripture references that we sometimes call promises of God, which are made from the eternal perspective but must play out on the timeline of history.

So it is with Jesus taking away the sin of the world. But as long as we see sin as yet needing to be conquered, we will not be empowered to overcome sin. We must see from the eternal perspective, not the time perspective.

Romans 8:2 indicates that at the time of the crucifixion, Jesus not only overcame and did away with sin; He also overcame and did away with death.

That being true, after the cross, no one should die physically. Physical death was introduced into the world because of Adam’s disobedience, and The New Covenant that Jesus cut with the Father at the time of the crucifixion, undid what Adam had done. That’s why Jesus is called the last Adam (see 1 Corinthians 15:45).

From the eternal and Biblical perspective, which I sometimes like to refer to as the panoramic view, there are actually only two men created by God. The first Adam, and the last Adam (Jesus). We identify with one or the other, and that determines if we remain subject to sin and death or if we overcome sin and death.

We cannot identify with both. To identify with both is a contradiction and an impossibility.

If we say we are Christians, but continue to identify with the first Adam, we are deceived. Only when we identify with the last Adam (Jesus) do we truly live as born again, Spirit baptized believers.

On the timeline of history, as we become who in reality we already are, sin will have no power over us, because Jesus did away with sin over two thousand years ago, even from the foundation of the world, long before the first Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden.

Saints, if and when we fully get hold of that reality/truth, Satan, sin and death are finished. Evil will be eradicated from planet Earth, like Enoch prophesied as recorded in The Book of Enoch.

That is our destiny. That is where we are headed. Will we be the generation to see it come to pass, or will we continue to lay the foundation for another generation to see and experience it? I don’t know. But this I do know, we must do our part and do our part we will, because, surely we were born for such a time as this.

The 42nd Generation

By Lanny Swaim

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

Matthew 1:17

14+14+14=42

The preceding verses in Matthew, chapter one list all the generations from Abraham to Jesus. However, if you count them, there are only 41 generations. So way the discrepancy?

It was 14 generations from Abraham to David, and 14 more or 28 from David to Jechonias, who was carried away to Babylon. But from Jechonias to Jesus was only 13 generations, which adds up to only 41.

The verse preceding Matthew 1:17 says this:

And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

Matthew 1:16

But if you count the generations, Joseph was the 40th and Jesus was the 41st.

Is this a mistake or is there a mystery here available only to those able to access the revelatory knowledge hidden in this verse?

Perhaps there is a reason why Jesus is named and then it is pointed out that He is also called Christ. Christ is the English version of Christos, a Greek word translated from the Hebrew word, Messiah, which means the anointed one.

It could be considered more of a title than a name. Jesus is the Christ or the Messiah.

Now, if we look at 1 Corinthians 12:12, I think there is a clue to the understanding of this mystery.

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many are one body: so also is Christ.

So Jesus is the Son of Man, born of a virgin, crucified, resurrected and ascended. But Christ (who is Jesus), is the Son of God, the firstborn of many brethren (see Romans 8:29). So it can be said that we, The Body of Christ, are anointed ones, or Sons of God.

Romans 8:19 says that creation is waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God. So evidently, this is a prophetic scripture saying these Sons of God are yet to be revealed on the world’s stage.

In the Hebrew culture of the Bible, a son was a mature child, ready to receive all his father’s inheritance and operate in all the authority of his father’s name. So the reason the Sons of God have not yet been revealed is that there has not been a company of fully mature believers. (Perhaps we should note that this is not about gender. There are male sons and female sons.)

In Galatians 4:19, the apostle Paul, writing to the Church at Galatia, said this:

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you…

The Amplified Bible says fully formed in you.

In order for believers to fully mature, Christ must be fully formed in them.

We all know that the day we were born again Christ took up residence in us, but His being fully formed in us is a process that takes time. It is a process of maturing until we are just like Him, possessing His nature and character.

1 John 4:17 says that as He is, so are we in the world. But this statement only becomes true experientially when we become love as He is love.

God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:16

This is a description of Christ being fully formed in a generation of believers.

Saints of God, I submit to you that when these Sons of God, fully mature with Christ fully formed in them, manifest on the world scene, and are revealed to the world, that they will be the 42nd generation of Matthew 1:17.

Is this not a description of a generation of believers who reach perfection while on the Earth in physical bodies? And there will be such a generation. Actually, there has to be such a generation, in order for all who have gone before to be perfected.

They are the same generation prophesied about in Hebrews 11:39-40.

And these all [those mentioned in the preceding verses of this chapter], having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

Hebrews 11:39-40 is a prophetic scripture looking ahead to the time when a generation of believers will reach perfection in this life, before they transition to Heaven, enabling all who have gone before, having died without reaching perfection, to do so.

In God’s system of justice there has to be people who reach perfection in order for all others to be perfected.

I was teaching this several years ago in a small meeting in Wilmington, NC. That night there were three Messianic Jews present, two women and a man. I had not seen them before nor have I seen them since. As I was speaking, one of the women was staring at me with her mouth literally hanging open.

I became a little uncomfortable so I stopped and asked her if I was on the right track. She replied, “We (Messianic Jews) have always taught that. But we don’t teach it to Christians because they won’t accept it.”

Not only will the 42nd generation enable all who have gone before and died without receiving the promise, which is perfection, to be perfected/saved/sanctified/completed, they will initiate the nations of this world becoming the Kingdom of our Lord, Jesus and His Christ, the Ekklesia (the Greek word translated as Church, meaning those called out of all generations/the revealed Sons of God/the Remnant Bride of Christ) (see Revelation 11:15).

And ultimately, they will usher in the restitution of all things (see Acts 3:21), perfecting all of God’s creation. In the Genesis account of creation, when God called order out of chaos, He established a type and shadow, a precursor or harbinger of what is about to take place on planet Earth in this new day (millennium/see 2 Peter 3:8) we have now crossed the threshold of.

It is in this day that the 42nd generation will be revealed, and when this takes place, their physical bodies will put on immortality (see 1 Corinthians 15:53-54), and they will never taste of physical death.

And they will usher in the nations of this world becoming The Kingdom of God (see Revelation 11:15) and the restitution of all things (see Acts 3:21).

Perhaps you and I are of that generation, which is the hope of glory that Paul wrote about in Colossians 1:27.

Paul died without realizing it, as has every generation since. But the 42nd generation will manifest sometime in this third day (millennium) of the Church. Jesus prophesied this when He said:

Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

Luke 13:32

When Jesus walked out of the tomb on the third day after the crucifixion, He still had the scars of the crucifixion in His body, so His body was not perfected. But His body (The Body of Christ), will be perfected in this third day of the Church.

I sincerely hope our generation is the 42nd generation, but if not, we will do our part to pave the way for the 42nd generation to appear on Earth sometime in this new day (millennium) we have barely crossed the threshold of.

Saints of God, this is in a nutshell so to speak, The Gospel of the Kingdom.

Surely we were born for such a time as this!