LANNY SWAIM
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Table of Contents
67. Trumpets: Some Assembly Required (4)
68. Trumpets: Prophesying Perfection
69. Trumpets: Prophesying the Restitution/Salvation of All
70. Trumpets: Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ/Immortality
71. Trumpets: The Man-child Company
72. Trumpets: Living Epistles
73. Trumpets: The Throne Company
74. Trumpets: Prophesying Ruling with a Rod of Iron
75. Trumpets: Separating the Wheat from the Tares
76. Trumpets: The Ministry of Reconciliation
Chapter Sixty Seven
The Feasts of God
Trumpets
Some Assembly Required (4)
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Hebrews 10:23-25
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.
Hebrews 12:22-23
Just men made perfect. Now there’s an interesting concept.
We were justified by the crucifixion of Jesus when He took the sins of all mankind on Himself. Righteousness demands justice. A righteous God demands justice. Because of the demand for justice, the wrath of God had to be poured out on someone. Our merciful God, who is love, decided to pour out His wrath on Himself, freeing us from the consequence of sin in our lives.
The consequence or payment for sin is death (see Romans 6:23). God the Son, Jesus, died that death for us enabling us to become the righteousness of God (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). He justified us even though we didn’t deserve it. But that justification didn’t make us perfect. It was but the door into perfection; the process we must walk out as we live this life in a body of flesh.
If we don’t walk out the process of being perfected while in our physical bodies on earth, we will walk it out after we die physically in a place called Hades in Greek or Sheol in Hebrew. The KJV of the Bible refers to this place as Hell but Hell is not a good translation. Jews around the time that Jesus walked the earth as the Son of Man also called this place Paradise, which is actually an Oriental word. Modern definitions of these words and the common understanding that Paradise and Hell are two different places, give us a distorted view of life after physical death for believers and non-believers alike.
At the time of the crucifixion, Paradise was in the lower parts of the earth (see Luke 23:43/Ephesians 4:9). When Jesus first ascended to the Father after the resurrection, He took Paradise with Him, having taken captivity (Paradise) captive (see Ephesians 4:8). This is evidenced several years later when Paul was caught up into Paradise (see 2 Corinthians 12:4), which he identifies as being in the third Heaven (see 2 Corinthians 12:2).
Hell is an English word, which literally means to hide and is a bad translation. It is found nowhere in the oldest manuscripts of the Bible.
So, a thorough study of scripture reveals that Hades (Greek), Sheol (Hebrew) and Paradise (Oriental) are the same place, and were once in the lower parts of the earth but are now in Heaven.
God has always been about perfecting His people but during the Church Age of the last two thousand years, His people as a whole have not been very cooperative. While many have accepted His justification, most have continued in the flesh; some more than others.
The way church has been done for the most part has been an exercise in the flesh; a religious practice making one appear to be and perhaps feel righteous. Even in more recent times, as the baptism with the Spirit has been restored to a remnant of the Church, we have witnessed the consequences of men and women operating in the power of the Spirit but lacking in the character of God.
As we enter this new day (millennium) (see 2 Peter 3:8) and transition from the Church Age into the Kingdom Age, God is calling out of the Body of Christ a remnant to be the firstfruits of many more to come. As this remnant has been severely tested and tried, they have been reduced to nothing, emptied of self and left in a position of total dependence on and trust in the mercy, grace (empowerment) and provision of God. They have been driven to a place of rest, retired from their own labor, enabling God to fully implement His plan for mankind and planet Earth, which will bring about the fulfillment of the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray, bringing the Kingdom of God in earth as in Heaven (see Matthew 6:10/Luke 11:2); ultimately bringing about the fulfillment of Revelation 11:15:
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
This remnant is coming to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God; the heavenly Jerusalem. There they are finding an innumerable company of angels, experiencing much angelic activity in their individual lives and corporately as they assemble together. They are becoming the general assembly of the firstborn.
General assembly is a political term, meaning the main legislative body in a state, country, organization, etc. Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. This remnant is becoming the primary policy makers (under their Head, Jesus) clarifying the eternal plan and purpose of God for mankind and planet Earth, which has only been understood in part until now. As God’s plan becomes clearer, attitudes and doctrinal understanding must change. While these changes can initially bring friction and division among believers, eventually they will bring all believers into the unity of the faith (see Ephesians 4:13).
This unity of the faith may look and seem to be an impossible goal but God, who is the judge of all, will bring this to pass by perfecting people already justified by the finished work of Jesus; making them a firstfruits company (general assembly); no less than trailblazers and pilgrims paving the way for many more to follow.
Those of us who are of this firstfruits company (general assembly) must hold fast to that which we are seeing and experiencing without wavering. In order to do this consistently we must assemble together, not in the traditional understanding of church but coming together and ministering to each other, encouraging and building up one another.
We are now beyond seeing the day approaching. We are entering that day (millennium) and beginning to experience all this new day entails. Because we are a remnant and because we are misjudged and misunderstood by the masses, we must band (assemble) together as the general assembly of the firstborn to protect, encourage and build one another up; ultimately refuting the judgment of the masses. The bottom line is: we need each other and probably won’t survive without each other.
This is more than reality. It is by God’s design. While our journey into truth may begin individually, we only have purpose as a corporate people.
We are none other than the Bride of Christ, being taken out of the Body of Christ in order to complete the Body of Christ, just as Eve was taken out of Adam in order to complete Adam.
We are in a process whose end will be the restitution of all things (see Acts 3:21), the salvation of all Israel (see Romans 11:26) as well as the salvation of all people (see 1 Timothy 2:1-6).
Surely we were born for such a time as this!
All glory to God!!!
Chapter Sixty Eight
The Feasts of God
Trumpets
Prophesying Perfection
And these all, 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
In God’s system of justice, which actually is the only system of justice (all other legitimate justice systems are based on and because of God’s justice), there has to be a people that reach perfection in order for all who have gone before to be perfected.
The verses preceding Hebrews 11:39-40 speak of many great men and women of faith who died without reaching perfection. God saw them as perfect because of their faith but they didn’t experience perfection in their lifetimes on earth.
The writer of Hebrews realized that in order for all those who had been justified by faith to actually reach perfection, God has to produce a people that actually reach perfection in their lifetime on Earth.
We know the generation of believers present on Earth at the time Hebrews was written didn’t reach perfection and in fact became but another stepping stone toward perfection, so the existence of a perfect generation remained future. However, God will have a perfect people; initially a firstfruits company of many more to come.
Those of us who are seeing and experiencing the fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets are beginning to taste of that perfection, and prophesying the completion of the perfection process in this new day (millennium) we have now entered; which will ultimately bring about the salvation of all people (see 1 Timothy 2:4) and the restitution of all things (see Acts 3:19).
I was teaching this one night in a meeting I was holding in Wilmington, NC. Three Messianic Jews (two women and a man) came to the meeting that night. I had not seen them before nor have I seen them since.
As I was teaching, one of the women was staring at me with her mouth literally hanging open. I became a little uncomfortable, stopped my teaching and asked her if I was on the right track. She told me that they (Messianic Jews) have always believed that but didn’t teach it to Christians, because Christians wouldn’t accept it.
Perhaps that is still true of most Christians but there is a remnant of Trumpet People who are tasting of it and prophesying it to the larger Body of Christ, in hopes that some can and will receive it.
Understanding this perfecting process and the ultimate outcome of it is a great encouragement to those of us who have and perhaps are being severely tested and tried as God is killing us; causing in us a dying to self unlike anything we have experienced before.
This dying process is absolutely necessary because there is no hope for the flesh. The flesh cannot be saved, fixed or rehabilitated. The only solution is to kill the flesh (fallen man), which enables Christ to live His life in and through us.
You see, being perfected is not about us. Rather, it is about us getting out of the way and allowing Christ to live His perfected life in and through us. However, in order for Christ to live a perfected life, He must have a perfected people. And yet, He cannot have a perfected people until they first die to self, paving the way for Him to live His life fully in and through them.
Perhaps this is a little much for us to wrap our minds around, but just contemplating it causes me to realize the great extent to which we are one with Christ and He is one with us, making us one and the same.
Wow! We are coming into the unity of the faith with each other because we are coming into unity with Him, being one and the same as Him.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.
John 4:17 (emphasis added)
This is the day of judgment; that day and the day of the Lord spoken of throughout the Bible.
It is in this day (millennium), which is the seventh day of/since creation, the ultimate Sabbath of all Sabbaths, when we will completely cease from all our labors and enter His rest, enabling His perfection to manifest experientially and fully in our lives.
Perhaps our generation is the one who will realize the reality of this perfection, which is the destiny of mankind. Or, if not, we will do our part to pave the way for another generation to come into the fullness of it.
Regardless, we were absolutely born for such a time as this!
All glory to God.
Chapter Sixty Nine
The Feasts of God
Trumpets
Prophesying the Restitution/Salvation of All
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
Acts 3:19-21 (emphasis added)
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved.
Romans 11:25-26 (emphasis added)
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
1 Timothy 2:1-6. (emphasis added)
And these all, 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
Due time is a specific time; an appointed time when something specific is to happen or something already happening is to come to completion.
The Feasts of God are types and shadows; pictures of the New Testament Church with specific or appointed times to be observed in remembrance of certain events and as rehearsals of things to come.
We have already experienced to some degree Passover and Pentecost in the first two millennia of the New Testament Church, and are now beginning to experience Tabernacles as we enter this third millennium of the Church.
Tabernacles, like Passover, is a three part feast. I believe we are now entering the first part of Tabernacles, which is the Feast of Trumpets.
It is in Tabernacles that our experience of Passover and Pentecost will reach its full potential, bringing about the fullness of times. This is the mystery of His will written about in Ephesians 1:9-10:
[God] having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him (emphasis added).
All means all. We have greatly limited the cross of Christ by teaching that an individual must willfully accept salvation in order to receive the benefits of it.
If we believe that we are going to have to tear some pages out of our Bibles. Acts 3:19 speaks of the restitution of all things. Romans 11:26 tells us that all Israel shall be saved. 1 Timothy 2:4 informs us that God will have all men (people) to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth; not that God would like for all to be saved but that he will have all to be saved!
There is the possibility that a more correct translation would be that God desires all to be saved, but do you really think God will not get what He desires?
1 Timothy 2:6 makes it clear that this truth will be the testimony of someone in due time.
Saints of God, that due time has come and God has a chosen remnant of people who are testifying to the reality of it. The fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles will be the restitution of all things when all people will come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved. All people includes those who have died and no longer live in physical bodies on the Earth; those who are presently alive on planet Earth and those who are not yet born of a woman.
The cross of Christ is far more reaching than we have imagined. The sacrifice Jesus made that day when God poured out His wrath on Himself is not going to see one lost. Nor is it going to allow the destruction of the world that God so loved (see John 3:16). Rather, all will be saved and the world will be restored to the original glory God purposed and planned for it from the beginning.
This is what Tabernacles is about and this is our destiny in this new day (millennium) we have now crossed the threshold of.
The Feast of Trumpets is about a Trumpet People beginning to experience Tabernacles; announcing (prophesying) it’s coming. The Feast of Atonement, which is soon to follow Trumpets is about many hearing the message being proclaimed by this Trumpet People and believing their report.
Their report is a good report! It is none other than the Gospel of the Kingdom. It is good news. It is great news! It is about the restitution of all things and the salvation of all people.
Surely we were born for such a time as this!
Chapter Seventy
The Feasts of God
Trumpets
Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ/Immortality
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we [first] believed. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
Romans 13:11, 14
Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
1 Corinthians 15:51-54
There is a very real sense in which the Church has been asleep for most of the last two thousand years. By the end of the first century heresy had crept into the Church and some had departed from the faith, substituting lies for the true Gospel of the Kingdom, proclaimed and taught by Jesus and the original apostles.
In the fourth century the Roman Emperors Constantine and Theodosius made Christianity the state religion, divorcing the Church from her Bridegroom Jesus and marrying the Church to the state. This was an act of spiritual adultery that actually brought about the death of the Apostolic Church of the first century, and the Dark Ages followed.
The apostle Paul, before the Church fell into the sleep of death, spoke of a mystery. He prophesied a time when the Church would awake out of the sleep she had fallen into. History records there have been many stepping stones of revival moving the Church toward a time when it will appear revival occurs suddenly (in a moment/in the twinkling of an eye). Paul informs us this awakening will take place at the time of the last trump.
To understand what this last trump is, we must have an understanding of the historic and prophetic significance of the Feasts of God that were observed every year; first by the entire nation of Israel and then by the Jews (a remnant of Israel preserved through the centuries until the present time). These feasts are a type and shadow; a picture of the New Testament Church.
Without a working knowledge and understanding of these feasts it is impossible to understand the New Testament. The absence of this knowledge and understanding of the feasts in western civilization has put a western spin on the gospel that is at best an in part gospel and possibly not the gospel at all.
The last trump is referring to the prophetic fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets, which is the first part of the Feast of Tabernacles. In ancient Israel, trumpets were used to get the attention of the people when an important announcement was to be made.
Today, as we enter into the time of the ultimate prophetic fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets, there is a Trumpet People sounding (prophesying) the coming fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles is about the true Church fully becoming a habitation of God through the Spirit (see Ephesians 2:22).
When this happens, the mortality of the Church, having manifested as death in the fourth century, will become immortal; never again to be subject to death, and death will be swallowed up by victory that overcomes, glory to God!
I have the hope that at the time this takes place on God’s historic and prophetic timetable as the Church (the true Bride of Christ) corporately puts on immortality, our physical bodies will be changed, also putting on immortality as one would put on a garment. While I don’t believe in the sudden disappearance (rapture) of believers, I do believe there will be a generation of believers who will not have to experience physical death.
Enoch is a type and shadow of the generation of believers who will simply put on immortality (see Genesis 5:24).
I don’t know about you, but I have the hope I will be in that number. This I know: the longer I walk in the reality that I have already passed from death to life, the less I relate to my life on Earth as ever ending. Somehow, I just don’t see my physical body ever dying. Rather, I see my aging body being restored to its prime, void of the possibility of sickness and disease and absent of the aging process. I see myself reigning with Christ for the next thousand years and beyond.
Surely we were born for such a time as this!
All glory to God!
Chapter Seventy One
The Feasts of God
Trumpets
The Man-child Company
And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
Revelation 12:13
Who is this Woman who brought forth the Man-child?
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Revelation 12:1-2
In order to understand who this woman is, we must look at the way she appeared to John in the vision he saw. She was clothed with the sun. Malachi referred to Jesus as the Sun of Righteousness.
For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as claves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
Malachi 4:1-3 (emphasis added)
Not only does Malachi refer to Jesus as the Sun of Righteousness, he speaks of Him arising in a certain day. This could be applied to the time when Jesus came as the Son of Man, born of a virgin, crucified, resurrected and ascended into Heaven but I have come to understand that when a specific day is spoken of in prophetic scripture, usually if not always the day referred to is the third day (millennium) of the Church.
Is it any wonder that Peter gave great importance to the truth that a day is with the Lord as a thousand years and thousand years as a day?
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.
2 Peter 3:8 (emphasis added)
So this woman is clothed with Jesus, which entails all His anointing, His glory and His character. Could she be any other than the literal, many membered virgin Bride of Christ, a remnant of the Body of Christ (the true Church)?
She has the moon under her feet. The moon reflects the sun’s light, giving it the appearance of having light of its own when in fact it does not. The moon represents the religious system, which is not the true Church (the Body of Christ). To the carnal mind the religious system appears to be the Church but is not. The world’s religious system is a great deception referred to in Revelation as another woman, MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH (see Revelation 17:1-6).
In this third day (millennium) of the Church, when everything is coming to completion and fullness, the true Church will expose the false church for who and what she is and as a result the false church will initially be under the feet of the Bride of Christ (the woman clothed with the Sun with the moon under her feet) and eventually under the feet of the entire Body of Christ (the true Church).
Twelve in Scripture is a number for completion and the number for the government of God. This woman that John saw had a crown of twelve stars on her head, signifying and confirming that she is of the true Church, the Body of Christ.
When Peter preached Jesus on the Day of Pentecost, when the true Church was born, as recorded in the second chapter of Acts, he spoke not only of power but of government. In this third day of the Church, the Church is coming to completion, becoming the glorious Church that Jesus will present to Himself a perfected Bride (see Ephesians 5:25-27).
Now that we have identified who this woman clothed with the Sun is, we must look at the fact that she was pregnant and in the process of giving birth to a man-child, in order to understand who the man-child is.
The two words, man and child put together are an oxymoron. How can one be a man and a child at the same time?
However, this child the woman is pregnant with and about to be delivered of will mature so quickly that he will appear to have been born a full grown, mature man.
And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Revelation 12:5
Does this sound familiar? Jesus was caught up to God and to His throne, where He is now seated at the right hand of God, the Father.
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Hebrews 1:3
Rather than an actual throne somewhere out there, I suspect the throne of God is a position of authority, which God shares with his firstborn Son, Jesus, and will soon share with the man-child birthed by the Bride of Christ. From this position of authority, God the Father and Son will rule the nations through the man-child, a many membered company living on Earth. This is how the nations of this world will become the Kingdom of our Lord and his Christ (see Revelation 11:15).
We know from Revelation 12:4 that Satan intends to devour the man-child as soon as he is born, so the indication is that he is caught up to a position of authority immediately after birth, confirming his apparent instant maturity.
This man-child is none other than the manifested (revealed) Sons of God, who all creation is anxiously awaiting (see Romans 8:19). In the Hebrew culture of the Bible, a son was a mature child, ready to receive his father’s inheritance and operate in all the authority of his father’s name.
While the Body of Christ has operated to a degree in the authority of the name of Jesus and experienced their inheritance to a degree, there is about to be a company of believers who will fully operate in that authority and receive all their inheritance. When this occurs, the devil is finished.
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Revelation 12:7-8
I don’t think the term heaven here is referring to some place out there beyond the atmosphere of Earth. I believe it is referring to the place of authority where God is and we know God is omnipresent (everywhere at once). Here we see the devil fighting for the power he has exercised over God’s people and losing the battle, being reduced to nothing.
The Book of Revelation, which correctly titled is The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is not so much about a chronological order of events as it is about a spiritual order of events that takes place in the fullness of time. The woman clothed with the Sun reveals Jesus as the many membered Bride of Christ, in the process of being perfected but not yet having reached perfection. The man-child reveals Jesus perfected (mature) as the many membered Sons of God.
These are mysteries, not understood by the world or by carnal (immature) believers, which make up the majority of the Church today. But God does have a company; a remnant of believers who are seeing and beginning to experience the reality of the woman in travail. We are pregnant with destiny, and about to deliver a company more glorious than the Church.
Actually, we are a remnant within a remnant. The Body of Christ (the true Church) is a remnant of the church world at large (seen in John’s vision as the Mother of Harlots), and the virgin Bride of Christ is a remnant being taken out of the Body of Christ in order to complete the Body of Christ, just as Eve was taken out of Adam in order to complete Adam.
Just as Adam and Eve produced offspring, the Bride of Christ and the Body of Christ will produce offspring, but first the Bride of Christ must produce a man-child, not by the sexual union of a man and a woman but by the Spirit of God, just as Mary produced a man-child by the Holy Spirit. She and Joseph went on to produce other children by their sexual union but there had been no sexual union when the first man-child (Jesus) was born.
This man-child the Sun clothed woman is about to produce will not be by the will or striving of man but by the Spirit of God. For two thousand years the Church has been striving to bring forth this man-child, to no avail. Now, in this third day of the Church, this man-child will be born of a virgin bride just as Jesus was born of a virgin bride.
What a glorious, glorious plan! Surely we were born for such a time as this! Hallelujah!!!
Chapter Seventy Two
The Feasts of God
Trumpets
Living Epistles
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
2 Corinthians 3:2-3
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Revelation 12:1-2
In our last teaching we looked at different companies of people: the man-made religious system that is not the true Church; the Body of Christ that is the true Church; the Bride of Christ, a remnant of the Body of Christ; the Man-child birthed by the Bride of Christ.
The man-made religious system, which the Book of Revelation calls the Mother of Harlots (see Revelation 17:5) began to come into view by the second century AD, but the adulterous union between Church and state was consummated in the fourth century when the Roman Emperors Constantine and Theodosius made Christianity the state religion of Rome. This false church has continued in various forms and alliances through the centuries until the present time.
We looked at three different companies of people who exist within the true Church. While these are three different companies who appear on a timeline in chronological order, in the spirit realm they overlap and are actually made up of at least some of the same people.
About now you may be thinking, “How can this be?”
I function as several different people. I am a father, a husband, a brother, a son and a friend. Actually, I am only one person but I function in different capacities.
So it is with believers.
There are some (probably a majority of believers) who function only as a part of the Body of Christ. There is a remnant of the Body of Christ who is presently being taken out of the Body of Christ; becoming the Bride of Christ. They probably in some fashion still function as a part of the many membered Body of Christ while beginning to function as a part of the Bride of Christ. Then there is another group of believers; the Man-child Company.
While the Bride gives birth to this Man-child Company, those who are beginning to taste of what it is to be a part of the Man-child Company are still functioning as a part of the Bride and a part of the Body.
I suspect none of us has yet functioned as the Man-child Company but as a part of the Bride of Christ, some of us have gotten a glimpse of what it is to be a part of the Man-child Company. Should this teaching be read for years to come, eventually there will be those reading it who are functioning as the Man-child Company.
While the Bride of Christ has much to do with the Feast of Trumpets, the Man-child Company probably has more to do with the full blown Feast of Tabernacles. Time will tell exactly how all this plays out.
One must understand that these mysteries are presented to us in a symbolic way rather than a literal way, and in the realm of the spirit they will eventually exercise dominion over the natural.
Those of us who are experiencing any of this are becoming an example of the truths we are studying here. We are becoming an epistle; a letter that can be read by other believers as well as by the world. They may not fully understand what they are reading, but they realize there is something different about us.
Likewise, believers have not fully understood the scriptures. Only in the fullness of time as we have known it, which we are now entering into, are we beginning to fully understand the many prophetic scriptures and mysteries recorded in the Bible.
That is why I am teaching on the Feasts of God and their prophetic significance for the New Testament Church and the Kingdom of God. Without a working knowledge and understanding of the feasts it is impossible to understand the New Testament. At best we have only understood it in part and in many cases not at all.
But the understanding of the feasts and their prophetic significance for the New Testament Church and the Kingdom of God is a reality whose time has come. Those of us who are beginning to see, taste of and experience these truths are coming to this place by no effort or desire of our own. I dare say that a short time ago we knew nothing of the glory we are becoming aware of. We were clueless, unable to desire or work toward that which we knew nothing of.
Only God could have brought us to where we are and only God can take us to where we are going. He has brought us to that place of rest that for centuries has remained future for the people of God (see Hebrews 4:9). We have ceased from our own labors and are trusting completely in Him to perform all He has promised, and bring to pass all He has planned from before the foundation of the world.
Surely we were born for such a time as this.
Chapter Seventy Three
The Feasts of God
Trumpets
The Throne Company
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Revelation 12:1-2, 5
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the world of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Hebrews 1:1-4
I don’t believe the throne of God is a giant chair somewhere out there in the cosmos. In kingdoms a king’s throne is the seat of his authority. It is a position or place from where he makes decisions, judgments and decrees. Kings are spoken of metaphorically as being on the throne while they are in power even though they don’t continually sit on a physical throne (chair).
When Jesus sat down at the right hand of God I don’t think He necessarily sat down in a chair next to God’s chair. Rather, He took the seat of authority next to God’s seat of authority. It is a position of authority rather than a literal place where He sits.
In the Hebrew culture of the Bible a son was a mature child that was ready to receive his father’s inheritance and operate in all the authority of his father’s name. So it is with Jesus (see Hebrews 1:4) and so it is with us.
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-7
Positionally all believers are seated with Jesus on His throne of authority, but as we transition from the Church Age into the Kingdom Age, there is a company of believers coming on the scene who not only share His authority positionally but experientially.
These are the manifested Sons of God (see Romans 8:19). These are the Man-child Company that is caught up to God’s throne, and from their position of authority will rule all nations with a rod of iron.
The Man-child Company is a Throne Company. They will be the General Assembly of the Firstborn (see Hebrews 12:23). Jesus is the first born Man-child and there will be a company of believers birthed by the virgin Bride of Christ, just as Jesus was birthed by Mary while she was still a virgin.
General assembly is a political term, meaning the main legislative body in a state, country, organization, etc. Jesus is the firstborn Man-child. There is a remnant that will soon be birthed by the virgin Bride of Christ (taken out of the Bride of Christ just as the Bride of Christ is being taken out of the Body of Christ) who will become the primary policy makers (under their Head, Jesus), clarifying the eternal plan and purpose of God for mankind and planet Earth, which has only been understood in part until now. Attitudes, doctrinal understanding and functions of the elect will change as God’s plan becomes clearer. While these changes can initially bring friction and division among believers, eventually they will bring all believers into the unity of the faith (see Ephesians 4:13). Then we will see the restitution of all things accelerate (see Acts 3:21) as well as the kingdoms (nations) rapidly becoming the Kingdom of our Lord and his Christ (see Revelation 11:15).
I can hardly wait! Surely we were born for such a time as this.
Chapter Seventy Four
The Feasts of God
Trumpets
Prophesying Ruling with a Rod of Iron
Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter most parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Psalm 2:6-9 (emphasis added)
And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Revelation 2:26-27 (emphasis added)
And she [the Woman clothed with the Sun/see Revelation 12:1] brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Revelation 12:5 (emphasis added)
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Revelation 19:11-16 (emphasis added)
Numerous places in Scripture the rod is associated with chastisement. Some examples are Proverbs 13:24, 22:15, 23:13, 23:14 and 29:15. While chastisement may be part of the purpose of the rod of iron, the fact that it was a rod made of iron indicates it was for more than chastisement.
Shepherds in ancient Israel carried with them two instruments necessary for tending and protecting sheep. One was a wooden staff useful in herding sheep and the other was an iron club the shepherd used to protect himself and the sheep from predators and perhaps even thieves. The rod of iron in the above scripture references is most likely referring to an iron club, which was a weapon rather than an instrument of correction. However, there is the possibility it may be both.
This rod of iron in the context of the scripture references in this teaching is not intended for individual people. It is an instrument of destruction intended for nations. In order for building to occur sometimes that which already stands must be torn down. So it is with the Kingdom of God coming on Earth as in Heaven.
First the rod of chastisement must rid us as individuals of anything that is in opposition to the character, direction and wisdom of God, preparing a Remnant Man-child/Throne Company in and through whom the Lord will reign over the nations. Then the rod of iron must destroy all nations that stand in the way of the kingdoms (nations) of this world becoming the kingdoms (Kingdom) of our Lord and his Christ (see Revelation 11:15).
Throughout the six thousand year history of the world, nations have risen and nations have fallen. More often than not, the rise and fall of nations is accompanied by much violence, death and destruction. However, that is not always the case. Just prior to World War II, Austria simply fell to Hitler’s Germany without a shot being fired. Actually, 98% of the people of Austria voted to be annexed by Germany, having fallen prey to Hitler’s lies.
Political progressives are quickly taking the United States down the road of becoming a post constitutional republic. Should they succeed in radically changing the government our founding fathers envisioned and established, they will have destroyed perhaps the greatest nation known to history. We have already witnessed much of Europe succumb to their diabolical schemes.
Not only are political progressives hijacking America, foreign nations are buying up real estate in the United States at an alarming rate. The potential is for these nations to conquer us without firing a shot.
The hope for the United States, Europe and the rest of the world is not in politics or militaries. While these have an important role to play, the hope for the world lies with the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ and the Man-child/Throne Company of believers who will rule with Christ, or perhaps a better way of saying it would be, who Christ will rule in and through.
In my research while preparing this teaching, I discovered some interesting facts about iron that I think apply to this rod of iron we are studying.
Iron is one of the most abundant metals in the earth and thought to be the tenth most abundant element in the universe (of course that is just an educated guess).
In alchemy and astrology, iron is symbolic of physical strength and male energy. The symbol for iron is also the symbol for the male gender. Philosophically, iron is representative of controlling primal urges while releasing the passion within.
While I do not recommend any involvement in alchemy or astrology, I still find these facts interesting and applicable to the rod of iron.
God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are preparing a people to rule the nations with Christ. I believe there are events taking place in the world right now that are moving us toward what has commonly been referred to as the Millennial Reign. However, I believe the Millennial Reign will play out in a much different fashion than has been taught by most prophecy teachers in recent years. I would even go so far as to say we have crossed the threshold of the thousand year reign when the devil will lose his influence over mankind (see Revelation 20:1-3).
The revelation of the various people companies we are studying could not be seen, known or understood until they began to play out on God’s timetable of history, and that has not begun to occur until recent years. Even today, there is only a remnant of believers who are aware of the truths we are studying here, and that awareness has come primarily through the experience of many severe tests and trials in their lives, as God has taken them through a process of dying to self and becoming like Him to a degree never before experienced by mankind.
Surely we were born for such a time as this!
Chapter Seventy Five
The Feasts of God
Trumpets
Separating the Wheat from the Tares
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
Matthew 13:24-30
In our study of the Feasts of God, we have determined that Pentecost, the second main feast, allowed leaven. In scripture leaven is representative of mixture. One fulfillment of Pentecost has taken place during the last two thousand years, which has also been the Church Age. During that time we have witnessed a mixture of truth and religious tradition, which God not only allowed but actually blessed.
In this new day, as we are transitioning from the Church Age into the Kingdom Age, and from Pentecost into Tabernacles, the mixture of truth and religious tradition will no longer work. As a result, we are beginning to witness a separation. That which is not of God is being separated from that which is of God.
Some of us have experienced this in our personal lives as God has revealed those things in us that are not of Him, or that fall short of the perfection we are journeying into. This separation has caused a dying to self unlike anything we have experienced before, enabling Him to fully possess us and live His life in and through us.
However, this separation is much more than the process that has been taking place in us individually. It is also taking place in the Body of Christ, playing out in our religious institutions.
A good friend of mine and prophet of God, Jim Behringer, had a dream about this reality several years ago, which I have shared in other writings.
In his dream Jim saw pastors, one at a time, standing behind a podium or in a pulpit in front of their congregations. Some of these pastors were going through severe trials and tests with no understanding of why. Some were receiving revelation from God that would take their congregations in new directions, other than the religious traditions and ideas they were used to. Their congregations were not being receptive and in many cases were coming against the pastors. Some of the pastors were even being questioned and attacked by their spouses and families.
These pastor’s lives had reached a point of desperation. They could no longer deal with the circumstances they found themselves in. In the dream, there was a large table to the left of the pulpit on the stage. Jim said he couldn’t see it in the dream but he knew it was there. On this table was a pile of firearms. Each pastor was exiting his pulpit to the left, going to the table, picking out a gun, putting it to his head and pulling the trigger.
Jim awoke from this dream very troubled and asked the Lord what it meant. He was told that these pastors were caught in the crosshairs of a separation that is in progress; a process of separating that which is of God from that which is not of God in individual lives and in church assemblies. These pastors were totally unprepared for and unable to deal with the circumstances they found themselves in.
Then the Lord told Jim that he is raising up a remnant of tried and tested believers to rescue these pastors from hurting or destroying themselves.
This is why I cannot back down from the message I have been given to proclaim. Those that disagree with what I am seeing often give my teaching theological names and think we simply have doctrinal differences.
What I have been shown has been revealed in such a way that I have no doubt about the validity of it and that it is truth rather than doctrine. The prophetic voices that are on the cutting edge of the present move of God must continue to proclaim what most are still unable to receive, in order to save those who are caught in the crosshairs of change. We cannot back down or compromise. Not only are lives at stake, the future of nations and the world is at stake.
However, don’t let the seriousness and intensity of the moment put fear in you. I believe God’s plan is playing out just as He has purposed and that the outcome cannot be aborted.
Saints of God, our destiny is secure because it is not about us. It is all about Him and has been settled since before the foundation of the world.
We have been taught we have a free will and choices to make but in the bigger picture, from the panoramic viewpoint of Heaven, our sovereign God is completely in control of our destiny and of the future of planet Earth.
We all have a part to play and if we will but rest in Him and trust Him completely, we cannot loose and will be the overcomers He has destined us to be. And I have come to understand from the experiences He has put me through that resting in Him and trusting Him completely is not something I have chosen but something He has developed in me. The reality of it has come about through much testing and many trials and as a result, my destiny is secure in Him.
Those of us who are seeing this are the fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets. We are a Trumpet People announcing the coming Feast of Tabernacles. We are an Elijah Company. A John the Baptist Company. A voice crying in the wilderness, giving hope to those who don’t understand why they are in the wilderness. We are gathering the wheat into the barn while the tares are being burned.
The wheat and tares are not people but that which is being separated in the lives of people. We are the rescuers of the people.
Surely we were born for such a time as this!
Chapter Seventy Six
The Feasts of God
Trumpets
The Ministry of Reconciliation
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (emphasis added)
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:15-17
What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.
Isaiah 59:19
The ministry of reconciliation is accomplished by being reconciled to God and walking out that reconciliation as a living epistle; as an example to be seen by other believers and by the world.
While we are called to preach (proclaim) reconciliation, that proclamation must be backed up with action on our part; we must be a living example of that which we proclaim.
That is the ministry of the Trumpet People, who are literally the last trump spoken of by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
The ministry of reconciliation is about more than individuals being born again and having a personal relationship with the Lord. It is about the restitution of all things (see Acts 3:21) and the salvation of all people (see 1 Timothy 2:4).
God has always had a Trumpet People on the cutting edge of revelation for their generation. They were trailblazers paving the way for those that would and could follow. They were firstfruits companies paying the price to make it possible for the masses to reap the benefits of the salvation they embraced. Many of them paid by being tortured and killed and I can assure you, they will receive a great reward.
They lived and died by faith, and still did not see or experience what we are now beginning to get a glimpse of; tasting of that which is soon to come into fullness, completing God’s plan of salvation.
Numerous companies of Trumpet People have brought us to where we are now on God’s historic and prophetic timetable; to the last trump proclaiming the coming and ultimate fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles.
God has dealt with us intensely and severely, causing in us a dying to self, enabling Him to live His life in and through us.
We are coming out of the harlot that is Mystery Babylon; that religious system that has deceived and enslaved saints for most of the past two thousand years. We are being prepared and purified for our Bridegroom, being made new; a virgin Bride about to give birth by the Holy Spirit to a Man-child; none other than the revealed Sons of God.
It is the manifestation or revelation of the Sons of God (see Romans 8:19) that will be the demise of the devil (see Revelation 20:1-3). He has come in like a flood (see Isaiah 59:19), initially washing away the Apostolic Church of the first century. The flood waters of his deception and destruction have been slow to recede but today another flood is about to sweep through the Church and the world. The power and government of God is about to replace all that is not of God (see Matthew 13:24-30). The kingdoms (nations) of this world are about to become the kingdoms (Kingdom) of our Lord and his Christ (see Revelation 11:15).
We are in a time of transition; a time of reconciliation. We are in the process of coming out to enter in. Believers are experiencing this individually and we are experiencing it corporately; and the world is experiencing it. While we have not yet arrived, we are on the way, and our journey is accelerating.
Wherever we as individual believers and as the corporate Body of Christ are during this time of transition, we can rest assured that all will be fully reconciled to God, bringing about the restitution of all (see Acts 3:21).
Surely we were born for such a time as this!
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