Burnt Offering
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 The Burnt Offering

 In twenty-eight years of ministry, I have not sent out one of these separate special messages, but I am deeply impressed to do so now. Let me first state that it has nothing to do with this being 1999 (by Scripture we are 2,003 or 5,760 by Jewish Calendar) or any Y2K issue. This is truly a spiritual concern and announcement. 

We all know that the Feast of Passover is representative of our salvation experience, that 'born-again' event in our life. By the same token we know that the Feast of Pentecost is comparable to the Baptism of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit of 1 Corinthians 12. For many the Feast of Tabernacles is a new word, but for others it is the understanding that we are "engathered" to Christ, which is what Tabernacles means. In other words, we are in union in our identity with Christ. 

Latter Rain, as it was known in 1948, brought forth a 'new' word of sonship, five-fold ministry and reconciliation. In 1979 another word was declared, a word of going behind the veil and union with Him, and now there is another change. A serious change. A new dispensation dawns at this time - if that is the correct word.

 It is no longer sufficient to relax and rejoice in the knowledge of who you are in Christ, but it is the time to come forth as the burnt offering, one offered up for the sake of the world. It is one thing to know your place in Christ, but now is the time to take action as Christ and manifest His Life in you as a pleasing praise offering, which the burnt offering is. It follows the sin offering as an aroma of fragrance and life unto God. 

Let it be known that today is the day, not tomorrow, for tomorrow will never come unless today prepares its way. God has called us to be the burnt offering even as His Son was, even as we walk in His steps (1 Peter 2:21). This is the next step in the progression of Life passed the three feasts.  

We are offered up for the sake of brethren; death in us so that they might have life, Paul declares (2 Corinthians 4:10f). Some, who have a hope of a redeemed physical body shortly, may be disappointed. For our body is a carcass, chaff to be sown for the manifestation of God. God's glory is more important than a redeemed body at this time. Walking in Christ is more important than being in union with Him. One precedes the other, but walking in Christ in the midst of trials and afflictions reveals Him (Hebrews 2:14 - going through death). It is a new day, a new word, a time for being the burnt sacrifice, a sacrifice of praise to God because of the deliverance that is brought by being such a sacrifice. Consider:

While conversing with the Beloved, the conversation turned and a few new thoughts crossed my mind. Every time in the Bible that a dove appeared there was a new order, a change. Noah brought a new day and Jesus coming forth at the Jordan brought a new day. The dove was a symbol of that change in each case. Rarely is the dove used in Scripture because of the importance placed on the fowl. The Lord took me to the burnt offering and showed me the dove. But what did it mean?

As we know, Jesus fulfilled all these offerings of Leviticus and more including the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. We must remember that the Passover was done the first time before they left Egypt and was established before the Law of Leviticus. The sacrifices for sin (Sin or Trespass offering) had to be first and occur before this burnt offering could be done. In Latin the burnt offering was known as sacrificium latreuticum, which basically means the sacrifice of devotion and service. For this offering is beyond the sacrifice for sin, and this offering is for laying ones' life down for service.

This offering was an offering of a life (animal, fowl) - the meat offering was a grain of the field, and in fact none of the other offerings gave a life. The things that transpire in your life - situations, sickness, etc. are there for the service of others. Even as Jesus bore our sicknesses to the cross for us, we too, for the sake of others bear about in our body afflictions for the sake of others (Galatians 6:2-3) as a witness and testimony of the sustaining power of God. These are giving your life for others, a pleasing aroma to God.

In the Burnt offering, the Peace offering and the Meat offering the offerer came as a worshipper to God. In the other offerings, Sin and Trespass, the person came as a sinner to pay a penalty for sin and trespass. In either situation the offering was to be without spot or blemish, but there was a significant difference between the Burnt, Meal and Peace offering and the others - Sin and Trespass.  The Burnt, Meal and Peace offerings were given as a man stood perfect before the Lord and the offering was tested by fire for the holiness of the individual. The individual was accepted before God as holy, then it was a pleasing sacrifice. The man in the Sin and Trespass offering appears as a sinner and bears the penalty of his own offenses. Christ has called us to the Burnt offering since we have experienced the Passover event in our life, that born-again experience as some call it.

In one sense God finds the flesh given as food for Himself not food in the literal sense, but spiritual satisfaction. It is joy and life to Himself because we have come into His Image and bring glory to His name (2 Thessalonians 1:10). He can partake of us because we are accepted in His Beloved. We are bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, His very own body are we.

The fire that consumes the sacrifice comes from heaven, in the case of Elijah, but also our God is a consuming fire. He consumes the burnt offering because it is acceptable to His nature, even of His nature. He can only have unity with that which is of His nature. The greatest praise our heavenly Father can receive is that of us being a people in His Image.

There were three types of burnt offerings: ox, lamb and the dove. Each had vital importance in the burnt offering, which was a pleasing offering, a savor, and an aroma of praise to God.  Each offering represents a different facet to the Lord. The burnt offering or Olah, also known as the Chalil, really means the "whole burnt offering."  The term Olah means “ascending to the Lord,” as in surrendering totally to God. This offering followed the sin offering. The burnt offering was unto the Lord and was identification with the purpose of God. Jesus offered Himself up as a burnt offering, the Only begotten of God, the one in whom God was well pleased (Matthew 3:17). He sacrificed His will for God’s. 

The Burnt Offering - the Ox

 The ox is the one who treads out the grain, the one who lives out his life in the common necessary tasks of life all the while breaking the grain down so others can eat. Where would we be without the effort it takes to do the mundane? The burnt offering was a praise offering which means the ox ministry is a praise to God even though it is hidden from normal sight by its commonality. The common thing is just as important to God as the exquisite thing, and the same is true for the small as well as the great.

The ox was one of the four faces of the Cherubim in Ezekiel and Revelation. The Gospel of Mark is symbolized by the ox ministry.  Andrew Jukes brings out in his book, The Four Views of Christ, that Mark reveals Christ as a "patient Servant and Sacrifice for others, spending and being spent to serve the sons of men." As an example in Mark's gospel the Sermon on the Mount is not in it because it is a "law" of the kingdom. The servant ministry, that ox ministry, is not concerned with that aspect but with being spent for others. Mark reveals the view of "doing and toiling and serving the needy…far humbler work than teaching. (pg.56)"

The book of Mark shows in detail the way Jesus ministered while the other gospels focused in different ways. Even in the same scriptures, Mark takes his own focus. Let me quote a few: Speaking of the little children…"He took them up in His arms and blessed them." Speaking of Peter's wife's mother…"He took her by the hand" or the blind man "He took the blind man by the hand." (pg. 56) These acts written in detail differently than the other gospels, reveal a personal touch, tenderness, a physical expression, time taken, intimate interest, and this can only be done by the ministry of service. In many church services people are healed by the minister of the Lord as that minister goes down the line of people, but that type of ministry is not personal or intimate. It is more assembly line in its approach, but the ministry of the ox takes time to be personal. Toiling in personal relationships is the ministry of the ox.

Note as you read Leviticus 1 that the legs and the inward parts were washed with water. The water speaks of the Holy Spirit cleansing the walk, not that the walk is poor or in the flesh, or that the walk is carnal. This animal has been selected because it is pure and holy before God.  It was without spot or blemish, which means it was not tainted meat. In type and shadow it is a symbol, as are the other offerings, of the church without spot or wrinkle (Ephesians 5:27). Cleansed by the blood of the sin offering, the sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God, that Passover sacrifice, the ox (you and I) is cleansed in its walk by the washing of the word of God (Ephesians 5:26). The ox, like us, is cleansed because we come into contact with that which is unholy and thereby we must be cleansed.

Our legs are washed to remove the "dust" of that fallen adamic nature from us. But even more so, the inward parts were washed which includes all the intestines, liver, etc. Each of these parts is important for the removing of toxins from the body. In one sense these parts needed to be cleansed by the Spirit because lower levels of understanding are no longer tolerated for those predestined (Ephesians 1:5,11) to His nature. On the other hand, these parts represent the will, desires, emotions that must be cleansed until they are holy and acceptable unto the Lord. The inward parts which represent the soul, mind, will and emotions, are cleansed from any possibility of carnal thinking. Thus, we can walk the walk. Knowing the truth and walking it are two different things. The burnt offering has walked the walk, the lifestyle and its emotions, will and desires are conformed to the desires of the Lord's purposes.

This animal is a type of the saints of God who offer their life as a pleasing aroma to Christ. The saints now identified with the Lord through the three feasts (Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles) are now to be the burnt offering, following in the footsteps of their Lord (1 Peter 2:21). Since our identity is hid with Christ in God, now is the time for us to begin the dispensation of the burnt offering.

It is a new time, a new understanding of what we are to manifest. It is not sufficient to rejoice that the Lord has called us to be in His Image, nor is it glorious to God that we are called to be sons of God (Romans 8:19-20) but it is glorious to God as we begin the walk of the mundane as a praise to Him, as a burnt offering, cleansed from the dust that tries to adhere to us but cannot because of the water of the Spirit washing our legs clean.

This ox was cut up into pieces in order to be served. How glorious is this burnt offering because it can be served for the benefit of others. The actual word is "flaying" of the animal. Only a trained person can do this correctly. Only our loving Lord can flay us because He has been flayed for us and knows what to do to bring us into His image. The animal sacrificed had to be done in a certain manner, certain way. This speaks to us of what Paul states in 2 Timothy 2:15 concerning "rightly dividing the word of God." The word must be discerned correctly.

In Solomon's temple the Laver, called the great sea, was set upon twelve oxen. Each was symbolic of the twelve tribes but had even more significance. Each of the twelve was, according to some research, castrated. That is to say there were neither male nor female natures. We can only rightly divide the word of truth when we fulfill Galatians 3:28. The ox speaks of ministry that is not biased in any manner but seeks to give life at all times.

Oxen were used as a pair to thresh the grain. We are not to be unequally yoked because if we are, then there is a tendency that the stronger will cause the other to follow its lead and the result will be a circle. God has called us through Christ to be yoked with Him - equally yoked, since we are in His nature (Matthew 11:29-30), that servant (ox) ministry. But you and Christ joined at the neck by the yoke are to thresh the grain. You are to serve the body of Christ, the saints, by the breaking of the word to them.

No longer is it acceptable to see and understand the ministry of salvation (Passover), the gifts of the Spirit (Pentecost) or the third experience of union with God (Tabernacles). No longer is it acceptable to know and understand the truths of Hebrew 6:1. For knowledge of no rapture, reconciliation and restitution of all things, is not sufficient. Personal understanding of God in your own life is not the end result desired by God. While all these are important in your life because of your relationship with God, the Lord would have you be like Him.

He wants you to follow His example and be the ox ministry in the world today. He wants you to manifest His life in such a manner that you take the time to help others in a world that is bereft of time and seemingly pressed for time. God has plenty of time. The vanity of man is that man thinks time is money, profit and even more. Man, setting himself up as god, has determined that time governs your life in all aspects. But God seeks out the ox ministry that values relationships over time management.

It is only when we can rejoice in the common every day of life experiences - brushing our teeth, washing, sleeping, working, helping the spouse, raising the children, etc. - that we can truly be the ox ministry to the world. The manifestation of Christ will not be a cloud splitting, radiant descent of a literal man, Jesus, appearing in the Middle East. No, He is appearing as an ox ministry descending out of where He has made His throne (John 14:23, Rev.3:21) and appearing as you, as you realize that everyday things are your presentation of the burnt offering.

There is a people called by His name who are obediently following the Lord and live each day realizing that it is Christ and only Christ in their life. Yoked together with Him, sitting in heavenly places, reigning over their nations (within), these people like Sister Theresa toil in the mundane things of everyday life. Treading out the grain, these saints rejoice at the opportunity to give life and manifest it in every-day things. These are those called to the ox ministry.

 The Burnt Offering - the Lamb

 The second offering was the lamb. As 2 Corinthians 5:7 states Jesus was our Passover Lamb. Surely, this chapter in Leviticus is a type and shadow of Christ. But this is a Lamb not for Passover, which has occurred, but a Lamb given for a praise offering, which is what the burnt offering is. As Jukes has stated: "In a word, instead of seeing Christ as redeeming, we here see His work for the redeemed; His work, not in bringing them out of Egypt, but in bringing them into a place of worship " (The Law of Offerings pg. 42).

Jesus was the praise of the Father. He glorified the Father by the works that He did (John 17:4). He caused the people to worship God by the things that He did. He walked a "slain" life in that all that He did He did for the people, and He did nothing unless He saw His Father do it or say it (John 5:19, 30). His ministry for three and one-half years was a ministry of a Lamb slain for the benefit of the people and culminated on the literal manifestation of His Lamb nature when He died on the cross.

The Lamb that is found in the book of Leviticus chapter one is the corporate expression of the Lamb of God. He has called us to be a peculiar people that we should show the praises of God (1 Peter 2:9). One shows forth praise by his life - the way the person lives, not by an activity in a church service. This offering in Leviticus was a worship offering, a praise offering. When the church, the bride, the body of Christ, comes into His nature, it is a praise or worship offering unto God. There are some called the sons of God mentioned in Romans 8:19-20 who will lead the way. For they will be a kind of firstfruits (James 1:18) of this new creation man.

 Since you found Christ as your Savior have you found Christ within the Tabernacle as the Lamb? Have you found Him Who is within you? Have you found Him as You? For a praise offering is one identified with the Only Begotten. We are called to be a praise offering, which is what the burnt offering is.

Consider Romans 12:1 which reads in the NASV: "I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship."  The Amplified Bible reads as follows: "I appeal to you therefore brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies - presenting all your members and faculties - as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship."

One of the key points of the sacrifice is that it is "spiritual worship" not a literal song service or a mental exercise of worship. The whole life represented by the words "presenting all your members and faculties" is required to be a worship to the Lord. The Lamb nature of God is to be seen in all that you do - natural, mental or spiritual. It is not some religious exercise done in church services. It is a lifestyle that is manifested in daily living.

Before we discuss Isaac, the offering, we must remember that Isaac was produced from Abraham.  Abraham was a crucified life. Isaac was produced from a man who had his name changed (nature change) and his life was one seeking a spiritual city. The adamic nature was slain in Abraham, and that enabled God to cause him to produce Isaac.

In Genesis 22:5, it mentions that Abraham and Isaac were going up to the mountain to worship. This is the first time that the word "worship" is used in Scripture. Worship is a burnt offering (verse 3). We know the story. Isaac is going to be the sacrifice. The life that Isaac lived was a 'worship' unto God that would culminate in his giving his life unto God, unless God intervened.

Can you worship God so much that you would give up your nature of Christ that you have built into yourself over a lifetime? Paul did. He was willing to be a castaway if it could bring in the natural brethren, the Jews. He was willing to lose his salvation in order to bring them in. Would you? As to the Christians, in 1Corinthians 9:22 Paul states that "to the weak I became weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some." Whatever it took working in him, he was willing. So too was Isaac. This is true worship - far different than singing songs in a building during a service.

In Genesis 22:3 it states that Abraham is to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. Placed in the child Isaac is all of the promise given to Abraham. God tests Abraham to see if Abraham will offer up all unto God. It is pleasing to God if we offer all that He is back to Him and try not to keep the nature of Him who is within us and is us! Only Christ can please God. Only Christ can be acceptable to God. He is the only one who is in His nature. When we have died to the self-nature of Adam and are fully identified with Christ, then that is a burnt offering. Studying Isaac will reveal that he is a type and shadow of Christ. We need to not selfishly hold on to the Christ in us, the one we love and adore. For He is to be offered back to the Father. This is a living sacrifice.

Note that you are the sacrifice of Romans 12:1. Note that Paul considers you a "living" sacrifice. This means that you are no longer in trespasses and sin or those offerings for penalties, but rather that your life is hid with God in Christ and thereby a worship offering - the burnt offering. You have entered into the Lamb nature of God through identification with Christ Jesus.

In the Scriptures, sometimes it is very important to look at the first occurrence or location of a word used in the Bible. Sometimes it presents a very good picture of what the word is to mean. The very first time that the word "lamb" is used in the Bible is in Genesis 22:17. Isaac asked the question of his father Abraham, "Where is the Lamb?"  A more pertinent question might have been, "Who is the Lamb?" God had told Abraham to offer his son, his only begotten son that was God ordained. Isaac was the Lamb.

In this type and shadow of a real situation, God is trying to teach us that we can be the offering. Isaac was enough in the nature of God that he was acceptable to be a pleasing sacrifice. Isaac knew his place in God (see our message: Who is Isaac?). Do you know your place in God?

 In the following verse (22:8) Abraham responds to Isaac that God will provide the Lamb for Himself. Abraham was assured that if God required his son he either would be raised from the dead since posterity was called in the child, or God would provide a lamb. But his son could be the lamb. Isaac was a type of Christ and even a type of you and me, the church, who are to be a lamb for the world to see. We are to be offered for the world in order that the world might see Him.

Again, similar to the ox, the lamb is without spot or blemish. Again its inward parts and legs are washed. But there is a difference. Where the ox speaks of the mundane, the lamb speaks of the visible. It is the time when you are offered openly for the sake of others. It is the time when you, as the one in the image of the Lamb, are attacked because you reveal His nature openly. It is this offering that the Lord is seeking and longing for.

 The Burnt Offering - the Dove

 Besides the ox or the lamb that could be used there was the dove. The dove is significant. Noah released a dove at the dawning of a new time, a new dispensation. A dove descended on Jesus as He came forth out of the Jordan and began the kingdom of God by removing the Kingdom of the Jews. The dove played a major role in declaring a new event in biblical chronology.

The first time Abram offered to God was with a heifer, lamb (kid) and a turtledove (Genesis 15:9). It was an offering, not a sacrifice. A sacrifice is required, but a burnt offering is freely given out of devotion to God.  His offering was reckoned unto him as righteousness.

The dove was a symbol of heaven in that it could fly, while the other animals were identified with the earth. The heavens speak of the spirit, and the earth speaks of the emotions, will, desires. Whereas the other two offerings had their internal organs cleansed, this was not the case with the dove. It was clean in the will, desires and emotions.

But different from the other offerings, it had its head removed (1:15) and its wings were crippled (1:16). Jesus states that He looked for a place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). The removal of the head of the dove speaks to me of the laying down of our spiritual life which has been acceptable to God, a pleasing praise offering, in order that He might have pre-eminence in our life through His headship.

The actual NAS version states: "He shall take away its crop…" In other words, the crown, the glory, of the bird is removed. For there is a crown laid in heaven for us (2 Timothy 4:8) and it is available to us only if we lay aside our crown. It is only as we set aside the glory of what we know about the Lord that we can ascend into the heavens from whence He came. As He left heaven to appear for us, we must leave the earthly character in order to ascend into His realm.  We must set aside every weight that besets us.

General Lee once stated: "To be a good commander you must be willing to put to death that which you love." As much as we cherish our love of God and His speaking and dealing with us, we must offer up our life, which is His life in this flesh. As much as I cherish the Lord working within me, through me, and speaking to me, it is a personal and somewhat selfish thing. We must lay down this life, set aside the cherished for the sake of the manifestation of the Lord for the benefit of others. This is true love.

The crippled wings speak of us laying down our flying in the heavenly realms, that is, our ability to hear from God on subjects, words of the Lord, etc.  When we lay it down, even as He laid down His heavenly estate to be made manifest on the earth, we, too, lay down our spirituality. We offer up that which blesses us so much in order that He might be glorified by the offering that we become, even as He was the offering unto God for us. We walk in the same manner (Philippians 3:17, 1 Corinthians 9:23) as Paul followed Christ.

This is the offering of the dove, "an offering by fire of a soothing aroma of the Lord." Exodus 24:17 seems to indicate that the glory of the Lord is fire. Our God is a fire (Hebrews 12:29). When we identify with the fire we become His glory. When we identify with being burned, then we are still in Adam, that fallen nature. But we, who are identified with Christ, are the burnt offering, the very fire of God, and the glory of God because He has called us to Him.

Whether it is a dove, heifer, or a lamb, it reveals the nature of God in the individual being manifested for the work of the ministry. There is no more glorious work than the manifestation of Him in a people.  This is a pleasing aroma, a fragrance for Him that arises unto His nostrils and says well done, faithful servants of the Most High.

 The Ninth Hour Offering

 As the Lord began to deal with me about Jesus, who is the fulfilling of all the offerings and sacrifices, I was shown the importance of the ninth hour in the offerings. While the truth of the ninth hour can be proclaimed there is great importance to it for us. Jesus is our pattern and as He was the offering of the ninth hour, so we too must become the offering of the ninth hour. This time is upon this generation at this time.

Jesus was (Matthew 27:45-47) crucified at the 6th hour but died about the ninth hour (3 p.m.) at the time of the evening sacrifice, when a burnt offering was often used, an offering of praise. The burnt offering was given in the evening (3 p.m.) as a conclusion of the day of acceptable sacrifices. It was a burnt offering that showed forth the glory of God and his acceptance of the whole day.

His acceptance of the whole day - the day of His creation of a new creation in Christ, so to speak. For the day of the Lord is a glorious  day as man is seen in His image. It is not a time, a chronological event, as some would teach, but a person is the Day of the Lord as He comes forth in you.

In Ezra 9:5,  we find Ezra at the time of evening sacrifice, arising (resurrecting if you will) from his humiliation (the fallen Adamic nature), with his garment torn symbolic of the filthy rags (Zechariah 3:3) and replaced with the garment that Jesus Christ was given to wear (Revelation 1:1), He lays prostrate before God in the nature of acceptance to God. He was a pleasing savor.

In Leviticus 25:22 it reads concerning the year of Jubilee: "When sowing in the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when the crops come in."

The year of Jubilee was the 50th year when all lands reverted back to the original owners. It was a type and shadow of what God's plan is doing with creation. For the fall of Adam was only the beginning unto the redemption of mankind through Jesus Christ our Lord.  The year of Jubilee was a restoration from all that was stolen or lost by a person's family. But there were spiritual interpretations to it. For we lost much if not all, through sin.

As we read about Jubilee, we see that they were eating the food from the sixth year, for the seventh year was to be a time of rest for the land. Thus, on the eighth year they were still eating from food of the sixth year until the new food of the ninth year was harvested. Of, the glory of the ninth year when there is fresh food!  A food of the new day! So it is when the ninth year comes in.

There are nine gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12. Nine is a very important number in type and shadow of the Scriptures. A number worth study itself.

From the 6th hour unto the 9th hour there was darkness at the time of Christ on the cross Mark 15:33 states. The death of Jesus was a dark time as He accepted all death and took it to the cross. All death from the past, present and future was summed up in Him. He nailed it to the cross in Himself, ending all darkness by the brightness of His life and resurrection.

But the ninth hour brought forth light again for it was the time of evening sacrifice. A time of joy before the morning. In the ninth hour when darkness seemed the greatest, it was the time of men standing in the Holy Place before the Lord praising His name during the evening sacrifice (Psalm 134:1) for deliverance comes in the morning.

John and Peter were making their way towards the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. While this is a literally true story as found in Acts 3, there is great truth and life as one studies the story. They were going up to the temple to pray about the ninth hour.

Do we not know that we are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16)? Do we not pray in the temple too? They were going "up" to the temple. Do we not arise out of ourselves into the nature of Christ, going "up" into Him?

They were going up for the evening offering for it was an hour of prayer. It was a time of presenting petitions to God from an acceptable offering. These men were acceptable because of who they were in Christ.

In fact, they knew who there were in Christ. Peter stated "Look on us" (Acts 3:4). It was not a playful statement, but it was a seriously truthful statement. Note that the lame man (speaks of the lame walk of the Adamic, fallen nature) "began" to give them his attention. The old nature always wants life and seeks to be healed. But it is the saint who is in Christ and knows it that causes the difference. John and Peter were in the Lord.

Peter proclaims: "Silver and gold I do not possess but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene - walk" (Acts 3:6). Peter said I do not have anything on  the natural plane; I have nothing on the soulish plane; I have nothing in myself of will, desire or emotions. I come not from the carnal man. I come from my position in Christ and who I am in Christ.

Peter was not speaking from the realm of Pentecost. No, he was proclaiming a word of the Kingdom of God, even as Christ came in the power of the kingdom (Matthew 4:23). Peter was not ministering from a part realm such as Passover or Pentecost but speaking from Tabernacles and union with God, being in the nature of the Son.

Of course, these Scriptures are inspired. Would you have enough fortitude to proclaim "look on us" as Peter did? Do you believe that you are in Christ, an evening offering that is pleasing to God, even as Jesus was?

Think it not strange that fiery trials shall come upon you but it is for the benefit of all. It was the fire that produced 'one like unto the son of man' in Daniel. Who can stand the everlasting fires (Isaiah 33:14)? It is any saint who is found righteous, and that is accomplished by being in Christ Jesus. Peter and John, in the image of Christ, came forward and proclaimed the good news and gave life. That is what it is all about.

At the ninth hour Cornelius saw an angel (Acts 10:3,30). What does it all mean? Cornelius, a devout man, a Gentile, sought God and God heard. He was answered about the ninth hour, the hour of the praise offering. Cornelius was a pleasant aroma to God. The beginning of the end had started. First the Jews were offered Christ as a Savior and now, the Gentiles. The beginning of the new creation man was being formed.  

Conclusion 

            More could be written, and words would not suffice for what I have experienced with this meeting with the Lord.  There is an unction, a power of this meeting that has forever changed my life. May you catch that spirit of what we have written and may it be life unto you that will vivify, quicken your nature. For our purpose is not to rejoice in our calling as sons of God (Romans 8:19-20) but to rejoice at His appearing within us and doing everything possible to enhance that appearing (2 Thessalonians 1:10). The force of this encounter with God has caused me to know beyond a shadow of doubt, that there is joy, unspeakable joy, joy worth enduring all things, because He is glorified in us as the burnt offering.

Truly, Joseph of old must have known for all he endured - left for dead, placed in a pit, sold into slavery, dwelt in a prison and more not written.  But it was all for the joy of saving many. He was set up for the salvation of a nation. We, the church, have been called corporately for the salvation of the world. Let's not talk Jesus. Let's manifest Him as Peter and John did.

It is time, high time, that the body of Christ everywhere in this whole world begins to pull together. Let the dry bones come together today to be the evening offering that is acceptable. Let us be the ones baptized for the dead (1Corinthains 15:29). Let us be the offering that is acceptable to the Lord for His service so that the dead, those in Adam, might have life through the praise offering, the burnt offering.

            There is a generation, a people, who will bring this forth. Let us press on with all haste to be that generation. How do we press on? We press on by yielding to the Spirit to have His good pleasure in us.  

We have a taped message that we brought in a church on June 13, 1999. While the message is tailored to the church and its local assembly there is much said that could enhance this written word.

 

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