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The Wind Blows Where It Wishes

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John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Exodus 1:8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

Regarding the manifestations of the Spirit, from Genesis to our present age, we are in many ways like the new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. Often we behave as children scooping up the oceans sand in a pail hoping to bring an ocean home, or as Bobby Conner once stated, “We are too familiar with an unfamiliar God” – (“God in a box” theology void of experiential reality). We become champions of our intelligence missing the glaring fact that it was this very “mountain” that Jesus chose to drive His Cross through.

Jeff Oliver, in Pentecost To The Present, Book One: Early Prophetic and Spiritual Gifts Movements states: So this question begs an answer: If these supernatural gifts never left the Church and if the Holy Spirit has been active throughout Church history, working through each generation to build Christ’s Church since the day of Pentecost, why haven’t we heard more about such activity?

Certainly, nothing in the Gospels or Acts indicated that signs and wonders would cease or that the Spirit of God would become passive or dormant. Indeed, the very notion of an inactive Holy Spirit contradicts everything the Bible teaches about His nature and character. This is like saying the wind hasn’t blown in over two thousand years!….The reasons for the relative historical silence are many, but a few are cited below:

  1. Sometimes historical records can be sketchy at best. Objects close in proximity – whether of space or time – are more easily discerned than objects far off….Today modern archaeology and the Information Age are rewriting history every day. Have you ever heard the term “Dark Ages”? This term was once used to describe a period of alleged intellectual and cultural darkness between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Renaissance (AD 500 – 1300), but starting in the nineteenth century an increased recognition of the accomplishments of that period led to a more restrictive use of the term. By the twentieth century, the term had been further narrowed until most modern scholars finally stopped using it altogether, finding the term false and misleading. In other words, there never really was a “Dark Ages.”
  2. It is not possible to record every miracle or event as it occurs, especially in times of spiritual fervor. Journalists are familiar with the inverted pyramid. Essentially, all important information is placed at the top of a story to capture readers’ interest while all remaining information, for the sake of time and space, is reported in descending order of importance. Likewise when the Spirit of God moved throughout history, it was not always practical or even possible to record every event as it happened.
  3. Until the twentieth century, many of the firsthand participants in spiritual revivals were largely illiterate….Even most early accounts of the twentieth-century Pentecostal movement were written by non-Pentecostals since many early Pentecostals could neither read nor write. Similarly, most information coming from Early and Middle Ages came from church fathers who were among the relatively few who could read and write….Likewise, many early accounts of the Spirit’s activities in the Church are secondhand and often from hostile witnesses. Consider this expose’ written about an historical Christian sect from a previous century: Devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories and work themselves into a state of mad excitement in their peculiar zeal….Night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howling of worshippers, who spend hours swaying back and forth in a nerve-racking attitude of prayer and supplication. They claim to have the gift of tongues and to be able to comprehend the babel. – This excerpt was printed in the Los Angeles Times on April 18, 1906, regarding a “tumble-down shack on Azusa Street” – essentially, the foundation of modern Pentecostalism. 
  4. It is simply human nature to take what we hear at face value, relying on conventional wisdom and prevailing thought for correctness. Few follow the Berean practice of searching the Scriptures daily to verify whether what is said is so….Horace Bushnell, a graduate of Yale during America’s Second Great Awakening, in one of the earliest known works on Continuationism (1858), provided an impetus for this series: It is very commonly assumed and has been since the days of Chrysostom, that miracles and all similar externalities of divine power have been discontinued….The Christian world has been gravitating, visibly, more and more, toward this vanishing point of faith, for whole centuries, and especially since the modern era of science began to shape the thoughts of men by only scientific methods. Religion has fallen into the domain of the mere understanding, and so it has become a kind of wisdom not to believe much, therefore to expect little. 

Were You There?

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At the heart of the city of London is Charing Cross. All distances across the city are measured from its central point. Locals refer to it simply as “the cross.” One day a child became lost in the bustling metropolis.  A city police officer (A “bobby,” as they are referred to in London) came to the child’s aid to try and help him return to his family. The bobby asked the child a variety of questions in an attempt to discover where the boy lived, to no avail. Finally, with tears streaming down the boy’s face, he said, “If you will take me to the cross I think I can find my way from there.” What an apt description of the Christian life. The cross is both the starting place of our new life in Christ, but also the place we must return to, time and again, to keep our bearings in life. – Stuart Strachan Jr.

Today marks the day of all days, called “Good Friday” by believers around the world. At approximately 7AM, Roman governor of Judea, Marcus Pontius Pilatus, sentenced Jesus to die by crucifixion. At approximately 8AM, the patibulum, or cross beam was affixed to Jesus’ shoulders through ropes, as a soldier tied a rope around His waist and led Him through the streets of Jerusalem for all to see what happens when someone defies the power of Rome. The cross beam would have weighed approximately 50-60 pounds. Around His neck was hung the titulus crucis, a sign to be nailed to the top of Jesus’ cross declaring His crime: “King of the Jews”, written in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The site of Jesus’ sentencing is believed to have been the Antonia Fortress built by Herod the Great, and called the Praetorium by Pilate. From that site to Golgotha would have been approximately .5 miles. The weather at that time would have been hot, and dry while the road would have been unpaved, and bumpy studded with scores of crevices made by carts and beasts of burden. As one approached the outside walls of the city the road would have begun to slope upward leading to the hill of Golgotha, or Calvary (the Skull). Fluid accumulated around Jesus’ lungs, as His body was almost numb from severe exhaustion, severe mental and physical sufferings, the flogging, and the nerve-racking, and lancinating pains from the crown of thorns. Jesus fell more than once as He journeyed to the Hill, and the final fall led the accompanying soldier, the exactor mortis, to enlist Simon of Cyrene to carry His cross the rest of the way. Jesus’ robe was literally glued to His Body by the clotted blood which was ripped from His body before His crucifixion. Nailing His hands first to the cross beam, the median nerve (we know it as the “funny bone”) was pierced sending bolts of pain searing through Jesus’ arms. Several soldiers were enlisted to lift Him up to the stipes, or upright post, that was mortised at the top, allowing the soldiers to simply lift and drop the cross beam onto it. Next the soldiers affixed Jesus’ feet either to the sides or the face of the cross, and rather than placing a nail through both feet, archaeological and forensic experts, have surmised that both feet were nailed independently of one another. If the feet were nailed to the face of the cross the median nerve would have also been pierced sending shooting pain up through Jesus’ legs.

At the sixth hour, or noon, darkness covered the land. This lasted 3 hours. One teacher aptly said, If God the Father had to turn His back on His Son, no one else was going to be able to look at Him. Some would see this darkness as a sign of coming judgment. One ancient writer recorded: “When the sun is obscured, it is an evil sign to the nations….when the moon is obscured, it is an evil sign to Israel, because Israel reckons according to the moon, the nations of the world according to the sun.” It was into this darkness Jesus entered into the deepest depths of suffering, as body, soul, and spirit enter a separation between Heaven and earth, God and mankind. It was here Jesus was suspended making a way for us to leave this earth and ascend into His Presence.

At the highest point of His agony, and the filling full of all of histories sins, Jesus stretched forth and shouted in Aramaic, “Ho Mashalam!” Which is one word in the Greek: “Tetelestai!” Our English equivalent is a phrase, “IT IS FINISHED!” And as Scripture records, “He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit.” Those who owed so much that they never could repay – had their debt canceled by He Who owed nothing. He paid our debt through His sufferings, “cancelling the written code that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.” (Col. 2:14) This is the GIFT! You can’t pay for it, or earn it. You don’t deserve it, nor can you escape it. His cross, His death, His cry, echoes through the universe as a testimony that can never be reversed.

In relation to this event thousands, and tens of thousands, have identified with their suffering Messiah declaring, along with the Apostle Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me!” (Gal. 2:20). We are reminded of the old hymn which asks, “Were You There”? This African-American spiritual probably predated the Civil War, asking the obvious question, placing each person who hears the question on the witness stand. The slaves who authored this song could readily relate to the sufferings of Christ, and the brutality of slavery. In the book titled, “Stories Behind the Traditions of Easter,” the author states: “Maybe the fact that spirituals were the joint cries and shouts of Christians looking for the freedom that only God could bring gives the message of this song much more impact. None of us were there in body when Christ died, but all of us need to go there in spirit. To understand the gift of salvation, each sinner must realize that he or she is a slave to the world: only then does seeing Christ on the cross make the impact all the more real.”

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A bell buoy rings only during storms. The beating of the waves and wind bring out the music that is within it, so too do trials reveal what is inside a person. –  J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

How true this was for the trials and beatings of Jesus that preceded His crucifixion. It’s easy to minimize the exhortation of Hebrews 13:13-14 Let us then go forth [from all that would prevent us] to Him outside the camp [at Calvary], bearing the contempt and abuse and shame with Him. For here we have no permanent city, but we are looking for the one which is to come. That is until we begin to realize to “meet Jesus outside the camp” requires that we persevere through our own trials. As we prepare to celebrate Resurrection Day let us not forget: it is a day of celebration, but also a reminder to return to our First Love. He Who loved us with a furious passion, impossible to comprehend from human perspective, had no limitations or boundaries set other than what His body, and Spirit could endure.

From 12 – 6 AM, Jesus endured 6 trials: 3 Jewish, 3 Roman. The Jewish trials were meant to determine if Jesus was guilty of blasphemy, and the Roman Trials to determine if Jesus was guilty of treason. And it’s interesting to note that during this time Passover lambs were being examined to see if they had spot or blemish. Yet, our Passover Lamb, Jesus, passed the test when He was examined and was found to be without spot, or blemish.

Not only was Jesus examined but He was mocked, beaten, and ridiculed in ways that are difficult to imagine. Three Greek words were used to describe the beatings He underwent: Buffet, Smote, and Strike. Each word has a different meaning in the original Greek. To buffet someone means that you rap them with your fists. To smote someone implied that the way you struck them was similar to being flayed, scourged, or thrashed; often used when referring to the skinning of an animal. Scripture does not specify in what manner this was administered but it could have been accomplished through the use of the fists, rods, or both. The final word, to strike, involves slapping, or beating repeatedly with hands or fists. Again Scripture does not give us the details but we can imagine that this involved striking Jesus in the face, mouth, nose, eyes and body. Add to this the suffering Jesus was already experiencing through sweating drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. A condition known as hematidrosis, or hemohidrosis. This documented medical condition is caused by the tiny capillaries in the sweat glands rupturing, mixing their blood, with perspiration. In this condition the skin becomes extremely tender, fragile, and painful to touch. Just the slightest touch would cause bruising. This ordeal in the Garden alone would have left Jesus feeling dehydrated, along with shock, and physical exhaustion. This is why the writer of Hebrews reminds us: Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds. You have not yet struggled and fought agonizingly against sin, nor have you yet resisted and withstood to the point of pouring out your [own] blood. (Heb. 12:3-4)

As we draw near to the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection let us not forget to walk with Him through the trials that purchased our salvation, and the purpose of them. C.H. Spurgeon in a sermon entitled Feathers for Arrows reminds us: In the ancient times, a box on the ear given by a master to a slave meant liberty, little would the freedman care how hard was the blow. By a stroke from the sword the warrior was knighted by his monarch, small matter was it to the new-made knight if the royal hand was heavy. When the Lord intends to lift his servants into a higher stage of spiritual life, he frequently sends them a severe trial; he makes his Jacobs to be prevailing princes, but he confers the honour after a night of wrestling, and accompanies it with a shrunken sinew. Be it so, who among us would wish to be deprived of the trials if they are the necessary attendants of spiritual advancement?

Throughout Scripture we are exhorted to ascend the Hill of the Lord. But never forget that Hill led our Savior to Calvary, or Golgotha. Let us join Him in order that we too may have a glorious resurrection – hearing Him say to us, Well done My good and faithful servant! And never forget that the beating of the waves, and wind bring out the music that is within, as do the trials that reveal what is inside each of us.

The Burning Man

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Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Have you ever known someone who was on fire for Jesus? What does it mean to be on fire for Jesus? What does it take to burn with such passion and zeal? How is Jesus symbolized in the Priestly Tabernacle of Moses? How is our walk with Jesus symbolized in these symbols from the Old Testament? Are you a “burning man” for the Lord?

Revelation 1:15 His feet glowed like burnished (bright) bronze as it is refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 

This strange depiction of Jesus found in the book of Revelation reminds us of another Old Testament depiction found in the book of Daniel, chapter 10, verse 6: His body also was [a golden luster] like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and his feet like glowing burnished bronze, and the sound of his words was like the noise of a multitude [of people or the roaring of the sea].

It’s an intriguing fact that Israel camped around Moses’ Priestly Tabernacle in the form of a cross. 3 Tribes to the north, south, east and west. Even more intriguing is the fact that when the furnishings of the Tabernacle are laid out they also form a cross. To enter the Tabernacle the priest could only go through one door. Jesus referred to Himself as the Door or the Gate for the Sheep in John 10 repeatedly, and also stated in John 14:6 that He was the Way. With that in mind when you see the Priestly Tabernacle as a type, shadow, or symbol of the Cross of Christ you discover that as you enter the Door the very first thing you will see is the Bronze Altar. This altar is where all of the sacrifices took place, especially the sacrifice of lambs. The Amplified Translation makes reference to this in 1 Peter 2:24 when it states: He personally bore our sins in His [own] body on the tree [as on an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. 

We know from Scripture the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son, Isaac on an altar. What’s easy to miss is the rest of the story:  Genesis 22:7-8 And Isaac said to Abraham, My father! And he said, Here I am, my son. [Isaac] said, See, here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt sacrifice. Abraham said, My son, God Himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering. So the two went on together. 

The story concludes in Genesis 22:10-14And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took hold of the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! He answered, Here I am. And He said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear and revere God, since you have not held back from Me or begrudged giving Me your son, your only son. Then Abraham looked up and glanced around, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering and an ascending sacrifice instead of his son! So Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide. And it is said to this day, On the mount of the Lord it will be provided.

To come to the Bronze Altar was to come before the feet of the Burning Man, the Man whose feet glowed like burnished bronze refined in a furnace. For those of us called to not only kneel before Him at the Cross, but to join Him in being crucified with Him on the Cross, we become altars ourselves. Consider the following exhortations: Romas 12:1 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. 

Add to this Scripture Hebrews 13:10-15 We have an altar from which those who serve and worship in the tabernacle have no right to eat. For when the blood of animals is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin, the victims’ bodies are burned outside the limits of the camp. Therefore Jesus also suffered and died outside the [city’s] gate in order that He might purify and consecrate the people through [the shedding of] His own blood and set them apart as holy [for God]. Let us then go forth [from all that would prevent us] to Him outside the camp [at Calvary], bearing the contempt and abuse and shame with Him. For here we have no permanent city, but we are looking for the one which is to come. Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name.

We join Jesus in carrying the wood of our flesh, and the fire of obedient sacrifice, as we join Jesus in carrying His cross up to Golgotha, the place of the skull. Here we put to the death that which is at war with God – the mind of the soul man. Here we allow His cross to penetrate our skulls to free our spirit man from its prison bringing it to surrender and bow in submission before the transforming power of His Spirit and Word. Here we become an altar and our walk burns like burnished bronze as we follow in the steps of our Lord and King.

When I was younger fellow Christians would talk about another believer being “on fire” for the Lord. We all knew what it meant but very few knew what it would take to burn with such love and passion. Here in Moses’ depiction of the priestly tabernacle we discover a good place to begin.