Normal, the New Normal or the Kingdom of God?
We have truly entered a time of universal crisis and the decisions we make right now are going to determine how favorably we navigate, endure and overcome what is emphatically upon us. The essence of our decision making is going to determine whose government or rule we are literally going to live under as we accelerate into these last days looking for the glorious coming of our awesome King. The choices being proffered to us through the main stream media are being conveyed in terms of the “normal” and the “new normal.” But as followers of Jesus Christ we are challenged to reject the world’s offer and to fully embrace God’s Kingdom, choosing to thoroughly live out all its mandates and values through the grace and by the power of Jesus’ resurrection life. Hear once again the challenge Moses set before the people of Israel as they prepared to enter in…
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live… Deut 30:19 NKJV
As the mainstream media and politicians continue to stir up fears regarding Covid-19 and our cities struggle with Antifa/racial violence, while governors and mayors usurp the freedom of millions of people, many Christians wonder where God is in all this. Like, why is this happening to us? And, will life ever return to “normal?” The answer I am hearing as I listen to God is, No, things will not ever be normal again. However, do we really want it back like it was? Aren’t you tired of all the evil going on all around us? Aren’t you sick and tired of the gross immorality portrayed in Hollywood movies and the casting aside of moral restraints by so many in our society? Aren’t you tired of having to listen to profanity whenever you are out in public? Doesn’t the knowledge that babies by the millions have been and still are being slaughtered at abortion clinics in all our cities outrage your sense of righteousness? Frankly, I don’t want it back the way it was. I want to move forward in Jesus Christ and see his righteousness prevailing all over the world. I want to see the kingdom of God come and be a part of it.
People, all that is going on right now is part of the preparation for the return of Christ and his kingdom coming on earth. Christians have been praying for 2000 years, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” I believe that prayer is being answered right now, only very few Christians understand this.
Our nation along with every other nation on earth is full of idolatry. If you know your Old Testament, you realize that God always judges idolatry—first of all in his people and then also in the people groups who don’t know him. All this global chaos is going to increase and will not cease until the unrighteous leaders are removed and the stage is set for the coming of the King of kings.
Meanwhile, our job as followers of Jesus is to daily draw closer and closer to God. There are some exciting times ahead for those of us who forsake, remove and destroy our own idols and seek God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. We will get to go forth and spread the gospel of the kingdom all over the world. I can hardly wait! When the time is right, people will be desperate for God. They will have found out that most of what they once thought was important is absolutely worthless. They will be so hungry and thirsty for God that all else in their lives pales in comparison to their desire for him. (Amos 8:11, 12)
If we are to survive what is soon coming as the Devil makes his last gasp effort to rule the world, we will have to overcome all the high tech ways his followers will be using to try to exterminate all but about 500 million of us. We are going to see wars breaking out all around us. Many people will lose everything, but if we cling to God, he will see us through and protect us. Right now is the time to be searching the Bible for God’s promises to his people, promises that he will provide for us and keep us safe. We need to be building up our faith in God daily. We need to recall all the times in the past that God has done something for us. Sometimes we don’t recognize what God has done and call his care for us “luck” or “coincidence.” We need to begin to see everything as from the hand of God. Anything bad that comes our way has been permitted as an opportunity to grow in faith and draw closer to God.
With that said, I want to, at this point, introduce a deep teaching from the Old Testament that will reveal in types and shadows what God is doing in his people in preparation for their going forth in ministry. The ministries we will see going forth worldwide will astound the world. We will actually fulfill what Jesus said in John 14 when he stated that we would do the works he did and even greater works. That is hard to imagine; however, greater works will be required because the world is in a much bigger mess now than it was when Jesus walked on earth. People in his day did not face the threat of nuclear war or biological and chemical weapons, or microwaves beamed at them from 5G towers and satellites, or everything they did or said being recorded on cameras, computers and cell phones. And then there is the whole phenomenon of AI along with worldwide Satanism practiced by most of the elites who plan to rule the world. Of course, when we do these greater works, Jesus will be the one doing them through us.
The Old Testament often shows us New Testament truths in great detail by use of word pictures and stories that have to be interpreted to us by the Holy Spirit. In this way, end time truths were recorded but only those who needed these truths would be able to know them when the Holy Spirit chose to reveal them. An example of this can be seen in Elijah and Elisha. Their names and ministries were similar. They went everywhere together. This is most clearly seen in 2 Kings 2 just prior to Elijah’s being taken up in the whirlwind. It is like the two of them were inseparable and remained so until Elijah was taken up by God in the whirlwind.
There is something else that is inseparable and can only be divided by God and that is the union of our soul and spirit as recorded in Hebrews 4:12 where we read that “The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit…” If we take an inward view of the passages about Elijah and Elisha, seeing them as types of what are in us with Elijah representing our soul and Elisha our spirit, we can interpret them as showing a picture of the separation of our soul and spirit in the end times. Why is this important? This is important because it contains secrets about the church coming into the fullness of Christ in the end times. It shows us the process we will go through to come into Christ’s fullness where we will perform miracles of the same magnitude as Elisha’s.
In our present condition we live mostly out of our natural understanding which is our soul. Our spirit, the Bible tells us, is already seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus (Eph 2:6). At this point it is like our soul is the master who is in charge (like Elijah) and our servant is our spirit (Elisha—the one who poured water on Elijah’s hands). We interpret life and make decisions in our soul, but our spirit is pouring the Word of God (living water) into our soul to help us with our understanding. In this way we grow in Christ on our way to full maturity.
Our soul and spirit are inseparable like Elijah and Elisha were. Because our soul and spirit are attached, the soul holds the spirit earthbound so to speak. We are not able to see and know in our natural mind the things that our spirit sees and knows except for little snatches such as revealed in dreams, occasional visions or flashes of insight. This attachment is like a veil that separates our natural understanding in our soul from the heavenly things our spirit knows.
Jesus does not want us to see into heaven and perform great miracles until we come into spiritual perfection (Eph 4:13) because we would misuse these powers. We have to be so dead to self that our every thought and action is completely submitted to God in total submission of our will to his will.
In the account in 2 Kings 2 of Elijah and Elisha going from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and finally across the Jordan River where Elijah went up in the whirlwind, we are shown a symbolic progression of a person in the end times advancing in spiritual maturity to the point that the soul and spirit can be separated and the power of God can pour into this person. These two men began their journey at Gilgal, a place noted for its idolatry, (and we all begin our journey here). Then they progressed to Bethel, a place of revelations of God and heavenly things (where Jacob had his great ladder vision). The next place on this spiritual journey was Jericho (the first city the Israelites encountered in the Promised Land). By the time they reached Jericho, full maturity had come and it was time to cross over Jordan on dry ground to the separation of soul and spirit and the commencing of one of the greatest ministries the world has ever seen.
Elijah’s going up to heaven is in type the soul rising to a level of perfection never before known. The double portion of his spirit which came on Elisha was a double portion of the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t Elijah’s spirit that raised the dead, called down fire from heaven or did any of his great miracles. It was the Spirit of God in him that did these things. The mantle he left behind was all the righteousness and power of God that the soul was clothed in. It is what was left of the person that was perfected.
The Bible tells us in James that Elijah was a man of like passions such as we. He struggled with fear when Jezebel threatened to kill him. He experienced self-pity as he sat under a broom tree and prayed to die. He had natural human responses to some things that happened to him—responses that we never see in Elisha. All of these human weaknesses went away in the whirlwind so all that remained (his mantle) was all that was in Elijah that was of God.
A whirlwind is like a centrifuge. When something spins in a centrifuge certain things are separated so that what had appeared to be one thing can be seen as actually being parts joined together. The most common example of this is the spinning of blood in a centrifuge where whole blood is separated into its component parts via spinning. For the soul (Elijah) to be in a whirlwind would indicate that this person in whom the soul and spirit are being prepared for this great end time ministry, goes through an experience wherein all that was purely natural and subject to sin and weakness was cast off and all that remained was of God (mantle). Now the spirit (Elisha) can go forth with all the goodness of God from the soul (mantle) with it and all that had been natural and weak separated out so nothing can hinder the flow of God through this person. At this point the spirit is now the one making the decisions and the soul is in submission to it.
One may wonder, why is all this hidden in a type? Perhaps because it is a spiritual reality reserved for those of us on whom the end of the ages has come who will minister in power such as the world has never seen. It is a fact that power corrupts. If there is nothing left in us to corrupt, God can trust us with his power knowing we will not use that power to forward our own selfish ends. There won’t be anything selfish left in us.
All this is to say that the sin nature that all humans since the fall were born with will have been dealt a deathblow by God such that it no longer exists in these persons. This was never before possible because it could only come upon those of us who will face the devastations of the cumulative sin of all persons who ever lived who rejected God. All this sin is manifested in Satan’s followers who want to destroy over six billion souls (Agenda 21/30) and are destroying our planet in the process. All this evil can only be overcome by God himself working through his people. He needs people who will be indestructible—and that we will be. It is only because of our sin nature that we are susceptible to sickness, aging and death. The things that lie ahead for God’s people who choose to forsake all to follow him are so astounding most people won’t even believe it!
There is so much to look forward to for those of us who choose to pursue God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. We need to remember when it seems that everything around us is crumbling and falling and the realization sweeps over us that life will never be the same again—we need to remember that Jesus Christ never changes; he will not crumble or fail. He is God Almighty and he is here with us right now. Don’t fail to do today “while it is still called today” all you can do to enter into God’s presence. He wants to have fellowship with us but we must do our part by spending time in his presence, seeking him and studying his word. The deeper we go in the Word of God, the deeper we see into the affairs of this life. God grants us wisdom and understanding to help us with the decisions we need to make in these uncertain times. He will guide us through the mine fields and booby traps the enemy sets before us if we will turn to him and seek him in all things.
An Addendum:
Our enemy, the Devil, tries to counterfeit absolutely everything God does. Since God can separate the soul and spirit, the Devil thinks he can do the same thing. I have actually seen in abused persons what the enemy has done to replicate the separation of soul and spirit. I have heard memories about the rituals done by satanic cults to separate the soul and spirit in their victims. They do this in order to open this person’s perception to the spirit realm so that they see, hear and feel demons. This increases their torment so they are never free from demonic oppression no matter where they are or who they are with. This also enables their abusers to use them as channelers.
The first time I saw this was in 1992 when I was ministering to the first satanically ritually abused person the Lord had brought to me for ministry. This lady was MK-Ultra and had been abused by people in high places in our government and all over the world. The incident happened just after church one Sunday morning. She, I and a few others were sitting around in our living room when she suddenly grabbed her head in her hands and exclaimed that she felt she was being cut in two. As I prayed for her the Lord revealed that there was a demon stationed between her soul and spirit that had been put in her during a satanic ritual to keep her open to demonic oppression and control. I immediately cast the demon out of her and she was set free from the agonizing pain that had suddenly come upon her when the demon made himself known. I knew God had brought that thing up in her at that time to not only set her free from its effects but also to teach me something I would later see in my study of the Scriptures.
