The Seraphim: Part 10: Their Final Cross Experience
Isaiah 6:5 – Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Before I explain how this verse fits in with my previous teaching on the seraphim and their ministry, it will be necessary to first give a short explanation of what I have already taught.
In the previous four verses of Isaiah 6 we have learned amazing secrets about the end times. These secrets were reserved for the church of the end times because we will experience things with God that no other human beings have ever experienced—things that were not to be known until the time of his return. God loves us more than we could ever imagine, and out of his love for us, he has prepared a wonderful gift for us, the gift of himself. He is giving himself to us in a way we could never have imagined. It was not to be known until this time because if people had known this, they would have tried to make it happen and would have gotten into deadly demonic deception.
However, now is the time for this to be known and God is making it known to us in a way that can be clearly seen in his amazing, wonderful Word so we can be assured this is no deception. What you are seeing here in the seraphim can also be seen in other portions of God’s Word but always only revealed through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. He takes us beneath the top layer of the literal understanding of his Word into the deeper level that can be clearly seen if we will study his Word in great depth.
We can study his Word in depth because of other faithful Christ-followers who have labored in the Spirit to give us the tools for study—tools like concordances, lexicons, the Bible and other writings. But with all these, I was only able to see this in the Word because I experienced it.
Jesus came to me and revealed himself to me in the way described here in this study of the seraphim. This was not something I could have understood had I not had my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who through their giftings helped me with mine. I’m referring here to his prophets, teachers, pastors, etc. They did not have this understanding themselves, but by putting together what I received from them over the years it all dovetailed into what I needed to know to understand what happened to me.
We need each other far more than we have understood. We are Christ’s body—One Body—and all parts are important and necessary for these end times. He is moving us forward beyond the veil together in One Body. Therefore, my experience will be your experience also if you continue on in the faith and choose to forsake the pleasures of sin that lead to death and seek righteousness that leads to holiness and life.
The only way we can come into all this is through the cross. By that I mean we must forsake all things related to our sinful self-love and our love of the world because these are all part of our inherited sin nature none of which can enter beyond the veil into this experience. Because Jesus loves us so much and wants to spend eternity in a close relationship with us, he allows painful things to happen in life that provide us the opportunity to choose either a righteous response or a selfish sinful response. When we choose a righteous response it usually involves some form of loss or suffering.
This is the working of the cross. It cuts away a portion of our sin nature, which is painful, but it has to die in order for us to be set free from our slavery to sin and self. Even every good thing in our life, such as our ministry to others for example, is clouded by our own selfish motives until it goes through the cross. Once we have died to our ministry, then we can minister out of the pure motive of the will of God and love for others. Because this is seldom taught in our churches, many church leaders with self-centered motives have built up large ministries and then fallen into immorality or some other sin that sullies the name of Christ and his church. They didn’t accept the cross when it presented itself and labored in the flesh to build their own kingdom rather than the kingdom of God.
This leads us into our understanding of verse 5 here in Isaiah 6:
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Even the incredible experience of Jesus coming to us, as explained earlier in my teaching on the seraphim, has to go through the cross. If we do not die to this experience, we will begin to feel we are superior to others because Jesus came to us this way but not to them. We might write books and charge exorbitant prices for them. We could build up a ministry, put our name on it and go forth as being superior to others in some way, thereby building up a name for ourselves, lording it over others, etc. This is just the way our human nature is and so by going through the cross even to this feeling of his glorious presence, our ministry will be purified and there will be none of our self in it, only God.
As we examine the words here in verse 5 in the Hebrew, we will see that this is indeed describing the work of the cross in this person’s life as related to the coming of Jesus to him/her.
Woe is me! – This is a passionate cry of despair or grief. Why would someone cry out in despair or grief when they had just had this incredible experience with Jesus? Answer: Because after a brief time of joy in his presence, like maybe a few months, they will lose this awesome feeling of his presence. Jesus has to end this glorious time briefly in order that they can die to it. It has to go through the cross. They will feel like Jesus left them even though he reassures them beforehand he will still be with them but that they just won’t feel him for a brief period of time. Of course most of us know that our understanding of a brief period of time and God’s understanding of a brief period of time are often not the same.
As we go through this experience of losing his presence, we are motivated to do anything possible to get this wonderful feeling of his presence to return. During this time we will learn there are many things in our life that need to go because they hold us earthbound and diminish our ability to feel God’s presence again. We eventually learn that we don’t have to be perfected for his presence to be felt again, but during the brief time of this loss, God has slain something in us that needed to die in order for his perfecting work to continue in a more profound way.
For I am undone – In the Hebrew, undone means “to be cut off, to make an end to anything.” That is exactly what happens in our cross experience. We feel we have been cut off from Jesus’ presence and the glorious feeling of his presence with us has come to an end. However, what really comes to an end is a deeper level of our sin nature that has to die in order for us to continue into the fullness of Christ.
Because I am a man of unclean lips – In the Hebrew language, unclean, tame, taw-may’, is from a root word meaning “foul in a religious sense:” hence tame is defined by Strong as meaning “defiled, infamous, polluted, and unclean.” As we look at how tame is used elsewhere in Scripture we can get a clearer understanding of how it applies here in Isaiah 6:5.
Isaiah 52:11 – Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean (tame) thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
Isaiah 35:8 – And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean (tame) shall not pass over it;
Ezek 44:23 – And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
In the Old Testament there were certain things the priests were not allowed to do that others could do. For example, they were not permitted to drink wine, eat certain foods, go near a dead person, etc. This was to teach others there was a difference between what was holy and what was profane or what was clean or unclean.
Similarly, those who receive the wonderful gift of God’s presence will learn there are many things others are permitted to do that they are not. There are many things I used to enjoy eating or drinking that are no longer permissible for me and yet I see nothing sinful in these things. There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with drinking coffee, for example, but I am no longer allowed to.
Dietary restrictions, as specifically laid out for me by the Lord, are such that the foods I am allowed to eat are not very exciting. My body is nourished but my desire to indulge in something really scrumptious is not permitted. This has become a daily denial of self that I don’t like, but I know is necessary for me to have more of Christ and to not obey him in this will keep me from progressing into the place he has for me his kingdom.
The Lord has made clear to me that when I indulge in satisfying bodily cravings that have nothing to do with good health, my flesh grows stronger and then the feeling of his presence cannot be as strongly felt as it is when I deny myself these things.
Something similar is my experience when it comes to entertainment. Movies, novels, music and videos that appear to be perfectly innocent are no longer permissible for me. Once again, they feed something worldly in me that needs to die. They are a waste of time for me but may serve a genuine need for others who may need these things to help them bear the pain of their yet unhealed brokenness.
To whom much has been given, much is required. God has called me to study his Word and reveal to others what I have learned there and help them learn to do the same. It would be sinful for me to waste time on other pastimes and neglect what he has called me to. It would be like accepting his wonderful gift and then setting it on a shelf in order to devote my attention to something that lures me into loving the world.
At this point I think it would be beneficial to share with you what my experience was regarding this final cross experience. A few months after Jesus’ glorious presence awakened my spiritual body and I had the joy of experiencing his loving presence every minute of every day, my husband and I went to Indiana to visit friends and family there. Our prophetic friend there prayed with us and God began to speak through him. To me he said, “You are going to go through a little time of sorrow, but I will be with you when you go through this.” My heart sank. I expected something exciting and wonderful like his words had been in previous years, but this troubled me.
When we returned home to New York State, my prophetic friend there had a word for me. The Lord said through her, “You are going to go through a painful experience; but I will be with you when you go through this. You won’t feel my presence but I will be with you.”
This friend knew nothing about the prophetic word I had received in Indiana. Many times during the next few weeks she would have a loving word from the Lord for me with many lovely encouragements but always that I would go through a painful experience and he would be with me even though I could no longer feel him.
It seemed I agonized about this every minute of every day. Every time I thought about his presence leaving I would cry. I tried to prepare for this in any way I could such as writing in my journal things to read during that time to reassure myself his presence really had been with me. I even made tape recordings to listen to when that time came. I stewed and fretted and cried and even felt deep cutting pain in my heart at just the thought of losing his presence.
The Lord would reassure me that during that time of loss, I would have my husband supporting me and my prophetic friend would be helping me too.
Then there came a time when he spoke through her again and said, “Well, maybe I won’t take my presence away after all.” I totally understood that. Just the thought of losing his presence had caused me to die to it. I had experienced the pain and the cutting away feeling at just the thought of how horrible it would be.
That was in 1997. I did not go through the final cross suffering until 2019. It lasted about four months. My husband actually went through it himself with me. It involved a situation we could not leave where we were constantly criticized, berated, condemned and wrongly accused to such an extent we lost our peace and could barely choke down enough food to keep us going as we were too upset to even eat. We both felt the physical pain in our heart that we had come to know was present in our times of crucifixion. It was in our house and there was no way to get away from it until our commitment to God through this thing had been completed. And our dear prophetic friend was only a phone call away. She had encouraging visions and words for us and God’s presence never left. I don’t know how I could have survived without his presence. And it was just as God had promised through his prophet. My husband and my prophetic friend were there with me to help.
We will learn more about the nature of this experience as the next clause of Isaiah 6:5 is explained.
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:
Persons of the maturity required for experiencing the final cross have obviously been through other painful cross experiences for this to be the final one. They are undoubtedly involved in church and have been for a long time because they know we cannot come into the fullness of Christ by ourselves. We have to be part of the body in order to move forward in the Lord because that is how God works. They are also probably involved in some kind of Christian ministry. Only as we love the Lord and actively love our neighbor are we in a position to move forward in Christ.
To dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips would mean people who say sinful and damaging things. It is sad to say, but our greatest sufferings through our many years in church ministry have come from our fellow Christians. People in the world have treated us well and not persecuted us, but church people have criticized us and persecuted us over and over again.
The Word says we are to encourage one another, build one another up in Christ, help each other, exhort each other, etc. Unfortunately most people who attend church and claim to be Christians are worldly, immature and uncrucified. People like this are easily swayed by every wind of doctrine and quick to believe evil reports about others in the church because this is characteristic of our carnal sin nature.
People like to hear bad things about others. That’s why all our news programs are full of news about murders, robberies, child abuse, war, crime, etc. It makes news interesting for the average person. It gives us something to talk about. If they only reported good things, people wouldn’t watch their program. This even flows over into weather forecasting. I once saw a news reporter in the midst of what was reported to be a hurricane. He was acting like the wind was about to blow him over as he struggled to stand upright. Then some stranger walked in front of the camera and he wasn’t having any difficulty remaining on his feet. The fact is, the worse the hurricane the more it is news, and the more people want to see it.
It’s no different in the church. The majority of church attendees are just like everyone else in their carnality because the cross is not a popular message in churches, and people who don’t want to suffer will leave when the pastor preaches about it. So being quick to receive bad news is even more damaging in the church than in the world because we carry the name of Christ but live for our own selfish pursuits. We are frequently accused of being hypocrites because people in the world see that we talk about loving one another but we can’t get along with each other.
A big problem in churches that makes it harder for us to get along with each other is that there are people in churches who claim to be Christians who are really in league with the Devil. He sends them in to cause trouble. In order to discern them, one has to have the gift of discerning of spirits because they look like, talk like, act like (in public) real Christians but they aren’t. If someone with the gift of discerning of spirits tries to alert church leadership to this kind of situation, they are not believed and may even be asked to leave the church.
I understand that this kind of report cannot be believed without some kind of evidence, but leaders are not willing to even consider the possibility. The answer would be for leadership to be open to the possibility and pray about it. There is great power in prayer and God will often cause imposters to expose themselves and actually leave the church on their own because they can’t work their wiles there because of the prayers. Closely tied in with this is child abuse. Christians with little children trust other Christians and let them be alone with their children with no consideration that their little ones could be abused. It’s not believed. It’s not talked about. And children go on being abused in churches.
This is why we need to be people of prayer. We need to pray about every decision we make especially anything related to our children’s wellbeing.
So let’s look at this verse 5 again, restate what we have uncovered and then finish with the last clause:
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:
This person who has had the awesome experience of the presence of God coming upon him and awakening the spiritual side of his being (I) now cries out in despair or grief (woe is me) because the awesome feeling of the presence of God upon him has left and he no longer feels it (I am undone). He goes through a painful final cross experience that enables him to die to a host of other little things in his character of which he had been unaware and he has been greatly humbled (because I am a man of unclean lips). He has been the brunt of criticism and hurtful things done to him by other church people whom he had trusted (I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips).
And now let’s finish our interpretation of this verse with the last clause which states:
for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
He realizes that nothing else in life is of any importance next to the experience of the Lord’s presence that he once had. Everything else that had occupied his attention and his desires no longer matters because he has experienced that which is beyond any other experience any human could ever have and is the only thing that really matters in life (for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts).
