The saints prepare to rule, part 10

On August 31, 2015 my wife and I rode with Mark and Carolyn to Estes Park, Colorado to meet with two other couples in the mountains for a week-long vacation. Since I did not have to do the driving, I read a book by Dr. Henderson, Operating in the Courts of Heaven.

http://www.roberthenderson.org/#/home/

Mark and Carolyn had attended Dr. Henderson’s meetings in Minneapolis earlier in the year and had bought some of his books. My wife and I were unable to hear him speak, because we were in New Zealand at the time. However, Mark brought Henderson’s book with him, and I took the opportunity to read it on the trip to Colorado.

It was not long before I realized that God had summoned us to a high mountain to a Divine Court Case of the Council of the Lord. This was to be a working vacation.

Henderson had a clear revelation of the distinction between the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), the Divine Court (Daniel 7:10), and the Council of the Lord (Jeremiah 23:18, 22).

¹⁸ But who has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and listened? ²² But if they had stood in the council, then they would have announced My words to My people, and would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.

The Hebrew word translated “council” is cowd (pronounced “sode”). It literally means a pillow or cushion to sit on while conversing with friends. The Lexicon explains the council this way:

“A sitting together, an assembly, either of friends familiarly conversing, Jer. 6:11; 15:17, or of judges consulting together… a secret.”

The word implies a meeting of judges or government officials who are meeting in closed chambers.

Three Courts

The three courts were established in the time of Moses. When the Ark of the Covenant was built, “the mercy seat” (Exodus 25:17), later called “the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16), was where God was seated. Moses often spoke to God in the tabernacle when he approached the mercy seat.

After the people sinned by worshiping the golden calf, Moses created the Divine Court outside the camp, telling us in Exodus 33:7,

⁷ Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.

Moses essentially established the Divine Court outside the camp, and his precedent was followed by the religious leaders in Jerusalem centuries later. Bethphage was a small community of priests just outside the gate of Jerusalem, and they were responsible for administering cleansing rites to those who had touched a dead body or who had been healed of leprosy. It was considered to be a court, and so Jesus was led there to be crucified outside the camp.

Hence, in the New Testament time period, there were three courts: the Most Holy Place, the Divine Court, and the Council (Mark 15:1; Acts 4:15; 6:15; 22:30). The Council in Jesus’ day was fatally flawed, because they functioned by the traditions of men, rather than by the law of God. Hence, they usurped the throne of Christ, for they were not in agreement with the will of God. We, on the other hand, seek the will of God and recognize Jesus Christ as our King.

The Council of the Lord

The Council of the Lord consists of both God, angels, and men/women who are called to consult with God in regard to the implementation of the divine plan for the earth. In ancient times, the rabbis fancied that God needed the opinions of the rabbis to know what to do—as if God did not already know the end from the beginning. But we understood that the purpose of the Council is to reveal the divine plan to God’s judges on earth so that they could bear witness on earth to heavenly matters.

The Council of the Lord was designed to issue a unified judgment between God and those who were in agreement with Him. For this reason, not everyone was qualified to be part of the Council. The Council members must seek His will and then alter their own thinking and opinions until they come into agreement with Him. No one ought to try to impose his own views upon God, as is so often done when men pray.

Scripture uses other terms as well to describe this Council.

The Council of My People

Ezekiel 13:9 also speaks of the Council, telling us that false prophets “will have no place in the council of My people.” When the Bible uses the term “My people,” it does not refer to those who are descended biologically from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When Moses brought Israel to Mount Sinai, God’s intent was to make them His people, which means they were not really His people by birth. Exodus 19:5 says,

⁵ Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine.

We know that they failed to live up to their vow, so forty years later, God made a second covenant with them, based upon the vow/oath of God Himself. Deuteronomy 29:1 says,

¹ These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb.

To implement this covenant, God told everyone (including foreigners) to gather to Him, so that they could hear God’s oath and enter in His (New) Covenant. Its purpose was “that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God” (Deuteronomy 29:13). If they had already been “His people” by virtue of genealogy, why would it be necessary to establish this covenant? Their Old Covenant vow at Horeb had failed to make them “His people,” but God established a second covenant, based on “His oath,” that would succeed. By definition, this is the New Covenant, as it is written, “just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Deuteronomy 29:13).

Therefore, “the council of My people” is a council between God and New Covenant believers who, like Abraham, believed God, “and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Paul says in Romans 4:21, 22 that Abraham was “fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore, it was credited to him as righteousness.”

The Council of the Saints

Psalm 89:6, 7 says,

⁶ For who in the skies is comparable to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty is like the Lord, ⁷ a God greatly feared in the council of the holy ones [kadosh, “saints”], and awesome above all those who are around Him?

The Council of the Saints are those who fear God, that is, they recognize God and respect His position “above” them. This helps us to define kadosh, “saints,” when we apply the term to those who will receive jurisdiction over the earth after the fall of Babylon (Daniel 7:22 KJV). These “saints” do not rule independently of God but judge as trustees of Christ’s throne.

In that day, no usurpers will be part of the Council. Daniel foresaw the day when “thrones were set up” (Daniel 7:9) that were subservient to “the Ancient of Days.” John, too, saw this, telling us in Revelation 20:4, “I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them.” The judgment rendered from these thrones was in accordance with the will of God. At that point in time, such judgment was ALSO in accordance with the will of men, because God and men were in agreement.

Passover brought faith; Pentecost brought obedience; Tabernacles brought agreement. Hence, there are three classifications of believers: believers who have faith, Spirit-filled believers in whose hearts the law is being written, and overcomers who are in agreement. To qualify for the Council of Saints, one must seek to know the will of God and always subject one’s own will to the will of God Himself.

So we were called to a Council meeting on a high mountain the first week of August in 2015 to discuss the things of God. On August 4, 2015 we formally presented our case for the Restoration of Creation. I explained the details of this case in three weblogs:

https://old.godskingdom.org/blog/2015/08/explanation-of-the-court-case-part-1

https://old.godskingdom.org/blog/2015/08/explanation-of-the-court-case-part-2

https://old.godskingdom.org/blog/2015/08/explanation-of-the-court-case-part-3