The saints prepare to rule, part 6

Ancient calendars can be quite confusing, because the ways of reckoning years differed nation by nation. The same was true during the Divided Kingdom era, where Judah’s regnal years were reckoned from Tishri to Tishri, while Israel’s regnal years were reckoned from Abib to Abib.

So in the land of Judah, the regnal years were reckoned the same as its Sabbath years, which also began in Tishri at the end of the harvest season. But in Israel, the regnal years began with the first month (Abib), according to the change that God made in the time of Moses (Exodus 12:2).

King David had been crowned in Tishri on the 59^th Jubilee from Adam, as I showed in Secrets of Time. At that time, all the tribes of Israel used that system of reckoning. But when the kingdom was divided after the death of Solomon, Israel altered its regnal years to conform to that which was already in use in Babylon. A close study of Scripture and history shows this clearly.

The point is that we were led to use both of these systems in the coronation of the overcomers, first during Tishri in 2014 and then again during Abib in 2015. This was in accordance with the revelation that was in accordance with Exodus 12:2. With two coronation ceremonies six months apart, God showed first that He recognized both regnal years and, at the same time, unified them in the overcomers.

Pentecost 2015

Pentecost fell on Sunday, May 24, 2015, which I personally celebrated in Dallas, TX. There I had a fresh revelation of Pentecost, which always happens when I focus attention on a feast day each year. On this occasion, I received a deeper understanding of the two Pentecosts—the first at Mount Sinai in the time of Moses, and the second in the upper room in Jerusalem in the book of Acts. Both Pentecosts established a covenant, the first being the Old Covenant, and the latter being the New Covenant.

Under Moses, the people were too fearful to hear God’s voice (Exodus 20:18-21), and so they shrank from the baptism of the Holy Spirit that God offered them. In my view, they had the potential of receiving the New Covenant with its “sword of the Spirit” and the ability to hear God’s voice and be led by the Spirit. But fear debased their faith to an Old Covenant level. Under this covenant, they conquered Canaan with a physical sword instead of a spiritual sword.

The result, of course, was that the Canaanites were killed. One can easily blame the Canaanites for their sin and false worship, but the Israelites held the greater responsibility, due to their low level of Pentecostal faith. Centuries later, Jesus’ disciples corrected this problem by drawing near to God in the upper room, receiving the promise of the Father, and then setting forth to conquer the world with the sword of the Spirit. With this sword, they put to death the “old man” of flesh, and through baptism, the “new man” was raised to newness of life.

We see from this that the slaughter of the Canaanites could never truly manifest the heart of God. Neither was the Old Covenant the way of salvation. Jesus came to show a better way with a better covenant, a better sword, a better priesthood, and a better country. The book of Hebrews shows this clearly.

The problem has been that the church has hardly understood that Pentecost essentially offers the choice of two different covenants. By not understanding the Scriptures, many believers have chosen the Old Covenant without realizing what they were doing. Gradually, the church lost the baptism of the Holy Spirit with its gifts and fruit, they established priesthoods modeled after the Levitical priesthood with its ceremonies, incense, and its method of salvation based upon man’s vows to God.

The Protestant Reformation attempted to reform some of these practices. They condemned the Roman church for basing salvation on works, but most failed to see that the core problem was basing salvation upon the will of man, rather than the will of God (John 1:13). Hence, salvation remained based upon man’s vows to God, rather than upon God’s vows to men. What they thought was New Covenant salvation, then, was actually Old Covenant salvation with new decorations.

Likewise, as time progressed, the evangelical and Pentecostal believers adopted Hagar as their mother by claiming the earthly Jerusalem as the capital of Christ’s Kingdom (for the age to come). Somehow, they were blind to Paul’s teaching in Galatians 4, where the inheritors of the Kingdom are said to be children of Sarah—the heavenly Jerusalem. They began to claim that the children of the flesh (represented by Ishmael, son of Hagar) were the people chosen to rule the earth in the age to come. This too is evidence of Old Covenant thinking.

We, however, are the children of promise (Galatians 4:28), because the heavenly Jerusalem (Sarah) is our mother (Galatians 4:26). As overcomers, we claim the New Covenant as our birth-mother, and we are children of Abraham by faith (Galatians 3:29), placing no confidence in fleshly genealogy to qualify us as chosen ones.

So on May 24, 2015 we were led to commission the overcomers, much as the 120 disciples in the upper room were commissioned by the coming of the Holy Spirit after tarrying in Jerusalem (Luke 24:49 KJV). We followed this pattern as well.

Righteous Acts of God and Men

Pentecost of 2015 gave me a clearer revelation of the New Covenant by which we were being commissioned to do the work ahead. In order to accomplish this work properly, we must regain a New Covenant message presented by those disciples in the New Testament. This work is described in Revelation 15:4 as “righteous acts” (tsedeqah). It is what God does, and it is what we do when we are led by the Spirit.

The word tsedequah covers two main ideas: fulfilling what you promise to do, and generosity. (Tsedeqah!” is what beggars shout to passersby in the Mideast, hoping that people will be generous. It implies that men have promised God that they would be virtuous and generous, so the beggars appeal to this promise.)

In the context of God’s righteous acts, we see that He fulfills His New Covenant vow to save all mankind. He is a generous God, kindhearted and benevolent, full of love and joyful giving. He is not the stern, angry God that so many have imagined Him to be. For this reason, we read in the next verse (Revelation 15:4),

⁴ Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; for all the nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.

The righteous acts of God are revealed when He fulfills His New Covenant vow. It is seen when “all the nations will come and worship” Him, for this is the promise of God (Deuteronomy 29:12, 14, 15). In this way the calling of Abraham is fulfilled in us as well, for we are called to bless all nations by turning them from their wicked ways (Acts 3:25, 26).

In order to fulfill our commission, it is important to understand the righteousness of God and His righteous acts. We will imitate whatever we believe His righteous acts to be. We are not to go out with a message of loveless sovereignty, as the Calvinists do. Neither are we to present Him as a God who is too weak to overcome man’s will, as the Arminians do. We serve a God who is able to fulfill all of His promises—a truly righteous God indeed.

As prospective “saints of the Most High,” we prepare to rule by the power of the New Covenant, not the Old Covenant. We are conquering not only Canaan but the entire world. We conquer not with physical weapons, for "our struggle is not against flesh and blood" (Ephesians 6:12), but instead we arm ourselves with the full armor of God, with special emphasis on the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17).