“EXILED HUMANS OR EVANGELIZED HOLY ONES?”
BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, NOV.13-15, 2017
Highly interesting, prophetic, liberating words in Psalm 68:17-20! The Word says: “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands; the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy place. You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, even from the rebellious, that the Lord might dwell there. Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits! Our God is the God of salvation; and to God the Lord belong escapes from death.”
‘Exile’ in the Hebrew Old Testament language is “galah” meaning to “uncover”, or to “remove”, suggesting “to be led into captivity”, which is Biblically certain where Satan led Adam and Eve out of the ‘Garden of Eden’ into willful, self-instituted, flesh-chosen bondage and slavery to the enticements and chains of their sin-natures!
Slavery? Bondage? Exile? Captured? Foreigner to the God-nature? Chained by the ‘flesh sin-nature’, chained by Satan and his demon armies, even by ‘proud’, self-assertive flesh and indifference to the will and Word of God, imprisoned to a world philosophy rather than yielded to the Voice of the Holy Savior and Lord? Despisers of “God’s pleasant land”? “Deaf to His Word, His calling, His instruction, His will and eternal purpose”? Blinded to His revealed intent? Rebelling to the Holy Spirit? Bound to the world, the godless spirit, and the demonic armies? ‘Minglers’, ‘mixers’, or the ‘mesmerized’ in idolatry and the waywardness of ‘flesh allegiance’?
And “exiled humans” often are so content in their state of devotion to the ‘flesh’ and not the Spirit that they are governed by deaf ears to the Voice of God! But in Psalm 106:44-45 we read: “Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, WHEN He heard their cry; And for their sake He remembered His covenant, and relented according to the multitude of His mercies.”
And, according to the multitude of His mercies, the compassionate, merciful, caring God is “knocking on the door of all the needy,” but, even though knocking, there are those who refuse to open the door of their hearts and minds and let Him in!
In Haggai 1:4-10, I pray you’re called to self-examination as to whether you are still an “exiled human” or an “evangelized holy one”! God spoke through Haggai saying: “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?” Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”
Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the Lord. You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the Lord of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens above you withholds its fruit.”
But hear me: In 2 Corinthians 6:16 Paul wrote: “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will DWELL IN THEM and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Was “your own house crucified with Christ”? If so, and you were graciously transformed into His temple of Holy Presence, then why do some ‘professing believers’ try to maintain “my house” allegiance while professing they understand, by His grace and mercy, they are now His Holy Temple of Resurrection Presence? Rather than “Evangelized Holy Ones”, do some desire to hold onto their “exiled humanity”? Are some content to hold onto their bowing before their idol of materialism in place of Spirit-Mastering?
Are there, yes, choices God gives to His chosen people like Israel or, yes, to the “blood-bought” through the Lamb of God’s sacrifice? In Psalm 78 there are highly informative and convicting words about “spiritual pilgrimages” even today, with some beginning but being horribly distracted! Psalm 78:32-33 says, “In spite of this they still sinned (that’s some of His chosen people!), and did not believe in His wondrous works. Therefore their days He consumed in futility, and their years in fear.” Verse 41 says, “Yes, again and again they tempted God, and LIMITED THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL.” [I believe I’d follow that trail of truth and see where it leads!!].
Get ready!! Examine Psalm 78:56-61! “Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God, (Aren’t you glad we don’t have to be concerned about that today? Really?), and did not keep His testimonies, But turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images. When God heard this, He was furious, and greatly abhorred Israel, So that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had placed among men, And delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand.” WOW!!
“Exiled Humans Or Evangelized Holy Ones?” Paul the Apostle wrote to his spiritual son, Timothy, and in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 we read: “I charge you (That’s one of his spiritual sons in the faith!) therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: (Kingdom of God in the future or, yes, the present Kingdom of God in the here and now?) Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
Do you understand that the “ministry to be fulfilled” is the calling on every true, born-again disciple’s life to be an “evangelizing holy one”, representative of the King of kings and Lord of lords, His appointed, anointed, assigned servants of expressing His love, touching the hearts and minds of the unredeemed around you? Every true disciple, every true follower of Christ, IS assigned the personal ministry of “ambassadors for Christ”!
In 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 the Holy Word gets clearer about out ministry roles! It says: ( Please remember: “Evangelized Holy Ones” are those “blood bought” and transformed to “new life” through the mercy and grace of God, but having been regenerated, we are re-assigned, not to pump our flesh, but to lift high the Banner of King Jesus to those around us!). The Corinthian passage?
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a ‘new creation’; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, AND has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, AND has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
NOW THEN, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He (God) made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
“Evangelized Holy Ones”? Dare I tell you that the experience and miracle of “blood redemption” in and through Christ begins with “the conviction and convincing of the Holy Spirit” of the need to be reconciled to God? In John 16:7-11 the Lord Jesus spoke to enlighten His followers! (Hear me! “Followers” DO NOT ALWAYS REVEAL THE TRUE CHRIST AND HIS SAVING GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE!):
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will (through you!) convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in Me (or “trust” Christ!); of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; and of judgment, because the ruler of the world is judged.”
Oh, but then Jesus continued to magnify the ministry of the Holy Spirit saying in John 16:12-15, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” The Spirit is our “faithful Guide”, who grants us a “full unveiling” of Christ’s intent in us and through us, yes, releasing to us a “forceful, heavenly empowerment”!
This is why in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 Paul educates young disciples in the ministry of the Holy Spirit! “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” Glory!!
“Evangelized Holy Ones?” Having been converted through the power of the Holy Spirit on the fertile ground of repentance and faith, Revelation 4:5b speaks of: “Seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God,” or God in His completeness, birthing new sons and daughters of redemptive faith, now living, yes, in the full and complete brightness of the very Spirit of God, ready to be poured out as “drink offerings” to barren, thirsty, empty lives around you through YOUR Spirit-anointed witness!
Further, having been converted by the Spirit as “babes in Christ”, “new creations”, immature even in spiritual understanding, Merciful God sends the Holy Spirit to, as we saw in John 16:13, Jesus speaking, “…when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth..”!
Two verses from the old hymn copyrighted in 1885 entitled “Standing On the Promises” says: (Verses 4 & 5), “Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord; Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword, Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises I cannot fall, Listening every moment to the Spirit’s call; Resting in my Savior as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God.” As an “evangelized holy one”, are you standing, surrendering, yielding, resting in the “guidance of the Holy Spirit daily”?
“Evangelized Holy Ones”? Guided by the Spirit of truth, are you fully aware of Holy God’s intent of our deliverance from demonic and satanic bondage? In Acts 10:38 Peter said: “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”
What an amazing word, but blinded to the majority of evangelical Christians who know NOTHING about the ministry of “deliverance” from demon presence, demon deceit, and demon binding! I’ll never forget an event in India of having a young lady with her husband asking to meet with me. I was in a hotel, and about 8am she and her husband knocked on my hotel-room door. I invited them in – almost immediately she was prostrate before me on the floor – I knew she was demon-possessed! I spoke to the demons, and they said, in a deep male voice, perfect English, “We don’t have to come out – and we’re not coming out!” It was about thirty minutes later, she opened her mouth, and out from her throat flowed a purple trail of demonic presence – she opened her eyes, and we led her in a prayer of faith and thanksgiving for our Lord’s ‘deliverance’ and salvation of her soul! There was a healing of that lady, because, though oppressed by the devil, Jesus is stronger! Amen?
“Evangelized Holy Ones”? For some, there is the reality of, yes, having “Hell” scared out of them by the grace and mercy of God! The prophet Isaiah had a strong, convicting word in Isaiah 46:12-13 when God spoke through him! Holy God said then, and still does now: “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory.” [You do understand! There was and is a physical Israel and there was and is a spiritual Israel!].
But to the unbelieving, Jew or Gentile, God still speaks!! Examine Isaiah 47:6-11!! “I was angry with My people; (So you hear some say or even teach: “Thank God, that’s just God and rebellious Jews; no concern for compromising Christians!” Really?). I have profaned My inheritance, and given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; on the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily. And you said, ‘I shall be a lady (a queen) forever,’ so that you did not take these things to heart, nor remember the latter end of them.
Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, who dwell securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children.’ But these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day: the loss of children and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitude of your sorceries, for the great abundance of your enchantments.
FOR you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, ‘No one sees me’; your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’ THEREFORE evil shall come upon you; you shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; you will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know.”
Have you just heard words about “Exiled Humans”, and especially “church pretenders”? I’ve paraphrased words from Elizabeth Barrett Browning from her work entitled “The Image of God”; they go like this: “You! Are you likened to God? Are you likened to the Son, then darkness appears? In all your glory works the ‘worm’ decay – ‘harvest’ of godlikeness fails to shine – you are not like God!
Are you like God or more the image of a death-filled soul? Do your thoughts ‘alight’ and your ‘musings’ roll downward , and then you hear the Spirit say, “You are not like God!”
But, by Christ Jesus, you are not ‘like God’ but only the vessel that contains His Holy Presence! Jesus bore your shame, He bore your sin, and He bore your woe – and you are free from the law of sin and death through the preciousness of Calvary’s love!
We’re not like God, but by Holy Spirit conviction, conversion, and consecration, we become the vessels of Resurrected Presence, letting Him be Himself in us as He loves as only He can love, because, NONE save Christ Jesus unveils God!” One more great promise and living word filled with hope from the voice of God in Isaiah 45:2-7!! Hear God the Father through Jesus the Son by the leadership voice of His Holy Spirit! God says:“I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by name, am the God of Israel.
For Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name. I have named you, though you have not known Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.” Where do YOU stand? Desiring the destiny of “exiled Humans” OR passionate, as the “Evangelized Holy Ones”, looking for, finding, and abiding in “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”? Fanny J. Crosby and W.H.Doane wrote the hymn “Near The Cross”. It says: “Jesus, keep me near the cross! There a precious fountain; Free to all a healing stream, Flowed from Calvary’s mountain. Near the cross, a trembling soul, love and mercy found me; there the bright and morning Star, Sheds its beams around me. Near the cross, O Lamb of God, Bring the scenes before me; Help me walk from day to day, With its shadows over me.
Near the cross, I’ll watch and wait, Helping, trusting ever; Till I reach the golden strand, Just beyond the river. In the cross, in the cross, Be my glory ever; till my raptured soul shall find, Rest beyond the river.” LET’S CROSS THE RIVER OF REDEMPTIVE FAITH INTO HIS FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF HIS RIVER OF ETERNAL LIFE, NOW! Not when you hope to get to heaven someday!! AMEN?