October 16, 2015

 

Have to share a really cool experience that just happened.  I've talked about our youngest son, Joshua, and his battles in the past, as well as the rather humorous event that took place when he asked his children to lay hands on him and pray for his deliverance from a very reactionary and explosive spirit of anger.

 

Josh had occasion to fly down from Alaska to take care of some business and stayed with us for a quick overnight.  Despite his acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as his savior and Lord, he had never been baptized in water.  We have shared with him on numerous occasions the fact that within the realm of the Spirit, there are legal implications for us that go with water baptism which cut off Satan's right to torment us.  (That's not to say that he observes the Law of the Spirit automatically, but we do have the right to say to him, "I'm no longer of the Adamic seed.  That person died.  Who I am is a new individual, raised to life in Christ Jesus.")

 

Because of things Josh has been seeing in his own life he has come to that recognition, and we were able to baptize him in the swimming pool at the local Best Western.  He experienced a physical sensation of heat and pain prior to going down into the water and when he came up out of the water, the extreme heat on his forehead and the pain were gone.

 

The following morning, prior to his departure back to Alaska, we took Communion together.  As we broke bread together and took the cup, Josh saw with his eyes evil spirits departing from him.  He heard them with his ears screaming at him in unintelligible languages as they departed.  Despite the fact that he knows of our ongoing ministry throughout the years in dealing with deliverance from evil spirits, his reaction to us afterwards was, "That freaked me out!"  Nevertheless, he was able to testify to feeling a dramatic difference and a lightness in his own spirit.

 

For Della and me, it is more evidence to God's keeping of His Covenant to us when He promised, "All your children will be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children."

 

OK, let's pick up where we left off last week in the promise of our change of onoma.  Here's the portion of Revelation 3:12 that relates specifically to today's discussion:

 

I will engrave within and upon him ..... the very nature, the character, the authority, the makeup and the very essence of the city of Yod Hey Vav Hey (Elohim), which is the new Jerusalem, which descends [to the earth] out of Heaven from my Yod Hey Vav Hey (Elohim).  (Revelation 3:12, RAC Translation and Amplification)

 

Once more, here is the corresponding and confirming verse from Revelation 21:2:

 

And I, John, saw the holy, consecrated and set apart city [of many people], the recently made and unprecedented Jerusalem, the city of double peace, descending out of Heaven [to the earth] from Yod Hey Vav Hey, made ready as the betrothed Bride, adorned, ornamented and embellished with honor for her husband-to-be.  (Revelation 21:2, RAC Translation and Amplification)

 

The change, the transformation of our onoma into that of the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a product of our overcoming.  When John receives this prophecy concerning the overcomer, and you follow the sequence of successive promises beginning with the promise made to those who overcome the issues described in the letter to Ephesus and following through the letters to Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira and Sardis right up to Philadelphia, it becomes abundantly clear that the seven letters to the seven Ekklesias are one single letter to the body of Christ.  The ultimate objective is for us to have absolutely no contamination of our character, our makeup, our          personality and the very essence of who we are so that we literally mirror that of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

His purpose from day One is that we become that Bride He created us to be for Himself!  His objective is that we become His counterpart, His other self, His Beloved!  His Plan is that we become His Glory manifested in the earth.  Ever stop to wonder just what that is?  It isn't complicated, really!  His Glory is the manifestation of His presence -- as it is in Heaven -- here on earth.  His Glory is all that He is!  He IS the Spirit of Glory (see I Peter 4:14).

 

I'll come back to a very brief description of the previous letters and the overcoming picture demonstrated in each, but as we consider the next part of the prophetic promise given to Philadelphia (and I will engrave within and upon him my new (and completed) nature, character, authority, makeup and very essence) let me share with you that which the Lord accomplished in me when He gave Della to me as my counterpart, my other self and my beloved!

 

When a man and woman are married, there is a change of character and makeup.  The man becomes completed by virtue of having his wife; and the wife takes on the name -- and over time -- the character and personality of the husband.  You see this often in folks who have been married for a long time.  They even tend to take on one another's appearance.  Their physical characteristics sometimes change to the point where they actually look like brother and sister, and folks sometimes take them for having that relationship.

 

Let me describe it like this.

 

When Della and I got married, I had been very incomplete and unfulfilled.  Despite the many successes and unusual miracles and events that had unfolded throughout my life, I continually felt that I was operating at a fraction of the potential the Lord had given me a picture of.  To use the metaphor from the Song of Solomon, I was "black."  There was a continual searching in my spirit to become complete with the Bride whom God had chosen for me.

 

Della, on the other hand, struggled to become the woman God had made her to be.  You'd never know it now, but she was timid, quiet and very self-deprecating.  One of my broadcasting friends and associates laughingly referred to her as "Mouse Knuckles," because of her (then-) very retiring ways.

 

Our being joined by the Lord changed everything -- for both of us.  For the first time in my life, I was complete.  There was a sense of security, a sense of wholeness, a sense of having everything plugged in so that I could begin to see the promises of God (made to me beginning at age seven) fulfilled.

 

One very extraordinary thing happened for me when Della and I were on our honeymoon.  At age 12, the Lord had given me (by way of an artist's detailed sketch) a vivid picture of what His choice for me would be in a Bride.  I had carried that sketch around in my wallet for years until the wallet was stolen from me.  We were standing in the parking lot of the Seattle Marriott one day when Della turned a certain way.  For the first time, I saw in her silhouette and pose that image God had planted in me as a 12-year-old, and remembered the picture I had carried around all those years before. 

 

Della, for the first time in her life, began to feel a sense of safety and protection, and the liberty to become that woman of God she had seen in her spirit as far back as age four.  Because of experiences she'd been through (that are unnecessary to recount here), she had felt suppressed and severely restrained.  I did my best to encourage her -- and to steer some of her decisions -- so that she would have the kind of opportunities that would begin to fulfill the drive and motivations of her spirit.

 

It wasn't long before friends, who had known both of us prior to our marriage, began to remark on the phenomenal change taking place in each of us.  What was happening was that -- for each of us individually and jointly -- we were experiencing a radical change of onoma.  Our character and makeup, our personalities, our sense of authority and power in the realm of the Spirit, and the ways in which we did things all began to coalesce into one new being.

 

Ask anyone today.  Della is me; and I am her.  You don't see Della without seeing me; and you don't see me without seeing Della.  Of course we have our distinct differences.  But there is a unity, a sense of completeness we never had before.  Because I am now whole, I am free to be all that God has called me to be and commissioned me to do.  The things I have seen and experienced in the realm of the Spirit since the Lord gave Della to me have been a real taste of what He promised me at age seven, and what I saw in Heaven at age nine, then at age ten, and again many years after that after multiple trips back and forth in the Heavenlies and throughout time.  And they are a drop in the bucket for what lies ahead!

 

Because Della is now whole, she is free to be that powerhouse woman of God she was called to be and sent forth by the Lord with an anointing.  (Ask anyone in our fellowship!  (smile)  They'll tell you that Della is positively anointed by Holy Spirit with a phenomenal anointing!)  No longer is Della that quiet, mousy, withdrawn individual that everyone used to see her as being.  She has a holy boldness in her to speak the truth, to prophesy, to declare and to bring forth to fruition and completion the things Holy Spirit shows her.

 

One brother who has known me for right close to 60 years is Dwain McKenzie -- the same brother with whom I ministered in Barrow, Alaska back in the 1960's, and again in the 1970's at Long Beach (California) Christian Center.   Perhaps twelve or fourteen years ago -- after not having seen us in person for quite a few years -- he came to south Texas and stayed in our home for a few days while attending a minister's conference.  His comment to each of us was that we were nothing at all like we used to be; that the Lord had done something truly remarkable in us.

 

He was right.  I have a new onoma.  Della has a new onoma.  It has been written into us.  And that is the picture that John is drawing when the Lord says to the overcomer, "and I will write upon him my new name."  Della and I have one complete onoma.  We make up one whole being. 

 

Better believe it!  In that same way, Jesus Christ is undergoing a change of makeup, a change of personality, a change of His very existence by virtue of His being joined to, and completed by, His counterpart, His other self, His Beloved Bride.  That may be a bit hard to think of because we think of the Jesus as being complete now.  Perhaps it would be better to say that Jesus is undergoing the fulfillment of His makeup.  It's hard to imagine Him being any greater, any more powerful and any more complete than He is now; and yet, that is what HE HAS ORDAINED!  That is what FATHER HAS ORDAINED for Him.

 

This is the way things were designed from before the foundations of the earth.  This is what Creation was all about.  This is why we were created.  And this is why Jesus had to come to this Earth to redeem for Himself that people whose pathway to relationship and intimacy with Him had been contaminated by sin. 

 

This is the essence of overcoming.  Jesus isn’t looking for a bunch of robotic automatons.  He’s after a people who choose Him and choose all that is necessary, no matter the cost, to be transformed into His likeness and character and makeup so that He can be completely fulfilled in His Bride!

 

Paul draws this picture in his letter to the Ephesians -- and we'll come back to this a bit more later on -- when he expresses it like this:

 

Ephesians 1:16-23:  (I) cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;  That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of HIS calling, and what the riches of the glory of HIS INHERITANCE in the saints,

 

And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.  (Emphasis, mine)

 

You see the picture, I'm sure.  We are His inheritance!  His calling is us!  He receives His inheritance when He receives us as His Bride.  His calling is fulfilled and completed when He receives us as overcomers, having been changed, transformed, metamorphosed into His onoma.  Jesus gets what He paid for in a Bride without spot or wrinkle, readied to rule throughout the eternity of the eternities.

 

Let's pick up next week with the picture that Paul draws in his letter to Ephesus.

 

I remind those of you in need of ministry that our Healing Prayer Call takes place on Mondays at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific).  Our call-in number has changed to (712) 775-7035.  The new Access Code is: 323859#.  If you miss the live call and want to go back and listen later, simply change the last four digits of the dial in number to 7039. 

 

At the same time, in case you are missing out on real fellowship in an environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday worship gatherings are available by conference call – usually at about 10:45AM Pacific.  That conference number is (605) 562-3140, and the access code is 308640#.  We hope to make these gatherings available by Skype or Talk Fusion before long.  If you miss the live call, you can dial (605) 562-3149, enter the same access code and listen in later.

 

Blessings on you!