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Father, I have been feeling You strongly on me all day. My heart aches to be brought deeper into Michael's trust and dependency on You. Oh Father, I know how You brought Him there. You brought Him there through much suffering. Not an earthly kind of suffering where there is no end or relief, but one where whatever You bring is cherished no matter what it feels like because of what is accomplished for Your purpose in the completion of all things here. Father, how Michael responds to Your touch and how He is drawn out to You in the sweetest abandonment I have ever seen. How I desire to be brought deeper into Him. He is such sweet yielding and precious abandonment. Draw me deeper, Father, into Michael for His sake and for the end of everything earthly in me. I am yielded Father because Michael is. Into Your hands I commit my Spirit and into Your arms I fall. Each changing future scene I gladly trust with Thee. I travel calmly on. Taken
No one will ever be called to bear what Michael had to face and bear in dealing with the prospect of the consummation and the peculiar issues that surrounded it. In His humanity, He vividly experienced and keenly understands, more than we will ever comprehend, the human thoughts and feelings that occur when things take a much different turn than ever before conceived; and He made an atoning way through those human thoughts and feelings in our behalf. He walked our path before us, the path in which implicit trust of the Father is required, when one's understanding is in the dark and the soul must go forward alone on the naked instructions of the Father.
There isn't anything that we have been called to bear or go through which Michael hasn't gone through and borne before us; except that with Him, His experience of it all was greatly intensified because the Father had made Him responsible for every soul, those who would believe on Him and those who wouldn't. He was required to bear the weight of our souls on Himself at the same time, and in addition to, everything He went through.
I have felt the Father's heart as He has brought together His thoughts and feelings for this chapter. They bear witness to His Son's personal experience as He faced a consummation which His Father had planned. The Father desires us to see the consummation the way Michael experienced it, the issues that He felt, and what He saw through His eyes. I have felt the Father's solicitous yearning to open up to us and draw us into, the soul struggle and mental agony which His Son experienced as He was led forward to the place of His sacrifice and consummation. The Father knows how to convey it in all of its reality, because He suffered fully with His Son in it.
The Father Himself was right with Michael through His garden of Gethsemane, "His oil press." We felt the Father's feelings in us as He breathed His encompassing love through us for His Son. We watched and prayed with Him and for Him as He paid the price to gift to us His own intimate union with the Father. We are Witnesses of the superhuman struggle which Michael endured to bring us into a real, divine marriage with God. We could not sleep as Michael went through His personal "oil press," where the true nature of the Anointing was expressed into real life, in all of its perfection.
The dragon especially did not want this particular chapter to be written, because it reveals Michael's heart in a special way. He has contested it strongly because he knows it spells the end of his deception over every soul, as the veil of seeing the Son of God through eyes of flesh, is torn from top to bottom. Whether a soul chooses to believe in Michael or not, Michael will be seen as He is.
At the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, when the attention of all was drawn to the Messiah right before His crucifixion, it is written:
Never before in His earthly life had Jesus permitted such a demonstration. He clearly foresaw the result. It would bring Him to the cross. But it was His purpose thus publicly to present Himself as the Redeemer. He desired to call attention to the sacrifice that was to crown His mission to a fallen world. While the people were assembling at Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, He, the antitypical Lamb, by a voluntary act set Himself apart as an oblation. It would be needful for His church in all succeeding ages to make His death for the sins of the world a subject of deep thought and study. Every fact connected with it should be verified beyond a doubt. It was necessary, then, that the eyes of all people should be directed to Him, that the demonstrations which preceded His great sacrifice should be such as to call the attention of all to the sacrifice itself. DA 571.
Verified means "to prove, establish, confirm by competent evidence, evince - to show in a clear manner, to prove beyond any reasonable doubt; to manifest, make evident." When the Father drew me to the sentence, "every fact connected with it should be verified beyond a doubt," He was having me to understand why He had been so strong upon me from the very beginning of Messiah's return, compelling me to document His personal words to me, the inspired passages He providentially led me to, and the special providences revealing His divine hand in the things we were watching unfold here in the new land. I remember His presence coming down upon me so strongly that I would become physically short of breath. I couldn't do anything else but sit down and type out to Michael the things that the Father was bringing to me. As soon as I had expressed them, the strong weight would be relieved. I had even forgotten this detail of those early days, until I came across it in one of my e-mails to Michael. I knew that the Father Himself had ordained that every fact connected with the consummation and marriage of the Lamb be verified beyond a doubt, so that the faith of all those He would draw to His Son, would have a divinely provided resting place, secure and substantiated by the evidence He saw pleased to have on record.
It is truly the Father Himself Who is witnessing to The Finished Work of His Son. He takes from all of those daily notes, what He wants for the particular chapter He is unfolding, and brings them together. He wakes The Witnesses up in the night, and talks with us during the day, giving us His divine expression of what we have been witnesses to. He connects the daily notes with His interpretation of the events which He caused to transpire here. It is the Father Himself Who is lifting His Son up to you, and He gave us to you as specific Witnesses of the return of His Son. "I'll provide My two witnesses." Rev. 11:3 The Message Bible.
The Father led me to the following inspiration before the consummation had occurred, but during the time in which He had begun intimating it to us.
The Lord is to do a strange work very soon . A representation has been given me that I have not yet had strength to trace upon paper. I must know when to speak and when to keep silent. When the Lord bids me speak, I cannot keep silent.
The Lord will work. Great facts will be revealed in the word. There are rich experiences to be received from the great Medical Missionary [Messiah, the only Healer of body, soul, and spirit]. The knowledge of salvation through faith and a full trust in a personal God and a personal Saviour, will be manifest. Those who have held the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end will have the proof of the things which they have learned by personal experience.
The gospel will be revealed and verified. The experience of the day of Pentecost will surely be repeated ... The Lord has given His word. PC 201.
The reality that Messiah had to face was the incomprehensibility of what the Father was requiring of Him, which was opened up to Him in increasingly invasive degrees. The sequence of instructions that the Father unfolded for Him to follow and deal with, never revealed all that was to happen in the next step, requiring Him to go forward in the dark, so to speak, as far as what the marriage was going to look like. Michael's implicit trust in His Father and His incorruptible integrity to follow His leadings, were tested to the uttermost.
The first specific mention of a marriage came in March of 2000, during the purchase of the new land. It came at the end of the severe emptying described in The Finished Work, and revealed in greater detail in The Unification of God and Man. Michael shared with us how the Father first brought it to Him.
I had been seeing how I had been a parable in my life as to the workings of God. This had already been opened to me, as well as how the church itself was the fulfillment of the prophetic outline. Year after year prophecies were fulfilled in the congregation and many of them were the time prophecies.
With this as my background, I was considering the nature of my previous two marriages and how they had failed. Both of my previous two ladies had divorced me after over 15 years of marriage each. I shook my head in disbelief how someone such as I, a minister of the gospel, could not stay married to anyone. As I was considering the complete incomprehensibility of it all, the Father spoke to me and said, "I had two failed marriages." He was referring to the Jewish church and the Christian church. Again I saw myself as the mirror of what had happened in the spiritual realm of history.
At that time, while in prayer one day, I told the Father I did not want to marry again. I was finished with these earthly relationships that had no substance more than a business arrangement. I was finished with the earth altogether and I really wanted no more of it at all.
Father then said, You will marry the land. I was satisfied with this in my heart because I thought that land would have no difficulties, and it was obviously symbolic, so I could still rest in peace. I saw at that time that my wife would be the city, New Jerusalem, that came down from God out of heaven. The city would be adorned as a bride is adorned for her husband.
In all of this, I had no idea at all, and Father did not share with me, what this marriage would entail. Michael
In June, the next specific mention of this marriage to which the Father was referring, came at the first gathering of everyone's arrival in the new land. The indivisible nature of divine union was clearly portrayed, and the question was asked to the individuals of the entire congregation, "Will you marry me?" Neither the congregation nor the one asking the question knew the invasive depths of soul to which that mutual agreement would take us.
It was shortly after that when the Father brought The Song of Solomon home to us in a very striking way. Messiah was Anointed to specifically draw us into the depths of the Father's love and bring us to the fullness of a divine union with Him. At this point, there wasn't even a hint or intimation from the Father that Messiah's marriage to the land encompassed anything further than a deep spiritual bond of union. The invasiveness of the Father's love and the work He had anointed Messiah to do began to unfold to both Messiah and the congregation.
In August, Michael shared with the church on our internet forum, the following details of what the Father was continuing to reveal to Him. (The emphasis is supplied.)
When I, of myself, considered the possibility of the new land, I had ideas that I would get to retire and live happily ever after. I had no specific thoughts as to having anything to do. I wanted nothing but to be with Father and desired nothing but to rest in Him in peaceful quietude. My personal desires had vanished and I had no wish to build any kind of new kingdom. Then, without warning, I was thrust into the Song of Solomon. I was made to read it over and over again until I could meld into it. After that, I was anointed, and Messiah was given His work. The whole land was to be overturned. Nothing would remain the same as it was, and my personal self had nothing to do with it. I know that I cannot trust in My own will, but I only do what is revealed to Me, and at the time appointed.
I have had to be in a continued state of the yielding of the will. I have no agenda but to be responsive to the yearnings of the Father, when and where they are revealed to Me. While current life is filled with holy terrors, I rest in a peace and quiet I have never known before. While, of myself, I would have never chosen this pathway, or even imagined it in my most vivid and lucid moments, my own reasonings are never allowed to hinder the direct application of the Father into human affairs.
A Messiah is not one who simply sits on a pole, while being holy. A Messiah is a savior and has a work which no other one can perform. He is prepared for His time and must faithfully carry it out or the people perish. The Messiah performs an action in behalf of the people, and, then, by faith, the people can take the benefits of His work into themselves. He performs an act which saves those who will trust in Him. He can only perform this act of salvation by taking His integrity and purpose all the way to the cross. He must be faithful to the end. "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep." I must spend and be spent and at all times be unaware of My own will.
Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. John 4:34;6:38,40.
He that believes in Me will never suffer loss. For even now I raise him up, for this is the last day. He that seeks Me with his whole heart will find Me. He that lays down his own will for My sake and the sake of the gospel, will find that his will is the will of the Father. His many voices will cease and his many imaginings will pass away. He will put forth every effort to come into My chambers, yet, his life will be effortless. He will carry my burdens, yet, his life will be burdenless. He will go to the depths but he will not drown. He will be thrust into the heights, but he will not fall. Peace and rest will continually follow him. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow him all the days of his life and he will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Michael
The overturning of the land began to be revealed in greater detail, as the Father opened up the preparation that was required in order for the land to marry Messiah. Again, the emphasis in His words is supplied.
The dawning of a new order always brings with it a shocking confrontation with the old order. When God overthrows the walls of men for the blessedness of His light, they often stand aghast and shocked at the overthrow. This overthrow appears immoral and satanic to the unregenerate heart. It was rebellion and fear that put clothes on our first parents. It was not morality and faith that did that. When the clothes come off, it is the world that shouts foul, for it has much to cover.
When Jesus came, it was the moral man who nailed this lawbreaker to the stake. They accused Him of being of Satan because He broke through all of the morally established norms. They would not let themselves understand the nature of His freedom and it seemed like complete anarchy and ruin to them. In their mind Jesus cavorted with all sorts of criminal types and even had prostitutes pouring oil all over him and kissing his feet in a disgusting display of affection.
After Jesus, came a whole train of fanatics, who eventually destroyed the city and the nation, sending the Jews into exile. These were the anarchists who took Jesus' words to the flesh. The religion of Jesus and Barabbas seemed identical except that one was ruled by the flesh and the other by the Spirit.
When the Reformation broke out, the same response was noted. These reformers were those who sought to ruin the order of a reasonable society. With the Reformation came many fanatics, who, by their senseless actions, endangered the Reformation spirit and brought into it a reformation of the flesh.
In the last violent upheavals of our passing earth, we may expect no less. There will always be those who enter into the open gate with the Spirit and those who enter into the open gate with the flesh. These two opposing forces must meet in mortal combat. There is always an earthquake when the lightning of heaven flashes and there will always be the hail that sweeps away the refuge of lies.
In our time, God has opened to us the ravishing of His love. He has put that truth in the context of the Song of Solomon. Our closed gates are to be opened and we are to be released into the realms of His loving embrace. Satanic forces will, and have, taken this to the flesh and ruined the souls thereby deceived by him. Even so, the wise shall understand and the wise will be given the wisdom to discern between the Spirit and the flesh. The flesh profits nothing, but the Spirit brings life and light. Pure sweet love and joy are for the children of God who understand rightly. Everlasting ruin awaits those who cannot break out of their fleshly cages and into the freedom of God's own character. God keeps our modesty, and not the clothing that we wear. God makes us honest, and not the chains we wear, so that we might not pick some man's pocket. God is our keeper and not the morals of the day. The law kills, but the Spirit makes alive.
Men must love, and this love must break out, or he eventually destroys himself in some way. Men have bound themselves up with the shackles of their own intolerance and self-protection. Their morals have driven them to be cold, lifeless and hard souls who cannot feel the cries of the suffering ones. God's love first breaks through our own hard city walls, and then all those walls with which we have to deal in the heavenly Canaan before us. We must be as free as heaven is, not kept by our own well developed self-control, but by the Love of God. We must have our love released from the dungeon of our making and gloriously released into the kingdom of His light.
In any revolution, there are great difficulties of the heart to overcome. When Jesus received His anointing, He was immediately thrust into the confrontations of His enemy. He was even tempted to believe He was the fallen angel who was cast out of heaven and was here to deceive the people. He was tempted with His vulnerability and He was tempted to use worldly methods for His ministry.
There were no clear verses that spelled out His calling to Him. Yes, there were Scriptures that when seen in the light of the Holy Spirit did enlighten and support Him, but these verses were not obvious ones in themselves. All that proceeded from His life was taken in the trust that His Father was leading, and it was the knowledge of the Father's leading that was His most precious keeper. His strong prayers, sometimes all night, were necessary for His personal stability. Without those times He would not have been able to sustain Himself, for this stability came from His Father above.
Jesus dealt with people in various ways. Each healing was particularly adapted to the individual case. In all this, He sought to break down the previous economy which built its kingdom on the backs of others. He wanted to free the individual from his physical and mental prison. For those who received His Spirit, this was accomplished.
The Father once again has decreed that the earthly state of things be overturned. This is the last and most violent revolution of the soul. His love goes deep into the recesses of the soul temple and breaks through all of the cords that bind it up. He calls this revolution the marriage. He marries His city that has come down from God prepared for the wedding.
Marriage to God immediately impacts on our earthly marriages. I do not speak only of a married couple, but marriages that involve our work and personal self-image. Mankind has always had a certain "pecking order" in their dealings. There has always been a rooster and his hens. The military and the Catholic hierarchy are examples of this human authority. Someone is always underneath the pile and used of the others who are in stronger positions.
In the marriage between a man and a woman, there has often been expressed the "manly" authority, guaranteeing that the weaker vessel will remain in a humble state under his rule. The husband sometimes saw himself as the king of the house. While this picture may be true under a heavenly order, God has never set up a human over the conscience of another. This, man has done on his own authority.
If a man loved his wife as God loves her, there would never be any family difficulties or hurt hearts. The tender entwining of the affections of God would so permeate into the fiber of the married ones that their purposes, goals and their very inner heart would be one.
While God ordained marriage, he never sanctioned soul slavery. Marriage is not about domination but about union. I have come to break every yoke and to set the captive free. Human love always has its price. That price may involve financial gain or sexual favors. Men and woman often marry to "get something." There is some advantage to be gained by combining one's interests with another. This is not the order of heavenly love. That love comes with no strings attached. It is freely given with no returns expected or required. Any returns from such love only emanate out of the grateful heart that receives it.
True love takes or expects nothing. True love requires nothing. It flows from the heart as a stream, or a river of the purest ever flowing water. It takes from the heavenly rain, and cleanses the earth with its softness. It goes out to the just and the unjust in equal proportion. The drought of the sinner is not associated with heaven steeling itself off. The sinner steels himself off from the heavenly moisture. It is he who causes his own drought.
My Father has decreed a marriage of Himself with His bride. This marriage so unites the soul with God's own precious Spirit, that anything of the old order intruding on that, is quite painful to the soul and that soul must flee from it. Heaven's peace is so captivating, and deeply rooted, there can be no more relationship with the slavemasters of this earth's order.
Love is such a benevolent king that any subject of that order does not feel the cords that bind him to the heart of God, because those cords are only his own freely given will and grateful response to heavenly dew.
I will turn and overturn until this stone of God's promise breaks down every heathen image. I will sweep clean the cupboard of human love and break down every motive of self-advantage. I will so intrude on the soul, with his grateful permission and invitation, that the heart will break out in thankful song. Messiah has come, and the anointing of His love will be felt by all. It will overthrow the order which merchandised men to gain its advantage. The smoke of their torment shall rise since no one buys their merchandise anymore. I am married to you my sister, my spouse. My heart is bound up with your heart and never again will this earth's dark shadow oppress.
This revolution comes with many voices and terrors, since it breaks into the forbidden images of the past. But, if a soul will wait upon the Lord, and trust himself to His keeping, all the mysteries will be explained; all the dark terrors will be exposed to the light, and the glorious new kingdom will appear to the soul. While the work of the adversary seeks to mix the heavenly with the earthly, so that the new order might be overthrown in its infancy, he is doomed to failure. Messiah has come and he is here to oversee the work of its installation. Michael
