When Jesus cleared the
Temple he was quoting from the prophet Jeremiah and those listening to the
words he spoke would have known this.
Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of
robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the Lord. Go now to my
place that was in Shiloh, where
I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of
my people Israel. (Jer 7:11-12)
Shiloh is the place where the Philistines captured the Ark of
the Covenant and the Glory of the Lord departed with it. Jesus was saying that
if the people coming to the Temple were only offering lip service as in the
days of Jeremiah, then it was worthless.
Kadesh Barnea (Deut 1:
19-46) was a crisis time for the people of God in the desert. It was decision
time and a time to move forward and a time of change. Because of their failure
to act upon the word of God, they spent another 38 years wandering in the
desert until that generation passed away and a new generation of believers was
raised up to go in and possess the land.
A generation has passed since the
wave of Charismatic Renewal spread throughout the Church. Renewal was meant to
come into the heart of the Church. Like the Israelites, because of a
stubbornness to move forward the alarm bells have suddenly been heard. It’s
time to get the blinkers off and time to admit that yes, there is a crisis and
it’s time to stop wandering round in circles and getting nowhere.
All the answers to the present
problems within the Church are found in the Word of God.
We can ask ourselves the
question, how could there be so much rottenness and scandal of abuse within a
Church that is supposed to be Holy and set apart as a ‘light to the nations’.
Jesus himself gives us the answer.
In the parable of the darnel we
are told that an enemy (Satan) sowed the darnel among the wheat when everyone
was asleep and He told us that the darnel and the wheat would grow side by side
until harvest time whenever there will be a separation, but until then, there
will always be a mixture within the Church.
That is the reality but it is
time now for the Church to waken up and it is time to get down to a lot of
‘spring cleaning’. We need ‘spirit- filled’ leadership right now to sort out
the mess that we are experiencing. It’s time to rediscover that we the Church
are meant to be ‘Holy’.
The background to the restoration
of the Glory of the Lord is found in the first four chapters of 1 Samuel.
Background to 1 Samuel 1-4
The
spiritual condition of the people is represented in the spiritual condition of
the priesthood. Eli shows his lack of spiritual insight when he could not
discern between a woman in travail of soul in intercession and a drunken woman.
His
sons the priests were sacrilegious towards the offerings of the people. They
were involved in acts of immorality and they were corrupt. Though wearing the
linen ephod and priestly robes signifying righteousness, purity and holiness,
they were anything but.
Eli
failed to discipline his sons even though he heard of their immoral acts he
just mildly reproved them. It is interesting to note that God would not touch
these sons as long as they were under the covering of the father, so God
himself had to step in and judge all three together.
Though
under the same roof God was bypassing Eli and spoke to a young man who was
sensitive submissive and obedient to the spirit, unlike the priests who were
going through religious formalities.
Eli
represents the spiritual condition of the nation. They were unable to see
spiritually and had fallen back into idolatry and apostasy and they were
stiff-necked towards what God wanted to do.
In
the time of warfare they took the ark and presumed that God was with them, and
all their shouting was nothing but an empty noise and a farce, God was not in
it.
When
the Ark was captured. The son born to the wife of Phinehas the son of Eli was
named ‘Ichabod’ meaning the Glory is departed from Israel. Without the Ark of
God and the God of the Ark there can be no Glory. The Ark was at Shiloh.
(Jer 7: 11-12)
RESTORATION OF THE GLORY OF GOD
The way to restore the
Glory of God to His people is first of all through:-
Elkanah (worship) and
out of worship comes
Hannah (intercession) and out of intercession comes
Samuel (an ear to hear the voice of God) and out of Samuel comes
David
(prepared for spiritual warfare) and out of David comes
Solomon (the one
who built the temple).
So that is the prophetic procedure from (1 Sam 4:21) Ichabod
when (the Glory departed) until the Glory returned in the temple and no one
could minister. (2 Ch 5:14)
THE
ROLE OF WORSHIP
AND INTERCESSION
Worship is the birthplace
for God’s word and out of worship comes ‘the ministry of intercession’. All
other ministries come out of worship.
Intercession is the womb through
which God is giving birth to fulfil all His eternal purposes on earth. God has
only one way of doing His work. Everything that God does is through birth. If
there is no intercession, then no work of God can be brought into existence. It
has to be birthed. God is looking for a womb that will consecrate itself unto
Him and be the birthplace of the Word of God in any generation. God’s work has
never been done through any Church organisations, programmes or
committees.
Jesus was not organised from
Heaven he was born. The person who is born again is totally un-programmed. New
wine needs to be put into new wineskins. If you want to work for the Lord then
by all means organise a committee. If on the other hand you want work with the
Lord, then make an intercessory group.
Intercession goes through
labour-pain-tears-groanings, because it is a birth experience (Rm 8:26).
Intercession is a work of the Holy Spirit. It’s not something that we can take
on ourselves; it’s when the Holy Spirit moves within us in such a way that we
have a burden upon us. We take on the condition of the person or people that we
are praying for. Paul carried whole churches in his heart. ‘My children! I
must go through the pain of giving birth to you all over again, until Christ is
formed in you’. (Gal 4: 19-20)
INTERCESSION
I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall
of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the
gap (intercede) in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found
no one. (Ezk 22:30) The Lord
looked and was displeased to find that there was no justice. He was amazed to
see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. So he himself stepped in to
save them with his mighty power and justice. He put on righteousness as his
body armour and placed the helmet of salvation on his head. He clothed himself
with the robes of vengeance and godly fury. (Is 59:16-17) In other words: -God
saw that there was no intercessor, so he supplied the need; he sent Jesus and
we are to work with him in the task of redeeming others. (1 Cor 3:9)> ‘We
are fellow workers with God’. God has already moved on our behalf, he is
waiting for us to move so that he can act.
(Is 53:12)> He prayed (interceded) all the time for
sinners. [That is he identified himself with them.]
(Rm 8:26)> And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know
what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for
us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. [Speaks of agony and
pain.] (Col 4:12)> Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus,
greets you. He is always wrestling
in his prayers on your behalf, so that you may stand mature and fully assured
in everything that God wills.
(Ex 17:11-13)> As long as Moses held up the staff with
his hands, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he lowered his hands,
the Amalekites gained the upper hand. Moses’ arms finally became too tired to
hold up the staff any longer. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on.
Then they stood on each side (collaboration) holding up his hands (interceding)
until sunset. As a result, Joshua and his troops were able to crush the army of
Amalek. (Ex 17:11-13)
Without intercession there
is no glory. The anointing of the Holy Spirit upon us is only because of Christ
who is in us. He is the anointed one.
(Ps 133) speaks of oil running down from the head onto the rest of the
body. It is only when Christ is in us that there is an anointing upon us and
nothing outside of Christ has any glory. God will not anoint anything that is
not born of Him.
Anything that is manmade has no
glory. Ishmael was not the product of God and there was no anointing upon him.
Without the anointing you cannot inherit the glory. Isaac who was born of God
was anointed and only that which is anointed can be used for God’s purposes.
That which is born of the flesh will always war against that which is born of
the spirit. Man made activities cannot bring forth the glory of God but only
the glory of man (Rm 1:23), which is idolatry. Only that which is born of God
overcomes the world and only that which is born of God brings the glory with
it, into our lives and into the Church. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. (1 Cor 15:50)
Why isn’t there glory in the
Church? Because there are so many manmade activities and they can never hold
God’s glory because there is no anointing upon them. Esau was not God’s choice,
only Jacob. Saul was not God’s choice as king, only David.
Here you have two women. Penninah
and Hannah.
Penninah means ‘pearl’,
which is the most sophisticated product of natural power. God can use nothing
that is of nature and God never used her or any of her children. We can have
all of the finest natural resources and cleverest ideas and power, but if it is
not from the Lord then he can’t anoint it.
Hannah means ‘grace’ which is never the product of
any effort. It is a gift of God. Intercession is also a gift of God, our
efforts can’t bring anything about, and it’s all a work of grace in our hearts.
Intercession is to partake in His intercession (Heb 7: 25). It all starts when
the Holy Spirit puts into our hearts ‘groanings’ that can’t be uttered to call
forth this burden of intercession. And true intercession is when we through our
own weakness are brought into the place where the Holy Spirit will take of that
ever ongoing intercession by our High Priest the Lord Jesus Christ and put it
into our hearts. So that our intercession becomes his intercession.
Through intercession Samuel was born, and he restored the Glory to God’s
people. God looked for a womb and he saw Mary and through her the Son of God
was birthed into this world and through Jesus came the Glory of God to the
world. (Luke 2: 30-32)
Jesus prayed ‘Now
the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified’ (Jn 12:23). He didn’t say crucified but
glorified. There is no glory without the
cross.
Intercession is a true experience of the cross, because it is entering
into the sufferings of Jesus so that His Glory will be revealed. (Rm 8: 16-17)
Glory comes from the cross and Glory comes back when we go through the cross,
which is intercession. Only to the same degree that we are willing to partake
in his sufferings, will we participate in his Glory.
That which was brought forth in
Hannah’s life was Samuel, and there was nothing that belonged to Hannah. She
consecrated her womb and her life to serve God’s purposes and it’s when we come
to that point where we have stopped to possess God for ourselves and we come to
understand that we are the ones who are possessed by God himself, here to serve
God’s purposes. Like Hannah who had to come to that point where she was
struggling to have a son to satisfy her own reputation, which didn’t work
because God would not open her womb. The minute she came to the place where she
said, that which is going to be born through me is going to belong to you Lord,
I consecrate it to you, for your purposes, her womb was opened. She gave birth to something that
was God’s property. Samuel was the voice of God being restored to the people of
Israel. ‘It was rare for Yahweh to
speak in those days’ (1 Sam 3:1).
It’s only when God speaks to his
people that the Glory will be restored. The voice of God comes out of
intercession. Intercession comes out of worship. Intercession gives birth to
the prophetic ministry. God will raise up prophets through intercession so that
the voice of God will be heard in the land. The problem with the Church is not
that God is not speaking. The problem is that no one is hearing what he is
saying.
When the Glory had departed no
one had an ear to hear. God is restoring an ear to hear out of intercession so
that the voice of God comes through his people and through that, the glory of
God will be restored.
Intercession opens the
ears of God’s people to hear God’s voice. Intercession is speaking to God until
we hear God speaking to us.
Samuel means heard of God until God will be
heard, so the exchange from Hannah to Samuel is that through intercession He
gives us an ear to hear.
In order for the Glory of the Lord to
return there will have to be collaboration of (new wine) spirit filled
believers who will be worshippers giving birth to a ministry of intercession
through which the prophetic ministry will come forth. Worship is the key that
unlocks the door to intercession.
Through intercession we are able to enter into the heart
of God enabling us to hear his voice. Hearing his voice gives us the direction
to bring about his plans and purposes for our lives and when we build the
temple according to his designs then the Glory of the Lord will return
