Omega Message – April 1997
Cecil duCille
(Message given October 1996 at Living Word/Omega Message in Mahomet, Illinois)
I pray that God might open our eyes that we might see His work in this hour, for I believe that those who behold will receive. I believe that God is making us to see the thing, and then to walk in it and receive it. I believe that this morning something happened in the meeting, and that there was an opening, as if a door opened. I heard and saw things that I had not seen before, that God began to tell us in direct terms that we can now enter in. Formerly, we looked forward to the firstfruits and the resurrection of the Christ within us as something in the far future. This morning I saw that it was being offered to us as something that has already been done in the heavenlies, and that we were being encouraged to enter in.
I want to go back to this morning, starting with the song service. The Lord Jesus began to say something in the song service, and His presence began to come into us. In other words, I want you to remember the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament times, when the priest would go through the veil. He had been preparing for this moment for a whole year. The day had come when he should go through the veil, and it was a fearful place. He had done all that was necessary in the tabernacle: the lamp was lit, the bread was changed, and he was now before the golden altar for the last time before going into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God. The golden altar was the place of the offering of the soul. The priest takes out a handful of incense and places it on the fire. The incense goes up into smoke, which tells him that God has accepted his prayers; and he says to God, “This is for my sins and for the sins of Israel.” He was offering his soul, because Israel had laid their hands on him to be their scapegoat, and he became their sin bearer. He was now ready to give up all, totally, to go through the veil. He might not return alive, because he was going into the very presence of God. He wanted to see God manifest His pleasure in his offering by shining forth in the Shekinah glory. It would shine from between the cherubim, but he was not able to look upon it. He would fall upon his face and worship God when the power of God came upon him.
Many Christians thought that this year’s Day of Atonement was the last one, because our calendar is supposed to be four years short, which would put 1996 to be the year 2000. This would mean that we would have entered the seventh millennium, and that God’s time for completing man in the image of Christ was here.
We should notice that there is a deeper, inner work being done now in the hearts and lives of believers. Those who are really going on with God are going into a fullness they have never experienced before. The lamb was chosen ten days before he was offered and so there seems to be a selection going on in the Spirit as never before. Something in the individual seems to be saying, “I do not have much interest in the things of this life anymore.” It seems to me that there is something more important among the brethren, that their hearts are turning away from the world and turning more to God.
The hand of God is offering the people of God that fullness which we so long prayed for. “THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE…” seems no longer to be in the far future, but is being activated by the Spirit right now. I see God whipping His people into shape. He must have a people without spot or wrinkle.
POWER OVER THE POWER OF THE ENEMY
It was a blessing to us to hear our brother Patrick from Germany coming with such a revelation, telling us by the Spirit about a spirit which is giving us so much trouble in our fellowships here. It tells us that the Church has to overcome the princes and their palities (areas of rulership) all over the world, of every tongue and every tribe and nation. Therefore, the battle is both on the individual level, as well as on the corporate level. The spiritual rulers of the old Roman Empire, and the great Viking spirits of the Norsemen of Scandinavia, the Prince of Persia (with whom Michael and Gabriel contended in order to give Daniel the message of God), along with all the other principalities in the world have held the people captive for thousands of years, but God is now arming His Church to break and to bind them, and to set His chosen people free. These spirits do not grow old and senile, they only get wiser over the centuries. Nevertheless, God has given us “Power…over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19, Matthew 28:18-19). He did not say that the enemy has no power, but what He said is that we will have a greater power to defeat and overcome them.
When Peter, Paul, James, John, and the early Church came out against these spirits in the beginning of the Church, the spirits were new to the experience of dealing with a Holy Ghost filled church. The brethren therefore did not have many of the problems we face now. The Word in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 says that in the latter time, “perilous times” would come, which was a prophecy for our time.
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of god; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
We are now facing a well-developed spirit opposition that has been for two thousand years educated in warfare against the Church. They have to a great extent hindered the development of the Church, and muzzled many of the people of God by all manner of diversions and sensual and devilish devices. They have succeeded in creating a “World/Church” mixture—a concoction that is offensive to God. Not only is the Church facing an enhanced spirit opposition, but in the human realm, man has attained or is very close to attaining his “666,” which is the “fullness of man” (the highest point of human development). However, instead of preventing the development of the true Church, this has enhanced it, in that we have heard the trumpet of God calling us to great determination and more diligence in our walk with Him; to a will and purpose set to be like Jesus, according to the promise.
WAR IN THE HEVENLIES
There is something I want to show to you, which I trust will give you a new perspective in the Spirit. The Church is at war against the principalities and powers of darkness, so when the enemy touches one, he touches all. This stirs the hearts of the people of God unto prayer and fasting. This was the situation in the accident involving Brother Bruce and Sister Sharon. Their very lives were threatened, and it was a challenge to the whole Body, but God intervened through much prayer of the whole Body. This one act of Satan galvanized the whole Body into action and delivered these two from the jaws of death and it has made them and us much stronger and more determined to defeat Satan and his armies. The Lord has been revealing to us that we should not anymore wait for the enemy to attack us, but that we should attack him, and through the blood of Jesus Christ bind the principalities and powers and rulers of darkness of this world, in every one of our areas where we live and work. This attack should be continuous as an offensive action. Every time we pray, we should bind the ruling spirits in our area, so that they should take their hands off the lives of the people, in their homes, in their families, in their churches. The Scriptures say (in Matthew 16:18) that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church. This means that the Church should attack hell and break down its gates and set the captives free.
Isaiah 49:24, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.”
THE BATTLE IS THE LORD’S
When Brother Bruce and Sister Sharon were hospitalized after that terrible accident, there was a night and day prayer going up to God on their behalf. There was a continuous 24 hour a day prayer, as brethren all over the world joined us. They were constantly on our mind. We began to tell the brethren to pray differently from the way they were used to; that they should COMMAND the deliverance through the anointing of the Spirit, because healing is the “children’s bread” (Matthew 15:26). Speak the word! The centurion asked of Jesus that if He would just “speak the word,” he knew that his servant would be healed (Matthew 8:8). The power of the spoken word accomplishes much. Many times, we are begging and pleading with God for that which He has already given.
I remember the time when Jesus asked me, “What do you want? Whatever you desire, ask and it shall be given.” I said, “Lord, I want to see someone healed.” He gave me the gift of healing. I ran through the door out into the street searching for a sick person. I found a sick woman, spoke the word, and she got up out of her sick bed, healed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
People of God, stop crying and doubting. Begin to move in the Spirit and power of God. When you start doing this, you will find out how willing the Spirit of God is to work through you. He only needs clean, submitted vessels. You will never know whether you have a gift or not until you begin to be exercised in it.
STOP SELF-DESTRUCTION
Some of us are throwing bombs at one another, and we do not even know that we are doing it. It is like children playing with hand grenades. If you see a Christian robbing the pockets of everyone here, it is not your duty in the Spirit to speak evil or pronounce evil on him, but you should pray for him, and rebuke the evil spirit that is motivating him to the intent that he should be set free, so that the spirit will be smitten and not the man. Let us realize that the weaker Christian will always fall prey to the devil, and will do things that are really bad.
1 John 3:9a, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.”
When you see them do these things, curse the devil, for there is no will in the child of God to do sin. Committing sin is a deliberate act. When you see children of God doing wrong, look right behind them and you will see the devil; for he is using the individual in such a way as to make you come against the individual. The brother (or sister) is made to look so bad that we have the tendency to strike at him instead of at the spirit that is motivating him. We should begin now to strike at the kingdom of Satan and at the rulers of darkness.
THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS CANNOT STAND OUR BOMBARDMENT
I remember that there were a few things that have come that have caused us to bombard the kingdom of Satan as a Body united together. The first occasion on which this occurred was when a force had come from outside of our ranks and divided the flock. We were bombarded with evil prayers (sorcery) from this source. God would awaken us at three every morning, and some of us in other parts of the country could not sleep during other hours. We continued binding the spirits of the kingdom of Satan, from the principalities that rule in the different areas, to the lowly human vessels that were submitting to them. This went on until there was a loosing and a deliverance for the brethren.
I WILL GIVE YOU A SECRET—THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS CANNOT STAND THE BOMBARDMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF LIGHT. IT HAS BEEN PROVEN TIME AND TIME AGAIN. IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE DEVIL CONFUSED AND DO FOOLISHNESS, JUST START TO BOMBARD HIM IN EVERY AREA. EVERY MORNING WHEN YOU GET AWAKE, BOMBARD HIM! SPEAK AGAINST THE RULING SPIRIT THAT RULES IN YOUR AREA. COMMAND THEM TO LOOSE THEIR HOLD ON THE CHILDREN OF GOD, THAT GOD’S PEOPLE MIGHT BE SET FREE; AND COMMAND THAT HE BE BOUND THIS DAY, THAT HE CANNOT DECEIVE THE PEOPLE OF GOD. THEN YOU WILL SEE THE CHURCHES AROUND YOU BEGIN TO WORSHIP GOD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH, AND TO BE FREE IN THEIR SERVICES.
SOME OF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH SLEEPING. EVERY TIME YOU GET AWAKE, BOMBARD THE DEVIL! WHEN YOU CANNOT SLEEP, CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD; BREAK THE STRONGHOLDS OF SATAN! COMMAND THE DELIVERANCE FOR THE PEOPLE! SOME OF OUR GROUPS ARE ALMOST COVERED WITH DEMONS. EVERYBODY SEEMS TO BE POSSESSED AND OPPRESSED BY HIS OR HER OWN BUSINESS. THERE IS A SECRET THAT CAN DELIVER THE PEOPLE. LET SOMEBODY BEGIN TO TEAR DOWN THE WALLS OF HELL, AND YOU WILL SEE PEOPLE RUNNING TO CHURCH, TO ASSEMBLE THEMSELVES TOGETHER WITH THE BODY OF CHRIST. IT IS GOD’S WILL THAT WE SHOULD MEET TOGETHER. WHEN WE MEET TOGETHER, THERE ARE PROPHECIES AND THE WORKING OF THE SPIRIT IN OUR MIDST, WHICH IS A SPECIAL MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRIT THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN WHEN WE ARE ALONE! IT IS HAPPENING, BECAUSE WE ARE TOGETHER.
THE LONER IS A LOSER
There are a lot of people who feel self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency is nothing more than a lie from the devil. The devil wants to isolate you in order to eat you. One night, I was watching the National Geographic channel, and I saw a lion attacking some animals. The lion seemed to be actually aiming at a special one (quite likely the weakest—the ones that were dropping back, and the loners). He passed by some of the strong ones. He did not touch them—they seemed to be too much trouble to handle and he seemed to be seeking the easiest way to get his meal. He is after that loner—that one that is dropping back. Whenever you are a loner, you are setting up yourself to be eaten by Satan. Whenever you withdraw from the assembling of yourselves together, you are setting up yourself to be destroyed (Hebrews 10:25).
We need to qualify the above statement: the key word is “yourselves.” You cannot assemble with people who are not walking in the truth, as the Lord shows it to you. God’s promise is that if anyone earnestly desires the truth, that the responsibility or onus is upon God to lead him/her to the truth. Therefore, if your heart is not satisfied with a fellowship, you should either find where God wants you to be, or find people around you to speak to about God. Sometimes He will allow you to be in a desert, because He wants you to allow the living waters in you to flow and make an oasis in that desert. The excuse of many is that they have nobody to fellowship with. This is not always true, because if God puts you in a wilderness, you will find that there are others out in the wilderness like yourself, and if your heart cries out to God the Holy Ghost will bring you together.
If you have a wife and you do not assemble with her, you cannot assemble with anyone else. You complain that you are lonely. Any time that union and that oneness is there between a wife and her husband, and you begin to pray together, you will bring down the kingdom of Satan, and a lot of people who are bound will be loosed by your prayer. They will come to you; they will meet you in the barbershop; they will meet you in the supermarket; they will meet you in the streets.
This is a strange tale, but I know of a circumstance, where two cars had to be bumped together in order for two certain people to meet. From that moment on, they became friends. (That was a godly bump). I would not pray for such a meeting, but it seems that what was intended for evil, by the Spirit of the Lord turned out for the good.
GOD IS BEGINNING TO BRING HIS WORK INTO PERSPECTIVE. THE ATTACKS AGAINST YOU ARE NOT DESIGNED OF GOD TO HURT YOU, BUT TO DELIVER YOU FROM SOME OF YOUR FAULTS. GOD IS CLEANING HIS TEMPLE.
THE JUDGMENT HAS BEGUN
The word that I heard this morning was, “The judgment has begun [not “is going to begin,” but “has begun”] at the house of God.” If you do not feel the judgment of God working within you and around you, ask God what is wrong, because the first judgment we will feel is the judgment upon our status as a person. God does not want any other status for us but “to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (Ref. 1Corinthians 2:2). God does not want your degrees, your specific abilities, your pride, or your human achievements. All God wants is a man or woman whose ambition is to please Him.
It is the Holy Ghost that takes one into the Holy of Holies. As we move “in the Spirit,” He takes us into Christ. You need to understand that I am not speaking about the Spirit moving in you, but about you moving in the Spirit. The Spirit of God can move in a person, but it is with the intention that the person would get “into the Spirit”—that is, allowing the Spirit to control his actions. Every move of the Spirit is to profit withal—that is, to bring forth whatever gift or the ministry that the Spirit wants to express in the congregation. When the praise reaches the point of touching heaven and the people of God begin to move, the very air around you becomes rarefied and one feels lifted in the Spirit. Some start stomping their feet, some shout praises to God, and the Spirit is moving on you and in you. That is, however, not the ultimate. The ultimate is for you to move “in the Spirit.” That is, you do not move until the Spirit moves. “Moving in the Spirit” is when your mind and your heart conforms to the Lord, and the thing which God wants to be done at that specific time, in that particular place, is being done. It is not when you feel the Spirit move upon you.
MOVING INTO THE SPIRIT
You ask then, “How do I get into the Spirit?” First, remember that the Spirit is in you, and you must get into the Spirit. I cannot get into the Spirit by enjoying the music, but I can by listening to the words of the song. Sometimes I listen to you sing, and the praise is good, but it is not high praise. It could be higher. When you get to high praise, you are entirely out of self. You lose yourself completely and you are gone into the heavenlies. We get there by the Word of the Lord. Never sing a song that is unscriptural, and when you sing a scriptural song, think of the words. Think about what you are singing. I hear you singing a beautiful scriptural song, and then you go on to sing the last part, “Amen, Amen…” for a thousand times. I listened to the brethren, and they were singing beautifully. The music was good, the feeling was good, the Spirit was here, but they were not entering into the words of the song. If you dare to enter into those words, you lose yourself. You will either start to weep, or to confess God, or to confess your sins, or all of the above; and to move into God.
There is a “moving in God.” You know why? You have to be inside of the High Priest (Who is Jesus Christ) in order to get in through the veil. The Bible says the veil was His flesh. The High Priest (Christ) eats the bull with the bread (from the table of shewbread) and then He goes into the Holy of Holies, and that is the only way that a lowly bull would get into the Holy of Holies and into the presence of the Almighty. He has to be inside of the high priest, and I want you to understand that being “in Christ” is a different position than “Christ in you.” Let us look at Ephesians. I think that the Ephesian brethren had some kind of a depth in the Word in order for Paul to write to them like this, which he did not write to the other brethren:
Ephesians 1:9, “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which He hath purposed in himself.”
Now, there is a mystery in Christ, and the mystery in Christ is inside of Jesus Christ Himself. You ask yourself the question, “What is Jesus Christ?” To be exact, it cannot be explained, but for us, it is being in the body of Christ. Let us continue to read,
“That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the council of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ” (Ephesians 1:10-12).
Let us see if we can understand this: Something is happening “IN CHRIST.” First, there is a gathering, a coming together, so that everybody who is “in Christ” is coming together with everybody else who is “in “Christ.” There is no separation “in Christ”:
[“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:1-6).]
Verses 13-16, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”
There is at present, however, separation in the Church; and the separation will increase, for those who are not “in Christ” will find some reason to withdraw. Nevertheless, we are exhorted in the verses above to endeavor to strive and to make every effort to “…keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” and that this is accomplished through “longsuffering,” and “forbearing one another in love.”
On the other hand, in Matthew 13, the Scriptures also speak of a separation and of bundles being put together for the fire:
Verse 42, “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend (everything that is offensive), and them which do iniquity.”
The Body is going through a purge. Many people are dropping out, and their reasons are varied. One person said they are dropping out from us because we are putting up a building. We need a building to worship God, whether rented or acquired, through gift or purchase. The outdoors is not very convenient. Dissension and separation should not come because of disagreements over the time and place of worship, or the how and why, because if we are moving in one Spirit, as it says in the verses from Ephesians 4 above, “the unity of the Spirit” will bring us into “the unity of the faith.” Jesus Christ will come soon, and we need this place where we will have the freedom of worship. Everything in Christ, whether in this realm or the other realm, will move together as Christ brings His Body together into one from every tribe and nation.
Have you ever wondered what happened to Jesus Christ at night, when everybody had gone to sleep? He was able to see into the heavenlies, to hear the heavenlies, and to understand every movement of the Spirit. He had perfect communication with the Father from day to day. THIS IS A REALM INTO WHICH GOD IS MOVING THE BODY. He is lifting us up together with Him into heavenly places, making us one with Him. John in Revelation, Chapter 5, declares that he heard all heaven and all earth giving glory, and praise, and honor to the Lamb. Then he himself joined them to cry out praises to the Lamb; and heaven, earth and even hell heard him.
DREAMS AND VISIONS—A PART OF THE END TIME MINISTRY
Please take note of everything you dream, think, contemplate, hear, and everything which comes through your mind. Weigh them carefully by the Spirit and the Word. Be not quick to discard them, for God must speak to His Church at this time.
Joel 2:28-29, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.”
Note that the Word says that there will be no distinction or discrimination in the pouring out of God’s Spirit—that the Spirit will take young and old alike, women and children. THIS IS FOR OUR TIME. Dreams and visions will be part of the ministry, and while we are together in Christ, we will have perfect guidance in the Body.
WE GO UP (ARE RAPTURED) AS THE GLORY COMES DOWN
The glory of God is coming down to us, and we are going up to meet Him. We are being raptured—that is, we are being changed from glory to glory as we behold His face. We are being lifted into the glory of God. In this glory, we are going to see and hear things which we have never seen or heard before. We will see clearly and walk and talk with those who are in the heavenlies. Brother John said that an angel came to him and confessed that he was one of his brothers who was saved by Jesus Christ:
“…I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 19:10).
****Cecil, I thought maybe to delete the text in bold type in the following paragraph as it is not verified in Revelation 22 (it only says “I fell at his feet to worship him”) What you described is written but only in Revelation 1 which is a different situation, and unless rewritten could be just omitted.
In Revelation 22, another angel came to him, and John said to himself that this surely must be Jesus Christ Himself, but this angel also confessed that he was not, but that he was “…of thy brethren the prophets.” I want you to understand that when this angel came to him, he (John) fell, and he said he lost the power of his limbs—he collapsed. His body could not stand the glory that was before him and he fell to the ground and he thought it was Jesus Christ, but it was only a man who had gone into the glorious presence of God. God is saying that He is giving the glory to us, and that we are expected not to just receive it and say, “Yes” for next service, but we need to walk in it.
Let us read again from Ephesians, and as we are reading all these passages let us mark those places where it says “in Christ.”
Ephesians 1:19-20, “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.”
Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
In other words, our power is in Christ. Galatians 3:28 says that in Christ, “…There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus,” yet we know that there is “male and female” in the homes, in the Church, and in the world; and that male and female have to operate together in God’s divine order. There is, however, a higher dimension in the Spirit, when Christ begins to speak through anyone, and neither the male voice nor the female voice carries the greater authority. It is Christ speaking, and it is not male or female. We are talking about children of God getting in Christ in order to get through the veil.
THE GREAT TRIBULATION
We are now entering into the end of the Great Tribulation, which is the worst part of the tribulation and when many things are going to happen, like losing our houses, our bank accounts, and our present way of life that we know and love so much. In this time, we must still hold fast to the promises of God and carry on His work for the deliverance of men. God is strengthening us at this time in our walk with Him. God is not expecting us to do it by our own will, but He is expecting us to believe Him.
This morning we heard a message on faith, in which Sister Sharon depicted Abraham as an ordinary person, but God testified this of him several times in the Scriptures, that “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Abraham was righteous in his generation, although the requirements in his day were not what God would require of us today. The blood was not yet shed and the Holy Ghost was not yet given. How blessed we are!
AM I IN THE FIRST FRUITS COMPANY?
Some of us might be saying to ourselves, “I do not know if I am in the First fruits Company. I do not know if I am worthy. I do not know if I will make it. I probably am not because I slipped and fell last week, and nobody knows. The people in church do not suspect that I get mad sometimes, and curse sometimes, etc., etc.” ALL THESE THOUGHTS ARE DESIGNED BY THE DEVIL TO CONVINCE US THAT WE ARE NOT OF GOD, BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT FOR US TO BE WORTHY, WE ONLY HAVE TO TRUST GOD. GOD HAS A DIFFERENT DESIGN. GOD’S DESIGN IS THAT BY FAITH WE CAN LAY HOLD OF HIS PROMISES, AND THAT BY FAITH WE CAN ENTER INTO HIS EVERLASTING KINGDOM. IF WE SIN, WE HAVE AN ADVOCATE WITH THE FATHER—JESUS CHRIST; AND WITH THE REMISSION OF SINS COMES PURITY AND HOLINESS.
God is not asking you to do it by your integrity or by your own personal character. God is asking you to put your character and integrity and abilities aside, and [by faith] lay hold of the promises, and like the publican (Ref. Luke 18:13; don’t mix this up with the word “Republican”), to drop on your knees and admit your unworthiness. Ask God to help you and to save you from the traps and snares of the devil; and say, “Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief.”
GOD RESISTS THE PROUD
God does not want proud people, and if His blessing you is going to make you proud, then God’s blessing would become a curse to you. I have known most of these miracle workers, and I have seen many of these mighty men of God fall from grace, one by one, because of the very miracles that they work. We are called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our main thrust is the saving of the souls of men. Miracles will come wherever the Gospel is preached, as God has promised to send signs and wonders. If, however, the focal point of a ministry is miracles, then that ministry is off center, and pride generally develops. So then, when the miracles do not come, there will be the temptation to make them happen. If you are looking for miracles, you are in the wrong place; but if you, yourself, are a miracle, then you are in the right place. We are all God’s miracles here. We have no goodness in ourselves, and if God should let us go, we would be wretched and awful.
SPIRITS ARE LIKE HOUND DOGS
I have seen how God watches over us over the years. I grew up in an environment where violence and machismo were the order of the day. You dared not look like a wimp—they would beat you to a pulp. In this environment, we got to the point where violence became a part of our nature; violence became a part of the soul. When I got saved, Jesus Christ quickened me and delivered me, but I still had spirits of violence which followed me. Spirits, like hound dogs, will follow you year after year. They never give up. However, if you walk with God, He will defeat them.
I have told the story many times of the man who beat upon me, and how by the grace of God I was able to not hit back at him; and how, at that moment of victory, the spirits of violence left me. One might think that they would leave it there, but not so. They contemplate that if they cannot get you there to do active violence, then they will work to get you to be interested in violence, and then to do it by proxy (that is, to watch other people do it). They will make you like the violent sports—boxing, wrestling, etc. They make you read the newspaper and find news of violence, and you find yourself agreeing [or sympathizing] with certain violent actions. Like, for instance, the case in the news of the man whose child was abducted by a homosexual man and held for years until the police found them. The father stood by as the police brought the man in with handcuffs. He shot the man dead, right there handcuffed to the police officer. Many people justified the killer, and agreed with his violence. There are many stories of this kind daily, and the violence of our time finds many sympathizers among people who think themselves not to be violent. The spirits of violence feed upon the people in this manner.
We are showing this to you because God, more than ever before, has to cleanse the temple, and He is doing it now. He is doing it by the hook or by the crook. In this hour, we have no place of hiding—except one; and I am advising the brethren to run into God, because otherwise you are going to be zapped. One way or the other God is going to get you to keep your covenant with Him. You had better run God’s way, rather than to let Him put the whip to your back. He said, “I must have my church without spot, without blemish, without wrinkle or any such thing” (Ref. Ephesians 5:27). I am being impressed by the Spirit to tell you that we are not talking about tomorrow. We are talking about a PRESENT condition, that the people of God must NOW move into God.
THE BIRTH OF THE BEAST ON THE SIXTH DAY
The fifth 1000-year day (that is, the fifth millennium) began with Jesus Christ’s ministry, death, burial, and resurrection; and with the birth of the Church. It ended with the birth of the beast: THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. Let us quote from the Encyclopedia Britannica, where it is speaking about the history of the Roman Catholic Church:
“In its inception, the empire was intended to be the continuation of the old Roman Empire, and the Protector and co-ruler of the Christian world with the papacy. The Christian Civitas of St. Augustine was to have a temporal ruler and a spiritual, each to govern his own affairs; each with a certain divine sanction, and the temporal was to give the spiritual that protection it needed in this turbulent world.”
The Lord took six days to build the world. At the end of the sixth day He made man (Ref. Genesis 1:24-31). Man had no experience; he was not complete. The beast had developed, for the Word says that he was made before man. The beast then reigned through the night. Man rested on the first day of his creation. The Bible said that on the seventh day, God finished the work which He had made, and then He rested. The finishing of the work is the completion of man. We are in the seventh day, GOING INTO MIDNIGHT, because night comes before morning. The word says that “the evening and the morning” is the day, so evening and then night comes before the light of the morning.
GOD’S RIGHT HAND
God wants to lift His right hand. Brother Tommy Hicks saw a vision of the Body of Christ lying down, covered by many preying animals. Then there was a shaking, and all the animals fled. As the Body settled down, they all returned, but when the right hand of the Body lifted itself, and then the left hand towards heaven, they fled for good. God is going to lift His right hand:
“O Sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvelous things: his right hand and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory” (Psalm 98:1).
God is depending on His right hand to defeat the enemy at the appropriate time, when the “fulness of times” (Ref. Ephesians 1:10) is come.
Daniel 7:21-22, “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; AND THE TIME CAME THAT THE SAINTS POSSESSED THE KINGDOM.”
I must exhort you, Brethren, to never cease to thank the Lord for making you a part of this mighty company, and for rescuing you out of the darkness of this sinful world and leading you into Christ. Amen.
The one great desire of our hearts is to see the devil defeated, and the people of God liberated. The little song comes to mind:
I want to see Israel marching.
I want to hear the trumpet call.
I want to climb Zion’s mountain.
I want to see Great Babylon fall.
I want to see Jesus reigning,
On King David’s royal throne.
Oh, won’t it be a glorious sight to see,
When Zion comes marching home.
We (this generation) are the people who will see very shortly the glory of God in the earth. It will not be very nice at the beginning. We must go through the darkness (much suffering) before we come to the light of the morning.
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17).
This verse gives us much rejoicing, [of the glory that comes] in the falling of the Holy Spirit upon the believers, and the mighty works which follow; nevertheless, upon closer scrutiny we see that there will also be much suffering and travail.
WOMEN ALSO INCLUDED IN THE PROPHETIC MINISTRY
Notice that this scripture says that “…your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” There is no difference in male and female when God speaks. The more you climb in God, the less you have of male in the Church. The Church is going to move, and God is going to move everything that is submitted to Him. He says here,
“…and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
Verse 18, “And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”
You will notice that He is saying that He will pour out of His Spirit upon both male and female, and that they shall both prophesy.
Verse 19, “And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke.”
The sign that is being shown in the earth is blood, and more blood. He said, “…blood and fire and vapour of smoke.” Everywhere we light a fire, there is smoke, but this blood and this fire is going to cause “vapour of smoke.” In Joel 2:30, it says, “pillars of smoke,” and upon seeing the atom bomb, we realize that a pillar of smoke stands up from earth to heaven after the blast. The point I am trying to show is that you cannot have blood without people being killed. Revelation 9:13-15 says that He is anointing the angels in the Euphrates river to kill one third of humanity. Approximately six billion people are on the earth at this time. One billion is one thousand million. We are talking about the death of approximately two thousand million people. How many rivers of blood would that be? That is the picture here. Something peculiar comes to me. Let us look at Revelation 16:6.
“For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.”
We have just read about blood as a sign in the earth. The last world war was ended when atom bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, two heavily populated cities in Japan filled with men, women, and children. Many of the approximately 200,000 persons who were killed were atomized by those two blasts, and their blood was evaporated into the atmosphere. This river of blood was breathed into our lungs by all of us who were alive at that time.
JACOB’S TROUBLE
The stage is being set for a worse scenario than this. Today, Israel is in grave trouble:
“Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:7).
There is no way that Israel will be able to draw back from this war. It is said that the Intifada was an uprising of the Arabs against the Jews, but that this present situation is war. Jericho was the first city which God gave to Israel when they crossed Jordan, and now Jericho is the first city which the Israelis have given back to the Arabs. This seems to be the beginning of the destruction that natural Israel must go through, which the Bible speaks of as “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” I think I have received a little insight in this matter:
Revelation 9:13-15, “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four corners of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.”
This picture brings us back to the Tabernacle. The golden altar of incense is situated before the veil in the Holy Place, and the High Priest burns the incense on this altar before he goes into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. This is the fifth station in the Tabernacle. The sixth angel would then be the angel of the mercy seat. When he blows his trumpet to call you from the fifth to the sixth, he is, in effect, saying your offering of your soul is accepted, and it is time to come into the veil and under the shadow of the Almighty for hiding and safety. The Scripture clearly states in Matthew 24:21 [concerning this time that is before us], that unless God protects us no flesh would be saved. The most modern example of this [protection from God] that I know of is the case of the sisters in Switzerland. The story is told, that when the radiation was released in the Chernobyl nuclear accident, all the sheep, cattle, and crops were contaminated, except theirs. They prayed and believed God, and the radiation did not affect them or their farm. (It is indeed peculiar, that the word “Chernobyl” in Russian means “wormwood” (Ref. Revelation 8:11)).
Revelation 9:13-15, “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in THE GREAT RIVER EUPHRATES. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an HOUR, and a DAY, and a MONTH, and a YEAR, for to slay the third part of men.”
This is saying that God has a special hour, of a special day, of a special month, of a special year. This means that God has one special day and a special hour when He is going to let go His restraining hand that binds the angels of death and destruction, and let them loose in the earth.
I asked the Lord concerning this thing about the “Euphrates,” “Why Euphrates?” The answer He gave to me is that it is a key. Whenever you see God mention things like that, it is a key, and once you get the key it is going to open a lot of understanding into many things. It is like the key word “Jerusalem,” meaning the many people of God who are temples of God making up a city of God; and like the key word “Babylon,” which means the many rebellious ones who are against God, and who join together to make up a land of rebellion against God.
The Lord said to me, “Open up the Bible map in the back of your Bible, and look at the river Euphrates.” I began to write down the names of the different countries that are in and around the area through which the river Euphrates flows, and I found the list to be very interesting. It included all these hard-core Islamic nations: Iraq, Iran, Armenia in Russia, Syria, Turkey. It came to me that Islam and the spirits of violence which rule Islam have been bound, but they are going to be released and they will bring destruction to the world.
Recently they found a whole shipload of atomic weapons going to one of these Arab countries, and arrested it. Now, that was the one they found. What about the many they did not? The Arab nations are arming themselves with atomic weapons. They hate Christianity and want to destroy the Christian world. They believe that Islam will rule the world some day. Let us not fear the things that are coming to pass in the earth, but let us rejoice. God is going to pour out His Spirit upon us in a mighty way such as the earth has never seen anything like it before. Jesus said, “…and greater works than these shall he [he that believeth on me] do also; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12). What Jesus meant is that we have not seen anything yet. The magnitude will be great, because it will be millions of us moving in the “fullness of Christ” (Ref. Ephesians 4:13), and He says He will give us the fullness at midnight. You will remember what happened at midnight in Egypt. God opened up the gates of hell, and the devils of murder were let loose, and they were hungry for blood. The devils were given the order to kill every firstborn in Egypt, but God instructed Moses to kill the lamb, and put the blood on the doorposts and lintels throughout all the land of Goshen (Ref. Exodus 12:22). “Stand with your loins girded, ready to go, eating the lamb at midnight.” The demons and devils rushed towards the land of Goshen, but the first house they approached, the Shekinah Glory of God was shining over the doorposts and lintel, and none could enter the houses where the blood was placed.
THE BLOOD CANCELS THE POWER OF THE DEVILS
Have you ever heard of a demon that was canceled? Once in my sleep, I saw a woman coming from the door, full of wrath, saying, “You are the one that killed me. I am going to get you.” I rebuked her and said, “Bind her forever, Lord, and do not let her touch another Christian.” Soon after, I got a call from someone asking if I had seen her (in the spirit). I said, “Yes, she is in hell.” He never called again.
Do you know that the “lintel” is your mind? Your forehead blazes fire when you rebuke a devil. He is burnt by the blaze of God’s glory from your forehead. His power is canceled by the firepower from the Spirit of God within us. The devils could not face the land of Goshen, but they turned their wrath upon the unbelievers. The “doorposts” are your hands. Keep your doorposts working for God. There were some sinners who were saved that night, because they believed and hid in the houses of the Israelites. The message was given out a long time before, and those who believed could have found refuge. Some were running in at five minutes to midnight, but they were saved because they believed.
God says that these four spirits, which were bound in the river Euphrates, would be loosed at a specific time, and the time is in our near future. Be not terrified or afraid. If you dwell “in the secret place of the Most High God,” they will not come “nigh thy dwelling” (Ref. Psalm 91). They will not touch the secret place of the Most High God.
1996—THE END OF THE AGE ?
We are speaking here in very plain language. For some months now, we have come to the end of the age, to the end of God’s six thousand-year days. Our calendar has four years left out, therefore the seventh millennium must begin this year. We are now in the time when the devil will have his day; when the “man of sin” must come to his full (666); and the Christ to His fullness in a people who must grow “to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ref. Ephesians 4:13). We now pray, “Thank you, Lord, that the Kingdom is now coming within us.”
We know definitely that the deliverance is coming; it is coming WITHIN us. God is bringing to pass His holy Word. We are seeing it manifested through His people, right here in our congregations. God is fulfilling His word to us concerning our children. It may take trials and tribulations, and the travailing of a family, but as the Church travails she shall bring forth:
“For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” (Isaiah 66:8).
GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER! GET THINGS STRAIGHTENED IN YOUR MINDS AND IN YOUR HEARTS! MAKE UP YOUR MIND WHO YOU WILL SERVE; THAT YOU ARE GOING TO FOLLOW GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. FOR THE HOUR IS COME WHEN THE LORD IS BRINGING FIRST CLEANSING TO THE CHURCH.
Let us take a closer look into the last phrases of the message [that Brother Patrick brought]. How are we going to rebuke the devils of hell, if we ourselves have devils? We must get rid of familiar spirits. As Brother Hamilton spoke, we could see that he was hitting at familiar spirits that have no boundaries. He said he was talking about the Prussian spirits, but the influence of the principalities and powers in the satanic realm spread their power over the whole world. Each person can speak of his or her own area, and we will discover that all the nations (no matter what country we are from) exhibit the same tarnish of soul and demonic bondages as he mentioned in his message. The Holy Ghost, however, is given of God to indwell our spirits so that these strongholds in our soul (our mind, emotions, will and desires) can be broken and cast out, that Christ may reign within. Paul wrote in Galatians 4:19,
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”
The greed of men and nations has spread across the world. Economically, the planned One World Government has every country in the world under their fist. For example, Nigeria produces the best crude oil in the world. The people should be as rich as the Saudi Arabians, but somehow they have become a debtor nation, and the people are poor and struggling, while their oil is tied up in European consortiums. This goes on to every corner of the earth, so that the best products of the various countries of the world are coming under one stamp of control.
Revelation 13:1-2 speaks of a “beast” with “seven heads and ten horns,” and that the beast looked like a “leopard” with the mouth of a “lion.”
“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”
This is a picture of all the nations joined up into one organization, with seven heads and ten men ruling it. The head is always the organization or country, and the horn is always the individual leader (Proof of this is in Daniel 8:20.) The lion would be the type of the United Kingdom and all the English speaking nations—what used to be the British Empire, with America included. In Daniel 7:6, it speaks of the leopard kingdom, which was Greece, and which broke up into four parts, and one of which became the Roman Empire (of which we all now are). It says that this kingdom had wings like the wings of a fowl, which would depict the American eagle. The feet like those of a bear would be a type of Russia. The whole body of the beast looked like a leopard.
Napoleon (whose name was “Apollyon”—the destroyer) had the leopard as his symbol. Before him, Alexander the Great, because of the swiftness of his attack in war, used this same symbol of the leopard. There has been no time in the history of humanity when war has been more swift and dreadful than today. The nations can pour fire upon any part of the earth from thousands of miles away, and whole cities can be incinerated and evaporated in the twinkling of an eye. When you talk about corruption, corrupted government, a corrupted man in high office, you are talking about Alexander the Great. He was the epitome of corruption. Some of the things which characterized him were homosexuality, ungodliness, and rebellion. He was murderous, deceptive, brutal, and everything else.
We are talking about this modern day beast [which is rising up in our time] as having the trappings of the “leopard.” There is no war machine on earth more dreadful, more terrible, more destructive, and more merciless than the modern equipment of war. We believe that science has reached its “666,” or pretty close.
One thing struck me when we went to Russia. We were impressed by the love and the care and sacrifices the people made to entertain us. The thought struck us that these were the people who were once labeled as our enemies, and we discovered they were thinking the same thing of us—that these Americans are full of hate. Of course, these were normal, innocent, Christian people, who were not responsible for the political position of their government.
The aim and ambition of man is to reign and rule over mankind. This is the basic nature of the antichrist. The Word says in Revelation 17:12),
“And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.”
It is not seven thousand years, but only one hour. This hour, in God’s time, is speaking of a short time, maybe three and a half years.
LAY HOLD OF THE POWER AND VICTORY GOD HAS GIVEN US
Let us close with some good tidings. The Christian Church has been given a rule book called the Bible. A victorious book, which has stood fast from the time of Genesis to the present, and has conquered the devils right along the whole passage of time. We have seen some mighty deeds of men. In the example of Job, the book showed us man (stripped of God) conquering the devil. When Job conquered Satan, it was all on his own, since God had withdrawn from him and the natural man kept his integrity before God and was able to beat the devil. In Job 2:4, Satan said, “skin for skin,” in disdain of man, but the man whom he scorned defeated him; to the glory of God! Sometimes, when we get into accidents and have devastating experiences, we wonder how God would allow these things to happen to us. These, however, are a part of the challenges that we must face as workers together with God against the powers of darkness. It is not necessarily so, that we did make some mistake or committed any sin. We should come out praising God more than ever before, because though the outward man perishes, the glory of God rises inside, and is a light to others, and a defeat to the powers of darkness. The enemy never learns. The more he gets beaten, the more he keeps coming; and this action makes us stronger and more determined to see the battle to the end. The promise of the Lord is in Daniel 7:27-28,
“And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. Hitherto is the end of the matter.”
All these stories in the Bible that God has been showing us, of David’s mighty men, Samson, Esther (a frail woman who was used of God to save the Jewish nation), Deborah the prophetess, Gideon with his 300 men defeating the Midianites, Shamgar with his ox goad defeating the enemy (Judges 3:31), and so many others, have been preserved in the Word for a purpose. THERE IS A PEOPLE WHO WILL NEVER BE CONQUERED, BUT WILL CONQUER THROUGH THE POWER OF THEIR TESTIMONY AND THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. The evil weapons of the enemy’s warfare have now come under the judgment of God, and God has given us power over the power of the enemy. As we rise more and more in the strength of faith and understanding, the great weapons of terror, which the enemy used in the past against the people of God, are losing their effectiveness. We must bear it in mind that,
“…THOUGH WE WALK IN THE FLESH, WE DO NOT WAR AFTER THE FLESH: (FOR THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE NOT CARNAL, BUT MIGHTY THROUGH GOD TO THE PULLING DOWN OF STRONGHOLDS;) CASTING DOWN IMAGINATIONS, AND EVERY HIGH THING THAT EXALTETH ITSELF AGAINST THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, AND BRINGING INTO CAPTIVITY EVERY THOUGHT TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST; AND HAVING IN A READINESS TO REVENGE ALL DISOBEDIENCE, WHEN YOUR OBEDIENCE IS FULFILLED” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6).
There is a certain brother from another country who applied for a visa at the immigration office. There he met a person who was very unfriendly to him, but he felt in his spirit that it was a plan of the enemy working against him. He was refused a visa and was not able to return to his country, and finally put in the Crome Detention Camp here in Florida. There he prayed against the injustice, and in a short time, the Governor ordered the close down of the camp, and he was free to go home, and eventually received his visa.
WE NEED TO REALIZE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN THE CHURCH THE POWER OVER THE POWER OF THE WORLD AND THE DEVIL. LET US WALK IN THE SPIRIT AND IN THE FAITH OF THE LIVING GOD. BY FAITH, WE WILL TREAD UPON SERPENTS; BY FAITH, WE WILL BRING DELIVERANCE TO THIS GENERATION OF PEOPLE BY THE POWER OF GOD AND THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST.
Believe and receive the word. The hour of victory is here. May God bless you in the name of Jesus.
Sonlight Devotional 