Better Sacrifices Part 1

Heb 9:19-23

1 9 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the

people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of

goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both

the book, and all the people,

20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath

enjoined unto you.

21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle,

and all the vessels of the ministry.

22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood;

and without shedding of blood is no remission. 23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. (KJV)

Recently, while driving to Michigan to visit a dear friend, Elton Weatherly, I had a visitation from God that has changed my fife and given a clarity concerning His working in my life and that of my wife, Charlotte. I was in a state of confusion and, to be quite frank, filled with offense toward God for the things that had been happening to us and others across the country.

As some of you may know, Charlotte has gone through a great trial with her body for many years. She has been faithful beyond belief to be available to the ministry in spite of her immense physical obstacles, never allowing her condition to interfere with her commitment to God and to His body of believers. In August she noticed a swelling in her left leg and thought it was due to water retention, but it hurt too bad to walk without great effort. She ministered in church that Sunday with a cane to support her and on Monday we took her to emergency to see what the problem was. It turned out to be 2 stress fractures in her shin, one in her tibia and one in her fibula. We were really stunned since she didn't fall or hit her leg on anything. The doctor told us that due to her prolonged use of steroids needed for Addison's disease, her bones had become brittle and were in danger of breaking due to normal weight and usage. If she felt sore in any part of her body we would have to come to the hospital to get x-rays done to see if she broke any bones.

She was put into a cast and confined to a bed or a wheelchair and had to keep her leg elevated at all times. This lasted for 6 weeks. Charlotte continued to worship the Lord and to try to keep a positive attitude, waiting for the 6 weeks to pass, which they did very slowly. She was one happy woman when I took her to the hospital and they told her she didn't need the cast anymore. That Friday I took the wheelchair back to the rental place and bid farewell to it and took Charlotte out to eat to celebrate. Sunday morning we awoke with joy in our hearts because Charlotte was going to go to church with me and walk in without a wheelchair, from which she played the keyboard and ministered when the Lord spoke for her to do so.

I was in the kitchen getting the guitars ready to take to church when I heard Charlotte yell for me from the bedroom. I went running in to see her sitting on the bed sobbing. She was getting dressed for church and lifted her healed leg up to put it in her skirt and she heard a loud crack from her right foot and felt pain knife through her. I couldn't believe it. I was stunned and totally crushed. I also started to cry over the thought of another break. I was frightened by the thought of trying to pick her up to carry her out to the car, as I was worried about breaking more bones in carrying her. We prayed and I proceeded to carefully carry her to the car and drive her to get x-rays. I could barely see the road through the tears as I drove and Charlotte was sobbing with pain and disappointment. hi the midst of all this, my wife said something that only she could say at a time like this. When she had broke her left leg she had to cut off the left leg of her slacks in order to wear them over the cast. Now she looked at me and cried, "Doggone it, now I have to cut the other leg off my pants and all I'll have to wear is shorts!" I stopped crying and looked at her with an obvious stupid look on my face at the absurdity of it all and we both broke up with laughter. We couldn't stop laughing all the way into x-ray. I am sure they thought we had lost our minds! Thank God for His precious ways of bringing us back from the edge of despair! We found out she had broke her right foot and ankle in 2 places. Shewas once again put into a cast and had to wear it and be confined for another 6 weeks. We did solve the problem with her pants by having her wear them backwards! Oh me.

In all honesty, this has been the hardest trial we have ever faced. The last two breaks in Charlotte 's bones were even more painful than the first two. They hurt her constantly, and she went without sleep many nights. At times it was hard to keep our spirits up and not to get discouraged. Coupled with this was a great fear of making some normal movement, such as turning over in bed at rught and hearing another crack of bone. Eventually, we learned to turn it all over to the Lord. The pain has not left entirely yet, and Charlotte still walks with pain and needs a cane to support her. This caused great offense in me toward God and caused me to doubt His methods of dealing in our lives. The offense was not just over Charlotte either. It was over Preston Eby, one of the greatest writers of our time and a dear friend, going through a life-threatening neck problem resulting in a painful surgery and very painful recovery. It was over my spiritual father, Dale Davis, lying in a hospital in a coma after having a heart attack at the close of a service where he preached a great message on the shewbread of Gods presence. (Dale has since made his transition to be with the Lord) This offended me. It seemed everybody we knew was put into frightful circumstances. Charlie Rhyne, a dear friend and fellow minister had fell in his backyard during a storm and lay in the rain for 2 hours until he could get help. He dislocated his shoulder and lost all feeling in his arm. The doctors told him he may never use the arm again. (Charlie has since been getting feeling back into his arm) This hurt me and offended me. Gene Conaway, a dear fiiend and fellow minister got the news from his doctor that he has cancer of the bladder. This crushed me and offended me. On and on I could go with accounts of dire situations on every hand. I was driving along with great offense in me, on my way to see our Papa in the Lord, Elton Weatherly, a dear friend and fellow minister, who had recently fallen in the tub at home and crushed his head on the edge of the tub. He had to get his skull opened up and the blood drained from arotmd the brain and has gone through a hard time of recovery with some memory problems due to the blow. I was offended, and I was mad, and I was telling the Father all about it.

"God, how could you let these things happen? These are all men and women of God, the very best that this present time has to offer to you and you stood by and allowed all of this. You could have strengthened my wife's bones and disannulled the effects of those drugs. hi fact, you could have healed her years ago and she never would have had to take those drugs in the first place. Why didn't you!? You could have stopped Charlie from going out that door and he never would have fallen. Preston could have been healed from this bone condition and never would have gone through this ordeal. You could have destroyed the cancer cells in Gene's body and you could have sent an angel to keep Elton from falling in the tub. Why didn't you? These are ministry that have been faithful in every aspect of their lives and you allowed these things to happen. But most of all Lord, I am offended at the way my wife has been handled by you. She has written songs that speak life to all that hear them, and she is the very best preacher I have ever heard, and yet she has remained weak and afflicted in her body since a little girl. Why Lord? Why?"

The answer, whispered in my ear, heavy with compassion and care, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission."

In that simple, short statement, I was yanked back from the edge of offense and brought back into my right mind. After all,

what could I say back to that? The one speaking to me knew first hand from whence He spoke. He shed His blood on Calvary for me and for the entire world.

Isa 53:5

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (KJV)

He was the ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb of God, perfect and without blemish. Why then would He be talking to me about a @er shedding of blood? This sent me to the bible to read again the 9th chapter of Hebrews and to revisit what the author was getting at.

The writer begins the 9th chapter right after stating in the 8th chapter that, in saying a "new covenant" he has made the first covenant old, and that which is old, decayeth and is ready to vanish away. He then gives us a review of how the old tabernacle and all of the articles and the people themselves were sanctified. It was done by blood. A lot of blood. Bowls of blood. Blood was everywhere, on the tabernacle, on the mercy seat, on the book, on the people, everywhere and on almost everything. This was a slaughter folks. Looking at it in the natural, it was upsetting and crude. Many in the deeper truths of God have renounced the idea of "the blood". It isn't a pretty sight, and we are a people that want everything around us to be pretty and clean. The fact is, this day of the Lord can get pretty ugly at times. Sony, but I'm just telling you the facts. The high priest himself could not enter into the holiest of all without blood. Truth is, he was covered with it. For without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.

The 16th chapter of Leviticus tells us that Aaron was to only come through the veil in the holy place at a certain time, when the Lord would appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. On this day of atonement he was to bring his own offering and an offering from the congregation of Israel . Aaron's offering was to be a young bullock given for a sin offering for him and his family and a ram given for a burnt offering. Israel was to give Aaron two kid goats for a sin offering and a ram for a biumt offering. When Aaron takes the two kid goats to the door of the tabernacle, he is to cast lots upon them and one lot will be killed and offered for the people and the other lot will be for a scapegoat that will be presented to the Lord alive to make an atonement with Him and to be set free in the wilderness. One lives, the other gets sacrificed. As we know, the Lord is our sacrificial Lamb, who was slain at the cross in our stead, and it is His blood that has covered us and made us acceptable to the Father.

The blood of bull and goats were used to cover the earthly articles and sinful man with a sacrifice of a shed life, and to make communication possible between a holy God and sinful mankind. But all of this was only a shadow and type of that which was to come through Jesus Christ. Aaron went into the holy of holies with blood, but not his own blood! It was his bullock that gave his life in type for Aaron and his family, but Jesus went into the holy of holies by His OWN blood, hence becoming our great high priest, and made an entrance way for us into the holiest of all, and without the shedding of that glorious blood we would have no fellowship with God. His blood covers us and makes us acceptable to God. However, under that blood that now covers us lies a corruptible self, that is forgiven and not held in judgement by reason of that great sacrifice. Forgiven, yes, but not totally changed at the present time!

Let me set forth some qualifying statements for this last thought. Only Jesus could save the world through His sacrifice.

There is only one blood that could redeem mankind, and that was THE blood, His blood. Hebrews 6:20 states that Jesus is our forerunner, an odd title, seeing as to how John the Baptist was called the foreninner of Jesus Christ. The title, forenmner, signifies that others are to come after. John made the crooked paths straight, and prepared the way for Jesus. Jesus also has made a way for us to enter in behind the veil to where He is. The greek word for forerunner is "prodromos" meaning, "a riumer ahead; i.e. scout". Jesus has gone ahead of us, not to remain there alone and separate, but to bring us to where He is! We are being sent by Him in the same fashion as He was sent by the Father, not only as Sons, but as living sacrifices. Whatever happens to us and for us has far reaching consequences in the universal Body of Christ. Nothing is done strictly on an individual level in this order of the corporate man. There is a need for us to understand our new responsibilities concerning the day that we have approached unto. The life that you shed is the life that will bring about the "greater works" that Jesus spoke to the disciples about. Why "greater" works? Who could be greater than Jesus, and do greater things than He did? No one. But joined with Him in power and glory, and positioned with Him as saviors, we will thrust the dragon through with the sword of truth and the battle of Armageddon will be won.

We must move into a realm of God that we know nothing about right now. I believe there exists a dimension of power and demonstration that we have not tapped into yet. This is a secret place, a narrow, hard to find place, that has been kept back from the intellect of man and reserved only for the inner man. Our intellectual mind, that part of us that reasons and partitions thoughts in files of logic and categories of past experiences, is lost in this realm I'm talking about. In this realm there are principles of life and power that have never been put into practice by mortal man. Heahngs are in this realm, but not the kind of healing that we know of, the kind that only heals the physical body, but hearings that go to a base level and corrects genealogical weaknesses, and heals inner sicknesses that many times are the cause of outward sickness.

Heavenly things are in this place. Things that DEMAND "Better Sacrifices". These are those things that are true and holy, that require more than the types and shadows required. These are not copies, but the true figures that the copies represented. Just beyond the veil of this life there are heavenly things waiting to be sanctified by the blood of saviors that are laying their lives down for the worIcL Unless the sacrifice is made, these things will remain locked away in the invisible, unable to perform their wondrous works in this visible dimension. Let me say this, that we are now approaching this new year of 1996with sacrifices in our midst that I believe will call forth those things from the other side and that will bring heaven and earth together in a great union of resurrection power! Halelujah! The people are being sprinkled with the blood of righteous men and women that are standing in the shadow of death so that life can be seen in others. No greater love hath any man than this, to be found poor so that others are made rich, to be made weak so that others can be made strong. What an honor, what a priviledge, to be a part of such a company of savior-sons. Oh, folks, this is nigh unto us and I can hear the Father saying to us, "Get prepared for the next matufestation, for this manifestation will complete and fulfill all former manifestations, and will supersede all past glories." It is going to take some "better sacrifices" to get us there, but get there we must. It is not enough to be covered by the blood of Jesus only, we must be changed at our root level by His life.

Jesus is our advocate, our mediator between us and our Father. The scripture uses the word propitiation when it refers to His sacrifice for us.

I Jn 4: 1 0

I 0 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (KJV)

Nelson's Bible Dictionary has this to say about the word propitiation.

PROPITIATION

[pro PISH ih a shun] -- the atoning death of Jesus on the cross, through which He paid the penalty demanded by God because of mads sin, thus setting mankind free from sin and death. The word comes from an old English word, propitiate, which means "to appease." Thus, propitiation expresses the idea that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for sin which a holy God demanded of man the sinner.

(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary) (Copyright (C) 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)

It is an act of death that creates an appeasement for a lingering condition, a condition that legally is defeated in Christ, but which has remained with us in this realm of life since Jesus died and rose again. As it stands now, Jesus is making up for our lack. Notice that the above scripture states that His propitiation allows God to love us even when we don't love Him. Is it to be this way throughout etemity? God loving us and us hating Him? No! There has to come a time when God finds pleasure in us and we give Him our own love. Grace leads us to perfection. Our lack is made up for only until such a time when we can become what we are destined to become. At that time we are Sons, not bastards, but true Sons that worship our Father with the same worship that Jesus does.

It is plain to me that unless we change our @ing concerning the atonement of Christ and what it accomplished we will forever be offended by the acts of God. It has always been said that Jesus did it all at the cross, and that there was no need for further redemption. I would submit to you that Jesus did fmish all that the Father sent Him to do and that in the completion of that appeasing atonement there is no further need of sacrifice. However, that brings me to the title of this article, "better sacrifices". Note that the word for sacrifice is plural, not singular. Indeed, it is stated that there is a need for us to present our bodies a living sacrifice in Romans 12: 1. Why, if the one sacrifice by Jesus was enough? The fact is, Jesus made a sacrifice for us that brought us into fellows@p with the Father, but before the final trumpet blows there will be many more sacrifices and much more shedding of blood, not to remove the external dirt of behavior, but to destroy the root of corruption, which is not remission of sin, but is the change of the base nature that keeps creation in bondage.

We are fulfilling many roles and offices in God. We are a people that put a lot of stock in titles and names. Our movements are all labelled and we identify more readily with the more positive titles. Everyone wants to be titled a Son of God. "I am of the Son company" says one, "I am of the Life company" says another. Whether you identify with Kingdom Word, Life, Sons of God, Reconciliation, Priests, Kings, or whatever, they are only titles. Sometimes we are many things all at once. Sometimes we @ ourselves to be one thing, and really we were called to be something else. After all, who wants to be called to be a sacrifice,

or a shedder of blood, or a savior. The shame of it is, these are what we need right now. At the threshold of every new day, there is a cross. We are not saved from death, but through death. I know, I know. I can hear many of you now, "By golly, we've come beyond sacrifice and death. I'm a fife preacher. I'm not climbing back up on some old cross." Fine. You'd make a lousy savior anyway. Too full of yourself and your high and mighty ways. The trouble is, you've lost touch with the rest of creation.

Iknow it is easy to state that you are a son and you are ruling and reigning and if everyone else would just believe God's word the way you do that the rest of us unbelievers wouldn't be going through the things we are, but wait until things start going strangely out of order 'in your life. Wait tmtil calamity comes to your door and knocks the door down and sits down in your living room and re@ to budge. All that talk goes right out the window and the only thing that matters is present reality. How do I get this monster out of my house? I have heard many say that all the troubles we experience in this life is delusion. In other words. it isrft really there, we have allowed ourselves to be progrannned into believing a lie. Well, lordy bud, this is the most real lie I've ever faced. See if you have that same thought when the doctor tells you that a thing called cancer is eating your body up. That dog won't hunt in those woods. Ifs time for a wake up call to reality! My spirit may be in heaven but my body hurts here on earth. It's time for those things that are bound in heaven to be bound on earth! It's time for those things that have been loosed in heaven to be loosed on earth! It won't be done until there is some saviors shedding some blood!

This day is full of offense. The same type of offense that the disciples felt when their master and soon to be king was found to be helpless against Pilate and the soldiers that beat him. It was offensive to see him covered with spit and beat beyond recognition. This shouldn't happen to a king! This man said he was the son of God and look at him! If he was a true son, he wouldn't be in this shape now would he? The same statements are being made today about some of the "better sacrifices" in our midst. People can't understand why Charlotte hasrft been healed. They have laid hands on her, fasted for her, prayed for her day and night, and surely she ought to be healed by now! If not, then maybe there is something wrong in her life. If she was a true believer then she should be ruling and reigning over that body, right? As I heard recently, she must have missed God somewhere along the way, because God wouldn't have someone that was used of God so great to be confined at home for this long. Yes, there is a lot of offense out there and there will be more if we don't start getting our thinking straightened out.

Actually, Charlotte and I have questioned God on these matters and we ourselves have wondered what was going on. Jesus himself had a moment of agony over Ms calling as a sacrifice. Let me show you a real mystery. Look over there in that quiet, wooded place. See that man praying? He's in agony isn't He? Looks like a man at the end of His rope doesn't He? Watch as He goes back down the path to that small group of men who are sleeping and wakes them up and asks them to stay awake with Him, obviously because Hds frightened and scared to be alone in the garden. Pitiful isn't it? Look how He goes back to the quiet spot and falls on the ground and sobs and groans within himself. Must have done something really bad to be in that shape. And to @ that He was just the other day telling people that if they believed on Him they would have eternal life! Look at Him now! Wait, something weird is happening. There's blood coming out of His skin! I've never seen

anybody with so much pain. He just mumbled something. Well, whatever it was, He seems to be better now. He even went back and let those other men get some sleep instead of waking them up. He looks real peaceful now. He better enjoy it, because there is some soldiers coming His way and they look real mad.

Such is the way that someone outside the circle of Jesus may have looked upon that strange scene in the garden. The fact of the matter is, I have never been able to reconcile in my mind the image of Jesus agonizmg in the garden and asking God if there was a way to possibly get out of drinking the cup. I @ that it shows all of us that the way to glory may be harder than we first thought. Jesus was possibly looking for the ram in the bush, provided for Abraham as a scapegoat for Isaac. After all, a greater than Abraham was this man. If God provided a ram for Abraham, perhaps there would be a scapegoat for Jesus. The trouble was that the blood of Isaac couldn't be shed for the sins of the world. That conspicuous honor was for only one man, the man in that lonely g@ No bleating of a ram in that garden. Just Jesus. He was the sacrifice and there would be no other that could take his place.

Iam sure a part of His struggle was in the knowledge that legally He could call ten thousand angels to deliver Him from that awful death. Have you ever thought of that? What would happen if every sacrifice that was ever used of God to birth the way into the next order was to refuse? Even Isaac was mature enough to resist Abraham's suggestion that they go to the mountain top to offer a sacrifice to God. I am sure Isaac was smart enough to see that the only sacrifice going to the mountain with Abraham was Isaac himself. Not even to mention that he allowed himself to be put upon the altar and viewed the knife being raised by his father over his heart. The scripture doesn't state it, but I am sure we can sunnise that Abraham had a talk with his son, the son of his old age, the son that God Himself had told Abraham that nations would be bom from. We can guess that Abraham convinced his son that he would have to obey God in keeping the sacrifice but that after the knife had ffimst into Isaac's chest and Isaac spilled his blood and gave up his life, then God would raise Isaac back to life again. Abraham believed God to the point of following through with sacrificing Isaac only to see God honor his prior word and raise his son back to life! But at the last moment Abraham is halted in mid stroke by the call of the ram. Jesus knew this story. And perhaps He was hoping to hear the same call in the night in the garden. But the only call heard in that garden was the voice of the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the Lamb of God, bleating.

How many of us have re@ to be a sacrifice because we are sons? In my point of view, that was the agony of Jesus. A Son indeed, but much more. A savior, a sacrifice for creation. The first Son of many sons, and also the first savior of many saviors, the first sacrifice for many sacrifices, better sacrifices than bulls and goats.

We also are being faced with the agony of our own mortality. We minister a message of immortality and many have dogmatically declared that they could not die a physical death, but they did. The bare truth of immortality is that many more will die a physical death in our midst before that change arrives. It is time to face it folks. There will be further sacrifices made before death is physically defeated. The most disturbing aspect of this is that many times God requires the best of us to be given to Him. I have had many peiwnal friends in the ministry make that transition. Bro. Dale Davis had so much more he could have said and done, as did Papa Arthur Pratt and Billy Ely and B. S. Westlake and so on. God has taken from our niidst those that we leaned on and depended on for guidance and leadership and we will miss them one and all, but

we will go on. We must go on. Jesus was the type of man that you never wanted to say good bye to. His love, care, and presence of joy and life was something that none of the disciples were ready to release. There was no need to, you see, because He was the Son of God and He had eternal life. The only trouble was that He was also the savior. Some of you are more than sons, you are the "better sacrifices", the only things that will finalize the acts of God conceniing creations redemption.

The shedding of blood means the shedding of "life". Blood is life. It is the juice of the grape. It has always been most precious to God, because He gave it to us. The word Adam means bloody. It is the lifeforce of our body. Blood carries life to all parts of our body and without it we have no life. To shed blood is to shed life. It was forbidden in the law to chink the blood of living things because the life of the flesh was in it. The blood of bulls and goats could be applied to the exterior, such as the ear and the toe of the priegt and sprinkled on the people but none was to be ingested. To do so would be an abomination. Then go to the last supper, when Jesus says to as disciples to drink His blood.

Matt 26:27-29

27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to

them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the re@ssion of sins. 29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

(KJV)

If the blood of animals had the life of the flesh in it, then the blood of Christ has the life of God in it, not just life, but life as God has life. The blood of the law sanctified the outer things, the blood of Christ sanctifies the inner things. But are the outer things to remain in the reahn of decay? I know that I will never die in my spirit, but is our bodies to ever go to the grave? NO! Better sacrifices are here in our midst. The shedding of life is sprinkling our tabernacle, our book, our soul and we are fulfilling the initiation of that first great sacrifice by offering ourselves as living sacrifices, our blood flowing with His blood to create a river of life that will bring to life everything it touches! Glory to God! Anything less would be a dishonoring to the work done at Calvary . A single savior hung between heaven and earth on that day, a single sacrifice, to be followed by many others who would believe on as name and go to the grave because of it. The early church was marked by their martyrdom. Never in the history of the church has there been such a time as the first few centuries of Christianity. Believers became so enthralled at the sight of their leaders going to death with a song on their lips and glory on their bodies that they started lining up for the stake to go to heaven. The church leaders had to tell them to wait at home until the authorities came to get them instead going to the places of slaughter and enlisting for execution! Loving not their lives to the death they proved that God was able to become more real than life itself

hi a strange sort of way, I think it was easier in that day to become a martyr. Believe it or not, anything is easier done when so many go before you as witnesses of the glory to come. Today, it is different. We feel God has forsaken us if our car breaks down. We curse God for a flat tire, threaten to quit preaching if we don't get our bills paid. How trivial our problems seem when compared to the early church. The wonder of it all is that we still feel that God has an obligation to save us from every pitfall and deliver us instantly from every calamity. The simple truth is, He does have to

if we press the issue. By this I mean, He cannot lie. If you want out of a circumstance you can demand as release from the circumstance by referring Him to the scriptures and proving to Him, much like the lawyers in our courts today, that He is bound by His own law to release you from your processing. And He will do it. The catch of all of this is, that if He still has some processing to do on you, something else will come your way and you will have to repeat the same scenario over and over again. God has a determination to perfect you and me and He will stay faithful to that detemiination until we come to the conclusion, Not my will, but thine be done!

The whole battle is over our life. We want to live. We live our life out of a mechanism of survival. I know it is better for me to die, but every time God positions the sword of His word over my proverbial heart, I flinch and get wounded instead. Then after the wound heals up, God and I have another go at it and I flinch again, become wounded again, and repeat the cycle over and over. One of these times I will not flinch, and behold, I am he that once was dead but now I am alive forevermore!

My problem and your problem is our instinct of survival. One day, when the Lord had a gathering of the sons of God, Satan came into their niidst also. God, loving a good challenge, asked Satan if he had considered God's servant, Job. This, I am sure, just thrilled poor Job. Satan says he had, but said that he attributed Job's adoration to God as a side effect of his easy life. In other words, who wouldn't serve a God that made you rich, happy, and content. So God rises to the challenge and tells Satan to touch everything around Job that makes him happy. Satan does this with relish and reports back to God at the next gathering.

Job 2:3 -6

3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my

servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and

an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still

he holdeth fast Ws integrity, although thou movedst me against him,

to destroy him without cause.

4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

· But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his

flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

· And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine

hand; but save his life. (KJV)

Satan specifically mentions the touching of the bones. It seems to me that God is @g to get our attention about the bones. I have heard of more problems with bones from the Body of Christ than ever before. Nothing hurts worse than a hurt bone. It is a deep down pain that c&t be rubbed and massaged away. It is an abiding pain that nothing but time will heal. Jesus was spared the breaking of his bones. Why? Could it be because the bones encase the marrow which is where blood is formed at and could it be that there was a life in Jesus, in the marrow of His being, that could not be released until a time reserved of the Father and that would come forth when saviors came down from Mt Zion to cut off the house of Esau (flesh) in a final cutting away of the root of corruption? This is the battle that we all face. I believe this to be true. Never has there been a time of breaking such as this tune, especially amongst those in leadership positions. The Lord showed me that we are like a bottle of precious ointment and perfumes. What we contain must be given out to creation and sometimes that means the bursting of the bottle. Oh dear me, can't you smell the fragrance of the broken bottles of ointment that have been offered on our behalf? I am
humbled and made low by reason of it. Break us 0 Lord and let the fear of the grave. In our midst right now, is the cloud of your house be filled with the fragrance of life and glory! Let your witnesses that 12:1 talks about. I know this inside of me because

body breath in the aroma of new life and live again! of the word and because of personal experiences. It has not yet

We need an attitude adjustment. We need to start g become my total reality though. I am still caught between the two

like saviors, not just sons. I hear in the spirit so many telling the lives.

Father,"You can touch this Lord, and you can even touch that over Looking back at Jesus in the garden, some would make

there Lord, but touch me and a curse is at my lips". Skin for skin, the argument that the blood shed in the garden was the true blood yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. And it still remains that cleanses creation. I would agree with this only with this today. Except in a few precious ones in our midst, righteous ones, footnote, that although the actual shedding of blood took place in undeserving of their situations, undeserving of cancer, broken the garden, (whether you believe it was literal blood that sweat out bones, strokes, heart disease, death. I just want to let each one of of Jesus or not, although it is medically possible, the blood you know, that although your shedding of blood right now has been represented a shedding of who He was in the flesh and a final in the physical, there are others of us who are benefitting from your b@g into who He was before the flesh) there was still a need for physical sacrifice and because of you we are going free and Him to h@sicaby shed His blood at the cross. This is a reality that breaking out of this old life into the new life. First the natural, then we must come into. It is not enough to preach a message of life and the spirit. Out of your agony, out of your garden, out of your cross, positional relationship with our Father, we must eventually come multitudes are being set free from the love of their life. Satan will into it all, with our whole man, body-soul-spirit. Positional be proved wrong again. We will see a people who will not flinch, relationship, and g right will only get us into position for the but they will stand their lot. You who have suffered alone, know change. We must press on to the actual change that goes beyond this, that every drop of life that was shed from you has seeded the the preaching and believing of a message into the actual

people of God and will bring forth a harvest of manifested life. transformation of the creature. Nothing will force us into this

Not all of us will have to go through a physical aihnent or change quicker than to have those that we love in our midst start to a natural calamity, but we must unite behind those that are going shed their blood.

through these things, particularly our spiritual leaders. The hedge I pray that this article has helped you in some way to

has gone down from around the elite of our company and what at understand the acts of God in our midst. God has not forsaken us. one time would have been un@able for them to have to go Our message is not wrong. We are not out of order or gone astray. through is happening right in our midst. The writer of Hebrews We are coming to a realm of true consequence and all the avenues

calls us to remembrance concerning the purging of the Lord. of past days are converging on us. Some are marked for sonship

Heb 12:1-10 and sonship only. Others are more than Sons, they are saviours and

I Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so priests. They are not going into the holiest of all by the blood of the great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin flesh. They are going in by the blood of the Lamb, mingled and which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race joined with their own blood. The day is come where the covering

that is set before us, is too short for us and we are called through grace unto

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; righteousness. God will not always have to wink at our ignorance who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, and cover us with His unmeiited favor, neither will the death of our despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne eldest brother, Jesus, continue as an act of appeasement, but

of God. following His footsteps we will be found where He is, and as He is,

3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of bringing true honor and glory to His name.

sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your niinds. Better sacrifices, precious sacrifices, how we honor you

4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. one and all. Whether you are known throughout the country or

5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh whether you are known only to a few, I salute you in the name of

unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening our forerunner Jesus Christ. All of you that have suffered and of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: refimd to give up, even in the face of condenmation and ridicule,

6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth I hold you in the highest regard. Don't be discouraged dear one.

every son whom he receiveth. Though death may be near for some, don't think your life will end

7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with there. Just beyond the riven veil, where the glories never fail, your

sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? life goes on. Spirits of Just Men await you, the love of God will

8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are embrace you, and with the Lord you will always be. As my lovely

partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. wife wrote so eloquently in a song, "I will drink of your cup, I will

9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which WW of your pain, I will walk in your earth, until you're made whole corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much again; Sweet Communion we!ll share, as broken bread we become,

rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? until we flow in Ms Life, and His will is done. I will lift up your

10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own hands, strengthen knees that are weak; I will stand firm in prayer

pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his as His answers you seek-, Sweet Communion we'll share, as we

holiness. break down all strife; In remembrance of Him, we will show forth

(KJV) His Life."

Notice that in the 4th verse it is told to the Hebrews that they had not yet resisted unto blood. This cannot be a reference to natural By Bob Torango blood, as I mentioned above, the times were filled with natural blood spilling. There is a shedding of the blood that supersedes the natural. It is a losing of the love of the old lifeforce, and a losing of

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