The Lord has laid a few verses of scripture upon my heart that will help us in our preparation for the next level that He has set before us. Take special note of them and learn them. Believe for the Holy Spirit to write them upon your heart.
Job 22:28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
It didn’t say to ask God to do something for you. Rather, you shall decree a thing, and it shall be established. It is the same principle as Matthew 28:18-19, All authority is given unto Me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore….
Decreeing the will of God causes it to be established. It is also that which shines the light upon your ways. It releases direction and revelation. God will give you revelation when you are willing to decree His Word.
Job 22:29 When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and He shall save the humble person.
For this reason we usually say, “Bless you,” rather than “God bless you.” Normally when someone says “God bless you,” they are putting the responsibility totally upon the Lord to minister the blessing without them becoming a channel for the blessing. It is the same as saying, “I want God to bless you.” We usually say, “Bless you!” which means we become the channel for the blessing. When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up! We do not say, “We want you to be lifted up, and we hope God will do it.” We say, “There is lifting up!” We are commanded to do that.
It is God’s will for us to be the channel through which He can bless and minister to others. When men are cast down, when they are oppressed and their countenance is down, then you shall say, “There is lifting up!” And He shall save the humble person. This means both of you. The one you bless must be humble to receive it, and you must be humble in order to minister the blessing. Therefore, both of you “humble persons” are saved.
Isaiah 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
You shall hear a Word behind you. In other words, when you are in motion, when you are moving. Stand still and you won’t receive anything. Step out in faith, and God says, “Oh, look! I’ve got a moving vehicle here. I’ve got to direct it! I must let him know when to turn right or to turn left.” Have you ever heard the saying, “You can’t steer a parked car”? That’s the way God feels about it. As long as you are parked He can’t steer you, He can’t give you a Word of direction, saying, “This is the way walk ye in it.” Start functioning in a ministry! Decree a thing! Say, “There is lifting up!” and light will shine on your ways.
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
The Hebrew word for “vision” is chazon, and it means a prophetic vision. It denotes the revelation of God’s will made through agents; that is, those who will decree the will of God. So where there is no prophetic word the people perish. Why would that be so? Prophetic utterance is the channel for the flow of life from God to man. If we refuse to speak the Word, we are cutting the supply line from God to man. Thus we see the necessity to decree the will of God, the necessity to say, “There is lifting up!”
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.
Another translation says, “God doesn’t do anything without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.” Why would God not do anything without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets? It is because everything is brought forth by a Word from God that comes through His prophets. Through faith we understand that the world (ages) were framed by the word of God. Hebrews 11:2. It’s just that plain and simple. God isn’t going to do anything without revealing what He wants done to His servants the prophets, because they must decree a thing for it to be established. That is divine order!
Two things are absolutely necessary. We must have the spiritual ability to hear the plan, and we must speak it with authority. And both of these things mean there has to be a emptying of self and an infilling of the Spirit. If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth. Jeremiah 15:19. The vile is our carnal mind, our humanism. His life can’t flow from us until it flows in us.
Have you noticed how the antichrist spirit moves in to get Christians to think all of this takes place outside of them? “One day Jesus will return and after He raptures away all Christians He will get everything done.” The general attitude is that everything is apart from us. God does the blessing, the ministry, judgments, everything by Himself. Not so! The Lord works through His people. The whole purpose of the many-membered Body of Christ is to give the Lord a channel through which His will can be accomplished. The Body of Christ will decree a thing, and it shall be established. Remember this verse of scripture: Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.
John 6:62-63 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was
before?
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
If you see Him now, you will have to see Him where He was before, in the realm of spirit. Later He said, It is expedient for you that I go away. John 16:7. You could rephrase that to say, “It is expedient for you that I become Spirit.” It is the same thing. As long as you are only considering a fleshly Jesus, you are on a flesh level and cannot break through to the realm of spirit. We must become a people of spirit, a people who live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5:16. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:25.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. The Word of the Lord is a Spirit-Word. It is inaudible to the natural ear. It cannot be spoken by man. Do you understand what I mean by that? Man speaks it, but it is not out of man. It is out of God. It is His Word. It is the Lord speaking it through man. It does not come from the carnal intellect of man. The Word is invisible, inaudible, and cannot be spoken by man. The Word is Spirit.
II Corinthians 4:13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.
When you come into the kind of believing that Paul is speaking of here, you won’t be able to keep silent. You will speak what you believe. You will decree it! If you can hold back the speaking of it, you haven’t really tapped into the believing of it yet.
II Corinthians 4:1-3 Therefore seeing we have this ministry (the ministry of
decreeing the Word), as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth
commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
If we refuse to speak, we are hiding the Gospel. The Gospel is not just good news about the Lord. The Gospel is His life flowing out of our innermost being that others may partake Him. If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:37-38. This is the way of the Gospel.
Earlier we were talking about the living creatures in Ezekiel chapter one. Each one had four faces: the face of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle (Ezekiel 1:6,10). This is typical of the four Gospels. Each Gospel presents a different aspect of Christ, but the four together presents His fullness. The number four, in this sense, speaks of the Word going forth to the four corners of the earth. You see the same thing in the second chapter of Genesis. Out of Eden (the Garden of God, a prophetic representation of the Body of Christ) flows a river that divides into four heads (Genesis 2:10). This is another prophetic picture of the Word going forth presenting the fullness of Christ.
II Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine unto them.
When Christians expect the Lord to accomplish everything apart from them, then the light of the glorious Gospel cannot shine unto them or through them to others. They are like the Pharisees that were guilty of shutting up the Kingdom of heaven against men. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites! for ye shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Matthew 23:13. The scribes and Pharisees taught the Scriptures from the viewpoint of the past and future only. They spoke of what God did in the past and of the Messiah that was to come in the future. In that way they eliminated any activity of God in the present. Their ministry cut the people off from God. Christianity, to a great extent, is the same today. The Lord is separated from His people. They talk about what He did in the past and what He will do when He comes back. They don’t believe for the Lord to function through them now. That kind of ministry hides the Gospel, and the light of the glorious Gospel cannot shine to those who are lost.
II Corinthians 4:5-7 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and
ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness (us), hath shined in
our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God, and not of us.
The light must shine in us and then through us. Telling people about Jesus Christ is not the Gospel. The ministry of the Gospel is partaking of His life so that His life flows through you to others. When Paul says, “We preach Christ Jesus the Lord,” he does not mean that he is preaching about Jesus as so many do today, but that his words are carrying the very presence of the Lord to those who hear. The “treasure in earthen vessels” is not a message about the Lord; it is the Lord!
II Corinthians 4:8-10 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are
perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
Much has been said about the dying of self, the cross experience that we must have. But that isn’t what Paul is speaking of here. He says, “The dying of Jesus.” He cannot be resurrected in you until He dies in you. Your fleshly Jesus has to die in you so that the Lord of glory can come forth in your life.
II Corinthians 4:11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
That the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Paul is not talking about, “I’ve got Jesus in my heart.” He is talking about His life in us. You must die to self and your fleshly Jesus image must die. Many Christians only know their fleshly Jesus, and they are waiting for a fleshly Jesus to come back. But what the Lord wants to do is pour His life in them so they can become a many-membered Jesus.
II Corinthians 4:12-13 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed,
and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.
It is after His life comes forth in you that you can decree a thing and it is established. Then you can say, “There is lifting up!” and the humble person is saved.
John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
The phrase passed from death unto life needs two corrections. The Greek reads passed out of death unto the life. It isn’t natural life. It is the life, the divine life of the Lord.
John 5:25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
We know there is a time coming, but we must also realize that there is a “now is” – when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Do you remember when one said, “Master, I will follow You, but first let me bury my father”? And Jesus answered, “Let the dead bury the dead” (Matthew 8:19-22). That means a person can be dead while alive. Those who do not have the life of the Lord in them are dead. But, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. When will that happen? When there is a people through whom the voice of the Lord is flowing. And those who hear the voice will pass out of death unto the life.
Matthew 23:39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Ye shall not see Me: That is, the Lord Jesus will not be revealed to you until you say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” You will not hear what the Lord is saying if you reject those He is speaking through. He is sending forth those who will decree the Word of God, and His life will be established in you if you receive them as sent of the Lord.
Copyright © 1999 by Henry DuBose