Pastor Paul | Wednesday, July 29, 2021
I wanted to further explain my comment I made this past Sunday. My comment was that I believed the visits from the “cloud of witnesses would increase in this season.” First of all, let me ask forgiveness for not being clearer on my total view in how I believe this will happen.
In fact, I was having breakfast with Bruce and his wife yesterday, he asked me what “scriptural support” I had to make that comment yesterday. We then got into a discussion about the need for scriptural support for every spiritual experience. I was and am in full agreement with him.
In the “Old Testament”, “necromancing” or “speaking to the dead” was definitely forbidden. Deuteronomy 18:9–12 makes that very clear. However, much changed under the “New Covenant” as the separation that sin caused was removed. All that Christ gave us in the Spirit is now available to us. The problem is that over the centuries, the church has lost the “supernatural’ aspects of our faith in favor of the development of religious systems based much upon “Old Testament” doctrine and theology.
However, a good OT example is the book of Daniel 12:5-6 “5
Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream. 6 And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream,”
The 2 men clothed in linen are not identified but clearly are from another realm. Mark 9:2-4 is a good place to start in the New Testament.” “2
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.”
Jesus was demonstrating life in the Spirit. We have the realms open to us and this will increase during this season. This is further developed by the Apostle Paul in the letter to the Thessalonians 5:5; “For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.” Elijah and Moses were standing with Jesus from the cloud of witnesses.
Another example is the Apostle John in Revelation 4. He is invited by the Lord to “come up” and from then on is experiencing life in the heavenly realm.
The writer of Hebrews describes the church in the two realms as being one church; Heb. 12:22- 24…
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
Yes, there is a “Cornerstone Fellowship” in heaven. We have many members there.
Because Jesus took the keys of hell and death (Rev 1:8), when a believer passes from this life to the next, they do not experience death at all. The reality is that they become more alive than they have ever been. So, necromancing is clearly not the issue.
Now finally, one of the dangers in today’s charismatic church is that people are going after experiences that are not be founded in the scripture. In fact, many have the experience when they’re actually practicing occult practice because they are seeking the “experience” and not Jesus. “EVERY” experience must come out of a sovereign unction of our personal relationship with Jesus and be founded upon the scriptures and must not be sought after.
The Apostle John is a great example of this. He was in the Spirit worshipping the Lord and Jesus, Himself appeared to him.
The final example would be from the book of Jude.
“ 14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
The exact context of this scripture is not totally clear. It seems that these “holy ones” coming with Jesus are from another realm. The following verses seem to pronounce judgment against the godless ones who are in the “church” not necessarily the world. Is it possible that these “holy ones” are from the “cloud of witnesses”? An interesting thought for sure.
Please seek the Lord on these things and remember, “Seek Jesus, not experience”. That way we are all safe to receive the things and experiences that only He wants us to have. It will also keep us from the deception that seems to be sweeping the church today.
God Bless