I believe that the Father is establishing something on the face of the earth called the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 7:17 – For he testifies, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
I want to look at the outworking of this and unlock some of the protocol so you can begin to see that there is a hope beyond what we may presently understand as believers.
I believe we are now coming into the time when we as sons, have the capacity to reach right into the realm of the future, live out of it and two literally, be writing history. The whole issue of our identity is about our full maturity.
We need to realize that Father is looking for mature sons. He is looking for Lords and kings. It is actually about being a mature son and the protocols of maturity as a son that validate your position in heaven. It is got nothing to do with your position on earth. The earth will respond to your position in heaven, but the earth will not respond to your position on the earth. That is why the earth has not changed, even though we have had apostles up to now because it has got nothing to do with the earth. The function of the fivefold ministry was put in place for the building of the body of Christ, for the maturing of the believers in till that which is perfect has come.
Ephesians 4:11 – and he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come to 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.
1 Corinthians 13:10 – but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is partial will pass away.
I believe that the until and the perfect has now arrived and it is called the order of Melchizedek. As sons who do what we see our father doing his Christ did – John 5:19, we are becoming less dependent on spiritual gifts to teach each other because, YHVH has been establishing the age where – Hebrews 8:11 – they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. This is a heavenly, governmental priesthood. An earthly, flaming engagement of a completely different Tabernacle that is a reflection of heaven on earth, not of earth trying to get into heaven. I really do believe that this order is very misunderstood as there is very little known about it.
I had an encounter with Melchizedek when I was in the treasury room in heaven. Melchizedek said to me, it is all yours, Ian! I had no idea how to handle the resource of wealth at that stage, but Father’s desire is to mature us into responsibility.
Proverbs 10:22 – the blessing of the Lord, it makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.
The function of a king is to have the riches to be able to dispense justice and bring mercy and grace to be able to help his people – Psalm 72.
In this book I will go through the meaning of the order of Melchizedek and some of the things that are associated with it. It is very important that you recognize when revelation about this order starts to unfold in the atmosphere. The presence of Father witnesses and testifies to it. Part of our functionality in this order is our role as a priest. In the following chapters, I’m going to lay out some foundation for what Father needs to do inside of you to bring you into that place and its function and role. I remember the powerful encounter I had with Melchizedek the night I wrote my talk on the law of faith. The law faith is central to our walk as sons in the order of Melchizedek and we will be going on to look at that in the next chapter.
In this first chapter I want to lay some foundations, and throughout the book challenge the beliefs you may have inherited from the religious system that may not be right. We will examine some of the things we think we know, and things that have been established patterns inside our lives. We will then hopefully undo some of those processes which have proven unfruitful. My desire is to help you reach a completely different place in the spirit by the end of this book then you might feel in as you are now beginning this journey with me.
I believe Father is moving in the body of Christ in a new and completely different way today. I do not think that many of us yet have a perspective of how important we are in his purposes. There is an advancing kingdom, and of that kingdom there’ll be no end.
Isaiah 9:7 – there shall be no end to the increase of his government and of peace… Over his kingdom.
That kingdom is being birthed in the earth and its government is going to rest on the earth. The sons are going to find their seats – Ephesians 2:6, and they are going to be able to rule and have dominion over the earth.
Revelation 20:4 – I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.
We need to realize who we really are. When we become born again, and the life of YHVH begins to flow through our life, we have the capacity to frame our world.
But character is the crucible( container for melting something, a place or set of circumstances where people or things are subjected to forces that test them and often make them change )that is supposed to hold all of our spirituality, and traveling all over the world, I am seeing character failure in many churches and even some leaders.
Major flaws are showing, there are serious issues in character. These have empowered a framework in people’s lives which have allowed deceptive belief systems to grow. The sin nature has been cultured, so there has then been a falling away from the kingdom world.
Allow the cross to work in our life
I dislike it immensely being around spirit freaks that lack character. I’m going to be straight with you because we need to get this thing right in our understanding. One of the greatest detriments to the body of Christ is when there is a display of gifting that over-awes people and makes them enamored with the gifting, but there is a lack of character. When the gifting runs out and the anointing just sits, the person eventually falls over because there is a lack of character as the crucible to hold the anointing. You see this time and time again.
Part of growing character is learning about the cross. When life gets tough, who you are will come out. To understand the development of your character and help recognize where you are at, ask yourself whether you are at peace or incomplete chaos when things get tough.
Oftentimes we will get involved in ministries and start engaging in a pay grade above what our character and level of maturity has been designed to handle, and also beyond what Yahweh has required of us. Everything feels so good because of the anointing. All the good things get around us, and then suddenly our inner life begins to feel exposed. That is because the anointing will uncover anything that is hidden.
2Timothy 2:3 – the word says, therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
We think hardness means bearing my cross of my spouse or my kids. But your cross is you working out in the secret place of your life the issues that no man knows about. Those are the issues where you have had to destroy the false yoke on your life and walk your way through them.
Matthew 11:30 – my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Father will always go to the deepest points in your life with character because he wants a bowl honed out for himself.
Matthew 23:25 – woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You remove fine layers of film and dust from the outside of a cup or bowl, but you leave the inside full of greed and covetousness and self-indulgence.
The Bible talks about how we have been fashioned to be vessels of honor, and vessels of dishonor.
2 Timothy 2:20 – but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and fit for the Masters use, and prepared unto every good work.
Your life can be fashioned in either one of those ways by the measure of the character you carry inside your life.
Love develops character
In this first chapter I want to nail the issues regarding character, because if you do not have character, actually, you have got nothing. I got emails from thousands of people saying, Ian, in your teaching you said if I do certain things – step 1, 2 and 3, then I can expect certain results. So, I am doing all this expecting that outcome. But, it will not happen unless you have a crucible and a bowl for those things to be put in. One of the reasons that things do not happen for us is because there are holes inside our vessel and things go right through it.
First Corinthians 13:2 – and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and have all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.
Love is not an emotion. It is not that nice gushy feeling, when you first fall in love with someone. That is only an emotion of love. That is supposed to develop into a character that overcomes, puts other people first, honors others more than ourselves and does not condemn others when they make mistakes. It needs to be a character where there is an outworking inside your life of godliness – first Corinthians 13:4 – 7.
Character development never stops. You never arrive. The moment you think you have got it all together, Father will come and put you in water and soak your bowl,( as a clay vessel) so it all falls to pieces. He wants to remake you into a different thing than you thought you were. So, when you think you have it all together, you really need to know you do not.
Character is vital for the ingredient of your spirit man to have a resting place. This bowl that your character develops is very important in order for the seat of your spirit man to be able to flow in the right way.
If you are living in chaos, and you engage out of a vessel that is broken, you will only produce chaos around your life. Our character development empowers us to sit above the chaos because we rule over the territory Father has given us and so everything is a reflection of heaven on the earth.
People can become hyper spiritual without understanding that it must be walked out in our life down here where the reflection of who you are in heaven engages in who you are here on earth. It is witnessed by that reflection sitting in the middle of it. The vessel of your character is where your spirit man can sit so what goes on inside that vessel can then be a blessing to multitudes of people around you.
My challenge to you is that you allow Father to develop your character. We all know areas in her life where our character needs development. Allow Father to do it. I have purposely gone before the Lord and said, father, I ask you to break me. Where this is not seated right in my life, break me. You have to be careful of what you ask for. You need to be prepared to walk through things if you do that. But when you walk through things as an overcomer, you will enjoy the fruit of your labor down the line and then you will have fruit in your bowl. These things are essential foundations for spirituality. In this chapter, I’m going back to teaching the very beginnings of things that Yahweh did with me, because people see all my spirit things, but they failed to see the labor that went in to make it and give it a place to rest properly. It must have a secure seat.
Affirmation must come from Father, not spiritual experiences
Character does not develop through you having nice spiritual experiences. In fact, having nice spiritual experiences without the character and the framework for those experiences to sit in disqualifies you. You might want spiritual experiences, but your nature cannot yet contain what Father wants to put in it when character has not been developed sufficiently. I think I had my fair share of spiritual experiences. But when a person gets their fulfillment out of spiritual experiences instead of out of a relationship with Father, they have a major problem.
If affirmation comes from spiritual experiences, and not out of the relationship with the person of Father speaking to you about how much he values you, and who you are intrinsically in him, then you have a problem. There is nothing wrong with receiving positive affirmation from people. If you cannot receive affirmation from man, then that means that the father has not affirmed you. If you cannot receive it from man, you will never receive it from the father. Actually, it is false pride. When people affirm you, you need to learn how to receive what they have to say about you.
Part of the process of character development is being able to receive affirmation and then reflect it in the right way. Reflecting it in the right way is not standing in the front with everybody thanking you and clapping while you say, it’s not me, it’s just Jesus. The issue is that you need to receive affirmation as a human being, but not be built up in pride because of it. The last thing I do at night time is to take a bouquet of flowers back to the presence of the Lord as an offering for the goodness of Father in the land of the living, for what people have said to me about that goodness. I go and lay on the sea of glass and trade it for relationship with the father because that is where affirmation must come from. Affirmation must be found in our father, not in ministry, not in somebody having a relationship with you, not in your husband, your wife, or your kids.
Oftentimes you find a person’s identity bound up in their function for Father. When you engage somebody like that in conversation you find everything is about what they do for Jesus. Jesus made very succinct statements about that: many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? And in your name have cast out demons? And in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity – Matthew 7:22 – 23. Their affirmation has come from the things they did for Jesus. It is not come directly from him.
Father applies pressure to return us to the truth
The development of your character is important to Father, because of integrity. You will find that Father will put pressure on you in every single area to see if you will hold to the truth or whether you will bend. If you start to bend, you need to go down a pay grade and start dealing with your junk and to you can stand the weight of responsibility. Many of the things to do with the kingdom world that Father is trying to release into the earth today are about responsibility. It is about the legislative responsibility of a son.
You can recognize when your character is not developed by how much you try and control everything that is around you. You should be able to let everything go, and allow it to be displayed, instead of trying to control and have your dominion over it. We all need to understand the purpose of the rod and the staff. The rod is about the government of Father opening and displaying truth. The staff represents the shepherd’s crook that rescues you when you mess up
As Father develops your character you will make mistakes, but you are supposed to learn from these times. If you do not learn, Father will take you back to it again and again into you get it. Eventually, you will learn that Father wants you to die to yourself, come out of that and begin to walk – Luke 9:23 – 24, Galatians 5:24, Romans 8:12 – 13. Dying to yourself develops your character because it means loving other people beyond your capacity in human form.
As part of that development, you will find that the worst darts come from the body of Christ, sometimes like using an AK-47 rifle on full automatic. That is where you must learn to endure harness as a good soldier of the Lord. You need to understand that because of the identity that Father wants to bring us into, if your identity is in the church, Father will take you out of that particular part of the church or he will allow us to get hurt by them. We will go through a process to rid us of reliance on the affirmation of people until we find it in our father. Once we find it in our father, then everything else will change around us. That is how Father develops us.
In the process of walking that process out around us, we need to recognize that our wife or our husband will also develop our character. They will come beside us and say things. If we have any religious junk inside our life, our response will be, get behind me! Submit to me, because the real issue is that we have not died. We want others to submit to us to make us feel better in those areas in which we have not yet died. Character is important in family life. Your children will also challenge every black mark in you, because you will grow in them what is in your life, both good and bad. When a child reaches about 12 or 13, they will start accusing you because they look at you and recognize their own struggles. Your children can accuse you because it sits in your life. We often respond to them, to do as we say, not as we do. Well, I’m sorry, but your children will very likely do what you do, not what you say.
Part of your character development is to understand you must lead the way in dying to yourself. Dying to self and building your character is acknowledging truth (Luke 9:23 – 24, Galatians 5:24, Romans 8:12 – 13). We restrict ourselves, so often, by not engaging and acknowledging truth. My kids would come to me and correct me, and often I would say, honey, you are right. Today I want to ask your forgiveness. I repent. And they would say, that’s okay, dad. After that, wow, I would feel so much better.
Character is developed in close relationship with people. But close relationship does not mean an apostolic network – that is a ministry. True relational connection should be based upon me knowing you and you knowing me, and together sharpening one another. If I see things wrong in you, I can tell you and if you see things wrong in me, you can tell me, because we are building character for integrity’s sake, in order to stand and truth in the body of Christ.
Father wants us to stand like a pillar in the storm
I want to come back to the crucible. The development of the crucible of who you are as a being is the most important thing that Father will look at inside your life. He will engage you to develop this crucible so that who you are and what you are connected with will not fall when pressure comes on it. Father wants us to be able to stand in the storm. He wants us to be able to stand in the middle of the storm, to come to the eye of the storm, to find peace in the middle of chaos that seems to swirl around you. Father desires to develop your character so that next time the storm comes along you walk right through, it does not walk right through you. There is a major difference between your reaction to the storms when your character is developed and your reaction to the storms when your character is undeveloped. If Your character is undeveloped, you’ll get angry, bitter, resentful, and frustrated, ahhhh I kill you. You know how it goes. Part of the process of life is Father bringing us to a point where we can begin to glorify him in the midst of every sorrow and every triumph.
When you understand the realm of heaven, this world has no effect on you. You live in it, but you are not of it. You do not engage things in it; you engage what is in the father. And Father will develop you to a point where you can walk through the storms of life, and you will not be shaken. You will be like a pillar standing strong through life. Then your job is to train others in how to become a pillar in the same way.
Revelation 3:12 – he that overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God: and I’ll write upon him my new name.
By the way, if you do not have those 3 names, you are not going anywhere.
With everything in the spirit world that is starting to occur today it makes this issue of character particularly important for the body of Christ. People’s identity is woven up in being spiritual. Forget that. Your identity should be woven up in who you are in the father and your relational connection with him, which needs to be outworked in your relational connection with those people around you. You need to be in close relationship with them, those who can have input into your life. I have people around me who I have allowed to have input into my life because I need accountability. But this should not be every Tom, Dick and Harry who thinks they have a right to my life. It must be people I am in relationship with.
Proverbs 27:17 – iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
The word friend means someone who you are in close relationship with, who can see all your flaws, still love you, and yet address the flaws. That, to me, is wonderful; not nice, but wonderful. This develops your character to where you actually can see the love of Father. The love of Father constrains us. Love commands a response.
2 Corinthians 5:14 – for the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead… They who live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again.
If your character is not developed, this will create chaos around you, because you try and respond out of the wrong way to protect yourself. Self protection is another way to recognize undeveloped character.
Allow Father to vindicate us
I had one particular circumstance in my life where I was treated unfairly. It affected those I love and the unrefined part of me wanted to get an AK-47 rifle. Over that time the Lord came to me and said, son, I want you to get up your mountain. Stay and pray. Do not give them a man to fight with. Shut your mouth.
2 Chronicles 20:17 – you and not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you.
That was one of the hardest things to do, especially when I saw what it was doing to my family. I’m sharing this to show you that even though you and I have experienced many things, Father will still come in and engage us to see what were going to do in certain situations. 3 years later that other ministry did not exist anymore. Then, the test of character was whether I would rejoice over someone else’s failure, or bless and release them. Father justified me, and in that process I’ve learned that allowing Father to vindicate us is very important. It develops our character in a major way. Will we rejoice over an enemy when he falls, or will we bless him in his falling and bless him on his way? Character is displayed in our ability to refrain our hand when we think we have a right to act, to hold our hand away. Even though difficulties exist around us, we can put a framework around them without having to kick them about.
When you start to deal with things in the spirit and your character is a mess, the first thing that will be displayed in your life is your brokenness. The enemy will come after that because he knows the crucible of your character has not been developed well enough yet. Pride is usually connected with spirituality. Where we have pride, our character lacks the foundation of having walked through our issues in Christ. Somewhere along in our line, we are stuck. It is essential to engage with Father to allow him access in a personal way. By the way, allowing Father access does not mean going to somebody for 25 years of counseling. That seems to happen today because people can become addicted to the counselor.
Spiritual experiences do not guarantee maturity
Please do not make the mistake of believing because you see and have spiritual experiences, that you are mature in Father. It simply means you are having spiritual experiences. It Does not mean you are a mature person either. People come to me, and assume they are mature because they have all these spiritual experiences. Having a spiritual experience does not mean much at all.
Do not go after spiritual experiences instead of going after the development of relationship. It is only relationship with matures character because when you are in relationship with someone, they will call you out on who’s who and what’s what inside of your life. In other words, they will be straight with you. If we cannot handle people being straight with us in this arena it is actually because our character has not been developed enough. So, when somebody gets too direct with us, telling us who’s who and what’s what about our life, we gallop off into the sunset like the lone ranger in the 1950’s television series. He is called the Lone Ranger for a reason, because he only has one friend, Tonto, who is always with him, speaking to him and agreeing with him (a bit like a familiar spirit). Lone Ranger’s in the body of Christ are those who want to maintain Lordship over all their own issues, instead of allowing Christ to speak into them. Christ is not your Tonto, by the way.
Character affects the vessel or framework that our spiritual experiences are supposed to fit into. If there are flaws in the vessel, then your experiences will also be flawed. It will become all about you: what your abilities are, who you are, who you think you are, and what you want other people to think you are. You then present an image of something that is totally incorrect, without the true character to handle the responsibility. Spiritual experiences must lead to spiritual responsibility. This does not mean engaging in spiritual warfare. We’re supposed to live in the realm of the government of Yahweh where there is no spiritual warfare. The only warfare is about our position. That is what all spiritual warfare is about. It is not about wrestling against the demon. It is a wrestling for our position over demon. Sometimes the church has wrongly taught us to look up to something.
Turning our back on the line in the sand.
The way Yahweh frames our character is through the fiery trials of life where we must make a little incremental choice’s in the right direction. We think the choices we make can be decided based upon an imaginary line in the sand. We try and categorize sin: that side is sin, and the side is holy. Well, actually, by your incremental choices you can put your little toe over into sin. Then the line has to move just a little bit more. Line must move because you think it is okay to do that certain thing. That is the thing about a line: it will always extend out in front of you, and will not be a boundary any longer. That is because the natural human tendency is to put our toe over the line. It is a complete life’s direction through the little incremental changes every day.
Character makes a decision to turn your back altogether on the line in the sand. Now, you do not even look at the line, or at what you think is sin, and what is not sin. You do not look at what the boundaries are. When you turn your back on something, you must look at a different source other than the line in the sand. Whatever you look at is what you are going to become. So you must set your eyes in the right place to enable Yahweh to begin to engage you in the right way. We want to live half of our life with 1 foot over that side of the line, and 1 foot over the other side of the line. We look this way with the hope that we can look that way old occasionally. That is the way most humans live unless, like Noah, your DNA is pure and you are perfect in your genetics – Genesis 6:9. Actually, the line in the sand indicates your need to turn your back on it, because repentance to a Hebrew is completely different from the interpretation given to us by Greek thinking. Repentance to a Hebrew is turning back towards the face of Yahweh in awe, and coming back into the revelation of the awe of Yahweh again. It is not saying, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, and then still putting our foot over that side of the line again. Then turning this way and repeating, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. These are character keys that have rarely been taught in church life but are important in our life going forward.
When Yahweh starts to engage us, and we turn in awe with our eyes in the right place, we learn to understand a different government. The word understand in the heavenly court setting means – I submit my life to your authority. We must turn away from the line, towards the father, and lift our eyes to the hill, to the right place, to the right mountain.
Psalm 121:1 – I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from which comes my help.
When we understand that mountain, it has jurisdiction over our life. When we continually look at the line in the sand, then it has jurisdiction over our life. Character involves making continual choices to turn to the right source, for the right supply.
Spiritual experiences should come out of relationship with Yahweh
As I’ve said, simply engaging spiritual experiences and pursuing them is the wrong thing to do. Spiritual experiences are supposed to come out of relationship with Yahweh, wanting to know him, who he is, what he is, what he does, watching him when he does things, being there when he does things, and learning how to do them. When we do it wrong, we get disciplined and we learn how to do it right – Hebrews 12:5 – 11. These encounters are supposed to bring maturity so we can handle responsibility and spiritual experiences.
People say to me, oh, I’ve been doing this and that in heaven. I went and slayed this and did that. But only when I see you in some of the governmental arenas in heaven do I know you have been given delegated responsibility. Everything that I teach is not simply about what you do in heaven. It is actually about the responsibility Yahweh has given you to function in the father’s house, in that world, ground into this world down here. And the grounding out down here is all about character. because let me tell you, if there are issues inside you that the enemy has got his finger on, then your spiritual experiences will eventually get mixed up in those little things that are inside your life. This journey is not about getting goosebumps on your goosebumps with spiritual experiences. Actually, they should be called pig bumps, because a pig is all about himself: how much he can get, when he wants it and as much as he wants. Spiritual experiences often only drive us into wanting more of them, not wanting a deeper relationship with him.
Yahweh disciplines us because he loves us
I love the way Yahweh has framed human beings and made us in his image. We each need revelation of what that image was before the fall. Then we would understand the love Yahweh has for us. One of the highest spiritual experiences we can have is to know who we were in him before sin entered into the world and who we are now, free from sin – Romans 6:18. Then, the love of Yahweh will become a foundation for discipline in our life. Yahweh does not discipline us out of irritation; he disciplines us because he so abundantly loves us – Hebrews 12:6. The word tells us that we must not despise his discipline – Proverbs 3:11, Hebrews 12:5, and yet most of us do not want it. Those chastisements come from people sitting right next to you, your spouse, your close family and friends. But oftentimes, we cannot recognize they are from him because we are not looking into the face of Yahweh, we are not seeing him.
Our heart is connected to Yahweh’s love
People ask: how can I see Yahweh? The Bible says, blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see Yahweh – Matthew 5:8. You get pure in heart by what your heart meditates on and thinks about. Out of the issues of your heart the mouth speaks, and out of the abundance of the heart your life flows.
Luke 6:45 – a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good… For of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Proverbs 4:23 – keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Everything comes out of your heart. The heart is about the 4 rivers of Yahweh that are supposed to flow out of your belly – John 7:38, watering the earth that is around us, bringing life into all the earth. Yahweh wants to bring life, and it is all about your heart.
Your heart is connected to love.
First Corinthians 13:1 and – though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become a sounding brass, or a clanging symbol.
Yahweh wants to engage us inside our heart in love. When we do engage in love, Yahweh is then free in his ownership of us because:
first Corinthians 13:4 – love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
Reading through first John 1, 2, and 3, and looking at the book of John itself to see what Yeshua did will help you understand what love is.
Yeshua chose to emotionally connect with only 12 people, yet the church often expects their pastor to connect with all the people in the church. Yeshua had 3 that he was more closely connected to – Peter, James and John, and of those 3, just one, John, with whom he was deeply acquainted. John has authority to speak about love because of this a relationship. Yahweh is omniscient – all-knowing – Isaiah 40:13 – 14, John 3:20 – and omnipresent – present everywhere – Jeremiah 23:23 – 24, Psalm 139:7 – 10. he can do more than we can, yet in his fleshly form, he did not relate intimately with everyone. He did bring correction to everything that was around him. Wherever Yeshua went, he said, I really love you… Smack, smack. I really care for you but if you keep doing this… Smack, smack – Mark 8:33. He did not say, oh, lovey-dovey, you are so nice. I so love you. That is because love is not an emotion. It is a choice, an act of your will. Choosing to love means sometimes it is going to be tough, not easy. The rubber meets the road in your character when it gets really tough on the inside. You have to grind out the corn of your life into powder so Yahweh can begin to use it for his own kingdom. Yes, it is hard, but character is what forms the essential crucible.
How Yahweh framed Adam
we have no true idea of Yahweh’s desire when he framed and formed Adam – man. Even hebraically, we do not properly understand how Yahweh made humankind. To a Hebrew, Yahweh is breath – the spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of Almighty has given me life – Job 33:4.
Yahweh created Adam out of the glory of the river of pishon which carried pure gold dust from heaven onto the earth,
Genesis 2:11 – 12. The first, pishon, flows around the land of havilah – a rich land plentiful in gold of premium quality, bdellium, and onyx stones.
He did not create Adam out of dirt. There were no plants at that time to decompose. Gold dust was the only dust on the earth in those days. So, Yahweh formed Adam out of this superconductor of light – gold. He then took himself, who is breath, and put himself in Adam – Genesis 2:7.
Adam inhaled, breathing in Yahweh. When Adam breathed out Yahweh came out, and Yahweh was looking at a complete reflection of himself, the first God- like man – Genesis 1:26 – 27. That is the reason Yahweh breathed on his disciples – John 20:22. He did the same thing. He returned them to their first estate. That is why they could go two by two bringing signs and wonders. When they came back they said, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us through your name – Luke 10:17. But Yeshua replied, nevertheless in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven – Luke 10:20.
Yeshua admonished them not to look at the signs and wonders, because that should be a normal part of our breath enabled by the yechida within us. The yechida is the flame or the God spark inside a person. It is this life spark within that empowers a person to sacrifice or even give their life for the sake of their love of Yahweh.
To put a framework around something, you must first understand the fullness of the life that was there before the framework. So, for Yahweh to frame Adam he had full understanding of the life that was there. Yahweh called him Adam which in Hebrew means – a doorway to the government of a never ending supply of the river of Yahweh ( we will impact this understanding in a later chapter). In the fullness of what he put into Adam, Yahweh put into the world a never ending supply of his own life, coming through a person. Yahweh frames things into existence with his voice, exhaling. Everything framed is supposed to be on the breath because that is the way Yahweh first framed everything.
And Yahweh said, let there be light: and there was light – Genesis 1:3; and Yahweh said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters – verse 6. He framed Adam by breathing into him because Yahweh is breath.
Everything flows on the breath. Yahweh wants to unlock the framework, but to understand the framework you need to understand the truth of what was there first. He wants us to get the revelation in our character about the truth of who we really are in him first, before we have all the spiritual experiences. Once we have this revelation, the spiritual experiences fit in the right place. Then we will chase intimacy instead of spiritual experiences. Intimacy involves returning back to the awe and wonderment of Yahweh. It is a conscious choice we have to make each day, to turn towards that, so Yahweh can come into us in the fullness of what we were created to be. That is why he called us Adam.
I love the way the law of the firstborn operates in our favor to bring grace and mercy into our lives. The firstborn receives judgment, the second born receives grace and mercy. So the person who was the firstborn son of a family would take responsibility for the complete family. Adam was the firstborn, we are the second born because we are in Christ. Christ is called the last Adam – first Corinthians 15:45 – so that on the first Adam there could be judgment while in the second Adam there is grace. Then Jesus became the firstborn son who received judgment, so that as second born sons, we could receive grace – Colossians 1:15, 18. We live under a dispensation of grace because grace empowers us to turn right way – Titus 2:11 – 12. The law the firstborn comes into play when you go into a safe city, and heaven is a safe haven for us. When we go into heaven, the charges that have come against us have to be levied against Yeshua because there he is the firstborn. When we run into him, he becomes our rescuer. The charges against us go after him. He has already paid the price, so we get grace and mercy given out to us.
Yahweh has caused us to live under a dispensation of grace so that grace will empower us to turn the right way. Grace is not some emotional thing: it is actually the power and the will to do Yahweh’s will. That is what grace really is. It is a conscious choice to embrace the desire of Yahweh for your life out of your awe and wonder of Yahweh. Grace is the empowerment and will to turn towards him, so that we can build a framework for him to sit in. Philippians 2:13 that framework is only built out of relationship with him, the other side of the veil, by faith. The framework for Yahweh to sit in is not built out of having spiritual experiences. I constantly meet people around the world saying, oh I am doing this, and I’m chasing that… But my interest is not in your spiritual experiences. I want to know about your character. What does your spouse say about your life, what do your kids say, how do your family or other people you relate with experience your attitudes and choices?
The deception of social media
in some ways I despise the Internet and social media like Facebook, because people are not looking at your real life when you are on Facebook. You can pretend to be something you are not. No one knows because they do not see your home life for what you are like when no one is looking. You can put up a facade, a deceptive image. That is why it is so important to personally connect with people in real life. They will put their finger on the things wrong inside your life and say, oh, I don’t think so. But we do not enjoy that, so we use Facebook to avoid relating intimately. There are now Internet churches around the world. You sit in front of your screen watching live streaming. That is your church. Get tied to them, but you do not have to really relate to anyone.
Actually, it is all about deception. The Church of Antioch looked a lot different. Part of the fallenness of man is the deception associated with lack of relationship, and lack of personal connection one with another. This is so important. If you do not allow Yahweh’s dealings inside your life, you will find that you will have spiritual experiences but eventually they will lead to deception because your character is not developed sufficiently so it cannot hold what Yahweh is doing around your life. If you love Yahweh, he will love you enough to bring you where you need to be, and to have all you need. Out of my relationship with Yahweh, I have had all these weird and wonderful things happen, but I have never gone after them. I’ve only ever pursued knowing him intimately, knowing how to do what he is doing, watching him do it. I want to see and understand all that process.
I’ve walked with a guy named Karl for 6 or 7 years now. I originally had a discipleship- mentorship relationship with him, which after about 3 years developed into a friendship. It was not until about 2 years ago that I made the decision to open my heart to become a friend with him. That meant I had to change, to let go of being instructor and teacher, and actually build a relationship.
With my children, we have gone through the stages of teaching and training. But then, I made a conscious choice to become friends with my kids.
It is only out of friendship that a deeper relationship can form and life can be ground out in this arena because, relationally, you are now discipling people to take your place.
yeshua personally discipline only 12 people to take his place. If yeshua only dealt with 12, do not try to do it with 5000. Do not seek to become the center of something in which you cannot personally discipline and see each person’s life. Understanding these things is vital for where we are going in the future, and for what Yahweh wants to do inside the earth.
Love is the barometer of your spiritual life
Remember, I said love is not a feeling. Love is an act of your will, which means you must make right choices. We often struggled to choose correctly either because we like what we have, or we do not know how to get something else. It is never that we cannot. The process with love comes down to realizing that if we love Yahweh, then we need to learn to relate with him in a completely different way. We need to learn how to fulfill his life rather than having him fulfill ours. That means we must put him first. Love does not want its own – first Corinthians 13:5. So we must put him first. Putting him first is hard work, but character is displayed by putting other people first. Love does not want its own means I do not want my own way, and I want what is best for you. My job is to make you the most successful you can be at any given time, to help you become what you need to be. Relationship with your husband or wife should be exactly the same way: I love you so much I want to see you become the best you can be. We have to grind those things out. Those who have been married over 30 years know it is not easy. You have to walk through this. After 30 years of marriage you are just starting to mature. You are beginning to understand it is not about feelings, it is a choice.
Love is the barometer of your spiritual life. Spiritual experiences are not a parameter of your spiritual life. The barometer of your spiritual life is about love, because love builds character inside you. Love destroys your sin nature by putting other people first. Love then becomes a grounding force that gives us the ability to walk into Yahweh when we do not want to. It gives us the ability to find the life when we are in death, and to find joy where there is heartache. Love unlocks Yahweh’s ability within us.
Our supply is the other side of the veil
The supply of what you need is only found the other side of the veil. You cannot walk out your life with Yahweh this side of the veil. In later chapters I will discuss being a priest, what it really means to be a priest, and how to go through the veil. We need to understand that process. So often in our church life we try to pull heaven’s supply down here: father we pull this down. Lord, feel the atmosphere with your presence. Well, who was moved? The Bible says he is omnipresent – Jeremiah 23:23 – 24, Psalm 139:7 – 10, which means he is already here, so the issue is you going into that presence, not it coming before you. These are major misunderstandings. We try to pull everything down towards us, but we are meant to go in towards it, into the middle of that supply, to engage all that, and then bring it to this side, because holiness is a choice. Holiness is another part of character. But you cannot become holy without righteousness, and righteousness is a gift we receive the other side of the veil. We often try to become holly by making right choices outside of the gift of righteousness. We often try to discipline our life so that we do not do wrong anymore. But Yahweh is not interested in a disciplined life. He is interested in a dead life. A dead life is only found the other side of the veil, where you are given righteousness. So, we need to go in and engage righteousness. Then, out of the supply of righteousness, we can bring righteousness back here, which will empower holiness – Ephesians 4:24, first Corinthians 1:30.
Love empowers holiness because love is the right choice
True repentance is making right choices to turn your back on the line and to be set apart, which is holiness. Continually saying, I am sorry. I put my toe over the line is Christian schizophrenia. Paul was schizophrenic: for that which I do I know not: for what I would, that do I not but what I hate, that do I… For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me – Romans 7:15, 19 – 20. So, even Paul understood Christian schizophrenia. He also understood freedom in Christ through the veil.
Romans 7:25 – I thank Yahweh through Jesus Christ our Lord… There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the law the spirit life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
So the issue is actually turning your back on the line in the sand and being in Christ, in his world where he is. The act of repentance means turning back towards the perfect state of awe and the wonderment of who Yahweh is. It means keeping your eyes hooked into that right place, through the veil. Love empowers holiness because love is the right choice: you must learn to love Yahweh first, then yourself, then others as yourself as Scripture says. In that empowerment Yahweh then begins to release us.
Character is not developed alone or in your prayer closet. It is developed in relationship with others on earth, and also in relationship with the Saints of old that have gone before us. These are the men in white linen that are around us and who make a way. Actually, they will beat you about as much as the people here as you start walking with them in the glory realms. They want to reward more than you do, so they will discipline you until you do what you are supposed to.
Hebrews 12:1 – therefore seeing we also are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily ensnare us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
That is why you have a relationship, one with another. That is why John says, beloved, let us love one another: for love is of Yahweh; and everyone that loves is born of Yahweh, and knows Yahweh – first John 4:7.
Philippians 2:4 – but not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
So, again, the issue is love. And people in relationship around you will discipline you because this is where it gets ground out, in relationship down here. Character grinds all these wrong things out down here. That is why it is crucial. Of All the chapters in this book, this is the one I want you to read over and over. It is the most important one.
We must walk through this, and it is only walked out in personal relationship, one with another, especially when it gets tough. That is when it really gets ground out. I would not swap what I’ve gone through, where Yahweh gave me a dream and it has not come to pass. I had to wrestle with my own internal issues, and still come out on the top, realizing that Yahweh does not change – Malachi 3:6. Only the process of what he is doing and how he is going to do it changes. Those experiences build character in us like nothing else does.
There are other situations I can remember, difficult situations in my life and times I was unjustly treated. Years later, looking back I was so glad I’d walk through it. Everything is about character. I want you to see those trials were not about goosebumps on my goosebumps. They were ground out in this life, where we learn how to overcome. It is only overcoming in this life that warrants our position in that life – first John 5:4 – 5. There is no other way to do it, and Yahweh will take us through it.
Activation
Father, we want to thank you that we can come into your presence. We do that now, just attentively turning our eyes toward you, Yeshua.
Lord we honor you for your abandoned love for us, that while we were yet sinners you died for us. Father, I ask that you’d begin to engage the readers in this arena of character development in our lives. Father I ask that you would hold us, that you would not stop pushing at us, you would not stop working with us until the coming of your son’s manifestation in us.
Father, I asked for those who read these words, that you would quicken all of this to them, quicken this message to their hearts. Father, we ask that we would begin to walk into the fullness of you, like Yeshua, who had to develop his character for 30 years, and then it was refined in 3 and half years. Father, I want to thank you for your love. Lord, I honor your presence. We honor you today, father. We thank you that even though we have messed it up, you have not let us go. You have made a conscious choice, father, because you word says that you are love. You made the choice, father, that while we were messed up, you would not let go and you never will let go. Father, thank you. In the name of Yeshua. Amen.