Now we have looked at the amazing call we have in the order of Melchizedek, made available to us through the blood of Christ, it is important not to feel overwhelmed as if this call is far above us, but to remember that is all by his righteousness. So I would like to finish this book by looking at that subject.
I became very fascinated with righteousness in my faith walk because all of us want to be righteous and to feel righteous. We want to have that sense of well-being where I feel righteous and I feel holy and I feel fully redeemed before the presence of Father. So we set about constructing a whole lot of laws of our own. Things like, I will not do this and I will not do that, and if I do that then I will do this to make me feel better.
Righteousness is a gift that is renewed by Father to us each time we enter his realm – 1 John 1:9. So the law of righteousness is Father’s capacity where he has opened up the veil to give you and me right of entry to come into the realm of his presence. There he will strip unrighteousness off us as a gift – Romans 3:24. That is the law, right there. It is the power to receive when you are totally unworthy to receive. When you have no foundation for anything to sit on but the gift of his desire toward you to make you clean. That is why Yeshua is called our high priest. That is why we need to come to our high priest because Jesus is the administrator of righteousness.
Hebrews 4:14 – seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
In the Psalms David also describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works – Romans 4:6.
The word impute means to ascribe or accredit, and I’ve experienced the Lord doing this – forcefully imputing that right standing into me even when the demonic has another agenda. So it is like putting a seed into hard ground, taking it and pushing it into the ground. So we get blessed when we come into the realm of the presence a Father because he strips off our unrighteousness any purposefully puts righteousness unto us. He cloaks us in righteousness and he houses us in that content.
1 Corinthians 1:30 – because of God you are in – United with: in relationship with – Jesus Christ, who has become for us wisdom from God. In Christ we are put right with God, and have been made holy, and have been set free from sin – and became for us righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
So that is law. The law is, you come in and you become clean – Zechariah 3:4 – 5. But if you do not come in, you will never become clean. You will try and earn brownie points to make yourself feel clean, to make yourself become clean by living under rules instead of coming in and having your life transformed.
Righteousness is about transforming your life from one thing into another without you being involved in it. It is a gift. That is why Jesus died. This is the gift of the gospel and the kingdom to you and I, that we can go in and become clean. It is not the sacrifice’s job to make itself clean – offer your bodies as living sacrifice – Romans 12:1, it is the job of the high priest to make the sacrifice clean. Our job is to go where the high priest is so that he can administrate that through us and inside of us.
In Matthew 6:51 it says this: but seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you – Matthew 6:33.
I want to talk about his righteousness here. This is a very clear statement that I am not to seek my own righteousness but, rather, his. So why then, in religious circles, are there so many laws about trying to become righteous? When you seek his righteousness, it means you have to come into relationship. What happens, then, if I do not seek that righteousness? I try to do it on my own. Therefore I do not need him and I do not have to relate to him, and often it is your flesh that will stop you wanting to relate because it wants unrighteousness, being the seedbed for its pleasure
Titus 2:12 – training us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live in a manner that is self-controlled and righteous and godly in the present age.
So the Bible says, but seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you – Matthew 6:33, which is the manifestation of the government of Father on the inside – the kingdom of God is within you.
Seek first that governmental manifestation and his righteousness and then all this is going to be added to you, which is all about that kingdom. All of this is going to be added to you but it starts with the foundation, which is the government within you.
Engage in that government and then his righteousness will come out of relationship because Jesus gives it to you totally and absolutely free. It Does not matter what you have done, where you have been, the stuff you think that you will never be able to get redeemed from, no matter how much has been done to you or what you have done to others. Even murderers can come into his presence and get totally and absolutely clean and free from every demonic entanglement.
I knew a lady that I worked with in New Zealand who was a foster child, a child of the state because of her parent’s issues, and this girl was passed around from home to home. Every home she went into she was abused and by the time she was 14 she had become a prostitute. Between 14 and 20 she operated out of prostitution and throughout the time she used to go into this little fantasy world where she would try to escape the pain. There was a being there that look like her imaginary husband and so she had this little marriage ceremony where she put a ring on her finger to this being, and so this being would help her and look after her and cuddle her in her pain. But by the time she was 20 this demonic being would be waiting for her to abuse her at nighttime. So the lady came into the conference and, through the conference time, we were working with her and in ministry. I gave her some homework to do about the gateways . Before she went away I said to her, you need to step into the realm of the presence a Father. Very often people who are broken know how to do this. She came back 6 months later a totally different, changed, transformed person, because the gift of Father have been given to her to bring her into righteousness. Yahweh had removed the record of all the sound inside her body of every single guy she had ever slept with. She had gone through the divorce protocol and taken the ring off her finger, no longer married to that demon spirit, she was able to think for herself for the first time in her life since she was 6 years old. She was totally healed and delivered in the Lord’s gift of righteousness.
I did not spend hours praying with her. I taught her the law of righteousness. Because this law has preeminence, it then sets the redemptive process in place for the government of the kingdom of Father to rest in her because the pattern looks like Father and Father will fill the shadow that looks like him.
So the word says, seek first the kingdom of God – Matthew 6:33 which is the foundation of the government of Father. Then it says his righteousness. It is a very clear statement that it is not your own, not to seek your own righteousness, but rather his. So what does it mean? Let’s have a look at the original word in the Greek. The word righteousness means equity. It means innocence. So let’s talk about this word equity for a minute because we have a lot of arguments about equality and wanting to be equal in our modern culture. So that is what it says about Jesus
Philippians 2:5 – Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man
So, let us talk about this issue of equity. To come into equity means to be given the opportunity to have the same standing as something. So what that means is, if I’m going to have a fight with my sister here, giving her equity means having one arm tied behind my back and both my feet tied together because my physical body is stronger than hers. Giving someone equity means putting them on a right standing to have the same power as I have, the same influence, the same protocol and the same opportunities. When we give equity to someone, it brings them into equality and makes them become equal.
Jesus has come in and given us his righteousness, given us the ability to become equal with him because he is the firstborn of many. He then brings us into equality to become sons,… Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren – Romans 8:29.
Now, I’m not saying I am equal with Jesus, but this is what righteousness does. It is because it comes as a gift. So when righteousness comes, you actually stand in the same standing as Christ, totally and absolutely righteous. Can you see how Yahweh works in this? So Father is wanting to release the kingdom realm and he is looking for a platform but it is based out of the kingdom, becoming righteous and then everything else is going to be added.
You cannot express the kingdom properly through your life until you grasp the importance of the role of righteousness within you and within your life. Both righteousness and equity go hand-in-hand. Without one you cannot appreciate the other. Without being given equity, you cannot appreciate righteousness, and without righteousness you cannot appreciate equity. Equity means I’ve got enough to pay for everything I need to have done.
The words are seek first the kingdom of Father. So the word seek first means to diligently look to obtain. It means to make a high priority of that in your life. So your highest priority is spending time to engage the kingdom. I have helpful triggers all around myself. My car door is a trigger for me to step into the realm of the kingdom and close myself into it. My shower door is a trigger to go through the shower door and close the shower door and stand in the presence of Father. At the dinner table, from the moment I sit down, it is a trigger to sit down at the table of the presence of Father. Opening my front door is a trigger to step out into the realm of the kingdom when I go into the world. I have triggers like this all around my life that I use to continually engage me in the realm of the presence a Father so they can bring me into the place of standing in equity all day. To use those kinds of things as triggers engages the kingdom to sit around your life, to facilitate through you the expression of Yahweh in the world around you.
Righteousness produces holiness which is not that I am cleaner than you. It means looking into revelation and going wow! It produces revelation, which creates holiness and produces the glory of Father inside you. It releases and produces the tangible reality of Father through you into the earth today.
There are 3 things that righteousness does. That is the first one. The second one is, righteousness sanctifies and adjust your behavioral patterns and desires that dwell within you. So, when you have issues, or you are struggling with stuff inside your life, you need to step into the realm of the presence a Father and engage his righteousness because doing that changes the record of this.
So instead of going on the pathway of engaging sin and feeling guilty, which is the normal process, the moment you find yourself going down the pathway, it can be anywhere, even right to the very end expression of your sin, you still have the capacity to step in and engage. That, alone, will begin to change this record. It is a continual thing, so you if you find you are struggling with sin, step in. it Does not matter if it is 795 times a day. Step into the realm of the presence of Father and engage righteousness. This will change the record of sin because stepping into his presence gives you equity to override the sin.
The third thing that righteousness does is to restore innocence. This destroys the enemy’s access to your life. When Yahweh gives you innocence, the enemy cannot enter that innocence because there is no pollution in it. So when you step into the realm of the presence a Yahweh, the law of righteousness activates and you engage his righteousness. This is because Jesus gives righteousness to you and you receive it by faith. When you step out into his presence, it brings you into the realm of imputed innocence. The enemy has to try and pollute innocence again. The moment I feel the battle, i step in, using that pressure as a driving point to engage me to step into the realm of his presence. So I stay there on a continual basis, as best as I can. When I’m not there and the stuff starts, I say thank you Jesus, this is my door: my trigger is, when this starts, I step in.
Righteousness has its basis in 3 things. The first one is that it joins us to the person of Father. But he that is joined on the Lord is one spirit – 1 Corinthians 6:17. Righteousness joins us to the presence of Father. It actually connects us umbilically with the provision of heaven on the earth.
Righteousness is a gift that is given to us and righteousness is one part of the armor. I do a teaching: armored for battle (on MP3 available on the website), which is not dealing with a helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, etc. A parrot can do that and that is, unfortunately, what the church has done because they do not understand that this is for the evil day. Therefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand – Ephesians 6:13. The evil day is when the visitation of Father’s glory is on the face of the earth where judgment happens. It is not for today. If you are not carring that revelation and walking it out, it will not be yours anyway, so it is no good repeating the words like a parrot. it Does not do a thing for you.
Righteousness is armor that you receive out of the presence a Yahweh and you actually have to put over your life. When you go in there, you receive righteousness as an armor that comes around you so that you can destroy the works of the enemy with it because the enemy’s work is unrighteousness. Righteousness will destroy unrighteousness because it changes the record of unrighteousness and makes it righteous.
Righteousness itself has its very basis in the character and actual nature of the person in Father. Jesus said unto him, why call me good? There is none good but one, that is, God – Mark 10:18.
Just like a man or woman become one flesh when Mary through sexual union with one another, righteousness becomes a very cord and tie between you and the person of Father in union. But the one who is united and joined to the Lord is one spirit with him – 1Corinthians 6:17.
Righteousness is the soul tie between you and the presence of Yahweh. So, if I want to be soul tied to the presence of Father, it comes through that righteousness. This is your soul tie to the presence of Father and how to get joined to him in righteousness. Because there is none like him and I want to become like him.
To be soul tied in righteousness of the presence a Father is to be vitally connected to him in the realm of his presence and all that we do. So, in everything that I’m doing, I am connected to that whole realm with his righteousness facilitating through my life and around me. We are supposed to function out of that realm here, on the face of the earth.
If you are joined to someone, you get joined to their character, to their nature and you are influenced by them and everything that you do. One of the most exciting things about this gift of righteousness is that where you are, Father is also. So when you are here, you are with him because you are joined to his presence. So where you go, he goes. Where you move, he moves. It is sonship and relationship, but you are not supposed to move until he moves. So when he moves and goes, you can move and go.
John 5:19-Therefore Jesus answered them, amen, amen I tell you, the son cannot do anything by himself. He can do only what he sees the father doing. Whatever the father does, the sun does likewise.
Jesus went in and engaged and saw and moved with the father while he was down here. Hallelujah! Righteousness engages you in the movement of Father.
Righteousness is imputed and it is a gift – Romans 4:6, 11. Impute means to be charged with or to ascribe to. James 2:23. It is a process and a progress. We must believe that it is imputed when we are called friends of Father because it requires you to believe. It requires you to believe, then righteousness is given and you are called sons of Father. Without this righteousness you’ll never be called a son of Father.
We receive this righteousness as we go into his presence and engage it and allow him to cloak it around us. The moment you get cloaked, you become a son.
There are 3 simple steps: 1 – believe 2 – allow the impartation to happen 3 – allow him to call you friend.
Genesis 5:24-enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Friend! So if you do not want to die, become a friend because, when you are a friend, that will change you here.
Righteousness is a gift, that is true as the Bible says, a man is not justified by the works the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ – Galatians 2:16, and in Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace – Ephesians 1:7.
But if the full provision was automatically empowered in our lives without our having to do anything then Paul would not have written, but I roughly treat my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I preached others, I myself should be disqualified – 1 Corinthians 9:27.
So it is true that has been done. We are set right as a gift of his grace, through the redemption that is in Messiah Jesus– Romans 3:24.
The issue is, that it is not the whole truth because this gift, truth, has to be outworked in your life and their protocols to outwork it in your life. There is a religious spirit that actually does not want to crucify flesh as the word tells us, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified – their own sinful selves (the sinful nature; the flesh). They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do (its passions and desires) Galatians 5:24.
That religious spirit does not want to take responsibility for the issues in your life but just say oh Jesus has done it all. Jesus has giving you provision to action it all, but you and I have got to appropriate it to our lives.
Jesus’s death on the cross destroyed the power of sin but we must deal with the desires of sin. Yes, Jesus has destroyed the power of it, but we have got to deal with the desire of it, which is appropriating that down here in its fullness.
Righteousness cannot be earned by fervent righteous practices of law to stop you sinning. People say to me oh Ian, I have got control of that issue in my life now. Well that is really great; actually control is not the issue. The issue is, is it dead? Because anything that is in control will eventually come out and manifest again. It has to be dead. That is the real issue.
It is a gift given to us by Jesus when he hung on the cross – Isaiah 53. The cross is a place of exchange. When he died he took all that we have done, all that we are doing and all that we will ever do in exchange, where his righteousness becomes ours. The key to this exchange is your willingness to allow him to carry it. You’ve got to be willing for Jesus to carry your rubbish. But the problem is, most of us are not willing because we want to have a sense of control, that we have done something to make ourselves feel better so that we can feel like we have achieved something. But righteousness is not about you. The law of righteousness has nothing to do with you, it is all about him. So you step into that and the law has precedence over your stuff which is sin and death. The law of righteousness has the precedence over the law of sin and death, which releases the love the spirit of life and leads to law faith.
The law of righteousness has the precedence over the law of sin and death, which releases the law of the spirit of life and leads to the law of faith. So you have all these things working together, forming a house for the presence of Yahweh to come and live in. It is exciting to me – this is an exciting faith walk!
Isaiah 54:17 – no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and everything tounge that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, says the Lord.
2 Corinthians 6:7-By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness.
It means we have weapons of war. The primary purpose of the armor of righteousness is for defense because the devil cannot penetrate righteousness.
But our own righteousness is different…
Isaiah 64:6-All our righteousness’s are as filthy rags . That means every time you have said, I will not do this today, and make myself feel better. It is just a filthy rag you have just put on yourself. So instead of carrying the garment of righteousness, you are caring a filthy rag which was smell differently to a garment.
Anything that carries a different fragrance from the right garment attracts different things to it. So if you have a lot of stuff that has been attracted to you, it may be because the rubbish that you have been engaging in because you’re trying to earn righteousness. Every time you try and earn righteousness by living by a set of man-made laws in your life, you attracted the demonic to yourself because you smell like filthy rags in the spirit realm.
So, how do we engage is truth? The first thing is to acknowledge that I’m trying to do it myself. Simply, Father I have sinned. Have you ever said that? We need to acknowledge it by repenting for trying to earn righteousness and for having been self-righteous and rejecting the gift of the offering that Jesus has given to us. We need to actually repent for rejecting the gift of righteousness that Jesus has given us in wanting to do it our own way. This is something that we need to walk through on a continual basis inside our lives.
We need to receive his righteousness by faith. It helps to dream about what this means. I’ve spent hours at my desk, by my computer or driving my car thinking about- man, I wonder what is going to be like to actually have that whole thing totally manifested so that I’m totally righteous in all and everything, in every detail my life. I wonder what that is going to be like. I allow myself to think about those kinds of things because it empowers me to dream about the potential possibility of what it can be like to be absolutely and totally free.
To be totally free from the empowerment of things that go on around us and to facilitate the desire of Father inside the middle of what we are doing. You will raise a standard by doing that and it will roar inside your spirit man and raising the standard is important.
We also need to be thankful – Lord thank you that you have given me all righteousness, you have given it to me as a free gift. Lord I’m so thankful that you have given me this. Lord I’m so grateful that you have empowered me and you have opened the veil so that I can come through that veil and stand and receive from you Lord. I am so thankful that you have given me the power to stand in righteousness, stand in truth and stand under the power. I do that on a continual basis.
There is a circle. I call it the circle of life that governs the law of righteousness that goes; acknowledge, repent, receive, restore, reveal. Acknowledge, repent, receive, restore, reveal. The Four R’s.
It is amazing when you understand a building and how builders make a building. They set a cornerstone. That is why Jesus is called the corner stone. Cornerstone actually means one with a bent knee. So you understand and Apostolic government by the bent knee, not by having many people connected to your network. It is about your bent knee. Then the foundation needs four cornerstones on it to make the building totally square but they are all set off one.
So you have the four cornerstones and then you have a door. Your doorway of entry and the doorway out of you is righteousness. Nothing will flow out of you unless righteousness is properly established. Nothing will function through you and your ability to go in unless there is righteousness. So you go in and become a door, going in and out every day, walking out the process.
My big question to you today is- where are you? Father is calling us to receive his kingdom and that kingdom exists in righteousness. Father is holding out a gift to you today saying, here is my righteousness. Will you be prepared to receive it? All you have to do is come into my presence and you can receive it. That is all you have to do. Let’s practice doing that today. So I would like you to stand on your feet and find a place that you can take a step forward. Thank you Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!
Activation
Close your eyes and take a small step forward.
Father, according to your word, you tore the veil. you sent your son to die on the cross, to have total victory over the enemy, to open a way of escape for me, to open a doorway into the realm of your presence, to be able to obtain all that you have given to me, all the provision that you laid up for me in treasures in heaven.
Lord, I want to acknowledge, today, that I have sinned by rejecting the gift of your righteousness. I acknowledge, today, Lord, that I’ve tried to do it my way. I live my life by a set of laws that have governed me and controlled my life, where I’ve tried to control issues of brokenness and sinfulness in my life. I want to acknowledge, Lord, that I’ve done this my way. Lord, today, I want to repent freely and acknowledge this freely before you before the Angels of Yahweh that are in heaven.
Lord, we stand and we repent today in the name of Jesus. Lord, thank you that you made a way for me to receive from you and that is by entering into the realm your presence. Father, your word says that Joshua was a high priest and that you have called us a kingdom of priests. you have called us kings and priests of Father and father, today, I want to come in that role of a priest Lord, and by faith, today, I want to step into that realm of your presence and I do that by my body ( take a step forward). Father, I step into the realm your presence. Today Lord, I stand in this realm and, according to your word, the first thing you look at when Satan stands to accuse me of unrighteousness, the first thing you look at is a fithy garment and, Lord, the first thing you say is remove the filthy garment from their life and cloak them with a new garment.
Father, today, I acknowledge that that garment is the garment righteousness, the pure linen garment of your presence. Yeshua, HaMashiach, I exchange my garment of unrighteousness for the garment of righteousness that you give me as a free gift. Lord, today, I put that over my body and my soul and my spirit and it becomes a covering for who I am in you, in relationship. Jesus, i receive your gift today, freely and willingly. I set my desire, Lord, that I receive this from you today. Lord, I know that I cannot earn this but this is a gift you have given me and I receive it willingly today.
Lord, want to be tied and joined to you and joining comes through righteousness and Lord, I thank you today that I am joined to your presence. Father, I receive that from you today, destroying everything that is unrighteous in my life. Father, today, as I step back into this world, I bring the garment of the righteousness of Father back into the atmosphere of this world. Father, I carry this garment over my body, over my life. Lord, I display it in this realm of the earth, into everything that is in darkness. I display the garment of righteousness that I now carry because my father has imputed to me righteousness and given me a garment, holy, unblemished and spotless and I stand in the revelation of that today, father, in this world and allow it to be seen that I stand righteously before my Lord and my king. Jesus, I thank you that you have removed for me all unrighteousness. You have removed from me all record of sin and I stand in this garment of righteousness as if I have never sinned.
Father, thank you for the blood of Yeshua that has made a way for me to stand in this today. Lord, I receive it. I ask that you empower me to administrate on the face of the earth where I walk, what I do, what I say, what I see, what I hear, father, so that the expression of your kingdom would come out of this righteousness power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Yeshua HaMashiach. amen.