Then the jealousy of Ephraim (double) will depart, and those who harass Judah will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim. And they will sweep down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west; together they will plunder the sons of the east; they will possess Edom and Moab; and the sons of Ammon will be. subject to them. Isaiah 11:13, 14.
The jealousy and the harassment that has existed within the Body must disappear. A psychic disturbance is created among the brethren when one brother sets up some wrong vibration. That has to end.
There have been times in which we felt this keenly. Every one of us has had to pay a price for the Body ministry, when we sometimes carried harassment and found ourselves open and so very vulnerable.
But God is going to bring such a unity that the house of God will be purged of these disturbances. They will be removed from the hearts of the people.
We have yet to see what God will do when we stand as an army that does not thrust one another through and does not break rank, when we stand with such an openness before God and such a unity that together we sweep down upon the slopes of the Philistines and reach in to plunder the enemy.
Less of our energies will be devoted to the internal purity of the Body and more to following Him who has a sword going out of His mouth as He comes upon a white horse to make war upon the beast and to bring down the principalities and powers that will be subject unto Him (Revelation 19:11–21).
The Kingdom cannot prevail until the Kingdom has prevailed within the churches, within the remnant. The Kingdom must prevail within us. There has to be the end of the frustrations in which, for one reason or another, we still find ourselves remote or withdrawing in any way.
Our passage in Isaiah speaks about the different tribes and how they began to move together to plunder the sons of the east.
Any victory we win now will be a victory for the whole Body because we will all be participating in it. The Lord is laying the burden and responsibility for the whole ministry of the Body upon all the churches.
This will truly become the Body ministry. I have longed for this time in which all the churches rise up and become strong to do the work of the Lord with all of them flowing together in a fantastic unity. I know our people are capable of an infinite amount of sacrifice and I know that no competition or jealousy exists between them. As far as I know, none of the brethren are jealous of one another or trying to excel one another. This causes my heart to rejoice.
The days before us can be likened unto the days of Moses described in Exodus 17:8–13: Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us, and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” And Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
So it came about when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set. So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
I can clearly see the word “together,” and Moses sitting on a rock, as together Aaron and Hur were holding up his hands. Down in the valley the armies were fighting, but God had caused the authority to rest there in Moses.
It was only a symbol, and as he held his hands up before God and before those people, they were able to prevail. Your cooperation will hold the hands steady, not until the going down of the sun, as was the case with Moses, but as the new day dawns. We have passed from the night into the glorious Kingdom of God.
We are sustaining one another, holding up one another’s hands. Where weakness and frailty would overcome us, we are ministering strength and sustenance to one another.
We hold up one another’s hands. That’s why we are going to make it—not because we are all such robust specimens of health, but because there is a mighty flow of life coming to us.
The Lord has promised divine health and though we don’t seem to find it in our muscles or in the organs of our body, we are finding it in some invisible mystical flow that is coming from the Body. Through that which every joint supplieth, we are beginning to enter into the spiritual and the physical sustenance of the Lord and I believe He will carry us through.
We can hold one another up and we can make it. You cannot depend upon your youthful strength, for even the youth shall utterly fall and the young man shall fail, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
It is not a day to be proud about anything, but neither is it a day to be the least bit timid because together we will stand and hold up one another’s hands.
I am almost glad that God has revealed to each one of us the frailties of the flesh, lest we feel that we are a superrace and begin to lean upon the flesh. I am glad the Lord has taught us to be utterly dependent upon Him and has designated that the marvelous power and flow of God would come to us through our brothers and sisters. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t be afraid to draw on your brother. Don’t be afraid to also move and help him.
We are the divinely appointed channels of all the life and strength God is bringing to the remnant. I don’t think you can find it somewhere else; you will find it right here.
If there is some mystical fountain of youth that the remnant will partake of, you will find it in the flow of blessing that is coming from your brother and sister. If there is something that renews your strength when you’re so weary that your hands fall down, it will be because a brother on each side is holding up your hand so that the flow of ministry and victory can continue on with you. This is very real.
Jeremiah, chapter 50, tells how Babylon is going to be destroyed. Verses 4 and 5 speak about us as we come out of Babylon: “In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord, “the sons of Israel will come, both they and the sons of Judah as well; they will go along weeping as they go, and it will be the Lord their God they will seek. They will ask for the way to Zion, turning their faces in its direction; they will come that they may join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.”
This is a picture of the way they came out of Babylon seeking the way to Zion. They didn’t know the way and there were no freeways, no buses, no daily jet flights. They had to walk. The sons of Israel and the sons of Judah, who had been hostile and at odds with one another, now were going along, arm in arm, weeping as they went. Leaving Babylon behind, they were inquiring the way back to Zion.
Don’t you feel as if that is what is happening to us? God is saying, “Come together!” Dear ones, how great is your love? “Oh,” you say, “It’s so great! I’ll put my arms around my brother and weep with him and ask the way back to Zion and how I can leave Babylon.”
Yes, but what about the rest of the people who are in Babylon that you seem so remote from now, those who are going to come out of the denominations?
Will you be open to weep with your arms around them too, when they start asking the way to Zion? Some of them may have peculiar ideas, but you dare not sit back and think, “Oh boy, if they only knew all that I know about this Walk and about the restoration of the Church!”
Very humbly you will listen to every man who comes weeping, ready to be embraced, because he is saying one thing, “I’m asking the way back to Zion; I’m turning my face to seek the Lord.”
There will be problems. What about those who come out of Babylon still carrying some of their doctrines with them? How are we going to decontaminate them without their knowing it? While they come spreading their pet doctrines all around, it will be miserable. But we will not turn away from them; we will put our arms around them and say, “Buddy, this is the way back to Zion. Come on, we’ll show you the way. We’ll walk the path together with you. Together we’re going to find the restoration with weeping.”
I don’t expect to be without the joy of the Lord though, and I don’t think you do either. This Walk will be very, very joyful, but I think we are going to cry a great deal too. If the past is any indication of the future, there will be a lot of tears. And yet there will be such a joy in our hearts. Is it possible to have a broken spirit and a joyful heart at the same time? I believe it is.
When a young man proposes to his girlfriend and gives her a ring, she may start crying. He says, “I thought this would make you happy.” “Oh,” she says, “I am. I’m so happy!” Do you cry when you’re happy? Our crying is somewhat different.
Tears have an amazing quality. Like a rain that sweeps away the dust, they have a way of refreshing your spirit, bringing you into a clear vision. I am glad the Lord keeps us broken in spirit. If it were not for the Lord causing us to weep, we would not continually have the freshness in our walk. We would not have the thrill of awakening every morning with joyfulness before the Lord, if we did not have those tears constantly refreshing our spirit, washing away the accumulation of impurities.
Now we come to another verse of Scripture, Isaiah 52:8–10: Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices, they shout joyfully together; for they will see eye to eye (literal reading) when the Lord restores Zion. Break forth, shout joyfully together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations; that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God.
You have read that verse before, but I want you to see the picture of how they shout joyfully together! This version says, “they will see with their own eyes,” but the marginal reading is “eye to eye,” which means they are all going to see exactly the same thing and shout joyfully together. These are the watchmen. Other verses of Scripture describe watchmen as those who are watching for danger, for the things that come against the flock, for the signs of tribulation and judgment. They are ready to cry and blow the ram’s horn to assemble the people to prepare for war. But these watchmen who come in the end time, who see eye to eye, have one message—they shout joyfully together, as they herald the things that are coming, the trouble that will be upon the world.
“When you see these things begin to come to pass, then lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28). These watchmen are going to shout joyfully together, even as they see the calamities coming upon the world. The watchmen are the prophets, the apostles, the pastors. These ministries who have perception and revelation will shout joyfully together because they not only see the things that are coming, but they realize that these represent the end of conflict and the coming of the great blessings of the Lord, the clouds of blessing filled with rain ready to fall upon the hungry people. They will proclaim and shout joyfully. This is the day for the watchmen to be very careful that they do not shout fear to the people, but that they shout joyfully, joyfully! There are enough calamity proclaimers out there already. Watchmen—speak joyfully and prepare the people for the day that is coming, lest you fail to be a faithful watchman. With a great joyfulness, call the people of God to face these things that are coming and to walk right through them joyfully.
This describes our attitude toward the coming judgments, tribulation, and troubles in the earth. Open your hearts to the Lord and say, “Lord, we are going to walk through this together and we’ll not be divided.
We are not going to be jealous of each other, but we are going to hold up our brother’s hands. These will be like the days of Nehemiah when they came together to build and sing songs about the enemy coming against them.
We must understand that Jewish people have a built-in sense of fearing a calamity that often never happens, but also that through the centuries many calamities have befallen them as a people.
When the Jews were singing the dirge in the days of Nehemiah, they had a building tool in one hand and a weapon of war in the other. Someone stood by Nehemiah, ready to blow a horn. All along the line, men were ready to blow a horn, and when the enemy came against an unprotected area, everyone rushed together to defend it.
In the spirit we will be blowing trumpets, summoning one another to battle. Whenever I am in trouble, I will blow a trumpet, and I will want you to pray for me and help me.
Not only will you hear the trumpet once in a while when a little church is trying to buy property or about to go under because they can’t pay for it. Whenever people are in trouble, we are going to rush to them, in the spirit, to help them.
Don’t try to live alone. This is the time we walk together without any self-seeking as we stand by one another in the name of the Lord.
This message is prophetic and should be read from time to time. It speaks of the cooperation and the unity we will walk in and the way we are going to move together, with nothing preventing it. We are in the wake of many of Satan’s most vigorous efforts.
“The hour of fulfillment is now. All the cries and prayers have been heard from all the people—their desire for the new day to dawn, the desire for the release God has promised.
The hour of fulfillment is now! It will bring fierce persecution, but with that comes the tremendous revelation of His presence that our hearts have sought after. Let’s press on with all of our hearts, because the hour of fulfillment is now.
“The people must hear this word and know it deep in their spirits. If they don’t keep their focus on what is being said now, how can they enter into the things God has for them? He has provided so much and it is the hour of change. I sense that, and we are walking into so much. We must see this and then we won’t see those other things that distract us.”
We are going to see the glory. Let me explain how it will take place. In John 17:22, Jesus said, “The glory which Thou hast given unto Me, I have given unto them that they all may be one.”
When you see the unity, you are seeing the evidence of the glory. Whether you see the glory visibly or not, the unity that is there is the evidence of it.
I would rather see the unity in the Body and know that this is the sign of true glory, than to see a cloud that has not yet reached the people because the unity has not yet been worked in them. We know the glory is with us when we start really moving into oneness.
“Look at one another and behold the family of the Lord. There is a sealing of the Lord at this time and from now on thou art the family of the Lord. Thou art not individuals, but thou art the promise of God in the earth.
Thou art to reveal the Lord; thou art the will of God in the earth. The Spirit has sealed thy hearts to one another and to the wisdom of God.
When the pressure is on and someone is under attack, you shall be as one witness. Your compassion and love shall go to them. If they have needs, what they need shall flow unto them.
There will be more persecution, but the evidence of the love of God that has begun and has been in operation shall be there until we will give our lives for one another and we will pray night and day.
Not only that, but you will stretch out the stakes of your tents, and where you have loved a little, you are going to love much. Your love will be stretched and stretched and stretched and stretched until it will take in everyone.”