We must be incited again to appropriate and walk in everything God has done for us. It is important that we take hold of this secret God is teaching us: of doing our best to walk in everything we have, not trying to appropriate more, as much as walking fully in what God is giving and saying right now. We must do our best to walk in what we have and then reach out for more for the future. We have had the ministry of deliverance and judgment, and now God is going to show us how to walk in the victory as fully as we possibly can.
There are a lot of spiritual blessings that are unclaimed. God has spoken the word. He has given us the blessings, but we haven’t claimed them, we are not fully walking in them.
Return O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am a husband unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And it shall come to pass, when ye are multiplied and increased in the land (notice he takes one of a city and two of a family, but it doesn’t say it stops there), in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more. Jeremiah 3:14–16.
Religious spirited people have difficulty in this walk because they have an obnoxious nostalgia that oppresses them. They blindly turn away from what God is doing and want to resurrect what God has ceased to be in. It is interesting to visit a synagogue on a Saturday morning, hear the reading of Law, and realize that the Law and the Prophets were fulfilled filled in Christ 2,000 years ago. It is amazing to find denominations, anywhere from 500 to 800 years old, going back and remembering the day in which their approach, their needs, and their conditions were different. The way they applied the Word in that day becomes a yoke about the neck of their descendants. To this day the Franciscan order will not ride a burro or a donkey because part of Saint Francis of Assisi’s dedication was to walk in humility. Things have changed, and now there is nothing in their consecration against riding in cars. Many of them conveniently have very expensive cars, but still remain true to their dedication in refusing to ride a burro. When we see the results of traditionalism we realize how deadly it is. It is amazing how people become attached to ideas of the past and then begin to twist and distort them: anything to try and make things work for the present.
The prophecy of Jeremiah is going to come to pass in this day. Return O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am a husband unto you; and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family … Don’t get the idea this is going to be a wholesale movement. Just a little remnant is entering into it, and if God has made it real to you, how fortunate you are. He is going to bring you back, and He is going to give you shepherds according to His heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And it will come to pass, that when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days they will say no more, “The ark of the covenant.” They will not remember it. It will not even come to mind.
The ark of the covenant belonged to another age. Why look back to the good old days? They weren’t so good anyway. They were days of lesser light and days of oppression. Sometimes people ask, “Wouldn’t you like to go back to the early days of your ministry?” Perish the thought. Do you think I want to minister with no more than I had then? It wasn’t enough for the need in this hour. I don’t even want to think I want to minister with no more than I had then? It call it to mind. Some people will want to go back. Some even write books looking back to Azusa Street and other movements. God is not to be approached backwards. This thing of backing up to find God gives the impression that you have gone on ahead in civilization and culture and must turn around and come back in order to find God.
Wake up to the fact that He is way ahead of us! In this age He is turning loose more than most people realize or are open to. Don’t say, “Go back to the ark of the covenant.”
What did the ark of the covenant mean? It meant that God’s presence was in the midst of the camp. It was a little box made of acacia wood, overlaid with solid gold. The top of it was graced with cherubim whose wings touched and the mercy seat, a little golden square altar in the center. There were loops on the side through which long poles were placed so that it could be carried by two priests, with the poles resting on their shoulders. Inside the ark of the covenant were certain mementos of God’s deliverance: Aaron’s budding rod (the rod that God used to show His favor), which overnight had miraculously produced leaves, blossoms, and almonds; a pot of manna; and the covenant God had given to Moses on the mountain. They showed the demands of God and the beginnings of His law, the deliverance from starvation (the manna), and the priesthood chosen by His own appointment.
The ark of the covenant was a marvelous thing in its day and God blessed it with the Shekinah, which meant God’s presence. The Shekinah was a glory that appeared over the ark.
No one was to touch the ark. At one time it was alive with the power of God. When David was bringing it back to Jerusalem after it had been captured as a trophy of war by the Philistines, they put it upon a cart, and as they came to what was called a threshing floor, a rather rocky place, it began to shake. A man by the name of Uzzah thought it was going to fall over, and he reached out to steady it. When he touched it, he dropped dead. This displeased David exceedingly, and he placed it in a little side room at the farmhouse of Obed-Edom and asked him to take care of it. God began to bless Obed-Edom and then David realized the blessing was there in the ark of the covenant. Then David brought the ark up to Jerusalem, this time with the priests carrying it, and they made sacrifices. That was the time when David, who was always doing something unorthodox in his zeal, took off most of his clothes and danced before the Lord with all of his might, like one of those in the school of the prophets.
Many stories were associated with the ark of the covenant. But finally the time came when God told them not even to remember it anymore or call it to mind. In effect, He said, “I’m no longer centering My presence in the midst of My people with some little symbolical thing you see glowing to know I am there. I have something else in mind. I want to come down with My presence and dwell in each one of you. I want all My people who will open their hearts to Me to be bearers of My presence, carrying the presence and the glory of God into all parts of the earth wherever God sends them.”
The problem has continually been that the spiritual anointing and blessing has been localized in our thinking. It was localized in one little box, the ark of the covenant. It is localized here in our church, but through our printing press we intend to be bearers of His presence and to see it spread. We intend to see this message God has given us to go forth and grow constantly in magnitude.
A new day is coming and the pattern is changing. Don’t think everything is going to be done just the same as it was. In our services we have already left the beaten path of churchianity so far that it is rather frightening. We come to church for one purpose—to worship. We are launched on a pattern of faith and a return (actually, it’s an advance) to simplicity. We are going on into another day. Don’t look back, even to the past few days. Look forward to tomorrow. Don’t try to get a repetition of experiences; they won’t have the same meaning because the need isn’t the same. Open the door for something more.
We see greater blessing now, when we pray for the sick and minister to them, than in former days. The preaching of some of the earlier evangelists and healing ministries was not always scriptural, who taught completely against doctors and against all forms of medicine and vitamins. I believe God blesses and anoints doctors, and sometimes He heals by the prayer of faith without the doctor. There is a demonic side of oppression which they rarely understood or were able to discern. There were many needs and problems, and it was a day of lesser light. Do you want to go back to the lesser? We are going on to the greater things. Do you want to go back where the glory and the power was restricted, or do you want to go on and have a church full of people with greater discernment and greater faith than could be found in the average evangelist or pastor or teacher of a generation ago?
Some of those men tried to reach out to something that was premature for their day. Don’t judge or criticize them, but realize that there was not enough of God turned loose yet for them to accomplish what they were trying to do. They were pioneers, constantly reaching out to get more, and some of them died in the attempt. You don’t realize how blessed you are to be able to have someone lay hands on you and impart more to you than we used to receive in three years. We had no one to teach us. But if it hadn’t been for those of us who were pioneers you wouldn’t have what you have today. Don’t go back to it, say no more, “the ark of the covenant,” but thank God for the people who blazed the trail and brought you to the present reality. Let’s go on from here. There is only a remnant: one of a city and two of a family who have made it, so far. How the mighty are fallen!
It is a time to move on. It is like history; you wouldn’t want to go back to the days of George Washington, though you respect him, and yet you long for someone who could understand the complexities of this hour, and lead our nation into something greater. We want to go on to the days of Joel’s fullness, but let’s walk in what we have. If you walked as wholeheartedly in what you have, as some of those people did in earlier days, who struggled and fasted without knowing how to fast, many of you would be further along in God than you are now.
I remember the way the Lord called me into the ministry. The spirit of the Lord struck me down like someone struck by lightning. As I lay there on the old wooden floor, God lifted me in the Spirit and took me to every nation on the face of the earth, and instructed me to speak to them, heal them, and deliver them. I spoke fluently in the language of each country as I went from vision to vision. I wasn’t called just to preach; it was something more than that. But I didn’t know what it was until Christ appeared to me again and made it real with an apostolic commission. I think the day will come when I will be carried in the Spirit to the nations of the world.
We have seen the beginning and we have seen a great deal. Now that God has laid so much before us, surely there is no reason for us to be content with only a small measure of victory. Don’t go back, but by the grace of God have the same courage, dedication, and integrity that God worked in those who went before. They without us are not made perfect.