All creation has been subjected to futility because of the fall; but in the redemption of Christ, now after 1900 years, it is time that the Lord bring forth the active manifestation of the victory of Jesus Christ, reversing the downward pull upon people and causing the upward pull to become stronger and stronger. People have had difficulty walking with the Lord because the world, the flesh, and the devil were always pulling them down, but before very long, Zion’s force will be so strong that the pull of those negative forces will be far less effective. We read in the Scriptures that the house of the Lord will be established on the top of the mountains, and all the nations will flow into it (Micah 4:1, 2). The upward pull of that spiritual force will come forth from the sons of God.
Today everything seems to have a dual manifestation. We talk about the glorious victory of Jesus Christ, yet we have never been in such warfare in our lives. We talk about the last days, the end time, and also about the new day and the Kingdom. We are in a difficult transition period of overlapping ages. We find ourselves in a dilemma similar to that of a teenager: he does not know whether he is a man or a boy. He seems to shift back and forth from one phase to another. He is becoming a man and trying to put away childish things, but he still often speaks as a child and thinks as a child.
This overlapping period of the ages is our time of puberty. At times we look back at the blessings of the past. Then there are times when we reach forward into the Kingdom. God still blesses those who have not moved forward. God blesses everything He can. Paul often walked into a synagogue with such an anointing upon him that before the rabbis realized it, they had turned the scrolls over to him and asked him to teach. As he began to talk, the duality became evident; and the Jews were soon causing a riot against Paul, stirring up the Gentiles to stone him or run him out of town. Yet some believed.
In the time that the epistle to the Hebrews came forth, there were Hebrews who believed God according to the traditions of their fathers; but they needed another epistle that spoke of better things under the new covenant. The old was passing away, but God was establishing the new. Those Hebrews were grieving because a year before the book of Hebrews was released, Jerusalem had fallen and the temple had been destroyed. They could wail and weep for that which was gone, yet they had to turn their eyes toward that which was to come. People often find mingled emotions in their hearts, and there is nothing more frustrating than to be a part of the mixed multitude or the half-breeds following along with the rest, but not completely a part of the new.
We must walk with God carefully as we walk in this move of the Spirit, for this is a transition period. When we see some of the ministries who have been blessed in the past but have not moved on in God, we must not curse them but grieve for them because their hearts are set on something that was of God but now has a diminishing anointing upon it. The cry of the hour is to Babylon: “Come out of her, My people” (Revelation 18:4). Many of God’s people are still stuck in Babylon, even though the time of exile is over.
In the days of restoration recorded in the books of Nehemiah and Ezra, there were successive migrations out of Babylon. Today there are also successive migrations out of Babylon. It would be easy for us to rise up and denounce everything of the old order. But if we did, it might be destructive to the many people God is trying to pull out of Babylon. On the other hand, it is possible to compromise to such an extent that we become a very part of the Babylon that we have tried to escape. This is a difficult time of transition.
Some pastors cannot accept the idea that the denominational system is part of Babylon. They try to do the right thing in their denominations instead of leaving them, because they do not like the violence that accompanies the claiming of God’s Kingdom (Matthew 11:12). How can we have fellowship with these whom we have loved dearly, when they refuse fellowship with this walk with God because it is too radical? We cannot close our hearts to them because there may one day be a successive migration, and these people will literally be thrust out of Babylon.
The travail upon the house of God is bringing sons to birth; and God says, “Shall I bring to birth and close up the womb?” (Isaiah 66:9). No, He will bring to birth and continue to bring forth again and again. We must move on with God. We are caught in the most difficult period ever to be faced. We must realize we are in an overlapping period and regulate ourselves accordingly. We must keep prophesying to God’s people to come out of Babylon and continue creating that spiritual force which will draw them.
This walk with God can be like a spiritual midwife, bringing children forth even before the pains of travail come upon the earth (Isaiah 66:7). Remember the cry in the Old Testament, “The children are come to birth, and there is no strength to deliver” (Isaiah 37:3). That was true in the Old Testament time, but it will not be true now. There will be wave after wave of people brought forth, but do not think that it will be easy. It will be difficult, requiring a great deal of revelation. No man, having drunk the old wine, straightway desires the new, for he says the old is better (Luke 5:39).
The restoration cannot be stopped, either by the bitterness of the old order or by persecution, for this is really of the Lord. Yet we dare not be without compassion and understanding for the people who do not understand it. No one understands it until God reveals it to him. It must come by revelation. What do we have except that which we have received? In Paul’s words, “Do not boast then, as though you had not received it or as though it were something you had wisdom enough to figure out” (I Corinthians 4:7). God gave to us the revelation; therefore, we glorify God. If our brother does not see it, we will pray for him; but we rejoice in what the Lord has revealed to us.
In no way do we take the attitude that we are a people with special wisdom. It is just not so. Only the mercy and the grace of God has opened up a walk with God to us. We ought to walk very humbly before the Lord in all He has revealed.
There are two Old Testament prophecies which seem to contradict each other. Micah 4 speaks of a time when God’s people will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. The third chapter of Joel calls for the soldiers to prepare for war, to beat their plowshares into swords and their pruning hooks into spears. Which prophecy are we to believe?
Remember that this is a time of transition. Two contrasting figures of speech are used to illustrate what is happening. To understand this beating of plowshares into swords, you must understand the time in which the prophet spoke. Iron was very difficult to obtain, and swords were rather scarce. For this reason the conquering country would immediately confiscate the swords and thus render the conquered nation helpless. Even in the days of Saul and Jonathan, there were few swords found among the people. It is difficult to picture such a situation where there was not enough metal to go around and one piece had to serve several purposes. Therefore, the prophet Joel tells the people to take the little metal wedges which were fastened to the wooden plows and beat them back into swords. It was not a time to plant or to till the soil; it was time to fight. It was the time of warfare.
Joel prophesies concerning the days of the outpouring, for the second chapter of Joel deals with the remnant and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days. Then the third chapter follows: “Now wake up the mighty men, rouse them. Get ready for war. Take these plowshares and make them into swords. Get ready to fight. Let the weak ones say, ‘I am mighty.’ ”
The prophecy of Micah speaks about the days of the Kingdom which follow in succession upon the days of outpouring. Then we will beat our swords into plowshares. These two times are now mingled together. We are still in the days of beating plowshares into swords; but in a very realistic way we are in both the last days of the old order and in the beginning of the new day of the Kingdom. We are in an overlapping period.
We are in an amazing period in which the Lord is speaking that not everything is to be destructive, but we are to begin to plow the ground and prepare the hearts for the great harvest of the gospel of the Kingdom which will bring forth multitudes. I believe millions of people will turn to the Lord during these days. This transition period will be like the days of Nehemiah when the men carried their building tool in one hand and their sword in the other (Nehemiah 4:17). They had to have both. They plowed with the sword girded upon them, for they had to be prepared to fight. Nehemiah stood on the wall with the trumpeters beside him. Everyone was working to build the wall, but the men also kept a sword and a spear handy. Whenever they saw the enemy coming against them, the trumpet was blown; and everyone gathered together at the area of the attack.
In intercession and in spiritual warfare, we start the great work of building and launching a walk with God, and the battle rages against us. What do we do? We blow the trumpet in Zion, sounding the alarm in His holy mountain. We gather everyone together and battle. When we have defeated the enemy and we walk in the victory of Jesus Christ, we go back to building.
There must be a versatility within us. We cannot escape the spiritual warfare. On the other hand, it will become very frustrating if we are in spiritual warfare all the time without giving ourselves to the constructive work that God has for us to do. We must be busy and keep our hands on the plow. There must be something very constructive and productive in our thinking because the Kingdom is taking over. We do not have any choice as to whether or not we have a part in the intercession and the warfare. We are a part of the army of the Lord. We are also in the time in which the husbandman is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth (James 5:7). The Lord is coming to find the precious fruit of the earth ready, and this involves much labor on our part.
We are involved in the outpouring and the flow of the Spirit, and we are in the flow of the word, but we must be careful that we do not become concerned about material and physical facilities beyond the necessities needed to send out the word. We have built humble churches as simply as we know how. We are concerned about keeping churches in homes as long as it is possible in order to avoid a heavy financial program. We try in every way to avoid the big church corporations—that Laodicean monstrosity that is rich and increased with goods. We want simple, clean, and well-painted facilities where people can come together to worship. We do not want the facilities to stumble people before they even have a chance to hear the word.
We do not want to impress people in any way with the grandeur of buildings. We want good, simple facilities so that people do not even notice the building, only the word and the worship. We want them to see the Lord. As much as we can, we want to avoid creating anything that causes a distraction. As we sacrifice to see the word go out, we are amazed that so much can come from so little. We need a continual miracle like the five loaves and two fishes that fed the multitude (Matthew 14:17–21).
We are standing in readiness with plowshares or swords, whichever is needed. We are on the Lord’s side, a warring priesthood, instant in season and out, ready to reprove, rebuke, or exhort (II Timothy 4:2). With a readiness of mind, we are ready to do anything that God requires of us. We have come to the end of the old age, and we see the grace of God in a greater light. Yet in the midst of that grace we know a discipline to our spirits such as we have never walked in before. Although we are not under a legalistic standard, we see a great carefulness in our walk. We are anxious to please the Lord in every way.