Zechariah was an important prophet of the restoration period in the Old Testament. His prophecies spoke also of the day in which we are living, as we see in the following passage. Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a man with a measuring line in his hand. So I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is.” And behold, the angel who was speaking with me was going out, and another angel was coming out to meet him, and said to him, “Run, speak to that young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle within it. For I,’ declares the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ ” Zechariah 2:1–5.
These last two facts go together. The city of God will be without walls because there will be so many people that they would overflow the walls. With such growth, no man-made walls could circumscribe it; and so the Lord promises to be a wall to His people. He will be a wall of fire around Jerusalem and the glory in her midst.
In this day, we must grasp the difference between that which denominations are doing and that which God chooses to do. The many denominations have organizational structures which are institutionalized with definite walls. They may all claim to be one in their beliefs, but that is not true. There are definite lines of demarcation and conflicts of interest among the various movements. They have self-centered objectives and ways of rule and legislation that God is not in. Such ways of exclusion are definitely pharisaic and not of the New Testament pattern for the Church. The true spiritual Jerusalem, in the days of restoration, is going to be a city inhabited without walls, because of the multitudes within it. Paul called this Jerusalem, which is from above, the mother of us all (Galatians 4:26). It is a spiritual city rather than a literal city.
If people try to place boundaries on that which the Lord is bringing forth now, He will simply spill over their walls. Then new churches will be started with other people coming in, and new truths and experiences will be added. The restoration will keep moving on. The only wall that we should have, and the only wall that we need, is the Lord Himself. He will be a wall of fire around us.
The New Testament Church that is being fully restored in these last days is not an organization. The individual local churches must operate according to a structure that will not be in conflict with the spiritual structure of the Kingdom which God is building. They must lend themselves to the ways of the Kingdom and be amiable to all that God is going to bring forth. God’s people must seek to protect the purposes and the vision and the anointing that was originally given for the Church, in order to advance deeper into the Kingdom within these next few years.
The wall of fire is the immunity and the protection which the Lord promises to give to us. The churches of today’s restoration do not actually realize how much they have already moved into the wall-of-fire immunity against the intense concentration of witchcraft and satanic attack. With this immunity, extensive destruction, deaths, persecutions, and harassments have not been able to reach them. The restored Church has been promised a wall of fire around her and the glory within her midst. Note the difference between these two phrases: a wall of fire around her gives a certain amount of immunity against satanic attack; but the glory in her midst guarantees even more protection because Christ is coming forth to be glorified in His saints (II Thessalonians 1:10). Christ is not to be harassed and humiliated in His saints as He Himself was at His first coming. Now the sufferings of the Lord are to give way to the glory that is to follow, according to the prophets.
In this end time, the mighty Jerusalem of the Lord is to come forth, and He is to be the glory in her midst. As believers, we should be somewhat prepared for persecution, but we should be more prepared in mind and spirit for the Lord to be glorified in us before the eyes of all the world. This is what we should believe, rather than think we will have to try to grin and bear a very rough time.
The effects of spiritual battles against God’s people are probably as bad now as they ever will be. The Lord is allowing Satan to come against them, to a certain extent, in order to toughen and strengthen them; but ahead is the glorifying of the Lord in their midst. Ahead is that which brings glory and praise and honor to the Lord: “I,” declares the Lord, “will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.”
At this point, you must understand that the end-time Jerusalem is not going to be a city with walls, for one obvious reason. Its growth and expansion is like the stone that is cut out of the mountain without hands. It crushes the image and proceeds to grow exceedingly until it becomes a great mountain that fills all the earth (Daniel 2:34–35). That which God is bringing forth now will lead to the world-wide dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is part of the great final act of God bringing forth His Kingdom to fill the whole earth. Do not be hesitant in believing for this. Do not hesitate to believe that it will fill every realm. His Kingdom will invade every realm of man’s thought and activity, every realm of nature, every realm of the universe, and realms that you do not even know about yet.
The Kingdom of God is going to fill and invade. Therefore, the Lord is saying, “Whatever wall you need, I will be that wall of fire, and I will be the glory in the midst that comes forth.” He is also giving this warning, “Ho, Zion! Escape, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon.” Zechariah 2:7. Here He is referring to the traditional concepts of Christianity, which are so deadly. Corruption has crept into the denominations. In conventional churches you can sense that something is wrong, even when you hear them speaking about certain doctrines that are very fundamental. You can recognize the same kind of traditionalism, pharisaism, and deep unbelief that existed among the Pharisees whom Jesus berated. The Pharisees tried to follow a fundamental, traditional interpretation of the Word, without deviating the least jot or title. Yet there was such an all-consuming unbelief in their hearts that they could not accept what God was doing. Therefore, God gives you the warning to get out if you are living with Babylon. Flee from it.
Verse 8 tells us, For thus says the Lord of hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.” The blessing upon God’s remnant in this hour is also closely related to the troubling of God upon the whole Christian world. Where men in politics are making alliances with Babylon’s religious leaders, we know what will happen, according to Revelation 17:16. The great whore rides on the beast until the beast turns and devours her. Then the beast in turn is slain (Revelation 19:20). Their alliances have done nothing but increase the suffering, the bloodshed, and the heartache over the entire world; and their promises are never fulfilled.
However, the Lord has promised this to those who look to Him: “Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” declares the Lord. Zechariah 2:10. All we need is the presence of the Lord. All we have to do is glorify the Lord with all our hearts.
In verses 12 and 13 we read, “And the Lord will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for He is aroused from His holy habitation.”
In chapter 3, Zechariah’s prophecy changes to an account of human inadequacy which is then confronted with a holy and noble commission that seems utterly impossible, considering man’s unworthiness. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. That gives us a picture of how a man could stand before the angel of the Lord, and yet Satan would be there to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!” Verses 1–2a. This refers to the Jerusalem which was spoken about in chapter 2. The Lord has chosen this restored Jerusalem to stand before His presence. Joshua typifies the spiritual priesthood standing before the Lord, and Satan is there, ready to battle him. You can count on one fact: Satan is ready to resist you, to rebuke you, to accuse you, and to beat you down.
Verse 2 continues, “Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” All his life while he preached the Word, John Wesley used this Scripture. From a family of several children, he was one who was barely rescued when their house burned down. Realizing that God had spared his life from the time that he was a child, on his letterhead he had printed, “A brand plucked from the burning.” Were you plucked from the burning?
Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. Have you ever felt that you were standing before the Lord in filthy garments? There is a way to counteract that. Just offer up to the Lord praise, the fruit of your lips which is a sweet savor in the nostrils of God. And he spoke and said to those who were standing before him saying, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” Joshua was not told to get out of his filthy garments, but the others who were standing there were told to remove the filthy garments from him. Again he said to him, “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” Verses 3–4.
At this hour, it is true that we must remove the filthy garments of spirit from one another. It is good to have the Lord strip us of that which is unclean. Who can do that but those who stand before the Lord with us. This principle is found in the story of Lazarus who came forth wrapped hand and foot in graveclothes. Jesus said to the others, “Loose him and let him go” (John 11:44). It becomes our prerogative to minister to one another deliverance and that which cleanses. You always have a choice either of criticizing someone for his filthy garments, “Whew! Who wants to get near him?” or of helping him out of his filthy garments.
God has brought a new day in which we are really learning not to judge one another, but rather to deliver one another. We can truly deliver one another in the name of the Lord. If you have a terrible problem and you do not know how to obtain the victory, let someone else pray for you. Let someone else help you. There comes a time when you actually cannot break through by yourself. Someone else can help you, and it will work. Someone else can stand with you before the Lord in faith to help deliver you from the filthy garments. We are helpers of one another’s joy (II Corinthians 1:24).
Continuing in Zechariah 3:5 we read, Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” In other words, Zechariah was saying, “As long as you are doing all this, set something on his head like a fair miter, a crown of his priesthood, something indicating that he is really the priest God chose him to be.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the Lord was standing by.
Then verses 8 through 10 give us a deep, prophetic picture for our time. “ ‘Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you—indeed they are men who are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in My Servant the Branch. For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.’ (Things are going to move fast when God starts moving.) ‘In that day,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘every one of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and under his fig tree.’ ”
About twenty-five hundred years ago, the Lord was speaking this about the Kingdom that is going to come. Yet concerning that which was taking place then, He was saying, “This is a symbol.” It was a sign for our day. The day in which the Lord would bring forth His Kingdom and change the land in one day never took place then. The land was not changed, nor was the iniquity taken away in one day. Neither did they see Haggai’s prophecy fulfilled, in which the glory of the latter house will be greater than the former (Haggai 2:9). They never knew in fulness that which was prophesied in Zechariah, but they received it in token. It was symbolical of what we will walk in today. When God said, “I am going to bring in My Servant the Branch,” He was speaking about the coming of the King of kings.
Throughout the Word we see this one emphasis that the Kingdom is coming. The Kingdom is coming, and so we begin to shout with faith, “Thy Kingdom come!” Let us scream, “Thy Kingdom come!” Let us weep, “Thy Kingdom come!” In defiance of Babylon, let us cry, “Thy Kingdom come!” There are a thousand moods in which we can pray this prayer, “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Let us have no other emphasis except that the Lord be glorified.
In this time of fulfillment, there is no reason for human ambition and human seeking. There is no reason to struggle for money for ourselves. Nevertheless, God will lay finances in our hands which then will be given in a spirit of sacrifice to the bringing forth of His Kingdom. The spirit of what God is bringing forth in this last day must be kept pure, so that we will not see the spirit of Ananias and Sapphira ever rising up. Ever increasing will be the demands of the Lord upon us for total discipleship. We will be fleeing Babylon, as the Lord commanded us to escape it. Let us escape the way that the world operates, and begin to think differently. Let us groan and intercede for the Lord to give release: a release of finances so that His great work can be done, a release of many willing hearts to do the work. There is much responsibility that is resting upon only a few, a small remnant. The few that are able to give are giving. The few that are able to work are working. Let us cry out, “O God, send forth the laborers. Lord, supply the need!”
“Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst.” We are preparing for Him a habitation. Wherever we may build, we are not telling the Lord to meet with us at these places, or we would be guilty of saying, “Lo here, or lo there, or lo in the desert” (Matthew 24:23). The only significance that can be given to these places is that the Lord has directed us to build them, and we build them in the name of the Lord. We are the habitation of God by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). We bring His Spirit into the places we build or occupy, and He fills them. The place does not sanctify the people, but the people who are sanctified before the Lord will sanctify everything that they touch.
In the Old Testament, there are laws concerning corruption. For instance, if a man touched a corpse, he was unclean and could not enter into the sanctuary (Numbers 19:13). Likewise, God said that we had better be free from Babylon, because she is the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird (Revelation 18:2). Communicating with her is a handling of death, because she is a merchant of death. Therefore, she is unfit to go into the glory and the presence of the Lord.
Where will the Lord be revealed to those who have been sanctified in His presence? How will the Lord be revealed in the places that they have built, in the work that their hands have touched? We must be very careful about not allowing unsanctified hands to build that which we are building for the Lord. The Lord wants sanctified hands, dedicated people to do His work, so that He will be glorified. Then what is done will stand. What is begun in the Spirit can be carried on in the Spirit. What we build must not be of Babylon. If the hands of God’s people are not consecrated when they start working, they soon become consecrated because the Lord deals with them and brings a purging of heart, a release from everything that would corrupt. Otherwise, they will be driven off by the Spirit of the Lord.
The Lord will help us to be a city without walls, but not without the wall of fire around us and the glory in our midst. The Lord can finalize His plans and bring forth the nations in one day, totally and completely. He can start with a handful; that is all it takes. The Kingdom does not have to start big, but it has to start complete and perfect in order to grow.