Now at the time the army of the king of Babylon (this is in the eighteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar) was beseiging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the house of the king of Judah, because Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it; and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but he shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with him face to face, and see him eye to eye; and he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and he shall be there until I visit him,” declares the Lord. “If you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’ ”?”
And Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying: Buy for yourself my field which is at Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it.’ Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field, please, that is at Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for you have the right of possession and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. And I bought the field which was at Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle’s son, and I weighed out the silver for him, seventeen shekels of silver. And I signed and sealed the deed, and called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales. Then I took the deeds of purchase, both the sealed copy containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the sight of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, before all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard.
“And I commanded Baruch in their presence, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Take these deeds, this sealed deed of purchase, and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, that they may last a long time.” For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’ ”
“After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, then I prayed to the Lord, saying, ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and by Thine outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for Thee.… And Thou hast said to me, O Lord God, “Buy for yourself the field with money, and call in witnesses”—although the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ ” “Then the word of the Lord came to, Jeremiah, saying, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” Jeremiah 32:2–17; 25–27.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard, saying, “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is His name, ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:1–3.
Jeremiah bought the deed with witnesses at a time when real estate was practically valueless. The Chaldeans were overrunning the whole land. Jerusalem was about to fall. Jeremiah had been put in prison; he prophesied this would happen, and Zedekiah was furious with him. He said, “Why are you prophesying that all of this will happen?” Jeremiah answered, “For one reason: because it was the truth. It was God’s word.”
If there ever was a time when we should be making our greatest investment in the promises of God it is right now, because we are on the threshold of the greatest judgments and tribulation the world has ever seen. It may seem almost unreal to you, but soon it won’t. There will be a change in the affairs of the earth, and you will find those preliminary tribulations and judgments sweeping the earth. Then you will realize what you have done by believing the prophecies and promises of the Lord. You have made a step of faith; you have invested in God’s Word. That is what Jeremiah did.
We may not use a literal jar. However, in a little bottle I have put a list of things that I am claiming from the Lord. I took copies of the prophecies and rolled them up in that jar. Why? I am doing it because every day that I live, I am determined that no matter how the circumstances seem to go that day, whether everything seems to be peace and light or everything is reversals, I will take a look at that jar and say, “That is the word of God that I invested in. I put all my life behind that word that God has given. I believe in it with all my heart. I’m not going to draw back.” In reality, the jar of which that word is sealed is in our heart. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee. Psalm 119:11.
Soon all of you will have to learn how to accept ministry. When you receive ministry or prophecy, and the time seems to pass and you don’t see any outstanding fulfillment of that prophecy, then it is good to know that you have a jar hid someplace, a jar that can weather the elements, the storms can come. The armies can stomp over it; it doesn’t make any difference—it is buried in a safe place. One day, you will pull out the deed that gives you an inheritance in God’s land, and there will be no Chaldeans in the land then; there will be no troubles. You will be possessing the full thing.
I don’t think it will be with us as it was in Jeremiah’s time. There was an interlude; he knew that it would be a long season. But I think we live with the promises of God, knowing that the fulfillment of them could be immediate. They could spring forth before our eyes. Though the vision tarries, wait for it, for it will surely come (Habakkuk 2:3). Be open in your heart to say, “Yes, Lord, You have spoken to me.”
The other day the Lord was speaking to me about what He had spoken over a certain brother as a prophet of the Lord. I wondered how the Lord would set about to establish that. There have been reversals, and I thought, “What am I doing to help?” I am just believing! It is one of those things that God is doing and I don’t want to put my hand to it one way or another. I want to watch Him bring the ministry forth. If you have prophecies over you, hang onto that word. Walk every day with anticipation of it. Ponder it in your heart. Keep it there. Don’t let the vision grow dim. Look at your jar with the passage of the days and say, “I have a claim on God. God has a claim on me. We are yoked together. We are merged together into one destiny, God and I. By virtue of His word that has involved me (a word that involves what He is to become in me, what He is going to do through me, what He has for me, what I can claim from Him). God has linked me to His omnipotence by this amazing thing of prophecies and revelation that is coming in this end-time.”
There was a little girl (the estimate is that she was around fourteen years old) who was betrothed to a man much older than she. Before she was married, she had a visitation of an angel, and even in her tender years, she knew what God was requiring of her. Read in the book of Luke. By the time you’ve read through the first two chapters, that little girl had gone through many things. The King James Version reads, “When she heard these things, Mary pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). She pondered them in her heart. Another version reads, “She treasured all these things in her heart.” She had her little jar too, just like Jeremiah. God had spoken a word and she hung onto it.
Reverence the words that come—those words that have come and have been confirmed by the mouth of two or three witnesses, those things that have come repeatedly, until by sheer repetition, God has etched them upon your mind and heart. Don’t ever lose them. This walk began with one distinctive thing—worship was there and I think worship is the greatest thing to come in the walk—but I think that the first thing that opened the door to it was the fact that we had prophecy and the laying on of hands. While it had fallen in reproach, the worship hadn’t fallen in reproach. But the thing that stumbled people, and actually the thing Satan fought the most, was the laying on of hands on people and prophesying over them. Why did God do that? In I Timothy 4:14 we are told to not neglect the gifts the Lord has given us by prophecy and the laying on of hands. God had begun to do the same thing again. Timothy was reminded of the prophecies that had come before on him, that by them he might war a good warfare (I Timothy 1:18). Read First and Second Timothy carefully. Read those references to gifts and prophecies. Paul reminded Timothy, “God didn’t give you a spirit of fear. I laid hands on you and God didn’t give you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a disciplined mind” (II Timothy 1:6–7). The prophecies have come and by them we are warring a good warfare.
What had God done in this walk? He has brought prophecies, He has thrown in the prophetic flow. People were drifting with almost a nothingness to their life and their future; suddenly, God brought them a word that jarred them and disturbed them from that easy tide they were in. They began to move in another direction; day by day, they set their sails by the wind of the Holy Spirit that blew. They marked their course by that guiding star of prophecy that had come to them; a more sure word of prophecy (II Peter 1:19). They set sail, and they began to go against the tides. They began to go against the way that the world was drifting—the church world in particular. God had given them a word. He hid it in their hearts.
It is very important in these churches that we soon have a company of prophets tried and proven, who go through the churches. We should gather and as long as there is strength, we will prophesy. We can stop and rest, and then we shall prophesy, until men have a word from God. Everyone who comes into this walk should have a word from God. They should have a little jar in which they’ve sealed the word of God, like Jeremiah. There will be difficult days to be faced, very difficult, but if we have the word of God hidden away in a little jar or in the safety deposit box of our heart, we have something really special.