ANOINTED MEMORY
Lord, we are very grateful to You for Your kindness to us. Above everything else, we want Your Word to live with that same anointing by which the Holy Spirit caused Your holy men to pen these words. So let the Holy Spirit be upon the teaching of it and upon the hearing of it that it again comes alive. Lord, You once wrote this word upon the parchments, upon the stones. Now, write it upon our hearts. Amen.
Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Ephesians 6:14. “Put on the breastplate of righteousness.” Often, in the midst of prophecy, the writers in the New Testament drew, even as we draw today, from a great reservoir of knowledge, spiritual knowledge. An anointing comes upon the memory banks where the word is buried. Like an archive, you are a literal Fort Knox after you have stored the word in your heart. More precious than gold, better than finding great spoil is the Word (Psalm 119:72, 162). It does such tremendous things for your life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit comes, Jesus said, “to bring to remembrance whatever I have spoken unto you” (John 14:26). If you are a constant reader and speaker of the Word, a prayerful reader, not reading with the intellect but with an open heart, you are hiding in the sheath of your heart a sword.
The sword of the Spirit can be used in battle against principalities, against the powers, as even the Master Himself drew out the Word in the wilderness encounter (Matthew 4:1–11). He said to Satan, “It is written; it is written,” downing him every time.
Oh, how fantastic the Word is! How we ought to hide it in our hearts! It is an antidote to the poison of sin that is in our very bloodstream. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11.
It counteracts all the things that Satan would bring. It becomes not only an aggressive weapon (the sword is the only aggressive weapon in the whole armor given in Ephesians 6), but it becomes something that surrounds us.
His Word and His name are like a high tower, like a shield and buckler (Psalms 81:2; 91:4; 144:1–2), and your faith in that Word can turn aside all the fiery darts of the wicked one (Ephesians 6:16). By the Word of the Living God, you have protection from those things that would penetrate into the inner defenses of your life and torment you, destroy you. To safely trust in His Word., to put your confidence wholly in the Word of God is the most important thing you can ever do. Nothing is more important than to believe His Word; it is synonymous with believing on Christ. If you believe the Word, you have to believe all that it represents about the Lord.
WE HAVE A BULLET PROOF VEST
In this message, we shall speak about another part of the human anatomy, the heart. As the pieces of armor are named, the specification of where each piece is to go is important.
Since the loins are the seat of emotions, we must have the truth of God’s Word to gird us with his protection; the next truth given is the breastplate of righteousness.
The breastplates were important in Old Testament symbolism, so we will dwell on references in the Old Testament because most of the allusions in Ephesians 6 are based upon Old Testament revelations.
You can never understand the book of Revelation unless you are a good student of the Old Testament, for the Old Testament has a fantastic way of illuminating the New. And the New Testament has a most amazing way of bringing forth the whole meaning of spiritual truths of the Old Testament. As we are in the dispensation of the Kingdom, we will understand present truths better if we understand both the Old and New Testaments.
INTERCESSION
Now the Lord saw, and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede. Isaiah 59:15–16.
This should be a basis of meditation for anyone interested in intercession. We do not intercede to change God’s mind about anything. We are not trying to overcome God’s reluctance; intercession is commanded because it is a means by which God has chosen to release His willingness.
We do not pray to overcome God’s reluctance, but it is the channel He chose to release His willingness to us. You don’t want to pray? You don’t want the blessing very much. God said, “I looked for someone”—He searched for someone to intercede and there was no one.
When we intercede, we cannot please Him because we are using, by faith, the chosen channel by which His willingness and provision is released unto our hearts. The Apostle Paul saw this. That is why he wrote that he didn’t cease day and night to pray (Colossians 1:9; 2 Timothy 1:3).
The further you go, the more you mature in the Lord, the more you will find yourself praying and believing. I have stopped looking for little individual miracles; it is a process. God is flowing and blessing, and I am not so much concerned about little spectacular miracles as I am our walk with God which comes out of that constant intercession, constant faith manifested toward God and what it is producing.
You will have all kinds of problems and all kinds of blessings but walk on an even keel (the structure that keeps a boat balanced in the water) with the Lord. Do not be too influenced by the blessings, because you can get into a presumption which is based upon emotions rather than faith.
One day you are blessed, and the next day you hit a low level. Do not go by emotional reaction too much; keep yourself on an even keel of faith and walk with God. Rejoice in what He does, but those are not the indications that He is with you, and they are not the means by which great things come.
The apostles knew this, and that is why they continually interceded, continually prayed. They were aware (and I am more conscious of it than ever before), that the more they prayed and sought the face of the Lord, the more they universalized the ministry God appointed them to fulfill. The less you pray, though you may have a great anointing and ministry, the more you localize the ministry.
The more I wait on God on behalf of the Body of Christ, the more reports come from all over the country of the way God blesses and meets their needs. I feel like Samuel felt towards Israel: “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in failing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12:23). This must be in the minds of those through whom God has chosen prayer to come.
The greatest character and individual of prayer in the Old Testament is Samuel. You should read about him, because the principles revealed in the prayer life of Samuel are unique.
Consequently, there came forth the school of prophets and the diversifying of his ministry. Soon there were bands of prophets all over the country, witchcraft was taken out of the land, and it was done through the faithful prayers that universalized his ministry.
“Universalize” means it is not limited to one locality or one moment, but it reaches out. Intercession is God’s way whereby we can enter in to the glorious attribute of omnipresence. I have not found in the Word any other way by which omnipresence can be visited to the sons of God at this point, except through intercession.
Omnipresence means that God is present everywhere. Satan has never been able to attain that. He works through nephilim, through principalities and powers, but they are limited to be in one place at a particular instant. They cannot be at two places. Omnipresence belongs to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If Jesus had not gone, He would not have been able to say, “Lo, I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20), and make it endure for a million people at one time.
The Holy Spirit can actually possess and indwell millions at once. Satan cannot do that. Satan is limited to one place at one time. He would like to have omnipresence, but with his knowledge of all human beings all over the world (this gives some insight to the wiles of Satan), their circumstances and problems, he tries to divert them and to frustrate the plan of God as much as he can.
It is mysterious—but still, though it be such a split second that it would be difficult for any timepiece to register it, he has to move from one place to another. He is limited. That is why he does not permanently possess, and nephilim do not work demon-possession as such. Nephilim use the presence of Satan to come and go and are most difficult to discern; lesser orders of evil spirits are delegated by Satan to possess people.
We have had a great success in finding demon-possession; when it is there, we cast it out, and send it into judgment. But the Holy Spirit is come to bring the judgment of the prince of this world (John 16:11), because in the end time it will be difficult to discern him, we should concentrate on God’s people becoming a prophetic company.
It is in their perception that they will survive. The subtlety of Satan will be great. The Lord says if it were possible, the false prophets that will abound would deceive the very elect (Matthew 24:22). How are we to prevail over all this? When we lay hands on someone who has a contact through a nephilim, it is hard to discern because the nephilim is gone; not even the sign of contact is there. But that contact is renewed by the enemy, so he comes and goes. But the Holy Spirit can permanently abide.
The Father sent Him to abide with you forever (John 4:16). Demon-possession in an individual by lower orders of spirits is of very little value to Satan. But every one of us can be filled with the Holy Spirit and thus be in tune constantly with the Holy Spirit, making intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered (Romans 8:26).
That which is beyond our perception and beyond our discernment the Holy Spirit understands and knows how to minister.
Continually by intercession—consciously, when we are fully developed, unconsciously before—we participate in the omnipresence of the Lord. That is why the Body can relate to each other in such a way. For us to do this is far beyond what Satan can do; it takes legions of demons for him to combat the Body, but it only takes our coming and flowing together in the unity of the Spirit to participate in the omnipresence of God.
Maybe consciously we do not know what is wrong, but we are burdened and start praying, and the blessing starts flowing through that many-membered Body. We are participating in that great attribute by which He can be present in millions at once everywhere, His omnipresence!
He was astonished that there was no one to intercede (for this is the way He would manifest Himself); then His own arm brought salvation to Him; and His righteousness upheld Him. And He put on righteousness like a breastplate …. Isaiah 59:16–17
He put on righteousness like a breastplate … Paul used this Old Testament Scripture well when he said, “Take the breastplate of righteousness to yourself.” We cover our hearts with His righteousness.
With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:10. The heart must be righteous, for it is deceitful and desperately wicked, the Prophet tells us (Jeremiah 17:9). How can we keep it from the evil of circumstances round about us? We hide it by a breastplate which serves two purposes: it protects from what comes from without, but it also serves as a covering of righteousness over your own being to prevent unrighteousness from coming up and manifesting itself.
We all need to look deeper into our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 tells us, Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. You must have something that keeps your heart and protects you. “Out of your heart are the issues of life”: this is not speaking about the physical organ but of the spiritual significance of the heart. Out of it is the very thing that sustains life.
Let us continue reading in Isaiah. Then His own arm brought salvation to Him; and His righteousness upheld Him. Isaiah 59:16. There is a strength and sustenance to the whole life through His righteousness. It is an upholding thing. “I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10).
Notice this next verse, because it is a significant end-time prophecy: And He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head (Isn’t that the same thing that is quoted in Ephesians 6?
This is speaking of end-time judgments); and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds, so He will repay, wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the coastlands He will make recompense. So they will fear the name of the Lord from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun, for He will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives.
“And a Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” declares the Lord. “And as for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the Lord:
“My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from now and forever.” Isaiah 59:17–21.
Do references in the New Testament which quote Isaiah speak about the end time? Is this armor of the Lord to be a unique thing manifested in the remnant in the last day? Those are good questions. Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. (This identifies it as the end time.) …. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:1, 2, 8. The phraseology is a bit different, but it shows that our faith and love toward God is the basis of His righteousness being imparted to us. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9.
The Old Testament passage is definitely a messianic prophecy concerning the end time. The Lord puts on this breastplate of righteousness and then the garments of vengeance, and He goes to bring judgment upon the earth. We today put on the righteousness of the Lord, the breastplate of righteousness, because it has to keep our hearts in the day of assault and battle that is coming. This is the day of the army of the Lord; this armor is what its soldiers wear. They wear it for defense, but the armor of the Lord has to be remembered in this respect: the army is not a defensive army, it is an aggressive army. We go to win for the Lamb the Kingdom that He won. We possess it for Him. This is our heritage.
As the army of the Lord, we put on armor. Ephesians emphasizes putting on the whole armor of God. You must understand that it is His righteousness, and it is your prerogative to put it on. This is not a righteousness that we manufacture; it is not something that we attain by our efforts or discipline. It is something we acquire by faith. We put it on. How blunt are the words, But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh … Romans 13:14. He becomes our protection. He becomes the aura of immunity round about us. It is a very real thing.
We put on His righteousness. This is the answer for the constant condemnation that you manufacture for yourself, that self-condemnation which wells up. The heart is constantly aware of its problems, and no matter how we try to cover our hearts’ needs, they still seem to sweat through. Have you ever tried to paint a building that had some kind of tar on it? In time the tar sweats through the paint. This happens with the old nature. Anything that is left surfaces. Of course this is good, for God wants us to discover our need, but up comes condemnation. What is the answer for it? that penetrating, beautiful thing, the righteousness of God.
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord our righteousness.’ ” Jeremiah 23:5, 6.
One of the great compound names of Jehovah in the Old Testament is “The Lord Our Righteousness.” Another name of the Lord, Jehovah-Nissi, was given at the battle with Amalek: The Lord Our Banner (Exodus 17:16). Jehovah-Jireh, at the time that the knife was about to be put into little Isaac on Mount Moriah: The Lord will provide (Genesis 22:14). He provides everything.
The Lord is our provision. The Lord is our righteousness. The minute we see this, much of the austerity of God disappears—and yet, there is something frightening as God looks upon us and brings conviction by the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit comes to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment … of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you see Me no more” (John 16:8, 10). He is our righteousness. There is no righteousness apart from the revelation of the Holy Spirit which comes to reveal Jesus as our righteousness.
When He begins to convict us of it, we know what the conviction of the Holy Spirit means. He lays it to us and we feel, “Oh, my uncleanness, my wickedness. The ungodliness of my heart—God, how can You look upon me?” And of course, immediately we are aware that unless we do something, the wrath of God will judge that unrighteousness. It is a terrible thing, like “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God”: “We must not sin! What will happen to us if we sin?” However, we have the counter picture. In His provision, He said, “I will give you My righteousness.” When the Lord looks at your heart, He does not see a heart that is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. It is covered over with a breastplate!
Let us go a step further. We need something in the book of Revelation. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna (this means he must have a high priest’s access to the Holy of Holies, to the Ark of the Covenant. “I will give some of the hidden manna that was hidden away in the golden bowl in the Ark of the Covenant”), And I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it. Revelation 2:17. The white stone probably was a pure diamond. This goes back to the breastplate of the high priest. Twelve stones were on the breastplate, each signifying the ministry of each tribe of Israel and their continual presence as the priest came in and his heart would present all Israel before God.
Now God says that He is going to be our righteousness, our breastplate. But as we enter in, there is just one stone, the beautiful white stone. What is its significance? When we come and stand in His presence, the Lord looks upon us and sees His own righteousness. He looks upon His own purity and covers us in our unworthiness. It is a great defense in battle, because we continually labor with selfcondemnation and a sense of unworthiness.
A process of God’s cleansing is going on all the time. You can stumble around, but God does not abandon you, because even as you stumble and fail, you can come back and say, “Forgive me, Lord,” and you can put on His righteousness. It never ceases to amaze me how much we can fail God and be guilty of eternal damnation, and still come back and plead for mercy and help. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9. He faithfully imparts His very righteousness to us in the midst of all of that. He (the Father) made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
As these lessons on the armor of the Lord imply, can we take His truth to be the protection about our emotions? Can we take His righteousness to cover all our unworthiness and our need? Yes, He has invited us to participate in His attributes. It all begins with a new birth. It all begins by believing in the blood of Jesus Christ which was shed for us and by being born of the Spirit. And as we come in with a new birth it means, then, the prerogative becomes ours. His attributes are available. We can put them on. We can be clothed with them.
The clothing of the Lord has a way that it penetrates. Your clothing does too, whether you realize it or not. Synthetic fabrics are not organic in nature, and many of them will create an allergy. The skin has a quality with which it can reach out and analyze and react to what you wear. You are not an isolated individual as much as you think. And God, realizing that, lays down a principle of the armor of the Lord. Your loins are girded about with truth to protect your emotions, which means that His truth penetrates your emotions. When you put on the breastplate of righteousness, it is not an outward veneer of righteousness; it reaches the heart.
The whole purpose of His being made sin for us was to bring us into a state of the righteousness of God in Him. We become His righteousness. You have to understand that great exchange by which He has worked. First of all, He became sin. … Though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9. Picture a great pulley: He had to come down in order that you could be pulled up. There is no way of reaching it in your own righteousness. You cannot do it, anymore than you can take your own boot straps and set yourself over the fence. You cannot do it; there is not the possible leverage. He is the only one who can do it. It is His righteousness, and He says, “Put on that righteousness! It is the cloak for inadequacy, for sin, for self-condemnation, for all the things that come.”
Do not think for a single minute that Satan, as the accuser of the brethren, does not know this most important weapon. We can intercede for each other day and night, but he is accusing us day and night. The accuser of the brethren is to be cast down in this hour, and he knows his time is short (Revelation 12:10, 12). We are facing the greatest reversal of roles that has ever happened in the spirit realm. We are becoming the accuser instead of the accused! We read in Revelation 19:11 where He comes, and in righteousness He makes war. Oh, the great victories that will come. In His righteousness we will prevail over the enemy. Satan, who comes to accuse us of being sinful, now is cast down from a place of accusing. For the Lord has justified us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31)? And we become the judge of principalities and powers; we become the accuser and the executor in the spirit realm! When we see this, it changes the whole role, and we should never accept battle or defeat for a single moment.
What is the Accuser’s argument? That you stumbled and fell? It was your problem, but when you repent, God blots it out; He puts His righteousness over the whole thing. Satan cannot accuse you then; God has justified you. God has made you righteous. He even goes to the extent of making you His righteousness! You are not only to take on His attributes, you are to become one of His attributes! Throughout all of the ages of eternity you will be an exhibition of God (Ephesians 2:7), in every way conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). This is the future, and this is what He is doing now. Don’t wait for the sweet by-and-by; accept it now as a valid thing that is taking place.
We must get rid of self-condemnation. The torment of the enemy has to be broken. If you are battling it, look to the Lord and say, “Lord, forgive me of my sin. By the blood of Jesus Christ, cleanse me; forgive me where I have failed. I come to you, Lord Jesus, because I want to serve you. I want to be holy; I want to be righteous in You. I know my need and I lay it before You. Lord, You love me; I accept that love, and I want to love and serve You with all of my heart.
“Forgive me, Lord; cleanse me now, and by faith I reach in to take the breastplate of righteousness. I am not going to stand condemned, I am not going to listen to the lie of the Accuser, I am going to be free. I am going to stand in the purity of Jesus Christ. I am going to walk in Your precious blood, in Your way. I shall not manifest the old nature, but I shall come forth in the new nature, exhibiting the very nature of the Lord. I claim it now; You have made me free. I shall think free, I shall walk free in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Take the breastplate of righteousness. Just put it on. Believe God to receive it, and accept it in the name of the Lord Jesus. As you reach in, one verse will help you—Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6. The intensity of that cannot be eliminated. You cannot carelessly say, “Give me Your righteousness, Lord.” This tremendous transaction requires a focus of spirit, soul, and body: your spiritual focus, your emotional focus, your mental focus hungering for it.
You need to apply the whole of righteousness. You become righteous in spirit by a new birth. Your soul life has to be sanctified, which is His righteousness applied. Even in your body, you are aware how forceful are its basic instincts and drives. Either they will predominate in your life, or you will believe for His righteousness to take over until His word and His righteousness are written on your heart, and you will as instinctively respond to righteousness as once you instinctively responded to the flesh. So, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.