Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He began asking His disciples, saying, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjonas, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, (the Greek word is petros, which means a stone) and upon this rock (petra, a large rock or a strata of rock; a bedrock) I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth (notice the tense correctly here) shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:13–19.
That does not mean that we bind it and then God binds it; when we bind anything on earth, we are executing a provision that has already been made.
From that time Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Matthew 16:21–23.
The bedrock upon which God builds the Church is the revelation the Father brings to us of Jesus Christ. Sermons do not convince us; it’s only by revelation from God that we know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. The world’s religions have been built on philosophies of man, but this walk is built upon a revelation of God, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This will be the greatest move in the Church in all history because it’s based more on a revelation from God than anything that has existed since the early Church. Because God reveals it, the gates of hell won’t prevail against it.
We must be sure that we don’t confuse revelation with opinion. When Jesus told His disciples, “I shall be killed, but I’ll be raised up the third day,” Peter said, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” The Father didn’t reveal that to him; Peter’s objection to it came from himself. All of our confusion comes from not knowing the difference between what God has revealed to us and how our wishful thinking would like to see things turn out. Our Pollyanna complex always wants to see everything turn out well and everyone live happily ever after, but the Bible is a book of trials. The stoning of Stephen was the trial of his life. James, one of the inner three, was seized by Herod and slain. We may think this was a waste, an apostle being destroyed, but God had given a word and a plan of action. We can follow His word and have success, or we can read into it a lot of our own wishful thinking about what we want and get a rebuke from the Lord for it.
“Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.” And six days later Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here (sacred tents of booths like those built at the Feast of Tabernacles), one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them (the Shechinah glory); and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased: hear Him!” And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were much afraid. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus Himself alone.
And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.” And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you, that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.” Matthew 16:28; 17:13.
That was an exciting time to be alive. Imagine going up on a mountain and seeing Moses and Elijah, seeing Jesus transfigured, His face shining as the sun and His garments glistening. This happened before His death and resurrection, so He was still in His human body, not in a glorified state. He had a human existence at that time the same as you have now. The disciples saw the glory and a brilliant beautiful cloud overshadowing Him. James and John, who were first the disciples of John the Baptist, were probably startled to realize that they had walked with Elijah. “Elijah came and they did to him whatever they pleased.” It is a fact; that was Elijah.
Elijah is to come to restore all things, and he didn’t restore all things then. He only came preparing a way in the wilderness to make ready the way of the Lord (John 1:23). The restoration is to be completed by the personal return of Elijah before the second coming of Jesus Christ in His full distinct manifestation (Malachi 4:5), not in His Body, but in like manner as they had seen Him go away. Do you think we might be visited by Elijah? Do you think it’s possible that, before the great coming of the Lord in the first resurrection, some of us, like Jesus would know moments of transfiguration and glory? Peter writes in his epistles, “We were eyewitnesses of His coming, (of His Parousia) and of His Kingdom. When we were all on the mount with Him we had a sample” (II Peter 1:16–18).
In the days of the early church, Jesus appeared even after His resurrection by many infallible proofs: He appeared to the disciples when all the doors were closed; He ate a piece of fish with them for breakfast at the seashore; He ascended into a cloud. We know He’s coming again and we quote quite frequently, “Every eye shall see Him,” but the Word not only talks about his coming, but also about His appearing. We are even given warning, concerning His appearances, that if people say, “Lo, He is in the desert; lo, He is in the inner chamber,” we are not to go (Matthew 24:26). We don’t have to run around trying to find the Lord; He knows where we are.
And every one who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself… I John 3:3. Unto them that look for Him, He shall appear a second time without sin unto salvation (Hebrews 9:28). Look for Him. Keep watching. There are many references in the New Testament to the end-time appearances of Christ. The Lord will take a more active directorship over His many-membered Body, and just as He came to Saul of Tarsus, He will appear to commission apostles and prophets today. Think what it will be like for the Lord to stand before you and say, “Now, this is what you’re to do.” We shall hear His voice the same as we hear the voice of the Spirit now. Will it tax our faith to believe that, instead of through prophecies, the Lord Himself might stand here and direct us? What can we anticipate for the days ahead?
Jesus said that it was expedient for us that He go away, for the many-membered Body would do greater works than He did. Do we want just enough to bless us and lift us up, or would we really like to see the curtains pulled on the reality in the Spirit? Would we like to see the angels ministering and the demons fleeing? In a time of battle when his servant was afraid, Elisha said, “Open the young man’s eyes, that he may see, Lord,” and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire (II Kings 6:17). Can we believe for the same thing? Are we just a hop, skip and a jump ahead of the people who try to explain away all of the miracles and still say they believe, or do we really dare to anticipate and believe for anything that happened in the Bible days?
The book of Daniel speaks of the seventy weeks decreed for Israel, how that the Messiah would come and put an end to sin and make an atonement for the transgression of His people; and in the midst of the week He’d be cut off (Daniel 9:24–26). The book of Revelation shows the real picture of what Daniel was trying to portray. Such phrases as: forty and two months, a time, times, and a half a time, and three and a half years, were referring to half of one of those weeks of years. In the midst of it, in three and a half years, Jesus had completed the ministry, but sometime, in a many-membered Body, He is to pick up three and a half more years of ministry to the world. The prophecies about the Messiah spoke of His judgments upon the earth, the day of vengeance of our God (Isaiah 61:2), and the day of the Lord that cometh as a day of dark clouds (Joel 2:1–2). Christ will bring this to pass in three and a half years of ministry through the many-membered Body He is raising up in the end time for this purpose. Do you anticipate being the voice of God in the end time? Can you anticipate what God wants to do through you?
When will that three and a half years start? It could start at any time. When should it begin? Jesus was crucified at the time of the Passover, and about half a year later than that would be the beginning of a new year. The first three and a half years of Christ’s ministry began at about the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. God could pick it up and finish another three and a half years at any time. We should begin to cry unto the Lord for even greater signs and wonders and days of exploits, greater works than those the Lord did. What we have is not enough!
We are looking for a dispensational breakthrough, like the slamming of one door and opening another; now is the hour for something to happen. All the fabric work, all the principalities and powers have held the age intact to a certain order, frozen in a pattern which shifts a little now and then, but not enough.
O Lord, rend the heavens and come down; touch the mountains that they smoke (Isaiah 64:1). Another age needs to break open. The churches being built now are not following the pattern to come. Something must happen so that people come into the walk in abject, absolute submission to Jesus Christ as Lord. Churches must come forth as the Body, being shaken and coming together, not by building a kingdom or the extension of this church, but the Kingdom of the Lord.
Would we be ready for a bright cloud, the Shechinah glory, to come and settle on us as it did on the mountain when the disciples saw what had been real to them in the stories of the prophets?
What can we believe to see? We are living in the decade in which more people will be raised from the dead than since the dawn of the world, since before the first resurrection. We’ll see more true prophets arise than those who have existed through all of the ages. All of the prophets and schools of prophets put together will not equal either in number or in force the prophets that God will raise up in our time. In this day, there will be more miracles done in any corner of the earth than are recorded in the whole of the Bible. There will be more signs and wonders and acts of judgment done in any nation than in all of the recorded acts of judgment, and they will come forth from Christ ministering through a many-membered Body. The fear of the Lord will return to this generation. This sarcastic, irreverent generation will know more of the fear of God than any generation that has ever lived on the earth. We must anticipate and prepare for something beyond what we have ever allowed our minds to imagine.
Take the walls down. Think larger and vaster thoughts; think God’s thoughts. God is stirring Himself like a man of war. He will go out before His many-membered Body and the terror of the Lord and His mercies will be in the earth, a mixture of the rain and judgment. We must shake off our limitations and come to the place where we really believe in the unlimited grace of God. The moon will be turned into blood and the sun will be darkened (Joel 2:31). There will be signs in the heavens above until men’s hearts will fail them; thousands of people will drop dead when they see these things; yet we still have the word, “Don’t be troubled, for your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). I believe we will walk through the most tremendous display of divine power, the most terrorizing things ever seen, within this decade. What a day to live for God!
Year after year, God’s people have been conditioned to believe for more. The veil of our unbelief is being lifted. Can you understand now why Jesus said, “When the Son of Man cometh, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). What tests God puts on His people to believe! The one thing we work at simultaneously is to believe and to be submissive. Satan tries to make us rebel, because that’s the key of all that he is bringing forth. He’s working in the hearts of the younger generation all over the world to make them rebel. It is the “in” thing to be rebellious by the world’s viewpoint. Though Satan is conditioning the minds of people to make a faith out of unbelief, we shall stand against the tide of rebellion and unbelief and please God by being submissive to the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall be His believers, those who believe Him with all of our hearts.
This is the day that the Lord would have thy heart filled with joy, overflowing in the rejoicing of the Lord. Is this not the fruit of the Holy Spirit? Is this not what shall spring forth out of the wellspring of thy heart, even the joy of the Holy Spirit? Yea, this is what the Kingdom of God is, not meat and drink, but righteousness and joy and peace in the
Holy Spirit. Thou shalt open thy heart to rejoice, for the promises of God are thine. Thou shalt not rejoice in what thou seest, but in what the Lord hath declared, for that is the reality thy heart shall rejoice in.
This is the day of rejoicing, it’s the day of joy, it’s the day of preparing thy heart for the things that shall break, week after week. Prepare thy heart, yes, even with fasting, with mourning, with repenting, but always with an undernote of joy, as thou art not a people begging, but a people who are appropriating. It shall be in thy heart that thou art not coming wishing for a blessing, but thou art laying hold upon that which hath been freely bestowed upon thee in the name of the Lord. Is this not what intercession is? We intercede, not to overcome God’s reluctance, but to lay hold upon His fullness that is so willingly given. In the name of the Lord let there be rejoicing in the house of the Lord.
“Yea, it hath been written in the Word of the Lord that instead of their shame they shall have double, and instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their portion. Thou shalt rejoice in this, O house of the Lord, that thy God bringeth upon thee a double portion. Yea, if there hath been that which hath come, even the canker-worms and the palmer-worms that strip away the vineyard of the Lord, know ye this, that in this hour the Lord shall restore unto thee the years that the locust and the canker-worm hath eaten. He shall draw out upon thee a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and thou shalt be quenched before thy God. Thou shalt take heed to come before Him, yea, thou shalt be afflicted with mourning and cry unto the Lord, for in this thou shalt enlarge thy capacity that thou mayest be filled with His joy.”
“Let there be great anticipation in the house of the Lord concerning the word and the promises that have been spoken unto thy spirit and engraven upon thine heart. Thou art a people who shall rejoice because thou art rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him. For it is in hope that we have been saved, but why does one hope for that which he sees? The Lord hath caused by His Spirit the birth of hope and joy to be in the saints of God, and it is by the spirit of hope, it is by the spirit of joy that the Lord shall give birth to a new age that shall dawn upon the hearts of men.”
“Hath the Lord not said unto thee, O house of God, that ye shall be filled with those that shall be skilled in prophesying the word of the Lord and in singing the songs of God? It is for this reason, as thou shalt sing out of the fullness of thy cup and heart, thy joy shall overflow. It shall cause the vision to be born in the hearts of men. Yea, it shall be the thing that shall smite the chains and cause them to lie at the ground. Rejoice in the goodness of the Lord, for it is thy portion.”