Created according to the pattern

David writes in Psalm 139: 15-16: "My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
[16] Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."

“Your book of DNA is made up of 46 chromosomes and it wasn’t a mistake that God hung 46 boards around the tabernacle Moses built,” explains Preacher Richard Jordan. “God knew something about how you were made in secret when He first made you and you’re literally built in a way that demonstrates who He is.

“DNA is literally a book written in the nucleus of your cell. Your cell has a cell membrane around it. It has a gate that comes in. It has an altar to burn. The reason you’ve got 98.6 temperature today is that cell burns glucose. You’ve got a part of that cell that burns sugar; that makes energy in that nucleus. The cytoplasm floats around out here.

"The more you study that the tabernacle has a gate, and only the right people got in and the wrong people were kept out . . . you’ve got a gatekeeper called insulin that lets the right amount of sugar in.

“By the way, in that Ark were three things: the tablets, and then later on, as the Bible began to be written, the book was in there, and there was a pot of manna and ‘Aaron’s rod that buddeth.’

"Now, you remember how manna was given to Israel? Every day. They were told, ‘Get just what you’re going to need for today, because if you get too much it’s going to breed worms and stink.’ So they went out and got their daily bread. On Friday, they could collect enough for Saturday because that was the Sabbath and no work was permitted.

“In the Ark, the pot of manna didn’t rot. That’s a picture of the fact God’s going to preserve Israel. Malachi 3:6 says He has provisions for their preservation. Then there’s Aaron’s rod that buddeth. There’s an old dead stick that sprang forth into life. And even though Israel becomes a nation that’s scattered among the nations and becomes dead, God’s going to resurrect them back to life.

“They have all that message in those symbols in that Ark. But the book had everything in it that God ever was going to do and that book, eventually, became that Book you have in your lap.

“So the whole thing is designed to demonstrate the connection, the fitting together of what God’s doing. Because when God created things, He just kept creating according to the pattern. In Genesis 1:2, when ‘the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,’ what happened? ‘[3] And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.’

“When God’s Spirit wants to work, He uses His tongue. He speaks. His Word is what works. And the connection in your Bible, everything that is created has a common connection to the Word of God. That’s what I’m trying to get across, okay?

“EVERYTHING is going to be connected. Just like everything in you starts in that DNA book, everything God does He’s put together in a Book for you to understand.

“By the way, if you look in Genesis 2:23-24, Adam says, ‘This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh,’ and the rib is taken out of him. I won’t swear to this in court, but that’s a woman’s DNA and that’s the man’s. What’s missing? A rib. I’m just making the point.

“God brings Eve to Adam. You know, ‘Hey babe, where you been all my life?! Woah, I never saw anything like you!’ and he’s all excited and says, ‘She’s mine; she shall be called Woman,’ because she’s the only woman in the world for me!’ No, it says, ‘Because she was taken out of Man.’

“Verse 24 says, [24] Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Now, if you just happened to count the words in verse 23 and 24 that Adam actually spoke, do you know how many words you would come up with? 46.

*****

“In that tabernacle is a lamp stand, a center piece, and then a bowl for a flame and three arms that go out from each side. Three on one side and three on the other and with each one of these are a set of decorations. There’s a bowl, a knop and a flower. The bowl is where the flame is, the knop is a little doo-dad and then the flower is an almond. Those three decorations are on each of these.

“So there’s three here, here and here, on each side. Three times nine is 27. How many books in your New Testament? So now there’s 27 times two because there’s two sets of them and that’s 54. And then on the main stem there are 12. Sixty-six decorations on the source of light in the ‘holy place.’

“Exodus 25:32-33: [32] And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: [33] Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick.

“You’ve got these decorations. There’s a bowl, a bowl and a bowl. They are going to come up in the candlesticks as they go through there. So if there are 3, 6, 9 bowls, that’s 18. In the middle one, in verse 34, it says, [34] And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

“If you add 18 and four what do you get? 22. In your Bible, 22 is the number associated with light; with revelation. For example, the word Light. John 8:12 says, ‘I am the Light of the world.’ Do you know how many times the word ‘light’ appears in the Book of John? 22 times.

“The first perfect number in the Bible is three. What’s three times 22? 66. That’s just a fascinating thing. Because where does light come from? Out of the Bible.

*****

“Think of 22. The first chapter 22 in the Bible, and one of the ways to figure out what numbers mean in the Bible, just go back to Genesis and each chapter, there are 50 chapters, and you can take that number of the chapter and study it and find out some things about what’s associated with that number.

“In Genesis 22, you have the first real full picture of the Crosswork of Christ. Abraham takes Isaac up on the mount to sacrifice him and he says, ‘We’re going to come back,’ and Hebrews says he ‘received him as from the dead.’

“Psalm 22 is a prophetic picture. It starts out, [1] My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

“That’s a quote from Jesus on the Cross. That’s what’s in His mind as He dies. How many chapters in the Book of Revelation? There’s revelation associated with that number 22. Come with me to John 19.

“Do you know how many bones are in a human skull? 22. John 19:17: [17] And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:

“Where was He crucified? Right where Genesis 22 and Psalm 22 talk about Him being crucified, the place of a skull. The place of yours and my deadly thinking. He goes and takes the curse.

“By the way, if you go back to Genesis 3 you see Satan says to Eve, ‘Yeah, hath God said?’ If you go down through those first six verses and you take just the words Satan speaks in that passage, you know how many words there are in a King James Bible? 46.

“You understand, folks, sin has been imprinted into your nature that you got from Adam. And it has to do with some rebellion connected with some words that God spoke and that the Adversary spoke, and you carry them forward as you’re made in the image of Adam and that’s why we looked at Genesis 5, ‘the book of the generation of Adam.’

“What do the first four letters in the word Genesis spell? There’s a connection to the genetic structure you received from Adam. What does everybody in Adam’s genealogy do? They die, die, die. Adam died at 931 years.

“You remember what the 931^st chapter of the Bible was? The Book of Matthew. When you start in chapter 1 of Matthew, it says, ‘The book of the generation of Jesus Christ.’ And what does everybody in His generation do? They begat, begat, begat. They gave life. You see you needed a new book so God gave us a new book because He was going to give us a new body with a whole new structure of ALL of that.

*****

“When you come to the issue of the skull, we’re ready to talk about Ephesians 4:16 because Paul says Christ is the head ‘from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.’

“None of this works if you take a piece of it out. Every joint supplies to it. Your joints are part of the bone structure of your body.

“II Samuel 5 gives an illustration about the bones. Verse 1 says, ‘Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.’

“They’re going to come and make David their king. Saul’s dead and they come to David and speak, saying, ‘Behold we are thy bone and thy flesh.’ Verse 2 says, [2] Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel.

“The illustration of the reality of how the Body of Christ functions is that we’re bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh. He’s the source of the information and we’re the body that carries out the information.

“Ephesians 5:30-32 says, [30] For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
[31] For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
[32] This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church..

“The only way that ‘one flesh’ happens is when those 23 and 23 chromosomes come together and form that new life; that new one flesh.

“If you want to think about what bones do in the Bible just look up the word ‘bones’ in the Bible and study them. II Kings 13:20-21 says, [20] And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year.
[21] And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.

“This dead dude touches Elisha’s bone; Elisha’s dead, his body’s gone, and he touches his bones and he comes back to life! In your Bible, bones can give life to people and they do. If you go to Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones, verse 5 says, [5] Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:

“They can come back together. You know that Southern spiritual song, ‘Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,’ is this passage here and that’s where ‘the neck bone connected to the head bone,’ and all that stuff comes from. I know, you thought that was about a BBQ place but it wasn’t. It’s about God putting Israel back together.

“We looked at the backbone of the bible. How many bones in a human spine? 33. It holds your body together. There’s a bundle of nerves that come out each side of that vertebrae.

"You know how your head communicates with all the members of your body? Through that nervous system. Thirty-three vertebrae that connects two sides like that. What’s two times 33? You’ve got 66 communication systems from your head to communicate with your body.”

(to be continued)

Tabernacle study unveils untold dimensions

God’s original intention was to dwell with man in His Creation and then sin threw a monkey wrench into the plan.

“The great issue in the universe all along has been God dwelling in His creation and sharing His life with His creation," says Jordan. "The tabernacle God gave Israel is a foreshadowing of that. As the verse says, ‘The Lord chose Zion and desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever; here will I dwell for I have desired it.’

“His intention is to put His throne in the city of Jerusalem on the hill of Zion; that special place in Jerusalem that was the dearest to David’s heart.

“The tabernacle, built by Moses, is a picture of the first coming of Christ and the temple, built by Solomon, is a picture of the Second Coming of Christ.

“The tabernacle was a temporary structure--made to be moved from place to place—but the temple was a permanent place built in the city of the great king, Jerusalem. Moses is the prophet who builds the tabernacle and it’s the king who builds the temple.

“The temple is the second meeting place; the tabernacle’s the first. The temple was renowned for its glory, majesty and beauty; it was like the city on the hill. People would come and marvel at its majesty.

“The tabernacle was just the opposite. It wasn’t built in the city; it was built for life in the wilderness. Not life in the kingdom reign of glory, but in the wilderness of nomad life. It was humble and unattractive in its outward appearance.

“When you walked up on the tabernacle, what you saw was a funny-looking wall made out of boards and skins and post. It was not outwardly attractive.

“What does Isaiah say about Christ in His first coming? ‘There was no comeliness about him.’ He was a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief.

“The tabernacle was a place where God’s majesty dwelt but it was veiled behind the skins of that building. I keep emphasizing that the building was made out of badger skins and goat skins and all kind of skins. Well, where does God put His life? If He puts it in you, where does He put it? He puts it in a body of flesh. That’s the idea back there.

*****

“God gives Moses the dimensions of the tabernacle. It’s going to be a tent and there’s going to be an opening and an altar and then there’s a laver to wash. Then there’s another little building inside, and in that is the table of shewbread and the altar of incense and the candlestick.

“After you get saved and have forgiveness of all of your failures and your guilt and shame for all the things you’ve done, you begin to walk and discover that you still have stuff inside you that seeks to manipulate you.

"God takes that righteousness that you have and brings it into your life and how does He do it? The priest goes in and lights the candle. That’s the light of the Spirit of God working. The oil that lights up, it shows light on the table. What’s on that table? That table is the table of shewbread.

“They had six loaves of bread in one column and six loaves of bread in another. Six plus six because there’s provision for the whole; every tribe in the nation Israel. But when you see 66, what have you got? You ever count the number of books in your Bible?

“Now how in the world, before Moses ever wrote a book in the Bible, did he know how to lay out the number of books on the shewbread?! Well, Moses didn’t, but God did! Amen, amen, amen! This kind of stuff makes me want to turn into a Pentecostal for a morning.

“The Word of God is the bread of life. He puts light on there and when the Spirit of God works in your life through the Word of God, the altar of incense is prayer. Prayer is like the breath of your new nature. The Word of God is like the food of your new nature. Prayer is simply talking to God about the light His Word puts upon the details of life.

*****

“You and I often forget that the footprint of Adam’s sin resides in us and it distorts us. We’re born with it. God didn’t make you that way. Sin did. People excuse their sin, saying, ‘Well, I was born this way!’ Yeah, but it isn’t the way God intended for you to be born. You’re born that way because of Adam’s sin. It puts a fingerprint on you.

“That’s why this whole tabernacle is housed in boards. You remember how many boards there were? Twenty boards on one side, twenty boards on the other and then another six boards. What’s 20 + 20 + 6? There are 46 boards that make up the structure of this little tent that hold the linen that make the wall. They’re made of shittim wood, which is the Hebrew word for what we call acacia wood today. That is, it’s a thorn bush.

“Thorns in the Bible are associated with a curse. Genesis 3. God says, ‘I’m going to make my house inside of some walls made out of a curse.’ Now, the way you hang those boards up with the sockets and stuff, you’re to have silver sockets. Silver in the Bible is a picture of redemption. Are you beginning to get the picture?

“You know where God lives in you? He lives inside of a house. You’ve got an old sin nature. That ‘body of sin,’ as Paul calls it. And He lives inside of your body.

“By the way, the altar and the Ark of the Covenant is also made out of that cursed tree. The difference is that inside the tabernacle, the shittim wood on the altar is covered with brass, which is a symbol of judgment in the Bible. God has judged our sins at the Cross of Christ and put us inside the protective covering. Your life is hid with Christ in God.

“Then when you get into where the ‘mercy seat’ is, where the Ark is, that little box in the most holy place, it’s made of the same shittim wood that that altar is made out of.

"The altar is covered with brass and the Ark is covered with gold; a picture of the deity of Christ. Do you know how God sees you? He’s accepted you in the Beloved. There’s not a precious metal more beloved than gold. But there you are, covered with Him!

*****

“When God saw the altar, He didn’t see the shittim wood; He saw brass. When He looked down from between the cherubim on the ‘mercy seat’ He saw the gold and He also saw the blood that came off of that altar. And because of that judgment that Jesus Christ suffered at Calvary for your sins, God can reside, look down and see you in His Son.

“The outside walls are made of 46 boards. Because this tabernacle is not simply a picture of redemption, God’s conquest over sin—actual sin, indwelling sin and original sin . . . It’s not just a picture of man—our body, our soul and our spirit—it’s also, literally, a picture of the cellular structure whereby He made you! Because as you sit here right now, you originally started as one cell.

“Do you know we all started as a female? There’s the egg and then it’s fertilized. When they’re 23 chromosomes from mom and 23 chromosomes from dad joined together, it creates a cell, a little zygote, that’s you and everything you are. How you look, all about you, was all in that original cell. We now know it was all in what we call DNA, and in those 46 bundles of chromosome pairs that make up you, everything that you are is there.

“David says in Psalm 139:15, ‘My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.’

“That’s talking about when God made Adam, He made him out of the dust of the earth. Genesis 2:7 says, [7] And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

“He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Adam BECAME a living soul. David says in verse 16, ‘Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.’

“That’s describing the development that takes place in every person from the time you are conceived to the time you get to be an adult. There’s a book of DNA written in every one of us. DNA is literally a book written in the nucleus of your cell.”

(to be continued)

Danger in form over function

Someone just informed me they were thinking of changing churches after attending this past Sunday’s main service and finding the sanctuary had been converted into a theater-style venue where they removed all the old wooden pews equipped with Bible racks and holes for the communion cups. All that was left were fancy new reclining seats.

This person’s church is one of a group of five churches under the name The Orchard. The preacher, Colin Smith, is actually at another location and his sermons are pumped live over a jumbo-tron screen at the front.

In an official Orchard FAQ I found on the internet, the question was asked, “Why renovate the Arlington Heights Campus?”

The answer: “To thrive in the next chapter of The Orchard’s history we need the Arlington Heights Campus to be a vibrant, growing and sending campus. Turning the 45-year-old Arlington Heights facility into a 21^st century campus is a key step to position us for growth. We believe an interior renovation will benefit our entire multi-site church and help us advance our mission.”

*****

The Apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 3:9, [9] For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

“People get all caught up in the form, but it’s each of us who are the issue,” explains Preacher Richard Jordan in an old study. “Having or not having a building isn’t the issue. Having said that, you’ve got to be careful because the building can get to be a problem. You can make a god out of it. You can make an issue out of it.

“There’s a real strange little verse at the end of Hosea 8. He says, ‘For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples.’

“Do you know one of the most dangerous things a group of God’s people ever go through is a building program? I’ve seen it happen over and over where the building gets to be the issue.

"The first church I was ever in as a lad, I saw it split in half over the color of the new drapes to put on the back of the choir loft. Some wanted burgundy and some wanted lavender and the group that won stayed and the group that lost left. I would have just left them down. I thought the wall looked pretty good myself, but what does a kid know?

“Let the doctrine be the issue. You see, if the Adversary can get your eyes off the Lord and who you are in Christ, you know where your eyes go? To things. Israel has forsaken her Maker. It didn’t say they went out and built a tavern; it says they went and built a church building.

“There’s many a minister and church today shackled with bond programs, debt programs, mortgages and payments that have to be made on buildings they built as monuments to the pride and arrogance of a program, rather than because they needed a place to house the work of God and make it work smoothly.

“With many a ministry, I’ve sat at tables with pastors who said, ‘I’d love to preach what you’re telling me but I can’t.’ I say why? They answer, ‘Because we’ve got bills to pay.’

“Somebody asked me this morning, they said, ‘Boy, after you so clearly explain some of these truths, why is it that people don’t see it?’ There’s one of two reasons. Ignorance--and after they’ve heard it they can’t be ignorant--or willful unbelief.

"A lot of times willful unbelief doesn’t come just from hearts of wicked rebellion. It just comes from a man saying, ‘Well, okay, but I’m going to build a temple.’ You got to be careful!

“The building is a wonderful asset that gives stability to a work. I appreciate that. I thank God for the people who made the sacrifices to provide a place like this that we can come along and enjoy the fruits of their labors. But the issue is the work that goes on in the hearts of people and not the building.

*****

“I got a letter from a lady this past week who asked me, ‘I understand that you’re pastoring the congregation that’s left of the old North Shore Church. I heard it closed up?’

“You know what I do? I write people back and say, ‘North Shore Church didn’t close up. Norwood Bible Church didn’t close up.’ That aggravates me when people do that. That’s like, ‘You just threw in the towel and quit.’ They didn’t quit. Have you quit? I haven’t quit. Here we are! They say, ‘No, no, no; ya’ll are Shorewood.’ Well, where do you think we got that name?! That’s part of one, part of the other.

“I mean, the building isn’t the issue unless you don’t understand. Or unless you forget. There’s always somebody who’s going to point to the form and the structure as if the form and the structure were the answer. Function is the issue.

“Spiritual organization in Paul’s epistles is you get the life and the ministry of the Body of Christ functioning,  with the doctrine working in people and those people want to gather. They want to have a steady thing, they want to reach others, they want to bring others in, and this life begins to go and so you put a structure around it to make the life function smoothly.

“If the group wants to get together, you’re going to have some form. You have to have a place to meet. We’ll never get together if we don’t decide where we’re going to get together at. That’s called organization. You’re going to have to have a time to meet, too.

“There’s these natural things so that everybody shows up at the same place at the same time. The form follows the functioning of the life. When you make it a religion is when you do it the other way and you’ll never get rid of that danger.

“The answer is not the form; the answer is the functioning of the sound doctrine in the Believers being carried on, and if the sound doctrine is working in the Believers and the life of Christ is working in the group, it doesn’t make any difference where you meet.”

Advice that will transform your life

One of the most impactful messages Paul could ever impress upon a Believer to fully internalize and make real is in Romans 12:2: [2] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

“In order to renew your mind, you need to replace the worthless inferior thinking of human viewpoint with this NEW way of thinking that comes from God’s Word,” explains Preacher Richard Jordan. “You see, God giving you His Word is Him giving you His thinking. You literally have the divine viewpoint about issues.

“If you take Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3, you can find in those three chapters at least one if not a half-dozen answers for every question you’re asking yourself. Every problem you face, you’ll find the beginning--if not the complete--set of instructions for you to follow.

“Those chapters will give you specific things to do and you’ll discover in them the answers for every situation. You know how I know that? For 50 years I’ve been reading those passages for that reason. I’m giving you a quick shortcut!

"I’m telling you about all this because I’ve already located these passages and found them to be a great source of instruction. You’re getting my ability to help you out a little bit.

“When you renew your mind, it transforms you. Let me show you what happens when you don’t renew your mind. Galatians 2:18-19: [18] For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
[19] For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

“What did Paul destroy? God literally rendered inoperative the former program and then He built the grace program. Paul said, ‘If I go back there and reestablish the law system as the way I’m going to work, and I put myself under the law--that system of Israel’s that I brought you out from under to put you in grace--I make myself a transgressor.’

"What does the law do? It says you’re a sinner. I want to show you him doing that. In Romans 6 you’re dead to sin and alive to god. In Romans 7:4-6, you’re dead to the law and alive to Christ; this NEW way. Romans 7:6 says, [6] But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

“Then Paul talks about letting the law talk to him and what does the law tell him? 'You’re a sinner.' He actually says in verse 14, ‘For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.’

“Now, wait a minute, is that who he really is?! What in the world is he doing saying this?! He’s misidentifying himself. You know what he’s doing? He’s building again that which he destroyed! He’s building the law system as a way of thinking, and when he built that law system up as a way of thinking, what did it do? It destroyed his ability to walk in the identity that God gave him in Christ.

“Now, how do you get out of that? You’ve got to renew your mind back to grace. The last verse in Romans 7 tells you how he got out of it when he says, ‘[25] I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.’

“Renewing your mind has to do with focusing on who God’s made you in Christ. When you do that, here’s what happens. I Thessalonians 2:13 says, [13] For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

“To be transformed, that is, there’s something inside of you which comes out. Jesus went up on the mount of transfiguration and who He was inside shined out of Him and that’s that word ‘transformed.’

“By the way, I’m always interested in that ‘to will is present but how to perform.’ How do you do this, Paul? Well, that’s what he said in Romans 7:18: 'For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.'

“He said, 'I want to do, to will is present with me, but I can’t figure out how to do it.' Then he gets over to chapter 12 and he says, ‘You know how you do it? Be not conformed.’ You’re transformed by the renewing of your mind.

“What is it about that? It’s the doctrine renewing, causing you to think like God thinks. The life of Christ is in that doctrine. Jesus said, ‘The words is speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.’

“Paul says in Ephesians 3:16, ‘That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.’

“Who wrote the Word of God? The Spirit of God. You know how the Spirit of God works? In the song, “Blessed Assurance,” it says, ‘Angels descending, bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love,’ but we say, ‘We don’t believe that!’

“We don’t have any angels descending, bringing from above echoes of mercy. Where do you get the echoes of mercy, whispers of love? It’s in the Book sitting in front of you! You don’t have an angel descending, bringing you that. God the Holy Ghost wrote about it and preserved it through history and has got it sitting for you in your own language in your lap. You’re not living some experience; you’ve got it already!

“You see, you’ve got the information, and when you believe it, it becomes the energy and the life and the transforming power down in your soul that His life then works out through you.

“You go back to Romans 12:2 and you see the purpose for the renewed mind is that ‘we may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’ The purpose of the renewed mind is so you can properly evaluate life and determine in the details of your life what it is God would have you to do.”

*****

Here’s a passage from an old blog entry:

Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Jordan explains, “That’s saying, ‘I’m not going to let the world decide how I’m going to live.' All the things of the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. That’s what got Adam and Eve . . .  those are the avenues the devil tried to tempt Jesus with . . .

“The lust of the flesh is the issue of pleasure. ‘I want to have my desires to feel; I want to be happy. I want to gratify my desires. I want to be pleased.’

“The lust of the eyes. That’s, ‘I want to have things.’ It’s the issue of security, control. The pride of life is that super-charged passion to BE somebody; for significance, for status, for superiority.

“All those things that drive us, they are the things that carry on ‘the course of this world.’ Paul said, ‘I’m not going to let those things decide for me! That isn’t how my value system’s going to work! Because of who I am in Christ, I’m not going to live like I’m not who I am!’

“ ‘The transforming of your mind.’ You see, it’s really a battle for your mind. And if you’re going to be surrendered to God, then the next thing is you’re going to be separated from the values of the world and separated unto the way God looks at things. And I’m going to let His thinking become my thinking."

Supreme song in Psalm 45

Psalm 45 is a classic psalm written for the “head choir director,” hence its heading: “To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, Maschil. A Song of Loves.”

As Jordan explains, “This psalm wasn’t written just for anybody; it’s written for the Top Guy. That term Maschil, meaning to teach or to educate, tells you this psalm is designed not just to encourage or give comfort, but for its teaching and edification purposes.

“There are actually three of these kinds of psalms. One is Isaiah 5:1: ‘Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:’

“In other words, this is a love song that God sings with regard to, and concerning His purpose, for the nation Israel. The vineyard here is the nation Israel. Verse 7 says, ‘For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel.’

“The Song of Solomon begins, ‘The song of songs, which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.'

“When it says ‘the song of songs,’ this means it’s the top, most important--BINGO! The Supreme Song. The song of all the songs of Solomon and, of course, it’s a song about the little flock’s loyalty to her beloved and her resistance to the seduction policy of the Adversary to draw her away from her husband.

“Psalm 45 is the third psalm of its kind. These psalms are designed to demonstrate the purpose God has in the nation Israel and the special love relationship and manifestation of His love in relationship for them.

“Psalm 42 begins the second book of the Psalms (indicated by a double ‘Amen’ preceding it) and deals with the Messiah as Israel’s Deliverer. The first set of the Psalms deals with Israel’s Redeemer.

“Psalm 42-44 talks about the need for Israel to have a Deliverer, and literally the songs are praying and seeking for and panting after, as Psalm 42 says, a Deliverer.

“So in Psalm 45, here comes the King! It’s, ‘The Deliverer is here!’ and if you wanted a title to the psalm, some people call it the 'Marriage Psalm.’

“The kingdom is ready to be established, and what you have here is the song that is sung after the king sets himself up as king and as he comes into the inaugural ball. I’m not suggesting there will be a dance, or any of that kind of thing, but you understand there is coronation celebration when someone is inaugurated.

“By the way, Psalm 46 is a psalm about the coming kingdom that He’s going to establish. Psalm 47 talks about the range or extent of His kingdom and how it’s going to encompass all the earth. Psalm 48 is about the center of His kingdom. It’s going to be ‘the city of God in the mountain of His holiness, beautiful for situations.’

“So you’re in a section here where the King comes and the kingdom is described, including its worldwide impact, and then that city where He reigns is the focal place of the earth.

“Psalm 45:6 is quoted in Hebrews 1:8 as a direct reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. The ‘He’ in the verse is God the Father. Notice how God the Father calls God the Son God? That’s one of the proof texts of the deity of Christ. He’s fully God as well as truly man. He’s God-man. God the Father calls Him God. 

“You read down through the psalm and you can easily spot songs we sing. That last verse is in the great old hymn that goes, ‘Out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe, only His great eternal love made my Savior go. My Lord has garments so wondrous fine, And myrrh their texture fills; Its fragrance reached to this heart of mine With joy my being thrills.’

“That’s what the verse is talking about. Hymn writers often write hymns right out of the Scripture. I know sometimes people chafe a little bit at the poetic license that people sometimes use in the hymns . . .

“There’s another great hymn that starts out, ‘Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature, O Thou of God and man the Son, Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor, Thou, my soul’s glory, joy and crown.’

“That comes from Psalm 45:2: ‘Thou art fairer than the children of men.’ The greatness of the King talks about how God the Father looks at Him and He sees Him as one in whom He finds all His joy and the greatness of who He is.

“That’s the first thing you do when you talk about a king on his coronation day; you talk about what a great hero he is.”

*****

Here is a great passage from the book, “Christ and His Bride; An Exposition of the Song of Solomon,” written by Cora Harris MacIlravy in 1916:

Are you longing for a continual consciousness of His presence? Then must you pass through that lowly door into the chamber of Humility, and there must you evermore abide. There you will find your Beloved waiting to reveal Himself to you more clearly; waiting to take up His abode with you more intimately; waiting to lead you into every chamber of His treasure house, and to lead you on from faith to faith, from victory to victory, from glory to glory.

It is when the King has begun to lead the bride into His precious chambers, that she says: ‘We will be glad and rejoice in Thee.’ There was a time when she rejoiced in that which He was doing for her; when she sought the experiences, looking upon them and rejoicing in them.

But when she was passed a little further into the chambers of the King, love for Him fills her heart and rises up within her like mighty, increasing fountains. She no longer looks upon what He is doing as being the object of her search; she loses all sight of all experiences as apart from Him. By faith Her eyes are fastened more continually upon Him, and she is glad and rejoices in Him . . .

The bride will not be satisfied with imaginary victory, which is really the deceptive peace of not entering in. She will strengthen herself in the Lord and put on His whole armor. She will fight the good fight and finish her course. She will not mistake the call, and revelation of God, for possession. She will not be content with visions and passing glimpses of the land of promises, but by faith she will walk up and down through the land and begin to possess her possessions. She will become more than conqueror through Him who loved her. . .

It is a means of humiliation, and the way to a most precious place of humility down at His feet, when we reach the place where we can see our weakness and unloveliness apart from Him; and at the same time apprehend and appropriate His power and enabling at every step. We then begin to comprehend that all that has been done in us and for us, is through unmerited favor; and that the glory all belongs to Him who wrought it.

At the same time that we see ourselves as we would be apart from His imputed merit, He helps us to behold ourselves in Him; righteous and beautiful through our union with Him in the work of His great Salvation. As she meditates upon His drawing; and recalls the chambers into which she has already entered; and that which she has already received, her desire for His presence and for divine fellowship increases; her love goes out with more fervor, and there is deeper intensity in her prayer that she may know where to find Him . . .

All that the world or any creature can give, is as ashes to that hungry soul who is longing for a revelation of her Lord. Nothing else can satisfy, nothing else can bring peace and joy. All other love is as husks, to the love and companionship of God, and to the love which He draws from the heart that is yielded to Him.

It was that fervent love and abandonment that caused the bride to carry out: ‘I have suffered the loss of all things that I may know Christ' . . . This is a solace to the bride, as she obeys His voice and follows in the footsteps of the flock; as she hastens on guided by Him, though unseen, along that path which grows plainer as she goes forward. . .

She has entered a place of communion with Him such as she has never had before; communion that is deep and full of peace and feeding upon Him in uninterrupted quiet. A fellowship where she both feeds and rests in His presence. An intimacy in which He sets before her the hidden manna and fills her cup to overflowing with living water. A holy familiarity, which floods her soul with joy and peace; peace that flows like a river and passes all understanding . . . 

He, in whom is all the perfume of Heaven and earth, has taken up His abode within her, and He has not come in for just a little while, but He will stay there through all the dark night of this dispensation. The word ‘lieth,’ means to ‘remain over night; to abide permanently.’

He is our precious bundle of Myrrh; He is the secret treasure whose perfume fills our hearts and is for us alone. All the perfume that is ever perfected in us, comes from this hidden Heavenly Myrrh. We are told here that it is all the night this little bundle of Myrrh abides . . . 

As Christ fills this space, there is no room for anybody or anything else. More than all other attractions is He to us. . . His odors steal us over; and we are conscious of the fact that, however dark it is and however alone we feel, ‘Closer is He than breathing and nearer than hands and feet.’

. . . The bride first supped with Him out in the green pastures beside the still waters, but now He spreads before her a banquet. His Banqueting House is that relation with Him, into which He brings those who have followed hard after Him and are counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Him; those who are willing to go all the way with Him, no matter where it brings them or what it means. It is a foretaste of the revelation of Himself and His everlasting love, which only Eternity can fully reveal . . .

The bride sees His banner floating over her, which is His own name, ‘Love.’ It was through love that He conquered her and carried her away a love captive for Himself. ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’ ‘While we were yet weak, Christ died for the ungodly.’ ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.’

Beastly circumstances

The tribulation period is going to be a time when God looks at the Antichrist and says, “He’s the beast! He’s a mad man!” and the world bows down and worships him and exalts insanity.

“In the Bible, there’s this whole counterfeit spirit world of creatures; these creatures are real, they’re potent and they hate everything God stands for,” explains Preacher Richard Jordan.

“Psalm 96:5 says, ‘For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.’ When it says all the gods of the nations are idols, those gods are living creatures, but they inspire their followers to make representative nations to them.

“You remember Jesus told them in Matthew 25 that ‘hell’s prepared for the devil and his angels’? I mean, these creatures have been around and functioning for a LONG time.

*****

Psalm 91:13 says, ‘Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.’

The adder is a venomous snake, i.e., Satan. The dragon is Satan. In I Peter 5, Satan’s called “a roaring lion” who “walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.’ 

“Satan’s the top god of the world because the people have chosen him and the rulers of the angelic rebellion went with him.

“Michael is the commander of the armies of heaven and Gabriel is the top diplomat, but everybody else in the upper echelon--the top-third in the ranks of the heavenly government--went with the Adversary; they bought into his lie program.

“In the heavens, Satan took the commanders first and decimated the government of heaven that way. They chose him to be their God and humanity did the same thing.

“That’s why Satan could take Jesus up into a high mountain and show him all the kingdoms of this world in a moment of time and say, ‘These are all mine!’, because he’d usurped them.

*****

“Lucifer was a cherub. In Revelation, John gets caught up into the throne room of heaven and writes, ‘And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
[7] And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.’

“Those four creatures have four faces, and it’s important to follow those faces because those faces have an awful lot to do with the revelation of God in connection with these demonic characters.

“The first one has a face of a lion, the next one has the face of a calf, then the face of a man and then the face of an eagle.

“In Ezekiel 1:10, you’ll see this again. Ezekiel is caught up into the same throne room and sees the glory of God. ‘As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.’

“Notice how he changed that? The calf becomes more specifically an ox. In chapter 10:14, he’ll change that one more time: ‘And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.’

“The one that gets changed there—Satan’s an anointed cherub that covers. That throne, if you took an aerial view and looked down at it, has four creatures on the four corners.

“But if you look at it like I’m looking at you, you’d see the one here and then there’s one up there that’s covering. The fifth cherub was Satan. That’s why five in the Bible, first of all, is the number of death.

“The Cross work of Christ turns that No. 5 from death into grace. The fifth cherub’s ‘spot’ is taken over by the Body of Christ. So the No. 5 has two kinds of significances in the Bible.

*****

“In Genesis 3, it says the serpent who beguiled Eve is ‘cursed above all the cattle of the field.’ People say, ‘Well, doesn’t the Bible know the difference between a reptile and a cattle?’ Yeah, it does, but you see that serpent was really a calf because that’s who his character is. That’s his nature.

“He’s an ox. You ever make your fingers into horns are put them behind somebody’s head? The symbol of an ox is horns and that’s the symbol of Baal worship in anthropology and in Bible archaeology.

“You go to Revelation 6 and the first guy on the white horse is an archer. He’s got a bow, but he doesn’t have any arrows. You know what you do when you’re an archer? You hold back, and when you don’t have an arrow any longer, what did you just do? You let it go.

“When I studied archery as a teenager the instructor told us you always anchor at the same place and you let go of that bow, and I can still remember that teacher saying, ‘And that’s the sign of an archer,’ and I thought, ‘Whew! There’s that!’

“You say, ‘Where’d all that come from?’ You remember in Exodus 32, Moses goes up on the mountain and while he’s gone, Aaron builds a golden calf.

“What did we see show up in Hosea over and over and over? ‘Hear me, thy gods of Israel who brought ye out of Egypt.’ What was it? A calf. A representation, an idol inspired by Satan to represent him. That’s why Hosea 8 said, ‘IT is not God.’

“The Antichrist is called ‘the son of perdition’ because at the second half of the tribulation (in the first half he’s called ‘the man of sin’) he’s the beast that ascends up out of the bottomless pit.”

Satan's gene pool to today

Satan has always sought to incarnate himself or implant himself in God’s creation and biblically, the things associated with the activity of the Antichrist go far beyond political and economic philosophies.

In Daniel, for example, the 10 kings who reign with the Antichrist are described in the same terms as the giants resulting from the fallen angels of Genesis 6 who “mingle themselves with the seeds of men."

*****

“That’s why Jesus says, ‘In the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man,’ ” explains Preacher Richard Jordan. “A bunch of demonic supermen mingle with the seeds of men to produce supermen that will be ruling with the Antichrist, trying to bring out of that dimension . . .

"Just as Genesis tells us 'Cain is of that wicked one,' the spiritual father of Israel’s leaders in John 8 were 'OF that wicked one,' meaning Satan was their father. Cain was the very first Pharisee, the progenitor of the demonic men who wanted to kill Jesus Christ.

“So it’s a spiritual parentage when Daniel’s talking about the seed, but it’s interesting that Satan does have progeny. It’s not like he doesn’t have children. He certainly does.”

*****

They say if you follow the major bloodlines who say they trace themselves back to Cain, the top personalities are uniformly involved in three things: Secret societies, Satanism and pedophilia.

Children are ritually sacrificed to gods because the fallen-angel entities want to absorb their “energy” as a food source; a power source, according to England’s David Icke, recognized as an authority on conspiracy theories.

“The children in the pedophile rings are having their energy vampired,” he says. “There’s a process where, at the point of sacrifice, the energy of the child is released and the entities absorb that energy . . .  

“Hybrid bloodlines, known in ancient world as demi-gods, are a hybrid genetic creation that is part human and part reptilian. They were created specifically to be middle men within our reality to represent the agenda of these hidden entities, so we have our society directly manipulated by forces we don’t know exist.

"People in leadership, influence and power--they are conduits. The overshadowing entity possessing that pedophile is drawing off the child’s energy through the conduit pedophile and then absorbing the child’s energy.”

*****

If you look into the history of ancient cultures, there’s a consistent story line of alien, extraterrestrial invasion, one that is common place today. People like Stephen Hawkings and Richard Dawkins, the leading atheist of our day, have come out publicly suggesting life on Planet Earth perhaps came from an alien invasion and the aliens came here and produced life.

The ‘sons of God’ from Genesis are angels, and these celestial creatures, aliens from Planet Earth from outer space from the realm of the stars (angels are identified in the Bible as stars because of their association with them), invade Planet Earth and literally begin to conduct procreation experiments, experimenting with genetic engineering; biogenetic engineering at an advanced level.

“In Daniel 2 you have this great image of Nebuchadnezzar and the feet represent the kingdom of the Antichrist,” explains Jordan. “Daniel 2:43 says, ‘And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.’

“Who is the ‘they’? Well, there is no real antecedent unless it’s the 'toes' back in verse 42. Now if they’re going to ‘mingle themselves with the seed of men,’ whoever they are must not be men; must not be human or there would be no comparison with it.

“You look up the word ‘iron’ in a concordance and you’ll be amazed how often it’s associated with the giants. My subjective guess is it has something to do with magnetism and electronic forces and that kind of stuff. Superman had kryptonite and they got iron.

“All of this satanic activity starts all over again in ‘the last days.’ Rev. 11:7 says, ‘And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.’

“Isn’t that an interesting way to define the ‘son of perdition’? He’s the ‘beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.’ He is moved from that dimension into the human dimension. He’s doing exactly what the fallen angels back there in Genesis did.

“If you recall, we’ve looked at a bunch of verses back in Isaiah about the idea of the portals; the places where you can move from one dimension to the other dimension.

“If you think about the angelic world, they’re just as real as you are; they’re just not made of the same physical properties. Angels are not made of Carbon-14, and in the Scripture, there are passageways; we use the term ‘portals.’ Life in their realm is just as real as it is in our realm.

*****

“When Genesis 6:2 says the ‘sons of god saw the daughters of men that they were fair,’ this means these earth-invading angels found the human women ‘useful.’

“The Hebrew word for ‘fair’ is literally the idea of a ‘fit extension.’ It’s the idea of being an acceptable or good host in which to implant yourself. The verse says 'they took them wives.'

"Now when you take somebody, you’ve heard of alien abductions, they didn’t go in and court the women and win them; they TOOK them. Just the terminology tells you this is an involuntary kind of a thing. It was not mutual consent; they came in and took them.

“They went out among them and found appropriate subjects and you’ve got these celestial creatures invading the earth and conducting procreative experimentations with women.

"Joshua, Caleb, David and Noah all fought against these dudes and won, but nevertheless, the genetic engineering produced an advanced extraterrestrial human-type creature.

“When it says these giants in the earth ‘bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown,’ that ‘men of renown’ means they were men of great note, enhanced intelligence and superior ability.

“Jude 6 says, referring to the days of Noah, ‘And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.’

“Similarly, II Peter 2:4 says, ‘For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.’

“The angels had a house built by God and they left it. They shifted their dimensional habitation. They literally came into man’s dimension to reside to participate in this experimentation.

*****

“Genesis 10:8 tells us, ‘And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.’ What does it mean to say Nimrod ‘began’? It’s almost like he subjected himself to the genetic experimentation and was willing to have that genetic altering in himself in order to partake of the enhancement.

“Remember, it’s Nimrod who establishes Babel in Genesis 11 and it’s him who designs the Tower of Babel to reach unto heaven.

“So all of these things back in Genesis get kind of connected that way where you have these supernatural forces and a guy like Nimrod would be trying to take these supernatural forces and put them under human control.

“Jesus says in Matthew and Luke, ‘As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the son of man.’ What you’re reading back there in Genesis is really a template for what’s going to be in ‘the last days.’

*****

“In the Apocrypha’s Book of Enoch it talks about angels experimenting with animal genetics. So they weren’t just doing it with humans evidently; the common lore is it was also with animals. Well, that would explain for you some of what’s going on in II Samuel where you would have the successful corruption of the species barrier.

“You remember in Genesis, God says every species will reproduce ‘after its kind’? So He created a barrier and they’re trying to bridge that barrier and produce some mutations that would be beyond that normal-species barrier between normal reproduction.

“And the intelligence, the instincts that they would be trying to create . . . you now see in sci-fi stuff even today, in fact in the last few years you read about how to produce the ultimate soldier and they try to breed into a person the ability to have the eyesight of a cunning sharp-vision animal creation. It involves the senses and so forth and that isn’t anything new.

“People tend to think about men in Genesis as if they were all cave men with clubs, going out and bumping gals in the head and dragging them home into a cave.

"These guys were technological marvels, ‘men of renown’ with advanced cultures in civilization. If the angels come down, you know they have some advanced technology that we don’t have. Some of this stuff is going on in that context.”