Over there, over here

“When you examine the heavenly places you learn that there are numerous strange, mysterious creatures that abound in the heavens,” said Jordan in his Sunday morning service last week. “In fact, ‘crypto- creatures’ is what I call them. Crypto means secret. There are things that are just odd and mysterious.

“You look at movies like ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Star Trek’ and you say, ‘How did they come up with all those funny-looking, strange, weird, odd creatures and it’s almost like it’s demonic in the creative genius of the writers who do that.

“There are a lot of different kind of creatures in the angelic world and the important thing for us is to get the spiritual connection—the spiritual ramifications of those mysterious creatures as it affects us because our ministry in the future is to occupy those positions up there and our warfare now is against the spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.

“So all of that correspondence we’ve talked about has an impact on us. That’s why I wanted to start in Mark 4. Jesus gives us the parable of the sower. Verse 4 says, ‘And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.’

“Verse 15 says, ‘And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.’

“The fowls of the air are really the messengers and the emissaries of Satan. It’s really Satan and his cohorts who are trying to destroy the impact the Word’s supposed to bring about.

“By the way, fowls or birds have wings. You know that angels don’t have wings. There are other creatures in the spiritual realm.

“There’s the physical realm and the spirit world. In that spirit world, there are all kind of creatures. Angels don’t have wings but there are creatures—cherubim, seraphim--who do have wings. There are all kind of races of creatures, if you want to call it that.

“Revelation 13 starts out, ‘And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.’

“The creatures in the spirit world are called beasts. They’re monstrosities; monsters. They really are creatures that are beasts. In verse 2 you see what kind of beast he is: ‘And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.’

“Now that’s one weird-looking dude! Now you can say, ‘Well, that’s all metaphorical.’ I’m telling you okay, because all of it has a meaning, but it starts out with a reality. This is not fable or mythology. This is REAL truth into the universe and this history of the universe that isn’t obvious to the physical observation of the universe. Sort of like the secret history of the universe.

“Your Bible is really a window into the supernatural things that are beyond the physical realm. Everything in the physical realm comes from a spiritual reality. When you go back to Genesis 1, you’ve got to remember there was this spirit reality that He then manifested physically.

“So when you see the physical world about you, you have to remember there’s a corresponding spiritual reality too. That, by the way, is the reason there’s the Body of Christ and Israel. One for the physical reality and one for the spirit reality.

“Genesis starts out, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.’ How did He do that? He did it with the Word of His power. Psalm 33. He did it with the breath of His mouth. Where did that come from? He had an idea; a plan.

“Notice how he describes Satan as a dragon? He’s got the body of a leopard, feet like a bear. Then he’s got a mouth like a lion; you try to conjure that dude up in your mind and you say, ‘Ooh, maybe he ought have been on ‘Star Wars’!’

“When you read about giants, dragons, unicorns, seders, river-drinking animals and flying, fiery serpents—when people read all that stuff  they tend to want to say, ‘Well, you know, that’s like back in Columbus’ day. They said the earth was flat and when they fell off the end of the earth the dragons ate them.’

“Well, who was telling people that? Scientists and science-worshiping churchmen. Why were they telling them that? Because they didn’t believe that Book in your lap. Everything God tells you about how He created the earth tells you that it’s not flat. In fact, He calls it a ‘circle’ in Isaiah 40.

“These are the creatures, by the way, that we’re going to replace. Psalm 74:13 is a real fascinating passage because it actually can be understood in three layers. One, you can put it back in the creation because he’s talking about the creation in verse 16.

“Then you can make it talk about the nation Israel in the wilderness, because that’s what it’s talking about historically. Prophetically, it looks toward Israel in the last days.

“We call this a prototype; it’s a macro. It’s a, ‘I did it this way and I did it this way again because over here I’m going to do it! And when I do it over here, you’re going to be able to look back there and say, ‘See what I did there?! It’s over here! See HOW I did it over there. It’s over here!’

“What typology does is it tells you that when this comes to pass, whoever did this before it happened knew what was going to happen and detailed it for you. And that’s the great thing about typology-- it demonstrates that the writer of the Word of God is somebody who lives outside of time.

“Genesis 22 is one of the only places in your Bible where you’ll find what Paul says in I Corinthians 15, 'For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
[4] And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:’

“You go back in the Old Testament and you cannot find one word that says He was raised the third day or going to be raised the third day. That all comes out of the typology; out of the prototypes that God gave Israel.

“You can look back to Genesis 22 and say, ‘You know, God knew what He was going to do before He did it! The only way He could have done it in that detail is He knew some things that you couldn’t know! “He knew some things about what the future’s going to be like and also knew a secret He wasn’t telling anybody about. I look at that and I say, ‘Whoa, that makes you think God’s Word is something special!!’ ”

(To be continued tomorrow . . .)