The things concerning himself

The last 2 nights I have not had the best dreams. In fact, I’ve been under sort of an attack all week. Last night I had a dream where I was trying to get away from a place but was staying there because of the other people around. Then a man walked up out of the darkness and put a hand in my chest like he was trying to shove me through the ground. Sunday I dreamed I was fighting a giant. In church a few hours later my mind was gripped by terror and shame by that same spiritual giant. I feel like these kinds of attacks happen when a person is about to step into something amazing! God has been telling me for a long time about this time and my destiny in God is just around the corner. So it’s only natural that a frightened, defeated enemy would try to slow that down. That same enemy saw the great revival dawning early this year and the events of 2020 have also been attacks to try to slow it down.

So this morning, since I don’t have a word from God from my dreams, I wanted to pull out one of my favorite words from God from the Bible. In the book of Luke this is the first thing Jesus taught after the resurrection. I think it has been wildly misunderstood and overlooked since the early church. Jesus was walking with a couple of disciples but they didn’t recognize Him. So He had them telling Him His own story. When they got settled in for the night they sat down for dinner. I picture in my mind that Jesus broke some bread and their spiritual eyes open and suddenly they began to see the bread of life in front of them. It could have gone that way, it’s a neat picture anyway.

The first thing He told them was, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” So at this point we learn a bunch of things all at once. We learn that Jesus has already entered into His glory at that time. We learn that the Old Testament talked about Jesus suffering. And we learn that our own inability to grasp the truth of Jesus from the prophets is rooted in a lack of wisdom and a lack of faith. But then Jesus does something incredible!

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” I would have loved to be in that room! Imagine, over dinner with the Lord, just after the resurrection, He gives you the greatest supernatural download in history! The scriptures are way too long to just go over after dinner one night in natural time! Jesus gave them wisdom and faith through the understanding of the scriptures that was impossible to learn through study alone!

There were pharisees who memorized almost the entire Bible and had no idea what it was talking about. They knew every single word and crucified the Lord they claimed to worship! They did this because they lacked faith and wisdom. So how do we increase our own faith and wisdom while reading the Bible? I mean scholars misinterpret the Bible all day every day. Some even believe that the Old Testament, what Jesus was telling the disciples about immediately after resurrection, doesn’t apply under the new covenant! Jesus does not agree with that take.

You see, Jesus didn’t show these disciples one verse in Isaiah and another in Deuteronomy and say look at those hidden verses that everyone has been looking past. Let me show you, because many people will already feel a sharp disagreement. All throughout the life of Jesus, He is explaining the truth of the Old Testament. In Mark 12 He says ‘because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God’. Matthew 21 ‘Have you never read in the scriptures’ Luke 4 ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’ John 10 ‘And scripture cannot be broken’. But this is the dead giveaway! John 5:39-40 “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

The first thing Jesus ever taught the church after the resurrection was how to understand the Old Testament. It wasn’t just a few verses about Him, it was ALL about Him! It is a WITNESS of Him, as is the New Testament. They are both WITNESSES of Him. And He called us to also be His witnesses. So let me explain something about your life. If you follow the Lord, all of your life story, all of your trials, everything you have to overcome, everything God guides you through in life witnesses of Him. But how do we interpret? Jesus said it takes faith and wisdom to interpret. That doesn’t just go for scripture, it goes for life itself, it goes for dreams and visions, it goes for cycles in our lives and our story. But we learn to do that through finding Jesus in every word of scripture.

You see Jesus Himself is the Word of God, the scripture points to Him and can’t be broken because it points to Him. But if we don’t find Him there, we need to grow in faith and wisdom. The Bible gives us a lot of hints about how to do this. Paul taught this way constantly. When Paul wants to teach about Melchizedek he is hoping to show the mystery of that story that points to Jesus. The king of the city of peace, the one Abraham gave his tithes to, his name means My King is Righteousness, the one who blessed Abram, the one who took communion of bread and wine with Abram, the priest of the most high God, Psalm 110 and Hebrews 5 both say ‘you are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. Then Paul goes on to compare this person to Jesus and to understand Jesus through Melchizedek.

Melchizedek was a sign that pointed to Jesus! This guy is mentioned once in Psalms and once in Genesis and yet we can know so much about Jesus through what is said about him. There are a thousand pages of Melchizedeks in the Bible and each one points directly at the Lord! Some are first coming, some are second coming, many of them hop quickly from first to second but if you understand the story of Jesus the scripture open up to WITNESS of Jesus! The temple and the passover are clear signs of Jesus but the truth is you can find Him on every page of the Old Testament.

Here’s the cool thing, once you learn to see Him on every page, not only do you find yourself having faith and wisdom in interpreting scripture, but you will find yourself understanding everything! You will read a headline in the news and know what is happening, you will have a dream and get a message from it, you will see the trees in your yard and understand how they point to Jesus! You will run headlong into a fear of public speaking and realize that’s part of the Great War and know that you are called to speak! You will see the Covid response was to limit human interaction, cover the mouths of people in public and shut down travel and realize the last revival will be based on speaking to people in public, getting close to them and traveling.

Believers will move across this earth like a virus! Laying on of hands, witnessing to strangers and traveling the world will bring in the Harvest! We will have a wide open door for across the earth, we will advance the gospel everywhere on this planet whether it’s legal to do so or not. Only the antichrist spirit can make outlaw revival! But my Bible saw that is the spirit of lawlessness! Meaning there is nothing in these laws that is allowable in heaven. We may not rob God of Harvest because we obeyed the laws of lawlessness. If you want to see how all that works, get in your Bible and find Jesus on every page. Then you will prophesy from a place of absolute truth! That is the plumb line the prophets are looking for. The things concerning Himself. The parts of our experience concerning Jesus will show us absolute truth. And He will be the Spirit of Truth, and He will guide us into all Truth and He will teach of things that are yet to come. This is how to build sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. May you sit with God in the morning and evening, may you live by the plumb line and prophesy and change the world, and may God bless all y’all.