33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ -ESV bible
33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” – NIV Bible
33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.34The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! – King James
Please if you have trouble with the booze I’m not trying to say WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) and go drink! I’m just showing you that Jesus was showing what the Kingdom looked like. It is one of joy, laughter, lightness, singing, rest, and dancing. The first message of John was one of weeping and sadness and no Booze and no Bread. Bread is life and Booze is Joy / Peace. John was preaching death my friend. Jesus message is life and life to the fullest!!!! His body is the bread and his blood is the wine. Spiritually he will fill your cup till you overflow and bubble out sweet wine dripplets and Jesus bread crumbs for all.
In my last post I posted about the Jordan river and it’s significance. After more thought, I find that walking through the Jordan is death to the old Adam nature. It is plastering yourself to that cross right be Jesus and hoping he will take your spirit with him after the final breath. Hoping that the Noah’s Ark doesn’t have any holes or hoping that good ol’mom made that basket for little Moses water proof. By doing this you are putting your faith in a new life apart from this old life leading to death. You are saying Ok lets go I trust you Jesus. This is why the Jordan River is so important, this is why John’s message of “repentance the Kingdom of God is near” is so good, it is because the Jordan is the waterway of death that no man could beat till Jesus did it! Jesus crossed it and prepared the way for the Kingdom he became the gate to the Kingdom. He says come on over and I will baptize you with fire!
Whoop, hope this made some sense if not this picture I made might help some,… maybe not Oh well, till next time, Peace!
A river, what can that have to do with anything, water flowing down in a common path seems to not have much significance. The Jordan River is mentioned many times throughout scripture and I’m here to tell you that I don’t think it was an accident.
John 1:28 These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
This verse in John is the first I want to look at because we just talked about John the Baptist I thought this would be the perfect place to start. He represents the Old and his job is to preach repentance and to prepare the way of the Kingdom. He’s always hanging out on the East side of the Jordan and the wilderness. The East side of the Jordan I can see represents the Old, before there is fire. Jesus came to baptize us with fire. John came to baptize with water unto repentance. It seems like when you cross the Jordan it’s like crossing through fire. The line between repentance and the Kingdom or the line between water and fire. I will continue with this next verse.
Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness
Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted. When he returns of the Jordan he is full of the Spirit and begins to preach and bring the Kingdom. There is other good examples of this in the Old here is a couple:
Deuteronomy 1:11These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the desert east of the Jordan
Moses and the Israelites waited in basically the same spot that John baptized at on the East side of the Jordan. If they crossed the Jordan and believed the two spies that said God could do it they were going to walk in power and take over the Promise Land the Kingdom. But they chose to not believe and walked in the desert for 40 years. Interesting, Jesus was tempted 40 days and Israelites walked 40 years. There is something there don’t you think…
Then we have Joshua with the ark of the covenant were the fire of God dwelt and they passed over and when on to take down the first wall in the way – Jericho.
Joshua 3:11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan.
One of the coolest comparisons we have is when Elijah goes over the Jordan and passes his mantle to Elisha.
II Kings 2:7-147 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan. 8 And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.
9 And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. 10 And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. 11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12 And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. 13 He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan; 14 And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.
We see Elijah strangely have to cross the Jordan for some unknown reason and Elisha forcefully follows him even though Elijah is constantly trying to make him not follow. “The violent take the Kingdom by force” Remember that little verse. Ok Elijah’s clothes are torn and his DOUBLE power rest on Elisha. The veil of the Old temple is torn when Jesus died and the power goes where, to the violent that take it by force. This is a comparison that shows the passing of responsibility and power. Moses the Old dies and his duty gets past to Joshua to cross that Jordan of fire and take the Promise Land. The Old fades with John and gets past to Jesus the New. Elijah rises into the air / Jesus rises into the air and the DOUBLE power goes to Elisha / the church. Remember Jesus said,”Greater things you will do then I”. I hope you get my drift. This is great stuff don’t you think!
Oh and the number 50… 50 prophets watched as Elijah went up. 50 years between Jubilee years. 50 days from Passover to Pentecost. Hmm,.. again interesting.
John the Baptist is in prison and sends a messenger to Jesus to make sure he is the Messiah. One would hope and think when Jesus finds out that his cus is in Herod’s dungeon that Jesus would pray for a couple angels to rescue the important prophet. But Jesus doesn’t do this, he basically tells the messanger that he is doing miracles and to go back and report it to John. ”Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.” Luke 7:22 Shortly after this John gets his head cut off.
I find that this is a very hard thing to try to understand, but if you look deeper into the prophetic meaning of John’s life you will find that this beheading was quite the climax of an Old story.
Ok, I can explain. Jesus said to his disciples that the least in the Kingdom of God is greater then John, but just a moment ago Jesus said John was the greatest prophet there ever was. This is because John was not in the Kingdom of God, John was under the Old Covenant of Mt. Sinai. John was the last prophet of that order. Jesus was the first of the New order. Jesus was the first of the Kingdom of God and that is why anyone after Jesus is better. They are part of an everlasting covenant. Old is fading away, but the New is everlasting substance. Which is greater to be under?
Ok, this make it easier to understand what Jesus meant there, but why did John loose his head and why didn’t Jesus do some miracle to save him. That is because John had to die to seal the deal that Old had past away and it was transfered to the New into Jesus’s hands. John’s last breathe was prophetic in that his head was cut off, the authority of that Old covenant was being wiped away. Kind of harsh right, but I believe John knew exactly who he was and exactly what God was doing and probably was honored greatly to be the last page of a 4000 year old covenant.
Let me show you some more hidden nuggets. John never crossed the Jordan river, he baptized people on the east side and wandered in the desert on that side. His job was to prepare the way of the Lord. Baptizing people into Repentance on the east side was symbolic that it was a half-way point. They got baptized outside of the Promise Land. I believe this has a correlation to the Red Sea crossing or the baptism of the whole world by the flood. It kind of cleans you out but leaves you empty. It wiped out the Egyptians, but left the Israelites were still hungry and lost. The flood wiped out the whole world, but did not bring salvation of souls. The repentance baptism of John made claim that those who did this were cleaned with water under repentance, but they still weren’t filled with substance.
Remember Jesus said you can’t put new in in old wine skins, but new wine must be put into new wine skins. Well the old skin was the Old Covenant. You have to do this and repent and kill this animal and then sprinkle blood here and there and everywhere to be made right with god for about a second. This had to go, not strong enough to hold the new wine Jesus was about to give. That stuff was way to potent, would have killed everyone under that Covenant. John baptized away the Old wine skin with water and began a fresh slate. Now Jesus could create the new wine skin (being himself) and then he could fill them with the new wine. So when John died again it was saying this Old thing has been removed. On with the new.
Hope my thoughts were written well enough for you to understand my drift. Till the next, Peace!
If you look at the life of Moses you will find that it compares to Jesus life almost to the dot. I’m listing some of the comparisons that I’ve noticed here:
1. Moses was born during a time when the leader of the land issues a decree to kill all male babies. So was Jesus.
2. Moses took forty years till his ministry began. Jesus took 40 days being tempted in the desert, after that his ministry began.
3. Moses delivered God’s people out of slavery of man. Jesus delivered man from the slavery to sin.
4. Moses set up the law written on tablets of stone. Jesus wrote the law on the hearts of man.
5. Moses transfered the ministry to Joshua before crossing the Jordan River (which I think represents crossing into the Holy Spirit and power). Jesus transfered the responsibility to further his Kingdom to some men who gained power from the Holy Spirit on day of Pentecost.
6. Moses set up a pole with a bronze serpent for all to look to be healed. Jesus set himself up for all to look at and be healed.
7. Moses struck the rock twice (incorrect) and water came out. The Father struck Jesus once and living water came out.
8. Moses built the Ark of the first Covenant to house the presence of God. Jesus built thousands of houses (you and me born again) to be filled with the presence of God.
9. The Israelites were in bondage about 400 years till Moses came to the scene. God was silent for 400 years till Jesus came to the scene.
So as you can see there are quite a bit of similarities. Moses was a muddied picture in the natural what God was going to do in perfection in the Spirit later. The thing I like about all this is that I can see it as a map to know what we as believers are supposed to up to today. After Jesus left and gave us the responsibility to spread his Kingdom. So if we do a little bit of guess work we can clearly see we are about that time in the Old where Joshua was to take the Promise Land flowing with Milk and Honey, and not cower away in unbelief like Israel did and they had to run around in the desert for 40 years. I do believe the church for the most part of it has been running around a desert because we believed a lie that Jesus is coming back to do it for us. Well no more believing in lies we need to believe God that he lives in side of us with Power and we need to take the Promise Land again. I want some Milk and Honey, don’t you
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16
Remember when the earthly temple’s veil was torn at the moment Jesus gave up his last breath. The veil was torn and the Holy Spirit was released on a forgiven world. The Lord entered that temple during Solomon’s time and since then wanted out, why else would he leave?
This I believe is a picture of us today.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Psalms 24:9
We are gates as well as temples or can I say there are gates to our temples? God wants in through those gates and then he wants out. This hear lies the problem, if the enemy fails to keep God out of you the next objective is to keep God in you. He wants to shut your gates folks! He does this through the power of our mind, by what we believe.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12
This can be seen better by looking at the Old. Look at the twelve spies. Only 2 believed they could go in a beat the giants. The others in their minds thought it was impossible. Another good example is David and Goliath. The Israelites believed his scoffing and in there minds thought that it was impossible. In both of these occassions the gates for God to come out of them in might were slammed shut.
The enemy will attack in thoughts of condemnation, confusing thought of who God is, confusing thoughts of what God wants of you, and many other thoughts that cause doubt and fear.
Anyway all this said to explain what I saw while running at the YMCA yesterday. I saw this huge flood and then a wall and then on the others side I saw people yelling at the wall and an unseen, but seen enemy holding the gate to the wall slammed shut. The flood on the other side was beating again and agian to the gates wanting to get out. It was a huge struggle with much pressure on both sides. Then I saw an arm of water swirl over the walls and the hand of the arm had a key and unlocked the door from the dry side. This key was truth.
Those who seek find those who knock the doors will be open. Till the next blog. Peace!
First I want to apologize for any composition or spelling errors I assure you I will have as I write this blog. I did very well in math and arts but could never get above a C in writing. I’m not a scholar by any means and have never gone to Bible school. My purpose for this blog is not to try to persuade you into thinking a certain way, but simply a give myself a way to document what I believe God is showing me through my study of the written Word. I hope you enjoy reading my journey into finding God and one thing I hope to do is pass along is a hunger to find the truth for yourself and do not leave your life in the hands of other men to find out for you. Men teach truth and error, but you are fully accountable to grasp the Lord yourself. Anyway, enough introduction, here are some beginning thoughts…
One can really twist things up if they take the New and the Old Testaments and mash them together in one bowl. It is better if we separate them nice and neat and see the Old as picture of what is to come, that being the New. We can see from the New Testament that Paul refers to the Old many times to help paint a better picture of what now has come. He refers to those pictures as shadows several times and even allegories. It’s almost as if the Lord was acting out in history what was going repeat itself in the future. The Old, if it is a shadow or an allegory, it is a pointer to something of substance. That substance is found in the New Testament, namely Jesus and his kingdom. Here are some example versus on shadows and allegories that I just mentioned:
24These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. Galatians 4:21-31
16Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Colossians. 2:16, 17
1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, Hebrews 10:1
There are many O’sermons in these versus by themselves but I’m trying to show that the Old Testament is a picture of a future substance. Once I realized this it began to unlock so many things I never saw before in the Old. I will go into many of these findings in the future. This simple key unwraps the whole lot. You start to see Jesus everywhere and how the Old is a rising song building and building until Boom! Jesus appears and fulfills 4000 years of history in one moment! No wonder the entire earth recognizes that switch from B.C to A.D.
Anyway, not too much meat yet, but at least you can tell that I’m excited about this. This is all for now. Peace!
His body is the bread and his blood is the wine. Spiritually he will fill your cup till you overflow and bubble out sweet wine dripplets and Jesus bread crumbs for all.
