Let’s take a look at 2 Chronicles 29. Something supernatural is happening! Something supernatural is being placed upon the natural—that is what supernatural is.
I recently traveled to Thailand to teach on Pastoring a Supernatural Church. That is when the Divine takes over and says, “I’ll take it from here.” or, “I will take possession of what you have prepared. I will make it My own. I will come to rest and dwell and use it for Me.”
Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.
3 In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them. 4 He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the square on the east side 5 and said: “Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary. 6 Our parents were unfaithful; they did evil in the eyes of the Lord our God and forsook him. They turned their faces away from the Lord’s dwelling place and turned their backs on him. 7 They also shut the doors of the portico and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present any burnt offerings at the sanctuary to the God of Israel. 8 Therefore, the anger of the Lord has fallen on Judah and Jerusalem; he has made them an object of dread and horror and scorn, as you can see with your own eyes. 9 This is why our fathers have fallen by the sword and why our sons and daughters and our wives are in captivity. 10 Now I intend to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger will turn away from us.
11 My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense.” 12 Then these Levites set to work: from the Kohathites, Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah; from the Merarites, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; from the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah; 13 from the descendants of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; from the descendants of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; 14 from the descendants of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; from the descendants of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.
15 When they had assembled their fellow Levites and consecrated themselves, they went in to purify the temple of the Lord, as the king had ordered, following the word of the Lord. 16 The priests went into the sanctuary of the Lord to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the Lord. The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley. 17 They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of the Lord. For eight more days they consecrated the temple of the Lord itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.
18 Then they went in to King Hezekiah and reported: “We have purified the entire temple of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table for setting out the consecrated bread, with all its articles. 19 We have prepared and consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz removed in his unfaithfulness while he was king. They are now in front of the Lord’s altar.” 2 Chronicles 29:1-19
This was the first phase: Initiation; The opening of the doors, repairing, the sanctification of Levites, the sanctifying of the house. The next phase, which I believe in a sovereign way, we fulfilled on Friday night.
20 Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials together and went up to the temple of the Lord. 21 They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Judah. The king commanded the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer these on the altar of the Lord. 22 So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splashed it against the altar; next they slaughtered the rams and splashed their blood against the altar; then they slaughtered the lambs and splashed their blood against the altar. 23 The goats for the sin offering were brought before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them. 24 The priests then slaughtered the goats and presented their blood on the altar for a sin offering to atone for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel. 2 Chronicles 29:20-24
This time Judah was just a little portion of what Israel once was. It was two tribes. The ten northern tribes were called Israel and they were known as Judah. And yet, the king said, “This is not for just us, this is for all of Israel.”
25 He stationed the Levites in the temple of the Lord with cymbals, harps and lyres in the way prescribed by David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet; this was commanded by the Lord through his prophets. 26 So the Levites stood ready with David’s instruments, and the priests with their trumpets.
27 Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. As the offering began, singing to the Lord began also, accompanied by trumpets and the instruments of David king of Israel. 28 The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the musicians played and the trumpets sounded. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering was completed.
29 When the offerings were finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped. 30 King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed down and worshiped. 2 Chronicles 29:25-30
We all know that all of the offerings were set in order in the book of Leviticus. They did them all. They pulled in the atonement. They pulled in the Passover. They pulled in the sin offering, and the trespass offering. They laid their hands on the goats. They did everything as a setting apart. And then the third part was what we are in and we will continue to be in, which was the day to gather. It was now, in this new day of worship and give unto the Lord freely. It was the thanksgiving offering, the joyful offering, the praise and the thanksgiving. People began to bring in the bulls and the goats and they brought in a powerful expression.
31 Then Hezekiah said, “You have now dedicated yourselves to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the temple of the Lord.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings. 2 Chronicles 29:31
36 Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people, because it was done so quickly. 2 Chronicles 29:36
We are in a moment of suddenly. Righteousness is imputed because we believe in Jesus and this is the only righteousness that is worth anything, and shall ever be. This is the righteousness imputed to us because we believe that the Father raised Jesus from the dead –that is our righteousness.
Holiness, sanctification, and consecration is us, living in our special place, honoring God who sets apart things for special use.
It is like fine china in our home that we bring out for special occasions. We don’t leave it out for the kids to mess around with. It is set apart for special use. It holds value. It could be valuable because it cost us a lot of money. It could be valuable because it was our great grandmother’s. It can have sentimental value or monetary value. But, as time goes on, they merge and become one. It’s beautiful. That is who we are! We are sanctified unto the Lord; and we are to live a life unto Him in pleasing ways. This house is sanctified.
As the body tried to reach the world through commonness (The seeker sensitive, become friendly, don’t offend anybody). We took the holiness of God, and in some ways, we made everything common. Everything became accessible. Anybody can have anything. The altar no longer became a place of sacrifice. It became a place of show.
So, rather than our weeping at the altar and crying out for God to come and do what only He can do, we came with greater and greater productions trying to win the hearts of people and woo them in to our churches.
Whenever I go someplace, I know that there is a two-fold reason for my going.
1. I am going there on an assignment. My assignment is to do something that God would have me go being there.
2. I also know, however, that I am going there to receive something from God that I could only receive by there to do, that I could not do if I wasn’t there.
This is how we should look at any of our journeys or any of our movements. This is because, in so many ways, what happens is that when we make things common, so that we make things accessible, we remove God from touching lives. All we have, then, is humanity touching humanity, touching humanity.
The only thing we really have to offer one another are laws, rules, principles and practices. So, we try to improve our lives and make things better. When we are consecrating ourselves to the Lord or this house to the Lord, it is an intentionality of heaven that says, “I am no longer going to be considered common, because I am holy. I’m going to create a place and a people that I can access the earth from, not by their righteousness, but through Mine.
Our part in holiness is basically what Paul uses in 1Corinthians 9,
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
The practice of holiness, the practice of sanctification is a practice of living unto the Lord in what He called us to be.
It is the effort applied to what is been given us. It is not earned, it is learned.
If we were given a word, say, we were twelve years old – maybe eighteen years old, we are a great sprinter. We are in high school winning records. We are doing really well and we are considering where we are going. Someone then prophesies and says, “You are going to be an Olympic athlete and you are going to win a gold medal!”
Now, if we heard that word, and it resonated and became true to us, it is meant not to substitute the work that is going to be required for us to rise to that place. It is meant to inspire us, to separate ourselves to the word that must be required. It is not in place of the work, it is to direct the work.
If we were then to sit around and go to college and have a life that is disconnected, thinking, “You know what, thank God I’m going to be an Olympic athlete and I’m going to win a gold medal…” and we drink beer all day and eat pretzels, soon it is going to become obvious that there is a disconnect. People will begin to disconnect, thinking that it was not really a true word from God. But it was a true word from God. It just was never sanctified. The person never applied themselves. They never separated themselves.
It is said that an Olympic athlete has to be temperate in all things. It is not just his exercise but also in his sleep, in his eating, in his whole mind-set than what he thinks – It is what we allow. It just means that we recognize that to accomplish a single goal of that magnitude, we will to have to pull the whole of us into that focus.
That is what sanctification is about. That is what consecration is. It is the practicing of what we have been given by faith. It is the recognizing that something is uniquely handed to us—but it is our part of participating in that place of grace and growth.
The problem is, that in the Kingdom,
- The preparation for great things is the cross.
- The starting gate is the grave.
- And, the laps we run around through hell is the training mechanism.
And we lose our place.
So, as I arrived in Thailand, because of the prayers of so many, and because it was the Lord sending, and it was an appointed time, and I was teaching Pastoring a Supernatural Church, that as I awoke I had a number of things happening. Before there was any ministry, (this was going to be a day alone), I heard a number of things. I heard – I will read from my journal:
As I was waking I was seeing John 10 and Jesus saying, “No one takes My life (My psuche, My soul) from Me but I lay it down of Myself. I was hearing this phrase: me-Ministry. And knowing that I cannot lay down what is being taken from me, I must understand and minister to myself, that is, receive ministry for myself – me-Ministry – if I am to lay down my life. (John 13) I must know the Father has given me all things, that I am not poor, that I have come from God (that is my identity) and that I am going to God. That is my destiny. So me-Ministry is recognizing when I am being taken from and returning to the Father to receive again authority to lay it down.
There is a very important difference. Some of us are paralyzed today in our very service to the King because we went from laying down, to being taken from, and we didn’t know how to return to God for the authority needed, to continue to lay down. So we shut down. Our thought is, “Nobody’s taking that from me.” And that is right in some ways. We shouldn’t be taken from. That is not what Jesus allowed to happen. He was not a victim. He was intentionally, as Father’s direction, laying His life down.
So, by knowing Him, all things are mine. I’ve come from God and I’m going to God. You have to be whole to lay down your life again. Abraham had lain down about every fourteen years in his life.
What happens is this; I believe faith awakens and so I do. The journey ensues and I die and Jesus comes.
Cycles can happen in an afternoon in prayer; it can happen in a generation.
In our burial, we lose our way and we try to recover our life. We’re taken from; we suffer; we lose; are displaced; afflicted; storm-tossed, but that is in sovereignty, just as resurrection is inside sovereignty. Jesus did not raise Himself from the dead. Carnality (fleshly mind – the resourcing from flesh – earth-based) is when we are still deriving our life from the earth; from position, place, title, not knowing that all things are ours (1Corinthians 3:21). This causes us to become most miserable, pitiful, in need of compassion (1Corinthians 15:19) because we attach Jesus Christ to this life and we get caught in carnality. You have to walk and go with the Spirit and not resource your flesh as you lose your mind for Christ’s sake. Mind is psuche – life psuche. Soul has been the magnifier of our fleshly life, but it is to yield so that it might magnify God and Spirit rejoice in God my Savior. You must know My sovereignty in all that you have done and all that you’ve gone through and all loss and all gains and all betrayals, all failures, and all of your choices inside of My choosing. You must know that I have led you through the great and terrible wilderness to deliver you from yourself, to cause you to die to self, to free you from your life. Even so now, shall be My resurrection. As you were sown in dishonor, you shall be raised in honor; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown in corruption, raised in incorruption, death no longer having victory over you. You’ve attempted these things through the law, seeking perfection through doing. I prepared you a body for Me and love your humanity. I am not ashamed to be called your Brother. So, My resurrection will be without your help; your being, your administrating. It will be sovereign by My Spirit, says the Lord. The mountain will become a plain and capstones placed with shouting of grace, grace to it. Resurrection life is coming and now is….
The things, that the Lord has set in motion to touch the earth with, cannot happen through us. They will happen through us, but not because of us. And, the faith that He is giving us to step into is not recovery faith. It is resurrection faith! And resurrection faith is more about allowing God’s way and trust rather than facilitating it in our own way. 1:21:11
Upcoming Events
Friday, April 24, 2015, 7:pm, California Glory with Cindy Jacobs begins (Click here for the full schedule)
Sunday, April 26, 2015, 9am: I will be sharing “Let Go -Take Hold – And Believe” Resurrection life happens after death – It is not to prevent death. It’s so much more than preservation! It’s resurrection! Resurrection life is the glory of God!
Sunday, 10:20am: Nations Prayer – Join us as we reign with Christ on earth as His kingdom of priests.
Sunday, 11am: Cindy Jacobs will be ministering. Cindy is the cofounder of Generals of Intercession, with her husband Mike. Cindy is an author, TV host and prophet. Cindy’s mantle activates gifts and callings that are growing and maturing, and even those that are dead.
