We live in a time in which the Lord reveals His secrets to those who are close to His heart.

His mysteries are like treasures to be understood (see Colossians 2:2-3).

Colossians 2:2-3:
2 My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Therein we need to be trained by the Holy Spirit in the Word of God and brought to the level of maturity in order to grasp His mysteries in the light of the truth of the Word (see Daniel 12:4).

Daniel 12:4:
“… 4 But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”

Entering the realm of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ Jesus requires also a willingness to sacrifice, which involves leaving behind things (note: letting go, giving up) that may be concrete, for example, places, periods of time, people, … (see Mark 8:34).

 

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. …”

 

The Entry into a New Dimension of Heaven

When God decided to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, every one of the people was called to leave this land and submit to God's guidance (see Exodus 3:16-17).

Exodus 3:16-17:
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.

17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites – a land flowing with milk and honey.’

In a prophetic context, it was God's will that Israel should leave one dimension in order to enter a new dimension.

They left the dimension of slavery to enter the dimension of transition – the desert. These two dimensions were separated by the water body of the sea. Even later, under Joshua's leadership, the dimension of transition was separated from the dimension of promise by another body of water, the Jordan River.

The natural realm is a reflection of the supernatural and also the seat of God's government with the sea of glass that reflects different realms of revelation within His government (note: e.g. the seven burning torches, the four heavenly beings, the Lamb who was slain, the twenty-four elders and their thrones; see Revelation 4:4-6.10; Revelation 5:6). This is connected to the stream of life (see Revelation 22:1), which in context makes clear that it is no coincidence that God led the people of Israel through different bodies of water and that baptism in the Word of God is also connected to water (see Titus 3:5).
 

… 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, …

 

This also means that if a believer in Christ Jesus wants to enter a higher heavenly realm and constantly bear fruit, it is essential having died to oneself and living Christ (see Galatians 2:20 i.c.w. Revelation 22:2).

Galatians 2:20:
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Revelation 22:2:
… 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Willingness for Sacrifice

Every single phase of spiritual development requires a sacrifice, which, as already mentioned, is connected with laying something down.

When God asks us to lay down or let go of things (note: our own ideas, convictions, …), this can cause a feeling of loss or sadness in our soul. But especially in such situations it is important to be in the truth of God's Word, which invites us to enter the new heavenly realm.

It is the spoken Word of God in each situation, in accordance with His written Word, to inspire our spirit to enter the new heavenly realm in joy, freshness and with a pure heart (note: bringing heaven to earth; see Ephesians 5:26-27).

Ephesians 5:26-27:

… 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word (note: Greek “rhēma” => spoken word of God), 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
 

 

When we are ready to walk through the waters of God, which are connected with separation because the power of His Word is in between, we are able to reflect heaven on earth in a similar way as the waters of the sea reflect heaven in the natural realm (see Genesis 1:6-8).

 

6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.”

7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so.

8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning – the second day.

 

The Hebrew word for “firmament/vault” is “râqı̂ya‛” and comes from the Hebrew root word “râqa‛” which means, among other things, “spread out, to expand (by hammering), to overlay by beating/hammering (with thin sheets of metal)”. (note: partial excerpt from the Strong's Concordance to the words “firmament – râqı̂ya‛” and “expand by hammerning – râqa‛” with the word key number: H7549, H7554).

 

Since the Word of God is also described as a hammer (see Jeremiah 23:29), it can be said in connection with the explanation that the manifestation of His Word was between the waters and in this way separated the upper water from the lower water, so that heaven and sea appeared.

 

These two waters are also an indication of the right order between the spirit (note: heaven) and the soul (note: sea; see Galatians 5:16.18).

 

16 What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. …

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism.

 

 

Every entry into a new dimension of heaven goes hand in hand with the presence of God, His Word and the movement of His Spirit and angels. This is illustrated by the passage of Jacob and his family through the river Jabbok, the passage of the people of Israel through the Red Sea and their passage through the Jordan (see Genesis 32:23-25.30; Exodus 14:21-24; Joshua 3:14-17).

 

23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.

24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.

25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. …

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

 

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.

24 During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.

 

14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them.

15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

Even when Jesus was in the Jordan to be baptized by John, to fully fulfill the righteousness demanded by God, heaven opened and the presence of the Heavenly Father manifested itself (see Matthew 3:16-17).

 

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.

17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

 

These events reveal that when we discard the old things that the Holy Spirit shows to respond to God's call to get into a higher dimension of heaven and its mysteries, His blessing and help go along with it.

 

Amen and Amen.

 

In His Wisdom,

 

Daniel Glimm

When a believer in Christ spiritually grows, the standards set by God in the Tenakh (note: Old Testament) for dealing with evil may raise questions as to why YHVH, the God of Israel, instructed in particular situations to kill persons who were related to evil (see e.g. Leviticus 20:2-3; Deuteronomy 24:7; 1 Samuel 15:3).

 

3 I myself will set my face against him and will cut him off from his people; for by sacrificing his children to Molek, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.

4 If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molek and if they fail to put him to death, …

 

7 If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.

 

“…3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”

 

The reason is because it was important for God to expose the result of sin to help future generations to notice its consequences (see James 1:15).

James 1:15:
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

The Deliverance from Evil Spirits in the Tenakh and the New Testament

In contemplating the Word of God in its entirety, we find reports of various miracles, but the casting out of evil spirits in Christ Jesus being unique in the New Testament.

At the time of the Tenakh, there was only one way to effectively disconnect a man possessed by an evil spirit from his tormentor, and that was to kill that man. With Jesus Christ this method has changed because He is the fulfillment of the law (see Matthew 5:17).

Matthew 5:17:
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Jesus empowered His followers/disciples to drive out evil spirits from men without using the sword in the literal sense, but to use the Word of God in the way of liberating truth in the life of a demonized man in order to lead him into true freedom in Christ (see Hebrews 4:12 i.c.w. John 8:36).

 

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

 

36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

 

This is clarified by Jesus' words spoken to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane to put back the drawn sword, because the battle of a believer in Christ is not against flesh and blood (see Matthew 26:52 i.c.w. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4; Ephesians 6:12).

 

52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. …”

 

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

 

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

 

 

Therein the order established by God in the Tenakh and the related experiences of the people of Israel as well as their history served to create a place, a context and a framework for the coming of Christ. The people of Israel, their way of life and their experiences prepared the way for Jesus, the Messiah, to come to Israel in order to fill it with light (see Matthew 4:13-16).

 

13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali – 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah (see Isaiah 9:1-2): 15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles – 16 the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

 

God said to Abraham that his descendants would be given the land of Canaan after the sin of the Amorites who were present at that time had reached its full extent (see Genesis 15:16).

 

16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

 

This promise reveals that Canaan developed in the spiritual realm into a region where people were greatly influenced by evil spirits, so that they were convinced of themselves and their own power to resist God's plans. So, all generations (note: young and old) of the peoples living there as well as their economic system (note: animals, supply) were handed over to evil spirits, so that they implemented the plans of the adversary.

 

In Genesis 6:1-4 we are told of an antichrist “brood”, people who consciously put their bodies at the disposal of the powers of darkness.

 

1 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

 

One of their goals is unbridled perversion, homosexuality, child sacrifice and finally the lifestyle of complete conscious sexual devotion with demonic spirits present in the concerned people. Such a lifestyle extending over a long period of time, leads to a fullness of sin in the eyes of God, which in a certain generation carries with it His judgment on earth.

 

This “long period” shouldn't be interpreted as “cheap grace”, but is destined by God to call the concerned people to repent and not to miss the time of His goodness and grace (see Romans 2:4 i.c.w. Matthew 5:44-45).

 

4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

 

… 45b He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

 

The term “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2 doesn't refer to physical sons of God, but to spiritual beings that belong to the supernatural realm. This also becomes clear in the scripture from Job 1:6.

 

6 One day the angels (note: sons of God) came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them.

 

Because Jesus said that angels do not marry (see Mark 12:25), it can be assumed that from time to time in the course of history rebellious spirits seized natural bodies to produce an antichrist brood (satanic) of men through man and woman.

 

Looking at Genesis 6:4, we can see that this is not a one-time event, even if these giants (note: Nephilim) mentioned above perished in the flood by the judgment of God. This biblical reference makes it clear that this hasn’t been the last time this brood appeared.

 

As already mentioned, in the time before Jesus Christ to drive evil spirits out it was the only way by using the “sword”. This was the reason why God commanded the people of Israel to completely destroy a nation/people/person in order to deliver the region from darkness and fill it with the light of God, His love, His standard and His freedom.

 

The Hebrew word for “completely destroy” is “ḩāram” and means among other things “consecrate, banish” and is an indication to irrevocably bring YHVH, the God of Israel a certain thing as a sacrifice. (note: part excerpt from the Elberfelder Study Bible to the word “completely destroy – ḩāram” with the word key number: 2836)

 

Hence, this process was a priestly act. All the men of Israel weren't only entitled to participate in this act of worship, they were also instructed to do so.

 

 

With this explanation and in relation to the present time, it means that where the Holy Spirit leads us to deliver people from evil spirits by the triumph of Jesus Christ on the cross, this deliverance is a consecrated act that glorifies the God of Israel, and confirms His standard through the generations (see Isaiah 58:6 i.c.w. Luke 4:18-19; Mark 16:17).

 

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting (note: consecrated time) I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

 

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (see Isaiah 61:1-2)

 

17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; …

 

When saints deliver people from evil spirits by the power of Jesus Christ, this is a sign of the government of God and the presence of His kingdom. This is made clear by the statement of Jesus, speaking in the synagogue of Nazareth of the freedom of prisoners and the year of the Lord’s favor, while afterwards sitting on a special chair, the chair of Elijah (note: the ambassador of covenant). Jesus' preaching and His sitting on this particular chair was the reason why in the synagogue all eyes were fixed on Him (see Luke 4:20 i.c.w. Matthew 12:28).

 

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.

 

28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

 

(note: This message is based on a revelatory knowledge of Miles Wylie Albright from the book “Tale of Two Hearts”.)

 

Amen and Amen.

 

In His Wisdom,

 

Daniel Glimm