THE ROD
CONT., page 6
Once again I will begin this section by mentioning Kyle. When he read the draft of the sections pertaining to Whale Rider, his response was that they did not end the same way the movie ended. His observation was both just and correct. The prophetic testimonies we see evidenced in Whale Rider per the rod, though undeniably true and critically important, address the governmental problem that exists in the church, in the home, and in society. While it is all true, the message of the movie at large was – though necessary, masculine law is inadequate by itself to effect bringing forth the required and essential offspring. The offspring Koro needed was not just a leader, but one who would lead his people out of darkness and into the light, to effect a change in his people. Despite his necessary efforts, Koro failed to accomplish that which only the chosen one, Pai, could accomplish.
So what is our answer today as we learn these truths regarding the inadequacy of masculine law alone, even the inadequacy of the body of Christ alone, and the absolute necessity of a Bride coming forth? Like Koro, I have done many things to try to bring forth this Bride, and I too have failed. While these efforts were and are essential for many reasons, we still wait for the Pai. And what is that Pai for which we wait and need so much? What critical event is necessary in order for the Bride to be revealed? The latter rain outpouring of the Spirit flowing through the Bride. This is the one thing that any Koro cannot provide of himself.
A Koro can intercede, he can obey, he can go through the motions, he can teach, he can pay a price, but in the end, the Bride must come from an outpouring like that which occurred on the day of Pentecost. And there is only One who can provide that – the Son who will ask the Father, and He will give us the Spirit of truth (John 14:16-17), the Son to whom the scepter, the rod, the staff, truly and solely belongs (Genesis 49:10). Even as was spoken to me in June, 1994 – that which was done in the beginning, will be done again in the end.
A Koro is an Abraham, who must first lay out the covenant parts and guard them; he is an Adam who must first labor alone; he is even the body of Christ that must first become the crucified savior. This is the critical and costly Koro work. But Abraham is put to sleep, even as Adam and the body are put to sleep, and even as Koro was put to sleep in his own abilities.
A Koro is a Rizpah who equally guards the covenant parts (2 Samuel 21), as did Abraham. As a Rizpah, all I can do is to do my part. The Hebrew word for “Rizpah” is “ritspah,” and it means “burning coal.” It is the identical word used in Isaiah 6:6 where the seraphim took a “ritspah,” a burning coal, and cleansed the unclean lips of Isaiah. Yahweh can use this man, this Rizpah/ritspah, to cleanse lips from speaking unclean lies and errors taught by Christianity, or to guard the covenant parts, and even to sit on the rock with sackcloth, but a response to move the bones of Saul Christianity to the rib (Zela) Bride, or for water from heaven to be poured out, must come outside of me or any Koro. I can request of the Father, I can intercede, I can see and believe, I can obey, but the barley harvest water from heaven that fills the “gutters” comes from above.
When Kyle read the book, Whale Rider, from which the movie was written, one sentence stood out to him that he wrote down. Here it is; read it carefully – “Our Koro was like an old whale stranded in an alien present, but that was how it was supposed to be, because he also had his role in the pattern of things, in the tides of the future.” This is a true description of a Koro work. It is something from the past, stranded in the present which fails to match up, wanting and even requiring the past. But, this is good. It is like a conscience that will not go away, bridling us until we get to where we are supposed to be. And as Kyle later realized when he told me about this, this notable quote just happens to be on page 72 of the book!
Pai, as the Bride, was bone of Koro’s bone, and flesh of his flesh; she kept and fulfilled his laws in every regard. But, she was uniquely different from him as well. This is the quality that only the latter rain outpouring of the Spirit can bring. She is Koro, but she is also her distinct self.
Also, remember, the Bride comes out of the body. In other words, though she be separate from the body, she has a relationship to and with the body, and in time the two become one, as Koro and Pai became one. The Bride is not created, like Adam, wholly of herself, but her origin is from the rib of a Koro. (It is most revealing, and of obvious significance, and confirming, that the whale’s tooth looked in every way like a broad rib! Remnant Pai needed and received Koro’s “rib.”) Though the Bride is fashioned outside the body, there always remains that intrinsic legal and eternal bond. The Bride is not created out of the dust, of the earthy, as the body has been so fashioned, but it is taken to heaven to be made by Yahweh, just as the replacing garments of skin were made by Him.
In one regard, I believe Yahweh has already begun to pour out His Spirit on a Bride. In John 14:17, Yahshua spoke of this outpouring of the Spirit as the Spirit of truth. Later He said, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come” (John 16:13). I believe the Remnant Bride truth we are seeing today is indeed the seamless inner garment of truth, an intimate “mantle” of truth that is being given to the Bride, the truth that sets her free. I do not believe that I could be seeing these things, were it not for the Spirit of truth revealing them. There are many times when I have not understood, and He has told me or shown me the answer. Plus, as was just stated, these truths are indeed seamless – unbroken truth that is supported and revealed throughout the Scriptures, even as we are seeing evidenced once again in this writing.
So, I take hope and encouragement that at least we might be receiving the water up to our ankles (Ezekiel 47:1-12). But He alone controls this, and all we can do now is to wait upon Him and to seek His face and to look to the heavens from whence comes the rain. We are to be ready watchmen.
What is our ultimate hope? Even as we considered in the preceding section, our hope is to defeat death and to ascend alive to the Father. This ascension was promised in a very special way in Whale Rider, and with this we close.
There was a part early in the movie that really caught my attention. When Pai was reunited with her father after several years of separation, she ran to him and leapt into his arms. But she did something here that was completely unnatural. When someone leaps to something or someone, it is a natural response to reach out their arms to grasp it or them. But uniquely, Pai did not do this. Instead, when she leapt into her father’s arms, she sweetly folded her hands and arms into her bosom, and he received her and held her and gave her an affectionate nose press, “face to face.”
This unique gesture on her part takes place at the end of the movie as well, and once again entirely unintentional on the part of the producers. Quite evidently it was one more divine testimony.
As the one from whom she was named, Paikea, the whale rider who began their tribe, Pai, in the end, rides the same whale that he rode. There is a scene that shows her under water, riding on the back of the whale. She is performing this ride for an extended period of time, when finally she turns lose and drifts upward away from the whale until she is out of sight, as the whale continues its journey. From the camera location, it provides the sense that she is ascending.
When this scene takes place, one is not certain whether she is dead or alive; but she is indeed alive and survives to take her place beside her grandfather chief, Koro. But what takes place when she turns lose of the whale is quite remarkable and revealing. Just as she had folded her arms and hands into her bosom when she leapt into her long-separated but awaiting father’s arms, when she ascended alive from the whale, once again she did precisely the same thing. Why? Because Pai was in testimony ascending alive to the Heavenly Father, from whom we have been separated for a long time, but who has eagerly awaited our coming, and will greet us “face to face.” She was a picture of the second Remnant ascending to the Father. When you watch the movie, watch for this striking testimony.
This is what needs to take place soon. Yahshua said that when the Spirit of truth is sent, He will disclose to us what is to come. From all that we see evidenced from the Scriptures, the ascension of the Bride alive to the Father is indeed something that is to come soon, and is MUCH needed!
In the end, Pai’s experience does indeed restore the people to the ways in which they had departed, and she says that they would keep going forth, all together, with all their strength. While this movie deals with a tribe and its own difficulties in facing the future, its message is true to the state of the church. The church is in darkness and needs a work that will lead it into the light, return it to the ways in which it was begun by Yahshua, and go forth, all together, undivided with one strength and one mind. This movie uniquely tells us of our hope for this – the whale and its ascending rider, Pai.
E-Mail your comments or ask to be notified of
future publications