ALL’S WELL
THAT ENDS WELL
CONT., page 8
Let us now consider a revealing testimony per the matter of intercession. One of the other accomplishments of this gathering was that the men read the book titled Rees Howells, Intercessor by Norman Grub. Rees was given to me by Yahweh as my example in the flesh. While these men were here, by reading this book and our exchange concerning it, they received a priceless understanding of the work of intercession. It is highly recommended that you get a copy of that book and read it. There is not another book like it, and it will help you immensely to likewise understand the import of some of the things that are being said here and the things that are happening in the Remnant Bride and in all the church.
In 2 Kings 13 we read the final event in the life of our baldheaded prophet, Elisha, the one without the glory. Elisha became sick unto death, and Joash the king of Israel came to visit him and wept over him. Elisha told him to take a bow and some arrows, whereupon he placed his hands on the king’s hands. He had him to open a window toward the east and to shoot an arrow. Having done so, Elisha told him – “Yahweh’s arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Syria; for you shall defeat the Syrians at Aphek until you have destroyed them” (vs. 17).
Next he told Joash to take the arrows and strike the ground, and he struck the ground three times and stopped. At this Elisha became angry with Joash and said – “You should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Syria until you would have destroyed it. But now you shall strike Syria only three times” (vs. 19).
What is an intercessor and what does this account have to do with intercession? An intercessor is one who obtains results through natural means that are representative of the higher purpose for which he seeks to effect lasting results. This is precisely what Joash was involved in here, and he did not even know it. Elisha had Joash in an intercessoral test that would determine all of his victories over his enemy, Syria. If Joash had known what he was doing, if he had gained essential insight from the fact that when Elisha told him that his first act of shooting the arrow out the opened window insured his victory over Syria at Aphek, then he would have indeed been more diligent in the second part of his intercession. But failing to recognize this, the king thereby determined his own limited successes against Syria.
This is a revealing example of what intercession is, how it works, and its decisive nature. Yahshua was the truest example of an intercessor, not just in His death, but in everything from His baptism and forty days of being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, to His drinking the sour wine as a Nazirite, completing His final intercessoral work and thus declaring – “It is finished.” By all of these natural acts that He performed, He identified with man and the kingdom of God in every way necessary so as to effect all things pertaining to the establishment and fulfillment of the kingdom.
But intercession does not end with Yahshua; for the power that was effected by Him, and the power that was effected by Joash, is equally available to us today and is in fact entirely essential in order to obtain everything that is from above. In one way or another, either by one’s own intercessions (both knowingly involved or by the sovereign design and will of Yahweh, often even hidden to our own understanding) or by faith in the intercessions of another, the kingdom of heaven is manifested on earth to man.
One thing that was impressing me during this time of coming under the covering of holding all things in common, was that either by the presence of the number of men who were gathered here with me (during most of the time there were five men, but for two weeks there were six), or by the nature of there being five men plus myself, or five or six, these numbers were precisely the numbers which Elisha said were necessary to thereby defeat the Syrians – “You should have struck five or six times.” I take hope that our numbers were intercessorally sufficient to entirely defeat our enemy, Satan (even five smooth stones).
But furthermore, how many times am I willing to go through natural intercessions in order to gain our much needed victory over Satan? I do not disregard any of these Passovers or any of my intercessions as of none effect. Who would have perceived, or even yet who would have despised, the significance of a man striking arrows on the ground? That which looked foolish in the natural, had immense conclusive results in the long run. Furthermore, who has even discerned the immense conclusive significance and results of the obscure act of Yahshua drinking sour wine on the cross? By this sole simple act, He identified with fallen man and the corrupted kingdom, making possible its complete restoration. My perception and my hope in all that has come about, both by acts of knowledge as well as when unknowing, both cooperatively as well as under compulsion, both by plan and by necessity, is that this is Yahweh’s work of intercession – striking arrows on the ground in sufficient quantity so as to fully secure our victory.
When is enough enough? Yahweh knows, and it is in Him that we trust.
I am called to be an intercessor; this is Yahweh’s design for me. It is by intercession that I learn, and it is by intercession that one gains vital authority. These two achievements are critical. So, based on what we have just learned through this time (which is presented in part here in this writing), as well as other critical intercessional marks of progress, I fully trust that Yahweh is indeed accomplishing His works through these events. We recently endured, we obeyed, we placed upon the Remnant Bride from Passover through Pentecost the garment of skin covering of holding all things in common. In 2001 we celebrated Passover here with no covering at all. In Passover 2002 we celebrated Passover here with the fig leaf tithe covering. And in 2003 from Passover through Pentecost, we were under the complete covering of holding all things in common. What Yahweh might perform now is in His hands, but we have interceded.
One of the more outstanding accomplishments during this time together was that nineteen of the writings were placed in book form and printed. This was in fact quite an achievement. In having accomplished this, one of the brothers, Peter Douglas, pointed out the following passage from Habakkuk 2:1-3:
I will stand on my guard post
And station myself on the rampart;
And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,
And how I may reply when I am reproved.
Then Yahweh answered me and said,
“Record the vision
And inscribe it on tablets,
That the one who reads it may run.
For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal, and it will not fail.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay.”
How long must we wait for the vision of the second Remnant to be fulfilled, for the latter rain to come, and for the triumphal return of Yahshua to this earth in peace? That is to be seen; but for now I know I wait. And even as a priesthood of the tribe of Judah is not according to the Law but is by the mercy seen testified in Jerusalem above and by an oath, so I believe that Yahweh must overlook our complete inabilities and perform the vision according to His mercy and equally by an oath.
He says that the vision “will not fail,” even “though it tarries.” That being the case, I yet wait upon Yahweh, that He will renew us like the eagle so that we may “run, and not be weary,” that He will send His Spirit upon us like a rushing wind that breaks these bonds that have held kingdom man captive for 2,000 years, and that He will open our mouths so that we can accomplish all that must be done and said for His name’s sake and for the sake of His kingdom. Having placed at least half of these writings in book form, I wait for Him to begin the race between Ahab and Elijah, a race which Elijah must win, the race to Jezreel, the very place where Jehu heaped two heaps of the heads of Ahab’s sons. As an intercessor, I wait upon Yahweh with the hope that I/we might run.
Continue to the final page of Alls Well … for “THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD”