Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
September 16, 2014
When a cloud moves in, between man beneath and the heavens above, he cannot see the sun, moon or stars, for the lights of heaven are blocked from his sight. So it was, when Saul (the apostle Paul) was struck down by a great light on the road to Damascus; his travelling companions remained standing, hearing a voice but seeing nothing. It was clearly the voice of the same Lord, Jesus, whom Paul had set out to persecute in the spirit of killing His followers.
There are certain persons for whom God opens their ears and understanding to receive what He wants them to know about the future, while others, like Paul’s companions, though hearing the Word, do not receive the understanding, which was clouded from their vision. They could only know about that which transpired between Paul and the Lord, if Paul were to tell them. It was only for him that the Lord pulled back the veil of spiritual reality.
Herein, we see the picture of the prophet who functions in the same world with other men and women but hears and sees things, which they do not see and hear. We have all been given the words of Paul, the other apostles and the prophets, telling us from their experiences what it is that God has revealed. Yet very few have either the time or inclination to read the message given in the Spirit from heaven. They would prefer to be caught up in the affairs of the world and read what it is that man has to say, rather than that which God so graciously has revealed to us. Blessed are those who not only hear, but also understand, who believe the truth and are able to feel the power in the voice from heaven, as did Paul who testified to these things.
The apostles, likewise, heard the voice of God from heaven on the mount of transfiguration, and their testimony was as real as that of Paul. Yet, not all the apostles were called to receive such revelation. Only one, the apostle John, was called up in the Spirit to see and hear the revelation of all revelations, in his call to write the final book of the Bible, the final testimony of Jesus Christ.
It was a testimony into the future, with the Lord Jesus completing His work in this world by bringing about the redemption of man, so that He might receive a bride for Himself. This will happen at the same time the harlot woman, the false church and all her religious priesthood, go down with their father of lies, the devil, into the spiritual waters of the deadly sea, which they chose over the living water in the cloud from above.
The Bible is the collective writings of men who, like Paul and the other prophets and apostles, have had the veil pulled back for them. They have had special experiences with God and have seen and heard things from heaven, which have not been opened to the eyes and ears of other men. The Old Testament is full of prophets who testify to the coming and power of the incarnation of the Godhead in the person of a Redeemer-Husband of mankind, so beautifully depicted in the book of Ruth. She was a gentile woman who was brought into the house of Israel through marriage into the family, a marriage, which would bring forth sons and daughters destined for the very throne of David.
It raises the proverbial question about the horse and the cart, as to which one comes first. Was it Jesus, or the throne built for the house and line of David, which comes first? It would seem that bloodline must take a back seat to the spiritual line just as the ladder to heaven, revealed to be Jesus, appeared to Jacob before he was able to declare the place where this happened to be Bethel, the house of God, the place where he would dwell, under the name of Israel. David was unheard of at this point, for there was no nation called Israel, but Jesus was already declaring Himself to be the way to heaven.
Prophecy revealed that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. The power of this Seed to destroy the religious empire works of the devil were foretold about the same empires by which Satan ruled the world with fallen men being his agents of ruler-ship. Of course, to be born of the seed of the woman requires a virginal birth circumventing the seed of the man. How could this be?
The virgin was overshadowed and in-filled with the Holy Spirit to bring forth a child of the seed of the woman, making Him a Son of Man by her seed and a Son of God by the Holy Spirit of God, but not a son of the seed of man. This Man Jesus, through the Spirit, went back in lineage all the way to God (see Luke 3:38).
The woman did not bring forth a child captive to the corruption and spirit of death, capsulized in the seed of Adam. Her Child only died because He chose to do so, so that mankind might receive the gift of life from His Spirit of life. He released it for all who would trust in Him, to be given life where there was none due to the original sin of Adam and Eve. He set men free from their captivity to the spirit of death.
The New Testament is the fulfillment story of that which was foretold in the Old Testament. It substantiated the fact that the way, the truth and life had always been pointing to Jesus and would be fulfilled in the incarnation of God, through Him. The accomplishment of the Old Testament prophecy, along with the total agreement of the New Testament in fulfilling it, should be enough to demonstrate the truth of both, but still man prefers lies to the truth. Consider your own life as a testimony to this statement. Do you prefer to read the sure Word of God or are you more interested in the analyses of men who philosophize, rather than prophesy, under a cloud separating them from the mind of God.
They neither see anything from above, nor do they hear anything. They cover their eyes and block their ears to their closed Bibles, only to rush toward the signs of the moon and the stars pasted on the crystal balls of men’s minds and released as astrology by money-making writers for almost every newspaper in the land. Oh yes, you will read it and relish it, but the free, life-giving Book of truth, you will reject.
All the prophets and the Law prophesied until John the Baptist (see Matthew 11:13). We all believe that this messenger of the coming of Jesus must be greater by far than we could ever be, but no, the Bible tells us, to the contrary, that the least in the kingdom of heaven are greater than he. For he was born of the seed of man before the death of Jesus on the cross, leading unto salvation in the kingdom. Only with the death of Jesus, was the door opened to the kingdom for those born again of the Spirit of life who would become kingdom dwellers with the Lord God as His bride seated on the throne beside Jesus, among the priests and servants of the Lord.
The prophecies are sure and certain as is the testimony of Jesus, which is truth. Is fulfilled prophecy not more persuasive even than the miracles themselves (see Luke 16:31)? God has given men, who are in separation from Him by sin, His sure Word from which to rest our sin-weary souls.
We who have the history of such prophecies being fulfilled, almost to the end of time, have a surer certainty of this than anyone has had at any other time in history. We can now look at world affairs and events happening today and know not only what the outcome will be, thanks to the prophets of God, but, also, what we must do if we want to escape the coming judgment and enter the kingdom from this wilderness of the world, where our journey through it is about to draw to a close.
There is but one answer; it is to apply ourselves to the prophetic Word of God, for it is pleasing to Him and profitable to do so. Neither Mark Steyn nor Charles Krauthammer, wise and all as they are, can offer you the mind of God like a prophet can. The Scripture is about that Light, which God sent into a dark world. We can call this moment in time when it happened by its worldly name of Christmas, or we can say it as it is – The Word is a lamp unto the feet of those who grasp onto the Word called Jesus and apply it to their lives. By the Word, men can discover the way by which they should walk if they want to enter the kingdom; it is the way of truth and life, but never of religion and life.
The world is full of error and ignorance, and men are naturally without the knowledge necessary for eternal life. The only way to salvation is by the Way running throughout the entire Word, not by religion and good works. It is the lie of Satan, which tells you that you can be like God without His truth. His message preached by religious men to man is the liberalism of religion as opposed to the liberty, which comes from only preaching the prophetic truth of the word to him.
False doctrines about the nature of God, those describing Him as a loving God who would never destroy us if we are good and worthy of Him, are causing good men and women to be lost, not saved. With such doctrine men come to know less rather than more about God. It results in the door being opened in their lives to the broad road of destruction leading to the One World Order, for which the ground work was put in place at Babel, rather than to the New World Order, which began with the closure on the east side of the Garden to the way back to the tree of life.
Only the light of Scripture can remove the darkness caused by lack of understanding. To a dark mind in blindness, it is like the dawning of a new day appearing, with the joy each dawn brings with it. Those who love truth come to the light, but evil-doers run from it into the myth.
The truth of Scripture must be acknowledged because of its prophetic nature, which no reasonable mind could deny. Therefore, its profitability comes only by reading the Word. Why in the world would we eliminate it and take it from our children if we want a just and peaceful society, with hope for the future? We have rejected it for the cults of multiculturalism and their spell workers, caring more about offending them than we care about causing offense to Jesus. It would seem we prefer the spell workers of destruction, to the miracle workers of the kingdom.
Scripture did not come by the will of men, with their religious doctrines and religious books of practices and myths. It came from the holy, chosen men of God who were moved by the Holy Spirit to write as led to do so. There were no other penmen of Scripture, for these men delivered the mind and will of God and not of men.
Men, such as Balaam and the high priest, Caiaphas, spoke words of prophecy on occasion, but never were such men given the penmanship of Scripture. The holy men of God were powerfully excited and effectively employed to receive dictation for what was to become the writing of the greatest Book ever written. We are blessed by this to be able to come to understanding about the most important question the world can ask. It is the question, “Is there life after death and, if so, how can I receive eternal life?”
The answer is found only with certainty in the Bible, where it is proved with fulfilled prophecy. Surely, we do not want to rob our children and our nation of the answer for anything as important as that, in order to not offend the destroyer of men’s souls and his religious workers!
Reference: the writings of Matthew Henry