22.3 Elijah Now Come
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5). Today this word is fulfilled.
When I first heard this word as a call from God, not to me as an individual, but to Christ in His body, we did not then know the reality of Christ Himself living as us. My desire to be a part of this fulfillment was, to say the least, intense. Yet I was just a boy, and I had no idea how such a reality could happen to me. Yet union with Christ is far more than a philosophy. It is Jesus with whom we are one, and He is the fulfillment now through us of every word that God speaks.
Through Us
This session is authority released through us. Authority is not found in our spirits; authority is not found in our flesh, our human ability; authority is found in our psuche, in our soul, in our self-story, the psuche of Christ. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is never an end to what that one commandment means.
Let me show you who Elijah is. When Jesus referred to John the Baptist as the fulfillment of Elijah to come, He did not remove the truth that the same thing would be God’s intention in the second witness of Christ now through us. Yet John the Baptist denied being “Elijah” when he was asked; rather, he said, “I am the voice crying, “Prepare the way.”
Meek and Lowly of Heart
I do not know a God who would take one human, either Christian or Judaic, and set that person above all others and say, “This is my ‘holy man of God’; tremble before his authority to command.” Such a God does not exist.
God is meek and lowly of heart; the Man He sends is Christ Jesus, the life of the least and the littlest in the Body of Christ. Whatever is true of Christ is true of each one in whom He lives.
Is not Christ Jesus of greater authority than all that imagined upon the “demigods” of the Old Testament? And I say, “demigods” because that is how most image these simple, stumbling, faith-filled men and women who knew the Lord, Old Testament and New.
Having Authority
And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes (Mark 1:22). Truth does not come from mental discussion and argument.
For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak (John 12:49-50). We do not speak on our own authority, but it is the Father who sends us who speaks through us as we speak the Word of Christ. And we know what is the Word of our Father BECAUSE we speak Christ personal as us, because we speak what God speaks.
Breaking the Image of the Serpent
And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer (Revelation 12:7-8). I now understand exactly what this circumstance is in fulfillment, the first part of our casting the curse from off this earth.
Our first task as Christ fulfills through us the role of Elijah the prophet is to break the image of the serpent as the image through which our brethren see God. Elijah shows us that we break that image, not through discussion, but by authority.
A Family of People
Heavenly beings do not show us what God looks like; man shows us what God looks like. When God shows up in creation He appears only as human beings, a family of people, living life together, loving one another with a pure heart fervently. There is no other God.
You see, if the serpent is no longer the image of God, then what will replace him as the image through which Christians will now see God? The human Jesus as He walked this earth is NOT that image; we know Him in that way no longer. The image of God is Christ as a many-membered Body.
The Only Appearance of God
The image through which all will see and know God cannot be a bunch of isolated Christians talking, talking, talking about “union with Christ” as ideas without power. This is why the shattering of that false image and the flinging open of the Doors into the Feast of Tabernacles are two parts of the same thing. Tabernacles is Christian community, brethren deliberately and willfully walking together in love, the only appearance of God.
But the fulfillment of Elijah in this end of the age of human folly is the part that involves shattering the image of the serpent, and that is what concerns us here. The story of Elijah related to this present truth is found in 1 Kings 17 and 18. Take the time to read both chapters prayerfully.
The Contention
Sam Fife preached a 2½ hour word on this fulfillment of Elijah, a word that stands as a milestone in God’s planting of what you have read from me these last eight years. I would preach the same length of time, except the Word is no longer Sam Fife’s, but that which is presently arising out of Christ Jesus as He has made Himself known in me. But that would be 150 of these sub-sections, and alas, I must reduce myself to 24.
Here is the contention then and now. And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word (1 Kings 18:21).
I Am that I Am
In the next session we will explore the mighty weapons of our warfare. One of those weapons fits here. When Paul raised the question of meat that had been offered to idols, he stated one of our greatest weapons, and that is, that there are no other “gods.” There is only One God, our Father, and of Him and through Him and to Him ARE ALL things. Satan himself is a pipsqueak, a sorry and sad little whine existing only in the shadows. All he does is speak things that are not true. He gets noticed only because people believe him.
Elijah used three names, YHWH, which is “I am that I am,” then the singular of the Hebrew word for God, Elohim, and then the Phoenician word for “Lord,” Ba-al, “al” being the same as “el.” Or the Lord or “God” of the flies, that is of death.
Two Images of God
Elijah is two of those words. “El,” God, but typically plural or family; “i,” is; “jah” the Lord, or “I am that I am.”
We now understand exactly what this contention is – which image shows us God as He is. If the highest of heavenly beings shows us God, then serve that God of hellfire, a God who thinks more highly of Himself than anyone else, a God who keeps all others away from Himself. But if the Man, Christ Jesus, living now as a family of people walking together in love, His Body the Church, shows us God, then serve a God who is meek and lowly of Heart and who thinks more highly of you than He does of Himself, a God who carries you through all, but who reveals Himself only through many together.
The Valley of Decision
Here are the words of our Covenant with God. We know that if He appears to us, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2 – modified to the Greek). The operative term is “as He is.” Christ IS a many-membered Body, brethren walking together as one.
And so this sword of Elijah comes first to us. Will we have a “God” who keeps us far away from each other in our own little isolated and reasonably selfish lives? Or will we embrace Christ as He is, regardless of the cost? Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision (Joel 3:14). The entire book of Joel is one thing – the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Your Own Heart Pierced
I made my decision 39 years ago, this April. God Himself reviewed that decision for me 38 years ago, this May. I have never needed to review that decision since.
“I WILL know You, God, here on this earth, now in this present age, and I WILL know and walk together with a people who know You, God.” Those were my words then, wrought out of the sword of God piercing my soul and splitting it all to pieces. They are my same words today. It is a Covenant with God that He will not break.
A sword will pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:35).
Shattering Isolation
I am writing now to those who are utterly devoted to the revelation of Jesus Christ, to be utterly poured out by a Determined Father, regardless of the cost, for the sake of the true image of God, a fully successful Church, Christians walking together in love. There is NO other God.
The image of isolation must be shattered. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God (1 Peter 4:17)? The judgment goes back to the Garden, which image shows us God?
See God for Real
The hatred against man as the image of God is palpable throughout the world and the church.
I have taught you to accept yourself in all that is human as God’s image, filled with all the fullness of God. But that is only the first part. The second part is your brothers and sisters – are they together God’s image or do you prefer the solitary isolation of a separated life? You will not see God until you see Him for real in the face of your brothers and sisters walking together with you in love, that is, God manifest IN THE FLESH.
I am speaking of the revelation of Jesus Christ, and I have never, in all my teaching, placed before you anything else.
The God Who Answers with Fire
Eternal life is knowing God; therefore eternal life is life together, the fountain of all blessing and joy. And it is with this true image of God, the family of Christ, that we shatter forever the false image of the serpent.
Let’s return to Elijah. Here is the contest over which image shows us God. Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answers by fire, He is God (1 Kings 18:24). And I have to pause as these words go all through me – and the God who answers by fire. I know these words; I know whereof they speak.
Come Near to Me
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.” Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water (30-35).
The Altar of the Lord
I could easily preach for two hours on these words alone; how they go all through me, each phrase, like great resonating gongs of the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. There are three altars of God. The first is the altar of burnt offering, representing the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross and all the propitiation of God found there. The second is the altar of incense, representing our entrance into the Holiest of All, God now through us, turned around forever, and going forth as Father revealed. But the third altar of God is this altar of Elijah, the altar that is broken down.
Where Is the Church?
Here is the exact same word from Isaiah. The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Isaiah 40:3). Elijah now come through us.
This altar of Elijah broken down and the highway of God crooked and filled with debris are the same thing.
Where is the Church? Where are brethren walking together in all the mundane realities of daily life, loving one another with a pure heart fervently. Listen, when Jesus said, “This is My commandment, that you love one another,” I take those words to be literal and absolute, words that MUST BE fulfilled on this earth and in our lives.
Israel Shall Be Your Name
And Elijah took twelve stones… – saying, “Israel shall be your name.” Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is Jesus, and Jesus walks this earth today IN His corporate Body, brethren walking together in Love. There alone is the soul of Jesus found. Yes, His soul must be in full union with our own individual souls by our faith that He is, but it cannot stop there, for isolated members do NOT make a Body. We ARE members of one another. You cannot live without me and I cannot live without you. Israel shall be your name.
Three times they poured water upon that altar, twelve large pots of water in all; the third time is the outpouring of Tabernacles.
The Image and Revelation of God
Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again (37). Then the fire fell, and God seized to Himself all that was offered, the manchild seized into God and into His throne.
Let’s translate the response of the people into our present New Testament language. “The Lord Jesus Christ, seen now through His Body, brethren, a family of people, walking together in love, He is the image and revelation of God! The Lord Jesus Christ, seen now through His Body, brethren, a family of people, walking together in love, He is the image and revelation of God!”
Turning the Hearts
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers… (Malachi 4:5-6).
When we translate the final line of the Old Testament, “Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse,” into the speaking of Christ through us now, here is what we speak. As God through us breaks the curse from off this earth.
Turning the heart of the Father to the hearts of His sons, and turning the hearts of believers in Jesus to the heart of the Father is what I have sought to do in every letter I write. Heart with heart, sharing heart with God.
Jesus IN Your Face
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’ (Luke 13:34-35).
“Your house left desolate” is the same thing as an altar broken down and a highway filled with debris. I KNOW that I will not see Jesus until I see Him in your face, face to face with me daily. And I KNOW that you will not see Jesus until you see Him in my face, face to face with you daily. Blessed are YOU who comes to me as Jesus Himself.
Life Forevermore
Christ IS Christian community. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. – As You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give Christian community, knowing God as He is, to as many as You have given Him.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing—Life forevermore (Psalm 133).
The Victory Begins
Having established the authority of Christ through us, in the next session, we want to look again at the weapons of our warfare, this time with a deeper understanding than we have ever had before. Inside those weapons I will place the authority of the two witnesses (I will give – ALL) and the anointing oil that flows through them. And then we will spend three sessions looking at each part of the original curse and at the determination of God as He casts each part of that curse off of the human experience through us over the next few years.
And that victory begins with the shattering of the image of the serpent and the opening of the Doors of Tabernacles.