ISSACHAR "Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand" (Rev. 7:7). Issachar means "hire," "wages," or "compensation," and he was given this name because of his mother’s exclamation at his birth, "And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son. And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar" (Gen. 30:17-18). When Leah gave birth to this goodly son she felt that the Lord had paid her or recompensed her for her service and obedience to Him. She was indeed blessed! Issachar received a rich and beautiful inheritance in the land of Israel, the fertile eastern end of the Jezreel Valley. His boundary on the north was mount Tabor and on the south mount Gilboa. The men of this tribe were known to be valiant men of might in all their families, and in all their generations. It appears that they were a laborious, hardy, valiant tribe, patient in labor and invincible in war. Can we not see by this that Leah was indeed blessed with a son who was also blessed! In the spirit Issachar stands as a representation of the bountiful blessing of God that comes upon every obedient son. The apostle Paul in writing to the Ephesians made this wonderful statement, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 1:3). The source of all blessing is our heavenly Father who is spirit! This includes all temporal as well as all spiritual blessings! However, in this beautiful passage, the blessings are not temporal, physical, natural blessings for the outer earth-man, but SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS for the inner new-creation-man. These blessings are not received in El Paso, Dallas, Tulsa, or any other city or place on earth — they are experienced only in heavenly places in Christ Jesus! These are realities, graces, and powers communicated from the person and glory of THE ASCENDED CHRIST! They are from Him and out of the high and holy realm in which he dwells! In the phrase "heavenly places" the word "places" is supplied by the translators — the Greek meaning is in the heavenlies or in the higher than heavenlies. It is not a place anywhere in the universe, but a dimension in the spirit! The thought is that the spiritual blessings of God have their source and substance in the highest spiritual realms and are ministered to the Lord’s elect from thence. This glorious realm is the realm of incorruption, life, and power which lies beyond the power of temptation, sin, limitation, sorrow, sickness, and death! The blessings most sought after by believers are not those of which Paul here speaks, but mere blessings of the corruptible realm of earth such as healing and health for the body, financial prosperity, jobs, houses, lands, food, automobiles, relationships, solution to problems, multiplied daily needs, and a thousand more earthly things. It is remarkable that during the three and a half years of Jesus’ earthly ministry, being found in fashion as a man, limited by the realm of the physical and mortal to which He subjected Himself for our sake, He never performed one act, not even one miracle, sign, or wonder on the spiritual plane of incorruption. Every miracle performed by our Lord was for the earth-man as He raised dead bodies, cleansed lepers, made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and healing every manner of sickness and disease among the people. He walked on water, turned water into wine, and fed thousands from five small loaves and two fish. It was excellent wine, and delicious bread and fish, but, nevertheless, just physical, material, and earthly, supplying strength for a few hours to the mortal man and then cast out into the draught. Nothing incorruptible or heavenly there! And nothing for the INNER MAN! But once Christ came forth in the power of resurrection and immortality, once He ascended on high, He ministers now from a higher and more glorious realm, and now, as on the day of Pentecost, there comes from heaven something greater far than that which blesses the outer man, the spirit of the glorified Jesus has been outpoured that we might be born from above and made partakers of the divine nature! Truly He has raised us up within ourselves, in both consciousness and state of being, and "made us sit together in THE HEAVENLIES" It is here, in the heavenlies, that He blesses us with ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS in Christ; blessings of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, of joy and peace, of love and faith, of grace and glory, of might and power, of the mind of Christ and the image of God! What surpassing blessings are these! The earthly, temporal blessings are first experienced when we are spiritual babes, but the spiritual, heavenly blessings are reserved for sons! Reading the verses where Paul speaks of these spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, we notice that he follows immediately with these words, "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world…having predestinated us unto placement as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself…" (Eph. 1:4-5). One will know he is moving into sonship when, in all his asking, he asks most often for SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS instead of PHYSICAL BLESSINGS! Only the spiritual blessings are able to deliver both us and all creation from the bondage of corruption! Only the omnipotent power of God can deliver this sin and death-cursed world from self, ignorance, sickness, limitation, sin, and death! I do not hesitate to tell you that the world has not yet witnessed the power of God on the level of incorruption! As our Lord did after His resurrection, so will the sons of God do. We will be in glorified bodies and we will belong to the heavenly world, but we will appear and take part in earthly life and show forth the fullness of the power and glory of His resurrection right here on earth! This is Christ coming to be revealed in the fullness of Himself among all peoples and before all nations! Our Lord’s life on earth after His resurrection gives us an illustration of what resurrection life ultimately means. Only resurrection life and power is the fullness of sonship! "And declared to be the son of God with power…BY THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD" (Rom. 1:4). "Ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption (placement as sons), to wit, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY" (Rom. 8:23). Following His resurrection Jesus was in a place simply by willing to be there, regardless of space, time, or material obstructions. He had access to the heavenly spiritual realms and to the earthly dimensions as well. He was truly trans-dimensional! This is the destiny of all the sons of God! Since this is the truth concerning the resurrection of the firstborn son of God, it follows that this is the glory that shall be manifested when all the sons of God are glorified. Furthermore, the glory of the Lord to be manifested on this earth when all the sons of God are transformed and glorified shall be much more magnificent than it was when Jesus was glorified. Jesus was glorified to ascend and pour out the firstfruits of the Spirit; the sons of God shall be glorified to express in the earth the fullness of the Spirit and to deliver all creation from the bondage of corruption! This is the clear and plain revelation of the gospel! Although the glory of the Lord revealed and manifested when Jesus was glorified was awesome, there is a glory coming that shall be greater by far! For it shall not be just one son glorified, but many sons brought to glory! The whole creation is standing on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of God’s sons glorified and manifested! Every created thing is waiting to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the family of God. Deliverance from corruption means the abolition of both sin and death — resurrection life and the nature of God expressed through everyone and everything! Oh, the wonder of it! Imagine the glory to be revealed when all the sons of God are transformed and glorified! And not to ascend to heaven in a cloud, but to minister deliverance, transformation, and glory to the whole creation! Truly this is the promised "coming" or "revelation" of our Lord Jesus Christ! That great event will be the transformation and glorification of the entire body of Christ, resulting in a ministry of such magnitude as to deliver all creation from the tyranny of carnality, decay, and death, into the glorious liberty and victory of the very sons of God. And what a triumphant victory that shall be! When the manifest sons of God go forth it will be unlike any ministry you have ever witnessed or read about in church history! All revivals of former days and ages will pale before the glory of the manifestation of God through His sons. When the glorified sons of God appear even to one individual, be that individual a bag lady, street drunk, store clerk, drug lord, college professor, corporate CEO, or the president or prime minister of a nation, when a manifest son appears and speaks to that person or lays his hand upon him, there will be the appearance of the revelation of the Lord such as came to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. Oh, yes! The power of the Highest will come upon that man, woman, or child with irresistible glory. In the presence of Him whose countenance is as the sun, a shudder will pass through their body, they will tremble uncontrollably, weep and become instantly and completely broken before the presence of the Lord, and the veil will be removed from off their mind and heart. There will be no need for a meeting, no need for a worship service, no need for a sermon, no necessity to "bring them to a decision," for the power of God shall illuminate, cleanse, and transform them, "down loading" as it were, a new mind, a new heart, and a new nature into the very fabric and core of their being. I am thoroughly convinced in my spirit, and I believe I have the Spirit of God, that just as God saved Saul of Tarsus in a moment of time, by the sovereign revelation of the Lord, so shall He reveal Himself to all men causing them to be born again! Their eyes will be opened to the glories of His kingdom just as they once were open in lovely Eden. Jesus came to bring life to the world! This is the life that will flow out through the sons of God! Oh, think of what it means! God gave this life for the redemption of Adam’s race and man’s transformation into the image and glory of God. Creation is waiting, waiting, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God! Though we have had twenty centuries of preaching and ministry, after the old carnal order of the church systems of man, creation waits still and the world is shrouded in spiritual darkness. The old-order methods of the church systems can never deliver the creation from the bondage of corruption, never, I say, in a million years! After two thousand years of church ministry more people are dying without Christ and without hope than ever before in the history of the world! There must be a change, a drastic change, a radical change, a new ministry, a greater glory, something unprecedented and transcendental — the power of the kingdom of God! In vain the mind seeks to understand the process by which all men can be irreversibly changed, converted, delivered, made alive, and transformed into the image of God. Yet the simple truth is that all that is needed to accomplish such a thing is an outflowing of the OMNIPOTENT POWER OF LIFE! For this very thing God is preparing His sons! And I tell you today by the word of the Lord that there shall be a dispensation of omnipotent incorruptible life into the being of every called and chosen son of God! It is in the spiritual attainment of the tribe of Issachar that we shall receive our wages — we shall be recompensed for our unfaltering obedience and willing and total submission to every dealing of the Father in this walk of sonship to God! Our Father’s remuneration shall be His overflowing supply of divine wisdom, love, incorruptible glory, omnipotent power and authority to fulfill the sonship ministry! We know for certain that we can’t change the order, alter the course of history, abolish the multitude of false philosophies and religions, subdue the nations, deliver creation, and bring the kingdom of God to pass in all the earth by any of the tired old methods of the past. GOD MUST DO A NEW THING! GOD MUST IMPART TO US A MORE EXCELLENT GLORY! GOD MUST USHER US INTO A NEW REALM! HE MUST RAISE UP WITHIN US A NEW WISDOM AND A POWER WE HAVE NEVER HAD BEFORE! In the tribe of Issachar, where we receive the recompense of our obedience, we have truly come to the kingdom for such a time as this!
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 15:17:43 +0000
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