­The River of Life. Knowing what to hold on to, and what to let go. Being washed from the things that detain us away from our Heavenly calling and our inheritance of Eternal life and all that entails in the here and now. A huge price was paid at the cross for us to have some things.

The name Mt Hermon comes from the complicated verb חרם (haram), meaning to designate someone to one the two possible ways the afterlife can be experienced. (Presumably life or death).

https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Hermon.html

Let’s look at how God embedded His gospel message to us into the landscape of the land of Israel using Mt Hermon, the River Jordan, the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, for the Hebrews of those who have “crossed over” (that’s what that name means) to the other side, being one of the those two choices.

The river Jordan flows from Mount Hermon delivering the waters with two choices that make up the Jordan River.

The name; Jordan comes from the Hebrew ירדן‎ Yarden, meaning “to go down”, relating to the Jordan River flowing from the snow melted waters of Mt Hermon, that goes through the land of Israel and side skirts Jerusalem. The Jordan river is the water source for The Sea of Galilee and has its final destination in the Dead Sea, which is ironically the lowest elevation on planet Earth.

We see here embedded in the Land and the Hebrew language, the preservation of the progression and the purpose of the gospel. To offer to humanity one of two choices, life or death.

Only the Creator could do this in such a way, and have all the coinciding terms embedded into the landscape. This is amazing!

You can see the Jordan River flows from Mount Hermon down into the Dead Sea as one the two, and last options, the one with least resistance, and is the default conclusion for those who did not respond to the other option of life.

For the preferred option other than the Dead Sea, one must go down into the river Jordan (for to go down is what Jordan means) to be washed and come out clean from the debris of life, the head waters, and all the obstacles (sins) picked up along the way. The common term for that is baptism (a ceremony to be washed). This is a picture of baptism, as the other choice, other than the Dead Sea.

It was the Hebrews (a name meaning; those who have crossed over), who chose to cross through the waters, to be washed from the certain death and all its entanglements that destine them for the Dead Sea, or Sea of Dead.

“Crossover” is synonymous with the word; “baptism”. Baptism simply means to be washed from death to walk in newness of life as taught by Paul in the book of Romans and elsewhere.

It was with Moses (whose name means, drawn out of water), whose successor, was Joshua, (a name that means; the saving one who saves, savior, and a deliverer), as one who leads us into the promise land, after our being washed from the certain death.

The name Joshua is from the Hebrew name Yeshua translated into the New Testament name Jesus. So Jesus means Joshua, from Yeshua, meaning; one who saves and delivers, and Joshua is the one who brought the Hebrews out of death, symbolized by them crossing the river Jordan.

They were baptised through the Jordan River to be cleansed from the old ways that lead to death, to be washed from that death, to cross over to Eternal life, to be free  to go on into their inheritance in the promise land like understood historically with Joshua, into the land where the promises of God have their fufillment.

So that we don’t get the idea that we need to move to Israel to have this new life.

The writer of the book of Hebrews, put it like this “⁸ For if ^[b]Joshua had given them rest (in the promised land after dividing it among them), then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.

Showing us that these are all just pictures of invisible realities in the spirit, made physical and walked out in a carnal way for our learning and a deeper understanding of the invisible things that are contained in the gospel. 

It is these pictures that previous generations had to pass on the gospel message. However today we have Gods Holy writ called the gospel and scripture to convey these invisible realities, to add dimensions to our understanding.

So the main point here today is;

The gospel message promises eternal living to those who have their old nature with all its baggage, to trade it in by unloading it into the Jordan river, through the process called Baptism, to come up  to walk in newness of life. To then move forward in Christ to recieve and actualize the promises given to us by the Heavenly Father

This pictures the resurrection whereby Jesus Christ crossed over death first for us on the cross, being our crossover from death to life, so that now being washed clean, we can walk in a new life of the spirit. 

This is the resurrection of faith to those who can receive it.

This is why we profess at our baptism and our crossover into the one true Holy Land, to bury our old self, and receive our new self that’s guided now not by fear or guilt, but by the gift of Gods Holy Spirit that is in us. In this way we are in Christ and in Gods Holy Spirit, the place where all of these concepts have their fulfillment in.

If you remember, it was when John the Baptist baptized Jesus, that the Heavenly Father said for the first time since Adam sinned “this is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. And because we associated with Christ’s cross as our crossover to newness of life, when we go to the Father He says, this is My Beloved in whom I am well pleased. Because we associated with Christ’s death for a new life, we get the Father too. To be “in Christ” is the washing and regeneration of Gods Holy Spirit called Eternal Life. Our Heavenly Father now only sees His Son in us. That’s what it means to be “in Christ”, to be in the land.

Now let’s look at walking in the promise land.

The true Israel of God according to scripture is Gods only Begotten Son as defined here in Exodus 4.22. where God says “Israel is My Firstborn Son” meaning Jesus Christ. So that those who have crossed over into newness of life, are on Christ and in the promise land or land of promises, the place where they are given and implimented. Have you received this?

That Christ after the cross is the true Israel and promise land of God, and not the twelve tribes or a piece of land on earth. They too, like all the pictures you are seeing here today and throughout all of scripture, are just pictures of Gods nee reality for us of life in the spirit, just underneath carnal perceptions, and we use these to understand God and the Eternal giftings better. Can you see this? Do you remember when Jesus said to those “who have eyes to see and ears to hear”? He was talking about this. This is what a revelation is about. All revelations are understanding invisible realities. All

Yeshua or Jesus as commonly known today, is that promised land we are to participate in now. As the new covenant concurres that “all the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ” the true promised land associated with “The Kingdom of God at hand” and not some silly pilgrimage on planet Earth. These pictures described here work just fine.

To be “in Christ” is to be  “in the promise land” of spirit and truth. The land and the things shown here only symbolize and demonstrate in picture form, of the invisible realities and promises of God in the Spirit, for those who are born of the spirit to thereby grow in understanding. This is spiritual food.

(Please read John chapter 3 for better understanding of this)

Just as a side note: the names Joshua and Jesus originate from the same Hebrew name “Yeshua”. The Hebrew language does not have a “J” sound. The old testament Joshua and Yeshua were just a picture of Gods Son who leads us into the land. That’s why they have the same name.

For this reason Joshua had to baptize the generation after Moses who had not been baptized through the Red Sea.

For us, the river Jordan represents a timeline for the gospel that goes through earthen Israel first. Like Paul said “to the Jew first, then also to the gentiles. Not that the Jews are regarded as better, but showing us the wrong way to do it. It is not a physical matter, but a spiritual one that requires faith. The old way couldn’t produce that. Hence “the new and living way” brought to us “in Christ”.

And as Paul said to the Jews of his time saying “since you have judged yourself unworthy for the gospel, we are taking it to the Gentiles”, as the next place in the progression of the gospel. Like the Jordan River goes to the sea of Galilee, symbolizing the  gentiles, and all nations.

Galilee means nations and is synonymous with the gentiles and is really quite fitting given that the original promise to Abraham was that “in you all the nations (means nations, gentiles and Galilee) of the earth shall be blessed. And that is where the Jordan River flows, into Galilee and not to Jerusalem. It only side skirts Jerusalem.

People were leaving Jerusalem to be baptized by John the Baptist through they Jordan. Scripture says of these who departed Jerusalem because they doubted their legitimacy”And they will hear it”.

For this testimony we can confirm in the book of The Revelation where “every tribe, nation and tongue were present worshiping the Lamb. That the Jews or no other nation was regarded over another or they would have been lifted up in that account, but they weren’t.

This is why John the Baptist at the river Jordan, spoke to the Jews and said “who hath warned you to flee from the coming wrath of God?” Showing us that some knew it was time to disassociate from that Jerusalem the Jews and their places and practices. This is also why the first believers were called “the people of the way”. Ya, on there way out for they were instructed to “go ye therefore into all the earth teaching all things. All these types seen here are from the “All Things”.

That is why the River Jordan side skirts Israel, even to this day. They have to be saved in the same fashion as anyone else as just another Nation. Even as Paul taught in Galatians “²⁶ For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷ For as many of you as were baptized into Christ (the land of promises when you come up out of the water) have put on Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one (co-equal, joint heirs) “in Christ Jesus.”

That’s the Gospel, a word that means “good news”.

Amen

­A Race of Kings and Soveriegns.

The human race has a God given objective of producing a harvest of those who are uniquely re-imaged like God.

Scripture tells us that the elect, of those whom He has selected, are to Rule and Reign with The Only Begotten Son of God. That we are joint heirs of the things of God, our Heavenly Father.

Meaning that we are kings and sovereigns too. That we have excecutive power and decision making abilities. As those who co-rule and co-reign with Yashua. We can make our own choices with our inheritance on the who’s where’s what’s and when’s with our portion of the shared Kingdom of God of multiple co-sovereigns.

And because Yashua came first to save (that’s what Christ and Messiah means). He earned that right and gave it to us as a small part of our inheritance to use at will in accordance with His purposes after our inauguration. So we too can say, this one and that one is mine.

We do however have our testings before hand, but God has held nothing back from those He shares His title with. For this we are indistinguishably one “in Christ”.

With the title comes responsibilities and He doesn’t give us any tasks we are not able to do, because He also empowers us to do so. He gave us the right to be His offspring” (progeny). Not of any merit on our own, but because of the mere fact that He said so. He gave it to us by way of willing it to us by means of the New Covenant contract signed with His blood. God is this serious.

If you’ve  followed us this far, maybe you are of this sort. Unless you are held back by doubt, fear or love of this age, and you are un-willing to receive it, because “to as many as received Him? To them He gave power to become His offspring, even to those who (simply) believed in His name”. Are you getting this? Can you hear the Heavenly calling saying “come up hither”. This is the Ascention.

And from Revelation 2 Christ said

²⁶ And those who overcome, and keep My works until the end (showing your continuel participation and pursuence) and, “to them I will give power over the nations— (This is the inauguration)

So when this age is over, and the elements have been removed with a fervent heat (2 Peter 3.10), it is those of us, who “have pressed in to lay hold of why Christ laid hold of us”. Us who have taken Him at His word “as beholding in a mirror the Glory of the Father, we are transformed from His Glory to His Glory to His self same image and likeness as by the Spirit”. 2 Corinthians 3.18

He is the place the Glory resides. And when Christ said “I go to prepare a place for you, that where I go, you may be too”, who also said “and where I go you know, and the way I go you know too” and we did. Who also said “I will come back and recieve you to Myself” and He did because He said “Lo I am with you always” we didn’t have very far to go. When Christ said this word, it was as instantaneous as when He said “Let there be light” and there was. This is His trademark and signature move that “It is finished” and His Spirit departed from His man. He left that way to show us how to do it.

This is how we earned this right. Not by physical means but as it were, by inheritanced through the New Will and Testament. This is what Paul meant when he pleaded for us to be reconciled to the Father. We humbly accept this gift given at such a great cost displayed at the cross. Thank You Heavenly Father!

You cannot add to it or top it off. You can only receive it, not to hide it, but to learn how to use it while you are in your Transfiguration mode.

The writer of Hebrews wrote of those recieving their finishing touches “of whom the world is not worthy of”, who in their patience knew that “God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us”. They are cheering on your completion of the gospel in yourself for this greater association. This is “since you are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” who are cheering us on. We have a living audience.

For this reason “Yeshua Christ was the first born among many offspring” (meaning there are many more like Him) while He was flesh, so we know the flesh is not the hindrance but a hardened heart and a distracted mind is. He obtained that right for us by becoming one of us and shattering the barrier of the great (carnally) unknown. We assume His right and gift by putting Him on, one attribute at a time, untill we have been consumed by Him. This is our Consummation. “We are complete in Him who is head (and controller) over all principalities and powers”. And know we are done when we’ve experienced and excersized it even in this age. He has prepared us for “In the day the Lord comes to be Glorified is His Saints” of those who have received His finishing touches.

You have to have been human to judge humans. And you have to be God to be a righteous judge. He became human (not His natural self) to obtain that title, then returned to His natural self. For this reason He has the ability to share all that with whomever He selects.

He has chosen to share that with us the Elect. This is true god-like-ness. He has chosen us who’ve received His Glory to share in His tasks. There is no greater task or calling.

The parable of the man with 5 talents and gained 5 more explains it like this “²¹ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord”. Showing us a return of at least double on our efforts of patients and perseverance of pressing into the Kingdom. There is nothing lackidaisical about this.

And in the parable of sowing and reaping, some harvested 5 fold, 10 fold 100 fold and more” so you know it’s value compounds exponentially.

Even as it says in Revelation 1. To Him who ^[b]loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, ⁶ and has made us ^[c]kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” So we can see here too that it is not a temporary employment.

Paul said “Know ye not that ye shall judge angels? How much more things that pertains to life”. Showing us the spectrum of our duties. (1 Corinthians 6.3) And “He has not put the realm we speak of in subject to angels but man. Who is man that you would consider them for this task? (Hebrews 2)

And from Obediah “Then saviors shall come to Mount Zion (or Heavenly Jerusalem, Hebrews 12.22) To judge the mountains of Esau, And the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” This too is a forshadowing of the invisible.

These are testimonies of a plurality of sovereigns and judges of those doing the Fathers business, the family business, not of saving. There is but one accredited with accomplishing that task.

Just as an apple tree bears apples and an orange tree oranges, so too the Fathers tree called the cross. The Christ of the cross, bears offspring uniquely like Him. Not the crusified Jesus, but the resurrected, ascended, then seated in Glory, this is the final destination of the gospel.

It is those who laid our old self at the cross by faith, considering it dead with no need to pander to it, having then come up heaven-ward, we cease not our ascention until the Father sees we are done.

As the psalmist said “I shall not cease untill I awake in thy likeness” speaking of Gods fullness, being his reflection in the mirror we call the Spirit.

So when it comes time to sift through the debris of the ages, it is us who have sifted through our own debris to end up “in Christ” with Christ. It is us who are empowered to collaborate with Christ as His co-sovereigns. We have the excecutive power to say who advances Heaven-ward to their reward, and who does not. Why? Because He has prepared and empowered us to fulfill His sayings. We are the Body of Christ.

Even as Christ promised through John in The Revelation, that “To them that overcome I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

He overcame at His temptation where He turned down the offer of recieving earthly kingdoms.” Besides, they were already His.

We have become “a Kingdom of priests and kings” without subordinates. And we all have our Mephibosheths, our crazy man at the Gardarenes, and our woman taken in the very act of adultery in our care, “and the gates of Hell shall not prevail”.

We have the parable of the Eagle brooding over the carcasses as being a sign of where and when this would take place. “Wherever the eagles are gathered, there the carcasses shall be”.

Eagles don’t eat road kill! So their interest is not in the carcass. Our interest is in the vultures who were distracted in the bait and stepped into the trap.

The (overcomer) eagles are gathered because the vultures descended (opposite of ascending), and left open a vortex for the last ones to ascend.

We are the watchers and the holy ones who have, at the behest of the Holy Spirit, reincerted ourselves into our rightful due, in the heavens that Satan clamored up into with Adams fall from that realm. But Jesus Christ said “I beheld Satan fall like lightening from Heaven” to help us understand the game plan.

We are now seated far above all principalities and powers. The Eagles in their perch now prepare for the final chapter to wrap this up. Jesus Christ doesn’t do this. He is seated waiting for His enemies to become His footstool” because He has given us this task as scripture says “in that day when He comes to be Glorified is His Saints”, because we are His eyes and His ears and His members of His body. “We are now His members, citezines and saints, built up a habitation of God in the Spirit. Having been built upon the foundation laid of the Apostles and the Prophets, Jesus Christ the Chief cornerstone and we are living stones.

This is the purpose, the anticipation and the conclusion of the work of God in this age, us, the Elect. Then the books will opened and recited from. Then the rest of humanity will be judged according to their works as seen here. (Revelation 22) ¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before ^[c]God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books”. You may ask what books? We know. We are those books because we are those who have kept His words and made them our own. That makes us co-owners and co-heirs of the things of God. For “in the beginning was the Word. The word was with God and the word was God” and we? Became word too, this is true God-like-ness

But for now? The Kingdom of God is still, at hand, but the time is short because the time is coming when it will be said ¹¹ He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him ^[e]be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” That time has stopped and change has ceased and everyone is set in their way.

Amen, and Amen!