The
Precious: Part 2
by Bill
Somers
This article is a short follow up to
my earlier article, The Precious. That article
forms a foundation for what I am saying here. [Also see the article The
How and the Therefore.]
The Lord gives us instruction, 'line
upon line, precept upon precept; here a little and there a little.' Each
new insight becomes the foundation for something more yet to come.
So everything I've said so far is a
preliminary. All this is the foundation for a word the Lord gave me in
June and July of 92. A startling, exciting word, which he clearly spoke
to me on two separate occasions. (The second time, he made sure I wrote
it down.)
That the martyrdom of the church
would allow him to break the powers that keep Israel in blindness!
Correspondingly, the martyrdom
of a remnant of saints would allow him to break the powers that keep the
church in blindness!
So what is this supposed to mean? Lets
look at some scriptures relating to blindness of Israel and of the Church.
What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest
were blinded. Romans. 11:7
For I would not, brethren, that
ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own
conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until
the fulness of the Gentiles be come in Romans. 11:25.
These two verses from the book of Romans
speak clearly of the blindness on Israel. The following passage refers
to the children of Israel but can also apply to the Church
Seeing then that we have such
hope, we use great plainness of speech:
And not as Moses, [which] put a
vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look
to the end of that which is abolished:
But their minds were blinded:
for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading
of the old testament; which [vail] is done away in Christ.
But even unto this day, when Moses
is read, the vail is upon their heart.
Nevertheless when it shall turn
to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 2nd Corinthians 3: 12-16..
We find an interesting commentary on this
section in Luke; it could even be inserted in the above text after verse
15. "... If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded, though one rose from the dead." (Luke 16:31). And of course
the one who rose from the dead is Jesus, the Jewish Messiah! We believe
it is proper to speak about blindness in the church because Jesus does
in the Book of Revelation. In his rebuke to the Laodicean Church, which
is the church of today, He says:
Because thou sayest, I am rich,
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that
thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou
mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear;
and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see Revelations.
3:17-18.
The above quoted passage from 2nd Corinthians
applies to the Church for several reasons.
A. As Israel is a type of the Church,
many verses that speak to or of Israel also make sense when applied to
the Church.
B. The passage clearly speaks of a
blindness in terms of a vail over the mind or over the heart.
C. The blindness is related to understanding
of the scriptures, especially the old testament but also the new.
D. The mention of not being able 'to
look to the end' speaks of not understanding end time prophecy.
E. The references to the vail say
that it is 'done away in Christ' and 'when it shall turn to the Lord, the
vail shall be taken away'. The vail is removed, done away in Christ, in
the spiritual but in the natural it awaits the turning or returning to
the Lord before it can be finally removed.
The vail of the Temple was removed
at the death of Jesus. As Mathew. 27:51 says: "And, behold, the veil of
the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth
did quake, and the rocks rent;".
The removal of these other vails will
also require a death. What the Lord is saying is that the blindness, the
veil, over Israel will be removed by a death, the death of the Church.
The removal of the vail in Matt. 27:51 is a type. Just as Jesus death removed
the vail in the natural temple, the death of the body of Christ, the Church,
will remove the vail in the spiritual temple.
But first the vail blinding the Church
must be removed. And then, when the fulness of the Gentiles [the Church]
is come in, Israel's blindness will be removed..
When the Church "shall turn to the
Lord, the vail shall be done away." This will happen when revival comes.
But it will require martyrdom, perhaps extensive martyrdom on the part
of the remnant of the Church. [See the Rick Joyner article, Onslaught
Against the Church] That is the remnant that is praying for revival
and discerning the times.
When the nation of Israel "shall
turn to the Lord, the vail shall be done away." And they will look
upon Him whom they pierced and cry "Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest."
Mathew 21:9
And so this concept is a key to the
two major events of end time prophecy. The coming of the Lord and the coming
of revival. The one event open and manifest, the other somewhat hidden
in scripture.
To phrase it another way, the coming
of the Lord, the Day of the Lord is the coming of the Lord for and with
his church. [ See Marvin Ford's vision of Heaven]
The coming of revival, an invisible coming, is the coming of the Lord 'to'
his church.
Come, and let us return unto the
LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will
bind us up.
After two days will he revive
us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live
in his sight.
Then shall we know, if we follow
on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he
shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto
the earth. Hosea 6:1-3
Back to: HOMEPAGE
or FILELIST of
Bill Somers Prophetic Vision