EMBERS

For God so loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son... and now it is the same fiery jealous love that causes God to send His corporate company of sons; messengers of fire released and coming suddenly into view all over the earth, bringing a shaking that, in the final outcome, reveals the things that cannot be shaken and remain, especially in circles of so-called believers.

Jesus was the only-begotten - the word 'beget' means 'to father, to bring into being, to trigger, to inspire and to kindle'. It is a word that is only used connected to the father. A mother cannot beget. It is the responsibility of the Father. The church cannot beget or bring into being the sons of God no matter how many conferences they hold. Only the Father can trigger the begetting of the sons of God. Psalm 2 speaks of a day when the kings of the earth amass against Him, plotting and scheming to throw off His rule. And He laughs. Why? Because He is 3 steps ahead of them. By the time they congregate, He has already anointed and installed His corporate son company in their appointed place of standing on Mount Zion:

Psa 2:6  Yet have I anointed (installed and placed) My King [firmly] on My holy hill of Zion. Psa 2:7  I will declare the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, You are My Son; this day [I declare] I have begotten You.

Here we see that begetting is connected to anointing and installing in place. It is about the placing and acknowledgment of lineage and it is the action and responsibility of the Father to bring forth or beget the sons of God. He is the One Who declares, "this is My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him."

Heb 5:5  So too Christ (the Messiah) did not exalt Himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed and exalted by Him Who said to Him, You are My Son; today I have begotten You;

Even now these sons are being ignited, set on fire by the very friction they are causing during their passage toward their appointed assignments. Do not chafe against the resistance you are encountering, sons of God. It is designed to make you a coal of fire, one of God's fire-starters in the earth. It is kindling the fire of God within you. And the sound of God which your earthen vessel has been filled with will trigger and ignite the unfolding of His end-time purposes.

Luk 12:49  I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled!

Just today, I received a large delivery of firewood to keep us warm through the winter. It stands in a big heap on my lawn and along with it, I ordered a bag of fire-starters, thinly cut pieces of kindling which will easily catch alight as they lie amongst the larger logs. Without those fire-starters, the logs are too big to ignite, even though they are very dry and designed to bring forth a fire. The Divine Fire-Starter will be arranging His remnant people in such a way that amongst these small groups, He will place a fire-starter; an appointed messenger of fire who, once kindled by His own hand, will bring the baptism of fire to those waiting.

The Hebrew letter Nun means 'son or heir' and its pictograph looks like a sperm or seed. It has the numerical value of 50, speaking of the bringing of Jubilee or freedom from slavery. In Aramaic, the word 'nun' means 'fish'. Joshua's father was called Nun (Exod 33:11). So Joshua came forth from the sperm of Nun. He was a portion of the expression of Nun's DNA combined with his mother's ovum. It is interesting that the Word very seldom mentions who someone's mother was. The important thing is who begat them.

When the letter nun appears at the end of a Hebrew word, it is written in a form that looks like a lit match or a rod with a flame of fire at the top. The sons of God who are messengers of fire are God's last syllable on the topic. The word that comes forth from His mouth ends with the freshly ignited sons. Joshua was the son of Nun but remained in the place of serving Moses until his appointed time of taking over the leading of the people of God. Before this time, Joshua tarried in the presence of God in the tabernacle. Moses went in and received instruction from God and came out and spoke to the people, but Joshua remained basking in the presence of God. He represents a company of leaders in waiting; leaders in soaking mode, hungry for God and very much in the background. But what is actually taking place in an imbuing of the light of God into an earthen vessel.

Exo 33:11  And the LORD spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaks unto his friend. And he would return into the camp; but his minister Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tent. 

This situation is much like the state of the present-day church. There are leaders who go in and receive from God in order to lead the people. They do not have time to just bask in the atmosphere of Heaven and little notice is given to those menial servants who wish to remain behind, choosing the company of God over the company of men. Nothing much showed on the outside but by the time Moses handed over to Joshua at the brink of the Promised Land, Joshua was a vessel filled with the light and presence of God.

But what birthed this insatiable hunger for the presence of God in Joshua? It goes all the way back to the time when the Israelites freshly out of Egypt, camped at the bottom of Mount Sinai. Here God was planning to enter into a marriage covenant with His set-apart people and as an hors-d'oeuvre, He calls Moses and three of the priests and seventy elders to ascend a short way up the mountain. Here they worship from a distance and see God with their own eyes. During this incredible experience, they eat and drink in His presence and survive to tell the story. Then God calls Moses to come up higher.

Exo 24:9  Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; Exo 24:10  and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under His feet the like of a paved work of sapphire stone, and the like of the very heaven for clearness. Exo 24:11  And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand; and they beheld God, and did eat and drink. Exo 24:12  And Jehovah said to Moses, Come up to Me to the mountain, and be there. And I will give to you the tablets of stone, and the Law, and the commandments which I have written, to teach them. Exo 24:13  And Moses rose up, and Joshua his attendant. And Moses went up to the mountain of God. 

From this account, we see it is possible to have a profound experience in God and still be in the position of worshipping from afar. To come near, one has to ascend higher - and that only comes at the express command of God:

Exo 24:1  GOD SAID to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu [Aaron's sons], and seventy of Israel's elders, and worship at a distance. Exo 24:2  Moses alone shall come near the Lord

Joshua is not even mentioned but we know from Exod 24:13 that wherever Moses went, Joshua followed and attended to his needs. There is a company whose names have not even been mentioned for others to hear, who presence has not even been acknowledged publically. They are the nameless, faceless ones who have sat amongst the present-day church elders as they have feasted in God's presence on the mountain, not even registering that they are only worshipping from afar. And then God brings a separation. 75 saw God and His sapphire pavement, but only two ascended higher - the God-appointed shepherd and teacher and the leader-in-waiting. The other 73 were told to wait at the level they had achieved on the mountain of God. None of them would ever ascend higher. This was the pinnacle of their spiritual experience. Joshua and Moses entered into the cloud, where God was. And on the seventh day of being in the thick cloud, God called Moses higher still and spoke with him face to face, releasing instruction and blueprints for the season ahead.

I believe it was this experience that sparked in Joshua an insatiable thirst for the presence of God. Set apart from the unruly rabble camped at the bottom of the mountain and closer to God than the 73 who waited on the low slopes, Joshua son of Nun found himself wrapped in the outer skirts of God's presence and from that point on, nothing else satisfied him. Unburdened with the responsibilities of leadership which Moses carried, Joshua was free to linger in the tabernacle, spending hours before the ark of His presence. He didn't know during the long wilderness years that God was busy changing and shaping him for future leadership of His people. All he knew was that He loved the presence of God more than the conversation of men...

And there still exists a remnant in the earth with a similar hunger. Unnoticed and unacknowledged amongst resent0-day leadership, they have feasted in God's presence and known there is more. They have separated from the pack and moved higher, pressing inward and upward, without having any awareness of their actual spiritual elevation because the cloud of His presence has obscured all sense of earthly perspective. They are living and breathing the atmosphere of Heaven and hunger to be called higher still. Beholding Him and drinking in His presence, they are changed from glory to glory. Like John the Beloved, who was called to come up because God wanted to show him what would happen in the future, this remnant are set apart for specific purpose. The people must be led into the Promised Land of the fullness of their inheritance in Christ but the hand-over process awaits God's specific timing.

Just as a match head is formed first by layer upon layer before it can be struck into flame, so too, season upon season the impartation of understanding is laid down in the minds and hearts of this fire-starter company. It looks from the outside as if nothing but a head swelling with spiritual knowledge is developing and then, at last, the time comes for the kindling of the match head.

It is a precision strike which causes the bursting into flame; a strike that is applied to the very head of the match, a blow to the fullness of understanding and then this match stick becomes a tool in the hand of the Great Fire-Starter Himself. The ignited becomes an igniter, able to impart, at the will of Him, the fire of God to every dry bit of kindling it encounters during its brief burning.

Consider the menorah with its seven lamps, standing filled with fresh oil. It is full of potential light but awaits the timing of the fire-lighter. And it is always the central candle, called the shamash or servant candle, which is set on fire first. Here we have the Joshua company standing unremarkable and blending in with the other six candlesticks until the appointed time of ignition. And then the Divine Hand reaches out and lays hold of the shamash lamp and kindles a fire within its belly so that the flame springs high above the level of the rest of the lamps. And from this ignition begins the brief ministry of the shamash. This servant company is lifted and moved to touch every other lamp bowl in the menorah. One after the other, each lamp springs into flame, until the whole menorah stands ablaze with the light and glory of God. Yes, we as the church are the light of the world in as far as our potential is laid down. But oh how badly we need the shamash, that servant company, the sons of God to be made into flames of fire. How we need them to be carried into our environment to kindle a fire in our midst!

As we approach the feast of Shavuot or Pentecost that brings remembrance of the face of Moses that shone with the glory of God and the flames of fire that fell upon the heads of those waiting in the upper room, let us cry out for the baptism of fire to fall. Let us pray for understanding of what still awaits fulfillment in what has been written in the volume of the Book. Let the Matthiases be brought out of obscurity in the midst of the upper room company and be given as a gift to the Body. Let the baton be passed from those who have led the church thus far to the Joshua's waiting quietly focussed on the presence of Heaven. Let His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven...

Let the fire-starters be ignited.

(part 3 to follow)