Jeremiah 8:22 [KJV]
The Book of Jeremiah portrays Jesus Christ as our “Righteous
Branch”!
Jeremiah 23:5-6: "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that
I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper,
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah Israel
Jeremiah 33:15: " In
those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow
up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land".
In Chapter 8 of Jeremiah, God is speaking to Israel about
punishment for her sins. But there is a
question asked in verse 22 which is, "Is
there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of
my people recovered"?
Balm was an ointment used for medicinal purposes, and we
know that Jehovah-Rapha is the Lord that heals.
So that same question can be applicable to the Church today.
The “daughter” of God’s people are the baths or bens, which are the “son’s”
of God, who are the “builders of the family name”. These builders of the family name are both
male and female. They were the ones in
Genesis called Adam (male & female) that God was manifesting Himself
through in dominion, authority and power in the earth.
The reason that the health, or the aruwkah, (which is the restoring to soundness, wholeness, and
perfection) is not recovered is
because of lack of knowledge according to Hosea 4:6. But I believe that we, the Church, are in a
season of recovery, which brings me
to my subject, “The Church in Recovery”.
First of all she (the Church) lost her “innocence” (guiltlessness; blamelessness; incorruption;
immortality; purity; virtue; faultlessness; being unblemished; unspotted).
Then she became “conscious”
or aware of what darkness had to
offer her, which was misery; old age; sorrow; ignorance; destruction; ruin;
death. She is still waiting on the
coming of the “promised” Messiah
that is already here. Many are still
bound by the “laws” of religious
order and “laws” of “human government”. Yet “grace”
has been given so that we can move back into “kingdom” dominion, where the Church was in Genesis chapter 1. These are the dispensations where we started
(innocence) and where God wants His
people now (“kingdom”!).
In relation to “recovery” of the church, there are three
stages involved: a “covering”; an “uncovering”; and a “recovering”.
Webster defines recovery
as the act of recovering. To recover
means to get or obtain (something
lost) again; come back to a former or better state.
Let’s take a look at the first stage: THE COVERING
STAGE!
What was the Church covered
with in the Book of Genesis?
Genesis 1:26: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness".
(Vs 27) "So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and
female created he them".
God made man (male & female) His tse’lem, which is a shade or phantom. An example would be like a cover used to
soften the light cast by a lamp. A
phantom is something which exists but has no physical reality or a ghost; a
representative. St. John 4:24 tells us
that God is Spirit. So for God to have a
physical reality, He covered Himself with flesh in Adam (male & female). One of the
synonyms for cover is "veil". In Hebrews chapter 10 the
"veil" is referred to as Jesus' flesh! "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to
enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which
he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh"
(Hebrews 10:19-20). He made
man after His own likeness, or de’muwth (model;
shape; manner). This making was according to the pattern of God’s own
DNA structure. Man is flesh, but he had
to and must live by Spirit (wisdom, knowledge, understanding, righteousness,
holiness, and power of God)! He had to
live by the very blood of God! Adam
means to show blood in the face!!! This
was the covering of man (male &
female). They were covered with the righteousness
(true holiness) of God!! They were
living in the dispensation of total innocence
(guiltlessness; blamelessness; incorruption; deathlessness), because they were
in eternity!
Genesis 1:3: "And
God said, Let there be light”. This light
was owr, meaning illumination
(provision of understanding; spiritual or intellectual enlightenment)! It means luminary
as well. A luminary is one that enlightens mankind. These are the kind of people the Adam people
were. They had God’s mind, which was His
wisdom, knowledge, understanding, dominion, authority, and power! God was saying, "Let there be knowledge! Let there be people with my mind", and
it was so!! The daylight ma’owr’ was created on the fourth day,
but this was the “first day”!
Now you can better understand Job 38:4-7 when God asked Job
the question, “Where wast thou when I
laid the foundations of the earth? declare,
if thou hast understanding. Who hath
laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest?
or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof
fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the “sons” of God shouted
for joy"?
**These are the people [morning stars and sons of God] that stepped out
on the dawn of creation with the ability to inspect (examine, oversee,
investigate, make inquiry, care for, admire) the creation with the mind of God!
They were able to form (squeeze and
pressure) other people from the dust (state of darkness) or choshek’ (misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness), and
bring them into the “light” (ore) or illumination
or knowledge of God!!
Any time you’re dealing with the prefix “Re”, there is a “doing again” of something!
The Church was “Covered”
with the righteousness of God, she
became stripped naked or uncovered of that righteousness,
and the Church is now in a “recovering” stage
of that same righteousness that she
lost in Genesis!
Now let’s take a look at THE UNCOVERING STAGE!
All hospitals have an area called the recovery room. This is where
the patient is awakening out of an “induced”
unconscious state. Medically a chemical
compound called Ether is used as the anesthetic to cause this unconscious
state.
There are spiritual anesthetics that are being used on the
people of God that have caused an induced
state of lethargy. Lethargy is an
excessive drowsiness or abnormally deep sleep.
Paul named a few of the anesthetics being used in Colossians 2:8: philosophy; vain deceit; tradition of men; and rudiments of the world. He even gave a warning at the beginning of
the verse when he said, “Beware (be
on guard; avoid; shun) lest any man spoil
(damage; impair; rob) you” of
what’s rightfully yours! That is what
happened to the “Woman” (the church) in Genesis chapter 3. She was robbed of the dominion that was
rightfully hers by listening to and eating the lie of the enemy. Then the “Man”, Adam (male & female) was
robbed of his dominion and power by listening to the “Woman” and eating of the
lie of the enemy! This is what caused the creation to fall -
when the “Man”, whom the LORD God gave the command to, disobeyed Him. This is what caused the uncovering or brought on the nakedness
of the Church!
The “serpent”
that beguiled the Woman was not a snake but someone with the
characteristics of the serpent (sly and very cunning). He was more subtil (artful; crafty; wily)
than any beast of the field. Briefly,
this “field” was not a meadow of
grass. Jesus said in Matthew 13:38, “The field
is the world”. This word world is kos’mos which is
that which has been orderly arranged by “Men” and has veered off course from
that which God had put in place! This
was not a physical snake but a person
or group of people that introduced her to a system that caught and opened her “eye” to something other than
what God had given! It had to be someone who had been in that same place
of dominion before but became an enemy of God and lost that place of
power. She saw, ra’ah (approved, took heed, experienced, and enjoyed what was
offered her), and gave it to the Man [Adam] who brought the creation into a debased
level of death.
I believe that this person was Lucifer, "son of the morning" (Isaiah 14:12 -23). He was amongst those mentioned in Job 38 as morning stars and sons of God. But when he began to exalt his throne above
the stars of God, ascend above the clouds of God, and be like the most High, he
had to be brought down to the ground by God.
He was trying of his own to usurp authority over God! God is the MOST HIGH!! If God exalts you into a certain place,
that’s one thing, but when you try to exalt yourself, you’re asking from
trouble!
Isaiah 14:15-16, “Yet
thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon
thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the
man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms”.
This word “MAN” (iysh)
is from the same word “MAN” (iysh)
in Genesis 2:23 out of whom the “WOMAN” was taken. This “serpent”, or nachash’ (whisperer, liar), was in the place of dominion,
authority and power before, but lost it and has now become a deceiver of
whomever will listen to him. After the
“deception”, the Man and the Woman sewed fig leaves together (religious church
system) and made themselves aprons (began to clad or cover themselves with all
religion had to offer them).
That system was manifested in Genesis chapter 11 with the
building of the tower
of Babel
Normally the “figs” would either appear before the leaves or
at the time of the leaves, which meant it was unproductive! Every tree that doesn’t produce fruit must be
hewn down! It was trying to offer Jesus
something it couldn’t produce! Making
false promises but couldn’t follow through!
Figs in the scripture symbolize healing. What the enemy offered the WOMAN (the church)
in Genesis made her naked and brought on darkness [misery, ruin, sorrow,
destruction, ignorance, death] instead of life!
The “fig leaves” (religious order) eventually destroyed them! That’s why Jesus said, “No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever” (Mark 11:14). Even today if we walk after the traditional
religious ways of men, it too will lead to death and not life! “There
is a way that seemeth right unto a
man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12 ).
The light, or the
owr, (the illumination or knowledge of God) they had acquired was now
diminished by darkness or cho’shek (ignorance). They became lethargic and fell into
destruction and death. That’s why Paul
said in Ephesians 5:14 "AWAKE thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee
light”!
Finally, THE RECOVERY
STAGE:
That’s why we must be
“recovered”, and the covering is with the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God!!
“I will greatly
rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me
with the garments of salvation, he hath COVERED
me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah
61:10).
“For he hath made him
to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of
God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 ).
“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” (Revelation 3:18 ).
“And to her (the
church) was granted that she should be
arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Revelation 19:8).
Now you can see why in Numbers 20, Moses had to strip Aaron
of his priestly garments before he died!
As long as he wore that robe of righteousness,
death couldn’t touch him! In Matthew
27:28-31, before they crucified Jesus, they took his robe off of Him. They
couldn’t kill Him as long as He was covered
with the priestly garment or robe of
righteousness!
This is why we must “put on Christ” because when we put Him
on, we’re wearing the robe of
righteousness!
“Behold, the days
come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall
execute judgment and justice in the earth.
In his days Judah Israel
“In those days, and at
that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness
to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in
the land” (Jeremiah 33:15).
This is all the more reason we must “eat His flesh and drink His blood”! It’s to commune with Him and remember and
celebrate what He did for us on Calvary ’s
cross and the resurrection! By doing
this, it also causes us to be CLAD,
CLOTHED, OR COVERED with His righteousness. As we eat Him, His Word, we become
Him!! We are what we eat!! “As he
is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17 ).
Then said Jesus unto
them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (St. John 6:53 ).
As long as we have on the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God, death can’t kill us! What it does is to put us in the secret place
of the MOST HIGH!!
~ Apostle Gracie Perry
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