THE PROCESSING OF THE LORD

							                           THE PROCESSING OF THE LORD

                                               CHAPTER 17

                                                 WASHING


        We have had the seed of God planted in our lives. We have come to the brazen altar and had our
hearts sprinkled with the blood. We are cleansed from an evil conscience. We have experienced Passover
and we are admonished:

      “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1Cor.5:8)

       We said, in an earlier chapter, the feast of unleavened bread was coming to the brazen laver. The
brazen laver is the place of cleansing and washing and deals with our works, hands, and our walk, feet.
Passover and unleavened went hand in hand and at times the both were referred to as one; the feast of
unleavened bread. (Deut.16:16) The oneness of this feast is seen by Paul as he declares:

       “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you maybe a new lump, since you truly are unleavened.
For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” (1Cor.5:7)

       We are unleavened. How did we become unleavened? Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.
Hence, purge out the old. The brazen altar has made us clean. The sacrifice of Christ has cleansed us
white as snow. Yet we still hear the words, “Purge out.”

       If we are clean, why the need to purge out? We have been gloriously cleansed from our past sins, a
new nature has been birthed in us, we have been set free from sins dominion, translated out of darkness
into His glorious kingdom and yet the words, “Purge out.” While all the above is true in our lives, it
doesn’t take long to realize we are surrounded by influences, which would negate the reality of God’s
kingdom in our lives. Thus we find the brazen laver, the washing of water by the word.

       The continual washing in the word is when we meditate, ponder and study the word. We speak
this word to ourselves and one another as we exhort and encourage one another in the Lord. We daily
wash the influences of everyday life off of us; not with the letter of the word, but by the Spirit.

        “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do
not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as
being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Do you not know
that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of
sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Ro.6:11-13, 16)

        We reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. The word reckon is logizomai and is also
translated think in Phil.4:8. Our attitude about ourselves is to be, “We are dead to sin, but alive to God.” It
doesn’t take long in talking to most Christians to realize they do not think of themselves as dead to sin.
Alive to God, maybe, but not dead to sin. We must come to the brazen laver and wash in this word, “We
are dead to sin.” We must allow the Spirit to make this truth alive to us, not just dead letter, but Spirit and
life. Allow the Spirit to awaken you to this reality. It will first produce hope, a favorable and confident

                                                      1
expectation. This hope may seem only as a dim ray of light penetrating our darkness and yet as we
respond to this small ray of light we will eventually find ourselves filled full of hope, fully assured of
hope (Heb.6:11), fully persuaded of what God promised (Ro.4:21) and His ability to perform it. This kind
of hope becomes faith; perceiving as FACT what is not revealed to the senses. (Heb.11:1 Amp.)

        We find many who love to come and be washed in the word. They come from their jobs, they
draw aside from everyday life, they have their personal quite times, they go to a gathering of the saints
and relish in this bathing in the word. Yet, as they step out of the shower of the word they become
“forgetful hearers.” (Jas.1:25) How is it they forget? They are not doers of the word, but just hearers.
There is no application of the word they have heard and their vessel leaks out all they have been taught.
(Heb.2:1) They have been slothful in the word and now need to be re-taught the very basics of Christ.
(Heb.5:12)

                                               DON’T LET

        Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies. We have been standing in our spiritual
shower allowing the word, “Reckon yourselves dead to sin,” to wash away all the doubt and unbelief the
world would throw at us. We step out of the shower refreshed, rejuvenated, when all of a sudden
something begins to try and take dominion over us. Our body, our members, want to show themselves
strong. “Oh, you think you are free. You think you have the victory,” the body of sin screams at us much
like Goliath did to David and we feel about as tall as David was against Goliath. We become intimidated
by our past failures and weakness. They seem like giants. We see our inabilities and crumble helplessly
before this giant. What is one to do? How is this tender blade to push this entire earth realm out of its way
and make it to the surface?

        My friend, you have been bathing in the word. The Lord has been speaking His word into your
life. We must realize the very first thing that is going to happen after the Father speaks to us is to come
face to face with that old serpent. He will be there waiting as you step out of the shower and with a
snicker he will say, “Hath God said?” He will always come to challenge God’s word. He did it in the
garden (Gen.3:1) and he did it to Jesus in the wilderness. (Lk.4:1--13) Adam and Eve failed to stand the
test. They had a word and failed to obey it. This kept them from the greater realities of the kingdom of
God, the tree of life. They were removed from the garden and could no longer enjoy the life God had
planned for them or that they had already experienced in a measure.

        Oh, some four thousand years later and after much victory over humanity, this old serpent was
feeling pretty confident. There hadn’t been a man in all that time that had been free from the serpent’s
sting. Oh yes, a few had done better than others and had even shaken the powers of darkness a bit, but
none had escaped his bite. Men like Enoch, Moses, Elijah and others which could be named; as powerful
as they were had not escaped the bite of that old serpent. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of
God.” (Ro.3:23)

       Now there comes this man, Jesus. He had just heard from heaven, “You are My Beloved Son; in
You I am well pleased.” (Lk.3:22) “Just another man. One in a long line of already defeated men,” the
serpent muses. Jesus went in the wilderness “full of the Holy Ghost.” The serpent launches his first attack;
“If You are the Son of God.” Challenging God’s word to the Son. “Do something to prove Your
Sonship.” Jesus replies, “It is written.” (Mt.4:3) Jesus had taken the word of the Lord and knocked the old
serpent back.

        The second attack comes, “If you are the Son of God, Do something to prove it because it is
written.” The old serpent just smiles, “I’ve got you now. You want to throw the scriptures at me; I’ll just
                                                     2
throw them right back at You.” Jesus replies, “It is written again.” (Mt.4:7) This time the old serpent feels
his knees buckle. No one had ever made it this far. No one had ever hit back like this.

       The old serpent steps back and tries to regain his composure. He shakes his head trying to clear the
fog from that last punch. “I’ll give it my best shot. No man has stood against this punch.”

        “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the
kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will
fall down and worship me” (Mt.4:8-9)

       Jesus replies, “It is written.” The old serpent is down for the count. For the first time a man has
given the old serpent a knock out punch. The old serpent slithers off as this last Adam walks out of the
wilderness “in the power of the Spirit.” Notice Jesus went into the wilderness “full of the Holy Ghost”
and He came out “in the power (dunamis) of the Spirit.”

        What are we trying to say? Just this, the word you have enjoyed washing in and which is
refreshing you is the same word that becomes your sword. (Eph.6:17) When the old serpent comes and
says, “Hath God said?” You can grab that word and say, “It is written.” When he comes back at you with
some dead letter you can say, “It is written again.” When he comes the third time to lure you away with
things, fame and fortune you can deal him death blow by saying, “Away with you Satan! For it is
written.” (Mt.4:10)

       Let not, neither yield. Friend, because of what Jesus has done and our identification with Him,
we can now “let not, neither yield.” It becomes our responsibility by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of our
bodies. (Ro.8:13) If we have a hope, a favorable and confident expectation of being conformed to His
image, we will purify ourselves, even as He is pure. (1Jn.3:3)

        Dear reader, don’t be duped into thinking you can of your own efforts keep yourself from falling
into the wiles of the devil. Yet, don’t be misled into thinking one day some hocus-pocus thing will happen
to you and you will be some super son of God. You through the Spirit.

       This is being a doer of the word. It is only as we become doers of the word will we move on from
the brazen laver to the holy place. We move from unleavened bread into first fruits. Our blade begins to
come to the surface into the sunshine.

        “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds
of the body, you will live.” (Ro.8:13)

        Our blade springs up into the sunshine; new life, free from the oppression of the earth realm. Now
able to enjoy the life of God at this stage in our growth.

         “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “When
you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the
firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your
behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.” (Lev.23:9-11)

       “Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” (Ro.8:23)

       “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom
                                                     3
also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” (Eph.1:13-14)

       “Who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” (2Cor.5:22, 5:5)

        “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with
wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.” (Eph.5:17-18)

       “Be constantly controlled by the Spirit.” (Wuest)

        “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might
through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length
and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all
the fullness of God.” (Eph.3:16-19)

        Ah, firstfruits. We are now experiencing a transition from the outer court into the holy place.
While many would teach the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the holy place; may we suggest it is firstfruits
and is still part of the outer court. We could more appropriately say it is the veil which separates the two.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a door into the holy place and yet many get to the door and never enter
in. They begin to drift back into the outer court and soon need to return to the brazen laver to be cleansed
again from the dust of the outer court, the influence of the world. They still operate out of their carnal
mind, natural sun light. When the night seasons come they stumble and fall. They have no light in the
night season. They continually fall and need forgiveness, the brazen alter and they need to be washed
again, the brazen laver.

        Friend, as hard as it may seem to grasp, there is a place where there is no need for repentance. A
place where we don’t need to ask for forgiveness. The church in Smyrna was not told to repent. They
were not rebuked for some sin in their midst. They were, instead encouraged to be faithful as they were
about to go through more trials. (Rev.3:7-13)

      Yes, there is a place where we are not rebuked for sin because we have walked in the Spirit and
have maintained fellowship with the Father and that fellowship keeps us clean.

         Firstfruits becomes the place of transition from the outer court into the holy place, Pentecost. It is
in this transition we find our proud little blade in desperate need of water. It has come to the place in its
growth it can no longer survive on what it has had in the past. It is going to take more water (Spirit) than
just the dew and light showers it has had. Our proud little blade has pushed aside the earth realm, deeds of
the body, but now it must get its roots past the stones beneath it.

       “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him
and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” (Col.2:6-7)

        We would not be-labor the point, yet we cannot emphasize to strongly the need for us to walk in
the light God has shown us. “As you have received Christ, walk.” Anything God does in our lives always
starts with a revelation of Himself in the Christ. We receive that revelation and we bask in the glory of it.
Yet this revelation must become a reality in our everyday lives. The word must become flesh so that the
glory can be seen, beheld. (Jn.1:14)

       Paul instructed us to keep the Passover with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. This
                                                      4
speaks of our walk. We are to walk in sincerity and truth. The word sincerity comes from eilikrineia and
means, clearness, purity. It comes from eilikrines, which means, judged by sunlight, tested as genuine. It
is used of unmixed substances. Our walk is to be clear and open before people, pure, not mixed with the
ways of the world. Our walk is to be one which is judged by sunlight (Sonlight) and tested as genuine. We
are to be a proven people, a people who have stood the test. We see this described in Revelation chapter
twenty-two and the first verse.

      “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of
God and the Lamb.”

        Clear as crystal, pure, unmixed. The river flows down the middle of the street, our walk. The street
is described as pure and transparent. (Rev.21:21) This will be the flow of life, God’s life, in those who
have been in touch with the throne of God, God’s authority. God’s authority will bring judgment into our
lives, which will produce this purity in us and our walk. (Ps.9:7, Isa.4:4)

        The word truth in 1Cor.5:8 comes from aletheia and means truth. Aletheia comes from alethes,
which means true as not concealing, unconcealed, and manifest. We see our walk is to be a manifestation
of the reality of the kingdom of God. We are not to be a candle hid under a bushel (Mt.5:14-16) rather we
are to be set on a candlestick so as to give light to all in the house. We are to shine before men so they will
glorify our Father in heaven.

       “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the
world in simplicity and godly sincerity (eilikrineia), not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and
more abundantly toward you.”

        Paul and those who ministered with him had this testimony among those who they labored. Their
walk was in simplicity, singleness without self-seeking and in purity. Their ministry was not one in which
they attempted to obtain anything from themselves. It was a giving of themselves in total openness and
honesty for the good of others. They didn’t use fleshly wisdom (outer court), but the grace of God.

        “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree
planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes; but its
leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.”
(Jer.17:7-8)

        We have seen how our walk causes us to be “rooted and grounded” in Christ. Yet we also see how
some would do a lot of religious activity and consider this their walk and still they are not rooted in the
Christ. There must be a trust in God, not our religious activity. God must be our hope. The word trust
comes from batach and means, to trust, be confident or sure, to confide in so as to be secure and without
fear.

        Our blessed man has confidence in God. He is sure of God. He has confided in God and now is
secure in God without fear. This blessed man is like a tree planted by the river of waters and his roots
spread out. When we have confidence in God our roots begin to go deep into the earth and find moisture,
they find the waters of life. Our walk and confidence in God cause our roots to beyond the stones of
shallowness and we begin to find a new depth in God. The Spirit begins to reveal the depths of the divine
nature to us. (1Cor.2:10 Wey.)

      The furniture in the holy place is made of gold, God’s divine nature. We have entered into a place
where we begin to partake of His divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
                                                      5
lust. (2Pt.1:4) While there is still chastening in this realm it is this chastisement that produces the
peaceable fruit of righteousness, His holiness. (Heb.12:10-11)

       As we spread out our roots we find we are no longer subject to outside circumstance. We don’t
“see when heat comes.” We still maintain a flow of life; her leaf shall be green, even when all around us
seems to be suffering from a lack of water, year of drought. We are not careful, anxious, in this year of
drought because we have a source of water that no longer comes from without. Oh, our source is now
from within. Christ in you the hope of glory. (Col.1:27) Our lives become fruitful and even when all
others would fail we continue to bear a new crop of fruit. (Rev.22:2) we don’t cease from yielding fruit.

        At this point in our walk we are making a transition from the outer court to the holy place. No
longer can we survive off the realm of the outer court, the natural man, the carnal mind, our abilities and
our talents. Oh, but now, we must press deeper into the kingdom of God. It will take more of the Spirit to
water our blade than before. We are being called out of the outer court, into the holy place. We are being
call out of the outer court and into the holy place. We are being called out of the outer court, the place of
brass, judgment, into the realm of the church, the candlestick; the realm of fellowship, show bread; the
realm of praise, the altar of incense. Called into the realm of wood (humanity) overlaid with gold, God’s
divine nature. Called into the realm where the revelation will now be made flesh, made reality and
become manifest to all around us.

        The first day of creation God brought forth an illumination of Himself into the darkness, let there
be light. This is Passover. The second day of creation was a time of separating what was above from what
was below. This is unleavened bread. The third day was a time of gathering together of the waters under
the heaven; the seas and the earth bringing forth. This is firstfruits. The fourth day of creation we find
luminous bodies being made to give light to the earth realm. The revelation of the first day is now being
made a reality, made substance. The fourth day of creation is Pentecost.

        Our proud little blade is now feeling the changes within as fruit blossoms begin to appear. Ah, but
there are now new influences to be faced; new battles to fight. Let us go on to perfection.




                                                     6