Beloved Intercessors,
Loving greetings from the Valley of Angels where a cloud is settled in, blanketing the bare trees with a gentle, wispy, cottony comfort as late autumn transitions into wintery repose.
As I was getting going this morning, I heard in my spirit, “A new and living way.” That phrase carried me into a study of Hebrews chapter ten. I have spent hours studying and following trails of revelation before I could write this letter. I’m so excited, and brimming with the joy of the reality that is in Jesus Christ, the source of the “new and living way.” He declared “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). And He declared His purpose: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 KJV).
The book of Hebrews spells out a comparison between the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant, describing how the first is a shadow, or perhaps we could say that it is like a blueprint of Kingdom life that is available to us in the New. Chapter ten describes the daily sacrifices then quotes David’s inspired words from Psalm forty that explains that God didn’t really want sacrifices and offerings (they were but an illustration of things to come). Then David speaks prophetically of the Messiah Who would come forth from him (and I think that David had this desire in his heart as well): “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:7-8 KJV).
The word “law” is “Torah” (Strong’s #8451). The Outline of Biblical Usage, among other things renders it “law, direction, instruction” [1] Torah comes from the root word, “yârâh… properly, to flow as water (i.e. to rain)… figuratively, to point out (as if by aiming the finger), to teach…to throw, shoot, cast, pour.”[2]
Hebrews goes on to explain that the delight of the Lord is to actually take away sins, which He did once and for all in Jesus’ death on the cross. Verse sixteen goes on to describe how the Holy Spirit had prophesied through Jeremiah (31:31-34) that there would be a New Covenant: “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And …they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:33-34 KJV).
Engraved in Sapphire
Exodus twenty describes how the Presence and fire of God came down on Mount Sinai when God spoke the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel. Then in chapter twenty-four, Moses read all that he had transcribed of the words of the Lord to the people, and sprinkled the scroll and the people with the “blood of the Covenant” (every biblical Covenant is ratified with blood). Then God commands Moses to bring Aaron and his sons, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders with him up the mountain.. “And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness” (Exodus 24:10 KJV).
Jewish tradition says that the tablets of stone on which the ten commandments were written were sapphire. Sapphire is a type of corundum (nearly s hard as diamonds) formed either from molten lava forming crystals, etc. as it cools, or under extreme heat and pressure. Could it be that when God came down on the top of Mount Sinai that His fiery Presence and the weight of His glory could have transformed the elements of aluminum, iron, and titanium in the soil into sapphire? Or perhaps, as Perry Stone suggests in his book, Breath of the Holies,[3] that God’s fiery finger writing on the stone turned it into sapphire?
When Ezekiel visited Heaven, he records in chapter one, verse twenty-six that he saw “the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone…” (Ezekiel 1:26 KJV). Many years ago, Sister Gwen declared that the official gemstone of the End-Time Handmaidens was the sapphire.
Brian Zadai, in his YouTube video of Session One of the Fort Mill Spirit School, told how Jesus showed him in Heaven the very edge where Heaven and Earth meet. With grief Jesus explained to him how many of His people were asking where the fence was between the two so that they could live as much as possible in the world and still make it to Heaven when they die. He also showed him that the very closest place to Him at the throne was a place of sapphire with blue flames. Jesus longs for us to long for that place of intimacy and prize of the high calling.
When the Lord is enthroned in our hearts (instead of “self”), He is the source of Life—the Fountain of Living Waters. At the World Convention this year, Tony Kemp related a vision that he had had of the Lord sitting on His throne and water was pouring from His arm and leg. That’s why Jesus said of those who would have the Holy Spirit operating in them that they would have “rivers of Living Water” flowing forth from their belly. The Living Water flows from the throne of God in our hearts as the Spirit is poured out there.
Remember that the word Torah comes from the root that means to pour or flow as water. How perfect it is that the One Who made the New Covenant possible for us came with Torah in His heart already so that we could have it written in our hearts!
Power in the Blood!
Hebrew ten goes on: “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; … Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19-20, 22 KJV).
When Jesus initiated the Holy Communion with the Cup of Redemption during the Passover Seder meal, He said, “‘This cup is the New Covenant in My Blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:25-26 NKJV). Jesus’ Blood ratified the New Covenant, and as often as we receive it, we are proclaiming to the powers of darkness that their assignments were cancelled at the cross! So we really would be wise to receive it every day and take our authority in the spirit realm, letting Living Waters flow forth from us, creating an atmosphere of the Presence of the Lord, changing darkness into light! We overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and by the Word of our testimony, not loving our lives unto the death (Revelation 12:10-11).
Restoration of Holy Communion
ETH Francine Lovell is being used powerfully by the Lord in recent weeks teaching on Holy Communion. In her recent newsletter, she referred to a prophecy by Chuck Pierce that there would be “communion meetings in Arkansas,” and it’s happening!
We know the power of using Holy Communion to redeem the land. This “new and living way” begins with the Blood of Jesus. The word “new” in that verse can literally be translated, “lately slaughtered, freshly killed.” Because Jesus’ Blood never dies, His death on the cross that began at the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8) is still just as fresh and life-giving today as it was then.
Because of this New Covenant, ratified by the Blood of Jesus, and renewed each time we celebrate Holy Communion, we have the authority to walk in the sapphire fire of His Presence, and He writes His Word in our hearts and reconciles us to our Father so we can know Him and delight to do His will.
Jerusalem Summons Postponed to November 4-15, 2020
In over 40 years of taking tours to Israel, we have never had a case where our tour didn’t fill up, but it just did! We know that the Lord always has the Plan, so we have postponed this event to November 4-15, 2020. Start praying now for the Lord’s will to be done!
Generation Awakening
Please help us get the word out that the “Generation Awakening” youth event will be December 28-January 1. The details are on our website with a place to click to register. Please encourage youth and young adults that you know (ages 16-30) to plan to be with us for this life-changing event.
Thank you!
We want to say a huge thank you to each and every one who obeys the Holy Spirit when He prompts you to pray and to give. As we take our needs to the Lord, He is always faithful to speak to His children, and the faithful obey! Blessings on each faithful one!
Your handmaiden and servant,
Sharon and Philip
[1] https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H8451&t=KJV Accessed 6 December, 2019.
[2] https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=H3384&t=KJV Accessed 6 December, 2019.
[3] https://www.scribd.com/document/73148356/Perry-Stone-Breath-of-the-Holies Accessed 6 December, 2019.