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A few years ago my husband Gary and I rented a cabin in the beautiful and rugged mountains of Mount Hood National Forest where we celebrated our anniversary. The view of the mountains there are magnificent. Our cabin was about 50 feet from the river where two Rivers called the Sandy and Salmon come together. We could hear both rivers raging from all rooms of this cabin.
Wow, what a Master Artist our Lord is. He makes no idle strokes in His creation. His every move reveals His Glory and the excellence of His Majesty. I am in complete awe of His creation.
In the upper level of the cabin it over looks the Salmon River and in the distance I could see the Sandy River as it meets with the Salmon. The windows were open and I could hear the roar of the rivers as they collide. As I watched the two rivers come together I reflected on the verse in Genesis 1:6-8 “Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament and it was so. Then God called the firmament heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.”
The above verse symbolically represents the separation of the heavenly and earthly. There are a people who have allowed their God to sanctify them as a holy people (1 Pet.1:16). Though the waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling – there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the Holy Place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved (Ps. 46:3-5).
We have been in preparation for the return of Christ. This is why so many people are looking for His return in the natural. They look at the conditions of the world and cry out and look for His return to be soon. Christ is returning there is no doubt, but first and foremost He is returning in and through a people who have prepared themselves. As nations rage and kingdoms are moved, His kingdom is about to be exalted among all other nations. We will not go out as cowards looking for a way out of this world, but we will come into the world with and in the fruition and power of our King Jesus. The second day of natural creation was a day of separation. We see this spiritual significance throughout the word of God. This division is Divine and for those who have allowed themselves to be separated from the influence of the earthly they have and are entering into the third day with spiritual receptivity that clearly understands they were created for God’s good pleasure and not their own. They were not bought without a price (1 Cor.6:20; Eph.1:9-10).
The first day was without form and void. Just as God’s spirit hovered over the face of the deep and over the face of the waters on the first day of natural creation, so the Holy Spirit has hovered over the Church. There is a “deep” within us that is capable of responding to an eternal desire that is within our Creator. Spiritually speaking the creation of the Church began the day Christ resurrected from the dead. The first day God said, “Let there be light, and there was light”. And God saw that the light was good, and divided light from darkness.” This is the spoken word of life for the sinner, and ever since that glorious day of His resurrection we have moved forward into the second day, and now the third. There is great understanding here if we can grasp this revelation because it explains why Christ has not returned yet, and why He is not returning the way so many think He is returning.
“And He said to them, Go and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.”
As explained by Apostle Peter, a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day (2 Pet.3:8,9). Peter was speaking prophetically of the Church age (two thousand years). The third-day however is the Millennial Day and it is here that the Body of Christ (which is exactly that – His body) will be perfected. This perfection that Christ spoke of is that of His body and His head coming together as one. For two thousand years Christ has looked for a place to rest His head.
“Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has no where to lay His head”. (Luke 9:58)
As we are entering in to the third day since the resurrection of Christ and about to see the birthing of the seventh day (millennial / the seventh day since creation) we shall have a deeper revelation of His “rest”. Just as people are looking for Christ’s return because they feel His return is very near, they are also sensing a need to enter into His “rest”. Again, there is a misunderstanding as they attempt to make this “rest” a place in the natural. Many have recently chosen to gather together for worship on Saturday because they are sensing the need to enter into the “Sabbath” place. This is not a natural place, but a spiritual place. This rest is called the “abiding” (John 15).
“For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said, this is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing. Yet they would not hear”. (Is.28:11-12)
There is a spiritual rest that God has commanded us to enter into (1 Cor.14:21; Hebrews 4). This place of rest is the abiding in Christ wherein we are no longer working our way to heaven as we are already there in Christ seated in the heavenly places (Eph.2:1-10). We have moved from an outside God mindedness, to an inside God mindedness (Gal.2:20; Col.1:27). In Christ we can “rest” in Him as we move, live and have our being in the enveloping presence (parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ. The “parousia” (life in the presence of God) is what we are to depend upon to “catch us up”. This being “caught up” is living in the heavenly places with Christ. I would like to reiterate there is a literal return of Christ. However, firstly He is coming bodily for the appearance and presence of Himself in His Body. He is coming to be glorified in His saints (2 Thess.1:7-10).
(1) He has come to His people.
(2) He is come in His people.
(3) And He is coming through His people.
To, In, and Through (my husband did an incredible teaching on this if you are interested). From inworking to outworking (Phil.2:12; 2 Pet.1:4). From glory to Glory. From ever learning about Him to experientially living in and through Him (John 15).
As I was looking out at the two rivers coming together I saw prophetically Genesis 1:9 coming into fruition. “Then God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place… and the gathering together He called seas. And God saw that it was good…”
The waters (two rivers) are symbolic of the nations of the earth; restlessness, under-currents, cross currents as the nations rage and are moved. As the waters come together (symbolic of eternal life through Christ), there is resurrection life (on the 3rd day he was raised up from the dead), the manifestation of Christ in and through His people. As the two rivers come together there is a raging sound, turbulence, and a powerful force creating such violent pressure that anything feeble is destroyed.
The nations are restless and raging. There are under-currents that attempt to destroy the workings of Jesus Christ but cannot. The Church may be hard- pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed… (1 Cor.4:7-15). What the Lord has created cannot be destroyed – hallelujah! I’m talking Corporate Body here. When Elijah thought he was the only one left after Jezebel killed many of the prophets, the Lord encouraged him by telling him He had a remnant of prophets who had not bowed to the pressure of fear and false comfort (1 Kings 19:11-18).
“To you it has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables… He who has an ear (spiritual receptivity), let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes (complacency, doubt, unbelief, false comfort, negative thinking, etc) I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” (Mark 4:11; Rev.2:7)
Glorious things ahead for the Body of Christ. Incredible insight and knowledge given with the experience to follow. There are a people who have and are allowing God to break through their fallow mindset. We are in the age where evil is raging as it has never raged before. God has and is looking for a people who will not break rank. They don’t push each other. Everyone marches in their own column (Joel 2:7). They don’t look at others and wonder why they are not doing what themselves are doing because that is what God is doing and if others are not doing what themselves are doing then surely others are missing God – Ugh! Dear saints, if we were all the hands and feet of the body how in the world would we eat without a mouth to give strength and nourishment to the body? If we were all eyeballs how would we walk to what we are seeing (1 Cor.12:12-31)? I thank God for His plan of Unity rather than uniformity! May we respect and honor one another’s function as it is vital to the end-time purposes of God.
There is a Divine Division that Rightly Divides those who have unconditionally submitted themselves to the Lord from those who did not (the five virgins who did, and the five who did not – Matt.25:1). There is a people who have and are allowing the Lord to prepare them for His purposes, and are overcoming all that is hindering them from doing their part in the full manifestation of the Kingdom.
Let’s take a close look at today’s culture and today’s church. On several occasions, history has provided the critical need to thrust the church into breaking out of it’s’ box and becoming the force in culture and society that God intended it to be.
Today the Church has once again reached something so forceful (river flow) that there is a demand that we look hard at our traditional forms wherein facing the reality that we must move with the flow of God or else be moved aside by the powerful river force that is coming regardless of how we feel or think.
This Third Day (a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day – 2 Pet.3:8) requires a third way of doing Church. There is a reformation of structure that is causing a Divine Division (spiritual indifference) within the Corporate Church. The formation of the “First Day Church” and the Second Day Church must be reevaluated as some of the things that we have allowed the Church to be built on are nothing more than sand.
Creation is groaning with expectation (fires, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, plagues, murders, etc) for the revealing of the sons of God (Rom.8:18-30). As the sons of God are awakening and manifesting the very life of Christ to the world there is a “Divinely Appointed Collision” that is also happening. Just as God was raising a deliverer (Moses) to Israel, and the rulers of that time ordered all first-born male infants to be killed, and then He sent His only begotten Son (first-born of many brethren – Rom.8:29) into the world, the rulers at that time ordered all male infants to be killed, so it is in our day with the sons of God. He (Jesus) the first born, desires to be birthed (manifested) through many brethren, multiplying (sowing) Himself into the earth. This is the fruition, the manifestation of the sons of God.
The rulers of our time attempt to destroy, hinder, stop; but cannot prevail against what God has pre-ordained. The sons (both men and women – Gal.3:28) of God will arise, and with this resurrection power there will be a Divine Collision that will powerfully flow into the world, impacting them for Christ, but this won’t happen without a fight. There will be a war whether some think so or not.
…A River runs through us.
by Bill BurnsDecember 1, 2008: I say to you, My people, watch! For, the fourth watch is coming in the very season ahead of you. I have spoken to you that I would come to you as the rain. I will come to you not only as the rain, the flowing down of My Spirit upon the land, but I will walk upon that rain, and I will walk to you and enter into union with you. When I come to you, I will translate you into the reality of My kingdom. When My kingdom comes upon you the power will come and be demonstrated in the land among My people because of your desires and the willingness of your hearts. I shall come to those of you who have remained faithful even as I came to Moses and to Abraham and to David and those go have gone before you. I will have fellowship with you and restore, renew and empower you to fulfill your destiny that you may walk forth in the grace and knowledge of My presence. Then, I say, your joy shall be restored, and peace shall be the path before you where I will walk with you. Behold, study and learn, for now My Church is entering into the fourth watch, and that revelation will be in My communion with you as My Spirit will teach you all things that pertain to that watch. The watchmen will say, “What of the night?” But, I say, the morning comes — the night is far spent and the day is at hand. These are days of My power and glory, so be aware spiritually of this new watch, and position yourselves by faith to receive, says the Lord.
WATCHMEN OF THE MORNING
By Bill Burns
Faith Tabernacle
http://ft111.com
We are in a time of the changing of the guard as we enter into the Third day, and the night watchman’s shift is finished. The morning watch has begun, and a new company of watchmen are coming to take their position on the wall.
It is for this reason that some watchmen are not discerning the present season that is upon us. Those who do not have revelation of the Third Day are not able to perceive the changing of the guard. This explains why some prophets have said that God has called for a season of silence. God is still speaking, but He is no longer speaking to the night watchmen; He is speaking to those who have repositioned themselves according to the revelation of the Third Day, which begins in the morning watch.
The Jewish day began at 6:00 a.m. and finished at 6:00 p.m. The night watch began at 6:00 p.m. and ended at 6:00 a.m. The night watch was broken up into four time periods of three hours each. Mark 13:35 names the watches:
First Watch — the evening (6:00 – 9:00 p.m.)
Second Watch — at midnight (9:00 – midnight)
Third Watch — at the crowing of the rooster (midnight – 3:00 a.m.)
Fourth Watch — the morning watch (3:00 – 6:00 a.m.)
A familiar passage of scripture used by prophets is Isaiah 21:11 which asks the question, “Watchman, what of the night?” The Amplified Bible is more revealing and needs to be considered by the present-day prophets. It reads, “Watchman, what of the night [how far is it spent; how long till morning?]. Guardian, what of the night?” And…the first part of verse 12, “The watchman said, the morning comes…”
The morning watch of the Third Day has come. The Third Day is also the Lord’s Day, which is the Day of His Power birthed from the womb of the morning (Psalm 110:3). Both apostles, Peter and Paul, tell us that the Day of the Lord comes (begins) as a thief in the night. The Day of the Lord begins in the darkness of this present world with the only light being that of the morning star. The Day of the Lord will begin with the Church ruling and reigning with Christ in the morning light just before the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2) comes up and the day of His wrath begins.
Psalm 110:2 tells us that in this day we are to rule in the midst of Christ’s enemies. This is confirmed by Jesus as spoken in Revelation 2:26-28 And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations; ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’; as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.
This scripture tells us that the morning star will be given to those who rule with Jesus because He has given them the rod of iron (His authority, His strength and power). Psalm 110:2 The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!
The final testimony of Jesus, who is the Spirit of Prophecy in Revelation 22:20 is, “Surely I come quickly.” A clue to the timing of His coming is given in Revelation 22:16-17 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
The cry of the Spirit and Bride is “Come” when you see the morning star (star of the Third Day) arise, it is time to come. The revelation of the dawning of a new day and the morning star must first shine forth in your heart. 2 Peter 1:19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
In Mark chapter 6, the Lord left us with a prophetic illustration of His coming to His Church in the darkness of the early morning watch. Jesus put His disciples in a boat and sent them out upon the sea. The boat represents the Church, and the water (sea) represents the people of the world (Revelation 17:1, 15). This is a type of the Great Commission given, and then Jesus ascended (went up on a mountain) to the right hand of the Father where He ever liveth to make intercession for us. When the Church is struggling against the wind and waves Jesus comes to His Church as prophesied by Hosea (Hosea 6:1-3), and He comes in the morning watch (fourth watch).
The apostle John adds an interesting footnote to this story in John 6:21 Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going. This speaks of the translation or rapture of the Church that takes place in the morning watch of the Third Day. The Church will rule and reign with Christ for the first prophetic minutes of the Lord’s Day on the earth and will then be taken home before the wrath of God is poured out upon His enemies.
The revelation of the Third Day comes to life in Peter’s statement, “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” We have entered the third one-thousand years since the birth of Jesus Christ. Now look at Psalm 90:4 For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.
We are given patterns in the Word of God that help us understand the times and seasons in which we live and the things that will take place in those seasons. We are to rule in the midst of God’s enemies, but the battle belongs to the Lord. God’s people will be revived (Hosea 6:2). They will be brought out of bondage even as Israel was delivered from Egyptian (worldly) bondage. Exodus14:23-25 And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the LORD looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”
The apostle Paul spoke of a time when the day (third) would be at hand; here is his instruction: Romans 13:11-13 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
The night is far spent, and the Morning Star is telling us the Third Day is here. The night-watchman’s shift is complete, but the morning watchmen still have an assignment, which is to bring forth the prophetic word that will shine forth and light the path that leads to Zion.
