P.S. – By the way – on Melchizedek

Jesus Himself clarified that He was Melchizedek in Mark 12 :35 – 37 as follows:

 “and Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his Son? And the common people heard him gladly.”

Here is another version from The New Living Translation (1996):

Since David himself called him Lord, how can he be his son at the same time?” And the crowd listened to him with great interest (Tyndale Charitable Trust in blueletterbible.com 2006).

Jesus  quoted from Psalm 110: 1, which describes a conversation between persons referred  to as  “the Lord” and “my Lord”.  This is how Kings and Queens address each other. One of the subjects, the Lord, is describing the conquest of the other Lord in battle (the triumph over Satan). One of the Lords said  that “thy people” the holy angels which they created, will help in the day of His battle. One person called The Lord, swore to the Lord, the Son, that “thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

Jesus establishes that David, who was listening to this  conversation, called him Lord; and whence is he then his Son? In other words, the oath was addressed to Himself the Son of the Most High God, The Lord at thy right hand, who is Jesus (verse 5). He will strike through kings in the day of his wrath. We therefore learn that He was vengeful and angry in the day of His warfare in hell, and not the gentle Jesus meek and mild. You see in Ps 110: 6, the head over many countries were the ruling demons, like the one that resisted Daniel in chap 10. This is the authority that the believer holds because of Christ. Amen. Amen. Halelujah!

Finally my brethren

I would like to conclude the discussion on the priest hood of the believer. We started by saying that Christ suffered in the flesh in order to live by the power of the Spirit. Through His sacrifice, He obtained the inheritance of the eternal priesthood that His Father swore to give to Him (Heb 6: 17,18). We too have been made kings and priests unto our God by inheritance (Rev 1: 6, 7: 15). We need to remember that we inherit everything that Christ has since we are joint heirs with Him (Rom 8:17). The issues of Christ’s priesthood, the annulment of the law of Moses and the establishment of the new covenant through Christ are so important that Paul uses Hebrews chapters 8 -10 to reiterate the point, appearing to belabour it somewhat. Christ was made the priest of a better covenant which was established with better promises (Heb 8:5).

The first covenant had too many loopholes (Heb 8:7). How could animals’ blood save a man from sin? Why did people have to die mercilessly under the law? Suppose the witnesses were faulty? How could a sinful man (himself at risk of death) offer sacrifices for the sins of people? How long could people hold out under this law without committing a sin? How could heavenly things be purified by tainted blood (Heb 9: 23). How could it get up there, anyway? People lived under condemnation and fear of death. That is why a sinless High Priest had to officiate in a perfect tabernacle that was not made with hands (Heb 9: 11). This priest became the sacrifice and placed His own blood on the altar of the tabernacle on High (Heb 9: 12). When He entered the Holy of Holies in that tabernacle, the Vail in the earthly tabernacle simultaneously and symbolically tore from top to bottom.

I am forced to follow Paul and belabor the point too because he continued to explain in chapter 10 that God really had no pleasure in the sacrifices and offerings offered under the law (7-8). He sent His son who would delight to do His will. If He really delights in the sacrifices of animals He could get them Himself, because the cattle on a thousand hills belong to Him (Ps 50: 7- 13). This was His reproof to Israel. They were just going through motions because they were forced to (it was do or die!). They had missed the point that they were told – God really wanted the offerings of Thanksgiving and intercessions in the day of trouble so that his people would glorify Him (Ps 50: 13-15). The law was just a flawed insurance policy, unable to give full coverage – It was not intended to (Heb 10: 11 – 14).

After offering one eternal sacrifice for sin, Christ the priest was also exalted as King, because He now is seated at the right hand of God (Heb 10: 12). What God really wants is a people who would worship, keep His words in their hearts and serve Him willingly, not just to escape death as the Psalmist showed. Christ is now become the High Priest over the house of God (Heb 10: 21). As earthly priests, we therefore have the confidence to approach the throne of grace for mercy to help in the time of need (Heb 4: 14 -15). The Holy Spirit tells us what to pray and helps our intercession with groanings etc (Rom 8: 26-27). How does this relate to fasting? When the believer fasts, he/she is putting the flesh under subjection so the spirit can become alert. This helps us to achieve experientally the power of the priesthood that Christ gave to us by inheritance since He lives continually to make intercession for us (Heb 7:25). He offered Himself once for our sins (Heb 7: 27) Some believers do not know how to pray and take no pleasure therein. It is a strange occupation. The one who disciplines the spirit through the fast will experience the power of God to intercede mightily in the realm of the spirit. Blessings

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Melchizedek king of the Jews! King of the earth!

God in His word has established the truth that His Son Jesus is Melchizedek, using the law of indirect inference. We see that the Jews paid tithes to Melchizedek while in the loins of their father Abraham and we can safely agree by inference that so too did all those who are heirs of Abraham’s promise by faith (Heb 7: 9-11). Melchizedek came from another tribe, that is the Tribe of Judah, which was not a part of the Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 7: 13-14). Melchizedek was made not after carnal commandments (pertaining to the flesh) but after the power of an endless life (by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed). The carnal commandment is the law of Moses. It had to be cancelled and replaced by a better hope. God was so intent on fulfilling His plan through Christ that He declared by oath that the Son was installed as a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now Melchizedek could not have been a man who existed in the time of Abraham, because God never patterns the heavenly after the earthly.

Jesus, who is eternal, could not become a priest after an earthly pattern. This is the law of divine order – thy will be done on earth as it in in heaven (and not the converse). See Heb 8: 5 where Moses was charged by God to make the tabernacle “after the example and shadow of heavenly things… according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount”. When I read Exodus 25: 9, it is recorded that God told Moses that he should make a sanctuary where He could dwell among his people “according to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of the instruments thereof, so shall ye make it”. What tabernacle and instruments was God speaking about? Where did it exist? Paul clearly explains in the book of Hebrews that this is the tabernacle in heaven. John saw it in the book of revelation and Ezekiel wrote chapters about it (Eze chaps 40-47).

 God further told Moses that He wanted to make the Jews “a kingdom of priests and an holy nation” (Ex 19:6) establishing His plan for the church in the wilderness and for the church that He would later call out by the shedding of His blood (Acts 7: 38). Therefore, He had a plan afoot to include all nations in the priestly ministry. Why did the Jews appear to have missed the connection between the earthly and heavenly tabernacle? Religious denominations have limited the priesthood to a few men who wear long robes and live in special places like monasteries, Vatican etc. You have to go and confess sins to a carnal man who is comparable to the priests in the earthly tabernacle. Look at the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the priestly ministry. Kings reign over territory and have power. Jesus was exalted as King because He first became a priest. This is a lesson God is showing us and has many implications such as the importance of submission to the will of God and humility as a prerequisite for any promotion in the Kingdom of God and his Christ.

Anyway, let us look again at the tribe of Judah from which the Lord came. We spoke previously about Isaac’s prophecy to his sons and the power of the worship and dominion that comes out of the tribe of Judah. We looked at the example of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah who conquered enemies with praise. Melchizedek showed this example of praise (priestly role as we are called to offer sacrifices of praise) when He met Abraham and exalted God as possessor of the heaven and earth and deliverer. He exerted His kingly authority by blessing Abraham, receiving tithes (taxes) from him and (hear this one!) by making Abraham swear allegiance to the possessor of the heaven and the earth. How do we know this? When the King of Sodom (you know what this means) met Abraham, he told him to “give me the persons (i.e. Lot and his family) and take the goods to thyself” (Gen 14: 21). Now Abraham knew that Lot hated him and preferred to live in Sodom. The king of Sodom wanted to keep them in his kingdom as slaves to his lifestyle. Abraham knew that Lot and his servants were harrasing spirits. Who wants to live with stressors? Furthermore, God did not show Abraham the extent of his possessions while Lot lived with him because He knew that Lot would have been competing for it and stressing the man out! (Gen 13: 14). Know anybody like that?

Therefore, when Abraham answered the king, Lot was not even a factor to be considered because he said, “I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich, save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion” (Gen 14: 22-24). Jesus got to him before the King of Sodom did and made him lift his hand to swear (like we do in the pledge of allegiance? Not quite, he lifted it up like we lift it in allegiance when we worship) that he would not let the king of Sodom become his provider. Was Abraham being pompous? Not really! He belonged to the possessor of heaven and earth and knew where his supply came from. God had already made him “very rich in cattle, in sliver and in gold” (Gen 13: 2). In lifting his hands, Abraham was showing us that he was a worshipper. Furthermore, the king of Sodom was a homosexual and God did not want Abraham to contaminate himself with his polluted stuff in the same way that He warned Joshua and the people of Israel not to take anything from the city of Ai (Josh 6,7).

Finally, King Melchizedek also fulfilled His priestly role by offering Abraham bread and wine (Gen 14: 18). This was not just for refreshment, but a symbol of their fellowship, the first recorded Holy Communion and a symbol of His body and blood that would be shed for the remission of sins. This was the original state of man prior to the fall and points us to the place where God wants to fellowship with Him. By the way! it struck me that if God could come down to earth and fellowship with a man (as He did with Abraham more than once, with Enoch who walked with God and others) has He ever come to you? This is troubling because the Lord says that everyone who says Lord, Lord will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Has he come as a beggar, a poor one, naked one etc (Mt 25: 34 -46) and we did not receive Him? This word is changing me and I pray that it will do the same for you. Blessings!

More juice on Melchizedek!

To continue, Paul in Hebrews 7: 4 ascribed greatness to Melchizedek since the great patriarch Abraham, father of nations, gave tithes to Him. After all, God had given the land of Caanan to the patriarch, yet here comes Melchizedek saying that he came in the name of the Lord, possessor of heaven and earth to demand taxes (tithes) for the investment He had made in the patriarch! Melchizedek did not even descend from the Levitical priesthood, but came marching up laying claims! How dare he?! (tongue in cheek Jews). Paul says that the irony is that men who die receive tithes on earth, but There he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed that He liveth (Heb 7: 7, 8). Where is THERE? There is in the heavens where He appears on our behalf. Doesn’t He deserve some payment (!!!) can we ever pay Him for His work?!! What does He do with it? Do citizens of heaven pay taxes? How about Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven? All Jews and all heirs of the promise by faith owe tithes to Melchizedek or Jesus because even the Levites paid taxes and owe more than taxes to him while in the loins of their father (Heb 7: 9,10). More to come

Prophetess Mercedes Moss

http://www.pppministries.blogspot.com

http://www.thelordsangels.blogspot.com

What’s all the fuss about Melchizedek? Who was He?

The book of Hebrews was written directly to Jewish believers by a man who was learned in the law and extremely zealous of the traditions of the fathers before Jesus revealed Himself (Galatians 1: 13-14). Prior to his conversion, he had been a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee (Acts 23: 6). I certainly trust Apostle Paul as an expert on the law and hope that I can clearly show the truths he revealed. The point however, is that the book of Hebrews was used to expound, using the direct law of relationship, the relationship between the earthly tabernacle and that of the heavenly.

In the previous blog, I showed by Adam’s, Abel’s and Noah’s sacrifices that imperfect sacrifices were offered for sins as a pattern of the heavenly tabernacle to come. If he accepted human sacrifices, He would have congratulated Cain for the murder of his brother who was slain out of jealously just as the Jews killed Jesus. Animal sacrifices for sin was an imperfect offering because the Lamb of God who John the Baptist preached about had not yet been sacrificed. God did not accept human sacrifices like demons did, because if He did, He would have allowed Abraham to kill His son Isaac, heir to the promise. He was only showing a corollary between Isaac the seed to the promise and Jesus the seed spoken of in Genesis 3:15 who would bruise the serpent’s head. He therefore replaced Isaac with the ram who represented the Lamb of God of whom John spoke in Rev 5:6.

Every lamb slain in the earthly tabernacle was just a picture of that lamb in the heavenly tabernacle (Rev 5:6). He continued to show us pictures or examples of a conqueror who would bruise the serpent’s (enemy’s) head in the examples of His anointed ones who cut off the heads of their enemies to bring finality to the aggression. These included Joshua, meaning Jehovah the Savior (Joshua 10: 25-28; Judges 7:25), David (1 Samuel 17: 51). David also continued this practice (2 Sam 22:41; Ps 18: 40) an was such a bloody man that he was not allowed to build the temple at Jerusalem. The point of the book of Hebrews is to show the Jews that Jesus was the sacrifice offered for sin and whose blood was accepted in the heavenly tabernacle since earthly things cannot enter there. In Hebrews 5: 1, Paul shows that priests are taken from among men and ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. However, the priest himself is compassed with infirmity or limited by weakness and sins and needs to offer sacrifices for his own and the people’s sins. That is why the high priest had to wear bells on his robe in the event that God smote him if sin was found in him. Heb 5: 4 says that no one chooses to become a priest, but God does the choosing, even as he ordained Aaron and his sons and not men of another tribe.

Things are about to get juicy! Paul boldly says that Christ was a High Priest (how could this be?) but His Father appointed Him to the office of the priesthood (Heb 5: 6). Now Paul (not me) is about to get crazy. He says that God called Jesus “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb 5: 6). This is a direct claim that Christ who died and rose again is in heaven making intercession for us and is a reference to Psalm 110: 1,4. Preceding this apparently outrageous claim, Paul in Heb 4: 14-15, explained that God had given His people rest through Jesus the Great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens (His office is here) and He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities (by virtue of His suffering). We do not need a man on earth to intercede for our sins, but we can boldly approach the throne of grace in order to find mercy and grace to help us in time of need.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! What does this have to do with Melchizedek? Now God had a habit of doing things even before the law came into existence in order to show that this is His order or pattern or plan. We are about to delve into the law of indirect inference. Melchizedek first appeared in Genesis 15: 18 – 20 when Abraham returned from recapturing Lot from King Chedorlaomer and his accomplices. At the time, Lot lived in Sodom and was captured in war as a result of direct association (connections). Abraham was a skillful general and organized his trained servants (318), they divided into groups, sneaked upon the kings by night, smote and pursued them to Dan (which did not yet exist as Dan). He reclaimed the good and people that were captured. On his return, the king of Sodom came to meet him, but not before King Melchizedek did so. Melchizedek was King of Salem (peace) and brought out bread and wine. He lay claim to the goods and blessed Abraham as follows – “blessed be Abraham of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth” (Gen 14: 19). This is important and explains why He took tithes from Abraham. He blessed the “most High God which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand” and Abraham tithed because he had received divine help in overcoming 4 kings and their armies.

Paul in Hebrews 6, then continues with the discussion of the promise of God to Abraham to bless the earth through him, saying that it is impossible for God to lie and that the forerunner of the hope and consolation of God is Jesus who is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem or King of Peace, Priest of the Most high God…king of Righteousness (Heb 7: 1-2). In Hebrews 7: 3, Paul then ascribes to Melchizedek honor as being self existent (without mother, without father), without descent (he is not of an earthly seed), having neither beginning of days nor end of life (He is eternal) and made like unto the Son of God abideth a priest continually. Since there is no further reference to Melchizedek in scripture, Paul is saying by the Holy Ghost that Melchizedek is Jesus by virtue of the fact that Jesus is a high priest for ever (Heb 6: 20). Now compare this statement with that of Esther of whom it was said that she had neither father nor mother (Est 2: 7). However, scriptures do not say that she was without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but will abide a queen continually. Esther died, but this Melchizedek lives forever. Hallelujah! Glory to God. David had previously let out the secret in Ps 110: 1 and 4 when he said “the Lord said unto my Lord … the Lord hath sworn and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

Now the Lord says that He was swearing to Himself (Father, Son and Spirit) equivalent to when He said in Genesis 1:26 ‘let us make man”. He was referring to Christ and promising that He would be a blessor and receive tithes of men since David was born in the tribe of Judah and was neither a priest, but a King. Notice that in the context of Ps 110, the Lord the priest is also a warrior, implying that Christ himself had aided Abraham in the day of battle. The psalm is also prophetic of the war against satan. More on Melchizedek!