“This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’ Zechariah 4:6-7.
“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.” Luke 4:18-19.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
If you want to always please Me, and please yourself too, do My Will. For My Will is good, pleasing and perfect. So you may be thinking that you are not sure what My Will is for your life. But I have made it quite clear: “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. If you are not living your life rejoicing, praying, and thanking you are out of My Will. Examine yourself and see if you are in My Will or not by considering your thoughts and words today. If you are doing these three things the rest will follow—grace upon grace—and the path will open, even to parting the sea. Your prosperity will be like rivers in the desert.
The path I shall open for you today is like the one I opened to Moses to bring the Israelites out of the slavery of Egypt and to overcome the onslaught of their enemies, like the one I opened for Joshua’s entry to the promised land with the children of Israel, like the one I opened for the return of the exiles to Jerusalem with the funds supplied for the rebuilding of My temple, and like the path for the early church to convert the gentile world and the release of awesome healings, signs and wonders at the hands of the Body of Christ. And I am opening a way for even greater works today. Do you not perceive it?
What opens this path? The One who opened up everything from the beginning for Heaven to touch the earth, My Spirit. “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6. Bringing grace to it, grace to it. Zechariah 4:7. In the beginning He hovered over the waters and soon the waters fled and the dry land appeared. Genesis 1:2, 9-10.
“You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground.” Psalm 104:30. Everything is breathed into being by Me, by My Spirit. He is the breath of My power. He is the wind that clears the path.
Look back at how I parted the Red Sea for Moses and then defeated their enemies who intended to do them evil and take them again captive to do their will. But on another level that is what the devil and his demons will go after you for once you have been born again and are free of his snare. He will try to take you captive again to make your last state worse than your first. Do not fall victim to his lies. He took Adam and Eve from the freedom of My children to captives of his evil ways. But Jesus was anointed with the Spirit upon Him to set the captives free. And you have received the same Holy Spirit, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.” Luke 4:18-19. “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6. You see again the power behind the path to freedom. When you are born again you are regenerated by My Spirit. Titus 3:5-8.
“But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7.
Now back to the parting of the Red Sea, Moses told the people as a word of wisdom from My Spirit, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The LORD will fight for you while you hold yourself in peace.” Exodus 14:13-14. It is very important that you hold on to your peace and not give in to the spirit of fear if you want to see Me do a wonder for you. Otherwise you will block it and try to find another solution that is not well thought out because of your fear.
Then I told Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land.” Exodus 14:15-16. Never give up and back down once you have My Word on a subject. I told the Israelites I would take them out and redeem them that night, they were not to back down and quit on Me when the going got rough. I had taken them to the impasse of the deepest part of the Red Sea on one front and the closed canyon fill with Egyptian warriors on the other. They had no weapons so it they had gone another route and had to fight in combat they would have lost, but with the sea I could flood out the whole enemy without them having one weapon. “So shall they fear The name of the LORD from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.” Isaiah 59:19.
Moses did not question Me, he had seen what I would do when he raised his staff at My direction with the ten plagues in Egypt. He went forward and raised his staff over the deep dark sea. And My Spirit went to work over the waters again. “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD swept the sea back by a strong east wind (ruach in Hebrew which means “wind, breath, and Spirit”) all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided (cleaved in two and congealed, Exodus 15:8). The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.” Exodus 14:21-22. And once they were all safely on the other side, and their enemies seeing it appeared and safe path and the only way they could reach them fast enough to take them captive tried to use their same miraculous path. But I told Moses to lift his staff again, So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state. I sent My Spirit to renew the face of the earth, and the molecules loosened which I had tightened up into a solid wall, and the threatening enemy was gone and My people were free. It only needed one weapon. “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6. Notice I say that as the LORD of Hosts. The angelic armies are around Me, My Son, and My Spirit, waiting to obey My Word. I make the winds (angelic spirits) My messengers and My ministers flaming fires. Psalm 104:4.
And today, there are a flood of enemies for that ancient serpent, the devil is spewing water like a river out of his mouth after the church, so that he might cause the church to be swept away with the flood. The devil is making war on you as My children, the Body of Christ, the church, who keep My commandments (to believe in the Name of Jesus and love one another as He gave you command) and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Revelation 12:15-17; 1 John 3:23-24.
The Spirit is your answer, just as He was to the early church and to all the generations from Abraham to the present day. The Holy Spirit will drive back the sea of evil and then drown evildoers in that same sea. They will not rise again.
So today what is the Spirit’s Word to the church? What is He about so you can be part of the move of the Spirit I am sending forth to renew the face of the earth? Do you hear the wind of Heaven beginning to blow? Do you hear the sound of the latter rain beginning to pour down as the wind drives it on? This will bring to life all your dry bones. Ezekiel 37:1-10. Do not say, “Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.” Oh no, My people, it is not over for you yet! I always lead you in triumph in Christ Jesus if you will follow the lead of My Spirit as My children! 2 Corinthians 2:14, Romans 8:14. For, behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into days of Heaven upon the earth. A revival, an awaking, is coming. Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and everywhere you walk will become redemption land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it. Ezekiel 37:11-14.
And what does the Spirit testify to? Jesus told you, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” John 15:26-27. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10.
At the time period of the Acts of the Apostles it was the early rain that had fallen and this opened the way to the new growth of the church and the entrance of the gentiles into the plan of salvation—from Israel, the golden lampstand, fulfilled in Jesus as the Light of the world and the anointing of the Holy Spirit (the lamps on the golden lampstand were oil lamps using the first pressed olive oil, shone out to all the nations. For I had said through My prophet Isaiah, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations, so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6.
And now I have set the stage for the miracle of the path opening to the early church to the gathering in of the gentiles, which will begin in the house of Cornelius through the ministry of angels, the preaching of the gospel by Peter, and the pouring down of the Holy Spirit for the first time upon people who were not of the biological line of Abraham.
But first let us see how better comes to Joppa to the house of Simon the tanner of leather where the angel directs Cornelius to find Peter.
Peter was traveling through all those regions, he came down also to the believers who lived at Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed. Acts 9:32-33. This is not phase Peter, he and John had already raised up to perfect health the man crippled from birth at the Beautiful Gate of the temple right after the fulfillment of Pentecost when they got filled with the Holy Spirit. And they had done it by the faith of Jesus, not even their own, but they had the Name and knew He would perform it at their word in agreement with Him. Peter knew from Jesus that disabilities, sickness, and pain were not My Will so he did not even question Me on that. He simply said to the man, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed.” Immediately he got up. And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. Acts 9:34-35. That was a short and to the point prayer, a faith command, and Aeneas had the faith to receive it. If your prayers over the sick get long and involved trying to convince Me to want to heal the person, they are not prayers of faith. Be careful about that.
Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated in Greek is called Dorcas); this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did. And it happened at that time that she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upper room. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, having heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him, imploring him, “Do not delay in coming to us.” So Peter arose and went with them. When he arrived, they brought him into the upper room; and all the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them. Acts 9:36-39. None of these believers were confident in their ability to speak My Word yet so they called for the one who had taught them the gospel and was known as a miracle worker like Jesus. But really each of you, as Peter would write to later, shares with him the same wonderful faith that moves mountains, raises the dead, heals the sick, and cleanses the leper if you will just exercise it by speaking to things as Jesus did.
So Peter sent them all out, he could see they were not yet of like precious faith in the assurance of My magnificent promises being theirs, and knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body, he said, “Tabitha, arise.” He consulted Me first on this because he had to know if it was actually her time to come home to Me and what her opinion was about returning to earth from Heaven. And the answer was for her to return. Satan had taken her out prematurely and she had not been able to receive her full reward. She asked to return. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up, healed and whole. And he gave her his hand and raised her up; and calling the believers and widows, he presented her alive. It became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord Jesus. And Peter stayed many days in Joppa with a tanner named Simon. Acts 9:40-44.
And next Life Lesson we will see what happens there.
I love you. I have opened a path you do not see as yet, for no one saw the path I had prepared in the terrain under the Red Sea until I opened up the sea and there below was a most unusual plateau wide enough for over two million people, their carts, and their goods to go through easily. I lead you on level paths by My Spirit. I have already prepared the way for you and His Name is Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is My gift to you. And no one comes to Me but through Him. There is no other path that I have opened to My throne room. He was the way back to Eden when no one saw a way. The Lamb slain since before the foundation of the world.