Within the Veil
In the early Church there was a natural open
heaven. In the book of 1st Samuel this experience
was termed open vision. Paul the Apostle spoke of there being
“a veil of people’s hearts and minds or Israel.”
Recently while in prayer and meditation I saw
an image in my mind’s eye, of a veil.
It was like a huge tent over the Church separating the
Church from seeing God and the glory of their calling. The Church
that I saw was under this shroud of darkness, and was regressing
as well. Beginning from a revived state it was losing bits and
pieces of the anointing and the gifts pf the Spirit. As the
Church imploded in on itself -- the shroud of darkness tightened
around the Church’s decreasing level of revelation and understanding
of the things of God as a boa constrictor squeezes the life
out of its victim. – And the preachers would proudly proclaim:
“This is all there is in God.” And the Church continued to contract
and would suffer loss, and the veil tightened further contracting
with the Church – and the preachers would proudly proclaim:
“This is all there is in God.” And this continued as the church
continued wither and shrivel.
And God said to me, there is an event coming,
when someone is going to pierce this veil that has been over the heart and mind of the Church for these last 1800 years. Someone
is going to break forth unto the Lord and lift up a standard,
and in that day shall all men be drawn unto that standard or
an open heaven.
Paul the Apostle speaks of the Veil
2
Corinthians 3:6-7 Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament;
not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth,
but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children
of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for
the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
Paul says that we have been made able ministers
by the Spirit, and that we have been made ministers of life
by the Spirit. In the time of Jesus and the Apostles this was
the norm in the Church – this was part of what we would define
as an open heaven. Receiving a constant infusion of life and
revelation from God via the Holy Spirit and dispensing this
life and revelation to others.
However Paul speaks also here of a second class
of ministers. These
he calls these “ministers of the letter.” These ministers he
tells us are ministers of death and they are empowered by the
letter as much as the ministers of the Spirit are to be empowered
by the Spirit. This second class of ministers also have a ministry;
-- the ministration of death.
In the day of Christ and the Apostles this class of ministry
was limited to the Jews. However during the course of the last
1800 backslidden years of the Church, Satan accomplished a major
coup, he successfully transformed those who once were ministers
of life into being ministers of death.
Part of the problem for those who live in this hour is that there
is a certain level of glory in the ministration of death. And
though it has been greatly diminished, the remnants of that glory
still exist in the ministration of the letter to this day.
2
Corinthians 3:8-11 How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?
For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much
more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
For even that which was made glorious had no glory in
this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious,
much more that which remaineth is glorious.
So Paul asks
the Church of his day how or why won’t the ministration of the
Spirit be more glorious than the ministration of the letter?
Paul says that the ministration of Righteousness (or Sanctification)
exceeds in glory. Paul says that when you turn on the glory
of the ministration of the Spirit the light or glory of the
ministration of the letter becomes darkness. Even as a candle
flame casts a shadow when it is set before a greater light.
We are also told that the ministration of death is to be done
away (to be annulled) by the ministration of life. Somewhere
in our convoluted thinking we have come to a belief that these
two are co-equal, that they are partners and are to ever abide
together. Paul makes it clear here that these two are incompatible – this
same incompatibility was brought up by Christ when he spoke
of new cloth patches on old garments and new wine in old wineskins.
What the Church has done
is it has turned back to the old garment and has been patching
it all over with new cloth
-- and what you have as a result is a shredded
rag that covers nothing. When worn this rag leaves your flesh
exposed everywhere – or naked as the Laodicean congregants are
described in Revelation. This nakedness speaks of defilement,
a defilement that has come from mixing the ministration of death
and the ministration of life.
So we can see
in this passage that the divine order is that the ministration
of the letter was to be swallowed up by the ministration of the
Spirit. However after the fall of the Church the enemy persuaded
men to return to the old garment, and in more recent history we
have come to the notion of patching this garment with the ministration
of the Spirit; causing the defilement of many before God.
2
Corinthians 3:12-18 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech: And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face,
that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the
end of that which is abolished:
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth
the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament;
which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read,
the veil is upon their heart.
Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil
shall be taken away. Now
the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in
a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
And so we come down the veil that covers the
glory. The veil was supposed to prevent Israel from seeing it
fade away. But this veil went from being a visual perception
in the people of Israel to blindness in their hearts and Spirits.
So the irony of all this is that the ministers of the letter
and death are blind to the letter that they so worship, because
it has put a veil upon their heart and Spirit
2
Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
So then Paul says to the early Church that
this veil was to be done away with, that when a person in Paul’s
day turns to the Lord -- the veil was taken away. And that as this new believer spent time beholding
this glory, beholding the life and revelation of the Spirit
through a glass (darkly) he was to be changed into the same
image or light from glory by glory.
Now unfortunately we are not on equal footing
with this early church. As I mentioned before we are in a recovery
process. A recovery process which, entails the recovery of the
open heaven that was once delivered unto the saints. A recovery
process which, entails the removal of the torn garment of the
letter. A recovery process which, entails the removal of the
veil that has blinded our hearts and spirits.
How then is that veil removed from our hearts
and minds?
Though the ministration of righteousness or
sanctification.
Sanctification is the process of being made
Holy unto the Lord. In the Law of Mosses the priests, the temple
and the altars were to be anointed day in and day out for a
period of time until they became most Holy unto the Lord. As
we pray, worship and wait before Him in His presence we are
transformed from glory to glory. As we become filled with the
very life and glory of the Lord, we then can take that life
and glory and minister it to others.
Christ did away with the veil
Hebrews 6:18-19 That by two immutable things, in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and
steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
They way, Paul says, the veil has been opened
unto us. – We have to press in to receive – We have to press
into pierce that veil. We have to press into the veil to return
to that state of open heaven of the early Church that the early
Church had..
Do you so press? Do you so yearn?
