The High Priest Blessing of Jesus Christ

Part 3 A

The Lord Make His Face Shine Upon You Numbers 6:25

This has actually been a difficult portion of scripture for me to fully grasp the reason being this - if the Lord can make His face shine upon us then there is the implication that He may not cause his face to shine upon us. I've wrestled with this thought for the last two months or so asking the Lord for understanding. I believe He has given me some insight (not all insight) but I'll share what I've been given for now. I also know that this teaching is going to upset ultra grace folks and also ultra law folks. Oh well, I can't please everyone nor am I called to try. I'm here to please Christ according to the light that has been given to me. With all that said I'll try and sum up all that is to follow in this part A.

Let me give you a hint so that you don't come under condemnation or discouragement: The Lord's face shines on us as we continue to abide in Christ by grace through faith in His person and work of redemption. The Lords face will not shine on us IF we go back to law as a means of attaining Gods' approval or as a means of covenant relationship with God. It may appear that Gods face is shining on those under law, because there was and still is miracles and supernatural protection and provision under the covenant of Moses. Therefore we need to examine ourselves and see if we are in the faith of the New Covenant or the mixture of faith and works of the Old Covenant. Paul said clearly that if we trust in the law as a means of covenant relationship, then we have fallen from grace or the favor of God.Galatians 5:4 There are plenty of exhortations and examples in Hebrews about resting in faith in the High Priest, Apostle, the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ. The Christian life is a life of faith because of the favor of God through Christ. But if we try and obtain the favor of God through any portion of the law then we are no longer resting in Christ but in our own zeal and human effort. This would include, circumcision, tithing, keeping the sabbath, eating or not eating the right kinds of food. If we do these things for covenant favor then we will be like the Pharisees in the book of Acts and the four gospels. The religious leaders of Pauls day thought they were obeying the law and keeping covenant with Jesus through circumcision. Gods covenant with Abraham required circumcision and the law required it also. So in their minds they were keeping the law and covenant by trying to keep circumcision as a part of entering into the new covenant. This caused a great controversy in the church which you can read about in Acts Chapter 15. Of course the outcome of that meeting was a declaration by the apostles that no law could enable the gentile Christians to enter into a covenant relationship with the Lord and the new disciples were only given four rules to live by as Christians. It was only by the favor of God through faith in Christ that such a relationship was possible. It would be helpful to read Galatians with Acts 15 to get a better understanding of this teaching. The Galatian Christians had been seduced by those who believed in entering covenant through faith in Christ in addition to keeping the law of Moses both ceremonial and moral. Paul was vehemently clear that those who practice such a thing were in danger of falling from the favor of God and coming under the curse of the law.

This shakes many people to the core of their being because it takes away their security blanket. The only way they know how to be like God is by obeying the law. This is not a new thought either. If you look at Adam and Eve before and after the fall you can see similarities to what Paul was saying to the Galatian Christians and also to the believer today.

Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. The Galatians had been recreated into that same image through Christ.
Adam and Eve were placed in a physical garden with a real tree of life and a real tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Galatians had the law by which they obtained the knowledge of good and evil. By the way, even for those who don't have the written form of the law of God it is nevertheless written in the heart of every human being. The Galatians also had a tree of life, it's called the cross.
Adam and Eve were tempted by the devil to try and become like God through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, even though they were already created in His image. The Galatians were facing the same temptation.
Adam and Eve were driven out of the physical garden. The Galatians were on the verge of falling from grace and placing themselves under the curse of the law.

Can you see the similarities ? Sometimes we don't feel very secure under grace for whatever reasons, so we turn to law of some sort in order to feel as though we are like God, and it also makes us feel secure about ourselves because we know the boundaries, paradoxically, because the law is a ministration of death and condemnation, we may feel insecure about our relationship with God, it's the proverbial poisoned apple, it looks, tastes, and smells good but is deadly when eaten.

( 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; whichglory was to be done away: 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 a different version 2nd Cor.3:6,7,8,9

This is not to say that we can live as we please. Paul was also clear that the grace of God is not to be used as an excuse for living outside the love of God towards society. Or to put it in scriptural terms Titus 2:11,12,13,14. Gods grace will never lead one to deliberately live in sin but neither does it condemn someone who truly wants freedom from sin but has not yet learned how to overcome sin through the blood of Christ by grace through faith I John 2:14. True Christian faith is one where God supernaturally circumcises our old hard heart and gives us a new heart filled with His love that reveals itself through a desire to bless others and then actually doing something to bless others. I've noticed that a lot of times people feel good about their relationship with God based on church attendance or how much they are involved in church activities i.e. Music, cleaning, witnessing, praying for others, bibles studies and so on but sometimes rarely bless the poor, widow or the homeless. In fact I've seen some Christians condemn homeless people after getting out of church and saying " Why don't they get a job?" That's why they're not blessed by God. They have a disgusting self-righteous smugness about their relationship with Christ. But, they didn't know the persons circumstances, how did they become homeless, was it an ilness? Lost their job? I've known people who were working yet homeless because they couldn't afford the rent. One thing I've observed is that some want to do away with Gods law and others want to live under the law as a means of being right with God, yet Paul said the end i.e. goal of the law is love out of a pure heart. Neither one of those groups are living by the love of God. The one group who wants to do away with the law, hates Gods law and therefore hates God and the other becomes self-righteous and winds up hating their neighbor through slander, gossip, hardening their heart to their need, etc and therefore they hate God also. I've actually heard people say that since God knows they are going to sin and then forgive them that they just might as well go ahead and sin !!! That is not the grace of God in action and reveals a complete ignorance of what the New Covenant is all about. We don't live under the law yet we are not lawless ! By the way, if you're poor with little money to give, the Lord gives to everyone one or more spiritual gifts to share with others so you can share the love of God through your gifts. Now I've got you really confused, right?. The law that drives a New Testament Christian is the love of God and the love of God will always cause us to love God and our neighbor which will produce good works, and true worship without the condemnation or hatred of the law. That is called fulfilling the law. Romans 13:8,10Galatians 5:14 and James 2:8. That kind of life can only happen through a supernatural circumcision of our hearts by grace through faith. But, it's little wonder that people don't understand this because we have churned out ignorant "theologians" out of our Bible Colleges seemingly at the speed of light. How can someone believe and remain under the High Priests Blessing if they have never heard ? And how can they hear except one sent by the Holy Spirit preach.Romans 10:4,11 and Romans 10:14,15. Notice that in verse 14 and 15 that people cannot believe if they have not heard, but what is it that they should hear? Is it the law? The ministry of condemnation and death? It is is the gospel of peace and glad tidings of good things from one sent by the Holy Spirit. People will not believe if one is sent by a man and preaches the condemnation of the law. They may submit out of fear or ignorance but that is completely different than believing the good news of the New Covenant through the blood of Christ. Hang with me folks, you'll see how this relates to the Lords face shining on you. Also, before you run off rejecting the eternal, holy, spiritual and good law of God - Romans 7:7,10,12,14 - or accuse me of doing so, you need to keep reading the next few posts.

The questions that arise when people hear or read a teaching like this are several: What are we supposed to do then ? What about good works? What about the ten commandments? And the icing on the cake is “You are antinomian” i.e. are you against the law? In their minds they cannot conceive of a life in which holiness of life is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit so that Christ alone receives all glory honor and praise for any goodness that comes out of our life. One reason they cannot conceive of this life is because it is a life of faith in the written promises and the living promise Jesus Christ. I know I'm repeating myself but it goes back to a lack of knowlegde of the New Covenant produced by the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The mission of Christ was planned before you and I were born, in fact, before the world was made. Let me put it this way, God was making a contract with Himself to redeem, bless, save, heal and reveal Himself to you before you existed ! That contract, if believed on and accepted, will give to you power to do the works of God i.e. love, prophecy, lay hands on the sick, do miracles, have wisdom and much more because it is written in the contract that God Himself would fullfill the obligations of His contract with Himself. That contract only works by faith through grace, it does not work through the works of the law. Now in order to have this supernatural life you have to understand something of our New Covenant relationship with Christ, because that is what God uses to excite the faith that He has already placed within everyone. The New Covenant prophesied of in Jeremiah and Ezekiel and revealed by Holy Spirit through Paul is clear.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 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 teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for 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. Jer 31:31,32,33,34

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. Ezek 36:26,27

And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

Deut 30:6

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he isa Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. Romans 2:28,29

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Phil 3:3

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. Col 2:9,10,11,12

This opens up a that can of worms between two different methods of interpreting scriptures. The first is dispensationalism and the second is covenantal. There couldn't be two more different ways of interpreting scripture than these two, in my opinion. As I said this is turning into a small book and I really can't do justice to this subject in this format. Only to say that dispensationalism - as a method of interpreting Gods word - is relatively new ( mid 1800's ) whereas covenantalism has been around for thousands of years. I used to be a dispensationalist, I spent time in a traditional Pentecostal Bible College, but now lean heavily towards interpreting scripture through covenant and I'm still learning. Covenantalism declares ( this is a very brief statement ) that Christ is the seed of Abraham and David the last Adam who came to fulfill the promises ( covenant ) God made to Adam, Abraham, David, and others and to represent the human race i.e. die the death that Adam was supposed to die and bring in everlasting righteousness and forgiveness of sins. He also did away with the old covenant as a means of knowing God and fills all those of faith with His nature. Christ is the heir of all the covenant blessings on behalf of mankind so that - to those who believe - all the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen. Just as the whole human race was in Adam when he sinned and inherited his sinful nature at birth so to those who are of faith are considered to be in Christ and inheirent His Holy nature at the new birth. This requires at least a basic understanding of the humanity of Christ and why it was necessary for God to take on human flesh, I'll cover that a little later. Dispensationalism, on the other hand, is actually counterproductive to faith because it takes many promises intended for all nations, tribes and tongues and says that they are only for the Jewish nation of the last days. I've also noticed that dispensationlists more often than not lean towards law keeping as a means of covenant blessing. Some go so far as to say that if you break the Sabboth you are not a Christian. I've heard with my own ears a preacher say that if you don't tithe then you are in rebellion to God and going to hell ! Dispensationalism is counterproductive to faith because the scripture is clear: All those who are of faith are in Christ and are the seed of Abraham and are blessed with faithful Abraham. Galatians 3:14,26,27,29. Dispensationlism misinterprets Daniels prophecy of 490 years and therefore does not see that Christ the King is today seated on the throne of David. It actually robs the church and the world of the power in Christ and hinders the rule and reign of God through Christ to be spread throughout the nations by the church. They are correct in saying that Christ is returning to this earth physically to rule and reign but they are in error by not seeing that Christ is ruling and reigning now. The ambassadors He wants to use, to spread the Good News of His Reign, is all believers in every nation. When Christ does return He will confirm what his witnesses have been declaring. Why is this important? Because what dispensationlism has failed to take into account is the humanity of Christ as the seed of Adam, Abraham,Issac, Jacob and David which means, Jesus is the one to whom all the promises were given and because we are in Him we receive all the promise also as co-heirs with Christ. It also fails to see that for the first 10 to 30 years the Church was almost exclusively Jewish, which means that the promises made to Israel were fulfilled first in Christ and then to the early church. For example, I have heard with my own ears dispensationists say that they are waiting for Elijah to come here physically before the return of Christ, yet Jesus Himself said that Elijah had already come in the person of John the Baptist. This necessitates understanding Daniels prophecy of 70 weeks which I'll cover later. What's the point of all this?

Because if you've been taught, as I was, that Christ is not on the Throne of David at this time but will be in the future or if you have been taught that some of the promises are for the Jews only and do not apply to the Church, then you will miss, as I did, the power of God for supernatural changes in your life. If Christ is not the King on a Davids Throne right now then what kingdom did He give us? Luke 12:32. If He is not KIng now then what authority does He have? If He is not King, then maybe He is not our High Priest too. I actually heard a preacher say that he was the High Priest of the church he was over! Heresy. Lunacy. Haven't you noticed how little Jesus is preached in churches and how the focus has become centered in men and programs. Christ is King, High Priest and He fulfilled all the covenant requirements - this is the catalyst to our faith. Dispensationlism interprets scripture almost entirely in a literal viewpoint except for the last days teaching. For instance many take the scripture quoted above ( And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. Deut 30:6) and say it is only for the physical nation of Israel and means God will cause them to reject their idolotry and turn to Christ. First, this method of interpretation fails to see that God began to fulfill this promise to a group of real physical descendants of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. Their names were Peter, Matthew, John, Paul, and thousands of other Jews in the first century church, continuing on till today. Second, what they say is only half a truth, because God circumcises the heart of all who turn to Christ, both Jew and Gentile, which is confirmed in the New Testeament ( For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Col 2:9,10,11,12

If you've been taught that this promise is only for Israel of the last days or of the 7 year tribulation then how could you possibly use your God given faith to claim it when Satan comes to test your love for the Lord ? How could you use it at communion when you are remembering what Christ has done for you? How could you give God thanks for doing this for you when you've been taught that this promise is not for you today. This is not to mention the possibly hundreds of other promises that are supposedly only for "natural" Israel. You see how this method of interpretation is damaging to the faith. Because of their literal interpretation and misinterpretations they fail to see that all believers, Jew and Gentile are now the circumcision and the Zion of God, the true Israel that God has created from the two. This is verified in the book of Hebrews, Colossians, Galatians and Ephesians. And if we - Jew and Gentile - are the Zion of God then we can claim every promise as ours because we are co-heirs with Christ of all the promises. And if Jew and Gentile are co-heirs with Christ then we all inheirit the land of Israel as well as the rest of the world. Matt.5:5 - Romans 4:13 with Galatians 3:14,29- Romans 8:17- I Cor. 3:21,22,23 - Rev. 21:7 Dispensationalism has a hard time claiming promises that have to be interpreted spiritually. That's not to say that covenantalism is exclusively spiritual in it's interpretation because it's not. I think it's a more balanced and biblical way of looking at the word of God and applying it to our lives. Here is another example: if we know Jesus is King the son of David then He must be reigning on Davids throne in Mount Zion because that's where Davids throne was 2nd Sam. 5:7, but more importantly the old testament has already declared that the Lord reigns in Zion. Psalms 2:6 - Psalms 48:2 speaks of David and Christ,Psalms 50:2; 110:2. Hebrews also says that we have come to the mount Zion already. Hebrews 12:22 But, if the Church is not the Zion of God, then what do we do with these scriptures.

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Psalms 2:6 Everyone knows this is a Messianic prophecy speaking of Jesus. Yet at the time it was given it was for King David. Dispensationists say this is only to be fulfilled when Christ returns and is seated on the throne of David in the millineum, yet the book of Hebrews clearly says that we have come to the mount Zion and to the city of the living God and Acts 15:16-17 says that God was already restoring the tabernacle of David ( which was in Zion) and because of that the gentiles would become believers. We have to make a choice either Christ is reigning right now as Davids seed in Mount Zion or He is not. If He is, as I and others believe, then it gives us great security and confidence in His power.

For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.Psalms 69:35

They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. Psalms 84:7

The LORD is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people. Psalms 99:2

When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. Psalms 102:16

For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; Psalms 102:19,20,21

That last scripture is very similar to What the New Testemant says about Jesus:

Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. Heb 2:12

And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:26

I choose to believe that we are the Zion of God today and therefore have access to these promises. It gives me great comfort and security knowing that Jesus is still declaring the name of Jehovah to us today. I know that this is a lot of "stuff" I've thrown at you. And, at first glance, may seem confusing but it does and is leading towards a liberating truth and revelation of our High Priests' Blessing on our life and how we can stay under that blessing. Let me recap this lesson:

Christ our High Priest is causing His face ( presence) to shine upon us, but there is the possibility of us willfully returning to law for covenant blessings and/or relationship, which will in turn put us back under the curse of the law.

Compared the similarities of Adam and Eve and the Galatians Christians who were in danger of trusting in law instead of Christ

Even though the law is the ministry of death and condemnation it is still holy, good, spiritual and eternal. However, we are not to try and obtain or maintain a relationship with God through the law but only through Christ and the promises.

Our hearts have been circumcised by a supernatural work of God which causes us to love our neighbor and love our God.

The law is fulfilled in us as we love God and our neighbor.

The difference between Dispensationlism and Covenantalism as methods of interpreting scripture and how it affects our relationship to the Father, Christ and the promises of God, miracles and the law.

I know you're probably saying, Dan chill out you're a spiritual geek. How did you get all this out of half a sentence that says The Lord make His face shine upon you and what does any of this have to do with the High Priest Blessing of Jesus Christ. There is a method to my madness and you'll see in the following lessons how all this relates but as I said I can only put so much on the net at once and this is turning into a small book. Right now my brain is hurting from sorting all this out : )

Till the next post your brother in Christ Dan

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High Priest 3A

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The High Priest Blessing of Jesus Christ

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