DANIEL, CYRUS AND ZERUBBABEL 3
(week 28/12)
OLUBI JOHNSON
In our article last week, we saw the ‘Daniel’ stage of a three stage prophetic panorama: Daniel, Cyrus and Zerubbabel, which typifies the present day purpose of God in taking the Church from the captivity of spiritual immaturity in spiritual ‘Babylon’ to the Promised Land of the perfection and fulness of Christ. It is in this ‘Promised Land’ that God will build a corporate spiritual temple, typified by the temple of Zerubbabel (Hag. 2:7-9), which will manifest the glory of God to every tribe, tongue and kindred and so close this age (Mt. 24:14).
This week, we will be looking at the second stage: Cyrus.
The ‘Cyrus’ stage is the stage in which the mental understanding of God’s purpose by the reading and hearing of scripture now becomes revelation knowledge of God’s purpose of perfection and the principles of how to experience this perfection.
Put concisely the ‘Daniel’ stage is the head knowledge stage of perfection; while the ‘Cyrus’ stage is the revelation knowledge stage of perfection and the principles by which it will be experienced.
The ‘Daniel’ stage is the prerequisite for the ‘Cyrus’ stage: without the ‘Daniel’ stage of mental understanding of God’s purpose for the perfection of the Church individually and collectively through the scriptures, a person will not be motivated to seeking God in prayer, supplications and fasting which bring revelation knowledge not only of the purpose but also of the wisdom to achieve it. It is this complete (in principle) revelation knowledge of the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the perfection of the Church individually and collectively that constitutes the ‘Cyrus’ stage.
This ‘Cyrus’ stage is typified by the decree of Cyrus to all Israelites in the Persian Empire as recorded in
Ezra 1:1-3 KJV: Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, (2) Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. (3) Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.
This decree of Cyrus is likened to God shining His Word in our hearts to reveal to us His call for us to grow into the perfection and fulness of Christ:
2 Corinthians 4:6 KJV: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:12-13 KJV: For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (13) Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
As mentioned in our article last week, some of the first of the fruits of the perfect Church entered this ‘Cyrus’ stage between about 2000-2010 AD, but it is still open to any one who is just getting this revelation now.
So, our response to this decree should be like the response of some of the fathers, priests and Levites:
Ezra 1:5 KJV: Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.
All who hear this decree by revelation should arise and start practicing the perfection principles so as to experience cleansing perfection, which is typified as entering the Promised Land.
Entering the land marks the beginning of the third stage: Zerubbabel. So the ‘Zerubbabel’ stage is the experiential knowledge stage of the perfection in Christ.
It is instructive to note that many of the Israelites who heard this decree did not respond to it. This is because in Babylon/Persia they were in captivity but not in bondage like they were in Egypt. In fact in Babylon they were physically and materially comfortable so many did not want to risk leaving their comfort to travel to Israel to build the temple.
In the same way today, many Christians are physically and materially comfortable: their bodies are healed (1 Pet. 2:24) and their needs are met (Phil. 4:19) even though, they are in captivity to spiritual immaturity. They do not want the inconvenience of the discipline and self-denial, persecution and affliction that will arise for the Word’s sake if they start practicing the perfection principles. So they prefer to stay in ‘Babylon’ so long as their physical and material needs are met.
However, this is a great deception by Satan, because God’s vengeance is going to come on the church that stays in ‘Babylon’ ignoring the prophetic trumpet to arise and grow into perfection. This is also like when Satan deceived Lot into leaving Abraham to go to Sodom and Gomorrah because of material gain (Gen.13:7-13); however, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot lost everything he had and almost his own life (Gen. 19:1-26).
We see this truth explicitly stated in the New Testament in
1 Corinthians 3:12-15 KJV: Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; (13) Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. (14) If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. (15) If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
So, we should arise and move from the ‘Daniel’ stage into the ‘Cyrus’ stage by seeking God in prayer and supplications with fasting, and so get the complete revelation knowledge of perfection which as we practice will bring us into the ‘Zerubbabel’ stage of cleansing perfection and ultimately fullness of Christ individually and collectively typified by the building of the temple.
In our article next week, we will look at the ‘Zerubbabel’ stage.
