Understanding Covering 2
(week 43, 2007)
Olubi Johnson
In our article last week we saw that covering was the power of God, channeled through the spirits of those in positions of spiritual leadership and authority that God uses to bless, protect and discipline His people.
We also saw that to enjoy covering we need to esteem highly in love those in authority, obey their instructions from the Word and give to them of our tithes and offerings. The degree to which we are faithful in doing these things is the degree to which we will enjoy the covering.
In fact covering causes you to:
1. Enjoy more rightdoing, by the extra spiritual power you get through it.
2. Enjoy more spiritual nutrition and growth by the extra spiritual nutrition you get through it.
3. Enjoy more protection by the extra protection you get through it.
Now how is covering generated and released?
Deep (Psalms 42.7), united prayer in the spirit with travail (Galatians 4.19, Isaiah 66.8) of spiritual fathers generates covering.
In the Old Testament, the High Priest would, on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16), enter into the Holy of Holies once a year and offer up animal sacrifices to cover for the sins of Israel.
Today in the New Testament, spiritual fathers by deep, united prayer in the spirit with travail (Galatians 4.19), offer up spiritual sacrifices, in different areas, on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, to provide spiritual covering for those under their sphere of authority.
It is instructive to observe that God is just creating this level of spiritual covering, in this 3rd. day:
Isaiah 4:2-6(NKJV): 2 In that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped. 3 And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy–everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. 4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, 5 then the LORD will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering. 6 And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.
Why is it just in this 3rd.day that this level of covering is being created?
It is being created at this time, because it is in the 3rd. day that the church will be operating in cleansing and manifesting perfection. It is through the spirits of spiritual fathers, operating in cleansing perfection, that this covering can be effectively generated and released. It is vital to note that the spiritual fathers alone in them selves cannot provide this covering; the Holy Spirit provides it through them by united prayer in the spirit with other saints in the body. So ultimately the covering is provided by the High Priestly intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus, through the collective united praying in the spirit of the body of Christ. However, it is the spiritual fathers that have the understanding, faith and spiritual capacity to activate and release this covering. Spiritual babies, little children and young men (1 John 2.13) will not be able to do this.
Remember that in the Old Testament it was the High Priest alone who could go into the Holy of Holies to provide covering on the Day of Atonement: the ordinary Priest or Levite could not do it. In the New Testament, in this context, fathers in spiritual growth in love would correspond to High Priests, young men to priests and little children and babies to ordinary Levites.
The Lord Jesus in His ministry (John 17.12, Luke 22.31) provided covering for the apostles and His disciples, but because they were not yet born-again it simply preserved them from destruction so they could get born-again and operate with a borrowed portion of Jesus’ anointing to start the early church, even though they were just spiritual babies at the beginning. Later some of the Apostles like Paul (1 Corintians 5.4) also provided covering in the early church but it could not produce the perfection and fullness of Christ as the time had not yet come because the canon of scripture was not complete and so the revelation to accomplish it was not yet available. In fact, any time any body prays for someone else the prayer provides covering (1 Peter 4.7-8) for the person being prayed for. However, the power released is limited in measure and scope, depending on who is praying for whom.
However, in this 3rd.day, through the operation of cleansing perfection and united praying in the spirit, a tremendous amount of power (Ephesians 3.20) can and will be generated to provide covering for the saints, to nourish and strengthen them spiritually to grow into the perfection and fullness of Christ and preserve them from premature physical death, while this is being done.
Without this tremendous 3rd. day covering, generated and released, by spiritual fathers who are perfecting the love of God using united prayer in the spirit and cleansing perfection in the soul and body, church would not be able to grow into the perfection and fullness of Christ. This is why this level of covering has been created in this 3rd.day.
So the covering being generated and released in this 3rd.day is for the purpose of preserving and perfecting the church to fulfill its end-time destiny of becoming a glorious church without spot, blemish or wrinkle (Ephesians 5.26), manifesting the glory of God, doing the works Jesus did and greater (John 14.12)!
