FULFILLING ALL THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS_FULFILLING THE ANIMAL SACRIFICES, THE LAW, THE FEASTS AND THE PROPHETS
(mr 03/07/18)
OLUBI JOHNSON
How do we as Christians fulfill the animal sacrifices today?
The animal sacrifices are symbolic of the spiritual sacrifices of prayers that we are to make today with the foundation of the death, the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is the ultimate Lamb of God that was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev.13:8). Every animal sacrifice foreshadowed the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. Therefore, in all of our prayers as Christians today, we do not have animal sacrifices; however, we do have spiritual sacrifices according to:
1 Peter 2:5 KJV: Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 13:15 KJV: By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of [our] lips giving thanks to his name.
There are spiritual sacrifices, the New Testament equivalent of the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament. They are fulfilled today by the spiritual sacrifices of prayer in the New Testament dispensation with the foundation of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have what is known as ‘Sin Offering’, where we confess our sins so many times during the courses of each day to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The fact that the Lord Jesus had died on the cross as the Lamb of God gives us the authority to use His blood as an atonement or cleansing agent for our sins because He has paid the penalty. That is why we say: ‘Father, I confess our sins to clean with the Blood from all unrighteousness’.
Then there is the ‘Peace Offering, for which we say, ‘In Jesus name we have Life’.
By faith we now have peace (Rom. 5.1) and life (1 Jn.5.12) through Jesus Christ.
Then we have the ‘Meal Offering’, which is praise and worship! That is what God “eats” literally!
We see this in:
Psalm 50:12-14 KJV: If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world [is] mine, and the fulness thereof. (13) Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? (14) Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
God inhabits the praises of His people (Ps.22: 3). It is the ‘meat’ that God eats. Praise refreshes God, just like food refreshes you.
The final New Testament sacrifice is the ‘Burnt Offering’. This symbolizes using the fire of the power of the Holy Spirit to burn out the sin nature from the soul and the body. When we pray in tongues and groan and intercede in the Spirit, it becomes the substance of the Old Testament burnt offering. Any born again Christian through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who also prays in tongues can offer up these spiritual sacrifices. When we do so, what we are doing is what the Lord Jesus said in the scripture in:
Matthew 5: 17-18 KJV: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. (18) For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Therefore, fulfilling the Law and the Prophets now is by prayer, not by going physically to the city of Jerusalem!
It is through fulfilling these spiritual sacrifices that we as Christians can keep the Law: the Ten Commandments.
Now, the apostle Paul tells us in the New Testament that all the commandments of God can be summarized into one commandment, which is Love (Romans 13:8-10)! Therefore, we are to use the sin offering, the peace offering, the meal offering and the burnt offering to fulfill the Law of Love. The only way we can walk in God’s love is through praying in the Spirit. The way by which we are going to perfect the Love of God in our lives is by the Blood of Jesus, the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. All these together are called the sacrifices. So we use spiritual sacrifices to keep the law of the Ten Commandments, which is summarized in the Law of divine Love.
All the law can be summarized in:
Romans 13:8-10 KJV: Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. (9) For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (10) Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Galatians 5:14 KJV: For ALL the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Therefore, when you walk in the Love of God, you automatically keep the Law! One cannot keep the Law without spiritual sacrifices. We thus have a better understanding of Matthew 5:17-18.
Furthermore it is when we keep the Law of Love that we can fulfill the feast of Tabernacles to perfect the Love of God and manifest the perfection and fulness of Christ in this end time.
Finally, there are the Prophets.
The Prophets contain allegories:
Galatians 4:21-25 KJV: Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he [who was] of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman [was] by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
This is a true historical story BUT IT HAS A PROPHETIC ALLEGORICAL APPLICATION. The entire Bible is prophetic in this allegorical manner. That is why we must read ALL scripture!
ALL scripture is prophetic:
2 Peter 1:20 KJV: Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
Take the example of the sacrifice made every six paces by the priests when they were bringing in the Ark of the Covenant, which represents the glory of God, to Jerusalem during the reign of David:
2 Samuel 6:13 KJV: And it was so, that when they that bare the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings.
At that time, they did a literal animal sacrifice; it was a ceremonial fulfilment. Today, however, that scripture tells us we should be praying every six hours!
We see the same instruction confirmed in the following scriptures:
Deuteronomy 6:7 KJV: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Mark 13:35 KJV: Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
Somebody said that the Old Testament is like a glove and the New Testament is like a hand that fits in the glove!
All the Old Testament historical accounts have some prophetic, allegorical application.
For example, when God gave Pharaoh the dreams (Gen.41), He used cows at first; secondly, He used ears of corn: the good and the bad ones. The symbolisms changed, but the message was the same!
The entire Bible is written SUPERNATURALLY in this way!
When we preach on ‘The Enoch Generation’, who is Enoch? We, the saints! Or ‘The Joshua Generation’; who is Joshua? We, the saints!
The symbolisms change but the truth is the same: His Name is Jesus! All the symbolisms are pointing you to your destiny to become fully conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when you read the Old Testament, must ask yourself, ‘What is the scripture saying to me?’
Why does God use DIFFERENT symbolisms like David, Eli, Samuel and other Old Testament characters and accounts?
Each symbolism has different details; for example, this detail in David, when they were bringing back the Ark of Covenant. There are other details in Esther, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, Zephaniah, Zechariah and so on!
The wisdom of God is hidden inside all these symbolisms. So as we pray and read the Bible, the Holy Spirit will begin to unfold them. The Lord will draw out and show to us the particular detail we will need for a particular situation. That is why the Bible says:
2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV: All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (17) that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
The focal point is that the man of God may be perfect. If we do not receive and act upon the full gamut of the instructions we cannot grow into perfection.
The Lord did something for us in Scripture Pasture Christian Centre many years ago, though at the time we were unaware of what was happening; we were just obeying God! Thank God for my wife for being cooperative. We started Scripture Pasture Christian Centre in 1984, got married in 1986. In my first four years of ministry, I was just a pastor and a teacher with no prophetic insight or anointing. Now, I can look back and see what God was doing then and how the anointing changed. I was teaching healing, prosperity, deliverance and prayer.
In 1988, something happened; an anointing came upon me and I shifted from teaching what can be called the elementary principles to the prophetic teaching, before Papa Ralph Martin came in 1990. I started preaching on ‘The Elijah Company’, ‘The Man Child Company’, ‘The Joshua Generation’, ‘Times and Seasons’ etc. That was when God used Brother Bankole Akinmola to bring Papa Ralph Martin to Scripture Pasture Christian Centre.
When Papa Ralph first preached in Scripture Pasture Christian Centre, people were shouting and jumping out of their seats because all the things that I had been preaching were confirmed, clarified and amplified by him. About six years earlier, God in His mercy, had given us a solid New Testament Foundation: we knew, we are a new creation in Christ, we knew God had saved us, we identified with the righteousness of God in Christ. All of those foundations were already intact, but we needed the Old Testament types and shadows to give us prophetic insight, inspiration and instructions to grow into perfection!
The problem of the Church today is that, most New Testament, Word of faith, Charismatic preachers stay exclusively with the New Testament and use it for teaching and preaching for material, financial, healing, deliverance and prosperity blessings but they do not go on to perfection (Hebrews 6:1-2). Therefore, when they hear this kind of message, they immediately reject it; consequently, their preaching becomes ‘man-centered, need–oriented and entertainment-based’ instead of ‘Christ-centered, kingdom-oriented and anointing-based’!
When Israel left Egypt, God’s purpose for them was to enter and possess the Promised Land but once you lose that focus, you figuratively begin roaming around in the wilderness and will become satisfied with daily manna from heaven. Even the fact that ‘your clothes do not wear out and you do not get sick’ (Ps.8.4; 105.37): some degree of material prosperity and physical well-being; does not mean you will get to the Promised Land. Those who lose focus upon the Promised Land of perfection of divine Love will, like many in Israel of old, die in the wilderness. We pray and trust that will not be your testimony in Jesus Name!
Our prophetic destiny is hidden inside the symbolisms of the Old Testament and in the Bible in general. Our part is to pray it out to apprehend and follow it!
Proverbs 25:2 KJV: [It is] the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings [is] to search out a matter.
Fulfilling my part cannot take away from you fulfilling your own. Each one of us have three parts of our lives hidden in the prophetic scriptures:
Revelation 22:19 KJV: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life (Passover), and out of the holy city (Pentecost), and [from] the things which are written in this book (Tabernacles).
God does not want us to fulfill only the feast of Passover (being born again); He does not want us to fulfill only the feast of Pentecost (speaking in tongues and the gifts of the Spirit); He wants us to go on and fulfill the feast of Tabernacles: perfection of the Love of God and then the manifestation of the Spirit without measure that will bring in the harvest of nations!
The Lord Jesus did not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets; He came to fulfill it in its entirety through us the endtime Church!
Selah!
