DANIEL, CYRUS AND ZERUBBABEL 4
(week 29/12)
OLUBI JOHNSON
In our article last week, we saw the ‘Cyrus’ 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 third stage: Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel typifies our entering, firstly into the experience of perfection and secondly exercising the power of the Spirit without measure in perfection. It is this manifestation of the glory of God by the power of the Spirit without measure that will lead to the laying of the foundation and subsequent completion of the temple: the corporate Perfect Church.
In the New Testament reality, we enter into the ‘Promised Land’ of perfection when begin to experience the ‘blade’ (Mk. 4:28) of the total dominion over sin in our souls: wills, mind and emotions; and bodies. With this experience typified by coming to Ziklag, where David was prepared (1 Sam. 27:6-7) for coming to the throne in Hebron (2 Sam. 1, 2:1-4), we are qualified to obtain a borrowed anointing from the Spirit without measure manifested by a perfect leadership.
Now, after spending seven months in the Promised Land, the leadership builds the altar of sacrifice (like Elijah built the altar at Mount Carmel (1 Kgs. 18:30-39)), which typifies our prayers as the spiritual sacrifices of the Melchizedek priesthood.
Ezra 3:1-6 AMP: WHEN THE seventh month came and the Israelites were in the towns, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. (2) Then stood up Jeshua son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and they built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings upon it, as it is written in the instructions of Moses the man of God. (3) And they set the altar [in its place] upon its base, for fear was upon them because of the peoples of the countries; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord morning and evening. (4) They kept also the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the ordinances, as each day’s duty required, (5) And after that, the continual burnt offering, the offering at the New Moon, and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. (6) From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, but the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
This scripture typifies the fact that when we come into the land, after about seven months (representing the time it takes to begin to enjoy the ‘sweetness’ (Eccl. 11:7) of fresh revelation after six months of the ‘myrrh’ of suffering of self-denial in prayer and fasting as typified in (Esth. 2:12)) our prayer life will become more ordered and structured based on the instructions of the perfect leadership. This perfect leadership would have started manifesting the Spirit without measure in the seventh month fulfilling the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles in the Church.
After another seven months: in the second month of the next year the perfect leadership typified by Zerubbabel and Joshua laid the foundation of the temple:
Ezra 3:8-11 KJV: Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD. (9) Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites. (10) And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. (11) And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth forever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.
In our experience this means after the perfect leadership has been manifesting the Spirit without measure for about seven months, the Christians who have entered the land and have been understudying the perfect leadership, will rebuild their altars of structured, consistent prayer and so now begin to manifest the borrowed anointing: a borrowed portion of the Spirit without measure.
This joint manifestation of the glory of God by both the leadership and followership in the ‘Promised Land’ of the perfection and fulness of Christ will indicate the laying of the foundation of the end-time temple that God will inhabit by His Spirit without measure as revealed in
Ephesians 2:20-22 KJV: And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; (21) In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: (22) In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
It is instructive to see that you cannot lay a foundation with one stone: you need the Chief Cornerstone (the Lord Jesus) and one or two other stones on adjacent to the Chief Cornerstone. So the leadership who have grown into the perfection and fulness of Christ and the followership having a borrowed anointing will together form the extra stones connected to the Chief Cornerstone, the Lord Jesus, to lay the foundation of the perfect corporate temple.
This perfect temple that is manifesting the glory of God will continue to grow until it is completed after about seven years typified by the completion of the temple Solomon built (1 Kgs. 6:37-38).
This completed temple will be exceedingly magnificent (1 Chr.22:5): without spot or wrinkle (Eph. 5:26-27), manifesting the glory of God (Is. 60:1-5), attracting people (Is. 2:2-4) from every tribe, tongue and kindred to disciple them and so cause this age to close (Mt.24:14)!
So the ‘Zerubbabel’ stage is fulfilled in two steps: entering the land which is experiencing the ‘blade’ of perfection typified by getting to ‘Ziklag’ and secondly manifesting the borrowed anointing of the Spirit without measure to lay the foundation of and build the temple of the perfect church.
The fulfilment of this last ‘Zerubbabel’ stage is imminent now in 2012 and so God is calling all Christians to begin their individual journey from ‘Daniel’ to ‘Cyrus’ and ultimately to ‘Zerubbabel’.
