The Mystery of Israel’s Blindness – But By My Spirit
...PDF Version
As read by Kenneth B Visscher
For I do not want you to be ignorant of
this mystery, brothers, lest you should be wise within yourselves; that
blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the nations has
comes in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, "There shall
come out of Zion the Deliverer, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
For this is My covenant with them, when I have taken away their
sins." Indeed as regards the gospel, they are enemies for your
sakes. But as regards the election, they are beloved for the fathers'
sakes. For the free gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For
as you also then disbelieved God, but now have been shown mercy through their
disbelief, even so these also have not believed now, so that through your mercy
they may also obtain mercy. For God has shut up all in unbelief, so that He
might show mercy to all. O the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His
ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who
became His counselor? Or who first gave to Him, and it will be repaid to him?
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things; to Him be glory
forever! Amen. Romans 11:25-36
"Today if you will hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in
the wilderness, when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty
years. Therefore I was grieved with that generation and said, They always err
in their heart, and they have not known My ways. So I swore in My wrath,
They shall not enter into My rest." Take heed, brothers, lest there be in
any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of
Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,
while it is said, "Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your
hearts, as in the provocation." For some, when they had heard, did
provoke; however, not all who came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He
grieved forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose
carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they should
not enter into His rest, but to those who did not believe? So we see that they
could not enter in because of unbelief. Hebrews 3:7-19
And the angel that talked with me came
again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, And said unto
me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of
gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven
pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive
trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the
left side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with
me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me
answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my
lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of
the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,
saith the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 4:1-6
Now no chastening for the present seemeth
to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable
fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up
the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for
your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather
be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man
shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God;
lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many
be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau,
who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Hebrews 12:11-16
Who can utter the mighty acts of the
LORD? who can shew forth all his praise? Blessed are they that
keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times. Remember
me, O LORD, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit
me with thy salvation; That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may
rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.
Psalms 106:2-5
And here is the mind which hath
wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And
there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not
yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast
that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth
into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have
received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is
Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called,
and chosen, and faithful. Revelation 17:9-14
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If
any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,
and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever
will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he
shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father
with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily
I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death,
till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. Matthew 16:24-28
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul
of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it
shall die. Ezekiel 18:4
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of
the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. Isaiah 45:22
“Then in the midst of the multitude of people a great silence fell,
all the souls which surrounded me dissipated and I was left alone with my wife.
Then did I hear a sound of a coming great thunder and looking up I saw a great
dark cloud which covered the entire expanse of the sky from the east to the
west, so thick and dark was the cloud that no light from the natural sun could
be seen coming through it, but a glory was within the cloud. The cloud then
began to part and I saw within the cloud The Ancient of Days who did sit upon
the cloud over the masses of mankind, the cloud did bear the weight and the
size of The Ancient of Days. He spoke Ezekiel 18:4 and Isaiah 45:22 and with a
shout and with a roar from His lips He did grasp from His right the masses of
mankind in His hands and did pull them to His left. As He did all the masses of
mankind from Adam down through the ages of this world were grasped in His hands
and He did pull them forward from the right to the left. All the systems of man
as dark patches of cloud fell away from man and all the systems that man had
created were utterly destroyed as The Ancient of Days did grasp them and pull
them towards Himself. No one was left out of His grasp. As mankind passed by
the chest and heart of The Ancient of Days they were cleansed and made pure and
made white as their iniquity was removed from them. No system man had ever made
in history and up until present time was able to remain attached to the souls
of all these whom the Lord did take unto Himself. He delivered all of mankind
from all that held him to this earth and brought them forth, even on the left
side of The Ancient of Days into that dominion which He alone owns and which He
alone governs with those who are found faithful with Him. All the systems of
man, past, present and future were completely destroyed as The Ancient of Days
did this one singular motion of grasping mankind and pulling them into His
Kingdom. No one was left out of that glad day and of the course of being
delivered from the bondages of man’s earthly systems. Once mankind had come to
the left side of God, the system of Babylon was no more and mankind entered the
age of the peaceful reign of the King of Kings in the earth and over the world
of man. I saw that this vision related to what will be and what is to happen as
the Lord continues to unfold His purposes in the earth.”
(End Vision)
Continuing
on in the study of The Mystery of Israel’s Blindness, this is the second part
of this study and it is being built up upon the fact that the Lord continues to
strip and lay bare the hearts of those who would be found faithful in the
purpose of His coming and of our need to be found faithful unto Him. Our
faithfulness must be found in two areas. First in our faith in the overall plan
of the Lord to deliver unto Himself a purified race of people whom He will
grant favor and in whom He will give the right to rule and to reign with Him,
and the other area is that of the continued ongoing working of the all
consuming power of the cross. Both of these must work so that we understand
that the flesh nature we all have is vile and contemptible and it is in
complete opposition to the motion of the spirit of the Lord in our hearts,
warring against the Lord and against His calling upon the Overcomers life. As
such they who are in this state are doing well if the war is apparent because
that means they are making forward progress. If the cross and the hope are both
working then the war is real, the battle is great, the power of carnality
opposing the person’s faith within themselves is a full blown battle, nothing
short of an all out war. This is the present condition of the Overcomer. If a
person has pockets of peace and no war, which too is of the Lord, but in cycles
this war emerges and takes place inside the life of an individual called to be
one with the Lord in His overall purpose for this time.
There is in
the life of the Overcomer at this time a stripping away of two major areas that
a third might remain. There is the loss of the Lord’s “might” and a loss of the
Lord’s “power”. As amazing as that may
seem, it is truth. The Lord is not only reducing us to the bare minimum of
faith, He is doing so by removing His might and power from us so that we only
have His “spirit” to retain us. We are not aware of the mightiness of the Lord
at this time, except in our hope of His overall redemptive plan. Nor are we
aware of the Lord’s power at this time, He remains in a seemingly absent state,
His presence is rarely known or seen in our lives and we feel cut off and
alone. This is paramount to what the Lord is after in developing Kings and
Priests which will rule with Him. They must first go through the trial of this
fiery test, to only know His “spirit” working to affect His purposes. The Lord,
by the simple motion of His own spirit, will cause His purposes to be done
without fanfare, without loud trumpets announcing it, but simply by the Lord
being LORD over us and over the nations of the earth. At present His motion is
over the called out ones who passed the first test and were found faithful in
that calling, therefore He “chose” them, saying unto them that He is well
pleased with the passing of this test. What was the test? It was the
willingness to endure all the presentation made to them by Jesus of the
fellowship of His sufferings. Their willingness to be conformed unto His death
so that His life might also be manifested in them; so that they may be found as
having advanced on to the next part of their calling. It matters not what the
outward circumstances of the person is, what matters is that they were “willing”
in the day of His power to thankfully accept the full working of their own
personal cross. These then were chosen. These that were chosen were also given
the announcement before the Angels and the Hosts of Heaven that they are “faithful”.
So now the
Lord is moving just in these few who said they were willing to partake fully in
the sufferings of the cross. These sufferings come to the Overcomer at this
time in a major area, and that is that they who bear such know of NO power of
God to keep them, they are left exposed to the negative elements in the earth
and in the world of man to let them be seized, taken and utterly killed in the
midst of all those who dwell in the earth. These who are chosen are taken aside
and crucified by all the circumstances which envelop them. There is no
deliverance from the nails which impound them upon their own crosses because
they are a covenant people. They are a people who have agreed that for the life
of Christ to be seen in them, they must also have the death of Christ seen in
them. They do not wish to be delivered of any trial or test nor do they seek to
have the trial or test shortened. They only want to allow all the in working of
the death of Jesus to be their portion while the hope of His life keeps them to
this course. So there it is, the power and the might of the Lord are removed at
this time from they who overcome so that they can have NO identity other than
the death of Jesus in them and NO identity before the Lord other than the life
of Jesus in them. These are the cut off
ones, the utterly rejected ones, the hated ones. No one in this world
understands them, no one in this world cares for them, no one in this world wants
to see them prosper in manmade doctrines. These who are thus affected by their
personal cross are in a continual state of “flux”. They have no desire or
knowledge of how to deliver themselves from their trials and they have no
desire or knowledge of how to make the trials end, they simply endure them day
in and day out. Yet it is these who are chosen and faithful, who do not turn
their back on the call of God that is upon them to be found in such a state.
We have in
the book of Genesis the story of how Esau despised his birthright and sold it
to eat a mess of pottage his brother Jacob made for him. Esau carefully sought
to get his birthright back but it was denied him because the Lord hated Esau
for that action of personal iniquity. The Lord took me aside a short while ago
and told me that His people who have traded this excellent calling of being “chosen”
have remained lost in personal iniquity; the all consuming power of the cross
is not working in their lives because they rejected it. These fell into all sorts of doctrines not
created by the Lord or found in His word, doctrines of prosperity and worldly
love and wealth. The Lord said to me that these who fell into such have done as
Esau did, they sold also their birthright. So then, those who are not chosen,
who remained called but did not respond correctly fell into prosperity
doctrines and doctrines of devils and doctrines that protect SELF, and as such
they ate the pottage. These have sold
their birthright, they are rejected, the Lord has viewed them in obeisance to
their own self protection rather than to obedience to the spirit of truth and
as such they are given a lie to believe in. All such are bound in the systems
of man; the Lord does not motion in them as He does with those who are willing
to endure the process of separation of flesh from spirit. The sifting of the
hearts is for them a failure, they hold to self righteousness, protection of
their earthly life, protection of that which the Lord asked them to lay aside,
even their own lives unto death, so that the life of Christ may abound instead.
Many get
upset with me when I tell them that the Lord is not moving in the earth right
now as pertains to His redemptive purposes.
They think that I am blaspheming the Lord by saying this because all their
works and all their doctrines reveal how great the Lord is in their midst. But
I say that they are not even serving the Lord, but that perdition which imitates
the true. The false Jesus, not the true Jesus; these that I tell this to are
convinced that I am the one in deception, that I am the one who is not
supporting their efforts at bringing about the purposes of the Lord in the
earth. What is happening though is my testimony, borne of the cross and of the
life of Jesus in me, convicts them. It is the Christ in me, both in His death
and dying and in His life and resurrection that they are persecuting and
calling false. These who do such state that what is conceived and comes forth
from within them is the Lord when in fact it is their own iniquity conceiving
and bringing it forth. To each one reading these lines. Look at those
assemblies and tell me if you see the Lord working there? He is not working
there, His presence in truth is absent, He is not even in their assemblies. In
essence, the Lord is actually joined to the chosen ones and is also separate,
WITH THEM, apart from all man’s religious systems. The fact remains that the Lord is only moving
in the lives of the Overcomers at this time. His overall plan and His
redemptive purposes are at a standstill until the Lord finishes His work with
those who will rule with Him in this age that dawns. It is a fact of the motion
of spirit. You never see the Lord correct the denominations nor rebuke them for
all their false prophecy or prosperity doctrines, they continue unabated in
this abominable flow. All such are outside of the Lord’s present motion of
spirit.
So at
present we see the Lord is not coming to us in power or in might. He is not
showing Himself strong to us nor filled with infinite power to complete His purposes;
instead He is moving in us according to a standard that is solely of His spirit
alone. The Lord, by His spirit, simply IS. He is a rewarder of those who seek
after Him. To seek after Him one must first take up the personal cross. To take
up the personal cross one must be willing to lay aside everything else in this
world and have nothing but their hope in Him alone. Once they are at that
obedient place, the Lord then by His spirit alone causes them to rise in faith
and in knowledge as to His will. This IS now about to happen as the Lord has
also shown me that the time of His presence waning from the Overcomer is fast drawing
to a close, that by His spirit alone the Lord will manifest His person in us
and we will know once again the awareness of His person to us. The obedient
ones will not wonder at what the Lord requires of them, for they will be
walking examples of that requirement. They will be exemplary of the person of
God, not of their own person. Their identity will be lost in the identity of
His spirit alone. They will be ones raised again by the power of an endless
life because they laid their own life down 100% completely. Such is the revelation
that is now going to come to us.
So Israel
was blind because they disobeyed the Lord. The example of this was their
intermarriage with the nations around them in the land of Canaan. If you read
the latter part of the book of Ezra, you can see how they finally were brought
to repentance and cleansing of this disobedience. But it was too little too
late as the Lord still scattered His people amongst the nations. In our time
this blindness has happened to all those who did not obey the Lord’s command to
take up the cross daily and follow Him. They are blinded now by their own prejudices,
by their own ability to “not” lay the self life down which is still the
requirement of the Lord’s people. Their disobedience is apparent by their
blindness. They view their lives as blessed by the Lord when they have extra
prosperity keeping them day by day. Little do they know that they are blinded
because of that very lack of obedience, their eyesight is removed from them
which means that they have lost all ability to discern by sight that which is
of God from that which is not of God. That which is not of God they say is God
and that which is of God they say is not of God or is of some deceptive spirit
or some delusional believer. These in this blinded state persecute and hate
those who are impaled and unable to move because of crucifixion. They who are
called to obtain life hate those who are obtaining death to the self life process.
Such is the line now drawn and the division now created by those who obey from
those who do not obey. Those who obey, even in their death are not recognized
as having any value by those who disobey, such is the depth of delusion from
believing a lie in these end time last days.
Israel can only be healed of blindness by the Lord saving them. Christendom
can only be healed of blindness by realizing that they are living in a despised
state. Because thou sayest, I am rich,
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou
art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: Rev 3:17. This despised state will suddenly be
known to them when the Sons of God are manifested in glorified bodies, at that
time they will know that they disobeyed the Lord.
So then it is now upon us, this grand motion of SPIRIT ALONE. There is
not perceived MORE of the Lord, but LESS of the Lord, LESS of His presence,
LESS of His power, LESS of His might. But the moment we accept that He alone by
His spirit will rise us up towards His true spirit location, then at that moment
we will know once again of His presence in us, it will be sparked to live once
more in our hearts and it will be apparent in our lonely state. I say now in
prophecy, that once you accept that there is not to be any more than His spirit
alone rising in us, that at that time a great peace will also begin to envelop
the Overcomer and that peace will signal the soon promise of His coming.
Only they who are chosen and faithful are the ones with true eyesight.
The scales are off their eyes and they have to admit that the cross needs to
work in their lives in an even greater measure than ever before. But we have
arrived at the turning point, this is it, the culmination of our hope has come
upon us. As we acknowledge His spirit alone working now to raise us up into His
life, at that moment all that we have gone through will vanish and be forgotten
as His glory is seen upon us and as the dark cloud which covers His presence is
parted. Then for the benefit of all mankind will our sacrifice be seen and all
peoples in all ages and for all time will understand that the Lord moves in the
lives of they who were not afraid to partake in the fellowship of His
sufferings; the fruit of it will be the age of His dominion, and mankind will
enter in, their blindness healed, their nakedness clothed, into that age of His
Kingdom in the earth.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
To be continued.............
Kenneth B Visscher
Copyright