Gary L. Garner

David had an army whose characteristics were like the army that the Lord is developing in the earth today. David had a tremendous army. A close look at some of their characteristics reveal divine attributes available today that can be seen in the Body of Christ. The sons of Issachar displayed two of these divine characteristics.

I Chronicles 12:32
And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do.

Issachar means "reward." In the body of Christ today there are people who understand the times and know what Israel ought to do. The children of Israel are a type of the Church (Ro. 9:7-8; I Pe. 2:9-10; Phil 3:3; He. 12:22-24; Ga 3:7; Ga. 5:6; Mt. 21:43). We realize that what was natural in the Old Testament has become spiritual in the New Testament. There are people that know what time it is. You don't have to be a great Hebrew or Greek scholar to know what time it is. In the calendar of events of the purposes of God there are dozens and dozens of ways to realize that we are in a time of transition.

The six days of creation not only point to God's original development of natural man, but it also gives us a calendar of events. At the end of six days God had a man in His own image. Out of that man came a bride. We are at the end of the sixth day from Adam. Adam was created very close to 6000 years ago. A day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day (II Pe. 3:8). We can see by this that we are close to a time when God will have a man in His own image.

The tabernacle of Moses had three compartments. A close look at the measurements of each compartment reveals different "stages" or, "ages" in which God did things. The outer court measured 100 cubits (twice) by 50 cubits (twice) by 5 cubits (high) or, (300 x 5 or 1500). This speaks of the 1500 years of the age of the Law. It was 1500 years from the time God gave the Law to Moses until Christ came.

The Holy place measured 10 x10 x 20 or 2000 cubits. There is 2000 years from the time Jesus came until now (approximately) which pictures the church age. We are at the end of the church age. You don't just have to pick a scripture over here and a scripture over there to prove your eschatology or your end time beliefs. You can look at the scripture and find that we are at the end of the church age.
 

What Is The Church To Do?

So not only did David have men who knew and understood the times, but they knew what Israel ought to do. You may wonder, why doesn't everybody know what Israel ought to do? I don't know, but I do know this; The Bible says that when Jesus showed up two thousand years ago in Bethlehem, light shined in darkness but darkness comprehended it not (Jn. 1). Think about this a moment. Do you think it is possible for light to shine in a place of darkness and the darkness not comprehend that light is there? The only way that can happen is if somebody is blind. Sometimes it is possible to be blinded to what God is doing.

It is also possible to know what time it is, but not know what we ought to do. Now what should we be doing? What should the Body of Christ be doing? What does the Bible say we need to be doing at the beginning of the seventh day or at the end of the sixth day? The Bible teaches us that we should be gathering at the table. In the Old Testament priesthood, at the end of the sixth day, this priesthood came to a table (table of shewbread) upon which was bread and wine. They fed on that. Now that is prophetic. Every physical picture we see in the Old Testament has its fulfillment in the New Testament.. So here is a priesthood at the end of the sixth day and the beginning of the seventh, that was instructed to eat that bread and drink that wine, which points to the death of Christ. Jesus said, This bread is my body broken for you. Jesus told them this wine is my blood shed for you (the New Covenant). We are told to feed on that. I Corinthians 11:26 says, By this we show the Lord's death until He comes. The first thing we need to do is be sure we understand the times and realize what Israel ought to do. The Church needs to gather at the table. The way to the throne is at the table.

We are at a transition time which won't be seen necessarily by things outwardly. The signs of the times are seen all the way through scripture, and we need to realize that we are at the end of something and at the beginning of something. If you are looking out there in the physical realm to see a change, you will be caught up in the same problem that the children of Israel were caught up in 2000 years ago when Jesus came and people didn't know it was Him. There was a voice crying in the wilderness, saying Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Jesus is coming; there's an appearing of Him coming. When He showed up they didn't even see Him because they didn't listen to the voice. They didn't see Him because it didn't happen the way they thought it was going to happen. They didn't see Him because it didn't happen the way most of the people were preaching that it would happen.

Realize that in the Body of Christ there are people who do know what time it is and who do know what Israel ought to do. We ought to gather at the table and feed on bread and wine. What else should Israel do? Nothing. That's it. We should feed on Him. We should feed on Him. We should feed on Him. We must go to the Word expressly looking for him in His death, burial and resurrection, and just stay there and stay there and stay there. I don't know of anyone who has ever done that. What would happen if the body of Christ just fed on Him? It is time to do that. That is what Israel ought to do.
 

Not Like Before

We need to realize that what God is doing is unlike what God has ever done. One of the biggest problems that we face is that we have a tendency to compare what God is doing to what God has done in the past. In our own lives and in the church we say, Well, you know, Brother Gary, we appreciate this word, but why don't we see some of the things God used to do? Why aren't these things that God used to do showing up? Because what God is doing is not what God has done.

The church has a tendency to compare this move of God with past moves of God, especially if you have seen with your own eyes some great moves of God. There are many that have seen some magnificient expressions of God - miracles, signs, wonders. I've seen them; I've been involved in them.

We have a tendency to say, well, what God is doing is a "souped up," more powerful version of what God has done. That isn't what it is. The Feast of Tabernacles (which is a picture of maturity in Christ), is not a great big Feast of Pentecost (a picture of the Spirit- infilling). The Feast of Tablernacles is not a more powerful Pentecost. It is a totally different feast, designed to produce something totally different. Pentecost is the pouring out of the gifts of the Spirit for the purpose of bringing you to Tabernacles. This is the beautiful picture in the story of Rebekah.

Abraham, (typical of the Father) sent Eliazer, (typical of the Holy Spirit. Eliazer means God is help. The Holy Spirit is called the "paraclete" which means "one called alongside to help"), out to get Rebekah the bride (a type of the Church) and bring her to Isaac (a type of the Lord Jesus). He brought ten camels with him; one for Rebekkah to ride on, the other nine full of gifts, which picture the nine gifts of the Spirit. On her journey to the son, Isaac, she is feeding off of and receiving and enjoying the gifts, but then there comes a time when she arrives at a place where he is, at a well - a well of living water. She comes off the camel and embraces him. We are at a point where a lot of the Body of Christ has become dissatisfied with the gifts. Is that unbelief? No! It is what the gifts were designed to do, to bring you to a place where you are no longer satisfied with the gifts. You want the Giver. People are coming to the place where they want to embrace the Son. The bread and the wine are the spiritual satisfaction. I don't care how long or how much you have been in the presence of the moving of the gifts of the Spirit, there is still an emptiness on the inside of you for the Giver of those gifts.

In Ezra 3 the children of Israel had been released from Babylonian captivity and had been given permission by the king to go back and rebuild the temple. The temple that had been destroyed was Solomon's temple, but they weren't rebuilding Solomon's temple. They were rebuilding another one, Ezra's temple. Zerrubabel was involved in this. They were building another temple. There were still people alive who had seen Solomon's temple in all its glory. There never has been a more magnificient building than that. We see here some older people who were coming back and seeing what was being built and comparing it to past things.

Ezra 3:12 But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy

Notice they had seen the foundation of this house, and they began to cry because it was so unlike Solomon's beautiful Temple. They said, the foundation is built, but it's nothing like what I used to see. Go back with me to verse 2, and let me show you what the foundation was.

Ezra 3:2 Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.

What altar do you suppose that was? The one they offered burnt offerings on was the brazen altar. It goes on to say,

Ezra 3:3, 6 And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening...From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.

What did they do first? They first built something in the sight of all the people in order to produce this foundation. The brazen altar. The brazen altar pictures the Cross. That is an exact picture of what God is doing as we come and feed on the bread and wine at the end of the sixth day. But here is a bunch of people, as the foundation was being laid, who began to weep, saying "This isn't like what we had before. This is not going to be another Solomon's temple."

Ezra 3:13 So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.

There were two groups of people pictured here. The people who had not been in the former move of God were shouting for joy. The people who had been in the former moves of God were crying because it wasn't like before. It was a pretty noisy place. We've got people who are being raised up, people who have given their hearts to the Lord, and all they have heard is the Gospel of the death, burial and ressurection of Christ. They are just so excited; they don't understand why some people are saying, "But this isn't like what used to be. We've been involved in different expressions of God; we need some of those." Many don't realize that what God is doing is not like what God has done. Understand that I am not saying that what God has done is not included in what God is doing now. But it is more complete. Don't think I'm saying that healing is not involved in what He's doing now. The gift of healing is great, but the Healer Himself is better. He is not less. God never comes down and says, "Well, forget that blessing business because we're going on to something else." What He is doing is making us into something. We've seen signs and wonders, now He's making us into a sign and wonder (Isaiah 8:18). Producing in the Body an expression of the Son is better than giving the body gifts of the Son. But it does include all of that.

What happened on the Day of Pentecost was called the "early rain". It was an outpouring of the Spirit. We've got another outpouring coming.

James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming (parousia - appearing) of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

This was after the Day of Pentecost. There is another outpouring of the Spirit coming. It is the early and latter rain. It has in it everything that happened in the old outpouring at the beginning of the Church age, plus more.

Everything that we have ever needed from God can be seen in the bread and the wine. I need some things removed from my life, and I need some things expressed in my life. We have to be confident and come to a place where we see that the Son embraced, is better than the gifts of the Son. Everyone is in their own place on this journey. Some people may be just now jumping on the camels. But I know this: it is my experience that the camel ride someday will get old. It doesn't meet the needs anymore. You've seen as many Rolex watches as can be seen and you just aren't that excited. I'm not talking about natural things only; I'm talking about gifts. I don't care how good the gift gets; there comes a time when it just doesn't satisfy. People say, "Why don't you get excited about that anymore?" Because there's a craving in me for more. I've had so much bread and wine that nothing else but bread and wine will ever suffice. I've fed on Him. I've been satisfied.

There is an unexplainable satisfaction and fulfillment that comes in the spirit of man when he feeds on the true bread. When he first tastes of it, it can grip him. When the true Gospel grips you, when you feed on that, it's satisfaction with an intense craving for more. How that could be, I don't know, but it is true. You know, when you eat enough in the physical, you don't want anymore. But with this, when you get enough you want more of this until it just becomes a craving in your spirit; and you know that this is better than anything else. It isn't instead of anything else. It includes everything else and more. Healing with a relationship with the healer is better than healing alone.

I once heard a story about an offshore drilling rig that was drilling precious minerals from underneath the ocean and drilled into a big salt mine. The whole drilling rig fell into the ocean and was swallowed up. This is a great picture of how we have drawn all of these precious gifts from the Lord and then are swallowed up by Him. You suddenly find yourself in Him. Instead of Jesus being over there and you over here, instead of saying, "Jesus, come over here and touch me" or singing songs about "Jesus, touch me," you are swallowed up in Him. You can't be "touched" by something that you're swallowed up in. He is your environment; He is the place you live. We're not asking Him to come over to our place; we're in Him as a place, swallowed up by Him. We are conscious of that being our environment, knowing what Paul said to these people who were worshipping an unknown god, he said "It is in Him that we live and move and have our being." It's in Him. Where we used to be over here and say, "Jesus, I'm going to let you touch me," we realize that we are "inChristed." We've got to understand what that means. It would eliminate all of our errors.

I've got a new license plate on my van now that says "NCHRIST". I was driving home from Little Rock and stopped at McDonalds, and this made a profound impact on my life. There was a gentleman and his wife, probably in their 60's, walking; and he looked at the tag as I was getting into the van. I heard him say, "NCHRIST. What's that mean?" to his wife. That is the eternal question. In Christ - we say it, but we don't know what it means. When I told my son Aaron, he said, "Who doesn't know what that means?" A lot of people don't know what that means, and they don't all live in some other state. Some of them came here tonight. I don't know all that that means; how about you? I'm still finding out what it means to be in Christ. We are feeding on that, to find out what that means. We need to find out who we are in Christ, and after 2000 years, we still don't know.

What did it mean to be in Christ 2000 years ago when He hung on the cross? What does it mean when the Bible says I was crucified with Christ? That is the eternal quest of every believer. What does it mean to be buried? What does it mean to be raised? What does it mean to be seated together with Him in the heavenlies? What does it mean to be in Christ? Somebody's going to find out, and it's going to change their whole attitude.

In Acts chapter 3 we can read of a crippled man that was given strength to walk. If looked at as the crippled man being the Church we can glean some truth from this passage of scripture. Peter said, "silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee, In the Name..." Peter wasn't saying, "Look on me." He was saying, "Look on me - I'm in Christ. This is it." The crippled men will leap and walk into the Temple, praise God. What a beautiful picture. Walk into the Temple, become part of the Temple, because somebody knows, not by anything he has done, but because he has found out what it means to be in Christ. Silver and gold have I none. He didn't need pennies; he needed to know who he was in Christ. We need to know who we are in Christ.

We need to realize what time it is and what Israel ought to do. It's the end of the sixth day. We ought to be feeding on bread and wine. That's all that Israel ought to do, not just make it an important part of what we do. We ought to look for that, feed on that. Nobody can give you a revelation, but if you know you need to be at the table, a revelation is on the way. One precious sister came to me. This precious sister has seen everything that God has done. She came to me one Sunday morning as I stood up there after I was finished ministering and said, "Brother Gary, a long time ago during a move of God, the Lord revealed His love to me. I thought I knew the love of God before He revealed Himself as love to me, but I didn't. I would tell people about having a revelation of God's love, and they would say, 'Oh, we know God's love.' But I knew they didn't. I thought I did until He showed up as love. You know, as I heard you minister, I thought I knew about the cross, but I know I don't. I want Jesus to show up in His death, burial and resurrection like He did in that love." I said, "That can't be given by man, but if you know that's where you ought to be, it will come. Just stay at the table." We talk to people and say, "What we need is a revelation of the cross." They say, "We know that." It's one thing to hear it; it's another thing to have it explode in you. Knowing what time it is, knowing what Israel ought to do.

It is important to know that what God is doing today is not like what He has ever done before.When Jesus showed up 2000 years ago it was not like anything prior to that time. It was a whole different expression. He included everything that those Old Testament things did, but He came in a different form.
 

Renewing Your Mind

Where is God working? He is working in your mind, will, emotions and thinking faculties. This is where He is doing it. The Day of Atonement is a good picture of where we are today. Lev. 23 tells us that on the Day of Atonement they could do no servile work; the only thing they were to do was to "afflict" their soul.

Your mind is your soul. They were not to do any work. They were only to watch what the High Priest did. What the High Priest did afflicted their soul. Our soul is being afflicted because we are being challenged with the truth that does not seem at all like it could be so. We are complete in Christ. We are demanded to believe that. We are demanded to understand and to come to grips with a reality that happened 2000 years ago that we haven't understood yet. It afflicts your soul when you realize that there is nothing about you that God accepts. It afflicts your soul, and it's not your singing gift or your teaching gift or your ability. It afflicts your soul, and it's not your self-effort. It afflicts your soul when you realize that you are nothing and He is everything. It afflicts your soul when you realize that it is only that which is of Him that will ever be accepted.

In Genesis 15:1-17 Abraham was in the midst of a vision of the covenant being cut and the pieces being separated. He saw that the covenant was cut "for" him in Christ, he had nothing to do with it and the Bible says "and a horror of great darkness fell upon him." That happens to every person that comes to a revelation of Christ. A horror of great darkness. Realizing that everything you thought was happening in your life was not happening, that everything you've believed might not even be true. You would have been killed and sometimes even killed for doctrines and statements and things you believed and you realize in a second that none of that might even be true. You have put up on your mantle not trophies, but ministries, stuck up there that you worshipped and you realize that none of those might understand what God is saying. You realize your only hope is that the Holy Spirit might reveal to you the person of the Son. What God is doing is between your ears, and you have to be willing to be stripped of every single doctrine that you held true.

I woke up one day in 1988 and realizied that I had listened to man all of my life. Men taught me what I believed. I was willing to be killed or kill if anyone took those things away from me. But I woke up on the other side of that realizing that there is nothing except what Jesus reveals to us that we need to follow. That afflicts your soul! You've got all your ducks in a row one night and wake up the next morning, and you don't have any ducks. I don't even know where the ducks went. Come to find out, God doesn't even believe in ducks. I've been preaching this row of ducks, and He doesn't believe in teachings, teachings, teachings. We build churches, doctrines and denominations on teachings. We say, "What church do you go to?" because we want to know what you teach. The only thing God believes in is the person and work of Christ.

We ought to focus on Jesus at every service. If He's not what you see when you come to church, you've wasted your time. Why do we come to church? We don't need a lesson on the Bible. We need a view of Christ. We need to see Him. We come to have our spiritual eyes opened. We come to have light, we come so that He would take our eyes and cause us to see Him. There's a lot of blindness yet in all of us. There's a lot to be seen.

Mt. 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Jesus speaks here of a group of people that cannot see Him because they close their eyes. The light was so bright that they closed their eyes. Let's have eyes wide open to the light, because the light is a person. We're not talking about religion, or about joining a group of people in the natural. We're talking about seeing the Lord.

Knowing the Time

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Spiritual Maturity Through a Revelation of the Person and Work of Christ