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I would just like to take a few minutes to share something with you that the Lord gave me this afternoon. It is basically about the function of the two witness company. Most of us here, I would expect, would know that the Church has had very minimum amount of success converting people, a very small amount of success.
Since the professing Church (meaning those who claim to be the Church) has had such a small percentage of success, the inclination is to condemn that part of humanity which do not find it within themselves to respond to what is being offered by the professing Church.
Some of us that have been studying the Scriptures in depth know that there is a Church within the professing Church. Just as Jesus Christ came out of Israel and began a whole new movement that we call Christianity, there is a Church that is coming out, or being born out of the professing Church, and that Church would have the power to convert all men.
Conversion is not the choice of the individual. It is the choice of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true that He has made an offer to all of humanity, to whomsoever will, the Scripture says, Come and drink at the fountain of Living Waters.
Revelation 22:17
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. KJV
However, the reality is that mankind is severely bound and has been taken captive by a criminal mind. Some of the members of humanity are more bound than others. A few have broken free and responded to the call, but even those have not come of their own will. Christ has been working behind the scenes to draw them to Him.
There are two reasons that there has been such a small response to date. The first reason is that (I am not saying that this is the order of importance, the two reasons are equally important) the company of ministers that God is raising up to bring people out of the bondage of this criminal mind has not been ready up to this day. This is going to take a warfare.
We see Jesus sitting on a white horse in the back of the book of Revelation. He has a weapon in His hand and many crowns on His head and the Scripture says, He makes war and He doth make war.
Revelation 19:11
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. KJV
His warfare is against the carnal mind of men which is a criminally insane mind in comparison to the Lord Jesus Christ. It has laid hold of men and caused them to destroy themselves. All of humanity is destroying itself, everyone.
The company of men who are being prepared to be vessels to contain the mind of Christ will have spiritual power. They are being prepared because the mind of Christ is spiritual power likened to fire. The Scripture describes it as lightning, and if we are not internally prepared for Him to dwell in us, we will be destroyed. The Scripture for it is where Jesus said that we cannot put new wine in an old wineskin because the old wineskin will burst and everybody will die.
Luke 5:37
And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. KJV
All of humanity has been captured by this criminal mind for generations and one of the results of it is that our vessel, (body and soul) has become very corruptible, damageable. We break. If you just have spiritual eyes, it is amazing what goes on out there, people break. You know furniture can break, cups can break, but people break also. When someone shoots a hole in you and all your blood flows out, you break. A car hits you, you break.
We are corruptible because the mind that is ruling us is corruptible. We have over the generations become corruptible. If the mind of Christ is introduced into us now in our present condition, we will break and the wine or the life of Christ would go pouring out.
The Lord Jesus Christ is right now in the process of putting a new wineskin into a small company of people. That wineskin will be able to contain the fullness of the power of God which will have the strength to take captive the criminal carnal mind that has held us captive for generations.
The first reason why so few people have been converted is that the vessels which are to hold the power necessary to bring the conversion are not completely ready.
I have forgotten what the second reason is. I know I had two reasons when I started talking. In any case, the vessels are not ready, and basically that is it. In the hour that the vessels are ready to contain the fullness of the power of God, He is going forth to take men against their will.
The Scripture likens it to making your child go to the dentist, or if your child is raging with a 104 fever, you do not listen to your 7 year old child say, Daddy, I hate doctors. You take him by the hand and you throw him in the car and you take him to the doctor or to the emergency room in a hospital.
We have a whole humanity of individuals that do not know what is best for them, that are afraid of what is best for them and are fighting against what is best for them. They are fighting, the Scriptures say, with a military strength. The criminal carnal mind has a spiritual military strength. The professing Church does not have a military strength strong enough to defeat it in this hour.
However, things are changing. The winds of change are blowing. We are on the crossroads now, and the Lord is raising up that company right now that will be strong enough to defeat the strongest criminal mind in this earth. Jesus is not going to do it by casting demons out of them. He is going to do it in a manner similar to what He did for the Gadarene demoniac. It is going to be mind to mind combat.
It is already starting, and the Lord spoke to me today. He said that there is a company of people in the earth that have all that they need. They have all that they need. They do not think they are strong enough because they are not practiced enough.
The truth of the matter is if there was a man standing right here with a sub-machine gun in his hand and he did not know how to use it, somebody without a gun could take it away from him and kill him. There are people in the earth that have the weapon. What is the name of the weapon? Christ!!!
Christ is the weapon. He is in them. He has got all the strength that He needs. It is just a question of getting some practice and learning how to use it. The people doing this work will be going forth and literally having mind to mind combat with criminal minds.
When you are dealing with a criminal mind, you are not dealing with a demon. You are dealing with a whole personality that has been forged in stone, that has come down through the generations, with all kinds of sin from generation to generation. It has become petrified. That means it has been made into stone. It is solid. It needs to be defeated by a stronger spiritual power.
That is what we are waiting for, and this is the message that is going forth just as it is beginning to happen. You do not hear it preached very much, but it will be preached across the earth because this is the Gospel of God. This is the Gospel that is going to set men free and convert the whole human race and restore us to our true Lord and Master whose name is the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have been stolen and taken captive and the type of our condition is Dinah, Jacob's daughter, who went out one day and was seen by one of the heathen men in the area. He fell in love with her and he took her. That is what men did in those days. He just knocked her over the head and he took her into his tent. That is what has happened to us, the whole living soul that died.
The Lord gave me a very exciting word today. The war is on!!! The war is on and there is plenty of work for who ever is willing to fight. The name of the company of people who are engaged in this battle, who are not yet perfect, is the two witness company.
When they enter into perfection, their name changes to the sons of God. Amongst the sons that are being raised up today, is a large proportion of people who have dabbled in witchcraft and have repented and are now serving God. They are in the forefront of those being raised up for this company that is going to take the people for Christ, people who do not have it within themselves to come willingly.
Does anybody know why a large proportion of people in this company are people who have dabbled in witchcraft? It is because they are spiritually developed. The word Christian means that you are supposed to be a spiritual person and that your spiritual power comes from Christ. We are supposed to be spiritual people with spiritual authority. To have spiritual authority we must be spiritually developed, just like you have to develop in every other area, every skill that you have. You must be developed.
People who have heavy witchcraft on their family line, or who have practiced witchcraft in this lifetime, are spiritually developed and are in Satan's camp. When the Lord gets a hold of them and convicts them and they repent, Jesus brings them into His camp. They are persons who are highly developed spiritually, and He just switches them over.
They are highly developed spiritually and they are now moving in the power of Christ, so they are way ahead of a lot of people that have been laboring for years, who were not spiritual when they started. However, Jesus is the great equalizer, so do not be discouraged. He is the great equalizer. This is just the truth.
Now we are going to discuss a dream this sister had. This sister did dabble. She gets dreams with perfect symbols. This was her dream.
There was a white castle. White typifies the purity of Christ, and a castle is a fortified place. It could mean an individual that is fortified or it could mean a household that is fortified. There was a lion outside of the castle. Does anybody remember what lions typify? Let us get some congregation input here.
COMMENT: Satan.
PASTOR VITALE: Lions typify spiritual power. You have to evaluate the other symbols, or the other Scriptures. Jesus is the Lion of Judah and Satan is the roaring lion, so lions typify spiritual power. There was a lion outside of the castle and it walked into this castle, which was in Christ. We know this because it was white. As the lion entered into the castle, it became a man in a suit.
What does that mean? It means that the spiritual power (either Satan or Christ) is hidden inside of a human person. We are all walking weapons. Some of us know it. Some of us do not know it. Some of us have learned to harness that spiritual authority and direct it either legally through Christ or illegally through Satan to get our needs met. Others have not harnessed it knowingly, and are victimized by satanic forces.
Every human being is a city for spiritual power. Some have more powers than others. Some are more controlled and directed than others, but every human being is a city which is a potential fortress for spiritual power. The question is who is going to get you. No man is unto himself; either you serve Satan or you serve Christ.
It may not look that way in your life right now, but it is true, and we are entering into an age. We are already entering in. It is already coming in. It just cannot be seen by carnal eyes yet.
Let me go over the theory of threshold with you. This is a secular theory. You learn this in psychology, if you take a psychology course. It is called threshold.
This is the visible world and this is the invisible world. Someone throws a spiritual arrow from the invisible world. What is the invisible world of the unconscious mind of man? It could be from Christ or it could be from Satan. The mind is a weapon. Someone throws a spiritual arrow. Unless you have discernment, unless you have spiritual sight, if you are abiding out here in the visible world alone, you have no idea that it is coming.
It is like a torpedo. You have no idea that it is coming. You are sailing your boat right along the sea, and you are happy, but there is a torpedo zooming underneath the water. There are signs indicating that there is a torpedo out there. The water changes. There are certain signs in the water, but you have to know what to look for.
This is a spiritual arrow and it is moving. Here is a person right over here, and they are busy feeding their face. The Scripture says that they will be eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. They are going to be so busy looking at what is on their plate and going into their mouths, they cannot even see this arrow coming at them.
The clock is ticking down and it is right up here, that close to them, and because their eyes are on themselves, they have no idea that they are being attacked. Then suddenly, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, this arrow pierces through the threshold and shoots them.
As soon as it crosses this line, it becomes visible and it is too late. You have got to see it over here if you are going to do anything about it at all, even if all you are going to do is try to get out of the way.
I remind you of Gideon. The instruction of the Lord to him was to take only a fraction of the people who were in his army. Gideon had 32,000 people in his army and wound up with only 300 people to fight the war. One of the tests that God told Gideon to do was to watch how those people drink water out of the lake. Take only those who lap up the water with their hand, still keeping an eye out for the enemy. Those are the only ones you take. The ones that are so interested in the water that they look at the water when they drink it, send them away because they are going to be knocked out the first time around.
Judges 7:2-7
2. And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.
3. Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.
4. And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.
5. So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.
6. And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.
7. And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place. KJV
Getting back to the dream, a lion entered into the house of Christ or a vessel of Christ and became a man. Then all of a sudden a serpent appeared and the serpent wrapped around the man's neck. The neck typifies pride. The neck is that part that connects the head. Your head is either the carnal mind, or Christ and it is connected to the body. The neck is very important. In the Song Of Solomon, we are told the body of Christ has a neck, a very strong neck.
Song of Solomon 4:4
Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousandbucklers, all shields of mighty men. KJV
The neck could be strong for Christ or it could be strong for the carnal mind. When it is strong for the carnal mind, it typifies pride, stiff-necked. The Lord is continuously indicting Israel for being stiff necked people, my stiff-necked people.
Stubbornness goes down your whole back. The serpent was around the torso, which is both the stubbornness of the back, and also pride, and also the heart. So the lion typifies Satan, and the serpent typifies the carnal mind. The serpent possessed the neck of that man which meant that it was in stubbornness, and possessed his heart and his back, so his emotions were all bound up in Satanic emotions.
There were some candles present, the Scripture says that the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.
Proverbs 20:27
The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly. KJV
The candles typified people that had Christ in them. This man tried to steal the candles. He was taking them violently. I remind you that the Scriptures says that the Kingdom of God suffers violence and that the violent take it by force.
Matthew 11:12
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. KJV
What does that mean? It means that you cannot steal the things of God, brethren. It is your inheritance. The inheritance of Christ is to the whole human race. God loves us and He wants to give us everything that He is, but we have to get it according to His rules.
Sometimes carnal minded people do not understand this. They think they can steal it. I remember the man that I trained under, I will never forget him telling us this. He said, Do you think that you could sit in this congregation 4 nights a week and ascend into Christ?
We were all in Church 4 to 5 nights a week in those days. You have got it easy here, 2 nights. I was in Church 4 to 5 nights a week when I trained up. There are people that come in here, and they think they can sit here 4 to 5 nights a week and ascend into Christ, but that is a lie, he said. It is not true.
This is not like the world. It is not that you put in your time and you get it. Only Christ can give it to you. Only God can give you the increase. You have got to follow God's rules to get the gifts. He wants you to have it. He wants you to have everything, and He has got enough for every human being on the face of the earth.
In the dream, this man was stealing the things of God. He had his arms all full of the candles. Then he started to leave the house. When he got out of the house, the man turned back into a lion, which means he came out of his human form. He dropped the candles because the lion could not hold onto the candles.
You know the Scripture that says you cannot take it with you. People that have idolatry in their life, Jesus says you build up riches and you get everything you are striving for and that night that you make it, what happens? You die. He takes you and you die and you cannot take it with you. That is in the Bible.
Luke 12:15-20
15. And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
16. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18. And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? KJV
The man came out and turned into a lion and dropped all the candles. He could not carry it in spirit form. Then the serpent came out of the house after him, and he had a branch in his mouth and there was a green leaf on the branch.
When she calls me up with the dream, she does not have any idea what she is telling me. I am listening to all these symbols and I am saying, That sounds good. That sounds good. After she tells me the whole thing, she says, Now tell me what sounds good!
Then the serpent came out of the house after him, and he had a branch in his mouth and there was a green leaf on the branch. To me, that is an excellent ending. Somebody was trying to steal the things of God, but the ending was excellent.
A branch (wood) typifies humanity. Jesus said that He was a green tree and that people that do not have life are a dry tree. So the branch typified humanity and there was a green leaf on it representing life.
Even though Satan (the lion) could not take the candles with him, the serpent which typifies the carnal mind, got something in that house. He went away with something of life. To me that means he got the seed of Christ in him and that seed has the potential to grow up into a big tree, the tree of life.
I remind you that in Isaiah, we see the Lord surrounded by Seraphim.
Isaiah 6:1-3
1. In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
2. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. KJV
Does anyone remember what the Seraphim are? Seraphim are serpents that have been redeemed. They are redeemed serpents. The whole human race is a serpent. We are all serpents. Our nature is serpentine. All of us are serpents in the spirit until Christ starts to convert us.
The Seraphim are converted serpents and they have sprouted the wings of angels and they are very close to God. That is important, because if an unconverted person draws close to God, what happens to them? They burn up. God is a fire. He is a sun. If you get close to Him and there is sin in you, you get burnt to a cinder.
That is why God does not judge people that do not have Christ in them. We are told in the book of Isaiah, if God had not left us with a tenth, there would have been nothing left of us.
Isaiah 1:9
Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. KJV
What does that mean? God puts His seed in your heart and Christ begins to be formed. From the second that happens, He is looking for you with a blow torch and everything that is not of God in you burns.
I am telling you that He is looking for you with a blow torch. If you did not have that seed of Christ in you, there would be nothing left of you. That is what He does. He has just begun. It is going to be happening to the whole human race. He is starting small in this hour, but it is going to expand.
It is painful. It hurts, but it hurts worse if you do not understand what is happening. There is great deliverance for me in understanding. I have been to hell and back with this judgment, but I see Christ coming forth in me.
I would not want to do it again, to tell you the truth, but I am glad for all the results. I would not want to go through a lot of the things I went through again. I could not even bear the thought of it, but it is worth it, because the chastisement yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. In righteousness is eternal life.
She had a beautiful dream. I hope that she can get here someday. She has 2 small children so it would really... I do not know, maybe they could come and sleep over for a weekend. I do not know, she has not said anything to me yet, but she is really a beautiful believer.
Are there any questions or comments before we go on with the message for tonight? Of course, you can take a dream like that on many levels. It could be for the whole body of Christ. It could be for the whole world. It could be for an individual.
The symbols in her dream were classic. What do I mean by a classic symbol? If it is in the Scripture, it is a classic symbol, the lion, the serpent. Of course the castle was not in the Scripture, but it was white and I could not help.... As I was going over this dream with her, I said, Oh, a white castle, maybe it is a place where there is food, you know White Castle hamburgers.
Maybe it typified a house where the bread of God is, the bread of life. The bread of life is spiritual. Who is the bread of life? Jesus, the Christ, is the bread of life. That is why as we grow up in Christ, we start putting away the carnal symbols and start entering into spiritual realities.
There is nothing wrong, whatsoever, if you know a Church where they eat little pieces of cracker and drink grape juice. If that is what they know to do, that is what they know to do. I am not criticizing anybody, but you have got to grow up. If their time to grow up has not come yet, that is okay, but we have to grow up as God leads us to grow up.
In case, you are wondering, that is why we never eat little bits of crackers and drink little cups of grape juice here. Those are symbols that can do nothing for you. They cannot save your life. They cannot heal your body. For your life to be saved, for your body to be healed, for your mind to be healed, you have to lay hold of what the symbol represents.
The little cracker represents the flesh of Christ, the body of Christ, His spiritual life. The little cup of wine represents His blood, which is the Spirit of Christ. It is the Father. It is the Spirit of the Father and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Scripture says that we must eat Him. We are told in one of the Gospels that when He told the Jews, If you do not eat My flesh and drink My blood, you shall surely die, they went away from Him in droves.
John 6:51-66
51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
52.The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
54. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
57. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
58. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
59. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
60. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
61.When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?
62. What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
63. It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
64. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
65. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
66. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. KJV
These were religious Jews. They were not even allowed to touch a dead body. They thought He was preaching cannibalism, because they were without understanding. It is in the spirit. It is in the spirit.
What happens when you eat something? You become one with what you have eaten and it winds up as flesh on your body. You eat something and it winds up as flesh on your body. Therefore, when we eat the spiritual life of Christ, His flesh winds up on our body.
We ingest Him; we take Him in. If we keep on doing this long enough, we become like Him, because he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. It is not an eating of His physical flesh, but a consuming of His spiritual life that produces a change in us. That is why, if anybody here has wondered, we do not have what the professing church calls communion. If that is what they are up to, it is fine, but we know better.
Do you have something to say?
COMMENT: From what you are saying, it sounds like you are saying that the Serpent is the carnal mind. It had a branch with a leaf in its mouth. It means that, if the Serpent is the carnal mind, then the seed of Christ had gotten into the carnal mind of that vessel. It also typifies all humanity. Then the carnal mind itself will be redeemed. Is that correct?
PASTOR VITALE: No, the carnal mind would not be redeemed.
COMMENT: The Serpent being the carnal mind and the seraphim is a redeemed serpent, then the carnal mind will be that seraphim?
PASTOR VITALE: That is a very good point. I am going to have to pray about that because it is not true. The carnal mind is not being redeemed. I did struggle with that. I drew the conclusion that the lion was Satan and the Serpent was the carnal mind, but apparently I must be wrong, because the carnal mind is being dissolved. Let me go over that for you on the board.
The carnal mind is the product of Satan, who is male for the purposes of the production of the carnal mind. She has stolen the male role and has joined himself to Eve, the human spirit who is the female. When a spirit joins with a male, it produces a mind. The name of the mind that is born of Satan and Eve is the carnal mind. The carnal mind produces demons.
We have coming into the earth today, the true male who is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is joining with the same female (that is why the Bible says she is a whore, she is the harlot of Revelation. She has got 2 men and a child from each man). When the spirit of Jesus Christ joins with Eve, the name of the mind that is born is Christ Jesus, and Christ Jesus produces, not demons, but the fruit of the spirit.
This is the carnal mind, and this is Satan up here. All 3 are one. Satan, Eve and their child, the carnal mind are all one. The Holy Spirit is the invading force. He is entering into the carnal minds of men. He is approaching the female part of it, which is our spirit, and is bringing forth his own offspring, which is Christ.
What is happening to Eve is that she is now existing, part of her is existing in the carnal mind, and part of her is existing in Christ. She has 2 children. As this Christ gets mature enough (because he is starting out as a mustard seed), and as he grows up and becomes a man, his spiritual powers start to vibrate forth from him.
This spiritual power which is described in Scripture as lightening or fire, is starting to burn the carnal mind, and the carnal mind is dissolving. This union of Satan and Eve and their offspring, the carnal mind, is pulling apart. The Scripture calls it the fiery trial. That is the blow torch that I just mentioned. it is Christ in you and it feels like he is trying to kill you. He is really not trying to kill you. He is trying to kill this unholy alliance, which is the mind that you were born with. The problem is, that it is you. It feels like he is killing you because it is you. But there is one catch, that when this thing comes down, when it breaks up into the 3 elements, Eve is in Christ. That tenth that God is preserving, the true you, that part of you which is spirit is saved alive in the mind of Christ.
Satan is coming under the dominion of Christ. I cannot get into the whole thing now, but he is going to be made powerless. He is going to be striped of his power and the carnal mind, the mind that was formed through the union of Satan and Eve is going to be dissolved.
Does anybody have any question on that?
As I was drawing that, I asked the Lord, what about the Serpent and the lion? The only thing that I came up with for the time being is that the lion is the type of spiritual power outside of a man...
COMMENT: Inaudible.
PASTOR VITALE: What is the Scripture, Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah? Right now, Jesus is a spirit. Jesus Christ is glorified, he is pure spirit. The lion is a type of spiritual power outside of a man. When that spiritual power is manifesting through a man, or when that spiritual power is joined to a man, the symbol that signifies that the spiritual power is now joined to a man is that it becomes a serpent.
God changes the names of things to indicate that it is in a different form. Let me say that again, some of you look confused. The Lord Jesus Christ is a spiritual power that exists outside of man. He is inside of man and he is also outside of man. When he manifest inside a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, his name changes to Christ Jesus.
A lion typifies spiritual power outside a man. When that spiritual power is Satan and Satan is manifesting through the mind of a man, his symbol changes to Serpent. When we read the Bible and we see serpent we know that it is Satan in a man.
If you do not get it, do not worry. It is not that important. These things get very splitting hairs, and those of you that have been with me for a while know that it is not really that unusual for me to get it wrong and then God straightens me out and I have to tell you.
As I have been telling you here for 6 years now, this is a learning ministry. I have not studied this out. I am not teaching you something that I learnt 5 years ago. I teach it to you as God teaches it to me. So if I make mistake you have to be able to live with that. If you idolize me, you are going to have a problem living with me if I make a mistake.
There are going to be corrections, and every time God corrects me, I will share it with you and you are going to have to deal with that. If you think I am perfect, you are going to have a problem.
As long as I am not changing the basic teachings of the Scriptures, you should not have a problem. I am always telling you, Jesus Christ is Lord. I am always telling you that you are saved by his life. I am telling you that the promise of the Scripture is eternal life, that you are saved by grace and not by works, as long as I am not changing any of the basic teachings of the Scripture, you should not have a problem.
As we get into this really deep stuff that very few people study, because it is just too hard, it is only for the sons. This teaching is the manna from heaven, it is the hidden manna. It is for those who are going on to full stature in Christ. Sometimes I do not get it right or correct right away. I do not get the understanding of the symbol exactly right, you are not going to lose your salvation over it. If you are all upset over that, then you need prayer.
COMMENT: Inaudible.
PASTOR VITALE: Seraphim? Seraphim are redeemed serpents. They still look like serpents, which means that even when we are redeemed, we will still look like man. But they have sprouted wings which means they are flying in the heavenlies. They are no longer bound to the earth, which is part of the curse. They are flying in the heavenlies, that means they are exercising legal spiritual power, and they are very close to God, without being destroyed. That is the sign of their redemption.
COMMENT: It is still looks like the serpent is redeemed, and the serpent is the carnal mind. I do not understand that.
PASTOR VITALE: The serpent is the carnal mind? No. The carnal mind is not redeemed. Man is the serpent, man is the serpent. Man is redeemed.
COMMENT: What is the difference? The human spirit is the serpent and the human spirit is redeemed?
PASTOR VITALE: No. The man is made out of the clay, and the human spirit is a part of the man. God made a man and called him Adam. The only thing that changed is the mind that was in the man. The first mind that was in the man was called Christ, and Christ died. The mind that took over the man was called the carnal mind. When the carnal mind is destroyed, the name of the new mind would once again be Christ. What is going to be redeemed is the man.
The man was alive when his mind was Christ. When he died, his mind was called carnal, and when he was redeemed his mind is Christ, but it is always the man. The man is redeemed.
COMMENT: Inaudible.
PASTOR VITALE: Eve? I cannot stop to think about it now, I will tell you another time. I do not have it at the tip of my fingers so I am going to go past it. The creation is redeemed, yes. The creation is redeemed, and its redemption is in the appearance of the mind of Christ in it.
The serpent is the man and, I think that is what God just gave me. The lion symbolizes spiritual power outside of man and the serpent symbolizes spiritual power in a man. So the serpent is the man.
COMMENT: A long time ago, the Lord showed me the carnal mind, in the form of a snake.
PASTOR VITALE: I am glad that you said that. The carnal mind.... God told me to tell you this the other day too, but I never got down to it. This is a bit of confusion. The carnal mind is a perversion because a mind is supposed to have a male spirit for a father and a female spirit for a mother. The carnal mind is brought forth of a female in the male role. She is brought forth from 2 females, spiritually speaking. Once the mind of Christ appears the Scripture talks about the flesh, and no longer distinguishes between the flesh and the mind that the flesh brought forth, because God does not even consider it a mind anymore.
Let me say that again. Once the real thing comes, once the true mind which is born of the spirit of God and the soul of man appears, that which was a false mind, a perversion brought forth from 2 women, God does not even call it a mind anymore, He just calls it the flesh, or man.
I hope that can help you all. He no longer distinguishes between.... Well, I am going to stop here, I am losing you, and I do not want to lose you. I have not even started the message yet. Are you okay?
I am just going to wait a minute. I do have a message for you tonight.
The Lord never ceases to amaze me. We have been working in Romans Chapter 8, and we have 1 more message in Romans 8, and I felt drawn to the Book of Amos today.
I said to myself, Why do I do this? Why do I start other messages before I finish the first one? I do not like when I do that. I really had a conflict as to whether I was going to finish up Romans 8 today or do Amos 3.
I had a messed up day today, and I started on Amos 3, and I got through verse 5 and there it was, another witness to Romans 8.This is not the first time this has happened, if you recall.
I do have Amos 3 for you. I am going to take it very slow. I do not know whether we would finish it or not. I just want to wait a minute because I think I heard somebody's mind on that other teaching. Somebody was getting a little confused.
01/30/10 mml-final Edit
