Message from February 8, 2004 @ Cutting Edge Ministries by Pastor Harry Rogers

Hebrews 4:12 "The Word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and the joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Then verse 13, "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." When I read this verse, I again went over verse 12 and seeing the context that this verse is in it's really in the context of salvation. It's in the context of entering into the Sabbath rest. I was realizing how when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, and went into the wilderness, and eventually got into the good land or into Canaan Land, this is really just a type of our salvation, our full salvation that God has for us. We've gone over this before how that Egypt represents the world. How that wandering in the wilderness represents our journey with the Lord, our seeking after the Lord in our soul. Eventually entering into Canaan is a type of entering into our spirit where God really wants to bring us. Canaan really doesn't represent Heaven like most people think. It represents entering into our spirit because when you read what happened when the children of Israel entered into Canaan that's when they began to fight. We know that there's not going to be any fighting when we enter into the Kingdom, into Heaven. There's not going to be fighting the enemy there because the enemy would have already been dealt with. I was thinking how we need to to go back and take a look at the Children of Israel and then bring it up and apply it to our walk with the Lord today and our salvation and the way God intends to save us. When the children of Israel were in Egypt they were in bondage to the Egyptians. They were in the world and in bondage to everything that the world put on them. Whatever the world wanted them to do they had to do it. There was no way out. There was no escape. Then the day came when God was to fulfill His promise that He made to them, that one day He would bring them out of the land of Egypt and bring them into the good land. So, they experienced there the Passover. They were delivered from God's judgement. The Passover was God's judgement on the world, how He sent the Death Angel to judge Egypt, which is a type of the world. But, they were delivered from that judgement. How? By striking the blood on the doorpost and eating the lamb inside the house. So, this is a type of our first step of salvation. The first step of salvation is realizing where you're at, that you're in the world, that you're under God's judgement and you need to escape it. The way to escape the judgement of God and to escape the world is through striking the blood and eating the Lamb. This is what the Children of Israel did. They were there in the world, and they enjoyed Christ as the Passover Lamb and they even ate the unleavened bread. They had an experience of God there. They had a rich experience of eating the Lamb and the unleavened bread. But, that was only the beginning because then God brought them out. The problem today is that too many Christians have the experience of the Passover, but they choose to stay in the world. They don't come out. They think that just because they've enjoyed God, they've enjoyed the Lord as the Passover Lamb, and maybe have eaten the Passover bread, that everything is ok. But, once you've experienced that it really is just one third of God's salvation. That's all. It's only the beginning of God's salvation because the next step is to come out of Egypt. The way to come out of Egypt is that you have to pass through the Red Sea. Passing through the Red Sea was and is a type of dying to the world and coming out of the world and then beginning our journey with the Lord. Once the children of Israel got out of Egypt they began to wander and the Lord called it wandering. The reason He called it wandering was because they didn't go straight to the Promise Land. They began to wander around, as it were, in their soul because that's what the wilderness represents our soul. The whole time that they were wandering around they experienced something that they never experienced in Egypt. Yes, they had experienced Christ as the Passover Lamb, and they got to eat that. They ate the unleavened bread. But, in the wilderness they got to enjoy Christ as the manna from Heaven. And, not only the manna from Heaven, but the living water that came out of the smitten rock. So there in the wilderness they began to eat and drink Christ as the Heavenly manna and the living water. Here again we have to realize that this is not God's best. This is not where God desired them to stay. Yet, because of unbelief the children of Israel never entered into the good land. They wandered for forty years in the wilderness, or in their soul, eating manna, the Heavenly bread that came down, having the living water and experiencing miracles. Yet there again you have to remember you have to see clearly that they were not in God's best because they had failed to enter into the good land, which is the place that God desired for them. The place that God wanted for them. Today in Christianity, most Christians are living in their soul. They're enjoying the Heavenly manna, they enjoy the living water, they enjoy all the miralces that they see yet not realizing that this is not God's best. This is not where God desired them to stay. God didn't bring them out of the world, bring them out of Egypt, to wander in the wilderness. But, God brought them out to bring them into Canaan, into the good land. Most Christians choose to stay in their soul, because they're content with God supplying them manna, with drinking water from the the smitten rock and seeing all the miracles that take place. A lot of Christians spend their whole life in this place never realizing that God has something so much better for them. Not having a desire to enter into God's best, they stay in the soul. So, at best they experience two thirds of God's salvation. God doesn't want us to stop at two thirds. Even when you look at what happened to the children of Israel, after awhile, after forty years or even less than that, they became tired of the manna. All of a sudden the manna wasn't good enough for them, they wanted something else. They even  began to desire to go back to the world and to partake of the leeks and onions that were there. If  you wander around in your soul long enough if you stay on that journey long enough without intervention from God you will begin to desire the world. You'll begin to desire to go back to the world. O Lord Jesus. You see God's desire was not for them to stop in the wilderness, not to be content with Him as the manna and the water from the smitten rock or the miracles that they were seeing take place. But God intended to bring them into the good land, into Canaan. How do you get into Canaan? There's another river to be crossed. This is the time to cross the Jordan River.

to be continued.....