A revelation came that showed how the universe could fit into a man. It is difficult for me to imagine how this could happen physically, because the physical world has its own laws and its own clear boundaries. The spiritual world, compared to the physical world, is an object that casts a shadow, and the physical world is just a shadow. The shadow has boundaries. The shadow can’t give volume or smell, it can’t move without the object, it is dead, but it exists.
The Heavenly Kingdom compared to the earthly one is an object that casts a shadow. Like the moon – it would not be visible if there were no sun. Man can contain God’s Kingdom, contain the Universe within himself. It’s amazing how this Universe has been shown to be inside.
These are such amazing things! It is written that “the books were opened,” and another book was opened. It was a book with seven seals. And creation wept that no one could open it. And the prophet himself, the Apostle, cried that no one could open the book, no one could open the seals. He had such a thirst – but no one could look in until the Lamb from the tribe of Judah came and He opened the first seal. He calmly approached the One who held this book, He had no fear, He didn’t tremble, He calmly approached, because He had finished all things. And not even because He finished all things – He was the Beloved and remained the Beloved, and will always be the Beloved. He has a free access to the Father’s heart. He came calmly – He was dead, and now He is alive forever, and He did everything well. He returned, and with these wounds He took the book from the hands of the One who sat and opened the first seal, and opened all seven seals.
I remember asking one brother, “What is that book in Daniel?” He said, “What book? There are no books except the Bible!” Yes, there are! The book of Daniel says, “I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of Truth.” Where can these true Scriptures be found? I’ll tell you – not on earth! When the Lord had an action with Moses, He said that “He has given the earth to the children of men, but the heavens are the Lord’s!” This was when He spoke about wisdom, about knowledge, this is about how Apostle Paul said not to interfere with the ministry of Angels, this can be foolishness.
It is amazing how man is drawn by hunger for heaven, man craves for the heavenly. Something happened to me these days. I feel that we’ve been going the right way. We are moving towards love. When our love “bubbles” and blazes, it is like the most living witness – love. It rises more and more, crushes our hearts, softens them, it turns us to face our neighbors – these are signs, these are signs that our path is the path of light. Remember, it is said that “he who does the truth comes to the light”. And the one who does not – he runs away from God’s people. He has friends somewhere on the side – “better” ones than God’s people. Think about this – these are very serious things.
Sometimes I encounter this and think: I would not advise living like this when your worldly friends, who don’t know the most important thing, are your best friends. And church of “part-time” is like a job. So you have to decide where you have a part-time relationship, the world or the church. Where is your main job, where is your life? Both I and my brothers and sisters made the church their home. It was not the church that did this – it was you who chose the position when you made the church your home. Observing certain people, I understand: sooner or later they will choose either this world or the church as their “god”.
I was a proud man and am still working on it, but I decided that these are my people – and I have no other. Sometimes I want to talk about something, but as if there were no such, but more and more there are those who are interested, but all this is emptiness in comparison with what God has done for us and that He has chosen us into His Kingdom! There is something about God’s holy people – not that informative awareness or erudition, or increased sensitivity of the intellect, or over-developed intuition, or refined style – but in the saints of God there is something, and you know it – which is not found anywhere – this is Christ’s beauty, Christ’s love, Christ’s truth. Whoever doesn’t understand this has not yet seen God, he doesn’t yet know Him. I don’t know whether he recognizes it or not, but he hasn’t seen anything yet. I choose the House of God as my home!
And whoever the Lord sends – the most clumsy, the most useless, the most forgotten by everyone, the one who is of no use to anyone – send her to me, this love. Forgotten by everyone, not needed by anyone, but still this is love. The point is that if this is Your love, then at least teach me to recognize it and accept it, and I will be with her. I think that Christ is like this. He came and had no form or comeliness. In some simple people, in some peripheral town, there are “strange” people, I am talking, of course, about revived people who love Christ – these people come, they adore Him. And if you have some nondescript, clumsy Angel that no one needs anymore, give it to me, as long as it’s Yours!
Everything God’s is all ours. Therefore he says: “All things are yours.” And all things that are God’s, I want to love. The world lies in evil; whoever loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Give us discernment, Lord, what we can take and what we cannot! Therefore, make God’s House your home – this is your position – and do not go “to the side”. Bring light to people, bring compassion, bring love, but live in the House of God. Do you see how it all goes? The heart, not yet devoted to Christ, wanders, and God says in His Word: “O you afflicted one, tossed with tempest, not comforted!” And then He tells about His promise that He will make it so that she returns to the House fruitful, and she will no longer wander. Stop wandering! Go to the House of God and live in it! I can just hear you standing with one foot that side and the other this side. Quickly sort this matter out – where are you? If you are with God, then put both feet in God – devote yourself! And today I want to make this hour, this moment, a point of dedication. You will say: “Oh, I was not ready for such a lay out!” No one was ready; if God doesn’t save, no one will be saved. It is written: “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
I want to say two things. This Word is to Russia, and to Israel, to other nations, and not only to the countries indicated in this word. The Word of God is higher than geography. I can come through Assur to the Throne of God, the oil of Gilead will heal the nations, I can swim across the ocean on a sliver, I can ride a shell and visit the Mariana Trench, or I can catch a tit and fly to the edge of the Universe. We just need a small sliver – like these five loaves and two fishes – to feed thousands.
“In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord on the borders thereof. And it will be a sign and a testimony of the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt, because they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a savior and intercessor and deliver them. And the Lord will reveal Himself in Egypt; and the Egyptians on that day will know the Lord, and will offer sacrifices and gifts, and will make vows to the Lord, and will fulfill them. And the Lord will strike Egypt; will strike and heal; they will turn to the Lord, and He will hear them and heal them” (Isaiah 19:19-22).
This is a revealed Word. What day is this? It’s the day of the Lord! We call it our day. We can get up on this day and foresee nothing, expect nothing, and when the sovereign will of God comes and something happens to our lives, it is still not that day, this day must come from within you. The glorious, great, wondrous day of the Lord comes from within a man. You can make this day great! And right now, just like that, this day could come for you. “In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt” – Russia, your nations, where you are from – this is Egypt. The Lord is leading the people out of Egypt, out of this world. Sometimes Egypt turns into Sodom, sometimes into Babylon, but Egypt is where it all begins. And I believe that Russia is not Sodom yet, it is still Egypt. There are people here, there is the Church of God, there are people of good will – in different cities – who endure, perhaps they fear, perhaps they wait, watch, perhaps they make mistakes, speak wrong things, but they still do not allow Egypt to turn into Sodom. Pray for them – they are standing, they live here, and that already means something.
God is restoring the altar. He says that “the altar will stand in the midst.” And today we are setting up an altar. This is not a geographical reference, this is one Body. We will go to different places, but this is one altar if we carry the dimension of unity and love. You will go to other nations or to other countries, but we are this altar.
In this picture you see people walking towards the stone, carrying their cross, like the four evangelists who were before this stone, but walking from it, they are already walking with their backs to us, before this stone they are facing us, and after it they are going away. And this stone is Eben-Ezer – “thus far the Lord has helped us.” They changed their direction, this is one path, but the direction has changed. And this is the altar of Eben-Ezer! Why did Samuel erect this monument? But he was not the first to do this: Joshua set up stones, Abraham set up stones, Jacob set up a stone, named it “Bethel” and poured oil on it – because inside they all realized they had come to the gateway point, to the point of radical changes within. And, of course, when Jacob left, nothing happened to the stone. No angel came to guard this stone so that “the oil would not turn sour.” Everything remained the same – the same birds, rodents that ran around, and the stone – once the oil dried up on it – nothing changed, but this was Bethel, because Bethel went with Jacob.
This is the Kingdom of God! You are the Universe of God that you carry within you! Realize this! Understand this! This is not just another “experience” – it is eternity! We need to stop playing church, stop playing “role-playing games” of being spiritual people. God is not “cool”, God is the only eternity and life! We cannot flirt with the Kingdom, we cannot flirt with those who were put to death, beheaded for the Lord. You cannot be His daughter or son and play around in this place. You can’t come to the heroes’ cemetery and have a disco there.
And God is restoring an altar in the middle of Egypt, but this altar has horns, it is warlike. Have you ever wondered why the altar had four horns coming out of each corner? Because the altar, first of all, is a battle. The battle is about sacrifice because sacrificing is spiritual warfare.
The monument to the Lord, which is in the midst of the land of Egypt, is also at the borders. How come? And it’s like God’s presence! The monument was erected in the middle of the land, but it is at the borders! Because the dimension of the altar is everywhere. You will do this – when you travel in cars and trains, fly on airplanes – you will carry the monument of the Lord into the land of Egypt. This is the dimension of eternity! It is not tied to a geographical point, it is not even tied to time, and it is not even tied to a person. This is God’s presence, omnipresence! In this sense, the prophet said: “The whole earth is full of His glory!” Now! Like the sky – clouds – if they are disturbed by smoke from factories, they rise higher, thunderclouds – they keep floating as they have been floating, cumulus, feather clouds – the sky remains the sky. In this sense, the earth is full of His glory. The sun shines at all times and the sky remains blue. The question: is “Where are you?”
This Eben Ezer is a memorial stone. Maybe someone is confused about what a monument is. “Do not make an idol for yourself” – such monument is bad; we can’t make a statue of God for ourselves and erect it and worship Him. We can’t, for example, erect a monument to Abraham. Firstly, it will not look like him, and secondly, a crowd of people will definitely come to worship him. So what is a monument? A monument is a memorial stone. The stone that Samuel took and set it up and called its name “Eben-Ezer” was a witness. The ancients did this. When they crossed the Jordan, they took stones from the bottom and carried them out of there. Jacob did stones, Abraham made an altar of stones. The stones were witnesses.
And today – why did the Lord call Peter Cephas? Because this is a memorial stone as well. And you and I are living stones. And this stone – Eben Ezer – is a monument to the Lord. I want to tell you all: “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” And just as this procession – the Gospel of the four evangelists – was revealed to us in this way, now we have received something and will go like this. And to this place the Lord has helped us, and we are erecting this monument in Egypt and in the middle of Egypt, spreading it to the borders, because this monument to the Lord will be, as it is written, “a sign and testimony of the Lord of hosts.”
Think about these words, penetrate! “This stone will be, this monument…” – We take away and introduce into our places this stone of memory of what the Lord has done to us! “And it will be a sign and a testimony of the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.” The stone is a sign and testimony of the Lord of Hosts.
Don’t imagine a statue of God, don’t imagine a big cobblestone. No! This stone is inside us! And we must become a sign and testimony about the Lord of Hosts in our land!
When you go, carry the sign with yourselves. Shift the spheres, move the centuries-old mountains, and may the Lord give you to be a testimony. As you enter different lands and places, become a sign and become a testimony. That’s what it means. We’re going our separate ways today. This mountain crumbles into small stones, but it doesn’t get ruined, it spreads and multiplies.
“For they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors” is how we should pray today. This is the prayer key: “They will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors.” They don’t pray. We need to cry out and do this so that they start praying, because now they only get angry and cry in pain, but no one is praying. Scripture says, “They will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors.” That is why the Lord “will visit Egypt and forgive it.” The Lord is waiting for prayer today, He is waiting for the cry.
If we look at the picture today – oppressed but not repentant, oppressed but not crying out. We need to get this call out of them. “And He will send them a savior and an defender, and he will deliver them.” This is not Christ, He has already sent Him, He has already come. In the Old Testament it was a judge or a prophet; when the people sinned, the Lord sent judgments, then a judge arose, and the earth rested – twenty to forty years; if it was a strong judge, the enemies did not touch the land.
And in the New Testament, now, this is the Apostolic Church, of which it is said “she will encompass man.” And He will send them a savior and defender. Let our Eastern Gates become the savior and defender, whom God sent to Egypt.
“And the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt; and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day. They will even worship with sacrifices and offerings, and will make vows to the Lord, and will fulfill them. And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing it; they will turn to the Lord, and He will hear them and heal them!” (Isaiah 19:21-22)
Our nations will know the Lord! The Lord will save Russia, the Lord will save Israel, the Lord will save Europe, the Lord will save the East and Asia, to the North and the South He will say: “Give up the children of God!” This is the way we need to see things! Because if we look at things pessimistically, we cry and groan, we will turn into powerless philosophers. But on the darkest day we believe anyway, under the heaviest blows of destiny we’ll stand smiling! This is power!
“The nations will know the Lord, they will bring sacrifices and offerings, and they will make vows to the Lord and fulfill them” – the Egyptians will make vows. Beauty! This is already a high level of faith, we will pass on this faith to them. And the Lord will strike Egypt, but striking and healing it! And He will hear them! And he will heal them! Glory to our Lord!
In the Old Testament one was not to return to Egypt, it says, “Never go back to Egypt again!” This is not about this Egypt, because that Egypt “sank” with Pharaoh to the bottom of the sea, but this is about another Egypt, about spiritual Egypt, this is where the Lord said: “Go to all nations and preach the Gospel.” To this Egypt the Lord says: “…they will turn to the Lord, and He will hear them and heal them.” This Egypt is waiting for us today, waiting for the revelation of the sons of God!
“… being confident of this very thing, that He who has began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6)
If you don’t give it away yourself, it will always be with you. What was Apostle Paul confident of? This is not a figure of speech. He is confident that the One who began this good work in us – Who began to work with us, with our insides, and change us today – He will complete this – and this is the faith of Paul – until the day of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine what he believed in?! When Paul deposited something into people, this was what he believed! Do you believe this in your communities? Don’t rush to answer! Sometimes we don’t even believe that they receive it. And Paul believed that what he deposited into them would not just be “long-lasting,” it would be ever-lasting. He believed, and I will believe with him too. Now I stand next to Paul’s faith and bless you with this passage of Scripture, which God revealed to me to bless you with it – so that He who began a good work in you, He would complete it until the day of the revelation of Jesus Christ!