No Other Name...

Sometimes I come across things which provoke my spirit. Today I noticed an ongoing discussion in my Facebook ticker concerning whether or not people of other faiths could be considered brothers and sisters in Christ. A pastor friend of mine – Andy Dempsey of Freedom Church in Uddingston – was the discordant note in the conversation. He was arguing for the exclusivity of Christ. From what I could gather, those who opposed him and argued for the brotherhood with people of other faiths, were all people who regarded themselves as followers of Jesus Christ. I was stupefied. I try to shun “debates” on matters like this. As it was, I couldn’t contribute to the discussion anyway since I am not a Facebook friend of the person who started it.

Let me be clear about one thing. I am no hater of other faiths. I do think that there is a “witch hunt” approach to non-Christian faiths by some Christian people. I have even written a book called The Conspiracy Against Muslims. Unlike many Christians, I don’t see Muslims as a threat; quite the opposite. But I would never call any man or woman a brother or sister in Christ unless they were Christians. That is a fundamental to me. I don’t see how any Christian could see or say it otherwise. To call a Buddhist, a Judaizer, a Muslim or a Hindu “brother” is to denigrate Christ. To a genuine follower of Jesus, this is unthinkable. It’s not an issue of which faith is superior; it is an issue of who is Lord?

The Lordship of Christ is foundational and fundamental. It cannot be reasoned with or reasoned away. It is not in our remit to bargain it down by sharing it with Buddha, Mohammed or other created beings. Christ saves and He alone. Salvation is in no other Name. What is interesting about this online debate is it started with a reference to the Queen’s Christmas Day speech in which she boldly proclaimed the exclusive rights of Christ and His saving power. Many Christians traditionally get frustrated by the Queen’s Speech as it is often appallingly and disappointingly multi-faith. Yet on this occasion, Her Majesty delivered a potent message that exalts Christ and people who call themselves Christians immediately talk about being “brothers and sisters” with people of other faiths.

This reference to the brotherhood of man may seem harmless and to speak against it may appear trivial and petty. Yet the terms “brother” and “sister” applied to each other as Christians reflect the reality that we have been called from the darkness of this world into a special family where God is our Father. This could only happen by and in Christ Jesus. It is not for “good” people of all faiths or none. It is for people saved from sin. To say otherwise is to treat Christ’s death and sacrifice as meaningless. The Queen in her speech said we need a Saviour. Sadly, some who name the Name of Christ don’t seem to agree with her. Well done to Andy Dempsey for speaking out against this folly.

Let us remember that it is not arrogance to claim that Christ alone saves; it is arrogance to proclaim otherwise. Calling people of other faiths our brothers and sisters is to undermine who Christ is and what He has done for us. This is shocking arrogance and comes from an improper understanding of our relationship with the Lord. A lot of Christians today need to go back and get saved again the old-fashioned way! Jesus isn’t our guru – He is Lord of all!

Also there is absolutely no salvation in any other, because there is absolutely no other name under heaven given among men in which we must be saved.
ACTS 4:12 HERITAGE BIBLE

Your Primary Task

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,

for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

who desires all men to be saved and to come to a full true knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ

Jesus,

1TIMOTHY 2:1-5 VW

There is often a mentality in reading Scripture that means we read “religiously” i.e. we just see things as a collection of unrelated verses; we see neither theme nor cause and effect. This passage is a classic example. The proof that most Christians have no clue what these verses mean is all around us. The truth is, this passage is one of the most powerful passages in the whole Bible!

Paul says “FIRST OF ALL.” This is vital. It means what it says. It means this is your primary task! Your primary task is to use all kinds of prayer – supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks – for ALL MEN. This doesn’t mean everybody you know or all your Facebook buddies. Prayer for all men means prayer in accordance with the Abrahamic Covenant – that God would bless every nation and family on earth. It is prayer cover for the whole planet, ultimately. IT IS PRAYING FOR THE PURPOSE OF GOD THAT GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL. Paul’s vision was “all Israel saved” (Romans 11:26). You could say it is prayer for revival.

Well most Christians are OK with that; prayer for revival is a great idea. So – with so many praying for revival, why isn’t it happening? I mean to the extent it should. The answer is many Christians neglect verse 2! You are supposed to pray for kings and for those who occupy high positions of authority. If you don’t, you are big-time missing the point. You see, verse 2 says that the result of such prayer is a culture of peace, tranquillity, godliness and dignity. The word “dignity” means honesty and probity. This means living in a nation free from crime, violence, corruption and depravity! Could you use some of that?

Then we read in verse 3 that such praying is good and acceptable in the sight of God. So it’s very simple: if you want to please God, pray for kings and people in authority. This creates an environment which is peaceful and godly. In other words, an atmosphere ready for revival! Verse 3 goes on to say that God desires all men to be saved and to come into full true knowledge of the truth. This means revelation knowledge. How plain do we need it? The key to revival is to pray for our national leaders! This is very biblical. Revivals in the Old Testament were led by kings of Judah – men like Josiah and Hezekiah.

This is the Key Of David in action. As we pray fervently for our monarch and other leaders, God responds by pouring out His spirit. We in the United Kingdom are blessed because we actually have a King/Queen to pray for. We are superabundantly blessed because our royal throne is the Throne of David in the earth. All men being saved and walking in revelation knowledge sure sounds like revival to me! And this is the reward for praying the Key Of David – praying for our royal throne and national leaders.

Verse 5 takes it further; it speaks of Christ being the only Mediator. This means we will live in a land free from idols and multi-faith mindsets. In other words, a Christian nation! God wants what we want – it’s just that we are not doing it HIS way. Simply praying for God to move is only part of the key, brothers and sisters.

Now I know some won’t accept this. Some won’t even see it. It is only the Church of Philadelphia that has the Key Of David revelation. Many will choose to stay in Sardis because it has a good name and great track record, despite it being dead. Some will try to prove me wrong and redouble their efforts to pray down revival by ignoring verse 2. At least they’ll be praying, I guess. But you can’t argue with God. Please remember that Paul was related to British royalty and that the church he wrote to in his Epistle to the Romans was the church that met in the Palatium Britannicum. Timothy was of British royal descent so both these men knew the importance of praying for kings and the importance of royalty itself in God’s strategic plan.

I hope you can see that hostility or ambivalence toward royalty is directly against the very heart of God and is, in itself, counter-productive to God moving. The solution is simple: repent and pray for our royal house and throne. Or be a carcass in the wilderness.

NB. This is written primarily to people in the British Isles. If you live in a country with no monarch, you can, of course, pray for ours! Certainly you can pray for your own national leaders and believe God to move in power.

True Foundations

And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets...

1 CORINTHIANS 12:28

The need for the recognition and releasing of apostolic and prophetic ministry is becoming ever more apparent in the Body of Christ. Those of us who see the Sardis/Philadelphia transition in the Body understand that only the full expression and implementation of these two offices will bring about the perfect man of Ephesians chapter 4. Yes, you can find the apostolic and prophetic in the Sardis paradigm but the full expression can only be in Philadelphia. Put bluntly, apostles and prophets must be given the ranking here ascribed by Paul. You can't fit these offices into pastor-driven structures; you must build the Church upon apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20).

You can have a successful church without these foundations but it must remain Sardis, which is dead; successful, that is, by the standards of Sardis. The Church of Philadelphia, the church of the perfect man, will only be built upon true foundations. There have been attempts to radically overhaul some churches in the Sardis paradigm by making them conform to apostolic principles but you can only build upon a true foundation. Altering the building doesn't change the foundation...

Many years ago I spectacularly failed the Lord by being embroiled in a big scandal. Getting right with God was easy - I repented and that was it. Some Christians don't know that if you foul up AFTER you are saved, the blood of Jesus still works! But I had sense enough to know that I had to deal with the horizontal, with my fellow believers. I knew one thing: no pastor could fully restore me. It would take an apostle directly above me in authority. In the leadership structure of the church I was in at that time, this man was over my immediate pastor and the man who pastored him. I had had no personal dealings with this man but I contacted him and after a period of time in which this man measured the level of my repentance and sincerity, he granted me full restoration under his apostolic authority. I also learned later that he sternly warned others not to give me a hard time for messing up and that I was the real deal.

Some things take apostles; it's that simple. I thank God for my upbringing spiritually in the Apostolic Church. The "Appy" was a forerunner to that which is to come but, like all other Sardis concepts of the apostolic, it's understanding of the office is too limited. What God will do through apostles and prophets in the coming years is mindblowing. Exciting times lie ahead, brothers and sisters!! 

A great example is Revelation 18:20 where apostles and prophets are mentioned in the destruction of the Babylonian order on planet earth. Those who long to see the fall of Babylon and the ushering in of God's Kingdom economy must recognise that this can only come about through the Body of Christ coming into its full and perfect expression. This necessitates the offices of apostle and prophet becoming the foundation of Church and not the extension.

Prayer That Brings Revival

Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
1 PETER 2:17

This is a very powerful scripture because it perfectly describes the posture of the Church of Philadelphia. It is the perfect expression of how to balance, as it were, the tensions of allegiance we are supposed to have as Christians. 

There is a deep truth at the heart of this verse and it is this: you cannot honour all men if you do not honour the king. The biggest problem with the Church today is that Christians do not know how to honour people. This is why evangelistic endeavours bear so little fruit. Christians see "unsaved" people in a vampiristic way - they are there to "turn" into believers. If they do not convert, they are regarded as worthless by many Christians. Don't tell me this isn't so, I've been around this too long. Deep down you know it's true. And so do unbelievers; they smell our hidden agendas behind the facade of concern. You see, Jesus honours people. He never condemns or belittles.
 

A lack of honour is the biggest failing of the modern Church. This is no more evident than in the ambivalence shown by many Christians toward our monarchy here in the UK. Many believers forget that we live in a KINGDOM with a monarch anointed by God. No politician has this sacred calling. It is shocking that so many Christians ignore and even mock the monarchy in this nation. If you do not honour the sovereign, you cannot honour all men; the two are mutually inclusive of the other.

Paul charges us in 1 Timothy chapter 2 to pray for all men then immediately after says to pray for kings and all who are in authority. The reason is simple: God has set things up in such a way that the destiny of a nation and its people is inextricably linked with the destiny of its anointed monarch. As goes the Throne, so go the people. A good king can lead the people to peace and prosperity, to greatness and victory. A bad king will do the opposite. Thus to honour the king is to honour all men. To denigrate the king, even by a lack of prayer, is to dishonour all men. These are spiritual matters you cannot afford to ignore.

It is clear from a cursory reading of 1 Timothy 2:1-4 that praying for kings brings peace (manifested in things like reduced crime rates) and honesty back in to society. Such an environment is then conducive to men being saved i.e. a revival atmosphere. Anciently, kings were the harbringers of revival in biblical times e.g. Hezekiah, Josiah. That so many miss this is nothing short of criminal in a society so blighted by multiple problems like ours is.

It is my personal belief that our British Throne is the continuation of the Throne of David in the earth; the descent of our Royal House (and that of virtually every other European monarchy) can easily be traced back to King David. You might not share that belief but the importance of praying for kings still applies and is biblically mandated. Imagine a godly king upon the British Throne - a monarch sold out to Jesus, tongue-talking, devil-stomping, Word-preaching fanatic just like King David. What could God do with such a king? The Scottish preacher John McPhee had the vision of the King (Jesus) within the king on Britain's Throne. Yes, this is an Arthurian vision but it has also been reality more than once in our history. The need for it to be so again is greater than ever in this 21st century.

By praying for kings (and other leaders in Parliament, civil service, military, education etc) you are effectively praying the Kingdom of God down since heaven is a Kingdom ruled by a King and peopled with kings!! I am sure you would agree with me that Britain's best future is one where it is patterned after heaven. Praying for our monarchy is the best way to accomplish this. Seek God until He reveals this secret to you. Do not buy into the blatantly obvious disconnect of thinking kings were good in the past and the future is about a King called Jesus but as for today, we should be governed by politicians. I put my faith in an anointed sovereign over a self-serving politician any day. Yes, we have had bad monarchs but we have had some shocking prime ministers too. Ultimately, we are ruled by one person in all our forms of government so why not stick with the Bible one?

A new book on the descent of Queen Elizabeth II from the biblical King David is available. It is called Daughters Of Destiny and is authored by Glyn Lewis. Price is £9.50. If you want to get this fascinating book, email me and I will send you a copy along with some free books. If you don't want this book but would like to read more on the importance of praying for kings, email me and I will send you a free copy of my book The Key Of David.

A New Paradigm

It can be a terrible thing to receive revelation from God; terrible in that it makes you fear Him but also because it means you can no longer escape truth and its fearful implications. What is, IS, and there is no denying, deflecting or escaping it. The Lord has been deepening and broadening our understanding of the Sardis/Philadelphia paradigms and it is both exhilirating and dreadful.

What is eye-opening is the harsh reality that Sardis is blind to so much of Philadelphia. Moreover, such blindness has no excuse - even though it is actually of God - because it is a wilful ignorance. Sardis folks have no interest in Philadelpia and this is a decision, not an accident. Improving Sardis is what those of Sardis see as being their task in God, along with making it more appealing to the world. Yet Sardis is death and is for the dying. Only Philadelphia has resurrection life. We are not referring here to individual salvation but something way beyond that. Philadelphia's agenda is not to escape eternal damnation but to bring heavenly glory on earth. Philadelphia is, of all the churches, the church of paradox. It is very much heavenly-oriented but also earthly-minded. 

Philadelphia is inherently Johannine because it is about love of the brethren. Compared to Philadelphia, the brotherly love of Sardis will look like hate. In fact, it often really is. Sardis has no place for those who are not of Sardis. It has a hard time recognising them as brethren. And Sardis has no clue of the synagogue of satan; again, this is reserved for the church of mysteries, Philadelphia. Sardis is the modern church and there is something very postmodern about Philadelphia in that it seeks no pat answers. Sardis has its systematic theologies and its Bible answer men. To Sardis, the Bible is "a manual of successful living" and the book that contains all the answers. But Philadelphia is content to have the Bible be a "book of mysteries." Sardis functions in an either/or paradigm; Philadelphia has a both/and approach. Philadelphia is the church that refuses to box God.

Of course, there are many wonderful things in Sardis. It holds enormous appeal to many and it can boast of great treasures. More people have come to faith in Christ under the roof of Sardis than any other era. It has the reputation of being alive and Sardis saints would fight you if you said otherwise. They are proud of their history and their reputation. But the problem is that it is God who says otherwise. What God says is death is, quite simply, death. The remarkable thing is that the first to see it are probably what Sardis calls the "lost" or "unsaved." This is why Sardis is declining in numbers. It is a frightful thing to behold. Of course, Sardis blames the lost themselves as well as the devil and much of Sardis smugly decrees that such decline and declension is all part of the prophetic plan of God.

Sardis is the church of prophetic timelines and charts, the church that seeks to know all things, where mystery is abominated. Sardis has all the answers but doesn't actually know what the questions are. Sardis is obsessed with the antichrist and the mark of the beast and terrifying people into thinking they may be "left behind." This is why Sardis is told that the Lord may come as a thief. Also, Sardis is where you will hear about "giving big so that God can bless you" and where slick preachers will pray "the anointing of Abraham" on you - for a certain donation, of course. Philadelphia has no such blessings to sell since these things are not for sale but are freely given. A Philadelphia saint knows he/she is rich and has no need to manipulate what he/she can manifest by faith. For the blessing-selling huckster of Sardis, however, the warning of Jesus coming as a thief should be very clear.

God loves Sardis folks but that love implores them to repent. Sardis is tainted and imperfect. It is not the vehicle God has chosen to bring about the restoration. That which Sardis longs for, it cannot actually enter into. Like those who wandered around the wilderness and drank of the Rock which is Christ, they cannot enter into the Promised Land. These things were written for our example here at the end of the age. Drinking of Christ is not enough. There is a higher dimension to walk in than Sardis. Sardis people are rabid about Jesus-centredness. But you can't be Jesus-centred if you reject truth! Sardis is a remnant paradigm but Philadelphia is a fullness paradigm.

These truths are being contested in the spirit even as you read this. God is seeking to take us into the Philadelphia paradigm just as He wanted to take Israel into the land. The problem is that Sardis must die first, just as many had to die who were older generations in the wilderness. The modern church must die that the postmodern church may come forth in resurrection life. These terms modern and postmodern are just ways of helping us understand, though technically the term "postmodern" means future or after time. Thus the Church of Philadelphia is a church that draws upon the powers of the age to come.

I cannot make you see Philadelphia, dear reader, only God can. I can pray for you and counsel you to lay hold upon Him. Seek the Lord. If you are blind, ask that you may see. Mysteries await you if you will die to Sardis.

Stop Digging Tombs - Start Turning The Key

Isaiah chapter 22 paints a vivid prophetic picture for us of the age we live in. It is the burden of the Valley of Vision (verse 1). This refers to Jerusalem. This is for the mainstream a prophetic picture of the Church and has more national connotations for those of the British Israel understanding.

The prophet addresses Shebna, the governor of King Hezekiah's palace. Contemptuously, Shebna is labelled as "this treasurer", no doubt referring to his love of money. Sadly, it is a prophetic picture of our day when those who should serve with a servant's heart often choose to use their positions avariciously. This applies to people from several vocations in our age, including politicians, civil servants, lawyers and those in the Christian ministry. We have seen many examples of people in these areas using positions of trust and civic responsibility to line their own pockets.

It is a terrible thing for Yahweh to address someone in a sacred ministry as a "treasurer", someone more interested in counting the offering bag than being who God has called him/her to be. Yahweh also referred to Shebna's ministry as tomb digging. To Yahweh, Shebna was carving out a place for dead people to go to. It's not good when God calls what you are doing "death"! This, of course, parallels Revelation 3 where Jesus says of the Church of Sardis that they have a reputation for being a place where you can find life but they are in fact dead. Death is God's summation of the Sardis church. Sardis is for the dead and dying. Yes, it has produced many outstanding Christians and it has got many born again but it still has the stench of death about it. Anyone building a Sardis church is digging out a grave for dead people to go to. 

Sardis is, of course, the modern church. This church has served its purpose. Most believers were brought up spiritually in a Sardis church. The typical Sardis church is old-fashioned to varying degrees. Time ceases to go by in such churches. The absence of time by no means indicates the presence of eternity, however. Sardis churches are time-warp churches. You can go to a Sardis church stuck in the 1930s or one caught in Toronto.

The biggest problem with people in Sardis is that they don't know they are dead and that God has something better. Improving Sardis is the "vision" of zealots in Sardis. The rest think Sardis is just fine as it is.

That something better is the Church of Philadelphia. For the money-centred ministry of Shebna, God had the father-heart ministry of Eliakim (see Isaiah 22:21). People who think the return of Jesus is the only answer to mankind's ills are people who haven't experienced fathering leadership. God's answer is always a great leader. Eliakim was Yahweh's answer to Shebna. Eliakim means he who God raises. The only response to a ministry of death is resurrection. The Sardis church must die so that the Church of Jesus Christ can be raised to life.

The ministry of Eliakim was the ministry of the key of David (Isaiah 22:22). Equally, the Philadelphia church is marked by this key of David (Revelation 3:7). Sardis doesn't have this key; neither does Laodicea. Only Philadelphia has this key. Those of the Church of Philadelphia understand mysteries that Sardis believers don't. The dead do not see. The key of David is what will separate people in these last days. Those with this key have no need to dig tombs or count the money. The key of David is, as Paul said it was, life from the dead. It is fulness of supply.

The key of David is the key of dominion. Sardis believers don't understand the key and have a hard time even admitting it exists. They have to explain it away to fit their dogmatic theologies. Of course, this is ludicrous. They are shut out of the key by the key! It need not be so. Sardis saints can leave Sardis and join Philadelphia, the church of true brotherly love. But to do so, you have to leave behind all you are in Sardis. Those who have ruined their reputation in Sardis or had it ruined for them by Jehovah Sneaky (as Bill Johnson calls Him) are the happiest of people.

Shebna was stripped of his office and sent to a far country. Again, this symbolises those in Sardis who God wanted to give the key of David to if they would only listen to Him. The modern Church is increasingly a lost voice in this 21st century. It is being stripped of authority and ability to influence. The modern Church has its programs and its theologies. What does it need the Holy Spirit for?

The issue is life and death. The life of Philadelphia or the death of Sardis. The dividing point is the key of David. If you think you can do fine without an intimate knowledge of this key, you don't need to ask the question.

You are yet in Sardis.

How To Prosper Personally And Save The World

As Emrys I am called to teach and preach on The Matter Of Britain. My message is a national one, specifically to the peoples of Britain. The Bible is a national book in that, in both Old and New Testaments, it is addressed to the nation of Israel. My particular calling is to tell the indigenous peoples of the British Isles that they are descended from the biblical tribes of Israel. Isaiah 51:16 is the commissioning text for our church and ministry. Of course, some are not ready to hear that. We have two main "target" audiences - those who are Christians and those who are not. It is difficult for some Christians not necessarily to believe the message as to receive it and allow it to change them. Churchianity has strong conditioning but the truth will eventually penetrate even the most obstinate of programming. We are used to people showing interest then going all defensive as their churchianity kicks in. That's ok. It's tough finding out you don't know what you really need to.

I have been revisiting Isaiah chapter 51 recently in our meetings. The gist of the messages is that the answer to the recession we are presently being made to endure is that we are God's Israel people. Every problem in life is an identity problem for those who follow the Lord. That is, you mess up because you forget who you are. Nationally, this is the case with Britain. When the glorious outpouring of Pentecostal blessing first came to America and Europe at the turn of the 20th century, the wonderful truth of British Israel and the British Throne's descent from the Throne of David was widely taught and believed by multitudes. The early pioneers and founders of denominations in the UK like the Elim Movement and the Apostolic Church were all staunch proponents of our Israelite identity. Sadly, that truth has been obscured as the decades passed. See here for the story.

It has to be said that until this glorious truth is once more embraced by people in this nation, the awesome move of God people long for will not be manifest. This may enrage those who have their own ideas about revival but Yahweh is on the Throne and it is His purpose we must align ourselves with.

Anyway, I have been teaching in our meetings along these lines and trying to get across the powerful truth that to proclaim the truth of British Israel is to innoculate yourself from the effects of the recession. More than this, it is the truth of British Israel that will destroy the economy of Babylon and usher in the Kingdom of God economy. In essence, if you want to prosper personally and nationally, preach and teach that we are Israel.

I have testimony after testimony in my own life to the amazing effects of this. In the last few days I have been greatly blessed financially in my income and also seen a £4,000 debt miraculously cancelled! The reason is very simple: I am preaching this message more fervently than ever.

I am aware that some have an agenda for resisting and rejecting the truth of our national identity and destiny. As I said, churchianity is strong in its conditioning. But if you need to prosper financially, you may want to consider this very seriously. Only truth can align you to reality. And the reality is that we are blessed with all we ever will need already (Ephesians 1:3). Proclaiming the truth is what manifests these blessings.

This is so vital I am blogging it on my other blogs here and here.

If you want to receive CDs of my recent teaching on these matters, email me and request them. There will be no charge.