BE THOU LOOSED

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BE THOU LOOSED!

(10) One Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, (11) and a woman there had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was hunched over and could not stand up straight. (12) When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your disability.” (16) Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 13:10-12, 16, BSB)

Since coming out of Pentecost/Shavuot 2020 the only messages I am receiving from the Spirit pertains to the Invitation given by Jesus at the yearly Feast of Tabernacle in Jerusalem. It is the universal appeal of Jesus to the thirsty, still relevant today as it was then. “On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink’. (John 7:37, BSB). The other word I am receiving relating to this season is: “And he said to me, “This water flows out to the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah. When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. (9) Wherever the river flows, there will be swarms of living creatures and a great number of fish, because it flows there and makes the waters fresh; so wherever the river flows, everything will flourish.”(Ezekiel 47:8-9, BSB). I am burdened daily to continue releasing these verses as the nations await healing and wholeness by the Spirit of the Living One. The Water of Life is for the body of Christ as our Lord desires to refresh and restore His church to a vibrant vivified state.

A few years ago, possibly around 2013, during a particularly active season of dreams and revelations, I had this dream I will now recall. Firstly, I have not shared this dream publicly before, aa I had not been released by the Spirit to do so, until today. I woke this morning (26th October 2020) and my spirit brought it back from my memory archive. As I began to mentally process it, I received fresh thoughts relevant to this season as the Spirit poured into me.

The Dream

I was moving through an old building like an ancient sanatorium for sick people. As I moved it was as if I was just flowing through in a spirit of joy. It felt like I was in a heavenly atmosphere of God’s presence, yet the reality was that the environment and physical atmosphere did not parallel my feelings of joy. There were miles of corridors in every which direction one takes. The corridors were narrow and dimly lit. As I flowed effortlessly through the sterile and sparsely furnished sanatorium there was expectancy and excitement that registered on my glowing radiant face. On either sides of the narrow corridors there were rooms, after rooms, after rooms. The rooms lined the corridors, miles, after miles, after miles. It was a never ending scene. In each room along both sides of the corridors there was a single metal-framed bed and on each bed a covering of white linen sheets. In each bed there was a male or female person bound up in white linen sheets. They were mummified from the head to their feet. Only an opening for the eyes and nose could be seen. This same scene greeted my eyes as I flowed passed each room along each corridor. What was notable was that in a synchronised way they all made every effort as they struggled to turn their heads towards the door to get a glimpse of me passing. Their efforts to see me was quite moving and desperate. Down one of the corridors I was drawn to this one room. I stood on the threshold of the doorway. It was the one and only room that had a coffin in it. As I stood at the entrance and stepped over the threshold of the doorway a woman in the coffin sprung up in a sitting position and after a few seconds she fell back into the coffin. I then continued to move through more unending corridors with countless rooms on either side.

So, what I was receiving in my spirit in the dream was that these mummified people were all ministers. The mummified leaders were males and females. Therefore no distinction was made between the genders. They were from all tiers of leadership. My spirit was being fed that they were spiritually bound, dying and dead. What I was feeling was that they could not help themselves. I also received that they were aware of the presence of the Spirit moving through the corridors and the bestowed power for grace and deliverance flowing through me. I felt the pitiful tug in my heart of their plight as they desired that I see them. Hence why they desperately struggled to get a glimpse of me. I received in my spirit that It will be this grace and favour anointing that will loose the satanic powers that have bound the people of God. The update of this dream indicates that it is a cross-denominational wide problem. The old building represents the old order and the fact that it was a sanatorium indicates the sick and dying are to be cared for. In ancient times sanatoriums were facilities for those with chronic illnesses. It is indicative of the spiritual sickness plaguing the body of Christ. A dimly lit building is a sign of spiritual darkness and the glorious radiance of the Presence that enveloped me is the brilliance of the Spirit that is needed to loose them from their grave clothes and to give a new lease of life.

Further, in the last few weeks since coming out of Sukkot, I have been burdened to warn and call the people of God to take heed as the trickling of the water from under the threshold of grace has begun to flow. What my spirit digested of the living waters flowing from underneath the threshold of the temple, as witnessed by Ezekiel in his vision should alert the body of Christ of the spiritual significance. “The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. (Ezekiel 47:1-2, NIV). To go out eastward is a move of the Spirit for salvation. In Zechariah 14:8, mention is made of the living water going forth from Jerusalem, a reference to Jesus, the Living Water.. Under the law everything pertaining to the sacrificing and worshipping unto God was done in the tabernacle/temple. Under grace the lawgiver took the place of ceremonial religion and moved out amongst the poor and needy beyond the enclosures of Jerusalem. The New Order of Jesus was intended to refresh the people as they drink of the Living Water. They would never thirst again. Instead, the temple worshippers told him he had a demon and poured scorn on our Lord, rejecting the Spirit of Life.

The same spirits that were against Jesus are at work today. The devout temple worshippers in Jerusalem, we can liken many of the leaders in the body of Christ today, righteous in their own eyes they have become infected by religion and have rejected the servant God has chosen for this end time healing mandate. Religion was chosen over the Spirit move as they poured scorn and indifference on every effort and attempt to get this healing and restoration ministry out. Even now, after ten years they just cannot get it. It a stronghold that is hard to break from. The very ministry they have rejected in this end time will be the only means by which they will be delivered and healed from the bondage they are in.

The threshold of the tabernacle was a symbol of holiness. It is also the place of the glory. “Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple…” (Ezekiel 9;3) Jesus lives within our hearts and His glory fills the temple. As Ezekiel’s vision revealed, the ankle deep water became a flowing deep river. Faith is the conduit for our deliverance. So, when we take hold of the hem of our Lord’s garment, a mantle of virtue, the healing power is released. Those who will exercise faith will launch into the deep spiritual flow. So it is, to cross over the threshold of the door of faith into another dimension, releases the power. As in my dream, when we cross over the threshold, rather than to stand on the threshold of the doorway, there is another level of impartation that will stir even the spiritually dead back to life.

An incessant love for idol worship and aligning with the pagan nations would cause the glory of God to depart from Jerusalem. “And the glory ofthe LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.” (Ezekiel 11:23, ESV). A loving Father had had enough of the unfaithfulness of His people. They were serial covenant breakers. Ezekiel ’s vision reveals the wrath of God being unleashed without compromise upon all those without a mark of protection. “And I saw six men coming from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with a deadly weapon in his hand. With them was a man clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. They came in and stood beside the bronze altar.” (3) Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. Then the LORD called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side. (4) and said to him, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” (Ezekiel 9:2-4, NIV). I implore the body of Christ to repent and take up the invitation of our Lord for a deeper experience outside of religion. Those who will agree with the Spirit concerning the factious unholy state of the body of Christ will be saved. The Spirit is about do a new thing in His New Order. In this season, the salvation, deliverance and healing will be poured out in abundance, saturating the people outside of the spiritual Jerusalem. Those from the lepers’ colony will stir the anointing, grateful recipients of the healing flow coming from the south side of the altar, flowing under the threshold of the tabernacle into inhospitable terrains.

When Lazarus was commanded to come forth from the grave, Jesus instructed those around to loose him. A collective spiritual bondage requires a greater spiritual authority to loose the captivity of leadership. The spirits that follows the leadership cohort are strong pernicious spirits despatched from the pit of hell to destroy the priesthood. But the power at work to deliver souls knowns no bounds. Jesus commanded the demonic spirit disabling the daughter of Abraham to be loosed from her. It was 18 years she was under the affliction. So we can deduce that it was a chronic state. After so long in that condition she may have resigned herself to the situation and given up hope of a cure. After all, the bones would have been firmly set as she was hunched over. This was a bondage of Satan, the coiling serpent spirit holding her into this state of what appeared to be a physical captivity. Jesus’ command informs us that it is a spiritual problem, covertly disguised as a physical affliction. “Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 13:16, BSB). Jesus immediately discharges the spirit behind the problem. There is an evil spirit behind every problem but many are accustomed to believing and normalising a problem as an unfortunate situation. Jesus called it out for what it is. The evil spirits at work are hidden in so many areas of our lives. We must not accept the situations as hopeless but faith will challenge the stereotypes of understanding and lean into divine intervention as the key to unlocking and loosening the spiritual occupation of evil. There is no doubt that these chronic afflictions and spiritual malaise requires a greater power of authority that will be experienced through the works of the end time healing mantle.

The Hebrew value of no.10 (chet) and no.8 (yod) together gives the sum of 18. Eighteen is the Hebrew word ‘chay’ or ‘chai’, depending on the period of history. Strong’s Hebrew, (2417) translates to ‘living’ or ‘life’. Now the number 10 is associated with a new order after God’s judgement, whilst number 8 is a completion of one thing and a new beginning of another. For this woman the ending of her misery under spiritual captivity represented a new beginning and an extension of a quality to her life. Only the Living One could command the resident spirit of affliction to shift its base, and to command a new lease of life that brought real change in her position. No doubt she would have ran from the temple to be a bearer of the Good News of Jesus. The healing flow from under the threshold of the sanctuary brings such joy of deliverance from very bondage and oppression under the works of evil. Equally so, crossing over the threshold of faith will bring one from one state of His glory to another state of His power.

Jesus is the Spirit of Life and Lord of the Sabbath. He is the Healer of the people and therefore to ignore this ‘bowed over’ woman in oder to appease the religious leaders would have gone against Jesus’ mandate to bring healing to the sick, and to raise the dead. The problems we face, such as sickness, affliction and long term disabilities are demonic in nature. The longstanding acrimonious hostility between good and evil was a hindrance to the people’s healing. The cohort of Jewish leaders despised our Lord for healing on the Sabbath. If only their spiritual eyes could be loosed from shortsightedness to perceive that Jesus was their Sabbath and healing the sick was His eternal mandate.

We have reached the state of a spiritual impasse because the evil around us has strengthened and we need a greater leverage of authority as the apostles demonstrated on leaving Jerusalem to the Gentile regions beyond the city walls. Could it be that the time has come to leave the spiritual house of Jerusalem and go beyond the city walls of denominations to see the power of healing amongst a languishing thirsty world? Grateful recipients of the healing flow. Those who need a physician will draw on the virtue of the our Lord by touching the tassels on the fringe of His garment. I now announce that the end time healing flow issued from under the threshold of the eternal tabernacle has begun to bubble. The glory of our Lord will dissipate the spiritual darkness of this age. As indicated in the dream above, the long arm of evil’s reach has been embedded deeply into the priesthood and leadership fraternity. The spiritual integrity of many leaders have been compromised somewhat. It is time for the body of Christ to change and to embrace God’s New Order.

Gwendolyn Smith. #NewPentecost. 28th October 2020