On This Rock

I love it when Heavenly Father dawns a revelation on me that is a seismic shift! This happened in June.

 

The implications of it are beyond epic. In fact, it is key to the prep work we’ve been in for the full release of this Great Awakening (which is the best universally understood wording we have for it at present).

 

He’s moved in my spirit to share this one with you. To do so, I have to share some background.

 

 

There is a physical place at the foot of Mount Hermon, in the Golan Heights, that is a tributary of the Jordan River. It is called the Spring of Banias.

 

You’ll recognize it immediately from this Scripture.

 

“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?

 

And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

 

He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

 

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

 

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

 

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

 

Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ,” (KJV, Matthew 16:13-20).

 

Jesus walked His disciples way out of the way – over one hundred miles out of the way – to make this eternal point.

 

After Jesus completed His work on earth and ascended to reign at the right hand of the Father, faith in Him grew exponentially.

 

That was a supernatural feat through Holy Spirit in a world where travel and communication were minute by today’s comparison.

 

The faith grew and spread, but it was still almost 1,500 years away from the printing press and then Bibles were made available to the people.

 

Mainly, faith in Jesus spread by the true testimony of people who had known Him personally or known Him through those who knew Him first-hand in those days.

 

The first Gospel was not written until about seventeen years after Jesus’ ascension, and even then, access remained limited. Paul’s letters greatly empowered and guided the early churches, but even then, he had to write to correct errors in belief that naturally occurred in his absence while first-generation believers struggled to walk with Jesus, aided only by Holy Spirit and memory of what Paul taught. They had no individual access to the written Scriptures and they did have a pagan culture in which they’d been immersed for generations.

 

Then, the persecution started. Untold numbers of believers were killed for their faith because they refused to do whatever was being required in the moment to declare allegiance to the pagan-culture-ruling-the-government.

 

So many of those who truly knew and could teach well were removed, and many of those who remained were traumatized and/or ignorant.

 

This ignorance was not necessarily malicious. However, it did open doors to darkness and evil.

 

Have you heard of that game known as “Telephone” or “Gossip” where there’s a circle of people, and the first person whispers a phrase or sentence in the second person’s ear, and this continues throughout the circle? By the end of that game, the original phrase is nowhere near what the last person heard and repeated.

 

To this was added the split of Rome in 395 AD and its complete fall in 476. I have to add here that in the midst of that very time frame was the life and ministry of the great man of God, Patrick, who almost single-handedly turned the nation of Ireland to Christ. Even in the midst of such disruption, Father continued to build the body of Christ.

 

The fall of Rome created an almost global disruption. The light of learning went out in Europe. This began the Dark Ages.

 

Now, hand-scribed manuscripts of Hebrew and Greek Scriptures were locked in foreign territory. In addition to their being scarce to start with, now they were almost completely hidden from most everyone.

 

 

Circling back to the spring of Banias where Jesus intentionally walked His disciples to make His eternal point, let’s look at the words – which we can do since we have access to Scripture, literacy, and translations of the Hebrew and Greek words and meanings. Selah.

 

“Whom say ye that I am?

 

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

 

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (KJV, Matthew 16:15-18).

 

Father revealed a mystery to Simon. That mystery, which had been hidden for ages past in Father, is that Jesus is Messiah and He is the Son of God. That was a huge revelation for Simon, too, because those two true statements appeared to diametrically oppose their beliefs as derived from the Torah. It was believed there would be a Messiah. It was not believed that Father God had a Son, much less a physical Son.

 

 

Jesus commended Peter that he had indeed heard from Heavenly Father, and gave him a name (identity) change, exactly like Father did for Abram and Jacob when they encountered Him. Jesus now called Simon, Peter, which is petros in the Greek (Strong’s G4074) and means “rock or stone.” Then, Jesus would have pointed to this extremely large stone in the grotto in the spring of Banias and said, “On this rock,” which is petrain the Greek (G4073) and means “rock, cliff, ledge, large stone.” These two words concerning rocks have nuances. Those nuances would have been understood extremely well in person and by studying the Scriptures as we have access now.

 

In the time between then and now, there was a lot of room for misunderstanding.

 

An archaeological find at the spring of Banias has uncovered a 5th-6th century Byzantine church right there at the grotto. Byzantine refers to Romans who converted to Christianity. A tiled floor in the style of other Byzantine churches erected on holy sites in Israel was discovered, as were etched crosses. From other sites, it is known that pilgrims to holy sites in Israel from those very early days would etch crosses on the walls as a way to mark their journey.

 

But why did those early believers pilgrimage to this spring which had for so many years been a temple to idol gods and was believed to be an actual portal to hell?

 

For all the reasons we have just walked through, they misunderstood what Jesus meant.

 

They understood Jesus to mean that He was building His church on Peter.

 

From there, in that faulty viewpoint, they misunderstood that all authority from God came to Peter and, through Peter, to each leader ordained afterward. This cut off the people from Father God, again. . . after the blood of Jesus paid to reconcile them with Father God.

 

However, it was Peter who confirmed what the prophets of the Old Testament prophesied.

 

“. . .you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture:

 

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, And the one who believes in Him will not be put to shame,” (NASB, 2 Peter 2:5-6).

 

Peter himself confirmed Jesus as the cornerstone of the building, which is made of living stones, which are the people. This is a supernatural living building, not an institutional system encased in bricks and mortar buildings built on the backs of the people. No, it is built supernaturally on Jesus, who is alive with living stones by the Holy Spirit.

 

Nevertheless, from the belief that Jesus founded His church on Peter, which was, most likely, human fallibility, came the institutional church/religious system. From this catholic institution came Protestantism.

 

The entire institutional church/religious system – please differentiate this as separate from the body of Christ – was birthed and built on a faulty foundation of misunderstanding and misapplying the words of Jesus.

 

Yes, the entire institutional church/religious system.

 

A few years ago, as I remained engaged in intercessory work, the Lord spoke this to me: “The Protestants never broke with the catholic root. They judged it.”

 

Never would I have understood that on my own. Yet, when the Lord said it, it made sense. That means that the protestant side of the institutional church/religious system has all the flaws of the catholic side plus judgment – which makes it all worse.

 

All that work Jesus did, all His precious blood shed, and all His suffering is reduced to nothing in this paradigm.

 

 

When Jesus transformed His disciples through His own life and empowered them through the Holy Spirit, they knew something other Israelis could not know. Father God had a Son. That is a scandalous thought because the faithful were so careful to shield themselves from idolatry, and the idol gods are the ones that had children. So, this sounded like blasphemy to those who had not truly known Jesus.

 

Then, Jesus took it farther and brought them all closer.

 

He said to Mary after His resurrection and even before His ascension, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God,’” (NASB, John 20:17).

 

 

Beloved child of Father God, He wants you to come nearer to and in His heart. Here is where you can anchor with great confidence. The body of Christ is built on Jesus, who is Messiah and who is Father’s Son – and through Him, you, too, are a son or daughter of Father God. The simplicity of the Good News is just that – simple. It is simple. It is powerful. It is simply, powerfully transformative.

 

If this resonates with you, I encourage you to pray repentance for every belief system and all that’s connected to it in you and your DNA (and through you in your family) that came through the institutional church/religious system that was built not on the Rock of Christ, who is the cornerstone, but on Peter who is honored yes, but the rock of the church, no. Ask for grace to release forgiveness to those who have injured you and your family lines “in the name of God.” Repent for judgment and the agreement of judgments against the entire institutional church/religious system and those in it.

 

Come into agreement with Father who actually did place you in the Lord Jesus Christ at your salvation, and ask that He place Jesus as the cornerstone within you, raise up His age-old foundations in you and build you up in them. Repent for any disagreement with Father and come into agreement with Him to place you supernaturally as a living stone in the supernatural, living building of the body of Christ, which is on the supernatural, living cornerstone, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Invite Father to unite the living Word of God (who is Jesus, the living Word) and the Spirit of life (who is the Holy Spirit) in and through you.

 

I have felt layers of resistance in me toward Father melt as I’ve been praying through this revelation.

 

Those who intercede for the body of Christ in this vein are prepping for the full release of the Great Awakening.