“ … the Highway of Holiness …” (Isa. 35:8, NLT)
In the study we are currently undertaking concerning “the new order of life” (Matt. 19:28, WMSNT), one of the concepts that are presented as becoming born-again in Scripture, we have seen that the seven-fold Spirit of God is released based on the believer’s refined shalem-heart, to map out the world according to God’s new covenant, and that this helps bring about a new creation, the restoration of all things!
To pick up the broader argument it is perhaps important that you read the teaching of Day 1442-1443 again. Based on 2 Chr. 16:9 we came to the conclusion that one of the characteristics of the true sons of God, the plumb lines, is that they have been fathered and that they move in the peace of God. In fact, they now find themselves in the thousand-year reign of peace. To them God makes the promise – not just his eyes, but his seven spirits move through them, to and fro, to bring about a force field of complete authority.
We see this happening with Elijah (the prototype of fatherhood in Scripture) who takes up his mantle (symbolic of his spiritual authority and anointing, literally his position in the Anointed Christ) in 2 Kings 2:8, rolls it up and uses it to strike the water, dividing it in two. The KJV translates it as “they were divided hither and thither”. When Elisha (in verse 14) strikes the water with new-found authority, the verse states: “when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither”. Both specify that they were able to “cross over”. The primordial waters from which all things are created are accessed through spiritual authority/mantles that release the seven-fold Spirit of God to move “to and fro” and “hither and thither.” Similar actions took place with Moses and the Israelites at the Red Sea (Ex.14:21-22), as well as Joshua and the people at the Jordan (Joshua 3:14-17).
When the Psalmist ponders this he also notices a mystery: “The sea saw it and fled;
Jordan turned back.” (Ps. 114:3), and then he looks for the answer in verse 5: “What ails you, o sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you turned back?”
Isaiah too prophesies about this spiritual principle in Isa. 11:15 – “The Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt; with His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River, and strike it in the seven streams, and make men cross over dry-shod.” What is immediately apparent here is that Isaiah adds information for which there is no reference in the historical events, namely “seven streams”. The workings of the seven-fold Spirit of God is undeniably implied through metonymy in this case. The mass primordial waters are here mapped out by the seven-fold Spirit of God in Godly-ordained ways. Like the children of Korah sing in Ps. 84:5: “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.” Interesting that the Hebrew word used for pilgrimage in this case, according to Strong, can also mean staircase, which points to ascendance! The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible declares it in even more relevant terms: “Carried by lifting it up on the head.” (Do not forget – Jesus is the Head – Col. 1:18.)
Please notice that the action of authority is nestled in the father/son’s mantle which brings the creative potential of the primordial waters into action (Isa. 51:15; Jer. 31:35). These creative possibilities are directed by the seven-fold Spirit and are already a pilgrimage in the refined shalem-heart of the believer whose eyes are undividedly directed on the Head, “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2, KJV). The workings of the true son of God is woven together with the Spirit’s working of his Father. After all – “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).
The result of this to and fro movement is that a path is formed in the spirit, so that men can “cross over dry-shod” (Isa. 11:15)! In Heb. 11:29 it is specified that this whole process happens “through faith”. This spiritual functioning of the sons of God who move in their identities in Chris are part of what Rev. 16:12 spells out: “so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared”. Elsewhere the prophet terms this road “the Highway of Holiness,” and notes, “And a great road will go through that once deserted land. It will be named the Highway of Holiness. Evil-minded people will never travel on it. It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways; fools will never walk there.” (Isa. 35:8, NLT). The path to the East, qêdmâh, before time, is thus prepared for the kings called to walk along it.
Back to Elisha and his prototypical functioning as anointed son/father who moves with the seven-fold spirit of God. In 2 Kings 4 we read of the Shunammite woman who took care of Elisha and his servants. She is however infertile, and after a prayer of the prophet she becomes fertile, and then pregnant, later she bears a son. This son however dies later, a sudden and unexplained death. But note Elisha’s prophetic action with the son: “And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm. He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.” (verses 34-35).
The exact same pattern is repeated with the healing of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:10-11: “And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.’ But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, ‘Indeed, I said to myself, He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’” Elisha’s prophetic action and the consequences thereof is just another permutation of the same events as before.
In the anointing of the spirit of Elijah the seven-fold spirit of God is released. Interestingly enough on these individuals, like John the Baptist, who move “to and fro” “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17): “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken [to and fro] by the wind?” (Luke 7:24). Thus also you and I!
- Selah: Ponder this truth for yourself.
- Read: Song of Songs 5-8; Isa. 1-2.
- Memorise: Song of Songs 8:14.
