THE HOLY HIGHWAY
THE HOLY HIGHWAY
Sunday, June 27, 2021
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
I have had two dreams this past week about a mighty move of God on earth:
Dream number one was about four lamps of fire before the throne of God. The second was about the Highway of Holiness. Dream number one speaks of God’s visitation in judgment and glory. Dream number two speaks of His visitation of Glory to the glorious overcoming church after judgment has purged and cleansed the land.
Dream No. 1, Monday night 6/21/21: I stepped into a “court.” I knew the throne of God was there, but I could not see Him. There was darkness all around except for four lamps of fire. These lamps of fire were not the golden candle sticks, but poles with what would best be described as bowls attached to the top. From the bowls came flames of fire. These were burning bright. I knew I was standing before God and steadied myself with one step back. I was still standing within the court and surrounded by the lamps of fire. I was never frightened only taking it all in.” End of dream.
There are three scriptures which apply to the Lamps of Fire separate from the candlestick: Dan. 10:6; Rev. 4:5; Eze. 1:13.
(I want to add that I have been taken to the pavilion of darkness before the throne of God in another vision 2Sam.22:12; Ps. 18:9; Ps. 18:11. In that place, I saw seven stars.) Therefore, I conclude this vision was a different “realm” or “court” before the throne.
Since there were four lamps of fire, I will first identify the vision with Eze. 1:13: As for the likeness of the four living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.” (I only saw the four lamps of fire burning bright, not the living creatures.)
As for the “court,” there are multiple courts adjacent to the inner court in Ezekiel’s Temple which is the Glory of the Gospel church. I was in a court before the throne of God.
Psa. 18:9-14: He bowed the heavens also, and came down and darkness was under his feet. He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place, his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice, hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them, and He shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.
I have concluded (but my conclusions are still expanding) that I was standing in Psalm 18 before the throne of God.
Clay Nash: Proverbs 21:22: A warrior filled with wisdom ascends into the high place and releases regional breakthrough bringing down the strongholds of the mighty.
Chuck Pierce: "You can see many prisms of light that prevent you seeing the darkness - but you need to see the darkness because we have to plunder it.”
Barb McGraw: “This dream is complex using Scriptures that relate to power. Any word I get for you is centered around courageous lions full of power for warfare to dispel evil. The four lamps represent four people and or ministries that are encircling around you for protection and guidance. The flames of fire were destroying evil around you and clearing the path for your advancement.
The four flames and you were before God’s presence awaiting orders for the next advancement. The four flames were lit and constantly coming before God as a team or sometimes individually to get new marching orders for you.”
I last preached from Psalm 18 on 11/22/2020. Interesting that I received this vision on 6/21/2021. Note the repetition of numbers.
Psalm 18 begins with King David surrounded by his enemies. He goes before God and declares His love for Him. The Lord bowed the heavens and came down to deliver His anointed. Through a glorious visitation, the LORD moved Heaven and earth for his anointed.
November 22, 2020, we had come through intense national warfare. We had Nancy Pelosi’s fake impeachment, following the now infamous fake Mueller-Russia investigation. Immediately thereafter, came the pandemic, protests, riots, cities burning, policemen forced to stand down, political upheaval, 30 named storms, and then a contested election due to fraud. “We the church” have stook in the great promises of God that he will deliver us into a greater glory and come forth triumphant as the glorious overcoming church. We have stood that God will bring judgment on the evil principalities, powers, rulers of darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places. We have stood that God will restore justice and righteousness to our nation.
Psalm 18 looks onward and backward, to victories God has already given to His people, and to victories yet to come. The Psalm is prophetic and looks beyond the sufferings and triumphs of David to David’s greater Son our Lord, Jesus Christ, as well as Christ’s church.
On 11/22/20, I released and declared the blessing of Psalm 18 over our congregation, our families, our President, and the remnant universal.
18:50b (T.P.T.): The favor will be forever seen upon your loving servant, David, and to all my true seed, every heir of this promises.
18:50b (KJV): He is the tower of salvation for his king; and shows mercy to his anointed, unto David, and to his seed forevermore.
“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for extra ordinary destinies” (C. S. Lewis)
“There are far better days ahead than any we leave behind” (C. S. Lewis).
I am persuaded that as we and others have stood in battle with the Lord of Hosts as He has moved mightily upon the earth exposing and revealing wickedness in all the nations of the earth, that the LORD took me back to that glorious place in Psalm 18 to show me the victory has been won and we have stepped into another realm of His glory. (Remember in the dream, it began with me stepping into the court before the throne.)
I have been saying and I suppose others have been saying that we have “shifted,” “stepped,” “moved,” into a new realm.
Then Thursday night, 6/25/21, I had another dream. I believe this dream is a confirmation that we have shifted into restoration and recovery.
“I was in a very high interstate highway system. It was in the sky. I heard angels singing the song, “The Holy Highway.” I heard a voice say to me, “you must read and learn the lyrics to the song, “The Holy Highway.” (End of Dream)
On awakening, I can assure you I ran to my compute to find the lyrics. We sang them this morning in worship. This song describes the glory of the Overcoming Church. This is not the only time the LORD has given me a song to preach a sermon.
Holy Highway
Gaither Vocal Band, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound
There's a road called the Holy Highway
That once was a deserted land.
Very soon you'll hear the sound of a holy marching band.
Everlasting joy upon them, there's a remnant strong and true.
We bring the song back to Zion; we bring the praise back to you.
We exalt You, God Almighty, You are worthy to be praised.
Let all nations bow before You, Holy Ancient of all days.
There's a road called the holy highway, where the people dance and shout.
For the enemy is running with confusion all about.
Raise our banners in the vict'ry; raise them high His word is true.
We bring our song back to Zion, we bring the praise back to you.
We exalt You, God Almighty, You are worthy to be praised.
Let all nations bow before You, Holy Ancient of all days.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
We bring the song back to Zion
We bring the praise back to You.
There's a road called the holy highway that once was a desert land.
Very soon you'll hear the sound of a holy marching band and.
Everlasting joy upon them, there's a remnant strong and true.
We bring the song back to Zion; we bring the praise back to you.
We exalt You, God Almighty, You are worthy to be praised.
Let all nations bow before You, Holy Ancient of all days.
(Songwriters Ginger Hendricks, Jim Hendricks.)
Isa. 35: 8-10, NIV: And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way, wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get upon it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
In Isaiah 35, we see the Glory of the Kingdom of God and the blessedness of His people after the judgments of chapters 28- 34. We are presently watching the nations of the world “shake” in judgments described in the Word of God as clearly as reading the morning newspaper.
On the Highway of Holiness, we see the flourishing state of God’s people following the judgments. The earth, changed to welcome its Redeemer. The redeemed at the restoration of the Kingdom and the Coming of the Lord, is poetically personified.
With joy, the desert, Arabia, Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
Isa. 35: 1-2: The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the Excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the Excellency of our God.”
The blossoming of a rose is the principle of the Holy Ghost Baptism. After the glory of verses 1-2, the prophet continues in retrospect upon the tribulation preceding blessing. The command is given to encourage the weak and fearful, to tide them through the darkness preceding the dawn. Messiah-King is coming to punish, to reward, to deliver, and to work miracles or wonders (Isa. 35: 3-7).
This is the Day of the Church Triumphant! It is a poem of rare and superb beauty. It is a picture of the last times, when the church after the affliction of spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:12; Acts 14:22), shines forth in all the radiance of its glory. This is the glorious church of Eph. 5: 25-27. Destruction gives way to re-creation. God is coming to bring His people home unto Zion by a safe highway. At the sight of Him everything changes! The dry and lifeless desert bursting for joy becomes a paradise of flowing streams, great trees, and colorful flowers. Eden restored.
Isaiah 35: 3-7: Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb singing for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
This reveals the ministry of the Comforter (Jn. 13-16) flowing in and through God’s sons in a word and ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5: 17-21). Verses 5-6 reveal the power of the Holy Ghost in repairing, healing, and restoring the Body (in the natural and the spirit). Verses 6-7 speak of living areas, which point to the heart of men. It is the habitation (heart of men) and not the dragons that are restored. This whole passage describes an outpouring of the Holy Spirit! Men’s knees will be restored to a place of worship before their Maker. Men will see (understand) and hear the Lord. The prophetic word will be loosed in the earth. Every place where dragons (false gods, false worship) now inhabit shall become the habitation and the temple of the Lord! Death shall be replaced by life. Darkness will be displaced and dispelled by the Light. This whole chapter is present for the now as well as future for those who walking in the Spirit and live in the Way, the Truth and the Life, Jesus Christ.
The devil doesn’t know about this walk in the Spirit, the ascended life. His whelps, the demons, cannot decipher this highway to Zion. The only way to walk in victory over the intelligences of the world system is to be clothed with a higher intelligence, and we have the Mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). We have been born from above, and Jesus is the Wisdom from above. The “High” calling of Philippians 3:12-14 is the “upward” calling. The ascended life is also the replaced life (Gal. 2:20). All these thoughts are summed up in the Most Holy Place, the realm of His life.
The redeemed will return joyfully to Zion, with everlasting exultation, obtaining gladness, with sorrow and sighing fleeing away. the highway is the way of life in the heavenlies demonstrated by the Way, the Truth, and the Life---the Lord Jesus Christ, the Pattern Son! We are to be a people of the Heavenlies (Eph. 1-2). We can compare this road with the path that the vulture’s eye (all the understanding of Satan and the kingdom of darkness, which feeds upon death) has not seen, or considered.
Job. 28: 7-8, KJV: There is a path which no fowl knows, and which the vulture’s eye has not seen; The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.
This is the road less traveled. It can only be seen and walked as we are led by the Holy Spirit. Those who take this path have their hearts fixed. Their vision is like the dove, single. Their focus is not on God and the devil, but on God alone. This path is one that is chosen. It can be a very lonely path and certainly rejection from the worldly view of the carnal mind. There can be no compromise. It is for those who have chosen the highway, the high calling to be their portion. Many times, on the path, there will be crossroads and curves. The path less traveled will cost you your life. Do not look for accolades, your treasure and reward will be much greater than the approval of man.
In 2 Thess. Chapter 1: 5-10, Paul wrote about the second coming of the Lord. In the first chapter the apostle assures us of our deliverance from tribulation at the coming of Christ, and in the second chapter he warns there are certain events that have to transpire before Christ comes.
The Bride, the Lamb’s Wife, is a City. This City is the heavenly Jerusalem, the Church of the Redeemed. The hill, the great high mountain, is Zion. The great King is Jesus. Zion is marching. We are not looking for a city. We are the City! This city is the people for which Abraham sought. This city is descending from the heavens to the earth, from the invisible to the visible, from the mystical to the practical, from the platform to the pew, from the building to the streets. The Kingdom of God must be perceived, proclaimed and above all, performed.