GOD'S CHOSEN RULER OF MEN
GOD’S CHOSEN RULER OF MEN
Sunday, July 11, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom, a Preacher
Monday night I had an unusual visitation in a dream. I have had many messages given to me in dreams---some written out---some spoken. In this dream the Lord was teaching me about when he chooses a man to rule a nation. The teaching was at length and in the dream I was listening with joy. However, I only remember a small excerpt. “My chosen ruler is empowered by my Grace.”
I have dutifully studied the chosen kings of Israel, high priests, the patriarchs as anointed kings, Cyrus, and Israel. Consistently each one was chosen and given the grace to fulfill their Kingdom destiny. Each one declared they had found grace in the sight of the Lord.
I do not presume, as of yet, to have the understanding of what the Lord is revealing to me about His chosen ruler. However, I was blessed and feel it is a message of the Lord’s blessing to the faithful saints who continue in unfeigned faith knowing King Jesus will totally destroy the kingdom of the anti-Christ.
Last week I preached on the spirit of the anti-Christ and the nature of those who have received that spirit. I will attempt in this message to preach on the man who the Lord chooses to rule. I did feel the Lord was speaking to me of a mortal man on whom He would give grace to rule through these perilous times. I also felt He was speaking to me of a governmental ruler.
The spirit of anti-Christ is declaring a new era and has given it a name. The Holy Spirit will raise up men by His Grace for His Kingdom work.
(There are many words used throughout the Holy Bible for “man”. There is “enoshe”-mortal man; “iysh” – champion, great man; “gibbowr”-strong, brave, mighty man; “shalligt”-ruler, governor, has power; “chayil” – strength, mighty, ability, wealth, army; adam, etc.)
Hannah’s song of praise declares the mission and power of the Lord’s chosen ruler: 1 Sam 2:10: “The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them; the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength to His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed.”
The Apostles were given great power and grace to establish the Church. Acts 4:33: “with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them all.”
Perhaps Zechariah 4: 6-8 gives us a “key” to this mystery: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, Not my might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts. Who are you, O Great Mountain? before Zerubbabel, you shall become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace to it.”
Zerubbabel is empowered by grace for rebuilding the Temple which will be completed, but not by might nor by power but by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit (or wind) of God which formed the earth, parted the seas, and raised the dead was no less to be the driving force for God’s new work in the prophet’s day. What are you, O mighty mountain? What obstacles can stand in the way of God’s work which He empowers by His Spirit?
Zechariah spells out the purpose of God in the time of crisis. He affirms a fundamental faith in God as All-Sovereign Lord who takes a firm and immediate hand in world affairs, bringing his people back to their true center and restoring them to their heritage. God holds the reins of governments and nations. Even in the midst of apostasy and falling away, the Word of God affirms that the Lord will fulfill His Kingdom purposes.
I am encouraged that the Word I remember in the dream was that by the power of grace, the Lord raises up a leader to do His will. It is my hope that He is getting ready to do it again in the midst of the great apostasy of our nation.
As I studied those Kings chosen and empowered by the Lord, King Cyrus stands out. He is the Persian King who had conquered Babylon and was chosen and named by the Lord before he was born to deliver the Jews and rebuild the temple.
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44:24-28: “Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, and He that formed you from the womb, I am the Lord that makes all things, that stretches forth the heavens along, that spreads abroad the earth by Myself…that says of Cyrus, he is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, You will be built; and to the temple, Your foundation shall be laid. (45:1-2): Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron.”
He began his reign about 559 B.C. This prophecy was delivered some 150 years before he ascended the throne. These verses vividly describe his victories as the renowned hero of Persia; his whirlwind career, subduing the nations before him, loosing the loins of kings and opening before him the hundred brazen gates of Babylon, cutting asunder the bars of iron.
“Lift up the everlasting gates,
The doors wide open fling
Enter, ye nations who obey
The statues of our King.”
Cyrus is a type and shadow of the Greater that was to come---the true anointed King, the great Shepherd of the nations---whose mission is “to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”
“Asunder burst the gates of brass,
The iron fetters fall;
And gladsome light and liberty,
Are straight secured to all.”
The gates of brass and iron will yield to His might, and the world’s treasure-cities, palaces, temples, shrines, pagodas, homes and households; with all their priceless souls will be captured at His will and redeemed for His glory. It will be the blissful fulfillment of the words ---“All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindred of the nations shall worship you.” (Psa. 22:27)
As I preached last week on the anti-Christ, this is (Satan’s) agenda “to devour the whole earth, tread it down and break it in pieces.”(Daniel 7:23). “But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy to the end. The kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.”
The Lord God chose, graced, and empowered Cyrus: (1) That he might acknowledge the true God; (2) perform God’s pleasure toward Judah; (3) That the nations might know that the Lord, He is God.
Prov. 21:1: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He will.”
45: 4-6: “For Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name. I have surnamed you, though you have not known Me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. There is no God beside Me. I girded you, though you have not known Me. That they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none beside Me. I am the Lord, and there is none else.”
King David’s last words give us another “key” to this “Grace to lead a nation”: 2 Samuel 23:1-7: “David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the god of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, ‘The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spoke to me; he that rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clearing shining after rain. Although my house be not so with God; yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation and all my desire…”
Daniel 4:17: “This matter is by decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will, and sets up over it the lowliest of men.”
Cyrus is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cyrus was chosen and appointed by the sovereignty of grace before he ever did anything right or wrong.
- “He is my shepherd” – Jn. 10.
- “And shall perform all My pleasure” – Jn. 8:29.
- “His anointed” – Acts 10:38.
- “Whose right hand I have holden” – Heb. 10: 12-13
- “Subdue nations before Him” – Ps. 2; Phil 3:21.
- “Loose the loins of kings” – 1 Jn. 3:8
- “Open before him the two leaved gates” (of Babylon) -Rev. 3: 7-8.
- “Make the crooked places straight.” (Heb. 1:9).
- “I will go before you.” (Mk. 16: 15-20)
- “Break in pieces the gates of brass – Jn. 5:22
- “Cut in sunder the bars of iron” Heb. 2: 14-18
- “Give thee the treasures of darkness.” Matt. 27:45
- The Hidden riches of Secret places (Mk. 1:35; Col. 2:3)
- “Called thee by name.” (Matt. 1:21)
- “I have surnamed thee. (Acts 2:36).
- “I girded thee.” (Neh. 8:10; Heb. 12: 1-2).
- “I will direct all his ways.” (Prov. 3: 5-6; Rom 8:14).
Psalms 2:2 opens with a description of the nations in opposition to Jehovah and His King. Yet this Anointed One has been appointed, and this One declares in power the decree of His Kingship. Jesus Christ will have dominion over all these nations! The Psalm closes with an appeal to the kings and judges to show their wisdom by submitting themselves to Jehovah’s King, the Son of the Father.
2:2: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.”
The Lordship of Jesus Christ is challenged then and now. The kings that desire to rule us as individuals, our homes, our churches, our communities, our nation and our planet are all of the spirit of the anti-Christ.
45: 11-13: “. Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands command you Me. I have made the earth, and created man upon it; I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways; he shall build My city, and he shall let go My captives, not for price, nor reward, says the Lord of hosts.”
The Lord is commanding us to ask of Him things to come concerning His sons and His Kingdom work. I must believe the Lord spoke to me about His choosing a ruler of men that by the authority given to the saints that we would release His Word that He has chosen and will anoint a ruler of men who He will empower to rule and direct by His Great Grace for His Kingdom purposes.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church