THE CHURCH OF THE FIRSTBORN
The Church of the Firstborn
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Dear Church of the Firstborn,
It is your time for the Church of the Firstborn to arise with the Father and reveal the Glory of Jesus Christ to the world. Will you receive the broken, fearful, depressed, unlovely and sinners with love? Will you have the maturity to minister life, light and the love of Christ to those who are lost in the chaos and confusion of the world system? Or, will the Church critique, condemn and reject those who will come to the Church looking to Jesus for answers.
Heb. 12:23: To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
In March 1995: The Lord spoke to me, “Carolyn I want a church like the one at Philippi.”
At that time, I read, studied and preached Philippians, and the Church of Philadelphia. It is time again to remind the world of the blessedness of The Church at Philippi and to accept Paul’s challenge. This church was almost perfect, yet Paul asked for even greater maturity. He exhorted them in His letter to the Philippians that increased self-denial and deeper humility would earn them a greater weight of glory.
I have no idea how Eastgate Church measures against the charge the Lord gave me to give him a church like the one at Philippi. I know I love the ministry and those who gather here unto Jesus. Though we have been mobile the past seven years, I do know we still have our lampstand. I had an open-eye vision in the early days of Little White Church whereby I saw in the Spirit a lampstand standing on the platform.
I have had on my spiritual warfare armor since March when the LORD called me forward to stand and fight against the pandemic, the dragon/China, the Deep State/beast system, and fight the Luciferian rulers over the One World Government. I had warned the church no “foolish and immature behavior” while I am in warfare. Thank you for standing with me and fighting along side me. I am very careful who I take into a battle with me.
With this message, I am putting my pastor hat back on. We the church must prepare to receive those who are under the spirit of fear and oppression which is hovering over our nation. Yes, as warriors, we must rebuke and resist that spirit, but as the Church, we must minister with patience to those who are lost in the chaos and confusion of the oppression.
It is not President Trump who has caused this confusion and chaos, it is Satan who hates Trump because he stands for the Christians and Israel. I briefly referred to the Luciferian rulers who are world-wide, advanced criminals run by a global cabal and openly worship Satan. Johnny Enlow describes this cabal in a recent prophetic interview on the Elijah List.
People who are not seeking after the Lord, hearing His Word, and staying under the anointing are clueless. Joe Biden said Thursday night that this will be a very dark winter. That is a veiled threat. He knows these dark forces have been released over our nation. But you and I have the Word of the Lord.
Hebrews 12: 12-14: Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but rather let it be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord;
Along with the discipline of God, Paul now urges self-discipline and the discipline which comes through the power of pulling ourselves together and stay in the running going forward in courage and faith. Those who are weak in faith (the lame ones) could be turned aside and permanently damaged by our failure to persevere. As much as lies within our power, we are to try to heal them and help them to overcome. The Greek word for “lame” is a figurative description of someone wavering between two beliefs. Final failure to finish the race of life comes from continuous weakening.
Hebrews 12:15: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; “It is not just the responsibility of the pastor, but “the power of the corporate body to make sure that not one of its members misses the grace of God or that none lack the grace of God and fall behind by not keeping pace with the movement of divine grace which meets and stirs the progress of the Christian.” (Westcott Commentary, P. 406; F.F. Bruce Bible Commentary). If we the church faint, lose faith and hope, then we cause many to fall because of our witness. Many people are watching us. Our walk of faith and faithfulness may be all that is holding many people up.
The church is to guard against the growth of any bitter root, an expression which, coming as it does from Deut. 29:18, meaning a person whose heart has been turned away from the Lord and who becomes a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, thereby causing trouble within the Christian community and defiling many besides himself. In Deut. 29:20, his name will be blotted out of heaven. That is a serious charge for the church that we are to not only lead people into righteousness, but be an example so that weak Christians will not fall.
12:16-17: Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
According to this scripture, Paul is charging the church to minister to the backsliders and those who have fallen from grace.
This application of the Esau story is a comparison in verse 22-23 with the grace of the Church of the Firstborn. There will be some people, like Esau, who even though they know the truth come to the place where they despise God’s offer of forgiveness, and restoration of the blessing of God. If they continue to reject God, no second repentance is possible. Once people have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit and tasted the best of God’s revelations, there is nothing more to attract them. They choose the seduction of the world over God.
I have learned that whatever we do as a church to bring people in, we have to keep doing to keep people in. That is a description of the carnal church. For the true Church who loves the LORD, gathering in His Presence and experiencing Him is joy unspeakable and full of glory.
For his final comparison between Judaism and Christianity, our writer describes two scenes for us (Verses 18-21). First, he takes us to the earthly Sinai, and then to the heavenly Zion. He wants us to feel the terror that kept men at a distance from God under the Old Covenant. That way we will better appreciate the grace and gentleness that draws men to Him under the New Covenant.
As we study the scene of the Israelites staring at a mountain burning with fire, darkness, a storm, swirling smoke, shattering trumpet blasts and a deafening voice reverberating off the sides of the mountain as God speaks, we see a fear-stricken people who were afraid to hear the voice of God.
This is the fear Satan is trying to put over our nation. Many people do not even know there is a God and they do not know the gentle, loving, tender care of the Heavenly Father who keeps us through all the tribulation that is upon the earth.
Christian this is our message of victory, triumph, joy, and peace. This is what we must minister to those who are fearful and hurting. The Luciferin globalists from the mouth of their puppet leader, Joe Biden, just spoke over us a “dark winter.” We are the Church of the First Born and we live in the realm of Glory and triumph.
Heb. 12: 22-23: But you have come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”
In this city in the realm of the Third Heaven (the Spirit), there is no distinction in the citizenship between humans and angels, neither does he differentiate between the saints in heaven and those still on earth. He says to the readers, “You have come…,” therefore, we are to include ourselves in the festal assembly. In referring to believers, the writer lumps all of us into one category, “the church of the first born.” He gives this title to Jesus’ church because the Lord Jesus Christ is God’s firstborn Son, and all true believers are in Him. Every person whose name is written in the “Lamb’s book of life,” is in this church. Our citizenship is in this city right now (Phil 3:20). What’s more, the apostle says, we sit together with them in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6). “You have come” --- not you will come. This is not future but present. Now, you have come!
The holy presence of the Judge and judgments of God are not a threat to the Christian. Why? There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ (Rom. 8:1). The matter of the believer’s guilt for sin will never be raised, for all sin was laid on Christ. With the sin barrier removed, any true believer can stand in God’s presence unafraid.
However, every Christian must appear before God to give an account of himself (Rom. 14:12). We will all be judged on the basis of our allowing Christ’s Kingdom to flow through us for His Holy purposes.
Jesus is the “perfecter of our faith.” Even if we seek to move in prayer and spiritual authority, even if we fearlessly continue to persevere, even if we continue forward with motives purified by the greatest gift of love, it is the power of faith that undergirds all.
Hebrews 12:24: And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Abel’s blood cried for revenge; Christ’s blood pleads for forgiveness and pardon for sinners. Because of Jesus’ shed blood, the holiness and majesty of God which once barred man from His presence now draws us to Him.
We need a healing in our nation. Great injustices, crimes and corruption by government officials in high office have raped our nation. Unless the Lord God move miraculously to expose and clean out the Deep Darkness in our government, we the people have lost our Republic to the One World Order rulers. But God who is shaking everything that can be shaken will have a glorious overcoming church, The Church of the Firstborn will rise victorious.
God the judge of all is judging our nation, leaders, churches, and our hearts.
12:25: See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from that speaks from heaven; whose voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire.
The contrast between the old covenant (which to the writer of Hebrews was the highest expression of all religions) and the new is as great as the contrast between terror and grace.
The more light a person has, the more he is responsible to walk in that light. I was charged by God 25-years ago to give him a church like the one at Philippi. I will stand before God for that charge. Joshua was told he was old and stricken in years and had not finished all the LORD gave him to do.
If to refuse God’s covenant made on earth (through Moses) meant death, then to refuse God’s covenant made from heaven (through Jesus) means far greater punishment. The refusal is not simply the refusal of a covenant, but of God who invites us to join Him in the covenant relationship.
Paul quotes Haggai who predicts a super shaking like an earthquake which not only shakes this globe, but everything out in space as well.
Hag. 2:6 “For thus says the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.”
At Sinai his voice shook the earth, but according to the prophecy of Haggai, God now plans to shake the entire universe (Mt. 13:31; 2 Pet. 3:7). Only those things belonging to an unshakeable order may remain. Christians belong to just such a kingdom, one that cannot be shaken. This is the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven.
It is, therefore, a cause for gratitude and worship and also for awe, for we must not forget that our God is a consuming fire, who destroys all transient and temporal things in order that which is timeless and unchanging may emerge in full glory.
The Holiness of God does not change. His Holiness is still a consuming fire. Because of the blood of Jesus, we enjoy His presence and gentleness, but one day we will have to stand before Him and account for our lives. Everything in our lives that is wood, hay and stubble will be consumed. Only that which yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness and love will stand in that day.
The seven Church of the Book of Revelation are a type of all the churches
1. Ephesus -–losing their first love – the loveless church.
2. Smyrna -–fear of Satan generated persecution – no rebuke.
3. Pergamum---compromising with immorality – worldly.
4. Thyatira – tolerating false teachers and Jezebel.
5. Sardis – dead church, works not perfect before God, few Godly members.
6. Philadelphia – Rev. 3: 7-8: To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things says He that is holy, He that is true, He that has the key of David, He that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts and no man opens. I know your works; behold I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it; for you have a little strength, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
“This is the church He has crowned with His Love. This is a description of those who will soon be His Bride. He has nothing against this group and everything for them. He declares this Church as His and gives them His power (verse 9). He promises them that they will be at His side during the end-time tribulation. Finally, in verse 12, He promises them a new nature (HIS) and an everlasting citizenship in the New Jerusalem…the Wife of the lamb.” (Van Tanner, The Seven Thunders of God)
Rev. 3: 9-13: Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you for the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which you have, that no man takes your crown. Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God; and I will write upon him My new name. He that has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
I would say the Luciferian worship is of the synagogue of Satan. The victorious, overcoming church has authority over these evil Satan worshippers who have purposed to rule the world.
7. The Lukewarm church – reliance on riches and things of this world resulted in a lukewarm halfway-in-type of Christianity.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church