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The Worshippers of Nehushtan – the Old Anointing
Num 21: 4-9
Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
The situation of the Israeli in the dessert became harder – many of them started to dye from the bites of serpents. It started with the sin: Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. If you commit sin in your life, it “bites” you. And – like a snake – it may bite you mortally.
This passage of the Bible shows us also a way to releasing the anointing. What is an anointing? An anointing is a spiritual power that breaks yoke, removes the consequences of sins, and revokes the plans of the devil. The anointing is necessary for a believer and people of God. The very first step to releasing an anointing is repentance (Num 21:7). The people repented from their sin, the spiritual leader prayed for them, asked for forgiveness and a solution, because the results of the sin have become visible. The Israel’s repentance and conversion did not make the serpents disappear. So, if we let the sin enter our lives, it may hurt us and we may see its effects for a long time. The Lord always gives us a solution. He does not remove the problem himself, but provides resources to solve it. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” Looking for a solution begins with repentance. I believe that God works in this way today. If you have a problem start to repent. And if you do not have anything to repent of, just humble yourself before God. Do not say: “Lord, I can”, but humbling say: “Lord, I bow down before you, I humble myself before you, I am looking for your face, your holy will”. When we humble ourselves before God, he says: “My child, do this and that; take this and that step”. If you do what God says, the anointing comes which solves the current problem. It happens like that, because your faith was followed by specific steps, and thus faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. You can believe but if you do not undertake specific steps of the faith – you will not receive anything. If you are not following your faith, if you do not push, attack – you are neither moving forward nor receiving anything. Summing up we can say that the anointing comes after receiving special rhema from God. Rhema is a specific word adequate to the given situation, because every situation needs appropriate action.
There are no patterns in the Kingdom of God. Jesus almost never gave set of laws or regulations to the particular situation. Even if He was asked for them, the answer was always different from the one expected. In the Kingdom of God, it is impossible to set up a sequence of laws to be followed in a given situation. God always gives fresh solutions through His Word: rhema – a word that comes out of His mouth. When you receive this word and you act upon it, you receive and release the anointing. It is simple. An anointing may be released, for example during the service when people need deliverance. You do not need to repeat a hundred times: “In the name of Jesus, demon come out!” The Holy Spirit may tell you: “Bend profoundly before Me”. If you do so, because God told you so, the anointing will come and people will be set free. Sometimes during the sermon you may feel “a wall” all the time. God may speak to you giving a solution. He might say, for example: “Jump three times”. Everybody else may look at you as at a fool, but if you are obedient to God – the Holy Spirit will start to move. This is a simple example, because the situations in the church are simple. There are other believers in the church, so it is easy to break through. Difficult situations happen in life.
Moses did as God told him. It was not the copper serpent that had a healing power, but the obedience of Moses. This man of God might think: “Lord, You taught us not to do anything against Your Law, ant it forbids making images”. Anyway, he did what God told him to do. This way he broke the Law what was against the religion of Israel, however God told him to do it and he did it. In this case the obedience released power. The Church has to understand God who sets laws anyway He wants and whenever He wants, because He is the Lord and the Sovereign.
2 Kgs 18: 1.4.
Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. (…) He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.
Nehushtan symbolizes the old anointing. What was working yesterday does not have to work today. Your old performance will not probably be effective today. We should have such a deep relationship with the Lord as Moses had. We should be obedient to God, so that when He says to do something – even if it is against our way of thinking and seems to be unreasonable – we would do it. You need to walk with God as Enoch did. He had been walking in the fellowship with God and was taken with his body to heaven. He was in such deep relationship with God that neither he nor God knew if he was in heaven or still on the earth. The Presence of God that he was in, was such intense that Enoch exceeded its “allowed limit” and could not be on earth anymore.
2 Kgs 18: 4
He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.
The high places and the sacred pillars were places of the worship of Satan, where demons were adored. Nehushtan was on the same list.
At the place of the old anointing an evil spirit may come and enslave you. I will make an example of Lutherans. Lutherans made a great renewal of the Church. They received a revelation from God that salvation comes by grace. However Lutheran Churches until now live of the revelation of the 16th century and operate under that anointing. I respect Martin Luther; I do not reject revealed truths which revolutionized the way of thinking in those days. Still, I think that the followers of Luther should go further in revealing God’s truths. “Progressive” prophets (the Lord is progressive, so to follow Him you need to be progressive, too) were looking at what God was doing and went after Him all the time. Lutherans seem to remain in the anointing of the other days and do not recognize any other fresh revelation from the Word of God. In such churches a giant bronze serpent appears to be worshipped for a long time. There are churches in the USA, which reproduce style of Kathryn Kuhlman: that music, songs, instruments, haidresses – all the same as over 50 years. But what was effective then does not work today. There are churches in Poland and in Ukraine which duplicate the style of Ulf Ekman (whom I love and of whom I learned very much) of Uppsala of over 10 years ago. But as a result it brings only death and religion. The Church in Uppsala is far ahead in different place in their relation with God. And what was effective 10 years ago – does work today, even there.
2 Kgs 17: 41
So these nations feared the LORD, yet served their carved images.
In many churches living in the old anointing and rejecting new moves of God, people are bound. They live in their sins and are not able to give them up. It happens like that when an idol appears in a place of the old anointing, starts working and disturbs the process of going ahead. The Holy Spirits talks to our spirit, but it is our mind that accepts or rejects His words. Thus, our mind should be trained in following God’s voice. You need courage to do so. King Hezekiah was courageous. He was a reformer. A Martin Luther of those days. You receive courage out of a close and intimate relationship with the Lord.
Nehushtan was a holy relic, a foundation of the father Moses and nobody before dared to remove it. In spite of it, acting against the theologians of those days, Hezekiah obeyed the voice of God and destroyed that idol. Then, the revival started.
The real reawakening may start when different “Nehushtans” are removed. You need to see in your life some behavior, songs, prayers, words and the other things which once brought the anointing; today you are trying to produce by them “by force” a Presence of God.
2 Kgs 18: 5-8
He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses. The LORD was with him; he prospered wherever he went. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. He subdued the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.
If you have a relationship with God, then you have a courage to terminate the old anointing, on which maybe others still trust. Some establish their actions on the anointing they received in the past, but such attitude is a way to a failure. The old anointing has to be removed. Without that the fresh anointing will not come. The place has to be made and purified. You also need to remember that it is not an anointing which is our foundation. God Himself is our foundation and He is a giver of an anointing.
It is written about Hezekiah that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. He had courage to follow God. The foundation of such approach was his relationship with the Lord. The Holy Spirit showed me what else shaped Hezekiah.
2 Kgs 19:2
Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
We see precisely that Isaiah was allowed to enter freely to the palace of the king. The prophet himself confirms that.
Is 38: 1-5
In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD, and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.
Isaiah was not afraid to come to the king and expose his sin. Hezekiah even being a king was very humble. He accepted the correction from the anointed people around him. Hezekiah let the prophets help him walk in righteousness and avoid backsliding. What helps you avoid backsliding? Humility. Hezekiah from his early days was molded by the word of the prophet. It was not easy to accept what a prophet was saying. Other kings simply sentenced critical prophets to death. However Hezekiah accepted correction and repented. The anointing was released. How did Hezekiah do that? He was not looking for some “Nehushtan” but he made first step – humbling before God. The next thing followed: the Word of God was revealed by a prophet who had free access to the palace of the king.
J 3: 14-17
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Jesus was the one lifted up. This passage is about the FAITH. In the dessert to be healed the Israeli had to look at the bronze serpent. Today we walk in faith. Today, the anointing is released by FAITH IN JESUS. Even if we do not see Him, we believe in Him. The bigger our faith is, the greater the anointing upon our live. It is written “whoever believes in Him”, not believed, but is believing. When does the faith come from? From listening to the Word of God. However, God will not speak to you if you do not have a relationship with Him. We should walk in relation with Jesus, we should talk to Him and listen to Him. To walk in faith means to have a relationship with Jesus. If you do not have a relationship with Jesus, it means that you do not have faith, but a philosophical system which keeps you in an old anointing. Information about what to do in a specific situation we should get from the direct relationship with the Lord, not from a schoolbook, experience or tradition. All these things create new “Nehushtans”, and there are many churches where there are plenty of them. Without a relationship with God, every revelation sooner or later will become a bronze serpent, before which you will burn incense. The living church is not the right place for bronze serpents. The MUSEUM is. The faith works in the spiritual realm, not physical.
Jesus, even if He was raised up as the bronze serpent in the desert, will never become a Nehushtan. After his resurrection He went to the Father and became invisible to us.
The faith is the spiritual law. This law says that if we believe, we receive. Such faith saves. The Bible says that God loved ALL in the world and gave them His only Son, but He saved only those who BELIEVED. God’s love gave Jesus to all the people, but salvation belongs only to those BELIEVING in Him. The anointing comes by faith. Today’s anointing is for today.
SUMMARY
The breaking of the power of a Nehushtan always requires great determination. The step of faith and risk has to be taken. You have to rely ONLY on the Word of God. Then, the breakthrough and victory will come.
Senior Pastor, Andrew Stepanov, the Storehouse Church, Warsaw, Poland
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