“I Will Give You Places to Walk”

I was thinking of another case of Satan and a man Joshua. He showed me Joshua, the high priest. This was one of Zechariah’s visions. And reality, because even though John on the Isle of Patmos is a revelation, but it is reality. It will come to pass. He saw things that had been and were then and would be revelation, vision. But they’re absolutely true.

And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. And Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And that’s one of the main things that I have endeavored for you to get that always there is the supernatural – the supernatural – he’s God and the devil and you’re to be moved on by God and the devil there to resist you and the fight of heaven and all the pulling to try to claim you or to get you out of God’s will. And there’s a struggle the minute someone accepts the Lord Jesus won’t mean anything to him. That’s what takes place, you’re one that’s brought out into just you could say the limelight. And the focus is on you. And just as you go to say some scenes in the theater. Well, the focus is on the villain, the hero or the heroine, and the whole thing is played up until that. And all the other things, they’re… they come in, they bear their significance. But the main thing is on the hero or heroine and the villain that is there to offset the whole thing.

And here it is, this high priest. We know a high priest, what he had to be. He had to be clean. We know what the law required of a high priest, that he had to not only serve for the people, but he had to be clean himself. He couldn’t go into the holy of holies unclean, he had to offer first…. You read in Hebrews, he had to offer first for his own sins. And he had to go in and stand for the people. But there had to be great care that there be nothing upon him. And of course, if the enemy were there, and could accuse him, what good would his sprinkling of the blood of the animals over the congregation for the year do if he wasn’t doing it in the right way? It wouldn’t be any good.

We that bear the vessels of the Lord, the Word of God says, must be clean. And there has to be a cleanliness and there cannot be something in a meeting, and you work up to a place where he can speak or testify or sing or dance or whatever you have. But when you are bearing the vessels of the Lord, there has to be the cleanness all the way through.

And he gives us a sample. Zechariah takes us, gives us a sample of what that is. Joshua the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord. Well, there were the two, the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him – that’s what you have.

If you’re moving for God, you’re going to have, standing at the right hand the devil there to resist. You might as well face it. We’re not in some sweet thing and come here. Would God that we can get it and move on it, because this year I believe is to be a moving out. Last year, the message was what? A new deal for the youth. Do we have it?

[We had the beginning.] We had the beginning? And also we had it. We have right here some of the results, praise God, for the youth. So we have the…. This year, we’re to have a moving out, praise God. And there won’t be any moving out only as you’re able to move out. Because what good…? There was one runner that said to David [Joab 2 Samuel 18:19] in the time of war. He said, “Can I run?”

He said, “You can’t run, you don’t have any message.” Let the Cushite run or the next one run, you don’t have any message to run with.”

You have to write the vision, make it plain, and then as they get the vision, then they can run that read it. That’s what it’s all about.

There he was, to resist him. All of the resistance of Satan, what does it do? Wears you down, so you’re not fit to do anything. Or you’re still going on with it. [tongue] Don’t just stay and lag, lees, because the enemy does not want anything, any message to get through that would show him up. So wherever you are lagging, wherever you’re giving the nice smile or whatever you’re doing, it’s all off. Praise God. The standing.

There was the…. And Satan wasn’t sitting down. You get it? He wasn’t sitting down, he was standing. And what was he doing? He was at the right hand to resist. He resists.

We have, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.” Well, there he is, resisting the high priest. Now, why could he resist the high priest? What was wrong about the high priest? And the Lord said unto Satan…. The Lord took it up. If he hadn’t taken it up, the man would have been wiped out. Joshua would have been a spot there, there wouldn’t have been anything left of him. “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Even the Lord that had chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” So God’s sovereignty, and then also the coming up under the priesthood or the order if he was through had brought him into the place of priesthood where he was elected, say, of men, and elected of God. Because it says here, the Lord’s plucked him as a brand from the burning. So we know he’s both a spiritual man of God and he’s also elected by the order that he came through, whatever order that was. But he was a brand plucked out of the fire.

Now Joshua, what was wrong with the whole thing? Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. Joshua was clothed. There wasn’t any little specks he got on him. It wasn’t any little spattering of any little, prickly looking sin. He was clothed with filthy garments. How he ever got there, we do not know. But he was there, clothed with filthy garments. And he stood before the angel and he had no right there standing before the angel, just as it would go.

But God was pulling back the curtain of, you could say, the supernatural and letting Zechariah look into the condition of a high priest. And that high priest was on earth. But also in God’s sight, he was lifted out so that Zechariah could see it in God’s light and God’s eyes. [tongue] And could see just where that man stood. And that’s so plain before God just where we stand. There’s no hiding about it, there’s no covering over about it. There are no filthy garments that are not seen through by him. And if he feels so to speak he could show it, he showed it to Zechariah. The Lord permitted Zechariah to see the condition of the man. And he was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, “Take away the filthy garments.” God’s, you could say, again sovereignty, “Take away the filthy garments.”

And unto him, he said, “Behold…” He said to Joshua, “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” So he needed that change. He couldn’t go on. He came to a stoppage in his high priestly ministry to the people. He couldn’t go on with it. And God had taken him out of the setting, taken away from the scene of however he was ministering, and gotten him to a place where he could deal with him, but not just deal with him alone. But the devil, Satan, this isn’t a demon, this is Satan, had taken it up and taken over and because of the filthiness of the garments of Joshua. It doesn’t just mean filthy outer garments, but he had gotten filthy. How had he gotten filthy, he had gotten filthy. And he couldn’t go on ministering in such a condition.

“And I said, ‘Let them set a fair mitre upon his head.’” So they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments, and the angel of the Lord stood by. This is also very simple. Mystical, yes, spiritual, yes, but very, very simple. And it said, “And the angel of the Lord protested to Joshua saying to him, giving it to him, said, ‘Thus saith the Lord of Hosts….’” Now, you are on your own. You’re on your own. I’ve done all this for you. I took you aside, I got the devil off your back, I have taken him off your back. He’s accusing you, you cannot go on like this. And I’ve gotten him off your back, he’s accused you, and I’ve taken it away, and I’ve cleaned you up.

Same thing as we have with the fellow with the one demon, that now he said, “It’s up to you.” “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, ‘If thou wilt….’” W-I-L-T, if you will. If you will, sovereignty has prevailed against the devil. But now, if you will, if you will. If you will walk in my ways, and if you will keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house. Then you can also be the high priest. If, I-F. The whole Bible, everything we read, it hinges on the “If”. The sovereignty of God and the will of man… 

You have to lend yourself to the sovereignty of God. You cast yourself over into it. And keep into his graces, and keep into…, so that his sovereignty… it’s like a mechanism. The sovereignty of God and the will of man.

Like a big spring and then the small spring, and they work to cause the time to be told on your watch. You open the back and you see the thing round there, and that wheel within the wheel. And the sovereignty of God has to work with the will of man. The will of man has to work with the sovereignty of God.

And when there’s the hitch, you don’t get the time. When there’s something in the main spring, you need the new maiden spring. You cannot get the time. You can look at the face of the watch, nothing moves. You try to tinker with it maybe, or you take it to a tinkerer. But there’s nothing done. The whole works need to be cleaned out, and a whole new spring put in. That’s how it works.

And God’s sovereignty cannot work. You can take it with Solomon – Solomon, the greatest one, the wisdom of all the earth. And it was all “If” you will do thus and thus, Solomon, then I will do thus and thus. And you’re no different. And you can say, “Well, he’s working for me,” and you can get proud about it and you’re glad about it. But the minute you do not do the will of God, that work clicks off. And there is no more coming through. There is where people are stopped and stumped.

God took the whole thing, God took Joshua out of the setting and stopped it for a while. Whatever He was doing, “Stop it, and let’s get it right. Let’s see what’s wrong.” Satan accusing – Satan accusing the man of God, the high priest of God, the highest that you could get for that day. Zechariah being allowed to look into it and to write it down for the benefit of to whomever it may concern. And he says, “And I said, ‘Let them set a fair mitre.’” That was all grace, all God, all sovereign. “Take that off, tell the angel get everything off.” “I said unto them – whoever is doing that service, your work – ‘Get it off and….’”

The Lord had the nice, clean mitre. And the Lord had nice, clean robes. Joshua didn’t have them. He had ruined what he had. So there wasn’t any more. He couldn’t invent them, he couldn’t work them up, he couldn’t make clean robes. God’s sovereignty had the clean robes ready for him, and sat them on his head.
And the angel of the Lord, you could say, remonstrated, protested to him. That was with fervent, with strength, with warning, with great restraint, telling him, “Now, now that you are straight….” “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, ‘If thou wilt walk in my ways and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house and shall also keep my courts and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by. Then you will have a territory, you will not just keep yourself, but you’ll have the people to be kept, and also you’ll have a territory, you’ll have spaces, you’ll have places to walk.’” Praise God. You’ll have the places to walk among these that stand by.

I just think of those courts of the Lord, that one day will be opened unto us, who have made the grade, if, if we have made the grade. But then now in this realm, the realms that God has, that he can say to the enemy because the strife and the struggle and this trying to thwart God’s plan is going on day by day, hour by hour, all the time. God and Satan, God versus Satan, Satan versus God, there, before the throne. And the devil coming up with his accusations, the accuser of the brethren all the time. “What have you done? You’re not this.”

And God has and does take away the filthy garments. So many times, start us out and we feel clean all over again, start all over again. But there comes a halt in the sense of where he says, “If you will walk in my ways.” That is the halting of it all. “If you will not”, if it isn’t done, the halting of the ways, the stopping of the ways come.

“If”, “if” you are not clean, if you are endeavoring to be a vessel of the Lord and you’re not clean and you’re going with the stains and the sweat of the flesh, nothing can be done with it. Satan has victory there before the throne and accuses you. And God who is all truth…. Jesus Christ who is all truth, he has to say yes when you fail. He cannot say, “No, Father, they did fail.” But he has to say yes.
What do you do? Take yourself today and figure not just how you’re standing before men or your family or your work or your office or your school. But how are you before God? How you are before the devil who presents you and says, “This is your child, and this is what he/she is doing, this is what he and she are like really,” and how do you turn out there?

“If” your will is on God’s side, if you will to do of the will of God, you shall know of the doctrine be of God and if thy heart condemns thee not. Praise God, that you could stand before him.

And then alone is the devil rebuked. He does not leave, by us quoting Scriptures. He leaves if we resist the devil, but with the armor, with the stains taken out, and if we stand right before God. Then the devil has to flee. Praise God. And he was rebuked. Praise God.

You see, so much of the sovereignty here, and you see so much of the will of man that just has to click right in with it. And if it isn’t there, there’s no go. No go.

Joshua the high priest, Joshua the man, a brand plucked from the burning, what a wonderful thing. Just to say, “I’m a brand plucked from the burning,” and yet be spattered by some reason. Praise God. He was taken away, and he starts on a new life, new chance, new hope, new day, new outlook, new horizons.

Joshua, “if” you will do this, then you will have spaces. And I will cause you to walk, I will give you places to walk among these that stand by. How much space they all had there, the spiritual space there? But it turns out on earth. What spiritual is earthly and earthly spiritual (laughs). It’s all one. Do you have a space there? You have it here. You have it there? Glory to God.

Praise God. Spaces to walk in. Give us spaces, God, spaces. This is a space age. We want to take up some of it. Hallelujah. The space age. Praise God.