Always Remember That The Hottest Battle Is At The Portal Mouth
In Part One of this study on Jesus is Enough, we explored the lessons of discipleship, the purpose of our earthly trials, and the pruning and breaking that teach us to put Jesus above everything else. But knowing that Jesus is enough is only part of the lesson. What does it really mean to follow Him and live by His standard? In this next part, we step into the spiritual wilderness, where John the Baptist stands at the gate and the Jordan becomes more than just a river. The choice before us is whether to remain in the world or venture beyond the portal into the deeper mysteries of the spirit.
THE TRUE DISCIPLESHIP STANDARD
- I send breezes your way, I nudge you toward the tree, and I send little showers and little winds to help you come closer to Me. If your desire is truly to be wrapped around Me fully, having no other motivation or desire in your life except “I’d rather have Jesus than ANYTHING‚” then you would be a wise vine to take each breeze and let it push you onto the trunk.
- The challenges in My Word and the true standard of discipleship as given in the Words of David, present you with infinite choices over the course of your life that could allow you to let go of the things of Earth and self and reach for the things of the spirit. But so often you only do this partially, not quite past the point of comfort, and leave off there.
Jesus speaking in prophecy: Notice those words: “the true standard of discipleship as given in the Words of David.” Have you ever stopped to think about what that line is actually saying? Let’s take a minute or two to break that statement into training modules. Right now, you are in teachers’ training college, but one day you are going to be called to go out into the wide, wide Millennial world to teach others.
You need not worry about how little you think you know now. The reality is, you aren’t storing up knowledge like a student in the world stores up knowledge. What you are actually doing is receiving input about how to tap into the River of Life—which is the true source of all knowledge. It’s after class that you are expected to take what you’ve learned and practice it. I’ll call it “honing” the sword.
In English, the word “sword” is two words in one: s-w-o-r-d and w-o-r-d. So then, by honing the weapon of the Word, you are honing the sword of the Word. Now, a very fascinating connection between the sword and the Word can be found when looking at Hebrew usage. The sharp edge of a sword is literally called its “mouth” (peh). Therefore, when you hone the sword’s edge, you are honing your “mouth” for battle against the enemy. The sharper the edge, the more deadly the blow.
The tongue is a deadly evil if you allow the enemy to get hold of it (James 3:6). By staying in the spirit,(the Word) you have a better chance of using that mouth for the purpose I created it for.
You’ve memorized the Bible verse “My Words are spirit and life.” Now, what that one line is saying is the Key to opening up not only Scripture but also the Words of David. My Words are not static; they are interactive. They are, in a sense, real, live entities, just like the line says: “they are spirit and they are life.” So, if you’re listening, then you will hear them whispering to you—yes, that’s right—“The Whisperers” are the ones that connect you to the “River.” But without the sharp-edged sword of prophecy, your mouth is as blunt as your tongue.
I’ve said in My Word that the gift was given to all men. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, she shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” So, there is no excuse for not fulfilling your role as prophets. The knowledge is there; all you have to do is practice tapping into the “all things” through the voice of your whisperers. (See also Acts 2:17–18.)
The Whisperers use the Living Spirit and the inscribed Spirit to speak to the hearers. The Living Spirit is, of course, prophecy, which is what you are hearing now. At one point, the written Words, which are inscribed in a book, were alive, fresh-flowing whispers of the breath of God. They were received from the Whisperers through a conduit or receiver, just like a radio plucks frequency waves out of the air and converts them into words—it’s the exact same law of the spirit. David brought out this principle nicely in the MO Letter “Prayer Power.”
When you sit down to read the Words from the Bible or the Words of David (Audio), you’re supposed to have all your essentials within easy reach of the book you’re reading. In the elder days, before the computer—remember?—you would bring a pen or pencil and a small notepad for taking notes, maybe a ruler and eraser too. You brought those indispensables to study time because you were anticipating the Word to speak to you. So then, when you were reading, a line or a phrase would whisper to you. Then you would stop to think about what that line was actually saying and jot what you received in your notebook.
I want to give you an example of what listening to the written Word means. At the beginning of this prophecy, I said: “Have you ever stopped to think about what that line is actually saying?” Now, that line should make your ears prick, because your English is good enough to know that the words “to think” and “actually saying” have a double layer, or two edges. Most everyone takes this for granted because they’ve heard that line so often that it’s become a figure of speech. What I should have said, to make my point crystal clear, was: “Have you ever stopped to listen to what that line is saying?” That is a far more precise use of words.
But listening is what many people do not do, or do partially and then leave off following the whispers. They instead read on and on without really listening. They do what Dad said in “Prayer Power” not to do: “But if you’ve been fooling around with the dials and the settings, you can mess up the whole works by trying to do it your way.”
God has already told you in 2 Timothy 2:15 how it must be done. You must study, focus, and concentrate in order to hear the still small voice, which is the “who” that is really the one rightly dividing the Word of truth. Your way of reading the Word, if it isn’t God’s way, won’t work. Again, Dad summed up what I’m saying here very nicely in the MO Letter “Prayer Power”: “But if you’re in tune, the Holy Spirit directs it. If your set is automated and the Holy Spirit is absolutely in control, then it’s automatically tuned just right—power, beam, direction, everything—by the Lord’s own computer, and it can’t miss!”
Many of My children don’t stop to listen to the lines they read, and even fewer actually hearken to do the things that are written. What they aren’t doing is listening; they don’t have their ear-pieces on. They read with their carnal senses and not with their spiritual senses. That pen and paper that you once had beside the Bible or MO Letters were there to record the Whispers that you heard while reading the written Word. They helped you to be more aware of why you were reading the Word. Now that you have a computer, you use a keyboard (a type of pen) to record what you hear the Words saying. But if you are not using the computer to facilitate the honing process, then it is more of a plaything than a tool.
Now that you are becoming “little Marias,” I want you to listen to the following excerpt from the “Maria Prophecies,” as it briefly explains how her pen captured the spirit and how thousands upon thousands followed the Words of her pen. The prophecy had immediate fulfillment but also an ultimate long-term fulfillment. David pulled My Words from behind the veil, Maria recorded them, and you obeyed them. And now they are coming back to life in this class.
Being that you are becoming “little Marias,” these Words that you are hearing now are captured by your pen and will go out to the thousands via the internet, and who knows, perhaps even tens of thousands, which is an intermediate fulfillment. The final fulfillment will come when you, My brides, go out into the Millennial world to teach and train the survivors of these closing days of man’s era. You will go out with these leaves of the Tree of Life that are stored in the Ark of your heart to be used to heal the nations.
You have to see the enemy’s deadly intent to capture your (peh). He wants to cut off the potential that the double-edged sword could unleash upon him. You recently experienced one of his attacks when he sent his “grinders” in to cut off the flow of My Word.
“Maria Prophecies”
“Thou shalt be filled to overflowing! Thousands, yea, thousands of thousands & ten thousand times ten thousand shall look unto thee & rejoice, for they shall hear the Words of thy pen that I have given to My Servant David, & they shall hearken to do the things which thou dost write.” (End)
Prophecy continues: I know it’s lovely to have a teacher who brings out all these wonderful truths and lessons for you. But the ultimate purpose of all this studying is to make teachers out of you. And that is what this class is about. We’re learning to not just look at the Words but to hear them speak to us, to listen to them as they whisper to us. By tuning our channels into the written Word, listening for every nuance, we are, at the same time, tuning our channels to the Living Word through the mouth of our Whisperers. Okay, so let’s go over paragraph 23 again and listen to what else it is saying to us.
Always remember that the hottest battle is at the portal mouth. That is where the enemy sends his heavies. If he can defeat you there through laziness, or tiredness, or lethargy, or distractions, then the battle is ninety percent over. Okay, so listen carefully as I quote paragraph 23 once more.
23. The challenges in My Word and the true standard of discipleship as given in the Words of David, present you with infinite choices over the course of your life that could allow you to let go of the things of Earth and self and reach for the things of the spirit. But so often you only do this partially, not quite past the point of comfort, and leave off there.”
The Jordan – A Wilderness Portal
Prophecy continues: My Word in the Bible is challenging all sincere seekers to live the life of a true disciple. It’s not a book that you read at church or in some Bible study group and then go home and live the rest of the week according to the system or church norms. In a sense, it is as John the Baptist standing by the Jordan River, calling believers to repentance. In effect, John was calling them out of the world and into the spiritual wilderness.
If you are a sincere seeker of the true discipleship standard, then you would be seeking deeper, more satisfying waters. Waters that challenge you to be doers of My Word. I assure you that what is being taught in the churches will not give you reason to leave the Jordan and the multitudes and, at the behest of the spirit, head off into the waters of the spiritual wilderness.
Matthew 3:16 And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, “this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
IQ: As you take time to hear My voice, I renew you and give you clarity of vision. (ML 3457:87)
Prophecy continues: Paragraph 23 is the spirit calling true disciples away from the river and the multitudes and into the wilderness of the spirit. The spirit is saying: “If you want the true discipleship standard, then the Words of David are your go-to. They have laid bare all church tradition to give you the unvarnished truth. The system pastor isn’t going to teach you the true discipleship standard; he will simply bypass the hard sayings in My Word.” It’s the system-trained pastors that I spoke of when I said: “Through your traditions you have made the Word of God of none effect.” Paragraph 23 is saying that the true standard of discipleship presents the hearer with infinite choices over the course of their life. But none of those choices include how to live a life within the system.
You might wonder why John, after seeing the Spirit as a dove descend upon Me and hearing the voice of God say, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” did not leave the multitudes and follow Me right then and there. Well, I assure you it wasn’t because John was a system pastor. John had come out of the wilderness to fulfill his destiny of being the gatekeeper, calling those in the darkness to enter. He was not called to go back into the wilderness with Me; he was called to stand at the portal mouth, crying to those lost in the world.
If you’ve read the story, you will know that not all who came to John in those days were immediately welcome. John was the gatekeeper, and as you know, a gatekeeper does not instantly swing open the gate to anyone who comes to it. There were many people at the gate the day I came. I was led by the spirit to the gate, and upon hearing the gatekeeper’s cry, I stepped up to the portal’s mouth—symbolic of the Jordan—was baptized, and then called by the spirit to enter the portal. (And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.)
Matthew 3:1–4 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”
And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
Prophecy continues: Having come out of the wilderness—and looking the part too—John took up his place at the Jordan, symbolic of the portal mouth, the flowing waters of God’s Word, and also the river that those who depart from this world must pass through to enter the Kingdom of God. John begins to call to those in the world to come and be baptized, —that is to be washed of the filth of the world in preparation for entering in at the gate.
Matthew 3:5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
The world went out to John to be baptized. The Jordan was the portal, and the gatekeeper had come out of the wilderness to stand at the entrance of the way. The Jordan flowed through the midst of the world—Jerusalem, Judaea, and all the region round about. The world, of course, saw the Jordan for what it seemed to them to be…simply a river. But that’s because they’d been taught by their system teachers and were therefore blind to the true realities.
But here was someone who had come out of the wilderness to teach them that the Jordan was no mere stream flowing into the Dead Sea of the world, as it appeared to them to be. Indeed, if you drank of those waters, you would not be satisfied; you would die a spiritual death in the salty sea. I presented the same choice to the Samaritan woman at the “well portal” that day I asked her for a drink. Her response was like Nicodemus’—typical of how systemites see the world and things around them.
IQ: Those who allow doubts to creep into their hearts and minds, and who do not vigorously fight to wash them away with the cleansing power of My Word will become weakened, for they chose to entertain the Devil’s lies and untruths. (ML 3452:118)
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
Isaiah said of John: “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3)
It was only John and Me in those early days. Although John had his followers, they were still babes and not fully comprehending what was afoot. It was very difficult for the local people to reconcile the sudden change in us, two men whom they had known since childhood. The miracles helped them see that I had something otherworldly, but only the Word has the power to open the eyes of the blind. Only by truly soaking in and imbibing the Word will the veil be drawn aside for you to enter into the spirit.
You know from having studied the Words of David that you are come out of Heaven, that you are on a mission here, and that you will soon return. You believed My Words, you were baptized in the spiritual Jordan, you came out, and you entered in behind the veil. However, to stay behind the veil while still in the flesh, you must continually drink of these spiritual waters. You must not do as the multitudes in My day did and as most church Christians do today, and that is wash in the waters of the Jordan, then turn and walk from the portal mouth and back into the world.
As I said earlier, John was at the gate (Audio) of the spiritual wilderness, but only those who walk behind the veil in spirit see what I see. You must understand that the spirit is all around you and in you. The reality is as was portrayed in the story of Dothan: the enemy is surrounded by the Kingdom, but Satan has used his immense power to create a shell, or shield, or barrier to keep man trapped. Your fight is at the portal mouth; you must conquer him there in order to gain entrance to the spirit realm.
These insights have been there in the Words of David since the very first MO Letters. When you were first introduced to them, you sensed the spirit, but being babes, you couldn’t enter in. The Word needed time to wear down the dark shell. Your experience is the same as what John and My disciples passed through: they felt the spirit drawing them, enticing them, so they followed. I have been opening your eyes to this concept more through the Da’at series.
The highway passes through the desert, as Isaiah pointed out. The world is the desert, and it is a very unfriendly place for pilgrims, and many are lost in its wastelands. They drink of its waters and play in its mirages, not realizing it is all an optical illusion. The Jordan, the well, and the desert wilderness are all physical representatives of a spiritual reality—so realistic, so touchable…so down-to-earth, yet only dust. And from dust the earthman came, and to dust he will return.
The Enemy at the Gate
The enemy was very quick to move; he sent his disciples to the gate to confront the gatekeeper. John, being full of the spirit, saw them coming and said thus to them:
Matthew 3:7-12 And when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees (PDF): therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The war at the portal mouth had begun. John had thrown down the gauntlet. I went into the wilderness to be tempted, as the Word states. I defeated the Devil there and took back any Keys he had stolen during the rebellion, and I, in a real sense, became the living portal. Everywhere I went, miracles happened and the Word of God flowed; I was that door. “I am the door, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” And I still am the door to the Father’s house. Just say the Word, and you may enter. And the fight at the portal mouth is still as real as ever.
As you know, from that day forward, the true followers of the Word and those scribes and Pharisees fought like cats and dogs. The grinders were there then, ready to strike at a moment’s notice, and, as you have recently experienced, they are here today. They jealously watch the portal mouth, doing all they can to stop the Word from flowing and to prevent their prisoners from escaping through the portal mouth to freedom.
A Time of Learning and Correction
You have to approach My Word with great respect and conviction. When you enter My presence, you are entering a time of learning and correction. You are here to learn, and conviction is one of the modules. You must listen intently to the Spirit as you read. Pause at times, close off all distractions, and just tune in to that inner voice to hear what is being said.
Before you start, you pray and call on the Keys of conviction because you want to be convicted by what you read. You want the Word to speak to you. You want to enter into the same spirit in which the Word you are reading was received and written, just as if you were entering a classroom with a real-life teacher standing before you. If you are serious about your studies, you are going to immediately enter into the spirit of that time and place. Once in the spirit, you, the hearer, are now ready to learn. You are ready to be convicted by what you are reading.
And in the case of paragraph 23, you will know that the true discipleship standard is not about how a child of God can live in the world as a “good systemite.” The system is, of course, happy if you do. But you are not on earth to make the system happy; you are on earth to learn the lessons you signed up for before you entered earth school. Christians make good systemites simply because My Word teaches the rudiments of loving behavior. But My Word isn’t about preparing you for a system life. Those “good systemites” are what My Word calls blind followers.
They are blind because they follow blind teachers, the modern scribes and Pharisees, who, as I said, “shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men: for they neither go in themselves, neither suffer they them that are entering to go in.” I’m not saying they have the ability to stop the sheep from salvation. What I’m saying is they turn their flocks away from the mystical mysteries of My Word. They keep them within the cage of Churchianity, bound by the spirit of the world. They don’t want them to find freedom of spirit, and the sad thing is, many of the people who enter their cage do so of their own volition.
They don’t want to see that the system they are paying taxes to and partaking of the dainties of is the same system that promotes war and builds borders to keep the less fortunate out. It is a system that segregates rich from poor, that teaches that the haves are better than those of lower degree. This is one of the main doctrines of the church: material prosperity. It is a system that teaches those good systemites to be open-minded. My Word is very open-minded, but not in the way the system teaches.
The true discipleship standard is a straight and narrow road. The good systemites have become professional tightrope walkers. They live within a system sewer but manage to tell themselves they are clean. They pay taxes to a government that uses their money to make war with other nations, that writes laws and statutes to bind the taxpayer even tighter to a system that My Word says to come out of. And My children in the world have convinced themselves that it is the only way.
It is impossible, most say, to not be a part of the system in some way, but My Word says nothing is impossible. Paragraph 23 says My Word is a challenge, and yes, it is. But that paragraph also says the choices are there that allow you to let go of the things of Earth and self and reach for the things of the spirit. Those Words of David finish by saying: “but so often you only do this partially, not quite past the point of comfort, and leave off there.” And that is exactly what the Church Christians do. They come to the Jordan, get baptized, but never venture further. They leave off there, not quite passing the point of comfort.
There are many sirens that lure you away from your wilderness cave existence. These are the challenges I speak of. I know how difficult it is to live apart from the world around you, and it is going to get more and more difficult the closer we come to the day of My return. But that is what My Word is for. That is why the Whisperers stand on constant vigil by your side. That is why I gave you the Seven Thunders revelation. Through giving you the Words of David, I lay before you the chance to choose the true standard laid out in My Word, but I also lay before you the weapons and equipment to make the journey along that desert wilderness highway.
The choice has always been before you. No matter what anyone has said or will say to you in the future, the Words of David are My Words, and as was said at the beginning of this prophecy: they are the true standard of discipleship. (End)
Listen to this post on podcast (Audio)
Recent Podcasts
Lazarus and the Keys..October 08 (Audio)
The Discipleship Standard..Sept 30 (Audio)
The Key I Desire You Desire..Sept 25 (Audio)
Not Saying it is Not Saying it Isn’t..Sept 23 (Audio)
And the Dark Lion Roars..Sept 21 (Audio)
The Index and the Grinder Pt 3..Sept 19 (Audio)
The Index and the Grinder Pt 2..Sept 17 (Audio)
The Index and the Grinder Pt 1..Sept 15 (Audio)
All Hands on Deck..Sept 14 (Audio)
Maginnis Magee..Sept 12 (Audio)
For more podcasts visit our wine cellar (Audio)