Behold the Lamb!

In December I had an encounter in the spirit in my prophetic group where I was given a lamb.

I deeply connected with this lamb and I instantly deeply loved it like I loved my own children.

However, I knew that this lamb was a sacrificial lamb and just as the Hebrews in Egypt in the story of the passover had to bring a lamb into their homes for 3 days to be fed, watered and cared for before it was sacrificed, so I would be asked to give this little one up for slaughter.

My heart was profoundly stirred in this encounter and I wept at the thought of having to relinquish this beautiful innocent lamb. MY lamb.

I felt led to read Revelation 5:6:

Then I saw a Lamb who appeared to have been slain, standing in the centre of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

And I knew as I did so that we were, as a group, in the presence of the lamb, in the throne room with Him, beholding Him. I could feel the weight and the power and the glory of His presence and the beauty and humility of the Lamb. And as I have meditated on this encounter I can hear a cry coming from the heart of the Father to all who will listen saying BEHOLD THE LAMB!

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.” And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. John 1: 29-38

In this scripture John the Baptist is the one declaring ‘Behold the Lamb’. He is testifying of Jesus. It was his whole purpose. We read that John’s disciples left him and started to follow Jesus instead, and yet nowhere is it recorded that he was disgruntled or angry or jealous about this. He knew he must decrease so that Jesus could increase. He didn’t simply utter the words ‘behold the Lamb’, the message of his entire life was BEHOLD THE LAMB’.

The Elijah mantle that was upon John the Baptist, the voice of one crying in the wilderness ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’ is now on a generation, a generation who have been trained in the wilderness, who are coming up leaning on the arm of their Lover; a generation who see Him, who know Him, who recognise His voice. A generation who are not jealous for their own reputation or their own following but whose whole life and raison d’être is to point to HIM. A generation emerging who Like John the Baptist are declaring ‘Behold the Lamb’. This is way beyond just words. The church of Jesus Christ can no longer speak a message about Jesus but not BE the message. A people are being revealed in the earth who, like their elder brother Jesus will be ‘word made flesh’. The hypocritical, cosmetic face of the church is being judged. Secret sin is being exposed. To say we are all cognisant of that is an understatement! It is happening all around us on almost a daily basis.

The Lord is looking for the ones who will proclaim from the very essence of who they are ‘Behold the Lamb’. This is being and not just doing. It is about purity and transparency and humility and truth. We can only declare ‘behold the Lamb’ to the degree to which we are like the Lamb. Our lives must magnify HIM as Mary's did.

As I have meditated on this, Holy Spirit has continued to reveal His heart:

I have been reading Revelation 12 over and over for a couple of months now and I have written and spoken about the dragon who is waiting to devour the offspring of the woman, the moment she had given birth. I have made note of the fact that the dragon is:

1. Wearing 7 crowns (diadems). 7 is the number of perfection and completion. Diadems are symbols of authority, sovereignty and honour, found on only one other head in the bible: the head of Jesus when he comes riding on a white horse. Revelation 19:12

2. Emitting waters from his mouth. Generally, the dragon / the beast / Leviathan are associated with the sea! The sea being a metaphor for chaos, tumult, the seething masses of the unredeemed and the wicked, but this water, we are told is a river.

I have always imagined the dragon will be well, dragon-ish, but here he is looking like perfection, wearing a royal crown of authority, soverignty and honour with something pouring out from his mouth that I believe, to the undiscerning, will look like living water.

It struck me in a suddenly moment that the dragon in Revelation 12 is an imposter! He is coming looking like life and dressed in light when actually he is full of death and darkness. He is coming as a counterfeit king in a crown that is not his to wear and he is pouring out of his mouth a counterfeit river of life.

The Lord led me to Amos 5:21-24 which says this:

I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me.Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

I had always thought that the river the dragon spews out of his mouth would be accusation and slander against the saints, but I saw, in the same suddenly moment that it is accusation and slander that LOOKS LIKE justice and righteousness.

The rivers, waters and streams of righteousness and justice are being poured out right now on the earth.

And the dragon is pouring out his counterfeit version of polluted justice:

Words of accusation, slander, defaming, blaming, reputational damage etc.. devastatingly coming from Christians towards other Christians, coming from the place of pride and the place of 'I am right and you are wrong'. I am just and you are not. I am righteous and you are unrighteous.

This requires discernment and caution.

I had an incident a few months ago where I was wrongly accused of something that could have had very unpleasant and serious consequences. There was a particular time during this, when I could feel all of my insides gathering together in (self) righteous indignation at the injustice and unfairness of it. And the Lord spoke very clearly to me. He said : you cannot take on this battle in your own strength and judge and apportion blame because the spirit that is coming against you is not just seeking to wound you but it wants partnership with you.

And I saw very clearly that even though I was a victim of injustice, I COULD NOT adopt a victim mentality. I could not crawl into and inhabit the spirit of the age that wants to make victims out of all of us.

Listen, on one level we are ALL victims. There is probably not one person on the earth who is not a victim of something or someone. I am talking about a victim mentality.

Psych central gives this definition:

A victim mentality is where you often feel like a victim, even when the evidence says otherwise. Signs include frequently blaming others and having trouble accepting personal responsibility and seeks validation of thier victim status from others.

There have always been and always will be individuals with a victim mentality (I was one of them! I was very good at it!) but it has become like some kind of new orthodoxy in modern western culture. It comes through the ideology of identity politics, which teaches that there are oppressors and victims in society and divides people according to race, gender, sexuality and religion.

We are living in a time when sin and darkness is being brought blinking into the light as the Lord turns His gaze on all that has been hidden and festering. Genuine oppressors are being exposed and genuine victims are receiving justice. Hallelujah, yes and amen.

But there is a strategy of the enemy that is seeking to push this to the extreme as he always does!

It is a good, noble, necessary and healing thing to speak the truth, but satan, the accuser of the brethren will draw us into the slippery slope of speaking OUR truth…(a non-negotiable personal opinion).

OUR truth will not set us free. It will taste good initially but will quickly ensnare us in a web of indignation and self righteousness where other people made in the image of God are the oppressors and perpetrators. It unleashes man’s anger, instead of God’s righteous anger and it is rooted in earthly, sensual and demonic wisdom.

It is only THE truth that will set us free, and that truth is a person, Jesus Christ.

It is only as we follow Him and seek Him, that we come into freedom. It is only by embracing the cross and the fellowship of His suffering that we become like Him.

Isaiah 53: says he was led like a lamb to the slaughter and he opened not His mouth.

Jesus is the only one amongst men who was truly innocent. Truly a victim. Of all of us, He alone had the right to fight back and to speak His truth, to point fingers at the perpetrators, to blame and to judge. But He did not and He is asking us, in this day, to do as He does, to be as He is.

I always remember from decades ago, hearing a woman's response when wrongly accused. She laughed and said 'yes and I'm much worse than you think'!! (Way to disarm your adversary! Agree with him quickly whilst you are on the way!) This came to me when I was struggling with the rising indignation of my accusation. Was I guilty of that particular offence? I didn't think so and thankfully neither did those in authority over me to whom my 'offences' had been reported, BUT firstly in all that had transpired could I find something to repent for? YES! And secondly before the judgement seat of Christ was (am) I innocent? NO! I know my own thoughts that betray me. I know my sluggish, recalcitrant heart. I know the wickedness I am capable of. I am innocent only because of my beautiful Saviour, because He died, was buried, rose on the third day, entered the heavenly sanctuary behind the veil and sprinkled His blood on the mercy seat, not because I am better than another person. And lastly I recognised the cross at work. I had been praying 'Lord lead me the way of the cross' and this is how it works: we are presented with opportunities to nail our flesh to the tree.

I learned some time ago, through a beautiful group of ladies who were recovering addicts that we always have a part to play. What's the perpetrators part? They wrongly accused me, spoke hatefully towards me and sought to damage my reputation. What's my part? This is where we need to take a good look at ourselves, asking Holy Spirit to help us! Is it unforgiveness or bitterness? Am I gossiping about this other person? Am I thinking hateful things about them? My part is to walk in the fear of the Lord and to be pure in heart and merciful. God will deal with the rest. If we will embrace the cross. He will be sure to give us resurrection life.

This is Romans 12:18

If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men.

It is James 1:2-4:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

It is Romans 12:17 and 19 

Do not repay anyone evil for evil…. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

It is Luke 9:23

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me".

It is Galations 2:10

For I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.

This is NOT ignoring systemic sin in the church. It is NOT covering up abuse and unrighteousness. It is a refusal in the inward parts and processes of the soul to adopt a victim mentality. We must walk the way of the cross where everything of our flesh is crucified. The cross of Jesus Christ has POWER to liberate all who share in His sufferings. It has power to redeem and resurrect all who have suffered injustice and been maligned. This is exactly how the cross works!

I cannot overstate the vital importance of this. The spirit realm can see with whom and with what we have entered into partnership. The Lord is looking for those whose heart posture, attitudes and lives will proclaim Behold the Lamb!

True justice and true righteousness only come through the cross, there is no other way!

Behold the Lamb church! He comes!!! He is being revealed in the earth and the Lord Jesus Christ is looking for those who fear Him, who refuse to fight with the wrong weapons, through whom He can reveal and manifest Himself in glory, through whom he can roll down from heaven pure rivers of justice and righteousness like a never failing stream.