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Chapter 22
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Ark
What is an Ark? Your body is an ark; It brought you from Heaven to Earth. The casket you are placed in when you die is an ark; It is the doorway to another world. What world depends on who is lord over you. A reed basket is an ark; A boat is an ark; The Earth is an ark and the Universe is an ark.
Most of the time we think that we get into a casket to die -- but God put all of Creation in a casket to live. Noah is called by God to build an Ark or a casket like box. He is to get into this casket as a revelation that he is dead to the world that he is leaving behind.
What made him do that? He believed what God said to him. When he believed God -- he died to that world he was living in that didn’t believe God. All those that didn’t believe God -- perished in the world that was.
So -- the Ark that looked like a tomb to the people of that day was really a place of new beginnings to Noah and his family. To Noah -- the box that looked like an Ark and a tomb to those outside of it -- was really a womb of new beginnings.
That Ark transplanted Noah to a new world of blessings by inheritance. When Noah left the Ark -- he entered into a new world that had been cleansed from all unrighteousness. Noah had been cleansed from all unrighteousness when he believed God and started to build the Ark because of his belief.
Abraham believed God and God imputed it to him for righteousness. (Rom 4:3) These lessons on believing God are the same for all people. The circumstances are different -- but The Truths in them say the same thing.
When we believe God -- we are changed from unrighteousness to righteousness in our heart. Then -- our circumstances bring us into that reality -- either by an ark -- lions’ den -- fiery furnace or whatever.
When we understand that -- we begin to look for the Lord and His direction in the circumstances instead of trying to fix the circumstances so we don’t have to leave the dying world that is cursed. We need to find the Lord’s plan to bring us into the new world that Jesus has prepared for us to live in now.
God doesn’t want me healed so I can stay in the place that made me sick. He wants me healed as a totally new person. I’m to become healed in either case -- but God’s purpose is for me to be healed and live in an entirely new Kingdom of God world.
God’s healing is to make me a new person and not to heal the old person so he can continue to do what made him sick in the first place.
So -- an Ark or a casket is a good likeness as to what is really happening. If I see the box as an Ark that takes me to a new beginning -- I’m excited to get into it. If I love this present evil world and I contemplate getting into a casket -- it scares me because I see only death in that place. But -- if I see the casket as the end of my lordship over myself -- then that casket looks like a doorway into resurrection life and the great freedom of a new life from the dead.
My sickness can be unto death or I see it as death of the old way and resurrection into a new way as a new person: A Kingdom citizen.
What changes the Ark from a tomb to a lifeboat? If I meet with God in the tomb -- it becomes a place of new life or resurrection life. I must meet with God in a place of trial or I will return there again. If Daniel hadn’t met with God in the lions’ den -- it would have just been a lunch date and Daniel would have been the lunch.
If Shadrack and his friends hadn’t met with God in the fiery furnace -- it would have been just a hot dog roast and they would have been the hot dogs.
So -- that makes the difference: I meet with God in the trial. I go up on the roof to try to figure out the problem or to meet with God on the roof and He shows me the problem and how to fix it.
The difference between buying and selling to be blessed -- and to be blessed by inheritance -- is a meeting with the Lord before I start out.
Before each venture I must have a meeting with the Lord or else it’s me that is doing the thing.
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