Zechariah 3 The LORD rebuke you Satan

 

This is a portion of a transcript that I  did this morning after listening to the video sent to me by someone who has remained faithfully in place in the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. You may not be able to make out the date on this teaching which is Feb 3, 2015, but on the platform with Mike Bickle in the picture are Deborah Heibert and Alan Hood. In fact a great many of the opposers of Mike and IHOP appear on this platform earlier in the taping. But I wanted to focus on the teaching because I found it quite amazing to see how much what is being taught and confirmed is exactly what is going on there for the past 1 plus year. I wanted to transcribe it in order to get it down into my spirit more solidly. As a person who has lived under both fear and accusation since I was a child, I saw in this teaching - especially as I transcribed it - how much God has been delivering me from vulnerability to both fear and accusation. It is a good thing to hear that we do not have to live in the fog of accusation. It is a revelation I believe has been playing out in real time before our eyes. The LORD rebuke you satan. 

Walking in the Destiny God has Called You to
February 3 2015 – Message by Mike Bickle with prophetic words from Alan Hood and Deborah Heibert
https://www.mikebickle.org/media/8x427hb/february-all-staff-meeting-full-length
Starting at 1:29:43

I had a dream last night about this word.
One of the primary strategies of the enemy to keep us out of the fullness of our destiny is to accuse us. Accusation – and fear would be the other one – but accusation is one of the most effective ways that the kingdom of darkness silences the people of God. But the Lord wants us to silence the accusation, He wants us to operate in the opposite spirit. Because when accusation touches our heart – often the accusation is in our own mind but it is inspired by invisible powers. That accusation lodges in us and grow and has moments of intensity. Accusation against ourselves.

Then there is the accusation that gets through to us through even friends and family members. There are accusations that come from adversaries. Some of those accusations actually strike home in the wrong sense and we buy into those accusations. The accusations of adversaries. We buy into accusations of friends – sometimes they are being used – even godly men and women can be used as a vessel of the enemy to vent accusation to strike God’s servant. Often they’re the servants close friends too. They are your spouse or your children even.

So this fog of shame comes over us; this fog of despair. This introspection – it’s a fog. We’re not sure if it’s God, and we don’t know  - we lose our zeal, we lose our focus. It’s a fog of comparison to other folks, and all of those are different manifestations of the spirit of accusation. Particularly, and I am going to have Alan come in a few moments, in times of transition that is when the enemy really moves in strong with the spirit of accusation.  We are in a period of transition time. I believe we’re from the IHOP 1.0 to the IHOP 2.0.  There’s a number of things going on in this transition and some of you are in transition in your individual lives. Not only transition but that is when we are particularly vulnerable. Even when the LORD is preparing for new favor, new promotion, new seasons of increase, that’s when the accusations strike.

There are a number of examples of that in the Scripture, but Zechariah 3 is one of the premier ones.

Reviewing five things that I highlighted a year ago. In April 2014. Five things that I think are happening in our spiritual family a year ago. Each of these require a different response.
1. A year ago I spoke of a season of increase. We’re still in it. Our global footprint is increasing dramatically. I celebrate the increase, knowing it creates more work, but we celebrate it anyway because of “the fame of His name.” Part of that increase as God has said from the beginning, He’s sending people to other places. We celebrate that but we feel the pain of loss, of seeing people day to day, but it’s God plan. God has told us from day 1 He is going to raise up and send out. It is part of the increase to see people going. . . .
2. Last year I said we’re in a season of persecution. Adversaries – more voices will set against what the LORD is doing in our place. That could be said for 10,000 other places as well. So I don’t have a martyr complex. There are 10,000 ministries around the earth that this is a true statement about. We need to set our heart and just be sure that part of the mandate we have in the LORD has a stigma to it. It has an adversarial response of people who don’t like it, but we don’t have to let the accusation of that touch out heart.  Matter of fact, 1 Peter 4 tells us that the spirit of glory comes on you when you are reproached for being faithful. If friends, family, adversary – whatever – far or near – we respond in grace and there is a spirit of glory that increases.
3. We’re continuing in a season of mobilization. This is something we are going to focus on in even greater ways. Everybody in our missions base, everybody in our whole spiritual family are going to be involved in small group. It’s critical, not just to work together in department but to be in intentional relationship building. We call them Friendship groups. Many of our leaders are joining friendship groups. Me and my wife Diane have joined one in the last number of months and many of our leaders are doing that.  . . .we want all to do this with few exceptions….
4. Last year I mentioned we were in a season of Divine Discipline. Where the Lord was pointing out some of our blind spots. That is the graciousness of God. We had a lot of time last year where we reflected on that and gained some wisdom on things we needed to correct. I rejoice in that because it is an expression of the love of God when He is saying, Hey! There is blind spots. I want you to own them, make corrections. We’ve done quite a bit of conversations over the last year related to that.
5. A season of pruning. Pruning is not the same as Divine Discipline. Pruning is because you’re fruitful. Pruning is not people sent out to go somewhere else. The point of pruning is to remove distractions. It’s not negative dimension to pruning. The point of discipline is removing of deficiencies. Pruning and discipline – here’s the problem: although they’re different often it makes us vulnerable to the accusation of the enemy. The enemy gets into those places in our hearts – I mean even those folks who are being sent. I have interacted with a number of them over the years. The sending is God, and the celebration, and they land and some of them feel accused after they land. ‘Oh no, it’s harder than I thought. Did I miss it? How about this. Somebody said this. I heard a whisper over there. And they get accused for going. The devil isn’t a chooser particularly in moments of transition and strategic moments in your life.

We want to be a community that sees this scheme of the enemy and move in the opposite spirit. We give the enemy no room to take advantage of those here or there. So in the pruning, the discipline, the increase – whatever season because the enemy is going to get in and distort because there is a fog of despair, uncertainty and confusion about what’s happening.

The way God set me in a relationship with John Wimber about 25 years ago, He did it in such a supernatural way, and there are about 4 or 5 very significant applications to that. I’m not going into that story right now, I’ve shared it a number of times over the years, but the reason it is important is because the LORD confirmed and highlighted it in a very unusual and supernatural way. (I want to hear this tape too!)
 
One of the points of that joining together with John Wimber is that the Lord let me, and a number of us know, that there would be a season of stigma and accusation that we would learn how to interact with the LORD in that 25 years ago. But that would be a training ground for a far more intense season down the road.  I don’t believe we are entering that season of the most intense, I think we are still several years away from that.

When I reflect on that testimony, some of you are not familiar with it & some of you have heard it many times, I am just bolstered in my resolve to not be moved by stigma and the accusation that comes. When the Lord’s favor and the Lord’s Word is going forth there will be more resistance, there will be more adversaries. No, we are not in a pronounced season of that at this very moment, I believe it is coming more in the years to come. Far in the future.

It is something that I have just set my heart not to be moved back by. But I expect it. Not a martyr complex. I said it is all part of a mandate. I’m not going to take my cues from it. I’m not going to change the messaging because of it. The Lord really emphasized that this was part of the mandate and the mission.

Zechariah 3
I’m going to have Deborah Heibert and Alan Hood come up here in a minute to share and we’re going to pray for people.

Zechariah 3 it is a passage you want to be familiar with because it happened in a time of transition when they were building a house of prayer. Zechariah 3 and 4. We’re back about 500 BC, in a time of transition under the leadership of Joshua and Zerrubabel – after the Babylonian captivity. The LORD was rebuilding the House of Prayer. There were many obstacles, many adversaries. There was compromise that got in, many delays, lot of frustrations. There were failures, lack of resource. Here they were in a supernatural, historic moment. I mean the LORD poured out much favor and by His Spirit pronounced how important it was for them.

Here again it’s about 536 BC. They were to go build the House of Prayer, build the Temple but it was in the midst of very many troubles and obstacles. In the midst of doing it even thought there were troubles and obstacles, even though there were supernatural finances, favor, and the activity of the Spirit, compromise got in, adversaries rose up and the people of God refused to respond in the right way. The two leaders, Joshua and Zerrubabel, they were really in a time of dismay. Lord, this was supposed to be easier. It was supposed to be better. They were losing their way. And the spirit of accusation and unbelief was really lodged in against them to take them out.

The prophet Zechariah sees Joshua, and then the next chapter Zerrubabel. He sees a vision of these two guys and how the spirit of accusation and unbelief is really wearing them out and about to take them out. Because they are doing this historic, noble, glorious purpose in God. They’re building the House of Prayer, they’re building the Temple but it is more difficult than they thought; the work progress was slower than they thought. People were less responsive. The adversaries were more fierce than they imagined. So these two guys were actually losing their way in one of the most important hours of redemptive history.

It was by the word of the LORD that the LORD exposed the accusation of the enemy, broke the power of it, the fog lifted and these two guys said, What was THAT?!  Let’s be about what God called us to. It is a glorious story.

Here in Zechariah chapter 3, the prophet Zechariah said, The Lord showed me an open vision of Joshua onethe two main leaders. He was standing before the LORD and Satan rises up and accuses him. He said, “This guy is disqualified!’ He accuses him and opposes him.

The problem is, Joshua did have failures. There were really some wrong things that were going on. So this was totally unfounded. The devil always misapplies it, exaggerates it, and puts a twist on it. But Joshua was in that transition time and in a time of difficult and the devil said, I’m going to move in here and take him out. I’m going to get him to quit, but he was trying to get the LORD to cancel him out but the LORD wouldn’t. So the spirit of accusation went to get Joshua to draw back into the fog – give up, give in. I don’t know what’s going on, the Lord’s not with me, it’s too hard, look what I’ve done, it’s too late, I’ve gone too far, it’s not worth it.

Verse 1: He showed me Joshua. Satan was opposing him, accusing him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you Satan!” I will not tolerate your accusation against my servant. But again, Joshua had dirty garments. He had issues that had to be settled and straightened in his life.

Look at verse 4: And the LORD spoke to the angels that were around Him. Take away the filthy garments and put on the good garments. Renew him. Strengthen him. Satan, I rebuke you. My favor is for him. My eyes are toward him. My purpose is for him. He has not gone too far, My hand is with him. And the fog breaks off of the high priest Joshua. Again the same thing happens again in the next chapter to Zerrubabel, the two main guys.

I have to read verse 2-8 again: The Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you. Then he spoke to the angels to take the filthy garments away and here is the point I want to make: Go say to him, go tell this to Joshua: See? I removed your filthy garments. See? I covered you. My hand is toward you. Joshua says, I don’t feel that. And the LORD tells the angels: to tell him to SEE the TRUTH about how I see him and the truth about who he is before me.

The battle for Joshua was the battle for seeing. It is the same battle for Zerrubabel in the next chapter. In the next verse God tells the angels to tell Joshua, If you will be fully faithful – not just in godliness in his life, but actually be faithful to the assignment. It’s not just a character issue, it is also a command to perform the assignment. The role I gave him, he’s got to be faithful in it. When you get the fog of accusation, you draw back from the LORD, you get super introspective, you get super comparative, You are taking everybody’s word beside the LORD’s. And the mandate, you don’t have energy for the thing God assigned you to do. It doesn’t seem important, it doesn’t seem valuable, it seems like a waste of time. And that fog comes on. It is a very common strategy of the enemy.

Verse 7. Go tell Joshua, if he will obey me, if he will be faithful in the thing I assigned him to do, tell him I will manifest the leadership grace on him. He’ll judge my house, he’ll have charge over the courts. The courts is the Temple, it’s the House of Prayer. Tell him leadership grace will be evident. If he will say yes to my word, the grace of leadership will be evident on him in a way he cannot see now. Now look at this one:  Go tell Joshua that I am going to give him a place to walk among the angels standing before me. I’m going to give him a supernatural dimension to his future that he hasn’t had up to now.

So you tell Joshua to listen to My Word and not to voice of the enemy.

Alan and Deborah come on up.
Mike continues: Last night I had a powerful night of dreaming. I had different members of the staff and we were sitting around the table – eating, like a fellowship table. Different ones on our staff, the enemy was wanting to discourage them. So we were talking and in the dream I just took my finger pointed and said, In the name of Jesus I break the power of this! I wake up and my hand is up (finger pointing) and I was saying out loud, in the name of Jesus…and I woke up and thought, wow, that was pretty cool. I go back to sleep and in a little while I’m dreaming and it is another setting around the table and I point and say, In the name of Jesus, I take authority over this. And I wake up again and my hand is out! and I’m hearing myself finish the sentence. Wow.  I feel  the presence of the LORD and think, I like this! And I fall back asleep and it happens a third time.

Then he asks Deborah and Alan both to give their testimonies about Zechariah 3 … which they do. 

DONNA: At the moment the battle still rages against Mike Bickle and IHOP. And many others across the landscape of Christian leadership. We are assuredly in a transition period and the accusers' voice is the loudest voice in the Body of Christ right now. I believe that throughout the world there is going to be a great shock among the body when God arises and rebukes the Accuser so the fog lifts off of us and His people can see themselves for where we are really at. The shock will be how all of us are wearing the spots and wrinkles that God wants removed from us, just like Joshua, God wants them replaced with clean garments and a white turban wrapped around our heads to protect us even from the thoughts of the Accuser creeping make us unstable, self-destructive. We are going to looking at our OWN faults and blind spots more than point our fingers at our spiritual brothers and sisters. I believe Mike Bickle is going to emerge from this terrible season even more fruitful than all the previous years put together.