Day 10 of 90 Days
Part #1 of 2 Parts on the Corporate Sword
Scriptures: Revelation 19:15; Genesis 1:6–7; Daniel 7:9–10; Exodus 24:9–11; Hebrews 8:6; Revelation 8:1–5
I firmly believe a new formation is taking place. The Lord is raising up an authoritative prayer movement, and it will not be the work of one or two anointed people. It will be a corporate covenant body, and I call it the Lord's corporate sword.
I call it a sword because that is how John saw Him when the heavens opened and the Word of God came riding out.
Revelation 19:15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron.
We know that is not a literal blade hanging out of His mouth. It is His double-edged word, proceeding from His mouth and moving swiftly through the earth; that is the sword I am talking about.
A New Apostolic Prayer Movement
A new apostolic prayer movement. By apostolic, I mean sent. Sent from the Ancient of Days. Not sent by man and not sent through the agency of man, but sent by the nail-pierced hand from the waters above. And hear me on this, because it is the whole point. Only those sent from the waters above can shift the waters below.
This isn't a weird prophetic vision, and it isn't somebody's imagination. This is biblical foundation. Genesis 1. Ezekiel 1. Revelation 4. The waters above are in the second day of creation, before anything else in this world is built.
Genesis 1:6–7 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
Waters above and waters below, divided by a firmament, written into creation's architecture from the beginning. Everything I am about to say rests on that division and on the One who sits above it.
And that phrase, the Ancient of Days, is not decoration either. Daniel shows us the room it comes out of.
Daniel 7:9–10. I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.
The Council of Heaven Released Through The Altar Of His Voice Upon The Earth
Notice the plural. Thrones were put in place, not a throne. The Ancient of Days takes His seat, a fiery stream goes out from before Him, ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Him, and then the court is seated and the books are opened. That is a council and that is a courtroom, and when I say apostolic I mean a people sent out from a room like that one, carrying something that was already decided there.
Before I say anything else about it, I need to define what I mean by an altar, because the whole thing hinges on that word. An altar is a place of divine communication. It is a place where heaven and earth are joined, where the voice of God comes down and the cry of a people goes up, and it has never been primarily about the stones. Jesus told us what constitutes one.
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.
Covenant Altars
Two or three gathered in His name, in covenant with one another and with God—that becomes a covenant altar. Not a building and not a program. A covenant altar is where covenant exists vertically and horizontally. A people in covenant with each other and in covenant with the LORD.
Here's why I use the imagery of the waters above, the sapphire sea, and the heavenly council. The sapphire sea is not just prophetic verbiage thrown around carelessly; it is solid Biblical language that represents something important. It is the place of the Throne of God and the release of His Kingdom government. It's the place God summoned Moses and the 70 elders of Israel to. Moses and the elders of Israel stood on it.
Exodus 24:9–11Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.
Count those who went up that mountain, and understand that the number is never incidental in Scripture, because seven is the number of covenant completion and nothing numbered in the Torah is numbered by accident. It was seventy elders of Israel who went up, along with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu. 70 is used throughout the Bible and also in Second Temple Jewish literature. The 70 elders represent the council of elders, like the Sanhedrin, which was a council of 70. Under the Old Covenant, they all saw the God of Israel, and they all stood on a pavement of sapphire stone that was like the very heavens in its clarity.
And then they ate and drank in His presence, but that was not a fellowship meal. In that world, a shared meal in the presence of the other party meant only one thing, namely that a covenant was being confirmed. It is the same thing Melchizedek did when he came out of Salem to meet Abram with bread and wine after the slaughter of the kings (Genesis 14:18), and it is the same table the Lord set with His own the night before He went to the cross. A corporate ascent and a covenant meal on a sapphire floor.
So hear what I am saying. The Lord is taking a people up to the sapphire pavement again to renew their covenant vows from the sapphire sea above, and we are not going up under the terms Moses went up under.
Hebrews 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Altars of Sound - A Sound From The Shaphire Sea
Moses stood on that sapphire pavement under the old covenant. We have a better covenant, established on better promises, mediated by a better High Priest, and the summons to come up and stand on that clarity is extended to a covenant body and not to a single man.
There are the other two foundations I named. Ezekiel saw that same stone from the other side, because above the firmament over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone (Ezekiel 1:26), and John saw it as a sea of glass like crystal before the throne (Revelation 4:6). Sapphire under His feet when a company of elders comes up, sapphire under His throne when a prophet looks up, and a sea of glass spread out before the throne where John stood. That is the sapphire sea. That is the waters above. That is the heavenly council, and men have been summoned up into it together before.
And there is an altar in that place. There is an altar in heaven, and there is an altar in the earth, and they are connected.
Revelation 8:3–5 Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
Look at what happens there. The prayers of the saints rise from the altar below and are received at the altar above, before the throne. Then fire comes off that heavenly altar, fills the censer, and is hurled back down into the earth, and the earth shakes where it lands. The altar of prayer in the earth is connected to the altar of prayer in the heavens, and what we send up is what comes back down with fire on it.
That pictures heaven and earth joined, and that is what I mean when I say the Father is raising up a people who understand that true authority begins in His presence. A people who stand in His counsel and release His living voice. A people who will release a sound from the waters above over the waters below.
Psalm 29 :1 Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness. 3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
A Psalm 29 worship movement being forged upon the earth. The LORD is raising up a new breed of minstrels who know how to release the sound and song of the Lord, because the altar has always had a sound over it, and that sound is not entertainment. It is the sound of the altar above being released upon the earth, or a sound from the waters above being released over the waters below, as in Psalm 29.
I believe a former phase of the prayer movement has served its purpose, and the Father is bringing His people into another dimension of maturity and responsibility.
And that's where maturity begins, right here at the altar, because until a people know that their prayers land on a golden altar before the throne and that fire is sent back down from it into the earth they stand on, they will keep praying like orphans instead of praying and decreeing like a royal priesthood. Tomorrow I want to address those who carry that heavenly fire, because it was never meant to rest on one man.
QUESTION
Where is your altar, and who is standing at it with you? Is your prayer life connected to a company you are in covenant with, or are you ascending alone?
PRAYER
Father, make us a people who build altars of Your living voice. Teach us to stand in Your counsel, and let our prayers rise to the golden altar before Your throne. Send the fire back down into our homes, our cities, and our regions.
DECLARATION
There is an altar in heaven and an altar in the earth, and they are joined. We will build altars of covenant and of the living voice, and we will not ascend alone.
The Jeremiah Generation • Zion Gate Ministries