Mike Oliver's Messages

When you read the scriptures read as a believing believer, alive to the probabilities of the Kingdom of God near at hand. Elijah the Tishbite from the region of Gilead is a great prophet of God and a man who never died; in fact  he shows up in the New Testament on the Mount of Transfiguration near Damascus with Moses, Jesus, Peter, James and John. His residence however moved to the area of Israel’s first Passover in the Promised Land at Gilgal, a short distance from the ruins of Jericho by the lower Jordan River. Elijah was the mentor of Elisha, called by the Lord above prophet school students at Jericho and Bethel. He was called while working a field, plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, (1Kings 19:19) twelve is repeated in a significant manor, “and he was beside the twelfth.” Elijah throws his covering (mantle) over the plowman who then burns his bridges by slaughtering the oxen, feeds his family and friends and follows the prophet. A mantle was the official garment of a prophet

Isaiah 27 speaks about a day when God slays Leviathan the sea monster and that day His property yields as it should, the new wine. The Lord speaks to us from a deeper level here about a problem that confronts this era of church and reform. This is a most hopeful and timeless passage with undertones for the whole Church today. Commentaries on this section of Isaiah haven’t really been able to identify this Leviathan except to say it is reptile or serpent like in nature. One might say it’s Satan and be done with it as I have in the past, yet I am shown an identity through Ezekiel 29:3 & 32:2 which names Pharaoh is a great monster who lives amongst waters and seas. It seems that Leviathan specifically has to do with Israel’s persecution in Egypt under Pharaoh and his armies holding 2-3million children of God. Egypt is a type or symbol of pre-salvation slavery, as is the red sea crossing a type or symbol of baptism and Mt. Sinai coming of the Holy Spirit. The Israelites at this stag

Mark 5-6 mentions three times a common number twelve, i.e. Woman healed by touching Jesus' garment bled twelve years, Jairus' daughter raised from dead was twelve years old, and the number of baskets left over after the feeding of the five thousand was twelve. One might ask why these incidental numbers are mentioned around the sending out and success of the twelve? When we look at the miracle that Jesus did for the girl who was twelve years old in raising her from the dead, we see no other reason for the writer pointing out her age except this spiritual signification, "And straightway the damsel arose and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years and they were astonished with a great astonishment." (Mk 5:42) Similarly the Church would be raised from the dead by Christ. As the 12 stars of the woman (in Rev Ch 12) also point to the congregation of the Lord. Things that might appear coincidental to a worldly reader but brought by Christ to His own, i.e. they are