Light out of Shadows ~ Bill Britton ~ Chapter 8
The Year of Jubile
Trumpets were blowing, slaves were saying goodbye to
their masters, prison doors were opening and the prison doors were opeining and
the prisoners were singing and shouting as they left the prisons. What was
going on? It was the Day of Atonement in the Year of Jubile. Old men had waited
50 years for this to happen, and young people had never seen a day like it
before.
The law of the Jubile is given in Leviticus 25. “And
thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years;
and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine
years. THEN shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubile to sound on the tenth
day of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement shall ye make the trumpet
sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and
PROCLAIM LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it
shall be a Jubile unto you; AND YE SHALL RETURN EVERY MAN UNTO HIS POSSESSION,
and ye shall return every man unto his family.” (Leviticus 25:8-10)
The rest of the chapter goes into detail on the law of
Jubile, but to be brief, let me say that every fifty years a great change took
place in Israel. Everything was to be restored just as it was when the tribes
originally inherited the land. If a man waxed poor and sold his land and became
a slave or servant to others, this continued only until the Year of Jubile. At
that time all slaves were set free, and every man returned to his original
inheritance.
I hope you can see what this means to the human race.
There was a good practical reason for this law being given by God to
preserve natural Israel in the land. Without it there was a good possibility of
one tribe eventually losing all it’s inheritance, and it’s identity. This would
finally mean the deterioration and breakdown of the twelve tribes. But there is
a far deeper reason for this law. It has a spiritual meaning, and held out a
hope to humanity that God had set a Day when all bondage would cease and
everything that God had given to mankind in the beginning would be restored.
Let me give you an illustration of what this law meant
to Israel. In 2 Kings chapter four we read of a case where a widow is faced
with a large debt left by her husband, and the creditors are coming to take her
two sons into slavery to pay off the debt. In this case, Elisha provided a
miracle to pay off the debt. But in many cases like this there was no Elisha
around with a miracle, and the sons were taken away from their home and their
mother to work for a stranger as a slave. But only until the Year of Jubile.
Let me give you an example…
Little Joseph had been taken from his mother and his
sisters when he was only twelve years old. His slave-master was a hard task
master and compelled him to work long hours. Their own home and farm had been
taken over by strangers, and his mother and sisters had moved in with
relatives. He missed his family, and often thought of his carefree childhood
when the children had played together and had such fun. No time for fun now.
There was a big debt to pay off, and the rate it was going it looked like he
would never get it paid off. He had been working now for six years, and hardly
made a dent in the huge debt. What a miserable way to live, he often thought,
yet as long as he was alive, there was hope.
One day, soon after his eighteenth birthday, he was
cutting brush in the field when he heard a lot of commotion. People were
running, and shouting and laughing. He heard a trumpet blowing in the distance.
Finally he was able to stop someone and asked what was going on. “Why son,
haven’t you heard? This is the Year of Jubile. Just started today. Can’t you
hear the trumpet? Oh, I guess you’re so young you’ve never seen a Jubile
before. It’s the time when all debts are paid, and all slaves are freed, and
all homes restored to their rightful owners. Throw down your tools, son, you’re
free as of right now. As soon as you hear the Jubile Trumpet. Go home to your
family, and sit under your own fig tree. What rightfully belongs to you is
really yours now.”
You can imagine his joy as he throws down the tools of
slavery, bids his master goodbye, and heads for his home and family. It was
nothing he had done, he never did get his debt paid off, he had not earned his
freedom. It was just the sovereign law of God that set him free. All he had to
do was believe it, and head for home.
Yes, Joseph went back to his father’s farm, and told
the strangers to move out. He started living in his own house again, and eating
the fruit of his own land. No more working as an hireling, he was working for
himself, at his own inheritance.
In the beginning, God set Man over all the works of
His hands. He made Man the supreme ruler of the earth, the owner of the whole
world. All the animals obeyed him and were in subjection to him. The earth
brought forth abundantly for him. When sin came, all that changed, and man
became a slave, earning his living by the sweat of his face. He came into
bondage to sin and Satan, and believe me, Satan is a hard taskmaster. Man lost
his relationship to God, and life became at time almost unbearable.
But God gave a promise of restoration, of victory over
Satan. “Her seed shall bruise thy head” God told the serpent. And in Romans
16:20, Paul repeats the promise: “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under
your feet shortly.” Man will surely return to his possession. All that was lost
in the fall shall be restored. And Acts 3:21 says that Jesus shall remain in
heaven until the times of this restoration. No second coming of Christ until
the time of restoration of all that was lost. Praise God!
Jesus said (Isaiah 61:1, Luke 4:18) that the Father
HAD SENT HIM TO OPEN THE PRISON DOORS AND SET THE CAPTIVES FREE. He was, of
course, referring to the year of Jubile. For Christ IS the Jubile. In Him is
freedom, and life, and restoration. “He looked down from the height of his
sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the groaning of
the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death”. (Psalms 102:19-20)
He has seen the condition of humanity, and tho we made our own debts and got
ourselves into the condition we’re in, yet He has determined to come and set us
free and pay our debts. This was the purpose of His coming, and this is the
power of His resurrection.
This is the ministry of reconciliation that He has
given to His Body. In Isaiah 58:6 we read: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?
To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the
oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” And notice the glorious
promise in verse 12: “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste
places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt
be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.”
Praise God, His plan is much larger than most of us realize. This work of this
ministry is not just to build a larger Sunday School, start a new denomination
or make an old one richer. But it is to bring all of creation back into right
relationship with God their creator, and to restore man back to his former
glory and power.
Yes, it is to blow the trumpet of Jubile, and to set
all men free. For this trumpet of Jubile is to be blown by the redeemed Body of
Christ. This is the work of the ministry for the saints of God, and the reason
for their perfection now (Ephesians 4:11-13). No angelic beings shall blow this
trumpet or sound the release of humanity from the bondage of corruption. This
honor has been given to the saints. (Psalms 149:9). And all creation is waiting
for and groaning for the manifestation of this company of sons who shall sound
the trumpet and give them release.
Notice that the law states that the Trumpet of Jubile
first sounds on the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month. This
is the day when the High Priest goes beyond the Veil into the Holy of Holies.
And hear me today, friends, and hear me good… there shall be no release from
corruption and death, for humanity and creation until a Body of saints follows
Jesus into the Holy of Holies, into the very presence of God. We have eaten of
the Passover Lamb, our sins have been forgiven, the blood is on the doorpost of
our heart. Wonderful. That is good and necessary. And we have partaken of the
Feast of Pentecost, been filled with the Spirit and entered into the
supernatural realm of the Spirit. Praise God for that! But death still operates
in the earth, and pain and sorrow and sickness and affliction still torment the
human race. Even the Christian people, including Spirit-filled Pentecostal
people, still help fill up the hospitals and doctors’ offices.
But now we have come to the time of the Feast of
Tabernacles, and we have already heard the blowing of the trumpets for this
feast. The sounding of trumpets simply means the giving of a warning or a
message. The message for Tabernacles has been and is being sounded. This started
on the first day of the seventh month. But it is on the tenth day that the Day
of Atonement comes, we go beyond the Veil into the fulness of God, and we start
sounding the Trumpet of Jubile for the liberation of all mankind. “Make the
trumpet sound throughout all your land.” Everyone shall hear the trumpet,
everyone shall benefit from it. But only a few shall blow it. To this few shall
be given a message that shall have such divine authority, that where ever it is
heard, devils will flee and everlasting life shall be established.
I want you to know friends, that this world is about
to enter into a revival such as has never been seen since the fall of man.
Doubt it if you will, but I assure you that you will feel the impact of it
before it is over. All hell shall be shaken, the earth and heavens shall shake
also. Everything that cannot be shaken will remain, and that which remains
shall be of His Kingdom and under His dominion. Because a trumpet is being put
into the hands of a ministry that has died to self and gone through the veil
into the realm of Life.
When the Apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 15:52
concerning “the last trump”, nothing had yet been written about the seven
trumps of Revelation. So he was not speaking of the “last” of these seven
trumps, as we have been taught. Paul was speaking of a change coming to
humanity, of mortal putting on immortality, of corruption putting on
incorruption. And he was speaking of it from the promise given in the law
concerning the blowing of the trumpet of Jubile.
But what did he mean by “the last trump”?
Notice that at the dedication of Israel’s first Temple in 2 Chronicles 5:12,
there were 120 priests blowing on trumpets. All the Temple was finished, all
the holy things put in their place, and as the 120 trumpets were blown, then
the glory and presence of God entered and filled the Temple. Notice now in Acts
1:15 that at the time of the dedication of the early Church, God’s living
Temple, there were 120 “priests” of a new order sounding their trumpets in 14
different languages (Acts 2:8). God’s glory so filled this “Temple” that 3,000
souls came to Christ in that one day. This was the second witness of the 120
trumpets. But two is not the number of completeness. It takes a third time.
From the fall of Adam to Abraham was 2,000 years, or
40 times 50 years. Forty Jubile periods passed over humanity, forty trumpets
were blown in the heavens by way of promise. But forty was not the end. With
Abraham, God re-established His promise. “In you shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed”. Another 40 Jubiles passed, and in 2,000 more years came
Jesus Christ. But 80 was not the finish. With Jesus, God paid the debt of
humanity, and purchased their redemption. But in Ephesians 1:14 Paul says that
the redemption of that purchased possession is still ahead of us. Peter says in
1 Peter 1:4-5 that it will be revealed in the last time. And now, since the
coming of Christ it has been either 1967 years or 1998 years (approximately)
depending on whether you judge the length of a year by the Gregorian calendar
or Bible figures. Either way, there has been 39 Jubile periods passed over
humanity since Christ. This makes a total of 119 Jubile trumpets that have
sounded since the fall of Adam. Now let me say that we have come to the time
for the 120th trump; there will come a change, in reality. The last
and permanent “Temple” of God will be dedicated, and out of that Holy of Holies
shall come a ministry of Life and restoration. Praise God!
Why anyone would not want to see a revival in the
earth, and humanity loosed from the bondage of death, is more than I can
understand. But strange as it seems, there are those who seem to get very angry
at any talk about a total victory on the battlefield. Seems that their only
interest is in getting out of the battle and going to heaven in a rapture. But
let me tell you that God is not preparing His Army for an “escape”. He is
getting His “mighty ones” ready to bind all the powers of hell, and set up the
Kingdom of God on earth.
This is not some fairy tale, or fantasy. It shall
actually be done, by very real people, in very real places, through the very
real power of God.
This thing shall not be done in a corner. The nations
shall hear the trumpet of Jubile. They shall hear it loud and clear. It is what
all creation has been groaning for, as it is part of the operation of God in
the Manifestation of His Sons. This is the everlasting Gospel, sounded from a
heavenly realm in the Spirit where the Sons dwell. And when they hear, they
shall live. All creation shall enjoy a full restoration. No restoration shall
come to the human race through the efforts of Adamic man. Thus saith the Lord!
The political efforts to build a “Great Society”, the efforts to end poverty,
the youth programs, the civil rights legislation… the religious ecumenical
movements, and all other efforts of natural man to bring us into a Utopia shall
utterly fail! Wars, crime, hate, riots, poverty and suffering shall continue to
increase until the Sons of God appear on the scene and the Trumpet of Jubile is
heard. Then shall come deliverance for humanity... out of Zion!
The activity of the Sons of God is not visible or
known to the world in general or the religious world in particular. This company
of Overcomers who have been called into the High Calling of God is hidden away
in the secret place of the Most High. The world is not aware of what God is
going to do with them and through them. They are now in the crucible of the
Great Refiner. They walk with God in the midst of the furnace of fire. The
world is not sitting up to take notice of their great exploits.
A false religion can produce a crowd of thousands,
fill the largest auditoriums, and get front page billing in the newspapers, tho
they have none of the Life of Jesus Christ to offer the people. I have often
marveled at how great multitudes will loyally flock to some dead religious
gathering, faithfully supporting a false cult that offers no Truth, no Life, no
hope of deliverance for mankind. They can do this because this is their hour,
the day when Satan rules the minds of most men. But his time is short. The day
is at hand for the last trump to start blowing. That trump shall blow first in
Zion. The day of the Lord is at hand! There shall be a Revival.
Cling, if you will, to a theology that gives the multitudes of lost mankind over to Satan, the Antichrist, and a devil’s hell. Hang on to that doctrine, if you must, that offers only a “flight to the sky” as an escape for God’s great Army. But let me warn you, friends, that such false theology and theory of men shall fail you in that great and notable Day of the Lord. There shall be a Revival. And it shall come with a great sound of a Trumpet. The trumpet of Jubile.
Notice, again, that the Jubile trumpet starts blowing
on the Day of Atonement, just preceding the Year of Jubile. It is blown on the
day that the High Priest goes past the Veil into the Holiest of Holies, into
the Presence of the Ark of God. The Revival that all creation cries out for is
waiting for a High Priestly company, a royal order of Kings and Priests, to
enter behind that Veil and meet Jesus in the “air”. For He has already entered
into this place as a forerunner for us.
There shall be no Jubile until this “passing through
the Veil” has been accomplished by the Body of the Son, the High Priest. And
then, glory be to God, out of that realm of Life and Glory shall come forth a
ministry that shall make all other forms of religion obsolete. A people shall
walk this earth, tho dwelling in the heavens and sitting on His throne, and
they shall meet every human need and cast down every Satanic stronghold. There
shall be no failures with them. There shall be no mistakes, for they have the
mind of Christ, and they speak with His authority.
What I am saying to you is not some theory I have
dreamed up, nor is it my interpretation of a few isolated scriptures. It is the
word of the Lord to you! Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not,
the son of man cometh. Just because I do not believe that the purpose of His
coming is to “rapture” us away as an “escape” from the antichrist, I am
sometimes accused of not looking for His coming. Nothing could be further from
the truth. He must appear. First to His sons who are looking for Him to come
and bring us to full salvation (Hebrews 9:28 Amplified).
Perhaps you feel my language in this message is too
mysterious or spiritualized for you to fully understand what I am saying. I try
to be as plain and simple in my words as possible, but it is very difficult to
explain the glory we are seeing in the Spirit, or to break these tremendous
eternal truths down into mere human language. But I have said, and will say it
once more… that our God has spoken, His voice did roar. He will send forth a
people, who are humble and plain; He will cause them to descend as a great
latter rain. Anointed of God, to the nations they’ll go: from the mountain of
God like a River they’ll flow. They are sealed by His Spirit, marked as His own;
they speak with authority, for they sit in His throne. They have not sought for
escape, nor a flight to the sky. But in the realms of the Spirit they’ve
ascended so high. They have no reason to fear, nor a cause for dread. There is
hope for all, for even the dead. For those in the graves shall hear the voice
of the Son, shall arise and know that He is the One. There is one Overcomer,
one Son, and one King. When this truth breaks upon you, it’ll cause you to
sing. You are bone of His bones, and you are one with the Head; His image
you’ll bear, and Adam you’ll shed. Well, Glory to God, don’t you see what I
mean? The filth is all gone, and now you are clean. Holy and pre, as the Father
above; His commandment fulfilled, because of His Love. You see, I speak as a
prophet of the Jubile year. It’s not afar off, but I declare it is near. Be
ready, be ready, oh dear friend of mine; His glory is raising, upon you to
shine. The night is far spent, a new Day is now breaking; the darkness is
fleeing, hell’s gates are now shaking. The demonic hordes are trembling in
fear, God’s Army is rising, His coming is near. Rejoice I say, rejoice every
one, for the sound that you hear is the voice of the Son. He marches to battle,
He knows no defeat; His Army is great, and the victory is sweet. Every enemy of
God shall go down in the fray, every pain, every sorrow shall vanish the Day.
He’ll prove Himself a wise God to be, and He’ll do it on earth that creation
might see. Out of sin He hath called me, His word to declare; those who believe
His glory will share. Hallelujah!
Much has been said about the “life message”. Much of
it has been dead theology, or boastful claims that could not be backed up, and
the preaching of such has brought only death and disappointment. Some of those
making big claims that they had already “entered in” and could not die, have
already died… leaving a firm testimony of the falseness of their claims. The
true Sons of God do not have to make claims or “take it by faith”. They receive
Life as an inheritance, and when they manifest it and minister it to others in
reality, they will not have to wear a badge of a sign around their neck
proclaiming themselves to be something. Those who minister out of the realm of
the Holy of Holies will touch the needs of people. And those people will know
that they have come in contact with the Son of God.
This thing I am talking about is above and beyond
anything ever manifested in any man born of Adam. We have most certainly borne
the image of Adam. We shall just as surely bear the image of the Christ. There
is no way to fully explain the glory of it. Earthly illustrations and human
language are far too weak. Descriptions of the thing ahead fall far short of
the reality.
The task of delivering all humanity is far too great
for anyone. In fact, it is an impossible task. That is why only a Sovereign God
can do it, through a people He has chosen. Praise His wonderful Name! Prepare
yourself… the Year of Jubile is at hand!
“Let every man return to his family” in the year of
Jubile, says the Bible. (Leviticus 25:10) There is a habitation prepared for
each one. Jesus said: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not
so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Now let me show
you a glorious mystery… “In my Father’s house…” The Bible teaches us in many
places that the Church, God’s people, is the House of God. You are His house,
in which He lives. “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will
dwell with them” (Revelation 21:3) “In my Father’s house are MANY MANSIONS”.
This is the only place in the Bible the word “mansion” is used. It is
translated from the Greek word “mone”, which is used twice in the Bible. The
other place is in John 14:23 where it is translated “abode”. Jesus said: “If a
man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will
come unto him, and MAKE OUR ABODE WITH HIM”. God will come to that man and live
in him, make that man His abode, mansion, or dwelling place. In the Father’s
House (the Church) there are many dwelling places, abodes for the Father to
dwell. There are different realms of existence or life for His people. Jesus
said: “I go to prepare a place for you…” He said He would come to receive us to
Himself, that where He is, we might be also. Where is He? Dwelling in the
highest form of life possible. “God hath highly exalted Him, giving Him a name
above every name”. (Philippians 2:9) Did you know that you, as an Overcomer,
will have that name written upon you? (Revelation 3:12). Paul saw that the
highest, most glorious place prepared for us in eternity was in Christ, the
place prepared for the Overcomer. He desired this place, and said that he
“pressed toward the mark for the prize of the High Calling of God in Christ
Jesus”.
When the Jubile Trumpet begins to blow, mankind will
start returning from it’s fallen state in sin, back to that perfect state of
fellowship with God. But each one will “return to his family”. Each has his own
mansion, house, dwelling place in God. Will yours be on a lower plane of the
Spirit, or will you press into that High Calling? Will you settle for no less
than God’s best? Praise our wonderful Saviour, He has prepared us a place. It
is time to move in! The Year of Jubile is upon us!