Who are the 144,000 (Part 2)

                                                

We know from the writings of the early church fathers that the 144,000 are those in the church who are raised up by Elijah and will be sealed. Those who are “spiritual” are those who can supernaturally see the revelation of the prophetic messages that are written in a mystery. I used to think that to be spiritual you had to have encounters with angels, see visions, or speak in tongues, but those things did not define a person as spiritual to the early church.

 

In Romans 2, the Apostle Paul warns the church concerning the day of wrath and revelation. He isn’t referring to judgment coming on the world, but to the church. The church is under judgment for not having a sincere and penitent heart to walk out truth, and for being disobedient to truth. Paul wrote that to be justified we need to be doers of the law and not just hearers of the law (Rom. 2:13). Those who thought that they were walking out the Law were not really walking out the true meaning of it. 

 

The whole early church believed that the spirit of the law was still valid, but not the letter. Paul wrote that the law is spiritual (Rom. 7:14). For example, Paul references the law to not muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain (Deuteronomy 25:4), followed by asking us if God is really concerned about an ox? Paul taught that the commandment concerning the ox doesn’t make any sense if taken by the letter and that it’s actually a spiritual understanding about Paul’s rights as an apostle. If the law was done away with then why was he interpreting it to explain his rights as an apostle? When Jesus came, He said that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). In Judaism to “fulfill the law” means to teach it correctly. 

 

Paul wrote that those who fulfill the righteous requirements of the law are those who spiritually understand the meaning and walk it out. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things that are revealed belong to us and our children so that we may do all the words of this Law.” This means that the only way we can walk out the Law is to understand the secret meaning of it. All the early church writers believed that the Law had to be interpreted spiritually as taught by the apostles who learned directly from Jesus. 

 

Those who are spiritually walking out the Word are those who are circumcised in their heart. They are Jews inwardly, the true Jews. The 144,000 are not physical Jews, but spiritual Jews. Paul says that we are circumcised by putting off the sins of the flesh (Col. 2:11). 

 

Circumcision is the covenant, or the promise, that was to Abraham and his SEED. Scripture says that we are one in Christ and that we are sons of Abraham. So, when we are one in Christ, we are one in the SEED to whom the promise is given. We need to remember that the promises of Abraham are not for the Jews only - they were for everyone who walked out the law like Abraham. Jesus rebuked the Jews who claimed to be sons of Abraham saying that if they were true sons of Abraham that they would do the works of Abraham. Why kind of works did Abraham do? Genesis 26 says that Abraham obeyed and walked out the commandments and the law. Abraham walked out Torah 430 years before the written law was even given to Moses. This means that Abraham had the spiritual understanding of the Law which allowed him to walk it out even before it was written. 

 

Jesus said that hearts of the people have “waxed grossed” which is speaking of a heart that has flesh on it (Matt. 13:15). So, if you have flesh on your heart that means you need a circumcision of the heart. Apocalypse means “to remove the veil,” and Paul said that the veil is the flesh, so our hearts can only be circumcised by revelation, by an apocalypse, which is a removal of fleshly understanding. The proof of being a descendant of Abraham is having a spiritual understanding of the word through revelation. 

 

When you look at the temple and the positions of the furniture you can see where they line up in the body of Christ. Jesus said in the book of Revelation that in His right hand is the menorah. When you look at the way the pieces of furniture are lined up, they form a cross. If Jesus were on the cross then the menorah would be in his right hand and the altar of incense is where His heart is. Above the altar is a veil, which we know represents the flesh. We have to have a heart of intercession to get through the final veil. 

 

The day of wrath and revelation is upon us. The King of Righteousness is knocking on the door to see if we believe. He’s checking to see if our hearts are still veiled and suppressing the truth, or if our hearts are unveiled to His truth. We’re being judged and separated now based on the condition of our hearts. Time is short to get ready.

Sincerely,

Apostle Michael Petro