Author:
Apostle Eric vonAnderseck
Eric serves as a called and confirmed Chief Apostle in the restored government of God. He is the founder of s8w Ministries, and it is through his stewardship that God ushered in a new season of restoration for all believers who desire to walk in the fulness of Christ. View my profile.
Ministers are wondering if God is using the covid-19 pandemic to turn the tide of revival, asking, What if God is using this season to return millions back to Himself? How can we know that those ministers are on the wrong side of the fight? I’ll answer that question and also show you how ministers are again using poetic license to claim to speak for God, when in fact, they are shielding their own neglect.
First of all, God would not place a call of this magnitude and give people nowhere to return to. People cannot metaphorically or poetically return to God. They have to return to the new covenant stewardship, priesthood, and commandments of Jesus Christ from which they departed.
God is laying the departure of the people from His covenant at the feet of ministers today, just as He laid the departure of the children of Israel from Moses’ covenant at the feet of the priests.
God is speaking to ministers today, just as He spoke to the priests through Malachi. We’re going to get into the second chapter of Malachi. So if you have your Bible open to that chapter. I want you to highlight the following words we’ll be digging into:
In these verses God describes a departure from the way of the covenant of Moses. These are strong words. To say that people have departed from God by departing out of the way of His covenant, that they are partial in His law, that they profane His covenant and His holiness are serious crimes against God. These are very specific transgressions that God is itemizing.
- To depart out of the way of the covenant is to neglect the terms God sanctified with the blood of an animal to draw His people near unto Him. This neglect is to count the blood of the covenant as an unholy thing (Heb. 10:29).
- To be partial in the law means that people were doing their own thing. While God sent Moses with the blueprint to instruct the people, the people adjusted (private interpretation) what he said to what they wanted to do. This is the tradition of man.
- To profane the covenant means to bring the commandments, statutes, and laws to the level of the flesh to serve man, rather than God. This profanes the name of the Lord.
- To profane the holiness of the Lord means that people were deciding their own separation from the world based on their own ideals and moral code, rather than the covenant commandments God gave them through His steward.
As the gravity of the transgression begins to sink in, people begin to ask, Who is responsible? Who was put in position to teach the people what to do? Who was sleeping on the job? Who set the pattern for the people to do their own thing?
Another dreadful reality that might be dawning on you right now is that you can’t simply return to God without returning to the covenant God is presently offering. A return to God is a return to His covenant.
This brings me to a vision the Lord gave my wife, Teacher Maria, just a few days ago. She saw Jesus upon the cross and a grape vine growing up and around His body.
Of course, Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. He died on the cross to provide in Himself a new covenant. Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.” (Jn. 15:1)
Christ IS the covenant, and in order to return to Him, people have to return to the covenant – ALL the tools of the new covenant – ALL the terms of the new covenant. God’s call is a return to the steward of the new covenant – a return to the priesthood of the new covenant.
The unction is not an assumption!
Ministers say that something is wrong with the church and suddenly this observation morphs into a revelation. The butterfly is born! But they omit the covenant knowledge people need to return to God.
They think that observation is revelation, just like they think that conversations they have among themselves is the voice of God. As they begin look back on the years of conversations, they stack their assumptions together like a deck of card. Then at the opportune moment, they decide to draw a card from this deck and call it prophecy.
God is speaking specifically, referring to a return to His covenant commandments. And just so we are abundantly clear, today that means a return to the new covenant of Jesus Christ and His new covenant priesthood in which all believers are to function to partake of Jesus’ holiness.
Corrupt Stewardship Chastised
I said earlier that God is laying the departure of the people from His covenant at the feet of ministers today just as laid the departure of the children of Israel from Moses’ covenant at the feet of the priests. Let’s get into those verses.
We will turn our attention to the beginning of Malachi chapter 2. Now we’ll highlight a few more words. First of all, the word “priest(s)” and above the word priest(s) write the word “minister”. Also highlight the words “commandment(s)” and “covenant”, the words “curse” and “blessing”.
VS 1. And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
VS 2. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already*, because ye do not lay it to heart.
This is why John the Baptist called them serpents and vipers. A direct rebuke was necessary in order for change to take place. God was freeing His people from the bondage of their false stewardship in preparation of hearing the words of Jesus.
The curse mentioned in verse 2 is a reversal of God’s compassionate care, which people enjoyed, while neglecting His covenant. Not only does God say that he will reverse His blessings, but states that He has already done so. These are strong measures. And today, the pandemic is a strong measure.
Because they did not lay His covenant commandments to heart
You will hear ministers say that God is the agent of change, that God is the one doing this, that God is the one in charge. You know, you can sound like you are saying a lot, when actually you are saying nothing, and this is a good example of that…. blah… blah… blah.
Saying that God is in charge is a misnomer, it’s a given. Ministers of unrighteousness say things that are obviously true, while omitting the covenant knowledge people need in order to return to God.
It is true that God is the agent of change. But when did God ever do anything on earth to initiate change without a counterpart, or earthly agent through whom He spoke? Never!
You can google the meaning of counterpart, “a person or thing holding a position or performing a function that corresponds to that of another person or thing in another place.”
The apostle is the person on earth holding a position of authority to function as God’s key and voice (2 Cor. 5:20; Acts 2:42).
The Path of Neglect is Strewn With Many False Altars
I’m interested in going back to verse 2 where the Lord says that His reversal of blessing is because they (the ministers) did not lay His covenant commandments to heart. What have ministers today neglected to lay to heart?
1. God commanded ministers to come into one house of faith, under one stewardship, but they objected to God’s selection and refused. Following the sin of Korah, they remained in their wilderness tents. They have followed Korah’s provocation against Moses (Num. 16:1-34). When the provocation was against Moses, it was against God.
2. God commanded ministers to come to the steward for their doctrinal cleansing, but they refused, saying that they are being taught by the Holy Ghost, even when admitting that their doctrine is not pure.
3. God commanded ministers to build the new covenant priesthood altar and begin anew to offer to Him spiritual sacrifices of praise, but being addicted to the fleshly prophetic practices and worship of their generation, said that the old is better.
4. God commanded ministers to abandon the psychological gospel that wounds His people, but since they knew only the brokenness of their own hearts, refused to give the people the knowledge of Christ for their healing. This transgression is a provocation against God.
Instead of returning to God by accepting the stewardship and priesthood, they returned again to build new altars of repentance, to again cover the altar with their tears. On this point I want to go to Malachi 2:13, “And this have ye done AGAIN, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.”
Highlight the word “again” in this verse. Do you see how God is pointing to a deceptive, repetitive pattern? We see this also in the church today. Ministers call people forward to weep and cry out to God with much tears and repentance for deliverance, for forgiveness, for a new beginning, for God to take charge of their life, to change them, to give them a Holy Ghost experience, yet they neglect the covenant tokens that God sanctified with Jesus’ blood.
How did God respond to that?
God sees the pattern to approach Him with tears and repentance rather than obedience. And what is God’s response? He no longer regards your offering. He no longer receives them with good will.
The warning in this painful season is to beware of ministers who lead you back to the altar of repentance, claiming to lead you back to God, but in truth they are not giving you the knowledge of the new covenant, and that’s why there is no covering in them.
