As God calls the church back to covenant there are many ministers who want to remain on Mount Ebal.

There is only one call that God makes and that is the call to covenant, whereby repentance is sealed and faith is placed (sanctified) in Jesus Christ by joining your faith to those things that God sprinkled with Jesus’ blood just as Moses sprinkled the book and all the people, joining them to the covenant. We see that the stewardship is the enabler of the covenant.

As God calls the church back to covenant there are many ministers who want to remain on Mount Ebal (the Mount of Cursing). Their message remains the same: 1) repentance from sin, 2) turn to God, 3) place your faith in Jesus.

The problem is that they have not repented unto the covenant, therefore their repentance is not sealed, and their sin remains. Repentance is a good thing when a person is first illuminated and enlightened by the grace of God, but when a person is found to still be at the stage of repentance 20 or 30 years later it means that they are still on Mount Ebal. And we’ll get into that in a moment.

In today’s church, in this modern Christian culture, the word repentance is looked upon as a magic key that unlocks the heart of God and the doors of heaven. The experience of repentance is revered because it is the only role a believer was taught to associate with a Christian life.

They have not yet taken hold of the truth of the gospel, they have not accepted the works of the covenant, nor the stewardship of the covenant, nor the priesthood of the covenant, and therefore have not placed their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. They haven’t really turned to God in deed, according to the terms God established, but in word only (quoting scripture), and therefore their sin remains, and this is why they are always repenting—the defiled conscience demands resolve.

So, repentance may have been true in that the grace of God was present to reveal hope in Christ, but now repentance it is a rogue element, and does not reflect the will and power of God. There is a condition God places upon repentance that is not being fulfilled in Christ.

Rogue meaning: “To cease to follow orders; to act on one’s own, pretending to be something you‘re not, lying or acting in order to deceive others.” (www.urbandictionary.com)

Now let’s get a visual on this by going to the symbolism God provides for us through His servants Moses and Joshua. God teaches by contrast, and therefore He sent six tribes of Israel to Mount Ebal and six tribes to Mount Gerizim. God did this to show us that not all that call upon His name have faith in their hearts, and to show that His sanctification is only upon the Mount of Blessing not the Mount of Cursing.

• Ebal: The Mount of Cursing
• Gerizim: The Mount of Blessing

Deuteronomy 11:29
“And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.”

Joshua 8:33
“And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.”

There is a valley between these two mountains, which depicts where the church is at right now. God is teaching by contrast who is on His side and who is not, who are His sheep and who are the goats. You’ll find that ministers point to the Mount of Blessing, point out that repentance is necessary, point out that turning to God is necessary, and point out that placing your faith in Jesus is necessary, but they are doing all this pointing from the wrong mount—they’re standing on Mount Ebal pointing towards the Mount of Blessing like an artist painting a scene that moves them.

An artist conveys the beauty of a river or mountain they are painting with each stroke of the brush as if by their passion they can hold it close to admire it, but there is no reality in the painting. In the same way, ministers look at the beauty of Christ and try to embrace Him through the passion of repentance and then turn away to do their own thing.

Where was God’s appointed stewardship and priesthood? Joshua and the tribes of Judah and Levi were on Mount Gerizim, they were not on Mount Ebal. If you are on the wrong hill you interpret the scriptures in light of your repenting, if you are on the hill of blessing you interpret the scriptures in the light of your priesthood.

Many believe they are doing God’s will when calling Christians to repentance. On the surface, it seems like a good thing to do, to make a call to repentance. They feel like they are renewing people to Jesus’ love. However, as the Spirit brings out, it is a shameful ruse as they give a person nothing to repent to, and therefore their love is not renewed. 

Repentance for them is a building block, but in that ministers do not have the covenant knowledge, tools, and priesthood to express Christ, they cannot move on from repentance to build the kingdom of God. They have no blueprint of truth nor building material for their faith to express Christ, so they cannot lead people into a genuine conversion.

True conversion possesses these 4 steps to bring a repentant sinner into covenant with God: 1) Grace, 2) Faith, 3) Righteousness, and 4) The Seal (baptism of the Holy Spirit), by which God engrafts His Spirit into you, thus taking ownership of your soul and establishes a covenant with you. God breathed His Spirit within you. Discipleship begins with God’s elect apostolic stewardship laying the 12 foundation stones of truth within your heart to equip you to build.

This is why both stewardship (Judah) and priesthood (Levi) were on the Mount of Blessing. All the blessings of Christ are found in this spiritual union, which God has now restored to the church. We see that in the absence of stewardship (apostolic governance) that the law of Moses (precept and line) prevails.

The altar of Christ, which God designed for your priesthood has become an altar of repentance, and repentance is that of the law. The law convicted Adamites regarding the state of their conscience. Because their conscience is defiled the law is a finger of accusation, saying, “You are not perfect before God.”

Only those who come to the hill of blessing receive the benefits of Christ. And so this was a point of division. A separation takes place and you have to pass over to the other side to the hill of blessing in order to benefit.

So then, one hill is the hill of cursing and the other hill is the hill of blessing. Everyone first comes to the altar, which is the law. This is the realization, the enlightenment, which is upon Mount Ebal, but the seal is upon mount Gerizim.

Many who have been enlightened by the Lord remain upon Mount Ebal repenting. They built their entire Christian experience on repeating this act. Their repentance has never passed on to the hill of blessing on Mount Gerizim. So they are still repenting on the hill by the law, trying to build a relationship with God based on the text.

I’ll show you why Ebal represents the law. This is where Joshua built an altar and plastered it over, and wrote upon them a copy of the law of Moses (Josh 8:30-32).

God illustrates the same thing the apostles teach in their epistles, that the life of the Spirit of Christ is not found in the law of Moses. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

So then, a call to repentance, while neglecting to join the faith of the repentant sinner to the terms of the new covenant, the new law of grace and truth, the new spiritual tools, and the new stewardship that oversees Jesus’ knowledge is to strand faith over there on Mount Ebal. This is not a genuine conversion and people are led into greater deception (believing the record of their soul to be proper building material for faith). How can you say you are leading others to Christ when you resist His covenant?

This is to exchange the anointing for the wisdom of man. There are two kinds of wisdom and two inclinations. One inclines to the wisdom of the world to find completion in their aspiration and the other inclines to the anointing to place the voice of God in the things of Christ to purge the conscience to keep the soul full of His light.

Moses provided a record for their faith, but not perfection for the state of the conscience. Now if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for the second. The conscience is the gate or the door to the soul. As also Jesus called Himself the door because He is the throne of God. The throne of God is the vortex or door or gate into the Father’s bosom. All of us have to receive the spiritual adoption and circumcision to qualify us to enter through that door.

Ministers of the false religious system brought a curse upon the church in moving the landmark of Christ. They moved His sacrifice from the hill of blessing to the hill of the curse. You can see that their rejection of the new covenant and the introduction of the doctrines of substitutionism whereby they select tokens to represent themselves before the throne of God rather than accept the gifts of Jesus’ propitiation.

Their enlightenment fell into despair. That which they first received never progressed to the hill of blessing so they are called accursed of God. Apostle Peter wrote the same thing when saying, “These are cursed children.” They have been enlightened by God but never progressed beyond that.

2 Peter 2:14
“Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children.”

The hill of blessing progresses into the land to overcome, while the hill of cursing remains there under the law where faith is restricted to the defiled conscience and never progresses. So they’re always repenting—and repenting again—and repenting again—because they’re standing by the law and the law condemns them.

Their profession of Jesus Christ is by the state of their conscience, which is defiled. They offer to God a philosophy of Jesus, while we offer to God Christ Himself. Every gift of His propitiation is what we offer back to God. It’s a direct reflection of Himself.

The false religious system remains on Mount Ebal, but those who are in covenant with God are on Mount Gerizim. Both sides were instructed to shout. Those who were on Mount Ebal were professed their iniquities, but those upon Mount Gerizim professed Christ’s righteousness. We profess Christ’s righteousness through the tokens He provided for us.

After each side shouted they read the book of the law. This was to teach the state of the conscience. On Mount Ebal is the carnal minded believer. He cannot comprehend Christ. He uses his logic when he reads the scriptures to form a psychology from them because he’s dealing with the law.

Many pastors are trying to awaken their congregations to prayer and repentance and use the word “breakthrough” to take the congregation beyond their present position. Most think of prayer as something they do before they eat or before they go to sleep. Their prayers center on their own self preservation, from the food, to the sleep, to the duties and needs of the next day—the cycle is one’s self.

The pastor cannot bring the congregation past this experience because he also is caught in the same loop. Rather than bonding and building with the anointing that the fire of the Spirit might continue through each cycle of regeneration, prayer is taken captive to serve man rather than God.