Hi Mike,

Again I must say thank you to yourself and your wife and family for all the effort you go through to answer our questions.

I was reading one of the e- mails you have responded to and posted on your site, and it contained this verse.

Luk 15:4  What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

Luk 15:5  And when he hath found [ it], he layeth [ it] on his shoulders, rejoicing.

Luk 15:6  And when he cometh home, he calleth together [ his] friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

Luk 15:7  I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Now I have seen this verse many times, but since reading and learning from your site this verse has caused me some confusion. My question was going to be: why are the 99 left in the WILDERNESS?

Luk 15:4  What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

My carnal mind is screaming out: NOT me. I’m not going to leave 99 sheep out in the WILDERNESS just to find one that is lost. That’s silly, while I’m out looking for the lost sheep, wolves could get in among the flock, killing and maiming some in my herd and scattering the rest into smaller herds (Churches). Or some could just wander off and become lost sheep themselves, or again split into many herds eating the grass that is sweetest to their own taste. So to my carnal mind I don’t see the benefit of saving one to lose many. So “WHAT MAN OF YOU…” well, not me and not any farmer I know. And if they did go looking for the lost sheep, they certainly would not leave the 99 in the wilderness. They would bring them back to a corral or something like that or get another shepherd to look after them.

So I decided to try and think like Mike would as I have heard him many times on the audios.

So who are the sheep… ME

Who is the shepherd … Christ.

So “WHAT MAN OF YOU…” .. it can be only Christ, “my words are spirit”

But that’s all external and Mike said everything has an internal or self application, so what is it? Well, if it’s internal then the sheep have to represent false DOCTRINE and the lost sheep then becomes a true DOCTRINE and the Shepherd then becomes ME. Wait, I’m not going to leave my 99 sheep to save one! The carnal versus the spiritual.

Luk 15:5  And when he hath found [ it], he layeth [ it] on his shoulders, rejoicing.

Why does he lay it on his shoulders? Why doesn’t he let it walk and guide it? Is he afraid it will get lost again or hurt? Well, two things strike me about this; one is the sheep (ME outwardly) is being carried (a nice way of being DRAGGED) back to the flock. Secondly, I have the image of the man made of gold, silver, copper, iron and clay. Now where is that sheep or true doctrine being carried? Around the neck so it’s below the gold head but resting on the silver shoulders. This to me reinforces that the sheep represents a true Doctrine of GOD. I have many images colliding in my head right now with that connection and I’m unable to explain them all, but I’m seeing the Gold as representing Christ (incorruptible and pure Doctrine) while the Silver is God’s Elect and true Doctrine being given to them. The Gold head also represents God giving the Sheep (Christ) to the elect the Silver shoulders. The rest of the flock make up the other metal components of the metal man and false or corrupted doctrine. And internally to me what does it mean? This is the hardest part – applying the scriptures to myself. Well, I’m the shepherd, and I have found a true doctrine and I’m not willing to let it go. I will chase or follow that one doctrine until I have it secured and safe; losing or risking all my other doctrines to do so.

Luk 15:6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together [ his] friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

Notice in this verse when he finds the sheep he does not take it back to the 99 in the wilderness. He takes it home and calls his friends and family to celebrate. Strange… What about the 99 now lost in the wilderness? This guy won’t make a good farmer. Anyway, I can see how this applies to me; wrong – I can’t see; I have been shown how this applies to me. I don’t know how many times I read Mikes e- mails and read were he tells us not to go out and tell others what you have learned unsolicited. I read it lots, but of course like the man above, as soon as I found a truth in God’s word that was shown to me, I raced out to share it with as many people as I could thinking they would all see and feel the same way I did about the doctrine of God. And Mike was right. They didn’t get it because they don’t have eyes to see or ears to hear at this time. So I can see how the above verse applies to me. I have received a true Doctrine of God and I want to share it with all.

Well, Mike, I started this e- mail to you to ask a question, but I think while typing this message someone has shown me the meaning. I’m not comfortable with saying I may have already been shown the meaning as I’m not convinced yet that I have been given eyes to see or ears to hear as there is still a lot of sin in my life.

Well, God bless you all and keep safe.

O____

Hi O____,

It is gratifying to me to see that God is giving you eyes that see spiritual matters through the physical words of scripture.

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Do not allow the Adversary to make you doubt what God is doing in your life simply because “there is still a lot of sin in my life.” If we had to be completely sinless before God started opening our eyes, then none of us would even begin to understand the spiritual lessons behind Christ’s parables. We must start somewhere, and God’s work on our behalf starts with us all while “we are yet sinners.”

Rom 5:6  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Rom 5:8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So it is “sinners… without strength… lost sheep… in need of a physician… and blind from their mother’s womb” in whom Christ begins His work.

The story or parable itself is never the point of any of Christ’s parables. The story is physical, but the point is spiritual. If this is not so then Christ would be commending all “unjust stewards,” who rip off their master’s possessions. But the unjust steward is not the point. What is the point is the ingenuity, foresight and resourcefulness of the unjust steward. He saw the inevitable future and took the necessary steps to prepare for that inevitability. The unjust steward is plainly labeled a “child of this world.” The only thing we should have in common with the unjust steward is our desire “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”, and to do what is necessary to be prepared for our inevitable trials.

Luk 16:8  And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

It was Jacob, God’s elect in type, who stole Esau’s blessing and who tricked Esau out of His birthright. We are not to steal or trick anyone out of anything, but that story does tell us that unseen promises should mean more to us than red pottage which can be seen.

Gen 25:30  And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red [ pottage]; for I [ am] faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
Gen 25:31  And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
Gen 25:32  And Esau said, Behold, I [ am] at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
Gen 25:33  And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
Gen 25:34  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

That story is a parable of how we should value the things of the spirit. It is not an example of how we should go about obtaining them. Now the image you reference is the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream concerning the various kingdoms of the beast:

Dan 2:28  But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;
Dan 2:29  As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came [ into thy mind] upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.
Dan 2:30  But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for [ any] wisdom that I have more than any living, but for [ their] sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.
Dan 2:31  Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness [ was] excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof [ was] terrible.
Dan 2:32  This image’s head [ was] of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
Dan 2:33  His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Dan 2:34  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet [ that were] of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Dan 2:36  This [ is] the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
Dan 2:37  Thou, O king [ of Babylon], art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
Dan 2:38  And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
Dan 2:39  And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
Dan 2:40  And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all [ things]: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
Dan 2:41  And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
Dan 2:42  And [ as] the toes of the feet [ were] part of iron, and part of clay, [ so] the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
Dan 2:43  And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
Dan 2:44  And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, [ but] it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Dan 2:45  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
Dan 2:46  Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.

“That you might know the thoughts of your heart,” means that we must all come to see ourselves for the beasts that we are. So the gold and silver of that image represents the gold and silver of  Babylon.

Rev 18:11  And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Rev 18:12  The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

It is of utmost importance that we realize that Babylon also has “gold, silver, and precious stones, within her. But her gold is cankered and it is used to cover idols of the heart instead of the doctrines of Christ.

Having said all of that, all of your analogies to the true and positive applications of gold and silver are very scriptural. Christ and His doctrines are our ‘golden head,’ in the stead of the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Every one of your analogies used the positive application of the words you deal with, but there is no iron or iron mixed with clay, in Christ. But His feet, which mean, His walk, or His life in us, is “as brass in a furnace.”

Rev 1:15  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

The “brass, as if they burned in a furnace” is not silver or gold because it is Christ in our bodies of sinful flesh. This is the five brass sockets of the five pillars of the first door of the tabernacle. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom so it is typified by “brass in a furnace,” of fiery trials, judging us and purifying us and transforming us as we enter into the tabernacle, where we are transformed into the silver and gold which we see within the door of the tabernacle, in the temple of God, as the four silver sockets upon which the four pillars of gold stand, between the holy place and the holy of holies. Salvation is a process that goes on and grows “from glory to glory.”

Exo 36:36  And he made thereunto four pillars of shittim [ wood], and overlaid them with gold: their hooks [ were of] gold; and he cast for them four sockets of silver.
Exo 36:38  And the five pillars of it with their hooks: and he overlaid their chapiters and their fillets with gold: but their five sockets were of brass.
Rev 3:12  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [ which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [ I will write upon him] my new name.
2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Scripturally we are all dust, changed into lead, then tin, then iron, then copper (mistranslated in KJV as ‘brass’), then silver, and finally into pure “tried in the fire” gold.

Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [ that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

All metals are purified by fire, which typifies all the trials of life.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

These “fiery trials” are common to all men, and all men first build with inferior materials, as they “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13  Every man’ s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Your application of the symbols of scripture is right on. Do not be discouraged that you are still struggling against the flesh and the principalities that feed upon your flesh.

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [ places]. [ Greek, ‘the heavens’ of our hearts and minds].

Be patient and endure to the end. “All things [ including your doubts and trials] are of God.”

2Co 5:18  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

He is doing His work in your life, and He is doing it on His schedule. He that endures to the end, and overcomes will be made a pillar in the door of His temple through which all of mankind will come to God.

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

It is the greatest honor which can be bestowed upon mankind, and the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which will be revealed in us.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike