Passing Through Your Jordan

My son Chris, brought a friend over to the house whose name was Jordan. I was going to ask him if he had any idea of the significance of his name, but I didn’t. Then in church last Sunday during worship out of the blue, the Lord showed ME the significance of the Jordan, in History, in His-Story. The Jordan river basically begins at Mt Hermon. Mt Hermon is believed to be Mount Sinai by some and also the Mount of Transfiguration. The place the law was given, the place Jesus, the fulfillment of the law was in all his glory.

Now this is interesting: As we will see, everything about that Jordan, has to do passing through something to get to the other side. Being brought low for the purposes of G-d. Jesus himself was brought low humbled as a man, who came down, descended from heaven to earth to bring us from a place of separation from G-d to a place of unity with G-d

So the waters then flow down from Mt. Hermon, Heaven if you will, to the Sea of Galilee or Lake Kinneret, which is the lowest fresh water lake on earth, a place where Jesus did much of His preaching and actually first proclaimed Himself as Messiah. From there it flows down again into the Jordan river, the lowest river on earth and ends at the Dead Sea, the lowest sea and the lowest point on earth, 1,410 feet below sea level. The very name Jordan is from the Hebrew word Yarden which means “Flow Down” or “Decend”.

The Jordan is the place where things go from being one way, to being another way. It is a place we pass through, from something not good or OK to something good, or better.

We first see the significance of the Jordan in Joshua 3: 5 The Jews were to “Sanctify” themselves before crossing the Jordan to go into the promised land. Joshua 3:13-17 – Verse 13 it is the sole of the feet, not the tip of the toe. Faith. If the waters did not part, then they would have been swept down and overflowing river. Verse 16, the waters stood still from Adam. From the first man, to the promised land. The garden to the promised land. So we see 2 principles here. 1. The crossing of the Jordan requiring sanctification and Faith.

In the Passover we drink 4 times.

• The first cup is Sanctification – Sanctify before crossing
• The second cup is judgments – The faith needed to walk though
• The third cup is Redemption – The redemption on the other side
• The fourth is praise – Praise G-d

Everyone goes through troubles. Sometimes we bring those troubles upon ourselves. Sometimes it’s just life. But sometimes it is G-d bringing us through the Jordan for the purpose of bringing us into something much better. But if our troublesome experiences are to be part of what G-d is doing it must begin with sanctification through him. It must be walk-through by faith.

2 Kings 2:6-9 Elijah splits the Jordan.

Before Elijah is taken, we see this all repeating, both for him and Elisha. He is on the one side, he strikes the Jordan and by faith it parts, they go through the Jordan to the other side and Elijah is taken up into Glory (redemption) and Elisha receives a double portion.

2 Kings 2:12 Elisha splits the Jordan.

Can you even imagine what is was like when Elisha struck the waters? Will it work, do I got it???? (Father Carmine through me down a blessing) Will it part? Then he walks through again to a place of Redemption, yes, I have received the double portion.

Matthew 3: 1-4 – As Byron has preached before, John was the gateway from the Old Covenant, to the New Covenant.

Or as I like to say, the original covenant because old sounds like something that is done away with. True, the way to our redemption has changed from the law to faith in the Messiah, but what was promised did not pass away, it was fulfilled. And one again, now we have John, and we see this going from one place to another, the previous covenant to the new, by going through the Jordan. From Ok, to great.

Now we come to Jesus’ baptism, Matthew 3:14 (You talking to me?) Matthew 3:15 Jesus going in and coming out of the Jordan fulfills all righteousness. Redemption. Going from what was, to what is. Then He goes straight into the wilderness and comes out in the Power of the Spirit. Now I don’t want to take liberty here and try to spiritualize anything but let’s look at the country, Jordan.

In 1917 there was the Balfour Declaration. Declared by British foreign secretary Author James Balfour, it laid out the borders for a Jewish home land in an area that,at that time, was named Palestine by the Roman Emperor Hadrian to erase the Jewish name because of his hatred for the Jews. Then in 1920 the British Mandate reduced the size of the land.

In 1948 the land was reduced again and the Jews were given 1/6 of 1% of the region by the United Nations for the State of Israel, the Jewish homeland. They were attacked immediately from every side but held on and won.

In 1967 they were attacked by Syria to the north, Egypt to the south and Jordan to the east, the west was the Mediterranean. You see 1/6 of 1% of middle eastern land is 1/6 of 1% too much. Israel not only won, they won is 6 days and they took back possession of Jerusalem from it’s occupation from Jordan, for the first time in 2,000 years.

I didn’t realized how important this was until I heard a teaching from Dr. Michael Brown.

He spoke about the importance of the Jews having Jerusalem because in Luke 13:34 Jesus says that the Jews will not see Him until the say Baruch Haba B Shem Adonai, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

Zachariah 14:1,4 and 9 - Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives.

The same place that he entered Jerusalem in Triumph on Palm Sunday, the same place that he ascended after the resurrection, is where He will return.

So you see. If He is returning to Jerusalem to be seen by Jews, He must return to a Jewish inhabited Jerusalem.

And then, the end is come. Total redemption for all who believed.

So, that’s my into. I said all that to say, What is your Jordan? What was your Jordan that you walked through? What have you gone through by Faith to get to the other side, the side of your fulfillment?

Are you continually walking through your Jordan over and over again because rather than submitting to the great work the Lord wants to bring you through, you’re resisting Him and looking at the temporal discomfort?

Fuzz (A high school friend of mine) told me when I first came back to New York about going through tests over and over until you pass them. G-d told me once He was less concerned about my temporal comfort than He was concerned about my eternal condition.

I believe we need to declare that our Jordan was as successful for us as it was for the children of Israel going into the promised land, as it was for Elijah and Elisha, as it was for Jesus Himself. If we have indeed walked through, seeking the purposes of God and embracing what he is doing in us and through us, passing through those waters. At the same time if we did not walk through those waters sanctified in faith, then we need to look at our next Jordan experience differently.

We need to embrace it, we need to learn all we can while going through, it believing that G-d will bring us to the other side and hold the waters back for us.Then we need to claim our prize on the other side.

Look at where you are and where you want to go and spiritually pass through the Jordan to the other side of the promise.