Cities of Refuge | Part 5

Jesus completed the forty-day wilderness journey that took a generation—paralleling Moses' journey. This includes the baptism (Red Sea), the cross (coming out of Egypt), and the resurrection (new-creation people), all fulfilling His plans to restore all things to God’s glory on earth. We do not need to redo what Jesus did. Our forty-day journey of becoming part of the resurrection body of Christ begins with understanding our identity in Him. Today, we are children of God, Holy, and set apart because Jesus is our High Priest, raised from the dead. Kedesh is the city of refuge that honors this promise in the Scriptures.

When the Holy Spirit reveals to our spirit, we have already been on the cross with Jesus, buried with Him, and now raised from the dead in Christ, seated with Him in heavenly places. Our one assignment is to renew our minds to be the manifestation of Christ’s body in the earth.

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 NIV).

“So, from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we no longer do. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:16-18) NIV).

“Regarding no one from a worldly point of view” begins by judging themselves first. Are we seeing ourselves and others through our humanity or through the eyes and heart of Christ? Jesus is our first fruit of many to be “As He is, so are we today in this world,” (1 John 4:17 NIV).

The 40 days Jesus appeared on the earth as the resurrected Christ were to cleanse the land, as our High Priest, who died and is now alive. He set the captive free from the refuge cities, beginning with those who are children of God to be royalty and priests unto the Lord while in our natural body. 

“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). We did not choose Him, but God chose us before the foundation of the world in Christ (Romans 5:8). 

The sin of falling short of His glory (Romans 3:23) is the ignorance of not knowing you are a Christ one already.

God said in Psalm 82:6 NIV, “I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.”

Jesus confirms these spoken words of God to the religious leaders in John 10:34 NIV, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are ' gods'?”

Crossing the Jordan River from Kedesh to Golan at the next city of refuge located in the East Manasseh territory.

We know of the crossing of the Jordan River and the conquest of Jericho, but there were two other crossings of the Jordan that are just as important. Crossing the Jordan River was different than crossing the Red Sea. We don’t need to have a coming-out-of-Egypt experience because Jesus Christ died once for all humanity and all creation (2 Corinthians 5:14-15 KJV). What we need is a circumcision of our heart to be in the oneness of the heart of Christ.

Resurrection morning is the beginning of the unveiling of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Meeting His disciples at Kedesh was a declaration that they were sanctified, holy, and set apart with His name, nature, and authority. They had a purpose to set the captives free as the oracles of a king and priest unto God, reclaiming the land and the people for God’s glory on the earth.

This first Jordan crossing from Kedesh to the next refuge city in East Manasseh was about ten miles north of the Sea of Galilee at the “Waters of Merom”, or Lake Huleh. This was the place that Joshua and the children of Israel had their final battle in the land of Canaan, known for greed in government, economics, education, religion, communication, families, and ego. Here they fought the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Hivites. It was a huge army that came against them, but the Lord had told Joshua not to be afraid and that He would hand them all over to Israel. Joshua needed to cut the legs of their horses and burn their chariots while fighting in the swamp land in this area (Joshua 11:4-9 KJV). 

In Joshua chapter eleven, we begin with the mention of King Jabin, who rules in the city of Hazor in this area. He had heard about the battles that Israel had won and sent messages to the surrounding kings, urging them to unite against Joshua. Let’s look at the names of these kings and what they mean to us.

King Jabin means wisdom in the city of Hazor, which means discerner and oppression.

King Jabab means sorrowful, hated, tense, conflict, and violent in the city of Madon, which means contention and judgment.

These two kings were ruling in the promised land of the tribe of Naphtali, where the refuge city of Kedesh is located. Naphtali means that our wrestling with life is over and that we now have the fullness of joy and celestial jubilation.

King Shimron means guardian and watchful.

King Akshaph means witchcraft, sorcery, and enchantment.

These two kings ruled in the promised lands of the tribes of Zebulun, Issachar, and Asher. The promise to Zebulun was that my husband, Jesus Christ, would dwell with me in the land. The promise to Issachar was the spiritual reward of wisdom and understanding in heavenly discernment while occupying the land on earth. Asher represents the spirit of joy, blessings, fortune, and jubilation within our natural bodies.

King Jabin also sent messages to the Canaanites on both sides of the Jordan River. This was a tribe known for its rebellious and prideful spirit. He also reached out to the Amorites living on the summit, seeking fame and the next spectacle. The Hittites were notorious for spreading fear, terror, and dread of the unknown. The Perizzites were wanderers who attached themselves as bondservants to other kings. The Jebusites were known for dwelling on negative past experiences and for relying on logic and reason rather than hope and faith. All these tribes and kings carried a spirit like that of the Girgashites, a mixture of pride and partial truths that appeared real.

The city of Hazor was the “head” of all the kingdoms that were in these lands from Mount Hermon, where the waters came off the highest mountain, flowing into the Sea of Galilee. This is also the region where Jesus asked the disciples who people said He was. The religious beliefs of all these tribes and kingdoms were tied to the land and agriculture, not dying and leaving the earth. They had to deal with the gods Baal and Asherah: the belief in unknown powers over the fertility of the land and its people, and in their reproduction.

When we have established in our hearts the refuge of Kedesh – separated, holy, and sanctified because we are in Christ, married to Jesus Christ who is the head of the body, we then must deal with the strongholds that have been in our lives speaking “junk” between our ears. Today, we don’t literally need to fight people to reclaim the land inheritance God has promised us, but to reclaim our identity in Christ Jesus as bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh while in our natural bodies.

Joshua was told to cut the horses' hamstrings and burn the chariots. For us today, we need to be led by the Holy Spirit rather than by the spirit of logic, reason, and the familiar ways of man's cultures and traditions. Burning the chariots today would be to allow the Holy Spirit to consume us with the presence of Christ; however, just as we see with the story of Joshua resting until the next generation, so we must continue to explore the unveiling of our day-to-day cleansing to unveil Christ in the earth in our natural body for the glory of God.

“Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me must let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me, and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I’m leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn’t, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:23-27 Msg).

As we continue our journey to the next refuge city, we must remind ourselves that we enter these lands to reclaim our inheritance in the earth as new creations in Christ Jesus today.