The Black Horse: Zechariah 3–4 unto Isaiah 19 and John 17

I recently felt alerted by the Holy Spirit that we are entering into a very important season— it is not a week or a month — it is a long season by the Holy Spirit.

This is a very strange title, the strangest title I have ever had for a message, “The Black Horse.” Like what? Zechariah 3–4. It is unto Isaiah 19 and John 17. Everybody knows John 17, that supernatural work in the end-time church. The body of Christ is unified at a level that is Supernatural. The reason that John 17 is so dramatic because that family unity in the Body of Christ happens in the same generation where a culture of betrayal in the Body of Christ is happening — at the same time. It is quite a paradox that the end-time harvest, the billion-soul harvest, happens in the same timeframe that the falling away happens.

The John-17-family unity is profound. I don’t mean it is like the Methodists and the Baptists doing a citywide outreach together. It is far deeper than that. We ALL come together and have an outreach, and that is John 17. This is a supernatural unity that is coming, but in context to what Jesus said in Matthew 24, when betrayal is unprecedented at that time in human history. Betrayal is not enemies against enemies. It is friends who become enemies. Betrayal is a family matter.

So John 17 is where it is going. Some of you would not know this — you do not need to know this right now — but Isaiah 19 is the epicenter of that John 17 unity. It is a supernatural work. It is a global Body-of-Christ work, and the epicenter is in the Middle East with Israeli, Arab, and Egyptian believers showcasing it to the nations.

The Lord wants the whole Body of Christ participating in that dramatic, divine purpose which Isaiah 19 describes in the Middle East, when Israel enters into their national salvation. The nations are shocked and stunned when they see the unity, but the Body of Christ across the earth, we are all in it together. That is Isaiah 19 and John 17.

You are a little bit familiar now with where I am headed–Zechariah 3–4. I was really blessed by Dean Brigg’s message last week on Zechariah 3. As I was taking notes and listening to him, I was reminded that — and the question came to me — well, first I was reminded that Zechariah —whenever the Lord says Zechariah 4, it includes Zechariah 3; it is one conversation. Whenever He says Zechariah 3, He means also Zechariah 4. The Holy Spirit has emphasized these two chapters often just saying four but meaning three and four. Sometimes He says, three, but He means three and four as well. So chapters three and four go together. In fact, Zechariah 3–4 is God’s answer to a sinful, broken people concerning how He can use them. In the context, He gave glorious promises in Zechariah 1–2. Then in Zechariah 3–4 the question was, how could people like us enter those promises?

Over and over again the Lord says, as if it were, “People like you–I have a plan for you weak and broken people. I have a plan of supernatural provision. I have a plan of love covering a multitude of sins. I have a plan of overcoming the spirit of accusation. I have called you for such a time as this.”

You don’t have to enter into it just for your own heart and well-being. You have to be able to impart it to other people as well. Not just people around us. This Zechariah 3–4 ability to overcome the spirit of accusation, and to walk in confidence and love that covers a multitude of sins, and all of these things that are implied in this chapter–we need to impart, well not impart, but inspire and equip people. There is going to be a massive revival in the Middle East among Jews, Arabs, and Egyptians. There is so much bad sentiment from over the generations they have to overcome, even as believers.

I know some of believers over there, and some of them just feel really unsure about believers on the other side of the “state line.” Just like, “I am not sure about them.” The biggest social animosity in history is there, and it is going to be overcome. That is one front I am looking at. We are going to be a part of that. We have to embrace this reality to be able to impart it. We cannot impart it and be a part of it, if we do not embrace it in our own life.

Well the answer in the Middle East for the greatest animosity of social unrest is the same answer to the Body of Christ in the social tensions on our globe. The racial tensions here within the Body of Christ. I am not talking about the secular society; that is another subject. Within the Body of Christ it is answered the same way. It is in Zechariah 3–4. It is the same way with the tensions of ministries that are hostile towards one another. Ministries that oppose each other. The Lord says, “I am going to bring you into it, too. I am going to do it in the Middle East. I am going to do it among the races all over the world. I am going to do it among all the ministries and denominations all over the world as well. I want you to be a part of that.”

You cannot be a part of it by just saying, “Yay, what a great message!” You have to live in it in your private life to be able to impart it to others in those three big arenas.

The core reality of Zechariah 3 — again, if you do not know Zechariah 3, which a lot of you don’t, why should you know Zechariah 3? Who knows Zechariah 3? My goodness, I mean I never did — You do not have to study it all right now, but I have summed up the core reality here. It is this prayer. Make this your personal prayer. If this grows in you and me, Zechariah 3 will happen. I ask the Lord, “Lord let me see what You see. Let me feel what You feel when You look at me and when You look at others.”

I want to see and feel what the Lord sees and feels when He looks at me. That is the key to my heart becoming awakened in love. A man or a woman who loves Jesus but is weighed down under a spirit of accusation will never be awakened in love in a deep way. They will have so much emotional managing to do; their emotional bandwidth will be just overloaded managing accusation. The enemy wants to use it to shut down your heart. He does not want to use it just against you; he wants to use against others so that you are not connected to them too.

Satan’s great weapon against God’s people — his great weapon — I call it a two-fold accusation. He wants to convince them to accuse themselves and not to let go of the testimony of their failures or what they lack or their deficiency. He wants to keep them in accusation.

As other part of the two-fold, he wants you to be locked into the narrative of how other people have mistreated you or how you did not get what you deserved. He wants you locked into that. He does not want you to let go of that accusation against them. As we overcome this two-fold accusation, we have confidence in God as individuals and we mature in love as a spiritual family.

Zechariah 3:1, I am just going to describe it a bit. You can read it on your own. Joshua the leader — I am going to make it kind of contemporary and popular — Joshua was the leader of the temple. He was the spiritual leader. He was the leader of the prayer and worship movement in his generation.

Satan came before the Lord and said, “I have something against him. He is disqualified.”

The Angel of the Lord stood and said, “The Lord rebukes you, because the Lord has a different narrative for Joshua than your narrative, Satan.”

Satan’s two-fold accusation, Jesus will not tolerate it in your personal failures. I am talking about sincere believers who repent. Okay, the whole time I am talking about that. Romans 8:1, I declare it over you, “There is therefore now no condemnation in Christ Jesus!” Let it go and move on in confidence. Let me give another verse. 1 Peter 4:8, “Love covers a multitude of sins.” When you walk in love, you will cover the sins of the people around you. I am talking about people who have said no to those sins. Love covers. Love does not expose.

The Angel of the Lord says, “Take away the dirty garments from Joshua,” the leader of the prayer and the worship movement in the temple. I am talking about how this applies to thousands of leaders in the Body of Christ today. The Lord says, “Here is My story. Take away the dirty garments, and put new ones on him, and recommission him.”

Look in Zechariah 3:3. It says that Joshua was clothed in filthy garments: his deficiencies, his failures. Some of them are real, but Satan always exaggerates them. He always puts them on the lips of others who exaggerate them further.

The Lord says, “Take away the filthy garments. Give him new ones.” He tells Joshua, “See, I have given you new ones.” You know, it is a glorious day when the Spirit of God captures your attention and says, “See, I gave you new garments. Let that thing go. Be bold in your confidence before Me. I gave them new garments, too, so embrace them in love and walk together — in that John 17 reality.”

Look at Zechariah 3:8. He says, “By the way, Joshua, you and your companions, your leadership team.” These were fellow priests in the temple. He says, “Joshua.” Look at this, verse 8. He says, in effect, “Hear this. I want you to see yourself differently. I showed you a minute ago I gave you new garments. I want you to see yourself differently. Now I want you to hear this,” verse 8, “hear what the Spirit is saying. You and your team, your companions, you are a prophetic sign of My generosity.”

When you see it — now you got to catch it, not just when you see it and say, “Yay!” — No, no, now you have to give it to everyone around you. You are not just a receiver of it. You are a dispenser of the generosity of God. He said, “I am making you a prophetic sign. I am going to show the nations how generous I am in how I can transform people to walk in generosity together. You are a prophetic sign.” That is a fantastic message! Zechariah 3 is so good.

To say it just in a nutshell, the God narrative of your life — this is the core message of Zechariah 3 — is a view of your life through the lens of His kindness. It is the big story view of your life. It is not only the seventy-eighty-year story, but it is the one-billion-year story too. God views your life through the lens of His own heart of grace.

Satan has a very opposite story; he has an accusation narrative against you. His desire is to put it into the lips of the people you live with, the people you work with, the people you serve in the kingdom with. He wants the accusation narrative to thrive. God says, “I rebuke you, Satan!”

That narrative is not going to lead the Body of Christ into John 17. That narrative will feed the betrayal culture that is exploding in the nations, and in the Church as well. The unity family movement is exploding as well. They are all emerging right now simultaneously.

God’s Glory in the End-time Church (Mt. 5:44 unto Jn. 17:23)

My main takeaway — it is a big takeaway, but in another way, it is a very small takeaway. It is a challenging one, but it is easy to get — the Lord is leading His people in these days into the John 17:23 transformation. He is leading me into it, you into it. I have John 17:23 right here: that we would be perfected, that we would be matured in our unity.

That is my takeaway: that God is going to have a family movement where the nations, the world, the unbelieving world will see the family transformation. They will see the betrayal movement as well, but they are going to see in context to it as well in contrast to this incredible generosity of believers toward one another.

Believers are going to say, “I am going to love that guy over there and that ministry over there. I am going to love that denomination over there.” Unbelievers are going to ask them why. “Because God’s heart is ravished for them like His heart is ravished for me.”

They are going to say, “What are you talking about?”

I say, “God loves them. I don’t like some of the things they do, but God loves them in such an intense way, and I see it. Therefore, I am relating to them differently now. I am covering them and standing with them in various ways.”

The unbelieving world will watch this family dynamic in many spheres in the Body of Christ, again in the racial tensions, the denominational ministry, opposition to one another in the Middle East. And, those Arab and Egyptian and Jewish people who come to the Lord, they are not going to come in sanctified on day one. They are going to come in with their baggage. Who is going to train them? How are they going to be the epicenter of this global John 17 reality? We are all going to be a part of it together.

Well, in one sentence — well, it is actually two — Matthew 5:44. Here is the simple word right here. Jesus gives four exhortations. You already know them:

1. Love your enemies. Okay, we know that. We don’t do it that much, but, yeah, we get that.
2. Bless. That is, use your words; do not carry the accusation narrative against them. The Lord knows. Bless them as much as is truth, but you’re not going to expose them. You are going to bless them.
3. You are going to do good for them. It is going to blow the minds of unbelievers. Why? Because you are going to say, “God values them, and God was good to me, so that is why I am good to them.”

“Wow, what do you know about God that I do not know?” is what they will say.

4. Finally, pray for them.

Here it is right here, verse 45. You will be seen as like Your heavenly Father. This is the goal. This is the crowning work of John 17. Believers who not just are talking, but they act like their heavenly Father who is good to evil people. I am not talking about the evil guy you have never met who did something bad like cause an economic trouble or did something. Okay, I will forgive him; I see his face on the news.

I am talking about people you are in relationship with. I am talking about people up close and personal. Betrayal Jesus said in Matthew 24 — betrayal is not enemies who do not know each other. Those are friends who become enemies. That is where betrayal comes. The only way to this glorious transformation, John 17, by embracing and imparting this Matthew 5:44 spirit to be like our heavenly Father. That is His agenda for my life that I am like Him. That is a great agenda.

My journey in the seminary of the Holy Spirit’s leadership training

I am going to tell you a little of my story. I am going to do rapid-fire through this. My journey began, my first supernatural encouner, I was twenty-one years old and the Lord says, “You are going to have many people oppose you.” Like why? I like people! I am a nice gal! “You are going to have many who are going to oppose you.”

He said that, then Psalm 18:35, the strangest verse I ever heard of when I was twenty-one. God is going to show you His gentleness, Psalm 18. His gentleness is going to make you great. Like, what? I do not want His gentleness! I want His Rambo-ness, you know! Gentleness will make me great? That is the strangest sentence I have ever heard in terms of a Bible prophecy.

The Lord said many are going to oppose me— He made it clear, really clear in the years that would follow. I did not understand. I was mystified. I wrote it down. People said, “What is it?” and I said, “I don’t have a clue” — The Lord showed me. He said He was going to be gentle with our weaknesses like He was with David. He is doing this with millions of people. That is just the beginning of the story. He is going to require you to be gentle with the weaknesses of others. Your greatness will be found in your gentleness toward others against whom you have a case. You will make choices that God will call great because they are like Him. For example Matthew 5, the verse we just looked at, loving your enemies. That is where my greatness would consist, in those choices.

I said, “I like You being gentle to me.”

He said, “Yeah, but when I am gentle to you, that is going to empower you to be gentle to them, and your greatness is you being gentle to them. People who really, really mistreat you, believers.” In forty over years of my life I have had an amount of betrayals, by close friends. Things did not go their way. I am sure I contributed to it this way or that way. Sometimes I did, and sometimes I did not. It is not my point. My point is the Lord brings me back over and over to this, “I have been gentle to them. Your greatness in My sight is in you being gentle towards them too.” Carry the “Zechariah 3” God narrative. Do not carry the accusation narrative. Yes, they have this, that, and the other deficiency. They have those failures. They did it. They are not even repenting. You carry the God narrative towards them. “You are going to have many who come against you, many who will accuse you. You must not answer your accusers. You must just bless them and trust God.”

I thought, “Ugh, I don’t like that word that much, I mean a little bit.” I said, “Okay, I will bless them, and You will vindicate me in Your time. Okay, You will vindicate me.” The good part is when God vindicates, it lasts. When you vindicate, you got to redo it next month, over and over and over again, when you do it.

The Lord would say, “Well, that is true, but that is not My main message. My message in you blessing them is not that I would vindicate you in My timing. My message in you blessing them is I am going to transform you. You are going to drink the cup through that process of blessing them. You are going to find My narrative towards them. You are going to drink this cup. When it touches you, you are going to be able to impart it at a critical hour of history.” This same message is to you. This is not a personal thing; well, it is personal too.

Some time later, it was the “Song of Solomon 8:6” word. “I am going to put the seal of love on your heart”. Some of you, you think, “I don’t have clue what that gal is talking about.” I understand that. Well, Song of Solomon 8:6, “The seal of love on the heart” includes God saying, “My heart is ravished over you” “My heart is ravished for My beloved.”

I was shocked some years later when the Lord said, “My heart is ravished for you, Monika, but My heart is ravished for him too, the man that betrayed you, the man that is attacking you.”

I went, “What?”

“The message of the seal of love and the ravished heart is not just to make you say, ‘Wow!’ for your own benefit. That is good. That is where it starts. You have to drink it and give it to him, because I am the same towards him as I am towards you. I am ravished for him.”

“I thought the ‘ravished heart of God’ message was so I could feel an emboldened love between You and me, and that is where the story stops.”

“No, so you would be gentle in the way you treat believers who betray you.” Good friends, I mean I have been betrayed by really good friends, incredible. It is human nature. The Lord would say, “Just bless them because you will be best friends with them forever. Do not worry about it. I am changing you. You have need of this journey.” Then the Lord let me know that, yeah, He will vindicate me, but that is not the big point. He will transform me because I have need of it.

Then the word “I delight in you”. That is not just “God delights in me in my weakness.” That is where it starts. God delights in you when you are weak and coming against me. When your weakness comes against me and betrays me, He still delights in His relationship with you. The Lord would say, “The Hephzibah message is far bigger than your personal heart encouragement before the Lord. It is your message to the people who come against you. It is the John 17 reality in the culture of betrayal that is exploding in the Body of Christ. It is Zechariah 3; it is the God narrative. It is not the accusation narrative. You have to lean into it, even with believers who are fully against you, because I am not against them; they are mine. My heart is ravished for them. They bug you, but I love them.” Ugh. “I want you to see what I see and to feel what I feel when I look at them. I want you to work the muscle now.” Really? Why don’t I just preach the sermon, give them a good set of handout notes, and move on?

The black Horse: understanding the leadership

I get transformed when I am being betrayed if I respond in Matthew 5:44. If I do not respond to it well, the good thing about the Lord is you missed the test, so you get to take it again. He would say, “Hey, don’t worry! I will give it to you again.”

I have identified three “Holy Spirit seminary” seasons related to this black horse. The black horse is not just a season of attack. It is an attack, but that is not the main point. The black horse represents a divine alert that you are about to be attacked because He is going to give you opportunity to work the muscle to become like God [in your character]. He would say, “I want you to bless, do good, cover, bless, do good, cover. If you grow in that, I will give you a reprieve. Then another season will come. Then another season will come. Then you will be ready for such a time as this to impart it to others in my global drama.” I don’t mean me involved globally; I am talking about millions of us involved in this global drama.

So this black horse, this visionary encounter my dear friend received, this demon being, this demonic power that is symbolized by a black horse comes. This horse is, I don’t really know, I remeber him describing it like twenty-five feet tall. It is not like he got out a stick and measured it. His chest is about seven or eight feet wide. He has huge wings. He is the dragon of Revelation 12 or he is of the dragon of Revelation 12 is probably more accurate. This black horse, this dragon-like creature, comes up to him, and he shatters his right kneecap in this visionary encounter. In reality his knee was injured so severely he could hardly walk for six weeks.

So this black horse comes and shatters his leg. It is so painful. Michael the archangel appeared. Michael the archangel has made an intervention in this prophetic history for a “one-moment, one time” in his forty years ministry, and it is in this encounter. Beloved, when Michael the archangel appears for a moment, it is very significant, even if it is ever so brief. Here is what Michael the archangel said, “When you go to the east, the rage of Satan,” he was pointing at the black horse, “will strike you.” Then he showed him Augustine — his good friend. He shows him this man (Augustine) whom God was going to use to strike my friend and told him the timing of when it was going to happen. Then Michael at the end shows that there needs to be a response in love to come out in the glory of God on the other side. Because, it is about coming out in the fulness of the Spirit. It is not about poor you if you get hit. It is about being transformed in the hit. So the White Horse comes out in the full glory of God. They are walking in love, the John 17 reality, the Matthew 5:44, loving and blessing and doing good, looking like our heavenly Father.

Well, this encounter was over; the two-minute version of a very long, complicated story that was hard to tell. The problem was the man who was shown (Augustin) was a good friend of his. They had, I don’t know, fifteen, maybe twenty lunches in 6 month period together. How many times have you had fifteen or twenty lunches with a friend during the 6 month period? They were good friends. My friend said, “That is not possible, not possible.”

As this black horse was snorting, out of his nostrils came this dark smoke. This smoke comes on people. When it comes on people, it changes their mindset. They get enraged, and they get caught up and become vessels of Satan’s rage. That is what Michael said, “the rage of Satan,” though really good people get caught up in that for a moment or two or longer.

Well, my friend was done with this encounter. He didn’t know what to do with it. Then the Lord says “You go to the east.” Well, five years later he goes to the east. Immediately everything seemed okay, you know. That was a weird encounter. It was five years later. Five years later he goes to the east. This friend, Augustin, betrayed him in the most intense way. It created an international controversy that went around the world. It was a controversy that is so widespread.

Six months after he did this my friend was up all night with Holy Spirit insomnia. He didn’t know it was the Holy Spirit insomnia until it was over. He was up all night. He was reading the Song of Solomon because the Lord had told him two years earlier to do Song of Solomon. He did not like Song of Solomon. He did not like it at all, to be honest. He was trying to like it. He was two years into it, thinking, “Ugh, this book is flowers, perfume, body parts. This is not my book.” He was trying hard to like it. He had not even taught on it yet, but he was trying to like it.

The Lord spoke to him. It was remarkable. He said, as he was reading, “My heart is ravished for you.” He said, “Oh, Lord.” He felt His presence. The Lord went on, “Did you know My heart is ravished for him too, this man who spoke these evil things against you?” My friend thought, “What do You mean, Your heart is ravished?” The Lord said, “I want you to see and feel what I see and feel. You need to see and feel like I do or I cannot use you the way I plan to in the years to come.”

Do you see His heart?

I was under this divine constraint for life too, not for a season, not for a semester, for life with everybody, not just him. So are you. I just do not know if you know it. I am dead serious. You really are.

“The black horse will never let go.” When the Lord highlights it, He is telling us we are in a seminary season to do Matthew 5:44, to love our enemies, to see God’s heart ravished for them, to have information about them, never make it known, but instead bless them, pray for them, and be transformed inch by inch. I am not saying I was transformed enough. I do not have any grid for if I did great or not great.

The Lord says, “You must bless, you must pray, you must stand with him, and I will change your wicked, little, weak heart if you do it.” He didn’t say it that way, but that is what I would say.