I kept hearing in my spirit "Sprinkle the people." One might think this would mean the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, with which I was more familiar, but I knew this was about a different sprinkling. I felt the sprinkling was with water this time.
I looked into this idea of water "sprinkling" and found that there is a sprinkling with the "water of purification" in scripture. This fit more with what I was sensing. According to Torah scholars, the water of purification was used to remove the most severe of impurities-the impurity dealing with death. The water of purification was made by the command of God to Moses (Num. 19), using spring water (living water) combined with the ashes of a red heifer, bringing together the forces of water and fire. The red heifer was killed outside the camp, and those involved with the sacrifice became themselves unclean, and had to be cleansed afterward. The ashes had to be kept outside the camp as well. "...and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of purification; it is for purifying from sin." (v. 9). These ashes, combined with the spring water, were used to cleanse anyone who had come into contact with a dead person, or the tent in which a person had died, or a grave (v. 18).
To learn more about the instruction, "Sprinkle the people", that I was hearing, I turned to a passage in Ezek. 36 where the LORD prophesies:
"Then I will sprinkle clean (purging, purifying, ceremony of cleansing, to shine, to be bright) water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness (utterly defiled, polluted) and from all your idols (trusted images).
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone (stones, weights such as divers' weights, hailstones, sinking stones, petrified with terror, perverse, hard heart) out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (root meaning: publish, preach, gladden with good news, announce salvation).
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes...Then you will remember your evil ways...and you will loathe yourselves...for your iniquities and abominations....
On that day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt." Ez. 36:25-33 (excerpt)
First in the prophecy comes the sprinkling of cleansing water, then, as a result, the hearts are changed, and can receive the "good news". Repentance now moves in these new hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit. Not only is the individual changed, but even the land is changed as a result, from desolation to abundance:
"The desolate (appalling, causing horror, ravaged, devastated, ruined) land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. So they will say, "This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden..." (v. 34-35)
The earth that is man is changed, and then the natural earth is also changed.
"Sprinkle the people", is instructing me to spiritually sprinkle through intercessory prayer with the cleansing water of purification to prepare the people to receive the message of salvation which will bring to repentance those who receive it, and result in healing and restoration. This means that the spiritual condition of man is such that it is so hardened, fouled, polluted that man cannot even come to the place of repentance yet. Our land and the people are covered with the defilement of death. Death has been allowed to rule, and almost every soul has "touched" it. Have you wondered why there is no repentance in the land? From the lowliest to the highest person, there is no repentance, even within God's own people. When this is the case, according to the Ezekiel prophecy, hearts need to be changed even before they can repent. Even as God uses the spring rain to soften up the hardened soil in order to prepare it to be worked, and to receive seed, He uses the water of purification to soften the hardened hearts to receive the work of His Spirit, and the seeds of His salvation, Jesus.
At the first coming of Christ, the Father similarly prepared the hearts of the people with the baptism of John. It was a water of purification that prepared the way for the salvation work of Christ:
"Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple..." Mal. 3:1 (Mk. 1:2-4)
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God....The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." Isa. 40:3, 5 (Lk. 3:4-6)
John called this the baptism of repentance (Mt. 3:11, Mk. 1:4). In fact, the water of purification commanded in the Book of Numbers was applied with a hyssop branch. Hyssop also means "to be hairy", and John the Baptist wore clothing of camel's hair (Mt. 3:4, Mk. 1:6). This baptism had to precede Christ's public appearing (Jn. 1:15), that all through him, that is John, might believe (Jn. 1:7). Similarly, with the soon return of Christ, it shouldn't surprise me that the Father would continue the pattern, and release another spiritual cleansing in order to prepare hearts for the End Time move of salvation and harvest before the return of Jesus:
"Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people...build up the highway! Take out the stones...Say to the daughter of Zion, "Surely your salvation is coming..."
Isa. 62:10-11
The wonderful news then is that God is getting ready to do a great work in people's hearts, and our "sprinkling" prayers of the water of purification will prophesy, proclaim, and prepare the way for the promise.
Father, we sprinkle the hearts of the people with Your cleansing water of purification. I sprinkle in all of the directions: to the north, the south, the east, and the west. I sprinkle all people, from every nation, kindred, and tongue. Wash away the defilement of the ways of death that have hardened the hearts of men. Prepare and replace these hearts, soften them, to receive the saving work of Your Son, and Your Spirit in these Last Days, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Our Father desires to sprinkle the people.
"Wash Me Clean, Oh Lord"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXAntEk7o3s
