KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE

 

Part 138

          

THE WOMAN AND THE MANCHILD

(continued)

 

            And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne” (Rev. 12:5).

            As we read these words of truth, surely we must realize that the woman never handles this manchild.  She doesn’t wash him, wrap him in swaddling clothes, or lay him in a manger.  She doesn’t breast-feed him, train him, teach him, nurture him, protect him, raise him, or contribute anything further to his life.  She doesn’t instruct him in her understanding of truth, nor does she train him in her order of ministry.  In fact, the manchild doesn’t even know his mother, for as soon as he is born, immediately he is caught up unto God, and to His throne!  He goes to the Father Himself!  His testimony is, “I speak only what I hear of my Father; I do only those things which I see my Father do.”  He is of the woman, not separate from the woman, but his destiny is altogether different from that of the woman.  He comes from the virgin church, but the church can’t handle him!  He has something to offer the woman, but the woman has nothing more to add to him.

            No matter what we encounter in life — work, science, medicine, economics — everyone deals with these things at some level.  For example, economics — you have to pay your bills.  You have to earn money.  That’s economics.  Big corporations and the government do it on a much higher level, but you do it on a daily level.  You don’t use complex economic formulas to figure out your economic structures, because you don’t work with that level of the knowledge.   What about science?  You know enough about science to know that if you take a plug and stick it into the receptacle in the wall, there will be electricity there; but you don’t necessarily know all the science that was necessary to bring that current there.   Why?  Because you’re not working with that science at a high level, you are dealing with that science at its lowest level of daily application — you just plug it in!   But someone else works that science at a higher level and creates the systems that generate the electricity and bring it to the plug-in.

            What about medicine?  Have you ever taken an aspirin?  You take an aspirin based upon a certain level of medical knowledge.  You know that if you take that medicine — according to what you’ve been told by a higher authority — it will relieve your headache.  And you know enough about medicine to do that.  You wouldn’t go and purchase many drugs that are on the market without gaining a higher knowledge of them, nor would you try to perform surgery on someone.   So you see — you can work with knowledge at many levels.  The church world today is working with the knowledge of God at the “plug” level and the “aspirin” level!  They know enough to take the plug and plug it into the receptacle on the wall and get a little bit of power.  They know enough to take the word of God and relieve some of the pains of daily living.  But God is raising up a people that is not content to work at the plug level or the aspirin level — they are motivated by the Holy Spirit to work with the knowledge of God at higher levels, even at the governmental level and at the creative level!

            God is calling a people to know and experience Him in higher dimensions, to enter into the mysteries of the kingdom of God, and into the heights of divine wisdom, knowledge, and power.  This is what it means for the manchild to be “caught up unto God, and to His throne.”  It means to access, identify with, and act out of that sphere of the FULLNESS OF HIS OMNISCIENCE AND OMNIPOTENCE!  The exaltation and enthronement of the sons of God is a holy and awesome thing!   My soul trembles at the very thought that the Father would place the power over His kingdom in all realms of heaven above and earth beneath, over creation, over the powers and principles of sin, sickness, sorrow, pain, death, and hell, into the hands of once earth-bound men, yet the Spirit lifts my spirit into the heavenlies in Christ Jesus where He sits at the right hand of God, and a still small voice whispers, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne” (Rev. 3:21).

            Jesus was the first son to be made in the likeness of God, to be perfected in the image of God, then to ascend, to be lifted up and exalted to sit on the throne of God, and given dominion, as a man, over all the works of His hands.  It was not God who was so exalted; it was the man Christ Jesus!  God has highly exalted Him, placed Him at His own right hand, and put all things under His feet.   He has been given the dominion God made man to have!  In Him, through Him, and by Him we shall all ascend until we are also seated on the throne and receive the dominion God’s “man” has been created for.  Jesus has led the way!  On that blessed resurrection morning Jesus was transformed from mortal to immortal, from physical to spiritual, and it was done in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.  Is it too incredible to believe that the very Spirit of God who has quickened and transformed us in our souls will also, at His appointed time, change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His body of glory?  And now He has ascended, He is seated on the throne of God: and because He is there, it is our blessed assurance that we also will be there, for did He not pray, “Father, I would that they be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory…and the glory Thou hast given me I have given unto them, that they may be one in us.”

            Paul went out and conquered Asia without the aid of one modern convenience or technology.  What did he have?   What do we have that we think is better than what he had — and we can’t do half the job he did!  We have satellite television, we have Christianity being beamed into the homes of America twenty-four hours a day — and this country is as godless, immoral, and wicked as any on the face of the earth.  Oh, it’s not blatantly godless, it’s subliminally godless.  It’s worse — it’s hypocrisy!  Because a country as blessed and favored as we are shouldn’t have any wickedness in it at all.  And yet it is filled with wickedness.  It is filled with murder, incest, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, drug abuse, divorce, domestic violence, dysfunctional homes, child neglect, child molestation, rape, assault, robbery, pride, arrogance, bigotry, deceitfulness, cheating, lying, filthy language, and godlessness of every sort.  Tell me it isn’t so — even among believers and preachers!  And much of it doesn’t offend us!  It doesn’t offend us because we’re all lost.  We’re lost in our own little world where we’re not stirred by what is really happening around us.  Kids are being run down on the streets, shot and stabbed on the streets, kids are carrying guns and blowing one another away, young girls are picked up in one place and left stabbed to death in another.  And yet, the whole world is like this, and always has been!  And we sit here wondering, “What can we do?”  Let me assure you, precious friend of mine, the answer is not with laws, politics, law enforcement, or the government.  The government, law enforcement, and the judicial system are often more godless, corrupt, and immoral than the people!  What is the answer?   The power of God!  The power of God unto salvation!   The power of God unto salvation is God’s Christ!  God Himself is the answer.  God Himself in and through a people!  The answer lies in a people laying hold upon the kingdom of God and the dominion that was purposed for man!  And so the creation groans and travails together in pain until now, and we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God!

             Sonship is the hope of creation!  Rather than getting all involved in superficial, carnal, worldly methods of trying to solve the world’s problems, let us cry out mightily to God to work His mighty work in us!  Now since such awesome responsibility and power are in store for the sons of God, can any man longer question why our all-wise heavenly Father should take such pains to bring His sons to perfection?  None knows better than He exactly what is needed to transform His sons from corrupt and carnal creatures  of the dust to beings of divine understanding and heavenly glory and dominion.  I have often said that I have strong confidence in the ability of my heavenly Father to bring me to perfection and maturity as a son of God.  My Father is a great son-raiser.  He was a phenomenal success with His firstborn!  Anyone who can raise a son like Jesus knows exactly what he is doing and can surely handle you and me, my precious brother and sister.  “…we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.  For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings…wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Heb. 2:9-10;  Phil. 2:9-10).

            Beholding the glory of Jesus Christ we can understand why the Lord takes such infinite care to bring all His sons to perfection.  Would you dare to imagine that any of the presidents, prime ministers, senators, or parliamentarians of this present world system would be found fit candidates to straighten out the mess this world is in, bringing an end to crime, poverty, ignorance, immorality, fear, deceit, greed, war, broken homes and hearts, sickness, pain, and death, restoring all into the purity and love of God again?  Ah — the ages to come will be given into the hands of God’s choicest sons — saints fully developed, perfected through suffering, matured through trial, proven through testing, transformed in mind, heart, and nature, far beyond the reach of corruption and decay, far above the realm of greed and selfishness, or any such thing.

            The manchild is caught up unto God, and to His throne.  God is not a limited physical being that can sit on a tangible throne in one restricted locality out beyond the blue.  God is spirit and God is everywhere and thus His throne is a spiritual throne and is everywhere!  The one great truth that all theologians agree on is that God is omnipresent spirit who not only created, but upholds and fills the whole universe and all things!  You cannot put a God who is that great and everywhere present and bottle Him up on a physical throne in one confined spot.  Oh, no!  He is everywhere and His throne is everywhere.  The throne of the God who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent spirit is not a material one but bespeaks the REALM OF HIS SUPREME AND UNIVERSAL AUTHORITY AND RULERSHIP; and our Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn son of God, has been exalted to the glory of that rulership.  The throne of God is a sphere of power and authority, a position of eminence, a condition and state of being.  The reign of God’s Christ is the assumption of the almighty power and universal dominion of the Father.   It is the dispensing of HIS POSITIVE ENERGY FORCE into His creation in specific ways. 

            If heaven were a “place” out beyond the galaxies somewhere, can you imagine how long it would take for God to hear a prayer, how long it would take to get to heaven were we to travel there, how long it would have taken Jesus to get from heaven to earth when He descended to dwell among us?  Why, bless your heart, after two thousand years Jesus would still be on His way up to the throne even if He traveled at the speed of light!  And He would need billions of more years to get there!  The angel Gabriel was dispatched from heaven while Daniel was praying and was able to reach the prophet Daniel while he was yet in his prayer (Dan. 9:20-23).  Real distance is measured not in miles or light years, but rather in time required to reach a destination.  Heaven, therefore, is not far away!

            Furthermore, Christ is now seated on the right hand of God — He is seated there on that right hand right there where you are, yea, even in the deepest depth of your being, so that the throne of God is nearer to you than the air that you breathe!  Christ is seated at the right hand of power, that is, in the position where God acts, does, works, and creates, so that all God does He does in and by and through the Son of God.  And He does it right there where you are!  Can we not see by this how simple yet profound is the knowledge that we have been raised up and made to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus!  The spiritual dimension of God’s abilities in Christ are being awakened and quickened within us, our Spirit joined to His Spirit, so that we sit in that spiritual dimension by spiritual consciousness, and we haven’t moved one inch to get there!  Somehow I understand that today and it makes the reality clear to my own dull human way of thinking.

            There is no need to go anywhere physically to relate to God’s throne.   The journey is a spiritual one!  The throne is all around you, within you, and present equally everywhere within the realm of Spirit in which God exists and dwells.  You can either experience or ascend that throne within yourself through union with Christ and the release of His power.  “All authority in heaven and in earth is given unto me,” Jesus said.   The ascension of Jesus was the supreme event of world history.  He ascended not to a place, but disappeared into the spirit realm that is all about us and was caught up into an office in and by the Spirit.  He departed from the arena of humiliation and limitation to enter into His glory.  He, in one instant, vaulted from the status of despised Galilean teacher to the cosmic King of the universe, rising over the heads of Pilate, Herod, and Caesar Augustus.  The ascension catapulted Jesus to the right hand of God where He was enthroned as King of kings and Lord of lords.  The implication of this event for every son of God and for the world is staggering.  He has invited us to share that throne!  He has beckoned all who have received the call to sonship to ascend in Him to that place in the Spirit where all authority and power are accessed.  That is the destiny of every manifest son of God!  That authority is present everywhere by His Spirit!  But it must become appropriated, embodied, and expressed through a people who attain to  the FULLNESS OF CHRIST!

            The Greek word thronos means “the place and seat of authority” and refers to all executive authority that is committed into the hands of God’s Christ, Head and body.  Understand that the throne is here now; here is infinity; here is eternity; here is omnipotence, waiting for you to enter into your heritage in God!  Again and again in the Psalms and in the Prophets David and others make this beautiful and significant assertion:  “The Lord reigneth…”   The Lord reigneth over the heathen, the Lord reigneth over the nations, the Lord reigneth in Zion, the Lord reigneth in the midst of His people!  It is always present tense.  The Lord reigns now!   That doesn’t mean that He has purposed to deal with everything and everybody now, but He has assumed the dominion of the world and all things, and all is safe in His care and all will experience His sovereign purpose in His timing and according to His program and will.  And His program and will is just this — HE WILL DEAL WITH EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY THROUGH HIS MANY SONS BROUGHT TO GLORY!   How can we know this?  Because the whole creation is groaning and in a kind of universal travail waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God!  That is the mystery.

            The Hebrew word translated “reigneth” is malak and means to reign, that is, to ascend the throne, to induct into royalty.  Thus, when we are called to share His throne, we are called to ascend the throne and be inducted into the royal power of that throne!  Therefore, as the elect hear His voice and hasten to His call, we are ascending to the very throne of Christ in a greater relationship with Him and in Him.  We are being inducted into the royalty of the throne of Christ — into His reigning realm!  Through the experiences we encounter in this earthly life, with all their testings, trials, and provings, we are becoming overcomers and thereby learning to reign over all things by His royal mind, will, and life!

            What does it mean when the manchild is “caught up unto God, and to His throne”?  The fact that a people is raised up to His throne signifies an expanded manifestation and administration of His dominion.  God is ready to deal in a brand new way with things not dealt with before!  It indicates an increase in spiritual activity in the earth.  It indicates a time of the greater dominion of the Lord as King in the earth.  He calls the manchild up to the throne to reveal the great truth that He will now rule in and through him in a greater way, that the sons of God may now bring His salvation to all, correct all that is wrong, break every fetter, loose every prisoner, set creation free, and then reign over the New Day He is birthing in the earth! 

            Oh, how blessed the prospect!  Truly we have come to that time!  May the Holy Spirit reveal to all His elect the power and authority of His kingdom that is now to be revealed through the sons of God!  May all God’s called ones understand that God now determines to change things in the earth!  As we hear His call to come up into the throne zone, we know that He is coming to reign in our lives to redeem us fully and completely in spirit, soul, and body.  And He shall reign in us until His throne is fully established in us, and then we shall subdue all things unto Him until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea!  Hallelujah!

            Jesus has promised us to sit down with Him in His throne.  Not another little throne beside His throne!  Just as there are saints who are stones in the wall of the heavenly temple, or pillars in the temple, so there are those who become a throne people.  As we ascend in spirit to that heavenly realm of throneship we then realize this is where we really belong.  The yearning deep within our hearts by the Holy Spirit, to bless the world, right the wrongs, heal the wounds, assuage the suffering, abolish evil, and set creation free from its long night of bondage to sin, sorrow, limitation, and death, is the divine indication that we are destined for throneship.  Others are praying for revival, or hoping to get whisked away to a mansion in the sky.  But not the sons!  Everything in the realm of the Spirit makes us feel at home with God and His Christ.   As we consciously ascend higher and higher into the realm of the Spirit we see that One who is all glorious, arrayed in the Light that no Adamic man can approach unto, surrounded by a vast multitude of others who are arrayed as He is, and seated there upon the throne of the heavens.  Truly it is a glorious scene of heavenly illumination and splendor to those who have been blessed of their Father to see as He sees!

SHEPHERDING THE NATIONS

            “And she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron” (Rev. 12:5).

            In a mystery novel the author leaves clues for the careful observer.   These clues allow a pattern to emerge, and the reader begins to catch on to the meaning of what has happened in the story and often can predict the outcome.  In a somewhat similar way, God announced certain clues which were to be indicators of the arrival of Jesus, the Promised One.  Some indicated the place where these events would occur, others the kinds of persons to be involved, and still other clues told of persons who must appear prior to the coming of the promised Messiah.   The Gospels reveal how all these clues identified Jesus as that One who was to come!

            In like manner the Lord has given us clues as to the identity of the manchild!  Not least among these clues is the fact that this manchild ascends up to sit upon the throne of the Lord.  Now we know that Jesus Christ sits upon the throne.  Yet — Jesus is the Head of the body of Christ, of which we are members in particular.  Would you not agree that where the Head is, there the body must be also?  Is not this exactly the first clue given us in the Revelation concerning the identity of the manchild?  “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne” (Rev. 3:21).  Of whom does the Lord Jesus speak when He says, “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron” (Rev. 2:26-27).  Ah, the overcomer out of the church realm “rules all nations with a rod of iron,” and so does the manchild!   The overcomer sits with Christ upon His throne, and so does the manchild!  These “clues” provide the evidence that those out of the church age who are called “overcomers” are indeed the manchild!     

            The prophet Daniel has provided us with another clue concerning the identity of this manchild who is caught up to the throne of God.  “And I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before Him.  And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.  And I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.  And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be GIVEN TO THE PEOPLE (OUT OF) THE SAINTS OF THE MOST HIGH, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.  Hitherto is the end of the matter…” (Dan. 7:13-14, 21-22, 27-28).  Pay close attention to the wording of the latter part of the above passage and you will see that it is a people out of a people that is given the kingdom and the dominion.  It is not given to all saints, but to “the people of the saints,” that is, a company out of the saints of the most High.  TRULY THIS IS THE MANCHILD BIRTHED OUT OF THE WOMAN!  The clues are there if you can read them!

            The entire scene of the book of Revelation through chapter twelve concerns the work of God wthin His elect.  It is all an internal work designed ultimately to consummate with the birth of the manchild.  This manchild is caught up unto God, and to His throne, and rules all nations with a rod of iron!  Every word of God is freighted with significance.  I would draw your attention to the term “all nations.”  From this point forward the work of God is no longer restricted to His internal deliverance and transformation of His elect, but now the earth and the nations without begin to be dealt with by the sons.  God first reigns in us that He may in turn reign through us!  Many brethren try to make every scripture in the Bible apply only to God’s internal work within us.  That is a grievous error!  The ministry of the sons of God is to subdue and restore all things and deliver the whole of creation from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God!

            These “nations” are not limited to the nations of unregenerate people represented at the United Nation Organization in New York City, for the book of Revelation is a spiritual book of symbols, employing code-words which signify spiritual and symbolical entities.  These also include “nations” of bodies of religiosity, vast systems and organizations of millions of souls ruled over by the religious mind-set of the great red dragon.  John is beholding a great spiritual event unfold before him.   These “nations” are also within each of us!  Whatever power religious or worldly ideas, concepts, doctrines, or traditions still hold in our lives is the individualization of the nations of religiosity and worldliness!

            Long millenniums ago the anointed Psalmist penned these prophetic words: “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion…ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.  Thou shalt BREAK them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Ps. 2:6-9).  This particular verse is quoted three times in the New Testament, and all three are in the book of Revelation!  Of the overcomer it says, “And he shall RULE them (the nations) with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father” (Rev. 2:27).  And of the manchild it is written, “And she brought forth a man child, who was to RULE all nations with a rod of iron” (Rev. 12:5).  Then, finally, “And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron” (Rev. 19:15).   

            Dispensational premillennialists understand this to mean that in the future world power kingdom of Jewish supremacy after the “second coming” of Jesus, He, (that is, Jesus) will personally and physically rule over the Gentile nations for one thousand literal years from an earthly and international throne in His world capitol in Jerusalem, Israel.  It is contended that at the end of the millennium these very nations, many of whom will have rendered but feigned obedience, will rise up under the inspired leadership of Satan in the greatest rebellion of all human history.  The dispensationalist says, This rod of iron rule by Christ is necessary to prove that fallen man placed under the most favorable external circumstances is still a rebel at heart, and is so incorrigible that nothing but a rod of iron can keep him in line.

            Words are helpless, hopeless, and inadequate when we are drawn to explain the deep truths of God in the Spirit.  What is this “breaking” of the nations by the “rod of iron rule” of the sons of God?  The word “break” in Psalm 2:9 is translated by the word “rule.”  Christ and the disciples used the Septuagint translation as their common text; hence, the word is translated “rule” in all three Revelation passages quoted above.  This particular word in the Greek is found eleven times in the New Testament.  Seven of the eleven times it is translated by the word “feed.”  In Matthew 2:6 where the King James Bible uses the term “shall rule,” a number of modern translations render it, “…shall be SHEPHERD OF.”   That leaves only the three “rod of iron” passages in the book of Revelation where this Greek word (poimaino) is translated “rule.”      

            One would ask the question, Why not translate this Greek word “feed” in these three Revelation passages, since that is its meaning and it is so translated elsewhere in the New Testament?  The answer is that it would not make sense to translate it “feed them with a rod of iron,” so the translators reached the conclusion that the word “rule” would serve the purpose.  Thayer’s Lexicon gives the meaning of this particular Greek word “to feed, to tend a flock, to keep sheep.”  W. E. Vine, a militant dispensationalist in his volume Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, gives the meaning of this word: “to act as a shepherd, tend flock.”  Jamison, Fausset and Brown Commentary, a dispensationalist commentary, translates the three passages in the Revelation thus: “to rule as a shepherd” (Rev. 2:27); and in both Revelation 12:5 and 19:15, “tend as a Shepherd.”  Hence, the true meaning of the word “break” in Psalm 2:9 in the light of the three New Testament passages is “TO ACT THE PART OF A SHEPHERD.”

            “He shall SHEPHERD the nations” — what a wonderful and sublime thought!

            The following words by brother Paul Mueller clearly express this same beautiful truth.  “What does it mean to rule and reign with Christ? The Greek word poimaino is translated ‘rule’ in some New Testament passages, and means ‘to tend as a shepherd.’  This agrees with the prophecy of Isaiah, ‘See! The Lord is coming with might, His own arm having won Him the kingdom; See!  His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.  Like a shepherd He tends His flock, with His arm He gathers them; the lambs He carries in His bosom, and gently leads those who give suck’ (Isa. 40:10-11, Smith-Goodspeed).  ‘Like a shepherd He tends His flock,’ this is the manner of the Lord’s dealings with mankind.   He cares for each one, observing them and supplying their individual needs.  He gathers them with His arm so that not one is lost (Mat. 18:12).  Some He carries and still others He leads, but all will be gathered into His kingdom, for ‘the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein’ (Ps. 24:1); and He is a faithful Shepherd!

            “What does it mean to rule and to reign in the kingdom?  All who are called to this high calling will shepherd the people into the kingdom of God!  Each one of them will be like a hiding-place from the wind, and a shelter from the storm.  They will cover and protect their subjects, sheltering them until they are firmly rooted in the life of the kingdom.  They are like streams of water in a dry place, and like the shade of a great rock in a wearisome land.  Their new Life, which is the very Life of Christ, flows from them like streams of water in the desert.  They are that mighty Rock which has smitten the image of the nations, causing them all to fall (Dan 2:34), but which now gives forth shelter and protection.  They are entrusted with the ring of kingdom authority, the best robe of kingdom righteousness and life, and the royal scepter of the kingdom of God.  Indeed, when one rules over men as a righteous one, when one rules in the fear of God, then it is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning cloudless and clear, after rain upon the tender grass”   — end quote.  This is the nature of the rule of the manchild, the manifest sons of God!  No beating the people over the head with our rod of iron, no compulsion, no coercion, no threats, no intimidation, no bullying!  Our rod of iron is a shepherd’s staff, but it is strong in the Lord and in the power of His might!  It is the strength of divine love and divine purpose.  What blessed hope for the nations!

            Vermont television produced a popular video a number of years ago.   It was about an ordinary farmer named Fred Tuttle who went to Washington, D.C., to spread a little  wisdom around the capital just as he’d been spreading a little manure over his fields for fifty years.  The fictional story was so popular that in the next election, the actor who played Fred received write-in votes for Senator!  There’s something attractive about ordinary people bringing wisdom to the great places of the world.   But can that happen?  It depends on the nature of the wisdom!  The sons of God embody the wisdom of God.  In shepherding the nations the wisdom of God in His sons will be communicated and imparted to all mankind, to every people, tongue, tribe, and nation!

            The nature  and power of this “shepherd’s rod” is uniquely revealed in the experience of Moses at the burning bush.  Moses was hesitant and anxious about going to Egypt to lead the people of Israel out of bondage.  As he communed with the Lord there, the Lord said unto him, “What is that in thine hand?”  And Moses said, “A rod.”  Then the Lord commanded, “Cast it on the ground.”  And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it.   It is my conviction that the rod or shepherd’s crook, which Moses had with him, for he was tending sheep at the back side of the desert, was selected by the Lord as an emblem of His word, by which miracles and mighty wonders were to be wrought.  The history of this rod in connection with the ten plagues, the dividing of the Red Sea, the coming together again of the waters, and the smiting of the rock in the wilderness, is familiar to all.  From this time on in the history of the Hebrew people, the rod was a type of the word of God; it was in allusion to this that David said, “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.”   While the rod was in the hand of Moses, it was a lifeless stick; but, when, in obedience to God he cast it on the ground, it became a living thing.  In like manner, the revelation of God as mere head knowledge or doctrine, held in the grasp of human reasoning, is lifeless; but when under a divine commission we cast it forth upon the earth of human hearts, it becomes a living truth, “quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”  Interesting, too, that Moses’ rod became a serpent when it was cast upon the earth.  When Moses came before Pharaoh his serpent-rod ate up all the serpent-rods of the magicians of Egypt!  In all ancient religions, and in the Bible as well, the serpent is a symbol of wisdom.  Moses’ serpent-rod speaks to us of the wisdom of God, yea, of the mighty authority in the wisdom of God.  The wisdom of God always consumes the wisdom of this world!  By the power of that truth the “rod of iron” rule of the sons of God will smite the nations!   Isn’t it wonderful!

            In 1775 the United States Marine Corps was founded and their recruiting slogan stated that they “were looking for a few good men.”  Approximately 1898 B.C. God called out a man named Abram, and later He also called his sons, Isaac, and grandson Jacob, saying essentially the same thing, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great: and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”  Ever since then GOD HAS BEEN CALLING OUT A FEW GOOD MEN!   The manchild represents God’s ultimate company of a “few good men.”  This band of God’s sons is the body of our precious Saviour.  Therefore, they are one and all “saviours” just as is their glorious Head!   “And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau (flesh); and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s” (Ob. 21).  Hallelujah!

            It is our heavenly Father who selects the “few good men” of that elect company.  “You have not chosen me, I have chosen you, and ordained you…”  I didn’t pick my father.  I didn’t pick my mother.  I didn’t pick my country.  I didn’t pick my community where I was raised.  I didn’t pick my classmates..  I didn’t pick my teacher.  I didn’t even choose my wife!  God gave her to me.   I noticed her.  I loved her.  I asked her to marry me.  But the whole arrangement was supernaturally orchestrated and was the ordering of the Lord!  You say, “Why would God choose me?”  God’s word to you today is the same word that it is to me, “I’ve chosen you.  I picked you.”  It is  not an accident that the word of the kingdom came to you!  It’s not an accident that God brought precious brethren across your path!  It’s not even an accident that you are reading this very message!   There is a destiny.  There came a time when God looked down on this spinning planet with its sea of sin, crime, corruption, hate, sickness, sorrow, and death and He said, “Enough is enough!  I shall redeem the world!  I will raise up a light for all mankind!  I will reveal my love!  I will deliver creation and set it free!  To do this I will choose a ‘few good men’ to rule as saviours from the heavenly mount Zion, to shepherd the nations into the kingdom of God!”

            Robert Schuler told the story of the Chinese Emperor.  He was a very insecure man.  Insecure people will almost always develop a superiority complex, or become very narcissistic.  In this case, he did both.  He had a meditation gazebo in the garden.  He hung a mirror.   Every day he would rise in the morning, go to the gazebo, look in the mirror, primp and admire himself, and tell himself how handsome he was.  He said, I don’t want anybody to disturb me with bad news.”  Unscrupulous, duplicitous colleagues took advantage of the weak ruler and robbed the treasury.  They stopped giving the food to the poor and they plundered the country.  One loyal subject felt this could not go on.  One night, the loyal subject took the mirror out of the frame and replaced it with clear glass.  The next morning the Emperor got up and went through his usual narcissistic ritual.  He approached the mirror to primp and admire himself.  This time, however, when he looked out, instead of seeing himself, he saw the people in the streets — huddled masses, hungry, famine-starved.   He was distraught.  He called his colleague and said, “What is happening to my people?”  The colleague told him.  The Emperor righted the matter and became a saviour to his people. 

            I do not hesitate to tell you that there are no armchair sons standing upon mount Zion!  There are no Country Club elite sons of God!  There are no playboy sons!  There are no honorary sons!  There are no theoretical, self-styled sons!  We have not been called to glory in our selection as members of the manchild company, to exult in how great and beautiful and select and special we are!  We have not been chosen to flit about polishing our halos and adjusting our crowns; we are called and chosen and ordained to be saviours unto all mankind!  Sonship is compassion.  Sonship is sacrifice.   Sonship is blessing.  Sonship is love, divine love.  Sonship is reconciliation.  Sonship is healing. Sonship is restoration. Sonship is tenderness, sympathy, concern, and the power of HIS LIFE to change things! 

            Have you seen the cartoon?  As I recall it, two citizens of the heavenly kingdom are standing atop a cloud, harps slung over their shoulders, newly won “angel wings” hanging at the ready.  But the two seem bored.  As they peer off into the limitless beyond that stretches before them, one complains to the other, “I wish I had brought a magazine!”  Really bad theology in a lot of ways, but peeking through the silliness of that cartoon is a popular notion that deserves to be dispelled: the notion that “heaven” or the “kingdom of God” will be a state of perpetual indolence.  Of this we may be sure: We who are called and chosen have entered a progressive institution, a kingdom in which stagnation will never enter!  We will ever go on “from glory to glory,” for, “of the increase of His government…THERE SHALL BE NO END!”  We will never come to the place where we can sit down with folded hands and say, “This is the end; our job is over.”  The end of one creation, of one order, of one plan  of the ages, will only bring us to the next!  We who have been born into the heavenly realm, have entered a stage of action, we have become active agents in the greatest development program ever conceived.  A whole universe awaits our touch and guiding hand!  “He that overcometh shall INHERIT ALL THINGS; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son” (Rev. 21:7).  Sonship does not only entitle one to residence in God’s limitless and eternal domain, but to the ownership and rule of that domain!  Ah, the sons of God are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ their Lord, who is the heir of all things!   Oh, that it were possible to lift men up above the shadows and give them just a glimpse of something higher!  Mortal minds are so entirely inadequate; human eyes so dim; human ears so dull!  Sonship includes kingship and priesthood over God’s eternal and infinite domain.  It is dominion and power and influence far above that which carnal minds can contemplate or even imagine. 

            God is preparing a new order and it won’t be any order that we have been through.  It won’t be the order of Passover and it won’t be the order of Pentecost.  It won’t be the order of the outer court and it won’t be the order of the holy place.  Many years ago, at the middle of the twentieth century, the Lord came to us as the rain, as the Latter Rain upon the earth.  It was a glorious outpouring of Himself!  The ascended Christ came to us in power and gave gifts unto men, gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.  Spiritual gifts were imparted to the saints by prophecy with the laying on of hands.  Men were filled with the Holy Ghost through the word of faith and the laying on of hands.  The secrets of men’s hearts were revealed and great glory overshadowed the people of God.  Signs, wonders, and miracles that defy description were a constant reality of our lives.  Prophetic ministry and revelation truth flowed and thundered like a mighty Niagara as the Spirit of the Lord unfolded the deep, marvelous truths of the kingdom of God, sonship, reconciliation of all to God, and many other precious quickenings of the divine will, plan, and purpose.   What glorious days those were!  They brought us to where we are, to this great day of the Lord!

 I do not hesitate to tell you that God is preparing a new order and it won’t be the order we have known and cherished.  It won’t be any order we have ever heard of, witnessed, or experienced.   Oh, no!  It won’t be the New Testament order of the Former Rain, nor will it be the new order of the Latter Rain.  There is coming a manifestation of God that will be both sovereign and spontaneous.  This will be the order of the MANCHILD!   It will be the expression, power, and glory of the kingdom of God through many sons brought to glory.  It will not be a church oriented ministry.  It will not be centered in meetings, gatherings, seminars, conferences, crusades, miracle revivals, or the promotion of personalities.  There will be no need to rent halls or build buildings, no need to announce services, advertise meetings, or organize any kind of activities.  The manifestation of God through His sons will be both spontaneous and personal and will manifest itself in every place, at all times, in every circumstance and condition.  This ministry will flow forth in the highways and byways, in the restaurants, in the business establishments, on the streets, on trains and buses, high in the sky on airplanes, in the schools, in the fields, in the homes, in the churches — in every place, at any time, without plans, appointments, permission, permits, or announcements.  Wherever a son of God is led by the Spirit, there will be the expression of the fullness of the wisdom, glory, and power of the mighty God!  The authority of God will take control of every situation and the word of God will be irresistible!

            In the former revival there were great gatherings of many thousands of people who came to witness the miracles of God.  In other countries large stadiums were rented and were filled with 50,000, 100,000, even 200,000 souls who responded to the advertising and the news of miraculous things taking place.  But these meetings were all planned, advertised, promoted, organized, and structured.  A date was set.  The crusade started on a particular day in a prepared place and at a certain hour, and ended at an appointed time.  All that God was doing was confined to the manipulation of man and man’s system of doing things.   The date passed, the man of God left; the church, the auditorium, or the stadium became empty and silent again — it was all over! 

            Today I tell you by the word of the Lord that the thing God is after in the manifestation of sons is to raise up in the midst of the earth a sonship ministry that is not subject to clocks, calendars, campaign managers, finance committees, organization, tents, trucks, musicians, sound equipment, plans or promotions of any kind.   God is teaching us the ways of His kingdom and is preparing our hearts for true sonship ministry.  Ah, my beloved, you can forget meetings as we have known them!  The order of the kingdom of God is not an order of meetings but an order of life, glory, and power!  Jesus is the proto-type of this order of sonship.  The firstborn Son of God did indeed have meetings.  He had meetings by the seaside.  He had meetings in the desert places.  He had meetings in the mountains.  He had meetings in the temple.  Jesus had meetings everywhere!  But have you ever considered that every one of His meetings were held impromptu — they were never announced to begin at ten o‘clock on Sunday morning.   And don’t you know that Peter didn’t strut across the rostrum and open the meeting with three peppy choruses!  And don’t you know that after the three choruses John didn’t stand up and prophesy!  And don’t you know that Judas didn’t explain the “needs” of the ministry and take the offering!  And don’t you know that Jesus didn’t preach for forty-five minutes and then begin to work his “gift” and minister to the sick, sorrowful, and needy!  And don’t you know that at twelve o‘clock James didn’t rise and pray the benediction!

            With Jesus, when the meeting broke up, He just walked on down the street and the meeting followed Him!  He entered into a home and a meeting started.  He stepped into the courts of the temple and a meeting was generated.  That’s kingdom meetings!  And that is the spontaneous, unstructured, sovereign, divine order of the kingdom of God!   When that order breaks upon us, dear ones, we will forever abandon every previous order and any order we are presently walking in.   My pen will be laid down!  The lesser will be swallowed up into the greater!  Don’t worry about meetings passing away.  There will be meetings and greater meetings than the world has ever witnessed!  As the sons of God march forth and spread out over the length and breadth of the earth, clothed with the splendor and omnipotence of the King of glory, the whole world will become one gigantic crusade until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ!   It is indeed wonderful!

            As the firstborn Son ministered, so will His many brethren.  Only this manifestation of sonship will be even greater, marked by the “greater works” Jesus promised, because of the power of His resurrection.   Walking down the street, entering a home, flying on a plane, sitting in a restaurant, walking into a store, a factory, a church, a school, or passing undetected into the chambers of congress, the office of a president, prime minister, government official, or a business tycoon — any place at any time, unannounced — the mighty works of God will be manifest!  The secrets of men’s hearts will be revealed.  When the glorified sons of God appear even to one individual, be that individual a bag lady, street drunk, store clerk, drug lord, college professor, corporate CEO, or the president or prime minister of a nation, as the word is spoken to men — individually or collectively — the power of God will come upon the people with irresistible glory.  In the presence of Him whose countenance is as the sun, a shudder will pass through their body, they will tremble uncontrollably, become instantly and completely broken in the light of His glory, they will weep and cry out to God in repentance and thanksgiving.  They will be quickened,  cleansed, and changed by the power of God, and the veil will be removed from off their mind and heart.  There will be no need for a worship service, no need for a sermon or any platform ministry, no necessity to “bring them to a decision,” for the power of God shall illuminate them, “down loading” as it were, a new mind, a new heart, a new nature into the very fabric and core of their being.

            I am thoroughly convinced in my spirit, and I believe I have the Spirit of God, that just as God saved Saul of Tarsus in a moment of time, by the sovereign revelation of the Lord, so shall He reveal Himself to all men causing them to be born again!  Their eyes will be opened to the glories of His kingdom just as they were once open in lovely Eden.  Jesus came to bring life to the world!  This is the life that will flow through the sons of God!  Oh, think what it means!  God gave this life for the redeeming of Adam’s race and man’s transformation into the image and glory of God.  Creation is waiting, waiting, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God!  The old order methods of the church systems can never deliver the creation from the bondage of corruption, never, I say, in a million years!  After two thousand years of church ministry more people are dying without the living reality of Christ than ever in the history of the world!  There must be a change, a drastic change, a radical change, a new ministry, a greater glory, something unprecedented and transcendental — the power of the kingdom of God!

            Mighty signs and wonders will be wrought, sick healed, quaduiplegics walk, limbs grow out, blind see, deaf hear, dead raised — even the dead in their caskets who have been embalmed at the mortuary will arise and walk and be seen by the multitudes.   Lives will be spontaneously, sovereignly, and irreversibly transformed.  The kingdom of God will come to mankind in the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost through manifest sons upon whom rests the seven-fold fullness of the Spirit of the Lord!  I tell you today that God is speaking to me about these things, He is dealing with me about this sonship ministry.  It is not the church age ministry.  It is not even the ministry Jesus brought in Galilee two thousand years ago.  It is the ministry of many sons brought to glory IN THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION!   Oh, yes!  It is greater than all!

            There are no precedents for the thing God is doing in this day.  It is God’s new thing, God’s new day of His kingdom smiting the image of human government and filling the whole earth.  It is the MANCHILD upon the throne!  All the “isms” will be smashed and demolished by the overflow of God’s invincible, omnipotent word, wisdom, and power.  The imams of Islam will not be able to gainsay or stand before the might of God’s glory in the sons of God.  Islam will be absolutely destroyed, not by a war on terror, but by the redeeming power of the Lord.  Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodoxy will all crumble and collapse before the surpassing glory of God.  Communism will be shattered to pieces and cast upon the ash heap of history.  Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, New Age philosophies, secret lodges, false religious systems of every sort; humanistic educational systems, human governments, and godless institutions of every brand will disappear like the setting sun before the overpowering majesty of God in His sons.  Oh, the wonder of  it! 

            The sons of God will not minister out of talent, natural ability, personality, charisma, nor out of theological training or organizational skills, but out of the power of resurrection life.  This sonship ministry will begin in the Spirit and it will end in the Spirit.  It will not parade across a stage with theatrics and showmanship.  Flesh can have no part in this Day!  I say to you by the word of the Lord — it’s coming, and it’s going to be powerful!  There shall be a glorious showdown, this sonship ministry will show forth the glory of the living, exalted Christ in the face of every power on earth.  The sons of God will actually accomplish more for the kingdom of God in one year than the church systems have been able to do in all these hundreds of years of history.  Hallelujah!

            The manifestation of the sons of God will break suddenly and rapidly upon the scene.  It will begin to happen everywhere at the same time, spontaneously and supernaturally.  The glory of God will arise upon a people, an unknown people, an unheralded people, prepared in the isolation of solitude and in the crucible of the furnace of affliction.  There won’t be time for anybody to come along and educate people or explain what has happened, how it is happening, where it originated, or who is in charge.  The spontaneity and power of it will blow men’s minds away and defy everything we have ever learned or known about evangelism or ministry of any kind.  The wisdom and power of God will pour forth like mighty torrents of living water, the righteous will have divine information from God, the omniscience and omnipotence of God will be revealed through His people, revelation knowledge will abound in the lives of the elect, and this Word will be spoken to all men great and small, without respect of persons, from the beggar on the street to kings, presidents, prime ministers, and men in all positions of authority, power, and responsibility will recognize that there is a God in heaven and that the sons of God have arisen in the earth!

            Ah, my brother, my sister, do not sell creation short!  Do not settle for less than God’s best!  All creation is standing on tiptoe, waiting and counting on you.   If you love Israel; if you love the Chinese; if you love the Africans; if you love the Muslims; if you love all the nations and kindreds of the earth who know nothing of the Saviour; if you love the sad, the tormented, the impoverished, the deceived, the sick and the dying; if you love the multitudes held captive in the blindness and stupidity of religious systems; if you love the burdened brute creation; if you love the mountains, the trees, the rivers, and the oceans so mindlessly being destroyed under the hand of greed — you will joyfully welcome the hope of the manifestation of God in His sons; for it is the hope that shall bring to the groaning creation emancipation from this whole dreadful realm of darkness, bondage, and death.   Aren’t you glad!

            THIS IS THE MANCHILD UPON THE THRONE!

To be continued…                                                                                        J. PRESTON EBY