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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of
God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 160
THE 144,000 ON MOUNT ZION
(continued)
“And
I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the
In
order to understand the deep mystery of the hundred and forty-four thousand we
must see beyond the veil of flesh and the mists of the earthly and literal and
see right into the heart of God with the eyes of the spirit. Many novel views have been promoted as to the
identity of this blessed company. We
have met some through the years who felt that they and their group
fulfilled this prophecy. I heard of one
group who purchased property out in the desert for the “training” of the 144,000 in
the “last days,” and another that purchased a large ranch in the mountains for
the same purpose. Both of these failed
pitifully to reach the anticipated number of members! We know of one well-known group who founded
an organization with the idea that that particular organization would comprise
the 144,000, and they grew so rapidly that after a while they actually exceeded
this figure and were compelled to create “another calling” for the late-comers
into the movement.
We
first met the 144,000 in chapter seven of the Revelation where they were
“sealed with the seal of the living God.”
The question often arises as to whether the 144,000 in chapter seven and
the 144,000 in chapter fourteen are the same group. Some have wondered whether this could be another, separate group of 144,000. The answer is NO! Look at verses six, eight, and nine in our
present chapter. John makes differences
clear: “And I saw another angel…” (vs. 6).
In verse eight the Greek
These
hundred and forty-four thousand are not the whole
number of God’s redeemed people. In
verse four of chapter fourteen the 144,000 is called “the firstfruits”
unto God and to the Lamb. They are,
therefore, the elite among all of
God’s people — a select company, called and chosen ones, the feet which stand
upon an eminence — mount Zion. Thus, the
“firstfruits” are not firstfruits
merely in the order of time, but of divine purpose — that ground of precedence
to which
And
this is no new thing with the seer of
He puts
a final question: “Who are those on the platform (that is, on the
throne)?” And he is told, “These are
they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb
whithersoever He goeth — all the way to the pinnacle
of
I
do not teach exclusivism — the notion
that God loves and has chosen to redeem and bless only one specific portion of
humanity, to the exclusion of all others.
But I do teach elitism — the
truth that God does not call everyone to the same calling, that there are both least and greatest in the
The
one hundred and forty-four thousand is not a head-count, but a number representing
who they are. I am confident that out of the ages God
has many more than 144,000! Can you
imagine an age governed by a people filled with the mind of Christ, conformed
to His image, led by His Spirit, endued with the fullness of His authority and
power? Can you even comprehend what it
would be like for 144,000 manifest sons of God (if it were a literal number), 144,000 reproductions of Jesus Christ in
all the glory,
In
interpreting scripture, one of the worst things that can be done is to take
numbers and interpret them literally rather than discovering the meaning of the number. In other words, the key to the understanding
of a scripture with numbers is the value of
the number. So, then, we need to ask the
Lord, “What does this number 144,000 mean?”
The explanation is that 144,000 = 12 X 12 X 1000. Twelve in scripture is the number denoting divine government. We will not take time to explain that here,
as we have gone into detail about it in previous studies. Now, twelve times twelve is twelve squared by
itself, giving the number 144. One
hundred forty-four is thus the divine government of God brought to
its highest expression. It is divine
government multiplied by divine government — the absolute
fullest and most ultimate manifestation of the kingdom rule of God!
THE LAMB AND THE LAMBS
“And
I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the
Here
we find the Lamb standing on
Even
now, as Christ sits enthroned at the right hand of the Father, He reigns in
virtue of the fact that He is a Lamb. He
reigns as a Lamb-King, because God is raising up lamb-kings in the earth, and
it is the work of the Holy Spirit in the earth to establish in each member of
the body of the Lamb in the earth the
nature, and the character, as well as the authority of Him who sits on the
throne. “He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of
mine, and show it unto you” (Jn. 16:14).
It is the work of the Holy Spirit not only to impart unto His people the
power of God, but all that pertains to the exalted Lamb,
His very nature, and character, and life, that He might be here in the earth,
incarnate in His body, to be to you and me, yea, to be through you and me everything that Jesus is upon the
throne. The word used for Lamb
in our
As far
as our Lord Himself is concerned, He is not limited at all, but as far as our
experience of Him is concerned, there is such a limitation. From the time we experience Christ as the
Lamb, we follow Him and begin to progress and advance and make progress in our
experience of Christ and receive of His inworking
more and more. As we grow in our
appreciation of Him He becomes greater and greater to us and in us. Day by day in our experience Christ is
becoming greater and greater! At the
stage of our experience in which the total triumph of the Lamb is achieved
within, Christ is unlimited to us, He becomes all-in-all. It is His almighty strength in the heavens
revealed through the weakness of our humanity on earth — the TRIUMPHANT
LAMBKIN! Hallelujah!
Thus we
see Him in chapter fourteen: “A Lambkin
stood on the
In like
manner, my beloved, the first Little Lamb was none other than our Lord Jesus,
the Christ. The Spirit of the Lambkin
was poured out upon a little company of people on the day of Pentecost, the
first of a new spiritual race of men destined to fill the earth and conquer the dragon. The Lambkin has developed in the saints of
God from that small and inauspicious beginning to become a vast company of
lambkins upon the pinnacle of
It is
my deep conviction that within the Lambkin, as we see Him again and again in
the Revelation, is converged the reality of the four living creatures
(kingship) and the twenty-four elders (priesthood). He brings kingship and priesthood together
within Himself. He is the spirit of the
Lamb (priesthood) in the midst of the throne (kingship). He is the Lambkin (priesthood) standing upon
the
“…a
Lamb stood on the
They
are with the Lamb. This does not mean merely that they are in
the same geographical place. It has a
far richer meaning than that! The
nearness of His followers to the Lamb is the nearness of will, of desire, of
hope, of purpose, of nature, of stature, of ministry. They are with
the Lamb. I can tell a person two
thousand miles away, “I am standing with you,”
and no one would suppose that I was there physically beside them. These have reached the place where they
occupy the same road, the same quality of being, the
same reality as the Lamb Himself. They
are the knights around His person, and they are all stamped with the likeness
of the King. They stand for all that the
Lamb stands for — humility, sacrifice, victory, sovereignty; just as the
followers of the beast bear the mark of the beast, and stand for all that he
represents — ferocity, cruelty, brute force.
The Lamb Company, whosoever they are, will not have sought out another
manner of life. These are followers of
Jesus. They stand with Him! They will not deny nor digress from their
station and standing in Him. Having His
name, nature, and character as a very part of themselves their mind, being His
mind, will only seek to express the virtues of Himself. Almighty Father! Just following Him around,
just being where He is, being what He
is, speaking what He speaks, doing what He does…what a privilege!
THE FATHER’S NAME IN THE FOREHEAD
“…a
Lamb stood on the
We have
pictured for us the company of the firstfruits unto
God. These are a company of overcomers
as signified by their having the Father’s name and the name of the Lamb written
on their foreheads. “Him that overcometh
will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and
I will write upon him the name of my
God…and I will write upon him My new name” (Rev. 3:12). A name in the scriptures is descriptive of
the character of the one who bears that name, especially when God gives the
name to that person. Names are very
important and this is why God many times changed the names of some. Jacob, the deceiver, the supplanter,
had his name changed to
The mark
of God, the Father’s name in the forehead, is
the mind of Christ. Those who stand
with the Lamb have been renewed in the spirit of their mind and have put on
God’s mind — they think as God thinks, understand as God understands, see as God sees in all things. They have partaken of Christ’s cup. They have followed the Lamb, first, all the
way to
The
opening work of this new day of the kingdom is the preparation for reigning of
the sons of God! The great work of the seal
of God in the forehead is the change of our mind, or more
accurately the taking of another mind. The
taking of a new mind brings about the existence of a new being, and a new being
brings about the existence of a new order!
The work that God is doing in His sons in this present hour is not about
power. It’s powerful alright, but it’s
not about power. It’s about character! The mark of the sons of God is in
their mind and in their nature!
The present mind of man is polluted and there is no denying the
fact. All the appropriations of all the
governments, all the laws and ordinances, all the wars and change of
governmental systems, all the charity, relief, and social organizations and
programs, all the rituals and promotions of religion, will do little good
whatever in correcting the problems of moral pollution or any other kind of
pollution, until the mind of man is cleansed and
renewed. The sons of God, having the
seal of the living God upon their foreheads, and the Father’s name and the
Lamb’s name encoded within their foreheads, are the FIRSTFRUITS OF AN ENTIRELY
NEW ORDER OF MEN TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY TRANSFORMED
BY THE RENEWING OF THEIR MINDS! What
glorious hope and expectation
this inspires in our hearts!
The
nature of God is written in the forehead or mind of every son of God! When the nature of God is written in one’s
forehead, how will that one act and react in relation to the enticements of the
flesh, the pressures of the world, the needs of mankind, and the snares of the
devil? They will act like God! That
is why God has no problem in turning His kingdom over to His sons to judge and
rule over all things. They possess His
mind and heart! The sons will not, and
cannot, act any differently than the will and purpose of the Father! All the sons want is what the Father
wants! That doesn’t mean, as some
suppose, that a son must run to his Father every hour, or every day, or every
week inquiring, “Father, what do you want me to do? How should I handle this situation?” and then
wait there for
an answer. Oh, no! The sons have the mind of the Father, they inherently possess the knowledge of His will, ways, and
purpose. Sons instinctively,
spontaneously understand the plans of
the Father! This sacred knowledge is
inborn and inbred in the very constitution of the new creation man!
We
used to think that in order to get a “word” from God we had to hide out in a
room and pray for an hour. Now don’t
misunderstand what I say — I do believe in prayer and the power of prayer. It is part of the cosmic order of God. No man on earth has walked out this life of sonship more perfectly than our elder brother, the Lord
Jesus, and He prayed often, sometimes all night. But He wasn’t praying to “get” something from
the Father; He prayed because He was a
Son and shared that intimacy of fellowship with the Father. It was the Father in Him that showed Him the works! That is plainly what He Himself said. He knew the Father’s voice within Himself at
all times, for the Father was in Him as His very life and reality. Oh, the wonder of it! When God dwells in His
All
that God is doing in His called and chosen ones in this hour is preparation for
the manifestation of the fullness of His glory.
Therefore God is teaching us His will, He is instructing us in His word,
and He is making known to us His ways so that we become the revelation of
Himself in the earth. BECOMING — that’s
what He’s after!
The
wise man has given us the order by which we mature into the full stature of the
mind of Christ. “The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by
understanding hath He established
the heavens. By His knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the
dew” (Prov. 3:19-20). Let us note
three things from this beautiful passage.
One is wisdom, another is knowledge, and the third is
understanding. God by wisdom, by
knowledge, and by understanding accomplishes a specific work in the
cosmos. We find that God by wisdom
has founded the earth; by understanding he has established the
heavens; and by His knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down
dew.
I now
share this great truth with you in the way the Spirit has communicated it to
me. We begin with understanding, for
understanding is the first principle in this framework. It is not the first thing the writer names,
for he speaks first of wisdom by which the Lord founded the earth. But in the opening verse of the Bible, we
find that in the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth. The heavens come first, and then the
earth. Scientifically, that is the
correct order for the formation of the solar system. So we must begin with the establishment of
the heavens, and it was by understanding that He established the heavens. This order is further confirmed by the fact
that understanding is the instrument by which we discern the word of the
Lord. Understanding of necessity precedes wisdom. One can never attain wisdom apart from
understanding! Neither can you obtain
knowledge until first you possess understanding. If a child in school is unable to understand the material he is studying,
he can never gain knowledge. So
understanding must come before both knowledge and wisdom!
The
apostle John expresses this truth so clearly when he writes, “And we know that the Son of God is come,
and hath given us an understanding, that
we may know Him that is true…” (I
Jn. 5:20). These words teach us the
sacred truth that it is only by understanding that we can truly know God! Not by our human understanding, but by the
understanding He gives us — the understanding
of the spirit! The first step in our
journey into the fullness of God is spiritual
understanding; we perceive the
Lord, we perceive the word, the will,
and the ways of the Lord. Knowledge,
then, is the fruit of understanding!
Have we not often had the cart before the horse? Have we not supposed that knowledge came
first, followed by understanding? But
such cannot be! If one does not
understand a thing he cannot know it!
Someone says, “Well, I know a thing but I don’t understand it.” I reply, “When you do understand it, then you
will truly know it!” Can you not see how
that works? So God first gives us an understanding, that out of that understanding may be birthed
knowledge. Understanding is the
conception in the womb, knowledge is the development of the organism. First we understand, then we know. And God has given us an understanding that we
might know Him! Thus the
HEAVENS OF OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE ARE ESTABLISHED BY UNDERSTANDING, as the wise man
said! By understanding we perceive spiritual
truth and reality, by knowledge that truth is made substance within us, which
in turn leads us to wisdom. That is the order!
Webster
defines wisdom as “the faculty to discern right or truth and to judge and act accordingly; sound
judgment; common sense.” Wisdom bespeaks
the correct application of knowledge.
Wisdom, therefore, can never precede knowledge; yet one can possess
knowledge without wisdom! One may have
all the knowledge in the world, but apart from wisdom he cannot correctly apply
that knowledge. The divine order of the
Spirit is just this — God gives us understanding that we may know Him. He then teaches us wisdom that we may
properly express and correctly apply our knowledge of Him.
These
great and eternal principles are true in us because they are true in God! God has not established an order for us, His sons, that is different from the order that exists within
Himself. What God is doing in this hour
is taking all the principles and attributes that are true in Him and establishing
them as life and reality within the experience of each of His sons. He is causing us to know Him as He is!
That does not mean to know
Him by acquaintance, but to know Him in union of life — to know Him in our very
state of being until there is nothing more to know! We are coming to know how He is, to know His
nature, to know how He thinks, to know how and why He acts, to comprehend His
plans and purposes, His will and ways, until nothing is hidden or withheld from us.
This is not a knowledge of something outside of ourselves, something
true in a God in some far-off heaven somewhere.
It is knowledge gained by His incarnation within us, in the union of
life, so that all that is true in Him is raised up within us as our very own
reality. Servants know God by
acquaintance; sons know God by the power of His life within! Oh, the wonder of it!
I am
explaining these things in some detail so that together we might clearly see
how our Father operates, and therefore how the sons of God function. “The
Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath He established the
heavens. By His knowledge the depths are
broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.”
How did God establish the heavens?
He established the heavens by understanding! And by wisdom He founded the earth. And in the process of that creation how did
God cause the depths to break up, and the clouds to send down rain? By knowledge He did it! If we think carelessly about these things we
will miss much beautiful and significant truth.
Understanding,
knowledge, wisdom. Looking at these
three we notice that each of them represents a word. Words are the expression of
thought. Thoughts are perceptions of
reality. In our thinking we perceive, in
our words we speak, and the words are simply the verbalization of
thoughts. Understanding, knowledge,
wisdom — all exist in the realm of mind.
If a man has wisdom he has it in his mind. His feet possess no wisdom. His hands possess no wisdom. The wisdom of the mind is channeled through
the members of the body by means of words and actions. The same is true of understanding and
knowledge. All these exist in mind, and all three bespeak a word — that is the spoken
mind. Thus, in relation to God, the mind of the Lord is the fountainhead of
understanding, knowledge, and wisdom! In
the wonderful work of creation God brought forth out of the omniscience of His
mind. God understood, God possessed knowledge,
and He correctly applied that knowledge by wisdom. Therefore, by understanding, knowledge, and
wisdom God created all things!
With
these thoughts in mind we can better understand that it was not by power that our almighty Father created
the universe! Did you ever stop to think
about that? “The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth.” Yet, for many years I supposed that God
founded the earth by power! “By understanding hath He established the heavens.” Did you not
think He did so by power? “By His knowledge the depths are broken up, and
the clouds distill the dew.” But we all
imagined that such wonders were wrought by God’s omnipotent power! What awesome power God must have sent forth
to do these things! But the wise man
says nothing about power. He never
mentions it! The deep mystery is that it
was from the mind of the Lord, and by
His spoken mind (word), that creation
appeared. “Through faith we understand that the
worlds were framed by the WORD of God, so that things which are seen were
not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3). “And
God said, Let there be; and it was
so” (Gen. 1:3-26).
Many of
the Lord’s apprehended ones have intensely desired and have earnestly sought
after God’s power. In the early days of
my ministry I sought for power. I fasted
and prayed for signs, wonders, and miracles.
And the Lord graciously blessed us with great and mighty things! God is still performing signs, wonders, and
miracles at times and in places throughout the earth. I have experienced the move of God in that
dimension. I have witnessed miracles
that to the natural mind are incredible.
In those early days great numbers of God’s ministers stepped into that
manifestation of divine power. Many who
read these lines remember those days when the lame walked, blind received
sight, deaf ears were opened, tumors fell off, huge goiters disappeared
instantly like the bursting of a balloon, and things needed appeared by the
creative miracle of God. Oh, yes! I have witnessed all of those things with my
own eyes, and some were even wrought at the laying on my hands. We have seen batteries charged, gasoline
created in the tank, and know of many other creative miracles, even fish
appearing in a frying pan!
Consequently,
I spent a number of years in those glorious days seeking for more and more of
the power of God. I knew that the
manifestation of power we were seeing was merely a foretaste, a sample, an
earnest and firstfruit of the power yet to be
revealed in the
During
the past few decades there has come to many of the Lord’s elect His word of
counsel and instruction, saying, “Listen, hearken, my sons, for I will now
teach you something very real. Do you
want to know me? I will tell you how I
am. I am a successful Creator. I made and established the whole universe
unto the vastnesses of infinity. I have made both good and evil, I formed the
light and created the darkness; I brought forth man and placed him in a garden
with two trees and a subtle serpent. I
have framed the expanse of the ages, and not only can I do all these things and
millions more, but in the end I can bring it all together; every knee shall
bow, every tongue shall confess, every heart shall surrender, and throughout
all the unbounded heavens there will be peace, joy, righteousness, divine order
and glory forevermore. You will discern
that in all the interplay between the good and the evil; in all the processes
of my purposes, there was divine understanding, divine knowledge, and divine
wisdom! I knew the end from the
beginning, and by my understanding I established the heavens, by my wisdom I
founded the earth, and by my knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds
distill the dew.”
Our
great and glorious heavenly Father now makes known to His sons the great and
eternal principles upon which He works in creation, redemption, and
restoration. We are His sons! As He is, so are we destined to be. As He works, so
shall we work in the ordering of His kingdom. Once we comprehend how He works, we are
blessed with the wonderful knowledge of our own place and role as heirs of His
kingdom. When the understanding,
knowledge, and wisdom of the mind of
Christ possesses us, we will comprehend the mystery that within that understanding, knowledge,
and wisdom lies the power. This
dimension of power is not the limited, fragmented power we have known and
experienced in the past in the “in part” realm of the gifts. This is the whole,
full, complete, unlimited, unbounded, omnipotent, creative power of the
“Through wisdom is an
house builded; and by understanding it is
established: and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious
and pleasant riches” (Prov.
24:3-4).
What a
blessed confirmation this passage is!
Again the three-fold creative process of understanding, knowledge, and
wisdom is presented to us. You will
surely notice that the passage does not tell us that a house is built by either
ability, skill, strength, or power. Oh,
no! In these significant words is
contained the revelation of what God is doing in, and imparting to, His called
and chosen elect who are being raised up to build the kingdom of God in the
earth. Every house, the writer to the
Hebrews tells us, is built by some man, and He who built all things is
God. God builds, establishes, and orders
all things in the heavens and the earth by understanding, knowledge, and
wisdom! And now, in this great day of
the Lord, our wonderful and wise Father is raising up within us the
understanding, knowledge, and wisdom of His own glorious mind. He is giving us understanding that we may fully know, perceive, discern, fathom,
and apprehend HIM WITHIN OURSELVES. He
is unfolding within our spirit the sacred knowledge
of all His ways — His plans, purposes, procedures, processes, intents,
means, and methods. And He is maturing
in us His divine wisdom by which we
shall go forth and deliver creation from the bondage of corruption, restoring
all things into God again. Oh, sweet
mystery of the ages!
Have
you ever wondered, dear one, why the Lord has led you down a pathway, not of
blessing, glory, and riches, but of temptation, testing, trial, purging,
stripping, proving, and suffering? Let
us see by revelation of the Spirit that the experiencing of all these things,
and our breaking, melting, molding, transformation, and triumph in them, is the
very means by which the understanding, knowledge, and wisdom of the Lord is
established within our reality. Nothing
God has been doing in us through the crucible of His dealings has anything to
do with power. In fact, we seem to be
stripped of all power, and reduced no nothingness! Ah, but it has everything to do with
understanding, knowledge, and wisdom! “Though He were a Son, yet learned He
obedience through the things that He
suffered” (Heb. 5:8). These holy
things are not learned by the hearing of the ear or the seeing of the eye. It is not by reading these lines that even
one of God’s elect will be blessed with understanding, knowledge, or
wisdom. Nor do they come through study,
searching, listening to sermons, attending meetings, burning the midnight oil,
seeking, praying, fasting, or having hands laid on you. They cannot be gained through any self-effort
of any kind. They are obtained only
through the sovereign inworking of God! Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty
hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time!
The great truth that the power of God only flows
and functions out of understanding, knowledge, and wisdom powerfully reveals to
us how it is that the 144,000 standing with the Lamb upon mount Zion, the
pinnacle of rulership and dominion in the kingdom of
God, have no scepters in their hands, no crowns upon their heads, no swift
horses carrying them into battle, no swords proceeding out of their
mouths. All of that comes later, but the
deep mystery the Spirit is unfolding to the elect of the Lord is just this — before we can be crowned with authority
or gain the scepter of power and dominion, WE MUST HAVE THE FATHER’S NAME
WRITTEN IN OUR FOREHEADS!
To be continued… J. PRESTON EBY
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