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KINGDOM
BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching
the things concerning the
The
Heavens Declare
Book
Two
By J.
Table
of Contents
Chapter
Title
Page
29.
Capricornus
– The Goat (cont.)
18
30.
Capricornus
– The Goat (cont.)
34
31.
Capricornus
– The Goat (cont.)
50
32.
Aquarius – The Water Pourer
63
33.
Aquarius
– The Water Pourer (cont.)
78
36.
Aries
– The Lamb (cont.)
126
37.
Aries
– The Lamb (cont.)
141
38.
Taurus – The Wild Bull
155
39.
Taurus
– The Wild Bull (cont.)
170
40.
Taurus
– The Wild Bull (cont.)
184
42.
Gemini
– The Twins (cont.)
212
43.
Gemini
– The Twins (cont.)
225
45.
Cancer
– The Crab (cont.)
254
47.
Leo
– The Lion (cont.)
282
Chapter
28
CAPRICORNUS
-- THE GOAT
In our study of the
"Real Meaning of the Zodiac" it has been amazing to many to see that all the
major themes of scripture concerning God's great plan of creation and redemption are
clearly figured in the Signs of the heavens. Truly God has written the gospel in the
stars! Many of the Lord's people have shied away from any teaching concerning the Zodiac
out of fear of venturing into the swamplands of astrology -- a valid concern. But we must
not be prevented from treading the courts of God’s glorious revelation simply because
it has been perverted and counterfeited by the carnal mind. In Job 38:31-32 we read,
"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst
thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his
sons?" Mazzaroth is a Hebrew word which means "the constellations of the
Zodiac." And then, hidden in plain sight in Job chapters 38 and 39, are given the
twelve Signs: Battles of heaven -- Job 38:37; Lions -- Job 38:39; Ravens -- Job 39:41;
Wild goats -- Job 39:1; Hinds -- Job 39:1; Wild ass -- Job 39:5; Unicorn 39:9; Peacocks
--Job 39.13; Ostrich -- Job 39:13; Horse -- Job 39:19; Hawk -- Job 39:26; Eagle -- Job
39:27. An accident? Hardly! But what is the purpose of all this! Does it merely concern
some mysterious physical influences of the sun, moon and stars over the earth and men's
lives -- or is it something far grander and greater?
In the book of Revelation the
Holy Spirit gives us the symbols of the lion, the calf, the man, and the eagle and also of
the twelve tribes in the heavens. Are these not the true powers in the heavens that
project their dominion upon the earth! Are these not the very ensigns and standards which
the enemy fears because he knows that the heavens do rule! These are powerful concepts.
The grand truth of it is portrayed for us in Moses' and Aaron's mighty acts before Pharaoh
in the
CAPRICORNUS -THE GOAT
In our study, we now come to
Capricornus -- the name is Latin for goat. The Hebrew names associated with the Sign are
GEDI and SAIR. Both terms are used in the Old Testament for kids of the goats of
sacrifice. There is no prototype of this strange creature, the front half of which is
pictured on the old star charts as a goat and the rear half as a fish! But that is
precisely what Capricornus is! It is a goat with a fishes' tail; it is half-goat and
half-fish. What does it mean? This Sign has a very strange appearance on the old star
charts because it shows a wounded goat, with its head bowed and its knee bent under,
fallen down in the posture of dying. On the other hand, the tail of the fish is wiggling,
vigorous and living! Unless there is some significance to this strange combination, we
might imagine that its inventor was having an hallucination. But when the true meaning is
understood we can see the wisdom of God in the prophetic revelation portrayed by this
wonderful Sign in God's Bible in the Sky.
First of all, we have the
figure of a goat. This is a sacrificial animal. The picture and the meaning become even
more clear as we consider some of the stars in this constellation. Some of the brightest
stars are AL GEDI, which means "the Kid"; DENEB AL GEDI meaning "the
Sacrifice cometh"; and MA'ASAD, "the Slaying." God commanded the children
of
LIFE OUT OF DEATH
Note that from the dying goat
comes a living fish -- the living fish thus takes its being out of the dying goat and
derives all its life and vigor from thence. The living fish emerging from the dying goat
therefore has an important meaning. In addition to the falling and dying of the goat,
Capricornus is the Sign of a mystical procreation and bringing forth. It speaks of life
that springs forth from the death of the sacrifice. That which is brought forth is a fish,
the familiar and well understood symbol of the spiritual body brought out of the dying of
the Lord Jesus. When Jesus called and appointed His first apostles, He said, "I will
make you fishers of men" (Mat. 4:19). When God promised that He would bring again the
children of
Do my readers know what an
acrostic is? It is a poem, of which, if the first letter of each line be taken in order,
these, when put together, will spell a word or a sentence. Now the Greek word for fish is ????? ; and this in its five
letters, acrostically represents the five Greek words which mean in English, "Jesus
Christ, Son of God, Saviour." The Greek words themselves are: ??s???, ???st??, Te??
???? , S?t??a. The early Christians chose '
??T?S, that is , "The
Fish," as a convenient secret sign of the truth about Jesus which they believed. The
"Sign of the Fish" is found on the walls of the Roman Catacombs, those
underground galleries and halls in which the ancient Church of Rome often hid and
congregated. Fishes made of bronze, and others made of glass, have also been found in the
catacombs. The heathen Romans who persecuted the believers did not understand what the
emblem meant; but to the members of the Church at Rome the Fish represented Christ the son
of God as Saviour; by extension it meant the members of His body; also, as many kinds of
fish are for eating, the symbol came to carry with it the thought of the Lord's people
feeding upon Christ, the heavenly, spiritual food. It is very important that we see the
great truth of the life that comes out of death. As J. A. Seiss wrote, "As men
naturally are but reproductions and perpetuations of Adam, and live his life, so Christ's
people are the reproduction and perpetuation of Christ, living His life. They are in Him
as the branch is in the vine. They are repeatedly called His body, one with Him, 'members
of His body and of His flesh and of His bones.' And so close and real is their
life-connection and incorporation with Him that they are called 'Christ.' What then could
better symbolize this than the Sign before us? The goat and fish are one -- one being, the
life of the dying reproduced and continued in a spiritual product which is part of one and
the same body. The goat of sacrifice is projected into a new creation, which is yet an
organic part of itself."
This principle of life out of
death is one of the most powerful laws of the
Life out of death is the same
as light out of darkness, for in the world of spiritual realities light and life are
synonyms and darkness and death are likewise synonyms. "In Him was Iife; and the life
was the light of men" (Jn. 1:4). Life and light and darkness and death are first set
forth in the opening scenes of the book of Genesis, the book of Beginnings. The life and
light are associated with God, whereas darkness and death are associated with creation.
Let me point out the significant fact that darkness was the first recorded condition or
state of creation, and all that was light and life and beauty and glory came into that
darkness, or was spoken into existence out of the darkness. "In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness
was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was
good.. ." (Gen. 1:1-4). Here you will notice that in relation to the creation
DARKNESS PRECEDED LIGHT. The spiritual application of this principle is given by the
apostle John, "In Him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light
shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it or put it out"
(Jn. 1:4-5). And again, "For God, who COMMANDED THE LIGHT TO SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS,
hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 4:6).
There is a great and wondrous
reason why the darkness precedes the light in the divine order of creation. Let us begin
with God. It has pleased the Lord to leave great truths obscure and well hidden from the
prying eyes of the curious and the unbelieving. He shrouds His precious truths in mystery
so that none but the earnest seekers who partake of the spirit of revelation are ever
permitted to see beyond the outer shell of the letter, and behold the unfolding glories
which lie concealed within the inner kernel. Perhaps the simplest yet most profound
statement about the nature of God is found in the beautiful writings of the beloved
apostle John. He says, "He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love. And we
have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in
love dwelleth in God, and God in him" (I Jn. 4:8,16). Would that my tongue were
eloquent enough to explain it, or that my mind were great enough to comprehend it. But
neither is sufficient. When we speak of God's attributes we may say that God is a spirit
— infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice,
goodness and truth. This is a very beautiful definition; but it largely defines only God's
attributes, whereas the text, "God is love," tells us WHAT HE HIMSELF IS. This
text reveals His nature, His state of being. For instance, in speaking of justice, we know
that God has justice as one of His attributes, but He is not justice; God IS love. This
fact gives us a revelation of GOD'S VERY NATURE. Our poor, lisping, faltering tongues
cannot proclaim the gospel as we would like; but we have God's Word that is true for the
present time and for all the times of all the ages. God IS LOVE! IS — unchangeably!
IS — eternally! God is love in heaven, in earth, in hell! IS — everywhere! And
the great practical consequence is for you and me to respond to that God and to that love,
to become filled with that love, one with that love, the embodiment and manifestation of
that love to all men in all realms. The best and most wonderful word in the universe is
Love. For God is Love. And the best and most wonderful word in the inner chamber of our
heart must be — Love. For the God who meets us there is Love. What is Love? THE DEEP
DESIRE TO GIVE ITSELF FOR THE BELOVED. Love finds its joy in imparting all that it has,
and all that it is, to make the loved one happy and fulfilled. And the heavenly Father,
who offers to meet us in the inner chamber —let there be no doubt about this in our
minds — has no other object than to flood our hearts with His love.
Love has been described as AN
ETERNAL WILL TO ALL GOODNESS. This is THE ONE ETERNAL, IMMUTABLE GOD that, from eternity
to eternity, changeth not, that can be neither more nor less, but an ETERNAL WILL TO ALL
GOODNESS that is in Himself and come from Him, so that as certainly as He is Creator, so
certainly is He the blesser of every created thing, and can give nothing but blessings,
goodness, fulfillment, and holiness from Himself, because He has in Himself nothing else
to give. The judgments of God can never be rightly understood apart from His nature of
love. If God's judgments spring not from His love then they come not from God at all, for
He IS LOVE. He possesses the attributes of both justice and wrath -- but He IS LOVE! What
ought this to teach us about His judgments! The pen of inspiration wrote, "My son,
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for
whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth . . . for
our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness" (Heb. 12:5-10). God doesn't go
around purposelessly punishing or vindictively torturing any of His creatures. But He does
go about precise paths of bringing forth correction UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS, as the prophet
says, "When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will LEARN
RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Isa. 26:9).
The words of the following
poem strike poignantly at the deep meaning and sublime purpose of God in creation and
redemption.
Why did God make the
universe, the earth and the sky above?
Scripture gives the answer when it says that "God is love.”
Before God made the universe He worked a master plan,
He knew how everything would end before it all began.
He made mankind so He could have an object of His love,
But, man was blind and did not see -- it came from above.
So God created evil as He had created night,
So man could see the good in Him -- in darkness we see light.
He made the "blackboard" very black, with evil, sin, and woe.
He made an adversary to be His cunning foe.
He made the earth to be a "stage" to show the hosts above,
By all of our experiences, His wisdom and His love.
He locks up all in stubbornness to make His mercy clear;
Lets satan lure all men away, so He can draw all near.
He gives His only firstborn Son to die and save us all;
Yet each in his own class we read; we're blind until our call.
You ask me why God made the earth, the glittering stars above!
The scriptures give the answer when they say that GOD IS LOVE!
— Author Unknown
It is very important that we
grasp the deep message in the words of this inspired poem, because, once we understand it,
we comprehend as never before the eternal mystery of creation and redemption. It will be a
wonderful day for you, dear one, when first your soul becomes enthralled with the
revelation that God, before ever the world began or ever the ages were formed, looked
forth from His temple of wisdom and omnipotence to chart with resolute care the course and
purpose of every age. Your heart will throb as you read the opening proclamation of
scripture, "In the beginning — GOD!" In the beginning of what? Not in the
beginning of God, certainly, but in the beginning of His creation of all things, in the
beginning of time as we know it, in the beginning of the orderly procession of the
divinely destined ages. In the beginning stands God, omnipotent and omniscient, creating,
sustaining and guiding all things and all people and all the ages of time according to the
purpose of His own will. No purpose ordained by God from the beginning can possibly go
astray or be hindered by the efforts of devil or man. Oh, for the hour when all creation
will grasp the beautiful message, "From Him everything comes, by Him everything
exists, and in Him everything ends!" (Rom. 11:36).
If God be the Creator of ALL
THINGS, then it must of necessity follow that GOD IS THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS. We read the
passage quoted above from the Emphatic Diaglott, "because out of Him, and through
Him, and for Him are ALL THINGS, to Him be the glory for the ages, Amen.” All things
are out of God, all thing are through Him, all things are for Him, and all things are unto
Him, ending in Him. The clearest possible rendering is given by Goodspeed, "For from
Him everything comes; through Him everything exists; and in Him everything ends! Glory to
Him forever! Amen." The Bible opens with the simplest and yet most profound statement
ever recorded by human hand. "In the beginning -- GOD" The sweet singer of
Israel declared of Him, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst
formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, THOU ART GOD"
(Ps. 90:2). Our God was the great active force, the cause of all that began to happen
"in the beginning." How awesome the thought that there was a "time"
when there was nothing — absolutely nothing — but God! There was no blue-green
orb called earth, no silver-shimmering moon, no diamond-studded heaven of stars and
planets, no angels, no devils, no man — nothing but GOD HIMSELF. There were not even
the 100 elements out of which everything in the universe is constructed — there was
only God. Paul caught something of the sublimity of this eternal and Self-existent One and
wrote, "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or
powers: all things were created by Him and for Him: and HE IS BEFORE ALL THINGS, and by
Him all things consist" (Col. 1:16-17).
Let me emphasize this
wonderful and important truth: "He is before all things." This can mean nothing
else but that God is not one of the "things." He is BEFORE all things. He is
before A-L-L THINGS! And just as majestic is the truth that "by Him ALL THINGS
CONSIST." Now let us soar down through the corridors of time to the consummation of
all things. "For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him,
then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that
GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL" (I Cor. 15:25-28). GOD ALL IN ALL — this will be the
grand conclusion of the whole vast universe and of Christ's redemption. There will come a
day — the glory is such we can form no conception of it, the mystery is so deep we
cannot realize it — when the Son shall deliver up the Kingdom that God gave Him in
His rulership over ALL THINGS — that God may be all-in- all. ALL IN ALL — such
is the grand goal of our God! But I must point out that before that long-ago beginning God
was NOT all-in-all. He was simply A-L-L. There was nothing else. No "thing"
beside Him. There was not even space— for God was ALL. Oh, the mystery of it! This
raises an interesting and important question. If God was "before all things,"
then OUT OF WHAT did He CREATE all things? If there was only God, and absolutely no thing
other than God who was all, what kind of material did God have at His disposal from which
to construct the all things? If you were standing completely alone, with nothing outside
your own being existent, what material would be available for making something other than
yourself? The answer is, of course, NOTHING! YOU WOULD HAVE TO MAKE THE "THINGS"
OUT OF YOURSELF! And friend, this is precisely what God did. Now we can understand the
full import of those words inspired by the blessed Spirit of Truth through the apostle
Paul: "Because BY HIM were the all things created. ..and Himself is before all, and
the all things I-N H-I-M HAVE CONSISTED" (Col. 1:16-17).
Now let us return to the
nature of this God who was ALL. We must clearly see that God is all-inclusive, and that He
lacks nothing whatsoever. And God is love -- all goodness. Having said that God is
complete and therefore good, we can now go on to describe the attribute through which we
are aware of His existence — His desire to share. This is the consequence, the effect
of His goodness. Some have said, and I have said it too, that God created man because He
was alone and yearned for fellowship — for creatures of like kind with which He could
commune. But this falls short of the absolute nature of God which is the nature of love.
Love does not give because of the desire to receive; rather, love gives purely out of the
desire to bless. The desire for fellowship is the desire to receive — not give! Now
God possesses that attribute also, as we shall presently see, but God is first of all love
-- the pure and unmixed desire to impart. Here we have the first principle of creation
— God's infinite desire to impart led to the creation of a vessel to receive His
blessings. The creation of this vessel (the cosmos) was the beginning and the end of
creation. He therefore created the universe with all the hosts thereof, and this world
with its inhabitants. Thus the Creator could now bestow upon the creation His infinite
love and inexhaustible abundance. God is the Lover, creation the beloved! "For God so
loved the world .”
We have shown that the
Creator's nature is sharing or imparting; however, there can be no sharing unless there is
some agent that can receive. So God's infinite desire to impart implies a desire to
fulfill every possible dimension and quality of desires to receive. Can we not see by this
that God's infinite desire to give demands AN AGENT WITH THE DESIRE TO RECEIVE! The very
nature of God requires CREATION! To impart or share with others, on any level, can only by
considered noble or kind when the recipient desires and enjoys that which is offered to
him. When the recipient rejects the gift yet the donor continues to insist on its
acceptance and finally forces him to accept, one can hardly consider this an act of giving
— much less of love. All who read these lines know by experience that the mere
mechanical act of giving is, in itself, unsatisfactory and unfulfilling. We do not give
advice to the mountains, nor do we offer money to animals. Clearly there must be a desire
to receive on the part of the recipient, a knowledge of what the gift entails and
signifies, before we can say we are truly giving. It follows that God could never give
anything to anyone without an active desire to receive on their part. So the first step in
creation was to bring forth the manifestation of the DESIRE TO RECEIVE! This desire is
inherent in creation, although some are so blinded by sin and benumbed by death that they
seek for the answer to their craving in all the wrong places, even rebelling against the
glorious Giver. But God has a plan for all these, to bring them to repentance (a change of
mind and desire), so that they can desire properly and discover the true source of life
and blessing. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count
slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that
ALL SHOULD COME TO REPENTANCE.'' (II Pet. 3:9).
Armed with the knowledge that
there was only God — and no "thing" apart from Him, God was ALL — it
readily follows that because of His nature to give God must create an instrument with both
the capacity and desire to receive. The only way to accomplish this was for God to
withdraw Himself, to remove Himself, that there would be a place or condition where HE WAS
NOT. God is light, the scripture declares, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
Therefore, let it be clearly known that darkness is nought but the ABSENCE OF GOD!
"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the
deep" (Gen. 1:2). You will understand a great mystery when you see how it is that the
creation was brought forth in the domain of darkness, the realm from which, though created
by God, God had withdrawn Himself! "For the creation was made subject to vanity, not
willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creation
itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God" (Rom. 8:20-21). Not only was darkness (the absence of God) the first
state of creation, it remains the condition of the Adamic creation unto this day. The
command, "Let there be light," is not merely an historical event, but a prophecy
of the glorious reality that would be birthed out of the darkness of the first creation.
The work begins with darkness. God said, "Let there be light," and at once light
shone where all before was dark. It is only when the Word of God pierces the dense
darkness of our alienated, carnal mind with the divine fiat, "Let there be
light!" that our darkness displeases us and we are turned to the light. In that
blessed moment the shroud of ignorance and death is removed from our heart and the light
of life shines in to illuminate, quicken and transform that world which we are. "The
people which sat in darkness saw a great light; and to them which sat in the region and
shadow of death light is sprung up" (Mat. 4:16). "I am the light of the world:
he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the the light of
life" (Jn. 8:12). "Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power
of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son" (Col. 1:12-13).
God's method in His
going-forth cannot be better understood than by the use of a somewhat uncommon word —
parsimony. We may say that God's method of realizing Himself in creation is by parsimony.
To use an illustration — if we desire to understand the composition of the great
white rays of light, we break them up into their constituents and see them as crimson and
purple and gold. To break up the composition of the white light we hold a portion of it
back. This is what takes place when we pass it through a prism or through stained glass.
Part of it is held back and we see the remainder. This is parsimony. To change the figure,
those who love little children often act upon the same principle. We have to shed a
portion of our experience, dispense with a part of our resources, yield up a measure of
what we are, and become children ourselves if we are to understand and relate to children.
We isolate some of our persona, as it were. Your little boy or girl knows you as father,
but perhaps your fellow citizens know you as professor, banker, lawyer, doctor or
proprietor. You have a larger life than the little child knows anything about, and yet to
live your fatherhood properly you have to shed the other persona in the presence of your
child and live as a child. What is this but parsimony! Part of your nature is dismissed,
or withdrawn, or held back, that the other part lived in the home may become to you a
richer experience. Many know me as a man of God, a preacher and teacher of the
It is not difficult to see
how to apply this to God's great principle of creation. God withdrew Himself creating
darkness and void -- this is the self-limitation of Deity; or to state it in other words,
God retained, or held back, His full resources in order that there could be formed outside
of Himself and beyond Himself and yet within Himself the desire to receive. This is
righteous, purposeful, divine parsimony. The desire to receive is the basic mechanism by
which the world operates, the dynamic process at the base of all manifestation. The desire
to receive affects all creation because it is the basis of all creation. As we view the
animate creation we find a remarkable physical dependence upon the external world for
survival culminating in man, who has the greatest desire to receive of all creation -- not
only for physical things, but also for psychological things like peace, happiness and
satisfaction, and above all, the deep inner craving for spiritual life, the insatiable
hunger after reality. When God created man male and female in His image He revealed that
He is Himself male and female in His nature and attributes. God would never have known the
action of giving and receiving had He not known them as characteristics inherent within
Himself. The masculine nature is the nature of the Giver. Aggressiveness, boldness,
strength, valor, authority, power and dominion are among the traits of the masculine sex.
And it is the man who supplies the sperm for the creation of a new life. Thus, man is the
Giver. Modesty, gentleness, tenderness, sensitivity and dependence are attributes of the
feminine sex. And it is the woman who receives the sperm in the act of procreation. Woman
is therefore the Receiver. The realm of her reception is in darkness — the new life,
the new creation, the product of her union is formed in the seclusion and darkness of the
womb — space. In its beginning the new life is without human form and darkness is
upon the face of the deep. What marvelous things are wrought in darkness! Said the
Psalmist: "I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are
Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from Thee, when I
was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did
see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which
in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them" (Ps. 139:14-16).
I find myself too confined to
set forth this truth as I should do, but let us request of God's Spirit the ability to see
that it is in darkness that the embryo is created, and in that long ago beginning it was
in a great darkness that creation was formed. God the Giver withdrew Himself from Himself
creating space, and within that space He brought forth creation -- the Receiver. In
darkness the Receiver existed in a state of lack, made to lack a little from Elohim. It
was a region of rayless darkness. Deepest night rested over it. It was without from,
utterly shapeless in all its parts. It was void, that is, unfilled up. It knew nothing of
God who was to become its fullness. In none of its parts was there any reception or
filling up. Then the Spirit of God began to move upon the face of this deep. This activity
of the Holy Spirit is called that of "moving" over the face of the waters. The
word "move" is from the Hebrew RACHAPH and occurs only three times in the Old
Testament, the other two being translated "shake" (Jer. 23:9) and
"fluttereth" (Deut. 32:11), respectively. Some commentators relate the word
particularly to the hovering of a mother hen over her chicks. In any case, the idea seems
to be mainly that of a rapid back and forth motion. In modern scientific terminology, the
best translation would probably be "vibrated." If the universe is to be
energized, there must be an Energizer. If it is to be given life, there must be a
Life-giver. The vibrating of God over the creation in darkness is not unlike the movement
of the male at that precise moment when he inseminates the female with the seed of life.
It is most appropriate that the first impartation of energy into the universe is described
as the "vibrating" movement of the Spirit of God Himself — the injection of
His life as divine seed into creation! This movement is immediately followed by the divine
fiat: "Let there be light!" and into the darkness the light shone. In that
blessed moment God and creation began their long journey into union, oneness. The Giver
began to give and the Receiver began to receive. The heart of the Father was pleased. Now
there was an object to Receive out of His infinite desire to Give! The law of creation was
begun.
Think it not strange, my
beloved, when your pathway leads you down, down, down into the experience of darkness and
despair. It is in the darkness that the desire to receive is first kindled within you. We
flounder a bit in our understanding of these things, but as time passes by and the Holy
Spirit takes the things of God and reveals them unto us, we begin to understand that in
all the universe a thing is a thing ONLY BECAUSE IT HAS ITS OPPOSITE. Good without the
knowledge of evil can scarcely be called good at all. Who could possibly speak of the day
if night had never been known? There was no first light except there was darkness before
it. What could we know of life if there were no death? What would we know of health if
there were no sickness? What would we know of wealth if poverty had not spread its spectre
upon the earth? No man can be trusted until he has been EXPOSED TO THE OPPOSITES, until he
has been moved to desire something beyond his darkness, frustration, limitation and lack.
Myriad have been the men who have inquired why God cast the noble and divine spirit of man
into the earthly, sublunar plane, into bodies built of clay, where they endure sorrow,
temptation, pain, sickness, and the constant trials and ruthlessness which this body of
death imposes upon the soul. He might, preferably, have maintained them in His heavenly
sphere where all spirits rejoice in His presence, where once the morning stars sang and
all the sons of God shouted for joy, where they could merit the ineffable goodness of the
divine splendor which is bestowed upon them. Ah! but first, He must create in us the
desire to receive; second, He must involve us in the grand purpose of the receiving —
to mature us into His image until we have thoroughly learned the great law of His Being,
of His Kingdom — it is MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE! God created this world
peopling it with earthly bodies through which the soul must labor and struggle. By
experience and travail, through faith and patience we attain His objective of
purification, wisdom, understanding and holiness; without the struggle this necessitates,
we would be nothing more than idle recipients of God's blessing. It has been demonstrated
time and again that that which costs a man nothing is generally unappreciated. The natural
consequence of eating unearned bread, of receiving something for nothing — that is
not earned by labor and travail — is folly and shame. Ah, beloved, there is purpose
in affliction. There is purpose in trial. There is purpose in temptation. There is purpose
in suffering. There is purpose in sorrow. There is purpose in pain. There is purpose in
sickness and infirmity. There is purpose in light and darkness. There is purpose in
limitation and abundance. There is divine purpose in all the inter-play between good and
evil in our lives. One who grows up in a sheltered environment, who is pampered all his
life, grows up a weak, spineless individual. ADVERSITY builds strength of character. If we
were never exposed to trials and tribulation, we would grow up weak indeed! The more we
are exposed to ADVERSE circumstances, the more we have to wrestle with our environment,
the more we are challenged by the world around us, the stronger we become. Saints, if we
would be the sons of the Most High (the ultimate Givers) we must be strong in the Lord and
in the power of His might! Our Father wants us to be strong, so He has wisely given us
strong currents of opposition so we will become strong. There is a great and magnificent
future ahead for the sons of God, and a great work our Father has for us to do in the age
and the ages to come, and He is preparing us and making us ready for the high and holy
place He has for us. Can we not see that all the opposing forces we now encounter are
working together for our good — to develop the strength, character, wisdom, faith and
power we must acquire? Have you noticed how strangely Matthew and Mark speak of Christ's
temptation? "And immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil." (Mk. 1:12; Mat. 4:1). What a strange statement! The Holy Spirit of God
drives the sinless Son of God into the wilderness to be tempted by satan, the arch enemy
of all righteousness, a murderer from the beginning, the father of lies! Ah, but it was
necessary for this Son to be PROVEN, to be made STRONG, to OVERCOME in these realms before
proceeding on into His glorious sonship ministry and the death of the cross. Truly God
creates darkness and void and uses it, too, for His glory!
You see, God only makes us
Receivers in order that we may become Givers. The woman receives the seed of life from the
man, but in bringing that child into the world she is miraculously transformed into a
Giver! "For the man is not of the woman; but the woman (Eve) of the man.
Nevertheless. . .as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman" (I
Cor. 11:8-12). The Word of God bears immutable testimony to this wonderful truth. Father
Abraham heard the call of God and got him out of his own country, from his father's house
and his father's kindred, and sojourned to a land that God showed him. God gave to him the
promise of a seed and that in this seed all the families of the earth would be blessed.
After many years of experience in
The feminine Receiver in turn
acquires the masculine character of Giver. This principle is seen again in the order of
the life-cycle — children are Receivers, everything provided for them out of the
bounty of the parents. In due process, however, the child grows up and becomes an adult
— a Giver. In maturity, out of his nature to Give, the process of creation is
extended. The parent creates, just as God did! a receiver, a new life, to the end that his
desire to Give may find fulfillment in pouring lavishly upon the child of his love. So in
all of nature the law of creation is in wonder beheld — one Receives to become a
Giver; he then himself creates a Receiver in order to Give — and the process goes on
from generation to generation, from age to age. Certainly this sublime truth is alluded to
in the inspired words of the apostle wherein he says, "For the invisible things of
Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even His eternal power and Godhead" (Rom. 1:20).
It might be thought that
Giving, the first aspect through which Creator God is known to us, implies diminishing or
loss. At times our experience in this world is that, after we have shared or given
something, we are left with less than we had before. Although we have perceived it thus,
if we are quickened by the Holy Spirit to have eyes to see and hearts to understand the
nature of all things, we will soon discern that this is not truly the case, since giving
is the prerequisite for receiving. "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good
measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your
bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you
again" (Lk. 6:38). This is the law of the Kingdom! When we give we create the correct
spiritual atmosphere for the drawing down of forces from above. Can we then say that God
became diminished by His sharing with creation? Not at all! In creation God receives the
increase of Himself into Himself again so that instead of diminishing there is eternal
expansion. So God is a Bestower, a Father. He imparts without being in any way diminished
by imparting. The miracle of the widow woman's unfailing cruise of oil, and the feeding of
the five thousand from five little loaves and two fishes, with twelve basketsful of
fragments left over, are parabolic illustrations of this great principle. God does not
give to receive again — there can be nothing of that in the nature of God or in the
law of creation. It is simply the law of creation that what one sows produces a harvest.
Men sow to reap a harvest but God sows out of His pure and unmixed desire to give. In this
He is the measure of the perfect Donor. We could compare this to a rich man deciding to
get rid of all his money so that he can provide other people with the opportunity to make
money. While he is in possession of his money, he has all that he wants, and consequently
no desire to receive. It is only after he has made himself poor that he has enabled others
to share of their profits with him, thus making him even richer than he was before. Out of
his great love of sharing — a boundless love — comes the essence of the Creator
who ceaselessly bestows His blessing by withdrawing Himself, bringing forth a creation in
darkness with its lack and desire to receive, and then pouring into the creation of His
Life and Light and Love, bringing eternal increase out of Himself and into Himself. Oh,
the wonder of it!
Brethren, I deplore the vain
prattle that is being preached today concerning so-called "seed faith." From
coast to coast preachers are saying the very opposite of what I am saying here. They
unashamedly tell people that the way to get out of debt and unleash an abundance of
financial blessing is to plant "seed money," to give in order to get! They
persuade tens of thousands of Christians that if only they will send in their "seed
faith" offering to God's servant God will bless and prosper them, they will soon have
all their bills paid, they will have the finest and best of all the good things the world
has to offer, and an abundance of the amenities of life. My beloved, I do not hesitate to
tell you that the only ones being financially blessed and prospering and getting rich out
of this carnal teaching are the slick preachers who are hoodwinking God's precious people
into sending them their hard-earned money. It is wondrously true — give and it shall
be given unto you! But it is a monstrous farce to teach people to give IN ORDER TO GET.
Giving to get is contrary to the nature of God, contradictory to the law of creation, and
runs counter to the principles of the
The spirit of love is not in
you till it is the spirit of your life, till you live freely, willingly, universally
according to it. It knows no difference of time, place, or person; but whether it gives or
forgives, bears or forbears, it is equally doing its own delightful work. The spirit of
love does not want to be rewarded or honored; its only desire is to become the blessing
and happiness of everything that needs it. The wrath of an enemy, the treachery of a
friend, only gives the spirit of love an opportunity to be more triumphant. The rebellion
of Adam but opened up avenues for mankind to experience and know the incredible depths of
the love of God! God IS LOVE! And His sons are of His own nature. The SONS OF LOVE! What a
blessed title! Little wonder, then, that the whole vast creation, sold under slavery and
bondage to sin, sorrow, and death groans and travails for the manifestation of the SONS OF
LOVE! To know this is a wonderful help to faith. It teaches us that to love God, or the
brethren, or our enemies, or the whole wretched race of men, is not a thing self-effort
can attain. We can do it only because the divine love is dwelling in us; only as far as we
yield ourselves to the divine love as a living power within, as a life that has been born
into us, and that the Holy Spirit strengthens into action. Our part is first of all to
rest, to cease from effort, to meditate deeply upon the depths of His love to us, to know
that He is in us, and to give way to the love that dwells and works in us a power that is
from above. The love of God reigns. The Spirit of God still waits to take possession of
the heart where He has hitherto had no room. Love is timeless, eternal, unbounded. God so
loved. He loves still. Though one hundred and sixty billions of men have lived and died
and gone to Christless graves, HE LOVES THEM STILL. He will deal and deal in mercy and
judgment until the desire to receive in them responds to Him as the one and only infinite
supply. Oh, my dear friend, can you believe that? His mercy endureth forever, throughout
all ages, and love will conquer, praise His name! Don't you believe for one moment the
hideous lie that there are vessels created with the desire to receive that somehow will
escape God's love and slip away into eternal death or everlasting torment. Such an idea is
repugnant to all who know the truth and flies in the face of both the nature and wisdom of
God the Creator-Giver.
Hence it is that God, wanting
to show us what love is, sent One who from the beginning was sinless; who was conceived
without the aid of lust (the desire to receive), who was conceived of the Holy Spirit of
Infinite Love, and into whose being there entered no evil passion, since the virgin was
sanctified in her spirit, her soul, and her body; so that the Holy thing that was born of
her was the incarnation of Love (the pure and unmixed desire to give) in every part of His
spirit, in every drop of His blood, and in every organ of His body. People have great
difficulty relating to an abstraction or an invisible force. It must be personalized and
that is why God has come in the person of Jesus Christ, so that we might see Him and see
what God is like. God has been personalized. Love has been personified. God so loved Him
that when He died the very heavens were darkened, and the earth trembled under the noonday
sun veiling all nature, while silence in earth and heaven lasted until Love had finished
His sacrifice upon the cross. Just as the first creation was born when God withdrew
Himself, creating darkness, and a vessel in the darkness with the desire to receive, so
the new creation came forth in the darkness when God withdrew Himself from Himself on
Calvary (My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!) and in that Son who hung in darkness was
created a race of men with the desire to receive of HIS FULLNESS, EVEN THE SONS OF GOD.
That was Love so divine, so wonderful, so awful, that it could only have been possible for
God in Christ to have revealed it at all. This Love is the Love which God imparts to us.
This same Love that was in Him must be in us. The sons of God must be the sons of love. Go
and learn what that means and the hope of sonship will gleam brightly in your soul.
What a high, holy, heavenly
calling! And how reminiscent of Paul's statement in Eph. 2:4-7: "But God, who is rich
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come He might SHOW the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ." So
vast, so marvelous are the wonders of His grace, it will require the ages to come to
continue to unfold these wonders, and He has purposed that there should be a people
through whom He would give this demonstration that in the ages to come He might
show..." "Show" is from a Greek word meaning "to exhibit, to put on
display like a work of art, to demonstrate." The Amplified Bible reads, "He did
this that He might CLEARLY DEMONSTRATE through the ages to come the immeasurable
(limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace in Kindness and goodness of heart toward
us in Christ Jesus." Kenneth Wuest translates, "In order that He might EXHIBIT.
. . in the ages that pile themselves upon one another in continuous succession the
surpassing wealth of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus." Show. .
.demonstrate. . . exhibit the riches of His grace — unto whom? Not to those who
already know it — that would be useless nonsense. But to those who do not know it! To
the whole vast creation of men and worlds who dwell in darkness with the insatiable desire
to receive, but to whom has never been revealed the true and eternal and unbounded source
of life and reality.
Ah, God is preparing a divine
show for all the earth, indeed for the entire universe. The mighty Barnum, in describing
his circus, said it was THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH. True, Mr. Barnum was a great showman
and, for its kind, he had a great show, but God is the Master Showman and is preparing to
give the world THE GREATEST SHOW IT HAS EVER SEEN. It is a theatrical of MERCY and GRACE
and LOVE in a world of wrath and violence. This will be God's master stroke as the curtain
rises on the world's greatest drama — God's Great Show — THE MANIFESTATION OF
THE SONS OF GOD! Praise His name, once the finishing touch is put on the last stone of His
living temple of Kings and Priests, the firstfruits of His redemption, in ages yet to come
He shall put His grace and kindness inwrought in us ON DISPLAY so that the entire creation
may walk across the stage of His cosmic theatre and behold and see and finally come to
understand and appreciate WHAT GOD HAS PROVIDED FOR ALL MEN IN CHRIST. All who have ears
to hear must hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches. Across the land and around
the world the Spirit is saying today that He is preparing a people, He is preparing a
body, He is preparing sons who shall be conformed to the image of His Son, who shall be
partakers of the divine nature, who shall have the mind of Christ, who shall be brought to
glory and who then shall become the very express image of the Father, the brightness of
the Father's glory and the outraying of the Father's person. These shall receive of His
fullness until they have within themselves conquered all sin, sickness and death. God is
now preparing sons, God is now preparing a body for that first Son, we are the body of the
first Son, the body of the Christ, the body of the King of glory, the body of the great
High Priest in the heavens after the order of Melchizedek. We are the body of the Giver
and in and through these sons, when all have been brought to His fullness, having received
of all His glorious and eternal reality, His salvation shall be manifested, exhibited, and
demonstrated unto the ends of the earth and unto worlds yet unknown. The Lord is saying to
His people in this day: "For this cause have I raised thee up and sent thee to be a
light unto the nations and thou shalt BE MY SALVATION to the ends of the earth" (Isa.
49:6; Acts. 13:47).
When those who treasure the
beautiful hope of sonship speak the words the Spirit is speaking to the Churches in this
hour, people demand, "Who do you think you are?" When we declare that we are
called to be the manifested sons of God, to grow up into the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ, to partake of a greater ministry than that of the Church-age, to set
all creation free and reconcile all things in heaven and in earth back into God, people
ask, "Just who do you think you are?" It really makes no difference who WE think
we are, but it makes a great deal of difference that we know WHO AND WHAT WE ARE
APPREHENDED TO BE IN HIM. Our ears have heard the sound of the trumpet, we cannot —
dare not — settle for anything less, we must follow on to know Him in all His
wonderful fullness, to desire to receive of all that He is and has so that we can in turn
become His Givers unto all. HE THAT HATH AN EAR LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAITH. Let us
not sell creation short in these days. The whole creation is groaning and travailing
together in pain to be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Mankind is sick and tired
of sin and fear and hatred and sorrow and pain and empty religious platitudes, rituals,
ceremonies and doctrines. The whole race is gripped by the most intense DESIRE TO RECEIVE
— there is everywhere an unprecedented hunger for deliverance, life and reality. Let
us not deny the Lord who purchased us to be a
In the several pages of this
writing our theme has been LIFE OUT OF DEATH, or LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS. This is the
divine, sublime message of the remarkable Sign of Capricornus — the dying Goat from
whom springs the living fish! It is the pouring out of light into darkness, of life into
death that quickened creation may be raised up to the glory of the Creator and redound
unto His glory. May God make it real to your heart!
Chapter
29
CAPRICORNUS—THE
GOAT
(continued)
We continue in our study of
the Sign of CAPRICORNUS — THE GOAT. The
goat in the scriptures is a sacrificial animal. And
while the Sign is known as the goat, it is a very strange creature indeed. On the old star charts the front half is pictured
as a goat and the rear half as a fish. It is a
goat with a fishes' tail; it is half-goat and half-fish.
This Sign has a strange appearance on the old star charts because it shows a
wounded goat, with its head bowed and its knee bent under, fallen down in the posture of
dying. On the other hand, the tail of the fish
is wiggling, vigorous and living! Note that
from the dying goat comes a living fish — the living fish thus takes its being out of
the dying goat and derives all its life and vigor from thence. The living fish emerging from the dying goat
therefore has an important meaning. In
addition to the falling and dying of the goat, Capricornus is the Sign of a mystical
procreation and bringing forth. It speaks of
life that springs forth from the death of the sacrifice.
That which dies is a goat; that which is brought forth is a fish, the
familiar and well understood symbol of the spiritual body brought out of the dying of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What could better symbolize
this than the Sign before us? The goat and
fish are one — one being, the life of the dying reproduced and continued in a
spiritual product which is part of the one and the same body. The goat of sacrifice is projected into a new
creation, which is yet an organic part of itself.
LIFE OUT OF DEATH
Some of the brightest stars
in the constellation of Capricornus are AL GEDI, which means "the Kid”; DENEB AL
GEDI meaning "the Sacrifice cometh"; and MA’ASAD, "the Slaying." God commanded the children of
We will never grasp the enormity of Christ's
sacrifice until the Holy Spirit somehow gives us the ability to see the death of Christ in
all its lifetime scope and experience — not as six hours on a cross but as
thirty-three and a half years, fully participating in the death realm in all its aspects,
man as we are man, flesh as we are flesh, weak as we are weak, limited as we are limited,
tempted in all points as we are, suffering in all ways as we do, grappling with all the
forces within and without that we struggle with, that through His suffering He might
become the very first man to overcome it all, the first perfect man, the first man to
break out of the dungeon of sin and the prison house of death — righteous, victorious
and living! The Word of God, through His
incarnation, became the son of man that we who were born sons of men might through Him
become sons of God, yea, perfect sons of men and incorruptible
sons of God. What a sacrifice that was and
what a death He died! A brother shared the
following experience which graphically portrays to our understanding the magnitude of
Christ's sacrifice. "Years ago, when I
was still at home on the farm, we had a manure pile in the field, the former owners had
been cleaning out the barn and piling the manure there for years. There was a colony of snakes living in this manure
pile, and on a sunny day one could see several of them lying on the sunny south side,
sunning themselves. One day I was emptying a
load of manure on the north side, and I sneaked up over the pile to get a look at the
snakes. There were several lying there; and as
I stood looking at them, the Lord seemed to say to me, How would you like to become one of
those creatures and live among them in this manure pile!
I shuddered at the thought of it. I
just couldn't comprehend how terrible it would be. To
lower myself to that extent was unthinkable. Then
the Lord said to me, For my Son to leave His home in the glory above, to become a man in
the likeness of sinful flesh, for your sake and your salvation, was much worse than that. I have never forgotten that experience. It made me appreciate much more the sacrifice He
made for me."
George Hawtin ably wrote of
this death-realm: "Now it naturally
follows that, if our blessed Lord spent all the days of His earthly existence in death, we
also are doing the same, and I shall advance many infallible proofs to show that the very
thing men have called life is not life at all, but death.
Indeed we may claim that three score and ten years are the years of our life
and, of course, we all understand what is meant by that statement, but the real truth is
that the three score and ten years during which we dwell in this corruptible body are not
the years of our life, but the years of our death. When
we mortals put a man in a coffin and bury him in the dark, cold earth, we say the man is
dead, and indeed he is; but have you heard what Jesus answered when one or His disciples
said to Him, ‘Suffer me first to go and bury my father?’ The strange reply He gave was this, 'Follow Me: and
let the dead bury their dead' (Mat. 8:21-22). How
strange that statement sounds to us who do not understand what death is, but the Lord was
really telling them that the able bodied men who were carrying the coffin to the cemetery
were just as dead as the man who was lying breathless within it. In other words, the very thing we insist is life
God says is death. The sooner we learn that
lesson the sooner we will release as useless all things that pertain to this realm of
death that we might be enabled to firmly lay hold on life, even the life which Jesus
gives, aionian life, or the life of the ages. When
the truth of this dawned upon my soul, I found many earthly things slipping away from me
in a manner I had nor known hitherto. Who
among us could ever desire to lay fast hold upon that which he discovers to be naught but
death? The things that are dead we bury out of
our sight, and I think I am right in saying that the lusts and temptations that belong to
this death lose their grip upon us when we know that they are naught but death and that
the flesh life to which these temptations cling is but a vapor that the wind driveth away. I cannot see myself slaving to lay up great wealth
in store for that which I know is dead. What
an abominable lie has gripped our hearts, deceiving us into endless labor and travail
until on every side men and women are dying of heart attacks in their worry to provide
worthless goods for this body of death. — end quote.
In order that the Christ
could become a ransom (release) for our sins, He had to shed His blond and die on the
cross; and in order to die He had to become mortal — subjected to this whole dreadful
realm of sin and death. He had to surrender
Himself to the condition, circumstances, powers and state of being of the death-realm. He became a man, a mortal like the rest of us. When He was still a babe in His mother's arms, when
King Herod discovered that the Magi, instead of coming to tell him where the baby could be
found, had tricked him and returned to their country by another route, the wicked Herod
was exceedingly wroth. He had found out that
this babe was to be the king of the Jews, and this endangered his position as king. So he wanted the baby destroyed, and sent soldiers
to kill every male child under two years old in that vicinity. Joseph was warned by God in a dream about this plot
to destroy the child and instructed to flee into
Sharing our humanity, being
made in the likeness of sinful flesh, He had the same sinful nature we have. Now do not mistake what I say! I do not say that Jesus had the same fallen
condition of Adam — I say that He had the
same sinful nature Adam has and had from the beginning.
The question is just this — when did Adam receive his sinful nature
— before he sinned, or only after he sinned? A
sinful nature is simply a nature that sins or that is liable to sin. If Adam had not been created with a nature capable
of sinning, how, I ask, could he have ever been tempted.?
How could he have sinned? The
correct answer to these questions reveals to our spiritual understanding the amazing fact
that the sinful nature had to precede the first sin, not follow it. Can we not see the simple truth that it was not the
act of sinning that gave Adam the sinful nature — rather, it was the sinful nature
that caused him to sin! It was therefore
necessary for Christ Jesus to come in exactly the same state as the first Adam was in
before he sinned and plunged the race into death. He
could not have been tempted otherwise, but He was subject to all the temptations man is
subject to. "He was tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin.” The
suffering was not suffering surrounding the cross. In
order to be a perfect sacrifice He had to be perfected before He went to the cross. It was through the years that He lived as a man,
that He suffered through temptation. You and I
haven't suffered much this way, because when the temptation gets too severe we just yield
to it and sin! He couldn't sin, for if He had,
He could not have been our Capricornus, our goat, our perfect sin-offering required to
redeem the race. So he had to resist and
overcome all temptation, and this must have been excruciatingly difficult for Him to do
many times, for He had all the desires and inclinations of the human, sinful nature to
battle with.
I would draw your reverent
attention to these significant words of inspiration which we quoted earlier, but now I
will share them as they are beautifully translated in the Amplified Bible. "Let this same attitude and purpose and mind
be in you which was in Christ Jesus — Who, although being. . . one with God and in
the form of God, possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God, did not
think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained; but stripped
Himself of all privileges and rightful dignity so as to assume the guise of a servant, in
that He became like men and was born a human being. And
after He had appeared in human form He abased and humbled Himself still further and
carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross! Therefore God has highly exalted Him . . ." In this wonderful passage we have the summary of
all the most precious truths that cluster about the person of the Son of God. There is first His wonderful divinity: "in the form of God," "equal with
God." Then comes the mystery of Him
laying aside that glory in that phrase of deep and inexhaustible meaning: "He
stripped Himself," "He emptied Himself."
The humiliation follows: "The form of a servant," "Made in
the likeness of men,” "found in fashion as a man." Then comes the crushing and mortification of
suffering and death: “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross." And all is crowned
by His glorious exaltation: "God hath
highly exalted Him!” Christ as God. Christ becoming man, Christ as man in humiliation
revealing the glory of the Father in a body of flesh, and Christ in glory as Lord of all:
such are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge this passage contains.
The great truth we want to
grasp here is that Christ (the Word) dwelt from eternity in the form, the essence, the
nature and the being of God. In that divine
nature He was eternal, untemptable and incorruptible.
But when He laid aside that glory, emptying Himself of it, taking upon
Him the form and nature of man, He, the ETERNAL ONE, subjected Himself to the dread power
of death, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. When the Christ laid aside His eternal heavenly
glory, the UNTEMPTABLE ONE took upon Himself all the frailties and weaknesses of human
nature so that the One who cannot be tempted was found in a nature that could be tempted
and indeed He was in all points tempted like as we are.
The inspired apostle James says that "every man is tempted, when he is
drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then
when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin" (James 1:14-15). Was Jesus truly tempted in all points like as we
are, or did He have some mystical advantage over us, some inherent quality of divinity,
some unique spiritual power which enabled Him to be oblivious to the cravings and demands
of the flesh? Anything, to be a temptation for
us, must excite something within us that responds to the temptation. That for which we have no desire, can never tempt
us. I used to think, as many do, that Jesus
was so high and holy that He could not be affected by the base things that allure us. He was indeed high and holy, but not to the extent
that He could not be touched by the same infirmities, weaknesses, and feelings that touch
us. While some may still find it hard to
believe, because of our superstitious religious view of Christ, He knows exactly how the
person feels who is tempted to lie, cheat, curse, steal, murder, or commit adultery. There had to be the desire in His flesh, the
inclination in His nature to answer the temptation, but, blessed by God! HE OVERCAME IT ALL!
He was tempted in every point as we are, YET WITHOUT SIN. As we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, so He had
the indwelling Father and by that overcame all temptation and in the one instance of His
intense desire to go His own way, He resisted even unto blood. He was the first to do this and HE ENTERED INTO
IMMORTALITY AND INCORRUPTION.
There is something diabolical
about temptation, something satanically bewitching and bewildering. It stirs up our senses and excites our emotions and
passions. For the time being the forbidden
thing seems more important than anything else in the world.
It weakens our powers of judgment, both moral and spiritual. People who are otherwise very intelligent and
self-controlled will in a brief season of temptation commit wholly unthinkable follies
— which they often live to regret a whole lifetime afterwards. It paralyzes our will. Our many good resolutions melt like wax in the hour
of temptation. All this temptation frequently
does simply by being permitted to press in upon us. It
is like chloroform. If it gets too close to
us, it will deprive us of the very possibility of offering resistance. But, praise God, "God is faithful, who will
not suffer you in be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make a
way of escape, that ye may be able to hear it" (I Cor. 10:13). May God in His great mercy give us a true insight
into the glory of what is offered us in this truth — that our great HIGH PRIEST, whom
we have in the heavenlies, is One who is able to sympathize with us in each and every
circumstance, because He knows, from personal experience, exactly what we feel and face. Yes, that God might give us courage to draw nigh
unto Him, He has placed upon the throne of heaven One out of our midst, of whom we can be
certain that, because He Himself lived on earth as a man, He understands us perfectly, is
prepared to have patience with our weakness, and give us just the help we need to overcome
and enter into His glory. May God give us eyes
to see and hearts to understand the depth of the mystery of which I now write. Had the Logos, the Word of God remained in that
bright glory world above, in that spiritual dimension detached from this realm of flesh
and corruptibility, He might have been ever so desirous to help us and lift us up to
godhood: but, if He had never tasted death, how could He allay our fears as we tread the
verge of Jordan? If He had never been tempted,
how could He succor those who are tempted? If
He had never wept, how could He dry our tears? If
He had never suffered, hungered, wearied on the hill of difficulty, or threaded His way
through the quagmires of weakness and grief, how could He have been a merciful and
faithful High Priest, having compassion on the ignorant and wayward? But, thank God, our High Priest is a perfect one! He is perfectly adapted to His task, and is able to
lead each and every member of God's elect out of this valley of the shadow of death over
into the victory and glory of perfection and incorruptibility!
He who alone is life, having
never touched death, humbled Himself for our sakes and became obedient unto death. He stooped to die and lived thirty-three and one
half years in it. Then at the end He went to
the cross. Earth's voices must fall silent
here, for they will never be able to tell the story of how it is that life comes out of
death. I would have said that such a thing
would be impossible had He not said of His life, “I have power to lay it down, and I
have power to take it up again” (Jn 10:118). When
He expired on the cross, He passed into the totality of death, and on the resurrection
side of the tomb He proved that there is NO FINALITY TO DEATH, that even in death He was
wondrously alive, for, said He, "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to
take it up again." It was not simply that
He had faith that GOD would raise Him from the dead. NO! The power He possessed was the power to take His
own life up again and this power is a power He both had and executed WHILE HE WAS DEAD! There can be no other explanation. A child of five should be able to understand that
one cannot lay his life down and take it up again unless he has life even in death. In the power of that life which the Christ still
possessed, being dead, He passed back from the realm of death to the realm of life, and on
the resurrection side of the tomb He cried in triumph, "Behold, I am alive forever
more” (Rev. 1:18). And now He is alive in
the flesh, praise God, triumphantly holding in His incorruptible hands the keys of both
death and hell, and is abundantly able to offer life eternal to dead men who believe in
Him. "The hour is coming, and now
is," He has proclaimed, "when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God:
and they that hear shall live" (Jn. 5:25). Our
blessed Lord Jesus Christ, by partaking of death during the days of His flesh and ending
all death by the power of His resurrection, has brought to light both life and
immortality. Notice, precious friend of mine,
it is not said that He has created life and immortality — He has brought it to light,
turned His searchlight upon it, disclosed it, revealed it, opened it up, proclaimed it and
made it known. Christ is life. In Him is life.
In Him alone is life. And the
man or woman who has been quickened by Christ HAS LIFE, is passed from death unto life,
and shall never die. "I AM (not I will
be) the resurrection and the life," says Jesus, “he that believeth in Me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (Jn. 11:25-26). Sad to say, even some who profess to be teachers of
God's elect and sons of God do not believe that simple truth which Martha embraced that
day when the Christ brought life and immortality to light in her awakened consciousness. Our Lord Jesus plainly told us, "My sheep hear
My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give into them eternal life, and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me is greater than all;
and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hands.” (Jn. 10:27-29). The moment any man hears the voice of the Son of
God and becomes a sheep following Him, at that moment, the gift of God, which is eternal
life, is given to that believing man and the life of God begins to live and dwell and
abide in that man as a well of water springing up unto eternal life. Christ is the Tree of Life, and all who partake of
Him receive life, not in some future age, not in some distant resurrection, but here and
now, for He gives them eternal life. Apart
from Him there is naught but darkness and death. "Whoso
drinketh of this water shall thirst again," were the words He spoke to the troubled
woman at the well of Samaria, "But whoso drinketh of the water that I shall give
shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give Him shall become a fountain within
him, springing up unto eternal life” (Jn. 4:14) Christ
is the fountain of life. He alone is the
fountain of eternal youth, of eternal consciousness, of eternal being. This is the wonderful message of the NEW COVENANT,
the covenant of life.
Again I would quote briefly
from the inspired writings of George Hawtin. "Sweet
mystery of life, at last we’ve found Thee! And
we have found that Thou, O Christ, art life — not that life which flourishes as grass
in the field today and tomorrow the wind passes over it and it is gone, nor life like
ours, which is as a mist which the wind driveth away, but life aionian, life everlasting,
life eternal, life evermore, the life of the ages. Well
spoke our beloved Lord when He said, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My
word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, HATH EVERLASTING LIFE, and shall not come into
condemnation, but IS PASSED FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE,’ or as Rotherham has translated it,
'hath passed over out of death into Iife' (Jn. 5:24).
It is a wonderful hour in the experience of any man when he passes from
death ‘across to life,' and that is exactly what happens when we believe on Christ.
As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself,
and to all who believe on Him life is given, even that eternal life which God Himself is
and which abounds like rivers of living water within us when Jesus Christ comes in to
abide. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is
good! Blessed is every man that trusteth in
Him! With this wonderful realization firmly
abiding in our hearts; we are better prepared to grasp the truth Christ clearly gave us
when He said, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and
they that hear shall live' (Jn 5:25). Think on that statement, child of God. Was not Jesus telling us that we are dead as dead
can be? And did He not make two remarkable
statements — first, the hour is coming, and, second, the hour now is when the dead
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live? Have not we who have believed proven the truth of
this in our very spirit and in our experience? The
greatest proof in the universe that Jesus Christ is alive forevermore is the fact that,
when we believed, He came to dwell within us. He
came to live His life in us. He came to
deliver us from our sin and our habits and make us to know that death would never more
hold our spirits in its vice-like grip. Do we
not know that He who lives and was dead, and, behold, He is alive forevermore, has come to
us that we might live also and has raised us up together with Himself to share with Him
the life of the ages” — end quote.
Yet some tell us that the
dead are dead — that there is no life or consciousness or being for the child of God
apart from or beyond or above physical
existence — should you lay this tabernacle aside
there is nothing — you cease to exist — you are gone! I do not hesitate to tell you that it is a
wicked lie, a monstrous deceit, and a dreadful denial of the life we have now been given
in Christ Jesus. Let's get right down to brass
tacks here. Do you want to hear the truth
beyond all the superstitions you've heard, beyond all the emptiness and hopelessness of
Old Testament economy? Eternal life is first
and foremost spiritual, not physical. To hear
some preachers teach it one would think that a man cannot possess eternal life except it
be manifest on the physical level — in an immortal body. I think that no man understands the first thing
about life out of death who misses the clear and unmistakable understanding given by Paul
in his words to the Romans: “And if
Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of
righteousness” (Rom. 8:10). The body is
dead, just as God told Adam it would be. So
for the man who has received Christ his body is still dead because of sin but his spirit
is alive because of righteousness — Christ’s righteousness, of course, for there
is none other, the righteousness that comes with Him when we believe into Him and He gives
us Himself and with and by Himself His life. This
life which even now is reality within us is that life and immortality which has been
BROUGHT TO LIGHT through the gospel. Hear and
believe the wonderful news, precious friend of mine, YOUR SPIRIT I-S A-L-I-V-E BECAUSE OF
THE INDWELLING CHRIST! Those who minister the
finality of death — when your body dies you’re dead and gone, non-existent
— minister under the blindness of the OLD COVENANT, the ministration of death. They know not that the Christ has come and given us
life, they understand not that Christ IS NOW the resurrection and the life, they
comprehend not the glad truth that eternal life is even now a glorious and eternal reality
in "the inner man” which is “renewed day by day,” they, like the
patriarchs and the prophets under the Old Testament, and like the Jews to this very day,
are still awaiting the Saviour and looking to some future day for the resurrection, totally oblivious to the
wonderful fact that “If ye then BE RISEN with Christ, seek those things which are
above (in the higher realm of the spirit; where your eternal life is), where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God” (Col.
3:1). I am here to tell you that CHRIST IS
COME! I proclaim to you today the glad tidings
of the NEW TESTAMENT, the ministration of life. God
has anointed me to declare the RESURRECTION WHICH I-S, not one that shall be! Those who minister the finality of death minister
the Old Covenant and know nothing as they ought to know and have seen nothing — the
heavens have never been opened to them. Their
ministry is not one of faith and hope and present reality,
but of fear of death and a sense of foreboding and depression. They know not the life that transcends the body,
the life that is first of all realized spiritually rather than soulishly or physcially. Death is emphasized, dramatized, its power
glorified by men who minister, not out of the power of life, but out of the fear of death. It is the fear of death that drives many in this
hour to seek the immortality of the body. And
make no mistake! “If the Spirit of Him
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead
SHALL ALSO QUICKEN (MAKE ALIVE) YOUR M-0-R-T-A-L B-O-D-I-E-S
by His Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom.
8:11). That is the hope yet to be fulfilled in
and through the manifested sons of God. But I
say to all who have not the consciousness of that eternal life which is already yours,
that resurrection in which you are already raised, that eternal consciousness, existence
and being you already are, I say to those who are striving for physical immortality
because of the fear of the finality of death — Christ has already come and Himself
partook of flesh and blood, that through death He might destroy death, and might DELIVER
THEM WHO THROUGH FEAR OF DEATH ARE ALL THEIR LIFETIME SUBJECT TO BONDAGE. Under the Old Testament life and immortality had
not yet been fully brought to light. No wonder
the old saints often lived and spoke as those subject to bondage. No wonder they emphasized the power of death, the
hopelessness of death, the finality of death! But
how sad that the redeemed of Jesus Christ, His brethren, so often prove that they know so
little of the deliverance and life He has given and the song of joy: "Death is
swallowed up in victory. Thanks be to God who
giveth us the victory, through Christ our Lord!”
My brother! art thou living in the full experience of this blessed truth? He delivers from the fear of death and the bondage
it brings, changing it into the joy of knowing that “we have passed from death unto
life!”
Since then, we have been made
alive because of our spirit being quickened by His Spirit, Paul leads us on to another
marvelous truth which I fear multitudes of earnest believers are failing to see, including
some elect saints of God. "Who hath saved
us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His
own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who HATH ABOLISHED DEATH,
and HATH BROUGHT life and immortality to light through the gospel" (II Tim. 1:9-10). The Word of God is true. It is not a silly fairy tale or a superstitious
myth. It is not a lie. Men are liars.
God is true. And when God says,
“Christ who hath abolished death,” we
poor puny worms of the dust had better believe it, and cease calling God a liar by telling
Him He is wrong. For "he that believeth
not God hath made Him a liar" (I Jn. 5:10). Oh,
read it and re-read it and rejoice in it with joy unspeakable and full of glory! Through His thirty-three years of death Christ hath
abolished death and through the power of His glorious resurrection He has brought that
resurrection life into us so that it is wonderfully true that "when we were dead . .
. He hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:5-6). Christ on
The world was lost. All had sinned.
And the wages of sin is death. Oh,
let us grasp this one great spiritual truth!
But now someone is going to
question the foregoing statements and ask us why it is that, if death is abolished, men
continue to die. The answer is, of course, men
do not continue to die. Oh, we know their
bodies go to the grave. And we call this
death. It is not death. God does not call it death. Those who equate death with a body in a coffin know
absolutely nothing about death. Ye who were
dead hath He quickened! I was lying neither in
a coffin at the funeral parlor nor in a dark hole in the ground when I was quickened and
made alive in Christ. Death was not my body in
a coffin, and the life I have received is not an immortal flesh-body. Don't you see?
What men call death is not death, and what men call life is not Iife. Only when the Holy Spirit enables us to see the
true nature of all things can we understand a mystery so deep. One man came and by the grace of God tasted death
"FOR E-V-E-R-Y M-A-N." Mark carefully, He only tasted it. He remained in death for thirty-three and one half
years culminating in the death of the cross. He
merely sampled it. But He sampled it in the
place of every son of Adam. He actually tasted
death "FOR E-V-E-R-Y M-A-N.” Do you believe it?
Dare you believe it? The mystery
is just this. Jesus died for the whole race of
men. When He arose He injected He injected
life into the stream of humanity, so that there is a spiritual quality in man that
transcends the body realm. It is a dimension
of being that even the grave cannot hold. It
is that "light" which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and that
light is Christ (Jn. 1:4,9-10). No life beyond
the grave? Then Christ did not die and rise
again, He did not taste death for every man, He did not give His life for the life of the
world, He did not abolish death and bring life and immortality to light! That light which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world is the spiritual sense of being, that in man which is eternal and
deathless, which God will pursue until it is brought to the image and likeness of God that
He may become "All-in-all." This
free gift came (has already come) upon ALL MEN unto justification of Iife (Rom. 5:18). Can anything be plainer! Any other doctrine is OLD TESTAMENT doctrine, not
the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death.
Hearken to the Word!
One day a poor man, a heartbroken father, came to the Master. His little daughter had passed on. He said, "My daughter is dead” (Mat.
9:18). He thought she was dead. Little did he comprehend that the One who stood
before him is the resurrection and the life. But
what did the Master say? A strange word for
Old Testament saints, for sure. "And when
Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, He
said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to scorn." What did He say on another occasion! "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I
may awaken him out of sleep" (Jn. 11:11). Oh
yes, a little farther on, because the disciples misunderstood Him, He also said that
Lazarus was dead. This which we call physical
death is the nearest thing to death that we know. But
the New Testament everywhere draws a clear and sharp distinction between death and sleep. What is the difference? you ask. There is a great difference, indeed! A dead man has no life, consciousness or being. But a sleeping man IS STILL ALIVE THOUGH
UNCONSCIOUS TO THE WORLD AROUND HIM. And he is
STILL CONSCIOUS ON ANOTHER PLANE. Thus, the
martyr Stephen "fell asleep" while beholding the heavens opened, and the Son of
man standing on the right hand of God, and crying with a loud voice into that bright world
beyond the mortal, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” (Acts 6:54-60).
As to the earth realm he was asleep; as to Christ in His glory at the right
hand of the Father he was wondrously alive in the spirit.
As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, "But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others
which have no hope. For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with
Him" (I Thes. 4:13-14). This passage
contains a two-dimensional truth. From the
earthly aspect those who have gone by way of the grave sleep; from the heavenly aspect
they come with Jesus when He comes, out of the heavenly and spiritual dimension of
consciousness and being. Since Jesus came and
brought life to men this thing we call physical death is merely a sleep, merely a divine
provision on the way to the fullness of life whereby we lay aside this sin-cursed house of
clay, to live in the spirit unto God. Paul
understood this mystery and wrote of his own destiny: "For me, to live is Christ—His
life in me; and to die is gain. If, however,
it is to be life in the flesh and I am to live on here, that means fruitful service for
me; so I can say nothing as to my personal preference—I cannot choose, but I am hard
pressed between the two. My yearning desire is
to depart — be free of this world, to set forth — and be with Christ, for that
is far, far better; but to remain in my body is more needful and essential for your
sake" (Phil 1:21-24, Amplified). Peter,
too, knew that he had apprehended a life that transcends this physical, for he wrote:
"Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting
you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our
Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover I
will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in
remembrance" (II Pet. 1:13-15). No morbid
tale here of the finality of death, of unconscious non-existence, of darkness and
nothingness! Ah, Peter knew that the body was
merely a tabernacle, a tent, a house, a covering for the incorruptible life of God in his
inner man, the new creation born of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. Hallelujah!
While it is gloriously true
that Christ has given His life to all men, to the whole world, yet it is evident that
there must be a progression in the development of that life in the experience of every man
until every vestige of the death realm has been swallowed up, spirit, soul and body. To those who walk with Christ there is an
ever-increasing consciousness, growth, increase, unfoldment, maturation and triumph of
that life. The mighty working of His power within is followed by this very
precious and understandable result: "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from
the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ shall also quicken (make alive) your
mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Rom 8:11). I believe I now see more clearly than I have ever
done why it was that Paul, who, as you and I do, still dwelt in the hellish bondage of a
mortal body cried out, "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality. So when this
corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying
that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin
is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 15:53-57). We are, indeed, terribly and horribly in bondage to
the body of this death, and with us the whole creation is groaning, waiting for the day
when the sons of God will deliver them from the bondage of corruption. I do not need to argue with any man to prove our
present mortality in the flesh. If you
must sleep to live, you are mortal. If you must eat to live, you are obviously mortal. If you must breathe
to live, you are unquestionably mortal.
We are all aware of our constant and unremitting decay as the aging process
etches its marks upon us. Our present mortality is naught but death, although
we live in the spirit. Think of it! Meditate deeply upon it and cling to this
realm of death no more. Reach up, my beloved,
with the blessed arm of faith and embrace that bright realm above where that which is true
in our spirit reaches down and takes hold upon our outer man, where this mortal puts on
immortality, where death in all its aspects is swallowed up of life, where in that final
victory of His life within the sons of God will upon this earth shout in triumph over both
death and the grave.
Truly we yearn for this
change, for our desire is not to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon that mortality may
be swallowed up of life (II Cor. 5:1-5). Yea,
we groan inwardly for this transformation to take place.
I continually meet up with
brethren who confess that they have already put on physical immortality and incorruption,
that they have already passed over the grave and cannot and will not die. I must be very honest and frank with you, my
beloved brothers I have not one whit of a desire to live forever IN THIS BODY OF
HUMILIATION. There is no more frightening
thought, no more repugnant possibility, than the idea that I might live forever in this
body of humiliation! Thank God, there is to be
a change! "Who will transform and fashion anew the body of our humiliation to conform
and to be like the body of His glory and majesty, by exerting that power which enables Him
even to subject everything to Himself” (Phil. 3:21, Amplified). The thought of merely adding immortality to
this body of humiliation, with no other change, the suggestion of such limitation, that I
might have to bathe, anoint my body with deodorant, brush my teeth, and use Scope
throughout eternity, the hint that I might retain this base form, that I might remain as I
am unendingly, falls as far short of what I conceive of a body transformed and fashioned
like unto the body of His glory and majesty as hell falls short of heaven! The body of incorruption shall resemble this vile
body no more than does the oak tree resemble the chemical elements of the earth which were
raised up into the substance of the tree by the mighty working of the subtle and
mysterious life force sown in the earth as a seed.
Sons of God! If we would be fashioned like unto Him, co-sharers
of His glory and power and wisdom as the God-man, we must not simply rest content with the
faith that trusts in the cross and its pardon; we must follow on to know the fullness of
the New Life, the life of glory and power in human nature, injected into man through the
resurrection of Christ from the dead, of which the spirit of the glorified Jesus is the
witness and the source. Now, practically
everything in relationship to our sonship depends upon the clearness with which this great
truth that I have stated is recognized. The
Holy Spirit of God inspired the message of these words in Rom 5:9-11, "Much more
then, being now justified by His blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being
now justified by His blood, we SHALL BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE... and... we joy.... in our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atonement."
The double provision of Christ is here
clearly set forth: reconciled by His death; saved by His life. Christ’s death is the atonement, reconciling
men to God, granting a full and free admittance back into
"We shall be saved by
His LIFE," says Paul. Paul meant no
disrespect to the atonement when he said, "We shall be saved by His life.” He was bringing out one of the great facts of
salvation. If God gives atoning power with one
hand, and power to save the life from destruction with the other hand, there is no
conflict between these. Both are from God. If you call the one justification and the other
glorification, God is the author of them both. If
Paul seems to take something from the one work and add it to the other, he takes nothing
from God. Atonement is from God!
Reconciliation is from God! Power to conquer
sin and death is from God. Christ is all in all, the beginning and the end. When the thing we want is deliverance from the
guilt of sin, condemnation, let us appropriate the gift God has given us to remove our
guilt—the DEATH of Christ. "In whom
we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of our sins" (Col. 1:14). When the thing we want is power to redeem our life
from sin, corruption and death, then let us apply the gift which God has given us for our
life, the LIFE of the Son of God. "He
that hath the Son hath life.”
When an Israelite was bitten
by flaming serpents in the wilderness, he never thought of applying manna to the wound. The manna was for his life. But he did think of applying the brazen serpent. The manna would
never have cured his snake bite; nor would the brazen serpent have kept him
from starving! Suppose he had said, now I am
healed by this serpent, I feel cured, and I need not eat this manna anymore. The serpent has done it all, and I am well." The result would have been, or course, that he
would have died. The man, to be sure, was
cured, delivered from the judgment of his rebellion against God, but he has to LIVE, and
if he eats no manna his life must languish, go
to destruction, die. Without going to any
trouble about it, simply by the inevitable process of nature, he would have died. The manna was God's provision to redeem his life
from destruction, after the serpent has redeemed it from judgment. And if he did nothing to stop the natural progress
of corruption, in the natural course of things, he must die.
Now there is no contradiction between these two things—the manna is
from God and the serpent is from God. But they
are different gifts for different things. The serpent removed the judgment, but could not
sustain life; the manna gave life, but could not deal with the sentence. To apply this to the case in hand. The death of Christ, on the one hand, is the brazen
serpent. "As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up (on the cross)” (Jn
3:14). Christ's life on the other hand, is the
manna—the bread of life. “This is
the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven:
if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is My
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (Jn 6:50-51). In the light of these remarkable words we can reach
only one of two conclusions. Either all who
have believed on Christ since that blessed day when these wonderful words poured from His
divine lips have partaken of Him, eaten of His living flesh and have not died but have
begun to live forever, or, else, NO ONE HAS EVER EATEN OF HIM FROM THAT DAY TO THIS, for
all have continued to go by way of the grave. Either
Jesus has given eternal life to all who eat of Him, and there is a life, consciousness and
being that transcends the grave, or He lied and did not give His flesh for the life of the
world, so that none has ever sat at His table and received the life of which He spake. Do you really believe that God is that wicked that
He would send forth redemption and then withhold it for another two thousand years? Let me ask you a question, my friend. If you had the power of immortality in your hand
right now, would you wait another two thousand years to use it while billions of mankind
continued to go out into endless nothingness? Wake
up! my beloved.
Let us get beyond the fantasy of a merely carnal and earthly and physical
understanding of truth! “He that hath the
Son HATH LIFE,” saith the Lord. “And
we know that we HAVE PASSED FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE,” add all who know and love the
truth.
Of all the wealth of
scripture truth nothing is more certain or clear than the fact that our sins are not
forgiven by bread, nor are our lives nourished and supported by death. Our life is not made incorruptible and eternal by
Christ's death, nor transformed from day to day from the power of sin and death by the
atonement. Our life is not redeemed from
destruction by the crucifixion of Christ, nor is it brought to perfection from day to day
by the death of Christ. But we are saved, as
the Holy Ghost saith, "by HIS LIFE.” We cannot live upon death. And after, by the atonement, we are forgiven, and
have entered by faith through the gateway into
Beyond the fact of the
revelation of the wonderful law of life out of death as wrought out in Jesus Christ, there
is also the mighty operation of this principle in our own life and experience as sons of
God. A dear friend of many years penned some
precious and enlightening insights to the outworking of life from death in us which I am
moved to share with my readers at this point. She
wrote: "The carnal mind would have us to believe that the way Up is Up. Thus we have pressed our way into ministry, pressed
our way into the things we have desired, 'stood on the promises,' demanded of God our
'rights,' sought to have our own way in both spiritual and physical things—forgetting
that which was spoken by the Lord through the prophets saying, “My ways are NOT your
ways neither are My thoughts your thoughts.’ It
is true, children of God, that God wants to take us UP — high into the realms of God
— UP to Jerusalem — but God would have us to know that the way UP is always
DOWN! If we would go up; we must first go
down, for God is operating by the principle of death and resurrection. He has plainly stated that nothing is quickened
(made alive) except it first die. In this
walk, you do not gain by keeping — for you are able only to keep that which you are
first willing to lose. In this walk you do not
live by living — you live by dying. The
laws of the
"We have all been soulish — viewing the
things of God through the intellect of soul, through the emotionalism of soul, through the
beclouding of the appetites of the flesh — and our concepts of heaven, of the Kingdom of God, of salvation, and of the purposes
of God have long been contaminated with self’s desire for comfort and blessing. God is changing all that, praise His name, and we
are beginning to learn to give up some of our childish things that we might grow to the
maturity of the Christ, the most outstanding characteristic of whom is utter SELFLESSNESS. We have hitherto been possessed of that old
'do-good-to-me' concept of the
Some will, no doubt, say,
‘I passed those ideas by a long time ago. I
have come to a knowledge of sonship!' Ah! But how soulish we have been in our understanding
of sonship. Sons of God! Glorious thought!
And in it we have seen great glorious ministry, miracle working power,
people falling at our feet in awe of the presence of God manifested in our lives. Can you not see that that, too, is a desire of the
flesh — EGO panting for recognition — SELF waiting to come into its own! If we have been thinking along those lines, we have
never yet heard the Word of God — for he who hears knows that one does not come to
glory through glory: one comes to glory
through shame. Joseph became a mighty prince
of
"There was a time when
the apostle Peter was faced with this dilemma, even as we are. It all began with a simple question: ‘Peter, lovest thou Me?’ Peter's reply was, ‘Yes, Lord.' Then, ‘Feed My lambs.’ Again the question came, 'Peter? Do you love Me?’
Peter was cautious as he answered, 'Yes, Lord. I love you.' Another
command: ‘Feed My sheep.' One last time, 'Peter? Do you love Me?’
It was a frustrated Peter who replied this time, ‘Lord, you know I love
you!' And a patient Jesus who answered, 'Feed
My sheep!' It was not insignificant that the
Lord addressed Peter three times. There is
something beneath the surface here. In the
first realm, the realm of the flesh, the realm of the outer court ministry or the first
heaven, the Lord asks, 'Do you love Me?’ And
the Christian answers, 'Yes, Lord.' Because
the Lord knows the immaturity of one at that level, He gives only the instruction to feed
the young ones, the lambs, the babies. That is
all that is required of the first level of Christian experience. It was, however, a higher level to which the Lord
referred in the second question, and with the question, He was bringing Peter's thoughts
higher: ‘Peter, do you love Me in the
second heaven, in the holy place, in the Spirit filled level?' What else could Peter do but say, 'Yes, Lord. I love you here, too.' The lambs are beginning to mature in that realm,
and the Lord, therefore, says to Peter, 'Feed My sheep.’ There is yet a higher realm, and we dare not
stop before we reach it. This is the realm of
the holiest of all, the third heaven of which Paul spoke, and now the Lord is asking
Peter, 'Do you love Me here, Peter? Do you
love Me in the HOLIEST OF ALL?’ Can we
not feel Peter's emotions when he answers, 'Oh, yes, Lord I love you here, too!' Do we not also sense the cry of the Saviour's heart
in saying, ‘Then, feed My sheep.' He
didn't stop there, however, for the Lord went on to say, 'When thou wast young, thou
girdest thyself and walkedst whither thou wouldst: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt
stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst
not.' These were the Lord's instructions to
Peter as to HOW he would feed the sheep in the third realm, for the word continues in
saying, 'This spake He signifying by what death he should die!'
"Because these words
were spoken not only to Peter but unto us as well, there are some things that we must not
fail to grasp. First, this event transpired on
the THIRD occasion of Jesus’ appearing to His disciples after His resurrection (Jn.
21:14), offering the clue that Jesus was giving insight into the condition of the THIRD
REALM experience, the entry into, the Holiest of all, or Kingdom life manifestation. It must be remembered that that realm is seen in
the tabernacle of Moses as containing only one piece of furniture: the ark of the
covenant. The Hebrew tells us that the ark was
a COFFIN — a wooden coffin overlaid with gold. To
enter into that realm, then, is to enter into such a state of bondage that it is a
condition of death. It was to this death that
Jesus was referring when He said, 'When you were young (immature), you went where you
wanted to go — you did what you wanted to do — you, in effect, did your own
thing. But when you are old (mature) you
will stretch forth your hands and another shall gird thee and carry you where you would
not want to go.' This was the description of
Peter's death — not a physical death that would plant his human body six feet under
the ground — but a death to his own will, to his own way, to his own opinions and
thoughts; and this, saint of God! is the only way that we shall ever, obey His command to
FEED HIS SHEEP who are seeking pasture in that third realm experience. Those who have come to the door of that holy place
will not hear a word that is contaminated with the will of men or the ways of the flesh. The sheep of that third realm pasture desire the
ESSENCE, the FRAGRANCE of His knowledge, and will settle for no less than the SWEETNESS of
the perfume of HIS NATURE and HIS LIVING PRESENCE upon us!
"It was pure LOVE who
was hanging on the cross two thousand years ago — and it was as His own belly was
ripped open by a Roman spear that the New Wine of the Kingdom of God began to flow. He was bound — not by nails — but in the
spirit to a wooden cross, pouring out His life's blood that you and I might live through
Him. In the words, then, that Jesus spoke to
Peter was an invitation: an invitation to
share His cross, partake of His sufferings, to come out of the liberty of self and into
the bondage of love — that bread might be taken from the inner man and dealt out,
broken and bruised, to the multitudes! Jesus
says, also, to us as to those who walked with Him so many centuries ago: ‘Give ye them to eat' (Lk. 9:13).
“Broken bread—a
love dealt out
To Adam’s hungry soul
Torn from the riven sides of those
Whom Jesus Christ makes whole.
A nature—binding deep
within
A man to other men
That pours out life to share with them
Its liberty from sin.
Wounded hands—that serve
e’en those
Who drive in them the nails
Living out the spirit’s truth
Of love that never fails.
A bondage—binding sons
of God
To the Tree of Life, you see,
The living out of God’s great love
Thus setting mankind free.”
—Connie Asbill
Chapter
30
CAPRICORNUS—THE
GOAT
(continued)
Capricornus, like all the
Signs of the Zodiac, has three decans, or minor constellations, which surround it. The Decans belong to the Sign and their message is
part of the Sign's message. The three Decans
of Capricornus are Sagitta, Aquila, and
Delphinus. Sagitta means "The
Arrow," but this is not the arrow of Sagittarius, for that is an arrow intended for
the enemies of God, to conquer and subdue them unto Him.
Here the arrow is pictured in mid-heaven as having been shot by an invisible
hand. It is seen in its flight through the
heavens. There is a majesty and a mystery
about it which startles and awes. The
wonderful work which the arrow accomplishes is seen in the dying goat and in the falling
eagle. It is a part of the great revelation of
the life that comes out of death, or the death that issues forth into life. It is the arrow of God which wounds in order to
release life. The Psalmist spoke of this in
relation to the entrance of Jesus into this world of sin and death, "Thine arrows
stick fast in me, and Thy hand presseth me sore” (Ps. 38:2). Isaiah revealed the deep meaning in this when he
prophesied of Christ, “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted. . . it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He
hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make
His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His Hand (Isa.
53:4). Job the patriarch spoke of a similar
thing when he lamented, “The arrows of the Almighty are within me” (Job 6:4). There is a spiritual piercing and slaying in the
case of those who come to new life in Christ, akin to the piercing and slaying of the
Christ Himself. Isaiah received a revelation
of this arrow in the Lord’s quiver, a wounding arrow which enters men’s souls
and brings them down into death of the self-life, that Christ may be revealed in His
glory. The very arrow which poured out the
life of Jesus our Saviour passes through Him to pierce also those who are joined in union
with Him, also killing them to all that is contrary to God’s purpose, that the life
also of Jesus might be manifested in them.
THE PIERCED EAGLE
One of the most prominent of
the late summer constellations is
The eagle is the highest form
of bird, the only creature able to look as it were directly into the sun’s dazzling
radiance. Aspiring to heights far beyond the
physical or grossly material, this great bird symbolizes the upward flight of our journey
into God. The Lord Himself is referred to a
number of times in the scripture as an eagle. “Ye
have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagle’s wings and
brought you to Myself” (Ex. 19:4), and
again, “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad
her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him”
(Deut. 32:11). Christ is that royal eagle,
flying high, the One who is at the right hand of God; who thought it not robbery to be
equal with God; that glorious One, the Son of God from on high. Yet, that One humbled Himself and was pierced by
the arrow of God’s judgment, and is seen here plummeting to the ground, the One who
was so high becoming so low that we might be raised up into His heights, praise His
wonderful name!
THE SOARING EAGLE
In this message we shall
meditate upon both the heights and depths of Christ the eagle—Head and body. It is one of the loftiest of scriptural emblems. The eagle’s courage and farsightedness is
stated in Job 39:28-30. Its swiftness is
alluded to in Deut. 28:49. The remarkable
phenomenon of the renewal of its youth is mentioned by David in Ps. 103:5. The likeness of one of the living creatures about
the Throne was the likeness of an eagle (Rev. 4:7). The
eagle was the standard of the camp of Dan, which included Asher, Dan and Naphtali. From the dawn of human history the challenge of
flight has captured the imagination of man. The
conquest of the air in the past century has embued men and women with a sense of awe and
romance unequaled in the annals of history. Somehow
the ability to fly has epitomized the longing of man to rise above the confines of the
earthy and the mortal and soar into the realm of the spiritual and the supernatural. God has made wonderful provision in His Kingdom for
man to have this spiritual need met, and yet few believers ever discover the laws by which
this escape is possible, few ever achieve the perspective of the eagle, an ability to rise
high enough to see things that those on the ground can never see. How can a man break into the high realm of the
spiritual and the eternal—to soar in the heavenlies with Christ? In response let us look at a beautiful illustration
used by the prophet Isaiah. “They that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk,
and not faint” (Isa. 40:31).
Come with me now to a scene
set in the West. Black, ominous thunderheads
move swiftly across a summer sky. Jagged
streaks of lightening pierce the darkness, followed by long peals of thunder. Below, in the barnlot on the edge of the high
sierra, two members of the feathered kingdom react in different ways. Appearing similar in some aspects, the birds are
actually as different as day and night. The
chicken, with her head down, scratches frantically in the barnyard soil, her beak picking
up an assortment of grub worms, insects and scraps. Her
movements become more excited as the storm moves closer.
She knows that she must hastily finish her meal because soon she will have
to take refuge from the storm. Strange indeed
and very different are the actions of the other bird.
The eagle sits on the naked limb of a dead tree, his head turning this way
and that searching the scene, his sharp eyes piercing the clouds, scanning the heavens. Suddenly he spreads his great wings and waits—testing
the winds. A gust of wind blows across his
perch and he lifts into the air with a royal scream. He
soars into the sky, circling higher and higher above the storm. On the barnlot below the storm breaks in all its
fury. The chicken fearfully scurries about
hunting for shelter. She darts, with all the other chickens, into the safety of the barn
were they huddle together in their misery, fearing every lightning streak and thunder
bolt. As the storm rages below the eagle rides
calm and majestic in the bright world above.
True as this picture is in
the natural realm, it is even more true in the spiritual realm. Eagles are symbolic of a certain class of
Christians. The wise man said in the book of
Proverbs that among those mysteries in the universe that were too hard to understand, one
was the “mystery of the eagle in the air” (Prov. 30:18-19). The symbolism of this passage points to the
inexplicable potential of each and every son of God, which is like the eagle’s, which
can fly higher than any other bird without once flapping a wing. Did you notice that Isaiah said that eagles and
eagle saints “mount up” and not “flap
up”? Eagles were not made to go flapping
about in soulish exercises, unprofitable self-efforts, or wasted fleshly energy—they
were created to soar high and free. Eagles learn to fly without struggling because they
instinctively understand the air currents. When
the right wind is blowing he lifts effortlessly into the air with a shrill scream of
triumph and freedom. “But they that wait upon the Lord. . . shall mount up with wings as
eagles.” Herein is one of the eagle’s
secrets in being able to mount up—waiting. Those
who wait upon the Lord, it is written, who
trust in His moving, who respond to His
promptings, who rest in His timing, who move
in His purpose, will be the ones to mount up. The “mounting up” process in important
and necessary to each son of God who would take his place in the heavenlies, filled with
the precious mind of Christ, conformed to His wonderful image, and caught up to the Throne
of God to rule and reign with Christ over all things.
But it only comes to those who will wait in His presence until the glory
that shines from His face changes them from the image of the earthly into the image of the
heavenly. Should the eagle fail to wait for
the current that lifts, he would never get off the ground.
And the saint of God who does not wait for the moving of the Holy Spirit in
the purposes of God will never get air borne or soar into the heavenlies. Not everyone who receives Christ as Saviour and
enjoys the blessings of His grace will forsake the idols of the earth’s lowlands that
stand in the temple of the heart, to pay the price to follow on to know the Lord in the
heavenly places. But God has predestined those
whom He hath foreknown, and has placed this instinctive and constant call within to rise to greater heights in the celestial realms
above.
But not so with the chicken. If you were to search the Bible through and through
you would discover that nowhere in the Word of God does the Holy Spirit applaud or honor
the chicken. Sometime ago I read the following
story. The writer said, “Five years ago
when I was negotiating to buy our home in
Some of you know what I’m
talking about. You are stuck in a rut. Your life, naturally and spiritually, just isn’t
going any place. Some of you are trapped and
stuck, mired down on your job, in your home, in your marital relationship, in family
situations, in circumstances, problems, pressures, and limitations. These have all become a restrictive fence around
you, which like the chickens, you think you
can’t surmount. The cares of this world,
the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of life grow rampant in the lives of men and
women today, choking the spiritual life of the Kingdom.
The cares of this world have turned many peoples lives into a pressure
cooker. The strain of everyday living is
steadily growing worse because of financial problems, higher taxes, inflation, government
policies, the disturbing world situation, added responsibilities, sickness, hospital
bills, rebellion in the home, unemployment, etc. The
pressures and problems of “this life” are too numerous to mention, we are all
faced with them every day. There are those
seemingly needful involvements of daily living which we cannot shirk, but when they so
OVERWHELM us that we find ourselves so fragmented and frustrated that we are not able to
gather ourselves together to walk in the peace, joy and victory of the Kingdom— then
we need to be loosed from these things, escape from them, soar high above them. Many of God’s precious saints are so
encumbered with the CARES OF THIS LIFE that prayer and waiting upon the Lord have been
shoved back into some remote corner of their lives. They
are utterly distracted by the responsibilities, pressures and problems of living until
they are unable to serve the Lord with all their heart, mind and strength. Praise God! We
find in Him a realm of freedom from all “these things”, so that whatever state
we are in we can rejoice and not be bound by them or to them. There is an
escaping from the cares of this life—if we remember that we are eagles, not chickens!
There is another area of
limitation that is a restrictive fence around the spiritual chickens also—and that is
the religious realm which can cause one to be so caught up in its programs and works that
it literally is a bondage. Well do I remember
former years of pastoring churches when every weekend was crowded with a whirlwind of
feverish activity, meetings, visitations, etc., that come Monday morning I was completely
exhausted mentally and physically, needing another sabbath to rest and recuperate from the
one I had just been through! I suppose I will
make some enemies, but I must tell you the truth nonetheless. How much eager-beaver religious work is done out of
a carnal desire to make good or appear successful! How
many hours of prayer are wasted beseeching God to bless and prosper projects that are
geared to the glorification of men! How much
hard-earned money is poured out upon men who, in spite of their tear-in-the-voice appeals,
nevertheless seek only to make a fair show in the flesh, building bigger and bigger
castles in the sand! I have no hesitation in
saying that a charismatic personality and a shrewd knowledge of human nature is ALL that
any man needs to be a success in the religious circles today, including the “spirit-filled”
ones. The church systems, for the most part,
have accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster signify that
something significant is being accomplished for God. The
simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found. In
its stead are programs, methods, organizations, committees, board meetings, basketball
tournaments, religious splash parties followed by devotions, Sunday School picnics, puppet
shows, building fund drives, business men’s banquets, revival meetings and a world
more of feverish activities which occupy time, energy, and attention, but can never
satisfy the deepest longings of the heart. The
shallowness of the average Christian’s inner experience, the hollowness of his
worship, the immaturity of his walk, his incredible ignorance of God’s great plan and
purpose, the emptiness of his word, and the servile imitation of the world which marks the
religious system’s promotional methods all testify that the whole program, instead of
being the divine out-raying of the Christ life, is naught but part and parcel of “the
cares of this world.”
So now man WORKS... and
WORKS... and WORKS... diligently pursuing multiplied religious observances, external
forms, activities of all sorts, and for all his effort he is able only to produce a
pitifully small harvest of reality, eeking out but a meager spiritual existence! How incredibly busy he is scratching and picking up
the grub worms, insects and scraps out of the dirt of his little chicken yard! Oh! to
escape religiosity that we might learn to walk with God in the Spirit. And we rejoice to see how God is causing His elect
to flee this realm. And let me assure you, my
brother, my sister, I have no intention of assuming the burden of paying for men’s
programs, building men’s kingdoms, or joining in their efforts to save the world,
when God already has a plan for the salvation of all nations which will work, while men’s
efforts have failed. To hear some preachers
tell it you would think that they had almost completed the job of world evangelization,
and with only a few more millions of dollars, another TV network, an expanded relief
program and a few more crusades the Kingdom will be here.
The sad truth is, however, that the tidal wave of sin, sorrow, sickness,
pain, ignorance, and death is greater in the earth in this hour than at any time since
Noah entered the ark. But to remain
continually bombarded by the appeal of all this activity and not become caught in its
snare, is an escape that only God can work in us and maintain for us. And only “the way of the eagle” can
reveal it! Consider the birds of the air. You can be like them—you can soar like an
eagle! Nothing is impossible to those who
mount up with wings as the eagle. Whatever it
is that is weighing you down, whatever it is keeping you from soaring, it is possible to
break away. The ability to soar lies within—you
don’t have to go anywhere. You don’t
have to tear down the chicken fence or kill the chickens, or sit on the fence and
frantically flap away. What I am saying is,
YOU DON’T HAVE TO CHANGE ANY OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES ABOUT YOU. You can rise above them. The eagle is in you. You are the eagle.
You can soar high above it all! There
is a life within that transcends all the lowlands of the flesh—it will carry you high
if you give yourself to it. It is the life of
sonship, the power and glory and mind of the Christ within.
Many years ago Bill Britton
wrote, “Chickens are symbolic of people. The
only time chickens are referred to in the Bible, Jesus used them as a type of those people
in
“The first man is of the
earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.
As is he earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly,
such are they also that are heavenly. And as
we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (I Cor. 15:47-49).
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty. But we all, with open
(unveiled) face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed (transformed,
transfigured) into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”
(II Cor. 3:17-18). “Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in
heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). “Which
He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand
in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:20). “And
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). “To
the extent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known
by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He
purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph.
3:10-11). “Wherefore, holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling. . . “ (Heb.
3:1) “But now they desire a better
country, that is, an heavenly (spiritual): wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God” (Heb.
11:16). “But ye are come unto
From these pictures we can
readily see that our calling is a HEAVENLY CALLING. Let
others tend the things of the earth. Let the
dead bury the dead. Let the few who are called
to this High Calling be about their Father’s business.
WHEREFORE! “WHEREFORE, holy
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession, Christ Jesus.” As partakers
in this heavenly calling let us consider Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession. As our APOSTLE Jesus Christ
proclaims and opens up the way before us that we may walk in the calling ordained for us. And what is that calling? TO BE PARTAKERS WITH HIM IN HIS OWN H-E-A-V-E-N-L-Y
CALLING! Here are indeed great words! “Calling” here, as always in the
epistles, has reference not to an invitation to go to some far-off heaven somewhere, but
to a present heavenly state of being. For New
Creation men, according to Col. 1:12, have already been made “meet to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light,” and
our “citizenship is in heaven”
(Phil. 3:20), and God hath “raised us up
together, made us sit together IN THE HEAVENLIES in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). “Having therefore brethren, BOLDNESS TO ENTER
INTO THE HOLIEST by the blood of Jesus. . . “ We,
the Royal Priesthood, DO HAVE BOLDNESS TO ENTER IN. We
need not wait, and we do not have to go to some heaven far beyond the Milky Way. This thing is taking place within us right at this
time, blessed be His wonderful name! For us it
is a glorious privilege to enter into this heavenly realm, into this holiest place,
because Jesus Christ, our High Priest and Forerunner, has opened the way and bids us
enter. Multitudes know Jesus as their Savior,
Baptizer, Healer, Sanctifier and Blesser, but do you know Jesus as your Forerunner? Do you know Him as the Forerunner of the
MELCHIZEDEKIAN PRIESTHOOD, the eternal and heavenly Priesthood? Now we hear the word to us and it is that we are to
come in with boldness. Come right in to the
Holy of Holies. Come right in to that heavenly
place where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Come
right in to the presence of God. Come right in
to the glory of God. Come right in to the
authority and dominion of God. Come right in
to that high and holy realm where only HIGH PRIESTS enter!
We need not be afraid, for we have a High Priest who is now appearing in the
presence of God for us, not in our place, but for us, ON
OUR BEHALF, for that is the true sense of the words “for us.” This Apostle and High Priest of our profession abides in this high and exalted realm and we are to
come right in.
You may stand without. You may wait for Jesus to return. You may wait for the “rapture.” You may wait for your mansion over the hill-top or
your cabin in the corner of gloryland. Some
dwell in the
Eagles prefer the heights
when they soar, and when they rest. His is a
soaring spirit. The eagle is the jet plane of
the bird family. It soars the highest, goes
the fastest, and is superior to all other birds in this respect. You do not have to prompt the eagle to fly, once he
has learned how. No need to sing a chorus
twenty-five times, clap the hands, stomp the feet, in order to work up the spirit of
soaring. If he cannot fly, he is in misery—he
was made for altitude. He is born for the
heights. And flying is just as natural as
breathing. EAGLE SAINTS have their citizenship
in heaven. They live in the world, but their
feelings, affections, desires, aspirations, conversation and actions are above it. Their greatest impulses are upward, ever upward. They build their nests in the heights of the
Mountains of God, and prefer and long to be where they are no more annoyed with the
noises, mundaneness and dangers of this world order. Actually,
we do not move in and out of heavenly realms at our whim.
Our citizenship is in heaven, we exist constantly in the heavenlies. This is a spiritual state of constant existence,
but because we are still in this flesh realm, we are not always conscious of the greater
privileges of our heavenly existence. In the
Carl Schwing has written,
“Sonship is not a message. Those who
proclaim such know nothing as they ought. Sonship
is not something sought after, it does not
come by a decision, man did not design it, cannot offer it and cannot attain to it. Sonship is a birthright predetermined by the
Father, within His Holy Courts, before there was an age!
However, there is a path which leads those ‘predestined souls’ to
sonship. It is a lonely path of rejection,
suffering, humiliation and complete abandonment. It
is the path of the eagle! It leads beyond the
natural realm, the religious realm, yea, even beyond the spiritual realm, to a place of
unity with Christ and His Father. In this
celestial realm of unity, we begin to learn and know Christ, beyond the scriptures. Too long, we, like the Jews of old, have sought the
scriptures for in them we thought we had life. But
now we are becoming one with Him whom the sacred page revealed. In the stillness of the Dawn our spirits possess a
freedom from all other influences... a freedom to soar into the high and holy places known
only to our Father. To enter into the
storehouse of the Lord and learn the secrets of His wonders, to see the mysteries of the
ages, far beyond the confusion of play-church, far above the strife of the land, and
higher than the yearnings of the flesh, yea, even into the light of the Most Holy Place .
. . the eagles soar!”—end quote.
In questioning Job the Lord
said of the eagle, “Doth the eagle mount up at thy command to make her nest on high? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag
of the rock, and the strong place. From hence
she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off” (Job 39:27-29). The eagle saint has the advantage, born of
altitude. “Her eyes behold afar off.” She looks out to the regions beyond, to heights and
depths in God. The call of God is upon her. The life of God is in her heart. There is response.
There are commitments, born of heavenly life.
Heaven is in control.
The saint and the Savior
share the same life, fly the same heavens, have the same destiny. Heavenly bounty fills all. Earth’s splendors are fading. Earth’s treasures hold nothing for him any
more. Heavenly investments are sure. Eternal values are in view. "Her eyes behold afar off.” Fear does not plague the eagle saint. "She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon
the crag of the rock." The rock is Christ.
Her security is in the rock. She
draws her life from above. Earth's hopes must
fade. They are made of poor stuff. The saints of all ages have known this. The Lord has taught them, in their hearts. The Lord cuts His elect saints off from the world,
and the systems of the flesh, but in the same
stroke, He grafts them on to heaven. They are
to live in their new found life. The saints
have found a new blood stream that will not be affected by death. This new life flows out of the very heart of God,
like a river forever. It courses through the
veins of the inner man, bringing life where ere it goes.
The heavenly life makes
heaven. The life of God is heavenly life. The believer who says that should his body die, he
will be dead like a dog, unconscious and non-existent, knows not that he has been born
from above. The born again one has life
from above. The impact of this new heavenly
life determines everything. This life governs
the universe, and nullifies the kingdom of darkness. Satan is never in his stride, in the
presence of heavenly life. This is raptured
life, the life from above. Webster defines
rapture as: “Extreme pleasure or delight, ecstasy.” The eagle saint has raptured life, the joyful life, the glorious life,
the satisfying life—he is not waiting for a "rapture"
to come. Every step that the Lord Jesus took
on earth was a raptured step. Every word that
He used was a raptured word. Every work that
He did was a raptured work. The life of Jesus
Christ was a raptured life. He was caught up
all the time. That's what gave Him the
heavenly touch, enabled Him to hear the heavenly voice of His heavenly Father within. That’s what made Him what He was—the
heavenly man. The eagle saint does not need death, or a miracle, or a meeting, to get him
on the wing. He is in the heavenlies all the
time. That's all the life he knows.
He shares with the raptured Christ, the heavenly life. The eagle saint knows extreme pleasure, ecstasy,
heavenly delight. Those that are born from
above move in the orbit of above life. The
problem is that there is a temporary outer life, a physical life that confuses many—a
make believe, illusion, a mist that the wind bloweth away.
The earth bound life is very strong for expression. This fallen life wants an outlet. It is very aggressive and demanding. The heavenly life is meek and lowly and humble in
spirit. The earthly life will force its way
and scheme to gain its point. The heavenly
life is not so, but will take a back seat and wait the Lord's appointed time. "They that wait upon the Lord shall mount up
with wings as the eagle.” Saints are
laboring with a double life—the old life and the new in the same vessel. The low grade life must be given over to the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The milk and honey
of
The heart of man is on a
quest for a place where his heart is at rest and where there is life, peace, and
contentment—the place called heaven. The
best word to describe heaven is "glory," and glory has been defined by one as:
"Like it ought to be.” Those that
know glory are in glory. They are in a
state, "Like it ought to be." They
are in Christ and fashioned in His likeness. They
have tasted of heaven, for they have tasted of the heavenly One, and their hearts, have
been ravished. Christ is heaven, and heaven is
Christ known and experienced in a living way. Our
measure of Christ is our measure of heaven. The
heart filled with God is full of heaven. The
more of Jesus Christ that is wrought in the saints by the Holy Ghost, the more heaven is
come to earth. Heaven is as large as the
universe and as small as the human heart. Heaven
is both macrocosm and microcosm. There is room
enough in man to contain the universe (black holes are proof of that), and it takes the
universe to contain man—the man Christ
Jesus and His body the church, the One
Once heaven seemed a far-off
place,
Till Jesus showed His smiling face;
Now it is here within my soul,
‘Twill be while endless ages roll!
O hallelujah, yes ‘tis heaven,
“Tis heaven to know the Son that’s given;
O’er land or sea, what matter where,
Where Jesus is, ‘tis heaven there!
Learn to breathe the ozone of
heaven—the rare, crisp, pure air of the heavenlies, that is sweet to the nostrils and
life to the lungs and body. Mountain air is
good. There is too much grime and smog in this
low altitude. There are so many respiratory
problems. There is so much low living and
difficult breathing. The environment is wrong. It is good medicine to meet a saint that is above—a
saint with eagle wings. They quicken and
refresh. Spend time with those that live
above. You, too, will learn how to stay above. Remember that the young eagles have to be taught to
fly. If they refuse to learn they are
destroyed. Learn to live the heavenly life if
you would save your life. You may not be able
to stand the strong winds of the upper altitude,but go as high as you can and stay as long
as you can. Get away from the depressing order
of the valleys. Learn to live in your habitat—your
elements. Refuse to be embroiled in confusion
and strife. There is nothing to gain. You may win the argument and lose the victory. Gossip—no profit! Tidbits of cheap news—no profit! We should not be glorying in other’s shame. If the other fellow falls out of the heavenlies,
just do not follow him down to chew on his flesh. If
you stay in the heavenlies, you will help draw him back.
The wings of the spirit are eagle wings.
The Holy Spirit of God gives you these wings.
Learn how to use them. “Walk
in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” Abide in your true element. Choose to abide.
You need, rich, healthy blood if you are going to fly. Heavenly vitamins and minerals—the Word of
God, spiritual conversation, prayer, praise, pure thoughts and holy living. From what table are you eating? From what well do you drink? Where do you get your food supplements? Jesus said, “He that eateth not My flesh and
drinketh not My blood, hath no life in him.” Feed
upon Him. He is food to thy hungry heart,
drink to thirsty spirit, and strength for flight in the heavens. This king of the air (the
eagle) eats only live meat. You and I can scan
the heights too, if we eat only live meat, the living word.
We are what the life in us makes us. When
the heavenly flesh of Christ becomes our life, life is no longer just an existence, or a
religious exercise, it is heaven in manifestation, God in operation. As the peace of God settles down within man, man
BECOMES THE MILLENNIUM—the day of the Lord!
A TIME TO SOLO
The sons of God must ascend
to their heavenly environment. Here is the
place for which they were made, the place that was made for them. They must be drawn above—forced above—driven
above. Drastic means must be used if
necessary. How can we get young saints out of
Egypt and into Canaan—the heavenlies? They
still long for the flesh pots of
Picture with me a little
eaglet snuggled cozily in a down-filled nest high in the mountain upon the crag of a rock. Everything is just beautiful; the parents sally
forth daily and bring back choice tidbits for that ravenous young appetite. During the cold mountain nights the mother eagle
settles over the nest and the eaglet snuggles securely under those warm, soft wings. In its spiritual application, this little fellow is
newly born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit. He
has learned about blessing, forgiveness, joy, gifts, healing, provision, and all the
benefits of being a child of God. Hallelujah! Here life is wonderful and being a Christian sure
makes life easy—no more problems or lack! Should
any problem arise the pastor or the church will promptly take care of it. What provision!
What security! What a wonderful
arrangement! The problem is just this—the
young eaglet grows too fond of its nest and everything being done for it. This must not be.
He must be roused up and trained to face the rough world. He must learn to fly.
He must grow up. He must become
strong and mature. He must learn to soar and
discover His identity and being in the heights. He
must fulfill his destiny.
How can we teach the young
eagle saints to take their position in the heavenlies?
How can we force them up if necessary? If
they will not ascend, then what? Will the Lord
use drastic means? He built that trait into
mother eagle. That is the way eagles meet the
situation. If the young will not fly, they are
destroyed. And yet—this rarely happens. One remarkable characteristic of the eagle is its
tenderness toward its young. No member of the
bird family is more gentle and attentive in watching over its young. It builds its nest high up on a mountain crag. Both parents bring food to the
little eaglets (the spirit and the word), and when they teach them to fly, both parents
are involved in the training program (the right and the left hand of God). Deuteronomy 32:11 tells us how the young eagle gets
his introduction to the practice of soaring in the heavens.
Let the eagle saints listen carefully. It
says that the mother eagle “stirreth up
her nest,” “fluttereth over her young,” “spreadeth abroad her wings,”
and “beareth them on her wings.” The
time has come for the young eagle to learn to fly and strike out on his own—but he
does not want to fly, he is having it too easy up there in that nest. He is given breakfast each morning in bed! He is nurtured and protected by others! All he has to do is warm the pew and watch the
show! Why should he want to leave? The mother eagle knows that it is time to start
flying. But looking down from the dizzy
heights of the mountain peak, he is not ready to begin such a new and dangerous
enterprise. He has “not passed this way
before” and is reluctant to make a move. So the mother eagle begins to “stir up
the nest.” She grabs a piece of the nest
and drops it over the side of the cliff. Then
she returns for another chunk, and another, and another.
Finally all the down that made Junior feel so secure is at the bottom of the
canyon. He is forced to sit on nothing but
rough sticks with jagged ends. This is rough
treatment, completely unexpected, and not understood by the eaglet. But there is a job to be done. It may seem blunt and cruel, but the lesson must be
learned. She then takes the little one in her
powerful beak and nudges him toward the edge of the ledge.
The little fellow wonders what is happening now. The actions of his mother completely mystify him. His little heart is beating faster and faster, and
as he is pushed closer to the edge he thinks, No, it can’t be! Mother wouldn’t do this to me! But she does. She
takes him to the edge of the cliff. It is a
long, long way down. Suddenly she pushes him
over!
Bill Britton eloquently wrote
about this amazing phenomenon in his book EAGLE SAINTS ARISE: “Oh, saints of God, does it seem that God is
dealing harshly with you? Is he tearing up
your soft, comfortable nest? Does the place in
God that once met such need in your life now seem rough, tight, and uncomfortable? What is happening?
The Lord is getting ready to push you off into heights you never dreamed of. Do the jagged edges of that which once was such
comfort to you now stab you with grief and pain? Have
you been wondering what the trouble was, and perhaps doubt that you were ever in the will
of God? Doubt no longer, but expect in faith
for the next great work of God to come forth in your life.
It is not the wrath of God trying to destroy you. It is the love and wisdom of our God making you
willing to take another big step in the plan and purpose of God for His church. We, by nature, love security. So the Lord has to make us utterly sick of our
‘nest’ in order to make us willing to launch out into pioneer spiritual journeys
in the heavenlies”—end quote. The
mother does not push the young eagle over the cliff to destroy him. He screams with terror as he tumbles through the
air—but instinctively his wings stretch out in an effort to catch the air. Down, down, down he falls as untried wings fail to
function sufficiently to hold him up. But
mother watches that little fellow as he falls and clumsily flaps his wings. When it appears that all hope is lost and he is
about to be dashed on the canyon floor, she swoops underneath him and her mighty wings
bear him up to the safety of the ledge from which he fell.
“Praise God,” he shouts within, “what a relief!” Just as he is getting over his dizziness and
decides that all is well, the bottom drops out again.
The process starts all over and continues until eventually the little fellow
begins to fly as she has shown him. Each time
she flies a little farther and each experience brings a little more mastery of his wings. He becomes stronger and stronger, until one day he
spreads those wings and rather than flapping discovers how to catch the currents of air
and finds himself rising up and up, riding the mighty winds far above his ledge home and
the nest that confined him. No longer a
fledgling begging for tidbits, he is now one of the eagles—he is become a king!
Again I would share from the
keen insight of Bill Britton on this beautiful theme of the eagle. “Those who rule with Christ must rule from the
heavens. For that is where the throne is. Many sing ‘I’ll fly away. . .’, and
dream of a rapture by and by that will carry them from this sin cursed earth, past the
moon and into the wild blue heavens to some geographical spot in this physical universe to
a big supper all set and loaded with goodies for them to eat. And they know nothing of the purposes of God for
His eagle saints who will actually be caught up to the throne to rule and reign. But the time is at hand. And the Spirit is unveiling and revealing hidden
secrets from His Word to those who are called to the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus. So He is teaching us to move in heavenly places. And sometimes it is terrifying. But His glorious Presence is there, comforting,
directing and reassuring. Praise God!
“The chicken yard is
very confining. You can go so far, and no
farther. The Plymouth Rocks stay in the
Plymouth Rocks pens, and the Rhode Island Reds remain in their alloted place. It would be scandalous if Farmer Brown’s hens
slipped over to Farmer Jones and ate his corn, or laid their eggs in the wrong place. It doesn’t matter if you are in the Methodist
pen, or Baptist, or Pentecostal, or whatever. You
may cackle and crow about the advantages in your particular chicken yard over the others,
but just be sure and remain within your confines. Not
so the eagles! No chicken yard could hold him. He can only live and find happiness in the freedom
of the uncovered and uncharted heavens. There
is lots of room where the eagles gather. Unlimited
revelation. Truth flows like a mighty River. No creeds, bylaws, or static statement of beliefs
to separate the body of Christ. Sweet
fellowship with all who dwell in this place, and no divisive man-made boundaries exist. The dull monotonous routine of a ‘chicken yard’
religious system is forever a thing of the past for those who rise on wings of eagles into
this place in God. What a variety of glorious
treasures in the Holy Ghost there is for those who dare to believe and who ‘are
called according to His purposes’”—end quote.
Of the eagle the Lord said,
“Her eyes behold afar off” (Job
39:29). The eagle is noted for great vision. They are great watchers, with far-sighted vision. And so are eagle saints. The eye is the figure of light and illumination and
it is as we know the truth and walk in it that we are purified to see God; for only the
pure in heart see God. They see the plan and
purpose of God beyond the traditions and superstitions of religion. To them the treasure house of wisdom and knowledge
and spiritual understanding is opened. The
deep mysteries, the sacred secrets of divine wisdom are unlocked within as the Lord
reveals His will, teaches them His ways, and show unto them His glory. They can believe for things in God that others,
whose eyes are riveted to the things of earth, cannot see or even conceive of. There is keen vision—knowledge and
understanding of the true nature of all things—with the eagle saints. They are the pioneers of faith that break through
into new realms in God. And because of their
sharp vision, it is difficult to surprise or deceive them.
The enemy cannot penetrate their defenses.
Jesus is the perfect example and pattern.
No one ever deceived Him with smooth words or flattery. No pious hypocrite ever survived under the piercing
gaze of the Christ of God. Jesus knew what was
in man. Even one of His own apostles was
filled with the devil and moved to betray Him, but Jesus was not deceived or taken by
surprise. No matter that he was one of the
leaders, and cast out devils in Jesus’ name! His
innermost thoughts and the secret intents of his heart were laid bare in the sight of that
great Captain of the Eagle Saints. One of the
marks of true sonship is the ability to see the true nature of all things and to discern
the hidden spiritual source of all outward manifestations.
ASCENDING AND DESCENDING
There is still much that
could be said about the eagle saints, but I will close this message with one more word.
If we could only begin to
fathom what this meant! Being in the form of
God and existing in the glory of His Father, He could have stayed there, He was the Word
of God, He was Divine; but to leave the glory above to come down to this sin-cursed earth,
this death-ridden planet, with all its sin, suffering and evil, was taking a giant step
down. He was not spared the lowliest kind of
birth. Jesus was not born to wealth, comfort
or fame. Into the arms of a gentle peasant
girl He came, in a smelly stable with oxen and donkeys, yonder in a little land despised
by the world, whose people were the helpless subjects of a foreign power. If one has walked in
The first thirty years of His
life we know little about, but it was through these years that He suffered, being tempted
and tested. He had to learn obedience and be
perfect as a man before He could start His ministry, and go to the cross. The Bible tells us little of those thirty years;
only about His birth and when He talked with the leaders when He was twelve years old, in
the
Consider the deaths to which
He fell! At the last the deepest of all
sorrows crushed on Jesus. “My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!” Jesus
then drank the cup He had asked to have removed. He
then sounded the depths of death. The Father’s
face was hidden from Him; He had gone as far as human suffering could go. Sin and death had veiled the Father’s love
from Him. Sin could go no farther in its
brutal demands than just that. Yet none of
this was unexpected. The Bible tells of One
who was to suffer. In the book of Psalms, you
see the cross casting its shadow down the ages. There
Jesus’ death in amazing outline is vividly pictured.
Read in the light of prophecy, who can ever forget the twenty-second Psalm? “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” “A worm and no man, a reproach of men and
despised of the people. All they that see Me
laugh Me to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying, He trusted on the
Lord that He would deliver Him; let Him deliver Him seeing that He delighted in Him.” “They gazed upon Me with their mouths.” “Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death.” “They pierced My hands and My feet.” “They part My garments among them and cast
lots for My vesture.” The strangest thing
of all is that Christ’s death by crucifixion is pictured here and, yet, in David’s
time, death by the cross was an unknown way of sending a soul out of this world. It was left to the Romans, not the Jews, to invent
that horrid method of capital punishment. The
cross, the gambling, the cries, the insolence of the crowd, the physical and soul
suffering of Jesus, are all pictured in the twenty-second Psalm. With gentle hands and sympathetic heart, we turn to
the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. If the
twenty-second Psalm tells us of the cross, Isaiah fifty-three gives the reason for it. Seven long centuries before Jesus was born, in this
fruitful chapter of Isaiah, we have Jesus’ suffering, death, burial, and resurrection
foretold and the why of it all. “He hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” “He
was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His
stripes we are healed.” “He made His
grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death.”
“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; HE hath put Him to grief; when
Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His
days.” What a description of what
actually happened, told in detail hundreds of years before it ever happened. Surely it bears divine evidence in the very
fulfillment of the validity and truth that the suffering One was the Son of God, the
mighty One dwelling here on earth to save and restore, to bear us up on eagle’s wings
into the glory of God.
The following words from the
pen of the late George Wylie graphically express the deep and precious meaning of
“I don’t know what
she was about to do, whether she was going to run to Him and throw her arms around Him, or
just kneel down and kiss His feet; but I imagine she was filled with joy and beside
herself. But Jesus said, ‘Don’t
touch Me; for I have not yet ascended to My Father, but go to My brethren, and say unto
them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father,
and to My God and your God’ (Jn. 20:11-17). How
my heart thrilled when I read these words. I
pray the Holy Spirit will make them as real to you as He did to me. He didn’t say, ‘Go to My disciples,’
nor did He say, ‘Go to My servants.’ Nor,
‘Go to My friends.’ No! This time it was something altogether different,
something far more intimate; a new relationship with Him.
He said, ‘Go to My brothers.’ He was no longer their Teacher; He
was no longer their Master; no longer just a Friend; He was something more than that. Yes, He was still their Master and Lord, but He was
something more—He was their brother. He
said, ‘I ascend to My Father, and to YOUR FATHER, and to My God, and YOUR GOD.’ He was one of them.
He is one of us. He wasn’t
going to ascend just to His Father, but to their Father, and to our Father, and to our God
as well as His God. I pray you can see this in
the true sense of its meaning, and that it will thrill your heart as it did mine. He wasn’t going to ascend to God to present
Himself as merely our Lord and Saviour, which He is, but He ascended as our BROTHER, as human being; the firstfruits of the human race. He represents us there at the right hand of the
Majesty on High. He is one of us, one who has
gone all the way through to the throne of God, the first man to do so. It is wonderful to think of Him ascending to the
throne of God as our Lord and Saviour, one who is so far above and beyond us; but when we
realize that it is our brother who is up there, and He has gone before to open up the way,
how much greater is our assurance that we will get there also. There is a wonderful scripture found in Rom.
8:28-29. ‘Now we know that for those that
love God He makes all things work together for good, for those who are called according to
the Divine purpose. Those He has foreknown He
has also predestined to share the likeness of His Son, that He might be the eldest in a
vast family of brothers’ (
“Before the eternal
Logos left the glory above He was God. When He
became man He stripped Himself of His Deity, to become a human being. After His resurrection and He had returned to His
Father above, He did not put off His humanity that He had put on, He remained still a
human being, still a man. But I want you to
notice something that He prayed for before He left this earthly scene. In John 17, when He was praying to the Father, He
asked to have the glory restored to Him that He had with the Father before the kosmos was. I draw your attention to His words, and want you to
meditate on them. ‘And now O Father,
glorify Thou Me, with Thine own self, with the glory I had with Thee before the kosmos
was.’ He was asking to be glorified with
the glory He had stripped Himself of, when He became a man.
I want you to notice these words, ‘Glorify Thou Me WITH THINE OWN SELF.’ He was asking to be clothed with God, to be
enveloped with Deity again, to be completely swallowed up and filled with all fullness of
God. He didn’t shed His humanity, but He
was going to put on the human being clothed with God, with the fullness of the glory of
DIVINE BEING. He is no longer God’s
Divine Son, nor is He still God’s human Son; He is now God’s DIVINE HUMAN SON,
truly a GOD-MAN. This is the New Creation, not
God and not man, but GOD-MAN. This is God’s
man. This is God’s kind of man. This is the kind of man God purposed from the
beginning when He said, ‘Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness.’ And what our elder brother is now, we are destined
to become. We too are to become just like Him. WE too are to be filled with all the fullness of
God. ‘That you may know the love of
Christ which passeth knowledge, that YE MIGHT BE FILLED WITH ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD’
(Eph. 3:18). We are partakers of the divine
nature, the personality of the eternal, to be clothed and swallowed up into the divine, to
be glorified with the divine personality as Jesus, our brother, has been”—end
quote.
Truly it is IN HIM, in His
ascension, that we have power to ascend into the Mountain of the Lord. The victorious life of sonship is a matter of
ascendancy. It has to do with getting above,
and staying above. It is a matter of altitude. The sons have eagle wings. Man was made for that. He was made for altitude. He was made for ascendancy. He was made to be above and not beneath. This is why humanity in the lowlands is continually
wretched and miserable, always searching and seeking for some reality beyond and above. If you want to stay out of trouble, rise up into
the holy heights of God and don’t come down. If
you find yourself in trouble, then you know you have come down. You can be beset on every hand by problems and
pressures and still not be in trouble. No
problem is a problem unless it is a problems to you. No
pressure has any power until you allow it to press you.
Christ is above it all. The
saints are in Him. The saints are above. Stay where you are.
Stay with your life. Stay with
the real you. Stay with that inner man who is
risen with Christ at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1).
Stay above. Defeat is to come
down. You must not come down. Your position is in Christ far above all. Christ came down
so that you and I can go up. Hallelujah! He is the Eagle of eagles, and we are the body of
the Eagle. He descended to us that we might
ascend in Him.
Chapter
31
CAPRICORNUS—THE
GOAT
(continued)
The third, and final,
constellation in the house of Capricornus is a lovely little cluster of stars named
DELPHINUS, or THE DOLPHIN. It is always pictured as a great fish full of life, vigorously
leaping upward, out of the water. In contrast to the dying goat, it conveys the idea of
springing up again out of the bondage of death. This is the filling of the picture and the
completion of the whole truth as set forth in the Sign of Capricornus. First and foremost
our Lord Jesus Christ came as our sin-offering, taking upon Himself our humanity with all
its sin, weakness, sorrow, limitation and death. We see, however, that He was not to be
left there, but, rather, He overcame temptation, He overcame sin, He overcame the flesh,
He overcame the world, He overcame the devil, and He overcame death, rising up again
wondrously into the heights of glory from whence He came. The dolphin is notorious for
leaping forth out of the waves, breaking the surface and rising majestically into the air.
So Christ—suddenly emerges from the waves of death as the almighty Conqueror of sin,
death, and the grave by rising again! But He is merely the principal Fish of a vast
multitude of fishes. Here again Jesus is identified with His people—His elect saints.
Unto these chosen ones He speaks the precious and powerful promise: "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). He died to bring forth a living body,
a body represented by a great school of dolphins, all of whom break forth out of the sea
of humanity, leaping majestically into the air—viewing that higher world of the
spirit to which they are apprehended.
THE OVERCOMER
The principle of the dolphin
is the principle of overcoming. The reason so many people fail to attain to great heights
in the Spirit is because they are unable to see God’s purpose, and therefore they
have no particular incentive to seek the great heights that are in Him. So many Christians
are far too taken up with carnal ideas and childish notions about mansions and harps and
sitting on clouds eating pork chops with nothing to do and all eternity to do it in, to be
able to grasp the true purposes of God! There are certain basic principles of the
We are called to reign with
Christ from the highest heaven. Such all-embracing majesty is far too vast for my feeble
understanding, yet I know by the Spirit that the body of Christ is in practical
preparation for the explicit purpose of UNIVERSAL DOMINION. But how can a man rule over
principalities and powers and universes if he is unable to rule his own spirit? "He
that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city" (Prov. 16:32). The
awful betrayal, trial, mockery, beating, and crucifixion of Jesus is the most shining
example. It is difficult to imagine any humiliation more bitter than that. It is the worst
indignity that anyone can be called upon to endure. Few have ever had to bear it. Never
was dishonor less deserved, never was dishonor so bravely borne. Through that fierce and
heated hour our Lord bore Himself with quiet dignity. Others were convulsed with
uncontrolled passion, He alone was calm and self-possessed. His victory over Himself was
greater than His victory over His enemies. In such experiences of provocation, truly,
"He that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city. " God is a
God of principle. He does not do anything by chance. It is my deep conviction that what
happens in your life and mine is a result of the use or abuse of the principles of the
You can never rule anything
until you first overcome it within yourself. To "overcome" means TO COME UP OVER
THAT WHICH IS OVER YOU. The term implies the existence of obstacles in the pathway of the
righteousness, peace, and joy of the
As sons of the Most High, we
have access to the same strength that enabled Jesus to live an overcoming life—and to
conquer even death. He has given to us that same authority and power that gave Him victory
over sin, death, hell and the grave. Have you ever wondered what would happen if Jesus
would come and transfer places with you? If suddenly He would come to dwell in your body.
I have often wondered what He would do if He had my circumstances, my weaknesses, my
lusts, my pressures, my problems. If the Master came to me and said, "Move over, I am
coming to live in your house for a season," I do not doubt that in a short period He
would have all my problems straightened out and all of my weakness and turmoil under
control. He would overcome all of the things that I struggle with. But the wonderful truth
is, my beloved, HE HAS COME! HE DOES LIVE IN MY BODY! "I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. . ." (Gal. 2:20). "But
ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (
I do not believe that any man
can experience the victory of Christ except WHERE HE IS. I do not want to distress any
soul, but you must know Him where He is. I have union with Christ where He is, in the
higher than all heavens. You cannot live in the reality of overcoming if you have not
gotten into that region of calm. Why talk of coming up over that which is over me if I do
not do it in union with the resurrected and ascended Christ? Practically we have to learn
what the frigate bird does. When a storm comes on it gets above the region of storms,
above the clouds, where there is none, and there it stays even for days until the storm is
over. I am placed beyond the reach of storms; I am a frigate bird, for I am with Christ in
a scene where there is no storm and no clouds. I am united to an ascended Christ. The Lord
says, "The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them." A person might
say, I cannot get this now. I answer, I belong to the glory now; I possess Him now in
glory, and I am changed into the same image by the Spirit. I belong to the glory. This is
where we fully come up over all that is over us. There is a beautiful promise to the elect
of God in Rom. 16:20. "And the God of peace will soon bruise satan under your
feet." Stronger words than these are not to be found! Greater words than these do not
exist! The greatest and best thing of all about these words is that they are true. If
satan is bruised under your feet, dear reader, it does not mean that he no longer exists.
It does not mean that the negative realm is destroyed and has no more power to mislead,
damage, or dominate. That satan is crushed under your feet signifies that you have risen
up above him, gained the mastery over him, assumed the authority of the Christ within.
When this becomes a personal life-giving light in the very depth of your being, then sin
and satan and darkness and death has lost its power over you. He still exists—under
your feet! Crushed under your feet! It is Christ in you who does the crushing. And He does
it as you yield fully to the victory HE IS within you.
A pastor by the name of
Barnhouse at one time met a member of his congregation and asked him how he was. The
member responded, "Well, pretty good under the circumstances." Barnhouse turned
sharply and said, "What do you mean under the circumstances? What are you doing under
the circumstances? Don’t you know that you are seated with Christ in the heavenlies—way
above the circumstances? What are you doing down there?" The man was obviously quite
startled. And yet, a great truth is there for us to consider. I am reminded of the story I
read once of Spurgeon, the great preacher of another day from
When God gets ready to assume
His rightful place in the universe again, He will say, "I have a people here who has
been tested." How can we rule in the
On the other hand, people who
work in companies owned and operated by "brethren" are expected to live above
all this. Working elbow-to-elbow with believers appears so clean and wholesome and
spiritual in comparison to working in an ungodly environment! Ah, we seek an
"environment" that is "conducive" to our "spirituality,"
little realizing that in that environment where all is so beautiful and harmonious we only
appear to be spiritual because there is nothing to cross us, nothing to tempt us, nothing
hostile, no adversities, no inconveniences, in short, NOTHING TO OVERCOME! You can run
from the problem, my friend; you can isolate and insulate yourself from evil; you can
position yourself in an environment where nothing is adverse to you; you can even have
faith where God will solve all your problems and pour down healings, prosperity and
blessings; yes, you can do all this and be a Christian, a good Spirit-baptized Christian,
and make it to heaven someday; but I would be remiss if I did not warn you that you cannot
do this and BECOME AN OVERCOMER, you cannot do this and BECOME A RULER! Yes, you can
achieve some peace by cutting yourself off from that part of your life which takes away
your peace—but this is a cutting off from THE THRONE.
As I have stated previously,
one can never become an overcomer while running from the battle. I never cease to be
amazed at the number of believers who want to go through life without ever coming up over
the things that are over them. Every time a hard place comes, the carnal mind drags them
further and further into spiritual, emotional and mental bondage. They look for a way out.
These folk will run to the next town, the next church, the next job, the next friendship.
. . whatever is convenient. They refuse to mature. Anything negative that crosses their
will is avoided with scheme after scheme energized by the fleshy mind that is hostile
toward God. Some of you are running. Do you know what you will find when you stop? The
thing which you have tried to escape is STILL THERE. You carried it with you. It is within
you. The moment you stop running and face the issue, the wisdom of God is going to catch
up with you and help you become an overcomer. Turn to God with sincerity, and let Him help
you and deal with you. The great tests or trials that we endure are not necessarily what
bring about our development as New Creatures. The little things, the everyday experiences,
the nitty-gritty where the rubber meets the road, are where the real trials, the true
testings, take place. By way of example, perhaps not many of us remember the era back in
the late ‘20’s or early ‘30s, when the in thing was for men to do things
that were unusual or bizarre. Some of you may remember the name, Barney Oldfield. He was
considered an outstanding automobile racer of that time. He set a speed record from
Many people, if they do not
run from or evade the problem, seek "deliverance" from it! There is a vast
difference between what the present religious realms call deliverance, and the Kingdom
principle of overcoming. What most people call deliverance today is an effort to escape
out of their pressure and problem, not an overcoming. Overcoming means to GAIN THE VICTORY
OVER THE SITUATION. In deliverance God takes something away from you, as you would take a
knife from a child. But in overcoming God’s sons are being processed, so that they
will know the cause and deal with the root of the trouble within themselves. The knife is
not taken away—you learn how to use the knife! The dealings and processings must be
thorough, until HIS IMAGE be formed in us. If your car has difficulty climbing a hill, you
can do one of two things: (1) make the hill less steep, or (2) increase the horsepower of
the car. God usually wants to change us, not the hill. How many of my readers have had a
battle with a bad temper? No need to raise your hand! Temper in balance is a godly
emotion, God Himself possesses the emotions of hatred, jealousy, vengeance, anger, etc.
Jesus was angry with a holy anger when He took a whip and overturned the tables of the
money changers and drove them from the temple. Anger and emotion was part of the original
equipment man was given to give him an aggressive drive so that he can accomplish
worthwhile things in this life. For example, controlled, temperate, balanced anger will
neither ignore a child’s misbehavior nor abuse him. It will correct in the proper
spirit of firmness and sternness—tempered with love. "Whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Heb. 12:6) Eph. 4:26 says,
"Be ye angry, and sin not." In simple terms this means, "Be angry—but
let it be a controlled, balanced anger will will act effectively, not destructively."
For you see, anger out of control is vicious, destructive, and often deadly. Uncontrolled
or misdirected anger can devastate one’s life. But let me make one thing very clear—God
has absolutely no desire to "deliver" you from your temper! Anger is not on God’s
agenda for deliverance. He intends for you to OVERCOME it. God does indeed deliver people
from things over which they have no control, or which they are ill-equipped to handle. God
does take knives from children! But for sons emotion is not to be "cast out"
like a demon; it is to be overcome and brought into its proper place in our lives in the
mind of Christ. How many things believers seek God to deliver them from that He has
ordained them to overcome! So many of us are like Helga in a story I heard. Helga and
Henry were a Swedish couple. They were married for sixty years. They fought like cats and
dogs every day of their lives. Finally, on their 60th wedding anniversary they began the
morning with a terrible spat. They argued all day long. At the end of the day, Helga said
to her husband, "Henry, tonight I think ven ve pray, ve better pray for peace. Ve
been fighting each other for sixty years, Henry. May the Lord give us peace. So tonight, I
think I’ll pray that the Lord will take you home and I’ll go live with my sister
Olga."
True men never seek escape
from the difficulties of the way, whatever the issue may be. Someone has said that
difficulties faced are half conquered. At any rate one who evades the pathway of the will
of God discovers greater difficulties, as the prophet Jonah soon realized. The world’s
greatest acclaimed men not only faced difficulties but conquered them; the pioneer fathers
not only hewed their way through the trackless forests, but laid the foundations of what
we today enjoy; Columbus not only sailed the stormy and uncharted seas, but he opened the
gateway to hitherto unknown continents where, later, men might come and find their homes;
Carey and Judson and Livingstone not only fought their way through the opposition of their
friends, but also laid the foundation stones of all modern missions; Luther not only
refused the advice of his friends to win a personal victory, but he set all Europe free in
a religious reformation; George Washington and Abraham Lincoln faced tremendous odds, but
steadfastly they went forward until a new nation was born and age-long wrongs were
righted. It is how we learn to handle our challenges that separates the boys from the men—the
children of God from the sons of God.
Do you feel overwhelmed with
problems? Then let me show you how to discover the CHALLENGE that lies in every obstacle.
I promise that if you look for the challenge, you will find it, and then you will be able
to turn the stumbling-stone in your pathway into a stepping-stone to the throne! The
divine principle of which I speak is found in the prophecy of Isaiah, "Out of the
desert shall come streams of water" (Isa. 35:6). Out of every obstacle comes a new
challenge—an opportunity to overcome. This is the point I want to make loud and
clear. For if you want to overcome as Jesus overcame, you will need to tap into the
dynamics of this principle. The only force that can cause weakness and failure is a
challenge that is mistaken for a problem. But there will be no failure when we discover
the challenge in the problem, grab hold of it, and use it as a stepping-stone to higher
ground. On the other hand, we can never overcome anything as long as we allow some
horrendous problem to blind us to the divine challenge that is inherent in every obstacle.
In our Father’s great school of sonship, in His effective training program for the
future rulers of the world and universe, He knows just exactly which obstacles to place in
our pathway for our development and processing. If we try to use our faith to "move
the mountain out of the way," such action will not bring us to the place where faith
can be perfected and OVERCOME the mountain—scale its heights, climb over it, and
conquer it. On one occasion Jesus, after telling the people of dreadful events to come
upon the earth, brushed aside their anxiety as a mother wipes away the tears of her infant
and soothes the childish woes of the one she loves. "When ye see these things begin
to come to pass," He said, "then lift up your heads and rejoice, for your
redemption draweth nigh." Forget for the moment the eschatological interpretations
the church systems have attached to this passage, and look to the experimental and
practical. Jesus was not underestimating the awesomeness of the things that would come
upon us, but well He knew that there would be a people on the earth in the latter days who
would so discover the divine purpose in the trouble, the divine challenge in the
tribulations, the divine ability to rise up and overcome in it all, that in these very
difficulties they would be able to lift up their heads and rejoice because IN THEM THEY
FOUND THEIR REDEMPTION—their challenge to move into a realm of faith and victory
where they could truly be overcomers, the masters of all things! When the trials wax hot
upon the obedient child of God it signifies that redemption is nigh—that the process
is set in motion for the manifestation of a GREAT VICTORY. This is according to God’s
great law of manifested sonship—Father lovingly arranges the obstacles before us,
then marvelously gives the wisdom and power to overcome them, making us strong and
victorious over all that appears so formidable and hopeless. Thus are born His warriors
and kings who shall bring the
Some of you who read these
lines and are facing severe problems today, are feeling frustrated, at this point, by my
apparently trivial treatment of circumstances that tower so ominously and menacingly
before you. You think I don’t understand just how bad your situation really is, or
how many times you have failed. Listen! I would not make the solution so simple, if it
were not simple. These are principles I have proven in my own experience through years of
walking with God. The answer lies so near—right there within you. The difference lies
in whether you view your situation as a problem or a challenge. "What difference does
it make whether I call it a problem or a challenge," you say. The difference is all
important! Here’s why: If you perceive an obstacle in your path as a problem, you
will nurture negative emotions in respect to it—like anger, frustration, despair,
hopelessness, and depression. These emotions are like grave diggers—they carve out
the pit of failure and death in which to bury you! On the other hand, if somehow the Holy
Spirit can give you the revelation of it, if you can see by the inspiration of the
Almighty that the obstacle is God’s challenge—you have received the spiritual
attitude in which spiritual emotions are released—like faith, hope, confidence,
peace, rest, joy, thanksgiving, encouragement, wisdom, knowledge, understanding and power.
These positive emotions, the fruit of the Spirit, will energize you and propel you through
and over and out of and above the obstacle, bringing strength and triumph! You see,
precious friend of mine, the only problems in the world are problems that are perceived as
problems. When the problem ceases (in your mind) to be a problem to you you have risen
above it, come up over it, OVER-COME IT! Who cares how high a mountain is when he is
flying high above it!
During World War II, a young
bride from
Two men looked out from
prison bars,
One saw mud, the other saw
stars.
The daughter read these lines
over and over again. She began to feel ashamed of her response to the situation she was
in. She really didn’t want to leave her husband, and so she said to herself,
"All right, I’ll look for the stars." In the days that followed she began
to make friends with the Indians. She began to take lessons in weaving and pottery from
them. She became fascinated by their culture and history—everything about them.
Moreover, she began to study the desert. In the process, she saw it wonderfully
transformed from a desolate, forbidding place to a marvelous expanse of beauty. She
studied the various forms of cacti, the yuccas, and the Joshua trees. She collected sea
shells that had been deposited there perhaps millions of years before when the sands had
been an ocean floor. Later, she became such an expert on the area that she wrote a book
about it. A remarkable transformation had taken place. But what had changed, really, to
make that possible? Not the weather. Not the desert. Not the lack of modern conveniences.
Not the long days without her husband. Not the Indians. What had changed was her own
attitude. Simply by changing her own attitude—"All right, I’ll look for the
stars," she said—she had transformed a miserable life situation into a highly
rewarding experience. THIS IS THE PRINCIPLE OF THE DOLPHIN—THE BREAKING OUT OF A
LOWER WORLD TO VIEW THE HIGHER. This principle is redemptive, restorative, creative. It
works on the natural plane, as in the story just shared, but in that higher dimension of
the
A great number of people
assume that the spiritual life will give them a permanent resting place and a constant
peace. They become Christians with the idea of having all their problems solved for them
and their burdens eased. Their disillusionment begins when they discover that the walk
with God is no Disney World experience, no eternal bed of roses. In fact it often seems
just the opposite from gushing joy and undisturbed rest. It is the spur which demands that
they move on higher than they intended to go and strive for a perfection and glory beyond
the natural man’s knowledge or expectation of attainment. The life of sonship to God
is more concerned with the expansion of our life and the enlargement of our vision and the
increase of our stature than it is to provide for us a resting place. This life is bent on
breaking the shell of the limitations and protections we are at such pains to create, and
opening us up to the dangers and pain of development. Any teaching which leaves this out
is a snare and a delusion. There is a rest in sonship, but it is not the rest of childish
ease, but it is experienced only when we have at last accepted it as a spur to urge us
onward and upward. Just this week we received a letter from precious friends in the
Northwest and even as I read it I felt constrained in the spirit to share it with those
who are reading this writing. Brother wrote, "Your opening the Word to us has changed
our lives and we are really excited about it. We could never go back to our old concept of
God. We feel that we have a new and greater love for Him than we ever had before. Almost
as soon as we heard the message of the sons of God we opened our hearts to it and began to
ask the Lord to consider us. We knew that we didn’t have the ability in ourselves but
prayed that as we gave ourselves to Him He would give us what we had need of. Almost as
soon as we prayed this way the trials and testings began like you could never believe.
This was when Dorothy found that she had glaucoma and could be blind in three weeks. She
lost 90% vision in one eye, and while in for a check-up she slipped and fell and broke a
leg. While recovering from the broken bone she learned that she could have a cataract
surgery and recover some of her sight. After the operation her eye inflamed. After four
months of this we went to another clinic and they discovered that the first lens implant
had been put in wrong and the whole operation would have to be done over. While recovering
from this last operation she lost her balance and fell and broke her arm. Now she will
have to wear a cast for six weeks. All the medication that they have experimented with has
taken a terrible toll on her body. I am taking too much of your time, but wanted to tell
you how each Bible study month after month has seemed to be exactly right for the stage of
testing we have been in. And now this last one has been a balm for our souls. We are
encouraged and sense that the long night (nearly two years) is passing and we are
BEGINNING TO SEE THE DAWN"—end quote.
The journey to the throne of
the universe begins in that small and undistinguished place where you are. The
LEAPING OVER WALLS
Faith is the only ship that
sails for the Kingdom. Faith is the door to the heavenlies. Faith is the key to the glory
of God. It is by faith that we are saved. It is by faith that we walk. It is by faith that
we enter into the
Running through a troop and
leaping a wall is a poetic way of simply stating the fact that we who are walking in the
Spirit have discovered there have been circumstances which have arisen where we faced what
appeared to be impossibilities, and by the living faith of the Christ within, we have been
able to overcome them by our God. We have been surrounded by hostile troops and have been
walled in by mighty walls. It seems that the adversary has taken the bricks of
circumstance and built a mighty fortress of fear. With one brick of discouragement after
another, the adversary has walled us in until it seems that there is no way out. There are
overwhelming temptations, physical disablements, financial disasters, family turmoils and
disappointments—all bricks that the negative realm uses to build what appears to be
an evermore insurmountable wall that would close us in forever. If you, my friend, find
yourself behind such a wall today, let the words of David be impressed upon your soul:
"By my God have I leaped over a wall!" That is what God calls us to do! You will
notice that it is no vain boast, no carnal self-conceit. This is trust in the living God:
"By my God," David said, "I have done this," for David knew that
cursed was the man who trusts in the arm of flesh. It was David who boldly declared to
Goliath on that fateful day when he came against him that it was not in his own strength
but in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the armies of
How about you, my beloved?
Will you who are experienced saints in the Lord and have known His deliverance many scores
or hundreds or thousands of times in the past, now lie down and die of despair because of
some new threatening onslaught that seems as if it would engulf and overthrow you? And
what about the most dreadful enemy of all—the last enemy, which is death? Who is this
troop that comes against you now? What is this wall the adversary would build against you?
Sound the trumpet of faith! Let the drums roll and the banners fly and watch that wall
crumble as at
How do we do that? We do it
by Him—"by my God, through Christ," said David and Paul. We do it by faith.
"Yes, but how?" some will say. "How do we do this by faith?" Consider,
precious friend of mine, how it is that you have obtained your salvation; how it is that
you have obtained the gift of the Holy Spirit; how it is that you have obtained blessings
and answers to prayer. Is it not true that you came to the place where you rested your
hopes for eternal life and the blessings and benefits of salvation upon the work and the
promise of the Christ? In the trusting and in the believing it was done! As Jesus said,
". . . whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive it" (Mat.
21:22). And it is in the very believing that we can run through a troop, we are like David
who takes up his sword and attacks the host of the Amalekites with a very small band and
scatters them every which way. We are like David who with a mighty leap overleaps the wall
that seems to be impossible, because we believe that God will enable us to do it. In the
believing, it is done. But you will notice that David also says, "I have run through
the troop. I have leaped over a wall." David did not sit there and tremble at the
thought of that troop. He did not walk up to the wall, feel it, and examine its height in
despair. No! He took his sword in his hand, rushed into the midst of the fray, and his
enemies scattered before him. He gathered himself together, he rushed at that wall, and he
took a great leap which some might have thought would surely have killed him. To the
astonishment of all who watched, David sailed over the wall by faith. That is the secret.
If we will rise up to conquer our enemies of fear, limitation, bondage, sin, weakness,
frustration, failure and death we will find that the wall will tremble before us and we
shall find ourselves clearing it with ease. And in all that we shall give glory unto God
and shall cause the unbelieving world to wonder.
In another place the Psalmist
uses a similar metaphor, declaring, "It is God that girdeth me with strength, and
maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like Hinds’ feet, and setteth me upon my
high places" (Ps. 18:32-33). Do you grasp the significance of this allusion? Hinds’
feet are of marvelous swiftness and made to carry their owner over difficult places
impassable to slower-footed creatures. The thought in the singer’s mind is that of a
divine enduement added to human weakness, an imparting of agility and confidence to the
soul, whereby it springs up, so to speak, out of the dangers which assail it on the lower
levels of life, and climbs lightly and surely to the uplands of the spirit. Some years ago
I read the story of an Englishman who visited the West of our
It is obvious that king David
had witnessed some scene of this kind long millenniums ago in the
The Shulamite in the Song of
Solomon received a revelation of this same sublime truth. The Shulamite symbolizes the
bride of Christ, whereas her Beloved represents Christ the bridegroom. There is, of
course, a corporate application of this truth, but on the personal level the Shulamite is
the soul and her Beloved is the spirit, for "He that is joined unto the Lord is one
spirit." Christ the bridegroom is therefore within our spirit, wooing the soul into
union with Him. The soul is that realm of our own mind, will, emotion and desire. The
sharp contrast between our own human strength and ability and His divine life and power is
described by the Shulamite in these graphic words: "The voice of my Beloved! behold
He cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills" (S. of S. 2:8).
Between the seven and eighth verses of chapter two, the Bridegroom has withdrawn. We are
not told whether He withdrew Himself, or whether His withdrawal was caused by the
carelessness and indifference of the bride. There are times when He withdraws or hides
Himself that He may prod us into deeper depths of earnestness and abandonment as expressed
in the old proverb, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." And there are times
when we do not keep in touch with Him and are not quiet enough before Him, so that He can
remain and unveil to us all His love and power. But now the bride hears the sound of His
approaching presence; and before she sees Him, she rejoices in His return. As yet she has
not seen Him, has not discerned His working within her, but she has heard His voice, and
knows that He is coming. Suddenly she sees Him leaping upon the mountains; those
impassable obstacles, which would prove insurmountable to any one else, are stepping
places for His feet. He leaps from one to the other with the sure, swift feet of the roe
or the young hart.
In the title of the 22nd
Psalm, a Messianic Psalm, the meaning of Aijeleth hash-Shahar is, "The hind of the
morning." Thus the title reads, "To the chief Musician—the Hind of the
morning." And the word translated "hind," and the word that is rendered
"hart," in the Song of Solomon, is the same word in the Hebrew. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is the "Hind of the morning" and the "Chief Musician." As the
first rays of the sun in a clear morning glance here and there upon this mountain peak and
the crest of yonder hill, so Jesus Christ, the "Hind of the morning," came down
to earth, leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. How beautiful are the
first rays of the sun in the early morning, as its beams touch first this and then that
mountain peak. In the valleys, the shades of night seem to linger; and in contrast to
these dark shadows, the touches of the sunlight appear all the more beautiful as they
glance from hill to hill. So is the life of our Beloved in our spirit, as He arises within
our consciousness to bring victory from within. He leaps over every obstacle, He disperses
every shadow; He appears and disappears, now in sight and then not seen, but ever drawing
nearer and nearer in our experience. Sometimes we see the difficulties in our lives and
the hard things that seem impossible, we wonder if He can surmount them; for we know that
we cannot. But He who could surmount the mountains of man’s sin and separation within
Himself, and the power of death and the grave, can surmount every mountain and hill that
is in your life and mine. At first, we only look for Him in the joy and blessings; but He
comes much oftener and more precisely as He leaps upon the mountains of difficulty. There
are things so hard that none could undertake them but the Lord; but He will make these
things stepping-places for His feet, and upon them He will reveal Himself to you in a
deeper way then He has ever done before. He will come to you upon the things that are so
hard you do not see how you are going to go through them; and you will wonder if even the
Lord can lift you over them. He will come to you in the hard things in your life, in your
disposition, in your weaknesses, in the testings in your body. He will come to you in the
hardest surroundings and circumstances. And He will come leaping and skipping! He will
leap over all the mountains of limitation and difficulty and skip along the hills of your
fears and distress; and if your eyes are anointed, you will see Him revealing Himself in
the power of a life that is irresistible and unconquerable, immortal and incorruptible.
The Shulamite speaks of Him
coming leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills, and how our glad hearts
rejoice and our mouths pour forth their pearls of praise in the sacred knowledge of the
very first words uttered by the Beloved, wherein He cries to her, "Rise up my love,
My fair one, and COME AWAY!" (S. of S. 2:10). Ah, He will leap over the sin and
weakness in you, He will skip over the corruption and death in you, and speak urgently to
you and cause you to arise and come away with Him to leap and skip with Him in the
immortal heights of the eternal mountains of God. Methinks you have heard the sound of His
Voice, methinks you have been stirred in the deepeth depths of your being—arise, O
beloved one, and ascend up into the heights of His victory and glory!
Chapter
32
AQUARIUS—THE
WATER POURER
(continued)
Did you ever look up
at night time and just gaze at the stars? I
do; I am always enthralled by what I see. It
was the Psalmist and King of
The Zodiac (Signs of the heavens) is the earliest
revelation to mankind from his Creator. Each
of the twelve Signs pictorially represents an aspect of the progressive unfolding of the
dealings, plan and purpose of God in the grand
scheme of creation and redemption. Each Sign
portrays a dimension of SPIRITUAL REALTY wrought out, first of all, in the life of our
blessed Forerunner and Head, Jesus Christ; and secondly in the life of each individual
member of His body, the sons and daughters of God. The
stars are distant lights. They shine in other
spheres. There is no doubt that vast numbers
of these stars are “suns” like unto our own, the centers of great solar systems,
with heavenly bodies that revolve around them, perhaps populated by beings of which we
know nothing at this present time. Thus will
it be in the Kingdom of the Son, in the spiritual heavens of God's universal and eternal
dominion. Each son of God will be a star, a
sun, shining forth in living and everlasting luster. Each
member of the elect will faithfully radiate his beams of life and light and love, shining
in those spheres which the omniscient Father shall allot to them. Thus each shall become the central star of a
spiritual solar system composed of myriads of creatures in God's glorious creation which
revolve around them, unto whom they shine as the revelation of God's nature, glory, and
power. These are the emanations of God Himself
in whom the scripture is fulfilled: "Then
shall the righteous SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the Kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Mat.
13:43). And again, “They that be wise
shall SHINE AS THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE FIRMAMENT; and they that turn many to righteousness
AS THE STARS FOR EVER AND EVER" (Dan. 12:3). What
glorious and ineffable prospects lie before us!
From the time when the morning stars sang together
and the sons of God first shouted for joy, this universe, this eternal spiritual universe,
this higher-than-the-heavens universe, this
THE SIGN OF AQUARIUS
In our series of messages on the Zodiac we come now
to the subject of AQUARIUS — THE WATER POURER. If
you have a sky chart you will notice that the Sign of Aquarius is the figure of a mighty
man holding a great urn upon his shoulder, from which comes a seemingly inexhaustible
stream of water flowing downwards until finally it flows directly into the mouth of a
great fish (Piscis Australis—the Southern Fish), which receives it and swallows it
all. In the right shoulder of the Waterman is
the star called SADELMELIK, which means The Record of the Pouring Out. The other shoulder bears the star SADALSUUD meaning
He Who Pours Out. You have no doubt heard the
song, "It is The Age Of Aquarius." What
does that mean? Just as the stars have moved
through the procession of the equinoxes, so we have moved in time and world history from
one mansion of the Zodiac to another. Interestingly,
about the time that Christ Jesus came into the world, we moved into the Sign of Pisces,
which is the Sign of the Fish and a symbol of the people of God. That Sign has lasted for approximately two thousand
years after which we are, even now, moving into the Sign of Aquarius, meaning a time of
FULLNESS. There is no doubt whatsoever that
the old age is ending and another more glorious age is dawning. The sacred knowledge of this fact burns brightly
within the hearts of all Christians on all levels of spiritual development. The prophets of our generation have proclaimed it,
and the constellations of the heavens declare it!
Aquarius means something far more than what the
astrologers and others today think it means. As
we have seen, Aquarius is the one who pours out the water upon Piscis Australis, the
Southern Fish. Water, of course, is a great
symbol of the Holy Spirit which God promised to pour out upon His people and the earth. It is a glorious symbol of life and one of the
happiest in all of the world. Next to light,
it is God's brightest element. Where waters
come they bring gladness and rejuvenation, luxuriousness and plenty. Where they pour forth, sinking strength recovers,
dying life rekindles, perishing nature revives, a thousand delights are awakened, and
everything rejoices and sings with new-begotten vitality.
In Aquarius that water is being poured out upon the figure of a fish. In the Sign Capricornus the dying goat is seen
giving life to a fish emerging from its latter half. As
Christ was the great sin-offering and through His death the Church or the fish was brought
into life, we now see that fish sustained in life by the risen Christ, again in Aquarius,
the Water-Bearer who is now pouring out the water of His Holy Spirit upon the living fish. This is a great picture of the outpouring of the
fullness of the Spirit upon the sons and the daughters of God. The Lord Jesus said, "Whosever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (Jn. 4:14). Again and again the scriptures testify of this
mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit into and out from the people of God. Through Isaiah He declares: "For I will POUR
WATER upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will POUR OUT MY SPIRIT upon thy seed, and My
blessing upon thy offspring: and they shall
spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses" (Isa. 44:3-4). David prophesied in spirit of the coming of the
Messiah and described His coming in these words: "HE shall come down like RAIN upon
the mown grass: as SHOWERS that water the
earth. In His days shall the righteous
flourish" (Ps. 72:6-7). Joel prophesied: "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I
will POUR OUT MY SPIRIT upon all flesh and also upon the servants and upon the handmaidens
in those days will I POUR OUT MY SPIRIT" (Joel 2:28-29). That our Lord is coming in a great spiritual
outpouring of Himself is made plain in Hos. 6:3: "Then
shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His
going forth is prepared as the morning; and HE SHALL COME UNTO US AS THE RAIN, as the
former and latter rain unto the earth." Hallelujah!
There is a most remarkable incident which took place
in relation to the glory cloud when the children of
THE WATER-POURER
The above story has not been understood because
multitudes of the Lord's people equate "baptism" only with immersion, or one
being dipped into or put under water. They
claim that in every case of scriptural baptism the person or thing baptized is moved or
put into or under the baptizing element. The
truth is, however, that in the vast majority of cases in scripture, if not in every case,
the baptizing element or instrumentality is moved and put upon the person or thing
baptized. Contrary to the teaching of many,
and contrary even to certain scholars, "baptize" does not mean to
"dip." Ultimately it is usage that
determines the meaning of words in any language. In
classic Greek the word baptizo is never used in the modern evangelical sense of putting a
body into water and then immediately withdrawing it. It
cannot be denied by those who know and love the truth that the Sign of Aquarius tells us
far more about the true "baptism in the Spirit" than all the modern-day
preachers have ever learned from the Word of God!
Now, what saith the Lord as to the mode of this real
Spirit baptism, and this symbolical water baptism? Open
your Bible and look into this matter very carefully, with humility and reverence, and you
will find that never once is the person represented as being "dipped,"
"plunged" or "immersed" into the baptizing element or agency, but
uniformly the baptizing element or agency is "poured out," or in some way comes
upon the person baptized. The apostles were
baptized with the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:5; 2:1-4), and the Spirit was "poured out"
on them (Acts 2:16-33); they were baptized
with fire (Mt. 3:7), and a tongue of fire come down from heaven and "sat upon each of
them" (Acts 2:2-3). The children of
In Heb. 3:10, the inspired writer, speaking of the
Old Testament rituals, ceremonies and ordinances, says, "Which stood only in meals
and drinks, and divers washings imposed on them until the time of reformation." The word translated "washings" refers to
the ceremonial purifications under the law and is from the Greek word BAPTISMOIS, that is,
baptisms. Can we ascertain the mode of these
baptisms? Yes, with infallible certainty. In the very same chapter the apostle refers to the
mode of these ceremonial purifications no less than three times and declares that it was
by sprinkling. "For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh. How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:13). "For when Moses had spoken every precept to
all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water,
and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people.... moreover
he sprinkled.... both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry" (Heb.
9:19-21). In Num. 19:17-18 we read of a
ceremonial purification, or "baptism," and we read: "A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it
in the water and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels and upon the
persons." In Lev. 14:5-7 we read how a
leper was to be cleansed: "And he shall
sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from
the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean." A leprous house was to be cleansed in the same
manner, by sprinkling (Lev. 14:50-52). And so
in the case of other ceremonial baptisms there is no case on record in which an Israelite
administered any of the ceremonial baptisms by putting the person or thing under water. Not one! In
every case the baptism or cleansing was by sprinkling or pouring out water. When the whole Israelitish nation entered into
covenant with God at Sinai, Moses "sprinkled all the people" (Ex. 24:8; Heb
9:19). On the great day of atonement the High
Priest entered the Most Holy Place, and sprinkled the Ark of the Covenant (Lev. 4:17; Heb
9:25). When the destroying angel passed over
It is not my purpose in this writing to provoke a
debate concerning the mode of water baptism. What
you may or may not believe about external rituals, outward ceremonies, and natural
ordinances is, in my opinion, but a paltry side issue of no spiritual significance and no
eternal import. All natural things are but
types and shadows to our understanding of spiritual things.
Properly understood they open the door of understanding to the sacred
secrets of God. All natural things have their
spiritual counterparts, but I have absolutely no interest at all in seeking to establish
or promote any external ritual, outward ceremony or carnal ordinance, for I declare to you
that in this day, for those who have left the Outer Court and the Holy Place to find an
entrance into the glory of the Holiest of all, the shadows have all passed away and
reality has dawned within our hearts. Turn! oh sons and daughters of the Most High, from all
these religious vanities, for the true light now shineth and the physical ceremonies
having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never
with water, or formulas, or bread, or wine, or hands, or fleshly ministrations make the
recipients thereof perfect. Depart from the
carnal realm of empty and lifeless forms and flee away to the celestial heights in the
As Aquarius pours his water out from his urn, so the
heavens pour down water upon the earth. When a
cloud becomes so heavy with droplets that it can no longer hold them, it spills over, and
we have rain. O Lord my God, thou art very great. . . who layeth the
beams of His chambers in the waters: who
maketh the CLOUD HIS CHARIOT: HE WATERETH the
hills FROM HIS CHAMBERS" (Ps.104:3, 13). The
clouds are the chambers of God containing the water of life.
A cloud is full of water and water speaks to us of life. Water typifies the Word of God and the Spirit of
God (Eph 5:26; Jn. 7:37-38). A cloud speaks to
us of a vessel, as an urn, which contains water or contains life. Even so, God by His Spirit gives living water to
refresh and impart life unto His creation. It
is the nature of a cloud to empty itself. "If
the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth" (Eccl. ll:3). When the cloud gets filled up, it rains. That is
the nature of the clouds — rain pours out. All
that God is was emptied into Jesus Christ. All
that God is was poured into Him, He became a receptacle, a vehicle for all the fullness of
God (Col. 1:19; 2:9). He was filled up with
the life-giving properties of God. Now, all
that Jesus Christ is, is being emptied into His body until we are filled with all the
fullness of God—having all the life-giving properties of God. HE IS FILLING THE CLOUDS! The nature of each son will be to pour out that
life just as God poured it into Jesus and Jesus poured it into us. If the saints be full of God they will pour Him out
upon the earthy-natured, unspiritual ones. A
true ministry has life to give, and is willing to empty himself in order to be a blessing
to a dry and thirsty people. Pour out His life
for others—that's what Jesus did! We must
empty out that same life on a groaning creation and break the bondage. The whole creation is awaiting this son company of
people who will be the clouds of glory, the strong man of Aquarius with the water jar. Their life giving waters will be emptied upon
a dry and cursed earth just as the waters were first emptied upon them—creation
itself will be released into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.
I mentioned that water is the symbol for both the
Word and the Spirit (Eph 5:26; Jn. 7:37-39). The
mystery of God is not far off in heaven somewhere. GOD
IS THE WORD AND THE WORD IS GOD. Furthermore,
THE WORD IS THE SPIRIT AND THE SPIRIT IS THE WORD. "The
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life" (Jn 6.63). Words are the most powerful thing in creation. All visible things were created by God's Word.
"And God said, let there be. . . " (Gen.
1:3). “In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All
things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made"
(Jn.1:1,3). Let all men know that creation was
not brought forth merely by the spoken word. The
power of God's Word lies not in the act of speaking, but in the fact that it is a LIVING
WORD. "For the Word of God is living and powerful"
(Heb. 4:12). The Word is living
because it is energized by the Spirit. "It is the spirit that quickeneth (makes
alive).. the words that I speak unto you, they
are spirit, and they are life." The
creation was not formed by the spoken word,
but by the Living Word. "And the Spirit
of God moved . . . and God said." The
Word spoken emanated out of the Spirit—it
was the Living Word. The scriptures state that
we are born again by the Spirit and we are born again by the Word. Does that mean that we are born again twice, or on
two levels? Not at all! It indicates that the Spirit and the Word are SO ONE that the Word is a LIVING
WORD. The Spirit and the Word united are the
Living Word. We are not born again by the
spoken word—we are born again by the Word which is energized by the Spirit, the
Spirit and the Word in union—the LIVING WORD. "Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth forever" (I Pet. 1:23). The
spoken word is not Christ, and the scriptures are not the Living Word. The people of
There are many wonderful truths to embrace, endless
revelations to inspire and thrill the heart of man, but you will never be gripped in your
spirit by any more inspiring and encouraging than that penned long centuries ago by the
prophet Isaiah. "For My thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and
bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall My Word be that
goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto ME void, but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isa.
55:8-11). Now, to what is God comparing His
Word! To the rain and snow that fall upon the
earth to water it, to give life and increase. God
is saying that is just exactly what HIS WORD is sent to do.
God's Word! God's Word coming
down from heaven! God's Word is not letters of
the alphabet. God's Word is the EMANATION OF
HIMSELF. God's Word will come down in power
from His high road, falling upon this lower road of the flesh realm. God's Word, or the Lord Jesus Christ, the Logos,
the Living Word of God, will come as the former and latter rain unto His earth, or His
people. He shall come upon those who are
walking this lower road of the flesh. He will
come upon our earth, and He will cause to spring up in our earth the seed of life that He
has planted there. We are in the way or road
of flesh, but down from that realm of SPIRIT, from God's way, God's state of being, He is
pouring forth HIS VERY SELF upon humanity. God
declared that His Word should not return unto Him void.
Just as the rain and snow accomplish their purpose in the earth with
unfailing certainty, so shall God's Word, His emanation, His anointing, His Christ not
return unto Him void, but it SHALL ACCOMPLISH HIS PURPOSE.
There is a people in the earth in this hour that is letting that LIVING WORD
rain down from above, and the New Creation is formed in them. And, sadly, there are those who are trusting in the
"magic" within the written word or the spoken word, but are not touching the
Living Word, and they shall die as men in spite of all their "deep sayings.”
I hear a voice which we know well, speaking from the
well of Sychar, and saying, "The water that I shall give thee shall be in thee,
springing up unto everlasting life." It
is the life of God in the Living Word; it is Christ Himself; and He has come to be in us,
like a perennial spring, unstanched in drought, unfrozen in frost, leaping up, in fresh
and invigorating beauty, like the cold refreshing spring that flows deliciously out of the
earth into the desert heat. This is the
picture presented to us by Aquarius, the Water-Bearer.
It is the picture of a supply from a source so high, so abundant and
unceasing, that it denotes FULLNESS. Our
experience has been well expressed in the words of Paul, "for we know in part, and we
prophesy in part... " (I Cor. 13:9). Throughout
the past two thousand years of the age of Pisces, the age of the Fish, God has formed and
fashioned His body, but it has been a thirsty fish.
How we desire HIS FULLNESS! Yet
we also praise God for those "times of refreshing that come from the presence of the
Lord" (Acts 3:19). If it is a long time
between "showers," we get very dry. How
we need that water that becomes an eternal and unfailing fountain within that springs up
unto eternal life! That vital, essential work
of imperative need is WITHIN—conforming us into His image, imparting to us His mind,
developing His character, enriching us with the very nature of His peace, righteousness,
joy and strength—then the more we shall become " a spring whose waters fail
not."
I am saying all these things because I know that
millions of believers have contentedly settled for the showers of blessings, knowing not
that this state lies far beneath the provision of God for His people. Truly, "Ye were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance. . ." (Eph. 1:13-14). God's people are yet lacking in understanding. The Holy Spirit, Paul says, is the earnest of our
inheritance in Christ. The Greek word
translated "earnest" (ARRABON) means merely a pledge or first installment, a
down payment, money deposited by a purchaser to guarantee that he will pay for an item in
full when it is delivered. The balance must
follow. The fullness is guaranteed by the
earnest. In modern Greek the word is used for
an engagement ring, the idea being that he who gives a girl such a ring will complete his
agreement to marry her— the wedding band will surely follow! When this word is used in scripture it speaks of
the gift of the Holy Spirit as God's "earnest" or "engagement ring." In other words, the seal of the indwelling Holy
Spirit is therefore an earnest or advance pledge from God Himself that those who are
apprehended and receive THE PROMISE will one day receive their inheritance IN FULL. The spirit-filled believer anticipates the fullness
of God on the basis of this humble beginning. The
"firstfruits" of the Spirit is at once a possession, a rich, blessed, and
unquestionable reality, an initial endowment. As
an initial gift, it stands in direct line to the expectation. The very fact of its reality is "the guarantee
of our full inheritance." “Who hath
sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (II Cor. 1:22). This scripture tells us that a down payment has
been made to us by God. When we put something
in layaway at a store, we have to put down a certain percentage of money on the purchase. That money is the same thing as an earnest. Partial payment is given in anticipation of the
complete fulfillment of the transaction. We
have earnest expectations or foretastes of the Kingdom as we see it now within us on its
very smallest scale.
Let us illustrate another way. In eastern lands it ever has been, and is,
customary for there to be an intermediary in arranging a marriage. The Bible picture of this is in Genesis 24, where
Abraham's servant Eliezer, goes on a long journey to find a wife for Isaac. He takes with him a good report of his master's
son, and tells how that his father has made him heir of all his vast possessions, and he
then shows the damsel and her friends samples of this wealth in camels and jewelry, and
gives them some of the latter. Thus allured,
Rebecca left her known circle and took a long, desert journey to become Isaac's wife,
though she had never seen him. Thus did Paul
the apostle speak to the saints: "I have espoused you to one husband, that I might
present you as a pure virgin to Christ" (II Cor. 11:2).
Fulfilling the role of Abraham's servant, Eliezer, the apostle bestowed upon
those who heeded his words a FORETASTE of the vast and unmeasurable wealth of the Kingdom
of God, by imparting to them the gift and gifts of the Holy Spirit with its attending
love, joy, peace, righteousness and power in
the measure known by our present experience. How
bountifully the table has been spread before us with His presence and divers gifts of the
Holy Ghost! How rich and wonderful, beyond
explanation, has been the blessing and glory so lavishly bestowed! And yet, precious friend of mine, all that we have
received to this present time is but the "earnest" of the full inheritance which
will be received when we have sufficiently matured to be entrusted with the balance of our
inheritance—ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD! The
earnest pertains to the age of Pisces—the church age. The fullness belongs to the age
of Aquarius—the Kingdom age. And, bless
your hearts, dear ones—THIS IS THE DAWNING OF THE AGE OF AQUARIUS!
Oh, what a grand and glorious realm lies before us
in this expectation of the FULL INHERITANCE! The
day of the full fruit of the Spirit! The day
of Perfection! The hour of full and complete
Redemption, spirit, soul, and body! The full and complete experiencing of HIMSELF! The fullness of Strength, Wisdom, Power and Glory! The Feast of Feasts!
The strange part of the whole thing is this, that the whole purpose and plan
of God for this day and hour is completely obscured and lost amidst the shout and euphoria
over the "earnest," the
"firstfruits," the "down payment," and most of the Lord's people have
no idea or conception of what the full inheritance is all about. If they have any thought at all it is the foolish
notion that the full inheritance is a mansion over the hilltop, or a cabin in the corner
of gloryland. They can see the healings,
deliverances, miracles, prophecies, worship, etc., and they understand not that it is God
in His great mercy inviting His people to
enter on in to their full inheritance. They do
not realize that all this is not the end—it is merely the foretaste, the earnest of
their inheritance, and that God bids them after sampling of His glory to arise and come
away with Him to the Great Wedding Feast that lies before!
Completeness, perfection and fullness, however much
desired, are not obtainable through an "in part" possession. Once we understand this one important principle, it
becomes clear that we cannot reach the fullness in one grand leap. It would be like giving a farmer a pound of seed
and a bag of fertilizer and then expect him to raise enough food in one short season to
satisfy the starving millions of
I want to take you back to that scene which
transpired twenty centuries ago on the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Let me briefly describe for you how that "last
great day" was conducted. Early, early on
the morning of that day a million people and more, who had been dwelling in tents and
booths all around
Just at that moment a young Man, humble, an untitled
Rabbi, unexpectedly stood forth before the multitude.
Stepping forward He took the place, doubtless, of the High Priest. Standing there beside the Sacred Altar, He lifted up His hands to the
multitudes on Mount Moriah, Mount Zion, and Mount Olivet, and cried with a Voice that
echoed and re-echoed down the Valley of Hinnom: "IF ANY MAN THIRST, LET HIM COME UNTO
ME AND DRINK. HE THAT BELIEVETH ON ME, AS THE SCRIPTURE HATH
SAID, OUT OF HIS BELLY SHALL FLOW RIVERS OF LIVING WATER!” What a hush fell upon the people! What a wonder that any man should be so daring as
to step forward and take the High Priest's place and declare that He Himself was the
Sacred Fountain opened in Judah for sin and all uncleanness!
There is a thirst in the heart of every man for the Fountains of Living
Water. The
vast majority of mankind has mistaken the thirst they have for Living
Water to be a thirst for some temporal thing. Vainly
they imagine that their thirst can be quenched by partaking of the stagnant waters of
earth's cisterns. Like lost sheep they wander through the wilderness of
life seeking satisfaction and finding none. Place
after place they roam in their pitiful search
for the Fountain that satisfies, but find it they never can until at last they come to the
Living Christ. “If any man thirst,”
says Christ, “let him come unto Me and drink!”
He becomes all in all to every
searching heart. When
Jesus comes, the thirsty soul finds the Fountain of Living Waters. There his thirst is slaked forever. Henceforth the River is in him, a literal Niagara
of Living Water springing up unto eternal life. "The
With reverent heart and bowed head I now direct you
to the wonderful truth that it was on this Last Great Day of the Feast of Tabernacles, at
the ceremony known as "The Pouring Out of the Water," that Jesus stood and
cried, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me. . . out of his belly shall
now Rivers of Living Water." This He
spake of the Spirit which they should receive. The
time would come when men would no longer draw their experience from wells of Divine
provision, but an artesian fountain of Living Water would rise up in the soul, and flow
forth unto humanity in mighty
Let men now cast aside their pride of attainment. Pentecost is not the fullness. Pentecostal people love to call themselves "Full Gospel." There are people right here in
God gave Ezekiel a prophetic vision of the glory of
the Lord to be revealed at the end of the age. This
vision revealed what the body of Christ would become as the Church age ends and the
glorious age of the Kingdom comes in. It is so
mighty, so overwhelming in scope, that at the time Ezekiel could neither comprehend it nor
explain its meaning. In fact half way in to
this prophetic vision the Lord stops, turns to Ezekiel, and asks, "Have you seen
this?” (Eze. 47:6). It is as though the
Lord is saying to him, "Do you comprehend the magnitude of what you see? Are you able to grasp the prophetic power of this
vision? Do you yet see what the rising of the
waters speaks of—how it is going to end? Do
you see His glory coming, and the immensity of it? It
is so awesome, so mind-boggling that I don't want you to miss the true significance of
this revelation!" The Holy Spirit was
shown to him as a small stream which periodically increased and continued to rise until it
became a mighty river. In this vision the
prophet was conducted along the river by the angel of the Lord—in the form of a man. Hear now the beautiful description of the
What is the meaning of Ezekiel’s vision? What is this rising river which flows from the
I would draw your reverent attention to the source
of this river and how it increases as it flows. It
begins at the altar in the Sanctuary of the
In like manner, the glorious
I have shown that the
As the River flows out under the threshold of the
door, it isn't a very great flow to begin with, just a little trickle, though it comes
from a mighty depth within. There was a man
there with a measuring rod to measure this outflow of life and he measured out a thousand
cubits and brought Ezekiel through the waters. They
had increased but it still was not a great River, just ankle deep. He measured another thousand cubits and the waters
were knee deep; they had increased more. Again
he measured a thousand cubits and the waters were to the loins, up to the waist. "Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was
a river that I could not pass over; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river
that could not be passed over." Each
measure was a thousand cubits. ONE THOUSAND is
the number of the
Saints, Ezekiel was walking into the future—right
into our time! It is my deep conviction, and I
believe that I have the Spirit of God, that today we live in the last one thousand cubits
of this vision, the very last measurement of water! Ezekiel
stepped to the edge of it but it was too deep for him, too overwhelming! He said, "I could not pass over: for the
waters were risen, waters to swim in." In
essence he was saying, "This is over my head!"
Can't you imagine the prophet's wonder, as he said to the Lord, "What
is this sea that has risen? If this River is
all about life and resurrection, who are the ones who will be so blessed that they can
swim in such power and glory?" What
Ezekiel is being shown is that the body of Jesus Christ, the sons of God, in the very last
days will be more glorious, more victorious, than at any time in the history of the world. The church age will end in a blaze of power and
glory, birthing sons of the Kingdom in the fullest revelation of Jesus Christ man has ever
known! "The fish of the sea shall be
exceeding many" (Eze. 47:10). Coming
forth is a people who will be swimming in the rising waters of the Lord's power and life! Life and immortality shall be revealed in power
over sin and death, and it shall come to pass that "everything that liveth, which
moveth, withersoever the rivers shall come, shall live!"
As God has moved by His Spirit in these latter days
there has been a tendency to look back to the early church and apostles as if those
ancient believers had a better revelation and a superior manifestation of what the body of
Christ should be! Many have emphasized the
recapturing or imitating of their ministry and methods.
Men have sought to "restore" the order of the five-fold ministry
and to reestablish the so-called divine order of the early church. Let me remind all those who yet cling to the notion
that the five-fold ministry will somehow bring the saints to the measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ and bring in the Kingdom—the early church had the five-fold
ministry and they BROUGHT IN BABYLON THE GREAT AND THE DARK AGES! Make no mistake about it—the Lord does not
want us to go back to the early church! He has
planned something much better for this generation! Why
go back to a trickle of water when you can have "waters to swim in?” Are you grasping this yet? If this river of living water is the Spirit and the
Word, then the early church — with all its glory and
manifestation—was just the beginning trickle of the flow out of the
house!
What glorious prospects lie before us! Very near the Temple is the desert and the Dead Sea
— the rough, jagged hills on which nothing grows and over which men stumble, and the
sea in whose waters no fish swims, and on whose surface no ship floats. Round about the City of
One cannot begin to tell the blessings to be
revealed, the glory to be seen throughout the earth, the release to be ministered to
creation, as Aquarius, the Water-Pourer, pours forth the eternal stream of the River of
Life unto all the fish in the sea in this, God's NEW DAY.
I speak as a prophetic voice in the earth in this generation. The manifestation of glory and power and
righteousness which will be manifested within our generation will eclipse all former
moves. Who can carry on with the programs of
man anymore, who can wade in the shallows of the trickle of former visitations once they
have received the vision of what shall be realized as God's people launch out into the
deep. The last or most recent "shower of
blessing" came during the great Latter Rain outpouring during the years 1948-1953. The effect and blessing of that outpouring is with
us still. But the celestial deluge is yet to
fall in GREAT POWER AND GLORY. Glorious beyond
words to describe was that wonderful outpouring of God's glory at Pentecost, but no
language of men below nor of mighty angels above can begin to describe the SURPASSING
GLORY of the outpouring in these last days. The
"waters to swim in" are coming, the manifestation of the fullness of the spirit
and life of the almighty Christ of God, and compared to these waters the former
outpourings were flickering candles before the burning brilliance of the noonday sun, or
trickling streams compared to the vast ocean currents beyond the power of man to either
produce or control. Hear me now and believe me
later — if you cannot believe me now — soon, very soon, there will come the
manifestation of the sons of God, for which all creation has groaned for long millenniums
and ages. Then the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed from the living, completed temple of His body.
His glory shall flow out and fill the earth.
His power shall shake the nations and all nations shall come and worship
before Him. The harvest of this age shall be
gathered. Everything shall live, whithersoever
the River cometh. As on the Dead Sea, where
once reigned silence, are now boats and fish and nets and fishermen, when its waters are
touched by the Waters of the River, so the church and the world shall be transformed, and
this old earth of ours shall become the Paradise of God.
I tell you the truth. I lie not. The day is at hand!
Rejoice and arise, oh ye sons of the Most High! The glorious dawn is now painting the eastern sky,
and the
Chapter
33
AQUARIUS
— THE WATER POURER
(continued)
The Sign of Aquarius is the
figure of a mighty man holding a great urn upon his shoulder, from which comes a seemingly
inexhaustible stream of water flowing downwards until finally it flows directly into the
mouth of a great fish, which receives it and swallows it all. Water, of course, is a great
symbol of the Holy Spirit which God promised to pour out upon His people and the earth. It
is also the symbol of the Word of God — Divine Truth and Reality. Christ is both the
Spirit and the Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God" (Jn. 1:1). "Now the Lord is that Spirit" (II Cor. 3:17).
All that God is was emptied into Jesus Christ, He became a receptacle, a vehicle for all
the fullness of God. Now, all that Christ is, is being emptied into His body until we are
filled with all the fullness of God — having all the life giving properties of God.
The nature of each son of God is to pour out the living water of the Spirit and the pure,
living Word of God just as God poured it into Jesus and Jesus poured it into us. Pour out
His life for others — that's what Jesus did! We must empty out that same life on a
groaning creation and break the bondage. The whole creation is awaiting this son company
of people who will be the strong man of Aquarius with the water jar. Their life-giving
waters will be emptied upon a dry and cursed earth just as the waters were first emptied
upon them — creation itself will be released into the liberty of the glory of the
sons of God.
THE SOUTHERN FISH
We come now to the three
Decans, or minor constellations, which surround Aquarius and which enhance or fill up the
message of the Sign. The first constellation is a fish with a wide-open mouth into which
flows the water from the huge urn which Aquarius holds. It's name is PISCIS AUSTRALIS,
meaning The Southern Fish. This constellation is marked by a single bright star,
FOMALHAUT, which means The Mouth of the Fish. The fish receives and drinks the water from
the unlimited and unceasing supply of the waterman. It is the picture of the believing
acceptance of the Living Spirit of Truth that Christ bestows upon all who come unto Him to
drink. "If any man thirst, let Him come unto Me, and drink!"
In a previous Study I shared
the great truth of the Law of Giving and Receiving which is the very law of creation and
redemption. I showed that God in His eternal and immutable nature is love — all
goodness. When we understand that God is love, we can then go on to discover the attribute
through which we become aware of His existence — HIS DESIRE TO SHARE. This desire to
share is the consequence, the effect of His goodness. A God of love without creation is
unthinkable — impossible. Here we have the first principle of creation — God's
infinite desire to impart led to the creation of a vessel to receive His blessings. The
Creator's nature is love — sharing or imparting; however, there can be no sharing
unless there is some object that can receive. So God's infinite desire to impart implies a
desire to fulfill every possible dimension and quality of desires to receive. Can we not
see by this that God's infinite desire to give demands AN AGENT WITH THE DESIRE TO
RECEIVE! The very nature of God requires CREATION! So the first step in creation was to
bring forth the manifestation of the DESIRE TO RECEIVE! The creation of this vessel with
the desire to receive was the beginning and the end of creation. He therefore created the
universe with all the hosts thereof, and this world with its inhabitants. Thus the Creator
could now bestow upon the creation His infinite love and inexhaustible abundance. God is
the Lover, creation the beloved! "For God so loved the world..." That is the
first fundamental revelation of the law of God in creation — God gives and we
receive.
There naturally follows the
second stage in which we learn the great truth that God only makes us Receivers in order
that we may become Givers! Ah, first He must create in us the desire to receive; second,
He must involve us in the grand purpose of the receiving — to mature us into His
image until we have thoroughly learned the great law of His Being, of His Kingdom —
it is MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE! This leads directly into the light of the
truth set forth in the Sign of Aquarius and the constellation of The Southern Fish —
Aquarius is THE GIVER; The Southern Fish is THE RECEIVER. From time to time and stage to
stage the roles of Giver and Receiver change as the Receivers become Givers. But the Sign
points to one thing — that God Himself has flowed out and is still flowing on this
earth into humanity AS LIFE. We may ask, in what form has God flowed out? He has flowed
out first in His Son, in Jesus Christ; and then He has flowed out as the Holy Spirit. Let
us see God's order: God Himself is the spring, the very source of the water of life; Jesus
Christ, the first-born Son, is the fountain, the reservoir of this divine water; and the
Holy Spirit, flowing through the body of Christ, the corporate son, is the living stream,
the river flowing all the time. On the one hand, the Lord Jesus Christ receives from God,
we receive from the Lord Jesus Christ, and creation receives from the sons of God. On the
other hand, God gives to Christ, Christ gives to us, and we give to creation. In each step
Aquarius depicts the Giver, while The Southern Fish portrays the Receiver. This is God's
divine order in the
PEGASUS
The second constellation in
the Sign of Aquarius is PEGASUS — The Winged Horse. Here is the picture of a great
horse galloping forward with full speed, with great wings spreading from his shoulders.
The familiar figure of the flying horse moving swiftly has been made popular as the
trademark of a well-known brand of petroleum products. A winged horse, however, is unknown
to nature. It must therefore be understood as a figure. The meaning of this symbol is
declared by the names of the stars in the constellation. There are 89 altogether. The
brightest comes down to us with the ancient Hebrew name of MARKAB, which means returning
from afar. Another bright star is called SCHEAT meaning who goeth and returneth; ENIF, the
branch; AL GENIB, who carries; HOMAN, the water; MATAR, who causeth the plenteous
overflow. Putting these thoughts together, we see Pegasus as One who returns from afar; He
is the branch who carries the water, causing a plenteous overflow! In the first chapter of
Zechariah the appearance of such horses are the symbols of those whom "God hath sent
to walk to and fro through the earth," not merely to see and report the condition of
affairs, but to shake and disturb nations, in order to bring deliverance and establish
peace, righteousness and blessing upon all.
Pegasus was known to the
Greeks as "the horse of the gushing fountain." He was a celestial horse, ever
associated with glad song. Pegasus is winged; he moves with heavenly speed. On great wings
he rides the winds. He is master of the air, god-like in his power. Pegasus is a prophetic
revelation of the glorious coming of HIM who pours out the living water. In the religious
systems of
Notice, His "goings
forth." The plural is used. The goings forth of the Lord speak about the Lord Jesus
Christ! Now, the idea of "goings" has to do with the onward marching of God
— the unfolding of the purpose of God, step by step. This is what is indicated here.
This is what history is all about, the progressive revelation of Jesus Christ, the
marching forward of God, the ever increasing unveiling of Himself to man. The unfolding of
end-time events and God's order for the ages to come, which are the main contents of the
last book of the Bible, are called THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST.
The average Christian's
conception is of Jesus sitting upon the right hand of God for a couple thousand years, at
the end of which time He leaves His throne to "come in the clouds of heaven. "
NOT SO! "HEREAFTER you will see the Son man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven" (Mat. 26:64). So runs the King James version,
translating a Greek phrase which signifies unequivocally "from now on" --or
literally, HENCEFORTH. But it is safe to say that the average reader, reading from the
Authorized version, generally understands it to mean something very different - not
"HENCEFORTH shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven," but "in the hereafter," "at some
point in the indefinite future," you will see the Son of man "sitting" and
then "coming." The correct thought is, "HENCEFORTH — FROM N-O-W O-N
you will see the Son of man sitting...and coming." These two events, the sitting and
the coming, are simultaneous. They are co-extensive. They transpire at the same time. And
they both happen "from now on." From now on He sits and He comes. He sits upon
the throne of heavenly power and He comes in the clouds of heaven! He sits as our great
High Priest and He comes to us as our transforming Saviour. He doesn't sit and then come,
He comes while He sits. It is not two separate, independent actions, but a two-fold,
interdependent action.
Has He not came to you,
precious brother, sister, in mighty saving power and indwelling life even as He sits upon
the throne on High? Like a choir of many voices and as the sound of many waters, the
testimony of the Word of God resounds with abundant and stunning and inescapable evidence
that the coming of Christ is not a single event, but includes many different
manifestations. His coming to us is a many-sided experience. To multitudes He appears as
Saviour. They find Him at the crossroads of their lives. He becomes their salvation but
they never venture any deeper to know Him intimately. They have only a superficial
knowledge of Him. To others He appears as Chief Shepherd and Bridegroom. These hear His
voice and are moved by His love, and follow on to know Him in deeper measures of intimacy
and union. To others He appears as a Thief. He comes into their world uninvited and
unannounced, He overtakes them unexpectedly and breaks up their life style and smashes
their religious games. And unto others He appears as Fire, consuming their hay, wood, and
stubble, eliminating by the spirit of burning all that is of self and not of God. The
coming of the Lord is as many faceted as the most dazzling crystal of earth or the most
beautiful diamond known to man.
We dare not lose sight of the
fact that our Lord has already had many comings, many appearings. We have limited the
comings of Jesus strictly to two because of our unscriptural terms "first
coming" and "second coming," but the truth is that He came; He continued to
come; He comes; He continues to come; He will come; and He will continue to come! There
are numerous "comings" and "appearing" of the Lord in the New
Testament. BUT THEY DO NOT ALL REFER TO THE SAME EVENT. "And to you who are troubled
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty
messengers, when He shall come to be GLORIFIED I-N HIS SAINTS, and to be admired IN all
them that believe in that day" (II Thes. 1:7,10). Jesus Christ is coming again, and
He is coming to be glorified IN His saints and to be admired IN the sons of God who by His
grace have come into His image throughout the ages. These sons are the body of the Son of
God. This is the fullness of the Christ. Not for the world nor all that is in it would I
for one moment miss the glory of the age and ages which are to come! To reign with Christ
and with Him usher all creation into the glory of God, which has been the vision of the
prophets, the dream of the sages, the cry of the sons, the purpose of God, and the longing
and expectation of all creation is a prize of far vaster worth than all the power and
glory and wealth of all the nations of earth combined. Though God's Christ is One, it will
take the ages to come to reveal His manifold beauties and graces. He is the one Christ,
yet His body is made up of many redeemed souls. He is the true Vine, yet there are many
branches. He is the only-begotten Son of God, yet He is leading many sons to glory. He is
the only Saviour, yet He is bringing a whole company of saviours up on
I bring you good news. YOU
ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST. Not the "mystical body" as the theologians of
In looking at a piece of
petrified wood we can see this. One time it was wood, NOW IT IS ROCK. For something has
happened to it. Certain minerals entered into every cell of that piece of wood and wrought
a complete change in it. The process continued until that piece of wood had become rock.
Same shape, same size and it has exactly the same cell structure. But what a great change
has taken place! THIS IS WHAT GOD IS DOING IN US. Something is happening to us. We do not
understand all about it, but we know that there is a change going on in our innermost
beings. It is God permeating us with Himself. God is impregnating us with Himself. God is
taking over, filling even our very cells with all He is and will be. This change is taking
place in our inner selves, in our minds, in our spirits, and even in our bodies. This
process shall continue until we arrive at the condition of being saturated with God. God's
life within us produces a metamorphosis. God shall so fill us, shall so overwhelm us that
we take on the very characteristics of God. The glory that fills our expectant souls today
is born of the knowledge that the hour of His manifestation is at hand — the hour
when the Christ shall come in fullness to be revealed IN HIS SAINTS, and they shall reign
over the earth.
I am prophesying a new and
fresh revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The night is falling on the present order.
Already we are seeing evidence of the dawning of a new day breaking forth upon us and many
thousands of the Lord's elect are even now arising to behold the first rays of the dawn
and to drink in the intoxicating freshness of the morn. There is a mighty cry in our
hearts for the Lord to move in a fresh and altogether new way in our lives and in the
earth. Many things are happening in the Pentecostal and Charismatic realms today, but I do
not hesitate to tell you that all of these things are but stale "left overs"
from previous visitations. We are due for a fresh move and a new work of God in the earth
today! So the night is coming, bringing an end to particular forms of the movings and
operations of the Spirit of God. Though all the manifestations of the past have been
precious and needful, yet our God in this hour is moving on. A new manifestation and
revelation of the Christ is coming in the midst of us, and I hear and see the signs that
He is beginning to come. We are living in the early dawn of another APPEARING OF OUR LORD
JESUS CHRIST. This appearing will be in and through the long awaited manifestation of the
sons of God. This truth is burning within my bones, pulsating within my bosom. I am being
quickened by these things. My one desire is to be available to be a part of this appearing
of the Lord that is preparing the sons of God for the wind-up of this age and the
inauguration of a far greater age of glory.
All the comings of the Lord
are set forth in the winged horse of the heavens riding triumphantly, the image of
aggressive action, of a prosperous conquest. He comes as Deliverer and Blesser with great
swiftness, power and joy. Pegasus typifies Christ as the horse of universal conquest. He
goes on from conquering to conquer. He accomplishes this victory both within and through
His people, His body, His many brethren, the enChristed. Experience His triumph in your
own life, my beloved, then you, in union with Him, will ride the heavens victoriously in
Him, and He in you. It is through us, precious saints, that the power of Christ's
redemption is manifested upon earth. It is through us that this salvation is put to the
test, and men see what it will do. It is in our lives, that its power to give speed,
strength and victory is manifested.
THE SWAN
The last Decan or part of
this story of Aquarius is CYGNUS — THE SWAN, the lordly king-bird of the waters.
There is a cross in the northern sky, sometimes called the Northern Cross, in contrast to
the Southern Cross. This star group is called CYGNUS, and it reveals a beautiful swan
flying across the heavens. While it is called a cross, and appears as a cross, this
beautiful shape is formed by the principal stars which outline the wings and the length of
the body of the swan. Thus, it is in fact, a swan-cross. But this mighty bird is not
falling dead, like
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
Prince of Peace. He came to bring peace. Peace is alien to earth. When sin entered, peace
fled. The moment that sin entered, peace fled, and Adam and Eve themselves were at strife
with God and each other, so that their firstborn son had the spirit of the devil and was a
murderer from the beginning. He slew his own brother. The second Man, the last Adam, was
the Lord from heaven. When He was once rejected, in the days of His flesh, His disciples,
with indignation, besought Him to command fire to come down from heaven and destroy these
evil people. His answer comes down to us through the ages: "Ye know not what manner
of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save
them" (Lk. 9:55-56). The firstborn son of Adam was a murderer, but the firstborn Son
of God was a Saviour. One was the peace-breaker shedding his brother's blood, the other
was the Peacemaker shedding His own blood that He might make peace with God and man. Yet
the Christ had power to destroy men's lives if He had the will. When He stood there with
the cross in full view, He said to His persecutors that it was in His power to call twelve
legions of angels. If that heavenly host which hovered about that Son could have once made
itself manifest, oh, how they would have swept that doomed city, that accursed conclave of
false priests, and those wretched, blind and filthy- minded heathen soldiers! How the
breath of those heavenly angels could have swept the life out of them and swept them down
into hell and the grave. But that is not God's way in redemption. That is not the mission
of the Son of God nor of the sons of God.
"For by Him were all
things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by
Him and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And, having
made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to RECONCILE ALL THINGS unto Himself, by
Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He
reconciled" (Col. 1:17,20-21). "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled
us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to
wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath
given unto US the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to
God" (II Cor. 5:18-20).
It is utterly impossible for
any man or any creature on earth or in heaven to exclude himself from the work of this
most precious ministry — the ministry of reconciliation. Before the reader can shut
himself, or any other man or being out from the application of this grace, he must prove
that he does not belong to either the earth or heaven, or that he is not a part of the
"all things" that were created by and in the Christ in the beginning, and that
therefore he is excluded from being reconciled, since he has no identification with any of
the "all things" that were created and that are being reconciled unto God. This
he cannot do, and hence he must see that God is beseeching him and all to be reconciled!
Every foot of this earth and every man upon this earth belongs to Christ, for He made the
earth and He made every man. On that wonderful day when God created "all things"
in earth and in heaven He also said, "Let us make man in our image, and after our
likeness.” Christ made every man and tasted death for every man, and therefore every
foot of the earth and every man on the earth belongs to Christ my Lord, first by right of
creation, and second by right of redemption.
I must emphasize that God is
the Creator of ALL THINGS. Notice the things that the inspired apostle includes in
creation. ALL things in the heavens, or all things that are in and constitute the RULING
ELEMENT — "the heavens do rule" (Dan. 4:26). ALL the things on the earth,
or all things that are in or constitute those elements which are ruled, or under
authority. ALL things that are visible, or that are discernible to the physical senses
— ALL that the eyes can see, ALL that the ears can hear, ALL that we can touch, feel,
taste, or smell — has been created by God. ALL things that are invisible were created
by our God — ALL the wisdom, ALL the knowledge, yea, even that which has not yet been
tapped or conceived of by the mind of man — GOD CREATED. ALL of the myriad machines
and devices that shall yet come out of the mind of man, were created by God. ALL of the
vast forces and powers and universal laws that science has not yet discovered, were
created by God. ALL the thrones, and the glory and the power of those who occupy them,
were created by God. ALL the dominions or lordships, the mastery and the supremacy, were
created by God. ALL the principalities and powers, angels, intelligences, chief ones, in
heaven and in earth, invisible and visible, spiritual and natural, were created by God.
And it is not just the fact that all of these were created by God that startles us the
most, but it goes on to say that BY THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS ALL THESE THINGS ARE RECONCILED
TO GOD IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. This implies that the principalities and powers in the
heavenly realms needed reconciling and are reconciled by the blood of God's Son. This is
why the Redeemer was both a HEAVENLY BEING and an EARTHLY BEING. He was the Word from
heaven made flesh upon earth, heaven and earth blended into one, so that the Son could
say, "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the
Son of man which is in heaven" (Jn. 3:13). Praise God, even the principalities and
powers in the heavens are included in the glorious reconciliation and peace secured by the
blood of His cross, the Man who was from heaven, born on earth, reconciling both realms
into one IN HIMSELF. Glory! What more beautiful picture of this wonderful ministry of
reconciliation could we find than the graceful Swan flying through the heavens in the
configuration of the cross, following the life-giving stream of the
The most abusive and
vindictive letters I have received through the years have come from people who claim to be
in the sonship company through which God will set all creation free. One letter I well
remember was from one of these "creation-delivering-sons" bitterly denouncing me
and the teaching of the "reconciliation of all things." He said it is
"destructive" and "satanic" and that he was sick of it all. When
people call these precious and scriptural truths Satanic, they unwittingly blaspheme the
Holy Spirit, for it was He and none other who inspired Paul to write these words:
"And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to RECONCILE ALL
THINGS UNTO HIMSELF." It was the Holy Spirit who said that "God was in Christ,
RECONCILING THE WORLD unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has
committed unto us the word of reconciliation." And in the face of such wonderful and
all inclusive statements as these, these have the brazen audacity to write to me and make
such Holy Spirit-defying statements as: "I don't believe in the reconciliation of all
things." The simple truth is, my beloved brethren, that until we are able to embrace
God's immutable intention of reconciling all things unto Himself, we will never be able to
clearly see God's plan for this present age nor for the other ages yet to come. And most
certainly God will not entrust into our hands the blessed ministry of reconciliation as
long as we remain hostile toward God's gracious purpose and vindictive toward men for whom
Christ died and the creation we are sent to rescue and redeem.
The fact that we see and
appreciate God's great and wonderful plan for all men leaves no room in us for a dilatory,
don’t care spirit. The elect of God are always conscious of their unique calling. We
are given the high honor of being laborers together with God. Some day when the last devil
has been subjected, and the last sinner broken in humility and contrition at the lovely
feet of Jesus, we shall realize, as we may not now, just how great that honor really is,
and how much we have missed if we fail to share in this task to which the Almighty has set
His hand. I must confess that I am deeply grieved in my spirit when I meet these would-be
sons of God who look with contempt upon those who still have a passion for souls and
desire to see men delivered from the power of sin and satan. I am aware of the fact that
the hour has not yet arrived when God shall deal with all nations, and multitudes of past
generations, to bring forth His salvation in them, but it is my deepest conviction that
one of the sure marks of sonship is THE SPIRIT OF RECONCILIATION. Why speak of our great
hope of what God shall do in the ages to come if the spirit of that hope is not now alive
in our hearts? It is not the doctrine of reconciliation that shall change the world and
all things, but the ministry of reconciliation. The ministry of reconciliation springs
from the spirit of reconciliation. If you would not walk across the street to see some
poor soul delivered and converted by the redeeming power of Christ, don't waste your time
relating to me how you are chosen of God to help in the delivering of the whole creation
from the bondage of sin and death. The Spirit of Reconciliation must reign within our
hearts. The Ministry of Reconciliation must issue forth from our lives. Rivers of living
water must, even now, pour forth out of our innermost being, bringing hope and victory and
life to all who will come and drink! May we soar and fly o'er the land in the graceful and
gracious nature of the Swan!
This beautiful ministry of
reconciliation is the activity of the Holy Spirit in and through those who are chosen,
processed and equipped to bring life to the world. What a fitting symbol of the majesty,
grace and power of this ministry is the image of the Swan flying through the heavens,
displaying the cross, while moving with and by the flow of the
The light that you read or
work by, the heat in the house which makes you comfortable, the sound of the doorbell when
it rings, these are simply electricity realized. As you read and work in the light you
don't think very much about the bulb on the ceiling, or about the generator miles away.
You just utilize and enjoy the light in the room! And yet, without the bulb there is no
light, and without the generator the bulb can produce no light. Each stage is necessary.
Similarly, God as FATHER is the source of our divine life — the generator. God as SON
is the manifestation of that divine life — the bulb. And God as HOLY SPIRIT is our
realization of this divine life within — the light (life) filling our room: our
hearts, minds, spirits and bodies. But these are not three different Persons! These are
just three stages of the very SAME THING! The thing proceeding from the generator is
energy, the thing flowing and manifesting through the bulb is energy, and the light
filling the room is energy! Not three different energies, but the same energy. Likewise,
the divine life in the Father is GOD, the divine life in the Son is GOD, and the divine
life transmitted to us as the Spirit is GOD. Not three different Gods, but the one God!
The Holy Spirit is in us as the very transmission of God, transmitting constantly all that
God is in Christ to us. As the body of Christ we are the expression of God by the Holy
Spirit to the creation. What a calling! What a potential!
The word "spirit,"
in the Old Testament, is the translation of the Hebrew word RUACH, the primary
significance or root-meaning of which is WIND. The word "spirit" in the New
Testament comes from the Greek word PNEUMA, whose primary significance or root-meaning is
likewise WIND. The English word "ghost" used in the King James Bible, though now
somewhat obsolete and not in general use, is derived from the Greek PNEUMA, its original
meaning being exactly the same as the word "spirit," meaning WIND. But let no
one hastily conclude that we are about to attempt to prove that the Holy Spirit is a holy
wind, for nothing could be farther from our thought.
There are two basic
characteristics of the wind which qualify it to so fittingly serve as the supreme symbol
of the Holy Spirit. The wind is first of all a POWERFUL FORCE, and secondly it is
INVISIBLE. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of
the SPIRIT" (Jn. 3:8). You cannot see the wind, and yet you are aware of its reality
because of its power with the visible effects of that power manifested all around you. In
earlier times the wind was used broadly as a source of energy. Man has always known how to
use sails on a boat or ship. Later, he learned to use the same principle to construct a
windmill, using the force of the wind to turn grindstones, pump water, and do many other
kinds of work. In like manner, the invisible and powerful INWARD ENERGY AND FORCE which
motivates and transforms our lives into the image of God is the HOLY SPIRIT! And God's
ministry through us to creation is by the invisible but powerful energy and force of the
HOLY SPIRIT. It is interesting to note that the Swan in the Sign of Aquarius rides the
wind! The ministry of the sons of God, the ministry of reconciliation, is motivated,
propelled and executed by the Spirit!
Jesus spoke a great spiritual
truth when He said to Nicodemus, "Ye must be born again." Nicodemus was unable
to comprehend the idea of being "born again," even though Jesus used the wind as
an illustration to help make it plain. The wind, as we have pointed out, is both powerful
and invisible. It moves about, freely and powerfully, and while we may hear the sound and
see the effects, we cannot tell from whence it comes, or whither it goeth, we have no
control over either its coming or its going — "So is everyone who is born of the
Spirit," Jesus said. Indeed, the way of the spiritual person, especially that of the
Lord's elect, is as the wind that "bloweth where it listeth." That person
becomes spiritual by encountering various growth experiences, passing through one stage of
development after another, often involving one "church" and
"fellowship" association after another, until ultimately they arrive at the
place of spiritual stature called "the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ" where there are no religious trappings, no denominational characteristics, no
sectarian attachments, and no adherence to the traditions of the elders, or to the
rituals, ceremonies, doctrines, programs, creeds, structure, or methods of the popular
church system. These blessed ones are now free to be LED BY THE SPIRIT for "as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom. 8:14).
The way of the Spirit is
truly strange to the natural mind of man and the carnal precepts of religion, but to the
spiritual person, His ways are life and truth and reality. The way of the Spirit-born
person is as the wind that blows, and so also is the moving of the Spirit. The Spirit of
God blows, first upon one, and then another, and another, touching the lives of those who
are chosen for that hour in God. His Spirit is as the wind that "bloweth where it
listeth," so that the sound thereof is heard, yet no one can control it or make a
form or structure of it. That is certainly a different expression than one sees in the
systemized programs of man! The blessed realm of the Spirit is a wondrous realm that
cannot be intellectually learned or perceived, but we are experiencing the way of the
Spirit by walking in that realm. Wisdom has declared, "As thou knowest not what is
the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child:
even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all" (Eccl. 11:5). The flowing
of the precious Holy Spirit is spontaneous and unpredictable as the wind that blows where
He wills. Therefore, we cannot expect to know the works of God except by that same Spirit.
The mighty, omnipotent movings of the Spirit of God are truly a mystery. Not one among us,
of ourselves, could predict what He will do next. But if we are truly born of the Spirit
of God, and are flowing in union and harmony with Him, we will then be blessed with the
experiences necessary and vital to our new identity and ministry as SONS OF THE SPIRIT
— C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N O-F T-H-E W-I-N-D!
In order for one to know and
properly understand the all-sufficiency of the Spirit of the Christ within, he must first
see what Christ is. I do not say who Christ is, but what Christ is. There are many
different titles and names ascribed to Christ in the scriptures; however, we will not here
consider the names of Christ, but the substance of Christ, His very essence. My
automobile, made of metal, is called an automobile, but its substance is metal. What is
the substance of Christ? "Now the Lord is THE SPIRIT" (II Cor. 3:17). What is
Christ? Why, He is the SPIRIT! He may be called by many titles and names, all descriptive
of His various attributes, characteristics, ministrations and offices. He may be known as
Saviour, as Redeemer, as Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace, Comforter, Prophet, High Priest, King, Lord, I Am, and scores of other glorious
titles. But what is His substance? "The last Adam was made a QUICKENING SPIRIT"
(I Cor. 15:45). The message is clear — the substance of Christ is SPIRIT. "And
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts"
(Gal. 4:6).
Two things were essential
before Jesus could return as the Lord, the Spirit. He must GO AWAY. He must BE GLORIFIED.
"This spake Jesus of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him were to receive; for
the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified” (Jn. 7:39). On our
behalf, as man and the Head of man, Jesus was resurrected, and then ascended, being
admitted into the full glory of the Divine, and His human nature received up into union
and participation with the eternal Spirit (transcendent God), of the same essence and
substance as the eternal Spirit, taking on the qualities of omnipotence, omniscience and
omnipresence. Is He omnipotent? "ALL POWER is given unto Me in heaven and in
earth" (Mat. 28:18). Is He omnipresent? In Eph. 4:10 we have this simple but
instructive statement: "He that descended is the same also that ASCENDED UP FAR ABOVE
ALL HEAVENS, THAT HE MIGHT F-I-L-L A-L-L T-H-I-N-G-S." Having ascended in Being into
the fullness of the SPIRIT the Lord Jesus could now come down as the Spirit of the GOD-MAN
—most really the Spirit of God, and yet as truly the Spirit of Jesus the man. He
could come down as the Spirit of the GLORIFIED JESUS, to quicken our spirit by His Spirit,
making us one in Him. God be praised! Jesus has been glorified! He has ascended up far
above all celestial realms! He has emanated from that realm to fill all things! And now,
praise His name, He is being glorified IN US!
When Jesus comes into us, He
comes within as the all-sufficient Spirit to make us all that we must be as God-men. Soon,
now, there shall come that long awaited manifestation of the sons of God to this
sin-cursed world. Creation shall be set free from its bondage to corruption. We shall
behold the glory, wisdom, and power of the Son of God manifested in all fullness in a
many-membered body right here upon this earth. These sons are even now putting on the
fullness of His divine life in spirit, soul and body. They are being transformed into His
image, filled with His wisdom, quickened by His life. How the whole creation groans and
travails for this! The work of preparation is even now in full swing; Paul tells us that
this is when Christ shall come "to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in
all them that believe in that day" (II Thes.1:10). Let us believe it, beloved; for He
comes to be glorified in all them that believe (for it) in that day! Hallelujah!
Here I would share some
inspired and challenging words from a brother we labored with some years ago. He began
with the beautiful text from the Gospel of John, chapter six. "Jesus answered them
and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but
because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man
shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed. I am the bread of life: he that
cometh to me shall never hunger; he that believeth on Me shall never thirst....it is the
spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they
are spirit, and they are life." In order to understand the great mystery that Jesus
is seeking to reveal to us in these verses, you need to understand the word,
"quickeneth," that is used in the King James translation. It is an old English
word that the King James translators used to describe the original wording in the Greek
scripture, which meant "to give life," or "that giveth life," or
"that is the source of life." So what Jesus was really saying here is, "It
is the Spirit that giveth life," or "It is the Spirit that is the source of your
life." The next thing we need to understand in order to comprehend this great mystery
is that when Jesus said, "It is the Spirit that giveth life," or "is the
source of your life," He was not talking about the Holy Spirit of God alone, but He
was talking about your own spirit, for, "He that is joined unto the Lord is one
spirit" (I Cor. 6:17). Your own quickened, regenerated, recreated, born-again spirit
— which is the Son of God dwelling in you —is the source of your life.
The next thing we need to
understand, to comprehend this mystery, is the meaning of the word "profit"
Jesus used here when He said, "The flesh profiteth nothing." Now the profit on
any investment is always the increase. It is that which was not, which is created out of
the investment’s creative powers of that which one starts with. If I invest a
thousand dollars, and it brings back two thousand dollars, then the second thousand
dollars is the increase, the profit, that is literally brought forth out of the creative
powers that were in the first thousand dollars to increase itself, to double itself, when
properly invested. Therefore, this word "profit" is a creative word. It implies
the power to create, to increase one’s self, or to reproduce one’s self.
Therefore, when Jesus said, "The flesh profiteth nothing," what He was trying to
get over to us is that there is no creative power in the flesh — in anything that is
physical and material in this earth. It cannot increase itself, it cannot reproduce
itself; in fact, it can’t even sustain the life that it has, for if our spirit was to
depart from our flesh body, it would immediately begin to deteriorate and go back to the
dust from whence it came. When Jesus said, "The flesh profiteth nothing," He was
revealing to us that every visible, carnal, natural, material, physical thing in this
world, including our own flesh body, is not creative. It has no power to increase itself;
it doesn’t even have the power to sustain its own life. All it can ever be is the
visible manifestation or expression of the Life of Spirit, and of the creative power that
is in Spirit.
On the other hand, when Jesus
said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth," or "It is the spirit that giveth
life," or "is the source of your life," what he was seeking to reveal to us
is that the spirit is creative, that our regenerated spirit has creative power. Therefore,
the great mystery and the great truth that Jesus was seeking to reveal to those who can
receive and understand it is that it is our own spirit that is the source of our life,
that we carry the source of our life around in our own beings; and therefore, our own
spirit being the source of our life we are not dependent on anything outside of our own
being for our life. For you see, when you are a source, you are the beginning. A spring
from which a river comes out of the earth and flows into the earth is the beginning of
that river. It is the source from which the water of that river comes. And therefore that’s
what Jesus was trying to get over to us —that since we have been born of the seed of
God, and since Christ, who is the beginning and the end, is that regenerated, recreated,
born-again spirit that is within us, it is your spirit that giveth life, or that is the
source of your life, and being a source within itself, is therefore not dependent on
anything outside of itself for its life. For when you are a source, you are the beginning;
therefore you are not dependent on anything before you or anything after you, or anything
outside of you for your life. The truth that Jesus teaches us is that we carry the source
of our life within our own spirit and we are not dependent on any fleshly thing outside of
our own spirit for life. It is because Jesus came to the revelation of this truth and the
reality of it within Himself that He could step out into the world and say, "I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." Knowing that He carried the source,
the beginning of His life within His own spirit, He could say, "I am the
beginning." Knowing that the creative power that was in His spirit to bring forth His
final destiny, and that that destiny was under the control of the creative powers that
were within His own spirit, He could say, "I am the end."
When Jesus said, "The
flesh profiteth nothing — it is the spirit that quickeneth, that is the source of
your life," He was revealing to us the great truth that the source of our life is not
in the flesh, not in the visible, not in the carnal, physical, material things, or
anything that is of this natural world; but all those things are but outward
manifestations of the creative powers that are in the life of Spirit, and that the source
of our life is in our own spirit. Now the problem with all of God’s people, you see,
is that they have not known this great truth. They have thought that they are dependent
for their lives on the carnal, material, physical things of the flesh of this world —
natural money, natural housing, natural clothing, natural food, natural body, natural
abilities, the laws of nature. All of us have thought that those things were the source
from which our life came. In fact, we have so been deceived that those visible, physical,
carnal, natural things were the source of our life that we were so completely dependent
upon them that if we were cut off from them — if we lost our job, lost our money,
lost our housing, lost our food — we thought that we would die! For you see, this is
the great lie that the devil deceived man with through the fall. When man lost the
consciousness of his spiritual nature, and degenerated down into the consciousness of the
carnal, natural nature, the devil convinced man that he was dependent upon the visible and
the physical and the natural for his life — natural money, natural job, natural
business, natural body, natural housing, natural clothing, natural possessions, natural
food — natural, natural, natural! We have been so convinced that that is the source
of our life that we have been scared to death that if we were cut off from that source of
life, we would die.
Jesus, in our text, when He
was out in the Wilderness with His people, and needed bread, by-passed the flour mill and
sat down on the ground, and through the operation of that spiritual law of faith, drew
right out from within His own spirit enough bread to feed five thousand people. For you
see, beloved, there is a source of life, and all that pertains to life, including bread
that sustains life, which is not dependent on the natural resources of this world. It is
the source of life — SPIRIT. The Bible makes it very clear that all life, and every
manifestation of life that is in this universe, originally came right out of Spirit. Thus
the apostle Paul says in Heb. 11:3 that 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. Therefore, the Bible says that everything in this world which is visible and
physical — in the beginning, originally, was not made of something visible or
tangible already existing — which does appear — but was made of the resources
that came originally right out of Spirit, by the spoken word of faith. Therefore, you see,
Jesus, as He sat on the ground that day and fed five thousand with five loaves of bread,
had become a manifest Son of God who was not subject to the laws of nature, neither
underneath them; and therefore not dependent on the natural resources for bread, but could
by-pass them. He was a spiritual Son of God who was sovereign over all physical laws, and
therefore could go right back to the original source of bread and draw it right out of His
own spirit.
Do you notice how easily
Jesus did this? The scripture says that Jesus instructed His disciples, "Make the men
sit down." You see, when you get bread from this source, you don’t have to get
it standing up, with a plow or sickle in your hand, laboring and sweating, as men have for
six thousand years, since they’ve been under the curse; but you sit quietly down and
bring forth all things sitting down. The men sat down, and Jesus sat quietly down with
them. The record states that Jesus just quietly took the loaves of bread, and when He had
given thanks, He distributed it to the disciples — as much as they would. You see
there was no shortage here. Everyone got to eat as much as he wanted, as much as he would!
And Jesus did it so smoothly and so easily — He simply sat down, gave thanks, and
began to hand it out. He didn’t have to go through all the soulish and natural things
that we do today, in order to work up a little faith. He didn’t have to go through a
thirty-minute praise service, dance around in the Spirit for ten or fifteen minutes, speak
in tongues, prophesy, and then say, "In the name of Jesus, let there be bread!"
This great truth that we’re seeking to share with you, that it is the spirit —
the Spirit of Christ in your own Spirit — that is the source of Life, had become so
real to Him that, moving in the spiritual law of faith, He could draw it, effortlessly,
right out of His own spirit.
Out of the experiential
knowledge of this great truth Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life." Simply
because He knew that through coming into the world and shedding His blood to cleanse us of
our sins, and make us clean vessels, so the Holy Spirit could recreate us, regenerate us,
birth us again, restore us to the consciousness of our true identity, grow us up in the
Spirit to that place of manifested sonship that He was at, whereby through Him in us, we
might go back to the original source of Life, and of Bread, and of Reality, for He is the
Bread of Life to us; not this natural world system, neither the natural resources of this
natural world system. It is the Spirit that createth Life, the flesh profiteth nothing.
Jesus said it this way: "That which is of the flesh is flesh, and that which is of
the Spirit is spirit." He set before us two ways of life. You call live your life in
the flesh, or you can live your life in the Spirit. You can walk in the flesh, or you can
walk in the Spirit. You can draw your experience out of the natural realm which passes
away, or you can draw your existence out of the spiritual realm which liveth and abideth
forever. You can live your life according to natural law, or you can prepare your mind and
heart to live your life according to Spiritual Law. To you today, as to men of old, Jesus
says, "Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but labour for the meat that endureth
unto everlasting life." You see, beloved, the problem with us is that we have spent
all of our life laboring for the meat that perishes; working in business and labor for the
natural meat, wearing ourselves out, growing old and weary, our hair turning gray,
sweating and toiling always for the meat that perishes, and often have not spent a balance
of time and effort laboring for the spiritual meat that will endure when all the natural
meat has perished. Yes, the bread that Jesus fed the five thousand was natural bread,
although He drew it out of the realm of Spirit. But by learning and knowing and moving in
that realm of the true source of Life He was able to go on and by the same law of faith
overcome all natural things and, finally, conquer even the last enemy — death —
and stride victoriously out of the tomb! Therefore it is time for all who have received
the call to sonship to begin to labor for the Spiritual Meat that shall endure into
everlasting life, when all the natural meat has passed away! (end quote).
The measure of life unto
which we have been called has been seen in Christ Jesus. "Far it pleased the Father
that in Him should ALL FULLNESS dwell" (Col. 1:19). "For in Him dwelleth ALL THE
FULLNESS of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). Though we, the members of His body, have
received "of" that fullness, yet the concern of the Father in this hour is that
there come to pass a further enlargement of our capacities to contain Him, to live out of
Him, and to minister Him, for He seeks a body through which He can manifest all the
fullness of Himself to creation. Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers to this end:
"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in
love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints WHAT IS THE BREADTH, and LENGTH, and
DEPTH, and HEIGHT (of capacity); that ye might be FILLED WITH A-L-L THE FULLNESS OF
GOD" (Eph. 3:17-19). Only the spirit of wisdom and revelation from God can minister
to our yearning hearts the full comprehension of what is the breadth, and length, and
depth of the supply of God in the Spirit and of our capacity to express Him. But one thing
God would have us understand in all simplicity — the increase of our capacity COMES
THROUGH OUR GROWTH AS MEMBERS OF CHRIST'S BODY. This point is made very plain in Eph.
4:15-16 where we read, "But speaking the truth in love, may GROW UP I-N-T-O H-I-M in
all things, which is the Head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together
and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in
the measure of every part, MAKETH INCREASE (ENLARGEMENT) OF THE BODY unto the edifying of
itself in love." Ah — there is an increase, an enlargement of the body, not
numerically, but an increase of expanded capacity for manifesting Him!
It is right at this point
that the average Christian sells himself short. Especially the Pentecostal or Charismatic!
How many of the Lord's precious people who seek the Holy Spirit mistakenly seek a
"blessing," or an "experience." To "speak in tongues" is
often their highest aim, or to be "slain under the power," and if they can
attain to that phenomenon then they are happy and satisfied in their belief that they have
received all, or at least most, of what God has for them in this life. HOW PITIFUL IS SUCH
AN UNDERSTANDING! How desperately short we sell ourselves when we seek the Holy Spirit as
an "experience" that we are to attain instead of presenting ourselves as vessels
to be filled with all the incomprehensible inexhaustibleness of GOD! This Spirit, who is
God, and is sent forth by God, full of wisdom and truth, understanding, counsel, might,
knowledge, glory and power brings in His mighty fullness ever-increasing measures of His
own unlimited and unfathomable abundance. May all who read these lines clearly understand
that the fullness of which we speak is not quantitative — it is qualitative. It is
not that we are filled with more and more of the same degree, but with higher dimensions,
unfolding development, expanding heights and depths, maturity of life, reality more
intense and perfect. Yes, God would fill us and then expand us that He might fill us the
more, until we attain even that "measure of the stature of the FULLNESS OF
CHRIST," which measure is nothing less that the full development within of HIM THAT
FILLETH ALL THINGS!
I have observed in the
ministry of Jesus that there was never a problem He faced that He could not solve, never a
need that He could not meet, no victory He could not win, no realm of revelation,
experience, or relationship to God that He could not possess. Some of us speak of the
exploits we have done in Jesus' name, but we seldom mention all the times we have failed!
Some of us fast and pray and wrest an answer from the Lord and then run squarely into
another problem that we can't solve at all. If Jesus, the firstborn Son, needed the Spirit
WITHOUT MEASURE, then we, His elect body, need it too!
It is interesting to note
that nowhere in the Gospels was the supernatural ministry of Jesus Christ ever associated
with the gifts of the Spirit. No place does it ever say that Jesus received or operated in
a gift of the Spirit. However, like most people, I assumed He did! And I could always make
it fit. Every time Jesus healed someone I assumed that He exercised the gift of healing,
although the scripture didn’t say so. Every time He prophesied coming events I said
that He moved in the gift of prophecy, although the Holy Spirit never said so. When He
spoke to Nathaniel, revealing the secrets of his heart, I said that He spoke a "word
of knowledge" although the record says no such thing. How is it that Jesus did not
operate in the gift-realm? Because He moved in the fullness of the spirit of sonship.
There is a world of difference between receiving a "gift" from God and
possessing the SONSHIP ANOINTING. Jesus explained it this way: "He that cometh from
above is above all.... for He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth
not the Spirit by measure unto Him. The Father loveth THE SON, and hath given all things
into His hand" (Jn. 3:31-35). How much greater is the Sonship Ministry than the
gift-realm! "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is
perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away" (I Cor. 13:9-10). The
ministry of Jesus was not in the gift-realm, not in the in-part-realm, not by measure
— and therefore not even in the realm of
For many years now there has
been a great moving of the Spirit of God across the land and around the world. It has
manifested itself through many movements on various levels. We have witnessed great
evangelistic ministries, the divine healing ministry, the restoration of the New Testament
Church order with its five-fold ministry, the nine gifts of the Spirit, the impartation
through prophecy with the laying on of hands. But I can testify to you that none of these
ministries has come within the range of the ministry of Jesus Christ the Son of God. No
matter which of the healing ministries you watched, no matter what prophet you heard,
matters not what miracle, sign, or wonder, it did not measure up to the ministry of THE
SON OF GOD. We kept saying, "We have the same anointing, the same Holy Ghost, the
same power, the same authority, and we can do all the works (or even greater) than Jesus
did!" And as hard as we tried, as strongly as we wanted to believe it, as much as we
rationalized it, it still just wasn’t true! We had the same anointing, alright, and
the same Holy Spirit — but we had it in the form of gifts — not in the fullness
of the SPIRIT OF SONSHIP! Therefore creation continues to groan, and we ourselves do groan
within ourselves, waiting for the MANIFESTATION OF THE S-O-N-S OF GOD!
How much greater is the
sonship ministry than the gift-realm! The prophet Isaiah prophesied of the Son and the
sons: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall
grow out of his roots: and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord" (Isa. 11:1-2). This does not say that Jesus would receive a
"gift" or "the word of wisdom." It says that what He received was the
S-P-I-R-I-T OF WISDOM. It doesn’t state that Jesus had a "gift of healing"
or a "gift of miracles." He received, instead, the S-P-I-R-I-T OF MIGHT. Jesus
didn’t have merely a "gift" or "the word of knowledge." He
possessed the S-P-I-R-I-T OF KNOWLEDGE! Not a fragmentary word of wisdom here, or a
fragmentary word of knowledge there, or a gift of healing working tonight, and a gift of
prophecy operating tomorrow night. NO! Upon the firstborn Son rested all the fullness of
the sevenfold Spirit of Sonship, just as the prophet declared, saying,
"The Spirit of the Lord
shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding,
The Spirit of Counsel and Might,
The Spirit of Knowledge and Fear of the Lord."
This sevenfold Spirit of God
is the fullness of the wisdom, glory, nature and power of God. This is the Spirit WITHOUT
MEASURE. This is the SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD. This is the SEVENFOLD BRIGHTNESS OF GOD’S
GLORY! This is why our Lord Jesus Christ could heal every disease, could cast out every
kind of devil, could raise the dead — even after they were deteriorated and stinking
— could discern every thought and intent of men’s hearts, could command every
element of nature, and even die and rise again! Some of us have been able to do a very
limited amount of this. Some of us have had a gift of healing and have healed some sick
people, but who has healed them ALL, even in one meeting? Some of us have been healed
ourselves, but who among us has been healed EVERY TIME? Some of us have prophesied, have
had a word of knowledge, but who has had every word that he has ever spoken come to pass?
The miracles we have witnessed and experienced have been glorious, indeed: gas put in our
tanks, batteries charged, finances supplied from unexpected sources, etc. But who among us
has walked on the sea or fed five thousand men with five small loaves and two fish? Some
have had their countenances lighted with the glow of the joy of the Lord, but who has
stood on the Mount of Transfiguration with even their raiment shining as the brightness of
the noon-day sun? Ah — therefore creation continues to groan, and we ourselves do
groan within ourselves, waiting for the MANIFESTATION OF THE S-O-N-S OF GOD!
The Spirit of God has
witnessed to many thousands of saints around the world in this hour that a New Day dawns
upon the horizon. The next great move of God is even now at hand. There will not be
another revival. There shall not come another visitation. It is not the hour for the
restoration of the Church. A new day dawns. God is marching on. He shall do an entirely
new thing in the earth. A new age lies directly before us. The manifestation of God’s
sons is at hand. The
Chapter
34
PISCES
— THE FISHES
As we move around the path of
the sun, we now come to the seventh major Sign of the heavens: PISCES — THE FISHES.
In the House of Pisces there are two fishes, one moving upward toward the North Polar
Star; the other is swimming in the horizontal position along the path of the ecliptic, or
the path of the sun. The two fishes are bound together by a band which is securely tied
around the tail portion of the body of each fish. The band is also attached to the neck of
Cetus, the Sea Monster; and Aries, or the Ram (or Lamb) has his paw across the band that
connects the fishes. Directly above this scene is Andromeda — The Chained Woman.
Andromeda is a line of bright stars picturing a woman with her arms and feet in chains, in
misery and trouble, helplessly bound in the sky. Beyond Andromeda is the final scene in
the House of Pisces, Cepheus — The King. Here we have the picture of a bearded man
wearing a crown and a royal robe, seated upon a throne. In his uplifted hand he holds a
scepter. He is a glorious king enthroned in the highest heaven and his right foot is
placed firmly upon the North Polar Star — the central point in all of the galaxies
and all of the heavens. In this strange picture set in the sky he is the Deliverer coming
to liberate the Chained Woman.
THE FISHES
In Pisces the two fishes are
a representation of the church, the called out, the people of God. At the beginning of His
ministry, seeing Peter and Andrew casting a net into the blue waters of the Sea of
Galilee, Jesus said unto them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men"
(Mat. 4:19). When God promised that He would bring again the children of
In His wonderful parable of
the Dragnet Jesus said that the
Our Lord has made the
spiritual meaning clear. The parable is meant to represent the realm of Heaven, that is,
the spiritual realm of God, or God's government on earth. What a fisherman does in
gathering all kinds of fish into his net, and then bringing a separation between those
that qualify for his purposes, and those who do not, is like what the almighty Father is
doing throughout this age in the formation, development and manifestation of the
The net is the Word of the
Kingdom that reaches out into the vast sea of humanity and draws men, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, into the sphere of the influence of the Kingdom realm of God. "A net
cast into the sea," let down from a higher world, out of a different sphere —
such is the dynamic of the
That net floating amidst the
waves, and tossed about so easily, betokens another world; it is the only representative
of a mind acting from without. The natural man is incapable of thinking beyond the
impulses of the sea. But when God sends forth His ministry of reconciliation with the
authority of His Word and the power of His Spirit a higher will, a more intelligent
purpose than the battling waves know anything about, is lying there in the depths of the
sea, sometimes passive, sometimes active, and each delicate thread is the channel along
which that will and intelligence are borne. Whether the net lies slack and shifts with
every heaving of the sea, or whether it strains and pulls, it is equally the act of the
Mind of Him who holds it! In saving men the first thing God has to do is to get our
attention. And to do that He chooses to use events which are instruments of either His
goodness or His judgment, according to the need. Ah, yes, God has a great net and He knows
just how to GET OUR ATTENTION! He can get it here and now. If He doesn't get it here, He
will get it in hell. If He doesn't get it in hell, He will get it in the lake of fire. He
will get it by gracious words and tender mercies, if He can. He will get it by severe
judgments and awful wrath, if He must. But, blessed be His name, He will get our
attention! When we consider the wisdom, purpose and power of the One who makes and casts
and gathers the net, with what new and wonderful significance does the proclamation of
Jesus Christ echo through the corridors of our spirits as we hear the impelling words
sound from His lips, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, WILL DRAW A-L-L M-E-N
UNTO ME" (Jn. 12:32).
Beloved, when God chooses to
bring a people unto Himself, He is well able to do so, even to reach out to them without
the use of a human vessel, if need be. He is the greatest Fisherman with the most
marvelous Net! The Christ has been lifted up from the earth and now has all power in
heaven and in earth — the omnipotent One. In due time He will bring His redemptive
process into glorious fulfillment and consummation. If God wants to save Russians, He is
well able to demolish the iron curtain and destroy the mighty bastions of communism, and
cast His net into the
But that is not the end of
the matter. Gathered out of the sea the fishes are brought to the shore — the
God is now in the grand
process of bringing men out of the lowest realm of the sea of vanity, sin and death, up
into the highest realm of heaven, to the fullness of His life, nature, and wisdom, to His
throne, to the sphere of His omnipotent power and resplendent glory. In contrast to these
the "earth" is the symbol of yet a third realm, a realm higher than the sea, but
lower than heaven; an in-between realm which at its highest peak kisses heaven, and at its
lowest level embraces the sea; yet, in the true sense is not entirely heavenly or
spiritual, nor absolutely carnal and degenerate. In simple terms, it is a realm of
MIXTURE! And this, precious friend of mine, is the realm of Pisces — The Fishes, the
church realm of the past two thousand years. Just as the net gathers all kinds of fishes,
so the visible church (including the one you may attend) gathers people of every kind
— true believers and mere professors, mature saints and babes in Christ, spiritual
and carnal, heavenly minded and earthly minded, wise and foolish virgins, wheat and tares
— all are gathered together.
A tremendous revelation was
given to John the beloved on
As soon as this point was
made abundantly plain John heard a voice saying, "COME UP HITHER and I will show thee
things that must be hereafter." After what? Why, bless your heart, after the
candlestick realm! The promises had already been given, not to the churches themselves,
but to "him that overcometh" — a company out of the church. "Come up
hither," the voice commanded. John is now shown another realm HIGHER THAN THE
CANDLESTICK REALM! It is the realm of the overcomer, of the throne, of the four living
creatures and the twenty-four elders, and John is invited to leave the candlestick realm
to ASCEND IN THE SPIRIT TO THIS HIGHER REALM where the Lamb is in the throne. This is what
the brethren don't want to do! How they cling to the candlestick realm with its five-fold
ministry, New Testament order, rituals, ceremonies, and ordinances, with its limitation,
imperfection, weakness, mixture, duality, methods, structures, etc. This revelation was
given to John in the year A. D. 96. The churches of His generation refused to leave the
candlestick realm and rise to a higher place in God, and within only a few years the great
apostasy set in, by the third and fourth centuries the apostasy was complete, followed by
an awful night of great and terrible darkness. Even secular history refers to that time as
"The Dark Ages". It was the great "falling away" which Paul prophesied
in which the man of sin was revealed in the
If any brethren can show me
any church order, including the early church, or their own, that has ever carried God's
people on to perfection and fullness, I will be delighted to be a part of it. If any who
read these lines can acquaint me with a church on earth today that is not a body of
mixture — that has no division, no carnality, no childishness, no sin, no error, no
fleshly methods or manifestations, no weakness, no sickness or limitation — I tell
you before God that I will join myself to it tomorrow. If such cannot be produced, then
let the immutable Word of God stand firm, and know and understand that I have no
obligation to participate in that which is totally impotent to minister what I need in
this hour to apprehend the vision set before. I would be remiss if I did not tell you that
there is no single church, fellowship, group, or movement in the earth today which will
enter into the fullness of God as a unit. Seek not, dear ones, for the perfect church, for
truly I tell you that there is no such thing in existence upon earth. There never has
been. I have attended fellowships which seemed so lovely — everyone and everything
appeared so spiritual. There was naught but love and beauty and hospitality and depth in
God all around. On the outside everything looked so perfect! But I discovered that if I
stayed around for only a number of days or weeks an undercurrent would begin to be felt,
the veneer would commence to peel and the hidden truth and dark reality begin to filter
through. I soon found that beneath the glossy exterior lurked a seething cauldron of
carnality and trouble.
Look not, my friend, to this
preacher, nor to that ministry, nor to the other gift, nor to any movement. Many today
will croon into your ear that if you will sit under their ministry, eat at their table,
join yourself to their church, drink from their fountain, flow in their stream, embrace
their revelation, you will make it into sonship. But I point you to the eternal and
uncontrovertible truth that ALL churches, fellowships, movements and groups upon the face
of the whole earth today are but mixtures, for the net STILL GATHERS ALL KINDS OF FISHES,
and the almighty Lord STILL has somewhat against the candlestick realm. Only the deep
dealings and relentless processings of the Lord can separate the fishes and gather into
the heavenly vessels those who shall reign in life in the
In the Sign of Pisces there
are two fishes, one moving upward toward the North Polar Star, the other swimming
horizontally along the path of the sun. These bespeak of the twofold operation of God in
and through His people — the two-fold manifestation of the
Christ is now in the highest
heaven in this universe. I believe most of my readers understand now what it means to
experience the ascended Christ, to daily live out our lives in the triumph and victory of
the Son of God, far above the sorrows, strife, sin, problems, limitation, struggles,
fears, disappointments, and death of the carnal realm. THIS is sonship! Sometimes I hear
people say, "Oh, I am so worried," or, "My, I am quite depressed." Do
you know what that means? It means that they are under the power of death. But when you
stand in union with Christ you are high above the mountains, not in the valleys. You will
be in the heavenly places, far above the circumstances of earth. The problem is that far
too often we forget that we are ONE WITH such a Christ who is ascended far above all! We
do not appropriate Him. We do not come to Him. We do not contact Him in our spirit. We do
take our stand in union with Him. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are
spiritually discerned" (I Cor. 2:14). The truth of who and what and where we are is
spiritually discerned. When the truth is quickened in my spiritual consciousness I can
shout, "Praise the Lord! Praise God! I am in Christ! I am raised up and made to sit
together with Him in the higher than all heavens! All my troubles, all my distractions,
all my problems, all my hardships, all my weaknesses, all my struggles and all my burdens
are under my feet. They have become my footstool. I can rest my problems: I can rest my
struggles. The more troubles I have, the more I appropriate the ascended Christ in my
spirit. This is the experience of Christ! This is the reality of living in heaven —
N-O-W! This is the fish swimming ever upward into that center where reigns the King upon
the throne.
The second fish swimming
horizontally answers to the fact that the Kingdom of the Heavens is established upon the
earth — lived out by men walking in the flesh (body). Heaven must cast its shadow
upon earth, heaven must come down to earth, heaven must seize hold upon earth, God's rule
must come and His will be done in earth as it is in heaven. We reign from the heavens, but
our reign is over the earth. Heaven and earth meet in us as they did in Jesus. Jesus the
Christ, when a man on earth, was at the same time in heaven. "And no man hath
ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man WHICH IS IN
HEAVEN" (Jn. 3:13). Our Lord was in heaven; He came down from heaven, and still was
in heaven. It is something a person can be in, can descend from, and still possess. His
outer man was conscious in the earthly realm and one with it, but the inner man was
conscious in the eternal realm and one with it. The heavens were open to Him, He dwelt and
lived and walked and manifested out of the divine sphere of life. But His rule was
horizontal — upon the earth, through the earth, and over the earth. As the
perpendicular fish He lived and had His being in the heavens, far above all earthly cares.
As the horizontal fish He brought heaven's life to bear upon all things earthly. As the
horizontal fish He taught and healed and cast out devils, commanded the winds and waves,
fed the multitudes, raised the dead to life again, and revealed the glory of the Father
through His human life. Right now, as the perpendicular fish, you can think and know and
live within yourself in triumph as an overcomer; and right now, as the horizontal fish,
you can minister love, joy, peace, understanding and victory to those about you in the
home, in the neighborhood, on the job. The upward fish stands for what you are in Christ.
The horizontal fish speaks of how that Kingdom life is brought to bear upon all things,
people and circumstances in the natural world.
THE BAND
The first Decan, or minor
constellation, in the House of Pisces is THE BAND. This band binds the fishes, being
fastened around the tails of the two fishes so that these two are inseparably tied
together, so that one cannot go on without the other. The message is clear — our
heavenly life and our earthly life are connected in such a way that it is no longer we
that live, but Christ that liveth in and through us. Now the band is also fastened to the
neck of Cetus, the Sea Monster, denoting a state of limitation, restriction, oppression
and persecution. However, Aries, or the Ram (or Lamb) has his paw across the band,
portraying the fact that the mighty Christ takes the bridle in His own hand; all that
happens to us in this realm is under His control and working together for our good.
Throughout this long age of the church the people of God have been buffeted, persecuted,
oppressed, tried and tested. We have been sustained and encouraged by the Word of the Lord
to us, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you,
as though some strange thing had happened unto you" (I Pet. 4:12). Our trials and
testings are associated in the Word of God with the ministry of satan. You never thought
of satan having a ministry? "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness
to be tempted (tested) of the devil. And when the Tempter came to Him, he said, if Thou be
the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread" (Mat. 4:13). "Fear none
of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into
prison, THAT YE MAY BE TRIED...be thou faithful...and I will give thee a crown of
life" (Rev. 2:10). "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, satan hath desired
to have you, THAT HE MAY SIFT YOU AS WHEAT: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith
fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren (Lk. 22:31-32). "Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same
AFFLICTIONS are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world" (I Pet. 5:8-9).
If we can realize that behind
the acts of satan is the mighty hand of God working to bring forth gold from these earthen
vessels, we can rejoice, as David, in our afflictions and trials and exclaim with him,
"It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes"
(Ps. 119:7). Praise God! When we begin to see the good that comes from the assaults of
satan on our lives, we are able to appreciate all the more the greatness of our God and
the depth of the wisdom of His great mind. Praise His wonderful name! He is truly a God of
power and might, and ALL things are in His hand — even this adversary whom we call
the devil.
May the Spirit of God grant
understanding to all who read these lines to know of a certainly that there is purpose in
adversity and in the adversary who brings it. Yes, my brother, my sister, there is purpose
in the existence and work of satan! Without this understanding all the work of God in all
ages becomes a hit and miss, trial and error affair unworthy of our mighty God of whom it
is written: "The Most High...liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion, and His Kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing: and HE doeth ACCORDING TO HIS WILL in the army of heaven,
and among the inhabitants of the earth: and NONE CAN STAY HIS HAND, or say, What doest
Thou?" Dear saints of God, don't believe for one moment that anything in God's great
universe is out of control! God is GOD. He IS in control. The band of restriction in your
life may be tied to the neck (will) of the Sea Monster, but the Lamb's paw is upon that
band! HE is in control of every sphere of activity and all the interplay between good and
evil that touches your life. Truly, as the inspired apostle has taught us, "the trial
of your faith is more precious than gold that perisheth" (I Pet. 1-7). ADVERSITY
builds strength of character. If we were never exposed to trials and tribulation, we would
grow up weak indeed! The more we are exposed to adverse circumstances, the more we have to
wrestle with our environment, the more we are challenged by the world around us, the
stronger we become. Saints, if we would be the sons of the Most High we must be strong in
the Lord and in the power of His might! There is a great and magnificent future ahead for
the sons of God, and a great work our Father has for us to do in the ages to come, and He
is preparing us and making us ready for the high and holy place He has for us. Can we not
see that all the opposing forces we now encounter are working together for our good —
to develop the strength, character, wisdom, and power we must acquire? This is God's plan
for us!
ANDROMEDA — THE CHAINED WOMAN
Andromeda is a line of bright
stars in the House of Pisces picturing a woman with her arms and feet in chains, in misery
and trouble, helplessly bound in the sky. Here is another picture of the church, this time
not represented as a fish. It is interesting to note that in some of the ancient
planispheres these fishes are depicted as having the face of a woman because another
picture of the church frequently used in scripture is that of a woman, of a bride. The
true church is the bride of Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:21-33; II Cor. 11:2). Here again is
another picture representing the same great truth. Andromeda is the figure of a beautiful
woman in what appears to be a sitting position, bound with chains upon her hands and feet.
Her name in Greek (Andro-meda) means Man-Ruler. It is interesting that though she is bound
and seems to be helpless, yet this "helpless" woman is to be ruler of men.
It is impossible for me to
explain the glory of such a thing as this because we are blinded by the impenetrable
mystery of a realm that long ago passed away. Nevertheless, the moment that we understand
that man in the beginning was created male and female and that male and female IS the
image of God, then we can understand for the first time the awesome glory, power and
exaltation of the bride of Christ. When God formed the body of Adam from the dust of the
ground, He did not make man and woman, for Adam was both in one — after the image and
likeness of God. The image of God is not a body with a torso, two legs with two feet and
ten toes, two arms with two hands and ten fingers, and a head with two eyes, two ears, a
nose and a mouth. The image of God is the emanation of the nature of God. You see, the
Bible states clearly that in the beginning there was only God — omnipotent,
omniscient, immutable, holy, perfect, who is love. But because God had a Father Nature, He
had to birth a Son: because when one has a father nature, the deepest craving of his
nature is to beget and bring forth out of his own being an offspring in the likeness of
himself. Therefore, because God had a Father Nature, He had to birth a Son; but the
problem was He didn't have a wife. Now this would have been a problem for us, but it was
not a problem for God, because He had His wife in His own side, for in that beginning,
before human flesh was, God had both Male and Female within Himself. We know this is so
because everything in the whole vast universe came out of God, and if God had not been
Male and Female within Himself in the beginning we could not have male and female in the
earth today — in His image.
When he that readeth can
grasp the truth that God bears within Himself both the characteristics of male and female,
of Father and Mother, then he can better understand the divine word spoken "in the
beginning" when God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:
so...in the image of God created He him; MALE AND FEMALE created He them!" (Gen.
1:26-27). When Eve had been built by the skillful hand of the Creator and presented to
Adam, he had an immediate name for what Eve obviously was. Not her given name, Eve, as we
term it in English, but what kind of creature she was. Hebrew is simpler than English, and
more plainly explains exactly what a woman is: ISH is the Hebrew word for man, and ISHA is
the feminine form of ISH or man. Adam said, "Now here is bone exactly like my bone,
and flesh exactly like my flesh, because she was built from what was taken from me, I will
call her "isha" — a FEMALE MAN! Adam merely added a single letter to the
word which stood for himself, to define the quality of difference: sex. And God confirmed
Adam's understanding that they were both exactly alike despite the obvious outward
differences: "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him;
male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called THEIR name ADAM, in the day
when they were created" (Gen. 5:13). To both God and Adam it was ONE CREATION
"in the image of God."
Ish. Isha. Male. Female. Both
Adam. Both man. Both in the image of God! Isha signifies, no matter how uncouth the sound
to our ears, MAN-NESS. So in the old Latin the word for man is VIR and the word for woman
is VIRA — a FEMALE MAN! The English word "woman" also confirms this truth,
for it is a contraction of the old Anglo-Saxon term "womb-man" — a MAN with
a womb! When Adam said that Eve must be called "isha," it was as though for
"wife" one would say "she-man." God blessed the union of ish and isha,
this ONE CREATION HE CALLED ADAM.
Those who read these lines
should meditate deeply upon the wonder of man's primordial glory — male and female
— set together in splendor over the works of God's hands. All creation being set in
order, one was needed to take the headship, to bring the authority and blessing of God's
Kingdom over all things. "And God said, Let us make man in our image and after our
likeness; and let THEM have dominion...so God created man in His own image...male and
female created He THEM. And God blessed THEM, and God said unto THEM, Be Fruitful and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and HAVE DOMINION over...every living
thing that moveth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:26-28). My reader will observe the change
from him to them. We are not presented with the actual fact of the formation of the woman
until the next chapter; though here we find God blessing them, and giving them JOINTLY THE
PLACE OF UNIVERSAL GOVERNMENT. All realms from the lowest of the bottomless to the highest
of the heavens were set under their joint dominion, as typified by the fish of the sea,
the beasts of the earth, and the fowl of the heavens. These three realms symbolically
encompass all spheres of existence from the lowest depths of darkness unto the highest
dimension of light and exaltation. Jesus confirmed the true scope of man's dominion when,
as the last Adam, He descended into the lowest parts of the earth and then ascended up far
above all heavens. He liberated the captives in the prison house of Hades and ascended up
above all heavens to reign over all things. ALL POWER is given unto Him, both in heaven
and in earth. THIS, precious friend of mine, is the magnificence of that dominion given to
Adam — male and female — in that long ago beginning.
Eve received all her
blessings in Adam; in him, too, she got her dignity and position and power. Not yet called
into separation out of Adam, she was, in the purpose of God, part of the man. Universal
dominion was not given to Adam alone, it was not said, let him have dominion, but “let
them have dominion." There was no other creature so near to Adam as Eve, because no
other creature was part of himself. What affection did not Eve owe to Adam! What nearness
she enjoyed! What intimacy of communion! What full participation in all of his thoughts!
In all his dignity, and in all his glory, wisdom and power, she was entirely ONE. He did
not rule over her, but with her. He was lord of the whole creation, and she was ONE WITH
HIM! THEY were king and queen of the universe! All this will find its full antitype in the
ages to come. Then shall the True Man — the Lord from heaven, the corporate man
composed of "many sons brought to glory" — take His seat upon the throne,
and in companionship with His bride — the New Eve, the cleansed and perfected Church
— rule over a restored creation. This church is quickened out of the grave of Christ,
taken from His riven side, being thus "of His body, of His flesh, and of His
bones." He is the Head and she the body, making ONE NEW MAN, as we read in the fourth
chapter of Ephesians, "Till we all come, in the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). And who is this "Perfect Man"? CHRIST AND
HIS BRIDE, CHRIST MALE AND FEMALE — THE LAST MAN ADAM AND THE NEW EVE!
The sons of God are the
One of the deepest mysteries
of the ages is that this glorious bride of Christ, destined to rule over the nations and
all things, is also Andromeda, the Chained Woman of the heavens! The names of some of the
principle stars in this constellation mean "the weak; the afflicted; the
chained" — an eloquent picture of the church throughout this church age which
has been in affliction, weakness, bondage, and in chains. Joseph Seiss wrote of the bride
of Christ in her chains: "And thus, again, we have a striking picture of the
unfavorable side of the church's condition in this world. Jealous rivals hate her and
clamor against her. The world-powers in their selfishness fail to protect her, and lend
themselves for her exposure and destruction. Innocently she is made to suffer. Though a
lovely and influential princess, she is hindered by personal disabilities and bonds. It
will not be so always. The time will come when those bonds shall be broken and that
exposure ended. But for the present affliction and hardship are appointed to her. She
cannot move as she would, or enjoy what pertains to her royal character, her innocence,
and her beauty. She is bound to the hard, cold, and ponderous rock of this earthly life.
Born to reign with her Lord, apostles and prophets can only wish that she did reign, that
they might reign with her. She is within the sacred territory, but it is as yet a place of
captivity and bonds. She never can be truly herself in this mortal life" — end
quote.
This present time is a time
of trial, testing, proving, washing, cleansing, processing and preparation for the glory
that shall follow the marriage of the Lamb. Bride of the Iamb! do not repine when those
who should understand your love for your Beloved, smite and persecute you; the Lord holds
it all, and He hears all that is said. Do not grieve if your name is cast out as evil, and
you are rejected and defamed by those who should tenderly care for you and bind up your
wounds. Jesus knows it all; and if you look unto Him He will pour in oil that will heal
every wound and ease every pain. Do not fret if your separation to your Lord is called
fanaticism, and you are branded as strange and offensive; He knows it all. It was He who
marked out the path for your feet, and who first journeyed over it to the cross. It was He
who said that the gate is narrow and the way straightened that leadeth to life. As you
press onward, counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus your Lord; as you bear about in your body the dying of the Lord, and His life
becomes manifested through partaking of His death, your hair will take on the purple of
suffering and of the overcomer, and the King will be held captive by one tress of your
purple hair!
There are, however, chains of
bondage far more subtle and sinister than the hatred and persecution of the world. These
chains are the Babylonian captivity into which the people of God have unwittingly sold
themselves. Let me unfold for you the mystery. Under Old Testament economy God alone was
King over His people until
Under New Testament economy
the Christ of God was to be the one and only Head of His church. But the spirit of the
world was for prostituting this church and causing her to commit fornication with the
kings and governments of the world, in that she began to be joined with them as she only
ought to have been joined to HIM. Under God's perfect order for the New Testament age,
both emperors and beggars must meet on common ground. Both are sinners; grace alone can
intervene. Both must acknowledge their guilt and plead for mercy. Both should then be
equal in dignity, in authority, in meekness, and in charity, deriving all their spiritual
stature from HIS WORK WITHIN, and possessing none by virtue of what they are naturally. In
the days of the early apostles, men were made christians by the operation of God alone,
and thereby they were taken out of the nations as a people for His name (Acts 15:14). The
ministries in the body of Christ were sovereignly raised up and anointed by the Holy
Spirit of God. With what power, signs, and wonders did they witness to the living presence
of the Christ! There was no manmade organization, no carnal church boards, no dominating
hierarchies, only the dynamic presence and power of Christ manifested in and through the
living members of His body.
Even before the apostles had
passed from this life, a spirit and system had set in among the saints of the Lord and
many people were wearing the Babylonish garment. They were instituting rules and
regulations, laying down laws, formulating creeds, observing days, establishing sacraments
and ordinances, elevating human government, becoming disciples of Paul, of Apollos, of
Cephas, and of many others. The captivity had begun and the mysterious chains of Andromeda
had begun to shackle the feet (walk) and wrists (service) of the little virgin bride of
Christ. Before too many years had passed men began to set themselves up as
"bishops" and "lords" over God's heritage in place of the Holy Spirit.
Instead of conquering by the power of the Spirit and Truth — as in the early days
— men began to substitute their ideas and their methods. Soon the glory and power,
the presence and word of God in the morning time church began to be eclipsed, and the
power of carnal minded men gradually took the place of the awesome presence of God.
Consequently, man's carnal understanding was put upon the scriptures, and as the Spirit of
Christ fled from their midst, men established a vast and elaborate system of substitutes
to take the place of reality. Dioceses and parishes were established. Ecclesiastical
centralization commenced. The weapons of excommunication were forged. The festivals of the
church were created, along the lines of pagan celebrations. Catechetical schools were
created to teach the faith systematically. The formulas of baptism and the sacraments
became of great importance. Costly and ornate edifices were constructed for worship. The
services became ceremonialized and elaborate. Sculpture and painting were enlisted in the
work of providing aids to devotion. Relics of saints and martyrs were cherished as sacred
possessions. Religous observances were multiplied. The church, with its array of gaudily
bedecked clergy and of imposing ceremonies, assumed much of the stateliness and visible
splendor that belonged to the HEATHEN SYSTEM which it had supplanted. The mission of the
church was lost sight of in a degrading alliance with the State. Christianity was now a
pageant, a ritualism, a vain philosophy, a superstition, a formula, an ARM OF THE STATE!
The little virgin bride of Christ had become a beautiful woman sitting in the heavens of
power, exaltation and authority — CHAINED! She appeared to be ruling, but was in fact
a slave to the system of religious
The people of the Lord have
long been held captive by the spirit of the world. Thank God, there has been a little
light in
CEPHEUS — THE KING
In this third and final
constellation surrounding Pisces we have the picture of a bearded man wearing a crown and
a royal robe, seated upon a throne. In his uplifted hand he holds a scepter. He is a
glorious king enthroned in the highest heaven. He is the Deliverer for whom the Chained
Woman waits. The Egyptians called him PEKUHOR, which means The Ruler That Comes. He is
known as Cepheus today, which is a Greek name that comes from a Hebrew word meaning The
Branch or Royal Branch. The Ethiopians called him HYK, The King. Star names add to the
imagery. The star ALPHIRK in his belt means The Redeemer, while the brightest star in his
body is called AL DERAMIN which means Coming Quickly. Do we need to ask with the Psalmist,
"Who is this King of Glory?" We can respond as in the Psalm, "The LORD of
hosts, He is the King of Glory!"
The hour of the final
deliverance of God's people and the manifestation of His glory, majesty, wisdom and power
upon them is at hand. The King is coming! Hallelujah! He is coming within to set His
people free, that they in turn may deliver creation. The chains of the beautiful Andromeda
shall now be broken. Her release from all bondage and captivity is even now under way.
Once the church is cleansed from her idols and defilement, she will be in a position to
bring deliverance to a sin-sick and judgment-weary world, when "the knowledge of the
Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9). Only when
Christ's church is cleansed from her idols can she ever hope to bring deliverance to the
world. And that deliverance has to come. It will come through those who have given up
their all, those who have lost everything to be married to their Lord, and who henceforth
live only unto Him. The water of life must now flow from the city to bring healing to the
nations. But before we may have any part or lot in the great work, we must forsake all and
follow the Lord alone. No one can deliver men from the lies of the antichrist while
continuing to preach those lies. No one can deliver the world from the bondages of sin,
fear, carnality, limitation and death while himself remaining a captive of those things.
And before God's true church can persuade men to give up their idols, and loose their
bands, she must first get rid of all her own golden calves and march in victory out of
George Hawtin has ably
written: "The hour has come far us to realize that only THE LORD knoweth them that
are His. Only THE LORD can gather the tares out of the wheat. Only THE LORD can separate
the sheep from the goats. Only THE LORD can call His sheep by name and lead them out. Only
THE LORD can look into the four corners of the earth and call forth His elect. Who, then,
am I to circumscribe anything? I must learn to know men not by what they say, what they
believe, where they are, or least of all because they are members of a certain group, but
by that strange witness that made Jesus say to Peter, ‘Thou art Peter,' and by that
same spiritual revelation that made Peter say to Jesus, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God.’ How often we have been shockingly disappointed in men! It was
because we knew them only after the flesh and we did not know them after the Spirit. We
accepted them because they were inside a certain circle and said they belonged to ‘The
Move.’ Yes, indeed, they may have been inside the circle and they may have been in
the move, but where were they in God’s eyes? That is the important question"
— end quote.
The truth of the things I now
write to the elect of God, which also has been inscribed in the Signs of the heavens from
the dawn of creation, cannot be more graphically confirmed than by the remarkable vision
given by the Lord to evangelist Tommy Hicks in 1961. He wrote: "I had hardly fallen
asleep when the vision and the revelation that God gave to me came before me. The vision
came three times, exactly in detail, the morning of July 25th, 1961. I was so stirred and
so moved by the revelation, that this has changed my complete outlook open the body of
Christ, and upon the last — the end-time ministry. The greatest thing that the
"Suddenly I beheld what
looked like a great giant; and as I stared and looked at it, I was almost bewildered by
the sight. It was so gigantic and so great in stature; his feet seemed to reach to the
north pole and his head to the south; his arms were stretched from sea to sea. I could not
even begin to understand whether this were a mountain or whether this be a giant, but as I
watched it, I suddenly beheld this great giant. I could see it was struggling for life, to
even live. His body was covered with debris from head to foot. At times this great giant
would move its body and act as if it would even rise up. When it did, thousands of little
creatures seemed to run away — hideous looking creatures would run away from this
giant. When he would become calm, they would came back. All of a sudden this great giant
lifted his hand toward the heavens, and then it lifted its other hand. When it did, these
creatures by the thousands seemed to flee away from this giant and go out into the
darkness.
"Slowly this great giant
began to rise, and as he did, his head and hands went into the clouds. As he arose to his
feet, he seemed to have cleansed himself from the debris and filth that was upon him, and
he began to raise his hands into the heavens as though praising the Lord. As he raised his
hands it was even unto the clouds. Suddenly every cloud became silver, the most beautiful
silver I have ever known. As I watched the phenomenon, it was so great, I could not even
begin to understand what it all meant. I was so stirred as I watched it, and I cried unto
the Lord, and said, "Oh, Lord, what is the meaning of this?" It felt as if I was
actually in the Spirit, and I could feel the presence of the Lord even as I was asleep.
From those clouds suddenly there came great drops of liquid light raining down upon this
mighty giant, and slowly, slowly, this giant began to melt — began to sink, as it
were, into the very earth itself. As he melted, his whole form seemed to have melted upon
the face of the earth, and this great rain began to come down; liquid drops of light, as
it were, began to flood the very earth itself. As I watched this giant that seemed to
melt, suddenly it became millions of people over the face of the earth. As I beheld the
sight before me, people stood up over the world. They were lifting their hands and they
were praising the Lord.
"At that very moment
there came a great thunder that seemed to roar from the heavens. I turned my eyes toward
the heavens, and suddenly I saw a figure in white, in glistening white — the most
glorious thing that I have ever seen in all my life. I did not see the face, but somehow I
knew that it was the Lord Jesus Christ. He stretched forth His hand upon the peoples and
the nations of the world, men and women. As He pointed toward them, this liquid light
seemed to flow from His hand into these persons, and a mighty anointing of God came upon
them, and those people began to go forth in the name of the Lord. And this is the miracle
of it — this is the glorious miracle of it — those people would stretch forth
their hands exactly as the Lord did, and it seemed that there was this same liquid fire in
their hands. As they stretched forth their hands, they said, "According to my word,
be thou made whole." As these people continued in this mighty ministry, I did not
fully realize what it was. And I looked to the Lord and said, 'What is the meaning of
this?' And He said, "This is that that I will do in the last days. I will restore all
that the cankerworm, the palmerworm, the caterpillar — I will restore all that they
have destroyed. This, My people in the end-time, shall go forth. As a mighty army shall
they sweep over the face of the earth.”
"One of the things that
seemed remarkable — after I had reviewed the vision so many times in my mind — I
never saw a church and I never saw or heard anything of a denomination, but these people
were going in the Name of the Lord of hosts. Hallelujah! As they marched forward,
everything they did was the ministry of Christ. These people were ministering to the
multitudes over the face of the earth. Tens of thousands, yea, millions came to the Lord
Jesus Christ as these people stood forth and gave the message of the Kingdom — of the
coming of the Kingdom — in this hour.
"Suddenly there was
another loud clap of thunder that seemed to resound around the world. I heard again the
voice, the voice that seemed to speak: "Now, this is My people. This is My beloved
bride." When the voice spoke, I looked upon the earth and I could see the lakes and
the mountains. The graves were opened and the people from all over the world, the saints
of all ages, seemed to be rising, and as they rose from the graves, suddenly all these
people came from every direction and they seemed to be forming again this gigantic body. I
could hardly comprehend it, it was so marvelous — it was so far beyond anything I
could ever dream or think of. But, as this body suddenly began to form — it took
shape again in the form of this mighty giant — this time it was different. It was
arrayed in the most beautiful, gorgeous white — its garments were without spot or
wrinkle — as this body began to form. The people of all ages appeared to be gathering
into this body. Slowly, slowly, as it formed up into the very heavens, suddenly from the
heavens above the Lord Jesus came — became the Head. I heard another clap of thunder
that said, "This is My beloved Bride for whom I have waited. She will come forth,
even tried by fire. This is she that I have loved from the beginning of time" —
end quote.
Chapter
35
ARIES
— THE LAMB
In our series of messages on
the Signs of the heavens, we come now to the Sign of ARIES — THE RAM OR LAMB. Let us
look at some of the names by which the constellation of Aries has been known from ancient
times. Aries usually carries the symbol of the ram, but many of the oldest Zodiacs portray
a lamb (with no horns), and in some ancient Zodiacs the lamb has a circular crown on its
head. The presentation of a lamb instead of a full grown ram is confirmed by the meanings
of the names associated with Aries. The Hebrew name is TALEH, meaning The Lamb Sent Forth.
The Greek name is KRIOS, also meaning The Lamb. In Latin it is called ARIES (the name by
which we know it) which means The Lamb, The Chief, The Head. The Arabic name, HAMAL, means
Sheep, Gentle, Merciful. Furthermore, the Sign of Aries emphasizes that the lamb is also a
sacrifice. The brightest star, ELNATH, means The Wounded or Slain. The nearby star, called
SHERETAN, has a name meaning Bruised, and the other notable star is MESARTIM, whose name
means The Bound. The ancient Akkadians called Aries BARA-ZIGGAR; BAR meaning Altar, or
Sacrifice, while ZIGGAR means Making Right. The full meaning would be The Altar, or The
Sacrifice of Making Right. Another truth conveyed by the names in Aries is that of
kingship. The name Aries itself bears the meaning of Chief or Head. There are other names
also indicating the idea of a Reign. In putting all these ideas together, Aries presents
to us A LAMB SACRIFICED BUT REIGNING!
A Lamb is obviously a very
familiar figure in the Word of God. The first blood earth's startled soil ever drank was
shed in that primeval Paradise in
Redemption is not an
afterthought of God by which He hopes to salvage a few of the broken and shattered pieces
of His creation. Redemption is PART OF THE PLAN OF CREATION. If the fall of man is part of
the plan of God, then the redemption of the fallen creation must also be a part of the
same plan that issued forth from the fathomless depths of His omniscient mind. If Peter
was speaking the truth when he wrote of God's Lamb, "Who verily was FOREORDAINED
BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, but was manifest in these last times for you" (I
Pet. 1:20), then the fall of man must certainly be a part of the plan of the Creator. For
what possible purpose was the blessed redemptive Lamb foreordained before the world began
if redemption itself were not already in the mind and plan of God? All Christians love to
quote the Golden Text of the Bible, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His
only begotten Son..." (Jn. 3:16). Yet what is the real message of this beautiful
passage? Is it not that God SO LOVED that He GAVE His Son? Does not I Pet. 1:20 make it
very plain that the actual giving of that Son was before the world began and before man
was driven from the Garden planted eastward in Eden? Ah, the agonies of the cross were
endured only two thousand years ago on
It is clear that the plan of
redemption was prepared in its fullness before ever the voice of God commanded,'"Let
there be!" It was not completed just in case man should fall, but because the fall of
man and his redemption from sin and death was part of the process by which he would come
into God's image and live in the eternal realm as a creature of experience and knowledge,
completely redeemed, completely purified, completely perfected, completely matured,
completely instructed, and completely incapable of sin or death forevermore. Is it any
wonder that John on Patmos heard every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and
under the earth, and all that are in them exulting in such a plan as this and crying out
in ecstasy, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto THE LAMB for ever and ever!" (Rev. 5:13). Creation and
redemption walk hand in hand through all the pilgrim journey from
The glorious theme of the
holy scripture is the Person and Work of Him whose lovely title is "The Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world." This gracious title for our Lord Jesus Christ
is indeed one of the most charming symbols used in the Bible to describe Him who loved us
and has washed us from our sins in His own blood. Whenever the serious seeker after truth
explores the meaning of the various Semitic symbols used to depict the Person and Work of
the Saviour he becomes aware that each stands for a specific aspect of truth. In the case
of the "Lamb" it is with the truth of redemption that we deal, for redemption is
by the blood of the Lamb. "Ye were not redeemed by such corruptible things as silver
and gold...but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot" (I Pet. 1:18-19). "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" — not the
child that was born, though He was indeed worthy. Not the miracle-worker of the sea, or by
the grave of Lazarus. Not the teacher whose words enthralled the multitudes on the
mountain, or across the waters of blue
We would have thought that in
calling our Lord "the Lamb" this name would have been used only in respect to
His humiliation in His earthly life. However in scripture it is most used in reference to
His eternal glory in the heavenlies. Peter saw Him as the Lamb foreordained before the
foundation of the world. John saw Him as a Lamb that had been slain from the foundation of
the world, highly exalted, standing in the midst of the Throne. This slain Lamb is IN THE
MIDST of everything: in the midst of the Throne, and of the four Living Creatures, and of
the Elders. This Lamb is peculiarly the One who is IN THE MIDST, just as the tree of life
was IN THE MIDST of the
The term "Lamb" is
used of Christ no less than twenty-eight times in Revelation, and has two vital
characteristics. Christ is the sacrificial Lamb and the conquering lamb. He is never
presented this way except in the majestic scenes around the Throne. We see the Lamb
marching to the ultimate throne of universal empire in complete triumph and as absolute
victor. Confronting the power of the beast and the kings of the earth, and the hordes of
hell, and the lewdness and deception of the harlot system, and the wars and battles and
bloodshed that fill the soul with dread, is THE POWER OF THE LAMB, whose victory has been
assured and whose glory is guaranteed. God has given the Lamb for a leader and a
counselor; so He is both our leader — for we are they who follow the Lamb
whithersoever He goeth — and He is our counselor and commander; a counselor to
counsel us concerning the things of God and His Kingdom, the Kingdom that hath no end. So
glory to God and to the Lamb! Glory be unto God and the Lamb forevermore! And the Lamb
shall have the victory! Of this we are assured, though all the wild beasts and the wolves,
and the dogs, and the goats and bulls of Bashan, the spotted leopards, and all the wild
heifers of Ephraim, the horses of Pharaoh, and the wild Ishmaels, profane Esaus, envious
Cains, which may gather in a brotherhood, and Gog and Magog, professor and profane, if all
these rise against the Lamb and His followers, without or within, yet I say the Lamb shall
have the victory over the beast, the whore, and the dragon, over the flesh, the world, and
the devil, for Christ is Lord over them all, for He was slain before they were, and will
be reigning when they are gone, blessed be His wonderful name! He has conquered and shall
conquer all who rise up against Him. For seventy years the ruthless, atheistic communist
regime in
But the Lamb in the book of
Revelation has another note. The word used for LAMB here is peculiar to this book. It is
the diminutive form of the Greek word for lamb, and is not found elsewhere in the New
Testament. It means a young lamb, or a lambkin, weak and small. Our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself is THE LAMB of God, and joined to Him are the members of His body, His brethren,
the younger sons of God, the lambkin company. To see this company as the body of the Lamb
is not to magnify man, but to exalt Christ, for it is HIS LAMB LIFE formed in them and
lived out through them, giving expression to the Lamb nature. We know that HE is the
preeminent One, and that it is HIS LIFE which is given, and by that life we are conformed
to HIS image, made partakers of HIS divine nature, becoming the revelation of HIMSELF in
the earth. All the qualifications of The Lamb must now be found in this people who make up
the body of The Lamb. As one has written: "THE LAMB beautifully took care of all the
work on God's side towards man, and the lambkin will have a beautiful ministry from man's
side, to bring things back to God. His kingdom shall come, His will shall be done, on
earth, as it is in heaven. There are many paths through the sunshine and the shadows, but
we learn to see His hand in it all, for He is preparing and fashioning those who shall
become part of the lambkin, who are ONE IN THE LAMB, to be given for the salvation of the
ends of the earth."
It is in keeping with this
that in Revelation chapter fourteen, we find the Lamb standing an
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 shall 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, dwelling in His body, to be to
you and me, yea, to be through you and me EVERYTHING THAT JESUS IS UPON THE THRONE. The
"lambkin" as a figure of Christ is indeed complete and perfect; yet it is a type
of Christ in a limited measure and at the same time in the greatest measure. How strange
this sounds to our ears, how curious to our minds! As far as the 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. When we come to the Lord and receive Him as our redemption,
the Christ we receive is whole, complete, and perfect; but as far as our experience of Him
is concerned, we experience Him in only a small measure, just as the little lamb of
salvation. From the time we experienced Christ as the Lamb, we have always been
progressing and advancing; we have continually made progress in our experience of Christ
and received of Him more and more. This does not mean that Christ has become greater and
greater. No, Christ is the same, He changes not! But as we grow in our appropriation 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!
THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB
What is this stream of life
from the Lamb upon the Throne, and why is the Lamb so highly exalted until eternity
re-echoes the song of His praise: "The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory and blessing!" The
wonderful answer comes: "Thou art worthy...FOR Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us
to God by Thy Blood.” It is the blood of the Lamb that bestows this glory upon Him.
By His own blood He has entered the Holiest of all, and is seated upon the Throne of the
Majesty in the heavens. His blood has accomplished this. The blood of Jesus is the
greatest mystery of the ages, the deepest mystery of divine wisdom. Let us not imagine
that we can easily grasp its meaning. God thought four thousand years necessary to prepare
men for it, and we must take time, yea, sacrificial time in His presence, if we are to
gain a knowledge of the awesome and marvelous power of the blood. I know of no word in the
Bible or in human speech that contains such glories! This great and eternal truth shines
with ever increasing brilliance from Eden's fragrant Garden of long ago to the jasper
walls of the New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven; from Adam's covering of
skins and Abel's humble sacrifice of the firstfruits of his flock to the very Throne of
God Himself where, glorious in power and might, the Lamb reigns and the seven Spirits of
His divine Life are sent forth into all the earth.
The blood of Jesus Christ is
of such vast importance to God the Father that He has decreed that there shall be (1) no
remission, (2) no salvation, (3) no atonement, (4) no redemption, (5) no propitiation, (6)
no cleansing, (7) no justification, (8) no peace, (9) no new covenant, (10) no
sanctification, (11) no reconciliation, (12) no entrance into the Most Holy Place, (13) no
sonship, without the blood of Jesus Christ whose blood is called by Paul the BLOOD OF GOD
(Acts 20:28; Heb. 10:19-20).
Never forget, precious friend
of mine, that Jesus came as THE PRICE WHICH COVERS, the substance in the scale that
replenishes all deficiency. He shed His blood — His divine life — pouring it out
for us. Life and blood are synonymous. Spirit and blood are synonymous. Spirit, blood, and
life are all different names for the same element. Jesus performed His mighty works by the
shores of
There is a deep longing and
intense hunger in the hearts of vast numbers of the Lord's people in this significant
hour. They are earnestly searching for reality but the church systems and so-called
revival movements have failed to meet their need. But the profound hunger, the intense
need in their life cries loudly for satisfaction, their soul seeks ardently and resolutely
after truth, life and eternal substance. Their great need is not being met by the churches
nor by the television evangelists, nor by the crusades, nor by all the good meetings with
their tongues, prophecies, healings, manifestations, and preaching of faith and
prosperity. So these dear folk begin to look to other sources. Many of these "other
sources" are dangerously deceptive, especially to those who desire "more
knowledge," "deeper truth," or "the latest revelation." My
beloved, there is an invasion right into the camp of those whose hearts have been moved by
the call to sonship of "humanistic — new age" philosophy that is deceiving
many precious people today. It was prophesied by the apostle Peter that this enemy of the
Lamb of God should appear right in the midst of the very elect. "But there were false
prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who
privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring
upon themselves swift destruction (separation from the flow of divine life)" (II Pet.
2:1). The key word is — "even denying the Lord that bought them." The
denial is against the atonement, the ransom, the redeeming blood. They are offended at the
Lord that bought them, though they may be devoted to the Lord that taught them. Ah, in
very fact, they do not deny the Lord - they call Jesus Lord and esteem Him as the Son of
God, the Christ, our Guiding Teacher, our Great Example, the Way-Shower, our Pattern. They
speak effusively of His goodness, His love, meekness, unselfishness, understanding,
compassion, mercy, power, and wisdom. They believe that His mission was to show us just
how great is the potential of the true spiritual identity within every man, and the
raising up of the Christ-consciousness within. They proclaim that Jesus became the Saviour
by blazing the trail and showing the way of salvation to all who would follow in His
steps. The only problem is that they are required to go in their own power, their own
inward identity, their own godhood, their own inherent divinity, to follow Jesus into the
fullness of the divine life. There is no reconciling, atoning, redeeming, cleansing,
sanctifying, justifying, transforming power of His precious blood involved, no quickening
of His life, no new birth, no washing of regeneration or renewing of the Holy Ghost. And
yet, to the natural mind it all sounds so good — so very right! But we must truly
allow the Holy Spirit of Truth to give wisdom and understanding that we may discern the
difference between the precious and the vile. These satanic agents are described by the
inspired apostle as those who appear to be teachers of the deep mysteries of God, yet they
bring in damnable heresies, in all cunning craftiness and subtlety, consummating in the
repudiation of the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ. It is not strange that there is
resentment against the mystery of the blood which does not exist against any other thing
in the vast panorama of Truth. It is not strange that the ministers of satan, appearing as
the apostles of Christ and messengers of Light, should fortify their lies and hypocrisies
by contending for almost every phase of revealed truth, including the bright hope of
sonship; yet subtly omitting, or violently denying, the one and only point upon which the
interests of God and satan divide.
In the testimony of scripture
the order is ever: "Unto HIM that loved US, and WASHED US from OUR SINS in HIS OWN
BLOOD." And, "to as many as received HIM, to THEM gave HE power to BECOME the
sons of God." Break these links and the chain is gone. Let us never forget this! Some
trust so strongly in their own divinity, in the raising up of the Christ-consciousness
within every man, that they need no Saviour beyond themselves, no sun or wind or rain from
without to quicken the life within. The unwary are caught by it. All this time the blood
of Christ is omitted or ignored. Not one word is said about it. The silence is ominous. Do
let us understand truth clearly, for "there shall be false teachers among you, who
privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even DENYING THE LORD THAT B-O-U-G-H-T THEM and
bring upon themselves swift destruction.” The destruction is the drying up of the
spiritual life, the aborting of the spirit of sonship, and ultimate separation from the
High Calling of God in Christ Jesus. Do away with the blood of atonement, the blood of
remission, the blood of salvation, the blood of propitiation, the blood of reconciliation,
the blood of justification, the blood of cleansing, the blood that gives eternal life, the
blood of the new covenant, the blood that speaketh better thing's than Abel's, the blood
by which entrance is made into the Most Holy — destroy, I say, this wonderful stream
of the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot and every
room within the towering temple of reality comes crashing down to earth! The love of God
became a man, the love of God became human flesh, the love of God in Jesus Christ has
flowed into our souls as the precious blood of Christ to wash away the veil of carnal
consciousness and quicken us again to our true heritage in God. "Forasmuch as ye know
that ye were not redeemed by such corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain
manner of life received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot." Hallelujah for the blood!
Multiplied millions of
Christians in all lands hold the blood of Christ to be precious. The word precious means
of great price or value, costly, of great desirability, honored, esteemed or beloved. But
there must be a reason why the blood is precious! Through many years of my Christian walk
I never learned of any reason why it is esteemed except that God counts it to be the most
valuable and precious of all blood to Him. I was never told whether it was intrinsically
valuable or if it was valuable because of what it could and did accomplish. To be
intrinsically valuable or precious means that it is of itself precious and does not
necessarily need to accomplish any work to get its value. For example, the value of
precious gems is determined not so much from their usefulness as from their intrinsic
value and the desire that people have to own them. My sincere prayer is that the spirit of
wisdom and revelation may enlighten the eyes of our understanding until we clearly see
that the blood of Jesus Christ was and is precious both in respect to its INTRINSIC VALUE
and because of WHAT IT COULD AND DID AND DOES NOW DO.
The mystery of the blood is
far too intricate for my little mind to fully grasp, but there is a most interesting
statement found in the very first command which God gave to man after the awful judgment
of the flood in the days of Noah. After the wickedness of man had reached its peak in
antediluvian days, God, in order to spare the human race from complete corruption sent a
great flood upon the earth and destroyed all men except one single family which by the
grace of God had still remained "perfect in his generations." With this new
family on a cleansed and renewed earth, the Lord begins a new chapter in the history of
humanity. No sooner had God, however, released Noah from the ark, than He gave him some
instructions concerning his conduct, lest another judgment fall upon them. Chief among
these instructions was the commandment, "Eat No blood." "Every moving thing
that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But
flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, ye shall not eat" (Gen.
9:3-4).
Because life is in the blood,
and not in the flesh of God's creatures, He permitted men to eat flesh but it must be
without blood. God is very insistent, even in the New Testament, on this point. In giving
the national dietary and ceremonial laws to Israel He repeats the prohibition of Gen. 9:4.
"And whatsoever man there be of the house of
God's commands are never
arbitrary but always logical, reasonable, and with divine purpose. Many reasons can be
found for abstaining from blood. We might mention the reasons of health and hygiene, but
there are two reasons which stand out most prominent. First, the life is in the blood
— and life is sacred. It was God's special gift and the effect of His own breath.
Moses tells us in Genesis this wonderful and little understood fact: "God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and BREATHED into his nostrils the BREATH OF LIFE; and man
became a living soul" (Gen. 2:7). Truly do I declare unto you that a profound mystery
lies here! Since life is in the blood, all flesh is lifeless without blood. Here then is
Adam formed of the dust. Just a lump of matter without life. God breathes into his
nostrils and lo, he lives. Now mark well, God did not cause Adam to begin to breathe the
air in the atmosphere around him. It was not breathing air that made Adam a living soul.
GOD BREATHED into his nostrils. God is Spirit. It was the very breath of God that entered
into Adam, the very spirit of life from God. Since the life is in the blood, it is my deep
conviction that it was blood which God added to that body when He breathed into him the
breath of life! Not the mortal, corruptible, dead blood that flows in mankind's veins
today. Adam's body was of the earth but his blood was DIRECTLY FROM GOD. Since the life of
all flesh is in the blood, and in view of the fact that God typified the regeneration of
man's blood by the slain animals of
Jesus came as the Head of an
entirely new creation. In fact He Himself WAS A NEW CREATURE, different from any that had
ever been. I want to make it very plain that Jesus was in no way derived from the First
Adam, either by flesh or by blood. If He had even one ounce of the first Adam's blood
coursing through his veins, then He Himself NEEDED A SAVIOUR. Hear now what Paul says of
the Christ: "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a
quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is
natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the
second man is THE LORD FROM HEAVEN" (I Cor. 15:45-47). Jesus was not fifty percent
the first Adam and fifty percent the last Adam. He was one hundred percent the last Adam!
He was not fifty percent the first man and fifty percent the last man. He was not fifty
percent the man of earth and fifty percent the Lord from heaven. The second man I-S (100%)
THE LORD FROM HEAVEN. To be the second man and the last Adam He could in no way contain
any part of the first Adam. To be the man from heaven He must not be a descendant of the
man of the earth. He must be an entirely NEW KIND OF MAN, separate from every other
creation of God, as was the first man Adam in the day when he was created. The first Adam
was truly without father, without mother, and without descent — he was not derived
from the life of any other man who had ever lived. So the last Adam! Though He was
conceived IN the womb of Mary, He was not OF Mary. He was not formed from the union of the
sperm of God with the ovum of Mary. His genes were not half from Mary and half from His
heavenly Father. "That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called THE SON
OF GOD," declared the angel to Mary. Mary was merely a surrogate mother. That fact
should settle for all time the morality of surrogate motherhood! Jesus was as truly man,
as truly flesh, as was the first man, but He was also as truly a UNIQUE CREATION OF GOD as
was the first man in Eden.
Oh. the mystery of it! Oh,
the wonder of it! Jesus Christ was THE WORD MADE FLESH; He was not old Adam's flesh imbued
with God`s life. He was the second Man, the Man from Heaven, the God-man, Head of a new
species of Men, a new creation of God in the earth, each member of which is a SON OR
DAUGHTER OF THE MOST HIGH! The life is in the blood. As the value of this life, so the
value of the blood. In Christ there was the life of God; infinite as God is the worth and
the power of that blood! In Christ there was the life of man in its perfection; in His
humility, and obedience to the Father, and self-sacrifice, that which made Him unspeakably
well- pleasing to the Father. The blood of Jesus, God and man, poured out in death, that
was a perfect fulfillment of God's will, and a perfect victory over sin and self, effected
an everlasting atonement for sin, and put it forever out of the way, destroying both sin
and death and him that had the power of it. Therefore it was, that in the blood of the
everlasting covenant Jesus was raised from the dead: that in the power of that blood He
entered the highest heaven; and THAT PRECIOUS BLOOD IS NOW AND FOREVER AVAILABLE TO US
WITH ALL ITS INCORRUPTIBLE POWER. His blood is His divine spirit of life which has come
into us — Christ in us, our hope of glory.
Beloved sons and daughters of
God! The blood of Jesus! The blood of the Lamb! Oh, think what it means! God gave it for
your redemption from Adam's race and your transformation into the image of God. God
accepted it when the firstborn of the new creation entered heaven and presented it on your
behalf. God points you to it and asks you to believe in its omnipotent energy, in its
everlasting sufficiency. Ah, this heavenly Man was injected into a whole world full of men
descended from the earth- man to impart something we had lacked from the day Adam was
driven from
When Adam transgressed, the
life of God, which had been breathed into His nostrils, departed from him and all that was
left was a residue, that mortal something which flowed as blood in the veins of his body.
This blood contains nothing of the life of God and in its composition and nature is
similar to the blood of the animal kingdom, for when the glorious power of divine life
departed from Adam, he entered into the kingdom of death. Adam was made a living soul.
From the Greek the statement reads, "The first man Adam was made a zoe psuche (living
soul)." ZOE is the word which throughout the whole of the New Testament is used of
the life of God, divine life, eternal life. PSUCHE, on the other hand, is used of the
natural life of animals and men. This life, ZOE, is the life Jesus promised to give to man
when He said, "I give unto them eternal life (zoe), and they shall never
perish," and this, beloved, is the LIFE THAT DEPARTED FROM ADAM when he transgressed,
leaving him ashamed, fearful and dead. The life is in the blood, but our blood, being
devoid of eternal life (zoe), is in reality dead blood capable of sustaining only
physical, animal life (psuche), and that only poorly until man returns to the dust from
whence he came. It is not without significance that, when the bodies of men are embalmed,
the first act is to remove the corruptible blood that the dead body may be better
preserved. To redeem this dead sinner, life must be again imparted. The only remedy for
death is LIFE. This life is in the blood, and so blood must be furnished which is sinless
and incorruptible. Now none of Adam's race could do this, for "in Adam all die."
There was only one, yes, ONLY ONE, who could furnish that blood — the virgin-born Son
of God, the Man from heaven, with a human body, but sinless supernatural blood,
inseminated by the Holy Ghost.
Jesus came to bring life to
the world. Here is where His blood differed from the ordinary blood or life of men. His
blood was precious in that it was able to do something for all mankind which mankind's own
blood or life could not do. The natural blood or life of mankind was only for a few years
at most, but the blood of the Christ was the LIFE OF THE AGES. So there must somehow be a
discontinuance of the blood of a few years, that the blood or the LIFE OF THE AGES might
be injected into mankind.
"For it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Heb. 10:4). It was
impossible for the blood of Old Testament sacrifices to take away sin because that blood
was dead blood. There was no power of life in it. Nevertheless, because of the faith of
the worshippers in that BETTER BLOOD which was to come, those animal sacrifices were
accepted by God for the time then present or for the time being, and by this faith the
worshippers were sanctified, and being thus accepted by God they patiently awaited the day
when the BETTER BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD, in which was eternal life, would not only remove
their sin, but erase the sentence of death, quickening them in spirit and transfusing
their beings with the incorruptible blood of the Man from heaven. We say, and rightly so,
for the scripture says, that Christ died for us. There is marvelous significance in those
words, however, for when He died He GAVE HIS LIFE TO US. The precious blood that drained
from His body on the cross is now manifest as THE SPIRIT, the LIGHT OF LIFE. That eternal
life, which two thousand years ago was confined to the blood of His body, now, being
loosed by death, is SHED ABROAD to become available as life eternal to all who believe. By
the shedding of His blood life was given. By the receiving of His life DEATH IS CANCELED.
In the light of life darkness and death flee away. Hallelujah for the blood!
THE CLEANSING OF THE BLOOD
In the service of God as
ordained by the hand of Moses far
There are two kinds of
functions of the blood of the Lamb. One is to take away or kill, and the other is to add
or supply. On the one hand it takes away the negative elements we should not have in us,
and on the other hand it adds in the positive elements we should have in us. What is taken
away is the element of Adam in us, and what is added is the element of Christ — the
new creation life. What is taken away is old. What is added is new. What is taken away is
earthly and carnal, and what is added is heavenly and spiritual. What is taken away is
dead, and what is added is living. When the blood of the Lamb works within us, it has
these two kinds of functions manifest within us: one is to progressively take away all of
our old creation man, and the other is to continually add all of God's new creation man.
In this way HIS LIFE within us gradually increases from glory to glory.
It is like the blood in our
physical body, which contains two kinds of elements: the white corpuscles and the red
corpuscles. White corpuscles have one function, to kill germs that invade the body; the
red corpuscles also have one function, to supply nourishment to the whole body. When the
blood circulates and flows within us, the white corpuscles kill and clean up the germs
which have invaded our body, while the red blood corpuscles supply every part of our body
with needed nourishment. Likewise, when the blood of the Lamb works within us, or when the
life of God in the Lamb works mightily within us, the two elements, life and death,
contained in the life of God have the function of killing and supplying within us —
that is, killing the spiritual germs of the carnal mind and the fleshly nature, and
supplying us with spiritual nourishment, which consists of the life and nature and power
of God Himself.
Concerning the cleansing
power of the blood of the Lamb, no greater statement of truth was ever made than that
given by the beloved John on the rocky steeps of Patmos: "Unto Him that loved us, and
washed us from our sins in His own blood" (Rev. 1:5). Some modern translations
substitute the word "freed" for "washed", but a look at the Greek word
shows that they are in error. The word is LOUO meaning "to BATHE THE WHOLE PERSON in
the same way clothes are laundered in water." But praise be to God! this is not an
outward washing but an INWARD CLEANSING. One aspect of the power of the blood of Jesus
lies in its marvelous ability to ABSORB all that is in the blood or the life of the Adamic
man. The apostle Peter by inspiration penned these words of deep and wonderful truth:
"Who His own self BARE OUR SINS in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to
sins, should LIVE UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS" (I Pet. 2:24). This one who hung upon the cross
possessed a life or a blood that would course its way through the veins of our inner
nature and remove all our sins, infirmities and death. It is very wonderful and thrilling
to many Christians to stand up and testify that they have been washed in the blood of
Jesus. But if you would ask them to explain how they were washed in the blood, about the
only answer many could give is that it was by faith. The Christian who has testified
concerning being washed in the blood of Jesus has been unable to tell how because he has
not understood the significance of one word that he was using. That word is WASHED. We
have somehow in the past unconsciously given to that word "washed", as used in
connection with the blood of Jesus, some special meaning. It must be that we have not been
able to associate such a common and lowly procedure as washing clothes with the work done
by the blood of the Lamb. And that is just where we have missed the whole point!
I would point you to this
simple and self-evident fact: WHAT IS TO BE WASHED IS DIRTY. That is the reason for its
being washed. It is filthy and contaminated and it needs to be washed. And the result of
the washing is that the article becomes clean! Ah - what a good feeling it is after a day
of sweaty, dirty work, to come home, take a refreshing bath, and get into some clean
clothing. The dirt and grime and filth of the work has been washed away and we feel like a
new person. All the members of Adam's race need washing! Not physically, but mentally,
emotionally and spiritually. The mind, the heart and the nature of mankind are as full of
the filth of the flesh as it is possible to be. The life of the blood is as full of filth
and corruption as is the man, so it can do nothing to cleanse. Man's nature is literally
saturated with sin, evil, fear, pride, self-righteousness, hatred, bigotry, weakness,
anger, lust, sickness, sorrow, limitation and death. We know what it means to wash our
clothes in water, how they are plunged into it and saturated with it, for several minutes
agitated and moved about in it until the dirt is softened and loosened, it is then removed
from the garment and SUSPENDED IN THE WATER and carried away. The water has TAKEN UNTO
ITSELF all the defilement that was in the clothing. After some rinsings the clothes are
taken out of the washer, sparkling clean, and with none of the filth that was in them in
the beginning. How beautiful they look! How fresh they smell! Such is the process used
today by millions in the washing of clothing. Yet this has not generally been associated
with the wonderful washing process that mankind goes through in the blood of the Lamb.
Where does this washing take
place, and what is it that is washed? It is the heart. It is in the deep, hidden, inner
life of man that this effect of the blood, the life, the spirit of Christ is experienced.
Sin has penetrated into the heart, and the whole nature has become saturated with it. The
blood too must PENETRATE THE NATURE; as deeply as the power of sin has gone, so deeply
must the inner nature be cleansed by the blood. This is wrought by the daily experiencing
of HIS LIFE in the nitty-gritty of everyday experience. This is not some mushy,
sentimental, religious experience at the altar of some church, but the APPROPRIATING OF
HIS LIFE in the crucible of each problem, trial, temptation, weakness, testing, and
difficulty we encounter, until self and sin are completely dealt with, washed away, and
the mind and will of Christ reign supreme in our lives. Clothes are agitated when they are
being washed; in the old days and still in many areas of the world they are beaten with
rocks to loosen the dirt. Ah, we hope to kneel on a thick carpet before a plush altar and
experience the wonderful cleansing of the blood of the Lamb, but it can never be so, my
friend. It is in the midst of all the agitation of the pressures of life, in the
turbulence of crisis, trouble, pain and despair that we encounter HIS LIFE WITHIN as the
answer, and submitting, receive a mighty and eternal cleansing. Where sin ruled, His life
must rule. Where self reigned, His precious mind must reign. Where the flesh manifests its
lively activities, there the spirit of the Lamb must conquer, bringing righteousness,
peace and joy. It is in the minds and hearts of men that the cleansing of the blood must
take place. Out of the heart "are the issues of life" — just in proportion
as the heart is cleansed, so the entire life is cleansed, the whole man outwardly and
inwardly is TRANSFORMED by the power of the blood!
THE LIGHT OF LIFE
There is a wonderful
statement in the Song of Solomon wherein the Shulamite maiden, beautiful type of God's
elect, says, "My Beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand"
(S. of S. 5:10). This was in answer to a question put forth by the "daughters of
The scene is set in the
Shulamite's search for her Beloved. As she pursues her Beloved the flame of her love burns
brighter; faster and faster she hastens through the streets of the city to find Him, all
the while He appears more wonderful to her soul. In her marvelous description of her
Beloved, she mentions, first of all, the combined, though contrasted colors of "white
and red." To a superficial reader, this might signify only health and beauty. Let us
bear in mind that the daughters of
These two colors make her
Beloved different from, and more than every other beloved. They, above all, make the
Christ of God different from, and more than all others. They, more than all else, make Him
the only fruitful Tree in all the forest of the sons of men. These two colors distinguish
Him and mark Him out before all eyes; and because of which, every knee shall bow, and
every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. She
knew, as some even who profess to be sons of God do not know, that all religions are not
"a way" into union with God! The meaning of the word "white" is
dazzling, bright, illuminated by the sun, sunny. Dazzling white, as the brightest
sunlight. The meaning of the word "ruddy" is red, to show blood, to dye or make
red. The one name above all other names, by which the Christ of God is known, is "the
Lamb." This is the name by which He is known as the sacrifice of God. John the
Baptist calls Him "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." It
is the pure, spotless Lamb of God to which the sacrifices of the Israelite worship
pointed, and whom they foreshadowed.
The characteristics of the
meaning of "white," namely, "dazzling, illuminated, and shining as the
sun," were literally manifested in the transfiguration of Christ on the Mount. We are
told in Mat. 17:2 that "He was transfigured before them; and His face did shine as
the sun, and His garments became white as the light." In the ninth chapter of Mark,
we are told that "His garments became glistering," which, in the Greek, means:
"To lighten forth, flash forth like lightening." Within that form that was
marred more than the sons of men, dwelt glory ineffable. As He prayed upon the Mount of
Transfiguration, He opened a little way the robe of humanity with which He had covered
Himself when He came down to earth, and His majesty and glory burst forth! None can
overlook the precious significance here, when the scripture is compared with the clause
that we are now considering in the Song of Solomon. The Shulamite declares that her
Beloved is "white", or that He is dazzling, white as the light, shining as
though illuminated by a mighty sun.
Ah — was this not a
"breaking forth" of the glory of the incorruptible blood of God flowing through
the veins of His perfect humanity? With this wonderful thought in our minds let us with
humble reverence consider the words of the apostle John: "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In Him was LIFE; and the LIFE was
the LIGHT OF MEN" (Jn. 1:1,4). Notice the words: IN HIM WAS L-I-F-E. Now: THE LIFE IS
I-N T-H-E B-L-O-O-D. Finally: THE LIFE WAS THE L-I-G-H-T OF MEN. In these statements we
discover three synonyms: life, light, and blood. In an article that has come across my
desk are found these words of truth: "You have heard of the light of a candle. You
have heard of the light of the stars. You have heard of the light of the moon. You have
heard of the light of the sun. But this is the light of life. When men speak of the light
of the sun, we understand. When they speak of the light of the moon, we understand. May we
not now understand the truth of Christ’s words: the light of life? I doubt not that
my next sentence will be a disturbing jolt to the understanding of many, but the truth as
I see it is simply this: Life and light and blood are one and the same thing, manifest on
three levels just as vapor and water and ice are one and the same thing on different
levels. I am well aware that what I am saying is entirely new and may come as a shock to
many who read.... a proper understanding of it will assist us to grasp the greatness of
that prominent Bible theme, the precious blood of Christ. Not only will we better grasp
its meaning, but we will know why that precious blood of Christ is THE LIFE OF THE WORLD.
I see no way that we can avoid the conclusion that His LIFE is in fact RESURRECTION
itself. It redeems from sin, because sin found man in life and brought him to death, but
the blood of Christ, which is eternal life, finding man in death, brought life, and that
is what redemption is."
The glory of the
transfiguration was the momentary unveiling of the glorious heavenly light of Christ’s
blood-life. It was in truth the manifestation of the light of life promised by our Lord
Jesus in Jn. 8:12: "He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the LIGHT OF LIFE." It shone from His face. It glistered from His garments. It
surrounded Him like a halo. It radiated from Him like the rays of the sun. His eyes were
like lamps of fire — the light that swallows up all darkness and death of the carnal
realm. There in the Mount of Transfiguration His disciples beheld Him in the glory of the
light of life of His incorruptible blood. This was resurrection life, kingdom life,
heavenly life, incorruptible life. And, my beloved, this beautiful picture tells us what
OUR INCORRUPTIBLE BODIES WILL BE, the glistering light of life that Christ Himself
actually is. What a powerful metamorphosis when this light of life has matured and bursts
forth from within all the sons of God, vanquishing all that pertains to this mortal realm.
There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body, the inspired apostle tells us.
Those who imagine that the incorruptible body will be a body that sleeps, drives a car,
goes to work at a factory or office, and eats hamburgers have never seen by the spirit the
glory of the resurrection. When Jesus burst out of the tomb in resurrection He came forth
in the full brilliance of this divine light of life. In this glory Paul saw Him in his
OVERCOMING BY THE BLOOD
If your desire is to truly be
an overcomer in all things, a part of the firstfruits of God's redemption in this
important hour, a most wonderful key is found in I Jn. 1:7. "If we walk in the light
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST
GOD'S SON CLEANSETH US FROM A-L-L S-I-N." There is a way for the Lord's people to be
freed from ALL SIN! "If we walk in the light." How? "AS HE IS in the
light." Do not forget for one moment, dear ones, that the life is the light and the
blood is the life. To walk in the light as He is in the light means to walk in the LIFE as
HE is in the LIFE. There is a great principle here!
Paul says in Rom. 8:1-2,
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For the LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." What makes me free from the
law (power) of sin and death? Why, the LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE makes me free! Do we not
understand that life swallows up death and light dispels darkness? His precious life
— blood (spirit) flowing through our lives accomplishes this. But haven't we always
had it turned around in our thinking? How many of us have been struggling to
"die" so we can live! How often have we told ourselves, "If I can get rid
of my old man, if I can conquer this habit, overcome this temper, this unruly tongue, this
lust, this nature, this...this...this...then I will have the life of Christ manifested in
me!" We have tried to get rid of sin so we could have righteousness. We have made
valiant efforts at conquering the death in us so we would have life. We have worked at
eradicating the darkness from our lives so we could walk in the light. Dearly beloved
friends, we have had the cart before the horse! It is like saying, "I will stand here
in this dark room and rebuke the darkness, and when all the darkness has been chased away
I shall have light." The simple fact is you can rebuke the darkness until men carry
your dead body out to the mortuary, but THE DARKNESS WILL NEVER LEAVE UNTIL YOU TURN ON
THE LIGHT. There is no vacuum that can suck up darkness, no chemical that disintegrates
it, no force that can move it. The problem is not to get rid of the darkness, but to
produce the light!
The LAW OF LIGHT is that it
always dispels darkness. It never fails! So if you have been trying to get rid of the
darkness of the carnal mind and the fleshly nature in you, by rebuking it, resisting it,
struggling with it, fighting it, ignoring it, praying to be delivered from it, having
hands laid on you for it — FORGET IT! These are one and all efforts at
self-reformation. None of those methods has one iota of power to remove the darkness from
a life. Only LIGHT is able to remove darkness! Brother, sister, TURN ON THE LIGHT in your
life, expose yourself to the mighty presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, open
yourself to the creative power of His Word within, thrust yourself into the living stream
of His precious blood, and the LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF HIS LIFE working powerfully within
will begin to make you free from the law of sin and death. You can't take death out of a
corpse to make it live, but put life in it and it will live! And there is no way that you
can remove the law of sin and death from heart and nature, but you take the law of the
Spirit of Life in Christ into you and I tell you the truth — the death will be
swallowed up!
I have had the experience of
becoming so involved with the pressures of everyday living until the vital presence of God
was crowded out of my life. When we spend all our time working and visiting and fellow
shipping in carnal things, reading the newspaper, watching television, tinkering with
hobbies, and multiplied other natural activities the Spirit is crowded out of our lives,
the flow of His life-blood is hindered. How filled our lives are with EARTHLY THINGS!
Constantly going, going, going, and doing, doing, doing. Occasionally we spend a few
minutes in prayer, or in the Word, or in blessed fellowship with another saint, or time
and effort wasted in some dead meeting, and then wonder why there is no power in our lives
and we are not overcomers! There is a LAW OF LIFE that must be at work in us. But you
don't really need to be concerned about the law of life, you just need the LIFE! The law
will work naturally. When the life is there the law will work. When the law is working the
power of darkness and death is annulled, the negative realm is neutralized. Therefore,
seek LIFE! If the glorious presence of God, the light of life, can keep me in the
spiritual state of overcoming victory for ten minutes...or for two hours...or for three
days...then the same substance of HIS LIFE WITHIN can keep me in that condition of victory
and transformation for as long as the flow of His life is maintained — this is the
absolute unfailing key to overcoming! Death always sets in in any body member where the
flow of blood is prevented. People have lost hands and arms and feet and legs when for
some reason the blood circulation was cut off. Maintain the flow of the precious blood of
Christ and you will have little trouble with the flesh.
"And they overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb" (Rev. 12:11). All who would be sons of God must overcome
the dragon of the carnal mind and the beastly nature of old Adam. It comes not by
"pleading the blood," thinking positive, or confessing the promises. In
proportion as we live in close and abiding contact with the blood we shall experience
increasingly its powerful, omnipotent effects. He who gives himself up to continual
intercourse with THE LAMB, joined in one spirit with Him, will experience through His
blood a TRIUMPHANT LIFE beyond his conception. He will see the law of life at work. The
old carnality, the old weaknesses, the old desires, the old thoughts, the old emotions,
the old frustrations will begin to fade away, diminishing and diminishing in the cleansing
of His blood. Ah, precious saint of God, try no longer to "get rid of," or
"quit doing," or "kill," or "die," or "change,"
anything! Only expose your whole being to the light and you will begin to live by the life
of God's dear Son.
The blood of the Lamb is
described as a "fountain opened in the house of David for sin and uncleanness (Zech.
13:1). By the power of the Holy Spirit it streams through the heavenly
Chapter
36
ARIES
— THE LAMB
(continued)
In this Study we come to the
first Decan, or minor constellation, in the house of Aries — CASSIOPEIA — THE
ENTHRONED WOMAN. Cassiopeia is the figure of a queenly woman, matchless in beauty, seated
in exalted dignity. She is seated on a throne, high and lifted up. With one hand she is
arranging her robe; in the other she holds the branch of victory and triumph, at the same
time arranging her hair. She seems to be making herself ready for some presentation or
great public manifestation. Near her sits King Cepheus on his throne. In Arabic this
constellation is called EL SEDU, which means the freed. Albumazer, an ancient authority,
says this woman was anciently called the daughter of splendor, hence, the glorified woman.
Her common name is CASSI- OPEIA, meaning the beautiful, the enthroned. This woman is
obviously the Bride of Christ, the Lamb's Wife, the New Jerusalem of whom John the apostle
said, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him, for the marriage of the
Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7). This scene is in
stark contrast to what is seen in the constellation of Andromeda. In Andromeda the woman
is bound, in chains, cast down. For two thousand years the bride of the Lamb has been in
bonds and disabilities, in weakness and limitation, despised by the world, chained within
the harlot system of religious
One will never be able to
understand the deep mystery of Christ and His bride until first he understands the great
mystery of God Himself. I have previously pointed out in this series that man in the
beginning was created male and female in the image of God. The moment we understand that
male and female IS the image of God, then our hearts will throb with heavenly rapture at
the awesome glory, power and exaltation of Christ and His bride. When he that readeth can
grasp the wonderful truth that God bears within Himself both the characteristics of male
and female, of Father and Mother, then he can better understand the divine word spoken
"in the beginning" when God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness: so...in the image of God created He him; MALE AND FEMALE created He them"
(Gen. 1:26-27). Most people speak of God and His Son without even giving thought as to how
it is that God has a Son. All nature with unified voice reveals that one male, or two
males, or a thousand males, or a billion males can never produce an offspring. The
invisible things of God are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead (Rom. 1:20), and creation
immutably proclaims the mystery that it takes both a male and a female to produce life.
This simple law of life is a divine revelation of the GODHEAD! God is within Himself both
a Father and a Mother and it was within this unique reality of His Being that God brought
forth His Son and His sons. I would not for one minute nor in any way seek to dishonor or
diminish the glory, the honor, or the majesty of our Father — the Lord God Almighty.
But He is completely pleased to have me declare to you the reality of Himself which is
male and female. Motherhood is a most profound revelation that is rooted in the deepest
essence of God Himself.
"This is the book of the
generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him;
male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day
when they were created" (Gen. 5:1-2). Male and female. Both Adam. Both man. Both in
the image of God! God made His image exactly alike, yet opposite. From the very beginning
we can journey into the depth of God's Being in the revelation of His image and nature as
male and female. Adam is a figure we are pressing through to know God. With what divine
clarity does the inspired apostle teach us that Adam himself was but a type of the Christ.
"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to
come" (Rom. 5:14). This presence on the earth of man — male and female — is
the glory of God emanating out of the sphere of His invisible substance and the figure,
the symbol, the picture, the prophecy of the last Adam and His wife — Christ and His
bride! It is not important how man was created, nor even when he was created — but to
see the mind of God radiate and descend and express itself into human form, He made His
invisible nature of male and female into a model creation could see and comprehend, though
the female at creation was still hidden within the man, just as the female nature of God
was hidden within Himself from eternity. As God separated Eve from Adam, giving her form
and raising her up into an identity, and exalting her and setting her together with Adam
over all the works of His hands, so God is separating out of Himself through Christ the
wife He has in His own side, giving her form and raising her up into an identity, and
setting her with Christ on the universal throne of authority, glory and dominion over all
things in all realms. This glorious God-Woman is Cassiopeia — The Enthroned Woman
— the Lamb's Wife, the Bride of Jesus Christ! God's agenda is to get this woman into
her own identity, to give her form and substance, to raise up the consciousness of this
woman, that she may find herself and fulfill herself in God's great Kingdom.
TWO WOMEN — TWO CITIES
Why does God want to bring
forth in the earth a spiritual woman — the bride of Christ? The answer is found in
the typology of the first woman, Eve. "And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because
she was the mother of all living" (Gen. 3:20). The mother of all living! The mother
of all living is the image of God — the mother of all mankind in the image of God is
the revelation of the feminine reality in God. Let us find this woman, this mother of all
living in the revelation of God. "For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the
one by a bond maid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born
after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for
these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage,
which is Hagar. Far this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to
Just as Sarah was old and
barren and had no son, so there were no children by this covenant, there was no nation
birthed out of the first, the Abrahamic Covenant. When the Egyptian bondservant, Hagar,
was given to Abraham as a wife, she pictured the second covenant — the covenant of
the Law given by Moses. Thus, Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman, typified the natural
Two women. Two cities. Two
covenants. Two seeds. The covenant of Hagar, the natural
Let us UNDERSTAND! The reason
there is this mysterious attraction between the masculine and the feminine is because the
feminine was taken out of the masculine. The woman was taken right out of the man, and
something you (women) are is uniquely what we (men) are, and therein lies the phenomenon
of why male and female seek union.
This heavenly
The church has been called
the mother. Why? Because the church is the dispenser of the life-giving seed of the Spirit
and the Word, and the church is the formation of God's divine nature within a people on
the earth. The first concept that calls us out of the world unto Himself is a woman. Long
millenniums ago the mighty Moses brought this word to the Lord's people: "Honour thy
father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee" (Ex. 20:12). What blessings accrue to those who honor their father and
their mother! Again and again we are told to honor our father and our mother, and this is
the first commandment with the promise of life. We have this as a natural law — and I
am not seeking to diminish that natural law — for verily I say to you that he who
truly values the heavenly Father and the heavenly Mother will ultimately value his earthly
father and his earthly mother as well. We have learned to honor God the Father, but it
should be obvious to all who read these lines that few have learned to honor God the
Mother — that unique aspect of His own Being that births all spiritual life and
reality.
FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW JERUSALEM
"By faith Abraham, when
he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance,
obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of
promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs
with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but
having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare
plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from
whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they
desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called
their God: for He hath prepared for them a city" (Heb. 11:8-16). The scriptural,
spiritual, heavenly symbolism of truth is illustrated in simple terms for our
understanding. In this magnificent passage we are told that Abraham looked for a city. He
did not want
All who follow in the steps
of faithful Abraham are strangers and pilgrims on this earth — in this present
world-system. This outer fleshly realm is not their home, their realm of dwelling, their
state of being. They are looking for that city that is being built by God, for they are
citizens of the New Jerusalem which is of heavenly, spiritual quality. Those who are
looking for a heavenly, spiritual city know full well that they are only strangers and
pilgrims in this present carnal, mortal world. They endure their life, living as in a
temporary state. They have no desire for the things of this realm of dust, for they seek a
better country than this. No nation, civilization or system built by man can make claims
of permanency. Nations we know once existed, not a cobblestone of their existence can be
found. World empires, during my brief time on this planet, have folded up their tents,
pulled down their banners, and they are lost. Men whom we thought could never leave us
died, and we wept when they did. Others whose names we feared and who held life and death
in their hands for millions, like the withered grass are but dirt, a haunting memory in
the minds of their victims. The plastic film replays their pomp and threats with the
cavalcade of military might, which is but a story, like Grimms' fairy tales. Nothing
permanent, nothing lasting exists in this material realm.
Abraham looked for this
permanent order. I look for this permanent order. This was the city of
"And many people shall
go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God
of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion
shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isa. 2:3).
What a beautiful figure
Christ is using here to express His tender love for His own people according to the flesh!
"For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of
They have been rejected and
despised as they have gone from nation to nation, until the Jewish name became a byword in
almost the entire world. Just a few Jews continued to dwell in the city of Jerusalem
during the centuries, and from week to week they came and continue to come out to a spot
called the "Wailing Wall," and there they have wept, longing for the return of
those wonderful days of the long ago when Judah and Jerusalem were basking in the sunlight
of the favor of God and they were considered the joy of the whole earth. But although
twenty centuries have passed by, their tears and prayers have been of no avail, for their
house is still left unto them desolate. The city, in spite of its dazzling beauty, and in
spite of its sentimental memory; the land, in spite of its lush natural productiveness;
the religion, in spite of its outward ceremony and pageantry; all is completely empty and
void of spiritual life, there is no living reality, no quickening spirit, no
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, and no way for them to pass over again to
the old days of glory. The halo of glory has faded off those ancient stones, and has
passed to rest on the true city of
There is a most instructive
proclamation in Rev. 11:19 wherein the beloved John describes a scene in the heavenlies
thus: "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple
the ark of His testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an
earthquake, and great hail." These words point us to the passing of the old and the
inauguration of the new. At the very moment of the doom of old
In the book of Revelation
John is carried away to an exceeding high mountain and there he is shown that which is
called both a bride and a city. From the top of that high mountain John looks out and sees
a most wonderful city, coming down out of heaven from God, filled and flooded with the
glory of God. The description that follows sets forth to the uttermost bounds of human
understanding the grandeur and beauty of the glorified bride, represented by this great
city. Its dimensions are perfect in proportion and in their outer relations. Its
foundations are adorned with the costliest, most precious stones, the walls are built of
jasper, and each gate is one immense pearl; but the city itself is builded of a gold as
transparent as pure glass. The name of the city is New Jerusalem. Now why is this city
called New Jerusalem, instead of
That city for which Abraham
looked is a city formed of Christ people which has no need of the sun, nor of the moon,
nor the light of any candle, for the Lord God is the light thereof. These Christ people
have no need for the outward light of creeds, doctrines, laws, ceremonies, rituals,
ordinances, baptisms, organizations, programs, etc., for the very presence and life of God
Himself within is their illumination. The nations walk in the wondrous light of this
city's reality, and the kings of the earth bring glad tribute of their glory into it.
Through the open gates no evil thing will ever enter. Within its precincts stands no
temple made with hands, for the Lord God and the Lamb are the temple of it, those who
abide in Him are its priests and its sacrifices are those spiritual sacrifices offered up
from within by Christ Jesus. On each side of the river is the tree of life yielding
continual fruitage. And the leaves of the tree are the word which brings healing to the
nations. The heart never fails to respond with a quickened beat to the lines: "His
servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their
foreheads" — that is, His nature and character shall radiate out of their lives.
Description is far beyond the utterance of my poor tongue! Its majesty and fame and power
and blessing escape me! Methinks that we can but tarnish its exalted glory by our frail
attempt to describe it. It will abide forever and through those wide gates that never
close will flow forth to all nations the illumination and quickening and dominion until
God has gathered together in one all things in heaven, in earth, and under the earth.
Rare indeed is the man or
woman in the religious systems of earth who has a true and spiritual understanding of the
Until our spiritual minds are
able to grasp the truth that the body of Christ is the temple of God and that every room
and mansion in that temple is a living son of God, a literal habitation for God through
the Spirit; and until we understand that the city of God is the bride of Christ, and that
the stones of that city are all living stones, as Christ Jesus Himself is a living stone
and the only foundation that can be laid, we have understood nothing at all. The book of
Revelation shows the development of this Bride-City from glory to glory. Each view is a
fresh and further comprehension of the grandeur of the purposes of God for all who are
called to the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus. The total victory for all the elect is
detailed in all its glorious and eternal reality. This is the beauty of the Church
Triumphant! This is that glorious church that is without spot or wrinkle. It is so great
and mighty! It stands in the age and the ages to come clothed in the awesome majesty of
the glory of the Almighty! It is seen in all of its splendor and heavenly beauty. It was
birthed into the earth at Pentecost and has been processed and matured during the 2,000
year church age. It comes into its final divine perfection and is viewed in the ultimate
eternal triumph and purpose of God. Thus we see that the New Jerusalem, contrary to the
driveling childishness that is taught, is not a fanciful monstrosity some fifteen hundred
miles high, which will one day come floating or crashing down out of the clouds to settle
and rest on the earth like a bump on a little boy's head, throwing it out of balance and
off its course. God made this earth complete and as it should be long, long ago. He
created it a perfectly functioning reality, and "nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it" (Eccl. 3:14). Truly, unspiritual men, who walk after the
flesh and its imaginings, can invent many fairy tales. Thus saith the Lord: "And they
shall call THEM, the HOLY PEOPLE, the redeemed of the Lord; and THOU shalt be called,
Sought Out, a CITY not forsaken" (Isa. 62:12). It is evident that a PEOPLE are the
CITY. There can be no doubt that the city in Revelation is not a literal city, but rather
those who have adorned themselves with the very nature, the very qualities, that their
Husband requires. Those qualities are the very characteristics, the very nature of God.
"But ye are come unto
CASSIOPEIA — THE ENTHRONED WOMAN
Jerusalem of old was the
capital city of the national Israel; and as that old order was but a type and shadow of
the new (Heb. 10:1; Col. 2:16-17), therefore the New Jerusalem must be the capital city,
or the ruling element, in Israel today, which is Christ's Kingdom and of which our Lord
said, it "is not of this world" (Jn. 18:36). In other words, the New Jerusalem
is the ruling class, the kings and priests unto God: those who have attained unto the
highest position of honor and might and true greatness in grace. It comprises those who
rule with Christ upon His throne. We, therefore, who have been accounted worthy to suffer
with Christ (II Tim. 2:12), are the New Jerusalem which shall rule over God's infinite
realm for evermore. We are the city four-square, which is the bride of the Lamb. This is
the
In the Bible a city pictures
a government. Abraham was seeking for a government — the heavenly arrangement, a
divine rule by the Spirit upon earth. Cities of old were nations in themselves. They had
walls and were self-sufficient. Some of the great cities of ancient times were
Oh glorious city of
This is "The city of the
great King," and "God hath made Himself known in her palaces for a refuge.”
How high is our calling when God has chosen us to be a part of "The city of the great
King," "Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus
Himself being the chief corner stone; in whom each several building fitly framed together,
groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a
habitation of God in the Spirit" (Eph. 2:19-22). Truly in this city of the great King
God hath made Himself known in her palaces for a refuge — a high tower. "The
name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and are safe"
(Prov. 18:10). Has He not made Himself known in every palace of this heavenly city, as the
We read that "
Yes,
Truly the glory of the latter
house shall exceed the glory of the former, as the New Jerusalem exceeds in glory the old
Jesus walked among the
people, calling twelve, and seventy, then multitudes of disciples, teaching, preaching,
healing, doing signs and wonders, demonstrating the
Sometime ago Sister Alma
McClure sent out this timely word of wisdom in her paper THE WINNOWER: "In one sense,
we are each an individual temple, for Christ dwells in us by His Spirit. But as a
corporate body, each one is a separate stone. Separate, but not to STAY separate! When we
are PREPARED IN THE QUARRY, fully ready for joining, we 'as lively stones, are built up a
spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ' (I Pet. 2:5). Yes, we are to be JOINED TOGETHER! So why have we so often
found ourselves alone, on the backside of the desert, not fitting in with any group, even
when we tried to do so? George Warnock has said, ‘You will recognize that you can't
make it alone, that you need the body. God WILL join you with the body. But don't get
under condemnation in the meantime, as God works PREPARATION within you! Because He is
joining PREPARED member to PREPARED member! Often it takes the isolation, the separation,
the ostracism, to prepare you to be a temple stone truly fitted and shaped by the Lord, to
be effectually joined to that stone that God has in mind to set you next to!’ Each
stone was 'made ready at the quarry,’ that there need be no hammer or any iron tool
needed when the stones are put together! Does that help you to understand the 'strange
path' that you have been required to travel? Yes, the hammer, ax and iron tools of the
Lord's choosing have struck us in our place of preparation, and we have cried out in pain,
not understanding why the trials have been so great, and seemingly without end! But, be of
good cheer! It has been a necessary PREPARATION to FIT IN OUR PLACE, in His glorious
temple, not made with hands! Ray Prinzing has written, "They who have ears to hear
what the Holy Spirit is saying to His called out ones, are coming out of
COMING DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN
One of the beautiful
symbolisms given us in the book of Revelation is the
"And I John saw the holy
city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men, and He will dwell with them and they shall be His people, and God Himself
shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any
more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:25). My beloved, John saw the city descending
down from God to earth. He did not see us going out into space somewhere. God is going to
perfect the church right here upon the earth and it is going to reign upon the earth. We
are not going off to some celestial city somewhere in space. Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men! God is coming to dwell in and with mankind. Yet millions of Christians vainly
imagine that they are going to a city up in the sky to live there with Jesus forever and
ever. Multitudes believe that somehow they will escape "The Great Tribulation"
by being raptured and snatched up to heaven. The testimony of scripture is just the
opposite of man's childish superstitions. God has always come to man. In the sacred mists
of long ago
While writing this message an
article arrived in the mail from Terry and Tykie Crisp. How timely the thoughts they
share! "Why is it that this
This
According to the beloved John
everything on earth IS going to be transformed. He speaks of a new heaven and a new earth.
At present heaven and earth are quite separate states of existence, but in the new city of
God which John beheld in spirit they are no longer to be two but one. It is my conviction
that the veil between seen and unseen is a very flimsy one, and that this seemingly solid
matter which forms our prison- house is not so very solid after all. Probably it is
nothing more than our own thought exercised upon a very limited plane, a darkened
perception. It is quite conceivable that we might wake up, as it were, from a sleep, and
realize that there never has been a material and a spiritual, but that we have all the
time been living at the very center of reality, only we did not know it. If men were only
endowed sufficiently with the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and ready for the change,
the veil between heaven and earth would be taken away, the heavens would be opened, and
the two would be seen as one. This is what John means by the city coming down; it is
heaven taking possession of earth and absorbing it into itself.
The world is to be won for
God; there is to be a transformed society of men on earth; in the end earth will become
heaven. Death will be abolished, and sin and sorrow will flee away. When John used the
language of Isaiah about the city needing no light of the sun he meant it in even a
grander way. Henceforth God in Christ is to be the light of every man's life, all the
nations are to walk in that light, and love and brotherhood be all in all. But he makes a
bold stroke at this point by departing from the Old Testament dream of the
We are builders of that City,
All our joys and all our groans,
Help to rear its shining ramparts,
All our lives are building stones;
But the work that God has builded,
Through our bleeding hands and tears,
And in error and in anguish,
Will not perish with our years.
It will be at last made
perfect
In the universal plan;
It will help to crown the labors
Of the toiling hosts of man;
It will last and shine transfigured
in the final reign of right;
It will merge into the splendors
Of the Kingdom of the Light.
Chapter
37
ARIES
— THE LAMB
(continued)
In our previous Study on the
Signs of the heavens we considered the first Decan, or minor constellation, in the house
of Aries — CASSIOPEIA — THE ENTHRONED WOMAN. Cassiopeia is the figure of a
queenly woman, matchless in beauty, seated in exalted dignity. She is seated on a throne,
high and lifted up. With one hand she is arranging her robe; in the other she holds the
branch of victory and triumph, at the same time arranging her hair. She seems to be making
herself ready for some presentation or great public manifestation. Near her sits King
Cepheus on his throne. In Arabic this constellation is called EL SEDU, which means the
freed. Albumazer, an ancient authority, says this woman was anciently called the daughter
of splendor, hence, the glorified woman. Her common name is CASSIOPEIA, meaning the
beautiful, the enthroned. This woman is obviously the Bride of Christ, the Lamb's Wife,
the New Jerusalem of whom John the apostle said, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and
give honour to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself
ready" (Rev. 19:7). In the book of Revelation John is carried away to an exceeding
high mountain and there he is shown that which is called both a bride and a city. From the
top of that high mountain John looks out and sees a most wonderful city, coming down out
of heaven from God, filled and flooded with the glory of God. The name of the City is New
Jerusalem.
THE GLORY OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
When John saw the
This City, John says, has THE
GLORY OF GOD. What is the glory of God? The literal meaning of the Hebrew word for glory
is weight or substance. In the eyes of men this literal meaning frequently lent itself to
the idea that a person possessing glory was laden (heavy) with the substances of this
world. Jacob's flock was his "glory" (Gen. 31:1). The Assyrians' power was their
"glory" (Isa. 8:7). Joseph's high position in the
When God reveals this New
Jerusalem people in all His fullness the world will know this wondrous fact, that
"the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them." The glory of God is the
LIGHT of this great City. Not only is it the light of the City, but also of the whole
world, for "the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it"
(Rev. 21:24). This is that true light which "lighteth every man that cometh into the
world" (Jn. 1:9). "His life is the light of men" (Jn. 1:4). "YE are
the light of the world" (Mat. 5:14). The light of God is pure light, total white
light, for "in Him there is no darkness at all" (I Jn. 1:5). The light of God is
the light of the City. All through scripture we find that light has been a symbol for the
truth. When the Bible says of the Holy City that her light shall be like a jasper stone,
clear as crystal, it simply reveals the true church as having come to all light, perfect
light, all truth, purest truth, absolute understanding, and walking and living in absolute
light and truth — the perfection of the mind of Christ within.
The revelation of the Christ
within brings illumination, understanding, perfect clarity about the true nature of all
things. This is that light that "shineth more and more unto the perfect day"
(Prov. 4:18). The light of this City is like unto a stone most precious, even like a
jasper stone, clear as crystal — that is, transparent. To live in that City, and in
the light of it, is to walk in a state in which we "see right through" the
illusion of this world, the external form of it, and the denseness of the lower, outer
meanings of the letter of the Word of God — to see right through into the mind and
heart of God by the spirit. It is the revelation that carries one beyond doctrine and the
external forms of religion right into the glorious and eternal reality of God Himself. It
penetrates beyond the denseness of carnal understanding and natural comprehension to
behold the substance of God's person and the glories of a realm not seen by the human eye.
This is the realm beyond the
The witness of the Holy
Spirit is that this City, New Jerusalem, corresponds in symbol to the Tabernacle of Moses
and the
"And there shall in no
wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or
maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Rev. 21:27). No
one whose nature has not been transformed shall enter into this City. Since this City is
the true church in perfection and fullness, only those who have been born again of the
Spirit of God and are walking in the Spirit of God until He has changed completely their
nature, so that they have come to perfect purity, perfect wisdom, perfect knowledge and
perfect love, shall arrive at this STATE OF PERFECTION AND FULLNESS which IS the Holy
City. This is the wonderful plan that God has devised whereby nothing that defiles can
enter into this City. For all who come to this state will have arrived at perfection and
fullness and there will be no sin, lack, limitation, darkness or death left within them.
The Bride, the Lamb's Wife, the New Jerusalem, the Holy City with all its foundations,
wall, and gates are then in reality the total unveiling and manifestation of the mystical
revelation of the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ in His church for the age and the ages
to come.
John measured the City and it
was twelve thousand furlongs or fifteen hundred miles: the length and height and breadth
were equal, as I have pointed out — a cube. The measurements are in multiples of
twelve which are a symbol and signature of God's purposes in His elect. Twelve is the
number of divine government. One thousand is the number of the Day of the Lord (II Pet.
3:8). Twelve times one thousand is God's light and illumination multiplied by God's
authority and rule — the perfect and full dominion of God by the revelation of His
glory without mixture, limitation or darkness. The Holy of holies of God's eternal Kingdom
is, therefore, in type, 528,000 TIMES MORE GLORIOUS than the Holy of holies in the Mosaic
Tabernacle that was a cube of only fifteen feet each way! The true measure of the City is
the Lord Jesus Christ: "...unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ" (Eph. 4:13). The people who come to this measure will be the glory of God and
the light of the world in the fullness of what that means, and will bring the total
restoration that God, who cannot lie, has promised to all creation. Hallelujah!
This, my beloved, is the hour
of preparation. "And I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev. 21:2). The Greek
word for "adorned" is KOSMEO and is here used of the "adorning" of the
bride of Christ for her Husband. She is now fully processed and matured, qualified to be
the Queen of Heaven, glorified as His Wife upon His throne. By right of marriage she takes
His name (nature), is the complement of Himself, has joint-ownership of all His
possessions and co-dominion over all His realms. From this word KOSMEO, comes our English
word "cosmetics." The noun form is KOSMOS, which means "order,
arrangement," and is translated in our Bible as "world." The meaning is
just this: The world is to be MADE BEAUTIFUL! But it will be made beautiful by a beautiful
people! There is a vital connection between the adorning of the Bride and the restoration
of creation to the life of God. The latter shall spring from the former. The Bride is
clothed, as she chooses the Lord in the midst of earth's pressures. Therefore, she is
arrayed with all manner of precious jewels. In Isa. 61:10, we see the Bride adorned in
precious jewels, which speak of the process of refining in fire, and of anointing. The
wood, hay, and stubble are gone and her adornment is only that which is of the heavenly
nature of her Bridegroom lover. What we build in our lives is either gold, silver, and
precious jewels, or wood, hay, and stubble; and all shall pass through the fire! These
terms refer to our works, the outer expression of our inner being. These works are not
what we do for God, not the keeping of the law, rules, regulations, precepts, and
traditions. Our works are the expression of the fruit of the spirit (or the lack of it) in
our lives. Pressure will cause us to be either a precious jewel, or a heap of ashes. There
can be no restoration of creation, precious friend of mine, no demonstration of the
Kingdom, indeed, no manifestation of the sons of God apart from the Bride. By marriage she
is joint-heir with the King of kings. The throne (sons) of God is in the midst of her. The
fragrant tree of life nourishes in her street for the healing of the nations who hitherto
walked in darkness and the shadow of death. The river of life flows from her midst, the
foundations of God are laid in her, and the glory of God is revealed upon her. Out from
her we hear the sweet strains of a new message, never heard before in all the history of
the world. "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come." Hitherto the Spirit of Christ
has invited the chosen, the elect, to come. From henceforth the New Jerusalem bride will
be the vehicle of the Spirit's call, saying, "Come," to all the kindreds, and
nations, and tongues, and peoples of the world, and the restitution of all things will
begin. The twelve gates of the City will be opened by day and never closed, for there is
no night there. In response to the glad message, "Come," proclaimed by the
Spirit through the Bride, the nations in glad procession will bring their glory and honor
into the City, a procession which will never cease until every descendant of Adam who has
ever lived or died has entered through the gates of the City back to God from whence he
came. No words from human lips could ever fully describe the wonder of this thing. Only
the Holy Spirit can carry us away and reveal it to our hearts. Christ will not rule
without His bride, for His throne is in the midst of her. She rules and reigns and redeems
and restores in the authority of His wonderful name. She dwells with Him in the union of
eternal love, devotion, purpose and fellowship. The Bride alone can give to Him that which
His heart longs for. She has the capacity to satisfy the very heart of the Almighty! She
is His wife, His beloved, the completion of Himself! Oh, the wonder of it! Oh, the glory
of it!
THE WALLS
Another of the beautiful
symbols given us in the New Jerusalem is that of its majestic wall. "And had a wall
great and high. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the
gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as
large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs.
The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall
thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is,
of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper..." (Rev. 21:15-18).
According to this passage the City lies foursquare, 1,500 miles each way with a wall
around it that is one hundred and forty four cubits high. That makes the wall 264 feet
high. Now, if this is a literal city in heaven, who are the enemies this wall is designed
to keep out? What would be the purpose of a wall 264 feet high? Or, if we understand this
City carnally, will the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness be so
wicked that walls are needed to protect and defend it? Even in our time, what protection
would a wall 264 feet high provide? Would such a wall hinder jet planes loaded with bombs
or missiles carrying warheads?
The literal interpretation of
these beautiful symbols cannot explain any purpose for this wall. But understood
spiritually, the walls have deep meaning and wonderful significance. The walls of this
City are SALVATION. "In that day shall this song be sung in the
There is another aspect.
Walls are not for protection only, but for exclusion. Everything is excluded that defiles.
"And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of
life" (Rev. 21:27). Nothing can come into this City but that which is the life of
Christ. Anything that is not of His life must be excluded. Those who inhabit this glorious
realm are separate from the filth of
THE GATES
"And had a wall great
and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon,
which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of
The gates are the entrance
into the Kingdom realm of God. "There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the
vulture's eye hath not seen: the lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion
passed by it" (Job 28:7-8). "It shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean
shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall
not err and go therein" (Isa. 35:8-9). It is only by and through the wisdom, grace,
and Spirit of God that we can find an entrance in through the gates of the
The twelve gates of the City
bear the names of the twelve tribes of the children of
The names of the twelve
tribes of
There are twelve gates to the
I do not hesitate to tell you
that the Christ went and sold all that He had, He emptied Himself, made Himself of no
reputation, being made in the form of a servant, and in the likeness of sinful flesh,
laying aside the glory He had with the Father before the world was, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross — truly He paid ALL for the Church! The
inspired writer has borne divine witness: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves...to
feed the
The pearl was the most
precious substance known to the ancients. A large pearl is almost priceless. A single
ordinary pearl's worth may be as high as $200.000. And there is a reason for the pearl's
great value. Some one hundred years ago, a common mussel living in the
The value of a pearl more
than an inch in diameter is fabulous. The world's largest natural pearl found anywhere
(recorded by Guinness) turned up in a giant killer clam off the coast of the Philippine
Islands. It weighed a little more than 14 pounds. The pearl is baroque in shape, a little
bigger than a man's head, and was valued at $4,080,000 a few years ago. How staggering is
the statement that the portals of the New Jerusalem are each a single pearl! Each one
represents the wealth of a world. Twelve of them matched! It stuns the imagination.
The pearl is formed within a
living creature by a living process. Pearls do not grow in the open air, or exposed to the
outer elements. Most are formed within an oyster, hidden away within the depths of the
seas. The oyster is certainly not a beautiful creature on the outside, yet God has
ordained a spiritual lesson for us in that on the inside of the oyster, through processes
that He has ordained, something BEAUTIFUL and of GREAT VALUE can be formed. Thus a pure
heart, a divine mind, a heavenly nature is formed in the center of the ugliness of an
outwardly earthly creature. It is a living thing — a living process — and has
its seat at the very center of the life. The creation of the pearl is initiated by the
introduction of an irritant — and in the life of the overcomer that irritant is THE
CROSS. It is produced out of suffering, and the crucifixion of a life. The "sea"
is a type of the soul, and the living process involved in making the pearl is the living,
dynamic work of GRACE that flows out from our spirit joined to His Spirit, in response to
the inworking of the cross, producing the beautiful character qualities that give us an
entrance into the higher dimension of God's Kingdom. Our hearts are made pure, the new
creation life is formed in soul and body, through the crucifixion of the natural life and
the outflowing of His grace. The cross enters our lives as something that hurts — we
may see it as a trial, a difficulty, a hard place, a crisis experience — but it
pierces the flesh-life, evoking streams of the pearly nacre of HIS LIFE AND GRACE, forming
the beauty of the Christ within.
Never forget, precious friend
of mine, that each gate, each means of entrance into that City, is a PEARL — we
cannot be admitted to the Heavenly Jerusalem unless God has produced something in our
lives akin to the beauty and value of the pearl. As someone has pointed out, pearls can be
found anywhere in the world, even in waters that are somewhat shallow, but the best
quality pearls are found in the depths of the sea, speaking to us of a deep work of God in
our lives. "They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep" (Ps. 107:23-24).
Without a doubt a pearl is one of "His wonders in the deep." As God does a
deeper work in us, piercing to the very depths of our life, then truly "deep calleth
unto deep at the noise of the waterspouts" (Ps. 42:7).
Leland Earls wrote: "A
pearl cannot be produced without suffering in the oyster. Heb. 2:10 says that Jesus was
'made perfect through suffering.’ The Greek word used here is PATHEMA, meaning
'something undergone, i.e. hardship or pain.’ Another Greek word is used in Heb. 5:8
where we read that Jesus ‘learned obedience by the things which He suffered.' The
word in this passage is PASCHO, which means ‘to experience a sensation or
impression.' Thus it was ALL the experiences that Jesus went through which prepared or
perfected Him for His role or ministry as KING-PRIEST in the
In ancient times, pearls were
regarded as a symbol of perfection. This came about because of their pure color —
predominantly white with some rose, pinks, lavenders, delicate purples, greens and tones
of gold. Their appearance was also regarded as softer, more feminine, than that of mineral
gems such as diamonds and emeralds. Because they are softer and vulnerable to scratches,
pearls need gentle treatment. A modern comparison of pearls and other precious gems, made
by a woman's magazine some time ago, stated in a mock-serious vein that, while diamonds
make a woman appear harsh and mysterious, pearls make her more sexy and sensuous. Is it
not remarkable, in the light of this worldly evaluation, that two millenniums ago the Holy
Spirit used the pearl as a symbol of entrance into the company of the prepared, adorned,
beautiful and glorious bride of the Lamb! She is prepared, perfected, matured, adorned
with goodly pearls as a bride for her Husband. Corporately, it is the feminine qualities
of God formed in a people and united to Himself. Individually, it is the soul cleansed,
sanctified and transformed, made one with the spirit. Oh glorious City of
THE FOUNDATIONS
"And the wall of the
city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And
the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.
The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the
fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the
eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth, the
twelfth, an amethyst" (Rev. 21:14.19-20). As we read these wonderful words it becomes
at once clear that the use of gems in the description is not by chance but instead by
divine purpose, because it specifies the kind to be used in relation to each foundation
and the gates. What wealth of joy and instruction for God's elect is contained in this
highly figurative language! Here we are told that the twelve apostles of the Lamb are the
foundations of the City. This alone should be ample evidence to us that God never intended
to present the idea that this New Jerusalem is a literal city. For it says that human
beings, the twelve apostles of the Lamb, are the foundations of the City! In Eph. 2:20 we
are told that we who are the temple of God are built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone. So we see that the
apostles and prophets are the foundation and that we are to build upon this foundation.
We, the body of Christ, are God's building; we, the body of Christ, are God's
There are twelve foundations
— not separate foundations apart from one another supporting different parts of the
City, but twelve foundations laid one upon another, giving perfect and full support to the
whole. Since these foundations are adorned with dazzling stones it is evident that they
are not beneath the ground, but underneath the City in a heavenly realm, clearly visible
for all to see. Jewels are brilliant. How often the clear sparkle of a gem set in a ring
or as an ornament of adornment catches our eye, and almost without thinking our gaze
follows its every movement. We are fascinated by the delightful way facets reflect in
varying hue the rays of light that fall upon them. Oftentimes the large, well-cut gem
seems to possess an inner light apart from that which strikes it. However, this we know is
only an optical illusion, because no jewel possesses light within itself. So with the
saint of God and the gifts and graces that are conferred upon us. Apart from God we are
nothing, even as the brilliance of the jewel darkens and dies when taken from the light.
Jewels are beautiful.
Precious stones have a beauty of form and color that delights the eye. Visualize spread
out before you on a cloth of midnight blue velvet, some jewels of beauty. The clear, icy
sparkle of the diamond, the warmth of glowing red of the ruby, the cool green of the
emerald beside the regal purple of an amethyst. See also a sapphire reflecting the blue of
heaven; a chalcedony, pale blue, translucent, and wax-like; and interspersed among them
all, lustrous pearls, warm glowing spheres so strikingly different from the sharp facets
of the other gems, all reflecting the same light in gloriously different hues, none
detracting from the other, but all enhancing the beauty of the whole. Those many-hued
stones bring out the varied qualities of God, made known through His people. There will be
different rays of His glory revealed through them, illustrated by these different precious
stones, which are the emblems employed, to set forth the luster of God's elect, in
heavenly glory, and the way in which He displays the beauty which He has formed in them.
Put a light through an emerald, and it is quite different from that of the ruby, and
although we are all partakers of the grace and glory of God, that grace and glory will
shine through each differently, and no two are alike. It would be an immense pity if all
the saints were like a truck load of bricks — all the same shape, and color. What a
dull, drab City it would be! Just as there are not two leaves of the forest alike, so
there are not two saints of God alike. All are alike in being perfected in His image, but
all are different in the expression of that image, just as children are different
expressions of their parents.
My heart has been thrilled
and stirred beyond measure as I have mused upon the glories of the Holy City of God's
great and eternal Kingdom. It has stood out to me that the names of the twelve apostles of
the Lamb are inscribed upon the twelve foundations of the City. Time and space do not
permit us to explore the deep meaning within each of the names of these apostles, but each
bespeaks of a foundational principle in the governmental realm of God. In the various
symbols of this City we see different representations of truth and the purposes of God in
His people. The walls speak of the strength of the Christ within as our defense against
every enemy of the spiritual life. The gates portray those precious truths and experiences
in God by which we are given an abundant entrance into the High Calling of God. The
foundations figure for us those foundational truths, experiences, ministries, and
characteristics upon which the whole economy of God's Kingdom rests. The Church is built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief
corner stone. This means that Christ is foundational in the life of the New Creation
— there is that of Him which is laid in us as the basis, underlying principle,
substratum, and support of all that is raised up in our lives. Christ Himself is the
apostle of our profession, says the writer to the Hebrews. The apostles, that is, the
apostolic ministry, is one of the underpinings of God's house.
Our English word
"apostle" transliterates the Greek word APOSTOLOS which means one who is sent.
During the earthly ministry of Jesus twelve disciples were called "apostles". In
Rev. 21:14 these are called "the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” This means that
the twelve were specifically those who followed Jesus and were sent forth by Him during
the days of His earthly walk as the Lamb of God come to live among men and be slain in
sacrifice for them. The scriptures clearly show that the twelve were uniquely the apostles
of Christ to the Jews (Acts 1:15-26; Acts 1:8; Gal. 2:8). Thus, the twelve were an
entirely different order of apostles than those set forth in Eph. 4:7-11 where we read:
"Therefore He saith, WHEN HE ASCENDED UP ON HIGH, He...gave gifts unto men...and He
gave some apostles..." These apostles were not given by the Christ during His three
and a half years of ministry while He walked the earth in a flesh and blood body as the
Lamb of God. This order of apostle was given by the RISEN and ASCENDED Lord, and given not
to the Jews, but to THE CHURCH which is His body. This order of apostle went beyond the
twelve and included Barnabas and Paul (Acts 14:4), Sylvanus and Timothy (I Thes. 2:6), as
well as Andronicus and Junia (a woman!) (Rom. 16:7) among others. These were all apostles
to the early Church, even as the twelve were apostles in
May the spirit of wisdom and
revelation from God grant us understanding in this unique and momentous hour at the end of
the age! It is my deepest conviction that God is raising up and sending forth an entirely
NEW APOSTOLIC MINISTRY in this present day. I do not hesitate to declare to you that the
apostle's ministry has always been essentially that of bringing in a NEW ORDER. A friend
has shared the following insights into this great truth: "Apostles build where NO
OTHER MAN HAS BUILT. So if a man is doing what others have done for years before him, or
what was done two thousand years ago, I do not see that as a true apostolic ministry
today. Moses, as an apostle, brought in an entirely new order. He went up into the
mountain and brought down the ‘house-law’ for the new dispensation. Jesus, as
the ‘apostle of our profession' ushered in a whole new age, and the Church Age
apostles established that new thing. Apostleship is associated with NEW THINGS, foundation
layers, those who CRACK THE FORM OF THE FORMER AGE and bring forth the essence of it and
build the essence. Jesus, as an apostle, cracked the form of the Old Covenant and brought
forth the essence of it in Himself.
"Many brethren have felt
an inward call to apostolic ministry in this hour, and not yet understanding the fullness
of what the Lord is doing have tried to apply that call in the wrong realm: moving under
Church Order in an attempt to fulfill it. The sun is now setting on the Church age and the
transcendent glory of that brighter and greater age when the body of Christ has been
brought to its fullness, the manifestation of the sons of God, and all nations brought
under the dominion of the
THE STREET
Can we not see that all
natural things have spiritual counterparts? John on the Isle of Patmos, beholding these
glories in the Spirit, wrote, "And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were
transparent glass" (Rev. 21:21). Here I would share the comments of another on this
passage which eloquently sum up the very truth the Spirit has quickened in my own heart.
"In the symbolism of scripture, gold is the symbol of the nature of God. As much as
gold is the perfect metal that cannot be tarnished, so God's nature is perfect and it
cannot be tarnished. From times immemorial men walked on streets. So the street of the
City speaks of our walk. The fact that the street of this City was pure gold reveals to us
the truth that in our walk, we will have come to the perfect walk in the nature of our
God, having attained to the perfect nature of our God, walking in perfect purity, perfect
holiness. We cannot overemphasize the truth that the idea that so many christians have in
their spiritual immaturity — that some day they're going to go to a literal, physical
city, in space somewhere, with streets paved with literal gold and buildings made out of
jewels is merely a notion that is the product of spiritual childishness. There is no
physical city anywhere in God's vast universe having streets paved with gold and buildings
constructed of jewels. There never will be any physical city with streets paved with gold
and buildings made out of jewels as our 'heaven.' Our heaven is revealed to us in Eph.
2:1,5-7, where the scripture says, 'And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses
and sins...but God...when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together IN HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST
JESUS: that in the ages to come He might show (display) the exceeding riches of His grace
in His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ.'
"To became exactly like
Christ — this is our 'heaven', no matter where we happen to be in God's great
universe. 'Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of
His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren' (Rom. 8:29). This is our
final dwelling place, our final state of being, when we have come to our glorified
spiritual state, come to perfection in Christ Jesus, and have become the
"When we have attained
to the resurrection power of Christ and we want to transport ourselves from one place to
another, we won't have to walk down any literal street paved with gold, or asphalt, or
anything else. We will simply think the thought in the will of the Father and we will be
there. So streets paved with gold would be of no value to us, or buildings of jewels,
because we won't live in physical buildings. Our dwelling place will be in God by the
Spirit! The only reason that gold and jewels are so attractive to us now is because we are
still physically in our carnal state and these things are beautiful on this plane and have
real monetary value. They have carnal value here on earth. When we have attained to our
spiritual state in spirit, soul, and body, such things will mean nothing to us because all
things will be ours. Not one physical thing will have more value than another to us. So we
see that there never was, and never will be, any literal city in heaven someplace with
streets paved with gold. These are simply symbols which God uses to present to us
spiritual realities. That spiritual reality is the
THE TREE OF LIFE
"In the midst of the
street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare
twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree
were for the healing of the nations" (Rev. 22:2). What would you expect to find in
the midst of the street of a great city? Without doubt, the din of endless traffic, and
the hurrying of eager feet. But was there ever half so beautiful a street as that seen by
the aged eyes of the Seer of Patmos? In a loving description of the New Jerusalem, he
noticed that in the midst of the street there was a river, and on either side of the river
there was a tree — the tree of life. A tree in the street! And what a tree! Ever
young and fair, bearing fruit all the year round, and dressed in leaves which were able to
heal the sick and torn nations of the world as soon as they entered this street of the
City of God and plucked thereof.
Thank God, the work of God
upon the world is not yet done. The nations of earth are sick, even today; the mind and
the heart are not sound; they need healing. And they find it on the leaves of the tree in
the street of the City of
Notice that the leaves of the
tree are for the healing of the nations. There has never been anything given to mankind
for the healing of the nations, healing of the dread sickness of sin and death under which
all are cursed. There has been no medicine, no philosophy, no governmental arrangement, no
social order, no set of laws, no religious system — nothing that has or can heal.
Healing comes only through the Word of God. So the leaves of the tree are the truths of
God's Word that are given to us by the Spirit of God, which is the river of life, by which
we partake of the tree of life, and of its leaves which are the eternal truths of God's
Word, truths which alone will bring the healing of the nations. Let me make it as plain as
possible. The river is the Spirit — the tree is the Word. The Spirit and the Word! It
is out of the Spirit of God that the Word of God issues forth. The Spirit is life. The
Word is an incorruptible seed planted within the river. We are born again of the Spirit,
and we are born of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God which liveth and abideth
forever. We drink of the Spirit, whereas we eat of the Word. When the ministry of the
Spirit in the Lord’s body brings forth the Word of life in all its power and
authority — the nations will be healed!
The tree of life bears twelve
manner of fruits. Twelve is the number of divine government, and the fruit is the fruit of
the spirit. Therefore the twelve manner of fruits that the tree of life bears simply
represents to us the fruit of the spirit borne in our lives in POWER AND DEMONSTRATION.
The Kingdom (rule, government) of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and
joy in the Holy Ghost. When the fruit of the spirit is produced out of our lives until the
nature of God is revealed powerfully and communicated effectually to men producing change
and transformation — there is the blessed fruit of the wonderful tree of life!
THE RIVER
"And he showed me a pure
river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the
Lamb" (Rev. 22:1). This wonderful river is called the "water of life"
because of its life-giving properties. Earthly streams usually have their source in some
mountain spring, but this river of living water, has its source in the throne of God and
the Lamb. This stream originates unpolluted, incorruptible, and undefiled in all the
power, all the authority, and life of Christ. This is the river and the water that Jesus
spoke of to the woman at the well, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall
give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life" (Jn. 4:14). "In the last day, that
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come
unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water...this spake He of the Spirit" (Jn. 7:37-39).
This pure river of life of
the Holy Spirit brings unto every believer the divine life and nature of God that is made
available unto us by the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has made us partakers of His divine
nature. He has given us His own divine life. This
Chapter
38
TAURUS
— THE WILD BULL
As we continue our study on
the real meaning of the Zodiac, we come now to the Sign of TAURUS — THE WILD BULL.
Taurus, The Bull, has the same meaning in virtually every language in which it is known.
It is a picture of a great beast, a bull or ox, with his head lowered and his horns
pointed forward. He is untameable and irresistible. He is charging forth — rampaging,
raging, bringing destruction to all that is in his way. It is interesting to note that the
Sign of Taurus is only the forepart of the bull: actually, as it is seen in the heavens,
it appears to grow right out of Aires, the Lamb. The picture is of a lamb that changes
into a Bull. In a previous constellation we saw Capricornus, half goat and half fish,
giving birth to the Fish, the body of Christ; the slain lamb giving birth to the people of
God. Here we see the gentle and redeeming Lamb taking on a different form and character
— now giving rise to the Christ coming in great glory and in swift and powerful
judgment. In salvation and deliverance we meet and know and experience Him as the Lamb,
but to all that is contrary to Him — the world, the flesh and the devil — He
becomes the irresistible Lord of Judgment.
The chief star in Taurus is
Al Debaran, located in the bull's eye, and means The Captain, The Leader, or The Governor.
Then there is the cluster of stars known as Pleiades which means The Congregation of The
Judge. Also the second Decan of TAURUS is Eridanus meaning The River of The Judge. So
there is no doubt as to the significance of TAURUS — judgment! This character of the
bull, as denoting the Christ coming forth in judgment, is presented by the pen of
inspiration in these enlightening words: "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God,
and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (II Thes. 1:7-8). Long
millenniums ago the prophet Isaiah declared, "Come near, ye nations, to hear; and
hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things
that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury
upon all their armies: He hath utterly destroyed them, He hath delivered them to the
slaughter. For My sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea,
and upon the people of My curse, to judgment. For the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and
a great slaughter in the
What a picture of divine
judgment! The subject of judgment is a large one in the Bible, running through scripture
from Genesis to Revelation, and it is so manifold in meaning, purpose, and application
that it eludes simplification. The judgments of God run deep and are so vast and
multi-faceted that they lie completely beyond the comprehension of the carnal mind and
beyond the grasp of mortal man. As exclaimed by Paul, "O the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how UNSEARCHABLE ARE HIS JUDGMENTS, and His ways past
finding out!" (Rom. 11:33). David prophesied, "...for He cometh, for He cometh
to judge the earth; He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His
truth" (Ps. 96:13). Paul urged the Athenians to repent "because He hath
appointed A DAY in which He will JUDGE THE WORLD in righteousness by that Man whom He hath
ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He has raised Him from the
dead" (Acts 17:31). Judgment is inseparably related to the coming of Christ and His
Kingdom. "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord, Jesus Christ, who shall
judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom" (II Tim. 4:1).
We have met some brethren in
this word of sonship and the
There is going to be a unique
and different unfolding of this One we call Jesus Christ! We have known Him as the Saviour
of the world — but He is about to go forth bringing His judgments to the whole earth,
to the entire bestial order that the carnal mind of man has erected. In the book of
Revelation we see the Christ riding forth on a white horse with the armies of the sons of
God following in His path, "judging and making war.” In Revelation 6:16 it is
called "the WRATH of the LAMB.” What an amazing divine paradox! The
"Lamb" of God who "takes away the sin of the W-O-R-L-D" on the one
hand, and the "wrath" of the Lamb on the other hand. The Lamb — precious
embodiment of meekness, mildness, lowliness, gentleness, patience and sacrifice —
coming upon the world for which He died in the hot fury of vengeance, until men are found
fleeing from the wrath of the Lamb! Ah, this is Aries, the Lamb, who becomes Taurus, the
Bull! Is it not written in the heavens?
This dual nature — the
meekness of the Lamb and the vengeance of the Wild Bull — makes Him what He is, both
the SAVIOUR and the JUDGE of the universe. In His redemptive activity His face is set
against sin and death. Nothing can ever alter that. He will go to all lengths to turn men
from evil, and restore them into harmony with the mind and heart of God. The sheer
simplicity and sincerity of His passion is enough to melt and win the most sophisticated
or the hardest of men. The wrath of the Lamb is beyond our understanding. But the Seer of
Patmos was shown the unveiling of the wrath of the Lamb. I want to declare that God is
going to come forth in these last days in a revelation of Jesus Christ with the judgments
and wrath of God. This shaking and purging will affect the very church of the living God.
The hour is come when judgment must begin at the house of God, but the whole earth will
reel violently under the overflow. And do not think, precious friend of mine, that this
judgment that begins at the house of God pertains to Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert. The
judgment of these brethren is the judgment of God revealed against that great city,
There is a two-fold working
of God in the lives of the Lord's apprehended ones. First, SELF must be dethroned, and in
the accomplishment of this Christ is the Wild Bull, clothed with strength and majesty and
terribleness. As the Wild Bull He will crush every bone in the body of your self life and
tear away and destroy every vestige of your flesh. But as the Lamb He wondrously imparts
of HIS LIFE that you may live by the spirit. The Wild Bull is Christ warring, destroying,
conquering all that pertains to the nature of old Adam. The Lamb is Christ AS OUR LIFE,
that we may appear with Him in glory. But further — these same qualities and
characteristics must be fulfilled in the elect as we are conformed into His image, made
ONE IN HIM. The company of the sons of God shall bear both the image of the Lamb and the
Wild Bull. The strength and ferocity of the Wild Bull nature shall function through the
sons in perfect unity with the gentle and ministerial character of the Lamb. These two
streams of the divine nature, working together as one, in judgment and in mercy, shall
flow mightily and great, and will cause the very earth to shake, will move heaven and stir
hell, and bring the triumph of God's Kingdom among men. Hallelujah to the Lamb! Hallelujah
to the Bull!
I pointed out previously that
the chief star in TAURUS is Al Debara, located in the bull's eye, and means The Captain or
The Leader. Then in the constellation of TAURUS there is a cluster of stars known as
PLEIADES which means The Congregation of the Judge. Ah — God is revealing not only
the righteous judgments of our Lord and Leader, Jesus Christ, but He is preparing and
forming His WILD BULL COMPANY, those blessed ones made one with the heavenly Taurus and
the Lamb on Mount Zion. This glorious ministry shall prevail in the earth and restore all
back into God again. The scriptures reveal that the church is the body of Christ, and
God's blessed Christ must include both the Head and the body. All true saints must be
aware of this sacred secret — that the body is the body of ALL THAT THE HEAD IS. If
Christ the Head is Saviour, then the body of Christ the Head is the body of the Saviour
— a body of SAVIOURS. If Christ the Head is King, it follows that the body of the
Head is the body of the King — a body of KINGS. And armed with the knowledge that
Christ the Head is the great and universal Judge, it should be perfectly clear that the
body of the Head is the body of the Judge — a body of JUDGES! The purpose of the
firstfruits being judged is that they in turn may be qualified to judge. The judgments of
God shall be executed upon the human family and the ages to come by this glorious
CORPORATE CHRIST, Jesus Christ the Head and all the sons and daughters of God, His body,
the completeness of HIS THRONE which shall smite the dark kingdoms of this world, and the
saints shall take the kingdom and reign with Christ in power, authority and glory.
God is preparing a mighty
COMPANY OF JUDGES whose responsibility it shall be to JUDGE THE WORLD in righteousness!
Daniel 7:21-22 sheds much light upon this subject. "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." Again, "And he that overcometh...to him will I give
POWER OVER THE NATIONS: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron" (Rev. 2:26-27).
"And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and JUDGMENT WAS GIVEN UNTO THEM"
(Rev. 20:4,6). The apostle Paul adds, "Do ye not know that the SAINTS shall JUDGE THE
WORLD? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest
matters? Know ye not that WE shall JUDGE ANGELS? how much more things that pertain to this
life" (I Cor. 6:2-3). Jesus spoke of this same beautiful truth when He said to His
disciples, "Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And I appoint
unto you a kingdom, as My Father has appointed unto Me; that ye may eat and drink at My
table in the kingdom, and SIT ON THRONES JUDGING THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL" (Lk.
22:28-30). Most of the Christian world is waiting for Jesus to come at "any
minute" and bring judgment upon the earth. In the greater light of present truth we
now understand that the judgment which HE IS, and which is now wrought out in His saints,
the firstfruits of His redemption, will ultimately be manifested to creation in and
through the sons of God. The judges for this day are now in preparation for their awesome
task. Yes, YOU shall judge the world, saints...but you will do it in humility and with a
broken heart full of compassion and love. Taurus, the Bull, emerges out of Aries, the
Lamb. The first aspect of the ministry of the judges in the coming age is JUDGMENT. This
work, however, shall be swiftly followed by the second ministry of MERCY and RESTORATION,
for God's judgments are ever by correction unto redemption.
THE SWEET INFLUENCES OF PLEIADES
In the neck of Taurus is a
cluster of stars called PLEIADES, also known as the Seven Sisters or the Seven Stars.
Pleiades, as I have pointed out, means The Congregation of The Judge. In the thirty-eighth
chapter of the book of Job God asked Job some very pointed questions. One of the most
suggestive of all these questions, and one that may well cause the reader to ponder
deeply, is found in the thirty-first verse. Here the query is raised, "Canst thou
bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orian?" A gentleman who
spent the first forty years of his life in ancient Mesopotamia, the land where Job lived,
brought some light upon this rather fascinating query. He said that though they are, of
course, close together in the sky in that far-away eastern land, the Pleiades and Orion
are the constellations which introduce the spring and winter seasons. So this is a
pertinent question that God asks of Job, nor can it be answered by any man since Job,
including the present generation. When the Pleiades shone in the sky at night, the men of
that land knew that spring had come. Note, then, this question carefully, "Canst thou
bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?" That is to say, when sap has begun to flow,
when the leaf has appeared on the bough, and the tree has put forth her blossoms, when the
grass springs forth from the sod, and the brooks begin to sing, is there any human
influence which can lock them again in the still bands of winter? In a word, when God
begins to make a spring, no man can hinder or retard. In the same sense of finality, when
Orion flamed in the sky of that land, winter had come. How utterly fantastic for man to
seek to reply in the affirmative to this question of the Almighty, "Canst thou loose
the bands of Orion?" No man can loose the bands of winter. When the blossom and the
leaf disappear and all the singing waters are locked in the icy manacles of winter, who
can hinder God in the progress of the season?
Spiritually, no one can
hinder or stop the ongoing seasons of God as He brings forth His purposes in the earth.
Historically, the purposes of God have marched forward triumphantly from age to age, from
dispensation to dispensation, from dealing to dealing, unfolding God's Kingdom in the
earth from realm to realm. The New Testament record begins at the period just before and
at the time of the coming of Jesus into the world. Just like the seasons, "When the
fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son" (Gal. 4:4). He came into the world
to do away with the old dispensation and covenant of law, which had no power to bring life
to dead souls and is symbolized by winter, and to usher in the new dispensation of grace,
which is symbolized by spring. The law of God has never been fulfilled excepting in Jesus
Christ. That which man could not do, Christ came and did as He walked upon earth and when
He died upon
As we think of the faint
light that the people of God had under the old dispensation, we see that it truly was
winter. It was like the warmth of the sun in midwinter, when its rays can scarcely
penetrate and disperse the frost in the air. There was no more power in the law to give
life to one soul, than there is power and warmth in the midwinter sun and atmosphere, to
bring out the flowers of spring and the fruits of summer and autumn. Not through works of
the law or religion, nor of himself, is man saved; but it is the gift and work of God. He
has given unto us eternal life, and the life is in His Son. He that hath the Son, hath the
life; and he that hath not the San hath not the life. In the individual, this is a picture
of the soul who is dead in trespasses and unbelief; full of deadness and darkness, full of
fruitlessness; whose life is bleak, cold, dead, like midwinter. When the breaking up
comes, and the rays of the sun begin to fall upon the winter of death and unbelief, the
clouds of doubts and fears and ignorance begin to roll away; and the warmth of the
"Sun of righteousness" brings life and warmth to the soul. It is the rain that
comes when winter begins to break up that prepares the ground for the seed and
fruitfulness. It is the breaking up that comes in deep conviction and dealing, with godly
sorrow and repentance, that prepares the heart of man for the seed of Christ and
fruit-bearing. The rain cannot bring fruit any more than can the snow and winter; but it
prepares the ground for the germination of the seed, which has life in it, and has life
more abundant.
As the summer comes on the
flowers appear upon the trees and upon the vines of the heritage of the Lord. As yet there
is no fruit, but the blossoms give promise of a rich harvest from every shrub and plant,
from every vine that the Father has planted in His vineyard. This is the beginning of the
setting up of the
The wonderful truth is: NO
ONE CAN HINDER OR STOP THE PROCESSES OF GOD! God has a plan! At the beginning of the
church age the world was visited by events so momentous in their power and glory that all
things were changed from that time onward. In the eternal realm before the ages were
formed, and ages before man first saw the light of earth's day, the almighty Lord set in
motion His omniscient and immutable purpose for the ages which were to follow. As a year
is filled with weeks and a week is filled with days and a day is filled with hours, so
time is filled with ages and ages with dispensations. Let it be thoroughly known that our
all-wise heavenly Father planned the events of each successive age from the very first age
unto the ages of ages far beyond the comprehension of mortal man. It is not by accident
nor by natural evolution that the world has progressed from the darkness of paganism to
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is by
divine design. The plan of the ages conceived in the heart of Him who purposed all things
after the counsel of His own will is being worked out one step at a time in each
succeeding age in like manner as people who read these lines have often planned in advance
the work for each successive day of a week or each week of a year. Is it not true that
many of the wives and business men now reading this paper have plans in mind for today and
tomorrow and perhaps even months and years in the future? Whether consciously or
unconsciously we all plan ahead, daily and hourly working toward some human goal. There is
nothing that opens the wellspring of love, of faith and understanding, in the human heart
like the knowledge of God's purpose. What infinite joy, what satisfaction and assurance
flood our souls when for the first time in our lives our great and wonderful Father is
seen to be a God of purpose, knowing the end from the beginning because He planned the
beginning and planned the end! He created all things by His omnipotent power that His
glorious purpose might be fulfilled. And the power that made all things and brought forth
all things into being is the same power that upholds all things and controls all things
and shall almightily bring to a successful conclusion the divine purpose in all things.
My dear brother in Christ,
Stacy Wood, recently shared with us the following word which masterfully sums up the point
I am making. "Two millenniums ago God began a work in His people, and in the book of
Revelation He recorded it through His servant John. ‘These things,' He says, ‘must
shortly come to pass’ (Rev. 1:1). The Greek word here translated ‘shortly'
doesn't mean that these things would come to pass within a few days; it means that when
they begin they will continue until they have been fulfilled or brought to completion. I
am persuaded that we are in the fulfillment — we are in the days when things are
'shortly' coming to pass — when the purposes of God are marching forward to their
fulfillment and completion. We are in the days when events are suddenly happening about
us, God has set into motion events which have been progressively unfolding in His body
from age to age, each age becoming brighter and brighter and better and better until
finally God pulls the veil off from who we really are and causes us to BE. God started
something that HE is completing, and that is where our confidence has to be.
"'Being confident of
this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ' (Phil. 1:6). It is GOD who began the work in you, beloved. I did not
begin it, it was not a preacher that began it, it wasn't our ability to grasp hold of some
light that began it. It was the Light Himself, who is the Light of our being, who dawned
upon our consciousness and began a good work in us. Since He began it, we must trust Him
to finish it. We may think we know what He has in mind for us, but the One who drew up the
plan and began the work is the One who really knows what the finished product is all
about. So we must rest upon, confide in and trust that the One who began the good work in
us will bring it to completion.
"I do want to define
this term 'good work.' In the English language when we think of ‘good’ we relate
it to that which feels good, tastes good — what we like. If we don't like it, it's
not good. If it pleases us, it's good. But that would be an inaccurate understanding of
this word ‘good.’ A better English rendition of the word would be WORTHWHILE.
God has begun a WORTHWHILE work in you! And He will complete it! The word worthwhile bears
wonderful significance for me because I realize that with the good there is also the
bitter and difficult, but it all works together for good. I do not look at everything that
comes my way as being 'good.' In fact, the vast majority of things that come my way, if I
were to judge it as being good or bad, I would say is bad, not good! But you see, now I've
learned that it's not a matter of good and bad — it's a matter of worthwhile or
worthless. I'm learning that everything that comes my way by the hand of the Father is
certainly WORTHWHILE! Sometimes it's very bitter, but it's worthwhile. So God has begun a
worthwhile work, a worthwhile endeavor — in us. And He is capable of bringing it to
its fullness, its completion, unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" — end
quote. Thank God! He shall complete the work in us. To us, as to Job of old, the question
comes, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of
Orion?" No way! God's truth, God's will, God's purpose, God's seasons, God's new
creation march relentlessly and inexorably onward.
The prophet Amos spoke the
word of the Lord concerning the heavens and their relationship to the elect when he said,
"Seek Him that maketh the seven stars (Pleiades) and Orion, and turneth the shadow of
death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of
the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: the Lord is His name" (Amos
5:8). Paul Mueller has written concerning this beautiful and significant prophecy:
"Not only do the heavens 'declare the glory of God,’ but also ‘the
firmament showeth His handiwork.’ God's present work involves making or creating
‘the seven stars.’ ‘Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.’
These 'seven stars' represent the remnant gathered out of the seven periods of the church
age who shall come forth in the fullness of their brilliance to begin the kingdom age. Not
only is the Lord making the 'seven stars,' but He is also making or creating ‘Orion,’
as the prophet Amos has declared. The prophet mentioned both the seven stars and the
constellation Orion as having special prophetic significance. This is not the word of a
man, it is the word of the Lord. Therefore, Orion, as well as the seven stars, must have
particular importance for the elect in this hour. As we read the Bible, we will find that
the Lord has veiled His truth in parables, allegories, types and shadows. Such is the case
with the truth of Orion, which is a constellation in the heavens associated with Taurus,
the bull.
"When doubts assail and
fears dismay, we should look to the heavenly example, and see Christ Jesus, our faithful
High Priest. He is completing the circuit in the heavens, thus giving us a clear picture
of the victory that is ours in the fullness of time. He is running His course as a strong,
happy youth, starting from the distant skies and whirling through the full extent of it,
just as we are doing in this world. We are seen as stars in that heavenly realm. We are
the ‘seven stars’ that are in the Lord's right hand, thus indicating that we
shall complete this course in the strength, power and authority of His right hand. Let the
blessed words of truth be a constant encouragement, for as He is in His heavenly
sanctuary, so are we in this present world of carnality and corruption. This is the truth
of ‘the mystery of the seven stars’ that are in His right hand. The mystery of
the seven stars and of the gloriously adorned Orion in the heavens presents a picture of
great hope for all the apprehended ones, and for the whole creation. As the seven stars
are a part of the great Orion Prince in the heavens, so are we essential parts or members
of the Princely Christ Company who is destined to rule the world.
"This Christ company of
today is far greater than the resurrected and glorified Jesus. All during this age, a vast
company of sons has been joined to Him by the Spirit. Therefore, John saw Him as being
‘like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about
the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as
snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they
burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right
hand seven stars; and out of His mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and His countenance
was as the sun shineth in his strength' (Rev. 1:13-16). Seven stars are seen in His right
hand which He holds with honor, dignity and hope. We are the seven stars that He proudly
holds in His right hand, for He has purchased our salvation, and is also leading us to the
fullness of sonship. He who is ‘the great First Cause of the universe’ is ‘guiding
His many children (sons) to His glorious salvation’ (Heb. 2:10, Smith-Goodspeed). And
again, ‘These things saith He that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars’
(Rev. 3:1). He who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks holds the seven
stars representing His holy remnant. This Christ company is anointed with the seven
spirits of God, illustrating their divine power and authority. They are made up of the
remnant gathered throughout this age. The union of these seven stars into the one body of
Christ is depicted in the heavens as Great Orion. In the fullness of time, the Lord will
‘loose the bands of Orion,’ and the manifestation of the sons of God will take
place.
“In His discussions with
Job, the Lord asked him where he was when He laid the foundations of the world, and also,
'when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy' (Job
38:4-7). The implication given here is that the morning stars sang together and all the
sons of God shouted for joy, when the Lord was laying the foundations of the earth. Why
did they/we sing on that blessed, primeval occasion? Because the Father taught us the
wonderful truth of the deliverance of the creation, and of our part in that magnificent
work of restoration, as stars in union with Christ, who is the primary Star. This is the
mystery of the seven stars in His right hand. The 'mystery' of this great truth is
becoming less of a mystery as the Spirit reveals the truth of it. When we come into the
knowledge of the fullness of all truth, the mysteries will no longer be mysteries, but
will be fully revealed and known by all the wise. The truths found in this portion of the
book of Job are deep mysteries that can only be understood by the revelation of the Holy
Spirit. But when the Spirit reveals them to us, we feast on its glories and rejoice in the
magnificence of the Father's great plan of redemption and restoration" — end
quote.
Brother Mueller has touched
on a most precious and significant point in his writing quoted above. God is
"making" both the seven stars (Pleiades) and Orion. Let all who read these lines
know that the seven stars of which the prophet Amos spake and the seven stars in the right
hand of the One like unto the Son of man in John's vision on Patmos are the same seven
stars. "The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the
seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels (messengers) of the seven
churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches" (Rev.
1:20). It is significant to note that the word "angel" in both Hebrew and Greek
simply means messenger, which in no way limits it to celestial beings of a different order
than men. "Angel" means messenger: one sent with a message, who is both the
message itself and the personal representative of the Sender. The Hebrew word MALACK
equals messenger. The Greek word AGGELOS means messenger. Anyone sent with a message is a
messenger — an angel. If there had been
The very same word is used of
those sent by men, those sent by satan, and those sent by God. Any messenger sent by a
king, or any other person, is in both the Hebrew and Greek languages, an angel of that
person, viz: a messenger. If sent by a human being, the messenger-angel was the personal
representative of that one, in the message he was commissioned to bear. Luke 7:18-28
speaks of the messengers of John the Baptist as angels and in verse 24 we read, "And
when the messengers (angels) of John were departed..." These same messengers are
called disciples in verse 18. If sent by God, the messenger-angel was the personal
representative of God, in the message he was given to bear. In Luke 7:27, John the Baptist
is denominated as an angel, "Behold, I send My messenger (Greek: "aggelos"
— angel) before thy face..." It could just as well have been translated,
"Behold, I send My angel before thy face..." The context always decides whose
angel the messenger is. John was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb, to
bear a message from God, and accomplish a mission for God and His Anointed One — the
Christ. In the anointing, the word, and mission, John was a man-angel of God, the greatest
prophet born of women!
The mystery of the seven
candlesticks is that they "are the seven churches." The seven churches represent
THE WHOLE CHURCH REALM THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE CHURCH AGE. Some say they are seven church
periods or ages, and I do not doubt there is truth there. But the seven churches also
represent the entire church within any given period of time. All the states and conditions
within those seven churches are with us in each and every generation. If you want to know
what the church has been like during the past two thousand years — look at the seven
candlesticks! There you have the divinely inspired portrait of the church realm during
this age painted by the brushstrokes of the Holy Spirit of revelation. The Lord commends
and praises them on the one hand, while warning and rebuking them on the other hand. These
churches reveal the true nature of the whole church throughout the age, and history and
personal experience both testify conclusively that John was shown aright. And from that
day to this, make no mistake about it — ALL CHURCHES HAVE BEEN THE SAME! They are
today! And should the church age continue on for another thousand years the church would
not have changed. The word of God immutably declares it! The seven candlesticks are the
seven churches, and the seven churches are the church throughout the entire church age.
The "New Testament Church" realm can never be different from what John saw in
spirit, for that I-S THE CHURCH IN THIS AGE.
In the vision there is One
who stands in the midst of the candlesticks and in His right hand are the seven stars. Not
only are the seven stars in the right hand — they are the right hand. This meaning is
often expressed in common speech: "He is my right hand man," meaning the one who
carries out my instructions, accomplishes my will, and does things in my place. The seven
angels are a messenger company in the realm of the spirit, a revelatory people, having the
seven spirits of God, the seven-fold intensified spirit of the Lord formed within as the
Knowledge, the Wisdom, and the Power of God. Each of these seven stars are a SPIRIT, a
HOLY SPIRIT, personified as the WORD OF GOD. Altogether they are the arm of the Lord, the
hand-ministry of God in the midst of His people and in the earth. The seven churches are
one church or body of the Christ. The seven spirits are the Power and Knowledge and Wisdom
of God flowing through a spiritual ministry to that body. The seven messengers are the
spiritual instrument through which the deep things of God are communicated to the
churches. They are not so much persons as the anointing, the spirit of wisdom and
revelation, the spirit of prophecy, the dispensation of God out of the realm of the
Spirit. The seven messages are seven dimensions of the revelation of Jesus Christ to those
who are called to sonship — the overcomers. The seven messages are the complete and
perfect revelation of Jesus Christ. Each of the seven messages is given BY Jesus Christ
THROUGH the angels, the messengers, the anointings. Each message concludes with the
combination warning- call, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what THE SPIRIT saith
unto the churches." Each individual message has a word to all the seven churches as
well as to the individual church which is named. Those seven churches are still in the
world today. Every believer who dwells in the candlestick realm is part of at least one of
them, and a part of them all. And God has a special and challenging message for the
churches in this hour, for we have come to the end of the church age when ALL MUST BE
FULFILLED. That message is embodied in a hand ministry — the seven stars in the right
hand of the One standing in the midst.
When he that readeth can
grasp the mystery of the seven stars, which are the messengers of the seven churches, and
the seven spirits of God, he will better understand why the word of the Kingdom is
commited to an elect company of saints in this significant hour, and not to the run- of-
the- mill believers in the popular church systems. Not all have the spirit of prophecy or
the spirit of wisdom and revelation from God. Now I would draw your reverent attention to
a most significant point. The King James Version of the Bible prefaces each message to the
churches with these words, "Unto the angel of the church at
Let us UNDERSTAND! The term
"unto" in the command of the Spirit to John is, in the Greek, in the dative
case. Greek is different than English, and in the Greek language of the New Testament the
dative case is used to signify not only "to" and "for," but also
"in," "with," and “by." Let me give you a couple examples of
such usage. Indeed, there are many! "Of His own will begat He us WITH the word of
truth" (James 1:18). The construction here of "the word" is in the dative
case and is translated by the preposition "with," as the means of begetting us.
He does not say "to" the word of truth, rather, He begat us WITH the word of
truth, or BY the word of truth. Again, "Blessed are the poor IN spirit..." (Mat.
5:3). The Greek here is in the dative case, and is translated "in," rather than
"to." It would make no sense at all to say, "Blessed are the poor unto
spirit." This is the identical form of the definite article "the," which is
used in each of the messages to the seven churches and is translated "to" —
"Unto the angel...write." But the meaning is "in" or "by" or
"through" the angel, and not "to" the messenger. The Emphatic Diaglott
correctly renders this phrase: "By the messenger of the congregation in
The message of the book must
come to us, not merely from the pen of the beloved Seer, not by carnal comprehension of
the words written on paper, but from the seven spirits — the seven-fold intensified
spirit of the Lord! The book apart from the illuminating messengers, the seven stars, is
empty, dead, unintelligible and unprofitable. You see, precious friend of mine, John was
"in the Spirit" in the day of the Lord when he received the Revelation. "I
was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, what thou seest, write in a
book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia" (Rev. 1:10-11). So many
are looking today in the natural for the events unfolded in the Revelation to come to
pass, but John was in the Spirit when he wrote the book — he wasn't in the natural!
He was in a realm beyond the natural, and beholding events in a realm beyond the natural.
These things are written in a language that only the spiritual mind (the seven angels) can
understand. A natural mind produces a natural concept. It should be obvious that only a
person who knows French is able to read a book from
ORION
The first Decan, or minor
constellation, in the house of TAURUS is Orion. It is one of the most magnificent of all
the constellations of the heavens. Of Orion Kenneth Fleming has written in his book, GOD'S
VOICE IN THE STARS, "Orion, is, without doubt, one of the most spectacular and
wonderful sights in all the heavens. The brilliance of Orion is seen both in its starry
wonder and in its prophetic significance. It is magnificent. Two of its stars are of the
first magnitude: Rigel, a pure white star, and Betelgeuse, an orange-red color. All the
other leading stars are white. Orion is a mighty hunter with a tremendous club raised high
in his right hand. In his left hand he holds the skin of a lion which he has killed. The
lion skin is marked by a curved line of small stars. His belt and sword are well known and
his head is marked by a small triangle. His left foot is raised to crush the head of his
enemy, Lepus. The scriptures mention Orion as a constellation, twice in Job and once in
the prophecy of Amos (Job 9:9; 38:31; Amos 5:8). The Hebrew name means A Strong One, A
Hero. The Egyptian name means This is He Who Triumphs. The hilt of Orion's sword is the
figure of a Lamb, and He is thus identified with the Lamb that was seen in Aries. Orion
means Coming Forth as Light. Historians and scribes have sought to flatter earthly heroes
by comparing them to Orion, from Nimrod to Napoleon. However, all these heroes pale into
insignificance before HIM of whom Orion truly speaks — the Prince of Glory. Orion
pictures His glorious coming: 'Who may abide the day of His coming?' (Mal. 3:2)"
— end quote.
The aspect of Orion that
portrays the Lord coming forth as light confirms the prophet Ezekiel's vision of the
presence of the One whose voice John described, in the book of Revelation, "as the
sound of many waters" (Rev. 1:15). Ezekiel associates that appearing with the Glory
of the Lord, stating, “Behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of
the east: and His voice was like the noise of many waters: and the earth shined with His
glory" (Eze. 43:2). The result is that the earth is bathed in the Glory of the Light,
of which Glory the prophet said that it "was the appearance of the brightness round
about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord" (Eze. 1:28).
Of the Glory of God revealed
in type by the constellation Orion one has written: "One of the most inspiring and
thrilling of the secret disclosures of astronomers is that there is a great empty space in
the north in the Nebula of the Constellation Orion — a cavern so gigantic that the
mind of man cannot comprehend it, and so brilliantly beautiful that words cannot
adequately describe it. But, surpassing the immensity of its size, its exquisite beauty
and luminous colors are unlike any on earth. Professor Learkin, at Mt. Lowe Conservatory,
gives us the following descriptions: 'These photographs reveal the opening and interior of
a cavern so stupendous that our entire solar system would be lost therein. I have watched
it since the days of youth in many telescopes of many powers, but never dreamed that the
center is the mouth of a colossal cave. Pen of writers and brush of artists alike are
lifeless and inert in any attempt to describe this interior. The depths of the Orion
Nebula appear like torn and twisted objects, and rivers of shining glass, irregular
pillars, columns of stalactites in glittering splendor and stalagmites from the mighty
floor. The appearance is like that of light shining and glowing behind the clear walls of
ivory and pearl, studded with millions of stars.' There must be some reason why all this
grandeur is lavished on this one spot in the heavens. The colors are a hue peculiar to the
Orion Nebula and studded around the opening so that they appear as a pavement of starry
sand. No wonder the astronomers say that they feel some Almighty 'Presence' while scanning
this part of the heavens, and become speechless before this great outburst of grandeur
extending for trillions of miles through space" — Howard B. Rand.
Paul Mueller has shared the
following beautiful observations concerning the glory of Orion. "The astronomers'
knowledge of Orion's glory is nothing compared to the reality of the anointed company that
is represented by Orion. This company is still in preparation, but the hour of their
manifestation is near. The astronomers have little or no understanding of the plan and
purpose of God displayed in the heavens, yet they are thrilled and excited by what they
see. They use the most expressive terms possible to describe what they see. We believe the
constellation Orion specifically illustrates the coming manifestation of the sons of God.
Orion therefore represents the body of Christ coming forth out of the wilderness of this
world in the very light and glory of God. This manchild company is the Glorious Prince who
comes forth triumphant. In Orion, he is seen as coming forth in great light, prepared and
anointed to judge and to rule. Every one among this anointed company has overcome the
mystery of iniquity. This 'man' is gloriously adorned like unto the ‘Son of man’
just as John saw him in vision. He is 'girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head
and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of
fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as
the sound of many waters’ (Rev. 1:13-15).
"Our triumphant,
omnipotent Lord of all is making the ‘seven stars’ and ‘Orion.’ He is
preparing each one who makes up the 'seven stars' so that He may join them in the holy
bond of divine love into one body, thus making one corporate company with Christ their
Head. Orion depicts the body of Christ coming forth in the image and likeness of Christ,
for Orion means, the coming of a mighty, triumphant, glorious prince, he who triumphs, who
comes forth as light. This complete Christ body is represented in the heavens as Great
Orion, the mighty, majestic prince who shall both judge and rule. He is made up of the
saints who are in union with Christ their glorious Head. And we who have joined Him
'outside the camp' are privileged to be partners with Him in His great redemptive work.
Nothing is lacking of armor, power, wisdom, authority and strength, for he is anointed
with the seven spirits of sonship. His sword is the word of God. His breastplate is the
breastplate of righteousness. He is girt about with truth. He has the shield of faith, not
a man’s faith, but the very faith of the Son of God who is represented as a lion
lifted high in his left hand. He is wearing the helmet of salvation, for this company has
partaken of the fullness of salvation, which is the transformation of their bodies. And
whether we realize it or not, this anointed prince company IS NOW warring in the Spirit
(Eph. 6:12-17). We are now wrestling in the Spirit against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, for the kingdoms of man are coming down with lightning like speed.
"Here is another vital
truth displayed in the heavens. Every time Orion comes to the meridian, or to his highest
point, he is accompanied by several adjacent constellations of great splendor. The
manifestation of the sons of God will be much greater than Orion's display in the heavens
now, greater than the glory of God at Sinai, greater than the transfiguration of Jesus and
His appearance with Moses and Elijah, and greater than the tongue of mortal man can tell.
The hour of manifestation is approaching. This Christ body shall soon come to his
meridian. The hour of culmination is at hand. We shall soon reach the point of high noon,
the highest point in the heavens. Then the whole Christ body will be at its meridian,
which is the highest point of spiritual attainment. When the sons of God are manifest, the
angelic hosts and all creation will then explode in praise and worship of Him who has
wrought such a grand deliverance. As Orion is accompanied by several adjacent
constellations of great splendor when he comes to his meridian, so the sons of God shall
be accompanied by the hosts of heaven in a glorious display of the light and power of God
that will overshadow all other previous events. Christ, the mighty Stone, soon will appear
to complete our salvation, and launch our glorious unveiling" — end quote.
If you can receive it, it was
from such a realm of glory and eminence and blessing that Adam fell! Since the
transgression in
We have passed through a time
of great darkness. It has been a long night of travail — yearning, waiting, longing.
Darkness has blinded the minds of men, a deep sleep has been upon the Adamic race, the
death of the carnal mind has kept earth's inhabitants in the regions of the shadow of
death. But let it be shouted from the housetops — THE LIGHT IS COMING! It is time to
cast off all works of darkness, now to be clothed with the armor of light. CHILDREN OF
LIGHT, STARS AND SUNS, THE DAZZLING BRILLIANCE AND LUMINOUS BEAUTY OF ORION, WE ARE TO
BECOME. Birthed into the new age, to bring forth the glory and triumph of His Kingdom.
Thank God, the first rays of light of the new day are painting the eastern sky! Thank God,
a few of His chosen ones have arisen to behold the glories of the dawn and to drink in the
intoxicating freshness of the morn!
We are appointed to shine
with the exquisite beauty and glittering splendor of Orion. The glory of Orion is
unequaled by any other sight in the heavens. We have now come to
ERIDANUS
The second Decan, or minor
constellation, in the house of TAURUS is Eridanus, meaning The River of the Judge. It is
pictured as an immense, fiery, molten river that flows out from before the glorious Orion,
running past Cetus, the Sea-monster, and disappearing finally into the extremities of
outer darkness. This Sign speaks again of judgment, associated with fire. This same
picture is presented in the Psalms. "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence:
a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him"
(Ps. 50:3). "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be
glad thereof. A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. His
lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax
at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens
declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory" (Ps. 97:1-6). Also, we
read in Isaiah: "Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with His
anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue
as a devouring fire. And the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall
show the lighting down of His arm, with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame
of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones" (Isa. 30:27,30).
Again the scripture testifies
of this fiery River of the Judge, "HE is like a refiner's fire...and He shall sit as
a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as
gold and silver" (Mal. 3:22-23). Nothing is more certain than the fact that Jesus
Christ has already come, or shall yet come into the world of each of us in FLAMING FIRE!
Because of the gross misunderstanding of almost all people concerning the fire of God, I
would draw your reverent attention to the natural process of fire. In the book of
Revelation the Holy Spirit describes the manifestation of God as fire under a remarkable
symbol. "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the
LAKE WHICH BURNETH WITH FIRE AND BRIMSTONE..." (Rev. 21:8). The word "burn"
means combustion, or to consume. To consume does not mean to annihilate, for the law of
the conservation of energy precludes any such thing as annihilation. You can annihilate a
form, but not a substance. When fire consumes the charcoal in your grill it does not
destroy any of the elements within the charcoal, it merely changes their form. Combustion
is the process by which chemicals combine to form new chemicals. For example, a tree might
be cut down, sawed into fire wood, and burned. In the first place, the tree was formed by
drawing chemicals out of the earth and air and rearranging them into the form of a tree.
Now, when the wood burns, the heat causes those same chemicals to vaporize, mixing with
the oxygen in the air to form new chemicals, including water and the gas carbon dioxide.
So what was formerly a tree can no longer be identified as a tree, but it still exists in
its entirety — the substance thereof is now simply changed, transformed into a
DIFFERENT FORM! Thus, to burn means to CHANGE. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that
fire does not burn down; it always burns up; it seeks the highest level. And all that it
consumes (changes) "goes up in smoke," to exist in a new form in a higher
dimension. Even if you take a pan of water and place it over a fire, before long the water
will take on the property of the fire and will begin to go up in steam. To burn means to
change, and the change is always upward in motion.
FIRE is the heat and light
you feel when something burns (changed by heat). It takes heat to start a fire, but once
the fire is started it produces heat that keeps the process going. Thus, fire is really
heat and light. In my study of the lake which burns with fire and brimstone (which lake is
formed by the fiery River of the Judge) I was very much helped and impressed by the
understanding given by Charles Pridgeon, and I would like to quote from his scholarly work
on the subject of BRIMSTONE. He says: "The
I realize that the above
thoughts define the subject very briefly, but let us summarize the meaning thus: BURN
means combustion, to change the form of. FIRE means heat and light. BRIMSTONE means
divine. Putting these three together can we not see that the lake burning with fire and
brimstone is, actually, DIVINE HEAT AND LIGHT PRODUCING AN UPWARD CHANGE! If you think the
There is no better way to
deal with filth than to deal with it by fire. The human heart, according to the testimony
of scripture, is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The heart is the
filthiest of all things in God's great universe. The punishment by penal fire leads back
to the beginning of things. The final work of God in this world will be the destruction of
the world (order) by penal fire. That will change all things. That will melt all the
elements, so that no man can tell you where his original grab was. It will burn up all the
governments, institutions, systems, and fruitage of the carnal mind. It will melt all the
customs, cultures, traditions, and practices of society and make of this earth a new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness. Every man's work will eventually be tested in this fire.
The fire will try every man's work of what sort it is. If you and I build into our walls
wood, hay, and stubble, that fire will find it out, and the wall will come tumbling down.
We will be saved though as by fire, saith the Lord. When God turns on the HEAT, the
BLAZING LIGHT OF HIS SPIRIT AND WORD — some things begin to change! The fire is never
sent to destroy the person, but to purge out all that hinders and separates him from his
God, to consume the pride, arrogance, hostility, defiance, and rebellion of the flesh and
the carnal mind, that he might then be wooed and drawn by the Holy Spirit of Love unto the
Father of Spirits and live.
Chapter
39
TAURUS
— THE WILD BULL
(continued)
In the previous Study on the
Signs of the heavens we considered the Sign of TAURUS — THE BULL. It is a picture of
a great beast, a bull or ox, with his head lowered and his horns pointed forward. He is
untameable and irresistible. HE is charging forth — rampaging, raging, bringing
destruction to all that is in his way. It is interesting to note that the Sign of Taurus
is only the forepart of the bull; actually, as it is seen in the heavens, it appears to
grow right out of Aires, the Lamb. The picture is of a Lamb that changes into a Bull. Here
we see the gentle and redeeming Lamb taking on a different form and character — now
giving rise to the Christ coming in great glory and in swift and powerful judgment. In
salvation and deliverance we meet and experience and know Him as the Lamb, but to all that
is contrary to Him — the world, the flesh, and the devil — He becomes the
irresistible Lord of Judgment.
This dual nature — the
meekness of the Lamb and the vengence of the Wild Bull — makes Him what He is, both
the SAVIOUR and the JUDGE of the universe. In His redemptive activity His face is set
against sin and death. Nothing can ever alter that. He will go to all lengths to turn men
from evil, and restore them into harmony with the mind and heart of God. The sheer
simplicity and sincerity of His passion is enough to melt and win the most sophisticated
or the hardest of men. The wrath of the Lamb (as the Wild Bull) is beyond our
understanding. But the Seer of Patmos was shown the unveiling of the wrath of the Lamb. I
want to declare that God is going to come forth in these last days in a revelation of
Jesus Christ with the judgments and wrath of God. This shaking and purging will affect the
very church of the living God. The hour is come when judgment must begin at the house of
God, but the whole earth will reel violently under the overflow. The judgment that begins
at the house of God comes first to those who have received the call of sonship, to those
apprehended to the High Calling of God, to those predestined to be conformed into the
image of the Son of God that they may rule and reign with Him in His Kingdom. The Lord
comes suddenly to His temple as a refiner's fire and as fullers' soap. He shall thoroughly
purge His floor, and purify the sons of Levi.
We come now to the third
Decan, or minor constellation, in the house of Taurus — AURIGA. We have seen the
picture of a mighty Bull rushing forth in judgment, followed by Eridanus, the fiery River
of the Judge; and now we see AURIGA — THE GREAT SHEPHERD. He is seated upon the Milky
Way, holding up on his left shoulder a she-goat, who has her paws around the neck of
Auriga. The goat is looking down in fear and apprehension at the terrible, raging,
rampaging Bull. On his lap, and held by his left hand, Auriga supports two little kids,
apparently new-born, and bleating, affrightened and trembling, but obviously safe and
secure in the strong embrace of the Shepherd. The name Auriga is derived from a Hebrew
root which means "A shepherd." Is not this the celestial portrayal of the Good
and Great and Chief Shepherd gathering the lambs in His arms, and carrying them through
all the judgments, disciplines, purgings and processings of God — in His bosom? Is He
not saying, "Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and His arm shall
rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. He shall feed His
flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His
bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young" (Isa. 40:10-11). Furthermore
— the exceptionally bright star in the foot of Auriga is called El Nath which means
"wounded" or "slain." Is not this indeed He who was once bruised or
wounded in the heel (Gen. 3:15)? He is the "GOOD Shepherd," who gives His life
for the sheep (Jn. 10:11), and He is "the GREAT Shepherd," brought again from
the dead (Heb. 13:20), and is now "the CHIEF Shepherd," seen in the day of His
glory among the sheep of His fold who hear His voice and follow Him all the way to Mount
Zion (I Pet. 5:4).
It should not be surprising
to find Auriga, The Shepherd, connected with Taurus, The Bull — the constellation
denoting judgment. Judgment begins at the house of God and the Great Judge of all is also
the Great Shepherd of all. "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it
is not in man that walketh to direct his steps; O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not
in Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing" (Jer. 10:23-24). What security, what
safety — and what peace fills the heart of the trusting child of God who understands
the great truth that it is not in man to try and direct his own way, the responsibility is
not cast upon him, but upon GOD. It is true — "all we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned every one to his own way..." as the prophet declares in Isa.
53:6, the Lord has allowed us to wander off this way, knowing that we shall have awesome
experiences by which we shall learn vital lessons which later shall be used in our
instruction and correction. A story is told of one who talked with a shepherd in the high
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
Among the many emblems of our
Lord in the Scriptures and in the Signs of the heavens, I think there is none more
beautiful than the one in which He said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep.” The writer to the Hebrews says, "Now the God of
peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do
His will..." (Heb. 13:20-21). "The God of peace who brought again from the dead
the GREAT SHEPHERD..." It means that He already was the Great Shepherd before He
entered the tomb, for it was the Great Shepherd that was brought back from the dead. In
the Hebrew Old Testament the God of Israel is designated as "The Shepherd of
Israel," or Pastor and Leader of the nation. When our Lord Jesus Christ declared
Himself to be "The Good Shepherd" the Jewish leaders knew that He was claiming
to be Yahweh in- the- flesh. Although the hierarchy rejected His claim, the elect gladly
accepted it. Those who followed Him, who heard His voice, and were fed and guided and
taught by Him knew Him experientially as the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd and the
Chief Shepherd.
Just how great is the Great
Shepherd? Great through His creative power? Yes. Great through His miracle-working power?
Yes. Great through His preaching and teaching power? Yes. Great through His nature, His
personality, and His attributes, human and divine, that were combined in Him? Yes, He was
in the days of His flesh the greatest in that respect that ever walked this planet. But in
Heb. 13:20 there is the unfolding of actual greatness. The Greek text reads, "Now may
the God of peace, who brought up from the dead that Shepherd of the sheep, Great by the
blood of an aionian Covenant, even our Lord Jesus Christ." He is Great through
sacrificial love, He is Great through sacrificial power, He is Great through the
out-pouring of HIS LIFE on behalf of, and unto, His sheep. To have given us a Shepherd was
much; but to have given us such a Great Shepherd is marvelous! More is meant than the mere
quickening of the dead body of Christ Jesus. There is included, also, His exaltation by
the right hand of God, to be a Prince and a Saviour, a King and a Redeemer, a Forerunner
into the
George Wylie shared some
precious insights into the Shepherd ministry of the Lord Jesus, of which I would share a
portion. "What a Shepherd He is! What I have been impressed about is His care for the
individual sheep. He is not just a shepherd of a vast flock of sheep, He knows each
individual sheep and calls them by name and His care for the individual is just as great
as for the flock. This is illustrated in the parable of the one lost sheep. When He
brought His flock into the fold for the night one sheep was missing. What would that
matter! What was the value of one sheep among the multitudes that He had. Who would miss
one little sheep — HE did — He left the rest of the flock in the shelter of the
fold and went out to find the one lost one. It meant just as much to Him as did the rest
of the flock.
"'He that entereth in by
the door is the shepherd of the sheep. And he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth
them out' (Jn. 10:2-3). To know them by name means that each has a separate identity and
possesses characteristics peculiar to the individual. In the natural sphere this is true
also. It is remarkable, but has often been verified, that however large the flock, the
animals are individually known to the shepherd who recognizes each one by its face. This
almost incredible fact has been proved again and again in courts of law, where the
testimony of the shepherd that a stolen animal is his, because recognizable to him by
face, has been accepted as proof of ownership. The humble child of God must never suppose
that he is only one among many. Though untalented and undistinguished he is of equal
consequence to Christ as those distinguished for gift and activity. All are equally
precious to the Shepherd, and His most particular care is reserved for those who need Him
the most.
"The 23rd Psalm has
become very precious to me in the last few months. It starts out by saying, "Yahweh
is my shepherd." Now I know this is referring to God, the Father, but the Son is the
manifestation of the Father to us. He takes the Father's place in all things. So what is
said here of Yahweh also applies to His Son YeHoshua. David wrote this Psalm, and what
impressed me was the individual tone he used in writing the Psalm. Yahweh was known as the
Great Shepherd of Israel. David could have said, ‘Yahweh is our shepherd; we shall
not want. He maketh us to lie down in green pastures...’ but he didn't. He said,
'Yahweh is MY shepherd,’ and all the way through the Psalm he emphasized the
individual care he received from God. Just notice: 'He maketh ME to lie down in green
pastures; He ]eadeth ME beside the still waters. He restoreth MY soul; He leadeth ME in
the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with ME; thy rod and thy staff they
comfort ME. Thou preparest a table before ME in the presence of my enemies; thou anointest
MY head with oil; MY cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow ME all the
days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever.’ All the way
through the emphasis is on the individual care he received from the great Shepherd.
"'Yahweh is my shepherd;
I shall not want.' When I went to Sunday School as a child one little boy in the class was
quoting this Psalm. We had to learn it by heart. He said, ‘The Lord is my shepherd,
that's all I want.’ With a shepherd as He is what else do we need or want. He is the
supply of every need. He doesn't just supply our needs, He isn't just the supplier of our
needs; HE is our need, our only need. He doesn't supply our needs out of His storehouse or
pantry; He gives of Himself to us. What He gives is not something He has an abundance of
in His great storehouse; it is Himself He gives to us, of His own person and being,
something of what He is. This is our need, our only need — more of HIM. We will never
be in need while He is our Shepherd.
"Let us look at some of
the things mentioned in this Psalm that we will not have any want or lack of. 'He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures.' This is a picture of a sheep lying down contentedly in
a field of luscious verdant grass. It has partaken abundantly of the luscious green grass
and is full and satisfied. I can picture it lying down in this lovely pasture, resting and
contentedly chewing its cud with not a care or worry in the world. This tells us that we
shall never want for rest, provision, contentment and satisfaction. 'He leadeth me beside
the still waters.' I can imagine this beautiful setting, a beautiful green meadow with a
lovely little lake at the end of it, the waters reflecting the clouds drifting by and the
trees growing along side casting their cool shade. I used to like to find a place like
this for myself an a nice summer day and stretch out on the grass and watch the clouds as
they slowly made their way across the sky, constantly changing shape; looking at times
like animals, ships, people and faces. There is a place in the Spirit with the Good
Shepherd just like this, a place of rest and calm in ones' soul where nothing disturbs the
tranquility of the spirit, where all is peace and rest and confidence. Though the world
around may be falling apart, millions starving and thirsting for lack of the necessities
of life, the Good Shepherd makes His sheep to lie down contentedly, at peace in the green
pastures of His abundance, and beside the still waters. The waters of life may be
turbulent, they usually are; but in the spirit we are beside the still waters.
"I should say something
here that may be helpful to some. We have here a picture of a sheep that will never know
what it is to feel the pangs of hunger or thirst; there is always an abundant supply at
hand. The Lord said, 'He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst,' yet we also have the scripture that says, "They that hunger and thirst after
righteousness shall be filled.’ There are times we will be hungry and thirsty for the
things of God; in fact I always am. I eat and eat and yet I hunger for more, I drink and
drink and yet am still thirsty. Why should this be? Jesus said we would never thirst
again, and yet I do, all the time. One thing good for us to know is that most things in
the spirit are diametrically opposed or opposite to the natural. Natural laws and
spiritual laws are different. For instance, in the spirit realm, up is down and down is
up. By that I mean if you want to make something of yourself in the natural, you aspire to
great things. You climb the ladder of human ambition, striving for the top and caring not
how many people you trample under foot to get there. In the Spirit realm it is different;
if you want to be great in the
"In the natural when we
eat and drink until we are full we are no longer hungry or thirsty, but in a few hours we
will be — we always get hungry and thirsty again. This is hard to explain, but in the
Spirit, like the sheep that is lying down in green pastures and beside still waters, we
can be satisfied and contented, yet there remains a strong desire for more. This is a
different kind of hunger and thirst than we have in the natural. We can be full,
satisfied, and contented, and yet at the same time hungering and thirsting for more. My
experience is, the more I partake of the things of the Shepherd, the greater becomes my
hunger and thirst for more. So I am full, satisfied, contented, and at the same time
hungering and thirsting for more of the deep and glorious things of God. This is a paradox
and hard for the natural mind to comprehend — but so it is in the realm of the
Spirit. We will never hunger and thirst again as we do in the natural — because we
lack — and yet, we will never cease to hunger and thirst after righteousness until we
come into the fullness of Him. In the natural, when we eat and drink we lose our hunger
and thirst for a time; if we don't eat and drink for a season we will soon get hungry and
thirsty again. It is just the opposite in the realm of the Spirit. I find that the more I
eat and drink of the bread of Life and the water of the Spirit the greater my desire for
more. If I neglect to eat and drink regularly of the things of the Spirit of God, I do not
get more hungry and thirsty; rather, I begin to lose my appetite for God and my thirst for
the things of the Spirit diminishes. This is just opposite to how it works in the natural!
I have never been more satisfied, full and contented in my spirit than I am today, and yet
I have never been more hungry and thirsty for more of His life and reality. Try to explain
that in human terms! There are many paradoxes in the spirit — 'As deceivers, and yet
true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; chastened, and not
killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having
nothing, yet possessing all things’ (II Cor. 6:8-10).
"'He restoreth my soul.’
What has really blessed me is the knowledge, brought out by this Psalm, that He is not
just the Shepherd of a great flock of sheep, but that He is my personal Shepherd; totally
involved with me in all my affairs, taking care of me as though I was the only sheep He
had. Have you ever been in the place where you needed your soul restored? Because of the
trials, tribulations, adversities, pressures, reverses, battles against the powers of
darkness; when things seem to have gone all wrong and nothing seems to be right; when the
thick darkness has settled all around you, and there seemingly is no light at all; when
you are hemmed in by the multitude of trials and troubles and there appears no way of
escape, all hope is vanished, even the Lord seems to have forsaken you; you are
disillusioned, despondent, and in despair you cry out in your distress, ‘Lord, where
are you? Why is all this happening to me? I don't understand it!' He's there, beloved. He
is never far away. He is the Tender and Good and faithful Shepherd. He is at hand to
restore your soul, to lift you up out of your distress and despair and to restore you
again to that joy and peace and confidence and power that you once have known.
"’He leadeth me in
the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.’ There is much said about
righteousness in the scriptures. What does righteousness mean? God is righteous; He is
righteous because He does all things right and is never wrong. This is what God is —
righteous, right. We are exhorted in the Word to seek and receive this same attribute.
This is part of our inheritance as sons of the Most High. 'Seek ye first the
"God doesn't want to
leave us in this unrighteous state; He wants to make as righteous. He wants to impart His
righteousness to us, not just impute it. 'For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew
no sin; that we might be MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD in Him' (II Cor. 5:21). We are to
possess and become the righteousness of God. To be righteous as He is righteous, to be
holy as He is holy. Who wouldn't want to become this righteousness? To always be right in
all we think, in all we say and in all we do. To never again think anything wrong; to have
no wrong thoughts or ideas. To never again say anything wrong, and to never do anything
wrong; but to be always right in everything. What a blessed state! Impossible? No! It is
what He has planned for us and is working on in us. Of this very truth the Psalmist wrote
when he said, 'He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name's (nature's) sake.’
He leads me in the paths that will bring me to this glorious state. HalleluYah!' —
end quote.
THE SHEPHERD LEADS
Recently the revelation of
Jesus Christ as a Shepherd with His flock caught my attention in a special way. One
particular aspect that struck me as I read the parable in John's Gospel is where Jesus
says that the rightful Shepherd "entereth in by the door" to where the sheep
are, and "leadeth them out." He leads them out! These days the idea seems to be
to get behind the flock, see which way they're heading (via opinion polls), and then hurry
in that direction! Real leadership, of course, isn't a matter of finding out what the
conventional thought is, or what the sheep imagine is right, then going along with it. The
What Christ says about God, man, and our own lives
never simply follows human convention, worldly philosophy or popular religious theology.
What Christ says comes from the perfection of God's Being and tells us — in ways just
right for us at that moment — of God's real nature, His true ways. God can't be seen
or understood by the physical senses or the human intellect. Because the man God creates
is spiritual, that new creation which we are depends on God alone. God gives His man
everything. So we should be looking to the Spirit for everything that's necessary in our
lives. And this is especially true when it comes to the spiritual principles and realities
we need to learn and know. If it is truly the mind of Christ within that is leading us,
we'll have the courage and strength we need to go forward even though the way may be
challenging. It's not necessarily easy where Christ leads, but the rewards are sure. And
when Christ leads we need not be concerned over whether others are doing the same thing.
"And when He putteth
forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His
voice" (Jn. 10:4). These words of our Lord Jesus Christ are a great blessing and
comfort in these days of uncertainty and rapid change. Our blessed Lord does not push His
sheep ahead of Him into uncharted wilderness — He goes before them. The sheep do not
know the way. How could they? They have never come this way before! But HE knows the way!
As the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night went before the children of Israel as
they crossed over to the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, so our Lord Jesus
Christ has gone before us as our forerunner who has not only entered into heaven itself
and the Most Holy Place within the veil, but He has walked out every step of that great
and terrible wilderness that lies between. There are no uncertainties or uncharted
wildernesses with Him. And "He goeth before them." So, a worried sheep is a
foolish sheep. A worried sheep must be listening to other voices than that of the Good
Shepherd. A worried sheep must have forgotten that he is not leading, but following. No
enemy can touch the sheep unless He can first overcome the Shepherd. What confidence this
evokes in our hearts!
Shepherding isn’t an
easy job. Sheep don't just take care of themselves. They require a considerable amount of
guidance and attention. The flock needs fresh pasture, clean water, and protection from
extreme exposure to the elements. And the sheep must be provided with a safe place far the
night. In Bible times, this sometimes meant piling stones in a circular arrangement as a
protective wall of sorts. The shepherd would lie across the opening, guarding the entrance
so that wild animals or thieves couldn't get at the sheep. A reliable shepherd would not
allow himself to become drowsy or fall asleep if there was danger. The welfare of the
flock would always be uppermost in his thought.
Jesus said, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door
is the shepherd of the sheep" (Jn. 10:1-2). The sheepfold is for defense and has but
one door, none is to enter by any other way. And none is to enter but the shepherd and the
sheep. As someone has written, "If any one 'climbs up,” showing by so doing that
he is superior to the sheep — if he goes by another nearer or higher way, in which
the sheep, being only sheep, cannot follow him — he may prove that he can do what
they cannot, but he proves also that he has not a shepherd's heart, and would never lead
the sheep whither he goeth. Such an act shows that he is a thief. For in meddling with
sheep a man will either be a shepherd or a thief. Men do not meddle with them without
intending either to serve themselves or serve the sheep. The true shepherd serves the
sheep. Therefore he goes by the way they can go. If they are in the field, he with them is
in the field, consumed by day with drought, by night with cold. If they need a door, he
stoops to enter by the door; a ceaseless toiler for lower natures, who knows not what he
gives up and bears in such a service. In a word, this is Christ's service; that wondrous
coming down by which the Son of God stooped to the place of brutal erring men; not helping
us afar off, but coming to us right where we are; sharing our sleeping and waiting, our
weakness and our lacks; that by His humiliation He might meet our folly and our need, and
in due time bring us safely home to God and His Kingdom. He leads from where we are to
where He is, praise His wonderful name!
HEARING THE SHEPHERD'S VOICE
The following words by Ray
Prinzing are a pertinent and powerful admonition to all those apprehended to sonship.
"My sheep hear My voice...” MY sheep hear — the Greek word for ‘hear’
used here is AKOUO and while there is included in its meaning the thought of 'to give ear'
because you discern a sound, it also includes the meaning of TO HEARKEN, a responsive
action to one's hearing. This goes beyond the outward hearing of the natural ear, when
Jesus said, 'My sheep hear My voice!’ There is a LISTENING to hear the sound thereof,
a receptivity within, and a responsiveness to follow in obedience. 'He goes before His
sheep, and they follow Him, for they KNOW His voice.' Now we have another Greek word for
‘know,' this one being OIDA, absolute knowledge. Praise God, we are to have absolute
knowledge of His voice — without doubts or questionings. The sheep — the mature
ones, shall come to a place where they unmistakably know His voice. And they know that
they know that they know! But as for STRANGERS — they will not follow, but they will
flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.
"And now we have an
allegory, with the shepherd, and the stranger, and there is a sense in which we have them
both within us. The Shepherd is the VOICE OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD, the stranger is the voice
of the carnal mind. I dare say, our spiritual maturity is evidenced by the 'voice' which
we hearken to, and follow. God is SPIRIT, and He contacts us through our spirit. ‘There
is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding’
(Job 32:8). It is interesting to watch a gathering of various levels of spiritual growth.
When the Spirit of God is moving deep into the hearts of those who HEAR HIS VOICE, others
seem to withdraw and almost appear bored with the service. Then if another voice begins to
speak — appealing to the soulish realm, they suddenly come alive and respond
accordingly with their manifestations. And finally, as another voice simply speaks that it
is time for the 'pot-luck lunch to be served' there are those who endured all the service
thus far, now they begin to respond. Each has heard a 'voice,' whether of the Shepherd,
the stranger, or just the flesh. As for the physical, earth realm, obviously there is a
time and place for its voice and message, HE placed us in this realm for a purpose, to be
exercised and trained thereby. The natural is not 'sinful' until it becomes perverted and
out-of- place. But there are those, as Paul wrote, 'many walk...whose God is their belly,
and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things' (Phil. 3:18-19). When we hear
the physical voice for a drink of water, some food, some sleep — and the needs are
met, the voice remains silent. But when the voice keeps on, LUSTING AFTER MORE, then it
has certainly entered into the realm of the unholy stranger; may God help us to flee from
it, and not know it.
"There is something
upsetting about the voice of the stranger, once you have determined before God to follow
only the VOICE OF THE SPIRIT. Yet, uniquely enough, often times you cannot tell others
that the voice being heard IS TO YOU the voice of a stranger — for in their response
to that voice they are blessed in some degree and manner. And we would make it clear, we
praise God for ALL that HE is doing on any level, and through whomever, and whatever means
He has purposed to work. However, our personal experience is such that we find more and
more the voice of the 'charismatic move' has become to us the voice of a stranger. The
projection of human personality, even though clothed with its charisma and religiosity,
rings shallow and strange when one has heard the call of God into the depths and heights
of the vision that leads to the realm beyond.
'"The inspiration
(in-breathing) of the Almighty giveth understanding.’ How we yearn for more and more
of that DIVINE IN-BREATHING. For far too long we have relied on the proper atmospheres for
our breath. The singing had to be just right, the praise service, the favorite preacher or
teacher, and when conditions were just right to form that particular atmosphere, we
breathed deeply and enjoyed it. But there is a dimension wherein one does not rely on the
outward atmosphere, for they live by the CHRIST WITHIN, and they hear HIS VOICE, and
become, as Paul so aptly stated it, ‘I have come to learn, in the circumstances in
which I am placed, to be independent of these and self-sufficient' (Phil. 4:11, Wuest
Expanded). ‘...with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early’ (Isa. 26:9). I
commune with mine own heart, and my spirit made diligent search’ (Ps. 77:6)"
— end quote.
A. B. Simpson was a man of
deep spiritual experience. I quote the following from his article LISTENING. "A score
of years ago a friend placed in my hand a book called TRUE PEACE. It was an old medieval
message and it had but one thought — THAT GOD WAS WAITING IN THE DEPTHS OF MY BEING
TO TALK TO ME IF I WOULD ONLY GET STILL ENOUGH TO HEAR HIS VOICE. I thought this would be
a very easy matter and so began to get still. I had no sooner commenced than a perfect
pandemonium of voices reached my ears, a thousand clamoring notes from without and within,
until I could hear nothing but their noise and din. Some were my own voices, my own
questions; some were my very prayers. Others were suggestions of the tempter and the
voices from the world of turmoil. In every direction I was pulled and pushed and greeted
with noisy acclamations and unspeakable unrest. It seemed necessary for me to listen to
some of them and to answer some of them; but God said, 'BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.’
"Then came the conflict
of thoughts for tomorrow and its duties and cares; but God said, BE STILL. And as I
listened and slowly learned to obey and shut my ears to every sound, I found after a while
that, when other voices ceased, (or I ceased to hear them), there was a still small voice
in the depths of my being that began to speak with an inexpressible tenderness and power
and comfort. As I listened, it became to me the voice of prayer, the voice of wisdom, the
voice of duty, and I did not need to think so hard or pray so hard or trust so hard. That
still, small voice of the Holy Spirit in my heart was God speaking in my secret soul; was
God's answer to all knowledge and all prayer and all blessings, for it was the living God
Himself as my life, my all. It is thus that our spirits drink of the life of the risen
Lord and we go forth to life's conflicts and duties like a flower that has drunk in
through the shades of night the cool and crystal drops of dew. But, as dew never falls on
a stormy night, so the dew of His grace never comes to a restless soul. Oh, the calm! The
rest! The peace which comes as we wait in His presence until we HEAR FROM HIM!"
— end quote.
It is all-important in this
crucial hour that the sons of God truly hear and follow the Shepherd, for those who hear
the voice of the Shepherd, the Son of God, will LIVE! I cannot do better than share from
the anointed pen of Paul Mueller in this regard. "As Jesus continued to teach the
people, He emphasized the need to HEAR HIS WORD. He said, 'But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and THE SHEEP HEAR HIS
VOICE: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth
forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: FOR THEY KNOW HIS
VOICE" (Jn. 10:2-4). I trust you are as blessed by this passage as I am. It is
thrilling to realize that the Lord of all the universe knows my name, and that HE LEADS ME
OUT to His green pastures. He takes me out of the confinement of the
"The life of Christ
— to possess His image and likeness, is the promise before us. Christ came that we
might have LIFE, and that more abundantly. And it is by hearing His voice that we shall
attain unto His fullness. Jesus said as much, when He said, 'Verily, verily, I say unto
you, HE THAT HEARETH MY WORD, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death onto life. Verily, verily,
I say onto you. The hour is coming, and now is, when THE DEAD SHALL HEAR THE VOICE OF THE
SON OF GOD; AND THEY THAT HEAR SHALL LIVE. For as the Father hath LIFE in himself; so hath
he given to the Son to have LIFE in himself’ (Jn. 5:24-26).
"Throughout all the
clamor and clutter of these times, there rings forth the glorious truth of God which is as
a clear trumpet sound to all who trust in Him. The prevailing message and truth of this
hour is found in this passage: 'THE DEAD SHALL HEAR THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD; AND THEY
THAT HEAR SHALL LIVE.’ Repeat it often and believe its inspiring words of divine
truth, for there is a people now abiding in the death of this life who shall HEAR the
voice of the Son of God, AND IN HEARING THEY SHALL LIVE. Now, in the end of this age, we
have come to the set time when the Lord has set ‘a definite day, a new Today’
(Heb. 4:7), when He shall speak to His elect, and those who HEAR shall LIVE.
"When Jesus spoke this
truth, He made reference only to those who would be able to HEAR, when He said, 'AND THEY
THAT HEAR SHALL LIVE.' And those who will hear the voice of the Son of God are the elect
who will be raised to His life. Let us now see the clear distinction Jesus made between
the elect who will be raised to His life by hearing His voice, and the dead who are to be
resurrected later. In John 5:24-26, Jesus spoke of the elect, while in verses 28-29, He
referred to those who are in the graves: 'Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming
(which is not now, but future), in the which ALL THAT ARE IN THE GRAVES SHALL HEAR HIS
VOICE, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and
they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation' (from the Greek ‘krisis',
not damnation, but more properly judgment as in vs. 22 & 30).
"SOME MUST ENTER the
rest of God and partake of the life of Christ IN ADVANCE of others, thus establishing that
PATH for those who are to follow. The Lord's elect of this hour will HEAR HIS VOICE and
will come up out of this death to be among those ‘alive' ones who are 'alive and
remain unto the coming of the Lord’ (I Thes. 4:15, 17). The goal is before us and the
challenge great, but the Lord is able and by those 'two immutable things,' that is, by the
infallibility of HIS OATH and the life of HIS PERSON, we shall attain unto that
foreordained purpose in Him. This is the message of that Prophet, even the Lord Jesus
Christ, to whom Moses referred when he prophesied of One to come who would be a true
Prophet. Peter quoted the prophecy of Moses, who said of Christ, the anointed Prophet of
the restitution of all things, 'Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever He shall say
unto you' (Acts 3:22). Let us then HEAR HIM. He is our Shepherd, our Apostle, and our
Prophet. And if we are the sheep of His pasture, we will surely hear Him and will follow
Him unto LIFE ABUNDANT, thus beginning the times of the restitution of all things"
— end quote.
THE SHEPHERD SEEKS THE SHEEP
In a most precious and unique
sense the Lord's believing people are the sheep of His pasture and fold. But in a broader
and just as scriptural sense all mankind are His sheep, for "the earth is the Lord's,
and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein" (Ps. 24:1). Truly,
"ALL WE like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the
Lord hath laid on HIM the iniquity of us ALL..." (Isa. 53:6). If the Christ indeed
died and bore the iniquity of every man, then every man is part of His great flock that
has gone astray, and for whom the Good Shepherd gave His life. Yes, the Good Shepherd is
going about on earth still calling His sheep, seeking His sheep, rescuing His sheep,
leading His flock, feeding His flock and protecting His flock. And who are His flock? They
are the poor, the weary, the downcast, the sick, the sad, and the sinful who have strayed
far from Him and His love. Long ago He was moved with compassion upon them as He saw them
scattered abroad, fainting, tired and wandering as sheep without a shepherd. Humanity is
His flock...sin-cursed and disease smitten and death-bound humanity is the great flock for
whom Christ died.
Lost sheep! Can you not see
them? They fill the world today. They have wandered away to browse on some sweet grass
that looked greener and enticed them forth; they have been separated from the care of the
Shepherd and scared and driven by dogs, till at last they bleat hopelessly alone, or fall
into pits, weakened by exposure and fatigue, the easy prey of lion or wolf. Far from the
fold, torn, wounded, bleeding, covered with filth, frightened and certain to perish,
unless rescued by the Shepherd. Such were all of us. "We were as sheep going
astray." How shall we sufficiently thank and praise the Good, Great, and Chief
Shepherd of our souls, that He did not leave us to our hapless fate, but came after us
— down mountain slope, through thorny bush, over jagged rocks, seeking until He found
us, and pressing us to His bosom, brought us back. We "are now returned unto the
Shepherd and Bishop of our souls" (I Pet. 2:25). Safe sheltered in His fold we bear
His name branded on us and He calls us affectionately by our name, and we are now
confident in the certain knowledge that "when He putteth forth His own sheep, He
goeth before them; and His sheep follow Him."
In Luke 15:4 we read,
"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the
ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost UNTIL HE FIND IT!"
In this passage we find that at the end of the day, the shepherd finds that he is just one
little sheep short of completeness. There is only one outside — so why bother to go
after that one, for perhaps that one is one of the rebellious ones anyway and will not
choose to come back! But the Shepherd we are dealing with in this story is not an ordinary
shepherd. This is the Great and Good Shepherd of the sheep and nothing will stop Him or
prevent Him from finding that last sheep. This Shepherd will not be content with even an
extraordinary effort to find the sheep and then give up, feeling that He has done His
duty. Neither does He "call" the sheep, and then wait to see if the sheep
"decides" to come, and if not, just leave him there in his lost condition to
die. This Shepherd searches UNTIL HE FINDS. And the FINDING of this Shepherd is not only
the locating of the sheep, but it also includes the bringing back into the fold of that
sheep.
If you know anything at all
about sheep, you know that a sheep is helpless to find its way back to the rest of the
flock. Not only that, but it becomes subject to every danger that is near to it, yet it
never recognizes that danger. This is exactly the condition of mankind today. Mankind,
being dead in trespasses and sins and in rebellion against God, does not know how to get
to God. In fact much of humanity does not even think of getting to God. They have come to
the point where they are quite satisfied with their condition just as the sheep is
satisfied with its condition as it feeds, knowing not that it is lost. Mankind does not
know their way back to God. Mankind must wait until it is found. He does not even know he
is lost. He accepts his sad state as the norm. How will the lost ever come to God of
himself, of his own "free will"? If he were able to come HE WOULD NOT BE LOST.
Men do not even know they are lost, or where they are going. Ah, the Shepherd must find
the sheep, not the sheep find the Shepherd! And Jesus said the Shepherd would seek until.
Jesus said He came to seek and to save those lost ones. Not the lost ones seek God, but
God seek the lost!
Most of the religious
teaching today would have us believe that Christ has done all He can for the sinner, so He
has now gone back to His heaven and is seated upon His golden throne waiting for all who
will to be saved. According to this thinking, God through Jesus has done all He can
possibly do and has now left the work of saving souls to the church, hoping that some, at
least, will be persuaded to accept the Saviour. The church must go out and contact all the
sinners they can and see if they cannot get them to "accept Christ." But, of
course, if the sinner does not want to be saved, then even God in all His omnipotence
cannot intervene and nothing is left but eternal hell fire and damnation for that sinner.
But just what does this line of reasoning reveal? The tragedy of it is that it shows us
nothing but the SOVEREIGNTY OF MAN'S WILL and the IMPOTENCE OF GOD'S WILL. The will of the
sheep to remain lost exceeds the will of the Shepherd to rescue him and carry him back to
the fold.
Another thing this line of
teaching suggests is that God, having finished the work of redemption, then turns it all
over to a rather carnal church that does not walk in the Spirit, does not even understand
God's great plan of the ages, and cares far more about making proselytes to a denomination
or sect than in bringing people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ. The average
church today cares more about its programs, its doctrines, its rituals and ceremonies, its
buildings, its committee meetings and its budget than it does about making known to the
world the glad news that God has reconciled the whole world to Himself and He shall not
rest until every heart has surrendered and the very last sheep has been carried back to
the fold. Nothing stops or hinders this Shepherd, for if He did fail in this effort, He
could never rest knowing that one of His sheep was eternally lost and doomed. He does not
send anyone else or leave it to the sheep to find its way back. HE HIMSELF GOES UNTIL HE
FINDS.
Let us have these things
right and straight in our minds. Let us see these things correctly. Let us believe the
word of the Lord Jesus, the Shepherd-Saviour. Nothing is left in any way to chance. The
Shepherd sends no one out to look far the sheep, but goes Himself. Granted, HE GOES
THROUGH HIS BODY, but He is not sitting idly by to see what will happen. His mission goes
on until it is one hundred percent successful and the last one is found. Nothing will stop
the work of the Shepherd until that last sheep is made to correctly know the Shepherd, who
He is, and His great love For him. The Shepherd does seek until He finds the last one, no
matter how long it takes or to what depths He must search! He will search through this age
or through the ages to come. He will search through earth or He will search through hell.
Time or place mean nothing to this Great and Good Shepherd — only the lost sheep
means much to him.
Someone will ask, "But
doesn’t God command sinners to choose this day whom they will serve and to seek the
Lord while He may be found?" ABSOLUTELY NOT! Oh yes, the scripture does say,
"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL
SERVE; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the
flood, or the god of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell. but as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord" (Jos. 24:15). But those words were never spoken to the unsaved
man, without God and without hope in the world; these were the words of God's prophet to
And yes, the scripture does
say, "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto
the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, and He will abundantly
pardon" (Isa. 55:6-7). But again, these words were never addressed to the
unregenerated man who has no relationship with the Lord. They were thundered by the
prophet Isaiah to GOD'S BACKSLIDING PEOPLE in a time of spiritual declension and apostasy.
It is God's own people who must "choose" between God and idols, who must
"seek" the Lord, and "return" unto the Lord; not the man who is lost
and cannot find his way. Saints must return unto the Lord, but lost sheep must be found by
the Shepherd. Thus it is that Jesus said, "For the Son of man is come to SEEK AND TO
SAVE THAT WHICH WAS LOST" (Lk. 19:10).
In the true and eloquent
words of another, "Christians blindly strive under the mistaken idea that, if they
will only meet certain conditions, God will reply by bringing every man into the fold of
Christ in this present age. My friend, this is a very great error. It is about as far from
the truth as anything could possibly be. God does not intend to bring all men into the
fold now. If that were His intention, He could do it with but one word of His omnipotence.
When God's eternal voice speaks, saying, ‘Let there be light,' then light immediately
floods the universe as it did in the beginning. There is no need for a candle nor the
light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light. That light could not be matched by
ten thousand suns, for the light that shone out of darkness in the beginning is the same
light that lightens every man that comes into the world (Jn. 1:1-10). It is the light that
shines into the benighted souls, bringing the life of the ages to men who are sleeping in
death. 'Lazarus, come forth!’ called the Lord, and a dead man sprang from his tomb to
reply. ‘Saul! Saul!’ Jesus called to a disconsolate and determined persecutor,
and he quickly replied, ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do!’ And so will it be
when He calls you, your child, your husband, or your wife with His still small voice,
speaking to the inner ear. Whether it be John, George, Henry, Joan, Phyllis, or Louise,
all will fall at His feet in penitence and brokenness the moment He speaks, crying, 'Here
am I, Lord! What wilt Thou have me to do?" — George Hawtin.
To tell me, as I find in the
Westminster Confession of Faith, that God had, by a predestined plan, so constructed man
that he was born, and from all eternity designed to be wicked, and a vessel of wrath, that
God Almighty might show His power by sending him to everlasting hell — that is the
most infernal lie that man's tongue could utter, or type could print. That my God, the
infinitely good and holy God, was the predestinator, and creator of multitudes of harlots,
whoremongers, thieves, murderers, liars, to let them grow up, and to live and lust and
die, and then glorify Himself by torturing them in eternal hell fire. Horrible!
Blasphemous! I tell you that all the divines that ever hatched a cocatrice egg could never
make me swallow that.
Write it between your eyes
and never forget it. The Good Shepherd who came from heaven, and gave His life, will seek,
and seek, and seek, and save, and save, and save, until He has brought all men back to
God. This is the work of the Redeemer and the redeemed. I desire to make this perfectly
clear, because it is necessary to do so. When Jesus came He sought for sinners, wherever
satan had gone. He sent His disciples into the world to seek even farther for them. He
seeks for sinners still. And He shall seek for them throughout ages yet unborn. The Good
Shepherd shall seek them until He finds them. If He didn't, He wouldn't be the Good
Shepherd! He will seek them on earth and in hell. "Whither shall I go from Thy
presence?" the Psalmist asks. That question is unanswered and unanswerable. It has
stood upon the page of scripture for three thousand years, and no one yet of all the
myriads that have read it has been able to devise a reply. Heaven says, Not here. Hell
says, Not here. It is not among angels, or demons, or the lost, or in the vast silent
spaces of eternity. There is no creature anywhere not manifest to His sight. He who made
vultures, able from immense heights to discern the least morsel on the desert floor, has
eyes better than they. Then David says, ‘If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art
there!’ Someone once said, "I did, and He was!" Thanks be to God that He
will seek His lost ones through all the Universe — through all the Earths and all the
Hells until He has found and saved them all. He must seek until He finds.
"Where are you going,
Shepherd?
To find My sheep.
How far will you go?
As far as My sheep.
How far may that be?
To the World’s end
How long will you seek it?
Until I find it.
When you find it, will it come to you?
No, it will flee from Me.
Where will it go then?
To the rocks and the sand.
When will it stop?
When it can run no more.
What will you do then?
Carry it home.
Friends, you will never get
away from Jesus. Jesus will follow you everywhere and demand your heart's surrender. I am
so glad for a Gospel that is coextensive with, and greater than, the devil's work in
spirit, soul, and body. I am so glad for a Gospel that is not limited to this age, but
reaches out to all ages. I am so glad that this is not the last age, there are yet ages to
come, and then that glorious age of ages, the dispensation of the fullness of times. In
the dispensation of the fullness of times, the immutable Word of God has declared, God
will gather all things into Christ, both which are in heaven and in earth, even in Him
(Eph. 1:10). In that wonderful age of all ages every missing sheep will be accounted for
as God gathers together in one the all things into Christ. I am so glad for a Gospel which
tells me that God has made a way by which even His banished may return. I am so glad for a
Gospel that is not limited to earth, but reaches into the depths of death and hell. I am
so glad for a Gospel of Everlasting Hope, of Everlasting Expectation, and for the
conviction and divine revelation that the miserable and the wicked shall at last be
brought to repent of their sin, and to find their God and Father. I should not want to be
an elder, or pastor, or leader, or teacher, of a people that would wish me to preach
eternal damnation. I could not preach it, for it contradicts the plainest statements of
scripture. It contradicts what I know of my Father's heart through personal relationship
with Him. And beyond this, I could not preach it, for high in the heavens sitting upon the
Milky Way is the blazing Sign of AURIGA, THE GREAT AND TENDER SHEPHERD, who throughout all
ages of time and the vast endlessnesses of infinity will seek and save until the storm of
judgment is ended and all men and all creatures in all realms are safe in His loving arms.
Hallelujah! What a Shepherd!
Chapter
40
TAURUS
— THE WILD BULL
(continued)
The third of the Decans
(minor constellations) in the house of Taurus is AURIGA — THE GREAT SHEPHERD. He is
seated upon the Milky Way, holding upon his left shoulder a she-goat, who has her paws
around the neck of Auriga, The Great Shepherd. The goat is looking down in fear and
apprehension at the terrible, raging, rampaging Bull. On his lap, and held by his left
hand, Auriga supports two little kids, apparently new-born, and bleating, affrightened and
trembling, but obviously safe and secure in the strong embrace of The Shepherd. The name
Auriga is derived from a Hebrew root which means "a shepherd." Is not this the
celestial portrayal of the Good and Great and Chief Shepherd gathering the Lambs in His
arm, and carrying them through all the judgments, disciplines, purgings and processings of
God — in His bosom? Is He not saying, "Behold, the Lord God will come with a
strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him, and His work
before Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd: He will gather the lambs with His arm,
and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young" (Isa.
40:10-11).
THE SHEPHERD
In the Old Testament the God
of Israel is designated as "The Shepherd of Israel," or Pastor and Leader of the
nation. When our Lord Jesus Christ declared Himself to be "The Good Shepherd"
the Jewish leaders knew that He was claiming to be Yahweh in-the-flesh. Although the
hierarchy rejected His claim, the elect gladly accepted it. Those who followed Him, who
heard His voice, and were fed and guided and taught by Him knew Him experientially as the
Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd and the Chief Shepherd.
Because God has a Shepherd's
heart, He is greatly concerned about the "sheep of His pasture" and in this hour
He is sending forth the Voice of the True Shepherd to lead His sheep back into the
pastures of truth and righteousness. "My sheep wandered through all the mountains,
and upon every high hill: yea, My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and
none did search or seek after them. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord; As
I live, saith the Lord God, surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became
meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did My shepherds
search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not My flock; therefore, O
ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord; thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against the
shepherds; and. I will require My flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from
feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will
deliver My flock from their mouth...for thus saith the Lord God; BEHOLD, I, EVEN I WILL
BOTH SEARCH MY SHEEP, AND SEEK THEM OUT. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day
that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out My sheep, and will
deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
I WILL FEED MY FLOCK, AND I WILL, CAUSE THEM TO LIE DOWN, saith the Lord God. I WILL SEEK
THAT WHICH WAS LOST, AND BRING AGAIN THAT WHICH WAS DRIVEN AWAY, AND WILL BIND UP THAT
WHICH WAS BROKEN, AND WILL STRENGTHEN THAT WHICH WAS SICK...I will feed them with
judgment." (Eze. 34:6-16).
George Warnock has commented
on this passage: "Notice with what emphasis of truth the Lord declares that HE ALONE
is the True Shepherd, and that HE ALONE will take the responsibility for shepherding the
Flock of God in His ways. ‘I will, I will, I will....' is constantly repeated in this
passage, and He has even confirmed His intention with an oath: ‘As I live, saith the
Lord...’ True, He will use men to fulfill His purposes, as He has always done...but
when we understand that GOD ALONE is the True Shepherd of the sheep, then we will come to
understand that true shepherds here in the earth are only true shepherds in as far as they
walk in the ways of the True Shepherd, and speak the words of the True Shepherd, and do
the works of the True Shepherd. They are not true shepherds in their own right, in virtue
of some office that has been conferred upon them by God or by man.
"When Jesus came forth
from the heart of God He was God's answer to the needs of the scattered sheep of God...the
One that the prophets spoke about, who would come to gather together the scattered flocks
of God's pasture, and cause them to lie down in quiet resting-places. He had the heart of
the Shepherd- God, and therefore as He looked upon the multitudes who thronged about Him
to hear His Word and to be healed of their infirmities, He had compassion upon them, for
they were 'as sheep not having a shepherd.' They were nevertheless God's sheep...and Jesus
knew that all whom the Father had given Him would come to Him and hear His voice. They
would not follow the stranger. The "stranger" tried many times to get a
following, and for a while there may have been a certain amount of perplexity, but the
voice didn't sound quite right. Jesus said, 'A stranger they will not follow.' For Jesus
came forth from the heart of God to gather unto Himself the sheep whom God had given Him,
and to take them back into the very heart of God, where there would be ONE fold, and ONE
Shepherd. It seemed almost impossible...for even in that day there were sects and
divisions amongst God's people. There were scribes and Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians,
and Zealots. All wanted to be heard, and all called for a following, but the true sheep
did not hear them. Jesus also told the sheep whom He had gathered that He had many other
sheep that did not belong to their fold...but that He would bring them also, so that there
would be ONE fold, and ONE Shepherd" — end quote.
Originally the New Testament
Church was filled with truth and reality and spiritual power. The book of Acts gives an
account of those glorious days. Unnumbered multitudes of men and women have experienced a
supernatural encounter with God since that wonderful day more than 1900 years ago when the
first one hundred and twenty disciples were assembled in
But, alas! the Church had
progressed only a few years into the dispensation of the Spirit when the flesh began to
rear its ugly head and men began to add carnal means and methods to the pure flow of HIS
LIFE. I do not believe there is any way to explain, imagine, or understand the many ways
the carnal mind works. Even before the apostles had passed from this life, a spirit and
system had set in among the saints of the Lord and many people were wearing the Babylonish
garment. They were instituting rules and regulations, formulating creeds, observing days,
establishing sacraments and ordinances, elevating human government, becoming disciples of
Paul, of Apollos, of Cephas, and of many others. The babble had begun and a whole
multitude of fleshly administrations was making its appearance upon the body of Christ.
Before too many years had passed men began to set themselves up as "lords"
(today it is called "pastor," "shepherd," etc.) over God's people in
place of the Holy Spirit. Instead of conquering by the power of the Spirit and by Truth,
men began to add their ideas and their methods. Soon the glory and power and the presence
of God in the morning time Church began to be eclipsed, degraded and debased by the
idolatrous inventions of carnal minded men. The saints no longer moved by the power and
glory of the indwelling Spirit, but became subservient to the rulership, dominion and
lordship of their leaders who claimed that they alone knew the mind of the Lord,
understood the word of God and possessed the wisdom of God. That which had once been
beautiful and glorious became unsightly, illshapen, deformed, uncomely, disfigured,
hideous, monstrous, and loathsome. As these false shepherds ministered among the people of
God the Spirit of Christ fled from their midst and the pure vision and experience of
CHRIST LIVING AND SHEPHERDING IN HIS BODY was lost to them.
In both the Old and New
Testament the word for "shepherd" and "pastor" is the same word in
Hebrew and Greek. A pastor is simply a shepherd, and a shepherd is a pastor, both
naturally and spiritually. The Spirit of God has dealt with me severely and consistently
through many years that the Lord's people should purge their conversation, purify their
terminology, and remove from their consciousness the multitude of un- scriptural and
extra-biblical expressions carried over from Mystery Babylon. We have both parroted and
coined a great many unscriptural terms that have been so misleading and have led us astray
in our understanding of the scriptures and the wonderful plan of God.
How often we, like the babes
in the harlot's house, refer to a minister of the gospel as "the pastor" of our
church or some other congregation of saints. To hear all the Christians today constantly
talking about "our pastor," "their pastor," "your pastor,"
"my pastor," and "the pastor," one would certainly be led to believe
that this position of "the pastor" must indeed be one of the cardinal doctrines
and most highly acclaimed offices in the New Testament! The fact is, precious friend of
mine, the phrase "the pastor" is entirely foreign to the Word of God and
non-existent in the early church. It is an un-scriptural and extra-biblical term. There
was no one single man in the whole New Testament church who ever occupied a position
called "the pastor." Not one church raised up by the twelve apostles or by Paul
had any such ministry as "the pastor." Oh, yes, there were "pastors"
plural (Eph. 4:11), but no single minister of God in the New Testament record was ever
elevated to the position of "the pastor" of an assembly.
The truth is that in every
case in the Greek New Testament where the word for pastor (POIMEN) appears in the singular
accompanied by the definite article, it is used in reference solely to our Lord Jesus
Christ. He alone is THE PASTOR of the flock, THE SHEPHERD of the sheep! The sweet singer
of
An article which has
anonymously come to my desk elaborates most beautifully upon this significant point.
"It will require a considerable perversion of scripture to justify any concept of
‘the pastor'. Have you ever observed how the writers of the Epistles greet the
various churches to whom they address themselves? For example, 'Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle...to all that be in
"It will come as a
surprise to many of our readers that the word ‘pastor’ occurs but once in the
entire New Testament. The word ‘pastor' does not occur once in the entire book of
Acts, that record of the founding of the first Christian churches. Only in Eph. 4:11 does
it appear (and then in the plural). 'And He gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and
some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.' Does not this one single mention of
this word in the entire New Testament seem all out of proportion to the position of ‘the
pastor' as known in our times? The word ‘pastor’ means 'shepherd or feeder.'
This same Greek word which in Eph. 4:11 is translated ‘pastor’ is elsewhere in
the New Testament translated ‘shepherd’ seventeen times. Now, that this word
which is but once translated ‘pastor' should be used only eighteen times in the
entire New Testament is indeed significant, in view of the popular usage it is given
today. I have heard pastors refer to themselves as ‘the pastor’ almost as many
times in just one sermon! It is quite a big word in our churches and in our thinking, but
not so in the scripture. And it is time we did some serious thinking about this. It is
just possible that on this point we have demonstrated again that that which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination to God.
"It is difficult to make
a study of the pastor without taking into account also the present false, carnal,
unscriptural structure of our present-day 'churches.' The church and the pastor of our day
go hand in hand, and if someone asks 'how can you run a modern church without a pastor?'
the answer is simple — you can't! You cannot run a modern church without a pastor any
more than you can have a church (in the New Testament sense) with a pastor. Let us here
observe something basic. 'Christ is the head of the church' (Eph. 5:23). This does not
mean that Christ is only nominal head of the church, but that He is the actual and
functioning head of the church. 'For the husband is head of the wife, even as Christ is
the head of the church' (Eph. 5:23). Christ is resident with the church. Where two or
three meet, there He is in very fact. He is there to feed, to comfort, to admonish, to
manage. This thing is real, it is not just imagination, not just fancy. Christ's people
are given to understand that they are to have the presence of the Lord Himself among them.
That the average church does not even begin to understand this is obvious by the position
that they accord ‘the pastor’ and also by the resulting ignorance that prevails
among the ‘laity' concerning spiritual things in general. In order for Christ to be
head of the church, the usual democratic machinery would have to be abandoned in favor of
a direct spiritual control by the Lord Himself, a thing which our pastors, boards,
committees, synods, hierarchies, cannot understand. It is amazing that we continue to try
and make the old lifeless machinery produce life among us!" — end quote.
THE UNDERSHEPHERDS
My beloved, if ever you hope
to reign with Christ YOU MUST BECOME SUBMITTED TO THE AUTHORITY OF GOD, THE SHEPHERD OF
ISRAEL. And I'm not talking about coming to
There are multitudes across
the land who loudly profess to have received the call to sonship who, rather than
submitting themselves UNDER THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD, submit their walk with God into the
hands of others who persuade them that they are more capable than themselves to watch for
their souls. The land is filled with men calling themselves apostles, elders, teachers,
shepherds, etc., who desire to lord it over a flock or other men's lives, telling others
what they can or cannot do, esteeming themselves spiritual enough to discern for everyone
else what the will of the Lord is, though they bear no credentials other than their own
word that they possess such authority. Some claim that they alone have the words of life,
they among all God's prophets have the true, deeper, spiritual, mystical revelation that
will lead the sons to perfection and immortality. Not discerning the Lord's body, and
elevating their word and their ministry above all the Lord's brethren, they draw disciples
after themselves. But I tell you the truth and I lie not when I say that no man can
minister to you that which he himself does not possess. If a man tells you that he
possesses the secret and the truth by which you can save your life and enter into physical
immortality, yet he himself has neither stopped nor reversed the aging process, only a
fool would commit their lives into his hands. Ah — there is ONE, precious friend of
mine, who HAS STOPPED THE AGING PROCESS, WHO HAS CONQUERED DEATH, WHO IS ALIVE
FOREVERMORE, and this One holds the Key, He knows the Secret, He Himself IS the Truth, and
I must tell you today that HE, AND HE ALONE, HAS THE WORDS OF LIFE! Yes, those words are
ministered through His many brethren. Certainly there are many precious under-shepherds,
true ministries HE has set in the body, humble examples to the flock, with a flow of HIS
LIFE, bearing the true Word of the Lord for this hour, a source of encouragement,
confirmation, and strength unto all to whom they are sent, and we praise God for them. All
such true ministries bear one signal mark of distinction: they do not draw followers after
themselves, they POINT ALL MEN TO THE LORD; they do not ask you to blindly submit to them,
or follow them to the exclusion of the other ministries in this present truth, but they
present you unto HIM WHO IS THE HEAD OVER ALL THINGS TO THE CHURCH.
I speak the truth when I say
that the greatest need in this hour is for the people of God to begin to KNOW THE LORD FOR
THEMSELVES. Let all who treasure the beautiful hope of sonship begin to seek God, and walk
with God, and know God, and hear from God, and submit to Him in all His ways, and to His
will and to His word, and GOD HIMSELF will be YOUR FATHER and you will sup with HIM and He
with you. Ask the guidance of the Holy Spirit, thrust yourself in utter abandonment upon
His love and care, and before you realize it you will find yourself digging deep in the
storehouse of God's treasures of wisdom and knowledge and sitting with Him at His
banqueting table. He will spread a table before you in the presence of your enemies, He
will lead you through green pastures; He will reveal to you fountains of living water
flowing from within; He will cause you to rest beside cool, still streams; and HE, the
Great Shepherd of the sheep will abide with you and your cup will overflow with the
unspeakable riches of His grace and the wonder of His glorious and eternal reality.
How many are submitted to men
but not to God! How many will travel or move thousands of miles across the land to receive
from man, but have never discovered the well within which springs up into eternal life!
Their obsession with "a man" reveals their own inner desolation. If you would
keep the position of order in God's house of sons you must remember that "Christ is a
Son OVER HIS OWN HOUSE; whose house we are" (Heb. 3:6). He is the Head, He is the
Good Shepherd, and the Great Shepherd, and the Chief Shepherd, He is the Lord, He is the
forerunner, He is the firstborn who has entered in for us and opened up the way. I can
assure you, dear ones, that to the degree that you KNOW HIM in intimacy of fellowship and
vital union, and submit to Him in all His will, ways, and dealings, you will know His
authority in your life and be strengthened to reign with Him and He will be able to reign
through you in all things! It is not enough to know how God would have us think, act, and
be as sons of God. There must be submission to Him, with daily inworkings of His nature,
mind and power. When we obey men our authority comes from men. When we obey God the
authority comes from God. And when we obey God — we REIGN!
Our Lord Jesus Christ is THE
SHEPHERD and THE PASTOR. It is also true that He has under-shepherds who assist in the
care of the flock. An under-shepherd of the Chief Shepherd is merely a slave of God going
about the business assigned him by the Master. There is a wonderful lesson Jesus taught in
Luke 17:7-10 wherein He says, "But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding
cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to
meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself,
and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth
he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So
likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are
unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do."
When Jesus speaks of the role
of a servant in this passage He uses the Greek word POIMAINO which means "to act as a
shepherd." God does not approve of pastors who conceive of their role as giving them
the right to push the sheep around! And even more importantly, it is not the business of
the under-shepherds to lead the flock! Only one shepherd can lead. Only one shepherd is
The Shepherd. The Shepherd leads the flock. The under-shepherds merely flank the sides and
bring up the rear in order to make sure that all the flock FOLLOWS THE SHEPHERD. It is not
God's will for any one person, pastor or pope, to rule or lead a group of people: but
neither is it His will for any number of persons to rule or lead a group! In other words
what is worse than a one-man ministry, is a many- man ministry. We have made this mistake
so often. We say we believe in plural ministry, but in so doing we create a monster by
making the ministry many-headed, instead of Christ being the one Head over all. A true
spiritual ministry will never seek to draw people to himself, but rather to Christ. There
are many movements in the earth today stressing "divine order" and
"authority" and "submission," and one of the tests of what they teach
is whether the people are being released to draw their life and substance from the Christ
within or not. Many leaders and movements seek to bind people to their group and lead
their followers to believe that they are the choice, select group God has chosen to
complete His work in the earth, manifest sonship, and bring the sons into immortality and
incorruption. Unless you are joined to them and submit to their ministry you just can't
make it in! When someone leaves the group or that leader, they are made to feel as if they
are missing the purpose of God, have left the body of Christ, and have repudiated the High
Calling of God. You must be spiritually wise to discern the spirit of any group or
individual that usurps the headship of Jesus Christ by the in-dwelling Spirit over His
people.
Truly, the most faithful
under-shepherd is not the Great Shepherd of the sheep. The brightest reflection of His
beauty that is seen upon a servant, is not the revelation of Himself. Those who are
closest to the Lord, who know Him best, and are more deeply conformed to His image, can
only direct the searching soul to the Lord. They can never satisfy the hunger of the heart
that is going out after Him. How we praise God for all the help we have received through
every chosen vessel that He has used to draw us on toward Him, and into a deeper relation
to Himself. With what gratitude to God, do we remember those whom He has used to point out
to us a nearer approach to our glorious Lord. How tenderly do we look back upon every
faithful servant and child of His, who brought us new light, who stirred within us a
deeper hunger for God, who opened to us an understanding of His great plan and purpose in
us, who provoked us to holy jealousy and emulation through their godly lives. How we
praise God for those who warned and instructed us through the exhortation and admonition
that they gave in the hour of need, or in times of weakness and immaturity. How our hunger
for Reality, and abandonment to God's will and desire to follow Him all the way to Mount
Zion, have been increased as we have seen that mysterious light which shines upon the
faces of those who have soared with Him into the heavenly heights. While we thank God for
every instrument He uses in our lives, how little one or all of these precious ones can
be, compared with our Beloved, if in any way they take His place and draw us to themselves
rather than to Himself. We must esteem every servant and instrument of God "exceeding
highly in love for their work's sake," but we must never permit them to usurp the
place of the Good and Great and Chief Shepherd in our lives and affections. Therefore the
elect of God in this hour have no desire for an under-shepherd to lead them; and when they
do not yield to them, they appear as though they were a stranger. But that is not it at
all — it is that the Lord Himself is becoming ALL to us!
Oh, let us once for all grasp
this one great fundamental truth. Christ's church is not an organization, but an organism,
a body, a living reality. He, and He alone, is the Head. But when man builds an
organization, or a movement, or an assembly of which he himself is the head, and when he
begins to legislate and pass church laws, and formulate creeds, and institute rituals, he
is merely manifesting that both the system and he himself are spurious. Of course there
are Christians in these organizations: let us not lose sight of that fact. And let us not
lose sight of the fact that many of the founders of these organizations were honest and
sincere Christians. Yet they were ignorantly sincere. The whole trend of organization is
to lead away from Christ the Head of the organism, away from the Christ within each member
as the way, the truth, the life, the wisdom, the knowledge, and the righteousness of God,
and it induces men to look to man, the head of the organization or movement.
THE HIRELING
It is time for the elect of
God to sit up and take notice. The true sheep or the true fold are those sons of God who
love to be led by God's Spirit. The Great and Good Shepherd, Jesus, tells us, "I am
the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an
hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and
leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The
hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good
shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine" (Jn. 10:11-14). A
"hireling" is simply one who has been "hired." Someone has well
written: "We say that the ‘pastor' is ‘trained and authorized' in view of
the fact that in just about all churches ‘the pastor' must be a seminary graduate and
must be ordained by a body of men acceptable to the local church. An untrained and
unauthorized man would not be acceptable in the average church. We say that the ‘pastor’
is ‘employed’ in view of the fact that he came to the local group after the
offer of and acceptance of a certain consideration of monies, or, somewhere along the line
it was determined that he would receive for his services a certain amount of money called
a ‘salary.' We therefore consider him ‘employed.’ We say he is an ‘outsider'
with the express purpose of implying that for all practical purposes that is just what he
is. The group is at any time free to replace the ‘pastor’ or apply for his
replacement, depending upon the type of political structure of the group. And the ‘pastor’
is free at any time, upon reasonable notice, to pack up and leave. We say that ‘the
pastor' is ‘hired’ to perform the function of ‘management’ over the
group, and to do the feeding (preaching and teaching), and this function of management is
very piously called ‘service.’ A pastor says, ‘I served such and such a
church,’ when the fact may more correctly be that he made them serve him" —
end quote.
When and where was there a
Catholic Priest or a Protestant Minister who was not "a hired servant"? The only
exceptions have been the occasional simple and devout saint, taking it upon himself to
obey the call of the Spirit and go forth by faith to do the work of the
Let all the saints of God
thoroughly understand! There is but one Shepherd, and one fold, and the sheep know the
Shepherd's voice, and follow Him, and He gives them eternal life. They are all led by the
Spirit of God, and are the sons of God; and they have the Spirit of Christ, and they are
His. And whether they live or die, or eat or drink, they are Christ's, for He died for
them, and has purchased them with His blood: and therefore, they are not their own, but
Christ's and so they are to glorify Him with their bodies, and souls, and spirits, which
are His.
But in the world there is a
multitude of shepherds, and they have their several flocks and folds; and the shepherds
fall out with themselves, and with their flocks about victuals, clothes, days, times,
laws, creeds and doctrines; and for a while one shepherd gets the flock, and for another
while another shepherd gets the flock; and by these doings the flocks are almost plucked
to pieces by the hireling shepherds, which leave the sheep in time of trouble, when they
have gotten all the wool they can get off their backs, because the sheep were not their
own. And thus the sheep are tossed up and down, and starved; and every shepherd shears the
sheep, and plucks the wool off their backs. But Christ lays down His life for His sheep,
He pours out His life to them, and abides with them, and dwells within them, in all their
troubles, and persecutions, and sufferings, and wanderings, He suffers and is persecuted
in His flock of sheep, when the hireling fleeth because he is an hireling, and careth not
for the sheep, for they are none of his own. And you may see as many flocks as there are
in the world, there are so many hirelings knowing them, and keeping them in the world,
which the devil has made a wilderness, and a desolation, among whom it is always winter to
the elect: we that are taught of Christ, and know His voice, and follow Him, Christ is to
us the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd and the Chief Shepherd. Ah, my beloved, cease in
God's name from searching for shepherds and pastors to lead you; cease, I say from looking
for a man to lead you, and learn the reality of truth in these words, "I am the good
Shepherd; the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep" (Jn. 10:39). Learn that He
is not only the Shepherd, but also the door to the sheepfold (Jn. 10:2), by which the
Shepherd enters that He might call all His sheep by name and go before them that they
should know no other voice but His (Jn. 10:3-6).
FALSE SHEPHERDS
We have heard much over the
past two decades about having a "local group for a covering," whatever that is
supposed to mean. This so-called "truth" usually refers to a psuedo-spiritual
submission to men calling themselves elders, or shepherds, who desire to lord it over a
flock or other men's lives, and tell others what they can and cannot do. They esteem
themselves spiritual enough to discern for everybody else what the will of the Lord is,
though they themselves are missing the point entirely. My brother, my sister, hearken to
the words of the prophet Isaiah: "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord,
that take counsel, BUT NOT OF ME; and that cover with a covering, BUT NOT OF MY SPIRIT,
that they may add sin to sin" (Isa. 30:1).
COVERING! By many this term
is used to mean that each believer, being a "dumb sheep," needs the
"covering" or protection of a group, or fold, presided over by men who are
"shepherds". Every one is in "submission" to someone higher in the
pyramid, until the whole structure becomes one vast hierarchy with just a few men or one
man at the top. Each "shepherd" of a local group is "in submission" to
some other higher "shepherd" and all these are ultimately submitted to an
"apostle" somewhere in the world. Some rule more strictly than others over their
"dumb sheep," but in general the individual believer is taught that he cannot
trust his own ability to hear from the Lord, or understand the Word of God, or order his
own life, but must look to his earthly shepherd to hear from the Lord for him. In many
cases one dare not change jobs, move from one place to another, marry, go on vacation, or
make any other decision without checking it out with his "shepherd" or the
"elders." The counsel of the "shepherd" in many cases MUST be
followed! Women have often been told that they must always obey their husband's wishes,
even if he requires something illegal or immoral! Some are instructed as to how much of
their means to "give" to the "body."
In some assemblies if a
prophecy is to be given, the one who has heard from the Spirit Himself is required to gain
permission from the ‘pastor' or ‘elder' or 'shepherd' in order to prophesy. If
permission is granted, that one is then required to leave his seat, march down front, take
the microphone, and then prophesy. By then I think that the Spirit's message would be,
"Quench not My Spirit and touch not My prophets." Such false shepherds instruct
God's people, "Submit to church government — NO MATTER WHAT!" "Obey
your leaders — even if they are wrong!" "Don't judge the ministry!"
"God placed the ministry over you. You don't second-guess their decisions. They are
God inspired!" Are YOU victim to this kind of "inspired teaching"? If so,
danger is stalking your eternal life. Isn't it time you asked yourself, "What is
behind such totalitarian rhetoric?" The tactic is simple. You are being intimidated.
Through raw and robust fear tactics, you are SCARED INTO OBEDIENCE TO MEN — not to
God. Your mind is being conditioned to accept — without thinking and without proof
— everything such preachers say. You are being brainwashed to behave like spiritual
zombies. The mind of Christ in you is being raped!
Now, not all who teach
"the covering" are that extreme, but for many of them the half has not been
told. There is a great emphasis on the term "covering" as being necessary for
each member, for protection from harm and deception. If we do not have this
"covering" of the local fellowship, or elders, or shepherds, then, we are told,
we cannot discern the will of the Lord, cannot understand the Word of the Lord, will be
overcome by our adversary, will fall into sin or delusion, or the present world system
will destroy us. I am frankly appalled at the shallowness, gullibility, and lack of
spiritual discernment and maturity among the people of God, for they give heed continually
to the voice of such strangers, but the voice of the Good Shepherd they do not know. Why
are the children of God so ready to blindly accept every subtle and plausible teaching
that is thrust at them, without earnestly seeking the help of the blessed Spirit WHO ALONE
HAS BEEN SENT TO GUIDE US INTO ALL TRUTH. Any preacher today who can come up with some
fantastic notion can corral God's people under his authority, and the more fantastic the
notion the more people run after it. I do not hesitate to tell you that I know of no
greater deception that has entered in among the Lord's sheep during the past twenty years
than the error of the "covering" teaching.
Where, I ask, WHERE DOES THE
SCRIPTURE GIVE EVIDENCE THIS APPLICATION OF THE WORD "COVERING" IS LEGITIMATE? I
know of no place! Where in the whole Bible, I ask, is the husband called a
"covering" for his wife? Where in the entire Bible are elders called a
"covering" for the church? In what place is the church spoken of as a
"covering" for believers? Where is the chapter and verse to be found that refers
to an apostle as a "covering" for other ministers? Where is the scripture that
teaches that unless a traveling ministry is under the "covering" of some local
assembly he is not to be received? WHERE DOES IT SAY IT! Ah, my friend, you may search
long and hard, you may burn the midnight oil, you may read and study until your eyes are
red and vision blurred, until you lapse into fitful sleep with Bible and reference books
scattered on the desk before you; and I can assure you without fear of contradiction that
your most diligent and persistent efforts shall prove fruitless and in vain! We are blind
readers indeed if we do not readily see that the fact of the matter is that the
"covering" doctrine in all of its ramifications is foreign to the Word of God!
You will have to tear the Bible all to pieces if you teach such doctrine.
The time has come when people
no longer endure sound doctrine but are turned to fables. Many false Christs and false
prophets and spurious forms of religion are going forth into all the world. Some time ago
a dear sister stopped to visit with us for a few hours, and during the course of our
conversation she asked a most momentous question. She wanted to know what, in my opinion,
is the greatest danger present among God's people in this hour. I could only reply that
the greatest danger I perceive today is that of God's saints being BROUGHT INTO BONDAGE TO
MEN. And I will tell you frankly that there are a thousand and one different schemes and
distortions of truth and departures from living reality being concocted by subtle, clever,
conniving and power-hungry preachers to bring the saints into bondage to men.
