Note: J. Preston Eby, in order to continue to devote his full energy to writing no longer works in the office and does not receive this email. He does, however, respond to any urgent correspondence via snailmail. |
To be added to the mailing list to receive the current issue of Kingdom Bible Studies each month: |
"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 104
MINISTRY
FROM THE GOLDEN ALTAR
(continued)
And the angel took the censer, and
filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and
thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake (Rev. 8:5).
There can be no doubt that we are living in an hour when the Lord is revealing many
things that concern the coming to pass of His kingdom in the earth. Long centuries ago the beloved apostle John saw in
vision an angel, who is none other than our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ,
standing at the golden altar of incense in the heavens of Gods Spirit. He was given much incense, which is the anointing
of the Spirit, and offered the incense with the prayers of Gods elect upon the
golden altar, the place of prayer, praise, and worship.
The fragrant smoke of the incense ascended as a sweet-smelling savor with the
prayers, indicating that they were well-pleasing and acceptable to the Father.
As John beholds the scene, he sees the angel take the live coals from the altar,
put them into the golden censer, and pour them out upon the earth. Immediately there begins a procession of
stupendous convulsions, overturnings, and changes. There
are voices, as the word of the Lord is released
in the earth; there are thunderings, as the
power of God is made manifest; there are lightnings,
as the illumination of divine truth bursts within the consciousness of men; and these are
followed by a great earthquake, as the
carnality of man, and the kingdoms of man are shaken to their very foundations! All the symbolic forces of nature are divinely
affected! The vision reveals the great truth
that in the outworking of Gods kingdom purposes, first something happens in heaven, and then as a consequence, certain events take place on earth. As
the prayers, praise, and worship of Gods priestly
people ascend in the Spirit, the very coals from the altar that released the fragrance
of the holy incense of our spiritual ministry is CAST INTO THE EARTH! The prayers start forces working in the heavenlies
that ultimately release mighty powers in the earthlies!
As God moves His spiritual kings and priests to minister unto Him in the
Spirit on behalf of creation, He is urging us to do what is necessary to enable things to
happen as they are supposed to happen in the earth-realm.
As we pray in the Spirit, the fire from the censer of our lives is cast into
the earth! It is this fire of the divine
energy and power of God that quickens, energizes, purifies, changes, and transforms the
world of men! By the fire of God we
bring the day of the Lord upon the earth!
Bill and Elaine Cook shared the following testimony which graphically illustrates
the truth of which I now speak. Several
high-ranking church leaders from Europe, visited a pastor in Hong Kong who took them to
visit some churches. They found them
inspiring, and uniquely Chinese, but they wondered aloud if they were seeing the real church.
At their last stop, the pastor discovered that two young women had just returned
from their mission station for a short visit, so he asked them to come to the hotel late,
to meet the visiting leaders. These young
ladies had become believers as teenagers while listening to the radio, and they each had
felt the call to be a missionary. The pastor
had tried to convince them to witness right where they were but they said, No. The Bible says Jesus said to go into all the
world. We will go.
The pastor protested, You have only been Christians for six months, and you
are so young. They replied,
Pastor, we have read everything Jesus said and nowhere does He ask people how old they are.
We want to go. The pastor
replied, Very well. We need some
workers on Hainan Island. But it is very
rough. The people there are fishermen. There are no Christians there. For young ladies it might be dangerous. Excitedly they responded, How soon can we
go? We will
go to this place. They
had been there for two years and were now back for a short period of time to try to get
Bibles for their new churches. The pastor had
not seen them since they insisted that they go now!
The pastor went to the lobby that night at the appointed time and waited for the
ladies to arrive so he could escort them to meet the visitors. While he waited, he watched the bellboys in their
crisp, tailored uniforms, and the tourists who attempted to be casual in their designer
clothes. Oh, no! he thought, as
the girls walked in. Their black pajamas and
broad-brimmed fishermen hats stood in stark contrast to the appearance of the
sophisticated hotel. Tourists ogled them with
that how quaint look so often
directed to nationals. Several people stood
staring as he greeted them as politely as possible without drawing too much attention. Come, we will go to my room to meet some
people from Europe. The women looked at
each other, then apprehensively followed behind, looking down at their bare feet sinking
into the carpet. They attempted to step more
lightly, as though they were afraid they would sink into this beautifully colored
mud. The pastor pushed the
elevator button, keeping his head down and afraid to watch any of the many eyes staring in
his direction. The elevator arrived and the
door slid open, and the women greeted it with a look of astonishment.
Several tourists smiled at them as they stepped on.
There were more how quaint looks.
The elevator operator pretended not to notice his passengers as he asked for the
floor number. The womens wonder changed
to fear as the doors closed and their first elevator ride began to ascend! Once in the room, the two European church
officials graciously greeted them and motioned for them to sit down. The pastor pulled chairs toward them, so they would not sit on the floor.
The European brethren began, Pastor, ask them how many churches they have
established on Hainan. They put their
heads down and answered, Oh, Pastor, we have only been there two years. Not many. Not
very many. Their voices were
apologetic. How many? Oh, not many, not very many. We have only been there a short time. The people were not very friendly. Sometimes they became very vicious. Yes, sometimes they told us they were going to
drown us in the ocean. Several men threatened
us. Oh, my, and because we were so young,
even some of the ladies did not like us. Yes,
some even called us terrible names
so, not many churches
no, not many. The pastor interrupted and slowly repeated the
words, H-o-w m-a-n-y? There was a moment of silence, then one of the
women looked up with embarrassment and anguish, as though confessing to a crime,
Only thirteen.
The pastor looked astonished and interpreted for the guests. Thirteen. One of them repeated the number, Only
thirteen! Oh, my, goodness, I havent
planted that many churches in my lifetime! One
of the pastors assistants interrupted, No, Pastor, she did not say thirteen,
she said thirty! The pastor looked at
them and asked, Thirty? Yes, yes, not many. We have done very poorly. Only thirty.
How many people are in the churches? Again both heads went down, apologizing for their failure. Not many. Finally, the pastor looked like he was ready to
shake them and practically yelled, How
many? Only two hundred and
twenty people. Not many, no
not
many. Quickly multiplying in his head,
the pastor said, Two hundred and twenty
in thirty churches? Oh, no, in
only one, but that one is a very small church, very small.
There are bigger ones
The
guests repeated the numbers, Two hundred and twenty is small? Dear Lord, I wish I had some that large. Ask them how many are in the big churches. With a more reverent manner the pastor inquired,
And how many in the big churches? I
mean, the biggest one? They began
again, Oh, not many
when he asked them, Please, ladies, how many?
Oh, less than 5000. Only
4,900. Yes, less than 5000. We have just started.
From
behind the pastor came the sound of weeping. Dear
Lord, forgive us! What did they do? How did they do it?
Ask them what they did! When
asked, they looked astonished. What did
we do? Why, nothing. Yes, we did nothing, nothing. You did nothing? You have thirty churches; the smallest with two
hundred and twenty people, the largest with almost five thousand new believers! And you did nothing?
No,
nothing. We just prayed. I know you prayed, but what else did you
do? After we
prayed, the Holy Spirit would tell us exactly what to do.
We would keep praying and He would tell us what to do, and we would do it. Then we prayed and then He would tell us what to
do. We would do it and keep
praying
Dear Lord,
they just prayed and the Holy Spirit told them
exactly what to do and they prayed
The
pastor laid his hands on the shoulders of the two sisters.
Behind him his two guests, on their knees, weeping, joined as they just prayed. (Conclusion).
Ted
Martin shared the following accounts. Imagine
a community where 92% of the population claim to be born again; where the last of four
city jails has been closed for lack of crime; where agricultural productivity has reached
biblical proportions. You are in Almolongo,
Guatemala (population 19,000) where just a few years ago poverty, witchcraft,
idolatry, alcohol addiction, and violence ruled, until a few intercessors began praying and fasting. Conversions, healings, and deliverances from
demonic oppression followed. Almolongo has
been transformed into a city of churches instead
of bars.
Now,
imagine a city where 60,000 believers jam the soccer stadium (provided rent-free by the
city fathers who want to encourage the Christian influence in their city) for all-night
prayer vigils every ninety days, where a multi-billion dollar drug cartel has been
brought to its knees. A few years ago Calle,
Columbia was the drug capital of the world. This large city, controlled by cocaine drug lords,
was full of violence, corruption, and homicides. In
1995 a few
believers came together and began interceding for unity among believers, and for the
overthrow of occult influences and the drug cartel.
Soon, believers from all over the city converged for an all-night prayer
meeting at the soccer stadium. That weekend,
the newspapers headlined that there had been no murders for two days, where before, there
was an average of fifteen a day. A few days
later the head drug lord was arrested. Before
the summer was over, six out of seven of the drug lords had been arrested. Corruption throughout the city was reduced
dramatically. As the believers continued to
come together in serious intercession, the kingdom of God continued to descend upon their
city where thousands continue to be converted!
Now,
imagine a town where local bars have been transformed into church houses; where ancestral
shrines have been destroyed; where entire family clans have come to faith in Christ. In Kiambu, Kenya (a suburb of Nairobi) rape,
violence, corruption, alcohol addiction, and spirit of witchcraft had made this town one
of the most undesirable places to live in all of Kenya.
The few believers were impotent, that is, until round-the-clock
intercession resulted in the overthrow of the communities leading witch, and a
dramatic increase in conversions. Now
Kiambu has one of the lowest crime rates in all of Kenya!
(Conclusion).
Commenting
on the prayers and the high praises of the saints ascending to the Lord, followed by the
angel taking the censer, filling it with fire of the altar, and casting it into the earth,
producing in the earth-realm voices, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake, brother
Paul Mueller wrote these beautifully confirmatory words:
From
reading this passage, it is clear that every Divine action that affects the earth begins
in the heavenly, spiritual realm. As soon as
the prayers and praises of the saints ascended to
the Father, the angel took fire from the altar and cast it into the earth. Thus, the presence and power of God was sent to
earth to fulfill our Fathers sovereign purposes.
The spiritual ministry or service of the saints at the heavenly altar caused things to take place on earth! All that is necessary to fulfill our Fathers
plan of the restoration of all things must begin with the saints of God, who are seen
interceding and praising the Lord at the heavenly altar.
The
fire of the Lord from the heavenly altar shall first purge and purify our prayers so that
they shall become His will. When the prayers
of the saints ascend as a sweet-smelling odor before the Lord out of the angels
hand, they shall then be fulfilled by the omnipotent power of Him who rules and reigns in
all the earth. The casting of the golden
censer to the earth, containing fire from the altar, undoubtedly initiates the answers to
those prayers. Our loved ones, for whom we
have prayed many years, shall then come to know the Lord!
All our prayers shall be fulfilled, not in a weak or mild manner, but with a
mighty and glorious display of the power of God in thunderings, and lightnings, and
an earthquake. We are truly entering a
wonderful period! We should believe God and
expect the utmost of Him! When we see these
truths by the mind of Christ, our faith and trust in Him increases. We then know that He will be our habitation and
strength through every difficult situation, and our Saviour unto the fullness.
The
most important and significant truth we are learning today is that all spiritual action
necessary to change the world for the better must begin with us in the realm of the
Spirit! Nothing in this world will ever
change for the better without an initial move of the Spirit beginning in the heavenlies. When we use the word heavenlies, we
are referring to the realm of the Spirit. All earthly, worldly changes for the better must
begin first in the realm of the Spirit! Only
the Light of Christ can dispel the darkness in the world!
And His Light must come to us from the realm of the Spirit! Only by the Spirit of God can this corrupt world
be changed into that new earth, wherein dwelleth His righteousness. And the Spirit of God, that shall bring forth that
new earth, is the fire of God from the spiritual altar.
Only as the fire of the Spirit of God is cast from heaven to the earth shall
the knowledge of the glory of the Lord cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea. And God is that Fire (Heb. 12:29). He is the Spirit-Fire that must come from the
presence of the Lord to do that glorious work in all the earth! Gods way of changing things in the world is,
not by might, nor by power, but BY MY SPIRIT,
saith the Lord of hosts (Zech. 4:6).
Our
new kingdom ministry, or our service to our King and Lord of all, is not only a future
ministry or service; it is a present reality! We
are called to minister to the Lord NOW! We
are called to bow in humble obedience and submission to the will, the plan, and the
purpose of God NOW, not sometime in the dim, distant future. We are called to minister to the Lord NOW, by
offering praise, honor, and glory to Him! We
are called to pray the Lords prayer NOW, not with mere lip service, but with total
and absolute commitment and abandonment to the will of our Father. All that we do NOW, in the Spirit and by the
Spirit, shall bring the eternal benefits and blessings of the kingdom of God to earth. Our spiritual action as from the heavenly altar
shall bring heaven to earth! The New
Jerusalem is coming down from God out of heaven, or out of the realm of the Spirit, to the
earth, because of our spiritual action in the heavenlies (Rev. 21:2) end quote.
You
see, my beloved, when we pray in the Spirit upon the altar of God, our prayer becomes a word of the
Lord! And the word that ascends to
the Father evokes a release of the fire-power of God which is cast into the earth where it
brings forth transformation in that realm. It
is the fire that does the work! It is the
sovereign move and power of God! I cant
do anything myself. Oh, how I long to set
creation free! But I have come to the end of
myself. If I could run out and change the
world and deliver the groaning creation, I would lay my pen down and be out there tomorrow
doing so. I really would. God knows I would!
Ive told Him a thousand times. Oh,
yes, Im ready for a change! Im
excited about the new order of the kingdom of God that is now at the doors! I am divinely anxious to see the kingdom of God
come in power, not just in me, but in every son of God, and upon all the earth-realm!
We
often talk about the new order of the kingdom of God that is coming upon earth. That new order, however, begins in Gods elect! It is the new life of the kingdom within
ourselves! God is raising up His
righteousness, peace, joy, mind, heart, love, will, and the sovereignty of His dominion in
our hearts and lives. He is searching out the
inward parts of our belly, Hes discerning all things, penetrating all things,
quickening all things, illuminating all things, and transforming all things. Hes changing everything within us! Hes peeling away from us layer after layer
of all the carnal stuff that has concealed the beauty and glory of the pure life of Christ
within. Hes separating us from
everything we have trusted in, all that we have been taught, all that we have believed,
all that we have practiced, all that we have been associated with, all that we have
participated in, that the nature, glory, wisdom, purpose, and power of Christ alone might
be revealed in us. Yet all that He is doing
in us must be cast into the earth!
God
knows the deep prayer that is in my heart, upon the altar of the Lord. Its a cry out of the depths of my being for
the manifestation of the sons of God and the deliverance of all creation. The fire of God is soon to be poured out into the
earth-realm on a level the world has never seen. But
first it must happen within all of Gods elect!
The fire is being cast into our earth
from the altar of the heavens of the spirit within us, into the earth of our
outer life. The only thing that can change
anything about me, or about you, my beloved, is the fire of God from the altar! I cant change myself! You cant change yourself! I cannot save my own soul or redeem my own body
from death! Neither can you! And just as certainly as we cant do it for
ourselves, neither can we do it for creation! My
heart sings a thousand hallelujahs, for we are standing on the threshold of a mighty,
stupendous, incredible, dynamic, unprecedented, supernatural, sovereign intervention of God. The spirit of the high priest within us is casting
fire into our earth, and mighty things are beginning to happen! Oh, yes!
We are being changed from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And creation is standing on tip-toe to see the
wonderful sight of Gods sons coming into their own!
For the creation also shall be visited by the consuming, illuminating,
purging, transforming fire of God from the altar of God
within His sons! Arent
you glad!
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and
there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake (Rev. 8:5).
What happens next is amazing: when the golden censer of fire is cast into the
earth, this is followed by the sound of voices and peals of thunder and flashes of
lightning and an earthquake. These
phenomena, of course, should be familiar to every student of the scriptures as the normal
accompaniments of the divine Glory-Cloud! So
it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning
flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound
now mount
Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended
like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently (Ex. 19:16,18).
One of the key words in the book of Revelation is voices. It is important to note in each case what the
voices are, what the circumstances are, where they come from, and what they say. Here in our text the voice bespeaks the word of the
Lord spoken out of the mouths of His kings and priests! It is the one Voice of the Lord becoming many
voices, as the sound of many waters, issuing from the many sons brought to glory. If you ask me today, How do you perceive
God? What do you see in your mind? Do you see a great man with a white beard,
piercing eyes of fire, with lightning bolts coming out of His fingers? No! Do
you see some kind of a figure? No! There are times when I see a face. It is a mental concept of Jesus. If I see a body in my mind, it is the body of
Jesus Christ, the corporate, composite body of many members. How do I conceive of God? As a body? No. As some spirit who flits about disembodied with a
lot of force and energy? No. I conceive of God as a voice. That
is how I conceive of God. Thats how I
experience Him. The first thing we read of
God is that God said
He spoke! And
the only manifestation of God Adam knew in that long-ago Eden was simply the voice of the Lord God walking in the midst of the
garden in the cool (spirit) of the day (Gen. 3:8).
Early
in the Revelation John heard a voice as of a trumpet speaking to him, and he turned to see the voice. That voice
was the manifestation of Him who is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. It was the revelation of the glory of Gods
Christ, Head and body. Later John was shown
the throne of the Lord, and one sat upon the throne; there were four living creatures in
the midst of the throne and twenty-four elders round about the throne, and out of
the throne proceeded voices (Rev. 4:5). What are the voices out of the throne? Jesus had previously promised, 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).
It should not be difficult to understand that the voices proceeding from the
throne are the voices of those sitting in the
throne! The word voices, from
the Greek, means a saying or a language that reveals or discloses something. Since it is Gods voices that are sent into
the earth, it is the Lord revealing Himself, His truth, His ways, His will, and His glory
to many people. The voices are the word of the Lord proclaimed by Gods
kings and priests who reign with Christ upon His throne!
The voices represent the sending forth into the earth of the authoritative
word of the Lord!
Then there were thunderings. Thunder
is always the symbol of the power of God. Job understood this truth when
he said, Lo, these are parts of His ways
but the thunder of His
power who can understand? (Job 26:14).
When God made bare His holy arm in the midst of the Egyptians, to deliver
His people Israel, He revealed His awesome power. And
Moses stretched forth His rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along the
ground
and Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto
them
Intreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings
and I will let you
go (Ex. 9:23,27,28). We have already
read how mount Sinai was shaken by mighty thunderings when God came down upon it in power
and great glory! No one who has heard the
claps of thunder in a summer thunderstorm can think of anything except the awesome power
it personifies! The thunderings of the Spirit
indicate that the voice of the Lord is roaring or thundering the reality of His kingdom in
great power to many people. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters:
the God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon
many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of
majesty (Ps. 29:3-4). The thunder is the power of the Lords voice! It is the majesty of the Lord going out to
creation!
The
word of God is a word of power! Jesus,
the firstborn Son of God, was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him (Acts 10:38). Jesus was Himself the demonstration of the power
of the kingdom of God on earth! After being
filled with the Holy Spirit the disciples of Jesus went forth speaking boldly in the name
of Jesus, proclaiming the kingdom of God, doing mighty signs and wonders among the people,
and the scripture says that with great power
gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Acts 4:33). The kingdom of God, Paul tells us, is not in word, but in power (I Cor. 4:20). That in no way belittles or depreciates the value
of the word of the kingdom. The power of God is in His word! But to have a word without power simply means that
it is not the word of God, nor is it the word of the kingdom. Jesus had a word with power, and that is why the
people exclaimed, Never man spake like this man! It wasnt His beautiful sermon, but the
demonstration of the kingdom of God with power. Jesus
own disciples were exceedingly amazed and marveled when He commanded the wind and the
waves of the sea and cried out, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and
the sea obey Him! That was a word with
power, and it was the word of the kingdom and the power of the kingdom!
In our day, the truth of the power of the kingdom needs to sound like a trumpet. Mens hearts are failing them for fear in
looking after the things that are coming upon the earth, and many of the Lords
people are also filled with fear. The elect
of God, those who are walking in the Spirit and following on to know the Lord, are
beholding HIM before whom all nations are as a drop in a bucket who with infinite
care and divine purpose created the vastnesses of the limitless universe and the wheeling
constellations and calleth them all by name. For
who has yet arrived from the Other World to announce that God has been outsmarted by the
devil, or that His kingdom is in danger or disarray?
Only One has come, and He has come with great power and glory, and with a word that the
kingdom of His Father ruleth over all!
Jesus was Himself the demonstration of the power of the kingdom of God on earth! The miracles that Christ wrought while He walked
the earth in flesh were His Kingdom Credentials. His
signs, wonders, and miracles announced to the Jews that He was the promised Messiah, the
One of whom the prophets wrote. After John
the Baptist was arrested and imprisoned he sent messengers to Jesus to inquire, Art
Thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
Jesus told the inquiring disciples, Go and show John again those
things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, and
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the
gospel preached to them (Mat. 11:2-6). The
signs and wonders wrought by Jesus, the firstborn Son of God, were tangible evidence of
the power that would reside in the kingdom
power that could be seen and felt!
Jesus was the firstborn of Gods vast family of sons. He came into the earth to reveal the glory of manifest sonship and the power of the kingdom of God! The power of God came first in the life of Jesus
to raise up within Him all the nature, wisdom, glory, and power of the Father, before showing it forth through Him to bless and
restore men to God. Gods power worked
in the life of Jesus for thirty years, bringing forth in Him the maturity of sonship,
before ever it was manifested outwardly before the eyes of the people. In this hour, we, His younger brethren, are
experiencing the power of God within and God is working mightily in our lives to finish
the work of perfecting and maturing His sons, before showing them forth to creation. The truth we should now know is that when
Gods sonship company is ready, fully developed, prepared, and matured, this kingdom
power will flow out from them unrestrained and uninhibited power to the full
extent!
There were also lightnings that flashed throughout the earth! Undoubtedly we have all seen, when clouds turn
the sky into terrible blackness, how there suddenly flashes forth from their awesome
darkness almost terrifying streaks of lightning that light up earth and sky. Lightning is a powerful discharge of atmospheric
electricity. Benjamin Franklin knew that
lightning and electricity are the same thing. Spiritually,
there is a word and revelation of the Lord that flashes within our consciousness like a
bolt of lightning! When mans darkness
seems impenetrable and unbearable, then suddenly we behold the brilliance of a stream of
moving charges as Gods lightning flashes and the Lord breaks through the darkness of
the carnal mind by the illumination of His Word and His Spirit. His glory is seen in the lightning and
we discover where we are in His great purpose! This
declares to us with unspeakable clarity that lightning is the symbol of divine
illumination! These symbolic
lightnings are spoken of in Psalm 97:4 wherein we read, His lightnings enlightened the world; the earth saw,
and trembled. The lightnings of God
bespeak of the illumination of men when the Lord moves by His Spirit of wisdom,
understanding, and revelation! They are
vivid, spiritual displays of the light and glory of God, without doubt through the
manifestation of the sons of God!
Divine quickening and revelation raise us up to a higher perception of truth and
reality. Spiritual illumination is that
lightning which flashes brightly again and again when the fire of God is cast into the
earth! It is a sudden, brilliant, almost
blinding burst of divine energy which in one spectacular instant miraculously breaks upon
our consciousness and lightens our world with divine truth and understanding. In this very hour, as we approach the
manifestation of Gods life through His son company, the spirit of revelation is
breaking forth so gloriously that we can hardly take it all in! Flashes of light or
enlightenment are bolting all around us in ever increasing brilliance, glory,
and splendor, just before our final metamorphosis. Isnt
it wonderful!
Finally, John tells us that there was an earthquake. Earthquakes are mighty shakings! Earthquakes in the natural are powerful events! Probably the most violent land-based earthquake
was the 8.7 smasher that devastated the Himalayas in 1950.
The Alaskan earthquake with 8.5 magnitude with its thousands of
aftershocks, released the equivalent of 500,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. At least, this was the estimate of Frank Press,
well-known seismologist. According to Dr.
Richter (the Richter Scale), the largest earthquakes release the energy of
only TEN THOUSAND atomic bombs! We
are rocked by earthquakes.
On the physical
level, an earthquake occurs where the cooling of the earth has caused two layers of earth
to overlap rather than to come together flush. As
they try to settle into a more natural position, they release energy. Spiritually, this is fulfilled within each of us
in those areas of our lives where the flesh and the spirit, the carnal mind and the
spiritual mind, truth and error, or our will and Gods will overlap within ourselves, causing intense
pressures to be formed! We have these places
deep within us where things do not fit together properly, for soul and body have not been
synchronized with the spirit, so that they do not mesh together. The flesh wars
against the spirit, and the spirit wars against
the flesh! When both the spirit and the flesh
want to dominate great pressures are created. When
we meet a situation that begins to trigger this conflict, we cannot help but experience
the rumbling! The earthquake
touches the fault-lines of our lives, not just surface things, but the very depths of our
being where the foundation is defective, imperfect, and unsound. When there is a shaking from deep within there is
a change on the surface, not from outside in, but from inside out! It should not be difficult to understand that no man can be conformed to the image of God apart
from spiritually devastating and destructive earthquakes! In
order for creation to be reconciled and restored into God everything of the natural
constitution, the human mentality, the Adamic consciousness, the carnal mind, the flesh
life, and our own will and ways must be utterly demolished.
When the earthquake
comes there are great commotions within and we react and feel in a spiritual way exactly
like those people experience naturally who are victims of physical earthquakes. Cars in the streets roll back and forth, trees thrash about, broken like toothpicks;
buildings collapse, the terrain moves violently, bridges collapse, hospitals are rendered
useless, water supplies are broken, communications are cut off, highways and railways are
split asunder, and there is great suffering and death.
Oh, yes! When the spiritual
earthquake occurs within us, the old world of our carnal understanding and the powerful
citadels of the flesh are wiped away! This is
the awesome work of the fire of God when it is cast into our earth, or into
the earth of all mankind!
I am thankful for the
divine order in our Fathers working. Arent
you glad that you hear the voices, feel the thunder, and behold the lightnings before the earthquake strikes! Ah, the Lord sends His word, manifests to us His
power, and gives wonderful illumination before proceeding to shake our old human nature
and identity to pieces. Should He have sent
the earthquake first, we would simply have disintegrated into oblivion! There would have been nothing left. But we have a wise and wonderful Father! He says, Im going to come and awaken
the Christ-life within you, I will quicken you to the life of the spirit, I will raise up my presence in you, reveal to you my
glory, show you my power, and put my word in you after all this has been firmly
established within you, with the fault-lines clearly delineated, I will then shake that old realm of the earth-man, and
the old creation that you were will fall, never to rise again! Oh, the wonder of it!
In closing this
message, let us look a little further into the depths of this mystery. The Greek word for earthquake is seismos. While
the word seismos is often used of conventional
earthquakes, it also is used in different ways. Seismos has three primary shades of meaning: (1) commotion
(2) gale (3) earthquake. In Matthew 8:24 seismos is translated as the tempest
of a storm. And, behold, there arose a
great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the
ship was covered with the waves
Was
this tempest an earthquake? There
certainly was great agitation, motion, movement, shaking, and potential devastation! But Jesus didnt rebuke the
earth-quaking He rebuked the winds
and the sea!
This reveals that the
seismos had something to do with the storm. The fact is that storms, cyclones, hurricanes,
typhoons, deluges, whirlwinds, gales, and tornadoes are all words that can be described as
a seismos as well as the shaking of the earth. Seismos
means the shaking or the quaking of anything! The
root word from which seismos is taken is seio and is used in Matthew 21:10 and several
other places. And when He (Jesus) was
come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved (seio),
saying, Who is this? Here seio is rendered moved. Do you suppose Jesus was so powerful that
when He entered the city it caused an earthquake, and the buildings collapsed and tumbled
into the streets? Not at all! The people
were shaking perhaps not even
physically, but emotionally. It wasnt
the ground it was a shaking within
themselves! Can we not see by this that
the shaking and quaking of a seismos is not
necessarily the shaking of the literal ground of the earth, but can be the shaking of many
things both literally and metaphorically. One
thing is very clear the earthquakes in the book of Revelation are not required to
be something that can be measured on the Richter Scale!
Now I would draw your
attention to one other interesting fact. And
there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. Notice the order here! Voices
thunderings
lightnings
and
an earthquake. The question follows do
we connect the earthquake with the thunderings and the lightnings, or do we
disconnect it from them and see it only as a shaking of the ground? It is clear that when the fire is cast into the
earth it produces a great storm there! We
know that there is a storm because of the lightnings and the thunderings! We also know that storms are generated by the
coming together and equalizing of two areas of different temperatures and other
atmospheric conditions. Storms are caused by
the action of large, rapidly moving air masses in which, very often, heated air containing large amounts of water vapor
meets cold air.
The clashing of the masses of water vapor against each other causes
electricity to be formed. When enough of this
electricity has been formed it jumps from one part of a cloud to another, or from one
cloud to another, or from the cloud to the ground. This
is lightning!
As the lightning flashes, it heats the air around it, causing it to vibrate. This makes the noise of thunder! At
the height of a thunderstorm, with the lightning flashing and the thunder booming, the
rain comes down in torrents. The rain brings
blessing to the earth! It purifies the
atmosphere and gives refreshing and life to everything on earth!
The
storms of the book of Revelation are interesting. They can be seen throughout the book! Here something symbolically represented as
fire of the altar is cast into the earth and becomes a disturbing element in
the earth causing great disturbance there. When
the Lord comes in His Holy Ghost fire it always creates a disturbance! The fire of God heats up the atmosphere of Adams
world, quickening the spirit within man, and
that heated atmosphere of the spirit meets the cold
atmosphere of mans soulical life, and a great storm is generated! God speaks
out of the storm, and there are heard voices! In
the storm God manifests His power in the
thunderings! He gives revelation and illumination by the lightnings! By this storm He shakes everything of the old carnal understanding,
the old natural life, the old worldly system of things, purifies the atmosphere, pours
down the rain of His Spirit and Life, and MAKES ALL THINGS NEW! Isnt it wonderful!
Whether the
earthquake is a deep-earth quake, or the tempest of a storm, in no way changes the
outcome. It may be either, or it could be
both! There is nothing more important in this
hour than the manifestation of the sons of God. The
ministry of Gods priesthood at the golden altar of the heavens of the Spirit is
Gods purpose for the deliverance of all
creation! The Lord hath sworn, and will
not repent, speaking of the Christ of God, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek
(Ps. 110:4). The word order in
the phrase order of Melchizedek is something like the word order
we use when we speak of certain worldly religious orders, such as the Franciscans or the
Dominicans, or the orders of various secret societies or lodges. The scripture affirms that Gods Christ is a
priest after the Melchizedekian Order. Christ
is not called to be a priest after order of Aaron, the priesthood under the law (Heb.
7:11-22). Here you may see, Melchizedek the
priest was not made WITHOUT AN ORDER. The
fact of the order reveals the great truth that the Melchizedek priesthood is
not composed of one person, but a community of persons fulfilling the same type of
ministry. Our great high priest was not
made a priest without an order, but is after the order of Melchizedek; and His royal priesthood (for Melchizedek was both king and priest),
who offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, are in His spiritual order, which is
the order of the Son of God, for they are the sons
of God.
The Melchizedek order
of priests is not yet complete, for Jesus, the forerunner into that Order, must be joined
by those who are to follow after to make up the entire Melchizedek Order. There are many others, Gods called and
chosen remnant, who are to be joined to Christ in this Melchizedekian ministry, after the power of an endless life (Heb. 7:16). Until that incorruptible
and immortal Order is completed, the remainder of our Fathers redemptive and
restorative plan of the ages cannot be consummated. This
is the truth the writer to the Hebrews proclaimed when he wrote, Wherefore, holy
brethren, PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession, Christ Jesus, MADE AN HIGH PRIEST FOR EVER AFTER THE ORDER OF
MELCHIZEDEK (Heb. 3:1; 6:19-20).
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 FULLNESS OF THE STATURE OF CHRIST (Eph. 4:13). There is the order of Melchizedek! God is making a new man, a perfect man. There is being formed in the earth a new man after
a new order. This new man will be in the
fullness of the perfection, maturity, attainment, and power of the Son of God! Thats Gods purpose in calling us, in
giving us the firstfruits of the Spirit, in dealing and changing and transforming us from
glory to glory into His own image and likeness. And
here is what this new many-membered man is for: A NEW MAN FOR A NEW AGE.
Through our many
years in the pews of religious Babylon all we ever heard was the end of the world,
the end of the world, the end of the world is coming!
So we grew up looking for the end of the world. Now I am going to tell you something folks
there isnt going to be any end of the world! You
might as well stop packing your bags, testing your wings, polishing your halo, and praying
God to whisk you away into the clouds. We
have far too many Christians in the world today with dying faith, but they dont have
any living faith! They are so anxious to die, and go off to heaven
to be with the Lord. That is, until they get
chest pains or a stomach ache, then they rush down to the hospital, and spend their very
last dime to keep from flying away to be with Jesus!
It gets rather ridiculous. Ah,
something is wrong, very wrong, somewhere!
God is raising up a
people in this hour with a vision for living, not so they can stick around to see
their great-grandchildren, or take another cruise, or raise another garden but
because of the inner consciousness of the mind of Christ that our Father doesnt want
us out there in the blue somewhere He wants us right here on earth, raised up into
incorruptible nature, life, and glory, to bring in this NEW AGE! There will be no end of this world, only the end
of an age. The end of an age in which Satan
in the carnal mind and wicked heart of man has been ruling over the world, and the
bringing in of a new age in which Gods many-membered man is going to be ruler over
all this world that our glorious Father created for the sons and daughters of God right here! This
new man will live in the heavenlies, but he will walk on the earth. And when God has fully prepared this man, and
restored him to incorruptibility and immortality after the power of an endless life, which
is the power of the order of Melchizedek, which is the order of the Son of God, He will
turn the dominion of the world over to this new man for the new age!
The great truth I
would emphasize in closing is just this: This new man is going to be after a new order! I want to drive this point home to every believing
heart what new order means. All across
the land for many years we have heard these terms, old order, new
order, divine order. And
many saints have not the foggiest notion what order means! They hear the words new order or
divine order, and they think its just a new message coming forth. Thats all it means to them a new
revelation, a new perception, a new terminology, something for everyone to preach and sing
and shout about. Ah, beloved, if thats
all you see in Gods new order, youre going to miss it! An order means a system of
things, an arrangement.
Things arent like they used to be, and things dont work the way they
used too, and we dont live, move, act, or have our being on the plane we did before.
Divine order is that
order which God reveals He is going to put this new man into. This new man must be after a new order! The order is the order of Melchizedek! Jesus wasnt a priest after the order of
Melchizedek until after He came out of the tomb in the power of resurrection and ascended
into the heavens of the Spirit of God! This
new man will be a priest for the ages. Hes
going to be the mediator through which God meets all of His creation forevermore! Many saints dont understand this mystery,
but the truth is that in this age now closing there has been only one man who has risen
out of the bonds of sin and death and the limitations of the physical realm to be seated
in the Melchizedekian Order the man Christ Jesus.
So there is now one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. But in that glorious age and
ages to come all the other sons, His many brethren, sons of the resurrection, shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign on the
earth. Priests mediate! Priests reconcile! Priests
deliver! Priests
restore! This
new man will be Gods priesthood for the ages after the order of Melchizedek!
When the fire of God from the altar of this glorious priesthood is cast into the earth there will be voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. Glorious changes are coming to the earth-realm! It is indeed wonderful!
To be continued
J. PRESTON EBY
Links to other ministry websites
Not finding what you need? SEARCH HERE
Search
this site or the web
powered by FreeFind |