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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 106
THE SOUNDING
OF THE TRUMPETS
(continued)
And when
He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence
in heaven about the space of half an hour. And
I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound (Rev. 8:1-2,6).
If you make a
study of trumpets in the scriptures you will discover that the sound of a trumpet
represents the word of the Lord. It is His
voice communicating a specific word to man. Each trumpet blows a specific message. It is not a general word, nor an uncertain sound,
but a specific and clear word from God. Thats
the main thought with trumpets the word is clear! The
sound pierces the air with the sense of awesomeness.
Its a clear, resonant sound, it comes in power, with enlightenment,
opening a revelation in your spirit, and producing the effect of that revelation in your
being. Just one word from the Lord can change
our life forever! It is an announcement, a
creative purpose of God proclaimed, put into action, to bring about a certain
transformation within Gods elect.
God is preparing
a people in this hour for a new sound! The
old church order of man is passing away. Within
Gods called and chosen elect He is quieting everything from the previous realms of
His purposes. God is causing the heavens from
which the word of the previous orders sounded to become as brass. The dimensions that we once operated in are
failing the anointing has lifted from those orders.
The gifts and ministries God used us in, and which we gloried in, are now
dissipating and will diminish until there is no life in them at all. As long as we are content and happy to function in
the machinery of a passing order we will never be able to make the distinction between
sounds to discern that which pertains to the new order of the kingdom of God! But our Father will not allow those called to
sonship to remain in the lower orders, for He is taking us two of a city and one of
a family and bringing us to Zion the place of fullness of authority,
dominion, and power in the Spirit!
We are not yet
prepared to sound the trumpet, to proclaim the message, to initiate, effect, and compel
the movement and manifestation of the new and greater thing God has prepared for us. We know how to continue issuing the sounds of
Passover and Pentecost, but I would rather sit still in the absolute, awesome silence of
God than to keep on blowing the trumpet of a dying age.
The hour is upon us for a mighty change, things shall be different, and the
hour has come for the silence of God in which we make the paradigm shift from the old into
the new. The new will never sound forth until
the old has been brought to its conclusion! There
has come a deep and wonderful preparation for transition in the Fathers
apprehended ones, and the new move of God will break forth within us when the silence is
absolute. Many things are being hushed within
us because the Lord will not permit the new sound of the kingdom to be mingled and mixed
with the old sounds that are passing away, thereby giving an uncertain sound out of
confusion. This sound shall maintain its
clarity, it shall be a certain sound in the ears of Gods elect!
Creation
is indeed standing on tiptoe, waiting with bated breath for this sound! And God is raising up a people not content to
remain in the old, any more than Jesus could have been content to stay in Nazareth. What will the manifestation of Gods sons be
like? I dont fully know what it will be
like, anymore than the early disciples knew what the day of Pentecost would be like when
they filed into the upper room in obedience to the Masters command. I DO know what it will NOT be like! It will not be like any move of God, any revival,
any experience, or anything we have seen in our life-time!
The move of God on the day of Pentecost and the new order of the church age
was as different from the old order of Israel
and the law as any thing could be! I do not
hesitate to tell you that the new order of the kingdom will also be just that different
from all that we have known and experienced during the church age! It is a new sound and the sons of God are on standby,
waiting in the wings to hear the sound. Because
there is silence in their heavens, they have been given the wisdom and understanding to
distinguish the sound and to move at once with its proclamation!
Most of us have
been blessed to hear many of Gods trumpets, we have heard the trumpet of salvation,
the trumpet of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the trumpets of gifts and healing and
miracles and deliverance and praise and worship and revelation. There is great blessing but also a hidden curse to
that for God charges us in this Day to make a distinction between the sounds, to
hear what the Spirit now saith unto His apprehended ones. We dont like the silence after only a
few minutes of silence in a meeting saints begin to become edgy, nervous, uneasy, tense,
and apprehensive. Somebody get up and do something! is their response to the
silence. Sing a song, give a testimony, share
a revelation, pray, worship do anything
except be silent! Some years ago I was in a meeting when the Spirit began to speak through
various ministries that we should get quiet before the Lord and wait upon Him. The brethren began to exhort about being quiet,
someone prophesied that we should be quiet, another sang about the holy quietness; for the
rest of the meeting the brethren did everything except
SHUT UP AND LISTEN FOR GOD! There is more to it, of course, than being quiet
for a few minutes or a few hours in a meeting, but it takes the silence of God in this
hour to set His sons apart from the passing and prepare them to hear the sound of the
fresh word and the new move of the new Day from out of the throne of God!
The silence does
not end until the seven angels are prepared to sound! When the inner preparation is complete in the Lords
people and the conditions are right for the seven spirits of God to be revealed out of
them, the silence will be broken. It will be
broken by a mighty blast of the breath of God! That
is what the word sound in this passage means to trumpet, to
blast. It is not a gentle sound, not a
quiet murmur, not a whisper. When the
fullness of the revelation and glory and power and triumph of the Lord breaks out within
the sons of God, it will come as the sudden blast of a trumpet! There will be a great sound from heaven that will
change, transform, and empower the sons of God and it will also startle the world of
mankind and reverberate through all the kingdoms of men!
Is
it not written that God will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. I have no hesitation in telling you that as the
hour of manifestation approaches there shall be a great gathering together of Gods
sons! The sons are now scattered, isolated,
separated in remote areas of the land and distant corners of the earth. But God will soon gather them together by the
sovereign work of His divine power!
The background
of my present thought is the first fifteen chapters of the book of Exodus. Recall the catalog of plagues sent upon the land
of Egypt all were the call of God to the worldly system of this world: Let my
people go!
The
religion of ancient Egypt is without doubt one of the most difficult religions to analyze. The Egyptians were among the most polytheistic
people known from the ancient world. Even to
this day Egyptologists are unable to say for certain what was the total number of the gods
which they worshipped. Most lists include
somewhere in the neighborhood of eighty gods. The
dedication of the Egyptians to their gods is very obvious even to the casual observer as
he walks through the sands of Egypt. Beautiful
temples and long colonnaded roadways are the expression of deep piety and sacrificial
work. In spite of all the beauty and
grandeur, however, as an idolatrous form of worship it was morally and spiritually
degrading. Almost all of the lower life
forms, whatever their habitat, and even inanimate objects were considered the embodiment
of some deity. To the Egyptians the lion was sacred, and also the ox, the ram, the wolf, the
dog, the cat, the ibis, the buzzard, the falcon, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the
cobra, the dolphin, different varieties of fish, trees, and small animals such as the
frog, locust, and other insects. Images were
also believed to embody the deities. In
addition, there were also living men in the prime of life who were considered gods, such
as Amun, Atum, or Osiris.
This is the
world that Moses was raised and lived in! It
is against this background that we view and gain an understanding of the true significance
of the ten plagues that Moses and Aaron brought by the hand of Yahweh against the
Egyptians. It is apparent from Exodus 12:12
that the ten plagues were directed specifically against all the gods of Egypt! Furthermore we find in Numbers 33:4 that all the
plagues were directed against the deities of Egypt, for we read, the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which
the Lord had smitten among them: upon their gods
also the Lord executed judgments. The
plagues were designed to point out to the Pharaoh and to all the people of Egypt the
absolute impotence of their gods, and the obvious inability of their priests to exert any
authority or power to turn the tide of the calamities sent by the God of the Hebrews. The prayers, the sacrifices, the counsel of all
the wise men of Egypt were incapable of reversing the disastrous situation the whole land
of Egypt, together with their gods, found themselves in!
Let us notice
how the plagues discredited and brought judgment upon the Egyptian deities. Serpents, objects of worship, were devoured by
Aarons rod. The Nile river, one of
their chief gods, was turned to bloody abomination. Heki,
the god responsible for driving away frogs, was helpless.
Beelzebub, the lord of the flies, was powerless. Various cattle and animals revered as gods were
killed by the plague of disease sent by the hand of Moses.
Moses took ashes from the furnace of Typhon, the god to whom human sacrifice
was offered to keep evil from the land, cast them into the air and they became the source
of boils and blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. Serapis, protector from locusts, was shown to be
strengthless, as the plagues of locusts covered the land of Egypt, devouring everything
that grew. Isis and Osiris, representing the
sun and moon chief gods, were completely discomfited during the three days and nights of
supernatural darkness. These nation-wide
afflictive judgments of Yahweh were so ordered as to strike, malign, and judge in an
ascending scale all the false gods of the
Egyptians! But the great purpose behind this was to so break the power of
the gods, the priesthood, and the Pharaoh, that they would LET GODS PEOPLE GO! The primary issue was the deliverance of the Lords elect people from
the bondage of every power and shackle that held them from going forth to possess their
true and full inheritance in God!
The seven
trumpets in the Revelation are a striking spiritualization of the plagues the Lord sent
upon Egypt! As we look at these plagues we
see that they are likened unto the literal plagues upon Egypt, but we know that the book
of Revelation is a spiritual book of spiritual truths and spiritual experiences addressed to a spiritual people which can be perceived and
received only by the spirit! Can we not see by this that the spiritual
plagues come upon the spirit of Egypt within each of us to bring the
release of our spiritual man from the dominance of the carnal mind that we may march out
of the bondage of the flesh, the Adamic nature, the human identity and consciousness, the
spirit of the world, and enter into the full realization of our inheritance in our
promised land Christ! Is that truth not infinitely more blessed and
meaningful than literal plagues falling upon the nations of earth! Truly these
plagues bring THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST!
The plagues of
Egypt were sent upon the people, spirits, and kingdom that held Gods people, Israel,
in servitude. The plagues in the book of
Revelation are, therefore, related to Gods spiritual
people for the message is sent to the church! It is the Lord Jesus talking to His body! The
Egyptian typology is an emphatic way of saying that these judgments or dealings
of our Father are but a prelude to His great deliverance of His elect from all their
enemies! The plagues in the Revelation
represent those dealings God sends into our lives
to break the religious bondage of spiritual Egypt, the spirit of this world, the controlling of the flesh, the dominance of the soul, the ruling of the carnal mind, and the whole realm of sin, limitation, and mortality! God is breaking the power of every kingdom within
that rules us, usurping the life of the spirit. In each of the heavenly trumpet blasts God is
saying to the Pharaoh of our own personal Egypt of bondage, LET
MY PEOPLE GO! Referring to the plagues
of Egypt the Psalmist said, He gave also
their cattle over to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts (Ps. 78:48). The cattle is the symbolic figure for
the whole bestial nature and system of man! Our
Father is bringing us out of our Egyptian bondage by a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm! And what mighty shakings, judgments,
hail, earthquakes, thunderbolts, and cataclysms take place in our earth as He does this! He judges, discredits, humiliates, and destroys
everything that is contrary to the life of sonship. He
is bringing us out in order to bring us in to the fullness of our
inheritance in Christ!
The admonition
of George Hawtin is still a vital word for every man and woman who treasures the beautiful
hope of sonship. There can be no
tenacious hanging on to the things of the past. There
must be a clean break away from all of Egypts bondage and every relationship with
the drunken harlot of Babylon. We must
forsake even the things that seem to be pleasant, good, and harmless that we may attain,
and for my part nothing short of attaining will
satisfy. We must attain without counting any cost. We must sell all that we have that we may buy the pearl of great price. We must buy the truth, but sell it not.
It will mean the loss of friends. It
will mean misunderstanding among our relatives and often the closest members of our
family. That is why Jesus said, I am
come not to send peace, but a sword (Mat. 10:34) end quote.
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire
mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth:
and the third part of trees was burned up, and all green grass was burnt up (Rev. 8:7).
I must call your
attention to the parallels between the events of this first trumpet and the seventh plague
God sent upon the land of Egypt by the hand of Moses.
And Moses stretched forth his
rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and
hail, and the fire ran along the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire
mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land
of Egypt since it became a nation. And the
hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast, and the hail
smote every herb of the field, and brake every
tree of the field (Ex. 9:23-25).
When the first
trumpet sounded immediately hail and fire mingled with blood were cast into the earth. That this is not a natural judgment traceable to
natural causes is evident from the fact that the hail and the fire mingled with blood were
cast upon, the earth, not falling from the heavens in an ordinary way, but
impelled by an unseen yet powerful arm. They
were cast, in fact, by the angel sounding the trumpet!
The seven angels are the seven spirits of God! This is not the work of any man, for this is the
work of God by the Spirit!
The
elect of the Lord should be aware that water, especially rain falling from heaven, is used
in the scriptures as a type of Gods word and Gods spirit combined, that is,
the living word of God! Usually it indicates that He is sending a blessing
in the time of drought. When God sends the
rain that refreshes, sometimes it has come to us as a prophetic word. The Spirit speaks words like these, Yea, my
son, thou art mine, thou art precious in my eyes; I
have called thee, I have chosen thee before the foundation of the world unto a high and
holy calling. Yea, thou shalt be a great one,
a mighty one in my kingdom! My goodly spices
shall flow out from thee and thy fragrance shall fill the earth in the day of my moving! I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, I will
be with thee in all of thy ways, yea, my hand shall bring thee unto thy appointed place,
saith the Lord! Oh, yes, we all love a
word like that, and in days past the Lord has spoken in just such endearing, encouraging,
and faith-inspiring promises to us! But not
so when He sends His word that comes as hail!
Water
flows, and also it becomes sometimes hard as ice and hail.
When it falls as hail it is not a blessing, as we think of blessing. When it falls it always brings destruction,
depending on its size and duration. Hail is
water, but it is frozen water, thus it bespeaks of a hard word from the Lord! It is the word of God that strikes us and knocks
the carnal mindedness out of us! It is the
word that rebukes, chastises, and corrects us! It
is not an easy word, not a flowery word, not a sweet, soothing word, but a word that
devastates our field and beats down the carnal mindset, ways, and works that grow out of
our earthly nature. When Israel was walking
after the flesh and corrupting the ways of the Lord, the word of the Lord came to them
declaring, Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail
shall sweep away the refuge of lies (Isa. 28:17). What hailstones of a hard word fall
from the heavens of Gods Spirit into our land as He smashes our religious idols and
all the things we treasure more than His will and way!
The refuge of lies speaks of all the false ideas, false
concepts, false doctrines, and false ways of the Lords people! Today there are many who speak only a word of
blessing. They proclaim the faith message or the prosperity message.
According to these messages the Lords people should never have any
sickness, poverty, pain, trouble, pressures, adversities, calamities, or judgments in
their lives, for God is a loving Father who wants
only to give good things to His children
high paying jobs, fine homes, expensive cars, swimming pools, money in the bank, and the
finest and best of everything this world has to
offer! But that is not a true word of the
Lord! It may be true for some, whom the Lord
according His own purpose moves to so bless, but it is at best a half-truth, and at worst
a refuge of lies.
You
can be a good Christian and embrace such a word, but youll never be a son! Manifest
sons of God are not spoiled brats who have an indulgent Father who doesnt want them
to ever lack or suffer or endure anything, but lavishes upon them every carnal thing they
ask for! Ye
have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as sons, 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. And if ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement
then are ye bastards, and not sons (Heb. 12:5-8). Oh, yes, the Father will give us His glory, His
nature, His wisdom, authority, and power, and raise us up to judge the world and rule the
nations with a rod of iron. But before He
entrusts into our hands such awesome responsibilities He will put His finger on every
aspect of our lives, He will bring training, discipline, order, and judgment to our house; He will send the hailstorms
into our lives to beat down and destroy all the refuge of lies, all the false messages,
doctrines, opinions, ways, and every false thing in which we trust and every tree and all
the grass that grows out of our carnal mind and earthy nature!
It
is instructive to note that not only does our Father cast down the hail into our earthly
life, but swiftly He follows it with fire mingled with blood, and it is the fire
that burns
up the trees and the grass, making the purging work complete. The fire that purifies us is mingled with
blood, and the life is in the blood! God is both life
and fire! The blood is mingled with fire God
mingles His
life with His purifying fire so that we are not destroyed,
just changed and transformed! Oh, the wonder
of it!
TREES represent those deeply rooted things that grow
out of our human nature. Some time ago in
a letter from Linda ONeill she shared the following experience. Last night as I was drifting off to sleep, I
was led by the Spirit to a wooded area. I
sensed the Lord speaking to me, saying, Linda, go walk in these woods! What do you see? the Lord asked. I saw a small forest bereft of trees, everywhere
my eyes looked was barren, brown with dead stumps here and there, as though a fire had
swept through this wooded area and wiped it out. I
sensed the desire of Father was for me to behold this now empty and barren forest, where
once many trees had flourished. At first
after waking I thought, Oh, no, another catastrophe headed Americas way,
as Im aware that in scriptures trees represent men.
But for once I was left alone and didnt jump the gun, but waited for
Father to confirm or say what He wanted to reveal to me through this experience. Well, at the end of your latest teaching something
just jumped right out and grabbed my heart! I
knew that I knew this was what Father was showing me.
The whole paragraph met me in the depths of my being, but for lack of time I
will write only one line that pulled my understanding into a deeper insight of what Father
is doing today. The trees that are being burned up are those
manifestations that grow out of our own earthiness. All of our own understanding, carnal reasoning,
self efforts, etc., are being destroyed end quote.
Nowhere are the
trees that grow out of mans earthiness more evident than in the
religious world. The so-called gospel
in this hour is fashioned to appeal to the carnal mind, offering men blessings,
prosperity, instant solutions to all problems, a miracle a day, ease and comfort and all
good things, rapture out of tribulation, golden
streets, harps, and wings to flit about a celestial Disney World with nothing to do and
all eternity to do it in. Men do not have to
climb very far heavenward to pluck the fruit from these earth-bound bushes, for the
benefits are all natural, physical, and earthly, not spiritual or heavenly! I
do not err when I say that if all the prayers and faith that are exercised daily for earthly things, blessings of money, cars, homes,
clothes, physical healing, comforts, and luxuries that pamper the flesh were stripped away
from most believers prayers, their prayer lives would be reduced by at least
ninety-eight percent!
The so-called gospel
of popular religion is glamorized as Hollywood stars and popular night club entertainers
intone with their unsanctified voices the sacred hymns given by the Holy Spirit to saints
who walked and talked with God in the secret places of His presence. They give glowing testimonies of what Christ has
done in their lives, yet they go right on with their Hollywood acting, entertaining the
ungodly in the midst of the filth of the devils strongholds. Then, if you would engage them to give their
testimony at your gathering for the glory of God, you must sign a contract with their
agent guaranteeing them many thousands of dollars for their brief appearance. Cursed fruit!
Fruit borne too close to the earth to lift men heavenward!
As
the shallow-minded worldlings applaud the smooth words with which they are entertained,
the hallowed things of the heavenlies are dragged down into the deepest mire of the
earth-realm as fruit to be plucked by unsanctified hands, which contains no power to lift
them out of their carnal minds into THE MIND OF CHRIST.
Corrupted fruit! Corrupted
fruit borne by trees that grow out of the earth! Though they reach up to heaven and flourish with
green leaves and bear fruit which is delectable to the earth men who eat of it, it is
truth mixed with error, the holy with the unholy, the heavenly with the earthly, light
with darkness, until men are unable to
distinguish one from the other, and they do not. All
carnal, man-made church systems, programs, rituals, ceremonies, outreaches, and efforts
are trees that grow out of the earth! You
see, my beloved, there are two kinds of trees in the book of Revelation! In the earth-realm there is a multitude of trees,
but in the heavenly city of God there is but one
tree the tree of Life! This glorious tree does not grow and bear fruit
out of the earth, it grows by the river that flows from the throne of God! This is an incorruptible, immortal, eternal tree
of divine and heavenly life, whereas the trees that grow out of the earth are destined to
be burnt up!
Through the
years we have received a steady stream of letters in the mail telling of this great
program and that great endeavor for God, with their pleas for financial help. With glib tongues and plausible programs by which
the world is going to be won for Christ, well-meaning people are urged to give to further
grandiose programs hatched by kingdom-building preachers who live in wanton luxury upon
earth, which programs are not the plan of God at all, but merely the product of an imaginative, scheming, and avaricious mind. Through long centuries billions of dollars have
been squeezed from Gods precious people, including the poor and the widows, to build
huge temples, cathedrals, and church buildings; to promote innumerable programs and
methods to do this and that for God which, not only did God not ordain, but were in all
truth a stench in His nostrils and an abomination before His face.
When all these
good religious fleshly works are brought into the blazing presence of God who is a
consuming fire they will one and all go up in smoke!
What a bonfire that will be! I
declare to you that the fire of that judgment shall be beheld from the farthest
extremities of the universe so that every creature in heaven and in earth may come to know
once and for all the eternal truth that Except the LORD build the house, they LABOR
IN VAIN that build it! Those of Gods
elect who now read these lines know this quite well, for the fire of God has already been
cast into our earth! Ah, all the trees that grew out of our
earth, all the religious fleshly works that appeared to have life and bear fruit, but
sprang up from our carnal minds and soulical zeal, along with all the hay, wood, and
stubble, have been burned out of our earth by the fire of the Holy Ghost! Oh, how naked, how desolate, how stripped and
utterly vulnerable we felt at first when God set our forest on fire! Yet now, how eternally grateful and thankful we
are for that tall, stately, ever-blossoming and fruitful tree of life
that is springing up out of the river of living water that
flows from the throne of God within our spirit!
In the prophetic
mysteries of the book of Revelation we see a significant distinction between the trees
that are burnt up and the grass which is also burnt up. Trees are tall, strong, and deep-rooted, whereas
grass is small, low, and fragile. This
explains the imagery of transience which haunts the writers of the scriptures. For
they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb
in the
morning they are like grass which grows up. In the morning it flourishes and springs up;
in the evening it is mown down and withers
my heart is smitten like grass and withers
as
for man his days are like grass
for the wind passes over it and it is gone
all
flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth because the
breath of the Lord bloweth upon it.
GRASS represents those surface coverings and masks in
our lives which hide the nature beneath from being seen for what it is. So what is the fire of God poured out upon? The outer covering of our flesh! Isaiah says that all flesh is grass,
and just as men and women try to dress up their bodies with designer clothing, makeup,
perfume, and well groomed hair, so that men do not see us as we really are, so the flesh-nature creates its own
facade of respectability, morality, intellectualism, and religiosity to hide the
corruption that lies beneath it in the heart. This
facade of the flesh has to be dealt with in every son of God! The flesh man must be destroyed! I have seen that man destroyed by the fire of God! They werent killed as people, there is no
grave in any cemetery where you will find their headstone, but those fleshly men were
burnt up, they simply dont exist anymore! Their
fleshly, natural, human identity went up in smoke, and now they know that they are not
Adamic men, but truly a new creation in Christ Jesus!
Its not about this flesh of our body that we walk around in, rather its
about the image of the earthy in our minds in which we think out of a fleshly mentality. Once we see this wonderful truth by the Spirit, we
begin to think and live out of a new
spiritual, supernatural, divine identity! When
the fleshly mindset that governed our view of ourselves and our actions has been burnt up
by the fire of the Spirit, the wonderful work of God has begun to bring forth the life of
the Son of God as our only reality! It is indeed wonderful!
Let
us consider the work of the divine Holy Ghost fire of God.
When fire is mentioned most believers think of hell fire, not
heavenly fire. This fire, however, is cast
out of the heavenly realm, the realm of the spirit, and is cast into our earth
or that earth which we are. Throughout the Bible we find this glorious element
of Godfire. The fire that accompanied the people of
Israel through the wilderness was the holy fire of Yahweh Himself! He descended in the fire of His glory upon mount
Sinai. He was the pillar of fire that led
them, and from His fiery presence He lit the fire of the altar in the tabernacle in the
wilderness. The only light in the most holy
place of the tabernacle was Gods shekinah glory,
brighter than the sun. That holy and divine
fire, which was God Himself, was used to purify and sanctify the holy vessels used in the
service of the Lord, as well as to consume the burnt offerings and sacrifices. It was used to burn the incense in the
tabernacle and the temple the fire was hallowed.
When Nadab and
Abihu offered strange fire (fire that was not
the fire of God) before the Lord, the fire of God leaped out and consumed them (Lev.
10:1-2). Korah, along with 250 others,
offered incense when they raised up against Moses and Aaron, and they were all consumed by
the fire that came out from the Lord (Num. 16:1-35).
Out of this holy flame came the glorious word of the Lord! It was by this holy fire that the people were led
unto their promised land! This was the glory
of the Lord revealed in the midst of His people! Yet
our God is a consuming fire, and all that is not holy and pure is consumed by that fire!
The New
Testament manifestation of God as a consuming fire began on the day of Pentecost when
tongues of fire rested upon the waiting disciples. They
were accepted, approved, transformed, and anointed when Gods spirit-fire baptized
them. They would never be the same again! They were themselves the sacrifice, God sent the
fire and they (their carnal state) were consumed. What
a refining came to the apostles on that glorious day!
How full of self-seeking they had been up to the very last supper! At the last supper they had a dispute as to who
should be the first in the kingdom of heaven, but after Pentecost they no longer thought
of self, but Christ. How weak and cowardly
they had been right up to the crucifixion! They
all forsook Him and fled, and Peter denied Him, at the accusation of a servant maid, with
oaths and curses. But after the day of
Pentecost, that same Peter that cursed and swore and denied Christ, faced the very council
that condemned Him, and said, If we this day be examined of the good deed done to
the impotent man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all, and to all the
people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God
raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole (Acts
4:9-10). What a cleansing the baptism of fire
does in a moment! The tongues of fire
in Acts 2:3 were not seen by the multitudes. Such
a strange phenomenon would have been recorded. It
was the vocal tongues that amazed them and not the tongues of fire. Apparently, they were not seen, they were felt. John the Baptist said Jesus would baptize with the
Holy Spirit and with fire. The
obvious change in the disciples lives after Pentecost proves Johns prophecy. Peters change of nature is outstanding. He met the glory of God and tasted the fire of
God! A coward became a conqueror! Keep in mind, beloved, the fire of Pentecost is
merely the firstfruits of the Spirit! It
is but the firstfruits of the holy fire of God! That
fire produced holy men who became apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. That fire has not, however, produced any manifest sons
of God! There is a greater dimension
of the fire of God revealed throughout the seven trumpets of the Revelation, and this
fullness of the fire of God, when its work is complete in the called and chosen elect of
God, will produce A MANCHILD UPON THE THRONE AND 144,000 SONS OF GOD UPON MOUNT ZION! Oh, the wonder of it!
Jesus was
baptized with the baptism of fire (Lk. 12:50) that nailed Him to a cross, buried Him in a
tomb, raised Him from death into immortality and glory, and caught Him up to the throne of
His Father. That is the fire that leads to sonship! Having
passed through that fire He now reigns in heaven; He reigns on earth; and He will
establish His Fathers kingdom over every heart, and every spot of ground. Because He lives, we shall live also! We have received the spirit of adoption or placement as sons,
and the same holy fire that made Jesus the firstborn Son of God is now
working in our lives to purify and perfect us
and make us the sons of God with power. Let
us live it, so that we can then carry the fire that will consume every unclean desire in
every heart, in every home, in every city, in every nation, until the earth is purged with
the purifying power, and Christ our King has come to reign; until the time when every foe
is vanquished, and He delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father. The apostle Peter wrote of the time when the whole
earth, indeed the whole cosmos, would be judged and purified by the fire which is God, and
which in union with Him we also shall be!
Isaiah prophesied of the
establishing of the new order in these words, For
behold I create new heavens and a new earth, and the
former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind (Isa. 65:17). What a wonderful thing that God will so thoroughly
cleanse our own little world and the whole vast order of things, that even our minds, and
the minds of all mankind, will be purged from even the remembrance of it!
Wonder of wonders, to be able to forget that sin, sorrow, limitation, and
death ever existed! The Lord will make such a
good job of His work through His son company that the past will be completely obliterated
and never thought of anymore. And He is
doing it first in us, His firstfruits! Isnt
it wonderful!
In
the natural world using fire was an important step in the process of civilization. The ancients learned to make bronze with fire, and
later iron. Today we make high-grade steel in
huge blast furnaces. If properly controlled,
fire purifies the elements it touches. Different
heat levels are needed to purify certain elements. If
theres not enough heat, the element remains impure, but if theres too much,
the element is consumed. We, too, are like
the elements that need to be refined! What
are the impurities in you that need to be burned off pride, lust, anger,
intolerance, impatience, greed, foolishness, fear, doubt, negativity, hatred,
unforgiveness, self-seeking, desire to control and dominate? How much heat will it take to purify you a
red flame, a blue, a white? Would you be able
to take the heat, or would you be burned up?
Malachi doubted that any of us could withstand the heat of Gods fiery
presence and power! Who shall stand when He appears? For He shall be like a refiners fire
(Malachi
3:2). What fires are ignited in our souls as
the Lord comes to His temple and sits in His temple as a refiners fire! The natural man cant stand! Thank God, the outer man of flesh is not pure
enough to handle the all-consuming fiery presence of God!
Our purification means the annihilation of our carnal, human consciousness! No matter how good we think our human life is,
getting close to a holy fireball will consume us. That is good news!
Adam is being consumed! Every
impurity of our old natural, human identity is being burnt out of us, going up in smoke! God is burning up one realm, cutting off a realm
from us, so that we cannot live there any longer. THAT
IS WHAT THE FIRST TRUMPET PROCLAIMS!
OUR GOD IS A
CONSUMING FIRE! I understand not why fire has
been represented to us as something so terrible, so frightening, so hideous that we should
try to avoid it. If our approach back to God
is through fire, as revealed by the flaming sword placed at Edens gate, why do we
always try to get out of the fire? Why do we
evade the fire? Why expend such energy and
effort to try and pray ourselves out of the fire? Fire,
in the scriptures, symbolizes two things judgment and cleansing. But God is not schizophrenic in His nature
one side of His character disposed to forgive, heal, save, redeem, deliver, and restore,
while another part of His nature is bent on vengeful destruction and sadistic torture of
His enemies. His action in fire, like His
action in grace, is pure, harmonious, and balanced, directed towards the purging that will
lead to restoration and perfection. His fire
cleanses the believer that He may qualify for Gods highest! His action of fire towards the unbeliever is to
the same end, conditioning and preparing that one for good results, when, having been
broken and purged from pride and rebellion, he bows low before the Saviour, humbly and
penitently receiving the gracious gift of life. The
fire does not save him, but it removes the hindrance that separates him from the kind
mercy of the Lord. Yet the preachers rant and
rave, threatening unbelievers and dangling sinners over the flames of hell fire, when in
fact, if they are truly incorrigible, that would be the best thing that could happen to
them!
To be continued
J. PRESTON EBY
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