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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 111
THE SOUNDING OF THE
TRUMPETS
(continued)
And the fifth angel sounded, and I
saw a star having fallen from heaven unto the earth: and to him
was given the key to the bottomless pit (Rev.
9:1).
Fear not; I am the first and the
last, and the living One; I was even dead, but behold, I am living for the ages of the
ages: and I have the keys of death and hades (Rev. 1:17-18, Diaglott).
To John on the isle of Patmos there came
One who announced Himself as the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. At
His girdle hung the keys of
hell and of death. This One was our Lord Jesus Christ! When
Jesus came into the world in the humiliation of the Incarnation, He started on a route of
conquest that took Him through the lonely years prior to His introduction at the muddy
waters of Jordan, when the bony prophetic finger
of John the Baptist was pointed at Him and those significant words were uttered, Behold,
the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world! (Jn. 1:29). These
words were followed by the testimony of His Father in heaven as the voice spoke
proclaiming, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Mat. 3:17) For
some thirty-three and a half years He overcame and lived an impeccable life so that it was
said of Him, He was tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin (Heb.
4:15).
Jesus flawless and fruitful life
was followed by a decisive death. He went to Calvary to endure
inexplicable and incomparable suffering: suffering of which we can only have a hint;
suffering we can only look at curiously with a sob in our throats; suffering veiled in the
mystery of the bearing of sin; suffering surrounded by torn rocks and a sun that refused
to shine and an earth that writhed in agony. As
He hung there alone, God reached down His giant fist and gathered the accumulated sins,
weaknesses, sorrows, and death of mankind and placed them upon Him. In
the awful agony of Calvary, Christ made His soul an offering for sin! The
sin of the world was imputed unto Him. When He had become an offering for sin,
He gave up the ghost and came down from the mystery of His sufferings, having finished
that work. What men saw was a man hanging limp
every bone out of joint, a swollen tongue protruding from burning lips that cried,
It is finished!
For centuries now Christians have
supposed that when Jesus cried out, It is finished, that meant that His work
of redemption was completed. Many refer to this as the finished
work of Calvary. But there is too much stopping at the
cross! If we stop at the cross we end with a
dead Christ, and a dead Christ can save no one! Paul wrote, If Christ be not raised, your
faith is vain; ye are yet
in your sins (I Cor. 15:17). We
must get out thoughts broadened about the redemptive work of Christ. Yes,
He died for our sins, but never forget He was also raised
again for our justification! There is no finished work at
the cross! There is not even a "finished work
at the resurrection! The redemptive work of Christ was not
finished until He had ascended up on High bearing the precious blood of His atonement
into the Holiest Place of the heavenlies, as it is written, Neither by the blood of
goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered
in once to the Holiest Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For
Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true; but into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us (Heb. 9:12,24). When
the Christ cried, It is finished, it was the cup of suffering the
excruciating agony of the cross that was finished, not the work of redemption! When
He died He then entered the darkest night of death, and was ushered through the somber
gates and behind the fearful bars of Hades, the unseen, imperceptible realm of the dead. Thou
wilt not leave my soul in Hades (Acts 2:31). The
message is clear the Christ not only died, He went to hell! It
was imperative that Christ experience all that man experiences in the dread domain of sin
and death, in order to take captivity captive and release mankind from the totality of the
kingdom of darkness.
Then Hell itself in fear began to quake,
And, in alarm, thus to the devil spake,
Jesus! Dost
thou not fear that mighty Name?
And is this Jesus Nazarene
the same
Who once cried, Lazarus! Come
forth! and swift
The bands of death were loosed, his
fetters rift,
And through thy gates impassable he
broke,
So soon as that almighty word was spoke?
Let but that Jesus once invade these
halls,
And in that hour thy boasted empire
falls!
What if the victim thou dost proudly
claim
Shall as the Victor bring thy pride to
shame?
And then He arose the conquering Christ! What
a marvelous turn of events! He took control of the situation as with
one exultant shout He grasped the keys of death and hell from him who had the power of
death, that is, the devil, stripped away the power of death, burst asunder the bars of
hell, stalked boldly out in eternal triumph over all the dread powers of that unseen
realm, entered back into His body in the garden tomb, passed through the walls of rock as
water passes through a filter, ascended up far above all heavens, stepped up to the Fathers
throne, and presented the tokens of His redemption. The
Father said, Sit down, Son, at my right hand until your enemies are made your
footstool!
Jesus has the keys; He proved that He
has the keys of both death and hell; for He unlocked both and arose Victor. Death
could not hold its prey! Hell could not hold its prey! Oh
Christ! Thou Son of the living God! Thou
art the resurrection and the life; Thou wast dead; and, behold, Thou art alive forevermore
and in Thy nail-pierced hand dost hold in triumph the keys of hell and death. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh
grave, where is thy victory? Oh gates of hell, thou shalt not
prevail, for the Redeemer of Israel and the Saviour of the world holds in His triumphant
hand thy key!
Who now has the key of death? OUR
LORD JESUS CHRIST! Who now has the key to hell? OUR
LORD JESUS CHRIST! He also holds the key to the whole dread
realm of sin and sorrow that leads to death and hell! He
holds the key to everything, for He has been given all power in
heaven and in earth! His redemption and His mighty power
reach to the lowest depths of the bottomless, within and without. He
alone is the One who opens and no man can shut, who shuts and no man can open (Rev. 3:7). No
one can open or shut any realm apart from our Lord Jesus the Christ! No
one passes through the gates of either death or hell, or any other height or depth, except
the Lord open or close those gates. Oh, the wonder of it!
Some suppose that it is the devil who is
given the key to the bottomless pit. But now that Christ has the keys of
death and hell it is not to be imagined that He is about to surrender or concede into the
hands of Satan, or any of his emissaries, whether man or spirit, any portion of His own
authority. We must not confuse the bottomless
pit with Hades, nor should we think of a literal opening of a literal pit, and an
eruption of the spirits of demons upon the earth. Fancies
like these easily gain ascendancy over the minds of those people who only think carnally. The
truth is so much more glorious! The star who has come down
from heaven is Christ our Lord! We
are helped to identify Him, for the key of the pit of the abyss is given to
Him, and He unlocked this place. Also, He is the angel of the
abyss, and He is king over the terrible swarm of locusts that fly out of
the smoke from the abyss. The devil is not king over anything! Christ
has overcome him, conquered him, stripped him, spoiled him, and destroyed him! Arent
you glad!
When John relates his vision of the
key to the abyss being given to the One called a star many people
imagine that the prophet is speaking of a literal metal device hanging on a key ring like
one uses today to unlock a door. In vision John may have seen such a key,
but the key spiritually symbolizes something infinitely greater! Yes,
a key does open or close something, but it can also be a word that releases some power
that has been restricted, or binds some influence that has gone unrestrained; it can also
be a word that opens a hidden mystery or a means by which something unknown is discovered. A
key can also be the answer or solution to a problem, quandary, plight, or dilemma! A
key also bespeaks of authority and power. In the natural, when one is given the
key to his new car, he then has the authority to start it up and drive it away. Jesus
said, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth! And
spiritually He has been given the key to the bottomless pit or abyss which lies in the heart of man!
Thank God, our Lord Jesus Christ has the
key, the solution to every dark realm of bondage, sin, sorrow, pain, death, and hell that
any man can know without or within. He has all the problems connected with
mans deliverance and transformation unraveled and solved! When
on earth He worked out the problem for Himself, overcame in it, and now stands to proclaim
to all men everywhere the GREAT EMANCIPATION. Through His sinless life of perfect
obedience to the Father, and through His death and resurrection, Christ took away from the
adversary every power of sin, death, and from hell its power of containment; no longer can
negation claim the final victory over any man CHRIST HAS THE KEY, and shall
ultimately bring every man into the fullness of His Life. Christ
has the power to
deal with every issue in every man, and in every realm, and He holds the keys to
everything every where!
And the fifth angel sounded, and I
saw a star that had fallen from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key to the
bottomless pit. And he opened
the bottomless pit
(Rev.
9:1-2)
Throughout the book of Revelation
various things are opened. A
door is opened in heaven, heaven itself is opened, the seven seals are opened, the ark of
the covenant is opened, the temple of God is opened, the book of life is opened, the books
of mans soulical life are opened, and the bottomless pit is opened. The
purpose of each of these openings is that there may be a revelation! Each, spiritually, is an opening up, an
uncovering, a disclosure, a revelation of a realm of consciousness, experience, and of a
state of being! With the key to the bottomless pit the
Lord opens the pit and brings forth a revelation of what is in the pit. We
have all had God open up our life and reveal
things out of the imaginations of our heart that even we never dreamed were there! A
messenger, a word, a dealing of God came and revealed ourselves to ourselves, making
manifest things that lurked in the darkness of our human heart. Often,
when we see what comes up out of the pit we are horrified we thought those things
were dealt with, crushed, and crucified long ago! We
didnt think we were like that anymore! Yet suddenly there it is in all its
hideous deceitfulness and wickedness and we are shocked! This
is especially true when it is the abyss that is opened! The
abyss bespeaks of the very lowest realm, the heart of the natural man; and it is there that the root of all deceitfulness and wickedness lies. We
may have cut off the branches of the tree, or even chopped down the tree, but until we go
deep enough to lay the ax to the root of the tree, it will continue to spring up after we
think we have eradicated it!
I have found that there is a tendency in
each of us to try and place the carnal mind and human heart under law to make them submit. Any
man who tries to discipline and control the flesh by laws, commandments, rules, or
regulations, whether imposed from without or within, has not yet learned the important
truth that the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Rom. 8:7). It
is impossible to subdue the carnal mind, the flesh nature, or the heart
of man! You cannot make the natural man submit. He
may appear for a season to submit, but as long as there is any root buried beneath the
surface, he will rise again. Those beastly impulses and desires on
the inside cannot be harnessed and made obedient. They
cannot be changed or transformed no matter what you do! You
can restrain the man of sin by a law, or by sheer will power, and it will appear that you
are doing quite well; but deep within, lower than your eye can see or your instincts can
discern, the evil is still boiling, churning, bubbling, smoldering, and like a volcano,
building up to erupt again in the moment when you least expect it. That
is the law of human life! That is what it is, it has always been
what it is, and it always will be what it is. That which is born of the flesh, is
flesh. But the flesh is not the real you! The
real you is spirit
not soul, not body, not carnal mind, not flesh, not the old Adamic heart. The
real you is the offspring of God, the real you is a new creation, the real you is the
Christ life that is the real you, and indeed, if we can comprehend the deep mystery
of it, it is the only you!
When the pit is opened and those ugly
things of soulical deceit and fleshly wickedness begin to come out we are horrified and
ashamed and run to hide as Adam did in the garden. But
this is Gods purpose these things need to
come out, be exposed for what they are, until the indwelling Christ can deal with them! What
comes out of our pit does not define who we are, and we want to get rid of it. We
must be very honest about the difficult places in our lives! We
see things in us that we think are so awful, whether wicked or religious, and surely God
cant have anything to do with us, we can never be worthy of His love or to attain to
His great purpose and high calling in Christ Jesus. So
we start looking for a king to govern us, for an authority to come into our lives and deal
with those horrible things in our pit. We look for a law, a method, a
technique, a man, a group of brethren, an order, a covering, an apostle, some external
power that can help us control the monsters in our pit!
The procedure whereby the Lord brings
His judgment into our lives is simple, but very effective. When
He sets His hand to deliver us from any negative realm of our lives, He opens
that realm, bringing it into manifestation so that He can show it to us and begin His
dealing in our life. God arranges the circumstances, places
His child in a situation or circumstance where that which lies buried deep within the
unconscious or in the depths of nature is brought to the surface the inner
condition uncovered, the secrets and intents of the heart made manifest. As
it is written, God shall bring every work into
judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil (Eccl.
12:14). Notice what these works are
good and evil! These
works are from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! The
good bespeaks of that which is moral, sophisticated, and religious! The
evil speaks of that which is perverse and corrupt! But
God will judge our good just as He will judge our evil. Neither
is acceptable to Him, neither is of Him, and neither is fruit from the
tree of HIS LIFE! Good religious works are just as far
from Life as are adultery and murder!
God shall judge the secrets
of men by Jesus Christ (Rom.
2:16). Let no one who reads these lines think
that this will happen some fearful day out in the future before a great white throne out
in space somewhere! Oh, no! These
are spiritual realities, my beloved. They
point to the dealings of God in judgment right now, today, in the life of every son of God
who shall be conformed into the image of Gods Son, brought unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ! Ah,
you will fear and shrink before Gods judgments until you clearly understand that God
does not open your abyss to either embarrass or destroy you but to deliver
you! God brings no man to judgment apart from
the exposing of his heart. That is the true spiritual
message conveyed by these beautiful symbols in the book of Revelation! It
is a divine law God can never deliver you, or any man, until the deceitfulness and
wickedness in your heart has been drawn into outward manifestation, exposed to be dealt
with by Gods stern and tender hand. When the inner nature, whether a
religious spirit or some secret sin, erupts in some outward uncleanness, do not despair! Thank God for exposing the
deceitfulness and wickedness, cast yourself upon the tender mercies of the Lord who judges
you with unconditional love and infinite goodness, and yield yourself under His mighty
hand that He may bring forth victory in your earth. We
must never be discouraged nor feel condemned when God reveals the
man of sin who sits in the temple of God which we are, but neither should we become
complacent about it! God will send forth judgment unto
victory however long it takes and however severe the dealings. He
will never abdicate His throne, He will never terminate His judgments until every
man is presented perfect in Christ
Jesus! It is indeed wonderful!
Ray Prinzing expressed the truth in
these words: Because God would try us and purge us, He must needs at times arrange for more of
our FALL. However, Rejoice not against me, O
mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light
unto me (Micah 7:8), and in His time there is a coming forth out of the delusion,
the error, the fall, what ever form it took. Praise
God, He shall bring us to that place where there is nothing within us that responds to any
allurement of this worlds system in any way. How
we long to come to that place in God where we can truly say with Jesus Christ, The
prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me (Jn. 14:30). That
there will be nothing within us which gives the adversary a toe-hold that he can activate,
use to beguile us, tempt us, and cause us to stumble. So
while we weep to see one we love slip into some delusion or cultic doctrine, or some
uncleanness, etc. we can stand by in prayer and belief, to know that
after God has tried and purged them they shall come forth as gold
to be found to His praise end quote. Bless
His wonderful name!
And he opened
the bottomless pit; and there arose
a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke
of a great furnace; and the sunand the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit (Rev.
9:2).
Now, let us reveal to you a great
mystery; the mystery is that in its spiritual meaning air signifies the realm
of SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING. It can also denote the SPIRITUAL
ATMOSPHERE the spiritual environment, tone, tenor, mood, feeling, aura, or spirit
both within and without. With these two principles in mind, let
us look at a statement of the apostle Pauls wherein he says, We
shall be
caught up together with them
to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord (I Thes.
4:17).
Several years ago, while meditating upon
this precious passage of scripture, the Spirit unfolded within my consciousness the
significant truth that our catching up into the air can never be properly
understood apart from the apostles inspired words to the Ephesians, And you
hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience
(Eph. 2:1-2). There are several key words and terms
that unlock the storehouse of truth contained in these verses. Consider
PRINCE, POWER, AIR, SPIRIT, WORKETH, and IN. According
to these plain statements of scripture there exists a power of the air. Furthermore,
the power of the air is a spirit, and this spirit is located
in the sons of disobedience, wherein he works. Can we not see by this that the prince
of the power of the air is not something or someone outside of us, but a
spirit-power that operates right here WITHIN MAN! Then,
too, this spirit-power that works within man also emanates from man, exerting an influence
throughout the atmosphere of our lives, both individually and collectively, giving
motivation to the myriad activities and events that transpire in the world. Because
of its influence out from us and around us, it is called the power of the AIR.
Dr.
Charles Price wrote a little book entitled Made Alive in
which he shares this instructive information: Every atom of matter every
piece of mineral indeed everything which is the result of Gods creative
intelligence is surrounded by an aura or an emanation which is identical with
and corresponds to the nature of
the substance from which it comes. There is a sense in which personalities
are possessed with this emanation and extension of themselves into
their surroundings. It is a radiation which can be felt when
someone walks into a room in which you may be seated. Our
personality becomes affected by their personality. They
have power to elevate or depress end quote.
I would like you to really get a grasp
of this thought! We all know
people who by their very presence can lift us up, and impart a sense of well-being, who
can lift our spirits up to heights of peace, joy, confidence, and victory. Others
can leave you feeling depressed just by spending a few minutes in their presence! The
thought I want you to get is the fact that every atom of created material, in especially
every living thing, has this aura surrounding them, which is a radiation of their mind,
emotions, personality, and nature into their surroundings. It
is an extension of themselves into their environment! This
aura or emanation corresponds to our nature, and is our nature and feelings radiating from us into
our surroundings, and it affects everything around us. These
emanations have power just as within ourselves we have power. It
is a radiation that flows from our souls and spirits, and the stronger our souls or
spirits are the greater the radiation. If you find it difficult to believe the
very atmosphere or air waves are charged by the emanations of energy, positive or
negative, then go directly from a worship service where the atmosphere is
charged with the presence of God, and enter a night club where people are drinking,
cursing, lusting, laughing, and singing, and the difference you feel in a very real way is
the difference between the emanation of the positive and negative life force. And
this power which works in man, and flows out in the atmosphere from man, is the power of
the air!
Grasp it! A
hundred and fifty years ago we could not have understood as we do now how communication by
sound and picture can be broadcast instantaneously through the
air. Wherever
you are as you read these words, there are voices, pictures, and music in the air around you. You
cannot see them or hear them, but a radio or television set tuned to the right wavelength
will make them audible to you. You may not have realized it, but both
the soul and the spirit in every man are both a receiver and a transmitter. You may be tuned in on the wavelength
of the Holy Spirit or you may tune in on the wavelength of Satan, the spirit that now
worketh in the sons of disobedience. You dont hear anything with your
natural ears because soul and spirit do not broadcast in words or sounds. Soul and spirit broadcast in thoughts
and attitudes, and the life force of the natural man broadcasts in thoughts and attitudes
of self-will, pride, lust, vanity, arrogance, greed, jealousy, anger, envy, fear,
competition, selfishness, intellectualism, strife, hatred, violence, religiosity, debate,
bitterness, and a host of other things. Here is the real cause of all the worlds
evils! The people hear no audible voice, they
do not see a visible Satan, and they comprehend not from whence come such attitudes,
impulses, and desires!
Let us explore this thought of the spirit that works in man, which
is also the power of the air. We
must understand that the life force of every man (soul and spirit) is energy. This
means that you as a person, a personality, are ENERGY! Many
people confuse soulical energy with spiritual energy. This
is particularly true in the Metaphysical and New Age movements. There
are emanations of energy they have learned to channel which they suppose are spiritual when in fact they are soulical. These
have not learned the difference between soul and spirit! Until
our spirit has been joined to Gods Spirit (I Cor. 6:17) man is incapable of
emanating divine spirit energy. Just
as fire ignites the coal, causing it to release its heat energy, so the Holy Spirit, as
divine fire, ignites the spirit of man causing it to release divine energy. This
truth reveals the great importance of the words of John the Baptist concerning Jesus,
HE shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire (Mat.
3:11). I have been in the presence of those
who operate out of soulical energy, not having been quickened by the Holy Ghost, and
it is easy for one who walks in the Spirit of God to discern that there is no spiritual life in their ministrations!
Energy
has many forms, but it is not something that you can see or hold in your hand. You
can think of energy as something that can make things change. For
example, a moving object has energy because it can change things by crashing into them. Heat
is another form of energy. You could fill your house with coal or
fuel oil and it would never heat your house; but cause the coal or oil to release
(emanate) the energy within it and the
temperature will rise! Heat energy can melt ice, changing it to
water, and heat it more, changing it to vapor. It can run the engine of an automobile,
jet plane, or rocket. There is another kind of energy, called
chemical energy. This is in the food that nourishes your
body and keeps you active. There is atomic energy which can be set
free from the atoms of some materials. And then there is the energy carried by
light waves, called electromagnetic energy. It is the electromagnetic energy in
the sunlight that warms the earth. Light waves, streaming out of the sun,
carry energy to us across nearly a hundred million miles of space. When the energy of the light hits the
earth, part of it changes to heat. Just as the light waves emanate from the
sun and bring energy to the earth to change things, so the soulical and spiritual energy
of man flow out from our lives to affect and change things about us! That
is the mystery.
Another kind of energy which we, the
people of God, are aware of is SPIRIT ENERGY! The principles stated above show us that
God, as a holy spirit being, possessing holy spirit characteristics, exerts
holy spirit influences. The
influences of God are no less God than is the personality of God. God
Himself is supreme energy able to influence and change all things! But
the characteristics, attributes, virtues, power, nature, and mind of God are likewise
energy, spirit energy. The Bible declares that God is LOVE. It
doesnt say that God has love,
but God IS LOVE! That is His nature. Did
you know that love is energy? You wont have to think about that
very long to realize that it is true. Love is a powerful force that can
influence and change
things! Love is invisible, like the wind, but it
is powerful! And love can be transmitted, invisibly,
from person to person, even as light rays are transmitted from the sun to the earth. The
qualities of love can be received by those around us even as the life-giving qualities of
the sun are utilized by every living thing on earth. Righteousness,
peace, and joy are likewise emanations of the life force of God by the Spirit!
On the other hand, Satan is also spirit
and possesses an un-holy spirit mind, disposition, nature, will, etc., and exercises an
un-holy spirit influence through various channels and agencies. Therefore,
Satan is also energy mis-directed energy, negative
energy, deceiving energy, destructive energy. I cannot over-emphasize the significance
of this! Each characteristic of either God or
Satan is a FORM OF SPIRIT ENERGY! This energy can be transmitted to our
conscious mind, from either the regenerated spirit or the old human heart, to produce its
power within us, just as electricity is transmitted from a battery to an engine to make it
function in a certain way. When the spirit of holiness
is transmitted to us we begin to function in our personality in the expression of Gods
holiness, thus becoming holy. When the spirit of truth is
transmitted to us we cease our own natural reasonings and the deceptive teachings of our
carnal heart and commence to act in accordance with the higher knowledge and wisdom of
God. Oh,
the mystery of it!
Never forget, my beloved, that all the
attributes and characteristics of the Holy Spirit and the Un-Holy Spirit ARE SPIRIT, and
therefore energy
power! As we walk in either of these realms of
spirit-power there is ALWAYS A TRANSMISSION OF ENERGY! None
of us is an island to ourself, the emanations that flow out from our life affect the world
around us and change things, consciously or unconsciously, visibly or invisibly, for the
better or for the worse. There is constantly in this world a
definite transference of spirit energy from person to person, from group to group, from
religion to religion, from nation to nation, positive or negative as the case may be. The
rise and success of false religions, communism, sexual immorality, rock music, drugs,
humanism, and evils of every kind that are flooding our
societies today, are the direct result of negative satanic spirit influences transmitted
to the masses through faithful ministers of unrighteousness who have become filled with
the UN-HOLY SPIRIT, and consequently transmitters of the same, producing a SURCHARGED ATMOSPHERE! This,
my beloved, is the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the sons of disobedience! Satan
has a large elemental power. He is named the prince of
the power of the air, meaning he is the INVISIBLE RULER, which activity and authority he
exercises IN AND
THROUGH MAN! Truly, he is the spirit that worketh inthe sons of disobedience.
The word for air in the
Greek language is aer meaning
to breathe. The power of the air is thus
the ENERGY OF BREATHING! Thoughts from the unconscious realm breathed out expressed in words in the conscious
realm and lived out as deeds in the physical realm go forth as energy, power,
soulical and spiritual influences in the very atmosphere of the earth. These
are not merely thoughts
or merely words,
for the soul and spirit of man are tapped into the timeless sphere of eternity wherein is
that which is called by the scriptures the powers of the heavens. This
is the realm of pure
energy, and the unconscious mind
of man is tapped into this vast supply of energy, either positive or negative, and not
only tapped in, but when the mouth is opened, or the body acts, the energy is brought
forth through the conscious realm and released into the atmosphere of mans physical
world, carrying a very real power capable of either blessing or cursing mankind!
The
great mystery and the great truth that the Holy Spirit would now reveal to all who have
ears to hear is that there is a catching up in the air to meet Christ in
the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. The
natural-minded Christian is looking to be suddenly snatched up into the air, away from the
earth, to inhabit mansions on golden streets somewhere in the blue beyond. The
spiritual-minded elect of the Lord, however, look to be LAID HOLD UPON BY A HIGHER POWER
and lifted into a realm in the Spirit from whence they can do something for this world! These
are looking to become the power of
the air as God moves to bring down
the dark powers of the heavens that have ruled over this planet. It
means that when Satan is bound in man and thus removed from his sphere of operation in
the air, THAT POSITION IS NOT GOING TO GO UNFULFILLED! ANOTHER
POWER MUST BE RAISED UP INTO THAT VACATED REALM OF DOMINION TO BECOME THE ENERGY FORCE
THAT INFLUENCES THE INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD, giving direction and motivation to every
activity and event wrought upon earth. That, my beloved, is what it means to
the caught
up into the air! When the manifest sons of God flood the
atmosphere with the vibrations and powers of redemption, righteousness, peace, love, joy,
power, life, and glory, what changes shall be wrought in the earth! What
deliverance and transformation will flow forth to the peoples of the nations! Oh,
the wonder of it!
The glory of God is the emanation or
radiation of His nature, and this glory surrounds Him wherever He manifests Himself. As
we become partakers of the divine nature, we also radiate the glory of His nature. This
is the real purpose of our calling, and the meaning of being caught up into the air! Recognize,
O saint of God, the radiant glory that is even now vibrating from your being, and seek His
presence, that the glory and power might be greatly increased and intensified for the sake
of His body as well as a lost world. You
can change the atmosphere about you, regardless of how dark or hopeless it may appear. You
can radiate His power and glory, like a blazing light where darkness covers the earth and
gross darkness the people. Arise and shine! Your
light has come! The glory of the Lord is risen upon you,
and His glory shall be seen upon thee!
As we militate upon these things we
begin to comprehend the great truth, the great mystery that the spirit of revelation is
now unveiling to us, the mystery that the air in its spiritual sense signifies first
of all the understanding
especially our spiritual
understanding. You see, my beloved, we can only fill
the world with the glory of God as first we have put on the MIND OF CHRIST. It
is His mind in
man that changes everything! Understanding is an ability and faculty
of the mind. Without mind there can be no
understanding. A mans understanding corresponds
precisely to the condition, development, and quality of his mind. Every
created life form possesses mind and the understanding of the creature is limited by the
quality of its mind. For instance, a cat thinks like a cat
simply because it has a cat mind. We used to have a cat in our home. This
cat would come and sit in the room while I watched the evening news on the television. While
I was very interested in the news, the cat had positively no interest at all! He
couldnt care less! It is not that he didnt see the
pictures flashing across the screen, or hear the words coming out of the speaker. He
both saw and heard, alright, but he didnt understand them so he just curled
up on the carpet and went to sleep! It is simply impossible for cats to
understand things human. Humans are of a different and higher
order than are cats. Cats may see men, observe their
movements, yet there is no common ground of knowledge. The
cat has no comprehension of what it sees. It discerns only things pertaining to
its own realm. If you want to get the cats
attention, turn a mouse loose in the house! Then the cat will get interested! Cat
minds function on the level of cat nature, while human minds function on the level of
human nature.
Likewise, God is of a different and
higher order of life and nature than are humans. The
mind of the natural man functions on the level of human nature, whereas the mind of God
functions on the level of divine nature. There is no common ground of knowledge
or understanding between the two! Therefore, the natural man is completely
incapable of comprehending that which pertains to the realm of God. For
natural minds to comprehend things spiritual is equally as impossible as for cats to
comprehend things human! Yet deep within every man there
is a secret sanctum where dwells the mysterious essence of his true being. Though
the natural man does not function of that level, it is there, just as the beautiful
butterfly that will one day fly through the atmosphere lies deep within the being of the
earth-bound caterpillar. This inmost reality is that part of man
which separates him from every other living creature and makes him uniquely mankind!
This deep-in human entity of which I
speak is called in the scriptures the spirit of man. For
what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which
is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, save the Spirit
of God (I Cor. 2:11). As
Gods self-knowledge lies in the eternal Spirit, so mans self-knowledge is by
his own spirit, and his knowledge of God is by the direct union of the Spirit of God with
the spirit of man. I cannot overstress the importance of
this in our forward walk into our destiny as sons of God! This
truth denies that man is an earthly, physical being having a spirit and declares, rather,
that he is a spirit having a physical body. That
which makes man truly man is
not his body but his spirit, in which the image of God originally lay.
Wonderful words were spoken at the very
dawn of civilization, recorded in the oldest book of the Bible, which state simply and
powerfully the reality of man. There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding
(Job 32:8). It is something great in man, Elihu
conceives, that he is spirit, and,
because he is, is capable of being inspired. He
is not here speaking of Adam as he was in the primordial glory of Eden, nor yet of
regenerated man in this wonderful age of the Holy Spirit; but, speaking thousands of years
ago in the present tense, he magnifies man as being able to be inspired, just because he is
spirit. And it is God, who likewise is spirit,
that inspires him! Can we not see by this that the very
being of man has a God-ward side, being related constitutionally to Him. The
testimony of scripture is incontrovertible that there is a spirit in man, and that we are, as being spirit, permeable and inspirable by
the Almighty!
This reveals mans capacity for
God; to experientially know the presence of God, to let in the divine nature, to entertain
the eternal Spirit witnessing with his spirit, to be energized by Him and filled with His
glory, in every faculty, feeling, and power, being a vessel and channel for the life of
God, to think His thoughts and do His works. Thus, the Spirit beareth
witness with our spirit that
we are the children (offspring) of God! (Rom. 8:16). And because
ye are sons, God hath sent forth the
Spirit of His Son into your hearts (spirit), crying, Abba, Father! (Gal. 4:6). There
is a spirit in
man, and the inbreathing of
the Almighty giveth them understanding. Only because man is
spirit is all this possible!
We will never, in this age, be fully
able to comprehend the boundless power of the mind of man. It
appears to be true that practically everything of good and evil in the world comes forth
from the mind. Even the natural mind, though it
understands not the things of the Spirit of God, is capable of astonishing wonders. All
the marvelous inventions of the world have proceeded from the mind of man, yet the natural
mind receives not any
of the things of God! As heaven is higher than the earth, so
are Gods ways higher than mans and Gods thoughts higher than mans. The
man who receives of Gods life is renewed in the spirit of
his mind, that is, he takes on a
new mind originating in a new Spirit Life, so that he thinks and acts as an entirely new
creation, a new man, a new creature. The
mind which is produced in the new creation is the mind of Christ, for, Paul says, Who
hath known the mind of the Lord? But we have the
mind of Christ (I Cor.
2:15). What is the mind of Christ? Christ
came as a man whose human mind was brought into union with the mind of His Father. It
is the mind of the Father expressed in and through and as our mind! It
is the mind of sonship! Again the apostle exhorts, That
ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to
deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:22-24).
The child of God who follows on to know
the Lord will find that his darkened mind will completely give way to this new creation
mind which is the mind of
Jesus Christ. Paul wrote, Let this mind be in
you which was also in Christ Jesus. The mind that was in Jesus was the
Fathers mind! Because He was fully possessed of His
Fathers mind, He was able to say, I and the Father are one. The
mind that was in Christ Jesus is freely offered to every man who believes into His name
that he might be one with
Christand one with
the Father, sons of God in the
true and perfect sense of the word. Let us never forget that in those
glorious ages to come it will be the mind of our heavenly Father that will rule the
universe! The Father has decreed that He will rule
the universe by that man (the corporate Christ) whom He has chosen, and those sons, every
one, will be possessed of the Fathers divine mind. God
the Father has given His mind to His firstborn Son, Jesus Christ, and He in turn has given
that same mind to us, His younger brethren. As the hands and feet of a healthy body
act in harmony with, and obedience to, the head, so every member among the sons of God,
the corporate Christ, acts in harmony with, and obedience to, their glorious Head, even
Jesus, because one mind dwells in us all! Isnt it wonderful!
All understanding is in the mind,
therefore, the Understanding of God is in the mind of Christ, which is the mind of the
Spirit, which is also the mind of the new creation man. We
do not understand the spiritual realities of God with our natural minds! It
is not the same mind that understands how to drive your car that understands the deep and
eternal mysteries of the Spirit. Oh, no! It
is the new mind, the mind of Christ within, that understands things spiritual. When
Jesus received the seven spirits of God He received the Spirit of Understanding! (Isa.
11:1-2). This was not the same understanding of
the same mind by which he built furniture in Josephs carpenter shop! This
Spirit of Understanding is one aspect of the fullness of the mind of God
to understand as God Understands!
Wisdom is the principle thing,
said the wise man; therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding (Prov. 4:7). The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge
of the holy is understanding (Prov.
9:10). It is sport to a fool to do
mischief, but a man of understanding hath wisdom (Prov. 10:23). It
is better to get wisdom than gold, andunderstanding is rather to be chosen than choice silver
(Prov. 16:16). Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it (Prov.
16:22).
Hear it! Understanding
is a WELLSPRING OF LIFE unto him
that hath it. Certainly one reason so many millions of
humans are lost and dying upon this earth today is because they neither know who, where,
nor why they are. Truly a great darkness is upon the human
family! This condition is explained by Paul in
his epistle to the Ephesians. This I say therefore, and testify
in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity
of their mind, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness
of their heart (Eph. 4:17-18). In
this passage we learn, among other things, this one simple truth: Darkness IS IGNORANCE. In
its spiritual meaning, to be in darkness is to be in ignorance! Ignorance
is a condition of the mind, in which the mind lacks understanding. The
inspired apostle tells us that men have their
understanding darkened because of the ignorance that is in them! It
means that either they dont know much, or the information they have been given is
incorrect! And it is this condition of spiritual ignorance that causes the whole world of men, and vast
numbers of the Lords precious people, to walk in darkness, alienated from the
abundant life that is in God! Oh! How
many of the Lords people walk in spiritual darkness, or spiritual ignorance, because
the teaching they have been fed by those who are supposedly the messengers of God is not
the truth at all! Men are in darkness because the
blindness of their hearts has kept them from the glorious Light of Christ penetrating into
their lives!
The next time you stand ready to condemn
men for their slowness to see the glories you behold, give place to the spirit
of understanding that it may possess
you; then you will surely know that mens hearts are smitten by the terrible darkness
of ignorance, causing their understanding to be darkened. This
is the state of spiritual blindness! And the great truth is that GOD ALONE
CAN OPEN THE EYES OF THE BLIND! We have a great pity for the man who has
some awful handicap because of a physical defect from the time of his birth, for
understanding has taught us that these afflictions come through no fault of his own. Just
as the man Jesus healed was born blind, so have all men been born into this
world spiritually
blind! Why then do we cast aside the spirit of
understanding by demanding that he whose spiritual eyes have never been opened should be
able to see the mountains filled with the hosts of the Lord?
Ah,
when Jesus healed the blind man outside of Bethsaida, it was not immediately a complete
healing! After spitting on his eyes and putting
His hands upon him, he asked him if he saw anything. The
man looked up and said, I see men as trees, walking. After
that Jesus put His hands again upon the mans eyes, and made him look up. He
was then made every whit whole and saw everything clearly! We
would think that when men come to Jesus for salvation, and are born again, that their
blindness, or spiritual ignorance, would be healed. Not
so! They
still see through a glass darkly because the gospel preached to them, in most cases, is
not a pure word of the Lord! When we were first saved just enough
Light shone in to reveal Jesus as Saviour. We joyfully embraced what became
revealed unto us in that measure of Light, but what a great darkness prevailed even yet in
so many areas of our lives! And then so many doctrines and
traditions of men, so much spiritual ignorance and spiritual foolishness
was fed to us by the church systems of man that we were never able to clearly see, and of
the things we did see we could not tell for certain whether they were trees or men! Oh,
yes! The
Lord has had to put His healing hand upon every one of us again before we could begin to see as we ought to
see! That
is the mystery!
The mind is the understanding organ, and
when the spiritual mind (the eyes of our understanding) is blinded, one is without
spiritual understanding. That is what the air
represents in Revelation 9:2. And he opened the bottomless pit;
and there arose asmoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great
furnace; and the sun (light
of Christ) and the air (spiritual
understanding) were
darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. The
abyss signifies the human heart. The smoke of the pit
signifies the deceitfulness of the human heart! This
smoke displays a movement, a tendency coming out of the abyss. It
is that which comes forth from the heart, theunderstanding of the carnal mind which interprets the things of God on a carnal
level and misses the deep spiritual
truth and reality altogether! Oh! How
the churches today are filled with the smoke out of the pit! All
the dead, carnal church systems were built by men who were saved by receiving just enough
Light to know Jesus as Saviour and Blesser, and then, out of the overshrouding gloom yet
untouched in the vanity of their minds and the darkness of their carnal hearts they
proceeded to build upon the foundation of Christ every kind of grotesque structure of
tradition, ritual, form, error, legalism, fleshiness, and worldliness: great towering
edifices of hay, wood, and stubble! The carnal and foolish interpretations
of men put upon the word of God, out of the blindness of their hearts, has created a great
ignorance among the Lords people, and they are alienated from the glorious flow of
divine, heavenly, spiritual, and incorruptible Life by the blindness that causes them
spiritually to see men as trees, walking!
It has always, from the very beginning
when the serpent whispered to Eve, been the adversarys policy to misrepresent truth,
to distort and carnalize the word of God, in order to hinder mankind from seeing the great
beauty and majesty of the purposes of God. The
more absurdities the adversary can get interwoven into mans doctrines and concepts
respecting God, the church, eternity, the final destiny of man, judgment, hell, heaven,
the end-time, and a hundred more, the better he will succeed in separating men
in their consciousness from reality. Thus for centuries the great adversary
has been working most successfully and has covered and hidden some of the most precious
and glorious truths under the most specious and repulsive errors, and the progress of the
Lords people has been correspondingly stunted. But,
thank God! we are now living in the time when the veil of ignorance is being dissolved,
the blinding smoke from the pit is being blown away, and the people of God are being drawn
by the Spirit to look away from the creeds and systems formed for their enslavement during
ages past, and to open their hearts directly to the spirit of truth that leads to the
living God! Therefore lean no
longer upon thine own understanding! Judge neither after the sight of the
eyes nor the hearing of the ears, but seek that Living Spirit of UNDERSTANDING that comes
from God alone!
This is why Paul so fervently wrote to
the saints in Corinth, saying, Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding BE MEN (I Cor. 14:20). Paul
prayed for the Ephesian brethren to this end: The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened; that
ye may know (by understanding) what is the hope of His
calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what
is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working
of His mighty power, 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. 1:18-20). And
again, Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding
what the will of the Lord is(Eph. 5:17). To
the Colossians Paul wrote, For this cause we also, since the day we heard of it, do
not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding (Col. 1:9-10).
Have you ever prayed that God would open the eyes of your understanding that you might truly and correctly and fully know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? Ah, how much better this would be than to pray for temporal blessings for the outer man, for the heart of the Father is truly pained when He beholds His called and chosen ones neglecting their devotion to His highest purpose while they diligently pray and seek for earthly blessings. Walk no longer in the vanity of your mind, having the understanding darkened, while alienating yourself from the life of God through ignorance! Never spend your days seeking the things of this carnal life, or a golden mansion in some far-off heaven somewhere, for they make themselves wings and fly away and have no power to deliver the creation from the bondage of corruption! Every son of God who is pressing forward to lay hold upon the prize of the high calling of God in Christ is COMING OUT OF THE SMOKE FROM THE PIT, TO STAND UNDER A CLEAR HEAVEN WHERE THE SUN OF DIVINE LIGHT SHINES IN ALL ITS BRILLIANCE AND THE AIR IS PURE AND RAREFIED WITH THE LIFE OF GOD!
To be continued
J. PRESTON EBY
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