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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 120
THE SOUNDING
OF THE TRUMPETS
(continued)
And I saw
another mighty angel come down from heaven
and cried with a loud voice, as when a
lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their
voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up
those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not (Rev. 10:3-4).
The intriguing
passage above shows that the seven thunders did not merely make a reverberating noise, but
gave forth an articulate message an utterance which John understood and was about
to write down. The implication is that there
was a sort of personality ascribed to these thunders.
It is enlightening how in the symbolisms of the Revelation everything is
animated, and becomes instinct with life and intelligence.
Everything is a revelation! Seven
is the number of completion and perfection, and the voices of the seven
thunders reveal that it is a word yet, not merely a word, but
the fullness of the revelation of the Lord! What
else could we expect as we approach the seventh trumpet, which trumpet brings Gods
called and chosen elect to the full stature of Jesus Christ! Revelation precedes experience, therefore
we must expect that the Lord would give a full revelation of His purpose just prior to
bringing us experientially into that purpose.
Throughout the
book of Revelation John represents the overcomer. The
voice of the seven thunders is the fullness of the revelation of Christ unto those called
to be His firstfruits! The complete
revelation of Christ is not given to all men at the same time, not even to all believers. It is given first to a firstfruit of Gods
creation, and John represents that firstfruit company which receives the revelation! Its a corporate word, but we hear it
individually. Its a corporate word we
hear by the faith of God within ourselves. When
you hear it, you sense that somewhere deep within you you have known this all the time
it was just not awakened within your conscious mind.
But you recognize the sound when you hear it!
Thats why, when one apprehended of God for sonship hears the message
of Gods kingdom purposes, his immediate response is, This is what I have been
searching for, waiting for, all my life! I knew
there was something more in God! Oh,
yes! The mystery of God is a secret knowledge
concealed in the life of Christ within. Once
we hear the voice of the Son of God as a lion roars, even the voice of the seven thunders,
our spirit leaps as a babe within us bearing witness to the truth! It comes not as a new revelation, but as a remembering!
I am overwhelmed
by the greatness of our Fathers calling and purpose!
I tremble with each recollection, if I may say so, with each flashback
of our former abode before the foundation of the world, when with our heavenly Father we
received our commission to come into this earth realm to reveal His glory, when the
morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy! We are breaking through a barrier that until now
has been completely unknown to man, hidden, as it were, in the bosom of our Father
a barrier broken only by our Elder
Brother as He received the fullness of the Seven Spirits of God, walked out the life and
ministry of sonship, became obedient unto death, and then, early one morning, in a garden,
as the stone (the old binding force) was rolled away, He arose triumphant in the power of
resurrection! And that, my beloved, was the
harbinger of the coming forth of the sons of God as they partake of the glory
of His incorruptible life, when they shall put on the garments of a resurrected being. The Father in His wisdom has reserved this glory
for us in this new kingdom day, that we might prepare the way for our brothers and for all
creation who are to follow
that we might open the gates of the Paradise of our God,
and be the first to eat of the tree of Life
thus leading the way for all mankind to
be restored to Eden in the image and glory of the Father.
It is indeed wonderful!
But there is a little problem here! Though the word John hears is the fullness of the
revelation of the Christ, John wished to write that full revelation down. This reveals an inclination to disseminate this
word on a lower, carnal level. By writing, in
the natural sense, is signified to commit to paper, and thus for posterity, in a way that
it can be read or received even by the unsanctified eyes and ears of any who wish to hear
it. Anyone can pick up a book and read a
revelation even if they have no ability to understand it or receive it by the
spirit, and may therefore take the revelation and distort it, pervert it, corrupt it, defile it, applying it with the
carnal mind, so that the word becomes an instrument of the flesh and the devil rather than
a work of the Spirit and the power of Gods Christ.
We must keep in mind, however, that these are symbols, and John
writing the revelation is not talking about literally writing on paper! The seven thunders are a symbol
denoting that John heard and received the revelation in the Spirit and by the Spirit, whereas
John writing the revelation is a symbol indicating the preservation or
communication of that revelation on a level other than in the Spirit and by
the Spirit! People fulfill this when
they endeavor to impart truth to others apart from the leading and energizing of the
Spirit!
Therefore, it
was said to John that he should seal up those things and not write them! This was not a revelation which John then was to
record and make known. What the seven
thunders uttered they spoke in unison; but just what their words were, we are not told. This signifies that each of us must receive the
revelation for ourselves! We cannot
appropriate Gods purposes on the grounds of a borrowed revelation. Like Mary of old, he was to ponder these
things in his heart, rather than preaching or proclaiming them to all who could
hear, putting them on public display, and thereby casting his pearls before swine. In modern-day terms John would be restrained
from proclaiming this deep truth of God to those believers in the carnal church systems. He would be forbidden by the Holy Spirit to
preach these sacred secrets of God on the public radio stations and television channels,
or to publish them in books for sale in the Christian Book Stores of Babylon. Oh, what a word this is!
The great
soul-gripping truth is this John both heard and understood the message of the
seven thunders! He wasnt forbidden
to hear or receive the message, nor was he prevented from understanding or
appropriating what he received. Oh, no! He was only commanded to be careful what he did
with it, how he communicated it. Actually, he
was to seal it up within himself! The word of
the Lord to John was that he could not share, proclaim, reveal, or impart this message to
anyone at that time. It was for his ears only, that is, only for those apprehended ones
who have ears to hear! In making this statement we are brought face to face with
two popular errors regarding the seven thunders. Sometimes
I hear people say, No one can know what the seven thunders uttered, because it was
all sealed up. Not so! It is
true the message was sealed but John knew what the message was it was
not sealed to HIM! Can we not see by this
that the revelation of the seven thunders is not sealed to those whom John represents!
On the other
hand, I have heard a number of brethren declaring from the pulpit that throughout the
church age no one has known the message of the seven thunders until now, in this new day
of the Lord, and the message has now been unsealed within them and they are
now proclaiming it! With all emphasis
I must declare that if they are preaching the message of the seven thunders (as though
they, and they alone know the secret of it) they are doing so illegally. To John it was given the hear, to know, to
understand, to experience, to appropriate the seven thunders message, but as the elect of
God he was commanded to seal it up within himself and not write (preach, reveal,
proclaim, publish, or impart) it for others to read.
That does not mean that as members of the elect we cannot speak or write of
these things! If that were so I would
put away my pen! What it means is, that if I
think I have the revelation and I go out to share it with the world so that they can only
get it from me, then I am illegally proclaiming it. The
fact is, it can only be received from the Spirit, just as John received it! The things we share with one another are by way of
edification, encouragement, and confirmation not to try to convert
more people to the message! When you hear
someone declaring that they are revealing the message of the voices of the
seven thunders if they truly have that message they will not be revealing it! That explains precisely why Jesus, the firstborn
Son of God, always taught in parables
(Mat. 13:34). On one occasion His disciples
came to Him and asked, Why speakest Thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Therefore
speak I unto them in parables: because they seeing see not: and hearing they hear not,
neither do they understand (Mat. 13:10-13).
In other words, by His unexplained parables He was hiding the message
from them! That is just the opposite from why
most people think Jesus taught in parables! Only
to His small inner circle of called and chosen disciples did He reveal the mysteries of
the kingdom!
When a thing is
sealed up, it becomes a mystery, a secret; it is not open.
But a hope is given us, because the angel goes on to say, But
in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery (which
John had just created by sealing up what the seven thunders uttered) of God should be finished
(Rev. 10:7). It would no longer be a
mystery, because in that day, when the voice of the seventh angel would be heard, the
mystery would be revealed openly! After
sealing up the words of the seven thunders, and not writing them, John was given a little
book from the hand of Christ Himself. The
little book was not sealed, like the book Christ received from the hand of the Father in
chapter five. A sealed book is a book whose
contents are not yet revealed; an open book is a book whose contents are revealed, that
is, seen in the spirit and understood. The
sealed book must be opened, and it was opened as the Lamb loosed each of its seven
seals! This opening of the book is the
revelation of sonship in the firstborn Son of God. It
is the revelation of Jesus Christ!
So
the book is now open, held in the very hand (power) of Christ, but it must be eaten by His
many brethren and digested. We
have already beheld the opening of the sealed book, and presently shall behold the eating
of the open book. The book in chapter five
was the revelation of Jesus Christ and the blessed realm of sonship opened unto us by the
spirit of revelation. The book in chapter
ten, however, is the revelation of Jesus Christ brought into life, reality, and substance within
us! John, representing all the
overcomers, was told to eat it up, signifying that He was to receive this
revelation directly from the Lord Jesus Christ, take it into his own innermost
being, allow that word to be digested and made substance within him, and then, and only
then, was he instructed, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and
nations, and tongues, and kings (Rev. 10:11).
Oh, yes! This prophecy
to the nations is the very same word John wanted to write down, only now it will be
ministered not as a revelation or a word or a teaching
or a doctrine, but as the expression of his own state of being, the
very fullness of the word of the Lord and the revelation of Jesus Christ flowing as rivers
of living water from out of his innermost
being! The word is made flesh within him, the
messenger has become the message, and now will be ministered as SPIRIT and LIFE!
And the
angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and
sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that
therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things
which are therein, that there should be time no longer (Rev. 10:5-6).
There is much
debate among scholars over whether the expression there should be time no
longer is the correct rendering of the Greek, or if it would be better
translated, there should be delay no longer. It is my conviction that the former is the natural
meaning of the original. The original word chronos
occurs over sixty times in the Greek Old Testament and over fifty times in the New
Testament. This is its second last occurrence
and nowhere else has it been translated delay.
This alone is enough to reject the translation. Sound exegesis does not permit a change of meaning
to a word that has been uniformly translated throughout the scriptures. As to the exact form and order of words there
should be no difficulty, since five other passages occur in this same book (Revelation)
precisely similar to this, except the subject of the sentence. In each there is the negative no, the verb to
be, and the Greek word eti translated more. Let us note:
The sea shall be no more (Rev. 21:1).
The death shall be no more (Rev.
21:4).
Pain shall be no more (Rev. 21:4).
Curse shall be no more (Rev. 22:3).
Night shall be no more (Rev. 22:5.
Accordingly, so
in our present text: Time shall be no more!
The proposed translation delay is given, of course, to get rid of
a difficulty; namely, that time evidently continues after the angel swares that
time shall be no more! There are yet many
events with the mention of hours, days, years, with lunar and solar cycles, that follow
the announcement of the end of time! Since
the translators do not understand by the Spirit what the Lord is proclaiming in this
statement, their only alternative is to conclude that there must be some mistake,
therefore they go about to change the word of the Lord!
The true revelation of what the Spirit is speaking unfolds for us one of the
deep mysteries of Gods great purpose of the ages and is awe-inspiring beyond words
to articulate!
A concept we
must immediately grasp in order to understand Gods wonderful plan of the ages is
that time is a created phenomenon consisting of past, present, and future just as
man is a created phenomenon having youth, middle age, and old age. No, you cannot smell, touch, or feel time, but it
is there, ever-present, always marching into our future.
Time was created; it had a beginning, it shall have an end. It is only one thing among countless other things
that are part of the entire created universe. It
is as much a species of creation as, for example, rocks, elephants, trees, and
water are species of creation. Before the
creation of the universe, there was no time; at the end of the ages when the present
material universe is dissolved and replaced
by a new, spiritual universe, time shall cease to be.
It will be swallowed up into eternity just as death will be swallowed up
into victory, and there shall be no more death. Time
composed of milliseconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years,
decades, centuries, millenniums, ages was created
in the beginning, and will be dissolved at the end of the ages.
I am compelled
to state that the Bible says very little by way of a definition of eternity because
the Bible is essentially a book of time and for time. It was written for man who lives in a temporal
state and who is not yet a totally eternal being. Only
as we enter that state of being called eternity
only as HE who IS ETERNITY
becomes all-in-all within us
only as we are spiritually metamorphosed into our
eternal condition in spirit, soul, and body
only as eternity becomes an absolute
reality to us
only then do formerly temporal beings as we have all our life-time
been, truly comprehend and understand eternity and things of an eternal nature. This marvelous work has begun in our spirit as our
spirit has been quickened by His Spirit, and we have awaken to our inward origin out of
the eternal sphere. I stated that the Bible
is relatively silent about what eternity is; that is not to say that human teachings and
theology havent taught us a great deal about eternity, but, alas! much of it over
the past centuries has come from the carnal minds of Babylonish theologians and not from
the mind of the Eternal One via the Eternal Spirit.
This phenomenon
called time was created by God for man! Why? Time is the womb from which God is birthing
a people like unto Himself. We get the germ,
the beginning and foretaste of eternity in time, but this is only the seed of eternal
life. The womb of time is provided to aid man
in his development, to assist him in preparation for a new, totally spiritual
consciousness and existence beyond time, beyond the material, beyond the ages, when the
umbilical cord is cut, and we are released into that state of existence called eternity. Man, as he is dealt with by God, is passing from a
gross, largely material consciousness, into a glorious spiritual existence! Time serves only as an instrument to help man, to
give him a period during which by and through experience to develop into that new
state of being. In time there is change
in eternity that is no change! All
change, growth, and development must take place in time!
Thank God, we
are being changed! But that means that
the life of God within exists as a seed, that is, in a limited, underdeveloped state. While the seed of omniscient wisdom and omnipotent
power lie within the seed of divine life in our spirit, the fact that it has not
overwhelmed or overcome all the outward, limited, imperfect, and mortal aspects of soul
and body, reveals that our life as to its condition is limited and immature. God has dispensed that life into us in time, that
through a process of time and experience the seed of spiritual life may be released,
developed, and matured, until eventually Christ is fully formed in us and we arrive at the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. When
the work in time is finished, we are brought
to the fullness of that which GOD HIMSELF IS. When
the process is complete we are able to see Him as He is, and there will BE NO MORE
CHANGE! We will then truly know what eternal
life is! As long as the life within us is
passing through the process of change, growth, and development, it is not viewed as
eternal, unchangeable life, but as the LIFE OF THE AGES, life undergoing the dealings of
the Father in time.
The so-called eternal
security of the believer is known only by the overcomers who have fully and forever
conquered every vestige of the flesh, the world, and the devil, being conformed into the
image of the Son. Of these triumphant ones it
is written, To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, and again, He
that overcometh
I will not blot his name out of the book of life (Rev.
2:7; 3:5). The inference is clear
until this overcomer state is attained, it is possible to have ones name
blotted out of the Book of Life! That
does not mean that the name cannot be written there again, any more than it could be said
that it was impossible for it to be written there in the first instance. But it does indicate that the life possessed by a
believer who is not fully an overcomer is not by Gods definition eternal life,
for were it absolutely eternal its manifestation and victory could
not be lost! Have we not all known people who
started out in a wonderful expression of divine life, they were powerful in God, and then
something tripped them up, they were offended, or disappointed, or embittered, slipped
into an attitude of defeat, even departing from their spiritual walk, sinking back into
wantonness, drunkenness, and all kinds of filth of the flesh. Ah, their name is not at that time written in the
book of life, life is unable to be read by any in that book which they are!
(II Cor. 3:2-3). Can we not see by this
how it is that the one who has truly and fully overcome all things his
name cannot be blotted out of the Book of Life, for the Life in him has
fully matured and has triumphed over all beyond interference or possibility of
defeat! Oh, the wonder of it!
Every son of God
is growing up into relationship with our heavenly Father in the nature revealed by His
name YAHWEY. The name YAHWEH is
derived from the Hebrew verb havah meaning to be or being. This word is almost exactly like the Hebrew verb chavah
meaning to live or life. One
can readily see the connection between being and life. Thus Yahweh means THE SELF-EXISTENT ONE or THE
ETERNAL. He is the One who in Himself
embodies essential life, permanent existence, derived from no source outside
himself, and absolutely dependent upon no other person, thing, circumstance, or action for
its continuance. Any being whose existence is
dependent in any degree upon another, or upon conditions such as food, water, light, air,
instruction, growth, change, etc., or even upon some cosmic influence, is not
self-existent! This quality inhered
originally in Yahweh alone, as it is written, The Father hath life in Himself
(Jn. 5:26). That means that His
existence is not a derived one, nor a sustained one; not derived from anything nor
dependent upon anything, but inherent and eternal within Himself. The verbs to be and to live
from which the name Yahweh comes denote both ESSENTIAL LIFE and a STATE OF BEING. Hence, God is not only eternal Himself, but every
aspect of His nature and all His characteristics are as eternal and unchanging as His
life!
Anything that is
absolutely eternal is not only unending, but is also unchangeable. Anything that changes in any way is not
eternal, for in the change some characteristic is left behind and a new one acquired. In every change something ends and something else
begins! That which dwells in an eternal state
knows no change. Change is
possible only in that which is limited, imperfect, or immature. Yahweh declares of Himself, I am Yahweh
(the Eternal), I change not (Mal. 3:6), and the inspired apostle says of Him, With whom there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning (James 1:17).
God is never surprised. God has
not learned anything this week, nor last year, nor in the last several billion trillion
years! If God learned one thing today, it
would destroy Him. He would no longer be the
omniscient One knowing the end from the beginning, for known unto Him are all His works
from the foundation of the world. God does
not experiment. God does not become stronger,
mightier, or increase Himself in any way. God
is the omnipotent, omniscient, and eternal One. He
changes not! He has never been
anything He is not now, nor shall He ever become anything He is not now. He eternally is all that He is without any degree
of decrease or increase or fluctuation whatsoever. Ah,
He is the ETERNAL GOD, YAHWEH THE SELF-EXISTENT ONE!
It is a great
and blessed fact that Yahweh is the eternal God! Transition,
adjustment, change these words seem to be constantly with us, until we fain would
grasp for something that seems to be stable, solid, enduring. Much of the inner drive for change is simple
evidence that man is not satisfied, has not found his completeness in Christ, for beloved,
now are we the sons (children) of God, and it
doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear we
shall be like Him (I Jn. 3:2). Here
is stability immutability the quality of His nature remains the same, HE IS
THE ETERNAL! And this is the nature of which
we would be partakers, the fullness of which we find in Christ, and through union with Him
we shall be changed until we become changeless in the absoluteness of that which He
is fully like Him! He who is
eternal cannot be influenced, affected, moved, changed, altered, damaged, destroyed, or
improved in any way. He cannot grow tired or
old. The character of God is eternal,
changeless, unaffected. The love, joy, peace,
righteousness, and power of God cannot fall, rise and fall, rise and fall. Matters not what happens or what men or devils say
or do, the love of God, the nature of God, the purpose of God, and the power of God are
steadfast, unmoved, unquenched, undiminished, unaffected, without fluctuation. The eternal existence of God is certain for He is
the source of all life. Death cannot touch
Him for He is not dependent upon the sustaining power of another, He is Yahweh, the
Self-Existent One!
With these lofty
thoughts of God in our minds, our hearts respond with joyful accord when Christ in His
wisdom shows that it is Gods intention that he who walks in the blessed realm of
sonship should be as constant and unchanging as is God Himself. To His disciples
Christ spoke these incredible words: For as the Father hath life in Himself; so
hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself (Jn. 5:25-26). LIFE IN HIMSELF!
This is self-existent Life, a Life not derived from any source, not
dependent upon any sustenance, inherent Life! Thus Jesus could stand and declare, I
am the Life! The exceeding
great wonder of all is that not only did Jesus possess the self-existent Life of God, but
God made Him to be a life-giving Spirit.
How plain, if the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, He imparts THE SEED OF
ETERNAL, SELF-EXISTENT LIFE WITHIN US NOW!
Yet, the
spiritual life we now have is a progressing, growing, maturing, conquering life the
life of the ages. That is what
the Greek word aionios means! It is
usually translated as eternal, but that is not the meaning in Greek. The Greek noun aion means an age,
a period of time. In its plural form
it means ages. The adjective form of the word is aionios, meaning
that which pertains to the ages or age-lasting or ages-lasting. The reader may consult Youngs Literal New
Testament or the Emphatic Diaglott for the correct translation of these words. Thus, what the King James Bible calls eternal
life is in fact the life of the ages!
It is the life that has come by the quickening of our spirit by His Spirit,
giving a new consciousness of life, a new beginning, and the potential to become, in due time, all He is. But I am sure my readers, with myself, must
confess that there is a great deal of progress still to be made, considerable growth to be
experienced, much transformation to be wrought, before we stand in Him in the fullness of that life that needs no
change, no further development, no additional experience, no more growth unto maturity, no
fuller stature, no added triumph, no increase of wisdom and knowledge that state of
being as unchangeable as He is unchangeable, truly as ETERNAL AS HE IS ETERNAL!
Only faintly now
do our eyes behold the splendor of that eternal realm which lies before us, but if
we approach softly with reverence and godly fear, not disrespectfully and thoughtlessly as
nosey children prying into some sacred thing, then the Lord of glory will meet us and will
be a Father unto us and we shall be the manifest sons of God in whom the Father shall
unfold the fullness of His life, mind, will, power, and glory. Thus shall we come into that same image and
be sharers with the Christ in the glory He had with the Father BEFORE TIME WAS
ETERNAL GLORY! I think I know why some become so enraged when
we tell them that we do not now possess the absolutely eternal life. Is it not because they would rather ignore this life of the ages, somehow projecting
themselves into that life which is eternal, claiming by faith the finished
product, while by-passing the tedious processing?
Ah, dear ones, it doesnt work that way! God has graciously given unto us life aionios
the life of the ages and how I thank God that my current stage of
spiritual growth and development, and my present state of being, are NOT ETERNAL! Oh, yes! There
is MORE! I
would follow on to know Him in all the fullness of His glorious and
eternal reality! And it will take the
ages, my beloved, to unfold it all! As
long as there is need for growth, change, increase, and advancement, there is need for time. Redemption and transformation as a process has a
unique relationship to time. Until our
redemption and transformation into the image of God is
complete its work will proceed in time, and the finished product stands at times
end. Thank God! There is an end then eternity,
God all in all!
As Gods
plan of the ages has progressed there has been a level of life, a spiritual vitality, for
each age. Each age has been different. Men in
antediluvian times knew God in a certain way and received life of a particular order. Israel, under the law, and the ministry of the
prophets, entered into another degree of spiritual awareness and life. Under the new covenant the born again body
of Christ has received yet a higher dispensation of the life of God. Perhaps I can give you a simple illustration in
this way. There is a difference between embryo
life, fetus life, infant life, and child life. There is a difference
between adolescent life, young life, middle age life, and old age life. In the same way there is a growth and development
of spiritual life within each of us! There
are babes in Christ, young men in Christ, mature ones in Christ, and
ultimately the manifest sons of God. There
is spiritual growth of the seed of Christ in every man until HIS FULLNESS is attained. There shall be a continuing development of His
life in the whole human family in the ages to come until God becomes all in
all! Arent you glad!
An understanding
of this important truth will show us why we have been given what the Greek text of the New
Testament calls life aionios the life of the ages, and why we also know that
the life of the ages leads to ETERNAL LIFE! Eternal
is one of the words which everyone thinks he understands, but there are few who realize
what a deep and glorious meaning it has. It
is supposed that eternal is something that always continues, something that
has no end. This explanation is merely a
negative one and tells us only what eternal is not, but it teaches us nothing
about its nature and being, that is, what its qualities and characteristics are which make
it unending. Everything that exists in
time has a beginning and is subject to the law of increase and decrease, of becoming,
growing, increasing, weakening, diminishing, and decaying.
What is eternal knows no change, increase, or weakening, because it has in
itself a LIFE THAT IS INDEPENDENT OF TIME AND SPACE.
To say that one has eternal life means much more than to say
that it will have no end. By that word we are
taught that he who has a share in eternal life possesses something in which the power
of an indestructible life is at work, something in which there can be no change,
nor can it suffer any diminution, and which therefore we may always enjoy in its absolute
fullness.
When our faith
lays hold upon what is eternal, it will manifest itself in us as a power superior to
all the changeableness of our mind, feelings, emotions, desires, and circumstances, with
a vitality, freshness, and fullness that is not for one moment affected by any internal or
external influence or pressure. It is,
therefore, more than merely an endless duration of life it is the UNCHANGEABLE
QUALITY OF DIVINE EXISTENCE! Not only does
this life never end, but it never ends simply because it is, at all
times, and under all circumstances, unchangeably WHAT HE IS! This life can never be altered, frustrated,
diminished, or overcome. When we commence to
live in this life we become a people who ARE. We
ARE what His life IS! As this life develops
and matures within we become constant in His nature, without fluctuation, unvarying,
regardless of anything that happens to us or around us.
Oh, son of God, is there not within your soul the insatiable thirsting to
truly know the fullness of such a life, to be partaker not only of the unendingness of His
life, but to abide ever in His unchanging nature! This
is precisely the transcendent purpose of our heavenly Father in the fullness of our
redemption and transformation!
God is
cultivating within His sons an eternal nature. The thoughts of Gods people are becoming
boundless and eternal, no longer controlled and motivated purely by carnal memories of the
past, by present events, or by dim hopes for an endless future in mansions over the
hilltop. The fledgling spirits of Gods
sons are fast growing up into the limitless expanses of our Fathers own eternal,
unchangeable, spiritual nature. Yes, the
whole man is becoming a new, eternal creation, no longer limited by the space-time
continuum.. Gods maturing sons see the
reality of a state of being called eternity, where our life is truly constant,
unchangeable, unaffected, untemptable, and indestructible.
Eternity is not merely endless time; it is that state of being where as
He is, so are we in this world. How our
hearts strain and leap upward toward that place in God!
Before returning to our text, and the angels
declaration that there should be time no longer, bear with me as I
share some further insights into the difference between time and eternity and how the sons
of God move from time into eternity. Here
I wish to quote a portion from Nathan R. Woods informative book, The Secret of
the Universe:
How does
time exist? What is its source? Here is where we must diverge from those who have
heretofore discussed the nature of time. We
cannot safely so diverge from all who have gone before unless the thing which we discuss
can be shown to be self-evident. That is what
we must show. How does time exist? What is its source?
Not the past. Carelessly
we think it so, as coming out of the past. Moralists,
poets, and scientists speak of it so. We
speak of the stream of time as flowing out of the past
describing that movement as
proceeding out of the past through the present into the future.
But time
does not come out of the past! It comes
out of the future. And it does not flow
into the future! It flows into the past. This may bring a shock to ones habit of
thinking. It has brought a shock to some who
have discussed it as it is presented in these pages.
We have never thought of it in that way.
None the less it is the self-evident fact.
We have but to take a definite date, a definite piece of time, and trace its
course down the stream of time, to find at once whether that section of time moves from
past through present into future, or from future through present into past. Consider, for instance, that section of time which
we call today, the day in which you read this page. For a long time this day was next year,
far in the future. Then it was next
month, still in the future. Then it was
next week, in the near future. Then
it was tomorrow, in the immediate future.
Then it became today, in the present. Soon it will be yesterday, in the
immediate past. Then it will be two
days ago, in the near past. Then it
will be last week, in the recent past. Then
it will be last month, in the receding past.
Then it will be last year, far in the past.
Manifestly,
that section of time which we call today comes out of the distant future,
first into the near future, then into the present, then goes into the recent past, then
disappears into the distant past. That is the
unbroken order of the motion of time. That is
its invariable direction. Never does it flow
the other way, from past to future. Never
does yesterday turn back in its flight and become today, or today become tomorrow. Never does the past pass into the present, or the
present into the future. No. It is the other way. Tomorrow becomes today. Today becomes yesterday. The future becomes the present. The present becomes the past. The future is therefore the source, it is
the reservoir of time which will some day be present, and then past. The present is the narrow strait, it is the living
instant, it is the flashing reality, through which the vast oncoming future flows into the
endless receding past.
Why then
do we usually think of time as coming out of the past?
What is the reason for this common fallacy?
The answer is simple. We get
the impression that time comes into the present out of the past, because the human race
and human history come into the present out of the past.
The human race passes from past through present into future. Therefore we have fallen into the habit of
thinking that time follows the same order. But
it is not so! Time goes the other way. The human race comes to us out of the past, and
time comes to us out of the future. We do not
go with time. We continually meet it, instant
by instant. That is why the present is always
instantaneous because we do not go with it, we constantly meet it, moving from past
to future while time proceeds from future to past. This
is the procession of time. The future is the
reservoir out of which the present comes. The
future is the source.
The future
is the source. The future is unseen, unknown,
except as it continually embodies itself and makes itself visible in the present. The present is what we see, and hear, and know. It is ceaselessly embodying the future, day by
day, hour by hour, moment by moment. It is
perpetually revealing the future, hitherto invisible.
The past in turn comes from the present. We cannot say that it embodies the
present. On the contrary time in issuing from
the present into the past becomes invisible again. The
past does not embody the present. Rather it
proceeds silently, endlessly, invisibly from it. But
the present is not the source of the past which proceeds from it. The future is the source of both the
present and the past! The present therefore
comes out of the invisible future. The
present perpetually and ever-newly embodies the future in visible, audible, livable form;
and returns again into invisible time in the past
end quote.
Seeing, now,
that time indeed comes out of the future, the great truth also becomes self-evident that
when one arrives at the beginning of time, not time past, but time future, right there at
that beginning of time he steps beyond time into eternity! But how do we arrive at the beginning of time, the
source from whence it flows to us from the future? Nathan
Wood in his book points out that the future is the source of the present and the
past, but what he fails to tell us is what is the source of the future, the source
of time! The beginning and source of
time is God SPIRIT! In the
beginning GOD created
And
that, my beloved, is the beginning and source of time!
Just as the present flows out from the future, so time itself (the future)
flows out of God! God is Spirit, Spirit lies
beyond matter, beyond time, beyond space. Can
we not see by this that Spirit exists before and above and beyond time. HE is before all things. Thus, all that is necessary in order to transcend
time is to LIVE AND WALK IN THE SPIRIT! That
is where time ceases to exist! That is where
time is no longer! Eternity is
not where time ends linearly; it is where time ends dimensionally! Spirit exists in a dimension above and beyond
time. Spirit is the source of time, but
Spirit is not time. Spirit is unchangeable,
therefore eternal, before time, after time, and in time.
Let there be no doubt in the mind of any man that when the Lord swares that there
should be time no longer, He is not predicting that the world ends, the sun
burns itself out, the stars fall from heaven, the universe collapses, and all time ceases
to exist. Oh, no! That is the way the carnal mind conceives of it,
but that is not the truth perceived by the spiritual mind!
The spiritual mind understands the words that follow these, wherein the Spirit testifies, But in the days of
the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should
be finished, as He hath declared unto His servants the prophets (Rev. 10:7). When the mystery of God is finished, time shall be
no longer. Ah, when the mystery of God is finished in His elect, the sons of God will be
manifested! When we have been fully
transformed by the renewing of our minds, when this corruptible has put on incorruption,
and this mortal has put on immortality, we shall arise to that new state of being in the
eternal, unchangeable nature and glory of sonship THAT IS WHERE TIME ENDS FOR THE
SONS OF GOD AND ETERNITY BEGINS! Time is no
more for any man who enters the heavenly, celestial consciousness and life of the
Eternal Spirit!
There was a time
when God was ALL. Because we are caught in
the physical creation with its material realm and time, with its beginning and ending, we
are trapped in the inability to comprehend eternity.
Do you realize there is really no such thing as an hour, a minute, or a
second? Such measurements were invented by
man for his convenience, as fabricated units of time.
But for you and me, there is only
now. And now is so infinitely small
that it is immeasurable it just passed as you read these lines and yet it
didnt pass, for it is still just NOW. Now
is so incredibly short for me. Lets try
this on God. God also only has now but
Gods now is so much bigger than my now! His
now reaches from eternity to eternity, for it has no consciousness of time. Since God is the eternal and omnipresent One, His
now is everywhere and at all times! You put
this infinitesimal thing called time into Gods now and the distance between
places His now is in all of those. Gods
now is just as much at the end of our time as His now is at the beginning of time. Gods now is the now of every man who has
ever existed anywhere at any time. His now is
all the nows of all the people who have ever experienced any now anywhere at any time. God was there in Adams now, in Noahs
now, in Moses now, in Davids now, at the very same time as He is
here in my now. Eternity is Gods
all-encompassing NOW. Oh, the mystery of it!
In the opening
chapters of the book of Genesis we see how on each of the six days of Gods labor
there was an evening and a morning marking the beginning and the
conclusion of the work and purpose of God in each day.
It is significant to note that on the seventh day we read of no evening or
morning, for the seventh day bespeaks a completed creation, God resting in
Himself, the never-ending day of the fullness of the glory of the Lord. In each of the creative days the evening and
morning mark the duration of the day, the work accomplished, the purpose fulfilled;
and each new evening and morning indicates a going on to another work, which work
will ultimately end, to give way to yet another work.
Each day begins and ends!
Typically, this
reveals to us how each moving of Gods Spirit in the earth, and in our lives,
accomplishes His purpose for that time and then becomes history
and God marches on. I am convinced that one of mans great faults
is that he always expects the future to be just a repetition of the past. If God moved in a certain way once, they were sure
the next move would be in the same manner and form, so they called their all-night prayer
meetings and implored, Oh, God, do it again!
I do not hesitate to declare to
you that such a prayer is utterly void of understanding and can never be answered, for God
does not repeat the work of a first day, or a second He marches on to finish His
work! As one has so ably pointed out, God
does move in His appointed cycles, but each season of refreshing has a totally NEW element
in it as well as some of the age-abiding truths which were revealed in former moves. Thus we have the paradox of how Gods moves
are both OLD and NEW, and no man can say that he already knows what is coming, because
there is that new part which has never been uncovered before, being reserved for this
special hour. Thus God moves onward in His
progressive working, from age to age, from revelation to revelation, from dealing to
dealing, from experience to experience, from one working of His Spirit to another, until finally His image (at the end of the sixth day) is
brought forth and He can rest.
Let
all who have received the call to sonship know that every day of the Lords
labor ends, the way God has moved in your life in former times will end, all
the old orders are ending, the glory of former revivals and movings of Gods Spirit
are passing away, all the religious institutions organized into powerful kingdoms out of
bygone times of refreshing are crumbling and are ready to collapse. Let something else be equally clear God has
a new order arising, an entirely new day is dawning, there is a growing
consciousness that we are standing on the threshold of a glorious new moving of the Spirit in the earth, TOTALLY UNLIKE ANYTHING WHICH HAS
BEEN SEEN IN PAST AGES. I do not say that a
revival shall break out! Men talk about a
great end-time revival, but that shall not be!
A revival means the reviving of that which was once alive, but has died and
needs a resurrection. This new day is far
more than the reviving of some old order, including the old order of the New
Testament Church. This is a new day,
the birthing of a new order, the unveiling of a new glory, the standing
up of a new man, for the sons of God shall be manifested, the kingdom of God shall
come into the earth in power and great glory,
and His incorruptible and immortal life shall reign in a firstfruits company even
those who step out of the time of all former days to minister out
of the eternal realm and deliver creation from the bondage of corruption!
All
the gifts and glory and power of former days of Gods moving have failed to deliver
creation and bring the glory of Gods kingdom to pass
in the earth until His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. All the mighty revivals of church history failed
to deliver the groaning creation. None of the
six days of labor, nay, all of them together, have not brought the fullness of
God in Gods elect nor the blessedness of Gods rest to creation. How unmistakably accurate is the prophecy spoken
by our omniscient Father when speaking of mans rule over the earth He said, six
days shalt thou labor. All
mans grandiose efforts, works, programs, schemes, and endeavors to convert the world
and establish the kingdom of God in all the earth have not only been an incredible failure
but, if for an instant we may descend to baseness of speech, have been a colossal flop,
for sin and sinners and wretchedness and violence abound more today than at any time
since the days of Noah.
We have passed
through many days of Gods dealings, revival after revival, move after
move, revelation after revelation, and blessing upon blessing. Each has had its evening and morning. Each has come and gone. Thank God, the first rays of the light of a new
day are even now painting the eastern sky! Thank
God! a few of His chosen ones have arisen in the Spirit to behold the glories of the dawn
and to drink in the intoxicating freshness of the morn!
This is a day of days, as the six days of the old creation were but one day
of creation (Gen. 2:4), so this seventh day has been preceded by days of
unfoldment, yet it is but one day in which God brings His sons into rest with Him in His
glory. This seventh day is not like any other
day in one important feature. It has no evening
and morning! This reveals the
wonderful truth that this is an unlimited day of consummation an eternal day
without end in which time shall be no more! All
the days of labor have this evening and morning, for they need it, and good as
are the days when Gods work goes on within us from evening to morning, cycle after
cycle, while we yet need them, FAR MORE BLESSED IS THE ETERNAL DAY OF REST IN HIS GLORY
WHEN HIS WORK IS COMPLETED AND WE AWAKE IN HIS LIKENESS!
It is indeed wonderful!
This blessed
realm of His fullness, of perfection, of incorruption and immortality, is the day of which
John prophesied in spirit, saying, And there shall be no night there (Rev.
21:25). No night! No darkness, for the shadows have all flown
away. No darkness, no dusk, a day filled with
the effulgent glory of the Lord! No night! An eternal day, a day with no end, and a
day when no more changes come to those who are now like Him. On this day it has also been revealed, Behold,
the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His
people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any
more pain: for the former things are passed away. And
there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be there
and
they shall see His face: and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there
for the
Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever (Rev. 21:3-4;
22:3-5). Ah, beloved, such is the seventh
day, a walk with God, a place in God, uniting earth to heaven in blessedness, God and man
dwelling and resting together, joined in one spirit.
If we know it not, let us wait for it: to those who wait with
patience and faith, it will surely come, and will not tarry.
The seventh day
is not merely a period of time; the seventh day is the REALM OF GODS REST, and
finally, the seventh day becomes A PEOPLE. It
is stated of the seventh day, And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified
it (Gen. 2:3). He did this
because in it He rested. When
God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, He set it apart unto Himself and lifted it
up above all other days, specifically above all the days of labor. But in Exodus 31:13 the Lord identifies the day
with a people, showing how the one prefigures the other, and how the twain are one. Verily, MY SABBATHS SHALL YE KEEP
(Hebrew: ye shall rest in My Rest): for it is a sign between me and you throughout your
generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth SANCTIFY YOU. Here the day and the people are both so sanctified
to God that they become as one. As we
enter into Gods rest, beyond all the days of mans religious labor, so that His
rest becomes personified within us, WE BECOME HIS REST, HIS HOLY DAY, HIS SABBATH, AND HIS
MOUNT ZION!
So let the
nations rage, let the people imagine a vain thing, let the storms of trouble blow, let
sorrows spread as a cloud over the land, let the kingdoms of men tremble and fall, let the
whole political, economic, and religious structure collapse and darkness cover the earth
GODS
SABBATH PEOPLE ARE AT REST AND UNAFRAID, THE GLORY OF THE LORD HAS RISEN UPON THEM,
BECAUSE THEY DWELL IN HIM. They are upheld by
His mighty hand, and they shall become a beacon of light to those who stumble in darkness. When mens hearts fail them for fear in
looking after the things that are coming upon the earth, these shall abide in the
unchanging, unaffected, undisturbed, unshakeable, invincible, eternal nature of their
Father. These are the Living Word beyond
times span; beyond the fluctuations of time these shall remain calm, cool,
and collected, ready to speak peace to him that is afraid.
While many are running to and fro throughout the land trying to find a place
of safety in the storm of trouble, God is preparing His DAY PEOPLE who shall stand in the
midst of the land and many shall come to the brightness of their rising. Isaiah looked forward to this day and described
the dawning of Gods glory, saying, Then shall thy light break forth as the
morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go
before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward (Isa. 58:8). Hallelujah! What
a day! To all who by the Spirit enter into
this day, into this dimension of His rest and glory, into this living reality of His
eternal nature and life
TIME SHALL BE NO MORE!
To be continued
J. PRESTON EBY
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