THE HOLY
CITY
(continued)
“And
the city had no need of the sun, neither
of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Rev.
21:23).
These
words of illumination and power do not infer that when God displays His holy
city in all her glory there is no longer the literal sun nor the moon in the
starry heavens above. For the reference
here is to spiritual realities, not
to the natural order of things. The holy
city is not a literal city of material gold and precious stones, therefore its
light is not a natural light of the physical creation. The text
does not state that there will be no sun or moon, but that the glorified elect
of the Lord will have no need of it. In other words, the sun and moon have nothing
to contribute to this realm of light and glory where God’s people dwell, for
their light is the spiritual light of
understanding, revelation, truth, and glory — the light of Life. For that kind
of illumination any kind of natural light is unnecessary and irrelevant. In the light that the Spirit brings we see
God face to face. The glory of God, that
is, the radiation of all His perfections, lightens the city, that is, the minds
and hearts and lives of the saints who constitute the city. And this is through Christ, the Lamb, who
Himself is the light of Life and the Shekinah radiating and illuminating the
entire city, His Holy of holies for the ages to come.
In
the long ago beginning God said, “Let there be light.” Nothing happens on any level in any creation
without light. Darkness covered the face
of the deep, the record states, therefore light was the first prerequisite for
God’s great plan to be set in motion. If
we think of that darkness that covered the earth only as natural darkness, that
is, the absence of physical light, we miss the point altogether. There may be reference here to natural
darkness, but if so it is only in the form of a type or shadow. The real reference is to another kind of
darkness. Isaiah tells us that just
before the unveiling of God’s Holy
City darkness will cover
the earth, and gross darkness the people (Isa. 60:1-3). Now, the prophet is not speaking of natural
darkness here, but of spiritual darkness.
So in the beginning there was something more than natural darkness that
covered the earth. In the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:2 we
find the inference that sometime after the “beginning” in which God had created
the heavens and the earth, the earth suffered some tremendous judgment or
cataclysmic catastrophe, falling into chaos, formlessness, and dense darkness,
both natural and spiritual. Then it was
that the divine fiat came, “Let there be light!”
What
was this light that God introduced into the world or the kosmos? If the Spirit of God will help us we will put
this in words that will clearly help us to understand the great truth that God
would teach us. Let us then take heed to
the words of our faithful Lord when He spoke, saying, “I am the light of the kosmos,” and
“I am come a light into the kosmos, that
whosoever believeth into me should not abide in darkness.” Jesus claimed that He Himself was the
light of the world, the kosmos, and if His claim was true, when did He become
the light of the kosmos? Speaking of our
Lord Jesus, who from the beginning was the Word, or the Logos, John by
inspiration wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with
God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life; and the life was the light of
men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness is not able to put
it out. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John (the Baptist). The
same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through Him
might believe. He was not that Light,
but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
That was THE TRUE LIGHT, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. HE WAS IN THE KOSMOS, AND THE
KOSMOS WAS MADE BY HIM, AND THE KOSMOS KNEW
HIM NOT” (Jn. 1:1-10).
Here
we have Christ Jesus presented as the Light, the true Light, who was the Light
from the very beginning of the kosmos, and the Light today. Jesus was
the Light of the kosmos, and Jesus is
the light of the kosmos. There is no
other Light but our Christ! As all types
and patterns, the things material and physical, the things seen, are only
figures of the true, so all light, no matter from what source it comes, is only
a type of the Light which is the true Light, and that Light is
Christ the Lord. Christ Jesus is the
true Light! All other light is only
a shadow of this which is the true
Light. So there is the figure, the type,
and there is the true. So whatever
natural light may have shed its rays into the thick and dreadful darkness of
the earth realm in that primordial beginning when God said, “Let there be
light,” the great and eternal truth is
that “In Him WAS life, and the life WAS the light of men!” The light of the world has always been
Jesus! HE was the light that shined out
of darkness, and it is just as true today as John tells us, “Again a new commandment
I write unto you, which thing is true in
Him and in you, because the darkness is passing, and the TRUE LIGHT now
shineth” (I Jn. 2:8).
Let
us return now to the thought about the holy city having no need of the sun, neither
of the moon. It is here that a great
secret is revealed. Let your spiritual
mind grasp this truth: In the tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness, as well as
in the temple of Solomon
in Jerusalem,
there were three different kinds of light.
And by this light there were three different kinds of orders. The Outer
Court had no covering, so in the Outer Court the sun
was the light, but there was night in that realm too, for when the sun set in
the western sky the Outer Court
was veiled in darkness, except for the light of the moon. Then in the Holy Place
there was the candlestick, and there was a glimmering light in that
compartment, not a very bright light, but a light ever burning and sufficient
to illuminate that realm by day and by night.
That light was produced out of an indwelling, out of the oil that was in the candlestick producing light. It was not a perfect light because the wick
had to be trimmed daily, and the oil must be continually replenished. There was a necessary service rendered to that
candlestick by the priests to maintain the light, just as we have needed the
ministry of the word, the function of the gifts, the dealings of the Spirit,
and seasons of refreshing and times of revival in order to rid our lives of
recurring carnality, keep a supply of oil, and maintain the light of God burning
in our lives. That is the Holy Place! But you know, when you enter in to the Most Holy Place, the
Holiest of all, the light of that realm is the Shekinah, the blazing,
penetrating fullness of the glory of God, and there are no shadows and there is
no night there! It is eternal
light! The Shekinah is not dependent
upon anything! It waits upon no dawn for
its sun to rise, and no dusk for its moon to shine. It is not drawn or derived from any earthly
substance. It doesn’t have to be
serviced. There is no wick to trim, no
oil to pour, no priestly ministration of any kind to maintain it. It simply is, because God is! As the bride of the Lamb and the sons of God
come to perfection and the fullness of Christ, the lights and luminaries of the
old spiritual heavens truly become darkened, so that the word of the seer of Patmos becomes wondrously fulfilled in us — “And the city
had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for
the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”
The
sun that shone upon the Outer Court
was a figure of the word of God that came to Israel through Moses, the word of
the Old Covenant. It was indeed a word from God Himself, who
is often in scripture spoken of as a “sun.”
And yet, in the fullest sense, it was not the pure and full revelation
of the Lord Himself, for it was “a” word from God, but not “the” word of God in
its fullness. It was “light,” but not
the full light, not the pure light, nor the true
light which Christ Himself is.
Therefore the sun of the Outer
Court signifies a partial revelation of God when
contrasted with the Shekinah of the Most
Holy Place.
The sun can never compare in either its brilliance or its glory with the
light of the Most Holy Place! The sun of the Outer Court signifies a partial revelation,
whereas the Shekinah of the Most
Holy Place represents the TRUE LIGHT of the Lord
Himself in all His glorious and eternal reality!
The
new Jerusalem does not need the light of the sun, nor of the moon, because in
this eternal Holy of holies dwells the fullest presence of the almighty Father
and the Lamb who are the light of it. It
certainly doesn’t need the light of the moon! Through the summer months
Lorain and I
enjoy sitting on the front porch of our house in the late evenings listening to
the night sounds and watching the stars, moon, satellites, airplanes, and
occasionally a meteorite in the heavens above.
We especially like to be out there at the full moon and see it rise up
over the Hueco
mountains in all its brilliance. What do
we know when we see that beautiful moon shining so brightly? We know the sun is in the heavens; we can’t
see it, but we know it’s there because the moon is shining, reflecting the
light of the sun!
May
God open the eyes of every reader of these lines to clearly see and understand
the great mystery that we now unfold. Israel of old
with her outward law, outward sacrifices, outward temple, outward priesthood,
outward feasts, outward rituals and ceremonies — all these external ministrations
were merely a sign that Yahweh was in
the heavens! Like the moon, all these
things merely reflected the light of
God, the Spirit, but they were not the light and not one of them had any light
within itself. The moon shines so that
we know the sun is there, and it
helps to guide us through our night of
darkness. The great truth that the Holy
Spirit would make known to us is that
external religious ordinances of every kind are typified by the moon — they are
not the true light of Christ, they have no
light within themselves, they merely reflect light. As the writings of the New Testament
progress, we see a theme unfold before our wondering eyes which eventually
bursts forth in all the splendor of an opening flower of truth. The writer to the Hebrews exudes the
fragrance of this truth when he writes, “Which
was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and
sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect…which stood
only in meats and drinks, and divers washings (Greek: baptismos — baptisms), and carnal ordinances, IMPOSED ON THEM UNTIL
THE TIME OF REFORMATION (CHANGE)” (Heb. 9:9-10). These externals were needed when men could
neither see nor know God and needed to be assured that God was there. But now, praise His name, He has sent the
spirit of His son and we are putting on
the Lord Jesus Christ, we are being immersed in and clothed upon with the
light of the glory of God that radiates from the face of Jesus Christ! Therefore we no longer have need for the
reflected light of the moon of external forms, rituals, ceremonies, creeds, ordinances,
baptisms, programs, or any other work of man FOR THE DARKNESS IS PAST AND THE TRUE LIGHT NOW SHINES! Isn’t it wonderful!
In
nearly every religious church system today we have a lot of reflected light of outward rituals,
ceremonies, sacraments, and ordinances. The
people who walk in this light are living in the Outer Court of spiritual
experience. Water baptism, for example,
is merely an outward symbol of reflected light, for it is an external exercise
which stands for and represents and portrays the spiritual reality of that true baptism into the
depths of Christ whereby our sins and our old Adamic nature and flesh life
are washed away by the washing of regeneration, and our new creation life is
raised up in the power of His resurrection!
Earlier we quoted a passage where the apostle John tells us that John
the Baptist, who baptized with water, was not
the true light; he came only to bear
witness to that true light, which is Christ. John the Baptist himself said of Christ, “He must increase, I must decrease.” And again, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than
I, whose shoes I am not worth to unloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Mat.
3:11). Can we not see by this that water
baptism is John’s baptism, whereas
Holy Spirit baptism is Christ’s
baptism! The former is the light of
the moon, it merely bears witness to Him who is the light, but is not the true
light; those who walk in the city of God,
and in the light of the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, have no need of
the light of the sun, neither of the moon, for THE TRUE LIGHT NOW SHINES!
Someone
says, “But brother Eby, the Lord Jesus Himself told His disciples to go into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them…” But, I ask,
baptizing them into what? Oh, how God’s
people need to cast away from themselves the vain traditions of men and pay
careful attention to what the Spirit is saying!
What the Lord said was just this, “Baptizing them into the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Mat. 28:19). Is baptizing them into the name the same as
baptizing them into water? Certainly not! Nothing is said about water in this wonderful
passage! In scripture “name” signifies
“nature.” “Preach the gospel and baptize
them into
the nature of the Lord.” Ah,
that is not something that happens in a tank of water, my beloved, it can only
be wrought by the inworking of the mighty power of God’s Word and God’s Spirit!
It is a spiritual work, not a sacramental one. Another aspect of spiritual baptism is found
in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians wherein he says, “For by
one Spirit are we all baptized into one body…and have been all made to
drink of that one Spirit” (I Cor. 12:13).
Is “the Spirit” baptizing us into the “body” of Christ the same as “the
preacher” baptizing us into “water”? I
think not! This baptism places us in our
position and function in the body of Christ.
Only the Holy Spirit can do this!
Therefore Paul says later to the Galatians,
“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ HAVE PUT ON CHRIST” (Gal.
3:27). Has everyone who has been “baptized into water” put on Christ? Absolutely not! In fact, the admonition to “put ye on the
Lord Jesus Christ” is made to believers — not to sinners just coming to be
saved! Truly it is the work of the Spirit and has
nothing whatever to do with any kind of water baptism!
The
Lord’s supper or communion is but an outward symbol or reflected light of that
deep spiritual experience whereby we truly eat the flesh (word) of Christ and
drink His blood (spirit) in reality. The
whole Christian world, including some who profess to be sons of God, continue to walk on in the
semi-darkness of the reflected light of the moon, practicing superstitious
external rituals which they suppose have some magical, mystical, spiritual
power. But those elect saints of the Lord who become the holy
city of God
LIVE
AND WALK
IN THE REALM
ABOVE
ALL TYPES
AND SHADOWS
AND SYMBOLS,
ABOVE ALL THE REFLECTED LIGHT AND THE EXTERNAL REALMS, WALKING IN THE
UNDIMINISHED GLORY OF THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY AND THE LAMB, WHO ARE THE LIGHT OF
IT! That is the mystery.
The
new Jerusalem has no need for the light of the sun nor the light of the moon,
nor yet for the light of the seven-branched candlestick, for this holy city has
no Outer Court
and no Holy Place! Those holy sons and daughters of God who
dwell there have no need for the outward
light of the Outer Court, the light of creeds, ceremonies, rituals,
sacraments, or any other work of man, for the very presence, mind, life, and
nature of God Himself as their very state
of being is their illumination! Nor do
they need the dim light of the Holy Place, the
light of gifts or any other ministry of the “in part” realm. The Holy
Place experience in God is entered through the
baptism in the Holy Spirit. When we
stepped into this Holy Place
of the indwelling Spirit the light of
His presence released in our lives permeated the whole room! How we thank God for the light produced by
the candlestick in the Holy Place, though it is limited in its power and range
of illumination, for it is not “the Spirit without measure,” as Jesus received,
but merely the “firstfruits of the Spirit,” that is, the first installment or
the down payment. There is more to
come! We’re grateful for the “in part” realm,
for only by passing through the dim light of the Holy Place can we enter on in to the blazing Shekinah glory of the Holiest
of all! This blessed truth that the Holy City
has no need of either the light of the Outer Court or the light of the Holy
Place is confirmed
absolutely in verse five of chapter twenty-two wherein we read, “And there
shall be no night there; and they need no candle,
neither light of the sun…” The word
“candle” is the Greek word for lamp; tallow
and wax candles as we know them were not invented until long after John wrote. With a slight variation it is essentially the same word
used in the Revelation for the seven golden candlesticks. Thus, this city has no need of the light
of the sun of the Outer Court,
nor yet for the light of the candlestick in the Holy Place!
The
revelation of the Lord in this Holy
Place (Pentecostal realm) is always calling us
onward. The revelation of the Lord
within ourselves will never leave us in the same position where we receive
it. This should let us know, that as
wonderful and glorious as this Holy
Place is, it is not the ultimate in God! He is ever calling us onward towards the Most Holy Place,
unto Himself, in that dimension of fullness where it is His glory alone that
fills the room. In the Most Holy Place
there are no common priests, no in-part ministries of gifts and graces, no
distractions of sacrifice slayings, of laver washings, of wick trimming, and
making sure there is adequate oil in the
lamps — that is, no re-consecrations, re-fillings, or revivings. There is only the High Priest ministry, and
the constant, unchanging, undiminished, brilliantly shining glory of His
all-consuming presence and power! In the
Most Holy Place
there is no more labor of baking and replenishing the bread on the table. There is now the eternal, incorruptible manna
within the ark of the covenant, that is, eternal, incorruptible life! In the
Most Holy Place
there are no more efforts of periods of burning incense — times of refreshing
from the presence of the Lord — seasons of God’s movings as we labor in the
travail of prayers and intercessions and the ministry of praise and
worship. There is only the abiding law of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus, the state of being His nature by
which we are all that He is! The Holy
Place of Moses’ tabernacle was oblong in shape,
being twenty cubits in length, ten cubits in width, and ten in height. The Holy of holies, on the other hand, was
ten cubits in length, width, and height, or a perfect cube. The only other cube described in the scriptures is the holy city, New
Jerusalem! The perfect cube of the Holy of holies now finds its ultimate
fulfillment in the city of God! “And
the city lieth foursquare…the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal” (Rev.
21:16).
Now
a cube is the most perfect figure, being equal on every side — finite
perfection. It is what you call
finality, it is the most comprehensive, and it holds the most — nothing
contains as much as a cube — and therefore it is given here as the expression
of perfection and fullness.
It is divinely inwrought perfection and fullness — the very glory of
God — and therefore it is spoken of as a cube.
The message is clear — one can never
know the glory, illumination, and power of this city in the Outer Court of
popular religion, nor yet in the Holy
Place of a Pentecostal economy. Only those who by faith enter in beyond the
veil into the glorious and eternal reality of the “Most Holy Place” can ever begin to touch
and know the surpassing glory, perfection, and fullness, of this realm of God’s
life! Turn to see the fading of the old
orders, and your back is to the dawning of the new. Turn to see that new light arising, and your
back is to the diminishing former lights.
Pass through, experience these former realms we must, but when the high
priest went beyond the veil into the Holiest of all his back was to the
vanishing glories of both the Holy Place and the Outer Court. If he was only one step in to the Holiest, he was every step out of the Outer Court and the Holy Place. O, to behold Him, and with a single eye to
follow on, for “the path of the just is
as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov.
4:18).
THE NATIONS SHALL WALK IN THE LIGHT OF IT
“And
the nations of them which are saved shall
walk in the light of it: and the
kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it…and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it” (Rev.
21:24,26).
Nothing
is more evident in the word of God than
the fact that God has a great and wonderful plan which He is working out among
the nations of earth. Many saints
recognize that God has a predestined purpose for each of His called and chosen
elect, an appointed end for the multitude of Israel nations, a glorious purpose
for the church, the bride of Christ, and a foreordained plan for the manifest
sons of God. We must also understand
that the Lord has a determined plan and purpose for ALL NATIONS of mankind! God is actively dealing with NATIONS! Many wonderful prophecies reveal God’s
ultimate purpose for the nations of earth, when “ALL the ends of the world shall remember and
turn unto the Lord, and ALL KINDREDS OF THE NATIONS shall worship before Thee,
for the kingdom is the Lord’s and HE is the governor among the nations. Yea, ALL
KINGS shall fall down before Him: ALL
NATIONS SHALL SERVE HIM” (Ps. 22:27-28; 72:11).
It is obvious that all nations do not today serve the Lord, neither do
all kings (rulers) fall down before Him.
China
does not serve the Lord, neither do its rulers acknowledge Him. Turkey does not serve the
Lord. Egypt does not serve the Lord. Vast numbers of nations in Europe, Africa,
Asia, and even in the Americas do
not today serve the Lord, and few of their rulers fall down before Him. But the day is surely coming when all nations
shall be joined to the Lord and fulfill their obligations to Him as their Maker
and Redeemer!
From
the first dawn of human history God has had the formation, development, and
destiny of nations in mind and purpose.
The present nations of earth had their origins in the early days
following the Great Flood. In Genesis
chapter ten is found a most remarkable and comprehensive list of the
descendants of Noah who became the heads of the families and tribes which
subsequently developed into nations.
Even so-called higher critics have often admitted that the tenth chapter
of Genesis is a remarkably accurate historical document. There is no comparable catalog of ancient
nations available from any other source.
It is unparalleled in its antiquity and comprehensiveness. You would do well to read the entire chapter.
The
descendants of Noah migrated over the whole face of the earth, which possibly
was one great land mass before the separation of the continents, forming tribe
after tribe, city after city, and nation after nation. Let all men know that it is the Almighty God
who is the designer and architect of all the nations in the world! The time periods and localities in which
nations flourish have all been pre-arranged by the will of Him who “worketh all things after the counsel of His own
will” (Eph. 1:11). The truth of this
cannot be made any plainer than it is by Moses when he declares, “When the most High divided the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the
bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel” (Deut.
32:8). Paul refers to this very passage when he
says, “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on
the face of all the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and
the bounds
of their habitation; that they
should seek the Lord” (Acts 17:26-27).
How plain it is that it was GOD who, from that long-ago beginning, set
the bounds of habitation or the national boundaries of all nations. These boundaries were established
in relation to the vast multitude of Israel peoples
and with a view to their being able, when the time is ripe, to seek after the Lord.
Yes,
God set the bounds of habitation for all nations and planted Israel of old
at the crossroads, to the end that ALL NATIONS
should seek after the Lord. Out of Israel came the
Christ; out of Christ has come the church, the bride of the Lamb (Eph. 5:21-33;
Rev. 19:7-8); out of the church comes the manchild, the overcoming sons of God
destined to reign with Christ and deliver the whole
creation that it might be fulfilled which God promised father Abraham: “And in
thy seed shall ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH BE BLESSED” (Gen. 22:18). ALL
NATIONS shall be blessed! What a prospect! From
the very beginning God not only designed the nations of men that dwell
upon the earth; He also planned and purposed to bless them — each and every one of them! To “bless” means to put something there that wasn’t there before — resulting in a
sacred usage. This signifies not merely
the blessing of Israel,
or the church, nor the blessing of the saints of God within the nations; it is
THE NATIONS THEMSELVES that must come under the gracious hand of God in
blessing and quickening. Oh, the wonder
of it!
The
sweet singer of Israel
sang of this blessed hope in the spirit of prophecy: “God be merciful unto us,
and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us; that Thy way may be known
upon earth, Thy saving health among ALL
NATIONS. Let the people praise Thee, O
God; let ALL
the people praise Thee! O let THE
NATIONS be glad and sing for joy: for Thou shalt JUDGE THE PEOPLE RIGHTEOUSLY,
and GOVERN THE NATIONS UPON EARTH” (Ps. 67:1-4). What a word!
Many precious “fragments” reveal God’s ultimate purpose for mankind, as when
the heavenly Father addresses His Son and His sons, saying, “Ask of me, and I
WILL GIVE THEE THE NATIONS FOR THINE INHERITANCE, and the uttermost parts of
the earth for thy possession” (Ps. 2:8).
Surely the will and plan of God are revealed in this most gracious
request, and certainly this was the purpose for which Jesus was sent and came. “The Father sent His Son to be the Saviour of
THE WORLD” (I Jn. 4:14). With this divine plan in view, well may David
triumphantly sing, “ALL
NATIONS shall call Him blessed…and blessed be His glorious name for ever, and
let THE WHOLE EARTH be filled with His glory.
Amen and Amen” (Ps. 72:17-19).
We
now come to the most important part of this truth. The ways of the kingdom of God
are not at all like the ways of the church.
The ministry of sonship is not in any way like the church age ministry
of apostles, prophets, evangelists,
pastors, and teachers. Sonship and the Holy City
are the new administration for the new age when the elect of the Lord have
reached their perfection and fullness in Christ. The order of the new age will be altogether
different from the order of the passing age, just as the order of the church
age has been altogether different from the order of the age of the law which it
eclipsed. George Hawtin graphically
articulated this wonderful truth when he wrote in one of his papers, The Page, “Some years ago it was
revealed to me that the evangelization of the nations during the coming age
would be accomplished in exactly the opposite
way to the method used in this age.
In the church age the commission has been, ‘Go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel.’ In the next age entire nations will come to Jerusalem and to Zion
to seek and find the Lord. What could be
more certain than the words spoken by Micah the prophet when he said, ‘But in the last days it shall come to pass
that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of
the mountains (Zion) and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow into it and many nations
shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord
(Zion)…and (there) He will teach us
His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem’ (Mic. 4:1-2).”
During
this church age, by the ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers the
Lord has sent His messengers out and sought
the people. The Lord has sought the
people in this way because the members of His body must be gathered out of the world and out of the nations. But in the new age, when the kingdom of God
comes upon the nations, He will pour upon them the spirit of grace and
supplication and the billions of earth will come, as families, and tribes, and
nations, to seek the wisdom, goodness, salvation, deliverance, life, and glory
revealed in His holy city people — the bride of Christ and the sons of
God. What an indescribable wonder! You see, when the Lord removes the veil, the covering that has been cast over the minds of all people (Isa.
25:7), then all men will see in a clear light and will come to God’s holy
nation to seek His face and His ways.
Centuries ago the prophet Isaiah wrote with great clarity of this same
wonder, saying, “Behold, thou shalt call
a nation that thou knowest not, and nations which knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He hath glorified thee” (Isa. 55:5-6).
This is a glorious promise revealing that entire nations will run to
seek the Lord, because He has glorified
His sons upon the spiritual and
heavenly mount Zion!
What
a marvel that will be when the “Great Commission” of the church age has fully
come to an end! No longer will the Lord
say, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” It is an historical fact that each of the
first apostles to whom that word was spoken, left Judea
and carried the word of Christ to different parts of the world. According to histories I have read Peter went
to Babylon, Thomas to India, James to Spain, Andrew to Scythia, John to Asia, Philip
to France, Thaddeus and
Bartholomew to Armenia and Persia, Matthew to Ethiopia
and Parthia and Macedonia,
James the less to Syria, Jude to Armenia, Syria, and northern Persia, and Simon
the Zealot to Armenia. The dispensing of
the Word in Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome
by Paul is a well-documented fact and there is
some evidence that he went as far as Britain in his spreading of the
gospel. Thus, the Great Commission was
fulfilled in the days of the early church and continued to be carried out to
farther frontiers throughout the age of the formation of the body of
Christ.
That
was a wise
and wonderful plan for this age when God was “calling out a people” from among
the nations for His name. Those who were
sent were never
able to reach all the people, and it was only “whosoever believeth” that
responded to their word. That is how
Christ built His church! No one could improve
on that method for doing the job the Lord required for that age! But now in this new day of the Lord the residue
of men, earth’s teeming masses, and all the nations of the world are being
called upon to COME TO THE LORD. Then, God spoke to His disciples, “Go
ye!” Now,
the Lord will speak to the nations, “Come ye!”
Billions of the world’s darkened, dejected, deceived, weary, and
oppressed souls shall come streaming up to the city of God
seeking an entrance into the kingdom
of the Lord. The elect of the Lord are
the Light that shall shine upon them (Isa. 60:1-22; Rev. 21:24) and the voice
that shall bid them come. “And the
Spirit and the bride say, Come!” (Rev.
22:17). We are also the “gates” through
which the multitudes of earth’s needy shall enter the new Jerusalem city of God (Rev.
21:25).
It
is significant to note that nowhere in the description of New Jerusalem is
anyone seen going out of the city to
minister to the nations or anyone else.
Nowhere! Rather, the testimony of
the Spirit is this: “And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the
kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into
it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all…and they shall bring
the glory and honor of the nations into it.
And there shall in no wise
enter
into it anything that defileth…and the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come…let
him take of the water of life freely.” There can be no doubt that the New
Jerusalem Order reveals to us the new and different order of the kingdom of God
for the coming age, and not the order for this age of the Great
Commission. That glorious order shall so overshadow and eclipse all previous
spiritual visitations, outpourings, missionary efforts, evangelistic crusades,
healing and miracle campaigns, and revivals of every sort, that none of our old
church age terminology will be adequate to describe it. God will indeed need to give us a new vocabulary!
In
this new age of the kingdom all our former ideas, opinions, and methods of evangelism will have to be
discarded. The emphasis of the past age
has been upon GO and DO. Constantly we
are going places and doing things for God! But, thank God, the order is changing! God is doing a new thing! He is establishing a new order in the
earth! And we will have to change with
God! And we will change, because we will be
changed! All the old religious
methods of the past age are passing away!
The time of raising money and sending missionaries and establishing
churches is even now entering its twilight time. I do not say that it has ended; it is a good plan as long as God is calling out a people for His name.
But the new age demands an intensified program of God to harvest all the
nations into the kingdom of God! And even now He is calling some aside to wait
in holy submission and expectation before Him, to be thoroughly processed,
purged, prepared, and strengthened for that new and glorious unveiling of
Himself.
Only
a while back the Lord spoke to me in a dream and told me clearly and powerfully
that there will be a sudden, sovereign, world-wide, universal outpouring of His
Spirit, the spirit of grace, supplication, and revelation as the veil is washed
away off the minds and hearts of literally billions of people. As it were overnight they will behold the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! The masses will awaken as from a dream and
the Lord Himself shall appear to them in His glory. In that instant they will know the truth and abandon all their
false philosophies and religious delusions. THEN, the Lord spoke to me, the sons of God
will be manifested and these peoples will flow to them to be taught and
instructed, and the sons of God will establish the new order, life, and power
of the kingdom among the people of the whole earth. Until the Lord spoke this word to me I had supposed
it would be the other way around, that the sons would go forth in incorruptible
life and power throughout the earth and then
there would be a mighty moving of the Spirit of God upon all people. But the Lord said, “No — I will pour out my
Spirit upon all flesh and then the
sons will be manifested to establish the kingdom in
their midst.” We may think we
have witnessed mighty manifestations of God’s power and glory in the past, but
we haven’t seen anything yet!
Even
with the light of divine revelation it is difficult to imagine the wonderful
sight of entire nations coming to the Lord!
Think of what it will be like!
One day a nation is communist, filled with people spouting by rote the
godless line of Lenin or Mao. The lives
of the people are tightly controlled by that totalitarian system, with all its
oppression and tyranny. But then, the
Lord God Almighty speaks a word from His throne in the heavens of His Spirit
and there is released a mighty flood, a deluge
of the Spirit of the Lord over that nation; the glory of the Lord appears to
every man in power as He did to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, and the
whole nation is set free by the power of God.
All the people of that nation turn to the Lord to love, worship, and
serve Him. Then the indestructible, incorruptible sons of God
will appear in the earth and the people will seek God in the person of His
sons, and there will be a dispensation of life, light, and power unto
them. In the sons of God they will see
and learn and know the ways of the Lord,
the will of the Lord, and all aspects of their national life will become
transformed by the wisdom
and nature of God. With one mighty sweep
of His Spirit, God has changed a communist nation into a nation that loves and
serves the true and living God! The kingdom of God
has then come to that people and nation!
Throughout
church history the Lord has given us little “previews” of just how such a
wonderful work can be accomplished. I
know of several, but will share this one.
I do not have the name of the person who first reported this incident,
but it was shared by responsible brethren, therefore I pass it on to my
readers. In 1983, a remarkable incident
took place in a North African village located some 125 miles east of the city
of Algiers. On one unforgettable night — with no prior
warning and for no immediately discernible reason — God sovereignly descended
upon this township in a divine
visitation. Moving from house to house,
and communicating through a combination of dreams, visions, and angelic
visitations, He did not rest until every member of this Muslim community was
properly introduced to Jesus. Come
daybreak, nearly every villager had a story to tell! As the Holy Spirit lingered and these simple
citizens managed to piece together the magnitude of what had happened to them,
a sense of spiritual awe settled over the entire village. In the weeks that
followed, their conclusion led to a dramatic wholesale conversion of some 400
to 450 Muslim villagers. There were only
about 25 believers in the whole nation before
this incident. In the area thousands
more Muslims have now been converted to faith in Christ, and nearly all
reported some type of supernatural intervention!
We
have come to a period of history, and to a condition, for which there are
no precedents. There are no instructions left for guidance
in the details of the restoration of all things, beginning with the deliverance of all the Lord’s own people from the tyranny
and folly of religious Babylon, followed by the deliverance of the nations from every kind of sin and delusion and their entrance into the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit has given no exact direction
concerning the manner in which His holy priesthood for the nations is to
minister or its work be effected. We
have, in the scriptures, abundant instructions for the “in part” realm of
church age ministry. It is not difficult
to learn how to function in the body of Christ as an apostle, prophet,
evangelist, pastor,
teacher, deacon, bishop, elder, or to move in the supernatural gifts of the
Spirit. But I defy any teacher or theologian
to find anything that will give direct help, even in the words of Jesus
Himself, concerning how to reign as a King-Priest over the nations! He left that for the Holy Spirit to teach to
the elect company of overcomers who should be the heirs of the kingdom of God.
We have come to that hour. Ah, we
can only learn these sacred and secret things by being TAUGHT OF HIM! “I have yet many things to say unto you, but
ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when
He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth…and He will
SHOW YOU THINGS TO COME” (Jn. 16:12-13).
We
think we have seen some wonderful moves of God, and we have, but we haven’t
even scratched the surface, we haven’t seen anything yet that faintly resembles
the glorious things God will do in the days that lie before us. With all its multiplied missionary programs
and evangelistic efforts the church has not yet even started on world
evangelism. God is laying a groundwork
and teaching, processing, qualifying, equipping, and empowering His people for
this coming invasion of all the world.
He must do something unprecedented for us first, so that we will be
ready. Today if a country refuses to
accept missionaries, such as all the communist and Muslim nations, we simply
can’t send any. These countries are
closed. So we need a power and a life greater than any of us have seen or experienced before in order to walk in
those lands without being either promptly expelled or martyred. Indestructible,
incorruptible, glorified bodies would certainly be the answer! And
that’s what manifest sonship is all about, as Paul so clearly said, “For I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God. For the creation was made
subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the
same in hope. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. For
we know that the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption (placement as mature, fully empowered sons),
to wit, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY” (Rom. 8:18-23). Obviously,
we don’t have all that we need for this great work, but God is quickening us
for it. He is stripping away our
dependence upon money, methods,
materials, and all the conventional ways of the old church order and the
traditions of religious Babylon,
drawing us to move out of that and into HIS REALM. The realm of God is the realm of spirit and of life. It is the realm of being.
God is teaching us the ways of sonship
to God.
What
wonders shall be wrought when our Father has glorified His sons with the glory
of Christ! All the nations of the world
shall remember and turn unto the Lord, bowing before the
feet of this glorious Christ, confessing Him as their Saviour, Redeemer, Lord,
and King, to worship Him in spirit and in truth. And since it is nations, and not individuals, that shall come to the Lord,
it is obvious that they shall not come to a geographical location. There will be no literal, physical throne nor
any literal, earthly city. The
government of God is a glorified people
reigning in the Spirit and by the Spirit from heavenly places in Christ
Jesus! But they shall COME to the mountain of the Lord’s power, to the beautiful and
spiritual temple of living stones, to a kingdom of priests and an holy nation,
glorified in the midst of the earth. It
is an absurd impossibility to imagine whole nations coming to a literal mount Zion,
or to great crusades in stadiums or buildings, which are all so limited. Such carnal thinking is a remnant from the
old age now passing, and has no place in the new order of the kingdom of God
upon the nations. God will not repeat
the limited methods of the past, for they cannot prevail to do the work that
must be done in this new Day. The
world-wide outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the manifestation of the sons of
God is the next significant event on the agenda of God’s kingdom program. What a marvelous plan, revealed and confirmed
now by the Spirit of the living God within our hearts! We know God’s purpose because He has called
us and chosen us to be a vital part in the redemption and restoration of all
things. And we will be there — whether
by transformation while we yet stand upon our two feet, or whether by
resurrection — we wait in holy expectation!
NOTHING THAT DEFILES SHALL ENTER
“And
there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are
written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27).
That
scripture passage need not scare us.
It’s not a message of fear and condemnation as the church systems often
teach! It signifies our calling as overcomers
— called to obtain the victory over all the works of the flesh, the world, and
the devil. It is my conviction that the
reference is not to those hungry, thirsty, and needy souls who come to the city
to enter in through its gates in order to be blessed, delivered, and to drink of its living waters
of salvation. Rather, it speaks to those
who are called, chosen, and apprehended to be a part of this city and its
holiness and its glory. The inwrought
victories of the overcomer is what qualifies one to be a part of this glorious
city of gold! Neither is John trying to
tell us in this passage that if we haven’t overcome everything we will miss
heaven and wind up in hell. That
interpretation is just another example of the shallow thinking and mis-guided
understanding of religious minds! The
Holy Spirit is pointing out to every child of God that we can reveal the
nature, glory, and majesty of our God in the fullest measure only when we have
completely put off the old man with
his deeds, and have put on the new
man which is created in righteousness and true holiness. The nations of them that are saved walk in the light of the city,
signifying that they are not the city, but
they are healed, saved, and enlightened by it.
Multitudes of believers, because they have no vision to overcome all
things or to grow up unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
settle for a lesser calling in God. Only
those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, that is, those in
whose lives the nature of the Lamb has been inscribed
by the power of His indwelling life — these are truly they who radiate the
glory of the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb!
No
one whose nature has not been thoroughly changed shall be a part of this
city. Since this city is the body of
Christ in its perfection and fullness, only those who have been redeemed by
God, and are walking in the Spirit of God until He has transformed completely
their nature, so that they have come to perfect purity, perfect knowledge,
perfect wisdom, perfect love, and perfect power, shall arrive at this STATE OF PERFECTON
which IS the holy city! This is the
wonderful plan that God has devised whereby nothing
that defiles can enter into this city.
For all who have come to this state have arrived at perfection and there
will be no sin, sickness, or death left within them. Aren’t you glad!
My
heart has been greatly stirred and fortified by these words from one of brother Bob Torango’s writings. “This Day is going to challenge us like no
other word from God ever has. Put your
seat belts on, put all loose objects under the seat in front of you, and get
ready for the ride of your life! We are
leaving the earth realm, and we are soaring into the heavens of God. It is here that angels fear to tread. No flesh
can survive in this place, nothing that loves a lie, nothing that hurts or
destroys, nothing that seeks its own glory, nothing that is prideful or
arrogant, nothing that is despiteful or jealous, nothing that draws its
existence from darkness or death can abide here. This is reserved territory, by invitation
only, kept back from former ages until now, set aside for a people that God has
ordained from the foundation of the world.
It is for the dead in Christ, those that have been sown in weakness,
sown in death, that have borne the image of the earthly, these are the same
ones that know the plan, that whatsoever is sown in death, will be quickened by
life, that life comes from death, that out of weakness comes strength…our loss
is His gain, our death is His life, our surrender is His victory!”
We
cannot be too emphatic now in saying that the new Jerusalem is the HOLY CITY. There is a lot of uncleanness in religious circles,
not the uncleanness of drunkenness, or nicotine, or adultery, but the
uncleanness of jealousy, criticism, pride, self-exaltation, worry, fear, and
unrighteous judgment. No wonder the
prophet said, “The sinners in Zion
are afraid” (Isa. 33:14). Not the
sinners in China, not the
sinners in the night clubs, not the sinners in the prisons, but the sinners in Zion! And then the prophet adds, “…fearfulness
hath surprised the hypocrites.” Not the
hypocrites in politics, not the hypocrites in business, not the hypocrites in
religious Babylon, but the hypocrites in Zion! What is a hypocrite? A play-actor, a pretender, a faker — playing
at spirituality, acting as though he were something that he is not, pretending
that he is everything in God’s sight, committed completely unto God, spirit,
soul, and body, the select of the elect, ready for entrance into the kingdom
and the city — but playing at it.
Then,
in the same passage, the prophet asks the burning question, “Who among us (in Zion) shall dwell with
the devouring fire? Who among us shall
dwell with everlasting burnings? He that
walketh righteously, that speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of
oppressions…that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes
from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high:
his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him;
his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes
shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far
off. Look upon Zion,
the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle
that shall not be taken down: not one of the stakes thereof shall be removed,
neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But
there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams…for
the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: He will
save us”
To be continued… J. PRESTON EBY
