THE HOLY
CITY
(continued)
“And
he showed me a pure river of water
of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of
the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1).
“There
is a river, the streams whereof shall
make glad the city of God, the holy
place of the tabernacles of the most High” (Ps. 46:4).
“If
any man thirst, let him come unto me,
and drink. He that believeth on (Greek: into) me, as
the scripture hath said, out of his
innermost being shall flow rivers of living water…this spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on (into)
Him should receive” (Jn. 7:37-38).
“He
brought me again unto the door of the house (temple); and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold
of the house eastward…and it shall come to pass, that every thing that
liveth…whithersoever the river shall
come, shall live…” (Eze. 47:1,9).
THERE
IS A RIVER! Jesus explained that this river
comes out of the innermost being of those who have believed into Him.
In Revelation it comes out of the throne. In Ezekiel it comes out of the temple. There is His Spirit within us that is
sufficient. There is a fountain, there
is a river of life within each saint of God.
You don’t have to be dry, parched, and thirsty or have any lack. I want to tell you today what a powerful
thing you have within you in this river!
The
dispensationalist view tells us that this temple
Ezekiel
saw is a “Millennial Temple” that will be
built over in the land
of Israel
during the thousand year reign of Christ.
I do not hold that view. It is my
conviction that under the new covenant God has only one temple, a spiritual
temple, and that the temple
Ezekiel
saw is the same temple the New Testament speaks of when it says, “Know ye
not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you? If any man defile the temple of God
(the abomination of desolation), him shall God destroy; for the temple of God
is holy, which temple YE ARE” (I Cor. 3:16-17). “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you…” (I
Cor. 6:19). “And what agreement hath the
temple of God
with idols? for ye are the temple
of the living God; as God
hath said, I WILL DWELL IN THEM, AND WALK IN THEM…” (II Cor. 6:16). “Ye are built upon the foundation…Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord…habitation of God through the
Spirit” (Eph. 2:20-22). “Him
that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God” (Rev.
3:12).
In
the New Testament the Greek word for temple is naos meaning an “inner sanctuary,” that is, the most holy place of
the temple. God has never been too excited about temples made with hands. God has always been concerned with the temple
of living stones, for He promised
that under His new covenant, “I will dwell in
them.” In view of the fact that you
are the temple I would remind you of the greatness of the river that flows out
from within you! Oh, yes, there is a
river in the temple! We need to know
what it is, why it is, how it got there, and what its potential is. And when you understand the purpose behind
the powerful truth that there is a river in the temple, you will comprehend as never before the deep
mystery of our sonship to God.
The
Holy Spirit of Life was shown to the prophet Ezekiel as a small stream issuing
out of the temple
of God,
from under the threshold, which periodically increased until it became a mighty
river. In this vision the prophet was
conducted along the river by the messenger of the Lord — in the form of a man. This man held a measuring line in his
hand, and with it he measured the greatness of the river. In another vision Ezekiel said, “In the five
and twentieth year of our captivity…in the visions of God brought he me into
the land of Israel,
and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was… a city…and he brought me
thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the
appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring
reed…” In the opening chapter of the
book of Ezekiel, in his first vision, Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord and it
also had the appearance of a man (Eze. 1:1-5). When John the Revelator in vision beheld the
glorified Lord he said that His feet looked like burnished brass. John saw a man of brass! Brass throughout scripture is a
symbol of judgment. He saw the Judge
who stood in the midst of the seven
churches! So who is the man of brass — the judge? Christ!
Who is the man of brass Ezekiel met?
The same one he met in chapter one as the glory of God — Christ! Everything in the whole prophecy of Ezekiel is governed and measured
according to the measure of the man that is in the throne! He is the governor. He is the one who measures the temple, the
churches, the city (Rev. 22:15-17), and the river! There can be no river out of the sanctuary
until there is a man in the throne.
Nothing gets governed until HE governs it. Nothing gets measured to determine its
spiritual stature until HE measures it. Everything
must measure up to the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Everything
in these scenes is governed and measured by the man in the throne — the
glorified Christ!
There
is a river flowing out of the sanctuary.
The source of the river is the Man in the sanctuary. One of the New Testament writers calls Him
“the hidden man of the heart.” The
writer to the Hebrews tells us that when this Man ministers in the ability of
His priesthood He ministers after the power
of an endless life. The Greek word indicates
that this is the power of an indissoluble, indestructible, and inexhaustible
life. Who is the source of the
river that’s in you? The Man in the
sanctuary! Know you not that YOU are the
temple, the sanctuary of the living God?
This is the Man within you who sits far above all that assails you or
troubles you! The source of the river that’s in you is the Man in the
sanctuary and that source is endless, inexhaustible, indestructible, and
undefeatable! In every situation and
circumstance He’s always bubbling up. He’s
always flowing, invigorating, cleansing.
He’s always sufficient. You don’t
have to be upset, confused, fearful, tormented, oppressed, hindered, bound,
overcome by anything within or without.
The waters that flow out of the sanctuary of your spirit are living,
life-giving waters! They are sent out to
cleanse from all sin and conquer all death and cause the tree of life to grow
up out of your reality. There is only
one thing that can minister to lack, carnality, disease, and death — that’s the
river! Thank God that in the midst of my
fear and weakness and need there is a river in the midst of me — there is a
river in the temple, which makes glad the city of our God.
In
what direction do the waters flow? They
flow out
of your belly, out of the temple, out of
the throne. But which direction do they
flow? Eastward. The east is the land of the
rising sun. It bespeaks of a new
day. God has a new day for
everybody and everything. No matter what
you have been through, or are passing through at this very moment, my beloved,
there is a new day, a new beginning, because God makes all things new! When the river began to flow, the Man began
to measure. How far did he measure? How many cubits? A thousand (Eze. 47:2-6). One thousand is the symbol for the day of the Lord. “But beloved, be not ignorant of this one
thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day” (II Pet. 3:8).
Day to day the Man measured, a thousand cubits to a thousand
cubits. When you get to the final day of
His measuring THERE ARE WATERS TO SWIM IN, WATERS THAT CANNOT BE
CROSSED OVER! That is a dimension in
God, a dimension in life of super abundance, of all sufficiency, so deep and so
wide you cannot fathom it, an unlimited and inexhaustible supply. Unto the infinite! The unsearchable
riches! The unspeakable gift! This is
your new day.
Christ
is a priest who finished the work and
sat down in the throne. He once and for
all gained the victory and sat down in the throne. Then He released the outflow of His triumph
into all your limitation and sin and trouble and death! Now there’s a river in the temple. And the source of the river is the Man in the
throne. How deep is the river? Well, its source is infinite, unfathomable,
and He wants you to get past the ankle stage, the knee stage, and the loin
stage. When the water reaches the ankles
we find refreshment in the spirit. When
the water reaches the knees we bow in reverence and submission to God. And you will discover, precious friend of
mine, that the deeper the water becomes, the less control you have. If you don’t believe that, go wade out into
the Mississippi or the Nile or the Euphrates. When
the water reaches the loins we begin to reproduce life — divine life out of the
new creation man within us. It is
significant to note that these three areas — the ankles, the knees, and the
loins — are the three areas to which the garments of the high priest
reached. When he was fully dressed it
represented the fullness of God invested in man.
There
is a progressive unfoldment of the fullness of the Spirit of Life — from the
ankles to the knees to the loins to total inundation and overflowing! “But,” you say, “how can I attain to
something so high and so deep?” Ah, when
Ezekiel was shown the vision he said of the Man who conducted him, “And he brought me…” And when the water began to flow he said,
“And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he
measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters…” (Eze.
47:3). As the waters became deeper and
deeper, in each case the prophet repeated the same words, “And he
brought me through the waters.” How did you or I get to where we are in
God today? How did we get this
understanding of God’s great plan and purpose, and His call to sonship and the
kingdom? How have we overcome so many
things that seemed insurmountable in our lives?
HE BROUGHT ME! Ah, it wasn’t your
doing or my doing. IT IS THE LORD!
But
note — rivers do not flow in a straight line, they constantly change directions
and are full of bends. The Spirit of God
does not lead us or carry us in a straight line; His anointings, dealings,
unveilings, and His ministries in and through us change directions from time to
time. Oh, how many turns we have been
through in our lives! The ministry of
yesterday is not the ministry of today.
The word for yesterday is not the word for today. The way God moved in the past is not how He
is moving now, either in general, or in our individual lives. The experiences of former times carried us in
one direction, and today we walk a different path. God is not doing today the same thing He was
doing in the centuries, decades, years, or even months in the past. One lesson we have learned quite well — we
must turn when the river turns! And here
is blessed hope and consolation: A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming
all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, but then comes
to an obstacle and for a while it is blocked, yet in due time it makes a
pathway either around or through the obstacle.
The river
of God
overcomes all obstacles! Always! Never
focus your eyes, beloved, on the obstacle or the difficulty. The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference and
irrelevancy to the river that will flow steadily through you — keep your eyes
upon the source, and not the
obstacle!
THE OUT-FLOWING OF GOD
In
the new Jerusalem city of God
there is the florescent river of life.
Along this river grows the tree of life.
The tree of life in Eden, on the one hand, signifies
the partaking of divine life by man,
the dispensing of God into man. The
river of life, on the other hand, signifies the outflowing of life from man who has received life, the pouring
forth of life out of the kingdom of heaven unto the barrenness of the earth
realm. True, the river will also first
do its work in us before it flows
onward out from us. All life was to be found in Eden,
just as it is in the new Jerusalem — the kingdom of heaven on earth. Eden was constituted debtor to
the whole earth to send forth the life-giving streams. To the overcomer is given to enter into the
paradise of God and take of the tree of life; but the river of life out of Eden
is the profound expression of God’s purpose to not only enter into the lives of
His elect, transforming them into the tree of life kind of people, but to also
cause them to become a RIVER OF LIFE COMPANY, a people out of whom the life
would flow! “Out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.”
Ah, beloved, God is bringing forth His elect who live by the tree of
life but shall also be a river of life, for the spirit of life within them is
an ever-flowing wellspring of life and glory!
Wherever God flows out by His Spirit, there He is found as life,
victory, and eternal reality!
The
manifestation of the sons of God shall utterly eclipse anything we have ever
read in the Bible or in church history!
The River of Life
has been flowing in the city of God,
for truly “there is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of our
God.” The river has sprung up within
those elect saints who as a firstfruit have experienced within themselves the
powers of the kingdom of heaven in the realms of the Spirit. It is accomplishing its mighty work within
them, and today the city of God is being made glad! But soon it shall empty into the vast oceans
of humanity, bringing life and blessing to a dry and parched wilderness where
no water is. “Behold, I shall do a new thing; now it shall spring
forth; shall ye not know it? I will even
make a way in the wilderness, and rivers
in the desert” (Isa. 43:19).
Therefore, let us even now, as the Holy Spirit makes this word real in
our hearts, begin to rejoice in the NEW DAY that the Lord is making, as the
first rays of hope arise on the eastern horizon; let us arise to plant our feet
on the anointed mount and to drink in the
intoxicating freshness of the morn!
Hear
me now and believe me later — if you cannot believe me now — soon there will
come the manifestation of the sons of God, for which all creation has groaned
for long millenniums and ages. Then the
glory of the Lord shall be revealed from the
living, completed temple
of His
body. His glory shall flow out and fill
the earth. His power shall shake the
nations and all nations shall come and worship before Him. The harvest of this age shall be gathered. Everything shall live whithersoever the River
cometh. The Spirit of God, the Spirit
of wisdom and revelation, has sovereignly witnessed
to many thousands of saints around the world in this hour that a NEW DAY is
upon the horizon. This holy vision is
not the result of the preaching of any man, nor is it a movement spearheaded or
organized by any man or group of men; it has come by the sovereign moving of the
Holy Spirit. The next great move of God
is even now at hand! There will not be
another revival. There will not be another visitation.
It is not the hour for the restoration
of the New Testament Church. All that has already been accomplished! A new day dawns. God is marching on. He shall do an entirely new thing in the
earth. And it is the only hope for the world!
A new age lies directly before us.
The manifestation of God’s sons is nigh at hand. That has never happened before! Revivals, stirrings, visitations,
reformations, movings of God have happened again and again through the
centuries. But now a new and unspeakably
wonderful stage of the unfolding kingdom
of God
is upon us! In this New Day the ministry
of the fullness of the Spirit of God shall be released through many sons in the power of
reconciliation, blessing, and transformation unto all the ends of the
earth! It shall bring a deliverance and change
beyond any the world has ever witnessed.
Without
doubt the apostle Paul,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, perceived the all-surpassing wonder of this
great truth when he penned these words to the Ephesian believers: “Now He that
ascended, what is it but He also descended first into the lower parts of the
earth? He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, THAT HE MIGHT FILL ALL THINGS”
(Eph. 4:9-10). We know that He is “high
and lifted up,” and that even the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. He is above
all, and yet ever appearing to us right where we are and drawing us upward
into Himself. It must also be
remembered that this highly exalted One also descended into the lower parts of the earth, and then ascended up far above all heavens, THAT
HIS LIFE MIGHT FILL ALL THINGS. His
descent into “the lower parts of the earth” does not suggest that He lived in
the valleys and plains, nor does it speak of Him going to some dark realm of
“hell” somewhere down in the heart of the earth, as many teach. Oh, that men would see that first and
foremost He descended into the world of “our earth,” that is, into that earth
which we are, for “dust thou art” the
scripture declares and we are assured that the first man Adam is of the earth, earthy, and we have all
borne the image of the earthy. Ah, yes, He descended into the lowest
realms of the human condition, made partaker of flesh and blood, taking upon
Him not the nature of angels, but the nature of man, being made in the likeness
of sinful flesh, made of no reputation, compassed with infirmity, tempted in
all points like as we are, and suffering death, even the death of the
cross. Into all that He descended!
Now
He has ascended up far above all heavens THAT HE MIGHT FILL ALL THINGS. Filling the heavens only with His glory is
not filling all things. He has purposed
to fill the lowest regions with His glory as well! Sweeter than the dews of Hermon descending
upon the mountains of Zion
and more blessed than good news from a
far country is the wonderful revelation with which He now fills our enlightened
hearts, showing that as flowing water always finds the lowest level, so the Christ BECOMES THE RIVER OF LIFE FOR THE
LOWEST HELL! He both descended and
ascended that He might fill all things in the heights and all things in the
depths with Himself! If we would be that
channel, that river of life people through whom He must flow, then we, too,
must be willing to flow even unto the lowest parts of the earth and unto the
lowest hell.
I
must confess that I am deeply grieved in my spirit when I meet these would-be
sons of God who look with disdain upon those who still have a passion for souls
and desire to see men delivered from the power of sin, sickness, darkness, and
death. I am aware that the hour has not
arrived when God shall deal with the nations, to bring forth His salvation in
them, but it is my deepest conviction that one of the sure marks of sonship is the spirit of reconciliation. Why exult in our great hope of what God
shall do in the age and the ages to come if the
spirit of that hope is not alive in our hearts? It is not the doctrine of reconciliation that shall transform the world, but the ministry of reconciliation. The ministry of reconciliation springs and emanates
from the spirit of reconciliation. I mean what I have said, that if ever I
am permitted in the good grace of God,
there is not a hell in the universe to which I would not ask to be sent as a
revelation of the Christ, that He might fill even that part of the “all
things.”
There
is no hell that could be more vile than the hell I see around me right here in El Paso, Texas,
the hell of sin, sorrow, violence, fraud, fear, torment, demon possession,
hatred, murder, strife, rebellion, disease, cursing, godlessness, and
wretchedness. We have a great deal of
hell here in El Paso, and across the river in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
and there are no hells that could be worse than Hollywood,
San Francisco, Calcutta, Port au Prince,,
Mogadishu, Amsterdam, Baghdad, and ten thousand other cities of the
nations. “Oh, but there is a hell that
is full of murderers!” you say. Well,
these cities today are full of murderers.
“But there is a hell that is full of fornicators, whoremongers, adulterers,
and sex perverts!” you say. Well, these
cities today are full of fornicators, whoremongers, adulterers, and sex
perverts. “But there is a hell that is
full of devils!” you contend. Well,
these cities today are full of devils.
“But there is another hell that
is full of liars, idolaters, thieves, and blasphemers!” you assert. Well, these cities today are filled with
liars, idolaters, thieves, and blasphemers.
We have lots of hell around us and lots of hell beyond us, but out work
is to follow Christ, to be willing, as sons of God, not only to ascend the
throne, far above all heavens, but to be poured out as the River of Life INTO
THE LOWEST
PARTS
OF THE
EARTH,
into all the hells, and clean them out, cleansing, purifying,
quickening, and transforming them by His all-conquering life, until there is no
hell anywhere. Oh, the wonder of it!
What
father would not go to any of the hells of this world, what father would not
trudge through the saloons of the Bowery or the sex-filth of Amsterdam in the hope that he might run
across his son or his daughter who is captive to the devil there and bring them
back to God and to the kingdom? This is
the spirit of the Father who “so loved
the world” and it is the spirit of the Son who “descended into the lower parts
of the earth” and it is the spirit of every son of God, born of the
incorruptible seed of a Divine Hope, a Divine Faith, and a Divine Love. Oh, yes!
If you would not walk across the street to see some poor soul delivered
and converted by the redeeming power of Christ, don’t waste your time relating
to me how you have been chosen by God to play a part in the delivering of the whole creation from the
bondage of corruption. The Spirit of
Reconciliation, the Spirit of Redemption must reign within our hearts. Rivers
of Living Water must,
even now, pour forth out of our innermost being!
Let
it be thoroughly known that God flows as life only through those who walk in
conscious union with Him in the spirit.
Except the river bed be joined and connected to the source of the water
there can be no flowing of the river.
Our heavenly Father has never
throughout the centuries since Christ died, rose, and ascended left Himself
without a channel through which to pour forth His life into humanity. He always has a people of His own, even if it
is but one man. The stream of the river
of life has in every age poured out through those who were walking in the
Spirit. God has always accomplished His
work through those who walked in the stream of His purposes. Where the stream flows, there is the work of
God! This is clear in the book of Acts,
a book which speaks to us of the work of God through the Spirit. What is that kind of work which is the work
of God? Is it toiling to build larger
and larger church buildings, temples, and cathedrals, bigger Sunday Schools,
more attractive programs and outreaches, and more dynamic television
ministries? God’s work is always in the
stream of LIVING WATER. It has nothing
whatever to do with well orchestrated programs, entertainment, or charismatic
personalities. Where the stream of Living Water
flows, there is the work of God! God
works by the flowing of the stream of His DIVINE LIFE. If you consider the whole record of the book
of Acts, you will see the picture quite clearly. On the day of Pentecost this stream of divine
life flowed out of God Himself in Christ through the channel of those
apprehended ones of God with ruling
power from the throne. It began to flow
in Jerusalem. From there it flowed to Antioch,
and then from Antioch it turned to the west; it
flowed to Asia, and through Asia it flowed to Macedonia,
and onward to Europe. From Europe it flowed to the New World, and it has flowed to practically every nation,
and tribe, and tongue, and people on the face of the whole earth! What a river!
Nothing
can stand before, over, or against one who dwells in union with God the
Almighty. Oh, praise God, He is knitting
His own called and chosen elect together in Himself in the united life of His
Spirit — and not merely a unity of spirit with our brethren in the flesh, but
unity with CHRIST and a unity with all who are IN HIM — that great company of
Elohim on both this side of the veil and the other — for it is written, “Ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company
of messengers, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are
written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant…” (Heb. 12:22-24).
This
mount Zion, this city of the
living God, this heavenly Jerusalem,
this innumerable company of messengers,
this church of the
first-born, the spirits of just men made perfect, this Jesus…this is
the voice of the many-membered son, the voice that has the sound of
many
waters, many spirits, merged into ONE GIGANTIC WATERFALL — ONE GREAT
RIVER OF LIFE! Take the shoes from off
your feet, O saint of God, for the ground on which we stand is holy
ground. With heads bowed down and hearts
lifted up in worship to Him who sits upon the throne, may the blessed Spirit of
Truth make crystal clear to every consecrated heart how the life of God flowing
in Christ and the life of Christ flowing through His body is ONE STREAM OF THE
WATER OF LIFE. This is the river in Eden, this is the river
Ezekiel saw issuing from the temple, this is the river Jesus said would flow
from our innermost being, this is the river proceeding out from the throne of
God and of the Lamb in the holy city, New Jerusalem — ONE RIVER,
the flowing out of God Himself as reality and life from within those
consecrated sons of God who are UNITED IN HIM.
It
should not be difficult to understand that this great river is the answer to
all the world’s need. For this purpose
the elect of the Lord have been going through all the dealings and workings of
God, particularly during the last several years, in order that Christ might be
fully formed in them AS LIFE. The river
must first flow into us in all its
fullness and power! We learn to know
the fullness of His power within by the crucible of experience in order that
God may have a people through whom He can manifest Himself WITHOUT INHIBITION,
WITHOUT LIMITATION, WITHOUT ANY HINDRANCE TO THE FULL FLOW OF HIMSELF, SO THAT
IT WILL BE THE FULL MANIFESTATION OF HIS LOVE, GRACE, POWER, LIFE, SALVATION,
AND DELIVERANCE TO ALL HUMANITY. A
people no longer conscious of any self-effort or even of God’s works —
wonderful though His works are — but conscious of GOD HIMSELF. A RIVER
OF LIFE
PEOPLE not proclaiming doctrines, creeds,
methods, experiences, ordinances, or works of any kind, but just the Lord
Himself as Life and Light and Love — GOD manifest in the flesh!
THE THRONE
And
he showed me a pure river
of water of life, clear
as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1).
“And
immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne” (Rev. 4:2).
“And
I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the
throne…stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven
eyes, which are the seven spirits of God
sent forth into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6).
The
relation of the Lamb to the throne of God in this drama of the Revelation is
unique in all the writings of scripture.
There is not the slightest intimation elsewhere in the Bible of one who
might share the throne with God. Christ
Himself is the first to suggest such a conception. The first indication appears early in the visions of
John when the Lord Jesus pledges that all His disciples who overcome will share His throne with Him,
just as He, having overcome, now sits upon the throne with His Father. As the Lamb He appears in two later episodes
“in the midst” of the throne of God. In
chapter twelve the “overcomers” are presented under the figure of a “manchild,”
Christ’s “many brethren,” the manifest sons of God, “caught up to God and to His throne” from whence they rule all
nations with a rod of iron. Near the
close of the drama there are two further references to a shared throne — the
“throne of God and of the Lamb.” The
great wonder is that He sits upon the throne not as Master or Lord, not as
Christ or Jesus, not as King or the Son of God, but He sits upon the throne as
the Slain Lamb, pouring out the stream of His
precious blood, His very own divine life.
The
One upon the throne is “the Lamb” — and He rules not by brute force but by the
power of His poured out life! John saw
by the spirit of revelation that the only way to power is the way of
sacrificial love — that is ultimately the only power in the universe. We would have thought that in calling our Lord “the Lamb” this name would have been
used only in respect to His humiliation and death in His earthly walk. However in scripture it is most often used in
reference to His eternal glory in the heavenlies! Peter saw Him as the Lamb foreordained before
the foundation of the world. John saw
Him as a Lamb that had been slain from the foundation of the world, highly
exalted, standing in the midst of the throne, and yet — in some mystical and
mysterious way — still slain! This slain
Lamb is in the midst of everything: in the midst of the throne, in the
midst of the four living creatures, in the midst of the twenty-four
elders. The Lamb is peculiarly the One
who is in the midst, just as the tree of life was in the midst of the Garden of God. As the Lamb stands in the midst of each one
of God’s called and separated elect we are enabled to express and manifest, out of our innermost
being, the life, nature, and power of the God of the throne!
The
term “Lamb” is used of Christ no less than twenty-eight times in the
Revelation, and has two vital characteristics.
Christ is the sacrificial Lamb
and He is the conquering Lamb. He is seen as slain yet standing in the
midst of the throne. He does not reserve the power of His
divine life unto Himself, but His life is forever, continuously, being laid
down and poured out in a never-ending
stream of love and redeeming grace. This principle of the laid down, poured out
life, is the reality of all who share His Lamb nature. And throughout the book of Revelation it is the
Lamb who overcomes and conquers all! It
is the Lamb who gets the victory over the beast, and the false prophet, and the
whore, and the dragon, and the kings of the earth; over the world, the flesh,
the devil, death, hell, and the grave!
So glory to God and the Lamb forevermore! The Lamb shall have the victory! Christ is Lord over them all, for He was
slain before they were, and will be reigning when they are gone! The wonder of it all is that THIS LAMB IS
WITHIN US! The worthy One is within!
Oh, that our eyes might be opened to behold HIM! HE is the most powerful, courageous, majestic,
and yet kind, gentle, gracious, loving, and life-giving Lamb of all! In absolute power and strength He reigns with
love, mercy, grace, and goodness until every enemy in us is destroyed and the
Christ is fully and forever formed in us, formed from the inner to the outer —
the image and glory of God in human flesh!
And when His work in us is finished and by the spirit we look in God’s great mirror and
behold the image of what He has formed us, we see nothing but a slain
Lamb! We will rule as He rules,
by the cleansing, transforming power of that life-blood that flows from
Immanuel’s veins, proceeding out from the throne of God and of the Lamb!
The
message is just this. Not brute power,
crushing and compelling, even were it the power of God Himself, can bring to
pass the purpose of God in redemption for all creation. But the slain Lamb, and all that the Lamb stands
for, and all who possess the spirit of the Lamb, are lifting up man from the
depths, and bringing to fruition all God’s gracious purpose concerning
him. The slain Lamb, by His poured-out
life, melts the stubborn hearts of men, and takes them willing captives. The highest power of the Godhead is
manifested in the Lamb that was and is slain!
In
the light of the truth we are now considering many things take on new
meaning. I would draw your reverent
attention to the fact that in the Greek text
the diminutive form for “lamb” is
used, indicating
that it is a “little lamb.” Truly this
is Mary’s Little Lamb! The use of the Greek diminutive arnion, the “little lamb” or the
“lambkin,” is the only word used in the Revelation for the Lamb. He reigns as a Lambkin-King, and God is
raising up in the earth His body, the body of the Lambkin, and it is the work
of the Holy Spirit to establish in each member of the body of the Lambkin the
nature, and the character, as well as the authority of the Lambkin in the
throne. John did not see many lambs in
the throne, only one — for the Lambkin is a corporate
Lambkin, for every lamb must have both a head and a body, and those who
share the Lambkin’s throne are the body of the Lambkin. Can we not see by this that any man or any
ministry which does not speak and act out of the nature of the Lamb is not
reigning upon God’s throne but on his own little throne. God’s throne is only the throne of God AND THE LAMB! It is the work of the Holy Spirit to so
inwork in each son of God all that pertains to the exalted Lambkin, that He
might be here in the earth to be to you and me, yea, to be through you and me everything that Jesus is upon the
throne!
The
first Little Lamb was none other than our
Lord Jesus, the Christ. The Spirit of
the Lambkin was poured out upon a little company of people on the day of
Pentecost, the first of a new spiritual race of men destined to fill the earth
to redeem and restore creation into God again.
The Lambkin has developed in the saints of God from that small and
unimposing beginning to become a vast company of lambs upon the pinnacle of mount Zion! Ray Prinzing expressed the spirit of this
beautiful truth when he wrote, “Freely, gladly, joyfully Jesus Christ faced the
hour of sacrifice, pouring out His life, that it might be diffused and spread
over the whole earth. Now God’s elect
are being brought to the same consecration, so that they give everything, for
the joy of beholding His life quicken those around them. Willing to spend and be spent, until HIS LOVE
THROUGH THEM has conquered all, and creation is restored into perfect harmony
with its Creator. He gave His
life for the world! Now, this
lambkin company, can freely share it with creation.”
All
who understand the deep things of God know that God doesn’t exist in a physical
form, neither does He sit on a physical throne. God is not a limited physical being that can
sit on a tangible throne in one restricted locality somewhere out beyond the
blue. Many carnal-minded Christians
question the idea of the throne of God and the throne of the Lamb not being a
literal, physical throne somewhere in
God’s great universe. I don’t know how many believers will be true overcomers,
but I suppose there could be thousands or even hundreds of thousands or
millions. The question follows — will
all those thousands or millions of overcomers be able to sit with Jesus in His
throne? If so, that is going to have to
be a mighty big throne, or else Jesus is going to have a very big lap for all
those overcomers to be able to sit with Him on some literal, physical, material
throne!
The
one great truth that nearly all theologians agree on is that God is omnipresent spirit who not only created, but upholds and fills the
whole universe and all things! You
cannot put a God who is that great and everywhere present and bottle Him up on
a physical throne in one confined spot.
Oh, no! He is everywhere and His throne is everywhere, for He rules
wherever He is. And since the river of
life flows from the throne of God, which is everywhere, it cannot be a literal
river. The river of life is the Spirit
of God, which is also the blood of the Lamb, and He flows everywhere from the
throne of God. The throne bespeaks the
REALM OF HIS SUPREME AND UNIVERSAL AUTHORITY AND DOMINION; and our Lord Jesus
Christ, the firstborn son of God, has
been exalted to the glory of that rulership.
The throne of God is a sphere of authority and power, a position of
eminence, a condition and state of being.
The reign of God’s Christ is the assumption of the almighty power and
universal dominion of the Father. It is
the dispensing of HIS POSITIVE ENERGY FORCE into His creation in specific ways.
“All
authority in heaven and in earth is given unto me,” Jesus said. The ascension and enthronement of Jesus was
the supreme event of world history. He
ascended not to a place, but to a condition, disappearing into the spirit realm
that is all about us and was raised up into an office in and by the Spirit. He departed from the arena of humiliation and
limitation to enter into His glory. He
has invited us to share that throne! He
has beckoned all who have received the call to sonship to ascend in Him in the
Spirit and by the Spirit to that place where all authority and power are
accessed. That is the destiny of every
manifest son of God! The authority is
present everywhere by His Spirit. It is
not a matter of going anywhere! But it must be accessed, appropriated,
embodied, and expressed through a people who attain to the FULLNESS OF GOD!
The
Greek word thronos means “the place
and seat of authority” and refers not to an actual physical seat, but to all executive
authority that is committed into the hands of God’s Christ, Head and
body. Understand that the throne is here
now; here is infinity; here is eternity; here is omnipotence, waiting for you
to enter into your heritage in God!
Again and again in the Psalms and in the Prophets David and others make
this beautiful and significant assertion: “The
Lord reigneth…” The Lord reigneth
over the heathen, the Lord reigneth over the nations, the Lord reigneth in Zion, the Lord reigneth
in the midst of His people! It is always
present tense. The Lord reigns now!
That doesn’t mean that He has purposed to deal with everything and
everybody now, but He has assumed the dominion of the world and all things, and
all is safe in His care and all will experience His sovereign purpose in His
timing and according to His program and will.
And His program and will is just this — HE WILL DEAL WITH EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY THROUGH HIS MANY SONS
BROUGHT TO GLORY!
The
Hebrew word translated “reigneth” is malak
and means to reign, that is, to
ascend the throne, to be inducted into royalty. Thus, when we are called to share His
throne, we are called to spiritually ascend the throne and be inducted
into the royal
authority and power of that throne!
Therefore, as the elect hear His voice and hasten to His call, we are
ascending to the very throne of Christ in a greater relationship with Him and in
Him. We have been inducted into the royalty
of the throne of Christ — into His reigning
realm! When this reality awakens
within us we then understand that through the experiences we encounter in this
earthly life, with all their testings, trials, learning, overcoming, and
provings, thereby being made strong and wise in
Him, we are becoming overcomers and are experientially learning to reign over all things by His royal mind, will, and life! When you are caught up in the spirit you
behold a throne in you, and Self will no longer sit upon the throne, but He,
the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb will sit upon that throne, and you are
raised up and made to sit together with Him upon His throne. His nature and your nature are made one. His
will and your will are made one. His mind and your mind are made one, and His authority becomes your
authority. As we hear His call to come
up into the throne zone, we know that
He is rising up to reign in our
lives to redeem us fully and completely in spirit, soul, and body. He shall reign
more and more in us until His throne is fully established within us, and then
we shall be empowered to restore all things unto Him until the knowledge of the
glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea! That is the mystery.
JOINT DOMINION
“For
as a young man marrieth a virgin, so
shall thy sons marry thee: and as
the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee”
(Isa. 62:5).
The
passage above is one of great significance and deep meaning. In the natural this would never take place, sons would not marry their
mother, and God would not rejoice over such a union. But we are dealing here with spiritual
realities which are not bound by the laws of the natural world. In its spiritual sense, the Lord is speaking
to the virgin church, the betrothed wife of the Lamb. This is the “woman” of Revelation 12 which
bears a “manchild” who is caught up to the throne of God and rules all nations
with a rod of iron. The woman, the
corporate bride, is pregnant with the manchild, the manifest sons of God, in
the same order of Mary when she was pregnant with the firstborn Son —
Jesus. Do you not remember that it was while
Mary was betrothed (engaged) to Joseph, before
their wedding, before she moved
in with Joseph as his wife, and before they
came together, that she was found with child by the Holy Ghost? In like manner the virgin church becomes pregnant
with the sons of God, being found with child by the Holy Ghost, before
the marriage of the Lamb and His wife.
Surely we can see that the manchild is birthed in chapter twelve of the Revelation, and the
marriage of the Lamb does not take place until chapter nineteen!
So
the spirit of revelation is telling us in this passage that even as the virgin
church, the company of God’s people who bear the feminine aspects of God’s
nature — tenderness, gentleness, caring, nourishment, love, succor, etc. —
brings forth the manchild, the manifest sons of God, who bear within themselves
the masculine aspects of God’s nature — strength, power, authority, dominion,
etc. — and these sons are separated from their virgin mother at their birth to
go forth and fulfill their unique destiny, and they are caught up to the
rulership of God’s throne, THERE IS A TIME WHEN THE SONS WILL COME BACK TO THE
VIRGIN CHURCH AND TOGETHER WITH JESUS THE HEAD OF THIS SONSHIP COMPANY WILL
AGAIN BE JOINED IN UNION WITH THE CHURCH — FOR THEY ARE THE BODY OF THE BRIDEGROOM! At the marriage of the Bridegroom to His
bride, the company of the sons of God who are one with the Bridegroom in His sonship, are with Him and in Him
joined to the church in intimacy of fellowship and vital union. In Christ
the sons marry the bride, their own mother!
And in that day when the virgin church’s sons come and marry her, God
will rejoice over the church as a bridegroom rejoices over the virgin he is to
marry! That is the mystery.
At
the time of this glorious reunion of the woman-church and the sons joined to
Jesus, the woman-church will have passed through her wilderness experience
(Rev. 12:6,13-17) and been processed and purified and made ready for the
marriage of the Lamb. While the church
is in the wilderness of trial and testing she will be prepared for her marriage
and taught God’s ways and will be adorned in fine linen, clean and white, which
is the righteousness of saints. In verses
eleven and twelve of the same prophecy of Isaiah, he says, “Behold, the Lord
hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion (the church),
Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold His
reward is with Him, and His work before Him.
And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord:
and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A
city not forsaken” — that, THE HOLY CITY! It is the New Jerusalem Bride.
Those
who read these lines should meditate deeply upon this mystery of Christ and His
bride. The deep mystery is rooted in the
wonder of man’s primordial glory — male and female — set together in splendor over the works of God’s hands. It is impossible for me to explain the glory
of such a thing as this because we are blinded to the impenetrable mystery of a
realm that long ago passed away. Nevertheless, the moment
we understand that man in the beginning was created in the image of God, male
and female, and that male and female IS
the image of God, then we can understand for the first time the awesome
glory, power, and exaltation of the bride of Christ. The image of God is not a body with a torso,
two legs with two feet and ten toes, two arms with two hands and ten fingers,
and a head with two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth. The image of God is the emanation of the nature of God and that nature is
expressed as male and female. All the feminine characteristics of the
woman and all the masculine characteristics of the man are spiritually resident
in God. We know this is so because
everything in the whole vast universe came out of God, and if God had not been
male and female within Himself in the beginning we could not have male and
female in the earth today — IN HIS IMAGE AND AFTER HIS LIKENESS.
All
creation being set in order, one was needed to take the headship, to bring the
authority and blessing of God’s kingdom dominion over all things. “And God said, Let us make man in our image
and after our likeness; and let THEM have dominion…so God created man in His
own image…male and female created He THEM.
And God blessed THEM, and God said unto THEM, Be fruitful and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and HAVE DOMINION over…every living
thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen. 1:26-28). My reader will observe the change from him to
them. We are not presented with the actual
process of the formation of the woman until the next chapter; though here we
find God blessing them and giving them JOINTLY THE POSITION OF
UNIVERSAL GOVERNMENT. All realms from
the lowest of the bottomless to the highest of the heavens were set under their
joint dominion, as typified by the fish of the sea, the beasts of the earth,
and the fowl of the heavens. These three
realms symbolically encompass all spheres of existence from the lowest depths
of darkness unto the highest dimension of light and exaltation. Jesus confirmed the true scope of man’s
dominion when, as the last Adam,
He descended into the lowest parts of the earth and then ascended up far above
all heavens. He descended also into the
lowest habitations of the most wicked and vile of Adam’s race; He liberated the captives in the
prison house of darkness, those who had been disobedient in the days of Noah (I
Pet. 3:18-22; 4:6), and ascended up above all heavens to reign over all
things. ALL
POWER is given unto Him, both in the heavens
and in earth. THIS, precious friend of
mine, is the magnificence of that dominion given to Adam the first — male and female — in that long ago beginning.
Eve
received all her blessings in Adam;
in him, too, she got her dignity and
position and power. Not yet called into
separation out of Adam,
she was, in the purpose of God, part of the man. Universal dominion was not given to Adam alone, it was not
said, “Let him have dominion,” but “Let them have dominion.” There was no other creature so near to Adam as Eve, because no
other creature was part of himself. What
affection did not Eve owe to Adam! What nearness she enjoyed! What intimacy of communion! What full participation in all of his
thoughts! In all his dignity, and in all
his glory, wisdom,
and power, she was entirely ONE. He did
not rule over her, but with her. He was lord of the whole creation, and she
was ONE WITH HIM! THEY were king and
queen of the universe! All this will
find its full antitype in the ages to come.
Then shall the True Man — the
Lord from heaven, the corporate man composed of “many sons brought to glory” —
take His seat upon the throne, and in companionship with His bride — the New
Eve, the cleansed and perfected church — rule over a restored creation. This church is quickened out of the grave of
Christ, taken from His riven side, being thus “of His body, of His flesh,
and of His bones.” He is the Bridegroom and she is the bride,
making ONE NEW MAN, as we read in the fourth chapter of Ephesians, “Till we all
come, in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a
perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph.
4:13). And who is this “Perfect Man”? CHRIST AND HIS BRIDE, CHRIST MALE AND
FEMALE — THE LAST MAN ADAM
AND THE NEW EVE!
There
is a wealth of revelation contained in the holy city, New Jerusalem. The bride of Christ is the city of God
(Rev. 21:9-11). The sons of God
are the throne of God (Rev. 12:5; 3:21; 21:7). The mystery is just this — the throne is in
the city! The city and the throne are one! That city is the holy city, New
Jerusalem. Every stone of that city is a
living stone, a glorified CHRIST-BEING.
Every stone is a living, ransomed soul just as every member of the body
of Christ, which is the temple
of God,
is a living stone, disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God and precious. We
cannot fully explain nor understand a mystery so awesome as this, but the eye
that sees by the spirit sees the temple as a living thing, composed of living
saints. In that temple redeemed
men, the sons of God, are the pillars and foundations, and Christ Himself is
the chief cornerstone, from whom the whole body fitly framed together and
compacted by that which every joint supplieth, groweth unto an holy temple in the
Lord, in whom we also are builded to become
the habitation of God through the Spirit.
In
holy vision the apostle John was transported in spirit to a great and high
mountain, the majestic heights of the kingdom of God,
from which he was permitted to see the perfected bride of Christ in all her
beauty and glory. From his lofty vantage
point the eyes of John were ravished with the electrifying sight of the
unequalled majesty, infinite splendor, and unsurpassable beauty of the bride
adorned for her Husband. Not a city of
dead stone as was the old Jerusalem,
but a new Jerusalem, a living
city, a bride beyond compare, a virgin pure and holy, composed of
incorruptible saints, brought forth out of the living substance of Christ. Words utterly fail me to describe the wonder
of such unexcelled glory, for ours are but the words of men, but that holy and
beautiful city belongs to THE REALM OF THE SPIRIT.
Now
at last the perfection, the image of God, male and female, bridegroom and
bride, sons and daughters, throne and city, of which Adam and Eve were but a frail shadowy type,
has come; the many-membered Bridegroom, the last Adam, with the many-membered
Bride, the Holy City, Adam and Eve, the first and the last, in the image and
the likeness of God, JOINTLY RULING ALL THINGS!
The nations shall walk by the light of this city and the rulers and
leaders of the earth shall bring into it their glory. The tree of life is in the midst of it and
the water of life flows from the throne of God in the midst of it. This is GOD, male and female, united with the
image of God in man, male and female, ruling over all the endless vastnesses of
infinity unto ages of ages! May the Holy
Ghost unfold these things more fully and powerfully to our hearts, that we may
have a deeper sense of the conduct and character which are worthy of the high
vocation wherewith we are called.
To be continued… J. PRESTON EBY
