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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 63
THE
CHURCH IN LAODICEA
(continued)
Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me
(Rev. 3:20).
Many wonderful things are said to those who hear
the voice of the Lord! In the days of His
flesh the Lord Jesus said, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live
(Jn. 5:25). To John on Patmos the Lord
said, If any man hear my voice, and open the door
If any man hears His voice and knows that He seeks
entrance, if He allows Christ to come in, the promise is, I will come in to him, and
will dine with him. This has to happen
spiritually, for no one can come into us as a physical person! The door has to be the entrance into our
consciousness, into the avenues of our life. Christ
longs to dine with us! He wants to eat with
us, and we with Him. He wants to share His
life with us, that we might become the bread of God
to the famishing creation about us. So the
wisdom, knowledge, life, nature, power, glory, and spiritual realization that is in the
life of Christ comes to us as we eat together! Man
does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The food of every son of God is the Word of God
not the letter of the Bible, but the living Word which Christ our life is!
Listen now, with bowed head and contrite spirit, to the heart-cry of the lovely
Shulamite as she, possessed by the godly desire to enter into a closer relationship with
her Beloved, and to know Him in deeper measures of intimacy and union, which is also the
deepest desire of the Lords elect in this new kingdom day, implores, Tell me,
O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest,
where Thou makest Thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be a veiled one straying
beside the flocks of Thy companions? (S. of S. 1:7).
All that the world or any creature can give, is as ashes to that hungry soul that
is longing for a revelation of his Lord. Nothing
else can satisfy, neither the Lords people (companions), nor the food of any other
field. All other love is as husks, to the
love and companionship of Christ, who alone is imperishable reality. The lovely Shulamite maiden in the Song of
Solomon represents the elect of God! Truly
those who are the called and chosen of the Lord long to be fed by Him,
and by Him alone. They would know where He is
feeding His flock, that they may join that company which follows the Lamb to
Zions holy hill and feasts with Him upon the mountain of His holiness.
It is absolutely amazing, the miracle of the ages, to see how God is drawing those
who are willing to pay the price to go all the way with God in this momentous hour. His hand is upon every one of them, and He is
drawing them to Himself in increasingly deeper
measures. There is no self-satisfaction with
those whom God is drawing, in whom He has created the hunger after reality. Though we are always satisfied with Christ, on
whatever level we have experienced Him, it seems that the more we feed upon Him and the
more fulfilled we become in our relationship with Him, the hungrier we are for Him! The more we drink of the living waters of His
spirit and truth, the more satisfied we become and yet the thirstier we are! The cry of the Psalmist has become our very own,
As the hart pants after the waterbrooks, so pants my soul after Thee, O God! The closer we draw to God, the more Christ is
revealed to us, the more satisfied we are, and yet the more fervently our hearts pant for
Him. This is because a portion of our being
has been satisfied, and the portion that remains desires Him all the more! The reason many of Gods people are not
hungering and thirsting after Him, to know Him in a greater way, is because they are not
feeding at all, or are eating the unappetizing, impure, contaminated food of the carnal
doctrines and childish programs of the church systems, and drinking lukewarm muddy water
from the polluted streams of Laodicea!
Those who have received the call to sonship have been melted down by the dealings
of the Lord, that they might cry to the Lord with a voice that would go right up into His
heart, O Thou, whom my soul
loveth, tell me where Thou art feeding Thy flock, that I may ever keep
step with Thee and not be lingering
over food that is dried, withered, and untimely, even though it may once,
in some revival or experience of the past, been fresh.
Guide me, that I may walk in every ray of light, that I may feed upon every
morsel of present truth, which is the fresh revelation of Thyself, that I may derive the
quickening power to be all that you have called me to be and fulfill all of my
Fathers will. Tell me where
Thou feedest Thy flock, is the fervent cry in the hearts of all the sons of God! We do know and thoroughly understand that only to
the degree that we eat of Him are we able to be what He is.
There was a time when doctrine was the passion of my life. I was an avid student of theology and meticulously
examined various doctrinal systems. Some of
them I rejected, and others I embraced. I
thought it was most important to search the scriptures and, from the letter of the Word,
to determine what is the truth about a great number of things. Then I got into the gifts of the Spirit and for a
season miracles were happening and wonderful healings and deliverances, and the gift of
prophecy gushed forth like rushing streams from the mountain tops. Then God began to open the realm of sonship to my
wondering spirit, and He has brought me to the place over the past many years where my one
and only desire is to SEE HIM, KNOW HIM, and PARTAKE OF HIM who is the living reality. Many of the doctrines we have learned may or may
not be true, and whatever you or I believe about them, I have discovered that the Lord is
not nearly concerned about them as we are. In
fact, when the Lord reaches out to touch people and move in their lives, He pays no
attention at all to what they believe about the
Godhead, water baptism, sacred names, soul sleep, Sabbath days, and a thousand other
issues men quibble about. I am telling you
that the living
substance of Jesus Christ is exciting me more than anything else that I have ever
found in the scriptures or in the realm of experience!
The food for sons of God is the living bread which if a man eats
of it he shall never die; and the drink for sons of God is the living water
which if a man drinks of it he shall never thirst. The
words of the hymn writer have become gloriously alive in my heart:
Break Thou the bread of life,
Dear Lord to me
As Thou didst break the loaves
Beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page
I seek Thee Lord
My spirit pants for Thee,
O Living Word!
The law of the New Creation demands a change, a transformation everything
God puts within us WE MUST BECOME, until we are
what we contain.
The transition is from mere possession to a state of being. We have quoted the scripture, Christ is
made unto us righteousness, and we have confessed, Christ is my
righteousness! We have talked about
imputed righteousness, imparted righteousness, and how Christ within us is the righteous
One. That is a great and blessed truth! But if you never get beyond that you are like a
baseball player who hits the ball and only gets to first base. For you see, the scripture also says, He
hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that WE MIGHT BE MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS
OF GOD IN HIM (II Cor. 5:21). You will
discover a great truth when you understand the difference between Christ made righteousness unto us, and we made the righteousness of God in Him! In the first I seek the Lord and find Him as my
righteousness. In the second I press my way
into the fullness of God and discover that all He is, which has been credited to my
account by grace, I MAY NOW EXPERIENTIALLY BECOME! Entrance into Him takes me out of the realm of
imputed righteousness and places me into the reality of realized righteousness. This brings transformation into the image of God! It is union with God in His personality, and
participation with God in His nature and ability.
Let me illustrate. In the process of a
chicken being formed the egg must first be fertilized.
In the moment the egg is fertilized the new little chick comes into existence in the egg. A
tiny little speck of blood appears in the yoke of the egg.
That speck is the embryonic life of the chick formed in the egg. You still have the egg the white, the yoke,
the shell and within the egg is that little germ of life living and growing. But the egg is still the egg and the chick is the
chick. Each is separate and distinct from the
other. The marvel of it is that as the chick
develops the Creator has wonderfully provided for the chick to live off the egg. Both the yoke and the white of the egg are drawn
upon by that life, consumed by that life, absorbed into that life, completely swallowed up
by that life. Once the chick was in the egg. But now the egg has become the chick!
The life of the chick in the egg consumes the egg, and when that little
chicken finally pecks his way out of the egg where is the egg? Its walking on two feet! There it goes!
Isnt it cute! Why, the
egg now has feathers! The egg is the chicken, whereas before the chicken was in the egg. The
egg has been changed metamorphosed transmuted and has become the
chicken. Can you not see the mystery?
One of the laws of nature is that what you
eat becomes you. It has been said that
you become what you eat, but that is not quite correct.
What
you eat becomes you! Over the years I
have gained and lost weight from time to time sometimes in significant amounts! When I weighed fifty pounds more than I do now,
every one of those pounds was me. They were one and all J. Preston Eby. They came from eating steak and potatoes, and, of
course, many other things. The steak and
potatoes became Preston Eby! The beef that once grazed contentedly in the
pasture was now raised up into the human family. Out from the vegetable kingdom, the lowly potato
had now by transformation been raised up into the kingdom of man. That beef and potato had truly BECOME A HUMAN
BEING. They no longer existed as steak and
potato now they were me!
When I waddled down the street no one exclaimed, Look at that 180 pounds of
steak and potatoes! It wasnt
steak and potatoes walking it was me. You
could examine that paunch around my middle under a microscope, by Xray, or any other
sophisticated medical test, and you would not find one microgram of steak, nor one
molecule of potato. What I eat becomes me! What I drink becomes me! What I take into me to contain, becomes me! I take it in and contain it to this great end
that it become me. What a beautiful
figure this is of that which is spiritually transpiring in the lives of Gods sons in
this day of the Lord! God puts Himself into
us, His righteousness, His peace, His joy, His nature, His power, His wisdom and HE
IS MADE UNTO US ALL THAT HE IS! But we are
not content, as are others, to just contain this life.
Oh, no! As we live by His life
Christ is raised up in us AS US. The
Word is made flesh in us, the heavenly is transmuted into the earthly, and we become what
we contain. No longer is Christ made
something unto us, but we now BECOME ALL THAT HE IS!
It is not any more Christ in me the hope
of glory now it is only THE GLORY! Christ
and I are one. There is no difference. That is the glory of sonship. Oh, the mystery of it!
Go with me now to the land of Israel, almost two millennia ago. It is the month of Nisan, and a prettier spring
one could hardly remember. This
beginning of months in the Hebrew calendar corresponded roughly to the latter
part of our March and the first part of April and marked the end of Jesus three and
a half years of sonship ministry. Sometime
during the day Jesus was asked by His disciples, Where would you like to take the
Passover this year? (Mk. 14:12). Always
before, Jesus had seemed to know where they would observe the Passover together, but this
time His instructions were rather strange, even to those disciples who again and again
were surprised by the things Jesus would say and do.
He told Peter and John, I want you to go and get a place ready for us to
partake of the Passover. They replied,
Where do you want us to prepare this place?
Go into Jerusalem, Jesus replied, and youre going to see a
man carrying a pitcher of water on his shoulder. I
want you to follow him, and whichever house it is he shall enter, you ask for the owner of
the house, and tell him, My Master asks, Where is the best room where I can keep the
Passover with my disciples? He will
show you a large upper room at the rear of his home, completely furnished. I want you to stay there and make all the
necessary preparations.
For about a month now the entire city had been in preparation for this important
feast. Bridges were repaired, walls
whitewashed, sidewalks and drains cleaned and repaired, decorative friezes painted, as the
whole city took on an expectant, excited pace. Thousands
of lambs were brought in from all parts of the countryside, and ceremonial preparations
were under way in all homes for days in advance. The
priests would carefully select lambs without spot or blemish out of the herds
on the tenth day of the month three days before Jesus sent Peter and John into
Jerusalem to find their guest chamber. The
lambs were brought into the slaughtering houses in the city.
There is one important point we must notice carefully. As we examine the biblical record it becomes clear
that Jesus intended sitting down to a paschal lamb supper about 20 to 21 hours before all the rest of the Jewish
homes would be doing the same thing. This
truly was to be, then, a special supper! After they had all taken their seats around the
table, Jesus, having led them in prayer and pronouncing a blessing on the food in a
particularly moving manner, told them, I have had the deepest desire to eat this
Passover with you before I suffer (that
explains why He was celebrating it early!). Because Im telling you, this is the last
time I will eat it with you until it is fulfilled
in the kingdom of God (Lk. 22:16). The
disciples were undoubtedly puzzled. They knew
they were sitting down to a Passover supper with the roasted lamb, bitter herbs,
unleavened bread, the cups of wine; they knew that Jesus was particularly heavy in His
spirit and unusually serious and saddened. And
so the supper commenced.
Then, a new phase of the supper seemed to develop.
They had all eaten when Jesus took a loaf of the flat unleavened bread, began to
break it, and again blessed it, gave it to them, and said, Take and eat of this,
because this is my body which is given for you.
As Jesus broke this bread into pieces He knew that in only a few hours His very
flesh would be broken open in great wounds that He would be fulfilling His role in
this fleshly life as a great sacrifice on behalf of the whole human race, for and unto
whom He would give His body in a spiritual dimension, which body is His Living Word, for it was the
Word which had been made
flesh! Later, He took the
vessel of wine and blessed it, then poured it saying, Drink, all of you, because
this cup is the New Covenant in my blood which
is shed for many. Because Im telling
you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the day that I drink it new with you in my Fathers kingdom. Whenever you drink this cup, I want you to do it
in remembrance of me, because whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you will be
proclaiming the Lords death until He comes.
His blood is His Life, or His Spirit, for
the life of the flesh is in the blood.
There are many things to learn from types and anti-types, for by them truth is
taught with greater force than any uttered words. I
would like to point out that the Last Supper was a memorial.
And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body
which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me (Lk. 22:19). Paul also referred to this event when he wrote,
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord
Jesus in the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: and when He had given thanks,
He brake it, and said, Take eat: this is my body, which is broken for you; this do in
remembrance of me. After the same
manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in
my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me (I Cor. 11:23-25).
I dont know how Christians came to the conclusion that the Last
Supper was in fact the first of a new ritual
supper! This wasnt something
that Jesus did uniquely on that night. This
meal, the Passover meal, was something that was done annually at that time of year as a memorial to the
first Passover in Egypt when the firstborn of Israel was saved by the blood of the slain
lamb. The Passover meal was always concluded
with bread and wine. By this the children of
Israel had memorialized the death of Gods Lamb for fifteen hundred years! They memorialized it with a type and shadow
bread and wine.
In type, the flesh of the lamb and the blood of the lamb were the same as the bread
and the wine two different figures of the same thing. And so we read that Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us (I
Cor. 5:7).
For all those years they had, in symbol, been partaking of His body and blood as
bread and wine. So the Last Supper was but
one of many hundreds that figured the offering up of Christ for the life of the world. He was not
doing something new! He was not instituting something different! He was doing the same thing Israel had done every
year for fifteen hundred years which symbolized what our Lord was about to bring to
completion and fulfillment on the night when He ate the supper with His disciples. The bread Jesus blessed and served to His
disciples that night represented His body, while the cup of wine represented His blood of
the New Covenant, which was shed for many for the remission of sins. It is His life
that takes away our sins! It all represented
our salvation. When Jesus blessed the bread
and wine, and told His disciples to partake of it, He was illustrating the wonderful truth
that their salvation was now being accomplished and fulfilled. As Jesus spoke those words, Father was arranging
the events that would fulfill His eternal purposes for the salvation of all mankind. All that was required at that time was for Jesus
to have His body broken and His blood poured out, releasing into humanity the living Word
and the incorruptible Life that was in Him. He
gave it not only for us, but He gave it to us. TAKE,
EAT! That is where our salvation is, eating
and drinking of Him in the power He has made available through His death, releasing all
that was true in Him to become our very substance
and life! Isnt it wonderful!
No one realizes better than I the difficulties faced when declaring the things I am
teaching here. But I must emphasize again
that when the Lord Jesus said, For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this
cup, ye do show the Lords death till He come, THE LORD WAS SPEAKING FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF THE ISRAELITE WHO KEPT THE PASSOVER FEAST!
He was not instituting a new ritual, a new ceremony, or a new ordinance, for Jesus did not come to establish
more types and shadows and outward observances. Oh,
no! He came to fulfill all the types and shadows within Himself,
He came as the fulfillment of all the law and
the prophets, He stepped upon the scene as the reality
of everything that the natural and literal and outward feasts of Israel pointed to! So why would He set up a new ritual to memorialize a reality that had already come? The very thought is absurd! You see, precious friend of mine, Jesus
wasnt telling
them to eat bread and drink wine as a new ritual observance. It was not a command!
All He said was, As oft as ye
eat this (Passover) bread, and drink this (Passover) cup, ye DO show forth the Lords death till He
comes. It was just a statement of
fact in reference to the annual Passover meal.
On the night of the Last Supper the Lord had not died yet, the Lamb had not been
killed, Christ our Passover had not yet been slain for us.
More than three years before this hallowed night John the Baptist had declared,
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29). Jesus was the Lamb of God! He had been separated from the flock as a pure and
spotless Lamb qualified to be offered up in sacrifice.
But the Lamb had to be slain at the time of the Passover to take away the
sins of the world! At the Passover meal the
Lord said, As oft as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show forth (typify,
signify, point to) the Lords death till He comes. The great soul-gripping truth is this. Jesus was not referring in these words to a new
ordinance they were to observe under the New Covenant He was speaking of the
Passover meal they were right then eating, which the children of Israel had been eating
for fifteen hundred years, and which many of them, including these disciples, would continue to observe for some time (Acts 21:20;
18:21; 21:18-26) until the new order of spiritual reality had been
completely established in the Lords New Covenant people (I Cor. 5:8; Heb.
9:8-11). It was a time of transition, and
only gradually did the Lords people grasp the truth that since Christ had fulfilled all the Old Testament outward feasts and
ceremonies, it was no longer necessary to perform external rituals. It was the higher revelation of the apostle Paul
which finally established the great truth that the feast of Passover is now fulfilled spiritually within us, and weaned the saints away
from those outward observances. For
even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth (I Cor. 5:8). Sincerity
means purity, that which is unmixed with the
old; truth means reality, not the shadow, but
the substance!
Thats how we keep the feast!
Therefore, indicating the old, natural, ritual Passover meal, we read, And He
took bread, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for
you: this do in remembrance of me. Let
me say it again these words do not, by
any stretch of the imagination, establish a new Christian ordinance! The Lord is telling His disciples, Take this
bread that I now give you and eat it with
enlightened understanding this Passover bread which you have eaten for fifteen
hundred years means my body which is broken for you.
Now eat it tonight, and on any future occasion when you may keep this
Passover feast, not as a memorial to the lamb in Egypt those long centuries ago, but eat
it in the full comprehension that it memorializes ME!
I am the Lamb to which all other Passover lambs have pointed and
tomorrow I will die for you! That, my
beloved, is why this meal is rightly called the Last Supper it brought
the end
of the shadow the true Lamb was now coming into view! Therefore, As oft as ye have eaten, do
eat, or continue to eat this bread, and drink this cup (of the Passover meal), ye do show
forth (signify, typify, point to) the Lords death till He (the true Lamb) comes (and
is slain for you). It should be clear
to every thinking mind that the Lord is not talking at all about a new ordinance
the church was to keep for two thousand more years; rather, He was speaking of the
Passover meal He was eating with His disciples that
very night! The true Lamb was even then
coming to be slain; He was that night on His way to the slaughter!
How quick the Lords people are to take something the Lord does and make a
ritual, ceremony, or tradition out of it! Thus
it is that the Lord declares, Your tradition has made the word of God of no
effect. By our tradition of continuing
the symbol of eating bread and drinking wine to
show forth the Lords death till He comes, we make His coming as the Lamb of God, our
Passover slain for us, of no effect!
Hear me, my beloved, HE HAS COME! The
Lord has come! The Lamb has come! The literal Passover meal is ended! There is no more shadow or type,
no more memorial to His death, for the REALITY
is here! The life of Gods Lamb is
now realized within us spiritually by the power of the living Christ!
It is my deep conviction that the New Covenant is a spiritual
covenant of reality and life, not containing within it any Old Testament style
external rituals or outward ceremonies. It
was the Old Covenant that stood in meats
and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation (change) (Heb.
9:10). In celebrating the fulfilling of the Old Testament feast of Passover
Jesus said, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new (in the New Covenant, spiritually) with you in my
Fathers kingdom (Mat. 26:29). Luke
records it thus: I will not anymore eat thereof, until it be fulfilled
in the kingdom of God (Lk. 22:16). In
my spirit I hear the words of Paul explaining this mystery, Who hath
translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son (Col. 1:13). And, The kingdom of God is not meat and
drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost (Rom. 14:17).
According to Jesus there was coming a day when He would drink a new wine with His
disciples in the kingdom of God that would be of superior quality. That new wine represents a new life and spirit
of which His chosen ones would partake; it is superior wine for it speaks of the fullness
of the Spirit. That new wine, when we have
truly drunk it with Him as we sit at His table and sup with Him and He with us, will
provide full and complete salvation for the entire Christ body, who are all sons of God. To drink this new wine of superior quality, with
Christ in our Fathers kingdom, shows that we have been transformed into His image
and likeness. It also shows that we have
inherited the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world. THIS IS TAKING PLACE WITHIN US NOW AS WE SUP WITH
HIM, AND HE WITH US! The old wine of external
observances represents in a figure the
transforming power of His life, but the new wine of superior, kingdom quality contains
within it the power of the Spirit and will complete the process of our full salvation,
making us kings and priests in the kingdom of God after the order of Melchizedek. To drink this new, kingdom wine, we must become
new wine vessels. Our Father is now making us
new wine vessels, that we may fully drink of the new and superior wine of the
incorruptible glory and life of the kingdom of God!
That the bread and wine of this new superior kingdom quality is not physical,
natural wafers and wine is clear from Pauls teaching about communion. Hear what he says!
The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the COMMUNION OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST?
The bread which we break, is it
not the COMMUNION OF THE BODY OF CHRIST? (I Cor. 10:16). Then, that we may clearly understand what elements
he is talking about Paul adds, For we being many are (the) one
bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread
(Christ) (I Cor. 10:17). The
word communion is from the Greek koinonia
meaning partnership, participation, intercourse. Can we not see by this that WE ARE IN PARTNERSHIP
WITH THE BODY OF CHIRST! WE ARE IN
PARTNERSHIP WITH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST! This is
not fulfilled by wafers and wine, but in our union with Christ where we drink living
blood, the wine of Christs Spirit that flows through His corporate body. We are also eating His flesh, the living Word of
His substance made flesh in us.
Jesus said, I am the
bread that is come down from heaven. He
certainly did not mean that He was a wafer you could pop in your mouth on Sunday morning! As we partake of Him,
not in a wafer, but in spirit and in truth, by the power of the Holy Ghost, we eat of that
bread and become that one bread. As He is broken
among us, His life shared, His word communicated from member to member, we are partakers
of that one bread and satisfy our souls by being filled with all the goodness of God. We have all hungered for fellowship with those of
like precious faith, yet this too is a haunting shadow of the past. There is a communion beyond a mere assembling of
bodies in one place there is a communion of kindred
spirits in the secret place of the Most High. As we enter into union with God we have a
fellowship divine through the transmitting power of the Father of spirits; spirit
conversing with spirit: this is truly the communion beyond the
outward and external. This communion is known only in the kingdom of the Spirit,
which is the kingdom of our Father! This is
the assembly of the heavenly mount Zion and the Jerusalem which is above; this is the
communion of the assembly of the first-born-out-from the Father! This is being one with the Father, and with the
Son, and with each other in the Spirit!
Paul says that the cup which we bless is
the communion of the blood of Christ, and the bread which we bless is the communion of the body of Christ. The cup most churches bless is the cup of Mogan
David wine or Welchs grape juice, and the bread the vast majority of churches bless
is communion wafers or soda crackers. That is
not the cup the sons of God drink of, nor is it
the bread the sons of God eat of! When we are
unified together, one in Him, we become that one bread which is the bread of life. This bread is sweeter, more delicious, giving
superior strength and substance above any of the cheap imitations of religion. What a remarkable people you are the elect
of God! You are in the world to unveil the
presence and life of the Lord. You sit at the
Fathers table eating and drinking in the kingdom of God as our Lord Himself
prophesied you would. Your calling is to give
yourself to humanity that they might be quickened and caused to live in the presence of
God. Therefore, the cup which WE BLESS IS the communion of the blood of Christ in the
Spirit, and the bread which WE BLESS IS the
communion of the Word made flesh in the body of Christ!
Oh, the mystery of it!
We are that one bread, His life in us is that precious blood, praise His
name! We do not bless the outward cup of the
Old Covenant, we bless the cup of the New Covenant which is new in the kingdom of God. Here is a description of the most perfect and
spiritual communion service you can ever attend: Behold, I stand at the door and
knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in
to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
The church world has never discerned
the body of Christ, they have not perceived that it is HE who dwells in the midst of
His people and that it is there, in His body, that He lives as the bread and the blood
from heaven. When we speak the words of His
life, and minister in the power of His life this is the Lords Supper!
It all boils down to whether we understand the Word by the Spirit, or carnally;
whether we believe that eating His flesh and drinking His blood can be done physically, or
whether it must be done spiritually. It is an
utter impossibility to eat or drink Christ with my physical mouth; therefore, I can only
eat and drink of Him in the same spirit in which He spoke to the sinful woman of Samaria,
I have water to drink, which if a man drink of it, he will never thirst again. I so eat and drink in remembrance of what He
accomplished for me at Calvary! I so eat and
drink in participation with Him in what He is to me and in me right now! I can say with assurance that once you eat and
drink this superior bread and wine with Him in the heavenly and spiritual kingdom of the
Father, the old-order carnal ordinances of the church systems will never satisfy!
There are natural foods that you can feed people and they will hunger again. The nutritious strength and life received from
these foods are only temporary, they last only for a season. There are doctrines and creeds and rituals and words of men on the religious buffets of the
church systems that have no life in them, that can neither support life nor sustain life. But there is a bread from heaven that if a man eat
of it he shall never die and never hunger again! With
the disciples of old our hearts cry is, Lord, evermore give us this
bread! We desire this bread, and our Father is giving it to us as
we yearn for Him.
God has purposed to reveal every aspect of His purpose through His Christ, Head and
body. So we are living this very day in a
progression. God is marching on! He wants to reveal Himself and unfold this
glorious One that we call the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is standing at the door knocking. Open the
door and invite Him and He will come in to you and will sup with you on a plane where you
have never before known Him. God is preparing
a people at this very time who are yearning for a further revelation of the Lord. These apprehended ones are not looking back
fondly on the good old days when God moved in mighty power, wishing that they
could have continued to move in those days of glory.
This people God is preparing today is not lamenting or trying to recapture or
perpetuate the glory of the past. It is a
true and wonderful fact that for every day in God there is fresh manna, there
is that fresh unveiling of the glory of Jesus Christ.
This is not a time for Gods sons to try to recapture the past, or try to warm
over the glories of yesterday. I heard a
brother who teaches the message of sonship and the kingdom of God, just the other day say,
Im looking for God to move again like He did in the great Latter Rain
outpouring. Oh, no! I have no desire to see God move again as He did
in 1948 or on any other date in history. This
dear brother has missed the point altogether. None
of those former moves of God, no matter how powerful and glorious they were, brought the
kingdom of God to pass in all the earth, nor did they deliver creation from the bondage of
corruption. They blessed a few of
earths people, and then went the way of all flesh.
There is something brand new for you and me today in the economy of God! The elect of God are now in a time of patient
waiting as they are being prepared for the hour when the younger sons of God shall attain
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of the firstborn Son. Some people dont like to wait. Some
brethren say we have waited long enough, so let us step out from behind the veil and begin
to evangelize and do all those things we have already done in Passover and Pentecost. Methinks they would not have tarried in the upper
room either, they would have already left the hundred and twenty and gone out on the
streets of Jerusalem passing out tracts! And
they would have aborted their calling and missed the glory when it came! This is not a time for those who treasure the
beautiful hope of sonship to get excited about doing exploits for God in the waning anointing of yesterday or by
the threadbare methods of the past, even if they do call
it sonship. The glory that fills our
expectant souls today is born of the knowledge imparted by the mind of Christ that the
hour of His manifestation draweth nigh the hour when Christ shall come in fullness
to be revealed IN HIS SONS, and they shall reign over
the earth.
From time to time the Lord speaks to me in dreams usually at about six
oclock in the morning. Some years ago
Larry and Betty Hodges were scheduled to be here in El Paso to share with the saints. That morning I awoke from a dream. In the dream I was in a large hall such as is used
for meetings and functions of various kinds. At
one side of the hall, against the wall, was a table.
To the right of the table were a few people seated in chairs along the wall. Brother Hodges was standing before the table,
facing the wall, ministering to the people seated against the wall. His back was to the large hall. He was ministering from a manuscript on the table
I could see that it was typewritten, with a number of pages, and double-spaced like
a manuscript prepared for a publisher. He had
reached the bottom of the first page and was speaking words that caused a great excitement
in my spirit. I was thinking within myself,
Amen! Thats right, brother! Thats what the Lord has been teaching
me! It seemed it had something to do
with death to self.
Then I noticed two long tables out in the center of the hall. And I noted that brother Hodges was facing the
table and the people along the wall his back to the hall and the tables. I was aware that a great number of people would
soon be arriving. The tables, however,
were cluttered with food and dirty dishes left over from a previous banquet. There were two place settings that had not been
used at the head of one of the tables. Obviously,
the banquet that had been held there had ended, and things were not ready for the people
that would be coming. I thought, We
must clear all this away and make preparations for the arrival of the people. Someone began to help me and we cleared the
tables. Then a folded map appeared in my
hands. I laid the map on a shelf and
awoke from the dream.
In my meditations that morning the Spirit gave me understanding of the dream. Needless to say, I was very curious to see what
brother Hodges would be ministering that day! I
saw that the manuscript he was ministering from was like an unpublished manuscript a fresh word, a new
revelation for a new day unknown to the masses of believers. It is that which can only be known by the Spirit
and is witnessed to by those who are hearing from God in this hour. Those that receive this word are few in number
a little flock, the remnant of the Lord. But there is coming a great change! God is soon to move in a new way, in the power and
glory of the kingdom of God, and there shall be a great ingathering. Multitudes will flow into the kingdom of God, and
many nations will say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to
the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His
paths: for the law of the Lord shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem (Mic. 4:2). But things are
not quite ready there are yet preparations to be made!
The tables with the left-over food and dirty dishes speak of the previous
move of God the feast of Pentecost. It
was a glorious feast with rich blessing for many but the feast has ended. There were two tables the early and the
latter rain but the meal is over! Only
remnants of blessing and vessels remain. Those
that were ordained to come and partake of that feast came and ate. Some that were bidden to the feast didnt
make it, or refused the invitation, represented by the two place settings that had not
been used. The truth that gripped my spirit
was just this: the former feast is over and God is now speaking from an unpublished
manuscript! We have not passed this way
before, and God has not done in the past what He will do in this new kingdom day! What He has to say has only begun for
brother Hodges was still reading from the first
page of the manuscript. He is dealing
with His called and chosen elect about the price to
be paid to participate in the new thing God will do hence my impression that
the portion of the manuscript being read from had something to do with death to self.
The Lord is also dealing with His chosen ones about the preparations to be
made for the next great move of God the feast of Tabernacles! In the feast of Tabernacles the sons of God shall
be revealed! There shall be a great
ingathering, multitudes brought into the kingdom of God.
This is the hour of preparation. Let
us prepare our hearts! Let us leave behind
the feast that has ended. Let us not sit any
longer at the table, eating the left-overs of what the Lord prepared for another day. Those who have heard the call of the Spirit have
now set their sights and hearts upon the feast that is ready to dawn! In the dream brother Hodges had his back to the
hall with the tables of left-over food and dirty dishes.
In other words, he represented that those called to sonship in this hour have
renounced the feast that has ended, have turned away from that with which God is finished. He was ministering from a higher realm, speaking
of a new day, and pressing into a new glory!
Finally, I saw that the map represents our present walk in the Spirit and our
destiny in God. In this day God is raising a
people into heights never known by man. He is
ushering a people into a new place in God, into a realm in the Spirit, into an attainment,
a ministry, and a glory never before experienced by any except our glorious Head, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are now preparing our hearts
for the new and greater thing the Lord is
doing and shall do in our day!
The Lord promises to sup with each one who opens the door and promises also that
the one who does open the door will sup with Him. Let
us look at the real meaning of this word sup.
It is from the Greek deipneo meaning
to dine, i.e. take the principle or evening
meal. There is a point here that
the English translation does not make. To
many supper is not a main meal. The Greeks ate three meals in the day. Breakfast
was only a slice of dry bread dipped in wine. Lunch was seldom eaten at home; it was a scratch
meal eaten in a city square or wherever a man happened to be. But supper
was the last and main meal of the day! This
was the meal at which a man sat and talked for hours, for now there was time, for work was
ended. There is something very lovely here! It is not a mere courtesy visit, paid in the
passing, which the Lord Jesus offers us. It
is supper! He desires to come in and sit long
with us, and to wait as long as we wish Him to wait, until we have heard all His words,
understood all His will, and until we are filled with all the fullness of this last and
greatest feast!
Those overcomers who are called to sonship in this day have received a personal
invitation from the Lord of glory to have supper with Him!
He has ushered us in to the marriage supper of the Lamb! We have already eaten with the Lord at other
times and on other levels, but now He has called us to come into union with Him and
sup with Him. For some years we
ate breakfast with the Lord in the Outer Court. It
was the feast of Passover bread and wine. Then
we entered into the Holy Place and had lunch with Him.
It was the feast of Pentecost. But now we have been invited to supper, the third
meal of the day. This is also the third
feast of the Lord, the feast of Tabernacles!
What sets the feast of Tabernacles apart from all the others is the abundance
enjoyed during the feast. Its the full
harvest. At the celebration of Tabernacles,
not only had the barley and wheat been harvested, but also all other grains, the fruit of
trees, the olives, the grapes, all that could possibly serve as food or drink. The harvest was complete! On the spiritual plane this points to the fact
that God has been using His people everywhere to whatever degree He has prepared the
vessel for that revelation of the Christ. There
has come a beautiful unfolding of His purpose, the outflow of His life and the
manifestation of Himself throughout the church age, right up to the present time. But there shall yet come the ultimate, the total,
and complete revelation of Jesus Christ not a narrow, limited thing, not to get a
number of people saved and filled with the Spirit, and healed and blessed and used
but the kingdom of God coming with power and great glory through manifest sons of God, as
an expression and manifestation of God in His total capacity with no limitations, with all
the power, with all the glory, all the might, all the majesty, all the authority, so that
nations will be swept into the kingdom of God, creation delivered from the bondage of
corruption, the last enemy, even death, destroyed from off the face of the earth, and all
things made new. It is indeed wonderful!
Oh, what a grand and glorious realm lies before us in the feast of Ingathering! The day of the full fruit of the Spirit! The day of Perfection! The time of full and complete redemption, spirit,
soul, and body! The full and complete
experiencing of HIMSELF! The fullness of
Strength and Power and Glory! The Feast of
feasts! The strange part of the whole thing
is this, that the whole purpose and plan of God for this new day of the kingdom of God is
completely obscured and lost amidst the shout and euphoria over the
firstfruits of the Spirit which we received in Pentecost. Those who glory in the firstfruits of the
Spirit do not know what this day is about! They
can see the healings, deliverances, miracles, prophecies, gifts
and so forth; and
they understand not that it is God in His great mercy inviting His people to enter on in
to their full inheritance. They do not
realize that all this is but the foretaste and earnest of their heritage, and that God
bids us arise and come away with Him to the great Feast that lies before!
One cannot explain to an unregenerated and unbelieving man what Passover means
unless God causes him to see it. Passover is
distinct from anything that an unbeliever has ever experienced! There are those who have experienced Passover,
knowing the joy of sins forgiven, yet they have no comprehension at all of what it is to
experience Pentecost. It is like trying to
explain the world of man to a worm! Today, there are believers who have experienced
both Passover and Pentecost and yet, they are as blind as bats to what the feast of
Tabernacles is about. I am declaring to you
that there is a third realm in God for us to experience! Some feel that they are already living and walking
in the feast of Tabernacles, but I am sure they are walking in the assurance of the revelation of it more than in the reality and power
of it. The truth is, there is a fullness
that we do not yet have! This third dimension
brings His Lordship with all the authority, power, and glory that brings. And this feast, being the last, brings perfection! It brings the consummation of our salvation in
spirit, soul, and body.
This third dimension in God is the place where you and I, in the spirit,
appropriate all the fullness of the Most Holy
Place. Some are talking about coming out from
behind the veil and manifesting sonship to creation, yet it is evident in their lives that
they have not yet experientially appropriated
the full glory, power, and dominion of that superlative of all realities in God. Coming out from that realm is premature! Blessed are they who are called to this great
Feast, that which supersedes Pentecost, that which is the BALANCE OF THE MEAL of which
Passover and Pentecost were merely the first courses! And the balance must therefore come, the remainder
of the meal which will give strength to the laborers to go forth and accomplish great
things for the Master. Arent you glad!
To be
continued
J. PRESTON EBY
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