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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM
THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part
67
THE
THRONE
(continued)
“Immediately I was in the Spirit: and, behold, a
throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne” (Rev. 4:2).
The exclamation, “Behold! A
throne!” sets the mood and declares the scene which greets John’s gaze as
he passes through the open door into the heavenly court.
There is much more to be seen, but the glory of the throne and He who
sits upon it is of such fabulous radiance that all else seems dim beside.
In this and the next chapter the word “throne” occurs seventeen
times.
The scriptures continually speak of thrones in connection with the
sovereignty and power of God. The
throne of God is a developing throne, just as every purpose of God is progressive
and unfolding from age to age, the
body of Christ is growing and being
builded up a spiritual temple, the bride of Christ is being
prepared and is making herself
ready for the marriage union, and the kingdom of God is expanding
so that “of the increase of His
government… there shall be no end.”
Let us then see that this is not the throne of God in its eternalness,
but a new and fresh and more glorious revelation of the throne in an advanced
manifestation and administration. John
sees it, not as long since fixed and settled in this locality and form, but
just as it was taking up its rest in this place.
It was being set as He was
looking! That is the sense of the
Greek text. The expression is in
a tense which denotes unfinished action, reaching its completion at the time
of the seeing.
“I saw a throne as having just
been set in heaven!” This
is truly marvelous, for it shows that this vision refers to a
new order of things, which first comes into being at the time to which the
vision refers. The apostle’s
language implies that the act of the placing of the throne where he saw it,
was only being completed at the moment of his looking.
That moment was the moment of him being called up out of the earthlies
into the heavenlies! The prophet
Daniel beheld this same scene and describes it thus, “I beheld till the
thrones were set (not cast
down as the King James Bible has it), and the Ancient of days did sit,
whose throne was like the fiery flame” (Dan. 7:9).
Daniel’s vision embraced the placing
of the throne, as well as the throne itself.
When John, being in the Spirit, looked aloft into the heavens of
God’s Spirit, he saw a throne
which is the seat of universal authority and dominion.
But he saw that throne in a new and more glorious administration, to
bring into view a new order of things. It
is the same throne — but in a new dimension!
Up until the vision of the open door in heaven only one man out of all
humanity had access to the throne realm to capture the power, the glory, and
the majesty of the throne realm, and then come back into the earth realm and
reveal it. But now a many-membered
man will have access to the throne realm, thousands of in-Christed ones to
step forth from the mercy seat in the Holiest of all to express the life,
light, love, goodness, deliverance, salvation, and power of God before the
face of all nations and unto all the ends of the earth.
This is the manchild upon the
throne! These are the
overcomers who are called to sit with
Christ in His throne! These
are God’s called and chosen elect who rule the nations with a rod of iron!
This is the new administration of the throne that John beholds, high
above the limited ministry of the candlestick realm, bringing the new order of
the kingdom of God through manifested sons!
In a little nursery rhyme that many who read these lines will remember
from their childhood we have a picture of the pathetic shroud of darkness that
hangs like a pall over the church’s understanding of these deep and
wonderful truths of God:
Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?
I’ve been to London to see the Queen.
Pussy cat, pussy cat, what have you seen there?
I saw a mouse under her chair.
Pathetic as this picture is in the natural realm, it is even more sad
in the spiritual realm. So many
saints have visions of that bright glory world above, and instead of beholding
the glory of sonship and the power of the throne, all they can see is golden
streets, celestial streams, roses that never fade, mansions with gold bath
tubs, harps, and fluttering angels. Like
the pussy cat, they cannot see the queen in all her glory and dominion, they
see only the mouse under her chair! The
carnal mind simply cannot see the true realities and glorious significance of
sonship to God. Instead it
treasures the outer things of buildings, meetings, musicians, programs,
rituals, ceremonies, ordinances, organization, efforts, and works.
But God is calling a people to come
up hither to the throne realm where all
that God is many be touched, known, experienced, and manifested!
When one ascends high enough all he sees is the throne
and One sitting upon it!
That is all the high priest saw in the Most Holy Place, and that is
what John the beloved beheld when the door was opened in heaven.
The throne room is so grand and so flooded with reality and glory, yet
the old order church has been chasing mice under the throne and perceives not
the majesty of that realm. When
Isaiah stood in the throne zone he cried out, “The whole earth is full of
His glory!” The glory of God
became ALL to him in the presence of the majesty on high.
When we turn from the religious mice and behold the true wonders of the
Spirit world we come to know Him as He
is. It grieves me when people
talk about heaven and miss the glory of God upon earth!
My spirit is saddened when believers talk about heaven in terms of
mansions over the hilltop or a cabin in the corner, while they live out their
lives void of a true spiritual understanding of Christ raised up within His
people in the glory of kingdom authority and power — the throne
zone. Golden streets, gates
of pearl, and walls of jasper are merely spiritual poetry expressing to us
deep and profound spiritual realities.
They are figures of speech employed by the Holy Spirit of truth to help
us leap over the walls of our logic and capture that which is indescribable.
Oh, that all men might see the awesome glory of God that dwells in
these vessels of clay! The
kingdom of God is within you,
precious son and daughter of the heavenly Father!
My
deepest prayer is that men may get their eyes off the mouse under the chair
and behold the throne, the wisdom
and glory and power of the kingdom of God within.
You need not go anywhere to come up hither to the throne realm!
It is closer to you than the air that you breathe.
It’s closer to you even than the blood that courses through your
veins. In the power of the
kingdom of God within you there is no limitation at all.
All things are possible! All
the wealth of divinity, all the riches of the mind of the Father, all the
abundance of joy, peace, love, faith, and power is in
your spirit, the throne room within Christ in you!
All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Him are
in you today, in the Spirit of the living God which is in your spirit,
that spirit which you are upon
this earth! Discover that throne
within today, my friend, draw from its wealth, suck from its life, receive
from its power and you will walk as a new creation, transformed into the image
of God. In the surpassing glory
of sonship to God golden streets will have no importance at all!
You won’t even see the mouse under the chair! All
the virtues and values of God, all the attributes of wisdom, righteousness,
and power, are centered in the throne
zone. All that God is and
ever shall be and all that He does is in the throne
zone. All of God’s mercy,
grace, and goodness radiate out from the throne
zone. In the throne
zone you can see all things as they really are!
“When
the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy messengers with Him,
THEN SHALL HE SIT UPON THE THRONE OF HIS GLORY” (Mat. 25:31).
When the Lord comes into His temple, which temple we are, and we are
raised up into His glory and power in the Spirit, then He sits upon the throne
of His glory! Darkened minds
picture our Lord soaring down out of the skies on a great cumbersome throne,
all dazzling white (Rev. 20:11), like a king arrayed in all his trappings in
the natural. But we should
remember that “the words I speak unto you, they
are spirit, and they are life”
(Jn. 6:63); we should remember that prophecy is given in prophetical language,
in highly figurative speech! A
throne means dominion and power and authority.
White denotes righteousness. So
a white throne denotes righteous
dominion. That is God’s
throne! His dominion is
righteous, that is, it is right.
It is just.
It destroys evil and redeems men unto God.
It destroys sin and death and quickens men unto righteousness and life.
It is a throne of mercy and judgment, even corrective judgment, that
makes what is wrong, right. That
is what is right or righteous!
And that is the throne God is raising up within His sons!
That is the spirit every son must have toward all
men before we can reign upon the throne!
God is not a limited physical being that can sit on a tangible throne
in one restricted locality somewhere out beyond the blue.
God is spirit and God is everywhere and thus His throne is a spiritual
throne and is everywhere. The one
great truth that all theologians agree on is that God is omnipresent
spirit who not only created, but upholds and fills
the whole universe and all things! And
our scientists tell us that in the universe there are more worlds than
individual grains of sand on the beaches of all the earth.
Astronomy informs us of the enormous distances that separate the stars
of the physical universe. So
remote are the nearest ones that four years are required for light traveling
186,000 miles a second to traverse the distance.
Yet speaking astronomically, such stars are very near neighbors!
Galaxies have been discovered which are billions of light years away.
You cannot put a God who is that great and everywhere present and
bottle Him up on a physical throne in one limited spot.
Oh, no! He
is everywhere and His throne is everywhere.
The throne of the God who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent spirit
is not a material one but bespeaks the REALM OF HIS SUPREME AND UNIVERSAL
AUTHORITY AND RULERSHIP; and our Lord Jesus Christ has been exalted to the
glory of that rulership. The
throne of God is a sphere of power and authority, a position of eminence, a
condition and a 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.
Exalted to that high realm Jesus no longer walks in a limited physical
body, but He now indwells the church, which
is His body, the FULLNESS OF HIM THAT FILLETH ALL IN ALL (Eph. 1:22-23).
If heaven were a “place” out beyond the galaxies somewhere, can you
imagine how long it would take for God to hear a prayer, how long it would
take to get to heaven were we to
travel there, how long it would have taken Jesus to get from heaven to earth
when He descended to dwell among us? Why,
bless your heart, after two thousand years Jesus would still be on His way
back to the throne even if He traveled at the speed of light!
And He would need billions of more years to get there!
The angel Gabriel was dispatched from heaven while
Daniel was praying and was able to reach the prophet Daniel
while he was yet in his prayer (Dan. 9:20-23).
Real distance is measured not in miles or light years, but rather in
time required to reach a destination. Heaven,
therefore, is not far away!
When we pause to think of the terrifying vastness of the universe, our human tendency is to think that God could never pay close attention to the tiny details of our lives. Our walk to the store, the streets we cross, the entrance we use, the groceries we select, the people we meet, the mood of the cashier, the price we pay at the checkout, the thousand and one little decisions we must make and challenges we face — does God care about these trivial details? The McDonald’s restaurant chain says, “We do it all for you.” But they don’t. They can’t. Larger crowds make for less personal attention. So how can God direct the whole vast universe and give us personal attention at the same time? Well, says Jesus, amazingly God does! “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Mat. 10:30). To God both small and big are beautiful and worthy of His loving attention. And I will tell you how He does this!
The scriptures use many terms that are suited to our understanding. When God speaks to us He uses terminology that is comprehensible to us, in order to convey concepts that are beyond us. These are called “terms or accommodation” or “anthropomorphic terms” if I might use that $10.00 word. It means simply this — there are certain attributes that belong to us as human beings that are attributed to God and they are used of God in order that you and I might understand God better. For instance, the scripture says, “the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth.” Now God doesn’t have physical eyes! And frankly, I don’t understand how you can see without eyes, and therefore the only way I can understand it is for God to say to us, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth.” And now I understand that God sees!
Not
only do I understand that God sees, but I also understand that God sees
everything, everywhere. Nothing
is hid from His sight! The
“eyes” of God are spirit eyes.
God is omnipresent, that is, present everywhere at the same time.
The spirit eyes of God, or His ability to see by Spirit, are as
omnipresent as God is omnipresent! That
is, the eyes of Spirit are not localized — God doesn’t have two remarkable
eyes somewhere in His head with wonderful X-ray vision that can pierce the
vast distances of the universe and see everything, everywhere at will.
Oh, no! His eyes are
omnipresent — He sees everything, everywhere at the same time and He sees it
from right there where He is, not from some distant vantage point.
His Spirit is right there present with you as you read these lines and
He sees you there by His Spirit that is there. Because He “fills all
things” His Spirit is at the same time in Moscow, Cairo, Beijing,
Washington, Caracas, Johannesburg, and Paris and He sees everything there by
His Spirit there. Omnipresent
eyes! It is indeed wonderful!
And yet they are not eyes as we know eyes, but just His universal
ability to see by His Spirit. The
One who made the eye can see without an eye!
I don’t understand it — therefore the term “eye” is given to us
as a symbol standing for the reality in God the Spirit.
Again the scriptures say that the heavens are the “handiwork” or
“fingerwork” of God. God
doesn’t have fingers like we have, but He can do the work of fingers,
therefore the Holy Spirit speaks of the creation as the work of His fingers.
So the One who made the fingers, the hand, and the arm can do the work
of the fingers, the hand, and the arm, by
His Spirit. The hand of the
Lord is not localized, it does not exist in some specific spot somewhere in
the universe from whence it moves out through time and space to perform some
action. Oh, no!
God is omnipresent Spirit — therefore the hand of God is as
omnipresent as God Himself. His
hand is a spirit hand and speaks of His great ability to act, perform, do,
make, and create. God acts by His
Spirit in every place at the same time. Therefore
“His arm is not short that it cannot save.”
God’s hand is right there in the room where you sit this very moment.
And His hand is everywhere else in all the unbounded heavens at the
same time!
Furthermore,
Christ is now seated on the right hand of God — He is seated there on that
right hand right there where you are, yea, even in the deepest depth of your
being, so that the throne of God is nearer to you than the air that you
breathe! Christ is seated at the
right hand of power, that is, in the position where God acts, does, works, and
creates, so that all God does He does in and by and through the Son of God.
And He does it right there where you are!
Can we not see by this how simple yet profound is the knowledge that we
have been raised up and made to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus!
The spiritual dimension of God’s abilities in Christ have been
awakened and quickened within us, our spirit joined to His Spirit, so that we
sit in that spiritual dimension by spiritual consciousness, and we haven’t
moved one inch to get there! Somehow
I understand that today and it makes the reality clear to my own dull human
way of thinking.
The
“ears” of the Lord are not huge elephant-like ears possessing such
super-sensitivity that they can hear sounds from billions of light years away.
Oh, no! The ears of the
Lord are spirit ears, equally present in every place His Spirit is; He hears
you not from a distance but from right where you stand in His presence.
The ears of the Lord permeate all places and all things by His Spirit
and they are all about you and within you.
He hears every thought of your
mind, every desire of your heart, every cry of your soul!
And His wonderful omnipresent spirit
mind is able to instantly and efficiently assimilate, process, compute,
utilize and respond to all these untold trillions of bits of
information with the same ease that you and I can drive our car while talking
on the phone and be conscious of the weather all at the same time!
God is all He is everywhere, and He can do all that He does everywhere.
The mouth of the Lord is an omnipresent spirit mouth, His ability to
speak in every place at the same time. Out
of His Spirit He can speak within your own heart or ears, while at the same
instant He is speaking to millions of other people around the world and to
holy angels and creatures of all kinds in far distant worlds.
He speaks to each by His Spirit present within them, not from some
distant “place” where His “mouth” is!
In like manner the creative power of God is an omnipresent power and
God creates, not in one locale, but out of the infinity of Himself.
The
dwelling place of God cannot be any smaller or more limited than He is!
The whole vast realm of the heavens is His throne.
The Lord spoke through His anointed prophet, declaring, “Thus saith
the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool” (Isa.
66:1). He fills the entire
immense extent of the heavens, which is the realm of the Spirit.
The heavens are His throne, which means that He rules and reigns in the
realm of the Spirit and by His Spirit. If
we could measure the extent of the Spirit, from one end of the heavens to the
other, we would then be able to estimate the extent or bounds of His throne.
Just as scientists cannot discover the extremities of the physical
universe, so is it impossible to know the expanse of the Spirit.
Neither the heavens, nor the earth, nor the whole universe can contain
Him. Solomon said that the heaven
of heavens cannot contain Him. Our
Father is greater than all! He
and His throne are limitless and boundless!
And He shall reign until all principalities and powers, all creatures
and men, and all things of all orders everywhere throughout the unbounded
heavens have acknowledged Him, and being reconciled in their hearts come to
love, adore, honor, and obey Him with willing hearts.
He shall reign until all things everywhere both perceive and resonate
with the glory that He is!
Truly
the throne of God is a spiritual
throne and is as omnipresent as God is!
God is everywhere, and His throne is everywhere, for His throne is
naught but THE REALM OF HIS ALMIGHTY AUTHORITY AND OMNIPOTENT POWER.
There is no need to go anywhere physically to relate to God’s throne.
The journey is a spiritual one! The
throne is all around you, within you, and present equally everywhere within
the realm of Spirit in which God exists and dwells.
You can either experience or ascend that throne within yourself through
union with Christ and the release of His power.
“All authority in heaven and in earth is given unto me,” Jesus
said. The ascension of Jesus was
the supreme event of world history. He
ascended not to a place, but to an office in and by the Spirit.
He departed from the arena of humiliation and limitation to enter into
His glory. He, in one instant,
vaulted from the status of despised Galilean teacher to the cosmic King of the
universe, rising over the heads of Pilate, Herod, and Caesar Augustus.
The ascension catapulted Jesus to the right hand of God where He was
enthroned as King of kings and Lord of lords.
The implication of this event for every son of God and for the world is
staggering. He has invited us to
share that throne! He has
beckoned all who have received the call to sonship to ascend in Him to that
place in the Spirit where all
authority and power is accessed. That
is the destiny of every manifest son of God. That authority is present
everywhere by His Spirit! But it
must become appropriated, embodied, and expressed through a people who attain
to the FULLNESS OF CHRIST. “Come
up hither!” That is the
reality of His throne in and by the Spirit!
The
following words by brother Paul Mueller speak profoundly to our hearts.
“Seeing that the throne of God is in the heavenlies, or in the realm
of Spirit, there is no power anywhere that can withstand the power and
authority of the throne of our Father. As
His sons, we must ascend in the Spirit to the heavenlies, worship the Lord,
and give Him all honor and praise. As
we do this, we are establishing a vital link between heaven and earth by which
the kingdom of God more fully comes to earth, thus unseating the powers of
man. Each time we rise in the
Spirit to worship our Father at His spiritual altar, the fire from His altar
is cast into the earth to change the world (Rev. 8:1-5).
That fire, which God is, also burns away the dross from our lives, and
delivers us of this sinful, Adamic nature.
This is the direct result of the reign of Christ, which shall continue
to increase until all is changed!
“The
Lord’s greatest dominion at this time is in the lives of His elect and
chosen ones. We are now being
ruled and governed by the Lord totally and absolutely.
He has extended the dominion of His kingdom to our hearts and lives,
and now the Lord will rule us with complete and undisputed dominion.
And He will continue to rule and reign in our lives until every enemy
within us is made subject to Him. This
is the present truth of the kingdom of God!”
— end quote.
The
Greek word thronos means “the
place and seat of authority” and refers 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 every thing 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. It
brings joy and victory to know that the Lord reigneth!
His throne is established forever.
The scepter of His kingdom is a right scepter.
He is clothed with strength that is unperceived by the world.
The
Hebrew word translated “reigneth” is malak
and means to reign, to ascend the
throne, to induct into royalty. Thus,
when we are called to “Come up
hither” to share His throne, we are called to ascend the throne and to
be inducted into the royal power of that throne!
Therefore, as the elect hear His voice and hasten to His call, we are
ascending the very throne of Christ in a greater relationship with Him and in
Him. We are being inducted
into the royalty of the throne of Christ — into His reigning
realm! Through the
experiences we encounter in this earthly life, with all their testings,
trials, and provings, we are becoming overcomers and thereby learning
to reign over all things by His royal mind, will, and life!
What
does it mean when the door is opened in heaven and John sees a throne having
just been set in a heavenly place? What
is the divine message we should understand when the Voice as a trumpet invites
John to come up to the throne room? When
the Father shows us in the heavenly realm of the Spirit His throne of glory
established in a fresh and more glorious revelation, it thus indicates an
expanded manifestation and administration of His dominion.
God is ready to deal in a brand new way with things not dealt with
before! It indicates an increase
in spiritual activity in the earth. It
indicates a time of the greater dominion of the Lord as King in the earth.
He calls His chosen ones to see His throne in the heavens, with Christ
seated on that throne, to reveal His truth that He will now rule in them in a
greater way, yea, completely, fully, so that He may then reign through them
over the New Day He is birthing in the earth.
It thus marks the beginning of a period of the revelation of divine
truth and the dealings of the Father in His sons to bring them to the hour of
manifestation.
Oh,
how blessed the prospect! Truly
we have come to that time! May
the Holy Spirit reveal to all His elect the power and authority of His kingdom
that is now to be revealed through the sons of God!
May all God’s called ones understand that God now determines to
change things in the earth! As He
allows His chosen ones to see the open heavens, with Christ seated on His
throne, and to hear the Voice bidding us to arise and come on up into that
place with Him, we know that He is coming to reign in our lives to redeem us
fully and completely in spirit, soul, and body.
And He shall reign in us until His throne is fully established in us,
even that fresh, new, advanced manifestation and administration of His throne
that shall subdue all things until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
covers the earth as the waters cover the sea!
Hallelujah!
“Immediately I was in the Spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in
heaven, and One sat upon the throne.
And He that sat was to look
upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about
the throne, in sight like unto an emerald” (Rev. 4:2-3).
Let us notice — THE ONE ON THE THRONE DID NOT HAVE AN IMAGE!
All John saw on the throne was colors, beautiful colors.
And yet, John saw One sitting there.
What about this One that sat on the throne, that could be seen, and
yet, was not visible to the natural eye?
He had no form, only radiance! John
was not looking into the natural elements when he saw the One on the throne.
The scripture says he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day!
John stood in the very reality of heaven as he was caught up in the
highest realm of the Spirit. The
One he saw was spirit.
Do not look, my beloved, at the throne of God as a natural seat sitting
there for someone to sit on. Don’t
imagine a throne-like chair! Here
seated in the splendor of the omnipresent heavenly-spiritual realm John beheld
One of many colors. Even though
He did not have a figure, John could see Him in and by the Spirit.
The One John saw is spirit. In
the tenderest of words Jesus explained to the woman of Samaria this great and
eternal truth: “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in
truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is a spirit: and they
that worship Him must worship Him in
spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:23-24).
God is Spirit, and we will understand a great mystery when we see that spirit
is light. “God is
light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (I Jn. 1:5).
We cannot see God with natural eyes.
No man hath seen God at any time!
Pure light is invisible. That
is why in outer space there is nothing but darkness, although the light rays
from every star are passing through. It
is only when light is reflected
that it becomes visible. The rays
of the sun strike the earth and are reflected off of it, creating the light of
day on the planet. God is light,
and no man hath seen God at any time! Only
as we see the light reflected
in God’s Christ do we see Him!
“The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath
led Him forth into view” (Jn. 1:18).
As I have mentioned, pure light is invisible.
One writer has pointed out that a scientific analysis of sunlight
reveals that it consists of three kinds of rays.
(1) Chemical rays or actinic.
These rays are invisible and can neither be seen or felt.
(2) Light rays.
These rays can be seen but never felt.
(3) Heat rays.
These rays are felt but are never seen.
GOD IS LIGHT, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
Therefore God, in a spiritual way, has His being, function, and
expression on those three levels. We
know that God has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Father corresponds to the chemical rays of sunlight.
No man hath seen God at any
time. The Son, who is the
light of the world, corresponds to the light rays which are reflected, the One
whom we can see but not feel. The
Holy Spirit corresponds to the heat rays, since He is felt in the lives of
believers but is never seen. Now,
these are not three kinds of light,
but three dimensions of the one reality of light.
In like manner, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three individual
Gods, but three dimensions, three expressions, or three operations of the
one and only God!
Many a sermon has been
preached about the throne of God in heaven, and I think most of them have
missed the mark because they see only the Father on the throne.
The greatest mystery of the ages is that seated on the throne of God
today is a MAN. God Himself came
down from heaven and invaded humanity, He took upon Himself the nature and the
body of a man, so that when He went back to the throne (His omnipotent power
in the Spirit) He would take humanity back to the throne.
There is no mystery to it that God sits on the throne, He belongs
there; but to think now that MAN is sitting on the throne!
“Jesus of Nazareth, a MAN approved of God among you by miracles and
wonders and signs…THIS JESUS hath God raised up, whereof we all are
witnesses. Therefore BEING BY THE
RIGHT HAND OF GOD EXALTED…” (Acts 2:22,32-33).
Our Lord Jesus Christ has been exalted to the glory of supreme and
universal rulership! The right
hand of God is the realm of power and authority, a position of eminence, a
condition and a state of being. It
is the assumption of the almighty power and dominion of the Father!
It is the dispensing of His positive
energy force into creation. Exalted
to that high realm Jesus no longer walks in a physical body, for He now
indwells the spirits of His many brethren, who are the fullness of Him who
filleth all in all (Eph. 1:22-23).
John has given us a description of the radiant glory of this One who
sits on the throne. It is
interesting to note that the identity of this One is given us further on in
the book of Revelation. “And He
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
And He said unto me, It is done. I
am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 21:5-6).
Oh, yes! The One sitting
on the throne identifies Himself as “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end.” Then in chapter
twenty-two this One whose name is Alpha and Omega says, “I
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things” (Rev.
22:13-16). There can be no
mistake about who Alpha and Omega is! Throughout
the book of Revelation He is the Lord, Jesus Christ!
Yet — I show unto you a mystery.
In chapter five John beholds a Lamb as it had been slain.
The Lamb is standing in the
midst of the throne! But then
the Lamb comes and takes the seven-sealed book out of the right hand of Him
who sits upon the throne. It
looks like an impossibility! If
Jesus is the One sitting on the throne, how could Jesus come and take the book
out of the hand of Him who sits on the throne?
Throughout the New Testament only Jesus is the Lamb!
Only He has redeemed us by His blood!
Only He is Alpha and Omega, the Creator of all things!
We can only conclude that both
of these are Jesus! But how can
this be? The answer is very
simple. We do not see here two
separate persons but two manifestations, operations, or ministrations of
the same person. Do we not have
these “parts” within ourselves? Each
of us are composed of spirit, soul, and body.
Are we then three different
persons? Not at all!
We are but one person in three dimensions of being.
My spirit can speak to my soul and say, “Bless the Lord, O my
soul!” And my soul will
bless the Lord, prompted by my spirit. Then
my soul may say to my body, “I am joyful — laugh!”
And my body — facial expression, vocal cords, breath — will produce
visible, audible laughter. Can
you not see the mystery? People
talk about the three “persons” of the Godhead — there is no such thing!
Just as man is a tri-partite being, yet only one person, so is God a
tri-partite Being, yet only one person of God!
In chapter four of Revelation, every description of Christ there is
Christ in His deity, Christ as God, sitting on the throne, the eternal Lord,
God Almighty. But then when we
look at chapter five we find that every description of
Jesus is Jesus in His humanity — the Lamb slain, the crucified One,
the lion of the tribe of Judah. It
was the humanity of Christ that was of the tribe of Judah.
It was the humanity of Christ that was crucified.
It was the humanity of Christ that died — the Lamb of God.
The things seen by John are symbols,
pictures, terms of accommodation to help us understand the mystery.
You see, my beloved, the true and full revelation of God could not come
to man until it came in the man Jesus. Through
His sinless life, through His sonship walk, through His death, burial, and
resurrection God in man overcame
sin, limitation, death, hell, and the grave.
Through this wonderful work God took everything that was in deity and transferred
it into humanity! Therefore
the Lamb is worthy!
He is worthy to take the book! He
is worthy to open the seals! He
is worthy to bring to mankind the full revelation of God!
Jesus the Lamb, Jesus the man, taking the book out of the hand of the
Father, is just a picture of this transferal of divine, incorruptible life and
glory from the realm of deity into the world of humanity!
It is in and through Jesus the Lamb that this has been accomplished!
Isn’t it wonderful!
A dear brother was caught up in the Spirit.
I know not whether he was in the body or out of the body, but he was
caught up in the Spirit and he saw, in spirit, the throne of God.
There was One that sat upon
the throne! He did not see three
thrones: God the Father sitting on one, God the Son sitting on another, and
God the Holy Ghost sitting on a third. Nor
did he see one throne with three persons of God sitting side by side upon it.
He saw One on the throne and
the One that he saw was Jesus. He
saw Jesus sitting on the throne! But
emanating and radiating, in an unending, all encompassing, out-raying of
glory, majesty, wisdom, dominion, power, love, mercy and goodness was the
Father! God was in
Christ and Christ was in the Father
and they were one.
Shining out of Jesus was the glory of the Father so that Jesus could
say, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.
believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself (of my humanity):
but the Father (deity) that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else
believe me for the very works sake” (Jn. 14:9-11).
Blessed be God! It may
stagger your imagination to hear what I now say, but, once you see the truth
of it, the mystery of God will be complete.
All those blessed ones who now hear the call to “Come
up hither” are apprehended “in Christ Jesus” to share the honor and
glory of His throne. “To him
that overcometh will I grant to sit
with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with
my Father in His throne” (Rev. 3:21).
This shows that as we come to know the overcoming power in the
resurrection life of Christ, we are also made to experience the ascension
of Christ. We are chosen of God
not only to be made alive from the dead and have God’s life, but also to sit
in the heavenly places as ASCENDED MEN! And
furthermore we are called and chosen not only to be ascended men, dwelling in
the heavenlies, but also to sit upon the throne of Christ, which is the
Father’s throne, as ENTHRONED MEN! Therefore
ascension and enthronement truly are the position of those who know Christ in
His fullness.
The position of ascension rests not only on the fact of Christ’s
ascension, but on THE LIFE OF ASCENSION WE HAVE OBTAINED WITHIN US.
Likewise the position of enthronement rests not only on the fact of
Christ’s enthronement, but on THE AUTHORITY AND POWER OF HIS KINGDOM
DOMINION THAT HAS BEEN RAISED UP WITHIN US.
The Christ who indwells our hearts and is being formed in our lives is
the ascended and enthroned Christ, and His life is ascended and powerful and
heavenly, and is given from heaven, out of the realm of the Spirit. Although
in the conditions of our outer man we still live on earth, yet according to
the inner man we are already in heaven. The
situation is just like our Lord’s during His time on earth.
He said that though He “descended from heaven” He was still “in
heaven” (Jn. 3:13). This was
due to the fact that His life and consciousness were heavenly and one with
heaven — the realm of the Spirit.
It is true therefore that as we ascend into the high places of God in
the Spirit, we are reigning with Christ in His heavenly, spiritual throne.
As we truly become overcomers by the ascended life of Christ, we are
also given power over the nations to rule them with a rod of iron, and as the
vessels of a potter they shall be broken to shivers (Rev. 2:26-27).
This rule is given to the overcomers in
Christ! As the life of
ascension within us raises up kingdom dominion in our lives we reign with
Christ in the Spirit, and the worldly powers of man shall be displaced by the
power of the Spirit and replaced by the spiritual power of the kingdom of God.
We are a spiritual people. And
the throne of God is the spiritual realm of our Father’s dominion.
Therefore our reign in Christ is a spiritual reign, which is
accomplished as we move in and by His Spirit in relation to things in the
earth realm. Through that
spiritual dominion God’s will is brought to pass on earth as it is in
heaven.
The implication of such a marvelous truth is staggering to the
imagination. I want you to see
yourself in Christ.
I want you to know that we have a great and eternal King upon the
universal throne in the heavens! But
He is not only in heaven, for God’s elect is the
body of Christ — the body of the One sitting on the throne!
“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members
of that one body, being many, are one body: so
also is Christ” (I Cor. 12:12). If
you can see that one throne where the Father of glory and the Son of man are
seated together as one, and then
see yourself and all God’s sons seated in them as
one, you will understand that even if there should be 144,000 sons in
Christ in the Father sitting on the throne, there would still be ONLY
ONE UPON THE THRONE!
This is the mystery. “That
they all may be one; as Thou,
Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one
in us…and the glory which Thou gavest me I have given them; that they
may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in me, that they may
be made perfect in one…Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given
me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory…and I have declared
unto them Thy name (nature), and will declare it (through them): that the love
wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in
them, and I in them” (Jn. 17:21-24,26).
Such high and mighty purpose is certainly beyond the comprehension of
the natural man or the natural mind. The
truth and fullness of the wonder of it all only begins to seep into our
quickened spirits when the spirit of revelation gives us a view of what it
means for our life to be hid
with Christ in God. Beholding
in and by the Spirit the scenes of the wonderful heavenly scheme we see that
in our union with Christ in God we are the fullness
of Him that filleth all in all. GOD
is upon the throne of the universe in the heavens!
In
the Father CHRIST sits upon the throne of the universe in the heavens!
And seated
in Christ WE are raised up and made to sit together with Christ in His
throne, just as He sits in His Father’s throne.
There is only one throne and
there is only One upon the throne!
There need be no question in the mind of any saint who is called to
reign with Christ that the One on the throne is a CORPORATE ONE composed of
many members. John described Him
as having the appearance of a jasper and a sardine stone.
That is only the radiance of the glory of the Father!
Methinks that when all the sons of God have been perfected, changed,
transformed, and caught up to the throne of God, one day another dear brother
will be caught up in the Spirit and will see, in spirit, the throne of God.
And he will not see many thrones: with God the Father sitting on one,
God the Son sitting on another, God the Holy Ghost sitting on a third, and
many sons brought to glory sitting on a vast array of thrones.
Oh, no! He will see one
throne and he will see One on the throne.
He will see Christ, a Christ of many members, Head and body, sitting on
the throne! And emanating and
radiating, in an unending, all encompassing, out-raying of indescribable
glory, majesty, wisdom, dominion, power, love, mercy, and goodness will
be the Father. Shining out of
this corporate Christ will be the glory of the Father, He in us and we in Him,
so that we can say, “If you have seen us, you have seen the Father: for we
and the Father are ONE!”
Jesus has promised us to sit down with Him in His throne.
Not in another little throne beside His throne!
Just as there are saints who are stones in the wall of the heavenly
temple, or pillars in the temple, so there are those who become a throne
people. These are the ruling
sons of God, and it is from the throne of God and of the Lamb that the living
river of life proceeds! The
greatest manifestation of life the world has ever seen shall yet come forth in
the earth through a people who become
the throne of God in the earth! The
glory of God fills the city, and the whole earth is full of His glory, and His
glory is above the heavens — yet God sits
upon His throne — there is a unique concentration
of divine life, power, and dominion from those who make up the throne of God!
To be identified with His throne is the ultimate attainment of union
with God. He is making us one
with Him to such a degree that when He acts we act, when He moves we move,
when He speaks we speak, and when He speaks all will speak the same thing
because of the united life in the Spirit.
It is a unity with Christ and with all who have grown up into the full
measure of His stature. When God
speaks from His throne, it is the voice of the many-membered Son, the voice
that is as the sound of many waters,
many spirits merged into one gigantic
waterfall — ONE GREAT RIVER OF LIFE!
Take the shoes from off your feet, oh saint of God, for the ground on
which we stand is holy ground! Put
away all lightness and foolishness that with heads bowed down, and hearts
lifted up in worship, the Spirit of God may make plain how the life of God
flowing in the exalted and enthroned Christ and the life of Christ flowing
through His many brethren is ONE STREAM OF THE WATER OF LIFE!
And these chosen ones who share His throne are included in the scene
John saw as He gazed with holy wonder upon that glorious One who sat upon the
throne!
Later John sees in the midst of the throne four living creatures, and
also a Lamb standing as though it had been slain.
And round about the throne, in the same position as the rainbow, which
appeared as an emerald, were seated twenty-four elders.
All of these are mere symbols
of HIM who is seated upon the throne! I
will write of this later, Lord willing, but let me say in passing that
everything in and around the throne bespeaks of the different spiritual
aspects, attributes, faculties, functions, powers, and ministrations of
that many-membered One who occupies the throne.
Oh, the wonder of it!
As we ascend in spirit to that heavenly realm of throneship we then
realize this is where we really belong. The
yearning deep within our hearts, wrought by the revelation and love of God
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, to bless the world, right the
wrongs, heal the wounds, assuage the suffering, abolish evil, and set creation
free from its bondage to sin, sorrow, limitation, and death, is the divine
indication that we are destined for throneship.
Everything in the realm of the Spirit makes us feel at home with God
and His Christ. As we consciously
ascend higher and higher into the realm of Spirit, we see that a throne is set
up in the heavens of His Spirit. We
also see that One who is all glorious, arrayed in the Light that no Adamic man
can approach unto, surrounded by a vast multitude of others who are arrayed as
He is, and seated there upon the throne of the heavens.
Truly it is a glorious scene of heavenly illumination and splendor to
those who have been blessed of their Father to see as He sees!
A brother has shared the words of a prophetic song that was given by
the Spirit at the time of a special moving of God some years ago.
What a wonderful word it brings! The
following are the words of that anointed song:
Don’t you hear the Spirit calling,
Rise up, my love, and come away?
Leave the things of earth behind you,
Come and walk in God’s new
Day.
Enter now into His kingdom,
Bright the Light that points the way,
For the shadows now are fleeing,
Can’t you hear the Spirit say?
Cast your doubts and fears behind you,
All His leading now obey.
Man’s traditions will but blind you,
Jesus is the truth, the way.
The New Age is just before us,
Ye sons of God come lead the
way.
Tell all the earth God’s great salvation
To be revealed in this great Day.
Yes, I hear the Spirit calling,
Rise up, my love, and come away!
I’ve left the things of earth behind me,
To be continued… J.
PRESTON EBY
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