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KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of
God..."
Part 8
“Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen” (Heb. 11:1).
“Because
in
Him were the all things created, those in the
heavens, and those upon the earth, those visible, and those invisible…all
things through Him, and for Him, have been created, and Himself is before all,
and the all things in Him have consisted” (Col. 1:16-17, Young’s Literal
Translation).
One
of the great principles inherent in God, and manifested unvaryingly in His
creation, is that God always produces everything from a “seed”. God Himself was the original “seed” for He
was before all things and “in Him all things have consisted.” From the
invisible energy and substance of His own being God has brought forth all the
things that were and are made. “All
things” did not originally exist except as they existed invisibly in
God. Then came “in the
beginning…”
When
a man holds an acorn in his hand, if he be a man of understanding and vision,
he can see a great oak tree in that acorn with its towering trunk, broad
branches, and verdant leaves. The mighty
oak is not yet visible and won’t be perhaps for many, many years, but
I
am sure you have heard the time-honored question, considered to be the prattle
of foolish minds, Which came first — the chicken or
the egg? While we may not with certainty
be able to answer that question, we do know that everything comes from
something. The thing from which another
thing proceeds is the “seed,” irrespective of its appearance or
dimensions. We can know which was first
— the tree or the seed — for we find in Genesis 1:11 this instructive
declaration, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding
seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in
itself, upon the earth: and it was
so.” Notice! “Let the earth bring forth grass…and the
herbs…and the fruit tree.” The words
“bring forth” are from the Hebrew word dasha meaning “to
spring up.” It is used only three times
in the entire Old Testament, and has this specific
meaning in each case. Since the grass
and the trees all “sprang up” out from the earth or ground, it
is clear that the seed preceded the trees even as the earth preceded the
seed, and God preceded the earth! Each
in his own order becomes the “seed” out of which is produced the subsequent
manifestation. Every living thing
originates from a seed, and in a more obscure and mysterious manner inanimate
things as well. You, as a human being,
originated from the “seed” of your parents.
The earth was the “ovum” and the
When
the farmer goes into his fields and sows the seed he is acting by faith — for
by faith he “sees” the harvest to come.
He envisions acres upon acres of golden grain waving gently in the wind. He anticipates the financial return from that
harvest which represents his living for the coming year. But how can the farmer be assured that there
will be a harvest? Because of the seed that
has been planted in the earth! The
planting of the seed is a faith-action and the farmer
knows that the harvest already exists — IN THE SEED. He is assured of a harvest because of the
seed and his action in relation to the seed.
He doesn’t yet see the harvest
but he knows it will follow for he has the EVIDENCE of the harvest in the form
of the seed. He understands and knows
that the harvest IS IN the seed!
This
brings us back to that revealing statement in Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen.”
This tells us that faith is EVIDENCE. “Evidence” is translated from the Greek word elegchos which means “conviction;
assurance.” The word is so strong in the
original that it carries the suggestion of influences operating to produce
conviction based upon demonstration or proof. Conviction based upon proof
is not a rash, feebly-grounded hypothesis, a
dream of hope or
Webster
defines evidence as: (1) the condition
of being evident (2) something that
makes another thing evident,
Let
us use a very natural illustration. Take
as an example the learning of a foreign language. You
THE
God
is giving His apprehended ones a vision in this hour. It is a vision of the perfected and matured
body of Jesus Christ. A vision of a firstfruits company of sons of God who shall attain unto
the measure of the stature of the fullness of the firstborn Son of God,
appropriating all the life, nature, character, victory, and accomplishment of
the Christ in their very own lives. A
vision of sonship to God, and all the grandeur that relationship implies. The image of Christ! Perfection!
Victory! Full redemption!
Incorruptible life! Divine fullness! Authority!
Dominion! The
Let
us, therefore, give all diligence to enter into the realm
of the spirit, which realm constitutes the real heritage of the
saints. This realm of the spirit holds
the fullness of Christ, and the
God
forbid that we should try to attain to the stature or experience of any man or
any movement in church history, for they all fell short of the glory of the
fullness of Christ. None of them ever
became aware of the groaning of all creation for
What
glorious anticipation that the Father might see the fullness of His Son in the
body of Christ and be satisfied. This
High
Thank
God for that inborn confidence and
assurance in the hearts of the apprehended ones that the “hour is come” for the
unveiling of God’s son-company, that the eternal purposes of God in His called
and separated elect are about to be fulfilled; that we now stand on the brink
of Jordan prepared and ready to follow the ark of the covenant into a new
experience IN CHRIST. God’s purposes
cannot miscarry. He will have a people, even
at the transition of the age, who shall believe their God and possess their
possessions.
Let
the saints of God who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand,
rejoice in the purpose of God which even now is unfolding before our very
eyes. Let me assure you, and I believe I
speak by the Spirit, that God is hastening the day and hour of perfection,
fullness, and glory. We do not have it,
nor have we seen it in any person anywhere at any time. For we are not speaking merely of a life made
free from this particular sin, or that particular
weakness, or the other particular bondage, from an uncontrollable
Christ
Jesus, our glorious Head, has already entered in to
this realm of incorruptible life, glory, and dominion — and if He has entered
in it signifies that the way is open for others to follow. “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that
within
the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even
Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of
Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:19-20). “Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through
the veil” (Heb. 10:19-20).
HOW GOD BRINGS SONS TO GLORY
“For
it was an act worthy of God…that He, for whose sake and by whom all things have
their existence, in bringing many sons into glory, should make the Pioneer of their
salvation perfect…” (Heb. 2:10).
Let
us observe God’s method of bringing many sons to glory. First, there is revelation. Revelation is divine vision. Divine vision evokes faith, faith produces
reality. Revelation, or divine vision,
when first given is much like a seed
which must germinate, grow, and mature before it can be fully appreciated. In observing this process let us consider
three examples: Joseph, Abraham, and
In
the life of each called and chosen son of God there must first
of all be divine revelation. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom.
10:17). Notice now that faith comes by
HEARING THE WORD OF GOD. Hearing with
the spiritual ear the word of God bespeaks revelation. Again, revelation is divine vision. Divine vision is “seeing” with the spiritual
eye the purpose of God — our inheritance in Christ. This “hearing” and subsequent “seeing” evoke
faith in our hearts to embrace the thing revealed. And this faith springing from the vision is
what keeps us from fainting along the arduous journey and enables us to
unswervingly press toward divine fulfillment.
It
was in a dream that the young boy Joseph was given a bird’s-eye view of his
future. First
he saw his eleven brothers as sheaves doing obeisance to his sheaf. Again he saw his
entire family represented by the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars doing
obeisance to him. What did all this
mysterious symbolism mean to Joseph?
Only that it produced within him a faith to believe that the hand of God
was upon his life;
God
appeared to Abram in the ancient city of
Then
we come to
“Now
faith is the evidence of things not seen.”
And while the glory of the early church faded away into the overshrouding gloom of Mystery Babylon and the Dark Ages,
the seed was still lying buried in the earth and God’s purpose was destined to
rise again in the end of days — at the consummation of the church age. And today across this great land and around
the world the Holy Ghost bears witness among the Spirit-anointed and Spirit-led
saints of God that we have now come to that time! For the first time in more than seventeen
centuries
Thank
God that there is a mighty army of people who are walking in FAITH in this
great hour and they shall SEE the glory of the Lord
covering the earth as the waters cover the sea!
This old world is soon to be shaken to its foundations by the greatest
manifestation of God’s glory and power ever witnessed by mankind. It shall come through the body of Jesus
Christ. I who write these words unto
you, and tens of thousands of humble followers of the Lamb who have been
quickened in Christ Jesus and raised up and made to
sit with Him in the heavenly
places — we know because we have the EVIDENCE, the PROOF. The proof lies IN OUR FAITH — the faith of
the remnant of the Lord’s people who have begun to rise up
into the realm of the Spirit and have received a fresh word from the
Lord. Our faith is the product of that
revelation, the divine vision that has ravished our hearts. It gives my heart much joy to know that
revelation is divine vision, divine vision evokes faith, and faith produces
reality! These words are far too potent and full of meaning to be passed
over carelessly or lightly esteemed as a pleasing platitude. In them lies the omnipotent power of God and they usher us
within the gate through which we walk on
our way to the glories of sonship to
God. Faith is the evidence of things not yet seen. Faith is the seed of those very things. That which is not yet seen develops from the
seed. God now has a people who see the
potential within that seed! All we shall
ever be in God and His eternal kingdom is in that seed. The faith raised up within us by the
revelation of God is the seed, the evidence, the proof. It is
TWO KINDS OF EVIDENCE
The
scene is a house on a dark street in the suburbs of a city. The time is 11:45 P.M. A car pulls up slowly, noiselessly in front
and parks by the curb. A figure slips
out from behind the wheel, walks up the walkway, rings the doorbell. A slender young lady answers the door. There is a brief conversation, after which
the man pushes his way through the door.
The door closes behind him. A few
minutes later a muffled shot rings out in the night. The man rushes out of the house, walks
swiftly down the walkway, jumps into the car and speeds away into the
darkness. No one saw the car
arrive. No one saw it leave. No one heard the sound of
the shot.
The
next morning at 10:00 o’clock the young lady’s body is discovered in the living
room by a girl friend who dropped by for coffee. The police are called. The
In
the meantime homicide is pursuing its investigation
into the apparent murder. They discover
that two days before her death the girl had jilted her long-time boy
friend. The boy friend is taken in for
questioning. He insists that he was at
home in bed and sound asleep at midnight on the night of the murder. He hasn’t seen his former girl friend since two days before her death. However, in time it is discovered that the
gun found in the vacant lot is the
murder weapon. The gun is traced to the
boy friend. His finger
prints are on the weapon, together with only the finger prints of the
little girl who found it. The tire
tracts correspond to the tire tread on his car.
The gray button is off one of his shirts. The evidence mounts; the noose tightens. The surveillance video at a nearby
convenience store shows the boy friend pumping gas into his car at 11:00 P.M.
on the night of the murder — two miles from the girl’s house and twenty miles
from his own home. He left the station
driving east…toward her house..
Piece
by piece the entire scene is reconstructed on the basis of
evidence. The evidence of the gun, car tracts,
gas purchase, time of death, shirt button, the boy friend’s anger at being
jilted, all eloquently tells the story.
Although no one witnessed the crime, all the facts are as plain as if
someone had followed the murderer that fateful night and taken videos of his
every move. The evidence declares that
he arrived at the girl’s house in his own vehicle at about 11:45 P.M. wearing a
gray shirt. The evidence shows that he
entered the living room, stayed several minutes, shot the girl with his pistol,
dumped the pistol in a vacant lot some blocks away, and returned home. While no human eyes beheld any of these
events, still the EVIDENCE REVEALS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED! By means of evidence law enforcement was able
to correctly RE-CONSTRUCT the events in detail as they actually
happened! The evidence
is the proof of what happened.
I
call to your remembrance that FAITH is EVIDENCE. Faith is the EVIDENNCE of THINGS NO
SEEN. You will surely have noticed that
faith is not the evidence of past events, as in the illustration
above, not evidence of things that have happened, but rather, of things
that SHALL HAPPEN right now or in the future!
Faith is the evidence of things not yet seen. The evidence presented in a court of
law, on the one hand, re-constructs past events, whereas
faith, on the other hand, PRE-CONSTRUCTS future events! Let it be firmly understood that faith is the
product of revelation. Revelation is
divine vision, spiritual insight. With
the eye of faith we are enabled to see
the plan of God, the purpose of God, the will of God. With the eye of faith
we behold what is before us, our destiny, our inheritance. Faith at that point does not actually see the
reality of these things, but faith pre-constructs that reality in the realm of
the spirit. And just as the evidence
presented in a courtroom demonstrates and proves to the jury the facts of what has
transpired, so faith demonstrates and proves to the spirit of the sons
of God that which shall be in God — the reality to come. Isn’t it wonderful!
Glorious
things are being pre-constructed in the hearts of many thousands of the Lord’s called and separated elect in this climatic
hour. None of us have yet visibly seen
the things we behold by the eye of faith.
I know my blessed Jesus, and in the spirit I
have seen Him. But other than Him, upon
this earth what fully manifested son of God have I ever seen? What
Certain
investigations, we read, drew Madame Curie’s attention to the probability of
another element, not yet known to science, in a material called pitchblend, a throwaway from certain
This
is the way of faith! By revelation, by
divine insight faith SEES THAT WHICH IS INVISIBLE, UNKNOWN, believes, pursues,
works, appropriates, staggers not, and in the end that which is unseen springs
into visible reality
This
is the way into God’s abundant provision.
This is the way into the fullness of God. This is path into the full stature of sonship
to God. Hear it! Revelation is divine vision. Divine vision evokes faith. As we see and discern by the spirit the
calling, the will, the purpose, and the
provision of God — faith is born. In
every case it is “seeing” that evokes faith.
Saints
of God — what do you SEE IN GOD? Do you
see the supply for your need? Then
stagger not, even when the vision tarries, but follow after. Do you see strength and courage to lift you
beyond your weakness? Lay hold upon
it! Do you see the plan of God for your
life? Pursue it! Do you see victory, maturity, and
perfection? Life and glory? The
There
is a deep groaning and shaking going on within the hearts of many who are
afraid to press on in the things they have dimly seen. But, thank God, He
is raising up a people in this hour who are afraid not to press on — even
though what they have seen seems presently impossible. But if we dare to be counted with the latter group we shall surely see the glory of the Lord in the day
of the great Unveiling.
“I
had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness
of the Lord in the
STAGGER NOT
God promised
Abraham a son,
But Sarah laughed, and said, “It can’t be done.”
“I am too old,”
she said, “It is impossible.”
But in due time a
son was born!
God said to Noah,
“Go build an ark;
all living things
on earth will be destroyed.”
The people
laughed, and said, “It’s
But in due time
the ark did soar!
The
The enemy was
pressing from behind —
They were so
desperate, they had no place to go,
One step of faith —
the sea did part!
The sons of God are
coming forth,
The hordes of
wickedness at them are hurled,
The battle’s fierce
and long — the enemy is strong,
At His command…the
battle’s won!
So
stagger not through unbelief,
Be strong in faith,
give God the praise!
It looks
impossible. With God it’s possible…
Have patience then,
in God it’s done!
— author unknown
J.
PRESTON EBY
~ end of series
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