Quote:
"It wasn't until the early or mid 1800's that there was any significant group of believers around the world that looked for a "rapture" of the Church prior to a seven-year tribulation period. It may come as a shock to some who read these lines, but it is a fact, nonetheless, that the "rapture" teaching was not taught by the early Church, it was not taught by Church of the first centuries, it was not taught by the Reformers, it was not taught by anyone (except a couple of Roman Catholic theologians) until about the year 1830. At the time of the Reformation, the early Protestants widely held and were convinced the Pope was the supreme individual embodiment and personification of the spirit of antichrist, and the Roman Church, the Harlot System of Revelation seventeen. This understanding was responsible for bringing millions of believers out of the Roman Catholic religious system. It therefore became expedient for certain Romish theologians to turn the attention of the people away from the Papacy, and this they endeavored to do by inventing a counter-interpretation to that held by the Protestants. This new scheme of prophetic interpretation became known as futurism. Rather than viewing the drama of the book of Revelation spiritually and historically, they would consign it all to a brief period of time at the end of the age. It was a Jesuit priest named Francisco Ribera who, in the days of the Reformation, first taught that all the events in the book of Revelation were to take place literally during the three and a half years reign of the antichrist way down at the end of the age. Thus, Ribera laid the foundation of a system of prophetic interpretation of which the secret rapture has now become an integral part.
"Later, Emmanuel Lacunza, also a Jesuit priest, built on Ribera's teachings, and spent much of his life writing a book titled "The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty." Lacunza, however, wrote under the assumed name of Rabbi Ben Ezra, supposedly a learned Jew who had accepted Christ as his Saviour. With Jesuit cunning, he thus conspired to get his book a hearing in the Protestant world they would not even permit it in their homes coming from a Jesuit pen but as the earnest work of the "converted Jew," they would consume it with avid interest! Within the pages of this elaborate forgery, Lacunza taught the novel notion that Jesus returns not once, but twice, and at the "first stage" of His return He "raptures" His Church so they can escape the reign of the "future antichrist." His book was first published in Spanish in the 1812 and soon found its way onto the shelves of the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury in London, England.
"Now, enter the name of Edward Irving. Born in Scotland in 1792, Irving became one of the most eloquent preachers of his time, and a leading figure of the Catholic Apostolic Church of England. In 1828 his open-air meetings in Scotland drew crowds of 10,000 people. His church in London seated one thousand people and was packed week after week with a congregation drawn from the most brilliant and influential circles of society. There were some among them who by prophetic declaration announced that the Lord was coming soon, and this idea became prominent in their prophetic utterances and teachings. Out of those prophetic declarations some began to study the scriptures in the light of a physical, literal coming of the Lord. Up until that time the coming of the Lord was understood as coming of the Lord TO His people, and IN His saints, and there was no sense of His fleshly coming. Irving discovered Lacunza's book and was deeply shaken by it, in fact, fell in love with it, translated it into English, and it was published in London in 1827. At this time Irving heard what he believed to be a voice from heaven commanding him to preach the Secret Rapture of the Saints. Irving then began to hold Bible conferences throughout Scotland, Emphasizing the coming of Jesus to rapture His Church.
"About this same time there began the emergence of a new movement which came to be known as the Plymouth Brethren. The Brethren movement had its beginning in Dublin in 1825 when a small group of earnest men, dissatisfied with the lethargic condition that prevailed in the Protestant Church in Ireland, met for prayer and fellowship. Soon others joined the fellowship and associated groups sprang up in various places. Though the movement had its beginning at Dublin, it was Plymouth, England that became the center of their vast literature outreach, thus the name Plymouth Brethren became attached. Although there was interest from the start in prophetic subjects, the center of interest was on the body of Christ as an organism and the spiritual unity of Christ of all believers in reaction to the deadness of formalism of the organized church systems and the ecclesiastical hierarchy. A man by the name of John Nelson Darby was the leading spirit among the Plymouth Brethren from 1830 onward. Darby was from a prosperous Irish family, was educated as a lawyer, took high honors at Dublin University, then turned aside, to his father's chagrin, to become a minister.
"Thus Irving and Darby were contemporaries, though associated with different spiritual movements. Another series of meetings were in progress at this time. A group of seeking Christians were meeting in the castle of Lady Powerscourt for the study of Bible prophecy. Many clergymen attended, and quite a few who were Irvingites. The Irvingites came to the meetings obsessed with the ideas of the "Secret Rapture" and the "future antichrist," imbibed from the Jesuit teaching of the Secret Rapture and the futurist interpretation of prophecy, as well as the famous book by Rabbi Ben-Ezra, or, actually, Jesuit priest Emmanuel Lacunza! Darby was himself a prolific writer and from the time a constant stream of propaganda came from his pen. His writings on biblical subjects number over 30 volumes of 600 pages each. Darby developed and organized "futurism" into a system of prophetic teaching called "dispensationalism." Darby's biographers refer to him as "the father of dispensationalism." And the crown jewel in the kingdom of dispensationalism is, of course, the so-called SECRET RAPTURE!
"The Secret Rapture teaching was introduced into the United States and Canada in the 1860's and 1870's though there is some indication that it may have been taught as early as the 1840's. Darby himself visited the United States six times. The new teaching was spreading. A Congregationalist preacher by the name of C.I. Scofield came under the influence of Darby and the Plymouth Brethren. The Scofield Reference Bible was destined to have a tremendous impact upon the beliefs of may, when, three million copies were published in the first 50 years. Through this Bible, Scofield carried the teaching of the Secret Rapture into the very heart of evangelism. Some ignorant souls look on the notes in this Bible as the Word of God itself. I do not doubt for one instant that many who read these lines have been influenced somewhere in their spiritual lives by the footnotes in the Scofield Bible.
"There is one final link in the chain of the development and spread of the rapture theory that should be mentioned in passing. I would draw your attention again to the source, the origin, of the rapture doctrine and the chain of contact by which it has been brought down to this day. It began as a Roman Catholic invention. The Jesuit priest Ribera's writings influenced the Jesuit priest Lacunza, Lacunza influenced Irving, Irving influenced Darby, Darby influenced Scofield, Scofield and Darby influenced D. L. Moody, and Moody influenced the Pentecostal Movement. How? you ask. The Assemblies of God is today by far the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world. When the Pentecostal movement began at the turn of the century, and the Assemblies of God held their first general council in 1914 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, they were a small movement and didn't have their own publishing house. They needed Sunday School and study materials for their churches so where do you suppose they got it? They bought it from Moody Press and had their own cover stitched on it! So what do you think the Assemblies of God people believed? They believed what Moody Bible Institute taught! This had its impact on Pentecostal theology, because in the early years there were practically no pre-millenialists in the Pentecostal movement. Most of the ministers in those early days came from Presbyterian, Methodist, or other historic denominations men who, being baptized in the Holy Spirit and leaving their denominations, joined themselves to the Assemblies of God or one of the other emerging Pentecostal denominations. That is how the Pentecostal movement became influenced and saturated with the 'Secret Rapture' doctrine by a direct chain right back to THE ROMAN CHURCH."
End quote
Saturday, December 31, 2011
LOOKING FOR HIS APPEARING
LOOKING FOR HIS APPEARING
Part 1
It was the last night of the revival in the sleepy little south Alabama town. The congregation was softly singing, "Just as I am," and the preacher was standing in front of the pulpit with both arms raised in invitation. He. knew there were people present who needed to receive Christ as Saviour. "Jesus Christ could come tonight," he urged. "Will you be ready for Him? The trumpet may sound before this meeting is over, or before you awake in the morning. When that happens the cemeteries will burst open and the dead rise, and those living who are ready will go soaring off into space to meet the Lord. Everywhere people will suddenly be missing without any clue as to where they may be. Husbands will miss their wives, and wives, their husbands; parents will miss some of their children, and children will miss father or mother or both. They will be searching for them in all possible hiding places, but will not be able to locate them. Loud wailing will ensue, and hearts will be filled with the dread of unknown and hostile powers. Finally, after days of fruitless searching, they sit down in dumb resignation and despair. The Antichrist will then appear and the Great Tribulation will begin. Those of you who are left will have to go through seven years of hell on earth. The scenes of earth will be indescribably bewildering and terrifying. Oh, why not make things right with God tonight so you will be spared from such a time of trouble and punishment!"
I was just a boy at the time, but it made a profound impression on me. In fact, when I saw my first aurora borealis, it nearly scared me to death. I was sure Jesus was coming at last, and I knew for a certainty that I was not ready for it. On another occasion I arrived home from school one late afternoon. I stepped off the school bus in our rural district and made my way up the embankment to the house. The house was open, the windows up, the doors unlocked; but no one was to be found. Mother wasn't there. My brothers weren't there. The house was empty! I called but no one answered. I checked across the road at the neighbors and they were gone, too. Suddenly a terrible fear seized me and my blood ran cold. "Oh, my God!" I thought, "the rapture has taken place and I have been left." There is no doubt that I was the happiest little boy in the whole world that afternoon when my mother came walking across the hollow. Of course, Jesus hadn't come that day nor has He come (in that manner) any other day in the past forty years. Looking back, I wonder why it took me so long to question what the preacher said.
Of course, among those who believe in the return of the Lord, most simply take it for granted that His return could take place at any moment, But is that true? Is it possible that you might step out the front door of your home tonight, see a bright light flashing across the sky, and suddenly realize that Jesus IS RETURNING, and He is returning NOW? After all, Jesus did promise to return. "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go ... I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive you unto myself" (Jn. 14:2-3). "For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Mat. 24:27). Make no mistake about it! Jesus did promise to go away and to return to planet earth.
In World War II when General Douglas MacArthur withdrew from the Philippines - after Pearl Harbor and before the surrender of Corregidor - he waded waist deep out into the Pacific and dramatically exclaimed to- the onlooking Filipinos, "I will return!" For long months and years these words of General MacArthur echoed in the ears of the people of the Philippine Islands while they waited under cruel enemy occupation. Millions of people hung on these three words as the only ray of light in the darkness of tyranny and oppression. They were words of hope, they were words of promised deliverance for people around the world. MacArthur did return, he returned with a vengeance. Not stopping at Manila, he went on to Tokyo to receive the surrender of the proud nation of Japan on the deck of the Battleship Missouri. Although he was, after all, a frail human being, he kept his promise. He did return.
Before the Lord Jesus Christ left this earth to ascend to heaven, He said, "I will come again." He, as the glorified Christ, repeated these words to the apostle John on the lonely island of Patmos, "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me" (Rev. 22:12). Twenty-one times, at least, Jesus speaks of His coming again, and most of these references are made on the eve of His departure. It was in the shadow of the cross that He foretold His advent in glory. He declared, "The Son of man shall come." "They shall see the Son of man coming." "Your Lord does come." "When the Son of man shall come." "When He comes in the glory of His Father." "You shall say, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord," etc., etc. Our Lord did clearly not once or twice, but repeatedly, and at definitely marked crises in His ministry - declare that He would come again.
Plain as Jesus had made the promise of His coming again to His disciples, at the time of His ascension, they still did not seem to grasp its significance. A faithful group of His followers stood looking upward on that historic occasion. As the Lord ascended, He perceived their consternation and sent messengers of assurance: "And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:10-11).
THE PROBLEM
No subject in the entire Bible has gendered more interest, study, speculation, and theological debate than the return of Christ. It has been interwoven into practically every theory, creed, or doctrine expounded by man. Through the ages it has been the object of scorn and mockery by enemies of truth, and not a few times has it, through ignorance and carnal reasoning, suffered abuse and distortion by well meaning friends. No subject has been more misunderstood or misconstrued than this great truth; and yet it is the hope of the ages. The focus of the entire scriptures is upon this great event. It is interesting to note that when men drew near to God they would receive glimpses of this truth. Certainly the scriptures have much to say about it but only the blessed Spirit of Truth can make it substance in our lives.
Most of the differences in scriptural interpretation among Christians is the result of an incomplete knowledge of the plan and purpose of God. Much of what is taught and believed in Christian circles today is derived from the wrong source - Bible study! That statement may astound you, and you may demand to know why I say that the great mass of confusion in Bible teaching stems from the wrong source - Bible study. What's wrong with Bible study? Isn't this very article an effort in Bible study? Ah, there is nothing whatever wrong with Bible study IF WE HAVE THE RIGHT TEACHER TEACHING US. Christians gather together in Bible schools, Bible study groups, Sunday schools, etc., to study the Word of God, but the problem with the vast majority of such groups is that they have the wrong teacher - the human, natural, carnal mind! They try to decipher the deep and wondrous and spiritual mysteries of the Word of God with the human intellect, instead of allowing the One whom God sent to be our teacher, the Holy Spirit of Truth, to unveil to pure minds and transformed hearts the hidden mysteries of the Kingdom of God, and His great plan and purpose. If we all have the right teacher we will all be taught the same thing, and what we learn of Him will be the truth. What He teaches is truth; He cannot give us anything else but truth.
When we think we know it all, we shut ourselves off from further revelation, and make it impossible for the Spirit of Truth to guide us into all truth. We need to pay heed to the Biblical injunction, "If any man think that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know" (I Cor. 8:2). Yes, we still have a lot to learn, there is yet much of the total picture to be revealed to us, and as the beams of divine revelation stream from the glory above, let us ever walk in that light, and as we do, it will be fulfilled in us what the scriptures say, "The path of the just is as a shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov. 4:18). There are many precious christians who believe, and have received the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, who try to fit into this one, initial experience with the Lord, all the parts of the Word of God that pertain to further experiences. The infilling of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the in Christ experience, sonship, overcoming and reigning with Christ, and many others, they think these have all been incorporated in this first experience of regeneration. Yet, those of us who have received the infilling of the Holy Spirit as another experience, know what blessing and reality they are depriving themselves of when they assume that they have received the infilling of the Holy Spirit when they first believed. The infilling of the Spirit is not the end either, as many Charismatics seem to believe, it is merely the beginning of more and more wonderful experiences with the Lord, and we continue to walk in the Spirit and grow up into the image and glory of God.
In entering upon this grand and wondrous portion of the Word of God we desire to do so with profound reverence and humility of spirit, dreading to rush in where angels may fear to tread; and anxiously desirous to bring out of the inspired words what is really in them, and to put nothing into them that is not really there. As I have said, there is no subject where there seems to be more of the confusion that attends carnal minds conjuring up inaccurate and half-stated and fancifully conceived theories than this subject of our Lord's return. It will take intense spiritual effort, and much prayer and holy brokenness before God, to lay aside all one has heard and hears, to lay down all preconceived notions and ideas, to find out just what the Holy Spirit teaches. The one question ultimately must be, What does the Word of God actually teach? and not, What have men taught? We are determined in this study to be committed to the Spirit of Truth and the Word of God only, in receiving an understanding of Christ's coming, irrespective of any or all traditional views that might tend to influence a forced or unnatural conception. We must be willing to let inspiration lead and interpretation follow. Some will be constantly tempted to stop and ask, "Why! how can that be!" regarding some point brought out in the study. And perhaps nowhere more than at the point of truth I shall now set forth!
NO "SECOND COMING"!
It may surprise many of my readers to learn that the Bible nowhere speaks of the "second coming" of Christ. Interesting, isn't it - how some of the major and most commonly accepted doctrines of professing Christianity cannot be found in the Bible? There is no mention whatever of such things as Christmas, Easter, the "immaculate conception" of Mary, mass, popes, church buildings, the Trinity, or - the "second coming"! The Spirit of God has dealt with me severely and consistently through many years that the Lord's people should purge their conversation, purify their terminology, and remove from their consciousness the multitude of non-scriptural and extra-biblical expressions carried over from Mystery Babylon. We have both parroted and coined a great many unscriptural terms that have been so misleading and have led us astray in our understanding of the scriptures and the wonderful plan of God.
How often we, like the babes in the harlot's house, refer to a minister of the gospel as "the pastor" of our church or some other congregation of saints. To hear all the Christians today constantly talking about "our pastor," "their pastor," "your pastor, "my pastor," and "the pastor," one would certainly be led to believe that this position of "the pastor" must indeed be one of the cardinal doctrines and most highly acclaimed offices in the New Testament! The fact is, precious friend of mine, the phrase "the pastor" is entirely foreign to the Word of God. It is an un-scriptural and extra-biblical term.
There was no man in the New Testament church who ever occupied a position called "the pastor." Not one church raised up by the twelve apostles or by Paul had any such ministry as "the pastor." Oh, yes, there were "pastors" plural (Eph. 4:11), but no single minister of God in the New Testament was ever elevated to the position of "the pastor" of an assembly. The truth is that in every case in the Greek New Testament where the word for pastor (POIMEN) appears in the singular accompanied by the definite article, it is used in reference solely to our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is T-H-E P-A-S-T-O-R of the flock, T-H-E S-H-E-P-H-E-R-D of the sheep! The sweet singer of Israel stated it so aptly in his lovely Psalm when he sang out under the spirit of inspiration, "The L-O-R-D is my SHEPHERD (pastor)!" Can we not see by this that any man who takes to himself this title "THE PASTOR," thereby usurps the place and headship of our precious Lord. I instructed the brethren among whom I labored in years past that they should never call me "the pastor" or "their pastor" because the Lord alone I-S THE PASTOR. I may be "a pastor," but never "the pastor." The saints were taught that if any one came inquiring after "the pastor" they should be told that the pastor is the Lord. If they were asked, "Who is the pastor here?" they should reply, "The Lord is the pastor here." They could then explain that Bro. Eby is one of the servants, an under-shepherd, along with elders and ministries; but THE LORD IS T-H-E P-A-S-T-O-R.
We have been so completely saturated, so thoroughly brain-washed in the errors of the religious systems that we do by rote and speak by habit the ridiculous absurdities imbibed in the pews of Babylon. How astounded we are when once we learn the truth and discover that the cherished teaching or hallowed practice we have unwittingly ASSUMED to be godly and spiritual is not only unfounded in the Word of God, but actually is an abomination in the sight of God! And this term - "the second coming of Christ" - is not scriptural, either, and cannot be found anywhere in the Bible; yet it has influenced the thinking and teaching of most Christians to accept and believe concepts that simply are not true. We have been so confused in our thinking that everything in the scriptures pertaining to the coming of the Lord, His appearing, His manifestation have to fit into His coming as a man two milleniums ago, or to His so-called "second coming" when every eye shall see Him. This is wrong. Very wrong.
May the Mighty God come speedily with His coal of fire from off the holy altar of Eternal Truth and forever sanctify our speech! The second coming of Christ is not a biblical phrase. It has no scriptural warrant. It is my deep conviction that it should be discarded altogether, for it is the cause of much confusion of thought and not a little positive error. Many texts speak of the coming of Christ, the coming of the Son of man, the coming of the Lord or similar phrases. The word "second" never occurs with a word that can be translated "coming." Let us consider a few passages. "For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Mat. 24:27). "We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep" (I Thes. 4:15). "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming" (II Thes. 2:8). "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain" (James 5:7). "Be also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draws nigh" (James 5:8).
These texts, and many others, all include the English word "coming." But the preachers, when preaching from these texts, always ADD the word "second" to each one, and proceed to preach on "the second coming of Christ"! They invariably add the word "second" to every "coming" in the New Testament, and then add the "second coming of Christ" to nearly every chapter in the Bible - even in the Old Testament. Adding "second" to the word "coming" does violence to the meaning every time. Jesus did not say, "the second coming of the Son of man." James did not say, "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the second coming of the Lord." Peter did not ask, "Where is the promise of His second coming?" Paul did not say, "Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall ... destroy with the brightness of His second coming." There is no justification whatever for adding "second" to any of these inspired passages. I have all the confidence in the world that the Holy Spirit inspired them to be written exactly as they should be written - without the word second! You will have to rewrite the entire New Testament to support the doctrine of the "second coming" of the Lord. The "second coming" is not a biblical expression and first occured among Christians as late as the middle of the second century after Christ. I can not emphasize too strongly that the word "second" is NEVER used in Holy Writ with the word "coming." That is the simple and plain and incontrovertible truth, and this fact is elementary and basic to a correct understanding of the coming of the Lord!
APPEARING A SECOND TIME
Someone will surely raise the question: Can not the expression "second coming" be justified by the closing verse of the ninth chapter of Hebrews? The passage reads, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear THE SECOND TIME without sin unto salvation" (Heb. 9:28). This verse can be rightly divided only when taken within the context of the verses preceding it. The writer says, "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9:24-26).
Some have tried to find three "appearings" in these verses, but there are only two. And the words are taken by unthinking people as though "appear the second time," or "second appearing" were somehow the equivalent of, or a synonym for, the "second coming." But this is merely playing on the language of our English version. The two "appearings" in this passage not even refer to the so-called "first coming" of the Christ in Bethlehem's manger, or His "second coming" from heaven at the end of this age. As we shall see later, the Lord has had MANY APPEARINGS on this earth. And here TWO of those many appearings are contrasted, the one with the other, so that one is "first," and the other "second." Here we have His "first" appearing: IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR US. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands ... but into heaven itself, now to APPEAR IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR US."
In the types of the Old Testament the atonement for sin was not accomplished with the killing of the animal, and the sprinkling of the blood on the altar, the people and the tabernacle; not until the High Priest presented himself in the Most Holy Place, in the presence of God with the blood of the sacrifice. This was a type of the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. It was not accomplished nor completed with the shedding of His blood and His death on the cross. Before there could be any efficacy to His sacrifice He had to PRESENT HIMSELF IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD by His own blood to make atonement for our sins. This is what this verse is speaking about; Christ entered the Holiest, not of the earthly tabernacle, but into heaven itself, presenting Himself, appearing before the presence of God, in the eternal realm of spirit, as the bearer of our redemption. This verse says that He APPEARED in the presence of God for us. This is the first of the two appearings here contrasted, but certainly NOT His first appearing unto men! As we follow on in this scripture we are told that the Christ needed not to offer Himself often as did the High Priest of the Old Covenant, once a year with the blood of others. Only once did He need to offer Himself, as we read, "But now ONCE in the end of the age has He APPEARED (in heaven - vs. 24) to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." Once He has appeared, the first time, IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR US!
Verse twenty-eight speaks of another APPEARING, even a second appearing in connection with our salvation. It begins with these words, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many (referring to verses 24 and 26 where it says He entered the Most Holy Place in heaven and appeared in the presence of God for us)". Now He appears again the second time: "And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Most Christians believe this verse in referring to what is called the "second coming" of the Lord, a visible appearing at the end of this age. This is not alluding to such a coming at all. The word actually employed is wholly different. It is a general word, and it is the very word used with reference to His manifestation to His disciples after His resurrection. It occurs four times in I Cor. 15:5-8 where it is translated "was seen". The Lord appeared to many following His resurrection. The Lord Jesus appeared to the apostle Paul entirely apart from His two appearings set forth in Hebrews chapter nine. The Lord appeared unto Paul in the form of a bright light above the brightness of the noon-day sun. Jesus manifested Himself to Paul in the form of light to commission him to the work of the gospel. And the Lord said., "Rise, and stand upon your feet: for I have APPEARED unto you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of these things which you have seen, and of those things in the which I WILL APPEAR unto you" (Acts 26:16).
And further, the definite article must be omitted: "So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, SHALL APPEAR A SECOND TIME, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation." That is how the Greek text reads. The statement is not prophetic, but doctrinal; and the doctrine in question is not the so-called "second coming," but the PRIESTHOOD! It is not the prediction of an event to be realized by those who shall be alive on earth at the time of the end, but the declaration of a truth and a fact to be realized by every elect member of the body of Christ, no matter in what dispensation his sojourn upon earth may fall.
Our Lord Jesus Christ appears a second time to those who LOOK FOR HIM, who diligently seek for Him and follow after Him; not any more as a sin offering appearing in heaven for us, but in the mighty manifestation of His power usward, UNTO SALVATION. And this salvation is the work of our great and wonderful High Priest. This same wonderful truth is set forth in Heb. 7:25 in these words, "Wherefore He is able also to SAVE THEM TO THE UTTERMOST that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them." This phrase is given by Phillips as "He can save fully and completely." Young's Literal, "He is able to save to the very end." Amplified, "He is able to save to the uttermost - completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity."
The Greek points out that He is able to save COMPLETELY. He is able to save ALL THE WAY, even unto the valley of the shadow of death. He is able to save altogether, NOTHING LACKING - complete salvation with no flaw, complete as only a holy and omniscient and omnipotent God knows completeness and perfection. This salvation "to the uttermost" is a complete salvation of spirit, soul and body reserved for those who "come unto God by Him" - those who follow all the way, into the Holiest, within the veil, to know HIM in all His glorious and eternal reality. And it is not a salvation effected by Jesus flashing across the sky, but by our great High Priest ministering from His throne of intercession! "The uttermost" is the strongest and extremist word in all the world. There cannot be anything beyond the uttermost. The uttermost is situated on the very extremist rim, on the very outmost edge, and on the very highest pinnacle of all existing things. It is the limit, the boundary, the completeness, the perfection, the fullness, the summit, the apex and the ultimate of all realities. Oh, the wonder of it! Salvation to the UTTERMOST! What a limit! What a boundary! What a summit!
The "uttermost" salvation cannot be understood apart from our High Priest who has secured it and who now ministers it to us from that higher realm of incorruptibility. Jesus pointed to this day when, on the night of His judgment, before crucifixion, He announced to the startled High Priest, Caiaphas, this amazing proclamation, "You have said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Mat. 26:64). To paraphrase, Jesus says, "Though now you see me in this low and abject state, nevertheless the day is coming when I shall appear otherwise. Though you watch me die upon a Roman cross as a sin-offering, you will shortly see me sitting upon the throne of my Father and coming in the clouds of heaven."
How prone we are to view these as two events, separated by a vast span of time. Our conception is of Jesus sitting upon the right hand of God for a couple thousand years, at the end of which time He leaves His throne to "come in the clouds of heaven." NOT SO! "HEREAFTER you will see..." So runs the King James version, translating a Greek phrase which signifies unequivocally "from now on" - or literally, HENCEFORTH. But it is safe to say that the average reader, reading from the Authorized version, generally understands it to mean something very different - not "HENCEFORTH shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven," but "in the hereafter," flat some point in the indefinite future," you will see the Son of man "sitting" and then "coming." The correct thought is, "HENCEFORTH - FROM N-O-W O-N you will see the Son of man sitting... and coming." These two events, the sitting and the coming, are simultaneous. They are co-extensive. They transpire at the same time. And they both happen "from now on." He sits AND He comes. He sits upon the throne of heavenly power and He comes in the clouds of heaven! He sits as our great High Priest and He comes as our transforming Saviour. He doesn't sit and then come, He comes while He sits. It is not two separate, independent actions, but a two-fold, interdependent action.
Has He not come to you, precious brother, sister, in mighty saving power even as He sits upon the throne on High? Is it not true that He has power to save completely just BECAUSE He is seated upon the throne? Ah - it is not Jesus crashing down through the skies who is able to save to the uttermost - it is, rather, Christ our High Priest on the throne of the Majesty on High who is able to save us to the uttermost, seeing HE EVER LIVES TO MAKE INTERCESSION FOR US. Oh, we read so much into the Word of God that is not there! With our limited and faulty carnal reasoning we distort it all out of shape, making it say what it does not say, and not say what it does say. Why cannot men cease their ignorant pratings and learn once and for all that our Lord Jesus Christ is fully able to sit and to come at the same time! It is high time for all of God's elect saints to learn that Jesus is both High Priest and Saviour at the same instant. He sits and He comes. He has appeared once and for all before the Father in heaven as our sin-offering, and now He sits there continually as the High Priest of that mighty life. And unto all who LOOK FOR HIM He will APPEAR A SECOND TIME UNTO SALVATION. He has appeared in the presence of God FOR US, and now He will appear a second time UNTO US. The subject is not His "second coming," but His glorious saving PRIESTHOOD! It is time for all men to believe the Word of God and cease from following their own shameful delusions.
THE COMINGS OF THE LORD
We have been led to think in terms of the first coming and the second coming, whereas the Bible speaks in terms of the progressive revelation of Jesus Christ. Our God does not talk about the "first coming" and the "second coming" - He talks about the progressive revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. For example, let us take a look at that thought in Micah 5:2, "But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall He come forth unto Me who is to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting."
Notice, His "goings forth." The plural is used. The goings forth of the Lord speak about the Lord Jesus Christ! Now, the idea of "goings" has to do with the onward marching of God - the unfolding of the purpose of God, step by step. This is what is indicated here. This is what history is all about, the progressive revelation of Jesus Christ, the marching forward of God, the ever-increasing unveiling of Himself to man. The unfolding of end-time events and God's order for the ages to come, which are the main contents of the last book of the Bible, are called "the Revelation of Jesus Christ."
The term "second coming" is as unfortunate as it is unscriptural. It implies there has been only one coming of Christ thus far. This is not true. It may surprise you to learn that the scripture does not treat His coming at Bethlehem as an isolated event. Although it is important, it is not considered out of proportion to other and comparable events. His coming as a man was a step in the development of God's plan for redemption of the world.. Actually, Bethlehem is one in a series of appearances of Christ into the world. By the same token, it is not His last coming to the earth. In order to get the importance of His birth, let's withdraw from Bethlehem and consider His coming there as just one event in the panorama of the ages. Let us consider this theme under the following divisions: (1) Before Bethlehem (2) Beginning at Bethlehem (3) Because of Bethlehem.
An abundance of scripture supports the fact that Christ was before Bethlehem. He is just as real in the Old Testament as He is in the New Testament. The great difference, of course, is that HE BECAME FLESH. He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM.." Also He said, Is my Father works hitherto and I work." He and the Father were working long before Bethlehem. John opened his matchless Gospel with this majestic statement: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God" (Jn. 1:1-2). The prophet Isaiah had made a very careful distinction about His birth at Bethlehem: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given." Micah, the contemporary of Isaiah, had said, as I have pointed out, that He would come forth from Bethlehem but that "His goings forth have been FROM OF OLD, FROM EVERLASTING." His footprints were manifested in this world before the prints were made in His hands.
The pages of the Old Testament are literally sprinkled with the accounts of the Lord's comings, beginning in Eden's blest Garden and continuing through all generations of old. On the very day that man sinned he "heard the voice of the Lord God WALKING IN THE GARDEN in the cool of the day" (Gen. 3:8). The casual way in which this is stated indicates that this was a normal event, perhaps a daily appointed time at which the Lord manifested His presence to communicate with the man He had placed on this planet. The Lord still walked among men even after Adam was banished from the Garden, for Cain, after he slew Abel, "went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod" (Gen. 4:16).
In Gen. 17:1 we find that "The Lord appeared unto Abraham." In Gen. 17:22 it says, "God left off talking to Abraham, and WENT UP FROM HIM." Interesting, isn't it, that the Mount of Olives was not the first time or place where the Lord ASCENDED! In Gen. 18:1 we read, "And the Lord appeared unto him." In Gen. 18:33, "The Lord went His way, as soon as He left communing with Abraham." In Gen. 26:24 we see that "the Lord appeared unto him (Isaac) the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham your father: fear not, for I am with you." In Gen. 35:7 it says, "And he (Jacob) built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el: because there God appeared unto him." The Lord appeared unto Moses in the burning bush (Ex. 3:15-16). After Moses had led the children of Israel out of Egypt Christ walked among them in mighty manifestation of power and glory and provision, "for they drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (I Cor. 10:4). Later, the Lord again came to Israel in another form as we read in Ex. 19:9, 18 and 20: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I COME UNTO YOU in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak unto you ... and Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it ... and the Lord CAME DOWN UPON MOUNT SINAI, on the top of the Mount." When the Tabernacle in the wilderness was erected "the Lord appeared in the Tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud (His coming in a cloud is nothing new, either!)" (Deut. 31:15). In the days of Samuel the prophet "the Lord appeared ... in Shiloh: for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh" (I Sam. 3:21). In II Chron. 3:1 the "Lord appeared unto David... in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite." In I Kings 3:5 the Lord appeared to Solomon. And this star-studded record of the Lord's comings in the Old Testament times takes on special significance when Israel exclaims, "The Lord HAS APPEARED OF OLD UNTO ME, saying, Yea I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you" ( Jer. 31:3).
We dare not lose eight of the fact that our Lord has already had many comings, many appearings. We have limited the comings of Jesus strictly to two because of our unscriptural terms "first coming" and "second coming," but the truth is that He came; He continued to come; He comes; He continues to come; He will come; and He will continue to come! There are numerous "comings" and "appearings" of the Lord in the New Testament. BUT THEY DO NOT ALL REFER TO THE SAME EVENT. The word "coming" is very often used in the scriptures of a visitation or manifestation of the Lord to judge or bless or accomplish some aspect of His plan and purpose among His people and in the earth. One would think, listening to the preachers rant and rave about "THE second coming of Christ," that every time the Lord says, "I will come," He is speaking of one, specific, particular, singular event sometime out in the dim and misty future. I do not hesitate to tell you that this is a great error.
Rev. 2:5 tells of a COMING of our Lord. "Remember therefore from where you are fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I WILL COME unto you quickly, and will remove your candlestick out of his place, except you repent." Since Jesus had gone a COMING of Jesus would be a RETURN. So what does the Lord say? He warns the church at Ephesus that if it does not repent, "I WILL COME ... QUICKLY!" "I will come unto you quickly, and will remove your candlestick out of his place." "Candlestick" means lampstand. A lampstand is for holding up a light. Now what is the use of an assembly of believers? That is the purpose of an assembly - "YOU are the light of the world." Christ tells these people that if they do not repent HE WILL COME TO THEM IN JUDGMENT, swift and effective judgment, and remove them from being an assembly of light-bearing children of God. It was a COMING which might not take place! Jesus said, "I will COME if you don't repent." What would prevent this COMING? Ephesian saints repenting! The Ephesian church was an active and patient, and doctrinally sound church. But it lost its first love for Christ, the pure, virginal love for Him and for Him alone and sadly, never repented. So God allowed the light to go out. Later on the darkness of Mohammedism swept over the land where this church had been located. There is no lampstand in Ephesus today, for there is nothing but the ruins of a once great city. In Ephesus there is no church at all. The site of the ancient temple is now a marsh, inhabited only by frogs. Ephesus, of course, in keeping with the pattern of the book of Revelation, was merely a TYPICAL CHURCH, and the Lord's solemn warning signal flashes out to this day to be heeded by every man and movement that is of the Ephesian spirit and character: "Repent, or I WILL COME unto you quickly!" Is this, then, THE so-called "second coming" of Christ? Assuredly not! But I greatly fear that almost all of God's children hold the childish notion that whenever Jesus says, "I will come," He always refers to one singular event called "the second coming."
The book of Revelation furnishes us with a sequential overview of the comings of the Lord. Its inspired title is found in the first verse - "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." The Greek word for "revelation" is APOKALUPSIS meaning "unveiling, uncovering," and hence, revealing." This is expressed in Rev. 1:7, "EVERY EYE shall SEE Him..." The error of the unspiritual and unenlightened mind is that it immediately assumes that every eye must see Him at the same time and in the same manner. But the multitudinous ways in which the Lord comes and comes and comes throughout the illuminating pages of this glorious book indicates to me the progressive revelation of Jesus Christ, the many-faceted and many-splendored appearing of the Lord from one degree of glory to another until, when all is finished, every creature in heaven, earth and hell shall have had a revelation of the Son of God (Rev. 5:13).
With what divine genius does the Holy Spirit on the pages of God's Word portray the living Son of God coming and standing in the midst of the seven churches! This is an earthly scene. The risen and glorified Christ was present in and among the churches. Jesus had promised to come back, and according to chapters two and three of Revelation He HAD come back! Then follows swiftly the tragic scene of Jesus Christ, the blessed Saviour, standing at the end of this age COMPLETELY OUTSIDE the Laodicean church! No longer is He dealing with the apostate CHURCH SYSTEM, but knocking, knocking, knocking at heart's door of INDIVIDUAL MEN AND WOMEN, saying to them, "Behold I stand at the door and knock: if ANY MAN heat my voice and open the door, I WILL COME in to him, and will sup with HIM, and HE with ME" (Rev. 3:20). This passage can only refer to a spiritual presence coming to any INDIVIDUAL, to A-N-Y M-A-N who will open his heart's door to intimacy of fellowship and vital union with the Christ of God.
As one has written concerning this significant passage, "The message is to "any man," a message that abandons the multitude to their religious play, to their church creeds and their church Christs; a message that says, '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.' The church of the last days is the church of the INDIVIDUAL. It is the individual believer with a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP to Christ. For the man who will forsake ALL ELSE and sup with Christ this is an age of glory, an hour of preparation such as we have never known. This is a time when the Spirit of God is speaking TO YOU AS AN INDIVIDUAL. He seeks to sup and dine and feast with you apart from all the religious confusion about us. It is a glorious day when we see the promise that is ours in this hour" -end quote. And what is the promise? The promise, wonderful promise! is of HIS COMING. "I WILL COME in to HIM, and will sup with him and he with me." Ah, is this the so-called "second coming" of Christ? It is not the one men preach about or that Christians expect and wait for, but, beloved saints of God, it IS THE COMING OF CHRIST, nonetheless. He does not come once and in just one way. He comes and comes and comes in the progressive revelation of HIMSELF!
There is neither time nor space to discuss all of these comings and appearings fully in one brief article, so we shall pursue these great truths in the months to come. We shall touch just enough at this time to let you see clearly that there are more than two comings of Christ mentioned in the Bible, and that trying to apply all the scriptures on the Lord's coming to just two comings, has caused a lot of confusion and erroneous teaching and has caused the Lord's people to miss completely some of the most marvelous aspects of God's great and wonderful purposes.
On the day of Pentecost Christ came again as the Comforter. "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth: whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He DWELLS WITH YOU, and shall be IN YOU. I will not leave you comfortless (orphans): I WILL COME UNTO YOU. Yet A little while, and the world sees me no more; but YOU SEE ME: because I live, you shall live also. At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I IN YOU" (Jn. 14:16-20).
In Mk. 13:26 He comes with CLOUDS. In Mat. 24:27 He comes as LIGHTNING. In Rev. 16:15 He comes as a THIEF. In Mat. 25:6 He comes as the BRIDEGROOM. In Rev. 22:16 and 2:28 He comes as the MORNING STAR. In Mal. 4:2 He comes as the SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ARISING. In Phil. 3:20-21 He comes in RESURRECTION POWER. In II Thes. 1:7-8 He comes in FLAMING FIRE. In Mal. 3:1-3 He comes to His priesthood company as REFINER'S FIRE and FULLER'S SOAP. In I Thes. 4:16-17 He comes IN THE AIR. In Hos. 6:3 and James 5:7-8 He comes as the RAIN. In Rev. 19:11 & 14 He comes on a WHITE HORSE. In Mat. 25:31-34 He comes as KING. In I Pet. 5:4 He comes as the CHIEF SHEPHERD. In Mat. 16:27 He comes WITH HIS ANGELS. In Jude 14 He comes WITH HIS SAINTS. In Jn. 14:18 He comes TO HIS SAINTS. In II Thes. 1:10 He comes IN HIS SAINTS. In Jude 14 & 15 He comes in JUDGMENT. In Rev. 22:12 He comes WITH REWARDS. And time and space fail me to tell of how He comes with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God; He comes to the Mount of Olives; He comes to His temple; He comes in glory; He comes as Lord; He comes in His Kingdom; He comes as seasons of refreshing, etc., etc., etc.
Like a choir of many voices and as the sound of many waters, the testimony of the Word of God resounds with abundant and stunning and inescapable evidence that the coming of Christ is not a single event, but includes many different manifestations. His coming to us is a many-sided experience. To multitudes He appears as Saviour. They find Him at the crossroads of their lives. He becomes their salvation but they never venture any deeper to know Him intimately. They have only a superficial knowledge of Him. To others He appears as Chief Shepherd and Bridegroom. These hear His voice and are moved by His love, and follow on to know Him in deeper measures of intimacy and union. To others He appears as a Thief. He comes into their world uninvited and unannounced, He overtakes them unexpectedly and breaks up their life style and smashes their religious games. And unto others He appears as Fire, consuming their hay, wood, and stubble, eliminating by the spirit of burning all that is of self and not of God. The coming of the Lord is as many-faceted as the most dazzling crystal of earth or the most beautiful diamond known to man. In the Old Testament, the rabbis were often confused by the seeming contradictions in the descriptions of the coming of the Messiah. In some of the passages the Messiah was described as coming as a Suffering Servant to be wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities. In other passages He was coming as a Conqueror to rule and to defeat the enemies of the people of God. The people asked their scholars for an answer to this seeming contradiction. The rabbis would often go so far as to say that two Messiahs were coming. They were wrong; the same Messiah was coming twice. But more than that! Yea, a thousand times more! The same Messiah comes five, ten, thirty, ten thousand times, in as many and varied ways and manners as there are dealings and operations of God to bewrought in the lives of men and in the destiny of nations upon this earth. My earnest prayer to God is that the spirit of wisdom and revelation may somehow make forever plain to all who read these halting lines that we have seen too limited a vision of the truth, but bringing all the facets together, there is the fuller view where it readily appears that there are many-splendored dimensions to HIS COMING.
If the coming of the Lord is not a progressive revelation in many manifestations, then, pray tell me, WHICH of the many comings enumerated earlier IS THE SECOND COMING? When He says, "I will not leave you orphans: I WILL COME TO YOU," is THAT "the second coming"? or is it when He declares, "Behold, I COME as a thief?" Or when He says, "I WILL COME unto you as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth," is that manifestation His "second coming"? Or is it when He comes as lightning, or as the sun of righteousness, or as the Bridegroom, or as King, or with His saints, or to His saints, or in His saints? Paul said that Jesus would come with a "shout," also with the "voice of the archangel," and with the "trump of God." Jesus said, "Behold, I come as a thief." Certainly thieves do not blow trumpets and shout! Nor did Jesus blow trumpets when He ascended from the Mount of Olives, yet the messengers said that He would come "in like manner." And it would seem that if He came as rain and as fire at the same time, the rain would put out the fire!
But these are not contradictions. They are word pictures to help our finite minds comprehend more clearly some of the great factors involved in the coming of Christ and what His coming means to the whole creation. When we put all these together and add to them all the other illustrations of the Bible pertaining to Christ's coming, we begin to understand that what we are to look for is not a human being coming down through the literal clouds, setting fire to the earth and toppling over the mountains, but mighty manifestations of the risen and glorified and ascended Lord of heaven and earth, leading to the transformation of mankind from selfishness and hate to compassion and love; from war and destruction to peace and reconstruction; from dead in trespasses and sins to alive in Christ; from the carnal mind to the precious mind that was in Christ Jesus; from sickness and death to health and life; from funeral processions to the quickening power of His resurrection!
And hence it is that so very few Christians have really scriptural thoughts about the coming of their Lord. They are looking into prophecy for the church's hope - they confound "the Sun of Righteousness" with "the Morning Star" - they mix up the coming of Christ "IN His saints," and His coming "WITH the saints" - they have not the foggiest notion what is the difference in time or manifestation between His coming as Rain or His coming as fire; His coming as Saviour and His coming as Lord; His coming as Lightning or His coming with Clouds; His coming as Bridegroom or His coming as King. All this is a most serious mistake, against which I am compelled by the Spirit of God to warn my readers. Not very many know when or how the Lord comes in any of His manifestations therefore, they cannot know how to MEET HIM!
Almost all of Christendom teaches that the return of the Lord is one single, future event. They are generally agreed that He will come in a body of flesh, with wounds in His hands, feet, and side, and that He will be suspended in the sky in such a manner that every eye of all human beings living on this earth at that time will see Him and thus know of His coming. How much more reasonable and understandable is the glorious truth! Former misconceptions and crude theories concerning this great event should not be permitted to hinder us now from ascertaining the simplicity of the truth concerning it, as set forth in God's blessed Book and revealed unto His elect saints now by the Spirit. Whenever I long for the Lord to move by His Spirit and make Himself real by His presence, or manifest the greatness of His power in some place or circumstance, my heart cries out, "Come, Lord Jesus!"
There is a principle in the scriptures concerning the coming of the Lord. That is, we must spiritually discern and respond to His comings in our midst and in our individual lives. Jesus said, "Occupy till I come." In the midst of all our activity we are to ever look for His comings. We must be spiritually perceptive and awake at all times. Then, recognizing His presence and turning aside from all that would distract, we can move with Him in His visitation. As we respond to His comings, be it in blessing, refreshing, quickening, enlightenment, transformation, Lordship, fellowship and communion, judgment, correction, stripping, purging or cleansing - we shall come to KNOW HIM in all His wonderful reality and be made like Him as His own in the earth. Oh, listen for the sound of His comings!
Part 1
It was the last night of the revival in the sleepy little south Alabama town. The congregation was softly singing, "Just as I am," and the preacher was standing in front of the pulpit with both arms raised in invitation. He. knew there were people present who needed to receive Christ as Saviour. "Jesus Christ could come tonight," he urged. "Will you be ready for Him? The trumpet may sound before this meeting is over, or before you awake in the morning. When that happens the cemeteries will burst open and the dead rise, and those living who are ready will go soaring off into space to meet the Lord. Everywhere people will suddenly be missing without any clue as to where they may be. Husbands will miss their wives, and wives, their husbands; parents will miss some of their children, and children will miss father or mother or both. They will be searching for them in all possible hiding places, but will not be able to locate them. Loud wailing will ensue, and hearts will be filled with the dread of unknown and hostile powers. Finally, after days of fruitless searching, they sit down in dumb resignation and despair. The Antichrist will then appear and the Great Tribulation will begin. Those of you who are left will have to go through seven years of hell on earth. The scenes of earth will be indescribably bewildering and terrifying. Oh, why not make things right with God tonight so you will be spared from such a time of trouble and punishment!"
I was just a boy at the time, but it made a profound impression on me. In fact, when I saw my first aurora borealis, it nearly scared me to death. I was sure Jesus was coming at last, and I knew for a certainty that I was not ready for it. On another occasion I arrived home from school one late afternoon. I stepped off the school bus in our rural district and made my way up the embankment to the house. The house was open, the windows up, the doors unlocked; but no one was to be found. Mother wasn't there. My brothers weren't there. The house was empty! I called but no one answered. I checked across the road at the neighbors and they were gone, too. Suddenly a terrible fear seized me and my blood ran cold. "Oh, my God!" I thought, "the rapture has taken place and I have been left." There is no doubt that I was the happiest little boy in the whole world that afternoon when my mother came walking across the hollow. Of course, Jesus hadn't come that day nor has He come (in that manner) any other day in the past forty years. Looking back, I wonder why it took me so long to question what the preacher said.
Of course, among those who believe in the return of the Lord, most simply take it for granted that His return could take place at any moment, But is that true? Is it possible that you might step out the front door of your home tonight, see a bright light flashing across the sky, and suddenly realize that Jesus IS RETURNING, and He is returning NOW? After all, Jesus did promise to return. "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go ... I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive you unto myself" (Jn. 14:2-3). "For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Mat. 24:27). Make no mistake about it! Jesus did promise to go away and to return to planet earth.
In World War II when General Douglas MacArthur withdrew from the Philippines - after Pearl Harbor and before the surrender of Corregidor - he waded waist deep out into the Pacific and dramatically exclaimed to- the onlooking Filipinos, "I will return!" For long months and years these words of General MacArthur echoed in the ears of the people of the Philippine Islands while they waited under cruel enemy occupation. Millions of people hung on these three words as the only ray of light in the darkness of tyranny and oppression. They were words of hope, they were words of promised deliverance for people around the world. MacArthur did return, he returned with a vengeance. Not stopping at Manila, he went on to Tokyo to receive the surrender of the proud nation of Japan on the deck of the Battleship Missouri. Although he was, after all, a frail human being, he kept his promise. He did return.
Before the Lord Jesus Christ left this earth to ascend to heaven, He said, "I will come again." He, as the glorified Christ, repeated these words to the apostle John on the lonely island of Patmos, "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me" (Rev. 22:12). Twenty-one times, at least, Jesus speaks of His coming again, and most of these references are made on the eve of His departure. It was in the shadow of the cross that He foretold His advent in glory. He declared, "The Son of man shall come." "They shall see the Son of man coming." "Your Lord does come." "When the Son of man shall come." "When He comes in the glory of His Father." "You shall say, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord," etc., etc. Our Lord did clearly not once or twice, but repeatedly, and at definitely marked crises in His ministry - declare that He would come again.
Plain as Jesus had made the promise of His coming again to His disciples, at the time of His ascension, they still did not seem to grasp its significance. A faithful group of His followers stood looking upward on that historic occasion. As the Lord ascended, He perceived their consternation and sent messengers of assurance: "And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:10-11).
THE PROBLEM
No subject in the entire Bible has gendered more interest, study, speculation, and theological debate than the return of Christ. It has been interwoven into practically every theory, creed, or doctrine expounded by man. Through the ages it has been the object of scorn and mockery by enemies of truth, and not a few times has it, through ignorance and carnal reasoning, suffered abuse and distortion by well meaning friends. No subject has been more misunderstood or misconstrued than this great truth; and yet it is the hope of the ages. The focus of the entire scriptures is upon this great event. It is interesting to note that when men drew near to God they would receive glimpses of this truth. Certainly the scriptures have much to say about it but only the blessed Spirit of Truth can make it substance in our lives.
Most of the differences in scriptural interpretation among Christians is the result of an incomplete knowledge of the plan and purpose of God. Much of what is taught and believed in Christian circles today is derived from the wrong source - Bible study! That statement may astound you, and you may demand to know why I say that the great mass of confusion in Bible teaching stems from the wrong source - Bible study. What's wrong with Bible study? Isn't this very article an effort in Bible study? Ah, there is nothing whatever wrong with Bible study IF WE HAVE THE RIGHT TEACHER TEACHING US. Christians gather together in Bible schools, Bible study groups, Sunday schools, etc., to study the Word of God, but the problem with the vast majority of such groups is that they have the wrong teacher - the human, natural, carnal mind! They try to decipher the deep and wondrous and spiritual mysteries of the Word of God with the human intellect, instead of allowing the One whom God sent to be our teacher, the Holy Spirit of Truth, to unveil to pure minds and transformed hearts the hidden mysteries of the Kingdom of God, and His great plan and purpose. If we all have the right teacher we will all be taught the same thing, and what we learn of Him will be the truth. What He teaches is truth; He cannot give us anything else but truth.
When we think we know it all, we shut ourselves off from further revelation, and make it impossible for the Spirit of Truth to guide us into all truth. We need to pay heed to the Biblical injunction, "If any man think that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know" (I Cor. 8:2). Yes, we still have a lot to learn, there is yet much of the total picture to be revealed to us, and as the beams of divine revelation stream from the glory above, let us ever walk in that light, and as we do, it will be fulfilled in us what the scriptures say, "The path of the just is as a shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov. 4:18). There are many precious christians who believe, and have received the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, who try to fit into this one, initial experience with the Lord, all the parts of the Word of God that pertain to further experiences. The infilling of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the in Christ experience, sonship, overcoming and reigning with Christ, and many others, they think these have all been incorporated in this first experience of regeneration. Yet, those of us who have received the infilling of the Holy Spirit as another experience, know what blessing and reality they are depriving themselves of when they assume that they have received the infilling of the Holy Spirit when they first believed. The infilling of the Spirit is not the end either, as many Charismatics seem to believe, it is merely the beginning of more and more wonderful experiences with the Lord, and we continue to walk in the Spirit and grow up into the image and glory of God.
In entering upon this grand and wondrous portion of the Word of God we desire to do so with profound reverence and humility of spirit, dreading to rush in where angels may fear to tread; and anxiously desirous to bring out of the inspired words what is really in them, and to put nothing into them that is not really there. As I have said, there is no subject where there seems to be more of the confusion that attends carnal minds conjuring up inaccurate and half-stated and fancifully conceived theories than this subject of our Lord's return. It will take intense spiritual effort, and much prayer and holy brokenness before God, to lay aside all one has heard and hears, to lay down all preconceived notions and ideas, to find out just what the Holy Spirit teaches. The one question ultimately must be, What does the Word of God actually teach? and not, What have men taught? We are determined in this study to be committed to the Spirit of Truth and the Word of God only, in receiving an understanding of Christ's coming, irrespective of any or all traditional views that might tend to influence a forced or unnatural conception. We must be willing to let inspiration lead and interpretation follow. Some will be constantly tempted to stop and ask, "Why! how can that be!" regarding some point brought out in the study. And perhaps nowhere more than at the point of truth I shall now set forth!
NO "SECOND COMING"!
It may surprise many of my readers to learn that the Bible nowhere speaks of the "second coming" of Christ. Interesting, isn't it - how some of the major and most commonly accepted doctrines of professing Christianity cannot be found in the Bible? There is no mention whatever of such things as Christmas, Easter, the "immaculate conception" of Mary, mass, popes, church buildings, the Trinity, or - the "second coming"! The Spirit of God has dealt with me severely and consistently through many years that the Lord's people should purge their conversation, purify their terminology, and remove from their consciousness the multitude of non-scriptural and extra-biblical expressions carried over from Mystery Babylon. We have both parroted and coined a great many unscriptural terms that have been so misleading and have led us astray in our understanding of the scriptures and the wonderful plan of God.
How often we, like the babes in the harlot's house, refer to a minister of the gospel as "the pastor" of our church or some other congregation of saints. To hear all the Christians today constantly talking about "our pastor," "their pastor," "your pastor, "my pastor," and "the pastor," one would certainly be led to believe that this position of "the pastor" must indeed be one of the cardinal doctrines and most highly acclaimed offices in the New Testament! The fact is, precious friend of mine, the phrase "the pastor" is entirely foreign to the Word of God. It is an un-scriptural and extra-biblical term.
There was no man in the New Testament church who ever occupied a position called "the pastor." Not one church raised up by the twelve apostles or by Paul had any such ministry as "the pastor." Oh, yes, there were "pastors" plural (Eph. 4:11), but no single minister of God in the New Testament was ever elevated to the position of "the pastor" of an assembly. The truth is that in every case in the Greek New Testament where the word for pastor (POIMEN) appears in the singular accompanied by the definite article, it is used in reference solely to our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is T-H-E P-A-S-T-O-R of the flock, T-H-E S-H-E-P-H-E-R-D of the sheep! The sweet singer of Israel stated it so aptly in his lovely Psalm when he sang out under the spirit of inspiration, "The L-O-R-D is my SHEPHERD (pastor)!" Can we not see by this that any man who takes to himself this title "THE PASTOR," thereby usurps the place and headship of our precious Lord. I instructed the brethren among whom I labored in years past that they should never call me "the pastor" or "their pastor" because the Lord alone I-S THE PASTOR. I may be "a pastor," but never "the pastor." The saints were taught that if any one came inquiring after "the pastor" they should be told that the pastor is the Lord. If they were asked, "Who is the pastor here?" they should reply, "The Lord is the pastor here." They could then explain that Bro. Eby is one of the servants, an under-shepherd, along with elders and ministries; but THE LORD IS T-H-E P-A-S-T-O-R.
We have been so completely saturated, so thoroughly brain-washed in the errors of the religious systems that we do by rote and speak by habit the ridiculous absurdities imbibed in the pews of Babylon. How astounded we are when once we learn the truth and discover that the cherished teaching or hallowed practice we have unwittingly ASSUMED to be godly and spiritual is not only unfounded in the Word of God, but actually is an abomination in the sight of God! And this term - "the second coming of Christ" - is not scriptural, either, and cannot be found anywhere in the Bible; yet it has influenced the thinking and teaching of most Christians to accept and believe concepts that simply are not true. We have been so confused in our thinking that everything in the scriptures pertaining to the coming of the Lord, His appearing, His manifestation have to fit into His coming as a man two milleniums ago, or to His so-called "second coming" when every eye shall see Him. This is wrong. Very wrong.
May the Mighty God come speedily with His coal of fire from off the holy altar of Eternal Truth and forever sanctify our speech! The second coming of Christ is not a biblical phrase. It has no scriptural warrant. It is my deep conviction that it should be discarded altogether, for it is the cause of much confusion of thought and not a little positive error. Many texts speak of the coming of Christ, the coming of the Son of man, the coming of the Lord or similar phrases. The word "second" never occurs with a word that can be translated "coming." Let us consider a few passages. "For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Mat. 24:27). "We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep" (I Thes. 4:15). "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming" (II Thes. 2:8). "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain" (James 5:7). "Be also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draws nigh" (James 5:8).
These texts, and many others, all include the English word "coming." But the preachers, when preaching from these texts, always ADD the word "second" to each one, and proceed to preach on "the second coming of Christ"! They invariably add the word "second" to every "coming" in the New Testament, and then add the "second coming of Christ" to nearly every chapter in the Bible - even in the Old Testament. Adding "second" to the word "coming" does violence to the meaning every time. Jesus did not say, "the second coming of the Son of man." James did not say, "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the second coming of the Lord." Peter did not ask, "Where is the promise of His second coming?" Paul did not say, "Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall ... destroy with the brightness of His second coming." There is no justification whatever for adding "second" to any of these inspired passages. I have all the confidence in the world that the Holy Spirit inspired them to be written exactly as they should be written - without the word second! You will have to rewrite the entire New Testament to support the doctrine of the "second coming" of the Lord. The "second coming" is not a biblical expression and first occured among Christians as late as the middle of the second century after Christ. I can not emphasize too strongly that the word "second" is NEVER used in Holy Writ with the word "coming." That is the simple and plain and incontrovertible truth, and this fact is elementary and basic to a correct understanding of the coming of the Lord!
APPEARING A SECOND TIME
Someone will surely raise the question: Can not the expression "second coming" be justified by the closing verse of the ninth chapter of Hebrews? The passage reads, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear THE SECOND TIME without sin unto salvation" (Heb. 9:28). This verse can be rightly divided only when taken within the context of the verses preceding it. The writer says, "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9:24-26).
Some have tried to find three "appearings" in these verses, but there are only two. And the words are taken by unthinking people as though "appear the second time," or "second appearing" were somehow the equivalent of, or a synonym for, the "second coming." But this is merely playing on the language of our English version. The two "appearings" in this passage not even refer to the so-called "first coming" of the Christ in Bethlehem's manger, or His "second coming" from heaven at the end of this age. As we shall see later, the Lord has had MANY APPEARINGS on this earth. And here TWO of those many appearings are contrasted, the one with the other, so that one is "first," and the other "second." Here we have His "first" appearing: IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR US. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands ... but into heaven itself, now to APPEAR IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR US."
In the types of the Old Testament the atonement for sin was not accomplished with the killing of the animal, and the sprinkling of the blood on the altar, the people and the tabernacle; not until the High Priest presented himself in the Most Holy Place, in the presence of God with the blood of the sacrifice. This was a type of the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. It was not accomplished nor completed with the shedding of His blood and His death on the cross. Before there could be any efficacy to His sacrifice He had to PRESENT HIMSELF IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD by His own blood to make atonement for our sins. This is what this verse is speaking about; Christ entered the Holiest, not of the earthly tabernacle, but into heaven itself, presenting Himself, appearing before the presence of God, in the eternal realm of spirit, as the bearer of our redemption. This verse says that He APPEARED in the presence of God for us. This is the first of the two appearings here contrasted, but certainly NOT His first appearing unto men! As we follow on in this scripture we are told that the Christ needed not to offer Himself often as did the High Priest of the Old Covenant, once a year with the blood of others. Only once did He need to offer Himself, as we read, "But now ONCE in the end of the age has He APPEARED (in heaven - vs. 24) to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." Once He has appeared, the first time, IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR US!
Verse twenty-eight speaks of another APPEARING, even a second appearing in connection with our salvation. It begins with these words, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many (referring to verses 24 and 26 where it says He entered the Most Holy Place in heaven and appeared in the presence of God for us)". Now He appears again the second time: "And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Most Christians believe this verse in referring to what is called the "second coming" of the Lord, a visible appearing at the end of this age. This is not alluding to such a coming at all. The word actually employed is wholly different. It is a general word, and it is the very word used with reference to His manifestation to His disciples after His resurrection. It occurs four times in I Cor. 15:5-8 where it is translated "was seen". The Lord appeared to many following His resurrection. The Lord Jesus appeared to the apostle Paul entirely apart from His two appearings set forth in Hebrews chapter nine. The Lord appeared unto Paul in the form of a bright light above the brightness of the noon-day sun. Jesus manifested Himself to Paul in the form of light to commission him to the work of the gospel. And the Lord said., "Rise, and stand upon your feet: for I have APPEARED unto you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of these things which you have seen, and of those things in the which I WILL APPEAR unto you" (Acts 26:16).
And further, the definite article must be omitted: "So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, SHALL APPEAR A SECOND TIME, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation." That is how the Greek text reads. The statement is not prophetic, but doctrinal; and the doctrine in question is not the so-called "second coming," but the PRIESTHOOD! It is not the prediction of an event to be realized by those who shall be alive on earth at the time of the end, but the declaration of a truth and a fact to be realized by every elect member of the body of Christ, no matter in what dispensation his sojourn upon earth may fall.
Our Lord Jesus Christ appears a second time to those who LOOK FOR HIM, who diligently seek for Him and follow after Him; not any more as a sin offering appearing in heaven for us, but in the mighty manifestation of His power usward, UNTO SALVATION. And this salvation is the work of our great and wonderful High Priest. This same wonderful truth is set forth in Heb. 7:25 in these words, "Wherefore He is able also to SAVE THEM TO THE UTTERMOST that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them." This phrase is given by Phillips as "He can save fully and completely." Young's Literal, "He is able to save to the very end." Amplified, "He is able to save to the uttermost - completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity."
The Greek points out that He is able to save COMPLETELY. He is able to save ALL THE WAY, even unto the valley of the shadow of death. He is able to save altogether, NOTHING LACKING - complete salvation with no flaw, complete as only a holy and omniscient and omnipotent God knows completeness and perfection. This salvation "to the uttermost" is a complete salvation of spirit, soul and body reserved for those who "come unto God by Him" - those who follow all the way, into the Holiest, within the veil, to know HIM in all His glorious and eternal reality. And it is not a salvation effected by Jesus flashing across the sky, but by our great High Priest ministering from His throne of intercession! "The uttermost" is the strongest and extremist word in all the world. There cannot be anything beyond the uttermost. The uttermost is situated on the very extremist rim, on the very outmost edge, and on the very highest pinnacle of all existing things. It is the limit, the boundary, the completeness, the perfection, the fullness, the summit, the apex and the ultimate of all realities. Oh, the wonder of it! Salvation to the UTTERMOST! What a limit! What a boundary! What a summit!
The "uttermost" salvation cannot be understood apart from our High Priest who has secured it and who now ministers it to us from that higher realm of incorruptibility. Jesus pointed to this day when, on the night of His judgment, before crucifixion, He announced to the startled High Priest, Caiaphas, this amazing proclamation, "You have said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Mat. 26:64). To paraphrase, Jesus says, "Though now you see me in this low and abject state, nevertheless the day is coming when I shall appear otherwise. Though you watch me die upon a Roman cross as a sin-offering, you will shortly see me sitting upon the throne of my Father and coming in the clouds of heaven."
How prone we are to view these as two events, separated by a vast span of time. Our conception is of Jesus sitting upon the right hand of God for a couple thousand years, at the end of which time He leaves His throne to "come in the clouds of heaven." NOT SO! "HEREAFTER you will see..." So runs the King James version, translating a Greek phrase which signifies unequivocally "from now on" - or literally, HENCEFORTH. But it is safe to say that the average reader, reading from the Authorized version, generally understands it to mean something very different - not "HENCEFORTH shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven," but "in the hereafter," flat some point in the indefinite future," you will see the Son of man "sitting" and then "coming." The correct thought is, "HENCEFORTH - FROM N-O-W O-N you will see the Son of man sitting... and coming." These two events, the sitting and the coming, are simultaneous. They are co-extensive. They transpire at the same time. And they both happen "from now on." He sits AND He comes. He sits upon the throne of heavenly power and He comes in the clouds of heaven! He sits as our great High Priest and He comes as our transforming Saviour. He doesn't sit and then come, He comes while He sits. It is not two separate, independent actions, but a two-fold, interdependent action.
Has He not come to you, precious brother, sister, in mighty saving power even as He sits upon the throne on High? Is it not true that He has power to save completely just BECAUSE He is seated upon the throne? Ah - it is not Jesus crashing down through the skies who is able to save to the uttermost - it is, rather, Christ our High Priest on the throne of the Majesty on High who is able to save us to the uttermost, seeing HE EVER LIVES TO MAKE INTERCESSION FOR US. Oh, we read so much into the Word of God that is not there! With our limited and faulty carnal reasoning we distort it all out of shape, making it say what it does not say, and not say what it does say. Why cannot men cease their ignorant pratings and learn once and for all that our Lord Jesus Christ is fully able to sit and to come at the same time! It is high time for all of God's elect saints to learn that Jesus is both High Priest and Saviour at the same instant. He sits and He comes. He has appeared once and for all before the Father in heaven as our sin-offering, and now He sits there continually as the High Priest of that mighty life. And unto all who LOOK FOR HIM He will APPEAR A SECOND TIME UNTO SALVATION. He has appeared in the presence of God FOR US, and now He will appear a second time UNTO US. The subject is not His "second coming," but His glorious saving PRIESTHOOD! It is time for all men to believe the Word of God and cease from following their own shameful delusions.
THE COMINGS OF THE LORD
We have been led to think in terms of the first coming and the second coming, whereas the Bible speaks in terms of the progressive revelation of Jesus Christ. Our God does not talk about the "first coming" and the "second coming" - He talks about the progressive revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. For example, let us take a look at that thought in Micah 5:2, "But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall He come forth unto Me who is to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting."
Notice, His "goings forth." The plural is used. The goings forth of the Lord speak about the Lord Jesus Christ! Now, the idea of "goings" has to do with the onward marching of God - the unfolding of the purpose of God, step by step. This is what is indicated here. This is what history is all about, the progressive revelation of Jesus Christ, the marching forward of God, the ever-increasing unveiling of Himself to man. The unfolding of end-time events and God's order for the ages to come, which are the main contents of the last book of the Bible, are called "the Revelation of Jesus Christ."
The term "second coming" is as unfortunate as it is unscriptural. It implies there has been only one coming of Christ thus far. This is not true. It may surprise you to learn that the scripture does not treat His coming at Bethlehem as an isolated event. Although it is important, it is not considered out of proportion to other and comparable events. His coming as a man was a step in the development of God's plan for redemption of the world.. Actually, Bethlehem is one in a series of appearances of Christ into the world. By the same token, it is not His last coming to the earth. In order to get the importance of His birth, let's withdraw from Bethlehem and consider His coming there as just one event in the panorama of the ages. Let us consider this theme under the following divisions: (1) Before Bethlehem (2) Beginning at Bethlehem (3) Because of Bethlehem.
An abundance of scripture supports the fact that Christ was before Bethlehem. He is just as real in the Old Testament as He is in the New Testament. The great difference, of course, is that HE BECAME FLESH. He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM.." Also He said, Is my Father works hitherto and I work." He and the Father were working long before Bethlehem. John opened his matchless Gospel with this majestic statement: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God" (Jn. 1:1-2). The prophet Isaiah had made a very careful distinction about His birth at Bethlehem: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given." Micah, the contemporary of Isaiah, had said, as I have pointed out, that He would come forth from Bethlehem but that "His goings forth have been FROM OF OLD, FROM EVERLASTING." His footprints were manifested in this world before the prints were made in His hands.
The pages of the Old Testament are literally sprinkled with the accounts of the Lord's comings, beginning in Eden's blest Garden and continuing through all generations of old. On the very day that man sinned he "heard the voice of the Lord God WALKING IN THE GARDEN in the cool of the day" (Gen. 3:8). The casual way in which this is stated indicates that this was a normal event, perhaps a daily appointed time at which the Lord manifested His presence to communicate with the man He had placed on this planet. The Lord still walked among men even after Adam was banished from the Garden, for Cain, after he slew Abel, "went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod" (Gen. 4:16).
In Gen. 17:1 we find that "The Lord appeared unto Abraham." In Gen. 17:22 it says, "God left off talking to Abraham, and WENT UP FROM HIM." Interesting, isn't it, that the Mount of Olives was not the first time or place where the Lord ASCENDED! In Gen. 18:1 we read, "And the Lord appeared unto him." In Gen. 18:33, "The Lord went His way, as soon as He left communing with Abraham." In Gen. 26:24 we see that "the Lord appeared unto him (Isaac) the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham your father: fear not, for I am with you." In Gen. 35:7 it says, "And he (Jacob) built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el: because there God appeared unto him." The Lord appeared unto Moses in the burning bush (Ex. 3:15-16). After Moses had led the children of Israel out of Egypt Christ walked among them in mighty manifestation of power and glory and provision, "for they drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (I Cor. 10:4). Later, the Lord again came to Israel in another form as we read in Ex. 19:9, 18 and 20: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I COME UNTO YOU in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak unto you ... and Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it ... and the Lord CAME DOWN UPON MOUNT SINAI, on the top of the Mount." When the Tabernacle in the wilderness was erected "the Lord appeared in the Tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud (His coming in a cloud is nothing new, either!)" (Deut. 31:15). In the days of Samuel the prophet "the Lord appeared ... in Shiloh: for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh" (I Sam. 3:21). In II Chron. 3:1 the "Lord appeared unto David... in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite." In I Kings 3:5 the Lord appeared to Solomon. And this star-studded record of the Lord's comings in the Old Testament times takes on special significance when Israel exclaims, "The Lord HAS APPEARED OF OLD UNTO ME, saying, Yea I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you" ( Jer. 31:3).
We dare not lose eight of the fact that our Lord has already had many comings, many appearings. We have limited the comings of Jesus strictly to two because of our unscriptural terms "first coming" and "second coming," but the truth is that He came; He continued to come; He comes; He continues to come; He will come; and He will continue to come! There are numerous "comings" and "appearings" of the Lord in the New Testament. BUT THEY DO NOT ALL REFER TO THE SAME EVENT. The word "coming" is very often used in the scriptures of a visitation or manifestation of the Lord to judge or bless or accomplish some aspect of His plan and purpose among His people and in the earth. One would think, listening to the preachers rant and rave about "THE second coming of Christ," that every time the Lord says, "I will come," He is speaking of one, specific, particular, singular event sometime out in the dim and misty future. I do not hesitate to tell you that this is a great error.
Rev. 2:5 tells of a COMING of our Lord. "Remember therefore from where you are fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I WILL COME unto you quickly, and will remove your candlestick out of his place, except you repent." Since Jesus had gone a COMING of Jesus would be a RETURN. So what does the Lord say? He warns the church at Ephesus that if it does not repent, "I WILL COME ... QUICKLY!" "I will come unto you quickly, and will remove your candlestick out of his place." "Candlestick" means lampstand. A lampstand is for holding up a light. Now what is the use of an assembly of believers? That is the purpose of an assembly - "YOU are the light of the world." Christ tells these people that if they do not repent HE WILL COME TO THEM IN JUDGMENT, swift and effective judgment, and remove them from being an assembly of light-bearing children of God. It was a COMING which might not take place! Jesus said, "I will COME if you don't repent." What would prevent this COMING? Ephesian saints repenting! The Ephesian church was an active and patient, and doctrinally sound church. But it lost its first love for Christ, the pure, virginal love for Him and for Him alone and sadly, never repented. So God allowed the light to go out. Later on the darkness of Mohammedism swept over the land where this church had been located. There is no lampstand in Ephesus today, for there is nothing but the ruins of a once great city. In Ephesus there is no church at all. The site of the ancient temple is now a marsh, inhabited only by frogs. Ephesus, of course, in keeping with the pattern of the book of Revelation, was merely a TYPICAL CHURCH, and the Lord's solemn warning signal flashes out to this day to be heeded by every man and movement that is of the Ephesian spirit and character: "Repent, or I WILL COME unto you quickly!" Is this, then, THE so-called "second coming" of Christ? Assuredly not! But I greatly fear that almost all of God's children hold the childish notion that whenever Jesus says, "I will come," He always refers to one singular event called "the second coming."
The book of Revelation furnishes us with a sequential overview of the comings of the Lord. Its inspired title is found in the first verse - "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." The Greek word for "revelation" is APOKALUPSIS meaning "unveiling, uncovering," and hence, revealing." This is expressed in Rev. 1:7, "EVERY EYE shall SEE Him..." The error of the unspiritual and unenlightened mind is that it immediately assumes that every eye must see Him at the same time and in the same manner. But the multitudinous ways in which the Lord comes and comes and comes throughout the illuminating pages of this glorious book indicates to me the progressive revelation of Jesus Christ, the many-faceted and many-splendored appearing of the Lord from one degree of glory to another until, when all is finished, every creature in heaven, earth and hell shall have had a revelation of the Son of God (Rev. 5:13).
With what divine genius does the Holy Spirit on the pages of God's Word portray the living Son of God coming and standing in the midst of the seven churches! This is an earthly scene. The risen and glorified Christ was present in and among the churches. Jesus had promised to come back, and according to chapters two and three of Revelation He HAD come back! Then follows swiftly the tragic scene of Jesus Christ, the blessed Saviour, standing at the end of this age COMPLETELY OUTSIDE the Laodicean church! No longer is He dealing with the apostate CHURCH SYSTEM, but knocking, knocking, knocking at heart's door of INDIVIDUAL MEN AND WOMEN, saying to them, "Behold I stand at the door and knock: if ANY MAN heat my voice and open the door, I WILL COME in to him, and will sup with HIM, and HE with ME" (Rev. 3:20). This passage can only refer to a spiritual presence coming to any INDIVIDUAL, to A-N-Y M-A-N who will open his heart's door to intimacy of fellowship and vital union with the Christ of God.
As one has written concerning this significant passage, "The message is to "any man," a message that abandons the multitude to their religious play, to their church creeds and their church Christs; a message that says, '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.' The church of the last days is the church of the INDIVIDUAL. It is the individual believer with a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP to Christ. For the man who will forsake ALL ELSE and sup with Christ this is an age of glory, an hour of preparation such as we have never known. This is a time when the Spirit of God is speaking TO YOU AS AN INDIVIDUAL. He seeks to sup and dine and feast with you apart from all the religious confusion about us. It is a glorious day when we see the promise that is ours in this hour" -end quote. And what is the promise? The promise, wonderful promise! is of HIS COMING. "I WILL COME in to HIM, and will sup with him and he with me." Ah, is this the so-called "second coming" of Christ? It is not the one men preach about or that Christians expect and wait for, but, beloved saints of God, it IS THE COMING OF CHRIST, nonetheless. He does not come once and in just one way. He comes and comes and comes in the progressive revelation of HIMSELF!
There is neither time nor space to discuss all of these comings and appearings fully in one brief article, so we shall pursue these great truths in the months to come. We shall touch just enough at this time to let you see clearly that there are more than two comings of Christ mentioned in the Bible, and that trying to apply all the scriptures on the Lord's coming to just two comings, has caused a lot of confusion and erroneous teaching and has caused the Lord's people to miss completely some of the most marvelous aspects of God's great and wonderful purposes.
On the day of Pentecost Christ came again as the Comforter. "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth: whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He DWELLS WITH YOU, and shall be IN YOU. I will not leave you comfortless (orphans): I WILL COME UNTO YOU. Yet A little while, and the world sees me no more; but YOU SEE ME: because I live, you shall live also. At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I IN YOU" (Jn. 14:16-20).
In Mk. 13:26 He comes with CLOUDS. In Mat. 24:27 He comes as LIGHTNING. In Rev. 16:15 He comes as a THIEF. In Mat. 25:6 He comes as the BRIDEGROOM. In Rev. 22:16 and 2:28 He comes as the MORNING STAR. In Mal. 4:2 He comes as the SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ARISING. In Phil. 3:20-21 He comes in RESURRECTION POWER. In II Thes. 1:7-8 He comes in FLAMING FIRE. In Mal. 3:1-3 He comes to His priesthood company as REFINER'S FIRE and FULLER'S SOAP. In I Thes. 4:16-17 He comes IN THE AIR. In Hos. 6:3 and James 5:7-8 He comes as the RAIN. In Rev. 19:11 & 14 He comes on a WHITE HORSE. In Mat. 25:31-34 He comes as KING. In I Pet. 5:4 He comes as the CHIEF SHEPHERD. In Mat. 16:27 He comes WITH HIS ANGELS. In Jude 14 He comes WITH HIS SAINTS. In Jn. 14:18 He comes TO HIS SAINTS. In II Thes. 1:10 He comes IN HIS SAINTS. In Jude 14 & 15 He comes in JUDGMENT. In Rev. 22:12 He comes WITH REWARDS. And time and space fail me to tell of how He comes with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God; He comes to the Mount of Olives; He comes to His temple; He comes in glory; He comes as Lord; He comes in His Kingdom; He comes as seasons of refreshing, etc., etc., etc.
Like a choir of many voices and as the sound of many waters, the testimony of the Word of God resounds with abundant and stunning and inescapable evidence that the coming of Christ is not a single event, but includes many different manifestations. His coming to us is a many-sided experience. To multitudes He appears as Saviour. They find Him at the crossroads of their lives. He becomes their salvation but they never venture any deeper to know Him intimately. They have only a superficial knowledge of Him. To others He appears as Chief Shepherd and Bridegroom. These hear His voice and are moved by His love, and follow on to know Him in deeper measures of intimacy and union. To others He appears as a Thief. He comes into their world uninvited and unannounced, He overtakes them unexpectedly and breaks up their life style and smashes their religious games. And unto others He appears as Fire, consuming their hay, wood, and stubble, eliminating by the spirit of burning all that is of self and not of God. The coming of the Lord is as many-faceted as the most dazzling crystal of earth or the most beautiful diamond known to man. In the Old Testament, the rabbis were often confused by the seeming contradictions in the descriptions of the coming of the Messiah. In some of the passages the Messiah was described as coming as a Suffering Servant to be wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities. In other passages He was coming as a Conqueror to rule and to defeat the enemies of the people of God. The people asked their scholars for an answer to this seeming contradiction. The rabbis would often go so far as to say that two Messiahs were coming. They were wrong; the same Messiah was coming twice. But more than that! Yea, a thousand times more! The same Messiah comes five, ten, thirty, ten thousand times, in as many and varied ways and manners as there are dealings and operations of God to bewrought in the lives of men and in the destiny of nations upon this earth. My earnest prayer to God is that the spirit of wisdom and revelation may somehow make forever plain to all who read these halting lines that we have seen too limited a vision of the truth, but bringing all the facets together, there is the fuller view where it readily appears that there are many-splendored dimensions to HIS COMING.
If the coming of the Lord is not a progressive revelation in many manifestations, then, pray tell me, WHICH of the many comings enumerated earlier IS THE SECOND COMING? When He says, "I will not leave you orphans: I WILL COME TO YOU," is THAT "the second coming"? or is it when He declares, "Behold, I COME as a thief?" Or when He says, "I WILL COME unto you as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth," is that manifestation His "second coming"? Or is it when He comes as lightning, or as the sun of righteousness, or as the Bridegroom, or as King, or with His saints, or to His saints, or in His saints? Paul said that Jesus would come with a "shout," also with the "voice of the archangel," and with the "trump of God." Jesus said, "Behold, I come as a thief." Certainly thieves do not blow trumpets and shout! Nor did Jesus blow trumpets when He ascended from the Mount of Olives, yet the messengers said that He would come "in like manner." And it would seem that if He came as rain and as fire at the same time, the rain would put out the fire!
But these are not contradictions. They are word pictures to help our finite minds comprehend more clearly some of the great factors involved in the coming of Christ and what His coming means to the whole creation. When we put all these together and add to them all the other illustrations of the Bible pertaining to Christ's coming, we begin to understand that what we are to look for is not a human being coming down through the literal clouds, setting fire to the earth and toppling over the mountains, but mighty manifestations of the risen and glorified and ascended Lord of heaven and earth, leading to the transformation of mankind from selfishness and hate to compassion and love; from war and destruction to peace and reconstruction; from dead in trespasses and sins to alive in Christ; from the carnal mind to the precious mind that was in Christ Jesus; from sickness and death to health and life; from funeral processions to the quickening power of His resurrection!
And hence it is that so very few Christians have really scriptural thoughts about the coming of their Lord. They are looking into prophecy for the church's hope - they confound "the Sun of Righteousness" with "the Morning Star" - they mix up the coming of Christ "IN His saints," and His coming "WITH the saints" - they have not the foggiest notion what is the difference in time or manifestation between His coming as Rain or His coming as fire; His coming as Saviour and His coming as Lord; His coming as Lightning or His coming with Clouds; His coming as Bridegroom or His coming as King. All this is a most serious mistake, against which I am compelled by the Spirit of God to warn my readers. Not very many know when or how the Lord comes in any of His manifestations therefore, they cannot know how to MEET HIM!
Almost all of Christendom teaches that the return of the Lord is one single, future event. They are generally agreed that He will come in a body of flesh, with wounds in His hands, feet, and side, and that He will be suspended in the sky in such a manner that every eye of all human beings living on this earth at that time will see Him and thus know of His coming. How much more reasonable and understandable is the glorious truth! Former misconceptions and crude theories concerning this great event should not be permitted to hinder us now from ascertaining the simplicity of the truth concerning it, as set forth in God's blessed Book and revealed unto His elect saints now by the Spirit. Whenever I long for the Lord to move by His Spirit and make Himself real by His presence, or manifest the greatness of His power in some place or circumstance, my heart cries out, "Come, Lord Jesus!"
There is a principle in the scriptures concerning the coming of the Lord. That is, we must spiritually discern and respond to His comings in our midst and in our individual lives. Jesus said, "Occupy till I come." In the midst of all our activity we are to ever look for His comings. We must be spiritually perceptive and awake at all times. Then, recognizing His presence and turning aside from all that would distract, we can move with Him in His visitation. As we respond to His comings, be it in blessing, refreshing, quickening, enlightenment, transformation, Lordship, fellowship and communion, judgment, correction, stripping, purging or cleansing - we shall come to KNOW HIM in all His wonderful reality and be made like Him as His own in the earth. Oh, listen for the sound of His comings!
THE SEED IN EVERY MAN
By
J. Preston Eby
THE SPIRIT IN MAN
Deep within every man there is a secret
sanctum where dwells the mysterious essence of his
being. This inmost reality is that part of a man which
separates him from every other living creature and
makes him uniquely mankind. This deep hidden
power is what it is of itself independent of any other
part of the man’s complex nature. It is the man’s “I
Am,” a gift from the I AM who created him. The
deep-in human entity of which we speak is called in
the scriptures the spirit of man. “For what man
knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man
which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God” (I Cor. 2:11). As
God’s self-knowledge lies in the eternal Spirit, so
man’s self-knowledge is by his own spirit, and his
knowledge of God is by the direct union of the Spirit
of God with the spirit of man. I cannot overstress the
importance of this in our forward walk into our
destiny as sons of God! This truth denies that man is
an earthly, physical being having a spirit and
declares, rather, that he is a spirit having a physical
body. That which makes a man a human being is not
his body but his spirit, in which the image of God
originally lay.
Most people on earth have forgotten their beginning.
But the scripture is clear. “And God said, Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness…and the
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living soul. So God created man in his
own image, in the image of God created He him”
(Gen. 1:26; 2:7; 1:28). What God actually did was
that He imaged Himself in man. God imaged
Himself in man by forming Himself in a man of
earth. Thus man was created as a visible expression
of the invisible God. Now that hasn’t changed!
What has changed is our perception of ourselves
because of the fall. But before we discuss that, let us
see just how it was that God imaged Himself in man,
and how it is that man is a spiritual being having an
earthly experience, instead of a physical being
having a spiritual experience.
Wonderful words were spoken at the very dawn of
civilization, recorded in the oldest book of the Bible,
which state simply and powerfully the reality of
man. “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of
the Almighty giveth them understanding” (Job
32:8). It is something great in man, Elihu conceives,
that he is spirit, and, because he is, is capable of
being inspired. He is not here speaking of Adam as
he was in the primordial glory of Eden, nor yet of
regenerated man in this wonderful age of the Holy
Spirit; but, speaking thousands of years ago in the
present tense, he magnifies man as being able to be
inspired, just because he is spirit. And it is God, who
likewise is spirit, that inspires him!
Can we not see by this that the very being of man has
a God-ward or divine side, being related
constitutionally to Him. The testimony of scripture
is incontrovertible that there is a spirit in man, or
what is the same, the fact that we are, as being spirit,
permeable and inspirable by the Almighty!
The word “spirit” means literally, breath, and
denotes a quality of life because, in the case of the
spirit in man, God is able to breathe Himself into it
and through it. The word “inspiration,” as used here,
denotes the act of inbreathing. Anyone who is
inspired is “breathed into,” visited internally by the
power of life, and so quickened in mind, raised in
intelligence, ennobled in nature, and empowered in
ability. In this way Bezaleel was inspired when he
“was filled with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and in
understanding, to devise cunning works, to work in
gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of
stones, to set them, and in carving timber” (Ex. 31:3-
5). Anyone is inspired just as far as he is raised
internally, in thought, feeling, perception, or action,
by a divine movement within! It is God’s Spirit
quickening our spirit, and thus bringing a change, a
release, a raising so that our spirit may function as it
was designed to function. This is what Jesus
described as being “born again,” the spirit that
already existed as the offspring of God being brought
forth, just as a flesh baby is brought forth into the
world, into a new realm, a new level of identity, a
new consciousness, a new expression, a new ability,
a new standing, new rights and privileges and
inheritance! We all understand that a baby’s life
does not begin at the moment of birth — it is simply
released into a new dimension where it can attain to
its full potential in that realm. Thus it is with the
new birth! Our spirit did not originate at the moment
of our new birth — it had to already exist or it could
not have been born! That which is thus “born” of the
Spirit is spirit! It is this capacity of being spirit that
qualifies man as an inspirable creature.
This reveals man’s capacity for God; to
experientially know the presence of God, to let in the
divine nature, to entertain the eternal Spirit
witnessing with his spirit, to be energized by Him
and filled with His glory, in every faculty, feeling,
and power, being a vessel and channel for the life of
God, to think His thoughts and do His works. Thus,
“the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are
the children (offspring) of God!” (Rom. 8:16). And
“because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts (spirit), crying, Abba,
Father!” (Gal. 4:6). “There is a spirit in man, and the
inbreathing of the Almighty giveth them
understanding.” Only because man is spirit is all this
possible!
In that long ago beginning God “breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
soul” (Gen. 2:7). Now all the animals and beasts of
the field are also called “living souls” in the creation
story in Genesis. But there is a difference! Let the
fact be imprinted indelibly upon our minds that none
of these became a “living soul” by the inbreathing of
God! God did not Himself breathe into the nostrils
of cattle, lions, elephants, birds, fish, cockroaches, or
any other creature. Their “breath of life” is of an
inferior quality to that of man. The breath of life of
the animal kingdom is merely the oxygen of our
lower atmosphere. They are, therefore, a creation of
God but are unrelated to God. The breath of life in
man, however, originates out of the very spiritessence
of God Himself — inbreathed — thus, when
a man dies his body returns to the dust from whence
it came, but his spirit returns to God who gave it!
(Eccl. 12:7).
In Genesis 1, God speaks of adham (male and
female), and only adham as being made in His
image. The point is emphasized by repetition. As
humanity’s story unfolds through subsequent
chapters, we discover that what makes humans
different is a quality called “spirit.” None of the rest
of earth’s creatures possess it! By “spirit” the Bible
means relationship with God, and the capacity to be
aware of God, to communicate with Him, and
participate with Him in His great and eternal
purposes. Worship is the key evidence of the
spiritual quality of the human race, and the
universality of worship is evidenced in altars,
temples, priesthoods, sacrifices, rituals, prayers,
praise, and religious exercises of all kinds. Burial of
dead, use of tools, or even architecture and the arts
do not qualify as evidence of the spirit, for non-spirit
beings such as birds, beaver, elephants, chimpanzees,
and a multitude of others engage in such activities to
a limited extent. But no animal worships! There are
no chimpanzee or ape altars, temples, priesthoods, or
prayers of any kind. Only man worships! Only man
is a spiritual being! Only man is aware of God!
Only man has heard from God! To worship is as
natural for man — any man, saved or unsaved — as
barking is for a dog! Oh, the mystery of it!
Douglas Wilson once wrote, “There has been a very
sore cry in a great many of our hearts. There has
been a cry that has risen from the very depths of our
spirits. It is a cry to know the Lord, even our God!
It is a cry to be one with the Lord our God. It is a cry
to be with our God even as it is written that ‘he that
is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.’ We have not
understood from whence this deep cry comes. We
have not known the depths from whence it came.
But the Lord knows, for He put it there and has
caused it to come forth. Is it not written that ‘deep
calleth unto deep’? So is it then not written that the
depth of man calls unto the depth of God? And the
depth of God also calls to the depth in man! The
earth is filled with the call of God and the call of
man. The call rises up into the ears of God and He
hears it, for He has put the call within us.
“The Lord would have us know that from the very
beginning, when He brought man forth out of the
dust of the earth and gave unto him of His own
breath, His own Spirit, then He put a depth in man
that was equal to the depth of God. For do we not
know that if God lives in us, and if we are the temple
of the living God, then the depths that are in us must
equal those depths that are in God? Else we could
not contain God, neither could He dwell within us as
our life.
“But the depth that God had put in man became
darkness unto man. So man knew not this depth.
Man deemed himself to be but a created being of
God. Man did not know the depths of his nature! He
knew not that which was deep within him. For to
him the light had gone out and no longer moved in
the depth of his life. Unknown to man the light was
shining dimly and man was only faintly aware of it.
Yet there was to come a day when this light would
begin again to be manifested!” — end quote.
Recently I heard one “kingdom teacher” make the
following statements: “I want to say a word to all
the spooky people out there who believe in preexistence,
in having had some kind of spiritual life in
the bosom of the Father before the world began. We
were not there — HE was there! The reason I am
telling you this is because there is a teaching that
goes around the camp of sonship people which
suggests that you were there with Him at that time. I
can’t take the time today to point out to you how that
is not true, and it defiles the truth. It corrupts the
truth because God said to honor your father and your
mother. Do you know why? BECAUSE THEY
ARE THE ONES WHO GAVE YOU LIFE! That’s
the first commandment with promise. My life did
not begin in the beginning or before the beginning.
God might have thought about me, He may have
known that I was going to come forth, but in due
time I came forth from my parents” — end quote.
This dear brother simply lacks spiritual
understanding. He supposes that the whole life of
man derives only from his earthly parents! He must
never have read the scripture wherein we read, “And
ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh
unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou
the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He
receiveth. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our
flesh which corrected us, and we gave them
reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection
unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure;
but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of
His holiness” (Heb. 12:5-6, 9-10).
Someone says, “Oh, yes, God is the Father of the
spirits of all those who have been born again.” Yet
the scripture cries out, “O God, the God of the spirits
of all flesh” (Num. 16:22). You see, brethren, we
must think spiritual sense about these things! That
we might better comprehend, I must follow this
instructive passage with some pertinent questions.
Meditate deeply upon these. Does every flesh man
have a spirit? Is every man, saved or unsaved,
composed of spirit, soul, and body? Or do only
believers possess a spirit? If every man has a spirit,
where did his spirit come from? Did it come from
God? Did it come from his parents? Did it come
from the devil? Was your spirit, when you were
born into this world, already “fallen”? If not, when
did it “fall”? Is God actively in the business of
begetting “fallen” or “dead” spirits? Is God really
the Father of the spirits of ALL FLESH? When did
your spirit originate? Did it originate at the time of
your physical birth? Did it originate at the moment
of your conception in the womb? Did it originate
before your conception? Did it exist way back there
when you were “chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world?” (Eph. 1:4). Did it exist
when “God, who cannot lie, promised eternal life
before the world began?” (Titus 1:2). To whom did
He promise eternal life at that time? Could He have
promised it to you if you were not there?
That our spirit came out of God, we know, for we
read, “The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel,
saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens,
and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth
the spirit of man within him” (Zech. 12:1). He who
takes responsibility for the vast expanse of heaven
and earth, also takes responsibility for forming
(maturing) the spirit of man which is within us, and
He is the God of the spirits of all flesh.
What revealing light of revelation Jesus gave when
He opened the truth about the origin of both man’s
flesh and his spirit when on that star-studded night
long ago He explained to the questioning
Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the spirit is spirit” (Jn.
3:6). This in my opinion is one of the most profound
and awe-inspiring statements in all scripture.
According to Jesus, my earthly parents are the
parents only of my flesh, for that which is born of the
flesh is flesh. That’s all it is! On the other hand,
God, and only God, is the Father of my spirit, for that
which is born of the spirit is spirit. Spirit begets
spirit! And God is the God and Father of the spirits
of all flesh! How could we ever think of God as the
Father of the flesh? He is the creator of flesh, of the
physical, but He is the Father of SPIRITS. “God IS
spirit,” so He could father nothing less than spirits.
As Father He puts the same life-force into His
children; and this life-force is that which animates
the flesh so that the body without the spirit is dead
(James 2:26). This is true of all men! What a
glorious statement this is — “the Father of spirits”!
That is what redemption is all about! It liberates us
from the flesh consciousness of the natural-minded
man and brings us again into the conscious
awareness of our Father and that we are spirit, the
offspring of God. We are being made like Him
because we are of His same substance. Speaking to
His disciples and to the multitudes Jesus once said,
“But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one
teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man
your father opon the earth, for ONE IS YOUR
FATHER, which is in heaven” (Mat. 23:8-9). Need I
remind you that these words were spoken to men
under the law; Jesus had not died or risen again, the
Holy Spirit had not been poured out, nor was the new
covenant in effect. He informed every one of these
people that they ALL HAD ONE FATHER AND He
is “our Father, which art in heaven.”
That wonderful prayer Jesus taught His disciples,
which we call The Lord’s Prayer, begins with the
words, “Our Father which art in heaven.” Until men
recognize by the illumination that the Spirit brings
who their Father is they remain lost and dying in the
dense darkness of the carnal mind. Spiritually, they
are no different than the adopted child who has never
been told he is adopted and has no concept of who
his biological parents truly are or where he came
from. Our Father is not the one who gave us our
physical life in the womb of our earthly mother. The
only reason Jesus would tell the vast throng gathered
around Him, “Call no man your father upon the
earth, for ONE IS YOUR FATHER, which is in
heaven,” is that we all must recognize that our life
did not begin with our physical birth. Our true
Father is not a man upon earth, but our Father who is
in heaven! Can we not see by this that our life did
not begin on earth — it began in heaven! Nothing
could be plainer than this. Over and over again Jesus
taught the multitudes about their “heavenly Father.”
Just look up the word “father” in Strong’s
Concordance and see how many times in the four
Gospels Jesus told the people that God was their
Father! Once we know who and where our Father is
it is easy to understand where our life began and
from whence we came. Our birth, our beginnings
were with God! God is our Father. Aren’t you
glad!
The heavenly Father is Spirit, in the Spirit state
known as heaven. As spirit, we know Him as our
very own Father, and the only substance of our true
being. We find ourselves coming alive to Spirit, to
God. This is what Jesus has accomplished
redemptively for all men through His blood! The
fact that we are spirit is the very basis of Christ’s
redemptive work. It is not the coming of His Spirit
into us that makes us God’s sons, but the apostle
plainly said that “because ye are sons, God hath sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). We no longer feel
strangers to our heavenly homeland! God has
redeemed us, renewed us, delivered us, and in His
Son made us to be again who we truly are!
One of the greatest needs for understanding among
believers is in this area of comprehending the
relationship of all men to God. Paul expressed it on
Mars Hill, saying, “The God who made the world
and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth,
does not live in shrines made by man, nor is He
served by human hands, as though He needed
anything, since He Himself gives TO ALL MEN life
and breath (spirit) and everything. And He made
from one every nation of men to live on all the face
of the earth, having determined allotted periods and
the boundaries of their habitation, that they should
seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him
and find Him. Yet HE IS NOT FAR FROM EACH
ONE OF US, for in Him we live and move and have
our being…for we are indeed His offspring. Being
then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the
Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation
by the art and imagination of man” (Acts 17:24-29).
God’s offspring! And this was spoken to Greeks
who not only knew nothing of Jesus Christ, but had
no awareness of the one God.
Paul is not talking here about born-again Christians,
he is speaking of the fact that there is a spirit in man
— in all men — and God is the Father of spirits, the
God of the spirits of all flesh. The one Father of all
spirits is but one Spirit. Thus all spirits are related
and unified in Him. We easily forget the human
birth of every man and all these earthly relationships,
races, cultures, and characteristics when we
recognize the One Father from whom we all came.
In Old Testament days it was a great discovery of
truth for people to realize that “The Lord our God,
the Lord is One.” In the days of many gods this was
a great revelation! In our day, however, most of the
civilized world recognizes the truth of the oneness of
God. The problem now is to awaken people to the
truth that the One God is the Father of the spirit of
every man! This is among the deepest and most
precious truths of scripture. No star that shines in the
firmament of revelation is more clear or glorious
than this; no truth ever dropped down upon our earth
from the heavens of God’s Spirit is more full of
significance. This Fatherhood gives meaning and a
tenderness to this life of ours, and is the very
foundation of the value of man’s life, and reveals
why Jesus came from the heavenly realms to redeem
all men by His own precious and divine blood!
THE VALUE OF EVERY MAN
The grandest of all truths is that CHRIST IS THE
IMAGE OF GOD! If you want to know what God
had in mind when He said, "Let us make man in our
image, and after our likeness," you have only to
look at Jesus Christ. That is what God meant!
"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are
lost (who know not who or where they are): in
whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the
glorious gospel of CHRIST, WHO IS THE IMAGE
OF GOD, should shine unto them" (II Cor. 4:3-4).
"In whom we have redemption through His
blood…who is THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE
GOD, the firstborn (prototype) of every creature"
(Col. 1:14-15). His dignity is still further elaborated
in these words of the writer to the Hebrews: "Who
being the brightness of His glory, and the
EXPRESS IMAGE OF HIS PERSON…being made
so much better than the angels" (Heb. 1:3-4). The
Amplified Bible reads, "He is the…expression of
the glory of God — the Light Being, the out-raying
of the divine — and He is the PERFECT IMPRINT
AND VERY IMAGE OF GOD’S
NATURE…taking a place and rank by which He
Himself became…superior to angels."
How totally inadequate do our words become in the
light of words of such wonder as these! Jesus is the
prototype of what God intends man to be. He is
God’s finished product, God’s perfect man; what
every man should be and ultimately will be. We will
only understand the majesty of man in God’s image
when we see Jesus as THE BEAM OF THE
DIVINE GLORY, and THE OUT-RAYING OF
GOD’S PERSON. Jesus Christ is the express or
exact image of the Father’s being, the perfect
imprint and very image of God’s nature. The
allusion here is to the impression made in ancient
times by a seal on molten wax; and as the image
made on the wax is the exact representation (though
on another substance) of the die, so is Christ the
precise representation of the Father in human flesh.
And thus He was able to say, "If you have seen me,
you have seen the Father."
The life of Jesus is the life of God transmuted into
the form of our human life, so that we may see,
touch, hear, know, understand, and experience the
very being and nature of God in human terms. The
natural mind cannot understand such a truth as this,
but this is what God meant when He said, "Let us
make man in our image, and after our likeness."
CHRIST is the image of God and God meant for
every man to look and speak and act and be just like
Jesus Christ! Can you not see the mystery? This is
the value of man’s life in redemption, for God sent
One who was all that man was meant to be to
purchase us — not to harps and golden streets and
fluttering wings in some far-off heaven somewhere
— but back to relationship with God as sons in His
very own image.
As we consider the wonderful advent of man
created "in the image of God" we can only conclude
that this is a SPIRITUAL MAN brought forth out of
the very spirit-substance of God almighty, and
bearing His own divine nature, character, power and
attributes. The image of God is the nature of God
reproduced in man. Thus, man is the true image of
God! The divine nature was best and fully
expressed in the man Christ Jesus who shined upon
mortals the truest revelation of God and lifted man’s
sights higher than their poor thoughts would allow.
Jesus revealed to men their true origin, heritage, and
destiny. He came to show man what man really is,
was intended to be, and through redemption and so
great a salvation shall be — THE IMAGE OF
GOD. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end, the first and the last. In Jesus
Christ you see man as he was in the beginning, and
as he ever shall be world without end — THE
IMAGE OF GOD WITH DOMINION OVER ALL
THINGS.
We have come to the most sublime of all truths. The
beauty of these celestial realities is found in the fact
that all Jesus did He did "for us" — not in our place,
but on our behalf. A musician demonstrates the
beauty of the music he teaches in order to show the
learner the way by practice as well as precept. This
was the precious import of our Lord’s sinless life
and of His demonstration of power over the whole
flesh realm, including death. Our heavenly Father
demands that all men should follow the example of
our Lord and Master. In order to enter the kingdom
of the heavens, the anchor of hope must be cast
beyond the veil of this carnal, dying realm into the
Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and
this advance beyond the law of sin and death must
come through the joys and triumphs of a people "led
by the spirit" who are "the sons of God" as well as
through their sorrows and afflictions.
It is by facing the enemy in the crucible of
experience and by the authority of the spirit that
victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat. Each
and every test in our lives is an opportunity to prove
for ourselves and demonstrate for those about the
triumph of the spirit over the flesh. That is how
Jesus did it! He knew that He was not a physical
man possessing a spirit. He understood clearly that
He was a spirit encased in a body. Therefore His
spirit must have dominion over His flesh, not the
other way around. He lived, spoke, and acted by the
life of God in His spirit, even the Father who dwelt
in Him. Step by step, battle by battle, victory upon
victory we also ascend into the heights of the
kingdom of heaven (spirit), the image of God, and
the dominion restored in man!
One can never comprehend the length and breadth
and height and depth of God’s great plan of creation
and redemption until first he understands that Jesus
Christ is the revelation of the value of every man.
In the mysterious mists of Eden God breathed into
man the breath of His own divine life and
prophesied of this man that he would be the image
and likeness of Himself, and in due time would take
his place in the Father’s great kingdom with
dominion over all the works of His hands (Ps. 8:3-9;
Heb. 2:6-9).
There is a story about a little piece of wood that
once bitterly complained because its owner kept
whittling away at it, gouging it and making holes in
it. But the one who was cutting it paid no attention
to the stick’s protests. He was making a flute out of
that piece of ebony, and he was too wise to stop
when the wood complained so bitterly. The man
said, "Little piece of wood, without these rifts and
holes, and all this cutting, you’d be just a stick
forever — a useless piece of ebony. What I am
doing now may seem as if I am destroying you, but
instead it will change you into a flute. Your sweet
music will charm the souls of many and comfort
sorrowing hearts. My cutting you is the making of
you, for only thus can you be a blessing in the
world." The meaning of this little parable is clear:
That flute, whose music blended so sweetly in the
orchestra, was made a flute only by the knife and
file that filled it with rifts and holes which seemed
to be its very destruction. But the purpose of the
master was the cutting away of the outward form so
that breath could flow through it. The breath upon
the wood created a melodious sound which made it
an instrument to the praise of God. Ah, the Lord is
shaping us, my beloved, cutting away the denseness
of our outer shell with its darkened understanding,
making rifts and holes in the way that seems right to
the natural man, that the in-breathed spirit of life
from God may sweep through our earthen vessel,
producing the image of God, that His glory might
be revealed in creation. Isn’t it wonderful!
This divine potential lies in the spirit of every man
and shows the value of man’s life. Some do not
believe that the seed of God abides in every man,
but I do not hesitate to tell you that every man has
within him a spirit as well as a soul and a body, and
the spirit of every man originated with God and
came out of God. If every man is spirit, soul, and
body, then where else did man’s spirit come from?
Are you going to tell me it came from the devil?
When the Word became flesh and tabernacled
among us we learned the true dignity of man. The
wonder is not that God could stoop so low but that
man was created so high! It was because of the
value of man’s life that Jesus came and took our
nature. The sinless Son of man reveals indeed what
a fall man has suffered, but shows what a destiny is
his, when once the image of his Creator has been
restored. Why lift a sot from his gutter to care for
him and rehabilitate him and bring him to God? The
reason is that man has in him some touch of the
eternal and therefore must be saved; and some
ultimate tide of compassion moves us to save him!
His salvation is not merely from his drink, from his
lust, from his sin and bondage and hell; it is
salvation unto all his awesome potential as a child
of the Father in heaven! It is this divine value of
man’s life that brought Jesus from the portals of
glory to save him! Is this not what Jesus’ parable of
the Prodigal Son teaches us? It was a son that the
father saw afar off, and ran and fell upon his neck
and kissed him and killed the fatted calf and put
shoes and a robe upon him and called all his
kingdom to feast and rejoice with him. His son had
come home! Man is the offspring of God and is
meant to be the head of creation. THAT IS THE
VALUE OF MAN’S LIFE!
Can man who has sunk so low be raised so high?
Consider with me the destiny of one muddy road.
The clay, left long enough, hardens into a sapphire.
The sand becomes by refraction of light an opal.
The soot is a diamond in the rough. And the water
when it freezes, is a snow-white star. Ah, there is a
finer destiny for muddy humanity, but you do not
see it in our raw state! Only the mighty pressures
and processes of God’s redemptive dealings can
transform the murky elements into the essence of
divine beauty, glory and power! And this, dear one,
is the answer to Job’s piercing question, "What is
man, that Thou shouldest magnify him? and that
Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him? and that
Thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try
him every moment?"
Sin-cursed and sin-broken, sick and weak, murderer
and prostitute, proud and arrogant, mean and
vindictive — all that is humanity! But is that the
value of mankind? What is the value of human life?
JESUS is the value! For just such humanity there
was the Man from Galilee, the Son of God, the
express image of the Father, the pure, sinless,
harmless One, love personified, the heir of all
things, the Lord of the universe — there was that
One nailed to a cross, to redeem every man that
ever lived or shall live. THAT IS THE VALUE OF
MAN’S LIFE! JESUS IS THE VALUE OF MAN!
The price that is paid for an object reflects its value.
The price God paid for humanity was His own Son
in the image and glory of the Father. God saw
beneath man’s tattered garment and marred image
His own omnipotent potential buried there. Love
pierced through the gloom and roughness and saw a
diamond in the rough, but a diamond sure enough.
It was within that divine spark within man’s spirit
capable of being renewed that we find the reason
for the cross. If we would have been less than the
offspring of God He could have sent something less
than His own Son to redeem us! No one redeems
the life of a monkey or an elephant or a cat or a dog
with the life of a man. Oh, no! There is no
correspondency there. The cross was God’s great
act by which He released His life-flow, the precious
blood of Jesus, to heal, quicken, and restore man to
his place in God.
It would do us all a world of good to take inventory
of our attitudes — how we see men. I fear that we
would be both surprised and disturbed to see how
often we view men out of our carnal minds rather
than with the eyes of our heavenly Father — the
Prodigal’s Father! Oh mystery of mysteries! Jesus
went to the cross not only to take away our sins, He
went there for the good in man, to redeem it and
restore it into the image and likeness of God. The
deepest mystery of all is that God is multiplying
Himself in man, and is bringing Himself into a new
dimension. There is a MAN seated upon the highest
throne of heaven. Not an angel, not a cherub, and
not even merely a spirit — but a MAN! That man is
still clothed in the body that walked along the
shores of Galilee, for the cave of Joseph of
Arimathea is empty, although that body has been
spiritualized by the power of incorruptible life.
The dwelling place of a son of God is in the Father
and the dwelling place of the Father is in the sons.
The sons are the out-raying of the Father’s
substance and the perfect imprint of His nature in
human form. I never enjoy trying to see pictures
where no picture exists, but it is plain to an
understanding born from above that ultimately all
men will be manifest sons of God, for Jesus Christ,
the Son of the living God, died and rose again to
save and redeem and restore all men to God as His
very own children. The Prodigal is all men! Jesus is
the firstborn of every creature! That will be the
glorious consummation of God’s ages-long purpose
to make man into His image and after His likeness.
Nothing short of that can suffice. Only then will
God be ALL-IN-ALL!
The words came to me some time ago, the startling
and remarkable expression Jesus made when He
stood in the earth and declared, "I am the bread that
is come down from heaven, that if a man eat of it,
he shall never die. I am the living bread. I am the
bread that is come down. I am the bread that is
become personified in a body of flesh upon this
earth. I am the bread that is from heaven."
Immediately the question came to mind — Why
was He the bread that came from heaven? Why did
He say, "from heaven"? Why did He not simply
say, "I am that I am," or "I am the bread that your
Father has provided on the earth"? This is
reminiscent, of course, of the manna that came from
heaven, the food that God sent from heaven to the
children of Israel in the wilderness. Why did the
manna come "from heaven"? Could it not have
crawled or grown up out of the earth? Could it not
have just appeared on the ground?
As I mused within myself concerning this mystery,
the inspiration of the spirit commenced to articulate
within me the wonder of this great truth. It came to
me so powerfully as an illustration. Consider with
me for a moment a group of astronauts who are
soaring away from earth to a strange planet in a
distant galaxy. While traveling on their journey
through space their spacecraft develops a serious
problem, and they are forced to land on an unknown
planet in a far away solar system. The name of the
planet is Timur. Having landed, they realize they
are stranded! They know nothing of this world into
which they have descended. As they step out of
their spacecraft they discover a very hostile
environment. Everything there is inhospitable to
them. All vegetation on the planet is toxic to their
system. They cannot eat or drink anything, for all is
death to them. They cannot breathe the atmosphere.
Everything militates against them.
Soon, the realization dawns within their
consciousness that their resources are finite. Some
desperate action must be taken. They contact earth
about their predicament. Their government agrees
to dispatch a rescue expedition. A second spacecraft
comes from earth and in due time lands on the
planet Timur. This second group of astronauts step
out of their ship and say to those who are stranded
there in that world, "We are the men who have
come from earth. We have the bread that is from
earth. We bring the water that is from your
homeland. We bear that which is not hostile to you,
for it is from your own world. The food we bring is
compatible with who you are and what you are. It is
biologically adapted to your constitution. We have
come from earth and we have the bread that is your
bread, the drink that is your drink, that which
pertains to your state of being, which will sustain
you, energize you, quicken you, and give you
expression of who and what you are. We have the
bread that has come from earth!"
Can we not see that the bread from earth was the
bread from home! Let there be no doubt in the mind
of any man that Jesus came from heaven and
descended into this earth realm, into our darkness,
into our limitations, into our bondage, into our
ignorance, into our sin, into our false identity, into
our distorted perceptions, into our natural life, into
our carnality, into our physical, mortal sense of
being. He stepped, as it were, out from His
spacecraft and proclaimed to lost men, "I am the
bread that is come down from heaven! If a man eats
of this bread he will live and not die, because I am
the bread that is come from the realm that you came
from. I am the one from your homeland, out of your
true habitation! I am the one sent from your true
world, the world of Spirit, the world of the Father,
the world of divinity, the world of eternity. I am
from that world, and I have come to speak a word
into you! The words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit and they are life. These words are adapted to
your constitution and pertain to the realm from
whence you are. I am the bread that has come from
the heavens, and when you eat this bread, when you
receive this word, when you are energized by the
Spirit of Life that I am, you will live and not die!"
Now we would ponder briefly on "our spirit"
contrasted with "His Spirit," for Paul declared, "The
Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that
we are the children of God" (Rom. 8:16). And
again, "God is my witness, whom I serve with my
spirit in the gospel of His Son" (Rom. 1:9). There is
a distinct difference whether we are serving God
with our flesh, or with our spirit. The spirit of man
in the unregenerate individual does not serve the
Lord, for it is in darkness, and knows not from
whence it came nor who or what it is. But our Lord
Jesus Christ is that "TRUE LIGHT which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world" (Jn. 1:9). Ah,
when HE lights our candle, when our spirit is
quickened by His Spirit, there is awakening,
illumination, comprehension, and we begin to see
into realms of spiritual life and reality to which,
heretofore, we had been blind. This involves more
by far than someone informing us that we are a
spirit, a spiritual being, and that we should therefore
actively begin to live out of our spiritual reality and
identity instead of from the intellect of our soul and
the desires of the body. It is not by mere knowledge
or human effort that we can live out of spirit — the
spiritual life! The awakening we must receive
involves the sovereign, dynamic, living, redemptive
operation of God within our spirit producing the
actual standing up within us of a new creature
raised up by the power of God through the washing
of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost
(Titus 3:5).
Are we so blind that we cannot see the impossibility
of our awakening ourselves? We cannot quicken
ourselves, nor can we regenerate ourselves! The
very idea is idle and senseless; for the plain reason
that being regenerated is the same as having
inspiration — it must originate out of God as a work
upon our spirit. The precise thing needed is to be
raised out of the separated, self-centered, blind
ignorance of the carnal mind by the sovereign
intervention and penetration of the Holy Ghost. Are
we then going to lift ourselves by our own
bootstraps, stand up out of our grave of darkness,
sin, and death by our own volition? Can the dead
raise themselves? Are the ignorant capable of
instructing themselves? Do the blind open their own
eyes? A baby does not even birth itself!
Regeneration is a renewal that consists of the
inbreathing of God’s Spirit, effecting union with
His life. "And you hath HE quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time past ye
walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience…even when we were dead in sins,
(HE) hath quickened us together with Christ, and
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:1-2,5-6).
Ray Prinzing once said it so aptly, "Strange indeed
the past theology of man. The corpse is floating
upon the water and we throw it a life-rope and tell
the corpse that if it will grab hold we’ll help to pull
it in. What nonsense! He is dead, he can’t grab hold
of anything. The man is DEAD IN TRESPASSES
AND SINS, his back is toward the light, he is all
enwrapped with self-rebellion against the Lord,
there is no light in him at all. Then we are supposed
to call out to this one totally dead in trespasses and
sins, ‘Come to Jesus!’ How can he come? He’s dead
to all spiritual life, he has no power to turn around
and walk towards God. Then we blame him for not
coming to Christ for salvation! How foolish! But
now, if a mighty one overtakes him, and light is
brought to this one in darkness, and life is given to
them, then shall they respond and serve Him.
"When they are covered with the love of God, there
will be no need to tell them what sinners they are,
and knock them down a little further into the mud.
‘A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking
flax shall He not quench, till He send forth
judgment unto victory’ (Mat. 12:20). We shall not
give them any more condemnation and smother that
last little spark they have, but rather it shall be
fanned into a strong flame, and the message will be
clear that God is their Father and does love them,
and freely offers them His abundant life. It is a life
which maketh rich and addeth no sorrow, for in His
presence there is fullness of joy, and at His right
hand there are pleasures forevermore.
"Praise God, His mighty ones shall flow out with
love and life unto all men. They won’t condemn the
sinner and tell him to clean himself up. They won’t
cry to those who are dead to come and receive life.
They shall TAKE LIFE to those who are dead, they
shall bring help to those who are weak and undone"
— end quote.
We know a little about the Holy Spirit but we have
known very little about the human spirit because it
is buried, concealed deep beneath the shell of our
soul and body. Every man has a spirit, but the outer
realms of soul and body, the flesh life, cover it up.
The living Word of God comes as a sharp, twoedged
sword, to pierce our soul (carnal mind) in
order to break it away from the spirit "For the word
of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any
twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit…" (Heb. 4:12). Only the
living Word of God can do this! Some people
entertain the erroneous notion that all the divinity
they will ever need to know lies inherently within
their own spirit. They recognize no godhood outside
of their own spirit. The testimony of scripture,
however, is clear, "What? Know ye not that he
which is joined to an harlot IS ONE BODY? For
two, saith He, shall be ONE FLESH. But he that is
joined unto the Lord, IS ONE SPIRIT" (I Cor .
6:16-17).
The analogy is drawn from a man joined to a
woman — these two, joined, are ONE FLESH.
"One flesh" denotes one whole, specific, particular
individual. It does not mean two of the same kind. It
is two making one. We all understand how it is that
a man is not a whole man, nor is a woman a whole
person! They each are distinct and complementary
aspects of Adam’s life. Adam was created both
male and female (Gen. 1:26). Only in the joining of
man and woman do we truly have ADAM. In like
manner, he that is joined to the Lord is ONE
SPIRIT! Adam, male and female, is the
representation of the nature and being of God. God
is spirit and man is spirit, yet we are each distinct
and complementary aspects of divine life. The idea
that each of us inherently contains within our
unquickened spirit the full attributes of deity is a lie
of enormous proportions. Only the joining of our
spirit with His Spirit makes man ONE SPIRIT or A
WHOLE SPIRIT! This is what Paul means when he
says, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, IF
SO BE THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELL IN
YOU. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of His" (Rom. 8:9). That is, he does not
belong to Christ as a wife belongs to her husband,
he has not the necessary spiritual complement, he
has not experienced union with God by the spirit.
This fact explains why the scriptures emphasize the
work of the Holy Spirit within us and through us!
There are many works of the Holy Spirit within our
spirit. Teaching — When HE the spirit of truth is
come, HE will teach you all things and lead you
into all truth. Quickening — It is the spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. If the
SPIRIT OF HIM who raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in you, HE that raised up Christ from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by HIS
SPIRIT that dwelleth in you. Begetting anew —
Born of water and of the Spirit. Dwelling — The
SPIRIT OF GOD dwelleth in you. Leading — As
many as are led by the SPIRIT OF GOD, they are
the sons of God. Strengthening — Strengthened
with might by HIS SPIRIT in the inner man.
Witnessing — The Spirit Himself beareth witness
with our spirit. Revelation — God hath revealed
them unto us by HIS SPIRIT. Gifts — For to one is
given BY THE SPIRIT the word of
wisdom…faith…healing…working of
miracles…prophecy, etc. All these worketh that one
and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man
severally as HE will. Transformation — We are all
changed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as by THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD. Sonship
consciousness — God hath sent forth the SPIRIT
OF HIS SON into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Sealing — Sealed with that HOLY SPIRIT of
promise. Confidence — Hereby we know that HE
dwelleth in us, by THE SPIRIT which He hath
given us.
The Spirit of God is able to perform all these
actions, and many more, within us just because we
are spirit. God can act omnipotently on all created
things, as things. He can penetrate all central fires
and dissolve or change every most secret atom of
the universe, but it cannot be said that these things
receive Him. "To as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God" (Jn.
1:12). NOTHING CAN TRULY RECEIVE HIM
BUT SPIRIT! Just as a man or woman do not join
themselves in union (marriage) with a rock, or tree,
or fish, or chimpanzee simply because there is no
correspondency of life, so the Spirit of God does not
enter by the power of life, mind, will, emotion,
action, and personality into any except spirit of a
corresponding nature. He may pass through things
and affect them in some way and on some level,
they can be shaken, melted, exploded, and
reformed, for truly all things are in His hands and
subject to His power — but they derive nothing
from Him that is personal to Him. No creature can
truly receive Him save one that is constitutionally
related to Him in a correspondency of life. There
must be intelligence offered to His intelligence,
sentiments to His sentiments, reason to His reason,
will to His will, personality to His personality. To
speak of an inspired mountain, or planet, or breeze
of air, an inspired tree, or an inspired brute, has
even the sound of absurdity. Not so to speak of an
inspired man! For man is a spirit, a nature
configured to God, and therefore able to receive
Him. Spirit only can be inspired, and there is a spirit
in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth
them understanding. Oh, the wonder of it!
Only man, of all God’s glorious creation, can be
penetrated and lighted up from within by the mind
of God, to have an understanding of things unseen
by the inspiration of the eternal Father, in one word,
to be spirit, and have the consciousness even of
God, as being irradiated, permeated, filled,
ennobled, glorified by His infinite Spirit and His
divine fullness.
Oh, that all men everywhere might see the origin
and constitution of our human life as spirit, with its
Author and Creator! In the original scheme of
existence, it was purposed that man should be
complete, and, as it were, infinite in God, by reason
of his perpetual participation of God. This is the
true and normal state of man! In that normal state
man was to be a continually inspired creature,
conscious always of God as of himself, living and
moving and having his being in the radiant essence
of the Father. Paul said that only in Christ are we
complete. "For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him"
(Col. 2:9-10).
The Emphatic Diaglott says, "In Him dwells all the
fullness of the Deity bodily; and you are
replenished by Him."
The Amplified Bible reads, "In Him the whole
fullness of Deity continues to dwell in bodily form,
giving complete expression of the divine nature.
And you are in Him, made full and having come to
fullness of life…you too are filled with the
Godhead."
J. B. Phillips translates, "It is in Him that God gives
a full and complete expression of Himself in bodily
form. Moreover, your own completeness is realized
in Him."
Finally, Kenneth Wuest renders, "In Him there is
continuously and permanently at home all the
fullness of absolute deity in bodily fashion. And
you are in Him, having been completely filled full
with the present result that you are in a state of
fullness in Him."
This great truth, on the other hand, reveals clearly
the true idea of man’s fall. When the Holy Spirit of
truth unveils your eyes and your mind is renewed,
you realize that you are a spiritual being and that
you have always been a spiritual being. When
Adam was lowered out of his pure spirit existence
and entered this physical world, he came into a
realm of darkness and death. The life of the spirit
dwelt within him, yet encased within the womb of
the outer flesh. Thus, there were two ways set
before mankind — the way of life in the spirit by
living in union with God through the tree of life, or
the way of death by walking after the flesh in union
with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The fruit of the tree of life would constantly
invigorate man’s spirit in the knowledge and
strength of divine existence, whereas the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil would invigorate man’s
flesh in the knowledge and power of the outer,
physical, carnal world. The serpent offered Eve the
power to be "like God" or the personal sense of
"godhood." "God doth know that in the day that ye
eat thereof, you shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil." And after the woman and the man partook of
that realm of sense-consciousness, selfdetermination,
and fleshly wisdom, God Himself
acknowledged that they had indeed become "as one
of us, to know good and evil" (Gen. 3:22). Yes, they
had become AS GOD! They had assumed a state of
GODHOOD! The only problem was that it was a
godhood in the wrong realm! It was a godhood of
independence from the life of God, not a Godhood
through union with God. Man became a self-created
god, a self-centered god, truly the god of this world,
but not the expression of the divine nature. The
Spirit of God which had been in union with man’s
spirit fled, and man’s spirit sank low into the hidden
depths of his being. A long night of darkness,
sorrow, sin and death ensued!
Let us understand the paradise of God with the tree
of life in its midst! The tree of life is mentioned
very simply in the opening chapters of Genesis. It
was IN THE MIDDLE — that is all that is said
about it! "And the Lord God planted a garden
eastward in Eden…the tree of life also in the midst
of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil" (Gen. 2:8-9). The life that comes forth
from God is in the middle. In the middle of the
realm in which Adam lived and the world over
which he was given dominion was not Adam
himself, spirit, soul, or body, but the wonderful tree
of God’s very own eternal and incorruptible life.
Adam’s life was to come from the middle which
was not Adam himself, but God in him. This means,
simply, that with God as his center man would
have Life! Man was created with the dual capacity
of living in the spirit or of walking after the flesh.
He was free to eat of the tree of life, or to eat of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One of
man’s inherent potentials was to know God in the
spirit as the center and source of his life!
But — like the tree of life — the other tree also
STANDS IN THE MIDDLE! In the middle. Death.
Within! In man’s very nature. One of man’s
inherent potentials was to know Self as the center
and source of his life. But Self would not bring life,
it would mean death. Man could make the world ,
the outer physical realm, his soulical senses and
bodily appetites, his center. Death dwelt in that
center! How do we know that sin is "in the middle"
just as life is "in the middle"? Jesus understood it!
He explained it! "There is nothing from without a
man, that entering into him can defile him: but the
things which come out of him, those are they that
defile the man. For from within, out of the heart of
men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride,
foolishness: all these evils come from within, and
defile the man" (Mk. 7:15,21-23). These inspired
words carry us right back to the garden of Eden!
There were two trees in the middle. Life and death
were in the middle! Two trees in the midst of the
garden of man’s experience and being. "For they
that are after the flesh do mind the things of the
flesh; but they that are after the spirit the things of
the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but
to be spiritually minded is life…" (Rom. 8:5-6).
Two minds — in the middle!
In the two trees of life and death in man’s middle
the Holy Spirit points out man’s LIMIT. In these
two trees is contained the BOUNDARY set by God
upon man from the beginning. This LIMIT declared
how low a man could fall and how high a man
could rise. Man could fall as low as the tree of
death, the carnal mind, the realm of the flesh could
carry him — unto the whole dreadful realm of
darkness and death in which is contained every
sorrow, tragedy, pain, trouble, sickness, hatred,
strife, heartache, ignorance, fear, and torment
known to man; or, he could rise as high as the
spiritual mind, the realm of the spirit could carry
him — unto the eternal and incorruptible life of
God in which is contained all the joy, peace,
righteousness, love, faith, wisdom, glory, and power
of GOD HIMSELF!
What fathomless bounds are contained in this
LIMIT! Man, by walking in the spirit, can rise as
high as God in the realm of His life, or by walking
after the flesh can sink as low as the devil in the
world of darkness and death. Neither of these
realms are illusion; they are both realities! What a
LIMIT! And man was destined to fall as low as he
could fall and rise as high as he could rise. The
totality of man’s experience is to be found within
this limit established by God for man. All that both
death and life are would ultimately be experienced,
known, and demonstrated by man. This is his limit.
This is his territory. This is his destiny. Both
realities are in the middle! Within man. One or the
other is every man’s center, the sphere of his
existence. But mark it well — both cannot be the
center of any man’s life! He who eats of the tree of
life will find that the death realm has no more
dominion over him. And he who eats of the tree of
death will discover that he becomes alienated from
the tree of life — driven from the garden. Thus,
both trees, both realities are in the center of man’s
life, but both cannot be the center of his life! "For
if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye
through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body,
ye shall live" (Rom. 8:13). "This I say then, Walk in
the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the
flesh" (Gal. 5:16).
The tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God
was truly "in the world" but not "of the world." The
life of this tree was right within man, the life of God
in his spirit, and man’s spirit was not of this world,
not formed of the dust of the ground, but breathed
into his nostrils by the Father of spirits. "God
breathed into his nostrils the spirit (Heb.) of life."
The glorious life of Christ on earth is the essence
and reality of the tree of life in the midst of the
paradise of God. This tree of life within man had
absolutely nothing to do with the realm of
earthiness of man’s soul and body, for it was
heaven’s own divine life breathed into man. In the
tree of life God invited man to find Him as the
center and source of life!
As George Hawtin once pointed out, by the tree of
life man would be full of light, abounding in
heavenly wisdom and knowledge, fearful in power
and dominion, ethereal as a spirit and shining in the
image of God. The fruit of this wonderful tree
would indeed make man radiant with the
resplendent glory of God as was Jesus, the second
man and the last Adam, at the transfiguration,
whose face shone as the sun and His raiment was as
the light. In this tree of life the effulgent perfumes
of the heavenly realm would be fragrance and life to
man’s nostrils. He would taste spiritual realities and
touch heavenly things. The wisdom and power of
God Himself would be wide open to him and he
would walk in the presence and glory of celestial
realms. The gates of that realm would never be shut
by day or by night. Man would need to eat of no
other tree nor drink of any of the waters of earth.
Man would have "meat to eat" that no other creature
in heaven or earth knew of and "water to drink" that
none other had ever tasted. The heavens would be
opened over his head and he would walk in the
glory of the presence of God in Eden!
This was the glory of the tree of life in Eden! And
what was that glorious tree? John the beloved tells
us clearly in his Gospel, "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God…in HIM WAS LIFE; and THE LIFE
WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN" (Jn. 1:1,4). This lifegiving
tree, the living Word of God, even Christ,
was from the beginning the life and the light of
mankind. The reason Jesus came forth as the visible
expression of the Father, the Word made flesh, the
tree of life in man’s middle, was that there might be
a focusing, a manifestation which would become a
meeting place for us to come to know God, and
become one with Him, as it was in the beginning. "I
am the living bread which came down from
heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live
forever: and the bread which I give is my flesh (the
Word made flesh), which I will give for the LIFE
OF THE WORLD" (Jn. 6:51). It is in Christ Jesus
that God and creation meet, come together, and are
made one! Christ Himself is the light which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world! The spirit of
man is the candle of the Lord, and Christ Jesus is
the light that lights our candle! The last Adam is
also the second man who has been made a
quickening spirit (I Cor. 15:45), and when our
spirit is quickened by His Spirit, then it is that our
candle is lit! Christ who is our life has been planted
in the garden of the kingdom of heaven within us!
This is the dimension missed by those in so-called
Metaphysical Christianity, New Age, and New
Thought philosophies who suppose that their
unregenerated, unquickened spirit represents their
full divinity and godhood. Not so! Only "he that is
joined to the Lord is ONE SPIRIT." The
unregenerated, unquickened spirit of man is indeed
spirit, the offspring of God. But it is not a whole
spirit! Apart from union with God’s Spirit through
the baptism in the Holy Spirit as recorded in the
book of Acts, the spirit of man is weak and unable
to function as the supreme power of man’s life. "I
indeed have baptized you with water: but He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost" (Mk. 1:8) "And
(Jesus) being assembled together with them,
commanded them that they should…wait for the
promise of the Father…ye shall be baptized with the
Holy Ghost not many days hence…ye shall receive
power AFTER THAT THE HOLY GHOST IS
COME UPON YOU" (Acts 1:4-8). "And they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance" (Acts 2:4). "Now when the apostles
which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had
received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter
and John: who, when they were come down, prayed
for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost;
then laid they their hands on them, and they
received the Holy Ghost" (Acts 8:14-17). Then we
read of how Peter went by revelation to Caesarea to
speak the word of Christ to Cornelius and his
household. The record states, "While Peter yet
spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them
which heard the word. And…they heard them speak
with tongues and magnify God" (Acts 10:44-46).
Later we find that when Paul was on his way to
Ephesus he met some disciples of John the Baptist
who had been baptized in water unto repentance,
but had heard nothing about receiving the Holy
Ghost. "And when Paul had laid his hands upon
them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake
with tongues and prophesied" (Acts 19:1-7).
I speak the truth when I suggest that not one in a
million of New Age, Metaphysical, and New
Thought adherents have received any such
supernatural experience in the Holy Spirit! The fact
is, they have not even met Jesus Christ as
SAVIOUR! Nor have they experientially
appropriated the CLEANSING POWER OF THE
BLOOD OF CHRIST! I also speak the truth when I
say that men whose spirits have not been quickened
by HIS SPIRIT are motivated and controlled by the
intellect of the soul (carnal mind), rather than by the
life of the spirit. That which they perceive as their
"inward Christ consciousness" is in reality just the
awesome power of their soul life! Just as a man or
woman, without a mate, is not a whole person, and
therefore missing a dimension of human reality, so
the spirit of man which has not experientially been
joined to the Spirit of God in a supernatural union
of life, is lacking in its spiritual ability and capacity.
It is this very condition that spawns the whole
system of "intellectual religion" which is pawned
off and misinterpreted as spiritual life!
There is an even deeper mystery to this tree of life
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
They appear as two trees; yet in reality there was
only one tree, with two sides, two aspects, or two
dimensions. It is stated so simply in these words:
"The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen.
2:9). There was one tree, and yet two trees! The tree
of life is Christ — the living Word of God. The
profound truth is that in Eden there were two words
— a living word, and a word of death! Christ is the
living word! But there is another word, and this
word is also from God, but it is a word of death.
Who planted the tree of death in Eden? Why, bless
your heart, God did! "And out of the ground made
the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to
the sight…the tree of life also in the midst of the
garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil."
Paul makes these two trees, these two words, very
plain when he writes, "Who also hath made us able
ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but
of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit
giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written
and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the
children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the
face of Moses for the glory of his
countenance…how shall not the ministration of the
spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of
condemnation be glory, much more doth the
ministration of righteousness exceed in glory" (II
Cor. 3:6-9). Here we have two ministrations, two
testaments, two words, which answer to the two
trees in Eden — the one is "the letter that killeth"
and the other is "the spirit that quickeneth." Yet
both of these words are the word of the Lord! Just
as God planted two trees in Eden, so was it GOD
who gave the law with its external religious forms
and observances to Moses, and it was GOD who
has given us the living word, with its inward
spiritual life in Christ! There are two words, and yet
they are but two sides of the same word — the
WORD OF GOD!
I firmly believe that the Bible is the word of God;
however, when we know it only as the letter, it
kills. Laws, rules, regulations, doctrines, creeds,
outward ordinances, forms, ceremonies, facts,
literalistic interpretations of man, natural concepts,
carnal understanding of the written word — there is
no life in any of these! There is only death. The
dead letter of the word produces dead sermons,
dead churches, dead forms, dead meetings, and
spiritually dead believers. Yet, the "letter of the
word" is still the word of God! But there’s no life.
Moses preached the law, the law was from God, the
law was the ministration of death written and
engraven in stones, and everybody that received the
law died. It was the ministration of condemnation. It
had the power to condemn men, to judge them, to
punish them, to tell them what they ought to do —
but it possessed no power to give them life! It was a
word of God, but it was the letter of the word. It
was a word without life. It was merely a type, a
shadow, a symbol of reality.
THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD
AND EVIL IS THE LAW! By the law, Paul says,
we know sin. The knowledge of good and evil is the
letter of the word! All the preachers who are out
there telling men what great sinners they are, and
how they need to stop sinning, threatening them
with damnation is they don’t stop sinning, are
feeding their hearers from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. This letter of the word killeth, but
it’s still a word of the Lord! It is the word of the
Lord on a lower level, stripped of its life and power.
But the other side of this tree, this word, is the
WORD OF LIFE! THE TREE OF LIFE IS
CHRIST, THE LIVING WORD! There are two
words, yet they are the very same word on different
levels. One is shadow, the other is substance. One is
outward symbol, the other in inward life. There are
two trees, yet they are but two sides of the same
tree! Adam’s sin and fall consisted in his choosing
to live a carnal life on the earthly plane, even a
religious life, subject to the restraint and regulation
of the external law of a carnal commandment,
instead of living the spiritual life on the heavenly
plane by the Living Word of God!
Another precious insight was shared in a letter to
me from a friend of many years, Connie Asbill. She
wrote, "Several years ago, I was sitting in the back
yard of my house when suddenly a tree that I had
looked at numberless times burst alive with a truth.
During its formation, the tree had split so that it was
growing in two different directions. For me, that
split tree became the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. In it, I saw the tree of life struck by
lightning and split right down the middle to make
the tree of life the tree of knowledge of good and
evil. Why struck by lightning? Well, I would have
been at a loss myself to explain why that impression
had formed in my inner eye if it had not been
plainly followed by the words of Jesus when He
said, ‘I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven.’
"As I contemplated this, I saw the word and the life
split: the word turned in one direction, the life
turned in another. This, to me, became a picture of
the beginning of the ‘double minded man who is
unstable in all his ways,’ and, again, of that
condition lamented by David, in spirit, when he
prayed, ‘Help, Lord, for they speak with a double
heart.’ At this point there came a breach in the spirit
of man — a breach that I think we can see portrayed
in the parable of the prodigal son. There were two
sons: one which remained with the Father, that is,
never left home; the other which took what was his
through the Father and turned it downward toward
the animal side of life. Now, of course, we have
heard this story used from the pulpits to call sinners
home to God and to give recognition to those
faithful few who remained unsullied in the church.
And there is that application, for some among us do
remain unsullied from the seamy side of life while
others among us do wallow in the pigpen of human
degradation and deprivation.
"I am convinced, however, that the deeper meaning
refers to that which occurs inside all of us, for there
is a part of all of us, I think, that has remained with
the Father and there is a part of all of us that has
split away to flow in the opposite direction — to
feed upon the dust of the earth, to identify with the
instincts and emotions of the body, and thus to bring
the word that is transmitted from the Father’s house,
where the other part of us has remained, down into
the earth with us. We feed on the husks (forms) of
truth when that part of our spirit that has turned
downward toward the animal nature filters the word
through ego, through unrestrained desires, through
fear, through carnal expectations, all of which
imprison it in externals. This gives rise to the law of
carnal commandment, which is nothing in the
world but the truth of God changed into a lie (Rom.
1:25) because even without realizing it we are
worshipping and serving the creature more than the
creator.
"I am convinced there is a part of us that never left
God. We have always been there, which is why the
kingdom has always been at hand. And I am
convinced that it is only as we expand our
understanding until we can see how that can be that
we can begin to woo the heart back to the true
meaning of that Word which has always existed in
the heavens. The prodigal son is that portion of the
spirit that was split away when lightning struck the
tree in the midst of the garden of the soul. What fell
in the fall, of course, was the understanding. When
Jesus talked about salvation, He used the Greek
word sozo which means to make whole. As I see it,
the saving of the soul is the healing of the soul
through a healing of the spiritual breach. The soul,
of course, is the battle ground of conflicting
thought, conflicting desire, conflicting emotion,
where Jacob the deceiver (the prodigal son) wrestles
it out with the angel of the Lord (the word of God)
to make peace with his brother (the son that never
left the Father’s house)" — end quote.
This "split" has happened to all of us, and that is
why we need to be RE-conciled, RE-newed, REgenerated,
RE-surrected. Think about it! The lost,
sin-blighted, unbelieving world lives a spiritual life
not unlike the lowly caterpillar. Caterpillars do not
live very exciting lives. They are, indeed, to be
pitied! They never travel very far and when they do
tremendous exertions are required. After all, what
sights do they see down there groveling in the dirt?
Ah — caterpillars live very limited, morbid lives!
The story is told of two caterpillars, however,
making their way laboriously across the muddy
earth, when one of them looked up and spied a
butterfly fluttering by. As he watched this butterfly
dipping and flitting around in the sky, and being
picked up by the breeze and carried off into the
ethereal blue, he turned to his companion in the
mud and said, "You’d never get me up in one of
those things!" Yet — right within that caterpillar
was the very life which would one day bring a
metamorphosis and carry him into the heavens. But
he didn’t know it!
At the fall of man, we lost our identity. We are all
here by choice, and have forgotten why we came! In
Christ God is now giving us back our true identity,
and we are waking up to our true nature.
"Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and
arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light"
(Eph. 5:14). We do not awaken all at once,
however. Most who read these lines have been
being awakened to the glorious and eternal realities
in the Spirit little by little through manifold
experiences over the course of many years. And
now I understand, as the words of the chorus
describe it, that
From out of eternity, before time began,
In the bosom of the Father, while the morning stars
sang
I shouted for joy while beholding His great plan,
God’s purpose on earth, His election in man!
A story I once read illustrates the truth of our
journey back into the fullness of Christ. It concerns
a peculiar case of creeping paralysis recorded in
medical records about a hundred years ago. The
man afflicted lost his eyesight to begin with. Then
hearing left him. Then followed by slow degrees the
loss of the sense of taste, of smelling, and of
feeling. Finally he lost all power of motion. He was
perfectly helpless. All avenues of approach to his
mind were entirely blocked. He could breathe and
even speak to the world. But the world could not
speak to him, for there was no open avenue of
communication. He was dead to the world
apparently. But one day it was accidentally
discovered that there was one spot on his cheek
which was capable of feeling. By tracing letters on
that spot his friends could at last speak to him, and
thus a connection was established between his little
world and the great world without. But that was
merely a beginning! A most strange phenomenon
took place. Slowly, ever so slowly, by stimulating
this one spot of sensitivity, an awakening and
process of rehabilitation was begun and the day
came when the man was fully restored. Oh, yes!
God has come to us by His Spirit and has touched
our spirit in that small susceptible spot of divine life
where we yearn after Him and, like the prodigal in
the pigpen, we have begun to come to ourselves!
It is doubtful that in all the scripture any subject is
more prominent and yet surrounded with such
mystery as the truth concerning the spirit in man.
Now let me share with you a further truth
concerning the life, or that spirit which was
breathed into each of us. Many scripture passages,
and the parables of our Lord, call it a "seed." The
Bible uses the illustration of a seed to tell us who
we really are! You see, to tell a person in a
darkened state of mind, bound in sin-consciousness,
in their present weak and frail human condition that
they are the manifestation of God on the earth,
would be absolutely impossible for them to fathom.
If they did understand such a concept, they would
receive it into their carnal minds, become puffed up
and egotistical, distort, misapply, misuse, and abuse
it, becoming even a worse devil than they are.
The seed of God is in every man, and the life of that
seed is the spirit of man. But you meet the drunk on
the street, you see your unconverted, worldlyminded
neighbor, you rub shoulders with the people
of the world, you watch the evening television
news, and you don’t see God in anybody! That is
because God in every man is a seed. A seed doesn’t
do anything. It just is. It can lie on the shelf for fifty
years and never express a thing! You see no action,
no manifestation of the life within; all you see is the
outer shell which reveals nothing. Seeds have been
found in the tombs of Egypt that are more than three
thousand years old, and they look today just as they
did when they were placed there, but they have
never produced a harvest. You see, my beloved, just
as the seed (sperm) of a man and the seed (egg) of a
woman must conceive in order to change, grow, be
born, and express and accomplish, so must the seed
of the vegetable kingdom be germinated in order to
be productive. The life is hid in the seed, but it is
covered by the outer shell and abides in a state of
dormancy, inactivity, or death. It must be planted in
the earth, then subjected to two things: heat and
moisture. The rain falls upon it, the sun shines upon
it, and suddenly there is effected a mighty release!
There is a stirring of that life that is restrained on
the inside, the shell that conceals that life bursts
open, and the life within springs forth, puts down
roots, and grows upward; it breaks through the earth
and is "born" into a new world, a new realm, a new
expression, a new form, a new ability, a new reality.
It rises high enough to draw its life from new
dimensions.
Can we not see by this that the spirit of man is
indeed the seed of God but it is buried in, encased
by, the outer man of flesh, the carnal understanding,
and the natural consciousness. Just as a credit card
or a cell phone must be activated, the spirit of man
must be activated! Until it is activated it is not a
living, pulsating, energizing, ruling, growing power
in man. It must be germinated, quickened by the
power of the invigorating rain of God’s Word and
the warm sunshine of God’s Spirit! Once our spirit
is quickened by God’s Spirit, it springs forth into
new birth. And that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit — it doesn’t become spirit when it is born, it
already was spirit before it was "born" just as a
flesh and blood baby already is flesh and blood
before it is born! If the seed of God in man were not
spirit, the offspring of God, it would not be
quickened into God- like-ness by the act of regeneration!
Let there be no doubt in the mind of any reader of
these lines that WE DID NOT BECOME SEED BY
REBIRTH — WE WERE SEED AND
THEREFORE WERE REBORN, FOR ONLY
THAT CAN BE RE-BORN, RE-NEWED, REGENERATED,
RE-SURRECTED, AND RESTORED
WHICH ALREADY EXISTS. It is not
simply that sin has made a necessity for God to do
something new, but rather that sin had diminished
and darkened something old, which needs to be
restored. The recreative and reconstructive work of
the Holy Spirit is grounded on the primordial nature
of the spiritual life in man. Men are made to be
divinely inhabited, to live in eternal inspiration and
conscious union with God. To be "in the spirit" is
the heritage of every man, his original and normal
condition, his light, his strength, his glory. Because
we are seed is the reason we can be quickened! In
non-seed there is nothing to quicken! And it is not
the flesh that is being quickened, but the inner man
of spirit!
Hold this carefully in mind. Now take the next step.
To redeem means to buy back. It restores to the
original owner and state. Jesus, by His death, the
shed blood, BOUGHT BACK HIS OWN. He
bought back every son and daughter out of His
loins. You never were anything but a son of God!
You never were a pig or a dog or a devil or a mere
human animal. That is impossible, for every kind of
life produces the same kind and there is no change
of specie. As we came out of the loins of God into
this existence on earth, there had to come a day
when we would hear His voice, and hearing that
voice become aware of our Father calling us, and
recognize that we are the sons of God. We heard
His voice and we cried out, as did the prodigal son,
"Save me, oh, my Father! I am returning to Thee."
The Father’s promise is sure, as Linda Musgrove
has articulated in her beautiful song (available on
cassette or CD from Stacy and Linda Musgrove, P.
O. Box 111, Cunningham, Texas 75434-0111.
Cassette albums are $10 postpaid, CD’s are $15
postpaid):
I’ll take you back to where you were in me
Before the fall of man;
I’ll restore your soul, I’ll reconcile your heart,
I’ll give you back your true identity!
I’m removing the veil from your eyes
So that you can clearly see;
You will be with me in Paradise,
On this earth you’ll walk with me!
A son of God can go a long time before he is
awakened to the fact of his sonship. In fact a lot of
God’s children are like the story of the baby eagle
that was hatched out under a hen. You know that
the eagle is a type of the sons of God who live and
soar in the high places of the Spirit. Well, a farmer
took an egg from an eagle’s nest and he placed it
under a hen. In due time all the eggs under the hen
hatched out. The baby chicks got along fine with the
mother hen but that little eagle could not figure out
the clucking and scratching for food in the manure
pile. He managed to make a living but he was pretty
confused about it all. But one day, from way up in
the air the mother eagle that had laid the egg spied
that little eagle on the ground. She swooped down
with tremendous speed and screamed at the top of
her voice for him to fly up to meet her. He had
never heard an eagle cry, but when he heard that
first scream something in him stirred and he longed
to launch out toward it. But he was afraid to try.
Again that mother screamed for him to arise in the
wind and follow her. He screamed back that he was
afraid. Once mo re she called out, screaming that he
try. Beating his wings he hurled himself into the air,
and answering the cry of his mother, he soared off
into the blue skies. You see, he always was an
eagle! He acted like a chicken for a little while but
he could not be satisfied. But when he heard the call
of the great eagle he came to his own place. And
once a son of God hears the cry of the Spirit by the
Word, he too, will realize who he is and run to the
great eagle who begat him to be seated in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are "being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever" (I Pet. 1:23). We are born
again when we hear the living word of God
speaking to us, calling us to arise and be all that
God has ordained for us!
I freely confess that I believe in the reconciliation
and restoration of all men to God. I have to believe
it, because if the seed of God is in every man, every
man must hear the voice of the Son of God and live.
"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming when all
that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall
come forth…verily, verily, I say unto you, 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. 5:25,28).
The seed of Christ is in every man, but God has an
appointed time for that life to be revealed. And how
is it revealed? You take that seed, you plant it in the
earth, and in the appointed time God sends two
elements that will produce a revelation of Christ out
of that person, in his time. I don’t care who the man
is; there’s a time, an appointed hour. God sends the
sun of His illumination, and the rain of His
quickening life, He rains upon that seed and shines
upon that seed, and there is a stirring of that life on
the inside, and suddenly the shell which concealed
the life begins to burst. The revelation of the life
that is in the seed comes by the removal of the outer
part of the seed. The inner life is released. The
genetic code is intact. Everything that plant will
ever be is right there in the seed! When the life
springs forth all that hindered is broken asunder.
Every step of the revelation of Christ is an
unveiling! God removes the outer, and when it is
gone we behold the power, beauty, and glory of the
inner life. Some of us were in churches, in
denominations, and God began to stir us. The life of
sonship was already there. All God did was break
open the cocoon that we were in, so that the thing
He had planted in us could come forth, stretch its
wings, and fly away into the heavens of God’s
Spirit. Oh, the wonder of it!
CHOSEN BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN
Some years ago I received a tape from Bob and
Charlotte Torango which spoke powerfully in my
spirit. Charlotte was talking about what she termed
our "congenital condition." "Congenital" simply
means "that which is from birth." I had never
known the meaning of that word until 1995 when
the doctors diagnosed me with a "congenital
anomaly." I thought, "My God, what’s that?" The
more common term is "birth defect." You see, I had
a bone up around my first vertebra that did not fuse
from birth. Of course, it originated before that! It
was already there as a pre-existing condition at the
time of my birth.
There was no history of this in my family, but it
happened. Very gradually over nearly sixty years,
that bone kept moving by microscopic measures
toward the center. Finally it began to compress my
spinal cord, at the base of the brain stem. Symptoms
appeared which I contributed to age and arthritis.
Eventually, overnight, I developed very serious
symptoms. I awoke one morning with pain and
weakness in all my extremities, coupled with
involuntary movements of both arms and legs. I
could barely walk, and at times collapsed. An MRI
showed that my spinal cord had been compressed to
the thickness of a ribbon. The neurosurgeon told me
that if the damage had not been done so very, very
slowly over many years, I would have already been
either dead or quadriplegic, but my body had kept
compensating for the damage until finally it could
compensate no more.
A brain surgeon performed the surgery, going transorally
(through the roof of my mouth) into the area
of the brain stem and cutting away the bone,
releasing the pressure from the spinal cord. The
doctor informed me that I should at least partially
recover from the near-paralysis and other
symptoms, but that he could guarantee no progress
beyond one year. Well, let me tell you something.
There’s a seed in my earth! You see, at the time of
my illness I earnestly sought the Lord for healing.
We have experienced the power of God in healing
and miracles! In my early ministry, in the days of
the great healing revivals, the Lord performed
mighty signs and wonders through my word. This
time, however, the Lord spoke right out of my spirit
and plainly said, "I’m not going to heal this. You
will have the surgery!" When I received that word
from the Father, He also gave a peace, peace that
passes understanding, peace so deep that it cannot
be fathomed. When I was wheeled in for a surgery
that was the equivalent of brain surgery, there was
no fear nor apprehension whatsoever, I wasn’t even
nervous. I was able to laugh and joke with the
nurses until I passed out. And, my friends, I have
continued to experience progress in my physical
condition far beyond what the doctors promised —
progress every year since 1995! And while I don’t
put a great premium on this physical, earthly realm,
I will not be at all surprised when my change comes
and all the effects of the spinal cord injury and the
surgery disappear!
Now, why do I relate this? Because what I had was
a congenital anomaly. It was a condition I had from
birth, from before birth, even from before
conception, hidden away somewhere in the seed
(genetic make-up) of my parents who conceived
me. You see, we are prone to look at our whole
carnal, human state as a congenital condition. We
think we are like we are because we were born that
way! We say, "I was born in sin. I was born
alienated from God. I was born dead. I was born
Irish, and I do have a temper! I was born an
alcoholic, I was born homosexual, I was born lustful
and over-sexed, I was born prideful, I was born with
my foot in my mouth." That’s how we see ourselves
if we look from the earthlies, with a carnal mind!
When you look from the heavenlies, however, you
see something else! You came into this world out of
the bosom of the Father! Before the Creator formed
you, He knew you. He didn’t know you in your
present physical form as Joe Smith or Sally Brown,
but He knew you as spirit. God spoke to you about
His plan for your life before ever you were formed
as an embryo in the womb of your mother. Paul
states it so clearly when he says, "Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us in
Him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him in
love" (Eph. 1:3-4). The Amplified Bible reads,
"Even as He chose us (actually picked us out for
Himself as His own) in Christ before the foundation
of the world."
Never doubt this reality for a moment — the only
way God could have loved you, chose you in Christ,
and picked you out for His own before the
foundation of the world is that you truly existed in
and with Him before the appearing of the worlds.
Nothing can be plainer than that! Yet we have
supposed that we were just recently, in this life,
apprehended of God to sonship. I thought the work
of God began in my life sixty years ago. Now I find
that the thing God is doing with humanity began in
eternity! It didn’t begin in time. It began before the
ages were framed! God loved me, chose me, knew
me, counseled with me, and picked me out for His
unique purpose before the foundation of the world.
My origin was in God! God begat me of Himself as
spirit before He exhaled me as spirit into a very
unique body upon earth. THUS, I WAS BORN
INTO THIS WORLD WITH THAT
CONGENITAL CONDITION — A SPIRITUAL
BEING HAVING AN EARTHLY EXPERIENCE!
And so were you, precious friend of mine, and so
was every man who has walked planet earth. We
were born this way. We were born with a spirit, as
well as a soul and a body. We came into this world
with a God-ward side, with the instinct to seek after
God, with a yearning after Him.
Each of us was born into a mortal, physical body
and into a world of darkness, sin, and death. But
this was according to God’s plan! Paul says that we
are "in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot
lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2).
This is indeed wonderful! We were born into this
world with a promise from God — the promise of
eternal life! That was our congenital condition —
born with a promise. But this hope of salvation was
not promised us when we came into the world, or
after we were born into this life — it was promised
us before the world began! How could God make
such a promise to us if we were not there with Him
before the worlds appeared? Not only was salvation
promised, the kingdom was promised also. "Then
shall the King (Jesus) say to them on His right hand,
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world"
(Mat. 25:34).
The kingdom message deals with the conformity,
maturity, and inheritance of the sons of God. This
great plan was conceived and initiated in eternity,
before time began. "For whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the
image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover whom He did
predestinate, them He also called: and whom He
called, them He also justified: and whom He
justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then
say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us?" (Rom. 8:28-31). Now notice! These
five verbs — foreknow, predestinate, called,
justified, glorified — are all in the aorist tense. This
denotes action at a given point in the past. All these
things happened to us "before" the ages began!
Some have stumbled over the fact that Paul says
that those whom the Father foreknew, predestinated,
called, and justified, He also GLORIFIED. They
have questioned the meaning of "glorification,"
wondering how they could already be glorified in
their present imperfect, mortal state. Let us
understand — ALL of this is in the past! God
foreknew us in the past — before the world began.
That is also when He predestinated us, called us,
justified us, and glorified us. Jesus, the firstborn of
this company of sons selected before the world
began, reveals the deep mystery of this when He
prays, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with
Thine own self with the glory which I had with
Thee before the world was" (Jn. 17:5). Ah, that is
when we were glorified! It is not something
happening now, though it shall be manifested now,
but it was given us in Christ in that long ago before
the world began. "For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them"
(Eph. 2:10). Aren’t you glad!
We should always be keenly aware of the great
reason and purpose God had in mind for sending
His spirit-sons through this earthly experience.
Have you considered the truth that lies hidden in
this inspired statement: "And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to His
purpose" (Rom. 8:28). It is significant that this
passage in found in that great sonship chapter where
the Holy Spirit speaks explicitly of our calling,
choosing, and predestination before the foundation
of the world! When we were with the Father as His
spirit-sons we were pure, perfect, and holy — but
innocent and unproven. We were holy but did not
know why we were holy, never having experienced
the opposite. Job was a perfect man, the Lord said,
but he was untested, and thus all that befell him was
for his testing and proving.
We could have remained hidden in God in that
bright glory world of spirit and borne the image of
our heavenly Father, but without knowledge,
choice, or experience. We would never have been
holy because we understood why we should be holy,
we would simply have been what we were without
understanding. We would never have been holy
because we chose to be holy! We would never have
understood why the wages of sin are death, why
pride goeth before destruction, why sin is a
reproach, why the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil is dangerous, delusive, and disastrous, why
the ways of the Lord are perfect and right
altogether. We would never have understood the
why of anything, and thus would ever have
remained innocent, void of discernment and
vulnerable. We would have been like an overprotected
child in this world who is innocent of
much that goes on about him, and therefore unable
to cope when exposed to temptation, pressure, and
problems. Our all-wise Father wanted sons who
become sons indeed through experience, having
encountered the opposites of life, holiness, wisdom,
power, and glory. Oh, yes! God wanted sons who
were processed, tested, proven, learning to
overcome all things and be made strong and
victorious through experience — not naive,
ignorant, undisciplined sons rich through
inheritance but with no nobility of character to
handle what they receive. This is why we had to
come this route, and believe me, before God would
turn the universe over to us WE HAD TO COME
THIS WAY! Earth, with all its sin, darkness,
sickness, sorrow, fear, delusion, hatred, death, and
demons is the divine "Boot Camp" for all of God’s
spirit-sons!
When man fell, and I do believe man fell, he was
lowered into a state which the scripture calls death
or sleep in which he became unaware, unconscious,
unresponsive to the dimension of the life of God in
his spirit. A yearning after God was there, but no
certain knowledge of life in the spirit. Through the
flesh, the natural consciousness of the physical
world and the carnal mind, and through sin, man
became captivated by the power of death. This has
been the state of Adam, bound within the prison
bars of mistaken identity, because of his
unresponsiveness to God. Now let me tell you
something about death, that which we call "spiritual
death." Death is not non-existence! When a man
dies and you put him in a coffin, is he non-existent?
I’m speaking of the physical body that you see there
in the coffin. You walk up to the coffin and say,
"There lies uncle Joe. Doesn’t he look natural? Oh,
he looks so peaceful! Didn’t the mortician do a
beautiful job? He looks so good in his favorite suit.
Oh, uncle Joe!" We pat uncle Joe on the forehead,
kiss his cheeks, and say our goodbyes. You see —
uncle Joe is not non-existent because you see him
there! You touch him, even talk to him.
Now hear what I’m saying! To be dead does not
mean that you cease to exist. It means that you
cease to be responsive by the expression of life.
You can stand there beside the casket, you can
flatter uncle Joe, you can rehearse all the nice things
he ever did and enumerate all his wonderful ways.
You can eulogize him right into heaven even if, in
fact, he was a scoundrel. While you speak all these
nice things poor old uncle Joe doesn’t puff up with
pride. He gets no smile on his face, no sparkle in his
eyes. His ear doesn’t begin to twitch. Oh, no! Uncle
Joe is there, alright, but he is unresponsive. He is
unconscious of the world around him, or of his own
existence in it. It is the same as if he were sleeping
— and that is why death and sleep are often used
interchangeably in the scriptures. A sleeping man is
not non-existent, but he is unaware and
unresponsive!
On the other hand, you can stand there and "cuss
him out," ridicule him, slap his face and tell him
what dog and a devil he was and how much you
hate him. Uncle Joe will not strike back! He will not
turn red in the face with rage. He will not jump out
of that casket and grab you, because he’s
unconscious and unresponsive to the world he’s in.
THAT IS DEATH! We came into this world with a
loss through Adam of the life of God in our spirit
and the bright world of spirit. Therefore we are dead
in trespasses and sins. But, is the spirit- life in man
non-existent? Not at all! It is not non-existent, just
unresponsive. We were born without the capacity to
express the spiritual life because we lost the
consciousness of who we are in the true world we
pertain to. That is why Jesus came. He came to save
us from this condition, He came to awaken us, to
resurrect us, to reconcile our heart, to restore us to
God and heaven. Through His blood He quickens
our spirit, awakens our consciousness, and restores
the reality of being.
Oh, yes! You were with the Father before the
foundation of the world. But — do you remember?
Can you remember when you were there with your
Father? Can you remember what was said, what you
knew, what you had when you were with the
Father? Do you remember the wonderful plan
devised at that time, and your agreement with it? Do
you remember being chosen in Christ, promised
eternal life, predestined unto placement as a son of
God, before the foundation of the world? Do you
remember the beginning of your journey?
Do you remember? YOU ARE REMEMBERING!
Do you know how you’re remembering? The
answer is simple — all revelation is but a
remembering! Someone says, "Oh, brother Eby, the
Lord showed me such and such — I’ve had a
revelation and I see thus and thus." Yes, you had a
revelation! The reality is, however, that what you
perceived as a revelation was simply God
reminding you; He woke you up!
We should always be fervently aware that a
revelation is an unveiling. That is the meaning in
Greek. To have something revealed means to have
it unveiled. There have been masterpieces of art and
sculpture that have had a day of unveiling.
Michelangelo was famous for the unveiling of some
of his great works. But you see, my friend, the
unveiling is not the creation of the thing unve iled!
The unveiling is simply the revelation of something
which already exists! Spiritual revelation is the
uncovering of the secret knowledge of God within
our spirit. Revelation is a remembering. The whole
purpose of the Holy Spirit’s moving upon us in our
journey in God in this life in the flesh is to cause us
to remember the realm from whence we came, who
we are, what our purpose is — that we might
complete the journey and fulfill that purpose! That
is the mystery.
I know what it means to awaken naturally. The
deepest sleep I have ever been in was at the time of
my surgery. I remember when the doctor woke me
up! I will never forget the first words he said, "Do
you feel like a Mack truck has run over you?" My
first thought was, "I’m alive!" I was just so glad to
be alive, I didn’t care about the Mack truck, it was
simply wonderful to know God had brought me
through. Yes, I was alive, but I had never been dead
— just unconscious. I did not know who or where I
was. The world I awoke to seemed distant and
confused. The nurse wheeled me into my room and
someone turned on the television. I’ll always know
where I was that day, just as most people remember
exactly where they were the day President Kennedy
was shot. When I received the news that Kennedy
had been assassinated I was at the airport in La Paz,
Baja California, Mexico on my way back to the
mainland from a Convention with some brethren in
La Paz. I’ll never forget that! We were told that the
President had been killed, and that when Vice
President Lyndon Johnson received the news he
died of a heart attack. We flew all the way to Los
Mochis in a state of shock thinking that was the
truth. In like manner, I will always remember where
I was at the time of my surgery on April 19, 1995,
because while I was on the surgeon’s table Tim
McVeigh exploded a truck bomb at the Alfred P.
Murray Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City.
As I awoke, all this news was on the television
about this bombing and that 168 innocent people
had died, among whom were nineteen children,
most of whom attended the day care on the second
floor of the building, with all the chaos, tragedy,
and sorrow of that event. I was lying there on my
bed full of morphine, awake enough to hear what
was being said, but not alert enough to comprehend
the immensity of the event or the meaning of it. I
was trying to sort the thing out in the dream world
of a semi-conscious state. It was strange indeed!
But over days my mind cleared. My consciousness
returned. I began to comprehend. And today I know
all about it! Spiritually, my beloved, that is what
God is doing in this hour. HE IS AWAKENING
US! When we first begin to awaken to our true
identity in the spirit world the reality seems rather
fuzzy. Our first thought, at the moment of
regeneration, is, "I’m alive!" We are just glad to
know that we are spiritually alive! But that is not
the beginning of our spiritual life, it is merely our
first remembrance of who we are and where we
came from. Most Christians never get beyond that!
They spend all their lives in that salvation realm,
rejoicing that they have been made alive in Christ.
But as our walk in the spirit progresses things
become clearer and clearer! Now we are tuning in
to the realm of the Spirit. We’re hearing the voice
of our Father. Little by little we’re remembering the
realm from whence we came, and the great purpose
for which we were born. We call this "revelation,"
but revelation is merely a "remembering." It is not
new information, it is recovered reality!
Once a man or woman is filled with the Ho ly Spirit,
the Holy Ghost begins each day to bring to his or
her "remembrance" everything that God spoke over
them and about them in that long ago before the
foundation of the world. By and through the Spirit
we have begun to "recall" His voice and "re-collect"
our predestined inheritance! What comes to us as
"new revelation" is actually the RENEWING OF
OUR MINDS! You can only re-new something that
you had before. Never forget this truth: Revelation
is Remembrance. We are being transformed by this
renewing of our minds! The truth that we knew
before is making us free. He is quickening the
Father’s decree over you from the beginning.
Clarity is coming to the sons of God.
Understanding, perception, consciousness,
expression, purpose, destiny, God is awakening all
of this in us. He is awakening within us that reality
we knew with the Father from before the foundation
of the world. You are here by divine appointment.
All your steps are ordered of the Lord. The body
you were born with, the family you were born into,
your parents, the town you were raised in, the
school you attended, the friends you acquired, the
mate you chose, the job you held, the life you’ve
lived, the experiences you’ve had, the joys and
sorrows, the tragedies and triumphs, the apparent
mistakes and the victories, all that has taken place in
your experience was mapped out in the council of
God on that glorious day when the morning stars
sang together and all the sons of God shouted for
joy.
Every son of Adam has a time to be awakened.
Some — the forerunners, the firstfruits — are being
awakened here and now. Many will be awakened at
another time, under different circumstances. "For as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive, but every man in his own order…" (I Cor.
15:22-23). Some who read these lines remember the
great move of the Spirit of God called Latter Rain
which came to the Lord’s people in 1948. Many
were not in that visitation and have only heard
reports of the glory that came and the mighty
manifestations of God’s power. As the Lord
restored the gifts of the Spirit to the church at that
time, there came into manifestation what was
termed "confirmation services." The confirmation
service was taken scripturally from the passage
which says, "And when they had preached the
gospel to that city, and had taught many, they
returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and
Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and
exhorting them…" (Acts 14:21-22). The way the
Spirit revealed this was that every child of God was
to be confirmed in the body of Christ by prophecy
with the laying on of hands. The presbytery, the
ministry of the apostles, prophets, and elders would
lay hands on the saints as the Spirit directed, and by
prophecy their call, appointment, and place in the
body of Christ would be revealed and confirmed,
gifts of the Spirit imparted, and the saints
established and set into their function as members
of the living organism of Christ’s body. It was a
wonderful day for me when hands were laid on me
in Toledo, Ohio. I’ll never forget the words that
came out of the mouth of one of the prophets: "Yea,
thou shalt be a teacher of the kingdom of God!" At
that moment I didn’t even know what the kingdom
of God was! It was also said that I would prophesy.
When the prophets had finished, one of them said to
me, "Brother Eby, the Spirit has said that you have
the gift of prophecy. Now — prophesy!" That
nearly scared me out of my skin. But within seconds
the spirit of prophecy came upon me and prophetic
words began to flow out of my mouth. The things
declared that day have come to pass in a remarkable
way.
I believe in confirmation. I believe in impartation.
There’s a reality there. But I’ll tell you something. I
have seen by the Spirit another confirmation
meeting that happened so many eons ago that I
could never calculate them, on a glorious day when
the morning stars sang together and all the sons of
God shouted for joy. There never has been since nor
shall there ever be again such a meeting! Everything
that would ever happen in this time-space world
happened in that meeting. The works of God were
finished in that meeting (Heb. 4:3). Your destiny
and mine were pre-arranged in that meeting (Eph.
1:3-5; I Cor. 2:9-10; Is. 46:10). The Lamb was slain
in that meeting (I Pet. 1:18-20; Rev. 13:8). Our
names were written in the book of life in that
meeting (Rev. 13:8). And you and I were there…in
Him!
Before any human being ever set foot upon this
planet, the purpose of God in each and every one
was confirmed in that meeting! There was spoken
into my spirit, and into yours, out of the heart of
God, out of the mind of the Father, His great and
wise plan of the ages. There was imparted and
impregnated into us a destiny, a purpose to be
fulfilled upon earth. Therefore I say unto you, if you
missed the 1948 confirmation meeting you didn’t
miss anything because you were in the one eons
before that! The words of a little chorus we sing
express it so well:
The throne room looks the same
As I ascend back to whence I came;
There’s the scepter that was mine
Before I left there;
And there I sit with all the sages
I was enthroned with before the ages,
But most of all, my Father
Out of whom I came!
There is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
And Sarah involved in my makeup;
And all the others who are in my family tree…
And down the corridors of eternity
God controls my destiny,
For back into Him I can trace my pedigree!
THE GOLD MINE
The natural resources of this earth are mindboggling,
yet in the midst of all the riches of this
marvelous planet there are literally billions of
people living in poverty. They live in squalor,
disease, ignorance, limitation, bondage, and
servitude, yet the earth is abundant in wealth. There
are untold trillions of dollars of natural resources, of
gold and silver and precious stones and others too
numerous to mention, but most of them are
controlled by governments or owned by wealthy
and powerful corporations. There is gold in the vast
oceans of the earth, but it’s so diluted that it’s
unusable by the average person. There are treasures
that are buried in the ocean, but there have been
only a few of earth’s inhabitants that have been able
to bring up those stout Spanish galleons with their
marvelous treasures and recover them. There is gold
on strange planets in distant galaxies, but nature is
too intractable, the distances so vast, and the human
life-span so short that men are unable to go and
secure it.
How different things would be if only we had gold
mines that were very close to us, that were near at
hand, that were accessible to us, and convenient.
How differently things would be for some of us if
we knew that we had a gold mine in our back yard,
concealed behind the rose bushes, unknown to our
neighbors and unknown to the government! How
secure we would feel if on a summer evening we
could chat with our neighbors over the fence, water
our lawn, and play ball with our children knowing
that when the sun sank below the horizon we could
sneak out under the cover of night and mine a little
bit of the gold out of our private gold mine at the
back of our house, behind the rose bushes.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful when income tax time
came, if we didn’t have to worry about anything?
Just slip out in our mine and get a few nuggets the
size of walnuts. Or when tragedy struck, or an
unexpected expense occurred, we could just get a
few bags of gold dust out of our mine and pay those
bills. Or perhaps we want to travel, but we don’t
have a rich uncle and we haven’t won the lottery, so
we sneak out again and get some gold out of our
gold mine and we’re able to fly away wherever we
want to go, travel the earth, see the sights, stay at
five-star resorts, live like a king, with no lack or
limitations whatsoever. Oh, how delightful that
would be!
I write these words today to tell you, my beloved,
that you have a gold mine! It’s not behind your
house. It’s not under the rose bushes. IT’S IN
YOUR SPIRIT! You’ve got a gold mine. Each one
who now reads these lines has a gold mine and it’s
closer to you than the air that you breathe. It’s
closer to you even than the blood that courses
through your veins. The gold mine that you possess
is all the riches and the glory and the wisdom and
the knowledge and the righteousness and the joy
and the peace and the understanding and the power
and the omnipotence of God in your spirit! God is
in your spirit! Isn’t it wonderful! You are the sons
and daughters of the Most High God. The very life
of God is within you today. In that life there is no
limitation at all. All the wealth of divinity, all the
riches of the mind of the Father, all the abundance
of joy, peace, love, and power that are in Jesus
Christ, 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!
The Indian mystic, Sadhu Sundar Singh, said in one
of his teachings, "Many there are that are like a
hunter who, while wandering in the jungle, picked
up some pretty stones on the bank of a stream.
Unaware of their value he used them one by one in
his sling to shoot at the birds perched on the trees
near the river, and so one by one they fell into the
water and were lost. With one still in his hand he
returned to the city, and as he passed along the
bazaar a jeweler caught sight of it, and told the silly
fellow that it was a valuable diamond for which he
could get thousands of rupees. When the man heard
this he began to bewail himself and say, ‘Woe is
me! I didn’t know their value, and have been using
many of these diamonds to shoot at birds by the
riverside, and they have fallen into the river and are
lost, otherwise I should have been a millionaire!
Still I have saved this one, and that is something
gained.’"
The spirit of every man is like a precious diamond!
Ah, yes, there lies buried within you the greatest of
all treasures — the kingdom of God within your
spirit. Discover that kingdom today, my friend,
draw from its wealth, suck from its life, receive
from its power and you will become a new creation,
transformed into the image of God. All things are
possible to him that believes this! All that is true in
God lies within that kingdom, for it is the image of
God created in man from the beginning, now buried
deep beneath the debris of the carnal mind and
fleshly life. It is there and it is yours, for the taking.
Only the earth, the earthiness of your outer self,
your own carnal consciousness, needs to be
removed for the image of God to be seen. It is still
there within you no matter how weak, sinful, or
undone you may feel, or how miserably you may
have failed. Your heavenly Father who sent you
here to earth is this day calling you back to Himself,
back to the wisdom and power of God inherited out
of His life. As you "live in the spirit" and "walk
after the spirit" you will be an overcomer in all
things, eventually qualified to share your Father’s
throne!
When a man is truly yielded up to the inspiration of
God in his spirit, then he is restored to the normal
state from which he fell; made conscious again of
God, knowing God as revealed in his inmost life, by
a knowledge that is beyond the mind and senses,
filled with the righteousness, peace, joy, love, and
power of the kingdom of God. He begins to live as
he was made to live — inspired, led, ennobled,
empowered, a temple for the habitation of God. In
his spiritual perfection his whole action is out of
divine impulse. All sin, lack, sorrow, and death are
drunk up or lost in the divine perfection. He
celebrates a reign — not a reign in some far-off
heaven somewhere, nor yet upon a throne in some
earthly sphere, but within himself, in the more
magnificent heaven and the more glorious throne of
his own exalted powers and thoughts and the
glorified nature of his spirit. Man finds his paradise
when he is imparadised with God!
Christ is within us as a seed! Within this Christ-
Seed can be found all the divine attributes necessary
to make us fully manifest sons of God — Christs
like the original seed of the fullness of God in
Christ. As each single cell of our body contains
within it the genetic code that made us what we are
physically, so the seed of God within our spirit has
within it all the power of the life of God to
transform us into the full image and likeness of our
heavenly Father. As a literal, natural seed grows
from a seed to become a blade, then to the ear stage,
after that to the full corn in the ear, so the seed of
God within grows progressively within us until He
who is within makes us full grown sons of God —
master of all the opposites! Having been tested,
tried, and proven in all that is contrary to God, and
having fully overcome in it, we are at last truly
LIKE HIM, holy as He is holy, understanding why
we must ever be holy, choosing once and for all and
forever to abide in His holiness, knowing good and
evil as God knows it, discerning, perceiving, and
comprehending the folly of all the way that seems
right unto a man, but whose end is the way of death.
Now we, as our Father, are light, for He is the
Father of lights and in us there is no darkness at all!
Now in us, as in our Father, there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning.
THE SEED IN EVERY MAN HAS
CONQUERED! Oh, the wonder of it!
J. Preston Eby
THE SPIRIT IN MAN
Deep within every man there is a secret
sanctum where dwells the mysterious essence of his
being. This inmost reality is that part of a man which
separates him from every other living creature and
makes him uniquely mankind. This deep hidden
power is what it is of itself independent of any other
part of the man’s complex nature. It is the man’s “I
Am,” a gift from the I AM who created him. The
deep-in human entity of which we speak is called in
the scriptures the spirit of man. “For what man
knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man
which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God” (I Cor. 2:11). As
God’s self-knowledge lies in the eternal Spirit, so
man’s self-knowledge is by his own spirit, and his
knowledge of God is by the direct union of the Spirit
of God with the spirit of man. I cannot overstress the
importance of this in our forward walk into our
destiny as sons of God! This truth denies that man is
an earthly, physical being having a spirit and
declares, rather, that he is a spirit having a physical
body. That which makes a man a human being is not
his body but his spirit, in which the image of God
originally lay.
Most people on earth have forgotten their beginning.
But the scripture is clear. “And God said, Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness…and the
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living soul. So God created man in his
own image, in the image of God created He him”
(Gen. 1:26; 2:7; 1:28). What God actually did was
that He imaged Himself in man. God imaged
Himself in man by forming Himself in a man of
earth. Thus man was created as a visible expression
of the invisible God. Now that hasn’t changed!
What has changed is our perception of ourselves
because of the fall. But before we discuss that, let us
see just how it was that God imaged Himself in man,
and how it is that man is a spiritual being having an
earthly experience, instead of a physical being
having a spiritual experience.
Wonderful words were spoken at the very dawn of
civilization, recorded in the oldest book of the Bible,
which state simply and powerfully the reality of
man. “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of
the Almighty giveth them understanding” (Job
32:8). It is something great in man, Elihu conceives,
that he is spirit, and, because he is, is capable of
being inspired. He is not here speaking of Adam as
he was in the primordial glory of Eden, nor yet of
regenerated man in this wonderful age of the Holy
Spirit; but, speaking thousands of years ago in the
present tense, he magnifies man as being able to be
inspired, just because he is spirit. And it is God, who
likewise is spirit, that inspires him!
Can we not see by this that the very being of man has
a God-ward or divine side, being related
constitutionally to Him. The testimony of scripture
is incontrovertible that there is a spirit in man, or
what is the same, the fact that we are, as being spirit,
permeable and inspirable by the Almighty!
The word “spirit” means literally, breath, and
denotes a quality of life because, in the case of the
spirit in man, God is able to breathe Himself into it
and through it. The word “inspiration,” as used here,
denotes the act of inbreathing. Anyone who is
inspired is “breathed into,” visited internally by the
power of life, and so quickened in mind, raised in
intelligence, ennobled in nature, and empowered in
ability. In this way Bezaleel was inspired when he
“was filled with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and in
understanding, to devise cunning works, to work in
gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of
stones, to set them, and in carving timber” (Ex. 31:3-
5). Anyone is inspired just as far as he is raised
internally, in thought, feeling, perception, or action,
by a divine movement within! It is God’s Spirit
quickening our spirit, and thus bringing a change, a
release, a raising so that our spirit may function as it
was designed to function. This is what Jesus
described as being “born again,” the spirit that
already existed as the offspring of God being brought
forth, just as a flesh baby is brought forth into the
world, into a new realm, a new level of identity, a
new consciousness, a new expression, a new ability,
a new standing, new rights and privileges and
inheritance! We all understand that a baby’s life
does not begin at the moment of birth — it is simply
released into a new dimension where it can attain to
its full potential in that realm. Thus it is with the
new birth! Our spirit did not originate at the moment
of our new birth — it had to already exist or it could
not have been born! That which is thus “born” of the
Spirit is spirit! It is this capacity of being spirit that
qualifies man as an inspirable creature.
This reveals man’s capacity for God; to
experientially know the presence of God, to let in the
divine nature, to entertain the eternal Spirit
witnessing with his spirit, to be energized by Him
and filled with His glory, in every faculty, feeling,
and power, being a vessel and channel for the life of
God, to think His thoughts and do His works. Thus,
“the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are
the children (offspring) of God!” (Rom. 8:16). And
“because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts (spirit), crying, Abba,
Father!” (Gal. 4:6). “There is a spirit in man, and the
inbreathing of the Almighty giveth them
understanding.” Only because man is spirit is all this
possible!
In that long ago beginning God “breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
soul” (Gen. 2:7). Now all the animals and beasts of
the field are also called “living souls” in the creation
story in Genesis. But there is a difference! Let the
fact be imprinted indelibly upon our minds that none
of these became a “living soul” by the inbreathing of
God! God did not Himself breathe into the nostrils
of cattle, lions, elephants, birds, fish, cockroaches, or
any other creature. Their “breath of life” is of an
inferior quality to that of man. The breath of life of
the animal kingdom is merely the oxygen of our
lower atmosphere. They are, therefore, a creation of
God but are unrelated to God. The breath of life in
man, however, originates out of the very spiritessence
of God Himself — inbreathed — thus, when
a man dies his body returns to the dust from whence
it came, but his spirit returns to God who gave it!
(Eccl. 12:7).
In Genesis 1, God speaks of adham (male and
female), and only adham as being made in His
image. The point is emphasized by repetition. As
humanity’s story unfolds through subsequent
chapters, we discover that what makes humans
different is a quality called “spirit.” None of the rest
of earth’s creatures possess it! By “spirit” the Bible
means relationship with God, and the capacity to be
aware of God, to communicate with Him, and
participate with Him in His great and eternal
purposes. Worship is the key evidence of the
spiritual quality of the human race, and the
universality of worship is evidenced in altars,
temples, priesthoods, sacrifices, rituals, prayers,
praise, and religious exercises of all kinds. Burial of
dead, use of tools, or even architecture and the arts
do not qualify as evidence of the spirit, for non-spirit
beings such as birds, beaver, elephants, chimpanzees,
and a multitude of others engage in such activities to
a limited extent. But no animal worships! There are
no chimpanzee or ape altars, temples, priesthoods, or
prayers of any kind. Only man worships! Only man
is a spiritual being! Only man is aware of God!
Only man has heard from God! To worship is as
natural for man — any man, saved or unsaved — as
barking is for a dog! Oh, the mystery of it!
Douglas Wilson once wrote, “There has been a very
sore cry in a great many of our hearts. There has
been a cry that has risen from the very depths of our
spirits. It is a cry to know the Lord, even our God!
It is a cry to be one with the Lord our God. It is a cry
to be with our God even as it is written that ‘he that
is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.’ We have not
understood from whence this deep cry comes. We
have not known the depths from whence it came.
But the Lord knows, for He put it there and has
caused it to come forth. Is it not written that ‘deep
calleth unto deep’? So is it then not written that the
depth of man calls unto the depth of God? And the
depth of God also calls to the depth in man! The
earth is filled with the call of God and the call of
man. The call rises up into the ears of God and He
hears it, for He has put the call within us.
“The Lord would have us know that from the very
beginning, when He brought man forth out of the
dust of the earth and gave unto him of His own
breath, His own Spirit, then He put a depth in man
that was equal to the depth of God. For do we not
know that if God lives in us, and if we are the temple
of the living God, then the depths that are in us must
equal those depths that are in God? Else we could
not contain God, neither could He dwell within us as
our life.
“But the depth that God had put in man became
darkness unto man. So man knew not this depth.
Man deemed himself to be but a created being of
God. Man did not know the depths of his nature! He
knew not that which was deep within him. For to
him the light had gone out and no longer moved in
the depth of his life. Unknown to man the light was
shining dimly and man was only faintly aware of it.
Yet there was to come a day when this light would
begin again to be manifested!” — end quote.
Recently I heard one “kingdom teacher” make the
following statements: “I want to say a word to all
the spooky people out there who believe in preexistence,
in having had some kind of spiritual life in
the bosom of the Father before the world began. We
were not there — HE was there! The reason I am
telling you this is because there is a teaching that
goes around the camp of sonship people which
suggests that you were there with Him at that time. I
can’t take the time today to point out to you how that
is not true, and it defiles the truth. It corrupts the
truth because God said to honor your father and your
mother. Do you know why? BECAUSE THEY
ARE THE ONES WHO GAVE YOU LIFE! That’s
the first commandment with promise. My life did
not begin in the beginning or before the beginning.
God might have thought about me, He may have
known that I was going to come forth, but in due
time I came forth from my parents” — end quote.
This dear brother simply lacks spiritual
understanding. He supposes that the whole life of
man derives only from his earthly parents! He must
never have read the scripture wherein we read, “And
ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh
unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou
the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He
receiveth. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our
flesh which corrected us, and we gave them
reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection
unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure;
but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of
His holiness” (Heb. 12:5-6, 9-10).
Someone says, “Oh, yes, God is the Father of the
spirits of all those who have been born again.” Yet
the scripture cries out, “O God, the God of the spirits
of all flesh” (Num. 16:22). You see, brethren, we
must think spiritual sense about these things! That
we might better comprehend, I must follow this
instructive passage with some pertinent questions.
Meditate deeply upon these. Does every flesh man
have a spirit? Is every man, saved or unsaved,
composed of spirit, soul, and body? Or do only
believers possess a spirit? If every man has a spirit,
where did his spirit come from? Did it come from
God? Did it come from his parents? Did it come
from the devil? Was your spirit, when you were
born into this world, already “fallen”? If not, when
did it “fall”? Is God actively in the business of
begetting “fallen” or “dead” spirits? Is God really
the Father of the spirits of ALL FLESH? When did
your spirit originate? Did it originate at the time of
your physical birth? Did it originate at the moment
of your conception in the womb? Did it originate
before your conception? Did it exist way back there
when you were “chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world?” (Eph. 1:4). Did it exist
when “God, who cannot lie, promised eternal life
before the world began?” (Titus 1:2). To whom did
He promise eternal life at that time? Could He have
promised it to you if you were not there?
That our spirit came out of God, we know, for we
read, “The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel,
saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens,
and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth
the spirit of man within him” (Zech. 12:1). He who
takes responsibility for the vast expanse of heaven
and earth, also takes responsibility for forming
(maturing) the spirit of man which is within us, and
He is the God of the spirits of all flesh.
What revealing light of revelation Jesus gave when
He opened the truth about the origin of both man’s
flesh and his spirit when on that star-studded night
long ago He explained to the questioning
Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the spirit is spirit” (Jn.
3:6). This in my opinion is one of the most profound
and awe-inspiring statements in all scripture.
According to Jesus, my earthly parents are the
parents only of my flesh, for that which is born of the
flesh is flesh. That’s all it is! On the other hand,
God, and only God, is the Father of my spirit, for that
which is born of the spirit is spirit. Spirit begets
spirit! And God is the God and Father of the spirits
of all flesh! How could we ever think of God as the
Father of the flesh? He is the creator of flesh, of the
physical, but He is the Father of SPIRITS. “God IS
spirit,” so He could father nothing less than spirits.
As Father He puts the same life-force into His
children; and this life-force is that which animates
the flesh so that the body without the spirit is dead
(James 2:26). This is true of all men! What a
glorious statement this is — “the Father of spirits”!
That is what redemption is all about! It liberates us
from the flesh consciousness of the natural-minded
man and brings us again into the conscious
awareness of our Father and that we are spirit, the
offspring of God. We are being made like Him
because we are of His same substance. Speaking to
His disciples and to the multitudes Jesus once said,
“But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one
teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man
your father opon the earth, for ONE IS YOUR
FATHER, which is in heaven” (Mat. 23:8-9). Need I
remind you that these words were spoken to men
under the law; Jesus had not died or risen again, the
Holy Spirit had not been poured out, nor was the new
covenant in effect. He informed every one of these
people that they ALL HAD ONE FATHER AND He
is “our Father, which art in heaven.”
That wonderful prayer Jesus taught His disciples,
which we call The Lord’s Prayer, begins with the
words, “Our Father which art in heaven.” Until men
recognize by the illumination that the Spirit brings
who their Father is they remain lost and dying in the
dense darkness of the carnal mind. Spiritually, they
are no different than the adopted child who has never
been told he is adopted and has no concept of who
his biological parents truly are or where he came
from. Our Father is not the one who gave us our
physical life in the womb of our earthly mother. The
only reason Jesus would tell the vast throng gathered
around Him, “Call no man your father upon the
earth, for ONE IS YOUR FATHER, which is in
heaven,” is that we all must recognize that our life
did not begin with our physical birth. Our true
Father is not a man upon earth, but our Father who is
in heaven! Can we not see by this that our life did
not begin on earth — it began in heaven! Nothing
could be plainer than this. Over and over again Jesus
taught the multitudes about their “heavenly Father.”
Just look up the word “father” in Strong’s
Concordance and see how many times in the four
Gospels Jesus told the people that God was their
Father! Once we know who and where our Father is
it is easy to understand where our life began and
from whence we came. Our birth, our beginnings
were with God! God is our Father. Aren’t you
glad!
The heavenly Father is Spirit, in the Spirit state
known as heaven. As spirit, we know Him as our
very own Father, and the only substance of our true
being. We find ourselves coming alive to Spirit, to
God. This is what Jesus has accomplished
redemptively for all men through His blood! The
fact that we are spirit is the very basis of Christ’s
redemptive work. It is not the coming of His Spirit
into us that makes us God’s sons, but the apostle
plainly said that “because ye are sons, God hath sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). We no longer feel
strangers to our heavenly homeland! God has
redeemed us, renewed us, delivered us, and in His
Son made us to be again who we truly are!
One of the greatest needs for understanding among
believers is in this area of comprehending the
relationship of all men to God. Paul expressed it on
Mars Hill, saying, “The God who made the world
and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth,
does not live in shrines made by man, nor is He
served by human hands, as though He needed
anything, since He Himself gives TO ALL MEN life
and breath (spirit) and everything. And He made
from one every nation of men to live on all the face
of the earth, having determined allotted periods and
the boundaries of their habitation, that they should
seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him
and find Him. Yet HE IS NOT FAR FROM EACH
ONE OF US, for in Him we live and move and have
our being…for we are indeed His offspring. Being
then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the
Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation
by the art and imagination of man” (Acts 17:24-29).
God’s offspring! And this was spoken to Greeks
who not only knew nothing of Jesus Christ, but had
no awareness of the one God.
Paul is not talking here about born-again Christians,
he is speaking of the fact that there is a spirit in man
— in all men — and God is the Father of spirits, the
God of the spirits of all flesh. The one Father of all
spirits is but one Spirit. Thus all spirits are related
and unified in Him. We easily forget the human
birth of every man and all these earthly relationships,
races, cultures, and characteristics when we
recognize the One Father from whom we all came.
In Old Testament days it was a great discovery of
truth for people to realize that “The Lord our God,
the Lord is One.” In the days of many gods this was
a great revelation! In our day, however, most of the
civilized world recognizes the truth of the oneness of
God. The problem now is to awaken people to the
truth that the One God is the Father of the spirit of
every man! This is among the deepest and most
precious truths of scripture. No star that shines in the
firmament of revelation is more clear or glorious
than this; no truth ever dropped down upon our earth
from the heavens of God’s Spirit is more full of
significance. This Fatherhood gives meaning and a
tenderness to this life of ours, and is the very
foundation of the value of man’s life, and reveals
why Jesus came from the heavenly realms to redeem
all men by His own precious and divine blood!
THE VALUE OF EVERY MAN
The grandest of all truths is that CHRIST IS THE
IMAGE OF GOD! If you want to know what God
had in mind when He said, "Let us make man in our
image, and after our likeness," you have only to
look at Jesus Christ. That is what God meant!
"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are
lost (who know not who or where they are): in
whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the
glorious gospel of CHRIST, WHO IS THE IMAGE
OF GOD, should shine unto them" (II Cor. 4:3-4).
"In whom we have redemption through His
blood…who is THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE
GOD, the firstborn (prototype) of every creature"
(Col. 1:14-15). His dignity is still further elaborated
in these words of the writer to the Hebrews: "Who
being the brightness of His glory, and the
EXPRESS IMAGE OF HIS PERSON…being made
so much better than the angels" (Heb. 1:3-4). The
Amplified Bible reads, "He is the…expression of
the glory of God — the Light Being, the out-raying
of the divine — and He is the PERFECT IMPRINT
AND VERY IMAGE OF GOD’S
NATURE…taking a place and rank by which He
Himself became…superior to angels."
How totally inadequate do our words become in the
light of words of such wonder as these! Jesus is the
prototype of what God intends man to be. He is
God’s finished product, God’s perfect man; what
every man should be and ultimately will be. We will
only understand the majesty of man in God’s image
when we see Jesus as THE BEAM OF THE
DIVINE GLORY, and THE OUT-RAYING OF
GOD’S PERSON. Jesus Christ is the express or
exact image of the Father’s being, the perfect
imprint and very image of God’s nature. The
allusion here is to the impression made in ancient
times by a seal on molten wax; and as the image
made on the wax is the exact representation (though
on another substance) of the die, so is Christ the
precise representation of the Father in human flesh.
And thus He was able to say, "If you have seen me,
you have seen the Father."
The life of Jesus is the life of God transmuted into
the form of our human life, so that we may see,
touch, hear, know, understand, and experience the
very being and nature of God in human terms. The
natural mind cannot understand such a truth as this,
but this is what God meant when He said, "Let us
make man in our image, and after our likeness."
CHRIST is the image of God and God meant for
every man to look and speak and act and be just like
Jesus Christ! Can you not see the mystery? This is
the value of man’s life in redemption, for God sent
One who was all that man was meant to be to
purchase us — not to harps and golden streets and
fluttering wings in some far-off heaven somewhere
— but back to relationship with God as sons in His
very own image.
As we consider the wonderful advent of man
created "in the image of God" we can only conclude
that this is a SPIRITUAL MAN brought forth out of
the very spirit-substance of God almighty, and
bearing His own divine nature, character, power and
attributes. The image of God is the nature of God
reproduced in man. Thus, man is the true image of
God! The divine nature was best and fully
expressed in the man Christ Jesus who shined upon
mortals the truest revelation of God and lifted man’s
sights higher than their poor thoughts would allow.
Jesus revealed to men their true origin, heritage, and
destiny. He came to show man what man really is,
was intended to be, and through redemption and so
great a salvation shall be — THE IMAGE OF
GOD. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end, the first and the last. In Jesus
Christ you see man as he was in the beginning, and
as he ever shall be world without end — THE
IMAGE OF GOD WITH DOMINION OVER ALL
THINGS.
We have come to the most sublime of all truths. The
beauty of these celestial realities is found in the fact
that all Jesus did He did "for us" — not in our place,
but on our behalf. A musician demonstrates the
beauty of the music he teaches in order to show the
learner the way by practice as well as precept. This
was the precious import of our Lord’s sinless life
and of His demonstration of power over the whole
flesh realm, including death. Our heavenly Father
demands that all men should follow the example of
our Lord and Master. In order to enter the kingdom
of the heavens, the anchor of hope must be cast
beyond the veil of this carnal, dying realm into the
Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and
this advance beyond the law of sin and death must
come through the joys and triumphs of a people "led
by the spirit" who are "the sons of God" as well as
through their sorrows and afflictions.
It is by facing the enemy in the crucible of
experience and by the authority of the spirit that
victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat. Each
and every test in our lives is an opportunity to prove
for ourselves and demonstrate for those about the
triumph of the spirit over the flesh. That is how
Jesus did it! He knew that He was not a physical
man possessing a spirit. He understood clearly that
He was a spirit encased in a body. Therefore His
spirit must have dominion over His flesh, not the
other way around. He lived, spoke, and acted by the
life of God in His spirit, even the Father who dwelt
in Him. Step by step, battle by battle, victory upon
victory we also ascend into the heights of the
kingdom of heaven (spirit), the image of God, and
the dominion restored in man!
One can never comprehend the length and breadth
and height and depth of God’s great plan of creation
and redemption until first he understands that Jesus
Christ is the revelation of the value of every man.
In the mysterious mists of Eden God breathed into
man the breath of His own divine life and
prophesied of this man that he would be the image
and likeness of Himself, and in due time would take
his place in the Father’s great kingdom with
dominion over all the works of His hands (Ps. 8:3-9;
Heb. 2:6-9).
There is a story about a little piece of wood that
once bitterly complained because its owner kept
whittling away at it, gouging it and making holes in
it. But the one who was cutting it paid no attention
to the stick’s protests. He was making a flute out of
that piece of ebony, and he was too wise to stop
when the wood complained so bitterly. The man
said, "Little piece of wood, without these rifts and
holes, and all this cutting, you’d be just a stick
forever — a useless piece of ebony. What I am
doing now may seem as if I am destroying you, but
instead it will change you into a flute. Your sweet
music will charm the souls of many and comfort
sorrowing hearts. My cutting you is the making of
you, for only thus can you be a blessing in the
world." The meaning of this little parable is clear:
That flute, whose music blended so sweetly in the
orchestra, was made a flute only by the knife and
file that filled it with rifts and holes which seemed
to be its very destruction. But the purpose of the
master was the cutting away of the outward form so
that breath could flow through it. The breath upon
the wood created a melodious sound which made it
an instrument to the praise of God. Ah, the Lord is
shaping us, my beloved, cutting away the denseness
of our outer shell with its darkened understanding,
making rifts and holes in the way that seems right to
the natural man, that the in-breathed spirit of life
from God may sweep through our earthen vessel,
producing the image of God, that His glory might
be revealed in creation. Isn’t it wonderful!
This divine potential lies in the spirit of every man
and shows the value of man’s life. Some do not
believe that the seed of God abides in every man,
but I do not hesitate to tell you that every man has
within him a spirit as well as a soul and a body, and
the spirit of every man originated with God and
came out of God. If every man is spirit, soul, and
body, then where else did man’s spirit come from?
Are you going to tell me it came from the devil?
When the Word became flesh and tabernacled
among us we learned the true dignity of man. The
wonder is not that God could stoop so low but that
man was created so high! It was because of the
value of man’s life that Jesus came and took our
nature. The sinless Son of man reveals indeed what
a fall man has suffered, but shows what a destiny is
his, when once the image of his Creator has been
restored. Why lift a sot from his gutter to care for
him and rehabilitate him and bring him to God? The
reason is that man has in him some touch of the
eternal and therefore must be saved; and some
ultimate tide of compassion moves us to save him!
His salvation is not merely from his drink, from his
lust, from his sin and bondage and hell; it is
salvation unto all his awesome potential as a child
of the Father in heaven! It is this divine value of
man’s life that brought Jesus from the portals of
glory to save him! Is this not what Jesus’ parable of
the Prodigal Son teaches us? It was a son that the
father saw afar off, and ran and fell upon his neck
and kissed him and killed the fatted calf and put
shoes and a robe upon him and called all his
kingdom to feast and rejoice with him. His son had
come home! Man is the offspring of God and is
meant to be the head of creation. THAT IS THE
VALUE OF MAN’S LIFE!
Can man who has sunk so low be raised so high?
Consider with me the destiny of one muddy road.
The clay, left long enough, hardens into a sapphire.
The sand becomes by refraction of light an opal.
The soot is a diamond in the rough. And the water
when it freezes, is a snow-white star. Ah, there is a
finer destiny for muddy humanity, but you do not
see it in our raw state! Only the mighty pressures
and processes of God’s redemptive dealings can
transform the murky elements into the essence of
divine beauty, glory and power! And this, dear one,
is the answer to Job’s piercing question, "What is
man, that Thou shouldest magnify him? and that
Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him? and that
Thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try
him every moment?"
Sin-cursed and sin-broken, sick and weak, murderer
and prostitute, proud and arrogant, mean and
vindictive — all that is humanity! But is that the
value of mankind? What is the value of human life?
JESUS is the value! For just such humanity there
was the Man from Galilee, the Son of God, the
express image of the Father, the pure, sinless,
harmless One, love personified, the heir of all
things, the Lord of the universe — there was that
One nailed to a cross, to redeem every man that
ever lived or shall live. THAT IS THE VALUE OF
MAN’S LIFE! JESUS IS THE VALUE OF MAN!
The price that is paid for an object reflects its value.
The price God paid for humanity was His own Son
in the image and glory of the Father. God saw
beneath man’s tattered garment and marred image
His own omnipotent potential buried there. Love
pierced through the gloom and roughness and saw a
diamond in the rough, but a diamond sure enough.
It was within that divine spark within man’s spirit
capable of being renewed that we find the reason
for the cross. If we would have been less than the
offspring of God He could have sent something less
than His own Son to redeem us! No one redeems
the life of a monkey or an elephant or a cat or a dog
with the life of a man. Oh, no! There is no
correspondency there. The cross was God’s great
act by which He released His life-flow, the precious
blood of Jesus, to heal, quicken, and restore man to
his place in God.
It would do us all a world of good to take inventory
of our attitudes — how we see men. I fear that we
would be both surprised and disturbed to see how
often we view men out of our carnal minds rather
than with the eyes of our heavenly Father — the
Prodigal’s Father! Oh mystery of mysteries! Jesus
went to the cross not only to take away our sins, He
went there for the good in man, to redeem it and
restore it into the image and likeness of God. The
deepest mystery of all is that God is multiplying
Himself in man, and is bringing Himself into a new
dimension. There is a MAN seated upon the highest
throne of heaven. Not an angel, not a cherub, and
not even merely a spirit — but a MAN! That man is
still clothed in the body that walked along the
shores of Galilee, for the cave of Joseph of
Arimathea is empty, although that body has been
spiritualized by the power of incorruptible life.
The dwelling place of a son of God is in the Father
and the dwelling place of the Father is in the sons.
The sons are the out-raying of the Father’s
substance and the perfect imprint of His nature in
human form. I never enjoy trying to see pictures
where no picture exists, but it is plain to an
understanding born from above that ultimately all
men will be manifest sons of God, for Jesus Christ,
the Son of the living God, died and rose again to
save and redeem and restore all men to God as His
very own children. The Prodigal is all men! Jesus is
the firstborn of every creature! That will be the
glorious consummation of God’s ages-long purpose
to make man into His image and after His likeness.
Nothing short of that can suffice. Only then will
God be ALL-IN-ALL!
The words came to me some time ago, the startling
and remarkable expression Jesus made when He
stood in the earth and declared, "I am the bread that
is come down from heaven, that if a man eat of it,
he shall never die. I am the living bread. I am the
bread that is come down. I am the bread that is
become personified in a body of flesh upon this
earth. I am the bread that is from heaven."
Immediately the question came to mind — Why
was He the bread that came from heaven? Why did
He say, "from heaven"? Why did He not simply
say, "I am that I am," or "I am the bread that your
Father has provided on the earth"? This is
reminiscent, of course, of the manna that came from
heaven, the food that God sent from heaven to the
children of Israel in the wilderness. Why did the
manna come "from heaven"? Could it not have
crawled or grown up out of the earth? Could it not
have just appeared on the ground?
As I mused within myself concerning this mystery,
the inspiration of the spirit commenced to articulate
within me the wonder of this great truth. It came to
me so powerfully as an illustration. Consider with
me for a moment a group of astronauts who are
soaring away from earth to a strange planet in a
distant galaxy. While traveling on their journey
through space their spacecraft develops a serious
problem, and they are forced to land on an unknown
planet in a far away solar system. The name of the
planet is Timur. Having landed, they realize they
are stranded! They know nothing of this world into
which they have descended. As they step out of
their spacecraft they discover a very hostile
environment. Everything there is inhospitable to
them. All vegetation on the planet is toxic to their
system. They cannot eat or drink anything, for all is
death to them. They cannot breathe the atmosphere.
Everything militates against them.
Soon, the realization dawns within their
consciousness that their resources are finite. Some
desperate action must be taken. They contact earth
about their predicament. Their government agrees
to dispatch a rescue expedition. A second spacecraft
comes from earth and in due time lands on the
planet Timur. This second group of astronauts step
out of their ship and say to those who are stranded
there in that world, "We are the men who have
come from earth. We have the bread that is from
earth. We bring the water that is from your
homeland. We bear that which is not hostile to you,
for it is from your own world. The food we bring is
compatible with who you are and what you are. It is
biologically adapted to your constitution. We have
come from earth and we have the bread that is your
bread, the drink that is your drink, that which
pertains to your state of being, which will sustain
you, energize you, quicken you, and give you
expression of who and what you are. We have the
bread that has come from earth!"
Can we not see that the bread from earth was the
bread from home! Let there be no doubt in the mind
of any man that Jesus came from heaven and
descended into this earth realm, into our darkness,
into our limitations, into our bondage, into our
ignorance, into our sin, into our false identity, into
our distorted perceptions, into our natural life, into
our carnality, into our physical, mortal sense of
being. He stepped, as it were, out from His
spacecraft and proclaimed to lost men, "I am the
bread that is come down from heaven! If a man eats
of this bread he will live and not die, because I am
the bread that is come from the realm that you came
from. I am the one from your homeland, out of your
true habitation! I am the one sent from your true
world, the world of Spirit, the world of the Father,
the world of divinity, the world of eternity. I am
from that world, and I have come to speak a word
into you! The words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit and they are life. These words are adapted to
your constitution and pertain to the realm from
whence you are. I am the bread that has come from
the heavens, and when you eat this bread, when you
receive this word, when you are energized by the
Spirit of Life that I am, you will live and not die!"
Now we would ponder briefly on "our spirit"
contrasted with "His Spirit," for Paul declared, "The
Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that
we are the children of God" (Rom. 8:16). And
again, "God is my witness, whom I serve with my
spirit in the gospel of His Son" (Rom. 1:9). There is
a distinct difference whether we are serving God
with our flesh, or with our spirit. The spirit of man
in the unregenerate individual does not serve the
Lord, for it is in darkness, and knows not from
whence it came nor who or what it is. But our Lord
Jesus Christ is that "TRUE LIGHT which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world" (Jn. 1:9). Ah,
when HE lights our candle, when our spirit is
quickened by His Spirit, there is awakening,
illumination, comprehension, and we begin to see
into realms of spiritual life and reality to which,
heretofore, we had been blind. This involves more
by far than someone informing us that we are a
spirit, a spiritual being, and that we should therefore
actively begin to live out of our spiritual reality and
identity instead of from the intellect of our soul and
the desires of the body. It is not by mere knowledge
or human effort that we can live out of spirit — the
spiritual life! The awakening we must receive
involves the sovereign, dynamic, living, redemptive
operation of God within our spirit producing the
actual standing up within us of a new creature
raised up by the power of God through the washing
of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost
(Titus 3:5).
Are we so blind that we cannot see the impossibility
of our awakening ourselves? We cannot quicken
ourselves, nor can we regenerate ourselves! The
very idea is idle and senseless; for the plain reason
that being regenerated is the same as having
inspiration — it must originate out of God as a work
upon our spirit. The precise thing needed is to be
raised out of the separated, self-centered, blind
ignorance of the carnal mind by the sovereign
intervention and penetration of the Holy Ghost. Are
we then going to lift ourselves by our own
bootstraps, stand up out of our grave of darkness,
sin, and death by our own volition? Can the dead
raise themselves? Are the ignorant capable of
instructing themselves? Do the blind open their own
eyes? A baby does not even birth itself!
Regeneration is a renewal that consists of the
inbreathing of God’s Spirit, effecting union with
His life. "And you hath HE quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time past ye
walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience…even when we were dead in sins,
(HE) hath quickened us together with Christ, and
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:1-2,5-6).
Ray Prinzing once said it so aptly, "Strange indeed
the past theology of man. The corpse is floating
upon the water and we throw it a life-rope and tell
the corpse that if it will grab hold we’ll help to pull
it in. What nonsense! He is dead, he can’t grab hold
of anything. The man is DEAD IN TRESPASSES
AND SINS, his back is toward the light, he is all
enwrapped with self-rebellion against the Lord,
there is no light in him at all. Then we are supposed
to call out to this one totally dead in trespasses and
sins, ‘Come to Jesus!’ How can he come? He’s dead
to all spiritual life, he has no power to turn around
and walk towards God. Then we blame him for not
coming to Christ for salvation! How foolish! But
now, if a mighty one overtakes him, and light is
brought to this one in darkness, and life is given to
them, then shall they respond and serve Him.
"When they are covered with the love of God, there
will be no need to tell them what sinners they are,
and knock them down a little further into the mud.
‘A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking
flax shall He not quench, till He send forth
judgment unto victory’ (Mat. 12:20). We shall not
give them any more condemnation and smother that
last little spark they have, but rather it shall be
fanned into a strong flame, and the message will be
clear that God is their Father and does love them,
and freely offers them His abundant life. It is a life
which maketh rich and addeth no sorrow, for in His
presence there is fullness of joy, and at His right
hand there are pleasures forevermore.
"Praise God, His mighty ones shall flow out with
love and life unto all men. They won’t condemn the
sinner and tell him to clean himself up. They won’t
cry to those who are dead to come and receive life.
They shall TAKE LIFE to those who are dead, they
shall bring help to those who are weak and undone"
— end quote.
We know a little about the Holy Spirit but we have
known very little about the human spirit because it
is buried, concealed deep beneath the shell of our
soul and body. Every man has a spirit, but the outer
realms of soul and body, the flesh life, cover it up.
The living Word of God comes as a sharp, twoedged
sword, to pierce our soul (carnal mind) in
order to break it away from the spirit "For the word
of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any
twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit…" (Heb. 4:12). Only the
living Word of God can do this! Some people
entertain the erroneous notion that all the divinity
they will ever need to know lies inherently within
their own spirit. They recognize no godhood outside
of their own spirit. The testimony of scripture,
however, is clear, "What? Know ye not that he
which is joined to an harlot IS ONE BODY? For
two, saith He, shall be ONE FLESH. But he that is
joined unto the Lord, IS ONE SPIRIT" (I Cor .
6:16-17).
The analogy is drawn from a man joined to a
woman — these two, joined, are ONE FLESH.
"One flesh" denotes one whole, specific, particular
individual. It does not mean two of the same kind. It
is two making one. We all understand how it is that
a man is not a whole man, nor is a woman a whole
person! They each are distinct and complementary
aspects of Adam’s life. Adam was created both
male and female (Gen. 1:26). Only in the joining of
man and woman do we truly have ADAM. In like
manner, he that is joined to the Lord is ONE
SPIRIT! Adam, male and female, is the
representation of the nature and being of God. God
is spirit and man is spirit, yet we are each distinct
and complementary aspects of divine life. The idea
that each of us inherently contains within our
unquickened spirit the full attributes of deity is a lie
of enormous proportions. Only the joining of our
spirit with His Spirit makes man ONE SPIRIT or A
WHOLE SPIRIT! This is what Paul means when he
says, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, IF
SO BE THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELL IN
YOU. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of His" (Rom. 8:9). That is, he does not
belong to Christ as a wife belongs to her husband,
he has not the necessary spiritual complement, he
has not experienced union with God by the spirit.
This fact explains why the scriptures emphasize the
work of the Holy Spirit within us and through us!
There are many works of the Holy Spirit within our
spirit. Teaching — When HE the spirit of truth is
come, HE will teach you all things and lead you
into all truth. Quickening — It is the spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. If the
SPIRIT OF HIM who raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in you, HE that raised up Christ from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by HIS
SPIRIT that dwelleth in you. Begetting anew —
Born of water and of the Spirit. Dwelling — The
SPIRIT OF GOD dwelleth in you. Leading — As
many as are led by the SPIRIT OF GOD, they are
the sons of God. Strengthening — Strengthened
with might by HIS SPIRIT in the inner man.
Witnessing — The Spirit Himself beareth witness
with our spirit. Revelation — God hath revealed
them unto us by HIS SPIRIT. Gifts — For to one is
given BY THE SPIRIT the word of
wisdom…faith…healing…working of
miracles…prophecy, etc. All these worketh that one
and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man
severally as HE will. Transformation — We are all
changed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as by THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD. Sonship
consciousness — God hath sent forth the SPIRIT
OF HIS SON into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Sealing — Sealed with that HOLY SPIRIT of
promise. Confidence — Hereby we know that HE
dwelleth in us, by THE SPIRIT which He hath
given us.
The Spirit of God is able to perform all these
actions, and many more, within us just because we
are spirit. God can act omnipotently on all created
things, as things. He can penetrate all central fires
and dissolve or change every most secret atom of
the universe, but it cannot be said that these things
receive Him. "To as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God" (Jn.
1:12). NOTHING CAN TRULY RECEIVE HIM
BUT SPIRIT! Just as a man or woman do not join
themselves in union (marriage) with a rock, or tree,
or fish, or chimpanzee simply because there is no
correspondency of life, so the Spirit of God does not
enter by the power of life, mind, will, emotion,
action, and personality into any except spirit of a
corresponding nature. He may pass through things
and affect them in some way and on some level,
they can be shaken, melted, exploded, and
reformed, for truly all things are in His hands and
subject to His power — but they derive nothing
from Him that is personal to Him. No creature can
truly receive Him save one that is constitutionally
related to Him in a correspondency of life. There
must be intelligence offered to His intelligence,
sentiments to His sentiments, reason to His reason,
will to His will, personality to His personality. To
speak of an inspired mountain, or planet, or breeze
of air, an inspired tree, or an inspired brute, has
even the sound of absurdity. Not so to speak of an
inspired man! For man is a spirit, a nature
configured to God, and therefore able to receive
Him. Spirit only can be inspired, and there is a spirit
in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth
them understanding. Oh, the wonder of it!
Only man, of all God’s glorious creation, can be
penetrated and lighted up from within by the mind
of God, to have an understanding of things unseen
by the inspiration of the eternal Father, in one word,
to be spirit, and have the consciousness even of
God, as being irradiated, permeated, filled,
ennobled, glorified by His infinite Spirit and His
divine fullness.
Oh, that all men everywhere might see the origin
and constitution of our human life as spirit, with its
Author and Creator! In the original scheme of
existence, it was purposed that man should be
complete, and, as it were, infinite in God, by reason
of his perpetual participation of God. This is the
true and normal state of man! In that normal state
man was to be a continually inspired creature,
conscious always of God as of himself, living and
moving and having his being in the radiant essence
of the Father. Paul said that only in Christ are we
complete. "For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him"
(Col. 2:9-10).
The Emphatic Diaglott says, "In Him dwells all the
fullness of the Deity bodily; and you are
replenished by Him."
The Amplified Bible reads, "In Him the whole
fullness of Deity continues to dwell in bodily form,
giving complete expression of the divine nature.
And you are in Him, made full and having come to
fullness of life…you too are filled with the
Godhead."
J. B. Phillips translates, "It is in Him that God gives
a full and complete expression of Himself in bodily
form. Moreover, your own completeness is realized
in Him."
Finally, Kenneth Wuest renders, "In Him there is
continuously and permanently at home all the
fullness of absolute deity in bodily fashion. And
you are in Him, having been completely filled full
with the present result that you are in a state of
fullness in Him."
This great truth, on the other hand, reveals clearly
the true idea of man’s fall. When the Holy Spirit of
truth unveils your eyes and your mind is renewed,
you realize that you are a spiritual being and that
you have always been a spiritual being. When
Adam was lowered out of his pure spirit existence
and entered this physical world, he came into a
realm of darkness and death. The life of the spirit
dwelt within him, yet encased within the womb of
the outer flesh. Thus, there were two ways set
before mankind — the way of life in the spirit by
living in union with God through the tree of life, or
the way of death by walking after the flesh in union
with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The fruit of the tree of life would constantly
invigorate man’s spirit in the knowledge and
strength of divine existence, whereas the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil would invigorate man’s
flesh in the knowledge and power of the outer,
physical, carnal world. The serpent offered Eve the
power to be "like God" or the personal sense of
"godhood." "God doth know that in the day that ye
eat thereof, you shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil." And after the woman and the man partook of
that realm of sense-consciousness, selfdetermination,
and fleshly wisdom, God Himself
acknowledged that they had indeed become "as one
of us, to know good and evil" (Gen. 3:22). Yes, they
had become AS GOD! They had assumed a state of
GODHOOD! The only problem was that it was a
godhood in the wrong realm! It was a godhood of
independence from the life of God, not a Godhood
through union with God. Man became a self-created
god, a self-centered god, truly the god of this world,
but not the expression of the divine nature. The
Spirit of God which had been in union with man’s
spirit fled, and man’s spirit sank low into the hidden
depths of his being. A long night of darkness,
sorrow, sin and death ensued!
Let us understand the paradise of God with the tree
of life in its midst! The tree of life is mentioned
very simply in the opening chapters of Genesis. It
was IN THE MIDDLE — that is all that is said
about it! "And the Lord God planted a garden
eastward in Eden…the tree of life also in the midst
of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil" (Gen. 2:8-9). The life that comes forth
from God is in the middle. In the middle of the
realm in which Adam lived and the world over
which he was given dominion was not Adam
himself, spirit, soul, or body, but the wonderful tree
of God’s very own eternal and incorruptible life.
Adam’s life was to come from the middle which
was not Adam himself, but God in him. This means,
simply, that with God as his center man would
have Life! Man was created with the dual capacity
of living in the spirit or of walking after the flesh.
He was free to eat of the tree of life, or to eat of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One of
man’s inherent potentials was to know God in the
spirit as the center and source of his life!
But — like the tree of life — the other tree also
STANDS IN THE MIDDLE! In the middle. Death.
Within! In man’s very nature. One of man’s
inherent potentials was to know Self as the center
and source of his life. But Self would not bring life,
it would mean death. Man could make the world ,
the outer physical realm, his soulical senses and
bodily appetites, his center. Death dwelt in that
center! How do we know that sin is "in the middle"
just as life is "in the middle"? Jesus understood it!
He explained it! "There is nothing from without a
man, that entering into him can defile him: but the
things which come out of him, those are they that
defile the man. For from within, out of the heart of
men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride,
foolishness: all these evils come from within, and
defile the man" (Mk. 7:15,21-23). These inspired
words carry us right back to the garden of Eden!
There were two trees in the middle. Life and death
were in the middle! Two trees in the midst of the
garden of man’s experience and being. "For they
that are after the flesh do mind the things of the
flesh; but they that are after the spirit the things of
the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but
to be spiritually minded is life…" (Rom. 8:5-6).
Two minds — in the middle!
In the two trees of life and death in man’s middle
the Holy Spirit points out man’s LIMIT. In these
two trees is contained the BOUNDARY set by God
upon man from the beginning. This LIMIT declared
how low a man could fall and how high a man
could rise. Man could fall as low as the tree of
death, the carnal mind, the realm of the flesh could
carry him — unto the whole dreadful realm of
darkness and death in which is contained every
sorrow, tragedy, pain, trouble, sickness, hatred,
strife, heartache, ignorance, fear, and torment
known to man; or, he could rise as high as the
spiritual mind, the realm of the spirit could carry
him — unto the eternal and incorruptible life of
God in which is contained all the joy, peace,
righteousness, love, faith, wisdom, glory, and power
of GOD HIMSELF!
What fathomless bounds are contained in this
LIMIT! Man, by walking in the spirit, can rise as
high as God in the realm of His life, or by walking
after the flesh can sink as low as the devil in the
world of darkness and death. Neither of these
realms are illusion; they are both realities! What a
LIMIT! And man was destined to fall as low as he
could fall and rise as high as he could rise. The
totality of man’s experience is to be found within
this limit established by God for man. All that both
death and life are would ultimately be experienced,
known, and demonstrated by man. This is his limit.
This is his territory. This is his destiny. Both
realities are in the middle! Within man. One or the
other is every man’s center, the sphere of his
existence. But mark it well — both cannot be the
center of any man’s life! He who eats of the tree of
life will find that the death realm has no more
dominion over him. And he who eats of the tree of
death will discover that he becomes alienated from
the tree of life — driven from the garden. Thus,
both trees, both realities are in the center of man’s
life, but both cannot be the center of his life! "For
if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye
through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body,
ye shall live" (Rom. 8:13). "This I say then, Walk in
the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the
flesh" (Gal. 5:16).
The tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God
was truly "in the world" but not "of the world." The
life of this tree was right within man, the life of God
in his spirit, and man’s spirit was not of this world,
not formed of the dust of the ground, but breathed
into his nostrils by the Father of spirits. "God
breathed into his nostrils the spirit (Heb.) of life."
The glorious life of Christ on earth is the essence
and reality of the tree of life in the midst of the
paradise of God. This tree of life within man had
absolutely nothing to do with the realm of
earthiness of man’s soul and body, for it was
heaven’s own divine life breathed into man. In the
tree of life God invited man to find Him as the
center and source of life!
As George Hawtin once pointed out, by the tree of
life man would be full of light, abounding in
heavenly wisdom and knowledge, fearful in power
and dominion, ethereal as a spirit and shining in the
image of God. The fruit of this wonderful tree
would indeed make man radiant with the
resplendent glory of God as was Jesus, the second
man and the last Adam, at the transfiguration,
whose face shone as the sun and His raiment was as
the light. In this tree of life the effulgent perfumes
of the heavenly realm would be fragrance and life to
man’s nostrils. He would taste spiritual realities and
touch heavenly things. The wisdom and power of
God Himself would be wide open to him and he
would walk in the presence and glory of celestial
realms. The gates of that realm would never be shut
by day or by night. Man would need to eat of no
other tree nor drink of any of the waters of earth.
Man would have "meat to eat" that no other creature
in heaven or earth knew of and "water to drink" that
none other had ever tasted. The heavens would be
opened over his head and he would walk in the
glory of the presence of God in Eden!
This was the glory of the tree of life in Eden! And
what was that glorious tree? John the beloved tells
us clearly in his Gospel, "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God…in HIM WAS LIFE; and THE LIFE
WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN" (Jn. 1:1,4). This lifegiving
tree, the living Word of God, even Christ,
was from the beginning the life and the light of
mankind. The reason Jesus came forth as the visible
expression of the Father, the Word made flesh, the
tree of life in man’s middle, was that there might be
a focusing, a manifestation which would become a
meeting place for us to come to know God, and
become one with Him, as it was in the beginning. "I
am the living bread which came down from
heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live
forever: and the bread which I give is my flesh (the
Word made flesh), which I will give for the LIFE
OF THE WORLD" (Jn. 6:51). It is in Christ Jesus
that God and creation meet, come together, and are
made one! Christ Himself is the light which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world! The spirit of
man is the candle of the Lord, and Christ Jesus is
the light that lights our candle! The last Adam is
also the second man who has been made a
quickening spirit (I Cor. 15:45), and when our
spirit is quickened by His Spirit, then it is that our
candle is lit! Christ who is our life has been planted
in the garden of the kingdom of heaven within us!
This is the dimension missed by those in so-called
Metaphysical Christianity, New Age, and New
Thought philosophies who suppose that their
unregenerated, unquickened spirit represents their
full divinity and godhood. Not so! Only "he that is
joined to the Lord is ONE SPIRIT." The
unregenerated, unquickened spirit of man is indeed
spirit, the offspring of God. But it is not a whole
spirit! Apart from union with God’s Spirit through
the baptism in the Holy Spirit as recorded in the
book of Acts, the spirit of man is weak and unable
to function as the supreme power of man’s life. "I
indeed have baptized you with water: but He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost" (Mk. 1:8) "And
(Jesus) being assembled together with them,
commanded them that they should…wait for the
promise of the Father…ye shall be baptized with the
Holy Ghost not many days hence…ye shall receive
power AFTER THAT THE HOLY GHOST IS
COME UPON YOU" (Acts 1:4-8). "And they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance" (Acts 2:4). "Now when the apostles
which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had
received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter
and John: who, when they were come down, prayed
for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost;
then laid they their hands on them, and they
received the Holy Ghost" (Acts 8:14-17). Then we
read of how Peter went by revelation to Caesarea to
speak the word of Christ to Cornelius and his
household. The record states, "While Peter yet
spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them
which heard the word. And…they heard them speak
with tongues and magnify God" (Acts 10:44-46).
Later we find that when Paul was on his way to
Ephesus he met some disciples of John the Baptist
who had been baptized in water unto repentance,
but had heard nothing about receiving the Holy
Ghost. "And when Paul had laid his hands upon
them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake
with tongues and prophesied" (Acts 19:1-7).
I speak the truth when I suggest that not one in a
million of New Age, Metaphysical, and New
Thought adherents have received any such
supernatural experience in the Holy Spirit! The fact
is, they have not even met Jesus Christ as
SAVIOUR! Nor have they experientially
appropriated the CLEANSING POWER OF THE
BLOOD OF CHRIST! I also speak the truth when I
say that men whose spirits have not been quickened
by HIS SPIRIT are motivated and controlled by the
intellect of the soul (carnal mind), rather than by the
life of the spirit. That which they perceive as their
"inward Christ consciousness" is in reality just the
awesome power of their soul life! Just as a man or
woman, without a mate, is not a whole person, and
therefore missing a dimension of human reality, so
the spirit of man which has not experientially been
joined to the Spirit of God in a supernatural union
of life, is lacking in its spiritual ability and capacity.
It is this very condition that spawns the whole
system of "intellectual religion" which is pawned
off and misinterpreted as spiritual life!
There is an even deeper mystery to this tree of life
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
They appear as two trees; yet in reality there was
only one tree, with two sides, two aspects, or two
dimensions. It is stated so simply in these words:
"The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen.
2:9). There was one tree, and yet two trees! The tree
of life is Christ — the living Word of God. The
profound truth is that in Eden there were two words
— a living word, and a word of death! Christ is the
living word! But there is another word, and this
word is also from God, but it is a word of death.
Who planted the tree of death in Eden? Why, bless
your heart, God did! "And out of the ground made
the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to
the sight…the tree of life also in the midst of the
garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil."
Paul makes these two trees, these two words, very
plain when he writes, "Who also hath made us able
ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but
of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit
giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written
and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the
children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the
face of Moses for the glory of his
countenance…how shall not the ministration of the
spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of
condemnation be glory, much more doth the
ministration of righteousness exceed in glory" (II
Cor. 3:6-9). Here we have two ministrations, two
testaments, two words, which answer to the two
trees in Eden — the one is "the letter that killeth"
and the other is "the spirit that quickeneth." Yet
both of these words are the word of the Lord! Just
as God planted two trees in Eden, so was it GOD
who gave the law with its external religious forms
and observances to Moses, and it was GOD who
has given us the living word, with its inward
spiritual life in Christ! There are two words, and yet
they are but two sides of the same word — the
WORD OF GOD!
I firmly believe that the Bible is the word of God;
however, when we know it only as the letter, it
kills. Laws, rules, regulations, doctrines, creeds,
outward ordinances, forms, ceremonies, facts,
literalistic interpretations of man, natural concepts,
carnal understanding of the written word — there is
no life in any of these! There is only death. The
dead letter of the word produces dead sermons,
dead churches, dead forms, dead meetings, and
spiritually dead believers. Yet, the "letter of the
word" is still the word of God! But there’s no life.
Moses preached the law, the law was from God, the
law was the ministration of death written and
engraven in stones, and everybody that received the
law died. It was the ministration of condemnation. It
had the power to condemn men, to judge them, to
punish them, to tell them what they ought to do —
but it possessed no power to give them life! It was a
word of God, but it was the letter of the word. It
was a word without life. It was merely a type, a
shadow, a symbol of reality.
THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD
AND EVIL IS THE LAW! By the law, Paul says,
we know sin. The knowledge of good and evil is the
letter of the word! All the preachers who are out
there telling men what great sinners they are, and
how they need to stop sinning, threatening them
with damnation is they don’t stop sinning, are
feeding their hearers from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. This letter of the word killeth, but
it’s still a word of the Lord! It is the word of the
Lord on a lower level, stripped of its life and power.
But the other side of this tree, this word, is the
WORD OF LIFE! THE TREE OF LIFE IS
CHRIST, THE LIVING WORD! There are two
words, yet they are the very same word on different
levels. One is shadow, the other is substance. One is
outward symbol, the other in inward life. There are
two trees, yet they are but two sides of the same
tree! Adam’s sin and fall consisted in his choosing
to live a carnal life on the earthly plane, even a
religious life, subject to the restraint and regulation
of the external law of a carnal commandment,
instead of living the spiritual life on the heavenly
plane by the Living Word of God!
Another precious insight was shared in a letter to
me from a friend of many years, Connie Asbill. She
wrote, "Several years ago, I was sitting in the back
yard of my house when suddenly a tree that I had
looked at numberless times burst alive with a truth.
During its formation, the tree had split so that it was
growing in two different directions. For me, that
split tree became the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. In it, I saw the tree of life struck by
lightning and split right down the middle to make
the tree of life the tree of knowledge of good and
evil. Why struck by lightning? Well, I would have
been at a loss myself to explain why that impression
had formed in my inner eye if it had not been
plainly followed by the words of Jesus when He
said, ‘I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven.’
"As I contemplated this, I saw the word and the life
split: the word turned in one direction, the life
turned in another. This, to me, became a picture of
the beginning of the ‘double minded man who is
unstable in all his ways,’ and, again, of that
condition lamented by David, in spirit, when he
prayed, ‘Help, Lord, for they speak with a double
heart.’ At this point there came a breach in the spirit
of man — a breach that I think we can see portrayed
in the parable of the prodigal son. There were two
sons: one which remained with the Father, that is,
never left home; the other which took what was his
through the Father and turned it downward toward
the animal side of life. Now, of course, we have
heard this story used from the pulpits to call sinners
home to God and to give recognition to those
faithful few who remained unsullied in the church.
And there is that application, for some among us do
remain unsullied from the seamy side of life while
others among us do wallow in the pigpen of human
degradation and deprivation.
"I am convinced, however, that the deeper meaning
refers to that which occurs inside all of us, for there
is a part of all of us, I think, that has remained with
the Father and there is a part of all of us that has
split away to flow in the opposite direction — to
feed upon the dust of the earth, to identify with the
instincts and emotions of the body, and thus to bring
the word that is transmitted from the Father’s house,
where the other part of us has remained, down into
the earth with us. We feed on the husks (forms) of
truth when that part of our spirit that has turned
downward toward the animal nature filters the word
through ego, through unrestrained desires, through
fear, through carnal expectations, all of which
imprison it in externals. This gives rise to the law of
carnal commandment, which is nothing in the
world but the truth of God changed into a lie (Rom.
1:25) because even without realizing it we are
worshipping and serving the creature more than the
creator.
"I am convinced there is a part of us that never left
God. We have always been there, which is why the
kingdom has always been at hand. And I am
convinced that it is only as we expand our
understanding until we can see how that can be that
we can begin to woo the heart back to the true
meaning of that Word which has always existed in
the heavens. The prodigal son is that portion of the
spirit that was split away when lightning struck the
tree in the midst of the garden of the soul. What fell
in the fall, of course, was the understanding. When
Jesus talked about salvation, He used the Greek
word sozo which means to make whole. As I see it,
the saving of the soul is the healing of the soul
through a healing of the spiritual breach. The soul,
of course, is the battle ground of conflicting
thought, conflicting desire, conflicting emotion,
where Jacob the deceiver (the prodigal son) wrestles
it out with the angel of the Lord (the word of God)
to make peace with his brother (the son that never
left the Father’s house)" — end quote.
This "split" has happened to all of us, and that is
why we need to be RE-conciled, RE-newed, REgenerated,
RE-surrected. Think about it! The lost,
sin-blighted, unbelieving world lives a spiritual life
not unlike the lowly caterpillar. Caterpillars do not
live very exciting lives. They are, indeed, to be
pitied! They never travel very far and when they do
tremendous exertions are required. After all, what
sights do they see down there groveling in the dirt?
Ah — caterpillars live very limited, morbid lives!
The story is told of two caterpillars, however,
making their way laboriously across the muddy
earth, when one of them looked up and spied a
butterfly fluttering by. As he watched this butterfly
dipping and flitting around in the sky, and being
picked up by the breeze and carried off into the
ethereal blue, he turned to his companion in the
mud and said, "You’d never get me up in one of
those things!" Yet — right within that caterpillar
was the very life which would one day bring a
metamorphosis and carry him into the heavens. But
he didn’t know it!
At the fall of man, we lost our identity. We are all
here by choice, and have forgotten why we came! In
Christ God is now giving us back our true identity,
and we are waking up to our true nature.
"Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and
arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light"
(Eph. 5:14). We do not awaken all at once,
however. Most who read these lines have been
being awakened to the glorious and eternal realities
in the Spirit little by little through manifold
experiences over the course of many years. And
now I understand, as the words of the chorus
describe it, that
From out of eternity, before time began,
In the bosom of the Father, while the morning stars
sang
I shouted for joy while beholding His great plan,
God’s purpose on earth, His election in man!
A story I once read illustrates the truth of our
journey back into the fullness of Christ. It concerns
a peculiar case of creeping paralysis recorded in
medical records about a hundred years ago. The
man afflicted lost his eyesight to begin with. Then
hearing left him. Then followed by slow degrees the
loss of the sense of taste, of smelling, and of
feeling. Finally he lost all power of motion. He was
perfectly helpless. All avenues of approach to his
mind were entirely blocked. He could breathe and
even speak to the world. But the world could not
speak to him, for there was no open avenue of
communication. He was dead to the world
apparently. But one day it was accidentally
discovered that there was one spot on his cheek
which was capable of feeling. By tracing letters on
that spot his friends could at last speak to him, and
thus a connection was established between his little
world and the great world without. But that was
merely a beginning! A most strange phenomenon
took place. Slowly, ever so slowly, by stimulating
this one spot of sensitivity, an awakening and
process of rehabilitation was begun and the day
came when the man was fully restored. Oh, yes!
God has come to us by His Spirit and has touched
our spirit in that small susceptible spot of divine life
where we yearn after Him and, like the prodigal in
the pigpen, we have begun to come to ourselves!
It is doubtful that in all the scripture any subject is
more prominent and yet surrounded with such
mystery as the truth concerning the spirit in man.
Now let me share with you a further truth
concerning the life, or that spirit which was
breathed into each of us. Many scripture passages,
and the parables of our Lord, call it a "seed." The
Bible uses the illustration of a seed to tell us who
we really are! You see, to tell a person in a
darkened state of mind, bound in sin-consciousness,
in their present weak and frail human condition that
they are the manifestation of God on the earth,
would be absolutely impossible for them to fathom.
If they did understand such a concept, they would
receive it into their carnal minds, become puffed up
and egotistical, distort, misapply, misuse, and abuse
it, becoming even a worse devil than they are.
The seed of God is in every man, and the life of that
seed is the spirit of man. But you meet the drunk on
the street, you see your unconverted, worldlyminded
neighbor, you rub shoulders with the people
of the world, you watch the evening television
news, and you don’t see God in anybody! That is
because God in every man is a seed. A seed doesn’t
do anything. It just is. It can lie on the shelf for fifty
years and never express a thing! You see no action,
no manifestation of the life within; all you see is the
outer shell which reveals nothing. Seeds have been
found in the tombs of Egypt that are more than three
thousand years old, and they look today just as they
did when they were placed there, but they have
never produced a harvest. You see, my beloved, just
as the seed (sperm) of a man and the seed (egg) of a
woman must conceive in order to change, grow, be
born, and express and accomplish, so must the seed
of the vegetable kingdom be germinated in order to
be productive. The life is hid in the seed, but it is
covered by the outer shell and abides in a state of
dormancy, inactivity, or death. It must be planted in
the earth, then subjected to two things: heat and
moisture. The rain falls upon it, the sun shines upon
it, and suddenly there is effected a mighty release!
There is a stirring of that life that is restrained on
the inside, the shell that conceals that life bursts
open, and the life within springs forth, puts down
roots, and grows upward; it breaks through the earth
and is "born" into a new world, a new realm, a new
expression, a new form, a new ability, a new reality.
It rises high enough to draw its life from new
dimensions.
Can we not see by this that the spirit of man is
indeed the seed of God but it is buried in, encased
by, the outer man of flesh, the carnal understanding,
and the natural consciousness. Just as a credit card
or a cell phone must be activated, the spirit of man
must be activated! Until it is activated it is not a
living, pulsating, energizing, ruling, growing power
in man. It must be germinated, quickened by the
power of the invigorating rain of God’s Word and
the warm sunshine of God’s Spirit! Once our spirit
is quickened by God’s Spirit, it springs forth into
new birth. And that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit — it doesn’t become spirit when it is born, it
already was spirit before it was "born" just as a
flesh and blood baby already is flesh and blood
before it is born! If the seed of God in man were not
spirit, the offspring of God, it would not be
quickened into God- like-ness by the act of regeneration!
Let there be no doubt in the mind of any reader of
these lines that WE DID NOT BECOME SEED BY
REBIRTH — WE WERE SEED AND
THEREFORE WERE REBORN, FOR ONLY
THAT CAN BE RE-BORN, RE-NEWED, REGENERATED,
RE-SURRECTED, AND RESTORED
WHICH ALREADY EXISTS. It is not
simply that sin has made a necessity for God to do
something new, but rather that sin had diminished
and darkened something old, which needs to be
restored. The recreative and reconstructive work of
the Holy Spirit is grounded on the primordial nature
of the spiritual life in man. Men are made to be
divinely inhabited, to live in eternal inspiration and
conscious union with God. To be "in the spirit" is
the heritage of every man, his original and normal
condition, his light, his strength, his glory. Because
we are seed is the reason we can be quickened! In
non-seed there is nothing to quicken! And it is not
the flesh that is being quickened, but the inner man
of spirit!
Hold this carefully in mind. Now take the next step.
To redeem means to buy back. It restores to the
original owner and state. Jesus, by His death, the
shed blood, BOUGHT BACK HIS OWN. He
bought back every son and daughter out of His
loins. You never were anything but a son of God!
You never were a pig or a dog or a devil or a mere
human animal. That is impossible, for every kind of
life produces the same kind and there is no change
of specie. As we came out of the loins of God into
this existence on earth, there had to come a day
when we would hear His voice, and hearing that
voice become aware of our Father calling us, and
recognize that we are the sons of God. We heard
His voice and we cried out, as did the prodigal son,
"Save me, oh, my Father! I am returning to Thee."
The Father’s promise is sure, as Linda Musgrove
has articulated in her beautiful song (available on
cassette or CD from Stacy and Linda Musgrove, P.
O. Box 111, Cunningham, Texas 75434-0111.
Cassette albums are $10 postpaid, CD’s are $15
postpaid):
I’ll take you back to where you were in me
Before the fall of man;
I’ll restore your soul, I’ll reconcile your heart,
I’ll give you back your true identity!
I’m removing the veil from your eyes
So that you can clearly see;
You will be with me in Paradise,
On this earth you’ll walk with me!
A son of God can go a long time before he is
awakened to the fact of his sonship. In fact a lot of
God’s children are like the story of the baby eagle
that was hatched out under a hen. You know that
the eagle is a type of the sons of God who live and
soar in the high places of the Spirit. Well, a farmer
took an egg from an eagle’s nest and he placed it
under a hen. In due time all the eggs under the hen
hatched out. The baby chicks got along fine with the
mother hen but that little eagle could not figure out
the clucking and scratching for food in the manure
pile. He managed to make a living but he was pretty
confused about it all. But one day, from way up in
the air the mother eagle that had laid the egg spied
that little eagle on the ground. She swooped down
with tremendous speed and screamed at the top of
her voice for him to fly up to meet her. He had
never heard an eagle cry, but when he heard that
first scream something in him stirred and he longed
to launch out toward it. But he was afraid to try.
Again that mother screamed for him to arise in the
wind and follow her. He screamed back that he was
afraid. Once mo re she called out, screaming that he
try. Beating his wings he hurled himself into the air,
and answering the cry of his mother, he soared off
into the blue skies. You see, he always was an
eagle! He acted like a chicken for a little while but
he could not be satisfied. But when he heard the call
of the great eagle he came to his own place. And
once a son of God hears the cry of the Spirit by the
Word, he too, will realize who he is and run to the
great eagle who begat him to be seated in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are "being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever" (I Pet. 1:23). We are born
again when we hear the living word of God
speaking to us, calling us to arise and be all that
God has ordained for us!
I freely confess that I believe in the reconciliation
and restoration of all men to God. I have to believe
it, because if the seed of God is in every man, every
man must hear the voice of the Son of God and live.
"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming when all
that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall
come forth…verily, verily, I say unto you, 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. 5:25,28).
The seed of Christ is in every man, but God has an
appointed time for that life to be revealed. And how
is it revealed? You take that seed, you plant it in the
earth, and in the appointed time God sends two
elements that will produce a revelation of Christ out
of that person, in his time. I don’t care who the man
is; there’s a time, an appointed hour. God sends the
sun of His illumination, and the rain of His
quickening life, He rains upon that seed and shines
upon that seed, and there is a stirring of that life on
the inside, and suddenly the shell which concealed
the life begins to burst. The revelation of the life
that is in the seed comes by the removal of the outer
part of the seed. The inner life is released. The
genetic code is intact. Everything that plant will
ever be is right there in the seed! When the life
springs forth all that hindered is broken asunder.
Every step of the revelation of Christ is an
unveiling! God removes the outer, and when it is
gone we behold the power, beauty, and glory of the
inner life. Some of us were in churches, in
denominations, and God began to stir us. The life of
sonship was already there. All God did was break
open the cocoon that we were in, so that the thing
He had planted in us could come forth, stretch its
wings, and fly away into the heavens of God’s
Spirit. Oh, the wonder of it!
CHOSEN BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN
Some years ago I received a tape from Bob and
Charlotte Torango which spoke powerfully in my
spirit. Charlotte was talking about what she termed
our "congenital condition." "Congenital" simply
means "that which is from birth." I had never
known the meaning of that word until 1995 when
the doctors diagnosed me with a "congenital
anomaly." I thought, "My God, what’s that?" The
more common term is "birth defect." You see, I had
a bone up around my first vertebra that did not fuse
from birth. Of course, it originated before that! It
was already there as a pre-existing condition at the
time of my birth.
There was no history of this in my family, but it
happened. Very gradually over nearly sixty years,
that bone kept moving by microscopic measures
toward the center. Finally it began to compress my
spinal cord, at the base of the brain stem. Symptoms
appeared which I contributed to age and arthritis.
Eventually, overnight, I developed very serious
symptoms. I awoke one morning with pain and
weakness in all my extremities, coupled with
involuntary movements of both arms and legs. I
could barely walk, and at times collapsed. An MRI
showed that my spinal cord had been compressed to
the thickness of a ribbon. The neurosurgeon told me
that if the damage had not been done so very, very
slowly over many years, I would have already been
either dead or quadriplegic, but my body had kept
compensating for the damage until finally it could
compensate no more.
A brain surgeon performed the surgery, going transorally
(through the roof of my mouth) into the area
of the brain stem and cutting away the bone,
releasing the pressure from the spinal cord. The
doctor informed me that I should at least partially
recover from the near-paralysis and other
symptoms, but that he could guarantee no progress
beyond one year. Well, let me tell you something.
There’s a seed in my earth! You see, at the time of
my illness I earnestly sought the Lord for healing.
We have experienced the power of God in healing
and miracles! In my early ministry, in the days of
the great healing revivals, the Lord performed
mighty signs and wonders through my word. This
time, however, the Lord spoke right out of my spirit
and plainly said, "I’m not going to heal this. You
will have the surgery!" When I received that word
from the Father, He also gave a peace, peace that
passes understanding, peace so deep that it cannot
be fathomed. When I was wheeled in for a surgery
that was the equivalent of brain surgery, there was
no fear nor apprehension whatsoever, I wasn’t even
nervous. I was able to laugh and joke with the
nurses until I passed out. And, my friends, I have
continued to experience progress in my physical
condition far beyond what the doctors promised —
progress every year since 1995! And while I don’t
put a great premium on this physical, earthly realm,
I will not be at all surprised when my change comes
and all the effects of the spinal cord injury and the
surgery disappear!
Now, why do I relate this? Because what I had was
a congenital anomaly. It was a condition I had from
birth, from before birth, even from before
conception, hidden away somewhere in the seed
(genetic make-up) of my parents who conceived
me. You see, we are prone to look at our whole
carnal, human state as a congenital condition. We
think we are like we are because we were born that
way! We say, "I was born in sin. I was born
alienated from God. I was born dead. I was born
Irish, and I do have a temper! I was born an
alcoholic, I was born homosexual, I was born lustful
and over-sexed, I was born prideful, I was born with
my foot in my mouth." That’s how we see ourselves
if we look from the earthlies, with a carnal mind!
When you look from the heavenlies, however, you
see something else! You came into this world out of
the bosom of the Father! Before the Creator formed
you, He knew you. He didn’t know you in your
present physical form as Joe Smith or Sally Brown,
but He knew you as spirit. God spoke to you about
His plan for your life before ever you were formed
as an embryo in the womb of your mother. Paul
states it so clearly when he says, "Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us in
Him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him in
love" (Eph. 1:3-4). The Amplified Bible reads,
"Even as He chose us (actually picked us out for
Himself as His own) in Christ before the foundation
of the world."
Never doubt this reality for a moment — the only
way God could have loved you, chose you in Christ,
and picked you out for His own before the
foundation of the world is that you truly existed in
and with Him before the appearing of the worlds.
Nothing can be plainer than that! Yet we have
supposed that we were just recently, in this life,
apprehended of God to sonship. I thought the work
of God began in my life sixty years ago. Now I find
that the thing God is doing with humanity began in
eternity! It didn’t begin in time. It began before the
ages were framed! God loved me, chose me, knew
me, counseled with me, and picked me out for His
unique purpose before the foundation of the world.
My origin was in God! God begat me of Himself as
spirit before He exhaled me as spirit into a very
unique body upon earth. THUS, I WAS BORN
INTO THIS WORLD WITH THAT
CONGENITAL CONDITION — A SPIRITUAL
BEING HAVING AN EARTHLY EXPERIENCE!
And so were you, precious friend of mine, and so
was every man who has walked planet earth. We
were born this way. We were born with a spirit, as
well as a soul and a body. We came into this world
with a God-ward side, with the instinct to seek after
God, with a yearning after Him.
Each of us was born into a mortal, physical body
and into a world of darkness, sin, and death. But
this was according to God’s plan! Paul says that we
are "in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot
lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2).
This is indeed wonderful! We were born into this
world with a promise from God — the promise of
eternal life! That was our congenital condition —
born with a promise. But this hope of salvation was
not promised us when we came into the world, or
after we were born into this life — it was promised
us before the world began! How could God make
such a promise to us if we were not there with Him
before the worlds appeared? Not only was salvation
promised, the kingdom was promised also. "Then
shall the King (Jesus) say to them on His right hand,
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world"
(Mat. 25:34).
The kingdom message deals with the conformity,
maturity, and inheritance of the sons of God. This
great plan was conceived and initiated in eternity,
before time began. "For whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the
image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover whom He did
predestinate, them He also called: and whom He
called, them He also justified: and whom He
justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then
say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us?" (Rom. 8:28-31). Now notice! These
five verbs — foreknow, predestinate, called,
justified, glorified — are all in the aorist tense. This
denotes action at a given point in the past. All these
things happened to us "before" the ages began!
Some have stumbled over the fact that Paul says
that those whom the Father foreknew, predestinated,
called, and justified, He also GLORIFIED. They
have questioned the meaning of "glorification,"
wondering how they could already be glorified in
their present imperfect, mortal state. Let us
understand — ALL of this is in the past! God
foreknew us in the past — before the world began.
That is also when He predestinated us, called us,
justified us, and glorified us. Jesus, the firstborn of
this company of sons selected before the world
began, reveals the deep mystery of this when He
prays, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with
Thine own self with the glory which I had with
Thee before the world was" (Jn. 17:5). Ah, that is
when we were glorified! It is not something
happening now, though it shall be manifested now,
but it was given us in Christ in that long ago before
the world began. "For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them"
(Eph. 2:10). Aren’t you glad!
We should always be keenly aware of the great
reason and purpose God had in mind for sending
His spirit-sons through this earthly experience.
Have you considered the truth that lies hidden in
this inspired statement: "And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according to His
purpose" (Rom. 8:28). It is significant that this
passage in found in that great sonship chapter where
the Holy Spirit speaks explicitly of our calling,
choosing, and predestination before the foundation
of the world! When we were with the Father as His
spirit-sons we were pure, perfect, and holy — but
innocent and unproven. We were holy but did not
know why we were holy, never having experienced
the opposite. Job was a perfect man, the Lord said,
but he was untested, and thus all that befell him was
for his testing and proving.
We could have remained hidden in God in that
bright glory world of spirit and borne the image of
our heavenly Father, but without knowledge,
choice, or experience. We would never have been
holy because we understood why we should be holy,
we would simply have been what we were without
understanding. We would never have been holy
because we chose to be holy! We would never have
understood why the wages of sin are death, why
pride goeth before destruction, why sin is a
reproach, why the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil is dangerous, delusive, and disastrous, why
the ways of the Lord are perfect and right
altogether. We would never have understood the
why of anything, and thus would ever have
remained innocent, void of discernment and
vulnerable. We would have been like an overprotected
child in this world who is innocent of
much that goes on about him, and therefore unable
to cope when exposed to temptation, pressure, and
problems. Our all-wise Father wanted sons who
become sons indeed through experience, having
encountered the opposites of life, holiness, wisdom,
power, and glory. Oh, yes! God wanted sons who
were processed, tested, proven, learning to
overcome all things and be made strong and
victorious through experience — not naive,
ignorant, undisciplined sons rich through
inheritance but with no nobility of character to
handle what they receive. This is why we had to
come this route, and believe me, before God would
turn the universe over to us WE HAD TO COME
THIS WAY! Earth, with all its sin, darkness,
sickness, sorrow, fear, delusion, hatred, death, and
demons is the divine "Boot Camp" for all of God’s
spirit-sons!
When man fell, and I do believe man fell, he was
lowered into a state which the scripture calls death
or sleep in which he became unaware, unconscious,
unresponsive to the dimension of the life of God in
his spirit. A yearning after God was there, but no
certain knowledge of life in the spirit. Through the
flesh, the natural consciousness of the physical
world and the carnal mind, and through sin, man
became captivated by the power of death. This has
been the state of Adam, bound within the prison
bars of mistaken identity, because of his
unresponsiveness to God. Now let me tell you
something about death, that which we call "spiritual
death." Death is not non-existence! When a man
dies and you put him in a coffin, is he non-existent?
I’m speaking of the physical body that you see there
in the coffin. You walk up to the coffin and say,
"There lies uncle Joe. Doesn’t he look natural? Oh,
he looks so peaceful! Didn’t the mortician do a
beautiful job? He looks so good in his favorite suit.
Oh, uncle Joe!" We pat uncle Joe on the forehead,
kiss his cheeks, and say our goodbyes. You see —
uncle Joe is not non-existent because you see him
there! You touch him, even talk to him.
Now hear what I’m saying! To be dead does not
mean that you cease to exist. It means that you
cease to be responsive by the expression of life.
You can stand there beside the casket, you can
flatter uncle Joe, you can rehearse all the nice things
he ever did and enumerate all his wonderful ways.
You can eulogize him right into heaven even if, in
fact, he was a scoundrel. While you speak all these
nice things poor old uncle Joe doesn’t puff up with
pride. He gets no smile on his face, no sparkle in his
eyes. His ear doesn’t begin to twitch. Oh, no! Uncle
Joe is there, alright, but he is unresponsive. He is
unconscious of the world around him, or of his own
existence in it. It is the same as if he were sleeping
— and that is why death and sleep are often used
interchangeably in the scriptures. A sleeping man is
not non-existent, but he is unaware and
unresponsive!
On the other hand, you can stand there and "cuss
him out," ridicule him, slap his face and tell him
what dog and a devil he was and how much you
hate him. Uncle Joe will not strike back! He will not
turn red in the face with rage. He will not jump out
of that casket and grab you, because he’s
unconscious and unresponsive to the world he’s in.
THAT IS DEATH! We came into this world with a
loss through Adam of the life of God in our spirit
and the bright world of spirit. Therefore we are dead
in trespasses and sins. But, is the spirit- life in man
non-existent? Not at all! It is not non-existent, just
unresponsive. We were born without the capacity to
express the spiritual life because we lost the
consciousness of who we are in the true world we
pertain to. That is why Jesus came. He came to save
us from this condition, He came to awaken us, to
resurrect us, to reconcile our heart, to restore us to
God and heaven. Through His blood He quickens
our spirit, awakens our consciousness, and restores
the reality of being.
Oh, yes! You were with the Father before the
foundation of the world. But — do you remember?
Can you remember when you were there with your
Father? Can you remember what was said, what you
knew, what you had when you were with the
Father? Do you remember the wonderful plan
devised at that time, and your agreement with it? Do
you remember being chosen in Christ, promised
eternal life, predestined unto placement as a son of
God, before the foundation of the world? Do you
remember the beginning of your journey?
Do you remember? YOU ARE REMEMBERING!
Do you know how you’re remembering? The
answer is simple — all revelation is but a
remembering! Someone says, "Oh, brother Eby, the
Lord showed me such and such — I’ve had a
revelation and I see thus and thus." Yes, you had a
revelation! The reality is, however, that what you
perceived as a revelation was simply God
reminding you; He woke you up!
We should always be fervently aware that a
revelation is an unveiling. That is the meaning in
Greek. To have something revealed means to have
it unveiled. There have been masterpieces of art and
sculpture that have had a day of unveiling.
Michelangelo was famous for the unveiling of some
of his great works. But you see, my friend, the
unveiling is not the creation of the thing unve iled!
The unveiling is simply the revelation of something
which already exists! Spiritual revelation is the
uncovering of the secret knowledge of God within
our spirit. Revelation is a remembering. The whole
purpose of the Holy Spirit’s moving upon us in our
journey in God in this life in the flesh is to cause us
to remember the realm from whence we came, who
we are, what our purpose is — that we might
complete the journey and fulfill that purpose! That
is the mystery.
I know what it means to awaken naturally. The
deepest sleep I have ever been in was at the time of
my surgery. I remember when the doctor woke me
up! I will never forget the first words he said, "Do
you feel like a Mack truck has run over you?" My
first thought was, "I’m alive!" I was just so glad to
be alive, I didn’t care about the Mack truck, it was
simply wonderful to know God had brought me
through. Yes, I was alive, but I had never been dead
— just unconscious. I did not know who or where I
was. The world I awoke to seemed distant and
confused. The nurse wheeled me into my room and
someone turned on the television. I’ll always know
where I was that day, just as most people remember
exactly where they were the day President Kennedy
was shot. When I received the news that Kennedy
had been assassinated I was at the airport in La Paz,
Baja California, Mexico on my way back to the
mainland from a Convention with some brethren in
La Paz. I’ll never forget that! We were told that the
President had been killed, and that when Vice
President Lyndon Johnson received the news he
died of a heart attack. We flew all the way to Los
Mochis in a state of shock thinking that was the
truth. In like manner, I will always remember where
I was at the time of my surgery on April 19, 1995,
because while I was on the surgeon’s table Tim
McVeigh exploded a truck bomb at the Alfred P.
Murray Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City.
As I awoke, all this news was on the television
about this bombing and that 168 innocent people
had died, among whom were nineteen children,
most of whom attended the day care on the second
floor of the building, with all the chaos, tragedy,
and sorrow of that event. I was lying there on my
bed full of morphine, awake enough to hear what
was being said, but not alert enough to comprehend
the immensity of the event or the meaning of it. I
was trying to sort the thing out in the dream world
of a semi-conscious state. It was strange indeed!
But over days my mind cleared. My consciousness
returned. I began to comprehend. And today I know
all about it! Spiritually, my beloved, that is what
God is doing in this hour. HE IS AWAKENING
US! When we first begin to awaken to our true
identity in the spirit world the reality seems rather
fuzzy. Our first thought, at the moment of
regeneration, is, "I’m alive!" We are just glad to
know that we are spiritually alive! But that is not
the beginning of our spiritual life, it is merely our
first remembrance of who we are and where we
came from. Most Christians never get beyond that!
They spend all their lives in that salvation realm,
rejoicing that they have been made alive in Christ.
But as our walk in the spirit progresses things
become clearer and clearer! Now we are tuning in
to the realm of the Spirit. We’re hearing the voice
of our Father. Little by little we’re remembering the
realm from whence we came, and the great purpose
for which we were born. We call this "revelation,"
but revelation is merely a "remembering." It is not
new information, it is recovered reality!
Once a man or woman is filled with the Ho ly Spirit,
the Holy Ghost begins each day to bring to his or
her "remembrance" everything that God spoke over
them and about them in that long ago before the
foundation of the world. By and through the Spirit
we have begun to "recall" His voice and "re-collect"
our predestined inheritance! What comes to us as
"new revelation" is actually the RENEWING OF
OUR MINDS! You can only re-new something that
you had before. Never forget this truth: Revelation
is Remembrance. We are being transformed by this
renewing of our minds! The truth that we knew
before is making us free. He is quickening the
Father’s decree over you from the beginning.
Clarity is coming to the sons of God.
Understanding, perception, consciousness,
expression, purpose, destiny, God is awakening all
of this in us. He is awakening within us that reality
we knew with the Father from before the foundation
of the world. You are here by divine appointment.
All your steps are ordered of the Lord. The body
you were born with, the family you were born into,
your parents, the town you were raised in, the
school you attended, the friends you acquired, the
mate you chose, the job you held, the life you’ve
lived, the experiences you’ve had, the joys and
sorrows, the tragedies and triumphs, the apparent
mistakes and the victories, all that has taken place in
your experience was mapped out in the council of
God on that glorious day when the morning stars
sang together and all the sons of God shouted for
joy.
Every son of Adam has a time to be awakened.
Some — the forerunners, the firstfruits — are being
awakened here and now. Many will be awakened at
another time, under different circumstances. "For as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive, but every man in his own order…" (I Cor.
15:22-23). Some who read these lines remember the
great move of the Spirit of God called Latter Rain
which came to the Lord’s people in 1948. Many
were not in that visitation and have only heard
reports of the glory that came and the mighty
manifestations of God’s power. As the Lord
restored the gifts of the Spirit to the church at that
time, there came into manifestation what was
termed "confirmation services." The confirmation
service was taken scripturally from the passage
which says, "And when they had preached the
gospel to that city, and had taught many, they
returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and
Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and
exhorting them…" (Acts 14:21-22). The way the
Spirit revealed this was that every child of God was
to be confirmed in the body of Christ by prophecy
with the laying on of hands. The presbytery, the
ministry of the apostles, prophets, and elders would
lay hands on the saints as the Spirit directed, and by
prophecy their call, appointment, and place in the
body of Christ would be revealed and confirmed,
gifts of the Spirit imparted, and the saints
established and set into their function as members
of the living organism of Christ’s body. It was a
wonderful day for me when hands were laid on me
in Toledo, Ohio. I’ll never forget the words that
came out of the mouth of one of the prophets: "Yea,
thou shalt be a teacher of the kingdom of God!" At
that moment I didn’t even know what the kingdom
of God was! It was also said that I would prophesy.
When the prophets had finished, one of them said to
me, "Brother Eby, the Spirit has said that you have
the gift of prophecy. Now — prophesy!" That
nearly scared me out of my skin. But within seconds
the spirit of prophecy came upon me and prophetic
words began to flow out of my mouth. The things
declared that day have come to pass in a remarkable
way.
I believe in confirmation. I believe in impartation.
There’s a reality there. But I’ll tell you something. I
have seen by the Spirit another confirmation
meeting that happened so many eons ago that I
could never calculate them, on a glorious day when
the morning stars sang together and all the sons of
God shouted for joy. There never has been since nor
shall there ever be again such a meeting! Everything
that would ever happen in this time-space world
happened in that meeting. The works of God were
finished in that meeting (Heb. 4:3). Your destiny
and mine were pre-arranged in that meeting (Eph.
1:3-5; I Cor. 2:9-10; Is. 46:10). The Lamb was slain
in that meeting (I Pet. 1:18-20; Rev. 13:8). Our
names were written in the book of life in that
meeting (Rev. 13:8). And you and I were there…in
Him!
Before any human being ever set foot upon this
planet, the purpose of God in each and every one
was confirmed in that meeting! There was spoken
into my spirit, and into yours, out of the heart of
God, out of the mind of the Father, His great and
wise plan of the ages. There was imparted and
impregnated into us a destiny, a purpose to be
fulfilled upon earth. Therefore I say unto you, if you
missed the 1948 confirmation meeting you didn’t
miss anything because you were in the one eons
before that! The words of a little chorus we sing
express it so well:
The throne room looks the same
As I ascend back to whence I came;
There’s the scepter that was mine
Before I left there;
And there I sit with all the sages
I was enthroned with before the ages,
But most of all, my Father
Out of whom I came!
There is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
And Sarah involved in my makeup;
And all the others who are in my family tree…
And down the corridors of eternity
God controls my destiny,
For back into Him I can trace my pedigree!
THE GOLD MINE
The natural resources of this earth are mindboggling,
yet in the midst of all the riches of this
marvelous planet there are literally billions of
people living in poverty. They live in squalor,
disease, ignorance, limitation, bondage, and
servitude, yet the earth is abundant in wealth. There
are untold trillions of dollars of natural resources, of
gold and silver and precious stones and others too
numerous to mention, but most of them are
controlled by governments or owned by wealthy
and powerful corporations. There is gold in the vast
oceans of the earth, but it’s so diluted that it’s
unusable by the average person. There are treasures
that are buried in the ocean, but there have been
only a few of earth’s inhabitants that have been able
to bring up those stout Spanish galleons with their
marvelous treasures and recover them. There is gold
on strange planets in distant galaxies, but nature is
too intractable, the distances so vast, and the human
life-span so short that men are unable to go and
secure it.
How different things would be if only we had gold
mines that were very close to us, that were near at
hand, that were accessible to us, and convenient.
How differently things would be for some of us if
we knew that we had a gold mine in our back yard,
concealed behind the rose bushes, unknown to our
neighbors and unknown to the government! How
secure we would feel if on a summer evening we
could chat with our neighbors over the fence, water
our lawn, and play ball with our children knowing
that when the sun sank below the horizon we could
sneak out under the cover of night and mine a little
bit of the gold out of our private gold mine at the
back of our house, behind the rose bushes.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful when income tax time
came, if we didn’t have to worry about anything?
Just slip out in our mine and get a few nuggets the
size of walnuts. Or when tragedy struck, or an
unexpected expense occurred, we could just get a
few bags of gold dust out of our mine and pay those
bills. Or perhaps we want to travel, but we don’t
have a rich uncle and we haven’t won the lottery, so
we sneak out again and get some gold out of our
gold mine and we’re able to fly away wherever we
want to go, travel the earth, see the sights, stay at
five-star resorts, live like a king, with no lack or
limitations whatsoever. Oh, how delightful that
would be!
I write these words today to tell you, my beloved,
that you have a gold mine! It’s not behind your
house. It’s not under the rose bushes. IT’S IN
YOUR SPIRIT! You’ve got a gold mine. Each one
who now reads these lines has a gold mine and it’s
closer to you than the air that you breathe. It’s
closer to you even than the blood that courses
through your veins. The gold mine that you possess
is all the riches and the glory and the wisdom and
the knowledge and the righteousness and the joy
and the peace and the understanding and the power
and the omnipotence of God in your spirit! God is
in your spirit! Isn’t it wonderful! You are the sons
and daughters of the Most High God. The very life
of God is within you today. In that life there is no
limitation at all. All the wealth of divinity, all the
riches of the mind of the Father, all the abundance
of joy, peace, love, and power that are in Jesus
Christ, 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!
The Indian mystic, Sadhu Sundar Singh, said in one
of his teachings, "Many there are that are like a
hunter who, while wandering in the jungle, picked
up some pretty stones on the bank of a stream.
Unaware of their value he used them one by one in
his sling to shoot at the birds perched on the trees
near the river, and so one by one they fell into the
water and were lost. With one still in his hand he
returned to the city, and as he passed along the
bazaar a jeweler caught sight of it, and told the silly
fellow that it was a valuable diamond for which he
could get thousands of rupees. When the man heard
this he began to bewail himself and say, ‘Woe is
me! I didn’t know their value, and have been using
many of these diamonds to shoot at birds by the
riverside, and they have fallen into the river and are
lost, otherwise I should have been a millionaire!
Still I have saved this one, and that is something
gained.’"
The spirit of every man is like a precious diamond!
Ah, yes, there lies buried within you the greatest of
all treasures — the kingdom of God within your
spirit. Discover that kingdom today, my friend,
draw from its wealth, suck from its life, receive
from its power and you will become a new creation,
transformed into the image of God. All things are
possible to him that believes this! All that is true in
God lies within that kingdom, for it is the image of
God created in man from the beginning, now buried
deep beneath the debris of the carnal mind and
fleshly life. It is there and it is yours, for the taking.
Only the earth, the earthiness of your outer self,
your own carnal consciousness, needs to be
removed for the image of God to be seen. It is still
there within you no matter how weak, sinful, or
undone you may feel, or how miserably you may
have failed. Your heavenly Father who sent you
here to earth is this day calling you back to Himself,
back to the wisdom and power of God inherited out
of His life. As you "live in the spirit" and "walk
after the spirit" you will be an overcomer in all
things, eventually qualified to share your Father’s
throne!
When a man is truly yielded up to the inspiration of
God in his spirit, then he is restored to the normal
state from which he fell; made conscious again of
God, knowing God as revealed in his inmost life, by
a knowledge that is beyond the mind and senses,
filled with the righteousness, peace, joy, love, and
power of the kingdom of God. He begins to live as
he was made to live — inspired, led, ennobled,
empowered, a temple for the habitation of God. In
his spiritual perfection his whole action is out of
divine impulse. All sin, lack, sorrow, and death are
drunk up or lost in the divine perfection. He
celebrates a reign — not a reign in some far-off
heaven somewhere, nor yet upon a throne in some
earthly sphere, but within himself, in the more
magnificent heaven and the more glorious throne of
his own exalted powers and thoughts and the
glorified nature of his spirit. Man finds his paradise
when he is imparadised with God!
Christ is within us as a seed! Within this Christ-
Seed can be found all the divine attributes necessary
to make us fully manifest sons of God — Christs
like the original seed of the fullness of God in
Christ. As each single cell of our body contains
within it the genetic code that made us what we are
physically, so the seed of God within our spirit has
within it all the power of the life of God to
transform us into the full image and likeness of our
heavenly Father. As a literal, natural seed grows
from a seed to become a blade, then to the ear stage,
after that to the full corn in the ear, so the seed of
God within grows progressively within us until He
who is within makes us full grown sons of God —
master of all the opposites! Having been tested,
tried, and proven in all that is contrary to God, and
having fully overcome in it, we are at last truly
LIKE HIM, holy as He is holy, understanding why
we must ever be holy, choosing once and for all and
forever to abide in His holiness, knowing good and
evil as God knows it, discerning, perceiving, and
comprehending the folly of all the way that seems
right unto a man, but whose end is the way of death.
Now we, as our Father, are light, for He is the
Father of lights and in us there is no darkness at all!
Now in us, as in our Father, there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning.
THE SEED IN EVERY MAN HAS
CONQUERED! Oh, the wonder of it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)