KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Part 57

THE INCREASE OF THE KINGDOM

(continued)

Scientists finding fossil footprints of extinct dinosaurs assure us that these great creatures must have roamed the earth in the long ago. As they walked upon the semi-solid earth, later hardening into rock, they left these indisputable evidences of their existence. In like manner God has trod this earth; He has traveled the infinite depths of space leaving His mark on everything touched. The starry heavens are studded with countless universes flung from His omnipotent hand. He has set them in their destined locations and marked out for them their appointed speeds and orbits.

The notion that God for many ages through incomprehensible measures of time -- countless billions of trillions of earth years -- remained inactive and then at a comparatively recent date created the universe and our world is both illogical and fallacious. This view assumes that eternity preceded time, that time began from several thousand to several billion years ago, and God was within eternity uncreative and unproductive. Here, in the picture people have of God first contemplating the idea of a creation and then resolving to bring it into existence, we have God suddenly becoming something in recent history that He had never been before!

Just as a king is not called a king until he has a people subject to him, so in like manner the name "Creator" cannot be applied to one unless there is something that has been created. God is not called "God" until He has a people, as it is written, "And I will be your God, and ye shall be my people" (Lev. 26:12). Furthermore, the smiter can smite, but he is not called "the smiter" until he has smitten something. Even if there is no smitten object, and there is nothing lacking in the ability of one to smite, yet it is only when there is a smitten object that it is proper to call the smiter by that name. Thus with the Creator -- possessing the ability, wisdom, and power to create does not make Him a Creator. Only when He has created something is He the Creator!

I declare to you today that our God is spontaneously creative. He is not systematically creative. What I mean by that is that God does not employ a program in His purpose and activity. God is a God of spontaneity. God moves, not by system or method, but by the creative power of His life. God is speaking in this hour a word of life. He is energizing us with His life, transforming by His life. The life of God is the creative power of His nature. When I say that God is spontaneously creative, it is my conviction that God has always been everything that He is. He says, "I am Yahweh, I change not." You can't add anything to God. There is no increase of what He is. There is an increase in manifestation, a progression in His purposes, but God Himself does not change. If God changed one iota today, He would cease to be God. He is God by virtue of the fact that He IS. "I am that I am; I change not; I am the eternal." By this God is saying, "I am what I am. I always am all that I am. I have never been anything that I am not now. I never will be anything that I am not already. What I am I have always been. All that I am I ever will be. I change not." That is what makes God eternal. Anything that changes in any way is not eternal, for in the change some characteristic is left behind or a new one acquired. In every change something ends or something begins. That which dwells in an eternal state knows no change. Change is possible only in that which is not stable, is limited, is imperfect, or not fully developed. The Lord declares of Himself, "I am Yahweh, I CHANGE NOT" (Mal. 3:6), and the inspired apostle says of Him, "with whom there is no VARIABLENESS, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). God is never surprised. God has not learned anything this week, nor this year, nor in the past billion trillion years. If God learned one thing today, it would destroy Him. He would no longer be the omniscient One, the all-knowing One, for known unto God are all His works from the creation of the world. God does not experiment. God does not become stronger, wiser, mightier, or increase Himself in any way. God is the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent One. He CHANGES NOT. He eternally is all that He is without any decrease or increase or fluctuation whatsoever. Therefore He is the ETERNAL GOD! Eternal means more than unending, it means unchangeable, and therefore unending! Therefore, God has always been Creator!

I don't know about you, but I used to have the idea that God sat around in His heaven for all of "eternity past" and never did anything. There was just God, there was nothing else. God had never done anything except be God. God had never spoken a word. God had never created anything. God had never related to anybody, for there was nobody else, just Himself. He was just God and that was all there was! And then one day, unexpectedly, suddenly, mysteriously an idea came into His mind. A thought presented itself. God thought, "Why don't I do something? Why don't I speak a word? Why don't I make a creation?" And in that sublime moment God first purposed to bring forth a creation!

We are wrong when we teach such a concept. God is life and the wellspring of life. In the outflowing of that life I know Him; and when I discover that He is love, I see that if He were not love He would not, could not create. Now let us consider together the nature of this God who has eternally been Creator. We must clearly see that God is all-inclusive, and that He lacks nothing whatsoever. And God is love -- all goodness. Having said that God is complete within Himself and therefore good, we can now go on to describe the attribute through which we are aware of His existence -- His desire to share. This is the consequence, the effect of His goodness.

Some have said, and I have said it too, that God created man because He was alone and yearned for fellowship -- for creatures of like kind with whom He could commune. But this falls short of the nature of God which is Love. Love does not give because of the desire to receive; rather, love gives purely out of the desire to bless. The desire for fellowship is the desire to receive -- not give! Now God possesses that attribute also, as we shall presently see, but is first and foremost love -- the pure, unmixed desire to impart. Here we have the first principle of creation -- God's infinite desire to impart led to the creation of a vessel to receive His blessings. The creation of the vessel (the one we know and are a part of, the present cosmos) is the revelation of God by creation. He created the universe with all the hosts thereof, and this world with its inhabitants. Thus the Creator could now bestow upon the creation His infinite love and inexhaustible abundance. God is the Lover, creation the beloved, as it is written, "For God so loved the world..."

We have shown that the Creator's nature is that of sharing, giving, imparting, and blessing. However, there can be no sharing unless there is some agent that can receive. So God's infinite and eternal desire to impart implies a desire to fulfill every possible dimension and quality of desires to receive. Can we not see by this that God's infinite and eternal desire to give demands AN AGENT WITH THE DESIRE TO RECEIVE! The very nature of God requires -- CREATION! To impart or share with others, on any level, can only be considered noble or kind when the recipient desires and enjoys that which is offered him. When the recipient rejects the gift, yet the donor continues to insist on its acceptance and finally forces him to accept, one can hardly consider this an act of giving -- much less of love. In fact, it is brutality and tyranny!

All who read these lines know by experience that the mere mechanical act of giving is, in itself, unsatisfactory and unfulfilling. Clearly there must be a desire to receive on the part of the recipient, a knowledge of what the gift entails and signifies, before we can say we are truly giving. If I should give a box of books to a thousand people who cannot read and have no interest in books, I have not really given anything. It follows that God could never give anything to anyone without an active desire to receive on their part. So the first step in creation was to bring forth the manifestation of the DESIRE TO RECEIVE! This desire is inherent in creation, just as the would-be mother desires the implantation of the seed from the father. Although some are so blinded by sin and benumbed by death that they seek the answer to their cravings in all the wrong places, even rebelling against the glorious Giver, yet God has a plan for all these, to bring them to repentance (a change of mind and desire) so that they can desire properly and discover the true source of life, blessing and reality. And thus, as it is written, it is "the goodness of God that leadeth men to repentance."

It readily follows that because of His giving nature God must create an instrument with both the capacity and desire to receive. The only way to accomplish this was for God to withdraw Himself, to remove Himself, that there would be a place or condition where HE WAS NOT. God is light, the scripture declares, and in Him there is no darkness at all. Therefore, let it be clearly known that darkness is nought but the ABSENCE OF GOD! "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep" (Gen. 1:2). You will understand a great mystery when you see how it is that creation was brought forth in the domain of darkness, the realm from which, though created by God, God had withdrawn Himself! "For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected the same in hope. Because the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:20-21).

Someone asks, "But isn't God omnipresent -- how could there be some place where He is not?" We say that God is omnipresent, yet there certainly are realms from which He withholds some measure of Himself, otherwise He could not say, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:20). We say that God is omnipotent; yet He has placed a limitation upon the exercise of His own power, just as it is written of Jesus that "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (Mat. 13:58). We say that He is absolutely free, that He can do anything He wishes; yet He has put Himself under obligation by His promises and is bound by His covenants.

Not only was darkness (the absence of God) the first state of creation, it remains the condition of the Adamic creation unto this day. The command, "Let there be light!" is not merely an historical event, but a prophecy of the glorious reality that would be birthed out of the darkness of the first creation. The work begins with darkness. God said, "Let there be light," and at once light shone where all before was dark. It is only when the word of God pierces the dense darkness of our alienated, carnal mind with the divine fiat, "Let there be light!" that our darkness displeases us and we are turned to the light. In that blessed moment the shroud of ignorance and death is removed from our heart and the light of life shines in to illuminate, quicken, and transform that world which we are. "The people which sat in darkness saw a great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up" (Mat. 4:16). "I am the light of the world: He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (Jn. 8:12). "Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son" (Col. 1:12-13).

God's method in His going-forth cannot be better understood than by the use of a somewhat uncommon word -- parsimony. We may say that God's method of realizing Himself in creation is by parsimony. To use an illustration -- if we desire to understand the composition of the great white rays of light, we break them up into their constituents and see them as the colors of the rainbow. All the colors are in the white light, for that is what white light is. When we pass white light through a prism, through stained glass, or even through the cover on the tail light of your automobile, what takes place is that part of the light is held back and we see the remainder. This is parsimony. To change the figure, those who love little children often act upon the same principle. We have to shed a portion of our experience, dispense with a part of our resources, yield up a measure of what we are, and become children ourselves if we are to understand and relate to children. We isolate some of our persona, as it were. Your little boy or girl knows you as father, but perhaps your fellow citizens know you as professor, banker, lawyer, carpenter, electrician, mechanic, or proprietor. You have a larger life than the little child knows anything about, and yet to live your fatherhood properly you have to shed the other persona in the presence of your child and live and act as a child. Part of your nature is dismissed, or withdrawn, or held back. Many know me as a man of God, a preacher and teacher of the Kingdom of God, and there is a certain esteem of the ministry the Lord has favored us with; but for a few years my little grandson knew me as someone to play cars with! A lot of who I am was held back in my relationship with him. Now he is discovering other parts of me that he did not know at that time. There is, furthermore, a part of me that only my wife knows, it is withheld from all others. What is this but parsimony? The principle of parsimony helps us to live our life truly. When we get home from work we shut the world out; when we are at business we live in that as though there were nothing else to live for. In different relationships we insulate or restrict portions of our being.

It is not difficult to see how this applies to God's great principle of creation. God withdrew Himself, creating darkness and void -- this is the self-limitation of Diety; or to state it in other words, God retained, or held back, His full resources in order that there could be formed outside of Himself and beyond Himself and yet within Himself the desire to receive. The desire to receive is the basic mechanism by which the world operates, the dynamic process at the base of all manifestation. The desire to receive affects all creation because it is the basis of all creation. As we view the animate creation we find a remarkable physical dependence upon the external world for survival culminating in man, who has the greatest desire to receive of all creation -- not only for physical things like food, clothing, houses, and possessions, but also for psychological things like peace, happiness, satisfaction, love, and above all, the deep inner craving for spiritual life, the insatiable hunger after reality.

When God created man male and female in His image, He revealed the great truth that He is Himself male and female in His nature and attributes. God would never have known the action of giving and receiving had He not known them as characteristics inherent within Himself. The masculine nature is the nature of the Giver. Aggressiveness, boldness, strength, valor, authority, power, and dominion are among the traits of the masculine nature. And it is the man who provides the sperm out of himself for the creation of a new life. Thus, man is the Giver. Modesty, gentleness, tenderness, sensitivity, and dependence are attributes of the feminine nature. It is the woman who receives the sperm in the act of procreation. And this is why men hold doors open for women, and offer a woman their seat on the bus, instead of the other way around. Woman is therefore the Receiver. When a woman conceives, the realm of her conception is in darkness -- the new life, the new creation, the product of her union is formed in the seclusion and darkness of the womb. In its beginning the new life is without human form and darkness is upon the face of the deep. What marvelous things are wrought in darkness! Said the Psalmist: "I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them" (Ps. 139:14-16). And yet, the receiver in turn becomes a giver! The mother who receives the sperm at last gives a child and pours out upon that child love, affection, care, instruction, and discipline as a Giver!

We have been receivers up to this day, but with Peter we can say, "Such as I have, give I unto you!" The great principle of sonship is that we receive in order to be able to give! The sons are receiving in fullness that they may give out of fullness. The sons are receiving ultimately that they may give ultimately. The sons are receiving infinitely that they may pour into creation infinitely. All men give out of the measure they have, but God is bringing forth a people in this hour in such a dimension of His nature, life and power that He shall be expressed through them in the fullness of Himself. For these creation groans, for only as this mortal puts on immortality, and this corruptible puts on incorruption, shall we be able to deliver creation from the bondage of corruption.

I know nothing deeper in God than love, nor believe there is anything deeper than love, nay, there can be nothing deeper than love! The being of God is love, and love demands an object -- the beloved. If God never created until six thousand years ago or twenty billion years ago, then He could have not been love before that event, for there was no object of love, therefore no expression of love. God would have been throughout eternity -- before time -- loveless. Our existence is not accidental: it had to be. God must love, therefore God must create. The reality of love is a property inherent in the essence of the lover. The Divine Lover, God, cannot love in a limited way because in His nature and being He is limitless, so He loves to the furthest limits of possibility. Creation is therefore intrinsic to God's very life, it is the outer landscape of His own being, God making Himself visible to Himself and simultaneously making Himself visible to us. It is in some sense His very self, as Eve was Adam's self. And in this relationship with His creation God's love is revealed in the interchange of giving and receiving!

Far away in the depths of my spirit I see that from all eternity God has been creating! "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. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made" (Jn. 1:1-3). "Through faith we understand that the ages were framed by the word of God" (Heb. 11:3). That creative word was already there with God in the beginning of our present cosmos. "In the beginning...God said, Let there be...and there was..." That never-begun existence of the Word has eternally been the out-raying of the Father's nature. The Word did not come into existence at the beginning of the present creation -- He already was. He is the CREATIVE WORD! To say that God never created anything before Genesis 1:1 is to deny God His own being, nature, and expression from eternity.

If God never until recent times created anything, then God eternally never spoke and never loved! If at any time He either spoke or loved, then He created! These truths are self-evident. There has never been a time when there was nothingness and only God in existence. The scripture says that He is "before all things," but that doesn't mean that He eternally existed alone, only that He is the origin, the source, the cause of all things, as it is also written, "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things -- for all things originate with Him and come from Him..." (Rom. 11:36). There was never a time when His omnipotent power was not outspread everywhere. We are so narrow when we naively suppose that this universe is the first or only thing God has ever done! God has never been contented to be alone, for He is love. He has ever willed and labored to give existence to other creatures and worlds who should be blessed with His blessedness -- creatures whom He has eternally purposed to conform to His own image and likeness, a likeness developed over eons of time, forever growing: perhaps never one of them yet, though unspeakably blessed, has had even an approximate idea of the blessedness in store for him. It is the ministry of God's firstfruits company of sons to bring this blessedness to all realms of all the creations of God in all dimensions forevermore!

It would make no difference if there were a googolplex (the largest number that has a name) of universes and a googolplex to the googolplex power of sons of God. Eventually God's plan of the ages would be finished, and then comes eternity -- what would seem to be an eternity of stagnation, of the status quo, of no more change or growth or creation -- forever after. There would then be nothing more anywhere with the need to receive, and God's nature of love would forever cease to be expressed, His creative power eternally inactive. If we can lay aside the traditions of men we will see that the creation of God and the family of God will increase forever. And that is what the prophet Isaiah indicates: "Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end..." (Isa. 9:7). The key word is increase -- the government of God forever increasing in number, area, power, scope, responsibility, creativity, fulfillment, fullness of life and purpose.

What happens when the universe is fully occupied, and the glory of God's sons has brought the fullness of God to all worlds everywhere? Ah, some astronomers postulate that the physical universe is potentially infinite in size, with space expanding and matter continually coming into existence. Even if this were not the case, God is CREATOR and other universes and dimensions may exist or be created. There is nothing impossible with God! It is absurd to straitjacket God's great plan and power by the confines and limitations of the cosmos as we know it today. God is unlimited, almighty, omniscient in wisdom, infinite in potential, omnipotent in power and ability. The human mind cannot even conceive of, much less verbalize, what the scope and glory of God's activity and purpose throughout the unending eternity shall be! No end to the increase! What incomprehensible potential! Involvement in God's government unto infinity is what God is offering us as His very own sons. Infinity for eternity! What a prospect!

If God has always been Creator, it follows that He is still creating today. One astronomer describes how throughout the interstellar space freshly created particles of matter cluster first into gaseous thin clouds and then swirl into even denser forms, finally bursting into flaming suns whose energy is nourished by the transmutation of matter itself. These swirling celestial fires are not merely single stars, but systems of stars within systems of stars. Hundreds of millions of them move in the rhythm which produces the galaxies. Who can deny that God is still creating!

You see, my beloved, creation is co-extensive with the Creator. I don't believe there was ever a time when God was not Creator, and therefore creating, because if God one fine day became a Creator, then He changed. Something was added to Him. He became something that He had never been before. As long as there has been God, there has been creation. I don't know how many creations there have been, or how many parallel universes exist even now in other, unknown, dimensions. I know the one that I see with my eyes, that I perceive with my senses. I know the one that my natural man has been birthed into. I gaze at the majesty and immensity of the heavens at night. I behold the symmetry, the harmony, and the wonder of this earth with its towering mountains, vast oceans, and teeming life forms. But I cannot conceive today that what I see is the only thing God has ever done! There may have been ten billion zillion googolplexes of creations, on scillions of levels, before the one that we are beholding today. And I do not hesitate to tell you that this is not the last creation! God continues to create today and without His ceaseless activity all would sink into chaos and nothingness. Jesus said it this way: "My Father is working still, and I am working."

Ray Prinzing contributed a beautiful depth of insight into God's Createrhood when he wrote, "The security of all the good things to come is in Jesus Christ -- since it is IN HIM that all things are to find their perfection and fulfillment. We see Him as the Son of man, we see Him as the Son of God, we see Him as the great High Priest, but we need to also see Him as the GREAT CREATOR -- 'for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible...all things were created by Him, and for Him' (Col. 1:16). It is this GREAT CREATOR who has become our Redeemer, and you cannot separate redemption from His creativity. As Peter writes, 'Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls in well doing, as unto a FAITHFUL CREATOR' (I Pet. 4:19).

"What about this 'CREATOR' part in today's sufferings? For the majority of Christians, CREATING was an historical happening that was wrought a long time ago. 'In the beginning God created...' A creation was brought forth -- hazy, nebulous, but in some way a revelation of His power. Then the erroneous teaching follows that an enemy came by guile, treachery, and marred that creation, so now God has to try and patch things up, rescue a few, and then close the book on the whole sorry chapter. What nonsense! Rather, we firmly declare unto you that CREATING IS A PROCESS STILL BEING CARRIED OUT BY THE WILL AND GRACE OF GOD. Our Redeemer, as our Creator, is still creating us, and we are being perfected in His hand as He conforms us into His own image and likeness. This is why Peter, by inspiration, holds before us the fact that the Creator is faithful -- still operating as such, and using suffering as a part of the creative process. 'As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.'

"God's creative acts are not just limited to history -- they are still in progress, and some are very much yet in the future. 'I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. They are CREATED NOW, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them' (Isa. 48:6-7). Even though He has given us promises of things that shall happen, good things to come, yet there is such a unique creativity involved that no man shall out-guess the way He shall accomplish His plan. That is why Peter admonishes us to 'be established in the present truth' (II Pet. 1:12). Our God is marching on, but are we marching with Him?

"The usual first thought for 'Creator' is Genesis 1:1, 'In the beginning GOD CREATED the heavens and the earth.' I realize that one could go off in several directions with this, perhaps placing the emphasis on the fact that it was God who did the creating; or, that it was the beginning of His plan of the ages; or, we could spend hours meditating on what it was He created. But the thought that strongly comes to me is that far too often we limit HIS CREATIVITY to the book of Genesis, chapter one, and we are not aware that HE IS OUR CREATOR RIGHT NOW. There is a NOW-NESS in His creating which is presently taking place in a people. To say, 'remember now THY Creator,' the THY makes it a personal experience now. Yet it is the proclivity of the carnal man to turn away from the Creator, and involve himself with what was created instead.

"How beautifully the scriptures turn our eyes to behold a higher creation. For 'Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building' (Heb. 9:11). The Greek word used here for 'building' is 'ktisis' which literally means: thing made, a creation, and could rightly be read, 'not of this creation,' meaning, not of this present Adamic man. THERE IS A NEW MAKING TAKING FORM, in His image, with His divine nature. This NEW MAKING is a part of the on-going creativity of our God. And each member of this new creation is an original handiwork of the Creator. 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (thing made, creation)' (II Cor. 5:17). There is a totally new creation being formed, and it is 'not of this building,' not after the realm of the earthy, but OF THE HEAVENLY. It is in the new that the scripture shall be fulfilled which saith, '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).

"With a broad sweep the prophet declares that God is 'the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth' (Isa. 40:28). The vast galaxies, its farthest outreach, beyond the beyonds -- HE prepared, formed, created it all. But lest one would become overwhelmed by the immensity of it all, the prophet also reminded them that 'I am the Lord, your Holy One, THE CREATOR OF ISRAEL, your King. Thus saith the Lord, WHICH MAKETH a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters' (Isa. 43:15-16). Yes, He created the entire universe, but He also CREATED YOU, and He reveals that creativity by making a way for you now, a path through the waters, a way where there is no way. Who ever heard of a path through the Red Sea? God created one when needed! But God's creative acts are not just limited to history, they are still in progress, and some are very much yet in the future. Christ consistently pointed the people towards the new, things that were to happen in their day, and the future, because the working of the Father was progressive in its unfolding. 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work' (Jn. 5:17). He is 'the Lord our MAKER,' and He is still MAKING/CREATING that which furthers His plan and purpose. And then, in tremendous love and grace He includes us in that creative working. How utterly awesome!

"These are truths being revealed today which have been reserved for this very time, and no one can say 'I already knew them.' God has a creative work for this day which has never been seen before! God has a truth for our today and it is sufficient for our times -- as we walk on in His creative unfolding. People are so prone to look back to yesterday's revival and want to repeat it over and over again, so they can say, 'it is just like the good old days.' Little do they know that those days are gone, that God has a most unique, original work of creation for this day which is peculiarly fitted to our times. Why do we think He has ceased to be OUR CREATOR, and has now become a 'Do It Again Worker.' I find no witness of His Spirit within me to return to the 'early church' patterns. I have no inner Divine Urging to dredge up the pattern of Israel's historical dealings for a repeat. Indeed, we are challenged to 'Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.' Rather, we are to 'REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR,' He is the Originator of that which is ever new, and He says, 'Behold, I will do a new thing; now shall it spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert...this people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise' (Isa. 43:18-19,21).

"We have borne the image of the earth. We do not need to go round and round on the wheel to see how many times we can bear this earthy image, or have a repeat of His earthy works, or works in the earthy. There is also an image of the heavenly to be borne. Let the natural give way to the spiritual, let the earthy be replaced by the heavenly! He continues to mold and shapen and form, because HE IS CREATING A NEW SPECIES, that is, CREATING AN HEAVENLY HOST. Resurrect and build replicas of all the old orders that you desire -- then pray them through repeated cycles of revival after revival, but they will always go into a decline, for God has not meant for them to endure. In our heart He has spoken of A NEW, and for us the former has now waxen old, and we pray it will swiftly vanish away. We do not belittle the days that have passed. We praise God for every move of His Spirit, every work that He has wrought, but we see them as stepping stones of preparation for that which is to come. For, we repeat, HE IS THE HIGH PRIEST OF GOOD THINGS TO COME!"

"Even Paul, in turning the attention away from himself, and unto God, told the people, 'Ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein' (Acts 14:15). When you worship let it be THE LIVING GOD, He has the power to create, He is OUR MAKER, the living Lord of all. Briefly and simply stated, when we need help, let it go beyond Christ being our Healer, see Him as our CREATOR, He can create whatever is necessary for us. We can see Him as our Provider, but when we see Him as our Creator He can create provision when there is nothing in hand. HE is our MAKER, and He can continue to make, to produce, to create. 'My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth' (Ps. 121:2). Ah, to see Him as our faithful Creator means that we are connected to One of total sufficiency, total power, total victory.

"Remember thy Creator, the Spirit speaks today,

And let His love and mercy attend thy pilgrim way.

To turn the shades of darkness into the dawning light,

O'erthrow the force of evil, and turn the wrong to right.

Why need we fear the future, or fret at things behind?

For He is all-sufficient e'en when our faith is blind.

And He remaineth faithful, to succor those who call,

Remember thy Creator, He is our All in all."

-- Ray Prinzing

We are even now a new creation. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." There is an old creation and there is a new creation. But I have news for you! The new creation shall also be a creator, for the new creation is that which is in union with Him who is the ETERNAL CREATOR. And I tell you that I have higher objectives than this, but I did joke with my wife on occasion that when I become a creator and create my worlds, I think one of the first things I am going to create is a six-legged chicken! (I guess you can tell which part of the chicken is my favorite!). That, of course, is merely a humorous thought, for I am quite sure that any kind of chicken will be the farthest thing from our minds when we come to that awesome and glorious task of being participators with God in His ever-expanding, universal Kingdom. What I am saying is this: God IS. God has always been everything that He is, and always will be all that He is. God has always been Creator! He will always be Creator! And now He is making us His sons that we may in all things be like Him! God is creating today, and He is a God that is infinite in all of His ways. The sons of God are SONS OF THE CREATOR and are therefore creators as is their Father.

The creative spirit already dwells within man. If you have ever noticed -- even a child loves to create. Have your children not brought something to you, a picture they drew, something they made, something they did? They were so proud of it, so excited about it! But that is really the image of GOD in them shining through! You see, the nature of creativity is within every man. That's why we have artists, poets, musicians, architects and inventors. Where does a picture, a poem, a song, a building, or an invention come from? Someone says, "Well, the picture is canvas and paint, and it's the artist who does it." But give me canvas and paint -- and you don't want to see it! I bought a guitar once, too, and you wouldn't have wanted to hear it! These things all proceed out of mind, out of spirit. They emerge from the invisible realm and are made visible by those who receive them. They come right out of that creative nature breathed into man's nostrils, the very breath and life of OUR CREATOR. They are not made, they are created! They are products of the inspiration of the Almighty!

Paul Mueller once quoted a letter he received from a brother who obviously has a deep understanding of the creative processes of God. A portion of the letter said, "This has been a very exciting morning for me, as the Lord gave me a new picture and understanding of what He is doing and how He is doing it. These are days of continuing creation. Our Father, being a Creator, has never stopped creating. He is still creating out of nothing! A Creator can't stop creating. Now He is creating through His sons. But how is He creating? Where is He creating? That is the glorious mystery that is unfolding to me as I journey on His highway! We sons are learning the higher way of God, our Father, who created everything out of no-thing. It all came out of Himself. We are creators made in His image, learning to create the kingdom as we live, move, and have our being moment by moment, day by day. We are creating the kingdom where there was and is no kingdom, only darkness. We are bringing it right into the midst of that darkness!

"How do we go about turning spiritual darkness into Light? Just by knowing and being who we are, children of light! It is all done out of rest! It is done by the Person of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. It is actually the Holy Spirit who is doing the creating through us, precept by precept, speaking the word of faith that becomes fact. It is taking many of us, who together are His body, to create the world-wide kingdom. We are interconnected in Spirit. In Christ, we are one omnipresent Spirit. Now instead of 120 at Pentecost, we are a world-wide body of spiritual creators, bringing the kingdom into being where before there was no kingdom in manifestation.

"The kingdom of God appears in the midst of the darkness as the sons speak the word of their Father from His center of higher spiritual knowing, wisdom, and understanding within, 'Let there be light!' As the sons of God walk in earth's spiritual darkness and nothingness, wherever they are, they all say the same word, 'Let there be light!' And that light shines away the darkness. Because we are children of light, made in the image and born into the family of our Father in Light, we may knowingly and purposefully speak His Word. This is spiritual Light, spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit. He is omnipresently networking the children of Light, those who speak the same Word with the one mind of Christ in them, and who are brought into one accord and agreement together. If one hears this Word in the Spirit, 'Let there be light!' although he may be surrounded by spiritual darkness, he will speak to that darkness, and it must go. In that higher way, each child of Light enters into the creation of the kingdom on earth and becomes a living part of the present kingdom. We're busy creating the kingdom that was not there beforehand in visible form. By faith it comes into manifestation, and those who have been held captive to the world's systems are loosed from the darkness. They come into the kingdom with rejoicing, singing, and an abundance of feasting on kingdom infinite supply" -- end quote.

Everything that God creates is unique. He is a God of unlimited diversity, of infinite variety, of inexhaustible capacity. We see this throughout the whole creation of God. To me it is amazing, it's a wonderful thing that astronomers tell us the heavens are composed of more than two hundred billion galaxies -- yet I don't accept that! I believe that not only is the creation co-extensive with the Creator in the sense that God has always been creating, but I also believe that the creation is co-extensive with the Creator in the infinity of His person. In other words, the only reason the scientists believe that there are two hundred billion galaxies is simply because that is as far as they can see. The fact is that everywhere God is -- He is creating! Not only is God always all that He is, He also is all that He is everywhere that He is! His power, his glory, His wisdom, His knowledge, His love, His goodness, all is as omnipresent as God Himself. God does not have two eyes somewhere out in space with marvelous X-ray vision that can pierce through all things. No! The eyes of the Lord are spirit eyes, and everywhere God's Spirit is, the eyes of the Lord are. God does not see you today, my friend, from heaven above. God in the room where you are, God within by His Spirit, sees you right where you are, for the eyes of the Lord are all about you and within you. All the attributes, powers, functions, and abilities of God are spirit and are as omnipresent as His Spirit. God is all that He is everywhere, and He can do all that He does everywhere. The mouth of the Lord is an omnipresent spirit mouth, His ability as Spirit to speak in every place at the same time. Out of His Spirit He can speak within your own heart or ears, while at the same instant He is speaking to millions of other people around the world and to holy angels and creatures of all kinds in far distant worlds. He speaks to each out of His Spirit present with them, not from some distant place where His "mouth" is. In like manner the creative power of God is an omnipresent power and God creates, not in one locale, but out of the infinity of Himself.

The astronomers can discern and calculate two hundred billion galaxies, but no man can see further than his vision can go, naturally or spiritually. God is quickening His sons in this hour to see further, to see deeper, that we might perceive the truth of all things. It is only as we see by the Spirit that we can see as God sees, know as God knows, understand as God understands, and act as God acts. God is infinite. I don't know how many galaxies there are, because there is no end to them. You could never find the outer extremities of the universe because God is everywhere, all things are out of Him, God upholds all things, He fills all things, and if you were to discover the limit of the creation, you would discover the limit of God Himself! Not only does God always do everything that He does, He always does everything that He does everywhere that He is. So there is no limit!

God is always doing. Jesus said, "My Father works, and I work." Again He said, "I do only those things I see my Father doing." That is the mark of every son of God. We must see farther, we must see deeper, because we can only do what we see our Father doing. Most Christians see so little of God! But within His sons that are coming to maturity God is expanding and enhancing our vision. Our Father is bringing us to the place of His perspective, to see as He sees, to see according to His own heart and purpose. God IS Spirit; therefore the Spirit is God, searching and comprehending all the inner depths of God's being. Because He has been sent into all who are in Christ, He brings the insight of divinity into us as sons of God. Not only does He impart to us the thoughts of God, but for the first time we become awake to His nature, out of which all His actions spring. We are now beginning to SEE WHAT THE FATHER IS DOING, and are becoming participators with Him in His Kingdom purposes.

Our minds cannot comprehend infinity, but if you were to discover the end of God you would discover the end of creation. Yet Paul assures us that in all the universes of the universes there are no two stars that are equal in glory. And stars are still being created! Universes are still coming into existence throughout the immensity of what we call space. With my natural mind I can't conceive of creating two hundred billion stars, and making every one of them different, giving each of them a glory that is unique from any other glory, and then realize that over the millions and billions of time-years, with literally millions and billions of new stars coming into existence, there will be no duplication in the glory of any one of them! And God knows every one of them and calleth them by name! Our hearts are awed with reverence by the sacred knowledge that spiritually each star of the heavens represents a son of God.

The natural sun is the brightest luminary in the natural heavens. And to help us in correctly interpreting the spiritual meaning of the sun, Genesis 1:16 informs us that God made "the greater light to RULE the day, and the lesser light to RULE the night." Here we first have the idea expressed of both the sun and the moon being RULERS. Then we find that God, the supreme Ruler, is called in the Word a "Sun." "For the Lord thy God is a SUN and a shield" (Ps. 84:11). Also, our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings, is in Malachi 4:2 called "the SUN of righteousness." He rules! Furthermore we read that "He that RULETH over men...shall be as the light of the morning, when the SUN ariseth" (II Sam. 22:3-4). And in II Samuel 21:17 we find David the king called "the LIGHT of Israel." In Matthew 13:43 we find, concerning saints who are kings and priests and rule with Christ (Rev. 3:21; 5:9-10), that they are compared to the sun: "Then shall the righteous SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father." Of these same ruling saints, who are the manifested sons of God, Jesus says, "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations and he shall RULE them with a rod of iron..." Then He hastily adds, "And I will give him the MORNING STAR" (Rev. 2:26-28). That is, I will give him power over the nations -- rulership -- and I will give him the POSITION AS THE MORNING STAR to herald the dawn of the Day of the Lord for all mankind. Now consider how meaningful these words of Daniel the prophet wherein He foretells the manifestation of the sons of God: "And they that be wise shall SHINE AS THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE FIRMAMENT; and they that turn many to righteousness as the STARS for ever" (Dan. 12:3).

Then we find in Daniel 4:26, "the HEAVENS DO RULE." God's heaven is His throne. "Heaven I-S M-Y T-H-R-O-N-E" (Isa. 66:1). Heaven in the spiritual terminology of the scriptures is the seat where the SUN, the MOON, and the STARS RULE. As God's heaven is His throne, so God's heaven is not a place in some far-off space, but includes all the governmental realm through which God rules, and He is Lord of all. You, my beloved, are a star in God's governmental heavens! "Ye are the light of the world," said Jesus, the firstborn son of God. Don't try to be like anybody else. Each star has its own glory. How many snowflakes do you suppose have ever fallen upon the earth? And yet they tell us that no two snowflakes have the same design! More than six billion people walk the face of this planet today, and no two fingerprints duplicate, and there are no two people who are identical. Everybody and everything is UNIQUE. You can't be like Preston Eby, and I can't be like you, but we can all be sons of God, stars in the firmament of His ruling Kingdom. And you are very special, beloved, for when God speaks the superlative comes into existence! The shining constellations spreading across the enormous expanse of the heavens represent the Lord's dwelling place in the Kingdom of His new creation people. God is setting His star-sons in the heavens of His throne to rule and reign over all things. Just BE what God has called you to be where you are, and let Christ shine through you in the glory He has given you -- there cannot be another YOU!

Praise God, the heavens are ablaze with the glory of God -- a people who embody and personify the hopes of creation, a people who are experiencing deep within the transformation so necessary to bring deliverance to the earth, and to make all things new. The reason there is darkness today is because of the false doctrines and dark traditions of the church systems and all religion. No wonder God's precious people are full of unbelief, filled with doubts, held captive by circumstances, and overwhelmed with fears. No wonder they magnify the works of the devil and declare him more than they declare God. They know not the DAY in which we are living, because of the darkness of their minds. They receive death and feed on darkness all about them. But God has arisen within you, my brother, my sister, as a light this very day, first dispelling the darkness within you, that you might dispel the darkness and remove these heavens that men have been living under and establish something altogether new in the earth. Bring forth in your life a new likeness, the image of God, that you may declare HIM that is supreme throughout all the earth and to every world that God has made, that He may reign in every heart. Just BE what He rising up to be in you. Thus you have a share in the glorious INCREASE OF THE KINGDOM!

To be continued..

J. PRESTON EBY

PART 56

PART 58