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The Beginning of The End of All Things Part 23 Publication #202.08 Books Written
Another year has come and gone to never return, and for this, we are thankful. We are thankful that 2007 was given to us. We are thankful that we were made a part of it. We are thankful that it is gone. And we are thankful that it will never come again; for that year, as with all the years of the past, is over. Except in our memories, it is history to never be revisited, Although there were two more deaths in our family (my dearly loved 64 year old cousin, Ralph Roach, and another cousin’s widow, our darling, Evelyn), there was nothing that befell us from heaven or hell that would cause us to curse God and die, but to the contrary. As it was with another who knew loss and affliction, Job, our integrity remains firm. How else could it be? There is nothing we wish to do but to stand fast and receive not only the good from the hand of God, but the mystery of evil as well. There were other adversities that came, and as many of you know, not only last year, but over the past three years of losing eight close family members, and several dear friends (the most recent was our friend of many years, Leo Samaniego, sheriff of El Paso County, Texas). Even so, all is well. Indeed, we have been left hollow in many ways due to the awful voids left in our lives, yet we lift our hearts to our God, our loving Father, as we understand that each event, word, and person, both good and evil are those things that make up who we are. They helped to write portions of our lifelong books. Simply by knowing this, it would be impossible to accuse God and find fault with the architecture of His great plan . Even if we didn’t know the importance of both the blessings and the travesties, we could still not accuse Him for us having to go through hell and high water. The point is — it is a necessity that all of it is to be written in our books. We surely do know, don’t we, that we are books? Since this is no great mystery, most will agree; but other than the fleshy tables of our hearts being written upon by the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor. 3:3), do we know how the books are written? It is certainly not with pen and ink, but in the same manner that our Lord’s name and our Father’s name are written in our foreheads. It is a process, and that process includes being plucked from the vine of our life, as it was with our example, Jesus, at Calvary, and the process begins. We are severely bruised, crushed beneath great pressures as the fruit of every good vine is crushed. The crushing of Jesus began in the Garden of Gethsemane when He sweat great drops of blood . It continued throughout the night before the high priest’s court of vicious interrogation and false witnesses, and then before Herod and Pilate. The crushing continued by being scourged, and ended after nine hours upon the cross. We, likewise, are crushed , made helpless and shamed, spiritually speaking, and we lay dead, as it were, in the darkness of the tomb, in hell, where those things in us that are held captive can be freed to rise with us in resurrection life. We have to go to the depths of our being, the very hell of ourselves in order to lead it all captive. It is then, praise God, that the new name is written upon us, and this, we can be assured, is by rising victoriously alive as overcomers. And as it was with our Lord, it is by the resurrection from the dead that we are declared sons of God: "4And declared...the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Romans 1:4 If it was not until His resurrection that He was declared the Son of God, I seriously doubt that we will be declared the same by any other means. We certainly can’t declare it ourselves, and if we do, our declaration won’t carry enough weight to make it so. Although Jesus was called the Son of God on various occasions, especially at His baptism by John when He heard His Father say to Him alone that He was His beloved Son, and again to Peter, James, and John upon the mount of transfiguration; but it was not until His resurrection that He was declared to the world that He was God’s Son. His resurrection was God’s declaration to the universe that Jesus was His Son! The divine fiat signed, sealed, and delivered a Son (not in birth as a child but as a manifested overcomer) who had all the authority and power of His Father. And it is this new name that is written upon every page, from the cover to cover, of the final, edited version of our books. Many things, however, are written prior to the final production. Every word, deed, experience, and/or action from others leaves an impression upon us if our blank pages are open to them and are ready to be written upon. These impressions are words written upon our hearts whether good or evil, and it is out of our hearts that come the issues of life or death (Proverbs 4:23). When we open ourselves to these powerful forces, we are affected, and sometimes infected, by their words, deeds, and actions There are certain ones who write much more indelibly in our books than others, such as, our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children, family members, teachers, and close friends. We are not only books, but we are all co-authors of this great venture of life, and not only in our own; but we help to write other’s books as we become influencing factors in their lives. Some of us write more expressly and exhilarating than others, yet that is not unusual. It is the same with every library and bookstore in the world. There are countless titles and topics. The subject matters are endless. Some books will lift a person’s spirit into the highest of heavens, others will be filled with intellect, knowledge, and wisdom, or much information (both trivial and worthwhile), while others will bore the average person to no end. And there are those so perverse that are not fit to be read by the human eye. Being authors, when our pages are not being written upon and filled with that which we deem as life, we pursue those things that will write a good story for ourselves and, hopefully, for others to read. Some are open books, epistles of Christ, known and read of men. His light shines from those books to the world, while others are closed and read by hardly any. Countless others are written by the cares of the world, by lusts, by perversions, by screeching sounds and screaming nonsensical lyrics and chants called music, by television, by anger and hatred, by diabolical movies of murder and mayhem, by homosexuality passed off as natural and normal behaviors, by the love of one’s own bodies, ad infinitum. Many beautiful women have the faces of angels and young men are clothed with the bodies of Greek gods, but they have the morals of alley cats and stray dogs. Some pages are written so evil and pornographically upon people’s lives that they would make a sailor blush if they were opened to the sane world. But fortunately, most of the reading of their books is done in secret, behind closed doors, in chambers cloaked in darkness. They that write upon our hearts, good and evil alike, never go on strike. They are ever present, and when we open to them, more is added for the world to read. Whenever lives are read, people will begin to see our books taking on specific themes, and the more that is written the more our lives will be pronounced as such in the world. Our thoughts and/or reactions to seeing, meeting, or hearing a person, whether good or evil, will write upon the pages of our own books. It adds to the mix which forms our books to be read whether living or dead. Everything and everybody presses upon our lives, some with very little or no impact, while others leave distinct impressions, depending on the degree we give ourselves to them, and this includes Margit and myself to you.. For those of you who read The Pathfinder, we pray that its continents writes well and honorably upon your pages. We pray that the essence of our articles is written by the holy Spirit that will add to the good things of God’s Kingdom so that those in the world around about you will be able to read clearly that which is written upon the pages of your books. Notwithstanding, there is certainly a body of people whose books are being written in the likeness of the resurrected Christ at this present time, but they are not yet a finished book. You see, they are a great work in process, and the Chief Author and Editor is making sure that nothing is left out. A finished work at Calvary certainly took place. It took care of what the cross was sent to do. It finished that which Jesus came to do in that physical realm. It brought an end to it so the greater could be known. It ended His life that a greater could be held. It finished his life as a single human being that a great harvest of sons could be raised up and found in His body. The cross shed His atoning blood and ceased its natural flow so that every soul could be saved and will be. The Jesus who walked in human form finished what He was sent to do, and that is what He declared when He triumphantly said, "IT IS FINISHED!" But it is to err to believe He was saying that everything was finished, that there was nothing left to be done, or that our new name is sealed, that our journey is over, and there is no processing. To believe that would be to disregard the scriptures, deny reality, and forsake the spirit of truth, not to mention turning a blind eye to the experience of every overcoming saint that we all have ever known. The scriptures would be made out to be a lie if there is no processing, and if that were so, we might as well throw our Bibles in a heap and burn them. For why would we want to continue reading and teaching from something that we believe would be of no benefit or would lead us astray? In my humanity I would like to be able to generate enough faith to step into the perfection that the new name of Jesus speaks, or to simply realize that it is so; but that would be contrary to what the pages of my book read. It does not work that way, my friend. Whether we like it or not, the processing will continue to the end, and there will be an end, else God would frustrate His own purpose.
Judgment is a part of this process,
and is enacted according to what is written upon every page. This is God’s way
of judging us, or re-writing our books, if you please. The means by which He
brings His judgment into our lives is simple, yet very effective. For instance,
the person abiding in some realm of soulish death is brought to a crisis. God
arranges circumstances and places the man in situations that opens his book. The
light of Christ’s presence shines into his darkness and reveals everything that
had ever been written. The inner condition of his soul is uncovered. One of the
Psalms relates to this unveiling. 9The voice of the LORD maketh the
hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple every
one speaks This verse reflects the same as the books being opened, edited (judged from what is written), and ending with the New Name being written in the foreheads — which speaks, that is, manifests Glory. Once a man is uncovered, made naked, stripped bare, defoliated, he is then dealt with (judged) in righteousness to become the express image of the Tree of Life. A man’s deep secrets that are engraved in his book, along with the intents of his heart, are manifested in such a measure and expressed to such a degree that no other record or evidence is necessary to testify who he is or what he has done. As it is written, "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil," Ecclesiastes 12:14, and then "God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ" Romans 2:16. That doesn't mean that this will happen some fearful day in the future before a dreaded throne in outer space somewhere! No! Not by any stretch of the imagination! These are spiritual realities, plain and simple. They speak of the dealings of God in judgment right now, right here, today in the life of every son of God who is being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. These dealings bring the elect unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ! Afterwards, every man in his own order. The Books Were Opened "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." Revelation 20:12. Billions of people have lived and died of whom the world knows nothing about; but the lives they lived, the deeds they wrought, the thoughts and passions they indulged, still stand written. Not a human being has ever lived whose life has not been written at full length in the books, and by God’s wisdom and knowing the beginning to the end appointed them all to be written for the divine purpose of good for all. Ah, but we must know that He guides, directs, and alters things written to bring forth refined perfections. These books of our own nature, the makeup of our being, will be overwritten by the fiery hand of God, as each page is illumined by the Light of His flaming firstborn Sun. He will uncover every page and word in every man. He will open to each of us what is inscribed deep within. With open face, we will know the abundance of our hearts and who we truly are. We will know that they speak volumes of life and/or death (Matthew 12:34). Such a great and divine judgment that brings forth the new life of Christ our Lord. It is incalculable! Regardless of God’s judgments, they are always good, sensible, just, and praiseworthy. The machine of man’s mind , however, has a way of skewing truth. For instance, there is a great error of thought and word that runs rampant throughout the church systems of the world. It is assumed and taught that after our worn-out, lifeless bodies are lowered somberly into the grave, and when it is time to be judged — God has to call on the scribes of heaven to bring Him some huge scrolls or books wherein they have dutifully recorded every thought and deed of every human being who has ever lived. What tedium! What boredom, even for angels! Makes one wonder what they might have done to merit such a job. Perhaps they thought of rebelling against God but changed their minds at the last minute, so they weren’t cast out of heaven with Lucifer, so called. My, oh my! The things the human mind can’t come up with. When it comes to judgment on the other side of the veil, evidence from eye-witnesses are not called upon. They are useless to this court. With every man being a liar, and the devil being the father of lies, there are no witnesses viable but the man himself, the man who was there, the man whose book has every jot and title of evidence recorded upon his heart. You see, the record of unwavering, undeniable truth is in our very nature. In order to deal with us in judgment, in the flesh or out of the flesh, all God has to do is to stand us up and prompt us to speak or act, and immediately we will manifest exactly what is inscribed in the makeup of our inner life. Immediately our books will open with each word and line being made clear, and we will be judged by the things written in that book which we are. When God, either now or in ages yet to come, lays His hand upon us, and summons us to stand before Him, our books will open, and we will manifest what is written in the book of our own nature. It would be impossible to do otherwise. How truly it is written, "For the word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature (dead or alive, visible or invisible) that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" Heb. 4:12-13. This may be troubling to some, and if so, take heart, for this is good news. The purpose for opening our books is so that all that is written therein may be exposed, revealed, uncovered, displayed, and brought into judgment, dealt with by the divine discipline, as the Father processes each individual. We have heard some say that they don’t believe in processing. We have seen them make fun of those who speak of processing, as if those who believe in it are lagging behind and missing out on being manifested sons of God, right now; for they believe in the finished work! There is agreement to a point; namely, your spirit does not need processing; for your spirit is the offspring of God. Your spirit has been quickened by His Spirit, and you have been regenerated, born again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God which lives and abides forever. Your spirit is pure, holy, undefiled, the dwelling of the Most High God! But your soul needs some processing! If there were no processing, if the finished work of Calvary took care of everything, there would be no sanctification, no cleansing by the washing of the water of the word, no discipline nor chastening of the Father, no putting off of the works of the flesh, which are all a process. There would be no mortifying of our members which are upon the earth, no purging of the old leaven, and no refining fire by which the sons of Levi are purified that they might offer an offering in righteousness unto the Lord. If there is no processing there would be no washing of our robes to make them white in the blood of the Lamb, and there would be no pruning of the branches that they may bear more fruit. The bride, the soul, must make herself ready for her marriage union with Christ, the Bridegroom. Let us think with our spiritual senses about these things. Although processing is an essential part of everyone’s life, such as when a baby goes through a process of becoming a full-grown, mature man or woman, nature, of course, teaches us that the growing process does not continue forever. So there is an end to the process. There is a time when we become conformed entirely — spirit, soul, and body — to the image of the Son! In His earthly vesture, Jesus finished what He was sent to do. He put on human form and then died so we could live. He finished that particular mission. This is crystal clear; but if we think our Lord’s entire mission ended the day He was held suspended between heaven and earth, we are mistaken. If that act alone finalized humanity’s quest for perfection, we are left extremely lacking in our "perfect" state of being, regardless of what we think about it. If His cross was the ultimate finish, the climax of all the ages, if it was the end of all things, and all we have to do is to awaken ourselves to that "reality," this would mean the adamic mind could transform the man by simply believing it, and he would instantly be made perfect. If there is no processing, I would concede and say that we can be taught how to become manifested sons of God; but since reality hits me square in the face and says such ideas are nothing but another attempt of the adamic man to make himself God, and this is no great surprise. He tried once before, and many times afterwards, so why not again? For some reason, man does not learn from his past mistakes, and he will continue making them until he shrinks in despair before the judgment seat of Christ. Although in despair at first with the prospect of everything going up in smoke, he will come to the place of being thankful. He will then know, as we all should know, God does not open people’s books to embarrass or destroy them. His purpose is to deliver them, to heal them from the stroke of death. God brings no man to judgment apart from opening his book. That is the true spiritual message conveyed by these beautiful symbols in the book of Revelation. It is a divine law that God can never deliver you, or any man, until the carnal corruption in your heart has been drawn into open manifestation; for how can a person be delivered from something he believes to be good, especially godhood, or he is unaware that it possesses him? He can’t be as long as his book is closed. Once it is exposed, however, it can then be dealt with by God’s stern, yet tender hand. When the inner nature of your soul erupts in rebellion, in evil works, or some outward uncleanness, do not sink into lost hope. But rather, with a repentant heart, thank God for exposing the deceit that was harbored in darkness. Cast yourself upon the tender mercies of the Lord who judges you in unconditional love and infinite goodness, and yield to His mighty hand that He may bring forth victory in your earth. We must never be discouraged nor feel condemned when God reveals the man of sin who sits in the temple of God, which we are, but neither should we become complacent about it, as so many seem to be doing. Nevertheless, whether we are down-trodden or complacent, God will send forth judgment unto victory however long it takes and however severe the dealings. He will never abdicate His throne, and neither will He terminate His judgments, not until every man is conformed into the image of His glorious Son! The Book of the Life of the Lamb is the autobiography of God's Lamb, the record of who He is, what He is like, and what He does. Everything you always wanted to know about the Son of God is contained in this wonderful Book of the Life of the Lamb. It is not a literal book, this is clear; for the sons and daughters of the Most High are the living record and revelation of the life of the indwelling Lamb. It was to the apostle Paul that the revelation was given that the Book of Life, the Book of the Lamb, the Book of the Son of God is a people. He said: "Forasmuch as YOU are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. Who also has made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life" 2 Corinthians 3:3,6. How tragic that the people, for the most part, have never read this beautiful epistle of Christ, this glorious Book of the Life of the Lamb. They have poured over the religious books, the commentaries of learned scholars who write out of carnal minds with the words of man’s wisdom, the books of hypocrisy, the books of forms of godliness that deny the power thereof, the books of dead doctrines, empty rituals, lifeless ceremonies, and man-made rules and regulations of self righteousness. They have mountains of data, but it is all infected with the disease of error. Very few have ever seen the greatest book ever written — the Book of the Life of the Lamb! There is, however, a time when it will be seen and read by every soul. What a wonderful gospel that will fill the earth beneath and the celestial realms above when God fully opens His Holy Book of Life. The Book of Life who is the blessed company of the sons of God in whom the life of the Lamb is fully and eternally formed! This book is being carefully written word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page, and chapter by chapter in the nitty-gritty of our daily experience with God, and it will continue to be written until the full revelation of the Christ is written therein. It then can be said of us: It is finished! Praise God! The Book is finished! Elwin R. Roach
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