Kindgdom Bible Studies The Heavens Declare Part 9

The immutable testimony of the Holy Spirit bears faithful witness to the fact that our omniscient and omnipotent God created and designed the scintillating splendors of the heavens with their Zodiacal configurations, displaying therein the wisdom, ways and purposes of the Lord unto His people who are able to receive the message communicated for their instruction and edification. "It is God who removes the mountains, they know not how, when He overturns them in His anger; who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; who commands the sun not to shine, and SETS A SEAL UPON THE STARS; who alone stretches out the heavens, and tramples down the waves of the sea; WHO MAKES THE BEAR, ORION, AND THE PLEIADES, and the chambers of the south; who does great things, unfathomable, and wondrous works without number" (Job 9:5-10, N.A.S.).

All that is to take place in the earthy, literal realm has first been fulfilled in the spiritual realm. The heavens cast their shadow upon the earth, or shall we say the earthy IS THE SHADOW of the heavenly. The inspired writer to the Hebrews referred to "the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount" (Heb. 8:5). The pattern which was shown to Moses in the mount was according to "the example and shadow of heavenly things." The tabernacle was first created in the heavenlies, and was later made on earth. The plan and purpose of God was first recorded in the heavens, and was later written in the Bible. Likewise, as the Lord has set a seal upon the stars of the heavens, so has He sealed His servants, the Sons of Light, in their foreheads (Rev. 7:1-8). These facts clearly reveal that all that has been displayed in the constellations of the heavens shall be spiritually fulfilled in God's elect saints here upon earth in due time. The truth of God is as vast and expansive as the measureless distance of the unbounded sidereal above. Consider the fathomless expanses of the innumerable galaxies sprinkled through the universe, and you will realize that we have barely scratched the surface of divine truth. And the truth that is yet to be revealed to us, in us, through us and AS US cab only be received and experienced by a divine revelation and an impartation of that truth by the Spirit of God. The Lord Himself is the great architect of the Kingdom of Heaven. He is revealing His purposes to us by His Spirit, and is leading us to walk out the necessary steps that establish His truth as reality and life within.

Having previously dealt with Virgo, the Virgin, we now come in our series to the second house or constellation in the Zodiac: Libra, the Scales. The Zodiac consists of the twelve Signs that are around the ecliptic of the heavens, as well as the 36 Decans or pieces which go with them. There is a major Sign and three Decans, or minor Signs, in each of the houses or mansions, or "tabernacles for the sun," as Psalm 19:4 describes them. We now turn our prayerful attention to the major Sign in the second house which is LIBRA. In Latin it means "the scales" and in Hebrew it is MOZANAIM, "the scales weighing." Libra is always pictured as a pair of old fashioned balances or scales which work like a seesaw, an instrument with a beam or lever supported exactly in the middle, having two scales or pans of equal weight suspended from its two ends. When a certain weight is placed in one scale, then a corresponding amount must be placed in the other scale, if it is to be in balance. It is the most accurate kind of scale. They were used by the Egyptians thousands of years ago, to weigh things like wheat. The wheat would be placed in one large pan or basket and a stone in the other. The stone usually weighed about fourteen pounds. When the lever was balanced, it meant that there were fourteen pounds of wheat in the basket. This figure pictures the idea of being IN BALANCE, neither lacking nor being overweighed on the other side. It bespeaks of a state of sufficiency, equilibrium, correctness. When there is more weight on one side than the other, it is unequal and out of balance--so that which is lacking needs to be ADDED until a balance is achieved again.

In Greek mythology Libra commemorated Mochis, the inventor of weights and measures. Libra also represented the balances of Astraea, the goddess of Justice, in which the fate of all mortal men must eventually be weighed. The Egyptians identified Libra with the scales in which the human heart is weighed after death. In India, Libra was also known as a balance, shown in their Zodiac as a kneeling man holding up a pair of scales. It is associated from very ancient times, by every nation under the heavens, with the patrons of justice and order. For this reason even today scales are often used as a symbol on buildings housing courts of law and justice where trials are held, accusations and disputes are settled, and the awards of justice declared and given.

In Libra the scales are NOT BALANCED--one side is high and the other is low. The figure of the scales found in all the Eastern and most ancient Zodiacs has the low side hanging toward the deadly Scorpion (the serpent; satan). In some instances the pan on the low side was held by the Scorpion's claws. In Libra there are two bright stars with spiritually significant names. The first is called ZUBEN AL GENUBI meaning "the price is deficient." The second is called ZUBEN AL CHEMALI meaning "the price that covers." All this clearly shows that this Sign of the Zodiac has reference to some great adjustments relating to deficiencies, defaults or defects, involving prices and payments. Obviously, we begin with a DEFICIT which is later ADJUSTED--from "the price is deficient" to "the price that covers." It is the picture of man, weighed in the balances and found wanting; man missing the mark; man lacking a little from Elohim; man face to face with divine justice weighing the demerits and awards of self, sin, carnality and death on the one hand, and the commensurate price and infinite power of REDEMPTION AND RESTORATION on the other. In our journey from the natural to the spiritual realm we are continually faced with our dreadful sense of LACK and the need to apprehend the necessary restoration to WHOLENESS IN GOD. This profound sense of lack, with the corresponding dealings of God to meet that deficiency and bring our state of being into completeness and balance, are wrought out under the spiritual influences signified by the Sign of Libra--the place of weighing.

Some time ago a sister in Christ was carried in vision into a revelation of this place and process of divine weighing. She wrote: "There are many places in God, and each one is different from the others; in fact, all things are in Him. Today He took me to a new place of great severity and cold exactitude, where the balances of God weigh, with inflexible vigor, all things from the smallest to the greatest. Although the sense of warm, flowing love is absent, it is, nevertheless, the background against which the severity of His balances operates. Here there is tremendous exactitude and perfection of harmonic distribution where nothing, not even the smallest atom, is out of place, for all things are located in exact positions. Although nothing moves from its designated place, nevertheless, all things are greatly moved upon by the tremendous operations of these powers of great severity. In this place of weighing which is in continuous and ceaseless operation, all things are examined and weighed to utmost perfection; not one thing, no matter how small, is ever overlooked. In this judging place which is impartial, inflexible, solemn and severe, the atmosphere is not like that of a tribunal or court of justice. It is more like that of a school principal's office, where a disobedient chili is brought for correction, or a godly home, where the sole purpose of the wise discipline of an upright father is to bring a rebellious child to right paths."

It is my deep conviction that all of God's sons are standing today in the place of weighing. We are at the end of this dispensation. That which we must do must be done now, and what we are to be we must become now. Therefore "let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high. The truth written in this message is glorious beyond compare, because it contains the truth concerning the FULLNESS OF OUR SALVATION--RESTORATION TO THE IMAGE AND GLORY OF GOD that was ours before ever the worlds were framed.

Hans Christian Anderson was a great storyteller. He could spin a yarn and tell a tale with the best of writers. He also recognized a greater writer, the storyteller of life. "Every man's life is a fairy tale," he wrote, "written by God's fingers." When do our tales begin? Many say, "Why, at birth, of course, when the cord is cut and the child draws its first breath and sees the light of day." God, the storyteller of life, tells us His "fingers" were busy long before that. Long before your conception in a physical world, you existed, because you are the children of the Father in heaven. If you did not exist before your conception, then, my friends, you have no SPIRIT within you, and God, the Father of spirits, the Father in heaven, is not the Father of the spirits of all men. The question begs an answer: From whence came your spirit? From God? From the devil? Did God by a special act of creation form it at the moment of your conception or birth? Was it pro-created in the physical union of sperm and ovum? If you did not exist before your conception you do not belong to the family of God, nor are you the sons of God, nor did Jesus descend from the heavenly realms to redeem you, and there is not much I can tell you that will do you any good.

I turn to the passages of scripture which with divine certainty relate this. In Eph. 1:4-5 we find, "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: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children (placement as sons) by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." Blessed be God! The apostle Paul informs us that God chose and predestinated a company of sons BEFORE the foundation of the world. The word "before" translates the Greek word PRO meaning "to go before, to precede." Hence, the Father's act of choosing the firstfruit-sons preceded the laying the foundations of the world. How, I ask, could God choose you IN CHRIST and predestinate you in that long ago eternity IF YOU DID NOT THEN EXIST? Now, therefore, when I talk to you,. I am talking to a household of God's sons and daughters; I am talking to a celestial race, a divine household; and these are the people of whom the apostle spoke when he wrote to the saints in Rome, saying, "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" (Rom. 8:29). Yes--the Father in heaven FOREKNEW YOU, my beloved brother, my precious sister in Christ. And that can mean nothing else but that He KNEW YOU BEFORE and at that time when He KNEW YOU BEFORE He predestinated you to enter this earth-experience and thereby be conformed to the image of first, unique, and preeminent Son, Jesus Christ.

Never were words more sublime uttered by sage or prophet than those spoken by King David when he lifted up his heart to God in a prayer of thanksgiving and adoration saying, "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God" (Ps. 90:1-2). It is my deep conviction that every man of Adam's race had his beginning in God and existed in Him in eternity past before ever we came to this earth to be enriched and perfected by the experience of temptation, sin, death, redemption and restoration. Our coming to this earth was with the purpose that through the desperate furnace of trials in this charnel house of sin and death we should come to the knowledge not only of good and evil and the holiness of God, but to the sacred understanding of the mystery of godliness--of WHY the wages of sin is death; WHY when any creature of God sows to the flesh he reaps of the flesh only corruption; WH~ ~n a man sows to the spirit he of the spirit reaps life everlasting. Having gained this sacred knowledge of the law of Being we shall not stand in God's image and glory like robots programmed to function in divine nature inherently incapable of being anything less, but we are brought to the spiritual appreciation of the principles of Divine Being and by our perfection in knowledge and experience stand before our Lord at last in an ETERNAL CHOOSING to abide in a perfection like unto His own.

As poor Job sat on the ash heap in the midst of trial and suffering the Lord commanded him to stand up like a man and respond to the questions He, the Lord, would put to him. The Lord then asked forty questions, none of which Job could answer. Among the questions was this one: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth...when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job 38:7). Job was speechless, for he had no idea where he was in that time of long ago, but the truth, it seems to me, was that Job was there among the company of the sons of God, beholding with wonder the plan of God on earth with its sufferings and testiness and the glory that should follow. These sons of God who shouted for joy on that primeval morn understood the wisdom of a plan by which they should gain the enlightenment of perfection by experience instead of perfection by creations guided only by divine instincts, and that the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to follow as a result of them, and so awesome was the prospect that they shouted for joy in holy expectation. We do not shout unless there is something to shout about. The message is clear--there was a time before the foundations of the earth were laid; there were sons of God who already existed in that ancient time; and those young sons of God lifted their voices with the morning stars in contemplation of the marvelous purpose they were to fulfill. It is precious to know that God's first Son, our own Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is named the Bright and Morning Star.

In the ninetieth Psalm referred to above the prophet David assures us with great plainness of speech that the Lord has been our dwelling place in all generations. Even before the mountains were brought forth or God had formed the earth, from everlasting to everlasting He is God and in Him we dwelt and from Him we came. Our spirits were with Him before the creation of the earth, for the Father was then our dwelling place. We were sent to this earthly realm for a wise and glorious purpose--for testing, learning, instruction, training, discipline, and perfection--preparation for our part in that magnificent work of deliverance of the whole creation from the tyranny of darkness, decay and death. The Psalmist said, "Thou turnest man to destruction (this realm of sin and death, of flesh and blood); and sayest, Return, ye children of men" (Ps. 90:3). The Lord turned man to destruction, which is to say, He sent us down to this earth realm of dust, sin and death, and then said to us, "Return! ye children of men." What a revelation that is!

During our sojourn in this life, we (the firstfruits) have heard our Father's call to return to Him. And so we are returning in obedience to His call and in the strength and anointing of His quickening Spirit. I do not believe our heavenly Father will leave us in this realm of destruction one day longer than is necessary. When He who in eternal wisdom turned us to destruction sees that all the lessons have been fully and eternally learned and that destruction's work has been fulfilled, then He says, "Return, ye children of men," and we return. When our Lord says, "Come," we come. Matters not how far we have wandered in our sin or how low we have gone in degradation. When the day comes for the Lord to say RETURN YE CHILDREN OF MEN He puts into our hearts the desire to return and we return. At the end of our sojourn in this earthly realm we will have learned the truths Father wanted us to learn and experienced His ways unto perfection. We began in God, we are walking out our predestined path in this life, and will return to the Father as fully manifest sons of God, equipped to set creation free from the curse of sin and death.

Far away in the depths of my spirit today there is a chord that still vibrates to that wondrous shout of joy before the foundations of the earth were laid, when, in that long forgotten past we were there with the Father in spirit, and there is an inward sense of assurance that much of the truth we now possess was known to our spirits since that early beginning. Because the spirit is burdened down with the earthly and visible, man has come to the place in his experience where the inner sanctum wherein God lives in man's spirit is veiled by the flesh and his spiritual consciousness is imprisoned by this gross material realm. We remember not the things of old--until that heaven-blest day when Christ comes in quickening power and touches the mind of our spirit, restoring the memory of those former things. For lack of true understanding we call this restored memory "revelation". When by the eyes of spirit we see Jesus, crowned with glory and honor, the powerful attraction kindled in our hearts for Christ and reality is, in fact, just the beginning of the wonderful RENEWING OF THE MIND to recall again the things of that high and holy realm from whence we came. The "renewing" of the mind can be nothing else but the restoration of the mind to a realm of knowledge and understanding previously enjoyed.

There is an ancient folk-tale about a tiger that was brought up with a herd of goats. From the day his eyes opened, all he saw was a goat's life so it became his style of life too. The tiger munched grass with the rest, butted heads with the younger goats for recreation, and learned to bleat in an odd sort of way a sound that resembled, so he thought, the goat's voice. Once in a while there was a nagging voice inside him that said, "You don't belong to this life!" But always he put it aside as a fantasy, some disturbing intrusion from the world of dreams. If this didn't satisfy him, he just marked it off as the discontent that always hovers around the edges of any life style. So he, a tiger, chose to stay with a goat's way of life because he believed that was the way life had to be. Then one day a tiger came into the clearing. He was all tiger, having grown up knowing who he was. He looked into the clearing and spotted the goats. He roared the earth-shaking roar of his species, bounded out and made his kill. The goats fled in terror and so did the tiger who had grown up with them. At first he wanted to stay. The roar from the edge of the forest had stirred some lost memory in his soul. He flexed his great muscles in a kind of automatic reflex to the challenge from the forest edge. For a moment he could have been a tiger too, but he could not believe in the sound he heard, the challenge it brought. He couldn't believe in himself, in the instincts that had lain dormant so long. For a brief moment, he could have been a tiger. He wanted to try, but then the goat's life was all he knew so he turned and fled. He could have grasped a new and greater life, but then he fell back to being a goat for the rest of his days. The tiger at the edge of the forest of your existence is JESUS, unique, divine, glorious and powerful. He will not fail--He will draw ALL unto Him! He is all you should be. He is all man was created to be. He is all you were destined to be. He is what God intends. He is THE SON as you are predestined to be sons and daughters of the Most High. You cannot avoid Him. You cannot resist Him. Something deep within stirs. Deep calleth unto deep. The tiger calls to the tiger in you! The God in Christ calls to the God in you!

"But God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus...for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath BEFORE ORDAINED that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:4-10).

In Libra we see two scales, one of the scales is tipped down, the other is up revealing an imbalance, deficiency, lack--showing the failure of man to be weighed properly in the scales of God. Some glad morning, the dawn of which methinks I now behold, when the processing's of God in His firstfruits are complete, our eyes will behold with endless joy the surpassing glory of that celestial realm in which walked Adam, the son of God. Our eyes, long dimmed by the darkness of this carnal realm, have not beheld such glories as were there; our ears have not heard its heavenly song, nor have our wildest imaginations probed the splendors of that realm of life where Adam stood in God's image and likeness having no sin, no sorrow nor crying, no labor nor sweat, no bondage nor limitation, no pain nor death; for even now, in this "in part" realm of the firstfruits of the Spirit, we yet see through a glass darkly.

In Gen. ]:26 we see the wonderful advent of man created "in the image and likeness of God," a SPIRITUAL MAN brought forth out of the very SPIRIT-SUBSTANCE of God Almighty and bearing His own divine nature, character and attributes. God first called man ADAM -- meaning RED, or SHOWING BLOOD IN THE FACE--when He created him a SPIRITUAL MAN. In Gen. 2:7 we find that in God's inscrutable wisdom the dark hour came when the creature was MADE SUBJECT TO VANITY (Rom. 8:20). Of this man who had been created as pure spirit in the image of God, it is now stated, "And the Lord God FORMED MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND, and breathed into his nostrils the breath (spirit, the spiritual man) of life; and man (then) BECAME a LIVING SOUL." The man who had been spirit now "became" a LIVING SOUL--manifest in the earth realm. Adam--red, showing blood in the face--BECAME a living soul, revealing that there was a PROCESS of descending from pure spirit existence, into a lesser realm.

The point of special interest to us here is the fact that God first called man ADAM, or RED--SHOWING BLOOD IN THE FACE--when He created him a SPIRITUAL MAN. Man did not "become" Adam when he was "formed of the dust of the ground"--it was not the earthly man who was first characterized as red, or showing blood in the face--but the heavenly man! And this Adam was not formed of the dust, but was created "in the image and likeness of God." No poet or philosopher or prophet could possibly describe the glory and eminence of THIS MAN! I have long known that the "face" in symbolic terms bespeaks of the outward expression and revelation of the deepest inward parts of man's being--the heart. All that a man thinks and feels and is inwardly is written and expressed outwardly upon the countenance, known and read of all men. Blood bespeaks LIFE. To "show blood in the face" is to show life in the countenance--the OUTWARD REVELATION OF THE INNER CONDITION OF L-I-F-E!

Lowered into the earth realm, becoming a living soul, man sank even lower. The bright and glorious spirit ruled in the man and woman of flesh until that dreadful hour in which they partook of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then and there their eyes were opened to see their OUTWARD FORMS. The outraying spirit of glory that had reigned within them dimmed beneath the newly discovered consciousness of the OUTER and they knew the shame of their nakedness before the Lord. Truly the "nakedness" consisted in their sense-consciousness of the lack of reality in the realm of the flesh. In this state they knew the grief of sustaining their bodies by sweat and travail. Man was lowered from the realm of spirit, into the realm of the soul; then in disobedience, drawn away of his own lust and enticed down into the flesh, so that at last God said of man, "He is BECOME FLESH" (Gen. 6:3)He was lowered from spirit to soul, and fell from soul to "flesh." The spirit of man is the image of God--GOD consciousness. The soul is the seat of SELF-consciousness, and the body is the seat of SENSE-consciousness. In spirit Adam was God-conscious. In soul man was both God-conscious and Self-conscious. But ruled by his five senses, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, conscious of the outward world about him, seeking his experience, existence and identity in that low realm, he was a FLESHLY MAN. Having made the transition from the celestial to the physical, we died to the spiritual and became alive to the natural, under the throes of the carnal mind, to have "our conversation...in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind...by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:3).

I would point out, that Adam had already "fallen", as it were, before he partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.. It was BECAUSE he had already been lowered from a higher realm that he DID partake of this tree. One of the outstanding texts which shows this "lowering" of man and his subsequent LACK is Ps. 8:4-5 wherein we read, "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For thou hast MADE HIM a little LOWER than the angels..." The word "angels" in this passage is from the Hebrew ELOHIM and is always the Old Testament word for GOD. "In the beginning GOD (Elohim) created..." (Gen. 1:1). The phrase "made a little lower than the angels" would more literally be translated from the Hebrew text, "Thou hast caused him (man) to LACK FROM ELOHIM." When God would execute the purpose of the ages He laid hold of His ELOHIM COMPANY and stripped from them some of that glory, that fullness, that oneness and caused them to lack, for He subjected us to the bondage of vanity and corruption, emptiness and nothingness, not willingly on our part, but by reason of HIM who subjected us in hope--hope, in the words of another: "...that out of all its travail and processing's would come forth a company that would redound to His praise, that the inherent glory of our pre-existent state in God, and the acquired glory through the contact with evil, and the overcoming thereof, would combine their effulgence and the latter state would be greater than the former; so that all we once had, plus all that is wrought out through the processing will combine their effulgence, and redemption's glory will shine out to His praise and all the universe shall throb anew with wonder of the power and the inworking grace of God" --Gospel Echoes.

But in the meantime we were made to lack, lowered from that pure spirit existence in the image of God. "Thou hast made Him a little lower than Elohim," the spirit was lowered it was made to lack from the realm of fullness, so that some of the counterbalancing qualities which promote order and righteousness were missing. This immediately made man vulnerable to any temptation that might come his way and so he fell into the delusion of sin. The very moment the spirit was made to lack man fell into the power of death. This in turn produced a change in even the body of man and he became helplessly subject to this realm of gross materialism as we know it now. And so, when we come to Adam in the garden, when the Lord God formed him of the dust of the ground and placed him in the garden to dress it, guard it, keep it, and take care of it, Adam was ALREADY SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD! He had already been lowered, had already "fallen", as it were, and been MADE TO LACK. He did not have sufficient resources to fulfill the command of God. And God planned it this way!

The moment you understand this truth, it is a simple matter to grasp the fact that all sin--with the whole realm of vanity, darkness, evil and death--is the fruit and manifestation of an IMBALANCE, a LACK, a DEFICIENCY, a FRAGMENTATION.

Eve was deceived in this realm by a half-truth -- it is not that the devil has no truth -- even the truth he has is a lie -- for it is truth out of balance, partial truth, a half-truth, which, though it contains an element of truth, is not truth at all, but a lie. In the true and eloquent words of a friend: "The serpent (in the garden of Eden) used an argument that is correct IN FORM, but because it was ONLY FORM and had lost its ESSENCE, Eve was deceived by it. What was the argument that he used that was 'correct in form but actually invalid?' Hear it! 'God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened!' That was truth -- and 'ye shall be as gods' was also a truth, for after the man and the woman had eaten, the Lord God Himself verified the serpent's statement as being absolute truth. 'Behold, the man is become as ONE OF US to know good and evil,' God said (Gen. 3:22). He was saying that Adam had become a god himself! 'Ye shall be as gods,' the serpent had said, and that he told the truth is confirmed in the words, 'The man has become as one of us' -- he has become AS A GOD! In FORM, then, the serpent had a truth. He had, in fact, drawn on the very Word of God itself to tempt Adam and Eve, for the Lord had said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.' What the serpent failed to reveal, however, was the ESSENCE of the form which is that INDEPENDENTLY OF GOD man can NEVER be a partaker of the divine nature! This should have been a self-evident truth, but man failed to see it. Man became a god, alright, in the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil -- but he became a god in the wrong realm, for at the same time that God acknowledged man's 'deity' He also CAST HIM FROM THE GARDEN -- cast him from the consciousness of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth -- and set him in the earth 'to till the ground from which he was taken.' Thus, we find that Adam truly became a 'god' -- as the serpent promised and the Lord confirmed -- but he was not an heavenly god. He became, rather, the 'god of THIS WORLD' (II Cor. 4:4). It is one thing to be 'a partaker of the divine nature' and it is quite another thing to be the 'god of this world.' In the former, there is contained the thought of TOTAL DEPENDENCE -- in the latter, the principle of INDEPENDENCE" --end quote.

Independence--separation--fragmentation--imbalance--these terms each bespeak of that which has come OUT OF God into a state of division, disunion, thus lacking wholeness. As we pointed out earlier, all sin, evil, darkness and death is the result of an IMBALANCE or LACK. "For all have sinned (missed the mark) and COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD" (Rom. 3:23).

One of the great principles of the universe is the principle of BALANCE. If the earth were a few miles closer to the sun, it would be an inferno. If it were a few miles farther away, it would be a desolate, frigid desert. But in its present location, balanced at an ideal distance from the sun, our planet is in a perfect condition to sustain an exciting proliferation of life forms. None of the other planets in our solar system can accommodate life because they are all unbalanced in their relationship to the sun. Disease is the product of imbalance in the physiological system. Cancer is one of the most dangerous and most dreaded of all diseases. In cancer, some of the cells of the body become disorganized and begin to grow so fast that they choke off organs of the body that our lives depend on. When those organs can no longer work, the person dies.

Many things that are good for us can become threats to our well-being if they get out of hand. Water is good, but too much causes a flood. Cars provide efficient transportation, but too many of them in one place can cause a traffic jam. We need food every day, but if we eat too much, it shows up in the wrong places--our hips and waistlines. Things like these we must keep under control. The most important form of control is self-control, which originates within our hearts by the spirit. To exercise self-control, we must be moderate--temperate--balanced--we must restrain the impulses of the flesh and the emotions and desires of the carnal mind. "Now the fruit of the SPIRIT is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, fidelity, tolerance, SELF-CONTROL--against these there is no law" (Gal. 5:22-23, KJV & Phillips). Interesting, isn't it, that self-control is a fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT! The Lord our God is ONE Lord -- united, undivided, unfragmented, BALANCED in all His attributes and Being. Nothing is out of control, nothing unbalanced, no lack or over abundance anywhere, no contradiction or conflict. That is just the problem with man--he is OUT OF BALANCE! Man has been weighed in the scales of Libra--and found wanting!

It is possible even in our walk in God and our apprehension of truth to be OUT OF BALANCE. Recently a most beautiful article was received from brother Ray Prinzing titled A BALANCED WALK IN AN UNBALANCED WORLD. I would quote just a portion of it which I found supremely edifying. "There have been some precious, yea, awesome revelations imparted by the Spirit. Men have caught a glimpse of a certain truth, and then leaned heavily upon that one revelation, until it threw their walk out of balance. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in what is termed 'the faith message.' Faith for healing, faith for prosperity, etc. Open the Book and you find these truths from cover to cover--and they are precious truths, BUT they often are taken clear out of balance.

"'Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature...and beside this, giving all diligence, ADD to your FAITH virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you

that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ' (II Pet. 1:4-8). First we have the emphasis upon the Word--exceeding great and precious promises. BELIEVING THE PROMISES, we are made partakers of the divine nature. One would surely think that was enough, but then Peter writes on, 'Giving all diligence, ADD TO YOUR FAITH...' The inference becomes clear, the 'faith message' alone is not balanced. Place it on one side of the scale, and then START ADDING on the other side, until it balances out.

"We speak of faith for financial prosperity--and we hear some testimonies of great .~ happenings. So we think to exercise faith in that dimension, and it doesn't work the same, and we wonder what is wrong. Haggai 1:6 speaks of the man that 'earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.' He needed to hear more than a faith message for prosperity, he was in desperate need for WISDOM, to understand what the will of the Lord is. Fast as the man prayed in the money, out it went through the bag with holes. God would purify your desires, your priorities, until HE COMES FIRST, and His will is your will, then for whatever He provides He will also control its outgo.

"We speak of faith for healing, but conveniently forget to ADD TO YOUR FAITH TEMPERANCE, i.e. self-control. It was not the devil that made us sick, it was our own eating habits, junk food, etc. and after spending years in destroying our bodies with wrong eating, drinking, smoking, overworking, etc. we suddenly decide we need faith to be healed. Thank God He often mercifully does heal us. But we also find that He would have us ADD TO OUR FAITH those qualities which would bring us into BALANCE" --end quote.

We are all sailing the sea of life. All are mariners, spiritual voyagers. We might profitably use the following illustration. Tom Smith and John Jones both presumably own sailing vessels. They agree to race to a certain point in the Pacific Ocean one hundred miles due west from Los Angeles harbor. The first few hours out all goes well. Fair and constant winds enable them to keep their course at a steady rate of speed. But then foul winds are encountered, and a storm drives them far off their course and separates them from each other. The following morning breaks with each one alone on a vast ocean on which there are no road signs and no mileposts. There is nothing as far as the eye can see but blue water. Somewhere on that ocean is a spot which is exactly one hundred miles due west from Los Angeles harbor. But in which direction is it? Both boats have lost their bearings. They know not how far they have sailed, nor in which direction. In other words, they have no knowledge of where they are. So, until they take their bearings, and learn their exact positions, it is positively impossible for them to know in which direction or how far away their destination is. They might be one hundred miles from it, or it might be only five miles distant. And so, until they learn exactly where they are now, it is impossible for them to know what the next mile will be.

Each and every son of Adam is a navigator on the sea of life. And the voyage upon which we all embarked at birth is one for which none of us was fully prepared or equipped; we were thrust out upon a tempestuous sea, there to maneuver our tiny bark to' another shore. Winds, tides, and currents swept us out to sea, and carried us on alone. Humanity, at present, is divided into a thousand fragments both individually and collectively. We are fragmented, separated--LOST! But I have good news for you, my friend--it is possible to discover exactly where we are now--and how to get back on course to that bright and beckoning harbor ahead--for our heavenly Father has sent One to search for us and SHOW THE WAY!

There is one image that is perfect: the blessed Son of God, the visible manifestation of the Father, the only One who has ever walked upon this planet who sums up the totality of DIVINE BALANCE. He is the only whole, united, balanced, UNFRAGMENTED MAN! In Jesus Christ a Man has stepped forth who came from God without any lack, so that He could make this astonishing declaration: "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me" (Jn. 14:9-11). Jesus Christ is the One who shows us just where we are--and opens up the way for our return into the fullness of God. Our heavenly Father demands that all men should follow the example of our Lord and Master. In order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, 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, as by faith we are led to prove for ourselves and demonstrate to those about the authority of the SPIRIT OF LIFE WITHIN over the law of sin and death in the flesh.

Christ Jesus is perfectly balanced and united in all His faculties, and' IN HIM all things are restored into oneness, wholeness, balance. "He that is joined unto the Lord is ONE SPIRIT" (I Cor. 6:17). "That they all may be ONE; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be ONE IN US...and the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made PERFECT IN ONE; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me" (Jn. ]7:2]-23). "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male or female: for ye are all ONE IN CHRIST JESUS" (Gal. 3:28). "That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might GATHER TOGETHER IN ONE ALL THINGS IN CHRIST, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even IN HIM" (Eph. 1:]0).

One of the most challenging passages in all the Word of God is found in Eph. 4:15. "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up INTO HIM in all things, which is the Head, even Christ." The key words are: GROW UP I-N-T-O HIM...WHICH IS THE HEAD. Grow up into ...the Head! Who ever heard such a thing? Who has ever seen a body grow up into a head? The body grows, and the head may grow somewhat, but the body remains a body and the head remains a head. But in the progressive development of the many-membered Christ, the Elohim Company, the door has been opened for some members who will GROW UP I-N-T-O T-H-E H-E-A-D. It signifies a transference from one part of the body to another, from the torso, up into the Head. Oh, the mystery of it! It means that these grow up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ, sharing ALL that He is. These are the sons of the MOST HIGH. And this is the ultimate high heritage of each and every son of Adam's race, for ADAM IS THE IMAGE OF GOD.

This bespeaks of a realm where you do not draw your life from without, from others, but you have life in yourself, life for yourself, and life for others. You are not a receptacle but a source. Jesus unfolded this realm when He proclaimed, "The Son of man CAME NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, but to minister, and to give His life..." (Mat. 20:28). Jesus did not come to receive life for HE WAS LIFE. He came not to receive life but to GIVE LIFE. He HAD LIFE IN HIMSELF even as the Father had life in Himself. Within that life was contained every element of victory, righteousness, wisdom and power He could ever need. All the infinite resources of God were within Him. WITHIN HIM! No one could add anything, no one prayed for Him, laid hands on Him, counseled Him, prophesied to Him, encouraged Him. His disciples received from Him but not one gave to Him. They asked of Him, but none contributed anything to Him. He prayed for them, but they never had to pray for Him. If He needed power, the power was in the life within. If He needed encouragement, the encouragement was in the life. If He needed wisdom, t[~e wisdom was in the life. ALL was in the Father, and the Father was IN HIM. This is a nature and a life that is not dependent upon anything without, for it is a self-existent life, demanding no sustenance, underived, inherent, drawing not from anything or anyone. ALL SUFFICIENT, ABUNDANT, GLORIOUS AND UNCHANGING LIFE! No lack, the scales are perfectly balanced.

You can always tell when people are growing up into the Head. They no longer need to BE MINISTERED TO. They aren't waiting for a healer to come to town and lay hands on them, for they have grown up into that measure of His fullness where they discover the HEALER WITHIN, and are now able to appropriate FOR THEMSELVES the faith of God within to gain the victory over sickness and disease. They are not searching for a prophet to give them a word, to tell them where to go or what to do, to reveal the will of God in their life, for they have learned to know HIS VOICE, communing freely with the PROPHET WITHIN, flooded with wisdom and understanding. These don't talk about their problems, or lament about the devil, or plead for help, for the joy of the Lord is their strength and the peace of God rules in their heart. They don't ring up the elders, friends, or the saints requesting prayer for this and that need in their life, for they have discovered the river of God flowing out from the threshold of their own reality, life full, abundant and triumphant! Oh, yes, they may ask prayer for others, but not for themselves. These are always ministering, encouraging, helping, strengthening, blessing, lifting; but do not stop to be ministered to. This company is BECOMING ONE IN HIS FULLNESS, even those who HAVE LIFE IN THEMSELVES. These have beheld the fullness of God in Christ, and have arisen to apprehend that level of life in Him where one no longer "lacks a little from Elohim." The development of CHRIST IN US balances the scale of our deficiency, becoming in us "the price that covers." Hallelujah!

The manifested sons of God are not little fragments of God, but each grows up to be complete in the totality of the Father of spirits. Just as Jesus Christ is the personal embodiment of the fullness of God, and would be such EVEN IF WE DID NOT EXIST, so each and every son of the Highest MUST become the reproduction of the Father in the totality and completeness of Himself. The ONENESS, the WHOLENESS of God's nature must be fully developed in each son until there be no fragmentation, lack or imbalance. Thus shall sin, limitation, sickness, sorrow and death be swallowed up of life!

There are two bright stars in Libra, GOD'S BIBLE IN THE SKY, which tell the whole story. The brightest star, appearing in the scale which is tipped downward, is entitled ZUBEN AL GENUBI which means "the price is deficient." It is a picture of man in the carnal mind and nature, weighed in the balance and found wanting; man ruined and condemned; man with his life added up and found wholly in vanity and illusion, existing in the realm of the corruptible and passing. But blessed be God! In the other scale which is tipped upward there is another bright star called ZUBEN AL SHEMALl which means "the price which covers." When Christ is placed in the scales, then we have that weight which raises us, bringing life, truth, reality--RESTORATION, HARMONY, WHOLENESS AND BALANCE. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus taught and demonstrated so wonderfully through His healing and delivering ministry. He spoke the words of compassion and power into the souls of all marred creatures and called them beloved children of God. He healed their diseases, forgave their sins, raised their dead and lifted them up from the mire and defilement and set them on the pathway to holiness and restoration to their lost estate that they might live again as sons and daughters of the Most High. Under the Sign of Libra we are all to learn to be SAVIOURS, giving the kiss of Life, Light and Love to all who dwell in the shadow of death, darkness and fear.

Never forget, precious friend of mine, that Jesus came as THE PRICE WHICH COVERS, the substance in the scale that replenishes all deficiency. He shed His blood--His divine life--pouring it out for us. Life and blood are synonymous. Spirit and blood. are synonymous. Spirit, blood and life are all different names for the same element. Jesus performed His mighty works by the shores of Galilee, but then He died, resurrected and returned in mighty SPIRIT POWER to be the MIRACLE WORKER WITHIN. Nothing less must become ours, than HIS LIFE--the divine life He lived in human flesh. "As I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me even he shall live by Me," Jesus said. The truth is so simple--He has poured out His blood-life to us to quicken us again to the glory of God that belongs to man. Our spirit is quickened by His Spirit and in union with Him we are brought to union with God.'

Christ gave Himself FOR US and TO US. Our spirit must be quickened by His Spirit. This is the power of His redeeming blood. That He might liberally pour His dear-bought treasures into benighted human storehouses, was the inspiration of Jesus' intense human sacrifice. Some hold not to this truth, choosing rather to believe that they are a self-sufficient god within themselves, needing no Saviour beyond their own inherent divinity. But here let me utter a note of warning. In the testimony of scripture the order is ever:

"Unto HIM that loved US, and WASHED US from OUR SINS in HIS OWN BLOOD." And, "To as many as received HIM, ~o THEM gave HE power to BECOME the sons of God." Break these links and the chain is gone. Even in nature a seed, though containing the life, does not sprout of itself: it sprouts because there are "mysterious forces" BEYOND the seed -- sun, wind, rain, and the whole economy of the universe--playing upon the mysterious life in the seed. Let us never forget this. Some trust so strongly in their own divinity they need no Saviour, no sun or wind or rain from without to quicken the life within. The unwary are caught by it. All this time the blood of Christ is omitted or ignored. Not one word is said about it. The silence is ominous. Do let us understand truth clearly, for "there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even DENYING THE LORD THAT B-O-U-G-H-T THEM and bring upon themselves swift destruction" (II Pet. 2:1). Truth out of place is the most dangerous error--IMBALANCE.

The love of God became a man, the love of God became human flesh, the love of God in Jesus Christ has flowed into our souls as the precious blood of Christ to wash away the veil of flesh and quicken us again to our true identity and heritage in God. "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain manner of life received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot" (I Pet. 1:18-19).

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