KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

The cry of the deepest in man has always been to see God. It was the cry of Moses and the cry of Job, the cry of psalmist and of prophet; and to the cry there is heard the distant sound of approaching answer. In the fullness of time the Son stepped forth with the startling proclamation that He Himself was the appearing of God before men.  "If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth US. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works" (Jn. 14:7-10).

This bring us to the fourth Greek word associated with the so-called "coming" of the Lord. The noun is PHANEROSIS and the verb PHANEROO. This word means "to appear" or "manifest." The word EPIPHANEIA which we have already considered also means "manifestation" - but with a difference! PHANEROO is often used when someone is manifesting someone else, as when the Son manifested the Father, or when we manifest the indwelling Christ in our lives. EPIPHANEIA means to manifest oneself, not someone else; and it not only means to manifest oneself but to manifest oneself fully. We can have a partial manifestation, one that is not complete; but when the Lord said He would manifest Himself to those who keep His commandments it was a form of this word that He used. This is not a partial manifestation, but complete and perfect.

But when the pen of inspiration employs the word PHANEROO it speaks not so much of God manifesting Himself TO us, but, rather, God manifesting Himself THROUGH us! It is someone manifesting someone else - the Christ and His body of the enChristed becoming the manifestation of GOD in the earth. Let us consider a few examples where the word PHANEROO is used. "I have MANIFESTED (phaneroo) Thy name unto the men which Thou hast given Me" (Jn. 17:6). "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be MADE MANIFEST (phaneroo) in our body" (II Cor. 4: 10). "When Christ, who is our life, SHALL APPEAR (phaneroo), then shall ye also APPEAR with Him in glory" (Col. 3:4). "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was MANIFEST (phaneroo) in the flesh..." (I Tim. 3:16). "For the life was manifested... that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was MANIFESTED (phaneroo) unto us" (I Jn. 1:2). "In this was MANIFESTED (phaneroo) the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (I Jn. 4:9).

"For in Him (Christ Jesus) dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him" (Col. 2:9-10). Jesus Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God. What often confuses people is that they forget that what is made visible on this earthly plane is one realm, and the glory of the SPIRIT realm is another. The Fatherhood realm is of spirit, to beget after Himself, for "He is the Father of spirits" (Heb. 12:9). Yet to become manifested in a visible realm of flesh and blood, He took upon Himself the creaturely form of His own creation, and became also the SON OF MAN. "GOD was manifest in the flesh..." (I Tim.3:16). And now, members of His body, of His flesh and of His bone, our mission to MANIFEST HIM is one of the most glorious parts of our conformity to our Lord. He says it plainly in the most solemn moments of His life: "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you" (Jn. 20:21). After the Lord had fulfilled His mission on earth He ascended into heaven, and became to the world the Unseen One. And now He has given over His heavenly mission to HIS SONSHIP COMPANY, having entered into them in mighty spirit power to perform it. They must so represent Him, the Invisible One, that from seeing them men can judge what He is. Every son must so be the image of the Father - must so exhibit in his person and conduct the same love, grace, and power, as animated the Christ, that from them the world may know what God is like, and be touched by Him. Oh, my soul! take time to realize these heavenly thoughts: The purpose of sonship is to reveal glory and to minister the life of the great Father in the heavens.

The wonderful purpose of Christ's PHANEROSIS, His appearing and manifestation, is that men may SEE GOD. One of the sweetest of all the beatitudes is: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." This may, in some respects, be called the greatest of all the beatitudes; for surely of all things, the most sublime is seeing God. The word "see" in the original tongue is interchangeable with the word "know," and must be so understood. "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall KNOW God." "Oh, I see!" is an expression frequently used to denote comprehension and knowledge. The scriptures often employ the term "see" in exactly this manner. It is essential to understand this if we are to find harmony in the many prophetic statements which tell of Christ's coming.

Rev. 1:7 is a prophecy descriptive of the manner of Christ's return, and those who will be affected by it. We quote: "Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him." This text has been misused in an attempt to prove the erroneous theory that Jesus will return as a flesh and bone man and be suspended in the sky until every individual throughout the whole earth has had an opportunity to see Him. But this crude interpretation of the prophecy is quite out of harmony with the Bible's use of language. example, how the Bible uses the function of the eye to symbolize discernment. After Job's long experience of calamity and trial, and the revelation of God's heart to him, he cried out in communion with God, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: BUT NOW MINE EYE S-E-E-T-H THEE!" (Job 42:5). All will concede, we believe, did not see God literally, but he saw Him, nonetheless. Jesus said to His disciples, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see" (Mat. 13:16).

To "see" means to KNOW. "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall KNOW God." A pure heart is one to which all that is not of God is strange and jarring. A heart that has no desires but for the glory of God, whose affections all center in Him, whose delight is in His perfect will, such an one will truly see and know the Lord. It is better to know God than even to see Him by the eyes of sense. There were many who saw Jesus who did not know Him. They saw the Christ, but they knew not that He was the Christ. They saw His miracles, but they did not know Him. They even rejected Him and hated Him, some of them. You could see Jesus Himself in bodily form today, but unless you had purity of heart you could not know Him to be the Christ. It is only purity of heart which gives purity of sight.

When we turn our telescopes upon the stars and see them in their beauty and glory; when we see that one star differs from another star in glory, and when we see masses of stars in beautifully variegated colors, we see God in the heavens. We see God in the beautiful thoughts which He has given in His Word. We see God in the lives of men and women who have God in them. We see God Himself if our eyes are opened to see things which are heavenly. We see in the apocalyptic vision how John the apostle saw Jesus; how he describes the wonderful revelation of Christ; how he fell at His feet as dead when he saw Him. His spiritual eyes saw Him. After all, purity of heart is the attainment of spiritual eyes. I believe it is possible to see a vision we never have seen because of the grossness of our sight.

The following words by George Hawtin bear eloquent testimony to the truth I now proclaim. "I have often thought of the wonderful words 'no man can SEE GOD AND LIVE.' Oh how often we have quoted that wonderful passage as proof that we may not hope to see His face. Will you allow me reverently to say something else? Though it is true that no man can see God and live, it is equally true that no man can see God and die. Men do not die in God's presence, neither do they live AS THEY USED TO LIVE, but they are TRANSFORMED. Hallelujah! They are changed; they are transfigured; they come into THAT SAME IMAGE of Him who created them. In whatever measure God reveals Himself to man, to that same measure you are changed and nothing can avoid that conclusion. There is no possibility of any man's ever being the same again or living as he used to live once he has personally met the Lord and his eyes have beheld Him, the King in His beauty. 'As for me,' said David, 'I will behold Thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I awake with Thy likeness.' My own heart answers Amen. That is when I, too, shall be fully satisfied" -end quote.

There are a few scriptures which seem to indicate that it is not possible for us to see the Lord. The Lord said as much to Moses: "Thou canst not see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live" (Ex. 33:20). John goes further: "No one has ever seen God" (Jn. 1:18; I Jn. 4:12). And Paul takes it to the ultimate: "No man has ever seen or can see" God (I Tim. 6:16). It is as if invisibility is an indubitable attribute of God (I Tim. 1:17).

But if we will search the scriptures we will see that men DID see God! There are passages in the Bible where seeing God is spoken of as a deadly danger. Gideon feared for his life when he saw the angel of the Lord, but the Lord consoled him and told him he would not die (Judg. 6:22). Manoah and his wife both feared themselves doomed: "We shall surely die, for we have seen God" (Judg. 13:22). The possibility of seeing God is the background of the fear of the consequences. Thus Moses "hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God" (Ex. 3:6). Isaiah, seeing the Lord sitting on His throne, lamented "Woe is me! For I am lost ... for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Isa. 6:5). However, there are also passages in the Old Testament that do not include this fear for the consequences of seeing God. In particular Moses, in his unique position among Israel, spoke "mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in dark sayings" and he saw "the form of the Lord" (Num. 12:8). Moses, Aaron, Abihu, and seventy elders "saw the God of Israel" and He "did not lay His hand on them" (Ex. 24:9-11).

Jacob declared that he had seen God at the place he named Peniel, which means "the face of God." The record states: "And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: FOR I HAVE SEEN GOD FACE TO FACE, and my life is preserved" (Gen. 32:30). These scriptures would appear to be contradictions and illustrate our need for the light of truth and understanding in this matter. On the one hand God told Moses that no man could see Him and live, while the record shows clearly that JACOB SAW GOD FACE TO FACE, and his life was preserved. And, indeed, if no man can see God and live, then God's word to Moses has reference to THE SOULISH LIFE, which is actually death! Jacob SAW GOD AND HIS LIFE WAS PRESERVED, indicating that this life which was preserved was the life of the spirit, the true life of God, the divine quality of life which is beyond the veil of tears and sorrow and pain.

What a marvelous and incomprehensible potential this: TO SEE GOD! Now, we know, of course, that God has no corporeal form. "No man hath seen God at any time" (Jn. 1:18). Therefore, there is no question of "seeing" God in the ordinary physical sense in which one might see a human being or a mountain or an airplane. If one could see God in this way, He would have to be limited, and, therefore, not God. To "see" in the sense referred to here, signifies spiritual perception, and spiritual perception means just that capacity to apprehend the true nature of GOD'S SPIRITUAL BEING which most Christians so sadly lack. We live in God's world, but we do not in the least know it as it is. Heaven lies all around us - it is not a distant locality afar off in the skies, but all around us now - but because we are lacking in spiritual perception, we are unable to recognize it; that is to say, we are unable to experience it; and, therefore, so far as we are concerned, we may be said to be shut out of heaven. We do contact a tiny fragment of it, and that tiny fragment we know as the spiritual experiences we have received, but even that little bit, we see for the most part, all awry, distorted by the dimness of tradition and the outer darkness and wearisome senility of the doctrines and methods of the Babylonish church system.

Heaven is naught but the biblical name for the REALM OF GOD'S SPIRIT, the invisible and omnipresent dimension of SPIRITUAL REALITY. And it is all around us. We are one with it by virtue of our Spiritual Life. We touch heaven as we touch God, we dwell in heaven as we dwell in God and we experience heaven as we experience God. Heaven is eternity, but what we know here and now, with our spirits imprisoned within these walls of carnal minds and bodies, we know only serially, in a sequence called "time," which never permits of our comprehending an experience in its entirety. All true Christians have touched heaven when they touched God, but all of our experiences have been limited by this physical world. We have seen and known God through experiences, but no limited experience can enable us to SEE GOD AS HE IS or to know Him as He is. Men speak of the experience of salvation, the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the experience of healing, or of a vision, or a dream, or a miracle, or a revelation. We rejoice in each of these blessed experiences, each one bringing a "knowing" of something of the life and glory and reality of God, yet in none of them do we truly SEE GOD AS HE IS in the unbounded fullness of His glorious and eternal reality.

As long as our eyes remain closed to the CELESTIAL REALM, we will never see God as He is. Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. There is a most enlightening passage of scripture in Jn. 1:18. "No man hath seen God at any time." Were we to discontinue reading at this point, we would abandon all hope of ever seeing God. However, if we will continue reading we will discover this amazing truth: "...the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, HE HATH DECLARED HIM." Let us now give earnest attention to the rendering given by the Amplified Bible that our souls may bask in that blessed hope that is laid out here in the vivid words of this translation. "No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him - He has revealed Him, brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him, and He has made Him known."

Therefore, our conclusion must be that God can be seen by those to whom it is given, for Christ hath declared Him. The Greek word used for "man" in this passage (no MAN hath seen God) is OUDEN and has reference to ONE MAN. This word comes from another Greek word which has to do specifically with ONE MAN: the man alone and without Christ. Therefore, the man alone and outside of Christ does not and cannot see God. On the other hand, the man IN CHRIST can see God and will be changed. He who sees God will not continue to live the same, but will experience a wonderful and glorious transformation as, like Jacob of old, HIS LIFE IS PRESERVED. The whole matter becomes easier to understand when we read further in John's Gospel: "Not that any man hath seen the Father, SAVE HE WHICH IS OF GOD, HE HATH SEEN THE FATHER" (Jn. 6:46). And the promise was previously given in this chapter: "And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which SEETH THE SON, and believeth on Him, MAY HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE: and I will raise him up at the last day" (Jn. 6:40). As we see the Son, we also see the Father, for the Son hath declared Him.

To SEE GOD is a holy privilege, reserved for those who are IN CHRIST. It is given to those elect saints called to the high calling of God IN CHRIST JESUS, or for those who are "OF GOD" according to Jn. 6:46. Jesus encouraged His followers to behold the Father, when He said, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (Jn. 14:9). Jesus then promised the Comforter, saying, "Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but YE SEE ME: Because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you" (Jn. 14:19-20). That one scripture alone should be sufficient to establish once and for all that SEEING CHRIST speaks of something far more than beholding a human form riding upon a cloud. "The world seeth Me no more; but YE SEE ME." Ah, only those who have eyes to see do see! But, praise God, the day shall surely come when "EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM!"

Consider now these words of wise counsel penned by another writer: "In order to see God and have that single eye toward Him, we will have to lay aside all the doctrines of men and the theories about Him which only clutter our vision and obscure the reality of His glory. The world is full of doctrines made up of half-truths, speculations and ideas about God and His truth which only tend to be an opiate dulling our spiritual senses and filling our vision with the cloudy mists of unbelief. But the elect shall BEHOLD THE LORD, seeing Him who is invisible to the natural man, and they shall inherit the fullness of the promises contained in the wonderful and glorious SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. The Psalmist expressed the wishes of all the sons of God, when he said, "Arise, O Lord, deliver my soul from the wicked... from men of the world, WHICH HAVE THEIR PORTION IN THIS LIFE ... AS FOR ME, I WILL BEHOLD THY FACE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS: I SHALL BE SATISFIED, WHEN I AWAKE, WITH THY LIKENESS" (Ps. 17:13-15), This indeed is our wish and desire, for within the heart of every true son of God there beats the lively hope of THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION, and the intense desire to be delivered of the spirit of this age, "from men of the world, which have their portion in this life." We seek to behold the face of the Lord in righteousness and will only be satisfied when we awake in His likeness. Things of this world mean nothing, for our only ambition now is to SEE HIM AS HE IS" -The Living Word.

It is important that we keep in mind the enlightening truth that the Greek word PHANEROO, used of Christ's appearing, is most often used when someone is manifesting someone else, as when the Son manifested the Father, or when we manifest the indwelling Christ in our lives. The sons of God are apprehended to BECOME GOD'S CHRIST, that they, too, may REVEAL THE FATHER. This brings us to a passage of scripture, the truth of which is seldom, if ever, heard among the people of God. The preachers and teachers invariably misapply it, but it is fundamental to our understanding of the manifestation of the sons of God and the appearing of Christ. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth Himself, even as He is pure" (I Jn. 3:1-3).

I have quoted from the King James version which reads, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." Some other translations say the same thing and some say - we are the children of God. That is the proper rendering as the Greek word is TEKNON which means little children or a child, instead of the Greek HUIOS which means a full grown son and is correctly translated "son" in Rom. 8:14, 19 and other places. Beloved, now - right now - we are the little children of God. And this is no small thing! "Behold, what manner of lovely God give our hearts today to be in the state of soul of the beloved disciple here presented, so overpowered with the sense of divine paternal love, as to exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God, therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him (the Father) not." Children of our heavenly Father! The offspring of God! This is our present calling and standing. We are already born of God, and the life we have from Him is Christ. This is not a question either of hope or of attainment. The grace of God has already given us life in Christ, and Christ's relationship with the Father.

Every believer is NOW a child of God; but does this give him a place of honor in this world? If any of us were a son of the queen of England, what an important place in that land would such a relationship give us! Indeed wherever we might be in the civilized world we should receive the honors due to her Majesty's son. Thank God we are HIS children! And what dignity, what honor, what place of importance, may we expect in this world as CHILDREN OF GOD? Ah, the more like the Son of God we are, the more we shall share His place of rejection in this evil age!

"Now are we the children of God; but it doth not yet APPEAR (phaneroo - is not yet manifested) what we shall be: but we know that when HE shall APPEAR (phaneroo) we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." Here we have the truth brought out with great clearness and force. We know what we are - God's children. But "it doth not yet appear what we shall be." The word - appear - is the Greek PHANEROO, meaning MANIFESTATION. What we shall be is not yet manifested. And what shall we be? What do all little children become? Why, ADULTS, of course! The children become sons.  Sonship is a higher realm than just being children.

The future the Father has planned for His sons is away beyond our ability to comprehend or even imagine. I am overwhelmed with awe when I think of what is ahead for us. Rom. 8:18 reads, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." Phillip's rendering of this is beautiful: "In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us." Oh! the glory of it. Who can express it! Paul said, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him" (I Cor. 2:9). I have heard preachers attempting to describe the future glories with the most flowery language; but it didn't come anywhere near the truth. The human mind is not capable of conjuring up a picture of what the Father has prepared for His own. We can let our imagination run as wild as the wind and it will not come anywhere near comprehending the grandeur of what the Father has in mind.

Paul prayed for this understanding for us when he wrote, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling..." (Eph. 1:17-18). Can we know what this glorious hope is? Is there any way we can begin to comprehend it? Yes, but I doubt that we can begin to grasp the glory of it in its fullness; but the scripture says, "God reveals it to us by His Spirit." As we are able to receive some small measure of the wonder of our calling the Spirit will reveal it to us in a measure. As the Spirit begins to open the eyes of our understanding how different it is from what preachers have been telling the people for centuries, of a glory land where all is eternal day with nothing to do but sit on a cloud, play a harp, and own a little cabin somewhere in a corner of heaven.

The manifestation of the sons of God has not yet taken place. When they are manifested they will receive in the whole universe of God the honor due to those who are in this wondrous relationship. "We KNOW that when He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him." This is fully revealed to faith; we know it with divine certainty. But WHAT WE SHALL BE has not yet been manifested; if it had been, who could withhold the place of dignity due to a son of God? Thank God its manifestation hastens apace, for "when He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." When He is manifested, we are like Him. No wonder that HE should be glorified and admired IN us when we are seen in His likeness. Precious counsel of God, that "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!" Thrice blessed accomplishment when the saints are so manifested in "the image of His Son" that it is evident they are the "many brethren" of that "firstborn." Sovereign pre-eminence is His! but they are owned as "brethren;" they are MANIFESTED "sons of God" - the "many sons brought to glory."

To be like Him, made in His image and likeness is the purpose of God for His sons. It is not only His purpose for His sons but also for the whole human race. This is what He had in mind when in the beginning He said, "Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness." He wasn't speaking here of the first man Adam with his wife, Eve; He was referring to the entire human race which will ultimately, in the ages to come, be brought into this same likeness. There is a firstfruits company the Lord is working on now, bringing them into this place where they will be LIKE HIM. This is the Father's purpose for this day, to bring this company to perfection and into His likeness. These are His elect, His chosen ones, His foreknown whom He did predestinate to be conformed into the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

You will never understand what it means to be a son of God until first you clearly see who it is that "appears" or is manifested in our text. The preachers have been wont to quote the words, "But we know that, when HE shall appear, we shall be like HIM; for we shall see HIM as HE is," and then apply the "He" and "Him" to our Lord Jesus Christ. This passage has been used untold thousands of time to confirm some sermon on the "second coming" of our Lord in clouds of glory to "rapture" the church. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Notice that this passage and those which form its celestial setting, make NO REFERENCE TO JESUS CHRIST. The plain, unequivocal truth is that Jesus Christ is not mentioned even once in these verses! It has nothing whatever to do with any "second coming" of the Lord Jesus. John is not here concerned with the historical Jesus. John clearly declares that by the Father's abounding love WE are now "the children of GOD" children of the FATHER - not Jesus. Then he goes on to say, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when HE (the Father - not Jesus) shall appear, we shall be like HIM (again, the Father); for we shall see HIM (the Father) AS HE IS." John is speaking to SONS and is declaring that when THE FATHER shall appear to His sons "we shall be like Him" and shall then see the Father "as He is." The entire passage addresses the relationship of the Father to His sons and the sons to their Father, and makes no reference whatever to the "coming" of Jesus Christ.

There is certainly no lack of fantastic and distorted notions among Christians which they imagine to be truth. In the same way the teachers and preachers have taken these verses that teach of the Father and have interposed Jesus Christ, so they also have taught from these same verses that by beholding Jesus as He is we will be changed into His likeness. It is a wonderful and blessed truth that "beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Cor. 3:18). But it is an untruth and fabrication to teach that precious fact from I Jn. 3:1-3! It says nothing about seeing Jesus as He is. It is the Father. No one but the Father and His sons enters this passage. "Behold, what manner of love the FATHER hath bestowed upon us ... and we know that when HE (the Father) shall appear, WE (the sons) shall be like HIM (the Father); for WE (the sons) shall see HIM (the Father) as He is."

With all emphasis I must declare that it is not "seeing" the Father as He is that changes us into His likeness, rather, it is our becoming like Him which enables us to see Him as He is. "We know that we shall be like Him; FOR we shall see Him as He is." The fact that we see Him as He is is the evidence, the proof, the demonstration that we are finally LIKE HIM. How could we possibly "see Him as He is" in any state of being less than exactly like Him? Natural minds discern the natural. Spiritual minds discern the things of the Spirit. Natural minds cannot discern the things of the Spirit because they each belong to two distinctly different realms. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (I Cor. 2:14).

For natural minds to comprehend the spiritual is equally as impossible as for worms of the earth to comprehend things human. Humans are of a higher order than are worms. Worms may see men, and may observe their movements, yet there is no common ground of knowledge. The worm has no comprehension of what it sees. It discerns only things pertaining to its own realm. It has positively no understanding of the ways of man, or of the meaning of his movements, or words, or habits. Even men on different cultural, religious, and educational levels do not comprehend that which pertains to another. How much does a janitor or garbage man comprehend of the speech and knowledge and world of the nuclear physicist! How much does a single girl comprehend of motherhood! Likewise, heavenly beings are of a much higher order than are humans. There is no common groundof knowledge. Therefore humans are totally incapable of comprehending that which pertains to that higher order. And so, until humans receive of God's Spirit - the Spirit of God is that which KNOWS (I Cor. 2:11) - until men receive of God's Spirit, it is impossible for them to have any understanding, either of God, or of His Word or ways. And then after men are born of God, the depth of their knowledge is wholly in proportion to their growth in divine life. Children do not "know" their parents "as they are" nor do they comprehend the import of their words and actions.

Let me illustrate. When I met the girl who was later to become my wife she had four brothers, all living at home. When I visited Lorain at her house, one of my earliest recollections is of the almost daily feuds that erupted between the eldest son and his mother. He was a teenager at the time, self-willed, head-strong and rebellious. His head was literally filled with grandiose ideas and schemes and he had more wisdom and knowledge and was smarter by far than either his father or mother. The situation became so intense that finally Kenneth left home (Florida) and traveled to New York with a friend. There he got a job, and, as the years rolled on he met a girl, married, settled down and began to raise a family. Afterwards he and his little family moved down to Florida and lo, and behold! built a house just one block from his parents. I shall never forget the day I walked into my mother-in-law's kitchen and she and Kenneth were sitting at the dining room table, deep in discussion, reminiscing about the turbulent times they had passed through when he was a teenage boy at home. I overheard Kenneth saying, "Mama, I don't know why you didn't beat the pants off of me!" I thought, "Old boy, your memory must be failing you - she almost did!" But as I stood there that day, in one blessed instant of time the Holy Spirit flashed a revelation to my spirit. I saw that for the first time in his life Kenneth actually saw his mother AS SHE IS. No longer was she the ignorant, stupid, insensible, misunderstanding, mean and repressive woman he had known as a boy. It was truly remarkable what a vast storehouse of wisdom and knowledge and understanding she had gained within the brief spaceof a few years! But she hadn't changed - he had!

Now he could see her as she really was BECAUSE HE HAD BECOME LIKE HER. Growth, experience, maturity, responsibility - these were the factors that caused him to now view his mother from the mature perspective of a man, an adult. Ah - at that moment the revelation broke within my bosom, sweeping like a giant tidal wave through my understanding: WE CAN ONLY SEE GOD AS HE IS WHEN WE BECOME LIKE HIM! It is not seeing Him as He is that transforms us into His likeness; it is transformation into His likeness that enables us to see Him as He is - THE FATHER OF LOVE. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed..." The intent of I Jn. 3:2 is to show that at the time of HIS APPEARING or HIS MANIFESTATION His sons shall already be in the state of BEING LIKE HIM. It is a work that must be accomplished previous to His manifestation, a prerequisite for His manifestation, indeed, He CANNOT APPEAR until we are like Him and see Him as He is!

There must come within our being the harmony of the outer and the inner, when He appears we must appear like Him. He cannot appear to the outer world in any more capacity than we give Him to appear. When we appear LIKE HIM then that which He is appears through us. He cannot manifest through anything less than the image of Himself. The greater cannot flow through the lesser without restriction and limitation. To be like Him, to see Him as He is, guarantees the manifestation of Himself through us!

Hawthorne has given profound truth in pictorial form in his allegory, "THE GREAT STONE FACE." The young man, Ernest, had heard, when a child, from his mother's lips, the local prophecy, that some day there would come to the valley an exact resemblance of the Great Stone Face which they could see in the neighboring mountain, and being the greatest and noblest personage of the time, should be a great blessing to those among whom he lived; and he had taken the prophecy more seriously than the other inhabitants of the valley. As he had greater faith, he had the power of seeing more clearly than his neighbors the grandeur of the strange stony outline, and the hope of its fulfillment entered more deeply into his life. When one and another came and seemed to be the fulfillment of the prophecy, he saw they did not answer to the word, but the Great Stone Face seemed to say, "Fear not, Ernest, he will come." As he thus dearly cherished the hope of the great man's coming, he gave himself to doing good, and so mighty became his character that the people said, "The man resembles the Great Stone Face." His belief so molded his actions, that the hope configured his features, so that without his conscious knowledge or effort Ernest had himself BECOME THE FULFILLMENT of the prophecy. So with the manifestation of the Father - He shall appear, we shall be like Him when He appears, we shall see Him as He is, and we shall become the very fulfillment of HIS APPEARING! Hallelujah!

Are we LOOKING FOR HIS APPEARING? If we are there is something we should be doing now. Listen to this! "Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it, doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when HE SHALL APPEAR WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him PURIFIETH HIMSELF, even as He is pure." Many are looking for His appearing and quote this verse seemingly believing that a sudden transformation into His likeness shall take place at His appearing. Not so! There will be no sudden transformation, my friend, when we see Him at His appearing. We had better get our eyes on Him now, purifying ourselves to be even as pure as He is pure. How does one purify himself? We purify ourselves in obedience to the truth (I Pet. 1:22). When He comes near, when He speaks, when He deals - obey, abandon, yield yourself!

"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord" (II Cor. 6:17 - 7:1). We have something to do about this. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers," "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness" for "what fellowship hath light with darkness, what concord hath Christ with Belial, what part hath he that believeth with an infidel, and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols, for ye are the temple of the living God, therefore... let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord."

The pure in heart shall SEE GOD, and every man that hath the hope of SEEING HIM AS HE IS purifieth himself. To purify oneself is to "unmix the heart" so that there is no mixture of that which is soulish and that which is spiritual. It is to depart from every goal and every aim in life except the Lord Himself, to cease all activity except that which is produced by the Spirit, to have an eye single to God's glory and the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. All things must bow low before the will of God.

So many saints are very much in the position of a blind man in a beautiful flower garden. All around him are glorious colors; but he is quite unaware of them. If we suppose him to also be devoid of the sense of smell, we shall see what a very small part of the glory of the garden exists for him. And if we further suppose him to have no hands, we shall see how the garden practically does not exist for him at all. Yet it is all there, if he could but sense it! Have we not all been condemned to a far greater tragedy in that we have been planted by the power of a new spirit and a new heart inside the very portals of the Kingdom of God and have walked in the very midst of the eternal glories of heaven, but our hearts have been so mingled with the clatter of this world that our eyes have not been able to see them, our ears have been dead to their sounds of joy, our nostrils unable to smell their fragrance, our hands unable to lay hold upon the eternal glory.

The inspired George MacDonald wrote: "None but the pure in heart see God; only the growing-pure hope to see Him. Even those who saw the Lord, the express image of His person, did not see God. They only saw Jesus - and then but the outside Jesus, or a little more. They were not pure in heart; they saw Him and did not see Him. They saw Him with their eyes, but not with those eyes which alone can see God. Those were not born in them yet. Neither the eyes of the resurrection-body, nor the eyes of unembodied spirits can see God; only the eyes of that eternal something that is of the very essence of God, the thought-eyes, the truth-eyes, the love-eyes, can see Him. It is not because we are created and He uncreated, it is not because of any difference involved in that difference of all differences, that we cannot see Him. If He pleased to take a shape, and that shape were presented to us, and we saw that shape, we should not therefore be seeing God. Even if we knew it was a shape of God - call it even God Himself our eyes rested upon; if we had been told the fact and believed the report; yet, if we did not see the GODNESS ... we should not be seeing God, we should only be seeing the tabernacle in which for the moment He dwelt. In other words, not seeing what in the form made it a form fit for Him to take, we should not be seeing a presence which could only be God. To see God is to stand on the highest point of being. Not until we see God - no partial and passing embodiment of Him, but the abiding presence - do we stand upon our own mountain-top, the height of the existence God has given us, and up to which He is leading us. That there we should stand, is the end of our creation. This truth is at the heart of everything, means all kinds of completions, may be uttered in many ways; but language will never compass it, for form will never contain it. We not only may, but we must so KNOW HIM and it can never be until we are pure in heart. Then shall we know Him with the infinitude of an ever-growing knowledge" -end quote.

Had you been beside Moses during his forty days in the heart of the cloud, when He saw God face to face, you would not have seen Him if you had not been holy. Had you stood beside the Martyr Stephen, when he beheld the glory of God, and the Son of man standing beside Him, your eyes would have discerned nothing if you had not been holy. Yea, if it were possible for you to stand within the pearly gate (were there such a thing!); you would not see the sheen, as it were, of sapphire; you would carry with you your own circumference of darkness; and the radiant vision would vanish as you approached. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." The one condition for seeing God in His Word, in nature, in daily life, in circumstances, in the darkness and pain of the present travail, in the affairs of men and nations, in closer-fellowship, in intimate communion, in vital union, yea, in all things, is holiness of heart wrought there by His own indwelling. My brother, my sister, follow after holiness as men pursue pleasure; as the athlete runs for the prize; as the votary of fashion follows in the wake of the crowd.

It should be abundantly clear that only SONS conformed to HIS IMAGE can ever S-E-E GOD. "And we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." But the hope that now looms bright before us, HIS FIRSTFRUITS, is the same hope that abides for ALL MANKIND. Truly, "At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father," and just as surely, "EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM" (Phil. 2:10-11; Rev. 1:7). What a hope!

Another beautiful illustration is found in Lk. 2:25-30, when Simeon, who had received the promise from God that he should not see death until he had SEEN the Lord's Christ, came by the Spirit into the temple, when Joseph and Mary brought in the child Jesus. "Then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: FOR MINE EYES HAVE S-E-E-N THY SALVATION." What kind of eyesight is this? A little babe in the arms of his mother, and yet Simeon's eyes were opened to see - not just the form of the babe, but THY SALVATION! This certainly was not an uncommon sight, mothers were constantly coming into the temple with their children, to do for them after the custom of the law. And no doubt there was a vast multitude of other people in the temple on that day; they, too, saw the babe in the arms of his mother, but they did not see THY SALVATION, for having eyes, they saw not - "and the world knew Him not."

When the scripture said: "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and ALL FLESH SHALL SEE IT TOGETHER," which is the vision of Habakkuk, which is the word of Isaiah: "ALL FLESH SHALL SEE THE GLORY OF GOD" (Luke says: "All flesh shall see the salvation of God"), God is saying the same to the world today, in saying to us who have received the call to sonship: THE SONS OF GOD ARE TO BE THE SALVATION OF GOD UNTO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. "That they might be unto Me for a people, for a name, for a praise and for a glory" (Jer. 13:11). The unveiling of the sons of God is the unveiling of the glory of God. "This people have I formed for Myself. They shall show forth My praise" (Isa. 43:21).

When the glory of God is to be revealed, which is the salvation of God, it will be the unveiling of the sons of God. For "saviours shall come up on Mount Zion and shall judge the mount of Esau" (Ob. 21. God is raising up in these days a church of living stones, over whom Christ the capstone is reigning. God is raising up today sons, who are in union with the first begotten of the Father, "the firstborn among many brethren." God is raising up lights today who will "shine in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation." So all flesh must see the church, all flesh must see the body of Christ, all flesh must see the sons of God, for they are the hope of all creation (Rom. 8:19-20). In Isa. 49:6 God said to His elect: "I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that THOU MAYEST_B-E_M-Y_S-A-L-V-A-T-I-O-N_UNTO THE END OF THE EARTH."

When the Kingdom of God fills the earth, the earth will be filled with righteousness. WE ARE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. The earth will be filled with righteous sons! When the glory of God is revealed, the earth will be flooded with the light of God. WE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. The earth will be flooded with a glorious shining people! When the salvation of God is manifested, the sons of God will be seen, for we are raised up to BE HIS SALVATION unto the ends of the. earth. The earth will be filled with a fully-saved people!

And let me say today, the reason the world will know the church and the body of Christ and the sons of God to be the salvation of God, is because God is pouring out His Spirit upon all flesh and all the ends of the earth shall SEE THE SALVATION OF GOD. All humanity, with that quickening of the Spirit, will have their eyes enlightened to SEE in the body of Christ the salvation of God, to SEE in the sons of God the glory of God and the salvation of God. Yes, my beloved, both statements are wondrously true: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God," and "Behold, He cometh with clouds; and EVERY EYE SHALL  S-E-E  H-I-M!"  Glory to God!

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