"For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" (Phil. 3:20-21).

If you will in spirit stand "as in the beginning with your all-wise heavenly Father, you will behold the unfolding of the mystery of His divine intention for man. Your heart will throb with unspeakable joy as you hear the words, "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them." "Garments" is one of the most interesting words to be found in use as a Semitic symbol in scripture. Since the greater part of the writings of most of the Old Testament prophets is couched in figurative language abounding with Hebrew sign-words it is not surprising that an adaptable term like "garments" or "coats" should find wide usage as a figure of speech. When the prophet sings by the Spirit: "The Lord God ... hath covered me with the GARMENTS of salvation," with the parallel phrase, "He hath covered me with a ROBE of righteousness," it is obvious that he is not speaking literally of material "garment" or "robe" to be worn upon the physical body. It is interesting, however, that the human body itself, and the glorified body of the resurrection, are both referred to as "clothing" which prevent our spirits from being found "naked". "For in this (body) we groan, earnestly desiring to be CLOTHED UPON with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being CLOTHED we shall not be found NAKED. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be UNCLOTHED, but CLOTHED UPON, that mortality might be swallowed up of life" (II Cor. 5:2-4).

In the vast storehouse of truth contained in the Word of God no facet nor part thereof is in any way more outstanding or clear than the truth that man was designed by his Creator to possess a body. Man is not designed to have his spirit or soul flit about through eternity without a body. The apostle Paul echoes the sense of revulsion found in the heart of every man at the thought of being found "naked" or disembodied upon physical death. Speaking of the earthly residence of the body of flesh he writes, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (II Cor. 5:1). The desire of the man who is begotten of God, whose spirit is a living spirit born from above, is that he should be clothed with a body at all times, and after speaking of this desire to be clothed upon with a heavenly, eternal body the apostle hastily adds, "He that hath wrought us for this very thing IS GOD" (II Cor. 5:5).

Many times in the years of my ministry I have been asked, "Why should there be a BODILY resurrection? Why not simply pure SPIRIT?" When we consider that man was created and formed spirit, soul, and body, we realize that the body belongs to THE ESSENCE OF MAN. The body is not a prison for the spirit and soul, but rather the HOUSE, the tabernacle in which spirit and soul live. Therefore without a body man is naked and homeless. The body is designed for the expression of our spirit-soul-mind. Even as God is three manifestations in one person of being, so are we three in one - body, soul, and spirit. When God said to Adam, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely DIE" (Gen. 2:17), in the deepest sense, of course, this meant spiritual death; but it also included physical death. Therefore, since physical death is the direct result of sin, if there were no bodily resurrection SOMETHING OF THE EFFECTS OF SIN WOULD ETERNALLY REMAIN IN THE REDEEMED. In other words, without bodily resurrection man would be stripped of one-third of his essence. If in eternity man should be only spirit and/or soul without a body, sin would have won a partial victory. Even in the natural realm the human body is undoubtedly among the most profound wonders of creation. Its mysterious composition and intricate complexities and physiological marvels are so great that I know not how any man of medicine or science could ponder its magnificence and fail to see the master mind of an omniscient Creator. But in the scriptures we see that the Spirit of the Creator declares that not only is there this physical body of the earth realm, but there is also the spiritual body of the heavenly order, and the glory of the terrestrial is one, but the glory of the celestial is another.

The life which Jesus gives is Himself, and the life, which He is, is imperishable. Those who partake of it cannot perish, for they have passed from the kingdom of death to the kingdom of life. "And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall NEVER PERISH" (Jn. 10:28). Jesus did not die that you might live! Jesus died that He might GIVE HIS LIFE to you. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but, if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (Jn. 12:24). HE is the kernel that fell into the ground and died, and, in dying, the life which He is has reappeared in the millions of those who have believed. Because His life is imperishable, they who receive Him shall never perish.

The flesh which we inherited from Adam who was of the earth, earthy, is counted by God to be nothing more than a seed. "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and WITH WHAT BODY DO THEY COME? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou SOWEST NOT THAT BODY THAT SHALL BE, but bare grain (seed), it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: but GOD GIVETH IT A BODY as it hath pleased Him, and TO EVERY SEED HIS OWN BODY" (I Cor. 15:35-38). I must confess that I used to believe, as many folk do, that in the resurrection the same body that goes into the grave would be the body that comes out of the grave. I wonder how many who read these lines have asked the question posed by the apostle: "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" Ah, how often through many years did I ask myself those very questions! I am confident that you, too, have asked. We have pondered how God would reconstruct the atoms of this flesh body and fashion it again into the likeness we once knew.

Consider for a moment the state of those who are dead. Some people suppose that those we lay away in their ornate coffins are to be taken up like those well preserved mummies of Egypt, but it is not so! This body speedily falls into dissolution - the first thing that goes is the brain and soon there is a large cavity between the ears; the heart soon follows. These are the two vital organs of man, and the rest of the body trails along not far behind. The bones are the last to disintegrate. And so man returns to the dust. Open any casket left long in the ground and you find but a bit of brown dust.

Consider where these people have gone. Many have been dissolved in lime pits, or burned in great fires, or buried in the depths of the sea. There are those who have been eaten by beasts. I think of Roger Williams, the Governor of one of our first colonies. He had an unseemly fate befall him. When his casket was taken up to give it a more noble burial, it was found that an apple tree had pried open the lid, reached in and sucked poor Roger out, tooth and claw, head and foot. The poor fellow was gone altogether! He is no exception, for this is what has happened to the vast majority of the people in the world. They have returned to the elements; they have been eaten by other creatures; their particles are spread sometimes as far as from pole to pole. What has happened to the ancient king Nebuchadnezzar? or Alexander the Great? or Caesar? One part may be in the desert sands of the great Sahara and another part floating in the waters of the mighty Pacific Ocean. Are these to rise again? There are those whose particles are buried in some deep cavern at the bottom of an ancient main or found among the trackless deserts, seen only by the vulture's eye. Can these live again? Is that not indeed a thing to be thought incredible? Where indeed are the remains of man? Or perhaps we should more accurately ask: "Where are they not?" Blows there any wind down any street that does not contain within its swirl some portion of that which was once the son of Adam? Breaks there a wave upon any shore that contains not in solution some relic of that which once was called man? He is found under every tree, in every crevice and in every corner, under every meadow, perhaps in almost every flower. Shall these live again? Is that not a thing incredible?

If that does not stretch your incredulity, then let us imagine a man who lived a thousand years ago. His body consisted of 150 pounds of elements such as oxygen, hydrogeri, sodium, potassium and a number of others. When his body died it was placed in the ground and deteriorated. And as with Roger Williams a tree grew over the grave and its roots absorbed the various elements which were once the body of this man. They became part of the tree. The tree bore fruit. A cow ate the fruit containing many of the elements which were part of the body of that man. They became part of the cow. The cow was butchered, and the meat was eaten by other men so that these men were literally eating the other man who had died, for the same elements which composed his body became part of their bodies. Then these men died and their bodies were buried and grass grew over their graves and ultimately their bodies were absorbed by the roots of the plants, and the plants were eaten again by animals. We find that the elements which composed the body of the first man who died became part of a thousand men and women. You can see how the bodies of the dead cannot be brought back atom by atom as they were originally. Certain individual atoms may belong to a thousand different bodies, and since no body can occupy two places at once, this makes it impossible for the actual body which was buried to arise with its original component atoms and molecules.

Who among us has never questioned whether in the resurrection we will recognize our friends and loved ones, whether uncle Joe and aunt Susie will look as they did at age twenty, or thirty, or seventy-five? We have debated whether in our glorified bodies we will be visible or invisible to the inhabitants of the earth realm, whether we shall eat and drink, wear clothes, travel at the speed of light, and with hundreds of other such notions we have repeatedly asked the very questions the apostle declared we would ask! "But some man will say, HOW ARE THE DEAD RAISED UP? AND WITH WHAT BODY DO THEY COME?"

Paul had a word for all who raise such questions: "Thou FOOL!" The Phillips translation says, "Now that is a silly question!" The Wuest translation says, "Stupid one!" The Amplified Bible reads, "You foolish man!" And another version renders it, "You unreasonable person!" Why are these questions foolish, stupid, silly and unreasonable? Because, the apostle explains, appealing to nature, "In your own experience you know that a seed does not germinate without itself  'dying.' When you sow a seed you do not sow the 'body' that will eventually be produced, but bare grain, of wheat, for example, or one of the other seeds. God gives the seed a 'body' according to His laws - a different 'body' to each kind of seed" (Phillips translation). Paul tells us plainly that the "body" of the harvest is not the same "body" that was planted, and calls the man a fool for even questioning whether the corn of the harvest is the same grains of corn that were planted. Let the farrier answer this!

"That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body which shall be" (I Cor. 15:37). The apostle Paul here makes a wonderfully significant spiritual use of an analogy derived from his observation of what takes place in the natural world when a seed is sown in the ground and springs up and grows. He is talking about the resurrection of the dead, and compares the burial of a human body tp the covering up of a vegetable seed in the earth in expectation of a bursting forth of new life. This is hardly an appropriate comparison if taken too literally, or applied to the wrong sense of burial. A literal dead body does not behave like a vegetable seed; it does not sprout and go on to produce new and more numerous bodies, the exact replicas of the old. When it is laid in the grave it is done with; it purifies and disintegrates. Paul knew this well enough just as well as we know it. His language here and elsewhere implies that he believed in a resurrection of the whole man, and that the resurrection body would be transformed into a spiritual, immortal, glorious body which would never again have to know decay or corruption. But the only sense in which this illustration of his about the sowing of a seed holds good is that the disintegration of a seed in the ground and the death of a human body are in each case the breaking up of a form in order that the LIFE WITHIN may reclothe itself in other and ampler forms - the seed on this earth plane once more, but the spirit and soul on a higher plane.

When we really know life, when we understand our own environment and the dynamics of the biological forces within it, we will surely have a clearer understanding of the laws and processes of the HIGHER SPIRITUAL REALM of the Kingdom of God. When you sow a kernel of corn in the earth of your garden, you sow it out of sight, to decay and disintegrate, that a new plant shall spring forth. The corn you receive in the fall IS NOT THE SAME KERNELS YOU PLANTED in the spring! The kernel you planted died, that the cornlife within might be released. In this process the INNER LIFE springs forth and the corn of the harvest is the PRODUCT OF THAT INNER LIFE contained in the original seed. The seed's whole purpose is to die, that there may be a release of whatever life dwells within TO PRODUCE A NEW BODY. The principle is clear - a new, divine, heavenly life has been impregnated into the regenerated spirit so that the mortal body of the believer is a NEW KIND OF SEED CONTAINING A NEW AND HIGHER FORM OF LIFE. Thus it is that as our outer man perishes, as the old man with his works is put off, this outer-man body is "sown," he says, "in corruption; it is raised (harvested) in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour; it is raised (harvested) in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised (harvested) in power: it is sown a NATURAL BODY; it is raised (harvested) a SPIRITUAL BODY" (I Cor. 15:35-44).

Can we not see by this that the spiritual body IS NOT THE NATURAL BODY RECONSTRUCTED at all, but a brand new, totally different body, the PRODUCT OF THE CHRIST LIFE CONTAINED WITHIN YOUR MORTAL BODY, THE SEED. Surely, if no other instruction were given in the Bible but these few verses, we would have a sound foundation upon which to fasten our firm understanding that the natural body does not in any way become the spiritual body, but the spiritual body is the product of the indwelling life of the resurrected, glorified Son of God! If we would heed the voice of inspiration and revelation as it speaks through these words of the apostle, we would at once see and acknowledge that the "embryo" of our spiritual body ALREADY EXISTS AS A PRESENT REALITY WITHIN OUR REGENERATED SPIRIT! Hallelujah! It is, as a friend has said, "a life within a life, a MAN WITHIN A MAN, and a B-O-D-Y W-I-T-H-I-N A B-O-D-Y." That MAN WITHIN A MAN, therefore, is not as we have in the past supposed, some ethereal spirit, some nebulous, vague, airy, nothingness but IS, rather, SUBSTANCE, the very FLESH of the resurrected and glorified CHRIST OF GOD!

What the New Testament represents as true respecting Jesus Christ, it represents as true of the body of Christ. HE is the firstfruits of them that sleep. Their resurrection is like His resurrection, their life is like His life, as their death is like His death. They are not raised from the death realm by a power acting on them from without; they rise from the dead as the bird from its egg, as the plant from its seed. The sons of God have in themselves the immortality of their Father. The resurrection body is not a restoration to physical life; it is an introduction into a new level of life which transforms the very bodily existence. The body of the resurrection shall come from our resurrected inner nature. If we live after the flesh our inner nature shall not become filled with resurrection life. We die daily, and each day we are raised up. But that which is raised up is not our old nature, nor our old body. It is the eternal life of almighty God. It is a new creation. It is the resurrection from the dead! Do not talk about the old body - the flesh coming up again. We are sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body; sown an earth man, raised a heavenly man.

With this wonderful truth in mind it should not be difficult in the least for us to understand the contrast between the two bodies spoken of in I Cor. 15:39-50. "All flesh is not the same flesh ... there are also CELESTIAL BODIES and BODIES TERRESTRIAL: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of terrestrial is another ... there is a NATURAL BODY and there is a SPIRITUAL BODY. And so it is written, the FIRST MAN ADAM was made a living soul; the LAST ADAM was made a quickening spirit. The FIRST MAN is of the earth, earthy: the SECOND MAN is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say brethren, that FLESH AND BLOOD CANNOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."

These two bodies differ vastly in glory from each other. The glory of the earthly is one, the glory of the heavenly is another. The natural body, the earthly one, is a wonderful and beautiful piece of creation. I never cease to be amazed at how it functions, it is truly an amazing piece of work. Most people like their bodies as Paul said in Eph. 5:29, "No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth it ... even as Christ the church." I omitted the phrase, "and cherisheth it," and what an apt description this is, especially of those who happen to have a well formed, attractive body. My! the time some spend in trying to keep their body beautiful; and the money that is spent on soaps, creams, oils, and cosmetics to preserve and enhance the appearance of the body. There is a certain glory about the human body, but its glory is not worth being compared with the glory of the celestial. In contrast to the glory of the heavenly body, this body is vile and humiliating. The contrast between these two bodies - the first of flesh, the second of spirit - is almost too much for our weak and earthbound minds to comprehend. The natural mind and natural understanding cannot grasp it. The Holy Spirit declares that "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."

Bearing the image of the heavenly is not taking your natural body to heaven. That is what millions of Christians think: that one of these days their present body is going to fly away to heaven, there to be clothed in a glistening white night-gown, and strum a harp while dancing up and down the streets of gold. Not so! my brother. Neither is bearing the image of the heavenly the imputation of longevity or immortality to this earthly body, so that one lives for a thousand years or forever in this terrestrial form. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ is a GLORIOUS BODY, or a BODY OF GLORY as the Greek expresses it (Phil. 3:20-21). A body of flesh is a body COMPOSED OF FLESH, and a body of glory is a body COMPOSED OF GLORY. This principle is so simple that even a child should understand it. As it is written, "There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies...there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body."

The most comprehensive single paragraph of scripture that deals with the truth that there are two distinct kinds of bodies, or two totally different bodies, is found in II Cor. 5:1-5 wherein we read, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this (the earthly) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house (celestial body) which is from heaven (the Spirit): if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle (fleshly body) do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon (with the celestial body), that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now He that hath wrought us for this selfsame thing is God, who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit."

This passage starts with assurances of absolute certainty. "For we know" is as dogmatic and definitely positive as human speech can be. The thing we thus know is that if our earthly house of this tabernacle (physical body) were dissolved, our spirit would not be "naked" or "disembodied," for there is ANOTHER BODY, a CELESTIAL BODY, a SPIRITUAL BODY, a BUILDING OF GOD FROM HEAVEN for the spirit to occupy in the celestial world.

In veritable truth does the apostle say that in this body we groan. We groan from the hour of our birth until the time of our departure. We groan when our stomachs are empty and the pangs of hunger ravish our system. We also groan when we eat too much Mexican food and suffer the consequences. We groan when we get our teeth; we groan again when we lose them. We groan when we are children under the rule of parents, teachers, etc. We groan again when we become adults and are forced to face the responsibilities of life. We groan because of our children, and we groan when they leave home. We groan because of sickness, pain and sorrow. We groan at the multiplied problems and afflictions and troubles and tragedies that fall our lot. At almost every movement of the body we are apt to come in violent contact with some sharp or unmovable object, and we groan again!

There are a lot of so-called revelations that are set forth these days which at first hearing sound very religious, advanced and spiritual, but as one examines that which is set forth, there are times when we find that what is being taught in some circles is not the same thing which the Spirit of God speaks into your own heart. For example, through many years I have heard a lot of folk speak of the "LIFE MESSAGE" and have been asked if I believe it. I would then have to inquire and probe into their minds and hearts to find out exactly what they meant by this term. Often I discovered that what they meant was that they had attained "by faith" a condition of immortality for this physical, flesh body, which they said would never die. In this body of dust they were able, they believed, to by-pass the grave.

I never cease to be amazed at how much effort people put into trying to "immortalize" this earth body of the first man Adam. The Holy Spirit witnesses that "there is a natural body, AND there is a spiritual body." The order in which these two bodies are experienced is also defined: "Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual" (I Cor. 15:46). Most saints don't know the difference between these two bodies! And most have not the faintest idea about where, when, or how to put on the spiritual body. So many of the Lord's precious people imagine that the natural body shall somehow become the spiritual body, or that the first man Adam shall in some manner become the last man Adam, the Lord from heaven. No way! Is that which is spiritual, natural? Is that which is natural, spiritual? Is that which is earthly, heavenly? Is that which is heavenly, earthly? Is that which is terrestrial, celestial? Is that which is celestial, terrestrial? Is that which is corruptible, incorruptible? Is that which is incorruptible, corruptible? Is the first Adam also the last Adam? Is the last Adam the first? All, beloved, there are TWO BODIES, TWO TABERNACLES, TWO GARMENTS - even as there are TWO ADAMS, TWO MEN, and TWO BIRTHS; the first birth and the second birth, one of flesh, the other of spirit; one of earth and the other of heaven! The first must decrease, the second must increase. The first must be "done away," the second must be eternally "established." The one must be "put off," while the other must be "put on." One dear sister, understanding not the difference between the flesh body and the spirit body thought that she had already laid hold on immortality for her flesh body and proclaimed on the basis of her conviction that she now had her GLORIFIED BODY. But one day she was hanging her drapes and fell and broke her GLORIFIED HIP!

Ah, hearken! my beloved brother, my precious sister, thou who thinkest thou possesseth immortality in thy Adamic body of flesh. Truly it is written, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me SHALL NEVER DIE" (Jn. 11:25-26). And again, "But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age, and the resurrection from the dead ... NEITHER CAN THEY DIE any more ... the SONS OF GOD, being the SONS OF THE RESURRECTION" (Lk. 20:35-36). What do you expect it is like WHEN YOU CANNOT DIE? What would it be like for this flesh body if it COULD NOT DIE?

Let us imagine one coming into that state of being, yet all natural laws still in force. If you CANNOT DIE, then there is no need to eat food, for you cannot starve to death. YOU CANNOT DIE. If you did choose to eat, you could eat anything, even the very strongest poisons, for YOU CANNOT DIE. Nothing would have the power to kill. Should you be run over by an eighteen-wheeler your flesh would not be mangled, your bones would not crush, your blood would not splatter; and like Woody Woodpecker, you would arise from the imprint in the pavement and walk away unharmed, for YOU CANNOT DIE. You would be beyond the power of death. All natural laws may just as well be taken off the books, they have become of no effect. If there is still fire, you who cannot die cannot in any way be affected by the burning power of fire, no matter how great it might be. A furnace heated seven times hotter than ever before would have no power. The heat from an atomic or hydrogen explosion can never hurt you; as soon as the nuclear cloud has passed you would be seen standing there upon your two feet, for you CANNOT DIE. There could be no pain or hurt to you, for fire could have no effect. The natural law of cremation might just as well be removed from the books, for it has been superseded. The natural law of drowning would be transcended. Natural law says that one cannot breathe water into his lungs and live. If you CANNOT DIE, then you have NO NEED FOR ATMOSPHERE OR AIR to live, for even without air YOU CANNOT DIE. Nothing can kill you! Should you pass through the most poisonous of gases, you would not be affected, for you CANNOT DIE. Death would have lost its power, and not one thing could harm you or destroy you.

For those who cannot die, death has been done away. Therefore there would be nothing to prevent such a person from going anywhere in the universe. And there would be no need for any special preparation in the way of oxygen to breathe, spacesuit, spaceship, etc. Nothing could harm such a person and it would have become his or her nature to live under any circumstances. The time has come when we must see by the spirit of wisdom and revelation from God that THIS EARTHLY HOUSE OF THE FIRST ADAM IS N-O-T OUR HOUSE FROM HEAVEN, this terrestrial body is not the celestial body, this mortal body is not the immortal body, this corruptible body is not the incorruptible body, this natural body is not the spiritual body, and this flesh from Adam is not the flesh of the Son of God! Those who walk in the BODY OF GLORY are those who have been given immortality. The body of glory is the BODY OF THE NEW CREATION MAN, not this bag of bones of the external, visible world. Those who fully "put on the Lord Jesus Christ," who "put on incorruption," who "put on immortality," thus putting on the body of glory - not one thing has any power to hurt or destroy these, for THEY CANNOT DIE. Nothing restricts them in any way. They are as God throughout the universe. They are the living, working, life-giving will of God. They become so one with the Lord that they are ONE SPIRIT in all things. These are the sons of God! And this reality is begun within us here and now, for the new creation is a life within a life, A MAN WITHIN A MAN, A B-O-D-Y W-I-T-H-I-N A B-O-D-Y!

Glorious beyond description is the fact that here and now, even as I pen these words, in the inner realm of our spirit man there is being constructed an incorruptible life, a building of God, a house-body not made with hands, a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not of this creation, eternal in the heavenlies. Not a mansion in the sky, not a cabin in the corner, not a while nightgown and wings with which to flit about over the hills of glory, as the churches so ignorantly portray; but a new life, a new nature, a new garment, a new tabernacle, a new body, a body of light and glory and power, a body of CELESTIAL FLESH, a body of incorruption, a body of immortality raised up and constructed by the mighty working of the INDWELLING POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION! When this work has been completed we will not be found naked, even though this present hunk of wretched flesh be laid aside!

Nothing can be plainer in the blessed book of God than the fact that every child of God possesses two bodies - the outer-man body and the inner-man body. "Though our OUTWARD MAN perish (Greek: is perishing), yet the INWARD MAN is (being) renewed day by day" (II Cor. 4:16). As the outer-man body of death is dissolved, something else is revealed - a building of God, a heavenly house not made with hands, eternal. We see that beneath this surface tabernacle, this temporary state, is a body which is permanent. The new body is spiritual from its conception. It grows in spirituality. Just as an oak grows to be an oak so every seed can only bring forth after its kind. A spiritual seed will bring forth a spiritual body, and a carnal seed will issue only carnality. It is this principle - seed producing after its kind - that is the proof of the truth of which I now speak.

A brother in Christ has written, "Peter states that 'God has begotten us again to a LIVING HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance INCORRUPTIBLE and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.' There is only one who is living - God. There is only one who is incorruptible - God. And we know that He resides in heaven which is in us (Lk. 17:21; Jn. 14:23). The word 'begotten' means fathered. He has placed a seed in this carcass of mine and yours. A child births itself. The mother cannot do it. The child knows the day and comes forth. The child while yet in darkness knows the day, the hour, the very time of deliverance. But the mother only knows of it after the child reveals it. The Christ within us knows the hour, the day, the precise minute. But our outer man has no knowledge of spiritual things. We do not know because we still live in the outer man. The spiritual babe within us lives in that spiritual eternal heavens of which our outer man seeks to know OF and ABOUT, but cannot receive the things of the spirit because it is carnal. So, if you are aware that something is 'stirring' but you can't put your finger on what it is, that is because your outer man seeks to understand or pull down onto the natural plane that which is spiritually discerned. The spiritual man is living in the day of the Lord, but the carnal man still thinks it is coming. There is a new man that has been formed in us. Can you not sense the rearrangement of priorities in your life, and even a change in your personality? If so, you may be looking out of the old caterpillar eyes with the understanding of a butterfly! This is the dissolving of the old and the appearing of the new. The old heavens and the old earth pass away. But the new is revealed. Our mother, the heavenly Jerusalem comes down. Not out of the natural sky, but out of the heavens (spiritual realm) within to be established in the revealing of a NEW BODY" - Charles Weller.

The outer-man is old Adam. It is not the physical body, but the nature within that body - a sphere of life. It is the Adam nature that controls the physical part of us carnally. When the serpent tempted Eve to partake of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she first considered in her mind, then was motivated by her heart, and finally her hand reached forth and took what mind and heart dictated. It was not her physical body that sinned - it was her nature - the outer-man of "flesh" that rebelled against God. But the "flesh" is not the physical body. Your mind, you see, is not your brain even as your old Adamic heart is not the organ that physiologically pumps your blood. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). We have a biological heart, but that is not spiritually the heart of the Adamic outer man which is woefully deceitful and desperately wicked. That heart is a nature. The carnal mind is a nature. The flesh is a nature.

When Paul told the saints to "present your bodies a living sacrifice ... which is your reasonable service," he was not telling them to present themselves before the brazen altar in the temple, nor to physically march down to a church altar. He spake, rather, of the inner mind and will of you submitting yourself to God, and thereby relinquishing the death nature in it, dying to its will and desires, and letting God fill it with His nature and desires. When God gets possession of your will, the physical body will also act in harmony with that will, for it will perform according to whatever the thinking man inside of it dictates. It can do no other way. The Adam nature covering (body) which we plant (die out to) is corrupt, dishonorable and weak. How wonderful it is that we can exchange that accursed thing for a shining garment of glory and beauty and immortality, yes, even the Christ of God, the Lord from heaven filling our inner-man body (heart and mind). He that hath an ear, let him hear.

We will never understand the nature and reality of the TWO BODIES until we know for a certainty that this outer body we see with our eyes is not the body which is the temple of the Holy Ghost (I Cor. 6:19-20). If the flesh body was indeed the temple of the Holy Ghost it would not get sick or wracked with pain or consumed by foul, loathsome disease; nor would it grow old and feeble, and die. We assumed that when the inspired apostle stated that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit he spake of the physical body. But how can one assume such a thing? The message is clear - there IS a natural body, and there IS a spiritual body - not "shall be," but there IS. Both bodies are present realities. Why should we suppose that it is the natural body which is the temple of the Spirit? How can the natural body be the temple of the Holy Spirit when the natural man cannot ever receive the Spirit? Is it not much more logical and spiritually valid to say that the temple of the Holy Spirit is your SPIRITUAL BODY which has been made the receptacle of the Holy Spirit? The spiritual body is the substance of God, the flesh of the Son of God which clothes the inward Christ-nature.

We have put so much stress on outward things, so much "carnalizing" of the Word of God which is "spirit and life," that when we read the scriptures we oft times overlook the real truth the Spirit is speaking. The real man who is naked is not the outer physical body. In spite of all the "dress codes" religion may impose, it makes no difference, my friend, how much you clothe the outer body - your true "flesh" will still be exposed! It should be clear to all who have eyes to see that when the scripture makes such statements as, "put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ," "put on the whole armour of God," "put on the armour of light," "put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem," "be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven," - these cannot be put on the outer physical body, they must be put on in the inner realm of soul and spirit, the hidden man of the heart, even that NEW MAN which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

We are told in the wonderful parable of our Lord that in this, our day, the Kingdom of Heaven shall be likened unto ten virgins. These ten virgins took their lamps (understanding-enlightenment) and went forth to meet the Bridegroom. But five of these were foolish, and five were wise. It is my determined conviction that these ten virgins represent the senses of man - the five foolish senses of the outer man, and the five wise senses of the inner man. The five foolish virgins are the five soulical senses of the outer-man body. A mind that judges everything by the outward appearance as perceived by the external senses IS FOOLISH! To every outer sense you have an inner spiritual counterpart.

Our mind is that part of us which thinks and is the seat of consciousness; it is our intellect and in it dwells our ability to reason. When we are born of the flesh, we are born with a natural mind. We enter this world with five senses: sight, hearing, smelling, taste and touch. These are natural physiological and soulical senses, and feed information to our natural mind. Peter writes about our new birth in I Pet. 1:23. "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." This new birth is by an incorruptible seed, by the Word of God, even that Word which was from the beginning which is Jesus Christ. This incorruptible seed is the life of the Christ which quickens our spirit at the time of regeneration. He is the author of eternal life. "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (I Jn. 5:12). When we are born of the Spirit, God gives us these same senses which operate in the realm of the spirit, in the inner-man body. In the natural no one has ever been able to see in this world unless they have been born. So it is in the spiritual realm. Jesus speaks of this spiritual sight in Jn. 3:3. "Except a man be born again, he cannot SEE the Kingdom of God." Just as there are five natural senses in the natural realm, so also there are five spiritual senses in the spiritual realm. The five senses of the outer man are able to see, hear, taste, touch and smell natural things; but these same five senses in the world of the spirit are able to see, hear, taste, touch and smell all spiritual things which are invisible and incorruptible, as the apostle explains, "...eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him - but God HATH REVEALED THEM UNTO US BY THE SPIRIT; for the spirit searcheth (out) all things, yea the deep things of God" (I Cor. 2:9-14). When we are born from above the FIVE SENSES OF THE SPIRIT WORLD become resident and operative within the inner-man body. Gradually, as this inner man grows and we are quickened to become aware of these senses, the EYES of our understanding open wider and wider to the things not seen by the natural eye; by degrees the HEARING of faith increases until every good promise of God is established as truth within; in time we come into TOUCH with the Lord in His invisible presence and powers; little by little we TASTE and see that the Lord is very gracious; after a time we come to appreciate those sacrifices and incense-prayers and praises which are a SWEET ODOR to the Lord. As the natural senses can be cultivated, so can the spiritual; and the cultivation of these spiritual senses constitute marks indicating our growth in grace, our development as sons of God, to the completeness of our new selves in the glory, honor, and immortality of the divine nature.

The scriptures are plain. You can have eyes and not see, ears and not hear - so you must have two sets of eyes and two sets of ears - you have ears within that can hear on a level that is not heard by the outer ear. "My sheep hear My voice, and a stranger they will not follow" (Jn. 10:5,27). "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith" (Rev. 2:7).

The sons of God have eyes within that see on a level that is not seen by the eyes of the outer-man body. You can have 20/20 vision with your physical eyes and never see what you see with the "eyes of your understanding" (Eph. 1:18). It must forever be settled in our hearts that there is no true reality in any of the things that are SEEN, for how can we say that things which are always changing and passing away are realities? The only eternal things in the whole universe are the things which are NOT SEEN by the outer eye, and yet it is not that they are really invisible, for they are merely invisible to the kinds of eyes we have in our outer-man body. Eternal things are only inaudible to the ears of the natural and can be perceived only beyond the senses of the soulish man. The Holy Spirit has faithfully recorded of Moses, that grand hero of faith and spiritual vision, that "by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE" (Heb. 11:27).

Here is the mighty power of the new creation: it sees what others cannot see! it sees, amid the thousand things natural men see and are guided by, something infinitely greater and more real - it SEES GOD. No wonder it leads a man to think and act differently from other men. On everything it looks at, the bright light of eternity is shining. No wonder that under the inspiration of that vision it can do mighty deeds, for it sees God its helper and strength. Let me here say to every saint of God that just as, in any pursuit, the eye can be trained to see what others cannot see, so the spiritual eyes of the new creation inner-man body can be trained to see God everywhere. Abide in His presence until the heart is filled with it. You will begin to recognize HIM in everything that happens. Seek to walk in the light of His countenance. Seeing the INVISIBLE will make it easy to forsake this world and do the will of God! The heavens are shut up from the natural man. He cannot see eternal things. He sees only natural things. He cannot hear spiritual things. He hears only the lower sounds of earth.

We have an exhortation of David to taste in the realm of the spirit. "O taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8). That's not physical, you can't taste of the Lord physically, we're not cannibals! When one walks by the spiritual senses of the inner-man body He, like Christ, has meat to eat that others know not of and drink to drink of which those around him have never tasted. When a man really tastes of the things of the world of the spirit it is not possible for him to ever again be satisfied with anything less. And especially if he has tasted of the "meat" of God's Word, it is very difficult for him to go back to feeding his soul on the milk of babes or the husks of lifeless forms and empty traditions of men. The natural man cannot TASTE SPIRITUAL THINGS but only such things as he can eat with his physical mouth and take into his soul of the spirit of this world, none of which contain one iota of life or reality.

You also have another sense of smelling on a higher plane of reality. This sense of smell is mentioned in II Cor. 2:14-16, "Thanks be to God who leads us, wherever we are, on His own triumphant way and makes our knowledge of Him to spread throughout the world like a lovely perfume! We Christians have the unmistakable scent of Christ, discernible alike to those who are being saved and to those who are heading for death. To the latter it smells like the very smell of doom, to the former it has the fresh fragrance of life itself" (Phillips translation).

Touch - "Who touched Me?" Jesus asked as virtue left His body to heal the woman with the issue of blood. The people flocked around Jesus to try and touch Him that they might be healed of their many infirmities. Many times Jesus touched them and they were made whole. He touched the leper and he was cleansed. He touched Peter's mother-in-law's hand and her fever left her. He touched the eyes of the two blind men and their eyes were opened. He touched the deaf man and his ears were opened, and He touched the bier of the mother's only son and commanded him to arise and he that was dead sat up and began to speak. But today, because the Christ dwells within by His Spirit, we are able to reach out and touch Him in the Spirit, and we know His mighty touch by the glory of His presence and power in our lives.

The five foolish virgins are the five external senses; the gate of the spiritual world is closed to them; but why are they foolish? One reason is that the five outer senses are BORROWERS - everything they do they borrow - and that is why they have no light in their lamps, because they borrow everything from the outer world. They have never had the INNER SOURCE tell them anything, but they have lived by a borrowed revelation, they have borrowed what everyone else teaches, preaches, thinks and says. And when the Bridegroom comes and the hour of union is at hand they run to the inner senses and cry, "Can we borrow - give us of YOUR OIL!" The reply comes speedily, "NO - go to the source, get your oil as we got ours, we got our light from the inside, from the inner man of spirit, from the realm of the Kingdom of Heaven, AND THIS LIGHT CANNOT BE BORROWED."

There is an inner-man body, thank God! formed of the Spirit of the resurrected and glorified Christ, and this marvelous body is from heaven even as my outer-man body is of earth. I declare to you again that as a man puts on Christ he puts on not only the Spirit of Christ but also the RESURRECTION BODY of Christ and this body is a present reality and this body IS our house from heaven. Just because you cannot see this body at this time, do not doubt its existence, my beloved. It is just as real, yea, a thousand times more real than this fleeting body of dust. Even as our earth body has come from Adam, and is Adam's body, so our spirit body comes from Christ Jesus our Lord and is the body of His resurrection. That glorious body of Jesus which passed through the locked door, and which, like the wind, blew where it would, yet men neither knew where it came from nor where it went; that is the inner-man body of the new creation of which you are made partaker in union with Him. I have been out of my earth body in that spirit body and have looked back and beheld my earth body from another level of consciousness. I doubt not that many saints have traveled to distant points by this inner-man body, ministering to those unto whom they were sent, and have returned, in a manner not unlike the experience of Philip when he was caught away in spirit, or John the beloved when he heard the voice saying, "Come up hither," or like Paul the apostle when he was present in spirit by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the assembly of the saints at Corinth, though his body was miles away in the city of Ephesus (I Cor. 5:3-5).

Jesus, speaking of the power of the resurrection said, "I am the LIVING BREAD which came down from heaven," and again, "He that eateth MY FLESH... shall live." My sincere prayer to God is that He may give my readers eyes to see and hearts to understand this simple but sublime truth: ALL FLESH IS NOT THE SAME FLESH. There is a flesh that is corruptible and there is a flesh that is incorruptible. There is a flesh that is a shame and there is a flesh that is a glory. There is a flesh that is of the earth, and there is a flesh which has come down from heaven. There is a flesh with which we are familiar. There is a flesh about which the natural man knows nothing. The flesh with which we are acquainted is OUR FLESH. That which yet remains a mystery is HIS FLESH. "Whosoever eateth MY FLESH... hath eternal life" (in. 6:54). "For we are members of His body, of HIS FLESH, and of HIS BONES" (Eph. 5:30). Only the Holy Spirit can give us the understanding that Jesus was not offering us the flesh that was born in Bethlehem, or that hung on a cross. NEITHER WAS HE OFFERING US SOMETHING WITHOUT SUBSTANCE. When Jesus said, "Eat My flesh," He was speaking of a flesh invisible to the human eye but a flesh that was and is, nonetheless, very real - the very flesh of His glorified body! ONLY ETERNAL FLESH CAN PRODUCE ETERNAL LIFE! ONLY ETERNAL FLESH CAN PRODUCE AN INCORRUPTIBLE BODY! This, precious friend of mine, is the power of His resurrection. Oh! that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection!

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