KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

Wondrous things await the elect of God, things which it is not lawful for a man to utter in the hearing of uncircumcised ears and hearts. Long ages have come and gone since that first glorious dawn when the Creator uttered the portentous decree, "Let there be light," and there are vast ages that lie yet unborn before us. Our present dispensation is closing, we are already overlapping into another. Glories greater far than this age has disclosed are already beginning to burn. Dawn with blushing hues is advancing in the eastern skies, stretching forth her golden fingers to draw aside the shades of night and open the gates of day. Soon will come the explosive fulfillment of divine promises that pertain to that wonderful age to come, of which we have merely "tasted" its powers (Heb. 6:5). Our blessed Lord and Christ shall see the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied and that glory is to be revealed in us. The groaning earth is waiting, creation is longing for deliverance. The seas are roaring, the earth is quaking. There are wars and rumors of wars. Amid the ruthless surging tide of unbridled crime, drugs, rebellion, immorality, sickness, suffering, poverty, sorrow and injustice, we hear the groans of the dying. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain. Men's hearts are failing them for fear in looking after those things which are coming on the earth. The cry of the oppressed is entering into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth. The night has been long, and is so cold and dark. But the "Day Star" is arising. The morning cometh! Already the flashes of light are climbing the eastern sky. Heaven and earth will soon be ablaze with the glory of the revelation in the manifested sons of God.

Why has God not brought deliverance to this sin-cursed world during the past two millenniums of church history? Ah, God be praised! There are co-heirs in whom the glory is to be revealed. There are "many brethren" to be manifested in the image of "the firstborn." The number of these is not yet complete, but the hour is at hand. When all the heirs of the Kingdom are gathered out of this dark age, God will unveil His many-membered Christ to the world. The long-awaited manifestation of the sons of God will take place, and creation will be delivered from the bondage of decay and death and brought "into the glorious liberty of the sons of God" (Rom. 8:21). Creation cannot possibly be delivered during the church age. The gospel may be preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven and it leaves the creation in the same bondage of corruption. The gospel of this age has been designed to call out a people for His name, to form the enChristed body in the earth. It is not intended that it should do anything else. But when the sons of God are manifested with Christ in His glory, it will be the signal for the deliverance of creation from the bondage of corruption. The godly and glorious and incorruptible race of the second Adam is at hand, God's NEW MAN. He will bring the cure. He will enlighten the minds of the people and turn their hearts to the Lord. He will heal the broken world. He will rebuke sin and sorrow and disease. He will bind death. He will rifle the grave. He will deliver creation.

Those who have been apprehended to this high calling have been overshadowed by the power of the Highest and are aware of a glorious life within - a bursting life in embryo ready to come forth, or as Peter said, "unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Pet. 1:5). It is the birth of the New Creation Life in Christ Jesus, the full manifestation of the sons of God. This is Christ formed in us. So arise, shine, for thy light is come. The glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but the light shall arise upon thee and His glory shall be seen upon thee. This is His day; this is your hour.

It is erroneous to speak of the resurrection of the body while ignoring the resurrection of soul and spirit. Man's body is not all that dies, or is dead. Death seized upon Adam in the very day when he partook of the forbidden tree, although many hundreds of years passed before his body was finally laid in the grave. The divine edict was not, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thy BODY shall die," but "in the day that thou eatest thereof T-H-O-U shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). The result of sin would pass upon the WHOLE MAN - body, soul and spirit. "The SOUL that sinneth, it shall die," saith the Almighty. "And YOU hath He quickened, WHO WERE DEAD in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1). "But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth" (I Tim. 5:6). We are prone to equate death with the demise of the body, but nothing is farther from the truth. If we who WERE DEAD have NOW BEEN QUICKENED by the spirit of life from God, the question follows: What part of us was dead? And what part of us has been quickened? Obviously, it was not our body! Equally obvious is the fact that it was not our soul, for the soul is still in the process of transformation.

Some teach that the spirit cannot die because it came from God, but we must remember that all death is not the same death. Death is a condition, a state of being - not cessation of existence. The man lying in the casket still has his bodily members, you behold his face and his form, but something has gone out. Through special processes his body may be preserved for millenniums. His body still exists, but it has entered the state, the condition of death. A dead man has not life, though his members remain. "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord," said the wise man, but I do not hesitate to tell you that a dead spirit is a candle whose light has gone out. "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit," the Word says, so it necessarily follows that he that is NOT joined to the Lord is NOT one spirit. A dead spirit is a spirit from which the divine essence has been withdrawn - the spirit still exists, even with consciousness, but it exists in the state of death - unresponsiveness to the realm of God. The man whose spirit does not respond to God, nor to the bright spirit world, nor to spiritual things, is a man who is dead in spirit.

Recently I read the story of a man from Puerto Rico named Jose, whose body had suffered much damage from leprosy. His insensitivity to touch was so great that, when blindfolded, he could not even detect whether someone had entered the room and held his hand. Touch cells and pain cells had fallen silent. As a result, scars and ulcers covered his hands, face, and feet, bearing mute witness to the unintentional abuse his body had endured without any sensation of pain. Because pain cells in his eyes no longer alerted him when to blink, gradually Jose's eyes dried out. That condition, aggravated by severe cataracts and glaucoma, soon made him blind. A terrible misfortune cut off Jose's last link with the outside world. He lost his hearing. Thus, at the age of forty-five Jose lost all contact with the world. He could not see nor hear if a person spoke. He would wake up from sleep and forget where he was. He did not know whether it was day or night, hot or cold, and when he spoke, he did not know if anyone heard or answered. No one could penetrate through his isolation even to ask him for permission to help. Jose's body coiled tighter and tighter on the bed; he was preparing for death in the same position as his birth.

Death is merely the final inability to respond or correspond to the world about you. Such is the condition of the unregenerated human spirit. I tell you the truth - the spirit of the natural man is dead - dead to God, dead to life, dead to reality, dead to truth, dead to righteousness, dead to promise, dead to the spiritual world, dead to spiritual things. He abides in this death through all the decades, centuries, or millenniums of his existence until Christ comes into his heart. The spirit of man can only be penetrated by the Holy Spirit which is the great Quickener, the great Lighter. When our spirit (the candle) is lighted by His Spirit a resurrection in the realm of spirit ensues.

Separated from God man is dead - spirit, soul and body. Receiving again of His life we find it to be a RESURRECTION LIFE. Two Greek words are used to speak of the resurrection. The first is ANASTASIS, generally translated "resurrection." The second is EGEIRO, rendered as "raise, raised or risen." A close examination of the texts where these words are employed reveals that they are frequently used interchangably and both are applied to the resurrection of body, soul and spirit. ANASTASIS means - a standing or rising up. It denotes much more than our English word "resurrection" which we term to mean the restoring to life again. As one has pointed out, the Greek word means THE WHOLE PROCESS OF ADVANCING AND RISING UP UNTIL THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE REALM IS REACHED, and our goal is nothing short of full conformation into the image of God, Christ formed in us, to be ONE IN HIM.

Resurrection is the process of STANDING UP and ADVANCING - it is arising from the dust and the low realm of the earthy, to bear the image of the heavenly. Resurrection is the process of having our life LIFTED UP from the earth, to be raised to the heavenlies, to be joined in one with the Spirit of God. The more ONE we are WITH HIM, the more we will say with Paul, "for our conversation is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20). The word "conversation" literally means "citizenship" and MANNER OF BEHAVIOUR. What a revelation to the world when we begin to manifest the behaviour of that higher realm - so foreign to the flesh.

Resurrection is the process of man's "fall" being REVERSED. If one is watching a program on his VCR and decides to stop and rewind it to see a scene again, he is simply reversing what he has previously seen with his eyes. It is comical betimes to watch the people running backwards, and bodies rising from the ground to the roof of a building, etc. What you saw is restored to its beginning by passing through the motion in reverse. And this is precisely what resurrection is: THE FALL OF MAN IN REVERSE! Since resurrection is man's fall in reverse, a standing up again into that oneness in God man knew in his bright beginning, the order of Adam first being alive, then dying, Is put in reverse. In the new creation death comes first, then life. We cannot have resurrection life without death. We die to self and sin that we may live unto God and righteousness. From that death we stand up again in HIS LIFE.

When we were first born of God our bodies were not "resurrected" at that time, but when that birthing by God's Spirit took place, there was certainly something within us that STOOD UP. In that blessed moment the ego of old Adam laid down in us and died, while the new creation man STOOD UP ALIVE. We were resurrected! Truly the resurrection had dawned within our bosom. But our outer-man bodies saw no change. The spirit within that first died in that long ago Eden has been quickened by His Spirit and caused to STAND UP FROM THE REALM OF SEPARATION AND DEATH. We have experienced the resurrection of our spirit, and now there must follow a resurrection of our soul. We have experienced the STANDING UP of our spirit, and now the awakening and RISING UP of our minds into the mind of Christ is taking place. Even now we are partakers of the mind of Christ (I Cor. 2:16), but we have not yet seen it in the COMPLETE RESURRECTED STATE. Ah, beloved, let us stand up!

I mentioned earlier that the word "risen" comes from the Greek word EGEIRO, meaning "to gather, through the idea of collecting one's faculties, to waken, to rouse from sleep, disease, or death. Here again the truth of being risen with Christ implies the GATHERING OR COLLECTING OF ONE'S FACULTIES. All the spiritual faculties that were lost in the fall of Adam are being restored to the elect by the operation of God. All that was lost shall be regained, including our lost faculties which have to do with spiritual capacities and abilities, as well as the recovery of all spiritual truth. It is more than merely coming to life again, it is the orderly restoration of the totality of our original state of being.

Evelyn Isaacs has written: "Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection and the life,' and as long as He dwells within, the resurrection process is going on. Resurrection is a standing or rising up. In the place of spiritual stagnation, we have come into a way of life. Upon arising to our feet, we are becoming adjusted to living in the fullness of His presence. It is a recovery of our morals and of our spiritual faculties, the regaining, and the restoration of truth. Our aptitudes are restored and we again see, hear, and feel with our spiritual senses. Since we read in Jn. 15:27 that we were with God from the beginning, resurrection life is the restoration and recovery of all that we were in the beginning with God (Prov. 8:22-32). Now we can say, 'I know that my redeemer liveth because He has risen in me.' You know you have been translated and are living in a heavenly land. Where once you stuttered, now, another speaks. Feet that were unsteady are now sure. Holy boldness has taken the place of fear. The soul reaches upward and takes root in the heavens instead of the earth. This is the only tree that grows UPSIDE DOWN. There is a new voice within and we are singing a new song. We behold new vistas and are leaping, as it were, on hind's feet, leaping from mountain peak to mountain peak of revelation. We are brought out of the night into the full light of the great day of God Almighty. Rising from the dead is the resumption of heavenly life. These plants of renown, growing in fertile soil, are no more of the world than Jesus was. Our spirit has been fully healed and we are living in our Paradisical home. We are being brought back to our one true love and to the same glory we had with the Father before the world was (Jn. 17:5; Job 38:7). This is the time of full restoration to our right mind, to our former estate, back where the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. All this process of resurrection is realized in the person of Jesus Christ, for resurrection is a person; His person! May we rest on the pinions of His wings and ascend from realm to realm. If Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead, then our preaching is in vain. Though He were born a thousand times, what does it matter, if He is not born in you? Though He arose a thousand times, if He is not "risen" in you, what difference does it make? In union with Adam's nature you die, but in union with the Christ nature you not only live, but you are ALIVE! Adam was a living being, but Christ is a life-giving spirit, restoring the dead to life. The first Adam was earth minded, the second Adam is heavenly minded" -end quote.

In Adam all die, but in Christ all are made alive. In Christ! I am reminded of the story I read once about a preacher who was addressing the people one Sunday, trying to impress upon them the importance of religion. "All you people of this congregation," he cried from the pulpit, "one day you're going to die. Do you hear me? All you people of this congregation, one day you're going to die." One little man sitting in the front pew started to laugh, so the preacher asked him, "What's so funny?" The man answered, "I don't belong to this congregation." "In Adam all die." But I have some good news for you, my friend. I'M NOT IN ADAM! I don't belong to old Adam. I pertain to the Christ, the second Man. And in Christ all are made alive. Hallelujah! "If ye then BE RISEN with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col. 3:1). That really says it all!

There is an interesting passage in Mark 9 which throws great light on this subject. The opening verses contain the record of the transfiguration; and then we read, "As they came down from the mountain, He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying within themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from (Gr. ek, from among) the dead should mean." The disciples felt that there was something special, something entirely beyond the ordinary orthodox idea of the resurrection of the dead, and verily so there was, though they understood it not then. It lay beyond their range of vision at that moment.

Fortunately, Paul gives us some very vital information concerning this resurrection "from among" the dead, without which we would be very much in the dark. He tells us just how he was planning to be included in it. He also tells us how others came to be included in the same class with him, and he states that the revelation concerning this great attainment and the way into it, is the sign of spiritual perfection (Phil. 3:11-15). But the popular teachers of the day have totally missed these great truths. Let us consider them very carefully. They are of the utmost importance. In Phil. 3:8-14, Paul informs us that he had given up the world, given up everything, that he might suffer with Christ, with his nature transformed to die even as Christ died, "IF BY ANY MEANS I might attain unto the resurrection out from amongst the dead." In our King James version this is rendered, "the resurrection of the dead:" a pathetic, and altogether misleading translation.

A moment's just reflection will suffice to convince the reader that the apostle is not speaking here of the broad truth of "the resurrection of the dead," inasmuch as everyone must rise again. "There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust" (Acts 24:15). In the Greek language the resurrection "of the dead" is NEKRON or TON NEKRON and is applied to all classes of people because all will be raised. But the term EK NEKRON - "out of the dead" - is not once applied to the unjust or the ungodly, or in any general sense. The latter phrase is used altogether 49 times in the New Testament, to-wit: 34 times, to express Christ's resurrection, whom we know was thus raised OUT OF THE DEAD. 3 Times, to express John the Baptist's supposed resurrection, who, as Herod thought, had been raised OUT OF THE DEAD. 3 Times, to express the resurrection of Lazarus, who was also raised OUT OF THE DEAD. 3 times, it is used to express spiritual life OUT FROM AMONG those who are still dead in sin. In Rom. 6:13 we read, "Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from (among) the dead." In Acts 4:1-2 the Sadducees were grieved because Peter and John "preached, through Jesus, THE RESURRECTION WHICH IS FROM AMONG THE DEAD."

The resurrection of which Paul spoke was not even the general resurrection of saints. Paul knew that he was a saved man, and as such knew there was positively no way he could escape the resurrection of the just. Now, if there were but one resurrection of the saved, as modern Babylon teaches, then all of his strivings were altogether uncalled for and useless. But no: Paul was not striving in vain; and unto the saints at Philippi he wrote, "But whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I have come to consider as one combined loss for Christ's sake. Yes, furthermore I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege - the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth and supreme advantage - of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish in order that I may win Christ, and that I may actually be found and known as in Him, not having any self-achieved righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law's demands - but possessing that genuine righteousness which comes through faith in Christ, the truly right standing with God, which comes from God by saving faith. For my determined purpose is that I may know Him - that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him... that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from HIS RESURRECTION; and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into the likeness even to His death, in the hope that IF POSSIBLE I MAY ATTAIN TO THE SPIRITUAL AND MORAL RESURRECTION THAT LIFTS ME OUT FROM AMONG THE DEAD EVEN WHILE IN THE BODY. Not that I have now attained this ideal or am already made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me" (Phil. 3:7-12, Amplified).

Oh! dearly beloved brethren, the resurrection "of" the dead is one thing, but the resurrection "out from among" the dead is a mightily different thing. If ALL the people in a building leave it at the same time, it is the coming out "of" the company; but if only SOME of the people present leave, theirs is a coming out "from" the rest of the company. It was for this resurrection "out from" the dead that Paul longed continually. This was the bright and blessed hope that shone upon his soul and cheered him amid the sorrows and trials, the toils and the difficulties, the buffetings and the conflicts. Every soul who dies, both saint and sinner, must be in the resurrection "of" the dead, for as in Adam ALL die, so in Christ shall ALL be made alive. There is no possible way of avoiding it. But to be a partaker in the resurrection "from among" the dead, that, Paul tells us, is a special blessing and distinction for those who follow on to KNOW the Lord. The resurrection "from" the dead has already begun. It started 1900 years ago. Our Lord was the firstfruits of this company, "raised up out of dead ones" (I Cor. 15:20). There have been a few, a little remnant all through the years who strove and attained to this position. And there is a little remnant alive today who belong to this same company and who will now STAND UP AND COLLECT THEIR SPIRITUAL FACULTIES, transformed fully into the image and incorruptibleness of God by the power of the indwelling Christ. But mark: the way into this great privilege is through death: death to self and the world. Blessed be God! this process has already begun, and it has begun IN US.

You will never understand the power of Christ's resurrection until you know union with Him. There are a couple of scriptures that I would like to consider with you. If you will let these gracious inspired words speak for themselves, you will be given to understand a mystery comprehended by very few men or women who have walked the face of this planet. The following words of the apostle Paul are freighted with meaning and spiritual significance. "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). The opening statement of this beautiful passage declares that "Our conversation is in heaven." The word conversation is from the Greek word POLITEUMA meaning "citizenship." It is not our words or our talk that are in heaven, but our citizenship - our habitation and residence with full civil rights. We are citizens of heaven. Our residence is in heaven. Heaven is our place of birth, our homeland, our native sphere of habitation.

There are some things about which we must be very clear. If we would grasp the deep meaning of our heavenly citizenship, we must come to an understanding of some basic and simple facts about HEAVEN ITSELF. We want no theories nor guesses. We want facts. We want nothing but the highest authority. And what better authority can we find than the One who made the heavens and who owns them? If anyone understands all the facts about heaven, it is He! Let us see what He said. He had left His heavenly glory. He had humbled Himself, had taken upon Himself the form of sinful man; and becoming a man, was despised and rejected. And yet, while in humility and reproach, a man among men, He made this statement: "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man WHICH IS IN HEAVEN" (Jn. 3:13). The Son of God left His glory, and descended to the depths of this earth. Yet, while a man on earth, in humility, He Himself said, "The Son of man WHICH I-S IN HEAVEN."

When Jesus said that He was even then, as a man, in heaven - He used the usual Greek word for heaven, OURANOS. The meaning of the word is elevation, height, exaltation. But this elevation, height and exaltation is something so vast, so infinite, so inexhaustible that a person can be in it, can descend from it, and yet still possess it and be in it! The sweet singer of Israel, speaking of the vastness of the universe says, "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Ps. 19:1). The earth is simply a planet revolving around the sun. The sun is merely a star in a galaxy known as the Milky Way. And the Milky Way is but one small galaxy among billions that are known to exist. And scientists with their most powerful telescopes have never found the outer extremities of the universe. it appears to be infinite, unending! Certainly, were you to descend to earth from some distant galaxy, you would have descended from heaven while still remaining in heaven! The heavens are so vast that man can never escape them - he can only descend and ascend within them.

But the heaven that God dwells in is not the physical universe, nor is it some limited spot far out in the universe somewhere where God dwells in His majesty sitting upon a material throne. First of all, God is SPIRIT and spirit cannot utilize the material in its own realm. Not only is God spirit, He is OMNIPRESENT SPIRIT. He is everywhere present at the same time. David said of Him, "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning... even there shall Thy hand lead me..." (Ps. 139:6-10). Solomon, at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem said, "And the house which I build is great: for great is our God above all gods. But who is able to build Him an house, seeing the heaven and THE HEAVEN OF HEAVENS cannot contain Him" (II Chron. 2:5-6). God is spirit. He is omnipresent spirit. He fills all things. Therefore, God is not confined to some geographical or celestial location. He is equally present everywhere throughout the eternal, unbounded heavens!

Let all who read these lines clearly understand that God's heaven is not the inexhaustible universe of stars and suns and planets - swirling nebulae. Heaven has nothing whatever to do with the time-space continuum or matter in any form. The true heaven is beyond it all, above it all, before it all. Heaven is that high and holy and invisible realm of SPIRIT, the pure and divine and eternal and incorruptible realm of GOD HIMSELF, which existed before ever a star or a planet appeared. Heaven, therefore, can only be entered BY THAT WHICH IS SPIRIT. Let every man know for a certainty that heaven is not a geographical or astral location with their limitations, but a dimension, a sphere of existence, a state of being - that spiritual existence, being and habitation in which God eternally lives. Natural eyes cannot pierce the invisible realm of spirit. Natural minds know nothing of that realm, for we perceive only those physical things recognizable by the senses. Natural ears are unable to hear that which is spoken in the realm of spirit, for spirit vibrates on a frequency higher than and superior to the low vibrations of earth. Heaven is all around us but we must be raised out of our natural consciousness in order to touch it. But the dimension of heaven is ten thousand times MORE REAL than this gross material realm to which our mortal form has been subjected.

The Holy Spirit witnesses with unspeakable clearness that WHAT CHRIST IS ALL other sons of God are now becoming. He is the FIRSTBORN from among the dead ones; a vast body of sons will be raised because He was raised. He was crucified; THEY were crucified IN HIM. He was buried; THEY were buried IN HIM. He was raised; THEY were raised IN HIM. He ascended to God's right hand; THEY are ascended IN HIM. He was seated to reign; THEY are seated IN HIM.

Over and over again, the Gospel of John states that Jesus went unto His Father. We will quote only four of these as follows. "I depart out of this world unto the Father" (Jn. 13:1). "I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more" (Jn. 16:10). "A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again, a little while and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father" (Jn. 16:16). "Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I" (Jn. 14:28-29).

Many Christians today are quite as carnal as were these first followers of Jesus who, being Jews, and God having shown their forefathers many wonderful signs, were expecting now to see something tangible and earthly, and it was therefore difficult for them to comprehend and receive these words of Jesus concerning His Father, and heaven, and His going unto the Father. God is a spirit and both fills and transcends all space. And since God is in heaven, heaven is wherever the Spirit of God is, whether it be far distant or deep within us. Therefore, when Jesus went unto the Father, He did not travel many miles; lie simply moved out of one dimension into another; He returned to the Spirit-form from when He came forth as He said, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father" (Jn. 16:28). This, then, is what Jesus meant when He said, "Ye shall not see Me - because I go unto My Father," or back into the spirit form and realm of heaven which is invisible. And now in spirit we are eternally joined unto Him in His own incorruptible sphere of life and state of being. He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit - in heaven! Henceforth, may our conversation be in heaven and of heaven, from whence also we look for our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.

It will be well worth our time to examine prayerfully just what is actually stated in the passage of scripture now under consideration. "For our citizenship is in heaven, FROM WHENCE WE LOOK..." "We LOOK." I ask you to notice this particularly. "From whence WE LOOK." "FROM WHENCE we look." It does not say, "from whence we SHALL look." Nor does it say, "from whence the Lord shall come." "From whence WE LOOK FOR THE SAVIOUR, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST: who shall change our vile body..." It does not at all say that the Lord Jesus Christ shall come from heaven, although that is how our superficial reading and carnal mindedness has taken it. Nothing is said here about where Christ dwells, or where He is coming from. The subject is not where Christ is, but where WE ARE and WHAT WE ARE DOING THERE. Where are we? "Our citizenship (residence, homeland) is in heaven." This lovely passage shows the believer to be a heavenly man, positioned in the heavenlies. And what are we doing there? From that lofty vantage point and exalted state of consciousness we are LOOKING FOR THE SAVIOUR to change our vile body. Just as a man may sit in a fire-tower steadily looking for the tell-tale signs of smoke that alert him to a forest fire, so WE SIT IN HEAVEN LOOKING FOR THE SAVIOUR TO CHANGE OUR BODY. The message is clear - we are not on earth looking for our Saviour to come crashing down from heaven. Rather, from our exalted seating in the height of heaven we look for this change, for we know the Christ there, we belong to Him there, we are joined in one with Him there, we are heavenly because He is. He will extend the work of salvation and exaltation to the body-realm, so as to present the whole being in the power of eternal life in the true sphere and home of that life above. We are to possess a fully developed body which belongs to the celestial world. This change from death to life takes place as Christ rises from within us, coming out of heaven (spirit) to manifest finally in the visible world. As we find Christ in us and our union in Him as the source of our life, tremendous changes take place. Oh! the mystery of it! It is not from earth that we look for heaven to swoop down and change us; it is in heaven that we look for our outer man to catch up with our inner man. "FROM HEAVEN we look..." Hallelujah!

Our change from mortal to immortal, from corruptible to incorruptible is a promise of God that can no more fail or pass away than any other of God's promises. "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye... for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (I Cor. 15:51-53).

I want to show you one of the hidden secrets of God, that only the Spirit of Truth can bring forth. After saying, "but we shall all be changed," the next words read, "in a moment." The Greek word used here for "moment" is ATOMOS. This passage is the only place in the Greek New Testament where this word is used. ATOMOS is the word from which is derived our English word "atom." The word carried the meaning in the Greek of that which is UNCUTTABLE or INDIVISIBLE because the Greeks believed that the atom was the smallest particle of matter that existed, therefore it could not be divided, cut, split, or reduced in any way. The translators have taken this to mean that our bodies shall be changed in "an atom of time," that is, in an instant of time so brief that you could not make it any quicker, or reduce the time in any measure. I can understand their reasoning, but it seems to me far afield from the facts. There are other Greek words that do mean moment, an infinitesimal period of time. If the Spirit intended this to be - in a moment - then why did He use the word ATOMOS instead of the word that actually means Moment. For instance, in II Cor. 4:17 we find the statement, "For our light afflictions which are but for a moment..." This word "moment" comes from the Greek word PARAUTIKA which means instant or momentary. So why did the Spirit use the word ATOMOS instead of the word PARAUTIKA when He said, "We shall all be changed, in a moment ... if He meant moment? And why do the translators persist in translating it "moment"? There must have been a reason for the Holy Spirit to use the word ATOMOS, that God has kept hidden from the translators. Does not this word ATOMOS indicate that we shall be changed in the ATOMS of our bodies, in the very structure and substance of our outer house, in the ATOMICAL STRUCTURE of our bodies? "We shall be changed in ATOMS, in ATOMICAL STRUCTURE, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump!" Certainly this is much more in harmony with the subject: "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" I Cor. 15:44,49). Certainly this involves a change in our atomical structure!

Following these words the apostle hastily adds this enigmatical phrase, "in the twinkling of any eye." "Twinkling" is from the Greek word RHIPE meaning "a jerk" of the eyes. RHIPE is from the root RHIPTO, a word which indicates a sudden motion; to hurl with a rapid movement; a stroke; to toss; to fling. The twinkling of an eye relates not so much to time as it does to the ACTION and MOTION involved. It is not a question of how quickly the eyelids flutter, but the fact of a movement, a jerk, a change of direction, a SUDDEN REFOCUSING OR LOOKING AWAY. If I were reading a book and I heard the door open, I would swiftly dart my eyes in the direction of the door to see who is entering. I would LOOK AWAY from the book and quickly REFOCUS my sight on the person coming through the door. This abrupt motion, this sudden refocusing of vision, this rapid change of eye contact is what is indicated by the Greek word RHIPE.

When our attention is unexpectedly attracted by a sudden burst of revelation and spiritual understanding there is that instantaneous "turning away" from our former concepts, beliefs, actions and ways, to behold and embrace the truth and glory of God disclosed by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This sudden change in perspective, this immediate transformation of consciousness satisfies precisely the meaning of the Greek phrase - "in the twinkling of an eye." It bespeaks vision, illumination, understanding, perception and perspective. Furthermore, it has absolutely nothing to do with a so called "rapture of the saints," or the "second coming of Jesus." Plainly and unquestionably it concerns O-U-R CHANGE, O-U-R TRANSFORMATION into the image of Christ. It says nothing about us being "raptured" in the twinkling of an eye; what it does say is that "WE SHALL BE CHANGED in a moment (in atoms), in the twinkling (re-focused vision) of an eye." Yet the preachers loudly proclaim on the basis of this verse that Jesus will return in a split second, and the saints will in a flash of time travel a trillion miles cf miracle at the Rapture. It is as pure a myth as ever entered the brain of man!

My heart leaps within me as I contemplate this wonderful reality - being CHANGED! From the distant mountain peaks of faith comes a sound as clear as morning chimes. It is the voice of the inspired apostle sounding out from centuries past, "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). Beholding - we are changed! It is the same message - "We shall be changed ... in the twinkling of an eye!" We are changed by a beholding, by a looking, by A LOOK. Betimes it takes a lot to turn us. The Psalmist cries out, "Turn us, O Lord. Cause Thy face to shine and we shall be saved" (Ps. 8O:3,7,19). It is only as we turn in the direction of the present glory that we can know transformation! You can read the history of revivals, you can study the exploits of men of faith in centuries past, you can reminisce about the great visitations of God yesteryear. There is not enough power in such things to transform you. And there no need to cry, "Lord, do it again!" for our God is ever progressive in His dealings and the outworking of His purposes, and He doesn't retrogress to "do it again." This is a New Day and God will do a New Thing! Transformation comes only in the light of the present glory and revelation of Jesus Christ. We must turn, to behold Him as He is, not as He was. There is a multitude of people today whose experience goes no further than small measure of knowledge about the historical Jesus they read of in the Gospels. Countless thousands more know Him only in the light of yesterday's revelation. Oh! we need to turn to Him today by the Spirit. Seeing and knowing Him involves an on-going unveiling of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.

It is never enough that there is something to be seen; it is not sufficient that a landscape is within sight; the properties of the landscape require in the observer a certain perceptiveness. When an interviewer approached the instrument of a celebrated microscopist, he paused and said, "But you must tell me what I am to see." The expert was delighted and replied, "You are a man after my own heart. You recognize that there must be a prepared mind to enable the eye to see rightly." Everything depends on the quality of perception we bring with us. We see what we are qualified to see, and what we actually see determines all our conduct, as someone has written:

"Earth's crammed with heaven

And every common bush afire with God,

But ONLY HE WHO SEES takes off his shoes,

The rest sit around and pluck blackberries."

It is true of all spiritual things that we see "through a glass darkly," but it is our own carnal minds and natural understanding which distort our sight and discolor our vision. When Cain forfeited the favor of God and his guilty life passed out to a fugitive existence, he lamented his fate; but above all his fears, he felt that his darkest destiny was to be denied the vision of God. For he cried, "From Thy face shall I be hid" (Gen. 4:14). The heaviest part of his sentence was to be exiled from God. He felt an aggravated sense of what is the common experience of mankind; alienation from God is written in large letters over the history of the world. But the hiding of God's face is not His withdrawal, but our lack of the powers of perception. Our carnal, earthbound souls have forfeited the power to see Him. Our spiritual denseness has hid His face from us, and we cannot see Him until that great, intercepting mass is taken out of the way.

We are going to have to get beyond dead doctrines and religious traditions. We are going to have to see the living Christ, for He is the Word of God, the Truth of God and the Reality of God. It will take more than sermons on sonship and exhortations on perfection to make us perfect sons in God's image. We must SEE HIM to be changed into His likeness. It is going to take more than singing choruses, clapping hands, shouting Amens and Halleluiahs, and preaching to one another about the deep mysteries of God to bring us to the knowledge of God. We shall have to MEET HIM as Thomas and Paul and John met Him. We must hear His voice speaking to us in the deepest recesses of our spirits. We must commune with Him in the glory of God that radiates from the face of Jesus Christ. Sonship can only come by personal association with Christ Himself. I am willing to stake all that I have and all that I am on this one bold assertion: No man or woman can ever be changed into the image of God or put on incorruptibility until he has cast off the yoke of the carnal mind and the bondages of human tradition and religion and has met THE FIRSTBORN SON PERSONALLY, COMMUNED WITH HIM INTIMATELY, and continued to walk in the light and glory of what he sees.

The promise of this vision assures us of the perfecting of the powers of our spiritual life. When Moses desired the vision of the glory of God, he was warned that no man can see God's face and live. No man can stand in the full blaze of divine glory until he himself corresponds in nature to that glory. The glare of the eastern sun on desert sands has dazed men's eyes; the fierce, gleaming radiance of sunlight on the snowclad hills has blinded human sight, and none can, with naked eye, behold the sun in the sky. How, then, can our mortal vision turn its gaze upon the glory that is ineffable? When John on Patmos saw the glory of God's Christ he "fell as dead!" in the overwhelming presence. Our nature is not constituted to bear the blaze of uncreated light. But this restricted nature is not for ever. For the burning radiance of His holy light shining upon us releases us as we are exposed to it from the obstructiveness of our own impaired senses, and then with purged heart, renewed mind and quickened life we shall perceive Him.

George Hawtin has penned some beautiful words of truth along this line. He writes: "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 to reverently 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" -end quote. Truly we are changed by beholding - in the twinkling (glance, look) of an eye! You won't see the Christ until you start looking for Him, and you won't find Him until you go where He is revealed. He is fully, totally revealed in His glory in the realm of spirit. "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more ( that is, no longer after the flesh, merely as a man)" (II Cor. 5: 16).

A friend in California has written, "How short-sighted has been the vision of God's saints - yet how much we truly believe that we see. Some years ago the Lord spoke to me as many of us waited before Him and said, 'If you can see what Elisha saw, you will receive what Elisha received.' I was startled to hear those words, and though I did not fully understand all that was included in that which Elisha received, I did know that he had come into a possession of the double portion of the Spirit. Turning to the chapter in which is recorded the account of Elijah's catching up into heaven (II Kings 2), beginning with verse 9 I began to read, 'And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he (Elijah typifying Christ) said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless if thou see..." And the Lord interrupted my reading, saying, 'Stop right there!' Then He repeated to me the words that I had just read, 'IF THOU SEE...' and said, 'You must have the vision of faith and the open vision into the heavenlies.' He then instructed me to continue reading, and I read, 'If thou see ME.' This was enlarged upon by the scripture which says, 'Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith' (Heb. 12:2). With a spiritual eye we must see HIM! As Jesus said, 'This is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone which SEETH THE SON ... may have everlasting life.' We must be able to see that which is invisible, for Elijah, who prefigured Christ in this passage, said, 'If thou see me WHEN I AM TAKEN FROM THEE, it shall be unto thee.' There is a beholding of Him by the Spirit which changes into that same image" -end quote.

Do you know, dear friend, why the masses of Christians today have little or no revelation of the purposes of God, no hope of sonship, no going on to perfection, no putting on of the mind of Christ, and no conformation to His glorious image? It is because at every turn they have ceased to LOOK UNTO JESUS, having left the road He has marked out to wander in Stygian blackness. Here, there, and everywhere, one finds in tracts, magazines, books, on the radio and television, and behind pulpits across the land some poor deluded traveler who is proclaiming his particular alley - his theory, his doctrine, his gift, his ministry, his program, his baptism, his methods, or feeble little experience to be THE PASSAGEWAY to a new and better day. But in all this we find no true dawn. Instead of bright sunlight and clear skies, all we find here is some poor soul groping hopelessly by the pathetic light of a flickering match which he himself holds.

I present to you, beloved brother, sister, a RISEN CHRIST in all His beauty, majesty, and incorruptibility, who bids us FOLLOW HIM to enter the glories of His new day of life and light and glory! Turn - behold HIM! You will be changed in the twinkling of YOUR EYE!

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