"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."

"And there shall be no more curse…" (Rev. 22:3).

These words have been a star of hope to all who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, and to all who contemplate the ultimate triumph of the kingdom of God. They promise the consummation of Christ’s redemption in each individual life as well as in humanity as a whole. They describe the new conditions brought about by the unbounded outflow of life and victory from the glorious city of God! What an awesome pronouncement that the day of the curse is past. To imagine what that means, we shall have to think back to that long ago beginning in the swirling mists of beautiful Eden and see what the curse was and what it did. The curse is both within and without. First, it perverted human nature, disposing men to the faulty reasonings of the carnal mind while drawing men irresistibly to the lower choices of fleshly desire and indulgence, as against the higher reality of the spiritual mind and the exercise of spiritual aspiration and the pursuit of righteousness. It gave sin a foothold in human life, from which vantage ground it has opposed the good we would do, and exercised itself to deceive, pervert, defeat, and ensnare us in the follies of our own selfhood.

The curse fell upon the world as well as upon the heart, creating around man a hostile environment. Some entertain the notion that "no more curse" is limited to the holy city. Not so! For the assertion is the one immediately following the declaration, "…and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." Adam was given kingly dominion over all the earth and everything within it, and when the king fell into corruption, his whole domain fell with him into futility and chaos. The world, as conducted by human nature, has not been friendly to love, joy, peace, or righteousness. Its influence is degrading and destructive. Virtue and truth find countless snares and temptations, and men who would walk safely and righteously must walk carefully and prayerfully. All the vast and terrible consequences of sin partake of the curse. Even the animal kingdom and all nature having lost the restraint of Adam’s godly and spiritual dominion, released all their fierceness, brutality, cruelty, savagery, ruthlessness, and destructiveness upon the earth-realm. Sorrow, suffering, disease, pestilence, storms, floods, fires, earthquakes, avalanches, tyranny, war, heartaches, troubles, betrayal, and death are but a few of the prolific outward offsprings of the curse. But now the promise falls like heavenly music upon the ear: "There shall be no more curse," and with it shall pass sorrow and sighing, crying, and pain and strife!

So now we see that God has provided for the healing of the nations by means of a race of men — the trees of the city — that He has brought forth from out of all men. Now there is life for all and nothing shall defile! And God gives the guarantee of this wonderful outcome with His sovereign promise: THERE SHALL BE NO MORE CURSE! This word "curse" in the original is derived from two other words, the prefix kata joined with the word anathema of which the meaning is simply "a religious ban; excommunication." We all know exactly what a religious ban is, and we also know what it means to be excommunicated from a church system! All contentions to the contrary, that is the simple, plain, precise, and exact meaning of the word. THERE SHALL BE NO MORE RELIGIOUS BAN OR EXCOMMUNICATION! Now, what can this mean?

Isn’t that exactly what happened to Adam and Eve after their transgression? First, the Lord explained to them the horrific results of their disobedience: the woman would conceive and bear children in pain and sorrow; her husband would rule over her; the ground was cursed; thorns and thistles sprang forth in abundance; man would labor to eke out an existence; man would weaken and finally die and go to the grave. But that was not all! No sooner had God laid this sentence upon mankind, than we read, "Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep (guard) the way of the tree of life — lest man put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life" (Gen. 3:22-24). Can you not see the mystery? There was a religious ban and man was excommunicated from the garden of God! The Greek word used here for "curse" implies the idea of estrangement, disfellowship, alienation, breach, separation, expatriation, deportation, expulsion — BANISHMENT! All the other tragedies and sorrows that befell man in the world outside the garden were also part of the curse — the sad result of man’s banishment from God’s life and glory and from his kingdom dominion!

And now comes the promise — there shall be no longer any excommunication or banishment from the presence and glory of God! Instead of excommunication, the Cherubim are gone, the flaming sword has vanished, the gates have swung open wide, and God is providing a way into the garden in the city and a free and full access to the tree of life for all men! There is healing for the nations! There is no more curse! All of this is coming from the plaza of the foundation of the authority and power of God and the Lamb! There is room for ALL, for the plaza of the city is broad enough, and God’s power great enough to take in all the nations and no one is ever again cut off or driven out. Oh, the wonder of it! Oh, the mystery of it!

Write it between your eyes and never forget it. The Good Shepherd who came from heaven, and gave His life, will seek, and seek, and seek, and save, and save, and save, until He has brought all men back to God. This is the work of the Redeemer and the redeemed. I desire to make this perfectly clear, because it is necessary to do so. When Jesus came He sought for sinners, wherever sin and death had gone. He sent His disciples into the world to seek even farther for them. He seeks for sinners still. And He shall seek for them throughout ages yet unborn. The Good Shepherd will seek them until He finds them. If He didn’t, He wouldn’t be the Good Shepherd! He will seek them on earth and He will seek them in hell. "Whither shall I go from Thy presence?" the Psalmist asks. That question is unanswered and unanswerable. It has stood upon the page of scripture for three thousand years, and no one yet of all the myriads that have read it has been able to devise a reply. Heaven says, Not here. The uttermost parts of the earth and sea say, Not here. Hell says, Not here. It is not among angels, or demons, or the lost, or in the vast silent spaces of eternity. There is no creature anywhere not manifest to His sight. He who created eagles, able from immense heights to discern the smallest creature on the desert floor, has eyes better than they. Then the Psalmist continues, "If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there!" (Ps. 139:8). Thanks be to God that He will seek His lost ones who have wandered far since man’s expulsion from Eden’s fair garden, He will seek them everywhere they have roamed — through all the Earths and all the Seas and all the Hells until He has found and saved them all. He must seek until He finds!

"Where are you going Shepherd?

Carry it home."

Friends, you will never get away from Jesus. Jesus will follow you everywhere and demand your heart’s surrender. I am so glad for a Gospel that is coextensive with, and greater than, the devil’s work in spirit, soul, and body. I am so glad for a Gospel that is not limited to this age, but reaches out to all ages! I am so glad for a Gospel which tells me that God has made a way by which even HIS BANISHED MAY RETURN. No more curse! I am so glad for a Gospel that is not limited to earth, but reaches into the depths of death and hell. I am so glad for a Gospel of Everlasting Hope, of Everlasting Expectation, and for the conviction and divine revelation that the miserable and the wicked shall at last be brought to repent of their sin, and find their God and Father. Isn’t it wonderful!

Hear now these words of the prophet Isaiah quoted from the New English Bible. "On this mountain the Lord of hosts will prepare a banquet of rich fare for ALL THE PEOPLES, a banquet of wines well matured and richest fare, well-matured wines strained clear. On this mountain the Lord will swallow up that veil that SHROUDS ALL PEOPLES, the pall thrown over THE NATIONS; He will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears FROM EVERY FACE and remove the reproach of His people from THE WHOLE EARTH. The Lord has spoken" (Isa. 25:6-7).

In the preceding chapters the prophet tells us how that God will destroy all that has ever oppressed the people of the earth. His power will be used to take away every degrading thing and everything that binds and this power is spoken of as THIS MOUNTAIN in the passage quoted above. "This mountain" signifies the authority, dominion, government, and kingdom of God! Having destroyed the oppression, this mountain will then turn to be the place where God will prepare a very wonderful feast for ALL THE PEOPLES. Everyone is included in this, for when this morning comes, none will be left out. The work of reconciliation will be completed and now will come the time of rejoicing. All who "in Adam" departed from Eden on that sad day in the long ago will now return with singing and everlasting joy upon their heads!

After the preparation of this feast, this mountain, or this power of God, will do another wonderful thing. The veil that shrouds ALL THE PEOPLES will be swallowed up of God. The pall that hangs over ALL THE NATIONS will be taken away and swallowed up of God. Nations and their officials today are seeking how to do away with all that plagues humanity from sickness, to poverty, to crime. But they cannot find the way! Just when the nations feel they are making some progress, something happens to upset the program and the trouble starts all over again. Of course they know nothing of this veil that is upon all nations and peoples. They know nothing concerning the covering that God Himself has thrown over all the nations, therefore they cannot know how in any way to even look in the right place for a solution. There is no solution outside of God Himself, and that is why the people keep voting for "liberals," then "conservatives," and then some other group that they imagine have the solution — and every time they are disappointed! There is no political solution! GOD will reveal the solution in His own time! He is progressively and meticulously forming a kingdom of sons of God who will have the answers. Even now the feast the Lord is to prepare for ALL PEOPLES is in the process of preparation and when it is completed, God will lift the veil and the covering from all peoples and nations and reveal the wonders that He has formed for everyone who has ever lived or ever shall live!

Instead of preparing a terrifying, eternal hell to bring to a close this age as we have been told by the churches, we find that God is preparing a wonderful feast for the opening of the coming age. But the carnal mind or the human nature always looks upon the negative side of anything and it actually forgets there is a positive side. For instead of preparing for destruction, God is preparing for a new day, the dawning and opening of a new age in which there will be no more weeping, crying, pain, sin, death, or curse! And here is a beautiful truth. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law (that is, all the fruit, guilt, and punishment for breaking the law), being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. 3:13). The message is just this — no matter how many curses there may be, or their many avenues of expression, THEY ALL END IN CHRIST. Because of Christ the blessed promise shall be gloriously fulfilled — no more curse! But there is even much more than that included in the passage now under consideration. The promise of "no more curse" occurs in the midst of a delineation of a seven-fold perfection:

"They shall reign forever" — perfect authority and power.

"And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him" (Rev. 22:3).

When we come to this thought of servants there is a great deal of misunderstanding among the Lord’s people. When we speak of servants, some boast that this calling does not apply to them, for they are no longer servants, but sons. That is true in the spirit in which Paul argues in Galatians 4:6-7 wherein he says, "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."

It is far from the truth, however, to say that there is no sense in which those who are sons are also servants. Paul is speaking in the passage above of our relationship to God, the Father. Under the Old Covenant the people of God had not received new birth by the Spirit, to live in the Spirit and walk after the Spirit, but were placed under the rule of law. They were not a house of sons, but a house of servants. Their relationship to God was the relationship of servants. They were not sons. God had not sent the spirit of sonship into their hearts. By the New Covenant God has redeemed us from the curse of the law that we might receive placement as sons and has birthed into our hearts the Spirit of His Son, the spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, "Father!" This has brought a change in our relationship to God. Unto Him we are no longer servants, but sons. As sons, however, we become related not only to God, but we also become related to men. Jesus is the Son of God, but He is also the Saviour of men, the Redeemer of men, the Reconciler of men, the Blesser of men, the Deliverer of men, the Sovereign Lord over all flesh. It is here that we must be very clear in our understanding. Unto God I may be a son; but unto men I must be a servant. I am God’s servant, sent of the Father to serve mankind. I cannot be a servant to God, for I am His son; and I cannot be a son to men, therefore I must approach unto men in a relationship through which I can minister unto them the life of the Son who dwells in me. The only way I may minister Christ unto men is as a servant. To minister means "to serve," and both minister and servant are a number of times translated from the same Greek word.

Can a son be a servant? Jesus, the pattern Son declared, "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto (served), but to minister (serve) and give His life a ransom for many" (Mat. 20:28). It is the SON who SERVES! The Son is a Servant-Son. The very same Jesus of whom the Father witnessed, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," of Him the Father also witnessed, "Behold my servant whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the nations" (Isa. 42:1). Matthew 12:15-21 shows unmistakably that this servant of the Lord is Jesus. The Son came as a Servant-Son. In like manner, we are not servants to God, but we are indeed servants of God!

John understood this significant truth, for the same John who wrote, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God," later stated, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John" (Rev. 1:1). Paul understood this truth, for the very same Paul who wrote, "Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son," also said, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle." "Apostle" means a "sent one," therefore Paul was sent to serve! To God he was a son, but he was the servant of men. Is Jesus a Son or a Servant? Was John a son or a servant? Was Paul a son or a servant? And lest the elect of God in this Day should exalt themselves above John, or Paul, or even Jesus, we further find that of the 144,000 overcomers, that glorious company of the sons of God who stand with the Lamb on mount Zion, having the Father’s name in their foreheads, it is written, "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the SERVANTS OF OUR GOD IN THEIR FOREHEADS" (Rev. 7:3). So there you have it! The sons are the servants! Not servants to God, but sons who are servants to men, humble ministers of the mercies and goodness of the Lord.

You will never be a king-priest without the servant-nature. The story is told of a farmer who had just sat down to the table and prayed, "Oh Lord, bless the poor people in this neighborhood, and feed them." Very soon after, there was a knock at the door and a poor neighbor came in and asked the farmer for a bushel of potatoes. The farmer began to make all kinds of excuses. He had fifty bushels of potatoes, and his little boy said, "Papa, there is a chance to answer your own prayers." That is the servant-nature, and the spirit of kingship and priesthood. Then there is the fable of the Arab mystic Sa’di. A man walking through the forest saw a fox that had lost its legs and wondered how it survived. Then he saw a tiger come in with game in its mouth. The tiger had his fill and left the rest of his meat for the fox. The next day God fed the fox by means of the same tiger. The man began to wonder at God’s great goodness and said to himself, "I too shall just rest in a corner with full trust in the Lord and He will provide me with all I need." He did this for many days, but nothing happened and the poor fellow was almost at death’s door when he heard a Voice say, "O you who are in the path of error, open your eyes to the Truth! Follow the example of the tiger and stop imitating the disabled fox!" So many in this hour want to be sons and kings and priests while living in their own little world, studying the deep revelations, singing beautiful kingdom songs, but never having any practical outworking of the servant-nature in the nitty-gritty of everyday living where the needs of creation are met. May the Spirit of God make very real to all our hearts the great truth that he who will not serve cannot be a son. "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life..." The sons come for the same purpose!

What a blessing there is in giving! Even on the natural plane it is a part of the makeup of everyone that they feel good when giving or helping others. But in many people, and even in some who aspire to be kings and priests of God, this attribute is never developed into becoming a part of their life-style, so the opposite takes place. However many wonderful people spend their lives in giving service to others. When analyzed, the servant-nature is the most prized possession of the human race. What a joy is the restaurant waitress who gives true service. To be a real nurse requires this above all else. The secretary in an office can be an inspiration to everyone through her ability to be of help and support in every situation instead of merely doing what is required of her. Then there is the teacher who is vitally concerned for every member of her class. In such as these is the servant-nature revealed even on the earthly level. Serving those about you will never of itself make you a king-priest of God, but YOU CAN NEVER BE A REIGNING SON WITHOUT THE SERVANT-NATURE! HE makes us kings and priests! Because we have priestly hearts we shall stretch forth our hands to heal the nations and speak forth the word that brings them life!

Do you remember what Jesus said to His disciples when they aspired to greatness in the Kingdom? "Now an eager contention arose among them, which of them was considered and reputed to be the greatest. But Jesus said to them, The kings of the Gentiles are deified by them and exercise lordship, ruling as emperor-gods over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors and well-doers. But this is not to be so with you; and on the contrary let him who is the greatest among you become as the youngest, and he who is the chief and leader as one who serves. For which is the greater, he who reclines at table (the master), or he who serves? Is it not he who reclines at table? BUT I AM IN YOUR MIDST AS ONE WHO SERVES" (Lk. 22:24-27, Amplified). The one who serves the people well as a priest is the one who will also reign well as a king. "They shall be priests… and they shall reign." That is the order! Though He is calling us to be kings with authority over all, yet our inner spirit must be that of a servant, that we might freely minister, loving, touching, doing good, speaking kindness and encouragement, healing, reconciling, restoring, with mercy, compassion and love. The problem with many people is that they have never learned to live for anything other than themselves and their own — me, my wife Mary, my daughter Sue, my son John, these four, no more.

God by many and varied experiences brings preparation into our lives to teach us the attitude of a servant. Pride shows that that person has failed to grasp that rulership is rooted in God, who is Love, and not in ourselves. Jesus was the most lowly and humble of all men, and also the most powerful and authoritative. He was not a super-duper-elite-country-club Son of God. He didn’t bounce onto the platform under the lights with a flare of worldly showmanship and then disappear out the back door to escape contact with the people. "Although He existed in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:6-8).

"And they shall see His face…" (Rev. 22:4).

In order to understand the deep mystery that the Holy Spirit would reveal to us in these words we must realize that God has had a specific purpose in man from the very beginning. In the very first chapter of the Bible we find, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion" (Gen. 1:26). And then in chapter five of Genesis we have these words, "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him" (Gen. 5:1). We have to understand that God doesn’t waste words and God doesn’t make mistakes. God doesn’t care for poeticism or literary flourish of any kind. So when God states that He had the purpose to make man in His image and after His likeness, can we not then conclude that these are two things that have different meanings? Back in chapter one of Genesis it is written that God created man in His image, but it fails to say that man was also made after His likeness (Gen. 1:27). It means that He is revealing to us He didn’t fulfill a part of His purpose in man in that early beginning.

God created man. At the beginning, when the animals were created, God did not give them names — it was given to Adam by the wisdom of the Lord to name them according to their natures. There can be no doubt that Adam had fellowship with the animal kingdom on a certain level. There was a measure in which he was able to share with them. I’m sure many who read these lines have a dog, cat, or some other animal and you know that, to a certain extent, you can have a kind of friendship with him or her. But Adam was missing a partner, a helpmeet, someone equal to him with whom he could share in the fullness of his mind, will, and nature. Have you ever wondered why God created Adam and Eve in such an order? It would be no problem to God to create Adam as well as Eve at the same time and in the same manner and they could have named the animals together. It is my conviction that God wanted to show Adam the need that Adam had. And because Adam was made in God’s image, this suggests that God Himself had the very same need! God saw Adam’s need for a partner equal to him, that he was missing something vital in his life, someone to whom he could express his love and who would respond to that love. It is the same way with God! His desire from the beginning was to create someone who would be equal to him, whom He could love, with whom He could communicate, plan, work, and accomplish, and who would respond to Him on that level.

If we stand back and get a correct perspective of the sweep of the entire picture I think we will understand it. You go back to the very beginning — marriage was the first institution that God made for man. And it was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (the Word, the Voice of God) that brought the first woman to the first man. How significant, then, that when Jesus began His ministry on earth His very first revelation of His sonship was at the wedding in Cana of Galilee! He introduced Eve to Adam and performed the marriage for them Himself and made them one. In that long ago beginning, at the dawn of human history, the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him" (Gen. 2:18). What fathomless and holy truth lies buried in this remarkable statement! While God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone," I would like to give another rendition and it goes like this: "It is not good that GOD should be alone." You see, my beloved, God’s creation is the mirror, the reflection, the expression of God’s own personal character and state of being. How can we know this? Because God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Would you like to know what God is like in His state of being? You can see it in man! God did not create just a male! "Male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply…" (Gen. 1:27-28). The message is just this: If it was not good for man in the image of God to be that image alone; if the man needed a wife to complement him and reproduce their life in the world, then does that not reveal to us the great truth that it was not good for GOD to be alone! All who are born of God know that God is likewise reproducing Himself in sons and daughters; and they also understand that the sons of God are the brothers of our Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of God, and the new Jerusalem daughters of Zion are the bride of Christ. That is the mystery! It takes the mind of the Spirit to understand that when God saw Adam in his loneliness and said, "It is not good that the man should be alone," God was expressing the great mystery of His own Being within Himself. God had need for companionship and relationship! God had need for a union of love! This divine need is expressed by the apostle Paul in these words of revelation and truth: "According as He hath chosen us in Himself before the foundation of the world, that we should be…before Him in love: having predestinated us…according to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1:4-6).

God’s ultimate desire and need was for the companionship of beings like unto Himself, of His own kind, born of His own Spirit, with whom He could share His mind and heart and through whom He could expand Himself, incorporating them into the outworking of His own eternal purposes. As we view from the Father’s heart it becomes obvious that God in His own social and paternal nature has "marked out for Himself" a vast family which shares His own life, nature, mind, spirit, purpose, and power. I do not believe that any creature or entity that existed before man either in the heavens above or on the earth beneath, even came close to providing what God needed. This is the condition which prompted God in that distant beginning to issue the wonderful fiat, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion…" (Gen. 1:26).

Little wonder, then, that we read from the literal translation of the Hebrew text these remarkable words: "And Yahweh Elohim saith, Not good for the man to be alone, I do make him an helper — as his COUNTERPART" (Gen. 2:18, Young’s Literal). The Goodspeed translation reads, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I must make a helper for him WHO IS LIKE HIM." Another interesting translation says, "…and God made for Adam a COMPARABLE helper." There we have the very first symbolism of the bride of Christ! God made for Adam someone with whom he should have complete and total correspondence and intimacy. This only mirrored the desire within God Himself, so we find that He came in the cool, or spirit of the day, as it reads in the original, to fellowship with this man and woman made in His image and likeness. The message is just this — if the Christ is to have a bride then the bride must be COMPARABLE to Christ! She must be HIS COUNTERPART! She must be one who is in every respect LIKE HIM! And that’s awesome, isn’t it!

How could Christ become intimate, on all the levels that intimacy implies, with anyone who is not comparable to Him? A human would not marry a monkey, a horse, a dog, or a chicken. There is no correspondence! There are no grounds for union of mind, desire, emotion, knowledge, hope, understanding, body, or love. And even within the same species, not everyone is suited for the marriage union. Would Christ become intimate with a little girl who is not mature either physically, mentally, or emotionally, and has no comprehension of the ways of love and responsibility? Would He share all He is and has with any kind of creature incapable of returning mature love, relating to His deepest thoughts, intents, and heart, or participating in His divine activities and purposes? I think not!

This is a purpose all religions are missing, including traditional Christianity. Religion separates God from man. It says that God is somewhere up there; He is holy, exalted, and His mind cannot be comprehended. A man, then, is small, low, sinful, limited by time and space and his mind is limited too, and he was created almost on the level of animals to, like a faithful dog, obey God’s commands and keep His laws. But this is not true! God has decided, because of His need, to come down to man and lift him higher — to Himself. We have been born of God. God is our Father. Christ is the brother of every son of God and the husband of His bride! Don’t tell me that we are something less than God-beings! You will contradict a thousand scriptures if you maintain that!

Now let us return to our text. "And they shall see His face." Ah, is that not one of the most blessed things that Adam lost when he departed from the garden of Eden? When Adam turned to his own expression of self-will and sank into a carnal consciousness and earthly lifestyle, he turned from the face of God, and hid himself "from the presence of the Lord God." And so the curse, the separation, the estrangement, the banishment had begun! The Hebrew word panim translated as "presence" is also translated as "face." It comes from the root that means "to turn," thus, to FACE. Because of the action of his self-will, becoming identified with, and consumed by, his lower nature, Adam could no longer look directly eye to eye, nor openly commune with God, nor participate in His high purposes, so he hid himself. There would needs be a tremendous processing before there could be a TURNING so that he could FACE God again and return to intimacy of fellowship and vital union with Him.

The whole redemptive process through the ages has been designed to bring man back to behold the face of God in all that it means. In the Old Testament dispensation God gave only a partial revelation of Himself. It is written in Exodus chapters thirty-three and thirty-four that long ago, when Moses became discouraged with the children of Israel, he went to God in prayer, and in desperation for some sign or proof that God was with him, he told God that if He did not show him His way and His glory he could not take the children of Israel into the land. God answered that He would cause all His goodness to pass before Moses and that He would declare His name (nature, being) unto him. "But," God said, "thou canst not SEE MY FACE…behold there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand as I pass by: and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt SEE MY BACK PARTS: but MY FACE SHALL NOT BE SEEN."

Now, that does not mean that a physical God passed by Moses and Moses saw His back end. For Moses had not prayed for a physical experience, but for a revelation of God. God gave him a revelation of Himself, the Old Testament revelation., and here God is proclaiming the great truth that prior to the coming of Jesus He only gave a partial revelation of Himself. Men were able to catch only a faint glimpse of what God is really like. He did not fully disclose Himself. We see the example of this in the natural life of men today. A man goes out into the business world fully dressed and no one sees him the way his wife sees him in the privacy of their bedroom. He does not fully disclose himself to other women. On another level, to his neighbors, friends, work associates, and others he does not share everything he has experienced in his life, or all that he thinks, knows, or plans. There are always many things that we do not disclose to people when it is none of their business. We disclose to those who need to know, and the closer the relationship, the more they learn about us. Therefore, under the Old Covenant, man’s revelation of God fell short because man was not yet restored to God’s fullness. There was a lack. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." To Moses and the prophets God revealed the FORM of Himself, the FORM of truth, the FORM of His nature, and this produced the LAW — the external legal code which revealed something about Him but was void of the Spirit of His Life! The letter of the word, the form of truth, always falls a little short of the glory! A doctrine or a ritual, a program or a ceremony, a commandment or a law — none of these are sufficient to cause men to SEE THE FACE OF GOD. They are one and all a partial revelation — the backsides of God!

But in the hour of the new Jerusalem the Holy Spirit testifies of that people who see His face. That people is now the body of Christ, but in the great consummation when God is all-in-all, everything to everyone, ALL shall see His face! How significant, then, is Paul’s statement to the Ephesians: "And He has…appointed Him the universal and supreme Head of the church (a headship exercised throughout the church), which IS HIS BODY, the FULLNESS of Him who fills all in all — for in THAT BODY lives the F-U-L-L M-E-A-S-U-R-E of Him who makes everything complete, and who fills everything everywhere with Himself" (Eph. 1:22-23, Amplified). I cannot emphasize too strongly that the New Testament revelation is that Jesus is not all of Christ. Christ means "the anointed." "Christ" is not one person, but a corporate body as it is written, "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ" (I Cor. 12:12). You see that he does not say, "so also is the body of Christ," but simply, "so also IS CHRIST." Jesus, too, is a member of that Anointed body, that Christ body — He is THE HEAD!

Our text says that His servants shall see His face. This of course does not mean that we will literally look upon the face of God as an individual person up in the sky somewhere. We have already seen that God does not exist in a physical form except in and through His body on earth. The apostle John tells us that "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed Him, has made Him known, has led Him forth into view" (Jn. 1:18). Jesus affirms this same fact in John 14 when He says, "If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him." Philip saith unto Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? HE THAT HATH SEEN ME HATH SEEN THE FATHER; AND HOW SAYEST THOU THEN, SHOW US THE FATHER?" The scripture says that God dwells in the light that no man can approach unto. But when the Holy Spirit tells us that "we shall see His face," it simply means that we shall see God as He truly is. We shall understand Him perfectly. We shall see and comprehend all the aspects of His nature. We shall see and comprehend His character and His wisdom. The apostle Paul, speaking of spiritual maturity, put it this way, "Now we see through a glass darkly, then we shall see face to face. Now we know in part, but then we shall know even as we are known" (I Cor. 13:12). Today God’s saints who walk in the Spirit of the Lord see God and behold His face in the revelation of Jesus Christ. When the sons of God are revealed in their full manifestation, and the bride of Christ has been joined in union with her Bridegroom, THE WHOLE CREATION WILL BE ABLE TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD IN HIS PEOPLE! Today they can only see Him in the measure that He has been formed in us, but in that glad day THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE!

As one has written, "‘Beloved, we are God’s little children now. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope within him, purifies himself even as He is pure’ (I Jn. 3:2-3). ‘This hope’ which is making us purify ourselves is the hope of this glory coming to us, the hope of being like God and seeing God as He is. Millions who only hope to see Jesus coming in the clouds are doing nothing about purifying themselves as He is pure. But a company that has become anxious and hungry to see God as He is is setting to work to purify themselves. When we receive the revelation that God plans to again fully manifest Himself in some human tabernacles, we immediately make ourselves candidates for that demonstration, and begin to purify ourselves (become single, unmixed, unadulterated), as He is pure, that we might be like Him and thus qualify to see God as He is, and be of the company of sons and daughters in whom He will be glorified, and through whom He will manifest Himself to the waiting world. When you inspect the company that today is attempting a purification of themselves in the inner man, you will find it to be the people that has this blessed hope — not of Jesus in the clouds, but that once more God is going to descend into tabernacles of flesh, into a people that have become like Him, and therefore shall both see Him as He is and reveal Him as He is. This time it will not be just one Son, but a company of ‘many sons brought to glory’" — end quote.

"…and His name shall be in their foreheads" (Rev. 22:4).

All the way through scripture when we find the name of God mentioned, it signifies to us the nature and the character of God. It is not just a title so that we know what to call Him, as we would with a person or a pet. Each name has a meaning, and the meaning discloses something of His nature and character. Here on earth, when we speak of a person’s good name, or of one who has a bad name, we are speaking of their character by which they are known. When the scripture speaks of God’s name being written in our foreheads, this is where our minds are, and it simply signifies that we will have come within ourselves to the nature and character of God. We will understand Him perfectly and will be walking in perfect oneness with Him and perfect expression of Him. HE will be our only mind-set and our very state of being.

The key to receiving His name in our forehead is overcoming. The starting point in overcoming is with the little things, those "little foxes" that spoil the vine. You will be defeated if you start with the giants. Like David, you must first slay your bear and kill your lion before you take on Goliath. Start overcoming the little things, those little quirks and egocentricities in your personality —those things you think, those words you speak, those attitudes you manifest from time to time, sins of omission — those little things that fall short of HIS mind, will, and nature. God wants us to be changed! We will never be changed just by hearing the message and giving assent to it. A whole new mind-set, an entirely new way of thinking, a completely new set of emotions, new ways of responding, new kinds of desires, a transformed life-style — a brand new nature that is absolutely contrary to human nature! I’m not talking about warring with the "old man" or wrestling with the "devil." I’m talking about so putting on a new nature until all that is contrary to that nature is put to death. People speak of "doing what comes naturally." Oh, yes, it is natural to get angry, it is natural to be greedy, it is natural to lie, it is natural to become frustrated and curse at something or someone, it is natural to lust, it is natural to hate and fight and war — it is natural be carnal, fleshly, and to sin! Now think about it — when it truly becomes natural to love, and have peace and be peaceable, and do righteousness, and be truthful, honest, pure, kind, gracious, gentle, modest, giving, and uplifting — when it becomes as natural to be like God as formerly was to be like Adam — then HIS NAME IS WRITTEN IN OUR FOREHEAD!

This is not attained in one grand leap, but HE must increase, and WE must decrease — and it can only be in that order. The other way won’t work! You do not die in order to live, you live in order to die. Adam doesn’t die in order to make way for Christ. Rather, Christ rises up within us to dispel the Adamic life. By accentuating the positive you eliminate the negative. By turning on the light you drive out the darkness. By the infusion of life you abolish death. Truth cancels out error. To try and get rid of error does not mean you have found the truth. Reality eliminates fantasy. That is the law of conformation into the image of Christ! Fill your mind with the Truth of Christ, flood your life with the Word of God, expose yourself to the Spirit and the Presence of the Lord! At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. The "name" denotes the nature. As you partake more and more of the nature of Jesus every knee, every unyielding thing within you, will bow before that nature and every tongue, every voice within you, will confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father!

My beloved, until this happens within us we are not Saviours to the world. We can talk about manifest sonship and brideship all we please, we can confess it, name it and claim it, blab it and grab it, teach it and preach it, and pride ourselves in our high calling — but until the nature of Jesus rules within we are not one whit beyond the religious world around us. Every enemy within must be rooted out and cast out by the power of His divine name. Do you want power to cast out devils? Begin by having the devils cast out of you. That’s the starting point, you see. You say, "I don’t have any devils in me." That may be true — but it’s amazing, isn’t it, that when just the right testing, temptation, problem, pressure comes our way, or something or someone pushes just the right button, what kinds of spirits can rise up within us! Sometimes it takes very little. And I’m not talking about going to some "deliverance" ministry and spending hours coughing up demons! I’m talking about the mighty name of Jesus being raised up in your life to conquer and dispel every adversary within!

Many scripture passages speak of believing on the name of the Son of God. In the vast majority of cases the preposition in the Greek text is eis meaning into, not on. Thus, "Whosoever believeth into the name," is the correct translation. This means more than believing on the name of the man Jesus who walked the shores of Galilee two thousand years ago. It speaks of believing INTO HIS NATURE so that His nature becomes our nature. It is an entrance, a penetration into His life. It is "putting on" the Lord Jesus Christ! "…and His name shall be in their foreheads." May God make it reality to all those blessed ones who read these lines today!