FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE

Part 66

THE THRONE

(continued)

“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter” (Rev. 4:1).

This beautiful passage has been used by thousands of teachers and preachers to teach what is called “the pre-tribulation rapture.” They say John was a type here of the church being caught up off the earth into heaven just prior to the wrath of God falling upon the world in the fury of the Great Tribulation. But it says no such thing! Many believers and teachers have anticipated most enthusiastically that at this point when “a door was opened in heaven” the “rapture” of the church would take place. Of course you can see that since most of them believe that heaven is a limited and physical “place” out in the blue somewhere, the only way one could get there would be by being spatially transported. Oh, what shame! What deliriums! Men, poor deluded and blind children who know precious little of the Christ life and spiritual realities parade themselves as angels of light and their carnal imaginings as revelation direct from God!

“Come up hither” is not a geographical term. It doesn’t mean go up, it means grow up! Years ago I picked up a tabloid-size newspaper with these alarming headlines:

MILLIONS MISSING AROUND THE WORLD
MASS KIDNAPPING
STOCK MARKET FACES CRASH
THOUSANDS ATTEMPT SUICIDE

The articles in this paper sensationally described scenes of terror, fear, and anguish around the planet — planes crashing because the pilots disappeared, trains derailing when the conductors suddenly vanished, massive pileups on the highways as automobile drivers vanished into thin air, killer earthquakes, volcanoes erupting world-wide, tidal waves sweeping the continental coasts, mobs of looters roaming the city streets, thousands of persons dying of heart attacks triggered by stark fear, and on and on.

My response to this was something between a hearty laugh and disgust. This paper was merely a carnal-minded attempt to dramatize what millions of Christians have been led to believe will happen when Christ returns — the sudden, unannounced event that will cause the immediate disappearance of millions of believers from every city, town, countryside, and hamlet throughout the world. Some people publicize this theory with bumper stickers like the one that warns: IF DRIVER DISAPPEARS, GRAB THE WHEEL. The “any minute rapture” is preached today by many popular preachers and is called the believer’s “Blessed Hope.” It has been the subject of more gospel songs and hymns than anyone could number. Yet, there is no scripture in the whole Bible that plainly supports such a doctrine! It can be “read in” to the text in a couple places, but even then there are obvious problems with such an interpretation. Furthermore, they tell you that chapter four on through the book of Revelation is irrelevant to you, because you’re not even going to be here! The question follows: Then why study it? If you’re not going to be here — don’t worry about it!

The marvelous reality of it is that the journey from the Holy Place into the Most Holy Place, and from the feast of Pentecost to the feast of Tabernacles, is not a matter of chronology of time or distance, but a chronology of experience! One does not get from the feast of Pentecost to the feast of Tabernacles by a date on the calendar or by a trip through space — you get there by an experience in God. Tabernacles follows Pentecost just as Pentecost follows Passover. The Most Holy Place follows the Holy Place just as the Holy Place follows the Outer Court — not by waiting for a particular day, or by being raptured to a planet called heaven. It is not a sequence of times or locations, but a sequence of growth, experience, life, and reality! God’s called and chosen elect is beginning to move into a new dimension in God, the veil is being drawn back and we are seeing that there is another whole realm of reality that we never knew about in the church systems. There is a whole other feast, an entirely other dimension of being in God, another vast realm of glory that we have never entered into!

Pentecost is wonderful! I have loved its power and its praise, its gifts and its graces, its life and its glory! If the firstfruits of the Spirit, the down payment of God’s glory in the Candlestick realm, has been so glorious, the redemption of the fully purchased possession must be beyond anything we can even imagine! Pentecost has not delivered creation from the bondage of corruption, therefore creation still waits and groans and travails for the manifestation of the sons of God. Only the fully manifest sonship ministry can save this old world, demolish the systems of man, establish the rule of the Spirit, and deliver creation from the bondage of sin, sorrow, sickness, fear, torment, hatred, tyranny and death! Ah, my brother, my sister, we have only seen the edges of God’s ways, the borders of His mind, and the fringes of His power, until the fullness of His great redemption is raised up within us!

If you are looking at outward things, the things you can see with your natural eyes, you are missing the point of meaning in the scriptures. When Paul spoke of our being “caught up in the air” he was not looking at the physical bodies of old Adam which are only temporal and return to the dust from whence they came, for the first man is of the earth, earthy. Should someone object that only a physical body could be caught up in the air, I would ask if Jesus was speaking literally and physically when He said, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you” (Jn. 6:53). Jesus wasn’t teaching cannibalism there, my friend, for the spiritual mind discerns that He was speaking of spiritual realities! His flesh is His Word, for the Word was made flesh! His blood is His eternal, divine life, for the life of the flesh is in the blood! Jesus was speaking spiritually, and Paul was likewise speaking spiritually! Paul was looking at the inner man, the new creation, the heavenly body, the offspring of the flesh and blood of the Son of God, which is the real person, and which bears the image of the heavenly. It is this man that is “caught up” into a new place in the Spirit!

“COME UP HITHER!”

I have no desire to take away your “blessed hope,” but would point you to a blessed reality for the here and now! As Christ in this hour comes to us in and by the Spirit to lift our inner-man nature up into the fullness of union in Him, we certainly do experience a rapture — believe me! While the word “rapture” is not to be found in scripture, there are other words and expressions that bear the same or similar meaning. Paul told the Ephesians, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together… in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-6). This passage says that God H-A-S RAISED US UP TOGETHER WITH CHRIST. Paul told the Thessalonians that the saints would be “caught up together” to meet the Lord in the air (I Thes. 4:16-17). It should not be difficult for any spiritual mind to see that in both cases the apostle is speaking of the same blessed experience! In both cases we are elevated to a higher plane in Christ, and with Him. There is a glorious company of these “caught up” ones! It is a wonderful place of rest, glory, revelation, wisdom, and power far above the beggarly elements of this world. Reba McMurry told of the little boy swimming in the pool who said to another, “Come on in, the water’s fine.” So I say to you who are dwelling in the earthlies, in the low lands of carnal mindedness, tossed by the storms of life, beset by problems, trials, difficulties, hindered by the flesh and the world, manipulated and controlled by the carnal religious systems of man, “Come on up higher — there is a wonderful realm above of peace, joy, victory, blessedness, power, and the mind of Christ!”

The preachers love to proclaim that Jesus is coming to “rapture the saints to heaven” or to “catch His waiting bride away.” But the word of God never says that! When the Bible speaks of being “caught up” or invites us to “come up hither” it is not speaking in terms of miles or light-years away. Let us consider the experience of the apostle Paul’s friend (this was not Paul Himself, as many erroneously assert!). Paul relates it this way. “It is not expediate for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one CAUGHT UP TO THE THIRD HEAVEN. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) how that he was CAUGHT UP INTO PARADISE, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities” (II Cor. 12:1-5).

Where did this friend of Paul’s go? Physically, his body went nowhere! This was a spiritual experience! But he was “caught up” to the third heaven. And when he was caught up into God’s glory, he was actually right here on the earth. He never left the ground for a minute! And thus it is in this hour for all of God’s elect people! So completely overwhelmed was he, so utterly were his faculties under the control of the Holy Spirit, that he was not sure whether he was “in the body, or apart from the body.” God carried him into that realm of life known as paradise, the third heaven. Heaven is not a location! Heaven is a realm of Spirit in which we touch, experience, and know God. The first heaven corresponds to the Outer Court of the Tabernacle and brings us to the brazen altar where Christ the Lamb is slain for us, giving to us His life. This is our initial “salvation” experience where we know the joy of sins forgiven and reconciliation to God. There is also the laver, representing the washing of the water of the word, or the word of God that begins to cleanse our walk upon earth. The second heaven corresponds to the second realm of the Tabernacle, the Holy Place, wherein dwells the candlestick, the table of showbread, and the golden altar of incense. We enter the door of this dimension through the baptism in the Holy Spirit which ushers us into this second supernatural heaven in Christ where the Holy Spirit fills us and becomes the light of our life, as the oil fills the candlestick and gives light to the Holy Place. Here we begin to be illuminated by the Spirit, as the Spirit reveals Christ to us and we become aware of heavenly and spiritual realities. It is there we truly partake of the bread of God, and the word begins to be made flesh within us. Then we are able to offer up the incense of spiritual prayer, praise, and worship unto God!

The man of whom Paul wrote had already ascended spiritually into the first two heavens in regeneration and the baptism in the Holy Spirit. But now “in spirit” the Lord carried him for a brief moment into that realm of life, that dimension of glory, that third heaven of HIS FULLNESS, typified by the Shekinah Glory of God beyond the veil in the Holiest of all. For this man it was but for a moment, yet this third heaven of God’s fullness is the inheritance of every manifest son of God! Moffatt’s translation says, “In the body or out of the body? I do not know. I simply know that in the body or out of the body (God knows which) this man was caught up into paradise and heard sacred secrets which no human lips can repeat.” The glory, majesty, and power of the third heaven cannot be described by human lips! You cannot explain the glory of manifest sonship to sinful ears or to religious ears! It is not given to them to understand the mysteries of this kingdom! The third heaven must be experienced, for it cannot be told! In this marvelous experience it was not important for this man to know whether or not his body was caught up into that higher realm. He knew he was there! The real man, the inner man, the new man, the new creation, the Christ man, the spiritual body was there! He had entered into the realm of full sonship, the throne realm, the incorruptible, immortal, omniscient, omnipotent sphere of kingdom dominion! And he knew that in God’s due time he would have an abundant and permanent entrance into that realm of glory, by the resurrection power of Christ within, CAUGHT UP. In the Outer Court we die with Christ at the brazen altar. In the Holy Place we are quickened together with Christ by the indwelling of His life. In the Holiest of all we ascend, are caught up with Him into all His glorious fullness and eternal reality!

When the eagle-eyed seer of Patmos, being in the Spirit, looked aloft into the heavens, he saw a throne. There is a throne whose dominion reaches from Adam in Paradise down to “the last man,” whoever he may be. The natural man, in his blindness, looks, but he sees no throne; and therefore he cries, “I will live as I please, for there is no one to call me to account.” But John, with illumined eye, saw beyond the outer world, and distinctly saw a throne and One who sat upon it. When our eye looks through the glass of revelation, it sees a throne too. The higher we go in God, the more powerful that throne! We feel more and more the influence of that throne and its dominion in our lives. It is the throne of God, the dominion of God by the might of His Spirit within and by the power of the mind of Christ. There is a throne whereon sitteth the King eternal, immortal, invisible; that throne is everywhere by the dominion of God in Christ, and it is experienced in our hearts where dwelleth the King.

“Come up Hither!” That is the cry in my heart for God’s elect in this hour. It is the cry of the Father’s heart for the people He loves. If only we can glimpse the wonder of what John experienced when those immortal words fell upon his ears! “I want to show you something, John — something special.” John beheld with wonder the majesty of the throne of the God of the universe and in that blessed moment he was invited to enter and sit down in the throne room. He was ushered into celestial scenes of divine life, authority, power, and dominion. Today, my beloved, I hear the Lord saying to His chosen, “Come — I am calling you up into the secret place of my presence, into the unknown citadels of my splendor; and when I have finished with you it will be on earth as it is in heaven. I am taking you on a journey into my glory, I am showing you things new and transcendental, I am raising you up into a dimension of union in me you’ve never known before; I am drawing you into the intimacy of the Father in the Son that John beheld, and I am meeting with you in the counsel of my eternal purpose.”

Your mind and heart will be tremendously illuminated once you clearly see that the call to “Come up hither” is the call to leave the candlestick realm and ascend to the throne realm! A tremendous revelation was given to John on Patmos. He was shown in holy vision the seven candlesticks “which are the seven churches” (Rev. 1:20). The seven churches represent THE WHOLE CHURCH REALM THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE CHURCH AGE. If you want to know what the church is like, look at the seven candlesticks! There you have the divinely inspired portrait of the church realm painted by the brush strokes of the Holy Spirit of revelation. Can any deny that they were imperfect, carnal, childish, idolatrous, heretical, rebuked again and again by the Lord — a realm of mixture and duality? The Lord commends and praises them on the one hand, while warning and rebuking them on the other hand. Some of the saints are praised for their works of faith and love, whereas others are warned of impending judgment if they fail to repent, and some are even threatened with extinction.

These seven churches reveal the true state and condition of the whole church throughout the age, and both history and personal experience testify unerringly that John was shown aright! The early church was a church of mixture and duality — flesh and spirit, truth and error, law and grace, spirituality and carnality. Even a casual perusal of the New Testament reveals this! And from that day to this, make no mistake about it — ALL CHURCHES HAVE BEEN THE SAME! Yours is no different, preacher friend of mine, no matter what lofty name you put to it. ALL churches are the same today! The church in El Paso is a carnal church. There are many denominations and groups here, but there is only one church in El Paso. It is composed of every believer in this city that trusts Jesus as Saviour and confesses the name of Christ. But whereas one says, “We are of Luther,” and another says, “We are Baptists,” and another says, “We are Pentecostal,” while yet another says, “We are of Christ,” are they not carnal and walk as men? There are indeed some spiritual people and some spiritually minded groups of saints in the church in El Paso, but the church in El Paso is a carnal church! And should the church age continue on for another thousand years the church would not have changed — the revelation of the seven candlesticks immutably declares it! The seven candlesticks are the seven churches, and the seven churches are the whole church throughout the entire church age!

As soon as this point is made abundantly plain John heard the voice saying, “Come up hither and I will show you things that must be hereafter.” After what? Why, bless your heart, after the candlestick realm! We’re not dealing here with years or ages of time, but with realms of spiritual experience. The promises had already been given, not to the churches themselves, but to “him that overcometh” — a company out of the church. “Come up hither” the voice commanded. John is now shown another realm HIGHER THAN THE CANDLESTICK REALM! It is the realm of the overcomer, and only the overcomer is promised a place in the throne! It is the realm of the throne, of the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders. John is invited to leave the candlestick realm to ASCEND IN THE SPIRIT TO THIS HIGHER REALM where the Lamb is in the throne. This is what the brethren don’t want to do! They don’t want a change of order. How they cling to the candlestick realm with its five-fold ministry, its man-made systems, its carnal promotions and methods, its old order structure, its rituals, ceremonies, and ordinances, its weakness, limitation, mixture, and duality. This revelation was given to John about the year A.D. 96. The churches of his generation refused to leave the candlestick realm and rise to a higher place in God, and within only a few years the great apostasy set in, and by the third and fourth centuries the apostasy was complete, followed by an awful night of great and dreadful darkness. Even secular history refers to that time as “The Dark Ages.” It was the great “falling away” that Paul prophesied in which the man of sin was revealed in the church, the temple of God, sitting in that temple ruling as God over the nations! I have traveled to the sites of the seven churches in Asia and I can tell you that today there is nothing there — not one church exists, not one saint can be found. The seven churches were in Asia which is the modern nation of Turkey. Within the whole country of Turkey there are only perhaps 1,000 Christian believers — all the rest are Moslem. There are no churches to be seen anywhere except as museums!

Today, my beloved, all who are truly overcomers, pressing into sonship, caught up to the throne, have heard and heeded the call to “Come up hither” and have forsaken the carnality, foolishness, and limitation of the candlestick realm to become related to Christ IN THAT PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WHERE HIS LORDSHIP SWALLOWS UP OUR LIVES, WHERE HE IS ALL IN ALL, WHERE HIS SPIRIT, MIND, AND LIFE REPLACE THE OUTWARD STRUCTURE OF THE CHURCH SYSTEM. But do not forget, the Lord is still out there in the candlestick realm, for John saw in the midst of the candlesticks “One like unto a Son of man.” As long as there are candlesticks this glorious One will be in their midst! Oh yes, He is there, ministering on that level, blessing by His grace, dealing in His mercy, saving, healing, and helping. I have seen Him there in the midst of all the flesh, error and delusion, in fact I first met Him there in the little light that remains in Babylon. I’m sure most who read these lines also met Christ in the candlestick realm. Yes, He is there alright, sometimes even manifesting in marvelous moves of His Spirit and rich outpourings of His grace. What love! What wondrous love! What condescension! That Christ Jesus the Lord would “stand in the midst” of all the foolishness of creeds and doctrines, of rituals and ceremonies, of programs and promotions, of formality, fanaticism, and sectarianism, to minister something of life on whatever level it can be received in spite of all.

I would be remiss if I failed to warn every saint of God that He is NOT THERE taking men on to perfection, into incorruptible life, into the fullness of sonship. The “up hither” realm is where that experience is known! If any man can show me any church order, any revival, any move of God, including the early church and the original apostles and prophets, that has ever carried God’s people on to perfection and into the fullness of God I will recant and gladly join it. If such a church cannot be produced, then John’s revelation of the candlestick realm remains valid and I have no obligation to join myself to that which is impotent to bring me into the depths of Jesus Christ and to the glory of the throne. Hear me now! I am not opposed to gatherings, meetings, corporate praise, worship and ministry! But we must know that all we have done in those realms is still “in part” and not to be esteemed as the vehicle to carry us into manifest sonship in the fullness of God.

As I have been led by the Spirit and taught by the Spirit it has become clear to me that the “open door” in heaven and the command to “Come up hither” separates between the candlestick realm in the earthlies, which are the seven churches, which is the entire church age economy — and the higher realm of His fullness, the throne realm! I say to you today as the trumpet-voice said to John in that long ago, “Come up hither!” We have stood on the sidelines and said, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and save us from this old world.” And He has sat on His throne and said, “Come my people; enter into my gates, ascend into the heavens of my Spirit.” Nearly all Christians have said, “Come get us Lord Jesus,” but we who have heard His voice have been instructed, “Come up hither, my people; come up into the realm of my Spirit, into the glory of my presence, into the power and authority of my throne!” THE DOOR IS OPEN IN HEAVEN TODAY. You may live in the candlestick or the throne. You may be an earth-dweller or a heaven-dweller. You may be a “Christian” or you may be a SON!

As we ascend in the Spirit to reign with Christ in His throne it indicates a departure from the candlestick in the Holy Place, to follow our glorious and exalted forerunner beyond the veil into the throne room of the Holiest of all. It means entrance into a greater and deeper and higher relationship with Christ the Lord. The throne of this realm is the mercy seat — the throne of mercy! Thank God, the throne of the universe is the throne of mercy! All men may boldly approach the throne of grace. The understanding of this is very simple. If I were to say to any brother in a gathering, “Brother so-and-so, take us to the throne of grace,” in and by the Spirit the brother could take each and every one of us to the throne and we would never have to leave our seats. When Jesus says, “Come unto me,” He is not speaking geographically. He is speaking experientially! The journey to Christ and into Christ is not outward or physical, it is inward and spiritual. Sometimes an evangelist will say, “Twenty-five people came to Christ last night.” Does he mean twenty-five people were “raptured”? Does he mean twenty-five people were transported to Galilee and found Jesus walking the shores of the blue sea, and joined themselves unto Him there? Of course not! Chances are they did not move one inch physically. To say that “Come up hither” indicates a physical rapture reveals the innate stupidity of the natural mind which discerns not the things of the Spirit. Christ is Spirit, Christ is omnipresent Spirit, one does not change his physical location to ascend into His glory!

I would draw your reverent attention to the sequence of events outlined by the Holy Spirit in the last three verses of chapter three of the Revelation and the first three verses of chapter four. In the original there is no chapter division here, but there is continuity of thought and a flow of revelation. At the conclusion of the messages to the churches the Lord says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” The same logic that invents the “rapture” would visualize Jesus standing at the wooden door of a church building on Main Street knocking to gain admittance. But Jesus has knocked on the door of the candlestick realm! Notice that Jesus does not call this “a door” or “your door” or identify it as any particular door. He calls it THE DOOR. It is one specific door the identity of which is taken for granted. It is abundantly clear that the door He knocks upon is the door that separates between the candlestick realm and the throne room! This door is the same as the veil that separates the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place!

He has told us our need, He has told us there is another dimension in God beyond Passover and Pentecost, beyond the Outer Court and the Holy Place, He has told us there is something beyond the candlestick realm, and now, if you will hear my voice, and open the door, not only will I come into you, and sup with you and you with me, but there within yourself I will lead you up to heights never known by man! As you sup with me and overcome with me I will grant you to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne. Both of these propositions are spoken in two verses in Revelation 3:20-21. First the Lord says He stands knocking at the door. He follows this with the promise of raising us up to His throne as we overcome all things. Then only two verses later John says, “After this I looked, and, behold, a door stood open in heaven.” And through that door he saw the throne! Do you not see the mystery? Is it not clear that the “door” that was opened in heaven was the very same “door” that Jesus knocked upon? It is the gateway between the two realms, the gateway between the candlestick realm and the throne!

First Christ comes out of the heavens of His glory to enter into our lives by His Spirit. He descends through the door. For Him to come into us and sup with us we must open the door. Thank God, some of us have opened the door! Christ came to us to feed us His truth and life and He has fed us wonderful spiritual food that the candlestick realm knows nothing of! What a table He has spread as He has taught us of Himself, of His word, His ways, and His will. Oh, what a grand and glorious table the Lord has spread for us in this feast of Tabernacles! How our hearts have thrilled as He has revealed the mysteries of the kingdom, the path to perfection, the power to overcome, transformation into His image, the putting on of His mind and nature, the hope of full and complete redemption, spirit, soul, and body! How we have been illuminated, strengthened, and quickened by this heavenly meal! In the holy intimacy of this supping together He has brought us to a fuller and more complete knowing and experiencing of HIMSELF! What a feast it has been! And because we have opened the door…the door is still standing open in heaven! Oh, the wonder of it! Christ came through the door to sup with us, and now He arises from the meal, He bids us go through the door and enter with Him into His throne! It is indeed wonderful!

The voice as of a trumpet was not the voice of a naked cherub floating on a cloud, it was the voice of the Son of God out of a heavenly realm, the prophetic voice heard within the midst of the Lord’s anointed. This prophetic voice is always saying to the Lord’s people, “Come on up, come up higher, I want you to ascend from glory to glory, from victory to victory, from experience to experience, from realm to realm, from reality to reality.” As I was writing this message brother Paul Mueller’s paper arrived in the mail in which he shares this inspiring thought: “‘Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vine with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away’ (Song of Solomon 2:10-13). This anointed word may be premature as to Father’s time and purpose, but we believe the time of its fulfillment is fast approaching. Who knows but what the new morning may break before us in great Glory and Life within just a few short years! Our WAITING PERIOD may soon be over! The time of the blooming of the flowers of spring and the singing of the summer song birds may very well be at hand! Are we beginning to hear the voice of the turtle? Is the fig tree yet putting forth her green figs? Are not the vines with their tender grapes giving forth a good smell, even the fragrance of fresh new growth? Ah, the time when our Father will say to us, ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away,’ may soon be here! And where will we go when He speaks that Word of authority and power, calling upon us to ‘arise’? Not to any place of earth, of course, but to the heavenly, spiritual Zion, the dwelling place of God, in the Spirit! And when we mature spiritually, the Lord will then build up Zion, clothing us with all those precious new garments of the Life and Glory of Christ! Blessed be His great name!”

Even as you read these lines, precious elect child of God, there is a descending of the Lord into your life. He is descending out from your spirit into your soul, and out of your soul into your body. That is how the redemption works! The mighty work of God begins in our spirit, then moves into the outer realms of our lives. There is a coming forth of the Lord out of the heavens of your spiritual life in Christ. As I have stressed, the heavens are not a geographical location, but a dimension of Spirit. When the trumpet sounds in your spiritual ear, and understanding pours into you by the spirit of wisdom and revelation from God, there is a descending of the Lord into the lowest realms of your life and an ascending of your being into Him! Every trumpet that sounds will lift you up to a higher place, you will be “caught up” by each trumpet that blows its message of revelation into your reality. At last, when the last trump sounds within you, you will be caught up into the fullness of God and you will be totally changed in spirit, soul, and body! It is at the sound of the seventh trumpet, which is also the last trump, that the manchild is caught up to the throne of God to rule all nations with a rod of iron (Rev. 11:15 — 12:6). At the last trump there are also seven vials of blood poured out into the earth, and these are the revelation of the full redemptive power of the blood of Christ to bring the complete change in the land of our being in Christ. It is there that the carnal mind, the Adamic nature, the flesh, the seat of the beast, all that flows in that realm, with all the powers that generate the fleshly emotions, desires, and propensities of the natural man are forever swept away and brought to naught. THANK GOD FOR THE VIALS THAT BRING JUDGMENT UPON ALL THAT IS EARTHY WITHIN US!

A writer from the 1800’s described conditions in Switzerland in his time thus: “In the valleys in Switzerland many of the inhabitants are deformed and dwarfish, and the whole of them wear a sickly appearance, for the atmosphere is charged with miasma, and is close to stagnant; you traverse them as rapidly as you can, and are glad to escape from them. Up yonder on the mountain you will find a hardy race, who breathe the clear fresh air as it blows from the virgin snows of the Alpine summits. It would be well for their frames if the dwellers in the valleys could frequently leave their abodes among the marshes and the fever mists, and get themselves up into the clear atmosphere above.”

It is to such an exploit of climbing that I invite you today! May the Spirit of God bear on eagle’s wings all who read these lines, that we may leave the mists of religion and the fevers of the flesh, and all the ills of sin and death which beset us in this miasmic valley of earth, the realm of the carnal mind, and get ourselves up to the mountain of the house of the Lord, the kingdom authority in the realm of the Spirit, where it is the delight of all sons of God to dwell in the rare atmosphere of truth and life and light! Oh, yes! God is disentangling us, cutting the cords that have kept us here below and permitting us to mount! We sit, some who cherish the hope of sonship, like chained eagles fastened to a rock, except that, unlike the eagle, we begin to love our chain, and would, perhaps, be loathe to have it snapped. Yet God is granting grace to all who have received the call to the kingdom to leave all the old orders of the religious systems and all the weakness, limitation, and bondage of an earth-centered life at the foot of the hill, so that our spirit may, like Abraham and Moses and Jesus, go to the top of the mountain and there speak with God and be transfigured in His glory.

His voice bids us come! “Come up hither!” And our heart responds with an earnest, Yes, Lord, we desire to ascend, to be with Thee, where Thou art.” Come! The Spirit saith it in invitation, yea, in command. Come up from the lowlands of the flesh, come up from the monotony of religion, come up from the emptiness of tradition, come up from the foolishness of the carnal mind, come up from the glitter of the world, come up from the curse of sin, sorrow, and death, come up from your graves, ye risen ones! Come up from the orders of man, ye consecrated ones! Come up to wear my crown, to sit with me upon my throne! Oh, that word has omnipotence lurking within it. That is where God is calling every person whose ears hear the cry, “Come up hither!” It shall be to you your everlasting joy to arise and “come.” I tell you that my soul has sometimes been so full of glory that I could hold no more when my beloved Lord has said, “Come,” to my soul; for He has taken me into His banqueting house, and His love-banner He waved over my head, and He has drawn me away from the doubts and fears and frustrations of mortal existence, up to “the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon” where He manifests Himself to me.

Ah, dear one, truly He declares to you that when this “Come up higher” shall captivate your ear and ravish your soul, there shall not be the flesh to drag you back, there shall be no sluggishness of spirit, no hesitation of will — you shall hasten to climb the mount of God and enter through the door into the throne room — you shall not mount to descend again, but mount on and on in one blessed ascension forevermore! “Come up hither!”

At this point I am compelled to share the following words from brother Carl Schwing. “I do not write to exalt us, the Father will do that in His perfect timing. I write to exhort us to lose ourselves in the depths of Jesus Christ. To encourage us to love and honor our aloneness with Him. To cherish our birthright and to always give all glory to the Father. To walk with our hearts and our heads up- lifted…following only and always our Beloved Christ. To gather often in His presence, thus partaking of fellowship with Him and with one another. OUR FELLOWSHIP IS WITH AND IN THE FATHER! Spirit fellowships with spirit, deep with deep. In the body, out of the body, in the light or in the darkness, in life or in death, we are one in Him. Hallelujah!

“Let us walk where others fear to walk. Let us live in the realm above the reach of mortal men. The Father bids us come up higher. Let us not tarry. He calls us to familiar grounds; to the house where only Sons can dwell. To a converse which only Sons can share. To a song that only Sons can sing, and to a place where only Sons can sit. We need not speak, we rest upon the bosom of the Father. We need not search, we ride upon the breath of God into the hollow of His heart. We draw life from the Source of all life. We shout as only Sons can do. And the heavens tremble at the beauty of our presence! All creation is quickened by the words we speak. And in the light of that glorious moment of manifestation, the Father will proclaim: ‘These are my Beloved Sons, hear ye them!’ With each sunrise the eyes and ears of our spirits are opened a little bit more…that we might see the unseen and hear the inaudible. Each sunset we walk deeper into the rising mist of His presence. And in the silence of the night hours we often hear His voice or feel His touch. We awake knowing that we are a little closer to home.

“Everything else becomes meaningless and lifeless in the beauty of His presence. The words that He speaks are pure and life-giving; unspotted by the idle chatter of religious reasoning. Each word He speaks is a drop of life to our hungry souls. He calls us ‘sons’… ‘all that I have is thine,’ are the words that He speaks to us. We are overwhelmed by such love and goodness, we fall before Him in adoration, only to be lifted higher into the excelling glory that the Father has prepared for us. We are realizing that there is nothing left of us, we are reaching the point where we are lost in Him. We are entering into union with God! The doors of eternity are opening to us and we are seeing and knowing even as the Father. Finally we shall love with His love, imparting grace and life to all that are brought before us. It will be the hour when the hope and longing of all creation is fulfilled…it will be the hour of their freedom from the curse. And it all began when He led us to the straight and narrow way” — end quote.

Well did Paul Mueller write: “Many years ago the Lord got my attention through visions and other experiences with Him. One vision, in particular, was an urgent call to ascend the high places in God. In that vision, I saw a large mountain. It was the mount of the Lord’s presence. Many people were climbing that mountain, higher and upward toward the pinnacle of His presence. But few were reaching the heights. In that vision, the mount of His presence was like the literal mountains. The higher one goes, the fewer trees there are. And the higher we go in God, the fewer believers there are at that level. As I watched the people climb that mountain, they appeared on the spiritual level where they were when they died. Some of the people climbing that mountain of the Lord’s presence were loved ones and friends. One among them was a man whom I considered a man of God, a man I had known quite well. By the Spirit, I was taken up that mountain but close to the people who were on various levels ascending that mountain. As I passed by some friends and loved ones, they all cried out to me, ‘Go higher! Don’t stop now, but keep going higher and higher.’ That vision made a profound impact on my life. I shall never forget it! By His grace and His Spirit, I intend to keep climbing higher and higher in God!

“Those who have lived and died in Christ are now in a realm where they can see and understand more clearly. The true reality is in the realm of the Spirit, and they know it well now. They know what it means to walk with God toward perfection, and they appreciate it more now than when they were in this earthly realm. If the Lord would give us ears to hear the cries of those who have gone on before us, we would hear them crying unceasingly for us to ascend the very heights of the mount of the Lord. I heard them briefly. And the tone of their voices persuaded me to believe that our spiritual growth will also mean something significant and wonderful for them. Their call to keep going higher was almost a cry of desperation, but was one of hope as well. Without us they cannot be made perfect (Heb. 11:40). Therefore, the remnant of this hour must ascend in the Spirit to the heights of the mount of the Lord, where we shall be changed. And we shall also release many who died in Christ from their limited, static positions where they rest on the mount of the Lord.

“As we ascend the heights of the mount of the Lord, we will find that it is a lonely walk. To take a step higher in God may mean forsaking old friends and loved ones. When Moses made his seventh and last ascent up mount Sinai, the Lord said to him, ‘And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me IN THE TOP OF THE MOUNT. And no man shall come up with thee…’ (Ex. 34:2-3). Like Moses, some are invited of the Lord to ascend the mount of His presence and meet Him there. Half way up the mount will not do! Those who shall partake of His life and the fullness of His kingdom must go all the way up. God said to Moses, ‘present thyself there to me IN THE TOP OF THE MOUNT.’ The top of the mount was Moses’ goal, and it is ours as well. And it is impossible for us to take anyone else with us. We must go alone! Spiritual progress is not based on fellowship with people, but on fellowship with God! A few others will also go alone to meet the Lord in the top of the mount, so that a remnant — all the remnant — shall ascend the mount to present themselves to Him in the top of the mount. No one member of that remnant company shall be missing, for the Lord will lead them all there by His Spirit” — end quote.

Scattered among earth’s billions is a special species of people. They are in the world but not of it. These have known from the beginning that they were different. They have gone through the motions, tried to be a good Christian, held every office in the church and tried to live the way they were told. But in the midst of all the effort to belong, there has always been something that kept this people from blending in with the majority. There has been an emptiness and a knowing deep inside that this was not the reason they were here. There has always been something that separated them from all the external forms of religion they have passed through. This, precious friend of mine, is the day of RECOGNITION! This is your day of knowing and understanding where you came from and where you have been in order to arrive where you are right now, and where you are going. Something deep within has cried out, “I didn’t come into this world just to get saved from hell.” Deep has called unto deep and you knew you were born for a purpose. You knew that you were here by divine appointment. You knew there was something greater, more glorious, and transcendental in God. You knew you were born to unveil God’s great plan, will, purpose, wisdom, nature, power, and glory in the earth!

You came into this world out of the bosom of the Father! Before the Creator formed you, He knew you. He didn’t know you in your present physical form as Joe Smith or Sally Brown, but He knew you as spirit. God spoke to you about His plan for your life before ever you were formed as an embryo in the womb of your mother. Paul states it so clearly when he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph. 1:3-4). The Amplified Bible reads, “Even as He chose us (actually picked us out for Himself as His own) in Christ before the foundation of the world.”

Never doubt this reality for a moment — the only way God could have loved you, chose you in Christ, and picked you out for His own before the foundation of the world is that you truly existed in and with Him before the appearing of the worlds. Nothing can be plainer than that! Yet we have supposed that we were just recently, in this life, apprehended of God to sonship. I thought the work of God began in my life sixty-five years ago. Now I find that the thing God is doing with humanity began in eternity! It didn’t begin in time. It began before the ages were framed! God loved me, chose me, knew me, counseled with me, and picked me out for His unique purpose before the foundation of the world. My origin was in God! God begat me out of Himself as spirit before He exhaled me as spirit into a very unique body upon earth.

The “kingdom message” deals with the conformity, maturity, and inheritance of the sons of God — those called to share His throne and reign with Him over all things. This great plan was conceived and initiated in eternity, before time began. “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:28-31). Now notice! These five verbs — foreknow, predestinate, called, justified, glorified — are all in the aorist tense. This denotes action at a given point in the past. All these things happened to us “before” the ages began! Some have stumbled over the fact that Paul says that those whom the Father foreknew, predestinated, called, and justified, He also GLORIFIED. They have questioned the meaning of “glorification,” wondering how they could already be glorified in their present imperfect, mortal state. Let us understand — ALL of this is in the past! God foreknew us in the past — before the world began. This is also when He predestinated us, called us, justified us, and glorified us. Jesus, the firstborn of this company of sons selected before the world began, reveals the deep mystery of this when He prays, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (Jn. 17:5). Oh, yes! Jesus was glorified, had a glory, with the Father before the world began. He left that glory when He was lowered into this earth realm, and now He prays for the Father to restore to Him that glory He had with Him before He came! And that is when every son of God was glorified! It is not something happening now, though it shall be manifested now, but it was given us in Christ in that long ago before the world began. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Aren’t you glad!

Clarity is coming to the sons of God. Understanding, perception, consciousness, expression, purpose, destiny. God is awakening all of this in us! We are called with an holy calling, called to ascend the mount of God, to ascend to the throne zone! He is awakening within us that reality we knew with the Father from before the foundation of the world. You are here by divine appointment! All your steps are ordered of the Lord. The body you were born with, the family you were born into, your parents, the town you were raised in, the school you attended, the friends you acquired, the mate you chose, the job you held, the life you’ve lived, the experiences you’ve had, the joys and sorrows, the tragedies and triumphs, the apparent mistakes and the victories, all that has taken place in your experience was mapped out in the council of God on that glorious day when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy!

As we ascend into the heavens of God’s Spirit to sit with Him in His throne we discover the truth of these words:

The throne room looks the same
As I ascend back to whence I came;
There’s the scepter that was mine
Before I left there;
And there I sit with all the sages
I was enthroned with before the ages,
But most of all, my Father
Out of whom I came!

The cry of the book of Revelation is the call for us to “Come up hither” into a higher realm of life and glory. The important truth for us to understand now is that in the Revelation there is both a coming out and a coming up. “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying , Come out of her my people, that ye be not partaker of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4). That very word came to us in great power by the Spirit many years ago during the time of a sovereign move of God in our midst. We were obedient to the word we heard from heaven and hasted to come out of the old order church system, and out of the whole religious order of man. God began in us a process of complete and total restoration of His truth, His ways, His will, His purpose, His life, His mind, and the things of His Spirit!

Then, after He called us out of the religious systems of man, and had consumed the spirit and ways of those systems out of our minds and hearts, we heard another Voice as of a trumpet talking with us, inviting us to “Come up hither” to a higher spiritual realm. When we came up to a higher place in the Spirit, He then said to us, “I will show thee things which must be hereafter.” Then we were immediately in the Spirit and saw “a throne set in heaven (or in the realm of the Spirit), and One sat on the throne.” When, at our Father’s invitation, we ascended in the Spirit into the throne zone, we beheld the Lord seated upon His throne of majesty and power. And what a revelation that was! Yet here is the wonder of it all — not just to see God in Christ seated upon His throne, but to comprehend the deep and eternal significance of His invitation to us to “Come up hither.” “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne” (Rev. 3:21).

Not to every man, not to every believer, not to every preacher is the invitation given to “Come up hither.” Not all have ears to hear the Voice! Not all are willing to leave the candlestick realm! Not all have followed on to be overcomers! If we have really heard the Voice, if the Lord has indeed revealed these truths to us by His Spirit, if we have truly overcome the world, the flesh, the devil, and the false religious systems of man, He also invites us to sit with Him and in Him on that throne! The kingdom of God will be brought to pass in all the earth as we, the overcomers, reign in union with Christ in the Spirit and by His spiritual rod of iron exercise His spiritual authority and power over the nations to break the rule of sin, tyranny, error, flesh, and death. This work will be accomplished by the mighty administration of His throne operating in our lives in and by the Spirit. Isn’t it wonderful!

To be continued…

J. PRESTON EBY