FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE

Part 69

THE THRONE

(continued)

There are pictures in the book of Revelation.  The candlesticks are the churches.  Jesus is addressing the church as One standing in the midst of the church.  Millions of Christians read the picture language in this book with carnal minds, devoid of any spiritual understanding.  They read of a golden candlestick, a golden altar, a golden ark, a sea of glass, or a book of life and suppose them to be some kind of ornate furnishings in a city on a planet called heaven, somewhere “just inside the eastern gate.”  But the better we understand the types and shadows of the word of God by the quickening of the Spirit, the clearer we see that these are much more than exquisite pieces of furniture in a great heavenly temple out there somewhere beyond the Milky Way.  What they are is furniture from the tabernacle of Moses!  One of the most important teachings any child of God could have as a foundation for correctly interpreting the book of Revelation is a clear understanding of the symbolisms of the tabernacle of Moses.  The tabernacle with its construction, furnishings, offerings, priesthood, and rituals is the root of nearly all spiritual revelation.  Everything in the tabernacle portrays something of our reality in Christ!

            The entire book of Revelation is communicated by means of signs and symbols.  It is wonderfully true that the language in which John is writing is redemptive language — symbols that appear time and again throughout the Bible.  There is no possibility of exhausting scriptural truth!  Scripture is as inexhaustible as God Himself.  There is no end to His wisdom nor His understanding.  Therefore it behooves us to prayerfully search out the symbols to see what message they proclaim.  Of course, many believers are satisfied with the mundane because they were born into it; their preachers and teachers only dabble in the elementary principles of the truth of Christ, so they’ve never known anything else.

            Sooner or later, if our heart hungers and thirsts after God, we come to the point reached by the little boy with the red wagon.  That is to discover that the toughest resistance to pressing into the depths of God is not from without, but from within.  The little boy loved to play with his little red wagon.  But one day it suddenly occurred to him that he could not recall ever seeing an adult playing with a little red wagon.  The moment that thought struck him he burst into tears.  His mother was finally able to get out of him what it was that was causing such terrible grief.  He sobbed through his tears that he didn’t want to grow up because he was afraid that then he wouldn’t be able to play with his little red wagon.  His mother encouraged him as best she could.  She assured him that as far as she knew there was no reason why he should not play with his little red wagon after he grew up, if he wanted to.  No one would prevent him.  That cheered him a bit.  But after a few minutes he burst out crying again.  When she asked him what the trouble was this time, he sobbed, “I’m afraid I won’t want to!” 

FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE

From within each one of us who have received the call to sonship there comes at last the decisive decision to give up the little red wagons of our childish religious past, and at costly consequences to grow up into the maturity of our glorious Head, the firstborn Son of God!  We grow spiritually by hearing the voice of the Lord for ourselves and by following the Lord wherever He leads us, by releasing all He calls upon us to release, and doing all His perfect and holy will.  Our Father is leading us beyond the Outer Court with its brazen altar of atonement and forgiveness of sins, and beyond the Holy Place with its lighted candlestick fueled by the oil of the indwelling Spirit.  He is also leading us beyond the feast of Passover where we first met the Lamb of God who died for us, and beyond the feast of Pentecost where we received the firstfruits of the Spirit — yes, beyond the candlestick realm, beyond the church order!  By the leading of His Spirit we are growing up into Christ, becoming mature adults in the kingdom of our Father.  The call for this New Day is to “Come up hither!”  The journey of this New Day is from the candlestick to the throne!  The divine evidence that we are heeding that call is if we have truly begun to grow up and become a spiritual adult, we are done with the childish ways of the past and have put them all aside.  A spiritual child delights in the childish ways of the past.  He or she enjoys those childish ways, and continues to cling to the little red wagon — continues to romp and frolic in the entertaining programs of the old order church system.  But when we grow up and become spiritual adults in the more glorious kingdom of our Father, we then put away the childish toys of the past, and with joy set our face toward the throne, ascending in the Spirit into that which is more perfect and complete — kingship with Christ!   

            A brother shared this experience some time ago.  He said, “My eighteen-year-old son graduated from high school last spring.  The ceremony  was a great celebration for both the graduates and their parents, symbolizing the passage from childhood and dependency to greater freedom on the journey to becoming an independent, responsible adult.  How ludicrous it would have been for the kindergarten teacher of these students to reappear, proclaiming that in order to keep their diplomas, all graduates must now report to her in September to review their ABC’s.  You do not take young people who have matured and are ready to accept adult responsibility and treat them like children.  Even the graduates would have said, ‘We are not going back!’”  Oh, no!  We who are growing up into Christ and have tasted the powers of the age to come are not going back to the kindergarten of our walk in God!  Let the children play, let them sit Sunday after Sunday and hear the same salvation story, the same elementary teachings, observe the same forms, rituals, ceremonies, entertainment, and work and labor feverishly in the same tired old church programs and promotions.  If they still want to play with the little red wagon they are not ready yet to leave it.  And there is no condemnation in that!  Children are supposed to play!  BUT WE WILL NOT GO BACK!

            With keen spiritual insight the late George Hawtin wrote this admonition to the Lord’s elect.  “Centuries ago Israel marched across the burning wilderness of Sin (Ex. 16:1).  Forty years they journeyed under the continual care and correction of God.  Angels’ food was their meat (Ps. 18:25) and spiritual water was their drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ (I Cor. 10:4).  Their bodies grew not weary and their garments waxed not old; neither was there a feeble one in their tribes (Ps. 105:37) as they journeyed under God’s orders and moved at His command.  So it came to pass that, ‘on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning.  So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.  And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.  At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents.  And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and journeyed not.  And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the Lord they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the Lord they journeyed.  And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed.  Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed.  At the commandment of the Lord they rested in their tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed’ (Num. 9:15-23).

            “We today are under similar care and similar orders though we know it not.  From time to time through the ages the church has been commanded to move on with the cloud to new revelation and experience in God, and after each move to pitch our tent and patiently wait for the moving of the cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night.  What a tremendous sight it must have been for Israel, after having camped for a day, a month, a year, or many years, to see at last the cloudy pillar of God’s presence and glory begin to move on, and what a hustle and bustle there must have been as they broke up their old camps to follow the cloud, every tribe in his own order, and every man in his order whithersoever the Spirit led them!

      “As time has swiftly passed, the light of that same fiery pillar has illuminated to our waiting hearts many truths which we have embraced and have made part of ourselves and ourselves part of them.  But with many of us, as with many of them, God was not well pleased, and they were overthrown in the wilderness (I Cor. 10:5).  They lusted after evil things, became idolaters, and committed fornication just as thousands today are doing who once were baptized in the cloud, drinking of the spiritual rock and eating the spiritual meat (I Cor. 10:2-4).  We have made jobs and money, possessions and pleasures our idols and our gods, and we have committed fornication with the harlot daughters of Babylon times without number.  We have tempted Christ and murmured because of the rigors of the way, sat down to eat and drink in the fleshly realm, and risen up to play — to play at church and make a play of religion (I Cor. 10:5-11).  These things that happened to them are for examples for us upon whom the ends of the ages are come.

            “In the depths of my spirit I seem to hear the trumpet call to a new awakening.  It is time to move on from the revelation of the past years.  It is time to partake of the resurrection, the bread of God, the better blood and the water of life.  The pillar of fire is moving; it is time to move on!  The great mystery of the ages, ‘let us make man in our image,’ is about to be fulfilled when all things will begin to find their one head in Christ”   — end quote.

            That blessed company called to sonship is now passing through a strange time of transition.  In the midst of deep dealings and great testings and mighty shakings a people is being formed to be the Lord’s true expression in the earth.  Old things are passing away, new things are coming into view!  The saints who make up the body of Christ in the earth are progressing from the childish prattle and playing of the carnal church systems to the new and higher order of the kingdom of God.  Those who are truly apprehended have left their old camps and have left all their religious play things behind and have released their grasp on every vestige of that old, passing order, and are laying hold on the new order of the kingdom of God.  In this transition time when everything is being shaken, we are at peace, resting in Him!   We have taken our seat in the heavenly places in Christ, with the assurance that we are becoming His will and His salvation for all the ends of the earth.  He is establishing the rule of His throne in our hearts and lives that we might reign with Him over the nations and all things.

            “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks.  The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches” (Rev. 1:20).

            We do not randomly, haphazardly, or arbitrarily interpret these symbols, but they are interpreted for us by the Spirit of God.  The candlestick is revealed as a symbol of the church of Christ.  The candlestick in the tabernacle in the wilderness was located in the Holy Place.  All the churches of the world, all the churches of history have had their experience in the Holy Place realm of spiritual experience!  And just for that reason every move of God in the church realm, including the early church, the Reformation churches, the Revival churches, the Pentecostal churches, and the so-called Latter Rain churches have eventually stagnated and gone into apostasy.  You see, my beloved, the Holy Place is not a permanent realm. 

            I can hear someone say, “But the candlestick is made of gold, a metal of value and permanency; doesn’t that speak of abiding things and of an eternal realm?”  The gold of the candlestick is not the whole story!  The gold does indeed speak of the essential nature of the church — the divine nature.  But men had to make oil for it, or it gave no light.  The oil itself was man processed.  It was made according to a God-given formula, after the art of the apothecary, but human hands were necessary to make it.  There is the element of the flesh.  Who can deny that the flesh has entered in to just about everything done in the church!  Furthermore, the oil had to be made again and again, or it would run out.  It was not the infinite supply of God!  Then, too, within the lamps there were wicks that daily must be raised or lowered, and trimmed to keep the light burning evenly.  The ministry of a man was required to snip the wick.  Without these ministrations of men the candlestick could in no way fulfill its purpose — there was no light!

            The Holy Place, representing the Pentecostal realm, or the church realm, for the church was birthed at Pentecost, also had bread meal associated with it.  The bread meal was sown with leaven, and leaven throughout the word of God is a type of sin or error.  That’s why we read in the book of Hebrews, “Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle (Holy Place), accomplishing the service of God.  But into the second (Most Holy Place) went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: the Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle (Holy Place) was yet standing” (Heb. 9:6-8).

            The Holy Place had an entrance into a realm beyond the Holy Place!  The Holy Place had an entrance into a realm greater than the Holy Place!  In that realm, the Holiest of all, there was no oil to be made, no wick to be trimmed, no bread laced with leaven to be baked.  The light of the Holiest of all was the light of the incorruptible, eternal glory of God alone!  It never ran out of fuel, man’s hand never touched it, and no man could add anything to it.  And this light shone over and upon and out of the throne of God upon the ark of the Covenant!  By that incorruptible light the manna was preserved without breeding worms and stinking, and there was no decaying, deterioration, or dissolution of anything in that realm!  Oh, yes, the throne zone was the Holiest of all!  Once each year, in type, the high priest heard, as it were, the call to “Come up hither!” into a higher and more glorious realm than the candlestick realm.  As he passed through the veil he made the journey FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE!  This is not the church realm we have known, my friend, this is the incorruptible, immortal, unchangeable, omnipotent, eternal realm of God!  And it is not a realm we enter after death, in some far-off heaven somewhere, but it is the realm prepared for God’s mature sons right here upon earth, the realm of God’s fullness, of perfection, of maturity, of wisdom, of power and dominion, where God is all that He is in His people — the realm of manifest sonship!  

            Most of those who read these lines met Christ as Saviour in the Outer Court and then served God in the Holy Place.  But that’s not where we have to stay!  Our great high priest, even Jesus, has entered into the Holiest of all at the right hand of God.  We are the body of the high priest, who is the Head of the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, and in Him we have access into the Most Holy Place!  “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither our forerunner is for us entered in, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart…” (Heb. 6:19-20; 10:17-22). 

            As we read previously, the Holiest of all is not accessible as long as the Holy Place is standing (Heb. 8:8).  In other words we can never enter into the Most Holy Place, into the fullness of God, into manifest sonship IN THE CHURCH!  As long as the candlestick realm is standing in our lives, in our hearts, in our experience, in our practice, as long as we cling to it, we cannot pass beyond the veil into the Holiest of all!  That order must no longer stand in our lives!  Even if we set our foot only one step beyond the veil, we have completely and totally left the old order of the candlestick realm behind!  Another picture of this truth is shown us in chapter twelve of the Revelation.  In this wonderful chapter the manchild, the overcoming company of the sons of God, is birthed out of the woman church.  The sons of God are separate from their church mother just as a baby is separated from the body of its mother at the time of birth.  The manchild does not reign in the woman — He reigns IN THE THRONE! (Rev. 12:1-6). 

            Is this not the same truth that unfolded within John’s wondering spirit when he stood in the candlestick realm and heard a voice that commanded, “Come up hither, and I will show you things which must be hereafter” — after the candlestick realm!  Immediately he was caught up in the Spirit and beheld the throne room of God.  The throne was not in the midst of the candlesticks, it was in a higher realm which necessitated being caught up — beyond the candlesticks!  There is even now a change of seasons upon us.  The voice of the Son of God has been heard by many in this hour out of the heavenlies, calling a people to come up higher and prepare themselves for the next feast, the next realm, the next experience, the next moving of God in the earth, the third feast, the third day, the third compartment of the tabernacle — the realm of the fullness of God in the Holiest of all!

            From time to time the Lord speaks to me in dreams — usually at about six o’clock in the morning.  On October 15, 1995, Larry and Betty Hodges were scheduled to be here in El Paso, sharing with some brethren who would meet in a home.  That morning I awoke from a dream.  In the dream I was in a large hall such as is used for meetings and functions of various kinds.  At one side of the hall, against the wall, was a table.  To the right of the table were several people seated in chairs along the wall.  Brother Hodges was standing before the table, facing the wall, ministering to the people seated along the wall to his right.  His back was to the large hall.  He was ministering from a manuscript on the table — I could see that it was typewritten, with a number of pages, and double-spaced like a manuscript prepared for a publisher.  He had reached the bottom of the first page and was speaking words that evoked a great excitement in my spirit.  I was saying within my own thoughts, “Amen!  That’s right, brother!  That’s what the Lord has been teaching me!”  It seemed it had something to do with death to self.

            Then I noticed two long tables out in the center of the hall.  And I noted that brother Hodges was facing the table and the people along the wall — his back to the hall and the tables.  I was aware that a great number of people would soon be arriving.  The tables, however, were cluttered with food and dirty dishes left over from a previous banquet.  There were two place settings that had not been used at the head of one of the tables.  Obviously, the banquet that had been held there had ended, and things were not ready for the people that would be coming.  I thought, “We must clear all this away and make preparations for the arrival of the people!”  Someone began to help me and we cleared the tables.  Then a folded map appeared in my hands.  I laid the map on a shelf — and awoke from the dream.

            In my meditations that morning the Spirit gave me understanding of the dream.  Needless to say, I was very interested to see what brother Hodges would be ministering that day!  I saw that the manuscript he was ministering from was as an unpublished manuscript — a fresh word, a new revelation for a new day — not known by the masses of Christians.  It is that which can only be known by the Spirit and is witnessed to by those who are hearing from God in this hour!  Those that receive this word are few in number compared to the millions of believers — a “little flock,” even the “remnant” of the Lord.  But there is coming a great change!  God is setting the stage to move in a new way, in the power of the kingdom of God, and there shall be a great ingathering!  Multitudes will flow into the kingdom of God through the ministry of the sons of God!  But things are not quite ready — there are yet preparations to be made.

            The tables with the left-over food and dirty dishes bespeak of the previous move of God — the feast of Pentecost.  It was a glorious feast with rich blessing for many — but the feast has ended.  The meal is over!  Only remnants of blessings and the vessels used remain.  Those that were ordained to partake of that feast came and ate.  Some that were bidden to the feast didn’t make it, or refused the invitation.  This was represented in the two place settings that had not been used!  Some today do not believe that the feast of Pentecost has ended.  But I tell you that I have been a life-time witness to the power of Pentecost and have beheld with my own eyes the glory, the signs and wonders, the miracles and manifestations, the gifts and the ministries of that realm, and what I have witnessed in my life-time is marvelous beyond words to express!  Believe me when I now tell you that it is over.  Oh, yes, there are still scraps of food on the table, there are still tongues and prophecies and occasional miracles and signs, but the vast majority of what I see today does not impress me at all, it is naught but showmanship, charlatonism, the power of suggestion, mass hypnosis, psychologically induced emotionalism, and evangelistic hype.  THERE IS NO REAL POWER OF PENTECOST ANYWHERE IN THE LAND TODAY.  I do not hesitate to say it.  I have been a glad partaker of the real, and I have been a sad spectator of the imitation.  There is a difference! 

            The truth that gripped my spirit that morning in 1995 was just this: The former feast is over and God is now speaking from an unpublished manuscript!  What He has to say has only begun (brother Hodges was only at the bottom of the first page), and He is dealing with His called and chosen ones about the price to be paid and the preparations to be made for the next great move of God — the feast of Tabernacles!  This is the hour of preparation!  Let us prepare our hearts! All who treasure the beautiful hope of sonship now leave behind the feast that has ended and set our sight and our hearts upon the feast that is ready to begin!  In my dream brother Hodges (who represents all the elect of God) had his back to the hall with the tables and dirty dishes.  In other words, he had renounced that which was past, he had turned away from that with which God was finished.  He was speaking from a higher realm, a fresh and greater word, proclaiming a new Day, and pressing into a new glory.

            Finally, I saw that the map represents our present walk in the Spirit and our destination in God.  I laid the folded map on a shelf, meaning that we have not yet received the full revelation of  Father’s timing, and just when or how the Lord will bring every son to manifestation.  I confess that I do not know all about it, but I do know the word we have received from God, and today we go forward by faith!  In this hour God is raising a people in consciousness to heights never known by man, we are walking in a new place in God, He is establishing a new order in our hearts, and is beckoning us onward to a new attainment, a ministry and a glory never before experienced by any except our glorious Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let us, beloved, prepare our hearts for the thing God is doing in our day!  And — interestingly, these are the very things brother Larry ministered that Sunday morning — to which my spirit gave a hearty “Amen!”

            Let no man think that any of the blessings, gifts, anointings, manifestations, revivals, miracles, or movings of the Spirit we have experienced along our journey have the power to usher us into manifest sonship or in any way represent what the sonship ministry will be like.  None of the few grapes and pomegranates we have received on our journey into the Canaan Land of promise can meet the need of this Day!  None who has spiritual eyes of understanding believes that there is much left of the fruit of Canaan in the midst of the Lord’s people. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, the twelve spies brought back samples of the fruit of the Land and they were wonderful beyond description!  But the children of Israel were not in the Land, they were in the wilderness, and the grapes and pomegranates brought to them in the wilderness were indeed incredibly tasty and exciting, but were soon gone and the people were still in the wilderness.   That’s how it is with Pentecost — the firstfruits of the Spirit!  Even those grapes of Eschol, and the pomegranates and figs of former revivals are now but a fleeting memory of the good old days.  And the Lord’s people are still in the wilderness!  Many are looking for a return of those blessed times of past revival and visitation, instead of anticipating a still greater and eternal glory that lies ahead.  For no matter how great those days were in the past, the full measure that God has reserved for His manifested sons is yet to be revealed!

            “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory  which shall be revealed in us.  For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.  For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.  Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:18-23).

            This, then, in some small part, is the glory for which the sons of God seek — the glory of incorruption, the glory of adoption, the glory of immortality — total and eternal deliverance from the power of sin, sorrow, limitation, and death!  The spirit of that adoption now pulsates within our consecrated hearts.  “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father!  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom. 8:15-17).  Daily the spirit of adoption increases in victory and power within every son called to glory, that in union with Him we might receive the fullness of the graces, virtues, powers, and riches that are in Christ Jesus!

            The history of every son of God will eventually be the story of a progression from the natural through the spiritual to the celestial; passing from the realm of darkness and death through the realm of quickening, change, and transformation, to the fullness of stature and glory in the image and likeness of God; from the world of sinners through the realm of the church to the power and glory of the throne of God; from the brazen altar of sacrifice for sin in the Outer Court to the golden altar and table of prayer, praise, and communion in the dim light of the candlestick in the Holy Place, then on into the Holiest of all, where shines the undimmed and more excellent glory of the undiminished majesty of God.

            Many and varied are the ways and paths by which the Lord in faithfulness prepares the people He has chosen.  A most enlightening aspect of this preparation is found tucked away among the priceless gems in that treasure house of truth which is the Song of Solomon.  At the bursting beauty of spring, standing in the garden of delights, the little Shulamite maiden’s Beloved counsels her, “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes” (S.of S. 2:15).   Her Beloved warns that it is not enough to dwell in the garden and admire the beauty of the flowers and trees and smell their fragrance.  It is not enough to listen to the singing of birds and look forward to the harvest.  It is not enough to rejoice that we have been called and made worthy to become partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, that we have been delivered out of the power of the darkness of the world and religion, and translated into the kingdom of God’s Son.  Oh, no!  There is responsibility; we must keep the vineyard of our own lives and souls!  And we must take every fox, especially the young foxes that hide away and eat the vines, stripping them of the bark and destroying them.

            In this hour at the transition of the ages there is a precious thing being formed, a new thing, a new day, a new people who are of the day, even the firstfruits of the kingdom.  The thing God is doing today cannot be compared with anything He has done in the past in the religious systems and church revivals.  The only pattern is CHRIST!  Christ is the SON OF GOD, the first and so far ONLY MANIFEST SON OF GOD.  The harvest of the church age is MANY SONS BROUGHT TO HIS GLORY, CONFORMED TO HIS IMAGE, FILLED WITH HIS FULLNESS — A VAST COMPANY OF MANIFEST SONS OF GOD!  It seems that always when men pray for a fresh moving of God in their midst, they begin to examine all the former “moves” and “revivals” of church history and try to find the “key” as to what will bring the glory of God again, as if God will ever repeat the past.  But He declares of this day, “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth…” (Isa. 43:18-19).

            As long as we are deeply enwrapped and entangled in the old, yea, even those old things God has done, we cannot ever behold the new, for our eyes and hearts are blinded by the cloak of the old.  There are no little foxes anywhere more cute, deceitful, or treacherous than these little foxes of the old ways of Babylon which cling to the vines of our walk in God.  How cunning they are!  The little foxes of the religious systems prey upon the sentimental senses of our soul, with their music, programs, ordinances, activities, promotions and entertainment.  But, blessed be God! by the eye of the Spirit I have come to behold the formations of a completely new move of God ready to be birthed in the earth.  I do not hesitate to declare it!  I do not condemn any of the present orders of meetings and worship, of hymns and testimonies, of prophecies and prayers, of exhortations and teachings, of sermons and altar calls, of gifts and ministries, for we know that God uses them all; yet, the Spirit is speaking, stirring, dealing, quickening, convincing the hearts of His called and chosen elect to be alert to the little foxes of the old order that is passing away and those who hear His voice are not allowing the ways, methods, traditions, and practices of the old to so cling to us that they choke and strip us even as our hearts cry out for the NEW and the tender grapes of HIS SONSHIP appear on our  vines.

            That great man of God, Dr. Charles S. Price, many years ago penned this prophetic poem:

                                                            Can Christians grow by holding firm
                                                            To doctrine or to creed?
                                                            The Shepherd leads His sheep to where
                                                            They in new pastures feed.
                                                            Can food of yesteryear suffice
                                                            For hunger of today?
                                                            Was it not for our daily bread
                                                            That He taught us how to pray?
                                                            A soul can never grow in grace
                                                            That is content to stay
                                                            In blissful contemplation of
                                                            The things of yesterday,
                                                            And live alone in memory
                                                            Of some bright evening star
                                                            His grace had sent to lead us on;
                                                            Not keep us where we are!
                                                            Unfolding revelation is
                                                            God’s purpose for this hour.
                                                            Why live in flesh?  The stratospheres
                                                            Are vibrant with His power!
                                                            There is a Spirit realm to which
                                                            We can triumphant rise,
                                                            And blend redemption’s melodies
                                                            With music from the skies.

            It is my deep conviction that the time appointed of the Father for the manifestation of the sons of God is nigh at hand.  Sons of God shout it loud and clear!  Let the earth know her redemption draweth nigh!  The King of Love is coming!  Hallelujah!   The Deliverer is coming out of Zion, the whole Christ-body is being prepared, and the time is at hand.  There is no other way out of the darkness of this hour.  While the religious systems “play church” and the Christians “dabble in politics” trying to save the nation and the world, the royal heralds are going forth blowing their trumpets, proclaiming the message of the kingdom in the power of the Spirit, preparing the stage for the appearing of the KING in a vast company of the sons of God — the King in the midst of the kings, for He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords!  What a glorious and mighty and exultant victory lies before us!

            In my years of ministry I have had occasion to reflect upon this saying of our Lord, “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom (government) of God” (Lk. 9:62).  Some people come to the hard work of pressing into the kingdom only under painful duress.  Once the price of entrance becomes clear to them, they drop the plow and turn back to the beggarly elements of religion, joining themselves again to the programs and activities of a church system in a lesser realm.  They are not yet ready for the kingdom!  They refuse to enter into the kingdom!  In contrast are those who find themselves unable to leave the kingdom walk!  They are drawn irresistibly to the transforming and creative process going on within them, and thoroughly understand that there is nothing in the church systems of man for them anymore.  Nothing could entice them — not blessings, not gifts, not programs, nor fellowship, nor personalities, nor needs — to turn from their quest of the kingdom.  THEY HAVE REACHED THE POINT OF NO RETURN.  No looking back!  The hook is in their jaw.  They can do nothing else, so help them God.  They have been quickened, captivated, possessed by the voice bidding them to “Come up hither!”

            If we are the elect of God in this hour, there is a call within us, and deep calleth unto deep.  I tell you, my beloved, there is something within me, an inner compulsion, and I know that I have set my face as a flint and cannot turn to the right hand or the left from my journey into God’s fullness.  I can’t go back to the world — the world has nothing to offer me; it is all vanity and vexation of spirit.  I can’t go back to religion — religion holds nothing for me anymore; it is wearisome to my soul and an abomination.  I can’t even go back to Pentecost, back to the Holy Place — for the veil has been rent and I have tasted of the powers of the world to come and beheld the glories of the throne realm.  There is no turning back because my heart has turned to the Lord!  As the apostle says, “When it (the heart) shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away…and we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Cor. 3:16-18).  For some in this hour the veil has been rent in their consciousness and we have found an entrance to behold the transcendent glories of that promised land that lies before us.  By the blood of Jesus we have been granted the opportunity to enter into the kingdom of God!

            We must love every man, especially those who are of the household of faith.  I do love them.  I love them every one!  I pray for them all!  I care for them all!  I yearn after them more deeply and fervently than they could ever imagine!   I ask God’s blessing upon them all without partiality!  I want only God’s best for every believer in Jesus Christ, irrespective of their level of spiritual development, or what doctrines or religious systems they are involved with.  But I cannot walk with many of them.  I cannot join myself to them in their childish traditions and carnal institutions.  I cannot partake with them at their table of static creeds and man-made doctrines.  I cannot participate with them in their empty rituals and ceremonies.  I cannot be involved in their grandiose schemes and soulish promotions by which they imagine to save the world.  Their insipid vision of waiting to die and fly away to that bright glory-world above has nothing in common with the beautiful hope of sonship to God and the revelation of the kingdom birthed within my ransomed spirit by the quickening breath of my Father in heaven.  Their expositions, sermonizings, homilies, meetings, projects, hopes, aspirations, and goals are but dim flickering candles compared to the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!

            The ministry all creation is waiting for, longing for, groaning and travailing for, is the ministry of sonship.  Only Jesus has demonstrated what it is!  But the ministry of Jesus was not in the gift realm of Pentecost, it was not “in part,” it was not “by measure,” but His ministry was the ministry of a MANIFESTED SON OF GOD in all the power and wisdom and glory of the Father!  Some tell us that the ministry Jesus demonstrated on earth is not what manifest sonship is.  If sonship ministry is not what Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, revealed on earth, then pray tell me, what is it?  I never thought I would see what I see today, brethren who received a revelation of sonship now “watering it down” to something far less than what Jesus has shown us.  Let me tell you — the great secret of the ministry of Jesus was that it was not in limitation but in fullness.  Jesus Himself said that the Father did not give Him the Spirit by measure.  He also said that the works the Father did through Him were the proof and evidence of His sonship!  Jesus did not receive a “gift” in the church realm, but He was the incarnation, the embodiment, the personification of the FULLNESS OF THE FATHER!  That is the realm of sonship.  And that is why creation is not groaning for another gift-ministry, another apostle, another prophet, another evangelist, pastor, or teacher, another gospel crusade, or another revival. 

            Creation is in pain and travail waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God!  Oh, yes!  Only the sons of God will possess within themselves the fullness of the power of the kingdom of God as did Jesus!  They will have all that He had plus the power of His resurrection!  Only the sons of God, in the power of Christ’s resurrection, can deliver creation from the bondage of corruption.  Jesus is not the firstborn among many Christians, or among many evangelists, or many teachers, or even many apostles and prophets.  Oh, no!  He is the firstborn among MANY BRETHREN!  The brethren are like Him.  They are completely like Him!  That is what makes them brethren, and that is what makes them sons!  He is not bringing many gifted Christians to glory, He is not bringing many musicians to glory, He is not bringing many deacons to glory, He is not bringing many Sunday School teachers to glory, He is not bringing many preachers to glory, He is not bringing many apostles and prophets to glory, but He is bringing many SONS to glory!  Aren’t you glad!   

            Sonship is glorious beyond anything our eyes have seen or ears have heard.  Jesus Christ is the firstborn Son of God.  He is what sonship is!  And now all His brothers are empowered to follow Him to maturity and into the power of His resurrection.  All will follow His steps, becoming what He is.  The spiritual life of every son has the same origin as the firstborn, for all are born of God.  We are being perfected by the same process, and will ultimately achieve the same result.  Jesus Christ was and is the personification of the Father, and so shall we be.  The holy and divine nature of Jesus Christ is ours to be raised up within us.  The works He did we shall do as well.  The authority of Jesus Christ, the power of His throne, even the dominion of the ages and all things, He will share with those who come unto the measure of the stature of His fullness.  Jesus possesses the totality of God’s essence and substance, and this is the heritage of every manifest son of God.  The present resurrection, ascension, and enthronement of Jesus Christ is the portrait of our destiny!  Oh, the wonder of it!

            The sons of God are destined to inherit all things; they are selected by the Father to become the dispensers of blessing to all created realms.  Thus creation groans in sympathetic birth pangs, longing for their arrival!  From powerful angels in heaven, to worlds in the farthest galaxy, the universe resonates with anticipation of the glorious unveiling of the sons of God.  The sons will share the fullness of the glory of their Father.  They will grow up into the attributes of God as a permanent state of being.  The sons of God will partake of Godlikeness, and a spiritual inheritance that is incomprehensible to natural men, even religious men, saved men, and Spirit-baptized men!  This celestial race of beings shall be endowed with all the authority and capacity of God.  Immortal omnipotence will flow from them as the light rays from the sun.  In the heaven blest days before us, those who have attained to sonship will be displayed in the blazing glory of immortality.  This climatic finale is a fast approaching certainty. 

            From the difficulties, struggles, testings and processings of this present time the son company will burst into everlasting splendor, streaming glory, wisdom, and power as a shower of stars.  With Jesus as the Captain, this reigning government of God shall invade the bastions of darkness and by war, yea, by spiritual warfare shall they take the rule from the kings of the earth.  These are celestial kings and priests, trained and tested in conquest.  They are invincible in the nature and power of the Father.  Nothing shall confound them; all will succumb to their sway.  This company of sons is the final world government — it will never be overthrown!  They will subdue every enemy, transform every life, renew every mind, and be the fountainhead of every blessing!  They are the solution that God has ordained for the travail of earth’s teeming billions.  This is the destiny of God’s Christ, Head and body!

            God has put His hand to the task; He is ready to grasp the whole world and, through the sonship ministry, switch it on to another track, changing its course and destination.  I tell you, dear ones, as sons of God we are laborers together with God in inaugurating the next stage of the kingdom which will impact every living nation of earth.  We are now called to “come up hither” to His throne!  We shall work and work, minister and minister, reign and reconcile and bless and deliver and transform all nations and all men and all realms and all worlds and all ages until we accomplish the end.  “Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.  For He must reign, until He hath put all enemies under His feet.  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (I Cor. 15:24-26).  If it takes a week, a month, a year, a decade, a century, a millennium, a billion years or a trillion years, it matters not one whit — the kingdom of God shall increase and expand and triumph until that blessed day when from pole to pole and from sea to sea and throughout all the vastnesses of infinity everywhere God shall be ALL IN ALL!

            Let the mountains reverberate with the sound of the message, let the hills shout aloud for joy, and all the trees of the forest clap their hands!  For we now stand on the threshold of a new dimension of the kingdom of God, and we must be prepared to receive HIM in fullness.  As we earnestly look for His appearing, we are to receive ALL THAT HE IS, for when He appears in His glory in His manifest sons, all the traditions of yesterday will be swept away and the realms of limitation swallowed up in His surpassing glory.  I cannot overemphasize this great and important truth: When Christ appears in the fullness of Himself  in His many brethren, we must be prepared to receive Him on a higher plane than we have known Him hitherto.  We cannot tell Him what portion of Him we will receive and what portion we will not receive.  WE WILL RECEIVE AND MANIFEST HIM IN FULLNESS, and without any reservations or preconceived ideas, or we will not receive Him at all.  Either we will walk in the power and glory of His sonship, or we will miss the glory.  We will not bring into that new order of life and power the old ways and traditions of the church systems of man.  Should we cling to the ministries and methods of the past, we will not be manifest sons.  Vast multitudes of Christians will not stand in this new glory because of their tradition — but their time of visitation will come later.  But for those who are willing to pay the price, to be thoroughly purged of all that is of the flesh, and disposed to turn loose of the past religious traditions, the old forms and ceremonies, the former means and methods, and the stagnant remains of yesterday’s visitations, there awaits great glory and heavenly wealth, and a world-shaking ministry beyond the comprehension of mortal mind.

            Captain James Cook was an English explorer who lived more than two hundred years ago.  His adventurous life began when he joined the British navy at the age of 27.  He surveyed the St. Lawrence Channel and the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador before he was given his own ship, the Endeavor, to command.  He sailed this ship all the way around the world, exploring the coasts of eastern Australia and New Zealand on the way.  After returning to England he set out again for the South Pacific with two ships, the Resolution and the Adventure, and explored the icy Antarctic Ocean.  He explored the New Hebrides Islands and discovered the island of New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean off Australia.  Early in his career Captain Cook made this amazing statement, I don’t remember the precise words, but the thought was this: “It is not my desire to merely go where other men have not gone; I WANT TO GO AS FAR AS IT IS POSSIBLE FOR MAN TO GO!”  And his wish was granted, for when he was killed in 1779 by natives in the Hawaiian Islands, there were no more frontiers on this planet to explore, and no more coasts to be charted.

            Ah, in the spiritual world just such a desire has arisen within a company, those destined to manifest sonship,  the desire to not merely press on in God to heights and depths not discovered by those great ones who have blessed this earth with God’s grace, wisdom, and power, but indeed to GO AS FAR AS IT IS POSSIBLE FOR MAN TO GO IN GOD!  What a vision!  We are well acquainted with the “in part” realm, where God anoints men with the Holy Ghost and with power, and their gifts increase and their ministries expand and many are blessed.  But then they die, and while others might try to carry on their vision, it is never again the same for those left behind do not possess the same wisdom or have the same anointing from God, so the movement crystallizes around the “part” the ministry possessed, and when men try to perpetuate it, it finally stagnates and dies.  For one thing, every generation needs a new vision and not a carry-over of the old, but in this transition of the ages God is birthing a SON COMPANY that desires not merely to rebuild and restore the work of God of yesteryear, be it New Testament Church Order, five-fold ministry, gifts of the Spirit, expressions of worship, methods of evangelism, or whatever; but we are possessed of a heart to become  identified with Jesus Christ beyond the veil, in the Holiest of all, after the power of an endless life, to know God not just in a measure, but in His fullness, and receiving that ministry after the order of Melchizedek which can proceed through the ages until a full victory is consummated and God is ALL IN ALL.

            The compelling passion of my life is to be filled with all the fullness of God and be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  That is what sonship is!  The deep cry of my heart is for the satisfaction of knowing that my life counts for God.  As God knows my heart, it is not a selfish desire.  The reason I want to be like Jesus is because I love Him so, and also because it is the only way I can ever be used in the restoration of fallen creation.  I see the needs of the world around me, and realize that I am practically powerless to do anything about them.  And should I initiate a program it would not even scratch the surface of the need.  We thank God for all who are ministering to mankind on whatever level, and they shall receive their reward.  Yet, men hold great crusades today and when you listen to their glowing reports you would think the whole world is turning to God.  But should you walk the streets of the city they just left, you can barely find a trace of evidence that they were ever there.  City-wide life goes on as before.  Oh yes, we can pray, believe God, and touch whom we can, and see some people saved, blessed, healed, and delivered.  But anyone who says that they have reached the place where their ministry is meeting the needs of the world and changing the order of things is either blind to the realities on this planet, a proud hypocrite, or a liar.  But God is not blind to the need of this day, nor is He impotent to move.  He has a plan, a wonderful plan!  And He is going to move in mighty power just as soon as the time is ripe for it.

            God is shaping our lives with a view to the future.  What is happening to each son of God today has a bearing on what his role will be in the kingdom of God throughout the ages to come.  Our present travail will be easier when we understand this truth.  A crown prince cannot live like other people.  When the crown prince of Great Britain is born, he is a marked child from the day of his birth.  He is different from other children.  He cannot go just anywhere or do or be anything he chooses.  His education, his way of dress, what he is taught in the home, his associations, his activities, where he goes and when and how, his leisure time — everything about his life is planned to prepare him to be a king.  The man or woman called to sonship cannot be like other people or other of God’s children any longer.  God has a special plan for this one!  The truth is that a son of God marches to a different tune than his contemporaries.  He hears the band playing the march of victory!  He stays in line with those in-Christed ones who march with him.  He keeps in step with his leader, Jesus Christ.  He marches to the music of the celestials.  He marches in the procession of Christ.  His music is the music of the kingdom.  Because this is a different kind of marching from that of those in the church systems, he is often out of step with them.  They are not all marching to the same place!  Most Christians are marching to a place in the sky with golden streets, harps, and palm branches to sing and dance and play and frolic for eternity.  Sons do not have time for such frivolity, for they are marching to the throne of the universe, to a position of eminence, power, authority, responsibility, and eternal glory as lords and kings and priests and creators after the likeness of their eternal Father.  Their business is not dancing over the hillsides of glory, but bringing the kingdom of God to pass throughout the infinity of God’s universe!

            Always men have greeted friends and loved ones at the beginning of a new day with a cheery greeting, “Good morning!”  In these words is the story of the night that is gone and the day which beckons.  Fled from us are the lurking shades of night; eagerly we rush to greet the rosy countenance  of the dawn.  It is fitting that the discovery of the resurrection of our Lord should have been realized in the dawning light of a new day.  Behind the disciples was the nightmare of the cross and the tomb.  “Very early in the morning” they came to the sepulcher to minister to the dead body of Jesus — only to hear the angels’ words, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen.”  It is as if the angels had said, “Good morning!”  It was a good morning; there was nothing more to fear.  A new day had dawned for mankind!  Forget the fears and dreads of the night; rejoice in the wonders of the day!

            Out of the deep and sovereign movings of God a prophetic voice has sounded forth in our generation.  The church age is over!  The old order is done!  God is calling a people by revelation of His Spirit to arise and make the transition into the new age of the kingdom of God, into the new day of manifest sonship.  We have heard the voice, we have responded to the call of the voice as of a trumpet to “Come up hither!”  In the Spirit we have beheld the throne set in the heavens.  It is set for us.  Aren’t you glad!  The throne is our destiny.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  The manchild is ready to be birthed — to be caught up into the throne.  A new order for all mankind is on the horizon.  The Day has dawned and the daystar is rising in our hearts.  The time of our change has come.  Even now a mighty power, a living hope, is working in our lives.  “GOOD MORNING SONS OF GOD!”

To be continued…                                                                                                      J. PRESTON EBY