KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching the
things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM
THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part
73
THE FOUR LIVING CREATURES
AND THE TWENTY-FOUR ELDERS
(continued)
“And before the
throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal…” (Rev.
4:6).
Before we
consider the sea of glass, I would like to point out that
throughout the scriptures the sea is a type of the raging,
restless, surging masses of unregenerate humanity, tossed to and fro
by the inner storms of the turbulent nature of the carnal, Adamic
man. The prophet Isaiah penned these inspired words, “The wicked
are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters
cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the
wicked” (Isa. 57:20-21). Jude also described the natural man when
he said, “These are raging waves of the sea, foaming out
their own shame” (Jude 13). The beloved John, banished on the Isle
of Patmos, had a vision of a great whore sitting on many waters.
The angel that spoke with him revealed the meaning of the many
waters, saying, “The waters which thou sawest, where the whore
sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations,
and tongues” (Rev. 17:5).
John also saw a
vision of a beast rising out of the sea, a beastly expression
coming up out of the midst of the multitudes of raging, restless,
seething humanity, the sea of man. The natural sea is a
great deep, an abyss (Gen. 1:2; 7:11; 8:2; Deut. 8:7; 33:13;). The
Psalmist wrote of this abyss of fleshly men, “They search out
iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the
inward thought of every one of them, and the heart is
deep (an abyss)” (Ps. 64:6). To the enlightened mind of David
the depth of iniquity of which the human heart is capable is so
great that it is beyond the ability of man to comprehend! The heart
of man is an unfathomable depth, or, as Jeremiah observed,
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). While John the Revelator saw the
beast (outward manifestation) rising out of the sea (abyss, depth)
of humanity (carnal mind), Jesus expressed the same truth thus, “For
from WITHIN, O-U-T O-F THE HEART OF MEN, proceed all these evil
things!”
Yet God, blessed
be His wonderful name, has a remedy for the raging of the sea of
fleshly emotions and devilish passions within man! The word of the
Lord declares, “Thou rulest the raging of the
sea: when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them”
(Ps. 89:9). Long centuries ago the Spirit of God inspired these
beautiful words of promise, “The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the
floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.
The Lord on high IS MIGHTIER THAN THE NOISE OF MANY WATERS, yea,
than the MIGHTY WAVES OF THE SEA” (Ps. 93:3-4). Praise God! HE
rules the inner raging of the sea and HE stills all its
tempests! That unstable nature within, so quickly moved by the
storms created by the carnal mind, the torrents of passion, the
streams of vain imaginations, the waves of frustration and fear, the
winds of doubt and unbelief, the turbulent emotions of body and soul
— all are quieted by the Lord, the Spirit, who arises from within in
peace, confidence, truth, and faith to RULE THE RAGING OF THE SEA.
And then follows the calm, the state described by Paul, “that we be
no more tossed to and fro with every wind…but may grow up in all
things into Him who is the Head, even Christ” (Eph. 4:14-15). The
Spirit of Life within is great peace, overflowing joy, unfailing
love, unwavering righteousness, and omnipotent power! Oh, yes! It
is only necessary then to gain the conscious awareness of the
presence and life of God as the very essence of our being, and to
know that this life is the law and substance of our reality. When
our consciousness is imbued with the Spirit of Truth — not merely
the letter of truth, but the Spirit of Truth — all inner and outer
tempests are stilled, the sea is calmed, and the dragon out of the
sea vanishes over the horizon!
When John beheld
in holy vision the unveiling of Christ — Christ the Head and Christ
the body — he also saw “a throne set in heaven” with God’s Christ
upon the throne. It is then that we read, “And before the
throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal…”
As surely as the raging sea represents multitudes of restless,
clamoring, surging, sinning humanity, so does the exquisite sea of
glass before the throne of God represent an assembled throng of
quickened and transformed saints IN WHOSE HEARTS THE PEACE OF GOD
RULES. This great sea of redeemed men is calm and
serene, tranquil and quiet, transformed “even as by the Spirit of
the Lord.” Furthermore, the sea-dwelling beast has been
dealt with! The inner nature of man has been transformed, satan is
bound, and the sea is now calm. In contrast with the hurricane and
the tumult of winds and waves, we now perceive the effectual
dominion of God — the peace and rest of the divine nature,
undisturbed by earth’s changes and storms. The sea of glass
illustrates the ineffable calm of the divine nature — a mighty deep
within of holy, divine love and purpose, of understanding and
confidence, of righteousness, peace, and joy, upon which no wind
blows, no tempest strives, no violent currents disturb its
unfathomable depths.
Just how did
this crystal sea become what it is? John envisions this sea of
glass twice. In both of these descriptions, they are symbolical
views of both a people and a state of being. They have been as
individual grains of sand — for glass is melted sand. John
beheld this sea of glass mingled with fire — having come through the
furnace of afflictions. As the Lord says, “Behold, I have refined
thee…I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction” (Isa. 48:10).
These have been perfected through their fiery trials! “Tried with
fire…and now they have been…found unto praise and honour and glory
at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (I Pet. 1:7). In the image and
likeness of Christ, they are bonded together in a divine union of
life. John sees the whole redeemed company not as millions of
individual grains of sand, but as one body, even as a crystal sea of
glass!
Glass is sand
that has been heated in the fire and is melted and flows together
until each grain of sand loses its individual identity as sand.
These myriads of grains of sand are melted together into one piece
of glass. This shimmering sea that John beholds is composed of a
vast throng of the Lord’s people who have passed through the fires
of tribulation, trials, testings, and provings, and have overcome
the world, the flesh, and the devil by the power of His indwelling
life. They can never again be affected, moved, tossed, disturbed,
agitated, distracted, disquieted, bothered, or tempted by anything
in those realms, for they have fully and forever overcome!
They are standing in their eternal victory over the fleshly, beastly
nature of the carnal, human identity, and the spirit of this world,
as well as the false religious image of the man-made church systems.
A sea of glass
like unto crystal! The figure is a striking one, and later on in
the book of Revelation we find the overcomers standing on the sea
of glass mingled with fire (Rev. 15:2). These have harps
and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb — the song of deliverance,
the song of the overcomer! Here we see a picture of a people who
are neither going through the sea, nor being tossed by it, because
they are standing on top of it. The message is clear — the crystal
sea speaks of the nature in which they stand, and
their walk has become stable and transparent! The
fact that what is underneath their feet is solid, brilliant, and
clear reveals to us the great truth that they are rooted and
grounded in the pure, perfect, and holy nature of the Christ
within.
The sea of glass
mingled with fire represents the purification that is
necessary for every son of God who enters the throne zone. It is
not possible to partake of the realm of God’s sovereign, unlimited,
omnipotent power and authority until we have passed through the
crystal sea mingled with fire and been purged from all carnality and
self-hood by the quickening radiance of Christ’s own pure and divine
life. By the regenerating power of the living water which Christ is
we lose the scent of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Every son
of God is today passing through the sea of purification, into the
state of transparency, which gives us access to the throne room of
God!
It is here that
all the fickle emotions of the soul and all the relentless passions
of the body have been put under our feet until they toss us no
more. There is a great calm! There is substance — a solid
foundation — under our life and our walk, for we cannot fail to
observe that God Himself possesses the same attributes as the glassy
sea which surrounds His throne. The sea before the throne is the
very nature of God established within a people until they stand and
walk in the power of it. The sea is the emblem of mystery in many
of the apocalyptic writings. But here we are told that the mystery
which surrounds the nature of God is no longer mystery to those who
are able to see Him as He is. The sea of glass is crystal
clear with the light of truth! The glassy sea is thus a beautiful
figure for the perfect revelation of the grace, righteousness, and
glory of God.
Those who stand
upon the sea of glass have escaped from the imprisonment of self
into the mind of Christ. They have lost themselves so completely in
the life of God that there is no longer any distinction between “I”
and “Christ.” They have reached the good beyond the good; the right
within the right; the truth of which the truth we have known is but
the shadow. They have been lifted out of the tossing sea of human
passion and carnal understanding into the eternal calm of
Christ-consciousness. These love without fear of losing, and
worship without ceasing that which is the living God reflected in
our own being — our very reality and state of being being the
homage we render unto Him who is the source and substance of
all.
This is what
every man is searching for who is tossed by the raging waves of the
sea of humanity! It is what the greedy man wants when he goes out
to make himself rich; he does not want the money and the things
money buys, but that of which the wealth is the symbol, that
something for which his soul is craving and will not be denied,
even though he is seeking it in the wrong way. It is what the evil
man wants when he spreads havoc and ruin in the path of his ambition
and lust; he is looking for heaven in the hallways of hell. It is
what drives every man to be a workaholic, or a pleasure seeker, or a
drunkard, or an adulterer, or a money grabber, or a tyrant over men,
or seeker of fame, power, popularity, or one who loses himself in
the carnal programs and promotions of man’s religious systems. Man
is so constituted that he can never stop seeking until he has
found the eternal calm of the perfect and pure reality of God. If
you try to rest in anything less you will be spurred on again and
again by your own spirit and swept upward from height to height
until you enter upon the great peace on the shores of the crystal
sea!
All who attain
to the heights in God are moved to climb the steep and winding path
that leads from the valley of the shadow of death to the everlasting
heights of divine life and nature. As we scale the heights of mount
Zion we become what we seek! We shall never enter
upon the realization of any reality which is external to ourselves.
Knowing is being, and apart from being there is no knowing of
the things of God! Only those who can stand upon the glassy sea,
are those who walk in the spirit and come off victorious in the
conflict with the beast of the flesh and the carnal mind. That
means waging war with the foul and degrading desires of the flesh
and the deceptive illusions of the old Adamic mind — even the “good”
religious mind! When the sea waves toss your little ship to and fro
in the storms of life, lift up your eyes to the throne in the midst
of which is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Understand that that throne is here now — the power and dominion of
the Christ within ourselves is strong and mighty enough to cause us
to enter into our full heritage in God! To follow Jesus to the
heights of victory; to be privileged to gaze upon that infinite
crystal sea, the manifested life, light, love, righteousness, and
power of Christ in our very own spirits, is the vision John saw and
has shared with us. The reality is far greater than the symbol!
I’m sure it
would be thrilling to stand upon a literal, physical sea of glass
and play a harp while waving a palm branch. But that would change
nothing within us! How much more glorious to stand in that
eternal calm where all warfare, strife, struggle, fear,
temptation, and failure have forever ceased — far, far above our own
soulish efforts, yet deep within our spirits even now! When shall
we behold that glorious expanse of righteousness, peace, and joy?
When? Only when we ourselves become the perfectly
manifest life, light, and love of God, eternally at one with Him,
and with all that is His image and likeness. This alone is real;
all else is but seeming. There is nothing beyond the crystal sea
but the throne of God!
THE FACES OF THE LIVING CREATURES
“In the midst of
the throne, and round about the throne, were four living creatures
full of eyes before and behind. And the first living creature was
like a lion, and the second living creature was like an
ox, and the third living creature had a face as a man,
and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle” (Rev.
4:6-7).
The four living
creatures had four faces in the likeness of four different
creatures. These represent four aspects of kingship, and are
the four “faces” of the corporate Christ which reveal the qualities
of His dominion and His appearance when He is doing a specific work
at a particular time. Each of the faces reveals the work of Christ
in His body of sons as well as His work through His
son company in the earth. They are, furthermore, the four-fold
manifestations of Himself to all mankind!
The four living
creatures had the face of a lion, the face of an ox, the face of a
man, and the face of a flying eagle. The lion speaks of strength
— power, authority, and dominion — for he is the most powerful of
all the big cats, and is known as the king of beasts, the king of
the forest — by virtue of his awesome prowess! The ox is symbolic
of servantship, for he is the largest and most useful of all
domestic animals and is historically a beast of burden, a servant to
man from time immemorial. The face of a man indicates
intelligence — understanding, knowledge, and wisdom — for this
is what distinguishes man from all the creatures beneath him. Adam
was made in the image and likeness of God, revealing in his face the
attributes and character of God, and was thereby given dominion over
all the works of God’s hands. The eagle speaks of exaltation,
for it is a heavenly creature, one who flies high in the heavens and
lives, makes its home, and raises its young in the highest peaks of
the mountains. These four faces reveal the intrinsic qualities that
define God and His sons in the ministration of kingship!
The picture
presented here in the faces of the four living creatures is that of
God’s called and chosen elect who have been completely conformed to
the image of the Son! They have grown up into His nature and
character in each of these four areas! They have been made like
unto Him in His spiritual strength and kingship; they are made kings
to reign with Him upon His throne. They receive the highest
position in the kingdom because they have done as their Lord taught
them. Instead of exalting themselves in self-importance, they
humbled themselves as the ox, took their place as servants, to love
unconditionally and serve and bear the burdens and bless those to
whom they were sent. The face of a man indicates that they have put
on the mind of Christ and have matured in the knowledge,
understanding, and wisdom of the ways of God. The face of the eagle
shows that they have ascended into the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, high into the heavens of God’s Spirit, freed from the
limitations of the flesh and the shackles of men, and follow only
and always where the Spirit leads. These living creatures portray a
life that is completely yielded unto God and His purpose, and whose
transformation into the image of the Son is full and complete!
THE LION
With the face of a lion Christ
reveals and manifests Himself as the “lion of the tribe of Judah.”
As the lion of the tribe of Judah He is the mighty, victorious King
and Lord of all who reigns in righteousness and faithfulness. Judah
is the royal tribe of Israel, the portion of the Lord’s nation to
whom the reigning scepter was given (Gen. 49:8-10). As He reigns,
Christ and His body shall subdue every enemy! He shall bestow on
all the inhabitants of the world and upon all realms everywhere the
blessings and benefits of His kingdom of righteousness, life, and
peace. This symbol speaks of KINGDOM AUTHORITY. Wherever the
firstborn Son of God went, He demonstrated the authority and power
of the kingdom of God! Sin, disease, the very elements, devils and
death all obeyed His word! Jesus’ sonship ministry was only a
“firstfruit,” a sample and proto-type of the kingdom authority and
power and blessing that shall subdue every enemy and restore all
things into God. And now, through His many brethren brought to
glory, the further “revelation of Jesus Christ,” more of His kingdom
authority shall be revealed in us to set creation free and establish
His rule in every heart and life of mankind.
There is a
further truth concerning the manifestation of Christ as a lion. As
the lion devours its prey, so Christ becomes a lion to His people.
The lion of Judah is King over all the beasts of human nature. He
springs to unscaled heights and to unfathomed depths, and nothing
escapes His grasp. He reveals Himself as with the face of a lion to
all who receive the call to sonship and to the throne, to devour the
bestial nature within them and fully redeem them from carnality,
sin, and death. Oh, yes! The lion will consume all of your flesh
nature and break every bone of old Adam’s body. There will be
nothing left of the old human identity! In order for this company
of overcoming rulers to be fully transformed into the image of
Christ, each of them must experience Christ as the lion of the tribe
of Judah who is devouring all our flesh and carnality. The lion of
the tribe of Judah raised up within all the sons of God who are
called to kingship is the first of the living creatures in the midst
of the throne! This is the authority of His Spirit within our
spirit, raised up to bring the strength of Christ to ascendancy in
our lives! This is the power of His life expressed through us! His
authority and power by His Spirit and His Life are the lion in the
midst of the throne — the manifest KINGSHIP DOMINION OF THE KINGDOM
OF GOD!
Now let us look
further at this lion of the tribe of Judah who reigns in strength
from the throne in the hearts of His chosen ones. Some people tell
me today that the manifest sons of God will not go about personally
touching men, healing the sick and emptying out the hospitals,
performing mighty signs and wonders, casting out devils, raising the
dead even out of the mortuaries where they have been embalmed, and
so transforming men’s lives on a massive scale that even the maximum
security prisons can open their doors and let the inmates walk out
free. They tell me that that is not what sonship is! Well, if that
is not what sonship ministry is about, what is it about? The
sons of God are manifest for the express purpose of setting
creation free from the BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION! I wish
someone would explain to me how you can set all mankind free from
the bondage of corruption without healing the
sick, emptying the hospitals, casting out devils, raising the dead,
and bringing total redemptive power into all men’s lives. Anything
short of this will leave this old world right where it is!
Jesus was
Himself the demonstration of the power of the kingdom of God on
earth! The miracles that Christ wrought while on earth in flesh
were His Kingdom Credentials. His miracles announced to the Jews
that He was the promised Messiah, the One of whom the prophets
wrote. After John the Baptist was arrested and imprisoned he sent
messengers to Jesus to inquire, “Art thou He that should come, or do
we look for another?” Jesus told John’s inquiring disciples, “Go
and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind
receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the
deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel
preached to them” (Mat. 11:2-6). The signs and wonders wrought by
Jesus, the firstborn Son of God, were tangible evidence of the power
that would reside in the kingdom — power that would be seen, felt,
and experienced!
The miracles
Jesus did set forth the nature of the blessings that would exist
when the kingdom of God has come to earth as it is in heaven. Jesus
on another occasion said, “If I by the Spirit of God cast out
devils, then the kingdom of God is come unto you!” Jesus
clearly shows the relationship between the kingdom and His
miracles. Without miracles the kingdom cannot be revealed!
Miracles are the manifestation of possessed power, and Jesus is the
firstfruits, the firstborn, the first example, and the pattern for
all the holy sons of God who shall reign with Him in the kingdom.
And while we have now received the firstfruits of the Spirit, and
have in fact experienced a foretaste of this miracle power of
the kingdom, when we have completely put off the Adamic mind, and
have fully matured unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ, and the Father witnesses to our sonship,
declaring out of the heavens before men, “These are my beloved
sons, in whom I am well pleased,” then shall all the sons
of God be manifested in power and great glory, and shall go
forth doing even those “greater works” that Jesus promised His
brethren. Only God can teach us these things! Truly He is training
us in this very hour in the ways of His kingdom. We have a poster
on the wall of our office which says, “We Do Not Believe In Miracles
— WE RELY UPON THEM!” Through experiencing the power of God daily
in our lives we are learning to walk in the power of the kingdom of
God! Aren’t you glad!
“And Jesus went
about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the
gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all
manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout
all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken
with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed
with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the
palsy: and He healed them. And there followed Him great multitudes
of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and
from Judea, and from beyond Jordan” (Mat. 4:23-25).
Jesus’ power
was unlimited, unceasing, and unstoppable! He took the time to do
all those things. He didn’t have any mass healings — He prayed
for, and spoke to, and ministered to, every single one of those
people individually. He touched them and imparted His life to them
and healed them and blessed them. Multitudes came to Him and He had
to make time for every one of them — and I don’t have time for the
things that clutter up my life today! So what did Jesus
do? He sacrificed His life doing nothing but demonstrating
the power of the kingdom of God that restores men to wholeness
again. No sickness could stand in His presence! No demons could
resist His command! The very elements obeyed His voice! Death fled
at His word! There was a funeral procession and a widow’s son of
Nain lay dead, and weeping they passed by Jesus, and the dead
could not stay dead! Can you imagine the expression on those
people’s faces when that boy sat up on the bier! If this isn’t
sonship ministry, then what is?
Jesus was
the firstborn of God’s vast family of sons. He came into the earth
to reveal the glory of sonship and the power of the kingdom of God.
In Him we see what it means to be a manifest son of God!
When the storm on the sea was great, and the wind was violent and
the waves contrary, and their lives were in danger, all He had to do
was speak, “Peace, be still!” and the wind ceased and the waves went
to rest in the bosom of the deep. All nature cries out for the
manifestation of the sons of God! Can you imagine a world where all
natural disasters of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes,
floods, and so on are subject to the authority of the word of the
sons of the living God? That is what Jesus came to show us! The
purpose of sonship is to remove the curse from off all the
creation! What a world that will be!
When He
needed money to pay taxes, and had none, He sent Peter to get it out
of a fish’s mouth. When the multitude was fainting with hunger, He
multiplied the loaves and fishes of one little boy to feed five
thousand men. That is the kingdom principle of supernatural
supply! There was never a need that He could not meet! Can you
imagine a world where the poor, the impoverished, the down-trodden,
the starving, the men and women with thin, emaciated bodies and sad
sunken eyes, the little children with bloated stomachs, and the
tormented and dying are finally ruled and governed by a vast
company of sons of God who have come to unleash on the whole world
of mankind the power of the kingdom revealed in Jesus Christ?
If that doesn’t sound like sonship ministry, then
what does? Jesus always had the power, the wisdom, and the
means to take care of them all. This is the power of the kingdom
manifested in the Son of God, and it is the power of the kingdom to
be revealed through all the sons of God! For this all creation
earnestly and expectantly waits! THIS IS THE STRENGTH,
AUTHORITY, POWER, AND DOMINION OF THE LION IN THE MIDST OF THE
THRONE! Hallelujah!
With what joy
and holy wonder do I tell you today that this is the power that will
again be manifested on earth through the ministry of Christ’s
many brethren, the sons of God! What a calling rests upon the
firstfruits! How humbly we should seek God, how fervently we should
cry out to the Lord, that His work be completed in us to bring this
sonship ministry to pass in the earth! How we praise God for the
in-part ministry of the church age — it has been glorious beyond
words. But none can deny that the ministry of Jesus has not been
fully duplicated in all the power and glory of the kingdom of God!
Who among us can raise his hand and tell me that in him, or in his
prayer group, or in his church, or in his movement, or in his
crusade the miraculous sonship ministry of Jesus has been reproduced
in all its fullness and power? Just think about it! Were we to
make such a claim we would all be found liars. After two thousand
years of the meticulous formation of the Christ body, creation
still groans and travails, waiting for the
manifestation of the sons of God who shall deliver creation
itself from the bondage of corruption!
The greater
ministry of the sons of God will allay every disturbing element;
break the power of sin and death; put down every wrong; still every
clamoring tongue; calm every raging sea; touch every inflamed sore
of society; banish all ignorance by the power of truth; unite into
harmony every quarrelsome crowd; convert every sinner; convince and
transform every terrorist; heal every excruciating pain and
suffering; pilot every tossed soul into the harbor of rest; banish
all fear, malice, bigotry, and hatred in the melting fire of divine
love; bind every demonic power; sweep away every false religion;
heal every sickness, disease, and torment; fill to the full every
lack and void; impart life more abundant to all men everywhere; and
give joy unspeakable and full of glory until the whole earth is full
of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, and all
creation pulsates with the scintillating life and light and love of
God!
The Lord has
absolute power over all nations and all mankind and is the architect
of all the ages of time and the destiny of world history. The coming
of the firstborn Son into the world was a mighty manifestation of
omnipotent power! By the power of the kingdom resident in Him the
whole course of human history was altered and the direction of
multitudes of lives was changed as men repented of their sins and
were reconciled to God. By the power of His indwelling life the
lives of multiplied millions of people have been wonderfully
transformed. All through the centuries since that time the seed
of the kingdom has been working in the earth, bringing forth a
harvest of blessing and righteousness among men. The object of all
this working and dealing is to bring forth in the earth a company of
fully redeemed, transformed, and matured sons of God who shall be so
conformed into the express image of the firstborn Son, and so
quickened in spirit, soul, and body, by the power of His
resurrection, that the manifestation of sonship shall be fully
produced in them in the power of the kingdom. This, fully this, and
nothing short of this, is the hope of all creation!
The kingdom of
God is not in word, but in power! (I Cor. 4:20). The fullness of
the kingdom authority and power of God is that power which is coming
first to the elect to transform them fully into the image and glory
of Christ. That is how it came in the days of the first Son. The
power of God came first in the life of Jesus to raise up within Him
all the nature and glory and authority of the Father, before
showing it forth through Him to bless and deliver and restore men to
God. The Father spent thirty years of Jesus’ life developing in Him
the understanding, wisdom, discipline, maturity, overcoming victory,
authority and power of sonship. Today we are experiencing
the power of God within and God must first finish the work of
perfecting and maturing His sons, before showing them forth to
creation. It is our turn now, and we who have been called to
sonship are in our Nazareth growing in wisdom and in stature
and in the ways of the Father. The truth we should now know is that
when God’s sonship company is ready, fully developed, prepared, and
matured, this kingdom power will flow out from them unrestrained and
uninhibited — power to the full extent! THE LION IN THE THRONE
SHALL ROAR WITH A MIGHTY VOICE AND SUDDENLY LEAP FORTH TO THE PREY!
When this idea
of power is used in the New Testament the Greek word is dunamis,
from which we get our English words dynamite and dynamo. It speaks
of God’s power as explosive, His divine energy and ability to move
and change all things. The other use of the word power is in terms
of authority. The Greek word for this is exousia. It
speaks of authority inherent in a role or office. Simply put,
dunamis is the ability to do something, exousia is
the right to do it. The President of the United States
possesses in his office the authority needed, for instance, to
defend the national and international interests of the United
States. This authority is given him by the Constitution of our
nation. The word that is understood in the church world is
“ordained.” When a church ordains a person to teach or preach, they
have empowered that person so that they have the right to act
in that place. They are given authority to teach and preach
and do the work of the ministry.
In the Old
Testament, the king had a ring and a scepter. His seal was on his
ring and at the end of his scepter. When the king gave someone his
ring or his scepter, they had the king’s permission to operate in
his name. Anything the king’s seal was affixed to, the king had
given his approval to. His seal was his signature. Only the most
trusted, those who had been proven to have the king’s best interest
at heart, were trusted with this seal. Those trusted men were given
authority to operate in the king’s name! God has men He has
entrusted to operate in His name! He has set His seal in their
forehead! Those who receive the seal of the living God in their
forehead have come into total submission to His will and way.
It is important
to understand that ability or force does not always
win out in the area of ruling and reigning. The privilege, the
freedom, the right, the authority of exousia
always wins out over the force or power of dunamis. The
words of Jesus make this truth crystal clear. “Behold, I have given
you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over
all the power of the enemy” (Lk. 10:19). True, the King
James Bible states that Christ has given us “power” to tread on
serpents and scorpions, but the Greek word is exousia meaning
authority or jurisdiction. When Jesus speaks of the
“power” of the adversaries, however, He uses the word dunamis
meaning power. Ah, all our adversaries have is POWER, but
what the Lord gives us is AUTHORITY! The Lord gives us authority in
order to deal with all the power of the enemy!
I mentioned this
recently, but will use the following illustration again, as it
illuminates the truth so beautifully. Consider an automobile moving
along the street. Although with its engine, transmission, and
gasoline it is full of power, yet a traffic policeman has authority
over it. When he blows his whistle and raises his hand the mighty
engine must slow to a whisper and the car must stop. That is the
difference between power and authority! Power is always subject to
authority! The Son of God gives us authority over all the
power of the adversary! As we understand these two terms by the
light of the Spirit, it becomes clear that authority without the
power to act is worthless, and the power to act without authority is
worthless. An army without a general has no direction, and a
general without an army has no force. These two realities must be
brought together within us if we are to have both God’s power and
God’s authority operating in our lives. You cannot have one without
the other! Should you have one without the other you will fail.
This is
what made Jesus’ sonship ministry so mightily effective! An example
of this is when Jesus dealt with the demon in the synagogue in
Capernaum. “And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves,
saying, What a word is this! For with authority and power
He commandeth the unclean spirits and they come out” (Lk.
4:36). Jesus obtained both power and authority in His life! Jesus
had the Father’s authority within Himself, and He had the power to
execute His authority. One without the other is ineffective. When
the people witnessed the power and authority used together they were
all amazed. The unclean spirit had power but no authority. When
One with authority showed up, the spirit had to obey. His power was
subject to authority. When people witness those who have obtained
God’s authority and power to act in a given situation, they stand
amazed. We have all been witnesses to this at times and in certain
situations when the Spirit has moved through men to accomplish
miraculous things. But God’s power and His authority will yet come
together in all fullness in the manifestation of the
sons of God. THIS WILL BE THE UNVEILING OF THE LION IN THE THRONE!
Authority
depends entirely upon our standing, position, and rank. With the
position there is authority; without the position, there is no
authority. A president-elect has no authority to run the government
of the United States until he is sworn into office, until he has
been installed into his position. A policeman without his uniform
and not standing in the assigned post has no authority to direct
traffic. A general taking leave from his duty has no authority to
command an army. Likewise, our heavenly authority depends solely
upon the reality of our calling and position in the order of God.
All the authority of the sergeant or lieutenant who commands
soldiers depends not only on his uniform and position, but also on
his submitting to his superior. If he rebels against his superior
and refuses or fails to obey orders, he will lose his official
rights. In like manner we must not only be filled with the power of
the Holy Spirit, but we must also walk in the Spirit, being
led by the Spirit, and obedient to the will of the Father.
As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons
of God!
The ones who
receive power and honor from the Father, who are seated together
with Christ in the heavenlies, and are submitted to HIS LORDSHIP,
are then in the position to accomplish great and mighty things in
the kingdom of God! We have experienced a measure of power
and authority in the church realm by the gifts and ministries of the
Spirit. But there is yet to be an official installation of
the sons of God into the realm of HIS FULLNESS, just as Jesus
received at the river Jordan. When the Father witnesses from heaven
before men, “These are my beloved sons, in whom I am well
pleased,” then shall the greatest drama in the history of
mankind begin! The manifest sons of God shall go forth in the
fullness of the power and authority of the Spirit to subdue the
nations and deliver creation from the bondage of corruption. For
this very thing the Father is preparing us in this hour!
The kingdom of
God is the authority and power of the Father manifest first in the
personal lives of His elect, then in the world around us, unto all
times and the ages of this world, and finally in the whole
universe. The kingdom is the power of God that changes everything
in its reality, function, and influence, as determined by the Lord
in His great and glorious program of creation, redemption, and the
restitution of all things. The power of the kingdom of God shall
eventually change us in our consciousness and experience from human
to divine, from earthly to heavenly, and from mortal to immortal;
then it shall in like manner change the world around us, including
all the nations of men and the earth itself, and then it shall
change the vast universe unto the endlessness of infinity. THE
WHOLE CREATION SHALL BE DELIVERED FROM THE BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION! I
wonder sometimes whether we have yet fully understood the enormous,
fathomless implications of that word! The elect of the Lord today
is experiencing the unfolding power of the kingdom of God within; it
is the power of the kingdom that is consuming everything within us
that is foreign to the life, nature, ways, and will of the Father.
Christ is taking His throne and is now reigning in our lives! And
He must continue to reign in us until He has put every enemy under
His feet! THIS IS THE MIGHT OF THE LION IN THE THRONE!
The lion of the
tribe of Judah within us is the dominion and authority of God being
formed in our lives. It is the spirit of kingship!
It is the omnipotent power of Christ manifest within us as He reigns
on the throne of our hearts to transform us into His image and
stature. As we truly seek the fullness of His kingdom with our
whole heart, we experience the power of His kingdom to purge us of
all iniquities and present us faultless before His throne. We shall
first be presented before His throne, standing upon the sea
of glass mingled with fire, as a people fully prepared, equipped,
and qualified to ascend to His throne and sit and reign with
Him upon His throne (Rev. 3:21). When His power has cleansed us of
all that is foreign and contrary to His nature, not only will He
have taken His great power to reign in us, but He shall then
proceed to reign through us. He wisely withholds the
fullness of the authority and power of His kingdom until He has
thoroughly changed us into His very own image and likeness.
Jesus rose from
the dead and appeared on earth in the sight of men in the body of
His resurrection, which is the spiritual body of incorruption and
immortality. With this clear and obvious demonstration of the power
of the kingdom of God, all doubts and fears were removed from the
minds of His disciples. Now they knew that He was the King of
kings! Now they knew the reality of His message of life and glory!
In Him they saw the fullness of the power of His kingdom! He was
now forever above and beyond the bondage of corruption, free
from the limitations of this mortal body and this physical, material
realm, and free from any possibility of ever dying again.
And now,
in the end of this age, Christ’s many brethren shall come to
that same fullness of His kingdom. In them the kingdom of God shall
come with power, even the power of His resurrection! Then
shall creation see a race of men upon earth who dwell in a realm
above sin, sorrow, limitation and death, for in them the bondage of
corruption has been completely broken. Then shall creation see the
manifestation of the sons of God, just as Jesus’ disciples
saw Him manifested in all the glory and power of resurrection.
Christ was revealed to His disciples, and He is still revealed only
to His disciples, His very own brethren. But the manifest sons of
God shall be revealed unto all creation! It is the Lord’s
own people who now hunger and thirst after Christ as life. But it
is the creation that waits and longs and travails to behold
the manifestation of the sons of God! Christ is now our
hope of glory, but Christ revealed in His many brethren is the hope
of the groaning creation! Christ is now our life, but His
life in His sons shall become the life of creation, delivering
all men from the bondage of corruption, raising them up into a
wonderful place in the liberty of the children of God (Rom.
8:19-21). Oh, the wonder of it!
For those who
entertain the notion that the “revelation of Jesus Christ” is just
the ordinary living out of the Christ life in the every-day
experience of believer’s lives, let me tell you plainly that the
world has been blessed for two thousand years with beautiful
spiritual men and women who have walked in high places in God. Love
and grace and mercy and power have flowed out of the lives of many
godly saints throughout the age. But none of this has delivered
creation from the bondage of corruption nor raised it up into the
glorious liberty of the children of God! God has a greater plan
than these dear folk are capable of grasping. Jesus personified the
kingdom of God! From the time of His birth until the moment of His
ascension He revealed within Himself all the powers of the kingdom
of God. We can understand absolutely nothing about what God intends
to do for creation through His sons until we SEE JESUS! In Him we
see what the power of the kingdom is, and what it can do, and what
it shall do for all mankind. He is the firstfruits of
kingdom dominion! We are also becoming a firstfruits of His kingdom
by virtue of our calling in Christ.
The power of the
kingdom was manifest in Jesus’ virgin birth, in His sinless life, in
His revealing the nature and purpose of the Father on earth, in the
power of His word, in the signs and wonders and miracles He wrought,
in the transformation of men’s lives He effected, in His
transfiguration on the mount, and in His resurrection from the
dead. The glory that was manifest in His wonderful life, in His
outward works of power, in the impartation of salvation into men, in
the glory of His transfiguration, and in the power of His
resurrection was the result of His inner condition. The power
within Him was such that the scintillating brilliance of His
Father’s glory radiated from within and shined through His garments
on the holy mount. The Amplified Bible states that Jesus “became
resplendent with divine brightness.” It is the same divine
brightness that blinded Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and
totally transformed and revolutionized his life!
I do not
hesitate to tell you that it is that same divine brightness that
shall out-shine from within us just as it did with Jesus, and
that is the power of the kingdom of God! If you think the kingdom
is merely establishing righteousness on earth by some display of
divine force for a thousand years, you have completely missed
the power of the kingdom! Oh, yes, the kingdom will bring
righteousness to the nations — but much, much more! The
fullness of the power of His resurrection is what we
long to experience; it is that same power for which the whole
creation groans and travails, by which all things, and all
men, and all creatures, and all worlds, above and
beneath, shall be given an entrance into the holy, righteous,
divine, incorruptible, immortal, eternal SPIRITUAL WORLD OF GOD!
Hallelujah
for the lion in the throne!
To be
continued…
J. PRESTON EBY