Part 180
THE SEVEN ANGELS WITH THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES
(Continued)
"And the first (angel) went,
and poured out his bowl upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and
grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon
them which worshipped his image" (Rev. 16:2).
The Revelation is obviously not
a prose composition. It is a drama, a moving picture of the unfolding
kingdom of Christ in a world of carnality, sin, and death — a picture taken
not with a cinematograph, but with the camera of divine revelation. Again
and again throughout the book of Revelation we have noted that the vast
majority of the events portrayed in the visions of John takes place in one
of three realms — heaven, earth, or sea. These, of course, are not the
literal, outer heavens of the universe, nor the physical planet earth, nor
the actual seas of water. As we know, these symbolize three realms of life
through when we pass on our journey from the depths of the kingdom of
darkness unto the heights of the kingdom of life and light in Christ. As the
voice from heaven declared, "Rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.
Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come
down unto you…" (Rev. 12:12).
Let us understand that there
are three realms of conscious dwelling. One is the "sea," and it is a
beginning, as seen in the first chapter of Genesis. The sea bespeaks the
lowest realm of life and consciousness. The consciousness which dwells
in the sea, does not know anything about God. When you are raised out of the
sea-realm into the "earth," you enter a realm which is higher than the sea,
but lower than heaven; an in-between realm which at its highest peak kisses
heaven, and at its lowest level embraces the sea; yet, in the true sense it
is not entirely heavenly or spiritual, nor absolutely wicked and degenerate.
In simple terms it is a realm of mixture. You first meet God
in this earth-realm, and this, my beloved, is the carnal religious
church realm of the past two thousand years. In this realm you are
brought into an earthy conception of God and of spiritual things; you
see Christ as a literal flesh and blood man; fleshly Israelites and Jews are
God’s chosen people; the temple of God is something the Jews will build some
day in the earthly Jerusalem; the cross is the old rugged cross of
Golgotha’s hill; hell is a literal place of fire and bodily torment; the
coming of Christ is a glorified man crashing down out of the atmospheric
clouds; heaven is an astral location out beyond the Milky Way with actual
mansions, golden streets, river, and trees; and grace and spiritual life are
ministered to saints through physical acts of water baptism, communion, and
various other outward church rituals, ceremonies, and sacraments.
It requires neither the spirit
of wisdom and revelation from God nor any deep spiritual experience with God
to believe in a physical Jesus, or in a big God sitting somewhere upon a
literal throne, or in obeying church rules and regulations, or in performing
rituals and ceremonies, or in waiting to be raptured away to some far-off
heaven somewhere. These things are not taught by the Spirit — they are
conceived by the natural, earthy mind. They are all
pictures of reality, but not reality itself! They are like the
toy soldiers and dolls little children play with. Today we see untold
millions of these "earthy" Christians in all the historic Christian
denominations as well as in the great mega-churches, with their members
looking to scripted programs under charismatic leaders, promising them
health, wealth, and worldly success. Earth dwellers! We see other millions
in doctrinal circles of behavior, like robots going to church, paying
tithes, participating in church programs, obeying church laws governing eats
and drinks, dress codes, appearance, hair style, do’s and don’ts of all
kinds, careful in their parental responsibilities, working at being good
employees and neighbors, faithful followers of clean moral principles. Yet,
their circle of good works, conformity, and self-effort righteousness
becomes a comfortable isolation that resists deep spiritual experience and
living spiritual reality, obscures spiritual vision, stagnating the need to
mature into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Not
only are sea, earth, and heaven three realms of spiritual life and
consciousness collectively, but on the individual level they also speak of
the triune make-up of man — body, soul, and spirit. Each of us is thinking
and living on one of those three levels!
"Heaven," on the other hand, is
the highest degree of life and plane of consciousness unto which man
can attain; the spiritual, divine, heavenly, and incorruptible life in
Christ, in the power of His resurrection, sharing His nature, mind, glory,
wisdom, righteousness, and power. The "heaven dwellers" are that people that
has been truly quickened, transformed, and raised up to sit with Christ in
the highest heaven of God’s Spirit. When we have been raised off the earth,
and have been released into the "heavens" of the Spirit and dwell there,
then we are conscious of the true realities, of things that are
not seen, the spiritual realities of the kingdom of God, which
are the things eternal. The realities of the kingdom of God are
spiritual; they are infinite; they cannot be put into forms, nor can they be
touched in earthiness. They are only seen, known, and touched in the spirit
and by the spirit.
Do you not think that it is
most significant that the plague of the first bowl is poured out, not
upon the earth, as the King James Bible reads, but into
the earth, according to the Greek text. The angel pours this dealing of
God into the earth and into the men who have the
mark of the beast, and who pay homage to his image. The plague is poured out
into the lives of the Lord’s people who dwell in the
earth-realm of carnal, soulical religion! This dealing of God’s passion
originates out of the heavenly spiritual temple of God’s spiritual elect,
and it is the very passion of God Himself towards His people! It is a
move of God that is poured out right into the midst of the
earth-realm! Oh, the wonder of it! Can you discern the ways of His working?
How can God bring about the deliverance and the transformation He desires?
Must He first clear a stage on which He can then bring something new? That
is not the way in which God works! He does not work so in nature. He does
not first clear the forest, so that He may have room to plant new trees. He
drops the seeds on the ground; and they sprout and grow towards maturity
side by side with and under the shadow of the trees, and eventually overtake
the existing trees and displace them, when these grow too old and weak to
maintain competition.
God has acted the same way in
history. He did not sweep Canaan clean of its inhabitants before He brought
Israel in to inhabit it. No! He brought Israel in among the Canaanites, He
poured the "plague" right out into their midst, that by conflict with the
Canaanites Israel might become strong, and gain a footing in the land. So
does He act in the individual life! He does not first cleanse the heart of
its demon inhabitants, that the virtues of Christ may find a house swept and
garnished and already fit for their abode. The heart’s new guests have to
take the heart as they find it, and turn out the demon inhabitants, and
sweep and garnish it for themselves. God kindles the flame of grace in the
heart, and sends its rays out to overcome the darkness, and to penetrate
into every corner and dislodge the shadows. And that is what God has done
with the world! He did not sweep the corruption of the pagan world away and
make a clear space for the new kingdom of God. He brought in the new
kingdom, weak and feeble as a new-born child, which to all appearance might
easily be crushed, and raised up the Christ in the midst of the darkness of
that day in a glorious body of many-members, which in due time crushed and
brought to naught all the pomp and power of Rome and all the gods of the
nations! That is what we see when the angel "pours out his plague into the
earth." God pours out His passion right into the midst of the people of God,
a mighty activity of God, which in due time will purge and purify them all
unto His purpose! Aren’t you glad!
THE PLAGUE UPON THE "MEN"
There is a very important truth
in these words, "And the first went, and poured out his bowl into the
earth, and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men
which had the mark of the beast" (Rev. 16:2). How very meaningful is
the divine signification as to upon whom the plague falls —
"upon the men which had the mark of the beast." How
tremendously important, how vitally significant is EVERY WORD OF GOD! We
need to pay attention and give earnest heed to the precise terminology of
the Holy Spirit for He never speaks carelessly nor apart from
divine purpose. It is instructive to note that in every case the
collective noun "men," throughout the entire Revelation, refers to men other
than the overcoming company of firstfruits — the spiritual elect of the
Lord. The singular word "man" is used of both overcomers and men in general,
but "men" is never so used, in every case applying only to unbelievers or to
those carnal religious folk who bear the mark of the beast and who pay
homage to his image — the worldly church systems of man. The chosen and
separated elect are "redeemed from among men, being the
firstfruits unto God and the Lamb" (Rev. 14:4). The message here is
clear and unmistakable — "men" signifies the natural man, the carnal man,
the Adamic man — indeed, the FLESH! Does that not reveal to us
clearly and unquestionably who it is that God is dealing with
by the seven last plagues! He is dealing with the earth-realm of carnal
Christians who are walking after the flesh! God is laying His
hand of dealing upon the flesh within His people and within His church!
After forty years in the
wilderness God was ready to bring Israel into their land of promise — their
full inheritance. Joshua and Caleb were the only ones who had been
circumcised — the rest of the men of Israel who had been born and raised up
in the wilderness had never been circumcised. But now the order is changing,
Israel has just crossed over the Jordan under the leadership of Joshua, and
there will now be an entering in to a new experience and place in God —
possessing all that God has prepared for them and called them to. There on
the west side of Jordan Joshua brings out the flint knives to circumcise
this new generation before they enter into their inheritance. They cannot
enter in by the strength of the flesh! Those born in the wilderness had
never been taught about circumcision, there had been no cutting away of the
flesh, and the reproach of Egypt was still on them. Their flesh had never
been dealt with — all they ever knew was the mighty miracle hand of God —
water out of the rock, manna from heaven, clothes that never wore out,
freedom from sickness and disease, and the Shekinah glory in their midst.
They knew God in the blessing realm where every material thing your
carnal heart could desire would be bestowed purely by His grace.
Indeed, none of the blessings they had received were obtained by either
their righteousness or their faith — they were in very fact miracles of
mercy — for they were full of unbelief, murmurers, complainers,
disobedient, rebellious, whoremongers, idolaters — the carnal, yet
blessed, people of Yahweh! If God had not preserved them by His mercy,
they would have all perished. Oh, how the world is full of them today! But
now the word comes — God is going to bring you into a new place, a new
experience, a new glory — your full inheritance! And the word of the Lord is
to circumcise them all! Before they can possess their possession
the flesh must be cut away — removed!
Ah, Joshua and Caleb, those
mighty men of faith and power with God, were the only ones who had been
circumcised. There was no flesh left in them! Joshua and Caleb are beautiful
types of God’s firstfruit company, His chosen and separated elect. There are
those who have come under the knife of circumcision and they have been in
the wilderness and watched as a generation is born that has not been
circumcised. Only they understand the way of the Lord, only they
know what is required to enter on in to God’s fullness! They are the
firstfruits! The work has already been wrought in them and it is at their
word and at their hand that the carnal, fleshly people of God
shall now at last be brought under the flint knives. They are as the seven
angels out of the temple bearing the seven last plagues to be poured out
upon all the men who have the mark of the beast — for the
purging and purification of all God’s immature, carnal, flesh-oriented
children!
In this connection Ricky Evans
once wrote, "Circumcision is no fun, especially if you are older, but it is
a necessary part of God’s working in our lives. Israel was told to
circumcise their male children on the eighth day (Lev. 12:3). In the natural
it is better to circumcise a child of eight days rather than waiting until
one is grown. A child will not have the problems in healing as an adult
will. The older one gets the harder it will be to cut away the flesh. It is
much more painful for a grown man to go through circumcision than a baby.
How true this is in the spirit! The longer we hold on to the flesh the
harder it is to deal with it. The pain is greater and the memories of that
pain seem to be magnified beyond measure.
"The eighth day speaks to us of
a new beginning. Circumcision is meant to be the start of a new beginning.
They had just crossed over into the Promised Land and what is the first
thing they do? Cut away the flesh. Now don’t you know they thought this was
a carry over from the wilderness? The wilderness was a constant dealing with
the children of Israel to get Egypt out of them. They had come out of Egypt
but there was still a lot of the ways of Egypt in them. Now they have
crossed over into the border of the Promised Land and it seems things
haven’t really changed. They are still dealing with the flesh! They are
still struggling with their carnality!
"True circumcision is of the
heart and not of the outward flesh (Rom. 2:29). It is out of the heart
that such things as evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness and blasphemies come (Mat. 15:19). It is the heart
that needs to be dealt with, not just outward actions. The law will force us
to change our outer actions and yet not touch the inner man of the heart.
Joshua and Caleb were men of another spirit than the rest of the
children of Israel (Num. 14:24; 32:12). They had a heart that had been
circumcised and not just their flesh. Circumcision was meant to be a sign of
something that had taken place in the heart (Rom. 4:11). Of all those who
came out of Egypt only two had the true circumcision, Joshua and Caleb. They
were of a different spirit. Something had been done in their heart!"
— end quote.
The scriptures set forth two
men who represent two humanities. The mind and nature of each of these men
is very different. One is an outer man of flesh, subject to mortality, being
totally concerned with self-preservation, physical provisions, comforts, and
blessings, always minding the natural fleshly things. Although it longs to
live forever, it cannot attain to, nor realize immortality. The other man is
an inward man, a spiritual man, who minds the things of the spirit,
concerning himself with spiritual blessings of the mind of Christ, of
righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and all the fruits and
abilities of the spirit. The first man is Adam. Adam is a kind of humanity!
The second man is Christ. Christ is the new humanity! The scripture states
that Adam is a figure of one to come. We know that a figure has its
end when the fulfillment has come. Some people believe that man is to be
restored to what Adam possessed before he fell. But Adam is just a type, a
figure of one to come. Not a figure of God, but of another
man. Jesus was not in any way an offspring of Adam. He was not the first
Adam come again. He was the second man, and the last
Adam. He is the new man, the new humanity!
The Son of man came down from heaven, not out of Adam. Every one of us walks
in the consciousness, nature, and power of one of these humanities. Adam is
the uncircumcised man of flesh. Christ is the circumcised man of spirit!
Adam has not changed from evil to good. He has not been cleansed and made
holy. He is deaf, and can never hear the spirit. He is blind, and can never
see reality. He is dead, and can never express life. The Son of God’s love
is rejected by this man, Adam! If one has the new man birthed within him but
continues to walk after the mind and nature of the old man, then that one
MUST BE CIRCUMCISED! It is impossible to enter on in to our inheritance in
God until the flesh is cut away!
You will understand a great
mystery when you see clearly that God is judging and bringing to an end the
earth man, the flesh man within each of us. And He will also execute this
work in all of His redeemed children everywhere! The seven last plagues are
destructive — not destroying God’s people, but destroying, removing once and
for all and completely the old man of sin who sits in the temple of God
ruling over all the thoughts, ways, and religious actions of the Lord’s
carnally-minded people — showing himself that HE is god! I believe that God
is giving us the true understanding, the correct perception, that the
purpose of the plagues is to strip away that man of flesh,
that man of sin from the temple of God! As you follow through the book of
Revelation you see that it is all a removal. It is the
unveiling of Jesus Christ. The unveiling signifies an
uncovering, the removal of the covering that has
concealed His life within the vessel. All through the book everything is
being shaken! The seals are loosed — removed from the scroll.
When the trumpets sound, a third part of the trees and all green grass is
burnt up; a third part of the creatures in the sea die;
a third part of the ships is destroyed; a third part of
the sun, moon, and stars disappear; and a third part of men is
killed.
And now, under the seven last
plagues, ALL THESE THINGS AND MANY MORE COMPLETELY PASS AWAY! All
the trees are burnt up, every mountain and every
island flee away, all the heavens are rolled up as a scroll,
for the first heaven and the first earth pass away, and in the
end there is no more sea. Babylon the Great falls and is
burned with fire — nothing is left but the new heaven and the
new earth, the glorious city of God with the Lamb upon the throne, and the
glory of God radiating throughout the whole earth. And brother, none of this
is happening literally in the outer world! Every bit of it is taking place
within God’s people! Isn’t it wonderful!
The goal of our spiritual
journey on this earth is to be shaped into the likeness of our Master, Jesus
Christ. Little by little, God chips away at the outer, the parts of our
personalities that interfere with the revelation of the character of Christ.
Like the sculptor who chips away the pieces of stone until the image he sees
within is revealed, the Lord removes from us the image of the earthy until
HIS IMAGE WITHIN US becomes clearer and more complete.
I was deeply moved by the
following words sent to us in a letter from a dear sister in Christ. "This
mundane whirling earth that we call home is so far removed from the reality
of freedom in the realm of our quickened spirits. Indeed we have been
‘fenced with bones and sinews and clothed with skin and flesh.’ We
wallow in this earthly personality ascribed to us at birth. Our very genes
have descended from someone else’s bidding. Our character traits and
patterns sift through us from a sieve which was held by another’s hand. Our
environment holds us captive until we cry out — Who am I? Ah, blessed
question! The answer is clear to those who can receive it. My true identity
is SPIRIT, and until I have been quickened from above, I am Adam —
ruddy clay, sensuous, rebellious, limited, groping, grasping for something
beyond my reach. But after that quickening, I am Christ, for there
are only two corporate men in the world — Adam, who is of the earth realm
consisting of time, and Christ, who is of the eternal realm consisting of
timelessness.
"So, I am truly at home
when I am in the eternal realm, and I am loath to be ‘fenced with bones
and sinews and clothed with skin and flesh,’ this body of humiliation,
gravitated to this earth. The Psalmist prayed, ‘O that I had wings like a
dove — then would I fly away and be at rest.’ My prayer is, Father,
enlarge my spirit; enlarge my capacity to envelope You and to be enveloped.
You can inhabit only my spirit. You cannot and will not inhabit my
personality, my talents, my weaknesses, my strengths, my intellect or my
dullness. They all must go and be replaced with You — let me lay aside my
burial shroud woven from the fibers of this earth so that I may arise and
shine in a transfigured glistening garment of YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LIFE!
When that manifestation is reality, will You then say, ‘These are my
beloved sons in whom I am well pleased, hear ye them!’ Ah, Father, I
fall prostate at your feet!"
Some years ago a dear brother
set forth this principle so beautifully in a little writing that came into
my hands. He wrote, "I received a letter from New York while sojourning in
Florida which contained the following: ‘The report has gone around that
you died last week. Of course we know it is not true, but how do these
things get started?’ I had to reply to this letter somewhat after the
following manner, ‘In the language of Mark Twain I must say that the
report of my death is greatly exaggerated — and yet somehow or other the
same report is true.’ The offices of death are many. According to the
apostle Paul, death is one of the most helpful and necessary things that can
be performed. He advised the habit of ‘dying daily,’ and this prefaced the
glorious possibility of being born daily also! There is something back of
the ‘idea’ of death which is replete with substance for meditation.
"When you die to anything you
are through with it. Just as in the relative sense of the word when a man
dies he is immediately separated from all his possessions; good, bad, or
indifferent. His debts are cancelled so far as he is concerned. His
estate is disintegrated almost immediately, and no longer is attached to
him. Like a cloud of dust in a hurricane, his entire affairs are scattered
in all directions. Not understanding Life, the greatest enemy is
death. It deprives Life of its manifestation. When Jesus became conscious of
Life, He could pass in and out of the shadow called death almost as if
passing through a purifying fire. When He arose from physical death, even
His disciples did not recognize Him until He allowed Himself to take on
enough of the former form, to which He had died, for them to do so. All
along the way to Emmaus, they could not distinguish the man with whom they
had been for three years. ‘I have power to lay down my life, and I have
power to take it up again.’ And He took it up on a higher plane!
"When the eagle is born or
hatched, it means death to a thing or state of things called ‘egg’ — and in
this new process it is impossible to carry any of the old estate with you.
Many are seeking the new birth, but they do not want to go through
death to get it. In other words, they want to hold on to old stages of
development, and at the same time try to express new capacities. It is quite
as impossible for a caterpillar to fly as it is for an egg; both must
perform the death upon the thing of which they want to be rid, and
re-embody themselves with the new reality, before they can attain the
expression they are seeking. When you learn the proper interpretation of the
word ‘death’ you will see that it becomes a friend (O death, where is thy
sting?), for it is a cleansing, liberating process. It is a letting go
completely and ascending to a place where the former things cannot enter in,
and have nothing whatsoever to do with the present manifestation. Instead of
getting rid of things temporarily, man dies completely to the idea of
its manifestation. In the new place he finds himself as incapable of
experiencing his former limitations as an eagle flying over the abyss would
have in experiencing the cramped quarters of the eggshell from which it
evolved.
"A tiny plant starts from its
cell and the seed dies. It pushes forth a bud, the flower comes, and the
scales or outer leaves die, and the flower is born. The fruit pushes out
into manifestation and the flower dies, and so it goes ever onward and
upward into the more glorious manifestation of Life here and now. The
never-ending merging into new and lovelier states takes place when what you
have been and have obtained is ready to die, and when the ‘last enemy’ has
become a friend and thus the ‘sting’ has been taken from it. The offices of
death are oblivion to that which is outgrown and of no further use. If you
have not already died to much of the conscious thinking of
yester-years, you are suffering from arrested or retarded mental
development. If you have not died to many of your previous stages of
development and former states-of-being, then your growth is indeed stunted
and you are a spiritual dwarf. And so death, when properly understood,
becomes the friendly enemy. It is that which throws a veil of oblivion to
outgrown states and cast-off limitations and causes the Magdalene to look
about and see that she has no accusers. Suddenly she is dead to the thing
called harlot and all that has gone with it, and she is born at the
same instant to something that cannot experience or even understand the
former state of things. The friendly enemy has released her!" — end quote.
The same wonderful truth is
uniquely expressed in a dream a sister shared with us in one of her letters.
She said, "In the dream I saw an old lady — tall and skinny and rather bony
— quite frail, too, and she looked as old as the hills. She was stiff and
shaky, could hardly walk, but she kept tottering along. In desperation she
was grimly and tenaciously holding on to the little crevices in the wall
against which she leaned as she continued down a long hallway. She held her
head high, almost arrogant in manner, as though to say, ‘I’ll never give up,
I’m not going to fall,’ while it was obvious she was already collapsing. As
I watched, feeling sorry for her, gradually, she slid to the floor — and
suddenly I saw her and the wall no more.
"At the time this dream came I
prayed earnestly that the Lord would let me come across this poor old lady
who needed so much for someone to help her — but of course I never found her
— and soon forgot all about the matter. When the Lord brought it back to me,
He let me know that I was the old lady! The old lady is the nature
that doesn’t want to die, and fights desperately to have its way, because
that is its nature. No wonder she looked as old as the hills — she’s been
around since Adam! She has traveled a long, long corridor down to this day,
and while nothing in her wanted to die, at last she sensed that she would,
or she wouldn’t have been holding on for dear life. How glorious that we
have discovered that God had already decreed that He would have a people in
the beauty of the life of Jesus Christ, because He Himself would totally
overcome the limitations of sin and the power of death to become the
resurrection and the life for all creation! I don’t know how to explain it,
but somehow I feel that I’m not hanging on the cross any longer — yet the
cross is still working in me. I am dead, and my new life is hid with Christ
in God!
"In my time I’ve been through
deep waters alright, and through the fires — and I know not what lies ahead.
Yes, dying is painful in many ways, but I’ve discovered that after every
dying episode, our blessed Lord comes with a baptism of holy Love that
literally lets us drink in His very substance — a healing balm that
comforts, strengthens, enlightens, transforms, and raises us up into perfect
wholeness in an altogether new and higher dimension of life, victory, and
glory! When the old lady totally collapses the wall disappears, too — for
the old lady is indeed herself the very wall that separates us from
the fullness of the indwelling Christ! What a death! What a life!"
— end quote.
Men would not fear the plagues
if they understood that they are sent just because THE OLD IS TO BE REMOVED
SO THAT THE NEW CAN BE SEEN. God has greater things prepared for His people
than they have ever dared to imagine, but the old to which they cling has to
be removed. The plagues are the divine storm that sweeps it all away!
The new order is the kingdom of God. It isn’t destruction that is occurring,
but a creative birthing. Ah, what pain there is in childbirth!
Is it not like the pangs of death itself? Yet it brings forth a new and
wonderful life! The old is removed, so that when the dust settles, the new
and greater glory can be seen by all. It is not an ending, but a beginning!
The late George Wylie once
explained the truth this way. "No creature has the power to lift itself
above what it is by nature, nor act above what its nature allows it to. When
you see a bird floating around on the water of a pond, and you hear it go
‘Quack, quack’ you know it is a duck. It was created a duck, it was hatched
a duck, and a duck it will remain, all it can ever do is what the nature of
a duck demands of it. It will spend most of its life on the water, for it is
in its nature to do so. On the farm we had one female duck. She laid 18 eggs
one year, and mother thought that was too much for her to handle, so she
took half of them and set them under a broody hen. They all hatched at the
same time. The mother duck took her little flock out on the pond which was
close to the barn. The hen with her little ducks wandered down by the pond
when the little ducks were just a day old. That was her undoing… As soon as
the little ducks saw the water they were in it, and away they went out into
the middle of the pond and the poor old hen stood on the shore frantically
calling them to come back, but they paid no attention to her, nor did they
understand her language. It wasn’t long until they met up with the mother
duck and her little flock, and that was the last the poor old hen ever saw
of her little brood. She couldn’t follow them for it was not her nature to
be on the water, nor could she be, for she was not physically endowed with
the equipment to live on water.
"The ducks were perfectly at
home on the water for God had designed them for that kind of life. They
loved it, and God had given them the physical equipment for it. Though they
can also fly when necessary to move from one place to another, they can
never soar up into the heavens as the eagle does. You will never find a duck
up in the lofty crags of the mountains where the eagle makes it home, nor
soaring away into the heavens until it is a mere speck in the blue sky, as
the eagle does. The duck cannot do this, nor has it any desire to do so, for
it is not in its nature. All it can ever be is a duck, and it can only act
according to what its nature demands. This is also true concerning the
natural man, the outer carnal part of man. He cannot, by his own efforts,
change himself, nor lift himself any higher than what he is by nature. He
will remain what he is in his carnal state, unable to find life and reality,
nor with any desire to do so, until the Spirit of God begins to work in his
life. Let us not think that it was by any act of our own human will that we
came to God, or sought any higher relationship with Him, for as Jesus said,
‘NO MAN CAN come unto me, except the Father draw him.’ The natural man by
nature has no desire for God nor spiritual life until the Spirit of God
reaches down into his depths and touches the strings of his spirit and
begins to woo and stir that hidden, unknown inner man.
"Let us not think that after
Christ has quickened our spirit and come to live within us, that our old
nature has been transformed. It hasn’t! It is as it always was, contrary to
God and His ways, and there is no way that this old nature can be spiritual
or fulfill the will of God. Even when it takes a religious bent working in
the church, working so hard for the Lord, it is impossible for
it to do the will of God. Like Cain of old, it will always do childish,
carnal things and offer them up upon the altar before the Lord. This is why
it must be put off, crucified, dead, buried, swept way, and the new nature,
the divine nature take its place. The old man and all his works, even his
good religious works, must die, and the new man be raised up to live within
our beings, for it is God’s will to reveal His Son in us" — end quote.
As I mentioned earlier, when
Israel entered into their land of inheritance they possessed the land, not
by bringing things in, but by kicking things out. In like manner, the book
of Revelation portrays for us our inheritance, and the entrance of
all God’s people into our promised land — the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ. The possession of our inheritance in Christ is not
obtained by adding anything to Christ in us, but by what God removes
from us so that Christ can be fully revealed in His saints. This
principle is so easy to see throughout the book. Someone has said that the
book of Revelation is so easy to understand that we must have someone’s help
to misunderstand it. My, my, my, methinks we have had LOTS of help in
misunderstanding it!
In the spirit of this precious
truth I now share a word brother Carl Schwing has written, "John of the
Cross wrote of the ‘dark night of the soul.’ I, like the rest of you, have
experienced many such nights; they continue to come to us, and we often
wonder why. There are times when our Beloved must come to us as a thief in
the night. However, He does not come to rob us…He arrests us…making us
prisoners of love and obedience. He takes from us the things we cannot give.
He takes from us the stumbling blocks, the cravings of the flesh…and, in
time, He will take all that would hinder us from being wholly His. If need
be, our Beloved gently wounds us with love…for He alone can destroy our man
of sin by the brightness of His appearing. It is through Him that we are
made to overcome! That all the praise and glory might be given to the Lover
of our soul. Knowing this, our ‘dark night’ becomes a time of rejoicing for
our inner man, because he knows his hour of freedom draws near. And, if one
dark night our Beloved would come and slay us…we will reign with Him
forevermore. What a glorious inheritance is ours in Christ Jesus!" What a
word that is!
"And the first went, and poured
out his bowl into the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous
sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which
worshipped his image" (Rev. 16:2).
When the first of the seven
angels pours out his bowl upon the earth-realm, the soulical religious realm
of man, he pours it specifically upon those who have turned their backs on
the pure walk in the Spirit of God and have chosen to take the mark of the
beast and worship his image. Ah, yes, to follow after the spirit of the
world and the carnal church systems of man, and take their mark
upon one’s life, indeed leads into a treacherous territory!
The vast majority of Christians
have been led to believe that the mark of the beast is some kind of literal
mark, brand, tattoo, or chip placed upon or in the forehead or in the right
hand. The only verse in the entire Bible that mentions the number (666) of
the mark is Revelation 13:18, wherein we read, "Here is wisdom. Let him that
hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a
man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." We do well to
remember that the chapter divisions and verse numbers have been added by the
translators and are not found in the original manuscripts. The ancient Greek
texts do not contain chapters, verses, or punctuation marks; there are no
spaces between the words, and all the letters are written in capitals.
Punctuations, small letters, paragraphs, and chapters were added hundreds of
years later.
You may wonder why this is of
importance. The verse quoted above is the very last verse of chapter
thirteen of the Revelation. Following the phrase, ‘Six hundred threescore
and six,’ the very next words are the first verse of chapter fourteen.
Verse one begins a new chapter in our modern translations, which usually
indicates to the reader the end of one thought, and the beginning of a
new thought. Therefore, the modern reader is proned to suppose that when
you leave Revelation 13:18 and move to Revelation 14:1 John has somehow
changed the subject or shifted gears! The truth is,
of course, that John did not write a verse eighteen and a verse one. There
was no chapter division and the context reveals a continuity of
thought. Without the chapter break, you can more easily keep the
train of thought in this passage, especially in relation to THE WRITINGS IN
THE FOREHEADS OF PEOPLE.
So let us now do away with
the chapter break and see what has always been there, but unnoticed by most!
"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond,
to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and
that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the
beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath
understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a
man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. And I looked,
and, lo, a Lamb stood on mount Zion, and with Him an hundred forty and four
thousand, HAVING HIS FATHER’S NAME WRITTEN IN THEIR FOREHEADS"
(Rev. 13:16-18; 14:1).
Can you not see the continuity
of thought, the clear and unmistakable connection between the
mark in the foreheads of all the natural men of the world, and the
father’s name in the foreheads of God’s chosen and separated
elect? Is the Father’s name — Yahweh — written, engraved, or in some way
applied visibly and literally upon the foreheads of the elect? Do we suppose
that in John’s vision of the Lamb on mount Zion he saw Jesus setting up a
little tattoo parlor at the foot of the mount, and before those following
Him can ascend the mount with Him, they are required to visit the tattoo
parlor and receive the name YAHWEH indelibly printed in blazing characters
of blue and red upon their foreheads? Even a child knows better than that!
Even the babes in Christ understand that the Father’s name written in the
forehead is a spiritual reality — bespeaking having the mind of
Christ, the spirit of Christ, and the nature of Christ, as
obedient sons transformed into His image and likeness. Could it be any
different with the mark of the beast? Is it not the mark of
the beast’s mind, the beast’s spirit, and the beast’s nature impressed upon
the thoughts (forehead) and actions (right hand) of those men
who walk after the bestial order of this world system?
The folly of the common
interpretation of the Revelation is that it lacks consistency. It makes the
first part of the verses quoted above to be speaking of outward, physical,
literal things, while the latter part is speaking of inward, spiritual
realities. But even common sense would lead one to the conclusion that if
one is literal the other must be as well, and if one is spiritual the other
must be also. If the mark of the beast is an inscription of some sort on the
skin of sweaty foreheads, then so is the Father’s name a literal name
written upon the foreheads of the followers of the Lamb. By the same token,
if the Father’s name is a spiritual state of being, then the mark or
number of the name of the beast is also a revelation of character.
You simply can’t have it both ways!
The sons of God are marked —
they have put on the blessed mind of Christ! The people of the world are
also marked — they walk in the beastly mind of the flesh, they carry in all
their thinking and actions, even when they are religious, every aspect of
the carnal, worldly, beastly nature. The number six represents
man, for man was lowered into this world of flesh and blood on the
sixth day of creation. All through the scriptures six is the number
of MAN. Even the passage we have quoted tells us this, plainly in the
Greek text. The King James Bible says of this number (mark) of the beast, "…it
is the number of a man." The seemingly insignificant article,
"a," is not in the Greek manuscripts. And while it is generally
assumed, it should not in every case be assumed, for the Greek text would
not in any way be changed if you were to omit the "a" and say simply,
"it is the number OF MAN; and his number (man’s number) is Six hundred and
sixty-six." Six is simply MAN’S NUMBER and to have it raised to six
hundred and sixty six simply shouts aloud — FLESH, FLESH, F-L-E-S-H!
It says of those men who bear the mark that every imagination of their
hearts, all their actions and activities, and the methods they employ in
their worship and service to God, are not of the spirit of Christ but of the
natural understanding and carnal efforts of the flesh man. That is why all
the religious works of carnal men are designated as hay, wood, and
stubble. Their deeds are not the fine gold and precious stones of
Christ’s incorruptible life, but those of worthless hay, wood, and stubble
that burn. Therefore does God send forth His seven-angel ministry with the
seven last plagues! For this very reason the first angel pours out his first
plague upon the men who have the mark of the beast, and upon them which
pay homage to his image. The plague strikes the carnal efforts and works
of the flesh — and sweeps them all away! Can you not see the mystery?
At this point I am impressed to
share the following words from the pen of Paul Mueller. "When the seven
angels begin to pour out their vials upon the earth and the various areas of
the beast, this signals the beginning of the Lord’s judgments upon the flesh
and the ways of old Adam, the man of carnality. When the first angel poured
out his vial, ‘there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which
had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.’
According to Strong’s Concordance, a noisome and grievous sore is an
injurious, hurtful, diseased, ulcer-like sore. In this case, it is not a
literal disease or sore, but it describes a spiritual condition resulting
from having the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast is not a literal
mark, but it is a spiritual defect identifying the person who worships and
obeys old Adam and his image rather than Christ and the Father. It is the
identifying characteristic of those who have surrendered the headship and
control of their spiritual lives to a man or men, and not to Christ alone.
And may God grant that that old, Babylonish headship idea shall never be
tolerated among God’s called-out ones. The Lord set us free of that, and by
his grace, we shall remain free indeed!"
"…and there came an evil and
noxious sore," signifies interior evils and errors which break forth in
external manifestations of corruption, like the boils that sometimes erupt
on men’s bodies. This is the result of apostasy, of disobedience to
the Lord and departure from the growth of life in the Lord. The Old
Testament type for this plague is found in the plagues the Lord sent upon
Egypt by the hand of Moses. "And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron,
Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it
toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust in
all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains
upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. And they
took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it
up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon
man, and upon beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses
because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the
Egyptians. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he harkened not
unto them; as the Lord had spoken unto Moses" (Ex. 9:8-12).
This plague affected both man
and animal, typifying the whole bestial kingdom. Moses followed God’s exact
orders, and the magicians and all the Egyptians suffered from boils, or
painful sores that caused inflammation of the skin, which covered their
bodies and their animals. God had said that He would bring judgment "upon
all the gods of the Egyptians" and this plague was an affront
to several of the Egyptian gods. The plague of boils showed the Egyptians
that their god of medicine, Imhotep, was helpless against the mighty hand of
Yahweh. Likewise, Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess with healing power, could
not heal the Egyptians of their terrible sores. Other gods who could not
help include Isis, a goddess of healing, and Sunu, a pestilence god.
That was Egypt — but now
consider the curses and punishments that were to come upon GOD’S PEOPLE if
they were disobedient to the heavenly vision! "It shall come
to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to
observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee
this day; that all these curses (plagues) shall come upon thee, and
overtake thee…the Lord will smite thee with the boil of Egypt,
and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou
canst not be healed…" (Deut. 28:15,27).
The "boil" of Egypt is not an
ordinary sore, but is abscessed, ulcerated, and malignant. Job’s "boils"
(Job 2:7) were probably ulcerated sores of an infectious nature. They not
only itched and hurt, but had a terrible odor, darkened his skin, and so
disfigured him that his friends hardly recognized him. The same word used of
the sores caused by the outpouring of the first plague in the Revelation is
used in the Septuagint translation of Exodus, of the plague of boils
"breaking forth with blains (blisters full of corrupt matter)" in the
plagues of Egypt. Thus the literal plague of Egypt is the clear type of the
spiritual plague, revealing the extreme depths of God’s dealing upon His
people! The message is clear — the "noisome and grievous sore" represents an
inward uncleanness which erupts in outward purulence.
It points to the inward uncleanness of carnal and impure thoughts,
ideas, desires, plans, motives, and ways which erupt into the outward
purulence of a life disgraced by unholy actions.
Departing from the life of the
spirit and the inner reality of Christ weakens one’s spiritual immune
system, breaks down the spiritual defenses, and leaves one vulnerable to the
outbreak of fleshly corruption. How often we have seen this in the lives of
believers, and most markedly in the lives of well-known ministries! So busy
were they in their "works" for God, in their multiplied programs,
promotions, and schemes to evangelize the world and accomplish great things
for the kingdom of God, that their prayer life suffered, no time to wait in
holy brokenness before God, no time to sit at the feet of Jesus in intimacy
of fellowship, just a constant busi-ness with their man-centered endeavors,
until one day in the leanness of their soul the flesh broke out in terrible
corruption. As their inward corruption was openly revealed it was indeed a
revolting scene to look upon — the angry, ulcerated, running, infectious
sores of sin, pride, ego, power, manipulation, deceit, crookedness, lust,
excess, shame, and disgrace, open for the whole world to gaze upon. This is
the divine warning of this plague — taking the mark of the beast and paying
homage to his image LEADS TO THIS!
Many well-known ministries have
gone down the tubes during the last several decades, not to mention the sex
scandals that have literally rocked the Catholic Church, because the
righteousness of the kingdom was never established in their deepest
hearts. They were great preachers, gifted orators, dynamic pulpiteers,
talented musicians, polished television personalities, skilled organizers
and promoters, with powerful gifts of God operating in their lives, and
charisma dripping off their fingertips. Hundreds and thousands would come to
hear them when they showed up, and millions of adoring followers watched
their every move on the television screen, sending in untold millions of
dollars to support their grandiose programs and projects. But their word
wasn’t trustworthy; you couldn’t depend on their integrity. They would not
live within their means, nor pay their honest debts. They glibly asked their
followers for thousands of dollars in donations and willingly resorted to
every sordid trick and sob-story to persuade people to give more and more
money while they themselves lived the high life, flying their own personal
jets around the world, eating in the most expensive restaurants, and living
in fabulous homes costing millions of dollars. They bilked widows of their
life-savings, and then left behind a disgraceful trail of unpaid bills and
questionable dealings.
Some were caught in bed with
another man’s wife, or ran off with the organist, deserting their own wife
and children. Some divorced and remarried again and again. Others were
discovered in hotel rooms consorting with prostitutes, while others were
caught in homosexual acts. Some sank into the filth of free love,
wife-swapping, and group sex — even committing such acts in the name of the
Lord! One died in a hotel room of acute alcoholism. Another became obsessed
with weird and strange doctrines and delusions of grandeur. He founded a
cult and built a tabernacle with a golden throne surrounded by the
twenty-four elders. And, of course, the whole world knew about Jimmy Jones
and the Jonestown tragedy! Others had violent tempers, lying tongues,
deceptive methods, kingdom-building spirit, and egos inflated with pride. Ah
— "running and festering sores" — what an apt description of men whose
hearts are filled with all filthiness and unrighteousness, "having eyes full
of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an
heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: which
have forsaken the right ways, and are gone astray, following the way of
Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness" (II Pet.
2:14-15). What shame and reproach these bring on the kingdom of God by their
unholy actions!
There are men who profess to be
sons of God who have this problem. They have a good knowledge of truth,
eloquent delivery, and power to move audiences and influence people, but
their lives are oozing with festering pus that stinks to all who come near.
Ah, the problem has been that throughout long ages men have sought the
power of the kingdom of God apart from the righteousness
of the kingdom. Men have asked for, and have graciously received, an
anointing of kingdom power, and they have gone forth to do exploits in His
name, but in the great majority of cases they neither asked nor sought for,
nor did they receive, the corresponding righteousness of the kingdom. To
possess power without righteousness is a blueprint for tragedy. It means
that men will do the works of God, but cannot live the life of God. They
possess authority without character. Such will honor God for a season with
their mighty works, but just as surely as the pig will return to his
wallowing, and the dog to his vomit, just that certain is it that these will
ultimately bring shame and reproach upon the name of the Lord by their
unrighteous conduct. THE WAY TO GET RID OF THE EXTERNAL PURULENCE IS TO
CLEAN UP THE INTERNAL CORRUPTION. "A new heart also will I put within you."
The truth, however, runs deeper
than this. It is not just the gross sins of the flesh that the Lord exposes
through the first bowl and its plague. Oh, no! Today, as God moves in a
spiritual way among His people, bringing the spiritual plagues into the
midst of those who dwell in the spiritual Egypt, He is also stretching out
His hand against all the "gods" of man’s religion, the gods of personality,
denominationalism, creeds, programs, methods, promotions, power, cathedrals
and church buildings, and religious icons and kingdoms of all sorts. He will
judge all those things that men trust in which usurp the pure life and power
and moving of the Spirit of the Lord! Men are molded in character into the
likeness of the god that they worship. IT MEANS DISCOVERING THE ROTTENNESS
WITHIN THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS OF MAN BECAUSE THAT ROTTENNESS HAS COME TO THE
SURFACE AND BEEN MANIFESTED FOR ALL TO DISCERN! Millions of the Lord’s
people are worshipping daily at the polluted altars of the false gods of
man-made religious systems and their erroneous creeds and carnal
disciplines. In this day the Lord will move to draw such eruptions of
corruption out of the carnal religious systems of man, that it will evoke
among all the Lord’s people absolute consternation, disappointment,
embarrassment, disconcertion, disillusionment, and pain beyond
comprehension — and try as they may, there will be no answers, no solutions,
no remedy to be found!
We know the corruption is there
because men in their religious life bear upon their minds and actions the
mark of the bestial system, a system in which men think like the
world, plan like the world, and act like the world! Who can
deny that in the religious realm the church system’s whole vision, method,
and attitude is in accordance with the world’s system? Their whole planning
and program is all in harmony with the "spirit of the age" as they
constantly adapt themselves to WHATEVER THE WORLD IS DOING, be it rock
music, hip-hop, concerts, talk shows, coffee houses, showmanship,
fund-raising schemes, and the list can go on ad infinitum. Are they not
"incorporated" like the corporations of the world? Are they not controlled
by a "board" like the world’s corporations? Are they not "chartered" under
the ungodly authority of human government just like all worldly
institutions? Thus the "mark of the beast" is clearly stamped upon all her
works! And the masses of the world’s inhabitants live out their daily lives
bearing in mind and character the MARK of that beastly system!
As the first "messenger" pours
out his "bowl" into this carnal religious "earth," all the uncleanness
within that system will break out in a putridness that will become a
revelation to every redeemed soul within her that something is terribly
wrong! That is the first step toward the fall of Babylon! Most of those who
now read these lines have already experienced this, for it happens first
in God’s firstfruits company! Oh, yes, my beloved, you
above all people in the world understand exactly what I am talking about!
One blessed day the horrible corruption of the religious systems came as a
mighty, divine, shocking revelation to each member of God’s elect!
Our eyes were opened, and suddenly we saw Babylon for just what she is — we
beheld her riding upon the scarlet colored beast, full of names of
blasphemy, with a golden cup in her hand full of the abominations and
filthiness of her fornication, drunken with the blood of the saints and the
martyrs of Jesus, and clearly we could read the inscription written upon her
forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH. We saw! And with loathing we beheld the festering, running
sores of her uncleanness! And thus began the journey by which we fled
from her and found refuge in the living, loving arms of Jesus!
Oh, the mystery of it! Oh, the
wonder of it!
To be continued… J. PRESTON EBY