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

             

             "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years" (Rev. 20:1-2).

            If I titled this message “The Millennium,” what would that mean to you?  Have you heard that one day Jesus is coming back to earth again, and when He comes He will pass through the “Eastern Gate” into the city of Jerusalem, set up His kingdom on earth, and establish Jerusalem as the world capital for one thousand years?  Some Old Testament prophecies which point forward to the kingdom of God on earth speak of all nations going up to Jerusalem on mules and ox carts to keep new moons and holy days.  There are even references to a temple there which will be the scene of animal sacrifices which God will accept as sin offerings.  This is the type of “millennium” that multitudes of Christians envision!  But will Jesus really come to the earthly Jerusalem and oversee animal sacrifices, worship in a temple made with hands, celebrate new moons and feast days, and receive millions of people riding on mules and ox carts?  Will He really reign over the earth as a temporal king for the literal period of one thousand years?  John the Revelator uses the term “a thousand years,” but none of these other things are taught anywhere in the New Testament — in fact, the very idea of any of them is contradicted again and again by both Jesus and the apostles.  The only sacrifice for sin has already been made “once and for all” by the Lamb of God!   The only Jerusalem from which Christ reigns is that New Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven!  And the term “a thousand years” is used in  connection with the kingdom of God only here in the twentieth chapter of the book of Revelation — and not in any other “kingdom prophecy” in the entire Bible!

            Six times the expression “a thousand years” occurs  in this chapter.  Three times it refers to the binding of Satan, and three times to the reigning of those souls who are made alive in Christ.  Must we accept this literally?  Is the bottomless pit a literal pit?  Is the chain that binds Satan a literal chain?  Is the seal placed upon the pit to keep Satan from getting out a literal seal?  Are the thrones the quickened souls sit upon actual and literal seats?  Is the thousand years a literal time period?  There are sixty-six books in the Bible, and I have forgotten how many chapters and verses, but nowhere else between the covers of this Book is there a single reference to a reign of Christ for “a thousand years.”  If six verses had been omitted from this chapter, the idea of Christ reigning on earth for a thousand years would never have entered anyone’s mind!  A single passage, such as this, sitting as  it is in the midst of all the symbolism of the book of Revelation, should not be used to explain other passages of scripture in the Bible by taking it to have a natural fulfillment instead of a spiritual one.  Many take this one passage of scripture and try to fit every other prophecy of the kingdom of God into a supposed meaning of it, thereby distorting the meaning of the many other passages.  To base  an argument for a temporal reign of Christ for the precise period of one thousand years on a highly symbolic and figurative passage in the most allegorical book in the Bible is rather precarious business!

            The “thousand years” is the longest period of time referred to in the Revelation.  By what right does anyone declare that everything in the passage is symbolic or figurative except the “thousand years,” which must be taken literally?  If all other numbers in the book had a strictly literal fulfillment then we would have to agree that this one should also.  But let me ask — does the Lamb in  the midst of the throne actually have seven horns and seven eyes?  Were there literally two hundred million galloping horsemen, no more, no less?  Did a little stream of human blood, bridle deep to horse and two hundred miles long, actually flow from a winepress where grapes were trodden under foot?  Were there seven thousand, not one more nor one less, slain in the earthquake?  Ah, these are all word-pictures portraying beautiful and powerful spiritual truths!  Let us with bowed head and shoes removed from our feet see if we cannot stand  on that holy ground where we are enabled by the spirit of wisdom and revelation from God to catch the Holy Spirit’s object as He teaches by the comparative  object-lesson method.

            All scripture attaches a symbolical significance to numbers, as it also does to colors and dimensions.  Numbers such as one, two, three, four, six, seven, ten, and twelve, and their combinations and products, represent certain realities and qualities of either the world or the kingdom of God.  People often think of time when they view the events portrayed in the book of Revelation, but my prayer is that the Holy Spirit may enlighten all to see that the order of the book is not chronological in time, but chronological in our SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.  It’s not about cosmic chronology; it’s about spiritual chronology.  We do not move from one scene to the next based  on the passing of time, or the arrival of a particular date, but when we are prepared for it in our experience of growth and development in the spirit and the new spiritual conditions that brings for us and through us to the whole creation.  It has nothing whatever to do with days, months, years, decades, centuries, or millenniums — it is experiential chronology rather than time chronology!

            In keeping with the spiritual usage of Bible numbers we are told in Revelation 13:18, “Here is wisdom.  Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of man.”  Yes, man has a number, and it is six hundred sixty-six!  Throughout scripture six is the number of man.  Here in Revelation the sixes denote flesh.  Six hundred sixty-six means flesh and more flesh!  When you “count” or “calculate” the significance of the number of the beast you find that it is the number of man, the man of flesh, the natural man and the carnal mind.  That is the meaning of the number!  It is the number of man’s bestial nature and character filling the earth with bestial manifestations, works, philosophies, systems, institutions, and organizations. The whole world system of things  is nothing but flesh!

            The Holy Spirit has also given us the number of the sons of God reigning with Christ a thousand years.  We know that the 144,000 in chapter fourteen of the Revelation are  counted and found to have the Father’s name written in their foreheads in the same way that the men of the earth-realm bear the mark or number of the beast in their foreheads.  Neither of these are tattoos or electronic chips!  This signifies people having the mind of either the beast or of the Father.  These are symbols that point to spiritual realities.  These hundred and forty-four thousand are not the whole number of God’s redeemed people.  In verse four of chapter fourteen the 144,000 are called “the firstfruits” unto God and the Lamb.  They are, therefore, the elite among all of God’s people — a select company, called and chosen ones, the feet of which stand upon an eminence — mount Zion, the mount signifying kingship and dominion.  Thus, the “firstfruits” are not firstfruits merely in the order of time, but of divine purpose — that ground of precedence to which Paul alludes when he says, “Every man shall rise  in his own order.”  The writer to the Hebrews referred to those who seek a “better resurrection.”  And the Lord Jesus Himself often spoke of those who would be “greatest” in the kingdom of heaven.  This theme abounds throughout all the types and prophecies of scripture, from Genesis to Revelation!

            In interpreting scripture, one of the worst things that can be done is to take numbers and interpret them literally rather than discovering the meaning of the number.  In other words, the key to the understanding of a passage with numbers is the value of the number.  So, then, we need to ask the Lord, “What does this number 144,000 mean?”  The explanation is that 144,000 = 12 X 12 X 1000.  Twelve in scripture is the number denoting divine government.  We will  not take time to explain that here, as it is only incidental to our present thought.  Now, twelve times twelve is twelve squared by itself, yielding the number 144.  One hundred forty-four is thus the divine government of God brought to its highest expression.  It is divine government multiplied by divine government — the absolute fullest and most ultimate manifestation of the kingdom of God!  Then the number 144 is multiplied by the number “one thousand,” giving it an even greater fullness.

            We need to note a feature that very, very few have seen here.  The term “millennium” is, of course,  another of those man-made expressions like the term “rapture” which doesn’t actually appear in scripture.  It is the word which is used to express the “thousand years” spoken of in our text.  But where the modern church has stumbled here is that she has missed for the most part God’s definition of this thousand years because she knows not the biblical name for it.  She, being ignorant of God’s name, has in her darkness built up an elaborate system of myths and fairy tales around the name she invented.  The carnal mind always misses every spiritual fulfillment of the visions of John on Patmos!  Here is wisdom: God’s name for the thousand years is “The Day of the Lord,” also called the “Day of Christ.”  One thousand is the number signifying THE DAY OF THE LORD.  The apostle Peter makes this very plain  in his second epistle, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (II Pet. 3:8).  There is deep mystery here.  Yet this lofty thought should assure us beyond doubt that the “thousand years” means more than the idea that every period of one thousand years is counted as one “day” with God.  That may be true, but beyond that it reveals the great truth that the term “thousand years” stands for THE DAY OF THE LORD.  It is the LORD’S DAY! 

            As I have been taught by the Holy Spirit I have come to see that the “millennial reign” of Christ is not necessarily a one thousand year period.  I would like to think it is much more than that, if you want to count years!  To reign with Christ for a thousand years means to rule with Christ in the illumination, glory, and power of the day of the Lord!  This is not a mathematical number, denoting an exact duration of earth-time, but a spiritual number revealing the reality it stands for — the unlimited, never-ending, infinite day of the Lord!  The day of the Lord is the day of His illumination, of His arising and bright shining, of His revelation and unveiling, of His glory, majesty, and power.  Oh, yes!  And this is what manifest sonship is all about, a people formed into the full and ultimate expression of the divine government of God, bringing to pass in the earth the illumination, glory, and power of the eternal DAY OF THE LORD!  It is 12 X 12 X 1000.  That is what it means!  Therefore, reigning with Christ a thousand years is not telling us how long the reign will be, but signifies the type of reign it is.  It is not speaking of a definite period of time, but the quality of that reign.  If we can “count the number” of that reign, we can understand the sum of the matter.

            While the day of the Lord certainly has a chronological reality to it, the day of the Lord is first and foremost a state of being, a state of illumination, understanding, knowledge, consciousness, and experience.  The day of the Lord is the garden of Eden, it’s the sabbath of God, it’s the cessation of the flesh, and the strivings, desires, and anxieties of the carnal mind. It’s the ceasing of trying by soulish strength to think up and work up the nature, will, ways, and purposes of God, and it’s entering  instead into the power of His life, light, and glory.  It’s the discovering and unveiling of the Christ within!  That’s what John discovered in Revelation 20:1-6.  He discovered the Most Holy Place.  There is a people on the earth today that is beginning to experience the reality and fulfillment of all that the prophets prophesied of through the ages.  The third day, the third feast of Israel, and the third realm in God are all pre-figured by the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle of Moses with its dimensions of ten cubits wide, ten cubits long, and ten cubits high — one thousand cubits square!  Those dimensions correspond precisely with the “thousand years” of John’s vision, for one thousand is a figure composed of 10 X 10 X 10.  Beyond the veil, in the Most Holy Place, the one thousand cubits point to the one thousand years of  the reign of God’s elect upon the thrones of judgment.  Both measurements are symbolisms representing the reign of Christ and all the holy sons of God in the power of the kingdom of God and the brightness of the day of the Lord!   

            John discovered the Throne Zone!  He discovered the glory of the day of the Lord!  He discovered those realities that exist beyond the outward, visible, physical realm, hidden away in the Most Holy Place of His Shekinah!  He discovered the power of the kingdom of God!  He discovered the feast of tabernacles!  He discovered the full salvation of the third day!  He saw Satan bound and He saw souls on  thrones reigning in the glory of God!  He saw resurrection power!  He saw the ministry of kings and priests!  The old order church system had passed away and a NEW DAY had dawned!  God was doing a new thing, and great would be the glory thereof!

            I do not expect men to love me for pointing out that the understanding of even some who call themselves sons of God has not progressed one whit beyond that of the theologians in the carnal church systems of man in these things!  The fact is, the Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of God, did not preach even one sermon about the “millennium” publicly to the multitudes that followed Him, nor did He teach it privately to His disciples when He opened to them the scriptures and explained the meaning of His parables, either before or after His death and resurrection.  And yet, all of His teaching concerned the kingdom of God!  Think about it — He was completely silent on this now popular doctrine!  The apostles, in their epistles, are likewise stone silent on the subject of a thousand year reign of Christ.  The Holy Spirit did show them “things to come,” as Jesus promised, but a thousand year kingdom was never proclaimed as one of those things.

            Now, don’t misunderstand me!  I do not say that the coming age, which is only the next stage of the unfolding of the kingdom of God, will not last for one thousand years.  It may.  Or, it may not.  I will  not debate the point with any man.  What I am saying is just this: Of all the wealth of scripture truth nothing is more certain or clear than the great fact that the book of Revelation is a symbolic and spiritual book.  Can we not see by this that the spiritual meaning of a “thousand years” is something grander by far than a mere time period of a number of years?  There is no value whatever  in the letter of the Word!  It is when a man begins to see the spirit of the Word that truth and reality are quickened as  life within.  My spirit rejoices today in thankfulness to my Father in heaven for that divine, eternal, life-giving wisdom which is the secret of His own heart!

            In Bible usage, one thousand is a round, indefinite number.  Psalm 50:10 states, “Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.”  Does that mean only a thousand?  When you get to the second thousand hills do all the cattle belong to someone other than the Lord?  In like manner, does the kingdom of Christ last a thousand years, or does it stand forever?  We know that the kingdom of Christ does not last only for a thousand years, for according to various scriptures Christ is the King of the ages, He is also the King eternal, and one scripture says that of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end!  Do the sons of God reign with Christ for a thousand years, or do they reign throughout all ages until all things are subdued unto the Father, until creation is delivered from the bondage of corruption — meaning the last enemy is destroyed — and God is “all in all”?   Is the kingdom really an “age” at all — or is it not rather a LIVING POWER AND REALITY!  “God keeps covenant and mercy unto a thousand generations,” says the prophet (Deut. 7:9).  Does His mercy end there?  “He commanded His word to a thousand generations” (Ps. 105:8).  Does God’s word become void at the end of the thousand generations?  It should be clear to any thinking mind that the thousand is not literal in any of these.  These expressions were intended to show the quality of God’s faithfulness in respect to any given promise or blessing, and not the precise length of the time involved.  To put the emphasis on the time expression itself would defeat the very meaning and purpose of it, because if God is faithful to His covenant and His word time-wise for exactly a thousand generations, who would want to live in the time periods beyond that?  They speak figuratively of an abiding principle and the unchanging character of God throughout all generations and ages!  The same is true with respect to the one thousand year binding of Satan.  The symbol was meant to show how thoroughly, not how long, the defeat of Satan is!

            The figure ten is a symbol of earthly completeness, so ten times ten times ten, the cube of ten, or a thousand, is merely a symbol of multiple completeness or fullness.  It is my conviction that it signifies something higher by far and something infinitely more meaningful and glorious than dates on the calendar!  The thousand years in our text is the number ten in the third power, signifying a complete and total binding of Satan within man and a complete and total reigning with Christ IN THE FULLNESS OF THE DAY OF THE LORD.  It bespeaks the intensity, the completeness, the comprehensiveness, the broadness, the extensiveness, the richness, and the totality of both the binding of Satan and the reign of Christ in and through His elect!  The essence of the millennium is within us now because in some measure the light, illumination, and the glory of the Lord has risen within His elect and to that degree we are even now reigning with Christ!  It is a spiritual number signifying spiritual realities rather than a specific number of earth years.  That is the mystery.

             We live in a day when almost everyone, saint and sinner, recognizes that this is a crazy, mixed-up world we live in.  But most preachers and multitudes of Christians are constantly talking about how bad it is and how dark it is getting.  Hogwash!  It might be getting dark in the world you live in, but in the kingdom I’ve been translated into “…the path of the just is as a SHINING LIGHT that shineth MORE and MORE unto the perfect day” (Prov. 4:18).  Rotherham translates, “But the path of the righteous is as the light of dawn, going on and brightening, unto meridian day.”  The Revised Standard Version reads, “…which shines brighter and brighter unto full day.”  The Moffatt translation says, “…like a ray of dawn, shines on and on unto the full light of Day.”  Young’s Literal renders, “…going  on and brightening till  the Day is established.”  The Amplified Bible is so clear and expressive, “But the path of the uncompromisingly just and righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines more and more — brighter and clearer — until it reaches its full strength and glory in the perfect (to-be-prepared) Day.”

            Yes, many think Christ will come and reign for a thousand years — and He will, for one thousand years is as a day, and a day is as a thousand years, and that day is the Day of the Lord in  your life.  Individually, the thousand years is the symbol of a time in a person’s walk where he experiences the power and glory of ruling and reigning with Christ in his life.  It is the symbol of an attainment and ministry whereby the authority and power of God’s Christ is expressed and revealed in and through us as sons of God.  I know no words, be they many or few, that could more adequately establish that the term “thousand years” is the New Testament code-word for THE DAY OF THE LORD.  The thousand years is the symbol of a time in the life of a son of God where he experiences the absolute and total binding of Satan, so that Satan is not only cast out of his heavens, as seen in chapter twelve of the Revelation, but is now effectively bound in his earth, until he can say in all confidence with the firstborn Son of God, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”  The thousand years is the symbol of that place in the life of a son of God where he experiences the power and glory of ruling and reigning with Christ.  It is not a literal  thousand years, it signifies an attainment of reality, maturity, and ministry whereby the authority and power of God’s Christ is revealed and expressed  through us in its totality as the elect of God.  It is dawning within us now, but must  shine brighter and brighter until the full accomplishment and revelation of it.  When Satan is bound in your life one hundred percent, when Christ rules in you one hundred percent, the brightness of the Day of the Lord has reached its zenith within your life.  Again — it is not a date on the calendar — it is reality in the spirit!

            The elect of the Lord who walk in the Spirit and are taught by the Spirit have little interest in dates and years, or in the passing of time.  Our primary interest, yea, our all-consuming passion is to KNOW HIM in the fullness of Himself!  Those who love God and hear His voice by the Spirit are learning the blessed and holy truth that God’s purposes being worked out in the earth are not tied to dates on the calendar but to the spiritual growth and development within God’s called and separated people.  God’s calendar is both spiritual and experiential, not natural, physical, or carnal.  It is that we might experience Christ in the perfection of His nature, in the fullness of His spirit and power, in the accomplishment of His purposes, and in  the unveiling of His sonship glory, that the creation might behold HIM in the dawn of the New Day.  Then everything and everyone will be blessed and quickened because of what He has wrought in us, not merely because a date on the calendar has arrived.  Only by the power of Christ raised up in us, the Light that He is, can anything anywhere be transformed by our hand.  By His Light all darkness shall be dispelled.  The arising of His glory, the dawning of His Day, is not a date to be calculated, but an attainment to be realized!  It is the power of the voice of God, and the wonder of the work of God in His elect that alerts us to the reality of this Day — not dates, times, cycles, chronologies, prophecies, numbers, or calculations of any kind.

            “YE are the light of the world,” Jesus declared to His disciples.  THOSE WHO ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD ARE THE DAY OF THE LORD!  Nothing could be plainer than that.  We who are of the Day, and are not lovers or sleepers of the night, have a high heritage.  “For ye were one time darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as sons of light” (Eph. 5:8).  “While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be sons of light” (Jn. 12:36).  “Ye are all the sons of light, and the sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of the darkness.  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others…” (I Thes. 5:5-6).  We who have received the love of the truth and have been made the light of the world have a higher calling.  We have privileges, and duties to perform.  We must be about our Father’s business!  There must be a parting of the ways with all who walk in the night of sin, negativism, religious bondage and spiritual drunkenness.  It is time to forsake the shame and error of former carnal and religious realms, and time to look up, time to arise and shine!

            The Day is at hand!  The night is far spent.  We must go forth and lead the way for all who will follow.  The day of the Lord begins with those who are enlightened, cleansed of all error, bondage, and carnality, and clothed upon with the glory of Christ’s presence, mind, and nature.  The day of the Lord begins with those who have eyes to see the true purposes of God for this hour, and  commit themselves to walk therein.  There is glory and power and rejoicing and praise ahead for those who walk in the light of this new Day.  This is the Day of deliverance, not bondage.  The bands are broken.  Christ is conqueror!  HE holds the key to the bottomless pit, HE holds the great chain in His hand with which to bind the devil.  Oh, yes — He reigns!  We are not expecting the antichrist.  We are not expecting the great tribulation.  We are not expecting more darkness and gloominess, for we have met the Christ, we have witnessed His power, we have received His word, we have heard His heart, we have beheld His glory, and have been made one with His purposes.  His hosts are invincible, and we are those hosts.  Our coronation draws nigh.  The kingdom of God is within us!  Its glory overshadows us!  Its light emanates from us!  Those who are born of the Light which He is are now standing on new kingdom ground!

            The firstborn sons of God are the Day of the Lord, for upon them is risen the glory of the Lord and they are the light of the world.  I know what the church system has taught, but they taught a lie.  They teach that the Day of the Lord is the seven-year tribulation at the end of the age.  They teach that it is the day of God’s vengeance, when the fullness of His wrath is poured out without mixture and without measure upon the nations and the inhabitants of the earth.  They teach that the Day of the Lord is a period of horrible trouble, suffering, cataclysmic upheavals, atomic warfare, devastation, and darkness upon earth.  They have no scriptural foundation.  Yes, there was such a dark and gloomy “day of the Lord” upon Israel in the Old Testament, under the law, but the revelation of the New Testament about the Day of the Lord is a very different picture!  I am making known a DAY unto you, beloved, and the Day I am proclaiming is the Day of the Lord, and it is upon us now.  We must not be established upon the traditions of the elders, nor the doctrines of men.  We must allow the Holy Spirit to unfold Christ, that we may know Him when He appears, in whatever form or manner He appears, that we miss not the Day of visitation as did the Jews of old. 

            A great light shined in the darkness, the greatest light that has ever been upon this earth and yet, to this day, they have not seen it and are still living and walking in darkness.  The very glory of the Father was revealed  to them as the scripture said it would be.  All God ever could be or ever shall be was manifested before them in Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of God.  No greater light could have shone unto them than that light, because the Light of lights was there to see.  Most of them did not recognize Him, neither did they suspect that the Lord of glory was right there in the midst of them.  If they had entered into Him, He would not have declared that another day yet remained for the children of God (Heb. 4:4-8).  Let us not fall short of what He is now speaking into our hearts!  God is in this Day raising up a people that is hearing His words of instruction and beginning to walk in the light of the glory of God’s Christ.

            I admonish all who read these lines — be established in YOUR DAY.  It is a new day, the day of the Lord!  It is not the day of antichrist, nor the great tribulation, nor is it the literal millennium.  It is the ever-present day of the unveiling of the glory of Christ and this day comes as a thief.  Christ’s presence is beginning to fill  the whole earth in a new expression and the glory of the Lord is risen upon a people.  This is not a fallacy, this is the sovereign work of God in the lives of those who have been called to this Day.  This is the very truth, the very understanding as the Spirit has made it known unto His called and chosen people, that we might know the counsel of God for this very Day.  Though multitudes continue to walk in darkness, the darkness of the world of the carnal  mind and of the fleshly religious systems of man, you shall walk in the Light and the Light shall dispel the darkness!  Many stubbornly cling to those things which are passing, to the former orders and moves of God that have ended, the relics of a former day of glory, the ruins of an order that God has now shaken, but those whose hearts have responded to the call to sonship and the kingdom are taking hold of those things that are new.  The former heavens are being rolled up like a scroll and set aside.  There is a new order being  raised up, a new heaven and a new earth for you today, saints of God! 

            One of the deep hidden mysteries of God is the great and eternal truth that the day of the Lord is the Word of God.  At the dawn of history, out of the inky blackness of the formless void of primeval chaos, the word of the Lord issued the divine fiat, “Let there be light!”  God then divided the light from the darkness and called the light “Day,” and the darkness He called “Night” (Gen. 1:3-5).  The apostle John elaborates on this thought of the Word of God being the Day of the Lord, declaring, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…in Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (Jn. 1:1,4).  Note the sequence: In the beginning was the Word.  In the Word was life.  And that life was the light of men.  The Word, the Life, and the Light are one.  In our natural world the light of men is the sun, and the sun is the light which is the Day.  Can we not see by this that in the spiritual world the ILLUMINATION OF THE WORD is the light of men — and the light of men is THE DAY OF THE LORD!  Truly light is illumination and illumination is the dawning of truth.  Truth is a Word.  “Thy word is truth.”  Truth is the Word!  The Word is the Light!  The Light is the Day.!  If you want to walk in the day of the Lord, then walk in the present truth of the word of the Lord!  This is your Day!  How simple, yet how very profound this divine reality!

            The sweet singer of Israel penned these meaningful words: “The entrance of Thy words GIVETH LIGHT; it giveth UNDERSTANDING to the simple” (Ps. 119:130).  The prophet Hosea, speaking of the Lord, said, “Thy judgments are as LIGHT that goeth forth” (Hos. 6:5).  “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a LIGHT unto my path” (Ps. 119:105).  Paul declares, “For God, who commanded the LIGHT to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the LIGHT of the KNOWLEDGE of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. 4:6).  Can we not clearly see by this that truth is light, understanding is light, knowledge is light, life is light, and walking in the revelation of the glory of Christ is light.  We often hear someone say, “I got some light on that.”   They are declaring the reception of understanding.  In like manner, darkness is ignorance and error.  “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them” (II Cor. 4:3-4).  The day of the Lord speaks of the illumination and enlightenment that come by the Spirit.  The inner revelation and transformation which brings the day of the Lord into our lives begins the very moment that we turn from the dead letter of the word and seek for its spirit.  We have turned from religion and the old static order of the church systems unto the living reality of the Christ within.  The elect of God who are being spiritually enlightened and quickened in the full reality of Christ within in this hour are now experientially entering into the DAY OF THE LORD!

            If we have considered the matter as we ought, we have surely discerned that there are two kingdoms in the world: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man, the kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of Life and the kingdom of death, the kingdom of Truth and the kingdom of error.  Praise God, He “hath delivered us from the power (authority, rule) of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:13).  In this world darkness and light, day and night co-exist.  Here in El Paso, Texas it is a bright, sunlit day.  On the other side of the world people slumber upon their beds in the darkness of night.  Therefore I learn in the natural a principle that teaches me a spiritual truth: It is day and night at the same time!  Whether you are in the day or the night just depends upon where you live!  Isaiah spoke of this when he cried out, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: BUT THE LORD SHALL ARISE UPON THEE, AND HIS GLORY SHALL BE SEEN UPON THEE!” (Isa. 60:1-2).

            The day of the Lord is one continuous Day known only to the Lord, but it dawns upon different territories as it moves along in God’s purposes.  The natural earth-day is one continuous day, for it is always day somewhere in the world, and if you can fly fast enough with the rotation of the earth you will never again know night.  The day is not only arriving each morning, it has always been in existence since God spoke the command, “Let there be light!”  The day really never begins or ends, it simply moves across the earth bringing its light and warmth to different areas throughout a twenty-four hour period.  Likewise, the day of the Lord is an eternal, never-ending Day, nor did it ever have a beginning, for God Himself is the light of this Day and in Him there is no darkness at all.  The day of the Lord has no darkness in it!  It shines and illuminates continuously.  The beginning of a day means the ending of night, but in a realm where there is not, nor ever has been, darkness, day has no beginning and no ending — it is Eternal Day.  This day of the Lord had its beginning for us when it arrived in our experience, to shine upon the territory of our lives.  No man knows when this Day begins apart from a revelation from the Lord, for it is the brilliance which He is.  He reveals the Day to those who are given eyes to see.  Within my ransomed soul I have heard the voice of the Lord whispering that it is now time for the NATIONS to come to our light, and KINGS to the brightness of our rising (Isa. 60:1-3); it is time for the nations to be saved and to walk in the light of the city of God (Rev. 21:24).  That is the next great step in the day of the Lord!

            As one has written, “‘The day of the Lord cometh, for it is (always) nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains’ (Joel 2:1-2).  Have you ever watched the day arrive among the mountains, especially where there is fog or haze or where the mountains rise above the clouds?  The mountain peaks receive the first light.  Then as the day arrives in its fullness, light can reach the valleys.  But early in the morning the peaks can be in full sunlight and the valleys are still in darkness.  And so it is in the spirit.  Those who rise high enough, not in their own strength or wisdom, but in their God and through His Spirit, receive the first spiritual light of millennial dawn, the first light of the new day.  Those who remain in sin, disobedience, carnality, tradition, unconcern, etc., will have to stay in the darkness of judgment until they are able to rise above it so that they, too, can see  the light.”

            The light shines in the darkness of this world at this very moment, and it shall yet shine to dispel all darkness from all realms, bringing Eternal Day.  There shall be no more night!  That is one of the beautiful and faithful and true promises of the Revelation.  Speaking of the light of Christ John wrote, “The light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (Jn. 1:5).  That word “comprehend” is an unfortunate translation.  And a wiseacre did not help it by rendering it, “and the darkness was not able to put it out.”  That is no translation at all.  The word in the Greek is katelaben, meaning actually “to take down.”  It is a term that would have been known by the scribes in biblical times.  It is the picture of a secretary to whom the boss is giving dictation, and she stops and says, “I can’t take that down, I am not able to take it down.”  The light shines in darkness and the darkness is not able to take it in.  That is it exactly!  Someone said to me, “Man, was I in darkness before I met Christ!  And I don’t know why I didn’t see.”  And after we met Christ, held captive in the blindness of the carnal church systems, there was still so much we didn’t see!  Well, that is it, we were in darkness, and we did not see.  Just as walls keep out the sunlight, so the denseness of the carnal mind evades the penetrating light of the Spirit.  The darkness just cannot take it in!

            Thank God, there is a time for the darkness to be chased away.  You go into a room and the minute you switch on the light, the darkness leaves, it vanishes.  Darkness and light cannot exist together, although they do exist side by side.  The astronauts see both day and night at the same time as they circle the earth in their orbit high above the planet.  There you have light and darkness side by side and the darkness just cannot take it in.  But the sunlight moves across the earth and the darkness is swallowed up.  In like manner, when God’s time comes for a man, a woman, a people, or a nation to be brought into His light, He has only to bring the light to shine upon them, and the darkness  flees away.  The hour is wonderfully nigh at hand when the sons of God shall shine their light upon the nations of earth!  The darkness upon the face of all people shall be dispelled and billions shall come to the full light of God’s Christ.  Only the sovereign revelation of the Lord by His Spirit can accomplish this, and it shall be done.

            What is light?  No one has ever seen pure light, or even sunlight, for light is invisible.  Those things which we see are really only the objects that are revealed by light.  You and I do not see the light, we only see that which reflects the light.  Remove the objects and we would see nothing.  Even what we perceive in our atmosphere as sunlight, or in our houses as light, is not really light, but those things within our atmosphere and in the room where you now sit, which reflect the light.  Light is invisible.  Light cannot be seen!  That is why “outer space” consists of vast reaches of complete darkness, unless interrupted by some planetary body revealed by some source of light.  Truly did the apostle write, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”  And just as truly it is written, “No man has seen God at any time.”  You don’t see light, therefore you cannot see God, for God is light!  That is why God has channeled Himself through Jesus Christ, for in Jesus is revealed all the essence of God in visible form.  The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is to God  what a light bulb is to electricity.  Electricity is invisible, but channeled through the bulb the energy becomes revealed and expressed in a visible way, a way that we perceive as light.  As members of the Christ body, the light that God is, is also channeled through us.  God is invisible, but expressed through His people on earth He  is perceived by the world in all the glory of His attributes and power.  What a marvelous thing! 

             The late Carl Schwing shared the following beautiful meditation on this very concept.  “There is a joy which comes with the sunrise of a new day.  How often I have been blessed to see the first rays of the morning as they rested atop the hills, and to watch them break through the denseness of the forest; and  finally to see them reflecting in the water like a million little suns.  My spirit, mind, and body were overwhelmed by the beauty and wonder of it all.  So much greater is the blessing we share as we watch the Sonrise of this New Day!  A joy which passes understanding is ours!  As we behold Him we see the reflection of countless little sons…sons of light sending forth the morning rays of the dawn of the kingdom of God; sons of light enlightening all that the Father has made.  Truly it is a morning of great joy…all that lies before us is NEW, LIFE-GIVING AND ETERNAL!  And there is a part which belongs to you alone, appointed to you by the Creator, eons ago.  Look inward, my beloved, and you will find your place and  purpose in the depths of the Christ-son within.”

            Some of you who now read these lines are reading them by the light of day while others are reading them after darkness has settled upon your land.  In the same way, some of you walk in spiritual light in different dimensions, while others of you walk in spiritual darkness on different dimensions.  Some of you walk in the unveiling of the unbounded wisdom, understanding, glory, and power of the Christ within you, while some of you still walk in the bondage and limitation of the dead doctrines, traditions, and immature orders of the carnal church systems of man.  There is only one source of life, and that is LIGHT.  Life rests with light; life comes from light.  Show me a man who has only a carnal understanding of the things of God and I will show you a man who has a very low level of spiritual life.  He is walking in the dusk of evening time, not in the brightness of the day of the Lord.  The churches are full of them!  And the pulpits, too!  To determine whether a person has grown in life, we must discern the condition of his INNER ENLIGHTENMENT. Furthermore, if we want to help others grow in life, we must help them be enlightened, to experience the truth of God as inward reality.  If they can receive enlightenment from us, they can obtain life and develop that life. It’s a matter of your UNDERSTANDING AND ILLUMINATION!  It’s not a matter of whether you attend church meetings, how you were baptized, whether you speak in tongues, or observance of rules, commandments, regulations, methods, programs, sacraments, or externals of any kind.  It is a thing of the spirit, a condition, a state of being, a spiritual mentality, a KNOWING OF THE LORD IN TRUTH, UNDERSTANDING, AND EXPERIENCE that brings transformation unto maturity.

             It is in this spiritual enlightenment that we step into GOD’S DAY!  It is in this Day that Christ is and that Christ brings, in which we receive the great chain with which Satan can be bound in our earth.  And it is in this Day that those who rule and reign with Christ now walk.  “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them: and I saw the souls  of them which were beheaded for the witness of Jesus…and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or  in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Rev. 20:4).  The truth is so very simple.  Only two things happen for a thousand years — that is, IN THE DAY OF THE LORD.  Satan is bound for a thousand years, he is bound in and by the illumination of the day of the Lord; and the souls of the overcomers sit upon thrones and reign with Christ for a thousand years, they reign in and by the power and glory of the day of the Lord!  Oh, the mystery of it!  Oh, the wonder of it!  As I have already emphasized, this “Day” of the Lord is not a date on the calendar, not a period of twenty-four hours or a number of years.  THE LIGHT OF CHRIST IS THE DAY!  This is our Day!  We are the children of this Day!  The day of the Lord is not a thousand years — but the symbol of one thousand years stands  for the day of the Lord. 

            The sons of God reign with Christ for a thousand years — that is, they reign with Christ IN THE GLORY OF THE DAY OF THE LORD!  The sons of God overcome Satan until he is unable in any way or manner to express himself in or through their earth for a thousand years — that is, Satan is rendered inoperative and powerless by the AUTHORITY AND POWER OF THE DAY OF THE LORD IN THEIR LIVES!  That is the only place Satan can be bound, and it is the only place one can reign with Christ!  No man who walks in the darkness of sin, or in the darkness of carnal religion, will ever completely bind Satan in the abyss of his heart; and no such will ever share the throne of the Lord.  No man devoid of spiritual understanding, illumination, and enlightenment can experience the power of God to rule.  No man who abides in death is able to reign in life by Christ Jesus.  

            The ones sitting on these thrones are overcomers who recognize that they are seated with Christ in a heavenly realm that is far above the influence of the carnal mind, the flesh, and the old Adamic heart.  They are reigning with Christ over every vestige of the old life and the beastly, satanic spirit within the natural man.  They have been beheaded, the old Adamic head with its carnal mind has been decapitated and they have put on the mind of Christ.  For them the curse has been removed and Satan has been fully bound.  They are now living in the “kingdom age” and in that heavenly dimension everything is new.  They think with the mind of Christ that does not contain the curse.  This reigning is reigning within ourselves — overcoming as we sit with Christ in the heavenly places!  This new mind has no curse — no Mosaic law, no condemnation, weakness, sorrow, depression, lust, ungodliness, discouragement, or death.  The former things have passed away and all things within us have been made new in the Day of  the Lord!  Isn’t it wonderful!

 

 To be continued...                                      J. PRESTON EBY