CLOUDS!
A cloud is something you can see yet cannot contain it. It can reflect the sun and also contain rain and it can hide a thing (like a plane) from our natural sight and yet we know it is there. To say something is in a cloud is God’s way of describing something in the spirit that natural eyes cannot see . . . but spiritual eyes can!
We have been told that Jesus is coming again ‘in the clouds’ . . . we are to be caught up into those clouds! So just what is the Lord wanting us to grasp when He uses the term ‘cloud’ or clouds’?
THE LORD DESCENDED IN A CLOUD
When God wanted to be with His people, He, being Spirit, came down to man’s realm in a cloud. The people could see the cloud but God remained invisible. He was not tangible yet He was right there for His voice could be heard. And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD (Exodus 34:5). The cloud showed forth His Presence with and for His people. Out of that cloud He communed with Moses.
LED BY GOD WHO CONTAINED HIMSELF IN A PILLAR-LIKE CLOUD
The cloud of God’s presence took on the form of a pillar for all to see. And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: (Exodus 13:21). God’s presence was in the pillar of cloud from whence He led His people.
GOD CAME CLOSER STILL
He would appear in the cloud upon the Mercy Seat (Lev.16:2). Now the Mercy Seat was in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle in the wilderness and this was the focal-point of the Feast of Tabernacles held in the 7th. Month. This cloud was the cloud of His presence and the cloud of His glory.
THE CLOUD FILLED THE TEMPLE
Later God had Solomon build the temple wherein He would dwell. (2 Chron 5:13). It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endures for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD. So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God (2 Chron 5:14 ). The Sovereign Spirit-God filled His Temple visibly but not tangibly. The power of His presence affected all the priests . . . God Almighty was present and He only was preeminent. His glory filled this temple. This pattern was for us today for we are the temple of the Holy Spirit-God and He is filling us with His glory.
OVERSHADOWED BY A BRIGHT CLOUD
Into the time of Jesus — a pattern event took place on what is referred to as ‘The Mount of Transfiguration’ . . . on the seventh day paralleling the seventh month and the Feast of Tabernacles! While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him (Matthew 17:5). This cloud enveloped ‘them’ (not just Jesus!) and Moses and Elijah were in that cloud. The ones at the top of the mountain were surrounded by the cloud of witnesses of which they were only enabled to see Moses and Elijah whom Peter recognized by the Spirit. This cloud was full of light . . . Christ is the Light of the World and so are we!
WHEN DID HE LEAVE?
In John 16:16 , In a little while I will leave you, Jesus told His disciples, And in a little while I will come again. The two ‘little whiles’ are the same word in the Greek text and therefore the second one cannot be ‘a great while’! On the cross Jesus said, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Jesus was no longer seen with natural eyes. The Spirit of God in Jesus went back into God and then Father sent forth the same Spirit that was formerly in the one body of Jesus Christ into the now corporate Body of Christ at Pentecost. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit (I Cor 6:17). So many have used the ‘letter-word’ coupled with natural and carnal thinking to try to solve just how Jesus will return. Jesus was a Spirit-man in a body and He told us that He and the Father were one — one spirit-man. After His resurrection, when Jesus showed Himself to His disciples, He ascended from the earthly scene and the cloud of God’s presence received Him.
JESUS ASCENDED INTO A CLOUD
Jesus went back into His Father . . . He went from the natural realm back into the realm of spirit. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight (Acts 1:9). This cloud just had to be the presence and glory of God, Himself. Father was receiving His son back into His glory which Jesus had laid aside for a season to accomplish the purposes of God. He left in a cloud and now He is coming forth in all His fullness in the many clouds of His perfected overcomers, His witnesses, as earth’s saints are caught up to be one with Him and them.
A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES
The background for this picture was the Olympic Stadium with the bleachers surrounding the running track in the middle. The perimeter at the top had busts of previous champions who were there to encourage the current runners on to greater achievements. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1).
WE ARE TODAY ENCOMPASSED
BY THE OVERCOMERS WHO
HAVE GONE BEFORE
Back to Hebrews 12:1 . . .Wherefore seeing we also are compassed . . . For us today the saints of bygone eras are a part of the great cloud of witnesses. These ones now experience the fullness of God and His power and His glory. When you read their testimonies, don’t you feel a kinship with them? Overcomers of all generations make up that cloud of witnesses and they as spirit-beings are encouraging us to press towards the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus for we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed . . . fully from the natural realm to the heavenly. The Kingdom of God on earth will be established as we come into union with Him and them in the spirit realm — for Christ only has one body and that is a corporate body.
HOW DOES HE COME?
Jude 14, quoting Enoch of old says, Behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints. The original Greek text declares that He comes IN MYRIADS OF HIMSELF. He in all the overcomers make up this glorious cloud.
He comes IN a cloud
Christ comes in a cloud to reverse the way of His leaving for He ascended in a cloud. Luke 21:27 ...And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory . In the natural it is very hard to see anything or anyone if they are IN a cloud! When Jesus ascended after His resurrection, a cloud received Him out of the sight of the witnesses. This cloud has within itself power and great glory ... thus it is not an ordinary cloud! God said that He would not share His glory with another! Yes, but we are not another for we are His body in the earth and you cannot get closer to someone than that! We are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.
he comes with clouds
Revelation 1:7, Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him. So far we see He comes in a cloud and now, describing the same event, it is with clouds. Thus we need to overlap ‘cloud’ with ‘clouds’. There is one cloud made up of a corporate cloud of witnesses wherein dwells the fullness of Christ. Daniel of old saw this scene clearly. He saw the one like unto the son of man come with clouds of heaven with power and great glory (Daniel 7:13-14). This ‘one’ was just like Jesus, the Pattern Son of Man.
CAUGHT UP WITH THE OTHERS IN THE CLOUDS
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:17) Now we see that there are already some saints in the clouds or else we could not join them! As we become fully and experientially joined into Christ — for He is changing us from glory to glory into His image — we shall be ‘on the same wavelength’ as those who have gone before and come forth fully in the spirit life of Father..
CLOUDS WITHOUT WATER!
By contrast many saints through the years have failed to move with the cloud of God’s presence and leading and so they only had withered messages and limited testimonies severed from the life-giving source of reality. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots (Jude 12). These dry vessels — ‘clouds without water’ — know nothing of the three feasts of joy which Father-God has purposed for them as the pattern for His people by which heaven’s will is accomplished in our earth.
So folks, don’t be looking for Christ to come forth in natural clouds, but rather know that we are being changed to become a part of that cloud of witnesses in full experiential union with Him.§
Home