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The Overcomers – Part V
In
Genesis 1:1 we read the verse in the KJV as follows:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The Hebrew
for the word “beginning” has in its meaning the word “firstfruits.”
Eighteen times it is translated as beginning and twenty-eight times as:
firstfruit, first or chief. So, we could read the verse as: “In
the firstfruits God created...” Ponder this thought in the
depth of your being. The firstfruit of the Father was His Son, the pre-existent
Christ, that is the Son in the Spirit before He made His earthly incarnation.
Does not the Word proclaim that we were in Him from before the foundation
of the world? It is found in Ephesians 1:4 which states:
“ According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” We can
see then that Genesis 1:1 is expressed in Paul’s thought of Ephesians 1:4.
The church was called out as a firstfruit of the world, even as Christ,
the firstborn of all creation, was the firstfruit of the church. For just as
Christ was birthed out of the Father, so all creation was birthed out of Christ
which we find in John 1:3 which states:
“All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was
made.” Scripture declares that God is holy and that we are to be holy
like Him. Since He is the firstfruit of the Father, then it follows that all
that is created from out of Him also has to be holy. The
pre-existent Christ was the firstfruit of God. The creation of Adam was a
firstfruit of all creation. Jesus was a firstfruit of the faith spoken of in the
Levitical offerings in Leviticus 23. The church, the true body of Christ - not
any religious system - is the firstfruit of the earth that the whole will be
brought in. Since we were chosen in
Him from before the foundation of the world, we are to reveal the very nature of
Christ. This process of the revelation of Christ is seen or clarified in the
book of Revelation, for it deals with the firstfruits coming into the revelation
of Christ. View the book of Revelation from this perspective. There
is always a firstfruit as a dedication offering to the Lord. God calls us as a
remnant to be a kind of firstfruit even out of the church, that body of Christ,
of which every believer is a part. Within the church is a firstfruit. As an
example, out of the world came the church (born again [Passover] believers),
from out of the church came those filled with the gifts [Pentecost] of the
Spirit, and from out of them came those who are called the sons of God,
[Tabernacles]. Each remnant a saint can ‘pass through’ and mature into. For
it is not a time oriented place but a relationship realm in God. This
wave offering is different from the first found in the Passover feast.
For this wave offering is a production of Christ as an offering, since it is
tied in with the Altar of Incense. The first wave offering was a firstfruits
unto coming into Pentecost, but this wave offering, specifically called the
firstfruits is to show the laying down of the Christ life, acting even as Christ
did, for the benefit of others. This speaks of a people who have come into the
identity with Christ and now use their life as an offering to set others free.
But more about this later as we talk about the Altar of Incense.
Consider Adam from another perspective. In our writings over the years we
have shown Adam as a type of Christ. Simply stated he was not deceived as Eve
was (1 Timothy 2:14); he knew what he was doing. God had called him to oneness
with God. To learn this, Eve was given to him to teach him the oneness that he
had with God. When Eve transgressed, Adam understood the principle of God
needing to maintain the oneness. He crossed over and bore her sin on himself so
that in the future she would be credited with producing the holy seed (Mary
producing Jesus). He is a perfect type of the Lord.
Recently, I came across a publication of 1843 where the brother expresses
the same thought about Adam! James
Reilly states: “He voluntarily put
himself into her condition, by receiving the fruit from her hand, and eating
thereof: such was his love for his wife. And as they were not (though distinct in person) without each other in
the Lord, her transgression extended unto him; and his union
unto her, made it equitable for
the curse and condemnation of her folly to fall on him; and that without
the consideration of his consent and compliance with her.”
Adam understood the purpose of God - union, oneness. He, like Christ,
gave his life for his wife even as Christ gave his life for the church, yea,
even the world. Christ was not deceived. He knew what He was doing and why.
Jesus understood the purpose of union and identification with us. He bore our
sins in union with us. Adam bore Eve’s sin in union with her. We need to come
into such a union of oneness with God that our sole purpose is our identity with
others. Just as Adam was never out of union with Eve, even so her sin affected
him. So also Christ was in union with the church even though she sinned. The two
are inseparable. Adam voluntarily placed himself in full identity with Eve and
her transgression. Likewise Jesus did the same with the world. Adam knew and
experienced his wife’s frailties because of sin, so that he might bear her
burden and judgment. Such union, such purpose is also seen in Jesus the Christ.
“For
if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so
also are the branches.” Now if the Father is the root, and the Son is
the vine and we are the branch, the whole is holy for it is all begotten of the
Father. If the remnant, those
called and chosen to be conformed to His Image, are identified with Him, then
the rest of the body of Christ will follow into His nature also. God knows that
the firstfruits are just that, firstfruits of what will come. So, God created in
the beginning with the final expectation of what the firstfruits would produce -
the full revelation of Himself. Rejoice for the trials and sacrifices that you
are going through are so that the whole body of Christ can come completely into
His Image.
When I had heard the parable of the true vine, I always identified with
the branches. Such a reaction is a natural selfish way of looking at things.
When we look at the part (i.e. branches), we are carnal because we fail to see
the whole. The Adamic nature always looks for itself, tries to find itself in
the “small picture.” But the nature of God looks for the whole and the plan
of the whole. The branches are PART of the whole and should not be focused
on, but should be seen only within the context of the whole. We must see
that God is moving with a holistic purpose. This seed can produce only what it
is.
Maybe a comparison between a
Kiwi bird and an Eagle would be appropriate. The Kiwi is a New Zealand bird. It
has wings to fly but they do not work. It has a long beak and feeds at night by
eating bugs that come out in the tall grass. The bird has no vision. If the
field the bird was in caught fire the Kiwi would find out by its beak being
burned! It has wings but no ability to see above the current situation. But the
eagle, soaring from the air can spot a fire a mile away. It is important that we
see the whole and not the part, or that which is immediately in front of us. If
we act or react from what is immediately in front of us, we fail to act
properly. A proactive person sees the whole, the distant future, and plans
accordingly; he is not affected by the current.
There is a union not only of
purpose begun with the “beginning” but a union of nature as well. “Of His own will begat He us
with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His
creatures”(James 1:18). God planned from the foundation a
manifestation of His firstfruits which started with the pre-existent Christ. The
union of God and creation starts at the beginning, which is also the ending. God
creates from the firstfruits so that all will be summed up in Him in the end (1
Corinthians 15:25-28). God’s goal is the end, the final product, if you will.
To accomplish the end, He has selected a firstfruits company founded by His Son
to establish the end result, manifest it first, and bring it to a conclusion.
The nature of the firstfruits is identical with the nature, character, of God.
Exodus 23:19 states: “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shall bring into the
house of the Lord thy God..” The firstfruits are the offering that is
acceptable to God. Jesus was acceptable as a sacrifice to God not only because
He was God’s Son, but also because He was the firstborn of all creation. He
established a heavenly man in a natural realm (1 Corinthians 15:44-49). Thus, He
could be the propitiation for our sins because of who He was - the firstborn of
a new creation.
Isaiah 46:10 reads in the KJV:
“Declaring the end from the beginning (Hebrew firstfruits), and from
the ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying My counsel shall
stand and I will do all my pleasure.” The end is based upon the
beginning or as the Hebrew states, the firstfruits. If the firstfruits are
not in proper order, all is failure. If you were to draw a line and it was
not completely straight, say just off one-quarter of an inch, within a mile you
would miss the mark or location you wanted by over 200 feet. It has to be
perfect. The pre-existent Christ was/is. The pre-existent Christ lowered Himself
a little lower than the angels and appeared as Jesus and was the perfect man.
God has called a firstfruits from the earth who are redeemed from men
(Revelation 14:4). These are those that stand before the throne. They stand
because they have entered into His nature. They do not have to bow down as some
do, because they are standing in His nature and not their own! As Hebrews 2:8-9
states:
“Thou hast put all things in subjection
under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing
that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But
we see Jesus… “ The
firstfruits are here because Christ was a firstfruit unto God. It just does not
yet appear to the world what will be.
“The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” states Psalm
111:10. How often that verse has been quoted and received with rejoicing.
Yet, the word “beginning” is the same word that is found in Genesis
1:1. So, let us read that again this way: “The
fear of the Lord is the firstfruit of wisdom.” Christ was the
firstfruit. It is only as we enter into union with Him Who is the only
firstfruit that wisdom begins. Oh, let me say that again in another way for the
importance of it cannot be lost! He has the only true identity. Adam’s
identity is a lie, deception. There is no life but His. We do not have a life
which we share with Christ but rather His life is ours. (Even that statement -
His life is ours - reveals duality which there is not.) 1 Corinthians 1:24
states that Jesus is the Wisdom of God, the firstfruit of wisdom!
As firstfruits we reveal the original firstfruit. Proverbs 8:24 speaks of
wisdom when it states: “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning
(firstfruits) or ever the earth was. When there was no depths, I was brought
forth.” Where was wisdom?
In the beginning, it was the very foundation of all that was created. Wisdom was
Christ and we were in Him. Proverbs 8:21 states:
“That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill
their treasures.” The word “treasure” found in Exodus 19:5 is
similar to Peter’s quote in the New Testament when he speaks of “treasure”
which means a storehouse. Consequently, those who love the Lord, the
firstfruits, will have their void, their armory, their storehouse filled with
the substance of wisdom, which is Christ, Himself.
Christ is married to the church. We need to comprehend the depth of this
mystery. As a husband and wife become one in spirit, soul and body, so then all
that they do is the appearance of one. Since our identity is in Him Who is the
firstfruit, the One who will bring all things into Himself, we must also
function in like manner. This brings the restoration of all things spoken of in
Acts 3:21.
Job was a blessed man of the Lord. He had a wonderful family and his
first family was, as it were, a firstfruit. Because of his trials he lost all he
had including his children.
“So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning
(firstfruits).” Job had 14 children in the latter end (seven sons and
three daughters in the beginning). It took the firstfruits in Job’s life to
produce the latter end. It took the righteous nature of God in His life to
enlarge Him. Christ, being of the nature of God, the firstfruit of God, will
enlarge the revelation of the nature of God. Since we are seed of His seed,
begotten out of Him we also will assist in the revelation of God. Thus, the
glory of the latter house is greater than the former because it has been
enlarged.(Haggai 2:9) Firstfruits are merely an indication of the crop that
follows.
A farmer rejoices at the firstfruits because he knows what will follow.
He shouts for joy at the firstfruits not because of them but because he knows
they indicate the harvest that is about to take place. Sometimes I think
Christians are hunters rather than farmers. They are always hunting - trying to
find the one that needs to be saved. Hunters seek out one but do not stop to
plant and raise. Hunters get excited and rejoice over one that they “bag”
for the Lord. The vision of the hunter is for the immediate - that which is
presently before their eyes. The farmer on the other hand looks for the end
result and sees the firstfruit as confirmation that the end will be just like
the beginning. The farmer sees the whole. God preferred the offering of Abel
over the hunter. Not that the hunter’s offering was bad, but the attitude of
the hunter was open to question. But we, like Abel, need to be farmers and
cultivate the seed that is already in the vessel and allow it to come forth in
the field given to us. The harvest field is white and ready. It is time for the
firstfruits to begin that harvest.
“Of
His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of
firstfruits of His creatures.” It is out of His will that the
firstfruits come. They can do nothing but the performance of His will, because
they have been conformed to His nature. There can be no other truth than the
one purpose of God - to manifest Himself in all creation. This presents the
unity of it all. For who has seen
the complete work of the Lord but Him who saw the end from the beginning or the
end from the firstfruits of it all.
The “word” of truth in the Greek is Logos. (See our message on the
Logos for the greater detail of the truth of “Logos”).
But suffice it to say that the Logos is the revelation of the divine
expression made manifest in the earth. The Logos not only spoke it all into
creation but spoke Himself into the creation as the manifestation of Jesus. He
came to set me free that they might through Him become one with Him and the
Father.
Out of the Father’s will. Think about that phrase. Out of the
Father’s will. The will begat us.
The will is a means of creation. Carefully ponder what I am about to say. The
Father is masculine - able to place His will (seed) so that it can beget. Now,
He begat us through the word of truth. The “word” is the Logos, which is His
Son, the pre-existent as well as the physical manifestation. His Son carries us
in His womb to deliver us up to the Father as a firstfruits to the Father. The
firstfruits are acceptable to the Father and therefore the whole field; the
children that follow out of His womb are acceptable. Oh my, what a precious life
this is!
Now we know that the tares grow up with the firstfruits until the time of
harvesting the firstfruits. Then the difference is noticed. As we read the
parable of the 30, 60, 100 fold we find that the seed that is sown is Christ
(Luke 8:11). Christ sows Himself into the earth, the Adamic creation, us. The
seed of Himself is already acceptable to the Lord, His Father. Thus, Christ who
birthed all creation out of Himself (John 1:3-4) established beforehand that the
firstfruits would be acceptable. So, in the plan of God Christ is in the process
of creating sons who are of His seed.
How good is this seed? Jacob says of Reuben, his firstborn: “Reuben, thou art my firstborn,
my might, and the beginning (Hebrew firstfruits) of my strength, the excellency
of my dignity, and the excellency of my power.” While we know that
Reuben was a man begotten from a man and not a perfect type unto us, yet we can
draw life from the statement that Jacob makes for it is true of all firstfruits.
Also note that Reuben was of “power” and consider then that the firstfruits
are from “God” which in the Hebrew plural as was mentioned before, means
power. The word confirms itself.
There is in every man an amazement at the power to procreate. The ability
to give life is just as powerful to a man as it is for a woman to carry and
birth a child. When the child comes the world gives much glory to the woman and
deservedly so. But the man is greatly left out of the picture. He too is
overpowered, overwhelmed at the birth of a child because he realizes the
strength of himself and what it means.
It is no wonder that Jacob looked at Reuben all the time and thought of
his firstborn with great consideration regardless of the frailities of that man.
Every look at his son brought to Jacob the thought of the remembrance of God
coursing through Jacob and empowering Jacob with the ability to give life. So
too Jesus was ecstatic over the firstfruit of His loins and the possibilities.
The plan of the ages would be complete because the firstfruits were birthed and
had been conformed to His image. “These
are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they
which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes. These were redeemed from among men,
being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb ”
Rev.14:4. These were not defiled with women. What does that mean? As one studies
the word, we find that Eve was deceived. Eve came out of Adam.
He represents the spirit and she the soul, the feminine. The word
“psuche” in the Greek is feminine and is used for the soul. These 144,000,
the firstftuits, were not defiled by the carnal mind. They had no relation with
it. No marriage was made, that is, the carnal mind was not allowed to consummate
its fleshly desires.
The spiritual nature of the firstfruits was not beguiled by the fleshly
nature of Proverbs 7. The writer of Proverbs states clearly that Wisdom (ie.
Christ or at least the Holy Spirit) was to be the man’s sister. The carnal mind tries to seduce the young man. If it does,
the individual must walk a path that is far more arduous than if union was
maintained with the family of God. These were virgins it states. Virgins because
they had not given themselves over to the temptations of the desires of the
flesh.
The firstfruits did not prostitute themselves for a moment’s pleasure.
They decided to use the Spirit of the living God in them to “keep” them from
evil as 1 John 5:18 states: “...he that is begotten of God keeps himself and the wicked one
touches him not.” They follow the pattern that Jesus set before them.
Jesus in Matthew 4 is led of the Spirit into the wilderness (read our booklet
about the Wilderness) to be tempted. He in His temptation did not identify with
the temptation but identified with the nature of God in Himself and thereby
overcame the temptation. So too, the firstfruits. They are so focused on who
they are in Christ that they cannot be drawn away from their identity - for
their life is hid with God in Christ. This
is the difference between the firstfruits and the others who follow after them.
How else could they follow the Lamb wherever He goes if they did not keep
their eyes on Him? It is because their focus is on Christ that they have the
victory. When you walk with Christ you have fellowship with one another as you
are in the light (1 John 1:7). In Him there is no darkness at all. One cannot
get lost, cannot fall out of the light into darkness if he walks in the union of
the Spirit of 1 Corinthians 6:17, because he that is joined to the Lord is one.
In fact this word “join” is the same word “made” in the KJV of Ephesians
2:14. He has made us one by removing the wall that was between us. They can
follow the Lamb because the skin, the face that covers the deep, has been
removed from them.
We note that these were “redeemed from among men.” The word “redeem” means to have been bought. Once bought
the ownership of the thing determines where it resides, lives and dwells. Christ
has bought us and placed us in the realm of life for us to walk in. Salvation is
for the soul in that Jesus offered His soul for the adamic soul (Isaiah 53:10).
Redemption is given for the deliverance of the body, the natural body. Paul
writes how there is a house within our natural house (2 Corinthians 5, see our
audio tape). When the time comes the earthen, this adamic, will be removed and
the inner nature and the inner house, not made with hands will appear. There
have been men who have seen it from afar (Hebrews 11:39-40), who possessed it by
the Spirit (kairos time) but it was not the appointed time (kronos time) to
manifest it. Chronos is chronological time, watch time. But Kairos is used as
relationship time.
Consequently, there is a cloud of witnesses, people from times past that
are a firstfruits company waiting for the sons of God of Romans 8:19 to manifest
- apocalypse, unveil, reveal the complete revelation of Christ. The sons of God
are the last who receive the same wages as the firstfruits of previous ages.
But let us take a moment to consider the cost of being a firstfruit. It
takes being cut off from the source of life that you have had, even as Jesus was
cut off from the Father on the cross for the sake of others. Yet, it means also
that the life in you, that Christ life, is powerful enough to deliver you from
the cross. Such a union! The firstfruits are to be a sacrifice so that others
can enter in - a bridge that others can feel free to walk on. The firstfruits
are “crypt-kickers,” that is, they have conquered death and no evil thing
can hurt them even if it takes their natural body. Death cannot touch them
because they have been harvested into life by allowing the dying of the
Lord Jesus in their body to have its way (2 Corinthians 4:10). Rejoice ye
firstfruits. Oh, clap your hands all you people for there is One who is the Way,
and He has prepared a firstfruits that are a pleasing savor unto Him. It is
these who have come out of the fire and have no smell of smoke from the lake of
fire on them. They have overcome. He is their God and they are His son -
Revelation 21:7 - the eighth level, the new beginning of overcoming. The Altar of Incense There are, as you know by now three vessels in the Holy Place. Each brings great truths of the New Testament to us. As one enters the Holy Place, the first place one would gravitate to is the Table of Showbread because the bread speaks of food, for us, individually and corporately. We must be able to feed ourselves. Then one progresses to the Candlestick, which speaks of the gifts of the Spirit and the giving of oneself to the ministry to others. When we come to the Altar of incense we come to serve God. Each of these first two are horizontal in their position to the Brazen Altar and Laver. The last vessel that we come to is the Altar of Incense, which is vertically positioned. Horizontal is man to man relationship. Vertical is God to man relationship. Cloud
of Glory Mercy
Seat Ark of the Covenant Candlestick
Altar of Incense Table
of Showbread Laver Brazen
Altar Thus, we have the shape of the cross clearly visible in the layout of the Tabernacle and the order of progression found in God. The truth is, we come to the Table to eat of the bread to feed ourselves and then we reach out to others via the gifts but the most important is the Altar of Incense and our ministry to Him. In truth, it is only as you minister to Him that you can really minister to others. For when you see others as Him, then you minister.
The altar was made of acacia wood (KJV shittim), which speaks of
humanity. It is overlaid with gold (Exodus 30:3) which speaks of the divine
nature of God covering us. For Jesus alone is our intercessor for us, our
righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) He has overlaid us with gold
(Zechariah 3:4-5) by and of Himself being covered with our sins and exchanging
them for a crown of glory. There is no other intermediary that is needed except
the Lord. As we offer ourselves as Romans 12 states, then we are offering Him
within which enables the nature of Christ in us to reach out to others. The altar of incense had rings placed on it so that it could be moveable (Exodus 30:4). Because God loves us He always wants us to improve and grow in Him. To nurture and encourage this in us, He requires us to be flexible and changeable as well as amiable to it! Our Altar of Incense, personally designed for us by God, is a place of sacrifice. It is a moveable sacrifice in that He wants us to be offered up for all men in all situations. Remember,
this altar is not the altar of salvation – this altar is the second
altar. The first altar did away with the sin nature, that old fallen nature,
that nature inherited from Adam. This altar is not offering up a sin offering.
This altar is offering the nature of Christ that is worked out in you. For it is
Christ in you that can be offered for the world to find Him. You are the only
manifestation of Jesus they are going to see. So at every opportunity you are to
be offered up for the sake of the brethren and the world for Jesus came not only
for the house of Israel, the brethren, but also for the world. God has been
working in you, doing His good will and pleasure (Ephesians 1:9) In fact, Romans
6 is really about the second altar, where our identification is with Christ and
His death and resurrection, not on our personal salvational experience, as it
has been taught. Romans 12:2 states:
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect,
will of God. The perfect will of God is that I “urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your
bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your reasonable
service of worship" (Romans 12:1). The only one living in you is Christ. Adam is dead. Christ is
the only one that is acceptable to God, whether the babe in the manger or the
adult on the cross, whether you are a new creation in Christ, or a mature one.
Only He who is in you is acceptable and He is the only one within you. It is important for us to differentiate between the God-given personality
He bestowed on us, the fallen nature and the new nature. The personality you
have is neutral. It is influenced either by the fallen Adamic nature or the
nature of Christ. When God saved you, He removed the Adamic nature. He did not
remove your personality. Now, your personality has to be trained in the new ways
of Christ to forsake the old. Those old ruts are hard to get out of. But as we
behold Him and do not concern ourselves with the ruts, we begin to arise, as He
draws all men unto Himself. Your personality and Christ is all that remains in you after salvation,
regardless what the church system has taught. You are not a sinner any longer.
You are a new creation in Christ. You were a sinner, but you exchanged that for
life. The church system, as a whole, keeps the saint focused on the sin nature
and thereby the saint never matures in Christ. But in reality the marriage
supper of the Lamb is the nature of Christ marrying your God-given personality
to reveal Him coming in the flesh again – 2 Thessalonians 1:10. It is this revelation – the one in you – that God is calling to be
offered up as a sacrifice. The altar of incense is a place of worship as Romans
12:1 states. It is far different than worship as we call it in church services.
In worship there is a praise to God but it blesses the individual too. But this
worship is different. The individual receives nothing out of it but the pleasure
of offering himself up. The highest form of worship is that you offer yourself,
that you are sold out to the purpose, as Jesus was completely committed to
offering Himself up. That is true worship – not praise songs, not worship
songs which bless the individual, although those are fine. God has called us to
be crowned (the Altar of Incense is crowned with a ridge 30:3), crowned with a
golden crown (30:3) which is the crown of thorns. This is the pleasing sacrifice
that is offered ,and that is why the Altar of Incense still has the horns on its
corners, as does the Brazen Altar. The first altar has a sin offering tied to
it. The second altar has tied to it an offering of life eternal, the mature life
of Christ in the individual. Incense
was burned on the Altar twice a day – in the morning and evening. The Altar
was not to have any burnt offering or meal offering or any libation poured on it
nor any strange incense (30:8). The only acceptable offering was the incense of
a crucified life. For grace is only manifested in a life as we remain on the
cross. When you get off the cross, the Law comes into effect. We have full
freedom to walk in Life as long as we remain in grace and grace is only found as
we live in the crucified life. Your whole day (morning to evening) is to be a
manifestation of the work of the cross, so that Christ can be revealed and
offered to all men by the pleasing aroma of the fragrance of Christ – by the
walk that you live. As 2 Corinthians 2:15
states: “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are
saved…” an incense that sends a whiff, a scent of the Lord to those
who know Him. “He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels."(Revelation 3:5) Revelation 1:1 states: “The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him…” Jesus was clothed with a special garment. He was clothed with “a revelation” of God. He lowered Himself from the heavenly, spiritual realm and took on a form of man, not that He was a man (Philippians 2:6-7). No man could offer Himself as our Savior, only God could. Jesus took on the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3). Jesus was clothed with a cloak of humanity, albeit, humanity before the fall. We have humanity after the fall. He revealed the nature of the Father in that which He was clothed. Now because He has set us free from sin and death, we are being changed; a new garment is being placed on us. We have taken off the filthy rags of the adamic nature and walk in the newness of life, revealing the garment of praise, a life hid in Christ. The garment that the Lord gives the overcomer in the fifth level, that level of grace working within, that level where the altar of incense offers up the aroma of Christ, is the swallowing up into His nature. “And while he was praying, the appearance of His face became different and His clothing became white and gleaming.” (Luke 9:29) On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus revealed the inner nature, that identity of the Father (for He and the Father are One). It encompassed about his outer man. The garment that is given to the overcomer is not something that is outwardly discerned, but rather is fashioned in the heavens by God without human hands (efforts) (2 Corinthians 5). It is in this spiritual habitation, this realm, that Christ lived and now the overcomer resides there also. Spiritually the saint is clothed with the nature of the Father, but others cannot see it unless God reveals it. It was only when God moved on Peter that Peter knew Jesus was the Christ. The overcomer endured the cross in his/her life, even as Jesus did – for the joy that is set before (Hebrews 12:2). The overcomer submits willingly, humbly to the dealings of God, because the overcomer knows that the Life of God is the answer to the world’s problems. The overcomer knows that it will take a man, a corporate man, as well as individuals who comprise the corporate, to deliver mankind from the death and decay that exists. The overcomer long ago gave his life to God so that God could be made manifest in his/her life. The death, the sacrifice being offered, is the very life that the overcomer sought. But the victory is joyous. The white garments speak of purity. But it is even more than that. Jesus was wrapped in a garment at the time of His burial. His preparation for burial was the means to reveal the Life of the resurrection. He was prepared for death with myrrh, aloes, alabaster and other materials. The altar of incense requires a sacrifice, one who has been prepared. This Christ in you, the hope of glory, is being prepared. The overcomer recognizes this and yields to the dealing of the Lord. The purity which the white color speaks of is holiness, without which no man can see God. The white speaks of being set apart for the purposes of God. It only comes when one is fully identified with the Son. If we are identified with His death, then we will be glorified with Him Romans declares in 6:5. This is not talking about a salvational experience here. Although some might construe it that way, this verse is talking about an altar of incense experience, a white robe experience. It is not talking about something we get after ‘we get to heaven’ as the normal church order teaches. Rather it is discussing an experience in this life now. It is only as we remain on the cross that grace can be manifested. It is only as we remain in death that life can be seen. Now the Lord states that he who overcomes will not be blotted out of the book of life. This statement is quite formative. For if you have overcome up to this point, and you enter into this realm, then there is no longer any identification left with the old nature, that fallen nature, that adamic nature. This statement in the Lord is not a negative but a very strong positive. For the Lord is saying that if the work of God is wrought into you, then when you come to this place, you will remain in life. There is no longer any death working in you. When you enter this level, the tree of knowledge of good and evil no longer exists. You have stopped eating from this tree and now are fully persuaded to eat only of the tree of life. You began eating from the tree of life with the first level of overcoming, but now it has its finished work within you and there is no longer any desire nor attraction to the old tree of knowledge of good and evil. In fact, there is nothing within you to desire from that poisionous tree. You realize that Life is found in death and identification with the Lord. The word "confess" in Revelation 3:5 is the Greek homologeo, which comes from two words: Logos and Homou. The word "Logos" is the same word used in John 1:1-5 where it states: “In the beginning was the Word …” Jesus was the divine expression, the Logos of God (see our book on the Logos, the Light and the Life). Now the word ‘homou’ means "together with" and even more thoroughly “it denotes coincidence of kind or quality” as Zodhiates states in the Hebrew/Greek Study Bible. So, when the Lord confesses us to the Father, He is stating to the Father that we are one with Him in purpose, function and identity. Revelation 3:5 goes on to state that He will confess us before the Father and His angels. The area of discernment is that of angels. Angels in the Greek are not white robed, feathered creatures with a halo that fly around. The actual Greek states simply that the word means a divine messenger. Angels are merely people who have been commissioned by God with a heavenly call or purpose. Write us for our material on who angels really are). When you are fully identified with the Jesus, then the angels, those divine messengers of a spiritual realm, will rejoice for you have joined their ranks. You no longer produce on a carnal (in opposition to natural or spiritual) plane nor are married on the carnal plane. What does that mean? It means you have no relationship with the fallen carnal nature and you no longer try to produce life on the carnal plane but seek to produce life only on the spiritual plane. The
Lord has a “few
people in Sardis who have not soiled their garment” proclaims
Revelation 3:4. Soiled garments means that some people have worked in the flesh
rather than in the Spirit. They have tried to perform godly works with the
efforts of themselves rather than exercising Christ. Did not the Lord say in
Matthew 7:22 “Many will say to me in that
day,' Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast
out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?'” And did He
not say: “I
never knew you.” Though these proclaimed they were doing the work of
the Lord, Jesus declared they were not. Their garments were soiled. They did do
the work of the Lord, but since their hearts were not right, it cannot be
considered from God, although God honors Himself when He is called upon. If the
heart is concerned with self whether that be self-promotion, self-enrichment, or
any other self-desire, and does not have God first in love, purpose and call,
then the garment is soiled. This fifth level of the overcomer reveals the
remnant that desires nothing but God and thereby will be confessed to the
Father. SUMMARY
The Altar of Incense is a spiritual realm that requires the revelation of
Him, the sacrifice of Him. We must be willing to lay down our personal Savior
and our relationship with Him for the sake of the brethren, even as Paul was
willing to be a castaway for the sake of the Jews coming in. We must be willing
to offer up the manifestation of Jesus within us to the world so that the world
might be saved by Him Who is the light in us. We cannot save the world, but we
can be the saviors of Obadiah 21, because we allow Him to openly use us for His
glory. He will be glorified in His saints as we yield to the Life of Christ in
us.
What a privilege to be offered as a firstfruits of Him. What a privilege
to give the Life of God to the people as we bear about the dying of the Lord in
us. What a blessing to be called to die, even as He was called to die. What
greater love can any person have than to reveal Him to others? What more could
we ask for than to be changed into His Image and wear the same garment as He?
All of this is done by the pleasing aroma of the fragrance of Christ
wafting upward from out of us. It is only as we remain on the path of purpose,
the call of the cross, that grace abounds within us creating the opportunity to
release all creation. |
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