"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 63
THE
CHURCH IN LAODICEA
(continued)
“Behold, I stand at the door and
knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to
him, and sup with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20).
Many wonderful things are said to
those who hear the voice of the Lord! In the days of His flesh the Lord
Jesus said, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live”
(Jn. 5:25). To John on Patmos the Lord said, “If any man hear
my voice, and open the door…” If any man hears His voice and knows that He
seeks entrance, if He allows Christ to come in, the promise is, “I will come in
to him, and will dine with him.” This has to happen spiritually, for no one can
come into us as a physical person! The door has to be the entrance into our
consciousness, into the avenues of our life. Christ longs to dine with us! He
wants to eat with us, and we with Him. He wants to share His life with us, that
we might become the bread of God to the famishing creation about us. So
the wisdom, knowledge, life, nature, power, glory, and spiritual realization
that is in the life of Christ comes to us as we eat together! “Man does not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
The food of every son of God is the Word of God — not the letter
of the Bible, but the living Word which Christ our life is!
Listen now, with bowed head and
contrite spirit, to the heart-cry of the lovely Shulamite as she, possessed by
the godly desire to enter into a closer relationship with her Beloved, and to
know Him in deeper measures of intimacy and union, which is also the deepest
desire of the Lord’s elect in this new kingdom day, implores, “Tell me, O Thou
whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou makest Thy flock to
rest at noon: for why should I be a veiled one straying beside the flocks of Thy
companions?” (S. of S. 1:7). All that the world or any creature can give, is as
ashes to that hungry soul that is longing for a revelation of his Lord. Nothing
else can satisfy, neither the Lord’s people (companions), nor the food of any
other field. All other love is as husks, to the love and companionship of
Christ, who alone is imperishable reality. The lovely Shulamite maiden in the
Song of Solomon represents the elect of God! Truly those who are the called and
chosen of the Lord long to be fed by Him, and by Him alone. They
would know where He is feeding His flock, that they may join that
company which follows the Lamb to Zion’s holy hill and feasts with Him upon the
mountain of His holiness.
It is absolutely amazing, the miracle
of the ages, to see how God is drawing those who are willing to pay the price to
go all the way with God in this momentous hour. His hand is upon every one of
them, and He is drawing them to Himself in increasingly deeper measures.
There is no self-satisfaction with those whom God is drawing, in whom He has
created the hunger after reality. Though we are always satisfied with Christ,
on whatever level we have experienced Him, it seems that the more we feed upon
Him and the more fulfilled we become in our relationship with Him, the hungrier
we are for Him! The more we drink of the living waters of His spirit and truth,
the more satisfied we become and yet the thirstier we are! The cry of the
Psalmist has become our very own, “As the hart pants after the waterbrooks, so
pants my soul after Thee, O God!” The closer we draw to God, the more Christ is
revealed to us, the more satisfied we are, and yet the more fervently our hearts
pant for Him. This is because a portion of our being has been satisfied, and
the portion that remains desires Him all the more! The reason many of God’s
people are not hungering and thirsting after Him, to know Him in a greater way,
is because they are not feeding at all, or are eating the unappetizing, impure,
contaminated food of the carnal doctrines and childish programs of the church
systems, and drinking lukewarm muddy water from the polluted streams of Laodicea!
Those who have received the call to
sonship have been melted down by the dealings of the Lord, that they might cry
to the Lord with a voice that would go right up into His heart, “O Thou, whom my
soul
loveth, tell me where Thou art feeding Thy flock,
that I may ever keep step with Thee and not be lingering
over food that is dried, withered, and untimely,
even though it may once, in some revival or experience of the past, been fresh.
Guide me, that I may walk in every ray of light, that I may feed upon every
morsel of present truth, which is the fresh revelation of Thyself, that I may
derive the quickening power to be all that you have called me to be and fulfill
all of my Father’s will.” “Tell me where Thou feedest Thy flock,” is the
fervent cry in the hearts of all the sons of God! We do know and thoroughly
understand that only to the degree that we eat of Him are we able to
be what He is.
There was a time when doctrine
was the passion of my life. I was an avid student of theology and meticulously
examined various doctrinal systems. Some of them I rejected, and others I
embraced. I thought it was most important to search the scriptures and, from
the letter of the Word, to determine what is the truth about a great number of
things. Then I got into the gifts of the Spirit and for a season miracles were
happening and wonderful healings and deliverances, and the gift of prophecy
gushed forth like rushing streams from the mountain tops. Then God began to
open the realm of sonship to my wondering spirit, and He has brought me to the
place over the past many years where my one and only desire is to SEE HIM, KNOW
HIM, and PARTAKE OF HIM who is the living reality. Many of the doctrines we
have learned may or may not be true, and whatever you or I believe about them, I
have discovered that the Lord is not nearly concerned about them as we are. In
fact, when the Lord reaches out to touch people and move in their lives, He pays
no attention at all to what they believe about the Godhead, water
baptism, sacred names, soul sleep, Sabbath days, and a thousand other issues men
quibble about. I am telling you that the living substance of
Jesus Christ is exciting me more than anything else that I have ever found in
the scriptures or in the realm of experience! The food for sons of God is the
“living bread” which if a man eats of it he shall never die; and the drink for
sons of God is the “living water” which if a man drinks of it he shall never
thirst. The words of the hymn writer have become gloriously alive in my heart:
Break Thou the bread of life,
Dear Lord to me —
As Thou didst break the loaves
Beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page
I
seek Thee Lord —
My spirit pants for Thee,
O Living Word!
The law of the New Creation demands a
change, a transformation — everything God puts within us WE MUST BECOME, until
we are what we contain. The transition is from mere possession to
a state of being. We have quoted the scripture, “Christ is made unto us
righteousness,” and we have confessed, “Christ is my righteousness!” We have
talked about imputed righteousness, imparted righteousness, and how Christ
within us is the righteous One. That is a great and blessed truth! But if you
never get beyond that you are like a baseball player who hits the ball and only
gets to first base. For you see, the scripture also says, “He hath made Him to
be sin for us, who knew no sin; that WE MIGHT BE MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
IN HIM” (II Cor. 5:21). You will discover a great truth when you understand the
difference between Christ made righteousness unto us, and we made the
righteousness of God in Him! In the first I seek the Lord and find Him as
my righteousness. In the second I press my way into the fullness of God and
discover that all He is, which has been credited to my account by grace, I MAY
NOW EXPERIENTIALLY BECOME! Entrance into Him takes me out of the realm
of imputed righteousness and places me into the reality of realized
righteousness. This brings transformation into the image of God! It is union
with God in His personality, and participation with God in His nature and
ability.
Let me illustrate. In the process of
a chicken being formed the egg must first be fertilized. In the moment the egg
is fertilized the new little chick comes into existence in the egg. A
tiny little speck of blood appears in the yoke of the egg. That speck is the
embryonic life of the chick formed in the egg. You still have the egg — the
white, the yoke, the shell — and within the egg is that little germ of life
living and growing. But the egg is still the egg and the chick is the chick.
Each is separate and distinct from the other. The marvel of it is that as the
chick develops the Creator has wonderfully provided for the chick to live off
the egg. Both the yoke and the white of the egg are drawn upon by that life,
consumed by that life, absorbed into that life, completely swallowed up by that
life. Once the chick was in the egg. But now the egg has become the
chick! The life of the chick in the egg consumes the egg, and when that little
chicken finally pecks his way out of the egg — where is the egg? It’s
walking on two feet! There it goes! Isn’t it cute! Why, the egg now
has feathers! The egg is the chicken, whereas before the chicken was
in the egg. The egg has been changed — metamorphosed — transmuted — and has
become the chicken. Can you not see the mystery?
One of the laws of nature is that
what you eat becomes you. It has been said that you become what you eat,
but that is not quite correct. What you eat becomes you! Over
the years I have gained and lost weight from time to time — sometimes in
significant amounts! When I weighed fifty pounds more than I do now, every one
of those pounds was me. They were one and all J. Preston Eby. They came
from eating steak and potatoes, and, of course, many other things. The steak
and potatoes became Preston Eby! The beef that once grazed contentedly
in the pasture was now raised up into the human family. Out from the
vegetable kingdom, the lowly potato had now by transformation been raised up
into the kingdom of man. That beef and potato had truly BECOME A HUMAN BEING.
They no longer existed as steak and potato — now they were — me!
When I waddled down the street no one
exclaimed, “Look at that 180 pounds of steak and potatoes!” It wasn’t steak and
potatoes walking — it was me. You could examine that paunch around my middle
under a microscope, by Xray, or any other sophisticated medical test, and you
would not find one microgram of steak, nor one molecule of potato. What I eat
becomes me! What I drink becomes me! What I take into me to contain, becomes
me! I take it in and contain it to this great end — that it become me. What a
beautiful figure this is of that which is spiritually transpiring in the lives
of God’s sons in this day of the Lord! God puts Himself into us, His
righteousness, His peace, His joy, His nature, His power, His wisdom — and HE IS
MADE UNTO US ALL THAT HE IS! But we are not content, as are others, to just
contain this life. Oh, no! As we live by His life Christ is raised up in us —
AS US. The Word is made flesh in us, the heavenly is transmuted into the
earthly, and we become what we contain. No longer is Christ made something unto
us, but we now BECOME ALL THAT HE IS! It is not any more Christ in me the
hope of glory — now it is only THE GLORY! Christ and I are one. There is
no difference. That is the glory of sonship. Oh, the mystery of it!
Go with me now to the land of Israel,
almost two millennia ago. It is the month of Nisan, and a prettier spring one
could hardly remember. This “beginning of months” in the Hebrew calendar
corresponded roughly to the latter part of our March and the first part of April
and marked the end of Jesus’ three and a half years of sonship ministry.
Sometime during the day Jesus was asked by His disciples, “Where would you like
to take the Passover this year?” (Mk. 14:12). Always before, Jesus had seemed
to know where they would observe the Passover together, but this time His
instructions were rather strange, even to those disciples who again and again
were surprised by the things Jesus would say and do. He told Peter and John, “I
want you to go and get a place ready for us to partake of the Passover.” They
replied, “Where do you want us to prepare this place?” “Go into Jerusalem,”
Jesus replied, “and you’re going to see a man carrying a pitcher of water on his
shoulder. I want you to follow him, and whichever house it is he shall enter,
you ask for the owner of the house, and tell him, ‘My Master asks, Where is the
best room where I can keep the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a
large upper room at the rear of his home, completely furnished. I want you to
stay there and make all the necessary preparations.”
For about a month now the entire city
had been in preparation for this important feast. Bridges were repaired, walls
whitewashed, sidewalks and drains cleaned and repaired, decorative friezes
painted, as the whole city took on an expectant, excited pace. Thousands of
lambs were brought in from all parts of the countryside, and ceremonial
preparations were under way in all homes for days in advance. The priests would
carefully select lambs “without spot or blemish” out of the herds on the tenth
day of the month — three days before Jesus sent Peter and John into Jerusalem to
find their guest chamber. The lambs were brought into the slaughtering houses
in the city.
There is one important point we must
notice carefully. As we examine the biblical record it becomes clear that Jesus
intended sitting down to a paschal lamb supper about 20 to 21 hours before
all the rest of the Jewish homes would be doing the same thing. This truly
was to be, then, a special supper! After they had all taken their seats
around the table, Jesus, having led them in prayer and pronouncing a blessing on
the food in a particularly moving manner, told them, “I have had the deepest
desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer (that explains why
He was celebrating it early!). Because I’m telling you, this is the last
time I will eat it with you until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God”
(Lk. 22:16). The disciples were undoubtedly puzzled. They knew they were
sitting down to a Passover supper with the roasted lamb, bitter herbs,
unleavened bread, the cups of wine; they knew that Jesus was particularly heavy
in His spirit and unusually serious and saddened. And so the supper commenced.
Then, a new phase of the supper
seemed to develop. They had all eaten when Jesus took a loaf of the flat
unleavened bread, began to break it, and again blessed it, gave it to them, and
said, “Take and eat of this, because this is my body which is given for you.”
As Jesus broke this bread into pieces He knew that in only a few hours His very
flesh would be broken open in great wounds — that He would be fulfilling His
role in this fleshly life as a great sacrifice on behalf of the whole human
race, for and unto whom He would give His “body” in a spiritual dimension, which
body is His “Living Word,” for it was the “Word” which had been made
“flesh”! Later, He took the vessel of wine and blessed it, then poured it
saying, “Drink, all of you, because this cup is the New Covenant in my blood
which is shed for many. Because I’m telling you that I will not drink of the
fruit of the vine from now on until the day that I drink it new with you in
my Father’s kingdom. Whenever you drink this cup, I want you to do it in
remembrance of me, because whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
will be proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes.” His blood is His Life,
or His Spirit, for “the life of the flesh is in the blood.”
There are many things to learn from
types and anti-types, for by them truth is taught with greater force than any
uttered words. I would like to point out that the Last Supper was a
memorial. “And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave
unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in
remembrance of me” (Lk. 22:19). Paul also referred to this event
when he wrote, “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto
you, that the Lord Jesus in the same night in which He was betrayed took bread:
and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take eat: this is my body,
which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of me. After the
same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the
new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in
remembrance of me” (I Cor. 11:23-25).
I don’t know how Christians came to
the conclusion that the “Last Supper” was in fact the “first” of a new
ritual supper! This wasn’t something that Jesus did uniquely on that
night. This meal, the Passover meal, was something that was done annually
at that time of year as a memorial to the first Passover in Egypt when the
firstborn of Israel was saved by the blood of the slain lamb. The Passover meal
was always concluded with bread and wine. By this the children of Israel had
memorialized the death of God’s Lamb for fifteen hundred years! They
memorialized it with a type and shadow — bread and wine. In type, the
flesh of the lamb and the blood of the lamb were the same as the bread and the
wine — two different figures of the same thing. And so we read that “Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us” (I Cor. 5:7).
For all those years they had, in
symbol, been partaking of His body and blood as bread and wine. So the Last
Supper was but one of many hundreds that figured the offering up of Christ for
the life of the world. He was not doing something new! He was not
instituting something different! He was doing the same thing Israel had
done every year for fifteen hundred years which symbolized what our Lord was
about to bring to completion and fulfillment on the night when He ate the supper
with His disciples. The bread Jesus blessed and served to His disciples that
night represented His body, while the cup of wine represented His blood of the
New Covenant, which was shed for many for the remission of sins. It is His
life that takes away our sins! It all represented our salvation. When
Jesus blessed the bread and wine, and told His disciples to partake of it, He
was illustrating the wonderful truth that their salvation was now being
accomplished and fulfilled. As Jesus spoke those words, Father was arranging
the events that would fulfill His eternal purposes for the salvation of all
mankind. All that was required at that time was for Jesus to have His body
broken and His blood poured out, releasing into humanity the living Word and the
incorruptible Life that was in Him. He gave it not only for us, but He
gave it to us. TAKE, EAT! That is where our salvation is, eating and
drinking of Him in the power He has made available through His death, releasing
all that was true in Him to become our very substance and life! Isn’t it
wonderful!
No one realizes better than I the
difficulties faced when declaring the things I am teaching here. But I must
emphasize again that when the Lord Jesus said, “For as often as ye eat this
bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come,” THE LORD
WAS SPEAKING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE ISRAELITE WHO KEPT THE PASSOVER FEAST!
He was not instituting a new ritual, a new ceremony, or a new
ordinance, for Jesus did not come to establish more types and shadows and
outward observances. Oh, no! He came to fulfill all the types and
shadows within Himself, He came as the fulfillment of all the law and the
prophets, He stepped upon the scene as the reality of everything that the
natural and literal and outward feasts of Israel pointed to! So — why would He
set up a new ritual to memorialize a reality that had already
come? The very thought is absurd! You see, precious friend of mine, Jesus
wasn’t telling them to eat bread and drink wine as a new ritual
observance. It was not a command! All He said was, “As
oft as ye eat this (Passover) bread, and drink this (Passover) cup, ye DO
show forth the Lord’s death till He comes.” It was just a statement of
fact in reference to the annual Passover meal.
On the night of the Last Supper the
Lord had not died yet, the Lamb had not been killed, Christ our Passover had not
yet been slain for us. More than three years before this hallowed night John
the Baptist had declared, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world” (Jn. 1:29). Jesus was the Lamb of God! He had been separated from
the flock as a pure and spotless Lamb qualified to be offered up in sacrifice.
But the Lamb had to be slain at the time of the Passover to take away the sins
of the world! At the Passover meal the Lord said, “As oft as ye eat this
bread and drink this cup, ye do show forth (typify, signify, point
to) the Lord’s death till He comes.” The great soul-gripping truth is this.
Jesus was not referring in these words to a new ordinance they were to observe
under the New Covenant — He was speaking of the Passover meal they were right
then eating, which the children of Israel had been eating for fifteen hundred
years, and which many of them, including these disciples, would continue to
observe for some time (Acts 21:20; 18:21; 21:18-26) until the new
order of spiritual reality had been completely established in the Lord’s New
Covenant people (I Cor. 5:8; Heb. 9:8-11). It was a time of transition,
and only gradually did the Lord’s people grasp the truth that since Christ had
fulfilled all the Old Testament outward feasts and ceremonies, it was no
longer necessary to perform external rituals. It was the higher revelation of
the apostle Paul which finally established the great truth that the feast of
Passover is now fulfilled spiritually within us, and weaned the saints
away from those outward observances. “For even Christ our Passover is
sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, not with old
leaven…but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”
(I Cor. 5:8). Sincerity means purity, that which is unmixed with the
old; truth means reality, not the shadow, but the substance!
That’s how we keep the feast!
Therefore, indicating the old,
natural, ritual Passover meal, we read, “And He took bread, and brake it, and
gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in
remembrance of me.” Let me say it again — these words do not, by any
stretch of the imagination, establish a new “Christian ordinance”! The Lord is
telling His disciples, “Take this bread that I now give you and eat it
with enlightened understanding — this Passover bread which you have eaten for
fifteen hundred years means my body which is broken for you. Now eat it
tonight, and on any future occasion when you may keep this Passover feast, not
as a memorial to the lamb in Egypt those long centuries ago, but eat it in the
full comprehension that it memorializes ME! I am the Lamb to which all other
Passover lambs have pointed — and tomorrow I will die for you!” That, my
beloved, is why this meal is rightly called the “Last Supper” — it brought the
end of the shadow — the true Lamb was now coming into view!
Therefore, “As oft as ye have eaten, do eat, or continue to eat this bread, and
drink this cup (of the Passover meal), ye do show forth (signify, typify, point
to) the Lord’s death till He (the true Lamb) comes (and is slain for you).” It
should be clear to every thinking mind that the Lord is not talking at all about
a new ordinance the church was to keep for two thousand more
years; rather, He was speaking of the Passover meal He was eating with His
disciples that very night! The true Lamb was even then “coming” to be
slain; He was that night on His way to the slaughter!
How quick the Lord’s people are to
take something the Lord does and make a ritual, ceremony, or tradition out of
it! Thus it is that the Lord declares, “Your tradition has made the word of God
of no effect.” By our tradition of continuing the symbol of eating bread
and drinking wine to show forth the Lord’s death till He comes, we make His
coming as the Lamb of God, our Passover slain for us, of no effect!
Hear me, my beloved, HE HAS COME! The Lord has come! The Lamb has come! The
literal Passover meal is ended! There is no more shadow or type,
no more memorial to His death, for the REALITY is here! The life of
God’s Lamb is now realized within us spiritually by the power of the living
Christ!
It is my deep conviction that the New
Covenant is a spiritual covenant of reality and life, not
containing within it any Old Testament style external rituals or outward
ceremonies. It was the Old Covenant that stood in “meats and drinks, and
divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of
reformation (change)” (Heb. 9:10). In celebrating the fulfilling of the
Old Testament feast of Passover Jesus said, “I will not drink henceforth of this
fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new (in the New
Covenant, spiritually) with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Mat.
26:29). Luke records it thus: “I will not anymore eat thereof, until it
be fulfilled in the kingdom of God” (Lk. 22:16). In my spirit I hear
the words of Paul explaining this mystery, “Who hath translated us into
the kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:13). And, “The kingdom of God is
not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in
the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17).
According to Jesus there was coming a
day when He would drink a new wine with His disciples in the kingdom of God that
would be of superior quality. That new wine represents a new life and
spirit of which His chosen ones would partake; it is superior wine for it
speaks of the fullness of the Spirit. That new wine, when we have truly drunk
it with Him as we sit at His table and sup with Him and He with us, will provide
full and complete salvation for the entire Christ body, who are all sons of
God. To drink this new wine of superior quality, with Christ in our Father’s
kingdom, shows that we have been transformed into His image and likeness. It
also shows that we have inherited the kingdom prepared for us from the
foundation of the world. THIS IS TAKING PLACE WITHIN US NOW AS WE SUP WITH HIM,
AND HE WITH US! The old wine of external observances represents in a figure
the transforming power of His life, but the new wine of superior, kingdom
quality contains within it the power of the Spirit and will complete the process
of our full salvation, making us kings and priests in the kingdom of God after
the order of Melchizedek. To drink this new, kingdom wine, we must become new
wine vessels. Our Father is now making us new wine vessels, that we may fully
drink of the new and superior wine of the incorruptible glory and life of the
kingdom of God!
That the bread and wine of this new
superior kingdom quality is not physical, natural wafers and wine is clear from
Paul’s teaching about “communion.” Hear what he says! “The cup of blessing
which we bless, is it not the COMMUNION OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST? The
bread which we break, is it not the COMMUNION OF THE BODY OF CHRIST?” (I
Cor. 10:16). Then, that we may clearly understand what elements he is talking
about Paul adds, “For we being many are (the) one bread,
and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread (Christ)”
(I Cor. 10:17). The word “communion” is from the Greek koinonia meaning
“partnership, participation, intercourse.” Can we not see by this that WE ARE
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE BODY OF CHIRST! WE ARE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE BLOOD OF
CHRIST! This is not fulfilled by wafers and wine, but in our union with Christ
where we drink living blood, the wine of Christ’s Spirit that flows through His
corporate body. We are also eating His flesh, the living Word of His substance
made flesh in us.
Jesus said, “I am the bread that is come down
from heaven.” He certainly did not mean that He was a wafer you could pop in
your mouth on Sunday morning! As we partake of Him, not in a
wafer, but in spirit and in truth, by the power of the Holy Ghost, we eat of
that bread and become that one bread. As He is broken among us,
His life shared, His word communicated from member to member, we are partakers
of that one bread and satisfy our souls by being filled with all the goodness of
God. We have all hungered for fellowship with those of like precious faith, yet
this too is a haunting shadow of the past. There is a communion beyond a mere
assembling of bodies in one place — there is a communion of kindred spirits
in the secret place of the Most High. As we enter into union with God we
have a fellowship divine through the transmitting power of the Father of
spirits; spirit conversing with spirit: this is truly the communion beyond
the outward and external. This communion is known only in the kingdom of
the Spirit, which is the kingdom of our Father! This is the assembly of the
heavenly mount Zion and the Jerusalem which is above; this is the communion of
the assembly of the first-born-out-from the Father! This is being one with the
Father, and with the Son, and with each other in the Spirit!
Paul says that the cup which we
bless is the communion of the blood of Christ, and the bread which we
bless is the communion of the body of Christ. The cup most churches bless
is the cup of Mogan David wine or Welch’s grape juice, and the bread the vast
majority of churches bless is communion wafers or soda crackers. That is not
the cup the sons of God drink of, nor is it the bread the sons of God eat of!
When we are unified together, one in Him, we become that one bread which is the
bread of life. This bread is sweeter, more delicious, giving superior strength
and substance above any of the cheap imitations of religion. What a remarkable
people you are — the elect of God! You are in the world to unveil the presence
and life of the Lord. You sit at the Father’s table eating and drinking in the
kingdom of God as our Lord Himself prophesied you would. Your calling is to
give yourself to humanity that they might be quickened and caused to live in the
presence of God. Therefore, the cup which WE BLESS IS the communion of
the blood of Christ in the Spirit, and the bread which WE BLESS IS the
communion of the Word made flesh in the body of Christ! Oh, the mystery of
it!
We are that one bread, His life in us is that
precious blood, praise His name! We do not bless the outward cup of the Old
Covenant, we bless the cup of the New Covenant which is new in the kingdom of
God. Here is a description of the most perfect and spiritual communion service
you can ever attend: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my
voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him,
and he with me.” The church world has never discerned the body of
Christ, they have not perceived that it is HE who dwells in the midst of His
people and that it is there, in His body, that He lives as the bread and the
blood from heaven. When we speak the words of His life, and minister in the
power of His life — this is the Lord’s Supper!
It all boils down to whether we
understand the Word by the Spirit, or carnally; whether we believe that eating
His flesh and drinking His blood can be done physically, or whether it must be
done spiritually. It is an utter impossibility to eat or drink Christ with my
physical mouth; therefore, I can only eat and drink of Him in the same spirit in
which He spoke to the sinful woman of Samaria, “I have water to drink, which if
a man drink of it, he will never thirst again.” I so eat and drink in
remembrance of what He accomplished for me at Calvary! I so eat and drink in
participation with Him in what He is to me and in me right now! I can say with
assurance that once you eat and drink this superior bread and wine with Him in
the heavenly and spiritual kingdom of the Father, the old-order carnal
ordinances of the church systems will never satisfy!
There are natural foods that you can
feed people and they will hunger again. The nutritious strength and life
received from these foods are only temporary, they last only for a season.
There are doctrines and creeds and rituals and words of men on the religious
buffets of the church systems that have no life in them, that can neither
support life nor sustain life. But there is a bread from heaven that if a man
eat of it he shall never die and never hunger again! With the disciples of old
our heart’s cry is, “Lord, evermore give us this bread!” We desire this
bread, and our Father is giving it to us as we yearn for Him.
God has purposed to reveal every
aspect of His purpose through His Christ, Head and body. So we are living this
very day in a progression. God is marching on! He wants to reveal Himself and
unfold this glorious One that we call the Lord Jesus Christ. He is standing at
the door knocking. Open the door and invite Him and He will come in to you and
will sup with you on a plane where you have never before known Him. God is
preparing a people at this very time who are yearning for a further revelation
of the Lord. These apprehended ones are not looking back fondly on the “good
old days” when God moved in mighty power, wishing that they could have continued
to move in those days of glory. This people God is preparing today is not
lamenting or trying to recapture or perpetuate the glory of the past. It is a
true and wonderful fact that for every “day” in God there is fresh manna, there
is that fresh unveiling of the glory of Jesus Christ. This is not a time for
God’s sons to try to recapture the past, or try to warm over the glories of
yesterday. I heard a brother who teaches the message of sonship and the kingdom
of God, just the other day say, “I’m looking for God to move again like He did
in the great Latter Rain outpouring.” Oh, no! I have no desire to see God move
again as He did in 1948 or on any other date in history. This dear brother has
missed the point altogether. None of those former moves of God, no matter how
powerful and glorious they were, brought the kingdom of God to pass in all the
earth, nor did they deliver creation from the bondage of corruption. They
blessed a few of earth’s people, and then went the way of all flesh.
There is something brand new for you
and me today in the economy of God! The elect of God are now in a time of
patient waiting as they are being prepared for the hour when the younger sons of
God shall attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of the firstborn
Son. Some people don’t like to wait. Some brethren say we have waited
long enough, so let us step out from behind the veil and begin to evangelize and
do all those things we have already done in Passover and Pentecost. Methinks
they would not have tarried in the upper room either, they would have already
left the hundred and twenty and gone out on the streets of Jerusalem passing out
tracts! And they would have aborted their calling and missed the glory when it
came! This is not a time for those who treasure the beautiful hope of sonship
to get excited about doing exploits for God in the waning anointing of
yesterday or by the threadbare methods of the past, even if they do call
it sonship. The glory that fills our expectant souls today is born of the
knowledge imparted by the mind of Christ that the hour of His manifestation
draweth nigh — the hour when Christ shall come in fullness to be revealed IN HIS
SONS, and they shall reign over the earth.
From time to time the Lord speaks to
me in dreams — usually at about six o’clock in the morning. Some years ago
Larry and Betty Hodges were scheduled to be here in El Paso to share with the
saints. That morning I awoke from a dream. In the dream I was in a large hall
such as is used for meetings and functions of various kinds. At one side of the
hall, against the wall, was a table. To the right of the table were a few
people seated in chairs along the wall. Brother Hodges was standing before the
table, facing the wall, ministering to the people seated against the wall. His
back was to the large hall. He was ministering from a manuscript on the table —
I could see that it was typewritten, with a number of pages, and double-spaced
like a manuscript prepared for a publisher. He had reached the bottom of the
first page and was speaking words that caused a great excitement in my spirit.
I was thinking within myself, “Amen! That’s right, brother! That’s what the
Lord has been teaching me!” It seemed it had something to do with death to
self.
Then I noticed two long tables out in
the center of the hall. And I noted that brother Hodges was facing the table
and the people along the wall — his back to the hall and the tables. I was
aware that a great number of people would soon be arriving. The tables,
however, were cluttered with food and dirty dishes left over from a previous
banquet. There were two place settings that had not been used at the head of
one of the tables. Obviously, the banquet that had been held there had ended,
and things were not ready for the people that would be coming. I thought, “We
must clear all this away and make preparations for the arrival of the people.”
Someone began to help me and we cleared the tables. Then a folded map appeared
in my hands. I laid the map on a shelf — and awoke from the dream.
In my meditations that morning the
Spirit gave me understanding of the dream. Needless to say, I was very curious
to see what brother Hodges would be ministering that day! I saw that the
manuscript he was ministering from was like an unpublished manuscript — a
fresh word, a new revelation for a new day — unknown to the masses of
believers. It is that which can only be known by the Spirit and is witnessed to
by those who are hearing from God in this hour. Those that receive this word
are few in number — a “little flock,” the “remnant” of the Lord. But there is
coming a great change! God is soon to move in a new way, in the power and glory
of the kingdom of God, and there shall be a great ingathering. Multitudes will
flow into the kingdom of God, and many nations will say, “Come, and let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will
teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law of the Lord
shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Mic. 4:2).
But things are not quite ready — there are yet preparations to be made!
The tables with the left-over food and dirty
dishes speak of the previous move of God — the feast of Pentecost. It was a
glorious feast with rich blessing for many — but the feast has ended. There
were two tables — the early and the latter rain — but the meal is over! Only
remnants of blessing and vessels remain. Those that were ordained to come and
partake of that feast came and ate. Some that were bidden to the feast didn’t
make it, or refused the invitation, represented by the two place settings that
had not been used. The truth that gripped my spirit was just this: the former
feast is over and God is now speaking from an unpublished manuscript! We have
not passed this way before, and God has not done in the past what He will do in
this new kingdom day! What He has to say has only begun — for brother Hodges
was still reading from the first page of the manuscript. He is dealing
with His called and chosen elect about the price to be paid to
participate in the new thing God will do — hence my impression that the portion
of the manuscript being read from had something to do with death to self.
The Lord is also dealing with His chosen ones about the preparations to be
made for the next great move of God — the feast of Tabernacles! In the feast of
Tabernacles the sons of God shall be revealed! There shall be a great
ingathering, multitudes brought into the kingdom of God.
This is the hour of preparation. Let
us prepare our hearts! Let us leave behind the feast that has ended. Let us
not sit any longer at the table, eating the left-overs of what the Lord prepared
for another day. Those who have heard the call of the Spirit have now set
their sights and hearts upon the feast that is ready to dawn! In the dream
brother Hodges had his back to the hall with the tables of left-over food and
dirty dishes. In other words, he represented that those called to sonship in
this hour have renounced the feast that has ended, have turned away from that
with which God is finished. He was ministering from a higher realm, speaking of
a new day, and pressing into a new glory!
Finally, I saw that the map
represents our present walk in the Spirit and our destiny in God. In this day
God is raising a people into heights never known by man. He is ushering a
people into a new place in God, into a realm in the Spirit, into an attainment,
a ministry, and a glory never before experienced by any except our glorious
Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are now preparing our hearts for the new and
greater thing the Lord is doing and shall do in our day!
The Lord promises to sup with each
one who opens the door and promises also that the one who does open the door
will sup with Him. Let us look at the real meaning of this word “sup.” It is
from the Greek deipneo meaning “to dine, i.e. take the principle or
evening meal.” There is a point here that the English translation does not
make. To many supper is not a main meal. The Greeks ate three meals in
the day. Breakfast was only a slice of dry bread dipped in wine.
Lunch was seldom eaten at home; it was a scratch meal eaten in a city square
or wherever a man happened to be. But supper was the last and main meal
of the day! This was the meal at which a man sat and talked for hours, for now
there was time, for work was ended. There is something very lovely here! It is
not a mere courtesy visit, paid in the passing, which the Lord Jesus offers us.
It is supper! He desires to come in and sit long with us, and to wait as long
as we wish Him to wait, until we have heard all His words, understood all His
will, and until we are filled with all the fullness of this last and greatest
feast!
Those overcomers who are called to
sonship in this day have received a personal invitation from the Lord of glory
to have supper with Him! He has ushered us in to the “marriage supper” of the
Lamb! We have already eaten with the Lord at other times and on other levels,
but now He has called us to come into union with Him and “sup” with Him. For
some years we ate breakfast with the Lord in the Outer Court. It was the feast
of Passover — bread and wine. Then we entered into the Holy Place and had lunch
with Him. It was the feast of Pentecost. But now we have been invited to
supper, the third meal of the day. This is also the third feast of
the Lord, the feast of Tabernacles!
What sets the feast of Tabernacles
apart from all the others is the abundance enjoyed during the feast. It’s the
full harvest. At the celebration of Tabernacles, not only had the barley and
wheat been harvested, but also all other grains, the fruit of trees, the olives,
the grapes, all that could possibly serve as food or drink. The harvest was
complete! On the spiritual plane this points to the fact that God has been
using His people everywhere to whatever degree He has prepared the vessel for
that revelation of the Christ. There has come a beautiful unfolding of His
purpose, the outflow of His life and the manifestation of Himself throughout the
church age, right up to the present time. But there shall yet come the
ultimate, the total, and complete revelation of Jesus Christ — not a narrow,
limited thing, not to get a number of people saved and filled with the Spirit,
and healed and blessed and used — but the kingdom of God coming with power and
great glory through manifest sons of God, as an expression and manifestation of
God in His total capacity with no limitations, with all the power, with all the
glory, all the might, all the majesty, all the authority, so that nations will
be swept into the kingdom of God, creation delivered from the bondage of
corruption, the last enemy, even death, destroyed from off the face of the
earth, and all things made new. It is indeed wonderful!
Oh, what a grand and glorious realm
lies before us in the feast of Ingathering! The day of the full fruit of the
Spirit! The day of Perfection! The time of full and complete redemption,
spirit, soul, and body! The full and complete experiencing of HIMSELF! The
fullness of Strength and Power and Glory! The Feast of feasts! The strange
part of the whole thing is this, that the whole purpose and plan of God for this
new day of the kingdom of God is completely obscured and lost amidst the shout
and euphoria over the “firstfruits” of the Spirit which we received in
Pentecost. Those who glory in the “firstfruits of the Spirit” do not know what
this day is about! They can see the healings, deliverances, miracles,
prophecies, gifts…and so forth; and they understand not that it is God in His
great mercy inviting His people to enter on in to their full inheritance. They
do not realize that all this is but the foretaste and earnest of their heritage,
and that God bids us arise and come away with Him to the great Feast that lies
before!
One cannot explain to an
unregenerated and unbelieving man what Passover means unless God causes him to
see it. Passover is distinct from anything that an unbeliever has ever
experienced! There are those who have experienced Passover, knowing the joy of
sins forgiven, yet they have no comprehension at all of what it is to experience
Pentecost. It is like trying to explain the world of man to a worm! Today,
there are believers who have experienced both Passover and Pentecost and yet,
they are as blind as bats to what the feast of Tabernacles is about. I am
declaring to you that there is a third realm in God for us to
experience! Some feel that they are already living and walking in the feast of
Tabernacles, but I am sure they are walking in the assurance of the
revelation of it more than in the reality and power of it.
The truth is, there is a fullness that we do not yet have! This third dimension
brings His Lordship with all the authority, power, and glory that brings. And
this feast, being the last, brings perfection! It brings the consummation of
our salvation in spirit, soul, and body.
This third dimension in God is the place where you and I, in the spirit,
appropriate all the fullness of the Most Holy Place. Some are talking
about coming out from behind the veil and manifesting sonship to creation, yet
it is evident in their lives that they have not yet experientially
appropriated the full glory, power, and dominion of that superlative of all
realities in God. Coming out from that realm is premature! Blessed are they
who are called to this great Feast, that which supersedes Pentecost, that which
is the BALANCE OF THE MEAL of which Passover and Pentecost were merely the
first courses! And the balance must therefore come, the remainder of the meal
which will give strength to the laborers to go forth and accomplish great things
for the Master. Aren’t you glad!
To be continued…
J. PRESTON EBY