Living at Gilgal - Part 3

by Larry Hodges

"And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times" --Joshua 6:15.

    There is indeed something of fullness in the above Scripture which catches one's eye. It occurs on the seventh day; they compassed the city (Jericho) seven times, and all was done on the authority of seven priests blowing seven trumpets! It fails not to bring to one's remembrance the sevens of the Feast of Tabernacles, the seventh feast, in the seventh month which lasts for seven days.

    Leaving these seven priests and all the silent men of war to march around Jericho on the seventh day, let us look for a moment at the breaking of the seventh seal. "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels (messengers) which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets" --Revelation 8:1,2. Don't these two occurrences sound very similar to each other?

    We know that the number seven is symbolic of fullness, maturity, perfection or completion, so it follows then that what we are here seeing in both above instances is a scene of something of fullness, maturity, perfection or completion. That the messengers of Revelation 8:2 were each given a trumpet is clearly a symbolic manner of saying they were each given a message to proclaim. A trumpet sound is the sounding of a message. There have indeed been various trumpets or messages which have sounded down through the last 500 years of Church history. (Of course, there has always been a witness to the true gospel. The Waldenses of the Italian Alps bore 1,000 years of persecution unto death simply because they would not relinquish their scriptural views or manner of worship to those of Popish Rome.) We can find all seven trumpet messages briefly described in Hebrews 6:1, even to those of Tabernacles -- the resurrection of the dead and aionian (not eternal) judgment.

    Finally, we come to that last great sounding trumpet, the sounding of which must cause the kingdoms of our world to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ (Rev. 11:15) and also must cause the dead in Christ to hear the voice of the Son of God and arise from Adam's dust to take part in the first resurrection. It is this perfection or completion, we are told in Hebrews 6, that we are to press on toward; the truth of our completion and fullness in Christ. The thought suggested is that over the years these various messages were sounded. And each has gripped us as yet another birth-pang which, coming progressively closer together, shall finally culminate in the bringing forth of that manchild spoken of in Revelation 12:5.

    It is this last great final trumpet, this final message, that has lain longest under the seal of obscurity and misunderstanding. Until the time came for it to be revealed, all the Scriptures relating to it have remained cloaked in secrecy and therefore in misconception. Until God's time arrived for the seventh seal to be broken, the many Scriptures relating to the time and purpose of the seventh trumpet have continued to be misunderstood and misapplied.

    But even though we believe that the time of the breaking of the seventh seal does surely and quickly approach us, still, we do not claim to possess all knowledge concerning it; only our small part. We do, however, maintain that fresh, clear and original (as to this time, at least) light is presently being given through many vessels of the Lord.

    The breaking of the seventh seal (Rev. 8) prepares the way for the seven thunders (Rev.10:3) to utter their voice of mystery and then, with the sounding of the seventh trumpet (Rev. 11:15), we find an explanation and resolution to the mystery uttered by those seven thunders. We do believe that we are in the days when the seventh angel is about to give forth his sounding trumpet that shall be as a sound of alarm to all of professing Christendom. It shall be not only a message which concerns fullness, but an uncompromising message which comes forth to produce fullness.

    With each sounding of a trumpet of God comes another measure of light and life. What was sounded in a previous trump is not discarded and replaced by the sounding of a later trump. The ministries of Martin Luther, John Wesley, Charles Finney, and others still speak to us today. All the light and life of each sounding trump of God is carried over into the next sounding trump.

    Thus, "the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov. 4:18), for those hearing the sounding of the seventh trump shall have all of the light and life of the previous six to walk in besides. No wonder they hear the encouraging sound of; "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth (but we don't dwell in our earth), and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" --Isaiah 60:1-3.

    Only those who have arisen out of Adam's dust to live in Christ, shall know such a light as the glory of God rising upon them. Woe to those who dwell in the earth, who derive their life from it rather than from Christ. The sun of those abiding in Christ shall no more go down because it is no longer the sun of reason, that light by which the entire world walks. Their moon of the sense life no longer offers its light because the Lord alone, the Lord Himself, is their everlasting light! Hallelujah! This is all utterly dealt with in the opening of the sixth seal in us.

    This is the New Jerusalem which is from above! It is neither from nor of the earth. Its life and light is God-only! Oh, these walking here are glorious, but the place to which they have arrived is not the result of their efforts. They are the planting of the Lord, the work of His hands, and He alone receives the glory. And God has given His word saying that when the time for this people to be brought forth has finally arrived -- Himself will hasten it! "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" --Isaiah 40:5.

    This is the fulfillment of that which is written, "After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men (the rest of mankind) might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord who doeth all these things" --Acts 15:16,17. This people who shall come forth in Christ's fullness is the reality of what the tabernacle of David was but the type. A people in whom there is no veil of the flesh to conceal, to obscure, or to hide the God or His glory that is in them. It is the day when the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and therefore the light of this day shall be as the light of seven days and as the light of seven sounding trumpets, for the Lord has healed their wound which Adam inflicted at the beginning.

    No sooner shall men behold this transparent people who live only in God than they shall cry out to God for themselves. And everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

    The seventh trump or message shall be sounded forth through many messengers at this time loudly and clearly, and the effect of this shall be that "the dead (in Christ --us!) shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed" --I Corinthians 15:52. Do you doubt that when Paul says, "the dead", that he is speaking of us? "For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God"--Colossians 3:3. This is the Holy Spirit of Truth saying to us that we, we, we are dead and that our life is hid with Christ in God. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead, is freed from sin. . . . reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" --Romans 6:6,7,11.

    We are explicitly told, commanded, to reckon, to regard, to consider, to count it as so, that we-are-dead. But, thank God, not just dead and left there! If we are dead with Him, we also are raised up together with Him. As God's people begin to hear the wonderful harmonious sounds and implications of the seventh messenger's trumpet, they will be raised from the tomb of a mortal body and shall be changed! This mortal shall, under the sound of the last great trumpet, put on immortality. This mortal shall begin to live in the place of "not I, but Christ" and shall therefore cease to live as though his life came from the mortal body and begin to act and live as if Christ Himself were indeed his life!!

    It is a truth which can no longer remain hidden, "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?' The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" --I Corinthians 15;53-57. This is not speaking of something which is to take place out in some graveyard. It is the first resurrection and it is an inward and spiritual resurrection which takes place upon the sounding forth of the seventh trumpet, the seventh and last message.

    We read "And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, 'Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered and write them not'" --Revelation 10:4. It seems safe to assume that what the seven thunders had uttered had to do with what the number seven stands for symbolically--fullness, completion, perfection, maturity. John obviously liked what he heard so much that he began to write it down but was told instead not to write it down, but to seal it up.

    When a thing is sealed up, it becomes a mystery, a secret; it is not open. But we have hope given us, because the voice goes on to say, "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel (messenger), when he shall begin to sound, the mystery (which John had just created by sealing up what the seven thunders had uttered) of God should be finished" --Revelation 10:7. It would no longer be a mystery, because in that day, the seventh angel (messenger) would be declaring it openly.

    Daniel, the great man of God, dearly beloved of God, had been shown some things pertaining to the "time of the end" and was also told to, "shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end" --Daniel 12:4.

    The apostle Paul told of being "caught up to the third heaven, . . . into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" --II Corinthians 12:2,4. Once again, we find the mysterious restriction placed upon the revelation he had received. He was not permitted to utter (plainly) some of the things he had clearly seen in the third heaven (the realm of the Holy of Holies in Moses' Tabernacle).

    I am fully convinced that the reason there was a seal placed upon this revelation was that it was not then the time for that message. It was not the time for that which pertained to fullness to be revealed in Daniel's day, nor in Paul's or John's day. The voice which spoke to John clearly promises, though, that there would come a day in which it would be appropriate to break the seal of secrecy which lay upon those hallowed truths contained in what the seven thunders had originally uttered. For in the days when the seventh angel (messenger) begins to sound, that mystery would no longer be a mystery. It would be proclaimed openly. That day has arrived and no sooner shall the sixth seal be opened within us than we shall begin hearing the voice and entering into that life and reality of which the seventh angel sounds forth.

    God has a sweet and irresistible persistence about doing things in His own order and timing. This extends even to the proclamation of the gospel in its gradual unfolding and increase of light and life. Concerning the seven feasts of the Lord, "These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons" --Leviticus 23:4. It is very clear to all that God intended that each feast be attended with a message and that it was vitally important that these messages be proclaimed in their preordained seasons.

    It is extremely important that we keep in mind that the things of which we read in the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ have not to do with outward things where we are concerned. There shall be some things which eventually come to pass in the outward realm in which most of humanity and a very large majority of the Church lives, but the kingdom of God, the kingdom which the Son prayed to come is within! All that God is dealing with in our lives is within. It began within as a small but incorruptible Seed, it has continued within until that incorruptible Seed develops to the point where the within swallows up the without!

    With that thought in mind, let us listen in on what ensues as the seventh angel begins to sound forth his great earthshaking, kingdom destroying message to those who have ears to hear. "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign for the [ages of the ages]" --Revelation 11:15 brackets Concordant Literal New Testament.

    Of course, traditional religion would have us believe that the kingdoms of "this world" is speaking of the present outward physical world in which the natural man finds his life and being, and surely, it shall eventually find a fulfillment there. But this book is not written to those living in that world. It is written to a people who have left that world and seek a kingdom not of this present world! If this book is the unveiling of Jesus Christ, then it must of necessity speak of that realm in which He is to be unveiled--within! The kingdom of God is within you!

    I do verily believe that the kingdoms of the outward physical natural world shall eventually come down, but not until God has produced a people in whom their world, their little kingdoms, along with all their hopes, aspirations, dreams, goals, ambitions and agendas, have crumbled into the dust of Adam, and the Lord alone stands supreme to rule as absolute Sovereign, without reservation or rival, in their entire lives, in all its interests and activities, within them.

    This people are typified as Daniel's "little stone" that was cut out of the mountain without hands. That is, a little, insignificant people separated out from the great mountain of religious Babylon, not by a man's doing (without hands), but by the Spirit of God alone. This people, this little stone, shall smite the image of Nebuchadnezzar (an image representing all the kingdoms of the world) in its feet, meaning, it smote it in the latter days, for the feet of this image represented the kingdom of the latter day. This little stone in whom there is no kingdom left standing in opposition to God's, is the instrument that God will use to bring down the outward kingdoms of this world, making them the kingdoms of our Lord and His (whole) Christ.

    Beloved, this people cannot come forth upon any other ground than resurrection ground. These are those who are able to say of a truth, with Christ, "We are they that live and were dead; and behold, we are alive forever more." Why? Because they have done the whole work of God, which is, they have believed what He said. They believe that they were indeed crucified with Christ and that it is no more they but Christ that now lives and that the life they now live, they live by His faith. This is the only people who shall be able to confront death and overcome death. Therefore they are able to truthfully say, "We have the keys of the grave and death."

    As I have said in parts one and two of Living at Gilgal, if there is to be a people who shall overcome the last enemy, death, then it must be a people who actually entrust themselves to God to such an extent that they count not their lives dear unto themselves. It must be a people who have the sentence of death in themselves; who trust not in themselves but in God who raiseth the dead. It must be a people who expect God to deliver them from so great a death as the tomb of this mortal body. It seems that the great stone and hindering impediment which must be rolled away in order for His people to come forth is that of the reasoning mind, along with it inseparable co-hort, the sense-life.

    This great impediment and its removal is revealed to us in another light in the following words, "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates and the water thereof was dried up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared" --Revelation 16:12. "Euphrates, the great head or stream of reasoning, has become the channel of the strength and wealth of great Babylon; while Gihon, or the Nile, the channel of knowledge through the senses, is the river of Egypt, from which we are redeemed." Andrew Jukes, Types in Genesis, pg. 51. The name, Euphrates, means "fruitfulness."

    This great stream of reason is dried up by an act of God through the pouring out of the sixth vial, in order that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. We realize that God often speaks on several levels at the same time and while the kings of the east may well have reference to one particular in the natural, it carries another, equal force of meaning to the spiritual intent. As to the spiritual, the kings of the east, (kings of the Son-rise) have reference to no other than those overcomers who, as kings and priests, shall rule and reign with Christ a thousand years upon the earth. But in order for these sons of the resurrection to come forth into the strength and reality of the first resurrection, the stone of reason must be rolled away. Reason, that great river Euphrates, must first be dried up in their lives.

    I cannot help repeating the importance of why our Pattern, Jesus Christ, poured out His soul unto death. It was not only that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, but also that He might, in doing so, pave the way and set the example as our Forerunner for those who should afterward follow in His steps. It sounds very much like a part of overcoming death is dying but not remaining dead. Dying is not at all the same as being overcome of death; it is simply coming to grips with death. Jesus died but overcame death in that He rose up out of it.

    There must be a very real confrontation with death in order to overcome death; perhaps a very real dying but coming up out of it. I can hear the very valid objection in the minds of some who say, "But what of the scripture which says, 'We shall not all sleep, die, be put to repose, but we shall all be changed?' That would certainly seem to interfere with a death."(I Cor. 15:51)

    This is an excellent question and one which begs a response. Paul was speaking by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, when he said "We shall not all sleep, but "we" shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trump shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed" --I Corinthians 15:52. If these folk expected not to have to die because they expected to hear the last trump, why then do we witness such a wholesale offering of themselves to death for Christ's sake? It would certainly seem contradictory, wouldn't it?

    It would indeed be quite contradictory unless in order to qualify for hearing the sound of the last trump one must actually be living in the sacrificial spirit of "no more I, but Christ,"; must actually be walking in that spirit which is always delivered unto death. It is just here that we see the need for the breaking in us of the sixth seal. For in the breaking of this seal that man comes to the end of man. It is in the breaking of this seal that such utterness to the Lord God is required that it begets in us a great earthquake of such a magnitude that an old nature is replaced by a new one. This opening of the sixth seal in us is for the destruction and removal of the rational reasoning mind and the sense life. Those coming into this experience shall find it to be cataclysmic in proportion, and universal in scope. Christ alone must remain. This sixth seal will be further enlarged upon in the next issue--The Opening of The Sixth Seal. There shall be no entering into the seventh seal or into anything of which the seventh angel speaks without the foregoing and thorough work of the opening of the sixth seal within us.

    For it is only Christ who lays His life down and it is only Christ who comes forth in this resurrection. The natural implication is that if one is not living in that sacrificial spirit of Christ, he shall not hear the sound of the last trump. He will merely think it thunders. Thus it comes about that only that army of God's which is involved in giving up its life in a very real way can hear the call of the seventh and last trumpet signaling that the battle is over, the last enemy is put to shame. In order for this to take place, the fear of death and of suffering must first be removed from a people. I believe God s accomplishing this in those who are destined for just such an encounter.

    What we are here speaking of is not some subtle attempt to place God into a doctrinal box of religious conjecture to somehow attempt to compel Him to comply with what we feel He ought to do. That has already been unsuccessfully attempted in Pentecost.

    What we are here speaking of is much akin to, if not altogether the same as, that crisis of faith and trust in God alone which the three Hebrew men (they were not mere children) faced in Nebuchadnezzar's burning fiery furnace. They sought not to force God in any way to do anything. Hear their very words; they were so eloquent and full of nobility and honor, they have been preserved for our example.

    "O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand if He chooses that it be so, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up" --Daniel 3:16-18 (I slightly paraphrased a portion). It didn't matter whether God delivered them or not, they knew He could if He so chose, but if He chose not to, they still would not bow down to this king's image.

    Comes there not a critical time to every one of us who has given notice that we will not bow down to the beast nor to his image to give worth-ship to it, that we are forced into an either/or situation? All the world, including nearly all the Church, gives such value and worth-ship, not only to the preserving the life of the physical, mortal body, but by what methods it should be preserved. So much so, that should a crisis arise, we automatically dial 911 or race to the hospital, the doctor, the pharmacy or to some other alternative means of warding off pain, suffering and death. Such actions declare that the mortal body, not Christ, is our life.

    Imagine, if you will for a moment, a very intense and very agitated farmer as he rushes into the office of a Professor of Agriculture, holding in his hand a badly deteriorating kernel of corn. He cannot seem to tear his eyes from the cherished kernel of corn in his hand as he excitedly exclaims, repeatedly stabbing his finger in the direction of the seed in the palm of his hand, "Look! Look! Quick, do something! Do something! Inject it with something that will preserve it! It's dying, It's dying!" The Professor of Agriculture is not looking at the kernel in the farmer's hand. He is, with blank expression, looking doubtfully at the farmer. He then momentarily glances at the others in the room to see if they are perhaps a part of what might be a prank on him. But the same look of utter astonishment is upon every other face also.

    Satisfied then, that this farmer is simply mad, he gently attempts to explain to him: "Sir, after all your years of raising crops, surely you have come to understand that unless that kernel dies, it cannot release the stalk, the ears of corn, or the individual kernels of corn in each ear. So long as you seek to preserve the kernel, you lose the opportunity to receive to yourself the ear of corn you desire to have. One need not be a Professor of Agriculture to understand that."

    It is that simple where the first resurrection is concerned. The modern conception of it seems to be that Jesus' death has somehow insured that we need not die; that we are saved from death. But it is out of death that we enter into the power of His resurrection. Paul said, "Therefore I will rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me!" --II Cor. 12:9. The natural body is sown in infirmity but raised in power. It is sown in dishonor but raised in glory. It is sown a natural body but raised a spiritual body. But in all these things, it is sown! It is not preserved. I am certain that the early church had this understanding and as such, had the keys of death and the grave.

    Until now, the modern church has been like the foolish farmer. It has attempted to reap its resurrection while keeping itself from all that qualified it for that resurrection. Paul said again, "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead" --Philippians 3:7-11.

    Herein is seen no "foolish farmer." Herein is seen a man who realizes that in order for Christ to become ALL, He must replace ALL. That life which now constitutes an earthly existence must be not only relinquished, but counted as dung in comparison to that which is to be gained in Christ. Otherwise we have the unerring tendency of going back and reclaiming it and saying that God gave us back our Isaac.

    Paul and the entire early church knew that in order to enter into His resurrection, into the first resurrection, one's entire life must first be sown, because that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. There was no concept of self-preservation in that day which we so often find now; that of religiously attempting to add Christ to our life. The power of Christ does not rest upon corruption; it replaces corruption with incorruption through death.

    The present mortal body is not that which we seek in the resurrection, but bare grain. It is mortal and we seek an immortal. It is corruptible and we seek an incorruptible. However, there are laws which govern all of God's realms. That which thou sowest is not quickened, not made alive, not made incorruptible, not made immortal, except it first be given up, relinquished, and sown into death. For then and then only shall it be seen and experienced that death has been abolished and has no power to keep its hold upon any portion of Christ, but must concede to His power and yield. And death, the last enemy is overcome--through death.

    There seems to be the contemporary thought that since we are living in that time when God will at some point sound a "last trump" and some of the graves will split open and we shall be changed, at no cost to or loss of our flesh, we might do well to just hold on to our life for as long as we can, through any means possible, and perhaps we can ride this thing out and luck our way into being on hand when that great magic wand of the last trump works its renovating wizardry.

    I do believe that there is a last trump that shall indeed work a most startling work for those who hear it and who recognize it is when they hear it. Some shall merely think it thunders. But remember that within all these scriptures of truth on the subject, lies an inviolable principle; that is, when truth is held by the carnal mind or taken up in a carnal manner, it invariably produces the opposite of what it promises.

    When the last and final trumpet is sounded, there will be those who recognize it as such and who will appropriate its resonating tones to be to them both light and life. And it is only as we walk in the light as He is in the light that the blood of Jesus cleanses and continues to cleanse us from all sin, and where sin is removed, the sting of death is also removed. For, not only is the light of the seventh day bringing its greater light, it carries with it also the accumulative light of the previous six sounding trumpets. So in this day there is to be seen a people walking in the gradual enlightening of the seventh trumpet-message as the seventh day dawns on a very weary rest-seeking Church and humanity.

    Indeed, it is as the light which shines out of the East (as at sunrise), and gradually shines even unto the West. The sun does not simply pop up to a position every morning from whence all its life-giving and enlightening rays are immediately enjoyed and benefited by all. It is a gradual thing which, at first, only a few enjoy. Later, as the sun continues to rise and light increases more and more and more, then finally the whole earth is filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Man's six long working days have at last come to a welcome close and there must be a leaving of one age, of one order, for entrance into another.

    While there is indeed a day and a realm in which those who bear the mark, number and name of the beast are prohibited from working, buying and selling, even so shall it necessarily be that those not bearing the mark, number and new name of their God shall find they are not permitted employment in His day. No flesh shall find work in the day of God's rest. Reaping and eating by the sweat of the brow has by then run its course; the curse has been cursed in Christ. There shall now be much reaping of that whereon we have bestowed no labor.

    All must be upon the same basis as all else in this great kingdom has ever been--a true, real, spiritual work of Christ through the Holy Spirit, through and through. If we will not walk wholly after God in absolute utterness of heart, we are not walking in that which the Feast of Tabernacles is. Utterness knows no limits.

END OF MESSAGE