The Unsealing of The Living Testimony

*"The unsealing of the Living Testimony within the Ark of God must begin the promulgation of the everlasting gospel of the kingdom. The proclamation of the Testimony will be as the sounding of a trumpet of alarm to the nations of professed Christendom. Authority shall be given by Christ to the putting an end to all controversies concerning the true church that is born of the New Jerusalem mother. This decision will be the actual sealing of the body of Christ with the name (or Authority) of God, giving them a commission to act by the same."

    That which is about to burst upon the world will not be a message brought "with the enticing words of man's wisdom," but one which comes in the "power and demonstration" of Christ. It will not be simply the declaration of another doctrine, another batch of concepts, more books, more information. And believe me, it will certainly not be the coming of men and women who are attracted to the spotlight, to the crowds, to fame and fortune. This that is coming very quickly now, the unsealing of the Living Testimony, will shock the entire world, including the religious world.

    When that small remnant of "come-outers" enters into the Testimony of Life, enters into WHAT HE IS, and their very lives begin to bear record as to what Christ is, then shall be laid to rest the controversy as to which is the true church. Lines will be drawn and sides taken as the message goes forth like a trumpet blast, declaring the imminent appearing of the Lord in those who are looking for Him.

    This is presently coming to pass. I do not say that it is complete, yet. But I do declare that the Lord has revealed, to those who have ears to hear, that this is the time of realities rather than concept. It is the time of entering into the very life of Christ Himself. It is being made abundantly clear to all that THE CROSS is the KEY to entrance into this realm in Christ!

    It is being made very clear that what Jesus accomplished for us in His cross was not a reprieve for the flesh, but flesh's sentence, that we are not delivered from the cross, but to it; that we are not delivered from death, but through death! Beloved, there is no way into any world but by a birth into it, and there is no way out of any world but by a death.

    As those who are becoming love-slaves to Christ enter into Him more and more fully, by way of an applied cross (not a doctrinal one), more and more of His nature becomes theirs, more and more of what He is becomes theirs, more and more of His glory rests upon them, more and more of His life is theirs, as their lives are laid down. This is known as, coming to zero! It is a very unpopular idea, and one called heresy by much of Christendom, but according to that way which some call heresy, so worship we the God of our "fathers," believing ALL things which are written in God's word.

    There is a place into which one may enter from which there is no going out. "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out:..." This position, having been gained, cannot be lost. This is within the veil of the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place. It is within the very presence of God, Himself! There is preparation required for this, for our God is a consuming fire.

   "The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;" -- Isaiah 33:14, 15.

    Coming to zero is not the great loss most think it to be. It is, in fact, not loss but gain. Does it mean the loss of your life? "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." -- Revelation 2:7. Does it mean the loss of credibility? "And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:" -- Revelation 2:26. Does it mean the loss of home, lands, friends, even all things? "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." -- Revelation 21:7.

    Does it perhaps (it probably will) mean the loss of your "good" name? "...and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name." -- Revelation 3:12. No, there is no true loss in Christ. There is only gain; but gain through loss, life through death, glory through shame, power through weakness, exaltation through abasement.

    This realm is not one of doctrinal stances and concepts. It is one of living realities. Those who are entering in are finding that this is where the "hidden manna" is. There is a revelation of God's heart, or His thought and purpose concerning Christ, which is not apparent to others still caught up in the loaves and fishes (gifts and blessings) of the Holy Place. Shame and suspicion are always connected with any new thing which God is doing and which most are not yet "seeing."

    This paragraph of the prophecy begins with the words, "The unsealing of the living Testimony within the Ark of God..." What is the Testimony in this Ark, and what is the Ark? All throughout the Old Testament the ark was synonymous with the divine presence of God. He told them that He would meet with them there, above the Mercy Seat upon the ark.

    It is clear that the ark represented none other than Jesus Christ, the true Ark in whom alone is the divine presence and life of God. The Testimony? The testimony in the ark of Moses was the Law given at Sinai. "And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God" Exodus 31:18.

    The Testimony in the true Ark, which is Jesus Christ, is the living testimony and representation of the living God. It is that life and nature of God manifested in Christ. And, dear brother and sister in Christ, it is that life and nature which God is unsealing and revealing to His own, showing the way into it in this hour. It is into that Testimony (life/nature) that some will enter in this next impending move of God.

    The law written indelibly, with a Pen of iron and with the point of a Diamond (the Holy Spirit), upon the fleshly tables of our hearts! And He's doing in us! At some point, He will remove the veil (and the temple of God was opened in heaven) and reveal His very presence, nature/name in that people of whom David's tabernacles was a type. It had no veil in it like Moses' tabernacle.

    There comes a time when that which the cross has been allowed to accomplish in the lives of some is to be manifested and revealed. This will take place at the "sealing" of those who have left all to follow the Lamb whithersoever He leadeth. "Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads" Revelation 7:3. "And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel" Revelation 7:4.

    This "sealing" is nothing else but the placement of adoption spoken of in Romans. "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" Romans 8:23. If you will look back at the preceding verse you will notice that the number of those sealed in Rev. 7 was 144,000. That is the symbolic number denoting the firstfruits company of overcomers. I do not believe that it is a literal number, or that the number of overcomers are limited to this figure. "12 = divine government so 12 x 12 = 144 + 000, which 0's simply show "added glory." These are those who allow Jesus' rule from the throne room of their hearts. Self has been dethroned and they are under divine government!" --Bill and Elaine Cook

    Those in this company of people thus sealed in their foreheads (the receiving of the mind of Christ) are those who experience what is known as the "placement of adoption." Having the spirit of adoption is not the same as receiving the placement of adoption. The adoption is spoken of often in the New Testament. "...Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;" Romans 9:4. The apostle Paul is here speaking to the Christian Church about "the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body..." as well as other things pertaining to the time when the adoption takes place and says that these things had been the birthright of the Israelite, according to faith.

    Adoption in the western mind is not at all what it is in the Biblical sense. We westerners think of adoption as being that which occurs when a man and his wife take into their family a child that is not their biological offspring, one which was not the result of their union, and by a legal procedure called "adoption," make him a legal part of their family. It is obvious that the child is part of the family from that time forward on grounds other than blood relation.

    T.A. Sparks has this to say about it. "When we come to the things of God, we find that we have to change some of our human ideas, and amongst the many things in which that is so is this matter of adoption. God's idea about adoption is altogether different from ours. Our idea is that of bringing someone into the family from outside, but that is not God's idea at all about adoption. The word "adoption" literally means "the placing of sons," and you will have recognized, if you were following closely, that adoption comes at the close of things in all those passages of Scripture. It is something which lies ahead. We, who have received the Spirit, wait, groaningly wait, for our adoption. We were foreordained unto adoption as sons. It is something for which we are waiting, according to the Word of God. Thus it is not just the matter of bringing into the family, but it is something which is the result of what has transpired since we came into the family..." (GOD'S SPIRITUAL HOUSE by T.A. Sparks)

    What a wonderful picture we see of this in Jesus' baptism in the river Jordan when the Father spoke publicly before all, "And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" Matthew 3:17. From that time forward, though until then He had done absolutely NOTHING of which we are aware, He commenced to conduct kingdom business in His Father's name! This is what is just ahead for those coming into the placement of adoption, as sons!

    Some may object to this on the ground of the Scripture which states, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" 1 John 3:2.

    This is one of those times when the truth of a matter was done less than justice by the King James translators, and the KJV is the version I mostly use. The KJV translators used the same word, "son," for Greek words that conveyed different meanings. (They did this throughout the entire Bible. I believe God used this as a means of "sealing" the Word unto the time of the end.) For instance, the Greek word, TEKNON, means, little child, an offspring but very young as to maturity. It is also used in the first verse of I John 3; "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not" 1 John 3:1.

    That word used here in the Greek for "sons" is also TEKNON and carries the same meaning as it does in verse 2, little children. This can be seen more clearly when one sees which word the Spirit chose to use in the Greek when referring to Jesus in verse 8; "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil" 1 John 3:8. Here the Greek word, HUIOS, is used. HUIOS signifies the relationship of offspring to parent, as legitimate as opposed to illegitimate. So John is not actually calling those in I John 3:2, "sons." In using the Greek word, TEKNON, he is referring to them as "little children," as he referred to them throughout his epistles. The reason why "it does not yet appear what (they would) be." "They" are not yet of full age and Christ is not yet manifested. There has not as yet been the "placement" of adoption spoken of in Galatians 4:5.

    Here, ("... that we might receive the adoption of sons" Galatians 4:5.) the Greek word used for sons is not that of little children (TEKNON), nor is it simply that which is used to show relationship only (HUIOS), but the word used here (HUIOTHESIA) is one which shows maturity and relationship because it is speaking of the authority, commitment, and relationship bound up in the placement of adoption, the sealing of the sons, the manifestation of the sons of God.

    Now you will have to understand, I am not a Greek scholar, nor even much of a student of Greek, and I do not put a lot of stock in searching out various meanings in a quest for revelation. But obviously there are times when much depends upon the meaning of a single word, as in this case.

    God's full thought toward you and me has never been simply, salvation and a trip to heaven. Nor has it been only to "get saved" and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and then just to wait for His return. Salvation, as God intends it, is an ongoing process in which you and I have been involved since the day we bowed our knees and hearts at Calvary and truly gave up to Him all rights to our lives.

    Our initial step of salvation was only preparatory to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as the Feast of Passover was preparatory to Pentecost. But Pentecost was but mid-way to the conclusion of that eternal salvation wrought by Christ at Calvary. It was preparatory to the Feast of Tabernacles as the baptism of the Holy Spirit prepares us for the adoption of sons.

    Yes, indeed, we are now the children of God and it does not in any way appear what we shall be, for before we become like Him we must see Him as He really is. Not in the light of traditional religion. Not in the light of man's darkened, fearful mind. But as He truly is! Thus, you and I are experiencing the purging, cleansing, maturing fires and waters of God without which we could never come to full growth. Life in God is not had by escaping death. It is obtained OUT OF death! The cross of Christ is not the reprieve of the flesh; it is flesh's sentence! The Christian's cross is the only doorway to life abundant, for only through death is death's power conquered.

    Therefore, being the children of God is not the same as being sons of God, and the promises are to them that overcome, that is, to the sons. The inheritance is not to them that believe, but to them that overcome. The inheritance is for full grown sons! Consider what the Word of God says about this inheritance and the one for whom it is held in trust. "Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father" Galatians 4:1,2. "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" Romans 8:17.

    Being children makes us heirs, but being heirs does not make us inheritors until we have suffered with Him that we may also be glorified together with Him, as the scripture says. As Paul is speaking with those in Galatians there in the fourth chapter it becomes plain that he knows he is not speaking to those who are of full age in the Lord. Otherwise he would never have said what he did in verses one and two, that the heir was no more than a servant, but is under those who will child-train him, that is, the five-fold ministry of Ephesians 4:11. Nor would he have later, in verse nineteen, referred to them as, "little children."

    There is a redemption reserved for those who have suffered with Christ, who have borne their cross, who have passed through the waters and they have not overflowed them, against whom the flame has kindled but they were not burned. They have been called by name. They are His peculiar treasure. They are His inheritance. A firstfruits unto Him which He will use to bless those who follow after. Across their hearts are written the words of the Spirit, "HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD!"

    The Church was never given the charge to "save the world" in this dispensation, as we have been told. It was given the charge to, "...Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" --Mark 16:15. That's all. To this attest the words of James in Acts; "Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. ...That the residue of men 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. "Brethren! Hear me! Simon unfolds how God first visits the nations, to obtain out of them a people for His name. ...So that those left of mankind should be seeking out the Lord, and all the nations, on them over whom My name is invoked, is saying the Lord, Who is doing these things" (Concordant Literal New Testament).

    God has something greater in mind than saving a few and damning the rest. And the firstfruits company of overcomers, the sons of God, will play a very large part in His plan, for they are the reason God has visited the nations in order to take out of them, a people for His name. They are peculiarly His.

    "And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead..." --Exodus 28:36-38.

   The High Priest's mitre is one of the last parts of the priest's garments to be put on and it signifies the sealing with the mind of Christ, by our High Priest. This company of overcomers will receive authority and a commission to act in that authority at the sealing (with the mind of Christ). They shall experience the redemption of the body, spoken of in Romans 8. "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" --Romans 8:23. The firstfruits of the Spirit is only the earnest of the inheritance, not the fullness.