Part
24
THE
KINGDOM, THE POWER,
AND
THE GLORY
(continued)
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father...Thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Mat.
6:13
).
This Prayer our Lord taught us to pray has taken us on a long
journey and now we have come at length to the end. There is so much more
that might have been said, and that perhaps ought to have been said. And
so much more still that I do not know enough to say.
THINE IS THE GLORY
This brings us to the next phrase, “Thine is the glory.” In
praying these words we not only proclaim God’s glory, but disdain any
for ourselves. A brother has said that the three things which most easily
destroy the ministry of preachers are the gold, the girls, and
the glory. This final test is the hardest. It is because we covet the
glory that there is so much petty jealousy and strife among brethren. We
are so concerned that our church, our talent, our opinion, our counsel, our position, our gift,
or our ministry gets the praise and the glory. We want to get
the credit. And the credit IS the glory! It is said that
the phrase that proved the turning point in the life of Dwight L. Moody
was this: “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man who is
fully yielded to Him.” But a more probing version of that statement is
this: “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man who will not
touch the glory.” Of course, neither statement is entirely true, because
the world has seen both in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ!
But service given for praise of men is destined to find a place with the
wood, hay, and stubble, which will be consumed in the blazing fire of the
final day of testing.
“Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord
Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from
this present evil world, according to the will of God our Father: to
whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Gal. 1:3-5). TO HIM be all
the glory! Stop trying to snitch God’s glory. It is His. You cannot add
to it, you cannot diminish from it. What you can do is proclaim it and
demonstrate it. But you cannot add to God’s glory. There were certain
teachers who came into the church at
Galatia
and said, “You must do certain things to enter into life. You must be
circumcised and keep the law. You must perform certain works.” Today
they would say that you must be baptized a certain way, baptized in the
name of Jesus, baptized for the circumcision of the heart, use the sacred
name of God (Yahweh), believe this doctrine, keep that day, or worship in
such and such a way in order to enter into life. But if you are going to
do certain things to get life, then you are going to get the glory. If I
“earn” my way into the Kingdom, if I climb myself unto a higher
plateau in God, if I’m doing it through human effort, or through
external means, then I’m getting the glory.
I can say, “I paid the price, I did what was
necessary, I qualified for this attainment in God.” But Jesus
is the author and the finisher of our faith, Jesus is
the Captain of our salvation, Jesus loved us and purchased us
with His own blood, Jesus redeemed us from this present evil world, He is
made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
Jesus is our forerunner, having entered into that which lies within
the veil, opening up the way for us to follow. God the Father chose us in
Christ before the foundation of the world, He called us and apprehended
us, He predestinated us unto the adoption of sons and in due time sent
forth the spirit of His Son into our hearts whereby we cry, “Abba,
Father” — and HE gets ALL the glory!
It disturbs me when people speak of Christian musicians as
“entertainers,” “performers,” or of their ministry as a
“show”. The spirit of God is opposed to the emphasis — it is the
terminology of the world, the spirit of
Babylon
, not the
Kingdom
of
God
. If I get up in the midst of the Lord’s people to minister the Word of
God, if I have any God-given talents or gifts, or revelation or power,
they are sovereignly bestowed, and not by any merit or ability of the
flesh. When I minister the life of God I would be truly embarrassed if my
ministry were referred to as a “performance” or a “show”. And it
makes me uncomfortable when people applaud. I understand that they may
think they are applauding the Christ in me, or the value of the word
ministered, but it smacks of the spirit of the world by which men are
applauded for their own talents and professionalism.
We must be very certain that all the glory goes to Him —
and that’s NOT false humility. We are merely servants of God. We are
bondslaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. In like manner, those called to a
ministry in music may have the best voices and musical abilities in the
world, but if their emphasis is on “we are performers” or on
“entertainment” then they have missed the point that their music is a
ministry. God does not “put on a show.” God is not a showman. God is
not an entertainer. God is not an actor. God does not “perform” for
either the saints or the world. God is in the business of bringing the
Kingdom
of
God
to pass in the earth. A person or a group is either ministering by the
Holy Spirit as a member of the body of Christ, or performing and
entertaining as an instrument of the world. Matters not whether they
are singing, playing music, preaching, prophesying or healing — the
principle is the same. When you go to a worldly concert it is appropriate
after each song to applaud the vocalist or the instrumentalist, giving
glory to his talent and the discipline exerted to perfect it. He responds
to this praise by bowing and saying, “Thank you very much.” He thereby
recognizes and receives the glory given him. His goal is money — your
goal is enjoyment, entertainment.
That is the way and spirit of the world. But in the
Kingdom
of
God
all talent is recognized as the free and sovereign gift of God. It is
developed and perfected through the dealing of the Holy Spirit for the
glory of God. Those who sing, preach, prophesy, or heal for the glory of
God are but servants of the Most High God. They neither desire
nor accept, even indirectly, the glory that belongs to the Lord. Those who
are blessed and quickened by such ministry give praise and worship to God.
“Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
Amen!” If you want to encourage the minister and say, “Oh, I saw new
truths and received life through the ministry God has given you,” then
that’s wonderful. If you say, “My heart was touched as I worshipped
God in the music,” then the Lord is praised. But when the applause is in
recognition of the good job the man did — it is religious
humanism. We have a secular humanism where God is ignored or denied and
everything revolves around man — but now the same is being done in
religious Babylon that is called the church. Why are we praising
men when the glory should go to God?
I suppose there are those times when a ministry is so electrifying,
when it’s so stirring, when it’s so moving, when it’s so divinely
appointed, when it’s from such a high realm in the spirit, when it’s
so quickening and so overwhelming that spontaneously we applaud as an
expression of the emotion that is swelling up in our hearts, and I suppose
there are those legitimate times for that to occur — but in the context
of today’s system of things they are very rare. What we are seeing
today, more and more, is the applause of the human instrument, which is
going to the human instrument rather than to our Father in the heavens to
whom belongs ALL GLORY AND PRAISE.
Many religious people cannot receive the things I now say, but,
because it is the truth it will strike a chord within the hearts of all of
God’s elect. To pray, “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory,” demands full humility and obedience. And right here is where the
kingdom laws come into operation. When we abdicate the throne of our own
lives and our own strength and our own ambitions, plans, and ways, the
Lord makes us kings and priests unto God. When we confess that all the
power is His, He makes us strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might. When we refuse to touch the glory, He glorifies us with the glory
He had with the Father before the world was. And this is an unfolding
glory, an ever-intensifying glory that shall shine as the stars and the
brightness of the firmament forever.
We are so made that we cannot help hungering and thirsting after
the glory. We are not as the beasts of the field, which have only physical
appetites to satisfy. We are the sons of God, the offspring of the Most
High, who cannot live on bread alone. The trouble with us is that we do
not recognize glory when we see it. What we commonly take to be glory is
not glory but only glitter. We spend our lives in pursuit of money and
prestige. We are fascinated by pomp and circumstance. We are enticed by
power. The greatest curse upon any man is his exaltation of Self —
Self-willing, Self-seeking, Self-glorying. What is it that brings so much
tyranny, strife, intimidation, bigotry, misunderstanding and suffering in
the world? Is it not because men and groups of men are the sole suns in
their own little solar systems? The universe to them is like a house of
mirrors, which on every side reflects nothing but their own persons. They
fill the air with the clamor of their own egotism, the fury of their own
desires, the obstinacy of their own opinions. We see it in the home, we
see it in business, we see it in relationships and institutions, and most
often we see it in the church! Men flaunt their personalities, their
self-serving programs and grandiose schemes to convert the world, pawning
themselves off to the Lord’s people as the very power of God, filching
vast sums of money out of the purses of the poor and the widows, while
being strangers to the voice of the Holy Spirit and crassly ignorant of
the ways of the heavenly Father.
I am frankly appalled at the shallowness, gullibility, and lack of
spiritual discernment among the people of God, for they give heed
continually to the voice of such strangers, but the voice of the Good
Shepherd they do not know. Why are the children of God so ready to blindly
accept every subtle teaching and plausible program that is thrust at them,
without earnestly seeking the help of the blessed Spirit WHO ALONE HAS
BEEN SENT TO GUIDE US INTO ALL TRUTH. Any preacher today who can come up
with some fantastic notion can corral God’s people in support
of his delusions, and the more fantastic the notion the more
people run after it. Some time ago a dear sister stopped to visit with us
for a few hours, and during the course of our conversation she asked a
momentous question. She wanted to know what, in my opinion, is the
greatest danger present among God’s people in this hour. I could only
reply that the greatest danger I perceive today is that of God’s saints
being BROUGHT INTO BONDAGE TO MEN. And I will tell you frankly that there
are a thousand and one different schemes and distortions of the Word of
God continually being concocted by conniving and power-hungry preachers
either to bring the saints into bondage to men, or to fleece them of their
hard earned money.
All such are the servants of Self, not the ministers of Christ.
Sons of God preach not themselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord. Those who
are quick to tell you that they have the greatest revelation or
the only message for this hour, and unless you join yourself to them and
their group and submit to their ministry and their
order, you can’t make it into sonship, immortality, and the Kingdom of
God, are liars and deceivers, ego-maniacs who will take you on a
disastrous trip to nowhere.
I speak the truth when I say it is high time for the people of God
to begin to KNOW THE LORD FOR THEMSELVES. Let God’s people come out from
among them and begin to seek God, and walk with God, and hear His voice,
and know God, and GOD HIMSELF will be YOUR FATHER and you will sup with
HIM and He with you. Let us ask the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and
before we realize it we will find ourselves digging deep in the storehouse
of God’s treasures of wisdom and knowledge and sitting with Him at His
banqueting table. He will spread a table before us in the presence of our
enemies, He will lead us through green pastures; He will reveal to us
fountains of living water flowing unceasingly FROM WITHIN; He will cause
us to rest beside cool, still streams; And HE, the Great Shepherd of the
sheep and Bishop of our souls will abide with us and our cup will overflow
with the unspeakable riches of His grace and the wonder of His glorious
and eternal reality. Now, until Self be cast out of us, and the Father of
glory be allowed to take possession of our lives, we give the glory to
something or someone other than Him. It is this that Christ would teach us
in the Lord’s Prayer — the vision of all things in God, and by God,
and for God. “Thine is the glory!” That is the spirit of sonship.
We are commissioned to preach the Kingdom, and commanded to do the
works of the Kingdom; but we must always be careful to understand and
acknowledge that the Kingdom is His, the power is His, and the glory is
His. If we get a touch of the Kingdom in revelation, in preaching it, or
in demonstrating its power, it is valueless unless we recognize that we
are recipients of this Kingdom by grace, and not the Source; we are
powerless apart from Him and will lose even what we have if we fail to
glorify Him in it.
And now we come to the glory. What is glory? I am sure most of
us knew what we were talking about when we said the kingdom and the power
— but what is the glory? What is its shape, size, and color? Perhaps you
feel that you have never seen it, you feel that it is spiritual, and
therefore cannot be seen. Not so, my friend, it can be seen. How my heart
longs to see the glory! The literal meaning of the Hebrew word for
glory is weight or substance; worth, dignity and honor;
splendor and majesty. In the eyes of men this literal meaning
frequently lent itself to the idea that a person possessing glory was
laden (heavy) with the substance and honor of this world. Jacob’s flock
was his “glory” (Gen. 31:1). The Assyrians’ power was their
“glory” (Isa. 8:7). Joseph’s high position was his “glory” (Gen.
45:13). The Israelites thought that they were living to the glory of God
by acquiring a weight of material wealth, power and position. Today, a
number of “prosperity preachers” have the very same idea! But the
prophet Jeremiah told God’s people that they must not consider such
human values their glory. Rather, they were to glory in the fact that they
knew the Lord, whose glory was His kindness, justice, and righteousness.
When the word was applied to God, it was meant to bring out the
weightiness of God’s attributes. All Bible dictionaries agree that
“glory” is “the exhibition and display of the excellence of the
subject to which it is ascribed.” Thus, in respect to God, it is the visible
manifestation of His attributes — His nature, character, power,
love, justice, righteousness, etc. (Jer.
9:24
). The glory of God is the visible manifestation of WHAT GOD IS. The glory
of God is God REVEALED, God PUT ON DISPLAY, all that God is brought into
demonstration on the visible plane so men can see what God is like. That
is what men saw when they saw the glory of God. God is love, God is light,
God is truth, God is peace, God is power, God is life, God is
righteousness. When God brings what He is into expression and
manifestation so we can either see or perceive it, we then “behold HIS
GLORY.” It was with this same sense of glory that Jesus spoke about how
He would bring glory to the Father. Jesus would not acquire worldly
wealth, fame, power or position. On the contrary, His life would be
“heavy” with the glorious, heavenly qualities of love, mercy,
goodness, purity, compassion, righteousness, wisdom and power.
And now Christ has given His glory to His “many brethren” —
the sons of God. “And the glory which Thou gavest me I have given
them” (Jn.
17:22
). What a treasure! What riches! What heavenly splendor! God has called us
to His kingdom and glory (Col. 2:12). We have been called to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (II Thes.
2:14
). The Captain of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings that
He might bring many sons to glory (Heb.
2:10
). The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory that shall be revealed in us (Rom.
8:18
). We are even now partakers of the glory that shall be revealed (I Pet.
5:1). Christ shall come to be glorified in His saints (II Thes.
1:10
). We are called unto glory and virtue (II Pet. 1:3).
As I mentioned earlier, God’s great glory is His wonderful nature
and character, the substance of His being. Some people foolishly talk
about dying and “going to glory” as if glory were a place, an astral
location on some other planet. But you don’t “go” to glory — the
Bible says nothing about such a crude notion. Glory is revealed.
Glory comes to us. Glory is given to us. Glory shall be revealed
in us. When the glory of the Lord is fully revealed “all flesh shall see
it together.” That is the scriptural testimony about glory. If you
don’t apprehend and experience God’s glory here on earth, forget about
“going” somewhere to find it!
Now this word “glory” as used in the Old Testament speaks of a
VISIBLE manifestation of God. Moses said to God on mount Sinai, “Lord, I
want to see your face,” and God said, “I’ll let you see my glory.”
Sounds good, doesn’t it? It is good. In fact, the Bible says
that when Moses implored God to show Him His glory, God said, “I will
make all my goodness pass before thee” (Ex. 33:19). So you
could literally say that the glory of God is His goodness. Actually,
God’s goodness is His greatest glory. Let’s read the whole
story. “Now therefore I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight,
show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may find grace
in Thy sight: and consider that this nation is Thy people. And the Lord
said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou
hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I
beseech Thee, SHOW ME THY GLORY. And God said, I will make ALL MY GOODNESS
pass before thee, and I will proclaim the NAME (nature) of the Lord before
thee; and will be GRACIOUS to whom I will be gracious, and will SHOW MERCY
on whom I will show mercy” (Ex. 33:13,17-19). Moses requested to see
God’s glory. Moses also said, “Show me now Thy way, that I
may know Thee.” In other words, “Show me your nature, what you
are really like, unveil your real self to me!” Moses yearned to behold
God’s greatest glory, the revelation and manifestation of God’s
innermost being, His mind and heart. In response to this urgent request
the Lord replied, “I will make ALL MY GOODNESS pass before thee, and I
will proclaim the NAME (nature) of the Lord before thee!” The glory that
passed before Moses was the revelation of the nature of God...and that
nature is described as ALL GOODNESS. Infinite goodness is the very essence
of God’s character.
David beheld this truth in spirit and cried out, “For the Lord is good;
His mercy endureth for ever” (Ps. 100:5). Who can deny that what
Moses really saw was CHRIST. Jesus is the brightness of God’s
glory, and the express image of His person (Heb. 1:3). On earth Jesus
was the embodiment of God’s goodness. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ (Jn.
1:17
). Jesus never enforced the demands or penalty of the law. To the woman
frightened and trembling with shame He said, “Neither do I condemn thee:
go and sin no more!” To another bound by fetters of sin and sickness He
proclaimed, “Thy sins be forgiven thee: take up thy bed and walk!”
When accused by the bigots of religion of consorting with sinners, He
said, “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through Him might be saved!” “The Son of man is not
come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” To the thief condemned
to the death of the cross He promised, “This day shalt thou be with me
in paradise.” The New Testament writer witnessed of Him, “How God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power: who went about
doing GOOD (there’s God’s goodness again!), and healing all
that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts
10:38
). “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Lk. 4:18-19). Little
wonder, then, that John cried out, “And we BEHELD HIS GLORY, the glory
as of the only begotten of the FATHER, FULL OF GRACE and truth” (Jn.
1:14
). FULL OF GRACE! That is God’s greatest glory! “I will be
GRACIOUS...I will SHOW MERCY!” “ALL my GOODNESS!” Yes, precious
friend of mine, from the cleft of the rock at mount Sinai Moses saw
the Christ of God!
Now when you think of God’s goodness, set aside that kind of
“niceness” our culture has so often portrayed as goodness. God’s
goodness is powerful. So powerful that the tiniest portion of it could
wipe out all the sin that ever existed in a millisecond. That’s why in
Old Testament times when the glory manifested, God covered it with a
cloud. He had to protect mankind from it to keep it from obliterating
them. You can see an example of that in Exodus 24, when God appeared to
Israel
at mount Sinai. “And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and
the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day God called unto Moses
out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was
like a devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children
of Israel” (Ex. 24:16-17).
Make a mental note here of the fact that the glory of God appeared
as “a devouring fire.” As we search the scriptures, you’re going to
see that fire again and again. The prophet Habakkuh, for instance, says:
“God came from Teman, and the Holy One from
mount
Paran
. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His
praise. And His brightness was as the light; He had horns coming out of
His hand: and there was the hiding of His power” (Hab. 3:3-4). According
to various Bible helps the word horns in this passage refers to bright
beams. One translation calls them lightning-like shafts of splendor. The
Bible tells us that in these fiery, lightning-like shafts lies the hiding
place of God’s power. That alone is enough to let us know that
experiencing the glory is more than having a warm, “spiritual”
feeling. It’s an encounter with the very nature, being and power of God
because His nature, being, and power is His glory! The prophet
Ezekiel gives a strikingly similar picture of God’s glory. He says,
“Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the
appearance of (God’s) loins even downward, fire; and from His loins even
upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the color of amber” (Ezk.
8:2).
It seems wonderfully significant to me that in the closing pages of
the book of Revelation, when the Spirit of God reveals the final and
ultimate revelation of God to creation through the glorious City of
God
, the very last message proclaimed is this: “And the Spirit and the
bride say, COME. And let him that heareth say, COME. And let him that is
athirst COME. And whosoever will, LET HIM TAKE OF THE WATER OF LIFE
FREELY” (Rev. 22:17). Remember, before these words were spoken
there was a great white throne and scenes of judgment. Multitudes were
cast into the lake of fire. Our God is a consuming fire. The fire of God
is God’s glory. Only the Holy Spirit can make this real to us, but a
person under deep conviction is tormented. Tormented with what? He is
tormented with the fire of God’s holy presence, the fire of His
penetrating, burning word. He has no peace or rest, day or night. His
conscience troubles him continually. When you and I were under deep
conviction for our sins and past life we were tormented by the Holy
Spirit, the presence of God. And we had no rest day or night. I have seen
men literally run out of meetings to escape the convicting
presence of God. When we were finally broken by the Holy Spirit’s
dealing and repented and came to Jesus for mercy, we cried and shed many
bitter tears of remorse and regret.
The smoke of their torment rises day and night. The fiery dealings
of God are upon the proud, the rebellious, the blasphemers. Is judgment
the last word? Is the lake of fire the concluding word? Is
the torment of the damned the final word? NO! Is there no escape? Ah,
“Whosoever will, LET HIM COME AND TAKE OF THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY!”
That, my beloved, is the LAST MESSAGE! That is the FINAL WORD. And for how
long shall this cry continue? For as long as the torment lasts.
“And they shall be tormented day and night unto the ages of
the ages” (Rev. 20:10). “And the nations of them that are saved shall
walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory
and honor into it. And the gates of it (entrance, access) SHALL
NOT BE SHUT AT ALL BY DAY: for there shall be no night there” (Rev.
21:24-25). Those gates shall always be open. Ah, the “day of
grace” never ends! Should grace end it would mean the destruction of God
Himself, for He is ALL GOODNESS. God’s grace and goodness and glory
shall flow...and flow...and flow...until the last poor hungry and thirsty
soul has marched out of the lake of fire and come through the portals of
the City to partake of the GREATEST GLORY OF GOD — HIS GOODNESS, HIS
CHRIST, HIMSELF!
Moses saw God’s glory on another occasion, for we read that when
the tabernacle was completed and set in order, Moses and Aaron moved back
with all the hosts of Israel and the glory of the Lord filled the
tabernacle, and the Shekinah presence of God was with them — the pillar
of cloud by day and fire by night. It was a physical, visible
manifestation of God. You will recall when Solomon built the temple and
the glory was transferred from the tabernacle to the temple, that
somewhere in their long, dreary, sinful history, the glory departed.
Ezekiel saw the vision — it lifted up from the temple, abode a moment to
see if the people would return back to God. They did not and it withdrew
out over the city, pausing briefly over the city walls to see if the
people might turn to God, but they would not. Then it went on out to the
mount of Olives, and then was caught back into heaven. That was the last
seen of the Shekinah glory.
Four hundred years of silence reigned and was one day broken when
shepherds on a hillside had a manifestation of the glory of God as the
angel said, “Glory to God in the highest.” And John said, “The Word
was made flesh” — pitched His tent among us — and “we beheld His
glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth.” Now we are at the portal of the Holy of holies, round which we
have been moving from all directions. “Thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory” — that is Christ. These are His characteristics.
It is a description of Him, not of His outward, physical appearance but of
His inner being. “Thine is the kingdom.” That is what filled His whole
spirit, making Him so royal and Godlike. He had no thoughts that were not
conceived in accordance with this kingdom. He said no word that did not
reflect the radiance of the
kingdom
of
God
. “Thine is the power.” His whole will was fortified by this power. It
bore Him up, urged Him on, strengthened and uplifted Him. Arrayed with
power from on high He goes His way through life, healing, preaching,
battling, suffering, victorious. “And thine is the glory.” All His
emotions were charged with it. It is His very nature. The highest
conceivable glory lived with all possible purity in a human life, is Jesus
the Christ.
All who share in the glory of Jesus’ humiliation will also share
the glory the Father gave to Him before the foundation of the world.
Peter, James, and John were given a glimpse and foretaste of this glory on
the mount of Transfiguration. Commenting years later on that unforgettable
event, Peter writes: “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He
received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice
to Him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with
Him in the holy mount” (II Pet.
1:16
-18). No one can see — really see — the glory of the living Christ and
remain the same person. To see His glory is to be changed by the
transforming power of the Holy Spirit into His likeness, even as the
apostle Paul affirms, “Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being
changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another” (II Cor.
3:18). As we are identified with Jesus in the walk of sonship, we too
experience the glory of oneness with the Father as He is one with the
Father. We also are taken in spirit to where He is and behold the glory He
had with the Father before the world was. We will also be fully partakers
of that glory, which shall be revealed in us, unveiled before all creation
in the manifested sons of God. The hour of unveiling is wonderfully nigh
at hand, praise His glorious name!
“For even the whole creation waits expectantly and longs
earnestly for God’s sons to be made known — waits for the revealing,
the disclosing of their sonship. For...the creation itself will be set
free from its bondage to decay and corruption and gain an entrance into
the glorious freedom of God’s children” (Rom. 8:19,21). When Paul by
inspiration penned these blessed words of hope he did not have in mind a
manifestation of God’s sons after the order of which Jesus manifested
while on earth. Jesus glorified the Father on the earth plane, and so do
we; but this is not the glory yet to be revealed that we anticipate,
neither is it the hope for which the whole creation is in travail. The
creation is not groaning for another healing, for another miracle, for
another sign or wonder. The creation is not expectantly awaiting another
revival, or another crusade, or another healing campaign, or another
seminar, or more gifts of the Spirit, or greater apostles and prophets, or
even for 144,000 flaming evangelists just like Jesus when He walked the
shores of blue
Galilee
. For two millenniums we have had revival after revival, healing upon
healing, signs and wonders and miracles galore, and none of them has ever
brought the fullness of the
Kingdom
of
God
on earth, nor has even one of them or all of them together ever delivered
the creation from the bondage of corruption! The creation continues to
groan in its bondage and we ourselves groan within ourselves as we wait
for the disclosing of our sonship — the redemption of our bodies. It is
not another “patch-up” job we want, but a full and complete and
eternal deliverance from the whole dreadful realm of corruption in spirit,
soul, and body!
FOREVER
This Prayer ends by filling all time and creation with the
conscious awareness of God’s being, power and love. What we ascribe to
Him is not for this year, nor for the next century, nor for the next
millennium, but for all the ages of time. God is above and beyond time and
ages — His greatness is unsearchable, of His existence there is no end,
His power is unlimited, His love unfathomable, His grace immeasurable;
amid all that comes and goes, waxes and wanes, He is the One who abides
“without shadow of turning.”
“Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for
ever.” “Forever” is from the Greek word AION. In late years there
has been much controversy over the meaning of this little Greek word.
Certain deceivers, to further their unscrupulous ends and uphold their
blasphemous and Romanish doctrine of eternal damnation, have maintained,
contrary to and in spite of all revealed facts, that it means eternal. And
our King James Version renders it, together with the adjective AIONIOS, as
“age, course, eternal, for ever, evermore, for ever and ever,
everlasting, world, beginning of the world, world began, world without
end.” What a horrible mixture!
But we need not remain in darkness, for fortunately the Word of God
tells us precisely what this Greek word means. Too few have taken time or
energy to consider the real meaning of AION. It is the word from which we
get our English word eon. Eon, according to Webster, means “a long
period of TIME.” Many attempts have been made to prove that eons are
eternal. But this is more than a grave error, it is the height of
stupidity, for the divine Author of the blessed Bible has not Himself used
them in that way. AION nowhere means eternal! Its simple meaning is an
age. In its plural form it means ages. This fact can be
unquestionably and incontrovertibly demonstrated from numerous New
Testament passages. A glance at any Greek concordance proves that the noun
AION, or AGE, is not the synonym of eternity. No one who is sane and
reasonable can maintain otherwise. To do so is to contradict all known
facts and to contradict God’s own Word. That is precisely what all the
“eternal damnation” people are guilty of. God be merciful to them!
Now, if AION means ETERNAL, consider how ridiculous the Word of God
would be! The Holy Spirit would be found saying, “the mystery which has
been hid from eternities;” “the mystery of Christ which in other
eternities was not made known;” “in the eternities to come;” “Ye
walked according to the eternity of this world;” “by whom also He made
the eternities;” “the rulers of the darkness of this eternity;”
“now once in the end of the eternities hath He appeared;” “the
harvest is the end of the eternity;” “since eternity began;” “in
the eternities to come,” etc., etc. Let the scholars whose business it
is delve into the many intricacies of expression, and worry over the many
grammatical combinations. Suffice it to say here that there have been
“aions” in the past, there is this present “aion,” and there are
“aions” to come. And these all combined make up TIME, encompassing the
whole of the progressive plan and purpose of God for the development of
His creation.
The Greek text reads, “For Thine in the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, to the ages. Amen.” It means long, measureless time,
and contains the idea that one age follows another in a series beyond
human imagining. The Bible rarely speaks of eternity even in relation to
God; He remains rooted in “the ages” and thus in history and the
universe as the true sphere of His work, and is thus, despite all His
majesty and exaltation, the God who inhabits “the ages” — the full
course of creation and redemption. From the beginning to the end HE IS
GOD! He is in control. He is the creator, the initiator, the motivator,
the mover, the power, the wisdom, the glory of all, in all,
and through all. The kingdom is His, the power is His, and the
glory is His THROUGHOUT ALL AGES AND UNTO THE OUTERMOST BOUNDARIES OF THE
COSMOS — Amen!
AMEN
Remember how, after all the blessings of Gerizim and the curses of
Ebal, we find the command of Moses: “And all the people shall say
Amen.” When David nominated Solomon to the throne of his kingdom the
priestly soldier Benaiah answered, “Amen! the Lord God of my lord the
king say so too.” When David brought the
Ark
to
Zion
with songs and dances, “all the people said Amen, and praised the
Lord.” And after some of the most jubilant outbursts of the Psalms we
find “Amen and Amen.” The apostolic benedictions of the New Testament
end with Amen. How thoroughly this term belonged to God’s people in
ancient times! They used it in the wilderness three thousand five hundred
years ago. They used it in the
Temple
after the ringing of the golden harps and the sound of the silver
trumpets. The returning exiles were inspired and gladdened by it when
Ezra, in the
Temple
court, blessed the great Yahweh Elohim, and all the people stood up and
answered Amen and Amen, lifting up their hands in the courts of God. In
the last book of the Bible, after the Halleluyah anthem of the angel
hosts, the Immortalities around the throne of God cry Amen; and in its
last chapter, and its last words, “He that testifieth these things saith,
surely I come quickly,” and the bride answers, “Amen. Even so come,
Lord Jesus.” When we say “Amen” to God’s call He says “Amen”
to our sonship. Thus, in heaven and on earth there is the acclamation and
the echo of this lovely and faithful cry, by which the spirit of man
acknowledges the God of the “Amen!” So much is meant by this grand,
fragrant, immemorial word “Amen” at the end of the Lord’s Prayer.
And yet, to many people it is only the welcome sign that public prayer or
worship has ended!
“Amen” is the word Jesus used when He spoke a deep mystery or
revelation which He would impress upon His hearers. The word is translated
in our King James Bibles as “verily.” It is “Amen, amen, I say unto
you...” It is the word used by pious Jews in Jesus’ day when they
responded to the synagogue prayers. It means, among other things, “It is
so!” or “So let it be!” It is an expression of faith confessing
that God is in control and will bring it to pass. It is the glad surrender
of a son to the Father, offering himself that God may fulfill it all in
and through him.
“Amen” is more than a word — it is a person. How
wonderful are the words of Jesus when He says, “These are the words of
the Amen” (Rev. 3:14). The word also means more than “It is so” or
“So be it.” When one says “Amen” he is saying “I’ll back it
up; everything I’ve said, I’ll be faithful to.” In Bible days people
didn’t usually make written contracts; they made oral agreements. When
they completed the agreement, they would say to each other, “I’ll keep
my side of the bargain.” It was like an affirmation or an oath. The
parties involved knew that they must be faithful to their oral contract
and carry out all the things they had agreed to do. They pledged their
very word and nature to it. So, “Amen” means a commitment. It means,
“I’ll be faithful to this.”
Jesus is the Amen! This can mean nothing other than the fact that
our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the fulfillment of all the
promises of God! As it is written, “For all the promises of God in
Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by
us” (II Cor.
1:20
). I do not mean that every promise of God has been fulfilled personally
and individually and only in Christ Jesus; but the reality is that if we
are ever to lay hold upon and appropriate the promises in our very own
experience it will only be in Christ that we will experience
them, for HE is the “Amen,” the “So be it!” Christ is made
unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. He
is made everything unto us, for He is all. In Him all things were created
and by Him all things consist. In Him all things are ours. Whatever men
need today can be found in God’s Christ, for He is the AMEN!
The words of Ray Prinzing are so appropriate here. He writes:
“Not only do we have the sureness of HIS WORD, but we read, ‘HE
CONFIRMED IT BY AN OATH.’ Literally, HE INTERPOSED HIMSELF by an oath.
‘Because He could swear by no greater, He swear by Himself’ (Heb.
6:13
). He placed Himself — in all His righteousness and holiness, in all His
mercy and love, in all His power and authority — as being responsible
for the word which He had spoken — the promise He had given.
“When HE INTERPOSED Himself, placed Himself as the Responsible
Fulfiller, as the CONFIRMATION to that which He had already promised, in
order for that ‘confirmation’ to be handled and known, He took upon
Himself the form of man. When He interposed Himself, He literally
committed Himself to become the VISIBLE CONFIRMATION — and thus, as Paul
tells us in Romans 15:8, our Lord Jesus Christ became as a servant — a
minister — TO CONFIRM THE PROMISES. He is both — He is the
Word/Promise, and He is its confirmation. In Him we have all the ‘yea,
and Amen.’ Christ is the Word of the Promise — ‘In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (Jn. 1:1). He
is the LIVING WORD, the YEA, the AMEN, to every promise.
“Furthermore, the Son of God, Jesus Christ...was not yea and nay,
but in Him was YEA. ‘For all the promises of God in Him are
yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us’ (II Cor.
1:20
). Herein is a vital point, there is an inclusion, a ‘BY US.’ He is
the Word, the Promise, and it is a POSITIVE AMEN, and it is BY US that the
fulfilled promise redounds to the glory of God. When God gave the promise
it was TO US — UPON US. ‘God so loved the world...’ THAT’S US!
Therefore the promise can only glorify God when it is fulfilled in us.
What an amazing revelation of His grace, that links together the ‘glory
of God’ and this ‘BY US.’ He gives the promise, He fulfills the
promise, works it all INTO US — and then God is glorified!
“It is also written that Jesus Christ was never ‘a maybe, a
hope-so, or just a wishful possibility.’ He was not a NAY and a YEA —
a nay if...or a yea if... There are no conditional clauses inserted in the
promise, for IN HIM ALL THE PROMISES ARE YEA, plainly asserted; and AMEN,
faithfully fulfilled. He is the ETERNAL YES of God! The SO BE IT, the I
WILL DO IT!” — end quote.
“That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in
the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God
of truth” (Isa. 65:16). The Hebrew rendering of this precious passage
calls God the “Amen.” The word “truth” in the King James Version
is the Hebrew word AMEN. Our English word “Amen” is not really an
English word at all, but merely the transliteration of this Hebrew word,
that is, the Hebrew word brought over into English. Just as “taco” is
a Mexican term brought into English, so “Amen” is a Hebrew word
adopted into English. The Amplified Bible beautifully renders this verse:
“So that he who invokes a blessing upon himself in the land shall do so
by saying, May the God of truth and fidelity — the Amen — bless me;
and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth and
faithfulness — the Amen — to His promises...” “Amen” has the
same meanings in both the Hebrew and English languages. The full scope of
these meanings is threefold: “it is true” — used as a confirmation;
“so be it” — used as an endorsement; and “may it become true”
— used to express the hope that the uttering preceding it will come to
pass. The word “Amen” is derived from the adjective “true”. It is
used after prayers and blessings by both Jews and Christians. The only
difference being that Jews do not usually conclude their own prayers with
“Amen” as Christians do, but instead use it to confirm or endorse
another’s prayer.
When Jesus calls Himself the Amen, it means that He is the divine
“Yes” to all of God’s will and to the prayers of God’s elect as
they pray according to His will. When the revelation of God speaks within
you it is the spirit of Christ in your heart that witnesses, “Amen!”
The spirit of Christ loves to do within you that for which He indwells you
— to accomplish God’s will on earth. When you step forward to do
God’s will Christ within you is the Amen — not the word, but the
POWER. He is the divine impetus, the force, the vision, the encouragement
and the strength to fulfill all of the Father’s plan and purpose.
Halleluyah! Amen and Amen! By J. Preston Eby.
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