Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

FELLOWSHIP OF THE HUNGRY HEARTED

“kingdom” BUILDING versus KINGDOM BUILDING

“HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN IN THE MIDST OF THE BATTLE”

IS DEMOCRACY REALLY GOD’S WAY?

GOD’S DUE ORDER

MAN’S ORDER: DOCTRINATE – THEN ISOLATE THEN DENOMINATE – THEN DOMINATE

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

UNION WITH THE FATHER

THE THREE GATES

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES

THE MOST HOLY PLACE

A VOICE “IN THE TEMPLE GATE”

COME UP HIGHER

THAT HE MIGHT HAVE PREEMINENCE

THIS GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

AFTERWORD

“SHOW THE HOUSE TO THE HOUSE” BOOK SERIES (Ezekiel 43:10-11)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BEYOND PENTECOST

Clayt Sonmore

LIFE SENTENCE Publishing

Beyond Pentecost – Clayt Sonmore

Copyright © 2012

All rights reserved. However, the author wishes all whom can use this material for the glory of God to do so, freely reprinting, without changes. Please include the following text in all reprints: ‘Material used with permission from the book ‘Beyond Pentecost,’ by Clayt Sonmore’

Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version

Scripture quotations marked (Amplified) are taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

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First edition published 1964

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THY KINGDOM COME MINISTRIES

Clayt Sonmore

clayt@sonmore.com

Thou son of man SHOW THE HOUSE [as God meant it to be] TO THE HOUSE [that man built as a replacement for the true house] of Israel that they may be ASHAMED of their iniquities and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all they have done, show them the form of the [true] house . . . AND WRITE IT IN THEIR SIGHT that they may keep the whole form and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.” (Ezekiel 43:10, 11).

INTRODUCTION

This presentation is made as a result of much soul travail and burden to see precious truth preserved, agape love regained and sectarianism destroyed. Even more, I desire to see precious brethren of the faith move to higher ground, as well as those fellowships, churches, prayer groups and so forth, that essentially have identified themselves with the Lord’s end-time “Holy Ghost outpouring” move to this same higher ground.

There seems to be an overwhelming tendency in all of us, individually as well as collectively, because of the joy of the new dimension into which we have been brought, to forget that that which was new order yesterday is often old order today.

God is wanting to bring us into a progressive revelation of Himself, and of who we are in Him.

I have partially recognized guilt in others only because I am now beginning to see the guilt in myself. I have seen the falsity in many activities and groups only because God has made me to be aware of the false tendencies in some of the activities I have been responsible for creating.

The writing of a substantial part of this presentation was on March 5, 1964, and the words came under very strange circumstances. I was in Texas in some meetings when a strange “malady” came over me, and for twenty-four hours I became very desperately ill, except when I would write. As I began to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit the words of this writing, much of it to my surprise, rolled off the end of my pen under the direction of Him. Even as the desperate illness would leave when I would pick up the pen to write, so did the illness immediately and entirely leave when I finished the last paragraph. I immediately got out of bed, dressed, and drove all the way back to Minneapolis without stopping except for fuel.

I do not claim that the contents of this presentation of God’s progressive revelation to His end-time church would even begin to exhaust the subject of what God is doing or saying in this hour. Neither would I say it to be entirely free from man’s ideas. Please accept, dearly beloved, the wheat and leave behind the chaff. We do not expect others to live on a borrowed revelation; however, do pray about these matters before eliminating them from your consideration.

Certain small segments of this writing are not a product of the Holy Spirit’s penning the words through myself alone, but through others also tried in the fire, precious brethren, of like faith and understanding. God’s inner dealings have made me to know that the words these men have written were not the words or works of man, but of the Holy Ghost, and that no words that I would write on the subject could as adequately portray the burden of my heart, or reveal what the Spirit is saying on the subject.

Rather than call attention to man by attaching names to quotations, I would give Him, the true author, all the glory.

We trust that the thoughts in the following writing will be precious stepping stones in helping to “bring many sons to glory” as we covenant together to be “Followers Of The Living Way,” and to respond to God’s call of the hour to “Come Up Higher.”

– Clayt Sonmore (March 14, 1964)

Chapter One[1]

FELLOWSHIP OF THE HUNGRY HEARTED

I have seen with my own eyes many marvelous physical healings, even to that of blind eyes being opened, but never have I seen a miracle compared to the one I witnessed in a Holy Ghost meeting in the early 50’s. The miracle very simply was a mutual “Love and Trust” powerfully moving among a host of brethren. Of such mutuality I believe there has been no equal anywhere in our century, before or since. We could only say, “Behold, how they love one another.” This was a true “baptism of Love.” We have lost this central quality even in Spirit filled circles, brethren. What has happened?

As a tender new plant, as a new born sparrow without abilities in itself to fly, we must stand together with fear and trembling in spite of the seemingly hopeless prospects of the future. We must repent of our deficiencies, recognize our need, and again earnestly contend for restoration of that which was lost. No, on second thought, not that which was lost, but more, the scripturally promised double portion promised for the time of the end.

The ekklesia (called out ones) who are earnestly contending for something higher, are not very numerous. They are only a mere handful. They are recognizing that they do not seem to have, according to man’s normal measurements, the basic qualifications to teach a Sunday School class, much less to lead a whole world of [2]lost or spiritually stunted humanity out of Egypt, through the Wilderness, and into the Promised Land.

Though it seems as if most Christians (I dare not call them believers) are fighting this move, we must not bow any longer to their call to mediocrity. We are separated by thousands of miles, by denominational walls, by doctrines, by differences in worship, and so forth. Still we can have and must have a mutual love and trust that will rise above our differences and allow us to see beyond the veil of our flesh and into the realms of the Spirit, bringing us into a new revelation of Jesus, His Love, and His eternal purposes for His own.

Also brethren, we cannot separate Love from Trust. We must pause long enough to realize that Trust has become an elusive, yes, almost lost quality, oft times lost even among those conscripted to be a part of God’s end-time army.

Every consideration must be weighed carefully with a realization that thousands of souls might be hanging in the balance of that decision. Never should a decision be made hurriedly, nor without complete unity. We must move in the Spirit. In honor preferring one another must be a central theme; and political maneuvering must be eliminated. We cannot even believe reports of behind the scenes maneuvering, for we must have trust. We must have what you might call pure love from a pure soul.

In the first message to the churches God indicated His displeasure for their having left their first love (Rev. 2:4). Man is never void of love; it is either a lower philadelphia type of sensual love, or an agape love of the Spirit. Ephesus left one love to embrace another. They didn’t lose their first love, they left it. God said that they could still return to it, but if they did not, their place (as a candlestick) would be taken away.

They were however commended concerning their hatred for the deeds of the Nicolaitans which Christ also hated. The word Nicolaitans comes from the Greek word Nikao [meaning to conquer] and laos [the people]. Their hatred was focused in those deeds that conquered the people and sought to bring them under bondage. This revelation coming to the apostle John in 96 A.D., deals with an apparent danger at that time – a people of leadership coming forth to bind God’s church, taking it from the realm of the Spirit to the soulish and sensual realm. Amazing, too, that the object of hate in Ephesus later becomes an acceptable doctrine in Pergamos (Rev. 2:15). Necessity and pressure had driven the people to the seeking of security. When Christ ceases to be the focal point in our security, we begin to lose our agape love and will turn to the lower security of brotherhood and its philadelphia love. Philadelphia love in itself can only bring bondage; it must be impregnated by the highest form, agape love. Thus agape love can only be experienced as Jesus is the center and is the uppermost in all things. The lesser must be controlled and influenced by the greater.

But with great frequency God’s people who have entered into the place of His presence become careless in their walk and leave that place of heavenly fragrance, experiences of fresh anointing oil, and the mutual blending and sharing in His agape love. That blessed experience of being one, one in Him, soon is replaced by the lesser. Pressure will always come from without. Brethren soon seek refuge and security in the fellowship or activity that has been created. And then when the security in Him alone is substituted by the fellowship and security of the nucleus, the vertical [agape] love becomes united with, or substituted by, the horizontal [phileo] love; until what we have left is but a shadow of what God intended.

God is doing a new thing and the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church He is building. This is a Church not made with hands, not organized, and not used as a collective body to bring pressure and fear to those not willing to submit. Yes, I believe that this universal Church – composed of those willing to “Walk in the Way,” in the “Living Way” – will crown Him King thus coming into the truth of the victorious walk. Again, we are seeing a people beginning to be possessed with that which Jesus had, and which He referred to in, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for His friends.” And this fellowship in Him shall automatically produce out of the overflow those who will adhere to the Word, “a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you that ye also love one another.” “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

“One to another.” In the Greek the word “to” implies that this love “demands nothing in return.” Jesus gave of Himself even though we rejected Him. He loved us and died for us even though we spurned that love. He loved us and died for us even though we have done nothing to merit this love.

Without our realizing it, the philadelphia spirit of goodwill and mutual esteem begins to focalize our attention upon one another instead of on Christ. Where our heart is, there is our treasure. We begin to treasure what He has for us, rather than treasure Him alone. Soon we come under bondage to the thing we have sought to preserve for our safety and security. Next we are a cog in the philadelphia machine. Oh, the subtlety of it all!

In each church and church age, be it Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, or present day Laodicea, Christ has ordained that He will have a company of overcomers. They must overcome every contrary spirit and situation at hand. They are living in the reality of the greater overcoming the lesser. Theirs is true agape love! Now they can love even though they are spoken against. They can understand even though they are misunderstood. They can bless even though they are cursed. They know how to overcome evil with good.

Oh God, make us wise unto the subtle devices of Satan, and give us knowledge of our human frailties! To Thee and to Thee only can we cling, that You in Your great providence will fully perform Your eternal purposes for this hour! May we humbly be that people in whom you delight!

Can it be possible that the nucleus, we who have always been so joyful in being presented as a fellowship, and not as a denomination, have lost the spirit of fellowship, and has now been replaced by the spirit of denomination (or domination)? Are we having more and more centralized control with its accompanying fears of “Line up or else.” Actually, more and more people are being ruled by fewer, because people do not like personal decision with corresponding personal responsibility. The spirit of the age is rapidly moulding all humanity (religious structures included) toward centralization and conformity of thought, as well as centralization of control.

Someone said that “God always starts with a Man and uses him to begin a Movement. Finally, and invariably, as it loses its simplicity and childlike faith and love it becomes a Machine, then a Monument, and wists not, like Samson, that the Anointing has begun to wane.”

It has been said that the steps to spiritual downfall of groups during the ages have always followed this cycle. (1) Revelation; (2) Inspiration; (3) Evangelization; (4) Organization; (5) Education; and (6) Stagnation, with this generally happening in less than one generation.

Paul states in II Cor. 11:3, “But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

E. M. Bounds in his book “Power Through Prayer” has written...

“We are constantly on a stretch, if not a strain to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the Gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. He does not anoint plans, but men – men of prayer...”

In the final analysis we must respect the right of each individual to be “led by the Spirit.” The Lord says, however, that “We have been called unto liberty, only use not this liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Jesus first became not Ruler but Servant of all, never ruling or driving by force, but always leading with love.

God has in mind for us as individuals and as loosely formed organisms to be partakers of the “First Fruits Company,” and to help many become “Overcomer... Sons” that will break forth in life and power in these last days.

This “First Fruits/Joseph Company” will be a company of God-gifted, persecuted, forgiving forerunners, who – though mistreated and misunderstood will become the means of bread for their brethren as well as for the Egyptians. They will in spite of all persecution be uncompromising, and will arrive to proclaim His truths in the power of the Spirit such as the world has never seen. Yes, the Latter house shall be greater than the former.

Our cry ought to be: Oh God, “Return that which the palmerworm and cankerworm have taken away.” I feel the Lord is saying to us, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.”

Lenard Ravenhill writes: “Sodom-like sin must merit Sodom-like judgment. This was the iniquity of Sodom – pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness. We need prophets for this day of doom! Neither Gideon or anyone else gets into trouble for having visions. Let Gideon, however, slip out at midnight and cut down the groves of Baal – then Hell releases all its fury.

“Let John the Baptist call the priests vipers, and rail at Herod’s adultery – and he signs his own death warrant.”

My brethren, God’s various dealings with me have caused me to place what I feel to be God’s truth before you, at any cost, rather than to see my brethren in this last day move, brethren whom I love, flounder in self satisfaction in the wilderness, all because through fear No Voice Cried for Repentance.

Many organizations and denominations, including Pentecostals, have actually grown from nothing to hundreds of thousands in the past half century. Hundreds of millions have been spent for buildings, and very often these essentially have little or no comprehension of God’s voice and leading in this last day move. Actually, you find these same so often devoid of spiritual understanding that they are persecuting the new revival, and in much the same way as they themselves were persecuted in days gone by.

Aside from, and also because of, the rupture of love, the first iniquity of Sodom, pride, has swelled in our ranks. I wonder if we have not been guilty of over satisfaction, of perhaps thinking we as a group, or each of us as individuals, are God’s very special, yes, even greatest gift to the church. Rapid growth of activities has brought “numerical prosperity” without “poverty of spirit.” I believe God wants us to take no comfort from these statistics, for statistics cannot be the qualification for spiritual success. We must not measure our successes or allow these to be a thermometer of whether or not we are moving in God.

In order to hear the voice of God, and to know how He is leading in this last day move, we must ask God for spiritual understanding and wisdom. Our cry should be, Oh God, don’t let us miss the new wine of the Spirit that you are pouring out upon all flesh that are willing to pay the price to receive such. We must not measure our spiritual successes by our temporal achievements.

Our prayer should be, Lord, make us to have the Spirit of revelation and God fearing integrity that would qualify us to be the minute remnant characterized by Joshua and Caleb. Out of the almost 2,000,000 adults, who because of sin and failure were destined to have God’s second best, these two alone were unsatisfied to have anything but God’s very best, His perfect will.

God is calling for repentance. I believe God is demanding of us as individuals, and as fellowships, to flee to our closets of prayer and ask the Lord to forgive us for our flimsy efforts to place Him in His rightful position. May He forgive us for our lack of love without dissimulation, for our lack of prayer, and for our lack of making Him central and supreme in all! How oft have we elevated flesh by the usage of “greatest” and “biggest.” We’ve over capitalized on the “big” man to the exclusion of the small.

I am noticing more and more that many of our determinations are made with a priority on how well we will we be received by certain individuals, groups, churches, or organizations.

Paul Fleming, founder of New Tribes Mission, stated before he was called home to be with the Lord that “the one thing he feared more than anything else was that New Tribes Mission which was bitterly fought by organizations and individuals would be accepted and recognized by men.” He said that his desire was to be approved by God if he never heard or had the plaudits of men. Jesus said, “Those things that are well pleasing in the eyes of men are an abomination in the sight of God.”

Because of the increased lack of “Love and Trust,” we find with each passing year more and more external forces to the “Last day Move of the Spirit” break through our disheveled ranks and capitalize on our lack of “Trust” to one another.

Several years ago, in the mouth of several witnesses, God spoke clearly to me to Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables of stone that he may run (launch into action) that readeth it. He also made it plain that This vision was for an appointed time, though it tarry wait for it, because it will surely come to pass. Somehow, I feel that this day and with this writing at least part one of this “vision” is being fulfilled.

Whether in Minneapolis, St. Louis, London, or in the Congo, the Church has failed, and rebellion to God’s wooing and demands is so evident that the Church as we know it today is spiritually poverty stricken. Though it still has numbers it is essentially dead. If there came international persecution of the church as we know it today, the few that would stand true would only leave room for the comment: Is there any faith left? Why?

It is obvious that our United States political system has failed, and though our country has given billions all over the world, we are even the more hated by our beneficiaries. Why?

Our ecclesiastical system also has failed. And barring no denominational group that I know – even though multiplied billions of dollars have poured into their churches and missions, and their varied activity – spiritual bankruptcy prevails at most every level. Rapid increase toward almost total spiritual annihilation is upon us.

– Why?

[1]This booklet, except for corrections in punctuation or spelling and a very few sentence improvements or other changes, is exactly reproduced from what this author wrote on March 5, 1964.

Chapter Two

“kingdom” BUILDING versus KINGDOM BUILDING

The main common denominator for the failure of both the political and ecclesiastical orders are the same. Men building “A kingdom” instead of “THE KINGDOM.” God has promised unto His people “all things,” spiritual, physical, and temporal, but to Him alone must go all the glory. Satan’s power was broken at Calvary and Satan’s power can be completely broken in our lives, too.

kingdom builders will continue very rapidly to build numbers, but they will never be a unified organism that will be the “Joshua Company” which is appointed as the last day ministry, one to lead the way into the promised land. Are we willing to pay the price?

Unless we receive a new visitation of Faith that will move mountains, a humility that will make us contend for the low place instead of the high one and a “love without dissimulation” that really “prefers one another,” we shall continue to slip away from the divine unction and calling that came to us perhaps years ago. Are we, too, building a kingdom, or in reality many kingdoms?

kingdom building seems almost to be the number one curse of the church. This is not difficult to understand because human nature is the same today as it was in the days of Sodom when “The Pride of Life” was one of the three sins for which God had to pronounce judgment in order to bring forth the pure.

The building of a kingdom rather than The Kingdom is a strange enticement that has nearly destroyed true Holy Ghost fellowship. Pride of life, the destroyer of true humility, is a terrible thing. It stuck its ugly head up continually in both the Old and the New Testament. The early church was beset with this same shortcoming prior to being filled with the Holy Spirit, completely crushed by the Rock, thus being brought into total abandonment of all rights. Peter, James, and John also struggled and contended as to who would be the high man on the Totem pole.

Even as it is today it is apparent in that time, even as today, that few were contending for the low place, the low road – the way of the “broken and contrite.” They, however, had an excuse in that they had not been filled with the Spirit. I believe our experience in the Holy Spirit, myself included, is more often in the had than the have.

What is happening could be best named The Cult of Personality. This situation has some insidious twists to it also, for many who feel they do not occupy a place of self-exultation, over elevate others, lauding man and placing them before the public as if they were God’s so called “big” or “great” people, all this to the exclusion of God’s “precious little” people. The rapid rise of the Cult of Personality must surely grieve the heart of the Master. The Word tells us that we are only sinners saved by grace, and that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. I believe that this grieves the heart of God, and that judgment will soon fall on those who continue to practice or contribute in any way to this terrible “Cult.”

It is not God’s plan to focalize on any one individual or organism, but to focalize on Him. “... And I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men unto me.”

It seems that more and more we are seeking an accommodation with someone or something in order to achieve acceptance. Compromise of convictions has no place in the ministration of “this gospel of the kingdom.” The Lord states that He came “not to bring peace but a sword.” There will always be peace among brethren “walking in the Spirit.” However, when part of the household of faith holds back from God’s best there will be a division according to the scripture.

Most people are introverts by nature, but in God many become strong extroverts. To squelch these individual ministries and to try to make everyone fall into a pattern emanating from headquarters is not scriptural.

I believe our individual ministries may seem to be as divergent from one another as the spokes of a wheel. If we are all anchored to the central hub of love there shall be no confusion, even though it may seem to the outsider and even to ourselves at times that all is in confusion and despair.

“And He said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Maybe here lies our chief fault as individuals and as collective bodies. Are we really taking up this cross and following Him without fear or favor? Are we willing to lose our lives for Him, or are we ready to accommodate our convictions to gain the plaudits of men in order to increase our numerical growth, or to win the favor of groups or denominations? If we are accepting this premise of compromise and are not willing to lose our lives, our reputations, our fellowship, our organism or organization but are trying to save it, we shall surely lose it.

We can decide to go into the promised land and fight the giants, or take the easier way of the flesh of wandering in the wilderness. Either way we shall grow numerically, but one way is God’s perfect, while the other is God’s permissive will.

Because of the premise of men meeting (1) irrespective of denomination, and because the people who come to these meetings are (2) desperate for God, and because (3) God honors His Word wherever preached, we often seem to have a wonderful move of the Spirit in spite of man-centeredness and varied spiritual delinquency. But we must cease to believe that because of the numerical growth and blessings of meetings or activities that we automatically are in the center of His perfect will. God wants us to take no comfort from numerical statistics, for these are not the qualification of spiritual success. We must not measure our successes by statistics or allow these to be a thermometer of whether we are moving in God’s best. Rapid growth of activities has brought “numerical prosperity” but also “spiritual death.”

With time so short, and with as great a manpower pool as there is in God’s Great Army, it will be a tragedy if an attempt is made to keep everyone locked in a pen, with control centered in any given headquarters. Most decisions even then would be made by hired employees. No, brethren, while we trust in God that men will have wisdom, we must also remove the fences and give everyone a free license to move as the Spirit leads.

Even if this poses room for possible excesses or deviation, I am satisfied that to move in liberty as the Spirit leads, forewarned not to use this liberty as license or excuse – but in finality to answer only to God and to the anointed word in our brethren (when it is anointed) and this in submission and humility – is the only way to conscript the manpower necessary to “turn the world upside down” fast and now.

Paul has the answer for us as he relays, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me that there are contentions among you. Every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”

Paul didn’t ask for everybody or everything to be centralized in himself, nor to negate the divine calling and leadership of Apollos or Cephas. He, in essence, wanted people to follow God according to the dictates of their own divine leading, yet with “love without dissimulation” for all because “Christ is not divided.”

Many people ask about the confusion and lack of love and trust that exists, even in our Pentecostal circles. Why is there such confusion? How is it possible for the enemy to introduce and so dominate the scene with the “cult of personality” and “kingdom building” in so many instances? Lord, help up to uncover some of the hidden “whys” in this dissertation.

All of us who were truly baptized with the “Holy Ghost and Fire” can look back to the early days (which were considerably better) of this dimension with longing to the unparalleled humility and simplicity that was devoid of the ambitious “cult of personality” complex and “kingdom building” spirit now prevailing. Some will be honest enough to admit that we as a whole have lost that basic quality. Whether we be rich or poor, educated or not, I believe one of the greatest evidences to the sceptic is that this experience does not rest in human wisdom and power, but rather in divine strength.

Paul, a man of great intellect and education, one who formerly enjoyed a high place with the religious system of his day said, “God has not chosen the wise and the mighty, humanly speaking, but God has chosen the world’s simpletons to shame the strong and God has chosen the world’s no accounts and contemptibles and nobodies in order to annihilate what amounts to something, so that all humanity may be boastless in the presence of God” (Berkeley translation, I Cor.1:25).

It was because Paul had laid aside his natural endowments in order to prefer the “anointing that breaks the yoke” that he was able to obtain the simplicity that abhors the “kingdom building” spirit.

How did the early church become credited with the statement: “Behold how they love one another”? How were they able to “turn the world upside down”? I believe it was because nearly all in the early church, like Paul, knew the reality of the crucified life, the walk in the Spirit devoid of kingdom building and the cult of personality, thus leaving room only for Him.

Chapter Three

“HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN IN THE MIDST OF THE BATTLE”

“And Samuel said, “When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee King over Israel?” (I Samuel 15:17).

Everything has its cause and there is a basic reason for the rise and fall of many of the Lord’s anointed. “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (I Corinthians 10:12). “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15, 16).

In the beginning of men’s rise to positions of service they approach the throne of God pleading for mercy and grace. God looks at these humble beings through the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and extends pardon and blessing. “A broken and a contrite heart, Oh God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalms 51:17). “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Psalms 34:18). “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him” (II Chronicles 16:9).

God’s grace is His unmerited favor toward man, one in which His mercy can even take the form of judgment or correction if we are open to receive it. God’s grace is the power of God to do for us that which we acknowledge we cannot do for ourselves if we truly believe that God can and will change us into His own image. If we will heed his clarion call there is still time for judgment with mercy. A man, little in his own eyes, pleading for mercy, is truly fertile soil for God’s gifts of grace and mercy.

Many are the fallen of the Lord’s anointed who, after having obeyed and received God’s blessing, turned Jesus Christ into an idol, rather than to continue allowing Him to be their one and only Lord. They would rather idolize Jesus, sing His praises, fast and sacrifice to His name, rather than to obey Him and be identified with Him in the position of humility and service to mankind.

God also follows rules and laws that govern success in His management of His Kingdom. In order to protect His own holy name, He must chasten, rebuke, demote, or do whatever is necessary to make the proper correction. God is first and He is last. He will not suffer anyone to place Him in second place. He is sovereign and demands total allegiance. It has been well said that Jesus is either Lord of all or He is not Lord at all.

Just as the heathen have many varied kinds and types of gods, so, also, have some Christians strange gods which they, perhaps unaware, have placed before the God of heaven. Through the influence of Satan, they then have fallen from their useful positions.

Some mighty servants of God in word and deed have been tricked by Satan into preferring and protecting their public image, instead of being totally dedicated to truth at any cost. Satan, in his subtlety, whispers in their ear, “If you lose your Public Image, how can you successfully serve God?” They fall under this attack, not knowing that if they have a good Public Image it is because of God and that the only way to protect and keep it is to remain true to Him Who gave it. This image, they think, must be protected and preserved at any cost. However, this cannot be done because God hates all forms of idolatry and sees to it that all images are destroyed.

“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14). Jesus, as a true and typical servant of God, refused the honor of man and took no credit unto Himself. “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7).

Jesus said, “I receive not honor from men” (John 5:41). It would be wonderful if the Lord’s anointed could understand that man’s honor system, built upon credit, is obnoxious in God’s sight. “For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (I Samuel 16:7). If these things of God could really be comprehended by the Lord’s anointed, it would be very easy to “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another” (Romans 12:10). Oh, that God’s anointed could know that there is an unalterable law governing success and failure, the rise and fall of the Lord’s anointed: “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 14:10). It is little wonder that so many of God’s anointed are falling. It seems that many of them are ordering their fall, following the formula for abasement by exalting themselves, rather than following the formula for advancement by honoring and preferring their brothers above themselves.

The way of Balaam is not only practiced by individuals but organizations have been formed which act as spiritual trade unions to control and manage God’s property for their personal gain. Codes of ethics have been formulated to supercede individual calls of God. Spiritual black marketing, franchising and the monopolizing of geographic areas are common practices of the church hierarchy. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Individual members of Satan’s substitute church are clamoring for positions on the basis of what they can gain, rather than on the basis of what they can give.

This organizational spirit is not by any means new. In fact, it showed its ugly head at the time Christ walked upon the earth. “And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, “Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us” (Luke 9:49 and 50).

My, how we suffer when our reputation idol is attacked. We call upon God for help, thinking this is an attack of the enemy, not knowing that it is the hand of the potter breaking that which became marred. God had intended the vessel to reflect the image of His Son Jesus, but instead it reflected the image of Adam. Therefore, it had to be broken and refashioned into the image of His dear Son. “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).

Take heart, you who are having your little gods of personal or public images attacked. There lies ahead a great release and an entering into His rest when once and for all time those little images – those little personal gods of this present world – have been smashed and broken beyond repair.

Thus goes the endless cycle of the rise and fall of the Lord’s anointed. Let us turn from our self-promotion and from accepting honor that is due only to Jesus Christ. Let us cease accepting the praise of men and pass all the honor and glory to Him who is altogether worthy. Let us cease from our own works and the making merchandise of the things of God. Let us repent of our wickedness in high places and return unto our first love, for He will abundantly forgive and pardon. He will once again make us into vessels fit for the Master’s use. “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it (Jeremiah 18:4).

Chapter Four

IS DEMOCRACY REALLY GOD’S WAY?

Is there in our Pentecostal ranks, because of our obvious lack of New Testament Pentecostal power, a missing link more basic to our deficiency than the facts hitherto presented in this writing? Something vital has been removed from us as collective bodies. We have become like Samson, who because of sin and compromise, lost the “Anointing” and “wist not that the Holy Spirit had departed from Him.”

Yes, I believe there is a missing link, and it lies as much as anything else in the fact that we as a body of believers have almost entirely forsaken our former basis of functioning as a Theocracy in which appointments and “governments” functioned through Divine order. In complete and belligerent defiance of Scripture man today has substituted Democracy (election and rule by the majority of man) as the prevalent mode of government and of determining God’s will in matters.

There is so much brainwashing in the world (which we should not be of) relative to the merits of democracy. Even most of God’s people are tricked into believing in democracy as being God’s ordained pattern. In our own so-called democratic State or Federal government it is highly dubious as to whether God’s man ever gets into office, or ever gets to run, except by almost nonexistent Divine intervention.

I unreservedly declare that Democracy (rule by men) is not of God. The Word also bears out that only Theocracy (rule by God) and Theocratic principles are of God, and that Democracy and Democratic principles are of the flesh.

The last words of Jesus prior to the ascension were instructions for the disciples to “Tarry ye in Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Even with such an exhortation, the only deed or action between the ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit was a sin ignoring this commandment to “Tarry for the Holy Spirit” before doing anything. That single disobedient act was their fleshly desire to, by democratic action, choose Matthias to replace Judas. Had they only waited in obedience to the Lord’s challenge, there would have been subsequent to the “anointing” in the Upper Room, and in God’s time and in God’s way, God’s higher will of choice and timing. God’s choice could have still been Matthias, but I’m sure this appointment would have been by Theocratic means (God appointment). Casting lots was an Old Testament pattern, but we never read again of this procedure after the Upper Room. It is significant, at the least, that you never again read in the Word any mention of Matthias after this appointment.

From that day to this, democratic procedures have been the ruling factor in most organizations. Because of its failure to be scriptural, democracy will always produce, sooner or later, man’s man and man’s plan, rather than God’s Man and God’s Plan in all societies where democracy rather than Theocracy is practiced.

It is very often evident that in any group or spiritual body there are essentially two segments of people; the less spiritual majority and the spiritual minority, the latter crying out in intercession for something higher, and the former resisting and often persecuting the minority. Whether it be a small body of people or a whole denomination, the less spiritual majority usually elects their less spiritual counterparts, while they in turn place their less spiritual counterparts in still higher executive positions. Finally the majority usually obtains “man’s man” for leadership instead of “God’s man” and again, “man’s plan” instead of “God’s plan.”

Theocracy (rule by Divine guidance of God through men) is God’s only workable pattern. This does not come by voting sixteen to fifteen, with a system of “a majority rules”, and then trying to interject God some place into the majority action.

There is only one “Thus saith the Lord,” and I believe there is a people within a people today that have that childlike, nobody and weakling quality and they are receiving the Word of the Lord at His Mouth. These are a people who are willing to pay the price of misunderstanding and persecution by the less spiritual majority.

“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, The Holy Ghost said, ‘Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.’” We don’t know in what exact way God made them to hear His Word, or to know His will as to God’s placement within the body. But we can be sure that it was not by a majority rules democratic election.

We do know, however, “He is the same yesterday, today, and forever” and that “He is no respecter of persons,” and even as He spoke to “His Own” in days gone by, so also is He speaking to “His Own” today.

NUMBER 3 IN SCRIPTURE

(Speaks of completeness)

3 is the first “geometrical” figure. 2 straight lines cannot enclose anything, or complete anything. 3 dimensions of LENGTH, BREADTH, and HEIGHT are necessary to form a solid. So, 3 stands for that which is solid, real, substantial, complete, and entire . . .

- 3 great divisions completing time – PAST – PRESENT – FUTURE

- 3 things complete the sum of human capability – THOUGHT – WORD – DEED

- 3 annual Feasts of Israel – PASSOVER – PENTECOST – TABERNACLES

- 3 courts in the Tabernacle – OUTER COURT – HOLY PLACE – HOLY OF HOLIES

- 3 things in the Ark – ROD – MANNA – LAW

- 3 equal measurements in Holy of Holies of 10 cubits each (solid cube)

- The THIRD day of creation the earth was caused to rise up out of the water (resurrection) The THIRD day Jesus rose from the dead.

- The THIRD hour of the day He was crucified, and there was darkness for 3 hours

- 3 persons were raised from the dead by Jesus.

- 3 years seeking fruit testifies to the completeness of Israel´s failure (Luke 13:7)

- 3 times He said “IT IS WRITTEN,”

- 3 times a voice spoke from heaven, testifying of Him. Matt. 3:17 – Matt. 17:5 – Jn. 12:28

- 3 languages written on the cross show the completeness of His rejection by Man.

- 3 offices of Prophet, Priest, and King raised up from among his brethren (Deut. 17:5, 18:3-5, 15).

- 3 revelations as Shepherd: GOOD SHEPHERD (in death John 10:4) GREAT SHEPHERD (in resurrection Heb. 13:20) and CHIEF SHEPHERD (in Glory I Peter 5:4).

- 3 appearings in Heb. 9 show that His work will not be complete until He appears again.

- 3 days journey to separate Israel from Egypt (the world) (Ex.5:3) Complete separation.

- 3 things brought back by the 12 spies – GRAPES – FIGS – POMEGRANATES

- 3 times the Jordan was divided, (Josh. 4:2; II Kings 2:8,14)

- 3 days search for Elijah (II Kings 2:17) completeness of testimony that he could not be found.

- 3 divisions of Old Testament, LAW – PROPHETS – PSALMS (Luke 24:44) Completeness of O.T. canon.

- 3 marks the completeness of God’s dealings with people – SHEM, HAM, JAPHETH – ABRAHAM, ISAAC, JACOB – SAUL, DAVID, SOLOMON – NOAH, DANIEL, JOB – SHADRACH, MESHACH, ABEDNEGO – PETER, JAMES, JOHN.

- 3 gifts of grace – FAITH – HOPE – LOVE – (five times repeated)

- 3 fold nature of man – SPIRIT – SOUL – BODY the complete man

- 3 fold nature of temptation (I John 2:16) LUST OF THE FLESH, LUST OF THE EYES, PRIDE OF LIFE

- 3 fold corruption of God’s Word – TAKING FROM, ADDING TO, ALTERING

- 3 great enemies of Man – THE WORLD, THE FLESH, and THE DEVIL

- 3 men on Mt. of Transfiguration – “8 days later”

Chapter Five

GOD’S DUE ORDER

God has an order for His Christ centered Church. The Bible is filled with records showing that God does judge His people who choose their religious worship and church government apart from the scriptural pattern. He began at Mount Sinai, and had the naked dancers who worshipped around the golden calf slain as a warning to Israel. Even Aaron’s two sons, the chief priests, died under judgment when they placed strange fire on the Holy Altar.

There are many other examples, but probably one of the most outstanding is when King David decided to bring God’s Holy Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem. He disregarded God’s due order of having it carried on the shoulders of consecrated priests. Instead, he had a beautiful cart made after the pattern of an idol cart and used it for transportation. When a priest fell dead David stopped the procession and had it brought up later according to GOD’S DUE ORDER.

In Numbers the 16th chapter we read of one of the leading priests named Korah rebelling against God’s due order. He endeavored to lead a rebellion against God’s ordained plan. The earth was opened to swallow him. If we would hold to God’s Word today, it would reveal His order of worship and unite His Body, the Church. But ambitious spiritual leaders, having filtered these sacred Words of Bible doctrine through carnal minds, have brought forth a Babylon of church creeds and traditions that have totally divided the Body of Christ into multiplied thousands of pieces.

“God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in TRUTH” (John 4:24). Restoration of God’s truth, a new depth of consecration, and a return to true worship by every individual aspirant that desires to walk in God’s will and in Divine order is the basic essential and mandatory beginning place if God’s plan for His New Testament Church order is to be. The Lord will not accept a blemished offering. Living sacrifices were examined at the temple gates and rejected if blemished. This is the primary reason the average Christian and consequently the church is cursed with unanswered prayers. We could not think of the Lord praying unanswered prayers, or for that matter the Apostle Paul either.

The great religious systems of today – with their highly centralized governments under human leadership and worshiping according to the “traditions of the elders” and following after the “commandments of men” – are only building on scaffoldings which are not in God’s blueprint. They are building great houses of wood, hay and stubble, likened by our Lord in Matthew 7:26 to the “house built on the sand,” one to be destroyed. In Ezekiel, chapters 8-11, God reveals why the Holy Temple was destroyed and the nation carried captive to Babylon. They PROFANED THE FOUR HOLY THINGS OF GOD in which His Divine order centered. First, Israel had profaned the holy House of God as the Laodicean Church is doing today, then their priesthood became profaned, then GOD’S WORD was profaned, and last of all, the laity or worshipers were profaned. At each subsequent profanation, God lifted His glory.

God still has the same DIVINE ORDER of GOVERNMENT and DISCIPLINE for His Church today as He had in the first century apostolic Church. The first national pattern is found prefigured in Israel’s Tabernacle worship while they were in the wilderness. In Exodus the 25th chapter, the study of this planned pattern begins: “According to all that I show thee after the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments (furniture), even so shall ye make it.” Later Israel’s Temple worship again presented the same prefigured pattern for the New Covenant Church to follow. The perfect pattern is also found in the Life ministry of our Lord Jesus.

As one studies through the four Gospels, it is evident that He divided His life into FIVE ministries. He MINISTERED as the chief APOSTLE, PROPHET, EVANGELIST, PASTOR (or Shepherd) and TEACHER. He did nothing outside of these five ministry offices, and always exercised one or more of the nine spiritual gifts of I Corinthians 12:8-10. The same pattern is set in scripture by the revelations of the apostle Paul who also practiced them in his evangelistic journeys. At our Lord’s ascension He gave His FIVE MINISTRIES to the New Testament Church, for the perfecting of the Body (Eph. 4:12).

Let us examine the contrasts between the early apostolic New covenant Church of Paul’s day, and this same Church as seen in its streamlined modern ministry of today. By simple comparison one can see the great difference between GOD’S ORDER and MAN’S ORDER. In the first century, the Church born at Calvary was set in God’s planned order at Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit began to manifest gifts and ministries in it.

In those days all were Spirit-filled men and women who depended solely on God’s leadership, while today our great spiritual leaders rely more upon human wisdom and trained intellects. In those days the evangelists went forth empowered with God’s tools for building his church, while today we send forth men and women trained and schooled in denominational church discipline. In the first century there were no great educational institutions or organizations to guide and support them. They had very little finances and few communication and transportation facilities to depend upon while today, though our young people go forth with all of these material things, they manifest few spiritual gifts and ministries. The first century church almost conquered the Roman Empire, while today we make little headway against the forces of evil.

Seeing then the need for us to return to GOD’S DUE ORDER, to witness again a strong militant Church going forth against the gates of Hell, we must examine further the Church of the first century. In those days each local church or body was sovereign and free, yet an integral part in the one great “body” or organism of God. Church government and that implemented through Theocratic fashion functioned within Scriptural Divine Order. Church discipline was practiced according to the Word. The fivefold ministry was in beautiful operation and “The eye could not say to the hand I have no need of thee.” They knew the truth of “Now ye are the body of Christ.” No one seemed to be contending for the high place but all, and as servants to all, were contending for God’s Due Order.

Paul outlined to the Colossians what form of faith and discipline was necessary before they could find the “way” and the “pattern.” They gave the most earnest heed to his apostolic ministration, to them, unfolding “the mystery which had been hid from ages and generations, but now is made manifest [revealed] to his saints... warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man PERFECT in Christ Jesus... in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Paul would add to them: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him [only] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power” (Col. 1:26-2:10).

John was to write in his first epistle: “Love not the world, neither the things of the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world... the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away [soon], and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever... But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things... But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him... 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”.

Chapter Six

MAN’S ORDER: DOCTRINATE – THEN ISOLATE THEN DENOMINATE – THEN DOMINATE

How it must grieve the heart of the Master to see the church that was formed in the first century to be divided today by so many differences of doctrines, and opinions, and methods – so often with the central theme being that of numerical growth rather than spiritual prosperity. I do not believe it can be emphasized enough that in scripture no other name is connected with the church but that of locality. Division of the church in New Testament times was solely on the basis of differences of locality. In referring to the different churches you never read of Paul or any of the other New Testament writers referring to the church on the corner of so and so, but he always referred to the church at Ephesus, the church at Galatia, the church at Philippi, the church at Rome. Paul recognized only one church, the great universal church, undivided by man. There were no doubt scores of individual meeting places, but no schism or division was indicated as being God’s plan.

Spiritually the Church of God is one; therefore, it cannot be divided, though physically its members are scattered throughout the earth. They cannot possibly live in one place, yet it is essential that there be a physical gathering together of believers. It is not enough that they be present in the Spirit, they must also be present in the flesh. A local church [ekklesia] is composed of all the called-out ones assembled in one place for worship, prayer, fellowship and ministry. The physical limitation of a meeting place being large enough to hold all of the church [out-called or called-out ones] is the only basis for the forming of a separate church. That division, however, is merely external. In reality the church or the body of Christ cannot be divided, therefore, even when the Word of God refers to the different assemblies of His people, the places named vary, but it is still “The Church” in every one of these places.

What then is a New Testament Church? It is not a building, gospel hall, preaching center, mission, a work, an organization, a system, a denomination, or a sect. It is the meeting together for worship, prayer, fellowship, and edification of all the people of God in a given locality, and in a small way they ought to show forth what the whole church should show forth. They are the body of Christ in that locality, so they have to learn how to come under the headship of the Lord, how to manifest oneness among all the members, and how to guard carefully against any schism and division and false doctrine.

We – the whole worldwide Church, as well as the church in each city or town of the world – are privileged to share a belief in the whole Bible, verbally inspired, as our final authority in all matters of faith and practice; a whole God, One Being, eternally existing and manifesting Himself in three persons; a whole Christ, both God and man, virgin born and coming again; a whole salvation, threefold, for spirit, soul, and body given on the principle of grace, and received by repentance and faith through our identification in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that there shall one day come total resurrection of all mankind, some to eternal life and some to eternal damnation. No, I believe there can be no basis of separation of God’s “out-called” because of doctrinal differences outside of these foundational truths just mentioned.

In the Greek, the word rendered “heresies” in Galatians 5:20 does not necessarily convey the thought of error, but rather of division on the ground of doctrine. The new Interlinear translated this word as “sects,” while Darby in his new translation renders it “schools of opinion.” The whole thought here is not concerning the differences between truth and error, but that of allowing division based on doctrine. Our teaching may be right or it may be wrong, but if we make it a cause of division then we are guilty of the heresy which is spoken of here.

God forbids any division on doctrinal grounds other than the mentioned foundational truths clearly spelled out in the Scriptures. Some believe that a rapture will be pre-tribulation, others that it will be post-tribulation. Some believe that all the saints will enter the Kingdom, others believe that only a portion will enter. Some believe that baptism is by immersion, others that it is by sprinkling, and on and on these various doctrinal views go, often constituting a separation between the children of God. Though some may be right and some may be wrong, God does not sanction any division on account of difference as to beliefs or matters other than the foundational truths of faith. If a group of believers break fellowship with their brethren in their zeal for certain doctrines according to the Word of God, they may have more scriptural teaching, but I believe they would be out of God’s will if they refuse to fellowship with others who are true believers in the same Lord and Master and clearly demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit.

Seeing that our Lord Jesus Christ founded only one church, that church being His own body, we stand for the existence of that one true church, and nothing else. We simply cannot recognize the many and varied man-made distinctions and separations that have crept into Christendom throughout the ages. If a man therefore knows Christ and is His servant, then regardless of whether or not he is in our circle – he is one with us, and we cannot be otherwise than one with him. All over the world God is moving toward a complete and whole hearted return to the simplicity and reality of the New Testament in every phase, both doctrinally and in practice. We must be constantly seeking for togetherness. We do not mean by that mechanical unity – this would only create another denomination, but I believe that God is bringing us to a true Holy Ghost Spiritual Unity, a humble recognition of the wonders of the body of Christ, with an accompanying eagerness for fellowship in prayer and sharing of light.

One group may stress divine order and methods, another group might stress Bible teaching, another group the supernatural gifts of the Spirit, another the fivefold ministry, another aggressive evangelism, or the establishing of New Testament type churches – and so it goes. You and I may personally feel that one of these groups is more complete and outstanding than the others. However, when the Lord finishes His work they will all be much more complete than we can ever imagine now. This being true, it behooves us to walk humbly before the Lord, instead of isolating, to say nothing of idolizing an incomplete segment of God’s whole thought. We must learn to draw closer together, so that we might not finally – but now – blend together into one true whole, thus becoming a part of God’s ultimate intention for His last day move.

Brethren, let us not be deceived. To isolate is to finally denominationalize, regardless of what we may claim to the contrary. The truths that are coming forth in this hour relating to God’s corporate body life makes it very clear that it is the whole church, fitly framed together, and functioning as one great interrelated whole, which shall partake of that fullness for which we all long. Our presentation and message may appear unusual, and even quite revolutionary; however, I believe any honest inquirer will soon discover that we have sound reasons for our position. Thousands of God-honored, time-proven men of earlier days both in and apart from Bible personalities were considered unconventional. I speak of men such as Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Paul, Luther, Wesley, Livingston, Huss, Tyndale and a host of others. These were men who yielded to the work of God and the “Progressive revelation of Truth” of their day. They stemmed the tide of status quo, tradition, vested interests, sectarianism, dogmatic denominationalism, and all the other accumulative forces which stand against reformation and true spiritual advance.

I trust that you will not misunderstand or misconstrue that we are against everything – God forbid. I have prayed that God would deliver me from a mere negative ministry which can only criticize and find fault with the work being done by everyone that does not see eye-to-eye with me. We are not against anyone whose heart is right with God, and are honest in their pursuit of Scriptural Truth and in seeking God “according to Divine Order”. Our deepest heart’s desire is that in spite of the scriptural rooting out, and pulling down aspect of any reformation type of ministry, our voice will always be a positive edifying testimony to the church [out-called] to come up higher.

God is shaking everything that can be shaken. Let us not fear this shaking. That which is Spirit and Life cannot be shaken, for only Babylon will fall before the truth. If our work has much of Babylon in it, there will be a crumbling, but when the smoke clears that which is of Him will still be there. Then, and only then, shall we really be free to build the right. Oh, beloved, be assured that God’s shaking, like the great and terrible wilderness of Israel of old, is only intended to “do thee good at thy latter end.”

Yes, I believe that God is now beginning to revitalize a people, even a people out of a people. They shall stand unreservedly and without fear or compromise for all these and many more precious truths that God is unveiling for His Last Day Body. These shall refuse to follow the traditional pattern of man’s order which is often to first doctrinate, then isolate, then denominate, and then dominate. This deficiency and progressive spiritual decline to many seems to be as severe in nondenominational activities and churches as in denominational circles. To me the denominational spirit is essentially a spirit of isolation around a personality or grouping coupled with isolation around a truth, wonderful as it may be, but still an incomplete segment of God’s whole thought. “For now hath God set the members everyone of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body... those which seem to be more feeble, are necessary... and there should be no schism in the body; but the members should have the same care one for another.”

Even as these precious truths and corresponding liberties change our lives, our motivations and our ways, I feel that a tremendous awakening shall come in the great evangelical camp as they see this change taking place and their “hearts shall burn within them.” They shall not be able to withstand such love, such anointing, and will find themselves saying, “We never saw it before in this fashion.” Yes, this is the “Whole Gospel” and it is for a people who God wants to make into a “Whole Man.”

Again, The Deliverer out of Zion is calling “Arise (from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you; rise to a new life)! Shine – be radiant with the glory of the Lord; for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you! For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness all peoples; but the Lord shall rise upon you, and His glory shall be seen on (or in) you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about you, and see! They all gather themselves together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried and nursed in thy arms. Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and tremble with joy (at the glorious deliverance), and be enlarged; because the abundant wealth of the Sea shall be turned to you; unto you shall the nations come with their treasures.” (Isaiah 60:1-5 – Amplified).

Chapter Seven

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

We cannot escape the need to have a new encounter with Jesus, “Who was made a little lower than the angels, and for the suffering of death was crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” “Also, it became Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory; to make the captain of our Salvation perfect through His sufferings.” “Both He that sanctifieth and we who are sanctified are all of one Father, for which cause he is not ashamed to call us brethren until we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Man and man’s machines can no longer control what is happening in this hour. God is breathing upon increasing numbers who are inhaling the fresh breath of life in the Spirit. Scattered everywhere there are individuals and little groups from various backgrounds who are entering into the fellowship of the living way. They are discovering the glorious secret of life union with the Lord. Once they lived upon past experience; now they know the joy of daily communion with Him. What a difference this has wrought in the outlook and ministry of those entering into the deeps, The Life of Flowing in the Spirit.

There is an unexplainable groaning within my heart to share with those who are just now entering into this dimension. I feel that I am just beginning to enter in myself, and am just beginning to realize that what I do see, I see afar off as through a glass darkly. But by faith, I KNOW, I KNOW, I shall soon “see face to face! Now I know in part; but then shall I know, even as also I am known.” Many are finding this living way and are enjoying a whole new kind of life and outlook. They are being carried along into the fullness of God. They are being brought unto glory by the Eternal Head, and are beginning to find something that the church has lacked so long – a place of walking in the Spirit, a place of walking in the light, a place devoid of self ambitions and desires. This is a place where they can truly say, “Not my will, Oh God, but thine be done.” These are beginning to realize that they cannot live on the blessings of yesterday, for the blessings of yesterday are old order today. Nor can they live in anticipation of tomorrow’s blessings, for the walk of the Spirit precludes the past or the future, and brings us into the Eternal Now. “Now is the day of salvation.” “For now are we the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be...” Paul was able to say, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God... having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

“Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by the angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation?”

Yes, God has a whole Salvation, for a whole man. Our God is concerned about the WHOLE man: body, soul, and spirit, and He has promised to supply every need according to His riches in Glory, whether physical or temporal. “He has put all things in subjection under His feet, for in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not now put under Him.”

Jesus left His disciples with these words: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when He is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.” Yes, “Even this Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” And we have the promise that “All that the Father hath is mine” for “Thou art mine, and I am thine.”

Christ further said: “If we shall live in Him, and allow His words to live in us, we shall be able to ask what we will and it shall be done [created] unto us.” Yes, and also, “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.”

This comforter is come, my brethren. He’s here! He wants to lead you dear brother, dear sister, me, all of us who are willing to pay the price into God’s “new day,” the glorious Life In The Spirit . . . that place of total union with the Father and with the Son!

Chapter Eight

UNION WITH THE FATHER

It is imperative that we understand God’s conception of full stature, and we can only understand this as we move into His viewpoint, for it is only then that we are able to grasp the glory of His inheritance in those saints who reach this position. As we look at the wisdom and understanding and power in which the early church moved, they had something we have lost, for these men “turned the world upside down,” without any of the thousands of tools we have today.

The apostles Paul and John both lived in Gods viewpoint, and shared the Father’s heart desire to move His people from childhood into young manhood, and finally to fatherhood. In this posture as a spiritual father we hear John exhorting in the 2nd chapter of his first epistle: “I write unto you little children,” then later, “I write unto you young men, and then again still later – “I write unto you fathers.” John saw believers on these different levels of maturity, and knew that the eternal Father could be satisfied only as they were brought into this stature of spiritual fatherhood, sharers with Him and His Life, His Nature, His Purpose, and His Vision.

He also saw that the mere passing of time or the gaining of more knowledge and experiences were no guarantee of spiritual development. There must come a change in attitudes and conceptions. So John writes, explaining that little children are mostly conscious that God is their Father, and that their sins are forgiven. In this first level of growth it is quite natural to rejoice in what has been received and what is expected from a loving Father.

In attitude, purpose, and conception, little children are blessing-centered, salvation-centered, seeking to move God in orbit around their little center. How far short they are of the Father’s full stature.

As John writes to those who have matured into young manhood, two things are predominant at this level of growth: “Ye have overcome the wicked one, and ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you.” This is a marked advance; no longer babes who need milk, they are now young men who require the meat of the Word. Through experience they have moved from the defense to the offence; instead of running from, they are now overcoming the wicked one. Yet, as young men it is so easy to become occupied with DOING instead of BEING.

Last of all, John describes those who have become spiritual fathers. In this highest level of stature, we are suddenly awakened to something quite wonderful. As little children, we recognized Him as our Father in a beginning relationship. As young men, we honored Him as our Father in a governing relationship. Now as fathers, we are one with Him in his Fatherhood through an intimate identification. It would seem there is a transference of His Father heart yearning to our heart. We come to share a union with His Spirit, Purpose, Desire, Vision, and Dedication.

Suddenly we are gripped by the fact that His Fatherhood is the determining factor in all things. Since He is before, above, and beyond all else, and because we too are called to be fathers in Him, we find ourselves to be participators in the grand central theme of the universe. Yes, God in this series of growth has crowded us into a fuller understanding of Himself.

As little children we were essentially occupied continually with what we could get, with an overshadowing calling and dedication to reach heaven, and to get others there also. As young men we were confronted with bringing every facet of our lives under His authority and government; yet, in this conception we have merely seen Him as “A God of action.” In the scope of His wonderful activity we became engrossed in what we could do for Him. It would be expected then, since our primary conception of God in this second level of stature is concerning a God who is doing, that we also be occupied with DOING. This will never satisfy God, for He must press us beyond the mere plane of activity to see who He is and has been since the foundations of the world.

As we press on into God’s fuller conception for the church, our finite minds are astounded to realize that God has done nothing to become the Father, for the Lord has always been the eternal Son. So, it is not His DOING, but rather His BEING that overshadows everything else. Thus, as spiritual Fathers we are called to be an expression of Him. We are not merely instruments in His hand, working for Him – we are allowing Him to live and to manifest Himself through us, following the three divisions of maturity: (1) children, (2) young men, and (3) fathers.

We recognize this same triune position in the eternal One which was from the foundation of the world: (1) Son, (2) Holy Spirit, and (3) Father, in His office work of (1) Jesus, (2) Christ, and (3) Lord. The titles are significant: Jesus meaning Saviour – Christ meaning Anointer, or Anointed One – Lord meaning King or Master. (See Chart, “THE TABERNACLE”).

In this first stage of development, as children in that place of being preoccupied with self, in that place of being interested in what we can get, we have come to know Him as Saviour. This is characterized by the fundamental or evangelical position.

Then we came along life’s pathroad, really became acquainted with Christ the Anointed One, or the Anointer, when we were filled with the Holy Ghost. In this middle position we became preoccupied with DOING. So many in Spirit filled circles, since being filled with the Spirit, have been preoccupied with going, going, going – planning, planning, planning – more concerned with their plans and their choirs, their activity, and their various legislated programs, which seldom leaves any room just for BEING.

Please, brethren do not confuse this life of Being with a life of Do-nothing, for a man or woman having entered the gates of “Life in the Spirit” will be one of passion for souls, one who will walk the streets and no longer see people as such, but will see them as living souls. He or she will be a one of travail and burden for that dead or dying church on the corner, or any spiritual activity that once walked in the light, but now “has lost its first love.” They will see those people worshiping there as precious in the sight of the Lord. There will be action, but now as the Holy Spirit alone directs, such a one no longer functions within the energies of the flesh. No longer will there be obligation to prove to himself or to God his spiritual vitality. No longer a witness that is premature or late, or lacking a foundation bathed in intercession. Instead, we now see a witness, or an activity, or a church, or a fellowship, or a man or a woman that moves mountains, one that deifies God only and His Purposes, changes cities and changes history.

There are also those entering this dimension under such compassion and intercession that the weight of such a ministry is almost too heavy for ordinary physical bodies to bear. These are a people who have found that for a time their entire activities are given to prayer and that God has closed their mouths to vocal witness. “God’s word, however, will not return void,” and neither will such ministries of intercession so subjected to the Spirit.

Almost invariably those moving to the spiritual awakening of this day find that this transition is accompanied by the same experience that happened to the children of Israel in their crossing over Jordan (type of death) to the third dimension (the promised land). (See Chart, “THE TABERNACLE”). The ministry typified by Moses and the “Wilderness Wandering” is over for them. They have come to the brink of the water of Jordan wherein is God’s corresponding demand: “Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan.” This “standing still” is surely bringing a Jordan (death to flesh) experience. Brothers – sisters: God’s tomorrow is at hand. He has prepared a “Joshua Company,” who without fear of the giants ahead or of the persecutors behind shall prevail. This company is getting in place for marching orders.

It is needful that we further clarify this dimension of “being.” It is not a place of relaxation but of rest in Him. Though the entering into God’s further dimension of “Life in the Spirit” starts with a crisis, it is followed by a process. This is true of the other two stages, salvation and the baptism of the Spirit, also. Many, and probably most believers in their progressive revelation, come to the crisis and never continue into the process. This stopping short of the “high calling of God in Christ Jesus” is one of the great evils befalling the Christian church. God’s ultimate purpose for His children is to progress continually upward from the day of our cross to the day of our crown.

There is a time of dying to the flesh where the seeker moves from Passover (Salvation) to Pentecost. There is also an equal and more severe convulsive dealing by the Spirit during that crisis time of dying to self and moving from Pentecost to this “Life in the Spirit;” yes, to a life – BEYOND PENTECOST. We must “labor to enter into this rest,” finding as a result “a rest from our labors.” To come to this we will discover ourselves standing where Joshua was when he was on the banks of Jordan and heard the Word of the Lord, “Stand ye still in Jordan.”

The Lord spoke unto Moses to stand still, to go up into the mountain for forty days that He might speak with him there, “mouth to mouth” relative to “His Due Order” and corresponding demands of the need for the people to repent. You might know that the people of the congregation, occupied with DOING rather than BEING, and in their corresponding discontent with the seeming inactivity would come to Aaron and say, “Make us gods, which shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.” “But God said to Moses in the mount at the end of the forty days, Go, get thee down, for thy people have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way and have made them a molten calf and have worshipped it. God said, this is a stiff necked people: Now, Moses, let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them.” But God in His mercy and through the intercession and intervention of Moses gave a way of escape, and that through repentance. Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come unto me.” God slew that day all the disobedient ones. “Moses then took the Tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the Tabernacle, which was without the camp.” Even so there must be room made today for that Jordan experience of seeking His face and His will; and His will and plan shall invariably be made known to those who will “stand still in Jordan.”

Added to the Word of the Lord to Moses in the mountain to stand still we find endless recordings in the Word to stand still such as was given to Joshua, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, (shut thyself in thy house), Paul, (2 years) and Jesus (forty days). This is a much needed death transition from DOING to BEING, and it’s needed by all. Dear beloved brethren, how about you?

Oh yes, I know the “Scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites” will persecute you and will not even try to understand. But they didn’t understand Jesus either. Jesus did tell us “He would never leave nor forsake us.” Matt. 5:11 tells us, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

You or I will never understand this unexcelled “Life in The Spirit,” this precious walk that moves us BEYOND PENTECOST into this Union with the Father without the crushing and breaking that comes from your very closest loved ones. Brethren, please do not dodge this arena of misunderstanding; neither has God called us to a life of constant justifying. He is our Justifier.

Chapter Nine

THE THREE GATES

There is a further dimension yet to this triune position, one in which we must crown Him as our only King. And all creation, sinners and saints alike I believe, are groaning, travailing, waiting for the manifestation of this “Son Company,” this “many-membered son.” This travailing body shall not be satisfied with mere knowledge of seeing Him as Jesus the Saviour, or as Christ the Anointer, but are going to see and know Him as their only Lord and Master, as the complete King of their lives. This “many-membered son,” praise The Lord (God’s Holy name), shall upon reaching maturity not only be able to minister to the body, or to the soul, but also to the inner Spirit of all of humanity that is crying out for his Maker!

Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year (Ex. 23:14). First, was the Feast of Passover which was a memorial to bring redemption into view, upon which all blessing rests. Typically, it stands for Jesus, our Passover Sacrifice. The second great feast is the Feast of Pentecost, and has its anti-type in our lives when we are filled with the Spirit. Third, and in that order, we see the Feast of Tabernacles, a prophetic ordinance that speaks of the future regathering of long dispersed Israel. Praise God, the Lord of Glory is bringing about such a regathering even in this day!

We see these three phases corresponding to the three divisions in the Tabernacle. The gate to the outer court is typified by the Feast of Passover. It was the outer court where the congregation came to hear the Word of the Lord and to worship (See Chart, “THE TABERNACLE”).

Here we see Jesus as Saviour. Here we see the large, fundamental, evangelical camp that is interested essentially in what they can RECEIVE, oft times remaining as close to the edge of the line as they can live and yet hopefully still make it in. I’m afraid there are going to be many tragic disappointments in that day.

Next, we come to that door or gate that is characterized by the Feast of Pentecost, represented by Christ the Anointer. This is the place where our great Pentecostal body over the last two thousand years has been. They (we) are serving a purpose, even though they as a whole are essentially concerned with the mere secondary business of DOING.

The mass of the congregation were not permitted to go into this middle court, the Holy Place. Only the Levites, who had a special anointing to minister unto the people were allowed to go into the Holy Place.

Brothers and Sisters, there is more! Hallelujah! As one passes through the Holy Place, the place of sanctification and of preparation, such find before them another gate, typified by the Feast of Tabernacles leading on into the Holy of Holies. This is a feast that is BEYOND PENTECOST, yes, beyond the Feast of Pentecost.

This great and final feast is symbolic of the regathering and repentance of Israel, heralding the great final Holy Ghost and Fire outpouring. Note the long interval on your calendar between the Day of Pentecost and the Day of Tabernacles (almost 2,000 years) occupied in the Pentecostal work of the Holy Spirit in the present dispensation. Yes, it has been a long, long day, a hard day in both the two thousand year Pentecostal calendar and in our personal Pentecostal calendar. But it is “He who fed thee in the wilderness (Pentecostal encampment) with manna (miraculous provision), which thy fathers (evangelicals without the infilling of the Spirit) knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end:” (The highest order of “latter end” speaks of God’s last day visitation), one that is BEYOND PENTECOST. God help me, and you, that we might not miss this “highest order” of God’s eternal and final plan for the consummation of this age THROUGH HIS SONS.

Chapter Ten

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES

The majority of Christians are agreed that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, that we are approaching the end of this age, the closing of this dispensation. Further, there is a growing awareness among God’s people that before that great and notable day of the Lord comes God is going to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. Many are expecting a new pentecostal outpouring; but is this the “fullness” scripture proclaims will attend an “overcomer company” at the time of the end?

In the Old Testament there were three principal feasts which were enjoined upon the children of Israel (Deut. 16:16). These were times of gathering together and giving unto the Lord. The first of these was the Feast of Passover; this typified Redemption. The second was the Feast of Firstfruits or Pentecost, and of course typified Pentecost. The third was the Feast of Tabernacles; this typified “fullness” and was held at the time of Harvest, the final ingathering of grain and fruit; corn, wine and oil.

Under the dispensation of law the people had to bring offerings to the Lord at each of these feasts; but in the fulfilling of the types in the Church Age under grace, each “feast” is a time of receiving from the Lord!

Not In Measure...

Before the church could celebrate its Passover there must be a Lamb provided, and what a Lamb God provided in grace for His church – “Behold the Lamb of God, His only begotten Son! This Lamb made one sacrifice for sins forever and by that one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:12-13).

After that great final Passover feast was over Jesus showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs for forty days. Then before the very eyes of His heaven-gazing disciples He was taken up from them into heaven. The days came and went, each day bringing them nearer to the traditional feast of Pentecost, fifty days after Passover. Finally it arrived; this time it was special – the day of Pentecost was fully come. The church was to celebrate the fulfilling of the second feast.

Again God provided; first a perfect Lamb, now an outpouring of the Holy Spirit – They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. The tragedy is that so few in the general assembly of the church today have celebrated by personal experience this God-provided feast.

The type declares, “Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord” (Deut. 16:11). Thank God for the joy of the Lord when we partake of the first-fruits of the Spirit, provided by the grace of God through coming to know Him, Jesus, as the Christ (the anointer).

In the Old Testament type they had to take two loaves made of fine flour which had been baked with leaven; these were the first-fruits unto the Lord (Lev. 23:17). In the fulfilling of the type there was (and still is) often to be seen the leaven of unrighteousness manifesting itself; but this does not in any way invalidate the reality of the feast.

. . . But in fullness

Now let us look at the third feast, which is the essence of this message. As a people were prepared for Pentecost, so must a people be prepared for Tabernacles, the feast of “fullness,” the feast of “ingathering,” the final harvest of this age, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit “not in measure but in fullness.”

In the fullness of time, Christ died; when the day of Pentecost was fully come, the Holy Spirit was poured out. So, too, this feast must have its time element. It cannot be celebrated until the time of harvest fullness. But we have already agreed that we are approaching the end of this age; and Jesus said that the end of the world is the harvest (Matt. 13:39).

As this day approaches we need an enlarged vision lest we are content with less than God’s best and stay at “Pentecost” when the vision is for “Fullness.” Yes, let us beware lest we limit the greatness of the salvation of God. When God’s timetable says “Tabernacles” let us be amongst those prepared of God, whose faith reaches out to the fullness of our inheritance in Christ.

If we consider the Old Testament picture we note that this final feast was preceded by the Day of Atonement, the only day in the year when the high priest alone entered the “holiest of all” under the light or canopy of the glory of God. There he made an atonement so that everything pertaining to the sins of the people should be cleansed away. Thus cleansed they were now in a position to partake of the final feast (See Lev. 23:27; also Lev. 16:29-34).

Under the new covenant the High Priest of our profession has passed into the holiest of all not made with hands, into heaven itself. There He is interceding for a people who shall be sanctified wholly: body, soul and spirit, through identification in the blood of an atonement already made on Calvary. These are a people who are at one with Christ in His death. Thus a people cleansed through this blood atonement are prepared to be partakers of, and share in, this final feast of the church.

The impossible happened . . .

God has made full provision for this. “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.”

In the feast of Tabernacles there is no mention of leaven, neither is it mentioned in relation to the Passover feast. There is no unrighteousness, no leaven in the Lamb of God (Passover); there will be no leaven in those who share in the Feast of Fullness (Tabernacles), but the feast of Pentecost “shall be baked with leaven (Lev. 23:17). This feast has leaven within it as a sign to those partaking that it is not an end in itself, but only a transient stepping stone to something far greater, Tabernacling with Him in fullness.

In the church at large, some have chosen to stay at Passover; some may stay at Pentecost; but for myself, please God, Fullness is my choice and portion! For Israel, Tabernacles meant that all the harvest was gathered in and all labor had ended. “He that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works...” That is for me – corn, wine and oil – and a time of great rejoicing.

What then can we look for, what may we expect at the end of this age? Not a return to Pentecostal measure – wonderful as it was – that was the measure of first-fruits. A much greater measure is to be in evidence in the church in the last days.

Paul undoubtedly had this Feast of Tabernacles in mind when he wrote in Eph. 4:13, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” No room for division here; no organized unity either, but union as a living organism. No “leaven of unrighteousness” here, rather a perfect man (the corporate man), the fullness of Christ. Does He not call the church which is His body, “The fullness of Him that filleth all in all”? Impossible! do you say? Of course, it is impossible. That is why the God of all grace is once more going to visit His people!

God provided the Passover Lamb, and the impossible happened. A virgin conceived, the Christ was born. He lived a sinless life, He died and rose again and provided a magnificent eternal redemption.

Again at Pentecost the impossible happened. A sound from heaven, the Holy Spirit given in measure; men began to move in the divine realm, tasting the powers of the world to come, the supernatural was in evidence, the world was turned upside down in a generation.

. . . It will happen again!

What then of this final feast? Are we to look for anything less than the impossible? He who ministered “first-fruits” will minister “fullness”! My heart is beholding a good matter and I see in vision the gathering together in one of all things in Christ; a company of people filled with all the fullness of God, operating continually on the Divine plane. I see the Head manifesting Himself through every member of the body, unveiling His very nature and bringing forth the revelation of the sons of God. This is to be a people without spot or wrinkle, manifesting all the gifts of the Spirit in fullness, and revealing in their lives all the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

This must be all of God. That is why the God of all grace is going to visit the church in Divine fullness, and the glory of God is going to rest upon the people of His choice. He is going to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh – sons, daughters, young men, old men, servants, handmaids – prophecy, visions, dreams, wonders, signs in earth and heaven . . . all before that great and notable day of the Lord. And whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved...

This visitation will fulfill God’s final purposes for this generation and dispensation. In the type, God’s people at the time of Tabernacles lodged in temporary booths. Let us also be a people not anchored to this world; but prepared for moving, launched into the final purposes of God’s intention for His SONS – that place Beyond Pentecost.

THE TABERNACLE

“But (that appointed time came) when Christ, the Messiah, appeared as a High Priest of the better things that have come and are to come. (Then) through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with (human) hands . . . ” (Heb. 9:11 Amplified).

OUTER COURT

HOLY PLACE

MOST HOLY PLACE

Place for hearing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ

Only for those baptized in the Holy Spirit and Fire

The Place in God of Life in Union with the Father

To know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Saviour.

To know the Lord Jesus Christ as anointer.

To know the Lord Jesus Christ as our ONLY MASTER.

Jesus means Savior

Christ means ANOINTER

Lord means ONLY MASTER

SON

HOLY SPIRIT

FATHER

GOOD

ACCEPTABLE

PERFECT (will of God

FEAST OF PASSOVER

FEAST OF PENTECOST

FEAST OF TABERNACLES

CONGREGATION

LEVITES

SONS OF ZADOK

PLACE OF SACRIFICE

PLACE OF ORDINANCES

PLACE OF HIS PRESENCE

EGYPT

WILDERNESS

PROMISED LAND

NATURAL LIGHT

LAMPSTAND

SHEKINIAH GLORY

LITTLE CHILDREN

YOUNG MEN

FATHERS (I John 2:12)

BLADE

STALK

EAR (seed corn)

GETTING

DOING

BEING

SALVATION

SPIRIT FILLED

MAN CHILD

EVANGELICAL

PENTECOSTAL CAMP

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

CALLED

CHOSEN

FAITHFUL (Rev. 17:14)

BLOOD OF THE LAMB

WORD OF TESTIMONY

LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES

WATER BAPTISM

SPIRIT BAPTISM

UNTO DEATH (Rev. 12:11)

REPENTANCE

REFRESHING

RESTORATION (Acts 3:19)

FAITH

HOPE

LOVE

COME OUT

COME IN

COME UP

BODY (crucify the flesh)

SOUL (death to self)

SPIRIT (cast down the accuser)

32,000

10,000

“GIDEON’S 300”

30 FOLD

60 FOLD

100 FOLD

“KNOW HIM IN THE:

POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION

AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERING”

Chapter Eleven

THE MOST HOLY PLACE

May we examine the door into the place that Ezekiel tells about so beautifully in his 44th Chapter. Unlike the other pre-exilic prophets whose ministries were primarily either to Judah or to the kingdom of the ten tribes, Ezekiel is the voice of Jehovah to the whole house of Israel.

Speaking broadly, the purpose of Ezekiel’s ministry in Babylon was to keep before the generation born in exile not only the national sins which had brought Israel so low, but to also sustain the faith of the exiles by predictions of national restoration. Certainly any Bible scholar would recognize that Ezekiel was not merely recording for us a history book of something that happened twenty-five hundred years ago. This book gives us a tremendous picture of the Church today, and of God’s end-time work for His “man-child” of Revelation. This man-child has come to know (1) Jesus, then (2) the Christ, and then (3) the Lord. This man-child company is not satisfied to be in the court with the congregation alone, but is determined to be one of God’s few Levitical priests that will be allowed to go on into the Holy Place.

The man-child represents a people that will not be satisfied only with the Feasts of Passover and Pentecost, but their inner spirit will cry out to also partake of the Feast of Tabernacles. This people will not be satisfied with just the outer court, or the inner court experience, but they will prevail until they have passed entirely through the Holy Place and on into the Holy of Holies. They will not remain as “children” with emphasis focalized on what they can receive. Neither can they be satisfied with remaining as “young men,” desirous of knowing merely what they could do. This is a people who will move on into Fatherhood, occupied and preoccupied twenty-four hours a day with being what God wants them to be.

John, by revelation, saw this people, and he says “I know thy works, behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my Word and hast not denied My name. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.” “Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God which is the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

Ezekiel in his 44th chapter tells about those who will be allowed to go into the Most Holy Place at the time appointed – the time of the end. These will be allowed to minister not only to the house and the people, but are those who also will be qualified to minister unto Him, and to stand before him to offer the fat and the blood.

In Ezekiel 44:4-16, we read: “Then brought he me by the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord: and I fell upon my face. And the Lord said unto me, Son of man, Mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears that which I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.”

And thou shall say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, in that ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood; and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations. And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.”

“Thus saith the Lord God: No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, or any stranger that is among the children of Israel. And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. But because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity. And they shall not come near to any of my holy things in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed. But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.” The words service and done readily identify along with the next paragraph that this is a dimension that essentially has its primary function in mere horizontal activity, “feast of Pentecost” values.

“But the priests of the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they [alone] shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they [alone] shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God: They [alone] shall enter into my sanctuary and they [alone] shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they [alone] shall keep my charge.”

How sad to witness in today’s Babylonish church system that a great share of the priests, anointed ones, of which I believe includes we Pentecostals, have gone astray after other idols, and have allowed much compromise in our midst and in our worship.

Though God would allow them in that day, and is allowing any today who are in that middle court to minister unto the house, and unto the people, they must be made to know that because they ministered before their idols, this causing the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, that God’s hand will be raised up against them. As a result those who allow such compromise will not be permitted in that day to do the office of a priest in the Most Holy Place – the Holy of Holies. Praise God, however, for the kingdom of priests who are of the sons of Zadok that again in this day have determined not to go astray, but have followed after Him, and have ministered unto Him in the Most Holy Place! They have made their “calling and election sure.” They, and they alone shall enter into the sanctuary and shall come near to His table to minister unto Him.

David in Adullam’s cave represents the people who today are longing for spiritual drink. Though he was cut off and surrounded by those who barred the way to the well – Bethlehem’s well – yet three mighty men risked everything, even their very lives, to secure that water for David. What glorious typology! Bethlehem’s well of pure water represents that “stream that is pure as crystal” (Rev. 22:1) that one day nearly 1,000 years after David’s prophetic longing would flow from the riven side of the Galilean, the one who would call us “friends.”

These three mighty men represent the “sons” whom God is bringing to maturity today. These are they who are rising in great anointing and faith who are fearlessly breaking through every enemy line, risking everything in order to bring spiritual drink to those who thirst. How my heart rejoices that there were those who were fearless, who were willing to count the cost, those who somehow, like Jesus, “making Himself of no reputation” did not care what anybody thought or said. They recognized that there was something more precious than gold flowing from that well at Bethlehem. They could see by the Spirit that there was a river of life flowing from the riven side of the crucified One who was to come out of Bethlehem. Here was something to see, to partake of, that was not available to the eye and taste of the casual observer. This gave New Life, and that more abundantly. This was a place that not only gave Divine healing, but also Divine health. I’m glad that they could see One who was and is and ever shall be through countless ages of eternity; that One whom Moses saw in the burning bush in a day when he too responded “Here am I.”

How wonderful that there are those today who are willing to be hidden in the cave, who are willing to separate themselves from Saul with all of his deficiencies, who are willing to go through persecution and misunderstanding. My brother, my sister, “We are not fighting against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers.” All of creation is groaning and travailing; the atheist, the Communist, the whoremonger, the drunkard, the dope-addict, are all “groaning and travailing.” Even the church, the Pentecostal, the Evangelical, the Liberal, the Catholic is “groaning and travailing,” waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God – waiting, longingly waiting for those giants to break through the enemy lines, risking everything that they might bring back something more, something better, something higher, something Beyond Pentecost, to a people who are parched, hungry, and starving. Will you, dear one, be willing to pay the price of being one of those in the last days who are typed by the three mighty men of David?

This message of sonship, and the pressing into the “Holy of Holies,” is a lonely walk of obedience and will bring separation to many. That son must be brought from glory to glory until they have apprehended. Just as the head is small in comparison to the whole human body, so the Son Company will be small in comparison to the whole body of Christ. But it will be a group who are willing to pay the price of crucifixion of the flesh in order to come into “headship” in Him – “Each in his own order.”

What God is doing today is a “first fruit” work, preparatory to the great dispensational promise that shall in the fullness of time consummate with His “Suddenly coming to His Temple.” This will be the climatic act for the time of mankind. God will enter into his Sons and bring them into “His glory.” In the temple worship there was a progressive approach to God: (1) the Outer Court, (2) the Holy Place, and (3) the Holiest of All. The first court represents the place of sacrifice. The second is the place of ordinances and ceremonies where the priests ministered. Third, is the place of His Presence, into which only the high priest went. God is, through sonship, bringing His chosen ones into the “High Priestly” ministry of which Jesus was the forerunner. He was and is “The firstborn among many sons” being brought to glory.

God is bringing a people beyond the “flesh” veil. The sacrifice was needed, and the ordinances served a purpose. But now He is bringing His chosen – for many are called but few are choosing – to come unreservedly and completely face to face with the veil (the flesh). As Christ the Lord enters into us, even as He entered the body of Jesus, the Son of Man, His High Priest ministry is identified with us and we with Him, and the veil of our flesh is rent asunder so that we might go in. Many stop at the altar, and are always sacrificing. Others are content with the place of commandments, and ordinances, and so forth. But there will be a high priestly company that shall enter in farther – will you?

Chapter Twelve

A VOICE “IN THE TEMPLE GATE”

“As it was in the days of the Son of Man,” so it is today, with very few willing to acknowledge their deficiencies, much less willing to go through the door of repentance.

Living as we are in the last moments of the church age and realizing the grievous situation the world is in, we are aware of the ineffectiveness of the divided, powerless church to meet the universal need.

God, however, is raising up a many-membered prophet who is willing to utter His Voice, and the Lord is again saying as in Jeremiah 1:10: “See, I have set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, [but also] to build, and to plant.” Jeremiah, and the others had to cry against the decadent systems and the lukewarm populace. He was ordained to be a prophet and did not say apologetically, “In my opinion,” but declared a firm “Thus saith the Lord.”

Those resisting the message of repentance from “This Voice crying in the wilderness” do not realize that He is both Lord of mercy as well as Lord of judgment [meaning correction]. He asked, “Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?” The reply came, “Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some Elijah; and others Jeremiah.” Certainly the people, by associating Jesus with these three prophets, were aware that His message was one of correction.

The critic today judges brutally the many-membered prophet, accusing him of having no heart, no forgiveness, and lack of love. It is not understood that his voice, crying out like Jesus and Jeremiah said, “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,” and also, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.” God’s Jeremiah company today is gazing upon the corruption of the world and of the church, and is again in intercession, pain, anguish, sorrow and travail, pleading with and for a people, and like Jeremiah, is speaking these words of truth with love “in the Temple gate.”

The prophetic company of today, oft times, will be branded as “holier than thou” and “super spiritual,” but God is doing a work in this “voice” causing them to experience what Isaiah did when he cried, “Woe is me! for I am undone; and I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”

Isaiah was willing to identify himself with the sins of the people and repent because he realized, as the “many-membered voice” of today must also realize, that “All of our righteousness is as filthy rags.”

Again, a live coal has been taken from the altar by the seraphims. The prophet’s complete confession, repentance from sin, and acknowledgment of his need before God is all that is required to qualify him or anyone for the purging from sin. God is no respecter of persons, and is preparing a bride without spot or wrinkle who will pay the whole price.

What is this price? It is found on Calvary’s Road, up to and through the cross to the highway of holiness on the other side. The cost of misunderstanding and the tearing of flesh by friends not willing to conform to His way (The way of Lordship) will automatically be the price, even as it was for Jesus.

The privilege of traveling this road, a way of loneliness – with Him – shall be only for those who have had a spiritual coming out from all that is Babylon.

This road of death is not one that is sheltered safely behind the walls of any system, or church, or collective body. Hebrews 13:10 (Amplified) tells of this tearing of our flesh, this generally with much persecution and misunderstanding. “For we have an altar from which those that serve and worship in the Tabernacle have no right to eat. For when the blood of animals is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin, the victims’ bodies are burned outside the limits of the camp. Therefore, Jesus also suffered and died outside the gate in order that He might purify and consecrate the people through the shedding of blood, and set them apart as holy for God. Let us then go forth from all that would prevent and hinder us from joining Him, outside the camp, at Calvary, bearing contempt and abuse and shame with Him.”

Oh brethren, “Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” Oh “that we might (1) know Him, and the (2) power of His resurrection, and the (3) fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.”

Again, there are three positions to the cross: (1) the “know Him” posture is enjoyed by the great evangelical camp. Far less have the baptism with the Holy Spirit and have entered (2) “the power of His resurrection” life.

God is now, however, bringing to new life (His Life, a life in the Spirit) (3) a “fellowship of His sufferings” people – a people “without spot or blemish,” who “outside the camp” of general acceptance are going to be “known as He is known.” These bear His shame willingly that they may “apprehend Christ Jesus as Lord reaching forth beyond stagnation [Beyond Pentecost] unto those things which are before, pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded.”

“But what things were once gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of (1) Christ (2) Jesus (3) my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”

Again, Oh brethren, “Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” We can hear the “surrounding cloud of witnesses” who bore testimony to this Truth saying, “Let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance – unnecessary weight – and that sin which so readily, deftly and cleverly clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course that is set before us, looking away to Jesus” (Amplified).

What was done that cruel day was not defeat; it was victory of the most monumental kind. It was love in its highest form.

Even to this day, Jesus, as Lord, and those who have entered into His Lordship, are outside the camp of organized, systematized, and oft times cruel legislative religion (denominational or nondenominational). By this we do not mean necessarily a coming out physically, but most certainly this is at least a coming out by means of a spiritual transformation. We are in spiritual Babylon, but we do not have to be a partaker of it. Even as “we are in this world but not of this world.”

Dearly beloved, please don’t accept this as a general call to leave your local church or spiritual activity to which you have become attached. Anyone who knows me is aware that I have over the years, and to this day, believed that God would have you stay right where you are unless or until you have been asked to leave, or unless or until God lifts the burden for that activity and leads you out.

Maybe that group or church is not going on as it should, but God loves the people in that group as much as He does you or me. Unless your ministry is through there, I feel that your church or fellowship and its people could be a ready made field, one in which God is looking for “a man to stand in the gap and make up the hedge.” But this will mean for sure, some real “standing in the gap” and you’ll know what it means to die. Invariably your flesh will cry out for a physical relocation, and you may find you aren’t allowed to move out physically just to satisfy the desire of your flesh to do so anymore than the one who has been physically called out could stay in just to satisfy their fleshly desire to do so.

A person could still be a part of a group with a denominational spirit, or of a group that had a spirit of domination and yet be above its bondage and spirit. Also, a person could physically be out of such activity and yet be bound by the spirit of bondage. It’s a spiritual ascension, as I see it, and God may or may not bring a physical dislocation.

Dear brother or sister, I must strip from you a false sense of security that has overtaken a huge majority of those who insist they have had a spiritual coming out, though they have had no physical relocation. Have you really heard, and obeyed the Word of the Lord, “Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues”? There are those, though very few, who have heard and obeyed this Word, and this whether he or she have has a spiritual and physical coming out or whether this has been limited by God to just a spiritual coming out (or coming up higher). Regardless of which of the two postures named above, I believe all that choose this way shall know suffering and rejection, and that at the hands of those you’ve left behind spiritually or physically.

Yes, in all instances these who are contending for that which is “Beyond Pentecost” shall be speckled birds, and shall know of the suffering and rejection and misunderstanding that was our Lord’s dubious pleasure when he constantly stood against the spiritual machinery of His day. Please read what Jesus had to say in the whole of Matthew 23. This chapter ends with the Son of Glory crying out, “Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how oft would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. And Jesus went out, and departed from the Temple.

Jesus, at this time, was still physically attached to the temple, but who would suggest that he was out of God’s will, or that in fear He failed to deliver the Word of the Father, or that in any way He was a compromiser. Neither was He suffering from any illusions of grandeur of the machinery that kept the temple jumping. “Let us go therefore unto Him without the camp (outside of the popular way – the way of the flesh), bearing His reproach” (Hebrews 13:13).

Mystery Babylon, the Great, the Mother of Harlots is, and always has been, coming to God’s people to make a false alliance and to subjugate their allegiance to other than Him alone. I believe with good scriptural reason that the Mother of Harlots has her roots in Rome. However, many of us have considered that she has given offspring to harlot daughters.

Mystery Babylon has captured the out called, and has carried them to a far country away from the FATHER’S house, but the Lord is doing a “new thing” and is “hissing for them, and gathering them; for I have redeemed them: and I will sow them among the people. And he will pass through the sea [people] with affliction; (tribulous times are upon us) and I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in my name, saith the Lord.”

Yes, He is calling for them, prodigals away from the FATHER’S house, to no longer compromise with the prostitute harlot daughters, but to arise and leave behind the swine pens of religion. No longer shall His people feed on the husks of human theology and religious methods, but shall be divinely led and fed.

May I pause to say that this clarion call is not a call for a general uprising against personalities, any more than was John the Baptist’s or Jeremiah’s call, but it is a call to repentance and to soul searching. This is a call to pastor or layman, to systems, denominational or nondenominational, organized or non-organized, to set the captive free and to remove one’s self from the spiritual political arena of pressure, force, and cruelty as we read in Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34. “For where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Pastors and laity, be liberated, be free. “Yet, let us not use this liberty for excuse; but by love serve one another.”

And the word of the Lord is coming to the many-membered prophet and again is saying. “Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and their doings: but their way is before me as a removed woman (church) and I have scattered you among the heathen but I will be sanctified in you before all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water (from an unused root meaning to be complete; maturity – full age) upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness; and from your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you. I will save you from your iniquities and the wastes shall be builded, and I will plant that which was made desolate: I the Lord have spoken it and will do it. In the latter days ye shall consider this perfectly.” And again, He saith, “I will overturn, overturn, and overturn it: and it shall be no more until he come whose right it is; and I will give it to him.”

I do believe in the saints gathering from house to house, crossing over traditional, denominational, doctrinal and other barrier lines. I do believe, too, that God is raising up many of the fivefold ministries among these precious Spirit-filled groups.

In this hour we are beginning to see a “flowing of new life,” a submission to one another, an interjection of “divine order,” and a release in the Spirit because those who are in authority have by the Spirit come to know the quality of Jesus’ subjection. No longer are they contending for the high place, for they have been illuminated to the fact that “He gave – some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come into the unity (no longer all these manmade divisions) of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man. Speaking now the truth in love (and without fear or favor) growing up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth.” This is a true ministry of the body of Christ.

Jeremiah, Isaiah and the forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist, were against mediocrity, and with their diagnosis of national spiritual decay, and of their increasing apostasy, there was nothing ahead but Divine judgment on the nation and the church.

While Babel was being built and while men were saying: “Let us make a name lest we be scattered,” God was searching for a man who would hear His voice. God came down and confused their language so they could not understand one another. But now we are living at the time of the destruction of Babel’s great tower. “God shall turn to the people a pure language, and there shall be peace.”

God found a man who could hear His voice and would pay the price. The message was not an easy one, to leave his family, his friends, all that he had worked for, all that he had accumulated in this world, to leave behind the opportunity for greater gains and expansion in Babylon’s comfortable surroundings, to be willing to lose his reputation and be misunderstood and lied about. Where was this call leading him? He did not know. He trusted God would tell him. If not, all hope was lost.

Who would respond to the call? – Faithful Abraham. Others went part way, stopped and built a city, gave it a name, but Abraham had already seen a greater city and he could not forget that glorious vision. Also, he did not have to name it; God had already named it. Some went with him who were not called to this high calling. Lot just liked the prosperity of being with “Uncle Abraham.” There are those fellow travelers who just go along for the ride, as long as it is a smooth ride. They like the message, like to feel the anointing of the Spirit, they like the freedom of worship, but they are not called. They must be separated. Abraham did not like the idea of losing Lot in that strange land with so many enemies, and so few of their own group. Every friend counted.

But God said Lot had to go – he was not called. I am sure that Lot would have been very indignant to think that anyone could say that he was not called. After all, look how far he has come in this thing. He had left Ur, and Babylon hadn’t He? He hadn’t stopped at Haran with Terah. No, but he did not have the up-reach spirit, the being spirit. He was anxious for prosperity, to make gains in the land, to expand. Abraham’s eyes were on the mountains, and it was here, after he was separated from those not in the high calling, that God let him see his inheritance. “Look Abraham – north and south, east and west – all you can see is yours, and I’m going to give it to you.”

Abraham in “honor preferring one another” gave Lot first choice of the land, and Lot selfishly picked the greener, seemingly better land. But the Word bears out that while Lot received the grass, Abraham received the glory. Yet in finality Abraham received in addition to the glory “all these things added unto him.” Yes, there is much more for those who will believe.

On the muddy banks of Jordan, standing barefoot and clothed in strange garments was the son of a temple priest. To follow his father Zacharias meant that John could have stepped into the inner circle of those who attained the high office of Temple Priesthood. But Jerusalem had become a place of sin and treachery, and the glory of the Temple was man-made. While Jerusalem gloried in her attainments and boasted of her man-made beauty and strength, God was calling for someone to come outside the walls, and press upward into a new place in the Spirit. God had left the old order, and they did not know it. There was no one to follow, no one to show them the way. This was a leadership of and by the Spirit. He could not follow his father as much as he loved him, for Zacharias was trapped in the old order. Bearing his reproach, John went outside the gates, oblivious to what others might think of him, hearing only the voice of Him that spoke from heaven.

The door of spiritual blessing opened at Pentecost was never closed again, though the church seemingly went into a period of great darkness. Men fought to expand the natural part of the church. Great effort was made toward more outreach, but very little for upreach. As a result, the darkness that came was gross. Unspeakable things, not even edifying to talk about, took place in the headquarters of the earthly organization at Rome.

Then one day God reached down into the middle of this mess, and picked out a priest and spoke to his heart. He heard, believed, and on October 31, 1517, he forever inscribed his name in history when he nailed his 95 theses to the door of his church in Wittenburg. God used the courage of one man to help open a door for mankind the world over to rise out of the darkness of Rome’s religion and come into a new day in the Spirit.

Martin Luther had a good start in making gains in the realm where he had found himself. He could have spent his time in outreach, but he had heard a Divine call. When he began an upreach unto God, he stirred all the demons in Hell against him. The religious leaders of his day wanted to kill him, to destroy him. Why? Simply because it was in them to love the status quo and to hate those who pressed upward in God for greater heights in the Spirit.

One thing was certain; earthly organizations nearly always encourage outreach, while they invariably discourage and fight any effort for upreach. Observe history and you will see that this is true. This is the very nature of ecclesiastical systems, and they don’t seem to change. God will finally destroy all this with the brightness of His glory. At times they may seem tender – and may even have occasional revival. Machinery, however, is immobile and has no heart. Those who press on to new dimensions in the Spirit must be free to move as the Spirit dictates. This is the “Walk of the Spirit.”

Now we come down to the turn of this century. Here we find the churches of the day – somewhat revived from time to time, but still striving to expand in the realm of salvation by faith. Here and there scattered across the face of the globe are little groups of saints, or individuals travailing for a greater move of the Spirit.

In Topeka, Kansas, early in the year of 1900, a methodist preacher by the name of Charles Parham withdrew from the evangelistic field to seek God. Others could not understand his actions. “Where is your burden for souls, brother Parham?” With such a powerful evangelistic ministry as he had, and in such a sizeable town, he could have been winning souls for Jesus, but where was he? In a big house in Topeka, with a group of saints who were convinced that they didn’t have all that God had for them, and who were also convinced that it was time for the church to move into a greater realm of the Spirit.

So, they began an upreach for God. They met with tremendous powers of darkness, bitterly opposing every step! Nevertheless they pressed on into God.

Then on December 31st, 1900, at a New Year’s tarrying meeting a woman was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues. People next door to the big house knew nothing about this momentous occasion and cared even less, but a door was being opened to the end-time church, and to the glorious baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire.

With this humble start, things began to happen around the world. Revival broke out in 1902 in a sovereign move of the Spirit in Wales. Evan Roberts and others were caught up in a glorious hurricane of spiritual force, and a deluge of spiritual rain.

In the year 1904, Frank Bartleman, and others in Los Angeles were travailing in the Spirit for a mighty move for that city. They were scorned and rejected by those who had eyes only for expansion and outreach within the realm of salvation by faith. They went to church after church seeking fellowship of the Spirit, but it seemed all they could do was travail and groan in their spirit for an upreach in God. They were cast out.

God was hearing those who cried unto Him and He reached down into brother Charles Parham’s little group in Houston, Texas, and called him, a black Nazarene preacher, to go to Los Angeles. He came bringing a new message in the Spirit, a new experience in God. He was refused by the existing forms of religion, but God opened a door, an old building on Azuza Street. It was from here that mighty rivers of power and blessing began to flow out to the uttermost corners of the earth. Someone had dared to hear, believe, obey, and travail for greater things. God’s pioneers were moving on.

From this time on there was a mighty outreach for the Gospel. Churches, cities, and nations were shaken by the mighty power of God expressed through his humble servants. Untold thousands of souls were swept into the Kingdom in this great harvest. Pentecostal churches sprang up all over the country in spite of violent and bitter opposition by the religious systems. This is the pattern. A new upreach in the Spirit always produces a greater outreach than ever thought possible under the old order of man. Look at the early church.

After a few years of glorious revival in the early years of the century, man began to take over. Organizations began to form, denominations were created, accrediting boards began to come into being in Pentecost, so that now we may be able to expand even further, they said. To hold the gains – more efficient missionary service was needed – and expand they did. But the upreach was almost stopped. The Pentecostal revival became divided into many factions. Church and preachers fought each other, while the world and the Devil looked on and laughed.

Now it is time for another breakthrough. Men and women are groaning in the Spirit for the last great move of the Spirit, prophesied for the end-time. A great travail is now going on, unseen by the many who are admiring their beautiful systems and pointing to the great gains they have made, yet many are crying for “rain in the time of latter rain.”

Chapter Thirteen

COME UP HIGHER

God has been speaking concerning a soon coming, mighty Holy Ghost, Apostolic, Himself-centered Divine visitation. We feel that His sons are soon to be manifested and made white. The cry of His people to become, not only Christ centered, but Lord centered is rising. The realization of that which was prophesied by the prophet Joel, “In the last days He shall pour out His Spirit on all flesh” is upon us. We know that “without holiness no man shall see God,” and certainly none without this holiness will have a part in this last day ministry. We feel that God is bringing us ever closer to a place of complete purging. Flesh must die, and in its place must stand a body washed and made white – a people “without spot or wrinkle.” This people will have lost their own will because they will have surrendered that part of their nature to Him Whom to know is life eternal.

This body then will no longer exert rights because it has none. All rights having been placed on the cross and invested in Him who is more concerned about our joy, our peace, our needs, and our personality traits than even we ourselves.

Moreover, God has recently spoken more focally concerning moving to higher ground than ever before. This author is well aware that of late there is a significant number of God’s people who not only individually, but also collectively, are moving into a true God-inspired divine walk of the Spirit in every circumstance of life. If we are to be of any contribution in this coming visitation, we feel that God wants each and every one of us, and especially those in leadership, to be God anointed and God appointed. This body above all must reflect God’s perfect and divine will in all that is done, in all that is said, and in all that is accomplished.

I believe that this Joshua Company is a corporate man as it were, a many-membered John the Baptist, or Moses or Joshua, or Ezekiel, or Peter, or Paul that is crying to the whole Israel of Christ, who, in the wilderness of defeat, confusion, and error are hungering and thirsting for God’s all. This body, under the unction of the Spirit, is laboring in battle to bring into being such fulfillment. Yes, this is a corporate ministry-remnant around the world whom the Lord has and will yet raise up to blow the trumpet in Zion, to build His church according to His heavenly pattern, and to proclaim His own eternal glory and honor. God is calling to and through this corporate man, “Come up higher.”

This corporate man, which is just beginning to come “unto full stature” in Christ Jesus, is now coming to the realization of the truth portrayed in Eph. 3:21, “Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.”

Chapter Fourteen

THAT HE MIGHT HAVE PREEMINENCE

Many things have been discussed and presented in this writing; and I believe that each one of them are vital to “spiritual maturity” and to “moving higher.” But all these promises must be “in Him.” Col. 1:16-18 states: “For by Him were all things created and He must be before all things and by Him must all things consist; for He is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things He might have preeminence.”

Moses prayed, not for things or experiences, but only, “God show me thy ways that I may know thee . . .” If our hearts are right, if integrity and honesty comes automatically before prominence, popularity, or anything else, He will give us of His “ways” that by knowing Him we might have His Grace and His Peace. II Peter 1:2 says, “Grace and Peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.”

Israel’s wilderness wanderings are full of examples of what happens when Christ and His will are put aside and replaced by something else, though it be good. For as some gathered more manna than required and it bred worms and stank, so some today put the preeminence upon things other than Him, until they, too, stink. As Korah tried to exalt His ministry above that of the will of God for him and fell by so doing, so many today try to exalt their ministries by building little kingdoms for themselves, not sharing the headship.

The main picture is the tabernacle and furniture. The furniture can stand for things which lead us into Christ’s fullness. The altar may speak of discipleship, the table of pure doctrine, etc. Significantly these were all like path stones leading to the “Ark where the glorious pillar of the cloud rested” (Lev. 16:2). Matthew 4:4 further states: “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Yes, He must reign supreme – Christ in us the hope of Glory.”

God’s personal dealings, an inner witness and call to come up higher, and an almost convulsive revolution in much of my world has brought me to a place of cataclysmic proportions this past year. It has been a change from a life of much activity to one of aloneness with Him – from a broad national activity to one restricted to the few. Though this way has been strange, yet God has led me down a beautiful pathway during this time, and confirmed it by many precious experiences.

Five months ago, God made very clear to me and confirmed it by the mouth of several witnesses to “shut myself within my house,” to seek His face and His will on these matters. I went into my house in bitterness and with a distraught spirit. In my closet I cried out, “Woe is me for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips.” Still somewhat in this closet, I realize I am still being cradled in the Lord’s two hands of justice and mercy which are being rendered unto me. I see that repentance and cleansing must be complete before I will have the ability to have His “understanding,” much less to walk in Divine order.

During the final days of these several months of repentance and purging I saw that hoped-for glimmer of light. As restoration came and I found something new, the Son never before had shone so bright. During these past two weeks God has given me something quite apart from myself in a new baptism of love, and I have slowly realized that I have suffered (a needed suffering) in my spirit as the warfare began because I have resisted speaking these truths without fear or favor of man as God has directed me to speak to my brethren in times past. I felt I knew before, but now I really know the sorrow and joy that accompanied Jesus as He “suffered without the gate” (Heb. 13:12). I feel I have now presented God’s Truth and I trust it has been with His Agape Love.

Something stands out very clearly as we study the power of the early and holy church. It is a characteristic that is now lacking in the church of today. This quality is love one to the other.

We read that the early church “continued daily with one accord.” They lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and gave heed with one accord to the moving of the Holy Spirit. Their love was so great that they even sold much of what they possessed and had all things in common. We see that even though distance between the various groups was great, this same love prevailed.

To such people of agreement, anything that man might add is readily acknowledged as a substitute. The universal Church (the body of Christ) is composed only of those who crown Him King and know the reality of the victorious walk beside their Saviour. They are being formed into His image, brought together in true love, and possessed with the love Jesus manifested: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). This depth of fellowship in Christ produces people who adhere to the Word: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34-35).

This reads, “love one to another,” not “love one from another.” This word “from” would imply a mutual love, one returned in kind to its sender. Jesus gave completely of Himself even though we rejected Him. He loved us and died for us even though we spurned His love. He loved us and died for us even though we have done nothing to deserve His love. This is not an “I will love you if you love me.” It is a love one to another” that demands nothing in return.

When God’s people again come together in one common bond of love and unity, with all things that stand between us and our Lord moved aside, then and only then will we again have a great moving of the Holy Spirit. Then shall we see a demonstration of the power of this great and holy church. Signs and wonders will be the rule rather than the exception. Great multitudes will cry out to God for salvation, and additional multitudes of Christians will lay aside the cares and lusts of this world and will place their hands in the nail-scarred hand of their Saviour.

I feel with all my heart that God is beginning to bring His church together in these last days. He is opening the eyes of His people to realize that possibly the greatest factors standing in the way of great revival is self and lack of love. John 13:34 is the cry of our heart for His people: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another.”

Our Lord tells us, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” A few verses later he again states: “These things I command you that ye love one another.”

In the Lord’s prayer of intercession just prior to His crucifixion we read concerning His desire that we be one, and note how often He uses the word “one.” “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are one . . . Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one: as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and has loved them, as thou hast loved me.”

Oh, friends, let us be one in Christ. Let us lay aside every barrier and renew our original goal of purposing to do all that we can to bring this oneness into reality. Let us be made perfect in one so that the world may know that He is the living Christ, and doth dwell within these temples of clay. “For by this means shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” What does the Word say of the people who have this fellowship? This – “If Christ has cleansed their sins, then they will walk in the light as He is in the light. If we walk in this light we will then also have fellowship one with another. God’s command to us is to have love without dissimulation.”

The cry of the hour is to have oneness of heart and spirit. The scripture says: “Be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless. Watch ye therefore, and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.” I fear for our present-day church and people. But I know that God is hearing and will respond to the heart cry of the many who are calling for a restoration of that love which has been destroyed.

God spoke to Ezekiel, “Son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them . . . and thou shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house. But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord God; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house. Yet if thou warn the wicked and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou has delivered thy soul.”

Again saith the Lord, “He that heareth, let him hear, and he that forbeareth, let him forbear.”

Elijah, in his day, saw that Israel was being ripened in sin. He saw the judgment that rested upon the leaders and systems which had captured and enslaved the hearts and minds of the people. He directed his message to the leaders of the nation and cried, “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal be God, then follow him.”

Fence straddling will not do the job. Just as the neutralists have surely tipped the scales in favor of the Communists, so are spiritual neutralists tipping the scales to favor the enemy of their souls in this spiritual warfare. I believe that many are being weighed in the balances and found wanting.

Another prophet in another day cried, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any that sorrow like unto my sorrow.” Amos cried, “Prepare to meet thy God. The day of the Lord is darkness and not light.” Joel is crying out from the past, “The day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it?” The time has come for a divine intervention into the ebbing life of the church. Circumstances and apostasy is such that God’s mercy demands this intervention, that justice be instituted.

In former days Elijah was sent with a message from the Lord. It did not come with soft speech and flowing compliments, but with a thundering denunciation of individual, church, and nation. Israel had reached a place where nothing but a spiritual awakening would avert judgment. Elijah cried out against the forces of apostasy and spiritual rebellion. He stood much alone in the place of Divine responsibility. Even though there were one hundred prophets hidden in a cave, and seven thousand Israelites who had not bowed their knees to Baal, they were very careful not to identify themselves until they knew which way the popular crowd would go. But . . . the fire fell and the rains came (beautiful and dual types of what God has soon in store) – when only ONE MAN, Elijah, was overwhelmed with the need for God’s people to truly return unto Him.

Ezekiel is crying too, “They shall cast their silver and their gold in the street, their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord.”

John told of this day in Revelation 6:6 “And men shall say to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb. For the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?” The Lord speaks out of Proverbs 1:24, “I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught my council, and would not of my reproof. I will also laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me!”

Certainly the fulfillment of these prophecies relate to the day immediately ahead of us. Could it be possible that these words were written only to the unchurched? I think not. It behooves every one of us, as stated in Joel 1:13, “To gird ourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is witholden from the House of your God. Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord. Alas, for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the almighty shall it come.”

God has made me to know of late as never before that he has a controversy with the church, yes, and with me too. We too often have had the form but have denied His power and preeminence. Amos 9 tells us: “I saw the Lord in judgment standing upon the altar.” He made me to know that this judgment and purifying is soon at hand. The position of the Lord (Adonai) is significant. “Adonai” means sovereign head, controller, master, or owner. The altar speaks properly of mercy because it is a place where a substitute sacrifice is made, but when the altar and sacrifice are profaned the altar becomes a place of judgment.

Again, that I might reject any elation over self-righteous aspirations, God has made me to realize the need in my own life for a restoration of the altar and the sacrifice. This He is doing now by bringing me into Isaiah 6, “Where I saw the Lord, high and lifted up and one seraphim cried unto another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts: The whole earth is full of His glory.” And I, too, as Isaiah cried, am weeping to this day and I have to say, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”

It wasn’t Isaiah’s recognition of his sin alone that caused him to cry and weep over his undone state. But it was because he saw the Lord, The Lord of Hosts, high and lifted up and there in the presence of that ONE – he recognized his need and offered open confession and repentance. Oh that we as a body might soon come to such a place.

But He has also promised that if we shall confess as well as forsake this uncleanness, He will direct His seraphim to take a live coal from off the altar and lay it upon our mouths to purge our iniquity and to take away our sin.

God is truly cleansing a people who have cried for cleansing and for uprightness. It is only after such repentance that we will be able to hear the voice of the Lord from this third and higher dimension say to us, “Whom shall I send, and who will go?” May we answer as did Isaiah, “Here am I, send me!”

We are certainly on the verge of this last visitation – a singular and Mighty Holy Ghost, Apostolic, Divine Visitation. The cry of His people to be Christ-centered is rising. That which was prophesied by the prophet Joel, “In the last days, He shall pour His Spirit upon all flesh,” is upon us.

Without His holiness no man shall see God, and certainly none will have a part in this last day ministry. God is bringing us ever closer to a place of complete purging. Flesh must die and in its place must stand a body “washed and made white,” a people without spot or wrinkle. This people will have no will because it will have surrendered that part of its self nature to the Lord and Master.

This body then will no longer exert rights, because it has no rights, having invested all rights in Him. The automatic consequences of such unconditional surrender is a life of flowing in the spirit, a life of walking in Him, a life of gaining all that was lost in the first Adam.

The outpouring of the Spirit on the denominational people in our day is not the end of the story. “For behold, Christ the first born among many brethren is saying, Behold my servant whom I uphold; mine elect in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment (correction) to the people. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people and for a light to the Gentiles (uncircumcised): to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in the darkness out of the prison house. I am the Lord: that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

“Remember ye not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

“Sing unto the Lord a new song and His praise from the end of the earth ye that go down to the sea [of people], and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.”

“The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man; he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war; he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies. I have a long time held my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself; now I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands and I will dry up the pools. And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them and crooked places straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.”

They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, ye are our gods.”

“Here, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf; as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as my devoted one, and blind as the Lord’s servant? Seeing many things, but thou observeth not, opening the ears, but he heareth not. But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none delivereth, and none saith RESTORE.”

“Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come?

“And a voice of many waters cried out of the past, present, and future, and said – ‘Who will go, and who will Restore?’ And I saw a countless multitude of saviours coming up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau (meaning doers or makers) – for the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” And again I heard the Voice cry out,

Who will go and who will RESTORE?

And I saw this many-membered saviour in PERFECT step and with ONE voice cry out, “EVEN SO, LORD – SEND ME.”

Yes, Lord, lift me to that higher realm

Beyond Pentecost.

Chapter Fifteen

THIS GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

(Added April, 1997)

Let us take a closer look at this “everlasting gospel” or “gospel of the kingdom” that will be lived and preached to all that dwell on the earth through a company of overcomers in whose mouth there is no guile and who are without fault before the throne of God. This is the message that God speaks forth in and through them:

6. ... and I heard him speaking out of the house...

7. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne [or authority], and the place of the soles of my feet [of those who I have truly sent], where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel [those who are called by my name] no more defile, neither they, nor their kings [their self-rule], by their whoredom [promiscuous use of my name, gifts, and revelation to build their own kingdoms], nor by the carcasses of their kings [dead works and abominations of self] in their high places [in the kingdoms they have erected where they call the people to worship in my name but according to their own ways].

8. In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds [they make the people think they are entering my Kingdom when in reality they are entering a man-made kingdom], and their post by my posts [God’s posts or columns are called Jaquim (He will establish) and Boaz (in Him only is strength), man’s posts are called “we will establish” and “in us is strength” (see 2 Chronicles 3:17)] and the wall between me and them [there is an insurmountable wall between these two positions], they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed [by using the gifts of power and revelation from God in such a promiscuous manner according to the whims of self, that it has brought great dishonor to His name even before the heathen!]: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger.

9. Now let them put away their whoredom [no man can serve two masters], and the carcasses of their kings [the dead works of their selfish abominations], far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them forever [note that this verse is conditional].

10. Thou son of man, SHOW THE [true and undefiled] HOUSE TO THE [defiled] HOUSE of [spiritual] Israel [that man has built in my name calling it my Church], that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern [Jesus Christ as only LORD is that pattern].

11. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house [how God joins his true people together], and the fashion thereof [God’s purpose for mankind], and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof [the true liberty and freedom of being dead to self and alive in Christ], and all the forms thereof [everything that has to be dealt with in us so that we can truly be free in Christ], and all the ordinances thereof [God’s way of doing things], and all the forms thereof [all the aspects of walking in the glorious inheritance of the sons of God], and all the laws thereof [the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2) the law of liberty (James 1:25;2:12)]: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof [that they may pattern themselves after Jesus Christ], and all the ordinances thereof [that they may learn His ways], and do them (Ezekiel 43:6-11).

God’s people are guilty of building the house of the Lord their own way. They are guilty of preaching a “first feast” or “outer court” gospel of “easy believism” that promises safety and security in exchange for acknowledgment of historical facts and a head knowledge of doctrine instead of preaching repentance from going our own way and faith in Jesus Christ as LORD to change, purify and perfect and consume us so that we might truly go HIS way. The baptism in the Holy Spirit, or “Feast of Pentecost” is then preached to those who have bypassed the cross and all that it represents, resulting in the use of the gifts, anointing, power, and revelation of the Holy Spirit for the furthering of man’s kingdoms instead of for the true purpose for which they were given which is to perfect us and deliver us from bondage to self and from bondage to the systems of man that have been erected in the name of God. With this kind of abomination going on in the Holy Place, many add to it by preaching a version of the third feast (the Feast of Tabernacles) that has also been leavened by man. Instead of recognizing the need to stop and start over according to the perfect will of God, they try to fit their vision of the third feast on top of the perverted first and second feasts resulting in a number of difficulties.

But in and through all the confusion generated by the various manifestations of self in all of its many guises, God is still steadily at work in the Tabernacle of David (Amos 9:11, Acts 15) perfecting and dressing each individual stone that will pay the price of submission to his intimate dealings by hearing and obeying His still small voice. Obedience to that voice is costly. It will cause many to be “wounded in the house of their friends.” It will eventually cause all that hear and obey that voice to die to self if we do not shy away from the fire of his dealings.

5. Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.

6. A voice of noise from the city [of religion], a voice from the temple [of the judgment that begins in the house of God], a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompense to his enemies.

7. Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child [a corporate overcomer].

8. Who hath heard of such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

9. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? Saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? Saith thy God.

10. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem [the Jerusalem from above that is the mother of us all], and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her:

11. That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.

12. For thus saith the LORD, Behold I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.

13. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

14. And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb: and the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation towards his enemies. (Isaiah 66:5-14).

AFTERWORD

(December, 2001)

Dear Ones,

Beyond Pentecost in this short form was written on March 5, 1964 during a 13 hour period of great intercession almost verbatim to that which you are presently reading herein. Its initial form was one directing its presentation objectively, but very directly, to a particular organization and its directorate that for nine years, since June 27, 1956, had begun that downward journey from being a living organism in the hand of God to that of being a mere organization using man-made tools to run a man-made machine.

Before I had this treatise typed, the Lord made me to know that I was to read it through and eliminate the salutation and all personal or corporate reference, changing the directive to a given organization to one directed to the whole body of Christ (which is not so whole). The result is the booklet you have just read.

Additionally, the Lord made it plain that I was to recap in very directive but much condensed form this treatise (which turned out to be an eight page letter). I was then to send both this treatise and the eight page letter, which briefly covered the circumstances that brought about this presentation. I immediately had 500 booklets, (almost identical in content to this one) published under the title the Lord gave me, Beyond Pentecost. I then sent these two items to each of the 72 directors of that organization.

Eleven years earlier, in 1953, I had been one of the twenty founding fathers of this same organization. For all of these years I was a Director of this international Christian organization and for most of those years I was also a Vice President. Only my recap letter retained the last two paragraphs of my March 5 writing which incorporated my resignation as an officer and director of that body. I continued on as President of the largest chapter in our nation for another year.

While the content and the directive were well accepted by the officialdom of this organization as the word of the Lord, time would soon show that the great majority of them, while buying the directive of this treatise – Beyond Pentecost – in THEORY, only the minority were willing to again, as in the early 1950’s put it into PRACTICE.

Nine months later I became discouraged for two reasons: (1) My very close friends in this organization whom I loved very much were either unwilling or unable to place these tenets, (tenets once practiced by us a dozen years earlier) into PRACTICE and (2) The fact that the Lord gave me no confirmed directive as to when and how to publish this draft copy booklet as a final published book, as I felt I had been instructed to so do on March 6, 1964. So I returned this manuscript, temporarily I thought, to a storage trunk in my attic.

Shortly thereafter I found the Lord changing my direction of ministry, both in content as well as one to a higher spiritual dimension than that which I moved with up to that time. In September of 1966 I found the Lord leading me supernaturally through a door into a broad ministry in Colombia, South America. During the next two months in that country the Lord opened doors for me to be able to minister to some of that nations’ true intercessors. Equally broad doors opened to me to some of the highest levels of that nation’s political leaders.

Again in 1968, I recognized with hindsight a suppressed discouragement with the Lord for again having brought me to experience a couple of years of walking in that New Jerusalem, that is the mother of us all, only to find the Lord giving me great quantities of “word of knowledge” but very little “word of wisdom” to know what to do with the knowledge. I found mediocre peace while following the cloud by day and the fire by night for 11 more years of wilderness types of doing in contrast to being (1968 to 1979).

On October 27, 1979 the Spirit of the Lord came upon me similar to what happened on March 5, 1964, and for nine weeks, until December 31, I hardly left my bedroom. During this period the book, None Dare Call It Deception was written, accompanied by much pain, problems and intercession. On January 3, 1980, three days following this nine weeks of combination pain and glory I found myself, after 13 years – again through Divine intervention – on an airplane for Colombia, S. A. During the first three months of 1980 the Lord again supernaturally opened many sizeable doors to both spiritual and political arenas in that country. But most of my time was spent in the privacy of a provided adequate closet of prayer (and as in the above mentioned nine weeks in my home) I again found myself night and day in intercession and writing.

When I left Colombia I had penned another new manuscript to which the Lord had already given a name – Masters of Deception. The theme of the prior manuscript – None Dare Call It Deception – is primarily a product of much experience and research this author made over several decades concerning religious deception within the church – Masters of Deception covers another side of the same coin that this writer had also studied and researched for decades concerning worldwide political deception. From scripture, years of study and trusting God for “wisdom” and “understanding,” I feel we have uncovered many deceptive and conspiratorial directives towards which the political and economic world is rapidly sliding, wherein the Church (liberal, fundamental, evangelical, pentecostal, charismatic) seems to have near totally lost its seeing and hearing as they drive headlong into nearly everything the Anti-christ and False Prophet spirit of the day employs in his “me too” act within the so-called church. As I concluded my time of writing at the end of March, 1980 in Colombia the Lord made me to know I was to go home, retrieve from my attic the 96 page treatise you are now reading – for the Lord was about to expand it through my pen to a larger volume of the size of the two volumes I had just written over the previous five months. The added word of the Lord was to then prepare these three manuscripts for final publication, each under its own individual title, but that all three were to be “part of a series” under the umbrella title of Show The House To The House (Ezekiel 13:10-11).

At present, December 2001, only Beyond Pentecost (Volume 1 of our series), None Dare Call It Deception (Volume 2) and Masters of Deception (Volume 3) have been published in English. Three titles have been published in Spanish. From 1993 through 2001 – our volumes have been requested by mail from every state in our nation as well as from over 80 different countries. Presently I am continuing to condense each of our Volumes 2-5 to the same size (about 100 pages) as the one you are reading. All of our full unabridged volumes (including the three currently published in English) are 8.5” by 11” and about 275 pages per volume.

Thy Kingdom Come Ministries is a faith ministry – deeply integrated with the Stendal family, who are originally from Minneapolis and have been missionaries to Colombia since 1964. They handle and service almost all of the requests from Spanish speaking countries for our materials. Most of the Stendal’s book are available here (Stendal Books).

It is this author’s strong belief that the anointing is not given for personal gain. In what ever fashion the Lord anoints, including that of writing, it is for the benefit of the Body of Christ, not for personal gain above normal living needs. I ask, “Lord, help me to be a vessel of honor as I become a conduit and treasurer of a small part of your storehouse.

These books and booklets, including newsletters and status reports addressed to “Friends of this Ministry” (normally written every four to six weeks) are made available on a free will offering basis, and as the Lord provides.

I trust the reading of this booklet you have just read and any you may receive in the future will not only be a blessing but a great contribution to your “understanding.”

Yours for Him,

– Clayt Sonmore

“SHOW THE HOUSE TO THE HOUSE” BOOK SERIES (Ezekiel 43:10-11)

1. Beyond Pentecost *

2. None Dare Call It Deception *

3. Masters of Deception *

4. Who Was William Branham? (The Prophet or a prophet)

5. Latter Rain (Author Richard Riss)

6. Ichabod, The Glory Hath Departed

7. The Spirit of the Great Cathedral Satan’s Kingdom

8. Is The 1990’s The Decade of the Prophetic??? or has it already become The Decade of the Pathetic???

9. What Really Happened at Azuza Street in 1906 (Author Frank Bartleman)

10. The Roman Catholic Conspiracy

Please note the previous biographical account as to which titles are currently available. Only the three above denoted * are published as of December, 2001.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Clayt Sonmore, a Christian businessman, operated Becky’s Cafeteria in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 1949 to 1987. He is pictured here with his late wife Jeanne, at their fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration.

He describes himself as a watchman/historian/scribe. A very close friend, Erskine Holt (whom Sonmore calls a primary teacher-prophet of the great “latter rain” visitation during the middle of the past century) said some years ago:

“Clayt and Jeanne have had many broad and unusual experiences in many Pentecostal streams, including much involvement with the ‘latter rain visitation’ which commenced in Canada in 1948. Hence, his books and other writings are an invaluable and valid record, as well as an accurate historical resource describing the ‘latter rain visitation’ that shook the whole world of Pentecost during the middle of this past century.”

Together with Demos Shakarian and 15 others, including Tommy Hicks and William Branham, Sonmore was one of the early founders of the ‘Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International’, pioneered in 1952 and 1953. He was appointed Vice President of that body in 1956 and served as chairman of three of its five committees until his amiable resignation in 1964. Of the original 15 foundational fathers of the FGBMF, only Sonmore remains alive to tell the story of FGBMF’s ‘Paradise Found’ – (‘this gospel of the kingdom’, 1952 to 1956) – and of (from 1956 to date) ‘Paradise Lost.’

Over a 37-year span, (1949 to 1986), Sonmore’s business interests included two cafeterias, one buffet operation and one highly distinguished restaurant, a deluxe office building and a facility manufacturing and distributing trailer hitches. During the period from 1953 to the present, he has averaged traveling in ministry across this nation (as well as to other nations) at least once a month.

Visit Thy Kingdom Come Ministries’ website

Buy more Clayt Sonmore books

Or, contact me directly!

Thy Kingdom Come Ministries

Clayt Sonmore

clayt@sonmore.com

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LIFE SENTENCE Publishing

P.O. Box 652

Abbotsford, WI 54405

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

FELLOWSHIP OF THE HUNGRY HEARTED

“kingdom” BUILDING versus KINGDOM BUILDING

“HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN IN THE MIDST OF THE BATTLE”

IS DEMOCRACY REALLY GOD’S WAY?

GOD’S DUE ORDER

MAN’S ORDER: DOCTRINATE – THEN ISOLATE THEN DENOMINATE – THEN DOMINATE

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

UNION WITH THE FATHER

THE THREE GATES

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES

THE MOST HOLY PLACE

A VOICE “IN THE TEMPLE GATE”

COME UP HIGHER

THAT HE MIGHT HAVE PREEMINENCE

THIS GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

AFTERWORD

“SHOW THE HOUSE TO THE HOUSE” BOOK SERIES (Ezekiel 43:10-11)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR