As it is in Heaven
As it is in Heaven
"Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven." (Matthew 6.10)
"They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: 'See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.' " (Hebrews 8.5)
The architecture of Israel's Temple in Jerusalem, was a reflection of the lay-out of Heaven. In other words, it was designed by God to be a literal home-away-from-home.
"The Lord has said that He would dwell in a dark cloud; I have built a magnificent temple for You, a place for You to dwell forever...Now arise, O Lord God, and come to your dwelling place, You and the ark of Your might." (2 Chronicles 6.1-2 and 41)
So, we had better take care what we assemble in His name, here on earth. For it is ordained that what we create should be "a reproduction of that which exists in Heaven". (JB Phillips NT)
And that ought of necessity to raise the even more serious and ultimate question: What do we "see" in Heaven?
It seems to me that the Western Church is presently being inundated with accounts from Christians who say that they have been to Heaven and returned to tell their story. It is not my place to comment critically on any of these reports individually. But this I must say: The majority of these testimonies differ substantially from the text and the spirit of the Bible?
By that I mean, consider the humility and the brevity of the great apostle Paul, when he recounts to the Church in Corinth, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know - God knows. And I know that this man - whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows - was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses." (2 Corinthians 12.2-5)
(It is generally agreed, from considering the rest of this passage, that Paul is in fact talking about himself!)
Like Paul, I too once knew a man "caught up to paradise" 33 years ago..."whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know - God knows"! And his account is yet more modest and briefer still. He knew himself to have been lifted out of this world and brought before the very face of God. But he saw nothing...being bathed in and blinded by dazzling, white light.
"God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To Him be honour and might forever. Amen." (1 Timothy 6.15-16)
Thus, Paul "is not permitted to tell"...and the other servant is "blinded"? So, where are we to turn for that "vision", according to which we may safely "build" both creed and structure?
"To the law and to the testimony: If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Isaiah 8.20)
So, let us then consider the record of Heaven left by the beloved Apostle; extraordinary for its intricate detail, its profound mysteriousness (simultaneously literal and figurative), and the plain fact that it was and is considered worthy to be stored up for us ("on whom the last days have come" - 1 Corinthians 10.11) in the canon of infallible Scripture.
In "The Revelation of Jesus Christ", John reports in his old age, "After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in Heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, 'Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.' At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in Heaven with someone sitting on it." (4.1-2)
Here lies and is revealed to us the very heart, core and key of the Heavenly pattern...the occupied Throne of God! All else hinges and hangs upon this. Thus it was revealed to the august Isaiah, at the outset of his considerable prophetical life and service, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the Temple." (6.1)
Similarly, for the briefly-glimpsed, courageous and accurate Micaiah...pressed to prophesy before a corrupt Ahab and a complacent Jehoshaphat, "Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne with all the host of Heaven standing around Him on His right and on His left." (1 Kings 22.19)
He served God in the season that saw the final, bloody judgement of Ahab's evil empire...along with his in-gang of lickspittle, false prophets, "So the king (Ahab) died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried him there. They washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria (where the prostitutes bathed), and the dogs licked up his blood, as the word of the Lord had declared (through Elijah)." (1 Kings 22.37-38)
Likewise, the ethereal Ezekiel; prophet to an exiled Israel, who fanned the flames of hope for a People under the severest correction of God. His visions and raptures were founded upon his bedrock glimpse of Heaven, "Above the expanse over their (the living creatures') heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man." (1.26)
My point is, that all we presume to build here in His Name, must be according to the divine pattern - Heaven's configuration. And of the first importance is this: That the heart of Heaven and the pivot of Paradise is the occupied Throne of God. And a Throne occupied by..?
Here lies perhaps the most startling revelation of The Revelation. All too often eschatologists are mesmerised by beasts, whores and mathematical codes. But surely, for any seriously concerned to garner practically useful knowledge for the End Times, 'tis wisest to begin at the beginning...the matrix of all Mystery...the centre of Heaven.
And this is revealed to John (and therefore to us) when it is announced that "the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David" who "has triumphed...is able to open the scroll (of God's historical salvation-purposes) and its seven seals." (5.1-5)
But when John looks about for a great and powerful King, he sees "a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth." (v6)
Thus the "Author and Finisher...Leader and Perfecter...Source and Goal" of our faith is made known to us in this Last Hour - for the purposes of our discipline unto obedience - as a "little" Lamb "bearing the marks of a sacrificial death"!
And that which is indubitably at the epicentre of Heaven, must also be the core of our and the Church's heart. We will in this crisis hour, literally stand or fall according to our ability or failure to embrace this reality. The Lion of Judah is mentioned once in The Revelation; the little Lamb, 27 times. Our humanity clamours for the Lion's intervention and triumph right now. But we must wait awhile for that. For Almighty God has determined that our salvation at the Cross, throughout history, and immediately before the Second Coming, is wrought by the figure of ultimate weakness and sacrifice...the Lamb of God!
"He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth... Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53.7 and 12)
Thus we may say (and expect) confidently that in the coming Great Tribulation, we shall not triumph through the muscularity of religious cleverness and organisation. We shall overcome by becoming more and more like Jesus...not only as He chose to be at the Cross, but as He has ever been, and is now in Heaven.
"They overcame him (the accuser of our brothers) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." (Revelation 12.11)
"For the (little) Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water." (Revelation 7.17)
"They follow the (little) Lamb wherever He goes." (Revelation 14.4)
Above all things, the Last Church will walk in the understanding that,
1) Our salvation is always and entirely and totally by the Blood-sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, 'Drink from it all of you. This is My Blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.'" (Matthew 26.27-28)
"Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the Church of God which He bought with His own Blood." (Acts 20.28)
"What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus."
"O precious is the flow,
That makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know.
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus."
(Dr Robert Lowry, USA, 1826-99)
To depart from this, is to put our feet upon ancient pathways, which lead inevitably to deception and deep darkness: Gnosticism (extra-Biblical mysticism), legalism (salvation through pride-driven adherence to a subjective and edited view of God's Law), and humanism (intellectual pride despising Spirit-dependent revelation).
2) God is by nature, essentially humble.
"Who is like the Lord our God, Who is enthroned on high, Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in the earth? He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap." (Psalm 113.5-7)
And Christians are commanded to be as their humble Saviour, "Your inmost thoughts must be like those of Christ Jesus: He shared God's very nature from the beginning, but He did not consider that he must cling to His equality with God. No, He emptied himself, assumed the nature of a servant, and became a man like one of us. He appeared in human form and humbled Himself in obedience, even to the point of death - death on a cross." (Philippians 2.5-8 Translator's NT)
As one might expect, the opposer of our essentially humble God, is riddled with pride to his very core. The devil has already been condemned for his pride, conceit and insolence. (1 Timothy 3.6) His pride has belched out into competition and rivalry, fantasy and madness...and will end in final, unutterable disaster.
As the devil's insane rebellion rages to its filthy and futile crescendo immediately before the Lord Jesus Christ returns, he will feast upon and attempt to build a platform on any vestiges of pride (especially spiritual superiority and smugness) he can sniff out in the Church.
But God will help us, as we build His Throne in our hearts and in our assemblies and in our organisations...and there enthrone the little Lamb, so that He can pour His own heart into our hearts,
"Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest...for your souls." (Matthew 11.29 Amplified)
"Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold your King is coming to you, lowly and riding on a donkey." (Matthew 21.5)
"Now I Paul myself beseech you by the humble-heartedness and selflessness of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10.1 Montgomery NT)
It is not too late for the contemporary Western Church to reclaim humility as a virtue and a strength...rather than treating it as an embarrassing liability. The parade of Scripture-spouting celebrities, ear-tickling charlatans, sports stars, and prosperity fabulists, through the supposedly holy place of our pulpits, has done nothing to slow our civilisation's relentless charge to Hell in a handcart. If anything this "image triumphing over substance" religious culture has probably greased the tracks!
(In this regard, the Church has been seduced into the world's madness that "I've been seen on television or on the podium, therefore I exist"!!!)
In the context of 2000 years of Church History, it's really only a few seconds ago that the imperative relationship between spiritual power and humility was clearly understood and esteemed and embraced. After the 1906 Azusa St (Los Angeles) outpouring of Pentecostal power, revivalist William Durham wrote, "The Holy Spirit said to me, 'If you were only small enough, I could do anything with you." A great desire to be little, yea, to be nothing, came into my heart. But it has been oh so hard to keep low enough for Him to really work through me. And He only really uses me when I am little in my own eyes and really humble at His feet.'
And the author of the definitive account of that visitation ("Azusa St"), Frank Bartleman recorded, "The fact is when a man gets to the place where he really loves obscurity, where he does not care to preach, and where he would rather sit in the back seat than on the platform, then God can lift him up and use him, and not very much before."
"Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18.4)
"For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matthew 23.12)
"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up." (James 4.10)
"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time." (1 Peter 5.6)
"Just as I am, without one plea
But that They Blood was shed for me,
And that thou bidd'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come."
(Hymn 411, PCNZ)
