(Rev 4 NRSV) After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” [2] At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! [3] And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald.

The Opening Door

After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven… . (Rev. 4:1).

A door opened in heaven as an entrance beyond the flesh life, beyond the physical and psychical senses, into the realm of the Spirit. An entry for John into the character of spiritual realities; to be for the Overcomer also an entry into a state of being and a ministry of unsurpassed glory—the throne room.

He who opens had caught John up in the spirit and opened the door

These things says He that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens. (Rev. 3:7).

The door of heaven, the entrance into the eternal realm of the Spirit where the mind, vision, and experience goes beyond human understanding and enters into the divine perception, the mind of God by the Spirit. Human sentience attains a greater glory, being raised into a higher dimension of life and reality.

(2 Cor 3:18 NRSV) And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

Humankind in the natural state cannot see heavenly realities. John became “in the spirit” a prophetic state enabling perception of the glories of heavenly things. Without this state of illumination the blinding limitation of the natural mind and state of being will leave no door in the heavens open for humankind. For millenniums man was debarred from a clear vision of the eternal, incapable of apprehending the spiritual and divine.

Jesus speaks of Himself as the gate/door into the sheepfold and strengthens this by

(John 14:6 NRSV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(John 10:9 NRSV) I am the gate . Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.

Nathaniel received this promise from the Lord:

Hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels (messengers)of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. (Jn. 1:51).

Jesus saw the heavens open at his baptism and the spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him, and a voice spoke from heaven

This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. (Mat. 3:16-17).

This opening of the heavens to Jesus was his public introduction as the son of God. The opened heavens declared his son-ship and the beginning of the full revelation through him of the mystery of God to be revealed in sons. From the throne in the heavens of God’s spirit Christ reveals to his many overcoming brethren the power and glory of being a son in Him. Overcomers will hear the voice saying to them, “Come up here”. In the anointed one the heavens are opened. In Christ the overcoming ones ascend into the throne of power, glory, ruling and reigning. He is the door.

The Spirit-led, spiritual-minded saints will see in the Spirit the door for they listen to the Voice and Word of their Father. Weaned from the mixture of the old order church ways (the lamp-stand realm), and with hearing ears of the spirit given to them by their Father and eyes enlightened they see into the heavenly realms.. Kingdom order expressed through them begins the change in the old world of man’s corruption, iniquity, and decay. The sons will reign with Christ in the power and authority of the Spirit and spiritual order will be established in the earth.

The Greek for door is “thura” meaning a portal, an entrance or a vestibule. Standing open, “the door” is a place of transition from the earthly to the heavenly. An invitation of the Father by the Spirit and John “became in the Spirit” and “passing through “the door” stood in the throne room. Christ is that portal, a passage into another realm and state of awareness Overcoming “son-ship”; is as a “star gate” into the throne room of the heavens.

Finding the Gate… The forerunner

While Christ our Elder Brother and High Priest ministers this forerunner ministry to us we are possessed of a hope—

which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. (Heb. 6:19-20).

While manifested on this earth, Jesus the anointed one left us His personal example that we might follow in His footsteps. It is a way that leads beyond the veil into the glories of the Father. He trod the entire course that we might be able to follow into His divine fullness. He is the way to the Father, and by our union in Him we find it is first a way of the cross before it becomes a way of exaltation. There is both Patmos and the lamp-stand realm before we access the throne. We humble ourselves under the hand of God, assured that in due time He will lift us up, and we shall live in His sight.

A forerunner is one who goes ahead of others. He goes ahead as a sample of those who are to follow. The forerunner is one who gives us hope of entering in.

Connected to Christ in spirit, one in Him, called and chosen and ordained by Him, this anchor will hold, secure until the storm abates and the high tide comes. When all carnality, limitation and death have been swallowed up in body, soul, and spirit, overcomers will know the full power and glory of the throne. Jesus is forerunner; others will follow on into the same realms of glory. Christ entered first and where He went in the power of His resurrection and ascension, every son of God is destined to go. The forerunner blazed the trail all the way and came back, by His Spirit, to escort us into the glory beyond the veil. He knows the way for He has traveled through to victory. His daily enabling gives us strength to carry on until the consummation.

The door standing open

behold, a door standing open in heaven. (Rev. 4:1, Amplified Bible).

The door is standing open—now. Heaven is accessible—now. To be an overcoming son is attainable—now. Immortality and glory are obtainable—now. The throne may be attained—now. The Voice is calling—now. The door is standing open.

Creation groans in waiting for a people who in consciousness are so in the heavenly dimension now; so alive to the things that are eternal, the things that are spirit, that their presence radiates life and the fragrance of the heavenly. God is preparing such a people, a heavenly and celestial race, set in time.

… and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come He might show… . (Eph. 2:6-7).

There is no choice, no option as to being heavenly minded or not for any who have heard the Voice calling, “Come up hither,” and stand in the glory of the door opened in the heavens.

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling… if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of god. set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Heb. 3:1; col. 3:1-3).

When quickened to the realm of spirit, to the heavenly and celestial, to that bright world of perceived eternal truth and reality we hear our heavenly Father speaking from the throne of eternity. Long before the ages were framed and before the cosmos appeared out of chaos, there in His presence, out of His omniscient mind, His purpose for the ages, the world and every creature was laid down upon the infinite blue-print, plan by plan, purpose by purpose, age by age, person by person. All would be guided and controlled by His hand to grow and mature from glory to glory.

The Returning

The Disciples’ Prayer begins with the words, “Our Father” Not to know who your Father is to remain lost and dying in the darkness of the carnal mind. Spiritually not knowing is as an adopted child who has never been told of adoption so has no truth of his biological parents or from where he came. Our Father in heaven is not the one who gives humankind physical life in the womb of an earthly mother. yet Jesus could say

(Mat 23:9 KJV) And call no man your father upon the earth : for one is your Father , which is in heaven.

We needs recognize that our life did not begin with our physical birth. Our true Father is not a man upon earth. Our real Father is a spirit and He is in heaven.

(Heb 12:9 NRSV) Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

Our life did not begin on earth—it began in heaven. Over and over again Jesus taught the multitudes about their “heavenly Father.”

Early men of God also had this unrealized memory of their origins.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. If they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He has prepared for them a city. (Heb. 11:13-16).

These men of God were strangers on the earth. They were seeking a country—Abraham knew that the ground he walked on in the land of Canaan was not the true land of God, for “he looked for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” He was searching for the City of God and knew that he was only a pilgrim and stranger in the land of Canaan, though God had led him thither. “If they had been mindful”—that is, if they had remembered that country from whence they came, , that heavenly kingdom, the spiritual reality from whence they were lowered into this earth-realm; if somehow the veil could have been removed from off their minds, from the limitations of their earthiness so that they could have remembered they might have had opportunity to return. But they died in faith—still looking for the city of God, the kingdom of God—spiritual reality.

God has provided and now we can return—the way has been opened into the presence of God, the life, the glory, the kingdom of God, into the Holiest of all, the throne of God. That’s what the journey is all about—a return to the Lord. It is our return to the heavenly; the spiritual; the image of God; Eden; the eternal kingdom. The return is to the incorruptible; a return to the throne.

There in Heaven

The second phrase of the Disciple’s Prayer: “who is in heaven” correctly translated is, “Who is in the heavens,” plural, not singular. God dwells in more than one heaven.

Behold, I build a house to the name of the Lord my God, and the house which I build is great: for great is our God above all gods. But who is able to build Him an house, seeing the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? Who am I that I should build Him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before Him?”(II Chron. 2:4-6).

Paul spoke of a man who was caught up into the third heaven. Our Father is the God of all these heavens, dwells, fills and rules in every one. In our journey into God we pass through all these heavens as Jesus did.

He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. (Eph. 4:10).

In His ascension to the throne of His Father Jesus Christ passed through—experienced—all the heavens. He filled them all so that God in Christ is the essence of every heaven. You will find Him on a different level, in a different dimension, in a unique aspect of His life and purpose, in each.

Heaven is not a place, a planet somewhere out in the vastness of infinity—it is a sphere or realm of spiritual divine reality. a dimension of life. a level of God-consciousness. It is the invisible realm of Spirit that transcends this material realm. It is omnipresent as God is omnipresent.. The omnipresent spiritual dimension is co-existent and co-extensive with the physical universe, but on a different plane of reality and level of consciousness. God dwells in the heaven beyond the time-space continuum and undetectable by the natural senses of man or the probing of technology. Heaven can only be discerned, contacted, seen, entered, or experienced by spirit.

Heaven is the realm where God is revealed, known, touched and experienced in the Spirit. If ever you see God, know, touch or experience Him—it will be in the heavens of His Spirit where He dwells in the realms of His Being.

To be in heaven is to be in the Spirit and experience God spiritually. To be “caught up” in spirit is to be “raptured” to heaven. The heavens are the realms or levels of spiritual experience where His realities are revealed by the Spirit, and heavenly (spiritual) things are seen.

When the Lord reveals Himself on a higher plane, in deeper measures, in richer and fuller dimensions, we experience Him in it and we ascend in Him to a higher heaven. Passing through the heavens is to know and experience God in such greater and grander measures.

This spiritual world becomes familiar by walking in the Spirit of God and experiencing more and more union with the Father. The desire to stay; a longing never to return to the lowly estate and level of the natural man grows in the heart.

There will never be a place of “This is the end.” Being raised up into the heavenly realm is a stage of action, A whole universe with planets, worlds, heavens, awaits the overcomers touch and guiding hand.

What is man that you art mindful of him? You have put all things in subjection under his feet. for in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. but we see not yet all things put under him (man). But we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor … (Heb. 2:6-9).

John saw a door opened in heaven. When he passed through the door he beheld a throne.

Acts 7:49. Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool.

The Greek word for heaven is ouranos. It is a word appearing in the New Testament 275 times. The meaning of the word is “elevation, height, exaltation, eminence.” This is the reality of the throne.”

The central idea of heaven in the New Testament “Ouranos” is not a place. It is the height, the very pinnacle of glory, authority and power over all God’s limitless domain. This authority is in and by the Spirit, for God is Spirit, and does not sit upon a physical throne.

Dwelling in the lower heavens of spiritual union with God begins the experience of spiritual authority and power. At each step higher into the heavens, into the more lofty and exalted; realms of the Spirit, the greater grows the power of God’s throne. Heaven is His throne. Christ has ascended to the highest heaven and has been given all power and all authority in all the heavens and in all the earth. This Christ is now the door standing open, and a voice bids you to “come up hither” to the throne room.

A voice as a trumpet

And the first voice which I heard (out of the heavenly realm) was as it were a trumpet talking with me … (Rev. 4:1).

Everywhere in scripture the trumpet symbolizes the voice of the Lord. John had marched with Christ through all the dealings of God in the lamp-stand realm and now at the end of that experience he heard from within the voice of Christ in a new way and out of a higher realm.

Every man may hear the voice of the Son of God from within. Only on the rarest of occasions have men heard the voice of God as an external voice falling upon the outer ear. God dwells within us by the Spirit and when we hear that divine Voice it is from within the holy temple of our spirit. Hearing the Voice within us that opens our ability to walk into the fullness of the Spirit of God.and hear as John the call from a higher realm.

John said, “I heard something—an unprecedented voice, a trumpet voice.” God’s voice throughout the ages from Abraham to the present has been louder and clearer. Whenever the Shofar , sounds, God is saying something to His creation. He intends His voice to be heard by those in whose presence it sounds. The reality of it is seen in the words Jesus spoke to the adversary when He said,

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

The word “proceeds” is in the present, continuous tense (“is proceeding and continues to proceed.”) The Man of today does not live by a word that has proceeded out of the mouth of God in some past era. The word He sent to Noah is not our word for today. We rejoice in that word that God sent to Jacob in the long ago, but it is not a living word for us today. Wonderful were the words of the prophets to Israel, but we cannot live in the national message they preached. The word of the Lord to Martin Luther and John Wesley were mighty words for their time, but they are not sufficient for us in this hour. There is a proceeding word, a present truth, and that proceeding word is going back and gathering up every preceding word, swallowing it up, and summing it up, into the fuller revelation for God’s people in this Day of the Lord. God is saying something now, and His word for today is greater than any word He has ever sent to His people.

God’s people live at various stages of hearing His voice. In John 12, heaven began to speak and the Father uttered His voice, saying,

I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. (Jn. 12:28).

The crowd of bystanders heard the sound and most of them thought it had thundered. How often it is that a group of people hear the word of the Lord and those who listen with spiritual ears get the message, while to those who hear only with carnal minds and natural understanding hear so much thunder.. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.”

Typically those enamored by oratory, and moved by the charisma of personality, becoming fixed on man, on the vessel, on the messenger delivering the message.. Those who had their ears opened and could distinguish between the sounds, said, “No, that was the voice of the Father.”

The voice as of a trumpet is a word, a message of the living Christ. The voice commanded John, “Come up hither, and I will show you things.” Thoughts, words, pictures, concepts—wondrous truths beyond his understanding blasted with the piercing of a trumpet’s sound into the consciousness of John. You must arise, come up, be translated in consciousness to a new level of communication, to a new plane of reality. If your thinking is on the earth, you will not hear the heavenly Voice.

God will have a people who see things which must be hereafter. They will have no desire to just keep doing the religious things they have always done. It is all a weariness to the spirit. They will be hearing the sound of a trumpet.

God has raised up a trumpet ministry in this hour. Those who hear are lifted up into a new and higher realm and place in God. The trumpet is sounding all across the land and around the world. Something greater is about to take place. This is the word that shows us what must be hereafter. The next step in God—after the lamp-stand realm.

The overcomer desires to hear the voice of God not the call of self. God is always speaking, if we have ears to hear. His sheep hear and know His voice. Every son of God will learn to hear and know (recognize) the voice of the Lord. Maturity is not deceived about what voice they are hearing. Elect ones know the voice of their Father and a strange voice they will not follow. Sometimes the voice of the Lord is through a brother or sister in Christ, through a writing, through a circumstance, through experience, or through our own thoughts and hearts. However God speaks, only the one who truly knows the Father’s voice will recognize that voice and “get” the message.

The voice of the stranger may also appear from unusual places. Through men reputed to be great men in God, sometimes through brethren we love and esteem, sometimes in sermons and writings and books that less discerning ones are charmed with and excited about as being great revelations of truth.

Those who are able to hear the voice and know the voice are enabled to come up hither” to the throne realm.

Come Up Hither

Come up hither, and I will show you things which must be hereafter (Rev. 4:1).

“Come up hither” is not a geographical term. It doesn’t mean go up, it means grow up. The journey from the Holy Place into the Most Holy Place, and to the feast of Tabernacles, is not a chronology of time or of distance, but an experience in God; a sequence of growth, experience, life, and reality.

God’s elect are beginning to move into a new dimension in God, the veil is being drawn back revealing another realm of reality yet unrecognised in the church systems. Pentecost is wonderful; in its power and praise, gifts and graces, life and glory. The first-fruits of the Spirit, a taste of God’s glory in the Lamp-stand realm, have been glorious but the redemption of the fully purchased possession will go beyond into greater glory. The mixture of the Holy Place cannot deliver from the bondage of corruption and creation still waits, groans and travails for the manifestation of the sons of God.

The fully manifest sonship ministry will this bring liberty to the world, demolish the systems of man, establish the rule of the Spirit, and deliver creation from the bondage of sin, sorrow, sickness, fear, torment, hatred, tyranny and death. Paul spoke of our being “caught up in the air” he was not looking at the temporal physical Adamic bodies that return to the dust from whence they came, for the first man is of the earth, earthy. Paul spoke to inner man, the new creation, the heavenly body, like Son of God. This is the real person, and bears the image of the heavenly. It is this man that is”caught up” into a new place in the Spirit.

Paul told the Ephesians,

But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, and has raised us up together… in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:4-6).

He also told the Thessalonians that the saints would be “caught up together” to meet the Lord in the air

(1 Th 4:16-17 NRSV) For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. [17] Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.

In both cases the apostle is speaking of the same kind of experience. In both cases we are elevated to a higher plane in and with Christ. There will be a glorious company of these “caught up” ones. A wonderful place of rest, glory, revelation, wisdom, and power far above the elements of this world. “When the Bible speaks of being “caught up” or invites us to “come up hither” it is not speaking of light-years away.

it is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the lord. i knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, or whether out of the body, i cannot tell: God knows;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. of such an one will I glory: yet of myself i will not glory, but in my infirmities. (2 Cor. 12:1-5).

Where did this friend of Paul’s go? This was a spiritual experience. nevertheless he was “caught up” to the third heaven. Although caught up into God’s glory, he was physically here on the earth. He never left the ground. So it may be for all of God’s elect people. So completely overwhelmed was he, so utterly were his faculties under the control of the Holy Spirit, that he was not sure if he was “in the body, or apart from the body.”

God carried him into that realm of life known as paradise, the third heaven. Not a location; a realm of Spirit in which we touch, experience, and know God.

The first heaven corresponds to the Outer Court of the Tabernacle and the bronze altar where Christ the Lamb is slain for us, giving His life. This is the initial “salvation” experience to know the joy of sins forgiven and reconciliation to God. Here also the laver, representing the washing of the water of the word, of God that begins to cleanse the walk upon earth.

The second heaven is pictured in the second realm of the Tabernacle, the Holy Place, Here stands the golden lamp-stand, the table of showbread, and the golden altar of incense. Entry the door of this dimension is through the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills us and becomes the light of within life, as the oil fills the lamp-stand and gives light to the Holy Place. Illumination begins as the Spirit reveals Christ and we become aware of heavenly and spiritual realities. In this reality we learn to partake of the bread of God and the word begins to be made flesh within us. Then we are able to offer up the incense of spiritual prayer, praise, and worship to God as typified by the incense altar.

The third heaven corresponds to the Most Holy Place. The place of the Ark of the Covenant and the Shekinah Glory upon the mercy seat

John, being in the Spirit, saw a throne of dominion. The throne whereon sits the King eternal, immortal, invisible; this throne is everywhere by the dominion of God in Christ, and is experienced in hearts where dwells the King. “Come up Hither.”. John glimpsed through the open door the majesty of this throne of the God of the universe and in that moment he was invited to enter and sit down in the throne room. He was ushered into celestial scenes of divine life, authority, power, and dominion; the Most Holy Place in heavenly reality.

Things that must be Hereafter.

and I will show you what must take place after this

John was shown in vision the seven lamp-stands “which are the seven churches” These represent the whole church throughout the entire church age. They were/are imperfect, carnal, childish, idolatrous, heretical, rebuked again and again by the Lord—a realm of mixture and duality. These examples reveal the true state and condition of the whole church. Both history and the personal experience of many testify that John was shown aright. The early church was a church of mixture and duality—flesh and spirit, truth and error, law and grace, spirituality and carnality. From that day to this—all churches have been the same.

If any say “We are of Luther,” and another says, “We are Baptists,” and another says, “We are Pentecostal,” while yet another says, “We are of Christ,” are they not carnal and walk as men? Should the church age continue on for another thousand years the church would not have changed—the revelation of the seven lamp-stands declares it.

It was after this vision of spiritual states in the lamp-stand realm that John heard the voice. The Spirit had been dealing not with years or ages of time but with realms of spiritual experience. Rebuke, praise, encouragements and giving promises is not to the churches themselves, but to “him that overcomes”—a company out of the church.

Come up hither” the voice commanded. John is now shown another realm higher than the lamp-stand realm; the realm of the throne, of the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders. John is invited to leave the lamp-stand realm to ascend in the spirit to this higher realm where the Lamb is in the throne.

This revelation was given to John about the year A.D. 96. The churches of his generation refused to leave the lamp-stand realm and rise to a higher place in God, and within only a few years the great apostasy set in, and by the third and fourth centuries the apostasy was complete, followed by an awful night “The Dark Ages.”.The Lord is still present in the lamp-stand realm, for in the midst of the lamp-stands “One like a Son of man.” As long as there are the lamp-stand churches the glorious One will be in their midst to minister on that level, blessing by His grace, dealing in His mercy, saving, healing, and helping. in the midst of error, delusion and the mixture of spirit and flesh.

The “open door” in heaven and the command to “Come up hither” separates between the lamp-stand realm and the higher realm of His fullness, the throne room.

(Rev 3:20-22 NRSV) .”(Rev 4:1-3 NRSV) Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. [21] To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. [22] Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” [2] At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! [3] And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald.

At the conclusion of the messages to the churches the Lord is standing in the throne room and knocking on the door. This door that separates between the lamp-stand realm and the throne room is typified in the veil that separates the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.

First the Lord says He stands knocking at the door then came the promise of raising us up to His throne as we overcome all things. Two verses later John saw, a door stood open in heaven and through that door he saw the throne.

First Christ comes out of the heavens of His glory descends through the door to enter into our lives by His Spirit. For Him to come into us and sup with us we must open that door. Christ also comes this way to feed the overcomers His truth and life in a greater and more glorious table; the feast of Tabernacles.

When the overcomers mature spiritually, the Lord will build up Zion, clothing the elect with all the new garments of the Life and the Glory of Christ.. He descends out from the spirit into the soul, and out of the soul into the body. The work of God begins in the spirit, and then moves into the outer realms of each life. When the trumpet sounds in each spiritual ear, and understanding pours in by the spirit of wisdom and revelation there will be the descending of the Lord into the lowest realms of each life and an ascending of being into Him.

Every trumpet that sounds will lifts up to a higher place, a “caught up” by each trumpet as it blows its message of revelation into each individual reality. When the last trump sounds within the overcomer will be caught up into the fullness of God and totally changed in spirit, soul, and body.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. (Eph. 1:3-4).

The things God is doing with humanity began in eternity before the ages were framed. God loved us, chose us, knew us, counselled with us, and picked us out for His unique purpose before the foundation of the world. Our origin was in God. God begat us out of Himself as spirit before He exhaled each of us as spirit into a very unique body upon earth.

The “kingdom message” deals with the conformity, maturity, and inheritance of the sons of God—those who as overcomers are called to share His throne and reign with Him over all things. This great plan was conceived and initiated in eternity, before time began.

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. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom Hejustified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can beagainst us?. (Rom. 8:28-31).

These five verbs—foreknow, predestinate, called, justified, glorified—are in the aorist tense. (Denotes action at a given point in the past). All these things happened to us “before” the ages began. Those whom the Father foreknew, predestinated, called, and justified, He also glorified. All of this is in the past. God foreknew us in the past—before the world began. This is also when He predestinated us, called us, justified us, and glorified us. Jesus, the firstborn of this company of sons selected before the world began, reveals the mystery of this when He prays,

And now, O Father, glorify You me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with You before the worldwas. (Jn. 17:5).

Jesus was glorified, had a glory, with the Father before the world began. He left that glory when He was lowered into this earth realm, and now He prays for the Father to restore to Him that glory He had with Him before He came. That is when every son of God was glorified. It is not something happening now, though it will be manifested now, as it was given us in Christ in that long ago before the world began.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:10).

Clarity is coming to the sons of God; understanding, perception, consciousness, expression, purpose, destiny. God is awakening all of this in those elect who are called with an holy calling as overcomers to ascend the mount of God, to the throne room. He is awakening within that reality known with the Father from before the foundation of the world. The elect are here by divine appointment. All their steps are ordered of the Lord. The body born with, the family, parents, the town raised in, the school attended, the friends acquired, the mate chosen, the job held, the life lived, the experiences had, the joys and sorrows, the tragedies and triumphs, the apparent mistakes and the victories, all that has taken place in personal experience was mapped out in the council of God on that glorious day when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

The cry of the book of Revelation is the call to “Come up hither” into a higher realm of life and glory.

One Sat on the Throne.

And One sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone … (Rev. 4:2-3).

The occupant of the throne appeared like the crystalline brightness of jasper and the fiery sardine (sardius) stone. These were the first and the last precious stones in the breastplate of the high priest. The names of Benjamin and Reuben were engraved upon these two stones (Ex. 18:17-20). Benjamin means “the son of the right hand” and Reuben “behold a son.”

The scene is one of luminous splendour. The One sitting on the throne appeared like a jasper and a sardine stone—not as form or shape but as glory and power. Jasper is crystalline and purple in hue. The sardine, or sardius, a beautiful bright red or carnation colour and develops a particularly high and lasting lustre. Uniting the brilliance of these gems, they would have the appearance of flames; a pure, reddish purple, fiery, crystalline, sparkling light. A similar bright, fiery appearance of the Lord is described in the book of Ezekiel.

From what had the appearance of His waist upward, I saw a lustre as it were glowing metal with the appearance of fire enclosed round about within it; and from the appearance of His waist downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness round about Him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord (Eze. 1:27-28).

Many scriptures describe God and His throne as fire. “Our God is a consuming fire.” Though fearful to the timid such fire is welcome for this the fiery throne tells of the Lord’s authority in our lives, first in us, then through us. By the power in His throne God consumes all we have and all we are in Adam, while at the same time catching us up into the brilliance of His glory. The physical symbols of the eternal God are fire, light, and life. Fire, as seen in the sun, is a terrible and consuming power. Yet the sun is the source of all life on this planet. To enter into the sun, pain and death are the penalties. Yet from this flaming source radiate all the marvels and beauties of colour, light, food, energy and life that fill our earth. From fire comes light and I the light life. It is the light from the fire that passes into all nature, quickening, transforming, sustaining, giving colour, form, and substance to all things..

To perform His life-giving work in creation our God, who is a consuming fire, reveals Himself in three operations: the fire burns, the light shines and life is quickened in us. These are the realities emanating from the fiery presence of God and His throne. These are the glories to be revealed through all of God’s sons who will become the light and the life of the world.

The Rainbow Around the Throne.

And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like an emerald (Rev. :3).

Ezekiel caught up in the Spirit, also saw a vision of God in rainbow likeness.

Above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw… the appearance of fire round about… and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it I fell upon my face… . (Eze. 1:27-28).

The Greek “iris” used for rainbow means a bow that is a complete circle. In classical Greek the word was used of any bright halo surrounding an object. The iris of the eye (brought into English from the Greek) encircles the pupil. The bow surrounding the great throne of the heavenlies is also a full circle. Every rainbow seen by the eye of man is a half-circle. and connects with the earth. The rainbow in the heavens of God’s Spirit is a complete circle with no “earth” to break it. Only the earth prevents the natural rainbow from being a circle. In like manner the earthiness of man’s carnality, fear, and unbelief obstructs the full revelation of the glory of the Lord and the dominion of His throne in our lives. The rainbow of the glory of the Lord will be encircling the throne of God within us when there is no more “earth” there to break it.

This allegory of Noah shows way of escape from the world dominated by the flesh and under the curse into the kingdom of God dominated by the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, wherein dwells righteousness. The only vehicle out of the unrighteous world is not wooden ark but a Person who has already made the transition. The rainbow around the throne is the symbol of God’s eternal covenant of mercy and grace; We, like Noah, need to “find grace in the eyes of the Lord” in the face of judgment upon the world in which we live. To escape we pass through the judgment in the provision of God coming out in our “ark” which is Christ.

The rainbow displays the colours of white visible light arranged in the order of the spectrum, red at the top, then orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Passing a shaft of sunlight through a prism of glass results in seven colours having different angles of refraction. God is spoken of as light and the seven divisions of colour are consistent with the seven spirits of God and the perfection of the divine nature.

RED—love. “God so loved the world, that He gave His Son.” His love went to the cross and poured out His life (blood) for all humankind.

ORANGE—passion. Passion as in God’s burning desire, His great and unchanging purpose to produce growth power, warmth, life, change, transformation, like the power of the natural sun.

YELLOW—the divine nature. The divine nature is the heavenly nature of true and eternal joy, gladness, purity, peace, righteousness, wisdom, and power.

GREEN—life. The principle of life typified by the green grass, vegetation, shrubs, and trees.

BLUE—the heavenly. that which is high and exalted, far above corruption, limitation, and darkness of earth. the higher principles of truth, the mind of Christ, and the power of God in our lives.

INDIGO—priesthood. A deep blue with a hint of sacrificial, redeeming red, the heavenly calling, the ministry of reconciliation, the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, through which man and God are consciously made one.

VIOLET—royalty. kingly authority and dominion.

Our experience in God is like seven part prism as the pure white of God’s glory is filtered into our lives in different dimensions. No natural man can approach the pure white light in which God dwells.

Dwelling in the light which no man can approach to: whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. (I Tim. 1:15-16).

This may seem to exclude us from ever reaching the throne. Fortunately the pure light in which He dwells is like the sunlight, sometimes shaded so that we see it in its parts and experience it progressively through all its levels of power, glory, and life. Having experienced the light that God is, in all its aspects, we come at last to union in the full white light of His nature, wisdom, and power so perfectly blended in us that it is “no longer I but Christ that lives in me.” The natural man passes away in the fiery blaze of His glorious throne, and we stand in the light clothed in our new mind, new nature, new life, new identity which is Christ.

The rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald illuminates in deep green light the middle tone of the colour spectrum Light in its energetic principle is the secret of creation, as the light which God is, is the source principle of all life. Green in scripture is the supreme colour of life. In the throne we ascend to the highest dimension of life—divine, incorruptible, immortal life.

John fell as dead before the face of the One sitting on the throne—his old Adamic life, identity, nature, and mind slain by the fiery glory of God. This glorious One says to John, “Fear not. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore.” “Don’t be afraid to give up your will, John, your ways, desires, emotions, plans, hopes dreams, thoughts, and carnal, human identity. In this death is both the power and the promise of the throne. The consuming fire of God will absolutely destroy every vestige of the carnal mind and the flesh life. Then the rainbow of promise may establish within the covenant of divine, heavenly life and reality. Adam dies and Christ arises within us.

This is the glory of sonship. This will happen within the life of every son of God who hears the call to “Come up hither.” Not to be raptured up to a mansion in the sky, but to ascend in the Spirit and be changed, transformed, into the image of Christ.

From Lamp-stand to the Throne.

From within each who receive the call to sonship there comes at last the decision to give up a child-like religious past, and to grow up into the maturity of the firstborn Son of God. Growth spiritually comes by hearing the voice of the Lord for ourselves, following the Lord wherever He leads, releasing all He calls upon us and doing His perfect will.

Our Father leads overcomers beyond the Outer Court with its brazen altar of atonement and forgiveness of sins and beyond the Holy Place with its lighted lamp-stand fed by the oil of the indwelling Spirit. Beyond the feast of Passover where we first met the Lamb of God who died for us and beyond the feast of Pentecost where we received the first-fruits of the Spirit—beyond the lamp-stand realm and the church order.

By the leading of His Spirit overcomers grow up into Christ to become mature adults in the kingdom of our Father. The journey of the new day is from the lamp-stand to the throne. The divine evidence that we are heeding that call is becoming a spiritual adult, ascending in the Spirit into that which is more perfect and complete—kingship with Christ.. In this transition time everything is shaken. Peace is resting in Him. He will establish the rule of His throne in overcoming hearts and lives that they might reign with Him over the nations and all things.

The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamp-stands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven lamp-stands which you saw are the seven churches. (Rev. 1:20).

The golden lamp-stand is a symbol of the church. The lamp-stand in the tabernacle in the wilderness was located in the Holy Place. The gold does indeed speak of the essential nature of the church—the divine nature. But the oil added to give light was man processed. It was made according to a God-given formula, but human hands were necessary to make it. Add3d is the element of the flesh. Similarly the flesh has entered into most done in the church. The oil had to be made again and again; it was not the infinite supply of God. The lamps had wicks that daily must be raised or lowered and trimmed to keep the light burning evenly. The ministry of a man was required. Without these ministrations of men the lamp-stand could in no way fulfil its purpose—there would be no light. The Holy Place, representing the church birthed at Pentecost, also had bread meal associated with it. The bread meal was sown with leaven, a type of sin or error.

Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle (Holy Place), accomplishing the service of God. But into the second (Most Holy Place) went the high priest alone once every youar, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:the Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle (Holy Place) was yet standing. (Heb. 9:6-8).

From The Holy Place entry was possible into the Most Holy Place. a greater realm; where no oil is made, no wick trimmed and no bread with leaven to be baked. The light was the eternal glory of God. Man’s hand never touched it, and no man could add anything to it. Glory shone over and upon and out of the throne of God upon the Ark of the Covenant.

Once each year, in type, the high priest was to “Come up hither.” into that higher and more glorious realm. As he passed through the veil he typified the journey from the lamp-stand to the throne.

This earthly tabernacle was the shadow portrait of the heavenly reality.

The throne room is not the church realm we have known. To stand in this place is to be in the throne room being prepared in the mature, manifested sons upon the earth. They will show forth the incorruptible, unchangeable, omnipotent, realm of God. The redeemed met Jesus as Saviour in the Outer Court and many serve God in the Holy Place. There is a greater calling possible. The great high priest, Jesus, has entered into the Holiest of all at the right hand of God. The overcomers as the body of the High Priest, the head of the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, will in Him have access into the Most Holy Place.

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither our forerunner is for us entered in, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart… . (Heb. 6:19-20; 10:17- 22).

The extent that the lamp-stand realm commands our lives, and how strongly we cling to it limitations restrains the passing beyond the veil into the Holiest of all. To set a foot one step beyond the veil is to leave the old order of the lamp-stand realm.

The overcoming company of the sons of God is birthed out of the woman church. The sons of God are separate from their church mother just as a baby is separated from the body of its mother at the time of birth.

The man-child does not reign in the woman—They reign in the throne.

(Rev 12:1-6 NRSV) A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.(the bride church) [2] She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. [3] Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. [4] His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. [5] And she gave birth to a son, a male child,(the overcoming sons) who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; [6] and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.

The throne is not in the midst of the lamp-stands (the church), it is in a higher place the caught up into realm beyond the lamp-stands.

The voice of the Son of God will be heard by many out of the heavenlies, calling a people to come up higher and prepare themselves for the next feast, the next realm, the next experience, the next moving of God in the earth, the third feast, the third day, the third compartment of the tabernacle—the realm of the fullness of God in the Holiest of All.

Adjective: psychical

1. Affecting or influenced by the human mind

2. Outside the sphere of physical science

Noun: sentience

1. State of elementary or undifferentiated consciousness

2. The faculty through which the external world is apprehended

3. The readiness to perceive sensations; elementary or undifferentiated consciousness

Verb: apprehend

1. Get the meaning of something

2. Take into custody

3. Anticipate with dread or anxiety

In early sheepfolds the shepherd lay down to sleep across the entry.

(Mark 8:34 KJV) And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

The forerunner, in early times, was a little row boat, that went before the big ship. Many of the harbors when the tide was low the larger ships could not get across the sand bar or the entrance rocks. The big ship would lower an anchor down into a forerunner—a dinghy or row boat. Rowing to safety across the bar the forerunner dropped the anchor into the water. The ship was out sea, buffeted by storm; but the anchor sure and steadfast

Verb: quicken

1. Move faster

2. Make keen or more acute

3. Give life or energy to

4. Show signs of life

5. Give new life or energy to

Adjective: omniscient

1. Infinitely wise, All knowing

Some exegetes relate this Scripture to the Roan Empires use of Father in using it as a form of address to Tribunes, judges and authority figures.

God is the Father of spirits.

Apprehend, know, understand, become aware of

(1 Cor 3:17 NIV) If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

In O.T. Israel the religious trumpet was formed from a ram’s horn. It was called the Shofas.

Verb: proceed

1. Keep talking; follow up

2. Move ahead; travel onward in time or space

3. Follow a procedure or take a course

4. Follow a certain course

5. Resume or proceed in a certain state, condition, or activity

[WordWeb.info]

(John 10:27 NRSV) My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.

(Rom 8:19 KJV) For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Adjective: celestial

1. Of or relating to the sky

2. Relating to or inhabiting a divine heaven

3. Of heaven or the spirit

Light has three primary colours. Yellow,red and blue. Typically Gold, blood and spirit.