Immanuel
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"His name shall be in their foreheads."
The entire concept of Israel, of the Church, of the Bride of Christ, of the royal priesthood, of the elect, is embodied in this one statement: "His name shall be in their foreheads."
We find a parallel thought in Isaiah:
And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles [nations], and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. (Isaiah 61:9)
Again, in John:
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:16)
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 hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23)
"That the world may know that thou . . . hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."
It is clear that the elect, the individuals called of God from the foundation of the world, are destined to become the Presence, the Glory of God among the nations of saved peoples of the earth.
We are to be Immanuel (God with us) for the peoples of the earth. It is not that we have any worth of ourselves. It is that God has crucified our adamic nature and in its place has created the eternal Life of Christ. In addition to the re-creation of our personality, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will have established Their eternal abode in us.
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 new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. (Revelation 3:12)
The name of our God will be written in our forehead because we belong to Him forever, having been chosen from the creation of the world. We are not of the world. We have been chosen out of the world to be God’s Presence among all of God’s creatures. We are Israel, the royal priesthood.
The name of the city of God, the new Jerusalem, will be written on us because we are the holy city, the place of God’s throne. In us the throne has been joined to the footstool (the earth). Never again will the people of the nations of the saved walk in the blindness of dead flesh. The Lord’s representatives, His priests, the chariots of His Glory, will always be available to provide guidance and blessing for the saved peoples of the earth.
The new name of Christ will be engraved in us because we are the Bride, the fullness of Christ. The new name is given to us because we are married to Him, in total union with Him.
And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. (Isaiah 62:2)
The Church, the Body of Christ, is destined to be the light of the world forever just as Christ has been the Light from the beginning.
And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:5)
In the beginning God created the light and then separated the light from the darkness, from the spiritual rebellion that took place in the heavenlies. That Light was and is Christ. From that hour to the present the darkness has not been able to comprehend or overcome the Light of God in any manner whatever.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4)
(For the life was manifest, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifest unto us;) (I John 1:2)
The Light is the Life, the eternal Life, of God.
At one time God dwelled on the earth, having fellowship with Adam and Eve. Their disobedience caused the Lord to withdraw temporarily into the realm of spirits we term Heaven.
The absence of the Lord is giving an opportunity for Satan and his angels to demonstrate to the heavens and the earth the insanity and futility of existence apart from the Presence of God.
It never was the Lord’s intention to remain in a temple in the spirit realm.
God knew from the beginning of the creation He would create a living temple, a body, a chariot in which He would dwell for eternity. The living Temple of God can be everywhere in the creation, preventing another rebellion, enabling the Lord to be Present among His creatures in a manner that permits perfect communication between Him and them.
The chariot is the Church, the holy city, the new Jerusalem.
The Presence of God no longer will be over the Ark of the Covenant or in Heaven above. The Presence, the Throne of God will be located for eternity in the new Jerusalem, that is, in the hearts of God’s elect.
At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. (Jeremiah 3:17)
"They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord." No longer will the Throne of God be located up somewhere in the spirit heavens. Jerusalem, the Church, the holy city, will be the throne of God.
The nations of the saved will not look to Heaven for the answers to their prayers but to the living Temple of God, the holy Jerusalem.
Solomon had prophetic insight into the role of the Temple in men’s prayers.
That thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place. (II Chronicles 6:20)
"Prayeth toward this place." A prayer offered, not toward God in Heaven but toward God in this place.
This may be a new thought to us—that there is a day coming when the Lord God of Heaven will be dwelling on earth in a city composed of His elect, and the nations of saved peoples of the earth will look toward the holy Jerusalem rather than toward Heaven for the answers to their prayers.
Heaven, the place of God’s throne, is being joined to the earth, God’s footstool.
Heaven is joined to the earth in Christ and in the Body of Christ; for the Body of Christ is the fullness of Christ.
Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:23)
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 [maturity as measured by] the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4:13)
Christ is the ladder that reaches from earth to Heaven (John 1:51).
We are destined to become rivers of eternal life, trees of life, so people never again will be denied the drink and the food they must have if they are to possess the Life of God and possess it more abundantly.
If we were not to become rivers of life then the Christian Gospel could be considered a means of enhancing our adamic, natural life. Christians could go merrily about their own ways, being assured that God stands ready to protect them and grant them every desire. Indeed, the Gospel would be "Good News for the Natural Man."
But because we are in the Church Age, and the purpose of the Church Age is to summon the elect from the nations of the earth, to bring the elect to maturity in Christ, and to bear witness to the nations, we must suffer every kind of affliction, denial, and persecution.
We are the garbage of the world in the present hour.
Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. (I Corinthians 4:13)
The great revival that will bring the nations of the earth to God will come in the future. Before that revival can take place the Lord’s people must become fit to bear His Glory, His eternal Life.
The nations will not come today to the Church as it is. But when the Church has been made one in the Father and the Son, being filled with the fullness of the Spirit of Life, then the world will come and drink of the waters of God.
And the Gentiles [nations] shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. (Isaiah 60:3)
It is not possible the world can receive the Glory of God, eternal life, until the members of the Body of Christ are willing to lay aside their own life, as the Lord Jesus did, and allow God to convert their personality from Adam to Christ, from the man of earth to the Man of Heaven, from the living soul to the life-giving spirit.
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [life-giving] spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from Heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. (I Corinthians 15:45-49)
The first man, Adam, was made a living soul.
The last Adam was made a life-giving Spirit.
We, the members of God’s elect, have borne the image of the earthly. As we enter the crucifixion of Christ and His glorious resurrection we begin to bear the image of the heavenly.
We are not of the world. We have been called out of the world so we may be made rivers of living water from which the world can drink.
Israel is the royal priesthood of God. Throughout the centuries Israel, God’s chosen people, has refused the role of God’s priests and has determined to be like the remainder of mankind.
Whenever a member of God’s elect, whether a Jew or a Christian, refuses the role of priest and chooses instead to live as part of the world community, the judgment of God will come upon him or her.
Let us, rather, choose to suffer affliction with the people of God. We are wandering in our land of promise as in a strange land. But it is a land we afterward shall receive for an inheritance.
If we will go forward in the Lord Jesus, despising the shame, keeping our eyes on the joy set before us, the day will come when the world discovers that those whom they rejected (especially the great Head of the Body, the Lord Jesus) are now their rulers, their judges, their priests, and their sources of eternal Life.
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