“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet … Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man…” Rev 1:10-13
There is a new season dawning on the Church which is in accordance with the divine economy. To see Christ in this new season, YOU MUST SEE HIS CHURCH. The correct vision and expression of the Lord can only be seen within the seven golden candlesticks. In previous generations, we have seen wonderful believers deep in spiritual insight and a very intimate relationship with the Lord. So profound were the experiences of these brethren that it even bordered on mysticism. Some of them have actually been called mystics.
Awesome as their revelation/experiences were, they did not have a revelation of His Body or a practical experience of Body life – nor did they need to, to walk in the spiritual heights that they attained. These brethren are in the category of Enoch, who walked with God as an individual but had no experience of the corporate life of the Body.
There are also others who have walked in the dimension of the supernatural and mind-blowing miracles. Again, these wonderful servants of Christ stood faithfully in their calling and gifting but never saw the Body. I believe, of course, that it was no fault of theirs – no generation knows it all. The light of divine revelation and understanding of the eternal purpose that Heaven releases continues to increase with every passing generation until we come into a perfect day (when we see our blessed Lord face to face).
But as we come nearer to the season of the end, I believe that the greatest emphasis of the Spirit will be a recovery of the correct understanding/expression of the golden candlesticks i.e. the Lord’s Body, the Church. It is a Body that is needed to express the Lord in His fullness, not just a part of Him. As wonderful as the things we have known of Christ up till now have been, they have only been a part – until a Body is prepared for Him.
A dismembered, fragmented Body cannot fully express the Lord. Some say that the Body of Christ is one in the spirit and one needs not bother too much with all the unpleasant things seen on the outside. True, the Body of Christ is spiritual, invisible and is perfectly one in the spirit. But expressing the Lord must be done in physicality, in this material, time-space world – and not in some esoteric, mystical, heavenly, spooky and abstract space. As long as what we express in physicality is 1 Cor. 1:10-13 and not Eph. 4:13-16, then the Lord will still lack a visible tangible expression on earth. Worse still, He will continue to be grossly misrepresented before the nations, as prophesied by Isaiah:
“Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” Isa. 52:14
This scripture does not only apply to the Lord’s trial and crucifixion experience but also to the manner in which His image has been grossly distorted in His Body for several centuries. We may continue to touch or express different parts of Him – some, healing; some holiness; some, doctrinal truths; some, spiritual charisma; some, faith etc. – but these different parts by themselves, ultimately, will take us nowhere. They are no better than someone severing my arm and running off with it; another person severing my leg and off he goes. It takes a complete undivided body for all the individual members to be able to function properly. Oh, that our eyes may be open to see that good as these individual parts may be, they are death in the final analysis – unless they find their place in, and are expressed as, that one vital Body gaining expression in the earth. That is what the Lord is waiting for.
About two years ago, the Lord showed me a broom to illustrate this vital truth. The rope holding the broomsticks together into a bunch was removed and about 25 young men were each given a broomstick or two. They were then taken into a small hall and asked to sweep the room clean. After two hours of the men all labouring profusely with their broomstick, the room was still so dirty. Later, they decided to all bring their individual broomsticks together and tie them into one. And in less than 30 minutes, the hall was clean.
The Lord then said that the individual broomsticks each represented different aspects of Himself (portrayed as scriptural truths) and different segments of the Church have run off with one or two of these truths and are relating with them as though that was all of Christ. But no isolated truth can fully reveal Christ. Rather, it will produce a sect and a denomination. And as numerous as the denominations we have in the Church today, have we become the glorious church free of spots, wrinkles and blemishes? Have we come into the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ? Have we produced an unblemished testimony of Christ in the sight of the nations?
I conclude with these thoughts: God’s work of restoration has been clearly shown in scriptures as a three-phased work – and these are prophetically illustrated in the old world before the flood. The first phase, characterized by Abel is the beginning point, with the greatest emphasis of the Spirit being the blood. Thus, we can call this phase Passover. The second phase, appropriately called Pentecost, was characterized by Enoch – and the Spirit emphasis in that dispensation is a deeper walk in the Spirit.
The third and final phase which led to the conclusion of that age and the ushering in of a new age was represented by Noah, a man commissioned to build an Ark – a many membered Body. The Ark, a type of the Church, had to be built according to divine specification. And until the Ark was built, God’s purpose to bring judgment on that age of iniquity, redemption to mankind and to begin a new age of righteousness could not be fulfilled.
As this age jets rapidly towards it climax with all the characteristics of the days of Noah fully manifest today, may the Lord raise a Noah company who have seen a vision of the Body and will partner with Him in this season for Him to have a Body prepared; amen.
