~The New Jerusalem~
~The New Jerusalem~
 ..PDF Version |
Chapter:# 21
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| Christ's Pre-eminence |
There shall no longer exist there anything that is accursed
(detestable, foul, offensive, impure, hateful, or horrible). But the throne of
God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall worship Him [pay
divine honors to Him and do Him holy service]. [Zech. 14:21.] They shall see
His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. [Ps. 17:15.] And there
shall be no more night; they have no need for lamplight or sunlight, for the
Lord God will illuminate them and be their light, and they shall reign [as
kings] forever and ever (through the eternities of the eternities). And he [of
the seven angels further] said to me, These statements are reliable (worthy of
confidence) and genuine (true). And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the
prophets, has sent His messenger (angel) to make known and exhibit to His
servants what must soon come to pass. And behold, I am coming speedily. Blessed
(happy and to be envied) is he who observes and lays to heart and keeps the
truths of the prophecy (the predictions, consolations, and warnings) contained
in this [little] book. Revelation
22:3-7 AMP
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of? Isaiah
2:11-22 KJV
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; Colossians 1:17-19 KJV
During the course of our
studies in the New Jerusalem we have seen the great promise of God to come.
This promise being that Christ shall come again in Holy myriads of Himself and
shall glorify His company of overcomers. And up to the last writing I revealed
this company and the purpose they hold when it relates to the New Jerusalem.
But this does not
satisfy my heart.
There is still in me a great
lack for what I desire to reveal which is to be brought forth. Knowing we will
be glorified, knowing we will march forward into the earth as the Army of the
Lord does not fully satisfy my present need. Even though these things are
indeed glorious and the hope of them encompasses our minds, my heart and my
mind are still not satisfied with just that doctrine.
What I want is the very
heart of God.
And right now I can see
His heart only doing one thing. And that is that the entire present truth
motion of God’s Spirit in the earth and in the company of those who bear His
name is for one singular purpose. This purpose is what satisfies me and makes
me glad. God’s entire purpose is found in Colossians 1:18 and that is that He
works to make Christ have the pre-eminence in all things. What satisfies my
heart is that Christ alone has eternally the first place and the highest place
in all of that which is related to God. This is present truth. That God works
to reveal to each one in due order the Headship of Christ who alone is the one
God exalted. When I find myself exalting Jesus Christ alone, then, and only
then, is my heart satisfied.
It is a great thing that
we have such tremendous promises of the coming of Christ and of our future
glorification in a sinless state. At that time we will surely be known even as
we are known. But my heart does not relish in that future hope. My heart
relishes in the fact that the time will come when God will finish making Christ
the pre-eminent one in all of creation. That Christ alone will be worshipped by
all that God made as the one who gave Himself for our offenses. All our
tribulation and all our time of sojourn will be immediately forgotten when
Christ alone is seen in that day as the one whom God has placed all His
fullness in and all the life of the ages. That to me is true hope. And for now,
my heart is satisfied when I view Christ alone as the one who is to be
completely exalted and honored as the great King eternal. Worshipping this Lord
is what satisfies. Putting our eyes on Him and what He does and how He moves
satisfies. There is no greater gift for our faith than to behold Him as
exalted, the one given total preeminence by God in all of His creation, both
natural and spiritual.
I am not glad for anything
less. He alone to be worshipped, loved, praised all the time, that is my heart.
That is what I daily long to do when it comes to walking with the Lord.
Our present gifts,
callings, ministries, writings, testimonies, callings and all that relates to
our walk in Christ is nothing worth remembering when we gain a glimpse of this
One whom God has exalted with a name above every name. Nothing else will
matter, nothing else will be done or said or spoken or prophesied or preached.
When Christ is revealed, that is what will change this world and will end
death. Yes, there will be an Army Glorified, a people who have overcome and who
have been given eternal glorified bodies. But it is JESUS who even in them will
be seen! Jesus alone! And Jesus will be seen marching forward as this Army, or
as this company who comes forth to bring an end to the death that envelops this
fallen creation. If our faith and studies do not come centered back to Jesus
alone, then we can overcome nothing. We can not have any victory, we can not
have any faith that will carry us. Our lives will fall short of that which is
His best, that we would lift our hands and praise and worship to the Lord of
Glory, the Lord of all creation, even He who was raised from the dead. Now that
dear reader is what satisfies my heart!
The New Jerusalem itself,
this phenomenal motion of God’s Spirit in making that which is spirit to
combine with that which is natural, even that City pales if the King alone is
not exalted in it! The City becomes a barren wasteland if Jesus alone is not
seen on the pinnacle of the
And to they who overcome
and are said to have conquered the Laodicean mentality of their earthly needs and
riches being their sufficiency, these are granted the right to sit upon the
Throne of Glory with the Lord. Even that Throne does not satisfy me! What I
want to do is WORSHIP HE WHO * * IS * * UPON THAT THRONE. I care not for what
happens to me, but what I care for is that HE BE WORSHIPPED. HE BE PRAISED.
That Christ be not known as He was but as He IS! The King who reigns over all!
That in all things HE ALONE HAS THE PRE-EMINENCE. This is what God is doing,
this is His handiwork at this time and this alone is what truly satisfies my
heart and guarantees to me that I too will overcome all things. For I cannot
overcome if I Worship not this great and mighty King!
Jesus
is the most incredible Monarch that creation has ever known. He is far greater
than any earthly monarch could ever hope to be. This same Jesus as the King in
the center of the New Jerusalem IS THE REASON FOR ENTERING THIS CITY. But what
I love about Jesus is how He still identifies with the sinner. This Lord, this
one whom God has exalted above all other things, still goes to the lowest hell
of man’s fall, the deepest ditch, the most ghastly of places made by the
imagination of men in fear, and there He meets those who are so distanced from
knowing His love and His grace. Jesus is the kind of Monarch that will go into
hell, go into the ditch, go into the mind of a man gripped in fear. He delivers
from death, He delivers from fear, He empties hell with His infinite love. This
Jesus sits in the simplicity of song from a singer’s guitar, from the frail
voice that may not know how to carry a tune. He meets with 2 or 3 who gather
together just to praise and worship this great Savior. He sets His Throne and dwells
in the praises of His people, people who society and the religious may cast off
and may reject. He makes overcomers of those who have no hope of conquering
anything at all! He takes these who have no hope and He makes them Kings! He
brings unto Himself those who have no status, no opinion, no friends and He
becomes all they need, He becomes their doctrine and He becomes their chief
friend!
What
other Monarch would take the sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and
idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, they who burn in the fiery
lake and save them? What other Monarch would make of Himself a Savior? What
other Monarch would care for the bereaved, those who lose a loved one, those
who have lost hope and lost their life and He comes to them and takes their
burden unto Himself? There is NO OTHER MONARCH THAT CAN DO WHAT THIS WONDERFUL
JESUS CAN DO.
Yes,
we will overcome. But it will be because He became our friend. We will enter by
the Gates into the New Jerusalem, but it will be because He alone is exalted as
King there! We will overcome the tribulation of this day, because He alone will
do the overcoming in us! I know of no other Lord who we would cast our lives
down before in Worship and Praise and in glory of His Name alone! He alone is
the Lord we would extol and emulate and hold forevermore in such high esteem.
For
many years I have held the hope of overcoming victory and for an equal amount
of time the testimony of Jesus Christ has been for me the spirit of prophecy.
For many years I have known of the reward of righteousness, that they who
overcome will be granted the right to sit upon the Throne with the Lord. For
many years I have endured the fires of testing and trial as have many others.
But I only wish for one thing. I just want to see JESUS. The greatest reward
for me will not be for God to name me as an “overcomer”. The greatest reward
will not be God naming me a prophet after the order of the Elijah company. The
greatest reward for me will not be the granting to sit with Him on His Throne.
The greatest reward for me will be to behold the face of Jesus Christ and to
worship Him alone forevermore. I care not for
a-n-y o-t-h-e-r t-h-i-n-g.
I
am glad that the New Jerusalem will be the pillar of right that God descends to
this earth. I am glad that the New Jerusalem will consume the natural into the
spiritual. That the New Jerusalem will be as a bride adorned for her husband. I
am glad that we will be given the right to enter this City to walk on the
street of transparent gold, to partake of the tree of life in the midst of the
City and of the waters of life that issue unending from under the threshold of
the Throne. These things gladden my heart. But what satisfies me in all this is
that I will be able to see JESUS. Oh, I will join the Heavenly host, hiding in
the midst of that company so that I am never seen but to be part of that Host
of the redeemed, and there my voice will join the voices of those who have also
conquered and gone on before, and with them we will lift our song unto Him that
alone is worthy, and we will worship this wonderful Savior and will bless His
name forevermore! That is the totality of what I long for!
Not only so, but I also
long for the day that Christ will accomplish, that day that is yet before us.
That day when Christ will complete the
1 Corinthians 15:24-25 KJV
The day is going to come, what a glad day that will be, when all
will be restored, when all will be reconciled. When God becomes All in All. At
this time we wait for that day, it is not yet, but for me this is a grand hope,
the result of the obedience of Jesus to bear to death that which estranged us
from the love of God.
If ever you
listen to a prophet, discern the prophet this way. That a prophet who is truly
of the Lord and who truly desires to worship Christ alone will only prophesy of
one thing. And that which they will prophesy will be of the restitution of all
creation. “And he shall send Jesus Christ, which
before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of
restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy
prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:20-21 KJV Every prophet that would speak in the
name of the Lord must have this same end, that all things will in time be in
restoration. That there will be a time TO COME where this restoration will take
place. The tool God will use to do this restoration will be the Army of the
Lord. The captain of this Army is The Lord Jesus Christ, our great atonement.
And the time for this to happen is on the horizon! If a prophet teach
otherwise, hear him not! For any prophet who does not preach the restitution of
all creation is to be disregarded and cast aside and considered false. They
will not know who they are to worship and they will cause your steps to fall
into fearsome works of religious effort. True prophecy will offer unto you the
opportunity to Worship the King of Kings and to give Him all the Glory due to
His name as Savior. Even Jesus. That will be the fruit of a true prophet.
In this
present time learn to co-operate with God and to do that which will show forth
Christ as the only one pre-eminent! If your works in faith give Christ that
lone place of exaltation you will be safe unto the coming of the Lord! I say
unto you again, if you allow your life to be used of God to give pre-eminence
to the living Christ, then you will be one in whom Christ shall be revealed
when He comes to finish what He began. You will be found giving meat unto your
house when He appears and you will be one who will have finished their course,
the race’s finish line will have in that day been reached and you will be found
perfect at His appearing, and YOU will appear WITH HIM IN GLORY. Don’t waste
your time emulating a single prominent doctrine if that doctrine does not give
glory alone to He who sits in the Throne Room upon the Throne. Don’t spend your
time wondering if you will make the 1st resurrection or will be
found as one who ‘overcame’, but instead spend your time worshipping Him alone!
Praise His name, bless Him and behold Him in your faith alone. You do not need
to see a spiritual vision of Jesus, you only need to see Him in your faith.
That is what will please God. And if you do worship the Lord in total
abandonment to Him, YOU WILL COME INTO HIS LIKENESS. And what is His likeness?
ONE WHO OVERCAME. Get your eyes off of YOU and on to HIM. Off of what you WILL
BE and on Him WHO IS. Set your gaze upon this one and then know that as you do
you will be found perfect at His appearing!
My heart is
enthralled only when I view Him and when I worship Him caring not for my own
life. That is when I am truly free. The response of the Lord which will in time
reveal His approval of our worship and praise will be when He grants us place
with Him upon His victorious Throne. That will be then the highest Glory given
to our great Savior.
To be
continued………..
Kenneth B
Visscher
Copyright