The Lord has been teaching us about His world. I must admit, though, our learning has been rather slow paced. Our number one problem is the fact that we still think too much like humans. God continues to inform us of the fact that His world is completely different from ours, yet our progress is quite slow. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9.
We have found that many of our thoughts concerning God and the realm of Spirit were a little off center (some completely wrong), but He keeps speaking and we kept trying to learn. I don’t feel bad about our lack of understanding. He is still working with us. Okay, enough of this. Let’s look at a few Scriptures and see what we can learn.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 4:17 that “God quickens the dead and calls those things which are not as though they were.” Let’s look first to the first part: God quickens the dead. There are at least two ways to perceive this statement. He quickens (makes alive) the dead by means of the resurrection. One day there will be a resurrection of the dead. There is also a spiritual resurrection. The Bible speaks of us in our natural state (unbelievers) as “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). We are alive in the world but not unto God. However, when we become Christians and start coming alive to God a spiritual resurrection has begun: He quickens the dead in trespasses and sins. If the Christian continues to progress in the Lord, he will experience many more resurrections. We are changed into the same image from glory to glory (from resurrection to resurrection), even as by the Spirit of the Lord. II Corinthians 3:18.
Now for the second part: God calls those things which are not as though they were. This could be deemed a prophetic principle. The Lord reveals what is to be. So in that sense He is calling something that is not yet as though it already is because He knows that it will be. On the other hand, if we understand that God’s world is the realm of eternity and in that realm God’s will is reality, then nothing is past as though it has ceased to be or future as though it has not yet come to pass. Therefore, He is merely telling us what already has its existence in His world (the realm of spirit).
Ecclesiastes 3:14-15 I know that, whatsoever God does, it shall be forever;
nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it; and God does it that men
should fear before Him.
15 That which has been is now, and that which is to be has already been; and God
requires that which is past.
This is a very good description of eternity. Whatever God does is eternal. That is the reason Jesus’ crucifixion still works for us. It was an eternal work of God and will forever live. Revelation 13:8 says that “the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.” Then Ecclesiastes goes on to say “that which has been is now.” For example, Jesus said: Have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Matthew 22:31-32. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive; they are in the realm of eternity. Peter, James, and John learned about this when they saw Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-3). Then in Hebrews 12:1 we learn that there is a cloud of such witnesses surrounding us.
Let’s look at one example of “that which is to be has already been.” In Revelation 4:1 the Lord told John, Come up here and I will show you things which must be hereafter, and immediately I was in the spirit; and, behold, a throne was set in heaven…. John ascended spiritually into the realm where things that would be were already. He didn’t just see what would be one day, but he saw what was already existent in the realm of eternity. That which was to be already was. Many things that you hope to be one day already are and only need to be pulled down into our world. It is time to believe in the eternalness of God and of His will.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
To understand this verse we must understand the scriptural and mystical usage of the word “is”. We have already learned that in the eternal that which has been is and that which is to be is. The faith that is has its origin in the realm of eternity. This faith is the evidence of things not seen. The things hoped for already have their existence in eternity and the faith which comes out of eternity is the evidence of them. There are different levels of faith. We are changed into the image of Christ from glory to glory (II Corinthians 3:18). Likewise, it is also faith to faith. The righteousness of God is being revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Romans 1:17.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
The faith of this verse is not just any faith. It is the “is faith” of verse 1. It is impossible to please God without the “is faith”, the faith of eternity, the faith that believes all things are accomplished. Jesus came out of eternity and did an eternal work. Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar; and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished; and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost. John 19:28-30. “Is faith” believes in an accomplished work.
He that cometh to God (is changed into the same image from glory to glory) must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6, II Corinthians 3:18. If you want to come unto the Lord and be changed into the same image of Him, you must have the “is” faith. It is necessary to believe that He is, that He is eternal, and that His will is already accomplished in His world of spirit. From glory to glory we are moving upward into God’s world. From faith to faith we are moving upward into the heavenly realms of God. Our faith must become the “is” faith of eternity.
The Lord is teaching us about His world, how we should relate to Him and His world. Change seems to come so slowly, but He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
Copyright © 2007 by Henry DuBose