THE PATHFINDER
DESIRE OF ALL LIVING
MAN'S PURSUITS
TWINKLE OF THE EYE
THE MYSTERIOUS METAMORPHOSE
The Lord who upholds all that fall, and raises up all those that are bowed down. He is also the One who will give them meat in due season as He opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. (Ps 145:14-16). The splendid singer and writer of this wonderful psalm of promise also expressed in another place what the desire of every living thing might be. "As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness." (Ps 17:15).
The change from a hard and crusty clod of the adamic man, who was formed from the dust of the earth, to a glorious one of the heavens has been the supreme desire and great mystery throughout the ages. Men of low and high estate alike have had an insatiable desire TO BE LIKE GOD. Creation's cry has always been to take that great step which would hurl them into that far reaching journey of celestial glory. Without that change there would virtually be no hope to speak of. Therefore, with man's creative mind, he has invented all sorts of imaginations which eases the pain and constant fear of his impending death and uncertain fate thereafter.
MAN'S PURSUITS
Men in their striving for glory have entertained various things. The eastern, mystical religions hold largely to reincarnation as the means to perfection and paradise, and this nation has not gone unscathed by these thoughts either. However, before embracing their ideologies it would be advantageous to remember where those teachings came from. Along with this it would also be good to notice to whom it was that the word of God and His promises were given. Namely, reincarnation came from the pagan nations, while God chose the lineage of Abraham to reveal the glory of Himself and His mysteries to. He has always done it this way and we believe He always will. For instance, it is recorded in Isaiah 42:2 & 8, "Behold, My servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles....and MY GLORY I WILL NOT GIVE TO ANOTHER, neither My praise to graven images."
The Bible makes it very clear that God chose a special seed of promise to reveal His glory to, which was first to natural Israel and then to spiritual Israel. The covenant was made with Abraham (Gen. 17) and it was passed down to Isaac and carried on to find its fulfillment in Jesus and His Church (Gal. 3:19-29). The seed of flesh was Ishmael, from the bondwoman of an idol worshiping nation, Egypt. There were no promises made to Ishmael, except God would make him a great nation and He would be with him. That seed did become a great nation, and it has certainly been kept by God; and according to Isaiah 19:24-25 it will eventually be brought in with the promised seed. However, without Christ and the appointed time they will remain void of the promises and glorious revelations of God. Therefore, if anyone wants to know anything about any of the mysteries of God, and to bask in the paradise of His reality, it will have to be from the PROMISED SEED -- and this, of course, is done when one is born of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. (Ref. Gen. 21:9-21, Gal. 4:22-31).
Most Christians have theologically approached this change to glory in a different manner. They have looked to three major things -- RAPTURE, RESURRECTION or MANIFESTATION; and which ever might be the case, it is to take place in THE TWINKLE OF THE EYE. All of these thoughts are valid but only in the light of truth. Although the word RAPTURE is not found in the Bible, it does describe something people can experience. You see, the meaning of the word is "A deep, joyous feeling; ecstasy; utter delight" which is a legitimate expression that describes what it is like when one finds himself seized and consciously caught up to become one with Christ. The word does not, however, have anything to do with flying away. (THE RAPTURE, Pub. #26-27 available upon request.)
It will also help our understanding when we see that the Greek word, anastasis, for RESURRECTION means TO STAND UP. We also need to realize that we began our standing up when we were first born of the Spirit of Christ, and there has been an ongoing process of standing up. However, we must remember, as Paul said, the resurrection IS NOT past (I Tim. 2:17-18). In like manner, before there can be a MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD, as mentioned by Paul in Romans 8:19, there has to be a maturing of the sons before the Father reveals them. The atomic change of our bodies is then accomplished IN THE TWINKLE OF THE EYE, as I Cor 15:52 relates. For more clarity of the "twinkling eye," we will quote a dear brother and good friend, J. Preston Eby:
TWINKLE OF THE EYE
"...`Twinkling' is from the Greek word RHIPE meaning `a jerk' of the eyes. RHIPE is from the root RHIPTO, a word which indicates a sudden motion; to hurl with a rapid movement; a stroke; to toss; to fling. The twinkling of an eye relates not so much to time as it does to the ACTION and MOTION involved. It is not a question of how quickly the eyelids flutter, but the fact of a movement, a jerk, a change of direction, a SUDDEN REFOCUSING OR LOOKING AWAY. If I were reading a book and I heard the door open, I would swiftly dart my eyes in the direction of the door to see who is entering. I would LOOK AWAY from the book and quickly REFOCUS my sight on the person coming through the door. This abrupt motion, this sudden refocusing of vision, this rapid change of eye contact is what is indicated by the Greek word RHIPE.
"When our attention is unexpectedly attracted by a sudden burst of revelation and spiritual understanding there is that instantaneous `turning away' from our former concepts, beliefs, actions and ways, to behold and embrace the truth and glory of God disclosed by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This sudden change in perspective, this immediate transformation of consciousness satisfies precisely the meaning of the Greek phrase -- `in the twinkling of an eye.' It bespeaks vision, illumination, understanding, perception and perspective. Furthermore, it has absolutely nothing to do with a so called `rapture of the saints,' or the `second coming of Jesus.' Plainly and unquestionably it concerns O-U-R CHANGE, O-U-R TRANSFORMATION into the image of Christ. It says `nothing about us being `raptured' in the twinkling of an eye; what it does say is that `W-E SHALL BE CHANGED in a moment (in atoms), in the twinkling (re-focused vision) of an eye.' Yet the preachers loudly proclaim on the basis of this verse that Jesus will return in a split second, and the saints will in a flash of time travel a trillion miles of miracle at the Rapture. It is as pure a myth as ever entered the brain of man!" -- End quote.
No Brethren, we will not be whisked off the earth and changed. There will be no bursting open of our graves some glad day beyond the ages that will produce the change. Neither will our change come as a result of simply believing the teachings of the manifestation of the sons of God, or any other doctrine, for that matter. And when God gets ready, He will not be snapping His fingers and saying, "Be mature, transfigured sons of glory." There are, however, some verses that do tell us how this glorious change comes. One such verse is, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye TRANSFORMED by the RENEWING of your mind." (Rom 12:2). The change comes, dear ones, due to THE RENEWING OF OUR MINDS, as we OUR ATTENTION IS REFOCUSED!
The word TRANSFORMED is translated from the Greek word METAMORPHOO. It is from this word we get our English word metamorphose. Therefore, according to this verse, our change is metamorphic in nature, and the metamorphose is a result of RENEWING OUR MINDS.
The renewing of the mind is the principle that is involved in being changed. When this change is complete, we will then have been made totally free from sin and death (spirit, soul and body).
Romans 8:2 is another verse which speaks of this principle, and the Greek makes it obvious that a process is involved. We will also amplify this verse in order to glean its basic thought: "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus HATH MADE, IS MAKING and SHALL CONTINUE TO MAKE me free from the law of sin and death." The words HATH MADE is in the indicative, aorist, active tense which puts the action in the past, present and future.
Therefore, this law of life has not yet in its entirety made us free from the law of sin and death. However, we can certainly declare with all assurance that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free in many areas, is now making us free in other areas and shall continue to make us free from the law of sin and death in all remaining areas -- until there is no more sin, until there is no more death, and then we can triumphantly say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" PRAISE GOD! What a great law! There shall be no more sin, no more death, and there shall be no more victory of the grave when this law has accomplished what it was sent to do. The last enemy, death, all death, will have been destroyed forever!
THE MYSTERIOUS METAMORPHOSE
Let us now explore the wonderful mystery of the metamorphose and see just what it entails. The best example we know to use is the changing of the ugly caterpillar to the beautiful butterfly. This will enable us to see, in a measure, what our change will be and how this law of life works in us. I am sure we have all heard teachings on the transformation/metamorphose before, but there are some additional thoughts I believe you will appreciate and be blessed with. The Lord began to stir this in my spirit after hearing J. Preston Eby's taped message on this subject while ministering at a convention Pastor Floyd Watson had in October of 1988 in Washington, North Carolina.
The caterpillar has a unique little speck of a gland in the middle of its brain, which is quite a puzzle to the scientists. They do not know why or how it works, but at a given time this tiny gland starts secreting a remarkable hormone. Although there is no apparent or immediate physical change, when this hormone begins to flow through its body, the caterpillar becomes a new creature at that instant. There is no visible manifestation of it being a new creature, but from that time forth, the once earthbound citizen will never be the same, for he will have then started his miraculous journey of transformation. No longer will he be a ravenous creature reeking destruction wherever he goes but begins his progressive ascension of peace and beauty. In the same manner as the caterpillar, those who have been awakened by God's living word have the hormone of transforming life (the anointing) flowing through them, and they are indeed new creatures. Once this begins, like the caterpillar, they will never be the same; for indeed, "...If any man be in Christ, he IS a new creature."
There are certain revealing characteristics of the caterpillar before that miracle hormone begins to flow from its minute gland. All it does is eat and chew, eat and chew, that's all it does, night and day, it eats and chews. Its eyesight is very poor, never noticing anything except the earthy leaf it is chewing on. It couldn't care less about the things from above. This unbecoming creature continually feeds upon the bitter leaves of the field, and nothing else. Its appetite is only for that which pertains to the lower realm of the earth. The caterpillar has its mind constantly on earthy things; and wherever it goes, the little busybody leaves a trail of earthy waste behind -- not unlike ourselves before we were awakened to the reality of Christ. We were totally caught up in that lower realm of life, or rather death, and had no vision whatsoever of heavenly things. With many of us, we could be found by following our residual trail. The futility of our lives from feasting upon the carnal things of this age were very evident. Corruption was our diet, for that was our appetite. Therefore, we would eat and chew, eat and chew, that was all we knew to do, just eat and chew.
But praise God! When the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus started flowing through our spiritual veins we became new creations! And what did we then do? The same as caterpillars -- we stopped eating. We stopped eating of the bitter things of the world. We immediately crawled up the Tree of Life and attached ourselves securely to one of its limbs and became stationary, no longer busy with the things of the world. Well, haven't we done this, or is our mind still set on those carnal things which entice Adam?
Nevertheless, without knowing why, we started to spin a cocoon of confinement. We began to be so confined and restricted that we had even wondered what we were doing -- it just didn't make much sense sometimes. It was especially hard when the other worms in the church crawled by and asked, "What in the world do you think you are doing?" Of course, it was not always easy to explain, for even with ourselves, it may have looked as if we were going in circles much of the time and getting nowhere fast. Those well meaning saints would continue their friendly persuasion, by saying, "We haven't seen you accomplishing much these days. Why have you separated and put yourself on a fast from the rest of us? Don't you know there's an abundance of bitter milk weed down here (the Monarch caterpillar's sole diet) and not a morsel to be found where you are?" As much as we may have wanted to defend our actions, there seemed to be nothing we could say which made enough sense to hardly merit a word. All we could do was to continue on with what we were doing. We had lost our appetite for those old things of the past, so there really wasn't anything to go back to. Therefore, our minds remained steadfast on that new thing we hadn't fully understood. This was all we were able to do at the time; for the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus was working in us. It was and has always been the primary influencing factor in our lives of less than understandable actions since that day His transforming Spirit began to flow through us. This has, on occasion of course, caused the other worms to think we were some kind of nuts or worse yet, cultish elitists who had really flipped out on the doctrines of devils. Nonetheless, the misunderstanding often came because the hormone of transformation had not began to flow in them -- but their day shall also come, they can count on it.
In this transforming process, we eventually found ourselves completely encased and trapped inside the cocoon of our spinning, and the great and mysterious metamorphose truly began. This phase of metamorphose placed us in a deep sleep, rendering us helpless and unaware of the marvelous change that was taking place. However, a couple of our old buddy caterpillars remember the bold statements we had made upon leaving the field. In our own immature, caterpillar stage we had said something like, "I have been called to Sonship! I am going to become a manifested son of God!" Well, they now want to investigate such claims and see if they are true.
The inquirers have indeed noticed we no longer have an appetite for the world, but they are puzzled that we have separated ourselves from their fellowship. Therefore, they probe within to see what strange thing has come over these people who used to be so zealous for the Lord but are now doing virtually nothing -- and what do they find? Not much beauty, I can guarantee you. If you haven't done it before, open up a cocoon, look inside and you will see what I mean. When I was a child, on occasion, I would open cocoons, trying to capture the mysterious change. In the earlier stages all I would see was a gooey mass of oozing colors. There was no identification whatsoever. There was no caterpillar and there was no butterfly -- just a mass of less than pleasant, swirling colors. This is the picture others may see when they, with queering eyes, look into our early stages of confinement, to the natural eye it can definitely be anything but desirable.
Perhaps we have also inquired within to examine ourselves, wondering, "What are we? Who are we? Where are we going? And are we there yet?" We may have been a little shocked, of course, at what we saw; and some of us could be heard crying out, "Oh my God! What is going on? This is not what we had expected! There is no identity whatsoever! We were better off as ugly caterpillars! At least we were somebody then! We had a form and could accomplish a few things in the world! But now look at us, we are ugly, misunderstood, useless, and good for nothing `whatevers'."
The evidence is clear, we are not what we used to be, and there is no use in denying it. We are not that old adamic man, but we can also see we are not anything like the glorious, manifested sons of God either. There seems to be nothing about us that looks even remotely like the beautiful Monarch butterfly (Jesus Christ). Nevertheless, the Spirit within enables us to ignore our state of being, knowing it is impossible to go back; and we hope that the next time we look at ourselves we will be mature and transformed enough to help establish God's kingdom. But to date, it hasn't been that way, has it? However, can we not see where we have been, where we are today, and by the Spirit see a little of where we are going? If indeed, the law of life is working and renovating our minds, we should be able to.
After a period of time, we investigate again. Looking inwardly we find progression all right, but still, it is not a pretty sight. As a matter of fact, things probably look worse. The mass of liquid colors have now changed to a slimy, grotesque creature that looks like anything except a good and holy son of God. There is nothing at all to identify it as being a beautiful butterfly. It looks hideous, and no one in their right mind would want to touch it. You see, the further the majestic transformation goes and takes on substance, the more repulsive it can look to the worms in the fields of Babylon.
No wonder, the world has not been drawn to those being changed, for they see the ugly process of metamorphose rather than the gloriously arrayed butterfly that has not yet been manifested. In this stage, there is not much to be desired. However, the substance, although it looks bad, is beginning to take shape. There is a form to it, but there is not enough shape that it can really be identified.
Can we not see, as individuals or as groups, that we have been in the confinement of either the cocoon, or the chrysalis? (Moths spin cocoons while butterflies form a chrysalis.) And haven't we been disappointed more than once when we are experiencing the reality of the King of glory within our being, but we can't do anything about it because we have no form or comeliness of being a son of God. We have been nothing but a liquid mass of unidentifiable colors? Well, that's all right, brethren, because this speaks loudly that there is something grand taking place in the hidden chambers of our being. We may have the tendency to rush the process, but it will be to no avail -- for there is a due season for the glory to shine. Truly, dear ones, try as we may, we cannot hurry it, for if we try to come forth before the time, there will be no manifestation of beauty.
However, as we get down to the end of the season, the same law of life that caused us to fall asleep is now heard, saying, "Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." When the night came, it was the time and season for sleeping -- and winter began. It was the season for the mysterious transformation to take place. But praise God, there is also a time to awake and live; that is, when the season of metamorphose will have finished its gallant course! This will then, as we see it, be the full end of the age and the beginning of the new.
Another characteristic of the metamorphose of the caterpillar is this. Just prior to awakening, the new creature's head and thorax starts growing at an alarming rate, and it is this growth that breaks the confining bonds of the chrysalis. This, of course, is comparable to the mind of Christ, our head, our king, our government, who grows rapidly in the last days of our change and bursts forth from the confines of metamorphose and into the glorious liberty of manifested, truly born sons of God.
Like the butterfly, we awaken as the chrysalis breaks open in the new born day and emerge from our prison. Grasping the branch we were birthed on, we hang our wings downward to straighten and dry. Once this is accomplished we notice anew, the light of the Son and ascend upward to the top regions of the Tree of Life and bask in His glistening rays from the heavens above, even the shining of our Lord of glory in righteousness. Slowly, we unfurl and spread our newfound wings -- beautiful wings splashed with silver and gold and other precious brilliants of the kingdom. The gentle wind of the Holy Spirit then lifts us into the heavens of Majesty's presence. Praise God! For the first time we are in free-flight. We are finally moving with complete freedom in the Element we were created for. It's full flight, and we soar at will, in any direction we desire to go. There is no limit or boundaries, for we have the fullness of the conscious mind of Christ. Therefore, wherever we go or whatever we do is according to His mind, His desires, His will -- and yes, even our predestined purpose. We know where we are going and what we are doing and why we are doing it. We are like the wind, but more, for now we have the divine substance of expression! And the dimensions of our vision are now limitless, for such as the eyes of the butterfly are, we can see in all directions and at the same time. From our exalted vantage point nothing is hidden from us, and all things are seen as they truly are. Also, we no longer desire nor could even eat the bitter leaves of the field. Our chewing, grinding mandibles have been exchanged for a harmless proboscis, and we draw with it the sweet nectar of God from the very heart-center of the flowering blossom of the beautiful Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley.
And all of this is the result of the metamorphose by the renovation of our minds. This is a result of awakening, refocusing our sight, and being caught up together to meet the Lord in the consciousness of our minds -- we are truly "raptured," if you please. And this is a result of coming into the faith that He had not only started but also will finish. Brethren, hear it today -- our Lord Jesus is trumpeting the sound, and it is saying, "Put on My mind, be ye transformed and ARISE! MEET ME IN THE AIR AND TAKE DOMINION OF THE EARTH!" Praise God! This is the way, this is the walk, or rather, this is the flight into the reality of what we are and what we are becoming in Christ Jesus! Everything we are to be is already within us, but we wait with patience, endurance and expectation for the LAW OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS to finish what it set out to do -- TO TRANSFORM US INTO THE BEAUTIFUL IMAGE AND EXPRESSION OF HIMSELF. This, dear ones, whether consciously or unwittingly, is THE DESIRE OF ALL LIVING. And this great desire and groan of creation will be manifested according to God's order of calling (Rom. 8:19-21, I Cor. 15:21-28).
Elwin R. Roach
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