The Raptured and Taken... and the glorious liberty . . .

...the glorious liberty of the sons of God  

     Just as astonishing as the Old Testament way of loving God was so very different from the New Testament’s, so now our former ways in him are very different to the new.

     The old gives way for the new: “for when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”

    

     Once they slaughtered animals to please God, then they had him amongst them and so there was no more need of killing animals to worship him. And, now, today...? Once we had to “go to this,” and “go to that:” and “go here,” and “go there,” and “do this,” and “do that,” to please God and man, but now those things are  complete and fulfilled, and have passed away and all things are become new. ...And the new is as dramatically different looking as the O.T. is when compared with the N.T.

     The new is now made manifest among us, because the old has no longer any standing.

     While the first way of doing things had any standing it stood in the way of the revelation of the new, hiding it. But no longer . . .  read on...                                       (Hebrews 9: 8)    

THE RAPTURED  &  TAKEN. . .

I’m sorry, but this title - these words from our life before - because even though we have escaped our "cocoon" and been given wings to soar above "caterpillar" life, we still use those silken threads of our former existence to speak of our "butterfly" translation into the kingdom of his dear Son and out into the world... in his vanishing of us away... and as though into thin air...

Living in the glorious liberty of the nobodies

The nothings who are led by the Spirit...

The precious and beautiful,

Those once tarnished and thought nothing of...

All of them stumbled and fallen, broken and snared...and taken! 

Here we’re just sharing our LIGHT: truth he has taught us, himself, deep in our heart, in his secret place within:                   

Our level or degree of LIGHT in him is accordance to our level or degree of RELATIONSHIP with him; they go hand-in-hand, and we cannot have one without the other. Our different degrees of Life in the LORD are as the steps on a ladder.

‘Jacob’s ladder . . .’              

The Letting Go To Receive the Next

The letting go of... one level of light and relationship... to receive the next:   

EACH STEP (on Jacob’s ladder, up,)

IS DARK BY COMPARISON

WITH THE ONE ABOVE IT

FROM WHICH IT RECEIVES ITS LIGHT.

Letting go... we’re stepping up ‘Jacob’s ladder.’

Clinging on... we’re stepping down.

The Letting Go:

The less we know the more he in us knows for us:

And we decrease, and ascend.   

The Clinging On:

The more we know the less he in us can know for us:

And we increase, and descend.

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”  (John 3: 30)

                                                *

FRAGMENTS OF LIGHT AND TRUTH:

          ·         “See how many hidden causes there are . . . hidden from the comprehension of human beings  . . . There are lights upon lights, one more clear than another, each one dark by comparison with the one above it from which it receives its light. As for the Supreme Cause, all lights are dark in its (his) presence.” 

·         We won’t let go the one for the other which is above it: for we won’t let go of what we have, for what we haven’t, because it is yet darkness to us, as we haven’t got it; and so, we reject it: we turn back, step down, and travel earthwards. 

·         The truth offends that’s why we have so little of it.

·         All our knowledge is as darkness to him who is light. All that I can ever know is as darkness in comparison with his incomparable light. 

·         So, if there is no regular decreasing of what I know, I have no increasing light; for there is no space for him there as that place in me is filled with my own knowledge.

·         No decrease of my own good and excellent knowledge, no space in me for his light: for I take up the room, so that place is unavailable to him.

·         All my knowledge about him is deceitful; because it is about him.

·         Anything that is ‘about’ is not that thing itself it is not the real thing.

·         My excellent knowledge about him is not him.

·         Knowledge is ‘solid;’ light is not.

·         My lovely knowledge presents as light. But it is not light; it is knowledge: for you cannot reach out and grasp a handful of light!  ...You cannot take hold of light. ...Just try it! Even so, I cannot reach out and grab a piece of God, who is light... or grab a piece of anybody’s body, for that matter, and take that to myself, and claim it as my own... and then that that is the person... from whom I’ve stolen it!!

·         But, I can reach out and take hold of a piece of knowledge about him, (and for a long ‘wormy’ time, too,) and I claim that as my own and that that’s him, and I’ve got him!! Therefore, all knowledge about him is deceitful: it’s an impostor, masquerading as light, posing as him; “an angel of light;” but it is false light: i.e. knowledge, not light.

·     Light is living; knowledge is not living: it is not him: not life: not God, himself.

·   Our good and wonderful knowledge about him masquerades as light: “knowledge falsely so called” and we can see this, because it can be separated... it can be separated from him... for we can have it regardless of relationship; therefore it is deceitful knowledge as it is not relationship; which is, of course, all, all by light. ...Even as any relationship with anybody is all by light... we cannot own pieces of people and say those bits are ours! 

·         Our good and wonderful biblical knowledge is not light, or life: being as it’s not him: not him, himself.

·         It now remains to be seen, perceived, and thoroughly understood just what our good and wonderful biblical knowledge actually is? ...And where it has come from? ...And where it is leading us?   

·          ...........What it actually is:  It is false ‘light,’ because, as we have already proved, it can be separated from him and we still have it. So, it is not him, himself; but rather, something lovely that can be gained and maintained outside of relationship.  

·         ............And where this knowledge has come from? From the Source of all our knowledge of what is good and what is evil: from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, from which we have eaten and feasted upon, since the beginning; generation after generation.

·         .............And where this kind of knowledge is leading us? Ever towards un-rest; towards the lack of rest: unbelief... (Heb. 3 & 4) because we don’t cease from trying to acquire this type of ‘Biblical knowledge.’ Always learning: never having enough! Never having enough: never coming to an end! Until we don’t even realize that there is an end in this lifetime, anymore!! Because it’s always more and more ‘Biblical knowledge’ gathering, week after week, week after week, never reaching him, completely: the aim and goal, the consummation and rapture of the end of all knowledge, which is him, himself: REST! ...Rest in him: always: and life and peace in him without ceasing; and all, by, no work, no trying and acquiring; no getting only losing! ...It was all and only by ONLY LOSING! Even as he said...! (Matthew 16: 25; John 12: 24, 25) And that we don’t believe him is proved by our never stopping! We never stop gaining and so we never lose enough to find him!! And we are so blinded by our knowledge we can’t even comprehend this!

·         We simply will not believe that it could ever be so simple and so we don’t believe; and we don’t even see that this is where our wonderful knowledge gathering has led us...! We are so blinded by it that we cannot even comprehend that it is leading us away from him: removing us far from him; even as he said.

                                                                                                                                         (Isaiah 29: 13-15)

    

                      *

“The bird is struggling out of the egg

The egg is the world

Whoever wants to be born

Must first destroy a world”

                          *

The Way of Knowledge... & ...the Way of Light: 

There are two distinctly different ways of living our lives:

There is the way of knowledge... gathering knowledge

And the way of light... losing knowledge:

There is the realm of being led by men

And the realm of being led by the Spirit

What do these two ways look like?

Led by MEN:  in the realm of our SOUL:

Prefigured in the holy place in the O.T. temple; where our knowledge, and leadership of our lives comes from men of God, from the golden candlestick: whose light is against itself: the written word of God and the shewbread: which is the visible bread, fruit, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is good for food, pleasant to our eyes, and to be desired to make one wise: ...the sustenance of the SOUL, which we can see; and touch; and choose to eat; and evaluate ourselves.

Led by THE SPIRIT:  in the realm of our SPIRIT:

Prefigured in the holy of holies, the holiest of all in the O.T. temple; where all we know comes from the Spirit of the LORD, alone, and by no agency of man; where light is dark. And there’s no food for the soul: nothing to see; nothing to touch; nothing to eat: the tree of life: the nourishment of the SPIRIT: ...The hidden manna (Rev. 2: 17) and the hidden manner of the hidden rod of the SPIRIT, his inner leading of us in spirit, alone; and the hidden law of the SPIRIT of life in Christ Jesus - all within - all written in our hearts, alone: ...Prefigured in the ark of the covenant and God’s Shekinah light: his own Glory... which is as pitch darkness to us in the most holy place: where he brings us by a way we knew not; where he leads us in paths we have not known; where he makes darkness light before us.

                                                                   *

What do these TWO WAYS of living look like?

The way of KNOWLEDGE: We have our life in the religious world and are seen of men there: for we attend this, and go to that, we do this, and do that... for all these things are necessary to us; ...of course, they are, for they are good for growth in the LORD - biblical ‘food’ - necessary and pleasant to us, pleasing in our sight, and an excellent source of things to make us wise. They are all very good things in the realm of the SOUL in the dominion of man. Here we value the praise of men; which is observable, of course: because we do all these things, among them; and if we didn’t, we would not receive esteem from men. Maybe, we would even be frowned upon by them; the esteem of men is important to us. ...For we deem life outside the organizings of man to be either, not quite correct; or actually, very wrong, indeed; and not Scriptural, at all.

How we gather the light of knowledge:

·         We gather it from our times of reading, mainly; from our reading the Bible; or from reading the books and publications of the people of God; or from watching and listening to interesting godly people in religious places and settings. For we grow and build our knowledge on what we read and on what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears.   

The way of LIGHT: The way of light is so very different: We live in the ordinary world and have all our life in him, invisibly; disappeared; for we are not seen by any men of God, or by any religious people; unless we should bump into them in town and stop and say, a friendly, hello, spiritually unrecognized, and chat happily awhile; (e.g. Luke 24: 13 - 16 ) for we don’t attend this, or that; nor do we go to this, or do that; for all those things are passed, we have outgrown them, and are escaped from them, we have left them behind. In point of fact, those things have become abhorrent to us; even as our ways are abhorrent to those who live in the Way of Knowledge. The two worlds are worlds apart. And we cannot live in one another’s worlds. (e.g. Gen. 43: 32)  Even as a fish cannot swim up in the air, or a bird of the air fly under the sea. We live and move and have our being... in different ways.

How we gather the light of life:

·         We gather it unconsciously every moment we breathe; for all our faculties are utterly open in him and him in us; and, so much so, that we need, read, nothing. All is within; written in our hearts. If we read anything, it will be from the ordinary world; and we enjoy reading, only it won’t be the Bible, except for reference, for his Word is in us unto fullness and completeness. Nor do we read any Christian publications, or godly books; these have become repugnant, poisonous or indigestible to us: ...outside the cocoon:  ...leaves are not the food of butterflies. 

         Where we live it is not with our natural sight, or natural hearing that we learn and grow. It is not with our eyes, or our ears that he grows and builds his own light in us. The light of life is all in his hearing and seeing, for us, in us, continually.

         We are led by the Spirit - blind - as though blindfolded. “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.” (Isaiah 42: 16) We learned to trust him where we couldn’t see our way, or understand our path and where nothing made any sense, at all; and we found him through our not knowing. We learned that our confusion and not understanding was his gift to us: our extremities his opportunities, for then were we led by the Spirit, entirely by faith.

         And we are all taught of God: taught all in and by the SPIRIT. Therefore, we need not sit or stand in any of the religious settings necessary for the needs of men, where eyes and ears - our own natural eyes and ears - are very much needed. 

    “BY HEARING YE SHALL HEAR, AND SHALL NOT UNDERSTAND; AND SEEING YE SHALL SEE, AND SHALL NOT PERCEIVE: . . . “    (Matthew 13: 14, 15) 

         By our hearing we hear, and do not understand: for we process what we hear with our own mind and come up with good ideas springing from that - the mind of man. And so, we make erroneous conclusions - natural, carnal, earthly conclusions, which are, in fact, the very opposite of the mind of the Spirit.

         For by our seeing “we see!” (John 9: 39-41) and do not perceive in the Spirit: for we are seeing, spiritual truth with our own faculties, out of our own earthly perception, which is darkness and in direct opposition to the Spirit of God.

        The mind of man - our own minds and our rational thinking - is entirely back-to-front to the mind of the Spirit of the LORD.   (Isaiah 55: 8, 9)   (“It were better that we hadn’t known . . . “ For out of our knowing we have constructed a world entirely in rebellion to the Spirit of GOD.)

    

       As for fellowship: ours is in the air everywhere all the time in him and in the ordinary world wherever there are people. Where butterflies live there are no caterpillars; and where caterpillars live there are no butterflies. And just as they live in different spheres, and feed on different food, so there are different spheres of fellowship, friendship, and companionship; and these come with different sets of understandings to understand them with; as they are sourced from different realms having different interior faculties: those of ....SOUL... and those of ...SPIRIT... the operations of which are as different as the proverbial, “chalk and cheese.”  

     Those in the earthly sphere, which feed on leaves, do not recognize, or understand those of the heavenly sphere, which feed only on nectar; and so, they do not agree. The two realms speak entirely different languages.

   

                                                         *

The way of GAINING...  &  The way of LOSING...

In the way of Gaining:  We do all the right things for getting something in God. For we believe that our moving towards gaining something is the right way.  And so we go to church to get something: we go to gain good godly feeling; and to gain what we can of righteousness to make us feel better. We go to gain some excellent biblical knowledge to build us up and increase our standing with God and man. We go to gain some good fellowship and affirmation from men and good favour in their sight.  

We want to increase.  

...We want to increase our rightness and correctness in things; of course we do; we want to be wise and prudent; it’s only natural. And so we seek all the ways in which we might increase, our being right in the sight of God and man, and  to increase our stature in God and our standing among men. 

       We continually need to acquire more. We believe that this is the right way: that we need to gain more; that we need to get some excellent godly material. We need to get this book and that thing to increase our Bible knowledge. We need to go buy this latest Bible Course and that great seminar material. ...We are consumed by our neediness, not knowing we already have all in him right from the beginning and need nothing. ...We are riddled with unbelief...! And so we are consumed by our unbelief! Passionately needing to increase! And so in endless circles ever learning never coming to the end and the fullness of him who is all in all.    

     And so, we are, yet, natural... carnal... earthly... We are of the World... of the earth... in the first house: in the holy place in his temple within us. We are not in the holiest of all, for which he died for us to enter in.  

In the way of LOSING:  We have died in him. We are dead to all our former moving towards getting and increasing in him. All our former ways of increasing in God are now abhorrent to us, and are no more! We don’t do any of those things which involve getting.

      We run to lose, not run to gain; and no one gains so much as he who loses all in him.

     We already have all of him; (even as we all have, from the very beginning.) And so we have no need to go and get anything, or buy or acquire: no need to increase, but rather to decrease; even as he said:   “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3: 30.  This truth isn’t just for John, ‘the Baptist,’ it’s for all of us!  ...It’s the first principle of LIFE! 

     Our life is in him in decreasing.  ...He has given us to fully understand, and to live in, moment by moment, the very reality of what he has told us all, that... 

 “he that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” 

                                 (Matthew 10: 39; 16: 25;   Mark 8: 35;   Luke 9: 24;   John 12: 25) 

     This truth in him, lived out in practical reality, totally cuts us off and releases us wondrously from all our works, and brings us the promised rest, and the promised glorious liberty of the sons of God. All who are led by the SPIRIT are the sons of God!

    We were decreased in him...until we were made as nothing in him... wrapped in swaddling bands... not moving except in him... our life lived in a dark place... in 'the food bin' of beasts and eagles (vultures.) ...and dead rising with his dead body... RAPTURED & TAKEN... heavenly... spiritual... and set for the fall and rising again of many... and for a sign that shall be spoken against...

    We are not of the World; but we live in it: we have inherited the Earth, even as he said. We are in the second house: in the most holy place in his temple, within us. We live in the holiest of all, for which he died for us to enter in, and have the wonderful freedom he promised! 

      We run to lose, not run to gain; and no one gains so much as he who loses all in him.

               

                                                        *

The Song of Moses... & the Song of the Lamb...                                           
(Revelation 15: 3) 

The two different realms of relationship... and the difference between them:  

·        Relationship by KNOWLEDGE:

Knowledge by the WORD of GOD

In the beautiful shining light of men of God:  

“The song of Moses”

·         Relationship by LIGHT:

Light by the SPIRIT of GOD

In the pitch darkness of the glory of God:

“The song of the Lamb”

                                                            *

The bird is breaking out of its shell: 

Full grown . . .

The shell is the world.

Whoever wants to be born

Must first destroy a world

Tearing down its walls

Which kept him locked in embryo

Until the fullness of time:

“The escaped of Mount Zion”

                                                         *

TAKEN... 

Taken...?  “...Where, Lord?    (Luke 17: 34 - 37;  Matt. 24: 28)

“And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.”

Wherever the carcass is, there will the vultures be gathered together, in one accord, one purpose: their picking of the flesh off its bones, eating and picking it clean, until there is nothing left, all the flesh gone, taken.

Where the dead body is - his dead body - his beloved people - there darkness will gather; their lives will be fraught with difficulty, suffering, trials and tribulation, along with the darkness of not knowing, and of being brought in a way they do not know, led in paths they have not known. All these difficulties act like vultures that pick away their carnal life from them in an ever deepening relationship with their beloved and absolute surrender in him. And so, TAKEN, taken from themselves, from their self life; taken all away.

·         “...if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together;”
·         “...if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.”
·         “...For he that is dead is freed from sin.”
·         “For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with him.”

                                                                (Isaiah 26: 19;  42: 16 / Joel 2: 25)

LEFT: ...being of the World: ...earthly

Left in themselves

Left in the religious World of men

Visible there

Seen of men

Having a part in it... (Luke 17: 34 - 37)

And, so very much are we a part of it

That we always are visible to it:

Found in places where it is

Spiritually and physically

TAKEN: ...being not of the World: ...heavenly

Taken from themselves

Taken from the religious World of men

Not visible there

Not seen of men

Having no part in it... (e.g. Genesis 5: 24)

And, so very much are we not a part of it

That we always are invisible to it:

Not found in any place at all where it is

Either spiritually or physically 

                                                                *

RAPTURED! AND TAKEN...
What does it mean to be raptured?

As you may already know, the word, ‘rapture,’ cannot be found in the Bible; but we know, or sense, that it is a very real thing; and it is; but it is something that does not come in the way we expect; no, not at all; “...for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”   
Being raptured is being caught up to God, in our beloved LORD Jesus, to the throne of God, invisibly, hiddenly: all glorious and heavenly and all the while here in this World, (being “in the world, but not of it ;”) in our lowly, ordinary, and once very troubled lives.
    For the way to where we are now was awful, very really fraught with severe trial and suffering; until the suffering became untenable and totally unspeakable; but in utter surrender, transformed into all joy. And from there came his hidden gift of ecstasy and rapturous love in the beloved: ...being made my beloveds: made entirely all his; both at one point in time and continuously. And the gift - in and of - our suffering: “the white stone... (and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it”) was no longer a humiliation, or a thorn in the flesh - the grit in the oyster-shell turned to pearl - but an intensely personal, continuously precious gift of the most intimate relationship, unimaginable.

THE PROCESS OF RAPTURE . . .

It is most truly a process. It is not something that can happen suddenly, to everyone at the same time, regardless!  Just as we know it is not possible for all the monarch butterfly chrysalises in the world to break open at the very same time and all the butterflies within them, all escaping from their cocoons, simultaneously! But that is still the current, prevalent, and erroneous notion in the church: that ‘The Rapture,’ can happen to all good Christians at once, and that they can be SEEN OF MEN to be flying swiftly up into the sky; hundreds and thousands of them, at the same time, regardless of their interior condition.

I’m so sorry to disappoint you, but if we believe that then we have no need to fall on our face continually before God, in our heart, and cry for the revelation TO COME IN OUR FLESH      (1 John 4: 1-6) that we are nothing, and never have any righteousness of our own, EVER, and in ourselves are deserving of nothing! Let alone deserving of being conveniently preserved from suffering and zapped up to heaven to him whose eyes are fire! If I continue to think like that, and to cling to that false hope, I am refusing true fellowship with him, which always involves suffering with him, which is the only way to the intimate relationship with him for which we so long, and which will lead to joy all unspeakable full of his glory.  

“if we suffer with him,  we shall also live with him.”

“He will take them one by one...   

..... one by one...

34. “I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37. And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles (vultures) be gathered together.”  (Luke 17: 33 - 37)

 “27.  For as ... as ... the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; ...so... shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

28.  For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.”

29.   Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:   . . .   . . .  “  (Matthew 24: 27, 28, 29)

  

   Just like, how lightning can suddenly lighten up and illumine the whole sky in an instant, (“...in one day;  ...in one hour” (Rev. 18: 8, 10) ) ...in the twinkling of an eye,  just - so - just so quickly will we suddenly perceive him and see him with the eyes of our spirit!  See him as he really is...! The darkness in our mind and spirit, suddenly blown away! And we see how things really are!  And our former religious world and our former religious thinking will fall apart and be destroyed and be no more.   

                             “Behold, I make all things new.”

                                                                           *

When he asked that we behold his face

His face we beheld

And all that is in us... beholds him

Nearer and nearest... nearer than breathing

The inner silver threads of crystal water

And golden pourings of life-giving oil

Trickle under the door

Tiny, opening, golden buds on the tree of life

Release their inmost fragrance

And we open more and more

The deepest recesses of our heart and mind

The darkest light the brightest light

Our dwelling place in his presence

Where all our light is as darkness to him

And we’re taken where we’ve always lived with him

In intimate love and before ever the world was made

Found where nothing is known but him

And he is everything

And it seems as if we’re made out of star-dust

Shaken out as he shakes the World, again

All shimmering sprinkled ashes

Being dead in him

All in him . . . from the beginning