BEARING THE ARK by J W LUMAN It is such a joy to understand that it is not a religion that we have and it is not a religion we share. It is not a religion that we have to propagate, it is not a religion we have to share. It is a LIFE - that life which is Christ Himself. And I trust that what we share on tapes, and in Bible conferences, and in local meetings, and in the heavenlies will never be a religion to us, will never be a way of belief, never be a thought, a theology. Oh God, deliver us from theologies. But it will be a LIFE. In the past few months it has come to me in such tremendous measure that I am not a preacher of deeper life. I am not a preacher of Sonship. I am not a preacher of the Kingdom. I am not a preacher of some fragment that would alienate the Body of Christ from me or from one another; and yet I know, because we are a people of labels, that is what I am labeled, (and many others are labeled that). But I am trusting that God, our Father, by His Spirit will destroy the labels. But, it comes to me that I am a preacher of salvation, and that the salvation I preach, I declare, I live, I love is a Person. Not just an involvement with that Person, but literally that Person Himself. Not that Person at a distance from me, but that Person in me. Not that Person as an object, but that Person as a dwelling place, a place where I live, I move and have my being, and yet not I but Christ. God has involved us by His Spirit. Through the redemptive work of the Son God has involved us in Salvation, in his Plan of Salvation. He has involved us in a finished work. He has involved us in the desire of His Heart. He has involved us in His Plan for the ages. He has involved us with and in and as together with, as one with His Son. He has involved us in Himself. What a salvation! And this is what I want to be a preacher of. Not some aspect of it. Not some theology of it. Not some rung on the ladder of it. But, oh, could we lift our eyes up into the heavens and behold the glory of God, and could we begin to be those who actually bear the Ark of the Covenant of the God of all the earth. Bear it in our inner man so much so that he is transformed into the image of it. The image of what? The image of the glory of God. Bear it in our conversation, bear it in our preaching, our teaching, our ministry. Bear it as our life. Manifest Him Who is our life. Walk about as Him. No, not as a bunch of little Jesuses. There is no such thing as a bunch of little Jesuses. There is one Body of Christ that has many members. Not a bunch of little Jesuses, but many members making up One Body. I trust in this series of studies that the Lord will bring us to that understanding together. Because, this is not just a one lesson, but a series that I want to share with you as the Lord shares with me, on BEARING THE ARK. When Janie asked me what the title of this lesson would be, I said "Bearing the Ark". Then, I thought, "Now, what is that all about?" I wrestled with that even up until this morning. Then the Lord began to settle me down in my inner man, and began to deal with me with regard to the reality of this term, "bearing", bearing the Glory of God; and I began to see that it is going to take several sessions to just express the heart of God as He is revealing His Heart concerning this matter. So, we will be dealing with this matter, "Bearing the Ark" for several lessons to come; and I trust that the Lord will begin to open our understanding. Turn with me to the book of Samuel. We will be just dealing with Samuel, the fourth, fifth and sixth chapters. I just want to bring something out there concerning the Ark, and then I want to talk to you today about the glory of God. I want you and I to come to a realization. And, I say "you and I". I want to come to a realization that the Ark as it is set forth in the Bible, is not something aside from you and I, but it depicts a union between you and I and Christ. It depicts an unction. You see, you and I have adopted this terminology that we are one, the Body of Christ is one, we are all one. But, so many times the reference point of our oneness is you and I, or our reference point of our oneness is the Body. We will say. "There is one Body". And the reference point is the Body. It is not Christ. The reference point is the Body. In our own understanding without even realizing it, but in our inner man, in our spirit, we are still seeing the Body AND Christ. We are not seeing Christ THE Body. So, we say we are one, but we make that the reference point of our oneness - ourselves, you and I. When we say we are one, we are speaking out of an understanding that says, "We all have the same religion. We all believe in the same Jesus, we all are saved, we all are Christians, therefore we are one." You see, that is not the One that we are, and it certainly is not the One that the Ark of the Covenant depicts. The object of our oneness, the basis of our oneness, and therefore the point of reference, the reference point of our oneness must be CHRIST HIMSELF. In John 17, Jesus says, "That they may be one Father,.." And what is the reference point of that? "..even as WE are One." You see, Jesus and the Father do not just have the same salvation. They are not just both Christians. They are not just part of the same theological understanding. Do you understand what I am saying? No. They are the essence of one, the Son being the express image of the Father, having as His glory the manifesting, the expressing of the Father; not of the existence of the Father, but of who and what and when the Father is. And that includes the expressing of all that the Father desires, the expressing of all that the Father has planned and purposed and has done, the expressing of the thought, the heart, the purpose, the nature, the character, yes, expression of the person of the Father. All of that the Son has come forth and is the expression of. How then, can that expression grow? Because this is the plan of God that that expression fill up the earth, the heavens, the ages to come. How can that expression grow? It can only grow through the increase of the Son. How can the Son be increased? Not through created beings. Not even through created man, as the first creation, as a created being. How then, can the Son increase? The Son can only find increase through his very own Body, through those who through redemption, through new birth have become at one with Himself. How do you mean, "become at one"? Born of His own kind. Born of His own Spirit. He is the Seed of God. Those who are born of Him - not born of the seed of the Son. The Son Himself is the seed. Born of the Son, born from above, born again, born of the Son. Those in whom the Son lives, not separate from them but as the very living Spirit in them, as the very life in them. He never said, "I will be made unto you one that lives". No, He is LIFE. He is not just the source of the living ones. He is the life of the living ones. Do you understand what I mean "living ones"? All of my references are to the Ark of the Covenant. Those cherubim on the Ark are called the living ones. They come up again in Isaiah. There they are seen as a four dimensional man called living ones. Throughout the Bible where these cherubim come back, in Ezekiel, and throughout the Word of God, and even into the book of Revelation, they are a type of and suggestive of those who are in union with Christ, and live by Him. They are living ones because they express life. Jesus says, "I am life. I am The Resurrection. I am the life." The living ones are living ones because they express Him Who is life. They are an expression of Him. As He is an expression of the Father, they are an expression of Him. Jesus says in John 14:19-20, "Because I live, ye shall live also." Not also as "other than Me", but "as an expression of Me." Verse 20 clarifies that. "For you shall understand, you shall come to know, it shall be made plain to you by the Holy Spirit, that as I am in the Father, you are in Me, and I am in you." See, this is what the Ark of the Covenant sets forth. Therefore, as the Ark is one, so you and I are one. But the reference point of our oneness is not you and I. The oneness of the cherubim is not in the cherubim. The cherubim are not standing there looking at each another. They are facing one toward another, but they are beholding the GLORY OF GOD. And, that is what I want you and I to begin in our inner man to behold. I want us to behold the Glory of God. And we can only do that by the Spirit. But, I want us to behold the Glory of God. Why? So that we may be glorified. Why must we be glorified? So that we may glorify God in the earth. That is become an expression, a manifestation, a manifesting of the glory of God in the earth. I like the word "manifesting" over and above the word "manifestation", because of our own connotation of it. Not because of any real definition of it, but because in our connotation, and in our understanding, when we say "manifestation", we seem to think of one sudden burst of something and then it is all over. But manifesting seems to draw our attention to a lifestyle. And that is what it is. Manifestation or manifesting is to become a lifestyle. What is our lifestyle to become? Our lifestyle is to become one of manifesting LIFE. You see, to me it has become so by the Spirit, that life and salvation are one and the same. Christ is not just savior, He is salvation. He is not just life-giver, He is life. So it all is being drawn together in a Person. God is summing up everything of Himself in a Person. Well, you and I are of Him. Jesus says in John 17, "..all Thine are Mine, all Mine are Thine." Everyone who is born of God, belongs to the Son. Everyone who belongs to the Son, belongs to the Father. We are His, and God is gathering up all that is of Him, in one Man, in one Person, in Christ; that the increase of Christ may be made manifest in the earth. Because Christ is the manifesting of God. He is the manifesting of the Father. So, the full intention of the Father, is that He Himself may be glorified in all the earth, in all the ages to come. The intent of the Father, then, is the increase of the Son. Well, the increase of the Son is His Body; therefore, His Body must grow up into the fullness of Him, and become an example, a manifesting of Him. Who is He? He is Life. He is Life. He is Resurrection. Now, it is going to take us a while to look at all of this. And, it is certainly going to take a while for the Holy Spirit to birth this reality, reveal this indwelling life, this indwelling Christ to the point that our soul is transformed into a manifesting of Him, but that is what growing up in Him is all about. That is the reason I am telling you that we are not preaching deeper life. We are preaching salvation. We are preaching Christ. Salvation was never meant to be anything other than the manifesting of Him. Salvation was never conceived of God as just getting out of sin and living like a Christian. God's concept of salvation has never been that. God's concept of salvation has never been anything other than the expression of Himself, bringing sons into the expression of Himself, birthing sons into the expression of Himself. That is salvation with God. Salvation has never been anything in the mind and heart of God other than a Man. The central part of that Man being CHRIST HIMSELF. The abounding increase of that Man being the Body of Christ, who are not other than Christ, but in an absolute divine union with Christ. If we are not in a divine union with Christ, we are not His Body. Now, I realize that you and I, His Body, are not filled with that understanding. We are not filled with the knowledge of the Glory of God, but we must be, if the earth is to be filled with the knowledge of the Glory of God. You and I must first be filled with that same understanding, that we may be by it transformed, that being transformed, we may become an expression of that glory, that oneness, that union that God Himself has brought by his Spirit with His Son. And, that now the Spirit of God is revealing. Well, if He is revealing a union in us, who is He revealing? One another? NO. He is revealing Christ in me, Christ in you. Because that is the union. Our union is with Him. Well, yes, obviously. When we begin to see our union with Him, we will then realize our union one with another; and then when we say we are one, our reference point will be Christ. Not Christianity. Not some lesser idea of salvation. Not the body in our understanding of the body. You know, we are all one body. We are all one Christ. We are all one Man. Do you begin to see? This is what God is bringing us to, because this is what He has brought us to. This is the understanding. This, then, is the Gospel. This is the Good News. This is the wisdom, the unfolding of the mystery. This is THE Gospel. There is only one Gospel. To say that Gospel is Christ, you see, depends upon our understanding of Christ as to whether we appreciate that statement or not. But, I am telling you, that the Gospel is not the fragments that we think it is. The Gospel is not summed up in some things He has done, some things He has said. No, all of that must be brought together and summed up in an understanding, not of His acts. Not even of His ways. But it must be summed up in Him, where the Gospel is synonymous with Him, and where the declaring of the Gospel is the declaring of nothing less than, nothing short of, absolute union with Him. And that the growing up in the Gospel, the maturing in the Gospel can be understood as nothing other than growing up in Christ and coming to an understanding of that divine work of God in Christ. That work whereby God has made us one with His Son. The Holy Spirit now coming forth to declare that Gospel in us that we may be a declaring of that Gospel in the earth in word, in deed, in manner of life, in nature, in character. All of this is depicted in the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant actually says this. It is the setting forth in type of what you and I are to be the expression of in reality. There is a lot said about "going behind the veil", "living behind the veil". I do not like that terminology; because there is in that a separation of one part of the Lord's Body from another part of the Lord's Body. We cannot get into it right now, but I want to tell you there is no such thing as "living beyond the veil" or "living behind the veil". Why? Because, very simply, in Christ Jesus, there IS NO VEIL. What some would call deeper life, or life on the highest plain, or whatever we want to call it, cannot possibly be defined as living behind the veil. If you want to call it living without a veil, fine. But not going behind the veil. That is what the old priest did, the old high priest, went behind the veil, and he could not stay there. He could not remain there. Neither could you and I, even if the veil remained. We could not remain there. Because, the veil sums up everything of you and I, everything of the old order, everything of the Adamic man. It points to a New Man, because it has cherubim embroidered upon it. It points to a New Man, but it sums up everything of the old man, and when that veil was rent, everything of you and I, everything of the first creature, the first creation, that made out of dirt, the first order and the priesthood who served it, and the house that it represented was done away in Christ. Now, it may not be in our heart. It may not be done away in our understanding. It may not be done away out from our inner man. But, it is done away in Christ. And, if it is there, it is there in our imagination. It is there in our remembrance. It is there in our ignorance. It is not there in truth of Spirit. So, there is no way to live in truth of Spirit, and say we are living behind the veil. No. We are living WITHOUT the veil. The veil is done away. You see, that unites the house of God. That does away with the wall. That does away with the veil. That takes the thing away, and makes possible for this glory of God to fill all of the house. We are going to see in our study in days to come that the glory of God cannot be borne by little groups. Little segments cannot bear the glory of God. Little super-segments, or any other kind of segments, little movements, little households, little groups of households, cannot bear the glory of God. The glory of God is too great. There is only one divine work of God that can fully, totally, absolutely bear the glory of God. That is become an emblem of, a bearing of, a manifesting of, transformed into the person and emanating that glory. There is only One that can bear the glory of God, and we are going to work toward that in these lessons, and that is where God has brought you and I. He has brought us into that One. He has brought us into that one workmanship, that one place, that One Man, He has brought us there. He has brought us there in Spirit. The Holy Ghost is bringing us there in truth. God has brought us there in Spirit. He has brought us there is reality, in divine work, in salvation. He has brought us there. You now dwell there. We dwell there everywhere except in truth. So, the Spirit of Truth is come that we may dwell there in truth. And, that truth, you see, is synonymous with a person. That is why we are continually speaking concerning this business of the revelation of Jesus Christ, God revealing his Son in you. What does it mean? GOD REVEAL TRUTH IN YOU. But, the truth is not some aspect of the work of God. Truth is the very person of Christ Himself. So, the Holy Spirit is bringing you and I to this place in truth. In other words bringing us to the knowledge of where we are. Working in us the truth. Working in us the very reality of union with Christ. How does He do that, but by revealing that Christ in us, so that our inner man comes to know his union with that living Christ and begins to be an expressing of Him in all the earth. The work and ministry of the Holy Spirit at this time is the revealing of Christ so that His Body may become the manifesting of none other but Him. Now, in the revealing of that Christ, in the revealing of the truth, there is in our heart and mind a doing away of the veil, a renting of the veil, a doing away with the first of everything, the first man, Adam, me, you, and all that involves. The first house and all that involves. The first concept of religion, the first priesthood, the first order of things, and all that involves. Doing away with the first, and establishing the second. All of that takes place in my heart through God revealing His Son that I may become a manifesting of that One whom God is revealing in me, that I may become a manifesting of the truth of God. And, yet, you see, I cannot personally become a manifesting of that, so He is doing that manifesting in all of His House and I can become a part of that manifesting. If I am letting the Holy Spirit have His way in revealing His Son. So, you see, it is all being summed up in the Son. Being in the Son, knowing the Son, manifesting the Son. And, in the midst of that, everything but the Son is being done away. Because in Him, everything but Him is done away. The work has been done. The Cross is established. He is not going to come and do it again. But, the Holy Spirit is going to reveal, and is now revealing all that He has done. But, He is revealing more than what He has done. He is revealing Who He is, and in that, He is making plain what He has done. How do we know what is not Christ? We know what is not Christ through the learning of who is Christ. How do we know what does not remain, what is done away? We come to know what is done away, and in fact, suffer the doing away of it, in the knowing of truth... truth does away with ignorance, so if you come to truth, you have to suffer the doing away of ignorance. Ignorance is a very real thing, but truth is greater than ignorance. Truth abounds. So, how do we know what is done away and what remains? Through the Holy Spirit revealing Him in us Who remains. And, in the revealing of Him, we suffer the death of the Cross. We suffer the loss of that which does not remain, of that which only remains in our heart, as ignorance, as a figment of our imagination. The old man and all that involves. Not just the old man, the old nature, the old creation, the old creature, the old form - all of that is ripped out, torn out, done away in God revealing Him Who does remain, and in Him in Whom we now dwell. This is the Gospel. This is that which you and I are to be a declaring of, even Christ, the Holy Spirit bringing Him into view. Revealing Him in His Body. That you and I may be a declaring of Him. This is the Gospel which is to be declared in word, in deed, in kind, in spirit, in nature, in character. Now, there is an order of that and we will look at that as we go along. But, this is what we are coming to. This is what we are purposed of God in Christ Jesus to exhibit through all the earth, even the glory of God. So, the Ark is the epitome of the glory of God. Without the Ark, the glory of God had no full expression. The glory of God Himself descended between the cherubim upon the mercy seat, which is the throne of the Almighty God. There is only one thing, (and this is jumping away ahead), but there is only one thing that abides forever. "Thy throne, oh God, remaineth, abideth forever." Can this possibly cause some joy to come into our hearts, even in our lack of understanding, then, to just remember some words with regard to you and I in our union with Him. "He that overcometh I will make to sit down with me in my Father's Throne." That is where it is all being summed up. And, that is not where we rule. That is where He rules, and we are a manifesting of it. Of what? Of His rule. All of this is in the Ark. Throughout the Scripture, until the coming of Christ, until the coming forth of the Body of Christ, that New Man which is the fulfillment of all the Ark was a promise and a type of, that New Man, which is described throughout all of the epistles and in Revelation, until the coming of that, the setting forth of the type, and all of that, is the Ark, and the glory of God had no place of full expression except in the Ark. And, the glory of God has no place of absolute, full, unlimited expression, except in that which is the fulfillment of all that the Ark depicted. We are going to work toward that, that which is the fulfillment, that people who are a Man, the Man which is Christ. Look with me for a moment. I want us to go away back and work up to this that we have been talking about. The glory of God. I want us to look at that for just a few moments in this lesson. I have been in Pentecost for a long, long time. I am sure some of you have been too. I was born and raised in Pentecost from a little child. We have all heard things, and even recently in places I have heard terms like, "reach up and take hold of the glory of God". We have heard, "The glory of God just came down in our midst", and "I felt the glory of God", or "I saw the glory of God". All of these terms. The last time I heard that, I thought. The Spirit of God just stopped the whole thing. It was in a song service. The Spirit of God just stopped the whole thing for me. When it was just stated, "Just reach up and take hold of the glory of God". The Spirit of God began a teaching session in my heart right then and there. No, it was not critical, not that at all. But, I was just taken out from there, and the Spirit of God began to deal with me concerning GLORY. You do not reach up and get hold of glory. You do not reach up and pull glory down. All of those things in the Old Testament I realize were types of the glory of God, but you must understand that is all Old Covenant understanding. Even what Moses saw could not be described as the glory of God. He said, "I want to see your glory." Exodus 33:18, "Show me your glory"; and God said, "I cannot do that, because no man can see Me. No man can see Me and live." Now, listen to that. "No man can see Me and live." The glory of God cannot be other than the expression of God Himself. The glory of God cannot be other than the expression, the exhibiting, the manifesting of God Himself. Moses could only see that in a limited fashion. You understand that. So, there have been those incidents throughout the Word of God where there were limited fashions, fragments. We want to carry that over into Christ, and we cannot do that. We do it in our ignorance. What is the glory of God? I want us to look today at what is the glory of God. It is not a feeling. It is not something that you can reach up and get hold of. It is not something that comes and visits our church services. It is not that. I know we have adopted that kind of terminology, but that is not what it is. That is not Biblical, and it is not what God has called us into. God has not called us into something that we have to reach up and get ahold of. He has not called us into something that comes in visitations. No, that is all Sinai teaching. That is all Sinai living. That is all Sinai mentality of salvation, and that is not what we have been brought to in Christ Jesus, the glory of God. In Numbers 14: 21, "But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." Now, that is not a supposition. That is an absolute. It is not a possibility or a probability. It is an absolute. "As surely as I live all the earth shall be filled with My glory. With the glory of the Lord." Isaiah simply says the same thing. Isaiah 6:3, "And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory." But now, that little line of thought starts with verse 1. "When will the whole earth be filled with His glory?" Another place in the Word speaks of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall fill all the earth as the waters cover the sea. When will the whole earth be filled with the exhibiting of the Person of the Most High God? With the glory of God. When will the whole earth? When what is set forth in Isaiah 6:1-2 takes place in the heavens. And what Isaiah is describing there is fully depicted, fully set forth, fully typed, in the Ark of the Covenant; and fully fulfilled in the person of the Living Christ, to be exhibited in the whole earth through His Body, that is not separate from Him, but that is a union with Him, a oneness of Him, His whole Body becoming an expression of Him in the earth. Now, in 1 Samuel 4 we find that the Ark of God was taken out of Israel by the Philistines. Look at verse 18, "And it came to pass, when he made mention of the Ark of God that he...," This is Eli, the last of the old order of the old priesthood. "...that he fell off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died, for he was an old man and heavy, and he had judged Israel forty years." He did not fall off the seat and break his neck because of the news that his two sons had died. Now, we are not ready to get into that fully, but because, when he heard the ARK OF GOD ... What does that mean? Look at verse 21, "And she named the child Ichabod, saying the glory is departed from Israel." Verse 22, "She said the glory is departed from Israel for the Ark of God is taken." The Ark of the Covenant and the glory of God are synonymous in that the glory of God could only find a place of rest upon and in the midst of the Ark, making the two synonymous; in that, the one, the Ark, is purposed only for the full expression of the other. That is, the Ark is purposed for the expression of the glory. But in order to express the glory, there must be a union of the glory of God in the midst, not just upon, but in the midst of the Ark of the Covenant uniting the two as one, the resting place of the glory of God. Only the Ark could bear the glory of God. What is it now that can bear the Ark? What can bear the Ark? We are going to find that. We are going to see what could not bear the Ark and what does. But I want to talk about this glory. What is the glory of God? Is it a feeling? Is it a cloud? Is it a brightness? What is the glory of God? What is this that we have been called into in Christ Jesus? What is this that we have been brought unto in Christ Jesus? What is it? I want to look at it as the Man of Glory. I am on a series right now and a search, and you will hear about this in some Bible conferences to come on the Last Man, the absolute Last Man. The Last Man to possess the heavens, the Last Man to possess the earth, the Last Man. That Last Man. Well, that Last Man is the Man who shall bear the glory of God. In I Corinthians 2:7, Paul says something here. You have to start reading in verse 6 but for times sake, "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory." What God saw, the plan, the purpose, the Man, the salvation, the New Creation. What God saw from before the foundation of the world. What did He see there? He saw you and I in Christ. He saw more than that simple statement, but He saw the fullness of that simple statement. "...was ordained unto our glory..." The mystery of God is ordained unto our glory. "...which none of the princes of the world knew, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory." So, the whole plan of salvation, what God saw, and purposed and planned, what the Son performed, what the Holy Spirit is come to reveal and work in us through revealing, all has as its purpose GLORY. Not a feeling....glory. Look farther. Ephesians 3: "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of grace of God which is given me to you-ward, how that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery..." Now, that mystery is His eternal plan consummated, fulfilled in Christ, having to do with you and I. Alright, we will look at that. "...as I wrote afore in a few words, whereby, when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." Now, what did He speak to them about? He said, "..just a few words." In the original that means just on, at the beginning of this letter, just a few lines into this letter. "...How that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery of God, which I just said a few lines ago in this letter, which I just wrote to you about, which I just mentioned. And, I mentioned it so that when you read you may have knowledge, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." What is he calling, then, this "mystery of Christ"? A few lines up in this letter it happens to begin at what we call chapter 1 verse 17, but it concludes in what we call chapter 2 verse 4-6, it comes to its conclusion here. "But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us..." Here is what He has done: "...even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together," (hath quickened us together as one). Extremely important, this little word "together". "..has quickened us together as one.." Not as two. Not in association with. "...has quickened us together as one with Christ. By grace you are saved. And has raised us up as one with Christ, and has made us sit as one with Christ in heavenly places with Christ Jesus." This is the mystery. The mystery of the salvation that God planned is our union with Christ, therefore, when God revealed this mystery to Paul, it became his point of reference for everything he said with regard to salvation. His point of reference was Christ. When he spoke of the Body, his point of reference was union with Christ. When he spake of union one with another, his point of reference was union with Christ. When he spake of the gospel, his point of reference was declaring this union with Christ. His writings to the churches was that they might come to his understanding of the knowledge with regard to their union with Christ. The mystery of God - how that we have been made one with Christ. Our union with Him. But, let us leave that for a moment, because all of that was for one purpose, to bring us unto glory. What then is glory? Let us look at Hebrews 2: 9, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by grace of God should taste of death for every man." Now, this exactly is what is said in Ephesians 2 concerning the grace of God whereby you are saved. The death of Christ. While we were dead in sin. That we may be made one with Him. "For it became Him for whom are all things, by whom are all things,.." (In doing what?). "...in bringing many sons unto glory." Where has He brought us through this? "...raised us up as one, made us to be seated together as one with Christ." Quickened us as one with Christ. Raised us up as one with Christ. When He said, "I am the resurrection..." I am telling you that the resurrection is not bodiless. The resurrection has a body and you are the body of the resurrection. I did not say you are a bunch of resurrected bodies. You are BODY OF THE RESURRECTION to become in the earth the full expression of Him. I know many things will take place as a result of that. But, none the less, that is the point of it. "...in bringing many sons unto glory." Where has He brought us unto glory? He has brought us forth in Him, as one with Him, in union with Him, set together as one with Him in heavenly places, in glory. But, still, is glory a place? No. Glory is not a place. Glory is a relationship. We will look at that. John 15: Jesus here is speaking of relationship. Read this 15th chapter concerning bearing fruit..fruit, more fruit, much fruit. Verse 8, "Herein is my Father glorified,.." How? "..that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples." How is the Father glorified? "...that ye bear much fruit". There is only one fruit mentioned in the Bible that is descriptive of this, and that is the fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is not nine fragments. The fruit of the Spirit depicts the character of Christ. Bearing Christ. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear Christ." That ye become the increase of Him in the earth. That ye become the increase of Christ in the earth. What shall you do? You shall manifest the glory of God, and in manifesting the glory of God, God shall be glorified. "Ye shall fill up the earth with the knowledge (the manifesting) of the glory of God, and God shall be glorified in all the earth." What shall you do to glorify God? You shall bear the full increase of Christ. But, what is the glory of God? John 17: 4, Jesus praying. "I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." The finished work. See, Jesus is looking beyond the Cross in John 17. He is speaking in the positive of what He has done. Oh yes, it is already a finished thing with Him. "Now, oh Father, glorify thou me with thine self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." What is this glory of God? Remember back at the first of this lesson, I told you to remember. The glory of God cannot be other than the manifesting of God Himself, the exhibiting of God Himself. Jesus said, "Now, Father, glorify Me with.." What...a feeling? "...with Thine own self, with the glory that I had before the world was." What did He have before the world was? Absolute, unlimited, divine union and form of the Most High God, unbroken unity. He laid that form aside. He laid that glory aside when He took upon Himself the form of a lower creature, one who is not in the form of God, one who is not in the glory of God, the old man, one who cannot express the glory of God, cannot reach up and pull it down, or get ahold of it, or feel it or know it, or see it. Because he cannot become an expression of it. And, to see the true glory of God is to become an expression of it. The glory of God transforms. The glory of God changes. We all looking with open face beholding the glory of God are changed into that same image. Then, who is, or what is the glory of God? It is not a thing. We are changed into an image. We are changed into a form. We take on a substance. We bear a substance. The glory of God is substance. It is the evidence of Him, but it is the substance of Him. It is not you and I doing something to glorify Him. It is you and I bearing the substance of Christ, and exhibiting, becoming in the earth the evidence of Christ, exhibiting that substance, exhibiting that glory, exhibiting that union in the earth, glorifying, exhibiting. Exhibiting our union with Christ. Exhibiting the increase of Christ who is Himself the glory of God. Exhibiting that in the earth unto the glory of God, glorifying the Father. God can be nothing less than Himself. "With the glory that I had with Thee before the world was." What is that? "GLORIFY ME WITH THINE OWN SELF". Bring me back into this unlimited union with You, undivided union with You, this form that expresses nothing but You. Bring me back to that place of relationship, of fellowship. John 17 speaks of nothing but relationship. Bring me back into that relationship of unbroken union. That is glory. See, that is glory, and that is exactly where you and I have been brought in Christ. We have been brought there in Him. We have been brought into a place of union, a place of fellowship, and place of relationship. We have been brought there in Him. That there the Holy Spirit may reveal in us the very glory of God, and that there we may be glorified. That is, that there we may grow up in Him. "Christ in you the Hope of Glory." That is not a hope of glory. The word "hope" there means assurance, but it means more than assurance. It means, "beholding the thing expected", but it means more than that. It means, "the appearance of the thing expected". Do you see what it is saying? Christ in you the appearing of the glory of God. Christ in you, the expected glory of God. Expected of whom? Christ in you, the one God is expecting. God, having placed Christ in you in full expectation of Him. He placed Christ in you and I in full expectation that we would become the manifesting of that glorious Christ. Who is He? He is the exhibiting of a union with God. He is the exhibiting of a oneness with God. He is the exhibiting of what God has done in Christ Jesus. Even as He has brought the Son back into Himself, so He has brought us there in the Son, and that is exactly what Jesus goes on to say in John 17 here. Verse 20, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them which shall believe in Me through their word." That is you and me. "..that they all may be one." What is He doing here? He is talking about glory. He is talking about glory here. "That they all may be one as Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me". See, there is the exhibiting of the glory of God. "...and the glory which thou gavest me..." We just read what that was. "...glorify me with thine own self. Bring me back into that relationship, that union from before the world. I have given them that so they may be one even as we are one. I in them, they in Me, that they may be made perfect in one that the world may know." See, there is the exhibiting. The glory of God is a union into which we have been brought by the Father in the Son. A glory, a union, a relationship that the Holy Spirit is now seeking to reveal in you and I. That we may be glorified. That is grow up. Be transformed, changed into the image of that glory, the image of that glory is Christ Himself. The substance of that glory is Christ Himself, that the inner man may take on that image, that glory, that substance, that nature, that fruit, that character, that kind. That we may become an expression of that union in all the earth. When you say we are one, you have said a mouthful. It is not just this little frivolous thing that we think of when we say we are one. We have been through Christ Jesus' death and resurrection, brought unto glory that there that glory, that union, that relationship may be revealed in us in the Person of Christ. That we may be transformed into His very Image. Yes, in the midst of that transformation there is the putting off of one and the putting on of another. Yes, there is that tearing down, ripping aside, all that is done away with in Christ Jesus. There is that embracing of the Cross. There is that knowing that none lives but Him, but the end of it is glorification. The end of it is taking on His very Image and nature, and the end of that is the manifesting of the glory of God in all the earth that God may be glorified. That is glory. I realize it cannot be summed up in these few words, but this is the glory that we are going to be dealing with, but that glory can only find its rest in the midst of the Ark of the Covenant. Only the Ark can bear the glory of God. Then, who are they who must bear the Ark? May God lead us and guide us and direct us as we explore the depth of our salvation together in expectation that we may become together the manifesting of Him in all the earth.