THE PURSUIT OF EXPECTATION
                            - GILGAL -  
                                  by J W LUMAN

                     THE TURNING OF THE HEART

I want you to turn with me now, in your Bibles, to II Kings, and we will be 
considering something of the second chapter. We have entitled this lesson 
"The Pursuit of Expectation". I have had a number of people in places where 
we have been lately, after sitting in the teaching sessions, and sitting in 
the meeting, say "Brother Luman, this business of God revealing His Son, 
laying the foundation in Zion. What is it that we must do that the Father 
may reveal His Son in us?" And, it is just this. It requires a complete and 
total turning of our heart. It requires no righteousness of our own, 
because we have none. It requires no good works of our own, because we have 
none. It requires no holiness of our own, because we have none. It requires 
the turning of the heart. It requires that you and I have a heart that is 
in pursuit of God. Now, I want to stay with this for a few minutes, because 
this is something that the Lord has greatly placed upon my heart, and I 
want to talk with you about it. 

How long has it been since your heart has hungered and thirsted in a 
genuine pursuit to know the Lord? I know that every now and then we have 
this fleeting desire, "Oh I wish I knew Him better." Particularly when we 
are having a lot of problems, but how long has it been, or has it ever 
been, and is it the condition with you now, of having a heart that is in 
pursuit of the expectation of God? Now, we are going to leave the 
expectation of God alone for just a moment, but a heart that is in pursuit 
to know the Lord. Now, you see, God reveals His Son in you and me based 
totally upon the ground that we present to Him. We have to present Him 
ground. 

                          THE GROUND

In Mark there is the parable of the sower who went out to sow. "And as he 
sowed, some fell by the wayside and the fowls of the air devoured it, and 
some fell on stony ground where it had not much earth, and immediately it 
sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up...." In 
the demands of the sun. In the brightness of the sun. In the heat of the 
sun. In the devouring presence of the sun. Rather than producing growth in 
that particular seed, what had sprang up from that seed withered away. 
Because the seed was bad? No. The ground was shallow and it simply could 
not endure the light of the sun. It just could not endure. It could not 
endure the presence of the sun. It could not endure the demands of the sun. 
It could not endure the test. It could not endure the heat. What would have 
produced growth if the ground had been right, rather produced death because 
the ground was not right. 
"....And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and simply choked 
it. And others fell on good ground, and it sprang up and brought forth 
thirty, and sixty and a hundred fold." And when the Lord begins to deal 
with this parable, He makes it very clear that that which is sown is the 
Word of God, the living Word of God. And there is nothing wrong with the 
living Word of God out from the beginning. For in Him dwelleth all truth. 
But some of it fell by the wayside. That is a path where men walk, where 
men tread upon it, and it is hardened by the treading of men, and by the 
doctrines of men, and traditions and teachings of men. And it did not have 
a chance. It was immediately devoured by fowls. Immediately devoured by 
that which picks up seed that is just laying on top of the ground, the 
winds of doctrines. Because that is wayside. Then some fell on stony ground 
and just the hardness of the heart, the conditions of the heart. And they 
received it with gladness, at first. How many times have people heard the 
message of Christ and just shouted and thrilled and jumped and received it 
with gladness, only to come to a point where the natural mind could not 
conceive, and it required a giving of one's self to the Lord? It required 
the brokenness of the Spirit, and the reign of the Spirit and the dealing 
of the Spirit. And there was no such allowance given, and there was no 
brokenness, and there was no laying before the Spirit of God and allowing 
the Spirit of God to water and to break and to remove and just to deal with 
the heart. But, rather, in a very analytical way, truth was just withered 
up, because the carnal mind could not conceive of these things. And, rather 
than allowing the Spirit of God, rather than giving way to the Spirit of 
God, rather than allowing a brokenness to take place and a dealing to take 
place. 

Then, how many times has this fallen among thorns and thistles? People who 
perhaps even then received it with gladness, but in the midst of their 
daily lives found that they were just too busy taking care of daily life to 
find LIFE HIMSELF. And that the other things of home, and job, and family 
and all of this, and we get out our priority gospel and we try to find room 
for "knowing the Lord." And we try to make Him first on our list of 
priorities, rather than understand that He must be preeminent in all 
things. And just simply the cares of this life choked the living Word, and 
nothing came out of it. Now, all of these I want to emphasize were those 
who heard the Word of Truth. They were the ones who, if you will permit me 
to just speak evangelically here, who sat in the Bible conferences, who sat 
in the local meetings, who sat in the fellowship meetings, who received the 
tapes, who were there and heard the Word of Truth, who actually heard the 
Word of Truth. And, each, to some degree received it. No one just rejected 
it. No one said, "Oh that's not true". No, they received. To a degree they 
received. They heard the sound of it. They heard the vocal vibrations. The 
vocal vibrations hit their eardrums and registered truth in them. And they 
may have even had a wonderful time during those four or five days, and 
said, "Oh, this is it." Because the soul was just rejoicing. "This is the 
truth."  Yet, when the sound of the teacher was gone, when the sower had 
gone on to sow in other places, the ground was just not sufficient to bring 
forth the fruit. There was nothing wrong with the seed. It is strictly an 
issue of ground here. It is strictly an issue of a heart here. 

                      THE CONDITION OF THE HEART

It is not what is heard, but in this case it is who is doing the hearing. 
What is the condition of our heart? I am asking you that. I believe if you 
will go to this chapter in Mark, the Holy Spirit will actually take you to 
the ground that you represent. And, I believe the Spirit of God will begin 
to deal with you concerning the ground that you have presented the Lord for 
the seed that He would plant in expectation of the fullness of fruit, 
because that is what the Father expects. He expects. He expects nothing 
less than one hundred fold. Oh, there is that growth period of the thirty, 
the child, and the sixty, the young man; but there is that hundred fold 
that returns to the Father, the very Father's heart. That heart in which 
the Son has written the name of His own Father. This is the desire of the 
Father to receive unto Himself the fullness of what He saw from the 
beginning. It is God's desire to bring you and I into His expectation, that 
His expectation becomes our expectation. 
             
                 THE EXPECTATION OF THE FATHER

The word, "expectation" is translated in your Bible "hope". Look at that 
word in Romans 8:18 to the end, and understand that each time the word 
"hope" is used, understand it is expectation, or "the thing that the Father 
expects". It has become the expectation of the Creation. It is the 
expectation of those who are growing up in Christ. Paul says it there. Also 
"Christ in you" in Colossians the first chapter, "Christ in you, the hope", 
Christ in you, the expectation of glory, Christ in you the glory which the 
Father expects, Christ in you the expectation of the Father. The Father is 
expecting nothing less than the fullness of Christ coming forth in your 
inner man, transforming that inner man, the heart, the soul, into His very 
same image. The Father is not only expecting that in you, but in the whole 
Body, that the whole Body give evidence, bear the fruit of, come forth as a 
manifestation of the absolute fullness of Christ. This is what the Father 
saw from the beginning. Everything that He has done, He has subjected to 
the expectation of His heart. The old creation is subjected to it, that old 
Adamic creation. The Church is subjected to it. Heaven is in subjection to 
it. That is, nothing will be at liberty until what the Father has desired 
and seen from the beginning is made manifest in the very midst of it, in 
the midst of the Creation, in the midst of Heaven, in the midst of the 
Church. Only when what the Father has foreseen is made manifest will all 
things come into its rest, its liberty, its glory. The Father desires to 
bring you and I into His expectation, that we will pursue it with our 
hearts, that we will become those who are in pursuit of the expectation of 
the Father, that daily our hearts are in pursuit to know the Lord, are in 
pursuit to find Him out, in pursuit to feed upon Him, to grow, to see Him, 
to know Him. That our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole emotions, our 
whole soul, our whole being is turned to know the Lord. 

Now, how is it with your heart? Because it is to these that the Father will 
show His Son. I am literally thrilled with this word "show". In Isaiah 66 
there is a question there, "Where is the place of My rest?" God is asking 
this. "Where is the house that you shall build me? Where is the place of My 
rest?" What He is saying there is "Where is the fullness of my expectation? 
Where is this place where I am in complete rest, having done all, having 
completed all." Where is this workmanship? Then in the next verse, He 
answers, "Unto this man will I look.." And that is no mere mortal man. That 
is The Man that God saw from the beginning, The Man that He is bringing 
forth in His own Son, The Man who is Christ, all and in all, The Man in 
whose image we are now growing and being changed, The Last Man, the second 
Man who is the Lord from Heaven. "...unto this man will I look..." The term 
"look" and the term "show" is the same Hebrew word in the Hebrew text of 
your Bible. Where God told Abraham, "Leave, get out, get away from you 
father's house, your kindred, unto a land that I will show you." It is the 
same word. That is in Genesis 12:1, and in Genesis 12:7, "..and the Lord 
appeared unto Abraham.." It is the same word, and that word is used 
throughout. In Exodus, with the Israelites, as they are about to leave 
Egypt, and God tells Moses to tell them to stand still and see the 
salvation of the Lord. It is the same word, and the Greek equivalent of the 
word is used time and time again by Paul in such places as, "when it 
pleased the Father to reveal..." It is the same word. "...His Son in me." 

          THOSE CAUGHT UP IN THE PURSUIT OF EXPECTATION

Who are they in whom and to whom the Lord will show the fullness of His 
salvation? In whom He will reveal the fullness of His Son in such a measure 
as to transform those in whom He is revealed into His same image? Who are 
they? They who are caught up in the pursuit of expectation. Those whose 
hearts are turned to know the Lord. It is not the casual listener. It is 
not those who will glimpse at heaven from time to time. It is not those who 
wish they could do better while they go on with their lives. It is not 
those who have set their desire on being a good religious person. It is not 
those who have set their heart upon the attainment of something spiritual, 
whether it is an office or a gift or whatever. No. Not to those will He 
unveil full salvation. Not to those will He appear a second time. To those 
who look for Him. There it is....look. It is the same word, but can you see 
this? Isaiah 66, "Unto this man will I look." This is the gaze of God, and 
the word there will cause you to understand it is a soul gaze. When the 
Bible says, "Lift up your eyes.." it is the usage of the same term, and the 
 definition of that term, "lift up" there is to elevate your soul  into a 
higher realm. A soul gaze. 

It is the same thing spoken of in II Corinthians 3:18, "For we all with 
open face beholding as in a glass.." the gaze of the soul. What is it? God 
seeking to bring you and I into His gaze, seeking to bring you and I into a 
face to face confrontation with Him, looking one another in the eye. 
Gazing. The gaze that transforms, the gaze that illuminates, the gaze that 
changes, the gaze that brings forth much fruit. Seeking to bring us into 
the heart gaze of God, into the soul gaze of God, bringing us into His own 
expectation, for it is in us that He is bringing forth His expectation. Who 
is it that He is unveiling His fullness to? To whom, in whom is He 
revealing full salvation? To those who look for Him, He shall appear this 
second time without sin, without Adam, without the first, the first having 
been done away, taken away. The heart having turned from it to see the 
Lord. He shall appear unto full salvation. In who? In that one who shall 
turn his heart to know the Lord. We are talking about a heart that is in 
pursuit of expectation. 

            CHRIST ... THE CHURCH WHO WOULD BE THE BODY

Now, with that little foundation, let us consider II Kings 2, and the story 
here that is set forth here in Elijah and Elisha. Now, we are going to just 
hit the top of this. This is kind of like topping the tree today. But we 
are not through with this. We are going to come back to it again and again 
and again, until we get to the heart of the matter. Because, I see in this 
story God's absolute dealing with the Church, which is the Body of His own 
glorious and glorified Son. So, it is here that we want to spend some time. 
Elijah here, we are going to use as a type of Christ Himself. And, Elisha 
here, as the type of the Church, the Church who would be the Body of the 
Lord Jesus. Now, did you hear what I just said? Elijah as the type of 
Christ, and Elisha as the type of the Church who WOULD BE, that is who 
would function as, the Body of that Christ. Oh yes, the Church is His Body, 
but the Church is not functioning as His Body; because the Church by and 
large has never beheld itself as one with Him. The Church has never looked 
to the full expectation of God. The Church by and large has never seen the 
fullness of salvation. Because, by and large the heart of the Church is 
turned to spiritual things, and not the SPIRITUAL ONE, and to doing things 
rather than growing up in Him, and becoming a manifestation of Him in all 
things done. 

So, I am in one way distinguishing the Church from the Body of Christ in 
function, in reality, in expectation, though the Church in reality is that 
Body; but an heir as long as he is a child differeth nothing from a 
servant. It was given Him to be all things to the Church, which is His 
Body, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. But, there is an 
expectation which must fill the Church before the Church begins to function 
as His Body, and we find that here. We are going to move along through 
these verses, dealing with most of chapter two. "It came to pass, when the 
Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with 
Elisha from Gilgal." Now, the word "Gilgal" itself means "wheel", and it 
comes from a root word meaning "whirlwind". We are going to look at Gilgal 
in a little deeper fashion in a moment, but our story begins here with God 
desiring to bring about a relationship between Elijah and Elisha that is 
set in the heavens. They are about to depart from their earthly 
relationship to a heavenly relationship that shall be manifested a hundred 
fold in the earth by Elisha. But the very name of Gilgal here.....It is not 
by accident that they started it. There are three cities here that we are 
going to look at. Because Elisha pursues Elijah from one city to another 
city to another city, cross the Jordan to a place, into the heavens. Oh, he 
pursues him, and he never ceases his pursuit until he beholds the vision of 
God set in the heavens, and becomes a manifestation of that vision in the 
earth. 

Now, this is a tremendous search that is set before us, but I want us to 
examine, not only the surface of this story, but I want us to examine a 
relationship that is existing here between Elijah and Elisha. I want us to 
see that this is a relationship that you and I must develop by the Holy 
Spirit in our hearts if we are ever to behold, let alone manifest, full 
salvation. Our hearts are going to have to turn from all else in pursuit of 
the expectation of God. 
 
                        INTO THE HEAVENS

Elisha here is not just following a man. When the Lord would take up Elijah 
into the heavens....here we have a time. It is time to transfer everything 
of this relationship, of this association, into the heavens. The heavens 
are about to be opened, and the vision of God is about to be seen and 
manifested in the earth. So, we have a very particular time here in the 
lives of these two men, the Lord Jesus and His Church. And, you know, we 
have come to that time. You see, some have realized that and some have not. 
We are going to find three schools of prophets here that have not realized 
it at all. We will take time later to look into that. They have not 
realized it at all. They are running around prophesying, but they still do 
not know what is going on. Yet, they are prophets of the Lord, and they are 
very active in prophesying. They prophesy to the Church, but they cannot 
bring the Church into this heavenly vision. In fact, if the Church would 
substitute that for the heavenly vision, the Church would never come to the 
vision. But, here, we have the Church in pursuit of the expectation of God. 

Now, I want you to see it is not just Elisha following Elijah around on his 
circuit. No. There is an EXPECTATION that has been birthed. It is time. The 
expectation of the Lord. It is time that the Lord should take up Elijah 
into heaven by a whirlwind, by a chariot, by wheels of fire. Ezekiel saw 
this same thing. We are not talking about one being taken up and another 
being left all alone here. We are not talking about this. This is not the 
occasion that is being set here. Elisha is about to come to a vision of God 
that centers about Elijah. The Church is about to come to the vision of 
God, the centrality and supremacy of which is Jesus Himself, that is going 
to literally catch the Church up in a union with Him, in a transforming 
understanding and a transforming union empowering the Church to manifest 
Him one hundred fold in the earth. Now, that is the time that we have come 
to. This is the time that Elisha has come to here. The school of the 
prophets have not seen that. 
 
                        TESTED IN THE PURSUIT

"Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today?" 
That is all they understand. We will get into that later, but that is all 
they know. They have no true vision to declare, and what they say is true 
in part. But it is not the full salvation of the Lord. The only word that 
can bring you into the understanding of the full salvation of the Lord is 
that Eternal Word of God Himself revealed in you, because He is the 
centrality. He is the supremacy. He is the fullness. He is the Person of 
the vision of God's expectation. There is a tremendous thing here set 
before Elisha. This is where our story begins, and Elisha is going to 
pursue Elijah through three cities. Gilgal is where they will begin, and 
then to Bethel, and to Jericho. And, in each of these places, Elisha, the 
Church, is going to encounter the opportunity to stop, the urge to stop, 
the testing of his faith. And, in every case it is going to come to him 
through the religious body, through the spiritual body, through the 
ministries that are resident in those cities. But, we are going to look at 
these cities, not as cities, but as works of the Lord, significant works, 
as places, dwelling places that we must come to and encounter and be tested 
in our pursuit of the expectation of the Lord. 

You and I both know that names in the Bible are extremely important. They 
are not like the names of our cities today, which in many cases are named 
after some man or some this or that. No, the names in the Bible designate 
and demonstrate a nature and a character with regard to that person or that 
place or that thing. It is the names of these places rather than the nature 
or character that is in these names, what these cities actually stand for 
in our pursuit of Elijah. That is what we want to look at. It was not by 
accident that they went to these cities. They could have gone to any city, 
just walking around. No, these cities were on the way to a particular 
place, to a particular understanding, bringing us to a condition of 
beholding the vision of the Lord. Each of these cities, each of these 
dwelling places, each of these encounters are necessary to develop the 
heart which is capable of producing a hundred fold with regard to the 
indwelling Christ. We want to look at these three cities. Another thing, 
there are three cities, not two, not four, five or six, but three cities, 
signifying a complete work. They could signify, if we wanted to go on this 
search, thirty, and sixty and one hundred fold as related to Mark 4. 

We are looking here at the development of pursuit; and I want you to know 
that not only the world, not only the carnality of your own heart, but the 
religious system, the spiritual system is going to stand against, (in many 
cases unwittingly, unknowingly), but nonetheless, will stand against your 
pursuing this matter to its end. But to those who hold out faithful to the 
end... And that does not mean struggle through each twenty-four hour day so 
the devil will not get you. To those who hold out faithful, to those who 
exercise faithfully, those who exercise faith, hold out faithfully to the 
end. To the end of what? To the end of the pursuit. Israel could not 
steadfastly behold the end of that which is abolished. Those who will 
steadfastly behold, who will continue faithful to the end, they shall 
behold the full expectation of the Father, because it will be revealed in 
them and they will become the manifestation in the earth. It is a life. It 
is a life eradicating, a life changing, a life transforming, revealing that 
we are about to deal with here. Now, for Elisha, as for the whole Church, 
this journey begin at Gilgal. Now, I cannot say enough about this. Here is 
the paramount problem, the number one problem. Believers have not yet come 
to the understanding that the journey does not begin until we face a 
circumcision in our heart. And until we come to a circumcising in our 
heart, we are just wandering around in the wilderness. 
 
                       GILGAL - THE JOURNEY BEGINS

I really wonder how many believers have come to this place to where the 
journey has actually begun. I want you to understand something. Of all of 
this that was written of Israel, it was set in the Word of God for our 
admonition. It is not just stories. It was set there for a reason and a 
purpose. It is a significant spiritual truth. The order that is established 
in Israel is for our admonition. They came out of Egypt without too much 
difficulty, but then they came into the time of the wilderness, a time of 
testing, and it is there that it all broke down for them. It is there that 
they began to disobey. It is there that the Law was introduced. But, 
something else was introduced in the wilderness, and that was the 
TABERNACLE. And the Tabernacle for Israel was the instrument, established 
of God for the transition between Egypt and everything Egypt represents, 
and Canaan and everything that Canaan represents, which is the fullness of 
our life in Christ. And, the instrument of the transition was the 
Tabernacle. 

See if you can see this in your mind. Draw Egypt as a square, and then on 
the other side a circle for Canaan. Between these two draw a rough sketch 
of the Tabernacle, the three compartments of it. All you have to mark is 
the three altars, the brazen altar at the door of the first house, the 
golden altar  at the Holy Place, then the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the 
Covenant. Now, draw a line from Egypt. Now what we are going to do is go 
from Egypt to Canaan, but here is the way we are going to go. We come with 
our line from Egypt right to the front door of the Tabernacle, then draw 
the line from the brazen altar to the golden altar to the Holy of Holies, 
then draw the line over into Canaan. Because this is the route, 
spiritually, that we must take. The instrument of transition between Egypt 
and its thinking and all it represents, and Canaan is the Tabernacle. And 
in the midst of the Tabernacle is THE CROSS - these three altars. The first 
altar is the brazen altar of judgment. You understand the route. Israel, 
you see, never understood the fullness of the Tabernacle. It was set there 
as symbolic. When Israel got to Canaan, it was impossible for them to cross 
over into Canaan. They could not see themselves in Canaan, and they could 
not enter in because of unbelief. Now, all of this was written for our 
admonition. 

               BY DEATH... INTO FULLNESS OF LIFE

How exceptionally difficult it is for the carnal mind, the human mind, the 
human understanding to grasp the reality of having been taken out of Adam, 
out of this world, out of Egypt, and having been placed into Christ. There 
must come a time of transition in our heart, where we are seeing ourselves, 
not in Adam, but in Christ. But in order for us to see ourselves in Christ 
and not in Adam, we must first face this Tabernacle of the transition. We 
must first face the reality of the Cross. Because, you see, Egypt is so far 
removed from Canaan, in that it is on one side of the Cross. Canaan is on 
the other side of the Cross. Without coming through the Cross there is no 
way you and I can comprehend Canaan. What does all of this mean? It means 
that, except we come by death, we cannot enter in to the fullness of life. 
It is not just trying, with our natural mind, to understand we are no 
longer in Egypt. We are now in Christ. But it is coming to a realization of 
the instrument of the transition. We are brought out of Egypt in that we 
are crucified to Egypt. We are crucified to Egypt, and we are made alive to 
Christ. This is just the point. The natural mind cannot comprehend the 
working of the Cross, therefore the natural mind cannot comprehend the 
fullness of the life of Christ. 

Now, back to our story. The place where the journey begins. For instance, 
the Tabernacle. I want you to see the Tabernacle as a complete spiritual 
journey. Where does the journey begin? At the brazen altar, the altar where 
everything of the old, everything the animals represented was dealt with. 
The animals did not just represent sin. The animals represented the sinner 
as well, and the journey begins at the door of the Tabernacle. It does not 
begin at the golden altar or the Ark of the Covenant, (where most of us 
would like for it to begin, where we find ourselves as being seated with 
Him in heavenly places). We cannot comprehend heavenly places, because we 
have never come to grips with the brazen altar. Here we are at Gilgal. We 
are going to see the significance of Gilgal. This is where, in our hearts, 
the journey begins. There are two more cities, just like in the Tabernacle 
there are two more altars. Here these altars, this same thing is 
represented by Gilgal, Bethel and Jericho. It is all leading us to a 
realization whereby we can comprehend ourselves translated into the 
heavens, and realize that "I live. Yet not I but Christ liveth in me." So, 
the journey for the Church has to begin at Gilgal. 

To make it clearer, turn with me to Joshua 5, and let us see what Gilgal is 
all about, what is the  significance of Gilgal. Look at Joshua 5, "And it 
came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of 
the Jordan westward, and all of the kings of the Canaanites, which were by 
the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan until we 
were passed over, that their heart melted. Neither was there spirit in them 
any more, because of the children of Israel." Unfortunately the Amorites 
and the Canaanites had a greater fear of God and a greater understanding of 
the miracle of the transition than the Israelites did. But we are under a 
new order here. What has taken place in the wilderness? Everyone who came 
out of Egypt has died. What has taken place in the wilderness? What has 
taken place there? You say, "Trials and testings". Yes, trials and 
testings. But what has actually taken place in the wilderness where the 
Tabernacle was established? What has actually taken place there? Everyone 
of the age of accountability, of war-like men, all of those who were 
adults, representing the adulthood, the headship of Israel, everyone died. 
Out of that death has come a new Israel, a New Man under a new leadership, 
Joshua, and have passed over Jordan. But, now again, what have they got to 
identify with? Where for them does the journey begin? You and I by His 
death and His resurrection have come out from Adam into Christ. Where does 
the journey begin in our heart? How are we going to possess the land? How 
are we going to bring forth the thirty, the sixty, the one hundred-fold? 
How are we going to grow up into His fullness? How is all of that 
accomplished? What realization must we begin with? What understanding must 
be established in our hearts? 

                     CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST

It is very simple to say that the understanding that must be established in 
our hearts is the understanding that was established in the heart of Paul, 
when he said, "I am crucified with Christ." Notice that statement in 
Galatians 2:20. Pay attention to that for a moment. "I am crucified.." Yes, 
but not just that. Paul did not get to define his death. He did not get to 
define his cross. "I am crucified WITH CHRIST." Christ defines the death. 
Christ defines the Cross. I did not commit suicide. I was crucified with 
Christ. That means HIS DEATH IS MY DEATH, and my death is no less a death 
than He died, because I am crucified with Him. Here is where the journey 
into life begins, with the comprehending of death, with the comprehending 
of death. Here, it is all set in Israel in a type. But the Hebrew writer 
says, if they who had the type did not comprehend, and therefore receive 
just reward for their lack of comprehension, then what of us upon whom the 
ends of the world have come? What of us who have actually made this 
transition? If we fail to obey, if we fail to comprehend, if we fail to 
understand, what is our fate? What is our state? I want you to see that, 
for the heart who pursues the expectation of God, here is where the journey 
is going to begin. And, many of us are going to find, that in all of our 
trials and all of our testings, we have only been by that brought to the 
beginning, that our journey starts at Gilgal, in Christ. These Israelites 
are in Christ. This is a type of you and I being in Christ. But it begins 
with a comprehension. 
 
Something has been typed in the Red Sea. Something has been set forth in 
the Tabernacle. Something has been established in the crossing of Jordan. 
And, now, they must come to a comprehension of all that. And the 
comprehension of all of that which is set in type at the Red Sea, that is 
set in type in the Tabernacle, that is set in type at the Jordan, all of 
that must now be comprehended. And we are going to see that in these three 
cities. And it starts at Gilgal. Notice verse 2: "At that time..." There is 
a distinct time when the journey begins. Now pay attention. There is not a 
time for the journey to begin. The journey can begin any time you turn your 
heart to the Lord. But there is a distinct time when the journey begins. 
The journey begins when you turn your heart toward the Lord. And, what is 
going to happen when you turn your heart toward the Lord? It is going to 
undergo a CIRCUMCISION. You are going to turn to face the reality of what 
it means to come through the Red Sea, what it means to come through the 
three altars of the Tabernacle, what it means to come through, pass over 
the Jordan. At Gilgal you are going to turn your heart and there is a 
comprehension to be brought at that time. 

                   THE PURSUIT BEGINS AT GILGAL

Now, Elisha, in his conquest, in his pursuit, begins at Gilgal. Here, 
Israel, under the leadership of Joshua, who is a type of Christ, as Elijah 
was a type of Christ, is the beginning for the whole house. You see, this 
is individual, and it is corporate as well. What every individual must come 
to, what the Body of Christ must come to. And, here the journey begins. The 
westward journey begins. There is something coming out of the east, coming 
from the east, going into the west and filling up all the land. Who is it 
that comes out from the east? Not you. Not me. Who is it that comes out 
from the east? There is only One whose coming is from the east, and that 
One is the LORD. This realization of "not I but Christ" begins at Gilgal 
where there is a circumcision that takes place in my heart, where my heart 
faces the realization that it is no longer I who lives, but it is Christ 
who lives in me. At that time, and this will begin in you, and it will mark 
a definite time. In fact, time begins for you at Gilgal, and it is a time 
of learning Christ. At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, "make thee 
sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel a second time." 
Now, I want you to look with me at the word "sharp". Let us consider 
something. 
In Hebrews 4:9, "There remaineth therefore a rest unto the people of God.." 
What is Israel about to enter into? They are about to enter into Canaan, 
yes. They are about to enter into their rest, to the place of rest. 

Remember, when their journey began at the Red Sea, what did the Lord say? 
"Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." They never did comprehend 
that, because that cannot be comprehended at the Red Sea. Because salvation 
goes on beyond the Red Sea. All of the Tabernacle is part of that 
comprehension. All that is symbolized in crossing over Jordan before the 
Ark of the Covenant. All that is part of that salvation. All of the height, 
the length, the depth, the breadth that is set forth in Canaan leading 
finally to Mount Zion. All of that is part of that salvation. "Stand 
still". That is a word that implies rest. "Stand still and see the 
salvation of the Lord." What has the Lord set before us? He has set before 
us a place wherein we shall rest. What is He bringing us into? He is 
bringing us into His place of rest. 

                         HIS PLACE OF REST
 
Exodus 15:17, "Thou shalt bring them in, and thou shall plant them in the 
mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, that thou hast 
prepared for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary which thy hands have made 
and the Lord shall reign forever." What does he say? Where is this house of 
my rest? "Unto this man will I look". What does Jesus say? "Come unto me. I 
will give you rest. Take my yoke, learn of me. Ye shall find rest." What is 
the ultimate purpose of God? Bringing us into the place of His rest, where 
their is no more work to be done, but a work to be made manifest in all of 
the earth. A finished, a total, a complete Man, a Man who is at rest with 
God, for there is none of the old six days found in him. He is the Man of 
the seventh day, the Lord of the Sabbath, in whom we are at rest. Where is 
the beginning of this rest? It is in comprehending, "I no longer live, 
Christ lives in me." Until you and I come to that comprehending, we cannot 
comprehend what it means to be in Him. Because we will visualize ourselves 
after the old man living in Canaan trying to be like Jesus, trying to be 
righteous, trying to be spiritual, and there is no rest in that. Wherever I 
exist, there is no rest. Wherever my work exists there is no rest. He is 
bringing us into a place where we can come to a comprehending "No one lives 
here but Him" and everything He is, He is made unto me. At that point we 
begin to enter in to rest. 

Now, here is the beginning of the journey. Hebrews 4:9, "..there remaineth 
a rest.." And, to most who are in Christ, there still remaineth a rest. 
They have not yet entered into that rest, which is simply, yet profoundly, 
the comprehending that it is not I that lives here, but it is Christ. He 
has brought me into the place that He has prepared for Himself. He has 
brought me there through death and through resurrection, but it is HIS 
DEATH AND HIS RESURRECTION. He has brought us there and established us 
there for one reason. That now by the Holy Spirit... you see, there is the 
work of the Father. He has planned this. He has proclaimed. He has 
purposed. It is the work of the Son. He has achieved this through His death 
and His resurrection. And now as the work of the Spirit, He has come to 
give us the comprehension, that is, to show us what we are part of. This is 
what Paul says when he is declaring, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ 
Jesus, he is a new creature." He is not one trying to be new, like most of 
us. He is a New Creature. "Old things are passed away. All things are 
become new." There must come a comprehension of that. That is why the Holy 
Spirit has come. The Spirit. The Spirit of Truth is come to lead us into 
the comprehending of truth. The Holy Spirit is come to show us our 
salvation, that we might become a manifestation of that work, rather than a 
manifestation of our work trying to be like that work. But, that we would 
come to a realization of the glorious work of the Son of God, because 
everything that the Father has purposed, has seen, has set His eyes upon, 
the Son of God has performed. 

                 THE SOUL MUST COME TO LIGHT

But it will not be manifested until it is revealed in you and I because we 
are at the very center of that work. We are that which He has brought forth 
in Himself, for the purpose that we may comprehend, that we may awaken, 
that we may grow up in Him, and that we may be transformed into that very 
self-same work. The point here is that the transformation is of the inner 
man. The Spirit, that living Christ is already in us, but now the soul. It 
is the soul that must come to light, the soul that must come to a 
comprehending, and we are back where we began. The heart. Here is where the 
transformation must begin. But, whose heart shall be transformed? The heart 
that turns to pursue Him, the heart that will not cease following on to 
know Him, and where does this journey begin? At Gilgal. Where does our 
journey begin? With a circumcision, with a realization "not I but Christ". 
And, I am telling you again. Until we come to that basic blow, that basic 
circumcision, that basic realization, our journey has not begun. We are 
like Israel, though we are in Christ, still wandering around in the 
wilderness, still not comprehending, still not seeing the salvation which 
is set before us in Christ Jesus. So, we are not walking out Canaan. We are 
wandering in the wilderness. Therefore, there remaineth a rest, and this 
rest is for the people of God. "For he that is entered into His rest, he 
also hath ceased." The word "also" here means "in the same manner, to the 
same degree, by the same method." "He also..." Also as what? "He also hath 
ceased from his works as God did from His." 

                     REST IN THE SEVENTH DAY

Tell me this. When Jesus said, "It is finished", was it finished? When His 
head hung upon His dead shoulder, and He said, "It is finished", and 
released His eternal spirit into the hands of the Most High God, was it 
finished? Did He bring to death the whole of the first creation, the whole 
of the Adamic humanity, the whole of the Jew, the Greek, the bond, the 
free, the black, the white, the you, the me? Did He bring all of that, or 
was He lying to God? Was it finished? Did He truly die to sin, to Adam, to 
the world, to the six-day creation, to everything that preceded Him, even 
the spiritual types and shadows that preceded Him? Did He die to all of 
that? Did He bring it all to a finish or did He not? He that hath entered 
into His rest hath also ceased from his own works as God did from His. When 
the Father entered into the seventh day, and there found rest in the 
seventh day from all of the six day creation, and blessed the seventh day 
and rested in it, did He continue the six-day creation in the seventh day? 
Did He continue making Adam? Did He continue making cattle? Did He continue 
making things out of dirt? Did He continue the six-day creation, or did He 
end it? Is any of it found in the seventh day? Did He cease, or did He not? 

You and I must come to a comprehending that we have been brought into that 
place of rest through the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. But 
in that He died, He died once unto sin; and in that He liveth, He liveth 
unto God. In that we died with Him, we died with Him. In that we live with 
Him, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. And now the 
whole purpose of spiritual life is to take His yoke and learn Him. It is to 
follow Him from Gilgal, to Bethel, to Jericho. It is to grow up in Him and 
 at last, comprehend our union with Him in the heavens. But one who still 
supposes himself to be alive, one who still supposes himself to be Jew or 
Gentile or black or white or any part of the six-day creation, can never 
come to a comprehending of his union with Christ. He can never come to 
that, because nothing of the six-day creation is at rest, or is in union 
with Christ in the heavens. None of it is there, and as long as you and I 
see ourselves as part of that six-day creation, we cannot come to a God-
given, Spirit-revealed comprehending of a union with Christ. We will always 
be working toward it. We will always be trying to accomplish it. We will 
always be trying to figure it out. It will always be me. But Paul came to 
this comprehending, not early on in his Christian walk, but at the 
beginning of his Christian walk, Paul came to this comprehending. 

                  NO CIRCUMCISION IN THE WILDERNESS

Perhaps in the next lesson, we can deal with his three days of blindness 
during which God began to reveal the Son in him, bringing him to a 
comprehending that "It is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me." Out 
from that three days of blindness, that three days of darkness, (three is 
always used here), came forth the realization of a new life, of a New 
Creature, of a New Creation, of a union with Christ that is brought forth 
in the resurrection. But nothing of the old man is resurrected. And this is 
what is being typed here at Gilgal. Nothing of the old remains. Look at it. 
Why did they do this? Why were they circumcised here? Joshua 5:4, "This is 
the cause why Joshua did circumcise. All of the people that did come out of 
Egypt that were males, even all of the men of war, died in the wilderness 
by the way after they came out of Egypt." God wanted this brought back 
before their eyes. All that came out of Egypt is dead! Nothing of it 
remains. But these who came out of those who came out of Egypt were not 
circumcised. But all of the people who were born in the wilderness, by the 
way, they had not circumcised. There is no circumcision in the wilderness. 
There is no comprehending of death to self in the wilderness. Can you see 
that? There is no circumcision in the wilderness. There is a struggle to 
enter into Canaan, but they could not because of unbelief. There is all of 
these trials. There is the test, but we will not go into that just now. But 
there was no one circumcised in the wilderness. Because, circumcision is a 
type of realization. It is the sign of death. Not death itself, but the 
sign of the Covenant. It is the sign, the realization. 

                  THE COMPREHENDING OF THE CROSS

Do you know that the Cross was a real death for you and a real death for 
Christ, but now the Cross must be wisdom. Paul says it is the wisdom of 
God. The Cross must now  be a realization of death to you. The Cross must 
become a comprehending. The Cross must become a spiritual realization to 
you. Here in Hebrews, Paul calls it "that circumcision that is of the 
heart." Paul is talking about the rest. Then in verse 11, "...to labor 
therefore to enter into that rest..." And what is the labor of entering 
into that rest? It is the comprehending of circumcision. It is not the 
laboring of the flesh. "For the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper 
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and 
spirit". Man and Christ. Inner man from New Man. Old man from New Man. 
First man from second Man. Life from death. "....and of the joints and 
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." This 
is the circumcision that you and I must go through. It is when we come to 
Gilgal, to the realization of the circumcision. It is when the Word of God, 
when our hearts are turned to see the living Word Himself, that is sharper 
than any two-edged sword. But, the first comprehension that you will come 
to in the pursuing of the Son, in the pursuing of the ultimate intention of 
the expectation of God's heart; the first comprehending Paul came to in God 
revealing His Son in Paul, the first comprehending is, "it is not I". I no 
longer live. A circumcision takes place, and that is exactly what happens 
here at Gilgal. 

"He circumcised the children here at the hill of the foreskin". What 
significance the hill has with Calvary, the hill. Not only that, but verse 
two says the children of Israel were circumcised a second time. What is 
this except the realization spoken of in Hebrews 9. That He identified 
Himself with us in death, and for those who look for Him, He shall appear 
the second time without sin. When God reveals His Son in you, there is 
going to come a realization in you that He is appearing without sin. There 
is no me here. He is not appearing here as a Gentile or a Jew or a JW or a 
Tom. He is appearing without sin here. There is a circumcision that takes 
place in our heart. There is a cutting away. The journey begins here. 
We will continue this in the next lesson. Search this out in Kings. Look at 
Gilgal. Look at Jericho. Look at Bethel. And it will lead to a tremendous 
comprehending of heaven, a tremendous comprehending of the chariots and 
horsemen of God. This same thing that Ezekiel saw, this glorious catching 
up into the heavens of which Elisha was a manifested type of in the earth, 
because the mantle of it fell back to him. 

But we are at the beginning of that journey, the comprehending that it is 
not I. Here in Canaan, it is not I. Here in Canaan IT IS CHRIST - the 
comprehension of that begins at Gilgal, at the place of the circumcision, 
the place where the Word of God is a sharp sword and divides asunder the 
old from the new. May that circumcision begin to take place in me and in 
you. May we who have wandered for years, begin the journey to the fullness 
of the comprehending of the full salvation that is ours in Christ Jesus, 
even the salvation that we must make manifest in all of the earth.