SATAN’S REBELLION AGAINST THE THRONE
Why does God want to bring us to the throne? It is because of the rebellion of Satan against God’s throne (Isa. 14). Satan intended to exalt his throne up to the heavens, but God said He would cast him to the ground and bring his captives to the throne. God can never receive the full glory until we are brought to the throne. One day we will be brought to the throne. Then God will be able to boast to Satan. He will triumphantly declare that Satan’s captives have been brought to the throne. However, you must realize that, in your present condition, you are not qualified to be on the throne. Do you look like a king? If you were weighed on the scales, I am afraid that your spiritual weight would only be half an ounce. It is a very serious matter. We are called to be the sons of God, and our destiny is to be kings, but God must work on us today to qualify us for the kingship. Praise the Lord, God has chosen us! God has called us to the throne. A strong proof that God has called us is that we are calling on the name of the Lord. God’s calling is to bring us to the throne.
THE LORD JESUS
BEING A MAN ON THE THRONE
Praise the Lord! We can boast that today there is a man on the throne! Before Bethlehem and before the cross, there was not a man on the throne. The Lord Jesus traveled through Bethlehem, through Nazareth, through Jerusalem, and to the hill of Golgotha. Through His resurrection and ascension He was brought to the throne. Praise the Lord! A real man whose name is Jesus is on the throne. This is why we say, "Jesus is Lord!" and this is why we say, "Lord Jesus!" God has always been the Lord, but a man has not always been the Lord. Through His resurrection in His ascension, God made this same Jesus, "both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). Jesus was a normal man, a little Nazarene, but God made Him the Lord. God made a man the Lord. Today, the Lord of the heavens and the earth is a man! Do you really realize that the Lord of the universe today is a man, our Lord Jesus? Hallelujah for this man! It would not seem strange for us to say that Jehovah Elohim is the Lord of the universe. But, it is hard for us to see that a man who was so small that people could crucify Him, kill Him, and bury Him could be the Lord of the universe. When Judas and the multitude came to the garden, He did not run away. He willingly made Himself weak and allowed them to arrest Him and put Him on the cross. They killed Him and buried Him, but God resurrected Him. Furthermore, God raised Him up and set Him at His right hand, making Him the Lord of all the universe. Today, the Lord of the universe is a man.
THE LORD JESUS
BEING THE PIONEER TO THE THRONE
We also need to see that the Lord Jesus led the way to the throne. He was the pioneer cutting the path to the throne (Heb. 2:10, Gk.). But He is not the only man destined for the throne. He has cut the path in order that we may follow. He was the first one to the throne, and we will come after Him. We are marching to the throne. God is going to bring us into glory and put us on the throne.
THE APPEARANCE
OF THE MAN ON THE THRONE
The appearance of the man on the throne has two aspects: from His loins upward He looks like electrum, and from His loins downward He looks like fire (1:27). The upper part of a man from his loins to his head is the part of feeling, of sensation. This part signifies his nature and disposition. According to His nature and disposition, the Lord Jesus on the throne looks like electrum. The lower part of a man’s body is for moving. The appearance of fire from the loins downward signifies the Lord in His move. When the Lord comes to us, He first comes as fire. When He stays with us, He becomes electrum. Whenever the Lord moves through us, He moves like fire to burn, enlighten, and search. After the burning, something will remain, and that will be electrum, a mixture of gold and silver signifying the Lamb-God, the redeeming God. God wants us to gain Him as the electrum, but He first has to come to us as fire to enlighten, to search, and to burn. Through the fire, He will become electrum to us. If we would gain Him as the electrum, we must experience Him as the burning fire.
Do you realize that nothing good dwells in us? (Rom. 7:18). We may even itemize some of the negative things that are in us: division, strife, hatred, envy, temper, self-love, self-goal, ambition, selfishness, ego, and so many other ugly, evil things. We are full of these things, but we have little of the Lord. We need the Lord to come to us and to burn out all the negative things. After we have been burned out, the redeeming God as the electrum will remain in us. No matter how clear our sky is and no matter how much we may have the throne in our sky, we need the Lord’s presence as the fire, enlightening, searching, burning, and remaining as the electrum. This is the visitation of the Lord with us. This is the Lord’s move with us and upon us. We are very blessed because we are under the Lord’s visitation. The Lord comes to visit us as a consuming fire, and we gain Him as electrum, the redeeming God. When others are with us, they should be able to sense that we have such a God Who is the electrum.
(The Visions of Ezekiel, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee)
