“And I looked, and lo a Lamb stood on Mount Zion and with Him an hundred and forty and four thousand having His Father’s name written in their foreheads,” Rev. 14:1-5. “And they sang a new song BEFORE THE THRONE (OF GOD) and before the four living creatures and before the elders (of the heavenly Sanhedrin)…” Rev. 14:3 AMP.

THE THRONE OF GOD, CONTINUED

As we continue our meditation on what the ‘throne of God’ is all about, I would like to give a particular definition here based on Scripture. In Rev. 13:1-2, we are told that, “…the dragon gave him (the beast of verse 1) his power, and his seat (throne) and great authority.”

We do know, as well, that the dragon, which is the devil, is here being spoken of as having given its authority to the system (the beast) that persecutes the Church. But what is interesting to us here is that the devil has a throne. And it is this throne and the power thereof that he gave to the beast.

This is what we read in Matt. 4 about the temptation of Jesus, how “…the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD, and THE GLORY OF THEM – And said unto Him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me” (vs. 9-1O).

This actually speaks of a universal throne (authority) of the devil given to those who obey him. For we read of “…the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh IN the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Now the throne of the devil is spiritual because the devil is a spirit. And with that it would not be difficult for us to understand, as well, that the throne of God is spiritual, for God is Spirit.

CHRIST ON GOD’S UNIVERSAL THRONE

In line with the prophecy of Zechariah about Jesus, that the man called THE BRANCH, shall build the Lord a temple (which is what He spoke about in John 2:18-22, the temple of His body after resurrection) “…And He shall bear the glory, and shall SIT and RULE UPON HIS (God’s) throne; and be a priest upon His throne…” (Zech. 6:11-13), Paul said, “The great point of all that we have said is that we have a high priest of exactly this kind. He has His place at the right of the throne of divine majesty in the heavens and He is the minister of the sanctuary (temple) and of the true tent of meeting which the Lord, and not any man set up” (Heb. 8:1-2) JB.

Furthermore, that Jesus in this position of authority “…regulates the universe by the mighty power of His command. He is the one who died to cleanse us and clear our record of all sin, and then sat down in highest honour beside the great God of heaven” (Heb. 1:3-4) TLB.

Now you can see that this universal dominion (throne) to which Jesus has risen into through His obedience, death and resurrection (Acts 2:29-34) is what the devil was craftily wanting Him to ascend to through the wrong spirit. The exact thing – dominion that Adam was supposed to have, from whence he fell by listening to the voice of Satan (Gen. 3:1+).

JERUSALEM THE PLACE OF GOD’S THRONE

From where exactly is the Christ ruling? Where is this throne located? In Jeremiah 17:12, we are told that, “…There is the glorious throne on high from the start; it is the place of our Sanctuary” (Interlinear Trans). So here we find that the throne is located at the sanctuary. And we are told that God is enthroned, seated between the Cherubs on top of the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the Sanctuary (Exo. 25:22; 1Sam. 4:4).

Now the presence of God on the mercy seat was symbolized by a brilliant light called the Shekinah glory (Lev. 16:2) from which position He determined to commune with His people. Now follow this. Whatsoever housed the Ark of God is His temple (Sanctuary). And the Ark carries the presence of God, the mind and will of God, for the laws were in it.

As a matter of fact, the Ark was the strength and the life of Israel, for it was God in a bodily shape going and residing among them. But in relation to what God had in mind to do in the latter days as touching the Ark, He said in prophecy through Jeremiah, “Then, when your land is once more filled with people, says the Lord, you will no longer wish for “the good old days of long ago” when you possessed the Ark of God’s Covenant. These days will not be missed or even thought about, and the Ark will not be reconstructed” (Jer. 3:16) TLB.

Why? Because “…this is the new agreement I will make with the people of Israel (the church of God) says the Lord; I “will write my laws in their minds so that they will know what 1 want them to do without my even telling them, and these laws will be in their hearts so that they will want to obey them and I will be their God and they shall be my people, and no one then will need to speak to his friend or neighbour or brother saying ‘you too, should know the Lord; because everything, great and small, will know me already” (Heb. 8: 10-11) TLB.

So we find that the Ark will not be sought after, because what was in it has been transferred into the hearts of His people. They can at this stage obey and perform the will of God because it is no longer externally communicated to them, the laws and the nature of God which it represented has become internalized. Therefore, it has now become their true nature.

To be continued…