The golden lampstand, or candlestick, stands to the left as one enters through the door of the tabernacle. It is made of pure gold, from one piece of metal, has no joints, and is carved with buds and flowers under each branch of it. It stands on a square base on the floor of the tabernacle, with six branches, three on the one side and three on the other. The seven lamps are level at the top.

The candlestick represents ONENESS WITH THE HOLY GHOST.

THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST

This is the first operation in the tabernacle which shows forth the perfection of God in man in an operation involving God and man. The previous emblems or pieces of furniture either showed BRASS, which signified imperfection and death to something, or as in the table of the shewbread, it was made of wood which showed humanity, though covered by the nature of God. This candlestick is made of pure gold, which signifies the pure nature of God. It is saying that the Holy Spirit when He comes into our spirits, brings PERFECTION TO OUR SPIRITS, and there is nothing of man left in our spirits, though the soul and body remain as human as we will let them. This operation brings perfection to the CHURCH, in that when we are in the Spirit, we can operate as perfect as God. That is, when we come together for worship, it is just as if Jesus is in our midst when we operate in the Spirit. That is the reason why in this realm, there is no place for us to say that a man or a woman said such and such. It was either in the Spirit or in self, and if self is dead, then it must be in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in us.

DIVINE ORDER

The three branches on the one side and the three on the other speak of God’s divine order of things. Six is the number of man. If the branches were six, then they would be just pure man and no perfection, since six is the highest number man can attain to. But the SEVENTH candlestick, which is in the center, divides in two that which would be the number of man, making it THREE AND THREE instead of six. Three is God’s divine order, and three twice given shows that the church has the witness of God’s divine order within herself. We see, therefore, that perfection only comes in JESUS CHRIST, for He is the center candlestick (lampstand).

THE GLORY OF GOD

To bring forth the glory of the light takes three things.

1) The gold 2) The oil 3) The wick

THE GOLD

The gold is the pure nature of God, without mixture, as only can be brought forth by the work of the Holy Ghost within us. This is covered with fruits and flowers, which shows the bringing forth of godliness. Fruitfulness is the nature of God, and the flowers depict TRUTH which has been engraved deep within the structure, not something which has been put onto it, but that which has become part of its own nature. This speaks of Spirit work in our lives as the work of Hiram the artificer, who God specially endowed with wisdom to build and decorate the Temple of Solomon (1st Kings 7:13-45). Deep marks of beauty sharply engraved in the skin of our consciousness, and indelibly imprinted upon our souls, make us not only the property of God, bearing the marks of Jesus in our bodies, BUT make God a part of our property.

Gold is the only metal I know, which does not burn, but is made pure by fire. This speaks of the indestructibility of the pure nature of God within.

PURE OLIVE OIL

This oil is not manufactured, but is obtained by beating the olive berries from the palm olive tree. This evergreen tree gives forth its strength to its berries which contain this vegetable oil. It was the smiting of the rock by Moses which brought forth the water for the deliverance of Israel. It was the pressing of the life from the man Jesus which brought the Holy Ghost to us. The oil is a type of the Holy Ghost. The container of the oil is the candlestick, made of pure gold. We can thus see that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is not within the soul of man, but in his spirit. His Spirit dwells in our spirit. The work of the Holy Ghost is in the soul, but He lives in the spirit of man. This is the reason that the candlestick is shown in the Holy Place which is the realm of the soul.

Proverbs 20:27, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly (soul).”

THE WICK

There is no authenticity for the thought that the wick was made from the old garments of the priests. However, this could well be true.

ONE GREAT LESSON

We must, however, learn this one great lesson. There are many more true things which God has deliberately omitted from our Bible, because they have no direct bearing on our spiritual existence. We should never, therefore, seek out irrelevant revelations which will only serve TO CHOKE our gospel, cramming it with generalities and thoughts of no spiritual importance. The wick, whatever it is made of, signifies humanity. The oil, which is the Holy Spirit, preserves it from being immediately consumed. By the coordinated effort of the three, a fourth is produced; the light created from the fires of the Outer Court.

THE BRANCHES

The candlestick or lampstand looks like a a tree with branches. The center stem is called the candlestick, and has six branches. In John 15:5, Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches.”

THE FOURTH CHURCH AGE

The candlestick or lampstand represents the fourth church age, wherein is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon God’s people, as a preparation for the overshadowing of the church by God. The bringing forth of the Manchild church is the final act of God in the creation of man in His likeness.

Ezekiel 47 speaks of four moves of the Spirit in the earth. The fourth move brings man into the full flow of the living waters.

John 7:38 speaks of living waters flowing from the belly (soul) of man.

Ezekiel 47 says the waters would flow from the house (temple). When we put the two together, we see that man is that temple referred to.

In Ezekiel 47:3, the man with the line in his hand measures. First, 1,000 cubits of water flows to the ankle. The first move brings man only ankle-deep in the Spirit. The second 1,000 cubits of water flowed to the knees. Man was knee-deep in the Spirit. The third 1,000 cubits of water flowed to the loins. Man was half-way covered, and at the same time half-way buried in God. The fourth 1,000 cubits of water flowed to cover man completely. God had made His final move in the earth.

I believe that this is the time of the final outpouring in which we now live. This outpouring is hurling men from their thrones, and although the water is rising gradually, it will eventually overflow every kingdom, in the spiritual sense and finally in the natural.

This therefore is the meaning of the phrase used here, “the fourth church age.”

It began at Pentecost, was arrested by the incursion of Satan in the church, broke out at Azusa Street in Los Angeles and some other points all over the world, and in our time is making a new resurgence among all peoples of the world. Nothing will stop the flow of the Spirit now. It is going to become a flood and heal the whole earth. Praise the Lord! The barriers and fences of religion and the walls of man’s ideas and programs are doomed in the path of the mighty flow of the Spirit. You see the signs of it in every religious organization. The true children of God everywhere are listening to the Holy Spirit, and soon and very soon, no man will find a place for his feet. It will be “waters to swim in.”

PERFECTION

Man cannot attain to perfection with himself as a carnal being, BUT he can be perfect in his OPERATION now, if he remains in the Spirit. A car might have worn parts and worn tires, but yet it operates perfectly. In the realm of the GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT, man walks into a place of perfection. In the Spirit, we discern perfectly, we speak perfectly, we prophesy perfectly, and all the operation of the Spirit is as perfect as God is perfect. One does not make mistakes when he is in the Spirit, neither can a prophecy be wrong which is in the Spirit of God.

EQUALITY WITH CHRIST

The seven lamp stands are on one level at the top which signifies equality with Christ. When man comes forth in Christ, he will sit in an equal place with Jesus Christ as part of the Christ Himself. Ephesians 2:6, “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

There is perfect equality between the head and the body. Jesus is the head and we are the body, WHEN THE BODY FUNCTIONS IN THE SPIRIT.

It is, therefore, not just a matter of being perfect at some future time, and then gaining equality with Christ, but obeying the Spirit now, operating perfectly now, because we have been given an equal status with Christ. This is not to bring Christ down, but to lift humanity. Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” John 12:32.

It is necessary for us to understand equality. This is a statutory equality which is different from the position one holds in the body, and the work appointed for each to do.

In other words, Jesus is the head and the different functions are apportioned out to us, the body. We are just as important and equal in the body operation as the head, but, of course, we are not the head. If one part usurps the function of another, then two jobs would be undone.

I am afraid that this is the problem of the body today.

ERROR IN THE BODY

Before we attain this perfection, which entails changing the human nature to the DIVINE NATURE (2nd Peter 1:4), we must abide in the perfection of the Spirit. At present, we do partake of the divine nature in a limited way, but then we shall in its fulness. No man will rise to the perfect image of God before the death and the resurrection of the FIRSTFRUITS COMPANY, and this event shall jolt all creation. No man is correct in going around saying he is Christ. He cannot be Christ until the firstfruits come forth, and we shall all know about this when it happens, because perfection will come to a body of people and not to an individual. Thus it is the body that will be called Christ, and not the parts. This is the meaning of the scripture in Matthew 24:23,

“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.”

If Christ was going to come in this fashion, then in obedience to the scripture, we would not believe Him when He comes.

This scripture, more than any other, clearly says that Christ will not come and say unto any man, “I am Christ.” Thus, any person who says this is doing so in the spirit of the antichrist. The people of God who are now being taught that because Christ is coming forth in His church in the individual members, that we are Christ, are being “artfully and cunningly” prepared by the devil to accept the antichrist. My instruction to you is that you must repent now and cease from this heresy, if so be that you thought it was all right to worship the Christ in your brother. Worship the head, not the body. The body is not yet perfect. We must only worship God.

THE HIDDEN PURPOSE

In the dispensation of grace, it is readily revealed and easy to be seen, that the Holy Spirit comes into the lives of the believers to endow them with power. Power first is to overcome sin within, and then secondly to give the believer supernatural power for service in the Lord’s business. There are two other areas of the work and purpose of the Holy Spirit which are not readily seen, and were indeed a mystery until God has begun slowly to open the message to us as we mature in Him. The first area is the overcoming of self. This involves a man “deny(ing) himself, and take(ing) up his cross and follow(ing)” Christ. Matthew 16:24. Self dies hard. Self is subtle. Many times, man believes he hears God when he is listening to himself. Is it GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS OR SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS? Any preaching or prophecy which is self-centered, and dwells on the goodness of the individual and does not exalt Jesus or God, is not of God.

THE INSEMINATION OF THE BRIDE

The second and great work of the Holy Ghost is to plant the seed of life into the womb of the church, which is the soul of the believer. It is far more important to God to change the NATURE of the believer, than to endow him with power. No matter how much power the individual has, if he or she is not changed from within, God has not yet brought forth a SON. God wants to multiply, just as we want to multiply. It is within HIS DIVINE nature to bring forth children. This nature of God is expressed in everything He makes. The grass, the flowers, the trees, the birds, the animals, and all things bring forth abundantly.

God’s order of bringing forth is the same everywhere. The scripture declares that everything brings forth after its own kind. Therefore, if we desire corn, we plant corn. If we must bring forth Christ in the earth, then we must plant Christ. What the ministry has been doing for hundreds of years is planting themselves in people and expecting to bring forth Christ.

God’s divine order is revealed in Luke 1:28, 30-33. God first sent the angel Gabriel to Mary with a message.

“Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women. Fear not, Mary, for thou has found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great and be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.”

This message of the angel was absolutely positive. He skipped 2,000 years in one sentence to bring all the good news concerning Jesus. Not a negative note – nothing was mentioned of the death and suffering. The intention was clear to bring faith in Mary to receive the Holy Ghost and the work He should do within her. Mary cried,

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy Word.” Luke 1:38.

The angel left. His work was done.

The minister of the gospel is the angel; the messenger who carries the word of the Lord to the maiden, the church. The church is not the wife of the minister. The minister is not the husband of the church, he is the husbandman, not planting his own seed, but the seed of the word to invoke faith in the maiden. When the faith is invoked in her, then she receives the Holy Ghost. He it is that plants the seed of the Christ within the soul, which is the womb of the church. The overshadowing of the Holy Ghost is the overshadowing which is necessary to bring forth the change of the human nature to that of the divine nature.

OBEDIENCE

This obedient nature can only be planted within man when he obeys the Spirit of the Lord. John 14:23 shows this plainly. In verse 22, Judas, not Iscariot, asks the Lord a most pertinent and direct question.

“Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not unto the world?” Verse 23, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and WE will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

This shows that the coming of the Christ is first within the believer, BUT only the believer who obeys the Holy Ghost.

The further explanations here show that every man who loves God keeps His sayings. The ministries and believers who go about freely expressing their love for God, yet continue to “do their own thing,” are only deceiving themselves that they love God. In short, love is obedience.

MAN’S EFFORT

We can see here that no amount of effort or labor on the part of any son of God can bring him into the NATURE OF GOD. Only obedience to the Spirit will allow him to plant the CHRIST SEED within the soul, which will change the soul nature to God-nature, the mind to the mind of Christ, the emotions to the emotions of God, the will to the will of the Father, and the desires to the desires of God. This work, when it is completed, will bring forth a change from mortal to immortal; the body itself being resurrected from its mortal tomb. This will take place in God’s time when the firstfruits company comes forth; then after that, at the coming of Jesus Christ, each man “in his own order.” 1st Corinthians 15:23.

WISE MINISTRIES

Matthew 25 describes some virgins as wise and some as foolish. The wise virgins had OIL in their lamps and in their vessels. The foolish, although in every detail were identical to the wise, did not have oil in their vessels with their lamps.

The oil in the vessel is a type of the CHRIST IN THE SOUL changing the nature of the believer. When the bridegroom comes is the type of the Christ coming forth in His fulness within the soul of man. The OIL IN THE LAMP is a type of the Holy Ghost in the spirit of man. The candlestick made of pure gold shows that the spirit of man is the container of the Spirit of God.

The great and final test came at MIDNIGHT. It is possible that we are quickly approaching midnight. In any event, midnight on earth is an immediate consideration of modern man. What is midnight? It can be described as the apex of darkness on earth. It is also a turning point in darkness. Every evil operation has been maximizing toward its perfect manifestation. Spirits have been striving for 6,000 years to bring forth their personalities within the human realm. This includes the expression of their natures in destructive power, and in every form of carnality and evil desire. In our time these forces will succeed, by permission, to manifest the fulness of their natures, which is described in scripture as 666.

The answer given the five foolish virgins when they came knocking at the door was, “I know you not.” The full understanding of what was said lies in the meaning of the word “KNOW.” The word in the Greek is “oida,” which in this passage carries the same meaning of an intimate relationship as “ginosko” in Philippians 3:10, which in one facet of its meaning speaks of knowing, in the sense of Adam knowing his wife Eve. When applied in this sense, the bridegroom was in effect saying, “I have not had union with you.” In a marriage chamber at midnight, no admittance can be given to any but the bride. This is what was being implied. The MARRIAGE SUPPER IS now, and it will culminate with the consummation of the marriage between Christ and His bride, the church. Not the whole church, as is shown by the parable of the virgins, but just that part of the church which will be ready. This is the reason that in 1st Corinthians 15:23, “Christ the firstfruits” is mentioned, and in Revelation 14:4, the virgins were called “the firstfruits.”

THE MARRIAGE SUPPER

The marriage supper of the Lamb is the place in the spirit, where the sons of God receive the seed of Christ within their souls, and the long sought after change begins to occur in their soul nature. This change is variously described in the scripture, and is the “parousia,” or coming, in 2nd Peter 1:16,

“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming (“parousia,” in Greek) of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of His majesty.”

This word “coming,” as used here in the Greek, means not only the arrival of Jesus Christ, but the coming within His church, and the eventual revelation and manifestation to the world.

Contrary to old beliefs, the marriage supper of the Lamb is not in the skies somewhere in space or on another planet, but RIGHT HERE AND NOW. The word of God proves this.

Matthew 22:11-13, “And when the King came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This, above all others, shows definitely that the wedding FEAST is right here on earth and that it is not a rapture which shall take us up into the skies for a wedding feast. This we know surely, because there was a man in that feast, according to the word we just read which should not have been there and who was cast out. THIS IS AN EARTHLY SCENE of those in our midst, who are not covering themselves with the righteousness of God, but just taking the word in their natural minds without absorbing it into their spiritual beings.

The work of the Holy Ghost is to inseminate the bride at the marriage feast with the Christ seed, so that she might bring forth Christ. If the ministry is the husband of the church, then the ministry would come forth from her, which would not be good enough.

In view of this light on Matthew 25, in the parable of the virgins, we can see that the SPIRIT is called the lamp and the SOUL, the vessel. This is confirmed by scripture.

Proverbs 20:27, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.”

The word “candle” is to be translated “lamp,” and the word “belly” is to be translated “soul.” Thus, the spirit of man is lit by the Spirit of God, and when it is, it sheds light into the vessel of the soul. God, speaking of Paul in Acts 9:15, says,

“He is a chosen vessel unto me.”

Romans 9:21 speaks of “vessel unto honor.” From the Old to the New Testament, man, the soul, is referred to as a vessel. It is God’s revealed will that He desires man’s soul to be like his Spirit. This is the chief reason God desires to inhabit man’s soul with His Holy Spirit. This is clearly expressed in the scripture.

Matthew 6:10, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

This expression applies not only to the heavenly invisible realms of God, where He dwells in all the magnitude of His unimaginable power, but in every realm which is called heaven. Now, heaven is the dwelling place of Almighty God, and wherever God prepares for His dwelling place is heaven. Thus, if we are the “temple of the living God,” then we must be a heaven. God dwells in our spirits when we are filled with the Holy Ghost, therefore this scripture can be applied to our souls that God is making the soul of man as perfect and as habitable as His Spirit. “Thy will be done IN earth” means within the earth man or the soul man, as it is in the spirit man. This marriage of soul and spirit will be dealt with in detail in another chapter.

THE PAWN IN THE GAME

Man’s soul is the pawn in the game. The spirit of man returns to God anyhow, therefore God does not lose anything when a sinner dies. The body will go to the earth, and be resurrected to be the eternal habitat of the soul, whatever condition it is in, BUT soul is the man, and he is the one to be saved.

Ecclesiastes 3:21, “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?”

Ecclesiastes 12:7, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”

THREE STEPS TO LIFE

There are, therefore, three steps which the soul man takes from death to complete life in God.

1) The blood step 2) The Holy Ghost 3) The Christ or the manchild

1) The blood step is taken when the believer accepts Jesus as his Savior, and submits himself to the spirit of the death of the cross, thus giving up his carnal life and submitting to a spiritual life. He then is passed from death to life; from a dead soul to a living soul. The blood, therefore, being the life of God, quickens us to life. We died being children of the dead Adam. In Jesus Christ, we come alive through submitting to a spiritual blood transfusion given by Dr. Holy Ghost. All living things feed. Therefore, the soul, being alive, cries for food and is fed by receiving the Holy Ghost to dwell within his spirit and energize his soul.

2) The Holy Ghost is God within. His duty is to form the nature of the Father within us, so that we will no longer be under tutors and governors, but by nature, we will do the will of the Father, and our natures will give us much joy when we do His will.

3) The Holy Ghost will form the nature of God within us by planting the seed of the Christ child within us, and when the fulness of time is come, we shall bring forth Christ.

Eph. 5:26-27, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

Such terms in the word of God as “present it to himself” are not meaningless. In this instance, what God is saying is that the Spirit of God in the ministry is preparing the church to present it to Jesus as a bride without spot or blemish. Christ presents the church to Christ. There is no basis for the ministry or anyone else to call himself or themselves Christ. This simply means that the preparation of the church cannot be done by man, but by the Christ in man. The manchild ministry is not the ministry of Christ, because the manchild must necessarily grow up to the stature of a man before he can take a bride. When he does in the millennium, it will be the world at large which he, a many membered company, will take, to form Christ in them even as Christ had been formed in him. At this time, this company will include the man Christ Jesus who is the head of the body.