Exodus 25:17-22 “And thou shalt make a Mercy Seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the Mercy Seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the Ark; and in the Ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the Mercy Seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the Ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.”

The Mercy Seat is the only piece of furniture made of pure gold, without any other substance as a complement. The Candlestick is made of pure gold, but it has a wick, and contains oil to make it operable. The Mercy Seat, therefore, with the two angels, signifies the overshadowing of the Spirit, rather than that of any human being. This will be dealt with later.

THE THIRD VEIL

On the Day of Atonement, once every year, the priest goes into the Holy of Holies. This is a division of the tabernacle separated from the Holy Place by the third veil, which is a woven cloth of blue, purple, scarlet and linen, with cherubim woven all over it. At the entrance between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, there are FOUR pillars of wood overlaid with gold, four speaking of the tribulation through which we must enter this heavenly realm. The veil represents FLESH. This flesh, however, is marked and engraved with the engravings of God, yet the removing or the BREAKING THROUGH OF THE VEIL represents the re-entry of man into the Garden of Eden. Man is man’s own enemy, and his chief barrier to entering into life in God.

Man’s own carnal nature or beast nature keeps him from entering into the place with God which is called Eden, and yet God has ordained us to go BEYOND EDEN, even into immortality. Man was excluded from the Garden of God by cherubims with a flaming sword which turned every way.

Genesis 3:24, “So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

THE SWORD OF FIRE

We cannot re-enter into life and partake of immortality until we have passed through that sword of fire. Jesus, speaking to His disciples as recorded in Luke 12:49-50 said,

“I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!”

Fire is tribulation. It is contrary to the carnal nature. When brought into contact with the physical, it changes the consistency of the physical. Therefore, this in the above quotation is the instrument of change. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, said,

“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:11-12.

THE FOUR CHERUBIMS

The four pillars at the entrance of the Holy of Holies is a type of the four cherubims of Ezekiel 1 and 10, Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4. These represent a picture of man’s soul, which in Revelation 4 is mentioned as “four beasts,” and in Revelation 7:1 as four angels of death and destruction standing on the four corners of the earth (soul).

To re-enter Eden, we must go through fire. The flaming sword is the word of God, and the baptism of fire through which man must go to come into perfection. Note that the angel with the sword was at the east of the garden, and the angel of Revelation 7:2, the fifth angel, was rising from the east to seal the saints. The east represents the mind of Christ.

The picture of man’s soul is as follows: 

We could re-enter into this Eden realm, and eventually partake of the tree of life which is Christ, which would re-cycle our nature to the nature of Christ, BUT for these four beasts which occupy our soul realm.

Man has the nature of the eagle in his mind, which makes him soar in his thoughts away from God. In his emotions, he is like a lion, a wild savage beast that thrives upon the death of others. In his will, he is stubborn as an ox. In his desires, he is a man. No other creature desires as much as man. He will desire heaven and hell at the same time. He is a creature of desire.

The breaking through the veil, therefore, speaks of man breaking through his own flesh nature. Paul writing to the Hebrew Christians spoke of the veil being the flesh of Jesus Christ in Hebrews 10:20,

“By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.”

Jesus prepared the way for us by breaking through His own flesh, thus He established the “how” of it, so that we too might break through and be OVERCOMERS.

THE FIRE IS TRIBULATION

This fire is identified in the teaching of Paul in Acts 14:22,

“Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

The nature of man needs to be purged by harassments and tribulations of all types, so that he might have the incentive to inculcate the nature of God, which is in Christ Jesus, within himself. The veil, therefore, with the cherubim, is the same as entering into the Garden of Eden, where there is the tree of life. We have already overcome the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thus have no more danger of falling.

Armed with the basin of blood from the Outer Court, the fire on the Altar of Incense from the Holy Place, and the altar of incense with the censer hanging by his side, the priest takes both the essence of the Outer Court and the Holy Place into the Holy of Holies THROUGH THE VEIL of the cherubim. The veil is the last barrier between man and immortality.

WITHIN THE VEIL

Leviticus 16:12-13, “And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the Mercy Seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not.”

The Mercy Seat is the point of contact between God and man; therefore, man must be careful that he does everything according to the rules, lest the great power of God’s radiance hurt his flesh.

This picture of the Mercy Seat with the two cherubims speaks of a realm in God, where God is His own witness (two being the number of witness). The Ark, with the Mercy Seat as its cover, is the perfection of God’s grace in the human realm. The overshadowing, therefore, is ABSOLUTELY OF GOD.

SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY

The overshadowing here is a cherubim of PURE BEATEN GOLD. This gold signifies that it is the pure nature of God Himself, without the human element which will now bring forth the last and final act of perfection within us. This is not a theory, but an absolute fact, and this fact has its precedence in God’s order. Let us read Luke 1, verses 26-38,

“And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth. To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast 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 shall 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 for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.”

The seed of God was not entrusted to an angel, although his name was Gabriel. Not even the mighty Gabriel was worthy to take the seed of God to plant into the womb of Mary. Man is entrusted with the seed of the WORD, but the precious seed of the MANCHILD (the Christ) to be planted in the womb of the church, which is the soul of man, is the prerogative of the Holy Ghost Himself.

Jeremiah 31:22, “A woman shall compass a man.”

This phrase, spoken by the prophet to backsliding Israel, of the coming of Jesus Christ, now speaks to us of the spiritual woman, the church, compassing the manchild, which shall come forth out of the travail of the souls of God’s people. This picture, therefore, represents the overshadowing of the Spirit of God over the church or the body of Christ, in which is being formed the FIRST FRUITS of God unto immortality in the earth.

IN THE REALM OF THE CHURCH

In the realm of the church, this church is called the sixth church, or the church of the overshadowing. We do believe at this time, we are in this church, and that we are now being overshadowed by the direct ministration of the Spirit of God to produce in the earth that which all the saints and prophets of old prophesied about. This church is depicted in scripture as the woman in Revelation 12:1-2,

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.”

The scripture shows that every woman who was used of God to bring forth deliverance in Israel was barren. Sarah, the wife of Abraham, was one of the foremost, who brought forth Isaac, the son of promise. Hannah, the mother of Samuel, was also a barren woman who prayed, and God opened her womb to bring a man who never failed God, and who saved Israel in his day. Manoah’s wife was another example who was the mother of Samson, the greatest one-man army that never lost a battle when anointed of God. The greatest of all these barren women is the “woman who is the church.” The church system has never brought forth life, but always brought forth something less than the seed she received. God is still waiting for her to bring forth a manchild instead of a woman-congregation. The word “masculine” is being used here as that which gives forth life, and “feminine” as that which receives life from the masculine. The full discussion of the manchild will come in the next chapter.

It is very important to note the cherubims on the Mercy Seat were not like the four-winged cherubims of Ezekiel 1, or the six-winged ones of Revelation 4. These cherubims represent the human soul, and every piece of furniture in the tabernacle except this one, the Mercy Seat, has some humanity symbolized in them. The cherubims however, which were on the Mercy Seat, were different. These were angelic images with two wings each, and these had in them no implication of beast nature, as those of Revelation 4 and Ezekiel 1. In Revelation 4, they were called the “four beasts,” and in Ezekiel, they were called “living creatures” or beasts. From the following scripture, the description of these cherubims can be seen.

“And the wings of the cherubims were twenty cubits long: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house: and the other wing was likewise five cubits, reaching to the wing of the other cherub.” 2nd Chronicles 3:11.

From this scripture, it is conclusive that the cherubims of the Mercy Seat had only two wings, thus were different from those mentioned elsewhere in the scripture, thus different in their symbolic meaning. This point has become important because of those who claim that the ministry is the covering of the body of Christ, which will bring forth the manchild church in the world. The covering or overshadowing is the HOLY GHOST and not the ministry, and this fact cannot be too much emphasized.

THE OVERSHADOWING

In order to be filled with the “divine nature,” we must be overshadowed by the divine. The effigy of the two cherubim on the Mercy Seat is a type of the divine overshadowing. The Song of Solomon speaks of the love between Christ and the church, and the final act of planting the seed of life within the soul, the womb of the church. This is God’s divine order of bringing forth life.

Isaiah 51:16, “And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.”

Since the heavens are of old, and the earth is already founded, we can only conclude from this scripture that it speaks of the heaven, or abiding place of God within the soul of man, and the earth, to mean the physical man which as the scripture says, will be made immortal. The covering here is one of protection, an overshadowing that does not only change man’s nature, but protects him while the change is being made. This idea is carried out by the scripture as shown below.

“And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by.” Exodus 33:22.

It is absolutely amazing that God had to cover Moses to protect him from Himself. In simple terms, the power of radiation of God was too much for Moses’ eyes, so God simply hid him in a rock. The overshadowing always brings protection along with the main purpose for which God gives it.

“Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee; yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.” Psalm 57:1.

“For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.” Isaiah 25:4.

Here again, we see the double purpose of overshadowing. Not only is it a place of hiding, but in this scripture, it created strength to the poor.

“And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” Genesis 28:15.

In I Corinthians 10:1-2, Paul writes in the Holy Ghost,

“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”

With every age, there is an overshadowing, and this must come forth within those overshadowed by the will of God for their time. We, therefore, in this time have an overshadowing, and this is the greatest of all the overshadowings of the past. They were only a type of that which God is bringing forth within us for our time and for all mankind.

“And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation: and behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.” Numbers 16:42.

Along with the cloud went the glory of the Lord. This brings us to the picture of the woman in Revelation 12, clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet.

THE WOMAN AND THE GLORY

God’s smile, His good will, and His permissive will are all that the church seems to have been enjoying until now. But now is the time of the overshadowing, when the manchild church is being brought forth within the woman church. We are moving into a time when nothing but the perfect will of God will be acceptable.

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” Revelation 12:1.

This is not Mary, the mother of Jesus. This chapter was written of the future and not of the past. Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost and brought forth Jesus Christ, the son of God. The church is being overshadowed by the Holy Ghost again to bring forth the Christ in us, not in a physical sense, as with Mary who had a natural child, but in the spiritual sense, where we shall bring forth the fruit of the soul and not the fruit of the womb. “Clothed with the sun” signifies an elect and called-out people of God, who at last will attain to the glory of God as their covering. Covering is not only for protection, but clothes which they wear daily – the righteousness of God being a part of our habit. The sun represents Christ, just as the moon represents the church. This woman was clothed with the sun, and her footstool was the moon. The meaning is clear. It brings out the scripture of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:5 and 22,

“And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.”

We do not need ecumenism. The glory of God in us is making us one without reservation or fear of separation.

This glory which Jesus prayed about is the picture we see in Revelation 12. It is the same glory which hung over the tabernacle in the wilderness. The same glory Ezekiel saw at the river Chebar, and which Isaiah saw in Isaiah 1 and 6. All the prophets saw it, and Paul saw it when he was knocked down on the road to Damascus. I believe this is the same glory which I also saw in a vision in Greenwich Farm in western Kingston, when I saw the shadow of a man, cast by a great light in the sky, resting on the sea and on the land, and the voice of God speaking to me, saying, “The glory of God dwelleth in His people.” The glory is already given, and the church needs to appropriate it. The people of God are the only temple on earth now recognized by the Lord as His temple. In Haggai 2:7 and 9, there is a prophecy which is yet to come to pass, and it cannot be speaking of a natural temple, as there is none now standing which would have the approval of God. This temple, of course, must be the temple of the human body which God desires to dwell in, “not made with hands.”

“And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.”

This scripture speaks of Revelation 12:1, which is the fulfillment of Haggai’s prophecy. The woman, the church, will be clothed at last, not in her own righteousness, but with the GLORY OF GOD.

“Upon her head a crown of twelve stars.”

Jesus declares in Revelation 22:16b,

“I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”

This is in conformity with the thought that God is light. The son of God is THE STAR, and all the other sons of God are lights of varying brightness. In Revelation 2:26-28 we read,

“And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. AND I WILL GIVE HIM THE MORNING STAR.”

We see here the word “morning star” having a specific meaning in this verse. “Give him the morning star” signifies some great position of honor with the Father.

Not only does it imply a position with the Father, it shows the very nature of the Father, which is the nature of LIGHT.

“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” 1st John 1:5b.

The outward signs of light upon the woman of Revelation 12 show her to be a part of the SONS OF LIGHT (sons of God).

SHE IS INDEED AND IN FACT, THE VERY WIFE OF THE CHRIST. This is the reason she bears the TWELVE STARS upon her head as her crown, clothed with the sun as her garment, and the moon under her feet, as her footstool or foundation. Everything about her is of light.

TWELVE STARS

The crown of twelve stars represents the very completion of authority, and power, and life of the church. A crown represents ROYALTY. This, more than any other symbol, makes a woman a QUEEN, or a man a KING. It is the symbol of coming into the order of light, but being in the very highest position of such an order – THE WIFE OF THE KING OF LIGHT. No church has ever reached to this position. This position in scripture is also described in Matthew 25 as the FIVE WISE VIRGINS, who were permitted to be the wife of the BRIDEGROOM. In the Song of Solomon 6:13, she is described as the Shulamite.

“Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.”

The picture of the woman of light is here again given.

“Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” Song of Solomon 6:10.

This verse takes it out of the realm of the natural. No one could read of one making love to natural woman and telling her she is like two armies, and still consider it natural. The church is surely like two armies, since there is a spiritual army fighting alongside, aiding and abetting her.

Jesus preached that He is the LIGHT.

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the LIGHT of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12.

Jesus speaks of the church as the light.

“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle; and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16.

The record shows that light came out of darkness.

Genesis 1:3, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

The parallel of this is that out of the darkness of man, God is creating light, even Himself within us. The darkness is being separated from the light. Darkness first, then light; evening then morning. Morning must come forth in the end. Wherever there is darkness, this in itself is the promise of the dawn. Let all men HOPE IN THIS. God’s divine order brings forth light out of darkness. To the sons of LIGHT, darkness does not bring despair, but the promise that it will be superseded by light. In the same way, every negative thing which works against us must give way to that which glorifies God. Tribulation must be the forerunner of victory.

THE MOON UNDER FOOT

The moon always represents the church, which takes its light from the sun and reflects it. The woman with the moon under her feet suggests that the order of reflecting light, as an imitator of the true, will pass away in this new relationship. The woman, the church, will be in a position above that of reflecting light, as she will be clothed with the sun. This speaks of the final act of God to reproduce Himself in the earth.

Being overshadowed by the sun (her husband), she is naturally pregnant. The analogy continues. She brings forth a manchild, no longer another woman church system which represents soulishness, and the inability to give forth the seed of life, BUT a masculine church which will give forth LIGHT and life to the world. This will be dealt with in the next chapter.

THE MARRIAGE

“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.” Verse 9, “And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” Revelation 19:7, 9.

The marriage supper of the Lamb will not be in heaven in some far off galaxy, but right here and NOW. This thought is scriptural, and we will prove it presently.

Matthew 22:1-14, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city.

“Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. 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. For many are called, but few are chosen.”

This parable speaks of a man in the wedding feast who was an impostor. IF THIS WEDDING FEAST WAS IN HEAVEN (the invisible realms of God), then this man could not have gotten in at all. This wedding feast, we see, was depicted in the parable as being right here. God is at present calling out His people to become the bride of Christ. It takes male and female to bring forth life. CHRIST THE MALE and the church the female are necessary for the bringing forth of seed. God is bringing forth seed in the earth like Jesus Christ Himself. To carry out the whole analogy, the man must marry the woman, which is the relationship between us and Christ, and the issue of such a marriage will be the perfect man which must come forth as the sons of God. The wedding feast, therefore, is the new thing which God is doing in the earth at this time, in which He, the Spirit of God, is overshadowing the elect (called out of the called out) and INSEMINATING their souls with His own DIVINE NATURE, which is the promise of God. 2nd Peter 1:4. This man who was cast out of the wedding feast represents those who have been given the Word, the Holy Ghost, and everything the others received, without producing the righteous nature which they should have produced. The wedding feast, as depicted in the above passage, was one where those who came through the door were given a wedding garment, and it was absolutely free. A man inside of the feast chamber without a garment proved that he did not come through the door, but as a thief, probably through a window.

The door is Christ and as shown before, in order to enter into Christ, one has to be dead to sin and dead to self, which are the two messages of the Outer Court. When this is done, the servants of the King (the Holy Ghost) baptizes one into the body of Christ. The question here will be asked, how could anyone enter into the experiences of the Holy Place or the body of Christ without being baptized by the Spirit? The answer is simple and clear. One does enter into the experiences of the Holy Place before entering into the Holy Place. For instance, many of us were baptized into the Holy Spirit before we even knew what He was, and we do partake of the glory of God in realms where we do not belong. How else could we be lifted to a glory we know nothing of? Because of this, however, most Christians think of themselves more highly than they really are.

Some of us have been given gifts of the Spirit, and we mistake it for our righteousness. This is a fallacy among the people of God. A man or woman will be manifesting a gift, and people laud them as being great.