The Covering
Introduction
We greet you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We would like to take this great opportunity to express to you our feelings toward our Savior and to His people. We are very grateful for the people of God who are showing such a great concern towards His work. Having found ourselves in a frontier work of God, we seek to make a full proof of our ministry as the Apostle Paul exhorted us to do in his epistle that was written to the church.
Our goal is to preach the gospel to every creature as much as lies within us. This, of course, should be every Christian’s vision: to go into all the world in some manner or way with the gospel. The Bible tells us that God is not forgetful of our labor in the Lord. Inasmuch as we have ministered and do minister to the saints or the needy, the writer exhorted us that true and undefiled religion before the Father was this: to visit the widows and orphans in their afflictions, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.
Remember, that the early church did not say that anything that God had given them was their own, but they all came together in the unity of the faith, as one body of Christ in strength and spirit. They honored the Lord with their substance and the firstfruits of their increase; yet, their barns were filled with plenty, and at Pentecost, their presses burst out with the new wine. Jesus said that you cannot put new wine into old bottles. To have this great revelation of Christ, you must be born again of the water and the Spirit. The Bible tells us that we have become a new creature in Christ.
If the love of the world is in you, the love of the Father is not there. Remember, they turned back into Egypt in their hearts and were lost. They murmured and complained, and were destroyed. Let us seek all things common, and He will commit unto our trust the true riches and the crown of life.
May the Lord bless you is our prayer, and we are praying for you.
The Covering
Satan, being the prince of the powers of the air, will do anything that he can to work contrary to God and the winning of souls; but do you know that the Bible teaches that God doesn’t pervert a man in his cause? Isn’t that good? God works with us, especially in that God ordains certain things be done in the earth, therefore, God works with us in those wonderful things. Now, He is considerate and He will provide, but if the flesh gets just a little bit uncomfortable, it can’t concentrate and that’s all the devil is after anyway. He doesn’t really care whether you’re cold or hot or whatever, all he’s interested in is just making you to be uncomfortable enough to where you can’t concentrate on the Word of God, because the one thing that he doesn’t want you to get is the Word of God. Satan just about has spasms every time he thinks about you getting the Word of God.
You know, the Lord gives us the rain and the Lord gives us the beautiful summer breeze, and He gives us the nice warm sunshine, and He gives us the blessings of the wonderful atmosphere, but the devil is an extremist. He’s always tearing up, twisting up, and wrecking. It’s like the earthquake that hit Algeria, about twenty thousand people killed. The devil is always causing problems. A lot of people say, “Brother Pike, I don’t believe the devil causes all those problems. I believe God does that.” No, God has His way in it, but God doesn’t do that. God is not the author of confusion. Besides that, if God is doing it, how is it that the Bible says that in the great millennium reign of a thousand years of peace, Satan is bound for a thousand years? And during that entire thousand years, there is not one disturbance, not one problem, not one war, no sickness, and the Bible says, “Nothing shall harm in all of My holy mountain, saith the Lord.” The Bible says that when Lucifer went down into the bottomless pit they said to him, “How is it that all of the earth is at peace since you’ve laid down?” So, he must have been the trouble maker because it said that all of the earth was at peace when he laid down.
So then, when you get just a little chill over the tent, then that turns off all of the burning enthusiasm, desire, and the glory of having a tent meeting, and the enthusiasm of being a child of God. And if the cross appears the very slightest bit, then everything goes off just like that. It’s very bad that we as Christians should be like that, but nevertheless the Bible says that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light, because when it comes to ball games and such, they won’t be defeated so easy, but children of God give up so easy. The least little resistance and they are ready to quit, but I’d like for you to bear with us and get an enthusiasm for heaven and for the things of God and work with Brother Pike.
Jesus said that the flesh is weak, and I know the flesh. If it’s just a little bit uncomfortable, I know what the devil is going to do when he starts talking to that natural mind. The Bible says that the carnal mind is enmity with God, and when he starts talking to that natural mind, the first news you know, it’s going to get thoughts and that is going to be it, and it’s going to leave me right out in the middle of the stream trying to get my thought over to you to where you can understand what I’m saying.
I’d like to mention some things from the book of Genesis. I want you to notice something here. The Bible says that God created a man and a woman, and He created them in His likeness. He created Eden, and then in the east part of Eden, He made this beautiful garden and placed man and woman there. He also placed the tree of life and the tree of knowledge there. The Bible says that they had everything that heart could wish for, but He warned them that they should not partake of the tree of knowledge. They could eat of any of the trees that were in the garden, even the tree of life, but they couldn’t partake of the tree of knowledge. Yet, it came to pass by and by, that eventually the beast that God had placed in the garden enticed the woman. It kept talking to the woman, and finally, the woman began to listen. The beast said, “Hath not God said that ye shall eat of all of the trees of the garden?” The woman answered and said, “God has said that we can eat of the fruit of all the trees, but we cannot eat of the tree of knowledge, for the day that we eat of the tree of knowledge, then we shall surely die.” The serpent said, “Ye shall not surely die! Ye shall not surely die if you eat of this tree, for God doth know that the day you eat of this tree, you shall become wise, even as God, and ye shall become as gods knowing good and evil.”
You know, the devil knows how to tell a lie. The Bible says that he’s the father of a lie, and he knows how to tell a lie. If you’ll notice, he used just enough truth here to get her attention, and then he perverted it just enough to pull her down into the slime pit to where he could cause her to lose her life, and cause her to cause her husband to lose his life, in that the Bible says that the man was not in the transgression but the woman was.
So then, we see here as she partook of the tree, it caused the fall from the garden, and they were excommunicated from the garden. God drove them out of the garden because the woman would not listen to God. I spoke the other day of how that it cut the lifeline off. Faith! The Bible says that the just shall live by faith. The Word of God had spoken to Eve and her lack of faith in the Word of God had left her without life. When she carried this to her husband, the lack of faith and confidence from Adam in the Word of God, in that he acted on what his wife had said, also cut him off from the life of God, and both of them found themselves being driven out of the garden and presence of God.
You know, it’s a wonderful thing to be in the presence of God, but it’s a horrible thing to have known God’s presence and then to be driven out of God’s presence. Saul knew God’s presence, but he was driven out of God’s presence, and it was a horrible thing when he realized that he was out of the presence of God. There are people today in the church that are out of the presence of God, and they are miserable because they’re beginning to realize that the Spirit of God has departed from them. Now this is a horrible experience.
Brother and sister, while you have God, while you are in the presence of God, hold on to God with all of your heart. Don’t sell your birthright as Esau did for a morsel of bread. Don’t get interested in the world. Don’t get carried away with money, fame, popularity, and the things of this world. Don’t get carried away with conveniences because the first news you know, you will lose your birthright and find out that the Spirit of God has departed from you. You will find yourself exiled and cut off from the presence of God and all of that wonderful life that you’ve been living, all of that wonderful exhilaration, all of that wonderful experience, all of that wonderful thrill that you’ve been having, it will suddenly be gone. You will find that life is a burden, and you’ll find there is a pressure, and you’ll find there is misery, and you’ll find that everything begins to explode in your face, and all that you could have had, you’ll find it just vanishing away. You will find that you can’t have the prosperity and blessings of life that you had hoped for. You can’t have that feeling of life you’d hoped for, because when you withdraw from the Spirit of God, everything becomes dark and fearful. Everything becomes a dread and the whole environment of your life begins to change.
This is what happened to Adam and Eve. The very minute that they went out of the presence of God, everything became drab and cold. Everything became indifferent. It was altogether different as to what it was in the garden. They began to be exposed to poverty and hardships. They began to be exposed to sicknesses, and they began to learn what life without God was really like, because they had always been in the presence of God. All that they had ever known was the conveniences of the garden. All they had ever known was the blessings of God, but when they got out of the presence of God, then they began to know how to appreciate God and to appreciate the blessings of God.
You know, sometimes God has to go to the extremes, and put us out of the garden for a little while to make us learn to appreciate God, and learn to appreciate the Word of God, and learn the hardships of life so that we will look in the right direction for a change. Sometimes we get so careless that we forget. God blesses us. He carries us on the wing as we say. He takes care of us and we just get downright careless. We get to where we don’t pay any attention to any warnings. We don’t pay any attention to any preaching. A preacher can preach, but we don’t pay any attention to it. The preacher can give a warning, and we don’t pay any attention to it. The Word can come forth, but we feel like that’s for somebody else and we go carelessly along doing our wrongs and misdemeanors in life. We find ourselves drifting, but brother, all of a sudden we begin to wake up, and we find that God’s Spirit is departing from us, and it is then and only then, that we begin to cry out and say, “My God, what have I done?”
Judas obtained a part of the ministry, and the Spirit of God was with Judas just like anybody else. The Spirit of God was present with Judas until that hour when Christ gave him the sop, and then the spirit of Satan entered into his heart. Then God’s Spirit and protection withdrew from Judas, and then he realized how awful it was. Until that time he had the blessings of God. He had the protection of God. The Bible says that he had obtained a part of that ministry. He walked with the disciples and he was in the presence of the church. He was among the brethren. Life was a great thing to him, but he didn’t take time to realize how great God had blessed him. All he could think about was getting another dollar. It didn’t matter if he betrayed the church, or if he betrayed Christ Jesus. It didn’t matter what he did, he just wanted another dollar.
A lot of people are in the same condition today. It doesn’t matter if they take away from the poor or from the church like Ananias and Sapphira did. It doesn’t matter if they steal everything from the hungry and let the world go without food or whatever. It doesn’t make any difference, only if they can just get another dollar, get a little more convenience, get another automobile, get another piece of land, get a better home. It doesn’t make any difference with them. They feel like they are in church and they have God and they can still have all of these things, but all of a sudden Judas woke up to the fact that God wasn’t with him anymore. When he realized the thing that had taken place and what he had done and he saw this horrible thing, all of the joy left him. Christ was no more with him. The brotherhood was no more with him. He had his money and the thing that his heart was craving, but it didn’t satisfy anymore. The longing for that wonderful touch of the great Holy Spirit was there, but Judas couldn’t get to it, and the only thing he could figure out to do was to go out and hang himself and take his own life.
That was the same thing with Gehazi, the little servant that followed after the prophet Elisha. He ran after the world and he wanted what Naaman had. He wanted the silver and the gold. He wanted the world. He wasn’t satisfied being with the man of God, and having to suffer and endure a few hardships so that he could have the great blessings of God. He wanted to run after the world, and when the man of God refused to take the things that Naaman had, why, he took in after the world. Yet, it wasn’t long before Gehazi suddenly realized that in obtaining the things of the world, you also obtain the sorrow of the world, and that to get the things of the world, the curse goes along with it.
There is a curse over the world, and when you get the things of the world without Christ and you don’t run the things of the world through the filter of God, then you bring the accursed thing into the house of God and into your life. And the first news you know, God has cut you off and you find yourself in the same condition that the little servant found himself in. He had leprosy! You find yourself with cancer, tuberculosis, heart trouble and arthritis. You find yourself with poverty and with problems. You find yourself at an insane asylum in a padded cell. You find your children going to prison and your wife turning into a prostitute. The first thing you know, you wake up and find out that you are a whoremonger. You find the Spirit of God withdrawing from you, and that you are no good, that you lost out, and that everything that could have been good and decent, you lost it because you ran after the world.
I had a man come to me here in Jeffersonville about the first part of this meeting. He said, “Brother Pike, I at one time had God. I at one time had the blessings of God. The Spirit of God was in my life. I loved God, but I let prosperity get in the way. God prospered me, and when prosperity came along, I forgot about God. And when I forgot about God, it wasn’t long before God withdrew from me, and I found myself with prosperity, but without God.” He told me how miserable and how wretched he was. He said, “I would love to get back to God, and I would love to find God. I realize what I’ve done.”
Did you know Esau did the same thing? The Bible says that after Esau had sold his birthright, he sought for it with bitter tears. He sought repentance with bitter tears, but the Bible says that he found no place of repentance. Though he cried and wept and asked for his birthright back, but he could not get his birthright back. Brother, once you do the things contrary to God, once you go contrary to God and you lose your birthright, there is no way to get it back. The Bible says to hold fast, let no man take your crown. Did you know there is somebody else that can take your crown? When God has called you to do something and you don’t do it, did you know there is somebody else that can take your crown? Did you know that? There’s somebody else that will step up and take your place and take your crown. There was a woman in the Old Testament, and God called a man to do a certain thing. The man was afraid and he wouldn’t do it. The man doubted God and doubted the Word that He sent to him. The woman stepped forth and said, “Give me a chance to do it,” and God said, “You go do it.” The woman went and did it and God gave her the man’s crown. So then, we see the awfulness of losing out with God.
This is the thing that took place with Adam and Eve. They sinned against God. They did not listen to the Lord. All of a sudden, once they sinned against God, there came the voice of the Lord God in the evening time, and the Lord said, “Adam, where art thou?” Adam said, “Lord, I hid myself. I was afraid.” And the Lord said, “Why were you afraid, Adam?” He said, “Because I was naked,” and the Lord said, “Adam, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou dishonored Me? Hast thou disobeyed Me? Have you done the thing that I asked you not to do, Adam? Haven’t you listened to My Word? Haven’t you honored My Word? Didn’t you do the thing I commanded you to do? Who told you that you were naked, Adam?” Adam said, “We were naked and afraid, and so we hid ourselves.”
Now, here they had taken some leaves and made themselves some clothing, and they had tried to cover up their nakedness. You know what it was? They felt the shame. You know what had happened to them? They had lost that wonderful nearness and closeness with God. They left that fellowship with God. They felt separated from God and they felt the condemnation set in. They felt shame come over them. Why were they naked? According to the Bible, when God made man and woman, they were without clothing in the garden, and they were not ashamed. They did not have to have fig leaves nor clothing. They did not have dirty filthy minds. They were not abased in their thinking. They were not depraved. They were not evil. What was it? They had lost the covering of His glory. They had taken away the covering of His glory. God told them in the Old Testament, “You cover with a covering, but not of Me.”
The Bible gives it that the woman was given her hair for a covering. She is a type of the church, and her hair is her glory. He likes the hair to be down upon the shoulders because it’s typical of the government of God, the government of the head (her husband). His government. His power. His authority. Christ, the head of the church, resting upon the shoulders of the church, that covering.
It’s like the church in the Dark Age. They shaved their heads. They shaved their hair off. They shaved their covering off. They shaved their glory off. Then they become a nun, and they’d put a covering over their head. They’d put a veil over their head. Why did they do that? They had lost the covering that God had given them, and so they put a man-made covering over their heads. That was the same thing that Jesus told them when He came and said that you do teach for doctrines the commandments of men, and you lay aside the doctrine of Christ. He warned them. He said, “I’ll take out the heart of stone in that day and place within you a heart of flesh, and I’ll write My laws upon the table of your heart and cause you to walk in My laws.”
Did you know that when Moses gave them that stone, that was a table of stone? That was a heart of stone. That was the law, and by that came death. But when God manifested His Word of grace, He made it flesh. It came down as flesh and bones and became a heart of flesh. He has given us that which is of grace at Calvary that we can have a heart of grace and a heart of flesh, that this law can be written in our conscience and in our heart, that covering of man. He said that you teach the doctrine of men, laying aside the commandments of God and making them of none effect.
So, the woman praying or prophesying having her head uncovered, she dishonoreth her head. That is to say, if a woman has her head uncovered, she dishonoreth her husband. If she has her head uncovered, that is to say, if she doesn’t have the covering of God’s glory, or if the church doesn’t have the covering of God, the glory of God, then she dishonoreth Christ, and the covering of the church today is the brightness of His glory.
Adam and Eve were in the presence of the brightness of that glory. They lived in the presence of that Shekinah glory, and that Shekinah glory was all about them. The Bible says that when John saw Jesus on the Isle of Patmos in the midst of the candlesticks, He was illuminated, and it was as though the sun shined within His strength, because He had a covering from God. They had a divine covering and they were not ashamed. It was the covering of God’s glory.
God has covered the church with His glory. God has given them a covering, but Adam and Eve strayed from that Shekinah covering. They got away from the Shekinah glory of God. They walked out of the presence of that eternal life that God had placed them in. They were enticed by their reasoning. They had left off with the Word of God and went after their own understanding. They turned to the beastly part, the bodily part, that which was coming from the dust. When the expulsion came and He drove them out of the garden, He said “From the dust thou art and to the dust thou shalt return.” Then He turned to them and said, “As the serpent, I put thee upon thy belly, and upon thy belly shall thou go all the days of thy life, and dust shall thou eat.” Now, when you look around and see the world today, you know where the serpent is, eating and drinking and on their belly. The Bible says that all of their labor is for their belly because their belly craves it of them. The serpent has been placed on his belly.
Now, here the covering of the glory was gone, and Adam and Eve had been driven out of the garden. They couldn’t stay in the presence of the Shekinah anymore. The great wonderful brightness of His glory had been taken away. Here comes God and He says, “Adam, where art thou?” Adam said, “I was ashamed.” Why was he ashamed? He said, “Because we were naked.” That could not have been the reason for being ashamed, because he was naked to begin with and was not ashamed, so that could not have been the problem. That wasn’t what it was. What was it? Something had happened to his heart. His eyes had been opened. Somebody would say, “But Brother Pike, that’s what we mean; his eyes came open and he saw that he was naked.” My brother, sister, if he had any eyes in his head at all, he could look at his wife and his wife at him and tell they didn’t have any clothing. His eyes were already open. He didn’t have to have anybody to open his eyes for him to look and see that they were without clothing. But the Bible says that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. What had happened? He had eaten from a tree of knowledge and his eyes of understanding were opened. That’s what it was. He had partook from the tree of knowledge and entered into another dimension or a dimension of darkness, and he had looked and seen the shame and debauchery of what he had done. He had not seen the nakedness of his wife, nor the nakedness of his own body as the flesh. He had seen the nakedness of his soul and of his spirit. He had seen the wretchedness of what he had done, and that natural part of it coming to his understanding and being exposed, only made him to realize the condition that they were in. So, he immediately went and began to sew fig leaves. You know why he went to fig leaves? Because God had made a covenant with them. It was the water covenant and they could eat of all of the fruits of the trees.
There are three that bear witness in the earth: the water, the blood, and the spirit. There is a water life, and that world of vegetation has to have water because that is the lifeline of it. Then, there is a world of human anatomy, a physical being or a beast realm in the earth, and it has to have blood because the lifeline of human anatomy is blood. But there is also an angelic realm, a spiritual realm, and the lifeline of that angelic realm is spirit. This causes God to have to make a covenant with this natural world. It causes Him to have to make a covenant with the physical world and it causes Him to have to make a covenant with the spiritual world. And whatever world we are in, we are affected by the covenant that God has made with that world.
Adam and Eve were in that natural world of water, and they had a covenant. All they had to do was eat of the fruit, and the fruit lived from the water. That’s all they had to do, yet when they fell from the presence of God, all they thought they had to do was run and get a covering because they thought they had broken the covenant. So they grabbed themselves some fig leaves and God said, “No, that won’t do!” That covenant won’t work anymore. You can’t do that anymore. It wasn’t caused by fruit. It wasn’t a fruit tree that you ate from. It was a tree of knowledge that you partook from. It wasn’t a fruit tree, but it was a beast realm. You listened to a beast and a beast enticed you. You brought yourself down to a beast realm. You brought yourself down to a level of blood, and from now on if you get any strength, you are going to have to get it from eating meat. How many of you understand what I’m saying? You are going to have to get your strength from eating meat. The Bible says that the meat is for the strong. You’re going to have to get your strength from eating meat. You’re going to have to have another covenant made with you, because as long as you are in this garden and you partake of these trees, you’re under the presence of the Shekinah glory, the power of My might, and I am your strength. You can be strong in My Spirit, but when you separated yourself from My strength, then you’ve got to go on your own strength. You can’t live off of water. Now, you try living off of water and see if you can stay alive. There is no way.
So then, they had to have another covenant, and it wasn’t until two thousand years had passed by that God brought another covenant in the days of Noah, when he drove those beasts into the ark. After the old world had passed away, to show the sin of Adam, He established a new world, and in that new world, He told them they could eat the flesh of animals. He gave them the blood covering from Abraham all the way down to Jesus. It started there with Abraham sacrificing a lamb to God, and it ended with a human sacrifice. They were under the blood covering all the way down to Calvary, because that first water covering that started with the garden, reached all the way down to Noah, and then from there the blood covering started with Noah and reached all the way down to Jesus.
So, I’m glad today, in this third thing that God has done, that He has established another covenant with His people, for they have violated the blood covenant and can no longer be carried by the blood covenant, for the blood is diseased. It’s filled with cancer, and blood can no longer take care of them anymore, for they are in violation even of that realm. They’ve become worse than beasts. Wherever there is a knowledge there is a sin; wherever there is a sin there is a transgression; wherever there is transgression there is a penalty of death; and wherever there is death there has to be a new instigation of life and a new covenant.
So, here we are over here with the Holy Ghost being poured out. Here we are in a new thing, the move of the Spirit. God has made a covenant with us, a spiritual covenant. It’s not a covenant with the world, and it’s not a covenant with the beast, but it’s a covenant with the angels, for the Bible says that in heaven, we are all as the angels, and the Bible teaches that when we are dead, the spirit goeth back to God who gave it, and we are to reckon ourselves to be dead by the body of Jesus unto sin. Therefore, our spirits are hid with Christ in God, and in that realm we are angelic beings and we fellowship the angels, and we have a covenant that’s made with the angels. The Bible says that it’s ordained in the hands of a mediator, and that by angels.
We stand here today with a new covenant. This is a covenant that cannot be broken this time. It is a spiritual covenant. There are three that bear witness in the earth: the water, the blood and the spirit. My brother, this great spiritual covenant that we’ve got with God today, has caused us to put aside the veil. This is what Abraham saw; the covering of God’s glory, that Shekinah glory that was taken away from Adam and Eve, but God has restored it in Christ. He hath given us that same great light, that same great life, that same great Spirit. It has been replaced and has come back to us as Christ, the quickening Spirit. Not that we are in the presence of it, but brother we are born of it. As long as I am in the presence of the sunlight, it can go out or I could walk in the house and out of the presence of it. But brother, if it’s the sun shining within my strength as John saw Jesus on the Isle of Patmos, it cannot go out, neither can I walk out of the presence of it because it is part of me. It is incorporated in my life. I am in it and it is in me. So then, this great life is in me. I am born of the Shekinah glory of God, and we have this new covenant today, the covenant of His glory.
So then, God picked Abraham up and gave him the sign of circumcision and said, “Abraham, this is the seal of your faith.” Paul brings it out in his writings that this is the seal of your faith. The sign of circumcision is the seal of your faith, because God gave faith to Abraham before the law ever came. Four hundred and thirty years before the law ever came, God justified the heathens by faith. God’s plan has always been faith. Man wants to be justified by the law, but the man that got the revelation said, “We conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law.” So then, the law and the prophets were until John and since that time, Christ and the kingdom of God has been preached. That which is old is folded up and then laid away, and therefore, the bruising.
When somebody sinned in the Old Testament, they stoned them to death. Why did they stone them? Because it was said when the serpent was driven out of the garden, “Thou shalt bruise his head.” It was the stone that was to be hewn out of the mountain that was to bruise his head. When that old sinful head of the evil one under the law sinned, they stoned him to death. When the sign of circumcision was given, there was a rugged stone that was used to move the foreskin. Why? Because it indicated the removing of the death veil or the foreskin because the Bible taught that it was the removing of the veil of death that had replaced the covering of God’s glory. It is a true fact, that wherever Christ was seen, it was always the bruising of the head. When He went to Calvary, it showed the bruising of the head when the thorns was set upon His head. What was it for? It was the unveiling of Christ.
Look at the veil that was over Moses, what was it? Moses showed the serpent. When Moses went to deliver the children of Israel, he showed the serpent. Because the first thing he did was grab a stick, and God gave him the sign of the serpent, and down into Egypt he went. Why was that? Because he had to do with the law, and the law had to do with knowledge, and knowledge had to do with the tree of death because the law shows the tree of knowledge, and the Bible says that by the law comes the knowledge of sin and death. It is the knowledge of sin and death. I was alive without the law, but when the law came, sin revived and I died, and that which was ordained unto life, I found to be unto death. So then, we see it symbolized in the wilderness, lifted up as the serpent, Moses!
You say, “But Brother Pike, that represented Jesus.” I know it represented Jesus, for Moses said, “Your God shall raise up a prophet like unto me,” and everyone that looked at that serpent was healed. Why were they healed? Because later, Jesus was to come as the serpent. Jesus was to be made sin. He was to come in the image of the serpent. He was to come in the image of sinful man and be made liken unto the image of the sinful serpent, that is, in the image of the sinful man which is the flesh of sin. Paul said, “Within my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” He said to hate the garments that are spotted by the flesh, corruptible flesh. What is it? John called them a generation of vipers. That’s what it is.
Where was the head of the serpent? It started back there with Adam. Adam was the head of that serpent. That’s where the head of the serpent was. You say, “Brother Pike, how do you get that? Adam was the Son of God!” The Bible says that Adam was the Son of God, but it also says Jesus was the Son of God. It said that Jesus was made sin, and so was Adam made sin, too. When God created Adam, He created him in the image of God and as long as the Shekinah glory was over Adam, he was in the image of God, but when he lost the image of God, he lost the covering of God’s glory, for the covering of God’s glory is the image of Christ. That’s what the covering of the glory is. That’s why, when the Bible speaks in the book of Revelation of the garment, it says that if any man come in here without the wedding garment, he’ll be cast out and bound hand and foot. Jesus said, I want you to bring Me that garment that was tried in the fire. We know that was the body of Jesus that went into the chambers of hell. He said, “Bring Me that garment. I counsel of you to give Me that garment that was tried in the fire down there. I won’t have any other garment than that.” He said, “If you come in here in your own righteousness, not having the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and you come in here without the covering of His glory, I’ll bind you hand and foot and cast you into outer darkness.”
That’s the reason why so many people are bound with evil spirits today, because at this very hour that we are living in, they’re just as religious as they can be, and just a great big bunch of hypocrites. Somebody say amen! The devils and demons are binding them hand and foot because they are not going in at the door. Jesus is the Word, He is the Christ and He is the door, and He said that if you get in this religious realm any other way, they’ll bind you hand and foot. That’s why the church world is in trouble. You need to live right. You need to talk right. You need to act right. You need to think right. You need to get right, and then you’ll get rid of devils and demons and all the sickness and the problems that are plaguing your life.
All right, let’s look at it just a little more. God said, “Abraham, I’ll give you the sign of circumcision,” for when Adam ate of that tree, over him came the veil of death. The old time executioners, if they were going to put you down at the guillotine, they would pull the veil of death over you and when the veil of death came over you, it meant that you lost your head. Isn’t that right? Did you notice that is what they did to John? You know why? Because the law and the prophets were until John, and God did away with that head, and He brought us a new head called the head, Jesus Christ. He’s the head of the church, and that old death veil that settled down over them, when they would go to the guillotine, indicated that the headship was missing.
If that veil of death is over you, it means that your head is missing. You say, “Brother Pike, what are you talking about?” God said, “Paul, turn My people from darkness unto light.” It means that if you’ve got intellectual reasoning, if you’re following after worldly education, if you’re following after the powers of your own understanding and leaning to your own powers of ingenuity, then you’ve got a dark veil over you. To be carnally minded is death. That is a veil of death. You’ve got the head of the serpent. You’ve got the mind of the serpent, and you’ve got to have that thing taken off. There’s only one way to do it. How is that? The sign of the circumcision! The little stone hewed out of the mountain taking away the foreskin or that dark veil, and getting it away before the executioner gets to you.
Now then, when we see this, we get a beautiful picture of what God has done. Look how this thing comes on down in the day that we are living in. Look at the pilgrims as they moved from the east to the west. What a beautiful picture it was in the old wagon train, as they moved across the dusty desert going westward. The ribs of those covered wagons moved along in a great chain reaction as they rolled and rattled, going across that dusty trail, and the tongue of the old wagon just a going, down between the horses. I’ve driven a team of horses, and that’s just the way it goes. Now, when they’d get out there in the dust, what would happen? Just about that time, those Indians would come sweeping down out of the rocks. Here comes an arrow flying down through there, and what happens? That old snake (wagon train) would make a coil. She’d curl up. Isn’t that right? You know what would happen then? They’d reach and get their guns, and they called that lead poisoning. How many of you understand what I’m saying? Do you know what those Indians represented coming out of those rocks? Eagles! Have you ever seen them do the eagle dance? They put the feathers on their arms and on their heads and on their feet, and come down out of the rocks with those arrow heads, those flint heads, bruising the head of that serpent that was eating that dust down there, and he’d coil up and begin to spit back at them. You understand what I’m saying? God working all things after the counsel of His own will to show us that in the day of the judgment, we’re going to be guilty before God, because the heavens declare His handiwork. The earth is full of His glory. Everywhere we look, it testifies of Him.
Looking at Rebecca, we see the servant of Abraham going down to the well in the evening time and picking up this woman for the son, Isaac. We see her coming across this hot desert. We see the ten camels coming across there, and here they come back to the homeland. But did you notice? The first thing that she does is put the veil over her face. The very same thing that Moses did. Why is that? The Bible says that the woman is suppose to be shamefaced. Why is it that God let the woman eat from the tree of knowledge? Because the church is suppose to be shamefaced in the presence of God, and because the world has eaten from the tree of knowledge, it’s suppose to be shamefaced in the presence of God. It has a veil of death over it. So, she pulled that veil of death down over her because she was getting close to Isaac. No boldness of face, but it was a face of the covering of death. The woman had to wear the veil because she indicated the body. She was the one that was in the transgression, not the man. It’s not Christ in the transgression, but it’s the woman in the transgression.
So, the veil was over Rebecca, and we get a beautiful picture. There she was in the evening time, a virgin that came out to draw the water. God had sent His servant, Eliezer down there to get that woman, and here she come. She watered those ten camels because she knew those ten camels were going to take her across that desert.
Now then, when you think about the commandments of God, Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Those ten camels represented those ten commandments, and Jesus said, “I’m not going to break the law,” but love fulfills the law, and you’ll fulfill the commandments of God in your heart.
So, when she got on the other side of that hot desert, just as quick as she saw Isaac, she jumped down and ran to him, and the Bible says that the veil was over her face. When he took her into the mother’s chamber, it was then that he lifted the veil. It’s when God gives us the Spirit of revelation, it’s when we enter into the secret places with God, it’s when God gets us in the Spirit on the Lord’s day like John was, that God lifts this old carnal mind, this old veil of death. To be carnally minded is death! It’s then that God rips that thing off, and we see Him face to face, and we don’t see through that old glass darkly. We don’t see through that old intellectual reasoning anymore. That old veil of death comes off, and we see Him just like He is. Hallelujah! We see Him face to face. Why? Because He promised to do that.
Joseph rent off that old veil and left it in the hands of the woman. Jesus rent off that old body that was the veil covering. The Shekinah glory called Christ rent it off and left it in the hands of the world which was the harlot, and that inner Christ went down into the heart of the earth preaching to those souls in prison, and came out in the brightness of the glory of God. He pulled the veil off at Calvary. He hung it up there and He said, “I have rent that thing in twain.” Somebody say amen!
The Bible says in the book of Acts that Jesus made in Himself two, both Lord and Christ. He made in himself twain, and at Calvary, do you know what He did? He separated the Lord from the Christ, which means He rent them in two. He rent the veil in two. He separated the Lord from the Christ, the body from the spirit, so that my body could be considered dead in the sight of God, buried in a watery grave in the name of the Lord, and my spirit could go back to God who gave it, to be hid with Christ and be spotless unto the day of the resurrection.
So then, God doesn’t see my body anymore. It’s dead by the body of Jesus, buried in water baptism, and I am an angelic being today that’s in heaven, for Jesus said to Nicodemus, “The Son of Man who was in heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” I’ve made you to sit together in heavenly places. You are not of this world. I’ve chosen you out of this world. I’ve looked down from heaven, heard the groaning of the prisoners and loosed them that were appointed unto death, I chose you out of this world, and hid you with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until the restitution or the restoring of all things. We’re sitting in heavenly places, and the Bible says to rejoice ye that are in heaven. Ye that are not inhabiting the body, but are in heaven. Rejoice!
Satan savors the things of the flesh, the things of the body. Those that live in the world, woe unto you, for Lucifer is among you, for God is casting him out of the spirit. But you that are in the Spirit, you that dwell in heaven, rejoice my brother, for now is come strength, now is come power. God’s moving the death veil. He’s taking the death veil away. How many of you know this old body is nothing but a death veil? All that it is good for is for the skin worms to eat. It’s just a death veil. It’s just a tomb, but Christ is rolling the stone away.
So, we see God telling us that we are not time creatures. David said, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of this death, I’m under the cloud of this veil.” Oh my brother, he said “I walk through this valley, but I’m not afraid of evil.” Did you know that when God looks down from heaven, this old world is a valley? Did you know that there is a veil of death over it that’s called Satan, that’s between heaven and earth? David said, “Lo, I walk beneath the shadow of this veil of death,” but he said, “There is a rod and a staff called the Word and the Spirit, and they are my comforters. I will fear no evil because the Word and the Spirit comfort me.” How many of you know the Bible says that the Holy Ghost is a comforter? How many of you know Jesus said, “My words are life and Spirit?” Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. Hallelujah! Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. So then, here we are, free from the veil of death.
Now, let’s just look at the Old Testament and the three covenants that we spoke of. Hanging over the tabernacle, there was a pillar of fire. Not a fire by day, but it was a cloud by day and it was a fire by night. Why was it a fire by night? Because of the veil of death. The whole world is covered with darkness, for gross darkness covers the people. Intellectual reasoning covers the people, but in the evening time I’m going to send some light, for great light sprang up unto them that sat in the regions of the shadow of death. Here is darkness over all the land, from the sixth to the ninth hour, and then the veil was rent when Jesus cried. Here, there is a pillar of fire hanging over the tabernacle. Why is it a pillar of fire? Because fire represents blood, and they were under the blood covering. They were offering blood in the days of Moses. The life is in the blood, so it had to be blood. They were under the covering of the blood.
As long as you are a sinner, it is the blood of Jesus Christ that covers you. That is all you have, the grace of God through the blood, for He sanctifies us by the blood, and brother, it can become a consuming fire. God, who is a Spirit, calls Himself the power of burning in the fiery indignation of the blood of His Son, if you disobey the Lord Jesus Christ.
So then, it is a pillar of fire. If it’s in the night, then it is a pillar of fire, but brother we are Christians. We don’t need a pillar of fire. What we need is a pillar of cloud. We’ve already had the blood atonement. When we were born again, we received the blood atonement that was over our tabernacle. Peter said, “As long as I’m in this tabernacle;” put it over the door post, and there it was over the tabernacle in the wilderness, which tabernacle we say is this body in this intellectual wilderness where the serpents are, and the pillar of fire hanging over it to get them out of Egypt and into Canaan.
So, what we need is a pillar of cloud. You say, “What is a pillar of cloud?” The daylight children! He said that you’re not children of the night, but you are children of the day, and it was a cloud by day. It’s suppose to be the Holy Ghost by day. It’s suppose to be a cloud by day. What is it? Not a fiery indignation of the wrath of God that burns its way through the enemy waging war, but it’s suppose to be that wonderful caressing Spirit of Almighty God, the cloud of refreshing of His rain upon our ground to bring forth a harvest. It’s the great Spirit of the Holy Ghost, for I say again, the last covenant He made was a spiritual covenant. That second part was a pillar of fire, but that last part was spirit. So then, it’s obvious that all of them were there, for the Bible says that they were baptized both in the Red Sea unto Moses and into the cloud. So, we see the baptism into the water of the Red Sea, we see the pillar of fire, and we see the cloud, which is water, blood and spirit, all of them being there.
It was by day when Joshua took them over Jordan into Canaan land, but what did they do? You don’t find that pillar of fire around there anymore. Why? Because it was a different age, my brother, sister. What is the Jordan? How many of you understand that we need to get over the Jordan? The Bible says to be carnally minded is Jordan (death). How many of you know that all these natural things happened for a type back there? God is a Spirit, and He used natural things to program your natural mind so that He could give you a spiritual understanding. How many of you know, that when a teacher is trying to teach you something, he’ll give you a natural two and two so that you can find an unseen four? How many of you know that he will give you a natural six and six so that you can find the unseen twelve? God has given you a natural formula to program your mind so that you can find the invisible answer, which is the Spirit of God.
You’ve got to get over the Jordan. What is the Jordan? Your own understanding, your reasoning, the love of the world. You’ve got to cross over that old death veil, and when you get over it, then you are over in Canaan. What is Canaan? The mind of Christ! Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. Brother, when you get in the mind of Christ, you’ve got something, for the Bible says that you recognize that God has chosen you out of this world and hid you with Christ in God whom the heavens have received, and you realize that you’re sitting in heavenly places, and you begin to see heavenly things, and you begin to eat from a heavenly table, and you begin to enjoy the heavenly environment. Elijah said, “Open his eyes,” and when the Lord opened his eyes, the servant saw the great fellowship of God that the prophet had with the angels. In heaven we are all as the angels.
Folks, we are living far beneath our privileges today. You know why the church hasn’t gone over any sooner? God offered it to them, but they mumbled and grumbled against the ministry and against the elders until finally, God had let them wander around in their intellectual Ph.D. seminary teaching until just about all the elders have died out, and God is beginning to raise up the children and take them into Canaan.
In the earth, there has to be a natural type of every spiritual thing. Have you ever seen people popping those needles in themselves? They are taking a trip! It’s the age of taking a trip. How many of you would like to take a trip? Hallelujah! Somebody said, “I want to get high!” All you have to do is come up here where I’m at! You love Jesus? The Bible says that the serpent has climbed up into the upper lintels. He’s gotten into the high places, but he didn’t go through the door. The Bible says when the man child goes up there, he’s going to bind him and he’s going to have war in heaven, and Michael and the man child are going to cast him out into the earth. Hallelujah! You know what that means? Revelation twelve, when He casts Lucifer out of heaven, it means the blood has come off of the mercy seat.
How many of you know that when the angel went over there to the little golden altar, dropped those coals in that little censer, and threw it into the earth, that it was the blood coming off of the mercy seat? The Bible says thirty minutes of silence in heaven, and then there were earthquakes and everything, and the church had been raptured in Revelation four. What was it? They stood there in awe. Everything in heaven and in earth just stood there. They couldn’t say anything because the blood was coming off of the mercy seat. You know what it was? When the blood comes off of the mercy seat, Lucifer goes out.
Now, let’s be spiritual for just a few minutes. Why does Lucifer go out? Because he’s the red dragon. What is the red dragon? John said that it’s the generation of vipers. Lucifer is a spirit, a fallen angel that lives in a human blood stream. The serpent is human beings like a jointed snake, a many membered body of the beast. Where are they at? The Bible says that he was cast out of heaven. Where is that snake at? Now, I know I’ll get a repercussion from this, but I’m going to say it anyway. Where is he at? He’s in heaven! He has climbed up into the upper lintels. Somebody says, “Brother Pike, you mean to tell me these people running around here in America are in heaven?” They’re in heaven! Somebody says, “Now I know you’ve done it, Brother Pike!”
All right, let me tell you something. Go to hell and then look back up here and see if you were not in heaven. Go to hell and make the comparison with this and see if you were not in heaven all the time. Yes sir, it’s heaven! It’s not only heaven, but it’s the second heaven. There is the first heaven, the second heaven, and the third heaven. Brother Paul said that he was caught up to the third one. Lucifer never has gotten up into the third one, but he sure has gotten into the second one.
When you can have medical aid, and every time you get a toothache run to a dentist, that’s heaven. You just wait until the tribulation. The Bible says that there will be no healing medicines, and when you have to suffer in pain, you won’t be in heaven anymore, and you’ll learn the difference between heaven and not being in heaven. It’s a second heaven! That’s what it is, and not only that, but Revelation twelve says that the woman was in heaven, too. Did you know that? The Bible says that Lucifer went out of heaven, but it didn’t say that the woman went out of heaven. It just said she went into a wilderness. How did she go into a wilderness when the Bible says that she was in heaven? It didn’t say she was cast out of heaven; and yet, the Bible says that Lucifer was cast out of heaven, and he went after her.
How in the world did he do that? How was it they were in the same place? She went into the wilderness and he went after her; yet, she was in heaven and he wasn’t in heaven. He had already been excommunicated and cast out. Somebody says, “How could that be? It can’t be, Brother Pike.” Jesus said, “Nicodemus, knowest not those things? You’re standing over there in one place, and I’m standing in another.” The Son of Man who was in heaven and who is in heaven. You understand what I’m saying? While the world is sitting in Jeffersonville places, we’re sitting together in heavenly places. You love Jesus? I’m telling you the truth. This is absolutely the Word of God. There is no playing about this my brother. I know that of which I speak. You are further down the trail than you think you are. Paul said, “I would speak unto you as spirituals, but seeing that you are babes in Christ, I can’t!” Let’s be spiritual today, because we are way down the trail, a lot further than it seems like we are.
There was a second heaven. What was it that Lucifer was cast out of? What does it mean that Lucifer was cast out? It means that he could no longer remain a hidden spirit. Lucifer is a hidden spirit. It means he had to come out in Revelation twelve and personify himself in a human being. That’s why in Revelation thirteen, he suddenly comes up out of the waters as a man, as a beast. John saw him come up out of the waters as a beast because he couldn’t stay in the spirit any longer. That’s why the Bible says that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God, because he was excommunicated from the spirit. He had to personify himself to where everybody could see who he was and what he was. He had to take on a human form. He could no longer hide in the spirit. Why? Because as long as the blood is on the mercy seat, Satan can hide behind the veil, and when the sons of God come into the presence of God, the sons of Satan can come, too. The children of the devil can come, too, and Satan can hide behind the veil. When the children of God walk into the presence of God, as in the days of Job back there, Lucifer can come, too. God said, “Where have you been?” Satan said, “Going to and fro in the earth.” He can come right in the presence of God, because God has given life to that briar just like He has that wheat.
As long as there is blood on the mercy seat, it means that blood has right to heavenly places. It means that blood life can stay in the presence of God. The days of grace is heaven. The Old Testament is one heaven, the New Testament is another heaven, and the book of Revelation or the Revelation of Jesus Christ is another heaven. There is a one heaven and a two heaven and a three heaven. In the second heaven, Satan was excommunicated when the blood came off of the mercy seat. No more blood life could be in grace. The days of grace were over. No more heaven to blood life. They were in the earth then. Woe unto the inhabitants of the earth because he is among you. When grace is over, the Spirit is lifted and there is no more heaven. But brother, let me tell you something, wherever God is, it’s heaven! God is the Spirit of heaven.
Did you know that in the millennium, it’s going to be this same earth that you’re walking on? God’s just going to move the briars, and it’s going to be heaven. Do you know where Adam and Eve was? It’s the same earth that you’re walking on, but it was heaven. Somebody said, “Well, I don’t believe that.” Go over there and check the rivers Pison and Euphrates and see if it’s still over there. The head of it comes out of the garden. It’s still there.
Now, the Bible says when the new earth comes forth, New Jerusalem is coming down. Heaven is going to be on the earth, my brother, sister. So then, let’s get spiritual and realize what God is doing. The blood is coming off of the mercy seat, and it’s on the verge of coming off right now. When it comes off, the days of the Gentiles will be over, and just as quick as those Jews accept Christ, there won’t be anymore blood atonement on the mercy seat. The end of the Gentile days is near. We have a tape where we preached the sermon called, “The End of the Days of the Gentiles,” and we brought it out, showing where the days of the Gentiles end and what causes it.
I say to you today that the second heaven has been defiled, and the first heaven has been defiled, but there is a third heaven that you and I are going to. The Bible says when that woman gave birth to that child, he was immediately caught up to the throne in that third heaven that had not been defiled. Hallelujah! The angels had a war in that second heaven, and when they got through, then God purged that second heaven. Maybe sometime we’ll mention something about those thunders over there in Revelation ten, and see why it was thundering like it was.
Rejoice, ye that are in heaven! There are some people here that are in heaven today. You know who they are? It’s those that have the sun shining within their strength. It’s those that are born of the Shekinah and have the seal of their faith. It’s those that have the covering of His glory which is the image of Christ. How many of you are in His image? You say, “Brother Pike, am I really in His image?” Not in your first birth, in that image of the old serpent, that beast. Jesus came to kill that thing and do away with it, but in that second birth we are born in His image, and did you know that just as quick as we are born, we’re caught up to the throne? How many of you know that it’s Christ in you, the hope of glory, that second man from glory? The kingdom of heaven is on the inside, and just as quick as he was born down at the altar or wherever he was born, he was caught up to the Spirit of God inside.
Your spirit, just as quick as it was born, was caught right up to the throne of God inside of the kingdom of heaven in you. That little spiritual child was caught right up to the throne of God just as quick as it was born. The Bible says God hath translated that little child into the marvelous kingdom of its God, and He has given to him the Word and the power of ruling and authority to rule with a rod of iron. The manifestation of the sons of God is coming. Hallelujah! He caught him up to the throne. Rejoice, ye that are in heaven!
All right, you say, “Brother Pike, I’m waiting on the rapture.” I tell you what you need to do; read the book of John. It says, “The revelation of Saint John the Divine,” and then it says, “The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave unto Him to show unto His servants.” You follow me? I want you to think this over. It’s in that revelation, that it said, “He comes with clouds.” It’s right there when it says, “The revelation of Jesus Christ.” What does the revelation of Jesus Christ mean? The unveiling and revealing of the Christ! The coming of the Christ! It said, “He cometh with clouds.”
Brother, sister, I want you to know one thing today, the revelation of Jesus Christ is the coming of the Lord, and you say we are waiting for the rapture? I want you to know the revelation of Jesus Christ is the translation of the church. It’s from glory to glory by the transformation of your mind that you are moving from dimension to dimension, and when God gets that church right in this message, and the last one steps in and everything is set in order, that will be it. That sun shining from within the strength will cause that old outer image to fade away into nothing, and there He’ll stand. The Bible says that He shall suddenly appear within His saints. How many of you understand now? He shall suddenly appear within you, Christ within you, the hope of glory, the kingdom of God within you. He shall suddenly appear within His saints to make all the world come and kneel at your feet to let them know that He hath loved you. Let all the world keep silent. You are the temple of God, and He is in His temple. What a beautiful salvation, what a beautiful thing.
The world will never see it, for they are not suppose to. But beloved, we must see it. The wicked shall not see when good cometh, for having eyes to see, they see natural things, but they see not spiritual things. Having ears to hear, they hear natural sounds, but they hear not spiritual things, lest they should convert in their heart and then hear, and God will give them ears to hear and eyes to see. But with the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, you can comprehend the heights, the depths, the width and the length.
How many of you have a single eye today? The Bible says that if your eye be single, then your whole body will be full of light. You know what that means? You can’t be double minded. Your eye is understanding. You can have two kinds of understanding: yours and the devil’s, that old carnal understanding, or Christ’s, but you can’t be double minded. A single understanding, a single eye. If you just have the mind of Christ, it’s one eye of understanding. If your eye be single, the mind of Christ, your whole body will be full of light. It will be full of light, my brother, sister. You love Jesus?
The Bible says, “Rejoice ye that dwell in heaven!” Brother, you are in heaven today. The saints of God are so precious and wonderful. We’re sitting together in heavenly places, for God hath translated us into the marvelous kingdom of our wonderful God. We are hid with Christ in God whom the heavens have received. It’s so wonderful. You can feel the exhilaration! You can feel the thrill! You can feel the jubilance! Lifted up and elevated above the despair. Lifted up and elevated above the troubles. Lifted up and elevated above the heartaches and woes. There is a jubilance. There is a freedom. The oppression lifted. There is a lightness of spirit and heart. It makes you feel so good. You feel so wonderful. It feels like every fiber of your body is alive with the glory of God, all because you trust Him and you’ve gone through that translating and transformating power.
The Lord Jesus has, by His great Spirit, in one great act by faith in God, translated our spirit into the marvelous kingdom of our God, and He is, step by step and day by day, progressively speaking, through the five fold ministry, from glory to glory, transformating our minds. Paul said, “Be ye therefore transformed by the renewing of your minds.” Then thirdly, God is working towards Thessalonian’s ultimatum, the change in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, that transfiguration of the body that Jesus had on the mount. Isn’t it wonderful? Hallelujah!
The Bible says, “Cast not away thy faith, which hath great recompense of reward.” Your faith hath great recompense of reward, my brother, sister. Cast not away thy faith. Hold fast to your crown and don’t let someone else take your crown. God has given you a crown, but don’t do like Esau. Don’t sell your birthright for a mess of pottage. Hold on to it.
I tell you the truth, and I lie not, Jesus bearing me witness in the Spirit, the rapture is close by my brother, sister. The translation of the church is closer than you could ever know. People are not spiritual. The Bible says that as a thief in the night shall it come upon them, and it shall come as a snare upon all them that dwell on the earth, even in the time that they shall not look for it. The Bible says that in that hour they were eating and drinking, just as they are in this day, and there were earthquakes, just as it has been over in the foreign country. There shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be pestilence and there shall be famines. All kind of sicknesses and problems, and there shall be wars and rumors of wars. Oh, what problems! This is the beginning of sorrows. There’s never been problems like this before, beloved, never in the history of mankind.
So, don’t loose your birthright for a morsel of bread, remember how important it is. Eternal life, eternal riches, eternal power, eternal splendor, eternal youth, and eternal brilliance, without spot, without wrinkle, and without blemish. There won’t be any more old tired, weary, worn out bodies. There won’t be any cripples or helpless. Just think, what a grand and glorious moment. What a great opportunity, and all of a sudden it’s right at the door.
By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.
Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.
Holiness Unto The Lord