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"THE MYSTERY OF GOD"

by Ray and Doris Prinzing
from the work titled The Whispers of the Mysteries (1)

"In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets." [Revelation 10:7].

         The secrets-- the mystery-- that which is known only to the initiated, is being declared to His servants the prophets, for "HE revealeth His secrets unto His servants the prophets." [Amos 3:7]. There are several qualifications tucked into this one phrase. To begin with, HE does the revealing! This is not the imagination of the carnal mind. It is HIS secret, therefore He can disclose it when, and to whomever He pleases.
        Furthermore, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." [James 4:6]. Therefore He bypasses those who claim to be mighty ones, and He apprehends those who are "servants." "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." [Matthew 20: 26-28] .
         This does not belie our calling to be "kings and priests," but it speaks of an ATTITUDE OF MIND, a constant willingness to give, to serve. Not seeking for self, but a giving of ourselves that others might be blessed.
         Yet, it is, also, to be noted that He recognizes His servants as "prophets." The Hebrew word is "naba" meaning to "flow forth," while the Greek is "prophetes" meaning "to speak for another." It bespeaks of uttering by Divine inspiration, to be His "spokesman," His "mouth!" And, "He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh His glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him." [John 7:18]. These are not going about "tooting their own horn," and drawing attention to themselves. They have but one desire, to speak HIS MESSAGE, that HE might be glorified. God can reveal His secrets to them, because they will not use this knowledge for personal kingdom building, nor self-exaltation, but only that they might declare the will and purpose of God, causing men to seek Him who is the Truth.
         There is also a time element involved, so we go back to note again the context, when the "angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and swear by Him that liveth for ever and ever . . . that there should be time no longer. " [Revelation 10:5-6]. There are some that would translate this as "no more time should intervene and there should be no more waiting or delay." Regardless of the translation, however, we see one vital issue, and it must be connected with the next verse of how the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, which signals that the time of finishing the "mystery of God" shall be fulfilled. This introduces that grand dispensation which shall reveal HIS KINGDOM on earth, His new creation manifested, His sons revealed openly, and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord begins to flow out until it fills the whole earth.
         "The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." [Habakkuk 2:3].
         The mystery began in Genesis, chapter one, and through all the processings, as mentioned in the various fragments of these mysteries that we have touched upon, we now come to its glorious fulfillment-- THE MYSTERY OF God is to be accomplished, brought to the full, and ready for revelation. All of that which has been done in secret, the inner hidden work, is to be climaxed and made ready for all the universe to behold. We stand in awe before Him who hath worked so marvelous a purpose-- bringing forth "man in our image, after our likeness." [Genesis 1:26]. HE is bringing forth after His own kind, that He might be God of gods, King of kings, Lord of lords.
         Time is the arrangement of God for the accomplishment of His purpose. So Paul refers to it as "the purpose of the ages which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." [Ephesians 3:11]. The ages were fitted, planned, marked out for the outworking of this tremendous purpose. Natural man has not understood it, indeed, "He hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." [Ecclesiastes 3:11]. But when it is finished, He will remove the veil that has been spread over all nations, [Isaiah 25:7] and His glory shall be revealed. There will be succeeding ages wherein He shall continue to carry out to universal conclusion of His plan, but the moment He has brought forth the FIRSTFRUIT COMPANY, and revealed them-- it will be a secret no longer, and all creation shall know that their destiny is to be as that revealed in His elect sons.
         As pointed out earlier, He ultimately shall gather together in One all things in Christ-- all things in heaven, in earth, and under the earth. That will take the ages to come, until we are brought to that final and most glorious of all ages, when God shall be ALL IN ALL, the indwelling, controlling factor in every man. But as for the mystery of this working, it shall be a hidden secret no longer-- once He has revealed His firstfruits. No wonder it is written, "the whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God's purpose it has been so limited." [Romans 8:19-20, Phillips].
         It is a demonstration of the tremendous humility of our God, that we read, "Verily Thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." [Isaiah 45:15]. Not only has He veiled Himself from view, but so much of the work which He is doing is also concealed, a hidden work. We have long struggled with this blindness upon all creation-- wondering what God has been doing through all this processing. We could not see reality because HE chose for us not to see. But HE HAS ALSO APPOINTED a time when the mystery is to be FINISHED, and "time is up" so to speak, and He will uncover His work. Yes, and we know that "if reality were to break through, we should reflect His likeness, for we should see Him as He really is." [1 John 3:2, Phillips].
         "IN THE BEGINNING GOD." [Genesis 1:1]. The opening statement of the Word declares plainly that this is GOD'S working, it is HIS purpose, and whatever follows must of necessity be seen as relating to Him. HE has been, and IS in control of every "jot and tittle" from beginning to the end. HE, and He alone, is the Alpha and the Omega. While the final verse, Revelation 22:21, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen," confirms the fact that the whole purpose has been wrought by HIS GRACE, and as a beautiful, all-encompassing, covering blanket, grace prevails to bring every creature into the fullness of His life. GOD and GRACE, these two words encompass all of the mystery. We have not been able, in our muddled confusion of the carnal mind, to be able to clearly see His grace in all things, but once the mystery is finished, and the final product is revealed, it will be a testimony and manifestation of His grace which will truly redound to His glory and praise.
         Fragments of the mystery are uncovered all through the Scriptures, as brief glimpses, but only when He causes the eyes of our understanding to be enlightened, do we even see them. Such is the case, when we read, "The Lord answered Job out of the whirl wind, and said . . . where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou has understanding . . . when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." [Job 38:1,4,7].
         Contained in the bosom of Wisdom, OUR SPIRITS RESIDED IN HIM OUT OF WHOM WE CAME, to be subjected to this earthly sojourn.  "The LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him." [Zechariah 12:1]. He took of these "spirits" and encased them in a tabernacle of clay, a body of dust, and VEILED FROM THEIR MEMORY of their former state IN HIM. Fashioned out of His own substance, amid the glories which streamed from Himself, He begat "spirits." But according to the outworking of this MYSTERY-PURPOSE He subjected us to the vanity of this world, the bondage of corruption. "Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, return, ye children of men." [Psalm 90:3]. It was GOD who turned man to destruction, bruising, setting him on this downward course. Man did not volunteer for this time of travail, but the plan of God included this process, so God Himself turned man in this direction. IT WILL ALSO BE THE SOVEREIGN OPERATION OF OUR SOVEREIGN GOD BRINGING BACK INTO HIMSELF THE WHOLE OF CREATION. Furthermore, man had to be in the state of righteousness before he could be turned away from that state of being. Nor can you RE-turn something that was not first turned away. So it is that all through the Scriptures we have words with this "RE-" prefix. RE- denotes, first, back, especially back to an original or former state or position.  Also, it is used chiefly to form words denoting repetition (of the action of the verb), or restoration to a previous state. So we have: RE-fresh, RE-vive, RE-store, RE-deem, RE-generate, etc. It had to be fresh once, before you could refreshen it, making it fresh again. There had to be life to begin with, before you could revive, re-new it again to a state of life. It had to be in existence prior to its becoming destroyed or marred, before you could restore it, bring it back to its original state: Likewise, you had to once be generated in spirit, before you could be regenerated to that realm. Our spirits came from God, and into Him we return.
         Consider again that which is expressed in "Intimations of Immortality" written by Williams Wordsworth.

   "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
   The soul that rises with us, our Life's Star,
    Hath had elsewhere its setting ,
         And cometh from afar:
    Not in entire forgetfulness,
    And not in utter nakedness,
   But trailing clouds of glory do we come
    From God who is our home."
         We read in Psalm 8:4-5, "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels . . ." In this phrase "made a little lower," it literally reads from the Hebrew text, "You have made him lack a little from God (Elohim)." One cannot have been made to lack from Elohim unless they had once been a part of that realm.
         This brings us immediately to Psalm 82:6-7, "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. ""Ye are gods (elohim).." Elohim is a plural word for gods, as well as referring to Him as the Head of this God-family.
        God is "the Father of spirits . . . " [Hebrews 12:9], and because they are out of Himself, they are also rightly called gods, or, elohim. But because, in His mystery-purpose, He has caused them to lack, to be lowered from this realm, man is no longer able to bear the yoke of divinity, nor live out the fullness of this righteous state, and so we "die like men", literally, like Adam, who was the one by whom "sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." [Romans 5:12].
         Yet even when He turned man to this bruising, He did so with the inherent command, "return, ye children of men," [Psalm 90:3] knowing full well that He had purposed a FULL RETURN once this mystery had been consummated.
         Briefly, we note a few other Old Testament references using the word "elohim" in its plural sense for "gods."
         Zechariah 12:8, "And he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David as elohim, as the angel of the Lord before them. "  What an in working of the power and grace of God, so that the weak ones become strong, but they who have already been developed and matured and made strong will be as ELOHIM - as gods.
         Psalm 138:1, "I will praise Thee with my whole heart; before the gods (elohim) will I sing praise unto Thee."
         Psalm 136:2, "O give thanks unto the God of gods."
         HE is above all, that "in all He might have pre-eminence."  [Colossians 1:18]. "Yet He, Jesus Christ, is the Firstborn among many brethren." [Romans 8 : 29]. "For both He  that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one:  for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." [Hebrews 2:11]. The brethren are to be "AS HE IS so are we in this world." [1 John 4:17]. Hence the verses multiply in convincing evidence that He is bringing forth after His own kind - His elohlm, His gods. The mystery of God, while it is all encompassing of His purpose, can also be identified as bringing forth gods, in His image, after His likeness, partakers of His divine nature.
         The Jews took up stones to stone Him, and Jesus asked them, "Many good works have I shewed you from My Father; for which of those works do ye stone Me? The Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy and because that Thou, being a man,  makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If He called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified and sent  into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said I am the Son of God." [John 10:32-36].
         There are some significant points which Jesus brings out, in His reference to the declaration of the Psalmist, "ye are gods . . . " and we especially note the statement "He call them gods, unto whom the word of God came." Certainly!  Because when His Word comes to us, and we receive it, it is HIS SEED for the producing of His new creation species, thus we are "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, BY THE WORD OF GOD, which liveth and abideth for ever." [1 Peter 1:23]. The life is in the seed, and it is HIS LIFE, to bear after His kind, so obviously He calls them gods.
         Furthermore, Jesus affirmed, "and the scripture cannot be broken . . . " The word "broken" is from the Greek "luo," meaning: to loosen, and has also been translated as destroy, dissolve, break up. He never came to "destroy the law, or the prophets, but to FULFILL." [ Matthew 5 :17].  And all His work to us-ward is to bring this scripture to pass, that it might be realized in us. "And the very God of peace (completeness) sanctify you WHOLLY; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it." [1 Thessalonians 5:23-24].
         There is another fact to be reckoned with-- blasphemy to the natural man, yet a truth to the spiritual man. "As the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself." [John 5:26]. Literally, one could read this, As the Father is self-existent, so, according to divine economy, the Son is also self-existent. And because it is HIS LIFE within us, as Paul said, "I am self sufficient in Christ's sufficiency." [Philippians 4:13, Amplified]. Thus, when brought into the fullness of our redemption, when the mystery of God is finished, by virtue of our ONENESS IN HIM, we shall be living out of this INNER, INDWELLING LIFE-- the life of God.
         It is also worthy of note that the ancient Greeks derived the word Theos (God) from another similar root word meaning: TO PLACE, to arrange. For in His sovereignty HE IS THE DIVINE PLACER, "working all things after the counsel of His own will." [Ephesians 1:11]. He is the PLACER, and "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father . . . " [James 1:18].
         He exercised His sovereign right of placing when He subjected us to the bondage of corruption and vanity. And He will be seen as exercising His own will when he "raises us up together, and makes us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus." [Ephesians 2:6]. It is all of GOD!
     HOW WE YEARN TO RETURN TO HIM,
to be filled with His fullness,
that we might become "placers in The Placer."
How we yearn to return into
The fullness of the living God,
To be released from the fetters.
Which make us now an earth-bound clod
Till once more in us is dwelling
His spirit-fullness made complete,
We become His own true placers,
To every problem more than meet.
To place light in blackened regions
Where darkness stalks at the noon day,
Till the whole is illuminated -
And all the shadows flee away.
To place peace where strife is raging,
The atmosphere is tension fraught,
Till the calm of holy presence
Will bring the turbulence to nought.
To place life where death and decay
Have reigned o'er men with bondage sore,
While the glory of Iife's outflow
Shall penetrate to inmost core.
Yes, the placers will be placing
His righteousness in every clime,
Till the fullness of His glory
Shall fill the whole in perfect rhyme.
Till the universe is singing,
And purest joy and love abound,
And the nature of The Placer -
All in all, everywhere, is found.

         Ah, how blessed it would be to KNOW HIS WILL, to KNOW HIS TIME, and to be so filled with HIS POWER and HIS SUFFICIENCY that we are able to place into man's desperate situations and circumstances that which would bring forth life, and peace, and harmony. To enter a home with agitation and strife, and be able to place PEACE. As Jesus was able to say, "THIS DAY is salvation come to this," [Luke 19:9] because we are HIS WILL IN MANIFESTATION, because of HIS INDWELLING PRESENCE.
         Surely "the day shall declare it," [1 Corinthians 3:13] and by their fruits ye shall know them. If all we can do is cause more condemnation and confusion, bring forth more darkness and distress, it matters not how loud we proclaim ourselves to be "gods," we are only as a sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal. But when He has fully BECOME IN US OUR NEW STATE OF BEING, we shall emanate and radiate His life because of His inherent nature.
         There need be no misunderstanding-- God has given us the stability of His Word, and we can abide in His truth. We need not be confused by these many signs and wonders of the occult, for though there be many that would exalt themselves "above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.-- even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders." [2 Thessalonians 2:4]. Nevertheless, God shall have PURIFIED PEOPLE, cleansed from all self-exaltation. "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that HE may exalt you in due time." [1 Peter 5:6].
        "It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; ,for we shall see Him as He is." [1 John 3:2]. LIKE ONES TO HIM,
one translation gives. Obviously, because it is to BE HIS NATURE, His life, with a body like unto His glorious body-- indeed, it is to be AFTER HIS KIND.
         Of our Lord Jesus Christ, we read, "For IN HIM all fullness is pleased to dwell." [ Colossians 1:19, Interlinear]. "For it is in Him that all the fullness of Deity continues to live embodied, and THROUGH UNION WITH HIM you too are filled with it." [Colossians 2:9-10, Williams]. Praise God, He shall have a people who are truly "COMPLETE IN HIM"-- "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." [James 1:4].

"In the beginning, God" -
And the myst'ry began its course,
 A work that was hidden from man,
With His love as the primal force.
 "Let us make man," said He,
And the work most profound began,
The image and likeness of God,
Grace alone could cover the span.
Tell this man, "ye are gods,"
The Scripture cannot be broken,
Whoever hath heard such a thing?
How seldom this truth is spoken.
Whisper the mystery -
The ages this purpose unfold.
He knoweth the way that we take,
When tried, we'll come forth as pure gold.
 Forget the doctrinaire,
That prattles traditions of men,
A message of far noble fare
Has never been written by pen.
Myst'ry of God complete -
And the secret can then be told,
He begetteth after His kind,
God of gods - His purpose of old.
 ______________________________________________________________
(1)  Prinzing, Ray and Doris  WHISPERS OF THE MYSTERIES.  Boise, Idaho 83705, P.O. Box 5822

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