The Highest Thought in the Universe | Our Eternal Destiny in Christ

Now, the Lord also ascended and led captivity captive. God received Christ and allowed the gifts that were Christ’s, which He placed in Christ…the gifts that God put in Christ as a human being; He received that gift back into the Father. And then the Father said, “The gift that I have given you and I have received back, I am going to give them again.” The Lord will give the gift again. The gift of Apostleship the Father gave the Son; He will now give that same gift to other men. The gift of teaching and prophecy for the edification and the building up of the church, He will now give to more men. God gave it all to Christ that Christ might build the church. Then He received the Lord Jesus back and said, “You’ve done a marvelous job. I’m going to take your gifts now and give them again for the building up of the church.” Boy, listen, that is important for you. We are going to see gifts given and the house built.

By the way, just in passing, I can make a statement tonight based on experience that is probably pretty close to accurate. I will start by saying I don’t know where on this earth, at any time, anywhere…and then I’m going to drop that and say, “Brothers, there’s not a place on this earth that I know of, that you could have heard men 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 get up and say what had been said tonight. I mean that. Not a spot on this planet. I’m betting on 21-year-old men living by the Lord Jesus Christ and 24-year-old men living by the Lord Jesus Christ and everybody in between. I’m betting on them for 33. I believe they’re going to be worthy ministers ministering to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, I mentioned just a little bit last night, the Lord also descended, and then He ascended to the Father and was enthroned to rule over the universe, and a man ruled the universe, and God said, “I am no longer God, but now I am altered. I am a Man.” Are you aware, my brothers, that the last form that God will ever be seen in is the form of a man, and that Man sits on the throne of the universe. God said I’m going to do it again and I’m going to have men…someone said I feel left out and women, any sisters in the resurrection there won’t be any difference. I don’t know how to say things in the English language with no gender.

I am going to do it again with a man. For men shall rule on thrones with me, and they will rule the earth. I, for one, have volunteered. In my arrogance and in my conceit, I have volunteered to be made a king. I may not make it, but I’m volunteering to be made a king. I want you to know I have confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I can’t say that for everybody, and Paul spoke it very personally, but he spoke it for himself. I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to take that which I have committed, to keep that which I have committed unto Him until that day.

He’s going to enthrone. God is about to finish his autobiography. There is something even beyond “throneship,” and that is: the glorification of Jesus Christ. I don’t know where to put the glorification because I do not know when it came into full orbs. It did not come into the orb while He was on earth. If Jesus Christ had been seen in His glory when He went through those walls and talked to Peter, Thomas, and the others, they could not have stood it. He ascended into heaven. I assume that my Lord was glorified when the gates opened to heaven; I don’t know. But I’m going to talk about it for just a moment.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ was glorified, and God gave Him a totally transfigured, translated body. I read to you a moment ago a picture of one man trying to describe what the Lord Jesus Christ was like. My brother John could not explain it. His head and His hair were like white wool. It was like it was snow, and when I looked at His eyes, His eyes burned like fire, and even His feet looked like bronze in the furnace. His voice was like many roaring waters. And in His right hand He held seven stars. When He spoke, I guess He meant here; His voice cut like a sword. And His face looked just exactly like the sun when you look at it at noon. That was a sight to behold. That is the Christ when God had finished glorifying Him. That’s what He looked like. Glorious beyond description.

Right now, Jesus Christ has given you a spirit that is perfect and sinless. It cannot be touched. He is taking your soul and transforming it into the nature of Jesus Christ. But you’re stuck with the biggest mess you ever saw in the way of a body, and upon this earth, you’re going to have it for the rest of the time, and it’s going to be a bother to you till the end.

Jesus Christ lived in a body that looked like fallen flesh, that appeared to be fallen flesh. But when He went to the Father, resurrected, I guess…in the twinkling of an eye…the Father gave Him a totally glorified body. And this was one man’s meager effort to try to describe what Jesus Christ looked like in His glory. Glorious beyond words until one human being fell down. He did not fall down praising. He did not fall down singing. He did not fall down shouting. He could not stand what He saw. The human body could not stand to behold the glorified Christ. He couldn’t even praise Him.

Brother, to praise that Lord is going to demand a new body. He fell down at the feet of His Lord “as one dead”. What a Christ we have! God glorified Him beyond the ability of a man to describe. And when God got through doing it, what did He say? I’m going to do it again. And that is your hope. It’s your hope that you are going to be made like Jesus Christ. Isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t that glory? Isn’t that fantastic? You haven’t heard nothing yet.

Well, there is something greater than that. I didn’t even read it; I’m not going to go into it, but I think that somewhere in eternity, you and I, having received a glorified body and standing perfect before Him, as glorious and as marvelous as He is, we are going to be melted into one great, glorious, wonderful being.

Now hold on to your chair, because you are about to hear the most incredible statement ever uttered from human lips. I say that without hesitation… And we are going to be made into the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are going to become the wife of the Lord. Then the Lord is going to marry us, and as the sisters said up on the mountain, we’re going to be living with God. Isn’t that great? Isn’t that glorious? Isn’t that marvelous? You haven’t heard nothing yet.

Then in that marriage…in that marriage, there will be consummation and the two will have become one. The bride will be one with the groom, and there’s not going to be anything left but Jesus Christ, who is all there is in all. Then the Lord Jesus Christ is going to turn around; He being everything there is in the universe…having filled the universe up to the brim with nothing but Christ, He is going to turn and go into the Father. And God shall have been so greatly enlarged. And God shall be all that’s left…and He shall be All in All. And you and I are going to be lost in God…forever.