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By Robert C. Ewing
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The drawing is a faint replica of a sudden flash revelation given me in North- field, Minn. April 24th, 1978, just prior to a leadership meeting that night.
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Contents: I saw like a city, four walls, and within (as I looked through the door, actually three level open entrance, on north side) were happy children, many were single, others, as seen in lower left side, were playing groups. Incidentally, this particular group, perhaps 9, remained one of “ring around the rosy” except the ring was only about 3/4 around, yet with perfect coordination, they all moved harmoniously, had their heads swung back rejoicing, hands clasped etc. There were also a number of what looked like sheep-sheds inside. Outside (especially on left or east side) danger was in the woods, but the children had no fear within.
Interpretation: Christ was mighty in authority “Before God and all the people” (Lk. 24:19). Notice 4 levels or “houses” of authority “before God” and 4 “before men”, all seen above. First, there was (1) the individual child, (2) the perfectly coordinated groups of children playing according to the rules of the game, then (3) the buildings, looking like sheep-sheds, and (4) the big enclosure or city. One missionary brother once had a revelation of the 3 houses. First is our individual life. Next was our family. thirdly the local church. My father Glenn added a fourth one, the Church as a whole, the Body of Christ. I think that the above 4 things already mentioned in the revelation equals these, with the possible exception, that the “family” does not have to be a literal one but God’s children should learn to coordinate with whatever environment God has placed them in (including the law enforcement, God’s ministers Ro. 13:1- 4) Learning certain basic principles that keep them in harmony with whatever group or circumstance that they finds themselves.
But the four walls also are seen from without, and in this way they picture the outsider looking on at the great general Body of Christ universal. In fact Isa, 60:18 says, “Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation (Yeshua, Hebrew for Jesus).” His Body represents Him on earth, for that is how people see Him -it is through us.
“Four walls” = Jesus Christ, for it took four Gospel writers to describe Him, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
1) Authority of Practicing the Pattern. Delegated authority to use His Name. Matthew shows Him as the King building up His kingdom, and in Matt. 28:18-20 (also Mark 16:17) He gives us the Great Commission to go forth in His Name to spread the kingdom all around.
Look at the Jerusalem local church, how they exercised this authority. For they had seen the Pattern lived before them and they went everywhere preaching the Word, God confirming it with signs and wonders following. There’ s when the Gen- tile section of the church was threatened to be divided from the early Jewish church, again Peter exercised this authority by showing the leaders that the Gentiles had received “the like gift even as unto us”, and had spoken in tongues according to the precedent or pattern, and all was all right then.
2) Authority of Divine Provision. Legal authority for rights granted us by the Word of God. First is sonship (Jn. 1:12). In Mark we see the perfect servant, love slave, Christ, our example of when we give ourselves completely to the Lord, to obey His Word, then, as we sow we reap, and we find we have full rights granted us also.
The Samaritan church exemplifies this type of authority.
3) Authority of Perfection. Spiritual authority that by virtue of its quality demands to be used as a standard or mark to attain unto, and to judge by. In Luke we see the perfect Son of Man or Lamb of God. More than half of Luke is telling of Christ’ s walking up to Jerusalem, facing the cross, for the cross walk makes for perfection.
In the New Testament the 2 main Greek words for perfection picture one of total adjustment (Eph. 4:13). One who is a babe in Christ may not have much spiritual authority by right of growth yet, but he can be a “perfect” baby. And through the grace of Christ, since there is a full grown Christ in his spirit, he can “cash in” on Christ’s perfection for him, and wait patiently then for his “double portion,” the soul growth maturity.
The Caesarea church excelled, or no doubt should have excelled, in this type of authority. For it had such matured brethren as Philip, Cornelius, Peter (Acts 12:19) and Paul while two years in prison there. Quality produces quality.
4) Authority of Position. Elected (predestined) authority that, when we are called (as David when anointed as king) we pursue (also as David in his training) until we also sit on the throne, or heavenly position that He has foreordained from the foundation of the world for us to have. Do not mistakenly think that because God has a special “orbit” for each of us, that He forces us against our will to attain unto it. For in He. 4:3 we read where that God had Canaan waiting as a finished work “from the foundation of the world” for Israel when they left Egypt. But when the original generation it was designed for turned it down, God raised up another one who did the inherit it. Why does God seem to allow suffering, especially in this type of authority, as part of the preparation? Because, for one thing, true authority needs to be balanced with compassion (Pr. 13:24, Col. 3:21). John’s gospel shows Christ as the Son of God or heavenly one who came down to do His Father’s Will, and entered into His heavenly orbit afterwards as result.
The Ephesus church is an example of a church who, in Acts 19, really got “in orbit” and probably understood more about God’ s predestined plan than any other church, as it was a frequent thought in Paul’s letter to them.
All these can be summed up as:
GOD’S AUTHORITY IS THROUGH US, TO US, IN US AND OVER US
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (turned Israel,) and Joseph each set forth the basic principles by which one can exercise this 4- fold authority, respectively, in their own lives. In other words, to make it not just a mental teaching but a life reality. Also this is why God has placed in the believer certain laws.
1) The “law of faith” (Rm. 3:27) is creative and is a built-in channel through which God’s first kind of authority can flow, if we keep it unclogged. Abraham shows this.
2) By watching and keeping victory over the “law of sin and death” (Rm. 7:21-8:2) we can enjoy the authority of claiming our legal rights, just as sure as Isaac did when he dug again those wells.
3) The “law of the mind” (Rm. 7:23-25). Our soul with all of its faculties when transformed, a gradual experience although at times accompanied and helped by crises, leads us into God’s authority of perfection. Jacob turned Israel shows this process.
4) The “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rm. 8:2), as we keep true to the purpose that God has for our lives, will lead us (just as Joseph separates from his brethren shows,) to sit on the throne of God’ s position for us in His Body.
Authority is to “cover” or to protect. What do these four kinds of authority cover? Are they complete in meeting the wholeness of our total life? The answer is that authority:
1) Covers kingdom expansion through our lives, outreach. What breadth!
2) Covers perpetuation of daily living, by meeting its needs. What length!
3) Covers inner spiritual development. What depth!
4) Covers our attainment to the predestined high calling God has for us. Such height!
Even in our body God pictures this fourfold authority.
1) The head with its control of action, and creative direction, for we are made in God’s image, and are meant to follow His pattern, the real Head, Christ.
2) The hands picture the authority of possessing what God has provided, that, while in service, grasps what is its own.
3) The heart (from which issues life) by virtue of the nature of its central relationship to our life, pictures the authority of perfection of completion. It’s the only one of these four that is hidden from sight as it were.
4) The shoulders speak of carrying responsibility (the ark and the rest of the tabernacle furniture were borne upon them) and speak therefore of the authority of position, Is 9:6. It’s interesting that the city Sechem means “shoulder” and this city, also a city or refuge, was where Joshua exhorted Israel to its responsibility before he died, Joshua 24.
So we have seen authority, the four different kinds from the believer’s perspective. Then, from the general or over all perspective (the four walls picturing this). This would be incomplete without seeing it from God’s perspective. Where best could we find this except in the Holy of Holies and in the most valuable thing God had, the ark? Valuable because of what was in it. The whole tabernacle existed to house this. Y es, in the ark (and upon it) we find God’ s perspective of His fourfold authority that He has given us “in Christ Jesus” (the real Ark).
1) The rod of Aaron that budded (imagine seeing live almond buds, flowers, and almonds all inside the ark!) speaks of that creative authority of the pattern. It was to show Israel who was the real pattern of the 12 tribal princes. Of course it speaks of resurrection.
2) The golden pot of manna (a miracle of perpetuation), it remained fresh daily in the ark- pictured the daily perpetuation of Israel through God’ s authority of provision. Some rights, like Israel’s manna, God gives us despite our murmuring, other rights you might say are conditional.
3) The Law’s two tablets of stone show the authority of perfection; thank God that through the new covenant it is written within us now, awaiting to be manifested as we live.
4) The blood sprinkled mercy seat with the overshadowing cherubim guarding, as it were, the entrance into the tabernacle (cf. Gen. 3:24 except now they invite us into His garden), show the authority of heavenly position. The Angel of the Lord, Christ in the Old Testament, dwelt in the pillar of the cloud over the mercy seat. Yes, “there I will commune with thee.”
If God considers this subject so important so as to picture it in the most valuable things that He allowed Israel to have, may He reveal to us further not only the kinds of authority, as seen here, but the daily practical use and application of all this. If we have something and don’t know that we have it, then we might lose it and never knew that we had it. So the first step is, as is given here, to know what we have in God’ s authority.
Here we have seen the revelation as primarily picturing the four walls to the City of God, and that this is the Church. Protection from the enemies without comes through it. However, in Pr. 25:28 it com- pares an individual to a city with walls that are broken down.
Also one last thing is that these walls, these kinds of authority, have foundations to them. Without going into over- much detail for I think that they explain themselves, but 1 Cor. 1:30 gives us these four foundations, respectively. Wisdom is the foundation for the authority of the Pat- tern, it is of elementary wisdom to follow God’ s pattern to ensure success. Righteousness is God’s foundation for the authority of Divine Provision, right relationships (not of works of self effort but by grace,) give access to all of the kingdom rights. Authority of Perfection is founded upon sanctification, and. The last one, redemption (or deliverance) is the basis for the authority of Position, before one can have this kind of authority in the Body of Christ over others, so that they have confidence in him, it seems that God uses him in delivering that group first. Look at Moses being used at the Red Sea as the human instrument through which God delivered Israel. Then they were ready for God to use him to have this authority of position over them, he had served them in deliverance first.
Also in 2 Sam. 19:9,10 it was David’ s deliverance of Israel, that although they had become rebellious against him, turned their hearts back at the right hour for his reign over them again.
What central authority, what “throne” backs up all this fourfold authority?
There are four “thrones” mentioned in the KJV Bible, not to mention the 40 times, in a positive way, that “throne” is mentioned in Revelation without defining it per se. They are:
1) The throne of holiness Ps. 47:8
2)The throne of judgment Ps. 9:7; 122:5, Pr. 20:8, Lk. 22:30
3)The throne of grace He. 4:16, and
4) The throne of glory Mt. 25:31.
Of the four theocracies, Garden of Eden, Sinai or Law, New Testament Church, and Millennial, each of these thrones are peculiar to them. But there is a very real sense in which the believer has access to these now and as such, it is as if God were giving, under Grace, His child to have the blessings of each of His theocracies. In the order previously mentioned we see them ruling over each phase of God’s kingdom. His over-all fourfold kingdom of all ages.
Today we have His fourfold kingdom, and therefore we still need these four thrones. For His kingdom is:
1) The PRINCIPALITY of His Name,
2)Righteous PRINCIPLES of the Word to be applied,
3)The PERSON of His life Rm. 14:17, and
4) The PROMISE of Glory to come.
Qualities needed for Delegated Authority
Becoming a “Sent One” Lk. 9:46 – 10:22
1. Humility, child-likeness 9:46-48
2. Operating in His Name, 9:49, 50
3. Commitment to the goal, v. 51
4. Preparation (so as not to be ignorant as to how to do His work, or not to be moved by rejection), v. 52-53
5. Love motivation (2 Cor. 5:14), v. 54-56
6. Discipleship in:
a) What we have v. 57-58
b) Who we are v. 59-60
c) What we do v. 61-62
7. Commissioned by Him (1 Thes. 5:24) provides the necessary grace for the task. This involves:
a) Answering the call for the great harvest field 10:2 -His Creative Will is triggered.
b) Right character 10:3 -developing the lamb’ s character to walk ac- cording to His Righteous Will
c) Policy 10:4-9 -keeping us within His Specific Will.
d) Judgment (good or bad) 10:10 – 22 to accomplish His Ultimate Will.
By Robert C. Ewing
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