HORSEPOWER (3)

(Continued from previous part. You can also read the first part here.)

After dividing His attributes among the Angels He had created, the Almighty moved on to the next phase of His great program, the creation of a physical earth on which He was going to fully express those same attributes.

The appointed vessel of this physical expression was man: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over the cattle, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26-28).

There has been the question of whom God was addressing when He proposed the creation of man. Surprising as it may sound, it is not the “Trinity,” as some have submitted. It is the same angelic congregation symbolized in the Elders and Beasts John saw surrounding Him. That’s true, and it cannot be overemphasized that the “Lamb” did not appear on the scene that John saw until the challenge of someone worthy to take “the book” out of God’s hand arose (see Revelation 5:1-7).

Now, notice exactly how the Genesis account puts it, for it confirms what I said God did when He created the Angels. “Let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness.” Then without contradiction: “So God created man in his own image.” See it? Man was made in “our own image,” and yet “his [God’s] own image,” because the angelic congregation collectively project God’s image! As I said, it was His attributes that He divided among them!

But let’s look at it more closely. The “man” God proposed to His Angels was actually humanity, or mankind, for it was “them” (plural) that were to have dominion over the earth. However, the first “man” He went on to create in His own image was Adam. In other words, Adam was to be the head of the human race, just as God was the Head of the angelic race. And just as Adam was created in the likeness of God, so were his descendants to come forth in the likeness of the Angels, the spiritual “sons of God”! (Job 1:6.) This likeness was essentially in the sense of ability, or talent. The descendants of Adam were to reflect how God had divided His attributes among the Angels. God and His Angels were to be the intelligence, the supernatural engines, or the propellers, behind the operations and exploits of the human race!

That was how God was going to fully express Himself. And in Adam the first man was the hardware and the divine program – or software – with which the other human vessels were to be gradually produced. God separated Eve from him to initiate the multiplication program.

Then things started going wrong. A lethal bug – the corruption of the Archangel Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12-14) – was generated in the celestial realm and it invaded the terrestrial system. It provoked Adam and Eve’s disobedience of the instructions of the divine program and Paradise was lost, together with the intended dominion over the earth. You think they still had dominion? Well, in a sense, they did – and this is especially so in the case of the private lives of their descendants who have been redeemed by the atonement of Christ. But as far as dictating the general trend and course of the world was concerned, they had sold out to the devil. That is why the Scriptures say that “the course of this [present] world [is] according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).

To avoid an all out and extremely destructive confrontation with the devil, to whom Adam had sold out, God drew back, so to say. The intended ministry of the angelic host in the sons of men was put on hold. A chasm was dug between the angelic and human halves of the divine formations. Communion and communication as intended was lost. The sons of men were cut off from their supernatural powerhouse.

But there was no way that the purpose of God was going to be defeated. What was needed to rescue the plan, bridge the chasm and regain the earthly kingdom was a redeemer. The Redeemer has come and paid the price, and soon the redeemed children will be gathered up for their final preparation to reclaim the lost heritage, the global kingdom. And they will not be under Adam, but under their Redeemer, Christ the “last [or substitute] Adam” (see I Corinthians 15:45).  That is the reason why the Lamb appeared in the heavenly scene that John saw. Having paid the price of redemption, and as the new Head and representative of the redeemed family, He stepped forward to receive from the King of the celestial world what Adam lost – the Sealed Book, the title deed to the kingdoms of the terrestrial world!

Yes, the multiplication process of man continued after the Fall, but the children were weak, being separated from their spiritual powerhouse. But now that the Blood of the Lamb has been shed for their redemption, the angelic half literally symbolized in the twenty-four Elders and four Beasts that John saw surrounding Him can celebrate their effective redemption and impending “reign on the earth”! They are the spirit side of the royal coin that requires soundness on both sides to be legally tendered. As far as dominion on earth is concerned, the invalidation of one side implies the invalidation of the other, and the redemption of the fallen side implies the redemption and restitution of the other, even though it never fell! And as I have been saying, the heavenly scene that John saw is symbolic. In other words, there are angelic beings, the kind of which we are more familiar with from their biblical and contemporary appearances, that make up the celestial band represented in what John saw.

The Lord personally confirmed what we are learning about the redeemed saints and their angelic counterparts in His warning to those who would persecute the former. “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10).

As God and His spirit Angels have worked and reigned in and from Heaven, so will Christ and His redeemed saints do on earth in the promised kingdom. And the latter, as has been made evident, will only be the physical expression of the former. It is just like when the members of the spiritual formation put on their “robe of flesh” and relocate the seat of their government to planet Earth. That is why the millennial kingdom is called the “kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11), the kingdom that “the God of heaven [shall] set up”! (Daniel 2:44.)

That’s it. That’s the significance of the horses that the saints are seen atop in the Revelation. They are symbolic of their individual Angels, the supernatural engines that will carry them to and propel their millennial ministry and dominion! That’s what their training and equipment at the Academy of Heaven is actually about. That’s the “inflowing,” the “infilling,” “the empowerment to be productive” that I spoke of! It is the reconciliation and reestablishment of efficient communication between the two; the baptizing or infilling of the physical with the spiritual, very much like how an automobile manufacturer lowers the powering engine into the body of his product. As implied in the Academy of Heaven, the saints have been experiencing these things in a measure in the form of the baptism of the Holy Spirit for our present Christian service, but it is only a foretaste of power divine!

This great mystery that has been unraveled is the reason why some Scripture passages dealing with the end of the present dispensation and the establishment of the millennial kingdom picture Christ with His saints, while others see Him with His Angels (compare Matthew 25:31with Matthew 24:30,31 and Jude 14). Each of these passages looks at one side of the two-sided picture. To make sure that we got the message, the Almighty saw to it that the final “canonical” Word of the Revelation intelligently superimposed the two sides, projecting the full millennial force, the King and His knights atop their angelic horses!

Brothers and sisters, for obvious reasons I have been concise in this article. By the grace of our Lord, we would have access to a more detailed study of this great subject with the publication of my book, THE COMING GLORY. So keep the faith and remain posted.

God bless you always.

In the King’s Service,

David Olagoke Olawoyin.