Hebrews 12. Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Christ the author and the finisher of our faith”. Who for the joy set before Him (us), endured such hostility from the rejectors, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High”.
Because of this “great cloud of witnesses”, we can understand that those who went before us are “Watchers and Holy Ones” keeping their eyes on us. In a sense we are being analyzed and scrutinized, not in a condemning way but for our every move, as they see their testimonies played out in us. They knew that what they were doing was not for themselves but for us “on whom the ends of the age have come”. The audible in Heaven is a deafening roar as the plan comes together. For “the first shall be last and the last shall be first”, not so much as in importance but succession. Think of the filling of a bottle. Last drop in is the first drop out.
Glory to God the Father who said “Let Us make man in our image and likeness” and He’s reaping a final harvest in the last time when the wheat and tares mature together.
It was the bygone generations with a fixed gaze on the prize “in Christ”, having completed their course, putting off their flesh, seeing now that the number is not quite yet complete. They now take part in ringside seats as “the great a cloud of witnesses” . Also known as “the watchers and the holy ones” of those who’ve been completed before us. They are watching the spectacle of those still running the race in the final phase. It is in this way they cheer us on in anticipating of the full and final final number which is parabolic-ally 144k. Them watching us, we watching them by looking to their testimonies they left behind to help us on to our completion.
Even as our forerunner, the Son of God spoke to our Heavenly Father in John 12 saying “6 “I have [c]manifested Your name to those whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have kept them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.”
They were the first fruits of the harvest. And instead of Christ coming back in the fashion of His flesh to offer the same opportunity to us as they had, He now lives on through the testimonies of those who were adopted at the time of the expiration of His carnal foot print.
For this we extract more from John 17 to justify us again in our day where Christ said to the Father that “20 “I do not pray for these alone (of that day), but also for those who [j]will believe in Me through their (written and spoken) word; 21 that they all may (together) be one, as You Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may (together) be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, for the world to know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
So the work of the Son of bringing in a new ir-retractable age we call “The New Testament, Will and Covenant” that was implemented back then, that’s in effect today and has no expiration or replacement. THIS IS IT!!!
Whatever you may be waiting for, whatever it is that you think you need to see and believe? It is NOT GONNA HAPPEN!! For in us the gospel message is completed, even with their testimonies. Like Paul said that “you are complete in Him who is Head over all principalities and powers”, for those who otherwise are completely unworthy on their own merit other than to believe “the word of God to be true the moment it is said, then heard and received, to each one and everyone who “has eyes to see and ears to hear” of another nature. One that is not ground bound and looking down. No, we have a renewed perspective being “renewed in the spirit of our minds”. And it all takes place there because “eye has nit seen nor ear heard of the things that God has given us. But they have (already) been revealed to us by His Spirit. Yes, even the secret things of God”. So what are you waiting for? You are called to press in, to take God at His word and apply it.
What God the Father gave to His Only Begotten, of the only One that came forth from Him, He gave to us through the appropriate means we call “the gospel delivered once for all time to the saints”. This “once and for all” means that there are no changes, modifications, re-directs or future updates as though God forgot or overlooked something as though He had some short coming or that Alzheimer’s set in. That’s the wrong realm.
We have past from death to life. Old things have passed away, behold all things become new and all things are from Christ” So you know who the authorized distributor is, and what the end game product is. It is Christ likeness. Something other worldly, something Heavenly. As scripture says that “when we see Him as He is (not as a man because that was temporary) we shall become like Him because we will see Him as He is”. Some of us have already seen Him. Even as Christ said that “those who have seen Me have seen the Father.”
To this we say, Amen!