World Wide Body of Christ

THRU RAPTURE INTO TRANSLATION

Book 2

By Frances Metcalfe

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5)

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (I Thessalonians 4:16,17)

“Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” (I Corinthians 15:51)

The revelations set forth in this booklet were given during experiences of “rapture,” beginning in January, 1942, and continuing for several months.  Guided by the Holy Spirit, I have made an earnest attempt to interpret these heavenly experiences in earthly language.  Needless to say, the testimony falls far short of the reality.

Since the first edition was mailed out in 1943, we have received letters from other Christians, in many parts of the world, who testify to similar experiences and rejoice in the testimony recorded in these pages.  By many reliable witnesses, the Holy Spirit has confirmed the word given to us that “rapture” – meaning “to be caught away or transported in the spirit” – is preparatory to the even greater experiences of transport (in the body), and translation.  All three of these experiences are recorded in the Word of God, and are among the promises given to the full overcomers in the Latter Days, or the Time of the End.  A body is being prepared “as it hath pleased Him,” as revealed in I Corinthians, 15^th chapter, whose blessed privilege is to be changed and caught up alive – made like unto Christ, our glorious Head.  Foretastes such as this booklet records are becoming more numerous as the time of the Consummation draws near.

This was the Lord’s doing, and it is still marvelous in our eyes!  With all praise and glory unto our Lord Jesus Christ who has revealed Himself unto us, reviving our hope, confirming our faith, I offer this testimony to you.

In Part 1, which is published as a separate book, I have related how these experiences began with  a surprising “catching up” into the heavenlies.  In the weeks that followed, I passed through severe illnesses and walked in the “valley of the shadow of death” with our Lord.  I was taken by Him into “The King’s House” and “Garden.”  And there He appeared to me as the KING of glory!  In order to fully understand Part II, you should read Part I first.  Copies are available upon request.

Yours in the love of our glorious King and Bridegroom,

~ FRANCIS METCALFE

ESTHER’S FEAST

My heart was filled with sorrow when I knew for certain that I must return to my natural life and family.  This may seem strange; but I could not bear the thought of leaving this heavenly rest.  So sweet and full was the presence if The King, and so rich the revelation, that it seemed the consummation of rapture, the full union – when we actually do put on the wedding garment, which is immortality – must be right at hand!  I little realized how much further preparation I needed!  Now all was interrupted and ended, and I must go back to the everyday world.  How could the Lord rapture me or reveal Himself in the midst of caring for my children and housework?  It was really a test of faith, for I was still very weak and my nerves were exhausted.  School vacation was at hand, and with it constant responsibility and confusion.  I stifle my tears, and prayed of grace.  It was such a shock to leave “the King’s House!”  I can well realize why those who are brought back from death are seldom satisfied.  I was literally all “unstrung.”  Indeed, I was shown that I was like a harp now being tuned to play a higher melody.  What torture as the strings are stretched!

Everything natural was so foreign to my mind as to seem strange or absurd.  I was truly “lost” to the world, in a new way.  I found that to cease contemplating the Lord was most painful, and that I could scarcely appear even sensible outwardly.  Fortunately, I really was ill, and this covered my condition somewhat.  I was in for a time of testing and perfecting.  This type of experience seems to increase our capacity and sensitivity to suffering in an astonishing way.  Oh, the grace and divine love we need to pass from rapture to torture – for such it sometimes proves to be.  But, as always, the Holy Spirit comforted me, and instructed me that St. Paul was trained to be content in any state: Abased or exalted, in prison or in the third heaven, he was alike at rest in the perfect will of God.  The Spirit will give us a beautiful, balanced, even walk, if we will let Him have His way.

Again, I must walk by faith!  This is hard to do after we have been flooded with Divine favor, and have found a welcome in the heavenly realm – a love beyond description.  Especially hard, since, before that, we had been so grievously wounded, smitten and misunderstood here in the earth.  No misunderstanding there – all harmony, order, peace, unity.  What rest after turmoil!

I saw that I must stay by faith in this heavenly rest, though I was outwardly greatly tried.  Sweet comfort was given in this song:

Into His royal garden the King invited me,

Thru the golden portals He led me tenderly,

There, amid its beauty, my soul finds sweet repose,

Walking ‘mid the lilies, communing with each rose.

Every lovely flower speaks of heaven above,

Every fragrant bower breathes with His pure love.

Gladly will I tarry, and with the song birds sing,

In His royal garden, feasting with the King.

In His royal garden The King oft’ walks with me,

To my heart He whispers His Kingdom mysteries.

Down each sunny pathway He leads me on His arm,

I walk as in a dream, enraptured by His charm.

On my ear is falling a heavenly melody,

And my heart responds with holy rhapsody.

Someday, in this garden, wedding bells will ring,

In golden tones announcing my marriage to The King!

I was indeed surprised when the Holy Spirit reminded me that The King wanted me to give Him a feast!  This had been coming to me since before my illness. True, I had come to The King’s Feast.  But what had I to offer such a one as He?  Of course, I see now that the pattern was true.  Ahasuerus made a great feast, a “Kingdom” feast.  “Vashti,” a type of the “Church” as a whole, refused to come.  She was busy with a feast of her own making.  The greatly offended King ordered her set aside and a new queen prepared.  Many were then chosen to be prepared.  This took much time.  Esther fully submitted to the Eunuch in all matters, and not only pleased him, and obtained the best, but also won the love and favor of The King.  After this she made a feast too.  She so pleased the King that she won the release of all her people, and was herself greatly advanced in power.  Now, since in me this “drama” of truth was being enacted, as a pattern, it was fitting that I follows Esther’s example.  (Book of Esther)

THE MARY HEART

I see it all so plainly now.  We cannot imagine how hungry our King is to be loved and “entertained” by His dear Bride.  Oh, our terrible neglect of our God!  And of His Son!  Of His great salvation!  Yes, terrible is His neglect by the Bride.  He is so hungry for our love.  How He longs for a “Bethany” in your heart and mine!  I began to feel a great desire in my heart to minister to Him personally, as Mary and Martha did.  I was led to prepare for Him a real feast.  Yes, actually!  Of course, it was a Spiritual Feast, but it was outward too!  How odd it all seemed to my own natural mind.  But, as I worked, the Holy Spirit instructed me, for I was very ignorant or royal matters.  I found a new devotion kindling in my soul, a jealous desire to be lost in sacrificial love.  I wanted to live for the pleasure of The King alone.  I wanted to lavish on Him the lobe He richly deserves and so deeply desires.  He said to His disciples, “With desire, have I desired to eat this feast with you.”  Oh God, give us understanding: we are so cold and unresponsive to the deeper emotions and affections of our Lord!  Give us the understanding of Mary of Bethany, a true bride – a pattern for us.  I found that I was longing now to go to extremes of devotion to show Him that His bride loved Him, as women of this world often love and sacrifice for their husbands.  I wanted to lavish love upon Him.  Blessed Holy Spirit, the Bride’s true Friend and Guide!

How precious is the memory of Mary,

Who knew and loved Thee long ago;

Her act of love and deep devotion,

Thy Word has caused the world to know.

Lord, I would worship Thee as Mary,

With a pure and fervent heart;

Let me sit and learn at Thy feet, now,

Choosing too, the “better part.”

Lord, give me a heart, like Mary,

Broken and contrite in Thy hands,

A heart that knows and loved Thee,

A heart that truly understands.

Let me, as she, anoint Thee

With love’s rare essence,  pure and sweet.

I, too, would kneel in deep devotion

Low at Thy nail-scarred feet.

What a friend the Holy Spirit is to the Bridegroom too – for daily He was revealing My King to me, and instructing me about His inner desires.  My King had been so modest that He had not spoken to me of His desires, but only had lavished favor upon me, as unto His Bride, the Church.

How true is the pattern:  The Bride, after recovering from the first stunning revelation of love and favor, awakens at last the devotion and love and sacrifice which fairly consume her!   Tirelessly she works; shamelessly she runs after Him, as depicted in The Song of Solomon.  Others misjudge her, even condemn her.  They attribute her desperate desire for Him to other causes; but she, all unmindful of them, hastens after her Beloved.  She is tardy in her response, but none the less eager to manifest the depth of her new devotion.

I was impressed so much at this point with the delight such thoroughly devoted souls bring to the Father.  An obedient child elicits love and praise and reward.  But if a child goes beyond obedience, in lavishing personal attention and love upon His Son, this greatly pleases the Father.  Let the Bride so ardently love the King, as to supply the great lack of love found among His people as a whole!

If the Holy Spirit brings us to this place of devotion, be sure he will provide ample crosses, sufferings and extreme tests of love.  But, after this rapture, we will glory in these things, and rejoice in them with joy unspeakable.  “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.  Love is strong as death.”  This love delights in all manner of extremity for its Lover; even as a real mother inwardly exults in the pangs of childbirth, and counts all her labor for her baby after its birth, through its long childhood, as a privilege of love.  This supernatural love far surpasses any natural love, however refined.  It burned in the breasts of the martyrs, and made death most sweet to them.  It shall be kindled in the Bible during rapture, and never again will it flicker and die.  Thus, in preparing for this feast, you will see, I actually was preparing a love feast.  In detail I was shown the appointments and preparations, and all were an outward showing of the written Word.

Only guests well pleasing to the King may be invited to a Royal Feast, and none comes uninvited.  So here, again, I sought the mind of the Spirit.  Now, during the last week or so of my stay at “The King’s House,” the Lord began to send others in by supernatural ways.  Some of these met Him in the garden before they could get to the door.  One, upon entering, saw many angels, and was so overcome by the Lord as to be unable to converse for an hour or more.  One by one they had come.  “These are the ones to invite,” the Spirit whispered.

I wondered how I could ever explain an actual “garden feast” to these dear ones, for such a thing was unheard of in our midst.  But, here again, the Lord intervened.  One brother was shown in a dream that he was to attend such an affair.  Another sister was given a beautiful dress which seemed too elaborate for her use; but the Lord showed her she was to wear it to the feast.  Others were dealt with in similar ways.  Indeed, so many things happened so rapidly and in such order that we were all amazed!

This feast proved beautiful beyond words.  The Song of Solomon was the theme.  And one after another was moved to bring forth revelations, or portions of the Word, as we ate of the choice fruits at the table.  In the King James Version, Esther’s Feast was called a “banquet.”  This proved to be just that, in the Spirit.  At its close some were anointed with ravishing music, singing in the Spirit.  And so heavenly were these manifestations that all alike felt the presence of The King. The Lord graciously revealed Himself to me.  He touched and strengthened my body, and gave me to understand that now all in my “realm” in the Spirit were to be brought in to share these glories.  So, as for Esther, this feast became a “Purim,” in which many were released to share celestial privileges!  Hallelujah!

I am sure that, as each one of us is taken into these realms, we shall find that our passing in involves drawing many others after us into the heavenlies.  Our “realm” in the Spirit shall be greatly blessed and enhanced.  Some who were present were already shown new and wonderful things in regard to rapture and their calling in the Bride.  The Lord was moving in many directions now, and great was our joy!  I returned to my home, well content to devote myself to my King in sacrificial love, even though I might never receive another divine favor here on earth.  But, swiftly He moved to bring me into a higher state!

THE NEW EDEN

Along the celestial highway of rapture I was swiftly drawn to another mysterious portal – a gateway once barred to the sons of men, guarded by angels with flaming swords!  No need to fear them now, ah no, for He who once was dead, and now is alive evermore, is holding my hand – He who holds the keys of death and hell!  At His Word, the shining angels shall step aside, and I shall pass with Him, the Second Adam, into the New Eden.  There He shall teach me the mysteries of the first creation.  There, too, I shall learn of the glorious New Creation.  I shall be shown the perfect New Eve – Bride of the Second Adam, eternal Help-meet of creation’s Head!  What joy!  What anticipation – as the Spirit whispered these things to my heart!  May He open to you, dear one, these divine revelations.  For so my Lord led me, in Hid matchless grace; and He gave me to understand that many of His dear ones shall be finding their way past the flaming swords into this Holy Ground!  Amen!

The beautiful garden of Love is for YOU!

Once, in the earth, a fair garden grew,

Eastward in Eden Land,

A garden-celestial, Paradise for two,

Planted by God’s own Hand!

Alas, because of sin, this garden was barred,

Closed to the sons of men;

Angels were guarding it with flaming sword,

And none might enter in.

Then, from heaven, God sent His only Son,

Made in the form of man,

And when His work on Calvary was done,

The gates were swung wide again!

This beautiful garden of love is for you,

Grown in the sunshine and watered with dew.

Each blossom is holding a promise sweet,

Each petal, a treasure to fall at your feet.

Its enchanting fragrance is borne on the air,

Its enchanting beauty is surpassing fair;

This wonderful garden, this heavenly garden,

It is a garden of Love…for you!

INTO A HIGH MOUNTAIN…APART!

If only I could tell this story, as it deserves to be told!  If only I could sing it to you in the mystical tongue of a Seraph!  Then, perhaps, this “sweetest story ever told” would inflame your heart with holy love, as my heart flamed in its unfolding.  Alas, I must tell it to you in our prosaic language.  May the Holy Spirit breathe upon it as you read, that you may share some of the wonder with me.  Amen!

How rapidly the Lord moved in this experience of rapture!  The long waiting times, the “empty” seasons of dryness, were all passed away now in the thrilling unveiling of new revelations.  From height to height…from glory to glory…this was the pattern!  Immediately following “Esther’s Feast,” the Lord revealed to me that He was preparing to take me out of the city.  I felt that to leave my home and family again would be an impossibility.  But the Lord moved quickly to bring it to pass.  He dealt with my two precious prayer-partners along the same line.  They were shown that it was His will for us to spend much time waiting on Him.  While in prayer, the Lord gave me the Word regarding the calling of Peter, James and John, to come up into a “high mountain apart.”  We three were to come apart with Him.  He also revealed to me that I was going into heights to meet primarily with Him alone.  I was commanded to “see no man, save Jesus only.”  He also showed me in a vision a rock-altar upon the mountain top.  He promised to meet me there in a new way.

I cannot describe the awe I felt in these divine dealings.  They were so vivid, so solemn, so weighty, so supernatural, that godly fear accompanied each revelation.  (This has increased as rapture has progressed.  There has been much joy.  But I can assure you that it is solemn joy, sacred and profound.)

I believe I should mention here that the enemy moved in many ways in an attempt to hinder this retreat.  Some imagine that in rapture the enemy never interferes, and that God moves so supernaturally that we do not have to exercise faith and obedience.  Please do not be thus deceived!  True, in some instances, the Lord may move so rapidly and unexpectedly that neither you nor the enemy can hinder.  But, in most of these dealings, I found that I had to move as rapidly as the Lord moved.  In other words, there had to be an instant and full obedience, if I was to attain all that the Lord willed.  He will not take a way that is according to our own planning, for His ways are higher than our ways.  In fact, His rapture-ways are heavenly-ways, and we are most ignorant pilgrims.  If we try to reason, or argue, or plan, we shall probably hesitate long enough to temporarily interfere with God’s perfect order.  In all of these dealings there is a time element.  In every case God moves ahead of the enemy.  At times it has seemed to me like a breath-taking race to outrun the opposing forces.  I don’t believe I can stress too much the need of faith and obedience in these supernatural experiences.  Your enemy will still try to hinder and deceive you, and you dare not heed any voice, save the voice of the Lord!  There is no time to lose!  The highway of rapture is not for those who hesitate and doubt.

However, even though this is all true, I was given renewed grace and strength to believe God and to quickly obey.  Hitherto, I had often been delayed and hindered by the enemy; but now I found that in every case he was absolutely defeated and unable to prevent the outworking of God’s perfect plan, even though he often made fierce and sudden assaults.  Praise our God!  It seems that after we enter into this way of rapture by divine love, having already passed thru a “Job” experience, we get to the place where we can say with him:  “I have heard of Thee with the hearing of my ear, but now, my eye seeth Thee!...I know Thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of Thine can be restrained” (Job 42:2,5)  I have found this to be true over and over again,  The “impossible,” the “unheard of,” becomes the reality.  Often we have said: “There is nothing too hard for the Lord.”  Now we begin to see it as well as say it!

So our enemy did all that he was permitted to do to hinder our departure but, nevertheless, on the appointed day we were on the road and were being taken swiftly, in “the King’s chariot,” to “The King’s Mountain Garden.”  We had many trials along the way, delays and hindrances.  But in all these things we saw a spiritual lesson, and continued to praise and sing.  Before we reached our destination, I began to be very ill, and I bear witness that the last few miles of the way were the longest, steepest and hardest miles of the road.  The Lord had chosen to take us to one of the most beautiful National Parks, noted for its grandeur and primitive beauty.  It would be hard to surpass anywhere in the world!  Yet, here is a strange thing about it – not until you have reached the very top, can you glimpse any of its glory!  In fact, the last few miles are so steep and barren that I could scarcely believe any such wonderland existed within a radius of a thousand miles!  I tell you this for encouragement of some who may be traveling the last long steep climb to the top of the mountain, where they will see the sunrise of the New Day.  Take courage!  Some of the watchmen upon the mountain-top have seen the first glimpses of the Sun of Righteousness, as He arises with healing in His Wings!  They are calling to you: “Come up higher, come up to the Mount of Transfiguration!  Your King is waiting for you upon the mountain-top!

THE NEW PROMISED LAND

But, at length, we traversed the last mile of the way!  By this time I was really very ill.  The altitude was high, and my heart was fairly pounding.  I felt that at any moment I would faint.  We were all exhausted, and there was no natural cause for the exhilaration I shortly experienced.  The moment I stepped out of the car, and my feat touched the ground, I found a strange thing happening to me.  Let me try to describe it.

The air, which was very balmy and fragrant, produced an effect I me like drinking of strong wine.  As I breathed deeply, it became the very breath of God to me, the breath that breathed over Eden, the breath by which the first man became a living soul, the divine breath by which the Second Adam became a life-giving Spirit.  He was raised from the dead by the breath of the Almighty!  This air, which did seem the very breath of the Father to me, almost instantly strengthened me, and I began to feel most wonderfully alive and most deliciously intoxicated.  I felt renewed: body, soul and spirit – revived, quickened, and exultant!  My heart seemed to cry out: “Oh, I am breathing air from a new realm.  I am getting ‘second’ wind!”

As my feet touched this new high ground, it appeared to me that I was walking on foreign soil.  In some way that I cannot account for, my feet would barely touch the ground, and then spring up off it.  I actually felt that I had “hind’s feet.”  O, it was most delightful, and I seemed to be passing out of myself entirely into the Lord, who was now revealing Himself to me as Creator.  Everywhere I looked I saw Him!  Creation’s Lord!  The mammoth trees, the flowers, the birds, in fact, everything He had made on which my eye came to rest spoke to me of Him in an unuttered word.  I was like a child, dazed with wonder, for I was looking at the natural creation, as though I had never seen it before!

How can I clarify this experience to you?  Let me say that I have always loved the beauties of nature, and have been inspired by them to worship and love the Creator.  But this was another thing entirely.  I felt that I was completely lost in the Creator of the creation.  Everything created was revealed to me as a living Word of God.  It was as St. Paul said:

“For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; even His eternal power and Godhead.” (Romans 1:20, King James) The Amplified New Testament says: “For ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity have been made intelligible and clearly discernable in and through the things that have been made – His handiworks.”

As I looked at the invisible creation, the invisible things of God appeared to me, unveiled, and everything I beheld became a Word of God.  For I saw that all things made had been created by the Word of God!  I felt, too, that the creative Word of God was very near me, even in my mouth.  Then I knew, beyond any doubt, that the sons of God will be given this creative Word!  Not only shall the curse of the present creation be lifted; but to them also shall be given the joy of co-acting with the Father in the creation of the New Heaven and Earth!  In a word, I felt “at one” with God in His creation – not as a pagan is at one with nature as God; but as the sons of God are at one with the Father, and are rulers over all the works of His hands!

It has taken several minutes to recount this experience, but it all took place within a few moments.  In fact it just happened all at once!  This was most surely another type of rapture.  For from that moment I lost all trace of sickness, weariness, heaviness and discomfort. During the eight days spent upon this mountain-top, I averaged only about three hours sleep a day, if that much.  I never really grew tired nor seemed conscious of discomforts.  I was living in another realm, and the memory of the things of this present world could be recalled only with effort.  I also felt that I had entirely lost my identity – so completely was I indentified with my Lord.  He was revealed to me now, not as the King, the greater than Solomon, but as “Elohim.”  “In the beginning Elohim created heaven and earth.”  Oh, the matchless names He bears, and O, the forms of love He wears!”

Whatever the type of rapture, I have found that always, if it is complete, it takes me out of myself – out of my own mind and ways, and even out of my identity at times.  I am not conscious of myself as an individual, but only as a part of this wonderful Body, “hidden away with Christ in God.”  Thus there is no sense of personal satisfaction or elation in the reception of these divine favors.  Even though most wonderful and profound mysteries are revealed, even though the Lord may speak to us great things and pronounce unusual favors and blessings, we do not receive these things as unto our self.  In fact, self does not enter at all into these celestial affairs.  Oh, great is this deliverance from our worst enemy, even our own self!  While here in the earth we must constantly watch and be on guard, lest SELF defraud God and assert prerogatives over our will.  However, while in the state of complete rapture, self is temporarily inactive, and for a time we are lost in God.  The longest sustained period of rapture I have experienced was during this eight days.  Night and day I was free from duties and interruptions, and I lived in constant communion with the Lord in the Spirit.

MY BELOVED ON THE MOUNTAINS OF BETHER

My prayer-partners seemed to feel a touch of this same joy in creation. We at once began likening this fair garden of God to Eden.  The animals played their part in the living drama, for in this park they are tame and friendly.  How good of the Lord to harmonize the outward scenes with my inward state!  He really knows how to “set the stage” for His divine drama!  As we were eating our dinner that first night, a deer came to our table.  We ate in the open, on our porch.  As he approached us, my heart cried out, “My Beloved is like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.”  Yes, my Beloved was drawing very near!  I could feel it!  I knew that He was going to come closer to me now than ever before.  I could scarcely contain my delight and anticipation.  How we feasted and worshiped before the Lord.  “Can this be real, can it be REAL?”  Over and over I asked this question.

When I retired it was not to go to sleep.  Every atom in my being was awake and quickened unto God.  I was expectant – more excited than any earthly Bride-to-be I have ever known!  I felt youthful, pure and new.  It was as though I had never known sin or toil or sorrow or weariness.  I was restored.  Is it not recorded that in the age to come the remembrance of former things will never come to mind?  All things new!  Glory to God! Often I had sung Wesley’s song, "Love Divine.”  And this phrase particularly was ringing in my heart.  “Second Adam from above, re-instate us in Thy love.”

Now I felt that I was re-instated.  I felt that “Love-Divine” had “fixed I me His humbling dwelling,” and that He was coming into me in the fullness of love.  I was being swept out, as by a strong tide, into the depths of that mighty ocean.  Some have said that they felt they would die under such ecstasy, and prayed that it be lessened.  I felt to pray that my capacity be enlarged, that I might be filled “with all the fullness of God,” according to the prayer of St. Paul.  I actually felt that my heart was being enlarged or dilated to make room for a new influx of divine love.  I remembered that David too prayed, “Enlarge my heart, O God.”  All the night long this “flooding” continued.  Several times I seemed to be lifted off the bed, and experienced certain involuntary movements in my body, which I have since learned are the beginnings of the moving of the Spirit to transport our bodies from place to place, and finally to translate them.

The heavens were opening upon my soul in such a way that I felt at any moment I would be literally swept away – outward and upward to glory!  It was truly wonderful, and beyond words to describe; and only a little before morning did it lessen enough to permit me to sleep.  This joy continued, in a more moderate form, all during the next morning.  I tried to explain to my friends this that was happening to me.  But I was checked by the Spirit, and shown that was not to reveal much at the time.  We feasted on the Word of God more than on our prepared meals.  But even the natural food seemed to take on a spiritual quality.  Each meal became a real feast, and our relish for the written Word was most keen.  We rejoiced over it, “as one that findeth great spoil.”  “Thy Word was found, and I did eat it, and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing in my heart, for I am called by Thy Name, O Lord of Hosts.”  At times I actually seemed to devour the Word.

May I say that genuine experiences of “rapture always lead one to a greater love and appreciation  for the Written Word.  The Lord reveals that this will invariably be the case, if our experience is of God.  He warns me against any experience which tends to lessen our regard for the written Word.  Years ago I was led to pray, as did David, “O Lord, lead me into a plain path, because of mine enemies.  Order my steps in Thy Word.”  This He has done consistently and, even in rapture, the Word becomes substance and is a Living Word, incarnate in us.  Yes, even here, the written Word ever substantiates the experience.  However, many revelations are given beyond that which is written – but these are always in perfect accord with the Word, providing we interpret it by the Spirit of God and not by the traditions of men.

At this precious day – the first day spent in the heights – continued, I found a gradual lessening of joy, and there was a growing pain or grief in my heart.  This was hard to understand, for we were constantly praising God.  Yet I felt wounded, sorely hurt in heart.  “Something must be wrong,” an inward voice would whisper, “I have failed and grieved the Lord in some way.” O, how sensitive rapture makes us to the Beloved one!  How quickly we sense His pleasure or grief!  If He is grieved with us it seems almost unbearable.  Even the slightest hurt to Him pierces us for days.  Thank God for this sensitivity to Divinity!  At length I saw that I must withdraw from my prayer-partners, and seek the Lord alone.  I must find out from Him how I had offended.  He quickly answered my prayer.  “I told you to seek Me alone,” He whispered in my heart, “I showed you an altar of sacrifice, where I would meet with you, and yet you have not sought to find it.”

O, how negligent, how careless of me!  In the excitement I had quite forgotten this solemn charge.  I prayed to know where this altar might be found, and when I should meet with Him there.  Then, to my surprise, He told me that I was to arise and go out to meet Him at the dawn!  I can’t tell you how difficult this seemed to me, to get up in the dark, to disturb my friends, and then to go out into the mountains alone.  Yet nothing is too hard for love!  Love alone can do all things, and never faileth.  But the others – would they understand, would they not be grieved that I desired to withdraw from them?  This question troubled me much, for they were not dealt with in this way, and saw only that we were to pray in unity.

Yet, in all of this, the pattern was true.  The Bride, quickened by the pulsations of the Bridegroom’s love, arises early, before the dawn; she leaves those she loves behind, and flees away out of the night shadows into the dawn of the New Day!  She is the first to meet Him on the Mountain-top!  This divine-drama, this living truth, was being enacted in me by the Holy Spirit.  And, praise God!  He made the writing true.

O, the wonder of it!  The First Covenant, written on tablets of stone!  The Second (new) Covenant, written on the fleshly tablets of the heart!  The Lord commanded the prophet to “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it; for the vision is yet for an appointed time!”  In this latter day, praise God, the vision is being written in your heart, and mine, and enacted in our lives, that it may be plain.  Praise God, those who are able to read it run, and obtain the prize!

Lord, give me a heart like Thine, I pray,

A new heart, tender and pure;

On its fleshly tablets engrave Thy holy Word,

And make each writing deep and sure!

Then take it and seal it for Thy courts above,

With a seal of Thy Love divine,

O, Sacred Heart, of my God and King –

Give me a heart like Thine!

THE NEW DAY DAWNS

When I told my prayer-partners that must arise early and leave them to seek the Lord, they were a little surprised, and wondered if they should not accompany me.  But I told them that I must go out alone.  I could scarcely wait for the morning to come.  All night long I again lay lost in God – expectant of a new and wonderful revelation of Himself.  At times great surges of despair and doubt would roll over my soul; fear that I should fail and someway miss this holy meeting.  I dared not fall asleep, lest I fail to awaken before the dawn.  It was truly an all-night watch – and I “watched for Him, more than they who watch for the morning.”  When the time to arise finally came, Satan did much to hinder me.  He beset me in various ways.  He tried to convince me that all this was sheer delusion, madness, foolishness, or worse!  I would surely get lost or get hurt or grow ill – in fact I might even die out there all alone in the mountains.  Surely I owed it to myself, my family, my loved ones, to be a little sensible, a little less extreme and so on and on.  Do you recognize His tactics?

But, by God’s grace, I did arise and make my way out to seek for my Beloved.  He did not appear at once, but tested me, and my heart was gripped with desperate desire to meet Him – al almost frantic devotion.  Truly He desires a bride as eager to meet with Him as He was to meet with her, when He laid aside His glory and descended, out of ineffable light, into the darkness of this world of sin.  We have a fervent, eager, divinely –passionate Lover, in our God!  Oh, that we might grasp this truth, and that we in turn might respond with a like-love, as we arise to run after Him.  Women of the world are no longer ashamed to “run after” the men of their choice; but how slow is the holy Bride of God to run after her Lover Divine!  Yes, in my agony of heart, that holy morning, I saw these truths in a new way; they were written on my heart, deeply, painfully.  “Deep truths are dearly won,” some saint has said.  It is true!

I cried unto Him that morning with all the intensity of devotion of which God made me capable. And, suddenly, He appeared!  When I say appeared, I mean just that.  I saw Him!  I touched Him!  I talked with Him face to face, not as a King, not as a Creator, not as the Son of God, but, to my surprise, as the Son of Man!  In condescension my Lord came thus to me, in humility, in kindness, in tender love.  As a man, I could approach Him.  I could draw very near Him, and not be over-awed.  Later I was shown how much He loved His office as Son of Man!  Indeed He referred to Himself – as recorded in the Gospels – by this name, more than by any other.  Also, in connection with His Second Advent, He said “And ye shall see the Son of Man coming.”  He refers also to His sign in the heavens at that time as “The sign of the Son of Man.”  Herein lies a mystery; may God open it to your heart!  Oh how He loves mankind!  How He delights to identify Himself with humanity!  Bless His wonderful Name forever!  The dear Son of God who became the Son of Man, that the sons of men might become the sons of God.

Yes, I saw Him as a man, as perfect Man, the Second Adam.  Not until I saw Him did I fully understand what God had meant man, made in His image, to be.  Just a tender look from His eyes seemed to establish me in the grace of the pristine purity of Eve before the fall.  I walked with Him through the dew-sprinkled morning, and He personally led me to the altar He had shown to me before I left the city.  As we walked, He talked with me, and I lost all consciousness of a world of sin, warring in violence.  I forgot that I was a mature married woman, a mother of children.  I felt what St. Paul meant when he said, speaking of the Bride of Christ: “I have betrothed thee, as a chaste virgin.”  The chastity and purity of true virginity were revealed to me that morning, as I walked with the One altogether pure.  O, the beauty of the first Eve!  Praise God for the incorruptible beauty of the second Eve – Bride of the Second Adam!  This glorious creature lived in me that morning!  I was washed, purified, chaste, and I was betrothed!  This was all I knew, all I could think of, all that mattered!  Do you see that for the moment I was portraying the Bride – indeed I was lost in her, and she was lost in Him!

The altar to which He led me was very high, and afforded a view of the valley behind – the valley through which we had journeyed as we ascended.  He reviewed to my mind all the way He had led me since first I had given myself entirely to Him.  Someway, it all lived before me, in its fullness, and I was given understanding of all His dealings.  That which before had been obscure, was all made plain.  I had often sung, “Someday, He’ll make it plain to me.  Someday, when I His face shall see.”  Now, I saw, as from the other side, the heavenly side – and I was glad!  I was comforted, happy, amazed – and filled with rejoicing.  How clearly I realized that every trial, every smallest thing, is observed and treasured in His heart.  He knows about every trace of suffering, and shares it with us.

Then, gently he turned me around and unveiled to me the land which was lying ahead!  Range after range, the mountains spread before my vision.  Much land ahead to be possessed!  New land, rich verdant land – heavenly land.  I think I felt a little as Moses felt when he viewed the Promised Land.  The Lord has revealed to me that, in taking some of us into this way of rapture, we are spying out the land, foretasting of its glories – first partakers of its fruits but only tasting – not fully possessing.  The full possession is for a full company.  The Sons-of God-Bride-Company must be caught up together, and enter into full possession in unity.  Some of us may go ahead to spy and report, but we shall only taste in part.  The fullness is for the appointed number, at the appointed time!

As I stood with Him that morning on the mountain top, I felt that I was the most highly favored soul who had ever lived.  Nevertheless, I was shown that so rich is He, so great are His possessions, that His privilege and favors shall be sufficient for the great company forming the Bride.  I seemed to see that each one, upon entering into their possessions in Christ, would feel as I felt that day.  Each will feel that the Kingdom and blessings they receive surpass all others.  How rich is our God!  I believe I felt much as Eve felt, when she realized that Adam’s love was all directed toward her, and that the world was her kingdom.  My Beloved was mine and I was His.  The universe was our Kingdom.  The earth seemed the merest matter, nothing but a footstool for Him.  As He unveiled to me the unknown worlds of the universe, I was dazed with the magnitude of the creation.  I turned from this heart and face and, after a time, with much reluctance, I left Him to return to our cabin, rejoicing that He had promised to meet me again at sunrise.

As I departed and started on my way, lost in this new found love, I was greatly startled when suddenly another appeared to me – none else than Satan!  Just as clearly and as plainly as I had seen the Lord, I saw this one, appearing also in the form of a man!  The sight of him turned my joy to horror.  How could it be that he too was present in this Eden, lurking so very near the path I must take to return.  Ah, but it was true, was it not, that Satan walked in the first Eden, and beguiled Eve?  Was I to encounter him also, and must I, in the second Eve, overcome his subtlety?  “Beware,” said St Paul, “that the serpent does not beguile you through subtlety.”  I greatly feared; but at this time Satan was not permitted to approach me or speak to me.  Had he done so, in the form of a man, I believe I should have been terrified.  I was conscious that the Father was protecting me, and I seemed to have a “veil” or covering over me, which hid me from his eyes.

You may wonder just what I mean when I say that both our Lord Jesus Christ and Satan appeared to me in the form of a man.  I really don’t know how to enlarge upon this explanation.  I saw them apparently just as I would see you, if you came into my presence.  Yet I am sure I did not see them with my "natural” eyes, nor did I see an apparition.  They had a body, and were substance, and not spirit alone.  The only explanation I have to offer is that I was in a state of rapture, where my natural senses were almost suspended, and my spiritual senses were quickened and active in a greater degree than I had ever experienced.  I was in the body, yet not in the body – senses.  This is as clearly as I can explain this experience, which continued off and on for many days, and has occurred at other times also.

THE PLEASURE F PARADISE

I fairly “flew” back to our cabin, which was quite a distance from this altar.  All along the way, the flowers and birds and trees shouted before me of my Beloved; indeed it seemed that all the trees of the woods were clapping their hands with joy.  Not until I saw my friends did I realize how late the morning had grown, and how very long I had been away from them.  Indeed, while in a state of rapture, I have no sense of time whatever.  Though they were most gracious, I could t see that they did not quite understand, and I was somewhat abashed.  I found that my lips were sealed, and I had no words to tell them of His appearing. A sacred silence settled down upon me.  It is still difficult to reveal these intimate, holy dealings of the Lord, and only because of divine compulsion am I able to make such an attempt.  Any touch of the carnal mind upon these things seems like profanation.

Yes, my heart, soul, mind and mouth were alike hushed in awe and wonder.  We ate our delayed breakfast in the glory of the sunlight of the New Day and, to my amazement, our brother was anointed to read the Word, and by it confirmation was given of the experience of the morning.  He read for about two hours, and by turns his wife and I laughed, cried and praised the Lord.  Oh it was a feast and I marveled at the perfect witness given in the written Word.  It is good to linger long at meat and wine, when one sits at the table with the King!

Then we were led to go out and gaze upon the beauties of this wonderland.  Here again we laughed and shouted and cried, for everything spoke to us of our Lord and His Word.  We were like excited children running from one to another, discovering a new wonder at every turn.  I think that we were feeling a little touch of the delight our first parents felt, as together they explored that first garden of God.  At length we came to a beautiful outdoor chapel, set in an ideal location.  It was equipped with an altar and a piano, which was set in a hollow tree.  (In this park the largest trees in the world are found.)  I could scarcely wait to get to the keys of that piano.  And when I did, I was anointed to play and sing with a power and beauty I have seldom experienced.  We all sang together in deep devotion, and I felt that gradually every part of my being was being tuned, and the hand of the Master Musician was plucking from my strings a melody divine!

It is My hands, love, that tune thy strings,

And thy whole being awakens and sings,

And as I pluck out each lovely melody,

My heart responds, too, with heaven’s harmony.

It is My fingers, that strike the chords,

And oh what rapture the song affords!

Throughout the ages of My Eternity,

I’ll play on thee

A melody divine!

Ah, this is rapture indeed!  I can imagine no greater bliss in heaven than to blend with the angels and the redeemed in celestial canticles.  I heard the angels singing with me, and our song came up even to the Throne, and drifted out to the utmost realms of the heavenlies.  Then I was rather startled, when I suddenly became aware that others were gathering about us, listening and watching us.  One young girl was regarding me with surprise.  I remember looking at her as though I were in a dream and thinking, “She must be an earthly being, she looks so different from these other beings.”  Then I came out – enough to realize that I was still on the earth myself, and was regarding a fellow-being.  This girl began to laugh.  “I was asleep up there on a rock,” she said, “And I woke up and heard the singing coming up out of the top of the tree.  It sounded so unreal, I thought that I had died and was in heaven hearing the angles singing.”  We gave her, and a few others, a short testimony, and withdrew; it seemed almost unbearable to mix with people in a natural way, during this rapture time.

Upon retiring that night, I was again swept out in the Spirit, and the heavens opened upon me and seemed to be “raining” down into my soul.  I saw the New Jerusalem at a distance, and the gates were open wide.  Out of them streamed the golden supernal light of the Heavenly City.  I saw a great company of pilgrims passing up a highway into Zion.  One by one they entered the City.  I found that the 84^th Psalm was welling up in my heart.  Then I saw myself nearing the gate and I was filled with great rejoicing.  I was not actually taken into the City, however, at that time.

I also saw many other heavenly scenes, heard angelic music, and looked upon celestial beings.  Their purity, devotion and beauty thrilled me, and I found a strong love for them rising in my heart.  What friends to us are these ministering spirits!  How they do love us, the heirs of salvation!  But I found them to be very jealous about our Lord.  So jealous, in fact, that unless in all things, and at all times, we glorify Him and give Him all the honor, they are apt to be somewhat aloof.  However, when we begin to praise and glorify Him and tell of our love for Him, extolling His grace, then they break forth in a chorus of praise, their faces wreathed with smiles.  I gradually learned how to address them, and how to recognize their ranks and stations.  What strange society for a mortal to enter!  How ignorant and crude I felt in the midst of their perfect order!

I could scarcely wait for the approach of dawn, so eager was I to arise and go to my Beloved.  But again my heart was smitten with fear lest I never see Him again or fail, and miss His best for me.  Again the enemy beset me with grievous attacks which caused my body to tremble, and my heart to faint. 

The way to the mountain top to keep the sunrise with God is not made easy for the Bride.  The Father permits her love to be tested at every point, and not until she becomes desperate, relentless in her pursuit of her Bridegroom, does He permit her to enter the New Day!  But, again, the Lord was victor.  And I arose, very weak, and went out into the dawn.

This morning I was led to the little altar in the chapel.  Here, in a “church” made by God’s own hands – a type of that building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens – I was called to appear before the Father, and there to enter into a new relationship with Him and with His Son.  So vivid and real was this dealing, so solemn this compact, that it became the most significant day of this whole mountain top experience.  Angels witnessed, and rejoiced with me, and bore me away into such heavenly rapture that it seemed that my body would of necessity follow my soul and spirit in their flight.  I felt that at any moment I would be translated!  But the consummation day was not at hand, though to me it seemed it must surely be near.  O hasten the day!  And at this point I must draw the curtain, for much that transpired during this day would not be expedient, or even possible to utter.  Truly, “eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man; the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.”

At the breaking of the day I meet him,

In the glory of the rising sun,

With great joy my heart awakes to greet Him,

‘Ere the new day has its race begun!

In the radiant golden dawn we walk together,

And all life’s shadows flee away,

What a privilege is mine,

What a rapture divine

To meet Him at the breaking of day!

THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION

“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, and these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.”

How shall I tell you of the experiences which followed, as this mountain became to me a very “Mount of Transfiguration”?  Truly before my eyes, my Lord was transfigured.  And I, too, tasted of transfiguration.

In the preceding chapter, I described a wonderful “crowning” day which was spent in rapture and revelation.  Several times during that day my own body appeared to me to be changed.  It seemed to be a partially glorified body.  I felt alive and glowing with strength and power hitherto untasted.  (Remember that just a few short weeks back I lay at the point of death.)  Now it seemed that I had drunk deeply of the elixir of eternal life.  And it seemed that even my body had put on immortality.  At the time I had no idea that I was only “tasting” of the things to come, that I was seeing a little preview of the glorious things prepared by our God for the Sons of God, the Daughters of Zion.  Now I can well understand the longing Peter felt to build tabernacles and stay up on the Mount.  Once, at least, during this time, the eyes of another were opened to see me in a glorified body for a few moments.  I was astounded that all did not see it.  My whole body seemed filled with light during this time.

The night which followed this glorious third day was blest with heavenly visions.  These appeared to me as pictures suspended before my eyes – colored pictures in the third dimension.  I saw scenes of grandeur indescribable.  If such scenes exist on the earth, I have never beheld them nor pictures of them.  I believe I was seeing the world as God made it in its Edenic state before the fall.  Not only was the garden of Eden garnished by God, but the whole world was a paradise of pristine beauty.  I was swept out of myself completely as the Lord took me on this “world tour,” a world unspoiled by the curse.

But again, the hour before the dawn was most dark.  Gradually the visions of the Spirit faded away and then, very suddenly, Satan attacked!  It seemed that the hosts of darkness gathered around me, encircling me as a prey.  So terrific was this attack that it awoke my friends and set them praying.  At length the Spirit resisted the devil, and so great was the shaking that not only did my bed shake, but the entire cabin shook under the clash of the two realms.  We were shown that the powers of the heavens were being shaken, and that the seats of the evil realms were being overturned.  As Isaiah said, “I saw them fall as ripe figs.”  At length this battle subsided; but it left me very weak.  The hour of dawn was at hand, and under great pressure and opposition I arose, by His grace, to make my way to the altar.

PARADISE LOST

What a strange world greeted me in the first rays of the morning!  It no longer appeared beautiful and radiant and harmonious.  It was weird, ghastly and unreal to my eyes.  I found myself actually running along the road, as though fleeing from some pursuer.  My heart was in the grip of a nameless fear and dread.  Nature, no longer friendly to me, actually seemed an enemy.  The bird’s song was no longer a melody of love, but a taunting accusation!  So real was my anguish, that I am unable to describe the horror of this experience.  “What terrible thing has happened?”  I cried, “Where is my Lord?”

Then I saw that I was like “Eve” cast out of Eden, fleeing the wrath of God and the angel’s flaming sword!  How could such a thing be?  What had I done to be cast out, to be taken from the heights of blessing into a chasm of despair?  I tried to pray, but could not cease running – indeed this running was so rapid, and over such a steep road, that in my natural strength it would have been a sheer impossibility.  It was one instance of being “transported” by the Spirit.  The other instances were pleasant – this most terrifying!  So I ran, and cried as I ran, but the Lord did not answer my cries.  “Surely He will appear at any moment,” I kept telling myself.  “He will end this nightmare.”  But no answering voice spoke to my aching heart.  I felt alone in a way I have never experienced.  Indeed I know now that I tasted the grief of Eve when, cast out of Paradise, she grieved more than the loss of the garden the loss of her communion with her Creator.  Without Jesus the most beautiful Eden would be a barren wilderness to His Bride!  With Jesus the wilderness blossoms and sings, and the streams of life flow through the desert.  Amen!

However at the time, I did not understand the strange dealing of my Lord.  Why was He thus seemingly torturing my heart?  “Love asks no questions,” someone had aptly said.  The Bride, as she advances in rapture, learns never to question God, even for a moment.  She dare not reason, she dare not doubt.  Hers must be a love that never fails.  This love that beareth…hopeth…believeth….endureth all things, keeps her safely on “the more excellent way,” the highway to the Throne!  The redeemed pass over this King’s Highway and come with singing into Zion.

I found no answer to my heart-cry from God; but Satan was quick to respond.  How his voice clamored in my ears as I ran!  Accusing, mocking, deriding…not me, but my God!  But I dared not stop to answer him.  I must hasten on the the altar and cast myself at the Feet of the Father.  I must find out from Him, directly, what I had done to cause Him to cut me off from the heavenlies, and to banish me from His presence.  I felt – as indeed my mother, Eve, must have felt – utterly graceless and without hope.  But I knew, as she could not have known, the One “full of grace and truth,” whose grace is eternally sufficient for me.  All hell cannot shake the soul who knows in Whom he has believed, and is fully persuaded that Jesus Christ is able to keep that which has been committed unto Him.  The fully committed, fully believing soul is kept by the power of God through faith.

This experience of rapture has brought me into a fear of God I have never known before: not a fear regarding my soul’s salvation, but a fear of failing, or grieving, or displeasing the Father.  I can’t describe the awe I felt.  For years I had seen that until the saints really fear God – in the Biblical sense of the word – sinners cannot be brought into any real fear of the Lord.  I had tried to have this awe, but fell short of it in my attitude toward God.  Now, having seen the power, majesty, holiness and authority of the Trinity, I had a Godly fear of each Adorable One, which caused me to desire to perfectly obey and please them in all things. O how grievous do many of our “small” imperfections appear, the other side of the veil!  God will have a perfect, faultless Bride for His Son.  He is relentless in His purpose, and without partiality.  She will be without spot or blemish.  She will be tested to the extremity of her endurance for this high calling.

So, when I tell you that I exceedingly feared before Him, know that never for a moment did I doubt my salvation.  But, if so great a one as St. John fell at His feet as dead, when Jesus appeared unto him, what effect would His appearing have upon such a weak, imperfect vessel as I?  If Daniel was “sick many days” at His appearing, it is no wonder that I have been sick many times from the weight of heavenly visions.  O, how unclean, how imperfect, how unworthy we feel in the midst of these divine favors.  A true rapture experience never exalts the individual…the inevitable effect of such a revelation is to greatly humble and chasten that one.  We are more apt to say with Isaiah, “Woe is me,” than to say with the Pharisee, “I thank Thee that I am not as other men.”  I am warned of the Lord to beware of any supernatural experience which tends to exalt me or any other person, as an individual.  Without exception, these true raptures exalt and glorify the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In this personal experience of “paradise lost,” the hardest test of all this dark morning came when, try as I would, I could not find my altar in the rocks.  I found the path leading up to it again and again.  Satan was still besetting me.  Then, someway, along the path, I would lose my way.  Twice I slipped and fell several feet, sliding through thorny bushes and over rocks.  Once I suffered a really hard and dangerous fall.  (My clothes were torn, but no trace of injury was found on my body when I later returned to our cabin.)  Finally, I gave up in sheer exhaustion.  I was lost…indeed I did not even know the way back to the cabin.  I could not find my altar, or my Lord!  I attempted to sing and praise, but my voice choked in my throat.  The previous day I had felt the most blest and favored of all creatures; this day, quite the opposite was true – I felt the

But divine love never fails, it is always the same.  So, by His grace, I kept gasping, “Jesus, I love You, I love You. Always, in all things, in all places, I love You and trust You.”  Over and over I said it.  I lay back, my eyes closed and, though I was all tangled up in brush and dirt, I felt sweet peace slowly flowing into my soul.  I felt the presence of angels, and sang to them, telling them how favored they were that they might behold Him all the time, that they were never deprived of his presence.  To my surprise they sang back to me, that I was more favored than they, since I knew Him in redemption, by grace, and was made partaker with Him of the divine nature of God.  I sang and rejoiced with them.  And then, suddenly, I opened my eyes and turned my head.  Just above me Jesus stood, His eyes eloquent with compassion.  One look into His eyes healed my heart, banished my fears, and restored my joy.  I saw Him openly, plainly, as before, and again He was like unto the Son of Man.

Before He spoke, I someway knew that He had watched me every moment of this testing time, and that He had been moved with great concern and compassion.  Truly our Lord is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.  He is the understanding, sympathizing, Jesus!  “In all their affliction…in His love and in His pity He redeemed them.”  If this was true of our God in His dealing with Israel, how much greater is His concern and pity for His chosen Bride.  She is “flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone!”  Nevertheless, He knows the meaning of being made perfect through suffering.  If He, Son though He was, learned obedience to the Father by all that He suffered, His Bride must follow Him closely in His sufferings.  I felt His consuming love toward me, as a Brother-Divine.  He took me gently by the hand, lifted me up, and led me to the appointed altar – which was only a few yards up the trail from the place I had fallen.  Yes, He actually appeared and actually led me by the hand to the altar.  I saw Him and heard Him as clearly was I would have seen you and heard you speak, had you stood in the flesh.

PARADISE RESTORED

“You will never be able to find you way to this altar,” He said, “unless I bring you here.”  The Bride may make a long climb, seemingly alone, assisted only by the Holy Spirit.  But near the top of the mountain, the Bridegroom will appear and take her up the last hard climb.  Once at the altar, lost in praise and worship, I clearly saw my Father’s great love and wisdom in permitting this strange trial.  Has not Peter warned us not to think these fiery trials strange?  How quickly we forget!  The Father had permitted me to taste of the bitterness and sorrow which befell Eve when, through disobedience, she lost her Eden.  I could have read this story again and again.  I might have heard many sermons preached about it.  But not until it actually happened to me, could I have known and understood its real significance.  Was it possible that I, as a bride of Christ, the Second Eve, might lose my Eden too?  Had not St. Paul, in his epistle to the Corinthians, warned the chaste virgin betrothed to Christ of the subtlety of Satan?  My Father wanted to teach me.  So He wrote this lesson deeply in my heart and mind by letting me experience it.

This is the value of being brought into the experiential state of End-Time revelation.  We may perceive many truths; but when we actually live these things out in experience, they are incarnated in us, never to be forgotten.  So, vividly, deeply etched upon my heart, is the realization of the dangers confronting the New Eve.  The loss of rank or place in the Kingdom is irretrievable.  Oh how careless we are with the “true riches,” toying with them often, as a child might toy with a priceless jewel.  Many called, but few chosen!  And only the called and chosen and faithful are among the full overcomers.  How deadly to taste and trifle!  Yes, even in a raptured state, there is danger of loss.  And to whom much is given, of him much shall be required.  Eve disobeyed, desiring a grater place than God had given her.  (If you eat this tree you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.)  Ambition and pride cast Satan from heaven and Eve from Paradise.  Be watchful, bride of Christ, and walk in humility and obedience – this was my Father’s lesson, but He had been testing my love for the Son.  The Bride’s love must be a steady glow, not extinguished by the winds of adversity, “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.”

TWO HEARTS BEAT AS ONE

“I love You, I love You, I love You,”

This is the song of my heart.

“I love You, I love You, I love You,

I know, Lord, we never shall part.

I live by the breath of Your Spirit,

Your heart-beat is throbbing in mine.

And I love You, I love You, I love You,

My heavenly Lover-Divine.”

Following this test, the love of the Bridegroom was revealed to my heart in a yet deeper manner.  I felt my heart again dilating, enlarging, toward Him.  He was infusing His love into my heart, and my heart was being fused with His holy heart.  He showed me the difference between that which is welded together – and may be broken and torn apart again – and that which is fused.  Each particle is so united in fusion that it cannot again be divided.  Indeed, to fuse means to liquefy and melt together, to blend and to unite.  The Bridegroom is appearing unto His Bride now, to become fused with her, first in heart and mind and, later in “body,” when her body is glorified and made like unto His glorified Body.

O sacred union with the Sacred Heart,

What joy, what bliss, what wonderment is mine;

That He should take me into His bosom,

And hold me in the thrall of Love-divine.

O sacred union with the Sacred Heart,

To beat, to feel, to know, to love as one.

Ah could this be my stony heart, once broken,

Bound up…made new and whole by God’s dear Son?

Oh the melting and liquidation I felt within my heart, as in the fervent heat of His consuming love, my heart was brought into full union with His heart.  How much He revealed concerning His Bride, and His glorious plans for her in the days which lie ahead!  These things were all far beyond my understanding.  So, even as Mary, I hid them in my heart, and ponder them there.

This experience of His revelation to me as the Son of Man was all summed up by the Spirit in a poem which He moved me to write for my Beloved.  He bids me share it with you.  I am reluctant to speak of these intimate dealings, but He shows me that through this testimony other hearts will be moved to rise up and run after the Beloved.  Some will be incited to a fervent, consuming devotion for Him.  I give it to you with the prayer that you will see in it not an individual, but a “body,” the precious Bride, meeting the Beloved One upon the mountain-top. 

I met Him on the mountain at the breaking of the day.

The path was steep and rugged, but He led me all the way –

Led me out into the dawning, called me from my wakeful sleep –

Far out upon a mountain-top vigil I must keep!

(How can I sleep, when His heart is calling,

Waking my heart to a love-enthralling?)

“Rise up, my love, my dear one, rise up and come away!

Flee out of the night-shadows into the bright new day!

Brush sleep from thy dove’s eyes, love, there’s no time to tarry,

Hasten to don thy garments; no weights with thee carry.

Swiftly upon the mountains thy hind’s feet must tread,

As up to heights thou art safely led.”

O, the sweetness and fragrance if the dew-sprinkled morn,

As, from the womb of eternity, a new day is born!

In the verdant trees, the bird-choir sings a paean of praise,

As the golden clouds reflect the sun’s first flaming rays;

Glorious rays, how they light up the sky,

Like fire-tipped arrows He bids them fly!

O hasten, my feet, you must run now to meet Him;

Keep pace with my heart, it is panting to greet Him!

He shall be as the sun when He rises in might,

On a morn without clouds, in radiant light.

As a Bridegroom he comes out of His place,

As a Strong-man, He rejoices to run a swift race.

“Step carefully now, love, there’s a sharp turn to essay,

You must go by the high road, the steep, narrow way.

I’ll break the trail for you, move the sharp stones aside,

For nothing shall stumble the feet of My Bride.

Ah yes, it’s a hidden way, dear, and rough,

But you’ll need no staff, My arm is enough!”

Be strong now, my heart, be swift and steady my feet!

I climb to meet my King, at a hidden retreat.

He’s calling me up to a mountain apart,

To show me His face and to open His Heart.

So long I have waited with hungering soul,

So long I have striven to reach this high goal!

O, I must not faint now, Father, help me, I pray,

Thy Word still holds promise for strength as my day.

Through years of preparation I’ve proved Thy sure care,

No trial was too difficult, no cross too hard to bear.

By Thy grace alone I shall reach this high goal,

And reach it I must and I shall, O my soul!

Now the last long ascent – the very hardest steps to take –

But He guides to the end, He never forsakes.

So up!  And now, O joy surpassing, O ecstasy sublime,

I stand upon the summit, I’ve finished the long climb!

At last I have found a safe place to stop,

For the King has pledged to meet me here at the top.

My heart blends with my voice in a canticle of praise,

For the rising sun greets me in glory ablaze;

Such warmth, such love!  Let me bask in His light,

Every shadow is behind me, I must conquer it too,

Higher summits are calling, a new promised land I view!

The vision blurs and fades, as tears mingle with light,

My full heart overflows – throbbing with delight.

I turn, and there He stands, His arms outstretched to me –

More radiant than the morning, more glorious is He.

The Sun of Righteousness, what transcendent love He brings,

Rising upon me with healing in His wings!

So…I met Him on the mountain, at the breaking of the day,

The path was steep and rugged, but He led me all the way;

Broke the path before me, safely kept my feet,

Scattered flowers before my steps, fragrant and sweet.

And there upon the peak, at the rising of the sun

He held me to His bosom, as the Father made us one!

So shall Love’s old, sweet story be incarnated in the New Eve, the Bride of Christ.  And through her it shall be given to a world gripped by violence and hatred.  Do I appear to romanticize divine truth?  This love drama of the ages has been re-enacted in the elect of every generation.  It began with a love story in the Garden of Eden: a Bridegroom, a Bride, a Paradise!  It ends in another garden, the heavenly paradise of our God.  In this garden there will be another Bridegroom with His holy Bride!  The Son of Solomon, depicting this mysterious union, interprets it in the terms of nuptial love.  This choice book has been illumined to the most devout souls throughout the centuries.  Today it lives again, re-enacted in us who “Kiss the Son” and running after Him cry, “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth, for Thy love is better than wine.”  This chaste, holy love of Christ, is the portion of the chaste, holy Bride – the “lily among the thorns,” the “Mary” saints, who sit long at His feet, choosing the “better part which shall not be taken away.”

For her – the Bride –

Love’s supernal day dawns in full glory,

And she too shall know the old, sweetest story:

At the dawn of the race, revealed to the first two;

Revealed in each age to the chosen “elect” few;

God’s own secret love way, unveiling His grace,

Unveiling His nature, His heart and His face.

“God is love,” hear this word ring the centuries through,

“God is love,” the Bride answers, and knows it anew!

THE RIVER FROM THE THRONE

During our remaining days upon the mountain-top, many other truths were unveiled.  One of the most glorious days was spent following the King’s River up to its source.  O, the river of the Water of Life!  “The streams whereof make glad the City of God!”  The river that flows from the Throne, bringing life and love and joy in its wake!  How much we had thought about this river!  And now an actual river was used to demonstrate this truth.

When we had first started up the long winding way to the mountain top, we had encountered a river, and along its banks we found the only loveliness and life in that hot, barren road.  The river was actually named, “King’s River.”  Having followed it thus far, we felt moved to attempt to follow it on up to its source.  This took us nearly a hundred miles, over a mountain-top road.  The glories and beauties that greeted our eyes on every side were breath-taking.  The primitive splendor of the scenery aroused us to a high pitch of worship and wonder.  The flowers, of rare and varying types, seemed to fairly crowd along the roadside.  I kept thinking of the flower-strewn path of the overcomers, as we pass over the last great highway to the Throne on the crowning day.

The river was at flood season, and dashed and sprayed over the rocks, much as we sing of it in the old song, “Shall We Gather at the River?”  The dear sister and I stood on the bank, with the spray on our faces, and sang this song – filled with praise.  In the Spirit we could see the great company of the redeemed coming up to drink at the River of Grace and to follow it to its source at the Throne.  Great was our disappointment when we found that the auto road stopped short of the “head” of the river.  But, since that time, in the Spirit, the Lord did take me to the Fountain-head of the River of Life – the Father, the Source.  That River, the very life of the Father, will be flowing into the earth through the wide, deep, clean channels He is now preparing.

“Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it; Thou greatly enriches it with the river of God, which is full of water.  They also that dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth are afraid at Thy tokens (signs).  Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.” (Psalm 65)

As the time drew near for our departure from this mountain, my  Mount of Transfiguration, a great solemnity overwhelmed my spirit.  The weight of these revelations, and the responsibility of being entrusted with these mysteries of God, seemed more than I could bear.  With this burden, my Lord added another precious one – the deep concern of His heart, His desire to appear, to reveal Himself, to His entire Bride company.  “He appeared first unto Mary, and afterward to the eleven as they sat at meat.”  How great is His desire to rapture His “Mary,” to reveal His love, and to perfect her for her heavenly calling.  With this concern another burden gripped my soul.  O, to see the manifestation of the sons of God!  Of course, for years, this prayer has been in my heart; but now it flamed to a new height of intensity and fervor. O, to see His sons, formed in His perfect image!  How clearly I saw that a company must be brought into these privileges.  As I walked with Him, I prayed for others whom I knew were in this race, that they too might share these celestial experiences.

His last words to me, before I left the mount, were in regard to this company.  He spoke to me in these words:  “I have appeared unto thee for this purpose: to make thee a witness of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee.”  (Acts 26:16)  This commission brought me to a new and very heavy cross.  I was staggered at the import of it, even though I rejoiced at the privilege of bearing it.   The cross is the stamp of authenticity upon every divine experience.  So my altar of revelation became for me another altar of sacrifice.  Yes, deep truths are dearly won, and must be guarded at the cross of the laying down of our lives, in one way or another.

However, for the time being the revelation was sealed.  I was instructed to “tell no man these things,” until commanded to speak by the Father.  Those nearest to me knew only that which the Spirit revealed to them.  I must seal my lips, even from them.  Yet, at this time, much must still be left untold, it must remain hidden in my heart.  I left the mountain top with instructions to walk in deep humility and quietness of heart.  “I will confirm and establish all things in the mouths of many witnesses,” spoke the Lord to me, and this He had faithfully done.  I was told that I must descend with as much devotion and grace as had been employed in ascending.  The Bride must be equally sure-footed and graceful in the valley as in the heights.  Many, who climb rapidly and steadily on the way up, lose their balance and footing on the way down.  In the experiences of rapture, we must not risk any mis-step.

So I descended out of Eden, into an alien world.  Yet, this did not prove to be the end, but only a new beginning.  Rapture, praise God!  Never ends until it is consummated in Translation!

There’s a new light on my pathway,

There’s a new joy in my soul,

There’s a new and holy rapture,

Holding me in full control.

There’s a new hope to sustain me,

There’s a new faith, firm and true.

For Jesus has met me

And shown me His glory,

And behold!  All things are NEW!

TYPES OF RAPTURE

The Lord has impressed me to witness to you about the types of rapture I have experienced from time to time.  In Part I, I mentioned that, before leaving “The King’s House,” I had experienced several “rapture” dealings.  I spoke of being caught up and seeing visions in accord with The Revelation 4 and Ezekiel 1.  You may wonder just what form these raptures took – whether I was in or out of the body, or in a state of trance or sleep, and whether I actually outwardly saw all of these things or merely perceived them.  Just what outward effects were produced and what lasting benefits were received?  So, with some reluctance, I shall endeavor to put into words many things which “are hard to be understood.”  May the Holy Spirit indeed now enable me to express in our poor language these divine mysteries.  Bear in mind that I am testifying, and not dealing with doctrinal truth or teaching.  This experience is crystal clear to me, there is no doubt at any point.  But to explain it is quite another thing.

To begin with, let me say that I have found it very hard indeed to so completely abandon myself to God as to let go of every “rein.”  Others may not experience this difficulty.  Yet I cannot believe that it shall be easy for anyone to pass out of the body again and again.  There are many reasons for this.  In the first place, our being – body, soul and spirit – three-fold yet one, is loath to be divided.  The body offers a great resistance to everything of a supernatural nature.  I have mentioned that in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit most of us encounter much resistance from our physical nature.  Even after receiving this effulgence, we find that at times our body is heavy and contrary to God and, when under the influence of the carnal mind, is even at actual enmity with God.  We gradually learn to submit our mind and members to the Spirit and, if we live constantly under His control, it becomes our second nature, as indeed it is, to be “in the Spirit.”  However, if we disobey or walk in the fleshly mind, we find it again difficult to be under any anointing or moving of the Spirit until we are fully restored through confession.

Gradually we become accustomed to heavier and more prolonged anointing.  At first a heavy anointing of intercession or prophecy or other manifestation will leave us weak and physically affected in some ways.  But our bodies become more and more submitted and adjusted, until we reach the place where we may spend hours and sometimes days under a strong anointing without undue physical reaction.  This is because we have become tempered and attuned to the Spirit in the physical members of our body.

Much the same is true in rapture.  At first the body and the mind offer resistance and hindrance, but gradually we become yielded and can be taken in and out of the body more easily.  In  each case the Lord dealt with me by degrees, step by step, carefully preparing me.  For He is ever loath to violate our body or mind.  His operations are delicate and in harmony with our own will – never taking us beyond our will.  The Holy Spirit, even in intervention, never forces us, but always secures the full consent of our will before acting.  Evil spirits observe no such respect, and will violate our minds and bodies beyond the control of our will.  Be not deceived at this point!

So interwoven is our nature that it dreads separation.  The soul seems more reluctant even than the body in this matter.  It fears being unclothed.  As much as the body weights it, it still clings to the body, its house.  When, in rapture, it is withdrawn for a short time out of the body, it feels naked, in a sense, and unprotected.  O how much does this experience cause us to appreciate the house God has given us, and to say with St. Paul, “Not that I want to be unclothed, but that I long to be clothed with my house from heaven.”  I do not believe we shall ever completely lose this dread of nakedness until we are fully clothed upon with immortality!  The spirit is the part of our being which is willing and eager to take flight unto God from whence it came.  In regeneration each of us was begotten in the Father’s bosom.  He is the source from whence we sprang, as the offspring of God.  The spirit part of our being is ever ready to return unto its source.  But so is it united with the soul that it cannot divide it, for by it, the spirit, the soul is eternally saved through Christ.  I wish I might make this as clear to you as it has been made to me.

I believe I mentioned that at one time I was “divided” – like a burnt offering – by the Holy Spirit and the “sword of the Spirit.”  “The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to dividing asunder the joints and marrow, and the soul and spirit.”  Dear ones, this was a real piercing.  I can’t tell you how terrible it was when, for a brief moment, I discerned what was spirit and what was soul.  Up until that time this was all obscure.  It was done as a “demonstration,” but was so real that for days I felt I was truly lying on that altar, cut asunder.  The unredeemed will experience a permanent division when the lost soul is severed forever from the spirit, the only connection we have with God.  Now, I understand the horror of “the second death” – so much greater than the loss of the body!

Let me continue further.  I mentioned that at one time I saw death in an actual form.  He was shown as the “last enemy.”  I not only saw “death,” but he came to me, and laid hands on me.  This is as clearly as I can explain what happened.  We all know what we mean when we say “The Lord laid His hands on me.”  Just so did death.  I was in the Spirit at the time, waiting on the Lord.  I was looking for the Lord of Life; instead, the messenger of death came.  As he put his hands on me, I felt a gradual cessation of the life-flow in my body.  It seemed to be put into reverse, so to speak.  My blood grew cold, and so did my entire body.  The word dissolution went through me.  As the life flowed out, the soul and the spirit clung together and began to withdraw gradually from the body.  I believe that at this time I experienced that which does really occur at death.  This was so real that I have no doubt that had God not intervened, I should have died at that time.  I was utterly helpless as I lay in my bed.  But I remember that in the depths of my soul I said to the Father, “Dear Father, what do I do now?  You see, after all, death has come, and has put his hands on me.  Should I resist him or submit?  I confess I don’t know what to do.  Jesus was obedient to Thy will, even unto death.  Thy will be done.”  At first, there was no answer, and I felt the icy flow of death gradually approaching my heart.

Suddenly, in a loud voice, the Holy Spirit, addressing death personally, cried in me, “The Lord Jesus Christ conquered you upon the cross of Calvary.  He tasted death for every man, by the grace of God.  You cannot take your prey.  The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath freed this one from the Law of Sin and Death.  Body, soul and spirit, she is redeemed by the Blood of God’s Son.  Now is brought to pass the saying which is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in Victory.  Where, O death, is thy sting; where, O grave, is thy victory.’”  Then I was moved to finish this Word: “Thanks be unto God which giveth me the victory through my Lord Jesus Christ.”

However, for many days, I was faint and ill, and I know beyond a doubt that the Lord was so gracious as to permit me to taste, ever so slightly, of death.  Thus I am very conscious of body, soul and spirit.  In my experiences of rapture, the soul accompanies the spirit on its flight.  The body’s forces are largely suspended.  It may turn very cold, or at times feel “stony.”  At other times it is just relaxed as in sleep.  It still breathes, but is insensible to pain, discomfort, heat or cold.  It seems that a slight thread or wire connects the soul and spirit to the body, so that at times the body actually “tugs” at the line, attempting to draw the soul and spirit back, if the rapture is prolonged.

THE WAY INTO RAPTURE

I found that the way into rapture state varied.  At first I felt complete weakness of body and a suspension of my mind – which is normally active and strong.  But, in severe illness, the mind was dazed and weak.  The sweetest rapture I have experienced is the “swoon of love.”  In this, as the Bridegroom draws near and reveals Himself, the soul – already “sick of love, as Song of Solomon 2:5 depicts – now actually faints or swoons at His approach.  It is ravished in divine love.  It loses consciousness of everything, including itself.  It flows or flames or throbs with the love of the Heavenly Spouse.  It seems to disappear into Him, as a river is lost in the sea.  It is not able to comprehend or explain in any natural terms this divine union.  The effects of this rapture linger for days.  In fact, they are permanent beyond any doubt.  Coming out of this state, the mind and heart seem to be left with the Loved One.  Others have tasted this rapture and have described it in similar terms.  However, the union of love between Christ and each individual soul is absolutely unique.  Truly, as the song says, “The joys we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.”

After these times, for days I could think of nothing but Christ.  I seemed permeated with His perfume, dripping with divine love which fell upon everyone I encountered.  My admiration and love for Him, and the revelation of His interior nature, was such that I could not bear to think or speak of anything save Him.  These times of union do change us, for thus beholding Him we are changed into the same image from glory to glory!

Another type of rapture occurred when I was suddenly set on my feet by the Spirit and whirled as in a “whirlwind” around and around.  I caught a glimpse of Elijah’s whirlwind, and at length my body fell prone, but my soul and spirit went up in the whirlwind even to the Throne.  It was then that I saw the “Living Creatures,” and “Elders.”

There is another type we might call flight.  In this the soul and spirit seem to flutter in the breast like a bird seeking release.  Then, suddenly, they burst out and mount up like a bird in the air.  Sometimes this is so sudden that the body faints.  There is another type of rapture which begins with singing praise in the Spirit.  As I sing I seem to begin to rise, each step of song takes me higher.  I am climbing the golden stairs, singing each step of the way, like the priests who paused on each step of the Temple to sing a psalm on feast days.  This rapture is always attended by profound revelation.

I want to make it clear that the imagination plays not part in these revelations, nor does the mind reason or question.  It is really suspended.  The heart seems to be the recipient of these revelations.  The “eyes” of the heart are opened to divine mysteries.  The things I have seen and heard and experienced I had never known previously, with a few exceptions.  Nor does the reading of God’s Word reveal these mysteries, unless one has been given the key which unlocks them.  They have been sealed until the time of the end.

For my part, I have found that under ordinary anointing of the Spirit, the imagination and reasoning faculties still operate.  After years of demonstrations, operations and various gift workings, I find that in most cases, at least, the other faculties are still active.  Thus, in the midst of deep manifestations, a certain part of my mind is acting like a sentinel, checking everything that I say or do with the written Word, watching against error.  That this is true is evident, for in many we observe that their own imagination does enter into their manifestation of the Spirit.  Thus, the anointing may be real; but their interpretation of it can be according to their own mind.

In this way error arises, which can be discerned by another.  However, in true rapture, all mental faculties are suspended, save those of the New Creation Mind, which is Christ’s mind.  We may see and hear and learn in amazing clarity the heavenly truths and recall them in minute detail.  Oh the wonderful renewing of the mind which take place, as rapture progresses!