through the awakening that they are in the Overcoming One.
Revelation 20:4, as we read earlier, says, "And I saw Thrones." The Bible is the best interpreter of the scripture. Revelation 3:21 records, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in My Throne, even as I also overcame, and am sat down with My Father in His Throne" The Throne belongs to them who overcome in Jesus’ overcoming. This overcoming is not in the flesh realm, or the knowledge of good and evil realm, for that is all in the realm of death, but overcoming is a working of the Spirit within us. The Thrones are given to those who, through the Spirit, overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil; this company of people is given a seat of authority or a seat of power.
In Revelation 3 as John was recording the words of Jesus, “The overcomer will sit with me in My Father's Throne." The very next thing shown to John [Revelation chapter 4], because he Became Spirit in the realm of Spirit, was that he was immediately brought Into the Spirit, and saw a Throne; and he saw one that sat upon the throne, and he began to describe that one. He went on to say that around the throne were Living Creatures Expressing Life, And They Lived. Also Revelation 20:4 tells us that they lived. In Revelation chapter 4 John saw a people who were also expressing life, and a little later he said that there was a Lamb. John was describing a people who have come into a realm of Spirit, and are partaking of the resurrection, that lifts them out of the dead while still in physical bodies.
ENTERING INTO REST
John saw Thrones, and the scripture says that "they Sat upon them" which denotes a realm of Rest [Revelation 20:4]. In other words, they had ceased from their own labors, and were in a state of rest. It also says, in verse four, that judgment was given unto them. The word "judgment" means the ability to make decisions. This people had the Godly wisdom to make righteous judgments and decisions. They were not ethereal; they were not cosmic; but they had grown up and had learned how to think as God thinks. They learned to have judicial authority. They judged righteous As God. The scripture also says in verse four, "...And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness..." It is very important to realize that this portion of scripture in Revelation 20:4 follows three previous verses which deal with the adversary realm. Verse one tells us that an angel came down; and that angel was a message. The message which is coming from the realm of Spirit is placing a binding upon that old serpent, the devil, and Satan, which simply means Adversary and Accuser. There is a message that is making the realm of accusation and slander of No effect in our lives. This realm of slander and accusation is being placed in a bottomless pit, which means that there is a people in whom there is No Foundation to build accusation, slander, and condemnation upon. There is no foundation to build conflict upon.
Accusation, Slander, Condemnation, and Conflict will begin to be removed when we first learn to Agree with our adversary. The realm of conflict begins to be removed from us, the moment we realize that even our conflicts have no power. Then we no longer fight them, but we agree with our adversary, we have a healthy awareness about them; and thereby take away any ground for them to build upon. It is following this fulfillment, that there are a people upon Thrones. One begins to rule and reign when the accuser is thrown down.
Revelation 12:10 "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night." All this takes place within us, and when this does take place within a people, they will begin to release the Christ which they are, the moment the realm of the adversary is thrown down in their lives. At that point the accuser begins to become of No Effect.
COMPANY OF WITNESSES
The beheading of Souls that takes place for the Witness of Jesus, as recorded in Revelation 20:4, speaks of a people losing their life for the life of Christ, and putting on the mind of Christ. The word "witness" is translated in other places as Testimony. It is translated from the Greek word "MARTE-ROUS" which means, evidence given bearing witness, or one who gives evidence to something. In other words, these people spoken of here were giving evidence to Jesus’ finished work which could simply be said that they were giving evidence of the Savior, or Becoming Saviors’ as Obadiah verse 21 says. The English word "Martyr" means one who lays down his life for another; so to be a witness, to give evidence of Jesus, one must lay his new creation life down For Others! There can be no testimony to Jesus if one is Selfish! The scripture used the word "souls" therefore it is not talking about physical martyrdom, as in physical death. Martyrdom in that dimension would not serve the purpose of God for this hour. The purpose that is revealed today is that purpose which shall be accomplished through Living Martyrdom, through a people who are laying down their new creation lives on the earth, so that Christ can find full expression in and through them! Therefore, when the Word speaks of the soul it is very important, because the soul is the being. We were under the altar at the death of Jesus at the cross. At the new birth we received a new spirit and a new soul (a new being-New creation), and became one Spirit in the Lord. He (the new soul) that is joined to the Lord (new spirit) is one Spirit.
COMPANY OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS
Man is a tri-part being. These three realms have certain functions. In order for us to become a spiritual being in the way God desires, we must find the balanced functions of these three realms. Since the fall of man, man has been fragmented and dual in his awareness. Duality, fragmentation, and divisions are all evidence of the appearance realm.
The functions of spirit are Intuition which is knowledge gained without recourse to natural reason. Another function of spirit is Communication, and it is with our spirit that we commune with God. Another word for "communion" is worship. Then the conscience is part of the outer realm. That part that must be purged according to Hebrews chapter 9 Verse 14.
The conscience is where we judge either by the Mind of Christ or by the 5 senses. The 5 senses are connected to the body and flow to the physical brain. When the conscience or awareness is purged it no longer discerns by the outer realm but by the inner realm.
The spirit makes one aware, or gives one a God Consciousness. The body gives one outer world consciousness. The thing that stands between the spirit and the body is the conscious awareness. When the conscious awareness receives the Mind of Christ, the body or flesh will be affected. It is in the conscience or consciousness that a thing is conceived and then manifestation will come.
THE RETURN TO THE SPIRIT REALM
All of our lives we have learned to live apart from the spirit realm. Our spirit did not vibrate or function at the same level, so as to have a consciousness of God. The life that we projected was based upon the things learned through the body realm. Therefore, the impressions and pictures that we reasoned, felt, and chose, were not only fragmented, and dual; they were divided in their own selves, due to subjection to bondage and corruption; but were also enhanced into further deception by learning to grow based upon the five senses. We could only believe what we heard with our natural ears. This is what the veil represents as the realm of appearance. This is the reason we are admonished by Paul as he writes in I Thessalonians 5:22, to abstain from all appearance of evil. We are not to judge anything by outward appearance. The judgment that was given to the people in Revelation chapter 20 partaking of the superior resurrection was not a judgment based on outward appearance.
When one is initially born again he is made aware, or quickened by the Spirit of God. The Bible calls it being "born from above," when one is generated by Spirit. The interesting thing about the word "generate" is that it means "generated from the first," or generated from the realm you first came from, which was Spirit. For all spirit came out of God and was created In Him in pure spirit form, then lowered into the bondage of corruption, where the awareness and memory of Spirit died into the death of human experience. We then entered a process of resurrection, which is far greater than, simply the raising of a physical body.
When Adam sinned against God his level of perception was altered. Therefore resurrection must take place, which involves the recovery of all that was lost when we took upon ourselves the form of flesh. A reversal occurs to all the consequences that came to us: as we grew in the realm of duality, becoming more enmeshed into the appearance, or outer world experience; as we lost the memory of that which we had from the foundation of the world. When God allows the Spirit to brood