OUR MINDS
OUR MINDS
Revelation 7: 1-8; Revelation 13: 11-18; Revelation 14: 1-5
WJH I thought we might consider these passages as bearing on how God would secure our minds for Himself. We were speaking last night of the importance of the heart — and that is first, for it says, “Keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4: 23). But next to the affections, the mind is of the greatest importance, and one has been impressed that the forehead is one of the great issues in the book of Revelation; the question being whether the beast is to have it or whether God is to have it. We might learn from these scriptures some of the great results that flow from surrendering our minds to divine ownership, and be warned, afresh, of the dreadful results of surrendering our minds to the world’s power and what lies behind it.
GMcK All these scriptures you have read have reference to the forehead. Is that what you have in mind?
WJH Yes. I think the forehead is selected both by God and by the Antichrist because of the importance of the mind.
EM The word seems to have a large place in ministry in these closing days. It is in keeping with what you have before you.
WJH Christ as the Word discloses to us the mind of God. That is also found in this book; His name is called The Word of God (Revelation 19: 13). I believe, with the pressure that is increasing in the world, there is danger lest we let our minds get out of control.
GMcK You mean in thinking of the terrible things that are happening?
WJH It is so easy to think of nothing else.
WBP We are to control our minds and not to let our minds control us.
WJH The Apostle Peter says, “Having girded up the loins of your mind” (1 Peter 1: 13). It is on us to put a girdle round our minds which means we accept restriction on our minds.
RA Is that what is suggested in Romans 7, “I myself with the mind serve God’s law”?
WJH Indicating that the believer there has control of his mind, he knows what he does with it. We must accept a girdle for our minds, meaning that we keep them inside a restricted area.
WBP Are our minds an avenue to the heart?
WJH Well, they are very closely linked together. I have no doubt the affections probably play the greatest part in our spiritual history, but next is the mind.
GH Aaron had a thin plate of gold on his forehead, suggesting that his mind was controlled by holiness to Jehovah.
GMcK Did you have in mind to say anything about the first verse of the seventh chapter? The wind not blowing before the 12,000 from each tribe were sealed.
WJH Do you not think something like that has happened in recent years. God has kept in check the dreadful influences that would destroy all life according to God, giving us the opportunity to have our foreheads accept the seal of the living God. The result in many is seen that even in the dreadful conditions now existent in certain countries there are those whose minds are preserved in relation to what is of God.
JNG Does the seal denote ownership?
WJH The seal means that the mind of the believer is the property of God, it represents ownership and finality. Both thoughts are in a seal — on the one side it is the proof of ownership, and on the other side the matter is fixed. When a document is sealed, it denotes the end of a matter.
Ques Would this be a future company?
WJH Yes. All this is future. But the Lord says to testify these things in the assembly. It will not help us to look at it only as future, every part of this book has a present bearing on us.
WBP That makes it very important as to what we allow into our minds.
WJH I believe we must face this if we are to be preserved — Have we submitted our foreheads for the seal of the living God as owning our minds, or have we reserves?
WHG The question of our bodies is very greatly simplified if the mind is properly secured, the twelfth chapter of Romans corning in intelligently after the seventh.
WJH Quite so. The surrendering of the body a living sacrifice is said to be our intelligent service, the mind is in the matter, it is not mechanical.
GA Would Daniel and his companions help us as to the practical effect of the sealing? They lived in very difficult days.
WJH Very much so. Dreadful things happened in Babylon, persecution even to a furnace seven times heated. Daniel however understood by books. Daniel’s mind at that time was within a girdle. While he did his duty to the king, his mind was set on what is of God. It is affecting that many brethren so tried today can still think for God and His service though the winds are blowing so adversely; but such had accepted the seal of the living God on the foreheads before the winds blew. Before the winds blow here, are we prepared to accept the seal of the living God on our foreheads?
GMcK Why does it say the “living” God?
WJH What is in view is that God should be served in a living way, not by creeds or vain repetition.
GD You were saying that Daniel knew by books? That should be a word to us as to what we read.
WJH It would, and gives the scriptures special importance. The Holy Spirit stresses the value of the scripture in the last days. See 2 Timothy 3: 16, 17.
GD One feels there is a great danger of being carried away by a certain class of book.
WJH Hence the importance of the girdle for the mind, that is, to accept restriction as to what we read and think upon.
ALeS “Have your mind on the things above” (Colossians 3: 2).
WJH It is for us to do that; “not on things on the earth” is the girdle.
WHG How does the suggestion of bondmen come in in connection with the sealing as applying to us?
WJH No one but bondmen would submit to this, it is the bondmen of our God that are sealed, their mind is divine property because they are. They are bondmen, not servants merely, but slaves, and are thus entirely at the disposal of the Master.
WHG Does the sealing come in as marking us in an outward way before men as those whose minds have been secured for God?
WJH As in the forehead it is discernible, what is in the heart is not.
GA You referred to the thought of divine ownership. One wonders whether that is much developed in actuality, whether we are not fundamentally lacking in recognising we really do belong to God, spirit, soul, and body; we could not truly be apart from that. The Apostle says “Whose I am and whom I serve” (Acts 27: 23).
WJH Quite so. “Whose I am” includes his mind. I feel we should see in this particular passage that before the winds blow is the time for the forehead to be sealed — too late when the winds blow to receive it.
GH Is there any significance in the repetition in the words “out of the tribe of Juda,” etc.?
WJH The tribal position represents what is local in our day. The divine thought is that in every locality there should be those whose minds are the property of God; that is the secret of true administration. Twelve thousand — true administration in Melbourne depends on there being those whose minds are controlled as divine property.
JNG Have you in mind that when the winds do blow there is that secured for God through which God can carry on His thoughts?
WJH Quite so. He will not allow the destruction that comes to touch those who have the seal. I do not mean physically — in His wisdom He may permit His people to be physically affected, also their homes, but they will come through for God, they will not be morally destroyed, even if some may die.
WBP We see that in the first martyr Stephen.
WJH His address shows where his mind was. He can go over the ways of God, he has the seal in his forehead and is morally unaffected by the raging winds of hatred and murder.
ALeS He was the victor there.
WJH The winds did not destroy that tree, every leaf of it was as green as ever even in the furnace of man’s hatred.
CPP The Lord Himself could speak of His ear being opened morning by morning. That would be the avenue to the mind. Is that not a good start for the day?
WJH The thing that tests is morning by morning. We may be preserved for one or two mornings, but it is a matter of morning by morning: the ear opened to receive God’s word, the mind controlled by God day by day.
RA Is the essence of all we have referred to seen in Philippians 2, “Let this mind be in you” and we are told He took a bondman’s form?
WJH In perfection.
CPP It is a solemn thing if the Lord should have to speak to any one of us as He did to Peter, “Thy mind is not on the things that are of God” (Mark 8: 33).
WJH Up to that moment Peter’s forehead was not sealed, but it appears in his epistle for he refers much to the mind. “Having girded up the loins of your mind” (1 Peter 1: 13). “Pure mental milk of the word” (1 Peter 2: 2). “Arm yourselves with the same mind” (1 Peter 4: 1). “Putting in remembrance your pure mind” (2 Peter 3: 1).
GMcK In that way there is hope for every one of us?
WJH There is, but it is urgent, for the winds may soon blow as we have never seen them blow.
WHG Do the winds in that sense imply the evil spiritual influences that we find operating behind international movements today and that in the time of which we have been reading will be allowed of God in the way of judgment?
WJH Quite so. The four angels represent God’s providential control of these evil influences pending the sealing of His bondmen.
WHG If such influences are allowed to affect our minds they are disastrous to what is of God.
WJH When evil influences do blow in their fulness under the beast and the antichrist, they affect the forehead; the influence of the false prophet results in a mark being put on the forehead or on the hand; he wants the mind to serve the beast and his kingdom. Those of Israel who are not sealed as God’s bondmen will accept this mark.
WP The Apostle could say to the Corinthians, “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2: 16).
WJH A wonderful statement! They could think as Christ thinks, that is what it means.
GH A mark would be different from a seal.
WJH No doubt it is, but it seems to me it is the devil’s imitation of what God has already done. It is as near as he can get to it. The seal of the living God is the divine mark but the false prophet has the idea and causes the mark to be placed on the forehead. I believe unless we accept what the seal means we are in danger of the spirit of the mark, our minds thus contributing to the glory of this world.
CPP The training of the mind has a much greater place in the world’s system than it used to have.
WJH And is increasing.
GA The mind of man is the great instrument Satan is using.
WJH If the forehead is not suitable for the mark, the hand is marked, but the mind is the most important, and the object is that it should be controlled by the name of the beast.
GMcK Would it be out of place to ask you what is suggested by the beast?
WJH He is the great climax to the working of pride in man, the seed of which was sown by the serpent, “Ye will be as God” (Genesis 3: 5). The goal is reached in the thirteenth chapter, the beast and his system is worshipped and the worshippers give their minds or their hands over to it.
GMcK The Apostle Paul in Ephesians speaks of the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. Is this the climax of that spirit?
WJH Quite so. The image of the beast is not a return to worshipping wood and stone but involves the worship of a man and the system of which that man is head.
WBP Do we not have a type of it in Nebuchadnezzar at the commencement of Gentile power?
WJH Yes. Nebuchadnezzar having been told by God the history of government in the hand of the Gentile sets up an image to be worshipped, but there were three men who had the seal of the living God in their foreheads. God had anticipated Nebuchadnezzar and had secured their minds for Himself, so that they did not worship his image.
WBP Is what we are considering the end of power in the hands of the Gentiles?
WJH Yes. The issue will be the worship of man. Nebuchadnezzar did not erect an image of gold, silver, brass, iron and iron and clay. He refused to accept the deterioration of power in Gentile hands. He made his image all of gold and commanded all to worship. The beast, too, claims divine honours.
GA Do you think Nebuchadnezzar learnt the lesson of his dream in the fourth chapter after seven times had passed over him and his glory returned?
WJH Yes. God then had His right place, “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven” (Daniel 4: 37).
JNG Would you say a word in that connection as to the company having “the name of His Father written upon their foreheads”?
WJH That is where the seventh chapter leads spiritually; having accepted the seal of the living God in the forehead they refuse the mark of the beast in their forehead. They are then found on Mount Zion with the Lamb and they have His name and His Father’s name on their foreheads. Though not actually the same persons this is the moral sequence. If our minds are surrendered to God it will result in the name of the Lamb instead of the name of the beast being there, and also His Father’s name, the Source from whence has come all that came out in the Lamb.
GMcK Why does he say “The Lamb” not “The Lord” or “Christ”?
WJH Because the Lamb stands over against the beast, there are these two names, the beast who is like a leopard, and its feet like a bear and its mouth as a lion’s mouth and there is the “Lamb” — Jesus! How impossible to have part in the name of both!
GMcK I was wondering why the Lord was presented as the Lamb?
WJH The Lord as presented thus is endeared to our hearts for it is really the little lamb in Revelation, a diminutive thought — suggesting the suffering One, the lowly One, the dependent One. How different from one who combines the features of a lion, a bear and a leopard. Those whose minds are sealed get the name of the Lamb on their foreheads, the renown of that lowly Sufferer written on their foreheads and the renown of His Father.
GH Will not the regime of the beast cause great suffering at that time?
WJH Can you conceive anything more dreadful than the description given? “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority” (Revelation 13: 2).
Ques Do you think God ever intended man to reach the number “six”?
WJH That is man’s number, seven is the divine number.
Ques Would not five be more in line with God’s thoughts, weakness, dependence?
WJH The general thought of “six” is that it is man’s total.
WHG The name of the Lamb written on their foreheads would indicate that features of the Lamb have been maintained in suffering. They have gone through in victory in face of all that the beast represents.
WJH Surely. These are not in heaven literally, they are still on earth, but in their affections and minds they are on Mount Zion with the Lamb and following Him wherever He goes.
At the close of the thirteenth chapter it says, “Here is wisdom. He that has understanding let him count the number of the beast” (Revelation 13: 18).
I have no doubt those one hundred and forty-four thousand had wisdom and they counted — it is a remarkable word — they used their minds arithmetically putting down every claim the beast made, the false prophet asserting them with such deceptive signs, and came to the conclusion that he was only a man, not God.
Rem Paul counted on that line as to suffering and glory.
WJH Quite so. He counted correctly. (See Philippians 3: 7-9)
RA The twelfth John gives the holy counting of a soul devoted to Christ. Mary counted and reached the conclusion that death could not hold Him.
WJH Quite so. And there, too, we have another counting. Judas counts what the ointment was worth and was all wrong. He really was in accord with the son of perdition, indeed he too is named as such.
WHG Daniel’s three friends have been referred to; they counted too; they said, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us... be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image” (Daniel 3: 17, 18).
WJH They had counted rightly. Nebuchadnezzar had his music that affected all that heard except those three. In Revelation 14 you have persons who have refused the mark of the beast and they have the name of the Lamb and His Father on their foreheads, and they are learning the music of heaven and worshipping God at the time when idolatrous worship is being given to the beast.
TRY Does the mark of the beast involve what is final?
WJH It does. The smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever involving final judgment.
WHG Would you say a little as to the “Father’s name”?
WJH As far as I know it is the only scripture that speaks of the Father of the Lamb. Scripture speaks of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and also our Father but these have the name of the Lamb and His Father, the One who is the Source of everything that came out in the Lamb. Think of the name of such an One! How different from the dragon. The Lamb is over against the beast, and His Father is over against the dragon, the source of all that came out in the beast. Things in the world now are being prepared for the manifestation of the beast and the false prophet with the dragon as the source. What is suggested in Nebuchadnezzar’s music will bring all to the worship of the beast. In contrast, those who have the name of the Lamb and His Father on their foreheads learn the song of heaven and under its holy influence worship God.
JNG Has the Supper a bearing on this? Does the Lord every first day of the week work through our affections to help us to abstract our minds?
WJH The mind has a remarkable place in the Supper for remembrance is a matter of the mind. Joseph said, “Think on me when it shall be well with thee” (Genesis 40: 14), and we come together really to think on the Lord for that is the bearing of remembrance that He has a place in our minds. “Think on me.” That would show that Joseph wanted the mind of the butler to be engaged with himself.
RA Malachi closes like that — referring to those who thought upon His name.
WJH Very good. God remembered them, a book of remembrance was written before Him for those that thought on His name.
GD Does all this terrible result to which the world is moving flow from choosing Barabbas instead of Jesus?
WJH Barabbas means “son of a father,” and the Lord is the Son of the Father, and the world has chosen the son of the devil, while believers accept the Son of the Father. The worship of the beast and receiving his mark and the number of his name terminate in the lake of fire. The receiving of the name of the Lamb and His Father on the forehead secures that we learn the music of heaven and have part in the worship of God.
GMcK You said that the Lamb involves the thought of the One that suffered, did you not Clearly that is how the Lamb is introduced in the fifth chapter — as slain, showing His suffering is in mind but then there is His attractiveness and accessibility. What a contrast, is presented in the mouth of a lion or the feet of a bear or being like a leopard!
RA In Revelation 21 the bride is spoken of as the Lamb’s wife.
WJH Quite so. She is in keeping with His features as the Lamb.
WBP The thirteenth chapter verse 11 speaks of a beast having two horns like a lamb and speaking as a dragon. What is the meaning of the two horns?
WJH The first beast takes God’s place, but the false prophet takes Christ’s place and outwardly appears like a lamb, but when you listen to what he says you can trace the dragon in speech. Modern apostasy often has these two features — external evidence of meekness, patience, etc., but the teaching is of the devil.
GH This company in chapter 14 is the nearest to heaven in that day, is it not? And thus affords lessons to us now.
WJH I thought so. They are so near to heaven that they can learn heaven’s song. That is where the saints are to be now. We are not in heaven yet but the Lord would have us to be so near to heaven as to hear and to learn heaven’s song, but how can you learn it if your mind is not under control?
WBP We sing sometimes, “On earth the song begins.”
WJH Well, it is a great thing to be ready to learn. No one can learn, it says, except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who were bought from the earth but their foreheads having the name of the Lamb and His Father on them they are available to learn. Again the thought of ownership comes in, they are bought from the earth.
GMcK Paul says, “Ye are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6: 19).
WJH The more the things above engage our minds, the more we will be free from the unholy influences that emanate from the pit, that darken even the sun.
JNG It says of these that they “follow the Lamb wheresoever it goes.” There is much to occupy our minds in regard to Christ’s movements in the assembly today.
WJH As was remarked His name is called the Word of God. He expresses the mind of God — sufficient surely to engage our minds.
GA The culminating thought is seen in that, they are like the blessed Person they have followed, and are formed by Him.
WJA Quite so. Like the Lamb there is no guile in their mouth.
Two other references are found in this book to the forehead. On the forehead of the false woman is a name “Mystery, Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.” That manifests what has engaged her mind. In the twenty-second Revelation it is said of those who form the Holy City, “His name is in their foreheads.” Religiously everything is gravitating either towards Babylon with its dreadful name or towards the Holy City where all see His face and have His name in their foreheads.