Message One The Wind, the Cloud, the Fire, and the Electrum and the Coordination of the Four Living Creatures for God’s Expression, Move, and Administration

Ezek. 1:4 And I looked, and there came a storm wind from the north, a great cloud and a fire flashing incessantly; and there was a brightness around it, and from the midst of it there was something like the sight of electrum, from the midst of the fire. 5 And from the midst of it there came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: They had the likeness of a man. 6 And every one had four faces, and every one of them had four wings. 7 And their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like the sight of burnished bronze. 8 And the hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides. And the four of them had their faces and their wings thus: 9 Their wings were joined one to another; they did not turn as they went; each went straight forward. 10 As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man; and the four of them had the face of a lion on the right side, and the four of them had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four of them had the face of an eagle. 11 And thus their faces were. And their wings were spread out upward; two wings of each were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. 12 And each went straight forward; wherever the Spirit was to go, they went; they did not turn as they went. 13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches; the fire went to and fro among the living creatures, and the fire was bright; and out of the fire went forth lightning. 14 And the living creatures ran to and fro like the appearance of a lightning bolt. 15 And as I watched the living creatures, I saw a wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures, for each of their four faces. 16 The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship were like the sight of beryl. And the four of them had one likeness; that is, their appearance and their workmanship were as it were a wheel within a wheel. 26 And above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, like the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was One in appearance like a man, above it.

I. The spiritual history of every normal Christian should be a continual cycle involving the experience of God as the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum—Ezek. 1:4:

A. Whenever God visits us and revives us, His Spirit blows on us like a mighty wind to bring a spiritual storm into our life, into our work, and into our church, causing us to be dissatisfied and concerned about our spiritual condition and to have a turn in our spiritual life—v. 4.

B. The cloud is a figure of God as the Spirit abiding with His people and covering them in order to care for them and show favor to them. —v. 4; Exo.13:21 And Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them on the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might go by day and by night. 40:34 Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.

C. The fire signifies God’s burning and sanctifying power; the more the fire of the Holy Spirit burns in us, the more we are purified and enlightened—Ezek. 1:4; Deut. 4:24 For Jehovah your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Heb. 12:29 For our God is also a consuming fire.

D. The electrum, composed of the elements of gold and silver, signifies the Lamb-God, the redeeming God—Ezek. 1:4; Rev. 22:1 And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street.

1. The more we experience the wind, the cloud, and the fire, the more the electrum is constituted into our being, making us a people who are filled with the Triune God and who manifest His glory—Eph. 3:16 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, 17 That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 21 To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations forever and ever. Amen.

2. The issue of the spiritual transactions involving the blowing wind, the covering cloud, and the purifying fire is the glowing electrum—the radiant expression of the redeeming God.

II. The more we experience God as the blowing wind, the overshadowing cloud, the burning fire, and the glowing electrum, the more we are enlivened with the divine life to become the four living creatures—Ezek. 1:5a:

A. The four living creatures are reckoned not as individuals but as a group, one entity.

B. That the four living creatures bear the likeness of a man and that God on the throne also bears the appearance of a man indicates that God’s central thought and His arrangement are related to man—vv. 5b, 26; Gen. 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. Psa. 8:4 What is mortal man, that You remember him, And the son of man, that You visit him? 5 You have made him a little lower than angels And have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 For You have caused him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet: 7 All sheep and oxen, As well as the beasts of the field, 8 The birds of heaven and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

1. According to the vision unveiled in Ezekiel 1, man is the means for God to manifest His glory, for God to move on the earth, and for God to administrate on the throne.

2. God uses the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum to enliven us in order to gain man as the means for His manifestation, move, and administration.

III. Ezekiel 1:11b-14 conveys a clear picture of the coordination of the living creatures—a portrait of the proper church life with the coordination of the members of the Body of Christ:

A. The joining of the two wings (eagle’s wings) of the living creatures is for their corporate moving in coordination—v. 11b:

1. The wings of an eagle signify the grace, strength, and power of God applied to us—Exo. 19:4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. Isa. 40:31 Yet those who wait on Jehovah will renew their strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles; They will run and will not faint; They will walk and will not become weary. 2 Cor. 1:12 For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in singleness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you. 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us. 12:9 And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me.

2. The eagle’s wings are the means by which the living creatures are coordinated and move as one; their coordination is not in themselves but in God and by the divine grace, strength, and power—cf. Exo. 26:26 And you shall make bars of acacia wood, five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle. 27 And five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle at the rear westward. 28 And the middle bar shall pass through in the center of the boards from end to end. 29 And you shall overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold as holders for the bars; and you shall overlay the bars with gold.

B. The move of the living creatures is not individual but corporate, the move of one entity in coordination; this is a beautiful picture of the coordination in the church as the Body of Christ, in which each member has his particular position and function, or ministry—Ezek. 1:12; Rom. 12:4 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, 5 So we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 And having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;  7 Or service, let us be faithful in that service; or he who teaches, in that teaching;  8 Or he who exhorts, in that exhortation; he who gives, in simplicity; he who leads, in diligence; he who shows mercy, in cheerfulness. 1 Cor. 12: 14 For the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, it is not that because of this it is not of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, it is not that because of this it is not of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were the hearing, where would the smelling be? 18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, even as He willed. 19 And if all were one member, where would the body be? 20 But now the members are many, but the body one. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 22 But much rather the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we consider to be less honorable, these we clothe with more abundant honor; and our uncomely members come to have more abundant comeliness,  24 But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked, 25 That there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same care for one another. 26 And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the Body of Christ, and members individually. 28 And God has placed some in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then works of power, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all have works of power? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret tongues? Eph. 4: 7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8 Therefore the Scripture says, "Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men.'' 9 (Now this, "He ascended,'' what is it except that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended, He is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things.) 11 And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, 12 For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ, 13 Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 That we may be no longer little children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the sleight of men, in craftiness with a view to a system of error, 15 But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, 16 Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.

C. The issue of the coordination of the living creatures is that they become burning coals, with the holy God as a consuming fire burning among them and within them; that both the Lord on the throne and the living creatures have the appearance of fire indicates that the living creatures are the expression of the Lord— Ezek. 1:13, 26; Heb. 12:29 For our God is also a consuming fire.

D. The living creatures, having a proper coordination, will not walk but run, because they have the power and the impact—Ezek. 1:14.

E. The coordination of the believers as members of the Body of Christ results in the corporate expression of Christ, in the move of God on the earth, and in the administration of God on the throne, thus affording God a way to manifest His glory and accomplish His eternal purpose and plan—vv. 4-12, 26.

IV. In the book of Ezekiel God’s economy and God’s move in His economy are signified by a great wheel—v. 15; Eph. 1:10 Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him; 3:9 And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, 1 Tim. 1:4 Nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God's economy, which is in faith.

A. The hub of this great wheel signifies Christ as the center of God’s economy; the rim signifies Christ’s counterpart, the church, which consummates in the New Jerusalem; and the spokes of the wheel spreading from the hub to the rim signify the many believers as the members of Christ—Col. 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation, 16 Because in Him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and unto Him. 17 And He is before all things, and all things cohere in Him; 18 And He is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things; Eph. 5:30 Because we are members of His Body.

B. The appearing of the wheels on the earth beside the living creatures indicates that God’s move on earth follows the coordination of the four living creatures—Ezek. 1:15.

C. The wheels being for the four faces of the living creatures indicates that if we would have the Lord’s move, we must first live out the Lord, expressing Him—v. 15; Phil. 1:20 According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. 21a For to me, to live is Christ

D. All four wheels have the same appearance; this indicates that the move of the Lord has the same appearance in every church—1 Cor. 4:17 Because of this I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every church. 7:17 However as the Lord has apportioned to each one, as God has called each one, so let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches. 11:16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we do not have such a custom of being so, neither the churches of God.

E. A wheel within a wheel indicates that in the move of the living creatures there is the move of the Lord; the inner wheel, the Lord as the hub, is the source of the power for the moving of the outer wheel, the church as the rim—Ezek. 1:16.