" I am aware where you are dwelling, where the throne of Satan is, and you are holding my name, and do not disown my faith, even in the days in which Antipas, my faithful witness (martyr), was killed among you, where Satan is dwelling." Revelation 2:13 concordant
This is spoken by the Lord to members of His church at Pergamos who were “dwelling” where Satan is enthroned. The word Antipas is found in scripture only once, and is characterized as meaning “my faithful martyr.” It is easy to think that the physical martyrs who laid down their human lives are certainly greater in the kingdom and more qualified to reign with Christ than any of us others could ever be.
Yet that misses the possibility of spiritual martyrdom as being just as important to one who is faithful in life, as much as in death. They may never be killed but still be a martyr for bearing witness to a standard of understanding given by His spirit about the words of scripture:
“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4
Being spiritually beheaded for not worshipping like the multitude of Christians that are dwelling under false images is also being a martyr if done as a witness for truth. All Christian people are not filled with the mind of Christ. Many are in religious prison houses not fully free from the natural minded, carnal reasonings of past and present religious leaders who are not yet "beheaded for the witness of Jesus."
Many a believer worships God with an understanding that still bears the marks of human reasonings. Only the baptism of Holy Spirit can rule over our own earthly thinking to a great enough degree to become more than babes in Christ, who err by failing to grow up into the Head in understanding the spirit of God’s wisdom and knowledge.
Unfortunately, the Greek word rendered “beheaded” in Revelation 20:4 in the King James Bible, is easily misunderstood. This word appears nowhere else in scripture, it is only in this one passage. Beheaded generally is interpreted to mean to smite, pound, or chop off the head. Are all other martyrs to be excluded from reigning with Christ Jesus just because they were not literally beheaded? Only a few have been so decapitated.
Are these few the only ones that are to be granted the authority to be changed by Christ? In fact it should stand out clearly that this scripture cannot allude only to those who died literally as physical martyrs. The scriptures are also clear that those overcoming certain conditions in the candlestick churches will also reign with Christ, and sit with Him, upon His enthronement.
Furthermore, there were multitudes of believers who were violently tortured and abused in the early days of the church, as well as throughout church history. In the first three centuries alone, at least three million martyrs willingly gave their lives for Christ. They were sewn into sacks with vipers. They were plunged into boiling oil. They were covered with pitch and placed on sticks and set on fire to illuminate the gardens of the Roman emperor's debaucheries. They were given to lions and devoured. They were crucified upside down. They were placed on red hot beds of iron.
All true witnesses to what has really happened in the history of the church are to be ones who will ever reign with redeeming judgment coming directly to them from the throne of Christ Jesus. The King James Bible uses the word “beheaded” for those who have their heads cut off. In some of the newer translations is variance, one even says they are "executed for their testimony."
In our Lord’s messages to the seven churches, He says that the overcomers of these great seven candlestick churches are granted many things: to eat from the tree of life, not be injured by any further deaths, have access to hidden manna, given white stones, have new names, exercise power over the nations, get the morning star, be clothed in white, be a pillar in the throne realm, and to be seated with Jesus on His throne.
These overcomers did not all experience a literal and physical beheading, but all of these were beheaded spiritually and lost their own natural minded way of thinking by finding the mind of Christ, to know the testimony of Jesus and the word of God. That is what this scripture about beheading explains. Only one of the original twelve apostles is believed to have been beheaded. The others, with the exception of John, all died violent deaths of martyrdom, but were not beheaded.
All of us today do not need to put our heads on a literal chopping block to be beheaded in order to rule and reign with the mind of Christ. The very suggestion is absurd. The meaning of these scriptures in the book of Revelation are hidden in symbols using the SIGN LANGUAGE OF THE SPIRIT. His Spirit shows us how to understand that sign language to understand the real message and meanings God intended us to understand.
Like everything else in the book of Revelation, the beheading is a symbol of something spiritually real. Antipas is a symbol. His martyrdom is a symbol, a hidden message of great importance. In the book of Revelation a martyr is not necessarily a physical martyr any more than a beast is a literal beast, a dragon is a literal dragon, a horn is a literal horn, or the Lamb is a four-footed barnyard animal. Those words create a sense of mystery, but the proper interpretation can only come from one taught of the Spirit who comprehends the great truths that work like keys to open our understanding to those things above.
Some are being spiritually beheaded now as a divine work of accelerated transformation into the renewing of our mind by Christ Jesus. In this way, the mature find the very keys to the treasure house of God to fully inherit the promises given to the candlestick church overcomer. They should be our rightful inheritance.
The mind of Christ is given to all those who dare LIVE as martyrs by living dominated by the spirit of Christ, proving daily what the will of God is for us. We are exercising His victory over every darkness yet working in our own earthly comprehensions, especially including the soul’s religious activities (works) that have formed the candlestick churches.
A martyr’s death was very often but a release from the persecution, a fast and easy way out of pain. Martyrdom in the sense of spiritual understanding does not necessarily mean an untimely physical death. Martyrdom is THE WAY INTO LIGHT and a turning from our own soulish thoughts to glory by refusing place for our own religious mind and its reasoning. It is leaving the Adamic consciousness with its death, right now, for the mind of Christ as we find His peaceful way of thinking.
This quickens our spirit to see the crucified life set before us in Christ. It hastens the spiritual growth process within us to grow up into the Head. This “third day beheading” removes from us all that is not HEADED UP — motivated by God. It’s so wonderful to be made fit for the New Jerusalem now, to be placed in His kingdom, and sense being surrounded with His great clouds of His overcoming witnesses.
The New Testament word “witness” is from the Greek "martus" which is translated “martyr” in Revelation 2:13 and 17:6. When we think of witnesses, we do not think of people who are being killed. But neither should we think of them as someone who goes door to door passing out tracts or one who makes it a point to speak about the Lord to everyone he meets. Such are often guided more by religious zeal than by the leading and wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
A witness is one who is aware of what God, our Father, is doing and bears a testimony about it. And I dare say it requires an enablement of the Holy Spirit to lay down our soul life to be a true witness of THE MESSAGE. IT IS BECAUSE OF THE MESSAGES THAT COME FROM GOD, THAT OUR SOUL LIFE IS BEING SWALLOWED UP. The everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ brings a deliverance into our being to make us free to know the truth, regardless of whether we are living alone or daily speaking to an audience.
To witness Christ and learn of God's truth is to be BEHEADED in the fullest and truest meaning. There are MANY ways to be martyrs for His revealed truth. This beheading process is the filling up of the sufferings in the body of Christ, just like Paul, in those who are destined to be made kings and priests of kingdom stature. A full grown stature can easily identify now the mind of Christ working to clearly guide and rule over our human reasonings to the fullest degree:
"Now, being true, in love we should be making all grow into Him, Who is the Head—Christ—out of Whom the entire body, being articulated together and united through every assimilation of the supply, in accord with the operation in measure of each one’s part, is making for the growth of the body, for the upbuilding of itself in love. This, then, I am saying and attesting in the Lord: By no means are you still to be walking according as those of the nations also are walking, in the vanity of their mind, their comprehension being ‘darkened’, being estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them," Ephesians 4:15-18 concordant
The ignorance in man is the natural mindedness that is ignorant of God. It is full of man's soulish comprehension, the seat of the vain and selfish soul. The soul is conscious of his or her needs, his or her desires, his or her perceptions, his or her wants, his or her demands. This mind of man is centered on and most concerned about what he or she wants and desires.
If we are now progressing in God by growing up into the Head, the ignorance and vain ways of thinking must be chopped off, or beheaded, and a new thought process take its place right now within us. Then a new way of seeing things may transform our inner being to recognize Him and recognize our spiritual state is being made one with Him.
Merely believing about Jesus being a baby in a manager does not produce this. Just claiming it by faith as having the finished work does not really bring an end to the earthly mind's influence, of its ruling within us in so many ways. How very different things would be if the standard of truth Paul ministered in the early church were accomplished in the Christian churches of today:
"And you are complete in Him, Who is the Head of every sovereignty and authority, in Whom you were circumcised also with a circumcision not made by hands, in the stripping off of the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ, entombed together with Him in baptism, in Whom you are roused together also through faith in the operation of God," Colossians 2:12 concordant
“Deaden, then, (put to death) your members that are on the earth; prostitution, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry, because of which the indignation of God is coming on the sons of stubbornness among whom you also once walked, when you lived in these things.” Colossians 3:5-7 concordant
Spiritual growth still requires a complete and absolute surrender in TURNING FROM the outer man and BEING CLOTHED with the mind of Christ. This most important beheading requires a kind of martyrdom in losing the thoughts that motivate the self. Try it and see that God Himself is the source of a new perception within our thinking. To be complete in Him means we are completely beheaded in our comprehension for the testimony of Jesus, the word of God, and the understanding taught of His spirit.
This is a process of spiritual growth into the Head that gives us wisdom and understanding in the ways of Christ that always testifies of what God is. It grows to be an understanding of spirit coming directly from His enthronement within our spirit, where He dwells. It washes, purifies, hallows, and justifies us as receptors of the river of God’s living word. Fullness of the Godhead has been firmly established within the spirit of sonship. This Godly operation causes LIFE to spring forth deep within each one of us who are made alive to what God gives those who personally follow Jesus Christ.
Through daily spiritual operations, we are being delivered from our carnal religious mind — delivered from being dominated by our vain self motivations by being exposed to the hidden secrets deep within our heart. We too can lose our headship to be beheaded or delivered from the limited mindsets of man. WE are delivered into now receiving the mind of Christ! It is coming swiftly as it is working through our consciousness to bring a renewal of mind. We become one capable of being SPIRITUALLY MINDED, understanding the testimony of Jesus as His spirit teaches it, to know the word of God, and be capable of receiving the Godhead.
We willingly abandon the standards of judgment based on our own opinions and those religious perceptions of doctrinal interpretations that have influenced, motivated, or controlled the brethren. These too, indeed, mark our mind with a false standard of righteousness. Being beheaded for witnessing Jesus is to bear the marks of truth and no longer care for man’s pomp and pride or their phony standards of good works. Our comprehension has been washed!
Growth into resurrection demands a beheading — a decapitation! This is only found in the kingdom of God, in the third heaven, in the spirit of the Lord’s day. In the third day is found a feast, the Feast of Tabernacles. There, Christ indwells our spirit to instruct us by exposing our religious opinions, loosing us from our soul's dictates to restfully surrender in receiving the Headship of Christ. We also can now do the will of the Father, as Jesus did, so our words and works also be wrought out by our Father:
"I am aware where you are dwelling-where the throne of Satan is and you are holding My name, and do not disown My faith in the days in which Antipas, My faithful witness, was killed among you, where Satan is dwelling." Revelation 2:13-14 concordant
The word Antipas means "instead of the father". Antipas is found in the candlestick church people of Pergamos who are holding to the Lord's name and His faith, but are dwelling where Satan is enthroned. This results in a martyrdom done in that candlestick church that replaces the Father, it is INSTEAD OF THE FATHER. The spirit that is instead of the Father is a liar and the killer of truth, mixing Christian faith with every dusty reasoning that can be raised from the earthly minded leaders who form religions and put it forth as something instead of the Father.
ANYTHING that opposes the Father, that is Anti-pas. The witness that is INSTEAD OF THE FATHER needs beheading in all overcoming Christians. Beheading is a spiritual operation happening in the high places of Zion, where 144,000 capture every thought and bring it into obedience to Christ. There are at least 144,000 overcomers of the church dispensation conditions. These are the faithful and true witnesses of Jesus Christ— the only faithful and true martyr.
And so, today, many are found as faithful witnesses of the Father, speaking only the Father's word and doing only the Father's will. God has raised them from every dead thing, by healing their body, mind and spirit, so we are fully healed by His stripes. He teaches us so we are taught to COME IN PEACE. We hold our peace, gracefully rest, content to do absolutely nothing until our mind is renewed to spirit awareness of His accelerated operations working within to help us forget the things that are behind.
We are being beheaded in order to press forward into the promises for overcomers, into the things ahead, to being joined to the Lord as ONE Spirit. Daily we are surrendering our soul to His mind to fully testify to the absolute truth that God loves us. Thank God, as we follow on to know the Lord, He takes greater control of our soul's thinking and attitudes. God has promised to rule and reign over all the nations of the earth. Most certainly He should be able to first rule and reign in those with a WILLING HEART who are dedicated to His Son's testimony.
Our testimony and witness becomes that WE are no longer in control of our lives. Another One, Another Head, the Christ, is sent of God and has reached into our inner spiritual man to quicken and control our own soul according to God's purposes for the ages. It makes life wonderful every day! Our destiny is fixed in God, yet He is still allowing greater and greater measures of growth for the body of Christ.
God has a main means by which He brings forth real change in us — by operational workings of the cross of Christ upon our inner being. Jesus is our true example in all things. Thinking of Him being crucified to die on a wooden cross, He also experienced a resurrection from death. We are to bear OUR CROSS likewise, to find Christ's manner of being crucified now working within our inner being to keep us in the right spirit and attitudes.
Our spiritual body is being clothed now with light! Having the wedding garment, we are being raised to see and understand God's mind. The spiritual operation of crucifiction is revealing the mind of Christ to us, a very important factor for each of us in bearing our cross as Jesus did. Will we do likewise in some way only known by God in His plan to save us from death, hell, and the grave? We will only know if we follow Him to take up OUR CROSS. I know there is a way and place of His presence, to where He is enthroned, where we are directed to sit, abiding with Him where He places us.
Jesus died, making the way for us, but His finished work does not secure the high place upon His throne for us UNLESS we too take up our cross and are crucified with Christ. Like as He died, so we too can be operated on by Christ, circumcised of heart, and raised from every dead thing to live unto God. We can be a faithful witness, a martyr, to be beheaded, yet not by guillotines or sword but as CRUCIFIED OF HEART BY THE TRUTH the Spirit teaches our spirit.
Our developing relationship with our Father will point out EACH ONE’S INDIVIDUAL CROSS. It does not need be dramatic or public. He knows just what needs be written within each of us to be conformed to His predetermined righteousness and peace. Our Father is working to make us fit into His lasting order, a kingdom order, while going through our present daily circumstances. Oh, yes we have come to trust in this crucifying operation that raises us from time to time into greater dimensions of God’s Life.
The spiritual operation of the cross creates new arrays of possibilities and a clear pressing for higher prizes and callings of God in Christ Jesus. The inner work of crucifixion openly manifests God to our being on every level. The least of us to the greatest of us will eventually see Jesus, and those with Him, with new perspective, hidden no more. Thank God now some are openly being dealt with as His sons and daughters.
To teach that Jesus paid it all is to know that it does not matter how carnal or fleshly we live or that we are already beheaded because He was. It is stating that there is no further need of development into growth to a mature stature for the Lord's disciples, his close followers. But, New Testament scripture is full of admonition for each of us to reach for fuller stature, found as a full grown man in Christ.
Christianity today is full of babes, not full grown men in Christ. Meat of the word (spiritual understanding) belongs to those Christians who are growing. How delightful it is to be children who take no heed, and know of no need to DENY OURSELVES or to TAKE UP OUR INDIVIDUAL CROSS to follow Him. God, however, has some really painful operations that can circumcise our hearts quickly when needed.
Without his operations, we would just vainly breeze into the throne room to sit down and start expressing all our faulty opinions about it all, challenging others in strife and envy, cutting off ears by being zealous for the Lord! Yes, these are the very elements that are in believers who are an offense and something instead of the Father.
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Galatians 5:24
To what extent His has finished His operational work of crucifying us depends upon our allowing Him to apply deep renewal to our thinking and to our spiritual comprehension. We have grown to see and understand that God has a process of crossing out each of our soul’s life. Our cross is simply finding and taking up, holding on to, living by the operating thoughts brought effectually into our spirit by His Spirit. Cooperating with that Godly operation crosses out the old nature within us. Yes, it is possible to be changed, to be committed to our Father, to finish our race, to be found in the finished work.
" Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," I Corinthians 15:51
We shall all be changed by God. Yes, because of His firstborn Son's finished work on the cross, we will all die out to our own selfish soul. It will take ages for some souls in the unseen that have abused and wickedly harmed others to pay the last farthing, but they too will be crucified by this operation of God's Spirit. It will save them too. As the pressures and persecutions come to us now, we take it as the Father's testing and trying us through purifying fiery circumstances that burn up our dross.
Now we see Christ working by the spirit, writing something new of Himself into us who are going through our fiery second death now. Thank God! Our Father has instructed us to purge out the old, making a decrease of selfishness as we surrender more and more to this loving operation of the cross. Godliness increases within us to make us more like the finished work of Jesus.
Are we committed to growth beyond pentecostal gifts? Of taking up the spiritual operation of denying our self daily, to turn from every lie, every false testimony that is INSTEAD OF THE FATHER? Those of us who are now being beheaded for the testimony of Jesus are knowing some things about God the Father. His Spirit is revealing everything that is Antipas to us —instead of the Father. Some may deny that this is a legitimate Christian process, but you will not ever meet a man in whom divine perfection has not been a process of growth! WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED!