Life today is like a warehouse, assembled from pre-fab sections, ready to receive goods. It is fast, compressed, condensed—slam-bang, it’s done.
It is not so in God’s wilderness schooling. When it comes to walking with God, there is no such thing as instant maturity. God does not mass produce saints; He hand-tools each one, and it always takes longer than we expected.
God takes this careful measure because for anyone to lead effectively such a person must accept being questioned, attacked, accused, hated and betrayed. It is painful, but it enables the person to stand alone. How is it possible to endure such, one may ask. God accomplishes it through the furnace of affliction (Isa. 48:10; John 12:24-25; Heb. 1:9-10; Heb. 5:8). If you learn your lessons well, you will no longer need anyone to pat you on the back. You will go straight on doing what God had called you to do even in the face of both opposition and intimidation.
No matter what role one is called upon to fill, such a role is not unimportant when it come to standing alone for truth. This is because standing for the truth is standing before God. It makes one a unique spokesperson in one’s day and age at this moment and time.
As God works in us, every shred of self-sufficient arrogance, every hint of independent spirit, and all thought of rebellion is scraped away. Any indifference toward authority is replaced by a firm commitment to do only as told regardless. Survival is learned in the crucible of intense, extreme training that characterizes Divine dealings with a chosen vessel.
Mark it down. Things do not “just happen.” Ours is not a random, whistle-in-the-dark universe. There is a God-arranged plan for this world of ours which includes a specific plan for you. Through every ordinary day and every extraordinary moment there is a God who constantly seeks you. The God who loves us and redeemed us uses these moments to advance His purposes. He is there, and He is not silent. He doesn’t speak vocally from heaven, shouting down His word at you. He uses His Book, the Bible, His people, and He uses events in your life. So be patient with yourself, for God has not finished with you yet.
Showing posts with label wilderness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wilderness. Show all posts
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Christ in the Fullness of His People
Christ is fully God and fully man. He is God man, and His blood washed saints are simply an expression of Himself in the fullness of His people. Therefore, the authority and power they exercise are simply delegated. Such privileges are available to the Body as they fully submit their own wills to His will and are constrained by the leading of His Spirit. “…He is the head of the body, the Church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18).
The Son of Man is the glorious and wonderful fulfillment of Jacob’s ladder. No wonder Jacob called the place “ Bethel ’, for this is the House of God of which we speak, even the Body of Christ. The Head is in heaven, but the Body is upon earth, and according to the Scriptures the Head hath sent forth the celestial hosts as ministering spirits, ministering upon the Son of Man, this “ new man,” that Paul speaks about, “created in Himself of twain” (Ephesians 2:15-18). It is Christ in the fullness of His people. The heavens are now open to His people, the Body, even as it was to Him, the Head, there at the River Jordan that eventful day.
If we ask the question as to when and how we come into this glorious place, the answer is certainly by faith. We claim it in His Name. In actual experience any honest hearted child of God will admit that the heavens have not yet been opened to him, and that he does not dwell in that place beyond the veil where Jesus, our forerunner “is for us entered” (Hebrews 6:20).
Now we have a priesthood ministry on this earth. Revelation 1:5-6 says: “…Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father.” Also the Lamb, “hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). Honestly, we are not yet beyond the veil, in the heavenlies. We have not yet entered unto our priestly ministry in full, nor do we reign as kings, but as Jesus came to the river Jordan and set the Pattern, just as surely shall the true Body of Christ follow the Pattern. Hebrews 6:20 says that He is our forerunner, indicating that we are to follow Him into the Holiest.
By faith we enter into that place now, but in actual experience this is still ahead of us. How far ahead I cannot say, but I feel that it is very near. Already the Body of Christ is nearing maturity; dispensationally the water of Jordan is the figurative waters of death. There must be a dying out, a complete death to self and old ways, so that we might be brought into our inheritance. Those who have ears are hearing the call to repent of our religious hypocrisy and forsake that which is dead and turn unto life, to the way of the living God. Submit to the Word, and to the ministry in the earth. This is what will bring the Body out of Jordan unto a glorious freedom and victory that is yet to be experienced.
All these experiences must come by an act of the grace of God. You cannot think, believe, work or even pray your way in. However, one can pray, believe and be ready for Him when He comes to His people. When He comes in visitation, we must follow Him into the wilderness, where He can prune our branches so as to make us bring forth fruit in our lives. It is the fruit-bearers who shall come into this glorious place in God, in the Body of Christ.
The Son of Man is the glorious and wonderful fulfillment of Jacob’s ladder. No wonder Jacob called the place “ Bethel ’, for this is the House of God of which we speak, even the Body of Christ. The Head is in heaven, but the Body is upon earth, and according to the Scriptures the Head hath sent forth the celestial hosts as ministering spirits, ministering upon the Son of Man, this “ new man,” that Paul speaks about, “created in Himself of twain” (Ephesians 2:15-18). It is Christ in the fullness of His people. The heavens are now open to His people, the Body, even as it was to Him, the Head, there at the River Jordan that eventful day.
If we ask the question as to when and how we come into this glorious place, the answer is certainly by faith. We claim it in His Name. In actual experience any honest hearted child of God will admit that the heavens have not yet been opened to him, and that he does not dwell in that place beyond the veil where Jesus, our forerunner “is for us entered” (Hebrews 6:20).
Now we have a priesthood ministry on this earth. Revelation 1:5-6 says: “…Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father.” Also the Lamb, “hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). Honestly, we are not yet beyond the veil, in the heavenlies. We have not yet entered unto our priestly ministry in full, nor do we reign as kings, but as Jesus came to the river Jordan and set the Pattern, just as surely shall the true Body of Christ follow the Pattern. Hebrews 6:20 says that He is our forerunner, indicating that we are to follow Him into the Holiest.
By faith we enter into that place now, but in actual experience this is still ahead of us. How far ahead I cannot say, but I feel that it is very near. Already the Body of Christ is nearing maturity; dispensationally the water of Jordan is the figurative waters of death. There must be a dying out, a complete death to self and old ways, so that we might be brought into our inheritance. Those who have ears are hearing the call to repent of our religious hypocrisy and forsake that which is dead and turn unto life, to the way of the living God. Submit to the Word, and to the ministry in the earth. This is what will bring the Body out of Jordan unto a glorious freedom and victory that is yet to be experienced.
All these experiences must come by an act of the grace of God. You cannot think, believe, work or even pray your way in. However, one can pray, believe and be ready for Him when He comes to His people. When He comes in visitation, we must follow Him into the wilderness, where He can prune our branches so as to make us bring forth fruit in our lives. It is the fruit-bearers who shall come into this glorious place in God, in the Body of Christ.
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