CALLED FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS
HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP!
Tomorrow the census is due in the nation of Canada. The government requires the Canadian people to fill one in so that they have a record of things pertaining to the people. In scripture we read about Joseph and Mary also having to go to another town to fill out their census. In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. Luke 2:2 Everyone went to his own town to register. (Luke 2:3) Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem because of their lineage and it was a distance away. Today one does not need to leave their town and I only need to walk a few blocks away or fill it out online. Life is simpler or so I realized after reading this today.
Mary was carrying the son of God in her womb on this difficult journey. As I go to deliver my census today I too am carrying someone holy within me. That same anointed one, JESUS that was in Mary's womb is in my heart today. His spirit lives within me. Today hopefully I too will share my new birth with someone in the world and be used to touch their heart by faith.
We are in this world but not of it. Our true citizenship is in heaven and we are seated in heavenly places in Christ. All looks different when we see life from this vantage point and life becomes so much clearer. We are ambassadors representing the Kingdom of God and are His workmanship, here only temporarily until God calls us to our true home where we will rule and reign with Him forever.
Man's census asks if you have garden vegetables for sale and this is on the short version of it. Some people receive the longer one. God's would be looking to see if you are bearing fruit that will remain. Today let us remember our true citizenship. We are blood bought children of God and joint heirs of salvation. Citizens of this world temporarily but of heaven for eternity.
It is time to walk in your God given authority and carry out the Kingdom assignments as the Lord gives them to you. Fulfill your kingdom assignments with joy and let Him carry your burdens today. His yolk is easy and His burden is light.
Rejoice that your name is written in the Lamb's book of life.
For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Phil. 3:20
Monday, May 9, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
The Lamb in the Midst of the Throne by T. Austin-Sparks
The Lamb in the Midst of the Throne
by T. Austin-Sparks
Chapter 7 - The Subjective Work of the Cross
Reading: Revelation 5:1-14; 7:9-17.
The Negative Aspect
We are concerned with the matter of spiritual life, spiritual growth, spiritual progress. We are deeply distressed because of the smallness, the limitation, the weakness of so many children of God after so long a time. We are troubled because converts do not move on and believers do not grow, and so few come to the place where they are able to take responsibility and you have no need to be keeping a "weather eye" on them all the time. Why do we have to write off so much of our life, as being very full and yet so empty? The Lord has shown us why and the solution to the problem is found in the Cross.
If spiritual growth is arrested or retarded, you can usually trace in the case concerned some strength of natural life. It does not always appear as strength, mark you. Its appearance is sometimes as of weakness. It is not always the aggressive one who is marked by strength. Sometimes our strength is in our passivity, in our unwillingness to take risks. We call that, of course, being very humble, being meek, docile. Oh, but sometimes that is the thing the Lord has to hammer at. That is the passive side. On the other side, there is the more active and aggressive kind. But usually you can find somewhere a strength of some sort which is the strength of nature, which is not yielding or letting go to the Lord. The Lord has to deal with us according to what we are. In those people who are all too ready to be aggressive and take responsibility and do things, the Lord has to deal with them along one line, in taking away all that in which their soul glories. On the other side, He has to challenge to do, challenge to accept responsibility. He deals with us according to how He finds us. But the key to the matter is whether we, in what we are by nature whatever that may be, will really yield to the Cross; for the Cross is many-sided, and as many-sided as there are temperaments amongst men.
The Cross is applied according to every man's make-up. What would be the Cross to me would never be the Cross to you, and the Cross may mean something different for every one of us. But it is universal. That is the point — central and universal. It touches us all perhaps in a different way, and it raises questions and issues for each one of us peculiarly. That is our challenge of the Cross, and then it is a matter whether we, in what we are, will come and allow the Cross to deal with us. It is no use our saying, "What shall this man do?" The Lord will at once answer, "What is that to thee? Follow thou Me". There is a personal, individual, shall I say, private application of the Cross to every one of us, and our spiritual growth depends entirely upon the Cross doing its work in us, and our response to it personally.
There are a good many other matters which we could not cover if we tried to. For instance, we do not know God's purpose for each life. God's purpose touches each one in a different way. There is that sovereign choice of God which has a place for each one of us, a peculiar work for each of us to do. While it is related, a part of the whole, nevertheless it is a facet of that great jewel, the City of God, and God has to have us dealt with and responsive to Him in a particular way, in which someone else has no place, and we, in the Cross, have particular dealings with the Lord because of something which is peculiar to us in the Divine purpose.
So, you see, it is very necessary that we should recognize that this cannot be taken as a kind of a general thing. It has to become peculiar to each one of us. Oh, beloved, do believe that this is not just teaching, or doctrine. It is of very great importance. But I would beg you not to accept it merely because I am saying it and emphasizing it, nor even because I tell you that so far as some of us are concerned, it is a proved thing. I would ask you for one thing only, namely, not to close your heart to it, not to say, That is a teaching! but just to ask the Lord, "Is this right?", taking an attitude simply and honestly before the Lord, even should you feel it is not true, and so leaving room for the possibility that the prejudice may, after all, spring from yourself, from something in your constitution or in your upbringing. Will you go to the Lord with this and say, "Lord I do not see, it is difficult for me to believe it; but, if it is true, then, Lord, I am open to the truth, and I want You to take me definitely in hand on the ground of the truth". There is not one of us, I am sure, who wants to stand in the presence of the Lord later on, and for the Lord to say, "My child, I would have led you into something very much fuller if only you had given Me the chance". Will you take a very honest and open-hearted attitude toward the Lord in the matter?
That is the negative side. Of course, the things included in that are legion. But it does mean this on all matters, that you and I have no prejudices, no pre-conceptions, that we have not reached a position on any point where we have come to finality. It means that we may yet have to change our entire position on some matters. Things about which we are most certainty convinced may have to go yet. We must recognize God's sovereign dealings with us. There are some of us who at one time in our lives believed with all our being that a certain thing was God's will, and God's directive will at that, and we have come at length by the deepest experience, and experience which has issued in the greatest values, to have to say, "That was only God's permissive will, and God never meant it as anything like His end." It was only a step towards something else, and the thing involved was to us tremendous. We would have staked our lives upon it. But we have had to change our entire attitude to that, and put it in a secondary place in the will of God, and see that God was dealing with us where He found us, and leading us step by step, and each step called for adjustment and a change. Oh, the purpose of God was the same all the way through, but His methods with us had to vary, and He has very graciously, in His sovereignty, used these imperfect stages and steps to teach us much. I think we should say today that our position now is so much the stronger because it represents such a change. Oh, beloved, we have to keep that Cross where it preserves an open way which makes it yet possible for new things to happen, without our so clinging to our position that God cannot do revolutionary things in us still. The Cross is fundamental to all that God wants to do, and when the Lord is going to do a new thing, the Cross is going to deal with some fresh obstruction. Well now, that is on the negative side.
The positive side of this arises when you see the object of the Cross in God's mind. Why the Cross, you ask. Well, negatively the Cross is to get this incapacitated man out of the way; for, while he is so injured and incapacitated, he is yet a very active and very energetic and very positive factor. If only he were so crippled that he could do nothing, it would be an easy matter. But it is not so. He is the most active, energetic cripple, bothering everything and everybody. But he has to be got out of the way for God's positive object.
(b) The Positive Aspect
What is God's positive side of the Cross? It is that the Cross shall make room for a man who is capable, who has all the capacities, capabilities and faculties for Divine things: and it is just at that point that the whole meaning and value of the Holy Spirit comes in. It is not possible for us to know the Holy Spirit until the Cross has become a reality. You never, in type or in antitype, reach the anointing until you have come to the slaying. Thus Paul says this strong word to the Galatians: Christ was made a curse for us. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3:13-14). Made a curse for us that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. That is borne out in the New Testament in every instance of receiving the Spirit.
The Cross and the Spirit
Take one instance, Acts 19:1-5. Paul, having passed through certain regions, came to Ephesus, and found there certain disciples and said unto them, "Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?" evidently perplexed because of an anomaly, because of something which was abnormal or sub-normal, something freakish. Here were people who were calling themselves Christians and disciples of the Lord Jesus, and he did not discern there the marks of their having received the Spirit. This, thought he, is strange, this is extraordinary, because if they are Christians in the real, genuine, true sense, they cannot be without the Holy Spirit, they must have received the Holy Spirit. But here is a little group of people gathering together as Christians, and yet the tokens of their having received the Spirit are not there: and perplexed, he said, "Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?" You know their reply, "We did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was given." Then in what Paul next says he goes right to the heart of things. "Into what then were ye baptized?" What has that to do with it? They might have answered: what is the relationship between receiving the Spirit and being baptized? If baptism is a testimony to our death and burial and resurrection in Christ, then that is the foundation of receiving the Spirit and Paul had put his finger upon the whole situation. In reply to his question, they had said they had been baptized into John's baptism. Ah! so that is it. Well, he explained to them the difference between John's baptism and being baptized into Christ and then they were baptized into the Name of the Lord Jesus, and when Paul had laid his hands upon them they received the Holy Spirit. The two things go together always — the Cross and the Spirit.
The Cross in its negative side is to get rid of that old cursed creation which can never receive the Spirit. Remember that! Anything which lies under a curse can never receive the Spirit of God, and you have to get it out of the way. What will you do with a cursed thing? You will put it to death and bury it. That which has no curse then comes into view and the Spirit comes upon that.
The Nature of the New Creation — The Joining of the Holy Spirit with the New-born Spirit of Man
The positive side of the Cross is the coming in of the Holy Spirit to what is born again, the newborn spirit of a believer, and the joining of the Spirit of God with the spirit of man sets forth a new type of being such as never has been in the creation before. Oh, yes, in the Old Testament there were comings upon and workings within by the Holy Spirit, but the joining of the Spirit of God with the spirit of man had never taken place before. That is what Adam missed and the race in Adam lost and could never recover because of the curse. There is a new creation in Christ Jesus and the new creation is the joining of the Holy Spirit with the born anew spirit of man.
Now you have the Holy Spirit in and upon the spirit of man as the Spirit of life, and that Spirit of life means that in the inward man we are alive unto God. We know what it means to be alive unto things, to be alive unto God. It is something very active: alive in consciousness, alive in every way unto God. It is something quite new, is this aliveness unto God. Oh, it is a blessed thing! I know this is very elementary; but it is a very blessed thing to be alive unto God, to know that you are alive unto God. You see, this is altogether different from a traditional relationship with God, a doctrinal relationship with God, the relationship of a system to God. This is our personal, inward, blessed possession, to be alive unto God. Well, I think it is unnecessary for me to labour that. I hope you know really what it is to be alive unto God within, through the Spirit of life.
The Holy Spirit Brings New Faculties
But that life, that Spirit of life, means that there has been brought by the Holy Spirit into our spirit a new spiritual capacity, new spiritual faculties; that whereas in our natural state we could not, because we were incapacitated, now we can know the things of the Spirit of God. We can receive the things of the Spirit of God: we can move, intelligently and understandingly, in a realm which was closed; and the difference is very great indeed. But it is a very — I was going to say — subtle difference. Let me illustrate. There was a time when we did great things with our Bibles. We read Romans, and no one in all the world could have known Romans 6, so far as the chapter and wording was concerned, better than we did. And we read Ephesians and knew it; and we could preach on Romans 6 and on Ephesians, and give the most splendid interpretation and the most wonderful Bible analysis on the blackboard. We could say that the Church is not an organization but an organism. We could use all that phraseology. Yet with regard to Romans 6, when we were baptized we had truly testified to the fact that we were being buried with Christ, and the day came, beloved, when in very truth we met our Passover, our feast of unleavened bread, our smiting by the Cross of this natural life. We came, under the hand of God, to a very real experience and crisis of the Cross, and went through this, not just as sinners, but as Christians and preachers, ministers and workers, organizers. Something happened, a desperate and terrible thing happened. It was death indeed. But that was followed by a new knowing of the Lord, a new working of the Spirit, a release of the Spirit, a coming out into a life under the anointing, under an open heaven, and not only we, but everybody else, recognized that Romans 6 was something other than just teaching when we now spoke of it. What that "other" was it would be difficult to define. Ephesians too was different. Again, what the difference was, it would be very difficult to say. It was certainly not in the language, certainly not in the letter, certainly not in the doctrine; but there was meaning, there was power, something had happened. Before we could still preach Romans 6 and contradict it, and in the same way we could preach Ephesians and speak of the heavenly Church being an organism, and yet be in an earthly thing, limited and bound. Something happened, and not only were we in resurrection, but grave-clothes went.
I have only said that to reach this point. There is a difference. You may have difficulty in defining it, but it is the difference between death and life; it is the difference between our coming and taking up the Word of God with our natural powers of penetration and interpretation and analysis and presentation, and that revelation of the Holy Ghost in our hearts which lifts us into a new position and gives us an open heaven. It is a tremendous difference, and the Cross is the basis of that. The Holy Spirit brings new faculties, new capacities. They are different, altogether different. Before we were working in the things of God with our heads, now we are in them with our spirits. New faculties and a new power, spiritual power by the Holy Spirit. This is the positive side of the Cross.
So we have to challenge ourselves over this with regard to where we are. If this is not true, if this is only true in a very small degree, if ours is not this inward path which is growing brighter and brighter unto the noonday, why is it? Well, the responsibility cannot be placed at the Lord's door. There is some reason for it and God's answer to every such inquiry is the Cross. That Cross is intended to clear the ground for all that God has to give us, and into which He would lead us. If we are not coming into it, what is the reason? We can only say that somewhere the Cross is not being suffered to do its work. There is a need somewhere for the Cross to do something more.
Now, when I have said all this about the subjective application of the Cross, the Cross as a power, the Cross as an instrument, the Cross as a working thing in our experience, I must remind you that this has nothing to do with our acceptance, with our standing, with our position. That is assured to faith when we receive Christ. This is simply the outworking of God's purpose in us. But it is an important side. You cannot divorce these two. The divorcing of these two has resulted in a most deplorable state in Christendom and the end of the story is going to be terribly tragic. For many, the history of Israel is going to be repeated. They are going to die in the wilderness; that is, they are never going to reach the land of fullness, because Jordan has not been crossed. That does not mean that they are lost eternally; but they have missed all that God intended; they have come short of the fullness of Christ. There is a great deal of work that is going to be burnt up when it is tried by fire, a great deal of Christian profession is going to resolve itself into nothing. It is only what is really of the Spirit of the Lord, produced in us and produced through us, that is going to stand and go through; and that is determined by how much scope the Holy Spirit has; and the scope is determined by how thoroughly the work of the Cross is done in clearing the ground.
The Lord give us grace to receive His word and to be before Him very much that He will have His fullest way in us.
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by T. Austin-Sparks
Chapter 7 - The Subjective Work of the Cross
Reading: Revelation 5:1-14; 7:9-17.
The Negative Aspect
We are concerned with the matter of spiritual life, spiritual growth, spiritual progress. We are deeply distressed because of the smallness, the limitation, the weakness of so many children of God after so long a time. We are troubled because converts do not move on and believers do not grow, and so few come to the place where they are able to take responsibility and you have no need to be keeping a "weather eye" on them all the time. Why do we have to write off so much of our life, as being very full and yet so empty? The Lord has shown us why and the solution to the problem is found in the Cross.
If spiritual growth is arrested or retarded, you can usually trace in the case concerned some strength of natural life. It does not always appear as strength, mark you. Its appearance is sometimes as of weakness. It is not always the aggressive one who is marked by strength. Sometimes our strength is in our passivity, in our unwillingness to take risks. We call that, of course, being very humble, being meek, docile. Oh, but sometimes that is the thing the Lord has to hammer at. That is the passive side. On the other side, there is the more active and aggressive kind. But usually you can find somewhere a strength of some sort which is the strength of nature, which is not yielding or letting go to the Lord. The Lord has to deal with us according to what we are. In those people who are all too ready to be aggressive and take responsibility and do things, the Lord has to deal with them along one line, in taking away all that in which their soul glories. On the other side, He has to challenge to do, challenge to accept responsibility. He deals with us according to how He finds us. But the key to the matter is whether we, in what we are by nature whatever that may be, will really yield to the Cross; for the Cross is many-sided, and as many-sided as there are temperaments amongst men.
The Cross is applied according to every man's make-up. What would be the Cross to me would never be the Cross to you, and the Cross may mean something different for every one of us. But it is universal. That is the point — central and universal. It touches us all perhaps in a different way, and it raises questions and issues for each one of us peculiarly. That is our challenge of the Cross, and then it is a matter whether we, in what we are, will come and allow the Cross to deal with us. It is no use our saying, "What shall this man do?" The Lord will at once answer, "What is that to thee? Follow thou Me". There is a personal, individual, shall I say, private application of the Cross to every one of us, and our spiritual growth depends entirely upon the Cross doing its work in us, and our response to it personally.
There are a good many other matters which we could not cover if we tried to. For instance, we do not know God's purpose for each life. God's purpose touches each one in a different way. There is that sovereign choice of God which has a place for each one of us, a peculiar work for each of us to do. While it is related, a part of the whole, nevertheless it is a facet of that great jewel, the City of God, and God has to have us dealt with and responsive to Him in a particular way, in which someone else has no place, and we, in the Cross, have particular dealings with the Lord because of something which is peculiar to us in the Divine purpose.
So, you see, it is very necessary that we should recognize that this cannot be taken as a kind of a general thing. It has to become peculiar to each one of us. Oh, beloved, do believe that this is not just teaching, or doctrine. It is of very great importance. But I would beg you not to accept it merely because I am saying it and emphasizing it, nor even because I tell you that so far as some of us are concerned, it is a proved thing. I would ask you for one thing only, namely, not to close your heart to it, not to say, That is a teaching! but just to ask the Lord, "Is this right?", taking an attitude simply and honestly before the Lord, even should you feel it is not true, and so leaving room for the possibility that the prejudice may, after all, spring from yourself, from something in your constitution or in your upbringing. Will you go to the Lord with this and say, "Lord I do not see, it is difficult for me to believe it; but, if it is true, then, Lord, I am open to the truth, and I want You to take me definitely in hand on the ground of the truth". There is not one of us, I am sure, who wants to stand in the presence of the Lord later on, and for the Lord to say, "My child, I would have led you into something very much fuller if only you had given Me the chance". Will you take a very honest and open-hearted attitude toward the Lord in the matter?
That is the negative side. Of course, the things included in that are legion. But it does mean this on all matters, that you and I have no prejudices, no pre-conceptions, that we have not reached a position on any point where we have come to finality. It means that we may yet have to change our entire position on some matters. Things about which we are most certainty convinced may have to go yet. We must recognize God's sovereign dealings with us. There are some of us who at one time in our lives believed with all our being that a certain thing was God's will, and God's directive will at that, and we have come at length by the deepest experience, and experience which has issued in the greatest values, to have to say, "That was only God's permissive will, and God never meant it as anything like His end." It was only a step towards something else, and the thing involved was to us tremendous. We would have staked our lives upon it. But we have had to change our entire attitude to that, and put it in a secondary place in the will of God, and see that God was dealing with us where He found us, and leading us step by step, and each step called for adjustment and a change. Oh, the purpose of God was the same all the way through, but His methods with us had to vary, and He has very graciously, in His sovereignty, used these imperfect stages and steps to teach us much. I think we should say today that our position now is so much the stronger because it represents such a change. Oh, beloved, we have to keep that Cross where it preserves an open way which makes it yet possible for new things to happen, without our so clinging to our position that God cannot do revolutionary things in us still. The Cross is fundamental to all that God wants to do, and when the Lord is going to do a new thing, the Cross is going to deal with some fresh obstruction. Well now, that is on the negative side.
The positive side of this arises when you see the object of the Cross in God's mind. Why the Cross, you ask. Well, negatively the Cross is to get this incapacitated man out of the way; for, while he is so injured and incapacitated, he is yet a very active and very energetic and very positive factor. If only he were so crippled that he could do nothing, it would be an easy matter. But it is not so. He is the most active, energetic cripple, bothering everything and everybody. But he has to be got out of the way for God's positive object.
(b) The Positive Aspect
What is God's positive side of the Cross? It is that the Cross shall make room for a man who is capable, who has all the capacities, capabilities and faculties for Divine things: and it is just at that point that the whole meaning and value of the Holy Spirit comes in. It is not possible for us to know the Holy Spirit until the Cross has become a reality. You never, in type or in antitype, reach the anointing until you have come to the slaying. Thus Paul says this strong word to the Galatians: Christ was made a curse for us. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3:13-14). Made a curse for us that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. That is borne out in the New Testament in every instance of receiving the Spirit.
The Cross and the Spirit
Take one instance, Acts 19:1-5. Paul, having passed through certain regions, came to Ephesus, and found there certain disciples and said unto them, "Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?" evidently perplexed because of an anomaly, because of something which was abnormal or sub-normal, something freakish. Here were people who were calling themselves Christians and disciples of the Lord Jesus, and he did not discern there the marks of their having received the Spirit. This, thought he, is strange, this is extraordinary, because if they are Christians in the real, genuine, true sense, they cannot be without the Holy Spirit, they must have received the Holy Spirit. But here is a little group of people gathering together as Christians, and yet the tokens of their having received the Spirit are not there: and perplexed, he said, "Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?" You know their reply, "We did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was given." Then in what Paul next says he goes right to the heart of things. "Into what then were ye baptized?" What has that to do with it? They might have answered: what is the relationship between receiving the Spirit and being baptized? If baptism is a testimony to our death and burial and resurrection in Christ, then that is the foundation of receiving the Spirit and Paul had put his finger upon the whole situation. In reply to his question, they had said they had been baptized into John's baptism. Ah! so that is it. Well, he explained to them the difference between John's baptism and being baptized into Christ and then they were baptized into the Name of the Lord Jesus, and when Paul had laid his hands upon them they received the Holy Spirit. The two things go together always — the Cross and the Spirit.
The Cross in its negative side is to get rid of that old cursed creation which can never receive the Spirit. Remember that! Anything which lies under a curse can never receive the Spirit of God, and you have to get it out of the way. What will you do with a cursed thing? You will put it to death and bury it. That which has no curse then comes into view and the Spirit comes upon that.
The Nature of the New Creation — The Joining of the Holy Spirit with the New-born Spirit of Man
The positive side of the Cross is the coming in of the Holy Spirit to what is born again, the newborn spirit of a believer, and the joining of the Spirit of God with the spirit of man sets forth a new type of being such as never has been in the creation before. Oh, yes, in the Old Testament there were comings upon and workings within by the Holy Spirit, but the joining of the Spirit of God with the spirit of man had never taken place before. That is what Adam missed and the race in Adam lost and could never recover because of the curse. There is a new creation in Christ Jesus and the new creation is the joining of the Holy Spirit with the born anew spirit of man.
Now you have the Holy Spirit in and upon the spirit of man as the Spirit of life, and that Spirit of life means that in the inward man we are alive unto God. We know what it means to be alive unto things, to be alive unto God. It is something very active: alive in consciousness, alive in every way unto God. It is something quite new, is this aliveness unto God. Oh, it is a blessed thing! I know this is very elementary; but it is a very blessed thing to be alive unto God, to know that you are alive unto God. You see, this is altogether different from a traditional relationship with God, a doctrinal relationship with God, the relationship of a system to God. This is our personal, inward, blessed possession, to be alive unto God. Well, I think it is unnecessary for me to labour that. I hope you know really what it is to be alive unto God within, through the Spirit of life.
The Holy Spirit Brings New Faculties
But that life, that Spirit of life, means that there has been brought by the Holy Spirit into our spirit a new spiritual capacity, new spiritual faculties; that whereas in our natural state we could not, because we were incapacitated, now we can know the things of the Spirit of God. We can receive the things of the Spirit of God: we can move, intelligently and understandingly, in a realm which was closed; and the difference is very great indeed. But it is a very — I was going to say — subtle difference. Let me illustrate. There was a time when we did great things with our Bibles. We read Romans, and no one in all the world could have known Romans 6, so far as the chapter and wording was concerned, better than we did. And we read Ephesians and knew it; and we could preach on Romans 6 and on Ephesians, and give the most splendid interpretation and the most wonderful Bible analysis on the blackboard. We could say that the Church is not an organization but an organism. We could use all that phraseology. Yet with regard to Romans 6, when we were baptized we had truly testified to the fact that we were being buried with Christ, and the day came, beloved, when in very truth we met our Passover, our feast of unleavened bread, our smiting by the Cross of this natural life. We came, under the hand of God, to a very real experience and crisis of the Cross, and went through this, not just as sinners, but as Christians and preachers, ministers and workers, organizers. Something happened, a desperate and terrible thing happened. It was death indeed. But that was followed by a new knowing of the Lord, a new working of the Spirit, a release of the Spirit, a coming out into a life under the anointing, under an open heaven, and not only we, but everybody else, recognized that Romans 6 was something other than just teaching when we now spoke of it. What that "other" was it would be difficult to define. Ephesians too was different. Again, what the difference was, it would be very difficult to say. It was certainly not in the language, certainly not in the letter, certainly not in the doctrine; but there was meaning, there was power, something had happened. Before we could still preach Romans 6 and contradict it, and in the same way we could preach Ephesians and speak of the heavenly Church being an organism, and yet be in an earthly thing, limited and bound. Something happened, and not only were we in resurrection, but grave-clothes went.
I have only said that to reach this point. There is a difference. You may have difficulty in defining it, but it is the difference between death and life; it is the difference between our coming and taking up the Word of God with our natural powers of penetration and interpretation and analysis and presentation, and that revelation of the Holy Ghost in our hearts which lifts us into a new position and gives us an open heaven. It is a tremendous difference, and the Cross is the basis of that. The Holy Spirit brings new faculties, new capacities. They are different, altogether different. Before we were working in the things of God with our heads, now we are in them with our spirits. New faculties and a new power, spiritual power by the Holy Spirit. This is the positive side of the Cross.
So we have to challenge ourselves over this with regard to where we are. If this is not true, if this is only true in a very small degree, if ours is not this inward path which is growing brighter and brighter unto the noonday, why is it? Well, the responsibility cannot be placed at the Lord's door. There is some reason for it and God's answer to every such inquiry is the Cross. That Cross is intended to clear the ground for all that God has to give us, and into which He would lead us. If we are not coming into it, what is the reason? We can only say that somewhere the Cross is not being suffered to do its work. There is a need somewhere for the Cross to do something more.
Now, when I have said all this about the subjective application of the Cross, the Cross as a power, the Cross as an instrument, the Cross as a working thing in our experience, I must remind you that this has nothing to do with our acceptance, with our standing, with our position. That is assured to faith when we receive Christ. This is simply the outworking of God's purpose in us. But it is an important side. You cannot divorce these two. The divorcing of these two has resulted in a most deplorable state in Christendom and the end of the story is going to be terribly tragic. For many, the history of Israel is going to be repeated. They are going to die in the wilderness; that is, they are never going to reach the land of fullness, because Jordan has not been crossed. That does not mean that they are lost eternally; but they have missed all that God intended; they have come short of the fullness of Christ. There is a great deal of work that is going to be burnt up when it is tried by fire, a great deal of Christian profession is going to resolve itself into nothing. It is only what is really of the Spirit of the Lord, produced in us and produced through us, that is going to stand and go through; and that is determined by how much scope the Holy Spirit has; and the scope is determined by how thoroughly the work of the Cross is done in clearing the ground.
The Lord give us grace to receive His word and to be before Him very much that He will have His fullest way in us.
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Friday, April 29, 2011
Sleepy Eyes On Your Watch!
CALLED FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS
Sleepy Eyes On Your Watch!
This morning I read a headline that read, "Sleepy eyes on nations skies". Air traffic controllers have been dozing on the job and then I heard, "it is the same in the Kingdom of God". Many of you are called "intercessors" and are to be on the wall before the Lord. You are one who God called to be in place to watch over the things Father entrusts to you. That brings me to the next question. Are you sleeping on the job? Are you alert and watching in the spirit or are you like a few of the air traffic controllers asleep at the helm?
When we drive to my mothers on an old country road there is a tall tower along the way. One could climb up it if they were extremely fit. Each time in seeing it, it makes me think of an intercessors place in the spirit. One can see in the distance from above in all directions and so can you when you are before God seeing in the Spirit.
Lives depend on you! You might say, "God will raise up another" and perhaps you have become half hearted about being one of God's intercessors. Day time seems like a good time to pray but you really do dislike being wakened up from your sleep or you do wake up, roll over and are too tired to rise and intercede.
With human eyes it does seem like a thankless place where no one sees what you are doing. Most of what you see you do not share and there seems to be little recognition. Do you not think Father knows all this and yet He has called YOU. When you do rise and pray, He is right there with you just waiting to share His secrets with you. Let Father refresh you.
Wipe the slumber from your eyes, man or woman of God. Wash your face if need be and WAKE UP. The WAKE UP call is going out! Will you be available to the Lord when He needs you? You are of value and one cannot put a price on a true intercessor. You perhaps do not feel you are getting far in this area of your life and that you fail. Repent, pick up the pieces and determine in your heart to be what God has called you to be. Intercessor you are needed by the Father. You have a job to do for the Kingdom of God. Lives depend on your being alert and on the wall. It is kind of like firefighters. They may sleep in the hall but when the alarm goes off they are awake immediately and report for duty.
Prophets are intercessors and if you are going to fulfill your prophetic commission you need to be on your face before the Lord more than just a few moments each day. You need to have your eyes open to see and ears open to hear for only then can you bring fresh manna to God's people. Let us all get some fresh determination to do the things that are needful. Like Martha you can be busy about so very much. Is it all needful or do you need to do an evaluation of the priorities in your life. Take your eyes off your own situation and put it on others. If you were to stand before the Lord tomorrow what would you rather be doing today. Spending time with Father would be your first priority and making sure all things in your heart are right. You have been given life today.
Only in living life to the fullest, in being that prophetic/intercessor God has called you to be will you find true happiness fulfilling your place in the Kingdom of God.
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Ezekiel 22:30
Sleepy Eyes On Your Watch!
This morning I read a headline that read, "Sleepy eyes on nations skies". Air traffic controllers have been dozing on the job and then I heard, "it is the same in the Kingdom of God". Many of you are called "intercessors" and are to be on the wall before the Lord. You are one who God called to be in place to watch over the things Father entrusts to you. That brings me to the next question. Are you sleeping on the job? Are you alert and watching in the spirit or are you like a few of the air traffic controllers asleep at the helm?
When we drive to my mothers on an old country road there is a tall tower along the way. One could climb up it if they were extremely fit. Each time in seeing it, it makes me think of an intercessors place in the spirit. One can see in the distance from above in all directions and so can you when you are before God seeing in the Spirit.
Lives depend on you! You might say, "God will raise up another" and perhaps you have become half hearted about being one of God's intercessors. Day time seems like a good time to pray but you really do dislike being wakened up from your sleep or you do wake up, roll over and are too tired to rise and intercede.
With human eyes it does seem like a thankless place where no one sees what you are doing. Most of what you see you do not share and there seems to be little recognition. Do you not think Father knows all this and yet He has called YOU. When you do rise and pray, He is right there with you just waiting to share His secrets with you. Let Father refresh you.
Wipe the slumber from your eyes, man or woman of God. Wash your face if need be and WAKE UP. The WAKE UP call is going out! Will you be available to the Lord when He needs you? You are of value and one cannot put a price on a true intercessor. You perhaps do not feel you are getting far in this area of your life and that you fail. Repent, pick up the pieces and determine in your heart to be what God has called you to be. Intercessor you are needed by the Father. You have a job to do for the Kingdom of God. Lives depend on your being alert and on the wall. It is kind of like firefighters. They may sleep in the hall but when the alarm goes off they are awake immediately and report for duty.
Prophets are intercessors and if you are going to fulfill your prophetic commission you need to be on your face before the Lord more than just a few moments each day. You need to have your eyes open to see and ears open to hear for only then can you bring fresh manna to God's people. Let us all get some fresh determination to do the things that are needful. Like Martha you can be busy about so very much. Is it all needful or do you need to do an evaluation of the priorities in your life. Take your eyes off your own situation and put it on others. If you were to stand before the Lord tomorrow what would you rather be doing today. Spending time with Father would be your first priority and making sure all things in your heart are right. You have been given life today.
Only in living life to the fullest, in being that prophetic/intercessor God has called you to be will you find true happiness fulfilling your place in the Kingdom of God.
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Ezekiel 22:30
Monday, April 25, 2011
Spiritual Bullying
CALLED FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS
SPIRITUAL BULLYING
Many kids in school today are being bullied on all sides to the extent that two young teenagers just took their lives over it. How very sad to think that a temporary situation is permanent and come to the point of suicide. We need to pray for today's youth and that bullying would be stopped with zero tolerance for it. It was shortly after reading this that the term "spiritual bullying" came to mind.
In grade eleven there was a girl who used to bully my friend and myself calling us names because she felt that we were richer than she was when it was far from the truth. As a result one day at the end of l966 I came home and told my Dad that night that I wanted to quit school. It was a little difficult for me having the vice principal living next door however plainly I just wanted a way out so went to see him, leaving out the part about being bullied. My Dad not yet saved said that if I wanted to quit it was fine with him as long as on Monday I found a job and started to pay room and board as he was one that believed we had to learn responsibility. Years ago I forgive this one who decided that my friend Marilyn and I needed to be picked on. Having won a typing trophy I set out and got my first job in January of "67. Am sharing all this for a reason.
One can be the brunt of spiritual bullying. Awhile ago I came under attack by someone who did not know me at all. Yet they slandered my name because of my posting a prophetic word on my site of someone in the mainline prophetic community. You see these ones had set themselves up as superior, and as judge and jury calling these others in the body false prophets. Then they added to their sin by condemning me for posting this man's word.
In essence they were judging a sister in the Lord and not the prophetic word and for a few days I stopped posting and deleted my forum. Have I forgiven this one, unequivocally, yes. It has let me see that the body of Christ is in some parts very critical and divided and needs to growing up. The sad part was the leader of their forum did nothing to bring correction. We are told not to bit and devour one another. Lord have mercy!
We need to guard against SPIRITUAL BULLYING and PRIDE. The Lord is the judge and jury and it is to Him we rise or fall. God is letting His prophets go through these tests because only Christ in us will not be shaken. Wheat and tares will grow together till the end. Daily God is strengthening His prophets for that which is ahead. In going through these things one must keep their heart in the right place and forgive.
I am sure before the Lord's return there will be many more opportunities to walk in forgiveness but it is something God will honor in His servants. smile.
3You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy;
44But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45To show that you are the children of your Father Who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and makes the rain fall upon the upright and the wrongdoers [alike].
46For if you love those who love you, what reward can you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that?
47And if you greet only your brethren, what more than others are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles (the heathen) do that?
48You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete ]maturity of godliness in mind and character,having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect. (AMP)
SPIRITUAL BULLYING
Many kids in school today are being bullied on all sides to the extent that two young teenagers just took their lives over it. How very sad to think that a temporary situation is permanent and come to the point of suicide. We need to pray for today's youth and that bullying would be stopped with zero tolerance for it. It was shortly after reading this that the term "spiritual bullying" came to mind.
In grade eleven there was a girl who used to bully my friend and myself calling us names because she felt that we were richer than she was when it was far from the truth. As a result one day at the end of l966 I came home and told my Dad that night that I wanted to quit school. It was a little difficult for me having the vice principal living next door however plainly I just wanted a way out so went to see him, leaving out the part about being bullied. My Dad not yet saved said that if I wanted to quit it was fine with him as long as on Monday I found a job and started to pay room and board as he was one that believed we had to learn responsibility. Years ago I forgive this one who decided that my friend Marilyn and I needed to be picked on. Having won a typing trophy I set out and got my first job in January of "67. Am sharing all this for a reason.
One can be the brunt of spiritual bullying. Awhile ago I came under attack by someone who did not know me at all. Yet they slandered my name because of my posting a prophetic word on my site of someone in the mainline prophetic community. You see these ones had set themselves up as superior, and as judge and jury calling these others in the body false prophets. Then they added to their sin by condemning me for posting this man's word.
In essence they were judging a sister in the Lord and not the prophetic word and for a few days I stopped posting and deleted my forum. Have I forgiven this one, unequivocally, yes. It has let me see that the body of Christ is in some parts very critical and divided and needs to growing up. The sad part was the leader of their forum did nothing to bring correction. We are told not to bit and devour one another. Lord have mercy!
We need to guard against SPIRITUAL BULLYING and PRIDE. The Lord is the judge and jury and it is to Him we rise or fall. God is letting His prophets go through these tests because only Christ in us will not be shaken. Wheat and tares will grow together till the end. Daily God is strengthening His prophets for that which is ahead. In going through these things one must keep their heart in the right place and forgive.
I am sure before the Lord's return there will be many more opportunities to walk in forgiveness but it is something God will honor in His servants. smile.
3You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy;
44But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45To show that you are the children of your Father Who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and makes the rain fall upon the upright and the wrongdoers [alike].
46For if you love those who love you, what reward can you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that?
47And if you greet only your brethren, what more than others are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles (the heathen) do that?
48You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete ]maturity of godliness in mind and character,having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect. (AMP)
Friday, April 22, 2011
SMALL STRAWS IN A SOFT WIND by Marsha Burns -- 4/22/11:
SMALL STRAWS IN A SOFT WIND by Marsha Burns -- 4/22/11:
I would have you to look through the eyes of the Spirit, and hear through spiritual ears so that you might know and discern the times and the seasons. I speak to you of a level of awareness beyond your physical senses and your natural environment. It is to your advantage that you walk and live in the Spirit, for that is where I am, says the Lord. Come and commune; you will have to leave the comfort of your natural existence, but it will be well worth your time.
Matthew 13:43 "Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
I would have you to look through the eyes of the Spirit, and hear through spiritual ears so that you might know and discern the times and the seasons. I speak to you of a level of awareness beyond your physical senses and your natural environment. It is to your advantage that you walk and live in the Spirit, for that is where I am, says the Lord. Come and commune; you will have to leave the comfort of your natural existence, but it will be well worth your time.
Matthew 13:43 "Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Pray For Texas
We ask Lord today that you have mercy on the state of Texas. Lord there are those that are planning a work in Possum Kingdom and now it is burning. Father we ask you to have mercy in the midst of these terrible natural disasters that are causing so much havoc. Protect your children and those that are to come to know you. Lord have mercy we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Beauty for Ashes by Ron McGatlin
Beauty for Ashes
By Ron McGatlin
The world is entering a state of extreme and massive change. In history there have been times of all known civilization being affected by significant changes brought about mostly through wars and so called natural disasters. However, the most significant world changing events involve the incarnation of Christ Jesus and the subsequent life and world-changing works of Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit of God.
The season of change that the world is entering now is a major part of the transformational work of Christ Jesus. For the last two millennia mankind has been moving toward the goal and purpose for which Christ Jesus came to earth. Jesus came to restore the kingdoms of this world to the kingdoms of our God. He came to restore all that was lost in the first Adam.
Jesus came with the message to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. He came announcing the kingdom of God’s return to earth. Restoring the kingdom of heaven ruling in the earth as it is in heaven first involves the redemption and cleansing of man. The stewardship or dominion of the earth was given to mankind by God in Adam. Mankind must be fully redeemed, pure, and holy in order to accurately and fully redeem the world and all of its system to the unchallenged rule of God.
The written word of God is emitting fresh light in this emerging kingdom age. There is much more being revealed than the limited understanding in the passing church age. It was needful that the first interpretation of the kingdom be the salvation and sanctification or cleansing of people. There must be a pure and holy people on earth to bring forth into natural existence the redemption and cleansing of God to the world.
The focus is shifting from the man-focused beginning portion of the gospel to the focus on God in Christ Jesus in His kingdom on earth. The proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom is not all about man; instead, it is about God and His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. It is not first about getting into heaven when we die but about bringing heaven to earth while we are alive. The more complete gospel of the kingdom of God has the potential to not only change the people of the world but to transform the entire world.
God loves the World. God so loved the WORLD that he gave His only begotten Son.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." John 3:16-21
Through becoming one Spirit with Christ (Christ abiding in us and us in Him), Jesus is bringing forth many sons on earth in whom Christ dwells to carry out the work began when Jesus was on earth in His natural body. The body of many members is now beginning to become fitly joined together to become one body with one Spirit and one mind, the Spirit and mind of Christ. Christ in His body of many members will do the same works that He did in His natural body and more to complete His work of redeeming this world to the kingdom of God.
There is condemnation involved with the coming of the light of the kingdom.
The great light of the kingdom of God is again coming forth brightly on earth in the forerunner sons of God. Forerunners are not at all elite but are of those who through brokenness and humility have experienced the consuming fire of God bringing death to their lives and the resurrection life of Christ Jesus now living where they once lived. Many will eventually follow the trail traveled by forerunners.
In the above scripture Jesus spoke of the condemnation of not believing. The light of the gospel of the kingdom is not received or welcomed by everyone. Even many who are Christians and believe the gospel of salvation may not believe the gospel of the kingdom. Therefore, they will not come to the light of the kingdom. They may remain parked beside the trail. God’s love and mercy are sufficient for them. It is my opinion that they will have according to their faith and will be in heaven as they believe. However, they may miss participating in the awesome transformation taking place in this world as the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of our God.
The fires of judgment are for cleansing.
There are other multitudes of people that will not come to the light of Christ Jesus and His kingdom. They hate the light and love the darkness because their deeds are evil. They will not come to the light of the kingdom because their evil will be exposed, and they choose to stay in blindness to the gospel of the kingdom.
The world will be cleansed. Those who come early to the light of the kingdom will have their evil exposed to themselves and to others. Their immediate response is brokenness and repentance. This is the cleansing of death that leads to being filled with the resurrection life of Christ.
Those who will not come to the light will suffer condemnation and must quickly turn to the light or risk being removed from the earth through the cleansing judgments of God. In this day of the Lord that is upon us, judgment comes as chastening to cleanse the sons of God unto life. However, the judgment of God coming against peoples who will not turn and who hate the light and love darkness will leave no remnant of them on earth. Thus the world is cleansed from evil either by the cleansing of redemption of the people or by cleansing of the earth by removal of the people.
All who die in the Lord will be met by the angel of the Lord and carried to their destination with the Lord. However, for those who perish that are not in the Lord, it will not be so. God is not willing that any should perish and is merciful to the end. All that can be done to save to the uttermost has and will be done. Many will come to Lord as the judgments grow in intensity.
Beyond the Ashes of Judgments
Beyond the fires of judgment, God will give beauty for ashes. When our lives are burned to ashes, and there is nothing left that could be used to build back our lives as they were, God will then bring forth the life of Christ in us, His holy people. A bride without spot or blemish, holy and pure of heart bringing forth the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. This is happening now in forerunner sons and daughters who have endured the fire of personal judgment and been cleansed through death of past life and the renewal of Christ’s Spirit permeating their spirit with His much more dominant Spirit of resurrection life.
Isa 61:3-4: To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.
Rev 11:15: Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"
Keep on pursuing love. It never fails
and His kingdom never ends.
Ron McGatlin
www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
By Ron McGatlin
The world is entering a state of extreme and massive change. In history there have been times of all known civilization being affected by significant changes brought about mostly through wars and so called natural disasters. However, the most significant world changing events involve the incarnation of Christ Jesus and the subsequent life and world-changing works of Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit of God.
The season of change that the world is entering now is a major part of the transformational work of Christ Jesus. For the last two millennia mankind has been moving toward the goal and purpose for which Christ Jesus came to earth. Jesus came to restore the kingdoms of this world to the kingdoms of our God. He came to restore all that was lost in the first Adam.
Jesus came with the message to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. He came announcing the kingdom of God’s return to earth. Restoring the kingdom of heaven ruling in the earth as it is in heaven first involves the redemption and cleansing of man. The stewardship or dominion of the earth was given to mankind by God in Adam. Mankind must be fully redeemed, pure, and holy in order to accurately and fully redeem the world and all of its system to the unchallenged rule of God.
The written word of God is emitting fresh light in this emerging kingdom age. There is much more being revealed than the limited understanding in the passing church age. It was needful that the first interpretation of the kingdom be the salvation and sanctification or cleansing of people. There must be a pure and holy people on earth to bring forth into natural existence the redemption and cleansing of God to the world.
The focus is shifting from the man-focused beginning portion of the gospel to the focus on God in Christ Jesus in His kingdom on earth. The proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom is not all about man; instead, it is about God and His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. It is not first about getting into heaven when we die but about bringing heaven to earth while we are alive. The more complete gospel of the kingdom of God has the potential to not only change the people of the world but to transform the entire world.
God loves the World. God so loved the WORLD that he gave His only begotten Son.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." John 3:16-21
Through becoming one Spirit with Christ (Christ abiding in us and us in Him), Jesus is bringing forth many sons on earth in whom Christ dwells to carry out the work began when Jesus was on earth in His natural body. The body of many members is now beginning to become fitly joined together to become one body with one Spirit and one mind, the Spirit and mind of Christ. Christ in His body of many members will do the same works that He did in His natural body and more to complete His work of redeeming this world to the kingdom of God.
There is condemnation involved with the coming of the light of the kingdom.
The great light of the kingdom of God is again coming forth brightly on earth in the forerunner sons of God. Forerunners are not at all elite but are of those who through brokenness and humility have experienced the consuming fire of God bringing death to their lives and the resurrection life of Christ Jesus now living where they once lived. Many will eventually follow the trail traveled by forerunners.
In the above scripture Jesus spoke of the condemnation of not believing. The light of the gospel of the kingdom is not received or welcomed by everyone. Even many who are Christians and believe the gospel of salvation may not believe the gospel of the kingdom. Therefore, they will not come to the light of the kingdom. They may remain parked beside the trail. God’s love and mercy are sufficient for them. It is my opinion that they will have according to their faith and will be in heaven as they believe. However, they may miss participating in the awesome transformation taking place in this world as the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of our God.
The fires of judgment are for cleansing.
There are other multitudes of people that will not come to the light of Christ Jesus and His kingdom. They hate the light and love the darkness because their deeds are evil. They will not come to the light of the kingdom because their evil will be exposed, and they choose to stay in blindness to the gospel of the kingdom.
The world will be cleansed. Those who come early to the light of the kingdom will have their evil exposed to themselves and to others. Their immediate response is brokenness and repentance. This is the cleansing of death that leads to being filled with the resurrection life of Christ.
Those who will not come to the light will suffer condemnation and must quickly turn to the light or risk being removed from the earth through the cleansing judgments of God. In this day of the Lord that is upon us, judgment comes as chastening to cleanse the sons of God unto life. However, the judgment of God coming against peoples who will not turn and who hate the light and love darkness will leave no remnant of them on earth. Thus the world is cleansed from evil either by the cleansing of redemption of the people or by cleansing of the earth by removal of the people.
All who die in the Lord will be met by the angel of the Lord and carried to their destination with the Lord. However, for those who perish that are not in the Lord, it will not be so. God is not willing that any should perish and is merciful to the end. All that can be done to save to the uttermost has and will be done. Many will come to Lord as the judgments grow in intensity.
Beyond the Ashes of Judgments
Beyond the fires of judgment, God will give beauty for ashes. When our lives are burned to ashes, and there is nothing left that could be used to build back our lives as they were, God will then bring forth the life of Christ in us, His holy people. A bride without spot or blemish, holy and pure of heart bringing forth the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. This is happening now in forerunner sons and daughters who have endured the fire of personal judgment and been cleansed through death of past life and the renewal of Christ’s Spirit permeating their spirit with His much more dominant Spirit of resurrection life.
Isa 61:3-4: To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.
Rev 11:15: Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"
Keep on pursuing love. It never fails
and His kingdom never ends.
Ron McGatlin
www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
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