THE LIFE THAT WAS, THE LIFE
THAT IS
AND THE LIFE TO COME
Eccl 3:14-15
I know that everything God
does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from
it. God does it so that men will revere him.
Whatever is has already
been,
and what will be has been
before;
and God will call the past
to account.
NIV
Eccl 3:14-15
I've also concluded that
whatever God does, that's the way it's going to be, always. No addition, no
subtraction. God's done it and that's it. That's so we'll quit asking
questions and simply worship in holy fear.
Whatever was, is.
Whatever will be, is.
That's how it always is
with God.
(from THE MESSAGE: The
Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights
reserved.)
What
a life! Of course, I am speaking of this present life, a life that is a
tremendous, one time gift from our Father. The very fact that we can say
that we have a life separates us from all other heavenly, eternal creatures
and seals our place in God’s creation as being unique and singular. But,
what do we make of this life, this earthly life? Sometimes the importance of
our earthly existence gets lost in the far reaching aspects of our eternal
life, which some call the “after life.” Indeed, there is a life that
continues on after our earthly life is over, a continuance of a spiritual
state and condition that will reach into eternity itself, but in this
article I want to focus on THIS LIFE, since there are many consequences that
will be wrought out of this earthly existence and those consequences will
follow us on into the next life. The key to this mystery of eonian life is
to understand the dynamics that interplay between the two distinct
dimensions of life in this earthly body and the life that goes on beyond the
grave. One of the dynamics that we will be discussing is the dynamic of
CONTINUITY, which dictates that LIFE is not limited to our earthly
existence, but continues throughout the ages of God, even beyond the laying
down of our house of flesh. It would be proper for us to term this dynamic
of continuity of life in the following statement. “I was alive in the
beginning in God, I am alive in the present in my earthly body, I will be
alive in God in the future.”
Life is an energy that in the physical embodies the biological
processes of our human body and in the spiritual it embodies the substance
of God. Energy is a constant in the universal laws of our world. The First
Law of Thermodynamics states: “Energy can be changed from one form to
another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. The total amount of energy
and matter in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form
to another.” If this is true in the natural creation of God, then it holds
true for the spiritual reality that abides in Him. Life does not change,
whether embodied in a house of flesh, or in a spiritual house, eternal in
the heavenly dimension of spiritual life, it is a constant life, which
continues beyond the physical structure. Life cannot be created, nor can it
be destroyed, but it can be transferred from one form to another. What a
fantastic revelation for us to comprehend! Our life is not to be limited to
our days and years in this body, but our life is a constant life, which has
been and now is and will always be.
This, however, is only an understanding of the nuts and bolts of
how LIFE is to be interpreted. What Christ Jesus has done for all living
creatures is to make a way for us to live in a state of spiritual awareness
that is the highest form of life that is attainable, the Life of God. For
this reason, we must calculate how this physical life “works for us” a far
greater abundance of eternal glory in the life to come, which would be
properly termed as a “glorious life.” Again, although LIFE is constant and
cannot be added to, nor taken away from, it does take on higher or lower
forms of expression, which has eternal consequences for us to consider.
Jesus attained to the highest form of life, a life that is not only ALIVE,
but is able to MAKE ALIVE! He is the Door to this order of life and we must
go through HIM to attain to it. He has given LIFE to every man, but in the
scope of our future existence in the ages of God, it is inherently vital for
us to comprehend how our decisions and actions in this life add to or take
away from our potential of LIFE in the ages to come. This is the mystery of
our existence, which has been largely ignored by the ranks of Kingdom Truth
and the “fly away” mentality of the first and second Day understandings, but
now, in this precise time of God’s Plan, the Chosen of the Lord must come to
grips with the LIFE that always has been and always will be.
For far too long, the structured ranks of religion have made
this present life a journey of sorrow and despair, painting a story of a
creation that has been marooned and forsaken on this planet of earthly
trials and persecutions, with our only true hope resting in ending this life
eventually and going to heaven to live with Jesus and the angels. As a
result of this defeatist attitude borne out of the carnal mixture of soulish
thoughts and understandings, we who have ventured forth from the prison
walls of religious bondage have made a point of counteracting that “over
yonder” mentality with a message of a present Kingdom, with a reigning King,
moving upon and within a present people that are living a very present life
and pursuing a NOW relationship with their Heavenly Father. We have more or
less left off from too much discussion about the life to come and have,
rightfully so, concentrated on ministering about the power of God to bring a
NOW salvation to our spirit, soul and body. However, I believe it might be
beneficial for us to reacquaint ourselves with the profound connection that
exists between this present earthly life that we are living and the eonian
life that awaits us when this life has run its course.
I am aware that there are some of us that think they will never
come to a laying down of this life, that they have entered into an eternal
state, both spirit and body, now and not later. These dear ones think they
have already entered into an incorruptible and immortal state, regardless of
the physical and moral limitations they obviously have in their present
state and condition, they would rather have us look past those limitations
and believe with them that we are all in an eternal state of perfection as
we appear now. I digress from such heart felt, but misplaced notions, as for
me this is only an act of denial and an obscene attempt at trying to find
another way into the glorious state and condition of the New Man, as brought
forth in the scriptures. It would be nice if all it took for us to be like
Jesus was a simple statement of faith on our part, but I do not believe it
is quite that simple. We are running an obstacle course through this earthly
existence, whether we want to admit that or not, and it is all for our
benefit, set up and instituted by our loving Heavenly Father, in order to
give us a way to obtain a measure of glory that goes beyond the requisite
measure of glory that has been so graciously provided for all mankind by the
death, burial and resurrection of the Lord and Savior of the world, Jesus
Christ.
For us to be able to comprehend the full relationship that this
earthly existence has with our eternal existence we must be able to discern
the presence of an economy that is working for us in the Kingdom of God. If
we only have a simplistic knowledge of the reason for us being on this
earth, then we will find ourselves in the camp of mankind that has given up
on making any rhyme or reason out of the seemingly unconnected sequences of
events in their life and only see this earthly existence as something to
survive until we can escape this mundane realm and, through death or a
rapture, enter into our next existence, hopefully finding ourselves in the
elevator going up, instead of feeling that sinking feeling of going down.
For this camp, heaven is up, hell is down, and earth is the place we are
stuck in, between the two, until something gives and we go to one or the
other. What a pitiful way to spend our time in this life, wouldn’t you
agree? But, I have good news for us! There is a purpose and a reason for
everything that happens in our earthly existence, even though we cannot
always see that purpose while going through the experience. This life has
great CONSEQUENCE for us and God’s will is always working for us and not
against us. If we still think this life is only an interim between hell or
heaven, then we need a revelation of the ongoing interactions that come
about from the events that transpire while in this earthly body. If we are
still walking through this life according to an attitude of survival instead
of walking through this life with an attitude of salvation and overcoming,
then we need a revelation of how this life has many eternal rewards and
cycles of acceleration into the “MORE EXCELLENT” elements of God’s glory. I
pray this writing will help you to see what you may have been missing in
your earthly experience and you will come to know, as our dear friend, J
Preston Eby has stated, “I am not an earthly man having a spiritual
experience, I am a spiritual man having an earthly experience!”
First, we must know we have come to earth from our Heavenly
Father, who birthed us from a spiritual dimension and placed us into this
physical dimension with a plan attached to our individual life. Our life is
ordered of the Lord, first and foremost, and He is the One that orchestrates
the avenues and paths of our journey back into Himself. Each person that has
ever lived has had this plan and purpose woven into their existence. 2,000
years ago, Jesus Christ came to earth, just as we have done, and lived His
life in perfect submission to the Plan of God that was attached to His
earthly existence, and He overcame everything that the root of Adam revealed
in the heart of all mankind, becoming our Deliverer and our Lord, purchasing
us lock, stock and barrel from the debt of sin and corruption. Jesus Christ
reconciled the world back unto God and put mankind on track to returning to
their previous state and condition, but not just our original state and
condition, which by all rights would make this arduous journey senseless and
redundant, but a truly magnificent abundance has been incorporated into this
final and conclusive act of restitution. Isn’t that just like our Father? He
has gone beyond all of our expectations of His gracious favor toward us in
providing a grace that removes all of our debt, which is extravagant in
itself, but in a stunning act of lavish loving He has also made a way for us
to grow up into His greatness, accumulating His favor and becoming weighed
down with His glory, in an exceeding manner that threatens to overflow our
being and fill everything around us with that glory. He is an elaborate God
when it comes to blessing His creation!
When the spirit first started dealing with my heart about the
economy of His plan for creation, it was so different from the usual
doctrine that was being ministered that I did not immediately feel
comfortable teaching upon it, except for our local meetings. I do believe we
need to be careful with the Word of God and not use it in a flippant and
casual manner, so I pray I am able to convey this thought to you
appropriately and that it will not cause anyone to lack in the things of
God. Indeed, I would like to stir you up to consider how truly gracious our
Lord has been to us, not only in providing all men everywhere a free gift of
salvation, having removed and disannulled our covenant with death and our
agreement with hell, and setting our feet upon solid ground, reinstating us
in good standing with our Heavenly Father, but He has also incorporated
other steps of glorification that go beyond the foundational gift of
restitution, so that each man can work out his own salvation in fear and
trembling. Surely Paul, in writing this, did not mean that we can work out
our own salvation as to our deliverance from the curse of Adam, but in this
statement he instructs us that there is much more to our salvation than the
prospect of not going to a place of eternal damnation. Jesus has saved us
from an eternal state of hellish duality and a corruptible nature and we
will praise and glorify Him through eternity for that, but the act of
reconciling us back unto our Father is not the only blessing that we have
inherited from our Lord and King. He has also opened up the door of blessing
upon blessing, an accumulation of blessings, which allows us to enter into a
further state of authority and dominion that is a realm of reward that is
above and beyond the purchased possession of our soul at the cross. “We are
reconciled by His death, but we are saved by His life!” (Romans 5:10) Our
journey into the fullness of the Father is two-fold, having been reconciled,
we are now being saved and will continue to be glorified with an
accumulative measure of His glory!
For some, the second part of Paul’s statement does not apply.
They believe that the only thing we are to minister is the reconciliation,
the reinstatement of our sinful soul into right standing with God. As many
of you know, my wife and I are strong proponents of the truth of The Great
Reconciliation, and have been at the forefront of this Truth for well over
30 years now, having suffered the persecution that automatically comes from
speaking such a truth that is viewed by the vast majority of main stream
Christianity as heresy and lies. We have never shirked from standing in the
midst of ministry that assaulted us from the pulpit and showing them no fear
and no dismay, loving those that treated us so unkindly and still
proclaiming this marvelous love story of God towards man in spite of it all.
We have cast our lots with this Truth and regardless of financial
difficulties, loss of reputation, made a laughing stock and mocked openly,
we stood in firm confidence knowing that our ranks would grow and the Lord
would continue to reveal His great intent to many others. We, and many other
ministries of reconciliation that have come forth through the years, hid
ourselves in the substance of God and He has done just that! Today, we see
fellowships all around the world that are standing in the great Truth of
Christ’s redemption for every man, life lines have been made in the Body of
Christ that have formed a Corporate expression throughout the kingdom ranks.
Now, we see a worldwide growth of ministries that are willing to take the
stand for this universal Truth of God’s undying and unchanging love for His
children and great inroads have been made on the mission fields in every
nation. This message is now being preached in the midst of thousands,
whereas in our early days it was ministered to groups of 5, 10, 20, and
sometimes to hundreds. God is on the move! The world is searching for an
answer to their feeling of spiritual abandonment and the Truth of
Reconciliation will deliver them from condemnation and guilt and shame as
they come to know the love of God and the free gift of salvation through
Jesus Christ. But, we must keep moving on, dear ones! We that are called to
be pioneers of new ground in Christ, those of us that have been chosen of
the Lord to blaze new trails of enlightenment and revelation must always be
ready to pull up our stakes and move into virgin country in Christ, and I
believe with all my heart this is such a time. God is calling us out from
our comfortable abodes of truth and is once again challenging us to see,
with new eyes, a vista that is untouched and unattained thus far by sons in
the making.
So, I call us to now look beyond the borders of reconciliation
and see what awaits us by reason of our reconciliation. As Paul so
eloquently stated, we must now start to focus on something besides “being
apprehended” but now we must start to desire to “apprehend that for which we
have been apprehended!” (Philippians 3:12) Have we been reconciled? YES! But
is that all God desires for us to know, that we have been reconciled? It is
the first step, but now we must ask ourselves this question, “why have we
been reconciled and what further glories are we to experience once we come
to the knowledge that Christ has reconciled us?” That is our challenge now,
to be able to press on and reach out to the great reason for this gift of
grace and love. Can you imagine a company of sons who no longer have to deal
with the issues of death and life, sin and righteousness, hell or heaven? I
don’t think we fully comprehend the extent to which such dead issues drain
the life out of the average fundamental Christian, as they struggle to come
to grips with the quandary of how such a loving God could ever look the
other way and let the devil have them for eternity. What a contradiction
they face on a day to day and minute to minute basis with such a falsehood
and misrepresentation of our loving Father toward all of His children!
Thanks be to God, those of us that have had the veil of our understanding
rent and see Christ as He truly IS, the Savior of the world, the Redeemer of
every man, the Giver of Life and the Author and Finisher of our faith, we
that know this great Truth have been given a great gift of knowing the heart
of the Father. But, to tell you the truth dear friend, we have yet to see
the real power of such a revelation, life changing, chain breaking, body
healing, mind renewing power. Empowerment is the undeniable result of such
enlightenment. Instead, I see many sons of God still weak in their faith,
talking the talk but not being able to appropriate and incorporate this
revelation into their walk in Christ. I believe that is going to change!
This deficiency of real life consequence will change as we come to truly
understand why Christ reconciled us and became our Forerunner into the
presence of the Father. I will tell you this for sure, it was not so we
could have a bigger church than the churches that have been against us all
these years! This precious Truth that has been kept as a Secret within the
hearts of the early church and throughout the successive ages since has not
come our way in such abundant evidence to just let it become another dogma
of our belief system, but it is ALIVE with purpose and intent!! Let others
drag this Truth of God’s eternal love for all mankind down into some kind of
religious social club of comer-outers that have made much noise about how
they left the bondage of structured religion and are now free from any
authority in their life, only to live a life of immorality and have taken up
to being religious nomads, wandering aimlessly through this earthly
existence. In contrast, those of us that still have the fire of the Holy
Ghost shut up in our bones, those of us that are like Caleb, our vision has
not dulled and our destiny in Christ is still alive and well in our soul,
let us rise up to the trumpet call and shake ourselves and prepare to enter
into a fresh realm that is alive with the sound of a mighty wind that will
surely bring great changes to our lives.
You have been apprehended by God for a breaking over into
another depth of life in the living Christ. You have been brought out of the
ranks of servants and have been given an opportunity to become great in God,
a mighty man and woman of valor, a sign and a wonder to all the ages, an
ensign of Christ, an ambassador, a kind of first fruit of His glory. Now, if
you think that these terms that I have listed only signify an homogenized,
generic walk in Christ, then you need a greater revelation! The scriptures
make great distinction between the walk of the servant, of which we all are
servants of Christ which is our earnest position of relationship with Him,
and the walk of the sons, which speaks of the deeper and more intimate
relationship that awaits each servant in their progressive journey into God,
the Father of all. We are not those that are called to keep the status quo,
but we are those that bring the wind of change to the earth, whose words set
the heavens on fire, who have the countenance of the rising Sun, Light
Bearers of a New Day.
Most people have no idea as to how the ministries of this hour
that walk in such power and anointing arrived at that state. It did not
happen over night! Such power and glory is the result of walking through the
furnace of fiery trials and testings and coming out on the other side
without the smell of smoke upon them. There is a place, dear one, where
angels fear to trod, for the way is narrow and hard on the flesh, a place
where the flesh cries out for sustenance and none is given to it, for this
place is all about the spirit and flesh has no part in it. Most people can
walk through a fiery place if they can feed their flesh a little bit, as
they get mad at God, pout and cry and threaten Him with quitting their
faith, only to give in later and repent for their actions. Not so for the
truly anointed ones, for it is their lot to give no place to the enemy in
their being. For them, there is only one way, onward and upward. They see
the end from the beginning and count all life’s trials as mere opportunities
to show forth the nature of Christ and to glorify Him with their submissive
obedience. Through long ordeals of instructions and conditioning, like an
athlete in training, they have been given an endurance that outlasts the
momentary lesson of life and as a result, they have profited thereby with an
eternal weight of glory that clothes them in this life and stays with them
into the next life. Behind each great man and woman of God lies a long road
of heartaches, losses, disasters, sacrifices, afflictions, etc., each of
which has worked it’s curious work of imparted glory, sharpening the edge of
the vessel of God until every word and action, tempered by the flame of God,
contains a measure of God’s substance that is palpable to all that hear or
observe them. The sharpening of our senses is the same action as in the
sharpening of a blade, with fierce resistance and friction being required to
wear down the dull edge and to put the edge to the material that is sharp
and true. Our senses will remain dull and unresponsive to God as they are,
so He lays us to the grinding stone to make of us an instrument of His
choosing. There is no other way to perform this operation, so let us stop
looking for another way or search for an escape, this is the way of God
concerning His sons.
The Lord is not going to stop refining His messengers until they
are completely changed and transformed into His image and likeness. We all
still have a long way to go in our maturing process, but He is faithful to
watch over the works of His hands and to give us strength to finish our
race. Again, there is no race involved in our basic reconciliation in
Christ, as He has accomplished that phase of His redemptive plan, but now we
press on, not as though we have already won, but we RUN, as one that runs to
win the race, toward the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Many today have stopped running! They are resting in the
work of the cross and have settled for that earnest gift of God’s life, but
others today are realizing that we must now continue on in the race of life,
which will reward all who cast off every weight and sin that does so easily
beset them and run the race with abandonment. There is no “reward” in our
reconciliation, as it is a gift, free of charge. But, in regards to our
eternal weight of glory in Christ, the faithful and the obedient will reap
the fruits of their labor and will draw from the immeasurable riches of
Jesus Christ. If there was no difference between the eternal state of the
faithful and the unfaithful, we would see a great contradiction in the
scriptures regarding this disparity.
Without a doubt, the scriptures use a plethora of adjectives to
describe the difference between a common measure of glory and the “more
excellent” glory, the common life and the “abundant” life, the common
salvation and the “greater” salvation. It is obvious that throughout the
scriptures there are measures and ranks of varying degrees concerning our
walk in God. John the Revelator listed some special rewards for those that
are termed, “OVERCOMERS”, which I have added below.
Rev 2:7
7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life,
which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Rev 2:11
11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Rev 2:17
17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and
will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no
man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
Rev
2:26-28
26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him
will I give power over the nations:
27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a
potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
28 And I will give him the morning star.
Rev 3:5
5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment;
and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess
his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Rev 3:12
12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God,
and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God,
and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh
down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
Rev 3:21
21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 21:7
7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his
God, and he shall be my son.
Who are these overcomers? They are those that have faced severe
obstacles and testings and have kept the faith and stayed true to the Father
through it all. They are the Redeemed, the First Fruit Company, Mighty Men
of Valor, Priest and Kings after the order of Melchizedek. They are
succinctly pointed out in the scripture as separate from the common
believer, having been given special tasks to complete and facing certain
risk factors that the common believer was not appointed to undertake. They
love not their lives, even unto death, holy martyrs of the faith that have
laid their own lives down in Christ and counted it all as dung to win His
favor. In all honesty, this train of thought will try some of our pet
doctrines concerning the sovereignty of God, since it is plain that God is
“rewarding” the overcomers with a bounty of eternal elements to their
character and being that is reserved only for such tried and true
participants of the Victory that is wrought through their faithfulness. The
common salvation of Christ is without reward or works of the recipient,
being free and without cost. Jesus paid it all. But, as we can plainly see
in these verses and in many other verses throughout the New Testament, there
are certain aspects of God’s plan for the believer that incorporates a
“gain” of Christ’s riches, which is only accessed by virtuous acts of
Christ-like behavior. If God has given to every man a measure of faith,
which can be added to in the process of the believer’s journey in Christ,
which then becomes a commendable and note-worthy faith, then also our
eternal state and condition in Christ is also subject to greater gains and
measures of glory that is bestowed upon us through a walk of obedience and
sacrifice that works for us a greater salvation. In this context, obedience
and disobedience interplay in the believer’s walk, each one possessing a
built-in action of increase or stagnation. Obedience increases our portion
in glory, God witnessing our faithfulness with certain measures of increase
in His economy of blessings upon us. Disobedience stagnates our growth in
Him, holding us back from an economy of increase and enlisting us into the
instructive judgment of our Father to learn obedience through the things we
suffer. Obedience is a fast track in God, disobedience is the slow crawl
around the mountain of indecision in our lives.
One only needs to read what Samuel pronounced over Saul, who
overstepped the word of the Lord to him concerning sacrifice and failed to
hear and obey the word of the Lord to him. This act of disobedience ripped
the kingship out of Saul’s hand and gave it into the hand of David.
1 Sam 15:22-23
22 And Samuel said, Hath
the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying
the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice , and to
hearken than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the
sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because
thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from
being king. KJV
Saul
thought that he would find favor in the eyes of the Lord by the number of
sacrifices he made to Him, but Samuel pointed out that God looks into the
heart of man and desires a spirit of obedience and an ear tuned to His
voice. Obedience is not a law of commandments we are keeping, but it is a
mind and a nature that instinctually wants to please God. In the prior 2
days of the church age, sacrifice was made the focus of serving God,
carrying over the Old Covenant law into the walk of the Christian. This took
place after the priesthood of the church fell into the hands of a state
religion, through the reign of Constantine, which replaced the God-called
priests with appointed priests of a political system that had now embedded
itself into the church. Now, instead of being a living and breathing
organism of God in the earth, the state church was now a system of religious
idioms and political shenanigans. The glory of God could not flow in the
midst of such an institution, so the glory came upon a remnant of believers
that refused to be entangled with the Babylonian system of religion. Church
councils forsook the mercy and love message of Jesus Christ and instituted a
message of fear and hatred, which made it possible for the church to
excommunicate believers from the institution they had formed, which they
erroneously portrayed as the “Body of Christ”, which brought them great
power over the ignorant masses of Christians. Remember, at this time, the
actual book of scriptures was not available to the general body of
believers, as it was hand copied and only available to those scholars and
leaders within the religious institution itself. As a result, the Christian
movement entered into a dark period of lords and kings disguising themselves
as mouthpieces of God, whereas the truth is, they couldn’t be farther from
the mind and heart of God in their message and representation of Him.
We really need to look into the mind and heart of the Apostle
Paul to clearly see how this father of the faith saw the importance of an
obedient and trustworthy life of the believer. It is Paul that states how
obedience works for us the greater salvation and it is Paul that constantly
warns the church not to fall into apathy and spiritual deception. Paul saw a
laziness creeping into the camp of the believers and he sought to reveal to
them the two fold concept of being reconciled by Christ and then going on
into the fullness of the outworking of such a great salvation. Paul knew
that the fact of our BEING reconciled did not negate the fact that we are
still in a RACE! A race is run to gain something that we did not have before
we entered that competition. Why would Paul even use such an analogy if he
did not want us to know that we have an opportunity in Christ to become
greater than what we were before we started to run? The increase of the Lord
is available for all believers that see this spiritual concept of obedience
and faith working in us a greater account of God’s provision. In truth, the
full treasure of God’s storehouse of glory and blessings is in each one of
us. He indwells us and has filled us with the fullness of all that He is.
But, what we need to understand is that it is not what we POSSESS that gives
us the increase, rather, it is what we can appropriate out of that supply.
Clearly, we are all given the same amount of treasure, buried within our
being, but we must learn how we are to lay our hands upon that treasure
Christ
has so richly provided for us and to bring it into full manifestation in
THIS LIFE! This treasure is not to be laying around inside of us, dormant
and inaccessible, only talked about and discussed and preached and taught
about continuously, but it is to be laid hold of, plunged into, brought to
the surface of our being and put on open display for others to behold and to
desire themselves to lay hold of the same treasure within their own life.
Beholding the glory of the Lord upon us, like looking into a mirror of
reflection, they will be changed into that same glorious state. It starts
with Jesus Christ, the express image of the Father and all that He
represents, then a first fruit company of believers dare to look Him full in
the face and they are then changed by that reflection, which in turn brings
out of them all of the elements of that glory, which is then no longer IN
them, but is now UPON them, which then becomes a mirror upon which all
others behold and that caused them to be changed also. This chain reaction
continues in the earth until all death and sickness and sorrow is removed
from the hearts and minds of creation. It is this manifestation, REVEALING,
of Christ in the saints that will cause the world to see Him and live. He is
appearing IN US, TO THE WORLD! He is not going to appear in a people that
are lacking in His glory, but He is desiring a Body to appear in, a glorious
Body, full of light and power, which will put His full expression on display
in the earth.
This is why we must allow ourselves the opportunity to rise up
and possess these great attributes and elements of character and nature that
resides in us, or we will miss the mark of the HIGH CALLING, not the mark of
salvation, but the mark of that priest-king order that is beyond the call of
the common walk of the believer. Oh yes, dear ones, there is a missing of
the mark, regardless of how much some would try to remove such a thing from
the scriptures. We are not talking about missing heaven and going to hell
for eternity, as the church institutions pummel the common believer with,
but it is with great fear and trembling that I must let you know that in the
greater and weightier elements of God’s plan for creation, there are eternal
“marks” that can be missed and there are eternal “marks” that can be hit.
This is the “working out of our own salvation” that has been so neglected in
the past years of the reconciliation message. I personally believe that we
can miss our highest calling in God, settling for a lesser position in God
by reason of our faithlessness. I know some today that treat their holy
calling like a normal job in the world. They have lost all perspective of
what God requires of such chosen vessels that receive such a commission.
They cheat God’s people of the fullness of God’s provision and like the
priests of Eli, they keep unto themselves the riches of God’s truth,
refusing to feed it to those that God has placed under them to minister
unto. Instead of the living Bread and the Wine of Life, they feed the people
old, stale bread and watered down wine, keeping the life-giving elements of
God’s plan for creation to themselves, all because they are afraid of the
attacks of their religious peers. This is why across the world, in the
biggest churches in the world, there are God-called ministries that are
sitting on the truths of God and keeping these revelations of God’s intent
toward all creation under wraps, out of fear of men. They fear men more than
they fear God! The same goes for those that go about the world ministering
ungodly abominations to the people of God, taking the word of Truth and
bringing it down into the mundane and profane realms of the carnal mind.
Calling themselves THE I AM, shamelessly declaring themselves to be higher
than Jesus, blatantly proclaiming that they have no need for the remission
of sins, setting themselves up as demi-gods, mystics of the new age
doctrine, they are clouds without water and a stink in the nostrils of all
that is holy and upright. This is the result of men and women that have
discarded the need for a holy relationship with God, who have removed any
concept of good and evil, or light and darkness. They aspire to dumb down
these precious elements of God’s character and nature, calling good evil and
evil good. We cannot afford to have the elements of God homogenized by such
rebellious spirits, for these have MISSED THE MARK of their holy calling and
have made a gross error of judgment that will affect them for eternity. God
help us to not follow after their folly.
As we delve into this grand portrait of God’s plan for all
creation and of His intent to lavish upon us the fruits of our labor in Him,
we will find that our life on this earth has much consequence attached to
it. Life is not to be taken lightly! This world that is locked into a
humanistic view of life certainly takes life lightly, which has produced a
generation that is rife with cynicism and disregard for the blessings of
life that is unequalled in all prior generations. Never has there been such
a measure of carelessness with the sanctity of life, as the death rate
continues to climb throughout the world through mass murders and genocide.
Every city has sections of that community that is so hopelessly locked into
despair and hopelessness that it is like a war zone, with rampant drug use
and an out of control element of crime and violence. In such environments,
life is cheap and is snuffed out without any more regard than someone
blowing out a candle. Why don’t they turn to the church, you say? Why should
they? These dear, lost children of God see through the smoke and mirrors of
that religions institution. They see the hypocrisy in this so-called
representative of God and they see that same hypocrisy in the law
enforcement institutions, in the political institutions, in the social
institutions and they see a system where all the power and wealth is found
in the hands of those that have the least regard for life, so they mirror
that disregard and take control of their life by abusing the life of others.
In the church system, they see ministers that take money and never give it
back, the same disregard for their fellow man as the other institutions of
this world. The sad fact is, the church has mirrored more of the world’s
glory to creation than it has the glory of God. It has patterned itself more
after the greed and lust of the world than it has the nature and character
of God.
This must come to an end! How? By the faithful workings of the
spirit of God upon the hearts of a committed and dedicated priesthood, which
will produce a true expression of God’s intent for all His children. The
world will not change by a message alone! If we truly believe God has called
us with a holy calling, from before the disruption of the ages, then we will
no longer take this calling for granted. I implore you, dear readers, to
allow the spirit of our Father to deal with your heart and to start to take
the initiative to appropriate His transforming life into your life, so our
life will be a diadem to Him in this world. We cannot be satisfied with
where we are at this present time in our relationship with our Lord. I pray
you grow hungry in your spirit to see more of the greatness of Him displayed
in your life. Out of this hunger, out of this burning desire, we will
transcend this earthly existence and God will start to flow out from us like
rivers of living water. I am asking each one of us to seriously contemplate
our holy calling and to esteem it above all other life opportunities we are
involved in. This is our life! This is our opportunity! Lay hold of it and
take it to the next level.
To be
continued:
By
Robert D Torango