_________________________________________________ The March Goes On Introduction We walk each day amidst the maze, The sun is darkened by the haze That clouds our minds, our soul's own shroud; The march goes on; man's heart is proud. For who is man that he should build Tall towers though his hands are skilled; For neither hands nor towers stay, They pass from here, in dust decay. We seldom stop to think about The life within, our life without, And what the goal in life should be; Be still and listen now to me. Our lives are spent in idle haste, We rush about, our fiber waste On things that matter but today; Such trifles wear our lives away. Seek first those things you value most, And when they're gone, then count them lost. Search and find and seek once more Until you find that hidden door; And if you dare, look through the hole Where lies the key that locks your soul; With courage face the trials and pains, And seek the place where silence reigns. And when you've learned what you're about, Then comes the time to look without, And reach for life and set your course, For now you have a constant source Where you can hide when towers fall, And strong hands fail to hold the wall; For you will know from whence you came; That He is God; Life will remain. _________________________________________________ Consider Jesus Consider Jesus Consider who He is. Consider why He came. Consider the manner in which He walked. Consider what He is doing now. Consider the events still to come in His life. Consider His coming again. _________________________________________________ Who He Is Consider Jesus "Long ago God spoke in many different ways to our fathers through the prophets, telling them little by little about His plans. But now in these last days He has spoken to us through His Son to whom He has given everything, and through whom He made the world and everything there is. God's Son shines out with God's glory, and all that God's Son is and does marks Him as God. He regulates the universe by the mighty power of His command. He is the one who died to cleanse us and clear our record of all sin, and then sat down in highest honor beside the great God of heaven. Of His Son God says, 'Your kingdom, O God, will last forever and ever ...Sit here beside Me in honor until I crush all your enemies beneath Your feet.'" Hebrews 1 (Living Bible) _________________________________________________ A Personal Encounter Consider Jesus "I was on the island of Patmos, exiled there for preaching the word of God, and for telling what I knew about Jesus Christ. It was the Lord's day and I was worshiping, when suddenly I heard a loud voice behind me, a voice that sounded like a trumpet blast, saying, 'I am A and Z, the First and Last!' And then I heard Him say, 'Write down everything you see, and send your letter to the seven churches...' When I turned to see who was speaking, there behind me were seven candlesticks of gold. And standing among them was one who looked like Jesus who called Himself the son of man, wearing a golden band across His chest. His hair was white as wool or snow, and His eyes penetrated like flames of fire. His feet gleamed like burnished bronze, and His voice thundered like the waves against the shore. He held seven stars in his right hand and a sharp, double-bladed sword in His mouth, and His face shone like the power of the sun in unclouded brilliance. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead...'" Revelation 1:10-17 (Living Bible) _________________________________________________ Jesus As King Consider Jesus In Revelation God shows us an aspect of His Son, not shown to us in the gospels. In the Gospels we see Him as Savior, in Revelation as King; in John's Gospel as the Beginning, in Revelation as the Ending. The one displays love, the other His majesty. In the upper room Jesus girds Himself about the waist for service; at Patmos He is discovered girt about the breast for war. In the Gospels His mild eyes melted Peter; in Revelation they are a flame of fire. There His voice was gentle, calling His own sheep by name, and gracious words proceeded out of His mouth; here His voice is terrible as the sound of many waters, and from His mouth there proceeds a sharp two-edged sword, striking death to His foes. It is not enough that we know Jesus as the Lamb of God and as Savior of the world; we must know Him also as God's Christ, God's King, God's Judge. When we see Him as Savior, we say, "How lovable!" When we see Him as Monarch, we say, "How terrible!" and fall prostrate at His feet. The one issues in thanksgiving, the other worship. To see Him now as King is, one might almost say, to see "another" Christ. Watchman Nee _________________________________________________ Leap To Believe Building Blocks My soul, it is God, even your God, God that cannot lie, who speaks to you. This word of His which you are now considering is as true as His own existence. He is God unchangeable. He has not altered the thing which has gone out of His mouth; nor called back one single consolatory sentence. Nor does He lack any power; it is God that has made the heavens and the earth who has spoken thus. Nor can He fail in wisdom as to the time when He will bestow His judgments or His blessings; for He knows when to give and when to withhold. Therefore, seeing that it is the word of God so true, so immutable, so powerful, so wise, I will and must believe. Charles Spurgeon _________________________________________________ The Voice of God's Word Building Blocks "Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice..." Deuteronomy 4:36 Before Peter could speak, he had to be spoken to. Before Paul could speak, he had to be spoken to. Even before Jesus spoke, He was spoken to: "I do nothing on My own initiative... the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world." John 8:28 Does it not follow then, that before we can speak, we must be spoken to? But how does this happen? We know that Jesus is the Word. We know He spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus, to John on the island called Patmos, giving them specific instructions for serving Him. Is Jesus still speaking to His followers today? If so, how does He speak to us? Scripture tells us the word of God has a voice. "Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word." Psalm 103:20 Jesus confirms this: "My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me." John 10:27 Have you and I heard His voice? The answer is "yes" if we are Christians. We heard His voice the day John 3:16 leaped out from the printed page and into the depths of our heart and soul; we heard, we believed, we were born again. It was to be the beginning of a wonderful relationship, (the same relationship Jesus had with His Father); Jesus would speak, we would obey. But some of us, new and unschooled in the life of the Spirit, did not realize that hearing the voice of His word was to be a continuing process -- that "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ." Nor did we realize that true growth in the Spirit depends on what God has to say to us personally and specifically. Watchman Nee explains: "In the New Testament two Greek words are used to denote word. One is logos, the other is rhema. Logos is the word, the Holy Scriptures; it refers both to things which have been eternally determined and to things used in an objective way. It is the word as we generally use it, and the word, as it is generally used in an objective way. It is the word as it is generally known in Christianity. Rhema refers to words which are spoken. This is more subjective than logos. John 3:16 is a verse many of us can quote from memory. Is this verse the word of God? Certainly! But it is logos. There came a day, however, when we read this verse and it became an entirely new experience; it spoke to us personally, it became rhema. 'God so loved the world' became 'God so loved me.' 'That He gave His only begotten Son' became 'He gave His Son for me.' Rhema is something the Lord has spoken previously (logos) which He is now speaking again. In other words, rhema is the word which the Lord speaks the second time. Are we saying that logos is of no use? Logos has its definite use, for without logos, we could never have rhema. All the rhema of God is based upon logos. But merely having the word from a certain chapter and verse in the Bible is not sufficient. We are saying that logos is of no use by itself: One day a messenger came to tell a mother that her son had been run over by a car and was at the point of death. The mother immediately opened her Bible and happened to turn to John 11:4: 'This sickness is not unto death...' Because of this verse she felt peaceful and even began to rejoice, but when she arrived at the scene of the accident, she found that her son had already died. Did this mean that what is recorded in the Gospel of John is not the word of God? It is the word of God but it is logos. The word she grasped was not the word which God spoke to her at a specific time. Both logos and rhema are the word of God but the former is God's word objectively recorded in the Bible, while the latter is the word of God spoken to us at a specific occasion. Knowledge is one thing and spiritual stature is quite another. All doctrine, teaching, theology, and knowledge are of little use if they just flow from one person to another... A person with a clear mind can divide the book of Romans into sections -- salvation, justification, etc. A man may have knowledge and yet be without God's word. Many people think that knowledge of the Scriptures and understanding of the doctrines are spirituality. There is no such thing! Bible knowledge can never be a substitute for spirituality. Only the word which the Lord speaks to us is of any use. Rhema reveals something to us personally and directly; it reveals what we need to deal with and what we need to be cleansed from. Our Christian life is based on rhema. We must remember that today's Christianity is still the Christianity of personal revelation. If the Lord does not speak with us, it is not Christianity, nor is it the New Testament." "I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; and I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me..." Habakkuk 2:1 "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Hebrews 4:7 _________________________________________________ A Listening Attitude Building Blocks "...all My words that I shall speak to you, receive in your heart and hear with your ears." Ezekiel 3:10 God's people assume a listening attitude. They watch daily at His gates to hear what He will say to them for their work rests upon His specific orders. They do not act, they do not speak, they do not move out in His name; they do nothing on their own initiative. Without His voice being heard, there is no revelation of His will, no light upon the path, no knowledge of His ways. "They give themselves up implicitly to divine guidance." (W.Nee) They fear lest they trespass on God's authority. God speaks, I listen, for I know His voice. I keep His words near; I remember what He tells me. Day and night I meditate on them. And soon they move beyond reason, beyond emotion; they enter my heart. There I whet them, sharpen them, accept them, believe them; they settle down to stay. They live in me, I live in them. They abide in me, I abide in them. I wait. I remember. The moment may come rapidly or it may wait for many years. But this I know -- one day He will call His words to sound forth from me in praise, in thanksgiving, in obedience, in works of righteousness. O may the sound be pure! _________________________________________________ Why He Came Consider Jesus Jesus came to Earth: To show us the Father To do the Father's will To reconcile the world to His Father To proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom To overcome (conquer) the world -- deprive it of its power to harm To share in flesh and blood To seek and to save that which was lost To make atonement for sin To experience death for every person To become the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him To bring many sons to glory To take hold of the descendants of Abraham, to give them a helping hand To render powerless the devil, who had the power of death, to destroy his works To purify a people for His own possession, a people zealous for good deeds To found His church To redeem His people from every lawless deed... to sanctify them entirely, so that their spirit, soul, and body may be preserved complete, without blame at His coming To judge... to be a separator... to bring a sword on earth... to make the sightless see and that those who see may become blind... To become a merciful and faithful high priest in things related to God _________________________________________________ He's Coming Again Consider Jesus He will appear a second time not to bear sin but to those who eagerly await Him. He will come again and receive His own, that where He is they may be also. He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. _________________________________________________ The Faith, a Perturbing Thing Building Blocks Consider: When the Son of Man comes, will He find the faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8) "The faith of Paul and the other apostles was a revolutionizing thing. It upset the whole life of the individual and made him into another person altogether. It laid hold on the life and brought it under obedience to Christ. It took up its cross and followed along after Jesus with no intention of going back. It said goodbye to its old friends as certainly as Elijah when he stepped into the fiery chariot and went away in the whirlwind. It had a finality about it. It snapped shut on a man's heart like a trap; it captured the man and made him from that moment forward a servant of the Lord. It turned earth into a desert and drew heaven within sight of the believing soul. It realigned all life's actions and brought them into accord with the will of God. It set its possessor on a pinnacle of truth from which spiritual vantage point he viewed everything that came into his field of experience. It made him little and God big and Christ unspeakably dear... The faith will command or it will have nothing to do with a man. It will not yield to experimentation. Its power cannot reach any man who is secretly keeping an escape route open in case things get too tough for him. The only man who can be sure he has true Bible faith is the one who has put himself in a position where he cannot go back. His faith has resulted in an everlasting and irrevocable committal." AW Tozer "For yet in a very little while, He Who is coming will come, and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back My soul has no pleasure in him." Hebrews 10:37, 38 "And now little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming." 1 John 2:28 _________________________________________________ His Body, The Church Consider Jesus The word, "church": definitions. Webster: An edifice for religious worship; the chief services held there. A body or organization of Christian believers; a denomination. Harper's Bible Dictionary: Ekklesia, ("assembly of citizens called out"). What comes to mind when we think of the church? A building? A denomination? All Christian groups? Do we divide the church into Catholics, Protestants, Pentecostals, etc.? It is a hazy idea at best. It is something we wonder about and even worry about at times, but then relegate to the realm of mystery, hoping and praying that because we belong to a local church and are born again and doing the best we can to serve Him, we are members of Christ's body -- that knowing and quoting the relevant scriptures makes it so. Are there two expressions of the reality of the church? The CHURCH and the church? Is one in heaven the other on earth? Is one mystical (invisible) and one local and visible with a street address and zip code? And if so, who belongs and who doesn't? If we are members of a visible church are we automatically members of the invisible church, members of the Body of Christ? And how if ever do the invisible and visible meet -- what is the eternal connection? Scripture tells us that the church is the Body of Christ. And the Body of Christ is a spiritual house, being built up as a dwelling for God in the Spirit. It is the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched not man, that is to say, not of this creation. Its foundation is the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus Himself the cornerstone. And wonder of wonders, Scripture also says that we, too, can be part of this marvelous temple, this sanctuary, the true tabernacle -- if we allow ourselves to be built up in Christ Jesus. But how are we built up in Jesus Christ; how do we become members of His Body? As I write this, I am aware that my mind is loaded with mistaken beliefs and ideas. The first step for me is to be untaught, I need to "un-learn." _________________________________________________ The Great Unlearning Correction "It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials, what God wants for us is to un-learn. God is all the time bringing us to the place where we un-learn things. How many of us can un-learn: This has nothing to do with the faculty of intelligence. It has everything to do with our hearts before God, becoming poor in spirit. That is losing. What do we lose? Useless spiritual information, that is what we must lose. We can't just add facts to an improper foundation, or to no foundation at all. First we must get down to the only foundation, which is Jesus Christ. But isn't that odd: It is not learning but un-learning. It is un-teaching. This is the biggest problem. To put it in another light, here we are, Christians that are saved and have been pumped full of all kinds of knowledge; we think it must be right because we learned it at church and the majority of the people agree. But what are so many of us trying to do? We are trying to put on the armor of God, to put on the cloak of righteousness, the royal robe, the mantle of power, the mantle of gifts, the mantle of this and that, and all along we are trying to put it on over filthy rags. And what are these filthy rags? They are our own attempts at righteousness. What dawns on me so clearly is that we must undress before we dress. We are trying to put on all that royal stuff and we haven't undressed yet. Remember, the wilderness is where we are undressed. And who wants that? Who wants to un-dress? And yet, that is 'becoming.' Only the people God can undress can He then put His mantle of power upon. Why was Jesus exalted? Because He undressed Himself. Though Jesus was God, He did not demand and cling to His rights as God, but laid aside His mighty power and glory, taking the form of a slave and becoming like men. And He humbled Himself even further, going so far as actually to die a criminal's death on a cross. Yet it was because of this that God raised Him up to the heights of heaven and gave Him a name above every other name. Therefore, that is the man or woman upon whom God will place His mantle of power and blessing and upon no one else. Just when we want to dress up in our spiritual finery, the Gospel says 'undress.' And what about the church? How does all this apply to the church? How can God ever establish what the church is all about? First of all we must have un-church. God has to take away everything a church is not. This is the process of undressing, and that's no fun. Who wants to join that? That is why an un-church is always such a poor, miserable little work. (But do not despise the day of small beginnings!) Once people learn some spiritual truths and get 'moving in the Spirit', who wants to become part of an un-church? And yet, to become an un-church before we can become a church is an absolutely vital and necessary thing. And how long does it take? A long time, given all the un-learning we must go through, with no immediate end in sight. So much has to be undone. I think of Isaiah when he saw the Lord. Isaiah said, 'Woe is me, for I am undone. I see the Lord.' Christianity today is anything but being undone, but true becoming is all tied up in this. Miss this fact and you've missed it all. It's time to be undone. This may seem unbecoming to the world. But only in our unbecoming what we are, can we 'become' what we should be. Isn't that odd? But then somewhere it says we are to be a peculiar people. So be it!" Oswald Chambers "...do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2 "But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." Hebrews 5:14 _________________________________________________ The Church Is Not Correction Never think that whenever or wherever Christians meet together, there is a church. The Church is not: A building that can be seen or touched or painted. A place to meet to hear sermons, announcements and special music. A place where our spiritual, emotional, or physical needs are met. The coming together of people who believe in the Lord and are saved. "It is possible to be born again and not to have gained Christ. It is possible to be born again and not walk in the Spirit. It is possible to be born again and not be a carrier of the nature of Christ." (Stewart Peterson) It is possible to have been born again and not be "in" Christ. The Church is not: A multitude of heads, a multitude of committees, a multitude of groups that meet, a multitude of denominations, a multitude of works and charities. A membership roster, a mailing list, a club of contributors or prayer partners. A house of religious merchandise, dispensing tapes, books, movies, etc. A place to "fellowship" around the coffee maker after the morning service. Reclaiming the word "Church": A Personal Note I have known for a long time that the church (I have titled it the "organized visible church") is out of line with its beginnings. I have been hesitant to speak out against its unscriptural doctrines, traditions, and practices, feeling like a child who thinks she has sinned if she puts other books on top of her Bible. But I have learned that to question the church is not attacking God. This idea is a tool of Satan to protect error from being exposed and most important of all, from being corrected. The Church, the Body of Christ, is not: An organization to be planned; it is not organized nor can it be organized in any way, shape, or form. In fact the word, organized, is anathema. For the moment it becomes organized the Spirit is quenched and Jesus has been shut out; it is a body without its Head. It is counterfeit! The Organized Visible Church A definition (one or more or all of the following may be included): Its foundation is one or more specific Biblical truths. It has a human headship: a ministerial staff (usually paid) to plan, organize, guide. It reports to, contributes financially to a larger organization, joining it in world-wide efforts to send out the gospel to the ends of the earth, alleviate hunger and pain, etc. It uses the world's methods to bring people in, trying to meet special human needs, trying to expand its membership. It guages its spiritual growth on its numerical growth. Its foundation is based on racial or ethnic lines. Its services are organized in the popular fashion of congregational singing, prayer from the pulpit, special music, announcements, a collection, a sermon. Its works are organized; they are not in direct personal obedience to the specific instructions of Jesus for that local body. As a result the deeds are not righteousness but lawlessness. (Jesus came to redeem us from every lawless deed...Titus 2:14) God has a Message for the organized visible churches. But first some Christian writers expound on what the Church, the Body of Christ, should be with a smattering of what it is not. _________________________________________________ The Church Is Building Blocks "The Church is the vessel chosen by God to manifest His Son, Jesus Christ, and to achieve His eternal purpose. It is the sphere in which God exercises His authority on earth in the midst of the polluted universe. He has a sphere of purity for His own abode. It is nothing of man and everything of God. The body of Christ has three basic principles: first, unless it comes out of Christ, it is not the body of Christ; second, unless there is the work of the Holy Spirit, it is not the body of Christ; third, unless there is obedience of the body to the Head, it is not the Church. (Obedience, which was originally designed for the world, is now strictly required of the Church.) If the church is to become a real Church, two steps are necessary: the increase of Christ and the consuming of ourselves. God must bring us to the place that we do not want anything that is not from the Lord. If the Lord is not moving, then we will not dare move. Repentance does not make us part of the Church; neither does our confession of sins nor our faith. Only the life which Christ has imparted to us makes us part of the Church ...therefore there is a need for us to live, behave, and act according to this life of Christ ...if we act according to ourselves, we are outside the Church... if we are work according to ourselves, we are not doing the Lord's work. It is all about the source. If it isn't out of Christ, it isn't the Church. If it has another Lord than Jesus, it isn't the Church." Watchman Nee "What a foundation we stand on now; the apostles and the prophets; and the cornerstone of the building is Jesus Christ Himself! We who believe are carefully joined together with Christ as parts of a beautiful, constantly growing temple for God. And you also are joined with Him and with each other by the Spirit, and are part of this dwelling." Ephesians 2:20-22 A Personal Note (continued): "The mystery is great; but I am speaking of Christ and the Church." Ephesians 5:32 Who can know it! What is most obvious is that, like so much about what we have in Christ, the Church as a reality can only be seen and understood with the help of the Holy Spirit. But this I know: "Once we 'see' the reality of the Church ... we shall recognize the Church is operating when we encounter it anywhere, be it even in a group of two or three believers. If they themselves are truly subject to the Head in all things, and if they are making much, not of themselves or of the Church, but of Christ, then the Spirit of God will always bear witness to them." Watchman Nee _________________________________________________ In His Name? Correction "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord, Jesus." Colossians 3:17 "The Christian life, walk, and work must be carried out in the nature and character of Christ. It is the lack of Christ's nature in the church that is of great concern to us in these days. We have a tendency to forget, even though we say it all the time, that the church is not an organization but an organism. This means that it is a living, breathing life form, dependent upon the source of its life, which is Christ. We also tend to forget that Christ will live His life no differently, in nature and character, than He did while upon the earth. Simply defined, the church is Jesus Christ carrying on the same work in the same way as when sent by His Father. His nature never has and never will change. He will not act in a manner unbecoming His nature. We ask: How is it that so many Christians and so many churches do things 'in the name of the Lord Jesus' but not in His nature? How is it that they have taken upon themselves liberties that Christ took not, methods that Christ abhorred, worldly ways that Christ denounced? We answer: it is because they have not His nature. Consider the many fads making the rounds in Christian circles today. [There are strategies for every possible human need -- healing of our minds, our self esteem, our marriages, our parenting, our finances, our stresses, our weight or drinking or drug problems. Many suggestions and promises for comfort and prosperity for our walk in the world, but few for our walk in the Spirit.] Can you imagine Jesus saying and doing these things? Did the Son ever make demands upon the Father, claiming what was rightfully His? Did He stoop to using methods of the world to build up the Kingdom? Did He give away a door prize to the follower that brought the most newcomers to the next sermon on the mount? Did He brag about how much He had accomplished in just three short years? Ridiculous! To think of Jesus Christ conducting Himself in such a manner is beyond imagination. Here is the question: If Christ would not and does not conduct Himself in such an unseemly way, why do we seldom blink an eye when His people do? We lightly pass it off as 'immaturity' or as 'their way of doing things', when in point of fact it is nothing less than a damning slur on His nature, even if they say it is done 'in His Name'. The spirit that is loose in churches today has fostered the idea that the end justifies the means, forgetting that Christ is not only the end, HE IS ALSO THE MEANS. Everything Christ did and does is in perfect accordance with the nature of God. It follows that everything done by true disciples of Jesus Christ will be done in perfect accordance with the nature and character of Christ. The gravest danger which faces us today is not the world or the flesh or the devil, it is God's people who are not wholly His, whose conduct and character as servants is contrary to the nature of Christ. I speak of 'good' Christians who think that because they are engaged in the Lord's work they have carte blanche to do the work of Christ in any way they choose... We are under no obligation to recognize and fraternize with those ministries and works which are clearly contrary to Christ's nature and character. Let us henceforth observe both the 'what' and the 'how' of those working in the Kingdom... We caution against those ministries that play upon the soul of the believer, that have not the nature of Christ about them. They may say they work in the name of Christ, but they speak of a different Jesus than the Holy Spirit came to reveal." Stewart Peterson _________________________________________________ The Manner in Which He Walked Consider Jesus He did nothing on His own initiative. He did only what He saw the Father doing. He spoke only the words His Father gave Him to speak. He taught only what His Father taught Him. He always pleased the Father. He was obedient even to the point of death. "The one who says, 'I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." 1 John 2:3-6 _________________________________________________ Who He Is Consider Jesus "He is the faithful witness..." Revelation 1:5 "He was His Father's witness -- He did nothing on His own initiative; He did what He saw His Father doing;" John 5:19, 20; 8:28 What is a witness? A witness is one who "sees" personally. To witness is primarily to see, (not to tell) and in the seeing, to know. "You are My witness, declared the Lord, And My servant whom I have chosen, In order that you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He." Isaiah 43:10 But how do we know what God is doing so we don't act on our own initiative in His name and bear false witness? We acknowledge the following: We cannot "see" until God reveals Himself to us. We cannot "speak" until we have been spoken to. We watch daily at His gates to see what He will say to us. How does God reveal Himself? (Have you ever been amazed at the depth and breadth of the spiritual wisdom and knowledge of Paul?) How did Paul know? "The gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." Galatians 1:11, 12 _________________________________________________ What Is Revelation? Revelation By REVELATION there was made known to Paul the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men. And it was revealed to God's holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit... what for ages had been hidden in God... Revelation (definitions): Only God can fully know God, and only God can make Himself known. Revelation is a process whereby God makes Himself known to men. It is the revealing of something previously hidden, something that is unknown until the moment of enlightenment when it bursts forth from the Spirit of God into the spirit of a chosen person or persons. It is a self-disclosure of God, a deep knowledge of His person, His purpose, His ways or His plans made known by the Holy Spirit. Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which has not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him... For to us, God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 1 Corinthians 2:9, 10 "What spiritual or true Christian does not know the radical difference between the opinions that we form from reading, hearing, and study, and the clear apprehension of truths that are communicated by the direct and inward illuminations of the Holy Spirit?" Charles Finney "Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things -- fenced in and hidden, which you do not know -- do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand." Jeremiah 3:3 _________________________________________________ Called to Be a Witness Building Blocks "You are My witnesses, declares the Lord, And My servant whom I have chosen..." Isaiah 43:10 In witnessing seeing comes first. But how do we see what the Father is doing? "Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants, the prophets." Amos 3:7 "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?" Genesis 18:17 If you have been called by God to be His witness, and IF you are watching Him closely, listening carefully to His word, leaping to believe what He tells you and letting His words penetrate until you abide in them and they abide in you: then He will not hide from you what He is doing. He will show you what He is binding in heaven and loosing on earth that you may follow His lead in His appointed time. And what about telling, sharing the revelation? To the idea of telling, we usually react in one of two ways: We hope He won't ask us to tell (fear, pride) or we can't wait to tell (vanity). The important thing to remember is that if God does not provide the opportunity to witness about Him and give us His words to speak, we will be spreading death both in ourselves and in the one to whom we speak. Being God's witness, both seeing and telling, is only possible through the Holy Spirit. He does it all. "The Prayer of a Man Called To Be a Witness: O Lord, I have heard Thy voice and am afraid. You have called me to an awesome task in a grave and perilous hour. You are about to shake all nations and the earth and also heaven, that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. O Lord, my Lord, you have stooped to honor me to be Thy servant. No man takes this honor upon himself save he that is called of God... My God, I shall not waste time deploring my weakness nor my unfitted-ness for the work. The responsibility is not mine, but Thine. You have said, I knew you -- I ordained you -- I sanctified you, and You have also said, 'You shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatsoever I command you, you shall speak'. Who am I to argue with You or to call into question Thy sovereign choice -- the decision is not mine but Thine. Thy will, not mine be done. Well do I know, Thou God of the prophets and the apostles, that as long as I honor Thee, You will honor me. Help me therefore to take this solemn vow to honor Thee in all my future life and labors, whether by gain or by loss, by life or by death, and then to keep that vow unbroken while I live. It is time, O God, for You to work, for the enemy has entered into Thy pastures and the sheep are torn and scattered. And false shepherds abound who deny the danger and laugh at the perils which surround Thy flock. The sheep are deceived by these hirelings and follow them with touching loyalty while the world closes in to kill and destroy. I beseech Thee, give me sharp eyes to detect the presence of the enemy; give me understanding to see and courage to report what I see faithfully. Make my voice so like Thine own that even the sick sheep will recognize it and follow Thee. Lord Jesus, I come to You for spiritual preparation. Lay Thy hand upon me. Anoint me with the oil of the New Testament prophet ...Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity. Save me from bondage to things. Let me not waste my days puttering around the house. Lay Thy terror upon me, O God, and drive me to the place of prayer where I may wrestle with principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this world. Deliver me from overeating and late sleeping. Teach me self-discipline that I may be a good soldier of Jesus Christ... And now, O Lord of heaven and earth, I consecrate my remaining days to Thee; let them be many or few, as You will. Let me stand before the great or minister to the poor and lowly; that choice is not mine, and I would not influence it if I could. I am Thy servant to do Thy will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame and I choose it above all things on earth or in heaven. Though I am chosen of Thee and honored by a high and holy calling, let me never forget that I am a man of dust and ashes, a man with all the natural faults and passions that plague the race of men. I pray Thee, therefore, my Lord and redeemer, save me from myself and from all the injuries I may do myself while trying to be a blessing to others. Fill me with Thy power by the Holy Spirit, and I will go in Thy strength and tell of Thy righteousness. I will spread abroad the message of redeeming love while my normal powers endure. Then, dear Lord, when I am old and weary and too tired to go on, have a place ready for me above, and make me to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting. AMEN." AW Tozer _________________________________________________ Thoughts on Prayer Building Blocks "Many times prayers are only an exercise of the mind; they do not have the inspiration of the Spirit. The believers themselves become the origin of the prayer. We should not open our mouths the minute we come to God. Instead we should first ask God to show us what He wants us to know and show us how to pray. 'The Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought.' Romans 8:26 True prayer begins at the heart of God, is made known to the hearts of men, is prayed back to God again and God answers... The will of God is the starting point; we voice it, God does it. All spiritual prayer is prayer in the Spirit. All spiritual prayers originate from God. Prayer is the exercising of our will in God's favor, declaring that His will shall be done. We do not ask ourselves, 'Is our prayer according to God's will?' but, 'Is it God's will?' God shows us what He wants, we stand and ask, and God acts from heaven -- this is true prayer, and this is what we must see fully expressed 'in our closet and in our gatherings.' There are many things that God would bind or loose on earth that He has bound and loosed in heaven (things which hinder to be bound, spiritual things to be loosed) if only His people could hear His voice and know His will and ask in prayer, believing. 'Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst.' Matthew 18:18-20" Watchman Nee _________________________________________________ The Revelation Revelation "The Lord God says, 'I will revive My work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years I will make Myself known.'" Habakkuk 3:2 Multiplying the Revelation: A Teaching How God is reviving His work. How God is making Himself known. God is aroused and risen from His holy habitation. He is coming and will dwell in our midst. God is restoring things to the "Divine Original" -- His will and purpose in creation. God is making a correction by establishing a plumb-line, a measurement. Other corrections: The Great Flood. Chapters 2 and 3 of the Revelation to John. God is summing up all things in Christ. He is looking, calling, separating, gathering, unifying. _________________________________________________ God Is Aroused Teaching (The Revelation continued...) The Lord God says, "I will revive My work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years I will make Myself known. In wrath remember mercy." Habakkuk 3:2 How God is making Himself known: God is aroused and risen from His holy habitation, He is moving among us. The Lord will go forth like a warrior. He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout. Yes, He will raise a war cry. The Lord arises to contend and stands to judge His people. He has kept silent for a long time. He has kept still and restrained Himself. Now He speaks: Woe to you rebellious children who take counsel and carry out a plan but not mine, who make a league and pour out a drink offering, but not of My Spirit, thus adding sin to sin. You set out to go down into Egypt and have not asked of Me. (How is it that you did not watch Me every moment for fear of losing sight of Me?) The present state of affairs: Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away, for truth has stumbled in the streets, and uprightness cannot enter. Yes, truth is lacking, and he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey. God's reaction to this: Now the Lord saw and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. And He saw there was no man, and was astonished that there was none to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. And He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds, He will repay. Thus says the Lord God: Do not be deceived, I am not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. I will kindle a fire in you, and it will consume every green tree in you, as well as every dry tree. I will destroy those who formerly worshiped Me, but now no longer do, and those who never loved me and never wanted to. A curse shall go forth, says the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him who swears falsely by My name; and it shall abide in the midst of his house and shall consume it, both its timber and its stone. For it is time for judgment to begin with the house of God. _________________________________________________ About Correction Teaching (The Revelation continued...) How God is reviving His work. How He is making Himself known. God is making a correction... Correction; a definition: To note or mark errors. To rectify, free from error, make right. To recover, repair, reclaim, straighten, restore, return. A correction may involve discipline, judgment, purging. Corrections: The Great Flood "Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh...' Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And the Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land.' But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." Genesis 6:1-8 Chapters 2 and 3 of The Revelation of John "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice saying, 'Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches.'" Revelation 1:10 "At the end of the New Testament period, the enemy of souls found entry into the house of God, and caused God's own people, the very heirs of redemption themselves to turn aside from His way. Something terrible has happened ...now John is brought in and commissioned ...not to lead further but to restore ...to bring the people of God back to a position they have lost." Watchman Nee Revelation and Correction "Men become aware of the approach of God and they hear for themselves His word and believe. Then those who hear and believe carry out, in the place and circumstances in which they find themselves, their understanding of what this word requires. This explains why they so often attributed to God, motives, qualities, and purpose, and so often expressed sentiments and engaged in activities which in due time would need to be corrected. Revelation is one thing; what men do with it and because of it is often another; the Scriptures record both." Harper's Bible Dictionary "When a person falls, he jumps up again; when he discovers his mistake he goes back to the fork where he made the wrong turn." Jeremiah 8:4, 5 _________________________________________________ Sanctification in Jesus Consider Jesus He is ...our wisdom from God, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. Sanctification: to consecrate, to make holy; to purify or free from sin, to cleanse. He came to give Himself up for the Church that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the Church glorious, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless. He came to purify a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. Now He is cleansing His people, His Church, by the washing of water in the Word... And what is cleansing? "Cleansing is subtracting. It is Christ dealing with every part of the Church that is not out of Him. The natural life and all that is not out of Christ must be purged away. Sanctification can only come after cleansing, and the basis of cleansing is the Lord's word, the 'rhema.' If we do not know the Lord's voice and hear Him speaking to us personally and specifically through Scripture, there is no way for us to be cleansed and sanctified; for we do not know in which aspect we need to be cleansed. And if we consider that we do not need cleansing, we are deceiving ourselves." Wathcman Nee _________________________________________________ Purity Building Blocks Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart... Webster defines the word "pure" as being unmixed with any other matter. Watchman Nee uses the word "single-hearted." Perhaps the Psalmist captures the essence of being pure of heart in these words: "Besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth." The one who is pure in heart has no desire on earth but God. He will sell everything to buy the field with the treasure. He will purchase the pearl of great price. He has no other goal in life than to serve God. He is the faithful servant whom the Master finds doing His work when He returns. This one has pure motives. He neither hides nor harbors secret desires that are opposed to God or His kingdom. He seeks the kingdom of God and His righteousness. He does not straddle the fence between earth and heaven waiting to see which holds the greatest advantage or promise for him. The man of purity chooses his side before the outcome is known and he risks everything he has on earth. He serves God with no thought of reward. In fact, He would serve God if there were no reward. This one weeds out of his life every hindrance to godliness; he kills every wrong or adulterous desire; he makes captive every base or covetous thought. His heart is steadfast toward his God and he guards himself from any other affection. He hides God's word in his heart that he might not sin against Him. In other words -- the man who is pure in heart walks before God with all his heart. Search me, O God, and know my heart today; Try me, my Savior, hear my prayer, I pray. See if there be, some wicked way in me. Cleanse me from every sin and set me free. _________________________________________________ A Message to the Organized Visible Churches Correction "The world is evil, the times are waxing late, and the glory of God has departed from the church as the fiery cloud once lifted from the door of the temple in the sight of Ezekiel the prophet. The God of Abraham has withdrawn His conscious presence from us, and another god whom our fathers knew not is making himself at home among us. This god we have made and because we have made him we can understand him, because we have created him he can never surprise us, never overwhelm us, never astonish us, never transcend us." A.W. Tozer "An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule on their own authority. The people say, 'Speak to us pleasant things. Prophesy illusion.' And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?" Jeremiah 5:30, 31 "Come forth from her midst, My people, and each of you save yourselves ...Depart! Do not stay! Remember the Lord from afar..." Jeremiah 51:45, 50 5/13/00 - Thus says the Lord God to the organized visible church: "My Spirit no longer strives with you to nourish you, cleanse you or revive you. I have removed your lamp stand. I have left you desolate." Let all who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches: "How well I remember those first delightful days when I led you through the wilderness! How refreshing was your love! How satisfying! I remember your devotion, the love of your betrothal, your following after me in the wilderness through a land not sown. I had plans for you for good and not for calamity. You were holy to Me, the first of My harvest. I covenanted with you to be your God, you covenanted with Me to be My people. But like Adam you transgressed the covenant, like Esau you had contempt for your birthright. Why did you leave Me, your first love? What injustice did you find in Me, that you went far from Me and walked after emptiness? You were not to know any god except Me, for there is no savior besides Me. But when I gave you the world as your pasture, your heart became proud and you built great palaces to house your pride. And when your heart was lifted up, your spirit behaved arrogantly; you determined not to be subject to Me. You said, 'I will not serve'. You thrust Me aside and rejected Me, executing plans but not Mine, making alliances but not of My Spirit, substituting your own doctrines, works, traditions for My word, My works, My way. Did you not know you had joined hands and heart with the spirit of lawlessness? I was amazed that you who were raised to life to be the radiance of My glory, the exact representation of My nature, so quickly deserted Me who called you by the grace of Christ. I was amazed to find you so quickly walking again the broad ways of the world to your own destruction. It is the last days, the kingdom is at hand and there is no knowledge of Me in the land. Were you too feeble or too lazy for contemplation? Being unable or unwilling to raise yourself to contemplation, being unable or unwilling to behold spiritual reality and fill yourself with it, you dealt treacherously with Me and manufactured your own god, calling him by My name. You spurned My robe of righteousness and dressed yourself in heathen clothing; you bore alien children to fill My sanctuary. You are the autumn tree without fruit; I have uprooted you. You who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, you who were made a partaker of the Holy Spirit, you who tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come have fallen into the hands of the adversary and he has stretched his hands over your precious things. There is no longer healing or remedy -- you have crucified My Son again and put Him to open shame. This time you drew the lot for His robe, this time your hands offered Him the sour wine. I have stretched over you the plumb-line of emptiness. I have poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep; I have closed the eyes of your prophets and seers so all these future events are a sealed book to you. The kingdom has been taken from you and given to a people who will produce the fruit of it. I have left you desolate. The church age is over. My eyes are now on the kingdom." God said to me: "Now go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book that it may be a witness for the time to come forevermore." _________________________________________________ The Divine Original Teaching (The Revelation continued...) How God is reviving His work. How He is making Himself known. God is restoring things to His original purpose and plan. God had a purpose, an eternal plan, when He created the heavens and the earth and when He created man in His image. It is vital that we know that purpose! But how can we know? We ask! "...ask that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding..." Colossians 1:9 We are not just to wonder, hazard a guess, leave it to the theologians, WE are to be filled with the knowledge of His will! Why is this knowing so important? The verse continues: "...so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God..." We are not asking here for the knowledge of His will for us in our everyday individual lives -- that personal seeking and finding to which we give trusting, absolute obedience. Nor are we seeking here the instructions that come from our Lord and Savior to us as His Body, although these instructions will, if faithfully carried out by us, ultimately fulfill and bring to climax God's eternal plan, His will. We are asking Him to share with us what He was originally seeking when He decided to create the heavens and the earth and man. "I want to show brothers and sister that, during the last days it is God's intention to recover things to His original design. He is going the way of recovery. He is going to bring His children to this course..." Watchman Nee What was His original purpose and design? That God would rule on earth through man -- that the creature man would rule the creature Satan. That the creature man would bear the heavenly image of His Son. That man and his descendants would be a chosen race, a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, a people for God's own possession, He will be their God, and they will be His people. That not one from the book of the Lord will be missing; none shall lack its mate. That the people of God will be willing in the day of His power. "So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11 _________________________________________________ The Church, the Divine Original Building Blocks This article is about the Church. Not the church as it often is, but the Church as it originally was and can be -- yes, must be -- again. There is no reason why the Church in the twenty-first century should not be what it was in the first century. True Christianity operates now on exactly the same basis that it did then. The same dynamic impact described in the book of Acts is possible today. The major factor that keeps this from happening today is ignorance. Most of us are tragically unaware of the biblical pattern for the operation of the Church. The essential need then is that we should rediscover the biblical pattern. As one modern sign puts it, "When all else fails, follow directions." When we turn back to the Scriptures we are returning to reality. In Ephesians Paul gives these instructions to the Church: fulfill your calling, don't deviate from the divine strategy, obey your orders, follow your Head. For the Church is not a human institution. It does not devise its own strategy and set its own goals. It is not an independent organization, existing by means of the strength of its numbers. It is, rather, a body called into a special relationship to God. The Church is a body under the control of its Head. What a tragedy it is when the body refuses to respond to the direction of its head! The Church is also a temple, for the exclusive habitation and use of a Person who dwells within and has the right to do with that temple whatever He wills. The Church is an army under the command of its King. An army that will not obey its leader is useless as a fighting force. If that army is to give intelligent obedience to its king, it must give highest priority to understanding what it is he wants it to be and do. God's first concern is not what the Church does, but what the Church is: "He has put all things under Christ's feet and has made Him the head over all things for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22, 23 This is a tremendous statement. It says that all that Jesus Christ is, is to be seen in His Body which is the Church. "...we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grown into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. And here is the holy mystery of the Church -- it is the dwelling place of God. He lives in His people. That is the great calling of the Church -- to make visible the invisible Christ." Ephesians 2:19-22 And just how is Jesus made visible? Through the gifts that He has given to the members of His Body. The spiritual gifts are a manifestation of His Spirit. The gifts are the divine provision for the operation of the Church. It is the entire Body of believers who must work, there is no other way. "When we compare the present day church to the original blueprint [the Divine Original] it is strikingly apparent that many deviations have been permitted which are detrimental to the life of the Church... there came terrible distortions from which we are suffering greatly today. The popular thinking fastened upon the building as the identifying symbol of the Church and emphasis was put upon great imposing structures and massive cathedrals. In the beginning, 'working in the church' meant to exercise a gift or perform a [God-given] ministry among Christian people wherever they were, but gradually it came to mean doing some religious act within a building. Along with this there came a gradual transfer of responsibility from the people to what was termed 'the clergy', which is a term derived from the Latin 'clericus' meaning 'priest.' The Scriptural concept that every believer is a priest before God was gradually lost and a special body emerged and came to be termed 'the ministry'... In the early church there was never a single pastor (elder, overseer) but several. Nor were these men who always devoted their full time to the ministry. There were not church bosses or final authorities. There are to be examples. When they themselves obey the word, others are motivated to follow. When the entire body of believers, equipped and guided by the Holy Spirit, do the work of the Body of Christ, the whole body stirs with resurrection power." Ray Stedman "God never used the old creation to construct the new creation. Neither does God use that which is of man to construct that which is of God. It's all about the Source -- this is the whole issue: from where does it originate? If it isn't out of Christ, it isn't the Church. If it has another Lord than Jesus, it isn't the Church. From eternity God purposed to obtain a Church containing no impurity of man, no element of earth, nor any savor of sin; every part of the Church is out of Christ." Watchman Nee _________________________________________________ All Things in Jesus Consider Jesus "For from Him and through Him are all things -- for all things originate with Him and come from Him, and all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him." Romans 11:36 (Amplified) "Repent therefore, and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and He may send Jesus, the Christ, appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient times." Acts 3:19-21 "For in Him all things were created both in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -- all things have been created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also Head of the body, the Church; and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead; so that He, Himself, might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of the cross." Colossians 1:16-19 "And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22, 23 _________________________________________________ A Kingdom of Priests Building Blocks "The Church is a universal priesthood. In the Church God's people are God's priests. If there are people, there are priests. There are as many priests as there are Christians. Every one of us must draw near to God and offer spiritual sacrifices. All should offer the sacrifices, all should take part in spiritual matters. This is not a selective ministry, for all are to serve God. Unless all are involved, it is not the Church. In the organized visible church we see a separation between the priests (the clergy) and the other believers. An inner group has come between God and His people. This is the work and teaching of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2). We cannot allow this inner group to exist. We will not accept any group standing between God's children and God, serving as an intermediary priesthood. In the Church every child of God is a priest. We do not ask one or a few to manage spiritual things for us. We see today the presence of an in-group in Christianity -- those who are appointed to serve God while the rest of the people are merely members of the church. The idea of an intermediary class comes from the world, from the flesh, from idol worship, and from the love of the world. If, from the beginning, all brethren would deny themselves, the world and its idols, they would be able to offer themselves to God. I want to show brothers and sisters that, during the last days, it is God's intention to recover things to His original design. He is going the way of recovery. He is going to bring His children to this course. One basic segment of His recovery is the restoration of the universal priesthood of believers. If the priesthood is not universal, we have failed God; we have not walked in His way. We are following man's traditions. I charge you, do not expect or allow anyone to be a priest for you." Watchman Nee "He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father." Revelation 1:6 "I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." Romans 12:1 "Gather My godly ones to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." Psalm 50:5 _________________________________________________ Conduct in the Household of God Teaching "I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth." 1 Timothy 3:15 From 1 Thessalonians 5:11-22: Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Examine everything, hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from every form (or appearance) of evil. Encourage (or comfort) one another. Build up one another. Appreciate those who diligently labor among you. Live in peace with one another. Admonish the unruly (or undisciplined). Encourage the fainthearted, help the weak. Be patient with all men. See that no one repays another with evil. Seek that which is good for one another and all men. From Galatians 6:1-6: If a one is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, looking to yourselves, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. Let each one examine his own work. "Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ." Ephesians 5:21 "Do not speak against one another. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it." James 4:11 "When you gather (assemble), each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be two or at the most three, and each in turn, and let one interpret; but if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God. And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. But if a revelation is made to one who is seated, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and be exhorted; and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." 1 Corinthians 14:26-33 _________________________________________________ Spiritual Gifts Teaching Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware... Now there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith ...and to another gifts of healing ...to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another distinguishing of spirits, and to another kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But the one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. For even as the body is one, and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body... For the body is not one member, but many. 1 Corinthians 12:1, 4-14 _________________________________________________ Summing Up Teaching (The Revelation continued...) How God is reviving His Work. How He is making Himself known. God is summing up all things in Christ "In all wisdom and insight He is making known to us the mystery of His will ...which He proposed in Him with a view to an administration of the fullness of times, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon earth." Ephesians 1:8-10 He is: Looking Calling Separating Gathering Unifying God looks for any who seek Him. Those He finds He calls. Those who answer, He delivers. Those He delivers, He separates. Those He separates He gathers. Those He gathers He takes unto Himself. They are His people, He is their God. _________________________________________________ Looking Teaching "The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God." Psalm 14:2 "The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men, the Lord tests the righteous and the wicked..." Psalm 11:4, 5 "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Hebrews 4:13 What is God looking for? A checklist: Any who understand or who seek after Him Those who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth Those who fear Him Those who eagerly wait for His coming Those who are faithful even unto death Any who walk in His way Those who tremble at His word The humble and contrite of spirit Those who work righteousness Those who grieve about the abominations and lawlessness committed in His name All whose hearts are completely His Those who stand in obedience in the midst of rebellion A place for His name to dwell _________________________________________________ Calling Teaching "Out of that vast organization called the world, out of the great mass of individuals belonging to it and involved in it, clean out of that, God has called us. Thus comes the title 'Church', ekklesia, 'God's called out ones.' From the midst of the great kosmos God calls one here and one there; and all who He calls, He calls 'out.' There is no such thing as a call from God that is not a call 'out' of the world." Watchman Nee Our spiritual history is based on just such a call: "Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to a land which I will show you.' So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him... Abram was 75 years old when he departed." Genesis 12:1-4 "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed... By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land..." Hebrews 11:8-16 Abraham confessed that he was a stranger and exile on earth, he made it clear that he was not seeking a country of his own; he was seeking a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God was not ashamed of him and not ashamed to be called his God; for He has prepared a city for him and for all who trust Him and obey. What is His call to us today? "Do not be unequally bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' 'Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,' says the Lord. 'And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. And I will be a Father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord Almighty." 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 And what is our answer? All the people said, Amen! The call joins a spiritual truth -- God's people are "called out-ones," with a spiritual exercise -- God's people obey when He calls. And just as with Abraham, the call to each of us is personal and specific, it is a call to move out to a place where we must live by faith. There we will learn the things that Abraham learned -- that we are strangers and exiles on this earth. And then God will not be ashamed to be called our God. A personal note: A family commitment. We will not love the world nor the things in the world. We will set no worthless thing before our eyes. Whatever we set our hands to do each day, we will say, "If the Lord is willing!" If we should prosper spiritually or humanly, we will not fashion our prosperity into our pride or joy; we will not worship the work of our hands, our hearts or our spirits. We will allow no dream, success, possession, or person to entangle us. The world has many songs to sing but we choose to sing this song: Where He leads us we will follow, We'll go with Him all the way. _________________________________________________ Separating Teaching (The response to God's call...) "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sin." Revelation 18:4 "The basis of separation is the seeing of what God requires, the seeing of what God is after. If a man is not clear about God's requirement, he will have no separation." Watchman Nee "He delivered us and saved us and called us with a calling in itself holy and leading to holiness, a life of consecration, a vocation of holiness which was given in Christ Jesus before the world began." 2 Timothy 1:9 "You are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have set you apart from the people to be Mine." Leviticus 20:26 "For God's people in the Old Testament separation came to be not so much an external set of laws that one 'obeyed' but an entire way of living, which one guarded or kept. The Law structured life, it thereby also structured space and time. We will have a surer sense of the lived experience of the Law if we try to imagine these dimensions as ancient Jews did. Space was understood to be ordered along a gradient of holiness with less holy as the world beyond territorial Israel, (the Diaspora); more holy, the land of Israel; still more holy, the city of Jerusalem; and within the city, graduated zones of holiness order -- the temple mount from the least holy (the court of the Gentiles) to the most holy (the Holy of Holies) where only the chosen priest could enter and that only once a year. Holiness for the Jewish people was a system, not an abstraction; it was the measure of separation from the common, of being apart for God." Paula Fredriksen "Does it seem but a small thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to Himself...?" Numbers 16:9, 10 Does it seem a small thing to us? Are we paying attention? And what is He separating us from and how are we separated? For us, too, holiness must not be an abstraction; it is "the measure of separation from the common, of being set apart for God." It is a sacred space within us, within our minds, our hearts, our spirits, where God is King; He speaks, we believe; He commands, we obey; He calls, we separate and come out; He disciplines, we endure with thanksgiving; He reprimands, we repent and change. Then, it is that space within the reach of our arm, the space that encompasses our lives in the world (in the world but not of the world), a sphere we also set apart for God. Here, too, His will is our command -- His will is done (on earth as it is in heaven). And His kingdom comes on earth in that space that belongs to us. _________________________________________________ Unifying Teaching "...He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ and He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together with Him in the heavenly sphere in Christ Jesus... Therefore, we are no longer outsiders ...but now share citizenship with the saints; we belong to God's household. We are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself the chief cornerstone... In Him -- and in fellowship with one another -- we are being built up with the rest to form a dwelling place, a fixed abode, of God in the Spirit." Ephesians 2:5, 6 (Amplified) "There is one body, and one Spirit ...one hope of our calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift... And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, to the building up of the Body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Ephesians 4:4-13 _________________________________________________ The Day of Visitation Teaching (The Revelation continued...) How God is reviving His work. How God is making Himself known. God is aroused and risen from His holy habitation. He is coming and will dwell among us. We must "recognize the time of our visitation." Luke 19:44 The Vision Be still my soul and listen: God is aroused and risen from His holy habitation. Even now He is moving among us. I hear Him say to me - "Sing and rejoice, O my daughter, for lo I come." "I will dwell in the midst of you and you shall know that I am the Lord." "Now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage. For we are slaves; yet in our bondage, our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us ...to give us a reviving to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. And now, our God, what shall we say after this?" Ezra 9:8-10a "Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; be courageous and act." Ezra 10:4 _________________________________________________ Gathering Teaching "Gathering includes the bringing together of God's people for a gathering of the Body and wider gatherings in regard to His coming again. In both, His people do not just meet, they are brought together by the Holy Spirit." I Am Standing There "Sing and rejoice, O my daughter, for lo I come. I will dwell in the midst of you and you shall know I am the Lord." The Vision "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in their midst." (Not just within us, individually, but in our midst, collectively.) Matthew 18:20 Why are we being gathered? "...with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him." 2 Thessalonians 2:1 "...to encourage one another, and all the more as we see the day drawing near..." Hebrews 10:25 "...to set us apart, separate us, to manifest His holiness is in us..." (He sets us in moral contrast to all that surrounds us.) Exodus 28:24, 26 "...to educate us (train us in righteousness) and nourish us for three years, that at the end of that time, we might stand before the King." Daniel 1:5 To Be Gathered -- a definition; we are gathered, we do not just meet. "To be gathered is not to merely go ourselves, it is to be moved by the Holy Spirit. And we come, not on our own affairs, but having a single common concern for His. It is this that unites us into His name. And when we do so, then Jesus is in our midst, leading, revealing, enlightening." Watchman Nee "When you gather, each one has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation of it. Let everything be edifying and for the good of all." 1 Corinthians 14:26 Scripture: "Gather together and pray ...while there is still time -- before judgment begins and your opportunity is blown away like chaff; before the fierce anger of the Lord falls and the terrible day of His wrath begins. Beg Him to save you, all who are humble, all who have tried to obey. Walk humbly and do what is right; perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you from His wrath in that day of doom." Zephaniah.2:1-4 "Gather My godly ones to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." Psalm 50:15 "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has delivered from the hand of the adversary, and gathered from the lands: the east, the west, the north, the south." Psalm 107:2 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come to pray to Me and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you, declares the Lord and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile." Jeremiah 29:11-14 "And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect at His coming." Matthew 24:31 "They will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory and then He will send forth the angels and will gather together His elect..." Mark 13:26, 27 "I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob, I will surely collect the remnant of Israel; I will bring them together as sheep in a fold, as a flock in the midst of their pasture." Micah 2:12 "I will gather you together and bring you home again and give you a good name, a name of distinction among the peoples of the earth and they will praise you when I restore your fortune before your eyes." Zephaniah 3:20 "I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feast -- they came from you, O Zion; the reproach of the exile is a burden on them." Zephaniah 3:18 "...you will be gathered one by one..." Isaiah 27:12 "Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him, that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God, displaying himself as God." 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 "And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him. (For I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and My God is my strength), He says, 'It is too light a thing that You should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may be to the end of the earth.'" Isaiah 49:5, 6 _________________________________________________ Gathering (continued) Teaching (The Revelation continued...) How God is reviving His work. How He is making Himself known. God is restoring things to the Divine Original. "Seek from the book of the Lord and read: Not one of these will be missing, none will lack its mate. For His mouth has commanded and His Spirit has gathered them. And He has cast the lot for them, and His hand has divided it to them by line, they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they shall dwell in it." Isaiah 34:16, 17 _________________________________________________ God's Eyes Are Now on the Kingdom Teaching (The Revelation continued...) 9/24/2001 "Consider, I pray you, from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was re-laid, consider this... From this day on I will bless you. And again the word of the Lord came ...on the twenty-fourth day of the month saying, 'I will shake the heavens and the earth; and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms and I will destroy the strength of kingdoms of the nations...' 'In that day,' says the Lord of hosts, 'will I make you My signet ring; for I have chosen you...'" Haggai 2:18-23 "You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood. See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking... He has promised saying, 'Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.' And this expression, 'Yet once more,' denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God the acceptable service with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:22-29