Qualifying for Kingdom Dominion Part Three
THE KINGDOM OF GOD -Part 59 - by J. Preston Eby
A dear friend of ours in the city of Detroit shared this meaningful experience with us some years ago following a message I brought along this line. She said, "I will never forget my first day in school in a rural community in the South. I arrived alone, but refused to go inside. I didn't think that I would enjoy school, and was quite certain that I didn't need an education. In my childish mind I made a firm decision not to go to school at all. Quickly I passed by and went straight to my grandmother's home. Grandmother, surprised at seeing me, asked, 'Why, Veta, what are you doing here? Didn't school start today?' I actually felt that I was in command and could carry out my plans, so I replied with finality, 'I have decided not to go to school!'
"Grandmother was a wise old woman, and appeared to respect my decision. She didn't scold, but sadly said, 'I'm so sorry to hear that, Veta. I'm really disappointed that you aren't going to school. You see, grandmother needs someone to write letters for her, and I had hoped that you would go to school and learn to write. I thought you would be the one to write the letters for me.' I loved my grandmother very much, and her words impacted my childish mind. I changed my mind, deciding to go to school just long enough to learn how to write. I left grandmother's, made my way back down the road to school, arriving late, of course, and walked in with my hat and coat on for I was certain that I would be there for only a short time. The teacher was very understanding and quite gentle with me. Later, I found myself at the blackboard, chalk in hand, the teacher's hand upon mine, showing me how to make the number 2 along with the letters of the alphabet. After some minutes I asked the teacher when would we get on with the writing. Suddenly the whole prospect loomed menacingly before my mind and irritatedly I inwardly shouted, 'If we don't go faster than this, I'm going to be here ALL DAY!' And I was, of course! I went back to school the next day, and the next, and the next for many years to come! I became a star student, and a joy to my grandmother."
So God, omniscient and omnipotent, has established here upon earth a School for the training of those destined to be the future rulers of the universe. This School is known as "the church, the body of Christ." None shall ever rule as King-Priests after the order of Melchizedek who have not graduated from this School! And what a great Teacher we have! One begins in God's School of Kingship and Priesthood in the first grade. You start with the ABC's. God opens the class and says, "Now children, we are going to learn how to rule. To rule means to govern, to control, to be master over that which is ruled. You can never rule anything until first you overcome it within yourself. To 'overcome' means to COME UP OVER THAT WHICH IS OVER YOU. When, within yourself, you rise above the circumstance, the problem, the obstacle, the weakness, the temptation, so that it no longer controls you, you are then ready to control it, no longer to be the victim of circumstances, but the master of them." That is the first lesson, the first step in becoming a King! And so, in the nitty-gritty of everyday life God teaches us how to overcome, how to reign, how to bless, how to love, how to have compassion, how to be a King and a Priest in His Kingdom.
The promises of God are vast and varied. Some of them, like forgiveness of sins and healing, are free and unconditional and may be obtained very easily. That is why so many receive them! But if you would be a King-Priest and receive the power to rule over, bless, and deliver creation, if you would learn the life, authority, and government of God to reign in His Kingdom, then that is a different matter altogether! You must become a follower of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. It takes patience to attain any worthy goal. It takes endurance too. No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. Even in this hour some do look back to the former orders of the church age that God has brought them through, and clinging to a lesser realm disqualify themselves for God's fullness. We do not attain sonship by a single bound. Neither do we qualify for Kingship and Priesthood in a moment of time. It is not an experience we can receive one night at the altar. It cannot be conferred on us by the laying on of hands. We cannot claim it and seize it today by faith. We have need of patience. We must through faith and patience grow up unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ. We must become mature, spiritually skilled ones through experience. Only such can serve as Kings and Priests of the Most High God!
The following historical sketch came across my desk. It was the time of the French Revolution. They beheaded the king and then the queen. The crown prince was left orphaned. Somebody said, "Behead the little prince." But then the devilish suggestion was made, "Don't behead him; you'll only send his soul to Heaven; that's too good for royalty! I say turn him over to Old Meg; she'll teach him the vile, filthy words and ways of the street. Then he'll end up going to hell." So, as the story goes, he was turned over to this wicked woman of the streets, who tried to get him to repeat these ugly, profane words and commit vile, filthy acts. But, he would stamp his feet, clench his fists, and his little golden curls would shake on his velvet shoulders, and he would say, "I will not say it; I will not do it; I was born to be a king, and I will not do it!" I say to every person reading these lines today, you were born to be a prince, you were born to be a king with Christ upon His throne and His Father's throne, and therefore you will be an overcomer!
Ern Baxter, who worked and ministered with William Branham and the great healing revivals of the late 1940's and the 1950's was once asked to share how he later faced the change in his relationship with William Branham and the whole healing movement. He said, "In the ministry with William Branham, I saw a dimension of the supernatural that had in it such seeds of spiritual unity and other good fruits that my excitement was hard to contain. But when I saw carnality start to invade the movement -- exaggeration, misrepresentation, metaphysics, and eventually the breakdown of many of the healers in critical areas of their lives because they couldn't handle the crowds, the popularity, or the money -- I had to withdraw from it. That was one of the most traumatic times in my life. I did a lot of praying at that time, a lot of groaning. In fact, I did a lot of screaming because I was close to an emotional breakdown. A tremendous move of God had been sold out so cheaply; it was difficult to handle.
If I hadn't had an experience with God, if I hadn't had a consciousness of His sovereignty, if I hadn't had some kind of a relationship with God based on process, I don't know what I would have done. I had maintained the pastoral oversight of a church while working with Branham, and I went back and gave myself totally to that. I was now ministering in a church, where before I had been with thousands of people in city-shaking meetings. It was quite a shock. I would go to my study, get down on the floor, and just groan. I'd talk to God, and just wait. I couldn't do anything else. If it were not for my relationship with God, my knowing God, I could have taken the extreme position that Christianity was all just a 'bunch of bunk.' But I couldn't do that, because it wasn't a matter of Christianity; it wasn't a matter of the healers; it was a matter of who was the most important person in this, and that was GOD. God wasn't bunk to me. I knew that. I knew God, and I knew where God was."
Ah, yes, my beloved, many have failed in the in-part realm and have been disqualified and fallen by the wayside, leaving heartbreak, tragedy, and disaster in the body of Christ. Of a certainty I know that it shall not be thus in the King-Priest ministry of the manifested sons of God! Those who come with the Christ making war, subduing the nations unto God, restoring all things and delivering creation from the bondage of corruption shall themselves be incorruptible, having been called, and chosen, and faithful, tested in the wilderness, tried in the fire, proven under pressure, purged, refined, purified, molded and fashioned into the very nature and character of Christ. These shall reign with Christ over all things because they have first reigned with Him within themselves!
As I have pointed out many times before, the journey to the throne of the universe begins in that small and undistinguished place where you are. The Kingdom of God is within you. The enChristed who are to reign with Christ from sea to sea, then from planet to planet, and finally from universe to universe, are being prepared. Think not in your heart, precious friend of mine, that you may pass your life here careless, indifferent to the dealings of God, suddenly to awake one fine morning to find yourself sitting with Christ governing the galaxies, because such a thing will not be. Begin today to prepare for the kingship! This present time is but a proving ground for those who through grace will reign with their Lord over the endless vastnesses of infinity. He is raising us up to sit with Him in the higher than heavenlies. And the place which He is preparing for each one is not only a world to come, and a Kingdom of Life and Light, but a place IN HIM, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, spirit of His spirit, mind of His mind, nature of His nature, wisdom of His wisdom, power of His power, authority of His authority, and life of His life!
Years ago an IBM junior executive made a mistake that cost the company several million dollars. IBM's founder, Thomas J. Watson Sr., summoned him into his office. Assuming the worst, the sullied young executive said, "I guess you want my resignation?" Mr. Watson replied, "You can't be serious. We've just spent millions of dollars educating you!" God is the founder of the most important enterprise of all -- the Kingdom of God. God is now in the process of hiring, educating and developing His management team. He is training us to become powerful rulers in that Kingdom in the day when He initiates the next phase of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. How much has God already invested in your training and education? God has made a supreme investment in us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Without that price none of us could even enter into the Kingdom of God, much less attain the high-ranking positions God has waiting for those who overcome -- who graduate from His school. But God doesn't stop there. He invests in us daily through His guidance and processings, and through the continuous gracious outpourings and deep and vital dealings of His Spirit. God is at work in us!
In a very real sense, God owns us. The apostle Paul reminds us, "For ye were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (I Cor. 6:20). The great King of this Kingdom expects to see a profit for all of His time, effort, and sacrifice. God, of course, is not interested in making money. He already owns everything. God is in the business of developing His family -- sons with character. If those of us who are called now succeed in qualifying for positions of rulership, we will in turn be able to help millions of others become citizens of the Kingdom. To put it in business terms, our future profit to the Kingdom of God will more than make up for our present losses -- if we stay with the organization and apply the new lessons! Saints, like the junior executive at IBM, are capable of making costly mistakes. Have you ever felt that God has given up on you? Do you feel like you are wasting His time? Sometimes our mistakes are very costly to us, too! Have you ever felt that the cost is too high, and that you are wasting your time? Let's see what God says: "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6).
God will never give up on us! He is investing in us with every intention of making a profit and expanding His Kingdom. Our all-wise Father sees our potential. He knows our capacity to grow and develop. He is keener at discerning it than we are. He is also well aware of our weakness, and is ready to help. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," said Paul. The children of God make a lot of mistakes, for children are children. Our ability to learn from our mistakes is part of what God uses to build character in us. In the book of Revelation, we read that it is the overcomers -- those who don't leave God's school or resign from His calling -- who ultimately are given power in His Kingdom. "And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every one according to his work" (Rev. 22:12). "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more" (Lk. 12:48). Have you made costly mistakes? Have you been stumbling and seemingly wasting God's time? Don't resign! Don't drop out of God's school! His investment in you is too great! He will see you through! Graduation day is coming! The positions in His authority and glory are waiting! Learn the lessons that will help you to better serve in the Kingdom of God. If you do, great heavenly wealth and power and opportunity lie ahead for you in the age and in the ages to come. Through you creation will be lifted, redeemed, restored to life and liberty and glory -- and that's where the real profit begins!
Let us learn our lessons well -- and let us never presume that we have attained to something in God that we have not yet qualified for. And let us never grasp after a place or position the Father has not conferred upon us. There is no need to DECLARE OUR SONSHIP -- the Father Himself declares His sons. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is my Son, hear ye Him." Some today have grown weary of waiting for the manifestation God has promised, so they have "watered down" the hope and settled for a lesser reality, declaring themselves sons of the Kingdom on a lower plane than God has called us to. Some have settled for a "revival" realm, or a "New Testament Church" realm and now speak disparagingly of what they term "classical sonship." These impetuous souls just can't wait for the Father's appointed time. The place that God has called us to will be in His time, not ours. "The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father" (Gal. 4:1-2). The story is told of a fifteen year old boy who stole his father's car keys. The father's plan was to give the keys to his son a year later. The boy, however, thought that he had all the attributes necessary to drive the car. The father knew better; he understood the law, insurance liability, driving skills, and such like. As a result, the court would not let the boy drive a car until he became twenty-one. Let us earnestly seek wisdom from above to avoid such a costly error of SELF-MANIFESTATION!
Brother Bob Torango wrote the following powerful exhortation some years ago, and it is still as pertinent today as when he penned it. "Are we ready now for the greater things of this word and walk? I pray so. If not, you can be sure of one thing, the Lord will be faithful to hide them from us until such a time as they will be a blessing in our life and not a curse. I believe it to be vital that we leave the rudimentary basics of this word and shove away from the shore to the deepness of the waters. We have only dealt with the surface things thus far. We have striven to be happier than we were yesterday, more prosperous than we were last year, try not to cuss so much and love our families like we should. Excuse me for being so blunt, but shouldn't we be doing these things by now? I may be wrong, but it seems to me there are too many people connected with this revelation that are constantly having to attend self-help meetings and seminars on 'How To Keep Your Marriage' and 'Have You Talked To Your Kids Today?' Those are First and Second Day problems. Surely somebody is ready to venture into the things beyond the keeping of the basic rules necessary to live in a civilized world. The ten commandments should suffice to keep us from killing each other! If we can't even love our own mate or friends, how in the world can we expect to come into a word that says we must love our enemies? We need to be EMPOWERED!
"I hear from the community of Kingdom folk how much revelation we have, and we are in the Third Day, and we have arrived into the Holiest of all, and just any moment now we are going to walk on water and glow in the dark. But look around you! Ministry are still playing a game of politics and preying on feeble-minded people, and the body of Christ can't even forgive one another of wrongs or say an apology if they have wronged someone else. There has to be a people that is ready to go on into the things that God has prepared for this new dimension of ministry regardless of whether their friends are ready to go or not. We'll just have to pick them up on the next go around -- visit them in the next visitation and leave them our forwarding address. We must go on! If we stay here we will die. The only hope for those who refuse to pay the price of this next transition is for you to leave them in the hands of the First and Second Day ministries and go through the door and believe that God will send you back to them at another time."
Everything that is worthy and valuable is filled with labor, and the road to it always lies through the mountains of difficulty and the valleys of testing, never through the plains of ease. Dearly beloved, let us give diligence to make our calling an election sure. Let us strive to enter the straight gate. Let us run that we may receive the prize. Let us fight, not as those who beat the air. Let us press toward the mark and never flinch under stress or the pain. Let us not be mere religious wind bags who make great claims of revelation and attainment but do not live up to them. A religious windbag claims intimate knowledge of God, but his behavior shows no signs of such knowledge. He claims to walk with God and to know the ways of God, but such a relationship has little affect on the way he treats his wife and children. He is like the farmer in the fairy tale who brags that his daughter can spin straw into gold -- but, of course, that is all talk. His poor daughter is forced to try and live up to her father's lie, but she never can. Our claims to sonship must not be empty. If we want to be sure we have this Life, our expression of nature and character must be like Jesus. Love describes Jesus! Love was made perfect in Him, and it must be in us, too.
A dear brother pointed out that there was a time in our childhood when we played "grown-ups." He added, "I see in my spirit that there are children who are merely playing 'sons.' They appear to be sons, they speak like, and they act like sons, yet there is more pretending than being. They still cling to worldly joys, to family ties, and to the old ways and customs of Babylon. My dear brethren, this is not a voice of condemnation, for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ, it is a voice of discernment, a voice of love, tenderly admonishing the precious jewels of the Father to abandon all, and to enter into the dawning of the Day of the Lord, that He might manifest Himself in us, as He prepares to manifest us to each other and then to the world." God grant it!
A dear friend of ours in the city of Detroit shared this meaningful experience with us some years ago following a message I brought along this line. She said, "I will never forget my first day in school in a rural community in the South. I arrived alone, but refused to go inside. I didn't think that I would enjoy school, and was quite certain that I didn't need an education. In my childish mind I made a firm decision not to go to school at all. Quickly I passed by and went straight to my grandmother's home. Grandmother, surprised at seeing me, asked, 'Why, Veta, what are you doing here? Didn't school start today?' I actually felt that I was in command and could carry out my plans, so I replied with finality, 'I have decided not to go to school!'
"Grandmother was a wise old woman, and appeared to respect my decision. She didn't scold, but sadly said, 'I'm so sorry to hear that, Veta. I'm really disappointed that you aren't going to school. You see, grandmother needs someone to write letters for her, and I had hoped that you would go to school and learn to write. I thought you would be the one to write the letters for me.' I loved my grandmother very much, and her words impacted my childish mind. I changed my mind, deciding to go to school just long enough to learn how to write. I left grandmother's, made my way back down the road to school, arriving late, of course, and walked in with my hat and coat on for I was certain that I would be there for only a short time. The teacher was very understanding and quite gentle with me. Later, I found myself at the blackboard, chalk in hand, the teacher's hand upon mine, showing me how to make the number 2 along with the letters of the alphabet. After some minutes I asked the teacher when would we get on with the writing. Suddenly the whole prospect loomed menacingly before my mind and irritatedly I inwardly shouted, 'If we don't go faster than this, I'm going to be here ALL DAY!' And I was, of course! I went back to school the next day, and the next, and the next for many years to come! I became a star student, and a joy to my grandmother."
So God, omniscient and omnipotent, has established here upon earth a School for the training of those destined to be the future rulers of the universe. This School is known as "the church, the body of Christ." None shall ever rule as King-Priests after the order of Melchizedek who have not graduated from this School! And what a great Teacher we have! One begins in God's School of Kingship and Priesthood in the first grade. You start with the ABC's. God opens the class and says, "Now children, we are going to learn how to rule. To rule means to govern, to control, to be master over that which is ruled. You can never rule anything until first you overcome it within yourself. To 'overcome' means to COME UP OVER THAT WHICH IS OVER YOU. When, within yourself, you rise above the circumstance, the problem, the obstacle, the weakness, the temptation, so that it no longer controls you, you are then ready to control it, no longer to be the victim of circumstances, but the master of them." That is the first lesson, the first step in becoming a King! And so, in the nitty-gritty of everyday life God teaches us how to overcome, how to reign, how to bless, how to love, how to have compassion, how to be a King and a Priest in His Kingdom.
The promises of God are vast and varied. Some of them, like forgiveness of sins and healing, are free and unconditional and may be obtained very easily. That is why so many receive them! But if you would be a King-Priest and receive the power to rule over, bless, and deliver creation, if you would learn the life, authority, and government of God to reign in His Kingdom, then that is a different matter altogether! You must become a follower of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. It takes patience to attain any worthy goal. It takes endurance too. No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. Even in this hour some do look back to the former orders of the church age that God has brought them through, and clinging to a lesser realm disqualify themselves for God's fullness. We do not attain sonship by a single bound. Neither do we qualify for Kingship and Priesthood in a moment of time. It is not an experience we can receive one night at the altar. It cannot be conferred on us by the laying on of hands. We cannot claim it and seize it today by faith. We have need of patience. We must through faith and patience grow up unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ. We must become mature, spiritually skilled ones through experience. Only such can serve as Kings and Priests of the Most High God!
The following historical sketch came across my desk. It was the time of the French Revolution. They beheaded the king and then the queen. The crown prince was left orphaned. Somebody said, "Behead the little prince." But then the devilish suggestion was made, "Don't behead him; you'll only send his soul to Heaven; that's too good for royalty! I say turn him over to Old Meg; she'll teach him the vile, filthy words and ways of the street. Then he'll end up going to hell." So, as the story goes, he was turned over to this wicked woman of the streets, who tried to get him to repeat these ugly, profane words and commit vile, filthy acts. But, he would stamp his feet, clench his fists, and his little golden curls would shake on his velvet shoulders, and he would say, "I will not say it; I will not do it; I was born to be a king, and I will not do it!" I say to every person reading these lines today, you were born to be a prince, you were born to be a king with Christ upon His throne and His Father's throne, and therefore you will be an overcomer!
Ern Baxter, who worked and ministered with William Branham and the great healing revivals of the late 1940's and the 1950's was once asked to share how he later faced the change in his relationship with William Branham and the whole healing movement. He said, "In the ministry with William Branham, I saw a dimension of the supernatural that had in it such seeds of spiritual unity and other good fruits that my excitement was hard to contain. But when I saw carnality start to invade the movement -- exaggeration, misrepresentation, metaphysics, and eventually the breakdown of many of the healers in critical areas of their lives because they couldn't handle the crowds, the popularity, or the money -- I had to withdraw from it. That was one of the most traumatic times in my life. I did a lot of praying at that time, a lot of groaning. In fact, I did a lot of screaming because I was close to an emotional breakdown. A tremendous move of God had been sold out so cheaply; it was difficult to handle.
If I hadn't had an experience with God, if I hadn't had a consciousness of His sovereignty, if I hadn't had some kind of a relationship with God based on process, I don't know what I would have done. I had maintained the pastoral oversight of a church while working with Branham, and I went back and gave myself totally to that. I was now ministering in a church, where before I had been with thousands of people in city-shaking meetings. It was quite a shock. I would go to my study, get down on the floor, and just groan. I'd talk to God, and just wait. I couldn't do anything else. If it were not for my relationship with God, my knowing God, I could have taken the extreme position that Christianity was all just a 'bunch of bunk.' But I couldn't do that, because it wasn't a matter of Christianity; it wasn't a matter of the healers; it was a matter of who was the most important person in this, and that was GOD. God wasn't bunk to me. I knew that. I knew God, and I knew where God was."
Ah, yes, my beloved, many have failed in the in-part realm and have been disqualified and fallen by the wayside, leaving heartbreak, tragedy, and disaster in the body of Christ. Of a certainty I know that it shall not be thus in the King-Priest ministry of the manifested sons of God! Those who come with the Christ making war, subduing the nations unto God, restoring all things and delivering creation from the bondage of corruption shall themselves be incorruptible, having been called, and chosen, and faithful, tested in the wilderness, tried in the fire, proven under pressure, purged, refined, purified, molded and fashioned into the very nature and character of Christ. These shall reign with Christ over all things because they have first reigned with Him within themselves!
As I have pointed out many times before, the journey to the throne of the universe begins in that small and undistinguished place where you are. The Kingdom of God is within you. The enChristed who are to reign with Christ from sea to sea, then from planet to planet, and finally from universe to universe, are being prepared. Think not in your heart, precious friend of mine, that you may pass your life here careless, indifferent to the dealings of God, suddenly to awake one fine morning to find yourself sitting with Christ governing the galaxies, because such a thing will not be. Begin today to prepare for the kingship! This present time is but a proving ground for those who through grace will reign with their Lord over the endless vastnesses of infinity. He is raising us up to sit with Him in the higher than heavenlies. And the place which He is preparing for each one is not only a world to come, and a Kingdom of Life and Light, but a place IN HIM, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, spirit of His spirit, mind of His mind, nature of His nature, wisdom of His wisdom, power of His power, authority of His authority, and life of His life!
Years ago an IBM junior executive made a mistake that cost the company several million dollars. IBM's founder, Thomas J. Watson Sr., summoned him into his office. Assuming the worst, the sullied young executive said, "I guess you want my resignation?" Mr. Watson replied, "You can't be serious. We've just spent millions of dollars educating you!" God is the founder of the most important enterprise of all -- the Kingdom of God. God is now in the process of hiring, educating and developing His management team. He is training us to become powerful rulers in that Kingdom in the day when He initiates the next phase of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. How much has God already invested in your training and education? God has made a supreme investment in us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Without that price none of us could even enter into the Kingdom of God, much less attain the high-ranking positions God has waiting for those who overcome -- who graduate from His school. But God doesn't stop there. He invests in us daily through His guidance and processings, and through the continuous gracious outpourings and deep and vital dealings of His Spirit. God is at work in us!
In a very real sense, God owns us. The apostle Paul reminds us, "For ye were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (I Cor. 6:20). The great King of this Kingdom expects to see a profit for all of His time, effort, and sacrifice. God, of course, is not interested in making money. He already owns everything. God is in the business of developing His family -- sons with character. If those of us who are called now succeed in qualifying for positions of rulership, we will in turn be able to help millions of others become citizens of the Kingdom. To put it in business terms, our future profit to the Kingdom of God will more than make up for our present losses -- if we stay with the organization and apply the new lessons! Saints, like the junior executive at IBM, are capable of making costly mistakes. Have you ever felt that God has given up on you? Do you feel like you are wasting His time? Sometimes our mistakes are very costly to us, too! Have you ever felt that the cost is too high, and that you are wasting your time? Let's see what God says: "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6).
God will never give up on us! He is investing in us with every intention of making a profit and expanding His Kingdom. Our all-wise Father sees our potential. He knows our capacity to grow and develop. He is keener at discerning it than we are. He is also well aware of our weakness, and is ready to help. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," said Paul. The children of God make a lot of mistakes, for children are children. Our ability to learn from our mistakes is part of what God uses to build character in us. In the book of Revelation, we read that it is the overcomers -- those who don't leave God's school or resign from His calling -- who ultimately are given power in His Kingdom. "And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every one according to his work" (Rev. 22:12). "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more" (Lk. 12:48). Have you made costly mistakes? Have you been stumbling and seemingly wasting God's time? Don't resign! Don't drop out of God's school! His investment in you is too great! He will see you through! Graduation day is coming! The positions in His authority and glory are waiting! Learn the lessons that will help you to better serve in the Kingdom of God. If you do, great heavenly wealth and power and opportunity lie ahead for you in the age and in the ages to come. Through you creation will be lifted, redeemed, restored to life and liberty and glory -- and that's where the real profit begins!
Let us learn our lessons well -- and let us never presume that we have attained to something in God that we have not yet qualified for. And let us never grasp after a place or position the Father has not conferred upon us. There is no need to DECLARE OUR SONSHIP -- the Father Himself declares His sons. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is my Son, hear ye Him." Some today have grown weary of waiting for the manifestation God has promised, so they have "watered down" the hope and settled for a lesser reality, declaring themselves sons of the Kingdom on a lower plane than God has called us to. Some have settled for a "revival" realm, or a "New Testament Church" realm and now speak disparagingly of what they term "classical sonship." These impetuous souls just can't wait for the Father's appointed time. The place that God has called us to will be in His time, not ours. "The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father" (Gal. 4:1-2). The story is told of a fifteen year old boy who stole his father's car keys. The father's plan was to give the keys to his son a year later. The boy, however, thought that he had all the attributes necessary to drive the car. The father knew better; he understood the law, insurance liability, driving skills, and such like. As a result, the court would not let the boy drive a car until he became twenty-one. Let us earnestly seek wisdom from above to avoid such a costly error of SELF-MANIFESTATION!
Brother Bob Torango wrote the following powerful exhortation some years ago, and it is still as pertinent today as when he penned it. "Are we ready now for the greater things of this word and walk? I pray so. If not, you can be sure of one thing, the Lord will be faithful to hide them from us until such a time as they will be a blessing in our life and not a curse. I believe it to be vital that we leave the rudimentary basics of this word and shove away from the shore to the deepness of the waters. We have only dealt with the surface things thus far. We have striven to be happier than we were yesterday, more prosperous than we were last year, try not to cuss so much and love our families like we should. Excuse me for being so blunt, but shouldn't we be doing these things by now? I may be wrong, but it seems to me there are too many people connected with this revelation that are constantly having to attend self-help meetings and seminars on 'How To Keep Your Marriage' and 'Have You Talked To Your Kids Today?' Those are First and Second Day problems. Surely somebody is ready to venture into the things beyond the keeping of the basic rules necessary to live in a civilized world. The ten commandments should suffice to keep us from killing each other! If we can't even love our own mate or friends, how in the world can we expect to come into a word that says we must love our enemies? We need to be EMPOWERED!
"I hear from the community of Kingdom folk how much revelation we have, and we are in the Third Day, and we have arrived into the Holiest of all, and just any moment now we are going to walk on water and glow in the dark. But look around you! Ministry are still playing a game of politics and preying on feeble-minded people, and the body of Christ can't even forgive one another of wrongs or say an apology if they have wronged someone else. There has to be a people that is ready to go on into the things that God has prepared for this new dimension of ministry regardless of whether their friends are ready to go or not. We'll just have to pick them up on the next go around -- visit them in the next visitation and leave them our forwarding address. We must go on! If we stay here we will die. The only hope for those who refuse to pay the price of this next transition is for you to leave them in the hands of the First and Second Day ministries and go through the door and believe that God will send you back to them at another time."
Everything that is worthy and valuable is filled with labor, and the road to it always lies through the mountains of difficulty and the valleys of testing, never through the plains of ease. Dearly beloved, let us give diligence to make our calling an election sure. Let us strive to enter the straight gate. Let us run that we may receive the prize. Let us fight, not as those who beat the air. Let us press toward the mark and never flinch under stress or the pain. Let us not be mere religious wind bags who make great claims of revelation and attainment but do not live up to them. A religious windbag claims intimate knowledge of God, but his behavior shows no signs of such knowledge. He claims to walk with God and to know the ways of God, but such a relationship has little affect on the way he treats his wife and children. He is like the farmer in the fairy tale who brags that his daughter can spin straw into gold -- but, of course, that is all talk. His poor daughter is forced to try and live up to her father's lie, but she never can. Our claims to sonship must not be empty. If we want to be sure we have this Life, our expression of nature and character must be like Jesus. Love describes Jesus! Love was made perfect in Him, and it must be in us, too.
A dear brother pointed out that there was a time in our childhood when we played "grown-ups." He added, "I see in my spirit that there are children who are merely playing 'sons.' They appear to be sons, they speak like, and they act like sons, yet there is more pretending than being. They still cling to worldly joys, to family ties, and to the old ways and customs of Babylon. My dear brethren, this is not a voice of condemnation, for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ, it is a voice of discernment, a voice of love, tenderly admonishing the precious jewels of the Father to abandon all, and to enter into the dawning of the Day of the Lord, that He might manifest Himself in us, as He prepares to manifest us to each other and then to the world." God grant it!
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