Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Body of Christ’ Category

Duty to Save the World

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , on June 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Ephesians 4:9-16

Let me ask you a question: Why is the ministry given to the church at this time? Ephesians 4:12 explains the reason, “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Do you think that it means that the ministry is going to be completed; come to its completion, its end? That the prophets will cease? That the apostles will cease? Or that the apostle will become the Body, the prophet will become the Body, the evangelist will become the Body? God has set some temporary caretakers to help the Body to come into Christ. I Corinthians 13:10, “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” For the prophet can only prophesy a part, and the evangelist can only evangelize a part, and the apostles can only apostle in part, but Christ is the fullness! Hallelujah! So therefore, that Christ may dwell in you (Ephesians 3:17). There will be in you the fullness of Christ so that the Body becomes Christ. Glory to God!

The scriptures speak of the manchild (see Revelation 12). Do we know what the manchild is? You see, God uses all these little analogies and phrases. A woman in Revelation 12 is pregnant, which means that the church is impregnated with something, the manchild. The manchild church is a church that has Jesus Christ as its head, when Jesus is completely placed on His throne in our hearts. He becomes the Head of the church, and we don’t do anything anymore. No man will be there – man will be gone. Then things will go like this:

John walks down the street, and everybody says, “Hi, John,” and, “Didn’t we know his father and mother? Didn’t he grow up among us? Isn’t he a realtor? Didn’t we know him?” John laughs because they don’t know him. Do you remember what happened to Jesus? They said, “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” (Matthew 13:55). “We know him. He built the chair for Miss Jane over there, and he built a table over there for so and so. We have the table, so we have proof that this man is a carpenter.” They didn’t know Him. So when Christ takes over, man is displaced.

There are people saying that we are claiming to be the manifested sons – NONSENSE! I wish I were. We are not manifested sons, but we believe in it. One day, not far away. It will be any day that you see the world come to the brink of destruction. Then you say, “Jesus, I am ready.” It is because Jesus must activate the church to save the world. God’s world is in danger of being destroyed by the devil, but God will not allow the devil to destroy it. So at least we have that knowledge. We will be activated just in the nick of time, just when midnight is getting so dark that no morning would be there; otherwise, it would have destroyed the whole world. At that time God will bring forth His saints.

He said that the first thing that they will do is stop the war. Hallelujah! Stop the war! Proclaim the Sabbath! No man shall kill any more. Stop it! If any man raises his hand, he will be done. Amen. God said the manchild will rule with a rod of iron (Revelation 12:5); will shepherd the people with a shepherd’s staff of iron. We can’t do it now. We don’t have Christ as our Head as He should be. The fullness is not there. But let us begin to press God. Press God! Do you know why? God will never make you perfect without making me perfect. The brothers in the early church were saying that they were perfect, and Paul responded, “Well, very well. I wish to God it were so, for I would have profited myself.” He is not going to make one person perfect and then you become another Christ, and everybody starts worshipping you. What He is going to do is to perfect all of us together. So there will be a company of people who understand what is going on, and our duty is to save the world, to save humanity.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, December 2006, pg. 8-9)

Thought for today: When midnight gets so dark that there is no more hope for the morning, God will activate His people to save the world.

Read Full Post »

The “Twelve Gates” of the City

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , on June 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Revelation 21:13

Revelation 21:13 says, “On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.”

Whenever we see this kind of repetition in Scripture, it is emphasis; there is something here to understand. First of all, “three” is the number of divine order: Father, Son, Holy Ghost and spirit, soul, body. “Three” is telling us that the “three gates” “on the east” are the perfect order of God to bring the sunrise, the glory of God, into the city. The “three gates” “on the east,” therefore, are those whom God has used to bring in the glory of God into the church.

The “three gates” “on the north” are representative of the ones who come in through tribulation. In the Song of Solomon 4:16, we find a verse which says, “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.“ The north wind blows through “the north…gates” because the “north wind” is going south. Actually, we are talking about those who enter the gate from the north side, those who are coming out of the cold, those who have come through tribulation and have entered through these gates. They are the people of “the north…gates.”

“Three gates” “on the south” are for those who have transgressed, have fallen away from God, have turned back and found their way into the city.

“Three gates” “on the west” speaks of the setting of the sun, those who must come in at evening time, those who have come in late, but they yet have received their place in the “city…Jerusalem.” God has honored them with providing “three gates” to “the west.”

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 3, pages 130-131)

Thought for today: Let us strive to be a part of the three eastern gates: those whom God has used to bring in the glory of God into the church.

Read Full Post »

The New Jerusalem

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , , , on June 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Revelation 21:10-12

Revelation 21:12 describes Jerusalem. “And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.”

This is a spiritual “wall,” and these are spiritual “gates” and “angels” (messengers). “A wall” is made to keep out intruders and to keep in those who are in; it is used as security. When the Lord speaks of “a wall” in the spiritual sense, He is talking about something that prevents intruders. Those who are not belonging cannot come in without proper entrance through the gate.

In the Song of Solomon we see a reference to “wall” in verse 9 of chapter 2. “My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.” “Our wall” is the barrier that we construct in our lives between us and the Lord (the wrong things that make a barrier to prevent God from coming in). Our “Beloved” is the Lord Jesus. We see Him coming and standing “behind our wall,” and “look(ing) forth at the windows” and “shewing himself through the lattice.” In other words, He is trying to make communication with us even in spite of our barriers. Think of the barrier now between the world, the outsiders, and the people of the Lord. It is all spiritual. There is a spiritual fence, a spiritual wall (solid, unable to be breached by those from without) which God has put around the sons of God, around the spiritual city of Jerusalem, the bride, to protect her from the invasion of the outside world.

This “wall” has “twelve gates.” This city has “twelve gates.” A gate is a way, an entrance in. Jesus Christ said, “I am the way,” THE GREAT WAY; and because Jesus is “the way,” all of us who follow Him and walk in His path become a way for someone to come to Jesus. Jesus is “the way” into the Father. We are the different ways into Christ. Someone finds Christ because we led him/her to Christ. We become a way, a gate, a door. In the same way, God is speaking of the 12 tribes of Israel. We are talking about spiritual Israel finding “the way” into the city through the 12 different gates. The 12 apostles, representatives of the 12 gates, and the work of the apostles become a foundation through which and upon which we have built our spiritual life. They have become a permanent way to the city of God, to the New Jerusalem. They are the 12 doors, the 12 gates.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 3, pages 129-130)

Thought for today: Because Jesus is “the way,” all of us who follow Him and walk in His path become a way for someone to come to Jesus.

Read Full Post »

“For Christ’s Sake, Come Alive!”

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , , on May 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Acts 1:8

God is saying to us that His flock is wandering up on the mountain like sheep without a shepherd, yet there is a body of Christ in our midst. I am saying to you, body of Christ, “For Christ’s sake, come alive! Begin to realize your responsibility in a world that needs you badly.”

Do you see what I mean? We have lost the spirit of evangelizing. Do you ever feel like an angel of God at your workplace? Or dealing with people out on the street? This is what God is saying: ev-angel; ev-angel is angel. You see, you are sent of God. As the body of Christ you are sent of God in the world to do a job. ARE YOU DOING IT? You have to start doing it in your midst, then you start doing it outside there. Jesus said, But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Let us look at Ephesians 4 and we go back to that very, very hackneyed [often repeated] verse which has been so used in my Bible that the leaf comes out. Beginning at verse 11, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors shepherds, and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” The work of the ministry is not going to be done by the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. But it is the saints that are going to do the work of the ministry. It is the church that must function. You are a living body. You must walk and talk and function in the world and bring forth fruit and you need to bring forth fruit after your own kind.

Do you realize that you are not doing the work that you could be doing among the kids in your area? Do you know what you could be doing? You could have the brethren picking up kids all over and teaching them about Jesus. Sometimes parents are too happy to get rid of their kids for a couple of hours.

I know a brother that went as far as building a swimming pool and having lifeguards. He got one of those old city busses and fixed it up. He began to pick up the kids on the bus routes all over and bring them in. When he brought in one load of kids, he didn’t give them the fun first. He gave them the songs and the Sunday school lesson and they played music and sang and so and so. When they were through, he put some in the pool and some on the swings in his back yard and they had a good time. Mothers were happy to get rid of them for three hours. Then, he was gone for another group of children and by the time he came in with the other group, the first group was ready to go home and home they went.

What is wrong with us? What is wrong with us? Don’t you see that the time is late and we need to get hold of the people? Let God work in your midst. Volunteer, get some of the people out there, those that don’t belong to us to volunteer to come and help. The next thing that happens is that they get saved too. Do you see what I mean?

We need an outreach of God because He says, “FEED THE FLOCK OF GOD.”

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2011, pg. 23-25)

Thought for today: I am saying to you, body of Christ, “For Christ’s sake, come alive! Begin to realize your responsibility in a world that needs you badly.”

Read Full Post »

Who Is Going to Be Following Christ in His Army?

Posted in Body of Christ, tagged , , , , on April 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Revelation 19:11-14

Let us go to Daniel’s prophecy in Daniel 12:1 and 2, “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” This prophecy tells us that there is going to be a resurrection, and this resurrected army will be with Jesus.

Daniel tells us of the end of the matter when the antichrist will be defeated and who it is that is going to reign and rule. There will be no doubt after we read this. Daniel 7:25-27, “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.”

I want you to notice that he talks about “the people of the saints of the most High,” and then he talks about “him.” This “him” simply means that they will be one in Christ and Christ will be one in them. This will be a one-man company. It is as if you start a conversation with one saint and finish it up with another saint. They would be on the same wave length saying the same thing: one people, one mind.

At this time, “Christ in us” (the church) will not just be “the hope of glory,” but it will be “the glory.” The glory which Jesus Christ asked the Father for in the 17th chapter and the 5th verse of John’s gospel He gave to the church in verse 22. “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given THEM; that they may be one, even as we are one.” Now this is the glory come home to the church. This is what we are seeing in Revelation 19:14 – the church and Christ. Christ in the church functioning as God in the earth. The church in Christ – absolutely, permanently, completely absorbed, made one. Therefore, humanity will be put aside completely forever, and divinity (the gold alone) will show.

The earth will see “The Word of God” in human flesh walking to and fro. If this is not accomplished then Jesus’ death on the cross would not have accomplished fully what God had intended – that we should become like Him and that God should have other sons on earth that “should be like him.” Romans 8:29, “He (was) the firstborn among many brethren.” John 17:22, “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.” Verse 21 shows the oneness and verse 22 shows the glory that will be the oneness.

Revelation 6 is a summary chapter. Verses 10 and 11, “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” We see a special group of martyrs in the heavenlies (verse 10) and they are crying to the Lord asking when the judgment will be on the earth. “And white robes were given unto every one of them.”

In Revelation 19:14 we read that “the armies” were “upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” A white-robed throng is coming. What are they coming for? They are coming to judge and to rule the earth. The “white horses” and the “white robes” are related to judgment. The moment one student in a class gets the lesson and passes the exam, it is a judgment against all the other students who heard the teacher teach the lesson. Here we are. The judgment of the world is the “white robes” that the children of God receive who have attained excellence in God.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 3, pages 78-80)

Thought for today: Let us press for the glory that we be part of the resurrected army of Christ.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »