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Scripture reading: Matthew 20:25-27

The church cannot reach to its height in the Spirit without the function of the prophet ministry. By this, I do not mean prophesying in the church. The ministry of the prophet is one which carries a power and authority in the church next to the apostle.

The mistaken idea about spiritual authority is that men who claim to have authority in the church are mostly those who rule over different sections of the church, BUT authority is from God. WHEN THE WORD SPOKEN is powerful in heaven and on earth, then that is spiritual authority.

An example of this is a situation where a certain minister’s preaching was being challenged, and the brethren decided that they would not have him any more. He said nothing but went away and prayed to God. The result was that they were sorry, and reversed their decision. The authority was exercised in the Spirit.

On the other hand, there are those who speak great swelling words, only to find that the Spirit of God was not with them, and their words did not carry with the spiritual people.

Jesus had this to say of spiritual authority:

Matthew 20:25-27, (RSV) “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but who so ever would be great among you must be your servant, and who so ever would be first among you must be your slave.”

This simply means that God will exalt such a person to a place of authority, so that “whatsoever he binds on earth is bound in heaven.” We can see clearly that God intends a Prophet to speak as the very oracle of God.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 74-75)

Thought for today: WHEN THE WORD SPOKEN is powerful in heaven and on earth, then that is spiritual authority.

Unholy Submission

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Scripture reading: 1 John 4:7

When one allows oneself to be used by a devil for his own purpose, and contrary to the Spirit of God within one’s own being, then the submission is unholy and not ordained of God. In order that the reader might understand the degree of which I speak, let me tell you a story.

There was a sister, whose husband wanted her to go to the bar with him and his friends, who spent their time drinking and dancing. She was advised by certain “shepherds” that she should obey her husband and go. I advised that she should tell him in love that her Lord will not allow her to do so. She obeyed the “shepherds” and went with him, and she thought she would preach to them as they drank. She tried to speak about the Lord to them, but soon everybody kept far away from her, and she became the laughing-stock of the party. Husband and wife were living in a strained atmosphere, and so the wife came back to me for advice.

I told her to pray until she lost all feeling of animosity for her husband, then to approach him in love and to show him her love, then to explain to him the reason she will never go back with him to any more parties. He submitted to the Spirit in which she approached him, and told her he was sorry for the embarrassment he caused her, and promised never to ask her to go again. This was not the end of the story. Some months after, he accepted Jesus as his personal Savior, and the other stage of the battle began – where the woman was more advanced in the things of the Lord than the man, and had to coax him along the path of righteousness, while at the same time being in submission to him.

God cannot agree with submission unto sin.

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God” (1 John 4:7).

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 68-69)

Thought for today: God cannot agree with submission unto sin.

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Scripture reading: Matthew 3:11 & 1 Corinthians 12:13

Water Baptism is an act of Covenant, just as a Marriage Ceremony. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour, there was no cost accrual to us. Our salvation was bought and paid for by The Blood of Jesus Christ. Now that we are Christians, God is asking us to reciprocate. If we want to be a part of the Body of Christ, our first act would be to make a covenant with the Body of Christ, or in other words, declare our loyalty and love by some act of our will. We, therefore, must renounce the former things, and declare our stand for Christ, thus becoming dead to sin and alive unto God.

  1. Natural – Matthew 3:11
    Baptism in water
    Baptizer is man
  2. Spirit – Matthew 3:11
    Baptism in Holy Ghost
    Baptizer is Jesus
  3. Fullness – 1st Corinthians 12:13
    Baptism into Christ
    Baptizer is Holy Ghost

As the chart shows, let us look at the three dimensions which God has ordained for us to operate.

(1) NATURAL – The First dimension is always the natural. Every principle of God is first given to us in the natural. If we allow our understanding to remain in the natural, then it has no real meaning, since the natural will pass away, and at best is temporary. THE NATURAL BAPTISM, THEN, IS IN WATER, AND PERFORMED BY A HUMAN PERSON.

(2) SPIRITUAL – The Second dimension is always spiritual. The spiritual, therefore, is the real purpose for the natural, and it is upon a higher plane. The spiritual baptism is called the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. This is the entering in of the Holy Spirit into the spirit of the individual. In this baptism, instead of being covered over with water, one is covered over with the Holy Spirit, inside and outside. The pattern, however, was laid by the water baptism. Just as the water covered the believer, so also the Holy Spirit covers him, and the Baptizer is Christ Himself.

(3) FULLNESS – The Third dimension is the absolute fulfillment of both natural and spiritual. If we then understand the water baptism, then we will easily understand what the fullness of baptism will be. In this baptism, we are immersed into Christ by the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 6:2 speaks of “baptisms, while Ephesians 4:5 tells us that there is only “one baptism. These are reconciled when we understand that in the one there are three. Matthew 3:11 tells us that John the Baptist baptized with water, but Jesus would baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. That gives us the scripture for the first two. The third is found in 1st Corinthians 12:13, where it states that the Holy Spirit baptizes us into Christ.

An example would be in order at this point. There was a natural man named Israel, and he produced a people named Israel. If this was the end of the story, then it would be a sad one indeed, but the natural Israel produced a man named Jesus Christ, who became the Saviour and Lord of a spiritual nation, and then some of the promises which it was impossible for natural Israel to walk in, the spiritual Israel are walking in. However, this spiritual Israel is just as unsatisfactory before God as the natural Israel. God, therefore, must bring another Israel to be made out of both, which He calls Zion (The Body of Christ), which will be the perfection of Beauty.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 56-57)

Thought for today: We, therefore, must renounce the former things, and declare our stand for Christ, thus becoming dead to sin and alive unto God.

Consecration

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Scripture reading: 2nd Corinthians 6:14-18

When the priest washes at the Laver in the Outer Court of the Tabernacle of Moses, in effect, he puts the death of the cross behind him as a work completed, and turns to the next step on his journey through the Tabernacle, which is Sanctification and Consecration. CONSECRATION is the putting aside of that which was cleansed for the work of the Lord only. The thought behind this act has its counterpart in the act of King Belteshazzar of Babylon, who took the consecrated vessels of the Lord and drank from them, whereupon God wrote with his own hand on the wall, and the king was slain that same night. The people who bear the name of the Lord must be clean and are not permitted worldliness. The word “church” means a called-out people. Called out of what? The world is the answer. Too many Christians are part of the SIN SYSTEM of the world. They were called out, but they did not come out.

Paul dealt with this subject conclusively in his letter to the Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

CONSECRATION IS THE MESSAGE THAT WILL TAKE US OUT OF BABYLON. The word Babylon, as used here, means the whole world of rebellion against God’s DIVINE ORDER. Man is resisting God spiritually, politically, and economically, and this is the main cause of our failure in all these areas.

The Spirit of God is now calling all men to separation unto Himself. This is the message of consecration.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 54-55)

Thought for today: Remember: CONSECRATION is the putting aside of that which was cleansed for the work of the Lord only.

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Scripture reading: Ephesians 5:25-27

The church was never meant to be a building or an organization, but God Himself designed His people as HIS CHURCH. All that has been done in the past has only been a preparation for the TRUE CHURCH. Any organization which claims that it is the true church, no matter what good intentions it has, must be usurping a position which it can never live up to. When Jesus called His disciples together and gave them a spiritual charter, it exceeded and superseded all human charters and laws and was above them all. It was a “law planted on the fleshy tables of their hearts,” which, if you have, you will obey God and be one with God’s people. If you do not have it, you will just do everything but that which God requires. Thus we find that the churches which are running headlong with their programs of doing good are not in God’s order, and to God, they are like wild animals running up and down in the jungle doing their thing until their day of visitation.

For a long time, we all dwelt in this overcast situation, and after a while, we convinced ourselves that we were in the will of God. God, on the other hand, gave us many blessings and encouragements, healings and deliverances, which we have used to convince others that we are in the will of God, and that they should follow us and our program. YET, every honest minister of the Gospel knows that our programming of God, and our business of running the church, never really filled the bill in the eyes of God. Could God use this word for our works: “Perfect in his generation?” This kind of action, which has lasted for hundreds of years, while the light slowly breaks upon the church, demands an END. We HAVE NOW COME TO THE END OF PLAYING CHURCH. God is bringing the ax down upon our churchanity, and within a short period of years, there shall be a cleaving and a tearing, and GOD SHALL SUDDENLY DIVIDE THE SHEEP FROM THE GOATS.

For a while, which seemed to be a very long while, God winked at our operations in His Name, but now, He winks no more.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 47-48)

Thought for today: We have a spiritual charter: It was a “law planted on the fleshy tables of their hearts,” which, if you have, you will obey God and be one with God’s people.