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Scripture reading: Psalm 98:1
I believe that we will have a church where the apostolic vision will be clear and plain and straight, where the prophets will prophecy, where the evangelists will evangelize, where the shepherds will shepherd, where the teachers will teach, and they will all say the same thing. Hallelujah. This is what God says He is going to have before Jesus comes. He is not saying that He is going to have it when Jesus comes. He is going to have it before His appearance. Let me put it that way, because “Jesus comes” can mean more than one thing. Before the “appearing,” or “parousia” (G3952) of Jesus Christ, He will have a church without spot, without blemish, without wrinkle, or any such thing (Ephesians 5:27). Hallelujah.
The LORD began to speak to me about a certain situation. I saw my right hand, and I know that God has a right hand and a left hand. The right hand always depicts the Spirit, and the left hand always depicts the natural. It is easy for me to pick my Bible up with my right hand, but if I am going to pick the podium up, I need two hands. He began to show me a peculiar thing, and I saw all of you brethren participating. Can everybody hold on to your thumb for me? Take your left hand and hold your right thumb. Now feel how awkward it is to try to lift up anything, to do anything without your thumb. Now hold the other finger that represents the prophet (index finger), and see what happens? It is not as bad when you hold that finger, but it is awfully awkward. Now hold the evangelist (middle finger). Then hold the other fingers. It seems to me that ALL of them are essential, and God would not have a church without them. But the one finger that is there, maybe it functions halfway but it is painful and it is hard to lift. You still can work it, but you have pain when you work it. Some arthritis or something is in the finger and it doesn’t work very well. Nevertheless, unless it is a chronic situation, nobody would know.
Let us turn to Psalm 110:1, “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Psalm 98:1, “O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.” “His right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.” Sometimes we repeat scriptures and we never think very much about them. What is God’s right hand anyhow? We also need to consider that if God has a right hand, then He has a left hand. He said, “Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” So we see then that God’s right hand is a Spirit hand. The peculiar thing is that God wants the left hand to be in with the right hand to bring forth the victory. David went forth into battle, and it was he that went in to slaughter the enemy, but when he came out, he said that it was His right hand that had gotten them the victory.
God wants to be in us. A revelation came to me some months ago. God was walking in the garden every evening with Adam, and somehow or the other, God had an intention. He had an intention. He longed not only to walk in the garden, but also to walk in the garden that was inside of Adam. God wanted to be in Adam. Now, Adam was walking with God in the evening. Did it ever occur to you that none of us know how long that happened? We do not know how long it happened. All we know is that there was a relationship between God and man wherein was all the perspicacity, the perceptiveness of man, the ability to perceive, to know, to understand, to see, and to be fully conscious of both spiritual and natural. THAT ability was in Adam, for we understand from medical science that the portion of the brain that is used is quite small compared to the total mass. It was not so in the beginning. Adam lost about 75% of his brain when he fell. There is a part of us that isn’t used at all – the ability to perceive.
One time I was in a meeting and I saw people moving up and down in the congregation. Some of them started getting mad when some of the others were surrendering themselves to God, and they walked out. God said, “If you will resist the devil, he will flee from you” (James 4:7). The Word of God says that one day, when the Sons of God gathered together, Satan came also (Job 1:6, 2:1). Did you ever understand that the Bible used the word also? “…the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.”
When we gather together, there are things in us that do not please God. There are spirits in us; there are movements in us that are not of God. When you begin to praise God, these things begin to leave! Do you know why? Because darkness cannot stand when light comes in, and the moment that you open up yourself to God, light begins to flood into you and everything that is not of God begins to leave. Sometimes their movement motivates your feet to carry them out of the light. Sometimes they will leave on their own and wait outside the door for you. When you get outside, then you get back your idiosyncrasies, your bad ways. God is saying to us that something is happening to us at this time, in this age, to this people, and He wants a people to be awake and alive!
(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, December 2006, pg. 3-4)
Thought for today: Darkness cannot stand when light comes in. The moment you open up yourself to God, light begins to flood into you and everything that is not of God begins to leave.
