#386 Kingdom: Preparing To Be Included
1Cor 3:11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. 14 If any man's work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.
We knew the fire of God was going to test our work but we assumed the work was solid and would endure the testing. We NEVER expected it to be destroyed by the testing. “Our work" failed simply because it was NOT HIS WORK. Everybody is looking for QUANTITY {numbers} but Jesus will only use QUALITY {Gold} in the Lampstand Church and full transparency in the New Jerusalem. There is not even any silver in the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem and Mount Zion is not about QUANTITY but about QUALITY. QUALITY doesn't come just because we preach a strong message but because the strong message inspires believers to seek God and to seek CHANGE inwardly. That means to seek first the Kingdom of God. This requires that Living and Abiding Word of God is continually developing within us. This how we judge the “quality control issues.”
Even the “basic core issues” will not hold the church together unless the members are seeking God for an inward change. If there is no inward change, just irrelevant issues will divide the assembly. It is the “inward change” that permits vision and revelation, without which, the assembly will lack direction and goals. The core issues must be clearly explained because these become the basis of the unity in the assembly. Cultural difference and certain preferences must submit to the core Christian issues that are non-negotiable. The other danger is that IF we begin to build upon a different foundation than Jesus Christ, Himself, none of the work is acceptable to God no matter how outstanding it appears. If we ask “What does it mean to build upon the foundation of Christ” we will get many different answers depending upon the vision of the person. Most will say upon the “blood” or maybe “the gospel of Salvation” while others may say “Only upon the Gospel of the Kingdom.” It might be that none of these answers are correct. This reveals that it is dangerous to trust entirely anybody’s interpretation of scripture.
God is forcing us to seek God for our own revelation and understanding. Otherwise we can work our whole life and we might be building on the wrong foundation, even though we are preaching about Jesus. One day we will understand that preaching about Jesus is quite different than “laying our work” upon the foundation of Christ, alone! This understanding begins in the Holy Place. When we get isolated in the “natural light” of the Outer Court, we will be confronted with a whole spectrum of natural colors and natural interpretations that will vary from one natural minister to another.
The New Inner Man is ALL that is saved and that is growing and maturing. Assembling a large number of OLD CREATION MEN together to teach them about God is not success in God’s eyes. The fire of God’s testing will destroy all that is of earth and that includes whatever is built by natural man, with natural men, into an earth bound natural assembly. A dirt / earth focused church is not acceptable to God and He has no responsibility to support it.
However, in the church that Christ is building, NONE can come unless the Father draws them. God is completely sovereign over whom He will accept into His Eternal Dwelling Place. We waste our time asking people to accept Jesus as personal Savior when we have no idea if Jesus accepts them. Too much of what we do is just trial and error and not enough by revelation, vision and being led by the Holy Spirit.
There are many ministers and churches that are “seeking the power of God” and many “prophets” who are announcing the power of God in unprecedented restoration of power in our time. What we don’t hear are the requirements and conditions by which He will entrust His power to men. Most everyone knows that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” but few seem to realize that “without the shedding of flesh” there can be no power entrusted to man. Power without experiential holiness does not lead believers into the purpose of God or prepare people for His Kingdom. The Seven Spirits of God will not anoint foolishness or the flesh. Why? Because the Seven Spirits are also Seven Flames of Fire and the flesh cannot hide from the Seven Eyes of the Lord.
I am doing Power Point studies now on the Seven Spirits of God and vistas are opening up to us. Jesus received the Holy Spirit without measure and overflowing. { All SEVEN SPIRITS of God} We have received “a pledge” or a “down payment” upon the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We have received just the first fruits of the Spirit but the main “harvest” of fullness remains a mystery. This “pledge” IS the Outer Court anointing or Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This indicates there is much more that is available to us.
Many “ministries”, including ours, just stopped at the pledge and assumed that was all there was! Many other assemblies never even received that much. We just received the "IN PART MEASURE" and assumed we received all that was available. From the “in part measure” we know "in part" and we prophesy "in part" and were told that IS the fulness. However, with the “in part measure” we were just building like everybody else and assumed that was the best we could expect. Even if we were only building with inflammable material that could not withstand the testing, we didn’t see any other alternative.
A BIG assembly, built with inflammable material, is not the goal for us today. We learned a valuable lesson and have adjusted our ministry to that Eternal Vision. Why? Because we no longer have time for another trial and error work to be burned up!
The "in part measure" or just the "PLEDGE" of the full inheritance is not what we need to carry on the work today. We are pressing toward the Seven Eyes of the Lord, Seven Flames of Fire, the Seven Spirits of God or what we are assuming now is the Fullness of the Spirit. The natural light of the Outer Court is NOT Sufficient to finish the work today or to inspire the assembly to press into the Holy Place Life and ministry.
SEVEN represents the FULLNESS OF THE SPIRIT. That is what we are anticipating in the next restoration when those who make the transition to the Holy Place Life and Ministry will see something of the Lampstand Church beginning to function. Jesus is JUST walking among the Lampstand Churches {GOLD} because these are the ONLY ones He is building. He may be concerned with what "WE are building" but He is intricately involved in what He is building.
Many pastors now are really discouraged and can see no possibility of continuing on digging in the dirt of this earth trying to find GOOD building material for “a church with vision and revelation.” Still, the dirt focused churches are packing people in and "the success of numbers” is acknowledged by dirt men as “awesome” everywhere.
We are all struggling to get loose from the domination of the outer dirt man and to develop seeing eyes, hearing ears and a new heart of understanding in the new inner man, who is that “little gold person!” This has become our greatest struggle up to now and the need to overcome is obvious. This IS what it means “to overcome” in the Outer Court realm in this stage of God’s restoration in us, personally. “Overcoming” is firmly attached to the new inner man and not to the outward, Adam dirt / man. Overcoming the natural man with his opinions, ideas, programs and status quo thinking.We all will be required to die to all the irrelevant things we assumed were the most important issues in the last restoration. That includes dying to ALL our unfulfilled expectations for a glorious ministry and fully mature saints. If I can just present myself and one other person “perfect in Christ”, that will be challenge enough for me.
All of us, who are preparing for the next restoration, must be challenged in some way that exceeds our natural ability to work and to minister! Our failure in the past is now revealed! Since we had just enough of His Life to show that we are alive and we had a little “human success” and we knew that God was still working in a few people, we got really comfortable and became satisfied with that level of perceived success. Many of us have fallen into that trap! It is hard to believe that God has more for us, or that He requires more of us. Being satisfied with the status quo is a very dangerous position and the reason many Pastors have stopped advancing into the Kingdom dimension. Building a big building for small people has become a trade mark of the “earth bound church in the earth realm of success.”
I will arrogantly tell you what God is doing in this hour. He is doing just the opposite to what most people say and believe He is doing! Some Christian Magazines are reporting what ministries are saying, and what some leaders believe, that we are seeing a greater and more powerful moving of God today than ever before in history. To me this just more fantasy.
I will arrogantly declare that is not true but just more hype! And for some of us upon whom the dealings of the Lord have been severe, there has been a lack of excitement for even that which appears to be the great moving of God in the land. Many have lost interest in chasing after the hype. Of course, we did ALL that during the first 10 years of the Charismatic renewal because those big meetings were very real to us and the Presence of God was overwhelming at times.
However, now we think we have been called out of all the programs, the human systems and out of all the outward activity and all the earthly blessings that seems to be the goal of the visible church. I believe this separation from earthly goals is the blessing of God and the time for the preparation required by God to participate in the next restoration! It is my opinion that development, growth and maturity of the new inner man is the prerequisite to participate in the next restoration of the Holy Place life and ministry. More “power” manifested by the outward man to impress people and build a large earth ministry seems to be a big waste of time. Power without holiness will soon cease, as it always did in the past.
None of this is what we expected when we told God that WHATEVER it takes, we want to be pioneers of the next restoration! I believe this request has determined our destiny and set us on a new and difficult path. This is difficult to explain to those with a different vision. We SAY we are not against the visible church but our lack of zeal for it says something different to those who have put their hope in the visible church. We are certainly against the apathy and superficiality of the visible church systems. Why? Because these “systems” are not producing disciples with enough maturity in the new inner man so that Christ can teach them. The inner man must develop some growth and maturity before the INNER ANOINTING can begin to teach us. He cannot teach “embryo.”
The Lord has limited us, He has weakened our natural strength, criticized our human zeal and cut us off from the flow of ministry and deliverance! He has stripped and pruned us back to eventually produce some fruit of the next dimension. He is revealing in us more defects and serious problems within our character, motives and attitudes until we have at last begun to realize our helplessness. He has corrected our vision and convinced us not to chase after appearances and earthly success. He has persuaded us to keep our vision set upon the Eternal Goals and upon God’s standards for His Kingdom Government.
Without this “crisis and trauma” it appears we will not be able to make the transition into the Priesthood ministry! Today the cry is this; Oh God, we are totally helpless to meet the great need! We are failing and we are nothing now that we had hoped to become after all these years and in this time frame! The challenge is too great for us! We have fallen back into our natural, dirt capabilities which we know will produce nothing eternal. Unless you do something in us now we will surely fail completely.
Don’t be confused by all this. God is doing this that we might not trust any longer in our PARTIAL SUCCESS or in a few Outer Court experiences. We must cast aside any desire to rest in the limitations of the in-part realm of the Spirit! Now is the time to cry out in our despair unto the Lord until He arises mightily within US and in the ones HE has chosen to pioneer in the next restoration. He must bring forth, in a corporate group of us, a mature inner man.
He must prepare us now for the “shock” of inner illumination by the SEVENFOLD fullness of the Holy Spirit upon the Lampstand Church. God is preparing a people in this new day whom are willing to turn from the feverish and constant activity of these religious earth systems! He is calling us to turn aside from the snare of small blessings and the limitation of the Outer Court light to wait upon God! He must “perfect us” in the Outer Court realm to enable us to make the transition to the hidden realms of the Holy Place. This is all part of the preparation so that when God moves us to the next realm, He shall have a people prepared to show forth the fullness of His Life in the brilliant and intense Illumination of the FULLNESS of the SEVENFOLD glory of His Spirit.
Paul certainly had the realization of such an incomprehensible fullness in mind when he wrote to the saints in Ephesus,
Eph 3:16 May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].
Eph 3:19 [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]! {Amplified Bible}
This appears to be a better translation from the original, "That you might be filled unto all the fullness of God. Rather than WITH all the fullness" This speaks of a limitless increase of God and “filling” unto the unfathomable, limitless and inexhaustible capacity of God!
Every priority and time consuming thing in our ministry is irrelevant in comparison to this possibility of being filled with His FULLNESS. We must NEVER be side tracked by the pressure of ministry and neglect to be participants in His fullness. Why should we be satisfied with just a portion of that fullness when it is clear that God’s purpose is to fill us unto ALL the fulness of God. Is this what He did in Jesus? Is Jesus the Pattern Son? Then what would make us content with anything less? Can we really be His Sons without His Fullness? Is The Body Of Christ the Fullness of Him who fills All In All?
To me it is entirely irrelevant if everybody doesn’t believe this is possible. I am beginning to believe it is a requirement for Divine Son-Ship. I am guessing that the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek will be a priesthood of Fullness. I am guessing that the Bride of Christ will be the fullness of Christ. I am also guessing that the Kingdom Government Of God will be administrated by those who are of His fullness. { That means the absence of flesh}
Because the sanctuary ( tent part of the Tabernacle) was His more precise dwelling place, it reveals the beginning of fullness in the Holy Place dimension. The Seven Spirits Of God point us to the Fullness in this dimension of The Holy Place Life and Ministry. [ We could call this 2/3 Fullness] The fact that the ultimate Fullness is still in the Most Holy Place should not deter us from seeking this fullness first. Why? Because Fullness is progressive. [ 3/3 Fullness = Most Holy Place Fullness as the goal.]
When people get “filled with the Spirit” [ 1/3 Fullness] in the Outer Court dimension, we may experience all this Outer Court Fullness or the “down payment” but that doesn’t mean there is not much more Fullness available to us in this next restoration. This may require that we go on to the next degree of holiness and the full surrender to His being and His purpose. The “Partial Fullness” we now have will seem like nothing in comparison. In other words “fullness” is not a doctrine to be believed but an experience to be manifested. The “Bond Servant Surrender” is the keyword in EVERY experience of the next dimension. This next restoration or Holy Place dimension will have its own degree of Fullness [ 2/3] which we see in the Seven Spirits of God. We could call this the “fullness of the Spirit”. We could put this into a numerical numbers this way. Outer Court = 1/3 Fullness. The Holy place = 2/3 Fullness. The Most Holy Place = 3/3 fullness. This is what we refer to as the Fullness of God.
John 14:23 Jesus answered, If a person [really] loves Me, he will keep My word [obey My teaching]; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home (abode, special dwelling place) with him. [Amp]
IF We have both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, there is still more fullness available to us. If We Love Jesus AND Keep His Word, the next step is for the Father to also come and the fullness of the Trinity will dwell in us. This is approaching “Filled up to ALL the Fullness of God.”
Of course that is just a mathematical example and not an actual scripture. The “pledge or down payment” may not even be 1/3 Fullness but may be only 10% of what is available. The reality is not seen in percentages but in The Fullness.
The question I am asking myself is this; “Am I confident that I have received the Outer Court Fullness already or is there much more to be experienced in this dimension?” I don’t know the answer but I am now pressing into the next restoration anyway.
One thing I do know is that I only see “in part”and only hear “in part”and only know “in part”and only share in the “in part” dimension. I also know we have only experienced a very small part of the Fullness that is available to us. This is the reality and not just a negative confession. Even IF I confessed that “I have it all” that doesn’t make it true and someone might ask me to demonstrate ALL that I had. The point I am making is this; I am no longer satisfied with the small portion I have of His Fullness and I must seek the next dimension of Fullness, regardless of what that means. NOW, I can never be content with the “down payment” portion of His Fullness!
Our Theme is “Preparing To Be Included.” I am not referring to “preparing to begin” but “Preparing to be included” in God’s Eternal Purpose. My thesis is that this life is ALL the time we have to be prepared to participate in that which God purposed before the world was. Since we don’t know ALL that means we will be totally helpless to prepare ourselves.
Esther 2:16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus to his royal palace in the tenth month which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17 And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 Then the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his princes and his servants; he also made a holiday for the provinces and gave gifts according to the king's bounty.
Each young lady could choose ANYTHING she wanted to make herself acceptable to the king. Esther had no idea what was required so she put herself into the hand Hegai who was in charge of the women. Esther did not request anything except what Hegai, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the women, advised.
Hegai is a picture of the Holy Spirit preparing a Bride for Jesus. Too many people, like the rest of the virgins, {either the 5 wise or the ignorant 5} try to prepare themselves for Christ and will fail miserably. Only the Holy Spirit, the King’s Eunuch, knows what He requires for a bride and He is the only one who can fully prepare the believer to reach that perfection. That is the precise reason we should have at least the Fullness of the Holy Spirit that we are identifying as the Seven Spirits of God. The Lampstand reveals the Seven Spirits of God upon the pure Gold Lampstand Church that He is building. This “Lampstand Church” IS His one body. Even the Outer Court Perfection does not qualify as the Bride of Christ. We certainly acknowledge there is an Outer Court Fulness, or perfection but that is still NOT the Perfection of the Holy Place. I am guessing that there is still a tremendous inner working of the Holy Spirit IN the Lampstand Church to finish the work of Perfecting a Bride for Jesus. How do we know that? By the names of the Seven Spirits Of God. For example; By the Spirit of Judgement and the Spirit of Burning.
Isa 4:4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning,
The Lampstand Churches in Revelation 2 and 3 still were not perfected but were certainly under the discipline of Christ. The Lampstand Church is made of Gold but the Gold must still be tried by the fire. The Lampstand Church was still being severely disciplined, corrected and threatened. Why? Because the Lampstand Church must still be prepared as the Bride of Christ. My theory is that there is first a Holy Place perfection before we make the transition to the Throne Room Perfection of the Most Holy Place.
1Peter 1:6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
It appears that our work is under a constant testing by various trials and by the fire of God so we don’t waste our life building with the wrong materials. At the revelation of Christ, our work will be at last revealed. Of course, at that time, it will be too late to change our direction or our work.
We may build for the recognition and applause of the earth church system but that work will never withstand the fire of His testing. This “fire of testing” is a great mystery. Why would God burn up a “good work” that we have labored so long and hard to build? Because, God dwells in the everlasting burnings and His Presence is a Consuming Fire. If our “work” is going to dwell in that place it must be able to withstand the Fire of His Presence.
Isa 33:14 Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. "Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?" 15 He who walks righteously, and speaks with sincerity, He who rejects unjust gain, And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed, And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil; 16 He will dwell on the heights; His refuge will be the impregnable rock; His bread will be given him; His water will be sure. 17 Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will behold a far-distant land.
Heb 12:28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
The application that Paul is making is that since our God IS a consuming fire, it is ignorant to build with inflammable material. Is there a chance that our work will NOT be tested? Not if it will become part of the church He is building. IF “our work” is NOT being tested it should sound an alarm. We should be aware that ANY “work” that is valid and acceptable to God must be tested by the fire.
1Pet 4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.
John 3:34 "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. 35 "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.
John 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." The “grace” churches substitute “believe” for “obey” which may be included but doesn’t fit into the Kingdom dimension.
This is NOT a good scripture for evangelism because it demands obedience. The “gospel of salvation” doesn’t use this scripture because it appears to be a mis-print. However, the “gospel of the Kingdom” recognizes this scripture as essential for understanding God’s Government.
Heb 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, 10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
This is a Kingdom scripture. It combines perfection, obedience and Priesthood into the subject of “eternal salvation.”
The general feeling is that we can be saved in the Outer Court realm just by believing something about Jesus, like the thief on the cross. Of course he was only saved in the Old Covenant dimension because this was before Christ death and resurrection. This just pointed to the paradise in Abraham’s Bosom. It is rather ignorant to set our hope of eternal salvation on that single incident. The thief could NOT have been born again because that could only happen AFTER Jesus’ resurrection. The Holy Spirit was not given until Jesus was exalted to the Throne Of God and received the promise of the Father. Then He poured out the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
Act 2:32 "This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. 33 "Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
Recognizing and surrendering to the demands of the Kingdom is the beginning of being prepared to participate in the next restoration. The casual and lukewarm Christians will certainly not be able to participate in the next restoration OR in His body.
Rev 3:15 'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. 16 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit {vomit} you out of My mouth. {body}
How the “super grace churches” can interpret this warning as not important to us because we are living under grace, is a great mystery. Anyone who expects to be included in the Eternal Purpose of God { the Body of the High Priest / the Bride of Christ / the Kingdom of God} must be very serious about each of these warnings.
We have stopped asking if people “believe” something about Jesus but now we insist that they “receive” something from Jesus. That is the “sperma of God” by which we are born again! If the “sperma of God” grows into a full grown son of God then our ministry here will be complete. If it dies in the womb of this earth / body then we have failed.