'Our personal "day of the Lord'
Back to 'Christ in You'
For the saint, the trumpet of God, in a personal, spiritual sense, is blowing now. The Day of the Lord is beginning now in the hearts of the victorious saints (II Peter 1:19). The Day of days, in which Christ is absolute Lord over all, is being created in the Christian personality in the present hour.
Christ not only is our "soon-coming King" He also is our King today. Christ is coming as King over the kings of the earth and Lord over the lords of the earth. He is King of all kings and Lord of all lords and more to the saints as they become willing and able to yield to His unhindered lordship over their lives.
The trumpet of God is sounding in a spiritual sense in the Church of Christ. We must enter eternal judgment now . As the Holy Spirit directs us we must confess and put away all the "graveclothes" of sin that bind us: adultery, lust, covetousness, hatred, idolatry, all occult practices, pride, unbelief, criticizing, evil speaking, self-seeking, and the love of pleasure.
The Holy Spirit is leading us into the fullness of the atonement made by Christ so that we shall be ready for the raising of our body from the dead and the clothing of it with the substance of eternal life.
We must judge ourselves as the Holy Spirit enables us. We must put to death the deeds of the body. We must purify ourselves. We must cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. We must wash our robe and make it white in the blood of the Lamb of God.
Now is the time for each member of the Body of Christ to make himself ready for the righteous and holy Lord Jesus, who will descend from Heaven and reveal Himself through His Body, the Church.
There will be no putting on of our house from Heaven if we have not been faithful in confessing our sins and putting them to death by the power of the Holy Spirit. After we are raised spiritually, upon receiving Christ, we commence the process of eternal judgment. When the eternal judgment has been completed, rest in the Presence of God will follow.
The body of eternal life, the body that is being prepared for us in Heaven as we seek and serve the Lord, is an important part of the rest of God. We must learn to walk in the power of resurrection life today and begin to gain victory, as the Holy Spirit leads us, over our sins of deed, word, motive, and imagination. Then we will be ready for the final work of redemption of our personality when the Lord Jesus appears from Heaven with His majestic angels.
Take heart, Christian. Christ has come to us through the Spirit, not to oppress us because of our helplessness in the bondages of the sins that bring us down so easily but rather to destroy the evil one who has us in prison. If we cooperate with the Holy Spirit the almighty Christ will deliver us from the tendencies that we thought would be able to rule us as long as we were in a body of flesh and blood.
We owe nothing to our flesh. (Romans 8:12).
Part of the Good News of the Kingdom of God is that Christ has the power to destroy sin out of our life while we yet are in the world. The Savior saves us fromour sins not in our sins (Matthew 1:21). The Christian redemption is not designed to prevent our going to Hell but to remove Hell from our personality. Contrary to popular thinking, the Lord Jesus has no intention of bringing into the Paradise of God those who are cherishing the Hell that is in them.
If we are willing to take part in all the provisions of grace that God has given to us, being diligent in the good works that pertain to Christian living and discipleship, the Holy Spirit will complete the work of salvation by enabling us to overcome the bondages of fleshly desire and rebellion that hold our mortal body captive.
Here is the judgment of God on His enemies who have kept us in slavery to sin. We will go free if we confess our sins to Christ and then work with God in resisting them. There is power in Jesus’ name to conquer sin. Try it and see if this is true. We must go through God’s eternal judgment before we are ready for the fullness of our inheritance as sons of God.
In the future the work of judgment will be performed on the ungodly by the saints of the Lord (Daniel 7:22; Psalms 149:6-9). The saints will judge not only the world but also the angels (I Corinthians 6:2,3). According to Daniel, Chapter Seven, Jude 1:14,15, and Revelation 20:4,5, the saints will execute judgment on the world and on the angels at the time of the coming of Christ.
If we are to take part in the work of judging the world and the angels it becomes clear that we ourselves must be judged in advance. The eternal judgment of God must be executed on us before we will be capable of laboring alongside Christ in the work of Divine judgment.
Jesus has said to us, "Judge not, that ye be not judged. With what judgment ye judge, ye will be judged" (Matthew 7:1,2). There is no way of escaping this spiritual law. It still shall be in effect while we are exercising the judgment of Christ during the Day of the Lord.
We shall, in that day, be engaged in judging the people of the world for their adultery, lust, hatred, avarice, pride, unbelief, sorcery, and other sins. We shall be passing the sentence of judgment on those who practice such things and on the unclean spirits who have deceived the nations into behaving wickedly and rebelliously against the will and laws of God.
Every time we exercise judgment the sword of the Word of God will be coming back against us. If we are guilty of the same sin ourselves we will not have the spiritual strength to perform the work of judging human beings and angels (Romans 2:3).
Before we are ready to work with Jesus during the Day of the Lord we must be judged ourselves with great care. Every tendency of imagination, motive, word, and deed must be screened carefully by the Holy Spirit to see if there are areas of our personality that need to be brought to the fire of God. He will "thoroughly purge his floor" (Matthew 3:12).
The Body of Christ is God’s instrument of warfare and of vengeance on the enemy. The Body must be "fireproof." There must be perfection in every detail so that no accusation of the adversary can bring weakness and confusion during the coming conflict.
It is the Holy Spirit’s task to bring each of us to the place of absolute cleanliness before God Almighty. The Holy Spirit has the authority and power to do this in us. Our task is to follow the Holy Spirit as He guides us in putting to death the deeds of the body.
When resurrection life and eternal judgment have been established in us to the degree the Holy Spirit deems necessary we shall be ready for the resurrection of our body into eternal life and for the terrible onslaught of furious destruction as the Lord Jesus descends from Heaven with His majestic angels to assume command of the earth.
Back to 'Christ in You'