Kind of confusing!
Kind of confusing!
It states also that we have been given the right to sit in that Throne with Jesus Christ---at least that is what it sounds like.
We know that God and Christ will make us Their resting place.
Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things? (Acts 7:49,50)
We know also, as the Lord tells us, that eternal Life will flow from the saints.
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. (John 7:38)
The Throne of God and of the Lamb is in the new Jerusalem, which is the Christian Church.
No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. (Revelation 22:3)
The Spirit of God is as a River in that city.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Revelation 22:1)
No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. (Revelation 22:3)
If we consider all these comments about the Throne of God and of the Lamb, we might conclude that the victorious saints are being made that Throne, and the Father and the Son shall dwell in us for eternity. We will be the eternal Tabernacle of God that serves as the Royal Priesthood, which governs the saved people drawn from the nations of the earth.
No doubt we, as the Throne of God, will bring the Throne wherever we go. Yet the Throne always shall be exalted far above every other throne, just as lis true today. This is the power of multiple presence, as is true of the Lord Jesus today.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God." (Revelation 21:3)
There you have it. Instead of our going to a mansion in Heaven, God is making us His eternal dwelling place so He may dwell on the earth.
Such is a radical shift in our understanding of the Christian salvation.
No demand is made on us if our destiny is to go to a mansion in Heaven. This idea, of course, would appeal to our original adamic self.
But if God and Christ are to make us Their eternal dwelling place, then total demands are made on us.
First, we must be delivered from the spirits of sin that dwell in our flesh.
Second, our original self must be put aside that God may create a new self.
Third, our original self must be willing to be replaced by the Life and Substance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fourth, we must vacate the throne of our own personality that the Father and the Son may sit on that throne.
Fifth, if we are willing and obedient to God and Christ we will be permitted back on the throne of our own life, which has become the Throne of God and the Lamb. Now the decisions concerning our thinking, speaking, and acting will be a joint decision, worked out in a dialogue between us and the Lord.
To the sincere disciple of the Lord Jesus, the thought of returning to earth with the Lord and bringing the water of eternal life to the people of the nations of the earth is more appealing than resting on a sofa in Paradise and playing with our friends.
I don't know how you feel about this, but it is apparent from what I have just written that I prefer to inherit people rather than a mansion.
I have a kind of picture in my mind this morning. I will try to present it clearly. It has to do with our Christian experience.
As I think about the Church worldwide, it appears that our religion operates apart from Christ. When church organizations describe their efforts, one does not often hear, "We were waiting on the Lord, and this is what He said." At least, this has been my experience. Why is this the case?
You know what? Our spiritual environment may be experiencing a change. Perhaps Christ is drawing closer to us. Maybe if we ask Him to enter our life to a greater extent, to draw closer to us, to talk to us, He will.
For the past few years I have been doing just that. Every move I make I hold before Jesus. I continually am asking His help and thanking Him when He answers my prayers.
"Should I do this? Should I do that? What clothes should I wear today? What should I eat and drink? Thank You for helping me with this. Thank You for helping me with that. I need wisdom concerning this. I need wisdom concerning that."
On and on the dialogue continues, throughout the day and into the night before going to sleep. I say "dialogue" because Christ often speaks to me in my mind. So do a lot of other voices. But one learns to recognize Christ and the Father when They speak. Such recognition requires experience and practice over the years. It is worth working at!
Each night before I go to sleep I say to the Lord, "Put me to sleep at the time of Your choosing. Cleanse my mind and heart of dreams, thoughts, and desires that are not of God. Wake me up at the time of Your choosing that I may do Your will more diligently than ever." Every night!
I wonder if this is that Christ means by "Abide in me." Do you suppose?
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. (John 15:4)
How do we remain in Christ if it is not by speaking to Him and listening to Him continually?
It seems to me that our religious practices tend to be "about" Christ. "We will save souls for Christ. We will study to learn more about Christ. We will work hard to please Christ. We will strive to be morally pure because this is what Christ would want. We hope to see Christ when we go to Heaven."
What if Christ were with us in a tangible way? Would this change how we speak?
"I love You Lord. Thank you for helping me today. What You told me yesterday has certainly come to pass.
"You told me to enroll in college, and so I am seeking admittance. I am sitting in the Registrar's office. Please help me when my turn comes.
"Now I am in my beginning algebra class. I am afraid I will never understand algebra. Please be with me and help me with quadratic equations. It is all a jumble to me.
"I don't believe the other kids like me. Please help me with this.
"I have stomach pains. Help me to know whether I should go to the college nurse or wait for you to heal me."
How many times each day and night do we need the immediate Presence of Christ?
Being an older person, I often have physical symptoms of one sort or another. I always ask the Lord whether I should look to Him to heal me, or go to the doctor. Sometimes it is one, sometimes the other.
It is my desire to become closer to the Lord Jesus and He to me. I continue this pursuit each day, just as I am doing right now. "Jesus, help me to convey clearly what I believe you are showing me."
It is so clear in my mind—the numerous programs of Christian organizations. Are they hearing from Jesus before they launch out into another endeavor? Do they know when to stop the program when Jesus is finished with it? Are they making assumptions about how to conduct each effort, or are they looking to the Lord Jesus continually in order to interpret correctly what He is commanding?
A denomination may say, for example, that it has a biblical commission to save souls. Therefore the leaders begin to plan how to do this. Do they go to Jesus and ask Him about each detail? If not, why not? Is it because they are not living in His Presence to the extent that they can keep speaking to Him and He to them?
The Lord Jesus said He would build His Church on the Rock.
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matthew 16:18)
I don't think He meant the impetuous Peter. Perhaps that would be a shaky rock.
Christ himself is the Rock, as the Old Testament informs us.
But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel. (Genesis 49:24)
The Lord Jesus is the Rock of Israel, the Rock of the Church. He said He would build His Church on Himself. Therefore we do err when we set out to build His Church and are not paying close attention to Him; are not being directed by Him in every detail.
What blindness exists? What man-centered babylons are constructed as people seek to build that which only Christ Himself can build!
Here is the problem. We are ambitious to build a church. But the Lord has not spoken. Shall we cry out "Our work is God's work" and charge ahead without hearing from the only true Builder? Or should we wait until Jesus shows us the first step?
I know about the Great Commission. If I am reading correctly, the Great Commission was addressed to eleven Apostles.
One of the errors of our day is to seize upon some verse of Scripture, such as "Go and make disciples of all nations," and attempt to obey it without asking Jesus for His wisdom.
I understand that some believers will say we do not have to ask Jesus if it already is written in the Bible. I leave them to their own confusion.
If you don't believe this is a real test of our faith, you have not as yet experienced this dilemma.
"Get out there and go to work. How can God help you if you don't do something? Millions of heathen are going to Hell while you are sitting around and doing nothing. God helps those who help themselves."
Have you ever been subjected to this friendly advice?
Young people go to Bible college. Graduate. And then build churches of 300 people while you are sitting home and looking to Jesus. Have you ever been in that situation?
I am aware a young person is not to wait in a closet for Christ to speak to him or her. That won't work! The thing to do is to pray for God's will, and then move in some sensible direction. But continue to pray for the Lord's guidance. Don't stop praying and don't take anything for granted.
He will change your course if it is not the one He wants for you.
You can't steer a car when it is sitting in the driveway!
"What if Jesus never speaks to me? What if He is waiting for me to go out and save souls? What if everyone is correct when they say God helps those who help themselves? What if I am a lazy son in the time of harvest."
I went through this questioning while I was in Bible school. God was revealing the meaning of the Bible to me, but my teachers were of the traditional sort.
I said to myself, "If I do not follow what I think God is showing me, I never will be my own man."
It was not long after that, that I was dismissed from the Bible school—all good folks, mind you, doing what they believed to be the Lord's will. Perhaps it was!
"What a mental battle? What if I am deluded?"
The day came many years after Bible school when the same denomination invited me to be ordained. I refused because I would not accept the doctrine of the "rapture."
This took place more than thirty years ago.
Now I understand that the Levitical feast of Tabernacles, which in the early days I described in a booklet titled "The Temple of God," really does mean Christ intends to come to us in His Fullness.
Now I see the beginning of the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, which the Lord told me in Bible-school days, signifies that He will purify His people from sin by a baptism of fire. The judgment of the Lord Jesus is falling today upon the sin in the lives of the Christians.
I know now that I truly was hearing from the Lord in 1948.
Best of all, I am enjoying His Presence. He is not as close to me as I would like, but I am pressing on the upward way.
The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, "Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15,16)
We all need to pray for the mind of Christ. Why is that? Because our original, adamic mind is an enemy of God. If we do not share His mind, how can we live in His Presence?
The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. (Romans 8:7)
And another important consideration:
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)
From the verse above, one could gain the impression that our mind must be renewed, resulting in our transformation. We are not to be like the world. This is necessary if we are to test and approve what God's will is.
In the day in which we are living there is more information available to the people of the world than ever before. It certainly will produce a worldwide unity of thought that has not been true previously.
The problem with this onslaught of information is that the minds of people, including Christians, will be conformed to the patterns of the present world. The television and the Internet, the social programs such as Facebook, and the mobile devices---all are active in conforming the thinking of people to the ways of the world.
Most of this information affects our adamic mind which, as the Scripture states, is hostile to God. Since such is the case, we have a major problem here concerning our awareness of what God is saying to us concerning living in His Presence.
It is God's will that each Christian have the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is that which always is aware of what we might term "the prophetic sense." When our mind is aware of the prophetic sense we understand God's will and we rightly perceive what is going on in our life.
To be continued.Living in His Presence, Part II