The participants in the first resurrection

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4-6)

Those who are privileged to participate in the first resurrection, the resurrection of the royal priesthood that will take place when the Lord returns, are blessed and holy. The second death, the Lake of Fire, has no power over them. This means there is no sin in them, nothing in them over which the Lake of Fire has authority.

It seems obvious these people have been made blessed and holy before the last trumpet sounds.

To maintain that the members of the royal priesthood are blessed and holy by "imputation" would render the parables of the wheat and the tares, and the removing of the bad fish from the net, incompetent, immaterial, and irrelevant. There would be no cleansing of the priesthood, no preparing the way for the Lord, no baptism with fire, if the way for the Lord is prepared by imputed (ascribed) righteousness.

Our preaching must become more scriptural if we hope to have lasting revival, if we desire to prepare God’s people for the great and terrible Day of the Lord.

Our is a new era. We are entering the Day of Redemption. We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit to this hour. We have been kept by faith to the salvation that now has come to us.

The reader may say to himself or herself, "I am not sure we really have come to such an increase in the program of redemption."

Such doubt is wise.

First, study the New Testament, especially the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Matthew.

Second, look to the Lord Jesus. Ask Him to show you how your behavior appears to Him. Then you will discover whether or not what I am teaching is coming from the Lord.

I have written hundreds of books and booklets on this subject, and they can be read free of charge at www.wor.org, or ordered from Trumpet Ministries.

It was fifty years ago in an Assembly of God Bible school in San Diego that the Lord spoke to me concerning what He was going to do after Pentecost. He informed me that the next move would be the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish Day of Atonement, and the final goal would be Christ in us, the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles.

I consulted with Oliver Ellenwood, a distinguished Bible teacher, who seemed to feel that it was the Lord who was speaking to me.

At the time I was preaching "reckon yourself dead" as God’s solution to sin in the Christian life. But when I heard Sister Thelma Dotta Chambers teach about the confessing of sin that was taking place in the "Armory" in Detroit, it began to dawn on me that the Apostle Paul did not present reckoning ourselves dead as a means of deliverance from sin.

To change was difficult and humbling. But I went to the Lord and asked Him if there was anything wrong with me.

I have been confessing my sins for over fifty years.

I tell the people in the church that if they think I am not so wonderful now, they should have seen me fifty years ago.

I do not mean by this that every day I come up with a new sin (I think I did in the beginning). But I watch my spirit carefully, and when sin or deception tries to enter in I am quick to go to the Lord and ask for His help. This I have learned through experience.

Really, the Christian life should be one of continual repentance and looking to the Lord; for our heart truly is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ((Romans 8:13,14)

What are the sons of God led by the Spirit of God to do? We are led to put to death the actions of our sinful nature.

We do not get full victory over sin in a moment. It is a lifelong battle, the good fight of faith. But success is assured because it is the Lord Jesus who is guiding us to certain victory.

Jesus came to destroy, not forgive, the works of the devil, and He wants to begin in you and me. The blanket of freedom from condemnation persists only as long as we are obeying the Lord, performing His will diligently at all times. If we allow ourselves to become negligent, not pressing into Christ each day, we come under Divine judgment and are chastened by the Lord. If we then do not repent but persist in our sinful behavior, we are in serious trouble with God.

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. (Hebrews 10:26,27)

To claim the above passage is not addressed to Christians who were neglecting their salvation is to depart from accepted principles of biblical interpretation. There are many similar warnings in the Book of Hebrews, all addressed to seasoned Christians.

If we are not mistaken, there remains much to be done before Jesus Christ returns—much in the way of preparing the way for Him in His people. If He were to return right now, the Christian churches as well as the world would be woefully unprepared.

I think we can look for circumstances to arise in the world that will tend to remove the sincere saints from the world spirit and also from the carnal religious systems.

You may find over the next few years that you repeatedly are being challenged. There are forces that will attempt to take your crown, to tear you down from your high place in Christ, to rob you of your peace and confidence in Christ.

Do not focus on the tools God uses to purify you, or seek to be treated fairly. You will not be treated fairly. You will not always be able to justify yourself in the sight of people. You will share in the sufferings of Christ.

You will be in the fire with the Lord Jesus. You will walk with Him there for a season. Then you will be brought forth, only your bondages having been burned.

You absolutely must possess iron righteousness, fiery holiness, and stern obedience to the Father if you are to inherit the Kingdom. It is the possession of these virtues that is salvation.

God is not looking for such virtue to proceed from your fallen nature. Iron righteousness, fiery holiness, and stern obedience are found only in the Spirit of God.

God asks only that you be willing and obedient. He will provide the Divine Virtue you must have if you are to inherit His Kingdom.

Never, never, never give up. Never quit. Never cease looking to Jesus. He will never forsake you. You will come forth as pure gold. If you are to reign with Him you must suffer with Him, because it is suffering that removes sin and self- will from us.

Be utterly diligent in seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. The Christian churches of today are far, far below the standard of righteousness required if we are to have fellowship with God; if we are to be qualified and competent to fulfill the roles and tasks of the Kingdom.

Be of good cheer. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give the Kingdom to those who care enough to place above all else the seeking of it. Everyone who hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled.

Back to When? Where? How?