“A Voice for the Gathering Saints”
Duane Stewart
www.avoiceforthegatheringsaints.org
“Created Vessels with an Eternal Destiny”
What is happening? Changes in this world of ours seem to be of such an accelerated pace that humanity is finding out that it is very hard and difficult to keep up. In response to such manifold changes, humankind finds themselves responding according to and fulfilling all those things written about before hand from God. Rom. 8:22-23 states, “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body”. Redemption is that act of God’s love, through sacrifice, which speaks of restoration from a fallen condition to returning to God’s original and progressive purpose. Redemption, a process as instituted and proclaimed by God unto the children of Israel as the Day of Atonement. Also during the year of Jubilee (the fiftieth year), complete restoration and deliverance was declared and is now being fulfilled in this season of God as He brings forth His season of fulfillment. This speaks of a chosen people coming forth in the “fullness of times” to manifest their God given purpose, a people in His likeness and His image.
(Read Isaiah 11:1-16). This context speaks of a time when the fulfillment of said context would come forth in its season as a seed planted in the earth to bring forth a greater fulfillment, a moving from the natural realm Israel, to the spiritual realm, the manifested body of Christ. First, the natural, then the spiritual as declared in scripture. 1 Cor. 15:46, “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual”. Thus, a seed, Christ Jesus our Lord, became God’s seed bringing forth under the law of the seed. This law, God given and not to be broken is “every seed shall bring forth after its own kind”. When Jesus, who is the seed, died and placed within the tomb, He became that which would bring forth after His kind, not as natural Israel, but as the spiritual body of Christ. Therefore, in the time of the harvest for this God given seed, the kingdom of God shall manifest and establish God’s kingdom over all the earth. Isa. 11:9, “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea”.
Let us take note and remember the natural tribes of Israel, in captivity, now released from Egypt to become an established people in the land that God had promised to Abraham. Especially take note that the release of the children of Israel came as God chose to visit Egypt with plagues of judgment. God not only sent judgment to bring righteous judgment upon the rebellious kingdom of Pharaoh, but to also being deliverance and a release to His chosen, the natural house of Abraham. Let us also take note that in the transition from the natural house to the spiritual house of today, Abraham’s greater seed is present. Gal. 3:29, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”. Abraham’s spiritual seed then becomes the generation of the body of Christ needing release from a like-kind Egyptian bondage through the judgments spoken of in the Book of Revelation as seals, trumpets and bowls of wrath. For what purpose – but to release a people unto deliverance, established as God willed and the purpose of His creation. This speaks of an established kingdom of God manifesting in all the earth.
Herein we have a chosen people, vessels of mercy, sent forth as a man-child company, God’s spokespersons and representatives having dominion over God’s creation. This speaks of a people who have been processed and changed so that they only do and say, what they see and hear from the Father. These are the true house of God, wherein they have received the keys to the kingdom of heaven to manifest the heavens in the earth throughout all of God’s creation and purpose. Matt. 16:19, “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”. Here God speaks of a people whose sin nature changes as they receive and understand who the person of Jesus really is. Matt. 16:15-16, “He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Here, Peter looking beyond the natural house of Jesus in seeing the coming forth of the spiritual house, but likewise catching a glimpse of the fullness of God being completed in the bringing forth of His created purpose, the coming forth of the creation of God in a full measure.
As we now consider the scriptures of 2 Sam. 7:1-17 (Read), we can receive an understanding of God’s progressive purpose. In desiring to have for Himself a house, a tabernacle or temple in which to dwell, He makes it plain that His house shall not be one of natural wood, rock or mortar. God reveals, in choosing the house of David that He would, down through the corridor of time from David’s house, birth a man to become the seed of bringing forth God a house, a temple to dwell. This son of David birthed, as Jesus the Christ has Himself become the seed. This seed, purposed by God to bring forth a like-kind harvest of sons who would now make up the spiritual house of God, a dwelling place for Him to rest in. In bringing forth this spiritual house, God shall by dwelling in them, bring forth a kingdom wherein God rules through this said people. 1 Cor. 3:16, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” 1 Cor. 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s”.
Herein God has spoken and He has declared that a time of preparation would come and it would run its course and bring forth, in a full measure, everything that He has purposed. While God is a God of certainty, He always warns a people of His purpose. In the bringing forth of His first-born Son, Christ Jesus to dwell among the people, He established a time of declaring and preparing a people for that coming. Malachi 3:1 states, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. As the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, says the Lord of Hosts”. This scripture began its fulfillment when John the Baptist begins declaring Jesus Christ and His appearing. Thus, the Christ in Jesus appeared, Jesus died, was buried, but He also resurrected from the grave to finally, as the resurrected one to be planted as a seed in the hearts of a chosen people as they accepted and received Him. These through a nature change shall also manifest the in-dwelling Christ in a full measure. (Read 2 Thess. 1:3-12). Note in verse 10 that it is declared, “When He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed”. How it is that humanity sees Christ again except revealed again likening unto His first appearing in the man called Jesus? Here, consider the declaration of the true vine and the results of those who abide in the vine.
(Read John 15:1-8). Here, the law of the seed applies, every seed bringing forth after its own kind. Thus, the vine brings forth fruit of like kind, a seed bringing forth a harvest to manifest fruit of an equal co-heir share of that which Jesus Christ is. Herein the Holy Spirit, fulfilling His office and purpose, reveals the Christ to these co-heirs with Christ that they might be like Him. 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is”. Is not the Holy Spirit revealing Him to us now? Are we not beginning to see Him in His purpose, even as He is? Herein we can become like Him as this same Holy Spirit writes His nature within and upon our soul. Here God is speaking of a change from that old fallen beast Adamic nature unto the nature of Christ living and manifesting from within.
Consider now that the “fullness of times” is upon us. This is a season when that which is of knowledge only now becomes a manifestation of God’s glory in the whole man, spirit, soul and body. A time when a completed man comes forth in a full measure of that which God had purposed. This speaks of change, from the natural to the spiritual, but also a change from the visible realm unto that invisible realm which flesh and blood does not inherit. This speaks of a change from a flesh and blood mortal body to a spiritual immortal body that dwells in both the visible and the invisible realms as God so wills it. A people who manifest the Christ on the earth as they see Him manifests in heaven. 1 Cor. 15:50-52, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”. This phrase “in a moment” is from the Greek words “en atomos” meaning “in atoms”. This then speaks of a presence coming when a people shall be changed because of a change in their atoms. This change speaks of our bodies, our atoms changed from one realm of life into another. Could this mean that, because of Christ revealing Himself unto His people, He progressively matures them until He appears through them? Is this not speaking of a people manifesting the fullness of the Christ, joined to their heavenly head, to manifest this fullness in both the heavens and the earth?
This transition from the realm of hope (the Holy place Feast of Pentecost), to the realm of glory (the Holy of Holies Feast of Tabernacles – standing in God’s manifest presence – in throne-room authority) is now coming into its season. Events are now happening concerning the season of His appearing. Christ appearing is first through His first-fruits body and then through the complete harvest, united with the heavens that the heavens and the earth might abide in the completion of God’s purpose. This purpose is a house, a temple for Him to dwell in, the abiding place of God’s intended foreordained home. Rom. 8:18-19, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God”. In the natural order of things, God established for His natural people, the children of Israel, the Feast of Tabernacles. Now a season is upon another realm of people, when a people are to be in-dwelt with a full measure of Christ and the fulfillment of his purpose, the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles. God’s promise, “I will set my tabernacle among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be my people”. (Lev. 26:11-12.)
With God being our God, and we being His people, it speaks of a oneness because of a like-kind nature, a people with a restored “living soul” who now manifest a like-kind mind, with a like-kind will, with like-kind emotions and like-kind desires. A people now knowing that which God purposed in the beginning, “Let us make man in our likeness, after our image” is now being brought into a season when this new creation man shall appear in a full measure. God’s new creation is a people who are becoming the glorified body of Christ. Rev. 21:3, “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with man, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, God Himself will be with them and be their God”.