“A Voice for the Gathering Saints”
Duane Stewart
God’s Created Man
“Part nine of ten”By being aware of your right to choose which level of existence you desire to live, it encourages us to seek the Lord for His will and purpose in completing our lives, knowing that God has chosen to release to us His life, and that life is eternal as we co-exist with Him. We can have a final victory in God, even to the resurrection of the body which is not to be subject to the law of death. I Cor. 15:50-55, “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. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when the corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
We should understand that God is not looking toward those who are dead in body to receive any glory and praise, but it is toward the living that He looks. It is from the living that He seeks to have fellowship, spirit, soul and body. Like with Adam, in the beginning, God’s desire was to walk and talk with man in the cool (spirit) of the day. Isa. 38:17-19 shares, “Indeed it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness; But You (God) have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. For Sheol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your truth. The living, the living man, he shall praise you, as I do this day; the father shall make known your truth to the children”. God’s desire is for loving fellowship with man, and in the bringing forth the completion of His created man, He shall have a living, praising, glorious son and a family in which to dwell. It is not through the death of the people that brings forth victory, but through those that are alive and living in union with Christ.
God’s promise of the manifestation of His remnant firstfruits company of people moves Him to send forth any ministry needed to prepare a people for that day. Today is the day of preparation that comes before the dreadful day of the Lord, when the sheep and goats are separated. Judgment shall have its day as God matures His people that they might be sent forth as King/Priest in His kingdom. Speaking of those established that they might establish God’s kingdom. Malachi 4:5-6, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse”. Yes, it is unto the living that God promises a renewal of the body, by a birthing of the spirit. God’s dealings in life come to maturity in the man by man knowing God’s purpose and His ways. God’s requirement for man is that they might wait upon the Lord. This means to go about the routines of daily life with a fervent, patient hope that He will consummate His purpose in them in His time.
Isa. 40:28-31, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint”. This is a “born again” people who are waiting upon and responding to the Lord and Him alone. The word “wait” in the above scripture has the meaning of “look for, expect, hope and to wait for”. Thus, we are longingly looking to and standing in the place of abiding in Him, the God of heaven and the earth.
“Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh (navel) and strength to your bones”. (Proverbs 3:3-8). Mercy and truth are to be our constant companions, never to be forsaken and left behind. Trust God alone and know Him intimately. Acknowledge Him in all that you do, and He will make a clear way before us. Bringing us into a place where we are fully aware of Him and stand in fellowship with Him. “Health to the navel” means, we have healing going to and throughout the whole body.
When a vessel begins to hunger and thirst after righteousness, the spiritual umbilical cord is established between God and the vessel and food begins to flow into that vessel. Let us acknowledge in knowing, that a mother does not push the food into the embryonic infant who dwells within her womb. It is the child that draws its nourishment, as needed, through the umbilical cord. “Strength or marrow to the bones” is the regenerating substance that restores the worn out cells back to life. John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly”. “Abundantly” is a word that means, “Superabundance, excessive, overflowing, surplus, over and above, more than enough, extraordinary, above the ordinary, more than sufficient”.
Herein, by abiding in the vine, which Christ is, we have this promise. That life, as it flows from the Father, unto those who hunger and thirst, they shall be filled. This life of God that flows into the nurturing vessel is more than enough. It has no lack. All that the receiving vessel has needed of is available. The life spoken of here is that fountain of life that comes from the heart of God unto life everlasting. Man’s fall has taken him from the realm of life into that realm of death. This death speaks of being separated from God which is the result of disobedience and until now, the curse causes man to toil and sweat to receive enough sustenance to sustain himself even as God spoke to Adam in Gen. 3:17-19, “Then to Adam He said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are and dust you shall return”.
A life style we have all known, for we all have stood in that life which never produced completeness or fulfillment. This carnal natural life has the promise, that death shall be its reward, as the body returns back to the dust from which it came, but we who have received from God, His calling has been extended unto us as an invitation. This invitation is that we might journey upon a different path than the carnal world. This is a path which rebukes the promise of death to the natural fleshly body, to a promise that promises eternal life, which includes the body. But, the promise of eternal life is not one without the testing necessary to separate and put us upon this narrow path. Matt. 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it”. Are you ready for a life-style change? Are you ready to be different?
How does mankind find and stay upon this path? There is a place in God wherein we can be filled with heavenly manna. This place is a place where we are satisfied with food in abundance, the manna which comes forth from God to sustain us, to satisfy completely the hungry soul. Matt. 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled”. This speaks to us that we cannot be satisfied with what we have until body, soul, and spirit are perfected. Again how are we perfected? By asking, seeking and knocking. In our seeking for the fullness of perfection, let us remember, that one portion of the truth does not fill us with all of God’s fullness, but only unto that one which continues to hunger after righteousness shall the fullness come. Read Isa. 28:9-20 and note, the covenant with death shall be annulled. Spiritual growth, a maturing process, which carries with it the promise, that death shall lose its hold upon this people. A people that shall know their place and calling in God. This is a people that shall enter into a Spirit-filled rest. This is a people that know a daily refreshing in Christ. A people walking in the fullness of “let us make man, in the likeness and image of God and let us give him dominion”. Thus, our place as God’s created man is to subdue the earth, to replenish it and glorify God to the fullness of Himself. Herein can we not see a kingdom being established? This is a kingdom wherein a remnant of King/Priest who governs with Christ in God’s eternal love becomes a reality.