02.22.2016
A Voice for the Gathering Saints
Jesus, the son of man and God’s Saviour for humanity, stands before us as the great redeemer for all those who put their trust and faith in Him and His finished work. In this truth, the prophet Isaiah speaks to us concerning this man Jesus and those who would be “redeemed” as the results of His afflictions and sacrifice. Isa. 63:7-9 speaks, “I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He hath bestowed on them according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His loving kindnesses. For He said, surely they are My People, children that will not lie: so He was their Saviour. In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His Pity He redeemed them; and He bares them, and carried them all the days of old”. Unto those who see that in Christ there is the fulfillment of this scripture, they likewise know the act of being one of the redeemed. That is, placed into a body that makes up the Christ, which are a people that dwell “in Him” and “He in them”.
The prophet Malachi foretells of one who is coming to prepare for such an appearing as spoken of by Isaiah. A messenger sent forth for a time of sanctification and maturity to prepare the world for this appearing, the coming forth of God’s Saviour unto the world as an act of redemption unto all who would receive His work on the cross. Malachi 3:1 declares, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts”.
The meaning of the word “prepare” in “prepare the way” in the above passage of scripture, defines the manner in which it is prepared; it is “by removing the obstacles from the way”. John the Baptist came before Jesus the Christ and prepared the way for His appearing. His appearing became man’s Saviour and a seed to plant within receiving humanity, which was to bring forth a harvest of a greater portion (the law of the seed is that every seed brings forth after its own kind). That is to say, a time of another preparing for another appearing called the second coming. In this, we have true ministries of the true body of Christ, again ministering a preparation message of a time that is to come. Could that time even now be upon humanity? Note that this second coming is not just for the world to see the Head only, the singular Jesus Christ, but with Him shall be His many member body, anointed in the Christ, to prepare for Him and appear with Him in the earth realm to“root out, to destroy, to throw down, to then build and to plant”. (Jeremiah 1:10b).
Who then are these redeemed ones that are to come? Who is it that shall make an appearance in the Christ and with Him, to establish God’s kingdom in all the earth? These, the overcomers, are those who become the manifesting covenant spoken of in Mal. 3:1 above. This verse points to the new covenant Christ instituted among His people, a covenant that replaced the old obsolete covenant for the purpose of it vanishing away. This new covenant is not as the old one, one written upon tablets of stone to become the many outward laws that the carnal natural fleshly house of man was then and is now unable to keep. These outward laws are now set aside because our Saviour Jesus Christ has fulfilled them. They, the old covenant, not replaced by another set of outward laws, but a new government administered by a new nature. This new nature placed within the heart of receiving man to become a new and “living soul”. The soul then becomes the abiding place of the nature of God within the heart of receiving man. Heb. 8:8-10 states,“For finding fault with them, He saith, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt: because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel[who we are as spiritual sons of Abraham] after those days [of the Mosaic law], saith the Lord; I will put my laws [government of His nature] into their mind, and write them [His nature] in their hearts [soul]: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people”.In fulfilling the old covenant, Jesus is now resurrecting the fallen soul of receiving man to become a new “living soul” wherein the nature of God is manifest from within.
Jesus came forth from the Father as a walking, talking, visible manifestation of who the Father is. Being the Word made flesh, Jesus sought not His own will, but He desired only the will and purpose of the Father Who sent Him. In this, He did all things according to the plans of the Father and therefore He is the Son of a High Priestly order, a Priest, not of an earthly lineage, but a High Priest after the order of Melchisedec. This speaks of a far greater Priesthood than that of the earthy Levitical order of Priest. Heb. 5:5-6 says, “So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest; but He that said unto Him, thou art my Son, today have I begotten Thee. As He saith also in another place, Thou art a Priest forever after the order of Melchisedec”. Jesus, as a Priest forever speaks of that which was, is, and always will be.
That which came forth from eternity, as a High Priest of eternal heavenly things, is now the one that not only fulfilled the laws of the old covenant but also brought to humanity forgiveness of sins. These crucified sins speak of the old sin nature changing from the earthly order of things to the heavenly order of God. John 1:29 reveals Jesus as the sacrificial lamb that takes away sin and ultimately the sin nature, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world”. The “sin of the world” is that condition humanity inherited from our father fallen Adam, which means that humankind is in a state of, “a failing to hit the mark; a sin, whether by omission, or commission, in thought, word, or deed”. This means that fallen man is faithful to his fallen nature, a life that always misses God’s true purpose.
With every seed bringing forth after its own kind, without a new birth of the Christ seed, humanity will always fall short and will miss the mark called God’s purpose. However, in Christ we can now know the power of His resurrection. We washed clean by the blood of Christ and renewed in a right spirit, a resurrection from the old dead man to a new “living soul” in Christ. Rev. 1:5, “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood”. We should note here that His shed blood is to wash away the sin nature from us, not for just a one-time shot but to progressively renew and resurrect us into that new creation man who is to live in the completed nature of Christ. For this purpose, then man must abide in the cross until it finishes its work. Rev. 1:6, “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever, Amen”.
Is a season of God, which He calls “the fullness of times”, now upon the church? This speaks of the time in God when all things, purposed in God from eternity, shall have their fulfillment. The eternal, the invisible things of God are not just for the realms of heaven, the unseen, but they are also for the visible realms of the earth. The earth, foremost, speaks of the earth each man is in himself and afterwards it is to reach out to manifest itself in everything the risen man puts his hands to. Note that Acts 13:33-34 declares of Jesus the resurrected one as well as His body, which has inherited the sure mercies of David. “God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again; as it is written in the second psalm, thou art My Son; this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that He raised Him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, He said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David”. Understand that these sure mercies of David are the promises faithfully kept by the Christ. These are promises that Jesus Christ is now dwelling in and they are promises unto those who are becoming the body of Christ who shall likewise inherit.
Again, conditions in today’s world are the determining signs of the times that are bringing an expectation of a return of the Christ, even as promised by our Father. In this, a word of God proclaimed is now beginning to take its place in worldly matters. That is to say, the heavenly things purposed by God are beginning to affect the earth, preparing it for the coming forth of this Christ, the Head and His many member body.
Rev. 11:15 speaks of an angel sounding out what is declared to be the seventh trumpet. This seventh sounding trumpet speaks of those earthly kingdoms ending with God’s established kingdom taking their place. “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever”.
Humanity is to know, that Jesus Christ died as a savior with an eternal purpose. His purpose was to rise up in a generation as a many member body. Thus, the completed man, Jesus the Head and first begotten from the dead shall harvest His many member body to walk with Him as Kings and Priest in God’s eternal kingdom. 1 Peter 2:9-10, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye shall show forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light: which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy”. Yes, a people obtaining the “sure mercies of David”.
These people are the redeemed who are beginning to experience a birthing into that throne-room order of God. Therefore, with Jesus the Head, let these redeemed of the Lord say so. These resurrected ones will not just talk about sons; they shall manifest the son because they have become one with the “living soul” realm of the first-born son. These who have become partakers of the first-born son realm are becoming His body expressed from their new creation nature, the glories of that first-born son, Jesus Christ. God has appointed unto these an established kingdom, even as God has appointed unto Jesus. Luke 22:29, “And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto me”. With God, being His Father, it expresses for us a relationship, which a Father has with His son. It also denotes God’s relationship with those sons who are the begotten into a new creation, which sons we are if we overcome through the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Rev. 3:21, “To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcome, and am set down with My Father in His throne”.
Note then that the redeemed of the Lord are to say so. They, in their inherited rights can rest assured that these promised Words of God are yea and amen. Rom. 8:16-17, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children [born by spiritual descent, a new nature] of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together”. Does this not speak of His glory becoming the glory shared with His new natured children? That is a people becoming of a like-kind nature because they have been reborn of His seed. Herein dwells our rights. Let the “redeemed” of the Lord say so. This word “redeemed” from the Hebrew word “GA’AL” has this meaning, “To be the next of kin whom buys back a relative’s property”. In this our redeemer who has bought us back from the death of the first Adam to now know the redemption of all our lost property, which is our spirit, our soul (which is moving from the Holy place into the Holy of Holies, God’s throne-room authority) and then our bodies. Herein, we shall know our place of glory in Him who has redeemed us. Therefore, let the redeemed of the Lord say so.