The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Great Commission, #14

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. (Isaiah 60:2)

Why does Satan strive continually to remove the emphasis on keeping the Lord's commandments in favor of a lawless grace and an evacuation to the spirit world where the believers float about in bliss while God's will never is done in the earth?—while the Kingdom remains in Heaven above?

Satan indeed has reason to fear and tremble as the message of Kingdom righteousness goes forth today. The preaching of the necessity for living righteously, and the varied manifestations of the Spirit that now are appearing among us, are building up the saints so they will be prepared to return with the Lord and bring righteousness and peace to those who sit in spiritual darkness.

It is those who are making disciples and teaching the disciples to keep the laws of the Kingdom who possess the true concern for the world. These are the saints who are doing what God said to do on behalf of those who are in the chains of Satan. It is these Christians who are not trying in their own strength to escape to Heaven or persuade others to escape to Heaven but rather are endeavoring to follow the Lord Jesus as He (and they) prepare the Kingdom of God that soon is to come to the earth.

Satan's great fear is that the members of the Body will work with the current crop of spiritual babies until they are able to drive Satan's kingdom from the earth.

Satan cares little for the plans of people to save the world. Satan fears the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When the disciples learn to forsake their own reasoning and ways and turn to the Lord in order to gain His reasoning and ways, then Satan is in deep trouble—and he understands this better than we.

Satan fears the saints who are growing in the Lord. He will do everything in his power to sow discord and discouragement, seeking to turn them away from their goal, which is to build the Body of Christ so it is prepared to bring the Kingdom of God to the earth.

Satan has been able to seduce some of the believers into sin. Others are leaving the dedicated assemblies because the message of righteousness is "too hard," meaning they want to leave a little room for sin in their life.

In our church's jail ministry we in numerous instances are dealing with those who on several occasions have made a decision for Christ, have received the pass to Heaven, but who then went back into sin. When the message of the Kingdom comes they receive it gladly, recognizing for the first time that the Gospel of the Kingdom is not a ticket to Heaven but the power to live righteously in the present world. By presenting to jail inmates the power to live righteously through Christ, our church is fulfilling the Great Commission.

Every Sunday in the Christian churches each believer must be encouraged through worship, prophecy, and the Word of God to turn away from the world, to present his body a living sacrifice, to follow the Lord Jesus in patient, cross-carrying obedience, and to keep all the commandments of the Lord through the grace given him or her by the Lord Jesus. In this manner we fulfill the Great Commission.

To be continued.