The Daily Word of Righteousness

Antichrist—the Worship of Self, continued

I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring  all nations on earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws." (Genesis 26:4,5—NIV)

The King of the Kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ, was the first to be tested. He passed the test gloriously. He has been proven totally obedient to God.

Prior to His being made flesh the Logos was perfect in righteousness and holiness. However it is the earth that is the crucible where the obedience of the King and His royal priesthood must be tested to the limit.

The test given to Christ was the question whether He would ever be restored to God after having borne on Himself the sin of the world. One might say, "It wasn't really a test because He knew God would never fail Him." May we say we have the same assurance, but the tests are very difficult at times.

The Lord Jesus agonized in the Garden and then pressed forward into God's will. He drank the cup of suffering. "God's will be done regardless of the consequences to me!"

We must do the same. We must always pray, "Your Kingdom come. Your will be done in the earth as it is in Heaven regardless of the consequences to me personally."

Until we can pray this prayer with singleness of heart we are a rebel against our Creator and not fit to return with Christ to judge and govern the nations.

The purpose of the two thousand years of the Church Age has been to bring forth the nobility of the Kingdom, the members of the royal priesthood.

Each member of the priesthood will be tested in the realm of obedience to the Father. No individual ever, ever, ever will be a member of the royal priesthood until he or she has been tested severely in the realm of obedience.

This is why we suffer as we do. We are being judged as to every possible source of disobedience in us. It is a fiery trial, no doubt about this.

As soon as our obedience is complete, God then will be ready to send the Lord and punish the disobedient on the earth.

Antichrist is the lawless one, the disobedient one. Antichrist cannot possibly be overcome except by those who have been found utterly obedient to God.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. (II Corinthians 10:5,6—NIV)

The members of the Body of Christ have bowed the knee to God and called on God for their salvation. God sprinkles the blood of the covenant on us so we have the authority to begin the program of salvation.

The members of the Body of Christ have bowed the knee still further and have sought to live in the Spirit of God rather than in their carnal thinking and fleshly appetites. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to pursue the program of salvation.

Now we have both the authority and the power to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

To be continued.