The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Kingdom of God Is at Hand, #14

Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. (Isaiah 60:5)

God views the saved as being fish drawn from the sea of mankind.

When the Lord Jesus returns to earth, the fountains of living water will be opened in those in whom the Father and the Son are dwelling, those who have become the Throne of God and of the Lamb. The water of life will flow from them into the dead sea of mankind and all that is in the sea will live.

And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. (Ezekiel 47:9)

But what of the birds during the fifth day, the day of life?

Whenever Christ is born in us our new inner nature is lifted to the right hand of God, as we noticed in the day of separation. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. During the past two thousand years of the Gospel message there has been a planting of the heavens with Christ. Christ is being enlarged in Heaven as each believer is added to Him.

It is the Lord's will that after we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit we walk in heavenly places with Christ, placing our interests and hope there with Him at the right hand of God. At one time we dwelled in the natural world, but now the Lord would draw us upward as part of Christ's resurrection from the dead and ascension to the right hand of God.

When Christ appears we shall appear with Him in glory provided He indeed is our life (Colossians 3:4). Christ who appears the second time will be greatly enlarged in comparison with His first appearance to the world, for now He is both in and with a vast company whose Life He is. He is our Life. Our new Life already is in Heaven in and with the Lord Jesus, the result of the day of separation (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1-4).

The Lord Jesus came to bring us eternal life in spirit, in soul, and in body. The goal of the Christian salvation is the redemption, the adoption, the resurrection of the mortal body.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)

And not only they [the material creation], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)

Paul was striving to attain the first resurrection from the dead—the resurrection to bodily righteousness, immortality, and glory.

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection [Greek, out-resurrection] of the dead. (Philippians 3:11)

The saints of today have been sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption, the day when God is ready to adopt our mortal body by making it alive with His Holy Spirit. We have the "firstfruits of the Spirit" meaning we shall be the first of mankind to experience eternal life in spirit, soul, and body.

To be continued.