The Daily Word of Righteousness

Fifty-two Kingdom Concepts, #28

I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:11,12—NIV)

It seems to me that in our day God is emphasizing the hundredfold—those who have a passion for the holiness of God, who want only to dwell in the center of the consuming Fire of Israel. It is well to have a genuine passion to dwell in the fullness of the Fire of God's Person, a hunger that cannot be measured; a thirst that cannot be quenched, at least for now. We must have more and more and more of God's holiness. This is a gift well worth desiring—an utter passion to do God's will to the fullest.

How does God dwell in us? Remember, Jesus Christ is the house of God and the only house of God. We can only be the house of God to the extent Christ dwells in us.

First Christ must be conceived and formed in us through the travail of the ministries of the Body of Christ. Then the Father and Christ as Persons come and dwell in the Substance of Christ that has been formed in us. We will have to possess a glorified body, I believe, before we will be able to receive the fullness of God and Christ.

Thus we are being made the eternal temple of God, the chariot of God through which He can move throughout His creation.

Those who overcome the challenges placed before them, in the present hour, will receive all the rewards mentioned in the first and second chapters of the Book of Revelation. Actually these are not gifts that will be handed to us at some later time. They are abilities we are gaining today, to a great extent. They are steps in our progress toward attaining the first resurrection from the dead.

Let us think then of the pattern of the spiritual fulfillments of the last three of the feasts of the Lord:

We are entering the Blowing of Trumpets, the beginning of the attack on the enemy. The Lord is changing from the good Shepherd of the Twenty-third Psalm to the Lord, strong and mighty in battle of the Twenty-fourth Psalm. This is taking place now.

The fulfillment of the Day of Atonement also is upon us. We supposed that the sin question had been settled when we came to the cross. Indeed, the question of the guilt of our sins was settled. But the removal of the power sin has over us is just now beginning. It actually is a manifestation of the Judgment Seat of Christ.

If we are willing to cooperate with the Holy Spirit we can pass through the Judgment Seat and be prepared to be changed into glory when the Lord appears.

But if we cling to our worldliness, lust, and self-will, we will not be prepared to be changed into glory when the Lord appears. We will suffer much in the days ahead because we are not dwelling in the secret place of the Most High and therefore not under God's protection.

It means vastly more to be a true Christian than currently is presented in the Christian churches in the United States of America. The truth is, we are badly backslidden and need to return to the Lord.

To be continued.