The Daily Word of Righteousness

Eight Appearances of the Victorious Saints, continued

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. (Revelation 7:2,3)

The Christian churches can be separated into the victorious saints and the rest of the church-attenders. You can see the two groups in most churches.

The majority, the church-attenders, make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. They attend church, help pay the bills, participate in the functions of the assembling. But their daily life, other than some prayer and Bible reading, is much the same as that of the unsaved.

The victorious saints do all the same things but they are much more occupied with Jesus Christ. They are learning to walk in openness before God, confessing and turning away from their sins, listening for the voice of the Lord. They are ready to go, ready to stay, ready to do the Lord's will.

The victorious saints are growing in ministry, in the use of their talents. You can see the growth in holiness and service from month to month as they pass through "many dangers, toils, and snares." They are true Christians, true saints.

They do not live like the world.

Many people who attend church grow hardly at all over fifty years. After fifty years of attending church they still have the same problems of personality. Perhaps the main change in them is that the women have become bitter, unforgiving gossips. Some of the men drop out, sit at home on Sunday morning, read the paper, watch the television, and talk about "them preachers that want all your money."

However, the victorious saints after fifty years are prophets.

One characteristic of the victorious saints may be noticed in the seventh chapter of the Book of Revelation.

Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. (Revelation 7:3)

The victorious saints are "the servants of our God."

Every Christian is called to be a bondslave of the Lord Jesus Christ. This means that Christ has the authority to dictate every detail of his or her life.

Paul commands us to present our body a living sacrifice to God. This is our reasonable service of worship. This is the only way in which we can prove the will of God for our life.

First Corinthians informs us that the Holy Spirit has given a gift, a talent, to every member of the Body of Christ. How many church- attenders know what their gift is? Not very many and this is why the Body of Christ is so immature. The Body can be built up only by the contribution of each member.

The churchgoers of today are not, for the most part, presenting their body a living sacrifice to God. Therefore they do not know the will of God for their life. They do not know of a gift or ministry they have been given. Therefore the members of their assembly, including themselves, do not come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

To be continued.