The "ankles" signify we no longer are standing in the world. The "knees" portray our walk in the Spirit of God. The "loins" speak of strength and reproduction, for man's strength is in his loins. The judgment must reach the level of our strength and fruitfulness.

The authority of the blood of the cross accomplishes the first judgment.

The wisdom and power of the Spirit of God, working under the authority of the blood, accomplish the second judgment.

The patient, faithful bearing of our personal cross accomplishes the third judgment.

There are many people who have received the Lord Jesus and have come out of the world.

There is a smaller number of believers who are pressing forward in the Spirit to victory over sinful behavior.

There is an even smaller number who are bearing the cross of patience and obedience so their self-will may be replaced by the will of God.

The Lord must drive self-will from the throne of our personality.

Our personal cross accomplishes the third judgment. The third judgment is on our desire to retain our independence of thought and action apart from God's will. Many Christians who have come out of the world and are leading a holy life find it difficult to surrender to God to the extent God requires.

There is but one legitimate will in the universe. That will is the will of God. All other wills must choose to become merged with the one Will. The only truly free individual is the man or woman whose will has become one with the will of God so he or she wills to do God's will in every instance. All else comes short of the Glory of God. All else comes short of the first resurrection from the dead. The Kingdom of God is the doing of God's will.

The personal cross consists of two dimensions: one, the delaying of the possession of things, relationships, and circumstances we desire fervently; and two, the bringing of us into situations in which things, relationships, or circumstances we abhor or are painful are part of our life.

How many believers have sought to escape from God's prison because they were unable to trust God for deliverance in His time? Only a few persons of our day, it seems, are willing to trust God when their intense desires are not in the process of being realized, when they are being kept in situations painful and loathsome to them, when they do not understand what God is doing with them. Such never can move past Pentecost into the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, into attainment to the first resurrection from among the dead.

It is only by loving not our life unto the death that we finally can bring down Satan from the heavenlies.

We overcome the accuser by the blood, by the word of our testimony, and by loving not our life unto the death.

The waters of life flow to the world only from the Throne of God, never from the throne of man. It is only as we become one with the will of God, which necessitates death to our own will, that the Throne of God and of the Lamb can be established in us for eternity, that we can enter the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles.

To be continued.