Christ: Harboring Fugitives from the Law

The law is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ. Consecrate, abandon, and give gifts to Him out of a relationship with Jesus. The violent take it by force because they see Him Who is invisible!

1/21/1990

Question: Why is it that we, who have all this rich teaching… why is it that it seems like it takes SO LONG to walk in the fullness of what God wants us to? Are we just lacking stature, or the simplicity of belief and just totally trusting God?

Well, there is a GROWING in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior and a transformation from “one degree of glory to another.”

But another very important aspect has to do with God’s timing. I don’t mean in a dispensational way… I mean in the Mind of God, the things that He’s trying to accomplish at a particular given time. For example, in the 400 years before John the Baptist, and even including John the Baptist, there weren’t any miracles that were recorded. From Malachi on there didn’t even seem to be a prophet, truly. And John, the greatest man born of woman, did absolutely NO miracles whatsoever, but he had a measure of faith and consecration to God’s purposes. So how do you explain that John the Baptist didn’t do any miracles at all, and yet was the greatest man born of woman? Greater than Elijah apparently, and greater than Elisha and Moses. Amazing…that a man could be so consecrated to God and have that kind of faith, and yet never do a single miracle. Now why is that?

There are some unanswered questions, for sure, but it had something to do with how God was wanting to glorify Jesus, His Son, in the stages just immediately after that. John sent the men to ask Jesus, “Well, who are you? Are you really the one we’ve been waiting for?” And Jesus’ answer was something John could never claim. “Well haven’t you seen the dead raised and the sick healed, and the blind given sight?” That CONTRAST was what God was after! John knew he had a relationship with the Father. Had John experienced all that stuff—baptizing on one side of the Jordan while Jesus and his disciples were baptizing on the other side of the Jordan, miracles here, miracles there—had all of that been happening simultaneously, then the contrast wouldn’t have been such that God could have really shown forth His Son, and the era of the Fullness of Time wouldn’t have been complete.

I believe that God builds by creating droughts, even in faithfulness, like with John. He’ll build a drought on purpose to demonstrate the power of the next wave of what He wants to do, and to usher in something new. It seems clear from the Scriptures that in the very last days there are going to be counterfeit signs, and there’s also going to be valid things by the witnesses—the lampstands of God. If we’re not really seeing God’s Glory manifested in our midst the way that we would love to, for sure we need to continue to consecrate ourselves to Him. There are probably some “flags” involved that reveal a lack of faithfulness or a lack of faith on our part where we’re not really trusting Him in such a pure way and we’re still trying to gain an identity for ourselves. We are still trying to BE somebody. And we can learn some things from all of that. But, there is also just the Hebrews 11 walk of seeing the City on the horizon and REFUSING to acknowledge anything else. That City whose Builder and Maker is God! Under NO circumstances, and regardless of our failure—even if it’s for another generation—we will not go back! We won’t create a theology to defend our complacency or our lack of fruitfulness. But we’ll HUNGER and CRAVE whatever, whenever, based solely on the Word of God, even if we never see another thing the rest of our lives!

So what about reaching the Fullness of what God wants? What about that? There’s something that I hunger for that keeps me going and drives me on. Even when I don’t see all that I know that God wants, what drives me on is the blessed Hope. And I don’t think He’s going to ever let us get away from that hunger either. I think He’s always going to create enough hunger in us, enough dissatisfaction, enough groaning in us (along with creation) in NOT seeing everything. Seeing men, like Epaphroditus left sick in bed to die, and Paul saying, “God spared me sorrow upon sorrow by raising him up.” He’ll never allow us to be cocky in what’s happening. He’ll never take from view that the culmination of everything is the return of His Son. He’ll never allow that to drop from view. He’ll never make us so “successful” in walking in productive fruitful life here, that we don’t long for His appearing and cry out, “How long? How long, o Lord?” So those things are going to be mixed… we’ll SEE the fruit of His divine presence and His power with ever increasing measure as time races towards its conclusion. But I don’t think the time will ever come when there’s not just this craving in us, “How long? How long, O Lord?” Men will want rocks to fall on them. Those who haven’t submitted to Him and live on the dark side of the world will want to die and they can’t. But in our particular lives, as things race towards this conclusion, I don’t believe He’ll ever place us in a position where we’re not still hungering and crying out and being dissatisfied. The blessed Hope is the return of the Son—not walking in power—but the RETURN OF HIS SON. When we see Him face to face!

I’ve felt the need to reinforce this in my own life… keep your eyes on the blessed Hope. The blessed Hope! Keep your eyes on the return of the Son and the clouds breaking and the Mighty One of Israel riding the clouds like chariots. Keep your eyes on THAT as the thing that will ULTIMATELY satisfy your soul because that’s where it’s all coming back. That’s where it’s all going to come together in the culmination of things. That will give you hope no matter what you see between now and then.

Do learn, catch the flags between point A and point B that can make you more like the Son. It can allow you to walk by faith and to be able to say to that mountain, “Be thou removed and cast into the sea!” without doubting, because our fellowship with Him is so secure that we know it was Him that was prompting that prayer. Grow in all of those things, but realize this: the ULTIMATE fulfillment is when we see Him as He is, and that’s when it will all come together.

What I’m suggesting is that it’s going to be a dissatisfying walk to an extent because you’re going to be hungering, longing, and crying out for His return to finish it off. As Paul said in 2Thes. 1, God will pay back trouble to those who trouble you. There will be retribution. And when will this happen? When? When He’s revealed on the clouds, and the trumpet blasts and the blazing fire of His Glory. And His Holy ones will fill the air to bring righteous judgement to the face of the earth. So we’re watching for the culmination of things as He comes on the clouds. There will be trouble paid back to those who trouble you when He returns and treads out the winepress of the wrath of God Almighty. And those who are clothed in His Righteousness in white will be part of that Mighty Army. It’s going to be an awesome thing!

I believe that we’re just touching the hem of the garment, at best. There is much to come…the feast of Tabernacles—the great and the final feast of God—the feast of Ingathering and the tabernacles of all of God’s people coming together on a common plane and counting none of their possessions as their own. We are barely even touching the hem of the garments…the day of Atonement and going into the most Holy Place where God’s Glory is and His Presence, and the Feast of Trumpets, the blasting forth of the trumpet call of God on the face of the earth. I believe that, AT BEST, we are barely, barely even touching the hem of the garment. Most of what we are doing now is faithfulness to the fact that we’re called to be a Holy Nation and a Royal Priesthood. We are called to lay down our lives—not attending services, not “going” to church—but BEING a body that’s joined and knit together. A lot of what’s happening in our midst right now is just faithfulness. It’s obedience to God. God always meant it to be that way. It’s clear in the Bible. A lot of what’s happening in our midst right now isn’t so much the pouring out of what God’s ultimately going to do, as it is the preparation of our own hearts and our own lives to be faithful and to obey Him, and to do what He said, and has said from the beginning.

Basically, we are now in a faithfulness stage, and an obedience stage. We’ve not even seen but the bare beginnings of the pouring out stage… where we’re going to see the men of God, that He ascended on high and gave to His church, beginning to really do their thing. In the pouring out, we’ll see the other gifts and callings and relationships in the body of Christ really being Divine rather than natural and obedient and faithful. At best, we’re at the very, very beginning of that and functioning just on the basis of Truth at this point. That’s a plenty high enough call! I believe that just to have the discernment to SEE the things He has always said is a gift from Heaven. I’ve got no complaints about that, but I’m crying out for the pouring out of that which is SO divine and SO clear that the pagans, the unbelievers, and the skeptics will all fall on their faces. At this point in time, we have seen them cry out, “God is really among you!” based on “spot by spot” blessing and grace. We’ve seen that many, many times. But we have yet to see the gushing overflow of waves of people, like on Pentecost, just being racked with agony and conviction and calling out to God. So far, it’s been a case by case thing. We’ve seen His Glory. We’ve seen and tasted the powers of the coming age, but it’s just been hors d’oeuvres at this point! And I believe He’s going to serve up a Feast for us!

My eyes are on the horizon for a city whose builder and maker is God. All that we’re longing for—I’d love to see it in our lifetime. The Wisdom from above, the Word. The famine has ended. The famine in hearing the Word of God is over with which tells me the Feast is near.

•  CHRIST: Harboring Fugitives From the Law