The World Will See Jesus Again!

12/6/1986

December 1986

The purposes of God for an individual and the corporate body of Christ are that the Agape Kingdom of God would be spread to every nation and then the end would come. The agape of many would wax cold because of the increase of wickedness. But some despise the increase of wickedness and have made God’s enemies their enemies and God’s passionate love their passionate love (they can’t tolerate it in their bones as it says in Peter’s epistle about Lot). For those people who despise that wickedness, God’s kingdom is going to spread over all the earth—and then the end will come. It is fully God’s purpose to show the world Jesus Christ again.

Before the end shall come, the world will see Jesus Christ again in the Body of Christ. It is going to happen. His CHURCH is going to be the precious, blameless, spotless Bride of Christ without any wrinkle. The Bride of Christ in all of her Glory is going to be a people who are living out the purposes of God just as Jesus did. The kingdom of this world is going to see the King lived out in the body of Christ, and to that they are going to be accountable. They will be in the valley of decision where they will have to decide what they are going to do with Jesus Christ. Are they going to crucify Him again? And, in fact, as we know from reading Revelation, they will. Many will desire to crucify Him again.

Some will yawn and walk away apathetically. But others will see Jesus Christ again in the full expression of His character in the Body of Christ, and will respond to that as they did in the first century. The way is still narrow, but the bushel basket will not hide the Light of the Glory of God. The city will be set on a hill where it cannot be hidden! That is God’s purpose. The mount of the Lord’s temple will be established as “chief among the mountains.” The Glory of this house will exceed the glory of the former house. The ever-increasing government of God—that was the purpose of Jesus Christ establishing His reign. It says, “The zeal of the Lord God Almighty will establish an ever-increasing government.” And for those who are looking for the Church to start off with a big bang in Acts 2, and then drift into obscurity and irrelevance and a pitiful weakness with no witness at all—that cannot be so! That cannot Biblically be so. What we’re seeing now is not the end of the story. God will have that Bride that has made herself ready.

The Elijah of God, the John the Baptist of God, will prepare the way for the Second Coming of the Lord also. The people of God will prepare the way for the Second Coming of the Lord. People will see Jesus Christ on earth again. So, our job, especially in the light of being overcomers, is to join ourselves wholly to that purpose and not be distracted by anything—not be a double-minded man who is “unstable in all his ways.” To have an undivided heart and to go after that with all our energy—everything, all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our strength—that’s the only definition of a Christian. And that’s what it’s going to take to be that people who are ready for the return of Jesus, and have made the way ready for Him.

In order to be that people, there is something that is absolutely essential: “Unless the Lord builds the house, it is built in vain.” These things will be done by the zeal of the Lord God Almighty. Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” “Unless the Lord builds the house, it is built in vain.” So there is something that God is going to accomplish in His people as He makes a name for Himself by taking a people that were not a people. Do we qualify? It’s all prophetically there in the Old Testament. You were nobody. You were the smallest of nations. You had nothing going for you. You didn’t have anything to brag about or boast about. You weren’t so smart; not many of you were wise or noble by human standards. That’s not what the Kingdom of God is all about—to somehow be so big and tough and strong and have our methodology so precise and well-tuned that we can accomplish God’s purpose by fleshly effort! We’re not going to build a tower of Babel and reach God. It is not going to happen, no matter how smart we think we are.

Here is the point: How are we going to accomplish that if we’re not the ones who are going to accomplish it?! We have a choice of whether or not to be in on that. This is one of the mysteries of God that I want to share with you. It is our inheritance in Christ to experience the Glory of God that we lost when we sinned and fell short of that Glory. We are meant to experience an ever-increasing Glory (2Cor. 3:18). You won’t be able to do that out of the flesh. God gives the increase. Men plant seeds; they water, but God gives the increase. You’ll not be able to beat your way back into the Glory of God by some man-made way of doing it. Your zeal won’t do it, your Bible knowledge won’t do it, and your sincerity won’t do it. There have been sincere people for generations, for centuries even! Are you any more sincere than any of them? I don’t think so.

But something about the nature of God is that there is ever-increasing revelation. It’s like being in a funnel, and you look up and all you see is this little bit. But then as time moves on, you can see from Genesis to Revelation. As you move up and the circumference of the funnel gets a little bigger, you can see more of the universe, more of God’s precious truth—1 Corinthians 2 is a good example of how that is so and God said it is so!

As the apex of the ages, the fulfillment of the ages as it says in 1 Corinthians 10, comes upon us, we are moving higher and higher up into that funnel where we are seeing more and more of the Mind of God. We’re building on those things that were revealed before us. God over and over again said, “As I said to Isaac...” “As I said to Jacob...” “As I said...” “As I said....” God does not mean for us to criticize the past, or anything that ever was. What He means for us to do is build on that. “As I said unto Isaac...” “Listen, guys. Think back. Grow. Build on what you have already received, but don’t stop there. Do not let anything be your ceiling. Do not let your father or your mother be your ceiling. Do not let anyone ever be your ceiling. Go for all that I have for you, and don’t stop short because of any peer pressure, because of anything under the sun. Do not stop short. Promise? It’s not worth it to live in poverty for someone else’s sake. It can’t be!”

•  Come Lord, Crack the Sky