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"And this is my prayer. That God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and the all-glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and the insight to know more of Him: that you may receive that inner illumination of the Spirit which will make you realize how great is that hope to which He is calling you." (Ephesians 1:16-18, Phillips).
From God all things proceeding, to God all things return, How great this expectation that in my heart doth burn."THAT YOU MAY RECEIVE THAT INNER ILLUMINATION OF THE SPIRIT." Revelation is not self-induced, nor conjured up by the reasonings of the natural mind. The holy Spirit sovereignly MOVES upon the deep of our being, and He says, "Let there be light." And when His light shines upon our pathway, suddenly WE KNOW things which were long obscured and hidden in the counsels of God. And so we pray with the Psalmist, "Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live, and keep Your Word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law. I am a stranger in the earth: hide not Your commandments from me." (Psalm 119:17-19).A hope that's firmly anchored in Christ within the veil, Nought can this truth diminish-- His Word shall eler prevail.
The dark and gloomy wasteland, the ignorance that was grim, The heart that was so empty-- shall now be filled with Him.
I know He is my Father, He is my destiny,
I'll find within His fulness a life of victory.It may be that there are those who are "comfortable" with the world, as if they belonged here, and so they find their life filled with the things of the world. But there are those who also feel so keenly, "I AM A STRANGER IN THE EARTH," I am a mis-fit here, I don't belong here, I am as a pilgrim and a stranger on the earth. "They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country (Greek, a father-land)." (Heb. 11:14). And truly "Blessed is the man whose strength is in You; in whose heart are the highways to Zion." (Psalm 84:5, Amplified).
IN THE HEART-- engrained upon our spirit-- IS THE HIGHWAY TO ZION. Thus we walk by the light of the CHRIST WITHIN, for He alone can direct our steps and bring us into the fulfillment of our destiny. The philosopher wrote of those who "march to the beat of a different drummer," because within them is a bent, a motivation, a thought pattern that is out of step with the common crowd. But never is this more true than in the life of a BELIEVER who is a STRANGER TO THIS WORLD, because God has written into them a path which leads to Zion. While the masses are marching down the hill, to the lowlands of sensual pleasure, these are marching UP THE HILL, heeding that inner call to "come up higher," as they seek for the fulfillment of desire which can only be found in God.
Only the holy Spirit can ILLUMINE THIS INNER WAY. "The Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God - the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny." (1 Cor. 2:10, Amplified).
Only by divine revelation can man know what God is doing, and thus "Be established in present truth." (2 Peter 1:12). Therefore we are grateful for the promise, "The Spirit also helps our infirmities (weaknesses)..." (Romans 8:26). How? By making "intercession for the saints according to the will of God." We know not what-- the natural man knows not-- and so the Holy Spirit comes to our rescue, helping our weakness, our not knowing. Mindful of our IGNORANCE, He converses with us, has dealings with us, that He might reveal to us what is in the mind of God for us. He (the Spirit) who has searched out the deep things of God, is beautifully able to unfold them to us "line upon line, precept upon precept," in a way that we begin to understand and grasp just what it is that God has planned for us. Then we can begin to pray in harmony with the will of God-- not foolishly asking for things which would be a detriment to our walk, but surrendering ourselves to Him to become ONE IN HIS WILL. When I know not THE WHAT of my calling, then the Spirit, KNOWING THE WHAT, can reveal to me the way to go. HE connects the REALITY OF GOD with our need, and guides us into all truth.
Let it be clear: ALL that He speaks is TRUTH. Furthermore, the Spirit is not limited to just "quoting scripture," and expounding "the Word of God." He knows what is in the mind of God for you-- your destiny, your path for tomorrow, yes, your steps for today, and He dwells within you to be that INNER GUIDING LIGHT, helping you in all your weaknesses, your not-knowing.
Once God spoke by Jeremiah, "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way." (Jer. 23:21-22).
What a picture! I didn't send them, but they are off and running. I never gave them a message, but they are busy prophesying. So what are they saying? If it is not a message from God, it has to be out of themselves. And what have they accomplished? Isaiah 26:18 says it well. "We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen." Except it is OF THE LORD, all our efforts are in vain.
When Absalom had rebelled against David his father, and eventually was slain by Joab, one of the captains of David's army, a young man, Ahimaaz, said to Joab, "Let me now run, and bear the king tidings." But Joab would not let him go. "Then said Joab to Cushi, Go tell the king what you have seen." So Ahimaaz asked again, "Let me, I also pray, run after Cushi. And Joab said, Where will you run, my son, seeing that you have no tidings ready?" Still he persisted, and so finally Joab said, "Run." Now Cushi had some very sad news to tell the king, and a heavy heart makes for heavy feet, and Cushi was not running very fast, and so Ahimaaz out-ran him and got to the king first. So David asked him, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" And he answered, "I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was." And the king said, "Turn aside, and stand here." Then he with the heavy heart, and running slower, came plodding up, and gave the king the news that his son was dead. Methinks there is a real lesson to be learned in this record. When you are bearing "THE BURDEN OF THE WORD OF THE LORD," you will not be so swift to run and tell it just everywhere, but you will make sure that you are SENT, and to whom you are sent. Nor will you run near as fast as these runners that have nothing to say, and are saying it. When God speaks into your heart a revelation of WHAT HE IS DOING, it will solemnize you and cause you to walk softly before Him. You just don't run around telling God's secrets everywhere.
BUT-- "If they had stood in My counsel," literally, in My secret assembly, to receive a message from Me, then they could cause the people to HEAR MY WORDS-- not words about themselves, not words about how great they are, not words about the many programs and works they are supposedly doing for God-but actually speaking A FRESH WORD FROM THE LORD, then they would actually turn the people around, causing them to forsake their evil ways. O, may the Lord bring us into such an INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM, to where we hear HIS WORDS, so that we have a people-changing message. For HIS WORDS ARE SPIRIT, and THEY ARE LIFE.
Only God knows what is in our destiny, as He fulfills His purpose in each of us. Only He can reveal it, and bring us into its reality. Thus we cry out with Jeremiah (10:23-24), "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps. O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing."
Full well we know it is not in ourselves to direct our own way. True, He has planted a sense of destiny within us, yet He has buried it in us in such a way "so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end." (Eccl. 3:11). only as His Spirit reveals to us of His way, guiding us into His truth, do we have a clear path before us.
Full well also we know that we need much correction to bring each one into harmony with HIS WAY. But then note that Jeremiah makes a real distinction between "judgment" and "anger," though most of Christendom thinks they mean the same thing. The judgments of God are His INSTRUCTIONAL (chastenings if necessary) PROCESSINGS which bring us into alignment with His righteousness and purpose. Anger bespeaks of an energy force in motion, which can often be somewhat devastating. However, we might also add, the ANGER OF THE LORD also includes in it the restoration needed after the old is removed. While man, in his limitations, destroys and walks off and leaves it in ruin. We truly learn to welcome His judgments, even as it is written, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Your Word. - I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right, and that You in faithfulness have afflicted me." (Psalm 119:67, 75).
We pray for our eyes to be enlightened, that we might know what is the hope of our calling, yet how little we realized that a vital part of the process of enlightenment are HIS JUDGMENTS. "With my soul have I desired You in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek you early: for when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS." (Isaiah 26:9). Yes, we have hope in His very judgments!
Hope-- the Greek word is "elpis" meaning: expectation, knowing it is sure.
One of the Hebrew words used for "expectation" is "tiqvah" and literally means: A CORD, coming from "qavah" which means: to bind together. TO KNOW YOUR HOPE is to have a CORD that holds you to the ultimate victory and realization. Furthermore, since our calling/destiny is from God, we do not wishfully dream up our own hope, it is GOD-GIVEN. He extends the CORD to us, having anchored it firmly in Himself, and then by lovingkindness wraps it around us, so that we are HELD to our ultimate destiny. "Which we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil." (Hebrews 6:19). We are BOUND UNTO HIM-- hope comes from His heart into ours, and binds us all together. He will never release His end of the CORD, and we need to firmly grasp ours, knowing that "There shall be a reward, and your expectation shall not be cut off." (Prov. 24:14)
Eyes enlightened to know WHAT is the HOPE of your calling? So, what are we called to? Go back in the chapter (Ephesians 1), from whence we took our text, and it is speaking of our call to SONSHIP. "According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." (Ephesians 1:4-5).
Note especially the word "adoption" coming from a Greek word that means: placement as a son. It does not mean that orphaned children, gendered by other fathers, having other natures, are suddenly accepted into a family, as our present day thinking of adoption goes. Rather, the Word is clear, "That the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father." (Gal. 4:1-2). When he has been fully trained and developed, disciplined and grown, then the father specifically PLACED HIM IN THE POSITION OF A SON, with all the rights and privileges of maturity. He was gendered by the father, he had the father's nature, but he needed to GROW UP. He was not a bastard, he did not have some other man's lineage in him, but though he was born AN HEIR, he could not exercise the rights of that position until PLACED THERE BY HIS FATHER. A vital part of our HOPE is this PLACEMENT AS A SON. His sons are generated by His Spirit, with His nature, His heredity, they are His own children!
Christendom proposes an amalgamation of the children of all these religious fathers (denominations, etc), to make them one big happy family, supposedly called "the family of God," and then they wonder why, when they get some of them together, they are not happy. But they are all of different natures-- and different cultures-- birthed by these various spirits, and they cannot harmonize. They fight and split over all these inner characteristics which are but expressions of their religious lineage. Only as each one of us are BORN FROM ABOVE, with our heavenly Father's nature, can we come together and rejoice, to sing, "I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God." It is IN HIM that we have "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." (Eph. 4:5-6). Yes, it is in the measure that He is "IN YOU ALL," that we are one with each other. Our union is with Him-- then with each other. Bless His name!
"He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." (1 Cor. 6:17). To this end He is working in us, and for this cause it is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27). He comes to dwell within that He might purge and purify, discipline and strengthen us, until we are ready to be placed into that position to which we are called. He knows the WHAT of our calling, and He knows what is needed so that we qualify for its fulfillment. He is there within to intercede, converse with, have dealings with us, until we are fully ONE IN HIS WILL AND WAY. And "God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Gal. 4:6). Why then do we want to run around any more in the futility of our own will, when we have within us the anointing of HIS SPIRIT which can search out the deep things of God, reveal this will of God to us, and say, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever we would turn to the right, or the left.
Praise God, He has marked us out (predestinated us) "to be conformed to the image of His Son." (Romans 8:29). "We don't know what we shall become in the future. We only know that, if reality were to break through, we should reflect His likeness, for we should see Him as He really is. Everyone who has at heart a hope like that keeps himself pure, for he knows how pure Christ is." (1 John 3:2-3, Phillips).
"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:13). There are those who, by reason of their psychic aberrations, would like to claim that they have arrived, for they speak of themselves, and would seek their own glory. But God also has HIS OWN who are holding steady before Him, to believe for that GRACE WHICH IS TO BE BROUGHT, which will complete the work within them, so that they can be placed as HIS SONS, to then exercise the rights and privileges which will bring blessing to all nations.
"Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32). He is bringing forth His LITTLE FLOCK, yes, HE IS BUILDING HIS CHURCH, His mystical corporate body, and through them He shall minister His life to all creation.
No wonder we read, "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse; that there may be bread in My house." (Malachi 3:10). This is not talking about tithes as pieces of paper, called money. Christendom has built up such a doctrine on money, because they are interested only in financing their own kingdom building programs. Their doctrines amount to a religious extortion as they greedily demand more and more. But there is a far deeper meaning than just our tithes of our produce, our finances, etc. He is speaking of HIS REMNANT! HIS FIRSTFRUITS of the new creation order.
In Isaiah 6, we find an interesting account of the vision of the Lord that came to Isaiah. Once the prophet had beheld the Lord high and lifted up, had been purged of his own unclean lips, he heard a voice saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And he was quick to answer, "Here am I, send me." The following verses tell how he would go, but speaking the truth, the people would not truly hear with their ears, nor see with their eyes, lest they would be converted and healed. They simply would not respond to the message. So Isaiah asked the next question, "Lord, how long?" (Isa. 6:11). How long shall this blindness and deafness continue, and how long shall the effort remain fruitless? The answer came back very clear-- "Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land."
Certainly, historically, this was fulfilled, and the time of dispersion and captivity came and took almost all of them away. But there was a promise-- "YET IN IT SHALL BE A TENTH, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: SO THE HOLY SEED SHALL BE THE SUBSTANCE THEREOF." (Isa. 6:13).
THERE SHALL BE A TENTH, they shall return, and though their whole processing shall be very severe, and they are stripped of all they possess, like an oak tree which loses all its leaves in the fall and winter, yet BECAUSE ITS SUBSTANCE IS IN THEM, because of "CHRIST IN YOU," they shall abide, or endure the processing, and come forth with new life. Not only does the TENTH RETURN, but the prophet goes on to say, AND SHALL BE EATEN. This is in harmony with the message of Malachi. Bring the tithe (tenth) into the storehouse, "that there might be BREAD in Mine house." Why does He want BREAD in His house? So that He has that supply to feed the hungry!
"For we being many ARE ONE BREAD, ONE BODY: for we all are partakers of That One Bread (which is Christ)." (1 Corinthians 10:17).
"Will you be poured out as wine upon the altar to Me?
Will you be broken as bread to feed the hungry?
Will you be so one in Me that I may do just as I will
To make you life, and light, and love, My Word fulfill?The vision is true! God shall have A HOLY SEED! They are the SUBSTANCE-THE BREAD of His house. He shall take them, and break them, and bless them and give them to feed the hungry! That is the purpose of sonship. God so loved the world He GAVE HIS SON! And He also will GIVE HIS SONS! That is why He is intent on gathering up HIS TITHE, that is why He desires them to come into His Storehouse-- because He knows that all mankind is hungry for the BREAD which only He can give-- that which is saturated with HIS LIFE.
While at present time the earth is being destroyed for lack of knowledge, yet He has promised a day when "The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Hab. 2:14). Indeed, we have an expectation that sometime, somewhere, GOD WILL MAKE ALL COME OUT RIGHT! "For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace, and not for evil, to GIVE YOU HOPE IN YOUR FINAL OUTCOME." (Jer. 29:11, Amplified).
"Weeping may endure for a night," even for the dark night of the soul, "but joy comes in the morning." (Psalm 30:5). JOY-- triumphant proclamations of victory, the Hebrew text reads, shall be heard throughout the universe. For all creation was "subjected IN HOPE, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." (Rom. 8:21). What a destiny awaits all creation!
But it is not the UNIVERSAL HOPE alone that is before us-- it is the HOPE OF YOUR CALLING. He has a destiny for YOU, and "Faithful is He that calls you, who also will do it." (1 Thess. 5:24).
But, you ask, what if it does not come during my physical lifespan? Then remember what the Psalmist said, "My flesh also shall REST IN HOPE." (Psalm 16:9). Even the corruptible body that goes into the grave can REST IN HOPE because He has promised that "When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Cor. 15:54).
And know this, beloved friend, that IN HIS TIME "You shall call, and I will answer You: You will have a desire to the work of Your hands." (Job 14:15). What He has started, even this work of transformation in us, He will also finish-- for He is both the Author and the Finisher of our faith. Physical death does not stop His workings. Job clearly understood this. He was wearied of his trial, and he could wish for death, "O that You would hide me in the grave." My tired old body WOULD JUST REST IN HOPE! Then, when You are ready to finish Your work in me, ready to clothe me with a new body, You will call, and I will answer, BECAUSE YOU HAVE A DESIRE TO THE WORK OF YOUR HANDS. "I am my Beloved's, and His desire is toward me."
We have a vision of victory-- we cannot lose, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39). His love is all- encompassing, and it never fails. "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me: Your mercy, O Lord, endures for ever." (Psalm 138:8).
Let the vision of your destiny be wrapped around you like a strong cord, and be assured, the Lord has wondrous plans for you-- and you-- AND YOU! Amen!
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