THE KINGDOM OF GOD Part 46; The Increase of the Kingdom -- THE PEOPLE OF THE NEW DAY; WHEN THY JUDGMENTS ARE IN THE EARTH

KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Part 46

THE INCREASE OF THE KINGDOM

(continued)

THE PEOPLE OF THE NEW DAY
WHEN THY JUDGMENTS ARE IN THE EARTH

The day when the kingdoms of this world indeed become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ is the day when all nations are ruled by the authority of the many-membered Christ of God. That time has already begun! Everything that God did in the millenniums and centuries that preceded this Day was designed to bring us to this Day. Everything Jesus Christ did on earth and has since done from the heavens was designed to bring us to this Day. All that God has done in the lives of His elect up to this present moment was designed to bring us to this Day. Oh, what glory! What a Day this is!

Periods do not suddenly burst upon us. They come by degrees, as the darkness of the night steals upon us at the close of the day, or the dawn of the morning chases the darkness away. There are days and nights in the world's history. We are entering a wonderful day in the world's history -- when the saints of the Most High shall take the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom unto the age of the ages, and all dominions shall serve Him. Prophecies which have been spoken by holy men of God since the world began are being fulfilled in these days. Mysteries which have been sealed up in the Book of God for millenniums are now being opened. Streams of events which had their source in the dim, remote past are now converging in a mighty river of divine destiny, which is rushing on with irresistible swiftness to the dispensation of the fullness of times.

The Kingdom now advances,
The great Messiah reigns,
And virgins join in dances
On Zion's blissful plains.

How happy we, who live to see
The glorious Day increasing!
Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks,
Be thankful without ceasing.

Nothing in the world today is as when God made it. Everything has been interfered with and changed in a greater or less degree by the power of sin and death. God pronounced everything good when it came from His hands, as He made it. Before things can be restored as they were at the beginning they must be shaken to pieces and changed. "And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers..." (Rev. 2:26-27). "And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new..." (Rev. 21:5). When the sons of God reign on this earth everything is to be good and pure and beautiful. There is to be no sin and no sickness and no death. Death is the last evil to be abolished. Sickness and disease and sin and self and wickedness will be destroyed first. Some do not believe that God will rule the nations or that creation will be restored to its pristine glory. They entertain the notion that there is only the new creation and that the old will never be subjected to and swallowed up into the new. Their idea is that the natural creation will simply pass from existence, it will be annihilated. But that is not the testimony of scripture nor is it the heart of the Father! The truth is that the old things pass away by being changed and made new. That is why the scriptures tell us that Jesus came to be the Saviour of the world, to reconcile all things, to restore all things, and to make all things new! There is a world of difference between making all new things, or making all things -- NEW! The sons of God are being prepared at this very hour in the bosom of the Father to deliver creation from the tyranny of sin and death -- the bondage of corruption.

If I believed that this world was to continue to be misruled and misgoverned as it is, that the abominable press and vile politicians and greedy money-lords and devilish religions would continue forever to curse this earth, I should despair of the whole plan of redemption. Redemption means a "buying back." Reconciliation means to "restore to a previous harmony." Restoration means a "return to a former condition or state." I proclaim to you today the great truth that Christ the Lord is the Redeemer, the Reconciler, the Restorer of -- THE WORLD! He is all this because He is the world's Creator and Owner. God has never given it up. Righteousness, purity, peace and power are in God. The gospel which our Lord Jesus, the Christ, came and preached as Good News to planet earth is the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven coming down to earth that the will of God might be done in earth as it is in heaven! Any other gospel is a spurious gospel that denies the work of God in redemption, reconciliation, and restoration.

The apostle Peter, speaking of these things, wrote, "The heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (II Pet. 3:7). But Peter had prefaced these ominous words with the following illustration. "By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished" (II Pet. 3:5-6). The heavens and earth of old perished, but they were not obliterated out of existence! When righteous Noah stepped out of the ark that bright morning he stepped onto the soil of the very same earth that existed before the flood, and at night he gazed into the star-spangled splendor of the same heavens above. Yet -- all was changed! Was it not a new heaven and a new earth by being purged through the overflowing waters of the flood from the wickedness and corrupt order that previously pervaded it? With what joy and satisfaction do we now entertain the precious promise, "For behold I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind" (Isa. 65:17). Hallelujah! What a wonderful thing that God will so thoroughly cleanse our own little world and the whole vast cosmos that even our minds will be purged from the remembrance of it! God will make such a good job of His work, that the past will be completely obliterated and never thought of any more! God shall not end this present evil world and call forth the new by destroying either His creatures or His creation. Not one thing, not one precious person shall be lost! He shall bring this world to an end and establish new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness by MAKING A-L-L T-H-I-N-G-S N-E-W -- changed, purified, and transformed by the fire of His Word!

The coming "world" will be one that will see the fullness of God in operation through His sons, the demonstration of the mighty power of the Kingdom of God! It is not a mansion over the hilltop, nor a cabin in the corner of glory-land, nor white night gowns, nor harps, nor palm branches, nor dangling feet in some celestial stream. There is a job to be done! A battle to be fought! A victory to be won! Enemies to be conquered! "And there shall be no more death." This is not a hope for heaven, this is God's will for humanity on the earth, and this is what our call to sonship is all about. It would be a most beautiful thing if all the saints of God could have an open vision that would enable them to understand the glory of God's purpose on earth, and His election in man.

We read in Hebrews 6:5 of those who during this age have "tasted the powers of the world to come." The Rotherham translation renders this, "the mighty works of a coming age." The Interlinear Greek New Testament says, "The works of power of the age to come." How reminiscent that is of our Lord's beautiful promise, "The works that I do shall ye do also, and GREATER WORKS THAN THESE SHALL YE DO..." But have the followers of Jesus during this past age really done any greater works than our Lord Jesus did? The book of Acts certainly doesn't record them! Neither do the epistles. Nor does Church history. The apostles actually never did any works even as great as feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, turning water into wine, or hushing the raging sea with a word. And, my friend, after a century of the restoration to the Church of the baptism in the Holy Spirit; after fifty years of the restoration of all nine gifts of the Spirit and the five-fold ministry, and the prophetic flow -- have you seen any greater works than raising the dead, cleansing lepers, and walking on water? You know you haven't! But Peter prophesied of the MIGHTY WORKS OF A COMING AGE -- GREATER WORKS THAN JESUS DID TWO MILLENNIUMS AGO! And all the miraculous, the power and the glory, the visions and revelations we have experienced in all previous visitations of the Spirit of the Lord have been merely a small taste, a sampling, an appetizer of the glory and power of that coming age! Why, beloved, we have only seen the firstfruits of what God will do through His enChristed body upon this earth! The hospitals emptied, the dead raised incorruptible, natures changed, the crucial problems of poverty, crime, strife, violence, war, corruption, and natural disasters solved, the whole world-system transformed, the elemental forces of nature harnessed and controlled by the power of a spoken word -- and GREATER WORKS THAN THESE SHALL YOU SEE as the glorious mind of Christ rules and reigns over the earth through the manifest sons of God! The fullness of what we have just had a taste will be the normal works on behalf of humanity during that wonderful world to come. The next dispensation is to be so different as to be the very reverse of the present one in almost every particular. Rejoice, O ye saints of the Lord, for the end of the world is upon us! "Behold, I make all things new!" saith the Lord.

THE PEOPLE OF THE NEW DAY

These are tremendous and exciting times in which our lot is cast; days full of momentous happenings, when an era is closing and a new chapter in our human history is opening; when, whether we like it or do not, the world we have known is vanishing; and another and very different one is taking shape before our eyes. The Spirit of God these days is summoning the elect of the Lord, each in his own place, to play his part with faith and valor, that the purpose of God in this Day be not hindered; but that we may prove worthy of the daring trust God has put in us, and may so respond to it, that this great earth with its billions of people and more than two hundred nations may be gathered into His arms of love. And to no one does this call come more plainly or more powerfully than to those called to be the sons of God!

While a few years one way or the other is a small matter in relation to the unnumbered ages in God's vast universal plan, it seems clear now that we have entered upon a definite change in dispensations. Therefore we can say by revelation of the Spirit that certain aspects of the old economy are now passing away and those of the new age are coming in. Mighty changes are taking place in the earth, and man supposes that he is doing it! But it is God all the time. All is according to God's plan and is the design of His hands as He moves by His Spirit among the inhabitants of the earth.

Recently I read one of Paul Mueller's powerful exhortations wherein he wrote, "Father has a purpose for each age, a purpose that may not be revealed until the time for the administration of that purpose has arrived. The mystery of Christ that was revealed to Paul was not made known in previous ages. Not until the new day of grace dawned did the Lord reveal His plan for that age. So it is with the new age of the dominion of the kingdom of God in the earth! The new truths and the great mysteries for this age shall soon be revealed to those who have ceased walking in the ways of the dead past. The firstfruits of the kingdom, who have been awakened by the appearing of Christ, the Day Star, in them, shall hear the fresh, new word of the kingdom. The prophet Micah prophesied that the first dominion of the kingdom shall come to the remnant of Jerusalem (Mic. 4:8). And indeed it is! And, like Paul in His day, we shall hear a fresh, new word. It will be a revelation of the mystery for this new age of the kingdom of God on earth, making clear Father's plan for this age.

"New Truths, revealing Father's new administrative order for the new age, are necessary for every age. With the dawning of the new age of the kingdom of God, the Lord shall reveal new truths for the administration of His purposes for this age. The new administrative order for the church was revealed to Paul. That was new truth that Paul declared was 'not made known to the sons of men' in other ages. The truth Paul received was indeed new truth. Men of earth never before heard such truths as Paul received by revelation of the Spirit. Paul wrote to the Romans, telling them that the mystery he received 'was kept secret since the world began' (Rom. 16:25). So it is in this time of the dawning of the new day of the Lord! There is a fresh, anointed word of truth for today that has also been kept secret since the world began. Think of it! We shall hear a fresh word from the Lord that no other person has ever heard before! Like the revelation of the mystery given to Paul in his day, we also shall receive a fresh new word of kingdom authority and administrative purpose. That new word shall shake Christendom and the world, and bring the blessings and benefits of the kingdom of God to many more people. Doesn't it excite you and encourage you in God to know that He has chosen you to receive the new truths of His kingdom, truths that mortal man never heard before? Are you ready for this new kingdom word? Have you repented of the past with all its dead forms and ceremonies? Are you emptied of all the religious, church-age plans and works of man that are now obsolete so that you may receive Father's new administrative order for this new age of the kingdom of God?

"When Jesus spoke to the people in parables, He said He did it 'that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world' (Mt. 13:35). Did you know that the Lord keeps secrets from His people, secrets that are reserved for its time of fulfillment? Well, He does! And did you also know that God reveals His secrets to those chosen before hand, to those whose eyes and ears He has opened? Indeed, He does! The fact is, the truth I am writing at this very moment is fresh truth. If you can receive this truth, then it is obvious that the Father has given you hearing ears and seeing eyes, to both hear and see the fresh, new, secret word of the kingdom, and enter into its fulfillment. This word has been hidden and kept secret from former generations and those of previous ages. That fresh, new word is specifically reserved for this 'day' of our transformation and the dominion of the kingdom of God in the earth. It shall be revealed to those who love Him; to those who have hearing ears; to those who have entered into His rest, and have ceased the dead works of the past ages of man. New kingdom truths and mysteries are being revealed and are now coming forth out of Zion. That new word of the kingdom will reveal more clearly how we are to walk to be in full harmony with our Father and His kingdom purposes in this new day. A new, fresh, anointed word of Christ, who is light and life, shall flow out of Zion to impart that life and light to all whose hearts have been prepared in advance" -- end quote.

The only people who have ever marched on with God in this world-plan have been those who have listened to His voice, heard what He said, obeyed His commands and believed and did all that this absolute surrender to His will involved. Such people in ages past were the faith heroes referred to in the eleventh chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. It was greatly illuminating to me when I first saw that everyone of the individuals mentioned there stood at the junction, threshold or crisis of a dispensation. You can verify that for yourself by turning to every stage of history associated with such people as Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, etc. The names are not casually or indiscriminately selected by the inspired writer. He sees that they were pioneers in faith, that they lived ahead of their times, that they perceived what God had arranged to do, and come what may they walked on in the promises and purposes of God and did exploits in His name. Each in turned condemned the world of the previous age, and brought in a new day of God's purposes through their faith and obedience. And each brought in and established a new administrative order for the new day! And now -- the sons of God have come to such a time as this!

In the gross darkness of this present hour I do not believe the age is ending simply because I observe great changes in the outer world in technology, lifestyle, and in the order of the nations. Oh, no! It is true, we have in one remarkable century come all the way from the horse and buggy to the atomic, space and computer age. We have passed through two world wars that have changed the social, economic and political structure of the world. Nearly all of the kings and thrones of Europe and the whole world passed away during the twentieth century, being replaced by an entirely new governmental order in the earth. The former ruling houses of Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, China, Japan, India, Egypt, Portugal, Hungary, Turkey, Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Iran and a number of other nations are completely destroyed. Who could have foreseen such things?

Yet none of this convinces me that we have entered a New Day! Nor does the fact that the calendar has turned over to the year two thousand convince me! The revelation of the Spirit is not communicated by reading Newsweek magazine or by doing intellectual, carnal-minded studies of chronologies, times, and cycles. If it can be "figured out" with the natural mind, it is not a revelation of the Holy Ghost! It is the voice of the Father by the Spirit, the living word of God that convinces me we are standing in the threshold of a new age! Believe me, the sun is now setting on the Church age with its administrative order of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. The transcendent glory of that brighter and greater age ruled by King-Priests after the Order of Melchizedek is even now dawning upon us! Some of God's sons are already rising up into high realms of the Spirit, into the throne-zone of the heavenlies, and are speaking a governmental word to the nations by which they are being shaped for the hour that is at hand. Marvelous things are happening among those who hear the Father's voice and receive the revelation of His purposes for this time! In 1984 by revelation of God I began a ministry to Russia in and by the Spirit and saw the collapse of Communism there just as the word of the Lord showed me. Everything that has happened there has been according to that word of the Lord and the proclaiming of it! Later I declared in the presence of brethren that Mikhail Gorbachev was a dead man politically, and within three months he was removed from office and has never been able to regain power. When the present distress in Russia has run its course there will be an unprecedented, sovereign move of God in that country that will bring multitudes into living relationship with God through the power of the Holy Spirit. The sons of God are beginning to reign in the heavenlies, and earth is being impacted by their authority and dominion!

Ah, precious ones, we are receiving a fresh word from the throne! We know that we are standing at the transition of ages, and that the manchild is being caught up unto God and His throne, not by claiming a scripture or by embracing a doctrine, but because the Holy Spirit has powerfully spoken and testified of it among vast numbers of the Lord's elect in recent years. It is a revelation "come down from heaven" and proclaimed in the "power of the Spirit." Those who cannot see the change in dispensations, and know nothing of the sons of God ruling in the heavens, have not heard from God. The present work of the Spirit has to do with the Kingdom of God increasing into the new age, not established just in the lives of the elect body of Christ, but through them upon all the nations and peoples of the earth. It is a new day and a new work! It is a new kind of ministry! And it will change again in the near future. In the previous age the Lord's dealings have been for the formation of His body, the sons of God. In the dawning age the Lord's dealings will be through the manifest sons of God, gathered out of the previous age, for the increase of His Kingdom and peace throughout the earth. Of the increase of His Kingdom and of His peace there shall be no end! From age to age the Kingdom shall increase, first in the Lord's people, then in all the earth, and finally throughout all the endless vastnesses of infinity forever more!

Since the great Latter Rain outpouring of the Spirit in 1948 God has thundered by the mouth of His holy apostles and prophets throughout the whole world proclaiming that GOD'S NEW DAY IS HERE! One of the many prophetic songs given by the Spirit in the years of that wonderful coming of Christ to His people eloquently expresses the word the Lord began to speak and has continued to speak through the years:

The time has come to take the Kingdom,
Rise up ye strong, 'tis Christ's command;
For every power and dominion
Is given now into your hands!
Ye that have ears to hear the trumpet,
Ye that have hearts to understand;
The time has come to take the Kingdom,
Rise up ye strong, possess the land!

Another is this:

In the year of Jubilee, in the year of Jubilee,
The prisons shall be opened, the captives all set free;
What a mighty restoration, what a mighty victory,
The sons of God appearing in the year of Jubilee!

These are not the words of man, they are the words of the Holy Spirit! These words were written under the inspiration of the Spirit at the time of a sovereign, supernatural move of God and are inspired just as the scriptures of old were inspired when holy men of God spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit. Within them is contained the message the almighty Father is conveying to His very own sons for this significant hour. When Elohim created the earth in the beginning, the inspired record states, "And God said." Ten times in the first chapter of Genesis our heavenly Father's creative acts began with the speaking of a word. "And God said..." Each creative "day" began with that same statement. The very first creative word spoken was the wonderful command, "Let there be light!" Light then appeared out of incomprehensible darkness, flooding space and illuminating the earth. Again and again we read, "And God said..." Each "day" was brought forth by the creative word of the Lord. By His creative word of power, our Father spoke every day, epoch, and age into existence. One scripture tells us that it was by His word that God framed the ages (Heb. 1:2). This is the wonderful pattern set forth in Genesis. The Genesis "days" therefore become the example for all the age-days that follow. And now, it is our Father's word that has begun another new Day, even the day of the advancement of His Kingdom to deliver, redeem, and restore all nations under the government of God's sons! By that same spiritual process, in the power of His word, the Lord has proclaimed the end of the old age of Church order and the dawn of the new age of His manifest sons. The change came by the Spirit, when Father released His creative word of Kingdom power and authority into the hearts of His elect. We have heard that word! We have received that message! We have said "Amen" to the proclamation! We have presented ourselves before the Father for His new work! We have been given our orders! That is why the excitement of the so-called "revival" realm holds nothing for us anymore. Father reveals His words to those whose ears He has opened. All those elect, who worship the Lord by ascending to His holy mountain, are hearing the mighty declarations of His creative word, announcing God's great purpose in the transition of the ages, and the new order to be revealed through His kings and priests after the Order of Melchizedek.

From our vantage point in the Spirit we can see that we are living in a wonderful era when the old age is swiftly grinding to a halt. The next age of greater glory, light and life is appearing on the horizon. As the sun of the new age arises, the trumpet sounds heralding the dawn of the new day. That trumpet is the prophetic voice now sounding forth alerting the Lord's elect to the hour that has arrived and the work now to be done.

At a specific moment appointed by God, John the Baptist emerged from the wilderness of Judea proclaiming, "The kingdom of God is at hand!" In like manner, so are the Lord's anointed messengers of this hour called to announce the next stage of the manifestation of God's Kingdom in the earth. The purpose for John's ministry was to alert the people to the hour that was at hand, which was the fixed time, the predetermined hour, as ordained by the omniscient mind of God, when God would move to bring forth His Kingdom among men. His mission was to announce the coming of Jesus and the Kingdom. As soon as John appeared among the people sounding forth his message, Jesus laid aside all His other activities, left the carpenter shop in Nazareth, and came forward to make Himself known.

With the preaching of John, the time appointed for the appearance of the Kingdom was at hand. It was the time for the King of the Kingdom to be revealed. Thus the scriptures declare, "But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son" (Gal. 4:4). The time allotted for the age of the law and the prophets ended the day the Father witnessed, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him." The precise time had now arrived for the coming forth of a new day with a new administration of the Lord's purpose. No longer would the age of law with its ceremonies, commandments, and priesthood be the standard by which men would worship and serve God, and by which the administrative order would function. A new day had come, and it was time to turn from the dead past to the new thing the Lord was doing. And now, with the sounding of the prophetic trumpet in our generation, a new day is being announced, and all who are among the wise and chosen will heed the prophetic call of the Lord!

When Jesus came THE WHOLE PRIESTHOOD WAS WRONG! When John the Baptist began his preaching, strange as it may seem, he was the ONLY MAN IN ALL THE WORLD who had the right message! Everyone was out of spiritual step but John, and when Jesus began also to preach, they were the only two who had the message of the hour. Today we are standing at the transition of the ages and God is raising up men and women over the nation and around the world to proclaim the message for this Day. But we must be able to forget the things of the past and look only to God's purpose in this Day. We cannot put new wine in old bottles, nor can we patch old garments with new cloth. Just as Jesus and John announced the inception of the Kingdom two millenniums ago, so the apostles of the Kingdom in this day are announcing the arrival of the next stage in the increase of the Kingdom.

It is now time for the apostles of the Kingdom to be sent forth into all the earth! These apostles of the Kingdom are the firstfruits company. In these firstfruits the foundations of the Kingdom are being laid. It is to these -- to the elect remnant of the Lord -- that the first dominion or reign of the Kingdom of God comes. Christ must first rule and reign in the lives of His elect before He can reign in the lives of anyone else. And when Christ fully reigns in our lives, the scepter, or ruling authority of the Kingdom of God, is then bestowed upon us. According to the measure that Christ reigns in our lives He has given us the authority to reign with Him from His spiritual throne in the heavenlies. And according to the measure that His life, wisdom, grace, nature, power and purposes are established in our lives WE ARE GIVEN THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN! How wonderful and complete is the plan of our God!

Those people who have received a revelation of God's purposes in sonship received it not from man, but by revelation of the Spirit of Truth. It is God Himself who has delivered a vast company of saints from the bondage of Babylon's harlot system into which the whole church world has been taken captive, bringing them out into the pure light of His truth -- yea, the light which Jesus Himself is. It is God Himself who has washed away the darkness and confusion of the false doctrines and silly delusions and static creeds and vain traditions of the church systems which for years held the Lord's people in a spiritually starved and stunted condition and shut them up from the light of God's eternal purpose. It is God Himself who has opened the eyes and unstopped the ears of the called-out elect, teaching them more in weeks and months than they were able to learn in all the years they were held in bondage to church teaching and the doctrines of men. It is God Himself who has opened within our hearts the heavenly vision of the Kingdom of God and given us the beautiful promise and hope of sonship, which is the high calling of God in Christ. It is God Himself who has declared in the hearing of our ears and within our very hearts that we have entered into the transition of the ages, and the hour is wonderfully nigh at hand for the manifest sons of God to arise and bring the Kingdom to all the nations of earth. It is God Himself who has set the agenda!

In these awesome days of Father's dealings we have waited in His presence until all earthly voices were stilled, until the mundane sounds of earthly interests and pursuits were silent, until we could, in the wonder of His presence, hear Him whisper to our hearts the revelation of His will and the instructions of His purpose. May God disturb His people from the paralyzing lethargy, laziness, slumber and death of the carnal mind! Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light! The promises, challenges, and opportunities of God's New Day are upon us, and only those who with abandon embrace the Day, forsaking the things of the past orders and all of Egypt's bondage, shall attain to the glory, power and victory which is freely offered to those who follow the Lamb upon mount Zion.

God has called us to have a role in establishing the new order of the Kingdom of God over the nations. God is offering to His called-out in this hour something He has never offered to any other generation before, He is giving us an open invitation to participate in the activity that will lead to the prize of all the ages. It is greater than anything He has ever done from the time of Adam to the present, and it will never be done again! It has never been done before, because it is God's NEW THING. He's inviting a people to obey Him, to follow on to know Him, to be His sons and daughters indeed for the deliverance of all creation. Beware lest old order brethren rob you and steal this hope from you. It's very important that we not let anyone rob us of this reward. It's our inheritance! The inheritance is the absolute fullness of God to deliver creation!

God is preparing a people He will put His stamp of approval on and endorse with all His wisdom, power, and majesty. The voice will come from heaven and say, "These are my beloved sons, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye them!" You who have been thoroughly processed by the Father have His likeness, you bear His image, and He will put His full endorsement upon you to represent His Kingdom purpose in the earth. We are called to live such a life and walk in such a dimension of righteousness, peace, joy, and power in the Kingdom of God that we can testify, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." It will take a life of total abandonment to walk with God as sons and express His nature in the earth before all men and nations. It has been said that we beheld the Saviour and became the saved, we beheld the Redeemer and became the redeemed, we beheld the Healer and became the healed, we beheld the Baptizer and became the baptized, and now it is time to behold the Father and become the expression of the glory of Fatherhood in the earth! We must not bear a message about the Father, we must be the message!

Beyond thy fondest expectation are the days that lie before,
No mortals have ever seen them, no days like these in store.
Like the days that are in heaven, they have come upon the earth;
Mankind has never seen them...'tis His Kingdom come to birth.
Like the sound of many waters, like the voice no man has heard,
So the former things are ending; it's the Newness of His Word.
It's the revelation of His glory spoken of so long ago,
Every knee to Him is bending, every heart in Him aglow.
And shall ye not know it? Former things I take away;
Every bondage shall be broken, 'tis God's new Sabbath Day
'Tis the Feast of Tabernacles, it's the year of Jubilee,
The sons of God appearing, all creation is set free.
Great is the Lord! And greatly to be praised,
Beyond all expectation, the new creation raised;
The glory of New Jerusalem is descending from above,
It's the fullness of the Father, it's the fullness of His Love.
Expectation has been granted to all the nations of the earth,
It's the glory of the Father, NEW CREATION BROUGHT TO BIRTH!

-- Jack Hodgdon.

WHEN THY JUDGMENTS ARE IN THE EARTH

Through the cunning of the adversary, both the world and the popular church have been robbed of the blessed assurances of the time when God's RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENTS break forth in the earth. Most people know that the Bible tells of a "judgment day," but the average person, believer or unbeliever, regards it only with a certain sense of fear and dread. Because of this fear there is, to them, no more unwelcome tidings than that the Lord is coming to JUDGE THE EARTH. Many tremble inwardly at the thought of God's judgments, and in this mind put them far from them, preferring not even to hear the subject mentioned. At various times in the past many people have become terror-stricken when some unusual event or terrible calamity has occurred, because they have supposed that the event signaled the finale for our planet with billions of people suddenly thrust into eternal damnation. They have absolutely no idea of the wonderful blessings in store for a sin-weary world under the glorious reign of the sons of God filled with all the nature, wisdom, grace, power, and glory of God!

The end of divine judgment -- no matter its form, no matter its subject -- is to bring the whole universe into harmony with His will. With what optimism did the holy prophets and apostles regard the coming of the Lord in judgment! Note the expectation in Isaiah's spirit as he announces: "Yea, in the way of Thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for Thee...with my soul have I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early: for when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world WILL LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Isa. 26:8-9). Here Isaiah assures us that the day when God's judgments are in the earth will be a most glorious and desirable day, a day in which the inhabitants of the world W-I-L-L LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS! How opposite to the idea entertained by many that when God's judgments come into the earth the inhabitants of the world will finally "get what they deserve" and be sent into oblivion or damnation.

If the desire of your heart is anything like the desire of my heart, this is a blessed thought and a wonderful assurance: The inhabitants of the world W-I-L-L LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS! How my ransomed soul yearns to behold the wonder of such a thing! Every time I scan the headlines of the morning paper I am seized with an intense longing that the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Oft times as I watch the evening newscast my spirit is mightily moved within to intercede earnestly that the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. As I drive across this great land of ours; as I walk the streets of our cities and towns, observing the condition of those about, my spirit groans with unutterable supplications that the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness! What a marvelous provision of our omniscient and loving Father that, to this very end, He has ordained judgment to come forth in the earth. Bless His name!

While the Lord has permitted the devil, the great adversary, to rule in the hearts of "the children of disobedience" for a season, He has never ceased to plan and purpose for the ultimate release and blessing of mankind. In fact, throughout all the thousands of years during which He has refrained from interfering on any large scale with the reign of sin, darkness, and death, God has been laying the groundwork for a glorious day of deliverance! Our heavenly Father has had a strategy! Up until this time His plan of redemption and restoration has progressed silently and unobserved by the world. God has been quietly dealing with His apprehended ones, processing, purging, purifying, perfecting, teaching, training, equipping and preparing them for the day of battle and overthrow of Satan's kingdom. He has done this without any fanfare! Just as Jesus, the firstborn Son of God, was prepared in His "Nazareth," the "place of no good thing," so today the Lord has a remnant, unseen, unobserved, and as yet unheralded, hidden away from all the activity of the world and of popular religion, in the secret place of the Most High in the Spirit, learning the ways of the Father, taught and instructed in the principles of His Kingdom, changed and transformed in mind, heart, desire and purpose, brought under the Lordship of their King and High Priest, in preparation for the day when the great Commander shouts, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee! And the nations shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. All they gather themselves together, they come to thee. The abundance of the sea (multitudes) shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the nations shall come unto thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the nations, and that their kings may be brought. They shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The City of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel" (Isa. 60:1-14).

The ways of the Kingdom are not at all like the ways of the Church. The ministry of sonship is not in any way like the Church age ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Sonship is the new administration for the new age! The order of the new age will be altogether different from the order of the passing age! George Hawtin graphically articulated this wonderful truth when he wrote in his paper, The Page, "Some years ago it was revealed to me that the evangelization of the nations during the coming age would be accomplished in exactly the opposite way to the method used in this age. In the church age the commission has been, 'Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.' In the next age entire nations will come to Jerusalem and to Zion to seek and find the Lord. What could be more certain than the words spoken by Micah the prophet when he said, 'But in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains (Zion) and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow into it and many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord (Zion), and to the house of the God of Jacob and He will teach us His ways and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem' (Mic. 4:1-2)."

The terms Zion and Jerusalem as well as the mountain of the Lord and the house of the God of Jacob speak prophetically and spiritually of kingship and priesthood. John the Revelator beheld the 144,000 sons of God standing on mount Zion having the Father's name written in their foreheads. Mount Zion, the highest hill in Jerusalem, spiritually represents the very highest pinnacle attainable in God's Kingdom. Such are the ruling class prefigured by king David of old who dwelt on the natural mount Zion in the earthly Jerusalem. From there he reigned. This company, standing on mount Zion, following the Lamb of the throne, can represent nothing other than those who have followed Jesus all the way, who have put on the mind of Christ and the nature of the Father, and shall now reign with Him on His throne forevermore. The house of the Lord, on the other hand, bespeaks of the temple on mount Moriah in Jerusalem with its order of sacrifices and priesthood. The two together are God's ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, or God's KINGLY PRIESTHOOD, the kings and priests after the Order of Melchizedek. Kingship and priesthood, embodied together in the ministry of sonship, constitute the new governmental order for the new age!

During this church age, by the ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers the Lord has sought the people. The Lord has sought the people in this way because the members of His body must be gathered out of the world. But in the new age, when the Kingdom of God comes upon the nations, He will pour upon them the spirit of grace and supplication and the billions of earth will come, as nations, to seek the wisdom, goodness, life and glory of the Lord revealed in His sons. What an indescribable wonder! You see, when the Lord removes the veil, the covering that has been cast over the minds of all people, then all men will see in a clear light and will come to God's holy nation to seek His face. Centuries ago the prophet Isaiah wrote with great clarity of this same wonder, saying, "Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations which knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He hath glorified thee" (Isa. 55:5-6). This is a glorious promise revealing that entire nations will run to seek the Lord, because He has glorified His sons upon mount Zion.

I have already quoted earlier the passage from Isaiah, chapter sixty, which clearly agrees and bears witness to this great truth. Time and space forbid me to even try to quote all the passages that speak of the universal conversion of the seeking nations in the day when God's sons are revealed. Therefore I will quote only one more and pass on. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, It shall come to pass that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts: I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations (industrialized super-powers) shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem (God's governmental people), and to pray (seeking the blessings and benefits of His Kingdom) before the Lord" (Zech. 8:20-23).

What a marvel that will be when the "Great Commission" has fully come to an end! No longer will the Lord say, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel." It is an historical fact that each of the first apostles to whom that word was spoken, left Judea and carried the word of Christ to different parts of the world. According to histories I have read Peter went to Babylon, Thomas to India, James to Spain, Andrew to Scythia, John to Asia, Philip to France, Thaddeus and Bartholomew to Armenia and Persia, Matthew to Ethiopia and Parthia and Macedonia, James the less to Syria, Jude to Armenia, Syria, and northern Persia, Simon the Zealot to Armenia. The dispensing of the Word in Asia Minor, Greece and Rome by Paul is a well-documented fact and there is some evidence that he went as far as Britain in his spreading of the gospel. Thus, the Great Commission was completely fulfilled in the days of the early Church and continued to be carried out throughout the age now called by many the age of grace.

That was a wise and wonderful plan for this age when God was "calling out a people" from among the nations for His name. Those who were sent were never able to reach all the people, and it was only "whosoever believeth" that responded to their word. That is how Christ built His Church! No one could improve on that method for doing the job the Lord required for that age. But now in the new Day the residue of men, earth's teeming masses, and all the nations of the world are being called upon to COME TO THE LORD. Billions of the world's darkened, dejected, weary, and oppressed souls shall come streaming into the Kingdom of God. The sons of God are the Light that shall shine upon them (Isa. 60:1-22; Rev. 21:24) and the voice that shall bid them come. We are also the "gates" through whom the multitudes of earth's needy shall enter the New Jerusalem City of God (Rev. 21:25). That glorious event shall so overshadow and eclipse all previous spiritual visitations, outpourings, and revivals, that none of our old church age terminology will be adequate to describe it. God will indeed have to give us a new vocabulary!

In this new age of the Kingdom all our former ideas, opinions and methods of evangelism will have to be discarded. The emphasis of the past age has been upon GO and DO. Constantly we were going places and doing things for God! But, thank God, the order is changing! God is doing a new thing! He is establishing a new order in the earth! And we will have to change with God! And we will change, because we will be changed! All the old religious methods of the past age are passing away! The time of raising money and sending missionaries and establishing churches is ending. I do not say that it has ended; it is a good plan as long as God is calling out a people for His name. But the new age demands an intensified program of God to harvest all the nations into the Kingdom of God!

Instead of sending messengers to go into all the world, the Lord will so pour out the spirit of grace and supplication upon all the nations of the world through the ministry of the manifest sons of God that it will cause billions of earth's sick and sinning and dying people to flow like a mighty river into God's Kingdom, to find rest for their weary souls. We may think we have witnessed mighty manifestations of God's power and glory in the past, but we haven't seen anything yet!

I was greatly inspired by the following testimony of Paul Mueller which I share in closing these thoughts. "I grew up on a farm; before the Lord called me to serve Him, I was a farmer. About fifty years ago, the Lord gave me a vision of a great harvest field. In that vision, I saw a field of ripened grain being harvested by old, outmoded means. The farmers were using a hand scythe, cutting the grain and then bundling it all by hand, as farmers once did before the invention of binders and combines. But then, the Lord let me see that He had a large combine being prepared on the side of that field, waiting for the right time for it to be used. I was encouraged when the Lord revealed to me that that massive combine represented the new thing He would do in the earth. By the Spirit, I saw that the Lord was preparing a people who would represent Him and His kingdom purposes in the earth. They would be used of the Lord to gather in the ripened harvest of the world's billions. In due time, the multitudes of the world will be as ripened grain to be gathered into the kingdom by His massive, spiritual 'combine.' They will all be fully prepared and ready to come to the Lord. With heavenly eloquence and vision the prophets prophesied of this time. We are now living in the hour when much of the prophetic word of the Lord shall come to pass. And we are the people God has chosen to fulfill His purposes!" -- end quote.

Even with the light of divine revelation it is difficult to imagine the wonderful sight of whole nations coming to the Lord! Think what it will be like! One day a nation is communist, filled with people spouting by rote the godless line of Lenin or Mao. The lives of the people are tightly controlled by that totalitarian system, with all its restrictions and tyranny. But then, the sons of God speak a word from the throne of the heavenlies releasing a mighty flood of the Spirit of the Lord over that nation, and the whole nation is set free by the power of God. The glory of the Lord appears to millions of people, and the truth of Christ is unveiled to their minds and hearts. All the people of that nation will turn to the Lord to love, worship, and serve Him. They will seek God in the persons of His sons, and there will be a dispensation of life, light and love unto them. In the sons of God they will see and learn and know the ways of the Lord, the will of the Lord, and all aspects of their national life will become transformed by the wisdom and nature of God. With one mighty sweep of His Spirit, God has changed a communist nation into a nation that loves and serves the true and living God! The Kingdom of God has then come to that people and nation.

What wonders shall be wrought when our Father has glorified His sons with the glory of Christ! All the nations of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, bowing before the feet of this glorious Christ, confessing Him as their Saviour, Lord, Redeemer and King, to worship Him in spirit and in truth. And since it is nations, and not individuals, that shall come to the Lord, it is obvious that they shall not come to a geographical location. There will be no literal, physical throne nor any literal, earthly city. The government of God is a glorified people reigning in and by the Spirit from heavenly places in Christ Jesus! But they shall COME to the mountain of the Lord's power, to the beautiful and spiritual temple of living stones, to a kingdom of priests and an holy nation, glorified in the midst of the earth. It is an absurd impossibility to imagine whole nations coming to a literal mount Zion, or to great crusades in buildings or stadiums, which are all so limited. Such carnal thinking is a remnant from the old age now passing, and has no place in the new order of the Kingdom of God upon the nations. God will not repeat the limited methods of the past, for they can not prevail to do the work that must be done in this new Day.

The Lord is doing a new thing in the earth. The manifestation of the sons of God is the next thing on the agenda in God's Kingdom program. This manifestation will bring multitudes, even many nations at a time, into the greater glory of the fullness of God dwelling among men. What a marvelous plan, revealed and confirmed now by the Spirit of the Living God within our hearts! We know God's purpose because He has called us and chosen us to be a vital part of the redemption and restoration all things. We wait in holy expectation!

To be continued...

J. PRESTON EBY

PART 45

PART 47