"ON EAGLES’ WINGS MINISTRIES"
Called to be God’s witnesses in the world.” May 2014. Part 1. Page 1.
“Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servants whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no Savior. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.” Isaiah 43: 10-12, 21.
Our two most recent issues of this publication dealt with the subject of us being begotten again unto God by or because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The emphasis was being placed on the reality of what it means to be begotten of God. We know that we are spiritual beings, with a soul, and living in a body. But being identified so strongly with the natural, carnal world, we tend to gravitate to the natural without trying. There is an immense gravitational pull toward the natural that seems to overwhelm all life forms of which we are an integral part.
Doing wrong and walking according to the flesh seems to occur naturally, while walking in the Spirit seems to require great effort and resolve. But let us take another close look at why we are called sons of God. Let us reason together, the high calling and divine purpose behind what we call the “common salvation.” As we have indicated many times in the past, the greater percentage of those in Christendom live with the idea that we are saved from sin, and being prepared for our flight to heaven, there to walk on streets of gold.
In previous writings, we have taken time, and have gone to great length to educate the Body of Christ, that the truth behind our salvation has nothing to do with going to live in heaven with Christ and the angels. The scripture featured above outlines the details of why God called Israel as a people. They were called to be his witnesses! What were they supposed to be witnesses of, or witnesses to? Therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, “THAT I AM GOD.”
In other words, God is saying to Israel, “Go out there and show the world who I am!” Be so much like me, that the world will see you and understand who I am! That is a mighty daunting task don’t you think? But no matter how immense and even outlandish it may seem to us, God did set it forth as a mandate for Israel of old. From our vantage point, and from our level of education and understanding of biblical terminology, we are compelled to re-examine the concept of what being a witness actually entails. Let us peek into the workings of our court system, and understand who can be a witness in a case before a trial judge. Let us see what a witness can, or cannot do. Who qualifies to be a witness in a case before a judge?
It is already understood that a witness must be one with a personal knowledge of the events or actions woven into the case being heard in court. A witness cannot stand in court and repeat what he or she read in the newspapers, heard on the radio or television a day or two ago. A witness must be one with a personal knowledge of the events relating to the case. A witness must be able to say: Your Honor, I saw when it happened! I was standing twelve feet away, when I saw such and such!
A witness cannot tell the judge that “my telephone rang and it was my next door neighbor, who told me exactly what happened.” The judge asks: “Do you meant to tell the court that your knowledge of the events is based upon a telephone call from your neighbor?” If the answer is YES; that witness is immediately dismissed and sent out of the courtroom, being branded as a waste of time.
In terms of our salvation and our walk with God, if all we can present is what we read about Paul or John, or Peter, or even what Jesus said when he walked the earth more than two thousand years ago, what kind of witnesses are we? Under immense pressure by a court and threats of punishment, listen to how Peter and John responded to the sentence of Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander.
“But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have SEEN and heard.” Acts 4:19,20. John offers a decisive account of the sort of witness that we are talking about in this study.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” 1st John 1: 1,3.”
All of the above describes the requirements of a true witness; and we can go further in asserting that this is the caliber of witnesses that God seeks in this our day and time. For years we made the circuits among the churches as traveling evangelists. We spent hours at the head of prayer lines, applying olive oil and laying hands in prayer for all manner of needs.
But from one church to another, and from sermon to another, we pulled out and presented what Paul, and Peter, and John said about their walk and their experience with Jesus Christ. I remember saying to a packed sanctuary in Baltimore, Maryland, some years ago, that “You are satisfied for me to tell you what Paul said in his epistles, or what John wrote in his letters. You get happy and rejoice in what I tell you about what those men said. But if I decide to preach to you from the first epistle of Brother Royce Kennedy, based upon my personal walk and experience with God, you would quickly pull the shutters down and close your minds against me.
But how is it that we can accept what Paul wrote about his walk with God, and reject what a brother or sister says or writes today out of their personal walk with God? The general idea and practice among God’s people is to accept what is said about the man Jesus. We seem to be satisfied to be told stories about Jesus; but we seem unwilling to create our own personal gospel out of our own personal walk with Jesus as his witnesses.
Why did God mention the idea of him being formed, since he is Spirit that does not require to take on form for his existence? Based upon the reason why Christ came to earth, we are told: Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.” Hebrews 10: 5.
This speaks to the fact that our redemption required a body to identify with our human existence. But the fact is that from the time man was made from the dust of the earth and placed in the garden, God’s plan and his eternal purpose is to manifest himself to creation in form. Indeed, he was prepared with a body. So it was God taking on FORM to be in the likeness of our form. But the eternal purpose from the beginning is to have our form become like unto his form.
Although he walked and lived like any other human being, Christ was always in the bosom of the Father. It is to this end that we are called and saved; that while in our human body, the life of Christ and even the glory of God can be manifested to the rest of creation. The intent is not merely to repeat what others said of God thousands of years ago.
The intent is not that we would continually tell of the reality of people who walked with God away back in time: but that we would become his witnesses, attesting to the fact that he is God indeed; and that our witness cannot be diminished or deemed to be counterfeit. Remember that a true witness is not one who goes to court and repeat what someone else said. The judge will ask for a personal knowledge of the events contained in the court docket.
So the question becomes: Laying aside the testimonies of Paul, Peter, John, and the other apostles; what is your personal testimony as a witness of God to the world? Can you accommodate the idea of saying, like Christ did: “If you see me, you see the Father?” While praying upon a house top in Kingston, Jamaica, some years ago, in the twilight hours of the evening, the Lord spoke to my heart saying, that when he made that statement, he was not referring to his physical body.
He meant that if we needed healing from God, he had it. If we needed comfort in the face of death, he provided it. Whatever we needed from God, he could provide it; because the Father dwelt within him. But are we exempt from all of those glorious realities? Can we dare to say, “If you see me you see the Father?” If we dare to think so, what is the basis for our claim? Are we being presumptuous? Are we being like Lucifer who challenged himself to becoming like God himself? Is it our carnal mind playing tricks on us? or our ego taking over?
Let us break down the following concept into two parts! Here is the first part! “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So if you think of a triune God being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all three are embodied in the man Jesus Christ. So we need not look any further for anything Divine! It is all in him! Now here is the second part! And this is where you and I come in!
“And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.” Colossians 2: 9-12. Ladies and gentlemen! These are what we call “gospel truth” and they are forever settled in heaven by the authority of the Most High God.
There are obvious reasons in what God says, and in what he does; and if we care to delve beyond the headlines, and reach in to get a hold of the crux, we will get a glimpse of the big picture. We know that God IS SPIRIT, and as such he does not possess a physical body. When Jesus came on the scene, he said that no man hath seen God at any time; they have never seen his shape or even heard his voice.
With that in mind, we are left to wonder why God spoke to Israel about “God being formed.” Although the scripture named Jacob in the text, the bigger picture is reflective of the church of Jesus Christ. We read: “I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; Even everyone that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” Isaiah 43:6,7.
We can safely put the emphasis on “being made or being created” and in such case, we are taken back to Eden: to the time when God decided to create man in his own image. From the get go, it was safe to conclude that God did not create man and placed him in the garden, simply to be a shepherd, a herd’s man, a farmer and a skillful horticulturist. Seemingly, there is always a bigger picture—a bigger and more pronounced reason behind what God initiates as if from a tiny germ.
For instance, although still hidden from the majority of saints who rejoice in their salvation as they dance in the Spirit, the full extent of the Divine purpose behind their salvation is still hidden behind a huge mountain of man-made traditions. It is only in recent years with the birth of the Latter Rain outpouring and the unveiling of end-time truths, that the religious landscape began to change.
Organized religion began to have hiccups and fainting spells, as the “Jesus People” hit the scenes in California and other States in this country. That same spirit made inroads in several countries overseas. But even then, and even with such demonstration of divine unveiling, the main thrust of the Spirit was short lived. Many could not see, or could not accept the real reason that God had hidden in the midst of his people. Our eyelids were firmly covered and our vision became obscured by the teachings of our elders.
Part of the great lie that we were fed with (willingly or unwillingly) is that we are sinners and will always be sinners standing on repentance ground, pleading for mercy from a holy God who simply cannot look upon sin. Along with that came the message of saving the “inner man” for the “outer man” simply cannot be saved. We are being told over and over again, that the outer man ain’t going anywhere. It is already doomed, being held prisoner to the flesh in which there is no good thing.
However, many eyes are now being opened, and many are being made aware that God’s plan of salvation for us has much more profound dynamics than we have been taught over the years. God is not looking for, or creating a people merely to offer testimonies of healing, and salvation from sin. Looking more closely in scripture, we are now learning that God’s divine purpose in our salvation is to create (form) a people through whom he can be made manifest to the world. Many times from the pulpit I have said in sermons that the world cannot see God, but they can see us: perhaps we are the only God they will ever see.
Some folks cringe at such remarks, thinking it is means “flying into God’s face” as our elders at home used to say. To the prophet Isaiah, God introduced the concept of “being formed” because that is his desired end in saving us. Paul offered a path that will lead us to that end! He exhorted the church not to be conformed (made like—fashioned) to this world, but to be transformed (metamorphosis) by the renewing of our mind. Before we were born, we were already known to God: and not only so, we were already predestinated (pre-determined) to be fashioned like Jesus Christ, whom we call “the Pattern Son” so that he can indeed be the first born among a family of many brothers. (And sisters)
The process of being “formed” into God’s image is so profound that Paul laid out a clear understandable process. It serves much like ingredients needed to bake a cake or a pie from scratch. First, God foreknew us: then he predestinated us, and followed up by calling us. He then added the ingredient of justification. (Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God.) He then takes us to the next level! “Whom he justified, them he also glorified” and to my way of thinking, this is when we become his witnesses, attesting to the fact that he is God.
How realistic is this notion? Are we simply fantasying? Is there an actual application to these concepts in real life? Are these merely theories that are designed to appeal to our curiosity, and offer and false sense of accomplishment? Paul applied the concept to real life and in practical terms when he wrote: “For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” Ephesians 5: 30. We often hear mention by members of the clergy, that the church is Christ’s “mystical body.” I don’t embrace that terminology and when Saul asked who art thou that I persecute, the answer came: “I am Jesus” but he was on his way to persecute, capture, and bring back in chains any Christian he could get his hands on. But Jesus said in essence, “they are me! I am in them, and they are in me” so the game is over Saul of Tarsus!
Listen to Paul’s explanation about the body of Christ! “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” 1st Corinthians 12:12. Although Paul was a blasphemer and a persecutor of the church, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, he did not live with a “guilt-complex.” He did not count himself as unworthy of being equal with Christ. He saw himself as being crucified with him; being buried in baptism with him, and being raised up together with him, and sitting in heavenly places in him. Many of the Galatian saints had trouble separating between the Law of Moses and Grace as preached by Paul. In the absence of the apostle, brethren mainly from Jerusalem came teaching adherence to the Law of Moses and Paul went to seek out a cure. He wrote: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Galatians 4: 19.
So there goes that word “formed” again! It can be linked to the same word spoken by God himself to Isaiah the prophet. Jesus was the “express image of the invisible God.” His image expressed God, and so is the case of every born again saint of God. The Divine purpose that began a way back in Eden, is that the earth would be filled with God since we already live and move in him, and by him all things consist. In order to perform this noble task, God has determined to “form himself” in each one of us. The process began a long time ago before we were even born as we alluded to above. As we embrace these truths contained in scripture and yield to the wooing of the Holy Spirit, as Paul wrote, we are being changed from glory to glory by the working of the Spirit. As usual, thanks for your loving support and here is a reminder to make your gifts payable to Royce Kennedy. Be blessed in all that you do!
Please be reminded to make your gifts payable to Royce Kennedy and not to the ministry. Thank you!