Excerpts

God has always wanted a people in which He would rest. Every generation has a mandate to fulfill in the divine mandate. In 1915, Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses in front of the Catholic Church with its emphasis being, ‘the just shall live by faith’. And since then, there has been several emphases that the Lord released to the Church, and each one has a place in the divine agenda. Likewise, in the last few years, there has been an emphasis the Lord has been opening upon the Church.

Bob Jones gave a 100-year vision in which he spoke about the agenda of God since the 1950s, in decades. He said that ‘2020 will be the year of the rest of God’. There is no way a people can come to the rest of God without the priest. The priest is the house of God’s rest.

There is so much demand on this generation to come into perfect alignment with what God is doing. There are certain things we must take heed of especially as young people, we still have ample time to live upon the earth, therefore, one can say that we have everything it takes to bring an end to God’s thought for mankind. In watching in this wise, there were certain things that the Lord put in my heart, which we must take note of.

First, there must be a level of accuracy of scriptural judgment we must come into in this season. Knowledge has increased in our day. Also, there is much demand in the spirit for accuracy of scriptural judgment, and there is no way we can come into this estate without scriptural oversight. The Lord is demanding for this so much in our generation.

Second, accuracy of order. I see a people whose processions are ordered. Where everyone keeps his rank, everyone knows where he belongs and does not transgress that point.

Third, accuracy of expectation. What a man does not expect, he cannot labor for and cannot give attention to it. He also cannot release faith for it.

These three things are what I see the Lord accomplishing in this assembly since the beginning of this summit. The reason for painting Jesus as He is, is so that we can see Him in His true state. There is a way the Lord was when He was on earth, but there is a way He is now. Right now, Jesus is glorified, He has attained all the thoughts that God has for man. In Him the fullness of the Godhead dwells.

The Lord is bringing us to the place of accuracy and details. The Lord is also restoring order. The things we did not know as disorderliness in times past, the Lord is opening our eyes to them now.

Ephesians 1:17 - That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

What God fathers is glory. God never fathers anything that is not glorified. God is the God of all flesh but there is a different manner in which He is the God of Jesus Christ, which He has not been to any man. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He is not the God of the dead, but the living (Luke 20:38). This Scripture is not referring to Him as the God of all flesh but referring as one who has inherited all things (Ephesians 1:22). He inherited glory and is bringing many sons into glory so that God will be their God also.

Paul’s prayer that the saints be given the spirit of wisdom is so that God could father them (Ephesians 1:17). The Spirit of wisdom here refers to one of the seven Spirits.

Isaiah 11:2-3 - And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 

Quick understanding means making one alive. To quicken one’s understanding is to enlighten one’s eyes. To quicken is to give life (Psalm 119:144). Life is light (John.1:4). A man’s understanding cannot be enlightened if God has not given him the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. This enlightenment is for the purpose of knowing what the hope of His calling is.

In our day, the hope of Christ’s calling is either distorted or completely not seen. The hope of Christ’s calling is not referring to calling into the five-fold ministry (Ephesians 4:11); this calling is seen in Ephesians 4:1.

Ephesians 4:1 – I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.

There is a calling upon us; there is a hope to which He wants us to attain unto. When we were quickened at New Birth, we were called to a hope. This hope is not known at New Birth; else Paul would not have prayed that they come into the knowledge of this hope. A man cannot know beyond the level of his sight. There is a power that was wrought in Christ when God raised Him from the dead (Ephesians 1:19-20). Eternal life is the hope to which we have been called (Titus 1:2).

1 Timothy 1:1 - Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, [which is] our hope;

The Lord Jesus Christ is our hope; this means that all that Jesus has become today is the hope for His Church. One reality of our spirits is that we have been quickened to sit with Christ Jesus. The salvation that was wrought in our spirit will be done in our souls and as well in our bodies.

One of the things that Satan seeks to achieve is to cast a veil around the hope of our calling in Christ Jesus so that saints will not engage the life of that hope; he makes us engaged with other things that are not the hope, so we will not attain the estate we have been called into.

All the promises of God have been fulfilled in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). Nothing fulfills prophecy more than its fulfillment. Thus, in seeing Christ we see God’s promise fulfilled. There cannot be Christ in you (Colossians 1:26-27), if He has not been formed in you (Galatians 4:19).

Ephesians 3:17 - That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

At New Birth, the believer does not yet have Christ dwelling in Him; although the Holy Spirit dwells there. For Christ to dwell in a man there must be formation of Him in such, it means He lives by Christ i.e. the programme of Christ must be installed in such a man. Such a one uses Christ to express life; it is such a one that can hope for the glory of God.

Except Christ is formed in a man, he cannot hope for the glory of God (Colossians 1:27). A man cannot see God’s glory unless Christ is formed in him, and Christ is not formed without teaching (Colossians 1:28). ‘Teaching to make everyone perfect in Christ Jesus’ is the core function of the five-fold ministry (Ephesians 4:11); which is equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. The work of the ministry here is not limited to preaching the gospel, but service to God in one’s spirit (Romans 1:9).

This building must continue ‘till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man’; these phrases typify the stature of Christ. ‘Perfect man’ is the man of God, the man of God’s thought. The fullness of Christ speaks of what Christ as a man is full of experientially. Christ is a man carrying the fullness of God (Colossians 2:9). Our race today must be to come into the perfect man, the stature of Christ.

Matthew 11:28-29 - Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Faith is the rest and the inheritance. This faith is the faith of the Son of God given to the saint (Galatians 2:20). The faith is obtained in the wilderness (2 Peter 1:1). This faith is for labor, although not a labor in the flesh.

Ezekiel 3:12 - Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, [saying], Blessed [be] the glory of the LORD from his place.

To hear a voice behind one is to walk ahead of the voice, this typifies an estate of rest. This voice can only be heard by walkers; only those who walk can hear the voice of the Son of God. God instructed Abraham to walk before Him and be perfect; this means that he should become Christ. This walk is a faith walk. Christ is installed in the soul through learning (Colossians 1:28). God seeks the place of His rest. The hope for which He called us must become our hope. God is looking for a kind of man that He will not repent until He finds that rest.

Matthew 5:3,5 - Blessed [are] the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed [are] the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Poverty in this scripture is not lack of money, but meekness. God seeks a meek and contrite man (Psalms 51:17). ‘Meek and lowly in heart’ is the stature of Christ (Matthew 11:29). Our reasonable service is the presentation of our bodies (Romans 12:1); the body becoming an instrument to work the work of God.

Philippians 3:9-10 - And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Paul desired to come into the state where Christ came into when He died, where He could not do His own will. ‘Resurrection from the dead’ means exodus from the dead. This phrase, ‘if by any means I might attain’ means that he was not certain. Thus, he disciplined his body so that he would not miss the hope of His calling.

We must come to the point where this hope becomes our hope, where our hearts are positioned in the hope of God.

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