If we were to prophesy over you, we couldn’t tell you anything more important than what this word will mean to each one of you, because it has a very personal application.
We read in John 1:10–13, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right (or power or privilege) to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Also John 4:7–10, There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealing with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink;’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.
Now one more Scripture, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, Ephesians 1:3.
I want to tell you about some deep, wonderful privileges in this walk. First of all, you have the privilege of knowing. The keys of knowledge are being restored to the church. We are not living our life blindly, but we are living it with revelation from the Lord. What a privilege to be able to come and receive revelation. What a privilege we have of knowing. Do you know what has happened to you since you came into this walk? Have you found that for the first time you know what the will of God is? For the first time you are coming to know the Lord and are beginning to understand.
Closely related to the privilege of knowing is the privilege of choosing—as many as received Him, to them He gave the right (or the privilege) to become children of God—we have the privilege first of knowing, and then making our choice. You might say, “I’ve always had the privilege of choice.” Maybe you thought you were choosing it, but could you do it? Now you have the free privilege of choice—you can find out the will of God and you can choose to do it with all grace abounding toward you so that you can accomplish it.
Some of you have had experience in the old order of things, and many times you have seen people receive a call from God; but ten, fifteen, or even twenty years later they weren’t walking in any of it. Even when they made the choice, it was not a free choice. It seemed they did not have any of the available spiritual factors necessary to make that choice a reality. In this walk, you have help, you have strength, you have the undergirding of ministries that will minister to you until you can come up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Your third privilege is that of freedom, even though you may not feel that you’re free in everything. A lot of people choose bondage and when you bring them out of the wilderness they’d rather go back to Egypt. You have the privilege of freedom, but you have to take what goes along with it. You will throw away your tin cup and your sign “I am blind” and take your healing. Then you will work with your hands for a living. You can’t sell pencils anymore. You are no longer an object of concern or sympathy, but you are someone who can stand on your feet. That is what you always need to face. You need always to stand on your feet and say, “I choose to be free. I do not choose any type of spiritual bondage whatsoever. Because I’m going to be God’s free child, I’ll take all the responsibilities that come with it.”
Young people—do you want to be free? “Yeah, I want to leave home, I want to be free.” Then make your living, sweat it out, solve your own problems, buy your own car, pay your taxes, pay your rent, buy your food, and make your own decisions. If you get in trouble you can get yourself out of it the best way you can. Do you still want to be free? You can be free.
Christians in this walk are faced with the most wonderful thing in the world: the privilege of freedom, to be God’s free man. This is a free pulpit. I can joke in it, I can prophesy, I can bring revelation, I can minister in it. These elders who minister don’t know how free they are. If they would like to learn, we will loan them to some denominational church for a month, and see how restrained they are when they return. What a freedom we have of ministry in this walk! Although we have a free pulpit, at the same time, it is probably the most assaulted pulpit you’d ever find, as far as devil oppression coming against us. That’s all right; we’ll take it. If we are going to be free, we’ll kick over the fleshpots of Egypt, walk out in the wilderness, and believe God for daily manna. We’ll take the responsibilities that go along with that great privilege of freedom.
A generation ago Americans were talking about salvation in the churches. Now they talk about security. Then they were talking about a personal, spiritual position. Now they talk about the social aspect of things. Why? Because that’s what the American people are thinking about. They are more concerned with security than with freedom; and little by little they are losing their freedom at the price of security, and in the final analysis they’ll discover it’s no security at all. I’ll take the freedom. “Well,” you say, “Then there are the hazards of being without social security insurance, etc.” I know some of those things have been a great blessing, but one of these days we will feel the pinch of the government, and realize we are not nearly as free as we think we are.
Another privilege you have in this walk is that of becoming. You don’t need to sit and yearn to be something—you can become it. You can become anything you have the vision for and see in the Word. I’m fighting for that privilege of becoming. A thousand things may stand in the way trying to hold me back and bring me down, but I’m going to struggle for the privilege of becoming everything that I can visualize God wants me to be. And I’m going to hold the door open for you to see it, too. I’ll constantly stir the young people to enlarge their vision as to what they can become. There may be several who won’t become much because they don’t want to take up the privilege. But many will see it and they’ll live their lives focused upon it with an almost violent faith. They will become everything that God says they can be. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3).
You and I know that the provision of God is perfect, but what will you do with it? Will you appropriate it? Will you take your privileges seriously? God can meet everyone of you—or you can choose to follow other things. The devil will lie to you and upset you and you may become all stirred up. Or you can say, “Nothing is going to offend me, or discourage me, or create a despondency within me. I am determined to move in with faith to the privilege I have of becoming an effective member in the Body, a soldier in the army of the Lord, effective in the thing God says my life can be.” You have that privilege. The only thing that stops us is our own dedication. A child who has a great talent and ability must also have the dedication to use it. If he has musical talent and the privilege of taking lessons, it then becomes a matter of his evaluating it and being dedicated to follow it through with all his heart.
Still another great privilege you have in this walk is that of giving and loving. For the first time in approximately 1800 years—during which time the church has labored under the concept of a clergy and a laity—the truth of God concerning every member having a ministry is coming forth again. You have the privilege of loving, of giving and of ministering.
If I were a young man right now in the church, do you know what I would do? I would give as much time as I could to becoming at least a part-time minister. Anyone can do it. Learn to make a living so that a minimum of time is spent providing a livelihood. Live without covetousness so that you are not saddled down with a lot of expensive payments that keep your nose to the grindstone. Make yourself available for several hours every week to minister. We can have junior ministers out doing a great deal. If you are close to retirement age, what would be better than to obtain an early retirement, live as carefully as you can, and become a full-time ministry in the church? Instead of having only one or two pastors, we could have thirty or forty pastors ministering to the congregation and doing the most fantastic work that’s being done anywhere. What a privilege of ministering and giving some real meaning to your life.
One other very important privilege that you enjoy in this walk is the constant ministry available to you and the teaching you receive from this pulpit.
You have also the privilege of evaluating. You can clutter up your life spiritually and mentally with junk, and people who do that generally never do anything effectively. For instance, how do you keep house? What is your closet like? Does it resemble Fibber McGee’s and Molly’s with everything falling out when the door is opened? Some people’s minds are like their closet—cluttered. They never sort it out. They are pack rats by nature, saving things they’ll never use. On the farm we used to have a saying, “Keep a thing for seven years and you’ll find a use for it.” That may be true, but in the meantime you’ve had seven years of clutter. You have a privilege of evaluating and now is a good time to do it. Sort out everything and keep only that which is important to you. Even the good things you’ve gathered can finally become a clutter. How about discarding them and keeping only the best? Get rid of the junk.
Another privilege we have here—which you may think every church has—is the privilege of prayer. We can pray, knowing what the will of the Lord is, and knowing how to pray. That is very important. Some churches are so far from God that they teach the people only one way to pray: “Lord, if it by Thy will”—I don’t think you have much business praying until you know His will. Find out His will by getting some help and revelation on it. Once you know it, then you can begin to pray.
Martin Luther said that prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but prayer is laying hold of God’s willingness. That’s what we are doing. We are not praying to overcome God’s reluctance but we are praying to appropriate His willingness. This is a time for prayer. Every morning get up and know what God is doing. Cry out in prayer to God concerning it with faith, joy and confidence, and with a travailing spirit. Prayer is such a privilege because it’s an instrument that God has chosen and an opportunity God has given you.
The old order ideas of walking with God emphasized only the duties and obligations. No wonder people had such a miserable time. It was their duty to pray a certain amount of time or they might backslide. It was their duty to read so many chapters in the Bible or they would lose out with God. It was their duty to run down the street and pass out tracts and find somebody to witness to, whether they accepted the Lord or not.
In this walk we talk about our privileges, what we can really have. It’s a privilege to read God’s Word and think His thoughts after Him. It’s a privilege to find out what He is doing in the earth and through our feeble lips pray prayers that God will use to loose His great power and the things He has to do. This is so important to me; is it to you? These are privileges that you have. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Do you know what this move of God does? It corrects a concept men have of their prayers and of their worship, which will allow this earth to be God’s footstool instead of trying to make it a throne. How many times people through their prayers try to make this earth the throne and this life the total end. In this walk we have the privilege of praying and acknowledging that He is the Lord, this earth is His footstool, and His will is coming forth.
More sermons are needed concerning this walk and the privileges you really have. It’s like our American citizenship—we take so much for granted and do not realize the privileges we have. We are not really too diligent about keeping them because we’re not giving them much thought at all. We have some great privileges in this walk and the most wonderful thing we could do would be to be aware of them. How many people have privileges and blessing that they know nothing about and consequently they miss them? How many wealthy people die leaving bank accounts, and the heirs know nothing about it? They could be wealthy, but they are unaware of their privileges. You are an heir of God, blessed with all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places; but they will not be yours unless somebody encourages you and tells that you can have them, you can reach into them. Your privileges are tremendous in this walk, but the greatest privileges of all are those of knowing, of choosing, of evaluating, and of praying.
Perhaps you will become discouraged. Who doesn’t? That has nothing to do with it. I have days in which I am depressed and I feel defeated but the privileges are still mine. As an American citizen it doesn’t make any difference whether I’m discouraged, whether I sit around and belly-ache about the government, whether I’m a Democrat or a Republican—I am still an American with all of my privileges.
Your privileges in Christ are accentuated and made real in this walk in the Spirit. You can have them and you can walk in them, but the main thing is to see that they are yours and not to neglect them. Take what is available to you. Sometimes people sit back in the church never asking for ministry, yet after every service the elders are ready to minister to you. More and more the authority of these elders is becoming so real to the people that they are aware of it. Don’t miss your privileges. You have something here so glorious and wonderful you ought to just rejoice in it, always reaching into God.
There must be an awareness in the hearts of the people of what they can really do and what they can become. You have received Him. He is giving you the privilege of becoming a child of God and walking in all that it means. Don’t live as beggars and don’t live as slaves, but live as God’s free children. Take your place, walk in it and claim it, for it is yours.