God has a will and when He exercises His will, this is what happens: we become a product of the living word. The word that God is bringing forth now has created and directed us. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be as it were the first fruits among His creatures. James 1:18.
“The first fruits” does not mean that we were the first creation that God made. Physically we were the last that He made, but we are the first fruits of the new creation of sons. There is a great distinction. He may have made man in the beginning in His own image, but this was only in His own image, not in His own nature. For God would never need this command: “Thou shalt not touch nor eat of the tree.” But when man was made he needed that word, for he had the capability of sin, which God does not have.
Man was made in the image of God. He could walk with God and talk with God, and he was preeminently a creature of spirit, so he was able to communicate with God who was a Spirit. And God walked with him in the garden in the cool of the day. But it is also very significant that God had something more in mind: not to make a man in His image that had the capability of communicating with Him, but to create one that would be one with His very nature, that would share His attributes. He has ordained then, by the exercise of His will, that we should be the first fruits among His creatures.
The book of James is the practical epistle of the New Testament. He is so practical that you almost find contradictory statements. Paul says it is by faith and not of works, lest any man should boast (Romans 3:27–28). And the Lord brings through James another thing: faith without works is dead, showing that there has to be an expression of faith in actions that corresponds to the inner faith (James 2:26). Faith is not a passive assent to truth; faith is an activity based upon full acceptance of what God has said. Faith is an activity, and without works, without the corresponding actions, faith is dead. So James brings the most practical expression that we can find in the New Testament of what it means to walk with God.
This you know, my beloved brethren. But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man (note this if you have the capacity to get upset over many things) does not achieve the righteousness of God (it never results in the righteousness of God coming forth.) Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. James 1:19–21. The thought begins and ends in the same thing. You were brought forth by the exercise of His will by the word of truth. He brought you forth by a living word, and He is going to perfect you. You receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls and bring you into full, complete salvation. You will never lose your need of the word. That implanted word brings you forth as the first fruits of a spiritual creation in His own image.
I do not know what angels are. I think they are spirits, but they will never be in His image. It is fantastic what God is doing with us. The angels are going to remain angels. I do not read anywhere that the angels are even made with a capability of growth or development. I suppose they can retain knowledge and accumulate more knowledge as they go along. So in some sense they might progress, but not in the sense that you will progress. You will come to be completely conformed to Jesus Christ in every respect and have everything of His very nature (Romans 8:29). The Lord has a real plan for you. Do not doubt it or hesitate.
He starts this with a living word and He is going to finish it with the living word, but in the meantime, you are stuck with the coexistence of two natures, one that has to go and the other that has to develop. And you are told here that the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. The works of the flesh—wrath, malice, and many things that come forth out of the old nature—all have to die. That is why you are to receive the word that is implanted; which is able to save your souls, with a humility, with an openness to God, believing that God is going to change this whole thing. James 3:13 says, Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. Get rid of that anger. There is a gentleness of the wisdom of the Lord.
Ambivalence is so much a part of us. I doubt if anyone truly loves without the capability and the seed of hatred for the one they love. This quality exists to some degree in everyone. When you get edgy, and you want to pick a fight, you wait until the husband or wife comes around, and then you fight. You have to express the malice on someone. Of course, that anger is not going to work the righteousness of God, but you are surely going to be relieved of the pressure that the old nature has been exerting on you for expression.
People blow up. In anger they start throwing things, and after a while they have vented it all. They have not accomplished the righteousness of God, but they have relieved the pressure the old nature gives for expression. Instead of taking the pressure and making it self-destructive to the old nature, they give it a bombastic expression which never achieves the righteousness of God.
If you are going to be angry, be angry at your anger. If you are going to hate something, turn it on yourself and hate your hatred. If it has to have an expression, turn it back and make it destructive of the thing that has to go.
One of the brothers is having many strange physical symptoms, for which his doctors can find no basis whatsoever. But the Lord began to show by revelation that whenever pressures come, he talks calm and easy, but he buries it all within, giving no expression; and so it builds up until it manifests in physical afflictions. What he really needs is to have an expression of casting his cares and anxieties upon the Lord.
This happens to many of us. We have within us a nature that God has brought forth as the first fruits of His creatures; we want to serve Him; we want to be completely submissive to Him. But something else coexists within us that rises up in anger. Anger rises up especially when we feel we have been mistreated. Self will never accept its role as a bond servant of the Lord. It has to die. “Boy, you can’t do that to me! Look what they’re doing to me! This is a challenge to me! This is infringing upon my position, my rights, my future!” And so the anger begins to come forth. The wrath of man, though, does not work the righteousness of God.
Ambivalence means that even toward the same person two opposite emotions can exist. In other words, you can love someone, yet you can become so angry that you feel hatred toward that one. As we have read: Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. James 3:13.
But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. James 3:8. The fear of man is upon every one of us, and the power of the tongue can be so deadly. It causes almost the whole human race to cringe in fear of belittling, sarcasm, and criticism almost more than they would fear physical pain. It is because it is such an evil thing.
In verse nine James continues talking about the tongue: With it we bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh. James 3:9–12. He is trying to point out that you are going to be a source of blessing, and although cursing may exist for a little time, it has to end. You have to become a purified fountain of one thing: to speak a word that comes from God in all purity. You cannot mingle the stream with bitter waters. There cannot come forth blessing and cursing from the same mouth, for the cursing comes forth from the flesh and the blessing comes forth from the spirit. You must become a consecrated source of one thing or the other. You cannot rise up in anger which is self-vindication, self asserting its rights, and fighting for its place, and still be capable of laying down your life for the brethren, saying, “Lord, I lose my life for You that I might find it.” You are not losing your life when you rise up in indignation at the things which befall you or the way people mistreat you. Anger does not work the righteousness of God and never can.
If we are to be fountains of life to the whole world, the fire of God must cleanse and purge out this demand of the old flesh to assert itself—to vent itself out and express itself. It is an inward compulsion that demands that the flesh shall manifest and express itself. If a person is given to this self-life, you cannot talk with him very long before it comes up. His whole reasoning, his whole line of approach is self-preservation, but the thing in the spirit is just the opposite. When you really want to work for God, you are only concerned about the Kingdom; you seek that first. You do not give any thought for yourself. You are not worried about tomorrow, but you reach into God.
Satan may say to me, “You’re getting older. You’re going at a pace you can’t keep up, and you have no provision at all for your future,” and it may be true. Fifteen years ago I was much better prepared to retire or die or anything else after the flesh than I am now. I am not prepared for it. But my answer to Satan is complete and perfect: “All my life belongs to Him.” That has to be within your heart when this hits you: “I’m afraid for the future; I’m afraid for this; I’m afraid for that.” It is that instinct for self-preservation.
Oh, that goat nature! It can almost smell the slaughter-man’s knife, and it fights against it. But the sheep nature just lays down its life as the Lord did, “So He opened not His mouth when He was led as a lamb to the slaughter” (Acts 8:32). We have to face what God is completing in the fire. He is burning it all out. Only one thing is going to come forth: out of the remnant will come a pure word from the Lord.
Show by your good behavior your deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. James 3:13–14. Falsehood is not only telling a lie with your tongue in your cheek. Lying can come forth when you profess one thing in your worship and your praise to the Lord, and something else rises up: that selfish ambition, that bitter jealousy, that holding back on God, that retaining the right to your own life.
This is not an easy thing we are facing. That is why a solemnity is upon every command and commission that is coming forth concerning sending this gospel to the ends of the world. We are facing a difficult thing: total annihilation and crucifixion of the flesh. The end of flesh has to come, and it will come. And you say, “It seems as if I’m so far from it.” The flesh can make such a demonstration of itself right up to the end, because Satan inspires it. People who have been ministered to are prodded the next day by Satan into some kind of explosion in the behavior of the flesh, and they come back and say, “I had a word from God, I had good ministry, and I really blew it.” Satan will do everything he can to get you to manifest only one little thing in your life so you will become disheartened. There is nothing we fear so much, that leads us into so much self-condemnation and a great lack of confidence, as the fact that we look within and know the flesh. Paul could see it: “I know in me, that is, in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18).
Nothing disturbs you more than when you have an accurate revelation, a true assessment, of what the old flesh really is. It can wipe out faith quicker than anything I have ever seen. If Satan presses you into doing just one wrong thing, it wipes you out; you lose your confidence in everything. That is why I counsel with so many people. One stumbling does not make a sinner out of you. People try to serve God for several months, and then they stumble. So I tell them, For a righteous man falleth seven times, and riseth up again… Proverbs 24:16. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. Psalm 37:24. “How many times did you fall?” It is easy to see that Satan is pushing for one eruption, and God is often in that, not just the devil. This is one instance where the devil and God seem to work together. The devil is concerned that you have a manifestation of your old flesh nature to discourage you, but God is concerned that what is there should present itself again in order that you may be transparent to your own need and see it. God is not trying to create an illusion with the seed of future defeats and destruction lying dormant within you and your being unaware of it. The best thing God can do is to make you aware of your need after the flesh, but also make you determined that whatever manifests itself of that old nature is going to go. God is going to loose you.
James talks about two different kinds of wisdom. First he talks about the gentleness of wisdom and then he talks about jealousy and selfish ambition, … do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthy, natural, demonic. James 3:15. The word “unspiritual” in the Greek would be soulish, demonic. Can we in our thinking actually have a soulish wisdom by which our responses are quickened in thinking by demon power? I believe so. As I minister, I find that some people have reached conclusions that have come from God’s wisdom, and in the next breath they talk about conclusions from a soulish wisdom prompted by Satan to make decisions and set goals before themselves.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. James 3:16. None of the problems that have come to the church in recent times actually came about through a subtle trick of Satan to deceive. You cannot be deceived unless an element of selfishness or rebellion is in your heart. You have to have a goal that Satan can set before you with natural wisdom that has ambition in it. And when you see the goal with ambition in it and you bite on that hook, that is the beginning of discord. This is what James is talking about: disorder and every evil which comes out of the self responding. Satan is not always trying to get you to go out and get drunk, or rob a bank, or shoot someone. You would not bite on that kind of bait; you are not interested. But oh how he can set before you things he covers over, with a motivation which looks so good you almost deceive yourself in your anxiety to convince yourself that your motivation is honest and good.
When someone starts a business it is easy to say, “I am going to give all the money to the Lord.” But as soon as a word of the Lord comes that he does not want, there may be no obedience to divine authority and he may completely rebel. Why? Because he has selfish ambition. That is not dedication but one of the greatest deceptions that can ride on a human heart. God does not bless that kind of money that could come in, for He knows it would never come forth for His glory. It would always be a selfish thing.
The test is there. Will we be obedient? Will we be submissive? Is the motivation really honest or does it come from something of human wisdom? Where Jealousy and selfish ambition exist there is disorder and every evil thing. God is trying to teach us that anything in which the Body is going to walk in this day is to be pure. It has to be the end of a coexistence: that which is a subtle motivating stream of the flesh with all of its selfishness underneath while outside it appears beautiful. There are those who say, “We are going to publish the gospel of the Kingdom to the ends of the world,” but underneath they know they are going to take care of “number one.” Underneath they have that selfishness which is going to be pampered. It won’t look that way because they are religious enough to make it look as if they are philanthropic and generous in everything. In the final analysis, there is nothing but a selfish grabbing at everything that ambition demands. If you do not believe that, just sit back, reserve judgment, and watch what happens.
I have wanted to believe so much for people that I sometimes have been drawn to accept their motivation. But projects must be presented to the whole apostolic company, with fasting and prayer entering into it. And no matter what prophecies come, we are going to insist on the dedication and purity of the vessels that set about to do them. Too many things have been aborted because Satan knows what to do. He hits on that which is the real basis, the real motivation. Then the whole thing explodes. That is why God has reserved many of the prophecies from being fulfilled in some of your lives until the stream is pure. You are going to move in miracle power and whatever God has prophesied, but you will not move in it as long as flesh is going to take the glory. Note that as the basic rule. Perhaps you think we ought to see all of these gifts and all of these ministries come forth. Not while self predominates. Search your heart and say, “Lord, we’re going to walk in it.” Let’s seek this wisdom which is from above.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. James 3:17–18. We have seen the wisdom of God come and bring complete and perfect peace. No human wisdom can do that. You may say, “I’d like to have some of that beautiful wisdom.” That is the way the book of James starts: But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5. It is an impartation from God, not a natural cultivation of human wisdom. You either get it from God or you do not get it at all. So you say, “I just need more wisdom. I’m so stupid.” Everyone is stupid. The world by its wisdom does not know God. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Do you want real wisdom? Ask of God.
But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:6–8.
Double-minded—double fountain—James is always talking about the way that people cross themselves out. “Are they Christians?” Sure they are Christians. “Do they love the Lord?” Oh, yes, they love the Lord. And this is what is deceptive. If they had come in from the world and said, “We’d like to have you do this or that, and help us promote this cause or that cause,” you would look right through them and say, “They are not even Christians.” But someone with a dual nature sometimes finds it easy to put forth the spiritual nature and deceive every one of us, because we look at him and say, “A word of God is over that man, and we see what God is doing in his life. Look at the miracle of what God has wrought already.” But just the same, when the duality is there, we had better have a little reservation, and there must be that constant check and submission to get that thing out of the way which would rise up to trouble the whole project. It is the bitter water and the sweet water coming out of the same fountain which causes things to get crossed out. You have seen that in your own life.
Sometimes people will come and say, “I really love you. I’m going to intercede for you. I’m going to pray for you. I am living for one thing—to see the apostolic ministry reach the whole world.” Fine, I believe them. But wait until the pressure is really on and that intercession could be effective, and Satan will say, “Aha! they’re getting too close to home! They have that real dedication in their hearts.” So he reaches over and puts his finger on something of the old flesh that is still alive. It all blows up. Then they are in remorse—all wiped out. They don’t know which way to go: “Oh, terrible, terrible, terrible!” What happened? Satan knew just exactly how to throw them, because he knew that there was a coexistence of two natures.
Suppose Satan would come and hit at you: “Now, do you want to intercede? We’ll just stand here and battle it out,” but the minute he realizes you are prevailing over him in your intercession, he says, “Okay, I’ll get down, and I’ll get at the flesh. I’ll get at the old self-life” (because the two are coexisting). “I’ll wipe him out right there.” So he does.
You are ineffective as long as you are seesawing. The spirit wars against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit so that you cannot do the things that you would. You cannot do it because you are crossed out by the flesh warring against the spirit and your spirit is warring against the flesh. You are actually dissipating all your energies and your force in a civil war. And if you are not doing it individually, then Satan tries to get you to do it collectively, and you are warned in Galatians 5:15, If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another, because the flesh has a quality to consume, and the spirit has a quality to build up one another. And in the Body you can build one another up or you can yield to the flesh and criticism, and one thing and another can begin to come and devour and tear the Body to pieces.
It is not a matter of thinking, “Oh, in the wonderful purpose and objective of perfection, we must get rid of a little bit of this flesh.” We had better get rid of it, or we will never be effective in reaching the world for the Lord. We will never be the channels. Other things will come in, and the minute we begin to really move, Satan will throw it at us and there will be another civil war, another explosion. When it is all finished, we will say, “Well, I’ve been praying and seeking God and I’m going to be all right now. I have a temper, but it’s like a shotgun. It just goes off, and then it’s all over with.”
You can do a lot of damage with a shotgun. I am concerned about those who are elders or ministries, or whoever they are, when they suddenly blow up and can’t say something vicious enough. That devilish thing comes out. I am concerned that people allow themselves to destroy what God is presenting in a ministry by creating a lying image. Afterwards they may even repent, but when we go down the road we look back and we see the many little dead lambs lying along the way because they were not able to rise above that devilish thing. Many of those little ones on the fringe are lost. “Well, it all straightens out,” you say. “There’s going to be real unity.” Yes, but in the years to come, you still see the skeletons lying about.
You do not have a right to destroy. “Inasmuch as you do it to the least of these my brethren, you do it to Me” (Matthew 25:40). Just one or two could come along with a little root of bitterness springing up and thereby many be defiled, because they are not able to take it; they are not able to handle it. They are not able to receive that poison. This is why God is demanding that we be loosed from everything of the flesh with its destructive quality. In the gentleness of wisdom, the healing and the strength must begin to flow through the Body, and we must love one another. And that love is without anger, without hostility, and without battle in which we would rise up.
Don’t be a civil war. Don’t be a volcano walking around looking for a place to blow up. Get rid of the things that Satan could just press at anytime he wants; there is almost an atomic explosion coming out of the old self-life. Get rid of that! Believe God for it; He will get rid of the thing, but first you have to see the need, that the old flesh is hostile to God, that the carnal mind is enmity against God; it is warring against Him. Then you will come to the place of complete, perfect submission to the Lord and walking in the Spirit. Many of you have been aware that you could be doing much more for God if you were not spending so much of your time and your energy seeking God simply to hold that flesh down, and to keep the balance going in the civil war so that you are a little bit ahead in the spirit. Flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. That brings us to the book of Galatians, because we are going to talk about the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another. Galatians 5:14–15. The flesh is destructive. The flesh becomes the cancer in God’s creation. It sets up almost a life independent of the orderly cell structure in the body. And where self begins to rule and dominate, the real body ministry cannot come forth because that cancer begins to draw on everything round about it and consume it. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Galatians 5:16. Just keep walking by the Spirit; one crosses out the other. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit… They put a capital “S” on Spirit—and that would be accurate, but really what it is talking about is your spirit. The flesh sets its desire against your spirit and your spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Galatians 5:17. It is talking about you, and you are rendered ineffective, not the Lord. He can still move and do anything He wants to do. It is talking about your spirit and your flesh warring until you cross one another out. You are destroying all of your energies.
One of the most destructive. bloody wars of history was the war between the states: brother destroying brother. When it was finished, the South with its glory never rose again to the place that it had before. Who won that war? No one. Who wins any war? No one. Ask the mothers who visit the graves. Ask the fathers who grieve over the sons and wonder how tall they would have been, what they would have been doing—dust in a grave. No one wins a war. The anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. Until we get the wisdom of the Lord that is gentle, and reaches out and creates and brings people together, there is no other wisdom; there is no other way.
Everything that we do should be constructive. Although this is very difficult, when I am called upon to minister a rebuke or to bring an apostolic word that is very strong, I always try to say, “God give me wisdom to put this man in a corner where he cannot express the fleshly thing that is causing his problem, but he has to express the dedication of his spirit to walk with God.” And I crowd a man into that corner, that perchance God putting him in that corner, the dedication and the love that he feels will rise to the occasion.
One brother who had drawn back came to see me when I called him, and I asked the Lord to give me wisdom for him. So we sat down and I greeted him saying, “Brother, I can remember…” And I started back, talking about all the times he had come and sacrificed, the times when he came and brought food for my family. “I remember the Thanksgiving turkey you yourself cooked for us when we had no money. I remember your sacrifices and your love.” I named everything. I did not accuse him because I did not want to put him in a position where he could defend his flesh for single minute. So I just talked about all he had done, and just sat there. Then he began to cry and confess. We wept together and prayed together.
Do you begin to see that it is a wisdom that has to come from God, that you do not push your brother in the corner until the flesh has to rise up and say, “Yes, now we’ll have it out. Now we’re going to settle the thing.” There is no way you can settle the flesh: you kill the flesh; You crucify it.
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality (this is speaking of the old self-life). idolatry, sorcery (now we come to another level of them), enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envyings, drunkenness, carousings, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forwarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19–21. And that is that we are talking about these days. The Kingdom of God is not going to come to these manifestations.
How will we get the message of the Kingdom out? But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22. There is nothing to cause any trouble in the fruit of the Spirit. It is tremendously effective.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:24. It does not say “everyone who has named the name of the Lord,” but it says, “those who belong to Him,” and the margin reads “those who are of Christ Jesus.” It means that if His nature is coming forth, you are crucifying the other; it has to die.
Lord, let the work of the cross now be completed in the lives of these who really want to walk with You, lest we be guilty of walking afar off and fall into every pitfall and trap the enemy lays for us. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Verse 25.
This last verse is overlooked a thousand times: Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Verse 26. Do you understand what this means about challenging one another? “Brother, you offend me,” and you go right down the line. The brother says, “I didn’t mean that; this is the way I meant it,” and he defends himself. Don’t challenge one another; let it lay. Let it lay. “But I was wronged!” That is your flesh speaking. Let it endure the wrong. Love the brother. “Well, what am I supposed to do then?” Good question. Keep on reading. That is what you are supposed to do.
Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual (this is where the fruit of the Spirit enters in) restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:1–2. Now you have the whole thing. Do you want to walk that way? This is a good time to rest from the old labors that are so filled with the strivings of the flesh and enter into His rest.
To the pastors especially, be clothed with humility, because there can be an arrogance, and God resists the proud. You say, “Well, I am humble! That’s one thing that I’m glad that I’ve worked out!” Gentleness of wisdom is filled with humility. Natural wisdom exalts you. Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth. Lord, just help us. Teach us. Let all of the elders be clothed with humility. Open your hearts to it. Say “Lord, let me really walk humbly before You.”
Do you know how you can tell whether you are humble or not? Someone said to me, “They’re criticizing you; they’re saying that you’re very arrogant,” and I just blessed them. It didn’t disturb me. I reacted in the Spirit rather than in the flesh. I could have said, “Arrogant! Who do they think they are, calling me arrogant!” But I did not do that. It is in the reactions that come—when you are evil spoken of, whatever happens; when the situations cross you up; when with an elder or minister, everything you are doing is completely misunderstood—that is where love comes in and reaches out and blesses. Remember that.
This word is like a highly penetrating oil—the oil of the Spirit. It ought to reach down to where some of those gears are not working. There are things in this word that have searched us out, and there is no use in wiping yourself out and walking in it—it is the blood of Jesus Christ that is going to give the cleansing as God is going to give the help. We are determined to walk together as brethren. But God is dealing with that which is in conflict with everything that He is bringing forth. And He has to reign until all of His enemies are made the footstool of His feet (Psalms 110:1). He has to bring down everything. He is able to subdue all things to Himself. He can subdue our flesh and bring it to a real experience of the cross.
Forgive us, Lord, not just of anger, but of that touchiness, that tendency to be just a little too critical, to judge things sometimes, even when we are right, to be too harsh, to be without the gentleness that God wants. We loose ourselves from those things. We press in to be understanding and to have the love of the Lord within our hearts. Amen.
PROPHECY
Yea, thy God has called thee to be victorious in Him. Thou shalt look unto the Lord thy God, and He shall clothe thee with the beautiful garments of His victory. For if thy God is with thee, who shall be against thee? If God the righteous judge justifieth thee, who is he that shall condemn thee? Though thou would even be standing in the presence of the Lord in filthy garments yet the angel of the Lord would be at thy right hand, yea, even Jesus Christ, the advocate with the Father. He shall gird thee up; He shall strengthen thee with power through His Spirit in thine inward man; and He shall clothe thee with the garments of His righteousness and set a fair mitre upon your head.
Thou shalt be a company of kings and priests that shall rule and reign with Him. He hath lifted thee up and He hath strengthened thee this day. Say not in thine heart that ye look for a sign or ye look for wisdom, but look unto the Lord thy God and submit thine heart unto Him. Thou shalt be as the centurion that did come before the Lord, and say, “Oh, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.” It shall be in thine heart to submit unto the Lord. There shall be a faith in His victory and in His mighty arm on thy behalf.
“Be glad and rejoice in this hour, for the prophecies which come unto thee and the words which thou speakest in this day are not words for ages to come, but rather they are the Lord’s words which thou shalt walk in, even in this hour and in this day. Be not dismayed in thine heart, neither be thou discouraged that thou hast not walked yet in the perfection which the Lord hath spoken unto thee. For surely thou art walking from glory to glory, and shall not the Lord constantly lay before thee that which is slightly greater than that which thou hast perceived heretofore? He shall constantly lay before thee that which thou must stretch forth unto, in thy spirit. But yea, thou shalt stretch, and thou shalt walk, and thou shalt go from glory to glory, for it is the Lord that giveth it unto thee. Amen.”
“Yea, for the time is coming and is even now upon you, where the glory of the Lord shall rest upon the earth and the power of the Lord shall sweep over the face of the earth, and over the people that dwell thereon. The Lord hath prepared this people that they might speak the words of the Lord and speak the judgment of the Lord that shall go forth over the earth in these days.”