Almost every problem that arises has something to do with relationships. The issue is whether or not you are accepting your relationship to others. Of course, this goes right back to the fact that you must have faith in the Lord. When you do not have the faith and trust in the Lord, then you become insecure, and in your insecurity your awareness of spiritual relationships begins to break down. A person rarely loses out with the Lord if he is aware of what the Lord is to him and what the Lord says about him—what He calls him and how He identifies him. Also, a person does not usually break down if he constantly keeps his relationships with others right, and he maintains his awareness of them.
It has been said many times that the first priority in any relationship, even between husband and wife, is that we relate first as brother and sister in the Lord. You must first see yourself in the family of the Heavenly Father. Then you must see yourself in relationship to ministries whom God has divinely called. If a woman is married to an elder, she should have a deep awareness of his eldership. She should have an awareness of him as a brother in the Lord. When these two aspects are bypassed and she just relates to him as her husband, wanting to see him after an old-order relationship, then their relationship begins to break down. The happy relationship results when husband and wife first see their spiritual bond in the Heavenly Father’s family and their relationship with one another as ministries together in the grace of God. When a couple is aware of this, then their marriage can be fantastic.
People can have many different motivations for getting married. Usually only one basic relationship exists, and that is the male and female relationship. However, we see something else coming in the Kingdom. Marriage will not be based upon a sexual attraction so much as upon a very close oneness in the Spirit.
If the other relationship develops and is perfect, fine; but it should not be the exclusive basis of a marriage. If we believe this, then the marriages in which the partners are still holding out for some male and female possessiveness of each other could quickly be corrected. They could go back to seeing each other as brother and sister in the Lord and as ministries together in the Lord.
It is important that you be identified as to who you are and where you are. In his epistles, Peter talked about the precious things that the believer possesses. The reason he used the word precious was because he was writing to people who had been stripped of everything that the world values. The underlying theme of I and II Peter is suffering, that we suffer for the Lord. And these people had suffered all kinds of persecution. Their goods had been spoiled. They did not have any money left, and in many cases they did not have adequate clothing. They did not even have pleasant feelings in their body or in their mind. They were restrained in prisons and were often beaten. Now, when a man has lost everything, what can you tell him that he still has? You tell him about that “precious faith.” You talk about the “exceeding great and precious promises,” whereby he becomes a partaker of the divine nature. You talk about all the “precious things” which he has. That is the great wisdom of God behind I and II Peter.
Just about the time you think that you do not have anything, remember these Christians to whom Peter was writing, who were going through the great persecutions of Nero and the other Roman emperors. You will find the word precious mentioned seven times in I and II Peter. Peter urged them to find those precious things. He wrote, “Unto you who believe, He is precious” (I Peter 2:7, KJV). If you have the Lord Jesus, you have treasures that no one can take away from you. This he wrote to people who had lost everything they could lose, in order to show them what they still had, which neither man nor devil could take from them.
In the process of all of this, Peter spoke along another line. He kept talking to them about their relationship with the Lord, identifying them and telling them what they really were. And as we get an idea of who they were, it will help us too. When people who are dedicated to the Lord begin to reason after the flesh, they will say, like the disciples, “Lord, we have left all to follow You. What shall we have therefore? We are working hard, and when we pray we do not even pray for our own selves. What is it going to mean to us?” (Matthew 19:27.) You can say that the best thing God can promise you is a relationship with Himself.
I remember times of privation in the early years of God’s end-time walk in the Spirit when it was very difficult to survive. In the midst of the labors I said, “Lord, what am I going to get out of this?” The Lord answered, “Just what you have always wanted—a walk with Me.” How could I argue with something like that? I could have told Him how people were persecuting us; but what does that matter if you have a walk with the Lord? I could have reminded the Lord that there were only a few of us, sweating it out to lay foundations, knowing that it would be many years before people would even begin to listen to us. But He was saying, “So? You have a walk with Me. You can walk with Me all of those years if you want to.” That is exactly what the Lord is saying to us now. You can get the best things; and the best things in life cannot be taken away from you. That is what Peter was saying. No man will be able to take your crown. No man will be able to take your walk with God away from you.
Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. I Peter 2:1–2. Your salvation is the thing that you grow in. Never think that salvation is just an experience. Salvation is a state of being in your spirit, and it grows. This is because salvation is not an experience; salvation is a person (Luke 2:30). Redemption is a person. Sanctification is a person (I Corinthians 1:30). Resurrection is a person (John 11:25). Jesus is all of those things. The truth is a person. The way is a person. The life is a person (John 14:6). Jesus is all of that, isn’t He?
Therefore, keep longing for the Word, because the Word makes the Christ in you expand in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God (notice that word precious again), you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. I Peter 2:3–5.
Regardless of what phase of the Lord’s work you are involved in, this is what you really are—a good brick in the great temple of the Lord. Christ is that living stone, and you are a living stone too. The works that you bring forth with your hands may always be beautiful to you, but you probably will also find some fault in them. Perhaps this is just so that you will never have any pride in what you bring forth in the Lord. However, the main issue is that while you are working, the Lord is knocking the corners off of you. He is preparing you and making you fit into the great temple that He is building.
What then will you offer up to God? You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. That gives us the right perspective. Remember that your heart is continually offering up the sacrifices with which God is well-pleased. Your heart has become one of the great bricks in the temple that houses His presence in the earth at this time.
What makes a church a Kingdom church? What makes it become something different than it was in the past? It is the quality of spirit in those who are a part of it. They grow; they become something more in the Lord. Perhaps some of the surroundings or the mechanics of worship are changed, but these things are not the key to His holy presence; His people are the key to His holy presence. Many people go to church believing that the presence of the Lord abides in the church building, because they can feel His presence when they are there. It is true that the presence of the Lord can linger in a building because of the repeated presence of the saints. However, God’s people do not go to church; they are the church. The church goes to the church assembly house.
You do not go to church. The church comes together, and you bring the presence of the Lord with you. You carry it in your heart. You are a living stone. That is what a Kingdom church is all about, and that is what Satan hates the most. God is looking for worshipers and Satan wants to stop them. Whenever a few good little bricks, living stones, come together to worship the Lord, and His presence surrounds them, that is the defeat of Satan. That is the one thing the Father has always wanted to bring forth and the one thing Satan fights. A body of believers that bypass all their little personal problems and just stand and worship the Lord together have won the victory. They have what the Father is looking for, and they are presenting it to Him, coming as a spiritual house to offer up these spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed.” This precious value (or preciousness), then, is for you who believe, but for those who disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,” and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. I Peter 2:6–8. Do you see all that you have? You have chosen Christ to be the chief cornerstone of your life, and that cannot be taken away from you.
The stone which the builders rejected became the very cornerstone. But of course, that is also symbolical of many of the ministries in God’s end-time remnant. They are being rejected by many of the people who are trying to build “the Church,” who are trying to build Christianity. However, that rejection does not make any difference, because it is not valid. When the builders reject Christ, He still becomes the chief cornerstone. They can reject you, but you still will be a living stone in that house of God that is built to offer up the sacrifices to the Lord. Man does not have the prerogative of rejection—God has. And man does not have the prerogative of acceptance—God has. God can accept you; that is the main thing.
Think of those poor people who suffered through all those things in the early centuries of Christianity. Then the Church was not a religion; it was just a way of life. They would refer to themselves as “those of this way.” It was a real way of living, and we are coming back to that now. Our walk with God could be called “the walk,” or “the way,” but the idea must be repeated in our minds that it is a way of living. God has accepted us, and we are walking with Him. No one can take that away from us.
Persecutions can come and go, but nothing can touch our relationship with God. Oh, if we could keep that in our mind all the time! We get into problems which overwhelm us. We become focused upon them. Have you ever had anything happen to you which you kept worrying about? Perhaps a deadline is coming and you have something that you must get done. You find that when you worship the Lord everything within your spirit is working to distract you with your current problems. Then you must do what Peter said to do: “Cast all your cares upon Him, because He cares for you” (I Peter 5:7). He was writing to people who had all kinds of troubles, yet he told them, “Keep thinking about the Lord, and do not think about your problem. Just cast it upon the Lord and let Him sustain you.” This is what you must do, and then you will keep your focus right on the Lord.
Peter went on to tell the believer what he is. Do you know what you are? You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession… I Peter 2:9. Do not settle for a lower evaluation. You are of a chosen race, a special creation that the Lord is bringing forth in the earth. You are a royal priesthood—a priesthood that is related directly to the King to worship God. That is what you are! You are part of a holy nation that God is bringing forth. Just think of that! You are His Kingdom; that is what He means. You are a people for God’s own possession. The King James Version says, “a peculiar people,” but the word peculiar does not mean “strange,” but “unique.” You are unique to God. God looks upon us and says, “These are My unique people. These are the people whom I am going to possess, always.” … that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Verses 9–10.
Verse 11 continues, Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers… You are a citizen of a holy nation, a chosen race; that makes you a foreigner to the world. Anything that relates you to God makes you disrelated to the world. If you are related to God and you love the Lord Jesus Christ, the world will reject your Word just as they rejected His Word. If they have rejected Him, they will reject you (John 15:20). Thus he says, “You are aliens and strangers.” By the grace of God, we are strangers to this world system. Have you noticed that we do not fit into the passing scene, into the world?
We belong to the Lord. And as aliens and strangers we are urged to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul. This shows us that the only thing that can disturb our relationship with the Lord is sin. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. I Peter 2:12. This comes right back to exactly what we are doing, striving in every way to please the Lord. Then, no matter what people say about us, ultimately they will be able to see the way we live, the outcome of our life, and “glorify God on the day of visitation.”
Meditating on these verses in I Peter will make you feel good, because they lift you up and encourage you not to think of yourself in any lower terms, but to think of yourself the way God thinks about you. Imagine what it meant for those poor people who were wasting away in the midst of all the filth and squalor of a Roman prison to be able to pick up this epistle and read it. Though they were sitting there with their clothes stinking and no way to bathe, harassed by the rats and the vermin, mistreated and having poor food to eat, yet they could hear God say, “Do you know what you are? You are my chosen race. You are in this prison just temporarily, but you are actually a royal priesthood. One of these days you will be sitting on the throne! You are a people for My own possession, and I am going to possess you. I am going to love you.” Isn’t this beautiful? This is the Word for people who have lost everything that is possible to lose. Then they can see what they still have left when they walk with God.
It is important that you sense your relationship with the Lord in everything you do for Him. You must feel the strength and the anointing of the Lord in it. Do not do a job because of a sense of duty, or in an effort to please the Lord. Do it because you have a relationship with Him.
Jesus said, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16. It is possible to work until people say, “My, what a good worker that person is.” This brings credit to the worker. You can also work in such a way that your drive and all your labors are the outflow of a beautiful spirit that is related to God. Then when people see it, even though they see all of your good works, they say, “Oh, we glorify the Father. That one is in tune with the Heavenly Father.” Let it be that we work hard, but that people do not see us as hardworking people. Let them sense the glory of God and our relationship with Him, and that all our works are a result of a flow of the Spirit through us that glorifies the Lord.
This is the pure vision. However, don’t you find yourself bogging down at times, almost growing weary in well-doing as you relentlessly pursue after the will of the Lord? When this happens, let the Word turn your focus to the Lord. Determine to keep your eyes on the Lord and to go right through your circumstances. Do not look upon your own inadequacies. What if you are not very intelligent? Then the Lord has one in His great royal priesthood who is not very bright. Perhaps you do not understand a lot of things and you have made many mistakes. So we glorify God that as He brings forth His holy nation, there will be one in it who once was not worthy. Do not bog down in self-condemnation and throw yourself into a pit of despondency. Look to the Lord. He is the one who sustains us. We are called by His name. He has us engraved upon the palm of His hand; He will never forget us (Isaiah 49:15–16). He loves us. We are a people for His own possession.
Do you wish that you could just lay everything on the altar? God wants that too. God wants to possess more of you more than you want Him to. He is always yearning for you to surrender a little bit more. It sometimes appears as though we will become living sacrifices by piecework. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just say one big irrevocable all-comprehensive yes to God? We say yes as far as we can go, but not all of us have the capacity as yet to say that big yes. However, if we say yes to everything we can today, there will be more that we can say yes to tomorrow, and thus He will possess us more and more. So we present our bodies a living sacrifice unto the Lord. We may not get it all on the altar now, but we will eventually because we have faith to believe.
Our service to God and our worship of Him are not a matter of what we are able to accomplish; even that becomes a matter of the grace of God through faith. We are saved by the grace of God through faith, and we will be perfected by the grace of God through faith. We must believe for this to happen as we give ourselves wholly to Him.