God has promised His remnant, “Fear not, little flock; it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32). But He desires to let the iniquity in the earth to run its course before we move into our inheritance.
Those who are purified as gold through the fire will have a part to play when Jesus returns to establish the kingdom of God upon the earth
As the God of justice, He is not justified in destroying the “Amorites” before they have had an opportunity to make a full decision to reject God and turn to evil.
The time finally came when the struggle between the two natures within Judas had to be decided. And Judas made his decision. He talked with the Pharisees, he made his bargain, but it still was not complete until that night when he got up and walked out the door. It was not a demon or an oppression that was harassing him; Satan had entered into his heart.
A smoking wick He will not quench (Isaiah 42:3). As long as there is a little flame, He will hold on to a person. If they have had a revelation, and it is still burning in their heart, He will give them every opportunity and every chance. Neither prophecies nor judgments are fulfilled quickly. We must come to the place where we are either completely given over to believe God or we are completely given over to turn away from Him.
The iniquity, such as that of the Amorite, has to come to the full, but notice the other factor that is involved. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (what great power we have), and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. Notice: when your obedience is complete. II Corinthians 10:4–6.
If a situation were completely right or completely wrong, God could deal with it. we cannot expect God to vindicate us or to bring us blessing in any contest or any matter of decision until our obedience is complete: until the fire of God has gone through us and cleansed us of every unforgiving spirit, every rebellion, every withdrawal, everything in our heart and everything of the old flesh that is wrong. God is ready to judge, but He does not judge until all things are in place.
The Lord is waiting for a people to come forth in the earth who are right. Then He can deal with the wrong. What is holding up the judgment in the earth? There are no righteous people. There is no right side; there are only wrong sides. Why doesn’t God judge the wicked? Because all would be judged; none would be left. Why doesn’t God bring back the days of Ananias and Sapphira? Because He would not have any churches left.
Now, in this day, God is gathering a people and putting the baptism of fire to them. He does this so that we will seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness. When we are right because our obedience is complete, then the Lord will be ready to judge all disobedience. But He is not going to do it as long as we have a degree of wrong in our own spirit.
Why does God hold on to the carnal believer? The wick is still flickering; the lamp has not gone out. Why doesn’t He discard them when they have done so much that is wrong? There is still some right in them, too. He is saying to the church as He said to the Laodiceans, “I wish you were hot or cold.” Get off the fence! Get on one side or the other!
God deals with us so that He will have a righteous remnant in the earth that He can bless.
Men often do things that make them candidates to be removed completely from God’s Kingdom and sent into the abyss. But they love God, and God keeps dealing until either the old nature or the new nature in Christ takes over and prevails. The flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; these two are contrary, one to the other, so that they cannot do the thing they would.
We must also remember that we have to let our obedience come to full completion. Knowing the truth that God has spoken, we will struggle to rise up into the completion of our obedience to God. God has both judgment and mercy that He is going to visit upon this generation. Judgment will be on those, like the Amorites, whose iniquity comes to the full; and blessing will be on those whose obedience comes to completion.
We must totally believe God to move in this generation, for the judgments of the Lord to be in the earth, and for the completion of the Lord’s will to be accomplished in His remnant. But while we are praying and contending for this, the practical course is to open our hearts to complete, absolute obedience to the Lord. Heart searching is not a luxury—without it, any one of us might be holding back the whole procession.
The Lord is looking for the person whose heart is right before Him, whose spirit is perfect. We must acknowledge our mistakes and ask for forgiveness. We must repent until He renews a right spirit within us.
Now is the time to walk with an upright heart before the Lord. Let it be said of us, as it was of Daniel, that an excellent spirit is in us (Daniel 5:12). God will bless us to be submissive with a right spirit. We will be victorious if we have a right spirit toward God. This is where our obedience comes to completion. It is not that our experience and our record are always perfect, but that we reach the place where our heart is perfect toward the Lord.
Prepare to walk with Him. Keep an excellent spirit before Him. The course of the whole age can be changed by a few people whose spirits are right toward the Lord.
The way we become righteous is not to put forth great effort and come under a lot of discipline. The Word says, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. It does take effort to hunger and thirst. Righteousness is not produced by what we do; it is produced by our hunger and thirst after it. Only when we want it deeply enough does the Holy Spirit come to fill us and move in our life in a distinctive way.
A deeper walk with God deals with mountains and valleys—those things that make walking with Him difficult. We must pass over mountains and walk through valleys as we enter in to what God sets before us. The prophecy in Isaiah 40:3–5 will help us understand this more clearly. A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed” (the margin reads, “in order that the glory of the Lord will be revealed”), “and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”