One of the difficult passages to understand in the gospels is in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, where the Lord said, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Matthew 24:34. The unbeliever and the atheist have said, “Jesus thought He would return within that one generation and it did not happen.” Others say, “No, He was referring only to the prophecies about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and that did occur within that generation.” However, too many verses in that passage weren’t fulfilled by 70 A.D., not even in a token measure or a foreshadow.
There is only one way to understand that passage. It is as though the prophecies were slated to happen within the course of a certain generation to come. When that generation passes away, everything that the Lord prophesied will have been fulfilled. When Jesus said, “This gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world for a witness” (Matthew 24:14), He meant: when God has brought forth the days of the Parousia, within the span of one generation the elect of God will rise and send this gospel of the Kingdom around the world. They will enter in to subdue and to bring forth a foreshadow and foretaste of the Kingdom within that one generation. I believe we are in that one generation, and the enemy is fighting with a great intensity because he knows his time is short.
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord; And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s; and he is the ruler over the nations. All the fat ones of the earth shall eat and worship: All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him. Even he that cannot keep his soul alive. A seed shall serve him; It shall be told of the Lord unto the next generation. (“Next” is emphasized in this Scripture because the interpreters were trying to discover what it meant; but David was referring to “the” generation: a generation of people designated as “the” generation.) They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done it. Psalm 22:27–31. The Kingdom is coming, and God in his great wisdom, has chosen a special generation in which to bring it forth.
But thou, O Lord, wilt abide for ever; And thy memorial name unto all generations. Thou wilt arise, and have mercy upon Zion; For it is time to have pity on her, Yea, the set time is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, And have pity upon her dust. (This is referring to the church in Jerusalem that was brought down.) So the nations shall fear the name of the Lord, And all the kings of the earth thy glory. For the Lord hath built up Zion; he hath appeared in his glory. He hath regarded the prayer of the destitute, And hath not despised their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come; (Notice that phrase again: “the generation.”) And a people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. Psalm 102:12–18.
This is not just referring to a body of people being raised up; God is actually creating a people to be His praise and glory in the earth. For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; From heaven did the Lord behold the earth; To hear the sighing of the prisoner; To loose those that are appointed to death; That men may declare the name of the Lord in Zion, And his praise in Jerusalem; When the peoples are gathered together, And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord. Psalm 102:19–22. The Lord is bringing that generation. That set time is upon us. In these days, we have to be aware of two very important things. The first is that what we are attempting to do in the name of the Lord can be done, not only because God has said it, but because this is the generation and the time in which to do it. Second, we can do it because God has established a principle whereby we can make it happen. I’m not so sure that this principle was understood during the church age. People waited mostly for sovereign intervention then, and very few such interventions occurred; but we have set ourselves to begin, and week after week, month after month, we’re making it happen.
In this day, old order groups are consolidating and bringing little congregations together: creating activity so that which is dead still looks alive. They move the corpse around, give it shots and keep a rosy glow on it if they can, anything to prevent rigor mortis. There is anything but rigor mortis in what God is doing today. However, in this walk, don’t be proud of yourself; before you’re through, you will probably be anything but grateful. You are brought forth to live and to die with an intensity that no generation has ever been called upon to do. You are called upon to minister at any sacrifice. This is the generation to make it happen.
It’s easy to become bitter and critical, to murmur and find fault, but there is a minimum of it in this walk. Be glad you’re out of the old order where people bicker all the time. Here there’s an intensity and a dedication. We’re awakening to the fact that we are “the” generation.
In his sermon at Antioch, Paul told how David, by the will of God served his generation and slept with his fathers (Acts 13:36). In a way, he serves this generation too. Paul meant that David lived with all of his heart; with a whole heart he served the Lord. That was also true with Caleb and Joshua. They wholly followed the Lord and He prolonged their days to see many things happen.
We’re in that mystical, wonderful time of the first resurrection and of the appearances of Christ among His Remnant, the elect Body. We’re in the time of the mystical outpourings of the Lord, as the Scriptures describe: “He shall come down as the rain upon the mown grass” (Psalm 72:6). God seems to cut us down; then He rains on us, blesses us, and continues moving on our spirits.
May God stir your heart and reveal to you the hour in which you live. The old is gone. The day of the personality cult and the one man operation is gone and the day of the Body of Christ in its unity is coming. By the will of God we’ll serve this generation, and by the will of God we’ll be the generation of whom God spoke. The Kingdom is so close.
I was raised to believe in postmillenniumism until I read a book called “The Millennium,” which gave aspects of the millennium I had not known. The premillenniumists, those who believed that Christ will come before the millennium, had a point; however, those who believed that Christ will come at the close of the millennium had some strong points, also. Through the years many have said that the world will have to get better until it is good enough for the Lord to come back to it, but the Bible speaks of conditions becoming worse until the hour of Christ’s return.
I don’t think we really understand yet what the Kingdom of God will mean. We can refer to the Parousia and say, “He has come”; we look at the promise of the first resurrection and say, “He is to come.” We can look to the close of the millennium and say, “He is yet to come with a greater glory.” Is this contradictory? No, for there are various aspects and ways in which the Lord is to reveal Himself and the path of the just will shine more and more unto the perfect day (Proverbs 4:18). God is bringing all the revelation that we can possibly open our hearts to receive.
We are already in the days of destiny; and while I look for so much to come, so much is already here. It is frustrating that we can’t make it happen fast enough to satisfy our human impatience. I do not pray for the Lord to deliver us from that human impatience, for it is in the will of God. Neither do I ask God to give us a resignation to our circumstances because I don’t believe we’re supposed to have that.
When you rise in the morning, shout protests to heaven against the limitations upon you; God did not impose them. Move into the limitlessness of this hour and the destiny that is to belong to this generation; however, you’ll never do it with passivity or resignation in your heart. As the sun goes down, shout like Joshua of old, “Stand still! The job wasn’t done today as it should have been” (Joshua 10:12). Every day enter in to pray, believe, and seek the face of the Lord.
Every time you take Communion, repent of your sin and the things that are wrong, but reach in and cry unto the Lord for a greater capacity to appropriate more of His very life and strength. Don’t be content with little victories; believe for something devastating and explosive. This is the day of the atomic bomb, not the day of the slingshot which belonged to David’s day; we’ve bigger foes to face than Goliath.
We must cry to the Lord to teach us how to explode into action the promises and prophecies that rest on this generation, to fly our kite with wire, like Benjamin Franklin, and pull lightning down from heaven. Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain, even of the Lord that maketh lightnings; and he will give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. Zechariah 10:1.
How do you make lightning? I don’t know, but together we’ll do it. The clouds of prophecy and revelation that have hung over us for almost a generation, now are filled with glory and blessing that belongs to this hour. We need something to bring it down. It’s afar off, yet the word is nigh thee, in thy heart and in thy mouth (Romans 10:8). Speak it and prophesy it! Make it rain. Declare it—yell it into existence! Amen.
Behold how in this hour the Lord hath brought forth that which shall rest upon thee as a mantle, as an anointing, yea, as a commission from the Almighty. Thou art to sense that He is Lord indeed, and ye shall go forth as mighty warriors in the name of the Lord and win for the Lamb the reward of His sufferings. Ye shall possess that which the Father hath granted to be unto Him: that over all the nations, over all things He is Lord; yea, the Father hath exalted Him.
When thou shalt see the uprising of Satan and dominions and powers that rise against the Son, thou shalt curse them and bring them down. Thou shalt execute the judgments that are written and perform all the word of the Lord in this hour. Thou shalt do His will. Ye shall bring down disease and oppression. Ye shall find every wall that is built against the knowledge of the Lord and demolish it. Ye shall possess for the Lamb that which His blood hath purchased unto Himself. Amen.
“Yea, in this hour many conspiracies have risen up against the house of the Lord, but only for one intent: that the Lord might manifest His victory and His great authority in the earth in this hour. Let there be a rejoicing in thy spirit, for thou shalt overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of thy testimony. Let there be a taking up of the weapons of the warfare, for thou shalt bring down every stronghold that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Thou shalt bring forth complete obedience and the complete reward of everything which the Lord hath purchased in this hour. Thou shalt be that army who shall possess the promises of the Lord. In this hour the Lord hath raised up a people who shall possess His whole word.”
“Thou art placed in this generation by the sovereign choosing of the Lord. Thou hast been placed in an age in which thou hast seen the dawning of covenants and promises from God, but He has also given thee the commission to forsake all for the Kingdom. When thy heart shall be found completely obedient to the will of God and ye shall see thy walk before Him as an ever increasing submission to His demands and to His unfolding victory, ye shall have the key to success. Is He not the Lord that hath begun this good thing within thee? He is the Lord that shall finish it. Though there be battles, though there be oppression, though there be dealings even from His own hand, yet thou shalt prevail because He is Lord.”
We should hold in our minds the enforcement of these prophecies. Christ won it, but it just doesn’t automatically happen, because it’s His pleasure to bruise Satan under our feet shortly. The enforcement comes through a channel; through an agency. Therefore, we are called to enforce Christ’s victory. This is not sacrilegious, it’s the gospel. Men went into all the world to cast out devils, heal the sick, and bring deliverance in the name of the Lord. They were enforcing what Christ had provided. If we come short of that attitude, we shall miss what God has for us.
“Well, if God wants to do this for me, He’ll do it.” He has done it, we enforce it. We must claim it and appropriate it. The word appropriate is almost too soft. We seize upon it. The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force in the name of the Lord. There is nothing we can do except press in, and have a great deal of love and respect for what God is doing in one another. Let nothing break the unity of the Spirit and the unity of the faith as we contend earnestly for that faith once delivered to the saints.
Doth not the Lord say unto this people, “Be not dismayed. Be not daunted by the things that come against thee”? For behold, thou shalt see in thy heart that the Lord hath made thee a chosen generation. Upon thee hath the end of the ages come. Upon thee hath come the hour of crisis and the Lord hath raised thee up as the army of the Lord that ye should enforce those things that thy Lord hath won upon His cross.
Ye shall go forth and possess for the King His Kingdom. Thou shalt take it in the name of the Lord. Is it not the Father’s good pleasure, little flock, to give it to thee? Yea, be not hesitant. Draw not back. Enter into it. The Lord is with thee. Thou shalt not stand as people who wait for something to happen, but thou shalt see that the hour of destiny hath come upon thee.
God has said, “Upon this generation shall it resolve.” He has spoken a word to thee and taught thee the principles of the Kingdom. He hath bid thee by commission, saying unto thy heart, “Make it happen! Make it spring forth within thy times O house of the Lord.” So thou shalt labor as though all depended upon thee, for thou shalt know that it is a time of destiny that the Lord hath ordained from the ages past that ye should walk in the fullness and in the blessing of the Lord, in the goodness that God hath chosen thee to walk in.
Thou shalt not be discouraged saying, “Behold, we are so few in number and our resources are so limited.” Thou shalt trust how God is able to multiply the loaves and fishes; how He is able to bless thee, little flock, and cause thee to possess. Yea, thou art not a people that shall say, “Behold, we shall go forth and make an effort”; but go forth and enforce it.
If thou seest a devil, cast him into a pit. If thou seest a disease, heal it in the name of the Lord. If thou comest upon an oppression, bind it in the name of the Lord. When thou comest to a strong man, bind him and plunder his house. This is the heritage that you have of the Lord to bind this earth’s princes in chains and to speak over them the judgment that is written. This heritage hath all of His saints.
Enter into it with a joy and a rejoicing in thy heart, O house of God, and do not draw back. Though the enemy comes against thee like a multitude, yet thou shall trust in the Lord. Expect it to be so. Shall the ages change? Shall the course of things be wrested from principalities and powers and established in the Kingdom of God without any problem, without any opposition, without any resistance? Nay, it shall come, but thou art the people chosen for it.
Believe God. Speak the word of the Lord. It is not as though it were beyond thy ability or beyond thy understanding. The Lord has said, “I have given you the Kingdom.” Possess it in the name of the Lord. Amen.
For is it the responsibility of the people of the Lord to bring forth the Kingdom in this hour? Is it the responsibility of the people of the Lord to fight the battle? No, it is God’s responsibility. It is our responsibility to draw the anointing for the anointing shall surely break the yoke. The anointing shall surely loose us from all our chains. It is our responsibility to press in with all that is within us—to have that violent faith, to appropriate all that God has laid hold upon. Amen.