In this day God is restoring authority and providing a way that the futility, which is on all creation, be loosed by the sons of God, who are coming into their redemption and authority.
Although we realize what God is doing, we must also understand that the enemy will contest it bitterly, and that God will allow him to do so. Satan will bring the spirit of futility against us, and we will have to wage war to overcome it within ourselves. We will never release creation from futility until we are released from it ourselves. We have to be first partakers of it, and that is exactly what has been happening.
Again and again we are thrown into a situation of futility. It is difficult to understand, but going through the battle is all part of a picture. We want to run, but we cannot run. The battle involves sickness and pain, and far more than that: pure futility is working at our spirits, and we sense a great heaviness. This futility, we must overcome.
The Kingdom Psalms 95 to 100 repeatedly tell us, “Shout joyfully in psalms to the Lord.” That is one of the things God is requiring of us. Even though things may look hopeless, we are to come to the house of the Lord to prophesy the word of the Lord. We must learn not to give in to the spirit of futility, but to sing and shout joyfully, as we anticipate what is to come.
When the wilderness is all around them and the spirit of futility is closing in on them, the sons of God will prophesy; they will sing joyfully unto the Lord and praise Him. They will prepare for an initial manifestation of the sons of God.
God has been speaking to us about authority—how we live under authority, how we take authority and dominion over the works of darkness, how we begin to bind and to loose.
Much depends upon our recognizing our relationship to Him—who we are and what God wants us to do—and then moving right into it. Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of the Father with all authority, and we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). This means we not only suffer with Him, but we also reign with Him. (2 Timothy 2:12). We are His ministers.
Let us rebuke the perverse thinking the devil plants in our minds, causing us to react wrongly. We must not react on a human level in any way. We must react as the Lord would have us react. We are sons of the Most High. We are ready to move in with all faith, taking dominion creatively, as an expression of our mutual authority in Christ. We must release ourselves by taking dominion over everything within us.
In a measure, the gospel of the Kingdom has been revealed in all the proclamations of the Old Testament prophets as well as of the New Testament ministries.
In the New Testament there is quite an emphasis upon the Kingdom; but in the Old Testament times, people with prophetic vision prophesied with musical instruments continually, by day and by night, in the tabernacle, in the house of the Lord.
I think the prophets saw the Kingdom as a great mountain peak in the future. The time of the Church was somewhat hidden from them. Although they saw the sufferings of the Savior and the glories that would afterward be revealed, they prophesied much about the Kingdom.
The disciples were so engrossed with the coming of the Kingdom that after the resurrection they came to Jesus and asked, Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? The Kingdom was their emphasis. He answered, “It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Acts 1:6, 7).
Now we see coming forth the Lordship of Christ and the gospel of the Kingdom. Do we fully realize that this is the unique message of this age? How long will we proclaim it? We will be proclaiming it from now on. For at least a thousand years to come, this will be the message; this will be the gospel.
The New Testament ministries proclaimed the gospel of Christ, the Savior; but now is the time to proclaim the gospel of Christ, the King.
For every passage in the Old Testament in which the Holy Spirit emphasizes the sufferings of Christ as Savior, there are twenty references in the Word to the time of His second coming. This is the message of ninety-five percent of the prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Christ.
In the first coming of Christ, the price was paid for the Kingdom. Now He is seated, henceforth expecting until His enemies be made the footstool of His feet (Hebrews 10:12, 13). And of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end (Isaiah 9:7). Now comes the time for the proclamation.
The Kingdom has been hidden and has coexisted with the futility that Satan has brought upon creation; but now is the time when the Kingdom begins to take over, invading every realm and bringing down everything that opposes and makes a lie.
This is the hour when Christ is to be glorified, when He is to receive the reward of His sufferings. The uttermost parts of the earth are to become His possession (Psalm 2:8). This is His inheritance. He is going to have it, and we are going to be singing His praises.
Soon people will be writing some very singable, glorious messages from the Psalms (perhaps from the Kingdom Psalms). The songs about the Kingdom will enrich our worship. We should be singing joyfully to the Lord, loosing all creation from futility to respond, to worship the Lord. We have marching songs for the army of the Lord; they are part of a product of the Body coming together. These glorify the Lord, but we especially need that which glorifies the Lord in His Kingdom and proclaims it all to be His. We need psalms that voice the authority and dominion over all things in His name.
I am reminded of the Scripture which says that the Lord is going to take one and make a multitude of him, that He will take a family and make a nation of it (Isaiah 60:22). We are a family, God’s dear little flock; and He is making of us, not a great nation after the world’s definition, but a Kingdom, for His glory and His praise.