UNTIL THE WORD LIVES
The Living Word—A Thing Of Destiny Now
This is going to be one of the most interesting and profitable little meetings that you’ve ever been in your life. The reason for it is that I think that you’re going to understand the Living Word, and why it’s a thing of destiny now.
A Museum Exhibit—The Progressive Stages Of The Word Of God
For a number of years, I’ve had a real interest in creating something like a little museum exhibit. In it, I wanted to have the progressive stages by which the Word of God has come down to us.
We’d have pictures or photographic facsimiles of things like the Gutenberg Bible which was printed around 1425. The printing press was invented by an old German who hand carved the letters out of wood and proceeded to make the first editions called the Gutenberg Bible. We don’t understand today how valuable the printing press is, and how many, many years of history went on in which the only way that people could transmit things was by carefully copying them.
I would also like to have an exhibit which could show the early tablets and fragments upon which people wrote, going back to the earliest form of cuneiform, which is a form of picture writing.
In The Wilderness They Received Tablets Of Stone
The Israelites went down into the land of Egypt in the days of Jacob because of the famine in Canaan and they were there for 430 years (Genesis 46:6–7; Exodus 12:40–41). Of course, when they came out, they came into the wilderness where they received the tablets of stone, the Law of God. From there they went on and Moses kept writing the Word, writing it down so that we have the Torah.
In the time of the Law being written, it is said that it was written on tablets of stone by the finger of God. Later you have Mount Beal—where there were big plain faces of stone on the mountain; they stopped in the conquest of Canaan, and Joshua obeyed the Word of God by engraving on the sides of the mountain the whole of the Law of God. You can read it in Joshua 8:30–35. So what we call the Torah, or the Pentateuch—at least the early covenants of it—was written on the side of a mountain. All of these things are important, because God has always been concerned about the Word that He had to speak being known and read by His people.
The Dead Sea Scrolls Are Proving the Critics To Be False
There are people now who have criticized the Scriptures. They say that they really weren’t written back in those days, that the Gospel of John was probably written about 250 A.D. and that it’s hard to tell when any of the other gospels were written, and that the Old Testament was really written much later than people think. But that’s turning out to be quite false. Jeffrey and I were reading about the Dead Sea scrolls. They were found south of Jerusalem, just a few miles from the area known as Jericho, in the Qumran area community where they had all the reservoirs and all the caves and so forth.
The Qumran Discovery
There were eleven caves, and there were seven scrolls in the first cave.
This was the most perfect find of history. When did they find the scroll of Isaiah?
They found it in 1947 with the original discovery.
The scroll dates back to approximately, would you say, 100 to 200 B.C.? That makes it the oldest manuscript by 1,000 years. With the Aortic text that most of the Bibles are made from—the Hebrew text—the earliest copy we have is from 900 A.D. They found two scrolls of Isaiah, didn’t they?
They Found Two Scrolls Of Isaiah
Yes. They found two scrolls of Isaiah. They have what they call the Isaiah A and the Isaiah B. The Isaiah A scroll is the complete scroll. The Isaiah B is the same book of Isaiah, except it’s only about half-complete, I believe.
And they had one of the Old Testament books—was it Habakkuk? It was very interesting that one of the findings dated back to 45 A.D.
The Qumran Community Existed From 200 B.C. To 70 A.D.
Right. The Qumran community existed in this little valley area from 200 B.C. to 70 A.D., and it went through three separate stages where the people there would be destroyed and then other people would come to live there again.
A lot of the writings that they got out of the caves spoke in a language and a symbolism of the Scriptures very similar to the book of Revelation. (Right.) So when they find similar references in the book of Revelation, and especially in the Gospel of Mark, they know that those things must have been written very shortly after the events took place, which is contrary to all the scholars. (Right.) Many scholars want to make it just as dubious and mythical as they can.
From Tablets To Papyrus Fragments
The first thing that really impresses you is that you go from the tablets and then you go to the old scrolls. Many scrolls were written on papyrus fragments, and were found in Egypt in a discovery which followed that of the Dead Sea scrolls. There were literally thousands of manuscripts such as the Gospel according to Saint Thomas. Have any of you read it? Some call it the Aquarian Gospel. Wasn’t Thomas the mystic who went to India and wrote his gospel? But the gospel was found down in the dry areas of Egypt, where they got in and discovered it. All those fragments were taken to Basel, Switzerland. And they said it would take at least another full generation for them to translate and evaluate what they’ve found. It will be so great. Of course, there’s already quite a bit of agitation by two who are in the discovery team who do not want that released.
We’ll Find Out Where Manuscripts Are Still Buried
There are also 136,000 manuscripts already lodged in the Vatican and not translated or made public. Do you want to know why? If people found what was really the truth, they would forsake many of the things that have been added, the traditions that they were told were the truth. They were not the truth. The restoration of this is going to see that some day there will be teams to walk through that land, and we’ll find out where manuscripts are still buried. I know it will happen, because I’ve already walked through many of the areas in Israel and found that revelation would come, that I could tune into the thing which actually had happened in that area. And this has always been a source of encouragement to me, that one day we would go on those trips.
The one thing we need above everything else in the Kingdom is to have the scientific verification of the thread and the story and the Word that has come down through all these centuries to us. I believe that is more important than anything else we can do. The best history books are yet to be written, and they have to be written with much more accurate information than what has been handed down so far.
The Great Bible—1425 A.D.
If you go back to the time before the printing press, before about 1425 A.D., you have the Great Bible. William Tidal and another man did the translation, and these two men were severely persecuted. In fact, it’s interesting that Henry VIII actually had one of the translators put to death, and then he turned around and required every Church of England to have one of these Bibles in the pulpit. We don’t know what battle people have gone through down through the years to have the Word of God.
The Gutenberg And Ozark Bibles
You must go to the Huntington Library if you are ever in Los Angeles. They have one of the original Gutenberg Bibles, and they also have a copy of a New Testament that was handwritten by pen. It came out of the Ozarks, back in the hill country, where the people couldn’t afford a Bible and they actually copied it by hand. So, even with printing, sometimes people don’t have that much of the Word of God. There have been many, many instances like this.
In New Testament Times they Passed Letters Around
Now we go back to new Testament times, in which they had to pass the letter around. The letter to the Colossians was to be read to the Laodicea also. And when this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea. Colossians 4:16. They would actually take the letter to a nearby city and read it because that was the Scriptures that they had.
Some of the people became so skilled in the Word of God and they loved it so much that after the Scriptures began to be written out—I would say within a hundred years after the original apostles died—you have in the writings of the early Church Fathers every single verse of the New Testament with the exception of 11 or 13 verses of salutation at the beginnings of chapters. So they knew the Word. And they were able to quote it.
No Punctuation Marks In The Early Scriptures
In the early manuscripts there’s not even any separation of sentences. There were no punctuation marks at all in the early Scriptures. In fact, there was no upper-and lower-case writing. It was all capital letters.
The Word Was Still In Scrolls In The Temple
One thing I thought was very interesting is that during the time of the New Testament when Christ lived, they didn’t even have the Old Testament put together. They didn’t have books until the second century A.D., so everything they read was still in scrolls. Therefore, they wouldn’t carry it around. It was kept in a temple and they would come in and read it.
The Torah is still that way. What is the Torah? It is the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. If you go into a synagogue, they will bring in the Torah. It has tassels on it and people kiss the tassels. To them it is a very sacred thing.
He Will Write His Laws On The Tablets Of The Heart, Not On Tablets Of Stone
Of course, God keeps talking in the Old Testament about how he had written the Word of God on stone. But the ultimate is found in the reference in Jeremiah 31, where it says that the time is going to come when He is going to write the Word, His law, on the tablets of the heart, not on tablets of stone.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jeremiah 31:31–33.
Another Step In The Unfolding Of The Living Word
Then in II Corinthians 3, Paul talks about another step in the unfolding of the Living Word. He pointed out that the administration of the Law brought condemnation; but even so, when Moses received it, the administration of it was so glorious that the skin of his face shone as he came down from the mountain. But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? II Corinthians 3:7–8.
Living Epistles, Read And Known Of All Men
How much more glorious is the administration of the Spirit when He writes upon you? You are going to be the living epistles of Christ, ministered not with pen and ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but upon the tablets of the heart; you are living epistles of Christ to be read and known of all men (II Corinthians 3:2–3). That, of course, is what I have been trying to get through to you for all this time.
HE WANTS YOU TO BE THE FINAL KINGDOM EDITION OF THE BIBLE
It begins to bring something that seems almost sacrilegious to a lot of the Christian world.
They say, “You are exalting the Living Word you claim to be speaking. You are saying that you speak the Living Word; but we say that the Bible is the Living Word.”
But you see, God never intended for His Word to remain on a tablet of stone. He didn’t intend for His Word to remain in the cold print of a page. He wanted you to be the final Kingdom edition of what He has to say in the world.
Christ Was The Word!
You see that in John, the first chapter. Verse 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In verse 14 it says, And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. What a wonderful thing He’s trying to say to us. Christ was the Word!
“In These Last Days He Has Spoken To Us In His Son”
Hebrews 1:1–2 says, God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. In other words, Christ came forth as the Living Word of God.
OFF THE COLD PAGE AND WRITTEN ON YOUR HEART
Now this is what I’ve been trying to teach you. The Living Word has to do more than just speaking it out loud or just memorizing and quoting Scriptures.
We are to live by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, which the Lord reveals to us, and then we become that Word.
We go from grace to grace, faith to faith, strength to strength, Glory to Glory.
And this is the glory of the sons of God, and Jesus was the first born of the new creation, this is not the glory of the Father.
Jesus laid aside all of the divine attributes of equality with the Father, to become a divine-human being
And he became the first born of a new race of beings called the sons of God, when the Father raised Him from the dead, and he received a glorified body.
Adam was created in the image of God, but when Adam fell he produced sons after his fallen image and likeness-Genesis 5:3
Romans 8:). 29For whom he did foreknow (to know beforehand), he also did predestinate to be conformed (together with-to form, to bring into harmony having the same identity) to the image (more than a likeness-the essential and substantial form, the perfect expression and representation) of his Son (full grown), that he might be the firstborn (preeminent prototype) among (of those in intimate union, of oneness of spirit, heart, mind and purpose )many brethren (a fellowship of life based on identity of origin).
This is our primary destiny, to be conformed( together with-to form) to the image(the perfect expression and representation) of the full stature of Jesus Christ.
It starts with our spirit being born from above, and then the divine seed of God must grow inside our spirit, which will then transform our soul, and when our soul is transformed we qualify for a glorified body, not every christian attains this, this is the prize which is a reward not a gift.
Philippians 3:11If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection out of the dead. 12 not (full negation) as though I had already(now) attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after(occurring now, press hard after with earnestness, diligence, in order to obtain), if that I may apprehend ( obtain, seize with eagerness-suddenness) that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.13 Brethren, I count(occurring now) not myself to have apprehended(to lay hold of so as to possess as one’s own); but this one thing I do(emphatic-only one) forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things(continuous, to stretch oneself forward upon) which are before,14 I press(occurring now, press hard after, to pursue with eagerness and diligence in order to obtain) toward the mark(goal) for the prize (reward)of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul was not talking about dying and going to heaven, he already knew if he died he would go to heaven. There are many saints that will live in heaven, that will be their home, without a glorified body. Only Jesus has one at this time.
What Paul pressed hard after was that glorified body, that qualified him to come back down to the earth in the millennium and recreate the earth.
I am an oracle of God, part of an apostolic and prophetic company God is raising up in the earth at this time whom God is fitly joining together, who are hearing the present truth God is sharing at the same time. There are now three of us who will be sharing on my website.
So I encourage you to read the written messages and the audios and video’s that will be added daily to the website, I have 1,800 messages on it now and it is all free of charge.
You say well I never heard this king of teaching before, it is not what I was taught, well who taught it to you God or man? Well just open your spirit and heart and become like a little child who knows nothing and is teachable. And God will confirm what is being spoken to you again and again and again.
Or you can be content with the level you attained in the Lord and die and go to heaven and live there for all eternity, it is your choice.
“Why don’t I just read the Bible?” You don’t get it by just reading the Bible.
You say, “But you quote the Bible all the time in the messages.” Yes, what I’ve tried to do, by the Spirit, is to take the Word off a cold page and bring it with a living anointing to your hearts. I want to write it there until you become a product of this Living Word of God.
OFF THE COLD PAGE AND WRITTEN ON YOUR HEART
Now this is what I’ve been trying to teach you. The Living Word has to do more than just speaking it out loud or just memorizing and quoting Scriptures.
We are to live by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, which the Lord reveals to us, and then we become that Word.
We go from grace to grace, faith to faith, strength to strength, Glory to Glory.
And this is the glory of the sons of God, and Jesus was the first born of the new creation, this is not the glory of the Father.
Jesus laid aside all of the divine attributes of equality with the Father, to become a divine-human being
And he became the first born of a new race of beings called the sons of God, when the Father raised Him from the dead, and he received a glorified body.
Adam was created in the image of God, but when Adam fell he produced sons after his fallen image and likeness-Genesis 5:3
Romans 8:). 29For whom he did foreknow (to know beforehand), he also did predestinate to be conformed (together with-to form, to bring into harmony having the same identity) to the image (more than a likeness-the essential and substantial form, the perfect expression and representation) of his Son (full grown), that he might be the firstborn (preeminent prototype) among (of those in intimate union, of oneness of spirit, heart, mind and purpose )many brethren (a fellowship of life based on identity of origin).
This is our primary destiny, to be conformed( together with-to form) to the image(the perfect expression and representation) of the full stature of Jesus Christ.
It starts with our spirit being born from above, and then the divine seed of God must grow inside our spirit, which will then transform our soul, and when our soul is transformed we qualify for a glorified body, not every christian attains this, this is the prize which is a reward not a gift.
Philippians 3:11If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection out of the dead. 12 not (full negation) as though I had already(now) attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after(occurring now, press hard after with earnestness, diligence, in order to obtain), if that I may apprehend ( obtain, seize with eagerness-suddenness) that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.13 Brethren, I count(occurring now) not myself to have apprehended(to lay hold of so as to possess as one’s own); but this one thing I do(emphatic-only one) forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things(continuous, to stretch oneself forward upon) which are before,14 I press(occurring now, press hard after, to pursue with eagerness and diligence in order to obtain) toward the mark(goal) for the prize (reward)of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul was not talking about dying and going to heaven, he already knew if he died he would go to heaven. There are many saints that will live in heaven, that will be their home, without a glorified body. Only Jesus has one at this time.
What Paul pressed hard after was that glorified body, that qualified him to come back down to the earth in the millennium and recreate the earth.
I am an oracle of God, part of an apostolic and prophetic company God is raising up in the earth at this time whom God is fitly joining together, who are hearing the present truth God is sharing at the same time. There are now three of us who will be sharing on my website.
So I encourage you to read the written messages and the audios and video’s that will be added daily to the website, I have 1,800 messages on it now and it is all free of charge.
You say well I never heard this king of teaching before, it is not what I was taught, well who taught it to you God or man? Well just open your spirit and heart and become like a little child who knows nothing and is teachable. And God will confirm what is being spoken to you again and again and again.
Or you can be content with the level you attained in the Lord and die and go to heaven and live there for all eternity, it is your choice.
“Why don’t I just read the Bible?” You don’t get it by just reading the Bible.
You say, “But you quote the Bible all the time in the messages.” Yes, what I’ve tried to do, by the Spirit, is to take the Word off a cold page and bring it with a living anointing to your hearts. I want to write it there until you become a product of this Living Word of God.
THE WORD I SPEAK ILLUMINATES THE SCRIPTURES
That’s why I keep encouraging you, “Listen to the audio’s I will be making; read the messages.” They’re just filled with Scriptures, but they’re filled with Scriptures that are illuminated. They will burn like fire; they will be etched upon your innermost being. The more messages you read prayerfully, the more will be written on your heart. And the audio’s I will be making will be more powerful, because the Holy Spirit travels in my voice, when I am filled with His Spirit. And it will stand for all eternity. You’re going to be the final version that God sends forth of His Bible in the earth. People can have this translation and that translation, but you’re going to be read and known of all men! And that’s the way that this Gospel of the Kingdom is going to be published in all the world for a witness (Matthew 24:14).
We Have The Printing Press, But Now We Also Have Hearts
Wouldn’t that be a final conclusion? We could trace it all the way from the beginning, the way God began to write on pieces of stone, until now He is writing on the tablets of the heart! He has led us through all of these successive stages. What a wonderful day we’re living in! You say, “Now we have the printing press.” Yes, now we have the printing press; but now we also have hearts, and God says, “I’m going to stamp it, I am going to engrave it on your heart. I’m going to write it there.”
We are living in the day when the seals or being taken off of the book, But three Apostles who are no longer alive have laid the foundation in my life, upon which I build, there is no ministry alive on this earth that I study under, I may listen to some of them, and get a word here and there, that the Holy Spirit will illuminate to me, but I don’t study under any of them, I believe they are all off. Please don’t get offended by that statement. If God is speaking through a person, I can recognize it.
Not Parrots Who Quote
What God wants to do is to take the Word and write it on your heart, but He doesn’t want just the letter there so that you’re like parrots that are going to quote Him. He wants people who are going to speak His Word. This was the thing that mystified the Jews in the New Testament—Christ didn’t speak as the scribes and Pharisees, but He spoke with authority (Matthew 7:29). They marveled at the Word. That’s what God wants of us. He does not want preachers and He does not want quoters; He wants you to speak His Word into a situation.
Speak The Word Of The Lord!
Speak the Word of the Lord! Be the Word of God! Be the living epistle! You say, “We can’t do it.” Of course you can, but first you have to learn how to hear his voice, He imparts of Himself when He speaks! It’s no more difficult for you to speak the Word of God in this generation than it was for a scribe to learn how to copy the Word of God in another.
THE HOLY SPIRIT BRINGS TO REMEMBERANCE
The names of the 12 disciples were Peter, James, John, Andrew, Nathanael, James, Judas, Jude, Mathew, Philip, Simon and Thomas.
It was so exciting, if you were able to hear the disciples who became apostles in the New Testament quote the Scriptures, and speak the Word and how that Word would speak until all of Asia heard it.
And I don’t think they sat down and memorized It.
The word of God was so alive and living to them through the anointing of the Holy Spirit that when they spoke it was not the word of some man, but the word of God that came out of their mouths.
At least seven of the disciples were fishermen.
Matthew belonged to the class of Jewish tax collectors (mokhsa) who extorted money from travelers. Publicans or tax collectors were despised, regarded as traitors to their own people. Their money was considered unclean and those taxed would avoid asking for change. A publican’s money could not be tithed to the temple. Publicans were forbidden to testify in court. A good Jew would not even associate with publicans in private life.
Simon was a Canaanite, earned the title of zealot. The zealots were a religious sect and would attempt to arouse rebellion among the Jews towards the romans.
In all likelihood Philip, James, and Judas were tradesmen of some sort.
But the Word of God was so alive to them. Maybe they read it once and it was so alive to them that they could never forget it. They would refer back to it again and again; and every time they spoke it, it was something new and powerful.
Jesus said, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 14:26.
It is just as though you had a disk in there, a computer with a big memory bank; and then the Holy Spirit presses the right buttons and it just starts flooding out—“out of your innermost being flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38–39). What a marvelous thing we’ve got in the Word of God, it is so sad that people don’t take the time to get into it!
I am into it from the rising of the sun, until the going down of the same.
You’re The Library Of Eternity
Do you get the message? It’s come over and over again. You’re the library of eternity. On your hearts will be written stories of the grace of God, that throughout the eternal ages, you will declare the marvelous grace and mercies of God. You’re living exhibits who will be read through the galaxies. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.
Translation Into The Language Of The People
Well, if you want to get back to the Isaiah scroll, this scroll is the best preserved of nearly six hundred manuscripts that have been found in the eleven Qumran caves. The scribe who wrote this was probably from the Qumran community, and he probably did it from another copy that was written in Biblical Hebrew. What he needed to do was to write it into Aramaic, which was the language being spoken at the time. He was just translating it so that the people in his community could read it.
The same thing happened at the time of the New Testament. You do not have classical Greek, for instance, in the early manuscripts. The closest approach that you have to classical Greek is in the writings of Luke, because Luke was a physician probably trained in Greece, and he knew more of the language. But the New Testament was written in Koine Greek, which was the common Greek spoken by the people.
If the apostles were writing today lets say to the Hawaiian people, they would not try to create a scholarly Hawaiian New Testament. They would probably write the Bible in pidgin. Why? They would write it in pidgin because that is what the people speak.
Aramaic was like that. Aramaic was actually derived from several different languages.
Their Whole Life Was Dedicated To The Scriptures
Another thing that’s really interesting is that throughout the entire Bible, not one original book has been found—none of the original manuscripts. They are all copies of copies of copies. So those are yet to be found, if they still exist. But it’s just a mindblower to think that some guy 2,000 years ago sat down and wrote this. And the community that he was living in was the Qumran community. The way it came about was that when the Greeks came into Jerusalem to overtake it about 200 B.C., many Jews fled Jerusalem and started their own little tribe. This Qumran community was just one of them, and they thought that they were in the last days and they were waiting for Christ to come. In some of their other writings, they referred to a “teacher of righteousness,” but they never named him as a person. He supposedly taught them the Word and he got them working on the Scriptures. Their whole life was dedicated to recopying and studying the Scriptures.
And they did a good, pure job of it.
Yes, definitely. Six hundred manuscripts were found of different books—the book of Enoch, the book of Jubilees—there’s a ton of them.
The book of Enoch is mentioned, if you remember, in the book of Jude: … Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones. Jude 14. Have you read it—the book of Enoch?
They Were Word-Workers!
I’ve read parts of it. It’s a trip. This community was almost like what we’re trying to do today. Their whole lives were dedicated to it and so they were Word-workers. They were Word-workers!
You have the different caves, eleven altogether. And some of the latter caves are in the Christian era. The first one discovered probably dates back to 100 to 250 B.C.
The Community Was Destroyed Three Times
So these different caves represent caches over three different periods of time—and each time somebody wiped them out.
The first time they were killed by an earthquake that destroyed the community. The second time I don’t know what happened, but finally the Romans came in and totally burned the community down. And what’s interesting is that there was only one cave which had the scrolls in jars. In all the other caves the scrolls were just in there; as people fled the city, they threw them in. Can you imagine that? They were totally wiped out, and that was somewhere around 100 A.D.; and that was the end of that community. The first scrolls were found in 1947, and they have been finding them ever since. This was one of the first caves, and this is the oldest complete Biblical manuscript that has been found so far.
A Sense Of Reverence And Awe
I tell you, I never pick up a Bible but what there’s just a sense of reverence and awe. To think what we have and how few dollars it takes to buy a Bible! Think how the saints up to 1425 A.D. would have given their lives to have had available as much of the Word of God as you have available to you. I tell you, they would not have neglected it as much as some of us. Maybe having it leads us to a place of carelessness, that we don’t appreciate it as we should.
Don’t you realize that we are taking the Word and making it live, creating a Living Word? And the ultimate goal is what’s going to be in you! You’re going to be the Living Word to the world! Don’t you see what God is doing? You can’t neglect these things. You can’t back away from them. It’s so important.
Thy words were found and I ate them, and Thy words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart. Jeremiah 15:16a. You eat it, and it becomes a part of you. Take God’s Word and assimilate it, until it’s a part of your very being. Hear the apostolic Word and have someone like Paul say to you, “I’m writing it, not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. I am making you one more book in the library of the Kingdom for eternity, by writing the Word of God on your heart.”
Will We Have Access To The Scrolls And Books?
This might have been answered and I may have missed it. If there were so many scrolls found, and if there’s a book, like Enoch, for instance, that will yet be uncovered, and more books in the New Testament that will give us more light—will we have access to them or will they be confiscated and hidden somewhere in the desert?
Well, these things were discovered, and it has taken a generation to translate them; and there are actually some things in the Dead Sea scrolls and the Basel, Switzerland, collection that were found in Egypt that they are already blocking. They won’t let them get out.
You think of how the religious people are the greatest enemies of the truth. They don’t want to know it. They don’t really want it known at all. They build up a system, and then they don’t want anybody to dig too far or look too hard for fear their system will be disturbed.
We’re Going To Build A Living Museum
You know, the Word is going to live for us. We’ve just started at this. Pray that the Lord will work it out so that we can have something like this as a memorial where you can see the Word. That’s where our copy of the Dutch Bible is going to go. All of that is going to be under plate glass with lights. You will see it; and you will be able to push a button as you go from step to step and different speakers will switch on that will just explain everything, right up to the Scriptures about being living epistles. This is what the Living Word is all about. Won’t that be great? We’re going to build a living museum. We’ll make the past alive because it relates us to our destiny in God in the future.
How The Bible Was Divided Into Chapter And Verse
When you read one of these old manuscripts, the question you have is that there are no numbers and chapters in it, and you wonder how they originated. When you see the scroll here, you don’t find anything like that. The work of dividing the Bible into chapter and verses was first begun in the 13th century by Steven Langston, the archbishop of Canterbury. It was around 1551 A.D. when a man named Robert Stevens finished the first complete Bible with chapter and verse. And of course it was done arbitrarily. Many times when one chapter ends and another begins, it shouldn’t be. If you just read straight through you see that the thought is retained and developed in the next chapter. I don’t know why they did it that way, but the Bible really doesn’t lend itself to chapters. If I had been doing it, I would have divided the Bible into verses. I would have tried to find the logical sentence structure and made that the verse.
We’ll Have A Restored, Perfect Bible
We’re going to search and find the manuscripts that have the correct numerical value in the Greek. If we have to piece it together out of a thousand manuscripts, we’ll do it. I believe in the Kingdom we’ll have a restored, perfect Bible that can be translated into the language of the people. All the old languages are dead languages. What do we do with them? Well, we have to go back and understand exactly what they mean; then we can translate them into a living language that will be used every day. A living language changes every day.
The Most Literal Translation is The American Standard Version
I would say that by far the most literal translation that we’ve ever had is the American Standard Version. Can I give you a brief rundown on this? We have the King James Version standing almost intact from 1611 to about 1886. Then we have what is called the Revised Version, which was made by English and American scholars in England. The American scholars protested against certain things that were too conservative to really give accurate meaning, but they went under a treaty that for thirty years they would not make any revision.
Then about 1901 they came out with what was called the American Standard Version, which is the basis of the Bible we use now. The Lockman Foundation waited until Nelson Brothers’ copyright ended on it; and then, fifty-two years later to the day, they released the New American Standard Version, which we use now. It is considered the most readable and is based upon the most literal translations.
Yahweh: “I Am, I Was, I Will Be”
Let me show you something about the word “Yahweh.” The word “Yahweh” comes from the Hebrew verb, “to be.” What God did when he said His name was to make it so that it can be conjugated “to be,” “I am,” “I was,” or “I will be.” It can be the past, the future, or the present tense.
How They Lived In The Bible World
Are you enjoying all of this? It would be interesting to talk about how they lived in the Bible world—it would blow your mind. For one thing, a lot of the things that you consider to be just a normal way of living would have been the extreme luxury that kings would have done anything to have.
For instance, think about running water. Have you any idea what they had to do to make aqueducts and bring water in? And then they would only bring it to a certain place in the city.
Another thing is that there were no screens. The people poured their slop pots out the windows into the streets and there were many insects. I’m talking about something that’s very important for you to remember. You don’t realize how important it is for cleanliness’ sake to be able to flush a toilet. Think what it was like in those days. That’s why when they wanted a name for the devil they called him Beelzebub, which means “the lord of flies.” They had nothing which plagued them more than flies.
The Times Were So Different
The times in which they lived were so different. You cannot imagine all the things that people had to go through. They had very few tools. To be a carpenter you did not go down and buy lumber; you went out to find wood. You cut it down, you split it, you shaped it up, and you made it into the piece that you wanted.
Wood itself was very scarce. When the Turks came in, they did a good job of destroying all the cedars of Lebanon so that now just a small stand of them exists. But in the time of Christ and on back to the time of King David, there was beautiful forest all over Palestine. Now there is just a lot of rocky, hot desert. But then it was beautiful country. They had hippopotamuses and elephants and lions and other animals. It is interesting to go back and really see all the things that they had: alligators, crocodiles, and things of that nature. Then later all of that disappeared until it is difficult to find anything but a few goats wandering over rocks.
You Don’t Understand How Little The Place Was
I want above everything else for the land of the Bible to be real to people, so that you could know what it was like, how people lived. For instance, when the Word says that a distance was about a day’s journey, what does it mean? You can get into a car, and in one-half a day, maybe a full day, you could travel from the north end of Israel all the way to Egypt and find that you were coming back again to meet yourself. How far away was Bethlehem from Jerusalem? Five or six miles at the most. That’s nothing.
And how about mountains? Mount Hermon is one of the biggest, isn’t it? You can see snow on it at certain times of the year. But when you talk about the place where Jesus went up into the mountains and the multitudes came to him, where He spoke the famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7)—it’s just kind of a small hill. And they talk about “Mount” Zion. I imagine its elevation is less than a thousand feet.
You read the Bible, and because they were restricted in transportation and communication you don’t understand how little the place was compared to the way we live.
The Romans Built Roads Everywhere
When they traveled, they would go for days, and unless they had a little donkey, they would have to walk. One thing that is interesting is that the New Testament came forth in an age when the Romans had built roads everywhere. Some of those roads still stand in England and all over Europe; you can find them in Italy. They used blocks and, of course, forced labor, and wherever they went they built roads. You could get on those cobble-stones and you could travel.
The thing that determined the outcome of war in those days was transportation. The Greek army moved fast. When Daniel wanted to talk about the Greek empire that was to come, he described it as the leopard with wings that could move so fast (Daniel 7:6). That’s a picture in history. No army ever moved faster than the Greeks until the Romans came. The Romans developed the road system and they moved even faster—they could circle around and cut off supplies from their enemy.
Rome Made It Possible for The Apostolic Companies To Publish The Gospel
So with those roads you have the apostle Paul and the apostolic company starting out. All they had to do was follow the roads. They didn’t have to climb the mountains or go over difficult trails, but just follow the Roman roads. That’s one thing Rome did; it made it possible for the apostolic companies to publish the Gospel.
It’s Amazing What We Can Learn Together
I think this has been very good for us to understand. You can’t understand the Word of God for today until you understand the Word of God in the past, the world that it came in, the people who spoke it, what they had in mind, and what the vision of that Word was.
We should be very careful in our analysis and counseling of people because we tend not to take into account the basic gap that exists between generations, even in this walk with God.
Not A Church But A Kingdom Family
We need to step towards not being a church and becoming a Kingdom family. One service where you get into the Word, you intercede, and you pray with each other will keep you growing. It’s what you become in God that’s really important, the way you walk with Him.
Corrected While In Motion
The young people need to get in motion because they can be corrected and grow more while they’re in spiritual motion than if they have a Timothy over them, watching them and saying, “This is what you’ve got to do now. This is the way. Don’t move until this is worked out.”
The truth of the matter is that most young people don’t get many problems worked out by waiting; instead they become frustrated. It would be better to put them on a counseling course so that through action the thing that has to be developed in them can come forth. You don’t say, “Here are the changes you have to make before you can move.” The counseling has to get them moving toward God.
They may never arrive at the goal they have in mind because the next generation in this respect is no different than any other. They can hold an objective and a goal in mind but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is exactly what God has for them. It may be the general direction they are to go, but the preparation that God is putting them through may not lead them to the goal that they have in mind at all.
Begin To Take Responsibility
I do not think the will of God any longer should be defined as a certain objective: “I will be a prophet by-and-by, and I’m going to wait to move until I become a prophet. That’s the goal, so I just let God work me over until I’m a prophet.” Prophets are not going to be developed that way. The prophet will be the one who begins to take responsibility, begins to prophesy, begins to wait on the Lord, begins to live in the Word.
Take A Step
Too many people, missed God because they put the prophecies over them in a drawer and said, “I have absolute faith in them,” instead of realizing that they just needed to take a step—and then another step. If you do that, you will be surprised at how quickly you wind up being a prophet of God.
Carefully Check Relationships
Relationships should be checked very carefully. Where a relationship is on hold or on ice and being very carefully controlled, it should be put in motion so that the parties can grow. If they grow and change under guidance, then God can keep unfolding it. If you keep the thing on ice you will have a frustrated desire toward one another; but if the parties can be exposed to one another with a careful holding back of any premature romantic developments, then they can find out whether they even want to be around each other.
Find Out What God Wants
Some growth comes from learning what you don’t want. You learn by finding out what God wants. Sometimes you find out that God wants what you don’t want! I’m not speaking only of relationships. These things will be learned as you are put under a guidance program with the dedication to submit to on-course correction if you deviate one way or the other.
Nothing More Deadly Than Neglect
There is nothing more deadly than ministries coming up to a certain point and then being neglected or put or hold and left alone. I think all of you are ready to get direction and move on it. In fact, I am hoping that this one thing will happen to you which will create and cultivate a heart for the Word—I hope that every one of you gets a new vision of what the Living Word means and what God is trying to do.
You Can’t Be Religious
Can you see, in the light of this, why you can’t be religious? You can’t turn into Methodists or Baptists or Presbyterians, or you’ll go back to a form, a religion that will never make you into living epistles, the Living Word for this generation.
You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. II Corinthians 3:2–3.
You don’t have to be religious. I’d encourage you to get right into this. I’d like to see it happen. It isn’t what makes you feel religious, it’s what you become in God that is really important—what you’re going to be, the way you’re going to walk with Him.
SHEPHERDING ALL THOSE SHEEP
Our Sheep Will Bring Forth Thousands
One of the great Scriptures that God made real to my heart years ago was the 144th Psalm which said that our sheep would bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets (Psalm 144:13). This was the same psalm in which David said, “May our sons be as plants grown up in their youth” (Psalm 144:12).
We Must Be Concerned About Shepherding All Those Sheep
I think we are facing the time when we must be concerned about shepherding all of those thousands of sheep.
Our shepherds face a great many problems—not the least of which are the problems that are born of their fears. Just as parents are often afraid of their children and therefore react wrongly, so also there are times when many shepherds are intimidated by the sheep. We desire to shift from the fear of man to the faith which will faithfully lead the flock of God.
Start With A Responsibility That Restrains
To better understand these principles, we might first look at parent-child relationships. Now, if you examine what parents do (and they sometimes fail because they don’t understand this), you will find that they start out with a responsibility that must restrain. At the beginning of spiritual life, there must be a restraint. There is a Scripture in Galatians that shows how as long as a person is a child, he is under tutors, and he is treated like a bondservant until he becomes heir of the whole house, the master of it (Galatians 4:1–2).
Little By Little Lift The Restraint
How did Christ manifest His authority? The same way a parent should. Start out restraining, and little by little lift that restraint. Lift the restraint before there is a perfection within the person to walk in the liberty he’s getting. Consider the liberty of a little child—he’s free, but he’s under quite a bit of restraint. He should feel his freedom, but he should feel that he’s only free to follow the channeling and the guidance that he gets.
Progressively Lift The Restraints
There has not been enough wisdom in knowing how to progressively lift the restraints and bring the freedom. That’s where the problem is.
Liberty And Love
The greater liberty I have, the more I know that I must love the Lord and love His people. The more mature I become, the more I must become obedient. That’s what Christ said to Peter: “When you were young, you did pretty much what you wanted, but when you’re old, another will clothe you and carry you, where you would not” (John 21:18). I find that I have less human desire fulfilled in my life the more that the divine will of God and His desire is fulfilled in my life. The more free we become, the more we become bondservants. It is a paradox.
Take More Responsibility and You’ll Have More Freedom
I have always taken the attitude that when children are growing up, to the degree that they take responsibility, they should be allowed a phase of freedom. If you say “no” to them in some area—if you feel that it is too much of a jump of freedom—simply tell them that principle: “Take more responsibility and you’ll have more freedom. Show me that you’re a responsible, mature adult, that you can make decisions, that you aren’t ruled by your friends, that you do know right and wrong. When you live that way daily, you can have all the freedom you want in the area that is within your next phase.” I think that if kids realize that, they will want to be responsible, because it does create the freedom that they’re all seeking for at a certain age in their life, where they can be their own person. Everybody is working toward that.
Shift The Burden Of Communication
With the giving of more initiative, and the lifting of restraints upon an individual, shift to them the burden of communication. Remember how Paul was very, very worried, because he wondered where Timothy was—he was grieving. He wondered where Epaphroditus was. He wondered where Philemon was. He was very much concerned, but he always wrote a letter when they communicated or caught up with him or reached him. It was their responsibility. He could be very burdened about it, but the responsibility did not rest on Paul to go find them, but for them to communicate with him. That again is a step of maturity. The burden of communication and the burden of love must shift with the lifting of restraint upon an individual.
You’re An Ear, An Overseer
What you’re really doing is allowing a person to make his own mistakes so that he can come back and tell you where it went wrong and what he intends to do. In a very real sense, all you are is an ear, an overseer, to make sure that they’re watched but they are not restrained.
A Combination Of Faith-Initiative and Faith-Impartation
We do not counsel and give liberty to a sheep, expecting him to go and do it all by himself. We expect it’s going to be a combination of his faith-initiative and the faith-impartation of the shepherd.
Impartation Is The Important Thing
I’m always looking for ways to impart to people now that this has become real to me. Impartation is the important thing. You can give them guidance, you can give them a Word and send them on their way, but they’d better keep checking in. And when they check in, you’re listening for those little warning sounds. You’re listening for those little bells that ring and say, “This one needs help,” or, “This one is ready for another step.”
Let’s Allow Them To Move
If a spiritual couple comes along for a marriage checkout and can move very rapidly, there’s nothing that says you have to restrain that couple for five years and then check them out again. “Come back in a month and we’ll see how you’re doing.” No! In that month they could be devastated, or they could spend the first week doing what they were told, and three weeks just wandering in circles, losing ground because they need the next step. Let’s allow them to move as fast as they are spiritually able. On the other hand, let’s hold them back if they think they’re doing it but they’re not really learning their lessons, if they’re not getting the job done. This is where shepherding comes in. It’s going to take some good shepherding.
Shepherding Is An Art
I’ve noticed that sometimes when you give a Word like this to shepherds who are in a place of responsibility, all of a sudden they feel inadequate: “Well, all I’ve done is just try to watch over them and keep them from winding up in jail …” The shepherds have to grow up, too. Maybe the shepherd was doing the best he could. Shepherding is an art, and, thank God, He teaches it to us even while we’re making mistakes in the learning of it. God has a way that the sheep come through anyway. You don’t always know how they make it, but they do.
Don’t Wipe Yourself Out
Don’t wipe yourself out. Don’t reject your shepherd, and don’t reject yourself if you’ve bungled it, but just submit to authority and pray for it and bless it. In fact, I think sometimes God is more concerned with producing shepherds through the prayers of the sheep than He is in producing shepherds from their own wisdom in leading those sheep.
Shepherding—The Application Of The Truth
That’s what makes shepherding the greatest key of spiritual growth we know—far better than sermons. Sermons don’t make people grow, because they may only just move people for the moment. But shepherding does cause growth, because shepherding is the application of all the truths that both sheep and shepherds have heard. It isn’t how much you talk about it; it’s how you learn to walk in it.
A Shepherd Is A Sheep With A Shepherd’s Heart
The shepherd is only a sheep with a shepherd’s heart, which means that every sheep is in training to eventually become a shepherd. Our thinking has to change. We have to get over the idea that the Kingdom of God is a big fortress which we all get behind to throw rocks at the devil when he comes to take the city of Zion. It isn’t that way at all. It is not a big fortress; it’s a sheepfold. And the shepherds and the sheep fight the wolves; they learn how to walk and be God’s heavenly flock on this earth.
“Do You Love Me? Feed My Sheep”
We have one Great Shepherd, and we’re learning how to take care of each other. The Lord says, “Do you love Me? How much do you love Me?” “Oh, I love You with all my heart.” “Feed My sheep. Tend My lambs” (John 21:15–17). You can’t get away from it. It’s all right there—that’s the Kingdom of God.
The Greatest Becomes A Servant Of All
We’re right down now to a one-on-one relationship, shepherd and sheep, walking with God into the Kingdom, into sonship. This is the true maturity and growth. A person doesn’t attain this to become arrogant. He attains it only to wash feet and be humble, and the greatest becomes a servant of all (Matthew 23:11). The true values of the Kingdom of God have finally been established in this movement in the earth.
It’s A Kingdom Of Spirit
It’s strange, isn’t it, that this has taken so long. Some died in the wilderness (and some wish they had!), but before all of us is the fulfillment and the reality of the Kingdom of God. It’s a Kingdom of spirit. It’s not of this world, but it’s of the spirit.
MATURING ALL THOSE SONS
Psalm 144
That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace: that our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: that our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets. Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144:12–15, KJV.
We’re talking about the thousands of sheep that are going to come, and we’re getting already the whole principle of shepherding these sheep. We’re talking about immediate, quick growth and maturation.
The prophecies and the revelation and the impartation now are going to be different. The thing that tends toward denominationalism, toward organization that becomes a little too rigid, is the fact that we insist on maintaining and perpetuating procedures that God originated yesterday. They worked well yesterday, but they cannot work as well today.
We’re Facing A Whole New Era
We’re talking now about the fact that we’re facing a whole new era and some of you need the basic things; you need to be ministered to. You need to have hands laid on you; you need to find out where you’re to go from here.
Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants, and our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace. Psalm 144:12, NAS.
Instant Maturity
From the beginning it was real that somewhere along the line God would have children, sons who would grow up in their youth—instant maturity. Someplace there was going to be a generation come forth that would serve God and be totally dedicated to the Lord. It didn’t mean they wouldn’t have problems, but their problems would be different inasmuch as they could absorb impartation; they would know how to appropriate.
We Should Evaluate The Restrictions
What we need now is the ministry that is going to sweep the slate clean. We should evaluate the restrictions that have been placed upon you. If you have learned your lessons well, perhaps it is time to abandon them and advance. We will not have sons grown up in their youth unless we can put that progressive challenge to them that will bring the maturity very quickly, as their own hearts are set to do the will of God above everything else.
BE CHALLENGED TO OBEDIENCE ON NEW LEVELS.
To keep restraints and Words over people too long after they’ve met all the conditions is to create a sterile situation where nothing can come forth.
Once we get a Word from God and we walk in it so that it becomes a part of who we are, we should be given another word, the lord wants us now to walk in.
We should constantly be challenged to obedience on new levels. We should be challenged by faith to become something greater that God wants us to be.
LEARN TO APPROPRIATE THE RIGHTOUSNESS OF GOD
You’re not going to get into this level of the Kingdom until you learn how to appropriate the righteousness of God, and not fulfill the lust of the flesh—not by what religion has taught, disciplining yourself to improve, but by the impartation of righteousness to your spirit.
You can get it from God. If you don’t have it, you can get it; God will give it to you, and that launches you into the Kingdom of God now.
Lay Hold Of God
I want you to believe that you don’t have to produce your maturity, and you don’t have to be discouraged because you haven’t produced it. Just lay hold of God and get it, that’s all.
The Agony Of Faith That Will Appropriate
Every generation that has come up to stand in the presence of the Lord at this fresh beginning in the Kingdom will make it because they appropriate. With almost agony of soul they will cry out to God and draw it. They cannot wallow in the mire of self-condemnation. They cannot give themselves to that despondency—they cannot! But they must give themselves to the agony of faith that will appropriate.
Let’s Take The Elevator!
The secret of the Kingdom is not the progressive discipline of climbing the ladder. The secret of the Kingdom is to step on the elevator—then suddenly you’re up there! This is where we stop climbing ladders and we just step in and say, “God, I’m going to reach up into the new realm that You have for me.” Let’s take the elevator! Let’s possess the Kingdom.
I’m Seeking To Break Into That Spirit Realm
Every day I’m seeking to break into that spirit realm until I can teach people to walk in it by the hundreds. That will change the world in a matter of days. Believe in the change that comes by impartation!
THIS DOOR WE ENTER
You’re Learning to Live Without Ambition And Greed
There’s something good that you must understand: God has created us to live, and to live free. And He’s setting an open door before us.
You have to come to the end of the motivation and drive that exists in the world. It’s like a detente at first; you function pretty much the way the world functions. You’re always reaching out there, but God has put you in a climate where you’re learning to live without the drive, the ambition, the greed, the crookedness, the lust that’s a part of the whole world.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever. I John 2:16–17.
You’ve Survived For A Purpose: To Learn And Experience Many Things
You have survived for a purpose, and that is to learn many more things, and experience many things. You could never have lived a life like the one that is going to be set before you now. You see, life as we know it in the end time of one age is not worth it. But the life that God is giving projects and moves us into the next age and it is infinitely worthwhile.
You are the only pioneers left in this world. There are no more frontiers that you can point to.
Free From The Love Of Money Doesn’t Mean He Won’t Put It In Your Hand
Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! James 5:3.
You’re the ones who have renounced the things of greed and said, “I’m going to live for God. I’m going to live for the Kingdom. The Living Word requires that I pay a tremendous price. But somewhere in this, I’m going to be free. I’m free from the greed.” And the minute you say that, then God starts liberating you to be free from the love of money. But that doesn’t mean that He’s not going to put it in your hand.
The Root Was Within Us
Before, God couldn’t trust us with too much because the minute that He allowed us to prosper we would have destroyed ourselves by the root that was within us. Now we’re coming to a dedication and I think you’d be surprised how many of you, if God would begin to bless, would not be hurt by it.
You’re Getting The Gold That’s Tried In The Fire
I think I worry more about the blessings people get than I do about the tribulations and troubles that they get, because those are the things that knock them out. That’s the final test. God says, “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eyesalve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.” Revelation 3:18. That’s what you’re getting; you’re getting the gold that’s been tried in the fire. You’re getting the real commodity of the Kingdom—the dedication and the authority and the commission.
God Has Given A Promise—An Open Door That No One Can Shut
I was waiting on God and He spoke to me … “I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it.” And they couldn’t. Other preachers gave up the ministry because they couldn’t get open doors. I always had one.
So I took that promise in Revelation where God had given the Church of Philadelphia a promise: “I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.” Revelation 3:8. The Lord also said, “He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, …” Revelation 3:7. That ministry was not only for me, but it was for the people that I ministered to. I could pray for them, I could lay hands upon them—and the Lord would set an open door before them.
You can take the same promise. God will set before you an open door and nobody is going to shut it. I don’t care what circumstances or problems come against you. Nobody can shut that door.
God will also lead us to shut doors that nobody’s going to open; they can’t do it. We’ll shut the doors of oppression. We’ll open the doors of blessing.
A Chance To Have All That You Want
God says, “Now you’re going to be a door opener; you’re going to open doors.” That means I’m going to open for you the wonderful riches of the Kingdom of God. You’re going to get a chance to go in and have all that you want, all that you can use for the glory of God. But be sure you don’t use it selfishly and be sure you have enough faith to believe for everything that you need.
We Don’t Ask God For Enough
I don’t think that we ask God for enough. We walk into the great storehouse and see it all piled up there, and we reach down and pick up a penny and put it in our pocket and walk out with it and say, “Oh, I got mine!” Well, you didn’t get half of what you could have had. Maybe that’s all your faith wanted. But if you believe God, you can go in the open door and you can possess a great deal.
We Open Doors For Each Other
We open doors for each other. I’ll open a door for you; you open one for me. Believe to be an instrument in the hand of God. Our faith is the key; the prophecies have been given to us, and we can open the doors for each other.
God Will Provide The Means For You To Do His Will
It isn’t how much you seem to have that is important but how much is available by faith to you. If you set about to do the will of God with all your heart, I believe God will provide the means for you to do the will of God. I don’t think that there will be any restriction or limitation. You’ll just say, “I had a word from God but there’s no money, no cooperation, and no help. God can raise up from the stones seed of Abraham and He can rain blessings out of heaven if He has to.” God can turn a thing around when you seem to be totally defeated and devastated, and He’ll bring the blessing to you.
There Is No Limitation With God
We still think too much with negativity instead of the positive approach of faith. When we become morose and despondent about a limitation, we should realize that the limitation we’ve accepted is satanic. There’s no limitation with God. All things are possible to him that believes (Mark 9:23). And God has set before you young people a whole new generation, an open door. He’s set before you the Kingdom. If you think small and you think limitation, that’s what you’re going to have; but if you believe, “This thing’s going to turn around,” God will bless it.
There’s Always Going To Be A New Challenge
You say, “Well, I’m discouraged.” Get over it fast. There is no blessing on anybody that’s discouraged. “Well, I’ve had promises and they haven’t come to pass.” You’ll always have promises before you if you’re worth anything at all to God; He will bless you, and as you begin to walk in something, He will set something more before you. You will never feel that you’ve attained it all. There will always be a new challenge, a new horizon. There will be another door to open. There will be something more for your life.
Everything You’ve Been Through Has A Purpose
All the way through, we’re tested over and over again by the fact that the human mind keeps reasoning, “Is all of this in vain? I cannot see the tangible assets and benefits for my having served God.” Even the disciples who walked with Jesus said, “Lord, we’ve left all to follow You. What are we going to have? Are we going to get anything out of this at all?” (Matthew 19:27).
God has a way of bringing you blessings that are very difficult to put on the scale and say, “This is a blessing.” Only God can see that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Everything that you’ve been through has a purpose.
Faith Has To See The Invisible
I’m trying to give you a perspective which I think is very important, because faith has to see the invisible. By faith he (Moses) left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. Hebrews 11:27. You never make it if you look at the wilderness and that’s what you evaluate. You never make it if you look around and see what price you pay. If you do, then you can’t afford it. You’ll have to be able to say, “I don’t care what price it is. I’m enduring because there is something invisible set before me—it’s the will of God; it’s the Kingdom of God; it’s this breakthrough. It’s an invisible thing to the world, but it’s not invisible to me. I’m like Moses—I’m going to endure, as seeing Him who is invisible. My eyes are on the Lord and I’m going to walk with Him with everything that’s within my heart.”
“Was It Really Real?” Faith Has To Say It’s Real
Tomorrow morning you may get up and think, “Boy, this is a bad day. Was yesterday’s faith really real?” Faith has to say it’s real. It doesn’t make any difference how you feel one day and how you feel the next day. The truth of the matter is, faith is going to hang on.
The truth is what God has spoken; that Word is eternal. Heaven and earth will pass away. Everything will pass away, but His Word will not pass away (Matthew 24:35). You hang onto that Word.
God’s Faithful; He’ll Perform It
Abraham had a Word from God and he knew that his own body was as good as dead, and he knew the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet he believed that what God had promised, He was able also to perform (Romans 4:19–21).
When Abraham went up to Mount Moriah and built an altar and was going to sacrifice Isaac, the Scripture says that he believed that God was able to raise him from the dead (Hebrews 11:17–19). That’s how much he believed God. He believed. Even if God ordered him to do something that would seem to violate and nullify all of the promises He’d given him, he believed God’s faithfulness.
Take A Step In God
I know that you’ve anticipated the solution to problems. I think the problems can be solved very simply, but the best way to do it is to take a step in God; then all these other things will be added to you. Seek first the Kingdom. Get some impartation. Take a step forward. Get your faith strong. Get the Word burning again. Hang onto the Word.
It’s a time of health and strength and blessing. We will not think limited. We will not think negative. We think positive. The joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
“Whatever I’m Going Through, God Has His Hand On Me”
Sometimes there’s no place to learn the lesson except in the wilderness or someplace in a valley, somewhere where you’re facing yourself. That’s what you’re doing. There are no answers except one: God laid His hand on you. God spoke a Word over you. There isn’t any other Word that you have to worry about. He certainly didn’t pick you because you’re such a good wonderful overcomer. He didn’t pick you for that. Do you know that God knew what you were and all the problems you’d have? He knew all of that when He spoke to you. He had a plan for you to walk with Him.
I don’t know why He ever picked us, but you’ve got the hand of God on you, and that’s what you’ve got to remember. Whatever you lack, He’ll give you. Whatever you need, He’ll supply it. Whatever you’re supposed to become, He’ll give you the grace to do it, because He’s spoken a Word over you.
There’s nothing else that you need to know except, “Whatever I’m going through, God has His hand on me. God has His hand on my life right now.”
Every Time You Overcome Something Within You, God Replaces The Problem With His Nature
You say, “I can’t handle it.” Of course you can’t! God never puts anybody in anything they can handle. He always gives them something where they can reach into God and become what He spoke. It isn’t that you’re the big champions to start with. He never said you’re going to be a champion because you’re champion material. He just said, “I give you a Word, and you’re going to overcome.” You’re going to overcome (I John 5:4–5; Revelation 21:6–7); that’s what you’re going to do. Every time you overcome something within you, you find that God has replaced the problem with His own nature and you become something like Him. He puts something in you of Himself.
I Wish You Could See How Much In Your Life God’s Touched
You’ve grown so much and you don’t know it. I just bless you! May God show you what He is doing in you. I wish it were possible to get a spiritual mirror and just take a look, and you could see—not any of the external—but how much of your life God has touched, how much He’s blessed.
Marriage Check-Out How Much Of God Is In The Relationship?
What you need is to discover how much of God is in the relationship. And in order to do that, you’re going to have to have a certain exposure to each other; you’re going to have a time of fellowship and communion.
But you’re going to have to restrain the human relationship and allow the spiritual relationship to come and see what God has. One way or the other, you’re going to be close spiritually, but you may just drop the whole relationship as far as anything physical or marriage or anything else.
But you’re not going to do that until you are exposed to get a chance to see whether you are going to walk with God or not. Put God first. That other thing will either die or come forth under the hand of God the way it should.
The Responsibility To Communicate
I think I’d lay upon you the responsibility to communicate. You are the ones that should communicate to the shepherds, not the shepherds keep breathing down your necks and say, “Well, what about this or that?”
You check in, not out of a sense of legalism, but out of a sense of dedication to the Lord and accepting the responsibility you have in the Word that I’ve given you.
Constantly Submit It To Authority For Confirmation
You check it with the leaders over you, with those that can counsel with you, so that you discuss it. Otherwise you’re going to be out here wandering around, saying, “How are these restrictions going to be lifted? How is this whole thing going to be dumped? What can come out of it?” The only way you can do it is to constantly submit your relationship to authority for confirmation. And if it’s of the Lord, the restraints can be lifted one by one; you can develop the relationship God wants.
Find The Mind Of The Lord
You’ve got to find the mind of God in this. You’ll do it by imposing upon yourself a restriction that makes your relationships be basically spiritual relationships where everything else is set aside until God makes real to you in the spirit a oneness, a thing that God has, or else until the whole thing falls apart.
SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM-IF YOU DESIRE A HELP-MATE
If we take a step, we want it to be the right step. We don’t want to play around like the world, because we don’t court like the world does. We don’t develop relationships like the world does.
We find something that is of God and let God develop it. It’s hard enough anyway—if it is really of God, it still is very difficult to break through until the whole relationship is ordered and sanctified by God.
So in the Kingdom, if it doesn’t start on this pure spiritual level, it’s going to develop lopsided or crooked, and God is going to blow on it. You can count on it, He will blow on it.
If He doesn’t, you’re going to be crippled with some kind of an unequal yoke the rest of your life. Seek first the Kingdom. Put God first; that’s the only way that you can find His will.
Cry “Grace, Grace” Unto It
There’s a prophecy back in Zechariah which says that God will bring forth the capstone, crying, “Grace, grace,” unto it (Zechariah 4:7)—but it was a prophecy related to the end time showing the extent to which grace was going to be a part of everything that God did.
Joshua Stood Naked
When Joshua stood before the angel of the Lord, Satan was at his right hand to accuse him. Then the angel said, “Take off the filthy garments and put the robe on him” (Zechariah 3:1–4). So there was a little period in which Joshua stood naked. That is very much like what has happened to us, somewhere in our walk with God.
God strips you and lets you stand in front of the devil naked. Then you have such a sense of inadequacy, of insufficiency, of exposure. The only answer is, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Zechariah 4:6b, KJV.
Everything Has Been Working By Impartation
Actually you have two things going for you: One is a complete exposure of your inadequacy, and the other is the complete challenge of faith to appropriate, to take the impartation. Everything that has been working for you has been working through impartation. Communion works by impartation. The laying on of hands works by impartation. All you do is believe and appropriate God’s provision and it comes to you.
We Start Ministering Back And Forth
When we as individuals reach into God, we can draw only so much. But when we start ministering back and forth to each other, a synergistic action of faith takes place and we produce something far beyond what any of us are believing for. We become something in the sight of God greater than we ever dreamed possible.
Time Is Not Involved In Appropriation
In some cases, time has been an element in our preparation to receive something from God; but we know that time is not involved in appropriation. You can actually appropriate something right now and it is yours forever. It is an instant thing.
Instant Maturity, Instant Miracles
I don’t think it will take such a long time to produce the ministries of the future. Psalm 144:12 says that our sons will be as plants grown up in their youth. It is going to be an instant maturity.
The miracle of turning water into wine happened when Jesus said, “Fill these jars up with water. Forget about going out here and irrigating the vines. The people at the wedding party need it now” (John 2:7–9). It was an instant miracle.
We Will Learn To Become By Faith
God will not give some of you time enough to mess things up. He will do a miracle in you that will be so quick that even you can’t foul it up! It’s going to be the best thing that God has done in all generations. That is the key of what this third generation is going to be like. This step will make obsolete all the wonderful procedures and processes that we were taught. We’re going to learn to become by faith—and that means grace.
“These People Have Found The Grace Of God”
The first generation of Jewish Christians could hardly stand or tolerate that second generation of Gentile Christians which came on the scene. In Acts 15, the Jewish Christians met to discuss what kind of load they should lay upon the Gentile Christians. But James got up and said, “Brethren, listen. Everybody here is preaching Moses, but these people have found the grace of God. Let’s not lay a burden on them” (Acts 15:13–21). So they let them stay free. The second generation and the first generation of that time were taught the grace of God.
Great Outpourings But Still A Legalism
Sixty or seventy years ago, the Holiness movement probably received one of the greatest visitations from God that ever came. The people received the Holy Spirit because they loved God so much that they just kept seeking Him and breaking through. Many of them weren’t really legalists or pharisees; they were just honestly trying to find righteousness and the Holy Spirit fell on them. There were many people who found God for the first time in some of those all-night tarry meetings.
Later on, the Pentecostal movement became very austere and legalism was very much the order of the day. They would preach against TV and movies and adultery, and yet many of those who preached the loudest were themselves guilty of doing the very things they preached against. It was a time of hypocrisy. They did it, but they covered it up. The hypocrisy was there.
Better To Be Exposed Than Hypocritical
God does not want us to have the filthy rags of self-righteousness; He would rather that we be naked. God would rather that we be exposed to Him than have any occasion to be hypocritical—He would rather cut us open and let us walk around through life holding on to our guts because we’ve been ripped open by His Word.
We Preached The Grace Of God
When this walk in the Spirit first opened up in the early fifties, our first generation was so glad to find that somebody was going to preach grace and not the hypocrisy. And so we really preached the grace of God.
Now, this walk was a great visitation from the Lord-believe me. And when it came, there was one message that kept coming: “This is going to be a visitation of the grace of God. God is going to teach us about grace.”
Some Still Built Little Kingdoms
The first generation came along and said, “We are preaching the grace of God.” However, at the same time many were clammering, “Set up some rules for these kids; set up some standards.” In the process, they still built little kingdoms for themselves. They still followed the carnality, the things that were inherent in the denominational structure.
A Lot Of Them Are Still With Us
That first generation had a lot of hypocrisy and greed, but there are a lot of them that are still with us. There weren’t that many to begin with. And I would say that we’ve got eighty percent of them with us to this day.
Our Biggest Problems Have Come Between the Timothys And The Third Generation
Then the second generation came along and you’d think, “They’re free; they’ve got the grace of God. Now they’ll reproduce that.” But some of our biggest problems have come because the second generation of Timothys began to lay restraints on the third generation.
Restraints Need To Be Lifted
The children in the third generation came along and are now at the place where the restraints that might have been very legitimate and normal up to this point need to be lifted so that we can lay the responsibility on them.
Some of you were born and raised for years in the Walk. You don’t have to learn things like we learn them—the hard way. You don’t; you were born into this. You don’t know anything else. And consequently, you can enter into the thing of appropriation and impartation quicker than anybody else.
In Hindsight You Can See Things Differently
The whole thing has led into more and more of an appropriation of the grace of God. If this is true, then one day the fourth generation will look back and smile at us and see how bound we were, how much we were still restricted. That third generation can look back and say, “Those Timothys really made a big break, but they had a lot to learn too.” And the Timothys are saying, “That first generation—I don’t know how they ever got out of Egypt in the first place.” You can always look back and, in hindsight, you can see things differently.
It’s always easy for us to criticize something that’s happened and say, “We’re superior to that,” only to find that we’ll walk in the same limitations if we’re not careful.
The key of it is so simple. None of you will get to the place where you have even a position with God, let alone a position with one another.
“Apostle” No Longer Is A Religious Position
The first generation spent half its time in revelation services prophesying over me to be an apostle, and I spent the same amount of time fighting it. It wasn’t until the sixties that I opened up to accept the apostolic ministry, but that first generation kept prophesying it. And some of those who prophesied it are the ones who reject it now.
The second generation came on and didn’t prophesy it, but believed it. The second generation began to walk under the authority of it. The third generation came along and couldn’t care less one way or another because “apostle” no longer was a religious position to them.
Our dedication and consecration is not blowing a lot of trumpets and saying how religious we are. We’re living it. We’re down to the gut level of living discipleship.
A Big Job Before You
You’ve got a big job before you. There are no people in the history of the world who will have the same calling and challenge that you will have. You stand at the threshold of a whole new level of the Kingdom of God. It’s impartation. Appropriate it.
Turn The Hearts Of The Fathers To The Children And The Children To The Fathers
The Word in Malachi was that the spirit of Elijah would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers, lest the Lord come and smite the earth with a curse (Malachi 4:6). We sometimes think that the devil did the devastation; but when you look back from the end of devastation, who was out? It was the people in the first generation who wouldn’t repent of their ways, who wouldn’t be open to walk on in what God wanted. They had their little kingdoms and they perished. What happened? God cursed them.
Start Seeking God With All Of Your Heart
He’s not going to let you get locked in at one level. He’ll devastate you and you’ll stand there thinking, “God has forsaken me entirely,” until you start seeking God with all of your heart. Then you’ll break through to the next level.
Are you hungry? Reach into God for it. Do you believe this? Then become it. There’s no reason why you can’t break through. How? By grace.
Pray For God To Give You Honest Hearts
Keep praying for God to give you honest hearts, because honesty and humility are going to be part of what makes faith work in this day. Just love Him. Reach into Him. Only God can recreate us into His own image, and He doesn’t seem to be very moved to do it until we appropriate it.
A Co-Creator With God Knows What God Wants Him To Be
A co-creator with God is someone who knows what God wants him to be and is not passive about it; He is not content to wait an eternity for it to happen. In that sense, we’re going to make ourselves happen to this earth.
Be Fanatic Enough
That’s what this third generation is all about. You’ll get just as much of it as you dare to believe for. Someplace there’s going to be some kids that are going to come along and be fanatic enough to say, “I’m going to have that. Nothing’s going to keep me from that. I’m going to be that person God wants me to be. I’m going to be that prophet. Then I’m going to take off from there.”
The Key Is More Grace
What’s the key? More grace, more grace. And that grace means less restraint to govern the flesh and more grace to crucify it and bring the righteousness of God. The day will come when a people on the face of the earth will see a need but will not reprove the needy; instead, they will recreate them.
Take On The Guilt Of Your Brother
Take on yourself the guilt of your brother, the responsibility for your brother. Get down and repent for him. The day will come in which we will see somebody sin and we’ll break into tears; we’ll weep before God for that person, with vicarious faith for God to forgive him.
That’s love—when you’ll bear one another’s burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2). We have yet to hit that in the third generation, but we can. We can.
We Are Going To Carry One Another
Relate and communicate. The second generation coming up found that this was their big, difficult point. But the third generation can communicate. They can open up. They can make it known to each other. And if they do that and take upon themselves the burden for each other, they won’t be beat down; instead they will just carry a brother. They won’t rise up in judgment and ostracize a person; they will love him. Every one of us are going to carry one another in our hearts.
One thing I know: Nobody has enough love for this new level. They’re not prepared for it. They really need an impartation of love to make it.
We’re going to learn what liberty is, what freedom is, what grace is. We’re really going to lay hold of it.
THAT NEW NATURE
Point to the Nature You Want to Acquire
The first and second generations haven’t taken the same attitude toward peoples’ actions as the third generation does. Members of the first and second generations have tended to point to things people did, but in this third generation you’re pointing to the new nature that you want to acquire. It’s a shift from negativity. It isn’t that you don’t have a lot of problems, but you see that the problems are not your problem. The real goal is to get this mature sonship that God wants in the earth to come forth.
Impartation By The Grace Of God
The third generation is more ready to take impartation by the grace of God than any generation that has come so far, because they see what they need.
We’re not concerned about going into a lot of discipline over little things; instead, we are concerned about God making us righteous in our hearts.
The Old Nature Is On Its Way Out
The greater percentage of what you’re doing is a result of a divine nature that’s coming forth. Yet the devil accuses you, saying, “This, this, and this you’ve done,” and so you wind up continually repenting of little actions and reactions and expressions of an old nature that is on its way out anyway.
Self-condemnation is not God’s tool; it’s the devil’s tool. As long as he can condemn you into trying to be religious and to put out little fires, he’s got you. But when you say, “I’m going to be a mature son of God,” then the devil has lost!
From Romans 7 To Romans 8
We can’t enter into Romans 8—the manifestation of the sons of God, that glorious manifestation of a new nature, as sons coming forth to maturity, releasing the world from futility—until first we cope with our battle in the first seven chapters of Romans with the old fleshly nature that has warred against that.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Romans 8:1–2. Our problem is that we don’t know how to deal with this problem of condemnation. We always run back to the old religious works and disciplines, and that is Satan’s trick.
Our Own Righteousness Versus God’s Righteousness
In Romans 10:3–4, Paul talked about the Jews and their legalism: For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. People are so anxious to be righteous, but they don’t seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). Instead, they go back to the religious trip of trying to establish their own righteousness.
Satan Prods A Person To Be Religious
If Satan wants to restrict or restrain a person, he keeps prodding him to be religious. But when the Holy Spirit moves, He moves for us to reach out with faith and claim what God has for us.
Crucify The Old Nature; Don’t Refine It
We’re always failing and repenting and then making New Year’s resolutions, saying, “I’m going to do better. I’m going to do better.” However, when you do that, all you finally get is a very highly refined old Adamic nature! It’s very religious but it’s still Adamic. We say, “Crucify the old nature! We want to start with a new nature.” Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. II Corinthians 5:17. We’re not about to refine the old. We just want to appropriate the new.
Live In His Presence
We’re not merely trying to eliminate our stumbling and our faltering; we’re trying to learn how to live in His presence with an awareness that we’re His sons; we’re His prophets.
Feed The New Man, The Christ Within Us
We don’t want to be religious, but we do want to be righteous, and we’re going to be righteous. We’re going to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
There’s nothing else for us to reach for. Any time we get our eyes off that goal, then we cease to impart His righteousness to one another. What are we doing in these sessions? We’re imparting, we’re drawing, we’re appropriating, we’re taking everything that can feed the new man, everything that can feed the Christ within us. We’re His Kingdom.
Matthew 25—The Sheep Minister To Christ
Read again in Matthew 25 where the Kingdom of heaven is likened unto sheep and goats, and you see that the sheep had one thing going for them. They had one dedication: they were feeding the Christ in their brother; they were visiting the Christ that was imprisoned; they were ministering to the Christ that needed to be clothed. They didn’t even realize how wonderful it was that they were only concerned about one thing. They weren’t trying to be religious; they were simply creating a blessing, imparting a blessing. That’s all we should really be concerned about also—“What can I give?”
“What Can I Give?”
That’s the difference with this third generation. You’re going to see that the real thing you should search your heart about is, “What can I give? What can I do?” You will appropriate and become strong and mature as sons the more that you take the responsibility to impart to one another, to give to one another, to bless one another.
Keep Blessing One Another
You’ve got to make this step forward. You’ve got to keep blessing one another. You’ve got to become so conscious that you have something to give and something that you can receive from one another.
Faith Which Works By Love
The key to the whole thing is faith which works by love (Galatians 5:6). Almost every failure we could point to is a result of unbelief which leads to self-condemnation. Faith leads to righteousness. We’re righteous by faith, and we minister to one another in the Kingdom by love and by faith.
Don’t Concentrate On Your Faults
Many of the things you condemn within yourself are not even worth the time and effort you put on it. Get into the Word that reaches into God.
I’m not just saying that distraction is an answer, but I will tell you this: As long as you concentrate on your faults you’re going to keep them. They’ll get healthier by the day because they’re getting so much attention.
Don’t Meditate On Your Sins; Meditate On The Lord
If you want to change, don’t meditate on your sins or the sin nature. Meditate upon the new creation of God that you’re becoming. Meditate on the Lord—that’s what will make it work.
Our Only Sin—We Have Not Had More Faith To Become
Recreate yourself as people who are fulfilled with the joy of the Lord, reaching into the wonders of everything that God has for you. That’s going to be your goal. That’s going to be the thing that God sets before you. Our only sin is that we have not had more faith to become. That we repent of!
Be Loosed From Fear
We have to be loosed from fear. Perfect love will cast out that fear (I John 4:18). Unbelief or faith, intimidation or love—they seem to be the different extremes. If we’re to get into faith and love, then we have to get out of unbelief and fearfulness.
He’s Creating Us
We’re getting right down to the practical way of breaking in and becoming, because the Kingdom is not a discipline; the Kingdom is a creation of God. He’s creating us. Young or old, I have to live with one thing: I am what I am only by the grace of God. And the grace that He gives me will not be bestowed upon me in vain (I Corinthians 15:10).
Here are some Kingdom Proverbs to remember:
The only road that leads to righteousness is faith.
Those whom Satan would restrict and restrain, he prods them to be religious.
The Adamic nature, though highly refined, disciplined, and religious, must still be crucified with Christ. The sons of God start with a new nature, a new creation.
The only condemnation we should be feeling is that we have not already rid ourselves of that condemned nature.
The goal is not to eliminate stumbling, but to stand in His presence.
I don’t want to be religious. I want to be righteous.
Unbelief leads us to condemnation and self-condemnation, but faith leads us to righteousness.
Concentrate on your faults and you will keep them. Focus on the Lord and you will be changed from glory to glory.