Jesus Christ is our Lord, but have we lost our initiative of being His bondservants and doing what He wants us to do? Most of us are not yet moving in the realm God wants us to move in. We must change from fatalism to faith.
Daniel 7:22 says that the saints possess the Kingdom. We do not yet fully understand this, but such a faith came to my heart when I realized that this will not be a fatalistic thing. I think Christ Jesus knows everything that can be known, don’t you? (Colossians 2:3.) However, there are some things He may not want to know, and so He has blanked them out and said, “These things are undetermined.”
You say, “What are you talking about? God either knows, or He doesn’t know!”
Let me ask you a question. Does Jesus know the day and the hour of His return? According to this Scripture, He doesn’t: “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” Mark 13:32. No man knows the day nor the hour, not even the Son of Man, not even the angels of God.
“But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time is. It is like a man, away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. Therefore, be on the alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, at cockcrowing, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’ ” Mark 13:32–37.
This means there must be a blank space in God’s plan and schedule where there is no fatalistic, sovereign destiny prescribed. There are a number of Scriptures along this line.
In Luke 18:1–8, the Lord tells you about prayer and intercession, saying, “Go after it with all your heart.” And it seems that He leads you up to a certain point and then throws cold water on you. He talks about the unjust judge, and the widow who was being cheated out of her inheritance and so she troubled him persistently. Finally the unjust judge, who was a type of God, decided to avenge her. Of course, our God is a very just judge in some ways, depending on how you approach Him; but Christ compares Him to the unjust judge and says that He will speedily avenge those who cry day and night unto Him.
“That sounds fine! Then we’re going to be like that widow; we’re going to come before the Lord and pray with a force!”
Then the Lord voices an uncertainty, saying, “Nevertheless, will the Son of Man find faith when He comes?” (Verse 8.) Does that seem to be a put-down in your thinking? It is, isn’t it? He said, “If you shove in, He will avenge you speedily; nevertheless, is there even going to be any faith when He comes?” What was He saying? He was trying to say, “What I’ve just told you is the only answer.” Restrained from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself were some things that are going to happen in our time; and this is one of them: “Is there going to be faith?” Suppose you ask, “Jesus, is there going to be faith?” He answers, “I asked you the question.”
God asks a question, “Will the Son of Man find faith when He comes?” And we answer Him with His own question. We say, “Lord, will You find faith?” He says, “That’s My question. I ask you. You are the only one who is going to give Me that answer, because I have reserved that for you to determine.”
Somewhere, sometime, God’s people must, and will, come forth. When the pruning of the vines came, suddenly we were sitting and waiting, saying, “Lord, what are You doing to do to us now?”
“I’m not going to do anything to you!”
“But You have done it.”
“Yes, and now it is up to you.”
“But, Lord, there is nothing left of me but the stump.”
“Well, you will either grow and become fruitful, like vines in the vineyard, or you will not. I pruned you. I cut you down. What are you going to do about it? You are the one who abides in Me and produces the fruit.”
“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:2–5.
Either you are going to be the fruitful church that God wants you to be, or you are not going to be. It will not just happen. There will not be any wonderful band of crusaders who come to you and suddenly give you all the answers. You are to find them now. “Will the Son of Man find faith when He comes?” That is your question to answer. It is like a blank space in God’s plans. He is saying, “I made the blueprints for you. I made the road map for you.”
“But, Lord, there are blank areas.”
“Yes, here is a drafting board, and here are some pencils. Finish the blueprint. Finish the map. You tell Me who you are, what you are going to do, what you are going to become, where you are going to go. You make a picture of the destination. You show Me.”
“God, I don’t want to do that. You are God. What are You asking that for?”
God says, “I am going to stop being only the Boss, and I will be a pen in your hand. You can write much of the last chapter in the book of destiny. You have to do that.”
Not only are we to be living epistles, but we also are to reach into what Paul had when he said, “We write this on the hearts of men.”
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. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. II Corinthians 3:2–4.
Isn’t that amazing? We are going to write it. Do you realize how scriptural this is? What about all those who died in the faith? What great faith they had! But Paul is saying to us, “They without you are not going to be made perfect. You have to finish this up. You have to complete it.”
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Hebrews 11:13, 39–40.
I don’t think we understand what we have gone through and the purpose which God had in mind to bring us to this place. He is wanting sons who are led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14); He is wanting us to become co-creators with Him of what is to be. What do I mean by that? Let me give you an example. As I lay hands on people, this is what I am thinking: “I am imparting something to them. God is in my hands when I am laying hands on them.” Is that arrogant? No, it is only humble reality. If someone doesn’t lay hands on you, you probably won’t get what you are supposed to have. There is a destiny that you are to fulfill that we create in one another.
“Well, isn’t that usurping something from God?”
Not exactly. God is saying, “I will not be just the architect who lays it all out; I will be your tool box, full of a lot of different things you will need: a dynamite cap, a few sticks of dynamite, some saws, some hammers, and some other tools.”
“What are all these for?”
“For you to go ahead and build the Temple. I will be the tool in your hand.”
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. I Corinthians 3:9, KJV.
When we think about being laborers together with God, we usually get the idea of being a little flea riding along on an elephant’s back. God is not trying to convey that to us, because the first thing He does, when He wants to do a great thing, is to reduce Himself from a sovereign, great and mighty image to become a tool. If He is going to be the Lord and Master, we will find Him down low washing feet (John 13:5). If He is going to be the incarnate Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23), we will find Him as a little baby lying in a manger (Luke 2:7). He humbles Himself and comes forth as a bondservant, obedient even unto death on the cross (Philippians 2:8).
This is what the destroying of human position is all about—to bring us down where we will have as much of the authority of Jesus Christ as is absolutely possible, to create and bring forth another age.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. Romans 8:18–19.
How will we do all of this? Wash feet; tend sheep; feed lambs; come down to a humble place (John 13:14; 21:15–17). Then we will be able to use God’s authority.
I have never liked the idea of using God as if He were in our hip pocket. That attitude is like Simon the magician’s attitude when he came to Peter and offered him a lot of money, saying, “Give me this gift, so that I can lay hands on people and they will receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter said, “Your money perish with you, because your heart is not right with God” (Acts 8:18–21). But in a wholesome way, our Lord is committing Himself to His disciples. And if it doesn’t happen now, it still has to happen sometime.
Somewhere we must become the instruments of God to use Him as an instrument to bring forth God in the earth. We are either going to be the vessels of the Lord to bring it to pass, or we are not! And when this happens there will be no ambition in us, but there will be a great deal of initiative.
The Lord says, “Here, I am ten talents in your pocket. What are you going to do?” (Matthew 25:14–30.) This is my answer: “I am going to go out and duplicate You in others, Lord. Everything You are in me, I am going to duplicate in a dozen people.” This will not be done by my trying to talk people into it. It will not be done either if I sit and wait for it to happen.
God says, “I’m not going to be only the boss; I’m going to be the tool chest. I will be to you whatever you need, whatever you want to use, whatever you want to take of Me into all the earth. Go! All authority is Mine in heaven and earth; now you go. You take it. I give you authority. I give you My commission” (Matthew 28:18–20). What is a commission but “Go and use God to bring forth His glory in the earth”? Glorify Him, not your own ambition! Forget that. There is no position involved. There is no ambition involved. You, in yourself, are not going to do anything.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18–20.
You do not minister best to someone by telling him all the things that you think are wrong with him or things that you think might help him. No, lay hands on him and bring out the Word of God over him, what God has spoken to him. Then God can really meet him. Face the fact that it is not a one-on-one encounter; but when you go to minister to someone, you should think, “I have the Lord Jesus Christ in my hands! My hands aren’t empty! They are not merely hands. They are a way of conveying God as an instrument to do a work in the earth!” Do you get the picture?
“Well, this is a little different. I never thought of God that way.” It is time that we think of God as to what He wants to be to us: The Lord is my sword and shield (Genesis 15:1; Psalm 3:3). So you say, “Oh, wonderful sword, wonderful shield. I’ve got God to take care of me now! He is my sword and shield!” He is not taking your place in the battle. He is saying, “I will be your protection. I will be the aggressive as well as the protective weapon. Now, take Me and use Me. Protect yourself. Watch yourself in the clinches. Get in there and fight. Put on My righteousness” (Ephesians 6:11, 14). “I am available to you. I make Myself an instrument for you to do My will in the earth!”
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel … Ephesians 6:10–19.
Does this make sense to you? Doesn’t this begin to help you throw off passivity and unbelief? This is our greatest deliverance since God began to show commissions to us. Now we understand our commission: “Go in My name. Go do My business.” People will ask, “Who sent you?” And we will say, “Well, I have a power of attorney here; the Lord Jesus Christ said I could use His name.”
“What does His name mean?”
“All power in heaven and earth.” That is enough; the devils run (Matthew 28:18; Mark 16:17).
We are going to use His name for His glory, not ours (I Corinthians 10:31). We are not working for a selfish motive. There is nothing that we are trying to do individually.
We are all going to say, “God has anointed me.”
“What did He anoint you for?”
“Well, to tell you the truth, He anointed me to declare God unto you and do God unto you and present God unto you.”
“Do you have a revelation?”
“Yes, God is going to be revealed to you! God is going to meet you!”
“How?”
“God is going to meet you, because I am going to speak Him to you. I am going to minister Him to you.” God is a tool to finish His work in the earth and bring forth His Kingdom. Do you believe that God wants you to look upon Him that way? I think so.
“Well, I prayed, and I found out what God wanted me to do; and I’m just waiting for Him to move on me.”
I don’t think you should wait. The minute that you know what the Father is doing, or the Lord is doing, I think you should do it. Jesus said, “I always do those things which I see the Father doing” (John 5:19). Our Lord had a revelation, and He would do it because He knew the Father. He said, “Philip, you say you haven’t seen the Father? Have you seen Me? He that has seen Me has seen the Father. Why? Because I am manifesting the Father. The Father is in My hands. The Father is in what I speak. The Father is in My Spirit. Everything I do is what the Father says” (John 14:9–11). He is telling us the same thing.
Is Christ in you? Then you are God’s transportation, God’s engineer, God’s artist, God’s writer. Take Him and use Him. Take Him to the people. Take Him to one another.
The exciting thing in this revelation is that it does not set before anyone a personal ambition. No, if you do this with all your heart, the Lord will be glorified. This becomes most exciting. You can go and work a miracle. You know your own motivation: “I come in the name of the Lord to bring down the enemy.” Bring him down. Don’t stop and boast about it, saying, “Look what I did!” Let the Lord alone be glorified. Some of you are ready for this step. This is the Kingdom now. This is the pure, absolute, bona fide Kingdom message.
I find myself becoming strong in faith and wanting to lay hands on people. I am laying God on them. Is that scriptural? Yes, we are the fulness of him that filleth all in all. Ephesians 1:23b, KJV. When you read the first chapter of Ephesians and Colossians, you realize that we are to be His fullness. Do you think that the fullness of the Father dwelt in Christ? Paul said, For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.… For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Colossians 1:19; 2:9, KJV. We are His fullness. The Body is “the fullness of Him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). This means that you are the ones who will manifest the fullness of Christ, just as He manifested the fullness of the Father.
Christ reigns until all the enemies are His footstool, and then He turns all over to the Father. Everything was made subject to Him, with the exception of the One who had subjected everything to Him (I Corinthians 15:24–28). This means that the Father said, “Son, it’s all on You.” Now, the Son comes saying to us, “All authority and all fullness is Mine in heaven and in earth. Now you take it and you go.” He is doing with us the same thing that the Father did with Him, saying, “Go do it. Manifest it.”
“Well, I don’t feel I’m worthy.”
That doesn’t make any difference.
“I’m just a bondslave.”
So was He. He humbled Himself in the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7). What should we do? Make the Lord Jesus Christ happen to people. Take Him and use Him. Instead of thinking, “I’m trying to talk somebody into something,” believe, “I am creating something! I am speaking it! I am believing it! I am ministering and loosing it!”
Stop comparing men with men to see who is the greatest and who is the least, because all of us are simply carriers (II Corinthians 10:12–17; I Corinthians 3:4–11; 4:7). We are carrying His presence. A type of this is in the Old Testament when the priests carried on their shoulders the ark of His presence, the covenant, the glory of God, the Shekinah glory! A man could not touch or use the ark in a wrong way without dying (Leviticus 16:2; I Samuel 5:11; 6:19; II Samuel 6:6–7).
But those whose hearts were right could carry that little box on their shoulders and rivers would part, their enemies would drop dead, hornets would fight their enemies (Joshua 3:14–17; 24:12). Miracles happened because they knew how to carry God’s presence.
Do you want to be a carrier of Christ? Say, “I’m not just going to talk about Him; I’m going to take Him into every situation. He is going to be the tool in my hand.” Can this really happen? Yes.
It is true that He is the sword of the Spirit. But who is to use that sword? God doesn’t just fly out like King Arthur’s legendary sword, Excalibur, and start cutting people down. You have to wield the sword; you have to take Him and do it. He has a name written, The Word of God, and the sharp two-edged sword comes out of His mouth (Revelation 19:13–16; 1:16). But someone will have to speak that Word. Someone will have to do it. Someone will have to say it.
And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19:13–16.
Are you touched by this great revelation to do the will of God? Do God to people! Do Him! Make Him happen to people!
We must get away from the idea of fatality, or futility, and come into the realm of faith. Fatalism says, “What will be will be.” Faith believes, “What will be will be because I make it be.” Make it happen! God will have a revelation in the earth, because He will have people who will reveal Him. Be a revealer of the Lord. Pray for more than a revelation to your heart; pray for a revelation of God through your heart.
The remainder of this message includes revelation brought by other individuals also. A double space is used to indicate a change of speakers. John’s words are in the same type style used in the first part of the message.
This Word brought a whole new revelation of what the Lord really is. Our greatest deception is our misconception of what we think we are serving. We bow down to something that is not even the Lord.
One of the most important issues in the last thirty years has been, “What is the Lord really like?” There have been a few times that a revelation of the Lord has come which brought us to repent for the image that we think He really is. We strive and grieve over the fact that we do not seem to reach Him on something; and He is trying to tell us, “That isn’t even Me.” What the Lord showed of Himself this day is a whole new revelation. He took us through devastation so that we could find Him and a first love again. When we first found the Lord, He was so simple. He was our friend. We could sit and talk with Him and tell Him all about ourselves. We too were simple then. Now He is trying to tell us, “I want to be a part of your life. I’m down here washing your feet (John 13:3–5). Make Me come into your life. Use Me.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “I’m standing at the door knocking; will you let Me in?” (Revelation 3:20.) He is begging to come to us. Oh, the condescension of the Lord to His own creation, to the people He has created by His own precious blood! And He turns around and says, “Will you let Me be this? Will you use Me?”
This Word is a breakthrough. We realize that we are not looking up to get hold of God. He has put Himself in our hand. He is saying, “Use Me.”
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. I John 5:14–15, KJV. And that is all God was doing in all the promises of faith. He was reducing Himself out of the formula where He had to decide everything. He said, “You decide it—whatever you ask.” If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7, KJV. You decide. You make the decision.
This sounds blasphemous to a religious world, but we have heard this, step after step: “Make it happen!” This goes back to the first message printed in the 1970 Volume of This Week messages: “Make It Happen.” God has been revealing this to us, year after year, but we are now beginning to realize that this is a principle of the Kingdom. Go and make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19). Do it! We are to walk in it. We find ourselves drifting back into fear, back into hesitation, and we panic and become passive and inert. We don’t move on. Why? Because we are still expecting God to do something that He has told us to use Him to do.
We are still expecting God to do something that He wants us to use Him to do.
Once I heard a story about an old woman who had lived most of her life as a semi-invalid and had lain in bed for many years. What was worse, she enjoyed poor health. Everyone did what she wanted. Her husband waited on her, hand and foot. One day he died. She didn’t die, because she had been well taken care of. She cried for a day and said, “What am I going to do now?” She cried another day, and said, “I can’t lie here.” Then she got up and took care of herself very ably the rest of her life.
Likewise, you may not realize the blessing of the Lord until He is walking away from you, and you must get up and walk, or else lie there and die. You decide which you are going to do. The manifestation of the sons of God is really a manifestation of the Son of God in any sons (Romans 8:29). And that means that somewhere they get disgusted with themselves and begin to manifest Him alone. They show Him forth. They minister Him.
It is up to us. We say, “God has made Himself not only my boss, but He has made Himself a tool, and He says, ‘You use Me to bring forth My perfect will in the earth. You use Me to bring forth My Kingdom. You go and use Me to glorify Me. Use My name to glorify Me. You go and magnify the Lord. You do it!” ’ This means that there are no more excuses.
Every time God gives us a new truth, such as this, it is really dynamic. It shocks us and shakes us. We need to review the Living Word that has come, as well as the Scriptures to find the scriptural basis. You have taught this in so many ways—that nothing stops our faith from believing something. For example, one of the greatest principles we have been taught is that the intervention of prayer will change anything, even God’s prophecy (Jonah 3:1–10 and 4:1–2). One good message on this is called, “The Highest Law of Intercession.”*
God’s law of intercession is the greatest law. Faith can take everything of fatality and destiny—even God’s own plan—and change it. Anything can happen if you believe God and make it happen. That is faith! When you get a promise from God, He is in His promise. He fills it. God fills His Word. His words are Spirit and they are life (John 6:63). When you believe a promise, you are using God. When you use the Word, it is His sword in your hand. When you cry for immunity, He is the shield on your arm. Don’t forget, it is your arm. It is your hand that wields the sword. He is a shield and a sword in your hand.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:2.
… in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:16–17.
We have no excuse any longer. God is not going to do anything, except through His people. We now have the responsibility. We do not have the right to despair, to be defeated, or to make an excuse. One brother said, “There is nothing left. We now have to create it.”
A Kingdom Proverb: The remnant that possesses the Kingdom is the remnant that is left to whom God can commit Himself totally.
In other words, He is committing Himself to us. He finally has a remnant, and that is why this truth would not have applied a few years back. No one would have understood it. But now God is saying, “Take Me! Use Me! Let My Word be a sword in your hand!”
But I don’t think that God would say this unless we had received the spirit that was conveyed in the message “Judgment in the Fear of the Lord.”* He has been looking for those whom He can commit Himself into. He would not commit Himself prior to a perfected level of spirit that He has sought after to be able to come and dwell in (Isaiah 66:1–2).
If God had not devastated us, there could have been an arrogance in us so that He could not be used by us at all, because we would have been exalting ourself, our position, or something else. This is the truth that must follow devastation. This is opening the door to the next step. We were devastated so God could commit Himself to us, and we could use Him to build His Kingdom. If we are humble enough, meek enough, we will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). But if we wanted to really read that proverb with the right meaning, we would say, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth for the King of kings and the Lord of lords to rule over” (Matthew 5:5; Revelation 19:16). That is why we do it. It is all His. We go out and we use God to pull down principalities and powers (II Corinthians 10:4; Ephesians 6:12), so that we can win for the Lord with His authority the reward of His sufferings. We are the executors of His estate. We are the administrators of all that He has provided (II Corinthians 5:18). We are the enforcers of His authority over devils (Luke 10:17). We are the ones who go and bring the healing balm of Gilead because of His stripes (Jeremiah 8:22; Isaiah 53:5; I Peter 2:24). We do it! The promises will remain ineffective until we take Him to the nations (Matthew 28:18–19). We take Him. We take Him! We minister Him! We minister the Lord to one another.
The issue is not what has been wrong with you, because God knew that all along. Did He devastate you because something was wrong with you? No, He devastated you because He wanted to become something through you. Isn’t that true? You can get that blessing. Just come and say, “Lay hands on me; bless me.” Believe that we are going to impart a fuller measure of Christ to one another. We are going to do it. We must see that this is our prerogative; but more than a prerogative or a privilege, it will not happen unless we do it.
We can minister. Impartation, in the full scope of it, is growing from day to day. It has been one of the greatest breakthroughs. Devastation ended, surprisingly, with no great revelation except this: “Lay hands on the people and heal them until there won’t be a scar.” Everywhere, people have been healed. And actually, there has been a far greater moving of God in the healing than there was in the devastation. There is a greater anointing and a tremendous breakthrough because we are believing to heal one another. As we see the need, we minister Christ to one another. It is far greater than all the things that God allowed to devastate us.
Devastation was only a plowing of the field. The fruitfulness is to come afterwards.
Why did God have to devastate us and plow the fields? The prophet had said, “Zion will be like a plowed field” (Micah 3:12). Why did the prophet see that? Because another prophet had said, “Break up the fallow ground. It is time to seek the Lord until He comes and rains righteousness on you” (Hosea 10:12). First must come the devastation.
Devastate the land; plow it up. Why? Because if it is packed and hard, all the rain and all the seed will not be effective. The rain will flow off. Break up the ground! That is what God did. He devastated you, so that He can rain blessings upon you and become something great in you. Then you will be a fruitful vine unto the Lord (Isaiah 37:31; Romans 7:4). You will be bearing fruit unto the Lord. And this is the way we do it.
Devastation had to lead to the greatest appropriation of faith and the greatest period of faith to impart that the world has ever seen. The world has never seen anything like this.
This, in my feeling, is the beginning of the greater works that we will actually see and go into. Jesus said, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. John 14:12, KJV.
Christ Jesus meant that He had finished His cycle of coming and ministering the fullness of the Father. Now He is going to send us to minister His fullness, and the result will be greater works than even He did. We are going to believe that!
This Word ends a whole era of inferior thinking, or revelation, and throws us into the greater works without excuse.
This is more than being yielded to the Lord. The Lord is yielding Himself to you. And if He is to make a triumphal entry, there will have to be some jackass who will carry Him in (Matthew 21:1–5). Do you say, “Here am I, Lord, ride me”? The Lord sent one of the disciples for a jackass, and told him to say, “The Lord hath need of it.” He put Himself in a place where He needed an ass. Don’t deliberately try to be one. Just carry the Living Word.
You can do it; you can carry Him. You can take the Lord, because He has placed Himself at your disposal. He says, “Take Me, use Me—all My power, all My glory, all My promises—to bring forth My glorification in the earth. For when I come, it will be to be glorified in you and to be admired in you, because this is what you have done.”
… He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed. II Thessalonians 1:10.
Belief in fatalism may be the greatest hindrance to the initiative of faith.
God wants us to be His instruments to use Him as an instrument to bring forth His will in the earth.
What will we do when God says, “I am ten talents in your pocket. Be faithful with Me if you would be My faithful steward.”
You are God’s transportation and communication—carry Him and convey Him to the world.
Your life will be an expression of faith or futility.
Fatalism says, “What will be will be.” Faith says, “What will be will be because I believe it to happen.”
Are we still expecting God to do something that He wants us to use Him to do?
Do you think you are an ass? Then carry the King of kings to His throne.