Beloved Family… The Lord has more to teach us all, about how His Power is perfected in our weakness. Recently I told you about an ABC introductory level training lesson I had just received. I experienced a sense of total exhaustion while doing some strenuous yard work. I ran out of fuel because, inadvertently, I had narrowed my inner focus down to my old, weak self… confronted by the mass of drudge-like work that still had to be done. That was all that remained in my conscious awareness at the time, and it caused me to ‘cave in’ and reach the state of near total collapse.
That happened because I forgot that the Lord is always with me and that He is the Heart and Soul and Power behind every one of my issues, activities, challenges and equations. I forgot that He always lives and works within me… both to will and to do… according to our Father’s good pleasure. So, according to that defective mental scenario I was entertaining at that moment… I felt empty, spent… and helpless.
Philippians 2:12-13
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; FOR IT IS GOD, WHO IS AT WORK IN YOU, both to will and to work for His good pleasure!” (Emphasis added.)
Never Alone Or Helpless
Do you see the Enormity of all that I had blocked out of my mental awareness at that moment? That lapse caused me to fall into a terrible sense of frailty, weakness, and impossibility. And it quickly dragged me down into the depths of deep physical and mental exhaustion. I was at a point where it felt as if I couldn’t take another step or do one more thing.
So I sat down to rest… and as I caught my breath and was wallowing in the depths of my zero point… my ever-vigilant ‘Drill Instructor,’ the Holy Spirit, prodded me back into Reality. He reminded me of the real Truth: The risen Lord of Glory is always within me! And He is always ready to operate from within my spirit, soul and body, as soon as I get out of His way and defer to Him! The actual Truth is that it’s never about me, or what I can or cannot, do. It’s always about my Master who is always here with me… to be my Ever-Faithful Blood Covenant Friend and Champion… my Eternal Life and constant Commander. He is always leading me further and further into our Father’s pre-assigned Heavenly Destiny! So I am never alone or helpless; but I do sometimes forget about Him and then I tend to get in His way.
But, as soon as the correct picture fills my mental viewing screen once again, I’m able to defer immediately to My Master’s Perfect indwelling Presence so that He can take over immediately and completely. And when I do that, I’m able to remember once again that my radically independent self-life actually died with Him long ago, when He died outside the gates of Jerusalem! So the Truth is that, thanks to the New Covenant Gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, my Messiah, the Living Word of God, is my Life and Energy and Ability… Forever!
As soon as I got back in touch with this Reality… the Lord took over. His Power infused new strength into my body… and God’s Truth and Reality set me free from slavery to my old radically independent self and my old Adamic ways… yet again! And from that point onward, I was able to get even more work done, than I had already accomplished before I sat down to rest!
Romans 7:21-25
“I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh (I keep slipping back to observe) the (inherited) law of (radically independent thinking, which is natural to the state of) Sin.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
As soon as I reached the dregs of my puny personal ability and human strength, the Holy Spirit reminded me to ‘get real’ so that I could remember that my self-life had already been executed and buried with my Messiah. And that enabled me to switch back over to total reliance on my resurrected Master. So, as soon as I stopped relying on my false sense of independent self, Reality and Sanity enabled me to receive and experience God’s abiding Strength that comes from the ever-abiding Perfect Resurrection Life of Yeshua who is abiding within me at all times, to impart His Perfection and Strength and whatever else I may need… at all times!
From incidents such as this one, I believe Father continues to give us the training we desperately need. He keeps teaching and correcting us because He wants us to realize that there’s much more to this awesome cooperative interaction He’s showing us than I had experienced last week. I experienced the basic, elementary beginner level of interaction! But He wants us all to grow and develop so that we can grow beyond that ABC level… and move far beyond it! Yes, it’s true that He is here to pick us up from the dust and save us from total collapse! But there’s much more to it than that! He is here to take us much further beyond that primitive boundary line – the border that separates primal survival from total death. He wants to take us past the outer edges and all the way into the very heart of the Land of our Eternal Inheritance. He wants us to learn to abide there continuously!
If we learn to go further into our Inheritance… there will be no cause for us to ever fear or falter when the spiritual combat reaches its highest point of intensity and the powers of Darkness are frantically doing their utmost to get us to forget all about God so that we cave in and become crushed and perish! By the time we reach that advanced point of awareness… we’ll be totally prepared… skilled combat veterans who will instinctively know exactly what is happening… and what we need to do… and how to do it! We’ll be masters and experts in the art of thinking, acting, reacting and interacting in total union with our indwelling Resurrected Lord!
Experiencing The Fullness of True Identity
This is why Father is training us so rigorously. He’s intent on taking us far beyond mere last-ditch survival experiences so that we can thrive, by experiencing the Fullness of our true identity and status and purpose as His beloved sons. He is ready to endow us with the utmost in supernatural maturity, power, ability and skill. And that involves much more than staying camped at the edge of disaster and survival. We belong in the inner core of His own Personal Heavenly Dwelling Place… where God enjoys and shares with His people, Yeshua’s Absolute and Total Victory over Evil and Darkness! That’s the level of full, perpetual awareness and union with Yeshua’s Fullness that is our true Destiny!
Colossians 3:1-4
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is HIDDEN WITH CHRIST IN GOD! When (you finally realize that) Christ, who is our (Perfect All-Sufficient) Life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in Glory!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Father has a stupendous purpose for subjecting us to the rigors of this ‘Disciple Boot Camp Training.’ He’s equipping and preparing us to govern and administrate His Kingdom on Earth with our Messiah! So He wants us to be ready to penetrate further and to explore the very depths of meaning and to experience the Fullness of our awesome New Covenant Kingdom Inheritance which He has always intended for us to enjoy and occupy, and from which we are to be trained to govern the rest of Creation with Him.
We receive rigorous training so that we can participate successfully in Our Master’s Complete Fulfillment of His Last Days promises to Israel and the rest of the world! This Triumph and its enjoyment are the underlying reasons why He gave us the awesome Gift of His Holy Spirit! He intends to make us fully capable of entering into the real reason for His indwelling Presence. We can only know this Fullness by faith… but the time is coming when we will know and abide with God forever… FACE to face! So He sends His Holy Spirit to teach, train and equip us how to cooperate with Him… as God displays and dispenses the fullest measure of His Son’s Glory and Life-Giving Resurrection Activity.
Living Vessels
Very soon, Father will glorify and reveal His beloved Son in all of His Majesty and Triumph to the entire world! So He must begin even now… to start unpacking this total Revelation to us disciples… by causing Yeshua’s indwelling Presence and Activity to manifest His Authority, Power and Glory even while we still inhabit our wounded mortal flesh. He intends to display His Son’s Total Triumph over Death… to the Serpent and his demonic powers of Darkness… and to all the deluded humans that believe the Serpent’s lies and allow themselves to be manipulated into trying to fulfill the agendas of their demonic masters. The Final Termination of all of that Delusion is rapidly coming into view.
So we are commissioned to be the living vessels through which the Holy Spirit can begin to confound God’s enemies and destroy all of their rebellious works… even now! It is time for us to explore the vastness of the real purpose for our Boot Camp training. It’s time we realized that the purpose for boot camp isn’t just to help us barely ‘squeak by’ when we become totally depleted and exhausted and are in desperate need to have God revive us. We must become familiar with God’s much greater purpose.
Our Last Days Testimony will have to go beyond the fact that God is here to keep us from utterly collapsing and dying. He is here to manifest His Son’s absolute Triumph over the Serpent and the destructive power that Sin and Death imposed on the entire human race! He wants to fill us with the Power by which the King of kings and Lord of lords will reign supreme over the entire universe… over all of God’s Creation!
The paradox is that before we can enter into the glories of our Lord’s Resurrection… we must truly share the utter weakness and helplessness He had to experience on the Cross. Just as it dragged Him down to the zero point of Death, so must we follow Him into the experience of that same zero point! Only after that Death of our self-life is complete, will Father be free to raise and lift us to join His beloved Son, our Covenant Representative, as He occupies the Highest Level of Heaven with His Father!
We who have been called and commissioned to follow Yeshua, are on the exact same Path that He first took. We join Him in the fellowship of His sufferings as soon as we repent and cry out to Him to save us. But then, after He saves us and gives us new regenerated human spirits and fills us with His Holy Spirit and makes us His own possession… He must work on saving the rest of us… the fallen intellects, wills and natural affections of our souls… leading to the full redemption and resurrection of our bodies.
Giving Fitting Testimony
It must become evident that the Glory and Power of Yeshua’s resurrected Life are already hard at work within us, even as we continue our journey into the Fullness of our Destination. It must be evident now… that God is within us… equipping and enabling us to finish our Exodus journeys. Our fallen souls and Sin-murdered bodies must follow the path until they also reach the exalted position that our spirits already occupy with our Messiah. And that level of experience and discipline will be progressively administered and installed into our original, temporary souls and brains during our Boot Camp training. By the sustaining Power of God, we will be empowered to live and operate within these faculties that are temporary… so that we can follow our Master all the way Home… into all that Father has waiting for us that is Eternal and Perfect!
At this point, we are still experiencing what our Lord endured during His Atonement for us… in the Arena of Testimony. Our job is to give fitting testimony to God, before the Serpent and his demonic hordes. We have the privilege of trusting our Father so much that we willingly submit ourselves to whatever He has to do to fully redeem, cleanse, transform and restore us. We are on an Exodus Journey that began with our total slavery to the state of separation from our Creator… but He is taking us into total union with Him as His image and likeness. And we must let the powers of Darkness know that, even now, even before our Journey is complete… our Master has already triumphed over them and has destroyed all of their works… and so now… they are like the dust under His feet!
This is what God intends to display to His demonic enemies… through our yielded, weak, inept flesh, so that it will be obvious that our resurrected Redeemer and Covenant Representative is doing all these supernatural things through us, and no longer is it we who are trying to do anything in our own strength:
2 Corinthians 4:7-11
“But we have this Treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing Greatness of the Power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the Life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the Life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” (Emphasis added.)
The Lord’s Word and Spirit are here with us to empower and equip us to stun, astound and crush our unbelieving, rebellious demonic enemies. When they realize that it is actually the Lord… the one who has already routed and crushed them, who is present and active and is revealing Himself from within us… they will screech and turn and run away in panic. They will completely abandon the field of battle and collapse into heaps of total helplessness! This is the Testimony we’re being trained and equipped to render to all observers. And this is the awesome extent to which the disciples of the Last Days will be included in the Fulfillment of the Eternal Triumph of His Living Word! This is who we really are, and this is why we’re really here!
John 1:49-51
“Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the Heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man!” (Emphasis added.)
John 14:11-13
“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son!” (Emphasis added.)
Revelation 21:1-7
“Then I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth; for the first Heaven and the first Earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, made ready as a Bride adorned for her Husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the Tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His People, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
“And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new!” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give to the one who thirsts from the Spring of the Water of Life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son!” (Emphasis added.)
Isaiah 55:8-11
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord, ‘for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding (completely, entirely and fully) in the matter for which I sent it!’” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Through Isaiah, God reveals an essential aspect of His utterly transcendent nature. He shows us that He is unique. There is not another like Him. And the same is true of His Living Word, who proceeds from the Father. The Word who was made flesh is Father’s Perfect Image and Likeness and He contains in Himself all the Fullness of Almighty God.
Hebrews 1:3
“And He is the Radiance of His Glory and the Exact Representation of His Nature, and upholds all things by the Word of His Power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…”
Our Heavenly Father also reveals in a variety of texts, that the True Living God is totally Complete in Himself and needs nothing from any of His creations. There is nothing we are or that we have, that He would need or desire. The Truth is, that we receive everything we are and have and are able to do – from Him!
Psalm 50:11-12
“I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all it contains!”
Isaiah 66:1-2
“Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My Word!” (Emphasis added.)
God as Chief Servant
So notice the awesome Paradox that is contained in the Reality of God’s True Infinite, Omnipotent and Omnipresent Nature! He must be the Chief Servant for all of His Creation! He creates us out of nothingness! So, in order to do that and to sustain what He has created, He must do all of the necessary Work to make our existence and ongoing activity possible. Therefore, our awesome God is always ‘on call,’ always ‘on duty’… for in ourselves, we creatures are always totally helpless and bankrupt! So our Creator must be ready and willing to provide whatever we need to successfully fulfill the natures and purposes and destinies that He intended and designed for each one of His creatures! Absolutely everything originates in God, and returns to God. He does all of the Giving… and we creatures do all of the receiving. That is why God is the Chief Servant for us all.
John 13:5-8
“Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me!”
Our awesome God is the only True Source for whatever is Real, True and Good! So He has to do everything for us. He, by and through His Living creative Word, and the limitless Power of His Holy Spirit, is responsible for providing everything we will ever need in order to fulfill the identity, purpose and destiny He had in mind for us when He designed and created us! So, what we need to realize most, is how deluded creatures are when they assume that they have a life of their own that they can manage and control in radical independence from Almighty God! We must somehow get in touch with the real Truth and Reality of God… and of our own true fallen current state. And boot camp training plays a big part in leading us into the fullest measure of this level of spiritual awareness.
So, from this fact we can also see deeper into the nature of God’s Living Word, our Messiah Yeshua. It is His Nature to serve as the Perfect Image and Likeness of His Father. He contains all of the Fullness and Perfection of God within Himself. And to explain this to us, the Holy Spirit uses easily understandable images of how God uses rain and snow and rivers of living water to make the dry thirsty earth fertile and productive. He is telling us that He reveals and demonstrates His lavish Lovingkindness and boundless Abundance to every speck of Creation (See Isaiah 55). So it is the Word and Spirit of God that enable the whole universe to be, and to continue in existence and to thrive and function and fulfill its God-given purpose!
John 7:39
“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (Emphasis added.)
In the days of the New Covenant’s Ultimate Fulfillment, which are now very near, the disciples of God’s Living Word must be equipped and trained to manifest and administrate the glories of God’s Fulfillment to all of Creation! This is what the prophecy concerning God’s future New Covenant Temple, as entrusted to Ezekiel, is saying:
Ezekiel 47:3-6a
“When the man went out toward the east with a line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water, water reaching the ankles. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the knees. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the loins. Again he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not ford, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be forded. He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?”
The New Covenant Reality
In this vision, the Lord was showing Ezekiel what the Holy Spirit’s New Covenant Reality and Activity would be like. The Messenger that Father sent to Ezekiel measured off a perfect square. I believe that the significance of that picture is that in the original temple that God allowed Solomon to build in His honor, the innermost sanctuary, the Holy of holies in which God abided among His people, was a perfect square of twenty by twenty cubits. But through Ezekiel, He shows us that the New Covenant Holy of holies that will descend from the New Heaven to the New Earth, is going to be stupendously enormous, by comparison. And the Presence of God will be in our midst and His Spirit will flow out from within us. And it will spread out in all directions from us, to the rest of Creation. And so the prophecy continues:
Ezekiel 47:6-12
“He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me back to the bank of the river. Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river there were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Then he said to me, “These waters go out toward the eastern region and go down into the Arabah; then they go toward the sea, being made to flow into the sea, and the waters of the sea become fresh. It will come about that every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes, will live. And there will be very many fish, for these waters go there and the others become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. And it will come about that fishermen will stand beside it; from Engedi to Eneglaim there will be a place for the spreading of nets. Their fish will be according to their kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea, very many. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.
“By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their Water flows from the Sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.” (Emphasis added.)
God’s Holy Spirit will seek out every low point throughout all of God’s mortally wounded Creation. And, like an unstoppable River of Life, He will seek out whatever lies in His path that the Serpent’s lies have murdered. And He will bring what is dead back to a full share in God’s Eternal Life! Every portion of God’s repentant Creation will be restored! And, even as He trains and prepares us in our boot camp ordeals… He will be searching out every speck of Corruption and Death that remains within us. And He will replace that with the Life and Righteousness that flow out of His own Living Word!
This is how we know that God is in the process of bringing everything that is dead, back to Life… back into full participation of and with His gloriously productive and fruitful Eternal Nature! And this is the awesome Purpose for which our boot camp training is preparing us!
Deuteronomy 30:6
“Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, SO THAT YOU MAY LIVE! (Emphasis added.)
Position Yourself to Receive
Our God is absolutely wholehearted in whatever He does! There is absolutely nothing paltry, cheap or miserly about Him. He is always giving of Himself totally. His Lovingkindness toward us is limitless. He never holds a grudge. He never holds anything back from anyone. He is most willing to give of Himself to any of His beloved human image and likeness creations. But the trouble is that most people do not position themselves properly to be able to receive the full stream of His Abundance. They do not believe, trust and put wholehearted expectation upon Him. Their faith keeps springing leaks… so they falter and tire and give themselves up to the demonic delusions that the Serpent offers to them as bait.
So God has to keep correcting, teaching, and drilling us until we finally get it. And the more we comply and cooperate with the training process, the freer the Holy Spirit is to work on us, and in us, and through us. By this process, God will educate, train and change our hearts. He will transform our spirits and souls and finally completely exhaust and put an end to our efforts to revive our faltering flesh. And when we finally do switch over completely from flesh to Spirit… we’ll begin to experience God’s Eternal Glory even now, in the midst of our time and space experiences! And so the more He can move us into the proper position to receive the full Blast of His Lovingkindness, the more of His Abundance we will be able to share with whoever and whatever may be fortunate enough to be around us! Ponder what the Lord tells the world about His Living Word, through the prophet Isaiah:
Isaiah 61:1-9
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.
“So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, they will raise up the former devastations; and they will repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, and foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers.
“But you will be called the priests of the Lord; you will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion.
“Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, everlasting joy will be theirs. For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering; and I will faithfully give them their recompense and make an everlasting Covenant with them. Then their offspring will be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them because they are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed.”
Fully Connected
Beloved friends… the Lord is speaking of His beloved Living Word made flesh… and He is also including those Jews and non-Jews who will serve as His True New Covenant Israel in this prophetic picture! He’s not talking about poor deflated people that are totally spent and on their last legs! He’s talking about His New Covenant sons… those awesome beings through whom He will administrate the New Heaven and the New Earth, under the Absolute Authority of His Resurrected Son!
So, not only has Father made sure that we can be connected very intimately to Him through our union with His Word and Holy Spirit, but He is letting us know that He always desires to be with us as fully as possible. He is a Perfect Father who is brimming over with Generous Lovingkindness, because His nature is Infinite Abundance of all that is Good. So with God, there is never any stinginess; He never holds anything back from us, ever!
So whenever human beings are not yet able to experience and share in His Fullness, it’s because He still has work to do in us to remove the obstacles from within us and to transform our nature and increase our capacity to receive of the Fullness that He is always giving out to His Creation. Our Heavenly Father, because of His Perfect Infinite Eternal Fullness, can afford to be lavish in everything He does for us! And, as soon as we’re properly trained and equipped and prepared to do it… we will know, finally, that we too can afford to be just as generous and lavish in what we have to give out… just like our Heavenly Father!
Jeremiah 9:23-34
“Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises Lovingkindness, Justice and Righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord!”
Isaiah 35:1-9
The wilderness and the desert will be glad, and the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it will blossom profusely and rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The Glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the Majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the Glory of the Lord, the Majesty of our God!
“Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble; say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage; fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; the recompense of God will come, but He will save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the Arabah (Jordan Valley).
“The scorched land will become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, its resting place, grass becomes reeds and rushes a highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it.
“No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go up on it; these will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion, with everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away!” (Isaiah 35 Amplification and emphasis added.)
Can you see that our Heavenly Father, in His Eternal Perfection, means all of us nothing but GOOD? Can you see that whatever God makes available to His Covenant friends in His Eternal Kingdom of Heaven, even if it seems painful at the time, so far surpasses anything that men pursue and aspire to achieve in this temporary fallen world, that it is ridiculous to try to compare them to each other!
At first, our fallen flesh and original state of living death prevent us from being aware of God’s Spiritual Truth and Reality. Fallen flesh is limited only to what can be perceived by the physical sensory faculties of our dying flesh, and the very limited intellectual capabilities of our fallen soul and dying bodies. That is why we must be ‘born again’ or spiritually regenerated by God, so that we can receive the new, eternal spiritual faculties that will equip us to learn to live by faith in God’s Word and His Finished Work for all of Eternity… rather than being limited to putting our trust and hopes upon the fleeting puffs of smoke that are the pathetic best that this fallen dying world will ever have to offer.
Isaiah 55:2-7
“Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in Abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to (My Word, the Son of) David. Behold, I have made him a Witness to the peoples, a Leader and Commander for the peoples.
“Behold, you will call a nation (of Gentiles) you do not know, and a nation (of Gentiles) which knows you not will run to you, because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you. Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon!”
God has made each one of us, Jew and Gentile alike, to be His image and likeness! So He wants us to be able to accurately reflect and embody Him as He is and to be able to enjoy with Him, all that He Himself enjoys! God is telling us that He wishes for us to have nothing but the best, His Eternal Best! It must be this way if we are going to be restored back to reflecting and revealing and demonstrating the Fullness of His Love Nature, as His image and likeness. So, naturally He wants us to equip us once again, as soon as possible, to be able to receive of His restorative Grace. He pours it upon us lavishly and freely and without any hindrance or limitation whatsoever.
And this is the real reason why God puts His own sons through the discipline of ‘Boot Camp Training.’ Our Eternal Inheritance is Infinite. There will be no end to it! And the discipline of the Cross… and the rigorous training God imposes on our Sin-corrupted souls, is meant to remove every trace of the Sin-created obstacles and impediments that may still remain in us. All of that is what still prevents the full flow of His Grace from cascading over us and enfolding and covering and filling us completely!
Hebrews 12:5b-17
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His Holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of Righteousness!
“Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue Peace with all men, and the Sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the Grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.” (Emphasis added.)
Living Vessels with a Destiny
And so, now that we are able to realize the awesome Destiny Father has waiting for his own… perhaps we will better be able to understand that He wants to shower His Grace upon all of His Creation, not just certain select, especially favored portions of it. He wants it all to be Fulfilled and Blessed… and He is training us to be the perfect image and likeness of His Wholehearted Graciousness, Generosity and Lovingkindness! We are to expedite His Flow of Grace… instead of remaining as stubborn resisting obstacles that impede it! This is the awesome Purpose and Destiny that was embodied by our Messiah on the Cross! And we are His New Covenant disciples! We must be trained to become just like our Master! We are to be living vessels that are filled with all that He is and all that He has to give, just the way that His Father sends Him to give it! And so Father is training us so that we may one day be just as He is, so that we can receive it as freely as He gives it:
Colossians 3:1-4
“But you are a Chosen Race, a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation, a People for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the Excellencies of Him who has called you out of Darkness into His marvelous Light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the People of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received Mercy.
“Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” (1 Peter 2:9-12)
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the (Fullness of God contained in the) things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died; and your life is hidden with Christ, in God! When Christ, who is our Life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in Glory!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
God not only wants us to be able to remember that His Living Word and Holy Spirit are always abiding with us here in this temporary fallen world, but He is also training us to be able to always abide and cooperate fully with His glorified Resurrected Son who sits at His right hand in the highest place in His Eternal Kingdom! We can only maintain our enjoyment of these awesome Gifts by faith, and never by sight or by natural earthly feelings or by our temporary earthly circumstances. And that level of disciplined focus and steadfastness is what He is training us to develop. This level of massive purposeful repetition is what will gradually transform us into what God is here to cause us to become! We must always remember what He told us:
Philippians 2:12-13
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; FOR IT IS GOD WHO IS AT WORK IN YOU, both to will and to work for His good pleasure!” (Emphasis added.)
Co-Heirs with the Living Word
And so once we are properly and sufficiently trained to live by faith, we will finally be ready and able to think and act and react and interact from the position and viewpoint of sons of God and co-heirs with His Living Word. We are being trained to exercise and fulfill the functions of the New Covenant Royal Priesthood. We’re being trained to live in and operate from very same Perfect Selflessness that our Father displays! We are to become the embodiment of the Infinite Fullness and Goodness and Love-inspired Abundance of Almighty God! From that position we are commissioned to mediate here on Earth, between Almighty God, and the portions of the fallen human race that still do not know Him. We are to be authentic and accurate dispensers of the glorious blessings that He sent His Word and Holy Spirit to be and to impart to us all.
Despite our ignorance and original bull-headed resistance, despite our former opposition and malice… we disciples can be trained to finally know that we can afford to be lavishly generous, just like our Father. We can now share our endless Inheritance, even with our enemies… so that gradually… they too can begin to be aware of our awesome Messiah, and all that He is here to be for them:
Luke 6:27-38
“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours do not demand it back.
“Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and YOU WILL BE SONS (and the perfect image and likeness of God) ; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. BE MERCIFUL JUST AS YOUR FATHER IS MERCIFUL!
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you (by Your Heavenly Father, who has already made you heirs of His Infinite Inheritance. And because you agree to operate as the image and likeness of the Father, and His Word, and His Holy Spirit), They will pour into your lap a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over! For by your standard of measure (on behalf of God’s beloved Creation, so) it will be measured to you in return (by the One who created and sustains all of Creation).” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Titus 3:3-8
“For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His Mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His Grace we would be made heirs according to the Hope of Eternal Life. This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.”
We Share in His Infinite Fullness
Beloved, God commands and empowers us to be supernaturally forgiving and selflessly generous so that we may embody our Father’s true intent to this fallen unbelieving world. But we can only do that when we know for sure that we are perfectly and eternally fulfilled ourselves… blessed sons of God, who know that we are endlessly rich and infinitely blessed and eternally endowed sons of Almighty God. Only those who know how fully and completely God is sharing His Infinite Treasury of Grace with us will be able to afford to render such a supremely supernatural level of God-embodying service to all others!
And this is why we must realize, sooner or later, that thanks to the indwelling Presence of our Perfect God, we already share in His Infinite Fullness! We are, even now, His Word’s co-heirs that share fully in all that He has bestowed upon His beloved Resurrected Son, Yeshua! We are Yeshua’s beloved disciples… learning to realize that we have been regenerated and restored in our spirits so that we may serve as the image and likeness of Almighty God. He who is endlessly kind, merciful and wholehearted in his Generosity now lives and works from within us so that He may reveal Himself through us! This is our true purpose! This is why God is training us with such meticulous thoroughness and rigor! This is the glorious destiny for which He is preparing us! Ours is the Legacy of total Abundance that God pours over the beloved disciples who are the image and likeness of His Triumphant Living Word!
So, as Father prepares us for this awesome service… His Spirit is equipping us to follow His beloved Son into the Arena of Testimony… so that through us… He may speak and act and testify to the Glory and All-Sufficiency of His beloved Son… Yeshua, the Living Word! And the Spirit will empower us to such an extent, that we will be able to follow our Master into the most dangerous and hostile parts of the Arena of Testimony… and overcome and triumph over any demonic enemy that would dare to come against us!
Exodus 7:1-3
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt!”
Matthew 10:26-33
“Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the Darkness, speak in the Light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
“So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows. Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in Heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in Heaven.”