From “Feast of Tabernacles,” Chapter 1- Contiinued
GREAT THINGS AHEAD
Truly the Lord hath prepared great and mighty things for His people: things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man. (1 Cor. 2:9). If God’s true children would only believe this one Scripture with all their hearts, how greatly it would help to release the riches of Heaven, and unlock the flood-gates of Glory! We know, of course, that Christians everywhere loudly profess to believe this, as well as the rest of the Bible; but in actuality they do not believe it. Yes, they will acknowledge that God has some great and mighty things prepared for us when we get to Heaven, but Paul declares in the following verse that these unseen, unheard-of, and unthought-of things are “revealed… by the Spirit,” and not by way of rapture or death. (vs. 10).
Let us, therefore, give all diligence to enter into the realm of the Spirit, which realm constitutes the real heritage of the saints. Truly the heritage is ours for the possessing. And if no man from the ascension of Christ until now has entered into it, it still does not make any difference. The fact remains, it is ours for conquest if we can believe for it and receive it. The universal Church has rejected the possibility of possessing it; that is true; but the history of the Church is by no means the pattern of spiritual attainment. Paul did not fully apprehend it either; that is true. But he beheld the glory of it, nevertheless, like Moses who stood on Mount Nebo and viewed the promised land. And furthermore, he pressed forward with all diligence by the Spirit “if by any means” he could apprehend it, and confessed that he had not done so. (Phil. 3:12, 13).
Thank God, however, for the assurance that some are going to possess the land! God is not going to close this dispensation until some really enter in and possess their heritage in Christ Jesus. Paul declared, “Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein.” (Heb. 4:6). The first generation that came out of Egypt by Moses failed to enter in because of unbelief, and God decreed that they would die in the wilderness. However, He had already sworn that Abraham’s seed would possess the land, and therefore He raised up a new generation who should go in and possess what their fathers saw but refused to appropriate. And they did. God’s purposes cannot miscarry. He will have a people who shall believe their God and possess their possessions. The early generation of Spirit-filled people at the turn of the century took their journey from the blighting wilderness of denominationalism and encamped at their Kadesh-Barnea on the every doorstep of Canaan–but they too failed to enter in because of unbelief. Some saw the vision; the majority did not; and they perished in the wilderness. True, there were a few Calebs and Joshuas who rested in the promises of God and continued to look forward to better things–and God will certainly vindicate His word and His oath, and cause them to possess the land with the new generation that God is now raising up. But as a whole, the people whom God chose from amongst the denominations and called apart into a new fellowship in the Spirit and baptized with the Holy Ghost–they failed to enter into the land, denounced those who exhorted the people to do so–and turned back into the wilderness like their predecessors in Israel. GHW
Sometimes the problem with belief is not the what but the when. It is easy to put all our hope in a future time or event and save no hope for now. This leaves belief void of faith for the present, yet we falsely assume we have faith when looking for fulfillment in the future. If we put our hope in a secret catching away, sure it could happen at any moment, we are vulnerable to forget the spiritual warfare we are meant to fight now. We become content to jog to the finish line rather than keeping the pace or pressing into the race set before us.
Hebrews 12:1-3 exhorts us,
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Church, in Philippians 3:12-14, reminds us,
“12Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Our mindset must change before we can receive the promises allotted to us in God’s word through Christ’s blood, by the working of the Holy Spirit. We must believe that God’s kingdom is here and now, not just there and then. As Bro. Warnock says, “He will have a people who shall believe their God and possess their possessions.” Are we Calebs and Joshuas, or will we, too, fall in the sands of the wilderness short of our promise?
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