Prepare Yourselves

There are many things each Child of God needs to know to be prepared to enter the Kingdom of God.  So many of us when we were kids our parents taught us how to be saved, and so we thought we were saved (by whatever means we were taught) and so we went about our worldly cares and were not taught the importance of knowing God now, and entering into heaven now, and receiving our inheritance in this present moment (as the Testator Jesus was crucified for this cause).  We were only taught that we need to believe in Jesus so we can enter heaven when we die some day in the distant future.  This is the common notion taught among Christians as I have witnessed in the past.  This doctrine leaves out the importance and urgency of learning of Christ and receiving a full reward, and it basically robs God, men and women of their exceedingly great promise of full salvation.  It gives innocent children a false security that tells them everything will be okay, even though they are not brought up in the admonition of the Lord and the beauty and love of Jesus Christ.  Ignorance will be their downfall, if they depart from the Lord to seek the glory of the world.  God does know those who are His, but He expects His gospel to be glorious and appealing to draw all people to Himself.  Jesus said, “seek first the kingdom of God” and with this commandment came the promise of all material and physical needs being met in this life (Matthew 6:33).  So, as Christ’s body, why exactly are we taught to seek first our education, our health, our college degree, our career, and our spouse and every other method of self-preservation which only expresses the desires of the ego and not Christ?  Why do so few people have faith?  These are sand pebbles in comparison to the precious Diamond of the Wisdom of God and the Faith of Jesus Christ, and the many gifts God has for us.  Going to church on Sunday is not enough; in fact, attending an average church of this world can be detrimental to true spiritual growth, as Frances J. Roberts prophesied, “it’s (organized religion) like touching a dead body and being defiled thereby, and thus needing days of cleansing” (“On the Highroad to Surrender” - Remove the Graveclothes).  To obtain the promises of God, one must walk by faith, keeping His words, and obeying His voice and following the call of the Holy Spirit as a doer of His will.  It means to leave behind the pleasures of the self-life, and pursue the pleasure that comes from knowing Jesus Christ, the Husband and Bridegroom of the Church, in the Secret places of the Most High.   Nourished by heavenly manna, and a drinking from the spiritual Rock that springs forth the river of life, bringing gladness and perpetual joy that doesn’t fail (see Isaiah 58:11).  We must seek the Lord and live; for there is no other path for a men and women to walk to obtain life, for God is the source of all life, and Jesus is the Way to the Father (John 14:6).  As it is written, “He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life” (1 John 5:17).  The key to what Jesus said is that you must seek the health of your own soul by feasting upon His Word and receiving spiritual riches, and growing into full stature, and then the needs of the body will also be supplied one hundred fold in due time.  It’s an immutable promise of Jesus Christ: abundant life, houses, lands, brothers and sisters, married together as one large family of God in the Spirit with white garments…the only requirement is to lose your own life for the sake of Christ and the gospel (see Matthew 19:29, Mark 10:28-29).  God is saying here that the soul is a higher priority than the body, and God would have all men have their souls a watered garden of life.  Do not think your growth will happen over night; it takes diligent and patient study and meditation as a dedicated disciple, as a Branch receiving Life from the Vine, and patiently bringing forth an abundance of fruit (see John 15).  You must cast yourselves before Jesus as the One who can bring clarity and purpose to your life, now and forever.  It takes perseverance and KNOWING exactly what reward you are seeking for, as the scripture says in proverbs, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).  For if you do not know the rewards (the great deluge of the Love of God, mixed with the people, places, and things God has for you, whether in heaven or on earth, or beyond), then one would be tempted to fall off of the course.  There are many who seek the Lord for selfish reasons; so they can appear pious and holy before others, or maybe they desire to belong to a higher rank of heaven, or become a great ruler.  They have forgotten everything Jesus spoke of, such as, “he who is least among you all, the same shall be great” (Luke 9:48) and “he who humbles himself like this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4).  There will no doubt be those who are great in heaven; a multitude of Kings and Priests, the Church of the Firstborn, many faithful warriors who have stood up to giants and subdued kingdoms, and the beauty of the living God will be upon us all.  But there is such a thing as not desiring to be great; and only these types of people can God truly use in any significant way, because their desires are pure, and the soul is separated and completely yielded to Christ in them.  The bottom line is, seek to cleanse yourself with the washing of the water of the Word (Ephesians 5:26); seek to understand His Word with a new heart, and new spirit, through deep repentance and confession of sin.  Search inwardly and let the light of the truth of God shine into your heart, mind and conscience; for God is able to renew you through His Way.  The Christ does indeed grow and form inside the believing soul (Galatians 4:13).  Yes, the Christ is a supernatural Seed (called the Word of God) planted in our hearts (see Luke 8:11, 1 Peter 1:23).  These are things every believer should understand; that we need to live a life that allows the Life of Christ to form inside of us fully, so that we can go forth and do the Father's works, and, as Jesus said, we will do even greater works than were ever done in Israel (see John 14:12).  It is a patient process, but fruit will come forth abundantly and the Father will be glorified.  We must not allow the Word to be choked through worldly cares and malnourishment, but press forward in the loving service toward God.
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