MYSTERIES OF GOD'S KINGDOM. Kenneth B. Alexander
betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,
In lovingkindness and in compassion,
And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
Then you will know the Lord” (Hosea 2:19-20).
“So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.
His going forth is as certain as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth” (Hosea 6:3).
Receiving full salvation means a “pressing on” to know Him more. Every day we seek the Lord to expand our salvation experience. As we do so, He provides more and more light to show us the way. Isaiah 28:13 describes how the Lord will lead us:
“So the word of the Lord to them will be,
“Order on order, order on order,
Line on line, line on line,
A little here, a little there”.
God wants us to return to Him with all our hearts.
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments.”
Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil” (Joel 2:12-13).
We must be diligent every day to seek the Lord. He is happy when we do this: “I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me (Proverbs 8:17).
We must seek Him with all our hearts in order to obtain this gift of entire salvation.
You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
‘I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.”
Therefore there are actually many levels of salvation; there are many mansions in the house of God. Wherever you stop seeking the Lord for more, you will stay where you are. Dying is not a magic way of receiving salvation. What you have obtained on earth will go with you, be it good or bad. By continuing to expand your salvation experience you are eligible to receive and manifest, as Christ, everything pertaining to life and Godliness in this age and in the age to come.
With this New Covenant experience we are literally “born again”. Basic Christian thought is that once you have received Christ you are immediately “born again”. This has become a catch phrase for the Christian movement. But being born again is not a trite statement used as a synonym for salvation. It is a literal rebirth into a new age of the Kingdom and the spirit.
Although it can happen in one great experience, more likely it will happen through a continual, daily, unfolding experience. Actually being entirely born again is the day we become mature in Christ and stand with His entire nature perfected in us. This happens as our spirit is continually perfected by the working of God in our lives. The obvious difference is that when we initially accept Christ, we are mere babies in the things of Christ. There is a maturing process that must go on throughout our lives. The baby must grow up.
Too many feel the initial acceptance of Christ is enough for us to be reborn and then receive our reward in heaven when we die. So many feel entitled to simply wait for that time confident they will appear prefect in Heaven after their physical death. That is not the truth. There are many in Heaven right now who are not perfected and are waiting for their full fulfillment. Hebrews 11:30-40 makes this clear. After remembering all the great men of God who died in faith in Hebrews chapter 11, the writer of Hebrews notes that they all died without receiving the promise. The writer of Hebrews states: “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. None of those who died in faith will be made perfect until we are made perfect. This confirms Christ’s statement that the first (those who have gone o before us) will be last and the last (us) will be first because we must become perfect first before them.
Also the Book of Revelation speaks of the souls of the dead in Christ crying out for fulfillment from under the altar. When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed. (Revelation 6:9-11).
Dying and going to Heaven is obviously not the ultimate answer. We on this side of the veil of death must become perfect before those in heaven can have their fulfillment. This goes beyond simple salvation. It involves a process of becoming perfect right here and now in this earth. If you doubt this, remember the words of the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Right here, right now. on earth. We need not wait. We should press on to the full calling of Christ, until the veil of death is rent and the spiritual and earthly realms become one. That is salvation. That is fulfillment.
1 John confirms that we are to be like Him when he appears: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2). And where does Christ appear? He appears here on earth at His second coming. He will appear to many Sons who have become like Him. As Hebrews 2:10 says: “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings”. Christ was therefore the first fruits of many other Sons who would also be birthed through his sacrifice.
FAITH
Faith is the simplest reality we have in our walks with God, yet it can seem complex to the human mind.
“Behold, as for the proud one,
His soul is not right within him;
But the righteous will live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).
Faith is a reality that it is entirely invisible. It cannot be seen or touched, as are things in the physical realm. It cannot be explained theologically in that most theology comes from the intellect. “His thoughts are not our thoughts” (1 Corinthians 1:17). Yet it is one of the most powerful forces in the universe and works in both the natural and spiritual worlds.
To illustrate faith in the scriptures consider the following.
“A man came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. “I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him” (Matthew 17:14-16). And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.”
“And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out? (Matthew 17:18-20). And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:20). “The mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds” (Matthew 17:14-20).
To a righteous man faith is essential in his walk with God. “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “The righteous man shall live by faith.” (Galatians 3:11; Romans