Posted by
Good Al on Saturday, July 11, 2009 10:21:09 PM
Henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them
also that LOVE HIS APPEARING. (2 Tim 4:8)
Is the Apostle Paul speaking of loving Jesus' appearing now
or later? YES. Jesus has come in a body, he is coming in the spirit in
a many membered body right now, and he will come again in "like manner"
in a body (Acts 1:11)
When will he come again in like manner as he left in Acts
1? As soon as the bride, his church has prepared herself. It is a
matter of "till" not "when."
Till we all come in the unity of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians
4:13)
The church is not there yet, but
those who "agapao" love His appearing will know. God is gathering
together, or assembling, his body in this present age.
He that is not with me is against me:
and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. (Luke
11:23)
He is come, present tense, in
the flesh.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every
spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of
God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof
ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the
world. (1 John 4:2-3)
Do you love his
appearing now? Are you seeing him in the flesh? And why is He come in
the flesh?
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. (Romans 8:29)
The work
of the spirit is to bring us up to the realm of God and out of the dust
of carnality--to walk in the spirit. To be partakers of the divine
nature. If I deny that in my life, and continually shun the conviction
of the Holy Ghost, I am rooted in rebellion and the purpose of God will
lie dormant. God is working on "those that love his appearing" to
produce a people that have his image or character.
That he
might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish. (Ephesians 5:27)
By
implication, "those that love his appearing" are those that are planted
where God desires them to be for his purpose. Those that run from the
bounds of their habitation as determined by God will not be conformed.
Where there is no accountability, there is no conforming to the image
of the son. We must discern the Lord's body properly. As we submit to
the Father's will and follow on to know him, we come to find our place
and recognize those that labor among us. We begin to see Christ in a
people, how we each fit in, and the vital necessity of each person. We
are going in together. There will be no lone rangers.
He will be seen in operation in a
corporate body before he will return in like manner as he left in
bodily form. Each part must come together in its proper place. We are
to be partners in Christ--we each play a part.
For the
earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of
the sons of God. (Romans 8:19)
So I
don't look to the clouds in the sky, but to the body of Christ for his
appearing. We are to be conformed to the image of the Son and brought
into the unity of the faith. There will be a body that is one with the
Father and one to another.
[As a side note, what was that manner described in Acts 1?
He went from the visible to the invisible--a one step process. That
begs the question why so many "theories" have multi-steps. I am not
ashamed of this Gospel, and I will teach the whole counsel of God.
There is much that I will write and teach that will not agree with
people's religiosity. Good. If you are never stretched you will never
grow. True apostolic ministry will stretch you, and my church Crown & Glory Bible
Center, led by Apostle Donald Rodenberger, has an apostolic
burden to strengthen and build up the body of Christ. There
are so many man-made and hand me down doctrines in the church that
people don't know what to believe. Hand me down doctrines are those
things we just assume to be true because we heard others teach them. We
just assume them to be true out of respect to the office of authority
of the ministers that we hear from. True revelation will come to those
that have submitted themselves to the will of the Father, and it is
revealed by the spirit. It does not come from theology class. Without
the infilling of the Holy Ghost, you will never catch true revelation
in the spirit, and you will not walk in your full destiny. Of course,
much of religion tells me the baptism of the Holy Ghost was
just for them in the early church. Well, I am living it. A man with an
experience is not at the expense of one with an
argument.]