February 2001

[Part 93]

“Issues of the heart”

[Part Eleven]

The TARGET does not choose its ARCHER! [B]

The Lord revealed to me some 15 years ago what was well-restated in a recent issue of our sister, Elaine Cook’s “Gospel of the Kingdom”, that just as the First Adam did not consult with the seeds of future human generations hid in his loins before he made his fateful choice to plunge us all into DEATH, neither did the Last Christ-Adam consult the Seeds of future spiritual generations before raising us up to LIFE ETERNAL! It is written,“God commended His LOVE for us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!” (Ro 5:8) In other words, as we had no choice but to be born “dead in sins”, then “God, out of His wealth of Mercy and Love by which He loved us, has quickened us together with Christ- while we were dead in sins- (for by Grace we are saved) and has raised us up together to make us sit together in heavenly places ‘IN’ Christ Jesus! And He did all this so that, in ages to come, He could display the super-abundant riches of His Grace and Kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus!” (Eph 2:4-7)
               To put this in still simpler terms: God arranged both the fall of all men together into flesh, as well as the raising up of all men together in the Spirit, through Christ Jesus! We had no choice in either the first or last eventuality! God chose to house our second and last estate of spirit inside our first estate of flesh like a“Treasure hid in earthen vessels” (2 Co 4:7) or as “Gideon’s candle hid in a clay pitcher” to be broken open and reveal the light within when a trumpet sounded and his 3-0-0 warriors shouted to a h-o-s-t of enemies, “The Sword of the Lord and Gideon!” (Jg 8:20) [“The Sword of the Spirit...is the Word of God” (Ep 6:17); and the name, Gideon (Heb 1439), means: “A feller or hewer of trees [i.e., a woodcutter or lumberjack]; also a warrior who breaks or bruises; one who is able to cut down, cut asunder or destroy anything (esp. iniquity)!”]
             God says, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord that searches our inward parts!” (Pr 20:27) This“candle” is hid in the “pitchers” of our humanity as a “Wheel within a wheel” (Eze 1:16) When God forced man’s wicked flesh to rule over the earth first, He extinguished that candle of his spirit, so “The Light of the wicked would be put out; and the spark of his fire would not shine; thus the Light in his tabernacle would be dark!” (Jb 18:5-6) “The Light of the Body is the eye (of understanding, Ep 1:18; 4:18) therefore if your eye be single (to God) your whole body is full of Light; but if your eye (understanding) is evil, your whole body is full of darkness; and if the LIGHT that is in you ‘BE’ DARKNESS, how great is that darkness!” (Mt 6:22-23) Of these minds of Light and Darkness, “Greater is He that is IN YOU than he that is IN THE WORLD!” (1 Jn 4:4) Every mind of flesh is born exiled in a dark world in which he is forced to make his way as best he can (without the Light of Truth to guide His steps) as an evil blind man amidst other evil blind men! It is understandable that such ones who must cope in such a sightless, perilous existence would be “Subject to a lifetime bondage to a fear of death!” (He 2:15)
            Job once cried out in his desperation, “Oh, if I were again...in the days when God watched and preserved me and His Candle shined on my head so, by His Light, I was able to walk through this terrible darkness! In my youthful days, the Secret of God was upon my tabernacle because the Almighty was with me...!” (Jb 29:2-3) David also cried out to God not looking back, but looking ahead in faith saying, “You, O Lord, shall light my candle! Yes, the Lord my God shall enlighten my darkness!” (Ps 18:28) And how does God ignite the spark that lights our darkened existence? By His“Quickening Spirit” (1 Co 15:45), His CHRIST, Who is, of course, “The True Light that LIGHTS EVERY MAN WHO COMES INTO THE WORLD”(Jn 1:9); until one day there shall be no more darkness left in the world! God says His Word is full of His Life and that His Life is the Light of men” (Jn 1:4); so that once all men are ignited as “lights of the world” (Php 2:15) the whole world will be full of the “Light of Life”! (Jn 8:12) Hallelujah! The world is about to see the firstfruits of this Light of Life in a people on the earth who shall “Bring forth the Righteousness (of Christ) as the Light, and manifest His Judgments as the noonday!” (Ps 37:6)

[TO BE CONTINUED]