The Christ of God, that anointed body of people living on the face of the earth today, is the instrument in the hands of God for this day. With it, He is going to bring one age to a close and bring another age into being.
The Rock of Ages is preparing to show yet another facet of His personality: that of King. Men have been ruled by every ungodly force imaginable until the vessel no longer knows its Maker. It has become so warped, has strayed do far from its intended use, that it has completely lost its value. The time has come when it must be reshaped.
I am talking about the church, the instrument of the Living God, that vessel which was made to hold His very likeness, into which, as His hands held and shaped it, He planned to pour His very life, His own Person and personality. But the vessel has become too weakened to hold the commodity and no amount of patchwork can make it sound and safe again, and leak-proof. Every patch only tends to weaken the strands to which it is attached. They can only tear apart under the stress and lose the Life entrusted to them. So God has undertaken the task of breaking up the malformed clay and remolding it into a useful instrument, and instrument fitted to His purpose. Any attempt to hold together the old shape, to preserve its antiquated form, can only end in catastrophe.
Rebellion can have no place in this day and hour. Its end has come. Its time is up. Now, either every fragment yields itself to the hands of the potter or it is thrown out as scrap. The people of God are finding themselves in the Valley of Decision. Will they yield to the day and age that has come upon them, or will they go on in the frustrations and failures of the closing age? The old was is familiar, if fruitless. The new way is strange and untried: the way of death and resurrection. What will emerge as the old factions go down to make way for a new and living body: a church so united in Spirit that differences of opinion can find no place to lay hold and grasp a victim? What will happen as the individual walks out on the old ways of fleshly effort and useless works and begins to entrust himself to another Life living within him: seeking no way of reformation except that which springs forth from the Life that has been lying dormant within him, waiting for this opportunity? Only they who are willing to take the risk will ever know the answer.
The power of resurrection is the very threshold through which the new age it to be entered. As it goes in the individual member, so will it go in the body. As every fragment is magnetized with a power far outside of its own potential, the instrument will come forth so tightly compacted that it will be impossible for the commodity it holds to escape and lay wasted.
The new wine of the kingdom is already beginning to do its work. Fermentation has already begun, and nothing can stop the spreading of the Life that is at work. A little leaven has already begun to work in the loaf, and every morsel it touches is destined to experience its power and vitality.
The church of the living God is on the march. It is not something you can see or lay your hands upon, for it comes without observation. You cannot say: “it is here,” or “it is there;” for as the lightning comes from the east and shines even to the west, from one end of heaven to the other, so is the kingdom of the Son of Man. No man can point it out. It is just there, invisible and invincible as the leavening process continues its relentless path. A power for good, as relentless and set on reaching its destination as a horde of army ants set upon continuing their overpowering invasion. These ants find a way to overcome every obstacle. Nothing is considered insurmountable as they pursue their course. The very nature that is within them drives them on to the end.
The difference between ant and the son of God is that the ant does not choose his nature; he is endowed with it through no choice of his own. But the member of the body of Christ is there because he wants to be. He has entered a battle that is a fight to the death for the privilege of being there, and the death of his old life has left place for the leaven on the kingdom to begin its work. To a body of people so conceived and brought forth, nothing is impossible. They are afraid of nothing, for they have already faced death and overcome it through the power of the Life that is within them. This is the true church of Jesus Christ, His very own body, and with it and through it He will rule until every enemy is put beneath His feet. Anything less than this has no place on earth in that day of the Lord that has already come upon us. Joel gives a description of these people of God marching on to victory, overpowering every force that stands against them: this army with which God has chosen to fight His battle against sin and degradation. It is the instrument with which He will wrest the earth from the hands of the usurper. God did not create this earth to be ruled by the forces that have seized upon it and brought about the state of chaos that surrounds us today.
The fruit of the spirits which control the minds of men today has wrought a destruction from which there is no escape. The rushing of these winds has reaped a whirlwind. Greed, as it reaches the day of it consummation, brings forth its harvest. Mean are at one another’s throats, ready to kill for gain. Our streets are unsafe, our governments resemble gangsters mobs. Not even our homes are inviolate.
The times is ripe for God to bring forth His army. The ranks are in the process of formation. Every man holds his sword in his hand awaiting the command to charge and God is preparing to utter His voice before His army. The day of prophetic utterance is being ushered in as God speaks through His recruits. The true battle of Armageddon is ready to break. The troops are gathered in the Valley of Decision, where God and the arch enemy are making a pitch for the minds of men, and God is going to win this battle.
What God wants of His people in this hour is a yielding up of their hearts and minds to Him. A complete surrender of the will. In this state of mind the believer becomes one with his Creator, and goes forth in the supernatural power of the Life of God that is flowing within. It is this anointing, this Christ within, that is the hope of both present and future glory. Minds controlled by the forces of evil have brought the earth into a chaotic state, and mind controlled by the glory of God are going to bring it out, until God takes it and crowns it with a diadem of His glory so brilliant that the stars of the heavens are compelled to bow before it. It is the larger fulfillment of Joseph’s dream when he beheld the stars of his brothers bowing to his own. This earth is to be brought forth in all its glory and set forth as a throne where God will dwell in the hearts of men and rule the universe, even to the furthermost galaxy. So is the day of the Lord in the Kingdom of our God!