Jesus declared that the gospel of the kingdom must be ministered throughout the whole world for a witness to all nations and then the consummation would come. We believe that we are living in the hour of the fulfillment of all these things; in the hour of restoration; in the hour when God is moving one more time in the earth in one of the greatest visitations of His Spirit every before witnessed by mankind; in the hour that the words of the Prophet Joel shall be fulfilled wherein he declared that God would pour out of His Spirit on all flesh, without respect of men’s persons, and that our sons and daughters would begin to rise up and prophesy the wonderful works of God and many great and wonderful things would take place upon the face of the earth before that great day of the Lord comes.
And so, today, I know that many of you feel that God has apprehended you, has laid His hand upon your life, for something greater than you have ever yet realized in you existence; and, today, God would bring you a message that these things can be fully realized in your heart and life today.
We do not overcome sin by struggling with it. We do not overcome difficulty by struggling with it, or striving with it; but we overcome sin by faith, by faith in a finished work. In fact, everything that has to do without our life is in the realm of faith; whether it be salvation; whether it be the receiving of the Holy Spirit; whether it be the receiving of spiritual gifts; or whether it be any other phase of the Christian life; it has to basically and finally with a living, divine faith that proceeds out from the Living God and is available to all men everywhere. So, therefore, it is coming into a relationship with a Life, with a new kind of life, with a different kind of life. It is not merely the obeying of something, neither the climbing up the ladder of works to attain unto some high position, but is a relationship with a divine Life, until we can come to know Him in the full power, the full strength of His resurrection.
So today is a day of restoration. We repeat that word very much because it’s a word that bears repeating. Restoration means to restore; to give back; to make alive; to quicken; to enhance; to adorn; to build up; to return something that was lost, or something that was mislaid, or something that was dormant because of lack of use; and when we consider the things of God today, we find that there are many things that God made available for us that we never though possible, nor dreamt that they could ever be brought into being in the life of a human being.
As Jesus walked along, it says to us that men were astonished at His doctrine, or at His teaching, because He spoke of new things, beyond compare. He spoke of things that men had never dreamt of before. At the same time He touched old things and made them come to life again. He touched nothing that He did not adorn. He adorned the city of Nazareth which was very lowly esteemed in that hour. He adorned every life that He touched, whether it be a leper; whether it be a sinner; whether it be a dead person. He adorned every life that He touched. He even adorned the cross, and He even adorned the name of Jesus, which was a common name. In fact, it was almost as common as the name of Smith or Jones, but He adorned it with a wonderful manifestation of life and strength, and power and authority and He opened the inner meaning of the Scriptures.
Now Jesus declared that there would come another day of the Son of Man, that there would come an hour when the Son of Man ministry would be revealed once again in the earth, not merely in an individual, but it a corporate body; in a united body; in a body of people that would become the corporate expression of this wonderful Christ life, for this life of Christ is too great in magnitude to be expressed through one individual. It is too great, in compasses too much, to be revealed through one person, so, therefore, it needs a many-membered body in order to bring all of the various attributes, and virtues and wonderful things peculiar to God. Every person has a specific divine gift that can be their portion.
That means, today, that regardless of who you are, or what you are, you were not just born to be a human being and to go through life frustrated, to go through life without finding anything definite and secure and real in the sense of finding God. But you were born in order to find something, rather to be found of God. You were born to arrive at a position of security, strength and power in order to be a blessing to your fellowman. So God needs this many-membered body in which each individual has a specific place. The Bible calls it “members in particular,” meaning that every one is a member in particular, has a ministry.
Now as Jesus journeyed along and taught on the hillside, taught the disciples that He called from their fish nets, He taught them on the hillside in order that He might bring each and every one of them into the place of divine function that they were supposed to be. So, as He taught them, certain things began to spring up in their lives, things that they never dreamt possible, in their being. We find certain things coming into view in Peter’s life, and in James, and John, and all the rest of the disciples. In fact, into the life of every person that Jesus touched there was something that came into expression that was not there before. There was an adornment in that life, and the person made a great discovery that they had certain things available to them that they had never thought possible.
Who would ever have thought that Peter could stand up on the day of Pentecost, even though he was a failure, even though he had denied Christ twice, and be moved upon by the creative Spirit of God, and actually see a dispensation change; actually see something born in the earth that would meet the need of that hour? Who would have thought that any man that God had used to change the course of history, to change and remove kings and set up kings, to change the flight of armies and turn them to the rear, would have been available to God in such a circumstance as that? But, beloved, our Living God takes up the lowest, the weakest things of this life, and confounds the mighty. He takes the unlearned and confounds those that are filled with earthly wisdom. He takes those who are weak and uses them to express divine power and strength. And, so, today, in the restoration message, it’s something more than just adhering to and believing a certain creed; it’s the actual discovering of your place in God. It’s the actual operation of something.
For many years in my Christian life I went along in just the mundane way of worshipping God. I went along in a way wherein there was a dissatisfaction within met. There was something in my crying out for a fullness that I had not yet realized and, as I looked around, I saw that it was not only in myself, but it was in the other people that I was associated with; it was even in the ones who were ministering to me. How could I rise any higher than the ministry that was coming to me? For no man can rise any higher than the ministry he has his eyes focused upon. And, so, today, in the restoration there is a ministry of Christ coming upon the scene, not just a ministry of theology; that may have its place and we would certain not belittle anything that is doing good, or accomplishing anything for good for a human being.
But we are saying that there is a pungent ministry, peculiar to the Spirit of Christ, being restored in the church world in order that it might flow out to the people of the world, for the church should be the leader in everything. It should be the leader in any advance. It should be the leader in every good relationship between humanity. It should be the leader in breaking down every middle wall of partition that divides God’s people; and so, for that reason, there must come a restoration in the church that it might come to a full realization of its existence, that it might come to know what it really stands for.
Jesus Christ said, “Upon this rock I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” He did not think of the church as being something that was peculiarly great in the political realm, or in the social realm, or in some other realm. Those things all have a part, there is no question about it, but Jesus was speaking about that peculiar power that would be peculiar to His church, wherein the gates of hell would not stand against it. It would overcome the evil. It would be as the salt of the earth, the preservative that would come forth and flow out to humanity and bring life where there was corruption; bring life where there was death; bring healing where there was disease; bring an anointing upon people’s lives. Not that people would become so heavenly that they are no earthly good, but that full realization of what we mean as human beings might come into existence, and the KNOWLEDGE of the Glory of God might flow out and cover the earth as the waters cover the sea; the knowledge of His true estimate; the knowledge of His love; that God would be revealed in a new and living way, and it would be made known to men that He is not interested in natural shrines; not interested in epic stones; not interested in creeds and dogmas; but that He is interested in bringing into being a living personality within you and me so that our minds become united with His mind, and our persons becomes united with His person, so that we do not have to declare what we are, but it becomes evident by the FACT of what we are; that this wonderful love that was revealed in Christ becomes the portion of our lives and of our existence.
Now I am not speaking to you of something that’s afar off, or that’s hard to reach; I am speaking to you of something that’s as simple as the breath that flows through your nostrils; that it is through FAITH today that you overcome. Every day we meet so many people who want prayer, and I find that their whole need in involved in the fact that they are trying to reach this glory by being good. They are trying to reach it by obeying something and it is hard for them to come to the place where they see the simplicity of faith, that by believing in something that’s already done that very thing becomes the expression of our life.
And so, today, I’m going to ask you to believe with me in the name of the lord Jesus Christ, regardless of what your need might be. If you are bound spiritually, physically, mentally, in any way, begin to believe with me, and begin to declare the victory of the Lord with your mouth, believe in your heart and declare with your mouth. Begin to ACT upon it. You know you will only act upon what you believe and, as you begin to act upon it, it’s a positive thing and it will bring positive results in your life as you begin to DECLARE the victory of the Living God!