I want to say something this morning about
rule.
And indeed the word rule has its appearance
early in scripture, even in the dominion mandate
that I referred to previously in Genesis 1.
Verse 26 of that first chapter we read,
Then God said, Let us make men in
our image according to our likeness, and let
them rule over the fish of the sea,
over the birds of the sky, over the
cattle and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
And God created men in his own image,
and in the image of God he created
him male and female.
He created them and God blessed them, and
God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth and subdue it, and
rule over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the sky and over
everything that moves on the earth.
The difference between dominion and domination is that
dominion is intended for those who are made
in his image and who are conscious of
their creator and of the mandate that is
given and bring his law and his rule
into the earth in the spirit of the
king himself.
Man honors God by fulfilling this dominion mandate
and this honors him by refusing it.
I wrote a quote here into my Bible,
the idea that men are responsible as faithful
servants to bring the whole world under the
rule of God's law is repulsive to the
vast majority of his professing Christians.
And yet from the very first, God brings
to us the concept of rule, of dominion
and of mandate.
Another writer says that sin is the attempt
of self-proclaiming autonomous men to exercise humanistic
dominion apart from God or God's law order.
No longer exercising a power under God or
to his glory but a perverse desire to
be as God.
That's domination as distinguished from dominion.
The two things that go together is he
made man in his image and man who
is conscious of that creation and the responsibility
that is implied in it is called to
rule over the earth that God has made.
There are a number of scriptures that speak
of rule and I just want to cite
a few without the time to make any
kind of comment about them.
Remember in 1 Corinthians 6 Paul talks to
those who are ready to bring a matter
of the body to the secular courts.
In verse 2 of chapter 6 Do you
not know that the saints will judge the
world?
The word judge and rule is virtually synonymous
and the judges in the ancient Hebrew economy
were rulers.
Do you not know that the saints shall
judge the world and if this world shall
be judged by you are you unworthy to
judge the smallest matters?
Know you not that we shall judge angels?
How much more things that pertain to this
life.
1 Corinthians 15 verse 24 Then comes the
end when he shall deliver up the kingdom
to God even the Father when he shall
have put down all rule and all authority
and power for he must reign till he
hath put all enemies under his feet the
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death
for he hath put all things under his
feet but when he sayeth all things are
put under him it is manifest that he
is accepted which did put all things under
him and when all things shall be subdued
unto him the same word as in the
dominion passage then shall the Son also himself
be subject unto him that put all things
under him that God may be all in
all he must reign until needs to be
seen in connection with 1 Corinthians 9 7
of the increase of his government and peace
there shall be no end upon the throne
of David and upon his kingdom to order
it and to establish it with judgment and
with justice from henceforth even forever so from
the advent of the Son something has been
brought into being that has no end and
is continually being increased until all authority and
rule shall be under his feet and I
leave it to you to understand what the
word feet represents in terms of the symbolism
of the body of Christ that the authority
that is coming under the rule of the
Son till all kingdoms shall come under his
rule and shall be given to the Father
comes first under the feet which is to
say the body that is a continuous and
a progressive activity that it began with the
advent of the Messiah for of the increase
of his government and his peace there shall
be no end from henceforth even forever these
scriptures speak to me of a continuum, an
unbroken rule and reign of the mandate of
dominion through the church that is continuous until
the appearing of the Lord when he shall
himself complete it in his coming Revelation 2
.26 and he that overcometh and keepeth my
words unto the end to him will I
give power over the nations and he shall
rule them with a rod of iron as
the vessels of a potter shall they be
broken to shivers even as I receive of
my Father and I will give him the
morning star and he that hath an ear
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto
the churches in the book of Daniel in
the 7th chapter the vision that came to
Daniel that was so great that when he
proclaimed it to Nebuchadnezzar an earthly, secular, and
Babylonian king the king came down on his
face before the splendor of the vision that
was given to this Hebrew saint in chapter
7, verse 13 I saw in the night
visions and behold one like the Son of
Man came with the clouds of heaven and
came to the ancient of days and they
brought him near before him and there was
given him dominion and glory and the kingdom
it was given him implies that something was
in formation before his coming the church has
in modern times I think had a rather
different concept that the king when he comes
brings the kingdom we have no obligation toward
it it comes in one fell swoop automatically
with his coming but what seems to be
implied here in the other scriptures that I've
read is that something is coming progressively under
the feet of him which is his body
that brings increasingly all rule and authority unto
him that when he comes he doesn't come
simply to bring the kingdom he comes to
complete it and to occupy that which was
prepared for him that the kingdom is an
ongoing activity in which we need to be
engaged now there was given him dominion and
glory and the kingdom Paul says in Thessalonians
that we should walk worthy of the manner
to which we were called unto the kingdom
and the glory that all people, nations and
languages should serve him his dominion is an
everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in
his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed
verse 18 but the saints of the most
high shall take the kingdom and possess the
kingdom forever even for ever and ever verse
22 until the ancient of days came and
judgment was given to the saints of the
most high and the time came that the
saints possessed the kingdom verse 27 and the
kingdom and dominion these are synonyms and the
greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven
shall be given to the people of the
saints of the most high whose kingdom is
an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve
and obey him hitherto is the end of
the matter these are just some scriptures that
pertain and periodically express themselves through both Old
and New Testament scriptures to suggest the rule
and reign of God through saints in the
earth and I think that our whole concept
of reigning and of government needs to be
understood in the kingdom way because that word
like every word has suffered atrociously in our
generation when we think today of government and
administration we think of paper shufflers we think
of bureaucrats we think of men occupying office
it's a kind of a drudge a wearisome
and a monotonous activity but we have not
understood that rule and reign in God is
a far different thing from the way that
it has been secularly handled the office of
government is an educational office it has to
do with raising the whole quality of life
it is inspirational it's not just merely administrative
it teaches men how to live it brings
the moral dimension of God into the practical
realities of the life and the conduct of
men and that's why I said yesterday that
righteousness and truth have no point of entry
into the earth except through the church as
the channel of the holiness of God except
that the church provide the contrast there's no
way for the world even to see the
issues of truth and that's why we're told
let your light so shine that they may
see your good works and glorify your father
which is in heaven and though our father
and our king is in heaven the works
that we do by the enablement of his
life glorifies him for it reveals his light
his righteousness and his truth another statement only
a biblical people know the effect upon society
and nature itself by the repentance, prayer and
obedience of God's people and this concept is
wholly alien and lost to modern and materialistic
men only the people of God know the
efficacy of repentance and prayer as it affects
practical things in the life of men therefore
the scriptures address to us when my people
who are called by my name will humble
themselves and pray and seek my face suggest
a kind of prayer that is more than
just polite or religious it's a humbling prayer
a prayer accompanied by fasting by the stretching
of ourselves out before God when my people
who are called by my name will humble
themselves and pray and seek my face I
will hear from heaven and forgive them first
their iniquity and heal their land only we
know that we know those verses and we
know the God who gave those verses and
we know the God who will honor that
kind of prayer we know that wholesome living
and authentic faith has redeeming effect upon man's
environment all you need to do is travel
a bit in the world as is my
privilege and come out at certain airports or
certain countries or certain capitals or cross certain
borders and the atmosphere distinctly changes in one
fell swoop you can feel the actual oppression
in the air you can feel the unrighteousness
and the holiness unholiness and the perversity which
prevails in certain lands that know not God
and do not have a vital presence in
their nation as the church praying and bringing
the radiance and the presence and the peace
of God into their countries we're spoiled because
we enjoy that here far more than we
know but we ourselves have not sufficiently recognized
that the righteousness of the saints their conduct
before God the presence that they constitute in
the earth and in nations has a redeeming
effect even upon their own society just as
a local illustration when we came to Cass
Lake and in the early years there was
as I mentioned yesterday racial tension between the
Indians and the white kids in the school
there was a pot continually on the stove
seething, threatening to boil over some of our
own kids who then were in their early
high school years elected to conduct a daily
prayer meeting at the Cass Lake High School
they began in the room I think the
room was taken from them and they went
down to the boiler room if I'm not
mistaken but from the day of that prayer
the atmosphere of the school changed and there
has never been from that day to this
a racial eruption it's a little minute or
minuscule illustration of the efficacy of prayer and
the presence of God's people in affecting the
secular situation in which men live their lives
when I went to Kenya in my first
trip to Africa about a year ago it
was only a few weeks after a coup
a military attempt to take rule had taken
place it was a one day coup it
was violent and it was bloody there were
a number of rapes and pillaging and lootings
and the body of Christ in Kenya was
stung because they had looked upon their nation
as being the most politically stable of all
of the African nations there had never been
an incident of that kind previously as has
been the history of almost every African nation
in the continual upset of rule and coups
and takeovers of power by force from that
day to this the saints elected to have
a daily noon prayer meeting in Nairobi and
from that day to this a political peace
has prevailed in that nation we need to
have our eyes opened to the realities that
come by our prayer in concert as it
affects the conduct of nations and the atmosphere
in which people have their life and their
being wholesome living and authentic faith have a
redeeming effect upon man's environment whereas wickedness and
unbelief have an opposite and ill effect upon
it man's cumulative sins trigger earth's convulsions and
if we don't recognize that earthquakes, social upheavals
violent revolutions nature itself groaning and vomiting up
the things that are unholy and unrighteous we
do not see as God himself sees we
ourselves have allowed our minds to be conditioned
by Time Magazine and Newsweek and we see
and we interpret national and international events in
the same secular way as the world itself
does and do not see the hand of
God as judgment in the earth when I
spoke in Japan and this was without premeditation
before a conference of ministers I said to
them that the atom bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki was not the result of some arbitrary
and capricious decision of American political and military
officers it was a judgment of God upon
a nation that has historically rejected God and
the truth of God a nation that is
eclectic which is to say that draws from
many different religions to fashion for itself an
expedient kind of religion that serves the purposes
of the state and has no desire to
know God in truth it's no accident that
the word sin is not even to be
found in the Japanese language and that I
said that the atom bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki the cities that were engulfed in flames
were a preliminary judgment and a mercy of
God because God's judgments are not punitive they
are redemptive to save that nation from an
eternal fire that will not be quenched I
can't begin now just in the mere rehearsing
of this to describe to you the enormous
unction that was upon those words when I
spoke them to an unsuspecting Japanese audience of
ministers but one minister and you know the
Japanese propensity for saving face leaped up out
of his seat the tears were streaming down
his face and he cried out God he
said make me a prophet unto my own
nation when the fact of the matter is
that the church itself ought to be that
prophetic presence in the nation to interpret for
the nations the meaning not only of their
histories but of their present circumstances why their
presidents are assassinated why their societies come to
a boil why there's racial turbulence why there's
calamities of nature and freakish storms and other
kinds of devastations we need to see as
God sees and we need to interpret the
meaning of the events of our society to
the nations itself that they might repent and
acknowledge God who is already judging them the
reason that we have failed to exercise this
prophetic office as the church is that we
do not ourselves recognize God as judge even
in our own lives personally therefore we suffer
our accidents and our broken legs and our
various other kinds of things and dismiss them
as happenstance because we do not see by
the spirit because we are not in the
environment and apostolic atmosphere in which God intends
for us to live our lives and because
we've allowed the secular world so much to
shape and to mold our thoughts man's cumulative
sins trigger earth's convulsions especially in those lands
that have the knowledge of the righteousness of
God and refuse to walk in it the
world's present turmoil is an indictment against a
self-indulgent and prayerless church and if righteousness
is to reign it can happen now if
God's people will function in the dimension of
spiritual life and authority available to them only
together in Christ you guys taking notes?
these are remarkable statements and they need to
be pondered again and again I want to
repeat this last one if righteousness is to
reign if we are to fulfill the dominion
mandate if we are to rule and reign
if we are to bring all things under
the authority of Christ and under his feet
if righteousness is to reign it can happen
now if God's people will function in the
dimension of spiritual life and authority available to
them only together in Christ those last words
are the key together in Christ I'm going
to have something to say about that in
just a moment and we said something about
it already earlier today this is more than
just being alongside each other in pews this
is together in a quality of integration and
relationship of which the world knows nothing it's
being together in truth and in love and
if we will function together in that spiritual
authority that comes to us only corporately together
in Christ righteousness can reign now it can
affect our high schools it can affect the
atmosphere of our communities it can affect the
decisions of our governments it can affect the
quality of relationships between nations it can affect
race relations that will either come to a
boil and bring another kind of holocaust or
a remarkable peace and reconciliation we need to
come alive to the enormous task that is
before us as the church functioning in spiritual
authority and power together in Christ the kingdom
of God is not waiting for the extermination
of all evil to begin it is the
very functioning of the kingdom which uproots the
evil of the increase of his government and
of his peace there shall be no end
henceforth even forever the church is the necessary
point of reference and standard in the earth
only the church has a prophetic history only
the church knows the theocracy of God only
the church knows the consequence for Israel in
disobedience and apostasy only the church knows that
man is culpable and responsible and is in
danger of imminent judgment only we know because
we have such a history only we know
because we know what God has done with
regard to Israel when they have refused to
walk in his statutes and in his ordinances
and in his law but we're not living
as if we know and we're not communicating
that knowledge to the secular and the unbelieving
around us and it says of the history
of Israel which is written in the blood
and the sweat and tears of that people
that these things are written for our admission
upon whom the ends of the age have
come we need to have a totally different
view of the scripture another attitude toward the
quote Old Testament has something more than just
some quaint reference to ancient history that has
no valid application today we need to see
the unbroken continuum of God's ages old intent
through men in the earth from the beginning
our covenant mandate is to the world you
are the light of the world you are
the soul of the earth and now I
come to the substance of this morning's talk
what is the basis for our rule?
by what authority do we rule?
how is kingdom rule established?
there's a ruling concept thy kingdom come in
earth as in heaven there's a ruling motive
the glory of God and his kingdom there's
a ruling mandate in dominion and let them
rule there's a ruling opposition the principalities and
powers and the rulers of darkness there's a
ruling authority and a power all authority is
given unto me in heaven and earth go
ye therefore behold I have given you jurisdiction
over all the power of the enemy and
you shall receive power when the Holy Ghost
comes upon you what I want to speak
about now is what is the position by
which we move in the authority and the
power of God there can never be power
except that we are in the right position
in God God will only put his power
in those who are in the authoritative position
that is the position that is incorporated into
his death, burial, resurrection, ascension and reign in
their present experience what I'm doing now is
raising the cross and I want to speak
about the centrality of the cross in terms
of the kingdom the cross has established for
us a position and the only place that
God will honor us with his power and
authority is in that position with regard to
the cross to reject the cross by a
bland dismissal or only to acknowledge it theoretically
but not actually is to lose the only
place available to us by which the power
of God and the authority of God can
be expressed as rule and reign in the
earth the jurisdiction of Christ through his cross
has to function through the members of his
body in concert this is not just an
individual matter see this whole individualistic thing which
is so in keeping with the spirit of
the world has blinded us to the genius
of the corporateness of God I think a
good figure for this is Israel passing through
the Jordan together as a people to enter
the land, to possess the land on the
wilderness side they were yet a mob but
when they came up through the Jordan and
on to the other side they became a
disciplined army prepared for the taking of the
land they went as it were through a
corporate death together entirely as a people Jordan
means descent into death and they came up
on the kingdom side prepared for the taking
of the land in the authority that is
not given to a rabble or to a
mob but to an army that acts in
concert and in union under authority without whimpering,
without complaining, without murmuring without the expressing of
its individualistic tendencies or its rebellion or its
criticism every man it says in his place
giving one shout in the appointed moment of
God that brought the walls down that is
a picture of the mode by which we
are to possess the land at the end
of the age one shout many voices constituting
one in the moment of God not when
we feel like it or don't feel like
it as is our present tendency are you
coming to the meeting?
well I'll see if I feel like it
but at people under authority because the things
that are contrary to the authority of God
namely our individualism our rebellion, our self-will
the variableness of our feelings have been crucified
and buried in the descent unto Jordan now
I tell you that if we're just speaking
posy if this is just a little sleight
of hand a little biblical flourish and these
things have no actual meaning or possibility of
attainment we have no position, no power, no
authority, no rule I'm staking all on the
cross I believe that God has made available
to us a position that can actually be
appropriated that there's a death that's available to
us in experience and not just hypothetically and
theoretically and it's the key to the dunamis
of God that is given to those who
have passed through that death because it says
in Exodus 30 about the holy anointing oil
that it shall not be poured upon flesh
this oil which is the authority of God
and the unction of God for the performing
of kingdom things and the taking of the
land and the establishing his rule shall not
be poured on flesh it's a holy unction
and upon man's flesh it shall not be
poured the only place that I know for
flesh where it can be safely consigned is
to the cross of Christ Jesus and it's
been my observation as I approach my 20th
year as a believer and myself the product
of an evangelical and charismatic generation that if
there's been any subject that has suffered a
complete...
what's the word?
dismissal and indifference it's the cross of Christ
Jesus I'm even stung by God to recognize
that in my own life there has been
a progressive deterioration and a moving away from
the reality of the cross in my earlier
years, in my simplicity and naivety I believed
the cross, I believed the reality I believed
Romans 6 I believed burial unto death but
as I went on somehow it began to
dissipate I didn't want to be so bold
as to proclaim that let anyone say, what
are you the evidence?
to say that to see you is to
see Christ that to hear you is to
hear Christ that you can say with Paul
for me to live as Christ because I'm
crucified with him yet I live yet not
I every pressure religiously and secularly is to
contradict that testimony and to move us away
from our position in the cross do you
know why?
because the devil recognizes better than we it
is the only position that he needs fear
he is not afraid of our innate humanity
he's not afraid of our programs of evangelism
he's not afraid of our devices our religious
rhetoric he's only afraid of the cross because
the cross has permanently and eternally robbed him
of the basis for his authority and power
and nothing else only thus can we become
the instruments of that authority over the power
of the enemy in every sphere where his
victory that is the victory of Jesus is
not yet recognized by putting out of action
the works of the devil this is wrought
out progressively only on the ground of Calvary
because on that ground, that is the Lamb
slain the ground of the evil power judicially
and morally was broken I'm saying these things
for the first time I have never before
said them I have never before understood them
and I can't even say now that I
understand them as I ought but here's what
I want to say to you with all
that's in me we need to understand what
is the constituent moral makeup of the cosmos
we need to understand the largest sense in
which the whole spiritual drama is being enacted
but we have been fixated as Christians evangelically
and fundamentally at the narrowest level of the
cross only in terms of atonement and I'm
not in any way decrying that or none
of us would be here but we have
not seen the issue of the cross in
the things that go beyond the mere issue
of atonement the issue of atonement has to
do with man in time but there are
issues that pertain to the cross that go
beyond time and into eternity and even into
the heavenlies that fulfill a moral requirement of
God for God is a moral creator and
a moral basis is the foundation for the
whole creation and the whole conflict between light
and darkness and the kingdom of our God
and the kingdom of the devil is a
moral conflict between two kinds of kingdoms opposed
on moral grounds what happened at Calvary was
a defeat for the enemy on his moral
and judicial ground by another kind of morality
that completely contradicted his own the morality of
unrighteousness is predicated upon force upon violence upon
fear upon intimidation upon threat upon manipulation upon
self interest upon vanity upon ego but another
came as the lamb slain in meekness endured
all of the power of hell poured out
upon him on the moral grounds of hell
itself and death and triumphed in patient endurance
and love that prayed and loved its enemies
and had mercy upon them a moral victory
was won at the cross on the basis
of a lamb slain and that is the
basis also for our victory that ever as
often as we in the same meekness and
the same endurance of adversity in uncomplaining love
will pursue the things of God and the
opposition that will come against us increasingly because
of our kingdom pursuit to that degree we
shall make manifest the triumph that was established
2000 years ago at Calvary and on no
other basis the cross is the key at
Calvary Satan's worst was defeated by God's best
the wisdom of God which is foolishness triumphed
over the wisdom of the world that seems
to have all the marbles all the power
humility, meekness, patient suffering adversity endured mercy and
forgiveness love of the enemy triumphed over the
power of hatred, cruelty, fear and death the
worst of Satan evoked the best of God
at the cross demonic malignity evoked divine magnanimity
sorry that I have to be so fancy
but do you know what I'm saying?
yes, it's worth hearing the worst of the
enemy evoked the best of God divine malignity
to be malign the viciousness of evil brought
about divine magnanimity and that's why the enemy
had to cry uncle in other words when
your worst brings about his best what more
can you do?
see what further ground do you have to
accomplish anything?
don't you understand what happened at the cross?
Satan was defeated on the basis of the
ground of his own morality because love triumphed
over hatred and life over death by patiently
enduring all that was visited upon it and
yet raising from that death we've got to
understand the moral dimension of Calvary because it
is the position that we must occupy if
the dunamis of God is going to be
given to us because it will not be
given on any other basis and Satan is
not required to acknowledge us on any other
basis it's only the cross that terrifies him
because it's the cross that robbed him of
his power that took the rug out from
under his feet that removed the foundation or
the base for his being we need to
understand that something much larger was worked at
the cross than just the issue of our
atonement the universe is inherently moral and the
great drama in which we are part and
I'm going to speak about that after lunch
is even going beyond what I'm now saying
it's beyond the issue of government it's beyond
the issue of rule and reign in the
earth it's beyond the issue of earth it's
beyond the issue of time it's the issues
that pertain to eternity and the fulfillment of
God's own righteous heart which is that through
the church shall be demonstrated to the principalities
and powers the manifold wisdom of God there's
a glory to this, there's a mystery to
this that goes beyond expediency or things that
pertain to our life with the nations it
fulfills a moral requirement in the whole drama
of the cosmos and God has elected to
perform it through the church the manifold wisdom
of God shall be demonstrated to the principalities
and powers know what the manifold wisdom of
God is?
the cross the foolishness of the cross it's
suffering meekly endured it's patience under adversity it's
loving those who persecute you the worst of
Satan evoked the best of God at the
cross divine malignity evoked divine magnanimity so that
the cosmic struggle for the mastery of the
creation was run on the moral ground of
God the cross has destroyed the enemy's ground
and God's authority only operates on moral ground
that is the ground that is in keeping
with his own nature the conflict between kingdoms
the conflict between two moral orders righteousness and
unrighteousness respectively therefore the cross goes beyond atonement
where we ourselves have been fixated and puts
the church in the strong position of a
moral and spiritual authority in the very realm
where the evil forces have their seat the
cross took Satan's moral or judicial ground from
him that's not to say that we just
speak the cross or invoke the word that
somehow the enemy is terrified what needs to
be evoked and demonstrated is the reality of
the cross in our own experience in life
as we face opposition and persecution and adversity
for its spiritual authority therefore the church must
stand in all the power of the cross
Satan's whole aim therefore is to move us
off that ground to have us to operate
on the basis of a human power outside
of faith, outside of the righteousness of God
outside of lamb likeness and to seduce us
on earthly carnal and unholy ground can you
see that?
if Satan can move us to have a
campaign to do something humanly to expedite something
expediently to do something that is born out
of our mind and performed by our energy
he has won he's not afraid of religious
activity he wants to move us off the
ground of the cross the union with Christ
in death by which also we have access
to the life which defeated him at Calvary
and terrifies him anything that he can do
to move us off the ground of the
cross is the device of the enemy to
bring us away from the righteousness of God
to have us to employ tactics or devices
to have not their origin in the life
of the resurrected son of God if he
can get you to live by principles he
will have won a victory because principles don't
scare him because they're being lived humanly by
the strength of your will and your ability
that doesn't terrify him it's the life that
terrifies him and the life will live its
own principles we need to understand that the
wiles of the enemy is to move us
off the ground of the cross because it's
only on that ground that he's terrified and
it's only on that moral ground that we
receive the power and the dunamis to complete
the works of Christ Satan's whole aim is
to move us off that ground to have
us to operate on the basis of human
power expediency outside of faith outside of the
righteousness of God outside of land likeness if
he can only spoil our mood if he
can only get us to act out of
temper out of indignation out of envy out
of jealousy out of spite out of competition
out of rivalry he has won if he
can only get us to be competitive if
he can only get us to affect our
church conduct in terms of being better than
the other church down the street he has
won he wants to get us off the
grounds of the cross the ground of self
-denial the ground of identification with Jesus in
his death every minister who ministers by preaching
the word that is born out of fear
of men that is political that is to
say self-consciously calculated not to bring offense
has been moved off the ground of the
cross the cross is death again and again
and again it's a willingness to stand and
to trust God it's a willingness to speak
what you believe he has put in your
heart and in your mouth without fear of
consequence it's the willingness to take the risk
to believe that if you're dead to yourself
you'll be alive unto God it's a wholly
different ground than religious respectability or religious ability
it's the cross it's union the devil wants
to remove us from the centrality of the
cross but our union with him is on
the basis of the cross being conformed to
his death is the path to power and
being baptized into his death is the whole
means of entry I don't want now to
spark controversy or to reveal the ancient controversies
of the church about infant baptism or believer's
baptism but I think I understand better than
ever why it is that the Anabaptists were
burned alive at the stake why their flesh
was hacked off their bones why they were
tortured in the cruelest and most maniacal and
demonical ways because they insisted upon a believer's
baptism because they counted as null and void
that convention of men that baptized infants and
counted that as being birthed into the kingdom
the entry to the death is by being
buried with him in baptism so if Satan
can induce us to operate from principles from
expediency from custom from fear of man rather
than from the life that issues from the
union with him and death we are robbed
of our position and our power in apostolic
times the church as a heavenly resurrection body
moved out and registered the moral triumph of
Christ behind the outward and the temporal world
in the spiritual kingdom of Satan and it
worked they applied the victory in the conscious
knowledge of what had been worked morally to
the principalities and the powers and it brought
release to men the cross is still the
moral axis of the church and the evil
system still fears its overthrowing power the great
question therefore is what is our position with
regard to the cross is the cross an
event or a piece of our theology have
we crossed over to use a play on
words have we actually come to a Jordan
and crossed over and brought into that death
all that pertains not just to that which
is defective in us but to all that
is natural because on man's flesh it shall
not be poured what is our position with
regard to the cross do we desire union
with him in death can we believe for
the resurrection life as often as we do
join him can we pass into death as
for example by being misunderstood despised or rejected
of men to be of no reputation or
to be weak see this is something real
that needs to be tasted again and again
and again Paul said it's a death that
worketh in me but life in them it's
a real place of position that opens to
us the place of power but it needs
to be experienced what is our position with
regard to the cross and what kind of
union are we willing to enter with him
in death are we fearful for our reputations
do we desire the approval of men are
we unwilling to be misunderstood are we willing
to give our mouths to the life of
the Lord who is in us who will
speak things that will confound men or anger
them against us or do we want to
maintain the control and speak the thing that
is yet religious though expedient are we willing
to taste of death have we crossed that
Jordan are we willing to cross it together
and come up on the other side as
God's disciplined people or rather said before there
can be a Pentecost there must be a
Calvary before the fire of God there must
be an altar and a sacrifice and not
just a sacrifice that is nicked but a
whole burnt offering in which everything is conserved
have we crossed the Jordan of this ever
deeper baptism into death death to ambition to
self confidence death to our views death to
our influence death to everything because death by
its very nature is total or it is
not at all you know what my experience
has been on every occasion even now today
that I have ever spoken about the cross
about identification with Jesus in death there is
an enormous wall of unbelief that wells up
from those to whom I speak those things
that I experience as a resistance to the
word that I have never experienced in any
other subject preached there is something almost involuntary
that adheres in our flesh and in the
very spirit and the air that we breathe
that is contrary to the cross and to
its meaning we do not believe and maybe
the heart of our problem is we really
don't desire to and yet it's the key
to the position alone by which our authority
to rule and to reign rests are we
willing that death should work in us that
there might be life in them or would
we rather have a fixed program and print
it a week in advance that people can
receive the bulletin as they come and safely
know what the entire content of the hour
is going to be are we willing to
take the risks of that which is unstructured
which is death to give the life of
God by his spirit free sway and opportunity
to express what he will, when he will
even if it jaws and disturbs those who
are before us if we ministers will not
operate on the basis of death what shall
we expect of our congregations if we will
not be examples to them of resurrection men
who are willing again and again to taste
of death what shall we expect of them
the cross has suffered a terrible rejection and
I don't know of any kind of rejection
more terrible than to acknowledge it verbally or
theoretically but to dismiss it actually from the
reality of our lives I'm just coming to
an increasing conviction to go for broke on
the basis of the cross to believe what
God says of it and what has been
worked through it and that there's an identification
and a union possible with him in it
now this is the key to all I
don't want to succeed on any other basis
because I don't think that there is any
other success that can be called a kingdom
success outside of our position at the cross
this was and is the initial position which
alone means power and any seeming power which
is not resulted from the deep death of
the natural life of the individual or community
is not the true oil the anointing of
God I'm not above suspecting that a lot
of what we have called anointing or charisma
in this charismatic age is some pseudo and
counterfeit and devious experience and not the true
oil of God because the true oil it
says upon man's flesh you shall not be
put it is reserved only for those who
have joined him in death and they bear
the fragrance therefore of the spices of that
oil as resurrection men I'm suspicious of anything
that appears to be that which is like
it and we even warned in Exodus beware
lest you make anything like it we want
the excitement, we want the halo we want
the charisma effect we want the electric, we
want the dynamic but we don't want the
crossing, we don't want the death if there's
going to be a kingdom come if there's
going to be a rule and reign if
there's going to be a fulfillment of the
dominion mandate if we're going to rule over
nations and over angels it's going to be
on this basis or no other Christ has
the jurisdiction and we are incorporated into him
if we have on all points accepted and
claimed our identification with him and thus we
have become the instruments of that authority over
the enemy by a life in the spirit
we are able to receive by discernment direction
from the head and then command the situation
and put the enemy's work out of action
here's the way, the mode of operating the
modus operandi is by the discernment of the
spirit of God not by our stratagems not
by our committed discussions or what we think
constitutes the means by which the kingdom should
be obtained whoever would have thought that the
way to take the fearful Jericho that stands
in the way to the whole of Canaan
is by encircling it seven days and on
the seventh day seven times what stroke of
human imagination would ever come up with the
foolishness of that strategy who would have said
that to walk seven times a five mile
stretch to a place of utter exhaustion is
the necessary prelude to invade and to take
this great Canaanite stronghold everything about that formula
is contrary to the reason of men and
so also will be the tactics and the
strategies of God by which we are called
to take the land at the end of
the age and to establish the kingdom it's
not going to be by our tactics it's
not going to be by our devices it's
not going to be by committed decisions it's
not going to be by what we think
is clever it's going to be by the
foolishness of God it's going to be by
the unfolding of his strategy in the time
and circumstance that pleases him it may well
mean that we'll be walking around Bena or
Cast Lake and around these strongholds of principalities
and powers to see them come down in
silence while we are jeered, even as they
were jeered by the foolishness of what we're
performing I want to tell you something that
the only men who can do it for
seven days and seven times on the seventh
day are men who are dead to themselves
and alive unto God you do not have
the stamina you do not have the courage
for such foolishness you cannot withstand the jeers
and the taunting except you be dead you
cannot occupy your place in the line of
march you cannot give your voice and shout
in the moment that it's called for except
you're dead to self and alive unto God
it's for the army of the crucified and
the resurrected and for no other and there's
no easy way to enter it it's a
very real death and we need to be
willing to receive it and then by our
life in the spirit we are able to
receive discernment from that which issues from the
head you know why we receive it by
the life of the spirit?
because we have no other life we are
dead and our life is hid with Christ
and God until His life is revealed then
our life is revealed with Him unto glory
see, this is the issue of glory and
not just the issue of tactics or strategy
it's beyond the issue of victory it's the
issue of triumph victory is only that which
relieves us from our distress but triumph is
that which brings glory to God we need
a divine tactic and a divine enablement it's
called the resurrection life it's called the holy
anointing oil and it's available to as many
as are joined with Him in death and
in burial and resurrection unto newness of life
is your faith sufficient to grasp that?
do you desire that?
are you willing to see the end of
your natural life and to go down into
a Jordan of death in which the one
who comes up again is not the same
one who entered it you know what's waiting
for the Israel of God to enter?
is that the priests must go first and
that the waters will not part until their
feet go in first in a certain sense
that's what we did 8 years ago when
we left New Jersey to come up to
Minnesota God made it very clear your feet
need to go in first you don't know
what community is you don't know what it's
going to cost you you don't know what
humiliation awaits you but accept that your feet
go in first the waters are not going
to be open for others to enter and
I know that I'm addressing not just a
mere collection of men who believe I'm addressing
ministers and servants and leaders your feet have
to go in first you're the first ones
in and you're the last ones out and
if you don't go in first the waters
don't open and neither does all Israel follow
because something is waiting for an army in
agreement to give a shout that is more
than just solitary and a few random individual
voices we are in this together and we
need to cross together it was their absolute
union with their victorious Lord and the recognition
of their judicial authority over Satan and his
kingdom which was the ground of the apostolic
church and the Holy Spirit's seal and anointing
the things that I'm speaking to you this
morning which sound so theoretical in our ears
so unattainable almost a kind of religious fiction
were not so for the apostolic generation these
were viable truths they were real they lived
them, they knew them Paul addressed them as
men who had no life unto themselves who
had come back from the dead for indeed
that's what they were and indeed that's what
we also ourselves need to be I want
to end this morning with this question shall
we end the age on any basis other
than by which it began?
shall the consummation of the ages and the
final chapter and the clash of kingdoms end
on any basis other than by which it
began in the book of Acts?
are we going to end by human strategy
and religious planning what began by the operation
of the life of his spirit?
what is your position with regard to the
cross?
is the critical question is it theoretical or
is it actual?
do you approve it as a doctrine or
do you attest to it in your life?
and are you willing to make that the
principle by which you live daily, hourly, individually
and corporately?
this is the whole question about a kingdom
come the issue of the cross is central
to the issue of the kingdom and it's
not at all an accident that as the
kingdom has fallen into abuse or into neglect
so also the cross and if the one
is to be revived so also is the
other it's a voluntary and a willing death
Israel was not compelled to pass over and
indeed two and a half tribes never did
and they were forever lost to the purposes
of God and even to their own people
we have only this melancholy reminder in the
book of Acts about the demoniacal man in
the cemetery who burst his chains who was
a Gadarene from the tribe of Gad who
refused to cross over God's inviting us to
cross over my first message of January 1st,
New Years of 1983 was the crossing over
it was the Joshua call God raised his
trump to his lips and it was a
very feeble trump if you heard it at
the junior high school in Bemidji it was
for me who spoke it an altogether dissatisfying
and ungratifying experience in the flesh God spoke
it in a foolish weakness without any evident
or visible or felt anointing and yet by
the ear of the spirit you could recognize
that it was the trump call of God
that an hour had come in the history
of the church in which God was bidding
us to cross over to pass through this
Jordan and to come up on the other
side we have been in this wilderness long
enough when Joshua
saw the Jericho that was before him he
staggered this was too monumental this was too
great an undertaking could this mob handle it?
this double walled city these fierce Canaanites their
terrible reputation their bloodthirstiness this demonic stronghold had
blocked the whole way to the taking of
the land and yet he despaired when he
saw the visible weightiness and impressiveness of the
Jericho that was before him and in that
very moment of despair and the acknowledgement and
the recognition of his weakness there was a
man standing before him the captain of the
Lord's host who was neither with him nor
against him but had purposes beyond him that
were cosmic take off your shoes for the
ground upon which you stand is holy ground
and then follows these beautiful words and he
did so don't you love that explicit and
immediate obedience he went right down on his
Jewish face before the captain of the Lord's
host and that was the key for the
subsequent taking of the land he went down
everything that was natural in him and especially
his Jewish mind racing with stratagems racing with
devices racing with programs of how to build
the church and how to establish the kingdom
went down before the captain of the Lord's
host into the dust and into death and
that is the necessary recognition that is required
of us in crossing over if we had
more time to sketch the dimensions of the
kingdom you would tremble it's fearful if we
really understood the prophetic role that God intends
for the church to fulfill we would tremble
if we understood the magnitude of our high
calling in Christ Jesus, we would tremble if
we are living a Christianity that we are
capable of performing on the basis of our
own religiosity and good will and intelligence, we
are outside the faith God has called us
to that which is patently impossible and beyond
any power of our attainment there is an
unction and an anointing for kingdom faking for
kingdom establishing for possessing the land for fighting
the battles for coming against the principalities and
powers and rulers of darkness and high places
but upon man's flesh it shall not be
poured there is an authority but it waits
upon a certain position union with him in
death because it was on the cross that
Jesus made an open spoil of the enemy
what's your position with regard to the cross?
even now if there was a Jordan before
us would you cross it?
would you go down into it knowing that
you will never come up on the other
side your reputation your hopes of attainment, your
ambitions are never to be seen from again
you are only to occupy the lowly place
that will be appointed for you and if
someone else is walking before you and is
kicking his dust into your teeth you eat
it and you eat it for seven days
without a murmur or a complaint or raising
your voice in discontent when it comes time
to shout, you shout whether you feel like
it or you don't feel like it because
you're under authority because the priests have gone
before you because you're in the place which
is assigned and the walls will come down
and if they won't we've had it instead
of the walls coming down, the Canaanites come
out and the river that opened to admit
us is now closed to prevent us and
we'll be hacked to pieces by a merciless
Canaanitish beastly people who fornicate with animals and
despise Hebrews willing to take all the risks
of faith by crossing it's a death you
know, true faith isn't dying true faith isn't
acting if you had the opportunity today to
commit yourself to the cross and to know
that you're not going to leave this hotel
alive that the man who comes back to
his wife and family today is not the
same man who left Friday afternoon that he
has no life unto himself no ambition for
himself and no purpose in himself he will
not live by his own energy by his
own wit and by his own will his
life is not his own he's a dead
man who lives by the life of another
and for another he's a servant and a
slave and therefore the first time potentially capable
of being also an apostle or apostolic Paul,
a bond slave and an apostle of the
Lord Jesus Christ if you're a servant putting
your slavery does not perceive your apostleship, you're
a phony you need to be a dead
man and a slave before you can be
an apostle and if God gave you that
opportunity this morning, what would you do?
would you elect to die?
to receive the cross?
to make it your position?
and to make it the principle of your
life and our corporate life together?
are we willing to suffer the death of
silences?
willing to suffer the death which is waiting?
willing to see people discontent and agitated because
we don't have a program for them?
because they're not going to be whiz kids
and see them through an hour's service in
which they go home happy are we willing
to see them perplexed and discontent and agitated?
are we willing to witness to men as
Jesus witnessed to Nicodemus and see them bewildered
by the strange answers that they get from
our mouths that don't seem to answer their
questions but raise the ultimate questions it's not
very gratifying and I say that if this
is not real and we can't enter into
this death if our baptism has not meant
this we of all people are most to
be pitied we're play actors we're hypocrites we're
condemned to a religious game that has no
true efficacy either in earth or in heaven
either in time or eternity do you know
what I want to say this morning?
I believe with all my heart in Christ
and him crucified I believe with all my
heart that there's an entry and a union
with him by baptism unto death I want
God to know that that's what I understand
my baptism has meant I believe it to
be the factual operating principle of my life
I want consistently and consciously to walk in
it do you say that?
what's your position with regard to the cross?
because it's only on that position that God
will give the authority and the dunamis to
destroy the works of the enemy and to
see a kingdom come I just want to
end in prayer if you've never consciously reckoned
on the cross I know all about the
deeper life teachings and all that jazz and
we can make of this a game also,
but God never intended that it should be
so when I preached once in
Oslo in Norway, my interpreter said to me,
Artie said, I want to see you privately
he's one of the leading evangelical and charismatic
figures of his nation, a brilliant young man,
already had an impressive ministry when he saw
me privately, you know what he said?
he said I want to die he said,
I recognize that all my achievement is on
the basis of my own life and my
own ability he said, how do I die?
how do I come to the cross?
and I took an imaginary death warrant out
of my pocket and I said, supposing this
had your name on it and God was
now asking you to sign it will you
sign away your future, your ambition and your
hopes of a career that's already acknowledged and
brilliant and successful and the tears broke out
of this guy he grabbed this imaginary thing,
he slammed me up against the wall of
the building and he said, where do I
sign?
he meant it and he signed by faith
and prayer right there and I watched the
man die on the sidewalk and I watched
the resurrection take place and that man's ministry
has been multiplied many times over because he
can say with Paul for me to live
as Christ I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live yet not I this is real,
or we of all men are most to
be pitied I believe it's real and I
believe it can be appropriated I believe that
there's a God who will make it as
a death unto us that our baptism will
be something more than religious obligation and getting
wet if we choose to see it for
what God intended that it should be a
burial unto death you willing not to leave
this hotel alive?
mark my words that if you'll say yes
if God will not hold you to it
and show you that it's a very different
man who's going to be leaving and a
very different quality of life and service that
will ensue from that time forth so precious
Jesus I just trust you now Lord, it's
by faith Lord that the cross is raised
and preached and proclaimed if I look with
my natural eye Lord, if I try to
assess whether it was impressive or effectual, I
would despair but I believe that there's a
power in the cross it is not foolishness
to them that perish but it is power
unto salvation to the utmost to them that
believe and I believe my God that it
is you who have raised this cross in
our midst dusting it off as it were
from years of evangelical and charismatic neglect and
calling men in truth to embrace it unto
death and I just ask you my God
to look out over this sea of men
whom you have assembled for the hearing of
this word and to receive from everyone who
will their death sentence who will sign on
the dotted line that they might rule and
reign with you from the throne of the
Lamb in power and authority in an anointing
that is not to be poured on any
man's flesh I just ask you in these
concluding moments of this session to turn a
speaking into an event by your own voluntary
response right where you sit or stand or
kneel or prostrate yourself I just invite you
as the minister of this word to covenant
with God to transact with God to take
the cross seriously, to reckon upon it to
come to it once and for all if
you're afraid to pray aloud in such a
prayer of acknowledgement then you're not really coming
to it if you're fearful and self-conscious
and wondering what other men will think, you're
not coming to the place of death death
is total and it's abandoned