9. Chapter 7 Completion - The Cycles until Finished

Chapter 7

Completion – The Cycles until Finished

Teleios

The Greek word Teleios means maturity from going through the necessary stages to reach the end-goal; that is being developed into a consummating completion by fulfilling the necessary process (spiritual journey). It root (tel-) means “reaching the end (aim)” i.e. mature, complete, perfect.

Panoramic View of time

Graeme Goldsworthy mentions of the three epochs of God’s revelation[1]

God revealed His Kingdom and the way into it in three stages: first, in the history of God’s people particularly from Abraham to Solomon’s dedication of the temple; second, in the eschatology of the prophets and third, in the fulfilment of all these Old Testament expectation in the person and work of Christ.

The journey was pictured from Abraham to Solomon (Genesis 12 to 1 King 10), prophesied by the prophets (1 King 11 to Malachi) and patterned in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament saints were not able to see the whole picture of the journey. They have pieces of the jig saw puzzle. The New Testament saints saw the pieces of jig saw puzzle coming together in Jesus Christ as the chief corner piece. Two thousand years later, we are in a better position to see more clearly the shape of picture of the jig saw puzzle (the mystery of God) taking place, even though there are still some missing pieces.

Dr. Bill Hamon in his book ‘The Eternal Church[2]’ discloses by the third century after Jesus, the Church has lost that spiritual heritage, deteriorating from the Spiritual Church to the Structural Church in the 1000 year Dark Ages.

About 1500 years before Jesus Christ, God also raised up a man called Moses to take His people out of Egypt for the  journey into the Promised Land, culminating in the fulfilment of His Promises in Zion  in the journey from Exodus to 1 Kings 10.

And 1500 years after Jesus Christ, God again raised up a man called Martin Luther in A.D. 1517 Reformation to take His people out of the Dark Age for the journey into His Kingdom. Where is God bringing us to? He is leading us into Zion, as patterned in the Old Testament from Exodus to 1Kings 10. Thereafter are the days of Jeroboam’s religious-political ‘Golden Calves’ culminating in the final judgment of evil and consummation.

You asked “Why is there the 1000 years of Dark Age in the history of the Church?” We learn from history of the corrupt state of the priesthood, how and why it happened.

We are presently 500 years into this journey of reformation and restoration since the Reformation in A.D. 1517. God has been and still is busily realigning and rebuilding the Church. It is a massive construction. In a massive building construction, there are many different types of skilled workers involve in many different activities, each performing their tasks quietly, diligently and harmoniously in tandem with the phases of the project and in coordination with each other.

There were some noises, confusions and chaos in the past in the progressive restoration moves of God but we are privileged in our present days to look back in history and gain perspective and understanding. What happened was that there were many workers God had raised up but the overall ‘Master Blueprint’ with its picture, pattern, process and phases was unclear, resulting in many workers majoring on the minor, emphasizing on the ‘scaffoldings’ instead of the building itself.

And with the ‘Master Blueprint’, we should be able to find our own place and phase in this journey of God and faithfully serve our generation in our role and function with our gifting, anointing, grace and spiritual ranking (c.f. Gal 2:1-10). Our fulfilment comes from our service to others in doing the will of God in His plan and purpose in our lives. Our forerunners did their best with what they did know and understood there and then and likewise we do our best with what we do know and understand here and now, but what we do and our position do not define us. It is the amount of Light inside us that determines who we are and that gives us our identity and security.

I vividly recall the poem ‘The Bricklayer’ of Father Michael Quoist which I kept for 40 years in my little New Testament:

The bricklayer laid a brick on a bed of cement. Then with a precise stroke of his towel, spread another layer. And without a by-your-leave, laid on another brick. The foundations grew visibly, the building rose, tall and strong to shelter people. I thought, dear Lord, of that brick buried in the darkness at the base of the building. No one sees it, but it accomplishes its task and the other bricks need it. Lord, what difference does it make whether I am on the roof—top or in the foundation of your building? As long as I stand faithfully at the right place!

For such a time as this

From Adam to Abraham was 2000 years, from Abraham to Jesus Christ was 2000 years and from Jesus Christ to present is 2000 years and we are into the 21^st Century which is into the 1000 years (2+2+2+1). In the below diagram the Third Day of Christ coincides with the Seventh Day of God. On the seventh day God rested (Gen. 2:3). We are now at AD 2015.

Interestingly since the Azusa Outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the 1900s, there are quantum leaps in the advances in science, technologies, medicine, communication, etc that greatly improve our lives, our homes and our environment. Better social economics and social politics have brought improved environment that influence us in more civilised behaviour and with increased awareness, knowledge, understanding and wisdom. These are critical and crucial times for the Church to be the pillar of Truth and opportunate time for the Light to shines in righteousness and holiness. It is most crucial to begin at the most basic unit of society, the home.

A.    NAVIGATING THE CHALLENGING DAYS AHEAD

1. We must be vigilant to the events happening around us. We cannot afford to be indifferent or oblivious. There are wheels within wheels, which are the workings of the living creatures from the Throne of God (Ezek 1:15-16). At this moment, concurrently there can be flood and drought, birth and death, peace and war, joy and tears, even the light of a star a billion light years away has reached our eyes, past and present are relative! It is easy to be confused by every wind of change. There is a difference between theology, dogma, doctrine and truth. Be like Daniel, diligently studying the Bible, reading widely and with a heart to seek God (Dan 9) for God is the revealer of secrets (Dan.2:46-47) but we must not be paranoid or critical but compassionate and obey what He commands us to do. Daniel could not fully understand also (Dan. 12). There are things we may not fully understand until the fullness of time but yet we must have the spirit of truth and work out our salvation with fear so that we are found written in the book.

2. We must be knowledgeable of the invisible forces acting against us. I spent some years working in the sea, in charge of shipboard navigation equipment. Sailing onboard the ship is routine and normal, looking at the surrounding there is always a line (the horizon) with light blue (sky) and darker blue (the ocean) but it is very deceiving. The ship can be hit by strong winds and pounding waves within minutes to those unaware. Being a simpleton, ignorant and gullible is not a blessing. The art of navigation requires constant surveillance and vigilance of the situation on the surface, sub-surface and above surface. There are forces within that can compromise the seaworthiness of the vessel and external forces that can shipwreck it. Before the ship set sail, there is always a sail plan to adhere to. There are many elements to contend with to reach our predetermined port. There is the vessel itself, the wind, the currents, the waves and the weather. Every two hours, the captain will order a PCS check (position, course, speed) to determine if the ship is on course with the sail plan. Necessary correction to her compass bearing is needed to compensate for any set-and-drift due to the current. The church is like a ship on an ocean voyage. Much emphasis is on the church health and church growth paradigm to ensure the ship is seaworthy and ‘ship-shaped’ but if it is an end and not a mean, the church will crystallise and fossilise. It is no longer a movement but a monument. Generally many pastors tend to avoid storms, maintaining in the calm water of traditions and fads in order to seek easier sailing at the cost of getting way off course and the church is not empowered to face the currents (trends, emphasis, movements), the waves (charismatic stirrings, doctrines, traditions and fads of man), the winds (of adversity, worldview, resistance) and deep ocean currents (postmodernism, humanism, secularism) and the submerged rocks when we get too near. It is no longer a static but fast changing and dynamic world we are in.

3. We must be careful of unintentional consequences and incremental errors. It takes courage to step out of the status quo into the uncharted water and to venture into new territory. The submerged rocks or icebergs that sank the passenger liners Costa Concordia and the Titanic are lessons to learn of coming too near and not being very careful. Perhaps learning through pilot projects using smaller, less prominent boats would be wiser as failures are normally not too welcomed by the public eyes. But on the other hand, being too fearful to make mistakes is counter-productive. Contentment and complacency is not the same. Being happy with what works and therefore maintaining the same and not wanting to learn new skills and knowledge make one irrelevant and obsolete. Both ends we will get unintentional consequences and the possibility of perpetuating incremental errors.  Every mistake learnt is not fatal. It provides foresight with insights based on hindsight.

4. We must be wise and bold to be unchangeable in an ever changing world. We are constantly pressurized to conform to the world. It is a very subtle but consistent force. We are to be humble and meek but never a door mat to be triumphed upon. There are times we must make our firm stand. Rights and freedoms come with responsibility and the fear of God. The humanising of God, the deification of man and minimising of sin is constantly eroding our godly foundation (Ps 11:2-4, Prov. 10:25). To remain steadfast and unchangeable, we must:


 i Uphold apostolic fidelity to our doctrine (Acts 1:1-3, 2:42, 28:30-31).  There are layers and layers that need to be uncovered. Objectively we need the courage to change what need to change and the boldness to keep what needs to be kept.

ii. Uphold ‘Revelation Equalisation’ so that the churches come into the unity of faith in the knowledge of the Son of God (i.e. what does Jesus know as the Son of God in the past, present and future). “The illiterate of the 21^st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn” quotes Alvin Toffler, writer of ‘Future Shock’. Churches must be alert of the battles within (2 Cor. 10:1-6) and the snares of rational and cognitive knowledge of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. When we cannot learn, unlearn and relearn, we are already shut out the Holy Spirit like Balaam. Zacharias was righteous and blameless before God but did not have the capacity for fresh revelation and was disqualified whereas a simple girl by the name of Mary did not have any ‘baggage’, hence she could receive, retain and release (Luke 1:5-80)

iii. Uphold the whole counsel of God and must not be guilty of innocent blood by not shunning it. There will be wheat and tares, sheep and goats in the church. We are not guilty before God and our conscience is clear of their blood if they choose to harden their hearts (Ezek 33). It requires ministers of steel to be honourable instead of be acceptable in these tough days (Rev. 12:11).

B.  BRINGING THE CHURCHES INTO INHERITANCE

As highlighted earlier in this book, the Church witnessed an acceleration of the Holy Spirit in a divine course correction during the 20 years period comprising the last decade of the 20^th Century and the first decade of the 21^st Century. It is most important that the Church is open to the spiritual things that these waves of the Holy Spirit deliver. There may be scepticism and understandably there is the ‘bell shaped curve of adaptation’ but she must tell herself “If this is of God, I want it or I going to miss it.”

1.    Importance of spiritual impartation and succession.

Joshua was to bring the Israelites into their inheritance in the Promised Land. Joshua matured under Moses. Moses was able to stand face to face with God. He has a spiritual stature before God and God’s people. He also had a stature before all the enemies of God. None of the enemies could touch Moses. He disciplined and matured Joshua through life impartation and after many years Joshua received the Mantle, the Spirit, the Wisdom and the God of Moses, meaning Joshua has the spiritual construct, capacity and capability to carry and continue all that is inside of Moses for connectivity and continuity of the journey of God. This is spiritual succession. Joshua caught it, and nurtured and developed the ways of Moses entering into the Presence of God (Ex 33:11).  

2.    Danger of Enculturation and Cultural Imperialism

Missionary statesman Don Richardson[3] in his book ‘Eternity in their heart’ said, “Hundreds of millions of Christians think that Luke’s Acts of the Apostles records the apostles’ obedience to the Great Commission. Actually it records their reluctance to obey it.” Why were all the believers scattered except the apostles? (Acts 8:1 c.f. Acts 13:1-2) Because they would goes about franchising the church according to their Jewish mindset. They preached to no one but the Jews only (Acts 11:19).  The problem is that they were captive to their cultural mindset. We are all creatures of culture and products of our environment and we read the Bible with tinted cultural lens and practice it with certain bias and preferences. Paul pleads to us to be objective and not subjective to the diversity in cultural background and ministerial grace (Eph 4: 1-16). Our strength will always be our weakness. We must be open for progressive illumination and revelation and be completely set free from human’s bias and preferences. Apostle Paul depended on revelation knowledge and not rational knowledge and he always declared ‘that which I received from Heaven I gave to you…’ because his cultural lenses were dropped (Acts 9:18). God always uses bicultural men like Moses and Paul for strategic works. If the apostles of Jesus whom He chose and trained personally can be reluctant, and God has to raise up another apostle Paul and the Antioch church for the gentile, similarly we conform easily to our cultural and theological norms!

The church in Jerusalem has apostles’ doctrine (Acts 2:42) but was ironically limited by its cultural blind spots and preferences whereas the church in Antioch was under strong spiritual dynamics of prophetic  and revelatory teaching (the Word and Spirit) that continue to build them up as they  ministered before God in priestly function. Paul was bicultural and able to see the continuity of the Old Testament in the New Testament as the Holy Spirit illuminated his spirit and mind before he wrote the most of it. Paul is a Jew ministering among the gentiles. Paul was broken by God, kept away for fourteen years for God to deprogram his Jewish brain (Gal 1: 18- 2:2). He is no longer subjected to the gravity pull of his Jewish culture (c.f. 1 Cor. 9: 19-23). The apostles of the church in Jerusalem was retained and not released because God did not want a ‘Jewish franchise’ but in the apostle of Christ in the church of Antioch was sent out. There is a major difference between apostles of the Church and the apostles of Christ! What Heaven releases cannot be block or contaminated by cultural preferences. It must be God’s meaning in God’s words. There is a big difference between the Gospel of Christianity and the Gospel of Christ! One is layer upon layers of cultural perspectives, forms and practices that perpetuates the traditional form and block the Light whereas the other is Light from Heaven above permeating every layer of cultural mindset, expressing in cultural forms. One is shadow, the other is substance! Christians must go on frequent mission trips or be immersed in a foreign culture or a different way of doing things to learn acculturation. The scales in their eyes must be removed in order to see Heaven!

3.   The Pursuit of Destiny – the Mind to do and finish the will of God

We understand that God’s people are on a journey, living in levels and arriving in stages. Every level and stage is different in dynamics and dimensions. It requires those of a higher level to bring up the others into their same. We can bring up others to our level and stage only. Therefore unless we have crossed over the River Jordan ourselves, we will not be able to bring others across. Unless we enter into the Temple and serve God in the Holy Place, we don’t have a spiritual inheritance to bring others in. Unless you are a priest of the Melchizedek order you have nothing to impart to others. We must have the substance and the not the shadow to move up and move in to God in the Most Holy Place.

Understanding this spiritual principle, we therefore must attain to the next level and stage for the sake of our brothers and sisters. There is a worthy cause that propels us forward. It is a supernatural touch by the Word of the Spirit and we are taken by the Spirit of the Word, our spirit is ablaze with a sense of destiny within. That day destiny took hold of me; it completely redefined my meaning, purpose and pursuit in life. When we have nurtured and developed the substance, attained the dimension and achieved the inner dynamics, we have something intrinsic to release and supply to others. We have a portion of inheritance to release and bring others in. Therefore within our spirit there is an intensity and vibrancy to press in to the Most Holy Place in Zion to receive our spiritual inheritance for the next generation. There is that unquenchable hunger and thirst to press in into Heaven and download spiritual deposits of Christ and revelations and bring it down for His people. This intense inner dynamics within us is called ‘The Pursuit of Destiny’.

The definition of destiny is:

It is the providence of God in our life that activates us into the divine process of coming into the inheritance and succession. It is the divine decree according to the predetermined plan in the mind of God, now settled in our heart as sealed conviction, burning passionately and compelling us to make choices toward the appointed, assigned, scheduled unfolding of our forth ordained future until we enter into the fullness of fulfilment, that is God obtained rest within us and we attained the fullness of the Seed to reproduce after its own kind in and through our lives. Destiny produces a strong sense of critical responsibility that what you suppose to accomplish is of utmost importance. It is not discovered but uncovered each phase you make the right choice in obedience.

This pursuit of destiny will empower you to breakthrough every resistance and limitations. It empowers you to be resilient and give us the power to finish well. The leaders and the people in churches must understand they are on a spiritual journey from the Red Sea to Mount Zion and must enter into this baptism of dimensions in the Spirit. In the past, churches are needs-oriented and purpose-driven and now they have to go up the next level and stage in spiritual substance. The baptism into the pursuit of destiny is a very powerful propellant in our inner man.

I have visited churches with long history. They have a history, a heritage but they have no spiritual impartation for others. They pride themselves of a long history but have no inheritance. They kept their past but forgot to move forward to build upon what was deposited. They did not receive fresh spiritual impartation, have no spiritual dimensions as inheritance, they can only reminisce of the good old days! But if the spiritual deposits from Heaven are contained, documented, taught, imparted, reproduced and compounded from dimension to dimension, that local church with a long history will be an awesome place, the powerful house of God, a mighty gateway of Heaven to earth (Gen 28: 16-22).  I know of churches that have transferred to the second generation of succession. This church has a ‘family business’ that contribute to the economy of the commonwealth of the Kingdom of God. She has downloaded a spiritual dimension from Heaven, contained it, excelled in it, compounded it and expanded the 'family business' from a small store to become a supplier supplying to the commonwealth of the Kingdom. They understood the concept of destiny of the Kingdom.

Many local churches want to do the will of God but do not think of finishing the work of God because they do not yet have this spiritual connection to destiny. Jesus came to do the will of God who sent Him and finish His work (John 4:34). It is as if asking somebody who is busy working on a building when it is going to be completed and he replied “Don’t know, I am busy working!” There is no mental picture of the finished product at all. As such, many has inevitably majored on the ‘scaffoldings’ rather than on the Building. Either he is not aware what is he doing or he is just religiously doing to make himself happy. “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). We came to do and finish the will of God in our life! David served his own generation by the will of God.

The understanding of destiny will produce many matured selfless runners in the relay of this long marathon race with each runner giving the best head start to the next successor. To them, the journey is the reward! The work must be completed to give something to the next generation. We have seen beautiful scenes of picturesque rice field terraces cutting off the slope of hills. The forefathers were determined to do and finish their tasks of cutting the terraces. It must be arduous and backbreaking works, intimidating and insurmountable cutting through the rocks and stones with their bare hands and primitive tools but they were determined to finish their portion of the race. Each succeeding generation took on the same spirit and determination to do and to finish it, make it more complete, brining more fullness to it. And because of that determination to finish and to leave behind an inheritance so that the next succeeding generation can pick up and continue until it is completed (teleios), we see the beautiful rice field terraces today. Supposing if one generation lost that ‘connection’ and was just merely working but never intended to finish it, the hill with its undone and uncompleted slope will be left for us today. The spirit to finish well is gone and the glory of the rice field terrace cannot manifest in its beauty and grandeur. That determination and that spirit to finish well for the next generation is the ‘Pursuit of Destiny.’

We must realised in our journey of earth we are runners in a race, running our very best, doing  our upmost for His highest, to receive, retain and release a legacy, a heritage and an inheritance to the succeeding generation of runners. The journey runs over different cycles of era. The era may be different but the process, journey and destiny remains true. It takes cycles of it, each in its level and arriving in stages until the fullness that is predetermined by God the Father. While the signs of the times of each era is different and at times is convincing it is the final hour, we are not to be paranoid but guided and guarded by  His Words made clear in the picture, pattern, process and principle in Christ.

The ‘Pursuit of Destiny’ is the spirit of a marathon race run by the relay teams. Each generation continues the race of their forefathers and run to finish well for the succeeding generation. Each generation must have the baton to transfer within the rule of the race or face disqualification. Each generation runs with all they have to finish well to ensure the best ‘head start’ for the succeeding runners. Each time the baton is transferred, the one who transferred and the one who received, knows they are closer to the finish line! When the baton is transferred, there is an acknowledgment of the handing over and the receiving and continuation of the legacy, heritage and inheritance of the ‘distance covered’ and most importantly, the spirit of sacrifice behind it! This is the true spirit of spiritual fathering and sonship. The honour is accorded not because of the years but by the spirit of sacrifice. We are propelled by our forefathers; we are compelled by the worthy cause and we press on and pass on for our sons the destiny which connects all of us for generation to generation. Our names will be forgotten soon, but our substance and our spirit in this race remains. The ‘Hall of Faith’ in Hebrews chapter 11 captures the spirit of sacrifice, perseverance and hope of those who ran before us. They ran in the most difficult portions of the race and they did complete their run. They spur us on to run well. They can only join us in the victory stand (Heb 11:40 - 12:1) to receive the victor’s crown if only we cross the finishing line as champions because it is not an individual event but a team race! Therefore don’t just merely run to get the prize but run to deposit substance and spirit as a worthy runner of the race in Christ to the next runner!

The transfer of destiny to your next generation is the spiritual inheritance of the substance inside of you. It is your spiritual stature and out of your own body will come your heir.

Gen 15:3-5

3 Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!" 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." 5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."

When destiny enters into you, it cannot be business as usual. Everything is converging and focusing on the product. Many pastors taught ‘one born in my house is my heir’ but God’s divine pattern is the Seed that reproduces after its own kind. God is interested in what the product of your life is because out of the substance in you is your heir, “one who will come from your own body shall be your heir”.  It is not what you have accomplished and achieved but what you have nurtured and developed inside of you, ‘the Christ in you the hope of glory.’

Churches which have the ‘Pursuit of Destiny’ inside them have a corporate spiritual atmosphere and climate that is saturated with River of Life flowing strongly and flesh manna supply from Heaven. Matt 6:9-11:

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

The daily bread is given to us for the purpose of empowering us to enable His Kingdom to come and His will done on earth as it is in heaven. "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'" (Matt 4:4). The church that has His proceeding word has His Presence and authority (Luke 7:6-9).

4.   Be a builder and not just a blesser

There are wrist watches that pass the test of time because they were built to last for a long time and that is the reason why they are expansive watches. The cheap replicas of them look nice but last only temporary. That is the difference between building and blessing paradigm.

You cannot build unless you are a builder! You are a skilled expert and not an amateur hobbyist. You cannot be in maintenance and think you are building something. Being busy in something and building something is two totally different aspects! To be able to complete and finish the building you need:

1. The mindset of a builder – a builder built for permanence and not just blessing for the temporary.
2. The skill of a builder – there are different skills needed, e.g. electricians, carpenters, plumbers, masonry, structural.
3. The blueprint of the building – what kind of building, what kind of materials, what kind of land, if it is a little cottage, how does it fix onto and tap the infrastructure of the bigger plan of the housing estate?
4. The technology to build it – whether you build a shed, a hut, a cottage, a tower or a palace, it does not matter because it is the best of the best. Have you seen a wooden house built without a single nail? It is amazing! It is the beauty in it and not just the beauty of it! What you lack in technology, go and seek and learned the skills. The five-fold ministerial grace is for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.
5. The wisdom of a builder – you must know every aspect of the building, how the rain and wind will affect it, the climate, the season, the contingency, the expansion, the future needs etc.
6. The strength of a builder - the challenges are there. Sanballat and his team will be present to discourage and to oppress (Neh. 4:7). You must have the power to finish well.
7. Stature of a wise master builder – A wise master builder is able to be the architect in determining the type of building from the people, place and materials available and how this particular building can fit into the master plan of the entire housing estate and to incorporate all these skills to finish the building. It is good to tap on the wisdom of a master builder. He has got the experience, the skills, and the wisdom. And besides; what you learned is yours to keep forever. You have everything to gain from a wise master builder.
8. The heart of a master builder – A master builder builds. The beautiful building rises. The job is done and the master builder hands over the building to the occupants. The occupants are proud of their building and the master builder and his team fades away into obscurity. His joy is completed. He had finished the works and he and his fellow builders go forth in the next building projects. They may not have big and majestic building of their own to show but they have the wisdom and know-how to build. They only have honour. The joy is walking the beautiful virgin Bride down the aisle and handing her over to the Bridegroom.

C.    The Church is not the Kingdom but for the Kingdom

George Eldon Ladd[4] in his book ‘Gospel of the Kingdom’ clarifies ‘The Church therefore is not the Kingdom of God; God’s Kingdom creates the Church and works in the world through the Church. Men cannot therefore build the Kingdom of God, but they can preach it and proclaim it; they can receive it or reject it.’  Singapore was a British Colony but she was not the British Empire! The Church is the colony of the Kingdom of God in heaven and the government is upon the shoulder of Jesus Christ and His ecclesia for God’s people.

1.   Seven dimensions of the Ecclesia

The ecclesia is those with the strength and capacity to crossover the River Jordan and into the Promised Land as priests of God Most High. The water of River Jordan (the spirit of defeats and descent) cannot touch them. The gates of hell cannot prevail over them as long as they keep their priestly consecration (Judges 2:1-3). They are no longer a child but have grown up to the ‘young man’ stage. They have muscles but not yet in wisdom and spiritual stature. They are no longer consumers or ‘high maintenance’ babe or child but are now producers but they have not matured into reproducer stage (Judges 2:7-10). They are beginning the second phase of the journey to Zion to be trained in dominion and reign in righteousness. The ecclesia carried 7 spiritual dimensions that are in Joshua:

a. War against Amalek – They must ‘hate what God hates with a perfect hatred and love what God loves with a perfect love’. Bonheoffer’s book ‘The Cost of Discipleship[5]’ mentioned the difference between cheap grace and costly grace. There are many casual students and not many serious disciples. Churches that pleases attract crowds but churches that demand are strong and steadfast (c.f. John 6:22-71). Holiness demands separation from carnality. Hebron is a spiritual state that must be attained before you are able to proceed up to Zion. Abraham stayed in Hebron after separation from Lot (Gen 13) and David ascended to Hebron after the death and separation from Saul (2 Sam 1:1-2:1).

b. In the Mountain of God – Mountain is a picture of strength and is steadfast and immoveable. The Mountain of God is the attainment of God’s Rule overriding everything inside of you and saturating you. It is the integrity of self governance of His rulership and lordship in every aspects of your life.  Only you yourself know how much light is inside you! It is not for wimps. You have a buoyant spirit and inner strength in the lights of the seven lamps in the Golden Lampstand.

c.  Mighty in the Word & Spirit dimension – Inside the Holy Place, the source of light is in the Golden Lampstand. It is a supernatural life and the strength of God’s word in the spirit man gives power and the capacity to crossover and subdues and takes down any ‘Jericho’ in their path. They are overcomers.

d. Capacity to subdue and have dominion - ‘the sole of your feet’ thread upon.  They are able to spiritually discern, detect, and defeat the invisibles. On the physical plane, they have the ability and creativity to acquire new skills, knowledge, understanding and technologies to rebuild the ruins and restore. They are able to enter into all the territories, subdue it and establish themselves in it and enlarge their tents. They are unstoppable and able to advance supernaturally.

e. Divine Wisdom – Their spiritual senses are trained to discern, detect and defeat the spirits and deceptions operating in churches and divine wisdom is required to defuse them and prevent friendly cross fire because the believers cannot see what they can see. In Acts 8, Philip has a strong evangelist anointing with powerful miracles and mighty revival bringing many into the church. An evangelist can bring people to Christ but he cannot put Christ inside them. It requires matured apostles to deal with the spirit of Simeon to stabilize the situation in the young church. The people were impressed by Simon until the apostles exposed the deception. When the Fire comes, the snake will come out from the wood! (Acts 28:3)

f.  Able to carry the Ark of God – They are able to bear the government of God on their shoulder in priestly ministry to the people. They carry the Presence of God and immersed the people with powerful spiritual atmosphere, dynamics and saturation. More and more of their inner man is strengthen, the weaker the work of flesh in them (Josh 3:10-17). Take note in Joshua chapter 4 the repetitive emphasis of the phrase “where the feet of the priests who bore the Ark stood” (Joshua 4: 3, 9-11,18)

g.  Circumcision of heart – They are circumcised in their heart (Rom 2:28-29).

2.   Ecclesia entered into the inheritance but yet to obtain the inheritance

The ecclesia has crossed over and entered into their inheritance but they have not yet obtained the inheritance. They must successful reach Mount Zion like David in the Tabernacle of David. I trained disciples who are pastors and Christians of different house churches. I gathered the ecclesia together in a certain place on closed invitation to minister to God and working together with the ecclesia is very fulfilling. Their heart are circumcised, the body disciplined, the mind renewed, their life crucified, their soul consecrated, their spirit tuned and resonant to Heaven, their spiritual capacity is enlarged and stretches to receive, retain and release deeper, higher, wider, and longer. Their understanding of the Word is clearer and their bonding together is amazing. It is a corporate dimension of manifestation of the living and true Body. Their lives are totally committed, consecrated in the pursuit of the Seed for destiny sake! Together we are immersed and touching dimensions in the Temple, passionate to keep what we had touched crystal clear and pure. It is something completely different from the Sunday services in churches.

Joshua attained the spiritual dimension of a Reproducer, circumcising the new generation that their fathers failed to do (Josh 5:3-7). It means Joshua imparted into them the spiritual dimension to empower them to enter into their inheritance in the Promised Land. Some forty years earlier Joshua had entered into the Promised Land as one of the spies and after years in developing the stature and the spiritual dimension under Moses, he is able to bring a new generation in. You cannot bring the people in unless you had already been there. This is the spiritual inheritance Joshua obtained and now he can bring a new generation in because he had went in before and now have the capacity to bring others in also. It is very important for us who are matured, don’t just bring the people in but also show them how they too can bring another new generation into their inheritance.  Entering into our inheritance is one thing, obtaining our inheritance is another! Hebrews chapter 2 shows us that Jesus had entered in and he also received his spiritual inheritance for us, to show us how to enter in too.

3.   Not Elitism

We must be very careful lest elitism is promoted and achievers lifted high. It is not the race but the journey that is the reward. Abram obtained his inheritance, a new name Abraham but he did not touched the glory that Solomon did. In the new Kingdom in heaven, there will be the 24 elders (Rev 4:4) and those sitting with Jesus on His Throne (Rev 3:21) and the ‘commoners’ in the Kingdom. There is no iniquity to divide us in social status, no boosting of elite positions and achievement of status but a spectrum of light is various intensities and brightness which is bound in the spirit of sacrifice, honour and appreciation in perfect love. Each is secured and assured in identity and in substance. They had passed the vanities of the world because they obtained the glorious inheritance that is placed on them before the myriads of angels and there is that eternal gratitude that they are not worthy of the pure mercy and grace of God the Father. The brighter light will shine gently on those with less brightness to draw them closely and encourage them to grow in purity of the Light. This is Heaven.

D.    REALISING THE CHURCH PARADIGM

Salvation begins when we crossed the Red Sea which marks the entrance into Outer Court of the Tabernacle. Salvation is completed in perfection after we progress into the Holy Place and finally standing as the Living Ark before His Mercy Seat in the Most Holy Place. We have entered into God’s Rest. It is a picture of Zion.

A road map is only useful on the following conditions:

1. You must have the correct and latest version of road map
2. You must know where you are presently
3. You must know where you  want to go or leading the people to
4. You must know how to get there
5. You must know what are the challenges in front
6. You must know what is the best way with what you have to get there, if not, what new inputs are needed.
7. You must know when you are ready to set off
8. You must constantly check, evaluate, adjust and make correction.
9. In short, you must have foresight with insight based on hindsight.

The local churches are familiar with the first phase of the journey, from Red Sea to River Jordan, which is the sanctification process for the preparation and qualification for priesthood in the Promised Land. In the past, the Church did not have the full illumination and understanding of the purpose of the sanctification process, emphasis on an individual personal walk with God and had mistakenly focused on the ‘benefits of the salvation’ instead of the ‘purpose of the salvation.’

  

The consequence is that the Church operated with a certain paradigm with some of the following characteristics:

1. Church Focused and not Kingdom focused – the emphasis is like getting the ship functioning properly, which requires various departments e.g. engine room, electrical, navigation to operate efficiency. Likewise a church has many functions to keep the ‘ship’ functioning well e.g. prayer, Sunday school, worship, evangelism, small group, pulpit, and mission etc. The Church had faced a lot of attacks in past, for example, the inerrancy of Scriptures, Liberalism, Ecumenism etc and over a long period of time and layers of doctrinal emphasis and precautions, the church began to be church-focused in her growth and her health. This is probably the effect of the Church Growth and Church Health movements and a lack in revelatory teachings about the Kingdom.

The ship may be sailing well with all of her internal departments functioning properly and she is maintaining good speed and kept her bearing of 90 degree to reach her destination. Most churches suffered much turbulence and are very happy when they can reach a stage of peace. Nobody wants to ‘rock’ the boat.  When she becomes focus on herself and not aware of the ‘set and drift’ of her position caused by winds and waves, she ‘crystallized’.

      

The ship can be an excellent vessel, sailing in good speed and maintaining her bearing but she will miss her destination because she had already drifted off course, resulting in unintentional consequences and incremental errors over generations. Likewise the Church also drifts off from the intent of God when its focus is mainly on its functions and purpose. The mean become the end. A good captain always conduct an hourly or twice hourly PCS (Position, Course, Speed) check to determine the ship actual position against the original sail plan and do the necessary alteration in her bearing to maintain the course but most church pastors  and leaders may not know or aware that they are already ‘locked in’.  They have been diligent in ministry in need-focused, purpose-driven but they did not understand the pursuit of destiny.

Edwin Louis Cole in his book ‘Real Man[6]’ talks about the degenerative trap of crystallization that ensnares most people and denominations. Churches determine the process of crystallization by rejecting fresh revelation. The pattern and process are:

Revelation --> Inspiration -->Formalization -->

Institutionalism --> crystallization-->Secularization

Many churches and pastors sincerely serve with the best intent but sailing through the sea of mankind (the society and the world), in the water of context and culture and wanting to reach their predetermined destination will require the ‘art and wisdom of apostolic navigation’, having to consider  many factors and elements to contend with, like the types of vessel itself (the dominant grace of the leader and the demographic nature of the local church), the winds (resistance and opposition), the currents (trends, traditions), the waves (doctrines of man, influences of society) and the weather and seasons, especially the storms.

2. Focus on Personal and not on Purpose - churches focus on evangelism and church planting. This is very important and needed in reaching people to God. In restoring a person’s redemptive value, the focus has been on personal sanctification and on the benefits of salvation but not on the purpose of salvation. There is the restoration of redemptive value but neglect the redemptive purpose and as a result, the Church has in the past emphasizes on isolation and separation from the world.  She does not understand that “the sea is salty but the fishes are not” concept that God’s people are not of the world but they are in the world to infiltrate as agents of change. The Church is undergoing renewal and is beginning to prepare God’s people by inoculation and insulation from the ill effects of the world and penetrating it with light and salt. This is a new paradigm from the past practice of isolation and separation from the world. The Church is learning to reign in righteousness and holiness.

3. Focus on Performance without the Process – many believers are touched by the love of God and desire to repay the goodness of God by wanting to serve Him. They felt indebted to God. They found a new family and a new culture in the church but many thought by receiving some training in Bible schools, running about busy in evangelism and in fellowship they are already serving God. They equate performance as serving God. I always tell them they are not serving God yet but are learning how to follow Jesus during this period. Many are hurt and become bitter while desiring to serve God because they did not go through the process yet. They don’t focus on the depth but on the breadth of their performance. 

In the Bible, men who were called by God were first formed by Him, then commissioned and sent by Him. These men carried powerful spiritual dimensions. Imagine God sent just one prophet and an entire city repented! The Church understand biblical, historical, cultural but lack the spiritual and God is restoring and releasing more spiritual understanding in depth (1 Cor. 2:1 - 3:4).

Here is also the dangerous breeding ground of the Philistines. They are the uncircumcised (1 Sam 17:36) who were in the Promised Land i.e. Canaan. The Philistines are those who like performance with prominence without the process. They took the short cut through ‘The Way of the Philistine’ (Ex 13:17) and therefore they are in the Holy Place with an uncircumcised heart. They are the greatest enemy to the things of God, as can be seen in the latter part of Judges and resisted David the most. There are many Philistines among the churches, having the form but without the light, zeal without substance, clouds without rains, the blind and the lame that obstruct David from taking Zion (2 Sam 5:6-8). The Philistines is a type of the defective and dangerous priesthood. Read Ezekiel 44: 10 – 16.

4. The seed reproduces after its own kind – they left Egypt but Egypt was still inside them. There is a long process for removal of the world, flesh and self inside them. They still have the victim, slave and servant mentality.   As in the Brazen Altar after the entrance into the Outer Court, it will be bloody and messy as the priests prepare the sacrifice offering, follow by the washing by the Word and Spirit of God at the Brazen Laver. The evangelist, pastor and teacher are very important to gather, guard and ground the people for God. The people need to be equipped, empowered and matured to become ecclesia of Christ. This is achieved in the second phase of the journey i.e. from Gilgal to Zion. It is also the purpose of salvation – to produce the New Creation of priest/king of Melchizedek order.  The ecclesia is built by very strong spiritual dimension and solid food (Eph 2:20, 2 Pet 3:2) but because the Church has not learned to cross over the River Jordan into the Holy Place of the Temple, “of which we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” (Heb 5:11), she remained in her present state until there is spiritual connection to His Throne. That is the reason I hope this book can be a map to help churches to enter into the inheritance.

I have highligted a few effects on churches in the wilderness part of the journey. It is meant to be introductory to show the ill consquences of not aligning to the heart, mind and intent of God. If He is not leading you, then who is leading you? Where are you  leading the people to? Agreed that we were once ignorant but we cannot choose to remain so because God has warned us of the severity of disobedience (Heb 2:1-4).

  

E.    HOW TO ENTER INTO OUR INHERITANCE IN CHRIST

1. Crossing River Jordan, Entering to Gilgal

Josh 3:11-17

11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. 12 Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. 13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap."

14 So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), 16 that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.

   

The River Jordan means ‘descender’. The water of River Jordan is spirits that cause defeats in your life, causing you to decline, decay, destruction and death. The water or spirit of defeats is stopped by ‘feet of the priests who bared the ark’. Crossing the River Jordan is a spiritual action. ‘Priests who bared the ark’ have spiritual stature and they have the spiritual dynamic and dimension. They have the capacity and stature to carry the Presence of God inside them for they have become the ‘living arks’ like in Samuel. They are able to subdue (put their feet on) the spirits of defeat and circumcised the old adamic nature.

The water of the River Jordan which is 'the spirit of the descender' works in old adamic nature of worldliness, flesh and self in the believers. Being delivered out of Egypt was an experience but delivering Egypt out is a process. There is that pull of gravity of sin that requires the “law of spiritual aerodynamics” to overcome it. An aeroplane is so heavy and yet it can fly by overcoming the pull of gravity and soar because it taps on the law of aerodynamics.  It has powerful engines to provide the thrush of spiritual dynamics and the lift of spiritual dimension and abundant supply of fuel in the Words of God. Just like an aeroplane that is airborne, it is in another realm completely different from the ground. Likewise once the people of God got 'airborne' spiritually, they touch another realm in the spirit and experience the spiritual dynamics and spiritual dimension that they can never experienced and taste while earthbound. They had been set free from the penalty of sin by the Blood of Jesus Christ, now it is to train and equip them to break free from the power of sin. They more they saturate the members of the local church in strong spiritual dynamics and dimension, the more their inner man is quickened and their mind renewed. They need to activate and power up their spiritual engine to provide the powerful thrust to defeat the ‘water of River Jordan’ by  putting the dynamic, dimension and dunamis that these priests carried inside them.

Many congregations are still circling in the wilderness (they centred mainly on evangelistic, pastoral and teaching grace). Many of them lack the spiritual dynamics, dimensions, dynamos and revelations that are needed for the crossover. They must be nurtured and developed in their spiritual capacity and stature for the crossover.

2.   Training the inner man

Paul tells us that we have to mature and attain the spiritual dimension of the Lord (i.e. the spiritual stature of the Word becoming flesh in us) in righteousness and holiness and also have the spiritual dynamics (i.e. the spiritual capacity) in our spirit man to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit. The verses below describe a spiritual process:

Eph 3:16-19

16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. NKJV

1. Your inner man or spirit is strengthened with might (power) under strong spiritual atmosphere, dynamics and dimension of the Holy Spirit, usually by a matured minister person who is a carrier of the Holy Spirit.
2. Your spirit man is developed, becoming stronger and bigger. You have enlarged your spiritual capacity and capability for more of the things God kept for you in Christ.
3. Your spiritual stature in Christ is developing because where the River of life flows, trees of life spring forth (Ezek 47:12, Rev 22:2). Your spiritual capacity allows the River of Life to flow deeper, wider and greater in you. The greater the supply of water, more freshness of Spirit and revelations flow and the greater spiritual deposits for growth.
4. More and more of Christ is rooted and grounded, you will notice God’s kind of love is perfected in you. Divine nature is forming within you.
5. Your spiritual dimension is developing in width, length, depth and height. You are reaching a new stage and touching a new level.
6. Revelatory understanding is illuminated in you to comprehend that which passes knowledge. The mysteries that were kept for you are unfolding and you are entering into it.
7. The Spirit and Word dimensions increased, resulting in more Light in intensity and brightness and the Glory, which is the fullness of God is manifest in your life, first internally and expressed outward holistically, spiritually, socially, economically, physiologically and psychologically. 

3. Understanding spiritual dynamics and dimensions of priest/king in the Holy Place.

There are few terminologies we need to understand to better appreciate  the life as priest/king in the Holy Place and the second phase of the journey from Gilgal  to Zion.

Gilgal is the spiritual headquarter for Joshua conquest of the Canaan and bring God’s people into their allocated ‘Garden’. The failure in the Book of Judges is that there was no succession and impartation into God’s people from Joshua (Judges 2:10) unlike David’s mighty  men (1 Chron. 11, 2 Sam 23).

a. Spiritual Capacity

John 4:13-14

13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." NKJV   

John 7:37-39

37 on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." NKJV

The difference between John 4 and 7 is a fountain of water springing up and rivers of living water.  The volume in a fountain and a river is difference. That difference is spiritual capacity. To mature we must increase our spiritual capacity. As we mature spiritually, from level to level; stage by stage, we will be able to attain the spiritual capacity to enter into the dimensions and realization of various revelations, the mysteries that was kept for us and not from us.

In the Upper Room outpouring of the Holy Spirit all were filled to the fullness of their capacity. If you are a small cup, you will be filled to the brink. If you are a middle sized mug, you to be filled to the brink and if you are a 200 gallons container, you too will be filled to the brink! The experience of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the day of Pentecost was awesome and wonderful but it was how much they can contain of the Holy Spirit after that encounter that is most important. Everyone present in the Upper Room was filled to the brink but each according to their spiritual capacity. How much they can hold that determines how much spiritual dimensions of the Holy Spirit was contained within them.

Just as there are many types of students namely, primary school students, secondary school students, high school students and university students, there are many types of Christians too. They are ‘Red Sea Christians, wilderness Christians, Jordan Christians, Gilgal Christians, Hebron Christians and Zion Christians’, each at different levels and at different stages and of different spiritual capacity. 

This is spiritual principle we must take heed – God must make the vessel before filling him with content or else it leaks or self destruct due to hidden hairline cracks. Larger vessel will certainly take longer time and hottest of fire and heat to strengthen as it is designed with huge capacity for greater content. The bigger and deeper the well, the more water it contain. Spiritual maturity is not because of the years you are in church but by how much is contained inside you, i.e. the spiritual subtance and spiritual strength. (c.f. Matt 15:11-20)

b. Spiritual Stature

Both King Saul and David faced Goliath. King Saul has status, David has stature. Everything King Saul had make him looked big and impressive. He got his big army and his shinning armour but Goliath intimidated him for forty days. King Saul has shadow but David has the substance. David went and approached Goliath with a shepherd staff, similar to Moses facing Pharoach with his staff, and killed Goliath with his own sword.

Spiritual stature means the amount of substance of Christ within you (Col 2:17). Spiritual stature equates spiritual authority. Spiritual capacity equates spiritual strength or power. ‘Be strong in the Lord’ means spiritual stature; how much you have grown in Christ and ‘in the power of His might’ means spiritual capacity of strength or power’. One is relational position in Christ that give us the authority and the other is the power to enforce the authority. Authority must be enforced by power but you can have  power without authority and abuse it.

Eph 6:10

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. NKJV

Spiritual Stature comes from the dealings of God in a person’s life. David was trained by God, first to handle the bear, then the lion and finally Goliath (Ps 144:1).  Spiritual stature is given by God and no men can take it away. Status is obtained by men and men can take it away. Status without stature can kill you.

c. Spiritual Consecration

You are not able to enter into Mount Zion unless you arrived into the spiritual dimension of Hebron. After separation from Lot, Abraham was able to live in Hebron (Gen 13:18). David was told to live in Hebron after the death of soulish King Saul (2 Sam 2:1-4). David reached another spiritual dimension; he was anointed King of Judah.

The process requires separation. Consecration of a crucified life and constant abiding in Christ is needed to sustain the spiritual dynamics and dimension of Hebron. It is the ability to be in contact without contamination. It demands a level of maturity, of spiritual strength and a spiritual stature. Jesus has reminded us again and again – apart from Him we could do nothing! (John 15).  It is our responsibility to always keep our spiritual state and condition intact because ‘there are 7000 who have not bowed their knees to Baal waiting for us!”(1 Kings 19:18)

     

        i. Understanding grace for primary assignment and consecration

Many successful men and women of God declined because of losing their consecration.  Most of the time is because of ambition. They fell into the trap of elevation; they want to go up higher in global impact and influence for God. In Os Hillman’s article, ‘The Traps of Performance, Passion, Position, and Possession[7] he state

‘Oswald Chambers also understood this truth: "When you get higher up, you face other temptations and characteristics. Satan uses the strategy of elevation in temptation, and God does the same, but the effect is different. When the devil puts you into an elevated place, he makes you screw your idea of holiness beyond what flesh and blood could ever bear, it is a spiritual acrobatic performance, you are poised and dare not move; but when God elevates you by His grace into the heavenly places, instead of finding a pinnacle to cling to, you find a great tableland where it is easy to move."

They are swept by the success of their ministry most of the time. They overshot the grace of God that gave them success with certain strengths in performance, passion, position and possessions but these strengths are also their weakness and they need to overcome its potential traps. The grace of God is where your primary assignment is. It has boundary. It is liken the River of Life flowing easily where it wants with the least resistance. It brings provisions and ease to enable you to flourish in your assignment. Ambitious endeavour outside your primary assignment is like trying to dig a trench and expect the river to flow through it. It never will. When that happened, the consecration is already compromised and God in His mercy would have given many warning signs to back track. Insistent to carry on will result is disgrace! Lucifer's heart was lifted up not when he was a failure but at the peak of his success. Be very careful of pitfalls.

David guarded his own heart of his personal ambition and desire; knowing many faithful men sacrificed for his success. Don’t let self pity or sense of entitlement to come into you. Never use people for your ministry. Honour the bloods, sweats and tears of those who sacrificed and contributed to your success. To those who are successful in ministry, the larger the ministry, the smaller one should be. It will save you.

2 Sam 23:15-17

And David said with longing, "Oh, that someone would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!" 16 So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord. 17 And he said, "Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this! Is this not the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?" Therefore he would not drink it.

       ii.  Life and Lifestyle

Jesus was tempted by Satan after His baptism in the River Jordan. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and after victory over the three tests of consecration, Jesus returned in the power of the Holy Spirit. Success has destroyed many established servants of God because they lost their consecration. When we are nobody, we fasted and cried out to God.  In the process the Life was formed in us. Because of the Life, the blessings and promotion will follow and our lifestyle will improve but once the lifestyle contaminates the Life within, we lost our consecration and allow the river of death (River Jordan) to subtly drown us.

The three tests of consecration that Jesus faced are:

•      Spectacular - turning stones to bread.
•      Significance -'all the kingdom of the world in a moment of time'
•      Sensational - 'jumping down from the pinnacle and angels will catch you'

Many established servants of God got into snares or traps. Trap is defined as 'easy to get in, very difficult to get out'. It happen gradually each time they compromised on their consecration and not vigilant on the encroachment of their lifestyle on the Life within. They are surrounded by 'yes' men (c.f. 2Chron. 18). It is so easy to get inside a trap! I have found many were trapped because of ambition, trying to do a greater ministry for God. Don't be in a hurry for success or fame, wanting prominence unless and until you truly learn how to guard your heart and handle those around you. Jesus returned in the power of the Holy Spirit - that power is the power of self denial and secured position in God (c.f.1Cor 1:18-2:5, 2Tim 3:5)

d. Spiritual Wisdom

The post exile books from Babylon captivity of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther saw the reestablishing of first the altar and then rebuilding of the temple but Nehemiah’s phase was the rebuilding of the walls and gates. Walls are meant to protect what is inside from outside. Gates are openings where what go into  and come out are controlled. The walls and gates are wisdom and strong values.

Joshua had to lead the people into the Promised Land and there are seven nations greater and mightier than them (Duet 7:1).  God formed Joshua as His Man, then God gave him His Message, then God prepared hm for His Mission. At this point many  ministers ran out to serve because God has called them. There is one more stage before the commissioning of the call, which is the release of the Spirit of Wisdom (Duet 34:9), for there are many  traps and many become ensnared.

We must be very discerning about “Life and Lifestyle”. The Life that God formed inside us during the formative wilderness journey prepared us for success in the Promised Land but because blessings will flow in because of that Life and blessings can change our lifestyles (the Israelites were nomadic but now they are agrarin ). If we are distracted and careless  in our consecration, the lifestyle will affect the life gained during the formative days of humble beginning in the wilderness journey. Success and blessings can now become a curse, eroding the life. Without the life, everything will decline and decay. We can get trap or ensnared very easily because a trap is defined as ‘very easy to enter but very difficult to come out’. Many are gullible and excited with a sense of freshnes but did not have stamina and patience and got defeated and dried out. The Fall account in Genesis 3 is because of life and lifestyle factor. God formed Adam and put him into the Garden but the life was affected by the lifestyle and blessings became curses.

e. Spiritual Producer and Reproducer

Spiritual things are not  easily  to describe in written words and therefore to fully understand the dynamics you must be guided and guarded into it. You can be taught but you have to experience it and then explained what is it. Peter had to explain what they experienced in the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-16).

Josh 3:3-4

"When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. 4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before." NKJV

Spiritual fathering (reproducer) and sonship (producer) must be about the pursuit of destiny. Underlying it is the spirit of sacrifice. There are abuses and manipulations and unintentional consequences. In 1 and 2 Corinthians Paul taught the immature church not to be attracted but to discern of the ‘Apollos’ and those most eminent apostles (2 Cor. 10 -13).  Some spiritual fathers start well and eventually success ate into them and they lost their consecration. Personal ambition blinded them, usually with massive building projects and manipulative fund raising. Lets us learn how David deals with his own personal ambition.

1 Chron. 11:17-19

17 And David said with longing, "Oh, that someone would give me a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!" 18 So the three broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless David would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord. 19 And he said, "Far be it from me, O my God, that I should do this! Shall I drink the blood of these men who have put their lives in jeopardy? For at the risk of their lives they brought it." Therefore he would not drink it. These things were done by the three mighty men. NKJV

David asked himself, “Shall I drink the blood of these men…” When you are up there in the pedestal with all the prominence, people will treat you like god. Your wish is their command. It is very dangerous to lose your consecration in God because you will not be able to distinguish podium or platform from pedestal, purpose from prominence, pleasure from pressure and you will justify your plan with your persuasion with affirmation with your “yes men”. Beware of the error of Balaam (Jude 11). God will send a strong delusion if you continue not to receive the love of the truth and continue to believe the lie, despite His several warning signs, to your own self-destruction (1 Thess. 2:7-12). I am firmly convicted of Hudson Taylor’s famous quotation -”God’s work done in God’s way never lack God’s supply.” Some years ago when the teachings on Kingdom Economic transfer of wealth from Babylon into the Kingdom was hot, I witnessed the great excitements of a church when the pastor had a windfall with money suddenly poured in.  It was short lived, a painful lesson learnt and months later many left the church. It was then that I heard His voice saying, “My House cannot be built with blood money!” Now I have three tests regarding money in the church. I ask firstly is it blood money. Second, it is righteous money and lastly it is holy money.

Matt 27:3-8

3 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." And they said, "What is that to us? You see to it!" 5 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood." 7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. NKJV

4. From Ebenezer to Zion - Ascension Life and Throne Life in the Most Holy Place

The Book of Joshua, Judges and Ruth cover the period of Israel priesthood in Canaan. It is a test of consecration, showing the failure of the Levitical priesthood. It declined spiritually from Gilgal to Bochim (Judges 2:1) to Ichabod (1 Sam 4:19-22).  Ruth reminds us of the redeemer kinsman duty we have for our fellow brothers and sisters. The Book of Ezekiel covers spiritual truths of this stage.

From Gilgal, the priesthood is tested. It requires spiritual substance to crossover the veil into the Most Holy Place. The Levitical priesthood cannot enter in, only the Zadok priesthood, leading to the Melchizedek priesthood in Zion. Walking through the stages of David’s life in God preparation for the Throne life and the dimensions in the Tabernacle of David are most needed. May God lead us in!  It is beyond the scope of this book to study the spiritual dynamics and dimension in the life of these four persons: Samuel, Saul, David and Solomon and a study of the priesthood from Ebenezer to Zion.

The crucifixion and death at the Cross prepares us for the crossover of the River Jordan and reaching the spiritual position of Gilgal, we enter into the next phase of the process of spiritual dimensions from Gilgal to Zion. We must know that Jesus did not hanged on the cross forever. He resurrected, ascended and now seated in the Throne reigning. Here is progression from Resurrection Life to Ascension Life and into Throne Life. It is life in the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. It is life in His Throne Room! We have many books on resurrection life and now we have to discover Ascension Life and Throne Life! The Book of Esther interests me a lot and particularly Esther 8:8! These are the dimensions found in the Tabernacle of David. This verse is my personal aim to touch such spiritual dimension and stature with God. It will be very awesome when God can extend His Sceptor and entrust His signet ring to a mortal man, decreeing:

Esther 8:8

8 You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's signet ring; for whatever is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's signet ring no one can revoke." NKJV

From Ebenezer to Mount Zion is the next phase of our spiritual journey to train and form the godly governance in us. It is the formation of the kingly stature in us as we matured in righteousness and wisdom to govern in the image and likeness of Christ Jesus the King and High Priest of God Most High.  It is life of a High Priest in the Most Holy Place, not of the Levitical priesthood but of Christ, the Melchizedek order. Have you ask this question to yourself “What it is like if I am the high priest in Christ ministering to God?” What will be running through your heart and mind? What will be your focus? What will be your main concern? What are the subjects of the dialogue between God and you? What and how are you going to do? What is life in Zion like? We know about resurrection life but what about ascended life? What about life at His Throne?

The Gospel of the Kingdom begins after crossing the River Jordan

The entire journey of Israel from Red Sea to Zion is the big picture of the process of God for the development of His New Creation of the new Priesthood in the order of Melchizedek as God transform and developed us from slaves to saints, to servants, to soldiers and to sons for His Inheritance.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and at thirty years old he arose from the water in the River Jordan and was indwelled with the Holy Spirit. The number ‘thirty’ in the Bible means mature; successful completion of the 42 stops of the wilderness process. When he rose from the water, God in heaven declared “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased” (Lk. 3:22). His consecration of his priesthood was tested by Satan in three areas that Satan himself failed. Jesus entered into ‘Holy Place of the Temple’ after His baptism in the River Jordan and began his public ministry in priestly function empowered by the Holy Spirit, announcing Kingdom of God is near as he pressed on in his journey to become the new High Priest of the new Kingdom (Heb 12:2). As the Lampstand and the Shewbread in the Holy Place, Jesus was ministering to the people in His priestly functions as Light and Bread. At the cross, He was the burnt offering, the grain and peace offering as a sweet aroma to the LORD and also our sin and trespass offerings. In hell, death cannot hold Him because He was resurrected from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness (Rom 1:4 c.f. 3:23) taking the Old Testament saints with Him when He rose from hell (c.f. Matt 27:52-53). He told Mary not to touch him as he had to entered the Tabernacle in heaven and cleansed it with His own blood, making it holy again (Heb 8:1-6, 9:11-15) and present His credential to be the new High Priest. On his return to earth, He taught His apostles for forty days things pertaining to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3) and to wait for another ten days after He ascended for His coming Coronation as King on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-47).

The Man Jesus was the first fruit of the New Creation (Lev 23:10) by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He was accepted as the New High Priest on his first ascension to the Father (John 20:17, Heb 9; 11-114).  Fifty days later on the Day of Pentecost, He was exalted and crowned the new High Priest/King of God in the Order of Melchizedek. Simultaneously, on the same Day of Pentecost, the newly crowned King Jesus presented His first fruit of His apostles and His ecclesia of His Colony on earth in the Upper Room. They were the first fruit of the ministry of the Man Jesus Christ, who became the Begotten Son of the Father by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The same Seed reproduce after its own kind. The Man Jesus had become the new vice regent of God’s New Governing Body for His New Kingdom inauguration foretold in Revelation 21 and 22.  The Man Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension and exaltation had now become the Pattern, Process and Prototype of the Harvest of the New Creation. 

The same Holy Spirit who had conceived Jesus, formed him and developed him is the same Holy Spirit He received from the Father and sent down to the prepare the harvest of the New Creation. A new Colony of the Kingdom in Heaven was inaugurated on earth on the Day of Pentecost, which was also the Coronation Day when the Man Jesus was crowned as the new Priest / King of God. He sent the Governor, the Holy Spirit to the Colony (Acts 2:1-13) for the preparation of the harvest or Pentecost because the Man Jesus is First fruit of the New Creation and he is already accepted but the remaining harvest of the New Creation is not yet. So the New Creation for the new Kingdom has already and not yet come into its fullness.   The First fruit is presented and accepted in Heaven. The first fruits of the First Fruit was also patterned and presented on earth and approved by the endorsement of the Holy Spirit. There is a kiaros“…when the Day of Pentecost has fully come” (Acts 2:1) for each disciple and each ecclesia and each church. That is the stage of maturation as the Christ in you is formed. They have the spirit of Christ (John 20:21-23 c.f. Rom 8:9). It is in the Upper Room; the apostles were commissioned to reproduce and multiply to fill the earth and subdue it and bring His Kingdom dominion down. It is at this stage of their spiritual maturity that God releases the grace of reproduction on to them. They are in turn to make disciples or first fruits for the Pentecost and the Tabernacle of the Kingdom in them and through them on earth. The Kingdom brought forth the Church. The Church is on a process of preparation and building the New Creation for the Kingdom.  Are you a first fruit of the First Fruit? Do you sense God has released into you the grace of reproduction? Do you experience Pentecost inside of you? Is inside of you tabernacle of the substance of Light? Do you have that what is from Heaven inside of you to reproduce after the Seed? What kind are you reproducing on earth?

The Gospel of salvation is needed to prepare us for the Gospel of the Kingdom; it is the mean to an end and not the end itself. The fallen man in his fallen state must be restored to his God’s original creation function, i.e. his redemptive value. The Gospel of Salvation is about sanctification and restoring us back to our original creation function and the Gospel of the Kingdom is about  we  beginning to function fully as priest of God Most High after defeating the cycles of defeat by crossing over the River Jordan into the Holy Place and continue to be developed and mature in kingly function as we continue the journey to ascent Mount Zion until we attain the spiritual dimension of priest / king in righteousness and holiness like Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest of God Most High.

The spiritual dimension of the Melchizedek Priesthood needs matured ministers who truly carry the governmental grace and the substance of Light in Word and Spirit for impartation. We see the pattern in the Bible of Moses’ impartation to Joshua, who then was able to circumcise the new generation to cross over the River Jordan, Elijah’s impartation to Elisha, Paul’s to Timothy, Jesus’ impartation to his eleven apostles, who imparted into the early church. You would notice men like Moses, Elijah, Paul and Jesus all stand in the holy presence of God face to face and were executives of His government!  These matured ministers handled powerful spiritual dimensions. The seventy mentioned in Luke 10:17 is the product of apostolic impartation. It is not head knowledge but spiritual dynamics and dimensions developed through apostolic impartation and it is a transfer of life to life, spirit to spirit, and heart to heart. It is no casual relationship. It is a spiritual impartation, not by the laying of hands, but the forming of life by the pair of hands of the matured minister. It is spiritual circumcision.

5. Conclusion - Pursuit the Destiny in Christ

We are created for the New Creation. There is journey pictured in the Old Testament that shows the pattern, the process, and principles of God for the preparation and formation of the New Creation. And in Jesus Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascension and exaltation we see the product, the prototype, the pattern of this New Creation. As New Creation, we are destined to be the new Melchizedek Priesthood as priest/ king for God’s New Government in His New Kingdom.

Every generation live in different eras and ages.  This is patterned in the journey from Red Sea to Mount Zion. The earlier days in the wilderness were very tough and difficult, similar to what our parent of earlier generation went through. Every parent sacrificed for their children, wanting a better future for them. They worked very hard and saved every penny they could save for their children. They wanted to give their children a head start. God have placed eternity inside of us.

There are very important spiritual truths in this eternity that God has placed inside of us. We don’t live for ourselves. We live for the next generation. We work very hard to pass on to the next generation and we wish and meant the very best for our children. We hope our children will never repeat the mistakes and waste of those ignorance and innocence we once went through. We long to pass to them our wisdom gained through the ‘school of hard knocks’.

In Genesis chapter 1 God repeated three times these important principles in verse 11, 12 and 29

Gen 1:11-12,

11 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 

29 And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. (Gen 1:29)

These spiritual principles are:

1. You reproduce after your own kind
2. You reproduce up to your own level

The herb and the fruit tree will produce seed which will again reproduce after its own kind and height. To have better crops, farmers go for the best fruits and get their seeds. At times they cross pollinate the seeds of some of the best and stronger trees, hoping to get super grade seeds.

The churches are needs focused and purpose-driven but have to step into the pursuit of destiny.

We are on a journey and each generation will walk theirs and pass the baton to the next generation to continue the journey. Many went through their life journey but with not much spiritual wealth and wisdom to transfer.  They may have material wealth to pass on to their children. A man who truly walks with God will reach his destination. The journey will be his reward. He will be matured by God’s dealings in his life and grew to be a tall and very strong tree and he will bear many fruits of godliness, righteousness, holiness, wisdom and matured in the grace put in him. He would have a spiritual stature with spiritual dimensions. What God has worked in him all the years will be a spiritual inheritance for the churches. This is the ‘doma’ gift of Jesus Christ to His Bride. There are ‘charisma’ gift of the Holy Spirit to the churches but doma gift is in a person, in that ‘‘tree of life’’.

This ‘doma’ gift of Jesus Christ to His Body, knows what he is carrying inside of him is treasure in earthen vessel. He is a custodian of it for the next generation and he endeavour to faithfully protect it in its purity and fidelity that he may pass it to the succeeding generation that ‘Seed’ uncontaminated, undefiled or degraded.  Paul said, “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” (1 Cor4:1-20) He carries a spiritual seed, he walked his journey to leave a legacy, and he has a spiritual inheritance to give us a spiritual heritage.

He has a treasure in earthen vessel but if it is not pass on in succession, then heritage become history, reminiscing of the good old days. If there is connectivity and continuity, then the succeeding generation will receive a powerful spiritual head start with compounding spiritual dimensions and dynamics. God intended in the Aaronic priesthood that the son will succeed the father and received and continued in all the spiritual dimensions. The Book of Genesis is about four men and four generations:

•     Abraham -  4 altars
•     Isaac – 4 wells 
•     Jacob – 4 pillars
•     Joseph – 4 clothing.

God is known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Each generation build upon the past generation accomplishment. Abraham’s altars of sacrifice established a covenant relationship with God, Isaac dug spiritual wells for spiritual sustenance of the inheritance he received from his father and Jacob strengthened and reinforced the compound inheritance he received from his father and grandfather into pillars of truth. Joseph is has the power to prevail and the grace to govern in different placements. He brought the Kingdom of God into and made right the entire governmental system of Pharaoh. This is a demonstration of the Melchizedek priest-king impact and influence in Egypt.

Every generation added to what they have received from their forerunners. All the spiritual dimensions are compounded and multiplied and all the works and life of an entire generation is not lost and wasted. In a local church there must be transferred of spiritual life from one generation to another. Most of churches focus on administration and operation. With no spiritual life continued, the church is no longer spiritual but a structural church.

The pioneer generation will build the altars of sacrifice. They secured the covenant with God. The second generation of Isaac will dig wells for the spiritual water, without it no life can sustained and all the inheritance of earlier generation will die. Isaac was willing to let Abraham put a sharp knife through him even though he was a strong young man able to subdue his frail old father Abraham. It was this intense desire to connect to the God of the forefather that God commanded David to build the Temple on the same ground where Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac. The third generation of Jacob build pillars to strengthen it. Can these dynamics of the three generations be established in a local church? Or perhaps the church has lost its spiritual truth and has to uncover it again!

The pastor of the local church must understand this truth about destiny. Most pastors failed because they thought their role is to pastor the church. That is their role and responsibility only and not their life and therefore many pastors of local churches are just busying about without developing spiritual dimensions into their life and they can only reproduce their own kind and levels. The structural church determines the pastor whereas in spiritual church the matured pastor will determine the church. There will be mistakes but stay objective and not react subjectively.

God is interested in maturing the pastor in his dominant grace into a big strong tree. It will take a long time, maybe 30 years, and then spiritual fruits will bear because of what he carries within him. It started as a germinating seed that grew into a tall tree and from the one tree, an entire forest come forth. A spiritual church will be like a forest of trees whose seeds came from the big tree of life as the reproducer. There will be a strong corporate anointing present. The pastor has grown from a consumer to be a producer and now he is bearing fruits to become a reproducer after Christ. The church will never be able to grow above the pastor of the church. If you keep seeing yourself as a pastor you will remain a pastor but if you see yourself as a reproducer, you will reproduce! Question is what are you reproducing? Ask yourself this question “Am I worth reproducing?”

1 Cor. 4:14-17

14 I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.  15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me. 17 For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.

Paul warned the immature church in Corinth of chasing after the teaching instructors. They are spiritual producers but they don’t carry the life of the Seed whereas Paul is a Reproducer of the Seed. The difference between Apollo and Paul is that Apollo has knowledge but Paul has wisdom and the Spirit. A son will receive three things from his good father: a) discipline b) wisdom and c) inheritance. A reproducer will produce: a) the pattern b) the wisdom and c) the Life.

The pursuit of destiny is like the story of the terraced rice paddy fields we see cut into the slopes of hills. The earlier generation laboured step by step, slowly but surely to cut the terrace. They may not be able to cut all the hills in their generation. They may progress half way and died but the succeeding generation picked up their tools and continue. They too may not finish the works in their generation. They died but another generation press on until it is finished. They will be a generation that will enjoy the fullness of it and it will continue for generations to come. Every generation understood that what they are doing is of utmost importance to the predetermined plan of their forefathers. They have a critical responsibility that compel them to continue the work with a great sense of destiny knowing that even though the hills are many and high and almost unimaginable to finish, they are driven in the pursuit of this destiny.

Don’t seek a name, allows God to give you the name.

Abraham was particularly intense in his pursuit of destiny and intentional about the legacy he leaves beyond his lifetime.

‘By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man; and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude — innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. (Heb 11:8-12 NKJV)

Though Abraham had attained the promises of God in the land and in Isaac and Jacob, he was not celebrating his achievement and attainment. He was pursuing destiny intensely. He was concerned of leaving his legacy and succession to the next generation.

1 Kings 3-10 talks about Solomon’s God given wisdom in establishing God’s rulership in Zion over His people in His land. To rule well requires wisdom, understanding and skills and it result in each man in Judah and Israel dwelling safely under his vine and his fig tree (1Kgs 4:25 c.f. Micah 4:4). Wisdom is the pinnacle reality of covenant fulfilment of salvation history and the building of the Temple is the pinnacle of Solomon’s wisdom. But yet all the glory of Solomon was short lived…” and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:27). He did not have the pursuit of destiny inside of him.

David was celebrating on his achievement and attainments. He was counting his success and security by the number of his army (2Sam 24, 1Chron 21). God came to teach him a key lesson – success is only when you have a successor! David clearly understood the pursuit of destiny and willingly scarified for it; “and offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing” (2Sam 24:24,1Chron 21:24).

Now take note, success is not just you having succession. You are only successful when your successor is about to transfer successfully to the third generation. You have success but you are only successful when your successor reproduced his successor in continuity and connectivity. It is easy to succeed but not easy to be successful.

‘Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And he began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign (2 Chron. 3:1-2)

Mount Moriah was the place where Abraham sacrificed Isaac (Gen 22:2). The pursuit of destiny was in him and also in Isaac. Abraham willingly sacrificed his only begotten son and Isaac was willing to be sacrificed for this cause. Isaac was a strong young man and could easily fight off the restraint of his old and frail father Abraham but he did not and willingly offer himself to be sacrificed. And when God told David that his son Solomon shall build the Temple instead of him, David understood that God wanted his son Solomon, like Isaac, to understand this pursuit of destiny too. ‘The hearts of the fathers turn to the children; and the hearts of the children to their fathers’ (Malachi 4:6) for continuity and connectivity in the pursuit of destiny generationally.

In life, it is about overcoming all odds to press in into the Most Holy Place and to establish Zion in our allocated ‘Garden’ and to obtain the inheritance for the next generation. Paul said ‘that which I received from Heaven I give to you.” Paul downloaded from Heaven so that he can hand over to the next generation. I pray there is such an intensity within your spirit and heart to seek God earnestly for your spiritual inheritance, the ‘blessing of Abraham…that in you, families of the nation will be blessed’ and ‘one who will come from your own body shall be your heir’ (Gen 12:3, 15:4), the grace to reproduce begotten sons, bringing many to glory.  Pursue God and bring down spiritual substances from Heaven and impart it into begotten sons for fruitfulness, the multiplier force needed to fill the earth, to subdue it and have dominion of His Kingdom here on earth. Inheritance is about taking the best of yesterday and bringing it into the future. It is not about nostalgia.

The seed of your inheritance

I saw some ‘teething problems’ in the Apostolic Move in the 90s when spiritual fathers built their own networks. There were territorial disputes and generational conflicts because of tribal chief mentality. I noted several interesting things about seed:

1. When the seed germinate and grow, their species is easily identified. It does not matter which network or spiritual father you associate with, if Christ is formed in you, we are of the same Seed, not identified by cultural forms or groups. The ‘set-man’ principle is not about the set man, though he is vital but what he sows he will reap. If it centred on him, he gets a field. If he cares on the seeds, he gets a family.
2. Seeds are scattered as the winds carry it. Seeds are not cultivated in neat rows of orders and structures. The field does not identify the seeds but the seeds identify the field. There are paradigm shifts in working with sheep, seeds and sons. There is always the freedom in the Spirit bound by internal pulls and resonance in honour and acknowledging the grace of God in each other’s stature. The seeds are scattered by the winds of the Holy Spirit for a particular function in a particular place. The maturity to identify the role, function, stature, wisdom, timing and season and the kind of employment is needed. There has been much cacophony for those who see in parts and know in parts.
3. True spiritual father is truly interested in forming the Christ in his spiritual sons with the spirit of wisdom.  He releases all of his into you, totally pure in motive, not even selfishly thinking of the continuation of his legacy. He is solely keen as he sees God’s hand in a person’s life and to facilitate it to the maximum. He sees how the River is flowing within you and where it leading to and facilitate that flow. But some have focused inaccurately in establishing their own plot of cultivated field. The seeds cannot be contained, it must be released and scattered by the winds, carried by the flow of the River. True fathering is releasing sons with the potent Seed into their destiny. They are only bows to launch these arrows of destiny. Neither the bows nor arrows but the goal of God and all is vital and what that touched us remains within…that spirit of sacrificial love and honour.
4. The seed contains everything within itself to grow into a big tree that bears fruits and the seeds in the fruits will reproduce after its own kind. I once rebuked a zealous young believer in China wanting to disrupt his discipleship to serve God. I told him we will send him if he passed these criteria ‘that we will send him to the most remote corner in China with no one, no church, to pray and visit him and nothing to support him; just the Bible and the Holy Spirit and he is to plant a church that is planting churches within 5 years.’ If he is a seed and we scatter him to the furthest corner, it will grow with water, light and good soil! The question a spiritual father should ask “What have I produce?”

A word about Kingdom emphasis

There is a current season of awakening and emphasis on the Kingdom of God in the churches and as such the Church is to be change agent to impact and transform culture, preferably at the tops of the cultural mountains of mind moulders to maximise maximum godly positive influence. This is the strategy of the advocators of cultural transformation. I had gone through this move in the 90s and hope to share some pointers:

1.   We are told to pray for His Kingdom to come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is to be exercised within the ‘Garden’ we are allocated and given authority e.g. in our personal life, our family and owned business or work and this is our area of jurisdiction and God has not really called us to figure out how ‘to change the world’.

2.  We are called to be His Light and Salt and to exercise a faithful presence in the midst of culture. This requires us personally to subdue any carnal and worldly infiltrations within us and within our family and to build a wall of wisdom with very strong gates of godly values in order to the godly faithful presence.

3.  In life, only a small percentage is successful and high up in the social ladder in society and even so, they are not the owners and nor have the final say e.g. Joseph and Pharaoh, Daniel and the Babylonian kings. There is a time and place when God involve placing His servants in key places of influence among the cultural elite to avoid catastrophic events or to cause His Providence.  In the mean time, creation is subjected to futility for the equipping of the saints for the ministry of Christ as sons of God, for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly wait for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:18-25).  While saying this, we are to be meek but nevertheless need to develop and empower ourselves to be change agents to impact and influence Kingdom values. We choose to win by righteousness and we would rather lose if we cannot win by righteousness.

4.  Those who advocate cultural transformation must have the wisdom to explain the Scripture clearly or else they will take an activist’s interpretation of the Bible. Yes, the Kingdom must come but the question is what and how is the method used? It is macro or micro or both? How is the Kingdom of God come inside a communist developing country? How do we handle the tension of ‘already   and not yet’ of the Kingdom? We must distinguish and discern the Kingdom Theology and the Kingdom-Now Theology or Dominion Theology. I have seen zealous momentums created only to see it collapsed in disappointment, frustration and mistrust.

5.  We have a victorious and positive eschatology but it is not euphoric and zealous running after the enemies. We are to rule in the midst of our enemies. Dominion is a fruit of our obedience walk and stature in Christ and not a goal to be achieved. We are in the constant state of intimacy of sitting at His right hand and at the same time subduing the enemies in our midst to be our footstools (Ps 110). I personally believe there is place of cultural transformation and the taking of the 7 mountains of mind moulders but only after when each person inside the church are taught and train and able to subdue these 7 mountains or nations (Duet 7:1) in their personal and family life. This basic capability to subdue has yet to be the DNA of a church to be apostolic in nature.  I trained my disciples how to prevail against these 7 mountains in their own life and in their children and wife and how to develop and position themselves for building strong walls. Basically the rulership of His Kingdom must be as second nature within us. Once our fundamentals are right and strong I believe the corporate church is ready for the next phase, otherwise we begin to use fleshly strategies to exploit and subjugate others to our way of thinking.

6.   Nevertheless this move of a particular emphasis is useful for the awareness of the church. The pioneers of this movement are bold and courageous and made many mistakes. The adaptation of the church to the move of God is like a bell curve and when efforts in community-wide prayer meetings are that of strategically joining forces to take back the country for God, we have to be concerned. It is not militant activists approach but truth and wisdom like leaven permeating. Nevertheless God is God and when He move He move! When the dust settled down, we gain more than we lost. So too overly concerned is again counterproductive. We must remember a move of God will eventually fade away but the important lesson is where the move or sign is pointing to. The Body has and is moving out of religious dead works.

7.  Understand the biblical truth and process of our divine journey from Red Sea to Zion and as we mature in this light in clarity, in substance, in wisdom, I see positive outcomes in all the stalk holders of the Kingdom; the individual Christian, the local churches, the Corporate Church will see the brightness of His Light dawning clearer, stronger, brighter spiritually and physically. The digital and social media has bridged gaps in our communication and facilitate dialogue. Expression of views will be clarified in the beautiful spirit of love selflessly. Since the 1517 Reformation, the Protestant Church is well positioned into the 21^st Century to see His Kingdom come. The end will come when the doctrine, dynamics, dimension, depth, DNA and finally the demonstration of the Gospel of the Kingdom is preached as a witness of the LIGHT to all the nations (Matthew 24:14).

I have explained certain spiritual dimensions that need to be nurture and developed within you. These are spirit things or power which you can be strong in. And these powers or strengths can be misused when you lost your consecration and thereby your authority to use these strengths. “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph 6:10) is about your positional authority in your right standing in the Lord and the power of His might is the strength of your spirit man. One is about authority, the other is about power. Similarly as we grow and mature in our natural life, the knowledge and skills are the ‘power’ which we acquired and accumulated. The attitudes and habits are the ‘authority’ which we nurtured and developed.

To keep the authority, you must develop within you the pure spirit in the ‘Pursuit of Destiny’. There must be not contamination within; it must be crystal clear water with its Source at the Throne of God (Ezek. 47:1, Rev 22:1-2). Fear God and don’t add to incremental errors. Gain wisdom and avoid unintentional consequences. His rulership and Fear must be nurtured and developed within you.

Remember your humble beginning – that is when the Life is forged in the wilderness of sufferings. Be grateful and thankful for every furnace of afflictions, it was meant to melt away those that can be melt. These are not materials for building pillar to bear His government on your shoulder. Out of these molten steel will comes a pure heart and clean hands. It will strip away anything and everything you thought is your identity and security and your sense of worth. It will empty you to fill you with His. This Life will bring blessings and promotion. The lifestyle will affect the Life, be careful not to be trapped. Disciple and beat your body lest you who preach is disqualified.

There must be no greed in you, “Don’t read Your Greed into His Creed” as Pastor Tunde Bakare taught. Light up your lampstand four lamps with your ‘crushed olive oil’ the Spirit of Truth, of Righteousness, of Sacrifice, and of Honour and the remaining three lamps God will light it up in you. Only you know how much Light is within you. Fear Him!

Your family is your first ‘Garden of Eden’. I always teach my disciples that their family, their wife and children and household is their first church. You as God’s priest are to bring His Kingdom in God’s people in God’s place, which is your family in your home. The home and the house must have the atmosphere on Heaven on earth.  The Book of Judges concludes with a finger pointing in the face of the failure of the Levitical priesthood (Judges 17-21), the problem started when one Levite is idolatrous in his heart and the second one who didn’t have the courage to stand up for what was right and treat his wife honourably.

Gain wisdom by acquiring knowledge, gain understanding and learning new skills. When things are not functioning well at home or in your life, fix it immediately. Don’t be like Pharaoh who entertained the frogs for one more night (Ex. 8:8-10). Find out what is the problem and fix it so that it will never trouble you again. Laziness kills.

Holiness requires you to hate what God hate with a perfect hatred. You must do the right thing and everything that is wrong will be made right…be it in your spouse or in your children. Compromise kills but love and mercy with patience is persuasive and not pressurizing.

Multiply your blessings so that you always have more than enough to supply to others. All that God has given you within your allocated ‘Garden’ is for you to discover and uncover. He has already given you everything needed. Learn and work hard. Have the attitude to keep and multiply your blessings instead of enjoying and wasting it. Gain the how-how and the wisdom of it. Those things or areas you have subdued and overcome and have dominion over will never trouble you again. You have obtained the grace to prevail and the wisdom to govern. Now of the increase of His government there is no end. Don’t be ambitious; don’t make a name for yourself because when God approved of you, He will give you a name! So don’t torpedo what you are carrying within you, pursuit destiny so out of you will come forth stars in heaven that you are not able to count!

Keep your heart pure and hands clean. Be contented for no man can receive from Heaven what is not his. But in that contentment grow in spiritual stature in your allocation. Be determined to keep the Seed within you uncontaminated. Others will come looking for you at the right time or “it may be that your mission isn’t actually accomplished by you at all. You succeed by setting it up for others to go beyond you! And you lost nothing because God rewards faithfulness to assignment – not size of assignment. Instead, based on Jesus’ model, your greatest reward and impact may come through your sons and daughters and those you train and equip.”[8]

Run well…finish well to pass the pattern.

Epilogue

I hope this volume serves a road map to lay the overall picture, pattern, process, principles and prophetic practical outworking plus the spiritual dynamics and dimensions for the Gospel of the Kingdom on earth. It requires a certain Priesthood of the church to see the Kingdom comes and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

This volume is the first of a series of three books which I hope to write in the near future, they are ‘The Jerusalem Factor – removing the cultural scale’ (which was written in 2001 but never printed) and ‘The Living Ark’. May God allow me to see the inside of the Ark i.e. the Christ in Jesus (Phil 3:8-10), till then I press on in the pursuit of destiny for them, for Him and for myself.

My heart cry has always been “Let there be Light!” and there are so many saints in other non-English speaking developing countries that need teachings and equipping. Thank you so much for allowing me the joy of sharing this journey with you…and with them too.

His Kingdom come!

About the author:

Danny Boey serves in cross cultural ministry since 1994 with some 14 years in creative access nations (CAN). His journey began when he was literally ‘born-again’ twice when God supernaturally touched him exactly on the same month and same day of his born-again date twenty years apart.

As he matured in ministry and it began to pattern after Acts chapter 19 where Apostle Paul updated and upgraded the church in Ephesus to the next level in doctrine, dynamics, dimensions, discipleship, development, disposition, destroying inaccuracies of magic infiltrated within and declaring the whole counsel of God.

Similar to the school of Tyrannus in Acts 19, Danny is passionate for ‘Acts’, acronym for ‘Apostolic Church Training School’, which God gave in 1995 while asking Him for the name of the Bible school they were establishing among in the Burmese Karen refugee camp near Three Pagodas Pass at the eastern border of central Thailand. It took almost twenty years in forming the substance for ‘Acts’. Danny named his son Samuel and little did he know some thirty years later, Danny is now particularly passionate in raising the ‘Samuels’ through Acts. Acts is about the Samuel – David generations. Its objectives are 1) Let there be Light 2) Rebuild Zion and 3) Esther 8:8.

Danny and his wife Lydia live in Singapore and are blessed with two grown up children, Wendy and Samuel. For the last twenty years, they served God together in the spirit of sacrifice, following the pattern of Paul in Acts 20:33-35, and have no lacks in funding the works with their own hands. They don’t receive any financial supports. They witness ‘God’s work; done in God’s way; never lack God’s supply.’ The proceeds of the sale of the book will be use for the ministry expenses.  Their philosophy in ministry is to follow the footsteps of Jesus and Apostle Paul as servants without shoes, bearing the cross in the redness of His Blood and in the Acts for His Bride. They are in their late fifties and are journeying toward their ‘Golden Sunset’ of tranquil and fulfilment; actively involves the Kingdom works. The journey is their reward!

Danny’s email: acts19@gmail.com

Select Bibliography for future readings:

Beale, G.K., ‘The Temple and the Church’s Mission’, Inter Varsity Press, 2004

Billheimer, Paul E., ‘Destined for the Throne’, Christian Literature Crusade, 1975.

Dawson, Gerrit Scott, ‘Jesus Ascended – The Meaning of Christ’s Continuing Incarnation’, P& R Publishing Co USA, 2004

Goldsworthy, Graeme, ‘Gospel & Kingdom’, The Paternoster Press, 1981

Goldsworthy, Graeme, ‘Christ-Centered Biblical Theology’, IVP Academic, 2012.

Hamon, Bill, ‘The Eternal Church’, Destiny Image Publisher, 2003.

Katz, Art, ‘Apostolic Foundation’, Art Katz Ministries, 2009

Walton, H. John, ‘The Lost World of Genesis One’, IVP Academic, 2009

Ware, A. Bruce, ‘The Man Christ Jesus’, Crossway, 2013

Appendix A - Definition of spiritual terminology used

1.      Dynamic - it is the internal powers generated by composite components and the sum total of all these internal powers that produce the consistent outcome and output. For example to have the power to prevail and overcome, there are several inner powers from contributing components inside a person that enable him/her to overcome, namely, the strength in the spirit, mind, strength, skill and right inputs and right company of friends.

2.    spirit - The word 'spirit' is used to designate the invisible powers of mind, disposition, influence, whatever is operative in the Christian's life. It is the attitude and internal motivation, the inner drives for example, the spirit of a champion athlete - the fortitude and tenacity, the sacrifice, the hard works, the patience, the perseverance, the nurturing, the development, the discipline, his hiddenness, his desire to improve and excel, the willing to push against all human limitations, to cut a new pathway for other, to raise the standard for betterment.

3.     

        Dimension - it is a state of attainment by nurturing and development and not by acquiring or accumulating. It is a spiritual state of being where the vastness within the inner man or spirit man is able to contain, comprehend and cooperate in the affair of God. Dimension is a stage of spiritual being with its accompanied capacity and capability. It has distinctive operational dynamics in the realms of the Spirit, which when accessed into, will provide specific grace to function and exercise authority to influence with a said sphere or domain.

4.               

        Stature - It is the indicator of spiritual substance and the measure of your spiritual position and ranking in Christ of the spiritual position of favour you obtained in God as you yield to the Holy Spirit's dealings and workings in your life in the nurturing and development of the Christ within you and until God finds you a trustworthy steward who will represent Him fully and be bestowed with the necessary grace and provision of wisdom to finish Kingdom purposes here on earth.

5.      

         Strength - It is the indicator of the spiritual capacity of the inner or spirit man that has exercised and enlarged in its ability to receive, contained and release spiritual things. It is the internal battery in a fully charged state. It is healthy and there is power and strength to keep its spiritual state as fully charged and energised.

6.      Destiny - It is the providence of God in our life that activates us into the divine process of coming into the inheritance and succession. It is the divine decree according to the predetermined plan in the mind of God, now settled in our heart as sealed conviction, burning passionately and compelling us to make choices toward the appointed, assigned, scheduled unfolding of our forth ordained future until we enter into the fullness of fulfilment, that is God obtained rest within us and we attained the fullness of the Seed to reproduce after its own kind in and through our lives. Destiny produces a strong sense of critical responsibility that what you suppose to accomplish is of utmost importance. It is not discovered but uncovered each phase you make the right choice in obedience.

7.               

     Spiritual Technology - spiritual technology is the avenue or channel God is currently employing in order to execute His plan and purpose in accordance with the kind of terrain and resistance faced upon the earth.  It is the current relevant now available ready-to-use tools for the execution and provides acceleration to the execution of God's purposes and plans according to their relevance to the type of terrain and resistance on the ground. Spiritual technologies cease to become effective if it is unable to bring God's Kingdom upon the earth. We called them 'old technologies or primitive tools.' These inferior tools will not be able to rise above the conditions of the terrain and will not be able to prevail against the resistance put up by the enemy in the battlefield. Spiritual technologies are avenues made available for us to employ that will accelerate the execution of God's plans and purposes against the varied kinds of terrain and the numerous resistances faced upon the earth.

8.               

        Governing grace - it is a spiritual prevailing position by a matured spiritual man who carries the substance and therefore the spiritual authority and discernment to enhance Kingdom influence by exercising domain over earthy, fleshy carnality and the spiritual realm in keeping the heavens open and making it conducive for the Holy Spirit's movement in the territory and regions around it.

9.               

        Mantle – it is the ‘exo-skeletal’ framework that carries and contains the spiritual content of spiritual substance of maturity. It is liken to the rings of growth in the clam of a shellfish. This rings of growth in the mantle is formed under the spiritual influence and guidance of the spiritual father who himself carries the spiritual stature, life and commission from God. The same mantle he carries is the same he will form on his spiritual sons. Inside the mantle will contain the stature, substance, wisdom, frequency, dynamics, mindset, passion, intensity, the life and lifestyle of the matured man. The mantle is most crucial for transference and succession, without it, the successor will not be able to contain the life, the spirit and the God dimension of the spiritual father (2Kings2). The succession requires the mantle, the spirit and the God dimension of the spiritual father to be fully transferred onto the successor. The rings of growth take many years to form and grow and it is under the constant influence of the spiritual dynamics and dimensions carries by the matured man. Elisha served Elijah 14 years as an apprentice with his master. It requires a process of ‘take from and add it’ approach. It takes from the spiritual father’s guidance in life impartation and diligent add It internally to regulate and fine tune oneself in God. It is also likened to the ‘well’ that contains the spiritual living water. It is the container of spiritual content and the bigger its capacity, the larger it cans holds.

Appendix B: Overall view of the Journey

Appendix C: Symbol of ‘a new heaven and a new earth’

             

•  Revelation 21:1-22:5 contains the final version of the entire Bible.
•  The dimensions of the Temple is cubic (its length, width and heights are equal – Rev 21:16 c.f. 1 Kings 6:20) depicting His reign is 360 degree, universal.
• The base of the new city (Rev 21:16) is a square, depicting the 4 corners of the universe.
• The domain of the new KOG is in the bigger cube, encompassing all of creation.

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[1] Graeme Goldsworthy, Christ-Centered Biblical Theology, IVP Academic, 2012, p.21

[2] Dr. Bill Hamon, The Eternal Church, Destiny Image Publisher, 1981.

[3] Don Richardson, Eternity in their hearts, Regal Books, 1981, p. 197

[4] George Eldon Ladd, Gospel of the Kingdom, Martino Publishing, 2011, p.117

[5] Dietrich Bonheoffer, The Cost of Discipleship, Touchstone, 1995

[6] Edwin Louis Cole, Real Man, Watercolour Books, 1992, p.81

[7]http://www.7culturalmountains.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=76366&columnid=4347

[8] Quote by Lance Wallnau