The 7 characteristics

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The 7 characteristics of a true and anointed servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and member of the Bride of the Lamb in the end-time

What Scripture says about this:
1. They bring to the Lord as a burnt offering, all of their old, sinful life.
Isaiah 61:8 "For I the Lord love judgement, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them."

They hate their old, sinful life wherein they are bound, and give it to the Lamb of God that they be completely delivered from it by the divine sharing in His death on Calvary; this being brought about by the washing in His shed blood and the purifying power of the Holy Ghost's fire. God hates the robbery for burnt offering. This means, that we should not surrender in part unto redemption, but wholly. His true servants live up to this and strive for perfect sanctification by the Holy Spirit of the Lamb of God; of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2) Then the Lord Jesus will call such true servants to partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb, and they will obey His voice.
Revelation 19:9 "And he (the messenger angel of God to the apostle John) saith to me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God."

For the rest of their life they will then continually partake of the Lamb's marriage supper-table. This means that they preserve their salvation by the Lamb by continually bearing about in their heart His dying (see 2 Cor. 4:10-11).

3) Then the Lamb will accept them as future members of His Bride and will prepare them hereto.
Luke 17:34-37 "I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together."

He will gather them as members of His active Body.

4) The spiritual burning of the Holy Ghost's fire will then purify them and completely free them from sin.
Not only forgive, but also free them from their bonds of sin.
Malachi 3:1-4 "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, and they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years."

Levi is the tribe of Israel serving the Lord in His tabernacle and temple, and symbolically stands for the true, anointed servants who serve the Lord as bringers of the Word.
If they are sanctified they will be able to bring God's Word as a pure offering in righteousness to the Church. Judah and Jerusalem are symbolic for the New-Testament Church of the Lord. By this fire and the spirit of sanctification God's servant is made faultless, without spot and without wrinkle (see Ephesians 5:27); and he walks and works as a perfect conqueror over satan and sin (see Revelation 12:11). He will prepare and use such persons as true Gospel preachers and teachers in the world, and will mark them among the workers as such by their charisma and anointing.
Isaiah 61:9 "And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed."

5) He shall clothe them with the garments of salvation, with the robe of righteousness, and with His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
Isaiah 61:10a "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness;..."

Revelation 19:8 "And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints."

Psalm 45:13-15 "The king's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. (And outwardly:) She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king's palace."

6) When the marriage has taken place, He will adorn His Bride with divine glory and authority.
Isaiah 61:10b "...as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels."

Revelation 12:1 "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven (i.e. the kingdom of heaven, namely the Bride[church] here on earth); a woman (i.e. the wife of the Lamb) clothed with the sun (type of the Father), and the moon (type of the blood covenant of the Son) under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars (type of the Holy Spirit)."

a) The sun stands for the justice and glory of the Father;
b) the moon for the Lamb of God and His blood covenant, wherein the Bride of the Lamb stands;
c) the twelve stars for the omnipotence and authority of the Holy Ghost, with which she is crowned.
She then is clothed with all the glory of God. Great power, knowledge and wisdom of the Holy Ghost is then put onto God's true, anointed servant, preparing him so for his final battle and labour in the Lord.
He will gird on (equip) them inwardly and outwardly with the whole armour of God.
Ephesians 6:10-13: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

7) When the marriage (the union with the Lamb) has taken place He shall use His servant as His instrument worldwide
in order to
1) restore the Church, which has deteriorated because of satan; and
2) to bring about the worldwide revival, whereby the harvest shall be innumerable (Revelation 7:9; 14:14-16).

Isaiah 61:11 "For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations."

CLICK HERE if you want to read this study – that is to long for the Blog – further.

By E. van den Worm

LUKE (Chapter 4) - Jesus, God’s High Priest, tried and despised by many, but... accepted by others

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God's High Priest tried

As we know the Lord Jesus Christ is the revelation of the NEW MAN in his perfection. He is the First Citizen of the NEW CREATION and as such is also the High Priest of God. The NEW CREATION begins in us when we are reconciled with God, on the basis of our faith in the dear blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, and when we – in and by the Holy Spirit – come into relationship with the risen Christ, in order to live a priestly life, a life that is in complete service to God.

The Gospel after Luke reveals both to us, Jesus as the High Priest Himself, as well as the royal priesthood, namely Christians as priests of the most high God, whom He bought from sin with His sacrificial blood (His blood shed for our sins as an offering [a ransom]), by His excellent grace. We got to know the first three chapters as a good and necessary basis of the repentant life God wants to establish in man. It is God, Who comes to us and calls us to repentance. And it is this repentance, together with the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified, which, as we have seen, forms the gateway to this NEW LIFE in God. Now we will look at this NEW, pure, priestly LIFE in all its facets, which God will give to those people, that, in repentance and faith, long for it intensively here. Long to share His death and resurrection (see Romans 6:3-5), which Jesus' baptism in the Jordan (river) points to. We will first look at the trial of Jesus, the High Priest, Himself; thereafter at His rejection by the one, and acceptance by the other. In the next chapter we will be able to look at the royal priesthood; these are all Christians who followed Him in His death and resurrection, and who could walk after Him by the inward working power of His relationship.
Jesus Christ, our High Priest, after He was baptized with the Holy Spirit, was tried; as also each priest of God, when he must stand in his (divine) ministry, is tried; namely herein: whether he be willing to do God's will in his life. Of a priest it is demanded that he count all of his own will and life as nothing, in order to be able to do that wonderful will of God in his life. All of one's own will, all hobbies, all desires of one's own, the social job; in short: all we have and are, what we as a human being want and desire; all these must be laid on God's altar of (burnt) offering. God must be able to do with his priest what He, in His sovereign (almighty; independent of any higher authority) Love, wants and desires. Do not we pray: "Thy will be done in heaven, as also in the earth"? Beloved, this then is God's demand for a priestly ministry, in any degree and of any nature. Hence, in regard to this demand, a priest is tried by God again and again. We are confronted with the choice again and again whether to choose the (sinful) enjoyments of the world or His pure will and service, because He calls us to a voluntary priesthood in His purity and holiness. Should we fail in our choice, and if we choose to do our own will, then God will not continue with us until we will have learned to lay off this stubbornness; until we humbly begged the Lord to deliver us from all reasons which cause us to be stubborn... Let us learn to obey and fulfill His will heartily, then we can proceed like that spiritual racer from Philippians 3:14 in increasing revelation of this NEW LIFE in our everyday life; ready to lay down all that hinders us in the race to that goal in Christ.

4 verse 1: "And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,..."

It is the Holy Ghost Who leads us into trials and puts us opposite the foe! The enemy tempts us with all the "beauties" of this world, and the Holy Spirit puts us before the choice whether to obey God's Word or... to choose that which is the enemy's. After all, He calls a voluntary people that is willing to serve faithfully and as a priest, being completely in God's service.

4 verse 2a: "(Jesus) Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing..."
For forty days Jesus was tempted by the devil! God Himself allowed this to happen. The High Priest, God's own Son, had to prove His faithfulness and willingness in His service as High Priest.
4 verse 2b: "...and when they (the forty days of fasting) were ended, he afterward hungered."
Here is a forty-day fast, prompted by the Holy Spirit! Jesus' fasting was proof of His desire to only fulfill the will of the Father in His life. One is only moved to such fasting by the work of God's Spirit. Then all hunger disappears; then the spirit experiences an intense relationship with the Holy Spirit, and we will experience His sweet dominion over us. Thus it was with Christ.
"Sacrifice and offering thou (God) didst not desire; mine (Jesus') ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I (i.e. Jesus), Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:6-8). Then the Spirit suddenly takes away His strength from Jesus; the Spirit's protection falls away, and the Man Jesus is set before the tempter; as a result of a forty-day fast He now feels a gnawing hunger in His body, and the tempter comes to Him with all the fullness of his demonic cunning and force of temptation. This temptation really was a trial for Jesus! He was truly Man; He was the second Adam. But, He did endure and overcome; He proved to really want to serve God the Father, and not Himself, not in any respect!
He proved to be willing to be God's Servant unto the fulfillment of the sacrifice on the cross, the offering of His own life! So Jesus knew intense hunger that hurt his body! And in that situation satan[1] came to Him.

4 verse 3: "And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread."
In other words: "Use Your creative power if You are God's Son; make from this stone bread to satisfy your hunger; what stops You?"

4 verse 4: "And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God."
The Lord Jesus beat off this temptation. No, He did not want to make bread out of that stone. He first had to continue this fast until God told Him that He could stop; He wanted to live by the Word of God only; to be completely obedient to the will of God. This was the temptation of Jesus after the body. He was put before the choice to either continue serving God or to give in to His stomach's cry. A temptation of the body with the one is whether to give in to the stomach,
with the other to a different physical desire, against God's will.
Will we resist him when he comes to us in his satanic power of temptation, as Jesus resisted the devil herein? Will we let God's pure will take the upper hand in our life or... will we give in to the (strong) desire of our senses, of our body, when temptation makes it hot for us? Whom or what will we choose then? Let us follow the example of our High Priest and say, that man shall only (truly and eternally) live by every Word of God! Jesus was not to be tempted on the physical level, and the devil departed to prepare a new attack of satanic temptation.

CLICK HERE if you want to read this study (Chapter 4) – that is to long for the Blog.

By E. van den Worm

[1] We write the word “satan” not with a capital, as it is not a name, but a word meaning opponent or adversary, accuser.

LUKE (Chapter 3) - Wanting to live in a continuing disposition of repentance

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The active effect of the Word unto repentance.

In this chapter we will study the Word of repentance active in us. We have looked at it in its "before-state"; we have studied it in its birth, and now in its active working in the life of the person who is willing to open up to this purifying and justifying power which is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The power of repentance must first of all be active in our personal life, and then also in the Church for it to be effective outside; for it to bring this word of repentance to outsiders.

It goes without saying that there has to be an interaction: We must be willing to repent, to accept Him as the Prince of our further life; We must be willing to conform to the word of repentance; We must be willing to turn our back to the powers of sin; We must be willing to resist the urge of worldly lusts in our flesh and the worldly standards and requirements; We must now turn more to God and His Word; We must now ask: "Lord, what are your standards, what do you want me to do?" Then He will give us the strength to actual repentance which is in Jesus Christ.

This word is directed to all, but in particular to the young people of these last days wherein satan works in an extraordinary measure. In our days the (strong) inclination is seen to shake off standards of life, while these standards have mostly come from the Holy Scriptures. One regards as hypocrisy the keeping of these standards. One wants "the truth", and in the case of sinful man: letting oneself go in sinful lusts and desires, while man should comply to the will of his Creator instead. Let us realize the situation, especially the young ones among us. It is only when man is willing to comply to God's standards, that God can give him what He wants to give him: strength to continue to choose His will, and above all a sharing of Himself!

Luke 3 verse 1-2: "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tuberous Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch (prince over one quarter of the Roman province of Palestine) of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness."

Here we get to know a working of the Word of God. Precisely determined, measured in time, the Word of God came to John. John had already been called by God, but... had not yet been sent out on an actual ministry. Now, at that exact point in time, the power of God's Word came over and in John, and took control of him, because he was a spiritual channel, which had been fully prepared to receive this divine Word; to be taken over by this Word. John then became the personification of that "living word unto repentance!" Glory to God! And if this Word of repentance has completely "taken over", filled us completely; when we have become the personification of this Word, then, it is true, we have become insufferable for the world, but irresistible for those who are willing to repent. Then we will pull them out of the world's pool of sin, out of God's fiery judgment! To God be the glory!

Luke 3 verse 3-6: "And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; As is written in the book of the words of Esaias, the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

Here we see the divine working of the Word to repentance. Once it is in us, it is irresistible, and it does not need any propaganda. For this divine Word then is like a light in the darkness, as a fire which consumes the dry wood. The appearance of John, in the valley of the Jordan, worked like a bright flash of lightning in those areas. It was seen by everyone, everyone came to him; drawn as it were by a magnet.

No propaganda is necessary for the Spirit of God if He is active. A true Holy-Ghost revival was going on here, which was powerfully effective in that area. Without any "propaganda" the whole country knew John the Baptist in no time at all. So was the Lord Jesus Christ's action too. Therefore, beloved, if you want a Holy-Spirit revival, pray and beg for it, and be willing to be cleansed, sanctified and used by Him yourself. Seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and offer yourself to become His instrument; let Him be, and remain, your Master so that God's anointing work through you. Pray earnestly about this. It may cost you everything; you must dare to pay the price for it. Let God work, give Him a free hand and you will see that the anointing of God will make an instrument of you and me which will bring many out of this world unto voluntary repentance and subjection to God. Beloved, let us seek this, for the end-time (= the end of times or the last days) requires such laborers; laborers who allow God's anointing to work through them. Then you will see that, in a short time, the work will surpass that of many years. Be sanctified in Him that the anointing can work freely through you; that the anointing will not be hindered by our hobbies, pet subjects, habits (good and bad). If we then have allowed this Word of repentance to work in us, we will see that God's power in us, as an introduction to His full grace, will prepare the way hereto: namely to the union with His anointing, with the full Word of God, with the living God Himself, Who is a consuming Fire, but also an enchanting Love-fire. Then all valleys – the sinful pits in our being – will be made smooth; all mountains and hills – all stubbornness and proud desires – will be made low by God's powerful and recreating Word. Then the crooked ways in our life will be made straight. Let Him do all this in your being; long for it. However strange this may sound, but in this light it is understandable: Long for the cross...; love your cross... Long for it, that all works of the flesh, which, naturally, are always sinful, be killed by the works of the Spirit (Romans 8:13); also praying for His strength to undergo all this. This "Way of sorrows", it is true, is a painful affair for our flesh, but He will be with us, and will make this sacrifice of our flesh a joyful, holy feast after our spirit. Remember, that the Israelites had to travel three days out of Egypt to offer the Lord a sacrificial feast there (Exodus 5:1-3). For us, too, this sacrifice of self will be a spiritual feast of joy and peace and justice in Christ Jesus!

So all flesh shall see "the salvation of God". If we are prepared to bring this sacrifice, then we will receive this promise we have read about in verse 6. All flesh that had "itself crucified" will see and taste the salvation, the glory of God. Let us be willing to be purified from al the old and sinful in us by the Word of repentance, so that we will be different people, NEW CREATIONS of God, new men, new women, Jesus-men and Jesus-women, who have truly and completely given up the old life, who have been found willing by God to pay this price. Glory to God!

CLICK HERE if you want to read this study (Chapter 3) – that is to long for the Blog – further.[1]

By E. van den Worm

[1] For Chapter 1 and 2, see our Blog at 10 November and 10 December 2009.