Category Archives: God’s Eternal Purpose

A People With A Destiny

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Allan Halton

I am reading through my Bible again and am in the book of Joshua.  This is very timely, for there is an urgency in my spirit, a renewed emphasis, on apprehending our salvation—our spiritual heritage.

We Christians, whether Jew or Gentile, have a spiritual heritage unto which we have been predestined, just as Israel of old was predestined to the heritage of Canaan—even before they were born.  They were predestined to an earthly inheritance because of the promise God made Abraham long before they were born.

And their inheritance was marked out beforehand for them; it was given them by lot.  They didn’t cross the Jordan and then have some sort of land rush, hoping to grab the best parcels of land before anyone else.  Rather, Joshua divided their inheritance to them (Josh. 1.6), and he did it by lot (Josh. 13.6, 14.2).  In other words, it was not actually Joshua, but God Himself who decided what portion each one was to possess.  This assured that every Israelite, the small as well as the great, the weak as well as the strong, received a portion in the land.  Ezekiel confirms this in what I believe is a prophecy foreshadowing our inheritance in the Spirit.

And ye shall inherit it, one as well as another… (Ezek. 47.14).

What an encouraging hope.  Oh how we admire the great saints, and wistfully wish we could be like them.  But this wondrous heritage in the Spirit is not just for the great saints; God will not be satisfied, God will not rest, till each and every true Christian, the small as well as the great, has apprehended his or her inheritance.

And so, like the Israelites of old, we too are a people with a destiny.  I think it’s likely Paul is drawing a parallel to Israel of old when he says in Ephesians (which perhaps could be called the New Testament book of Joshua) that God has predestined us “unto the adoption” (Eph. 1.5) and also unto an inheritance (Eph. 1.11).  It is a heavenly inheritance—a realm of abounding “spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ” (Eph. 1.3).  It is also a realm that must be conquered (Eph. 6. 10-20).  Spiritual forces of wickedness “in the heavenlies” must be overcome, just as the Israelites of old had to drive out their enemies in the land God had given them before they could possess it.

And what is this all about?  Why did God bring Israel of old into their inheritance?  Why did He redeem them from Egyptian bondage, bring them through the wilderness, and into the land He had promised them?  Ultimately it was that He Himself might be glorified, that He might make Himself a glorious Name (Ex. 15.11-17, 2 Sam. 7.23, Isa. 63.11-14).

So it does not surprise us to find Paul saying that this same motive is what is back of God’s purpose in eternal redemption and in bringing the redeemed into their inheritance.

It is “to the praise of His glory” that He has predestined us unto the adoption (Eph. 1. 4-7).

It is “to the praise of the glory of His grace” that those who first hoped in Christ are predestined to an inheritance (Eph. 1.11).

And, it is “to the praise of His glory” that this inheritance shall, in the day of redemption, be fully possessed (Eph. 1.14, 4.30).

This I am sure is what Peter has in mind when he talks of a salvation “ready to be revealed in the last time.”  He says this salvation is a living hope unto which we have been begotten, and which he describes as “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in the heavens for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pt. 3-5).

That’s so encouraging.  Everything in this world is corruptible, defiled, fading.  This heavenly inheritance is incorruptible.  It can’t be defiled, and it never fades away.  Even after so long a time it’s still there… waiting for you and me.

Notice that word reserved.  There’s an inheritance in the heavenly realm with your name on it.  Reserved for ________.  No one else can have it.  In fact I don’t need yours, and don’t want it; there’s one with my name on it too.

And no, Peter doesn’t mean that when we die and go to Heaven we finally get to keep our reservation.  He says this salvation is “ready to be revealed in the last time.”  It’s for here.  It’s for now… “in the last time.”

Notice also that you and I are being kept for this reservation.  We are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Yes, the trial of our faith is very great… and at times, oh, so severe.  But oh, how precious it is, more precious than gold that perishes!  Gold will perish one day, but this inheritance, this salvation, will never perish.

Let us hold fast our faith, then, though it be tried by fire, and thus be ourselves ready for this salvation that is ready to be revealed, this inheritance that is reserved for us.  The time is at hand!  We have an appointment with a destiny!  Let us keep it!

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We Have A Faithful Mediator

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Allan Halton

It is a great encouragement to me in these unstable times to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ will be faithful to mediate the New Covenant.

With all the troubling things taking place in our world, with all the forebodings of dark things ahead, we need this assurance—that no matter what happens, He who sits on the highest throne in the universe has been given a mandate to fulfill a covenant in God’s chosen, and He will not rest till He has done so.

Who are the chosen?  They are those, whether Jew or Gentile, who have been brought into covenant relationship with God through their faith in His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

And what is the covenant?

This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts… (Heb. 8.10).

God made this covenant originally with the house of Israel, and then brought the Gentiles into it.  I am glad.

And what does the completed covenant look like?

It looks like a people who look just like Jesus Christ the Son of God Himself.

In fact Isaiah tells us twice that He Himself is the covenant.  Isaiah prophesies of a certain Servant, whom we know from the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and Acts 8.35 to be the Lord Jesus Christ.

Behold My Servant, whom I uphold, Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth… I the LORD have called Thee in righteousness, and will hold Thine hand, and will keep Thee, and give Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles… (Isa. 42.1,6).

Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard Thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped Thee: and I will preserve Thee, and give Thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages…” (Isa. 49.8).

The old covenant (no longer in effect) was the laws and statutes God gave Israel on Sinai.  The new covenant (now in effect) is the laws of God written within our very hearts and minds—that is to say, Christ Himself.  “I will give Thee for a covenant…”

This is why Jesus in His great high priestly prayer concludes by saying:

I have made known unto them Thy Name, and will make it known, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them (Jn. 17.26).

Notice how He says that.  The love of God in them is one and the same thing as “I in them.”  That is the fulfillment of the new covenant in our lives—the same love that was in Jesus now in you and me, to the extent that it is actually Christ Himself come to full maturity in you and me.

And this is why John says that when love with us is made perfect (that is how the original Greek reads: “Herein is love with us made perfect…” 1 Jn. 4.17)  …when love-with-us is made perfect, or has come to full maturity, we shall have boldness in the day of judgment, “because as He is, so are we in this world” (1 Jn. 4.17).

Yes, in this world, and this in a time of judgment and great upheaval.

And this is why Paul says that God’s purpose is that we be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8.29).  And that nothing can hinder this purpose of God.  In fact, we know that God is working all things together for good in the lives of those who are called according to this purpose (Rom. 8.28).

What good, Paul?  What is this good that you have in mind?

For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8.29).

This is the good Paul is speaking of, the purpose God is working toward in this world, and He will cause all things to work together and help Him out in this great eternal purpose of His.

So whatever happens in these last days, whether cataclysmic world events, or troubles closer to home in our own lives and families, let us continue to embrace and rest in the promise, and keep our eyes and our faith fixed on Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.

He will not fail nor be discouraged till He has accomplished the work God gave Him to do, and surveys it all, and says, “Perfect.  Amen.”

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Keep The Feast Of Tabernacles

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Allan Halton

A few days ago I had not spent the necessary time waiting, seeking, praying, till I had the assurance of the Presence of the Lord in my heart before venturing into my day. And so I suffered most of the day with a troubled heart.  Yes, I know, foolish me.  At the same time I know it’s not always foolishness; these are increasingly difficult days; we are up against Egypt and Babylon—a world system built from the ground up to shut God out.  But when I could endure it no longer I finally found a quiet place and bowed my head and opened my heart to my Lord.  I am so thankful for His mercy.  It was not long before His Presence seeped into my heart and washed out the troubles.  And He began to speak to me.  Oh, the preciousness of hearing His Voice again!  I am sure He could hear mine—the troubled bleating of one of His sheep who had temporarily lost his way.  But as soon as I heard the Voice of my Shepherd I had my bearings again; I knew where I was, and where I was going—that is, where I was being led.

Oh the assurance, the comfort, of His Voice!  And instead of the troubles I found these words in my heart—“Keep the feast of tabernacles.”  I knew immediately this was a reminder, for it was a word He had spoken into my heart many years ago.

When the children of Israel returned from their Babylonian captivity in the days of Nehemiah they discovered in the book of the law that they were to keep the feast of tabernacles—Succoth, or Booths—in the seventh month.  This is something they could not do in the land of their captivity; it was to be kept in their own land in the place God designated.

Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty (Dt. 16:16).

That’s a promise—that they would not appear before Him empty—and the place was of course Jerusalem, the city God had chosen for His temple, His dwelling place.  And so here in Nehemiah we find the children of Israel who have returned from the Babylonian captivity gathering together in Jerusalem in the seventh month.

Let’s quickly review the events.  On the first day of the month—the day of the sounding of trumpets that initiates the feast of tabernacles (Lev. 23:24)—Nehemiah read from the book of the law, and the Levites with him “gave the sense” (Neh. 8:8).  That is, they caused the people to understand what was written.  This is the true significance of the feast of trumpets—the sounding forth of the word of the Lord in a way that opens the understanding to what is hidden in the letter of precept and prophecy.

It’s interesting to note, by the way, that when Nehemiah gives the names of the Levites who are standing with him, six are on his right and seven on his left, making fourteen altogether.  In other words, as a friend pointed out to me once, Nehemiah himself was not in the centre here.  Who was in the centre, then?  It’s a beautiful picture of corporate leadership in the church, in which no one man, but Christ Himself, is always to be in the centre.

There is much in this passage and we can’t cover it all here.  For one thing, there is no mention of the Day of Atonement, which is the very heart of the feast of tabernacles.  Not that they bypassed this day—as many have done in our day.  This is what accounts for the great uncleanness in much of the present-day feasting in the Charismatic realm.  People have wanted to keep the Feast without keeping the Fast (as the Day of Atonement was called.)  But to celebrate the feast of tabernacles without first keeping the fast of the Day of Atonement is a recipe for deception.  Without being broken before the Lord in great repentance and sorrow at the foot of the Cross…  without apprehending His atonement for sin… without His cleansing… no wonder the feasting of our day is so unholy and shallow and full of all manner of uncleanness and carnality. “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep,” cries James.  “Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness” (Jas. 4:9).

This is what happened in Nehemiah’s day; there was great repentance when the people discovered what God called for in His Law.  The people mourned.  God’s reaction to their mourning?  He rejoiced to see it!  (In our day the reverse is true: the carnal rejoicing fills Him with sorrow.)  But then God in turn told the people to dry their tears and make His joy their own.  Don’t weep any further, He told them, “For the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10).

And so in accordance with the newly-discovered Law, the people now went forth “unto the mount,” and gathered branches:

…olive branches, and pine (wild olive) branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.
So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.
And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so.  And there was very great gladness (Neh. 8:15-17).

I believe we have here a beautiful prophetic picture that is fulfilled in the city of God, the bride of Christ, the church.  With the help of the Holy Spirit we lift up our eyes from this Old Testament passage and see in the day of Christ the people of God gathered together as one.  They have come together from all places where they have been scattered among the denominations, have come together in the new Jerusalem the city of God to keep the longed-for feast, the great feast, the feast of tabernacles.  They are one in the Spirit with no doctrinal or denominational divisions.  They are dwelling together in unity, and their Lord is dwelling with them.  Not that they are all together in one huge building; they are dwelling in booths—little arbours of branches entwined together.  Succoth in fact comes from a root meaning “to entwine.”  It is a beautiful picture of the humble little fellowships the Lord has in mind for His people in the City of God.  A few “branches” are knit together in love, their lives are intertwined with one another… and with the life of the Man “whose name is The Branch” (Zech. 6:12).  He Himself is dwelling with them.  He is their tabernacle, and they are His tabernacle.

Israel was to commemorate this feast annually as a reminder of the day they came out of Egypt.

Ye shall dwell in booths seven days… that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God (Lev. 23:42,43).

When they came out of Egypt this was actually the name of their first encampment in the wilderness—Succoth, or Booths (Ex. 12:37, Num. 33.5).  They had left all behind; the little booth of branches was all they had now.  In the same breath, nothing else had a hold on them either!  They were no longer slaves, they were free!  Their God had liberated them from the iron furnace, from Egyptian bondage, from the servitude of building Pharaoh’s treasure cities.  They had left all the security of Egypt behind them for a flimsy booth of branches… and their God!

And so here in the days of Nehemiah the people are keeping the feast of tabernacles once again.  Do you see them—multitudes of rejoicing people camping in these little arbours of branches?  Wherever you look, there they are—in the streets of Jerusalem and in the courts of the house of the Lord and on the rooftops of their houses…  They are detached from it all—from their homes, their possessions, their jobs, their troubles, their cares, their fears….  Oh, but what about this, Lord?  What about that?  No, He says, you just keep the feast of tabernacles.  I’ll look after all that.

You touch the beauty of it and suddenly your breath catches in your throat.  There is a secret here.  A shelter of branches, so insecure, so weak… yet you are touching immeasurable strength and provision.  A flimsy shelter of branches…  and you are canopied under the eternal God.  The branches intertwined with one another speak of the corporate relationship, the individual branches themselves of the abiding relationship.  It’s a picture of the Christ-life, really, which we are to know both individually and corporately, the beautiful life of Christ Himself, the Life of the ages, which was with the Father and was manifested to us, the Life that is more than meat and raiment, the life that is free from the bondage of sin… and from the shackles of this present evil world, the life that is free from all the things that the Gentiles seek, “free from corroding care,” free to walk with God and worship Him in Spirit and in truth—at all times and in all circumstances.

It is the life free from the troubles and entanglements and cares of this world even while we are yet in the midst of them, the Life into which we ourselves have been immersed because of the Holy Spirit.  We become mingled with one another, and with the Son of God Himself.  Jesus promised this would be the result of the sending forth of His Spirit, saying, “At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you” (Jn. 14:20).  (Note well the plural here: “at that day ye shall know… ye in me, and I in you…”  If Christ is in me and in my brother as well, there can be no more division between us than there is between Father and Son.)

This, of course, is something that was inaugurated at Pentecost; Jesus had in mind the sending of the Spirit when He said this.  “At that day ye shall know…”  But Pentecost is “the earnest of the Spirit,” the pledge, the guarantee, that is given us assuring a redemption, a great fullness yet to come (Eph. 1:13,14; 4:30).  Pentecost is the feast of firstfruits (Ex. 23:16).  There is a greater harvest yet to come—“the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year.”  The feast of tabernacles.  So Paul (I believe referring to the pentecostal baptism) speaks of having “the firstfruits of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:23).  This is the guarantee of a great harvest yet to come, a festival of unbridled joy when the purposes of God in Christ and the church have come to ultimate fullness.

Nehemiah says that this feast had not been celebrated with such joy since the days when the Israelites first took the land in the days of Joshua—an interval of something like nine hundred years.  There were times in the days of the kings when it was observed, but apparently nothing like this.  I wonder if this, too, isn’t prophetic of the church.  Passover we know, and Pentecost we know.  Where is the feast of Tabernacles?  Yes I agree, the truths of the feast of tabernacles have been applicable to the whole church age; all through the history of the church there have been those who kept aspects of this feast… in a measure.  But I believe that now we are entering a time of fullness, and we are going to see a mighty outpouring of the Spirit, and we are going to see our Great Shepherd move His mighty arm and gather His lambs to His bosom and deliver them from all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.  I believe we are going to see these little “booths” of the feast of tabernacles springing up all over the land.  It is the City of God coming down out of Heaven from God.  The New Jerusalem.  And a great Voice says:

Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them… (Rev. 21:3).

He will tabernacle with them, the original says.  It’s the same word John used when he said, “The word was made flesh, and dwelt (tabernacled) among us…” (Jn. 1:14).   But God dwelling in His Son… this was in anticipation of the day when He would tabernacle not just in the one Man, but in a whole City of men—the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem, the church.  Oh, the wonder of it all!  How our God has longed with great longings to keep this feast!

This is why some Christians these days are feeling they have outgrown their clothes, as it were.  The way they have done church for so long just doesn’t fit anymore.  Something in their heart is longing for more room.  It’s causing great alarm among those who consider this a threat to the old order and want it preserved.  But what is happening is of God.  He has something so much larger for His people—and for Himself.  That’s why some are being drawn to become intertwined with a few others in these little “booths.”  Didn’t I just say, larger?  How is this larger—little booths?  Gathering in a little booth like this seems very small when most are flocking to the mega-churches of our day.

But mark my words; these little booths are going to multiply.  These little booths by the thousands in the streets of the City of God all over the land—this is the only vessel large enough, compatible enough, to contain the glory of the Lord.

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The New Man River

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Allan Halton

A few years ago my wife and I were at a picnic with some of her relatives along a river in southern Alberta called the Oldman River.  While they were visiting after the meal I went for a stroll over to the brink of the river.  I watched the water flowing and the swallows flying over a bluff on the opposite bank.  There was a sense of great age about the place; the sandstone along the bank had long since been worn smooth.  This Oldman River had been flowing for a long, long time, sustaining the creation all around it.

As I looked across the water, suddenly a very strong impression arrested me.  It wasn’t a vision, but I knew it was Spirit birthed.  On the other side of the river I could see in my mind’s eye a New Man, a new-creation man.  The thing that arrested me was…oh the simplicity of the life and walk of this Man.  Just as the earthly life is to the earthly man, just as sin is to sinners, life in the Spirit was simply nature to this man.

And I realized that this is all God is seeking.

Not that this Man has not yet come into being; He is here, and growing to full maturity, but usually is not recognized for who He actually is.  This is the major focus of the New Testament—the transition from one humanity to another, from one man to Another, from the first man Adam to the second Man, Christ, who is the outshining of the glory of God.  So we find this expression “in Christ” over and over again in the New Testament—77 times according to the Blue Letter Bible search function.  And what does it mean to be in Christ?

If any man be in Christ he is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new (2 Cor. 5.17).

This new creation Man, as I said, is all God is seeking.  This is what church is all about—or should be: a new-creation Man who walks according to a new Rule of life—the rule of new creation life, which is hardwired in him; this law is written in his heart and mind.  So he walks in righteousness and holiness and life and love as simply and as easily as the old man walked in sin.

His life is sustained by a new River, the River of the Spirit of God.  The Newman River, I guess you could call it.  And not only does this River sustain this New Man, it also flows out from Him.  John saw this River proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb in the City of God.  It was running down the middle of the street of the City.  In other words, you would have to walk in the water to walk down the street—a beautiful picture of our walk in the Spirit.  In this City you must walk in the Spirit to get anywhere.

And the River flows outward, outward from the Throne of God.  And so the Throne of God and of the Lamb is in that river of the Spirit, bringing life and healing wherever it flows.  It brings an end to the curse God laid on the old creation.

Ezekiel saw this river.  He saw it flowing from the temple of God—this Man.  It began as a trickle.  The man in fine linen with the line of flax measured out a thousand cubits and led Ezekiel through the waters.  This happened four times at various depths—water to the ankles, to the knees, to the loins, till the river had become “waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over” (Ezek. 47.5).  Ezekiel could no longer touch bottom now, could not find a foothold on anything earthly for a sense of security.  He was moving in the total control of the Current of the river wherever that Current was going.

Beloved, God has this for us, a walk in the Spirit that is nature to us, instinct, and we are totally released from the law of sin and death—and from all that is earthly.  Moving out into these waters means we must let go of all our securities.

And our insecurities.  I’ve been thinking much of this—that the reason we hang on to our insecurities so tightly… it’s actually a sort of security to us, an attempt to secure our own little world.

But we must release our securities, let go of them—and our insecurities, and abandon ourselves to the Current of this River.  Being totally ruled by the Spirit of God is the answer to every problem we face either in our own lives or in the whole world.  Our own mental toilings are futile; in fact this itself is one of the problems.

It can be a very difficult thing to let go of thought patterns, to break the bondage of anxious or negative thought; we mull over things, dwell on them, feed on them: problems, troubles, difficulties.  The answer is to simply get into the Current of this River.  The New Man is no longer debtor to anything of the first man, the old man.  We are not debtors to his mode of thinking, to the carnal mind.  There is another mind, the mind of the New Man, the Lord from Heaven who has all things under His feet.

All things under His feet?  Because of this there is a great warfare for this Mind; it is fiercely resisted.  But we must wage this warfare and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.  For “the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8.6).  This is why Paul emphasized again and again that we are to “be transformed by the renewing of our mind,” that we are to “be renewed in the Spirit of our mind,” that we are to “put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him” (Eph. 4.23, Col. 3.10).

More and more we are going to see this new-creation Man in the earth, this Man I saw along the Oldman River that day.  We are going to see Him walking in the earth, walking in the Spirit… walking in this River that flows from the Throne of God… and which has that Throne in its waters.  That River, the New Man River, is Lord; it flows out from the Throne of God and of the Lamb, and therefore the Throne is in its flowing waters.

All those problems and difficulties that are growing more intense by the day… the New Man is the answer, the new creation Man with the mind of Christ.  And so we have great hope in the midst of the grievous things that are taking place in our world.  I believe we are entering days when men will despair of finding answers to the things that are coming upon the earth.  All the wisdom of the natural man is going to utterly fail, as the Bible prophesies (Jer. 49.7, Jer. 8.9, 1 Cor. 1.19,20).  The wisdom of the mind of Christ—the greater than Solomon—is the only wisdom that will avail.

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A Time To Dance

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Allan Halton

Those who know me personally have assessed that I’m sort of a melancholy person; I’m not what you would classify as the dancing type.  But during a time of fasting recently I received some openings concerning the realm of the Spirit, and oh, let me tell you… there hasn’t been any great change in my circumstances as I had hoped (not yet that is) but even so, if I could dance, oh, how I would dance!  Oh, what God has for us in the realm of the Spirit!

This realm—the realm of the Spirit—is the Pathway, and the Place, of the new creation man.  How I rejoice for this!  The old creation is going into corruption right before our eyes at an astonishing rate.  You look back over your shoulder and it’s astonishing to see the acceleration that has taken place even over the last twenty years.  Not just in nature, it’s frightening to hear of the natural disasters—storms, tsunamis, earthquakes… this earth is a very unstable place.  But so is the world of Adam; the moral decay is even more frightening.

And so the old creation is disintegrating all around us on every hand.  How wonderful to know that God foresaw it all, and has prepared a new habitat for His new creation man.

There’s nothing like a fast to show you that you are joined to this earthly life by your stomach.  The apostle Paul said as much when he wrote (and he was weeping as he wrote) of certain ones he called “the enemies of the cross of Christ… whose god is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things” (Phil. 3.18).

By the “belly” Paul was not talking just of physical food; he meant the whole range of the earthly appetites of the natural man.  These are not necessarily sinful unless they are taken out of bounds, or become our sole preoccupation, which is the case with those in Adam.  The tragic thing is that in our day multitudes of Christians have fallen prey to this too—they are totally preoccupied with the pleasures and concerns of this life.  They are focussed on earthly things.  Their minds, their thoughts, are filled with earthly things.  No wonder Paul wept!  So should we!  Oh what the love of Christ at the expense of the Cross has wrought!  Oh, Christian, the vast inheritance in the Spirit that is yours now, and which by comparison makes all that is earthly nothing more than dung.

Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians reminding them that since they had been baptized into Christ they were “dead with Christ” and no longer lived in this world (Col. 2.12, 20).  Where did they live, then?  Let’s read it.

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God (Col. 3.1).

So they were not only dead with Christ, they had also been raised with Him and were seated with Him in the heavenly realm at the right hand of God.  How could they settle, then, for the things of earth?  Paul urges them (and us):

Set your affection on things above, not on things of on the earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

My life is hid with Christ in God?  Oh, what a different and higher dimension is ours!  How sad, how pitiful, when we continue to worm our way around in the things of earth!  We don’t live here!  We are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.

What must we be doing, then?

Mortify (put to death) your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence (lust), and covetousness, which is idolatry…

Notice this list.  As I said above, these are all the appetites of the earthly man, and there is nothing wrong with some of them as long as they are not out of bounds, and as long as they don’t become our total pursuit in this life.  We are to set our affection on things above, we are to mind things above, we are to be preoccupied with things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  This is our heritage.  This is our element.  This is our habitation.  This is where we live.

I must make this my own personal testimony then, and not just something I underline in my  Bible.  I must make it my personal testimony that I have a secret life.  A hidden life.  I live in a different realm than most men.  My life is hid with Christ in God.  And no man can take my life from me.  They might kill me, but they can’t take my life from me.  I might die somehow or other, but my life cannot be taken from me.

And so in this late hour when the world of the earthly man has become so purposeless a place, in fact is fast becoming too dangerous a place to live in, oh, why do we continue to live here?  Let us to shake ourselves from the dust!  Let us set our affection, our minds, our thoughts, on things above… not just wistfully from afar, but because we dwell there, it is our habitation, we live there!

Oh, what Christ has wrought in Calvary!  He brought an end to the first man, the Old Man, with all his sin and rebellion and sorrow and trouble and woe.  And brought into being a totally new man, a new creation Man who dwells in a totally new dimension—the Spirit of God!

Now, if that isn’t enough to cause you to dance and leap for joy I don’t know what is!

…I meant to tell you some of the things that were opened to me about this realm of the Spirit but I guess that will have to wait till next time.

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The Presence That Shakes The World

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Allan Halton

It’s been a while since the last blog entry about God’s desire to dwell in the midst of His people, and I continue to find this strongly on my heart.  Our need for Him is beyond words these days.  How I long for Him—that is, that we His people be characterized not by the doctrines we hold or the churches we go to, but by this One Thing—that He Himself dwells in us, and so those around us are aware of His Presence!

No one has to prove the existence of God to me; I know by first-hand experience His Presence in my heart.  “Know ye not,” says Paul, “that ye are the temple of God, and that His Spirit dwelleth in you?” (1 Cor. 3.16).  Yes, I do know.  The Holy Spirit dwelling in me means that I am a temple of God.  But oh for that same Presence I love so dearly to go forth so that others might know Him!  Surely if others could sense His Presence as I do they would love Him as I do.  Surely if others could see Him…  I remember years ago listening to an old taped message by Pentecostal preacher John Wright Follette.  He was an old man at the time, and he said with broken voice, “I don’t know why they didn’t love that young Man.”  It struck me that Follette called Jesus a young man.  But He was young.  He was only 33 when they crucified Him.  It pains me to think I as a young man actually had a hand in that.  He is so precious to me now.  One day in His Presence is better than a thousand years elsewhere.

Yet, there is something further to His Presence than this preciousness.  Isaiah cried out for the return of The Presence that would melt the mountains and make the nations tremble (Isa. 64.1-3).  This is what it meant, Moses’ cry, I mean—that the Presence of God Himself would go with them, that He would forgive their disobedience and not abandon His great desire and plan for a tabernacle in their midst so He could dwell with them on the way to Canaan.

And he said unto Him, If Thy Presence go not with me, carry us not up hence (Ex. 33.15).

God hearkened to Moses, and before long the tabernacle was prepared and set up, and the cloud of glory filled it, and they were on their way to Canaan together—the people and their God.

But what does this look like—God dwelling in His people and marching through the wilderness?

LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.
The mountains melted from before the LORD, [even] that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel. (Judges 5.4,5).

This is how the prophetess Deborah described the people coming through the wilderness of Seir on their way to the promised land.  “When thou wentest out of Seir…”  Yes, there was a vast multitude of people involved, but her prophetic eye was fixed on the One who had now taken up His habitation in their midst.  It was GOD in His people coming through the wilderness and entered Canaan the promised heritage.  And the earth was shaking, mountains were melting.

And remember—this is from the Song of Deborah the prophetess; this is a prophetic word for you and me.

Here is more from another prophet—the psalmist David.

When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
Judah was His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion.
The sea saw it and fled, Jordan was driven back.
The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest, thou Jordan that thou wast driven back?
Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills like lambs?

Yes, David, tell us; what was it?  What caused all this shaking?

Tremble thou earth at the Presence of the LORD, at the Presence of the God of Jacob,
Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters (Ps. 114).

Is your heart as hard as a rock at times?  Hard as flint?  That’s what His Presence can do—it can turn that dry hard wilderness place into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of water!

It (that is, He) can make a way through the sea—a way where there is no way.  His Presence—He Himself—can cause the Jordan waters of death to part and make a way over on dry ground!

His Presence can—and will—cause the mountains and hills (all the kingdoms of men) to shake!

Oh, to see this!  Oh to see these shakings!  But this is what the Presence of the Lord does!  Here is Israel coming up out of Egypt and becoming God’s sanctuary, the people in and from whom He rules and has dominion. He dwells in them and is enthroned in them.  It is not just a rag-tag band of former slaves coming into their promised land.  God dwells in them.  And so another prophecy:

God came from Teman (in the wilderness) and the Holy One from Mount Paran.

I will just quote bits of it here, but read that whole prophecy, Habakkuk Chapter Three.  It’s awesome.  (How I wish the word awesome hadn’t become so trivialized!  It means that something is fearsome, and fills you with trembling and awe.)  Habbakuk calls this prophecy a prayer.  Let it become our own prayer, then.

God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran.  Selah.  His glory covered the Heavens, and the earth was filled with His praise…
Before Him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet.
He stood, and measured the earth: He beheld, and drove asunder the nations, and the everlasting mountains were scattered, and the perpetual hills did bow…
The mountains saw thee and trembled…
The sun and moon stood still in their habitation…
Thou didst march through the land in indignation…

…All these great shakings taking place!  It is the prophetic imagery of the coming of the Lord… who dwells in His people, and together they dispossess the wicked inhabitants of Canaan from the land which is to become His people’s own inheritance.  This whole picture is highly prophetic of God’s intent in our lives—to accompany us into the heavenly realm and dispossess the principalities and powers of darkness who rule there over the hearts and minds of men in the earth.

But this will not happen apart from His Presence with us!  And so… oh, to see God’s people begin to hunger for His Presence in our midst!  And seek Him earnestly for this!  This is to be what characterizes us as the people of God.  And nothing less will do what needs to be done in this hour!  Nothing less will vanquish the forces of darkness, nothing less will break the bondages these forces of darkness hold over the inhabitants of the world and set them free.  Nothing less will remove the veil from their eyes so they can see openly the One who dwells in His temple—you and me!

I assure you, no one will be doubting the existence of God in that hour.  They will have all the proof they need right before their eyes.  And this is just how Habbakuk introduces his powerful prophetic prayer:

But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him (Hab. 2.20).

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Defined By His Presence

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Allan Halton

Sometimes I think I should write on every page of the Old Testament of my Bible the following words:

Unto us they did minister.

I am thinking of Peter’s words that the prophets of old greatly longed to know what the Spirit of Christ in them had in mind by the things they were prophesying when they “testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.”  They wondered when these things would take place, and realized it was not they themselves God had in mind when He inspired them to write these things.

To whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into (1 Pt. 1.12).

Unto us they did minister.  And so when I read my Old Testament I must continually bear this in mind.  These things were written for me, and I need to discover what God had in mind.  How does this apply to me in this present day?

We talked last time about God’s desire to dwell in the midst of His people when He brought them out of Canaan.  He was not content to stay up in Heaven and supervise their journey from there.  He wanted to dwell in their midst on the way.  And so when Moses went up into Mount Sinai to commune with God and receive the tablets of the Law, God instructed him to have the people bring an offering, “And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them”  (Ex. 25.8).

You mean the God of heaven actually wanted to come down and dwell in their midst?  What wondrous words!  Never before in the long history of this people had their God said anything like this!

Going to my New Testament I discover this same eternal desire of God’s, but it is not a tent of skins He desires for His dwelling place now.  It is you and I, who are “builded together an habitation of God by (or, in) the Spirit” (Eph. 2.22).

But I want to go back to my Old Testament and read further.  There is a solemn lesson there we dearly need to learn.   When Moses came back down the mountain with the tablets of the law and the instructions for building the tabernacle he was greeted with the sound of wild partying.  In his long absence the people had grown weary of waiting for his return.  They wanted to get on with their journey to Canaan.  And so they pressured Aaron, who took an offering from them—their golden earrings—and fashioned a golden calf that would go before them.  Now they were feasting and dancing around the calf in unbridled abandon, their enemies apparently watching them gleefully all the while (Ex. 32.25).

I don’t have to spell out how painfully this parallels our own day, and we all know the story of how Moses, when he saw what was happening, smashed the tablets of the law at the foot of the mount.

I encourage you to read the whole story; I can’t go through it all here.  I just want to compress one thing that has impacted my own heart deeply.

God told Moses that, as a result of this apostasy, He was done.  His anger was so hot that He was going to wipe this people out and make of Moses a great nation instead.  Unthinkable, Moses replied.  If you do that Your enemies will blame you, not them.  They’ll say Your intention in bringing them out of Egypt was to do them evil.

And so with this intercession Moses persuaded God to repent of the evil He said He would do (Ex. 32.14).  Was God was just testing Moses through this to see if He had a man who was beyond seeking gain for himself in the things of God?  I think that’s what is behind this.  I think God was secretly rejoicing to see Moses making intercession like that.

And as we read further we find Moses continuing to make intercession, because, although God changed His mind about wiping them out, He told Moses that He Himself would not go with them to Canaan now.  In other words, the sanctuary He had in mind, the tabernacle, the dwelling place for Himself in the midst of His people… yes, He had given Moses the plans for this in the mount.  But this was off now.  He would be faithful to keep His promise to Abraham, He would bring the people into the promised land.  But only by the hand of an angel.  He Himself would not go with them.

For I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people… (Ex. 33.3).

This was very bad news.  You mean God would not go with them any further?

And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned… (Ex. 33.4).

How encouraging to see the repentance, this time their own, and so once again Moses makes intercession on their behalf, speaking with God face to face “as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Ex. 33.11).

All this takes place within a few verses that we read too quickly, and so when we come to God’s response to this intercession it’s easy to miss its impact.  We know the outcome; Moses and the people did not.  The situation was very intense.  The people were back in the camp stricken with grief, wringing their hands and trembling, hardly able to cast even a glance toward the tent where Moses is speaking with God on their behalf.  What will He say?  Will He change His mind?  They are waiting with bated breath.

And God responds, “My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”  What a relief.  This is a complete reversal of what He said just a few verses earlier.  He had said He would send an angel to guide them to Canaan.  Now He says that His Presence shall go with them after all.  In other words, the plan for His tabernacle in their midst is on again.  And very shortly we find Moses in the mount again receiving further instructions for this.

Notice now Moses’ response to God’s words.

And he said unto Him, If Thy Presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.  For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight?  Is it not in that Thou goest with us?   So (or, by this) shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are on the face of the earth (Ex. 33.16).

I wonder how many churches would get very excited and consider themselves privileged if someone suddenly prophesied that God was about to commission an angel (or some renowned preacher) to take them to their destination… and would entirely miss the desire of the heart of God.  He Himself wants to dwell in our midst, each and every person in the church being part of this, and filled with His abiding Presence!

And when there is true repentance, oh how ready He is to visit us with His Presence.  Oh how He longs to hear those voices of repentance and intercession asking Him… and saying to Him, Lord, if you don’t go with us, we aren’t interested in going anywhere.  We’re not interested in church anymore if You Yourself are not present.  We are calling a halt to it all till Your Presence is dwelling in our midst.  It is this, not our creeds and doctrines and programs and activities and great preachers, but this—Your Presence—that is to be the defining characteristic of the holy people of God in the earth.

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Is God Home?

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Allan Halton

Years ago I saw a cartoon in a religious magazine that showed a small boy standing on the doorstep of a large church.  Apparently he has just knocked on the ornate door, for the door stands open and a clergyman with his hand on the doorknob is looking down at him.  The little boy, neck craned upward, asks, “Is God home?”

How cute, eh.  Who but a child would expect God to actually be at home in the house of God?  But, out of the mouth of babes…

So let me ask a question.  Why did God save you and me?  Most likely we answer that He saved us because we needed salvation; we realized we were bound in sin and about to get our wages (death).

And that’s true.  But let me ask another question.  Why did God save Israel out of Egypt?  We need to know this, because the story of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt and entering into the Promised Land is one of the Bible’s great building blocks.  It’s this prophetic story by which God builds our understanding of His great plan of eternal salvation in Christ.  There are other building blocks, but as we read our New Testament we discover that this one is certainly a major one.  Paul tells us that “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5.7), and this is of course a reference to the night Israel was delivered from Egypt by the Passover lamb.  Peter has the same event in mind when he tells us we have been “redeemed… with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pt. 1.19).

Then on one occasion in the wilderness when the people were bitten by poisonous serpents, God directed Moses to set up a serpent of brass on a pole.  Whoever looked up at the brazen serpent was delivered from the poison at work in his system.  One moment they were on their way to the land of the dead; the next they were in the land of the living.  Jesus Christ selects this event to open our eyes to Himself, telling us that “even so must the Son of man be lifted up (on the Cross of Calvary), that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3.15).

And so with Israel’s salvation story, God opens our eyes to our own salvation story.

Which is why I asked those questions.  Why did God save you and me?  But why did He save them?  Once we discover the answer to why He brought them out of Egyptian bondage we will have a better understanding of His objective in our own salvation.

So let’s read what God had in mind by delivering Israel from Egyptian bondage.  Here are three verses in which we have God’s reasons from His own mouth.

I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright (Lev. 26.13).

This is the reason that most usually comes to mind when we think of why God brought them out of Egypt.  The Israelites in Egypt were under the grievous yoke of slavery.  They cried to God in their bondage and He sent a deliverer to set them free.  By the blood of the Passover lamb He redeemed them from “the house of bondmen” (Dt. 7.8), and they were happily on their way to the Promised Land.  This was their gospel—their good news.  And here we have a close parallel to our own Gospel, the Good News of our redemption in Christ Jesus, our salvation from the bondage of sin by the blood of Christ our Passover.  We have been redeemed, we are free!  But free to do what?  Here’s another verse:

For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy (Lev. 11.45).

This second verse tells us that God brought them out of Egypt to be their God.  What did He mean by this?  Wasn’t He their God in Egypt?  Yes, but bowed down in the yoke of bondage they were not free to worship Him.  He wanted to be their God… and He explained what being their God implies.  If God is to be their God, they must be holy—separated unto Him.  This they could not be while serving Pharaoh in the iron furnace.  God liberated them to the intent that they could worship and serve Him unhindered.  And since He is a holy God, this would mean holiness on their part, something that the New Testament writers enjoin on us as well.  Peter calls us to holiness, quoting the same words God commanded Israel when they came out of Egypt.

Be ye holy, for I am holy (1 Pt. 1.16, Lev. 11.44).

This brings us to another verse.  And to get the impact of it let’s put ourselves back there in Egypt.  We have known nothing but grinding slavery all our lives, and it would take an absolute miracle to be free.  But one day there is good news making the rounds among the slaves.  And suddenly the impossible miracle is actually happening!  Oh, what a Name this mighty God is making for Himself!  He judges Egypt and brings us out of Egypt and parts the Red Sea and brings us through and utterly destroys our enemies… and we are on our way to the Promised Land rejoicing!

And we come to Sinai, and… what is Moses asking?  During the time of the giving of the law at Sinai God tells Moses we are now to bring Him an offering—gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, rams skins dyes red… oil, spices, onyx stones….  What’s this all about?  We are on our way to our Canaan inheritance, but what does this great God who has delivered us have in mind?

And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them (Ex. 25.8).

Do we see open mouths and wonder on the faces of those around us?  I am sure this would have been a real jaw dropper back then.  These people had a long history with God.  He was the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.  But now what’s this?  He wants to dwell in their very midst?  This is something utterly unheard of.  Never before had this great God of their fathers mentioned anything like this.

But this, He says, is why He brought them out of Egypt.

And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them; I am the LORD their God (Ex. 29.46).

What a wonder.  Here they are, the Red Sea behind them, hearts full of expectation about the promised inheritance before them.  And how wonderful to think that the God of their fathers who just made for Himself an everlasting Name by bringing them out of Egypt would bring them into the promised inheritance.  What more could they ask?

But this was not enough for God.  He wanted to dwell in their midst on the way there.  He wanted a Sanctuary—a Holy Place—so that He the Holy God could dwell in their midst.

Fellow Christian, let us lay this to heart.  The great God who accomplished for us so great a salvation in Calvary’s cross is not content to just save us so we can live out our lives and then go happily to Heaven.

He wants to dwell in our midst on the way there.

So I can’t help asking one more question, and I wish more were asking it.  Oh, how thankful we are for the salvation we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.  But…  is God getting the desire of His heart among the saved these days?  Is God finding His Sanctuary, His Dwelling Place in our churches?  Is God actually home?

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Two Shadows

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Allan Halton

It’s happened again.  And like so many others I am hurting badly over the latest school massacre in the United States—this time little children, some of them in kindergarten.  My heart bleeds for the parents of these little ones.  They have just gone through the end of their world.

Now we are being treated to the inevitable media feeding frenzy over it all… again.  They are covering every conceivable angle… again.  They are bringing in the expert panels to analyze what happened… again.  They are bringing in the grief counsellors to treat people for post traumatic distress… again.  They are “searching for answers”… again.  Not that they search very far—by this they mean trying to find out the killer’s motive.

The thing is, the experts set forth their analyses, the grief-stricken get counselled, the answers get searched out… and then for the most part it’s business as usual… till it happens again.

It seems it is a very difficult thing to awaken a society to the consciousness that Something is missing… and that God never intended this life we live to be lived without Him being the centre of all.

Our presumption that we can in fact do this—leave Him out—is the recipe for evil.  People are prepared to live with that, of course, as long as evil doesn’t get too evil.  As long as they feel they can keep evil in their own control, they even enjoy it.  The problem is that evil is not content to stay in the harness.  In due time evil is unleashed…. as we see happening more and more these days.  Sooner or later man will have to acknowledge that he doesn’t have the answers anymore—that evil is out of control.

In fact I believe we are now entering what the Bible calls “the Evil Day.”

It’s very frightening, but fellow Christian, this is our cue.  This is where you and I come in.  We are called to the warfare of the Evil Day.  We are called to put on the whole armour of God that we may be able “to stand in the Evil Day, and having done all (accomplished all) to stand.”  In other words, when this Day is over, the victory over evil that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished at Calvary is going to be made manifest worldwide.  Evil will have been vanquished on the field of battle, never to be found in heaven or earth again.

And so in the midst of great anguish we have great hope.  Men’s hearts are failing them for fear as one thing after another comes upon them.  But Christian, this fearful company does not include you and me.  We are putting on our armour, and we know the outcome of the battle.

We know that when the harvest of evil is ripe… what does a ripe field mean to the Man with the sickle?

When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed forever (Ps. 92.7).

He’s going to cut it down, beloved.  So we take heart in the midst of destruction.  When Death is casting a long shadow (as it is these days), what can this mean but that Death’s day is about done?

We take courage in knowing this.  God is going to deal with it all.  But even now we get out from under that shadow!  We need not live under that shadow!  There is another Shadow we can abide under.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty (Ps. 91.1).

Let us not be foolish, beloved, carrying on as we always have and suddenly finding our world has caved in around us.  Let us earnestly be seeking this Shadow, this Secret Place.  It’s not a run-away-and-hide-from-it-all kind of place.  It’s a Place right there on the field of battle, a place in the midst of trouble where we can be a help to those in trouble, a light in the darkness.  Evil is all about us.  The snare of the fowler is right before us.  There is terror by night, and the arrow of evil by day.  Pestilence walks in the darkness, destruction wastes at noonday.  Thousands around us are falling.  But it cannot come nigh us.  We are safe from it all in the secret place of His Presence—under the Shadow of the Almighty.

Just flowery words, Psalm 91, this beautiful psalm?  Please don’t be so foolish.  They are filled with promise.  Give yourself to them, as I give myself to them.  They’re the words of God that cannot be broken, and they work effectually in those who believe (1 Thes. 2.13).

We must walk, all of us, through the vale of tears, the valley of the shadow of death.  But as sheep of a very Great Shepherd, we need fear no evil in this valley.  And why not?  Because “Thou art with me.”

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

Thou art with me!  There is Another Shadow, beloved, under which we can walk through this terrible valley.  We need to find it and abide under it.

…Lord Jesus, Thou that dwellest in the heavens, we lift up our eyes to Thee, and we lift up our hearts with our hands, and the hearts of those who saw their flock of little ones torn by the ravening wolf yesterday.  How long, Lord Jesus, how long?  Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.  We have entered a day, Lord Jesus, when more and more people will be praying your prayer not ritually, but from the heart:  “Deliver us from evil!  Oh God, please deliver us from evil!”  And we believe You will answer, Lord, in this Day.  And believing, we put on our armour.  We will be numbered among those fighting on Your side in the Evil Day, knowing that when it is all over we shall be the ones standing victors on the field, and thus bringing in another Day… a Day in which the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the cow and the bear shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw with the ox… and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.  Amen.

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Christ’s Inheritance

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Allan Halton

In all we have been saying about the Christian’s inheritance we have been looking at things from the point of view of our own advantage.  But there is another point of view—a higher one, I would say.

God, too, has an inheritance.

For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance (Dt. 32.9).

This is why God lifted up Israel “on eagle’s wings,” and brought them unto Himself—not only to give them the inheritance He promised Abraham, but that they themselves might become His own inheritance as well, His own inheritance among all the peoples of the earth.  For all the earth was His, He told them, but they were to be a special people among all peoples (Ex. 19.4-6).  His desire was to live and walk and dwell among them.  He wanted to come in and settle down in their midst.  Among them He would be able to, as it were, put His feet up, and say, “At last, I’m home.”  In them He could have total liberty to just be Himself.  In them He would have things His way.

Now, this was not to be something exclusive of other peoples; Israel was to be “a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.”  God always had in mind to increase this inheritance to include all peoples.  And so even under the Law provision was made for “the stranger” to become part of Israel.

But ultimately God’s longing for an inheritance that included all peoples is fulfilled in His invitation to Christ:

Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession (Ps. 2.8).

Christ did ask, and “for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross.”  It was the joy and hope of being given a people who would become His own inheritance.  A sister in the Lord mentioned this to me a while ago, adding how humbled she felt that Christ would die on the cross to purchase with His precious blood lost sinners like her to become His own inheritance.  It is humbling.  What value did He see in us?  But, looking through the eyes of love He saw a people in whom, as a result of the Cross, He would be able to put His feet up and say, “At last, I’m home.”

And so there is an intertwining of these two aspects of the inheritance.  Our inheritance.  God’s inheritance.  What a beautiful and mutually satisfying relationship we are called to.  The Lord is our inheritance, and we are His inheritance.  He is our dwelling place, and we are His dwelling place.  “Abide in Me,” He urges, “and I in you.”  To the one who hears Him knocking, He says, “I will come in and sup with him… and he with Me.”

Is that not a wonder?  To think that God is hungry for something that only you and I can satisfy?  We know readily enough that God has much to satisfy us with, and we go to Him continually holding out our empty plate.  But what about God’s empty plate?  What about that empty feeling He has?  “What can I give God?” you ask.  “How can I feed God?”  With fellowship.  He delights in fellowship with us as much as we delight in fellowship with Him.  He is very willing to share what’s “on our plate.”  Really, Lord?  Do you know what’s on my plate?  Yes, He does.  And He is willing to share it with me.  For He is meek and lowly of heart.  And He invites us to share what’s on His.

It was He who sought out Adam and Eve in the Garden.  He called out, “Adam, where are you?”  What was He looking for?  Friendship.  Fellowship.  And though that fellowship was broken, He never gave up on it.  He restored it in His Son, that in Him He could find fellowship with man again…

…And in Him we could find fellowship with God again.

“For the LORD taketh pleasure in His people,” David said (Ps. 149.3).  How can this be? David tells us.  “He will beautify the meek with salvation.”

Let us believe the love He has for us, beloved.  He will not rest till He has fully possessed His inheritance, till He has made that which He purchased on Calvary fully His own… so that in us He lives, in us He talks, in us He walks, in us He looks upon those around Him, in us He  stretches forth His hand to heal.

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