Sonship is the glorious destiny of all people! There is not one excluded from this amazing divine plan. In the fullness of the time and the consummation of the ages, God will become "all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28). This means that all beings will manifest the attributes of God to their fullest possible potential. Life, in whatever form or place it may take within our spiritual journey, is about surrendering all that we be. In our complete surrender to Christ we ever advance toward ever greater levels of divine manifestation. The full manifestation of God's sons will occur when every trace of selfish separation is purged from us and we are transformed and gloriously made anew in the very image of our Lord and Christ Jesus.I have embraced the sonship message for over a quarter of a century and no matter the many challenges I have seen thrown at this doctrine I have not found it lacking. I have prayed and fasted about this message and measured the writings of the remnant of pioneers and keepers of this doctrine from every century. With this I have only been greatly reassured and more importantly inspired to know the sonship message is the deepest of revealed truth in Christ Jesus. No matter what angle "sonship" is viewed from, it holds up; from the multitude of types and shadows of the law to the prophesies unfulfilled. It is the only complete doctrine, bar none, that holds fast the water of the Spirit and the light of the Word. This holy message illuminating the way of God's sons leaves no room for self as everything gives way to the fullness of Christ realized in every man, each in his own order; Christ, the firstfruits and then the harvest.
Why is this message so hidden and embraced by so few? Well, first of all it is the great cost that chases most believers off. It will cost a son all that he is and all that he has, to gain all of Him. Sonship is also a message of suffering servitude and preference toward our fellow man. It is the willingness to be last that all others might enter.
Another point I am often astounded by, is how few understand the purpose of this age which is amazingly hidden within a few obscure verses in Acts. Surely God has purposed these scriptures be understood by only a handful. Such is the work of the Holy Spirit who veils and unveils Christ and His Kingdom. The hidden scriptures I speak of are found in Acts 15 and please now read from Preston Eby as he describes these few verses and their meaning.
The Purpose of the Age
The apostle James made a statement to the council at Jerusalem in which he clearly defines the complete outline of God’s purpose for the so-called age of grace in which we live and the dispensation that is to follow. "Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, AFTER THIS (after God has taken out of the nations a people for His name) I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David (the fullness of God’s glory in a people), which is fallen down (following the great apostasy); and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the RESIDUE OF MEN MIGHT SEEK AFTER THE LORD, and ALL THE GENTILES, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things" (Acts 15:14-18). Dispensationally, this is one of the most significant passages in the New Testament. It gives God’s divine purpose for this age and the next age. James says that the purpose of God during this present age has been to visit the Gentiles TO TAKE O-U-T O-F T-H-E-M A PEOPLE FOR HIS NAME. God’s purpose for this age has never been the conversion of the whole world. God has not been trying to save the whole world. God has had no plan for "sweeping nations into the Kingdom of God." That never was God’s plan for this dispensation. God’s purpose, then, in this Church age, is to "call out" a people for His name. Out from among the billions of earth God is choosing an ELECT COMPANY to bear His name — His nature and His authority. God has been forming His Church, the body of Christ. The Church is the "ecclesia" — the "called out ones." That is the meaning of the word "church." Precisely this has been in progress since Pentecost. The gospel has never, anywhere, converted all, but everywhere has called out some. It is here, in the true Church, which is His body, that Jesus Christ FIRST ESTABLISHES HIS GOVERNMENT that He might rule and reign on the throne of men’s lives.
God’s plan is to first set up His government in the hearts of His elect and then as they become totally committed unto Him to imbue them with His own mind, spirit, thoughts, will, nature and power until they have grown up into the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ. But most Christians will not come to this! They are too busy playing church, rejoicing that they are not going to hell or that they are going to heaven when they die, and blundering around in the carnal programs and immaturity and shame of a wretched, fleshly, Babylonian religious system which falsely calls itself "the church." But just as the dispensation of the law, at its conclusion, brought forth that which it typified and pointed to — Jesus Christ the Son of God — so this present Church age must, in these last days, at its conclusion, bring forth that for which it was intended and to which it pointed — a many-membered BODY OF CHRIST, perfected, matured, overcoming, and full grown into the exact likeness and full glory of its Head and Lord.
The true Church is the ecclesia, the "called out" ones. They are called out by the Holy Spirit of God and they are called out unto God. Their ears know His voice and not the clamoring voices of strangers. Well they know by the Spirit that the Babel of voices which clamor to be heard from the pulpit and radio and television are too often the voices of strangers posing as the ministers of Christ who seek to draw away disciples after themselves, and not to point men to the Christ of God upon whose shoulder is the government of the world.
God has had no plan to save the world during the Church age, only to call out a people unto Himself. If God had purposed to save the world during the past two thousand years He most certainly would have done so, for His IS GOD ALMIGHTY. God’s Kingdom program for the next age, as His Kingdom progresses from age to age in that glorious increase of which there is no end, is the subjugation and salvation of all the living nations on earth. The promise is sure. Hear what the Lord is about to do through His Anointed Christ Body in this, our day! "He that overcometh...to him will I give POWER OVER THE NATIONS: and he shall RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON" (Rev. 2:26-27). "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD ARE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD, AND OF HIS CHRIST, and HE SHALL REIGN TO THE AGES OF THE AGES" (Rev. 11:15). "And all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and ALL THE KINDREDS OF THE NATIONS shall worship before Thee" (Ps. 22:27). "For the Lord most high is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and THE NATIONS UNDER OUR FEET" (Ps. 47:2-3). "Yea, ALL KINGS shall fall down before Him: ALL NATIONS shall serve Him" (Ps. 72:11).
It is an extraordinary and awesome thing that the Lord by revelation of the Spirit gives His sons to understand that what He is doing on the earth today is merely a beginning. Nothing is finished yet. We are not even approaching the end of the world, or the consummation of the ages, or the great "wind up" of God’s program. (end quote)
I felt led to share this tonight believing there are some that have come to SONSHINE to measure this glorious message. It is also good that we might recount these marvelous scriptures that serve as a promise to those that surrender all, to overcome all, that Christ Jesus might be All in All. I believe there are some here that have counted the cost and seized the promise of sonship. I am often humbled and encouraged, as I clearly see Christ walking in these precious and rare souls I count as brethren and kinsmen.
Jack/John
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