The Perfecting of the Saints
EPHESIANS 4:11-16
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (notice – these were gifts sent into the earth from Christ to the church – because God ordained different people with different gifts of which He would send into the earth at certain times for the purpose of advancing His great kingdom in the hearts of the elect for each age)
12 For the perfecting of the saints (this word “perfecting” means to fully equip, or to "complete" what is unfinished. Or how we might say “to bring something to a mature state of completeness”, and remember, that it is only Christ who can complete and perfect our faith, but he has chosen to do that by using these gifts of the 5 fold ministry), for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Fullness is to be completed. And this completeness is to come into a full understand of your day and its message and what your life is all about in relation to the fulfilment of the prophecy of this day)
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: (The head represents the mind – the thoughts – and we are to grow into these thoughts of God of where His thoughts become our thoughts also. And so this maturity and perfection is when the clarity of the thoughts of God are received and comprehended by the believer – because your thoughts control your life)
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth (Each person becomes an integral part of the body of Christ in their correct position), according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
There is a mystical body of a people at the end time of which are scattered over the entire world in an un-organized state, but are in fact very organized in the way that God does His organizing.
And each member has a different role and gift for the benefit of the rest of the body. And like the 144,000 Jews who will recognize Christ by the opening of the seventh trumpet – there will be a group of gentile people at the end time who will make up the bride body part of those who will recognize Christ under the opening of the seventh seal. The seventh seal is connected to the revelation of His coming in this hour – the secret coming of the mystery of the shout, voice, and trump of 1st Thessalonians 4:16.
The Perfecting of the Saints
When we think of this word “Perfecting”, as humans, we can so easily be naturally led to interpret this in that we will somehow attain to being able to live a “perfect life” as in the sense of like a kind of sinless life on this earth (of whatever our own personal interpretation of that would look like according to our conscience) because that is the way of how we understand the meaning of this word “perfect” in English, but this is not at all what the scripture is meaning.
This word “perfect” in the New Testament is to do with equipping the believer for the purpose that God has ordained for the age that they are living in – in that they will be equipped to carry out and manifest the work of God for that season that has been prophesied of them for that hour.
*And so this requires the maturity of the word that God has sent for that age to be ministered to the people of that age, and so God sends gifts into the body for that purpose, in order of fully equipping the people for that work.
This is why God first sent a prophetic ministry in this last day…
MALACHI 4:5-6
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children (this first part is already history of when John the Baptist introduced the Old Testament fathers to the New Testament faith of Christ who was the real Lamb of God), and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
We know that this last part is prophesied of us (the children) being turn back to the original faith (or revelation) of the fathers of what Paul and them had back in the time of when the church was first birth after Pentecost.
But remember that we are not called in this hour just to stay at that level, but we are to pick up where they left off and continue on greater into rapturing faith in order for the resurrection to take place, because that first age never made it to that level of advancement, and so God has sent a 5 fold ministry in this hour to help build us up to an even greater level of faith in order for the rapture to take place.
*This word “heart” (turn the “heart” back) is dealing with the inner realm of our understanding – our revelation of God. Because when you really understand a truth of God clearly, it produces a faith in your heart, and this actually brings you into a greater relationship with God.
And this is why that it is very important for us to realize that our relationship with God will struggle if we have a wrong conception of God’s nature and character and purpose. This is why people who have a wrong understanding of God’s nature and character will automatically relate to him in a wrong way.
***I was sharing with the ministers about the subject that we have just gone through of the ribband of blue that we have studied on of for the last 3 services.
And I was telling them of how that the colour of the sky changes from black to blue at the rising of the sun, and then how that John was caught up and out of the darkness of the Laodicean age and into the blue of the heavenlies at the time of the rising of the SON of the 8th day of the bride age – the holy convocation – because we have also seen the spiritual sky change from back to blue also, and John was called by the voice of the seventh angel to leave the earth and fly up into this heavenly realm – into the blue.
**And so we are speaking of the five-fold ministry, of which they are gifts that God has sent among the members of His end time bride in order to bring them to an advanced and mature level of faith so that they will be able to meet the challenge of this age of which is to be able to stand against the great power of deception of this age that is sweeping throughout the world.
*And so Brother Branham never taught us to just “press play and obey” on its own, but he also believed in a five-fold ministry that God would be raised up as gifts to the body of Christ after his departure.
QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS.ON.THE.SEALS_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 63-0324M
494-4 {232} 22. Would the Bride of Christ have... Would the Bride of Christ have a ministry before the rapture?
Sure. That's what's going on right now. See? The Bride of Christ... Certainly. It is the Message of the hour (See?), the Bride of Christ. Sure, She's consist of apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors. Is that right? That's the Bride of Christ. Sure, She's got a ministry, great ministry; it's the ministry of the hour; it'll be so humble...
ROMANS 7:19-21
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
*When we read this last part of Romans chapter 7 (“that what I would do, I do not, and what I don’t want to do, that I do”). Paul is describing here the problem of us as believers who have the desire to serve the Lord because of the spirit of Christ dwelling in us, but of which we are still living within a body that we were born into this world with that has a carnal nature permeating through every fiber of it, of which at times can seem to rend us no end of struggle, grief, and woe.
***And so God in his great wisdom is allowing us to suffer for a season under this contrast of natures, because He has a purpose to use this conflict between the fallen man of the makeup of the human body of the believer, and the desire the we have in our hearts to serve God and to live according to His word, as a tool in His hand to reveal more of His grace to us – and this is why that once we have confessed our sin to God, then we need to forget about it and continue on.
REVELATION.CHAPTER.FOUR.1_ JEFF.IN ROJC 551-584 SATURDAY_ 60-1231
3 This is New Year's night of eve. And 'course, everybody's got a vow wrote out and a pledge you're going to make for new year's, then about a day after tomorrow they'll all be broke. And so... You know, you turn a new page every year, and then turn back the next morning, did it again.
(notice how he is saying that we all want to do right and live better lives, but our fallen human nature is what causes us to continually fail in this life)
But there's just one thing that--that I would like to say, and that is, that like Apostle Paul said, "Forgetting those things that are in the past, all my mistakes and all the things that I've done, I press towards the mark of the high calling in Christ." That's the only regrets that I have is my errors for the past year, and the past part of my life, and only humbly asking for grace to press on towards the mark of the high calling. I'm sure that's the testimony of--of all of us; we'd all feel that way.
***God uses the chemicals of the circumstances of our lives to child train us, and so He uses our fallen human body with its fallen and perverted nature as a tool in his hand to equip us with the fullness of the revelation of His saving grace to us, because there are 3 realms of where His saving grace is manifested in the believers life – of our past, and then our present stage of what we go through of the struggles in our daily lives, and then our future change into our new bodies.
II CORINTHIANS 1:10
10 Who delivered us from so great a death (past tense), and doth deliver (present tense): in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; (future tense)
Notice – 3 stages of separate deliverances.
*And this is why that we study the book of Romans, there are 3 “saves” (if you will) or deliverances that the book of Romans is dealing with of justification, Sanctification, and then finally, Glorification.
**The first stage of Justification describes the complete work of salvation by the sacrifice of Christ – that is why that there is absolutely no condemnation to those one who have accepted Christ (the word for their age), because He has already taken the complete penalty for your sin upon Himself and has already paid the full price of the complete debt of sin so that there is no more debt owing. And so (even if you somehow wanted to) you could not pay the penalty of your sin because there is now nothing to pay, because it has already been fully paid for by Christ. All the debt of sin that you owed is no more.
*And this includes all past, present, and future sins that you might yet commit, because there is no time differences with God. Once we confess our sin, then we are cleansed – that is what the bible teaches us.
ROMANS 5:12
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
ROMANS 5:17
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
ROMANS 7:25
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
ROMANS 8:1
1 ¶ There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
To be continued nest week - the Lord willing