Press Toward the Mark II

We All Start at the East Gate

There is only one Gate into the Kingdom of God. This one and only Gate is JESUS CHRIST the blessed Savior and Lord.  The Scripture declares that there salvation in no other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Act 4:12). We all enter through this Gate at new birth when we accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. “He is the way the truth and the Life and no one can come unto the Father but by Him”. In the metaphor of the Tabernacle, entering through the Gate into the Outer Court we encounter the Brazen Altar where our Passover Lamb was sacrificed for us. Here we received forgiveness and remission for sin through the Blood of the Lamb of God, the Lamb without blemish.

We all start here as children in the outer court. But God wants us to press on and move pass this Altar and proceed to the Brazen Laver where there lies the water of separation, of consecration, and of sanctification and where we can be cleansed by the washing of the water by the Word. Here, at the Brazen Laver, we see ourselves in the mirror of God’s word and we wash with its water before moving on through the five Pillars into the Holy Place.

We must grow from faith to faith, from glory to glory until we enter into that place where the Shekinah Glory of God resides. The Holy Place in the Tabernacle was designed by God to be a place of transition before going into the Holiest of ALL.  The ultimate goal, our final destination, is not the Holy Place but the Holiest of All, where our Father God is waiting for His people. The Holy Place in the Tabernacle is designed to get the Saints of the Most High ready to go into the fullness of God. However, we the people of God seem to settle for the place of transition. We erect our camps at the half-way-house and dance around our achievements while the Spirit of God is calling on us to press forward.

God’s desire is for us to move on to maturity. He wants us to press on towards the high calling of God in Christ. He does not want us to settle for the outer court experience or to camp in the Holy Place, but desires that we press on into the Holiest of All.

The cry of our hearts in this hour should be similar to that of the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Phillipians:

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death; If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead; Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I pursue, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended by Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:9-12). His heart was set on finishing the race before him and on finishing well. He was determined to press on toward that goal. And as a runner toward the finish line he pushed himself, stretching and striving toward the finish line to win the price. He continued his heartfelt admonition in this Epistle saying:

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are before,

I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phi 3:13,14).

If Paul had not attained to the mark and was pressing toward it, how much more should we?  As we run this race, we must never stop nor take a break until we reach the finish line and we must run according to the rules. We must, like a marathon runner reaches out for the finish line, press forward even with our last breath for the price of the High Calling.

We must give everything and do everything in our power to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering so we can be found in His likeness. God is raising up a generation of seekers and worshippers who will not stop but will keep searching into the deep things of the Spirit. These ones will not be satisfied with the shallow and religious knowledge of God that the traditional system provides, but will keep searching, through a personal relationship with Him, the deep things of God.  These ones will, day and night, meditate on the word of God.  They will continuously dig and dive into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. These are those whose utmost desire is to be intimately acquainted with God. “This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O God of Jacob” (Psa 24:6). 

These ones must go all the way, soar to the highest heavens of God unrestricted and plunge into the depths of the river of God without restraint. Like Ezekiel the prophet, they may first hesitate before stepping into the waters.  Take one or two small steps to begin with.  Then after a thousand cubits in the river, they find themselves in water up to the ankles.  But they move on.  Gradually as they press on in God for another thousand cubits the water is up to the knees, then gradually up to the loins.  Still, they continue wading in the water of life until they are completely submerged and can no longer touch the river bottom, for now it is become a deep river:  “waters swim in, a river that could not be passed over” (Ezek 47:5 ). 

Let us therefore press on towards the mark forgetting the things which are behind, let us stretch forward toward the finish line before us. Let us, like our Master, follow after and pursue with vigor the goal that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12:2).

The Three Dimensions

There are three distinct dimensions to the message in this book.  The first, which we shall call the global dimension, pertains to the advancement of this glorious gospel and the growth of the universal Body of Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ is the seed planted in the earth. The Lord Jesus alluded to this fact when He said: “the good seed are the children of the kingdom.” This seed was sown in the earth by the Lord of Sabbaoth.  The seed sprang up and we see it brought forth on the Day of Pentecost when she began with a few men and women in the upper room in Jerusalem.  From that day, the Day of the Feast of Firstfruits, she has been growing and overcoming by faith.  This is the Kingdom of God that came forth from the good Seed that the wise Husbandman cast into the earth. 

The Seed that Jehovah God sowed in the earth germinated and brought forth the blade on that glorious resurrection morning, emerging out of the earth as the Firstborn of the New Creation. Yes, there came out of the earth first the Blade on the first day of the week. Fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost, we began to see the ear of corn take shape.  Today, she is growing stronger and many more from all the corners of the earth are being added to her, to become part of this glorious Body of Christ.  

She is growing from one degree of glory to another and increasing in the knowledge of God.  Zion, the City of the Living God, is preparing to enter into the realm of fullness, about to step behind the second veil into the Holiest of All.  The time for her to put on her beautiful garment, for glory and for beauty, is at hand. The Almighty has purposed to shine forth through her, even as Prophet David foretold. Yes it is true and it will be said of her on that day even as Jehovah God Himself had declared aforetime that: “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined” (Psalm 50:2).

The second dimension of this message pertains to the individual believer who has been begotten again by God the Father.  It pertains to growth and spiritual development of the individual child of God by the workings of the Holy Ghost. Apostle Peter lucidly characterized this in his first Epistle saying: “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocri-sies, and envies, and all evil speakings,  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:1-2).

Peter wrote these words because he understood the growth process of a child of God. He began his Epistle by teaching us about this new birth. He said: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I Peter 1:23).  He had, earlier on, said this in another way in the third verse of this opening chapter of his Epistle. Let’s read his message:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1Pe 1:3). 

Now that we have been begotten of the incorruptible seed and are the newborn child of God, Peter continued, we are to feed upon the sincere milk of the word of God so that we might grow.  He is telling us here that the desire of God is for us to grow from that childhood stage. God wants us to put aside all childish behavior and through feeding on the sincere, pure and unadulterated word to grow spiritually. He wants us, by knowing Him and His way, to move from the childish stage to the realm of mature adults and eventually unto the realm of the mature Son of God.

The realm of children is a realm of the self life. Children are occupied with their personal needs and problems. They are the center of the universe and the world must stop when they cry, and attend to their needs. Personal needs and selfish desires dominate the life of the immature born-again child of God. He must grow out of this self-dominated life into the selfless life of the Spirit. 

Spiritual maturity comes through the word of God. Studying, meditating, obeying, and exercising the Word and fellowship with the Word of God. This growth is then manifested through the fruits of the spirit in maturing saints. These include growth in spiritual character, in that same character seen in Jesus, and that which comes from the hidden man of the heart and flows with grace towards others.  Christ is seeking to reproduce Himself in us. Therefore, this growth and transformation must continue in us, born-again believer, until Christ is formed in us.

The third dimension has to do with the seed that the Saints of God sow.  It may be a seed of the word of faith in your heart to meet a need; or a seed to bring forth healing in your physical body and peace in the soul; or a financial seed to bring forth healing in your finances; or a spoken word to change some situation in the ministry; or a seed of the Gospel to bring forth eternal life in someone else.  These are seeds that are sown and they all follow the same law that the Lord of the Harvest has put in place that seedtime and harvest shall not cease. 

We must therefore understand that initially these seeds, as they spring forth with life and begin to grow, may be unnoticeable. You may not be able to immediately see the progress.  Nevertheless, they will spring up first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear.

You are to do your part and leave the rest to God. “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand” (Eccl. 11:6). Jehovah’s sure covenant of seed-time and harvest shall come to pass. It is in this faith that you should go forth and confidently sow your seed. “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalms 126:6). 

Knowing this, therefore let us be patient and tenaciously hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised (Heb 10:23).