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| The "in part" is fading away |
At the time of the writing of the book of Revelation, the Church was experiencing the Holy Place dimension (Revelation 1:12 and 3:15-16). There comes a time when we have to sacrifice that realm and ministry and trust the Lord to resurrect it in his way and in his time. Paul called the “gift” realm an “in part” realm, not the fullness. Once Elisha kissed his former ministry good-bye, he sacrificed the oxen. We must take the ministry that we have been involved in that we have thought was the fullness, but was really the “in part” or the “gift” realm, or the Holy Place dimension, and sacrifice it as Elisha did. We must lay it down and allow God to raise it up in his way and in his time. Then it will be greater than just an “in part” manifestation. Paul said, “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” The Greek word “perfect” in this scripture means “complete in growth, in mental and moral character; of full age.” This speaks of maturity. The word “perfect” in this scripture also means “man” and “perfect.” In Ephesians 4:13, Paul wrote, “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 fullness of Christ” (emphasis added). We, the full grown, mature body of Christ = a perfect man which is Christ the Lord. This is not referring to separate, individual places of worship or to separate denominations or to any religion. It is referring to the body of Christ—every Church in every city, in every state, in every nation in which the Lord Jesus Christ is the Head. That is what the Lord is telling the Church in Revelation 3:15. If you stay in an “in part” realm when God wants you to move on, you become lukewarm. You lose that first love. If you won’t sacrifice the ministry and go into the place of Revelation 4:1, and come up to the Most Holy Place experience, there will be a lukewarmness that will settle over you. There was a time in my life when I thought I was in the ultimate ministry. I did not want to leave that ministry, but God was dealing with me. I did not want to lay it down, but I sensed within my spiritual life a lukewarmness, until I finally made the decision to lay it down and go into the ministry that proceeds out of the Most Holy Place. I did not know what God was doing at that time though. When God wants us to move from one realm to the next, but we are satisfied with just being stuck in the middle, we are saying that we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. When God wants us to move on with him but we are satisfied right where we are, we are saying, “We have numbers, we have money, we have programs, and we have a ministry.” And God is saying, “Don’t you know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked?” Then in Revelation 3:18 the Lord tells them, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Isaiah 55:1 says that we are to buy without money and without price—without works of the flesh. We buy with our hunger for him. And only because of his grace, do we receive his gold (divine nature), his raiment of righteousness, and his ability to see spiritual things. In Revelation 5, John was weeping because no man could open the book. No man can open the book, and no amount of “what we go through” can open the book. No works can open the book. Nothing we do can open the book within and cause the life of the Lamb and the rivers of living water to flow out of our innermost being. If we suffer with him we reign with him, and we suffered at the cross of Calvary. That is what he is saying when he says, “I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire.” Jesus experienced a fire, a judgment, a bitter cup, at the cross over 2000 years ago. At first, he didn’t even want to drink it. Then he said, “Not my will but thine, be done.” And that is when his fire began to become our fire. His suffering became our suffering. No man can open the book. No matter what we do, we cannot open the book. Only when you receive the Lamb that was slain can the book be opened. In Revelation 3:20, the Lord said that if we’d open the door, he would come in and sup. The biggest meal is at the end of the day. For over 2000 years we’ve been at the end of the age of the Mosaic Law, but blinded from that truth by the god of this world. God has given us a hand-written invitation to come to this super supper he has prepared. We’ve opened the door and we are beginning to partake. We have “come up hither.” Jesus is more than life itself. He is more than the necessary food that we eat. Jesus is more than anything! He’s everything! To have the book of life that is within us unsealed on the backside—crucified, died, buried—means that out of us, can flow the life of the Lamb—quickened, raised, and seated. That is why we were created in the first place. We were made to become a praise and a worship unto him. We were created to have him, the rivers of living waters, reproduced out of us. When we understand the book of Revelation there is going to be a great outflowing coming from all of us. There have been so many things that have come against the body of Christ that unless we can grab a hold of this spiritual understanding that it is not what we must suffer, but what we have already suffered, we will not begin to reign with him in the throne. I’m so convinced of this that I’m angry. The word tells us to be angry and sin not. Anger is just a sign that tells us that we need to move forward to confront those things that have come against us. Unless we grab a hold of this, Matthew 21:43 says that the kingdom will be given to another nation. It could be given to a people who are only experiencing the Holy Place at this time. A people who are hungry. A people who are desperate. A people who
know that there is more than the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there is more than the gift realm, and they are crying out from the Holy Place to find it. But there is a people here and now, that are walking in the kingdom. There is a people in the deeper life experience of the Most Holy Place that are experiencing throne realm dominion. The Lord has brought this word for that purpose. We are walking in the kingdom and experiencing the place that we are already seated in. We are no longer trying to get into a chair that we are already seated in. We’re living it more and more with each passing day! It is naturally supernaturally walking itself out, through the self-fulfilling power of his word (Isaiah 61:11 Amplified Bible)! Right now, we are coming out of the Most Holy Place to see how we got there. And as we do, we are filling our mind with the knowledge and the understanding of how we got there—which is the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are not eating the lamb in haste as the Israelites did when they came out of Egypt. We are enjoying the marriage supper of the Lamb with our feet underneath his table. In this kingdom age we will not go out with haste, nor by flight; for the Lord has gone before us, and the God of Israel is our rear guard (Isaiah 52:12). When we experienced initial salvation we ate the Lamb with haste in our first look at the cross. But as we take a second look we are savoring every detail of the finished work of Calvary.
Phillip Owen Morris
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