Spring
1992
Here I Stand
Edited from an article by
Clayton Sonmore
Like Jude, we need again to cry aloud, "Oh, that we
might earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered
unto the saints." The religious mixture of today bears
no comparison to the glory that descended only forty years
ago in 1948, and again in 1953 (Latter Rain Visitation). Yet
the glory evidenced in the early days of that two-pronged
visitation was but a shadow of the Upper Room, and the early
Church visitation.
This early Church visitation was a product of the "Feast
of Pentecost, "as was also the 1948-1953 visitation that
landed on the rocky beach of Nicolaitanism and Laodiceanism.
From Scripture, it can be seen that the anointing and measure
attained in the early Church was only a shadow of that which
is to come to those who enter into "The Feast of Tabernacles,"
now beginning to envelop some of God's end time overcomers.
Lord, help the true Body of Christ as it struggles to leave
"the place of ordinances" (Passover) and "the
place of leaven" (Pentecost) in order to "join You
outside the camp, bearing Your reproach," in "the
place of Your Presence" (Tabernacles).
The 1948-1953 visitation was recorded by historians as consisting
o great numbers. But those with spiritual eyes saw it as "a
visitation within a visitation" that was composed of
few, numerically. They saw that there were many who in one
way or another joined themselves to this visitation and warmed
themselves by the "fire" that evolved, but were
never consumed by that fire. On the other hand, they could
see that those who really entered into the Lordship of Christ
were few in "quantity," but great in "quality."
Again, as so often in history, God is allowing this dual
work; a worldly emphasis on "quantity," and a spiritual
emphasis on God's Kingdom work of "quality."
Have you joined with the great majority of a former "quality"
dimension that has somehow let down the spiritual high mark
enough so they can no longer recognize what is not of Spirit,
but is of the soul nature, if not of the flesh? Have you crossed
over some divide where you have, perhaps unknowingly, mixed
together "quantity" and "quality," and
do not even know it? It is primarily to these who have unwittingly
become a people of "mixture" that this exhortation
is directed.
Those who are non-compromisers understand what God is saying:
His purity and presence are available only through paying
a price, not through obtaining a new found dimension that
combines "quantity" and "quality." Jesus
continues to exhort His own to:
"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate,
and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in there at: Because strait
is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it" Matt 7:13-14.
Many of the present day leaders are not teaching God's people
how to make Him the one and only Lord of their lives. His
way is narrow, and few find it. Those few are beginning to
realize that the popular "wide gate" being advanced
today is not of God.
In contrast to most present thinking, the gate is not wide,
but narrow, and "few there be that find it." It
is my prayer and