Summer 1996
The Reality of Kingdom Living
Joseph Nieves

God is presently doing a special work in His people. These last days are not an end, but rather the beginning of a new era of God.

The Lord is taking His people through a time of special spiritual preparation, that we might not repeat the mistakes of Israel, which caused their prolonged journey through the wilderness.

The Lord's intent for Israel was that they might come out of Egypt and enter the Promised Land in a short period of time. But because of their unbelief and rebellious ways, they had to encamp in the desert for forty years. We often feel that we also must go this prolonged desert way. The Lord has a word for us concerning this,

"For He will finish the work, and cut
it short in righteousness: because a
short work will the Lord make upon
the earth" Rom 9:28.

If the Lord's people have their ear tuned to hear what the Spirit is saying to them, and if they will yield to all that He desires to work within them, they will be enabled to go by a way which they have never before gone.

Today, the Lord is calling a people to spearhead "a way where there is no way," and then begin to press into His Kingdom. It is demanded of the Church in these last days that we begin to enter into that which the Lord has purposed to do in the Millennial age that is before us.

Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord declares that He will do a new thing in the earth. He is seeking out a people today who will allow Him to reveal Himself to them in His Parousia, and then bring forth this "new thing" through them. This may be so contrary to our thinking, that if we are not careful, we may miss what the Lord desires to do.

But if we will have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying, and a heart that is submissive to the Lord, which both allows and encourages Him to work in our lives, He will bring us through.

The Lord is calling His people to walk in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is not ethereal or superfluous, but it is very natural and down to earth. Acts 17:29 tells us that "in Him we live, and move, and have our being." Walking in the Spirit is the fact that we are in Him, moving in Him, and having our being in Him.

The Lord Jesus Christ was supernaturally natural. He was born by the Spirit, and lived and walked in the Spirit. He gave Himself on Calvary by the Spirit; He was resurrected by the Spirit; His whole life activity was ordered by the Holy Spirit. Yet He had to be singled out from a crowd of people by a kiss from Judas.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not complex nor complicated. The Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian Church said that he feared for them, lest Satan through his subtilety should beguile them (deceive or corrupt their minds), from the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus. He was talking about a singleness of purpose, or intent; keeping our eyes on the Lord in simplicity, and following Him.

The writer of the Hebrews says, "looking unto Jesus," that is, looking away from everything which would be a distraction, and then fixing our gaze upon Him.

"But when it pleased God, who separated me
from my mother's womb," Gal 1:15.

In this hour, the Lord is separating unto Himself a people who are being severed or cut off from their mother's womb. This womb may be anything upon which we depend, which is less than the Lord Himself. He is cutting the umbilical cord and bringing to birth a people by severing our dependence on these lesser things in order to identify us with a new nature, the Lord Himself.

When we look at ourselves, we say that this is impossible. But then we realize that it is the Christ within us. As the Scripture says, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal His Son in me" (Gal 1:15-16a). God has called us for the purpose of revealing the Lord Jesus in us.

It is "Christ in you, the hope of Glory." This is why Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who empowers me, who strengthens me from within." We must not look at ourselves, but at Him who has called us, and who is able to complete His work in us.