Lowliness

God takes no pleasure in our repenting over and over again as though this were sufficient; rather does He wish us to
live in perpetual contrition. Only a spirit of this kind can equip us to detect and mourn immediately all disharmony
with the Holy Spirit present in our conduct and deeds. It also helps us to acknowledge our faults when told of them.
People who cover their faults and excuse themselves do not have a repentant spirit...
But when the cross is working deeply a believer comes to know himself. He realizes how undependable are his ideas,
feelings and desires.
Lowliness is not looking down on one's self; rather is it a not looking at one's self at all.

Lord, Lord

If we’re going to move into the true knowledge of God, into true friendship with God, one of the things that will be imperative is that we abdicate the throne of our lives, and turn the government of our lives over to Jesus Christ as Lord. The term LORD is not merely a title. It has a very far-reaching connotation. Jesus said, “Ye call me Lord, Lord, but ye do not the things that I say.”

The Keys

"And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he
shall rule them with a rod of iron." Rev. 2:26-27
To be ready ("hath made us"), there must be a present ruling ("overcoming") in our lives. We will never be
qualified to rule others unless we have first submitted ourselves to divine governmental rule over us.
When Israel entered the promised-land, they were told to slay all of the inhabitants of that land. The names of
these nations can be related to the works of the flesh. Thus, we also must first slay the "inhabitants" of our land
(the works of our flesh) before we will be ready to partake of this promise - "we shall reign on the earth."
These that we must slay are very busy within us, manifesting themselves in various forms as "worldliness."
Thus, they must be utterly slain in order for us to become "the habitation of God" (priestly role) and begin to
"rule all nations" (kingly role).
There are those whom the Lord desires to use, but there is not the discipline, nor the rule over the
circumstances of their lives that would give them the ministry ground and authority that is necessary to fulfill
their calling. It is one thing to be called (in-working preparation). It is another to be sent (out-working
manifestation).
There must be the inner dealings of the Holy Spirit within our lives in order to produce within us the necessary
quality of character, which will make us ready and available to the Lord, in order for us to rule with Him in "that
day." The Lord must first be able to trust us with "The Keys of the Kingdom" which will unlock and open the
door that will release us into the outworking of our part in the Millennial Kingdom rule of our Lord.

All things are new....

Once we really understand what God is seeking, namely, something altogether new for Himself, then we shall see
clearly that we can never bring any contribution from the old realm into that new thing. God wanted to have us for
Himself, but He could not bring us as we were into that which He had purposed; so He first did away with us by the
Cross of Christ, and then by resurrection provided a new life for us. " If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature (mg.
' there is a new creation'): the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new " (2 Cor. 5.17). Being now new
creatures with a new nature and a new set of faculties, we can enter the new kingdom and the new world.
The Cross was the means God used to bring to an end the old things' by setting aside altogether our 'old man', and
the resurrection was the means He employed to impart to us all that was necessary for our life in that new world. " We
were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the
glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life " (Rom. 6.4).
The greatest negative in the universe is the Cross, for with it God wiped out everything that was not of Himself :
the greatest positive in the universe is the resurrection, for through it God brought into being all He will have in the
new sphere. So the resurrection stands at the threshold of the new creation. It is a blessed thing to see that the Cross
ends all that belongs to the first regime, and that the resurrection introduces all that pertains to the second. Everything
that had its beginning before resurrection must be wiped out. Resurrection is God's new starting-point.
We have now two worlds before us, the old and the new. In the old, Satan has absolute dominion. You may be a
good man in the old creation, but as long as you belong to the old you are under sentence of death, because nothing of
the old can go over to the new. The Cross is God's declaration that all that is of the old creation must die. Nothing of
the first Adam can pass beyond the Cross ; it all ends there. The sooner we see that, the better, for it is by the Cross that
God has made a way of escape for us from that old creation. God gathered up in the Person of His Son all that was of
Adam and crucified Him; so in Him all that was of Adam was done away. Then God made, as it were, a proclamation
throughout the universe saying: 'Through the Cross I have set aside all that is not of Me; you who belong to the old
creation are all included in that; you too have been crucified with Christ!' None of us can escape that verdict.

Holiness

Personal holiness in character and actions is a holiness unto Christ, not a holiness from the world. Holiness is
not a legalistic obedience to certain laws and taboos. Holiness is first and foremost an inner union with Him: only as we
are, will, and indeed can come into that union with Him, shall His Holiness (as well as all other aspects of His Person) be
manifest in us and through us unto the world.
This is emphasized all throughout Jesus' teachings on the Kingdom of God. For example, Matthew Chapters 5-7 and 13
contain many teachings which are both directly the opposite of the world's ways, and impossible for any of us to follow;
only as we flow in inner union with Him, can He flow both in us (in our thoughts) and through us (in our actions). And
Romans 14:17 tells us that the essence of the Kingdom of God is being under the full influence and control not of the flesh
but of the indwelling Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus! Hence, the Kingdom of God is not just our obeying our King, but He in us
living His life through us.

His Lordship

The absolute supremacy of God, now working through Christ Jesus, tells only part of the story of His dealings with
mankind. Although all things are under His control, and His purposes will not be prevented, He chooses to not force our
wills. That is because He seeks us to be love-slaves, not puppets nor bond-slaves. He seeks us to choose to serve Him from
our free wills out of love for Him, and not to be forced to obey Him.
Therefore, in His dealings with us individually, He is ever leading and urging us to repent unto His Lordship in all areas of
our lives: that is, for us to change our ways of thinking to acknowledge and depend upon Him in all things. Also, for the
vast majority of us who do indeed choose Him to be our Lord Adonai, we in fact allow Him to reign as Lord only in some,
but not all, aspects of our thoughts, goals, motives, actions, dreams and behaviour. So He deals with us in strange ways,
including through the circumstances in our lives, to bring us to yield yet another aspect to His Lordship. He does this in our
lives one aspect at a time.
He is building and perfecting His Body on earth! His dealings to adjust us to maturity, to sanctify us unto His Lordship,
comprise a life-long process over time, whereby He works unto us His very Holiness. And during this process, He also
deals with us collectively, both to: (1) build us as living stones into His Holy Temple for praise and worship of Him (hence
His dwelling place, since He dwells in the praises of His people); and (2) order us as members of His Body (His physical
manifestation on earth). This first form of adjustment emphasizes our relationships with one another, and that we become
fitted and adjusted to one another; the second form emphasizes our functioning in ministries and service to one another
and collectively to the world. Christ is not only building His church to manifest His love and grace on earth; He is also
building His army to subdue the Kosmos of satan and to manifest His glory on earth. The full physical restoration of
His Kingdom on earth is future (upon His Parousia return). But He now is building His army, to conquer and lead His
children into the Promised land, so that there will exist on earth (before then) a physically tangible foretaste of His Kingdom,
that the rest of the world will see His glory. And how shall He demonstrate His glory on earth? Through us (John 17:22a)!

In the beginning

In the beginning, God created Adam to be perfect, "in His image" (i.e., like Him), and placed him in the Garden on earth as
His agent. Since Adam was in communion and fellowship with God, He delegated to Adam His dominion authority on
earth. But when Adam fell, mankind through sin gave that dominion authority over to satan. Satan did not acquire that
authority from God but only has the authority which is given (often by default) to him by men, by human will (and in some
cases by the Lord).
Both Christ and satan honor human will; Christ by choice, and satan by force. Hence, human will carries "authority". Men
defaulted their authority to satan; and satan as the great liar has convinced mankind to believe that is "normal". satan's
apparently "great" power is because so many masses of people have collectively thus defaulted to him. Ephesians 2:1-3 and
12 tells us that men who are not under Christ are under satan.
But Christ has purchased that dominion authority back from satan, and has delegated it to us His Body. Christ after His
crucifixion was given the authority of God over satan. As man He served notice to satan that neither He nor any of His
subjects will ever give human authority to satan. In fact, in Ephesians 1:20-23 we see that God has delegated to our
resurrected Christ His full authority over earth, Heaven, and hell, including satan's complete Kosmos!So, all that satan does, he does only by the expressed permission of God and by human will. We see in Job 2:1-6, Luke22:31 and Ephesians 1:20-21, that satan can do absolutely nothing without God's expressed permission and approval. God uses satan as His agent to enforce the Adamic curse. God also uses satan in many ways to deal in our lives to adjust and
mature us, i.e., in our "wilderness trials", etc. But satan has only been given permission to rule the earth for a season. That
season ended legally on Calvary; it is being ended in fact as God uses His church, believer by believer, to conquer the world
back from satan. Christ has supreme authority to reign now. And He is calling all of us, now, to be His subjects indeed.