Topic: The Matured Church
Greetings Sons of God:
Lately we have been studying the importance of Zoe
life. We have seen that Zoe life is not
a life in the after-life but it is a life meant to be lived now. It is a Heavenly life lived on Earth. So much of what we have heard is a
misinterpretation of Scripture and has put knowledge within us that delays or
puts present day reality in the next life.
This brings me to this topic here and as I studied and the Lord spoke
and revealed we must repent and turn our eyes back to Jesus. We have been entertained and distracted too
long and the doctrines of this word which produce death is slowly eating away
at believers. Death is in the pot for
many believers but for some the Light of Christ is shining brighter and
brighter and He is revealing more of His Word and who He is now. I want to start by looking at Revelation 21:9
and moving forward from there.
When many believers look at Revelation 21 and Revelation 22,
dare I even say throughout the entire book of revelation many want to put what
is being shown and said in Heaven. There
are some aspects that speak of Heaven but for the most part the book of
Revelation is not about Heaven. It is
the revelation or revealing of Christ.
Wanna see:
Revelation 1:1: The
revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants
things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by his
angel unto his servant John.
So the end is the revelation of Christ. So throughout the Old Testament and New
Testament there are stories, pictures and revelation of Christ. Now if you are talking about Christ then you
are also talking about the church. There
are two dimensions of Christ: The Head
and the Body. And we as the church is
the Body of Christ. So inasmuch as
Christ is revealed throughout the Old and New Testament, so is the church, the
sons of God. Of course in most of the
Old Testament, God speaks in types and shadows and of course in the New
Testament we see the reality that does away with the type and shadow. May I suggest to leadership, we must come
back to preaching a Christocentric message.
God, through Jesus Christ did not preach hell to bring people into the
Kingdom. Is hell real? Yes but it is Christ that every man and woman
is looking for and if we just present Him, He will take care of the rest. Unfortunately for many who were scared in for
the fear of hell find it hard to live for Christ because their entire motive
for coming was out of fear of hell but now that is gone…oh well is the
attitude. People develop a false
picture of Christ and so how they live is a reflection of their perception and
place He has in their life. For many of
them they are still searching for peace, happiness, love and joy. Some of the manifestations of a unsatisfied
believer is the constant desire for titles, money, methods of advertising to
increase membership and people hoping from church to church to name a few. Sad to say, they have that already by His
Spirit dwelling within them. In this
time for those who have made the spiritual sacrifices and present themselves as
broken, humble and of a contrite heart, God is correcting the inaccurate and
clearing up the fog within the vision of the believers as it pertains to who He
is and who they or we are. When the
sons of God access and live the Zoe life, extreme contentment, joy, peace,
their place within the body, the true identity and love is manifested through
them and they change the circumstance from the Zoe life and not let the
circumstances change them. Let’s look at
the mature church first.
Revelation 21:9,10: And there came unto me one of the seven
angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked
with me, saying, come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a
great and high mountain and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God.
Here is a question:
The angel is showing John the Lamb’s Bride who is the church and John
records that he sees the great and holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from
God. So how is the church a city? Now what people have done is made this a
futuristic Heavenly thing because they could not understand it. Remember how does God communicate? He communicates by type and shadows and
reality. We know types and shadows are
symbolic pictures and reality is reality, it is what God says it is. Now what is John looking at? He sees the holy Jerusalem but the angel said
I will shew you the Lamb’s wife! So this
is symbolic language. Let me take a
second and show you this in the Old Testament:
Isaiah 2:2,3: And it
shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above
the hills; and all the nations shall flow unto it.
Now the Scripture in Revelation says
that the city is descending OUT of heaven FROM GOD! So this city is coming out from God and if
this is the case? Then where are
we?
Ephesians 2:6: “And
hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus.” So though we walk the
earth in time, we as sons are seated in Christ Jesus in Heaven.
So we are in Him and when He appears so shall we! Take a look:
Colossians 3:4: When
Christ who is our life (zoe) shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him
in glory
Understand what we are saying, the matured church will
happen in the Earth. God is revealing
this now! He is preparing this now! This is not a sweet by-and-by concept but a
present day reality. This is why we
must come back to a Christocentric message because our very life is Zoe and is
Christ because Christ is Life. John was
given a vision in Revelation 21 and 22 and this picture is a symbolic picture
of the matured church but nothing about this picture says this will happen in
Heaven. From Genesis to Revelation is a
progression of the revelation of Christ and the Sons of God in the Earth and
the plan of how this will be fulfilled.
Let us look to Heaven and set our heart and affections to heavenly
things and allow the Father and Christ to bring the will of Heaven into the
Earth through the sons of God. Let us
stop trying to go to heaven and escape life and live Zoe life here on earth and
be a avenue that God uses to bring the Kingdom to earth.
Peace, Love and Grace,
Calvin Calhoun, Jr.
