SONS OF GOD
There is something destined to happen in this world so wonderful that those whose minds have not been touched by the Spirit of God will find it impossible to believe.
On a certain day - known only to the Father - God will break the silence he has kept in this world so long. God will cause his glory to be seen - his voice to be heard - unmistakably.
Everybody will know God has come to judge this earth.
When the old prophets came on the scene and said, "Thus saith the Lord!", most people brushed them aside as words of some grouchy old crackpot from the desert.
When Jesus came to Israel healing the sick and opening the eyes of the blind - even though they knew no man ever spoke like this man, no one realized that Jesus was very God of very God. The people stood in awe for a while and then they nailed him to the Cross.
When someone today speaks God's clear word, a message straight out of Heaven, the majority shrug it off as nothing at all.
But on the Day I'm talking about there will be no doubt in anyone's mind as to what's happening. Everyone from the least to the greatest will know that God has brought this age to an end. God has come to call this world and its inhabitants to account.
People who called themselves Christians - but who never lived the life - will be trying to burrow in the dust and hide under the rocks. To them the searching brightness of Divine Light will be physical torture.
People who claimed to be agnostics, but who hardened their hearts each time the merciful Savior knocked on the door of their hearts, will now be writhing in anguish - falling on their faces.
But the forgotten ones of this earth will lift up their voices in praise to God, for their time of deliverance has come.
The mourners will begin to sing,
All nature will break forth into music.
The floods will clap their hands.
The hills will be joyful together before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth. With righteousness shall he judge the world. And the people with equity.
And the reason for all the music and joy echoing through the creation will be the appearance on this planet of a new race of beings as gloriously different from our present human race as Adam was different from the animals.
This new race of beings won't come from outer-space in flying saucers. They will come from this very earth, they will suddenly appear.
Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the blinking of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For this corruptible nature must put on incorruption and this mortal nature must put on immortality.
I Corinthians 15
Suddenly there they'll be a race of transfigured beings who have taken on the likeness of the resurrected Christ - the Sons of God that the Creation has awaited for so long. They will be of a new order, neither male nor female, sharing the glory of God’s angelic beings.
When God raised his Son from the dead he was to be the first-born among "many brethren." Now the "many brethren" will appear. And through these transfigured beings the Messiah will set up his Kingdom and vindicate the blasphemed, neglected name of his Father on the planet Earth.
Many of these Sons God who on that day will be revealed to the world, are alive on the earth right now.
Today they have mortal bodies and mortal minds. They are weak and frail in many ways. But they are already partakers of the divine nature.
As many as received him, as believed on his name, to them he gave power to become Sons of God, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man - but of God.
If we are followers of Jesus - if we are led by his Spirit even in our present state we are those Sons/Daughters of God.
- We already have the first-fruits of the Spirit,
- Gifts of the Spirit.
- The power of Heaven is at work in us.
"Beloved we are now the Sons of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him - for we shall see him as he is." I John 3
But the proof of our son-ship is not that we can snap our fingers and do mighty things - not that we can inspire awe in the world around us. The proof of our son-ship is that we manifest the nature of our Father which is love.
Our faces do not yet shine with glory. We are not ready to judge the angels or rule the world. But if we really are the Sons of God every day of our lives in flesh-and-blood, in all our dealings with fellow human beings, there will be five clear marks of son-ship which will make it obvious who we are.
We are merciful as our Father is merciful.
We judge not.
We condemn not.
We forgive.
We give.
If you say that you are born-again ... if you say Jesus lives in you but lack even the beginnings of these five marks of son-ship, you are deceived.
When you open your heart and you say, "Jesus come in to my life", he comes in to fill you with divine love. And every gift he gives is given to teach you from within to love in these five ways.
If you earnestly follow Jesus' leading in these five ways,
- you are a Son/Daughter of God.
- you are led by the Spirit.
If you ignore his leading in these five ways – if you fail to trust him and follow him in these commands,
- you're a hypocrite.
You may talk like a saint but you're a hypocrite.
1. Be merciful as your father is merciful.
This is a command to us all and there's no leeway. It is given to us by the One who showed mercy even unto death.
Laid down his life for us.
Shed his blood for us.
The Father was merciful to send Him and he was merciful to come. So now we are merciful to all people.
It's not our nature to be merciful. It's the nature of God in us. From now on we are becoming merciful in our hearts and in our actions,
- to poor people,
- to rich people,
- to white men and black men,
- to lazy women and ambitious women,
- mild folks, mean folks.
We're kind. We give them the benefit of the doubt and take advantage of no one.
2. Judge not and you will not be judged.
Someone came up to Jesus and said, "Teacher bid my brother divide the inheritance with me." But Jesus said, "Man, who made me a judge or divider over you."
He wouldn't do it. The Son of God refused to sit in judgment over any man. Not in this age.
He called the Pharisees hypocrites. He called Herod a fox. (That's what they were.) But Jesus never passed judgment on anyone.
- He never made one soul feel worthless.
- He never destroyed anyone's hope.
- He never broke the bruised reed or quenched the smoking flax.
Our old nature is full of judgment.
"0, he's no good."
"You can't trust her."
"He's hopeless."
We put people in boxes of judgment and if they try to get out we kick them in the head and push them back in.
But now this stops. We do not judge. We leave all judgment to the Day of Judgment. If the living God took his judgment off us and put in on His only-begotten Son to save us, how can we possibly judge anyone?
3. Condemn not and you will not be condemned.
In our old nature we go farther than judging people - we condemn them. We think of them and treat them as damned souls whom we will no longer recognize. As far as we are concerned they belong in Hell and we shall have nothing more to do with them. We blot them out of our book.
We see them on the street; they're not people, they're vermin. Their faces pass before our minds as we pray, crying for help. We let them pass. They are condemned.
But now the Spirit of Jesus comes into us and all these old ways, these miserable attitudes, must come to an end. If there is no condemnation on us from God, there can be no condemnation in our hearts against them. None. Not against one soul.
4. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
We have been forgiven so much! So now forgive. How can we not forgive?
Forgiveness begins not in the mouth but in the heart. Is there one soul from whom you are withholding forgiveness? If you are led by the Spirit of God you know what you must do.
Listen to me!
Your prayers dry up,
your witness loses all its power.
Your very spirit shrivels and turns sour when you will not forgive. It's not worth it! Follow the leading of the Spirit. Live out the nature of the Father which is in you. Forgive as you have been forgiven at that Cross.
5. Give and it will be given to you, good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over will put into your lap.
The nature of this world is to take –
to get –
to keep –
to clutch.
The nature of God is to give. The Sons of God give and they never lack. They give from their hearts. They want to give and it just keeps pouring back.
Where you give is between you and your Lord. How much you give will never be a problem. You'll just give because giving is the evidence that God's love is ruling your heart.
A man says he loves his wife. The proof is in the way he gives of himself and of what he has to her.
A man says he loves God. The proof is the way he gives of himself and his means to others.
God so loved the world that he gave His highest treasure - his only-begotten Son up to death on a Cross.
The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the Sons of God. And the Sons of God who will be revealed on that glorious Day are the people who right now, day after day, bear the marks of son-ship in their living.
God grant that every man and woman who reads these words and kneels in spirit before the Master, may bear the marks of son-ship now - throughout the hours of this day and every day until the King comes.