“A Voice for the Gathering Saints”
Duane Stewart
“Is Now the Time?”
God, for some time now, has been preparing for Himself a people, which in some scriptures are called the remnant. These called ones have been chosen for such a time as we are seeing creation in at this present season. These one’s who have been prepared for this day are the called and chosen one’s who are to rise up in this hour to establish God’s kingdom on the earth. In the establishing of His kingdom, God, through these prepared ones, shall bring to naught all that has gone before that manifested not the glory of God. Who is this remnant? What makes them different? Where do they come from? It is God, according to His eternal purposes that justify these ones for such a task, even before they were able to see the light of day in this natural life, God had set them aside to achieve such as He purposed before the foundation of this world. As we began to read in Jeremiah, we can begin to see that God was actively moving to establish His will and purpose. God called Jeremiah, a beginning that would continue until today. God trained Him and sent Him out by His Spirit to faithfully speak His word.
From Jeremiah, we can begin to see that God will and does establish in a person a purpose to be fulfilled. He set within that heart a calling that is to be fulfilled as the vessel learns to yield themselves to God in total submission. In Christ, we become the visible manifestation of that which God purposed before our foundation or birthing. Jeremiah 1:4-10, “Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou comest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant”.
A divine mantle has been given to some before their natural birthing to establish the kingdom of God in the earth. A divine people that shall fulfill God’s will and purpose because a choosing and setting aside was written or placed in their hearts, by God, as they came forth from their mothers womb. This call, this divine purpose, established beforehand, will eventually come forth, somewhere in their earth walk, young or old, to become that for which God purposed. Through God’s processing path, that which is written shall come forth from the heart as their nature is changed to flow with God’s foreknowledge purpose. In this we learn to wait upon Him and listen. We hear from Him in trust as He speaks His words of direction to us in the fulfilling of His will. What a relationship, deep calling unto deep, a nature tuned into God’s nature, walking and manifesting in that which He is.
Paul likewise affirms this truth, that a nature turned to love God, shall fulfill that preordained purpose. In standing in agreement with the Holy Spirit, a people do come forth in that glorified state in which God purposed. Rom. 8:28-30 declares, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified”. In verse 28 above, the word “purpose” is from the Greek word “prothesis” meaning, from “pro” which means “before”, and “thesis” which means “a place, thus a setting forth”. The word suggests a deliberate plan, a proposition, an advance plan, an intention, and a design. In Genesis, God reveals His intended purpose as He declared His heart in speaking forth His desire for a man. Thus, the spirit man, male and female, came forth from God’s deliberate plan, a spirit man from God’s own Spirit. Gen. 1:26-27. “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them”. For this spirit being, male and female, God begins to form a tabernacle, a dwelling place for His spirit man to dwell in. Thus, from the dust of the ground a visible flesh man comes into being. And into this dust of the earth body, God breaths the spirit man, wherein he becomes a visible expression with a soul, a flesh man with a mind, a will, emotions and desires. But remember, God had placed within this man a part of His own nature. With each called vessel, having written within, a desire to fulfill God’s pre-ordained plan. A desire that would surface as God in due season would draw forth that vessel for His purpose, in His time. Gen. 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”.
But God’s people of today, the visible church, is very much like the children of Israel. Their periods of serving God faithfully were short lived as following generations would turn their backs upon God to follow other god’s. From time to time God would call forth ministries, the judges and the prophets, to bring forth judgment, for the purpose of reconciliation and restoration. Such was the case in the time of Joel, the prophet. Joel prophesied at a time of great devastation to the entire land. An enormous plaque of locusts had stripped the countryside of all vegetation, destroyed the pastures of both the sheep and cattle, and even removed the bark from the fig trees. In a short time what was once a beautiful, lush land had become a place of desolation and destruction. All crops were lost and the seed crops for the next planting were destroyed, thus judgment had come. Joel 1:4, “That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten”. Herein are the four different stages of the locust. Palmerworm = the gnawer. Locust = the swarmer. Cankerworm = the devourer and the Caterpillar = the consumer. Thus, the four stages the enemy of God uses to destroy the spiritual life in the church, to replace it with a carnal religious system, a system which has no life giving qualities within it. Meanwhile the world looks upon this visible religious system as the church. The world also sees it as a church without power and authority in God, a system of religious doctrines and traditions without life.
But remember, God has a people, a remnant who were chosen in God before being birthed into this world. For the most part this remnant of people has been hidden away from the eyes of the world, separated unto God for such a time as this. A call comes forth, a memory is renewed, and an awakening takes place. The anointing of the Lord is released that shall stand this remnant upon their feet. Isa. 52:1-2, “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion”. This anointing shall cause a purifying, a cleansing that releases the true anointing and life of Christ within the vessel. Removing all mixture, which are the results of the uncircumcised and unclean which dwell in the midst of the church. But the time has come. An awakening call is going forth, a time to become that for which this remnant has been purposed, that which was set in a people before the foundation of the world.
Read Ezekiel 37:1-14 where we are shown the process of God’s purposed time of restoration. Because humanity has made a covenant with death living under the curse, it becomes most necessary for this same people to be restored. The house of Israel, which we as the body of Christ are spiritually, has known this process of restoration through the seasons of God. God has elected each season for bringing forth the divine restoring sit aside for that day. With each day bringing forth according to God’s predetermined purpose until we now see the appearance of a man, a many member man likened unto that man formed in Gen. 2:7, but having no life in him until God breathed forth His spirit, the spirit of life within him. Thus, a prophetic ministry with a prophetic word of life is now assembled to speak forth life from within this man. This man shall live. He shall come forth in the power of Christ resurrection to manifest the invisibleness of God into the visible. As the 14th verse declares, “And shall put My (God) spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it; saith the Lord”.
Being placed within your own land speaks to us of that place in God which was and is God’s original intent, placed within the realm of the garden, to walk with God in the spirit of the day, to be fruitful, to multiply, to replenish and subdue the earth, while having dominion. In verse 9 of Ezekiel 37 God reveals the four winds that come forth so that this man might live. These four winds speak to us of the Spirit of God bringing change to the four parts of the soul of man. The soul makes up man’s will, mind, emotions and desires. But here is a soul being changed from the influences of a fallen nature to receive the mind, will, emotions and desires of God only. Thus, this is the fulfilling of God’s covenant with this man. Heb. 10:16, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them”. The nature of God is being manifested through man. Could this not be that people in whom God knew before their birthing, before being formed in the belly, before coming forth from the womb, a people hidden away until such a time as this. Therefore, now being called, being justified and likewise being glorified we have a remnant of people, coming forth from Mt. Zion to reclaim all of God’s creation. The establishing of new heavens and a new earth because the first man is passing away. The man clothed in linen with a writer’s inkhorn by his side is now going forth. A mark, a seal is being placed upon their foreheads and a coming forth of a people without spot or wrinkle. Therefore, let it be O Lord according to your word.
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