Jul 02, 2007

Understanding the Law of Headship, based upon the concept of authority itself, is important in knowing our callings in the earth today.

It really starts with Adam, whose headship meant that his entire estate (creation) was affected by his sin. By contrast, the entire creation has also been affected by the righteousness of the Last Adam, Jesus Christ.

Likewise, we see the example of Israel, which was "chosen" and which became God's wife at Mount Sinai. The idea of being "chosen" (or "elect") involves having the authority to rule the earth. If Israel had fulfilled its responsibility and had lived according to the laws given by God, the whole world soon would have been converted and would have followed their example. Righteousness would have been brought into the earth, and through Israel, all things would have come under the feet of Christ.

But they failed to do so, because, as Moses said in Deut. 29:4,

"Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear."

Another way of putting it is that God did not give them a sufficient amount of the Holy Spirit to fulfill or perform this calling. They were living in a Passover Age and were not ready for Pentecost yet. So 1,500 years later, God sent the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 upon the Church (Judah). The Gospel of the Kingdom took a quantum leap forward, as shown in the book of Acts, and within three centuries the mighty Roman Empire fell and became a Christian Nation.

Such was the power of the Church under Pentecost. Collectively, the Church was crowned king at Pentecost, even as King Saul had been crowned king on Pentecost in 1 Sam. 12:17. The decrees of King Saul on this level were not the written or verbal decrees of bishops and archbishops, nor even of the later popes. The decrees of King Saul could only be known by spiritual discernment, for these were a matter of the heart.

The decree was not necessarily what men SAID, but was according to the heart and spiritual condition of the people collectively. The authority does not rest in the leaders of the people, but in the people themselves. Their leaders are only spokesmen who represent them and manifest their hearts. In the Old Testament, Israel wanted to follow idolatry, so the world followed their example. They did not have to send written decrees to the other nations commanding them to commit idolatry. Instead, the heart of the other nations simply resonated with the heart of Israel without realizing it.

So also was it in the Pentecostal Age. As long as the Church was persecuted, its heart was relatively pure. Thus, the Roman Empire had to become a Christian Empire at some point. But once the Church became favored, pagans flocked into its ranks and were welcomed by the Christians. Pagans were required only to submit to Church authority, and those authorities were less concerned about their faith in Christ Himself. The result of this was a paganized Church which demanded faith in the Church, rather than in Christ.

The eloquent and ambitious ones among these Church members soon rose to the top and became the new leadership, and soon Christianity was reduced to a mere religion. The collective heart of the Church turned from God to the lust for power and money in the name of God.

So this was the true heart-decree of King Saul, and the rest of the nations followed their example. Righteousness was not brought into the earth, even though Europe came to be dominated by so-called Christian religion. Righteousness was defined more in terms of one's submission to men than in one's submission to God.

This brings us to the present situation. We are now in a post-Pentecostal age and in the beginning stages of the Age of Tabernacles. King Saul "died" on May 30, 1993 after reigning 40 Jubilee cycles. David was crowned King and given limited authority for 7-1/2 years to Nov. 30, 2000. Then David (i.e., the overcomers) was given the full authority as God's chosen body to rule in the earth.

This simply means that in the years ahead, the earth will begin to resonate with the heart of the overcomers. The "decrees" of the overcomers will be spoken into the earth, and the world will do their bidding, thinking they are doing their own will. This is what it means to be chosen, at least on a collective basis. How each overcomer is led individually is another matter.

There are many Christians today who desire another outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Many want another "revival." Many even expect to see the greatest revival the world has ever seen. Many compare this to Pentecost in the book of Acts. Few people think there can be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that is actually greater than what was seen in Acts 2. Most have no vision of anything greater and thus have no concept of anything beyond Pentecost. This is because they have no understanding of the feast of Tabernacles.

But God is working now with chosen overcomers all over the world, most of which I have never met. I cannot tell their stories, because I do not know them. As a prospective overcomer, I can only bear witness to what I have seen and heard. My perspective is therefore limited, but yet I cannot keep silent on the little that I know in my heart.

In the 1980's, while I was part of the first Net of Prayer, one of the biggest obstacles we encountered was what we called "Church Decision." We found that we could win all the spiritual battles that God led us to fight, but in the end we always lost the war. We had to withdraw at some point, because we could go no further. Why? It always seemed to come down to a matter of Church Decision. That is, we could fight the battles that the Church should have been fighting, but in the end, the Church still held the crown, and we had to submit to the decisions of King Saul.

This was because Saul did not die until May 30, 1993. But I did not know about King Saul or the Pentecostal Age at the time, and so I felt the frustration along with my colleagues. It was very much like how David fought the Philistines while being harassed by King Saul. He was doing the work that Saul should have been doing, but in the end, David was not allowed to finish the work until he was crowned king over all Israel.

Only then did David have the spiritual authority to conquer the Philistines. God had restrained him by the laws of Time until he was crowned king over all Israel. He gave Saul an allotment of 40 years in which he had the authority to bring righteousness to Israel and the world, and David had no choice but to submit to those Time restraints.

So also it is in our time. Saul died in 1993, and then we entered into a transitional period of 7-1/2 years, during which time David (overcomers) were able to begin functioning in their authority. We called it the Jubilee Prayer Campaign. But only after Nov. 30, 2000 did we break out into a new era. God began to do a new thing, and He began to teach us in a more specific and intense manner how to exercise spiritual authority in the earth as "David."

Within two months, by the end of January 2001, the practical, hands-on training began, as we received our on-the-job training. God's way of teaching is very practical, for He trains by giving us real jobs to do. Then as we are led by the Spirit, we learn how He thinks and how He does things.

This turned out to be a 7-year course from 2000-2007. But rather than begin to explain this now, I will wait until the next article to share about this latest episode in the Success of the Kingdom.

This is the fourth part of a series titled "The Success of the Kingdom." To view all parts, click the link below.

The Success of the Kingdom