“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
[10] To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
[11] According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Jordan says, “Notice that God wants the principalities and
powers in heavenly places to know what it is. They’re going to know about it by
watching the Church the Body of Christ.
“A lot of you talk about, ‘Well, we just can’t reach people.
We try to tell people (about the mystery in the dispensation of grace) and nobody pays any attention to it,’
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and all that stuff.
“Listen, there’s always somebody as ‘dumb’ as you are in your
community. You believed it, didn’t you?
“But you need to understand there’s another audience involved
in all this. The angels are with us right now around the rafters here and they
pay attention and they’re instructed by us.
“In your ministry, day in and day out, whether or not you think
anybody else is watching as you’re singing to the cows out there, the angels
observe what we’re doing.
“The elect angels watch us AND the fallen angels watch us.
Some time you don’t realize . . . you know, you rub shoulders with lost people
all the time and well, the fallen angels (Satan and his angels) and the elect
angels rub shoulders in the government, and the management and activities, of
heaven just like we do.
“All the separation hasn’t been done, the judgment hasn’t been
set and they haven’t all been consigned to the ‘lake of fire’ yet, just like
lost people haven’t, and so there’s things going on today and our ministry as members
of the Body of Christ has an impact even
into the heavenly places and it’s designed to do that.
*****
“It’s through our weakness that His strength is made manifest.
You’re not called upon to go around and strut your stuff and be big mega-Christians.
You’re called upon in your weakness. He put this ‘treasure in an earthen vessel
that the excellency of the power may be of God.’
“When you sense your limitations and the fact that you’re
really not worthy of anything to be looked at, you’re right where you need to
be, because now the issue isn’t you; it’s Him.
“That’s why Paul says in verse 7 of Ephesians 3, ‘Whereof I
was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by
the effectual working of his power.”
“Look at what Paul thought of himself in verse 8: ‘Unto me,
who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.’
“He’s saying, ‘As low as you think about yourself, I think of
myself lower than that.’ Where I come from they say, ‘He’s lower down than a
snake’s belly in a wagon rut.’ Paul said, ‘Put me at the bottom of the list.’
*****
“You understand, your calling isn’t for you to be great stuff.
You’re calling isn’t for you to go be successful in the eyes of the world. Your
calling is just to be who God made you in His Son.
“And as you do that, it doesn’t mean you don’t press toward
the mark or give yourself completely over to it. It means the issue is, as much
as you press toward the mark, you’re still not going to be the one who does it.
“If you live in the consciousness of, ‘It’s not I, it’s
Christ,’ you’re right where you need to be. The worthiness is never you. You
ought to spend eternity in hell. The worthiness is in Him! And it’s in who He’s
made you in His Son. So focus on that.
“That’s why Paul says, ‘I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me,
and gave himself for me.’
“It’s not my old 'me' that’s living. It’s Christ living in me.
It’s the new creature, the new man that He’s made me. It’s His life living out
through my body of flesh.
“Paul’s saying, ‘As I walk by faith I live by the faith of the
Son of God.’ He’s saying, ‘I live my life exactly the way Christ lived His life
in our human flesh and that is He lived it by complete, total dependence on the
will of His Father.’
“That issue of manifesting that, that’s what the Body of Christ
is all about. That’s the vehicle He’s producing today and that’s what it’s for.
It’s to manifest forth this manifold wisdom of God.”
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