This is in First Corinthians 13. He says, "When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known."
And Paul wasn't putting anybody down with that statement. He says, when I was a child, thought like a child, I talked like a child. I did what I did. It's the same way with us. There's a picture God's giving. When we were wherever we were at, that's the way we thought. That's the way we did things. That's the way we interpreted the Word.
But as we grow up, we abandon things the way we thought they were when we were doing them. And there's no put down in that. He says, when I came a man, I put away childish things. That makes it sound like stupid stuff, but that's not what He's saying. As we grow in God, we grow past things that we thought were the cat's meow.
We put them away. They have to be let go of. It's a different day. Things are different. And if we hold on to that past, if we try to minister from that place, we'll never, ever, ever see the completion of what God brought us forth for.
“Love never fails, but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with.If there are tongues, they will cease. If there's knowledge, it'll be done away with. For we know in part, and prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with.” That's what we're moving into. Christ in me is the hope of glory, so I don't have to rely on all these other things. Again, He's bringing us out to bring us in.
Is your calling a ministry, or a prophetic community, or all those things that we identify or have identified as a ministry or a calling, but are those things. Just growing up, part of growing up in the Lord. And as you go on. Just like a natural child, you don't do the things that you used to do when you were two, now that you're 18.
You forget those things. You set aside those things, if you want to say that, and you go on in growing. And so I think this is pretty interesting today because do we set aside, in a sense, a ministry. I've been an evangelist all my life. Yeah, you're stuck. You're stuck, if that's the way you identify yourself, you follow what I'm saying.
Or we're a prophetic community. Okay, but is that the way you identify yourself as? And do you get stuck? And that, or you forget the things that are past and you're going on in your growth in the Lord.
And what you're saying, Ron, is exactly right on. The children of Israel, they were brought out in order to do something. And then they had to fool around instead of 11 days, it took them 40 years, but then they get to the land of milk and honey and then He has to take them out of that and then take it out of that. And it gets all the way up to the. End of the Old Testament, all right? We got 400 years. What are we doing now?
Take us out of all of that and bring us into Christ. There's always another level, and it's a constant process of bringing us up. into that realm of spirit where we can function the way God wants us to function, not the way we think we're going to function. And it's a growing thing.
If you're in a situation where you need to be an evangelist, God can use you there. If you need to be a preacher, He can use you there. But it doesn't mean that's what you are. If we believe He's in us, then He can use us in any way He wants.
We say, that moving up in levels of prophetic community, all these things, and they're real to us
personally. I'm going the eternal purpose of God is that we are called into a family together and in that family together, just by being who we are, is accomplishing something by disclosing this mystery, this purpose, that God is determined to have a people. He's determined and he will not relent.
Our response and our acknowledgment that we are together in our responding. We are a family. We know that. And we share with each other, and we reveal ourselves to each other because we know we're family, because we have this call. We're assembling together. A call comes out. Ekklesia means those that are called out to assemble. we're responding, but just in our response.
Just in us coming together and acknowledging that in itself is disclosing God's purpose is eternal purpose to all of the host of heaven, some which are loyal to Him, and some who are not. We cry out and we're getting this echo back to us of this eternal purpose. And that gives us hope; it gives us meaning; it gives us a sense of destiny, and all the words and all the phrases we've used throughout our lives, I think is a response to this eternal purpose that he has
of ruling heaven and earth with him. It's our response. It's our acknowledgment. It's our humility. It's our bowing down. It's our awe and our fear and our love. All those responses. They're doing something in proving that God is true, that God, His purpose is true, and what He's doing is revealing to the heavens and the earth that He's going to do. He's I Am.
He is accomplishing what he determined to accomplish from the very beginning. And we only see glimpses of this truth. Our fellow brothers, I think in Hebrews it talks, this host in heaven are our brothers. And Jesus Christ is our brother. And so he's accomplishing so much more. We can rest that He's doing it.
And even though just devastation and suffering and loss throughout our lives, each individually, this call, this love. This drawing, Him saying, just trust Me, take my hand and I'll walk you through this chaos because you are part of the answer, are my family.
