Now or Deception?

I Peter 1:5 (NIV)  who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Without a doubt, the early apostles felt they were living in the last times.  But moved as they were by the Holy Spirit, their words are as viable for us as they felt they were for their day.  For over 80 years I have heard the teaching of the end as though it were possible at any hour.  This is a very healthy concept for we should always live with that expectation--it is called hope!  But in studying God's covenant ways, we see that certain expectations of God must be met.  The Church must return to, and go beyond, the early Church, for they did not fulfill all the prophecies given by the prophets under the Abrahamic covenant.  There remains a Rest for the people of God.  Jesus moved in this Rest.  He had that contact with the Father that we are yet to come into.  Jesus came as the exact representation of the Father.  This gives us the goal the Father has to make man in the image of God.  The same Spirit that lived in Jesus without measure, abides in us.  He allowed the Spirit full control over all His thoughts and actions.  We must set this as our goal so we can see the full measure of our doing the Father's will and the same oneness Jesus had.  We will have the full measure of this as we come into oneness with each other and with Jesus, through the oneness we have with the Holy Spirit. 

When we rely on our human nature (capabilities, experience, education or desires) to accomplish any thing regarding the fulfillment of God's expectation, we fall short.  We must learn to rely on, and communicate with, the Holy Spirit.  Learning His Voice is only the first step.  We must learn instant obedience and have the faith to move in that obedience.   Having oneness with one another has to be the work of the Holy Spirit in us.  So much yielding of our emotions, natural responses and control is required to achieve this.  All the polite response to our cultural demands cannot achieve oneness.  Our thoughts and emotional responses have to be surrendered to the Holy Spirit.  Our obedience is not made complete until our thoughts and imaginations are brought under His control!  Apostle Paul addresses this in the tenth chapter of Second Corinthians.  But he not only addresses our obedience of bringing every thought captive, but shows us the path to oneness with God in resisting the fortresses of Satan and all opposition to God.  So when Jesus prayed for our oneness with each other and with Him in the Father, that is a goal for the Church.  The emphasis on becoming like Jesus in our nature, our relationship with the Father, and our ministry on earth doing the Father's will, is an important step toward entering that Rest. 

I see the result of that Rest in Jesus' complete confidence in completing the work He was to do. 
Mark 4:37-40 (NLT) 37 But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water.  38 Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”  39 When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. 40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”  Jesus knew that nothing could hinder His accomplishing the Father's purpose for Him.

This is the salvation yet to be revealed, that we, the Church, move into the Rest of knowing we are vessels in His Hand to accomplish His will and nothing can prevent His Word from coming to fulfillment.  This is a Church without blemish or wrinkle, prepared as a Bride for her Bridegroom, clothed in the garment that God has prepared for her to wear!  A Church moving in the Resurrection anointing to be witnesses of His Resurrection!  We have to shake off the passive response that everything is as it was from the beginning.  (Second Peter 3:3-4)  We are moving upward and onward!  We are not just waiting for the end!  We are a part of the Day of the Lord.  Let us be alive with hope and faith to do the will of the Father!