The Day of New Beginnings
Gird Your Minds for Action
Hebrews 11 has been called the great chapter on faith. It is important however, to interpret this chapter in light of the current Word God is speaking. There are three key passages in this chapter that speak to where the Body of Christ is right now. The first two are:
13* All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
39* And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised,
40* because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
It used to bother me quite a bit when I read the above passages. “What a grievous thing to live your whole life and never receive fulfillment of the dreams and visions that God put into your heart,” I would say. “What assurance do I have that it won’t be required of me also to keep faith but never receive the fulfillment of the vision the Lord has put into my own heart? I am certainly no better than the prophets and patriarchs of whom these passages are written.”
I made such statements and felt that way because I didn’t understand the revelation hidden in this chapter. Why didn’t those who died in the faith receive the promises? It’s because they lived in a horizontal time realm. In a message titled, The Now Realm, Henry DuBose writes, “All ministry until John was predictive ministry. They prophesied of what was to come, what was to be. But Jesus is saying, ‘Now is the now realm.’ Now He is taking ministry out of the prophetic mode and bringing it into the now mode. John the Baptist and all the prophets before him were locked in to a predictive ministry, ‘This is what is going to be.’ But when it starts happening it is different from what you thought it would be. It is very difficult for Christians to change their way of thinking from the future to the present.”
1st Pet. 1:10-13:
10 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries,
11* seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.
12* It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things into which angels long to look.
13* ¶ Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
We are to prepare our minds for action! We are no longer limited to the predictive/time realm. As we break through that realm into Eternity where Christ dwells, we function. There is a grace that comes at the revelation of Jesus Christ that enables us to be the channels for God’s purposes being fulfilled.
Verse 11 says the prophets were seeking to know what person or time. It wasn’t a time, it was a Person!
2Co 1:20
For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.
In Christ all the promises are yes! They are right now. The faith of Heb. 11 is an appropriating faith that reaches through the veil of time into eternity. At the beginning of this message it was said there were three key passages. The third one is verse 6:
6* And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
The key to Heb. 11 is believing that “He Is.” We have access to God through the Spirit to know Him and receive from Him out of the Eternal realm. We have an access and provision that the early prophets and patriarchs did not have. Not only that, but those who died in faith are inheriting with us right now. They did not “miss” the promises at all. They are full partakers with us as we reach in to appropriate fulfillment. It remains that a people come forth to complete the provision of Christ. By complete I mean appropriating all that He has already provided.
All that God has ever planned and provided for us is set up like a row of dominoes waiting to be knocked over. What causes the dominoes to fall? What is it that brings the rapid fulfillment? The faith of Heb. 11 is the trigger!
Acts 3:
18* "But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.
19* "Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
20* and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,
21* whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.
We are living right now with a great responsibility resting upon us. That last verse in Heb. 11 spoke of those before us not being made perfect apart from us. The body of Christ must make this transition into the Eternal realm. I have been aware lately of how many groups and individuals have the same revelation. They speak of sonship, the divine nature, of Christ coming forth in a people. And they all put it into the future. “It’s coming,” they say. “It’s going to happen.” It will not happen until we appropriate it. Or, if the word “appropriate” is a stumbling block, it won’t happen until we exercise the faith of those who gained approval.