The call today is for total discipleship. It is for cross-carrying obedience to Christ. If we are halfhearted, attempting to keep one foot in the world and one foot in the Kingdom of God, we are miserable.

The Divine work of restoration proceeds only from the cross. Christ brought to us access to eternal life by bearing His cross and by being crucified on the cross. Every saint who would minister the things of Christ must become crucified with Christ. The Life of Christ, the power of His resurrection, proceeds only from the fellowship of His sufferings.

If Christ would live we must die. Although it is painful we cheerfully, without complaining, are to accept our cross. We are to persevere in our cross, in our weakness, in our prison, in our death. The world is crucified to us and we to the world. The cross of Christ is our only glory, our only boasting.

In the work of restoration there is a time for kings to issue decrees; there is a time for prophets to prophesy; there is a time for administrators to build and govern. We are not obligated to perform all the work at once. Let us allow the Lord God of Heaven to build in His own way, using those persons whom He chooses.

One of the important lessons the Body of Christ will learn in the last days is to allow people to be what they are. The prophet is not to despise the administrator. The administrator is not to despise the prophet. We are not to despise people because they are not like us. We are not to attempt to create people in our own image. When our brother put his stone in the wall we are not to attempt to remove it.

We are not to resist even the governments of the world unless what they command us to do is contrary to God's will. Then we are to be ready to die without hesitation for the faith. But many times God will use the secular governments to accomplish His own ends, and we can profit from what God does if we will cease fretting about what we see happening.

Let us accept what God is doing throughout the earth and perform what we personally are called to do, without attempting to make everyone like us; without resisting what God is doing. Let us flow with God without, however, becoming passive and careless. We always are to pray without ceasing so the true burden of the Lord may be performed in the earth.

The work of restoration is of God and it includes bringing to maturity the Body of Christ. All the peoples of the earth will benefit when God perfects His Church except those persons who refuse the lordship of Christ. They will be denied the Kingdom.

Let us keep on prophesying concerning what God will do. We never, never are to cease having faith that God will restore all that is of value, all that truly is desirable. All that God has promised, God shall do. The glory shall come to pass in God's time and in God's way. This applies to the entire creation and also to each believer personally.

To be continued.