As soon as God has prepared the members of the royal priesthood to work with the Lord Jesus in establishing the Kingdom of God on the earth, the Lord Jesus will appear with His officers and men. They will be with Him at the beginning of the thousand-year Kingdom Age. They will be with Him also after the thousand years have been concluded, when He becomes Lord over the new heaven and new earth.

As we change from the "Moses" aspect of Christ to the "Joshua" role we discover that the Lord brings us into increasingly difficult circumstances. One purpose of these hard circumstances is to prepare us to ride with Him in the attack of Armageddon.

The rebellion against the Lord God originated in the heavenlies and from there it has spread to the earth. The rebellion is still in progress.

The legal hold of Satan over mankind was destroyed on the cross of Calvary but the crushing of the rebellion has not occurred as yet. Christ is waiting at the right hand of God in Heaven until the "mighty men" are prepared. As soon as the Lord's army has been strengthened and trained it will be time for the great Commander in Chief to make His appearance in the heavens and call up His immortals to Himself.

"A great people and a strong"!

A restorer of paths to dwell in. Those who choose to walk in righteousness will be a blessing to the nations of the earth.

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. (Isaiah 58:12)

The sixty-first chapter of the Book of Isaiah contains the design for filling the whole earth with the Glory of the Lord. It is the passage that Jesus of Nazareth read in the synagogue at the beginning of His ministry.

In this chapter we find that the purpose of the anointing of the Holy Spirit that abides on the Lord Jesus, and through Him on the members of His Body, is that each of God's saints, His elect, His true Israel, be lifted up from the ashes of spiritual bondage and made a tree of righteousness:

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. (Isaiah 61:3)

"Trees of righteousness."

Again we see the emphasis on the elect coming to maturity in righteousness. This is not referring to imputed (ascribed) righteousness but to maturity in actual, practical righteousness of personality and behavior. Christ does not minister until the elect become trees of imputed righteousness but until they become oaks of actual, discernible righteousness.

To be continued.