We have discussed the importance of obedience. Until we have been made obedient to God, totally obedient to God, being willing to abide in God's prisons, being willing to endure for many years the crucifying works of the Holy Spirit, we never will be given authority and power by the Lord. It is only those who have learned obedience through suffering who will rule.

Rigorous obedience to God must be completely developed in each saint.

In addition to obeying God, man must come into union with God. The importance of man's union with God through Christ cannot be overemphasized. Our union with God is the most holy area of our personality and life. Divine love is the motivation for union, for the marriage of the Lamb and His bride.

God is love, and for no other reason is bringing us into union with Himself. As we become one with God through Christ, all that God is, does, and possesses becomes ours. All we are belongs to God and all God Is belongs to us. This is not a formula for getting power from God, it is a genuine marriage.

Woe! woe! woe to those who attempt to bring wealth and honor to themselves by the promises that God has given to Christ and His Body! Woe! woe! woe to those who grasp the glory and blessings of God so that they may make prostitutes of themselves in order to get what they want in the world! They say they are "Jews," that they are God's anointed, but they are not. They are deceived and are deceiving others.

Woe! woe! woe to those who are seeking the things of Christ rather than Christ! They may receive the things they desire but God will send leanness into their souls. The wise believer will flee from those who are peddling the holy things of God. In the last days, Christ will separate from His holy Bride those who are attempting to use Him to glorify themselves.

Christ is the supreme Vine. He is the Incarnation of the God of Heaven.

We are branches growing out from that one true Vine. What we are and what we will become depend entirely on the Vine. We are absolutely nothing apart from the Vine. We are being made one with the Vine as He is One with the Father.

Unless we keep fixed in our mind that the Kingdom of God is God in Christ in the saints, that God is All in all, that Christ only and always is to be revealed and exalted, we fall into the trap of seeking power for ourselves.

If each saint would regard himself as the donkey that Christ rode into Jerusalem, clearly realizing that the adoration of the multitudes is directed toward the One who is riding on his back so to speak, he would have a clearer grasp of truth.

To be continued.