God is seeking saints who desire to come into union with Christ for Christ's sake, not spiritually ambitious people who are demanding power from God.

Each saint who would rule with Christ must understand clearly that God has only one Son, in this sense. There is only one Overcomer, one Conqueror, one Ruler of the nations. He is the Son—Christ the Lord.

We enter a proper relationship with God and people on the basis of becoming changed into the death of Christ and being raised into the newness of the Life of Christ.

It is not that through God's grace we become like Christ. Rather, it is that we become an integral part of Christ. We become bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh.

As Adam and Eve were one flesh, one bone, so Christ and the saint are one flesh, one bone.

We are one with the Father and the Son as Christ is One with the Father.

The Kingdom of God is God in Christ in the saints ruling the peoples of the earth. We are never to be separate from God when we are ruling people. We are one with God—an inseparable part of God Himself.

God will not give His glory to another person. It is as we become part of God through our oneness with Christ that we become eligible as coheirs, with Christ, of the nations and the farthest reaches of the earth.

We cannot become heirs of God through Christ until we become "married" to Christ. To be married to Christ is to become one with Him in total, complete spiritual union.

Our total, complete union with Christ is accomplished as Christ is formed in us and abides in us. This union is an actual transformation of our personality and substance through the working of the grace of Almighty God sent down from Heaven.

Antichrist is an imitation of Christ. It is Satan who wants to be like God (Isaiah 14:14). Trying to be like Christ easily can turn into Babylon—the attempt to construct a monument that reaches into the heaven.

It may be helpful for the beginning Christian to imitate Jesus and also to imitate mature Christians whom he knows. No doubt a baby learns to speak and walk by observing children and adults. But a baby is not an imitation human being. He is a human being. Imitation serves only for a season.

An ape might successfully imitate some human behaviors because his trainer would give him an extra banana. If the ape were able to master algebra he would be given all the bananas he desired. But he would remain an ape. An ape is an ape and a human being is a human being. What the human being can learn to do without much fanfare, such as to speak, would be for an ape an unbelievable accomplishment.

It is not remarkable when a human being speaks English or French fluently. But an ape who could speak English or French fluently would be an earthshaking prodigy—one of the wonders of the world.

Apes are apes and human beings are human beings and God is God. We might be able to imitate Christ to a limited extent and thereby gain some "bananas." But as Christ is formed in us we become godly in nature because God Himself is in us.

To be continued.