The Pentecostal-Charismatic people, while they have revived the first-century manifestations of the Spirit, do not, in many instances, realize the witness of the Spirit of God is invalid apart from the creation of holiness and righteousness in the individual. There is more to the baptism with the Holy Spirit than speaking in tongues, regardless of how important the manifestation of tongues may be. The Holy Spirit requires holiness of personality and behavior and is ready to create holiness in the faithful saint.

The first two elements of overcoming the accuser of the brothers, the blood and the testimony, are operating to a greater or lesser degree in Christian and Charismatic people. But the third aspect, that of loving not our life to the point of death, is largely unknown to today's Christian believers.

We need to learn why the revived Samson did not destroy the Temple of Dagon by his life but by his death.

What, then, is required of us if we would enter the third platform of redemption, the area of death to self-will? We must press past the golden Lampstand, to employ a figure from the Tabernacle of the Congregation, and bow in death to self-will at the Altar of Incense, in front of the veil that symbolizes the death required of those who would enter the Presence of Christ.

We have been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus and have been anointed with the priestly anointing oil. The next step is to be filled with all the fullness of God. This can take place only as we are willing to obey God to the point of death.

God's response to the deception of the last days, and to the need for protection during the great tribulation, is to fill His saints with the fullness of God. He is preparing us now for such fullness. He is bringing us into fiery trials. He is putting some of us in a prison of one type or another. He is delaying the fulfillment of our most fervent desires. He is requiring of us that we take up our cross and follow Him, that we keep on doing day after day that which we dislike, that for which we have no heart. He is insisting that we go for long periods of time without understanding what is happening to us, and yet remain absolutely faithful to Him.

We have a choice. We can force our way out of God's prison and seek to be happy in our "religion." But in order to escape from the Divine prison we must break God's laws. If we are fortunate He will capture us again and give us a longer term.

What does such suffering accomplish? Suffering brings us to the place where we have to keep on saying, "Not my will but Yours be done." We must love not our life unto death, putting our treasures and our heart in Heaven, projecting the fulfillment of our hopes and desires beyond the grave. This is the true Christian viewpoint, although it is lacking in our day.

If we would rule with the Lord we first must suffer. There is no crown apart from the personal cross of the believer. The cross breaks down our self-will, self-love, self-centeredness so the throne of God and of the Lamb may be established forever in our personality.

To be continued.