Our task is to bear witness of the glory and the terror that are coming. We shall be empowered to give to the obedient as well as to the disobedient a foretaste of the power of the age to come.

We have not been called as yet to set the creation free from corruption but to be witnesses. We shall not be empowered to set up the Kingdom in advance of the return of Christ. We saints still are ruled largely by our self-will and self-interests. The Kingdom will not be set up today by Christians exercising "faith." The Kingdom will come when the Lord returns to earth.

We can give people a taste of glory or of the terror to come. But, as in the case of the giving of the Holy Spirit, the taste is an "earnest," a pledge or guarantee against the day of redemption.

We are not being empowered to set up the Kingdom today. Rather we are to be preparing the way of the Lord. We are His witnesses.

In some instances Christians are entering a covenant with other Christians so that all the secrets of their hearts are laid bare before one another. This is to awaken the Lord's Bride before she pleases. This too will come to nothing just as efforts to set up the Kingdom today will come to nothing. The garden that is in each of us is for the Lord's use. The gate to that garden is to be opened only by the Lord. To open it to another is to cause a conspiracy against the Lord.

Then said the Lord unto me; This gate will be shut, it will not be opened, and no man will enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it will be shut. It is for the prince; the prince, he will sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he will enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and will go out by the way of the same. (Ezekiel 44:2,3)

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. (Revelation 5:5)

The scroll of the human heart is for the Lord alone to open.

We of the Church must come to understand that God has not called us to be saviors but to be witnesses. The present work of the Kingdom has been accomplished when the true witness of the Kingdom has been borne to every nation on the earth.

Because our motives are humanistic and not spiritual we go forth to save and deliver people. This is why we warp the Kingdom witness. God has not called us to save and deliver people except as the Holy Spirit leads. Rather, God has called us to be true and faithful witnesses of what God has done, is doing, and yet will do (Acts 1:8).

The desire to save and deliver people proceeds from our humanitarian motives. We must learn to perceive matters as God perceives them. We are on the Lord's side, and this often makes us an adversary of people. If we put ourselves on the side of the people we will not give a true witness. We will compromise the testimony.

Once the true, Spirit-filled witness has been given, people can choose to obey God or else defy God. If they choose to obey God they will be saved in the Day of Christ. But if they reject the Kingdom witness they will be judged severely in the Day of Christ (Mark 6:11).

To be continued.