God understood that glory given so freely could not be possessed and developed by those to whom it had been assigned. The early saints had not attained that glory by asking, seeking, knocking, and making it their own through faith, obedience, patience, courage, and persistence.

God had taken this lack of experience into consideration before He formed the earth. He knows all that He will accomplish in the Church and in each saint.

Beginning with the Protestant Reformers, God began to restore the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord, of personal redemption through Christ. Little by little, command upon command, rule upon rule, the precious truths and experiences have been restored to the Church.

The truths and experiences repossessed by the Church are as the older boy. They have been gained through the diligent pursuit of the Kingdom of God, whereas in the first century they had been given to people who had not grasped them by faithful perseverance against overwhelming opposition.

The truths and experiences of personal redemption now held by the saints will never be lost again. They will never be lost again because they have been gained through faith and patience, courage and perseverance. Now the younger boy can follow Dad up the hill because he has grown into that strength and maturity.

The truths of the born-again experience, of personal holiness, of the priesthood of the believer, and the possession by every believer of a gift of ministry, of tongues, prophecy, healing, miracles, will never be lost again. These aspects of the Christian redemption belong to the Church for as long as they are needed.

There is more knowledge and power to come.

It is because of the slow, patient, regaining and developing of the truth and power of the Kingdom of God that we find several times in the third chapter of Nehemiah: "who also laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof" (Nehemiah 3:3).

Do you see the patient, diligent restoration of spiritual strength in the beams, doors, locks, and bars?

So it is that down through history, from the time of the Reformers, the aspects of the Kingdom that had been lost for centuries have been restored. But now they have been established and secured to the Church forever by beams, by doors, by locks, by bars, as the pioneers of each generation have endured the reproach, the persecution, that must be borne by those who press forward into the areas of the Kingdom of God not possessed as yet by the majority of the believers.

The pioneers have been called by the Lord to establish these truths and experiences in their own lives, and in the lives of others, under conditions of personal sacrifice. Now the knowledge, wisdom and power that have been restored are in the possession of the Body of Christ forever.

To be continued.