The true disciple, the conquering saint, has the "sentence of death" in himself.

It is written of the Lord's soldiers that "when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded" (Joel 2:8).

The reason the army of Christ is unconquerable is that the officers and soldiers are living dead men. The Word of God has slain them, separating soul from spirit, joints from marrow. They have been laid bare before God and the flames from the Divine altar have consumed the sacrifice of their lives.

Now they are alive forever in Christ. Every arrow directed against them turns back on the archer. Every pit concealed from them becomes the grave of the adversary. The dead saints are unconquerable!

The "dead" Apostle Paul is preaching today all over the world. Those who count themselves as dead in Christ testify eternally of the Person and Glory of God Almighty.

The believer who would save his life certainly will lose it. But every person who loses his life for Christ's sake and the Gospel's surely will save his life. The abundance of the fruit that will spring from the sown seed of his personality will fill the world to come.

Every person who would attempt to avoid the cross will be deceived by Satan. The work of restoration proceeds from the cross and only from the cross.

When the Christian is strong in himself, then he is weak. But when God brings the believer into weakness through means of various trials, afflictions, discouragements, despairs, fears, dreads, perplexities, obstacles, then the believer is given the strength of God. Christ's power is perfected as we are brought low—even to the point of death.

The heart of the Kingdom of God is the cross. The multitude of followers desired to make Jesus a king. If Jesus had accepted He could have used His power to enable the Jews to overcome the Roman Empire. Emperor Jesus could have established His throne in the palace at Rome. All the nations of the earth would have knelt in homage at His feet.

But God directed Jesus to the cross. God directed Jesus to defeat, to fear, to shame, to pain, to suffering, to bewilderment, to weakness, to a despised, humiliating, agonizing death. Such is the way of the cross. Suffering is part of the work of restoration along with surpassing joy and fullness of glory.

Today the Lord is giving gifts of ministry to the members of the Body of Christ. Glory is coming into the churches. The temptation will be to attempt to use the power of the ascended Christ in order to help us build the Kingdom of God according to the manner in which we think it should be built.

But as long as we are attempting to use the things of God in our own wisdom and strength we will not be able to flow in the resurrection Life of the Father. We may have many successes as we learn to use the power of the name of Jesus. We may heal the sick. There may be instant, dramatic, spectacular solutions to the problems people are having.

Then people will recognize that there is a spiritual realm that can be manipulated in order to accomplish human goals. The world will accept readily any technique (even the name of Jesus) that appears to enable people to live a "happier" life—happier in the sense that they become free to follow their own pleasures.

To be continued.