The emphasis of the present essay is that while all persons who have lived on the earth will be resurrected and stand before God, there will be a special advance resurrection of the royal priesthood. This will take place when the Lord Jesus returns to establish His Kingdom on the earth.

Unlike the general resurrection at the termination of the thousand-year Kingdom Age, the resurrection of the priesthood must be attained. It is attained as each day we lead an exchanged life. We give over our first, adamic nature to the death of the cross. We receive each day of the Life of Jesus Christ so our inward spiritual nature is transformed by the Divine Nature, enabling us to escape the corruption of the world spirit, a corruption caused by lust.

We must present our body a living sacrifice if we would prove God's will for our life. We must be transformed by the renewing of our mind so we do not live in the corruption of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

It is an uphill struggle all the way. We are swimming against the tide of pollution of the world. We are fighting the good fight of faith—resisting Satan and our flesh at every turn.

Many that are last in time shall be of first rank in the Kingdom of God. Right now—in our day—God is calling out warriors, heroes of faith who will turn away from the multitude of temptations offered by the cultures of the wealthy nations. The attractions are many. There is opportunity to keep ourselves occupied from dawn to dusk trying to keep up with the stream of technological and financial advancements. But all of this is dung compared with the glory of the royal priesthood.

The Lord Jesus is near us today, present as never before. We have but to open our heart and He is ready to enter and dine with us on His own body and blood. This is how we are married to the Lamb—by eating the Lamb. We are the Bride of the Lamb.

The path to glory can be rugged indeed, totally demanding on our personality and behavior. The stakes are as high as the heavens. There are many dangers and the ammunition is live. Kings are being prepared, and the curriculum befits the office for which preparation is being made. It is not for those who can easily be dissuaded, who always are ready to turn back after having put their hand to the plow.

The thrones of glory are ready to be occupied. The call is to whoever will choose to place the things of God as the first priority of life.

You are deciding your eternal destiny today. Your actions will produce a future too glorious to be comprehensible, or too agonizing to be bearable as you can see in the distance the brightness of Paradise and the children playing at the feet of the Lamb while you yourself sit with your memories in a cave in the outer darkness.

Make no mistake, these two destinies are reality, not like the unreality we live with every day in our American culture as we are persuaded by the images so skillfully drawn by the advertising experts of the large corporations or the spin-doctors of our government.

When the Lord returns we will be facing absolute unchangeable reality. What that reality will be for us we are deciding right now. (from The Path to Glory)