THE ORCHARD IS IN THE ALMOND (NUMBERS 17:8) (The rod of authority not raised alone)

  “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”   (Romans 8)

  “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”  (1 Cor 15)

  “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.”  (Gen 2)

    It is one thing to reject the very existence of a process, but to reject the existence of a process one has been through, is not reason. Without debate or dispute, every one among us began as a conception, as the union of two bits of genetic information. At the moment of conception, not a one of us had any awareness of it. Not one of us were aware of our surroundings. Not one of us knew that we had parents, and that we were destined to grow into them, in all things, according to the pattern and nature of the substance delivered and combined, into a single celled entity called a zygote, and that zygote was no longer two things…not a sperm and an egg, but a zygote.

   One viable cell with a set of instructions and an environment conducive to carrying them out. Jesus said to them who labor and are heavy laden, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. The word “yoke” is from the Greek “Zygotos”, which means “yoked”. By the Spirit, we are bound to Christ, yoked together by the Teacher, the Spirit of God. The heavy burden and labor associated with religious bondage is washed away and replaced with an easy, very bearable Teacher, who teaches from within, like no other. Just as a Zygote is one cell, and no longer two gamete cells (a sperm and an egg), so it is written, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. (1 Cor 6)

  Once these things came into being, a clock started to tick. Everything progressed and developed toward one end, one moment of trauma and tribulation, when all ties with the mother had to be broken. The womb could no longer contain what had grown in it. What had formed to that point had to leave. Lungs filled with water , had to learn to breath air. And straight was the gate, narrow the way, through which the frightened entity had to pass…a way and a gate narrower than it’s own body, even narrower that it’s own skull.

  In the book of Colossians, chapter three, to be begotten to God in Christ, is to be risen with Him, as the formerly uncombined gamete cells, once becoming a zygote, are “risen”. For they were delivered from a short lived and precarious time in which, if the two had not found one another and become one, no possibility of a future existed for either. They were raised together, seated together, translated together, from certain and imminent expiration, to  a glorious hope of attaining the fullness of their new found potential as one, a potential according to the pattern written in them, faithfully received from the contributing parents. Many things in the scriptures bear these things out for you, how that you are not merely waiting to die and go somewhere, but rather, you are being changed from withing, being translated out of that which passes away, into that which abides eternal. Consider how that Jesus said that He and the Father will make their abode with that individual who loves him and keeps, retains, ensconced within their very being, his living words. Consider that it says to everyone that receives him, and believes upon his name, he gives power to become sons of God. Jesus once was told by a disciple, that they did not know where he was going, much less the way to where he was going. The same could be said of the zygote, and also the answer Jesus gave. “The way you know”. Who can explain to a zygote, what it is about to experience? Yet, comprehend it or not, the “way” is already in it’s possession, and is set in motion.

  Now, all of these things, every one of us has already experienced. And we have experienced them, whether we acknowledge it or not. If you are reading this, a miracle beyond description has already occurred, in that a microscopic spec of  nondescript organic blueprint, constructed in a body, from substances “raised” out of the very decaying dust of the earth, in the form of foods, is now thinking and pondering things in the next great process ahead. And the possibility of a future in it, exists in you, because you believe Christ, and so have a common future, as surely as the gamete cells did, when they were “yoked” and became a zygote. He is the resurrection. Without Him, there is no future. So, bear in mind, that faith in Him HAS raised you , and you now dwell in a unique place. Therefore, consider the many true sayings of the scripture, that speak of the present reality, not putting all things off to the future:

 Col 2:13  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, HATH he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;…

Col 1:13   Who HATH delivered us from the power of darkness, and HATH translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:…

 Eph 5:8   For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

1Jo 3:2    Beloved, NOW are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see  him as he is.
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   Now, the subject of all this, is to perhaps provoke a little thinking about the Lord’s coming. As a bridge from the previous natural examples of fantastic processes we have all undeniably been through, call to mind, that from gamete, to zygote, to embryo, to fetus, to infant, to toddler, to child, to young person, to adult, to parent…all are a process. The gametes did not die and go to adult. They grew into an adult in all aspects.

  Jesus is the Master. He is the author of faith, and the finisher of it. And every one of us lives by every word that proceeds out of His mouth. Seemingly simple sayings, heard with the “ear”, or hearing of faith, sunken down deep, and finding depth of root in the heart, have the power to change you forever. I do not refer to behavior modification. For those who seek such things, a place conformable to your flesh, is on every street corner, open for business every Sunday morning. “Christian” book stores are open for business every day of the week. I refer to absolute, complete, total change, where water is transformed into the new wine of the kingdom, not where the old wine skin undergoes a little makeover, also described in the scripture, as having a form of godliness, but void of the power of it. I refer to that which, according to the truth of the scriptures, is conceived in righteousness and true holiness:

“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4)

  The NEW MAN is created. And needs not but to grow into the likeness of who he is, penned by the hand of Him who created him, after His own likeness. The new man needs no behavior modification, but he does have needs. He needs to be nourished, and he needs to know how to keep himself  from the corruption; political, social and religious,  that is in the world. The old man, no matter how well behaved, can not inherit the kingdom of God. There are many religious environs to choose from. Legions of mentors and well indoctrinated teachers, pastors, elders, priests, &etc., stand ready to take you under their wings. They can advise you about every remote aspect of your old man and nature. But there is one thing that not one among them can do. They can not enter into your innermost being, make their abode with you, sup with you and reveal Christ in you. All they can do, in truth, is distract you from this necessity. Christ in you is your hope of glory. Your ONLY hope of glory. And them that have found Him, abide with Him, and have been changed with Him, will He also bring with Him, and reveal together with Him, at His appearing. The coming of the Lord, his unveiling and revealing, is not a solitary event:

 
                                                                         PSALM 149
   “Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD.”

                                                                        DEUTERONOMY 33
     “And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.”

                                                                        JUDE
    “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

    A “saint” is a sanctuary. The word “Saint” and “sanctified” are essentially the same, and mean “set apart”. When God spoke to Moses concerning the building of  a tabernacle, He said:

    “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood, Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.”

  What is a saint? where is a saint? who shall be revealed with the Lord at His appearing? Find the habitation of God by the Spirit, and you have your answer. On what day and in what hour will all this be revealed? No man knows the day or the hour, which determination the Father has in His own power. It is not a day ticked off ahead of time on a calender. It is a decision ready to be made. But I do know that all the expectation of the creation itself, awaits the manifestation, the “taking the covering off” of the sons of God. And I do know there  will be observers, spectators to this, and there will be participants with the Lord in this. A saint will be a participant.  The whole family , both in heaven and in earth, which is in Christ Jesus, will be unveiled together. One will not precede, or “pre-vent” the other, but the body written in every seed will be revealed:

                                                                       1 CORINTHIANS 15
   “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

  So, if ye then be risen with Christ…if you are quickened with Him, and have passed from death to life, then abide in Him,  learn of Him, and grow in Him. The age that followed the flood of Noah’s day, depended completely upon the integrity of the ark that Noah and his sons built. Opening windows, walking around on the deck, during the forty days and nights of the trial by water would have been as disastrous as had Jesus , during His forty days and nights of trial, given in to the siren’s song of the temple, and civil power…the temptation to follow in the footsteps of Lot, rather than in the faith of Abraham. So, the ages to come, depend upon the integrity of Christ, and them that are in and with Him. He came to lead many sons unto glory, and He and these children the Father has given Him, are all the expectation of the creation.

   The lesson of Colossians 3…”STAY IN THE ARK”. Just as in Genesis 2, things were formed before they were in the earth, so in Christ:

                      
                                                                              Psa 139:16
    “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”

                                                                             COLOSSIANS 3
           “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

                                        The word “hid” is “kryptos” …”ENCRYPTED”
                       If you are encrypted with Him in God, you will be revealed with Him

                             
          THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS WITHIN YOU…THE ORCHARD IS IN THE ALMOND