The Body of Christ, has not changed down through the centuries, always at her core she has been called to be a witness, an eye-witness to God’s glory. This is the essential heartbeat of Gods Remnant bride and always will be. In this role she has been used as a sanctuary, the sanctuary, the Holy of Holy’s. She is a tabernacle in the wilderness, she is Gods temple here on earth. At the same time she has always been despised by the religious spirit because she speaks truth to power. In these last days God says in His word through His prophet Zechariah that ” In that last day a fountain shall be opened up for the house of David,” and God Himself says again through the prophet that ( speaking of Christendom) “Two thirds in it shall be cut off and die. But one-third shall be left in it. I will bring the one-third through the fire, I will refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer them. I will say ” This is my people.” (Zec 13:8-9)
And so we see that a fountain shall be opened in that day for the house of David. Can you imagine how welcome a fountain would be in the midst of a dry and thirsty land, a land racked with drought and famine? I want us, as we consider the role of the remnant, the Body of Christ, in the last days, to look at two men of God and see what parallels we can draw. Let’s look at Noah and as we look let’s think about the context of the time in which he lived. It’s a time and a place of great wickedness and as we know, there would only be a tiny fraction saved. Noah is commissioned to build an ark over a long period of time. Now, we know that Noah faced ridicule and scorn. First of all what he was building have never been built before. Secondly, rain had never fallen from the sky and the notion that the whole earth would be covered by a flood was preposterous to all who lived then.
Every day Noah’s hammer could be heard, every day the ark took shape and was rising up. The continuous hammering would have been a great source of irritation to all around him. Noah would have to keep building despite the ridicule and the scorn and the anger because the rain was surely coming and he was being obedient to his calling. We too as Gods remnant people have to keep true to what the Lord has called us to. We are also in the ark business. There was one place of salvation when the rains of judgment began to fall, it was the ark. Can I put it to you brothers and sisters that the remnant church of God is God’s ark built by the hands of Jesus.
With the judgments beginning to fall, with the beginning of the birth pangs, it will become apparent that God has a people who have not bowed the knee to Baal. God is getting ready to reveal His ark by bringing judgment and allowing the rise of the anti-christ. This ark will be a witness to the glory of God and His way of escape. This ark will be used as a last chance for the un-redeemed of the world to be saved before final judgment. This ark will be revealed to the world by isolation and persecution, all of the world will see this ark and they will be without excuse when that day comes, for this ark is the glory of Christ here on the earth and He reveals Himself through what He has built.
Now lets consider Joseph and consider the context and the back-drop of his day. Here we have Joseph who has been called to save a remnant. “And God sent me before you to save a Remnant in the earth and to save your life by a great deliverance.” ( Gen 45:7) Before Joseph could do this he had to be scorned and ridiculed by his own. Because of dreams and visions that scorn turned to anger and hatred. He was then rejected and sold into slavery. He becomes a slave and then is wrongfully accused and ends up in prison, seeming forgotten and forsaken. Yet, God of course had never left him. This is part of the remnant path. Many will relate even as they read this. Yet God had not forsaken Joseph and even in prison Joseph moved in the supernatural and he found God’s favor. He was able to interpret dreams and visions and this would lead him to see that a great famine was coming upon the land. He was able to make provisions that would save “A Remnant in the earth.”
Can you see the pattern behind this brothers and sisters? Can you relate to the suffering and the rejection and the seeming forsakeness that Joseph surely felt as he languished in the prison, far from home and separated from everything he knew? The pattern is that when there is great judgment coming upon the land, God has a people or a person whom He will send ahead to enable whoever will, to escape that judgment. God has created such a vehicle in His remnant. And they too, just like Joseph, must be despised and rejected by the very one’s they have been sent to save. Of course, this is the divine pattern. We see our Lord Jesus walk down this path. He came from the glories of heaven and the right hand of the Father, emptying Himself and humbling Himself in order to walk amongst those who He had come to save, yet He became despised and reject, tortured and killed.
And now with the final judgment fast approaching, the ark which Jesus has been building for 2000 years is almost ready. God’s remnant church from every possible background and across all denominational lines ( artificial walls built by men and not by God) down through the last 2000 years have been scorned, ridiculed hated and despised and hunted down and killed and almost all of this was done by ” their own.” Their own being people who would profess God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him. Yet God in His mercy will reach out and continue to reach out through His Body while there is yet life in them. A witness until the very end. A faithful Body and a people without excuse.
The Body of Christ is everywhere. It is in every village, every town , every city and every nation on the earth. There are countless millions of Gods own children around the world. For the most part they are swallowed up in Christendom with its multiplicity of divisions and man made walls. Yet, the closer to Christ’s return the more and more difficulty the Body of Christ will find within the dwelling places and kingdoms of men. Could a saint really stay within the confines of any organisation that has corrupted itself with the world? This will be the ever increasing pressure that will be brought to bear on the saints in the coming days. Only the individual saint can answer this question for his her self. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit must be a lamp unto our feet. Too many men’s discernment comes from what other men have spoken. As the darkness increases our need for the light that shines forth from the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit who gives us not only revelation but inspiration only becomes greater and greater.
We have a God who will never leave us nor forsake us. We must trust Him with our whole hearts. No matter how scary things become, in fact because of what is to come, we must trust Him with our whole hearts and follow His lead even if we cannot see the bigger picture. The Word of God and His doctrines were written to be understood by even the simplest among us, in fact God delights in confounding the wise by the simple. The doctrines of men are generally complicated and confusing. Stay with the Word, lean upon the Holy Spirit for understanding and insight and revelation of Christ’s glory and do all of this with your whole heart and you will not go far wrong. He did not leave us as orphans, praise God, we have a Father in heaven whom we can call Abba and He will lead and guide His children through not only good times but through the darkest valleys and the narrowest portions of the path that leads back home.