Partnership

For years I imagined that when Jesus returned, He would straighten every crooked thing and right every wrong with a wave of his hand. I imagined that I might get to see it, but I never imagined that I would be an important agent to help Jesus change the world. I never really tried to find out what the Bible said about how Jesus felt about His return...I never tried to learn what HIS heart was for this time. Instead, whenever I read Revelation, I would read it through the lens of how it affected me. What I have found out through simply reading the words and asking God to show me how He feels about these events, is that God is excited about partnership with His people through all the events described in the Book of Revelation.


It shouldn't surprise me that God desires partnership with me and anyone else who loves Him. This is why He made mankind. God always works on the earth through humans in agreement with Him. God made man to subdue and administer His kingdom on the earth in partnership with Him. God wants His sons and daughters in the family business. God has given man incredible dignity in the earth. The Bible says this is why He made man in Genesis. The Psalms clearly declare our domain:


Psalms 115:16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord ’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men.


When Adam and Eve rebelled against God's leadership, they handed their domain to satan. When God gives something, He really gives it. The earth was really given to mankind, and it was really theirs to hand over to satan. Satan offered it back to Jesus in exchange for His worship, but Jesus already had a plan to win it back, as a man! The Father sent the Son, who was God and was with God, to live in perfect fellowship with the Father as a man, just like Adam was supposed to.


The anointed man...the man Christ Jesus...did perfectly what Adam had failed at. Then the perfect Son of Man died an unjust death. The only perfect man died, so that the imperfect Adam and all of his household...God's family...might live. When Jesus died, He earned back the domain of the earth for man, as a man:


Daniel 7:13-14 “I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.


This is what God called "very good" in Genesis 1: Reign over Earth = God + man. God already has, and has always had, all the nations, dominion, glory, and a kingdom. The "God" part of the equation was never lost, the "man" part was lost when Adam rebelled. Daniel witnessed that domain over the earth, glory, and a kingdom were won back for mankind by Jesus as a man. This is why Jesus had to become a man: to win back the opportunity for everyone who desired to say "yes" in having the partnership with God restored. But to partner with Jesus in His business still requires our choice to say yes each day to what He desires. We must know what it is that He desires!


Jesus will be a man forever, the King of the kings of men who will extend God's kingdom over the earth as the Father always intended. Heaven, the dwelling place of God, WILL come with Jesus to earth at the 7th trumpet...guaranteed:


Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”


But Jesus desires His kingdom to come in partnership with all mankind who will say yes. Jesus is the "firstborn of many." The Bible is clear that Jesus has chosen a process. He is coming as a man, as a groom, to a Bride who has "made herself ready." Jesus is clear that He isn't going to wave His hand and do everything in a minute. We are supposed to be about His business. The church would like to keep drinking milk...focusing on the beginning...thinking about the Jesus of the manger...but Jesus really wants us to eat some solid food. Jesus wants us to get to know the Jesus of Armageddon, the man with robes dipped in blood from treading the wine press of the nations. He is the same man, but He has desires in His heart He has made known to us for a reason and a season. WE ARE IN THAT SEASON, but many want to stay in the old season!


Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.


Jesus has something big on His mind. He wants to return and take back everything that is His. This process is likened to a fire:


Luke 12:49-51 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.


The starting of the fire in Jesus' heart begins with us agreeing with Him about the process of His return...the Book of Revelation. Jesus desires for us to be fully engaged in this process, and not bystanders waiting to see if "it all works out." The Bride is supposed to be about making herself ready right now. A huge part of the Bride making herself ready is to be walking in unity with all the parts of the body doing their part in unity, and to be worshiping and praying in unity night and day. This should be the main focus of my life.


When we get serious about making ourselves ready, the kingdom will come from within us first, in agreement with Jesus coming physically from heaven. Jesus is going to get this, but how many will He find faithful? How many will He find in agreement with Him when He comes?


Luke 17:20-21 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Luke 18:7-8 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”