We as believers in Christ are growing in ourselves, eagerly awaiting sonship, the redemption of our body, when we will enter into God’s kingdom and glory; the whole creation is anxiously watching for God’s kingdom to come. Amen!
Our regeneration was an instant moment – we repented, believed, and we were born again; it is the greatest miracle in the universe that a man can be born of God!
Our transfiguration will also be in an instant: in a twinkling of an eye, at the Lord’s return, we will be transfigured and our body will be glorified.
However, we are now in the lifelong process of transformation, a process that lasts a lifetime.
As believers in Christ, we are mysterious and hidden people; we have received the divine life into our spirit, and we are children of God.
If we were to tell those around us that we are sons of God, they may be quite surprised and unbelieving, for we look like them, we are not any different outwardly than them, and maybe their behaviour is even better than ours.
But the reality is in our spirit – in our spirit we have the divine life of God, being concealed in the shell of our soul and our body.
When the Lord returns, if we are transformed in our soul by the divine life saturating every part of our soul, we will be saturated with the divine life and glory even in our body!
The entire creation is eagerly awaiting and anxiously expecting the revelation of the sons of God.
Right now the sons of God, the genuine believers in Christ, are hidden and veiled; one day, however, the veil of the flesh will be removed because even our body will be saturated with the divine glory.
The more we enjoy the Lord every day, the more we turn to Him and live in spirit, the more the divine life spreads into our soul to saturate our mind, emotion, and will.
Our spirit is life, but our soul is still in darkness and under the power of Satan; we need to be renewed in our mind, subdued in our will, and balanced in our emotion by the spreading of the divine life from our spirit into every part of our soul.
As we cooperate with the Lord day by day to be transformed, we are in the process of being designated the sons of God; the consummation of the process of designation is the revelation of the sons of God.
May we cooperate with the Lord as we remain in this process; may we groan in ourselves to be released from the body of this death, and may we also enjoy the firstfruits of the Spirit!
We are Groaning in ourselves and Enjoying the Firstfruits of the Spirit, Eagerly awaiting Sonship!
The whole creation is groaning together, for it is subject to vanity due to the fall of man; the whole creation is subject to corruption and death because man, the head of creation, fell and received the sinful and poisonous element of Satan in him.
Because the creation is subject to vanity and corruption, it groans together, eagerly expecting the revelation of the sons of God, for when the sons of God are manifested and glorified, the creation will be released from the bondage of corruption and vanity.
Not only the creation but also us, as human beings, we groan in ourselves, eagerly awaiting the moment of being delivered from being subject to vanity and corruption and death.
The unbelievers may seem to have a good time, enjoying all kinds of entertainment and pleasures, but even they themselves have to admit that they are not happy.
Nothing in this world can really satisfy the deep longing in our heart, our search for happiness and reality.
The unbelievers are groaning, thirsty for more, but there’s nothing in this world under the sun that can satisfy them.
But we as believers in Christ, are groaning in ourselves, but we also enjoy the firstfruits of the Spirit.
The Spirit as the firstfruits is in us to be a foretaste of the full taste of God Himself in the next age.
We can enjoy God even in the midst of sufferings. yes, we groan in ourselves, but we also enjoy the firstfruits of the Spirit.
The Lord’s presence in us and with us is the Spirit as the firstfruits for our enjoyment.
We are different from the worldly people; they groan in themselves, for they are subject to vanity and corruption, but there’s no hope or real enjoyment for them.
We, however, experience groaning outwardly and rejoice inwardly, for we have the firstruits of the Spirit in us.
The divine Spirit with our spirit is a foretaste of God, which will lead us to the full taste of the enjoyment of God; this is one of the great items in the blessings of the sonship.
As we are groaning and enjoying the firstfruits of the Spirit, we are expecting sonship.
We are sons of God; we were born of God, we are children of God, but we need to grow unto maturity to be sons of God in full.
We are still expecting full sonship, our growth unto full maturity in life. The full sonship, which we are eagerly expecting, is the redemption of our body.
We have the sonship in our spirit through regeneration, and we may have sonship in our soul through transformation, but we don’t yet have sonship in our body through transfiguration.
On that day, when the Lord returns, we will enter into full sonship, the revelation of the sons of God; today we have a longing expectation to be brought into full sonship, so that our spirit, soul, and body would be saturated with the divine life and glory of God.
Both we, the children of God, and the whole creation is eagerly expecting and anxiously watching, awaiting the revelation of the sons of God.
We are sons of God today, but we are not yet revealed to be sons of God; we may look the same as others, but we have the sonship in our spirit and we are being transformed into our soul.
One day, we will be revealed as sons of God, and the whole creation will be released from the bondage of vanity and corruption.
Until that day, in view of that day, and for that day to be hastened, we need to grow in life and allow the Lord to spread into all the inward parts of our being so that we may be sons of God in full.
As we are groaning to be released, we enjoy the firstfruits of the Spirit, and we are eagerly expecting sonship, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:22-23)!
Thank You Lord Jesus for coming into our spirit to regenerate us and make us sons of God in spirit. Thank You for being in us as the firstfruits of the Spirit for us to enjoy and partake of! Hallelujah, today we can have a foretaste of the full taste of the enjoyment of God in the next age! Amen, Lord, even as we are groaning in ourselves, eagerly awaiting sonship, we enjoy the firstfruits of the Spirit! Oh Lord, we are eagerly expecting sonship, the redemption of our body! Sonize us in full. Make us sons of God in full, in our spirit, soul, and body! Hasten the day of the revelation of the sons of God!
All Creation is Eagerly Expecting for God’s Kingdom to Come to be Liberated and Brought into Freedom of the Glory of the sons of God
Although the entire creatin is presently held in a condition of vanity and corruption, God will bring in His kingdom to deal with the present condition (Rev. 11:15).
The coming kingdom will be a kingdom of the glory of God, a kingdom composed primarily of the revealed sons of God (Matt. 6:10, 13; Rom. 8:18).
God’s glory goes with His kingdom; God’s glory is expressed in the realm of His kingdom (Matt. 6:10, 13; Psa. 145:11-18).
When we are on the verge of being glorified, the kingdom is coming; everything depends on where we are in this process of being glorified.
When we see the kingdom coming, we will realize that the age is changing.
There will also be some outward indicators such as the events happening in the Middle East with Jerusalem, the temple, and a powerful leader rising up in Europe.
But we who are in the process of being transformed and glorified do not look at or are distracted by the outward signs and events but rather, we cooperate with the Lord to be made ready.
As believers in Christ, we were called by God to enter into His kingdom and glory (1 Thes. 2:12).
The kingdom of God is the sphere for us to worship God and enjoy God under the divine ruling with the view of entering into God’s glory (Matt. 6:13).
The kingdom of God is a realm, the realm for God to exercise His power so that He may express His glory (Rev. 5:10, 13).
The shining of the kingdom is for the glorification of the Father (Matt. 5:16).
We are saved for the kingdom of God, we are citizens of the kingdom of God, we are called to enter into the kingdom of God, and we want to be part of the manifestation of the kingdom of God! Amen!
This is why we pray that the kingdom would come and His will would be done.
The kingdom of God is His manifestation in His glory with His authority for His divine administration; hence, for us to enter into the kingdom is for us to enter into the expressed glory of God (Heb. 2:10; Matt. 5:20; 1 Thes. 2:12; 2 Thes. 1:10; Rev. 21:9-11; 22:1, 5).
To enter into the kingdom of God and to enter into the expressed glory of God take place as one thing simultaneously.
For us to fully enter into the kingdom of God is for us to be transfigured, to be transformed in our body with the divine life.
The anxious watching of the creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19).
We are sons of God, but we are veiled, just like the Lord when He was on earth.
When the Lord was on earth, the divine life with its glory was concealed within the shell of His humanity, and one day on the mountain He was unveiled and revealed (see Matt. 17:1-2).
It is the same with us: we have the divine life and glory in us, and this life grows in us and saturates us until one day it will shine forth from us and saturate even our mortal body! Amen!
The creation is eagerly expecting and anxiously watching for God’s kingdom to come; at the time of the revelation of the kingdom, the whole creation will be liberated! Amen!
At the time of the revelation of the sons of God, the whole creation will be freed, liberated, from the condition of vanity and corruption, it is being held in.
The creation is eagerly expecting and anxiously watching for the kingdom to come; the whole creation groans together in pain together until now.
The universe is groaning and travailing in birth awaiting the revelation of the sons of God; we also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, also groan as we expect sonship, the redemption of our body.
Our journey starts with vanity of vanities, then we touch and receive and experience Christ who is the reality, and He as the life-giving Spirit enters into us to saturate us with the same reality that is in Jesus.
This stimulates the process of the growth in life until the veiled, concealed sons of God are matured, and then the time will come to lift the veil, to reveal to the whole universe these sons of God, the glorified ones!
There will be the revelation of the sons of God, the glorification of the children of God, as a declaration that vanity has been conquered, swallowed up!
Those who were once under vanity, who passed through the process of becoming sons of God, are in the kingdom of God with His glory!
And they are shining like the sun in the kingdom of their Father! Hallelujah!
We begin with vanity and we end up with those constituted with reality shining like the sun in the kingdom of our Father! This is our future. Praise the Lord!
Lord Jesus, we believe that You will bring in Your kingdom to deal with the present situation and bring the whole creation into the freedom of the sons of God! Thank You for calling us to enter into Your kingdom and glory. May Your kingdom increase in us. Bring us fully out of the bondage of corruption and into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God! Hasten the day of the revelation of the sons of God, the revelation of the kingdom, so that the whole creation would be liberated! Do it soon, Lord, so that the manifested sons of God would be delivered from vanity and shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father! Amen, Lord, full save us from vanity, bring us into reality, and take us all the way to glory to be shining like the sun in the kingdom of our Father!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msgs. 11-12 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 12, Vanity of Vanities, the Reality in Jesus, and the Revelation of the Sons of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– For the glorious revelation / Of the sons of God to come, / All the creatures wait, expecting, / That they all may free become. / All creation groans together, / Subject now to vanity, / Looking for their full deliv’rance / From corruption’s slavery. (Hymns #970)
– Christ is the hope of glory, my very life is He, / He has regenerated and saturated me; / He comes to change my body by His subduing might / Like to His glorious body in glory bright! (Hymns #949)
– This Spirit shall transform our natural life, / Save us from self, build us in one new man, / Till we’re conformed to be like Jesus Christ, / Thus finishing our God’s eternal plan. / Life is our God and life is Christ our Lord. / Life is the Spirit. Life’s the only way— / Till we’re transfigured and redeemed to God. / We’re waiting, looking forward to that day! (Hymns #1195)
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