SONSHIP 8 AM I QUALIFIED?

AM I QUALIFIED?

If there is to be a people who will be SPECIALLY EQUIPPED to do a SPECIAL WORK WITH THE LORD as we move into a different segment of the Plan of the Ages, AM I QUALIFIED for a position on the team? NO!

The sad fact is that we are completely HELPLESS in equipping OURSELVES for membership in this SPECIAL ARMY which God will raise up in a DAY, in a MOMENT, in the TWINKLING OF AN EYE. Who would nail that last pound of our flesh nature to our cross? No, the BEST we can do is to fail.

Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! WHO SHALL DELIVER ME from the body of this death? (Another rendering of this is: "Who shall deliver me from this body of death?")

The Holy Ghost was causing Paul to refer to a custom in some areas of punishing a murderer. The dead body of his victim would be fastened to his own body, and he could not get free from the putrifying, stinking dead body. He was forced to carry it, until it killed his own body. A very remarkable picture of the condition of each of us today. However we try, we can not get free from a body that is saturated with the results of the disobedience of Adam in the Garden of Eden.

Our body (the nature of man) is "Sold under sin" and can not be changed by human efforts. We can give it fancy names, such as "disadvantaged", "challenged", etc., but it still "stinks" just the same.

Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not.

Well, since we can not qualify by our own efforts, WHY EVEN TRY? We have run into this question many times.

The answer is really very simple.

The CHOOSING of the members of this ARMY will be done BY GOD ALONE. We are totally helpless to change ourselves into a vessel which He can use.

But, we are given to understand that He WILL CHOOSE FROM AMONG THOSE WHO ARE STRIVING DILIGENTLY TO BECOME CANDIDATES FOR THAT CHOOSING. The best we can do is to become a CANDIDATE for the choosing.

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE OF OUR BODIES (NATURE AND WORKS) IS MOST CRITICAL HERE.

Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye THROUGH THE SPIRIT do mortify (control) the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

I Corinthians 9:27 But I keep under my body, and BRING [IT] INTO SUBJECTION: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I MYSELF SHOULD BE A CASTAWAY (Unfit for service).

Malachi 3:16-17 Then they that FEARED THE LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard [it], and A BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE WAS WRITTEN BEFORE HIM FOR THEM THAT FEARED THE LORD, AND THAT THOUGHT (GUIDED THEIR LIVES BY) UPON HIS NAME. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD OF HOSTS (THE LORD OF THE ARMY OF HEAVEN), in that day when I make up my jewels (MY CONQUERING ARMY, MY REAPERS); and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

When will this army be mustered? Only He knows.

Ephesians 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; [even] in him: