5. So You Want to Be One of THEM?

Who are THEY?

And THEY overcome and exclude the accuser of their brethren, for their sake, through the blood of the Lamb, and through the word of their testimony; and they do not love their souls unto death.

The desire to find fault with Christians in our world today is overwhelming. By all human measurement, most are worthy of great correction.

To be one of THEM, to do this thing for the Father, is overwhelming in its costliness. We do not suppose that we can, but we do suppose that Jesus already has. And we are confident that He imparts all that He is to us.

Yet again, who are THEY? Are THEY the two witnesses or are THEY the thousands of firstfruits? Or are THEY both?

Remember that Word is alive, – dynamic, fluid, and personal, and that Spirit joins together as one. Whoever THEY are, THEY are just like the Lord Jesus, which means THEY receive all who belong to Jesus in just the same way that Jesus receives THEM.

Let me set out three aspects of Completion, or even laws, the law of election, the law of devotion, and the law of Christ. Later in this letter, we will reference the law of faith.

Here is the law of election. – And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And the one hearing, let him say, “Come!” And the one thirsting, let him come; the one desiring, let him receive the water of life freely (Revelation 22:17).

The law of election is simple. If you want to be one of THEM, you are. If you don’t want to be one of THEM, you are not. The question then becomes – What do you want?

The Calvinist definition of election teaches its victims to say, “I cannot know whether I am one of THEM or not.” This very statement betrays the depths of dishonesty in a person’s heart.

 Say what? You are okay with that? How is it that you are not on your face before the living God in tears – until you KNOW what He means by what He says?

One who says, “I cannot know,” truly does not want.

The law of devotion is an extension of the law of election. Here is the law of devotion. – And they served drinks in golden vessels, each vessel being different from the other, with royal wine in abundance, according to the generosity of the king. In accordance with the law, the drinking was not compulsory; for so the king had ordered all the officers of his household, that they should do according to each man’s pleasure (Esther 1:7-8).

Having boldness to approach everything inside of God to apprehend as our own (Hebrews 10:19-22), the question then is, being free to drink of God, what parts of God do you want? And does your apprehension of God ever cease? This much and no more?

Do you WANT to share Hheart with God?

Election says, whosoever will may freely drink. Devotion says, drink as much as you want, according to your pleasure.

The problem with God’s Heart is that it is all costliness. God always gives Himself for the sake of others.

Then, the law of Christ says this – This is My full completion, that you love one another in full reciprocity just exactly as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that he should set forth his soul for the sake of his friends. ~ By this we have known love, in that Jesus set forth His soul for us, for our sakes, AND WE ALSO are committed to setting forth our souls for our brothers and sisters.

Or we could say it this way. – I Desire that those whom You have given Me might be with Me where I am, inside of You, sharing My glory (from John 17 - paraphrased).

Jesus is always including others to be part of Himself, including you and me. Those who are His second witness will be busy doing the same. The two witnesses are always including those who draw near as part of themselves, part of their own hearts, and part of the ministry of Christ through them. They make no distinction between themselves and those whom they love; thus we can say, “the company of the second witness of Christ.”

THEY, then, does include both, the two witnesses, who have included precious dear ones with themselves, and the firstfruits who are many thousands. There is a specific distinction between the two and the many, however, which we have already stated. The Golden Oil comes THROUGH the two witnesses to flow UPON the firstfruits of Christ, who then light the Church on FIRE!

What does that mean? It means that everything that God has worked inside the lives of the two witnesses over decades then comes UPON the thousands of firstfruits that they might then place that same reality upon the millions who belong to Jesus in this hour.

PUT ON the Lord Jesus Christ!

But it does NOT mean any kind of superiority or rank or outward distinction.

Let me expand on these thoughts. – Who are THEY?

As I have written about the prophetic word of the Bible, I have wanted to show how what looks like the “big things” of the heavens are nothing more than the “little things” of the Gospel as they really are. The THRONE of heaven? – Jesus lives in my heart. The Great Scroll? – You are a letter of Christ, written with Spirit ink upon your human heart of flesh. I will give to My two witnesses? – You shall be witnesses of Me. – How shall God not, with Jesus freely give us all things.

The ”mighty things” of prophetic word cannot be anything other than the normal Christian life, that is, utter trust in Jesus. And God gives Jesus freely to you.

The law of devotion says this. – According to each man’s pleasure.

Union with Christ, knowing the Father, Gospel Word flowing through you, sharing Hheart with God, these things are all TRULY according to your own pleasure. Drink little or much, drink often or occasionally. God honors you and gives you all that you reciprocate with Him, according to your faith.

In Jesus’ parable of the talents, He made this observation concerning the servant who took what he had been given and hid it in the dirt. “You could have lent it out to bankers so that it had gathered interest.”
 
The gift is Christ Jesus, the dirt is our humanity, and the banker is God. You can tuck Jesus away somewhere deep inside yourself, “Christ in you,” and yet continue a life of trying, of performance and of pretending. This is how we once understood “the Christian life.”

You also could be like the other servants, giving God your all, approaching everything inside of God with all boldness, calling God your own, sharing Hheart with the Father in all costliness for the sake of others.

But the law of devotion, of union with Christ, gives each of us a third option. Maybe all costliness is overwhelming, maybe apprehending God for yourself is just too big and frightening. Maybe you are quite content with knowing God just a little bit. That is your honor. But in being content with little from God, still, you must place yourself, as you are, utterly into God. “Father, I belong to You.” In every instance, with every temptation of evil, with Trust. Put yourself always into “the banker,” and He will bring the increase that is just right for you.

Union with Christ, the law of devotion, does not contain weights of obligation. Drink of God according to your own pleasure, just place yourself utterly into God in all of your thinking.

I am finding a dominant theme showing itself in the flow of Gospel Word, even in the first books I have done, James and Thessalonians. ~ We CANNOT save ourselves; God alone saves us. ~ The two witnesses will not be living out from any other thought.

Now, Revelation 11 contains a description of outward things that “the two witnesses” do that look like the actions of Old Testament prophets. Yet no Old Testament prophets exist, for they have all become filled with Jesus and are also witnesses of Him. Yet John first heard them equated with Zechariah 4, the two olive trees and the golden oil, things that no one knows anything about.

I am satisfied for myself that the Golden Oil is the flow of Pure Gospel Word, as I have described it. It is also a clear path for your feet.

Does God wave His magic wand and give the full knowing of everything to two guys all at once? Or have they walked through decades of stumbling and failing, longing to know the Living God, hiding His word in their hearts, wrestling with God as Jacob wrestled with God concerning what He says? Are they two individuals so above what all foolish Christians are that no one could ever hope to emulate them? Or do they open to the least and the littlest a clear path forward into all the fulness of Christ?

And can anyone “choose to be” such a one?

May I suggest this, no human would ever choose the path those who are the anointed ones must walk through, in order to become those who will show every believer in Jesus the path of life for them. If God were to put such a course in front of me, I would refuse in blind fear, for I would fail at every point along the way. And so would you.

Now, I have had the thought that I am surely digging a hole for myself through this series on being a witness of Christ. The practical wisdom is that, in such a case, one should stop digging. Someone might think – Does Daniel imagine he is “one of the two witnesses?”

I would not be honest if I claimed that no, I never have. My problem is that I imagine all sorts of things. I mean, who wouldn’t want to wave a stick in the air, say, “Thus saith the Lord,” and watch God move in power? That’s not the deepest ambition, however; the deepest ambition, if we must be honest, is to be the one God puts His hand on and says, “Hey all, Daniel is the one who has it right, all the rest of you have it wrong.”

That is the whole topic of “God of the Cup” in The Covenant, wrestling in frustration with God. Here is my conclusion in that letter, truly out from decades of frustration.

God does what He wills with His own and He asks no man's pleasure.
God is in His holy temple, let all the earth be silent before Him.
Be silent before Him; tremble when He speaks. And do not think to give Him answer or to say, "Nay" or "Yea," to the Almighty.
We have one answer, only, to offer to God in whatever it is that He speaks. Out of a quiet and simple heart, we say, "Look at me, God, I belong to You. Let it be to me according to what You say." 

The truth is I am a very limited man. I am pleased for two or three people to show up for the Zoom meetings and for forty to at least open my letter. I sell very few books. I don’t like going away from my home. I like dealing with the world less and less. As I get older, the autistic limitations seem to press closer. The idea that I would be “somebody” is beyond absurd.

At the same time, such a claim, to be “somebody,” is abhorrent to me. Claims of religious self-exaltation have me running away as fast as I can.

But I have a problem, the same as you. I want to be with Jesus. If “to overcome” really does mean that Jesus is giving Himself without limit, making such a one to be just like Himself, then I am like Donkey in Shrek, jumping up and down, saying, “Pick me, pick me.”

I love God’s word. I have labored over my Bible with tears over many decades, longing to have it written upon my heart. To see the flow of Gospel Word as it is coming through me now with understanding, drawing to itself every verse in my Bible in one way or another, going out to you, inviting you to run with me into Jesus inside of all Joy, no “Golden Oil” from the throne could be greater than that to me.

And if just two come to listen to my boring talk, and if just twenty actually read my letters through each time, and if someone, somewhere walks more closely with the Lord Jesus as a result of reading one of my books, then I would be faithful, for how else could I stand in the presence of my Father.

I see what is most important to me, to know Father at home in my heart, and I see all the men and women of God, anointed mightily, blocking my way, telling me that I have no business going into such a place. All I can do is go way out around them and run into that place where I have no business being. And there I find a chair encased with thorns and covered with tears, and I sit upon that chair, that I might know a God who shares my life with me.

That is what I am and nothing more.

I say “nothing more,” but I am also endlessly curious. I really want to know what God means by what He says. And so I write about everything, including “the two witnesses,” not because I know anything, but because I want to know my Father by knowing Jesus Sent into me as every Word God speaks, and writing is the only way I know how to do that..

So, you and I are in a pickle. We are, as Paul said, not wise, not powerful, not noble, but rather foolish, weak, low-born, and despised. We are even those who are not. Yet we want to be with Jesus, and no one can keep us away.

And so, the only thing we can say to God is, “Look at me, oh God, for I belong to You. Let it be to me according to Your Word. – Every Word that You speak – as all that You mean it for me.”

God then sets us where He wants us, and He doesn’t ask us one way or the other.

And so I did not stop digging, yes, but at least I have stopped digging under my own feet. Rather, I have dug sideways, widening the hole, and inviting you to join me here, inside of Jesus with all boldness and confidence of faith. For you see, I know this absolutely, that I cannot know God unless I walk with a people who know God, that we might know Him together.

If the least and the littlest cannot be made by Jesus to be just like Himself, following a simple path of trust and surrender, then there is no salvation for anyone else.

I have a number of purposes as we go forward in this series. A very large purpose is to show the great contrast between the Apocalypse of Christ Jesus, faithful and True, and the apocalypse of human folly and emptiness as I am convinced it must unfold over the next few years. And the passage from Paul that I just referenced is one of the clearer passages that implies God’s purpose for the completion of the age of God’s patience.

Consider your calling brothers and sisters, that not many wise according to the flesh were called, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. But the foolish things of the world God has chosen, that He might shame the wise; and the weak things of the world God has chosen, that He might shame the strong, and the low-born of the world and those who are despised God has chosen, and that which is not, so that He might bring to nothing that which is existing, so that no flesh might boast inside the presence of God (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

There is a story told concerning the end of the age, that evil will become very GREAT, and that God, by even greater GREATNESS, will subdue the evil. This story is anti-Christ.

I am convinced that what God intends to do follows a very different scenario. God intends to show Christ Jesus, meek and lowly of heart, faithful and True, through believers in Jesus, regular folk, loving one another with pure hearts fervently. And God intends to show the utter emptiness and shame of all those seeking power over others in one way or another.

I see a moment coming when all creation will be STUNNED at the great display of contrast between that which is faithful and True and that which is nothing more than base and empty awfulness.

And He will not be using powerful Christian leaders in any part of that. Those whom God will use will be the full personification, in the flesh, of “NOT by inward might nor by outward strength, but by My Spirit, says the Lord” (Zechariah 4). They will be the most incapable people you have ever met, just like Jesus. And the actions of the Spirit out from them will astonish them just as much as anyone else. Yet when they speak “Grace, grace” upon the House of God, they will know that God always answers them.

So, do you want to be one of those who are true witnesses of Christ? If you would receive it, you already are. Here is where we place the Seventh Ruling Verse of the Bible, the law of faith. – You are part of Christ IF you are confident that you are part of Christ.

I want to ask you a series of questions. Your answer would be a simple “yes” or “no.” Yet as you give your answer, remember that Jesus is your life. He alone proves what you are; His answer is yours, if you want Him to be all that you are.

Do you place yourself into God, in all that you are, in every moment and circumstance, that He alone saves you, and that He might do with you as He pleases, regardless?

Do you justify God in all things and find Him right and True, regardless?

Is your confidence in the Salvation of God sufficient that you live turned around, seated upon Mercy, with no more thought for yourself, what you might gain, but all thought for the Father, that He might be glorified through you into your world?

Are you quick to say to your brother or sister, “I am wrong, please forgive me,” without shame, desiring their friendship above all?

Do you give every difficulty, pain, and setback, within or without, to the Father with thanksgiving, that you might be His travail inside of the Spirit – for the sake of others?

Do you live every moment knowing that God your Father shares all things with you, including your humanity, that you and God share life together?

When you ask God to fulfill His Word through you for others, are you confident that God answers you, and that His Spirit flows out from you and He together accomplishing all that you ask, in the Spirit’s own way, without your control and without fanfare towards you?

When you hear of God moving in power upon His people in one place or another, do you say to yourself, “I had a part in that, for God always answers me,” in rest and confidence?

Are you CONFIDENT that God always answers your Mercy for others?

If the Lord Jesus inside of you, now living as you, in all the faith of the Son of God, answers these questions, “Yes,” in quiet JOY, then yes, you are one of THEM, you are a member of the second witness of Christ.

Let me point you again to the most powerful words in the Bible, spoken out from a man, naked and confused, who has just failed at everything.

“You have answered Me” (Psalm 22:21).

But how do you learn such things? Who will teach you what they mean?

It is the Father who teaches you, who reveals to you what Christ Jesus is already inside of you. The second witness of Christ and the firstfruits out from them are taught of the Father.

I have at least the next three letters in this series named, and even partly written. They are 6. “Taught of the Father,” 7. “The End of the World,” and 8. “The Valley of Decision.”

Two others could be “A Beast Risen Up” and “Be Ye Separate.”

The thing is that things are moving very fast in the world behind the scenes. The essence of the beast is that it is a leopard, moving with great speed when it does show itself in the fulness of times. Everything that is happening outwardly, the stuff the occupies the heads that talk through the image everyone watches, is there only to divert the attention of all. What people are not looking at is the swift movement bringing in full technocratic surveillance and control over all. This, I think, is the primary purpose of the present president of the United States.

Yet all of that is just an antithesis to the real, mimicking with emptiness the opposing things, the Life things, happening in the arising of the Kingdom and the overthrowing of all human stupidity.

I can only assert with confidence that our prayers are playing their part in changing everything.