Always Abounding

 Originated on June 29, 1975

Desert Ministry at Repentance Point near Zzyyxx.

This word was first given to a body of believers who were very dedicated to the Lord.

They were taught the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Something that some are very confused about as they try to live their lives in accordance to "all the rules."

Which is a type of burdensome bondage.

There is a lot here to think about.

 We will learn that it is your dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ that truly matters.

***
 
There is nothing in us that holds back from the Word, but it frightens us at times when we hear it, for we know there cannot be a performance of it unless it be by the Lord's endowment of grace.

We have learned, day by day and moment by moment, to appropriate God's fullness for every situation: not just for the overcoming of circumstances, but for the miracle of becoming.

We want to be the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom we shine as lights in the world ( Philippians 2:15).

We want to the Word to have creative flow and free course in our lives, and an anointing upon our hearts to receive: a miracle of the Word creating within us all that God reveals.


  I Corinthians 15 is a chapter of resurrection.

I love this chapter, and if ever I were tempted to go way out in the wild blue yonder it would be in that chapter.

While it is talking about resurrection bodies and the various glories to come, my imagination, with just a nudge from the Holy Spirit, would imagine great and wonderful things.

The chapter ends by telling about the marvelous resurrection that shall occur when mortality is swallowed up by immortality.


  "O Death, where is your victory?

O Death, where is your sting?"
I Corinthians 15:55.

Also in Hosea 13:13 we read,

The pains of childbirth come upon him; he is not a wise son, for it is not the time that he should delay at the opening of the womb ( the margin reads, "it is the time that he should not tarry at the breaking forth of children." ).

I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death.

O Death, where are your thorns?

O Sheol, where is your sting?

It is out of this vague passage in Hosea, which is principally dedicated to the judgments which were to fall upon Ephraim, that the Holy Spirit speaks of a time of the resurrection in general, originally it was related to the sons of God breaking forth into resurrection life.


  "O death, where is your victory?

O Death, where is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
I Corinthians 15:55-58.

We are particularly concerned with the last verse because something wonderful is revealed in this passage.

The Lord is speaking more to us than just a little word of encouragement:

"Everybody cheer up now, be steadfast.

Get with it and keep a bounding in the work of the Lord, because it is not in vain."

He is saying much more than that.

He is pointing out a process and a procedure of the victory that has been outlined in all of I Corinthians 15.

We need the Word opened up by the Holy Spirit, so we can find the path to follow.


 A number of years ago there were teachings concerning entering into resurrection life.

Much of it was grouped into a doctrine called the manifestation of the sons of God, or the restitution of all things.

In that teaching of the manifestation of the sons of God, none of the steps were shown, but a great mountain peak was envisioned in the future:

"This is what will happen; God is going to have many people who will be manifested as sons."

The teaching indicated they would simply break into it, although the steps were not clearly outlined.


  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but the Scripture also says God gives us the victory over death and over sin.

If death has a sting to it, if there is any oppression or bondage, it comes through sin.

The power of sin is the Law, and when the Law is broken, death continues to be that which must be overcome.


  I Corinthians 15:25-26 speaks about being under the Lordship of Jesus Christ:

For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.

The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

That Lordship of Jesus Christ does not begin and end only by teaching about the local church, your life, and your family.

It is not simply "Let's get things into divine order, with wives submissive to their husbands, children obedient and submissive to their parents, and the church under the elders.

Now we have it; now we have the victory."

No.

He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.

Anything within your life, any powers of sin, any violation of divine law allows death to still have a hold, and Christ reigns until He puts death under.


  Some have preached a doctrine of longevity:

If you believe God and you belong to the right church, you will keep living for hundreds of years.

But we are not as interested in longevity as we are in breaking into resurrection life.

We want the victory that the Lord has.

To live on and on until finally your hair falls out, your teeth fall out, and you are hobbling around is not really very exciting.

The exciting thing is resurrection life and how God's people are going to be breaking into it.


  There must be that first fruit.

Some people will break into it.

There probably will be successive groups of it.

According to Isaiah 66:7-9, He will bring forth some, and He will continue to bring forth.

He will continue to bring forth, He will not close up the womb, but others will come to birth too.

There is a time when it will hit the church as a whole, but we are going to enter into some of the life now.


  I think the Lord has indicated to us, more than to any other people in the history of the Church, the great messages on repentance.

We are not a people who are legalistic, but that does not mean God does not teach us repentance.

The one fact that has opened the door for a deep level of repentance is that we are not legalistic.

We do not excuse ourselves by saying, "Thank God I keep all the rules."


  I asked one young person from another church what he believed in, and he said, "We believe that we

don't go to shows; we don't go to dances or concerts; we don't drink; we don't smoke."

If he did not do any of these things, then he was a fine upstanding member of that particular church, in his opinion, because those were the values they emphasized.

Not doing those things made everything alright.

This is the treacherousness of legalism.

It equates keeping all the rules with righteousness, but that is not righteousness at all.

The legalistic. religious nature is flattered "I am acceptable."

We call this "having a religious spirit."

But the flesh can produce that appearance of righteousness.

Righteousness goes beyond a few regulations under which a person can chafe or submit.

It comes down to what God really wants, and it is laid out positively in this walk with God, over and over again.

God says, "This is what I want: the divine nature; the walk with Me; the submission to Me as Lord."

When we grasp this in our hearts, we begin to forget about legalism ever being acceptable.

Because we have to measure up to something tremendous in the righteousness of God, repentance begins.


  There is much repentance in this walk with God, yet we are free of the legalism.

We also bypass being religious.

We have a wonderful time worshiping, being free, and having fun kidding each other a little.

Yet when the Lord searches our hearts, we are not necessarily thrown into a place of discouragement as He point out what He wants of us, because we realize it is only the miracle of God's creative work in us that will be acceptable in the Lord.

The Lord is not going to look down on what we produce and say, "I accept that."

He looks down and sees what He has produced, and the He says, "I accept that.

I accept that righteousness because it is real righteousness.

That is My righteousness imputed to them.

Therefore, I accept it."

This is what I Corinthians 15:57 speaks of.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The gospels show how the Lord laid upon Himself the iniquity of us all and how He stands in our place.

The war is won by the Lord, and He gives us the victory.


  The main point of this message comes from I Corinthians 15:58.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

These three phrases have to be reviewed, because they seem almost contradictory.

How can you be immovable and yet always abounding in the work of the Lord?

How can you be immovable, yet moving ahead?

The first point is to be steadfast; this means a dedication.

When someone loses out in this walk with God, it always comes down to a matter of dedication.

If anyone loses out it is because he has not entered into that dedication of his life to the Lord.

He has still retained the right to himself.

The Lord has dealt with us greatly on that.

We would like to feel in our hearts that our dedication to the Lord is perfect, that nothing is lacking.

But we can never feel it is perfect, that nothing is lacking.

But we can feel it is perfect while we still find little twinges of the old flesh rising up, such as a desire to plan our lives, to direct and live them in some aspects and phrases apart from seeking the Lord and what He wants.

Read about the life of Paul in the New Testament.

There does not seem to be one instance where he was not looking for his life to glorify the Lord.

He was determined that Christ should be glorified and magnified, whether by life or by death
 ( Philippians 1:20.)

Christ was going to be magnified in Paul's body.

This was a very deep conviction with Paul.

To die was not the issue.

The issue was to live absolutely the life that God wanted him to live, to live it in Christ Jesus.


  We still like to make our plans.

That is what makes it so difficult when people are young and say, "We want counseling on marriage.

Do you think it would be the will of the Lord for us to marry each other?"

That question is oversimplified, because the problem is far beyond that.

Many people think that if, in the divine plan, a girl and a boy are to be married, then automatically the will of God will be done; they will get married and be in the will of God.

All it really means is that the choice they made is Gods choice.

They found God's choice.

That is why we often put these young people in a period of discipline.

We have to determine if they really want to live for God, what kind of marriage they want, and what kind of relationship they want.

We may see them get married- we believe it is the will of the Lord- yet afterwards it is, "Good-bye Jesus, good-bye church, good-bye responsibility," because they have each other now.

They have determined to live on a very low plane.

Consequently, a couple of years go by and their marriage is in much difficulty.

They come back and say, "We don't understand.

We are ready to split up, yet we were marred in the will of God.


  A right choice of mate does not put you in the perfect will of God.

The will of God is a state of being.

It is an area of dedication that is beyond making right choices.

So many times people want ministry to narrow it all down until they have made a right choice.

They may ask if it is the will of God to sell a house, buy a car, go to school, etc.

They are reducing the will of God down to certain things.

A ministry could say it is the will of God to sell the house, but then the person might take the money and do something stupid with it.

Would that be the will of God?

The will of God enters into a stewardship of the house and the money.

It is a matter of dedication, and in that dedication we have to be steadfast.

Be ye steadfast.

It is a steadfast determination within you to give everything to the Lord.


  You need to declare, "O Lord, I belong to You.

Possess me completely."

When you get off the throne and let Jesus on the throne of your heart completely, then you have made it.

That is the will of God.

The next problem is to start yielding to it.

You have dealt with the basic problem once He is on the throne.

There may be some little skirmishes, little battles here and there, but they are secondary; that is just mop up action.

The main thing is that He is ruling and He will keep on ruling.


  He must reign until all His enemies are put under His feet.

When He has all things in subjection under His feet then He turns it over to the Father ( I Corinthians 15:28 ).

That is true in your own personal life, the same as it is in the Church and everywhere in the world.

Eventually it is all turned over to the Father, God is going to invade every area, and all the nations of the earth are going to be subject to the Lord.

We know He will come as King of kings and Lord of lords, and He is going to rule over them
(Revelation 17:14).

He reigns, but the Kingdom of God is within you ( Luke 17:21 ).

That is where it starts.

So we have to enter into this dedication to Him as Lord.


  Steadfastness is the quality of your love for the Lord.

You cannot allow your love to be discouraged; it must be a steadfast love.

It must be a love that is born of the Holy Spirit; God puts that love in your heart.

If you are going to have God's victory, you must begin with the deep dedication that makes you a steadfast believer.


  The next word is immovable.

This speaks of your faith; your steadfastness has to do with the dedication and the love that you have for the Lord, but to be immovable deals with your faith.

You must have the kind of faith that cannot be moved by circumstances.

Neither can it be moved by relationships or people.

You say, like Paul, But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy....Acts 20:24.

He knew that within him was the faith to believe nothing could move him.


  When you add steadfastness to immovable quality, you have an attitude like the three Hebrew children; they were told to bow down when the music played, or into the furnace they would go.

They said, "We don't know whether God is going to deliver us or not.

But one thing we do know; our faith is immovable; we will not bow down."

Furnace or not, it is an immovable faith.

Nothing was going to move them ( Daniel 3 ).


  When you have two things that do not alter, that steadfast quality of your love and dedication, and that immovable quality of your faith, then you come into the end-time ministry which God is really looking for; always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Abounding is a special word we do not use much anymore.

It seems to be part of Bible vocabulary.

We are creating our own terminology in this walk with God.

Actually, some of the words of the Scriptures have come to mean something else in people's minds, and we are bringing words back to their true Scriptural meaning in many cases.

We come up with the freshness of their meaning and begin to walk in them.

"Always abounding" would be that leaping forward, like race cars roaring out of their pits to run a race, going until they literally tear their tires to pieces, driving around every curve relentlessly, knowing that it is all a matter of time.


  And that is the way it is in this day.

We are not under the old strain of legalism or dead works, but something in us longs to redeem the time because the days are evil ( Ephesians 5:16 ).

 That is why we must commission and thrust people forward into the ministry God has for them. We do not have that much time to waste one minute of it.

You have to always abound.

 You might become weary and give up, or have moments of discouragement, unless you have that steadfastness and immovable quality.

But when you have that, you will be...always abounding in the work of the Lord (that is so important), knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58.

When you reach this in your dedication, nothing you do seems to be unavailing.

People sometimes tell me that I prayed for them five or ten years ago, and it finally came to pass.

What happened in the meantime?

Well, the word was there, but they had to live with that word and go through changes within themselves. 
 

God was constantly working on them, and the word came to pass.

 

 I do not think God wastes as much time as you think. 

 

You may have the impression that God stalls around because He has eternity.

God makes a promise to Abraham and then forgets him, he and Sarah are very old before God gets around to fulfilling it.

 

 I think God moves just as fast as the human heart will open up for Him to move; I do not think He intends to waste your life. 

 

Delays are a result of the process of our submitting to what He is trying to work out in our lives and to what the word is.

 

 It takes a while. 

 

He has to produce that steadfastness and immovable quality within us.

Often times someone knows he has a call from God to pastor, and he wonders why God does not thrust him out. 

 

Some brothers are thrust out soon, and they come back after a rough experience. 

 

Nevertheless, God is doing a quick work on the earth. 

 

It is a fine balance.

 

 I do not think that anyone is completely ready when he is untried and unproven.

 

 You can only prove a soldier, no matter what his basic training is and how well disciplined he is, by putting him into battle with live bullets whistling over his head. 

 

While it is true that you have to get out in the battle, you cannot go until that steadfastness and immovable quality has been worked in you.

"Do I just sit here waiting? 

 

I can't see why God is wasting my life."

 

 Let God first work that quality in you to be steadfast and immovable, and soon you will find yourself wishing for a few days to sit down, wait on the Lord, and take it a little easier. 

 

That always abounding in the work of the Lord will hit you. 

 

WHAM!

I know the responsibility that comes with a ministry. 

 

God will thrust you into it as soon as you are able to take it. At first you cannot live with it all the time.

 

 It was too intense when God first laid this ministry before me. 

 

I felt as if I had to get off once in a while and do something else and relax.

 

 I could be a ministry unto the Lord most of the time, but every two or three weeks I went off to relax where I could forget everything.

You may take a little coffee break from God, because He is dealing with you so intensely in putting you through circumstances, but usually you come back and say, "Well, Lord, now I'm ready again." 

 

And He is ready to put you through it again. 

 

But what He really wants is for you to come to the place where He can lay responsibility upon your shoulders for the house of God, even as the government is upon His shoulders, and for you to bear it with steadfastness and immovability.

There is not going to be a turning away from it. 

 

That is not an easy place to come to. How many times have you squealed under the responsibility when it was unrelenting?

 

 You had to meet it even though the last ounce of strength was gone.

 

 It is not a matter of dead works; the Lord is thrusting laborers into His harvest field, and they are always abounding in the work of the Lord. 

 

We cannot draw back.

Peter and John were told to stop speaking any more in the name of the Lord, and they said, For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Acts 4:20. 

 

There was an inward compulsion. Christ felt it, and He said, I must work the works of Him that sent me...the night cometh when no man can work. John 9:4.

 

 That driving force of always abounding in the work of the Lord is what Paul felt. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. II Timothy 4:7.

He exhorted young Timothy to meditate on the prophecies, and give himself wholly to them, so that his profiting could appear to all ( I Timothy 4:15).

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency, in all things, may abound to every good work. II Corinthians 9:8. 

 

 If we want to be always abounding in the work of the Lord we will have to get to the place where all grace is abounding toward us so we will have all sufficiency in all things to abound to every good work. 

 

It is beyond human endurance, beyond human strength, and beyond human wisdom. 

 

We will never be able to be what God wants us to be in ourselves.

There has to be a rhythm of ministry. 

 

You cannot breathe out without breathing in.

 

 Even the Lord learned how to constantly go before the Father, continuing all night in prayer, then going out to minister. 

 

That is exactly how we must function. 

 

All grace is abounding toward us, and then we are abounding in every good work, pressing into it with all our heart. 

 

It cannot be done in the flesh; it cannot be done in the natural. 

 

 The things that are going to come to pass in the churches will be accomplished by the people learning to draw the grace of God. 

 

Draw on that grace and then enter right into it.

This is a very simple message; nevertheless you will think about it, and it will begin to work on you until you realize this is what you have needed.

 

 You will think, "I haven't really been steadfast, because of the wavering in my love and dedication to the Lord. 

 

This has been the reason I couldn't abound in the work of the Lord. And as far as being immovable, I have been movable. 

 

With every tide I have shifted; I haven't been anchored as I should have been." 

 

But when you get down to the basic repentance and seeking of the Lord, you take care of your dedication, and God begins to really deal with your heart. 

 

Then you start abounding in the work of the Lord.

God's righteousness is not just to make you a  lovely looking individual, a showpiece on some shelve. 

 

Some want to excel in the Lord for their own glory among others. 

 

No, the righteousness of God for the work of God in your heart are for a very practical purpose: to bring forth the perfect will of God in your life, to bring that end-time witness for the glory and the praise of the Lord.

Many people are ready for commissioning.

 

 You may be ready for that kind of prophesying over you that has revelation, that identifies your ministry, and identifies the gifts of the Spirit you are to move in. 

 

Get into the Word, read it, pray about it, appropriate it.

 

Start moving in what God has for you as fast as you can. 

 

You are ready for it now. 

 

For you to sit idle any longer will mean that you will go backward instead of going forward. 

 

The time is on us now to take the next step in god. We must enter into the full expression of ministry in every area. 

 

You are ready for it.

We cannot be without the Holy Spirit's illuminating and making alive this word that is coming now. 

 

This is the commission of the gospel of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth.

 

 This is the world's last witness and the gathering of the precious fruit. 

 

Something has to make us realize we are ordained of God for this purpose, and that it is now.

I rebuke the darkness of the enemy that would hold it back, and I believe for it to take hold and possess us deeply, not with a carnal enthusiasm but with a deep revelation of the Spirit that will know no end in its fulfillment.

If we set about to pump up inspiration and enthusiasm we will be right back in old order. This must be led by the Spirit of the Lord.

 

 It must be a deep revelation. 

 

In this, our walk with God will deepen tremendously  because we will be drawing constantly, appropriating and becoming in tune.

 

 It will be the beginning of a miracle walk.

It is in us, but it cannot come with fanfare and pumping up. 

 

We almost have to understand it. 

 

We know that this step is necessary: the gospel of the Kingdom has to be preached to all the world for a witness. 

 

This gospel is going to be preached by the people who believe in Jesus Christ.

 

 And the Kingdom is Him; He is King.

 

 Whether you expect rapture, or however you expect the coming of the Lord, no matter how you envision the events of the Parousia, this gospel of the Kingdom has to be preached first as the witness in all the world ( Matthew 24:14 ).

Do you feel as if you can hardly wait for the Lord to begin to use you? 

 

 Without seeking numbers and saying, "Look at all I did," do you really want to be a channel, to be able to look around through the churches and see people who have come in because God gave you a living word that was flowing?

And that is the way it will be.