By: Theutus Tenney
I have been asked to speak to you on a subject called “The Turning Point”. When Sister Kerr gave me that subject, she said, “You do anything you want to do. Speak on anything you want to.” I’ve prayed because I do want to do what’s best for you. I have decided that there is something that the spirit is saying to us that I feel is very, very essential for our time in which we are living.
There are differences in singleness and married life. But there are many spiritual things that are the same for both of us. You may vary in your approach to things. You may vary in what affects you as a woman, but there are spiritual concepts.
The bible breaks down all of the divisions in the kingdom. There is neither male nor female. There is neither free nor bondage because everyone becomes one in Him. We are the sons of God. All of us have
become sons.
With that in mind, and feeling what I am feeling about what the word of the spirit is saying, I am going to speak to you on a subject that has become increasingly important to me, and that is the subject of
“Spiritual Warfare”. The reason I have chosen to do this is, I think you will see, as we continue, that it is a current issue of the kingdom.
There is a turning point, and a turning point comes when you realize that our experience and relationship with Jesus Christ has more meaning than what we sometimes think it does. If I were to ask anyone
of you in this room, “What is the ultimate purpose of a Christian?”, it would be very interesting to see the different answers I would receive.
In order for you to understand what I’m saying, I’m going to give you a turning point of understanding why we go through all of the things we say are the important parts of our spiritual life. These are things
such as prayer, the word, obedience to the word of God, and living a holy life. All of these things are component parts of a Christian’s life. But why do we do them? Why do we pray?
We sometimes have a very narrow understanding of what a Christian is really all about, so I want to talk to you to give you a better understanding of that. Now, in order to understand where I’m going to, and where I’m coming from, I want to talk to you a little bit about the eternal purpose of God.
Turn with me to Romans chapter eight and verse twenty-eight. It reads, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” Verse twenty-
nine reads, “For whom He did know, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His son that He might be the first born among many brethren.” I want to introduce you to something I call “The
Eternal Purpose of God”.
The eternal purpose of God is not involved in anything earthly. The eternal purpose of God is that we will ultimately rule and reign with Him. That can be brought out by multitudes of scriptures.
Man was created as a companion for God, and it was not a toy or a play thing, but the love and the understanding of God. He wanted to share what He was and all of His entirety with some kind of an object He could love and share with. So, the eternal purpose of God is that we will ultimately rule and reign with Him.
When I came into this understanding, which was a number of years ago, I can promise you it made all the difference in the world in my total concept of anything spiritual, anything dealing with life, and anything dealing with the Christian life. For instance, most of us have a very narrow view of salvation. We praise God that we were saved from sin. We praise God that we are not of this world, and that is a narrow view of the eternal purpose of God. He did not just save me from sin. He saved me unto. He did not just come and die to deliver me from sin. That would have been a dead end feeling.
If you are just delivered from sin and destruction, you will not get a bigger concept. If you do not have a bigger concept of it, you will not understand everything that goes on in life. So, you might say,
“Let’s look at the other end of it. He saved us to be a companion to Him and to rule and reign with Him. We’re going to heaven some day. Oh, glory! We’re going to float around on the nebulus cloud and do
nothing for sixteen trillion years.” That is a narrow view.
God’s eternal purpose is that He saved us. He brought us. He even created man to share in His glory, and so ultimately, the eternal purpose is, `I’m going to reign with Him’. So, He has not just saved me from sin, but He has saved me unto and so I am moving in this direction.
Now in order to rule and reign with Him, I have to be disciplined, trained, strengthened, and understand. Earthly royalty knows that in order for Charles to inherit the throne of England, he had to be disciplined and trained. He was not the ordinary boy growing up (the ordinary young man), and he is not the ordinary man now. But, there was tremendous discipline put on him because he had a purpose in life. His purpose was to ultimately occupy the throne of England. Therefore, he was equipped, and is still being equipped and trained for that. All of the decisions in his life are based on his purpose. He was not free to marry just anyone. He was not free to go to school anywhere. He wanted to because there was a purpose, and everything in his life came to bear on that purpose. So, if you ever get the concept of the eternal purpose of God, all of your life will flow into that channel.
I have the concept, and by scripture you can bear it out, that before I was born, God knew who I was going to be, what I was going to be, all of the importantness put in me.
He had a blueprint and a purpose for my life. That is brought out several places. Job spoke of the fact of before he was born, Jeremiah speaks of the fact of before he was born, and David speaks of the fact
of before he was born. You see, I have this real definite feeling that before I was ever born, God knew the eternal purpose for my entire life. Not only would I some day want to be saved from sin, but that I
was also going to be saved unto him with his eternal purpose the way that I would rule and reign with him in the world that is to come. He knew exactly what I was designed to do in that kingdom.
I don’t believe that heaven is going to be floating around. I believe there’s going to be activity in heaven, and the reason is if you look at what man has created in this world with his mind, what do you think
the world to come is going to be like? There is a world to come. The kingdom is actually a reality, and so he has equipped me for it.
The eternal purpose of God keeps me in line because I know then that everything that is happening to me in life is for my training for the ultimate purpose of God. It is not just to save me from something, but
it is to make me what he wants me to be so that I can fit in the kingdom where he wants me to fit.
The word of God becomes important to me because it is the manual and the textbook that teaches me what I’m supposed to be learning so that I will be equipped when the time comes. With that in mind, you have to
understand all of that before you understand why we do all of this.
Therefore, discipline to the word, obedience to the word, prayer, fasting, praise, living a holy life, and being separated takes on a whole new meaning. I am not of this world. I belong to another world, and so I do not live by the laws of this kingdom, but I live by the laws of that kingdom. The reason for this is so that I will be ready to inherit the part of God’s kingdom that he has planned for me. I promise that if you will ever get that concept, everything will fit. There are things in my life, in my carnal nature, that are not in line
with the laws of the kingdom of God. When someone treats me evil, my carnal way of thinking is not a response according to the laws of God’s kingdom. I am continually being tested and strengthened in what
I am doing. God is so good to me that He is forever sending people to irritate me. The reason He sends people to irritate me is because until love has met hate, you don’t know if you even have love. Until
longsuffering has had a chance to suffer long, you don’t know if you have longsuffering.
So when I meet a hateful situation, I may feel that I am ever so spiritual, until I meet a certain situation, and then it revealed to me that I am not really under the direction and obedience of the laws of the kingdom of God. Is it a small thing to think that God would expect us to be disciplined before he would put us in charge of the universe. Power in the hands of an immature, undisciplined person is dangerous. Jesus even said, “I learn by the things I suffer.” He allowed those things to come, and He always manifested a right spirit. So, if I am born of Him, I have His spirit. I have the ability to discipline myself and act like Jesus does.
If you don’t receive a broader view of Christian living and a Christian life than what most of us have, you will be forever frustrated. You won’t understand what’s going on, and neither will you ever grow up. How many of us have really come to grips with the full recognition that you can be like Jesus Christ? Doesn’t the scripture teach us we can be like him? Didn’t he say, “I will be in you?” If Jesus is living in me, do I not have the ability to live like Jesus? But, if you do not have the broader concept of the eternal purpose,
and understand the whole system and set up, you will forever be excusing yourself by saying, “It’s just my nature. I can’t help it.” Remember, you’ve been born again. I am not saying that I am perfected
because I am not. I am a long way from being perfected. But, if you don’t have a goal out there to see where you’re going, you’re never going anywhere.
If I don’t recognize that the spirit that was in Jesus Christ dwells in me, and that I can live by the laws of the kingdom, I won’t even try. It is my honest opinion that you can live like Jesus Christ. Not in his sinless perfection, but in his disciplined lifestyle. We have had too little teaching in this area, and so we have a bunch of wimps in the kingdom. Listen, I have been called into that kingdom, God’s kingdom. I have been translated into that kingdom, and he that raised Jesus Christ from the dead that same spirit dwells in me and that is a lot of Power! But, you’ve got to have the recognition before you’ll ever even try. So, if you get this broader concept of what I’m talking about you’ll pray, you’ll be obedient to the word because there is a a purpose in the word, you’ll fast because there is a purpose and you’ll continually give yourself in praise because there is a purpose for it.
The turning point comes in your life when you see the eternal purpose of God which is, “I am called according to His purpose, and that He has already forewarned and predestined me that I should be a part of that eternal kingdom, and the only way I can miss it is if I vote against it. The devil votes against me, Jesus votes for me, and I cast the deciding ballot. I decide what I am going to do, where I’m going, and
if I am going to be and come into what He wants me to be.” You can be second class or third class, but I’m not going for that. I’m going to aim to be more equipped for the kingdom, kingdom minded, and kingdom
oriented because we are coming close to the end. Revelation 12:11 beginning with verse seven tells us that there is a war. There is a spiritual warfare!! It actually exists!
Ezekiel 28:12-19 gives you a little brief insight into what happened when Satan tried to be better than God. Lucifer was a beautiful creature until he tried to rise up against God, and he let his pride and will overtake him. So God cast him out. In Luke chapter ten, Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” So, there was war in heaven, and war came to the earthly sphere. When Lucifer fell, he fell because of lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That is what he represents on this earth. When Jesus came and overcame him, he faced those very same things. He said that He would not take a short cut. I will not do these things for my own pleasure. So, it is very important for you to understand that what he
represented there, he comes to earth and uses that to compete with the kingdom of God. For instance, Music. Music originated in heaven. It was originally designed for worship, but it has been contaminated
because when Lucifer fell he brought music with him.
Ephesians chapter six says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the whiles of the devil.” The word “whiles” means the strategy of a skillful leader. Paul wrote to Timothy and said, “You war
the good warfare, you fight a good fight of faith, endure hardness, not entangled with the whiles of this world, or with life and its cares.” First Peter 2:11 says fleshly lusts war against the soul. There are many, many references in the scriptures to the fact that there is a war. Now, if you don’t know there is a war, then you don’t understand that you’re under attack. Therefore, you’re deceived and caught in the middle of spiritual warfare. But, I am here to tell you today that there are two kingdoms. There is a kingdom of darkness, and a kingdom of light. There is kingdom of God, and a kingdom of Satan, and he is the God of this world, the prince and the power of the heir. There is a REAL war, and you are involved in it whether you are aware of it or not.
Hosea said, “My people perish because of the lack of knowledge.” If we are ignorant of what is going on in the spiritual realm, then we are apt to get into trouble from both sides. So, be aware of the fact that
there is a spiritual war going on, and that we need to be prepared to fight!! WE MUST BE PREPARED!!!
