A Place In the Wilderness

Introduction 3

Galatians 4:19 My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.

Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.

In order to understand the endtime adequately we must see the matter of the believers’ growth in life. Without this realiza- tion we cannot properly apprehend the matters pertaining to the end of the age. What then is the growth in life of the believers?

At the time of our regeneration the Triune God, embodied in Christ, enters into us, the believers. This is our initial salvation. It is an instantaneous life-change in our innermost being. This causes us, the believers, to be born of God in our human spirit, thus making us genuine children of God in life. Through this marvelous transaction the Triune God – Father, Son, and Spirit – comes to dwell in us.

After entering into the believers to be our life, Christ then lives, moves, grows, and makes His home in our heart. This is what the Bible refers to when it speaks of our sanctification and transformation. To be sanctified is to have Christ spread within our heart, thus making us as holy as God is. To be transformed is to experience an inward change remaking us to be the same as Christ in life and nature. This inward process of change and growth takes place in large part in man’s soul and is life-long. It is accomplished by the subjective operation of Christ’s life, which is Christ Himself in the believers.

This change is not something outward, although it is accom- panied by an outward manifestation of godliness in the daily living of the believers. It is not accomplished by our good be- havior, good works, works of power, miracles, or any such thing. It is not brought about by organization, methods, or any means of self-discipline. It results solely from Christ as life, living and growing in our hearts. He accomplishes this change in us as the indwelling Spirit by the application of His death and resurrec- tion. Eventually, through this operation God brings our entire inward being into Christ Himself. It was for such a change that the Apostle Paul struggled and pursued. His desire was to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. He counted

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