April 1993
The Work of the Elect in the Regeneration
In the regeneration,
In the Sabbath Rest of my Kingdom,
I shall be as Boaz, the Kinsman Redeemer,
The Restorer of Life,
And this name shall be written on the foreheads of my resurrected sons,
And they shall bear the impress of my character.
And those who had been weak will become strong;
They shall rebuild ancient ruined cities;
They shall raise up former desolations;
They shall be repairers of breaches;
And they shall restore the paths that lead to home.
And these my strong ones shall bear upon their shoulders
The burdens of the weak,
And new life will spring up
Even as you have seen the spring flowers growing all around you,
And the blossom on the trees,
Even so in my Kingdom you shall see the fullness
Of all those things for which you now pray and yearn with a full heart,
But only witness a small return.
Be patient therefore unto the coming of the Lord,
And you will surely witness all these things,
And your hearts will be full, says the Lord.
There’s a light upon the mountains, and the day is at the spring,
When our eyes shall see the beauty and the glory of the King,
Weary was our heart with waiting, and the night-watch seemed so long,
But His triumph day is breaking, and we hail it with a song!
In the fading of the starlight we can see the coming morn,
And the lights of men are paling in the splendours of the dawn,
For the eastern skies are glowing as with lights of hidden fire,
And the hearts of men are stirring with the throb of deep desire.
There’s a hush of expectation, and a quiet in the air,
And the breath of God is moving in the fervent breath of prayer;
For the suffering, dying Jesus, is the Christ upon the Throne,
And the travail of our spirits is the travail of His own.
He is breaking down the barriers, He is casting up the way,
He is calling for His angels to build up the gates of day,
But His angels here are human, not the shining hosts above,
For the drum-beats of His army are the heart-beats of our love.
Hark! we hear a distant music, and it comes with fuller swell,
‘Tis the triumph song of Jesus, of our King Emmanuel;
Zion, go ye forth to meet Him, and my soul be swift to bring
All thy sweetest and thy dearest for the triumph of our King!
Henry Burton 1840 – 1930
Afterword. Some who peruse the words of these modern prophecies will undoubtedly be quite new to such an experience, and wonder what guarantee there is that God has spoken at all. We can give no such guarantee, any more than a single living soul can guarantee the genuineness of say Isaiah’s or Hosea’s prophecies. However, as John said in his epistle, we have that anointing from above which means we have no need of a (human) teacher. This being the case, the Holy Spirit should witness with our spirit if and when God has truly spoken.
Some may think we are saying we belong to a group that fancies itself to have “arrived,” and that God will surely use us as His ambassadors in the coming Kingdom. Once again, we say that there is no such guarantee. Yes, we hope and pray continually that God’s re-creative work in us will reach a satisfactory conclusion, but we have no certain knowledge of what will be said to us when we stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. The Apostle Paul, after probably 23 years of Missionary work, and in prison at Rome, said that he had not arrived, but yearned for the “prize of the high calling.” If he was still uncertain of the prize at that stage, it would be sheer presumption for any of us to think that we had arrived.
Our Lord gave us the true and humble approach when He spoke about taking the lower seats in His feast. If we deserve to “come up higher”, then we can rejoice at His call, but how shamefaced we should be, thinking ourselves to be worthy of a higher place, only to be asked to “move down.”
Our whole reason for living is to seek a deep and meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. But His lifestyle teaches us a great deal about humility, child-likeness, and servanthood. These are the qualities we should now and always be attending to.
