King in His Kingdom

There is a further lesson to be learned from Luke 9 concerning the true function of the gifts, and it is this: although the two apostles apparently had the means and power to call down fire from heaven, they dare not attempt to do so without permission from the Lord; they said, 'Lord, wilt Thou?' In His day apparently, except it be His will, the gifts could not function; His will must be sought and permission granted before they could operate. He was at that time recognised by His disciples as absolute King in His own kingdom. Now that He is glorified, the Lord is not less King in His own kingdom than He was previously. To this day in His kingdom nothing other than His will may be done. It must therefore be true that the gifts of the Spirit to be spirituals can only function by His power, and may only operate and be administered according to His will.

Further to this, we find that when in the beginning of the gospel Peter was given the keys of the kingdom, he opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. This was accomplished through the outpouring of the Spirit in Cornelius' house at Caesarea, the Jewish province with the gentile name. Ever since then, given the right conditions under all true gospel ministry of the Spirit, Gentiles may enter directly into the kingdom. Some time later, following Peters s ministry, Paul visited Corinth and at that time also many entered the kingdom, for under his ministry, as well as Peter's, they were baptised in the Spirit into the Body of Christ. Drinking into His Spirit, they first received and then functioned in all the gifts He gave them, and following the departure of the apostle they had reigned as kings. But although this had been so with them then, at the time when Paul wrote to the church, many of them were weak and sickly, and many slept.

With all their blessings and privileges, the Corinthian church was a failure. They had aspired to kingly authority (Paul said 'would to God ye did reign, that we might reign with you') and with carnal audacity many of the members had expropriated the gifts of the Spirit, making what were originally the priceless gifts of God the worthless possessions of men. The result was that the oral gifts when in use became nothing more than sounding brass and tinkling cymbal; likewise all the other gifts had become devoid of power. They were just mere human attempts at trying to make something work. The Spirituals had sunk to psychicals and had become Carnal(s), man's abilities and not God's. The Church's misappropriation of God's properties can only result in mishandling and misapplication to man's needs, whether to the Church or to the world of men outside it.