THE PASTOR'S PEN
"OCCUPY
TILL I COME"
Good morning and welcome to The
House of Good News, the BIGGEST little
Church in Los Angeles.
The scriptures tell us that Jesus will
appear the second time to those who look for him. We are actively looking for the coming of the
Lord. The search is not a casual
search. The expectancy is not the wait
and see if He's coming variety that is
so common in the Church today. The Lord
gave me a date of the Day of Atonement in October of 1997 that marked the
announcement of the Jubile year for Israel in 1998. That was the appointed day that God had
earmarked to receive his Church including the dead in Christ to himself. All those who heard and read the scriptural
proof for that date and rejected it were lost in unbelief. Because of that unbelief, God then took that
promise off the shelf and delayed or tarried
that day for the Church just like he did when he delayed Canaan for the
Children of Israel; and the Kingdom
for Israel on so-called Palm Sunday
(which was actually Palm Saturday but
that's another subject).
The fearful, the unbelieving, and
the scripturally deficient were
hiding behind the passage of scripture where Jesus told his disciples to "occupy
until I come." (Let's look
at that verse for a minute.) A casual look will reveal that it was not
written to the Church at all. It is
found in Luke chapter 19. Luke gives a
footnote for a parable given by Jesus.
"And as
they heard these things, he added
and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought
that the kingdom of God should immediately appear." verse 11
Understand, that which would
immediately appear would be Christ's
crucifixion within four days and the birth of the Church 53 days later. The Kingdom of God would not appear until
Jesus made his second advent and began to rule on the earth as King of
Kings. This parable is spoken to Israel,
shown here as his servants.) Now let's continue.
"He said therefore, a certain nobleman
went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And
he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them,
Occupy till I come."
He's not addressing the Church because there is no Church at this time.
He's letting the Jews know that when he gets to Jerusalem, he would not be made
a king (as they anticipated,) the kingdom of God would not come, but rather, he
would be crucified. In other words, he
was letting them know that the kingdom of God on earth would be postponed for
quite some time. The Church is part of
the hierarchy of the Kingdom of God but to teach that the Church is the kingdom
of God is erroneous. The Church certainly
does not occupy the role of servants in the Kingdom, but as heirs and joint
heirs, kings and priests.
(But let's give the benefit of the
doubt to those who take this scripture to be for the Church. If that's the case, they should be actively
trading whatever assets God has given to them to increase their treasures in
order that they might give them to God.
That is the true meaning of "occupy
till I come.")
Written by Pastor Stephen Benton in
THE WEEKLY
WORD OF THE HOUSE OF GOOD NEWS
To
read more current revelations from Pastor Steve, check out his book published
September of 2017 on Amazon.com
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