We are living in the end times. The Lord reminds us that our present sufferings and trials are but “birth pains” of a new creation to come. What will happen in the meantime? Paul writes about a great “falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). He warns that “the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,” - 1 Timothy 4:1. The end times are times of increasing darkness and evil.

People will depart from the faith as they are sucked in by the philosophies of the world. One pervasive view is relativism, which says there is no one sole truth and anybody can believe and act as they wish. If relativists believe in God—and some say they do—such a god is a schizophrenic god, don’t you think? But the God of the Bible has absolutes, and there are absolute truths about Him. This is why the crisis in every local church is, at its root, a crisis of discipleship. If discipleship is all about developing and strengthening our relationship with God, as we have seen in the four milestones, it must lead to faith convictions that God is with us as we journey through the seasons of life. In the end-times, faith will be a precious commodity, as Jesus highlighted in:

Luke 18:8b

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?

Therefore, even as we enlarge our capacities and faith through the prophets’ road, and begin running with the horses, we must remind ourselves of the bigger picture: that the kingdom of God is larger than our ministry, local church and even country. We need to be clear why we want to do this, or we will be unfocused and aimless. We must ensure that we are running the right race, which is God’s agenda for us. The New International Version, NIV, of the Bible renders it as “the race marked for us.” How do we tell if our pursuits are part of the right race? Pastor Daniel says there are two key questions we can ask: “Who am I becoming?”  and “Am I fulfilling God’s purpose and destiny for me?” Let’s look at each point closely.  

1. “Who am I becoming?” 

God aims for us to grow spiritually in Christ-likeness.

Roman 8:29 says,

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

God’s original mandate for man was to operate and rule with God in the heavenly realms, in heaven and on earth. It still is. But man has fallen short of this glory of God (Romans 3:23). This is what Christ saved us from—and therefore, our journey on earth is one of returning to the image of God reflected in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian life is a life of becoming more and more like Him. At Gilgal, we cut away the flesh; which is the self that remains hostile to God. As we become spiritually circumcised in our hearts, through the journey of brokenness, we begin to reflect more of Christ, and Christ is formed in us (Galatians 4:19).

Progressing to Bethel, we encounter the presence of God and as we connect with Him regularly and behold Him, we are changed and transformed into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). We also bring God’s power to work on the obstacles and hindrances that prevent us from achieving this goal—that is, the strongholds at Jericho. We can only give of what we have and so our being, self-worth, well-being and sense of security must be firmly rooted in God and not from our performance, possessions or position in life. 

However, growing spiritually is only one part of the discipleship journey. The other part is:

2. “Am I fulfilling God’s purpose and destiny for me?”

 Ephesians 2:10

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. 

We are to fulfil God’s call in our lives to do good works. God has predestined all of us to do good works and to influence, impact and bless the lives of those who cross our paths. This is about crossing the Jordan River to live the Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered life. The infilling of the Holy Spirit helps us to live victoriously, overcoming our sins and become effective witnesses of God, ministering His grace to others.

Our Works Will Be Tested

Our salvation is free and totally by the grace of God. It cannot be earned or merited and is undeserved. However, our Christian lives, which is who we are becoming and whether we are fulfilling God’s call and destiny for our lives are our works. These works will determine our rewards and losses. As we go about our serving and in our ministry, we expend energy, time, money and other resources. Therefore, we must be aware that our works will be judged and tested:

1 Corinthians 3:12-13

Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it. It will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.

The testing of our works is when “we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” - 2 Corinthians 5:10. Good works will be rewarded (1 Corinthians 3:8) but the consequences of our works (wood, hay and straw) are stated in 1 Corinthians 3:15: “If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire”.

Hence, it matters how we live and what we do with our lives. We must grow in Christ-likeness and do good works which God has preordained for us. Therefore, we are exhorted to be blameless and without fault, so that we will not stand ashamed before the Lord Jesus at His coming (1 John 2:28). We are also reminded to pay attention to our lives and be faultless in:

Jude 24

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

Judgement begins in the house of the Lord thus we must get our lives in order (1 Peter 4:17). But remember that there is no comparison, competition or condemnation. We should each examine our lives and be provoked to live righteously before God. But should we abort our race halfway through, or deviate from the course we should go, we will lose our reward—the things we have worked for (2 John 8).

Finishing Well

Lastly, as we reflect on the milestones of Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho and Jordan as stages of our spiritual journey, we must always bear in mind that the most important goal is finishing well:

Luke 14:28-30

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish”? 

The rewards come when we finish well. Our races in life are not sprints, but marathons; many people start out very well, but do not end well. King Solomon was well brought up by David and Bathsheba—he was a wise young man who governed the children of Israel well. But he had a weakness for women, and his heart was led astray by the many different religions of his wives. His actions eventually led Israel into sin and idolatry.

However, there are also biblical records of those who ended well. King David was not a perfect man, but he was a man after God’s own heart. When he committed adultery and murder, he repented and recovered. Joseph began as a man who didn’t know how to deliver his dreams and visions but he ended up as the second most powerful man in Egypt, saving many lives. Paul, once a fervent persecutor of Christians, came to live for Christ and finish his race well.

God knows our frailty and weaknesses. If we want to finish well, we must run victoriously. This doesn’t mean an absence of trials. It means that as we go through them, we come out on top, for God will come through for us.

God’s reward for our work is not salvation, but the opportunity to reign and rule with Him. Run in such a way that we may obtain our prize (1 Corinthians 9:24).

As we come to the end of this series, Pastor Daniel Foo’s prayer (and mine) is that our Christian lives will reflect our response to “run with horses”, to enter the Promised Land of the more abundant life. On the way, we deal with the flesh in our lives, experience God in deeper measure, tear down the strongholds that hold us back, and live the Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered life. As we do so, we enlarge our capacities, growing from faith to faith, from strength to strength and glory to glory. We will then be the light that shines brighter even as the darkness increases, in our homes, places of work, churches and nations to bring Him glory (Isaiah 60:1-3). We hope that these fifteen webcasts have encouraged you to live that vibrant Christian life, to walk closely with the Lord and fulfil your destiny in Him.

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