The Peculiar People
A Calling to Recognize your Identity and Purpose
"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: " (1Pe 2:9)
The same apostle who toward the end of his letters to the church wrote about the coming of the Day of God in which the earth will be burned away and the heavens will be set on fire and absolutely dissolved, this apostle who was given such revelation urged us to be holy right in the beginning chapter of this first letter to the church. Then, when he was done admonishing you to be holy in every aspect of life (as God is holy in every way), he lay out the reason to you. In other words the idea is that you will observe holiness in order that you can walk with God to fulfill your purpose.
Man and woman of God, you have a great purpose on this earth. Hear what the Word of God says:
“You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Whatever plans you will be having and what goals you will be setting in your life, this Word must be so ingrained in your mindset that you do not for one moment loose track of what God has prepared for you to be.
You are a chosen generation! Let me tell you what kind of generation you are living in, I want you to see for yourself where we are at right now in the time table of God’s plan.
The Chosen Generation you are in
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: (Act 3:19-20)
God gave us His Word at the birth of the church that "When the times of refreshing shall come", He will send Jesus again to earth.
When the times of refreshing shall come!
First of all, notice the word times - "Times of refreshing." It is plural form. So it would be more than one time, more than one form, or more than one movement if you would. Look up the bible dictionary and you will see another word for refreshing is revival. So in other words, God said there would be at different times different forms of revival, or different movement of revival, as some would word it today. And God said when the times of refreshing shall come, when the different forms of revival shall come, then we know Jesus is about to come again.
Let me present this to you and it ought to wake you up and it ought to stir you up. The times of refreshing that the prophecy was talking about had actually already come. First it came the revival of the Word of God, and then it came the revival of the Spirit of God. And this is all in recent history. The revival of the Word of God came first that was through the movement led by Martin Luther which was about 500 years ago. If you study or understand the history of the church, that was the most significant revival in which the church came out of the dark age and broke out of the falsehood of the Catholicism. It was a time of major revival of the Word of God. And then after that it came the time of the revival of the Spirit. Back about 100 years ago, the church came through another major revival which began in Los Angeles of California USA. If you Google on Azusa Street Revival, you will learn about it. It was a time of the major revival of the Spirit and spiritual gifts of God. Some people regard it as the Pentecostal movement. Whether or not you may agree with some of the practices in the Pentecostal movement, at least you can see that it indeed was a significant revival which is still affecting and energizing the church today.
Times of revival has already come, and much growth and movement has evolved since then. Yes, you take heed to this today; there have been times of refreshing for the revival of the Word and the revival of the Spirit. In fact this may well probably be the very same agenda which God had planned out with Jesus back in Matt 17. You can get a glimpse of this at the account of Jesus transfiguration. Do you not remember at the time of Jesus’ transfiguration, when the glory of God was revealed in the display of the coming kingdom, and right there standing before Jesus and talking with Him was Moses and Elijah. Think about it, Moses was the great prophet through whom God gave the Word (the Torah) to His people, and Elijah was the great reformer through whom the power and the gifts of the Spirit was manifested mightily. Now under the new covenant, it makes so much sense to see that in the same way, God has given us the revival of the word and the revival of the spirit, in order to prepare us for the coming of God’s kingdom and the second coming of Jesus.
The prophecy in Acts 3 will sure come to pass, and it is being fulfilled as we speak. Now that the times of refreshing has come, we shall anticipate the coming of our Jesus very soon. Now the question is have you been awaken yet? Are you awake and alert today? Do you see what kind of a generation you have been chosen to live in. The world is running out of time. If you have been watching what has been happening in Africa in Asia, you’ll notice what great work God has begun in the past few years over there. And God is about to do great and mighty work, and He is going to do it quickly and supernaturally, all to promote the end-time harvest. But He need people who would rise up quickly and join hands with Him.
This is Your Time
...But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: (1Pe 2:9)
You have been chosen for this generation. God knew what He was doing when He made plans to set your birth to be in this timeline of world history. God had his plan for you when He formed you in the belly and preparing you exactly for this generation and this time.
Because you have been chosen for this generation, this generation is your generation. It is your time, It is now your time. Moses was chosen for his time, Elijah was chosen for his time, John the Baptist was chosen for his time. There was a time for which Billy Graham was chosen, a time for which Oral Roberts was chosen. Down the timeline of history, great prophets and great servants of God have been chosen for their times. Praise God. But they all have had their times, and their times have passed and now your time has come! It is now your time to shine.
You do not read those bible stories and look back to the church history and only just marvel about how great they were. You have got to rise up to know who you are. For God says you are the greater bunch. And you can be great if you so desire. And you can be great if you so choose to live up to your greatness. Take heed what Jesus said:
For I say to you, as the Lord Jesus said, Among those who are born of woman there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. But he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. (Luk 7:28)
Born of God – The New You
Did you hear what Jesus said?
He who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than the greatest prophet of the Old Testament. Think about it a little. This prophet John the Baptist was so great and was given such privilege that the Bible says he was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. And the Word said “indeed he was great in the sight of the Lord.” (Luke 1:15)
But then Jesus said you are greater than he. You know if we would listen to what Jesus has said instead of what tradition or religion would say, we ought to see ourselves in a whole different way. I have said it many times and I will say it again, we Christians have been given such privilege and such glory that no Christians should ever be talking about how weak they are, or how unworthy they feel they are. No! Talking about those feeling of the flesh does not glorify God. If anything you should believe that you are strong because you are in Christ and you be boldly declaring it. Is it not God who commanded us in Joel 3:10 telling us “let the weak say I am strong.” Sometimes Christians often confess so much like “Without God I am nobody, I will be nothing.” But why confess a theory when you know you are not without God and you are not planning on loosing God.” Why not think and confess the truth, why not confess it that other way “because I am with God, I am somebody; I am everything God made me to be!”
Do you know what makes you different than John the Baptist, what makes you greater than he? John the Baptist was born of woman as Jesus specifically stated. But you are born of God. John the Baptist was an offspring of man, but you are an offspring of God. Look up what the bible says about those who are in Christ, about those who are born of God’s Spirit. The Bible says you are of God. John the Baptist as great as he was, he was of the class of mankind, but you are of the class of God kind.
I want you to remember you were designed, molded, and formed out of the Spirit of God.
2Cor 5:17 says this: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
If you have received Jesus into your heart, God has baptized you into Jesus, into the Anointed One, you are now a new creation, the old things have passed away, behold, watch, look, all the things about you have become new.
The word new means unprecedented, it means of a new kind.
All the things about you are unprecedented of a new kind. But wait, don’t you stop there. There is a continuing thought there, V.18 says “And all things are of God.”
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, born of the Spirit of God. And if you were born of the Spirit of God, all things about you have become new, and so all that is new about you is unprecedented of a new kind, all things of the new you are of the God kind that comes from God.
The term of God uses a primary preposition, the word “of” is an article denoting the origin. So all that is about the new you is originated from God himself.
You have been given the God kind of Faith, you have on the inside the nature of the God kind of Love. You have been given the name of Jesus, the name that is above all names, for your use, and that is the Authority of the God kind. You have been made the God kind of righteousness, born with the mind of Christ, filled with the God kind of peace, given the God kind of faith, your spirit hosting the indwelling of the Holy Spirit quickening unto your inward man the God kind of might.
You are of God!
Moses and Elijah were not given the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist was not given to operate the power of the other tongue.
That’s why God says to you "you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood." He says you are of His Royal family, a holy nation, a peculiar people.
You are the peculiar bunch!
The Peculiar People
Peculiar means special, unique, exclusive.
Years ago I attended a wedding and I appointed myself to be a spare photographer. I have an interest to take pictures, I love to capture those special moments for people. So I was at the wedding early. I got my camera and I got my batteries. This is back in those early age when those cameras just used the AA batteries. So I had a few batteries, some are regular but then I also had some real heavy duty high power rechargeable batteries. When I first arrived at the chapel area, it was still early, and so I just browsed around and took a few shots here and there. But you see I was only using the regular batteries and I set aside those high power rechargeable ones because I realized I should be saving them for the ceremony later. Sure enough when time came for the ceremony to about to start, guess what I did, I swapped out those regular batteries and I deployed the heavy duty high power ones. Why? Because the most important time has come, and for all that was going on, it could not allow any hiccups, it was the time to perform. It was exactly for that time that those high power batteries were initially set aside and prepared. Those batteries were peculiar, they were special and they had an exclusive purpose.
Just as I had set aside those hi-power batteries for the appointed time, God had set you aside for this appointed time.
Well I want you to know when I said your time has come, this is exactly what God has made you, prepared you and set you aside for. The angel is about to blow the trumpet, the second coming of Jesus is about to begin. We are either at or near the beginning of the end. This is the most important time to God, look at how the population has increased. We have more than ever the multitudes of people who need to get save before it is too late. This is important to God and this is the important time that cannot be missed.
God needs you to perform. God needs you to be ready to deploy. God needs you to stay charge up and let Him use you and use you mightily for the end-time harvest movement.
We all need to continue to grow in our passion on saving the lost, continue to develop in our skills of witnessing and bringing people to salvation.
Make good use of your time, find books that you can be reading, develop skills and knowledge which you should be having. “Redeem the time” !
I will close by touching upon this subject of holiness, which I will cover in another message.
The apostle Peter, with the revelation about the coming of the End times and the admonishment to the believers to recognize their identity and purpose, he started the whole discussion with the talk of holiness in the first chapter of his letter. And holiness indeed is the key. Why? Because God’s power can flow without interruption only through an instrument that is holy. And keep this in mind, God is holy and he could only walk closely with someone who is actively observing holiness.
But if you do not observe holiness, God cannot be walking closely with you. 2Cor6 tells us Righteousness and Unrighteousness cannot fellowship, Light does not bear communion with darkness. That is exactly the idea behind 1Peter 1:15, you be holy, as the Lord God one who called you to walk with Him is Holy, you be holy in every aspect of life.
That is why we see revival always begins with the restoration of holiness. This has been evident from the Old Testament to the New and all through the ages of Church history, on personal level, on church level, and on national level.
If you are to rise up to become all that you can be and all that you are in Christ, recognizing who you are as being the peculiar people is just the beginning. You need to allow that revelation to lead you to consecration. And in consecration you make effort to grow in personal holiness.
You are the peculiar people. You are the chosen generation. Remember this is the time for which you were chosen. It is your time to shine. Be the holy vessel to shine for God.
