Lessons in the Ladder Days

Candace Long: I'm Candace Long with Lessons in the Ladder Days, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times that we're living in.

Candace Long: In the last episode, we discussed how to make sure that you are one of the ones that the Lord takes at the resurrection when the kingdom begins.

Candace Long: Today's topic is what will you be doing in the kingdom?

Candace Long: Now, Revelation 20 answers this question in general.

Candace Long: The Apostle John writes, blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. And that's the one we're preparing for.

Candace Long: They shall be priests of God and of Messiah, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.

Candace Long: Now, John is not talking about angels here. He's talking about those of us who belong to the family of God, now living in resurrection bodies and assisting the Messiah in a priestly role and helping him govern in some way as he establishes God's kingdom on Earth.

Candace Long: Now, a big misconception by a lot of people is that we will just be floating around on a cloud, hanging out with friends and family or spending every day singing praises.

Candace Long: No, Messiah has an entire kingdom to build and establish on Earth, which will have been decimated during the seven-year tribulation period.

Candace Long: God's kingdom will be vast, with oversight over every person and nation who survives the birth pains.

Candace Long: Messiah will be faced with an organizational challenge the likes of which we have never seen, where God's infrastructure of principles, laws, statutes, precepts, ordinances, judgments, and righteousness will be built into the fabric of the way of life that he intended for all of his creation since the beginning.

Candace Long: Now, those of us who are invited to inherit the kingdom will be given specific assignments and territories under our oversight, for which we are accountable.

Candace Long: Have you given much thought to your assignment?

Candace Long: You may be saying, I don't have any particular gift or ability that God could use. I know that's what some of you are thinking, but one of my gifts is to see what God put inside of you before you were born.

Candace Long: Let me give you a recent example. As pieces of this episode were floating around in my head, the Lord woke me up in the wee hours, which he often does.

Candace Long: I was trying to figure out how best to develop this topic, and suddenly the idea came to me that God has a kingdom leadership boot camp that most of us are in whether we realize it or not.

Candace Long: So, at 3:00 in the morning, I'm writing this brainstorm down. Now, remember, I'm a writer and a chronicler of these end of days.

Candace Long: I've seen things through this biblical lens for over 30 years now.

Candace Long: Before beginning my workday, I called a dear friend to see how she was doing. She was in a bad mood. She was overwhelmed with all of the renovations going on in her house.

Candace Long: There were problems that showed up after the workmen left. She was over budget and tired of her life being upended by people coming in and out of her home.

Candace Long: I let her vent a few minutes and then the Lord brought to mind what he showed me in the middle of the night.

Candace Long: I said, wait a minute, let's look at this from another angle.

Candace Long: What if God brought these renovation challenges into your life to grow your skills and perfect your training in the areas of gifting that he wants to use in the kingdom?

Candace Long: And she said, what gifts?

Candace Long: I said, Janet, you are extremely tuned in to know when something isn't right and needs fixing.

Candace Long: You can't stand it when things are out of order. You are excellent at budgeting, contracting workers, making sure they have what they need, keeping everything on schedule, following through with every detail and completing the job with excellence.

Candace Long: These are important skills. I believe the Lord wants to use you to execute somewhere, somehow in the kingdom.

Candace Long: I think right now you are in his kingdom leadership boot camp. And she said, wow, I never would have thought of that. It makes perfect sense.

Candace Long: Now, I was on a roll by this time, so I continued. Janet, here's the scenario.

Candace Long: The angel assigned to you saw that you were complaining about all the upheaval of this renovation and griping that you had spent $10,000 more than you had anticipated.

Candace Long: So he goes to his angelic supervisor and said, Janet's losing it. We have to get her to see God's hand in all of this.

Candace Long: So the supervisor says, reach out to Candace's angel to wake her up and plant the seed of God's kingdom leadership boot camp.

Candace Long: Then delay both of their appointments so they can talk this morning. And you know, Candace, she will spout forth what the Lord has been teaching her.

Candace Long: Janet laughed out loud and she said, yes, I'm sure my angel saw that I was losing it.

Candace Long: I said, when you think about it, the extra money you had to spend was your financial sacrifice into your kingdom assignment.

Candace Long: Now, God knows this journey to the kingdom is hard.

Candace Long: That's why he has assigned ministering angels who work in tandem with higher levels of angelic supervision, all preparing for the mass Exodus, which will soon take place at the resurrection.

Candace Long: Can you imagine the multitude of activity going on now in the spiritual arena, preparing to evacuate millions of God's children from every nation and take them to a new place?

Candace Long: Now, you might be asking, how do we know we have a kingdom assignment?

Candace Long: In the episode called, "Who will be taken and who will be left behind?" I discussed the two trigger events that will happen simultaneously when the world has been in existence 6,000 years.

Candace Long: At that exact moment, Jesus comes to the clouds and calls his family out of the world to be with him in Paradise for seven years while all hell breaks loose on the Earth.

Candace Long: I want to read some passages in Michael Washer's book, "When All the Pictures Are Restored," describing exactly what happens from the Jewish perspective when the trumpet blows at the resurrection.

Candace Long: What happens? Where do we go?

Candace Long: Rabbi Washer writes, all of the righteous ones as a group must be assembled in order to attend the coronation of the king.

Candace Long: The book of Song of Solomon shows us how this coronation is done of a king being crowned on the day of his wedding.

Candace Long: This is a Tavneet or a picture, showing how it will happen once the shofar blows and we meet together in the clouds.

Candace Long: In the prophetic narrative in Daniel 7, we see the court seated on thrones.

Candace Long: The Ancient of Days takes his seat on a fiery throne, which has some sort of spiritual wheels.

Candace Long: The books are opened, and the Son of Man comes up to the Ancient of Days.

Candace Long: Rabbi Washer says that the Hebrew word for come up is Kumi, which is a term for the resurrection.

Candace Long: So Messiah comes up to the Father with millions of believers accompanying him.

Candace Long: At this majestic coronation, Messiah is given the kingdom, and the sovereignty is transferred to the Son of Man.

Candace Long: Washer writes that the resurrection is the vehicle to get the righteous into the gates of heaven where this coronation takes place.

Candace Long: Washer writes, a gate is not a big swinging door.

Candace Long: In the ancient ages of the scriptures, a city gate was a room embedded within the walls of the city.

Candace Long: Business and commerce, deals and judgments, and legal and spiritual matters were all discussed and decided there in the city gate.

Candace Long: Now, the gate in heaven is a huge room, large enough to hold every single person throughout all history who has believed in the Messiah of Israel.

Candace Long: At the coronation, the king receives four things: the bracelets, the scroll, the crown, and the scepter.

Candace Long: I want to look a minute at the bracelets.

Candace Long: The Hebrew word is Choq, C-H-O-Q, Choq.

Candace Long: It means an appointed, established, and definite task which the king is given. The Choq is basically a person's job description.

Candace Long: Now, the traditional Jewish coronation ceremony itself includes four parts. Number one, the proclamation. Number two, the anointing. Number three, the clapping. And number four, passing before the king.

Candace Long: Passing before the king developed from the shepherds of Israel, where all of the sheep passed one by one under the shepherd's rod for a decision to be made on each animal.

Candace Long: Now, spiritually speaking, this takes place every year at Rosh Hashanah, and all people pass before the king to be numbered and inscribed in his book.

Candace Long: Rosh Hashanah is an important appointed time to meet with God. It's a rehearsal for what we will soon witness at the coronation of Messiah.

Candace Long: On this date is when all of us will pass before the king.

Candace Long: Just as Rebecca received bracelets at her betrothal to Isaac in Genesis 24, how Israel received bracelets at its betrothal to God, as written about in Ezekiel 16, we, as the bride of Christ, will receive our bracelets, our Choq, our commission, our job description.

Candace Long: Some of us will be judges, some will be teaching priests, agricultural workers, gatekeepers, singers, musicians, treasurers, members of the army, leaders of other people, and ambassadors sent outside Israel to proclaim the glory of the Lord and to do his business.

Candace Long: What will you be?

Candace Long: In the time remaining, I will share three important lessons to help you on your journey.

Candace Long: Lesson number one is take the time for self-discovery to identify your unique gifts.

Candace Long: This self-knowledge does not happen quickly. It takes time and is best learned with a coach or an instructor who understands their own gifts and can help you identify yours.

Candace Long: Now, once you see the real treasure inside of you, you will much more easily recognize when God has plopped you into a real-life situation which then develops that very gift.

Candace Long: I have many resources on my website that I believe will help you. Books, monographs, 60-minute webinars, and actual courses that teach you biblical principles to help you uncover what you were created by God to be and how to walk that out.

Candace Long: I've been learning and teaching these principles for over 40 years, and I'll provide links to these resources in the notes to this podcast, and you'll find it at CandaceLong.com/podcast.

Candace Long: Lesson number two. This one is for those of you who are entrusted with stewarding the mysteries of God.

Candace Long: In 1 Corinthians 4, here's how Paul described himself to the young believers in Corinth.

Candace Long: As a servant of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God.

Candace Long: Now, we are living in times that no one has walked before, but God prepared wisdom for this part of the journey in his word, and to some, he is uncovering those mysteries because it's time to uncover them.

Candace Long: Suddenly, passages come alive that are relevant now.

Candace Long: Paul said that he was a steward of the mysteries of God.

Candace Long: There are two words I want you to take note of. The word steward is Oikonomos, and it means a household manager and guardian of something of great value to the owner of the house.

Candace Long: Now, what is it that Paul is given to steward? And that's the second word, the mysteries of God.

Candace Long: The word for mysteries is mysterion. It means a secret of which initiation is necessary.

Candace Long: In other words, you have to be initiated somehow to see if you are worthy to receive this mystery. It's not given to just everyone.

Candace Long: In the New Testament, it refers to something known by the councils of God, but has been hidden and now is revealed.

Candace Long: Now, the task of revealing a mystery belongs to Holy Spirit, and he is always at work preparing his children with insight, with words of wisdom or words of knowledge.

Candace Long: I'm sure you've experienced him when you are reading a familiar passage and all of a sudden you are flooded with light and you just know something you never understood before.

Candace Long: If we are so close to the kingdom, I believe the Lord is working through his Spirit to reveal things that were hidden, but God knows we need this understanding now.

Candace Long: I was recently talking with a ministry colleague whom I'll call Mark.

Candace Long: He had just published his fourth book on things that he has been learning about the kingdom.

Candace Long: But he admitted to me that he was very troubled that we are so close to the Day of the Lord, and his books are not flying off the shelf.

Candace Long: And he felt like that he's not lived up to his full potential of getting the message of the kingdom out to people.

Candace Long: Having wrestled like this myself, I said, Mark, you have not disappointed God.

Candace Long: You are faithfully memorializing the mysteries that he has revealed to you.

Candace Long: Don't you realize that you will be teaching everything you're writing about in the kingdom?

Candace Long: You're doing exactly what you should be doing, and God is pleased with you.

Candace Long: He was thrilled and he said, I never thought about it that way. That makes perfect sense.

Candace Long: If you have been given revelation by God, it is a precious thing. You qualify as a steward.

Candace Long: Your task now is to follow through. He's testing you. Will you blab it to others and risk it getting stolen?

Candace Long: Will you be diligent and copyright it legally?

Candace Long: Will you make a practice of honoring the intellectual property of others?

Candace Long: You see, this boot camp is testing how you steward the mysteries that are precious to God.

Candace Long: I offer coaching and consulting services to writers if this is of interest. You can just look at the coaching section at CandaceLong.com.

Candace Long: The final lesson, number three, is when God takes your gifts to a higher level.

Candace Long: This particular lesson really reshaped my own journey in how to steward my gifts, and it came through a dream.

Candace Long: It was 2015, and in this dream, I am in what looks like a newsroom with lots of people sitting in our cubicles working on assignments.

Candace Long: And suddenly, a very powerful woman whom I had never seen before, but sensed in the dream that she was important, this woman laid an article on my desk and said to write a position paper on it.

Candace Long: And then she disappeared.

Candace Long: The bulk of the dream was me trying to understand what in the world I was supposed to do. I had questions, but the woman had gone.

Candace Long: What is a position paper? And is this a fee-based assignment or does she expect me to do it for free?

Candace Long: Here are some of my observations as I was breaking out the dream before the Lord, which took a long time, by the way.

Candace Long: Number one, it was obvious that the Lord used the dream to bring to the surface something I have complained about a lot, namely doing work for the Lord only to walk away with nothing to show for it.

Candace Long: Frankly, this was an old sore inside my soul because I grew up with a parent who valued the money that you earn rather than your gifts.

Candace Long: So, I spent a good bit of my life trying to prove myself.

Candace Long: Money was the way I was taught you were perceived as successful. So the Lord, obviously, was testing me in this, and sadly, inside the dream, I was failing.

Candace Long: Number two. One thing I've learned is to be totally transparent with the Lord.

Candace Long: I'm not fooling him to stuff my feelings. So, during this particular dream breakout, he and I had a come to Jesus meeting.

Candace Long: I brought up all the times when I had sacrificed a lot for him, and I confessed that I felt hurt, and I had nothing to show for it.

Candace Long: It took a long time for me to lay down my feelings and relinquish the hope of ever being validated in the way that meant something to me.

Candace Long: Number three. He then turned my attention to the honor that I was being shown by this powerful woman, whom I believe was an angel, laying an assignment from the throne room on my desk.

Candace Long: And I asked, why my desk?

Candace Long: It was then that he reminded me of the specific writing gifts he wanted me to see, and how he has watched me develop them over 40 years.

Candace Long: And the fourth observation had to do with researching what the term position paper means, and that required quite a bit of time.

Candace Long: But the bottom line is that this dream turned out to be a significant turning point in my journey.

Candace Long: What he shared with me by way of interpretation was personal and humbling. But basically, he was asking me to write his position on matters that he assigned me.

Candace Long: And asked if I would accept that calling.

Candace Long: He was giving me the authority to write for him.

Candace Long: And I was blown away by that. You see, for 40 years, I wrote on behalf of others.

Candace Long: My gifts had to do with learning about each of my clients, tapping into their heart, searching out their unique purpose and articulating it in such a way that rang true with the masses of people they were trying to reach.

Candace Long: You see, I've been a business communication specialist most of my career.

Candace Long: So, with this one dream, God was saying to me, you have been a good steward, tapping into others and writing to reflect the core of who they are.

Candace Long: I'm shifting your assignment. Now, I want you to write for me.

Candace Long: I am the client.

Candace Long: That blew me away.

Candace Long: He assured me that he would take care of me financially, so I had to let all of that financial stuff go, and that took a while.

Candace Long: But since this dream, everything that I have written has been his heart on the matter.

Candace Long: Following this paradigm shift, I reconfigured my corporate structure, whereby my company, Audayo Media Group, became the umbrella corporation for multiple divisions, which represent the various areas of my gifting, such as consulting services, publications, and producing radio programming with Lessons in the Ladder Days.

Candace Long: So, how does this lesson relate to you?

Candace Long: You and your work are in training. The Lord has angels assigned to keenly observe how you deal with the challenges that come your way.

Candace Long: These angels report back to God on a regular basis.

Candace Long: Now, when he knows that you're ready and wants to shift you higher, be prepared for a visitation.

Candace Long: It may not come in a dream, but it will come and change forever your view of yourself, your gifts, and your kingdom assignment.

Candace Long: If you'd like to share this episode with others, you'll find it on my podcast page at CandaceLong.com/podcast.

Candace Long: Please take a look at the resources that I provide for you in the podcast notes.

Candace Long: The Kingdom Leadership Boot Camp is waiting for you.

Candace Long: Thank you so much for being with me today. I hope you join me again next time for Lessons in the Ladder Days.

Candace Long: God bless.