The Ordination of the Twelve

140:1.1Be­fore the for­mal or­di­na­tion ser­vice Je­sus spoke to the twelve as they were seated about him: “My breth­ren, this hour of the king­dom has come. I have brought you apart here with me to pre­sent you to the Fa­ther as am­bas­sadors of the king­dom. Some of you heard me speak of this king­dom in the syn­a­gogue when you first were called. Each of you has learned more about the Fa­ther’s king­dom since you have been with me work­ing in the cities around about the Sea of Gal­i­lee. But just now I have some­thing more to tell you con­cern­ing this king­dom.

140:1.2“The new king­dom which my Fa­ther is about to set up in the hearts of his earth chil­dren is to be an ev­er­last­ing do­min­ion. There shall be no end of this rule of my Fa­ther in the hearts of those who de­sire to do his di­vine will. I de­clare to you that my Fa­ther is not the God of Jew or gen­tile. Many shall come from the east and from the west to sit down with us in the Fa­ther’s king­dom, while many of the chil­dren of Abra­ham will refuse to en­ter this new broth­er­hood of the rule of the Fa­ther’s spirit in the hearts of the chil­dren of men.

140:1.3“The power of this king­dom shall con­sist, not in the strength of armies nor in the might of riches, but rather in the glory of the di­vine spirit that shall come to teach the minds and rule the hearts of the re­born cit­i­zens of this heav­enly king­dom, the sons of God. This is the broth­er­hood of love wherein righ­teous­ness reigns, and whose bat­tle cry shall be: Peace on earth and good will to all men. This king­dom, which you are so soon to go forth pro­claim­ing, is the de­sire of the good men of all ages, the hope of all the earth, and the ful­fill­ment of the wise promises of all the proph­ets.

140:1.4“But for you, my chil­dren, and for all oth­ers who would fol­low you into this king­dom, there is set a se­vere test. Faith alone will pass you through its por­tals, but you must bring forth the fruits of my Fa­ther’s spirit if you would con­tinue to as­cend in the pro­gres­sive life of the di­vine fel­low­ship. Ver­ily, ver­ily, I say to you, not ev­ery one who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall en­ter the king­dom of heaven; but rather he who does the will of my Fa­ther who is in heaven.

140:1.5“Your mes­sage to the world shall be: Seek first the king­dom of God and his righ­teous­ness, and in find­ing these, all other things es­sen­tial to eter­nal sur­vival shall be se­cured there­with. And now would I make it plain to you that this king­dom of my Fa­ther will not come with an out­ward show of power or with un­seemly dem­on­stra­tion. You are not to go hence in the procla­ma­tion of the king­dom, say­ing, ‘it is here’ or ‘it is there,’ for this king­dom of which you preach is God within you.

140:1.6“Whoso­ever would be­come great in my Fa­ther’s king­dom shall be­come a min­is­ter to all; and whoso­ever would be first among you, let him be­come the server of his breth­ren. But when you are once truly re­ceived as cit­i­zens in the heav­enly king­dom, you are no longer ser­vants but sons, sons of the liv­ing God. And so shall this king­dom pro­gress in the world un­til it shall break down ev­ery bar­rier and bring all men to know my Fa­ther and be­lieve in the sav­ing truth which I have come to de­clare. Even now is the king­dom at hand, and some of you will not die un­til you have seen the reign of God come in great power.

140:1.7“And this which your eyes now be­hold, this small be­gin­ning of twelve com­mon­place men, shall mul­ti­ply and grow un­til even­tu­ally the whole earth shall be filled with the praise of my Fa­ther. And it will not be so much by the words you speak as by the lives you live that men will know you have been with me and have learned of the re­al­i­ties of the king­dom. And while I would lay no griev­ous bur­dens upon your minds, I am about to put upon your souls the solemn re­spon­si­bil­ity of rep­re­sent­ing me in the world when I shall pres­ently leave you as I now rep­re­sent my Fa­ther in this life which I am liv­ing in the flesh.” And when he had fin­ished speak­ing, he stood up.