Eternal Life is to Live Christ - Norman Grubb
NORMAN GRUBB - Click On Stained Glass Window
A QUOTE - FROM MADAME JEANNE GUYON
" Rest. Rest. Rest in God's love. The only work you are required now to do is to give your most intense attention to His still, small voice within. " Madame Jeanne Guyon
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SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE! HOPEFULLY THE PROBLEM IS NOW CORRECTED! Nancy Gilmore
The Freedom Ride to The State Capital; From Peoria, Illinois to Springfield Illinois!
Great Video! SEE the Freedom Ride to the state capital, Springfield Illinois! This video features the song; "Stand Up" from the band: "EXIT - DISTRESSED CD".... This song; music and words were both written and arranged by Barry Gilmore; Lead Guitar Player. Barry is my son.
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT UNION-LIFE: DAN STONE
By Dan Stone
One of the most common misconceptions about Union Life is in regard to “calling ourselves gods.” Our true position is best summarized by Paul in II Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,” and in II Corinthians 6:16, “You are the temple of the living God.”
What we have been saying to the Church is that the essence of the human being is spirit. God breathed into man and he became a living being. God is only Spirit, as Jesus witnessed to the woman at the well: “God is spirit; and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). He is the Father of our spirits (Heb. 12:9). Jesus said, “Into Your hands, I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Peter spoke about the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19); and Hebrews speaks of the spirits of just men made perfect (12:23).
We are derived spirits; our human spirit having God’s spirit as its source (Gen. 2:7). God did not create a new type of spirit for man. Rather He breathed into man His Spirit. He took from Himself and imparted to man in the same way as God took woman from man. Woman already existed in man. Scripture says that she was not a new thought in God’s mind—she was “bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.”
The human spirit takes its nature from the deity spirit with which it is united. The direction of the heart comes from the spirit which is in union with our spirit. We are either in union with the spirit of error (the false deity), or the Spirit of truth (the true Deity).
Since the question we are addressing deals with calling ourselves gods, we move to the union of the human spirit with the Divine Spirit as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:17: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” In our union, our human spirit is directed by the Divine Person with whom we are united. The union is in the function, and the two function as one. A duality is present in the union. The human spirit is neither absorbed nor is he roboticized! We remain as individual persons, but now we are true persons.
We are true persons, because though we are earthen vessels, we know that we contain the Treasure, that we are the abiding place of the Treasure, and that we express the desires of the Treasure. We know that the earthen vessel is the means that the indwelling Treasure has for human manifestation and expression. The vessel is man’s means of expression of Life, but not the source of the Life. A true person recognizes that He lives from God.
We do not claim to be independent gods, nor do we equate ourselves with the Infinite, Almighty God, nor do we teach the loss of humanity. We do stress (indeed, must stress) the truth of our union. Our calling is to share with Christians, about their union with Christ, trusting that the Holy Spirit will free them from the devilish attempt to become someone or something other than the vessel or container.
We recognize the charge against us in regard to “calling ourselves gods.” We believe that the charge is due to a misunderstanding on the hearer’s part. This misunderstanding will continue until such time as the Holy Spirit teaches a person who is the Christian’s true nature. Then the person will know that living from a truth about one’s true Being is not the same as claiming to be that Being. He will understand the difference between living “for God” and living “from God.”
From Union Life Magazine,
Jan/Feb 1986
One of the most common misconceptions about Union Life is in regard to “calling ourselves gods.” Our true position is best summarized by Paul in II Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,” and in II Corinthians 6:16, “You are the temple of the living God.”
What we have been saying to the Church is that the essence of the human being is spirit. God breathed into man and he became a living being. God is only Spirit, as Jesus witnessed to the woman at the well: “God is spirit; and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). He is the Father of our spirits (Heb. 12:9). Jesus said, “Into Your hands, I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Peter spoke about the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19); and Hebrews speaks of the spirits of just men made perfect (12:23).
We are derived spirits; our human spirit having God’s spirit as its source (Gen. 2:7). God did not create a new type of spirit for man. Rather He breathed into man His Spirit. He took from Himself and imparted to man in the same way as God took woman from man. Woman already existed in man. Scripture says that she was not a new thought in God’s mind—she was “bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.”
The human spirit takes its nature from the deity spirit with which it is united. The direction of the heart comes from the spirit which is in union with our spirit. We are either in union with the spirit of error (the false deity), or the Spirit of truth (the true Deity).
Since the question we are addressing deals with calling ourselves gods, we move to the union of the human spirit with the Divine Spirit as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:17: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” In our union, our human spirit is directed by the Divine Person with whom we are united. The union is in the function, and the two function as one. A duality is present in the union. The human spirit is neither absorbed nor is he roboticized! We remain as individual persons, but now we are true persons.
We are true persons, because though we are earthen vessels, we know that we contain the Treasure, that we are the abiding place of the Treasure, and that we express the desires of the Treasure. We know that the earthen vessel is the means that the indwelling Treasure has for human manifestation and expression. The vessel is man’s means of expression of Life, but not the source of the Life. A true person recognizes that He lives from God.
We do not claim to be independent gods, nor do we equate ourselves with the Infinite, Almighty God, nor do we teach the loss of humanity. We do stress (indeed, must stress) the truth of our union. Our calling is to share with Christians, about their union with Christ, trusting that the Holy Spirit will free them from the devilish attempt to become someone or something other than the vessel or container.
We recognize the charge against us in regard to “calling ourselves gods.” We believe that the charge is due to a misunderstanding on the hearer’s part. This misunderstanding will continue until such time as the Holy Spirit teaches a person who is the Christian’s true nature. Then the person will know that living from a truth about one’s true Being is not the same as claiming to be that Being. He will understand the difference between living “for God” and living “from God.”
From Union Life Magazine,
Jan/Feb 1986
A talk given by Brian Coatney; transcrible for your pleasure.
Being a left-brain person, I’ve always loved little models and diagrams and things like that; and so, if you’ll just bear with me, I’ll try and walk through the thinking that caused me to develop this little scenario. I want to start by identifying the participants in the game. They are the only three that matter to you or me initially. On one side of the ring, wearing the black robe, at 550 pounds, we have Satan. And there is his nature, which I’ll go into later. And on the other side of the ring we have the Lamb, the one we know and love, our Lord Jesus Christ, and his character. And then we see ourselves in there, because eventually we must deal with the question, “What about me?” That sounds like a selfish question; but it’s a question we have to answer.
This is why Paul in Romans 7 is saying, “What about me?” When he came to know who he was in Christ, then in Romans 8 and on through the rest of his epistle (and this is always the pattern) his life took on a focus of being for others. I’ve heard it said before, and it’s true, that if I know who I am, then I know who you are. And I have also found it true that whenever I am doubting who I am in Christ, I start to sink inside myself. The weight of the oppression is like that of an anvil or a millstone. It’s as if my eyes start to recede in their sockets, not physically, but life starts to go out of them. All of a sudden things seem hopeless, and the temptation is to give in to that. But once I’m affirming back who I am, then there’s the possibility of loving you. That’s why Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Now we live in a generation that, in a secular sense, is the “Who am I?” generation. I like to visit the Walden Bookstores, which are in most malls. You go in and there’s every pop book under the sun about how to stroke yourself. And we’ve thought that’s selfish. And, from where they’re coming, it is. But they’re asking the right question. They’re just not coming from the right foundation. So, who am I? I’ve seen it criticized in modern theological journals that this is the “me” generation. Well, it is the “me” generation. To question who I am is not wrong. It’s coming to the right conclusion about who we are that’s important.
SPIRIT MINDSET
Now I want to say a thing or two about Romans 8:6, because Paul makes an important contrast here. He says that the mind set on the spirit is life and peace, and the mind set on the flesh is death. Picture in your mind the “us” in the scenario, represented by members or flesh--soul and body. That’s where everything touches us and where we begin to learn everything. If our minds are always on how we thing and how we feel, then the battle is lost. It’s not that it’s unimportant how we think or how we feel; it’s just that the only way to really come to enjoy and know ourselves freely in our souls and in our bodies is to have our minds set on the Spirit. So we have to go about this is an indirect way. A mind set on the Spirit frees us then through our feelings, emotions, and thoughts, to be what we are meant to be.
Looking at the scenario again we see that there are two natures completing to express themselves through our members lives in us and is our life, if we’re Christians; and the other one is now on the outside of us, and is the usurper, the deceiver. When we were not born-again, this was reversed. It was then the usurper, the deceiver, who lives in us, and had owner ship over us. As Paul says in Eph. 2:2, we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. we were all children of disobedience and controlled by the spirit of error.
It’s a strong thing to recognize that before we were Christians, no matter how good we felt-- and here’s how deceiving feelings can be for a non-Christian - or how good life seemed to be, or how moral or upright or proper, that our life was actually controlled by Satan. He expressed his lusts by us, whether it was in a highly cultured and refined way or in a base, sensual, out and out reprobate way. In those days Jesus Christ was the one who was on the outside trying to temp us toward Him, to woo us to want to exchange Satan for Him as inner Lord. But now I want to talk about the Christian, the person who has been born again and knows Jesus Christ as his life.
GOD BECAME A MAN
We are a people who live in the flesh, and I don't mean flesh in a bad sense. We live in the flesh and experience life through our members. The scripture says that no man has seen God at any time, but that the only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared Him (John 1:18). So no one has ever really seen God, and no one really is ever going to see God. All we ever see of God is an expression of Him through somebody’s members. Even in the Old Testament, Moses didn’t see God. He experienced a blinding flash - the backside of God passing by. But the disclosure of God was through something written on tablets of stone, from which men were to see through to the character and nature of God.
The New Testament revelation of God’s nature to us, which is the highest that anyone has seen and testified of, was God who became a man. What separates us from all other religions and theologies is that God became a man in Jesus Christ. He took on limitation and came to the earth in a particular form. And that was the difficult thing for people. “How can this be God?” Men could see him, touch him, feel him, hear him, and write down what he said. They could poke him and say, “Are you for real?” That was the thing that people threw off. How could a man be God? Thus we see the purpose of God really starting to become clear through the historical life of Jesus Christ. Here was an example of God living out life as a man in a total form. And his purpose since then has been to reproduce more of those forms.
Jesus Christ’s life would have been a waste if he had just come to earth and said something like, “O.K. now, I’m showing you what God life lived out in a human body through members, through flesh, through soul and body. But you can never experience or know it for yourself.” That would have been terrible. The best that you would have been able to do would have been to say, “Well, the meaning of life, then, is that we all get in as close to Jesus Christ, in the body form, as we can.” so, the disciples would have been the lucky ones, and the people that didn’t live anywhere close to Palestine would have been the unluckiest ones of all. The whole goal of life would have been to get as close to the physical Jesus Christ as you could. and, obviously, where would that leave us today?
REPRODUCTION OF CHRIST
But His message to them, which He began to reveal more at the end of His life, was, “That’s not what I’m about. You don’t realize it, but I am going away (and that was terrifying to them), and will come to you again. And when I come to you again, you will know me like you have never known me before, because everything that I am will be inside of you. You will be inside of me and I in you and you will be as I am. I reproducing myself.” That’s why they began to call the believer Christians at Antioch: it means “little Christ.” We have given lip service to it. But that’s the whole point of the message. Just as it was hard to look at Jesus and believe that God could be a man: that man, it’s frightening to us initially to look at ourselves and believe God could be a man: THIS man, you or I.
Are we equating our human created selfhood with the eternal Godhead? Sometimes people are afraid we are saying, “I am God,” and I know that was the thing that staggered me when I first heard this message. I wondered, “What are we coming to when somebody who’s a Christian is saying something like that?” But the point is that spirit entities, either God or Satan, are trying to reproduce their entire life quality through human members. Now it took me a long time to begin to discern that these are the only tow natures in the universe and that neither one of them derives from you or me in a created sense. Therefore, you don’t have a human nature of your own; your nature is the one you are married to in spirit.
A Christian’s nature then, is Christ, though he can be tempted by Satan and fall into sin. A non-Christian’s nature is Satan, though Christ can woo him and perform some works of grace through him. But in neither case does the person have a human nature of his own.
This is why Paul in Romans 7 is saying, “What about me?” When he came to know who he was in Christ, then in Romans 8 and on through the rest of his epistle (and this is always the pattern) his life took on a focus of being for others. I’ve heard it said before, and it’s true, that if I know who I am, then I know who you are. And I have also found it true that whenever I am doubting who I am in Christ, I start to sink inside myself. The weight of the oppression is like that of an anvil or a millstone. It’s as if my eyes start to recede in their sockets, not physically, but life starts to go out of them. All of a sudden things seem hopeless, and the temptation is to give in to that. But once I’m affirming back who I am, then there’s the possibility of loving you. That’s why Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Now we live in a generation that, in a secular sense, is the “Who am I?” generation. I like to visit the Walden Bookstores, which are in most malls. You go in and there’s every pop book under the sun about how to stroke yourself. And we’ve thought that’s selfish. And, from where they’re coming, it is. But they’re asking the right question. They’re just not coming from the right foundation. So, who am I? I’ve seen it criticized in modern theological journals that this is the “me” generation. Well, it is the “me” generation. To question who I am is not wrong. It’s coming to the right conclusion about who we are that’s important.
SPIRIT MINDSET
Now I want to say a thing or two about Romans 8:6, because Paul makes an important contrast here. He says that the mind set on the spirit is life and peace, and the mind set on the flesh is death. Picture in your mind the “us” in the scenario, represented by members or flesh--soul and body. That’s where everything touches us and where we begin to learn everything. If our minds are always on how we thing and how we feel, then the battle is lost. It’s not that it’s unimportant how we think or how we feel; it’s just that the only way to really come to enjoy and know ourselves freely in our souls and in our bodies is to have our minds set on the Spirit. So we have to go about this is an indirect way. A mind set on the Spirit frees us then through our feelings, emotions, and thoughts, to be what we are meant to be.
Looking at the scenario again we see that there are two natures completing to express themselves through our members lives in us and is our life, if we’re Christians; and the other one is now on the outside of us, and is the usurper, the deceiver. When we were not born-again, this was reversed. It was then the usurper, the deceiver, who lives in us, and had owner ship over us. As Paul says in Eph. 2:2, we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. we were all children of disobedience and controlled by the spirit of error.
It’s a strong thing to recognize that before we were Christians, no matter how good we felt-- and here’s how deceiving feelings can be for a non-Christian - or how good life seemed to be, or how moral or upright or proper, that our life was actually controlled by Satan. He expressed his lusts by us, whether it was in a highly cultured and refined way or in a base, sensual, out and out reprobate way. In those days Jesus Christ was the one who was on the outside trying to temp us toward Him, to woo us to want to exchange Satan for Him as inner Lord. But now I want to talk about the Christian, the person who has been born again and knows Jesus Christ as his life.
GOD BECAME A MAN
We are a people who live in the flesh, and I don't mean flesh in a bad sense. We live in the flesh and experience life through our members. The scripture says that no man has seen God at any time, but that the only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared Him (John 1:18). So no one has ever really seen God, and no one really is ever going to see God. All we ever see of God is an expression of Him through somebody’s members. Even in the Old Testament, Moses didn’t see God. He experienced a blinding flash - the backside of God passing by. But the disclosure of God was through something written on tablets of stone, from which men were to see through to the character and nature of God.
The New Testament revelation of God’s nature to us, which is the highest that anyone has seen and testified of, was God who became a man. What separates us from all other religions and theologies is that God became a man in Jesus Christ. He took on limitation and came to the earth in a particular form. And that was the difficult thing for people. “How can this be God?” Men could see him, touch him, feel him, hear him, and write down what he said. They could poke him and say, “Are you for real?” That was the thing that people threw off. How could a man be God? Thus we see the purpose of God really starting to become clear through the historical life of Jesus Christ. Here was an example of God living out life as a man in a total form. And his purpose since then has been to reproduce more of those forms.
Jesus Christ’s life would have been a waste if he had just come to earth and said something like, “O.K. now, I’m showing you what God life lived out in a human body through members, through flesh, through soul and body. But you can never experience or know it for yourself.” That would have been terrible. The best that you would have been able to do would have been to say, “Well, the meaning of life, then, is that we all get in as close to Jesus Christ, in the body form, as we can.” so, the disciples would have been the lucky ones, and the people that didn’t live anywhere close to Palestine would have been the unluckiest ones of all. The whole goal of life would have been to get as close to the physical Jesus Christ as you could. and, obviously, where would that leave us today?
REPRODUCTION OF CHRIST
But His message to them, which He began to reveal more at the end of His life, was, “That’s not what I’m about. You don’t realize it, but I am going away (and that was terrifying to them), and will come to you again. And when I come to you again, you will know me like you have never known me before, because everything that I am will be inside of you. You will be inside of me and I in you and you will be as I am. I reproducing myself.” That’s why they began to call the believer Christians at Antioch: it means “little Christ.” We have given lip service to it. But that’s the whole point of the message. Just as it was hard to look at Jesus and believe that God could be a man: that man, it’s frightening to us initially to look at ourselves and believe God could be a man: THIS man, you or I.
Are we equating our human created selfhood with the eternal Godhead? Sometimes people are afraid we are saying, “I am God,” and I know that was the thing that staggered me when I first heard this message. I wondered, “What are we coming to when somebody who’s a Christian is saying something like that?” But the point is that spirit entities, either God or Satan, are trying to reproduce their entire life quality through human members. Now it took me a long time to begin to discern that these are the only tow natures in the universe and that neither one of them derives from you or me in a created sense. Therefore, you don’t have a human nature of your own; your nature is the one you are married to in spirit.
A Christian’s nature then, is Christ, though he can be tempted by Satan and fall into sin. A non-Christian’s nature is Satan, though Christ can woo him and perform some works of grace through him. But in neither case does the person have a human nature of his own.
HOLY
Ole Henrik Skjelstad - The article is written by Bertie Brits:
Holy means to be separated from – or in my own words to be different. What makes our heavenly Father holy – or different from other religions. To me it is the way in which He forgives – He does not forgive by simply turning a blind eye to our sins. He removed that which works (bring to manifestation) sin in our lives (the law) so that we can be blameless before Him without any effort from our side. He became our savior is stead of standing on the side of the road telling us “try harder”,” meditate more” pointing to his high standard of acceptance.
Where other religions try to point “lovingly” to the law as the way to life, Jesus is different and points to the removal of the law and your innocence. The fact that we stand innocent before the Law was not enough for Him. To ensure the Highest quality of life for man He gives His spirit (his life) to indwell us and in such a way He lives in us giving us the attributes of His life which perfectly fits this broken world. Making us victors above all this world can throw at us.
Holy means to be separated from – or in my own words to be different. What makes our heavenly Father holy – or different from other religions. To me it is the way in which He forgives – He does not forgive by simply turning a blind eye to our sins. He removed that which works (bring to manifestation) sin in our lives (the law) so that we can be blameless before Him without any effort from our side. He became our savior is stead of standing on the side of the road telling us “try harder”,” meditate more” pointing to his high standard of acceptance.
Where other religions try to point “lovingly” to the law as the way to life, Jesus is different and points to the removal of the law and your innocence. The fact that we stand innocent before the Law was not enough for Him. To ensure the Highest quality of life for man He gives His spirit (his life) to indwell us and in such a way He lives in us giving us the attributes of His life which perfectly fits this broken world. Making us victors above all this world can throw at us.
What is Dying? Charles H. Brent 1862-1929
Charles H. Brent 1862-1929
I am standing on the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she is a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, "There! She's gone!" Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and she is just as able to bear her load of living weight to her destined harbor.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There! She's gone!" There are other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "There she comes!" - And that is dying.
I am standing on the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she is a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, "There! She's gone!" Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and she is just as able to bear her load of living weight to her destined harbor.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There! She's gone!" There are other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "There she comes!" - And that is dying.
Soren Kierkegaard: Sickness Unto Death
But too often it has been overlooked that the opposite of sin is not virtue, not by any manner of means. This is in part a pagan which is content with merely human measure and properly does not know what sin is before God. No, the opposite of sin is faith, as is affirmed in Romans 14:23, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" And for the whole of Christianity it is one of the most decisive definitions that the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith. Soren Kierkegaard: Sickness Unto Death
The Abraham Covenant: By Ole Henrik Skjelstad
Ole Henrik Skjelstad Abram asked, "LORD God, how can I know the land will be mine?" (Gen 15:8)
Abraham wants God to assure him of His promises to him. Many a faithful Christian has asked this question. How does God respond to Abraham’s petition? God says, “"Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove, and a young pigeon."
When two parts were to make a covenant in those days they sacrificed an animal. They sliced it into two parts which were laid in such a way that two persons could pass each other in the middle.
A covenant was meant to benefit both parts and was binding until one of the persons died. Usually the weaker part would be the main beneficiary from the covenant. There were obligations and conditions attached to the covenant which both parts were to fulfill. Forfeiture of the covenant would have serious consequences.
There is perhaps no wonder that for Abraham “everything became dark and frightening” when he fell into a deep sleep. How could he have the faintest hope of fulfilling his part in the covenant he was about to enter? He was just a human with faults and lackings now facing the Creator of the Universe.
God is a gracious God so he let Abraham become a sleeping partner in the covenant. God concluded the covenant with Jesus, who was the only one who could meet the obligations. How did this happen? “Sometime after sunset, when it was very dark, a smoking cooking pot and a flaming fire went between the two halves of each animal.”
Jesus is the flaming fire which passed God, the smoking cooking pot, on behalf of Abraham. This was how God assured Abraham that they had a viable covenant. This is a vivid image of the covenant we now have entered by our faith in Jesus. Abraham believed Jesus was more than capable of meeting the obligations on his behalf, and this was counted to him as righteousness.
Abraham wants God to assure him of His promises to him. Many a faithful Christian has asked this question. How does God respond to Abraham’s petition? God says, “"Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove, and a young pigeon."
When two parts were to make a covenant in those days they sacrificed an animal. They sliced it into two parts which were laid in such a way that two persons could pass each other in the middle.
A covenant was meant to benefit both parts and was binding until one of the persons died. Usually the weaker part would be the main beneficiary from the covenant. There were obligations and conditions attached to the covenant which both parts were to fulfill. Forfeiture of the covenant would have serious consequences.
There is perhaps no wonder that for Abraham “everything became dark and frightening” when he fell into a deep sleep. How could he have the faintest hope of fulfilling his part in the covenant he was about to enter? He was just a human with faults and lackings now facing the Creator of the Universe.
God is a gracious God so he let Abraham become a sleeping partner in the covenant. God concluded the covenant with Jesus, who was the only one who could meet the obligations. How did this happen? “Sometime after sunset, when it was very dark, a smoking cooking pot and a flaming fire went between the two halves of each animal.”
Jesus is the flaming fire which passed God, the smoking cooking pot, on behalf of Abraham. This was how God assured Abraham that they had a viable covenant. This is a vivid image of the covenant we now have entered by our faith in Jesus. Abraham believed Jesus was more than capable of meeting the obligations on his behalf, and this was counted to him as righteousness.
Commendation and Condemnation: Evil Twins - by Brian Coatney Part III
How God expelled the False Indweller and Reclaimed his Stolen Property
God knew that we could never see that we are just vessels unless we first encountered the law. Since the deception that we do our own good or evil runs so deeply in us, He had to start with us by getting us to the point of admitting that we broke His laws. So He gave us laws.
What the law is all about? God Himself does not live by law. One member of the Trinity never says to another, “What shall We do? Let’s pull a law book off the shelf and see what we should be doing.” This is ridiculous to think. God’s nature is self-for-others: He has made the eternal choice to be love. God is love. Therefore, He doesn’t live by law but by His nature.
We, on the other hand, as creatures, and fallen ones, were born with the deception from the indwelling spirit of error that we can do our own good or do our own evil. We either commend or condemn ourselves and view others likewise, commending those we esteem and condemning those that we disapprove of.
Thus we don’t come into the word thinking that we break God’s laws and need a savior to keep us form going into eternity, separated from God. Though the Bible warns of this destiny for the unbelieving, and asserts that many take this path, these warnings go disregarded as hysteria and unworthy of a loving God, despite the unmistakable, plain word of the scriptures.
God’s first order then was to convince us that we have not and cannot keep His laws: we cannot generate a life like His by imitation. Thankfully, many do come to see, through the Bible and the Spirit, that they have sinned and need a savior. They accept Christ’s atonement and know that their sins are forgiven. This is unspeakably wonderful.
What would you say, though, if I said that being a forgiven sinner is not enough? If we only know life as forgiven sinners, we express thanks that our past is forgiven and heaven awaits us in the future. But we’re left to try to be like Christ in the present, with a never ending sin consciousness that leaves us always feeling like we never measure up as the dirty saints we think we are. We falsely take Romans 7 as Paul’s testimony of what our life must be until we receive new bodies in the resurrection.
Paul’s point is quite different from this! After establishing justification by faith in the early chapters of Romans, Paul moves to how God removed the spirit of error from us and came to dwell in us again. I have given detailed exposition of this many places elsewhere, and so I will only briefly say here that God made Christ Jesus to be our old man—the human self with Satan in it as boss over us in our un redeemed state. This does not mean that Jesus ever sinned; it means that God made Him to be sin (2 Cor. 5:21). Further, God put us into the body of Christ (Romans6 and Galatians2:20) so that we were crucified, buried, and raise with Christ. So the completion of the Gospel simply put is this: we’re the human containers, and by the Cross, Satan goes out, and Christ comes in.
This is the beginning of the new creation and establishes our identity and who we are. We are no longer sinners but saints. Not even sin in the Christian life can change that. Yet, we do not have to live in sin as Christians, and next time I will discuss why that is. Defeat is not our heritage; victory is our heritage. By faith we can walk in the Spirit and know our constant victory over sin’s enticement.
God knew that we could never see that we are just vessels unless we first encountered the law. Since the deception that we do our own good or evil runs so deeply in us, He had to start with us by getting us to the point of admitting that we broke His laws. So He gave us laws.
What the law is all about? God Himself does not live by law. One member of the Trinity never says to another, “What shall We do? Let’s pull a law book off the shelf and see what we should be doing.” This is ridiculous to think. God’s nature is self-for-others: He has made the eternal choice to be love. God is love. Therefore, He doesn’t live by law but by His nature.
We, on the other hand, as creatures, and fallen ones, were born with the deception from the indwelling spirit of error that we can do our own good or do our own evil. We either commend or condemn ourselves and view others likewise, commending those we esteem and condemning those that we disapprove of.
Thus we don’t come into the word thinking that we break God’s laws and need a savior to keep us form going into eternity, separated from God. Though the Bible warns of this destiny for the unbelieving, and asserts that many take this path, these warnings go disregarded as hysteria and unworthy of a loving God, despite the unmistakable, plain word of the scriptures.
God’s first order then was to convince us that we have not and cannot keep His laws: we cannot generate a life like His by imitation. Thankfully, many do come to see, through the Bible and the Spirit, that they have sinned and need a savior. They accept Christ’s atonement and know that their sins are forgiven. This is unspeakably wonderful.
What would you say, though, if I said that being a forgiven sinner is not enough? If we only know life as forgiven sinners, we express thanks that our past is forgiven and heaven awaits us in the future. But we’re left to try to be like Christ in the present, with a never ending sin consciousness that leaves us always feeling like we never measure up as the dirty saints we think we are. We falsely take Romans 7 as Paul’s testimony of what our life must be until we receive new bodies in the resurrection.
Paul’s point is quite different from this! After establishing justification by faith in the early chapters of Romans, Paul moves to how God removed the spirit of error from us and came to dwell in us again. I have given detailed exposition of this many places elsewhere, and so I will only briefly say here that God made Christ Jesus to be our old man—the human self with Satan in it as boss over us in our un redeemed state. This does not mean that Jesus ever sinned; it means that God made Him to be sin (2 Cor. 5:21). Further, God put us into the body of Christ (Romans6 and Galatians2:20) so that we were crucified, buried, and raise with Christ. So the completion of the Gospel simply put is this: we’re the human containers, and by the Cross, Satan goes out, and Christ comes in.
This is the beginning of the new creation and establishes our identity and who we are. We are no longer sinners but saints. Not even sin in the Christian life can change that. Yet, we do not have to live in sin as Christians, and next time I will discuss why that is. Defeat is not our heritage; victory is our heritage. By faith we can walk in the Spirit and know our constant victory over sin’s enticement.
COMMENDATION AND CONDEMNATION: EVIL TWINS - By Brian Coatney - PART II
Part II: Powerlessness Before & after the Fall
The powerlessness of the vessel is always true, both before and after the Fall—and also for those living free from sin by faith because of Christ’s keeping power. Let’s start with a look at Adam and Eve before the Fall: they lived as powerless vessels containing and expressing the power of God. Filled with and radiating God’s glory, God did not give them life; He was their life.
The Bible gives us several illustrations of this. They lived as branches of Him as a tree; they lived as the conjugal, human other to His divine life; they lived as the human temples of His Spirit; they lived as the body expression of Him as head. Nothing could be plainer than that all power was vested in God and that He created humanity to join with it in a glorious union of the human and divine. Never would the creature be God, and never would God be a creature, but we would know ourselves as conscious, sentient beings expressing a life not our own.
Sin did not change God’s plan; sin only meant that we continued as powerless but came under the power of a false indweller through the Fall. Since a vessel cannot remain empty, just like nature abhors a vacuum, Adam and Eve could not really become independent as they had hoped. Thus, when God’s glory departed from the vessel, Satan’s power entered into man, enslaving man. However, Satan hid this fact from them since he hides it from himself.
Further, Adam and Eve’s disobedience was an act of sin, but sin is not primarily a deed or a nature deriving from ourselves. Rather, sin is fundamentally the person of Satan, whose nature is self-for-self, having led the rebellion to be like God. So he’s the one who entered the vessel when Adam and Eve fell; and as a result, we’re all born fallen as Romans Five tells us. This is why Jesus had to be born of a virgin—so that he would not be born just another minion of Satan, already indwelled by the spirit of error from birth (Eph. 2:1-3).
Here, therefore is the point: Paul reveals to us in Romans 6 that we are slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness, but always slaves. I like to say that God gives us a multiple choice question with two answers to choose from. Either we choose to be slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness. Not liking these answers, we politic for a third option, “I want to be my own boss.” Over and over we have tried to pencil in this third option, when the scripture never offers it. The “be my own boss” option really comes from the devil, who continues in this deception himself that such is possible.
This brings us to the point about powerlessness in a sin condition, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and therefore to talk about addiction as something that affects a minority of people, who are worse off than others, is ludicrous. We were all salves of sin as unbelievers; and as believers, where we have not lived from the Spirit, Mr. Sin has held our members in bondage. The great deception in society comes from viewing only some people as addicts, whereas we are all hopelessly enslaved by sin when not walking in the Spirit.
This has everything to do with why Jesus asked the ruler, “Why callest thou me good?” Jesus knew that to commend or condemn people for their deeds, as if people originate their own deeds, misses completely the very fabric of our humanity: God created us to contain and express Him, and in the Fall, Satan took over the indwelling rights of our humanity, so that we began to do his lusts (John 8:44; 2 Tim. 2:26). God’s plan to save us, therefore, had to include expelling the false indweller and restoring His glorious presence in us. This is what we will look at next time in part III—how God expelled the false indweller and reclaimed his stolen property.
The powerlessness of the vessel is always true, both before and after the Fall—and also for those living free from sin by faith because of Christ’s keeping power. Let’s start with a look at Adam and Eve before the Fall: they lived as powerless vessels containing and expressing the power of God. Filled with and radiating God’s glory, God did not give them life; He was their life.
The Bible gives us several illustrations of this. They lived as branches of Him as a tree; they lived as the conjugal, human other to His divine life; they lived as the human temples of His Spirit; they lived as the body expression of Him as head. Nothing could be plainer than that all power was vested in God and that He created humanity to join with it in a glorious union of the human and divine. Never would the creature be God, and never would God be a creature, but we would know ourselves as conscious, sentient beings expressing a life not our own.
Sin did not change God’s plan; sin only meant that we continued as powerless but came under the power of a false indweller through the Fall. Since a vessel cannot remain empty, just like nature abhors a vacuum, Adam and Eve could not really become independent as they had hoped. Thus, when God’s glory departed from the vessel, Satan’s power entered into man, enslaving man. However, Satan hid this fact from them since he hides it from himself.
Further, Adam and Eve’s disobedience was an act of sin, but sin is not primarily a deed or a nature deriving from ourselves. Rather, sin is fundamentally the person of Satan, whose nature is self-for-self, having led the rebellion to be like God. So he’s the one who entered the vessel when Adam and Eve fell; and as a result, we’re all born fallen as Romans Five tells us. This is why Jesus had to be born of a virgin—so that he would not be born just another minion of Satan, already indwelled by the spirit of error from birth (Eph. 2:1-3).
Here, therefore is the point: Paul reveals to us in Romans 6 that we are slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness, but always slaves. I like to say that God gives us a multiple choice question with two answers to choose from. Either we choose to be slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness. Not liking these answers, we politic for a third option, “I want to be my own boss.” Over and over we have tried to pencil in this third option, when the scripture never offers it. The “be my own boss” option really comes from the devil, who continues in this deception himself that such is possible.
This brings us to the point about powerlessness in a sin condition, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and therefore to talk about addiction as something that affects a minority of people, who are worse off than others, is ludicrous. We were all salves of sin as unbelievers; and as believers, where we have not lived from the Spirit, Mr. Sin has held our members in bondage. The great deception in society comes from viewing only some people as addicts, whereas we are all hopelessly enslaved by sin when not walking in the Spirit.
This has everything to do with why Jesus asked the ruler, “Why callest thou me good?” Jesus knew that to commend or condemn people for their deeds, as if people originate their own deeds, misses completely the very fabric of our humanity: God created us to contain and express Him, and in the Fall, Satan took over the indwelling rights of our humanity, so that we began to do his lusts (John 8:44; 2 Tim. 2:26). God’s plan to save us, therefore, had to include expelling the false indweller and restoring His glorious presence in us. This is what we will look at next time in part III—how God expelled the false indweller and reclaimed his stolen property.
COMMENDATION and CONDEMNATION - Part 1 - Who is Good? By Brian Coatney
We’re accustomed to praising people or blaming them, seeing people as just people and ourselves as just ourselves: we’re all about being human. Christians celebrate the incarnation of Christ, and this is right, for the mystery is that Christ, equal with God in eternity, became flesh and blood. Where would we be if he hadn’t? So we have every good reason to celebrate our humanity, since the Son of God Himself took on humanity and even now reigns as a glorified, ascended man.
I think it is good, however, to examine just how Jesus said that His humanity worked. A rich, young ruler came to Jesus and addressed Him as “Good Master,” to which Jesus replied, Why callest thou me good? None is good, save one, that is, God” (Luke 18:19). Jesus had picked up the self righteousness of the ruler, who projected it therefore onto Jesus, as if men are just men who do good things. Nothing could have struck Jesus as more heretical, for He emphasized in talking about Himself that He lived from His Father abiding in Him and did only the works He saw His Father doing.
The reason for this is that Jesus knew that God created humanity in the first place to contain and express the indwelling life of God. I like to say that God created us powerless! Unfortunately, many consider powerlessness the province of a minority percentage of society given to addiction. If one is an addict, one must come to understand powerlessness as the first step toward recovery. Although this is true, the larger picture is that God created humanity powerless even before the Fall of Adam and Eve, and in heaven, we will be powerless for eternity. Powerlessness is not a principle that applies only to addicts; it applies to every human for all time. Jesus knew this, and so He lived as powerless n His humanity, depending every moment on the life of His Father in Him to will and work.
I think it is good, however, to examine just how Jesus said that His humanity worked. A rich, young ruler came to Jesus and addressed Him as “Good Master,” to which Jesus replied, Why callest thou me good? None is good, save one, that is, God” (Luke 18:19). Jesus had picked up the self righteousness of the ruler, who projected it therefore onto Jesus, as if men are just men who do good things. Nothing could have struck Jesus as more heretical, for He emphasized in talking about Himself that He lived from His Father abiding in Him and did only the works He saw His Father doing.
The reason for this is that Jesus knew that God created humanity in the first place to contain and express the indwelling life of God. I like to say that God created us powerless! Unfortunately, many consider powerlessness the province of a minority percentage of society given to addiction. If one is an addict, one must come to understand powerlessness as the first step toward recovery. Although this is true, the larger picture is that God created humanity powerless even before the Fall of Adam and Eve, and in heaven, we will be powerless for eternity. Powerlessness is not a principle that applies only to addicts; it applies to every human for all time. Jesus knew this, and so He lived as powerless n His humanity, depending every moment on the life of His Father in Him to will and work.
The Beauty of Adversity: By Dan Stone
Taken from a message given by Dan Stone in Alexandria, Virginia on May 16, 1981
Our relationship to Christ has many facets, not all of which we see at once. Initially we see our salvation in Christ, our freedom from condemnation, and the effects of sin, Later we begin to understand our freedom from sin itself. And with that firm assurance of our godliness, we finally move out of ourselves and into the lives of others. We become intercessors.
Paul's letter to the Romans describes this three=part growth pattern. Romans 1-5 emphasizes the blood of Christ as an atonement for our sins, Romans 6-8 shows how the body of Christ takes care of the person of sin; and Romans 9-15 deals with Christ's life in us as co-saviors for others. Let’s talk first about the blood and the body of Christ. When we take communion, we are meant to see beyond the elements, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread" (I Cor. 10:16). This is expanded on in Colossians 1:13-14: "[God] has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood which is forgiveness of sins. “In verse 20, "Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven; and you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death: to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." On one side of the cross you see the blood of Christ providing justification for the sins of the world. On the other side of the same cross you see the body of Christ and us in Him, made holy, blameless and unreproachable because of our new position in Christ.
Let us create a scene to demonstrate the blood side of the work of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. As part of a large audience, observers of a tremendous drama, we see the man Jesus being crucified. Someone walks up and lays around Jesus' neck the chain of adultery. Someone else walks up and lays around His neck the chain of fornication, another the chain of uncleanness. Others lay on Him lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, strife, seditions, envyings, murders, drunkenness, and so forth. As this picture of Jesus develops, we see draped on Him every expression of sin-and then we watch Him die.
The Holy Spirit steps forward and says to us, "Everything that you've done, I've laid on Him." An invitation is extended to all: "Will you receive this gift of mine? I've laid on Him all your sins which means they are not laid on you. If you will accept that transference as my love-gift to you, you're justified. You will be to Me as though you'd never committed them. "
All positively respond, "We accept that. As mere spectators all we can do is sit in the audience and hear someone tell us what all this means and accept it. In this analogy Christ pays the price for the sins of the world, and all we can do is receive the gift and, say "Thank you." Now if you are like I was for so many years, this was the only side of the cross you knew. But Paul turns the cross around and says, "Now wait a minute, don't go away too soon. We have another scene."
In this second scene, we are more than spectators-we are participants in Christ. To imagine this scene we must draw a big mental circle around the audience and see ourselves as one. We are all in Him. Paul, in describing the Lord's Supper says that we received the benefits of the blood, but we partake of the body of Christ (I Cor. 10:16-17). The body is all of us, so whatever is happening to the body is happening to us. We are not just observers of a drama on stage; we are the drama. It is as if Jesus loses His identity and becomes us.
The blood side of the cross expresses the glorious fact of our forgiveness, but the body side is a deeper truth. Paul shows us that we became Him, and He became us. We've put a lot of emphasis on Christ being in us, and rightly so. What Paul is teaching now is that we're in Him, so that we ourselves are on the cross.
The people standing watching Christ die are really on that cross themselves. What is happening is a death. We are not dealing with the human body which the Spirit lives in, but with what's happening to the Spirit when it leaves the body. When a body dies, the Spirit leaves and is no longer a part of the body.
The realm of God is the realm of spirit. God looks on the heart. That is why Jesus said to those people whose actions were supposed to be good and righteous, "You do what you see your father the Devil doing" (John 8:44). There are two fathers: God and Satan. We express one or the other.
Hebrews 2:14 says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus also Himself took part of the same, that through death, He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." Satan has been destroyed as a person who can reign in our lives, captivate us, motivate us and keep us under control. When Christ died, we died-we participated in His death and lay in the grave three days, and were raised with Him on the third day. Recently, I had lunch with a young couple and their two-year old. The child kept grabbing for the paper napkin on my lap. She finally got it and began to tear it up into little bits, but she couldn't put it back together again. Her mother went to the kitchen and tore off a paper towel. She handed it to me and said, "This is your new napkin." It wasn't a napkin. It was a towel. But she made it a napkin.
That's what God did. He made Jesus to be sin. Jesus wasn't sin, but God made Him to be sin. The girl's mother said, "This towel is now a napkin." God said, "This precious Son of Mine is now Mr. Sin." In other words, God made Jesus to be us. Paul says, "He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again" (II Cor. 5:15). We never live for self again. If we only look at self, we will often appear to be living for self. Likewise, when we were lost and self-oriented, we sometimes appeared as if we weren't living for self. But the realm of appearance is not the place where the battle is fought-it is fought in the spirit realm. As a result of that battle, Paul says, "You were an expression of that person regardless of what the outcroppings were. But now you are an expression of another person, Christ." We need to get that point home, and we need to know who we are, before we start worrying about conduct.
For years we spent time dealing with our conduct, not knowing who we were, but this did not bring us to a consciousness that "Christ is my life." Instead it brought confusion about who we are related to. This confusion fostered the big lie of two natures. Reasoning from actions back to truth is dangerous, for we may or may not reach truth. But if we start from truth, which is spirit-reality-from "He and I are one"-the conduct is His. Starting from conduct, we are not sure who is in control, and it never brings any of us the awareness of union with Christ. The blessed love of God is to let us worry about conduct until it kills us. It produces the "Oh, wretched man that I am" in a man who was anything but wretched. That is its glory. Paul says, "If there is a glory in the ministry of condemnation, there is a greater glory in this ministry of grace." So let's praise God for misery in the believer. Recently a woman told me that her marriage was on the rocks. Her husband had a girlfriend, etc. God was showing the wife a lot of things, and she didn't like any of them. She said, "You know, I think I'm going insane."
I said, "No, darling, you're not going insane. You're real close to God though, because you're almost at the end of self. “She had said about her husband, "He's my god," so I said, "Well then, you're not going to get him back, because God isn't going to share you with anybody. You're close to getting God, so keep on being miserable."
"Misery" is the name of the door that moves us from the self room to the spirit room. More people come into the union life through misery than through any other door. In fact, I don't know of anybody who hasn't come through some kind of personal misery. The point I made with this woman was that the very end of herself, which she was afraid was insanity, was really where she was going to meet God.
Paul says that we can cease to live for ourselves now. We may appear to be living for ourselves, but if you take the stand that we and He are one, no matter what the appearance looks like, then we are not living for self. Something may look in the first two chapters to be all self, but the final chapter's going to be for the praise and glory of God, because we can never live for self-and the fact is, we don't want to live for self !
The Dan form of Satan died in 1949 and a brand new creature emerged, a Dan form of Christ. Never before has there been a Dan like this. And the same happened to you. Put your own name there-a new creature in Christ. You began to operate from a new person, a new energy, a different approach, and a whole new excitement. You've got a new "wanter" in you. You don't want sin anymore. You may find yourself sinning occasionally, but you don't want to. What you want is God. I often tell believers, "I know your heart. Your heart's for God. Your thoughts and your emotions may not always be, but your heart is for God!" Go with your heart. When you go with God, you're safe, because all He's after through you is the privilege of loving someone else by means of you.
Paul says in Colossians, "It's through the blood side of the cross that we come to the forgiveness of sins." That's the knowing side of the cross. Turn the cross around and we'll see something that to the natural mind is unbelievable. We'll see all of the attributes of God have been poured into us.
We come to the awareness of our perfection in Christ through the operation of choice. God means His creatures to have choices and the consequences of those choices. He means us to have the consequences of whatever we attach ourselves to. If we attach ourselves to the flesh He means us to have the consequences of that attachment.
If we can serve God from the flesh, then why does He strip us down? If all the teaching about performance, doing, attaining, and striving from the flesh is right, then why did God strip Moses? If it is true that we can serve God from the flesh, why did He take Jacob across the brook Jabok and wrestle with him all night and leave him with an outer sign that he had been with God? If he could have served God from the flesh why did Joseph go through what he did? Why was Jesus Himself led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil? Even our Lord had to get fixed so His whole life was a Spirit life.
Let's take the case of Moses. There was nothing wrong with Moses' intention. He got the call-he knew what life was all about. Exodus 2 says: "It came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked upon their burdens. And he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of the brethren, and he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no man, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand." What's interesting is the parallel account in Acts 7, long after Moses. The Holy Spirit told Stephen some things that Moses did not tell us.
The Holy Spirit told Stephen to say that this was to be the sign of Moses to the people that he was the deliverer of Israel, "by this sign you will know that I am this deliverer that you've been awaiting." And yet the next day Moses encountered two of his own brethren striving together, and they said, "Are you going to do to us what you did to that fellow yesterday?"
In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit doesn't hide anything about anybody's flesh. But in the New Testament, He sees the same people from the point of view of perfected faith. So in the Old Testament we see that Moses fled because he was afraid of Pharaoh. But when we read Hebrews, we see that wasn't the case at all. He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, says Hebrews 11. But Exodus 2 says that he was afraid of the king.
Moses had plenty of dedication, but he needed to change his method. Or rather, he needed to quit his own methods and let God take over. That's when things began to happen. That's when the Lord said to Moses. "See, I've made you God to Pharaoh" (Ex. 7:1, literal). "When Pharaoh sees you, he's going to know he's dealing with Me. I'll make you God to Pharaoh”. That’s what Moses wanted all along. Of course he had his share of weaknesses, and God needed every one of them. God gave him somebody to speak for him, gave him a staff to lean on, and then Moses learned what his forty years in the wilderness were for. In less than three months the Hebrews began to wander around in the same area, and Moses needed to know where all the water holes and oases were, as well as everything else that is necessary for desert life. We have dedicated our lives many times. We have worn out altars by laying our bodies down on them. God says, "I know you're dedicated. I know your heart. I am your heart." The struggle is not over dedication but over methodology. God does us a favor to let us collapse. That is hard for us to comprehend. Why? The world doesn't appreciate failures.
Norman Grubb, writing in the book Rees Howells, Intercessor, saw the glory of the man, yet as far as England was concerned; Rees Howells was discredited in his last word of faith. In other words, if that final word of faith had been realized on the appearance level, everybody would have glorified Rees Howells. Real intercessors may well die in their last intercession.
Don't ever again take anything in your life as from Satan. Don't see him. It's God. Every negative experience that comes your way is a privilege if you turn it over and call it God. If you don't you'll get disturbance and discouragement. Turn it over, and you'll get a blessing.
At Passover, when the head of the family gathers his children around him, the emphasis is not on how Moses delivered them, but on how God delivered them. If Moses had taken them out when he was forty, they would have talked about how Moses delivered them. But when Moses got to the Jordan and wanted to cross over, God said, "You're not going over. I'll take them over. But you've laid down your life for them." This is not literal; it's figurative language. It's as if Moses laid down his life, with his heels on one side of the Jordan and his head on the other, and the Israelites walked across his body.
When we know who's doing it, we can lay down our lives for the joy set before us, and watch people walk over us. When we know who we are when the Prince knows he's the Prince then we lean be paupers in the situation. When we know we've already won, we can look like losers. But if we don't know we're the Prince, and we don't know we've won, it tears out our hearts. Thank God that He lets us have those miseries in our flesh. There isn't any crash that's too embarrassing or too difficult or too horrible if we come through to knowing who we are. It is God's love to let our flesh collapse that He may establish us in spirit-knowing about who He is in us as us. And then we can move out and be a person. No more, "It isn't me, it's Jesus." Now we can go out, and call ourselves the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, because we are. We have been bought with a price. And we've been accepted in the Beloved.
Our relationship to Christ has many facets, not all of which we see at once. Initially we see our salvation in Christ, our freedom from condemnation, and the effects of sin, Later we begin to understand our freedom from sin itself. And with that firm assurance of our godliness, we finally move out of ourselves and into the lives of others. We become intercessors.
Paul's letter to the Romans describes this three=part growth pattern. Romans 1-5 emphasizes the blood of Christ as an atonement for our sins, Romans 6-8 shows how the body of Christ takes care of the person of sin; and Romans 9-15 deals with Christ's life in us as co-saviors for others. Let’s talk first about the blood and the body of Christ. When we take communion, we are meant to see beyond the elements, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread" (I Cor. 10:16). This is expanded on in Colossians 1:13-14: "[God] has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood which is forgiveness of sins. “In verse 20, "Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven; and you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death: to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." On one side of the cross you see the blood of Christ providing justification for the sins of the world. On the other side of the same cross you see the body of Christ and us in Him, made holy, blameless and unreproachable because of our new position in Christ.
Let us create a scene to demonstrate the blood side of the work of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. As part of a large audience, observers of a tremendous drama, we see the man Jesus being crucified. Someone walks up and lays around Jesus' neck the chain of adultery. Someone else walks up and lays around His neck the chain of fornication, another the chain of uncleanness. Others lay on Him lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, strife, seditions, envyings, murders, drunkenness, and so forth. As this picture of Jesus develops, we see draped on Him every expression of sin-and then we watch Him die.
The Holy Spirit steps forward and says to us, "Everything that you've done, I've laid on Him." An invitation is extended to all: "Will you receive this gift of mine? I've laid on Him all your sins which means they are not laid on you. If you will accept that transference as my love-gift to you, you're justified. You will be to Me as though you'd never committed them. "
All positively respond, "We accept that. As mere spectators all we can do is sit in the audience and hear someone tell us what all this means and accept it. In this analogy Christ pays the price for the sins of the world, and all we can do is receive the gift and, say "Thank you." Now if you are like I was for so many years, this was the only side of the cross you knew. But Paul turns the cross around and says, "Now wait a minute, don't go away too soon. We have another scene."
In this second scene, we are more than spectators-we are participants in Christ. To imagine this scene we must draw a big mental circle around the audience and see ourselves as one. We are all in Him. Paul, in describing the Lord's Supper says that we received the benefits of the blood, but we partake of the body of Christ (I Cor. 10:16-17). The body is all of us, so whatever is happening to the body is happening to us. We are not just observers of a drama on stage; we are the drama. It is as if Jesus loses His identity and becomes us.
The blood side of the cross expresses the glorious fact of our forgiveness, but the body side is a deeper truth. Paul shows us that we became Him, and He became us. We've put a lot of emphasis on Christ being in us, and rightly so. What Paul is teaching now is that we're in Him, so that we ourselves are on the cross.
The people standing watching Christ die are really on that cross themselves. What is happening is a death. We are not dealing with the human body which the Spirit lives in, but with what's happening to the Spirit when it leaves the body. When a body dies, the Spirit leaves and is no longer a part of the body.
The realm of God is the realm of spirit. God looks on the heart. That is why Jesus said to those people whose actions were supposed to be good and righteous, "You do what you see your father the Devil doing" (John 8:44). There are two fathers: God and Satan. We express one or the other.
Hebrews 2:14 says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus also Himself took part of the same, that through death, He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." Satan has been destroyed as a person who can reign in our lives, captivate us, motivate us and keep us under control. When Christ died, we died-we participated in His death and lay in the grave three days, and were raised with Him on the third day. Recently, I had lunch with a young couple and their two-year old. The child kept grabbing for the paper napkin on my lap. She finally got it and began to tear it up into little bits, but she couldn't put it back together again. Her mother went to the kitchen and tore off a paper towel. She handed it to me and said, "This is your new napkin." It wasn't a napkin. It was a towel. But she made it a napkin.
That's what God did. He made Jesus to be sin. Jesus wasn't sin, but God made Him to be sin. The girl's mother said, "This towel is now a napkin." God said, "This precious Son of Mine is now Mr. Sin." In other words, God made Jesus to be us. Paul says, "He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again" (II Cor. 5:15). We never live for self again. If we only look at self, we will often appear to be living for self. Likewise, when we were lost and self-oriented, we sometimes appeared as if we weren't living for self. But the realm of appearance is not the place where the battle is fought-it is fought in the spirit realm. As a result of that battle, Paul says, "You were an expression of that person regardless of what the outcroppings were. But now you are an expression of another person, Christ." We need to get that point home, and we need to know who we are, before we start worrying about conduct.
For years we spent time dealing with our conduct, not knowing who we were, but this did not bring us to a consciousness that "Christ is my life." Instead it brought confusion about who we are related to. This confusion fostered the big lie of two natures. Reasoning from actions back to truth is dangerous, for we may or may not reach truth. But if we start from truth, which is spirit-reality-from "He and I are one"-the conduct is His. Starting from conduct, we are not sure who is in control, and it never brings any of us the awareness of union with Christ. The blessed love of God is to let us worry about conduct until it kills us. It produces the "Oh, wretched man that I am" in a man who was anything but wretched. That is its glory. Paul says, "If there is a glory in the ministry of condemnation, there is a greater glory in this ministry of grace." So let's praise God for misery in the believer. Recently a woman told me that her marriage was on the rocks. Her husband had a girlfriend, etc. God was showing the wife a lot of things, and she didn't like any of them. She said, "You know, I think I'm going insane."
I said, "No, darling, you're not going insane. You're real close to God though, because you're almost at the end of self. “She had said about her husband, "He's my god," so I said, "Well then, you're not going to get him back, because God isn't going to share you with anybody. You're close to getting God, so keep on being miserable."
"Misery" is the name of the door that moves us from the self room to the spirit room. More people come into the union life through misery than through any other door. In fact, I don't know of anybody who hasn't come through some kind of personal misery. The point I made with this woman was that the very end of herself, which she was afraid was insanity, was really where she was going to meet God.
Paul says that we can cease to live for ourselves now. We may appear to be living for ourselves, but if you take the stand that we and He are one, no matter what the appearance looks like, then we are not living for self. Something may look in the first two chapters to be all self, but the final chapter's going to be for the praise and glory of God, because we can never live for self-and the fact is, we don't want to live for self !
The Dan form of Satan died in 1949 and a brand new creature emerged, a Dan form of Christ. Never before has there been a Dan like this. And the same happened to you. Put your own name there-a new creature in Christ. You began to operate from a new person, a new energy, a different approach, and a whole new excitement. You've got a new "wanter" in you. You don't want sin anymore. You may find yourself sinning occasionally, but you don't want to. What you want is God. I often tell believers, "I know your heart. Your heart's for God. Your thoughts and your emotions may not always be, but your heart is for God!" Go with your heart. When you go with God, you're safe, because all He's after through you is the privilege of loving someone else by means of you.
Paul says in Colossians, "It's through the blood side of the cross that we come to the forgiveness of sins." That's the knowing side of the cross. Turn the cross around and we'll see something that to the natural mind is unbelievable. We'll see all of the attributes of God have been poured into us.
We come to the awareness of our perfection in Christ through the operation of choice. God means His creatures to have choices and the consequences of those choices. He means us to have the consequences of whatever we attach ourselves to. If we attach ourselves to the flesh He means us to have the consequences of that attachment.
If we can serve God from the flesh, then why does He strip us down? If all the teaching about performance, doing, attaining, and striving from the flesh is right, then why did God strip Moses? If it is true that we can serve God from the flesh, why did He take Jacob across the brook Jabok and wrestle with him all night and leave him with an outer sign that he had been with God? If he could have served God from the flesh why did Joseph go through what he did? Why was Jesus Himself led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil? Even our Lord had to get fixed so His whole life was a Spirit life.
Let's take the case of Moses. There was nothing wrong with Moses' intention. He got the call-he knew what life was all about. Exodus 2 says: "It came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked upon their burdens. And he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of the brethren, and he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no man, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand." What's interesting is the parallel account in Acts 7, long after Moses. The Holy Spirit told Stephen some things that Moses did not tell us.
The Holy Spirit told Stephen to say that this was to be the sign of Moses to the people that he was the deliverer of Israel, "by this sign you will know that I am this deliverer that you've been awaiting." And yet the next day Moses encountered two of his own brethren striving together, and they said, "Are you going to do to us what you did to that fellow yesterday?"
In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit doesn't hide anything about anybody's flesh. But in the New Testament, He sees the same people from the point of view of perfected faith. So in the Old Testament we see that Moses fled because he was afraid of Pharaoh. But when we read Hebrews, we see that wasn't the case at all. He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, says Hebrews 11. But Exodus 2 says that he was afraid of the king.
Moses had plenty of dedication, but he needed to change his method. Or rather, he needed to quit his own methods and let God take over. That's when things began to happen. That's when the Lord said to Moses. "See, I've made you God to Pharaoh" (Ex. 7:1, literal). "When Pharaoh sees you, he's going to know he's dealing with Me. I'll make you God to Pharaoh”. That’s what Moses wanted all along. Of course he had his share of weaknesses, and God needed every one of them. God gave him somebody to speak for him, gave him a staff to lean on, and then Moses learned what his forty years in the wilderness were for. In less than three months the Hebrews began to wander around in the same area, and Moses needed to know where all the water holes and oases were, as well as everything else that is necessary for desert life. We have dedicated our lives many times. We have worn out altars by laying our bodies down on them. God says, "I know you're dedicated. I know your heart. I am your heart." The struggle is not over dedication but over methodology. God does us a favor to let us collapse. That is hard for us to comprehend. Why? The world doesn't appreciate failures.
Norman Grubb, writing in the book Rees Howells, Intercessor, saw the glory of the man, yet as far as England was concerned; Rees Howells was discredited in his last word of faith. In other words, if that final word of faith had been realized on the appearance level, everybody would have glorified Rees Howells. Real intercessors may well die in their last intercession.
Don't ever again take anything in your life as from Satan. Don't see him. It's God. Every negative experience that comes your way is a privilege if you turn it over and call it God. If you don't you'll get disturbance and discouragement. Turn it over, and you'll get a blessing.
At Passover, when the head of the family gathers his children around him, the emphasis is not on how Moses delivered them, but on how God delivered them. If Moses had taken them out when he was forty, they would have talked about how Moses delivered them. But when Moses got to the Jordan and wanted to cross over, God said, "You're not going over. I'll take them over. But you've laid down your life for them." This is not literal; it's figurative language. It's as if Moses laid down his life, with his heels on one side of the Jordan and his head on the other, and the Israelites walked across his body.
When we know who's doing it, we can lay down our lives for the joy set before us, and watch people walk over us. When we know who we are when the Prince knows he's the Prince then we lean be paupers in the situation. When we know we've already won, we can look like losers. But if we don't know we're the Prince, and we don't know we've won, it tears out our hearts. Thank God that He lets us have those miseries in our flesh. There isn't any crash that's too embarrassing or too difficult or too horrible if we come through to knowing who we are. It is God's love to let our flesh collapse that He may establish us in spirit-knowing about who He is in us as us. And then we can move out and be a person. No more, "It isn't me, it's Jesus." Now we can go out, and call ourselves the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, because we are. We have been bought with a price. And we've been accepted in the Beloved.
"Consummated Faith" By Nancy Gilmore
Consummated faith is Christ formed in us, as us. It's our inner-recognition of His Life being ours. He is 'The Life'...! He also is "The Way" in us...! It's our inner-recognition of 'know-how'; knowing how The Spirit operates by us; knowing how to make things happen, by saying so; even before they happen for others to see manifested. Christ is the power of God in us, and the Spirit is the power of action by us. Spirit attitude comes before Spirit action.
George MacDonald - Martin Luther
The finite that dwells in the infinite, and in which the infinite dwells, is finite no longer. Those who are thus children indeed, are little gods, the divine brood of the infinite Father." (George MacDonald) “It was God's intention to have a race of Christs’; nothing less than this is true holiness, and the Gospel in operation. (Martin Luther).
PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGY FOR LINKS THAT WILL NOT OPEN!
I DID NOT POST THE LINKS CORRECTLY AND I AM WORKING ON GETTING ALL THINGS UP AND RUNNING!
Walid Shoebat Posted Video
We have placed on our web site a video of a Muslim Association Student interacting with David Horowitz at UCSD. http://www.shoebat.com/videos/dHorowitz.php
The Jesus That John Knew Part - Paul Anderson-Walsh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDsfKnogP1o&feature=digest
GRACE WALK MINISTRIES With Steve McVey
http://gracewalkministries.blogspot.com/2010/05/wonder-of-it-all.html
GOOGLE EARTH
http://maps.google.com/maps?ftr=earth.promo&hl=en&utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=mapshpp&utm_source=en-mapshpp-na-us-gns-erth&utm_term=evl
WORLD OF QUOTES - Kokichi-Kurosaki
http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/Kokichi-Kurosaki/1/index.html
Why the Bible? Ravi Zacharias at the University of Illinois
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHRP0I2SrVs&NR=1
JACOB BOEHME - VISIONARY
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.greatdreams.com/sacred/boehme4.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.greatdreams.com/sacred/boehme.htm&usg=__ZDyyqNgwrjXzl-2VqOh70HkISXY=&h=1786&w=1154&sz=728&hl=en&start=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=SDzBzqJCzijkmM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=97&prev=/images?q=jacob+boehme&um=1&hl=en&sa=X&rlz=1C1CHMA_enUS362US362&tbs=isch:1
AUDIO - NORMAN GRUBB SHARING
http://spiritbroadcasting.net/audio/conf_teach/grubb/audio_teach-conf_by_grubb.htm
VoiceOfTheMartyrsUSA — February 23, 2009 — Rev. Richard Wurmbrand talks of his time spent in solitary confinement in prison.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_1j5FXC2Aw
SELECTED MYSTICAL WRITING BY WILLIAM LAW
http://books.google.com/books?id=3tY8ftC1PXcC&dq=free%20william%20law%20books&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=W9OdS_vHCoK0NsujjYkF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=13&ved=0CDoQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=free%20william%20law%20books&f=false
THE INCARNATION: By Nancy Fitzpatrick Gilmore
The Incarnation; by Nancy Fitzpatrick Gilmore
The Incarnation is, without a doubt, the greatest miracle to ever take place in flesh and blood in all of human history. It not only affected every human being God ever created, but it ultimately brought into existence a new dimension in the Throne Room of God; where we are now accepted with our LORD and SAVIOUR; CHRIST Jesus, himself! I think we can, in every sense of the word, accept ourselves, not because God made everything good in creation; but because Jesus made us new by being the Progenitor of a 'new race' of people through His resurrection! Christ raised us in Himself when He was raised from the dead; which takes us into a new dimension with Him; an invisible dimension where we are unencumbered by earthly things; and kept by the power of His Spirit; quickening us throughout eternity. To God Be the Glory!
TOUCHING THE INVISIBLE By Norman Grubb
Touching The Invisible...Norman Grubb
CHAPTER SEVEN - ALMIGHTY MEEKNESS
There is the work of the Cross and there is the way of the Cross. All believers accept the former. 'Upon Another's life, Another's death, I rest my whole eternity.' But much slower are we to recognize that the Cross represents not merely the atoning act, but also an eternal principle, a fundamental of the nature of God, underlying the act; that the atonement, the work of the Cross, has as its objective the recall of mankind to this fundamental principle, this way of the Cross, this nature of the Godhead, a way so revolutionary that it cuts at the root of man's recognized method of actions from primitive savagedom to modern civilization.
Two rival principles of action joined battle at Calvary, and call the world's attention to their relative claims Force versus Meekness.
The way of force the world has known and practiced from its infancy. Force gained its kingdom by usurpation at the Fall, and publicly proclaimed its dominion over the affairs of men by the side of the slain body of Abel. At that critical moment God stepped in. In order to prevent lawlessness and violence from bringing total disaster on the infant race, God instructed man in the rule of law. He taught him how to subdue force by force, and laid down in those early days the groundwork of the legal system which now governs civilization, instructing Noah that 'whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed', giving Israel as a standard of strict justice, 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'. Right on into New Testament days and up to our present era these safeguards to a just and ordered social and international life have been approved and maintained, Paul saying that 'the powers that be are ordained of God', and that the magistrate 'beareth not the sword in vain', law courts, police, jails and defense forces being the modern counterparts of this age long system.
Yet two thousand years ago the world was introduced to another kingdom, based on other sanctions. In this realm the inheritors of the earth are said to be the meek, not the grasping and violent; giving, not getting, is the means of prosperity; wrongful activities are overcome by a counter attack of good deeds; enemies are loved, blessed, kindly entreated, not hated. Indeed, its Founder distinctly states that its principles supersede those of the era of law. 'It hath been said by them of old time,' said He, 'but I say unto you...' And what He verbally enunciated as a principle, later He acted out to the utmost limits when urged to oppose by violence His impending doom, answering, 'My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight'. From that day onward for all time the Cross has become the symbol to the human race of a new, unknown, unguessed power, the unconquerable potency of defenseless, quenchless love.
'Twas on a day of rout they girded Me about
They wounded all My brow, and they smote me
through the side;
My hand held no sword when I met their arm ed horde,
And the conqueror fell down, and the Conquered
bruised his pride.
What is this, unheard before, that the Unarmed make war,
And the Slain hath the gain, and the victor hath the rout?
Granted this as an ultimate ideal, granted that all men of faith look with assurance to the yet distant day when unarmed love will rule over the melted and transformed hearts of all men, when even amongst the animal creation 'the wolf will lie down with the lamb', when the King of Love will lead His loving subjects like a shepherd; but in the interim, what? Can wicked men and wicked systems now be restrained by meekness and love? It is a question that exercises the conscience of many believers.
The answer according to the Scriptures, so far as the writer sees it, is that the reign of law based on force will last so long as this dispensation lasts: it is God's provision for the restraint of evil 'that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness', and has His blessing. But it is only His permissive will, introduced into fallen man's economy to save the race from destruction after it had chosen the way of disobedience. What was said by Christ concerning one provision of that law, 'Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you...; but from the beginning it was not so' is applicable to the whole.
God's true nature, true method of government was revealed in Jesus, the love that produces a corresponding love which fulfils all law, the self giving that inspires a like devoted self giving in its creatures of all levels of life. He founded by His outpoured life and infused Spirit the true kingdom of God; at first in the hearts of His inner circle of followers, to be extended one day to the whole world. In accordance with the very nature of that kingdom, He does not force its full implications upon His subjects in this twilight era of mingled good and evil, when at best we only 'see through a glass darkly'. He merely revealed the full standards by lip and life, and when they entailed a peculiarly high standard of allegiance, He would quietly add 'He that is able to receive it, let him receive it', or 'If thou wilt be perfect', do so and so.
Gradually, as the centuries have passed, these seed thoughts have germinated and produced fruits, first only in scattered individuals and groups, usually regarded as dangerous maniacs by established 'Christianity', and often persecuted; then later, through their witness and often martyrdom, the higher light has reached the general conscience of humanity. Thus polygamy, allowed in Old Testament days, nowhere condemned in downright terms in the New Testament, became universally recognized as a sin and outlawed. Slavery has followed. The old imperialism, the subjugation of one race for the benefit of another, has in our generation begun to be recognized as immoral and un Christian, to be followed soon by the full realization that God 'hath made of one blood all nations of men', and that therefore all national barriers producing national prejudices, pride, enmities, selfishness are equally un Christian. Religious persecution, when compared to the attitude of the Church of the Middle Ages, is now coming under universal condemnation. Inequality of privilege, class distinctions, unequal distribution of wealth, are now actively disturbing the conscience of mankind. Equally the cry is going up for the outlawing of war as a method for the settlement of national differences.
In the van of this 'pacifist' movement, so far as war is concerned, come once again the 'extremists', but already there are the thousands of today in place of the mere handful in the Great War twenty years ago, who feel it un Christian to use weapons of destruction, defensive as well as offensive. Such 'conscientiously object' to taking part in war. So few were they in 1914 and so fanatical in the eyes of their fellow Christians, that even in 'Christian' England they were imprisoned and treated as criminals. Today in this 1939 war their viewpoint carries sufficient weight in Britain for tribunals to be set up to examine each case and exempt the sincere, although in most other countries the penalty for 'pacifism' is still the broad arrow.
To our mind their stand for total meekness as a principle of the kingdom of God is in conformity with the full stature of Christ. All through Christian history enlightened groups have held fast to it. They have been and still are the forerunners and pioneers of the new age which will only dawn in fullness when its Founder and first Pioneer Himself appears to reign on earth. Meanwhile, it is 'given' to some to see and follow thus literally in their Master's footsteps, and to them it is also given to bear witness to their conviction before the world.
Meekness unadulterated carries with it crucifixion. The truly meek can claim no rights, keep no rigid hold on earthly possessions. Not for them is recourse to the law courts or police. Yet ever now the meek inherit the earth. Many a missionary has found the almightiness of meekness sometimes a woman alone, defenseless, possessionless amongst savages whom a government cannot subdue, yet finds that in a few fears those raw barbarians are her devoted servants.
Contrast the use of force and meekness, and what do we find? Force is power on the circumference, meekness power at the center. Force power on the outward and local, meekness power on the inward and universal. Force power visible, meekness power invisible. Force is man's human spirit putting forth its little energies, mental, verbal, physical, to attain its end. Meekness is God's Spirit, reigning in a man who first dies to all self attitudes and activities, and working through that man by His ways of love, faith, lowliness and long suffering, the almighty works of God in that particular situation. Force APPEARS strong. Meekness APPEARS weak, but it is the weakness of God which is stronger than men, and the foolishness of God which is wiser than men.
Who won at Calvary, and is still winning and will win? The outward might of deep laid scheme, mob violence and Roman law, or the inward, hidden might of the Lamb who opened not His mouth? Which have been more powerful, the legions of Ceasar or the Gospel of Jesus? Which convinces even an unregenerate world today as the final truth, dictatorial compulsion or the Sermon on the Mount?
God's final word, fullness of wisdom and brightness of His glory, illuminated the world in the person of His Son; He brought to light by word and action this new way of conquest, this new method of government, this new dynamic power which swallows up the old way of force, unconquerable, eternal, irresistible, for it is the very nature of the Creator Redeemer God in action, it is the way of the Lamb who opened not His mouth when led to the slaughter, and yet sits, still a Lamb, upon the throne of the universe. It is the way of One who is 'meek and lowly in heart', the Servant, the Sufferer, and yet is given a name above every name at which every knee shall bow.
But, granted that we see this to be the way of Christ, how put it into action? First, there must be a conviction with us that meekness IS power. Most folk regard meekness as a beautiful but negative Christian characteristic, an inert yielding to circumstances or people too strong for it, rather than as a positive spiritual weapon, an almighty power. We have already outlined our reasons for seeing it to be the latter.
Having settled that, the central core of meekness is that in every situation which arises we must be sure that WE die. Things occur which move us to fear, anger, retaliation, argument, self defense. Under such impulses we leap to the use of 'force' by word or deed, whether only in its mildest forms of urging our own view or pursuing our own course of action. To all these, in every such crisis, whether major or minor, we must acquire the habit of dying and knowing by the Spirit's witness that we have died: such a habit will be inwrought by the Spirit in the experience of all who persistently take this way.
With that accomplished, we are lifted automatically into 'the heavenly places' of meekness. A clear vision shows what would be the outcome that honors God. An inborn faith gives assurance that it will come to pass, and a consequent poise, the faith that overcomes the world. If we speak, it is with the humility and tenderness of Christ, with healing, not hurting, words. If we act, it is in loving service. If we think or speak of others, it is believing all things and hoping all things. Inward victory has been won. Inward power is flowing out. Outward circumstances and people will be conformed to that inward vision and faith. True 'force' has won the day.
CHAPTER SEVEN - ALMIGHTY MEEKNESS
There is the work of the Cross and there is the way of the Cross. All believers accept the former. 'Upon Another's life, Another's death, I rest my whole eternity.' But much slower are we to recognize that the Cross represents not merely the atoning act, but also an eternal principle, a fundamental of the nature of God, underlying the act; that the atonement, the work of the Cross, has as its objective the recall of mankind to this fundamental principle, this way of the Cross, this nature of the Godhead, a way so revolutionary that it cuts at the root of man's recognized method of actions from primitive savagedom to modern civilization.
Two rival principles of action joined battle at Calvary, and call the world's attention to their relative claims Force versus Meekness.
The way of force the world has known and practiced from its infancy. Force gained its kingdom by usurpation at the Fall, and publicly proclaimed its dominion over the affairs of men by the side of the slain body of Abel. At that critical moment God stepped in. In order to prevent lawlessness and violence from bringing total disaster on the infant race, God instructed man in the rule of law. He taught him how to subdue force by force, and laid down in those early days the groundwork of the legal system which now governs civilization, instructing Noah that 'whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed', giving Israel as a standard of strict justice, 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'. Right on into New Testament days and up to our present era these safeguards to a just and ordered social and international life have been approved and maintained, Paul saying that 'the powers that be are ordained of God', and that the magistrate 'beareth not the sword in vain', law courts, police, jails and defense forces being the modern counterparts of this age long system.
Yet two thousand years ago the world was introduced to another kingdom, based on other sanctions. In this realm the inheritors of the earth are said to be the meek, not the grasping and violent; giving, not getting, is the means of prosperity; wrongful activities are overcome by a counter attack of good deeds; enemies are loved, blessed, kindly entreated, not hated. Indeed, its Founder distinctly states that its principles supersede those of the era of law. 'It hath been said by them of old time,' said He, 'but I say unto you...' And what He verbally enunciated as a principle, later He acted out to the utmost limits when urged to oppose by violence His impending doom, answering, 'My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight'. From that day onward for all time the Cross has become the symbol to the human race of a new, unknown, unguessed power, the unconquerable potency of defenseless, quenchless love.
'Twas on a day of rout they girded Me about
They wounded all My brow, and they smote me
through the side;
My hand held no sword when I met their arm ed horde,
And the conqueror fell down, and the Conquered
bruised his pride.
What is this, unheard before, that the Unarmed make war,
And the Slain hath the gain, and the victor hath the rout?
Granted this as an ultimate ideal, granted that all men of faith look with assurance to the yet distant day when unarmed love will rule over the melted and transformed hearts of all men, when even amongst the animal creation 'the wolf will lie down with the lamb', when the King of Love will lead His loving subjects like a shepherd; but in the interim, what? Can wicked men and wicked systems now be restrained by meekness and love? It is a question that exercises the conscience of many believers.
The answer according to the Scriptures, so far as the writer sees it, is that the reign of law based on force will last so long as this dispensation lasts: it is God's provision for the restraint of evil 'that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness', and has His blessing. But it is only His permissive will, introduced into fallen man's economy to save the race from destruction after it had chosen the way of disobedience. What was said by Christ concerning one provision of that law, 'Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you...; but from the beginning it was not so' is applicable to the whole.
God's true nature, true method of government was revealed in Jesus, the love that produces a corresponding love which fulfils all law, the self giving that inspires a like devoted self giving in its creatures of all levels of life. He founded by His outpoured life and infused Spirit the true kingdom of God; at first in the hearts of His inner circle of followers, to be extended one day to the whole world. In accordance with the very nature of that kingdom, He does not force its full implications upon His subjects in this twilight era of mingled good and evil, when at best we only 'see through a glass darkly'. He merely revealed the full standards by lip and life, and when they entailed a peculiarly high standard of allegiance, He would quietly add 'He that is able to receive it, let him receive it', or 'If thou wilt be perfect', do so and so.
Gradually, as the centuries have passed, these seed thoughts have germinated and produced fruits, first only in scattered individuals and groups, usually regarded as dangerous maniacs by established 'Christianity', and often persecuted; then later, through their witness and often martyrdom, the higher light has reached the general conscience of humanity. Thus polygamy, allowed in Old Testament days, nowhere condemned in downright terms in the New Testament, became universally recognized as a sin and outlawed. Slavery has followed. The old imperialism, the subjugation of one race for the benefit of another, has in our generation begun to be recognized as immoral and un Christian, to be followed soon by the full realization that God 'hath made of one blood all nations of men', and that therefore all national barriers producing national prejudices, pride, enmities, selfishness are equally un Christian. Religious persecution, when compared to the attitude of the Church of the Middle Ages, is now coming under universal condemnation. Inequality of privilege, class distinctions, unequal distribution of wealth, are now actively disturbing the conscience of mankind. Equally the cry is going up for the outlawing of war as a method for the settlement of national differences.
In the van of this 'pacifist' movement, so far as war is concerned, come once again the 'extremists', but already there are the thousands of today in place of the mere handful in the Great War twenty years ago, who feel it un Christian to use weapons of destruction, defensive as well as offensive. Such 'conscientiously object' to taking part in war. So few were they in 1914 and so fanatical in the eyes of their fellow Christians, that even in 'Christian' England they were imprisoned and treated as criminals. Today in this 1939 war their viewpoint carries sufficient weight in Britain for tribunals to be set up to examine each case and exempt the sincere, although in most other countries the penalty for 'pacifism' is still the broad arrow.
To our mind their stand for total meekness as a principle of the kingdom of God is in conformity with the full stature of Christ. All through Christian history enlightened groups have held fast to it. They have been and still are the forerunners and pioneers of the new age which will only dawn in fullness when its Founder and first Pioneer Himself appears to reign on earth. Meanwhile, it is 'given' to some to see and follow thus literally in their Master's footsteps, and to them it is also given to bear witness to their conviction before the world.
Meekness unadulterated carries with it crucifixion. The truly meek can claim no rights, keep no rigid hold on earthly possessions. Not for them is recourse to the law courts or police. Yet ever now the meek inherit the earth. Many a missionary has found the almightiness of meekness sometimes a woman alone, defenseless, possessionless amongst savages whom a government cannot subdue, yet finds that in a few fears those raw barbarians are her devoted servants.
Contrast the use of force and meekness, and what do we find? Force is power on the circumference, meekness power at the center. Force power on the outward and local, meekness power on the inward and universal. Force power visible, meekness power invisible. Force is man's human spirit putting forth its little energies, mental, verbal, physical, to attain its end. Meekness is God's Spirit, reigning in a man who first dies to all self attitudes and activities, and working through that man by His ways of love, faith, lowliness and long suffering, the almighty works of God in that particular situation. Force APPEARS strong. Meekness APPEARS weak, but it is the weakness of God which is stronger than men, and the foolishness of God which is wiser than men.
Who won at Calvary, and is still winning and will win? The outward might of deep laid scheme, mob violence and Roman law, or the inward, hidden might of the Lamb who opened not His mouth? Which have been more powerful, the legions of Ceasar or the Gospel of Jesus? Which convinces even an unregenerate world today as the final truth, dictatorial compulsion or the Sermon on the Mount?
God's final word, fullness of wisdom and brightness of His glory, illuminated the world in the person of His Son; He brought to light by word and action this new way of conquest, this new method of government, this new dynamic power which swallows up the old way of force, unconquerable, eternal, irresistible, for it is the very nature of the Creator Redeemer God in action, it is the way of the Lamb who opened not His mouth when led to the slaughter, and yet sits, still a Lamb, upon the throne of the universe. It is the way of One who is 'meek and lowly in heart', the Servant, the Sufferer, and yet is given a name above every name at which every knee shall bow.
But, granted that we see this to be the way of Christ, how put it into action? First, there must be a conviction with us that meekness IS power. Most folk regard meekness as a beautiful but negative Christian characteristic, an inert yielding to circumstances or people too strong for it, rather than as a positive spiritual weapon, an almighty power. We have already outlined our reasons for seeing it to be the latter.
Having settled that, the central core of meekness is that in every situation which arises we must be sure that WE die. Things occur which move us to fear, anger, retaliation, argument, self defense. Under such impulses we leap to the use of 'force' by word or deed, whether only in its mildest forms of urging our own view or pursuing our own course of action. To all these, in every such crisis, whether major or minor, we must acquire the habit of dying and knowing by the Spirit's witness that we have died: such a habit will be inwrought by the Spirit in the experience of all who persistently take this way.
With that accomplished, we are lifted automatically into 'the heavenly places' of meekness. A clear vision shows what would be the outcome that honors God. An inborn faith gives assurance that it will come to pass, and a consequent poise, the faith that overcomes the world. If we speak, it is with the humility and tenderness of Christ, with healing, not hurting, words. If we act, it is in loving service. If we think or speak of others, it is believing all things and hoping all things. Inward victory has been won. Inward power is flowing out. Outward circumstances and people will be conformed to that inward vision and faith. True 'force' has won the day.
THE BEAUTY OF ADVERSITY by Dan Stone
THIS IS FROM A FRIEND WHO IS NOW WITH THE LORD. I HOPE YOU FIND MUCH INSIGHT FROM WHAT HE WRITES HERE.
The Beauty of Adversity
By Dan Stone
Taken from a message given by Dan Stone in Alexandria, Virginia on May 16, 1981
Our relationship to Christ has many facets, not all of which we see at once. Initially we see our salvation in Christ, our freedom from condemnation, and the effects of sin, Later we begin to understand our freedom from sin itself. And with that firm assurance of our godliness, we finally move out of ourselves and into the lives of others. We become intercessors.
Paul's letter to the Romans describes this three=part growth pattern. Romans 1-5 emphasizes the blood of Christ as an atonement for our sins, Romans 6-8 shows how the body of Christ takes care of the person of sin; and Romans 9-15 deals with Christ's life in us as co-saviors for others.Let's talk first about the blood and the body of Christ. When we take communion, we are meant to see beyond the elements, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread" (I Cor. 10:16). This is expanded on in Colossians 1:13-14: "[God] has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood which is forgiveness of sins."In verse 20, "Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven; and you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death: to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." On one side of the cross you see the blood of Christ providing justification for the sins of the world. On the other side of the same cross you see the body of Christ and us in Him, made holy, blameless and unreproachable because of our new position in Christ.
Let us create a scene to demonstrate the blood side of the work of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. As part of a large audience, observers of a tremendous drama, we see the man Jesus being crucified. Someone walks up and lays around Jesus' neck the chain of adultery. Someone else walks up and lays around His neck the chain of fornication, another the chain of uncleanness. Others lay on Him lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, strife, seditions, envyings, murders, drunkenness, and so forth. As this picture of Jesus develops, we see draped on Him every expression of sin-and then we watch Him die.
The Holy Spirit steps forward and says to us, "Everything that you've done, I've laid on Him." An invitation is extended to all: "Will you receive this gift of mine? I've laid on Him all your sins which means they are not laid on you. If you will accept that transference as my love-gift to you, you're justified. You will be to Me as though you'd never committed them. "
All positively respond, "We accept that. As mere spectators all we can do is sit in the audience and hear someone tell us what all this means and accept it. In this analogy Christ pays the price for the sins of the world, and all we can do is receive the gift and, say "Thank you." Now if you are like I was for so many years, this was the only side of the cross you knew. But Paul turns the cross around and says, "Now wait a minute, don't go away too soon. We have another scene."
In this second scene, we are more than spectators-we are participants in Christ. To imagine this scene we must draw a big mental circle around the audience and see ourselves as one. We are all in Him. Paul, in describing the Lord's Supper says that we received the benefits of the blood, but we partake of the body of Christ (I Cor. 10:16-17). The body is all of us, so whatever is happening to the body is happening to us. We are not just observers of a drama on stage; we are the drama. It is as if Jesus loses His identity and becomes us.
The blood side of the cross expresses the glorious fact of our forgiveness, but the body side is a deeper truth. Paul shows us that we became Him, and He became us. We've put a lot of emphasis on Christ being in us, and rightly so. What Paul is teaching now is that we're in Him, so that we ourselves are on the cross.
The people standing watching Christ die are really on that cross themselves. What is happening is a death. We are not dealing with the human body which the Spirit lives in, but with what's happening to the Spirit when it leaves the body. When a body dies, the Spirit leaves and is no longer a part of the body.
The realm of God is the realm of spirit. God looks on the heart. That is why Jesus said to those people whose actions were supposed to be good and righteous, "You do what you see your father the Devil doing" (John 8:44). There are two fathers: God and Satan. We express one or the other.
Hebrews 2:14 says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus also Himself took part of the same, that through death, He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." Satan has been destroyed as a person who can reign in our lives, captivate us, motivate us and keep us under control. When Christ died, we died-we participated in His death and lay in the grave three days, and were raised with Him on the third day.Recently, I had lunch with a young couple and their two-year old. The child kept grabbing for the paper napkin on my lap. She finally got it and began to tear it up into little bits, but she couldn't put it back together again. Her mother went to the kitchen and tore off a paper towel. She handed it to me and said, "This is your new napkin." It wasn't a napkin. It was a towel. But she made it a napkin.
That's what God did. He made Jesus to be sin. Jesus wasn't sin, but God made Him to be sin. The girl's mother said, "This towel is now a napkin." God said, "This precious Son of Mine is now Mr. Sin." In other words, God made Jesus to be us.Paul says, "He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again" (II Cor. 5:15). We never live for self again. If we only look at self, we will often appear to be living for self. Likewise, when we were lost and self-oriented, we sometimes appeared as if we weren't living for self. But the realm of appearance is not the place where the battle is fought-it is fought in the spirit realm. As a result of that battle, Paul says, "You were an expression of that person regardless of what the outcroppings were. But now you are an expression of another person, Christ." We need to get that point home, and we need to know who we are, before we start worrying about conduct.
For years we spent time dealing with our conduct, not knowing who we were, but this did not bring us to a consciousness that "Christ is my life." Instead it brought confusion about who we are related to. This confusion fostered the big lie of two natures. Reasoning from actions back to truth is dangerous, for we may or may not reach truth. But if we start from truth, which is spirit-reality-from "He and I are one"-the conduct is His. Starting from conduct, we are not sure who is in control, and it never brings any of us the awareness of union with Christ. The blessed love of God is to let us worry about conduct until it kills us. It produces the "Oh, wretched man that I am" in a man who was anything but wretched. That is its glory. Paul says, "If there is a glory in the ministry of condemnation, there is a greater glory in this ministry of grace." So let's praise God for misery in the believer.Recently a woman told me that her marriage was on the rocks. Her husband had a girlfriend, etc. God was showing the wife a lot of things, and she didn't like any of them. She said, "You know, I think I'm going insane."
I said, "No, darling, you're not going insane. You're real close to God though, because you're almost at the end of self."She had said about her husband, "He's my god," so I said, "Well then, you're not going to get him back, because God isn't going to share you with anybody. You're close to getting God, so keep on being miserable."
"Misery" is the name of the door that moves us from the self room to the spirit room. More people come into the union life through misery than through any other door. In fact, I don't know of anybody who hasn't come through some kind of personal misery. The point I made with this woman was that the very end of herself, which she was afraid was insanity, was really where she was going to meet God.
Paul says that we can cease to live for ourselves now. We may appear to be living for ourselves, but if you take the stand that we and He are one, no matter what the appearance looks like, then we are not living for self. Something may look in the first two chapters to be all self, but the final chapter's going to be for the praise and glory of God, because we can never live for self-and the fact is, we don't want to live for self !
The Dan form of Satan died in 1949 and a brand new creature emerged, a Dan form of Christ. Never before has there been a Dan like this. And the same happened to you. Put your own name there-a new creature in Christ. You began to operate from a new person, a new energy, a different approach, and a whole new excitement. You've got a new "wanter" in you. You don't want sin anymore. You may find yourself sinning occasionally, but you don't want to. What you want is God. I often tell believers, "I know your heart. Your heart's for God. Your thoughts and your emotions may not always be, but your heart's for God l" Go with your heart. When you go with God, you're safe, because all He's after through you is the privilege of loving someone else by means of you.
Paul says in Colossians, "It's through the blood side of the cross that we come to the forgiveness of sins." That's the knowing side of the cross. Turn the cross around and we'll see something that to the natural mind is unbelievable. We'll see all of the attributes of God have been poured into us.
We come to the awareness of our perfection in Christ through the operation of choice. God means His creatures to have choices and the consequences of those choices. He means us to have the consequences of whatever we attach ourselves to. If we attach ourselves to the flesh He means us to have the consequences of that attachment.
If we can serve God from the flesh, then why does He strip us down? If all the teaching about performance, doing, attaining, and striving from the flesh is right, then why did God strip Moses? If it is true that we can serve God from the flesh, why did He take Jacob across the brook Jabok and wrestle with him all night and leave him with an outer sign that he had been with God? If he could have served God from the flesh why did Joseph go through what he did? Why was Jesus Himself led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil? Even our Lord had to get fixed so His whole life was a Spirit life.
Let's take the case of Moses. There was nothing wrong with Moses' intention. He got the call-he knew what life was all about. Exodus 2 says: "It came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked upon their burdens. And he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of the brethren, and he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no man, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand." What's interesting is the parallel account in Acts 7, long after Moses. The Holy Spirit told Stephen some things that Moses did not tell us.
The Holy Spirit told Stephen to say that this was to be the sign of Moses to the people that he was the deliverer of Israel, "by this sign you will know that I am this deliverer that you've been awaiting." And yet the next day Moses encountered two of his own brethren striving together, and they said, "Are you going to do to us what you did to that fellow yesterday?"
In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit doesn't hide anything about anybody's flesh. But in the New Testament, He sees the same people from the point of view of perfected faith. So in the Old Testament we see that Moses fled because he was afraid of Pharaoh. But when we read Hebrews, we see that wasn't the case at all. He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, says Hebrews 11. But Exodus 2 says that he was afraid of the king.
Moses had plenty of dedication, but he needed to change his method. Or rather, he needed to quit his own methods and let God take over. That's when things began to happen. That's when the Lord said to Moses. "See, I've made you God to Pharaoh" (Ex. 7:1, literal). "When Pharaoh sees you, he's going to know he's dealing with Me. I'll make you God to Pharaoh."That's what Moses wanted all along. Of course he had his share of weaknesses, and God needed every one of them. God gave him somebody to speak for him, gave him a staff to lean on, and then Moses learned what his forty years in the wilderness were for. In less than three months the Hebrews began to wander around in the same area, and Moses needed to know where all the water holes and oases were, as well as everything else that is necessary for desert life.We have dedicated our lives many times. We have worn out altars by laying our bodies down on them. God says, "I know you're dedicated. I know your heart. I am your heart." The struggle is not over dedication but over methodology. God does us a favor to let us collapse. That is hard for us to comprehend. Why? The world doesn't appreciate failures.
Norman Grubb, writing in the book Rees Howells, Intercessor, saw the glory of the man, yet as far as England was concerned, Rees Howells was discredited in his last word of faith. In other words, if that final word of faith had been realized on the appearance level, everybody would have glorified Rees Howells. Real intercessors may well die in their last intercession.
Don't ever again take anything in your life as from Satan. Don't see him. It's God. Every negative experience that comes your way is a privilege if you turn it over and call it God. If you don't you'll get disturbance and discouragement. Turn it over, and you'll get a blessing.
At Passover, when the head of the family gathers his children around him, the emphasis is not on how Moses delivered them, but on how God delivered them. If Moses had taken them out when he was forty, they would have talked about how Moses delivered them. But when Moses got to the Jordan and wanted to cross over, God said, "You're not going over. I'll take them over. But you've laid down your life for them." This is not literal; it's figurative language. It's as if Moses laid down his life, with his heels on one side of the Jordan and his head on the other, and the Israelites walked across his body.
When we know who's doing it, we can lay down our lives for the joy set before us, and watch people walk over us. When we know who we are when the Prince knows he's the Prince then we lean be paupers in the situation. When we know we've already won, we can look like losers. But if we don't know we're the Prince, and we don't know we've won, it tears out our hearts. Thank God that He lets us have those miseries in our flesh.There isn't any crash that's too embarrassing or too difficult or too horrible if we come through to knowing who we are. It is God's love to let our flesh collapse that He may establish us in spirit-knowing about who He is in us as us. And then we can move out and be a person. No more, "It isn't me, it's Jesus." Now we can go out, and call ourselves the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, because we are. We have been bought with a price. And we've been accepted in the Beloved.
The Beauty of Adversity
By Dan Stone
Taken from a message given by Dan Stone in Alexandria, Virginia on May 16, 1981
Our relationship to Christ has many facets, not all of which we see at once. Initially we see our salvation in Christ, our freedom from condemnation, and the effects of sin, Later we begin to understand our freedom from sin itself. And with that firm assurance of our godliness, we finally move out of ourselves and into the lives of others. We become intercessors.
Paul's letter to the Romans describes this three=part growth pattern. Romans 1-5 emphasizes the blood of Christ as an atonement for our sins, Romans 6-8 shows how the body of Christ takes care of the person of sin; and Romans 9-15 deals with Christ's life in us as co-saviors for others.Let's talk first about the blood and the body of Christ. When we take communion, we are meant to see beyond the elements, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread" (I Cor. 10:16). This is expanded on in Colossians 1:13-14: "[God] has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood which is forgiveness of sins."In verse 20, "Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven; and you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death: to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." On one side of the cross you see the blood of Christ providing justification for the sins of the world. On the other side of the same cross you see the body of Christ and us in Him, made holy, blameless and unreproachable because of our new position in Christ.
Let us create a scene to demonstrate the blood side of the work of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. As part of a large audience, observers of a tremendous drama, we see the man Jesus being crucified. Someone walks up and lays around Jesus' neck the chain of adultery. Someone else walks up and lays around His neck the chain of fornication, another the chain of uncleanness. Others lay on Him lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, strife, seditions, envyings, murders, drunkenness, and so forth. As this picture of Jesus develops, we see draped on Him every expression of sin-and then we watch Him die.
The Holy Spirit steps forward and says to us, "Everything that you've done, I've laid on Him." An invitation is extended to all: "Will you receive this gift of mine? I've laid on Him all your sins which means they are not laid on you. If you will accept that transference as my love-gift to you, you're justified. You will be to Me as though you'd never committed them. "
All positively respond, "We accept that. As mere spectators all we can do is sit in the audience and hear someone tell us what all this means and accept it. In this analogy Christ pays the price for the sins of the world, and all we can do is receive the gift and, say "Thank you." Now if you are like I was for so many years, this was the only side of the cross you knew. But Paul turns the cross around and says, "Now wait a minute, don't go away too soon. We have another scene."
In this second scene, we are more than spectators-we are participants in Christ. To imagine this scene we must draw a big mental circle around the audience and see ourselves as one. We are all in Him. Paul, in describing the Lord's Supper says that we received the benefits of the blood, but we partake of the body of Christ (I Cor. 10:16-17). The body is all of us, so whatever is happening to the body is happening to us. We are not just observers of a drama on stage; we are the drama. It is as if Jesus loses His identity and becomes us.
The blood side of the cross expresses the glorious fact of our forgiveness, but the body side is a deeper truth. Paul shows us that we became Him, and He became us. We've put a lot of emphasis on Christ being in us, and rightly so. What Paul is teaching now is that we're in Him, so that we ourselves are on the cross.
The people standing watching Christ die are really on that cross themselves. What is happening is a death. We are not dealing with the human body which the Spirit lives in, but with what's happening to the Spirit when it leaves the body. When a body dies, the Spirit leaves and is no longer a part of the body.
The realm of God is the realm of spirit. God looks on the heart. That is why Jesus said to those people whose actions were supposed to be good and righteous, "You do what you see your father the Devil doing" (John 8:44). There are two fathers: God and Satan. We express one or the other.
Hebrews 2:14 says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus also Himself took part of the same, that through death, He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." Satan has been destroyed as a person who can reign in our lives, captivate us, motivate us and keep us under control. When Christ died, we died-we participated in His death and lay in the grave three days, and were raised with Him on the third day.Recently, I had lunch with a young couple and their two-year old. The child kept grabbing for the paper napkin on my lap. She finally got it and began to tear it up into little bits, but she couldn't put it back together again. Her mother went to the kitchen and tore off a paper towel. She handed it to me and said, "This is your new napkin." It wasn't a napkin. It was a towel. But she made it a napkin.
That's what God did. He made Jesus to be sin. Jesus wasn't sin, but God made Him to be sin. The girl's mother said, "This towel is now a napkin." God said, "This precious Son of Mine is now Mr. Sin." In other words, God made Jesus to be us.Paul says, "He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again" (II Cor. 5:15). We never live for self again. If we only look at self, we will often appear to be living for self. Likewise, when we were lost and self-oriented, we sometimes appeared as if we weren't living for self. But the realm of appearance is not the place where the battle is fought-it is fought in the spirit realm. As a result of that battle, Paul says, "You were an expression of that person regardless of what the outcroppings were. But now you are an expression of another person, Christ." We need to get that point home, and we need to know who we are, before we start worrying about conduct.
For years we spent time dealing with our conduct, not knowing who we were, but this did not bring us to a consciousness that "Christ is my life." Instead it brought confusion about who we are related to. This confusion fostered the big lie of two natures. Reasoning from actions back to truth is dangerous, for we may or may not reach truth. But if we start from truth, which is spirit-reality-from "He and I are one"-the conduct is His. Starting from conduct, we are not sure who is in control, and it never brings any of us the awareness of union with Christ. The blessed love of God is to let us worry about conduct until it kills us. It produces the "Oh, wretched man that I am" in a man who was anything but wretched. That is its glory. Paul says, "If there is a glory in the ministry of condemnation, there is a greater glory in this ministry of grace." So let's praise God for misery in the believer.Recently a woman told me that her marriage was on the rocks. Her husband had a girlfriend, etc. God was showing the wife a lot of things, and she didn't like any of them. She said, "You know, I think I'm going insane."
I said, "No, darling, you're not going insane. You're real close to God though, because you're almost at the end of self."She had said about her husband, "He's my god," so I said, "Well then, you're not going to get him back, because God isn't going to share you with anybody. You're close to getting God, so keep on being miserable."
"Misery" is the name of the door that moves us from the self room to the spirit room. More people come into the union life through misery than through any other door. In fact, I don't know of anybody who hasn't come through some kind of personal misery. The point I made with this woman was that the very end of herself, which she was afraid was insanity, was really where she was going to meet God.
Paul says that we can cease to live for ourselves now. We may appear to be living for ourselves, but if you take the stand that we and He are one, no matter what the appearance looks like, then we are not living for self. Something may look in the first two chapters to be all self, but the final chapter's going to be for the praise and glory of God, because we can never live for self-and the fact is, we don't want to live for self !
The Dan form of Satan died in 1949 and a brand new creature emerged, a Dan form of Christ. Never before has there been a Dan like this. And the same happened to you. Put your own name there-a new creature in Christ. You began to operate from a new person, a new energy, a different approach, and a whole new excitement. You've got a new "wanter" in you. You don't want sin anymore. You may find yourself sinning occasionally, but you don't want to. What you want is God. I often tell believers, "I know your heart. Your heart's for God. Your thoughts and your emotions may not always be, but your heart's for God l" Go with your heart. When you go with God, you're safe, because all He's after through you is the privilege of loving someone else by means of you.
Paul says in Colossians, "It's through the blood side of the cross that we come to the forgiveness of sins." That's the knowing side of the cross. Turn the cross around and we'll see something that to the natural mind is unbelievable. We'll see all of the attributes of God have been poured into us.
We come to the awareness of our perfection in Christ through the operation of choice. God means His creatures to have choices and the consequences of those choices. He means us to have the consequences of whatever we attach ourselves to. If we attach ourselves to the flesh He means us to have the consequences of that attachment.
If we can serve God from the flesh, then why does He strip us down? If all the teaching about performance, doing, attaining, and striving from the flesh is right, then why did God strip Moses? If it is true that we can serve God from the flesh, why did He take Jacob across the brook Jabok and wrestle with him all night and leave him with an outer sign that he had been with God? If he could have served God from the flesh why did Joseph go through what he did? Why was Jesus Himself led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil? Even our Lord had to get fixed so His whole life was a Spirit life.
Let's take the case of Moses. There was nothing wrong with Moses' intention. He got the call-he knew what life was all about. Exodus 2 says: "It came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked upon their burdens. And he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of the brethren, and he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no man, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand." What's interesting is the parallel account in Acts 7, long after Moses. The Holy Spirit told Stephen some things that Moses did not tell us.
The Holy Spirit told Stephen to say that this was to be the sign of Moses to the people that he was the deliverer of Israel, "by this sign you will know that I am this deliverer that you've been awaiting." And yet the next day Moses encountered two of his own brethren striving together, and they said, "Are you going to do to us what you did to that fellow yesterday?"
In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit doesn't hide anything about anybody's flesh. But in the New Testament, He sees the same people from the point of view of perfected faith. So in the Old Testament we see that Moses fled because he was afraid of Pharaoh. But when we read Hebrews, we see that wasn't the case at all. He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, says Hebrews 11. But Exodus 2 says that he was afraid of the king.
Moses had plenty of dedication, but he needed to change his method. Or rather, he needed to quit his own methods and let God take over. That's when things began to happen. That's when the Lord said to Moses. "See, I've made you God to Pharaoh" (Ex. 7:1, literal). "When Pharaoh sees you, he's going to know he's dealing with Me. I'll make you God to Pharaoh."That's what Moses wanted all along. Of course he had his share of weaknesses, and God needed every one of them. God gave him somebody to speak for him, gave him a staff to lean on, and then Moses learned what his forty years in the wilderness were for. In less than three months the Hebrews began to wander around in the same area, and Moses needed to know where all the water holes and oases were, as well as everything else that is necessary for desert life.We have dedicated our lives many times. We have worn out altars by laying our bodies down on them. God says, "I know you're dedicated. I know your heart. I am your heart." The struggle is not over dedication but over methodology. God does us a favor to let us collapse. That is hard for us to comprehend. Why? The world doesn't appreciate failures.
Norman Grubb, writing in the book Rees Howells, Intercessor, saw the glory of the man, yet as far as England was concerned, Rees Howells was discredited in his last word of faith. In other words, if that final word of faith had been realized on the appearance level, everybody would have glorified Rees Howells. Real intercessors may well die in their last intercession.
Don't ever again take anything in your life as from Satan. Don't see him. It's God. Every negative experience that comes your way is a privilege if you turn it over and call it God. If you don't you'll get disturbance and discouragement. Turn it over, and you'll get a blessing.
At Passover, when the head of the family gathers his children around him, the emphasis is not on how Moses delivered them, but on how God delivered them. If Moses had taken them out when he was forty, they would have talked about how Moses delivered them. But when Moses got to the Jordan and wanted to cross over, God said, "You're not going over. I'll take them over. But you've laid down your life for them." This is not literal; it's figurative language. It's as if Moses laid down his life, with his heels on one side of the Jordan and his head on the other, and the Israelites walked across his body.
When we know who's doing it, we can lay down our lives for the joy set before us, and watch people walk over us. When we know who we are when the Prince knows he's the Prince then we lean be paupers in the situation. When we know we've already won, we can look like losers. But if we don't know we're the Prince, and we don't know we've won, it tears out our hearts. Thank God that He lets us have those miseries in our flesh.There isn't any crash that's too embarrassing or too difficult or too horrible if we come through to knowing who we are. It is God's love to let our flesh collapse that He may establish us in spirit-knowing about who He is in us as us. And then we can move out and be a person. No more, "It isn't me, it's Jesus." Now we can go out, and call ourselves the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, because we are. We have been bought with a price. And we've been accepted in the Beloved.
UNION WITH CHRIST By James S. Stewart
UNION WITH CHRIST
By: James S. Stewart
The heart of Paul's religion is union with Christ. This, more than any other conception ¬ more than justification, more than sanctification, more even than reconciliation ¬is the key which unlocks the secrets of his soul. Within the Holy of Holies which stood revealed when the veil was rent in twain from the top to the bottom on the day of Damascus, Paul beheld Christ summoning and welcoming him in infinite love into vital unity with Himself.
If one seeks for the most characteristic sentences the apostle every wrote, they will be found, not where he is refuting the legalists, or vindicating his apostleship, or meditating on eschatological hopes, or giving practical ethical guidance to the Church, but where his intense intimacy with Christ comes to expression. Everything that religion meant for Paul is focused for us in such great words as these: "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (I Cor. 6:17).
Why is it so vital to keep the conception of union with Christ in the centre? For one thing, to assign to this fact any place other than the centre is to endanger the whole doctrine of atonement. The idea of justification, for instance, can only be gravely misleading, when it is not seen in the light of a union with Christ... Similarly, the thought of sanctification, dissociated from union, loses all reality. It is left, as it were, hanging in the air. It becomes an "extra." It is not organically related to the rest of redemption. Only when union with Christ is kept central is sanctification seen in its true nature, as the unfolding of Christ's own character within the believer's life; and only then can the essential relationship between religion and ethics be understood. In short, the whole meaning of the atonement is here at stake.
Paul declares his conviction that in Christianity the final stress must ever fall on one thing, and on one thing only, union with Christ, life in fellowship with Christ.
From: A Man in Christ: The Vital Elements of Paul's Religion. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House. Pgs. 147-153.
By: James S. Stewart
The heart of Paul's religion is union with Christ. This, more than any other conception ¬ more than justification, more than sanctification, more even than reconciliation ¬is the key which unlocks the secrets of his soul. Within the Holy of Holies which stood revealed when the veil was rent in twain from the top to the bottom on the day of Damascus, Paul beheld Christ summoning and welcoming him in infinite love into vital unity with Himself.
If one seeks for the most characteristic sentences the apostle every wrote, they will be found, not where he is refuting the legalists, or vindicating his apostleship, or meditating on eschatological hopes, or giving practical ethical guidance to the Church, but where his intense intimacy with Christ comes to expression. Everything that religion meant for Paul is focused for us in such great words as these: "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (I Cor. 6:17).
Why is it so vital to keep the conception of union with Christ in the centre? For one thing, to assign to this fact any place other than the centre is to endanger the whole doctrine of atonement. The idea of justification, for instance, can only be gravely misleading, when it is not seen in the light of a union with Christ... Similarly, the thought of sanctification, dissociated from union, loses all reality. It is left, as it were, hanging in the air. It becomes an "extra." It is not organically related to the rest of redemption. Only when union with Christ is kept central is sanctification seen in its true nature, as the unfolding of Christ's own character within the believer's life; and only then can the essential relationship between religion and ethics be understood. In short, the whole meaning of the atonement is here at stake.
Paul declares his conviction that in Christianity the final stress must ever fall on one thing, and on one thing only, union with Christ, life in fellowship with Christ.
From: A Man in Christ: The Vital Elements of Paul's Religion. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House. Pgs. 147-153.
UNION WITH CHRIST By James S. Stewart
UNION WITH CHRIST
By: James S. Stewart
The heart of Paul's religion is union with Christ. This, more than any other conception ¬ more than justification, more than sanctification, more even than reconciliation ¬is the key which unlocks the secrets of his soul. Within the Holy of Holies which stood revealed when the veil was rent in twain from the top to the bottom on the day of Damascus, Paul beheld Christ summoning and welcoming him in infinite love into vital unity with Himself.
If one seeks for the most characteristic sentences the apostle every wrote, they will be found, not where he is refuting the legalists, or vindicating his apostleship, or meditating on eschatological hopes, or giving practical ethical guidance to the Church, but where his intense intimacy with Christ comes to expression. Everything that religion meant for Paul is focused for us in such great words as these: "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (I Cor. 6:17).
Why is it so vital to keep the conception of union with Christ in the centre? For one thing, to assign to this fact any place other than the centre is to endanger the whole doctrine of atonement. The idea of justification, for instance, can only be gravely misleading, when it is not seen in the light of a union with Christ... Similarly, the thought of sanctification, dissociated from union, loses all reality. It is left, as it were, hanging in the air. It becomes an "extra." It is not organically related to the rest of redemption. Only when union with Christ is kept central is sanctification seen in its true nature, as the unfolding of Christ's own character within the believer's life; and only then can the essential relationship between religion and ethics be understood. In short, the whole meaning of the atonement is here at stake.
Paul declares his conviction that in Christianity the final stress must ever fall on one thing, and on one thing only, union with Christ, life in fellowship with Christ.
From: A Man in Christ: The Vital Elements of Paul's Religion. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House. Pgs. 147-153.
By: James S. Stewart
The heart of Paul's religion is union with Christ. This, more than any other conception ¬ more than justification, more than sanctification, more even than reconciliation ¬is the key which unlocks the secrets of his soul. Within the Holy of Holies which stood revealed when the veil was rent in twain from the top to the bottom on the day of Damascus, Paul beheld Christ summoning and welcoming him in infinite love into vital unity with Himself.
If one seeks for the most characteristic sentences the apostle every wrote, they will be found, not where he is refuting the legalists, or vindicating his apostleship, or meditating on eschatological hopes, or giving practical ethical guidance to the Church, but where his intense intimacy with Christ comes to expression. Everything that religion meant for Paul is focused for us in such great words as these: "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (I Cor. 6:17).
Why is it so vital to keep the conception of union with Christ in the centre? For one thing, to assign to this fact any place other than the centre is to endanger the whole doctrine of atonement. The idea of justification, for instance, can only be gravely misleading, when it is not seen in the light of a union with Christ... Similarly, the thought of sanctification, dissociated from union, loses all reality. It is left, as it were, hanging in the air. It becomes an "extra." It is not organically related to the rest of redemption. Only when union with Christ is kept central is sanctification seen in its true nature, as the unfolding of Christ's own character within the believer's life; and only then can the essential relationship between religion and ethics be understood. In short, the whole meaning of the atonement is here at stake.
Paul declares his conviction that in Christianity the final stress must ever fall on one thing, and on one thing only, union with Christ, life in fellowship with Christ.
From: A Man in Christ: The Vital Elements of Paul's Religion. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House. Pgs. 147-153.
Jacques Ellul
Ellul excelled in Latin, French, German and history and at the age of seventeen obtained his baccalaureate (college preparatory high school diploma) at the Lycée Montaigne. He wanted to be an officer in the navy but his father made him study law instead. Although Jacques Ellul may not yet have been converted to Christianity when he first went to the University of Bordeaux (his faith took some time to develop its final form), on August 10, 1930, God appeared to him in a vision which forever after he modestly refused to describe. Two further decisive encounters took place during his student years, one with Bernard Charbonneau and the other with his wife Yvette who was to bear him four children: three boys Jean, Simon and Yves, and a daughter, Dominique.
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