In The Face of Jesus Christ - T. Austin-Sparks

"In the Face of Jesus Christ" by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 1 - The Son of Man 

 

READING: Ps. 8:3-6; Heb. 2:5-9; Eph. 4:13; Rom. 2:16, 3:24; Acts 17:31; Luke 9:18-22.

"Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).

"In the face of Jesus Christ"! In that phrase I see everything that relates to God's eternal purpose and to the Divine intention, both as to man and the universe. It embraces the counsels of the Godhead before the world was — it embraces the creation; it embraces redemption; it embraces the final glory. All that is in the face of Jesus Christ. Indeed, there is nothing which concerns us, as creatures related to God and eternity, which is not to be found in the face of Jesus Christ. God comes to us in the face of Jesus Christ, and all that ever we shall or can know of God is to be found in the face of Jesus Christ. The face is the human medium of communication. The face is the medium of personality. The personality is the character formed in secret, the sum of all secret history, and it embraces itself in the face. Sooner or later, somehow, the personality will betray itself in the face. But in order to read the personality through the face, there has to be a certain amount of qualification. You cannot off hand read a person through their face. You need to have certain ability to do so. If all that is of God is in the face of Jesus Christ, there has to be given revelation in our hearts, as well as in His face. We have to be able to see the face of Jesus Christ.

All that is but a wide and sweeping survey or intimation of what the face of Jesus represents. It must be brought nearer to our hearts in a practical way, but I want to remind you of this before we go further, that it has ever been by reason of a vision of the face of Jesus Christ, that God has secured lives and instruments which have reflected His own glory.

"To this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee...." (Acts 26:16). Note all the touches as to seeing the Lord in Acts 9, 22 and 26. I think we can truly say that Paul was a fruit of the seeing of the face of Jesus Christ. I am certain that we depend for everything upon a seeing of the face of Jesus Christ. Do not misunderstand. We are not thinking for a moment of any necessity for a literal vision, but we mean that it is absolutely essential to our spiritual life, and to our spiritual service, that by revelation of the Holy Spirit, something of the significance of Jesus Christ, the face of Jesus Christ, should be unveiled to the heart. I am being occupied very much, simply engrossed, in these days with the momentousness of Christ; and it is all gathered up into this phrase, "the face of Jesus Christ."

That phrase is employed to imply spiritual vision, spiritual revelation. It is a figure of speech, and in the main, therefore, not to be taken literally, as we have said. The words have in them the thought of our catching some view, some vision, of our having some spiritual insight as to the significance of Jesus Christ, presented to us as the expression, the countenance of God, in which all that is in the mind and the heart and the will of God is found, and is expressed. I believe it means that the face of Jesus Christ is the Man. If you want to know what sort of a person you are dealing with, if you want to know your man, you do not look at his boots (forgive my putting it in this way) you do not turn round so that you can see his shoulders; you look right into his face; you study his face; you get the proportions of his face. You watch him in repose; you watch him under tension; you watch his face in times of provocation or sorrow; you watch him in changing atmosphere, changing conditions, when things are for and when things are against. You learn the man by his face. If you have any special gifts at reading through the face, when you look at that face, you at once know the man. It is not always possible to do so, but you get a good deal through the face; at any rate, you look to the face to tell you what you want to know. It is in that sense that the statement in the Scripture is made "...the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ"; that statement signifies that that face is the revelation of what lies behind of God — God's thought, God's mind, God's will, God's feelings, God's desires, God's attitudes, God's purposes. All that is written in the face of Jesus Christ.

But the words carry us further than that: The face of Jesus Christ is the face of a Man. It is the face of a Man with God behind it. It is the face of the Man about which we want to meditate at this time. "The Son of Man" is the designation found in one of the passages to which we have referred (Luke 9:22), "I am Jesus of Nazareth...." (Acts 22:8) — His was the face that was seen of Saul on his way to Damascus — "Inasmuch as he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:31). The face of a Man with God behind it! We are stressing the significance of the fact that the Lord Jesus was Man, the Man Christ Jesus. I know, and never forget, and I hope you never will for a moment allow the other fact to fall out of your remembrance, that we are dealing with God, utterly and verily, in Jesus Christ; but it is the significance of Christ as Man, "the Man Christ Jesus" that is to me the great wonder, the amazing wonder, that is becoming to me the real meaning of salvation, of sanctification, of glory — the significance of the Man, the face of Jesus Christ.

1. - Man. (1) Man Conceived.

So we are led by the face of Jesus Christ, and the light in that face, back into the Word of God. We find that that light falls upon the counsels of the Godhead before the world was, in which Godhead man was conceived. We see the conception of man in the Divine counsels: shall we say, the thought of there being man originated in the Divine mind, and became a part of the Divine counsels. In some dateless point in the past eternity man was conceived, and before the foundation of the world "foreordained unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ." Do you catch the ray of light? In the face of Jesus Christ! Foreordained unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ! In that face you have the man conceived, foreordained, and the object of the conception and the foreordaining is unto the adoption of sons.

(2) Man Created.

Out from the man conceived we move to the man created. The first chapter of the letter to the Colossians tells us that he was created by Jesus Christ. In Him, by Him, through Him, and unto Him all things were created; and the man conceived was now created. We see how in the face of Jesus Christ, by the light of the face of Jesus Christ, the first Adam was created.

(3) Man Probationed.

Then, in the light of that face we see the man, now created, being conditioned, probationed. We can never understand the meaning of the conditioning and probationing of the first Adam, except in the light of the countenance of Jesus Christ. Do you want to know why man was put on test, before ever he reached the adoption of sons? You have to come into the light of the face of Jesus Christ. That will explain all. We will pass to that presently. Remember the first Adam never did reach the adoption of sons. He failed in his probation. He failed under his test. The Word declares us to be God's workmanship, "created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God foreordained that we should walk in them!" But Adam ceased to walk in them, if ever he did walk in them at all, and therefore failed of the very creating purpose. The light on the face of Jesus Christ illumines all that for us. We understand it now in the light of His countenance. It is all a dark mystery, an enigma, until you come to the face of Jesus Christ.

(4) Man Ruined.

The man conceived; the man created; the man probationed; the man ruined. Do you need to comprehend the ruin? Do you need to know the meaning of the fall? You can only understand it in the light of the face of Jesus Christ. It takes the face of Jesus Christ to make you know what the fall is. Those who have never seen the face of Christ have never seen the reality or known the nature of the fall. I am not surprised that some men in this world do not believe in the fall, repudiate the fall, or talk about it being a fall upward and not downward. They have never seen the face of Jesus Christ. You and I have in some measure, and like Isaiah we have fallen upon our faces and said: "Woe is me!" Like Job we have cried out: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." To see the face of Jesus is to see the ruin of man, and you never will see it, until you see the face of Jesus.

2. - The New Man. (1) Previsioned.

There is then the true Man — not that other man, but the Man, Who was ever in the counsels of the Godhead, the Man conceived of God, the Man previsioned through a long history. He was previsioned in prophet, priest and king, previsioned in a thousand different ways, and is seen now, as no one ever did see Him then, in the light of the face of Jesus Christ. It takes the light of the face of Jesus Christ to explain the Old Testament in its types and symbols.

That is exactly what happened after His resurrection. There were men who knew Moses, and the Psalms, and the prophets, but they did not see the inner content and meaning. But as He walked with them, and opened unto them the Scriptures from Moses, the Psalms and the prophets, in the light of the face of Jesus Christ they saw the Man previsioned throughout — "He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). It requires a seeing of the risen Lord to give us the light on the Man previsioned. Until you really have a view of the face of Jesus Christ, the Old Testament is full of enigmas. Again, you cannot see Christ everywhere, except you have had a view of His face, but once you have seen that face, you will see Him everywhere. Once you have the clue by revelation you cannot read anywhere, from Genesis onward, without seeing the face of Jesus Christ.

(2) Provided.

In the fullness of the times God sent forth His Son — the Man provided — not created, but provided. There is a big difference now. The first man was created. The Last Adam is provided, "God will provide himself the lamb" (Gen. 22:8). In every way the Last Adam is provided by God.

(a) Conditioned.

Even here the Man provided is conditioned. The Last Adam, as the first, was on probation. He was placed upon a basis of faith and obedience, just as the first Adam — faith in His Father, obedience the practical expression of that faith. Therefore, as Son of Man He had nothing in Himself, but everything in His Father. Whatever He had as Son of God is quite another thing, but as Son of Man He did not live upon the basis of His deity: He lived upon the basis of faith and obedience, having nothing in Himself but everything in His Father — "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me" (John 6:57). He lived by the Father.

(b) Tested.

Of course, we know that that conditioning was the ground of His testing. He was conditioned by faith and obedience, with every resource in His Father and none in Himself, save the resources of such a humanity as His was. (I believe that a perfect humanity has resources in itself which fallen humanity has not.) But we are now speaking of the resources of His deity, of very God. Those resources were in a place where He, for a probationary time, could only avail Himself of them through faith and obedience. Thus conditioned, He was tested by His conditioning; and tested, not by chance but by Divine appointment. He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. It was a part of the intention that this conditioned One should at the very outset of His life be tested by the forces of evil in this universe, subjected to the fiery trial of hell's terrible darts of temptation. Satan left that work with no angel, or band of angels. He was called into it himself. Christ met the lord of all the evil angels, and was subjected to his testing, not only in the wilderness but again and again, to the very last moments of His Cross, when through sneering enemies Satan still made the suggestion that, if He would only come down from that Cross, all men would believe, and He would get the following. He had come for the Cross, not to come down from the Cross; but we must remember that in the awful agony of spirit and soul and body that suggestion would not fail to have its own fierceness of temptation. Oh, what easement from the agony was offered Him in that moment, if He would but come down from the Cross, for the seeming gain of all He hung there for!

(c) Proved.

Tested and proved are not the same thing. Tested, then, as the result, proved. When you are proved, you have graduated from the test. If you can say of anybody, They are proved! you mean that they have been through the fire and you know them; they are established.

(d) Perfected.

Perfect, yet perfected. Made perfect through sufferings, we are told. The Man — let the word ring in your ears — the Man perfected! He has walked in the foreordained works triumphant. I work "today and tomorrow, and the third day I am perfected" (Luke 13:32). Perfect walk by faith, by obedience, and the perfected Man as the result.

(3) Instated.

The Man installed at God's right hand, the perfected Man, with a perfected Humanity, installed at God's right hand as representative, and as a representation of God's realised goal for the race. There you have all that is meant by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Installed as representative, as model, to which the new creation in Christ Jesus is to be conformed — perfected humanity.

(4) Related.

God "gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:22-23). The Man related, in the relationship of Head to the Body.

(5) Corporately Expressed.

What is the final issue? The Man corporately expressed: "....unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ...." (Eph. 4:13). That does not relate to an individual, but to the Church. "What is man," inquired the Psalmist, "that thou art mindful of him" (Ps. 8:4). The Apostle takes up the question, and, still relating it to God's thought for humanity in general, God's intention, goes on to say that so far we do not see that truth of man corporately, collectively consummated, but that we behold Jesus made a little lower than the angels, and travelling the same path as man up to a point for an express purpose, and realising it — "we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that... he should taste death for every man." Again, "Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2). There is the man collectively or corporately expressed.

That is the unveiling of the face of Jesus Christ. The face of Jesus Christ embraces all that is signified by the "Man Christ Jesus" from eternity to eternity in relation to God's thought, God's will, God's design. It is all behind that face. That is what we mean, when we say, Catch a glimpse of the face of Jesus Christ and you have the wonder of all ages, the glory of God from eternity to eternity in the face of Jesus Christ; the Divine counsels, the creation, the redemption, the glorification of humanity, of man, in "the Man Christ Jesus." That is for those who see that Righteous One, hear the voice of His mouth. But for those who through disobedience, unbelief, still allow the veil which the god of this age hath cast over the hearts of the unbelieving, still allow that veil to remain, God "hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:31). For the one, the Man represents the glory of God. For the other, the Man represents the judgment of God. It is to be in and through and by a Man. You see how God has summed up all things in Christ. It is all in the face of Jesus Christ.

I do not know what that conveys to you. It may sound to you more or less like a clever summary of the Bible and of truth. Let me make it clear that this is not the fruit of simply sitting down and studying. I did not sit down and study this. It came to me like the passing of something before my heart, and I tell you I was stirred in heart at what I saw to be the meaning of the face of Jesus Christ. I can understand now why Paul was revolutionised. He saw the face of Jesus Christ. He did not simply see a blazing light on the way to Damascus. He saw the significance of Jesus of Nazareth in the glory, the Man Whom probably he had seen in Jerusalem; the Man Whom he had hated, loathed as a blasphemer, as an apostate; the Man Whom he had thought to be of all creatures the most objectionable, an impostor; the Man Whom he thought had been rightly handled and given His due, when they crucified Him. He saw that Man, and what that Man meant as installed in heaven at God's right hand, and there broke upon him something of the significance of Jesus Christ, and he saw the face of Jesus in that eternal, and universal, and spiritual sense, that all-inclusive sense. Out from that beholding — for he never stopped beholding inwardly the face of Jesus — there grew and grew this explanation of history; this explanation of the race; this explanation of man; this explanation of human destiny; this explanation of the Cross: this unveiling of things which no man could ever know by reason or study. There came out into the heart of Paul the knowledge of what went on in Divine counsels in eternity of old. It was all seen in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ interpreted everything, explained everything, revealed everything.

This it was that made Paul the man he was. It was this that gave him the power of endurance, the power of suffering, the power of going on. He had seen the face of Jesus Christ, and what a realm, what a wealth, what fullness was in that face! He says, "We have this ministry" (2 Cor. 4:1). What ministry? Why this, God hath "shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ"; and our ministry is simply to tell what we have seen in that face, the meaning of Jesus Christ, "the Man Christ Jesus" — the amazing wonder of a Man! Yes, not forgetting all that is extra to that, and ever was, and ever will be of Godhead, but in the light of that the amazing wonder of a Man! I confess to you that while I glory in Christ as Son of God, and while I glory in Him as very God, and in God as God, the real wonder of it all only comes to me as I see that wealth of glory coming down into the face of a Man; as I see that expressed in a Man, all taken up in a Man. Yes, Man of my manhood, but different! Man torn with all my passions, and yet without sin in Himself! That is to say, a Man beset by all my temptations, and knowing what it is to have to battle with that pressure which comes upon us in order to overwhelm us. In our case much of it arises from within; but, oh, we do know to some extent what it is to have that pressure come upon us from without, and to have something evil impinging upon us. He knew the full force of that as you and I have never known it — the impingement of universal evil to try and make Him think other than He would think, and act other than He would act, and choose other than He would choose, and that under all manner of circumstances which would facilitate the temptation and the tempter.

Yes, a Man has triumphed. A Man has taken up the fight. A Man has come through, and in humanity has realised God's end in Himself and taken that perfected humanity back into the glory, and is installed and related. And now by the blessed eternal Spirit, through faith, we are joined to that Man; and when we gather around the Table and take the bread and the cup, we in faith are taking in spirit of that perfect humanity — joined to Him one spirit, to be one Body, one glorified humanity eventually, of which we now have the earnest in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

It is marvellous! It is beyond our apprehension, our power of expression! Oh, that the Lord would open our hearts, yea, break them open, and give us a new apprehension and grasp of the meaning of the face of Jesus Christ! Dwell upon that, and ask the Lord continually to shine in, shine in, shine in, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The Son of Man! Do you notice where He took that title? He asked: "Who do men say that I am?" Elijah! One of the prophets of old! "But who say ye that I am?" "The Christ of God!" Then He commanded them to tell no man, but to keep that to themselves, to keep that covered. That was something which for the moment was to be suspended. At that point for the first time He took to Himself the title "Son of Man" — "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected... killed." What is the import of this. Oh, He has leapt over the bounds of Messiah-ship. "The Christ of God!" That is all right for Israel, but He has gone beyond Israel now. Israel is refusing their Messiah. The title "Son of Man" passes far beyond the bounds of Israel and is the racial representation. Not Israel, but all men: He is the world-wide, universal Son of Man. How? By the Cross. The Christ has leapt all the limitations of nationality, even of Israel, and has bounded the range of humanity. He took the title "Son of Man," as Israel refused their Messiah and the Cross came into view. He saw that the Cross was leading to a baptism of passion, which would mean a baptism of fire into all the earth. Not to Israel now! Say nothing about that! This is not the time to preach Israel's Messiah! The time now has come into view when by the Cross all men are coming into God's eternal thought.

The Lord open our hearts to see the face of Jesus Christ.

An Humble Prayer - B. Keith Chadwell

I pray, today, as I prepare to post this teaching: 
 

Lord, create in me a clean heart, for I can not, by the efforts of my own flesh and from an evil heart, obey your laws. I commit this to you and trust, by faith that you will, in fact, bring to pass the full manifestation of your righteousness through me in your good time and for your glory.

Lord, reveal all of the mysterious obstacles and self centered darkness which prevents or hinders your work in me. And, which I (my flesh) through the deceitfulness and stubborn self rule of my desperately wicked heart, have not acknowledged and have not submitted to be crucified with you.

Lord, reveal and consume with the spirit of your mouth, those things of dark motivations which sit in the place where you should sit and rule within me. 

 

Lord, destroy, with the brightness of your coming, the darkness in my heart and then may your light arise to full noonday within me, with no shadow of turning. 

 

I ask this Father, in Jesus name, in order then; that my new light and life may shine before men, that they will see my good works and then glorify you, even as Jesus did. For it is your Kingdom and your power, and therefore your glory, forever and ever.

Oh Lord, amen and amen and amen.

B. Keith Chadwell

The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand

The Ways of God - The Desert Experience, Ken Brown

The Ways of God - The Desert Experience
 Ken Brown

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Introduction:
- It is imperative that every child of God should understand His ways.
- We think in straight lines and fixed points, and move in a consecutive manner, that is, from point to point (we start and finish a book; we look forward to something, and look back on something; we measure progress by time spent or goods produced; when we travel, we leave a departure point and arrive at a destination point, etc.).
- God doesn’t think in straight lines, He thinks in circles.  He’s doing many things simultaneously, He’s at the beginning and the middle and the end of many things - all at the same time.  Therefore, He doesn’t think of things in the context of time, He exists outside of time.  Time is irrelevant to Him.  He is not affected by time.

- God’s timelessness presents a very real problem for us.  God may speak into our life today and we will assume that it’s going to happen today, or very soon.  We will probably place it on a time line of some sort.  But, God may be speaking to us from a point that is still far into our future.  The reason is because He is not concerned with time, and this is why: God does not measure time; He measures growth!  When God deals with us, His purpose is growth, maturity, and preparation.  And, it always involves death to self!  God will draw us into a desert experience with Him to give us the opportunity to grow (to die to self), to learn to trust Him or to gain more insight into His ways.
- And, because of the way we think, our first question is always “How long is this going to take?”  We’re not having fun.  Dying to self is never fun.  But God won’t tell us how long it’s going to take, because He understands that if we know how long, we’ll just try to hold our breath until it’s over.  He doesn’t want us to hold our breath.  He wants us to die!
- Things don’t have to happen in real time or space to be reality to God.  When He speaks, it is a reality.  To Him, there’s no difference between the two.  So, when God speaks something into your life, it is a reality.  It’s already happened.  It’s just that there is a process of time required for it to manifest.  But, this process of time to us is actually a process of growth to God.
- For us the practical result of all this is that God has spoken words into our lives (even though we must be careful and know, what was spoken by God, and what wasn’t).  And because of this, we know He has wonderful plans for us, and that excites us.  We have aspirations for God.  We want to do all those great things He’s spoken into us.  But, many times what we really experience is great frustration, because those things He’s spoken aren’t happening yet!  When you’re frustrated, know that God loves frustrated people.  He knows you’re frustrated because you care.  Also know that the reason they may not be happening yet is that God is still measuring growth, not time.
- In our relationship with God, His purpose is to conform us to the image of His Son.  And, He’s content to take as much time as necessary.  We, on the other hand, want everything to happen now, without suffering, pain, or sacrifice on our part.  And God’s only response to that is - too bad.  Adjust your thinking.  I’m doing this my way.
- When God is dealing with us, we must learn the value of doing nothing.  This seems to be a contradiction; but most everything we do with God (if we do it right) is a contradiction to us (see “How To Know It’s God”).  Man was created on the sixth day and his first full day with God was the Sabbath.  That’s where we started, and that’s where God wants us to stay.  We have to learn the value of doing nothing before God.  That’s why quiet time with God is so great - you don’t have to do anything.  Just hang out with God.  You don’t have to fast for three days to get His attention, or recite long prayers to impress Him.  Just rest quietly before His presence and wait for Him.  If He doesn’t speak immediately, He will eventually.  But, you do have to learn to wait.  It’s a matter of respect and submission on your part.  God does not act according to your time, He acts according to His will.  Anytime a believer decides to press in to God and really get to know Him, one of the first things God will teach him is His Sovereignty!  God moves in His time and acts according to His ways.  Religion teaches that man is the creator and God is what they created.  They expect Him to do what they say, when they say it.  Of course, He doesn’t.  But they’re too stupid and bound up in their own deception to notice.
- Also, God operates on a different noise level than we do.  When we cry out to Him, He whispers back to us.  God wants us to learn to be quiet, even when everything around us is in turmoil.  Psalm 46 starts out with an earthquake and a tidal wave and ends with God telling us to “be quiet and rest assured that I am God (and everything is under control, regardless of what you see or hear)”.  But know this, when you learn how to rest in God, you’ll be accused of not caring about what’s going on around you.  In this world, anxiety and hand wringing is the universal sign that you really care (that, and whether or not you’re wearing the appropriate color ribbon or symbol on your lapel).  However, in the Kingdom of God, anxiety is only proof that you’re dumb.  After all, you’re supposed to be having a relationship with the Prince of Peace.
- God delights in drawing us into times of intimacy with Him.  Later in this paper we will see just how He does that.  In each cycle of intimacy there are two specific points we must be able to recognize.  The first is submission and the second is obedience.  In order for us to benefit from being in God’s presence, we must first acknowledge Who He is in submission, and then be ready to obey.  Then, in that place, He can touch us and we can be changed.  Know that God loves to touch His children in this way, just to be able to watch them respond to Him.  (It’s much the same as when we’re holding a small child and want to tickle them just to see them wriggle - I know, wiggle is a word too.  But, wriggle is also correct and I like it better.  Look it up.)
 

The Desert Experience

God works in us from two different levels: open manifestations and hiddenness.  God loves to manifest Himself, and when He does, He’s blessing you.  But, that’s not all there is to God.  When He’s hidden from you, He’s building something inside of you, and that’s even better!  So, sometimes God is hidden, which can be a frightening thing (Psalm 104:29), but we need to know that He likes to hide (Isaiah 45:15).

The great thing about God when He hides Himself is that He hides right beside us.  He hides in plain sight - training us how to see Him.  It’s like playing hide-and-seek with your children.  You always leave a small piece of yourself in view, so they won’t be afraid, and so they can find you.  You want them to find you, because you enjoy the look on their face so much when they do.

When God manifests Himself, the experience can be physical; it most certainly will be emotional.  He’s touching our body and our soul.  But, when He’s hidden, He’s reaching in to our spirit.  When He’s hidden, we can’t see Him with our eyes or feel him with our emotions.  And it’s at this time that He’s trying to teach us to see Him in our spirit man; so we can know that He’s still there.  God desperately wants us to learn the difference - our body has to experience something physical and our soul has to feel emotion, but our spirit can believe and trust and rest, even when we can’t see or feel.

God loves to hide, because He wants to be our hiding place.  He’ll take away the external things we tend to want to trust in to give us something better.  In manifestations, He’s working from the outside, in.  In hiddenness, He’s working from the inside, out.  That’s His preference - to work from the inside, out.  He wants to touch your spirit.  He wants to remove the visible to create new and greater vision inside of you.

There are many disillusioned people in the traditional church today crying out for manifestations.  They’re frustrated because they don’t see them (not real ones anyway).  God is hiding from them to give them something better.  But they don’t understand His ways, so they just keep going from place to place looking for manifestations.  They say, “I want to feel your presence, God” and “I want to see you work”.  But God says, “If you really believed in your spirit, you’d know I’m here, regardless of the circumstances.”  Those who are dominated by their soul have to feel and see, but the spirit man knows the truth and is content in it.

Does this mean manifestations are wrong or bad?  Certainly not!  Not real ones, anyway. What we have to understand is that manifestations are simply a part of the cycle God uses to draw us into intimacy with Him.  People do experience His presence.  Then He desires to take them into a deeper walk with Him.  So, He hides from them to allow them to learn to see Him in the spirit.  But, most people rebel against this cycle.  They only want the manifestations.  God wants them to move beyond that, but they simply want to stay where they are.  In Matthew 17 Jesus was transfigured.  His appearance changed and He stood on top of the mountain talking to Elijah and Moses.  What a great manifestation!  Peter was elated.  And what did he want to do?  Put up tents and stay there.  But, God said, no.  He had better things in store for Peter, deeper, more meaningful, life sustaining things.

Most people who experience some sort of manifestation of God’s presence experience a time of dryness soon afterward.  And, it’s most probably a desert experience, where God is hidden from them. And most of them don’t know that it’s the best place to be.  There are many people who have experienced times of manifestation at some point and they’re still chasing after manifestations.  They’re still longing for the soulish experiences.  But God wants them to find the depth of their spirit man instead.  Many of them are so frustrated with the dryness and the futility of their search that they’ve wandered away from God altogether.  They never understood that God wanted to take them deeper into the spirit.

Usually church leaders are blamed when the manifestations are gone.  People don’t realize that if those manifestations were real, then men didn’t bring them and men didn’t take them away.  Those who are wise will simply take the opportunity to go deeper into God.  Those who aren’t will continue to seek the manifestations and in most cases allow their wrong desires to take them into destructive liaisons with familiar spirits.

In this cycle, God uses manifestations to get your attention, to get you all excited about Him.  Then, He takes the manifestations away and leads you into the wilderness, where there is absolutely nothing.  Then, to make matters worse, He hides from you.  And He does all this so He can give you something better!  What a paradox this is!

But, if you’re struggling with this, look at Jesus.  He’s our model.  In Luke 3 He enjoys a visitation from the Father, in full, public view.  The Holy Spirit descends bodily in the form of a dove, and the voice of God is heard by all present, saying, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.”  Then, what’s the next thing that happens?  Jesus is led of the Spirit into the wilderness, and for the next forty days God has His Son all to Himself.  No distractions, no comfort, nothing, just Jesus and the Father spending time together in the desert.  Jesus in His humanity is dependent on the Father.  The Father loves Him, sustains Him, strengthens Him, reveals Himself to Him, prepares Him, touches Him, and takes Him deeper into Himself.

And He wants to do the same with us.  He’ll get our attention with manifestations, but then He wants to take us into the desert, where He has us all to Himself.  In reality, He seduces us with manifestations, so He can lure us into the desert where we will be alone with Him. That’s when the real romance begins.  The problem is that our body and soul both cry out in pain, they don’t want to lose the dominance they have.  But, if we understand what God is doing, our spirit man gets excited - he’s ready to party on with God!

The abrupt change of scenery can be confusing and frightening, as well.  At one point we’re in the midst of manifestations (it’s like being on the beach in Hawaii, sitting under a coconut tree with a cool drink in your hand).  Then, all of a sudden God is hidden (now you’re in a strange wilderness, it’s hot and dry and you’re thirsty and hungry and there’s nothing in sight).  It’s uncomfortable, you don’t like it there, so you start chasing around, looking for Hawaii again - chasing after manifestations.

The desert is a retreat into the heart of God.  He’s drawn you into a place of intimacy so He can reveal Himself to you and teach you something about Himself.  God can do anything He wants to do.  He can fill your soul with manifestations and you’ll feel great.  But, when He takes you into the desert, it’s so He can starve your soul into submission.  He wants your spirit to rise up and dominate.  In the desert, God wants to strip away everything that strengthens the soul.  He wants to see your faith rise up so you’re no longer led by what you see or feel.  Now you’re led by what you know in your spirit.  God takes you into the desert to touch your spirit.

God takes you into the desert to be alone with you.  He wants to take care of you.  To prove to you that He can.  This is personal.  He wants to speak tenderly to you, He wants to give you your inheritance, and He wants to see you whole (Hosea 2:14-15).  These things can only come out of a desert experience.  When Israel got ready to leave Egypt, they took the riches of the Egyptian people with them.  That was their manifestations.  When they found themselves in their desert experience, the gold was useless.  God took them to a place where they were alone with Him, a place where they had to learn to trust Him.  But they were soulish.  They refused to trust Him.  They blew it.  That’s why it took 40 years to reach the promised land.  God had to wait for the next generation to grasp the significance of the desert experience.  They learned to trust God and walk with Him.  So, they came into Canaan out of the desert experience.  In Luke 4, Jesus came out of His desert experience into a powerful, Holy Spirit-led ministry.

Here’s the end of the cycle - God finally gets you to the point where you no longer live in your soul, but in your spirit.  In your spirit, you can see God, trust Him and rest in Him, no matter what circumstances you’re in.  Your spirit is never moved.  It doesn’t make any difference if you’re having a good day or a bad day; you’re resting in God.  And the strength you have in your spirit allows you to enjoy the good day or endure the bad one; but in the end, it’s all the same to you - just another day in God.

And when the spirit man dominates, the will of God is all that matters.  Your spirit man lives to please God.  In Acts 21:10-14, the Holy Spirit through the prophet Agabus, warns Paul of the sufferings he will endure if he returns to Jerusalem.  But Paul wasn’t moved.  That is, his spirit man wasn’t moved, because he lived in the spirit.  Paul had learned the lessons of his desert experiences with God; so, he knew how to enjoy blessings and endure hardships (Philippians 4:11-13).  Only the spirit man can do that.  The soulish man has to feel God when pressure comes, or he’ll fall apart.

Finally, in I John 2:20, 27 it says, “But you possess an inner anointing received from the Holy One, and because of this, you know the truth.....and this anointing you received from Him will remain in you for all time, so that you will not need for any man to teach you.  But, this anointing will teach you everything you will ever need to know and will not lead you astray.  Simply learn to live in what God Himself has taught you.”  When we respond to God in our desert experiences, He gives us this inner anointing.  All our desert experiences go together to make up this anointing.  Our spirit man is living in the continual presence of God.  The revelation we receive from God during these times is the revelation that will sustain us in any circumstance for the rest of our lives.

When we’re in the desert with God, He gives us the water that makes up the well that has the capacity to gush out of our lives for all time.  We, and those around us, have the opportunity to drink from this water any time we want or need to (see John 4:14).  Your resident anointing is made up of all the truth God has deposited in your heart, because you responded to him in the wilderness with faith and obedience.  These rivers of water will flow from your innermost being for the rest of your life (John 7:38).  It’s always there, in an inexhaustible supply, waiting for the Holy Spirit to bring it to the surface.

So, don’t avoid the dry times.  Look for them, ask for them, and then embrace them.  We’re back to square one, here.  This is not religion.  This is not what you’re going to learn in the “tell me what I want to hear” traditional church.  We’re talking about having a real, personal, experiential relationship with God, again.  It’s the same message, just deeper in God.  Stop yearning for manifestations.  You don’t need to feel the presence of God all the time.  You don’t need to see Him work all the time.  You need to experience Him in the desert, as well, just you and God.  Let Him love you.  Let Him reveal Himself to you, seduce you and lead you out into the desert, where He can romance your spirit and kill your flesh!  

Seal of God, Not The Mark of the Beast - Mary Lois Burns

Seal of God, Not The Mark of the Beast

A seal in Bible days was a blob of wax into which the particular mark of the person sending a letter or document was impressed. The sealing wax was soft enough to receive the mark, then it hardened so that no other impression could be made on it. In the same manner, our lives are receiving the seal of God, or the mark of :he Beast. The seal of God is the character of the Holy Spirit working in the very human life of the Believer. The seal of God will produce likeness to Jesus Christ.

He perfectly displayed the life of God in man by perfectly obeying the will of the Father. Don't rely on what someone else has told you about Jesus. Look in the Bible for yourself. Read the Gospels over and over again, until you get rid of all the religious ideas you have believed. Then you will begin to see the real Jesus as He is.  We don't know Jesus as He is, because we have been given a substitute and told

that it was the real thing.

Whatever or whoever controls our lives is our idol. It may be an idea or a philosophy. It may be a person, or the image of the kind of person we want to be. This image controls our behavior and molds us one way or another. The extreme fanatics, those with total dedication to a leader, religion, rock music, rebellion against the established order, or the perpetuation of the established order, have a distinct life style. They dress a certain way. They adopt certain words and expressions that those outside the group cannot understand. They cling to one another and shun relationships with outsiders because they cannot play the same game with them. They don't know the rules of their particular group. There are some in every group who are driven to be leaders, and who must have control of other peoples' Iives. These leaders must display more loyalty to, and knowledge about their idol than others. They must outgive, outdo, and outstrip the common ones in extreme behavior which proves how faithful they are to the ideals of the group. The greater the sacrifice, the more devoted they appear to be. It is as true of all religious groups as it is of rock music freaks. They become like what is most important to them. The mark, or seal, of what they admire most (worship) begins to be indelibly fixed in their character.

God knows that we are like that soft wax. We will take the imprint of what we desire and crave the most. That is why God forbade His people to worship idols of silver, gold, wood or stone. He knew that their character would be stamped with whatever they called “God”.

There are some who come into the group just to have fellowship with the people in the group. The only conform outwardly to the minimum they can. We Call them hypocrites because they pretend to be one thing with the group, and can still live a different Iifestyle with others. These are not in as much danger spiritually as the real fanatic. These fanatics are determined to give their “all” to the cause, and will go to extremes to prove their loyalty and devotion. It is these that are the real victims of the false shepherds. Look at what happened in Guyana. One man ordered the deaths of nine hundred people. You think it couldn't happen to you, but many have been ordered into spiritual suicide because they had to obey man, and conform to the standards of some group.

Every religion has its own standards and rules which are different from those of every other group. Some speak in tongues, some do not. Some preach salvation through acceptance of theology and baptism. Some require rigid diets, meditation, and separation from all those who do not believe as they do. All require that you continue with them, or you are considered “back-slidden” or “in error.” They hold the keys to Eternity's Door. If you lose favor with them, you lose your chance to please God and go to heaven.

God told me that no man can give or withold His blessings to another. Those who tell you that if you give to their ministry, or join their crowd, that God will bless you...are false shepherds. God will bless you if you obey and follow His will for your life. Some of those blessings look like curses until the Lord has accomplished His purpose in you. The Lord gives...the Lord takes away..Blessed be the Name of the Lord! It is His prerogative. When any man or woman tells you that they have the power to give God's blessings to you, or take them away... Beware! They are serving a different god, and you must not have anything to do with spiritual voo-doo and fortune telling. God will be God, and His glory will He not give to another. (Isa. 42: B.) Do you remember what caused the nation of Israel to run before the enemy at Ai? (Joshua 7.) It was one man's coveting and taking what God had set aside for Himself. The whole nation suffered because of one man's sin. When we try to do or be what God has reserved for Himself alone, we cause our brothers to stumble, and to look to us, instead of directly to Jesus.

Hebrews, chapter 10, describes the difference between the sacrifices under the old covenant, the Law, and the 'new and living way' opened up for us by Jesus offering Himself to God, without spot or wrinkle. Because He became our Great High Priest, we do not need, indeed cannot have, any other mediator between us and the Father. Let us right now, renounce everyone and everything that we have put between us and the True and Living God, the Creator of all things...our God and King forever.

This will include all sacrifices, all good works that we have done trying to earn our salvation. It also will include all the religious services we have attended to please God and insure our place in heaven, all the money we have given (supposedly :o God) to pay our way in, any preacher, teacher, church, group, or spiritual leader that we look to instead of Jesus. Let us turn away from these things, and return to our First Love. Let us recover what we had when we first came to the Lord - that wonderful, child-like dependence and joy of fellowship with Jesus. Let us once more experience the awareness and presence of His direction each day, in simple terms that we could understand and obey, without anyone else interpreting God to us.

Break off all other yokes, and take the yoke of Jesus. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. (Matt. 11:28-30). You will have to choose His will for your life and realize that it is best. You wiIl have to obey Him at all costs. But what He requires, He furnishes. If He tells you to stand up against lies and oppression, He will give you the courage to act and the words to say. You will have to choose to obey each step of the way. God will not force you, or use you like a mindless robot.

All domination and manipulation of one person by another is Satanic and demonic. You must not do this to anyone else, even your own children. God will establish your authority where it is proper, as you get right. with Him and do right, by others.

You cannot pick and choose the ones to whom you want to be nice and teIl the truth. God requires truth and right treatment to ALL. When you have allowed God to deal with what is not right in you, then He will use you as an instrument to deal with what is not right in others in their relationship to you. God's judgment begins at the altar. Those closest to Him must go through the fire first. His judgment is His mercy, since what He judges and deals with, you need to be rid of. The greatest thing we can do at this time, is to ask for a New Birth of Jesus in us. He came to do the will of the Father, and if we have the life of Christ in us, we will have the desire and ability to become true, obedient sons of God.

Which do you choose? Will you choose the seal of God (the character of Jesus formed in you by the Holy Spirit, as you obey God's word to you) or the mark of the Anti-Christ (the surrender of your will to anyone, to anything: persons, creeds, doctrines, philosophies, organizations, your own idea of good and evil, etc. other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself). You will have to choose. Will it be reality or religion? Truth or Lies? Freedom in Christ, or bondage to man and doctrines? Do not delay your choice. The Antichrist is already sitting in the temple declaring himself to be God. Jesus said, “Not one stone shall be left upon another” (Matt. 24:2). The temple of religious ritual and all the sacrifices we think we have made for God must be counted as dung... if we would see Jesus, and walk in His light - The Truth. There are hidden works of darkness in every religious exercise. We hide behind our own good works (service to the temple) rather than have our darkness brought out into the open where we can see, confess it, be cleansed, and turn from it.

The Bride must receive the seed from Jesus, allow it to grow and mature at its proper rate. When the fulness of time is come, God's son (the manchild of Rev. 12) will be born. This is a new kind of life, brought forth out of the death of the old. Our old way of living is consigned to death by our being identified with the death of Jesus. Now, we are able to rise up into life in Christ Jesus without the help and support of religious exercises. Would you keep a baby in the womb forever? It would never be born. We have misunderstood what the New Birth is. What many have experienced is merely conception. You are not born until you come out of the womb, and the cord is cut. You are not Born Again until you can come out of your dependence on the church and religious exercises, and learn to walk and choose and grow.

You cannot see God as long as you have to be fed by someone else. It is a stage of babyhood, but it is not a full grown son. We must be weaned from the mother's breast, so that we have a chance to know the Father.

You were living in the house with your father until you were fully grown and responsible for your own behavior. Many hard things you hated as a child, you understood when you became a parent. You see your father in a different light when you feel the responsibility for the safety, provision, training and discipline of your own children. In the same way, we misunderstand the workings of God in our lives when we are “babes.” We want blessings and attention. We would even steal them from our brothers and sisters in the Lord, if we could. We often resent it when they are blessed and we are not. We despise the chastening and correction which is so necessary if we are ever to be counted worthy to stand before the Lord in His Kingdom as full grown sons.

We must learn what is of God, and what is a counterfeit of the enemy. There is a false repentance – lots of apologies and promises – but no change in behavior. There is a false confession – we think that by admitting that we did wrong, God wipes it out. There is a false cleansing – the blood of Jesus automatically wipes out my sins, even though I still go on sinning. There is a false surrender – this is not to God, but to someone or something that is supposed to be God's representative. Everywhere we encounter the false love - this is manifested by covering up the truth of how I really feel about what is going on, and pretending to approve and accept what I actually hate. Only the grossest behavior will arouse us out of our lethargy. We close our eyes to the evil in them because we don't want it judged in ourselves. This pretense of brotherly love is just like Judas. We draw nigh with our lips but our hearts are far from one another. True love demands the truth in our relationships, so that we can be cleansed and transformed by the power of God.

Try taking seriously the commandment of Jesus that you love one another as He loved us. This love is cleansing and transforming, not a “I'm O.K., your O.K.” acceptance of the status-quo. God cannot, change what we do not ask Him to change. We don't ask because we don't see. We don’t see because we refuse to hear and act on the truth when it's pointed out. We defend our righteousness, confirming the fact' that we have not submitted ourselves to God's righteousness (Rom. 10:3). We refuse to rebuke and admonish one another in the name of Christian love. Our idea of love is corrupt and must be changed by obedience to the whole word of God. God hates sin and injustice. He hates lying, stealing, oppressing others, and exalting ourselves above others. This kind of activity characterizes every church or group I have had opportunity to worship in. The strong oppress the weak, and rob and use them. Envy and strife is the normal condition. Yet, they call themselves the Body of Christ. God forgive us, and help us to come out of lies, so that we might be able to walk in the truth.

Mary Lois Burns

Addendum:
This is part of an email I recently received.  It speaks of the purpose of our coming out from the religious systems and mindsets of men...

"To know God is to trust and have faith in Him. To know God, we understand that God knows us inside out, and therefore knows our needs. To know God means that as our Lord taught us, if he clothes the birds so graciously, how much more will He take care of our needs. What we need to be cognizant of is being about our Father’s business. Let God take care of the rest.

In this then the body has ONE mind, ONE vision, ONE hope, ONE course, ONE movement, ONE God, ONE Lord, and we are blessed to be a part of His body at this time. Praise God for His gift of predestinating us by His grace to be a part of the firstfruit company. Praise God that our journey upon this earth will end with the transformation and the gift of our new bodies. For it has not been without a transformation in us. We have willingly run the course of our race, denying everything but Him, to receive the mark of the high calling.

To honor God we must always keep Him in the forefront. He is the mark; His life within us. That is our goal that is what we are after. And even though there is a deepness within God, and He shows us very many deep understandings, that liberate us and cause us to rejoice; the act of serving God is not a complicated one, it is an act of simplicity. One of love, having the opportunity to serve our God, and our Lord daily; being in submission to them, to be hungry to sup at our Father’s table of everlasting life. To be transformed by the renewing of our mind through our Lord Jesus Christ. And in all of its complexity, serving God becomes very simple; as simple as ALWAYS preferring God, and our Lord above ourself, loving them with all of our fiber and our being. Always bringing glory to our Father, and loving Him above all!

That is the key, loving God above ALL. There is nothing more important than Him. He is everything, always has been. There is nothing above Him. His is all that exists, and He has given us our existence in Him. So all that we are, all that we do, all that we have become, all that we will become, it is to show our love, our honor to our Father God, for all that He has given to us; the ability to live; the ability to be in existence, the ability to give back to Him ALL that we are, in our service to Him. Never being ashamed of, but ALWAYS honoring Him in ALL our ways."

 Lenella Maxwell

Becoming All-One - Danny Walters

Becoming All-One (Danny Walters)

So this kind of sharing is really quite personal and I would imagine new for everyone – it certainly is for me. But I have something I want to share again this morning as I continue in this same vein of things, and as I consider sharing the message, I am before the Lord first, as to whether or not it is something I should share, and then secondly, how I should bring it forward. I am endeavoring to share only out of Christ as He wants things shared, and not presume or assume anything. But as I’ve mentioned, the Lord has put a strong body-sense in me and so I have become ‘naturally’ disposed to this Mind of sharing right now. Still, I am continuing cautiously, (trying to learn) endeavoring to only move as His Spirit leads. 

Anyway, I had a dream yesterday morning that was one of those ‘hit me between the eyes’ kind of experiences. And the reason I consider sharing it is that I have probably received this message before but was closed off or not ready for the interpretation, and so didn’t get it. It seems though that the Spirit is somehow ensuring I’m understanding the things brought forward in this moment – maybe being forceful with me to some degree to ensure this moment becomes foundational or maybe substantially incremental to what He’s building, and not just another time I passed through. It is in that regard that I thought perhaps I should share the message of the dream, as it may relate to something the Lord is speaking or has spoken to others. And the message is SO important to get, to really embrace. I mean, I know the message is for everyone, whether or not you’ve had a dream or a sense along this line – it’s something that those ‘in the way’ of His things should get a hold of.

And it seems the place to begin in relaying the message is at the punch line – the last thing the Spirit spoke before my eyes were opened. The scenario plays out like the two walking the road to Emmaus with resurrected-Jesus as their companion, completely unaware that they’d been walking with their Lord until their eyes were opened. In my dream a whole scene plays out that’s analogous to walking the road with Jesus, unaware, and then I wake up and as I’m considering it, all of a sudden I get the interpretation (analogous to: ‘THAT was Jesus’) and it more than surprises me, it shocks me, it astounds me. And then when that settles in, I’m brought to my knees with a revelation that is both humbling to my core and at the same time answering every present desire of my being with a warm and utterly satisfying knowing (analogous to the revelation of the Truth that He’d been speaking to the two along the walk, hitting their spirit’s core and answering every one of life’s questions in that moment).

So I’m starting with the, “THAT was Jesus” moment and will get to the personal utterly-satisfying touch of Truth’s revelation in a moment.

The revelation was: “where you are, is My gift to you”.

As I said, that put the entire train of life with every car full and weighted down with years of experiences and people and circumstances and situations pressing forward with all of its combined push, at full-stop. Where I am, where I find myself in this moment, is God’s gift to me – a present, maybe in some way a reward.

Now, I had to give consideration to where I was. And to the adam-man I’m cut-off from life as I’ve always known it, and separated from the future that I had always imagined with my children and grandchildren, living on a foreign continent in a foreign culture, in virtual isolation given circumstances, language, and security concerns, frequently without electricity or running water, and the list goes on.

But if it’s a gift, and a gift from God, then I’m in one of the most beautiful places on the planet, with an apartment whose bedroom balcony overlooks one the largest lakes on globe, a lake surrounded by mountains, and the water of the bay we’re sitting in is always as glass, picturesque, tranquil, captivatingly beautiful. And our apartment has a measure of security, and our landlord likes us and treats us like family and gives us grace on our rent, and we’ve been here now for ten months without earning income and the Lord has continually provided for us. And Grace and her daughters and Venuste, our live-in domestic worker (whose been with us for a year and half now), give me much love and respect. And as my bent these days is to stay before the Lord 24/7, I have no interruptions; no visitors, no TV, no radio or iPod or books (other than my Bible). And more, so much more. It’s a worshippers dream!

And considering all that, I am humbled. In fact, I am remorseful and repentant for not being more appreciative for having been perfectly placed and situated to fulfill, DESTINY. I mean, that’s what it’s all about right? Not retirement; I’m not looking for retirement, unless you mean retirement from the cares and demands of this world that I might give myself over to a full-time vocation of following the Spirit into Destiny; yes I want that. And that’s what I’ve been given.

Surprise. And the reason it’s a surprise is, while I would tell you that I am of a mind to understand I’m being kept by the power of God and am in the way of His keeping, yet at the same time I’m still somehow half-way (or more than half-way) about the rent and whether or not we’re in the right place and doing the right thing. And then there’s all these seemingly inherent concerns that are a result of our culture and upbringing, things that have to do with what family thinks and friends think and associates, and our testimony and how it reflects upon Christ and so on, because there’s much more to all these bullet points of life than what I’ve shared for brevity’s sake. Sheesh, ‘I’ can certainly complicate things.

But to hear that where I am is God’s gift to me, well, that just changes the whole perspective doesn’t it. I mean, now, I have no worries. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, doing what I’m supposed to be doing, and doing it with whom I’m supposed to be doing it (and that includes you with whom I am doing this – Ha!). And the really big thought behind this revelation, is PURPOSE, because THAT’s what we’re all about; that’s our Thing. And if I’m in the place I’m supposed to be, by God’s hand, and my whole heart and mind is wrapped up in fulfilling the Lord’s intended purpose for my life then gosh, I’m PERFECTLY placed for THAT by the PERFECT PLACER – the same One who placed the adam in His garden has placed me here! This place has become Eden to me; the place where I will come to literally walk with God.

So this understanding is big, it’s paramount, and it’s restful. In this understanding is peace, confidence, and assurance. And certainly if it is for purpose, this understanding then is coupled to supernatural things – His things – for that’s what we’re talking about: His things having become the sum total of our things. Therefore this understanding is coupled to the supernatural power and driving force of His will, His love, and the related objective(s) that He has in Mind. And we are caught up in THAT – ALL OF THAT! As mentioned, this understanding, or revelation, is big.

But there was one thing bigger for the two on the road to Emmaus. As big as it was to see resurrected-Jesus and talk and walk with Him for a couple hours – to get THAT revelation – what was bigger was what He left them with. The dawning of the fact that they had just been with Jesus was a powerful moment, but what would carry them through for the rest of their earthly lives was the revelation of Truth personally imparted by the very Spirit of Truth personated in Christ along that walk. And this next thing is what melted me. That first thing LIBERATED my consciousness, but what came next has enlivened me; it has seemingly breathed new and heavenly breaths of life into me that will keep me and sustain me until Destiny is reached!

But how do I convey it? I’ve not given you enough context for it to grab you as it grabbed me. And that’s how God is: He’s personal. He’s personally intimate with each one of us. His messages go deep into our person because He as no other, knows us to that depth and can relate to us out of that depth – the deep of Him speaking into our deep. But it’s powerfully significant so I’ve got to try to communicate what was personally powerful to me that you might be able to at least relate to its significance.

You know how I mentioned yesterday that I was seeing our One God in all of His manifestations, all of the various ways that God has given character to Himself for creation’s sake? Well, it was through one of those personations of Himself that He touched me in the quick of my heart. I mentioned that in the dream, God said: “where you are, is My gift to you”. Well, at this point I’ve got to share a bit of the dream with you.

In the dream, in the midst of the busyness of life, my birthday was coming up and my wife was planning something but even though she’d communicated some things, none of it registered with me. And so a day had arrived where seemingly in the busyness of life, our SUV is jam packed with people, adults and children, and I’m driving us up into the mountains on some excursion. Now for days my wife has been walking around with this little book in her hands, opened to the centerfold where there’s a map. And as it’s been, she’s still clutching this little book, sitting in the front passenger’s seat with kids and others overflowing up into our space with all their animation and noises of life, and as we’re nearing the first stop she has highlighted on this map I pull over for some reason, whether for directions or for ice-cream – I don’t remember – but I stopped and my wife and I got out and walked up to the walk-up counter of this Tastee-Freeze and there were a number of people in line ahead of us and I’m trying to see how I might get the attention of the guy inside while standing in the midst of all these others who are vying for his attention, and of course all the while my wife is pointing to the map in the little book and trying to get me to understand something when, all of a sudden, I had an epiphany. It suddenly dawned on me that all the busyness that she’d been busy with and all the things she’d been doing – and I realized that she’d made significant preparations, arrangements – my goodness, this was all for my benefit! And I told her that I was sooo sorry; I hadn’t realized – I hadn’t noticed – she’d spent so much time and energy on getting everything ready for this time, gone ahead to every spot on the map and made special arrangements at every location – everything was set in order: situations where people and circumstances would be waiting, and there would be gifts and blessings and then clues that would lead me to next spot that she wanted me to arrive at – I was at a loss. I said I was so sorry and asked for forgiveness and said: “I didn’t realize that everything you were doing was for me”. And she said “yes, it is all for you”. And then I woke up.

And I could feel the Lord so strongly and I realized all that I’ve already told you. And as I was laying there I was thanking God and praising Him and asking for forgiveness for being so dense and was still in awe about the revelation and was thinking about all that I’ve come through in the last four or five years or so, all the people and circumstances – it’s been a whirlwind. And then I was thinking about my wife – my wife in the dream – and I didn’t recognize her. And as I was thinking about that and trying to draw parallels and so on, that’s when I heard: “where you are, is My gift to you”. And I immediately knew that she was the daughter of Wisdom, my covenant bride.

I practically fell out. And stepping aside from all I felt and how I reacted and what followed, I want to tell you why that revelation was so powerful to me. The reason is simply because Adam had rejected wisdom and chosen to couple with his own rational mind, and I knew at that point that his covenant bride withdrew, meek as she is, and was lost to him. It was more than shocking to me to find out that Wisdom’s daughter was abiding with me, and more especially that she’d been with me for some time and that I was unaware.

So I considered and realized that yes, I have for some years now rejected the seeing, feeling, hearing, imagining, reasoning mind of Adam, but what I hadn’t realized is that what I had embraced by doing so, was Wisdom. Until recently I’d always thought Wisdom was that God-perspective of things. I hadn’t known Wisdom as a member of God’s personhood. Understanding God as Spirit, and all His attributes as spiritual attributes still had not really given legs to the understanding that Wisdom was not just the caliber or elevated capacity of the Mind of God, but is the spiritual organ of His Mind, as reason is to the adamic man, and that when we reject the rational mind, we are embracing the Mind of Christ, which is that spiritual organ of Wisdom.

So what was melting me was that I had become, in some measure, both male and female, in essence. You know what I’m saying – not literally – but in the God-essence of things, Wisdom was back in my being. That spirit-counselor betrothed to me as a covenant partner – the daughter of her Mother through whom the worlds were fashioned – she was back. And the fact that the Lord had revealed that to me was carrying some heavy weight. And the revelation that Wisdom had been guiding me for some time toward a destination that God had intended for me, and that I had followed that Spirit – that I had somehow aligned myself to His Spirit of Wisdom – it was revolutionary!

You see what I’m saying: we are becoming! Rejecting the seeing, feeling, imagining, reasoning organ of the rational mind and embracing by faith, the leading of Wisdom’s Mind, we are becoming all-one again, as He is, in this world! That’s what melted me – God revealed THAT to me – ‘Let Us make man in Our image’, is happening – the essence of who He is and has always been is becoming the essence of who we are – men, essenced in His essence.

And so again, maybe a witness to you of what the Lord is speaking, or revealing…

Becoming Rock - Danny Walters

Becoming Rock - Danny Walters

I want to share something with you. I am asking you to receive it in the Spirit of: “When you come together, each of you has” something to share out of Christ. It is in the Spirit of coming together that I am sharing this personal meditation, as being a fellow-member of yours in our Lord’s body.

I’ve had opportunity this weekend to spend much time just meditating and focusing on the Lord. It’s been an uncommon time of receiving several dreams and even a number of visions – quite uncommon for me. But let me tell you what I’ve experienced of Him. I am somehow seeing Him in myself, in my soul, according to His Word; that His Spirit has been sent into us. So I’m recognizing that as I often say, I am conjoined to Him, but today I have a deeper understanding, or a term that for me has a deeper meaning, and it is co-essenced. I am now recognizing that I in Christ am co-essenced in His essence; that I am being mingled with His pure essence. This deposit that is in me (us) is of that same pure, distinct, God-essence that was before time – it is the core essence of His being and it has been deposited in us – God in Christ deposited in us. And I am seeing God in all of His expressions, as Father, Son, and holy Spirit, Wisdom and Love and beyond – I am seeing God in His original, before all these things that give Him expression for creation’s sake. And that original essence is in us, and I am co-mingled with THAT; co-essenced with God in His essence.

And in my meditations I am seeing Him in me, sensing His God-essence in me and am simply meditating on that, and it is filling me with a new sense of relationship, and a more tangible sense of destiny. I am recognizing that THAT is my destiny, and that as we come into our own, I will be living out of that coalescent essence. And being coalesced with Christ means that there has been a tincturing or suffusion of my being with all that is the pure, eternal essence of CHRIST, as a tree that over centuries of time can draw in the minerals of the soil in which it is planted and become so one with the mineral-rich essence of that source that it becomes petrified and is transformed into congealed, mineral-rich Rock – Petrified: from the Greek root Petra, meaning Rock. One with The Rock; becoming a living Stone, as the Apostle Petra was given inspiration to share: we as living stones having drawn all our essence – having had our essence tinctured by His – are becoming a dwelling to host the fullness of His presence in all its wonder. And those thoughts are transforming my expectations of being Christ, as He is Christ, in all humility and wisdom and insight and charity and capacity…  It’s as if I just discovered His incarnation within and having SEEN Him in the eternal purity of the measure I’ve been given to SEE Him, in ME, is transforming the potentiality, the tangibility, even the certainty of becoming, CHRIST!

Seeing Him within, essenced within – in my soul – has transformed my mind, my meditation. Now I sit quietly as matter in the Life of the seed, filled with expectation as I see the infinite, eternal, explosive quality of the Life into which I’ve been coalesced. Now my meditation is on the power and potential of that eternal Life within, and it has caused me to see things through an entirely different lens.  

Praise the Lord for His unfathomable plan and purpose for us ‘throwaways’. Praise the Lord for making the way for us to move from flesh to spirit – to become spirit-beings – spiritual sons of our great, GREAT God. Praise the Lord that we ARE becoming, and praise the Lord that the BECOMING is such an amazing experience!!! Becoming spiritual – spiritually Minded, spiritually powered, spiritually ESSENCED – is an amazing experience.

God is MORE God than we are still able to fathom!!! There is still sooo much MORE to discover about Him!

So I share this with you with some trepidation and pray you are able to receive and rejoice in these things in the spirit they are shared, despite all the ‘me’ talk. The intention behind sharing these things is to give both glimpse and witness to the experiential reality of the transformation process, as one person is experiencing it. One day we’ll have been transformed, and that will be a witness to those who haven’t, but I’m thinking that now, for those that are of the first group to come through, we could be sharing and giving witness to one another what we are experiencing, as encouragement and confirmation.

Perhaps not everyone is able to express in words what they are going through, and that is fine. I know there is much of my own experience that I am not yet able to articulate. This sharing is only meant to give a basis for sharing such things, as the Lord enables.

With regard for you,

danny

*** This morning I read the above post shared on FB from Danny Walters, where he spoke of becoming aware of Christ's essence within.... then this afternoon I picked up again reading 'FIRE: Natural & Spiritual' by Lloyd Ellefson, and this jumped at me....

pg. 22

"For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Rom. 14:17) The kingdom of God is IN the Holy Spirit. Jesus was ruled by God's Spirit! And that is the rule that has been given to us! Jesus said, "And just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Luke 22:29-30) We eat and drink spiritually at His table! That is true spiritual food. Jesus said, "I have meat to eat you don't know of...I live by the Father, and as I live by the Father he that eats of Me shall live by Me, for My blood is drink, and My flesh is meat indeed." This must not be interpreted to mean the physical flesh and blood. We partake of Him in His spiritual essence! His life is the fruit of the new covenant! The fruit of the old covenant was death. Jesus said, "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died." (John 6:49) The food of the new covenant does not produce death; it brings life!

 

pg. 27

That's why Jesus said, "When you pray, say, `Our Father'". When the Spirit comes, we cry "Abba! Father!" because that shows our relationship with God. Christ abides in us in His essence! He didn't become a fleshly man first and then a spiritual man; nor did He become the Son of God just before He went back to heaven. Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever! He took on forms and manifested Himself in various ways. He came to bring us a true impression and a true realization of God that we might know who we are in Him! He was obviously rejected in the natural for He was judged according to the law of the old covenant. This showed the necessity of a new covenant with a new law. This is the law of life! That is why Jesus Christ brought it to us!

I had never heard anyone use the word Essence in this way before.  Then two in one day, unrelated to one another.... this struck me as significant.