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KINGDOM
BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching
the things concerning the
The
Seed In Every Man
By J.
THE SPIRIT IN MAN
Deep within every man there
is a secret sanctum where dwells the mysterious essence of his being. This inmost reality is that part of a man which
separates him from every other living creature and makes him uniquely mankind. This deep hidden power is what it is of
itself independent of any other part of the mans complex nature. It is the mans I Am, a gift from
the I AM who created him. The deep-in human
entity of which we speak is called in the scriptures the spirit of man. For what man knoweth the things of man, save
the spirit of man which is in him? even so the
things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God (I Cor. 2:11). As Gods self-knowledge lies in the eternal
Spirit, so mans self-knowledge is by his own spirit, and his knowledge of God is by
the direct union of the Spirit of God with the spirit of man. I cannot overstress the importance of this in our
forward walk into our destiny as sons of God! This
truth denies that man is an earthly, physical being having a spirit and declares, rather,
that he is a spirit having a physical body. That
which makes a man a human being is not his body but his spirit, in which the image of God
originally lay.
Most people on earth have
forgotten their beginning. But the scripture
is clear. And God said, Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness
and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. So God created man in his own image, in the image
of God created He him (Gen. 1:26; 2:7; 1:28). What
God actually did was that He imaged Himself in man. God
imaged Himself in man by forming Himself in a man of earth.
Thus man was created as a visible expression of the invisible God. Now that hasnt changed! What has changed is our perception of ourselves
because of the fall. But before we discuss
that, let us see just how it was that God imaged Himself in man, and how it is that man is
a spiritual being having an earthly experience, instead of a physical being having a
spiritual experience.
Wonderful words were spoken
at the very dawn of civilization, recorded in the oldest book of the Bible, which state
simply and powerfully the reality of man. There
is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding
(Job 32:8). It is something great in man,
Elihu conceives, that he is spirit, and, because he is, is capable of being inspired. He is not here speaking of Adam as he was in the
primordial glory of Eden, nor yet of regenerated man in this wonderful age of the Holy
Spirit; but, speaking thousands of years ago in the present tense, he magnifies man as
being able to be inspired, just because he is spirit.
And it is God, who likewise is spirit, that inspires him!
Can we not see by this that
the very being of man has a God-ward or divine side, being related constitutionally to
Him. The testimony of scripture is
incontrovertible that there is a spirit in man, or what is the same, the fact that we are,
as being spirit, permeable and inspirable by the Almighty!
The word spirit
means literally, breath, and denotes a quality of life because, in the case of the spirit
in man, God is able to breathe Himself into it and through it. The word inspiration, as used here,
denotes the act of inbreathing. Anyone who is
inspired is breathed into, visited internally by the power of life, and so
quickened in mind, raised in intelligence, ennobled in nature, and empowered in ability. In this way Bezaleel was inspired when he was
filled with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding, to devise cunning works, to
work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in
carving timber (Ex. 31:3-5). Anyone is
inspired just as far as he is raised internally, in thought, feeling, perception, or
action, by a divine movement within! It is Gods
Spirit quickening our spirit, and thus bringing a change, a release, a raising so that our
spirit may function as it was designed to function. This
is what Jesus described as being born again, the spirit that already existed
as the offspring of God being brought forth, just as a flesh baby is brought forth into
the world, into a new realm, a new level of identity, a new consciousness, a new
expression, a new ability, a new standing, new rights and privileges and inheritance! We all understand that a babys life does not
begin at the moment of birth it is simply released into a new dimension where it
can attain to its full potential in that realm. Thus
it is with the new birth! Our spirit did not
originate at the moment of our new birth it had to already exist or it could not
have been born! That which is thus born
of the Spirit is spirit! It is this capacity
of being spirit that qualifies man as an inspirable creature.
This reveals mans
capacity for God; to experientially know the presence of God, to let in the divine nature,
to entertain the eternal Spirit witnessing with his spirit, to be energized by Him and
filled with His glory, in every faculty, feeling, and power, being a vessel and channel
for the life of God, to think His thoughts and do His works.
Thus, the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children (offspring) of God! (Rom. 8:16). And
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts
(spirit), crying, Abba, Father! (Gal. 4:6). There
is a spirit in man, and the inbreathing of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Only because man is spirit is all this possible!
In that long ago beginning
God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul
(Gen. 2:7). Now all the animals and beasts of
the field are also called living souls in the creation story in Genesis. But there is a difference! Let the fact be imprinted indelibly upon our minds
that none of these became a living soul by the inbreathing of God! God did not Himself breathe into the nostrils of
cattle, lions, elephants, birds, fish, cockroaches, or any other creature. Their breath of life is of an inferior
quality to that of man. The breath of life of
the animal kingdom is merely the oxygen of our lower atmosphere. They are, therefore, a creation of God but are
unrelated to God. The breath of life in man,
however, originates out of the very spirit-essence of God Himself inbreathed
thus, when a man dies his body returns to the dust from whence it came, but his spirit
returns to God who gave it! (Eccl. 12:7).
In Genesis 1, God speaks of adham (male and female), and only adham as being made in His image. The point is emphasized by repetition. As humanitys story unfolds through subsequent
chapters, we discover that what makes humans different is a quality called spirit. None of the rest of earths creatures possess
it! By spirit the Bible means
relationship with God, and the capacity to be aware of God, to communicate with Him, and
participate with Him in His great and eternal purposes.
Worship is the key evidence of the spiritual quality of the human race, and
the universality of worship is evidenced in altars, temples, priesthoods, sacrifices,
rituals, prayers, praise, and religious exercises of all kinds. Burial of dead, use of tools, or even architecture
and the arts do not qualify as evidence of the spirit, for non-spirit beings such as
birds, beaver, elephants, chimpanzees, and a multitude of others engage in such activities
to a limited extent. But no animal worships! There are no chimpanzee or ape altars, temples,
priesthoods, or prayers of any kind. Only man
worships! Only man is a spiritual being! Only man is aware of God! Only man has heard from God! To worship is as natural for man any
man, saved or unsaved as barking is for a dog!
Oh, the mystery of it!
Douglas Wilson once wrote,
There has been a very sore cry in a great many of our hearts. There has been a cry that has risen from the very
depths of our spirits. It is a cry to know the
Lord, even our God! It is a cry to be one with
the Lord our God. It is a cry to be with our
God even as it is written that he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. We have not understood from whence this deep cry
comes. We have not known the depths from
whence it came. But the Lord knows, for He put
it there and has caused it to come forth. Is
it not written that deep calleth unto deep?
So is it then not written that the depth of man calls unto the depth of God? And the depth of God also calls to the depth
in man! The earth is filled with the call of
God and the call of man. The call rises up
into the ears of God and He hears it, for He has put the call within us.
The Lord would have us know that from the very
beginning, when He brought man forth out of the dust of the earth and gave unto him of His
own breath, His own Spirit, then He put a depth in man that was equal to the depth of God. For do we not know that if God lives in us, and if
we are the temple of the living God, then the depths that are in us must equal those
depths that are in God? Else we could not
contain God, neither could He dwell within us as our life.
But the depth that God
had put in man became darkness unto man. So
man knew not this depth. Man deemed himself to
be but a created being of God. Man did not
know the depths of his nature! He knew not
that which was deep within him. For to him the
light had gone out and no longer moved in the depth of his life. Unknown to man the light was shining dimly and man
was only faintly aware of it. Yet there was to
come a day when this light would begin again to be manifested! end quote.
Recently I heard one kingdom
teacher make the following statements: I
want to say a word to all the spooky people out there who believe in pre-existence, in
having had some kind of spiritual life in the bosom of the Father before the world began. We were not there HE was there! The reason I am telling you this is because there
is a teaching that goes around the camp of sonship people which suggests that you were
there with Him at that time. I cant take
the time today to point out to you how that is not true, and it defiles the truth. It corrupts the truth because God said to honor
your father and your mother. Do you know why? BECAUSE THEY ARE THE ONES WHO GAVE YOU LIFE! Thats the first commandment with promise. My life did not begin in the beginning or before
the beginning. God might have thought about
me, He may have known that I was going to come forth, but in due time I came forth from my
parents end quote.
This dear brother simply
lacks spiritual understanding. He supposes
that the whole life of man derives only from his earthly parents! He must never have read the scripture wherein we
read, And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He
receiveth. Furthermore, we have had fathers of
our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For
they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit,
that we might be partakers of His holiness (Heb. 12:5-6, 9-10).
Someone says, Oh, yes,
God is the Father of the spirits of all those who have been born again. Yet the scripture cries out, O God, the God of
the spirits of all flesh (Num. 16:22). You
see, brethren, we must think spiritual sense about these things! That we might better comprehend, I must follow this
instructive passage with some pertinent questions. Meditate
deeply upon these. Does every flesh man have a
spirit? Is every man, saved or unsaved,
composed of spirit, soul, and body? Or do only
believers possess a spirit? If every man has a
spirit, where did his spirit come from? Did it
come from God? Did it come from his parents? Did it come from the devil? Was your spirit, when you were born into this
world, already fallen? If not,
when did it fall? Is God actively
in the business of begetting fallen or dead spirits? Is God really the Father of the spirits of ALL
FLESH? When did your spirit originate? Did it originate at the time of your physical
birth? Did it originate at the moment of your
conception in the womb? Did it originate
before your conception? Did it exist way back
there when you were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world? (Eph.
1:4). Did it exist when God, who cannot
lie, promised eternal life before the world began? (Titus 1:2). To whom did He promise eternal life at that time? Could He have promised it to you if you were not
there?
That our spirit came out of
God, we know, for we read, The burden of the word of the Lord for
What revealing light of
revelation Jesus gave when He opened the truth about the origin of both mans flesh
and his spirit when on that star-studded night long ago He explained to the questioning
Nicodemus, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
spirit is spirit (Jn. 3:6). This in my
opinion is one of the most profound and awe-inspiring statements in all scripture. According to Jesus, my earthly parents are the
parents only of my flesh, for that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Thats all it is! On the other hand, God, and only God, is the Father
of my spirit, for that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Spirit begets spirit!
And God is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh! How could we ever think of God as the Father of the
flesh? He is the creator of flesh, of the
physical, but He is the Father of SPIRITS. God
IS spirit, so He could father nothing less than spirits. As Father He puts the same life-force into His
children; and this life-force is that which animates the flesh so that the body without
the spirit is dead (James 2:26). This is true
of all men! What a glorious statement
this is the Father of spirits!
That is what redemption is all about! It liberates us from the flesh consciousness of the
natural-minded man and brings us again into the conscious awareness of our Father and that
we are spirit, the offspring of God. We are
being made like Him because we are of His same substance.
Speaking to His disciples and to the multitudes Jesus once said, But
you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth, for ONE
IS YOUR FATHER, which is in heaven (Mat. 23:8-9).
Need I remind you that these words were spoken to men under the law; Jesus
had not died or risen again, the Holy Spirit had not been poured out, nor was the new
covenant in effect. He informed every one of
these people that they ALL HAD ONE FATHER AND He is our Father, which art in heaven.
That wonderful prayer Jesus
taught His disciples, which we call The Lords Prayer, begins with the words, Our
Father which art in heaven. Until men
recognize by the illumination that the Spirit brings who their Father is they remain lost
and dying in the dense darkness of the carnal mind. Spiritually,
they are no different than the adopted child who has never been told he is adopted and has
no concept of who his biological parents truly are or where he came from. Our Father is not the one who gave us our physical
life in the womb of our earthly mother. The
only reason Jesus would tell the vast throng gathered around Him, Call no man your
father upon the earth, for ONE IS YOUR FATHER, which is in heaven, is that we all
must recognize that our life did not begin with our physical birth. Our true Father is not a man upon earth, but our
Father who is in heaven! Can we not see by
this that our life did not begin on earth it began in heaven! Nothing could be plainer than this. Over and over again Jesus taught the multitudes
about their heavenly Father. Just
look up the word father in Strongs Concordance and see how many times in
the four Gospels Jesus told the people that God was their Father! Once we know who and where our Father is it is easy
to understand where our life began and from whence we came.
Our birth, our beginnings were with God!
God is our Father. Arent
you glad!
The heavenly Father is
Spirit, in the Spirit state known as heaven. As
spirit, we know Him as our very own Father, and the only substance of our true being. We find ourselves coming alive to Spirit, to God. This is what Jesus has accomplished redemptively
for all men through His blood! The fact that
we are spirit is the very basis of Christs redemptive work. It is not the coming of His Spirit into us that
makes us Gods sons, but the apostle plainly said that because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father (Gal.
4:6). We no longer feel strangers to our
heavenly homeland! God has redeemed us,
renewed us, delivered us, and in His Son made us to be again who we truly are!
One of the greatest needs for
understanding among believers is in this area of comprehending the relationship of all men
to God. Paul expressed it on Mars Hill,
saying, The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and
earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He
needed anything, since He Himself gives TO ALL MEN life and breath (spirit) and
everything. And He made from one every nation
of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the
boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might
feel after Him and find Him. Yet HE IS NOT FAR
FROM EACH ONE OF US, for in Him we live and move and have our being
for we are indeed
His offspring. Being then Gods
offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a
representation by the art and imagination of man (Acts 17:24-29). Gods offspring!
And this was spoken to Greeks who not only knew nothing of Jesus Christ, but
had no awareness of the one God.
Paul is not talking here
about born-again Christians, he is speaking of the fact that there is a spirit in man
in all men and God is the Father of spirits, the God of the spirits of all
flesh. The one Father of all spirits is but
one Spirit. Thus all spirits are related and
unified in Him. We easily forget the human
birth of every man and all these earthly relationships, races, cultures, and
characteristics when we recognize the One Father from whom we all came. In Old Testament days it was a great discovery of
truth for people to realize that The Lord our God, the Lord is One. In the days of many gods this was a great
revelation! In our day, however, most of the
civilized world recognizes the truth of the oneness of God.
The problem now is to awaken people to the truth that the One God is the
Father of the spirit of every man! This is
among the deepest and most precious truths of scripture.
No star that shines in the firmament of revelation is more clear or glorious
than this; no truth ever dropped down upon our earth from the heavens of Gods Spirit
is more full of significance. This Fatherhood gives meaning and a tenderness to
this life of ours, and is the very foundation of the value of mans life, and reveals
why Jesus came from the heavenly realms to redeem all men by His own precious and divine
blood!
THE VALUE OF EVERY MAN
The grandest of all truths is
that CHRIST IS THE IMAGE OF GOD! If you want to know what God had in mind when He said,
"Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness," you have only to look at
Jesus Christ. That is what God meant! "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them
that are lost (who know not who or where they are): in whom the god of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of
CHRIST, WHO IS THE IMAGE OF GOD, should shine unto them" (II Cor. 4:3-4). "In
whom we have redemption through His blood
who is THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD, the
firstborn (prototype) of every creature" (Col. 1:14-15). His dignity is still further
elaborated in these words of the writer to the Hebrews: "Who being the brightness of
His glory, and the EXPRESS IMAGE OF HIS PERSON
being made so much better than the
angels" (Heb. 1:3-4). The Amplified Bible reads, "He is the
expression of
the glory of God the Light Being, the out-raying of the divine and He is the
PERFECT IMPRINT AND VERY IMAGE OF GODS NATURE
taking a place and rank by which
He Himself became
superior to angels."
How totally inadequate do our
words become in the light of words of such wonder as these! Jesus is the prototype of what
God intends man to be. He is Gods finished product, Gods perfect man; what
every man should be and ultimately will be. We will only understand the majesty of man in
Gods image when we see Jesus as THE BEAM OF THE DIVINE GLORY, and THE OUT-RAYING OF
GODS PERSON. Jesus Christ is the express or exact image of the Fathers being,
the perfect imprint and very image of Gods nature. The allusion here is to the
impression made in ancient times by a seal on molten wax; and as the image made on the wax
is the exact representation (though on another substance) of the die, so is Christ the
precise representation of the Father in human flesh. And thus He was able to say, "If
you have seen me, you have seen the Father."
The life of Jesus is the life
of God transmuted into the form of our human life, so that we may see, touch, hear, know,
understand, and experience the very being and nature of God in human terms. The natural
mind cannot understand such a truth as this, but this is what God meant when He said,
"Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness." CHRIST is the image of
God and God meant for every man to look and speak and act and be just like Jesus Christ!
Can you not see the mystery? This is the value of mans life in redemption, for God
sent One who was all that man was meant to be to purchase us not to harps and
golden streets and fluttering wings in some far-off heaven somewhere but back to
relationship with God as sons in His very own image.
As we consider the wonderful
advent of man created "in the image of God" we can only conclude that this is a
SPIRITUAL MAN brought forth out of the very spirit-substance of God almighty, and bearing
His own divine nature, character, power and attributes. The image of God is the nature of
God reproduced in man. Thus, man is the true image of God! The divine nature was best and
fully expressed in the man Christ Jesus who shined upon mortals the truest revelation of
God and lifted mans sights higher than their poor thoughts would allow. Jesus
revealed to men their true origin, heritage, and destiny. He came to show man what man
really is, was intended to be, and through redemption and so great a salvation shall be
THE IMAGE OF GOD. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the
first and the last. In Jesus Christ you see man as he was in the beginning, and as he ever
shall be world without end THE IMAGE OF GOD WITH DOMINION OVER ALL THINGS.
We have come to the most
sublime of all truths. The beauty of these celestial realities is found in the fact that
all Jesus did He did "for us" not in our place, but on our behalf. A
musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he teaches in order to show the learner the
way by practice as well as precept. This was the precious import of our Lords
sinless life and of His demonstration of power over the whole flesh realm, including
death. Our heavenly Father demands that all men should follow the example of our Lord and
Master. In order to enter the kingdom of the heavens, the anchor of hope must be cast
beyond the veil of this carnal, dying realm into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed
before us; and this advance beyond the law of sin and death must come through the joys and
triumphs of a people "led by the spirit" who are "the sons of God" as
well as through their sorrows and afflictions.
It is by facing the enemy in
the crucible of experience and by the authority of the spirit that victory is snatched
from the jaws of defeat. Each and every test in our lives is an opportunity to prove for
ourselves and demonstrate for those about the triumph of the spirit over the flesh. That
is how Jesus did it! He knew that He was not a physical man possessing a spirit. He
understood clearly that He was a spirit encased in a body. Therefore His spirit must have
dominion over His flesh, not the other way around. He lived, spoke, and acted by the life
of God in His spirit, even the Father who dwelt in Him. Step by step, battle by battle,
victory upon victory we also ascend into the heights of the kingdom of heaven (spirit),
the image of God, and the dominion restored in man!
One can never comprehend the
length and breadth and height and depth of Gods great plan of creation and
redemption until first he understands that Jesus Christ is the revelation of the value of
every man. In the mysterious mists of Eden God breathed into man the breath of His own
divine life and prophesied of this man that he would be the image and likeness of Himself,
and in due time would take his place in the Fathers great kingdom with dominion over
all the works of His hands (Ps. 8:3-9; Heb. 2:6-9).
There is a story about a
little piece of wood that once bitterly complained because its owner kept whittling away
at it, gouging it and making holes in it. But the one who was cutting it paid no attention
to the sticks protests. He was making a flute out of that piece of ebony, and he was
too wise to stop when the wood complained so bitterly. The man said, "Little piece of
wood, without these rifts and holes, and all this cutting, youd be just a stick
forever a useless piece of ebony. What I am doing now may seem as if I am
destroying you, but instead it will change you into a flute. Your sweet music will charm
the souls of many and comfort sorrowing hearts. My cutting you is the making of you, for
only thus can you be a blessing in the world." The meaning of this little parable is
clear: That flute, whose music blended so sweetly in the orchestra, was made a flute only
by the knife and file that filled it with rifts and holes which seemed to be its very
destruction. But the purpose of the master was the cutting away of the outward form so
that breath could flow through it. The breath upon the wood created a melodious sound
which made it an instrument to the praise of God. Ah, the Lord is shaping us, my beloved,
cutting away the denseness of our outer shell with its darkened understanding, making
rifts and holes in the way that seems right to the natural man, that the in-breathed
spirit of life from God may sweep through our earthen vessel, producing the image of God,
that His glory might be revealed in creation. Isnt it wonderful!
This divine potential lies in
the spirit of every man and shows the value of mans life. Some do not believe that
the seed of God abides in every man, but I do not hesitate to tell you that every man has
within him a spirit as well as a soul and a body, and the spirit of every man originated
with God and came out of God. If every man is spirit, soul, and body, then where else did
mans spirit come from? Are you going to tell me it came from the devil? When the
Word became flesh and tabernacled among us we learned the true dignity of man. The wonder
is not that God could stoop so low but that man was created so high! It was because of the
value of mans life that Jesus came and took our nature. The sinless Son of man
reveals indeed what a fall man has suffered, but shows what a destiny is his, when once
the image of his Creator has been restored. Why lift a sot from his gutter to care for him
and rehabilitate him and bring him to God? The reason is that man has in him some touch of
the eternal and therefore must be saved; and some ultimate tide of compassion moves us to
save him! His salvation is not merely from his drink, from his lust, from his sin and
bondage and hell; it is salvation unto all his awesome potential as a child of the Father
in heaven! It is this divine value of mans life that brought Jesus from the portals
of glory to save him! Is this not what Jesus parable of the Prodigal Son teaches us?
It was a son that the father saw afar off, and ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him
and killed the fatted calf and put shoes and a robe upon him and called all his kingdom to
feast and rejoice with him. His son had come home! Man is the offspring of God and is
meant to be the head of creation. THAT IS THE VALUE OF MANS LIFE!
Can man who has sunk so low
be raised so high? Consider with me the destiny of one muddy road. The clay, left long
enough, hardens into a sapphire. The sand becomes by refraction of light an opal. The soot
is a diamond in the rough. And the water when it freezes, is a snow-white star. Ah, there
is a finer destiny for muddy humanity, but you do not see it in our raw state! Only the
mighty pressures and processes of Gods redemptive dealings can transform the murky
elements into the essence of divine beauty, glory and power! And this, dear one, is the
answer to Jobs piercing question, "What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify
him? and that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him? and that Thou shouldest visit him
every morning, and try him every moment?"
Sin-cursed and sin-broken,
sick and weak, murderer and prostitute, proud and arrogant, mean and vindictive all
that is humanity! But is that the value of mankind? What is the value of human life? JESUS
is the value! For just such humanity there was the Man from
It would do us all a world of
good to take inventory of our attitudes how we see men. I fear that we would be
both surprised and disturbed to see how often we view men out of our carnal minds rather
than with the eyes of our heavenly Father the Prodigals Father! Oh mystery of
mysteries! Jesus went to the cross not only to take away our sins, He went there for the
good in man, to redeem it and restore it into the image and likeness of God. The deepest
mystery of all is that God is multiplying Himself in man, and is bringing Himself into a
new dimension. There is a MAN seated upon the highest throne of heaven. Not an angel, not
a cherub, and not even merely a spirit but a MAN! That man is still clothed in the
body that walked along the shores of Galilee, for the
The dwelling place of a son
of God is in the Father and the dwelling place of the Father is in the sons. The sons are
the out-raying of the Fathers substance and the perfect imprint of His nature in
human form. I never enjoy trying to see pictures where no picture exists, but it is plain
to an understanding born from above that ultimately all men will be manifest sons of God,
for Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, died and rose again to save and redeem and
restore all men to God as His very own children. The Prodigal is all men! Jesus is the
firstborn of every creature! That will be the glorious consummation of Gods
ages-long purpose to make man into His image and after His likeness. Nothing short of that
can suffice. Only then will God be ALL-IN-ALL!
The words came to me some
time ago, the startling and remarkable expression Jesus made when He stood in the earth
and declared, "I am the bread that is come down from heaven, that if a man eat of it,
he shall never die. I am the living bread. I am the bread that is come down. I am the
bread that is become personified in a body of flesh upon this earth. I am the bread that
is from heaven." Immediately the question came to mind Why was He the bread
that came from heaven? Why did He say, "from heaven"? Why did He not simply say,
"I am that I am," or "I am the bread that your Father has provided on the
earth"? This is reminiscent, of course, of the manna that came from heaven, the food
that God sent from heaven to the children of
As I mused within myself
concerning this mystery, the inspiration of the spirit commenced to articulate within me
the wonder of this great truth. It came to me so powerfully as an illustration. Consider
with me for a moment a group of astronauts who are soaring away from earth to a strange
planet in a distant galaxy. While traveling on their journey through space their
spacecraft develops a serious problem, and they are forced to land on an unknown planet in
a far away solar system. The name of the planet is Timur. Having landed, they realize they
are stranded! They know nothing of this world into which they have descended. As they step
out of their spacecraft they discover a very hostile environment. Everything there is
inhospitable to them. All vegetation on the planet is toxic to their system. They cannot
eat or drink anything, for all is death to them. They cannot breathe the atmosphere.
Everything militates against them.
Soon, the realization dawns
within their consciousness that their resources are finite. Some desperate action must be
taken. They contact earth about their predicament. Their government agrees to dispatch a
rescue expedition. A second spacecraft comes from earth and in due time lands on the
planet Timur. This second group of astronauts step out of their ship and say to those who
are stranded there in that world, "We are the men who have come from earth. We have
the bread that is from earth. We bring the water that is from your homeland. We bear that
which is not hostile to you, for it is from your own world. The food we bring is
compatible with who you are and what you are. It is biologically adapted to your
constitution. We have come from earth and we have the bread that is your bread, the drink
that is your drink, that which pertains to your state of being, which will sustain you,
energize you, quicken you, and give you expression of who and what you are. We have the
bread that has come from earth!"
Can we not see that the bread
from earth was the bread from home! Let there be no doubt in the mind of any man that
Jesus came from heaven and descended into this earth realm, into our darkness, into our
limitations, into our bondage, into our ignorance, into our sin, into our false identity,
into our distorted perceptions, into our natural life, into our carnality, into our
physical, mortal sense of being. He stepped, as it were, out from His spacecraft and
proclaimed to lost men, "I am the bread that is come down from heaven! If a man eats
of this bread he will live and not die, because I am the bread that is come from the realm
that you came from. I am the one from your homeland, out of your true habitation! I am the
one sent from your true world, the world of Spirit, the world of the Father, the world of
divinity, the world of eternity. I am from that world, and I have come to speak a word
into you! The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. These words
are adapted to your constitution and pertain to the realm from whence you are. I am the
bread that has come from the heavens, and when you eat this bread, when you receive this
word, when you are energized by the Spirit of Life that I am, you will live and not
die!"
Now we would ponder briefly
on "our spirit" contrasted with "His Spirit," for Paul declared,
"The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of
God" (Rom. 8:16). And again, "God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in
the gospel of His Son" (
Are we so blind that we
cannot see the impossibility of our awakening ourselves? We cannot quicken ourselves, nor
can we regenerate ourselves! The very idea is idle and senseless; for the plain reason
that being regenerated is the same as having inspiration it must originate out of
God as a work upon our spirit. The precise thing needed is to be raised out of the
separated, self-centered, blind ignorance of the carnal mind by the sovereign intervention
and penetration of the Holy Ghost. Are we then going to lift ourselves by our own
bootstraps, stand up out of our grave of darkness, sin, and death by our own volition? Can
the dead raise themselves? Are the ignorant capable of instructing themselves? Do the
blind open their own eyes? A baby does not even birth itself! Regeneration is a renewal
that consists of the inbreathing of Gods Spirit, effecting union with His life.
"And you hath HE quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time past
ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience
even when we
were dead in sins, (HE) hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up
together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph.
2:1-2,5-6).
Ray Prinzing once said it so
aptly, "Strange indeed the past theology of man. The corpse is floating upon the
water and we throw it a life-rope and tell the corpse that if it will grab hold well
help to pull it in. What nonsense! He is dead, he cant grab hold of anything. The
man is DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS, his back is toward the light, he is all enwrapped with
self-rebellion against the Lord, there is no light in him at all. Then we are supposed to
call out to this one totally dead in trespasses and sins, Come to Jesus! How
can he come? Hes dead to all spiritual life, he has no power to turn around and walk
towards God. Then we blame him for not coming to Christ for salvation! How foolish! But
now, if a mighty one overtakes him, and light is brought to this one in darkness, and life
is given to them, then shall they respond and serve Him.
"When they are covered
with the love of God, there will be no need to tell them what sinners they are, and knock
them down a little further into the mud. A bruised reed shall He not break, and
smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory (Mat.
12:20). We shall not give them any more condemnation and smother that last little spark
they have, but rather it shall be fanned into a strong flame, and the message will be
clear that God is their Father and does love them, and freely offers them His abundant
life. It is a life which maketh rich and addeth no sorrow, for in His presence there is
fullness of joy, and at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
"Praise God, His mighty
ones shall flow out with love and life unto all men. They wont condemn the sinner
and tell him to clean himself up. They wont cry to those who are dead to come and
receive life. They shall TAKE LIFE to those who are dead, they shall bring help to those
who are weak and undone" end quote.
We know a little about the
Holy Spirit but we have known very little about the human spirit because it is buried,
concealed deep beneath the shell of our soul and body. Every man has a spirit, but the
outer realms of soul and body, the flesh life, cover it up. The living Word of God comes
as a sharp, two-edged sword, to pierce our soul (carnal mind) in order to break it away
from the spirit "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit
"
(Heb. 4:12). Only the living Word of God can do this! Some people entertain the erroneous
notion that all the divinity they will ever need to know lies inherently within their own
spirit. They recognize no godhood outside of their own spirit. The testimony of scripture,
however, is clear, "What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot IS ONE
BODY? For two, saith He, shall be ONE FLESH. But he that is joined unto the Lord, IS ONE
SPIRIT" (I Cor . 6:16-17).
The analogy is drawn from a
man joined to a woman these two, joined, are ONE FLESH. "One flesh"
denotes one whole, specific, particular individual. It does not mean two of the same kind.
It is two making one. We all understand how it is that a man is not a whole man, nor is a
woman a whole person! They each are distinct and complementary aspects of Adams
life. Adam was created both male and female (Gen. 1:26). Only in the joining of man and
woman do we truly have ADAM. In like manner, he that is joined to the Lord is ONE SPIRIT!
Adam, male and female, is the representation of the nature and being of God. God is spirit
and man is spirit, yet we are each distinct and complementary aspects of divine life. The
idea that each of us inherently contains within our unquickened spirit the full attributes
of deity is a lie of enormous proportions. Only the joining of our spirit with His Spirit
makes man ONE SPIRIT or A WHOLE SPIRIT! This is what Paul means when he says, "Ye are
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, IF SO BE THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELL IN YOU. Now if
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (
There are many works of the
Holy Spirit within our spirit. Teaching When HE the spirit of truth is come, HE
will teach you all things and lead you into all truth. Quickening It is the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. If the SPIRIT OF HIM who raised up Jesus
from the dead dwell in you, HE that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your
mortal bodies by HIS SPIRIT that dwelleth in you. Begetting anew Born of water and
of the Spirit. Dwelling The SPIRIT OF GOD dwelleth in you. Leading As many
as are led by the SPIRIT OF GOD, they are the sons of God. Strengthening
Strengthened with might by HIS SPIRIT in the inner man. Witnessing The Spirit
Himself beareth witness with our spirit. Revelation God hath revealed them unto us
by HIS SPIRIT. Gifts For to one is given BY THE SPIRIT the word of wisdom
faith
healing
working
of miracles
prophecy, etc. All these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit,
dividing to every man severally as HE will. Transformation We are all changed into
the same image from glory to glory, even as by THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD. Sonship
consciousness God hath sent forth the SPIRIT OF HIS SON into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Sealing Sealed with that HOLY SPIRIT of promise. Confidence
Hereby we know that HE dwelleth in us, by THE SPIRIT which He hath given us.
The Spirit of God is able to
perform all these actions, and many more, within us just because we are spirit. God can
act omnipotently on all created things, as things. He can penetrate all central fires and
dissolve or change every most secret atom of the universe, but it cannot be said that
these things receive Him. "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God" (Jn. 1:12). NOTHING CAN TRULY RECEIVE HIM BUT SPIRIT! Just as
a man or woman do not join themselves in union (marriage) with a rock, or tree, or fish,
or chimpanzee simply because there is no correspondence of life, so the Spirit of God does
not enter by the power of life, mind, will, emotion, action, and personality into any
except spirit of a corresponding nature. He may pass through things and affect them in
some way and on some level, they can be shaken, melted, exploded, and reformed, for truly
all things are in His hands and subject to His power but they derive nothing from
Him that is personal to Him. No creature can truly receive Him save one that is
constitutionally related to Him in a correspondence of life. There must be intelligence
offered to His intelligence, sentiments to His sentiments, reason to His reason, will to
His will, personality to His personality. To speak of an inspired mountain, or planet, or
breeze of air, an inspired tree, or an inspired brute, has even the sound of absurdity.
Not so to speak of an inspired man! For man is a spirit, a nature configured to God, and
therefore able to receive Him. Spirit only can be inspired, and there is a spirit in man,
and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Oh, the wonder of it!
Only man, of all Gods
glorious creation, can be penetrated and lighted up from within by the mind of God, to
have an understanding of things unseen by the inspiration of the eternal Father, in one
word, to be spirit, and have the consciousness even of God, as being irradiated,
permeated, filled, ennobled, glorified by His infinite Spirit and His divine fullness.
Oh, that all men everywhere
might see the origin and constitution of our human life as spirit, with its Author and
Creator! In the original scheme of existence, it was purposed that man should be complete,
and, as it were, infinite in God, by reason of his perpetual participation of God. This is
the true and normal state of man! In that normal state man was to be a continually
inspired creature, conscious always of God as of himself, living and moving and having his
being in the radiant essence of the Father. Paul said that only in Christ are we complete.
"For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in
Him" (Col. 2:9-10).
The Emphatic Diaglott says,
"In Him dwells all the fullness of the Deity bodily; and you are replenished by
Him."
The Amplified Bible reads,
"In Him the whole fullness of Deity continues to dwell in bodily form, giving
complete expression of the divine nature. And you are in Him, made full and having come to
fullness of life
you too are filled with the Godhead."
J. B. Phillips translates,
"It is in Him that God gives a full and complete expression of Himself in bodily
form. Moreover, your own completeness is realized in Him."
Finally, Kenneth Wuest
renders, "In Him there is continuously and permanently at home all the fullness of
absolute deity in bodily fashion. And you are in Him, having been completely filled full
with the present result that you are in a state of fullness in Him."
This great truth, on the
other hand, reveals clearly the true idea of mans fall. When the Holy Spirit of
truth unveils your eyes and your mind is renewed, you realize that you are a spiritual
being and that you have always been a spiritual being. When Adam was lowered out of his
pure spirit existence and entered this physical world, he came into a realm of darkness
and death. The life of the spirit dwelt within him, yet encased within the womb of the
outer flesh. Thus, there were two ways set before mankind the way of life in the
spirit by living in union with God through the tree of life, or the way of death by
walking after the flesh in union with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The
fruit of the tree of life would constantly invigorate mans spirit in the knowledge
and strength of divine existence, whereas the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would
invigorate mans flesh in the knowledge and power of the outer, physical, carnal
world. The serpent offered Eve the power to be "like God" or the personal sense
of "godhood." "God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, you shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil." And after the woman and the man partook of that
realm of sense-consciousness, self-determination, and fleshly wisdom, God Himself
acknowledged that they had indeed become "as one of us, to know good and evil"
(Gen. 3:22). Yes, they had become AS GOD! They had assumed a state of GODHOOD! The only
problem was that it was a godhood in the wrong realm! It was a godhood of independence
from the life of God, not a Godhood through union with God. Man became a self-created god,
a self-centered god, truly the god of this world, but not the expression of the divine
nature. The Spirit of God which had been in union with mans spirit fled, and mans
spirit sank low into the hidden depths of his being. A long night of darkness, sorrow, sin
and death ensued!
Let us understand the
paradise of God with the tree of life in its midst! The tree of life is mentioned very
simply in the opening chapters of Genesis. It was IN THE MIDDLE that is all that is
said about it! "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in
But like the tree of
life the other tree also STANDS IN THE MIDDLE! In the middle. Death. Within! In mans
very nature. One of mans inherent potentials was to know Self as the center and
source of his life. But Self would not bring life, it would mean death. Man could make the
world , the outer physical realm, his soulical senses and bodily appetites, his center.
Death dwelt in that center! How do we know that sin is "in the middle" just as
life is "in the middle"? Jesus understood it! He explained it! "There is
nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which
come out of him, those are they that defile the man. For from within, out of the heart of
men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness,
wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these
evils come from within, and defile the man" (Mk. 7:15,21-23). These inspired words
carry us right back to the garden of Eden! There were two trees in the middle. Life and
death were in the middle! Two trees in the midst of the garden of mans experience
and being. "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but
they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death; but to be spiritually minded is life
" (
In the two trees of life and
death in mans middle the Holy Spirit points out mans LIMIT. In these two trees
is contained the BOUNDARY set by God upon man from the beginning. This LIMIT declared how
low a man could fall and how high a man could rise. Man could fall as low as the tree of
death, the carnal mind, the realm of the flesh could carry him unto the whole
dreadful realm of darkness and death in which is contained every sorrow, tragedy, pain,
trouble, sickness, hatred, strife, heartache, ignorance, fear, and torment known to man;
or, he could rise as high as the spiritual mind, the realm of the spirit could carry him
unto the eternal and incorruptible life of God in which is contained all the joy,
peace, righteousness, love, faith, wisdom, glory, and power of GOD HIMSELF!
What fathomless bounds are
contained in this LIMIT! Man, by walking in the spirit, can rise as high as God in the
realm of His life, or by walking after the flesh can sink as low as the devil in the world
of darkness and death. Neither of these realms are illusion; they are both realities! What
a LIMIT! And man was destined to fall as low as he could fall and rise as high as he could
rise. The totality of mans experience is to be found within this limit established
by God for man. All that both death and life are would ultimately be experienced, known,
and demonstrated by man. This is his limit. This is his territory. This is his destiny.
Both realities are in the middle! Within man. One or the other is every mans center,
the sphere of his existence. But mark it well both cannot be the center of any mans
life! He who eats of the tree of life will find that the death realm has no more dominion
over him. And he who eats of the tree of death will discover that he becomes alienated
from the tree of life driven from the garden. Thus, both trees, both realities are
in the center of mans life, but both cannot be the center of his life! "For if
ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds
of the body, ye shall live" (Rom. 8:13). "This I say then, Walk in the spirit,
and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16).
The tree of life in the midst
of the paradise of God was truly "in the world" but not "of the
world." The life of this tree was right within man, the life of God in his spirit,
and mans spirit was not of this world, not formed of the dust of the ground, but
breathed into his nostrils by the Father of spirits. "God breathed into his nostrils
the spirit (Heb.) of life." The glorious life of Christ on earth is the essence and
reality of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God. This tree of life within
man had absolutely nothing to do with the realm of earthiness of mans soul and body,
for it was heavens own divine life breathed into man. In the tree of life God
invited man to find Him as the center and source of life!
As George Hawtin once pointed
out, by the tree of life man would be full of light, abounding in heavenly wisdom and
knowledge, fearful in power and dominion, ethereal as a spirit and shining in the image of
God. The fruit of this wonderful tree would indeed make man radiant with the resplendent
glory of God as was Jesus, the second man and the last Adam, at the transfiguration, whose
face shone as the sun and His raiment was as the light. In this tree of life the effulgent
perfumes of the heavenly realm would be fragrance and life to mans nostrils. He
would taste spiritual realities and touch heavenly things. The wisdom and power of God
Himself would be wide open to him and he would walk in the presence and glory of celestial
realms. The gates of that realm would never be shut by day or by night. Man would need to
eat of no other tree nor drink of any of the waters of earth. Man would have "meat to
eat" that no other creature in heaven or earth knew of and "water to drink"
that none other had ever tasted. The heavens would be opened over his head and he would
walk in the glory of the presence of God in
This was the glory of the
tree of life in
This is the dimension missed
by those in so-called Metaphysical Christianity, New Age, and New Thought philosophies who
suppose that their unregenerated, unquickened spirit represents their full divinity and
godhood. Not so! Only "he that is joined to the Lord is ONE SPIRIT." The
unregenerated, unquickened spirit of man is indeed spirit, the offspring of God. But it is
not a whole spirit! Apart from union with Gods Spirit through the baptism in the
Holy Spirit as recorded in the book of Acts, the spirit of man is weak and unable to
function as the supreme power of mans life. "I indeed have baptized you with
water: but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost" (Mk. 1:8) "And (Jesus)
being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should
wait for the
promise of the Father
ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence
ye
shall receive power AFTER THAT THE HOLY GHOST IS COME UPON YOU" (Acts 1:4-8).
"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). "Now when the apostles which were
at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter
and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy
Ghost; then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost" (Acts
8:14-17). Then we read of how Peter went by revelation to
I speak the truth when I
suggest that not one in a million of New Age, Metaphysical, and New Thought adherents have
received any such supernatural experience in the Holy Spirit! The fact is, they have not
even met Jesus Christ as SAVIOUR! Nor have they experientially appropriated the CLEANSING
POWER OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST! I also speak the truth when I say that men whose spirits
have not been quickened by HIS SPIRIT are motivated and controlled by the intellect of the
soul (carnal mind), rather than by the life of the spirit. That which they perceive as
their "inward Christ consciousness" is in reality just the awesome power of
their soul life! Just as a man or woman, without a mate, is not a whole person, and
therefore missing a dimension of human reality, so the spirit of man which has not
experientially been joined to the Spirit of God in a supernatural union of life, is
lacking in its spiritual ability and capacity. It is this very condition that spawns the
whole system of "intellectual religion" which is pawned off and misinterpreted
as spiritual life!
There is an even deeper
mystery to this tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They appear
as two trees; yet in reality there was only one tree, with two sides, two aspects, or two
dimensions. It is stated so simply in these words: "The tree of life also in the
midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:9).
There was one tree, and yet two trees! The tree of life is Christ the living Word
of God. The profound truth is that in
Paul makes these two trees,
these two words, very plain when he writes, "Who also hath made us able ministers of
the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the
spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was
glorious, so that the children of
I firmly believe that the
Bible is the word of God; however, when we know it only as the letter, it kills. Laws,
rules, regulations, doctrines, creeds, outward ordinances, forms, ceremonies, facts,
literalistic interpretations of man, natural concepts, carnal understanding of the written
word there is no life in any of these! There is only death. The dead letter of the
word produces dead sermons, dead churches, dead forms, dead meetings, and spiritually dead
believers. Yet, the "letter of the word" is still the word of God! But theres
no life. Moses preached the law, the law was from God, the law was the ministration of
death written and engraven in stones, and everybody that received the law died. It was the
ministration of condemnation. It had the power to condemn men, to judge them, to punish
them, to tell them what they ought to do but it possessed no power to give them
life! It was a word of God, but it was the letter of the word. It was a word without life.
It was merely a type, a shadow, a symbol of reality.
THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF
GOOD AND EVIL IS THE LAW! By the law, Paul says, we know sin. The knowledge of good and
evil is the letter of the word! All the preachers who are out there telling men what great
sinners they are, and how they need to stop sinning, threatening them with damnation is
they dont stop sinning, are feeding their hearers from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. This letter of the word killeth, but its still a word of the Lord! It
is the word of the Lord on a lower level, stripped of its life and power. But the other
side of this tree, this word, is the WORD OF LIFE! THE TREE OF LIFE IS CHRIST, THE LIVING
WORD! There are two words, yet they are the very same word on different levels. One is
shadow, the other is substance. One is outward symbol, the other in inward life. There are
two trees, yet they are but two sides of the same tree! Adams sin and fall consisted
in his choosing to live a carnal life on the earthly plane, even a religious life, subject
to the restraint and regulation of the external law of a carnal commandment, instead of
living the spiritual life on the heavenly plane by the Living Word of God!
Another precious insight was
shared in a letter to me from a friend of many years, Connie Asbill. She wrote,
"Several years ago, I was sitting in the back yard of my house when suddenly a tree
that I had looked at numberless times burst alive with a truth. During its formation, the
tree had split so that it was growing in two different directions. For me, that split tree
became the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In it, I saw the tree of life struck by
lightning and split right down the middle to make the tree of life the tree of knowledge
of good and evil. Why struck by lightning? Well, I would have been at a loss myself to
explain why that impression had formed in my inner eye if it had not been plainly followed
by the words of Jesus when He said, I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven.
"As I contemplated this,
I saw the word and the life split: the word turned in one direction, the life turned in
another. This, to me, became a picture of the beginning of the double minded man who
is unstable in all his ways, and, again, of that condition lamented by David, in
spirit, when he prayed, Help, Lord, for they speak with a double heart. At
this point there came a breach in the spirit of man a breach that I think we can
see portrayed in the parable of the prodigal son. There were two sons: one which remained
with the Father, that is, never left home; the other which took what was his through the
Father and turned it downward toward the animal side of life. Now, of course, we have
heard this story used from the pulpits to call sinners home to God and to give recognition
to those faithful few who remained unsullied in the church. And there is that application,
for some among us do remain unsullied from the seamy side of life while others among us do
wallow in the pigpen of human degradation and deprivation.
"I am convinced,
however, that the deeper meaning refers to that which occurs inside all of us, for there
is a part of all of us, I think, that has remained with the Father and there is a part of
all of us that has split away to flow in the opposite direction to feed upon the
dust of the earth, to identify with the instincts and emotions of the body, and thus to
bring the word that is transmitted from the Fathers house, where the other part of
us has remained, down into the earth with us. We feed on the husks (forms) of truth when
that part of our spirit that has turned downward toward the animal nature filters the word
through ego, through unrestrained desires, through fear, through carnal expectations, all
of which imprison it in externals. This gives rise to the law of carnal commandment, which
is nothing in the world but the truth of God changed into a lie (Rom. 1:25) because even
without realizing it we are worshipping and serving the creature more than the creator.
"I am convinced there is
a part of us that never left God. We have always been there, which is why the kingdom has
always been at hand. And I am convinced that it is only as we expand our understanding
until we can see how that can be that we can begin to woo the heart back to the true
meaning of that Word which has always existed in the heavens. The prodigal son is that
portion of the spirit that was split away when lightning struck the tree in the midst of
the garden of the soul. What fell in the fall, of course, was the understanding. When
Jesus talked about salvation, He used the Greek word sozo which means to make whole. As I see it, the
saving of the soul is the healing of the soul through a healing of the spiritual breach.
The soul, of course, is the battle ground of conflicting thought, conflicting desire,
conflicting emotion, where Jacob the deceiver (the prodigal son) wrestles it out with the
angel of the Lord (the word of God) to make peace with his brother (the son that never
left the Fathers house)" end quote.
This "split" has
happened to all of us, and that is why we need to be RE-conciled, RE-newed, RE-generated,
RE-surrected. Think about it! The lost, sin-blighted, unbelieving world lives a spiritual
life not unlike the lowly caterpillar. Caterpillars do not live very exciting lives. They
are, indeed, to be pitied! They never travel very far and when they do tremendous
exertions are required. After all, what sights do they see down there groveling in the
dirt? Ah caterpillars live very limited, morbid lives! The story is told of two
caterpillars, however, making their way laboriously across the muddy earth, when one of
them looked up and spied a butterfly fluttering by. As he watched this butterfly dipping
and flitting around in the sky, and being picked up by the breeze and carried off into the
ethereal blue, he turned to his companion in the mud and said, "Youd never get
me up in one of those things!" Yet right within that caterpillar was the very
life which would one day bring a metamorphosis and carry him into the heavens. But he didnt
know it!
At the fall of man, we lost
our identity. We are all here by choice, and have forgotten why we came! In Christ God is
now giving us back our true identity, and we are waking up to our true nature.
"Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
shall give thee light" (Eph. 5:14). We do not awaken all at once, however. Most who
read these lines have been being awakened to the glorious and eternal realities in the
Spirit little by little through manifold experiences over the course of many years. And
now I understand, as the words of the chorus describe it, that
From out of eternity, before
time began,
In the bosom of the Father, while the morning stars sang
I shouted for joy while beholding His great plan,
Gods purpose on earth, His election in man!
A story I once read
illustrates the truth of our journey back into the fullness of Christ. It concerns a
peculiar case of creeping paralysis recorded in medical records about a hundred years ago.
The man afflicted lost his eyesight to begin with. Then hearing left him. Then followed by
slow degrees the loss of the sense of taste, of smelling, and of feeling. Finally he lost
all power of motion. He was perfectly helpless. All avenues of approach to his mind were
entirely blocked. He could breathe and even speak to the world. But the world could not
speak to him, for there was no open avenue of communication. He was dead to the world
apparently. But one day it was accidentally discovered that there was one spot on his
cheek which was capable of feeling. By tracing letters on that spot his friends could at
last speak to him, and thus a connection was established between his little world and the
great world without. But that was merely a beginning! A most strange phenomenon took
place. Slowly, ever so slowly, by stimulating this one spot of sensitivity, an awakening
and process of rehabilitation was begun and the day came when the man was fully restored.
Oh, yes! God has come to us by His Spirit and has touched our spirit in that small
susceptible spot of divine life where we yearn after Him and, like the prodigal in the
pigpen, we have begun to come to ourselves!
It is doubtful that in all
the scripture any subject is more prominent and yet surrounded with such mystery as the
truth concerning the spirit in man. Now let me share with you a further truth concerning
the life, or that spirit which was breathed into each of us. Many scripture passages, and
the parables of our Lord, call it a "seed." The Bible uses the illustration of a
seed to tell us who we really are! You see, to tell a person in a darkened state of mind,
bound in sin-consciousness, in their present weak and frail human condition that they are
the manifestation of God on the earth, would be absolutely impossible for them to fathom.
If they did understand such a concept, they would receive it into their carnal minds,
become puffed up and egotistical, distort, misapply, misuse, and abuse it, becoming even a
worse devil than they are.
The seed of God is in every
man, and the life of that seed is the spirit of man. But you meet the drunk on the street,
you see your unconverted, worldly-minded neighbor, you rub shoulders with the people of
the world, you watch the evening television news, and you dont see God in anybody!
That is because God in every man is a seed. A seed doesnt do anything. It just is.
It can lie on the shelf for fifty years and never express a thing! You see no action, no
manifestation of the life within; all you see is the outer shell which reveals nothing.
Seeds have been found in the tombs of
Can we not see by this that
the spirit of man is indeed the seed of God but it is buried in, encased by, the outer man
of flesh, the carnal understanding, and the natural consciousness. Just as a credit card
or a cell phone must be activated, the spirit of man must be activated! Until it is
activated it is not a living, pulsating, energizing, ruling, growing power in man. It must
be germinated, quickened by the power of the invigorating rain of Gods Word and the
warm sunshine of Gods Spirit! Once our spirit is quickened by Gods Spirit, it
springs forth into new birth. And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit it
doesnt become spirit when it is born, it already was spirit before it was
"born" just as a flesh and blood baby already is flesh and blood before it is
born! If the seed of God in man were not spirit, the offspring of God, it would not be
quickened into God-like-ness by the act of re-generation!
Let there be no doubt in the
mind of any reader of these lines that WE DID NOT BECOME SEED BY REBIRTH WE WERE
SEED AND THEREFORE WERE REBORN, FOR ONLY THAT CAN BE RE-BORN, RE-NEWED, RE-GENERATED,
RE-SURRECTED, AND RE-STORED WHICH ALREADY EXISTS. It is not simply that sin has made a
necessity for God to do something new, but rather that sin had diminished and darkened
something old, which needs to be restored. The recreative and reconstructive work of the
Holy Spirit is grounded on the primordial nature of the spiritual life in man. Men are
made to be divinely inhabited, to live in eternal inspiration and conscious union with
God. To be "in the spirit" is the heritage of every man, his original and normal
condition, his light, his strength, his glory. Because we are seed is the reason we can be
quickened! In non-seed there is nothing to quicken! And it is not the flesh that is being
quickened, but the inner man of spirit!
Hold this carefully in mind.
Now take the next step. To redeem means to buy back. It restores to the original owner and
state. Jesus, by His death, the shed blood, BOUGHT BACK HIS OWN. He bought back every son
and daughter out of His loins. You never were anything but a son of God! You never were a
pig or a dog or a devil or a mere human animal. That is impossible, for every kind of life
produces the same kind and there is no change of specie. As we came out of the loins of
God into this existence on earth, there had to come a day when we would hear His voice,
and hearing that voice become aware of our Father calling us, and recognize that we are
the sons of God. We heard His voice and we cried out, as did the prodigal son, "Save
me, oh, my Father! I am returning to Thee." The Fathers promise is sure, as
Linda Musgrove has articulated in her beautiful song (available on cassette or CD from
Stacy and Linda Musgrove,
Ill take you back to
where you were in me
Before the fall of man;
Ill restore your soul, Ill reconcile your heart,
Ill give you back your true identity!
Im removing the veil from your eyes
So that you can clearly see;
You will be with me in
On this earth youll walk with me!
A son of God can go a long
time before he is awakened to the fact of his sonship. In fact a lot of Gods
children are like the story of the baby eagle that was hatched out under a hen. You know
that the eagle is a type of the sons of God who live and soar in the high places of the
Spirit. Well, a farmer took an egg from an eagles nest and he placed it under a hen.
In due time all the eggs under the hen hatched out. The baby chicks got along fine with
the mother hen but that little eagle could not figure out the clucking and scratching for
food in the manure pile. He managed to make a living but he was pretty confused about it
all. But one day, from way up in the air the mother eagle that had laid the egg spied that
little eagle on the ground. She swooped down with tremendous speed and screamed at the top
of her voice for him to fly up to meet her. He had never heard an eagle cry, but when he
heard that first scream something in him stirred and he longed to launch out toward it.
But he was afraid to try. Again that mother screamed for him to arise in the wind and
follow her. He screamed back that he was afraid. Once more she called out, screaming that
he try. Beating his wings he hurled himself into the air, and answering the cry of his
mother, he soared off into the blue skies. You see, he always was an eagle! He acted like
a chicken for a little while but he could not be satisfied. But when he heard the call of
the great eagle he came to his own place. And once a son of God hears the cry of the
Spirit by the Word, he too, will realize who he is and run to the great eagle who begat
him to be seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are "being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever" (I Pet. 1:23). We are born again when we hear the living word of God
speaking to us, calling us to arise and be all that God has ordained for us!
I freely confess that I
believe in the reconciliation and restoration of all men to God. I have to believe it,
because if the seed of God is in every man, every man must hear the voice of the Son of
God and live. "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming when all that are in the
graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth
verily, verily, I say unto you, The
hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they
that hear shall live" (Jn. 5:25,28).
The seed of Christ is in
every man, but God has an appointed time for that life to be revealed. And how is it
revealed? You take that seed, you plant it in the earth, and in the appointed time God
sends two elements that will produce a revelation of Christ out of that person, in his
time. I dont care who the man is; theres a time, an appointed hour. God sends
the sun of His illumination, and the rain of His quickening life, He rains upon that seed
and shines upon that seed, and there is a stirring of that life on the inside, and
suddenly the shell which concealed the life begins to burst. The revelation of the life
that is in the seed comes by the removal of the outer part of the seed. The inner life is
released. The genetic code is intact. Everything that plant will ever be is right there in
the seed! When the life springs forth all that hindered is broken asunder. Every step of
the revelation of Christ is an unveiling! God removes the outer, and when it is gone we
behold the power, beauty, and glory of the inner life. Some of us were in churches, in
denominations, and God began to stir us. The life of sonship was already there. All God
did was break open the cocoon that we were in, so that the thing He had planted in us
could come forth, stretch its wings, and fly away into the heavens of Gods Spirit.
Oh, the wonder of it!
Some years ago I received a
tape from Bob and Charlotte Torango which spoke powerfully in my spirit.
There was no history of this
in my family, but it happened. Very gradually over nearly sixty years, that bone kept
moving by microscopic measures toward the center. Finally it began to compress my spinal
cord, at the base of the brain stem. Symptoms appeared which I contributed to age and
arthritis. Eventually, overnight, I developed very serious symptoms. I awoke one morning
with pain and weakness in all my extremities, coupled with involuntary movements of both
arms and legs. I could barely walk, and at times collapsed. An MRI showed that my spinal
cord had been compressed to the thickness of a ribbon. The neurosurgeon told me that if
the damage had not been done so very, very slowly over many years, I would have already
been either dead or quadriplegic, but my body had kept compensating for the damage until
finally it could compensate no more.
A brain surgeon performed the
surgery, going trans-orally (through the roof of my mouth) into the area of the brain stem
and cutting away the bone, releasing the pressure from the spinal cord. The doctor
informed me that I should at least partially recover from the near-paralysis and other
symptoms, but that he could guarantee no progress beyond one year. Well, let me tell you
something. Theres a seed in my earth! You see, at the time of my illness I earnestly
sought the Lord for healing. We have experienced the power of God in healing and miracles!
In my early ministry, in the days of the great healing revivals, the Lord performed mighty
signs and wonders through my word. This time, however, the Lord spoke right out of my
spirit and plainly said, "Im not going to heal this. You will have the
surgery!" When I received that word from the Father, He also gave a peace, peace that
passes understanding, peace so deep that it cannot be fathomed. When I was wheeled in for
a surgery that was the equivalent of brain surgery, there was no fear nor apprehension
whatsoever, I wasnt even nervous. I was able to laugh and joke with the nurses until
I passed out. And, my friends, I have continued to experience progress in my physical
condition far beyond what the doctors promised progress every year since 1995! And
while I dont put a great premium on this physical, earthly realm, I will not be at
all surprised when my change comes and all the effects of the spinal cord injury and the
surgery disappear!
Now, why do I relate this?
Because what I had was a congenital anomaly. It was a condition I had from birth, from
before birth, even from before conception, hidden away somewhere in the seed (genetic
make-up) of my parents who conceived me. You see, we are prone to look at our whole
carnal, human state as a congenital condition. We think we are like we are because we were
born that way! We say, "I was born in sin. I was born alienated from God. I was born
dead. I was born Irish, and I do have a temper! I was born an alcoholic, I was born
homosexual, I was born lustful and over-sexed, I was born prideful, I was born with my
foot in my mouth." Thats how we see ourselves if we look from the earthlies,
with a carnal mind!
When you look from the
heavenlies, however, you see something else! You came into this world out of the bosom of
the Father! Before the Creator formed you, He knew you. He didnt know you in your
present physical form as Joe Smith or Sally Brown, but He knew you as spirit. God spoke to
you about His plan for your life before ever you were formed as an embryo in the womb of
your mother. Paul states it so clearly when he says, "Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love" (Eph. 1:3-4). The
Amplified Bible reads, "Even as He chose us (actually picked us out for Himself as
His own) in Christ before the foundation of the world."
Never doubt this reality for
a moment the only way God could have loved you, chose you in Christ, and picked you
out for His own before the foundation of the world is that you truly existed in and with
Him before the appearing of the worlds. Nothing can be plainer than that! Yet we have
supposed that we were just recently, in this life, apprehended of God to sonship. I
thought the work of God began in my life sixty years ago. Now I find that the thing God is
doing with humanity began in eternity! It didnt begin in time. It began before the
ages were framed! God loved me, chose me, knew me, counseled with me, and picked me out
for His unique purpose before the foundation of the world. My origin was in God! God begat
me of Himself as spirit before He exhaled me as spirit into a very unique body upon earth.
THUS, I WAS BORN INTO THIS WORLD WITH THAT CONGENITAL CONDITION A SPIRITUAL BEING
HAVING AN EARTHLY EXPERIENCE! And so were you, precious friend of mine, and so was every
man who has walked planet earth. We were born this way. We were born with a spirit, as
well as a soul and a body. We came into this world with a God-ward side, with the instinct
to seek after God, with a yearning after Him.
Each of us was born into a
mortal, physical body and into a world of darkness, sin, and death. But this was according
to Gods plan! Paul says that we are "in hope of eternal life, which God, that
cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2). This is indeed wonderful!
We were born into this world with a promise from God the promise of eternal life!
That was our congenital condition born with a promise. But this hope of salvation
was not promised us when we came into the world, or after we were born into this life
it was promised us before the world began! How could God make such a promise to us
if we were not there with Him before the worlds appeared? Not only was salvation promised,
the kingdom was promised also. "Then shall the King (Jesus) say to them on His right
hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world" (Mat. 25:34).
The kingdom message deals
with the conformity, maturity, and inheritance of the sons of God. This great plan was
conceived and initiated in eternity, before time began. "For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the
firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and
whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (
We should always be keenly
aware of the great reason and purpose God had in mind for sending His spirit-sons through
this earthly experience. Have you considered the truth that lies hidden in this inspired
statement: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8:28). It is significant
that this passage in found in that great sonship chapter where the Holy Spirit speaks
explicitly of our calling, choosing, and predestination before the foundation of the
world! When we were with the Father as His spirit-sons we were pure, perfect, and holy
but innocent and unproven. We were holy but did not know why we were holy, never
having experienced the opposite. Job was a perfect man, the Lord said, but he was
untested, and thus all that befell him was for his testing and proving.
We could have remained hidden
in God in that bright glory world of spirit and borne the image of our heavenly Father,
but without knowledge, choice, or experience. We would never have been holy because we
understood why we should be holy, we would simply have been what we were without
understanding. We would never have been holy because we chose to be holy! We would never
have understood why the wages of sin are death, why pride goeth before destruction, why
sin is a reproach, why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is dangerous, delusive,
and disastrous, why the ways of the Lord are perfect and right altogether. We would never
have understood the why of anything, and thus would ever have remained innocent, void of
discernment and vulnerable. We would have been like an over-protected child in this world
who is innocent of much that goes on about him, and therefore unable to cope when exposed
to temptation, pressure, and problems. Our all-wise Father wanted sons who become sons
indeed through experience, having encountered the opposites of life, holiness, wisdom,
power, and glory. Oh, yes! God wanted sons who were processed, tested, proven, learning to
overcome all things and be made strong and victorious through experience not naive,
ignorant, undisciplined sons rich through inheritance but with no nobility of character to
handle what they receive. This is why we had to come this route, and believe me, before
God would turn the universe over to us WE HAD TO COME THIS WAY! Earth, with all its sin,
darkness, sickness, sorrow, fear, delusion, hatred, death, and demons is the divine
"Boot Camp" for all of Gods spirit-sons!
When man fell, and I do
believe man fell, he was lowered into a state which the scripture calls death or sleep in
which he became unaware, unconscious, unresponsive to the dimension of the life of God in
his spirit. A yearning after God was there, but no certain knowledge of life in the
spirit. Through the flesh, the natural consciousness of the physical world and the carnal
mind, and through sin, man became captivated by the power of death. This has been the
state of Adam, bound within the prison bars of mistaken identity, because of his
unresponsiveness to God. Now let me tell you something about death, that which we call
"spiritual death." Death is not non-existence! When a man dies and you put him
in a coffin, is he non-existent? Im speaking of the physical body that you see there
in the coffin. You walk up to the coffin and say, "There lies uncle Joe. Doesnt
he look natural? Oh, he looks so peaceful! Didnt the mortician do a beautiful job?
He looks so good in his favorite suit. Oh, uncle Joe!" We pat uncle Joe on the
forehead, kiss his cheeks, and say our goodbyes. You see uncle Joe is not
non-existent because you see him there! You touch him, even talk to him.
Now hear what Im
saying! To be dead does not mean that you cease to exist. It means that you cease to be
responsive by the expression of life. You can stand there beside the casket, you can
flatter uncle Joe, you can rehearse all the nice things he ever did and enumerate all his
wonderful ways. You can eulogize him right into heaven even if, in fact, he was a
scoundrel. While you speak all these nice things poor old uncle Joe doesnt puff up
with pride. He gets no smile on his face, no sparkle in his eyes. His ear doesnt
begin to twitch. Oh, no! Uncle Joe is there, alright, but he is unresponsive. He is
unconscious of the world around him, or of his own existence in it. It is the same as if
he were sleeping and that is why death and sleep are often used interchangeably in
the scriptures. A sleeping man is not non-existent, but he is unaware and unresponsive!
On the other hand, you can
stand there and "cuss him out," ridicule him, slap his face and tell him what
dog and a devil he was and how much you hate him. Uncle Joe will not strike back! He will
not turn red in the face with rage. He will not jump out of that casket and grab you,
because hes unconscious and unresponsive to the world hes in. THAT IS DEATH!
We came into this world with a loss through Adam of the life of God in our spirit and the
bright world of spirit. Therefore we are dead in trespasses and sins. But, is the
spirit-life in man non-existent? Not at all! It is not non-existent, just unresponsive. We
were born without the capacity to express the spiritual life because we lost the
consciousness of who we are in the true world we pertain to. That is why Jesus came. He
came to save us from this condition, He came to awaken us, to resurrect us, to reconcile
our heart, to restore us to God and heaven. Through His blood He quickens our spirit,
awakens our consciousness, and restores the reality of being.
Oh, yes! You were with the
Father before the foundation of the world. But do you remember? Can you remember
when you were there with your Father? Can you remember what was said, what you knew, what
you had when you were with the Father? Do you remember the wonderful plan devised at that
time, and your agreement with it? Do you remember being chosen in Christ, promised eternal
life, predestined unto placement as a son of God, before the foundation of the world? Do
you remember the beginning of your journey?
Do you remember? YOU ARE
REMEMBERING! Do you know how youre remembering? The answer is simple all
revelation is but a remembering! Someone says, "Oh, brother Eby, the Lord showed me
such and such Ive had a revelation and I see thus and thus." Yes, you
had a revelation! The reality is, however, that what you perceived as a revelation was
simply God reminding you; He woke you up!
We should always be fervently
aware that a revelation is an unveiling. That is the meaning in Greek. To have something
revealed means to have it unveiled. There have been masterpieces of art and sculpture that
have had a day of unveiling. Michelangelo was famous for the unveiling of some of his
great works. But you see, my friend, the unveiling is not the creation of the thing
unveiled! The unveiling is simply the revelation of something which already exists!
Spiritual revelation is the uncovering of the secret knowledge of God within our spirit.
Revelation is a remembering. The whole purpose of the Holy Spirits moving upon us in
our journey in God in this life in the flesh is to cause us to remember the realm from
whence we came, who we are, what our purpose is that we might complete the journey
and fulfill that purpose! That is the mystery.
I know what it means to
awaken naturally. The deepest sleep I have ever been in was at the time of my surgery. I
remember when the doctor woke me up! I will never forget the first words he said, "Do
you feel like a Mack truck has run over you?" My first thought was, "Im
alive!" I was just so glad to be alive, I didnt care about the Mack truck, it
was simply wonderful to know God had brought me through. Yes, I was alive, but I had never
been dead just unconscious. I did not know who or where I was. The world I awoke to
seemed distant and confused. The nurse wheeled me into my room and someone turned on the
television. Ill always know where I was that day, just as most people remember
exactly where they were the day President Kennedy was shot. When I received the news that
Kennedy had been assassinated I was at the airport in
As I awoke, all this news was
on the television about this bombing and that 168 innocent people had died, among whom
were nineteen children, most of whom attended the day care on the second floor of the
building, with all the chaos, tragedy, and sorrow of that event. I was lying there on my
bed full of morphine, awake enough to hear what was being said, but not alert enough to
comprehend the immensity of the event or the meaning of it. I was trying to sort the thing
out in the dream world of a semi-conscious state. It was strange indeed! But over days my
mind cleared. My consciousness returned. I began to comprehend. And today I know all about
it! Spiritually, my beloved, that is what God is doing in this hour. HE IS AWAKENING US!
When we first begin to awaken to our true identity in the spirit world the reality seems
rather fuzzy. Our first thought, at the moment of regeneration, is, "Im
alive!" We are just glad to know that we are spiritually alive! But that is not the
beginning of our spiritual life, it is merely our first remembrance of who we are and
where we came from. Most Christians never get beyond that! They spend all their lives in
that salvation realm, rejoicing that they have been made alive in Christ. But as our walk
in the spirit progresses things become clearer and clearer! Now we are tuning in to the
realm of the Spirit. Were hearing the voice of our Father. Little by little were
remembering the realm from whence we came, and the great purpose for which we were born.
We call this "revelation," but revelation is merely a "remembering."
It is not new information, it is recovered reality!
Once a man or woman is filled
with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost begins each day to bring to his or her
"remembrance" everything that God spoke over them and about them in that long
ago before the foundation of the world. By and through the Spirit we have begun to
"recall" His voice and "re-collect" our predestined inheritance! What
comes to us as "new revelation" is actually the RENEWING OF OUR MINDS! You can
only re-new something that you had before. Never forget this truth: Revelation is
Remembrance. We are being transformed by this renewing of our minds! The truth that we
knew before is making us free. He is quickening the Fathers decree over you from the
beginning.
Clarity is coming to the sons
of God. Understanding, perception, consciousness, expression, purpose, destiny, God is
awakening all of this in us. He is awakening within us that reality we knew with the
Father from before the foundation of the world. You are here by divine appointment. All
your steps are ordered of the Lord. The body you were born with, the family you were born
into, your parents, the town you were raised in, the school you attended, the friends you
acquired, the mate you chose, the job you held, the life youve lived, the
experiences youve had, the joys and sorrows, the tragedies and triumphs, the
apparent mistakes and the victories, all that has taken place in your experience was
mapped out in the council of God on that glorious day when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
Every son of Adam has a time
to be awakened. Some the forerunners, the firstfruits are being awakened
here and now. Many will be awakened at another time, under different circumstances.
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in
his own order
" (I Cor. 15:22-23). Some who read these lines remember the great
move of the Spirit of God called Latter Rain which came to the Lords people in 1948.
Many were not in that visitation and have only heard reports of the glory that came and
the mighty manifestations of Gods power. As the Lord restored the gifts of the
Spirit to the church at that time, there came into manifestation what was termed
"confirmation services." The confirmation service was taken scripturally from
the passage which says, "And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had
taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and
I believe in confirmation. I
believe in impartation. Theres a reality there. But Ill tell you something. I
have seen by the Spirit another confirmation meeting that happened so many eons ago that I
could never calculate them, on a glorious day when the morning stars sang together and all
the sons of God shouted for joy. There never has been since nor shall there ever be again
such a meeting! Everything that would ever happen in this time-space world happened in
that meeting. The works of God were finished in that meeting (Heb. 4:3). Your destiny and
mine were pre-arranged in that meeting (Eph. 1:3-5; I Cor. 2:9-10; Is. 46:10). The Lamb
was slain in that meeting (I Pet. 1:18-20; Rev. 13:8). Our names were written in the book
of life in that meeting (Rev. 13:8). And you and I were there
in Him!
Before any human being ever
set foot upon this planet, the purpose of God in each and every one was confirmed in that
meeting! There was spoken into my spirit, and into yours, out of the heart of God, out of
the mind of the Father, His great and wise plan of the ages. There was imparted and
impregnated into us a destiny, a purpose to be fulfilled upon earth. Therefore I say unto
you, if you missed the 1948 confirmation meeting you didnt miss anything because you
were in the one eons before that! The words of a little chorus we sing express it so well:
The throne room looks the
same
As I ascend back to whence I came;
Theres the scepter that was mine
Before I left there;
And there I sit with all the sages
I was enthroned with before the ages,
But most of all, my Father
Out of whom I came!
There is Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob,
And Sarah involved in my makeup;
And all the others who are in my family tree
And down the corridors of eternity
God controls my destiny,
For back into Him I can trace my pedigree!
THE GOLD MINE
The natural resources of this
earth are mind-boggling, yet in the midst of all the riches of this marvelous planet there
are literally billions of people living in poverty. They live in squalor, disease,
ignorance, limitation, bondage, and servitude, yet the earth is abundant in wealth. There
are untold trillions of dollars of natural resources, of gold and silver and precious
stones and others too numerous to mention, but most of them are controlled by governments
or owned by wealthy and powerful corporations. There is gold in the vast oceans of the
earth, but its so diluted that its unusable by the average person. There are
treasures that are buried in the ocean, but there have been only a few of earths
inhabitants that have been able to bring up those stout Spanish galleons with their
marvelous treasures and recover them. There is gold on strange planets in distant
galaxies, but nature is too intractable, the distances so vast, and the human life-span so
short that men are unable to go and secure it.
How different things would be
if only we had gold mines that were very close to us, that were near at hand, that were
accessible to us, and convenient. How differently things would be for some of us if we
knew that we had a gold mine in our back yard, concealed behind the rose bushes, unknown
to our neighbors and unknown to the government! How secure we would feel if on a summer
evening we could chat with our neighbors over the fence, water our lawn, and play ball
with our children knowing that when the sun sank below the horizon we could sneak out
under the cover of night and mine a little bit of the gold out of our private gold mine at
the back of our house, behind the rose bushes.
Wouldnt it be wonderful
when income tax time came, if we didnt have to worry about anything? Just slip out
in our mine and get a few nuggets the size of walnuts. Or when tragedy struck, or an
unexpected expense occurred, we could just get a few bags of gold dust out of our mine and
pay those bills. Or perhaps we want to travel, but we dont have a rich uncle and we
havent won the lottery, so we sneak out again and get some gold out of our gold mine
and were able to fly away wherever we want to go, travel the earth, see the sights,
stay at five-star resorts, live like a king, with no lack or limitations whatsoever. Oh,
how delightful that would be!
I write these words today to
tell you, my beloved, that you have a gold mine! Its not behind your house. Its
not under the rose bushes. ITS IN YOUR SPIRIT! Youve got a gold mine. Each one
who now reads these lines has a gold mine and its closer to you than the air that
you breathe. Its closer to you even than the blood that courses through your veins.
The gold mine that you possess is all the riches and the glory and the wisdom and the
knowledge and the righteousness and the joy and the peace and the understanding and the
power and the omnipotence of God in your spirit! God is in your spirit! Isnt it
wonderful! You are the sons and daughters of the Most High God. The very life of God is
within you today. In that life there is no limitation at all. All the wealth of divinity,
all the riches of the mind of the Father, all the abundance of joy, peace, love, and power
that are in Jesus Christ, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Him
are in you today, in the Spirit of the living God which is in your spirit, that spirit
which you are upon this earth!
The Indian mystic, Sadhu
Sundar Singh, said in one of his teachings, "Many there are that are like a hunter
who, while wandering in the jungle, picked up some pretty stones on the bank of a stream.
Unaware of their value he used them one by one in his sling to shoot at the birds perched
on the trees near the river, and so one by one they fell into the water and were lost.
With one still in his hand he returned to the city, and as he passed along the bazaar a
jeweler caught sight of it, and told the silly fellow that it was a valuable diamond for
which he could get thousands of rupees. When the man heard this he began to bewail himself
and say, Woe is me! I didnt know their value, and have been using many of
these diamonds to shoot at birds by the riverside, and they have fallen into the river and
are lost, otherwise I should have been a millionaire! Still I have saved this one, and
that is something gained."
The spirit of every man is
like a precious diamond! Ah, yes, there lies buried within you the greatest of all
treasures the
When a man is truly yielded
up to the inspiration of God in his spirit, then he is restored to the normal state from
which he fell; made conscious again of God, knowing God as revealed in his inmost life, by
a knowledge that is beyond the mind and senses, filled with the righteousness, peace, joy,
love, and power of the kingdom of God. He begins to live as he was made to live
inspired, led, ennobled, empowered, a temple for the habitation of God. In his spiritual
perfection his whole action is out of divine impulse. All sin, lack, sorrow, and death are
drunk up or lost in the divine perfection. He celebrates a reign not a reign in
some far-off heaven somewhere, nor yet upon a throne in some earthly sphere, but within
himself, in the more magnificent heaven and the more glorious throne of his own exalted
powers and thoughts and the glorified nature of his spirit. Man finds his paradise when he
is imparadised with God!
Christ is within us as a
seed! Within this Christ-Seed can be found all the divine attributes necessary to make us
fully manifest sons of God Christs like the original seed of the fullness of God in
Christ. As each single cell of our body contains within it the genetic code that made us
what we are physically, so the seed of God within our spirit has within it all the power
of the life of God to transform us into the full image and likeness of our heavenly
Father. As a literal, natural seed grows from a seed to become a blade, then to the ear
stage, after that to the full corn in the ear, so the seed of God within grows
progressively within us until He who is within makes us full grown sons of God
master of all the opposites! Having been tested, tried, and proven in all that is contrary
to God, and having fully overcome in it, we are at last truly LIKE HIM, holy as He is
holy, understanding why we must ever be holy, choosing once and for all and forever to
abide in His holiness, knowing good and evil as God knows it, discerning, perceiving, and
comprehending the folly of all the way that seems right unto a man, but whose end is the
way of death. Now we, as our Father, are light, for He is the Father of lights and in us
there is no darkness at all! Now in us, as in our Father, there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning.
THE SEED IN EVERY MAN HAS
CONQUERED! Oh, the wonder of it!
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