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At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20) |
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That day is the Day of the Lord. The Lord alone shall be exalted "in that day," Isaiah says. |
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What day is that? When shall we know that Jesus is in His Father and we are in Him, and He is in us? When shall He alone be exalted? |
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The answer begins in the second verse of the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. "In my Father's house are many rooms." The Father's House is Christ Himself. He is the chief Cornerstone and we are the living stones in the House of God. |
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The Lord went to the cross and then to the Father in Heaven in order to prepare a place for us in Himself, in the Father's House. |
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After we are saved through the redeeming blood of Christ and filled with God's Spirit, Christ comes to us and receive us to Himself. Christ wants us to be with Him where He is, that is, in the Father. |
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Christ is the way, the truth, and the life of the Father. |
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Jesus tells us that He is the House of the Father: |
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Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. (John 14:10,11) |
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Then the Lord tells us He will not leave us as orphans. He will come to us. From the context we suggest that Christ is not speaking of His return in the clouds of glory but of His coming to the Spirit-filled Christian in order to make him or her the dwelling place of God. |
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The world will not see Christ until He returns. But the Spirit-filled Christian will see Him and know He is in His Father and we are in Him and He in us. |
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Christ has promised to reveal Himself to the person who has His commandments and keeps them. |
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There are Christian doctrines today that tell us we are saved by grace and therefore do not have to keep Christ's commandments. They are dead wrong. Until we keep Christ's commandments He will not reveal Himself to us. |
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If we truly love Jesus we will keep His words. Then the Father will love us and He and Christ will come to us and make Their abode with us. |
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At that day we shall know Christ's position in God and our position in God. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Is the Lord alone exalted in your life? |
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If you are in Pentecost the trumpet is sounding. It's time to move on! |
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Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth. (Micah 4:13) |
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David claimed the Lord was the horn of His salvation. Micah tells us God will make of iron the horn of the daughter of Zion. |
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Horns are referred to over thirty times in the Old Testament and one time in the New, usually referring to strength and majesty.. |
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And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; (Luke 1:69) |
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Since animal husbandry was an important occupation of the Israelites they thought much about the power of the horn to accomplish the will of the animal. Without a horn the animal was rendered helpless. |
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A lady in our church raises sheep. Janet told us of a recent incident. Some dogs broke into a pen and attacked a lamb. The lamb was defenseless. She has no horns. |
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Very shortly a ram came to her defense and the dogs fled for their lives. You would too if a ram came charging at you. But who would run from a charging lamb? |
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Lambs do not bite so they are helpless without horns. |
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If you have no horns Satan is not afraid of you. The churches of today are largely without horns. They pray, and sometimes talk in tongues. But the devil manages to hang around. Have you noticed that? He is not afraid of lambs that make religious noises. |
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But when the righteous resist Satan he flees in disarray. Why is this? It is because the righteous have horns—horns of iron! |
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The powers of Hell are filling the United States. Little by little the wicked are exerting their power in the government at various levels. Immoral practices that a century ago would have been crimes and produced public outrage are now protected by law and more or less accepted by an apathetic public. |
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The Christians fret themselves because their values are being despised. But they do not have horns much less horns of iron. |
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What are we to do? We are to humble ourselves, to pray, to seek God's face, to turn from our wicked ways. We are raging at the government and the Supreme Court because of the unrighteousness of the laws they are establishing. But we are going to wait a long time for the government and the Supreme Court to humble themselves, pray, seek God's face, and turn from their wicked ways! |
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It is we Christians who are the problem. It is we who must pray, seek God, and repent of our sins. When we do God will hear from Heaven, forgive our sins, and give us horns of iron. Satan will flee. Then God will heal our land. |
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We are not fighting flesh and blood and so the weapons of the world and the flesh are worse than useless. But the prayers of the righteous possibly could turn the nation around—if it is not too late! |
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When a bull decides what God's will is he lowers his head and paws the ground. Then he rushes forth to do what he esteems to be correct and profitable. |
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God give us horns of iron! |
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And we thought only the devil had horns! |
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That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27) |
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The Lord's Church will be without spot or wrinkle. The Christian churches of today are not without spot or wrinkle. We know the holy city, the new Jerusalem, is without spot or wrinkle. How do we get from here to there? |
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By death? There is no evidence that physical death will improve our personality. Death is an enemy that will be destroyed by the Lord. Anyway, sin began in Heaven around the throne of God. |
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It is not likely that a spotted and wrinkled Church will improve the atmosphere of Heaven. |
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By a miracle touch of the Lord when He comes? There is no Scripture for this thinking. When the Lord came He did not make the foolish virgins wise. He did not make the man who buried his talent a banker. |
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But, people say, when He comes we shall be like Him. This idea is taken from the third chapter of the Book of First John. Let's look at this passage, for it is commonly taught. |
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First of all, scholars tell us that the Book of First John is a warning concerning the doctrine of antinomianism. Antinomianism means to be saved by grace and faith without obeying the moral laws of God. In fact, today's evangelical teaching is mostly antinomianism. |
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If you read the Book of first John you will see how many times it states we must keep God's commandments. |
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Second, the verse that follows the one that states we will be like Him when He comes says if we have this hope we better start purifying ourselves. |
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Third, you have to interpret a verse according to other similar statements in the Bible In the third chapter of Philippians Paul speaks of the Lord changing our body so it will be like his. But a few verses previously Paul says this resurrection must be attained by counting everything as garbage so we may win Christ. |
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We shall be like Christ when He appears provided we are living a consecrated life today. The change that must take place in us takes place today. |
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The "spots" of sin are removed by the blood of Jesus as we confess our sins and turn away from them. |
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The "wrinkles" of worldliness and self-will are pressed out by the hot iron of tribulation. As we patiently suffer tribulation our character is formed in love, joy, peace, and the other attributes of the citizens of the new Jerusalem. |
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Those of us who are older have learned that things of value have a big price tag. When something sounds too good to be true it usually is. |
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The price tag on today's salvation is cheap grace. It is cheap and the results are shoddy. |
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The price tag on God's salvation is everything. You have to give everything to get it. But the results are marvelous beyond belief and they last forever. |
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Merry Christmas! |
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But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (II Corinthians 3:18) |
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The Kingdom of God came into being when Christ Jesus rose from the dead. |
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Every time a human being is born again it is Christ who is born in him and formed in him. This is a further incarnation, a further revelation of the Lord God of Heaven. God in Christ is seen in the saint who is crucified with Christ. God is eternally enlarging His Being in saints who have become a unique expression of His Person. |
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Christ died that we may live. Now it is our turn. We must die so Christ can be enlarged. If we cling to our life Christ cannot be revealed in us. |
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If we grasp our life and possessions, hold on to people and supposed advantages, not allowing the Holy Spirit to do as He will in us and to us, we will lose our life. In addition Christ will lose an opportunity to appear to the world in a wonderfully unique manner. We must die if He is to live. |
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When we give ourselves without reservation to God, allowing Christ to fill every element of our personality, consenting to the transformation of all that we are, our personality will become all God meant it to be. |
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A change in what we fundamentally are is very threatening, very difficult for people. Believers may be willing to gain victory over one sin or another. But when it comes to a change in what we are, we resist the Lord. It seems that each of us has some major aspect of personality, some part of Adam, that characterizes us, that is what we are. |
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Our Christian life may be occupied to a large extent with a struggle against the symptoms of our particular kind of personality, which may be romantic, or filled with a desire for power or status, or ready to judge other people, or apt to harbor bitterness and revenge, or withdrawn, or flirtatious, or capricious, or violent, or fearful, or grasping and covetous, or requiring luxury, or a manifestation of some other adamic trait. |
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While we may be willing to deal with various sins and shortcomings, when the Holy Spirit begins to require a change in what we basically are we may refuse to proceed with the work of transformation. God's army of victorious sons will include only those who have been willing to allow God to crucify and resurrect their personality as He will. |
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It is only in Christ that our potential is realized. It is only in Christ that the uniqueness of our personality is developed and clarified. Apart from Christ we are "without form and void." |
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When the Spirit of God moves on the "deep" of our being, order appears. There is a separation of our spiritual nature from our soulish nature. "Dry land" appears. "Vegetation" (spiritual life) is produced. |
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Then the all-powerful Creator begins to form us in His image, to bring us into union with Himself and with one another, and to lead us in the path which results in very great fruitfulness and dominion over all the works of God's hands. |
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Without Christ we remain unformed. As the Life of Christ Jesus is formed in us the image of God in us is revealed for all to witness. (from The Cross and the New Creation) |
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Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2). |
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The saints love the cross. The cross is painful and humiliating and it is despised by the world. Our personal cross is a sharing in the sufferings of Christ. The cross is the only path to joy, to peace, to victory over the world, over Satan, and over our flesh and self-will, to fruitfulness and dominion. |
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The cross is the wisdom of God and the power of God. The cross can be seen and felt in the personality and ministry of the man of God. |
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There is a reproach, a scandal associated with the cross of Christ. The person who gladly bears the shame of the cross is heading straight toward the throne of the Father in Heaven. |
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The cross may be arrayed in light until it is we who are hanging there. |
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The cross is the only means, of destroying the self-seeking of the human personality. Ministry apart from the cross is self-willed, self-seeking, self-vaunting, self-centered. |
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The cross is God's response to the self- centeredness of man. Religious people erect elegant structures in order to "glorify God." But God is glorified in the cross of Christ. Herod's Temple was just that—Herod's Temple. It was not God's Temple. The same is true with all the striving of men. |
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Men build tabernacles but God builds the cross. |
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There are three crosses on Golgotha. God is on the cross. The saved thief is on the cross. The unsaved thief is on the cross. All are on the cross. |
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The world died with Christ Jesus. It is finished. |
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The true saint is on the cross with Christ and beholds the world from his position of helplessness on the cross. The crucified saint looks constantly to the Lord for the eternal power of the Spirit of God. It is this incorruptible wisdom and power that gives life to the saint and overflows from him so that humanity is released from the chains of Satan. |
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The cross is our protection against deception. The believer who attempts to evade the cross will be deceived by Satan (Matthew 16:23). God Himself will send delusion on him (II Thessalonians 2:11). |
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There is no way around the cross. Whoever is unwilling to forsake all, to take up his cross and follow Jesus, is unworthy of the Kingdom of God. He cannot be a disciple. |
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The cross is a prison from which we cannot escape without breaking God's laws for it is God who has locked us up. |
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The cross is a pinnacle. We are not to jump from it "by faith in God's Word." It is a place of waiting, of restrictions, of suffering, of patience. |
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It is God's will that we suffer in this confinement, this prison. It is God's will that our most intense desires are withheld from us. It is God`s will that we are required to keep serving Him in situations that are frustrating us and keeping us praying every moment, day and night. |
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The believer who forces his way out of God's prison may gratify his flesh for a season but his end will be grief, disillusionment, anguish, disappointment, loss of fruitfulness, loss of authority, loss of the Kingdom of God. |
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He who saves his life surely shall lose it. |
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He who loses his life for Christ's sake and the Gospel's certainly shall find his life again, and eternal fruitfulness with it. His life will be transformed, having been blended eternally with the life of Christ Jesus. |
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The cross is the glory, the boast of the Christian. It brings him down to helplessness. From the cross he arises in Christ renewed, transformed, vindicated totally, ruler over all. (from A Study Guide for the Book of Galatians) |
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Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. (I Corinthians 15:50) |
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Being born again is used today to refer to our receiving the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. You may notice, however, that the Apostles of the Book of Acts never preached being born again as the entrance to salvation.. |
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Being born again is not the point at which we accept Christ. Being born again describes the change that takes place throughout our discipleship. It is referring to the fact that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. |
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The new personality consists of a new inner man and a new outer man. Much has been written by deeper-life teachers about the new inner man; perhaps not as much about the new outer man. |
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The new inner man is Christ in us. The new outer man also is Christ and will be a direct reflection of our new inner man. |
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The Kingdom of God is the new creation. Our first personality, the flesh and blood creation born from our earthly parents, will not inherit the Kingdom of God. It is corruption, being little more than an intelligent animal. |
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"The flesh profits nothing," as the Lord said. |
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When we receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior we are born again, that is, the Life of God is implanted in us and begins to grow. As we follow the Spirit of God each day the body and blood of the Lord are fed to us. A new creature is formed from this "hidden manna." |
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Each day the first personality is struck down. Each day the new man is strengthened. We are born again, so to speak. As the new man is formed in us, a counterpart, an outer man, is formed in the Presence of God in Heaven. In the Day of the Lord the new outer man will be the new inner man. This is our eternal personality, the personality that we shall be throughout the countless ages to come. |
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We do not say it will be impossible to grow in Christ after we die. It seems probable to us that we shall. However certain basic aspects of character can be formed only in the furnace of affliction found in the earth—in particular the competence to rule. |
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If we do not follow the Lord as we should we may discover in that day that we have lost forever the opportunity to be of first rank in the Kingdom or to be as close to the Lord's Presence as we desire. |
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There is a wonderful, terrible justice in the fact that we shall reap precisely what we sow. If we have followed the Lord diligently, walking in stern obedience to our Father in Heaven, we will reap an abundance of eternal life and glory. If we instead sow to our animal appetites we will reap corruption and contempt in the form of a corrupt outward man. |
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Today—right now—the Christian is shaping his eternal personality. What he is becoming now as he follows Christ with more or less diligence will be revealed in the Day of the Lord. The body with which he is clothed will portray in itself what he has become in his inner personality. Grace and mercy will not enter at this point. The purpose of grace and mercy are not to change what we reap in the Day of the Lord but rather to help us today to sow seed that will result in the kind of reward we desire. (from The Creation of the Eternal Personality) |
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Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. |
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(Revelation 3:20) |
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The seven trumpets of the Book of Revelation (Chapters Eight through Eleven) portray the effect on the works of men as the King, Christ Jesus, begins to bring all the earth, including His Church, into subjection to Himself. |
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How are we affected as the Holy Spirit brings us past the fulfillment of the feast of Pentecost and into Trumpets and the Day of Atonement? How are we to address ourselves to the dealings of the King, as He seeks admittance to our personality so He may throw down every false God in us and establish His throne at the core of our being? |
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The Lord Jesus is coming to each member of His Body today. He stands at the door of our life and knocks (blows the trumpet). He knocks until He gains our attention. Some hear the Lord readily. In other instances it is necessary for the Lord to bring trouble to the individual in order to make him aware that God has come to him. |
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Then Jesus speaks. If we open the door of our heart to Him He enters us and dines with us and we with Him. The food and drink He gives us are His own body and blood. It is by eating Him that we become married to Him, learning to live by Him as He lives by the Father. |
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Then the Lord Jesus begins to throw down every throne in us. We must remember that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, it is not ours to do with as we will. |
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It is God's will that man not dwell alone in his body. The body of man is made to be the house, the booth, the tabernacle of God. It is our responsibility to present our body a living sacrifice so we may prove the will of God. |
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If we are willing to receive the Lord, permitting Him to cast out of us the love of the world, the love of sin, and the love of our self-will, the Father and the Son come to us and make Their abode with us. Now there are four of us living in the same body: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the saint. |
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When we overcome all that hinders the resting of God in us we discover we are sitting with the Lord Jesus in His throne, which is our own heart. |
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The goal of salvation is to become the dwelling place of God and Jesus, which is the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles. |
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The King is coming to each of us. If we have ears to hear and open the door He enters us and makes His abode with us. This is our marriage to the Lord. |
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As Christ settles down to rest in us He deals with everything in us that is contrary to God's Personality. The dealings of the Lord as He accomplishes our total sanctification can result in enormous upheavals and misunderstandings. Our part is to look steadfastly to Jesus and to continue patiently in faith until the rest in God we desire so fervently has been gained perfectly and completely. |
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You were born to be the dwelling place of God. Is this what you truly desire? (from The Blowing of Trumpets) |
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