#397 Kingdom: The Current Incarnation
Christ In Us: Also The Father And The Holy Spirit?
In recent documents we have tried to identify how the visible church, after 2000 years of history, got into the fallen and lukewarm condition is in today. Today, with the information highway and all the preaching and teaching, along with all the books and tapes and 24 hour a day television and radio, the church should be at the very height of its witness to the world. It would seem reasonable that the church should have developed, grown stronger and had become both salt and light by now. By today it should be a recognizable force to be reckoned with by the world! There seem to be two conclusions used to judge the visible church by the world; dull and boring or worthless and irrelevant. Are these condemnations justified? Of course, when we are speaking of the visible church we are speaking in general or average terms and we are comparing the visible church against God’s declared expectations of a “perfect bride for His Son”, which goal and purpose will appear too radical to most “Christians.”
It may seem unreasonable to compare the visible church against the “glorious church without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless, full grown and manifesting Christ” revealed as God’s expectation. I assume this is the Father’s minimum expectation! If we cannot compare the visible church against the Father’s expectation, by what other standard do we have to judge the development of the church? If we have not established our ministry to meet the Father’s expectation, it most likely can be declared irrelevant and a failure. If we have fully submitted to the Master Designer of all things and fully cooperated with Him in His eternal desire, our work should reflect that eternal design and have some evidence of completing God’s eternal purpose. It is my opinion that when the visible church develops to the maturity necessary to fulfill the Father’s expectation, the world will sit up and take notice that this “living organism” is no longer boring and irrelevant.
Some people feel sad when I say I feel like I have wasted my life focusing upon irrelevant areas of ministry that have NOT produced a glorious church. If I feel that way, think about how the Holy Spirit must feel after 2000 years of ministry to the visible church! He is surely more concerned than we are with its condition and actively working to fulfill the Father’s plan and expectation for the church. Of course He is well aware of Jesus’ statement about the entrance into this realm of Life.
Mat 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.
Mat 7:14 “For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.
It seems obvious that we should evaluate our ministry effectiveness by the percentage of those who enter by the wide gate, compared to those who enter by the small and narrow gate. Possibly only 1% of all the believers who are “identified as Christians” actually enter through that narrow gate into the higher dimension of Life.
With this awareness, we may find comfort in understanding the various partitions in the final Tabernacle of God. These partitions shows those who are on New Earth, those in New Heaven and those in the New Jerusalem. The New Earth being the lowest level of participating in His Life. However, Matthew 7:13 says the wide gate leads to destruction so this hardly applies to different realms in heaven. We could conclude from this that only the narrow way leads to any area of the Eternal Tabernacle of God. In other words even the entrance to the Outer Court is very narrow and few actually find it. That, obviously, completely eliminates a large percentage of the visible church that is lukewarm, blind, naked, wretched, miserable, poor and even those with soiled garments. Surely it excludes those who are dead {without His Life} or who about to die! Nevertheless, this reality concerning eternity is rarely preached and only a very few “ministers” really believe it. Most are unconscious that there is ANY requirements of God except to believe something about Jesus. This is HIS message to the unconscious and comatose.
Rev 3:17 ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.
Jesus is speaking to the Lampstand church in Laodicea so it seems obvious that he is speaking to believers who have been baptized in water and that have received the Holy Spirit and transitioned to another dimension of Light. Jesus even warned the lukewarm that he would vomit them out of His body. This was Jesus’ own evaluation of the church that evaluated themselves as if they were strong Christians. Jesus spoke to the believers in the Lampstand church at Sardis and told them many had already died and he warned some others there were about to die!
We can now ask: Just how small is that gate that leads to Life?
It is certainly obvious that the greatest majority of those in the visible church are going to be disappointed and find themselves on the wrong side of the narrow gate.
Well, I see, Brother Leo, you are still preaching condemnation after all these years! Why can’t you preach a happy and encouraging message like everybody else? Can’t you see we can never build a church with a message like this? You need to lighten up and just encourage the people like Joel Osteen! Look what this young man has done! He can at least fill the seats!
Then is any amount of criticism of this failed church system too radical? Can we just accept the fact that this is just how it is and God loves us anyway? If the church is producing NOTHING eternal should we just be content and philosophical about it? Shouldn’t someone sound the warning trumpet?
I would like to ask a relevant question. Has “He who walks among the Lampstands” dropped His standards for the churches. Has the Holy Spirit decided to “lighten up” so the visible church can add members? Has the standard of the Father’s requirements for a bride for His Son been lowered so the wedding table can be full? Obviously, the requirements for the guests to be invited to attend the wedding are not the same as the requirements for the bride. However, the gate is still small and everyone who is accepted into the wedding feast MUST have the proper wedding garment.
Mat 22:11 “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw there a man not dressed in wedding clothes, 12 and he *said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And he was speechless. 13 “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Jesus said that this is how the Kingdom of Heaven is designed. Either meet the requirements or you are not accepted. But, what about grace? The Grace is given to obtain wedding clothes and to meet the requirements . But, isn’t it enough if we just believe in wedding clothes? NO! You must wear them, experientially and keep them clean! Of course, that is just to be an invited guest and NOT the bride. The bride will meet or exceed EVERY expectation of the Father.
But, Brother Leo, this is NOT good news from the visible church viewpoint! That is true! However, it is “good news” from the Kingdom viewpoint but it appears to be “bad news” from the “dirt church’s” viewpoint! The “dirt church” is just looking for forgiveness of sins and NOT even searching for that narrow gate. The Kingdom message it this; LOOK FOR THE NARROW GATE! Why? Because MANY are called but FEW are chosen. Those who are called, chosen, found faithful and accepted will be on the Throne side of the Narrow Gate! But isn’t this legalistic? Yes! This is according to the Laws of the Kingdom and the expectation of the Father.
Since Jesus gave Himself for the Glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless, full grown and perfected, what hope is there for any of us? If we ignore this Dispensation of the Holy Spirit and His eternal work in us, there is NO HOPE.
However, this is the dispensation in which the incarnation of God has been designed to be experiential in the Church, which is the Body of Christ. At first this seems like false doctrine and heresy. However, let us investigate the possibility that the Creator God will come, be incarnated and dwell in us, experientially and practically. [That means “in practice and reality” not just in theory or doctrine.]
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
God was “in Christ” reconciling the world to Himself. Therefore, Jesus Christ was the incarnation of God. Why? To complete the work of reconciliation. God is the reconciler and Christ is the instrument. Now, we have been appointed as ambassadors of Christ. It is now that God is making His appeal through us. Our message is: Be reconciled to God and to His Kingdom Government. Why do we add “and to His Kingdom Government?” Because that IS the Gospel of the Kingdom which IS our message in this dispensation. Attempting to be “reconciled to God” without being “reconciled to His Kingdom Government” is the “dirt message” that got us into this miserable mess.
The popular “gospel of salvation” has opened up “a very broad way leading to a very wide gate” that announces, “Everybody who wants to be saved from hell just step through this easy and wide gate into the security of eternal life.” “We want to open to you this Wide Gate called grace.” “All you who came forward to accept Jesus as your personal servant, just say these words and believe this doctrine and you are IN.” “Now, let us all thank God that so many new souls have entered into the Kingdom of God and will be sitting with Jesus, ruling over the nations.”
It is my opinion that the God that is incarnated in us, is NOT deceiving us and others with that message of the “half priced sale.” We can only attribute that message to the “dirt ministries” that have a burden to see all “dirt men” saved from destruction. However, this “wide way” through the “wide gate” will surely ONLY lead to destruction, regardless of what the theologians say. The “Who-so-ever-will” ministries have failed to recognize the Sovereignty of God over the church so that “NONE can come unless the Father draw them.” Of course “who-so-ever-makes-a-decision” can join the “dirt church” or the YMCA or the country club. God is in total control over who is accepted through the narrow gate into the church that Christ is building. This appears to be a very strange concept to all the “whosoever-will” ministries.
The ABSOLUTE Sovereignty of God over the church in authority and from within the church in sanctification, discipline and revelation is the theme of this paper.
Many can accept the sovereignty of God over creation and over the universe but in the realm where it really counts, within our lives and within the church and within the administration of the Kingdom, it is ignored.
Dan 7:18 ‘But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.’
Dan 7:27 ‘Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’
ALL the dominions, that are governing all the kingdoms under the realm of heaven, will bow before His Absolute Sovereignty and serve and obey Him.
Dan 7:13 “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations, and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.
The Sovereignty of Christ Jesus is over all other sovereignties and His absolute Dominion is over all dominions and EVERYBODY serves and obeys Him. This is the Kingdom dimension of Eternity but is exactly the same Sovereignty and Dominion He exercises over the Lampstand Church that He is building. If we ignore this point, the result is the condition we see in the visible church today. Both the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are treated as servants to the church rather than as KINGS having absolute dominion over the church. The “church” that ignores their absolute Sovereignty and treats them as servants can NEVER rise above the “dirt dimension.” They can never become a part of the “church that is His body.” In that “body” EVERYONE obeys the Head as the King of the Kingdom.
The point I am making is that the Holy Spirit has come into the church as the Sovereign Lord and King to discipline us and train us and prepare us to participate in the Kingdom of God.
In the Kingdom, the Father is King, The Lord Jesus is King and the Holy Spirit is King. You must lay aside earth mathematics to understand that reality. Why? Because those who are apart of the High Priest’s body will also be Kings and Priests.
While the Father, the Word, the Holy Spirit and the Son are each a King in their own realm and function, this IS the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. His Kingship is to prepare a bride that will meet the Father’s expectation for His Son. Genesis 24 is the Old Testament type that shows the father sending his servant {the Holy Spirit} to receive a wife for his son, Isaac. This same scene is shown again in the Book of Ester. The king is commissioning his servant {the Holy Spirit} to prepare a perfect wife for himself. Both scenes reveal the preparation of the bride to meet a certain standard. In both scenes the Holy Spirit is the agent of the preparation and His goal is perfection. Because the majority of ministers today miss this one point, it becomes clear why the Holy Spirit is largely ignored in the church. He is generally seen as uninterested and uninvolved in the preparation of the church for eternity. The reason is because it is taught that forgiveness of sins is ALL that is required to be the bride. Many think His only purpose is to distribute gifts and they are not that important or desirable. In Genesis 24 it is obvious the “servant” gave gifts to everybody but His main purpose was not the gifts but the bride for Isaac. Even a delay of travel for just 10 days was not acceptable to the servant. This reveals the immediacy of the Father’s instructions and the urgency of His returning to the Father with the bride for His Son. The next level of preparation is after they begin the journey on the camels. This represents a very difficult means of travel through the terrible desert and the various dangers and hardships. These “word / story pictures” give us insight into how to interpret many scriptures. The “gospel” that is based upon a few verses may never reveal the rigors of the preparation of the bride for Jesus. That is why many think the only preparation of the bride is to just accept Jesus as personal Savior. These pictures in the Book of Ester also reveal that all who assume they can prepare themselves as the wife of the Lamb will surely fail and be passed over as the queen. The Father has appointed His servant, the Holy Spirit, in this dispensation, to complete that eternal work. Since this inner work is beyond the capacity of man, those who depend upon themselves or other men to prepare them for eternity will be disappointed.
Therefore, to be ignorant of or to ignore the Holy Spirit is a great error of understanding within the visible church. They seem to treat the Holy Spirit as unessential to salvation. Many evangelicals form a list of the things that are “non-essential” to salvation and nullify the Word of God with their earth bound lists. It is my opinion that only the “dirt man ministries” dare to do such a ridiculous thing. They assume that “forgiveness of sins” is the whole gospel and whatever is not directly related to “forgiveness of sins” is “unessential!” This very shallow understanding ignores the “sin” problem connected to the old creation after first Adam. It is assumed that solving the “sin problem” (after sins are forgiven) is just another of the “non-essentials” along with maturity, baptism in water, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, sanctification, holiness and obedience! In expressing our frustration we might ask “Is there any wonder that the visible church is in this lukewarm and approaching death condition?
The greatest frustration is that the Pentecostal Church ministries have adopted about the exact same doctrine and the infilling, baptism, fulness of the Holy Spirit has become non-essential to salvation. So has obedience been preached as non-essential to salvation.
2Thes 2:13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
Heb 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,
Obviously there is a difference between “forgiveness of sins” and eternal salvation and general or our common salvation.
To bring the church back to the realms of eternal salvation will mean that we will be confronted by all these fallen “dirt doctrines” that have been nearly universally accepted as eternal truth. Even the “fallen church systems” have been nearly universally accepted as the “scriptural standard.” Then what is the quickest way to total church restoration? Is another revival of the “dirt church” the solution? Not at all!
Returning to the fulness of the Incarnation of God in current church experience will quickly rectify the situation.
That means when the Father, the Living Word and the Holy Spirit come to dwell in our human bodies, BUT IN THE NEW CREATION INNER MAN, we become the Tabernacle of God in this dispensation. When He who was with us, is dwelling in us, we become the Incarnation of God. Then nothing shall be called impossible. Since the preparation of the bride for Jesus is too far beyond the capacity of man, God must have made some provision for this work that is far beyond the capacity of man. That “capacity” can only be filled by God Himself, working in us, both to will and to do the whole will of God. In this dispensation “that will” is defined as “the Father’s Eternal Expectation” of a full grown bride for His Son!
The scriptures reveal that this is “The Dispensation of the Holy Spirit.” However, He is fully submitted to the Father and to the Living Word and does nothing out from Himself, on His own initiative. In this same way during the short dispensation of the Living Word of God, He did nothing out from Himself, by His own initiative. He was fully submitted to the Father and to the Holy Spirit.
In this “dispensation of the church” or what we called the “church age” we are expected to function according to that example. The “Church which is His Body” {by incarnation} must be fully submitted to the Father, The Word and the Holy Spirit. However, the agent of God in this dispensation is the Holy Spirit. He is fully submitted to the Father and the Word and we must be fully submitted to Him so He can finish His work. Is that so can receive forgiveness of sins? No! That is so we can become the perfect bride for Christ! Is that a broad way with wide gate? NO! That is an extremely narrow way, through a tiny gate, which we are calling “Union Life.”
The first mention we have in scriptures concerning the Holy Spirit is in Genesis 1 as the creator of the first creation. Our theory is that He is also the designated Creator of the second or new Creation. In the same way He came upon Mary to impart the Sperma of God to form Jesus in Mary, He must come upon us to impart the same Sperma to create Christ in us. Since the Sperma IS the Living and Abiding Word of God, the agent to impart it to us is the Holy Spirit. It is the Father that initially draws us into this impartation and the Sperma is the Spirit of Christ which is the Living and Abiding Word of God. We are guessing that the impartation of the Sperma involves the Trinity intimately involved to bring us to conception and birth. Then it is the Incarnation of the Trinity in us that perfects us to become the full grown bride for the Lamb/ Jesus.
In the next dimension it is the Holy Spirit and the Living Word [ incarnated] that makes us priests of the Most High God, after the Order of Melchizedek. Why? Because they are already Priests of the Most High God after that order. It seems to be getting clearer that it is the Incarnation {God in us} that enables us to know and fulfill God’s Eternal Purpose. Since human effort has proved to be bankrupt for over a period of 2000 years, there must be a Divine provision that will enable man to fulfill the purpose of God and finally bring joy to His heart. We may wonder why those who had won crowns throw them before the Throne. The reason must be that it was “Christ in them” that had conquered and won the crown. Who, then, could claim the crown as his own? Only the selfish, self-centered, lukewarm and spiritually poor believer that never knew the real gospel truth about the Kingdom of God! They never really believed that it was Christ in them that was their ONLY hope of glory! Most have no understanding of what Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing.” Of course this “average group” will be no where near the throne nor will they have crowns to contribute. The crowns were awarded to the new inner man and NOT to the Adam man. Putting golden crowns on this dirt man is a pagan concept.
The incarnation by Divinity into humanity {for God to dwell in us} is difficult to conceive. How could the God of all purity and holiness, who must humble Himself to look upon man, ever come to dwell in this human garbage pit. Regardless of what man was when he was first created, he is totally different today. Romans 1 and 3 describes man from God’s viewpoint after the fall. How could God leave His glorious dwelling in the heavenly realms to come to dwell in these dirty, foul smelling tenements of human existence?
It should be obvious that God must actually dwell in the new inner man or the Holy of Holies in this dirt realm. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary cannot be accurately evaluated in its total effectiveness for the continuance mankind. Without the sacrifice of Calvary, would humanity just self destructed by now? Nevertheless, this sacrifice still must be compared with the sacrifice of the Living Word of God, the Spirit of Christ, who came to dwell in mankind over these past 2000 years. Then we should not underestimate the sacrifice of the Holy Spirit who has been living in various garbage dumps for 2000 years. They have endured every kind of perversion, fighting, corrupt religion, carnal concepts, selfish and self-centered “Christians” and a “fallen church system” that invokes His name to set up systems and programs that are just of human origin. For the most part, God and His absolute sovereignty is about ignored in those who claim to be His own people. Jesus was rejected by Israel 2000 years ago but the Father, the Son / Word, and the Holy Spirit are likewise being rejected today by those who claim to be His. Especially obvious is the rejection of the Holy Spirit in much of the church today.
The incarnation, God dwelling in man, is the realm of salvation, the realm of the church and the realm of the Kingdom.
John 14:16 “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 “After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also. 20 “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.
God indwelling man is the greatest of all the promises and the key to man fulfilling the Eternal Purpose of God during the church age! This identifies the difference between the “Christian Religion” and the “Christian Life.” The “Christian Life” is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The “Christian Religion” is “I believe something about Jesus.”
The “Christian Testimony” is “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”
The “Christian Mystery” is I no longer live, Christ lives in me, yet I have retained my identity and He has retained His identity. I have been strengthened by Him but He has not been weakened or compromised by me.