We are concerned about our receiving the real revelation of the Communion, and what it is to impart to us. And the impartation we receive becomes more effective when we realize the extent of what we can claim in that impartation.
We can say, “I am going to receive a blessing,” and we will. We appropriate according to our faith, and our faith is based upon what He has provided and how much of that provision the Holy Spirit has revealed to us.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God. I Corinthians 2:12.
We know that the Passover blood does certain things for us—we take the Communion for the blood of the Lamb to cleanse us from sin—but do we truly realize the limitations of the flesh-nature and the distinct areas that exist in the flesh? It has a condemnation from God as being His enemy, and the fleshly mind cannot serve God.
For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:5–8.
There are many different ways in which flesh manifests itself. An important part of what He has provided in the Communion is still to be wrought in removing the divisions within the very Body of Christ. For we have to come to the place where we see that our appropriation of the blood of Christ can break down the distinctions, the barriers, the walls, and bridges the Grand Canyons between us (Ephesians 2:11–22).
But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. Ephesians 2:13–14.
Read the messages “We Believe In And We Believe For” and “I Wish I Didn’t Doubt It.”* These Words have to do with our oneness, with what we believe in and what we believe for, and in them one thing comes through very clear: It does not really make any difference who is right or who is wrong in a disagreement; the main thing is that we have an honest heart. If I can believe what my brother is saying to me and that he means it, my battle is won. This is so true; a basic problem usually is suspicion. Suspicion is a basic factor in our thinking. By nature, we are suspicious. We have not learned how to live without suspicion. We think, “I trust him, but does he really mean what he is saying? Does he really know what he is saying? Does he know the fullest extent of what he is expressing? Or are there deeper things than he is aware of that he cannot express?” That cannot be the basis for our relating to one another. When you say something to me, I cannot think, “I have to judge what he is saying; is it the honest truth?” Rather, my thinking must be, “Is there the quality of honesty in his spirit?” Even if someone were to tell me a falsehood, if he were sincere and had an honesty of heart, then that alone would be all I would require.
Self-deception always manifests in some form of bitterness sooner or later. So we have to face the fact that when we see bitterness, it is because there has not really been an objective honesty.
It is a very difficult thing to come into a perfectly right spirit. You cannot evaluate a problem until you have a right spirit about it. But you can even have a wrong spirit and still be honest as far as your spirit is concerned. You can be wrong, dead wrong, and still have an honest spirit.
Deception enters the picture when we give way to suspicion instead of trusting the honesty of God, after which it must follow that we trust the honesty of each other. It was Satan’s very calculated tactic in the Garden of Eden, when he said, “Hath God said?” (Genesis 3:1.) He put a suspicion in the mind of Eve. Once suspicion is in your mind toward God, it will be toward your brother also. It inevitably follows that if you cannot trust God you are not going to trust one another; and then the problems begin.
We are beginning to understand more fully the Communion. We are looking for God by His mercy to throw so much grace into the Grand Canyons between us that He fills every valley, until we come to the place where our love and our faith for each other is very great. Some of us may have experienced a great deal of distress, but God had His way with us. And we have to say, “That is what our lives are all about: God’s will is to be done in the earth.” We cannot be bitter because events turned out one way and not another. If I become bitter, I do not have a right spirit; I am not honest before God. God is the One I must relate to, and He will witness to my heart that it is right. I think that is important.
These gulfs and chasms and mountains that exist between us build up because of things within our own nature, and because we are all different. Our flesh does not have a capacity for oneness. Eventually, we all learn in all the circumstances and problems of our life, that our flesh will create impassable barriers to one another.
We think, “How do I reach you? How do you reach me? How do I trust our oneness? Do I believe in it?” Yes, I believe in our oneness. I believe for it because of what I see in this Communion.
Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh (to us, the Communion bread) the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. Ephesians 2:11–18.
Each one of us does not have a different access to God. We have our access in one Spirit to the Father. As we are one in the Holy Spirit with the Father we have access to Him. When you have your access to God, remember that your brother shares it with you.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow-citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19–22.
We all have our access to God, by His flesh, by His blood. That is what this Scripture is saying.
We should search our hearts and say, “Between us there can be no division which we do not recognize as being an offense against His blood. There can be no separation or division, or lack of this oneness, which we do not recognize as a sin to be repented of.” For if we partake of the body and of the blood of the Lord, we must come into that oneness.
We may say, “As soon as we work a few things out we will probably come together.” We do not come together by solutions or answers to problems. And this is what most of God’s people are not understanding. I cannot approach situations as a referee. It is necessary for every one of us to come totally into the presence of the Lord so that the answer becomes a common witness, a common experience, a Word that liberates and sets us free, and brings us together into what God wants.
Division is a thing of the flesh. The Grand Canyons between us are of the flesh. It took a long time to form the natural Grand Canyon, and it probably took quite a while to form yours, too. Separations are the erosions in our hearts that usually took time to happen. Every day that you live, you have more reason to think, “I am on the right side of this canyon. Everybody on the other side is wrong.” It is the canyon that is wrong when He shed His blood for us to be one, when He gave His body which we partake of so that we could be one. If we would only realize that whether we are right or wrong, division is the sin! It is carnal, a thing of the flesh.
You say, “Well, we all wait for great revelation.” You will never get it. Go deeply into the second and third chapters of I Corinthians. You will realize what Paul was saying when he finally told the Corinthians: “Listen, because you are divided, I can’t even talk to you. I have to talk to you as to mere men on a human level. I cannot even give you the meat” (I Corinthians 3:1–2).
What a tragedy it is if we do not partake of the body and the blood of the Lord to release us from division, not knowing that the division has stunted us, deafened us, blinded us until we cannot see and we cannot hear and we cannot go any further. We must progress to the place where we are no more on the flesh level that cannot see, cannot hear, cannot function in revelation from the Lord.
Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. I Corinthians 1:10–11.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. I Corinthians 2:14.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, I want to show division to be the hideous sin that it really is. There are no problems so great to justify not submitting our spirits to the healing lest there be a division in the Body.
When there is division, we have not sinned against each other; we have sinned against Christ in the first place. And that is the sin that really counts.
It has built up; and every day, every year there is probably a bigger division coming between some until it looks irreconcilable. What a tragedy! Who is right? I am not interested in “right.” I am concerned about the wickedness of everyone involved in that division. Is there no balm in Gilead? (Jeremiah 8:22.) Is there no healing there? Isn’t there something that we can partake of that shall heal our spirits and bring us into His presence? Isn’t there a way that we can all feel the love of God flow through us? Let us break the bread and drink the cup together and say, “This is what I want.”
There are people who feel they have been ripped off. The answer, of course, is that you only feel ripped off if you feel someone took you; you never feel ripped off if you gave yourself as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). When you give yourself as a living sacrifice, you do it unto the Lord and it does not matter what happens, or what anyone says, or how someone tries to turn your sacrifice around for himself, or even if your good is evil spoken of (Romans 14:16).
One Scripture says, Let not then your good be evil spoken of. Romans 14:16, KJV. In another place we read, “Do not let the sun go down on your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26). It would seem that you cannot keep either one from happening, can you? The sun will go down anyway, whether you are over your anger yet or not! And there are those who will speak evil of you in persecution, but you cannot prevent it (Matthew 5:10–12). This is something that we must face: Many of us have borne the heat of the day. How long have you been in this walk? I have been in it since the beginning. Have you suffered for it? So have I.
Can I tell you how to think about it? I feel it has been a privilege to give my life for this walk. I would still feel it to be a privilege if out of everything that has ever been done, there would be only one or two who would walk on into the Kingdom. Often, in moments when I did not know whether I would live or die, I have said to the Lord, “Thank You, Lord, for letting me run the race. Thank You that You let me have the privilege of serving You.”
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Philippians 3:8.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God. Colossians 1:24–25.
If you take account of what has happened to you, you might begin to realize that when someone does you wrong, your good spirit can glorify the Lord, and you may be able to accomplish far more through that than you could any other way.
Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to every one who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. I Peter 2:12; 3:15–16.
A good spirit is like a burning, shining light in a dark world (Luke 11:34–36).
You may say, “How do I go about getting a good spirit?” It helps a little to repent of the bad spirit. Repentance always leads to change. When we do, the body and the blood of the Lord, His flesh and His blood, will bring us together into one.
Honestly, do you truly want to be one with your brothers and sisters? Do you really want to be one? A number of questions and problems come up in every situation.
There probably exists no area in our relationships where there are not problems. And the unique thing is that God does not seem to care about solving problems. If God solved all of the problems, that would not solve any problems at all. The real problem is something in our walk with Him and in our walk together. If you solved all the problems today by some mystical magic, we would have a new set of problems tomorrow, because the spirit of each individual leaves us open for more problems to be generated.
We have such beautiful standards. We want everything we have done to be forgiven, yet we want a careful record kept on the offenses of our brother. We want something to vindicate us. Each one of us thinks that way. The bitter thing about devastation is that you learn there will be no vindication. You will go through devastation, and when you go through it no one is going to say, “Oh, you wonderful person; you’ve been through it. Isn’t it wonderful how God brought you through?” No flesh will glory in His presence (I Corinthians 1:29, KJV). And His presence is our goal.
Comment: I think if we answered honestly in our hearts the question, “Do we really want to be one?” we would say, “No.” There are obvious personality differences, and everything else. I would not choose these people to be the most compatible with me. But from the Lord’s standpoint, and by revelation, we know we are to walk together and that there is a provision for that. This is what you are trying to lay out as the truth for us.
We repent for anything within us that would cross out that oneness, or not want it. And then we believe God and appropriate such a faith that is determined: “I not only want to be one with every one of my brothers, but by the grace of God, I am determined I will be one with everyone.”
If you attain this first step of really wanting to be one, then you will find that it is easier to have faith for your brother than it is for yourself. Do you believe in a person? No, I do not even believe in myself, my flesh. Can you believe for a person? Yes. Can you believe for yourself? Not as easily as you can believe for your brother and pray for the will of God for him. I can believe for my brother easier than I can believe for myself.
If my spirit is right, I can have faith for others easier than I can for myself. That is the way the Lord made it, so that we constantly need each other. The interdependence on one another’s faith is very necessary. But if I do not have that much faith for my brother, it is because there is something wrong in my spirit. People still do not understand the grace of God. They are always trying to attach finality to something when God just keeps working, even in His judgments, to position people where He can show them grace.
Comment: Our thinking is so much geared to a kind of psychoanalysis of these interpersonal relationships. But the thing that is so clear to me now is the provision that we have for oneness. And for us not to face it because we are tied up with working out problems, or judging and categorizing them, is really a sin of great proportion, because it ignores the provision the Lord has made for us.
To me it is a waste of time trying to solve problems when God is trying to heal and weld our spirits together into one. Solving problems is not the answer. The answer is that we are going to be one with God. God is not interested in our journeying around the same mountain solving problems. He wants to meet us. But what about the different problems that we have? Until we shrink our problems down to the fact that there is only one problem—every man’s relationship to God and the oneness that we have with each other—we do not know what the Kingdom is about yet.
What are we going to do? We are not condemning or exonerating. That is not what God called us to do. The warfare is not against flesh and blood.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. II Corinthians 10:3–4.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12.
We are here to help deliver one another from the flesh, not to judge one another’s flesh.
“You people judge according to the flesh; I am not judging any one.” John 8:15.
Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourselves, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:1–2.
The cross, the body and blood of the Lord, is so that we can examine ourselves, judge ourselves (I Corinthians 11:28). And in doing that we say, “Before God, I am going to be one with everyone who partakes of this Communion with me. I am going to be one with them. I am determined. My faith is saying, ‘I am going to be one with them!’ ”
When you say, “We are one,” are you looking for a nice, peaceful time, for everything to be easy and smooth? When God has a man like Job, who is perfect in all his ways before the Lord, He will loose the devil on him so He can give that man a double portion (Job 1:1–22; 42:10). Everything Job did was right before the Lord, but the book of Job is the greatest example of disturbed, upset, violent relationships: His wife told him to curse God and die. He lost his children. He lost his money, his flocks, and everything else (Job 1:13–19; 2:9). Job had beautiful “comforters” who did nothing throughout the greater portion of the book of Job but accuse him of being a terrible sinner. Then God Himself came on the scene and rebuked him! (Job 38–40:1–2.) So Job said, “That does it. I abhor myself” (Job 42:6, ASV).
We begin to understand that some of this devastation is the only way that God can perfect His perfection in us (I Peter 4:12; 5:10). Perfection does not mean that there is no development. I believe that even God’s universe grows; everything grows. God is expanding. I am expanding and you are expanding. Our oneness has to expand. Our relationships have to expand.
Can you say, “I am not only going to repent, but I am determined from now on that there is going to be a change. The body and the blood of the Lord is going to bring that oneness. The valleys are going to be filled. Viewpoints are going to be changed. From this time on, there is a determination and a faith in my heart for this oneness to come.”
There is no way that you can get people to de-emphasize their fears, problems, and worries. We just have to come up to the place where we repent of our unbelief. You say, “I don’t have faith for the answer.” Then repent of your unbelief—that is the first step toward faith. We have to believe for one another. If you do not have faith, start repenting of it right now. God began a work and we are not going to see it stopped.
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6.
Anyplace where He has sown the Word, we will see God pick it up and take it on.
“A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed, until He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.” Isaiah 42:3–4.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10–11.
Our hearts break with this. The sheep, the people He wants, are out there. The precious fruit of the earth is ready to be garnered.
Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. James 5:7–8.
The Kingdom is ready to come. And we have to have that vision of faith for one another. If we do not have it, we go into examining ourselves wrongly. But we judge ourselves that we will not be condemned with the world (I Corinthians 11:31–32).
Paul said, “I fight the good fight of faith” (I Timothy 6:12). And I think he did that for every person he laid hands on, too. He would speak a Word over someone, and then he would enter into a fight against their own unbelief about the Word that he spoke over them (II Timothy 1:3, 6–8, 13). There is a perverse resistance we have to the Word over our lives so that somebody else has to reach in and fight that unbelief that comes out of our own spirit.
I have had the same problem. People have had to fight the unbelief that was within my own heart about myself. The balance is wrong whenever anyone has more faith for himself than his brother has for him. If our love and faith is not great enough to exceed a brother’s faith for his own heart, we have missed God’s healthy balance in the Body. In the balance of faith, our faith for ourselves is rarely greater than our brother’s faith for us.
Where love prevails and oneness prevails, your brother has more faith for you than you have for yourself. In any situation where you are not having more faith for your brother than he has for himself, the right balance of faith in the Body is gone. Every member grows through that which every joint supplies (Ephesians 4:16). There has to be the persistent giving and loving by someone else for you.
We should voice our faith for one another. I desire to believe for you. I believe in all the Words over you. I refuse to have a negative opinion about you, just the same as I have to have none about myself. In the flesh, none of us could have made it. But we are not in the flesh; we are in the Spirit. You believe for me. No matter what you have seen to be in my flesh, you have believed and seen the flow in the Spirit. I believe the same thing for you. I believe for you.
I do not know everything God has for you, but this I do have: I can bind you over to the will of God in my faith. During all the flounderings and the midnight sessions when God and the devil both are wrestling with you, I believe for you. I do. I believe for you. I believe for every one of you. We look to the Lord, and we purge ourselves, we cleanse ourselves from the sin of unawareness. That is a good place to start.
Where we have been unaware, teach us, Lord, to love. Give us faith. Impart to us a gift of faith for our brother and sister.
I am determined that I will have no suspicion about my brother. I refuse any negativity in my knowledge about him, for I am determined to know nothing about my brother unless it comes by a discerning of the spirits or a revelation from the Lord. And even then, when I know my brother’s fault, I will hear it with love and faith for him. We have to rise to this. That love has to be there.
Do you know how devastating this Word is going to be to you as a person, to your self-life? I feel a deep repentance on all of us. I feel the Holy Spirit is helping us remember and repent of the countless times where we have failed in this faith and love for one another. We are so quick to accept a verdict of failure for our brother, instead of standing before the Lord and interceding for him. The problem is that we still know our brothers too much according to the flesh and not after the Spirit. Oh God, let it really be true: … henceforth know we no man after the flesh … II Corinthians 5:16, KJV.
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Matthew 7:1–2, KJV.
It is not only to have faith for the brethren; it is to have a commitment of yourself to them. You are going to give to them, not as a promise to be fulfilled in the flesh, but in your spirit. I not only love you but I give myself with whatever I can do for you. I hope you always believe that, because there are many times that God exposes us to each other. At one time or another, God lets all of us be exposed, like He did the high priest who stood before Him (Zechariah 3:1–5). They took off the filthy garments and they put on the good garments, but there was a little moment there of nakedness before they put the good clothing on. None of us escapes those rare moments when God strips something off of us that has to go. We stand naked before God, often before everyone else and the devil himself, before He clothes us with the functional garments of the priesthood. This is where we are. Whom the Lord would exalt, He helps them to be humble first (Matthew 23:12; I Peter 5:6).
There is an evaluation that we have of each other that is more of Satan than of God. It sees how far a person has to go and then looks at where he is now instead of seeing just the next step for him. It is a perverse revelation that sees how far down the road a person still has to go from where he is. We call that “revelation”; but we need in our perception of one another to see only two things: if the person is willing to take the next step, and if he is moving in the place where he is now.
God has a way of showing you where you are and where you are going. And the devil has a way of emphasizing how far you have yet to go.
I reach out in a faith for all of you. I proclaim it with real faith, that there will never be a break in our oneness, that it never be severed. You have to believe for oneness. When you are believing for it, you have to voice faith against division.
Comment: We reach in for a oneness in the name of the Lord. We take the oneness from the Word of God. The middle wall is destroyed by the blood of Christ. We take that destruction of the middle wall of partition between us by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:14). We destroy it. We create a flow of love, and we create a flow of the Spirit. We flow in the same love for the people, the same love for the Lord. We abolish every illusion of division. We take our oneness in the Communion. We abolish every appearance of division, every illusion of it. We take the reality of the blood of Christ in the Communion. He has destroyed the middle wall of partition between us. We are made near by the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 2:13). We believe Your Word, Lord. We believe in Your blood. We are made near by Your blood, Lord. We do not dare deny it. It is with joy and with real faith in our hearts that we appropriate our oneness in the body and blood of the Lord.
We confess our sin to one another for any gulf that exists between us. We abhor it in our spirits. We are not going to allow it to remain but we see it as a wickedness before God. We appropriate this Communion today that it is going to fill in all the gulfs between us. It is going to take out the wickedness of division, the wickedness of separation. And we appropriate by faith the oneness in spirit, a oneness within our hearts.
We are believing God for one another. We are imparting to one another at His holy table. Whatever we lack, God pours it in until the cup runs over. And the hands are hands that minister His love.
Satan said in Eden, “Hath God said?” Suspicion is the doorway to deception.
If you cannot trust God, you will not trust your brother.
Our flesh does not have a capacity for oneness. Only the blood of Christ heals the separateness and gulf between us.
The blood of Christ gives us access to oneness with God and with one another.
Christ’s communion blood makes all division in the Body of Christ a terrible sin.
We are divided by our flesh, but we can be one by the sacrifice of His.
The Body of Christ is healthy and functioning when each member in it has more faith for the other members than for himself.